FTC issues worker non-compete ban as Chamber lawsuit looms

Chinese leader Xi Jinping will spend the bulk of his five-day tour in Europe this week in two small countries at the continent’s eastern half. It's a region Beijing has used as a foothold for its expanding economic ambitions in Europe. Xi first stops in Paris on Monday and then he will travel to Hungary and Serbia. The two nations have autocratic leaders that are seen as China-friendly and close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mainstream European leaders have pursued more protectionist policies to limit Beijing and Moscow’s reach on the continent. But the governments of Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia have vigorously courted economic ties with China.

Asian shares are mostly higher after Wall Street ended Friday with the best day for the stock market in over two months. The rally late last week was backed by the cooler-than-expected U.S. employment data. For markets that was a welcome sign that the Federal Reserve's efforts to fight inflation by slowing the economy with high interest rates might be making some progress. The S&P 500 rose 1.3% Friday, its biggest gain since February. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2%. and the Nasdaq composite climbed 2%. U.S. employers added 175,000 jobs last month, down sharply from a big increase in March.

French President Emmanuel Macron is welcoming China's Xi Jinping for a two-day state visit to France. He is seeking to press Xi to use his influence on Moscow to move toward ending the war in Ukraine. Both leaders are also expected to discuss trade issues. Macron recently denounced trade practices of both China and the U.S. as shoring up protections and subsides while Europe’s industry remains open and is stuck in overregulation. The state visit marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the countries and follows Macron’s trip to China in 2023. After his stop in France, Xi will head to Serbia and Hungary.

The Biden campaign and top Democrats are wrestling with how best to use artificial intelligence, exposing the party’s anxiety over falling behind Republicans in the race to deploy technology that could transform the future of elections. Democratic strategists say they are nevertheless treading carefully in embracing tools that disinformation experts warn could pose a threat it poses to democracy. So far, they say, AI is primarily helping them find and motivate voters and to better identify and defeat disinformation.

Text journalism's biggest day of the year has arrrived with the annual announcement of the Pulitzer Prizes. The Columbia University-based Pulitzer Board on Monday will reveal winners and finalists in 15 journalism categories for work done in 2023. The awards normally highlight some of the previous year's biggest stories. The ceremoney broadcast via livestream also will honor distinguished work in arts categories including books, music and theater. Columbia has been the site of student demonstrations over the war in Gaza in recent weeks, prompting the the Pulitzer Board to meet away from the New York City campus this past weekend to deliberate.

Brad Parscale was the digital campaign operative who helped engineer Trump’s 2016 presidential victory with the heavy use of Facebook ads. Now Parscale is back working for Trump and is an evangelist for artificial intelligence. Parscale has a company called Campaign Nucleus that is working for Trump's campaign. He says his suite of AI-powered tools can spin up customized emails, parse oceans of data to gauge voter sentiment and find persuadable voters and amplify the social media posts of “anti-woke” influencers to help conservative candidates, according to an Associated Press review.

Brad Parscale, the digital guru behind Donald Trump's surprise 2016 presidential victory, has become an evangelist about the power of artificial intelligence to transform how Republicans campaign for office. He says his company, which is working for Trump's 2024 campaign, can use AI to help generate spin up customized emails, parse oceans of data to gauge voter sentiment and find persuadable voters.

Europe’s Airbus had established a clear sales lead over Boeing even before the American company encountered more fallout from manufacturing troubles and ongoing safety concerns. Airbus has outpaced Boeing for five straight years in plane orders and deliveries. And now Boeing is facing a government-mandated production cap on its best-selling plane. Yet aviation analysts say the European company is unlikely to extend its advantage much further despite having customers clamoring for more commercial aircraft. That's because Airbus already is making planes as fast as it can and is sold out for the rest of the decade. Manufacturing constraints at both companies are bad news for travelers as well as airlines.