Home sales dropped in July, the sixth month in a row
Existing-home sales fell for the sixth-straight month in July, a new housing report showed, as higher mortgage rates continue to push would-be buyers to the sidelines. Sales of existing homes dropped 5.9% last month from June, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.81 million, the National Association of Realtors reported on Thursday. Sales in July were 20.2% lower than they were one year ago, the report said. Federal Reserve officials are also predicting a continued slowdown in the housing market, according to the minutes from their meeting in July.
TikTok browser can track users’ keystrokes, according to new research
The web browser used within the TikTok app can track every keystroke made by its users, according to new research that is surfacing as the Chinese-owned video app grapples with U.S. lawmakers’ concerns over its data practices. The research from Felix Krause, a privacy researcher and former Google engineer, did not show how TikTok used the capability, which is embedded within the in-app browser that pops up when someone clicks an outside link. But Krause said the development was concerning because it showed TikTok had built in functionality to track users’ online habits if it chose to do so.
Wayfair Will lay off 870 workers after drop in sales
Online furniture retailer Wayfair, which has struggled to maintain momentum after experiencing a surge in sales in the early months of the pandemic, said Friday that it was laying off about 870 employees, about 5% of its global workforce and 10% of its corporate team. The job cuts are part of the company’s “plans to manage operating expenses and realign investment priorities,” Wayfair said in a regulatory filing. A spokesperson for Wayfair said the layoffs primarily affected corporate roles in North America and Europe. On Aug. 4, Wayfair announced its second-quarter earnings, reporting that net revenue was down 14.9% from the same period last year.
Walmart expands employee abortion coverage
Walmart, the country’s largest private employer, with over 1.6 million workers in the United States, said Friday it would expand the coverage of abortions and related travel expenses in its health care plans. The company said its plans would cover abortion in the case of “health risk to the mother, rape or incest, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or lack of fetal viability,” according to a memo from Walmart’s chief people officer, Donna Morris. Walmart would also assist in covering travel expenses for employees seeking health care services that were not available within 100 miles of their homes.
Starbucks ordered to reinstate fired activist employees
A federal judge on Thursday ordered Starbucks to reinstate seven employees who were fired in February after they spearheaded efforts to unionize the branch in Memphis, Tennessee, where they worked. The workers, who refer to themselves as the Memphis Seven, were fired after the company said they violated safety and security policies. Judge Sheryl Lipman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee gave Starbucks five days to rehire the employees in response to the lawsuit filed by M. Kathleen McKinney, the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board.
UPS drivers say blistering heat is endangering their lives
As blistering heat waves swept across the United States this summer, breaking temperature records and placing millions under heat advisories and warnings, workers have continued to deliver America’s packages for a variety of carriers, often in trucks that have no cooling mechanisms for drivers. Some UPS workers have shared photographs that show thermometer readings of up to 150 degrees in the backs of their trucks. Now a string of heat-related illnesses among the drivers has renewed calls to improve their working conditions. Government records show that since 2015, at least 270 UPS and U.S. Postal Service drivers have been sickened and in many cases hospitalized from heat exposure.
By wire sources