Home Depot faces boycott
A group of religious leaders is calling for a boycott of Georgia-based Home Depot, saying the home improvement giant hasn't done enough to oppose the state's new voting laws.
African Methodist Episcopal Bishop Reginald Jackson said the company has remained "silent and indifferent" to his efforts to rally opposition to the new state law pushed by Republicans, as well as to similar efforts elsewhere.
"We just don't think we ought to let their indifference stand," Jackson said.
The leader of all his denomination's churches in Georgia, Jackson had a meeting last week with other Georgia-based executives to urge them to oppose the voting law, but said he's had no contact with Home Depot, despite repeated efforts to reach the company.
Home Depot did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday. The company is the largest based in Georgia by revenue, profit and number of employees.
Apple prepares new privacy crackdown
SAN RAMON, Calif. - Apple is sprucing up its own product line as it prepares for next week's rollout of a long-awaited software update that could hurt other companies by preventing apps from tracking the online activities and whereabouts of iPhone users.
The timing of the free software upgrade to the iPhone trickled out during a series of announcements that Apple made Tuesday during a pre-recorded event. Apple revealed in a footnote that a software update called iOS. 14.5 will come out next week after a seven-month delay. It will include a privacy tool that will make it more difficult for apps to collect personal information to help sell ads.
Netflix subscriber growth slow as pandemic eases
Netflix's rapid subscriber growth is slowing far faster than anticipated as people who have been cooped at home during the pandemic are able to get out and do other things again.
The video streaming service added 4 million more worldwide subscribers from January through March, its smallest gain during that three-month period in four years. The performance announced Tuesday was about 2 million fewer subscribers than both management and analysts had predicted Netflix would add during the first quarter.
It marked a huge comedown from the same time last year when Netflix added nearly 16 million subscribers amid pandemic-driven lockdowns that created a captive audience for the video service.
Chrysler managers face emission cheating charge
Two Italian managers in Fiat Chrysler's diesel engine program have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit in a widening case alleging a scheme to cheat on U.S. emissions tests.
The indictments unsealed Tuesday detail allegations of a plot to dupe the Environmental Protection Agency by rigging more than 100,000 diesel Ram pickup trucks and Jeep SUVs to cheat on EPA tests and exceed pollution limits on real roads.
Sergio Pasini, 43, of Ferrera, Italy, and Gianluca Sabbioni, 55, of Sala Bolognese, Italy, each face nine charges including violating the Clean Air Act, wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Both were described by authorities as senior diesel managers with the company.
Those charged are accused of purposely calibrating emissions-control software on 3-liter diesel engines.
- Compiled by Dave Flessner