Some of Vice President Kamala Harris’ wealthier donors are informally asking for FTC Chair Lina Khan to be replaced, reports Bloomberg. It’s not really surprising: Her expansive definition of antitrust enforcement has countless industries frantic, and the largest corporations opposed her appointment from the start.

Khan’s FTC, which has opposed mergers that would have been waved through by previous FTC chairs, has seen mixed success. But her nomination by President Biden in 2021 was clearly a challenge to longstanding doctrines that allowed mega-corporations, including “Big Tech,” to consolidate power. She went so far as to call them “mob bosses” in a recent interview with TechCrunch.

The donor pressure may be misplaced, considering that Khan’s term ends later this month. While she will remain in place until the next agency chief is appointed, chances are this will extend her term by months, not years.

Meanwhile, the donors reportedly also expressed a dislike of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, whose term ends in June 2026.

The world will have to wait a little longer to see Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket fly for the first time. That rocket had been scheduled to launch two…

The maiden voyage of Blue Origin’s massive new rocket won’t be for NASA

After 93 days on orbit, Starliner is coming home.  The spacecraft is a “go” for undocking from the International Space Station at 6:04 p.m. EST, though it will be leaving…

Watch live as Boeing and NASA attempt to bring empty Starliner back to Earth

Some of Vice President Kamala Harris’ wealthier donors are informally asking for FTC Chair Lina Khan to be replaced, reports Bloomberg. It’s not really surprising: Her expansive definition of antitrust…

Wealthy Harris donors are reportedly pressing for ouster of FTC Chair Lina Khan
Image Credits: TechCrunch

Mangomint seeks to make it easier for spa and salon owners to run their businesses.

How a cold email to a VC helped salon software startup Mangomint raise $35M

The honors program is one of the first in the U.S. that allows incoming freshmen to apply for the program as part of their initial admission application.

University of Texas opens robotics program up to incoming freshmen

By using readily available natural gas as the feedstock, C-Zero hopes to produce emission-free hydrogen for less than other green hydrogen startups.

C-Zero is raising $18M to make emission-free hydrogen using natural gas, filings reveal

Meta on Friday published an update on how it plans to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European law that aims to promote competition in digital marketplaces, where…

Meta will let third-party apps place calls to WhatsApp and Messenger users — in 2027

At the annual Roblox Developers Conference, the company announced on Friday a series of changes coming to the platform in the next few months and years. Most notably, Roblox is…

Roblox introduces new earning opportunities for creators, teases generative AI project

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. You won’t…

Startups have to be clever when fighting larger rivals

The Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers will face off tonight in their first game of the NFL season. But this season opener is a bit different. As the…

NFL kicks off in Brazil for the first time, but reporters and fans can’t post on X due to nationwide ban

Venture capitalist Tim Draper’s international pitch competition, “Meet the Drapers,” is partnering up with TikTok as it heads into its seventh season. Under the new tie-up, entrepreneurs will pitch their…

VC pitch show ‘Meet the Drapers’ partners with TikTok

It’s tempting to think the trend of EV startups merging with special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to go public has ended, seeing how many of them are struggling or defunct.…

Public EV startup with an indicted CEO is looking to raise an additional $100 million

In the world of modern AI, data is more than just a resource — it’s the fundamental core that aligns decision-makers, supports processes and enables innovation. As AI applications become…

The New Data Pipeline: Fivetran, DataStax and NEA are coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

In a brief update ahead of the weekend, the London transport network said it has no evidence yet that customer data was compromised.

Transport for London outages drag into weekend after cyberattack

Meta-owned Instagram is jazzing up the inbox by adding new features for photo editing, sticker creation and themes. The company is trying to make Instagram more appealing as a messaging…

Instagram jazzes up its DMs with stickers, photo editing, and themes

Keep the excitement of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 alive by hosting an exclusive Side Event after hours. Don’t miss out — today is the final day to apply for free! Maximize…

Last call: Boost your brand by hosting a Side Event at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Today’s your final chance to secure your TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Student Pass with a $200 discount! Maximize your savings by opting for the Student 4+ Bundle and bring four or…

Students and recent grads: Last day to save on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Student Passes

The Equity podcast crew is wrapping up another eventful week, with real estate, AI agents, gambling and secondary markets — which are, of course, a form of legalized gambling. Mary…

Real estate revolutions and beanie baby economies

More antitrust woes for Google. The U.K’.s competition watchdog said on Friday that it suspects the company of adtech antitrust abuses. The tech giant will now have a chance to…

Google faces provisional antitrust charges in UK for ‘self-preferencing’ its ad exchange

You can build a reminder and task management system for yourself, and use a service that works for your team. But it might not be easy to get your family…

Karo is a to-do app that lets you assign tasks to your friends and family

Earlier this week, the EU’s lead privacy regulator ended its court proceeding related to how X processed user data to train its Grok AI chatbot, but the saga isn’t over…

Elon Musk’s X could still face sanctions for training Grok on Europeans’ data

Telegram has updated its website to explicitly allow users to report private chats to its moderators, the company said in its FAQ page, as it updated some of its other…

Telegram quietly updates website to allow abuse reports following founder’s arrest

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell made a public plea to one of Brazil’s top judicial figures on Thursday, asking him to “please stop harassing Starlink” amid the ongoing battle in the…

‘Stop harassing Starlink,’ SpaceX president tells Brazilian judge

OSOM always had a difficult road, with plans to launch a privacy-focused handset.

Osom is shutting down on Friday, as it had ‘no customers for a mobile phone’

Salesforce has acquired Own Company, a New Jersey-based provider of data management and protection solutions, for $1.9 billion in cash. Own is Salesforce’s biggest deal since buying Slack for $27.7…

Salesforce acquires data management firm Own for $1.9B in cash

The U.S. government indictment demonstrated deep knowledge of the Russian spies’ activities, including their real-world meetings at a cafe in Moscow.

US charges five Russian military hackers with targeting Ukraine’s government with destructive malware

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Short week,…

Lyft restructures its micromobility business and Volkswagen brings ChatGPT to US vehicles 

The advancement of generative AI tools has created a new problem for the internet: the proliferation of synthetic nude images resembling real people. On Thursday, Microsoft took a major step…

Microsoft gives deepfake porn victims a tool to scrub images from Bing search

The new business-to-business division is a bet on what co-founder and CEO Thomas von der Ohe thinks is the future of mobility.

Driverless car-sharing startup Vay steers toward B2B services

Drip Capital has raised $113 million in a combination of $23 million in equity and $90 million in debt to provide credit to more small businesses in India and the…

Drip Capital, a fintech that provides working capital to SMBs, picks up $113M

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