Investments and Business

A lot of heat, but will there be regulation?Five technology C.E.O.s endured hours of grilling by senators on both sides of the aisle about their apparent failures to make their platforms safer for children, with some lawmakers accusing them of having “blood” on their hands.But for all of the drama, including Mark Zuckerberg of Meta apologizing to relatives of online child sex abuse victims, few observers believe that there’s much chance of concrete action.“Your product is killing people,” Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, flatly told Zuckerberg at Wednesday’s hearing. Over 3.5 hours, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee laid…

The N.C.A.A. is investigating the University of Tennessee’s football program for recruiting violations involving a group of outside donors, signaling an escalation of efforts to rein in the growing influence of money flooding into college sports, according to documents and people familiar with the case.The investigation is focused on Tennessee’s high-profile donor collective, a group of alumni and wealthy boosters who support the team by channeling payments and other benefits to players. The inquiry is looking at, among other things, the group’s role in flying a high-profile recruit to campus on a private jet while the football team was wooing…

Ultramodern factories churn out electric cars and solar panels in Hefei, an industrial center in the heart of central China. Broad avenues link office towers and landscaped parks. Subway lines open at a brisk pace.Yet at Hefei’s market for construction materials, which fills 10 city blocks, local merchants are gloomy. Wu Junlin, a vendor of doors, has closed two of his three stores and laid off all but one of his dozen employees.“I have been doing this for 20 years — after all these years, this year is the worst,” he said, sitting in his last store with no customers…

Toyota Motor said it had halted the global shipments of 10 vehicles after it discovered that an affiliate had mishandled the testing of diesel engines used in the automobiles, the latest embarrassing problem to hit the world’s biggest automaker in recent months.The Toyota affiliate used software to measure horsepower output that made “values appear smoother with less variation,” Toyota, the parent company, said in a statement on Monday. The vehicles “meet engine output standards,” and there is no need to stop using the engines or vehicles, the company said.Still, Toyota decided to stop shipping the 10 models that use three…