General Motors said Tuesday it will retreat from the robotaxi business and stop funding its money-losing Cruise autonomous vehicle unit. Instead the Detroit automaker will focus on development of partially automated driver-assist systems for personal vehicles like its Super Cruise, which allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel. GM said it would get out of robotaxis “given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market.” The company said it will combine Cruise’s technical team with its own to work on advanced systems to assist drivers. GM bought control of San Francisco-based Cruise automation in 2016 with high hopes of developing a profitable fleet of robotaxis.

Federal authorities unsealed a complaint Monday detailing charges against Jack Danaher Molloy, a 24-year-old dual Irish-American citizen, alleging that he attempted to join the Hezbollah terrorist organization and promoted antisemitic violence. Molloy, a former U.S. military member, reportedly traveled to Lebanon in August 2024 and Syria in October 2024 in efforts to join Hezbollah. According to the complaint, he was told by individuals in Lebanon that the time was “not right” to join the organization and was advised to take additional steps. Undeterred, Molloy traveled to Syria to pursue his goal.

Boeing is resuming production of its bestselling plane, the 737 Max, for the first time since 33,000 workers began a seven-week strike that ended in early November. The company said Tuesday that plane-building resumed at its plant in Renton, Washington, after going through a process of training workers and identifying and fixing potential problems. Boeing shares rose 4.5%, their best single-day percentage gain in nearly four months. Production and deliveries of Max jets and another airline plane, the 787 Dreamliner, have been stopped several times in recent years to fix manufacturing flaws. “Our team has worked methodically to restart factory operations in the Pacific Northwest.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told the bureau workforce Wednesday that he plans to resign at the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January, an announcement that came a week and a half after President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the job. Wray said at a town hall meeting that he would be stepping down “after weeks of careful thought,” three years short of the completion of a 10-year term marked by high-profile and politically charged investigations, including that led to two separate indictments of Trump last year. Wray’s intended resignation is not unexpected considering that Trump had settled on Patel to be director and had repeatedly aired his ire at Wray, including in a television interview broadcast Sunday.

Two Department of Homeland Security agents in Utah sold drugs that were previously seized as evidence through an informant in an illegal scheme that brought in up to $300,000, according to court documents. The agents sold an illicit synthetic drug commonly known as “bath salts” to a confidential informant once or twice a week beginning last spring through early December, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case. The transactions typically involved one ounce (28 grams) of the drug for $5,000 that would then be sold by the informant at a higher cost. The informant, who has a lengthy criminal history, had been recruited while in prison by federal agents to work for them upon his release.

Albertsons is giving up on its merger with Kroger and it is suing the grocery chain, saying it didn’t do enough to secure regulatory approval for the $24.6 billion agreement. The move came the day after two judges halted the merger in separate court cases. U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the merger Tuesday after holding a three-week hearing in Portland, Oregon. An hour later, Judge Marshall Ferguson in Seattle issued a permanent injunction barring the merger in Washington after concluding it would lessen competition in the state and violate consumer-protection laws. Kroger and Albertsons in 2022 proposed what would be the largest grocery store merger in U.S.

Judith Raanan, a former hostage released by Hamas, met with President-elect Donald Trump on Monday at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Raanan, the first female hostage released following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on southern Israel, shared her harrowing experience and urged the incoming administration to prioritize the release of those still in captivity. Raanan, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen from the Chicago area, presented Trump with a drawing she had created during her captivity. She also spoke about the trauma she endured after being abducted from Kibbutz Nachal Oz during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks.

WhatsApp is currently experiencing severe outages, leaving millions of users unable to send or receive messages. Reports indicate that other Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, are also suffering from sporadic downtime since 1 PM. These outages have been ongoing intermittently and are reportedly affecting users across the globe, leading to widespread frustration and disruption. Meta, the parent company of all three platforms, has yet to release an official statement addressing the root cause of these outages. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Remember what you searched for in 2024? Google does. Google released its annual “Year in Search” on Tuesday, rounding up the top trending queries entered into its namesake search engine in 2024. The results show terms that saw the highest spike in traffic compared to last year — ranging from key news events, notably global elections, to the most popular songs, athletes and unforgettable pop-culture moments that people looked up worldwide. Sports — particularly soccer and cricket — dominated Google’s overall trending searches in 2024. Copa América topped those search trends globally, followed by the UEFA European Championship and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Meanwhile, the U.S. election led news-specific searches worldwide.

The Hillel building at San Francisco State University was defaced with graffiti referencing an ancient battle in which Muslim forces defeated Jewish fighters, in what is being called an antisemitic attack. Vandals spray-painted the word “Khaybar” on the building’s sign late Sunday or early Monday, according to the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Bay Area. The term “Khaybar” is often chanted at protests against Israel and refers to a 7th-century battle on the Arabian Peninsula that ended in the slaughter of Jewish tribes. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) notes that it has become a rallying cry for antisemitic sentiment in modern protests.