Facebook hit an unprecedented benchmark: One billion users in a single day.
That happened for the first time on Monday, and co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the milestone on Thursday. He noted in a Facebook (FB, Tech30) post that a billion users is equal to about 1 in 7 people on Earth.
"When we talk about our financials, we use average numbers, but this is different," Zuckerberg wrote. "This was the first time we reached this milestone, and it's just the beginning of connecting the whole world."
The company reported in July that it had about 1.5 billion people logging on at least once a month.
Zuckerberg said Monday's achievement is significant because it's a platform that lets users interact.
"A more open and connected world is a better world. It brings stronger relationships with those you love, a stronger economy with more opportunities, and a stronger society that reflects all of our values," he said.
Virginia TV journalists killed by suspect with 'powder keg' of anger.
Two television journalists were shot to death during a live broadcast in Virginia on Wednesday, slain by a former employee of the TV station and who called himself a "powder keg" of anger over what he saw as racial discrimination at work and elsewhere in the United States.
The suspect, 41-year-old Vester Flanagan, shot himself as police pursued him on a Virginia highway hours after the shooting. Flanagan, who was African-American, died later at a hospital, police said.
The journalists who were killed were reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27. Both journalists were white, as is a woman who they were interviewing. The woman was wounded and was in stable condition, a hospital spokesman said.
Social media postings by a person who appeared to be Flanagan indicated the suspect had grievances against the station, CBS affiliate WDBJ7 in Roanoke, Virginia, which let him go two years ago. The person also posted video that appeared to show the attack filmed from the gunman's vantage point.
Flanagan sent ABC News a 23-page fax about two hours after the shooting, saying his attack was triggered by the June 17 mass shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, the network said. Nine people were killed, and a white man has been charged in that rampage.
The network cited Flanagan as saying he had suffered racial discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying at work. He had been attacked by black men and white women, and for being a gay black man, he said.
"The church shooting was the tipping point ... but my anger has been building steadily," ABC News cited the fax as saying. "I've been a human powder keg for a while ... just waiting to go BOOM!"
The on-air shooting occurred at about 6:45 a.m. EDT at Bridgewater Plaza, a Smith Mountain Lake recreation site about 200 miles (320 km) southwest of Washington.
The broadcast was abruptly interrupted by the sound of gunshots as Parker and the woman being interviewed, Vicki Gardner, executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, screamed and ducked for cover.
Hours after the shooting, someone claiming to have filmed it posted video online. The videos were posted to a Twitter account and on Facebook by a man identifying himself as Bryce Williams, which was Flanagan's on-air name.
The videos were removed shortly afterward. In one video, a handgun was clearly visible as the person filming approached the female reporter.
The person purporting to be Williams also posted, "I filmed the shooting see Facebook" as well as saying one of the victims had "made racist comments."
Finally, some good news this week. the U.S. economy was in even better shape than we thought between April and June.
The U.S. economy grew 3.7% in the second quarter, a very big upward revision than the first official estimate, 2.3%, according to the Commerce Department's measure of gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity. Economists projected the new number to be 3.2%.
Thursday's upward revision is welcome news as China's slowing economy is sparking volatility in stock markets, plunging currencies in emerging markets and potentially delaying a rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Construction and business spending rose in the three months, helping drive the overall GDP number up.
The good economic data only increases the speculation about when the Fed will raise its key interest rate. For much of the summer, economists believed the Fed would do a rate hike in September. But with China's devaluation of the Yuan, and the recent turmoil in U.S. stock markets, the consensus is gradually shifting to December for a rate hike.
New York Fed President William Dudley says a September rate hike is "less compelling," now, but he didn't completely rule it out either.
Even Dudley mentioned on Wednesday that he anticipated GDP going higher, and he said the U.S. economy is still doing well.
Rate hike rumblings aside, the revised GDP figure shows that the U.S. economy is still having a solid year despite all the headwinds abroad.
After looking like they were going to make it six losses from six sessions, Chinese stocks staged a ridiculously large rally in the final 45 minutes of trade, closing Thursday’s session with mammoth 5% plus gains.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite index, having traded higher for most of the session, looked like it was going to fall yet again into the close, slipping into negative territory with less than an hour to trade.
Then, just when it looked like all hope was lost, it began to surge higher, then higher, and then higher again. In the space of just 46 minutes, the index staged a turnaround of 6.11%, eventually closing the session up an enormous 5.39%. It was ridiculous, and reeked of government intervention.
Whatever the reason, it was the largest one-day percentage increase since July 9 this year, and trimmed the index’s weekly loss to only 12.04%.
Yes, it’s been that kind of week. Unsurprisingly, all sectors finished in the black with financials, up 6.16%, leading the charge higher.
Given chatter yesterday that government-backed bodies – China’s so-called “national team” – were buying heavily in state-owned banks, this fits with the theory that the government were likely responsible for the breakneck late rally.
As was the case on Wednesday, large-cap stock indices outperformed their smaller peers. The SSE 50, comprising large-cap stocks listed in Shanghai, surged by 7.87% while the CSI 300 added an equally-impressive 5.95%.
While they lagged their larger compatriots, the CSI 500, Shenzhen Composite and ChiNext indices – brimming with small-cap stocks – all rose by more than 3%. So the five-day, 20% plus losing streak for stocks has come to a spectacular end.
However, with the benchmark Shanghai composite index still down 40.42% from its June 12 peak, it’s unlikely to convince many that the rout in stocks is over yet.
One day does not make a trend, and there’s little doubt that extreme oversold conditions, coupled with likely government intervention, played a significant role in the late rally today.
It will be interesting for many observers to see whether the extreme gains can be sustained tomorrow.
Fear continues to rock the U.S. stock market. A 442-point surge for the Dow vanished at the end of the trading session Tuesday, the latest sign of how anxious markets have become about the health of the global economy.
At the end of yet another wild day of trading, the Dow actually ended with a loss of 205 points as fears continued to mount over China's slowing economy and its contagion effect on the rest of the world. Just in the last six trading days, the Dow has lost a total of nearly 1,900 points, or 11%.
"There's still fear around the edges. You need some signs that the market is stabilizing to reassure people it's not going to roll off the edge of a cliff and go tumbling down further," said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist for Key Private Bank.
Some sort of bounce was anticipated on Tuesday due to the enormous losses that have been inflicted on the markets even though the American economy doesn't appear to be falling off a cliff. All three major U.S. equity indexes had plunged into correction territory -- their first 10% decline from recent highs since 2011.
China seemed to provide the recipe for that rebound overnight. China's central bank slashed interest rates, an emergency action aimed at calming financial markets and boosting economic growth by flooding the markets with cheap money.
Investors around the world cheered China's emergency actions in hopes they will at least stabilize conditions in Asia. European stocks surged 4% higher, with Germany's DAX rallying nearly 5% just a day after falling into a bear market.
The significant market moves underscore how much China matters to the global markets. China is the world's second-biggest economy and its explosive growth over the past two decades helped lift many other countries. That's especially true for emerging markets like Brazil that rely on China's huge demand for its natural resources.
That's why the turbulence in China's stock market has unnerved so many investors. The Shanghai Composite plunged another 7.6% on Tuesday in a selloff that occurred prior to the interest rate cut. The bubble in Chinese stocks has burst, leaving the Shanghai index down a whopping 42% since June 12.
Many market veterans believe the damage done by the selloff in the U.S. was overdone considering the American economy doesn't appear to be tanking at this point. Unlike the market turmoil in 2008, the economy isn't on track for a recession.
Watch for more dramatic market moves as new clues emerge about whether the financial turmoil causes the Federal Reserve to delay its plans to raise interest rates in September until later in the year or even 2016.
Thousands of people are expected to stream into an events center in Dubuque, Iowa, on the banks of the Mississippi River on Tuesday to see Donald Trump.
When they do, his presidential campaign will be waiting, looking to convert casual gawkers into hardcore supporters who will cast votes for the billionaire presidential candidate in the Iowa caucuses next year.
The Republican front-runner's surging campaign is largely viewed as powered by his personal celebrity and his persistent presence on television.
But there's another political upside to being one of the most famous men in America: You don't have to go knocking door-to-door to find voters. They come to you.
When those voters enter the Grand River Center on Tuesday evening, they will immediately be diverted to tables where Trump's staff will recruit them to be county precinct captains, organizers, and volunteers.
It's a huge competitive advantage in a presidential race in which other Republican candidates at times struggle to attract crowds in the hundreds.
It's another reason, beyond strong poll numbers, that Trump's candidacy is being viewed with increasing seriousness both inside and outside Iowa, which holds one of the earliest nominating contests in 2016.
"I've never seen anything like it," said Chuck Laudner, Trump's top organizer in Iowa, as he walked the event space with Reuters days prior to the event. "He's drawing crowds that most candidates only get in the weeks before the general election."
Laudner talks like a man who, after years of fighting the political wars in Iowa with a cap gun, has been handed a shoulder-fired missile launcher.
In the 2012 election, Laudner drove his pickup truck to every county in the state on behalf of Republican candidate Rick Santorum, who was running a shoestring operation. Santorum ended up pulling off a shocking first-place finish in the caucuses.
Skeptics say Trump will fade once voters turn serious about choosing a president come autumn and doubt he has the patience and fortitude to build a grassroots machine not just here but across the country.
Trump's star power and personal fortune have warped the traditional rules that govern campaigning in the state, upending the retail politics that Iowa is known for. When Trump landed his helicopter earlier this month at the Iowa State Fair, he was mobbed by a crowd in the thousands. Last week, he almost filled a sports stadium in Mobile, Alabama.
"His reach is just so far beyond what the rest of these guys can do combined," Laudner said, referring to Trump's opponents. "It's all new territory."
Recent winners of the Iowa caucuses have been campaigns with large resources and strong organizations, such as George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, or conservatives who appeal to the evangelicals in the state, such as Santorum and Mike Huckabee, who won in 2008.
Trump, like Bush, could have the potential to outspend his rivals here while also appealing to the influential right-wing. His best-funded challenger here, Jeb Bush, is unpopular with those voters.
Trump has 10 paid staff members in the state and most likely will be adding more. One recent innovation has been to send a large tour bus emblazoned with the Trump logo from town to town. It has become its own curiosity, drawing crowds even though just one or two staffers, not Trump, are aboard. The bus even has its own Facebook page.
Trump's campaign hopes to do what has been a long-held goal of politicians in Iowa: bring new voters into the caucus process. Despite the relentless coverage the contest receives here, about only 120,000 Republicans participated in 2012, 20% of the registered Republicans in the state.
