This week, backers of the failed cryptocurrency project Terra voted to revive the initiative, with a new luna blockchain and token – and without its controversial algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD. The founders had been seeking the next step forward for the project that crashed as quickly as it took off. The collapse of the Terra project led to combined losses of about $60 billion between the stablecoin, also known as UST, and its sister cryptocurrency luna. Earlier this month, UST plummeted below its $1 peg, which incited a cryptocurrency sell-off. Like many stablecoins, UST was pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio with...

Collective grief from school shootings, pandemic is rewiring brains
For many, the tragedy that unfolded on Tuesday afternoon in Uvalde, Texas, brought on an unwelcome and all-too-familiar constellation of emotions: sadness, anger, shock, frustration and helplessness. The school shooting in south Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead, came only 10 days after 10 people were shot and killed in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store. It also came two years into a pandemic that has claimed more than one million American lives so far. Losing a loved one involves a particular kind of grief. Deaths of people you’ve never met can elicit a different — but...

Twitter director Egon Durban won’t leave board after shareholder vote
Musk would have been appointed to Twitter’s board on Saturday, but the world’s richest man informed the company on the day that he would not, in fact, be taking the board seat. Andrew Burton | Getty Images News | Getty Images Twitter director Egon Durban won’t leave the board, even though he offered to resign after shareholders voted to boot him from the position, the company said in a regulatory filing Friday. Twitter said its board believes Durban failed to receive shareholder support because of his director role on several other public company boards. Twitter noted Durban serves on the...

Russian stocks may be ‘essentially worthless,’ MSCI research suggests
Russian stocks may have “no value” compared to the prices listed on the Moscow Exchange, new research from MSCI has suggested. Moscow ceased trading after stocks capitulated on the back of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reopening a month later after the exchange’s longest shutdown since the fall of the Soviet Union. The Moscow Exchange also had its recognized status revoked by many international powers. The MOEX Russia Index is down more than 36% year-to-date as of Friday afternoon, and international investors in Russian securities have endured restrictions in managing and valuing their positions since the war began. Based on a...

The Fed’s preferred gauge shows inflation rose 4.9% in April in a sign that price increases could be slowing
People shop in a supermarket in Washington, DC, on May 26, 2022, as Americans brace for summer sticker shock as inflation continues to grow. Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge rose 4.9% in April from a year ago, a still-elevated level that nonetheless indicated that price pressures could be easing a bit, the Commerce Department reported Friday. That increase in the core personal consumption expenditures price index was in line with expectations and reflected a slowing pace from the 5.2% reported in March. The number excludes volatile food and energy prices that have...

Alibaba, Tencent and JD.com post slowest revenue growth on record
Alibaba, whose headquarters are pictured here on May 26, said its online physical goods GMV in China, excluding unpaid orders, fell further in April, with a “low teens” decline from a year ago. Str | Afp | Getty Images BEIJING — Chinese tech giants Alibaba, Tencent and JD.com have all posted their slowest revenue growth on record as Covid and Beijing’s tech crackdown took their toll. Since the fall of 2020, China has fined corporations and scrutinized them for alleged monopolistic practices. A Covid resurgence since March has added pressure to growth, with travel restrictions and stay-home orders disrupting supply...

Japan is finally seeing inflation, but it may not be time to celebrate
Japan’s core consumer prices may be approaching the central bank’s 2% target, but veteran entrepreneur Ernie Higa says it’s not time to cheer yet. “When you talk about inflation, it’s kind of like cholesterol – there’s good cholesterol and bad cholesterol – what we’re experiencing now in Japan is bad inflation,” Higa, chairman & CEO at Higa Industries, who is known for bringing the Domino’s Pizza franchise to Japan, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday. The core consumer price index in Tokyo, which excludes fresh food and energy, rose 1.9% in May compared to the previous year, government data...

Cryptocurrency firms hope bear market will remove bad players
Executives from the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry told CNBC that the recent crash in the digital coin market should help get rid of “bad actors” in the space. Billions of dollars of value has been wiped off the cryptocurrency market in the last few weeks driven by a sell-off in stocks and the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD and its related token luna. “We’re in a bear market. And I think that’s good. It’s good, because it’s going to clear the people who were there for the bad reasons,” Bertrand Perez, CEO of the Web3 Foundation, told CNBC at the...

How to protect yourself against monkeypox, what to do if you catch it
Test tubes labelled “Monkeypox virus positive and negative” are seen in this illustration taken May 23, 2022. Dado Ruvic | Reuters A recent monkeypox outbreak across the U.S., Europe, Australia and the Middle East has baffled health experts and is raising concerns of a wider outbreak. As of Wednesday, there were 346 confirmed and suspected cases in 22 countries outside of Africa, where the virus is endemic, according to Our World in Data. It marks the first known community spread of the virus. Prior to this outbreak, cases had been linked to travel to regions where the virus is endemic...

Airbus sets up UK facility to focus on hydrogen tech for aircraft
A model of one of Airbus’ ZEROe concept planes, photographed in November 2021. The firm has said it wants to develop “zero-emission commercial aircraft” by the year 2035. Giuseppe Cacace | Afp | Getty Images Airbus is launching a U.K.-based facility focused on hydrogen technologies, a move which represents the firm’s latest attempt to support the design of its next generation of aircraft. In a statement Wednesday, Airbus said the Zero Emission Development Centre in Filton, Bristol, had already begun working on the development of the tech. One of the site’s main goals will center around work on what Airbus...