Financial Mindset

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday ordered Israel to  stop bombing the Gaza Strip after Hamas said it had accepted  some elements of his plan  to end the nearly two-year war and return all the remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Hamas said it was willing to release the hostages and hand over power to other Palestinians, but that other aspects of the plan require further consultations among Palestinians. Senior Hamas officials suggested there were still major disagreements that required further negotiations. There was no immediate response from Israel, which is largely shut down for the Jewish Sabbath, and Hamas’ response fell short of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demands that the group surrender and disarm. But Trump welcomed the Hamas statement, saying: “I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE.” “Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly! Right now, it’s far too dangerous...

Sean “Diddy” Combs  was sentenced Friday to four years and two months in prison for transporting people across state lines for sexual encounters, capping a sordid federal case that featured harrowing testimony and ended in a forceful reckoning for one of the most popular figures in hip-hop. Combs, 55, was also fined half a million dollars. Since Combs has served a year in jail already, this sentence means he would be released in about three years. His lawyers wanted him  freed immediately  and said the time behind bars has already forced his remorse and sobriety. He was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers around the country to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters, a practice that happened over many years and in different locations. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life. “Why did it happen so long?” U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian asked as he handed down the...

Real estate giant Greystar and 25 other property management companies have agreed to collectively pay more than $141 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing landlords of driving up housing costs by using rent-setting algorithms offered by the software company RealPage . Greystar, the nation’s largest landlord, would pay $50 million under the proposed settlement agreement, which was filed Wednesday in a Tennessee federal court. The deal would still require a judge’s approval. The companies have also agreed to no longer share nonpublic information with RealPage for its rent algorithm — a key stipulation, since plaintiffs say RealPage used that information to enable landlords to align their prices and push up rents. “This represents a fundamental shift in the multifamily housing industry and will help reverse the type of anticompetitive coordination alleged in the Complaint,” attorneys wrote in the settlement filing. All companies involved in the settlement deny wrongdoing a...

Growing up in the West Bank,  Leqaa Kordia  was separated from family in Gaza by Israeli restrictions on movement between the territories. So aunts and uncles in Gaza would call from the beach there, allowing Kordia to share her cousins’ laughter and glimpse the waves. Now many of those relatives are dead, killed in the war that has  destroyed much of the Strip . And more than 200 days after Kordia was swept up in the Trump administration’s  crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters , she despairs over being unable to give her family a voice. “Most days I feel helpless,” said Kordia, 32, speaking from a Texas immigration detention center where she has been jailed since March. “I want to do something, but I can’t from here. I can’t do anything.” Kordia, a Palestinian who has lived in New Jersey since 2016, was one of the first arrested in the government’s campaign against protesters, many of them  prominent activists . All the others have gained release. Only K...

During a rough week for electric-vehicle makers in the U.S., Tesla investors got at least one piece of good news on Thursday. The EV maker reported a pronounced increase in sales—better numbers than Wall Street had predicted, and a respite from the lagging deliveries Tesla has been reporting over the last two quarters. While analysts had expected Tesla to sell around 450,000 EVs over the three months ending in September, Tesla ended up delivering more than 497,000—about 100,000 more than the previous quarter, and a 7.5% increase from this time last year. Dan Ives, one of Tesla’s most notorious bulls, blasted out an analyst note that same morning, describing the numbers as a “massive bounceback” for Tesla—a turnaround for a company that has been battered over the first half of this year in several key markets as CEO Elon Musk tried his hand in a brief yet chaotic stint in American politics. The key question is this: Will it last?  After all, Tesla’s short-term sales surge was cl...

Months after Elon Musk left the Trump administration to the relief of Tesla investors worried about boycotts, the world’s richest man has announced some good news: Sales of Tesla cars are back. Well, maybe. The electric vehicle maker run by Musk reported Thursday that car sales jumped 7% in the three months through September after plunging for most of the year as people turned off by his embrace of President Donald Trump and far-right politicians in Europe balked at buying his cars. But the jump comes with a caveat: Tesla benefited from consumers taking advantage of a $7,500 tax credit before it expired on Sept. 30, a surge in buying that helped all EV makers. In fact, many Tesla rivals saw sales rise more. Rivian Automotive reported a 32% increase. Tesla stock rose sharply on the sales news, but closed the day down 4.5% to $439 amid skepticism the new number really signals a turnaround given all the anti-Musk backlash. “I don’t think most people are any more enamored with Elon ...

Your 2am Ben & Jerry’s might soon be delivered by what looks like the love child of Wall-E and Lightning McQueen. This week, DoorDash unveiled an intentionally adorable delivery robot named Dot, which it’s piloting in the Phoenix area, with plans for a wide rollout in the metro area by the year’s end. The anthropomorphic food box on wheels is DoorDash’s  first foray  into ground-based autonomous delivery—a frontier many companies have struggled to conquer due to the challenge of navigating chaotic streets without  angering pedestrians . DoorDash claims Dot is different Dot’s creators are convinced it’s ready to take on the world despite its innocent look: The company says Dot’s sensor-laden droid is road-capable, with a top speed of 20 mph, and nimble enough to navigate busy sidewalks, bike lanes, and parking lots. Dot can carry a 30-pound delivery haul with space for up to six pizzas. The robot itself weighs 350 pounds and stands nearly five feet tall—which ...