Today’s top business headlines: More problems for Boeing, Delta soars, new social media lawsuit, FCC broadband labels

Today’s top business headlines: More problems for Boeing, Delta soars, new social media lawsuit, FCC broadband labels

These are the business stories we are following today.

BY Ellie Stevens

Boeing’s CEO summoned to testify before Congress: A Senate subcommittee is calling for Boeing CEO David Calhoun to testify about the company’s jetliners following new safety-related charges from whistleblower Boeing quality engineer Sam Salehpour. Salehpour, who is also slated to testify at the Senate hearing, told The New York Times Tuesday that Boeing failed to take his safety concerns seriously and subsequently silenced him by transferring him to work on a different jetliner. The hearing is scheduled for next week. Full Story.

Delta reports strong travel demand: Despite recent flight scares across the industry, Delta Air Lines reported the highest revenue for any first quarter in its history and a $37 million profit. While a slight majority of Delta’s fleet of planes are Boeing models, it doesn’t operate any Boeing 737 Max jets. The airline has also bought primarily from Airbus in recent years and will avoid the dilemma facing United Airlines and American Airlines, which can’t get all of the Boeing planes they ordered. The company announced Wednesday that heading into the summer vacation season, travel demand is strong and that its second-quarter earnings will likely beat Wall Street expectations. Full Story.

Social media giants sued over Native suicides: In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles county court, two tribal nations accused the parent companies of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube of contributing to the disproportionately high rates of suicide among Native American youth. It’s one of many similar lawsuits pursued by school districts and other entities that claim that major social media companies are exploiting children and adolescents with features that keep them constantly scrolling and checking their accounts. Full Story.

EPA limits “forever chemicals” in drinking water: On Wednesday, the Biden administration finalized strict limits on certain “forever chemicals” in drinking water. Officials say these limits will reduce exposure for 100 million people and help prevent thousands of illnesses. This is the first national drinking water limit on toxic PFAs, a broad family of chemical substances, which are hazardous because they do not degrade in the environment and are linked to health issues such as low birth weight and kidney cancer. Full Story.  

 

FCC rolls out new broadband internet labels: The Federal Communications Commission is now requiring large internet providers to use new “broadband labels,” which will tell you exactly what is going into the pricing of your internet service, similar to the design of FDA food labels. These labels are intended to help consumers avoid junk fees, price hikes, and other unexpected costs. The FCC states that the labels “cannot be buried in multiple clicks,” or hidden in a way that a consumer might miss. Full Story.

 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ellie Stevens is an Editorial Resident at Fast Company and an undergraduate at Northwestern University.


 

Fast Company

(6)