The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday escalated its health warning to a level 3 as the coronavirus continues to spread, recommending that people avoid all nonessential travel to Wuhan, China. The State Department reiterated its level 2 travel advisory, which urges people to exercise caution if traveling to an affected area. “Today, we updated the China Travel Advisory to include additional information on the outbreak. The Advisory remains a Level 2: Exercise Increased Cautio

DAVOS, Switzerland — Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg hit back at Steven Mnuchin on Thursday, after the Treasury Secretary suggested she needed to study economics in college before lecturing the U.S. on fossil fuel investments. Speaking to reporters during a press briefing, Mnuchin was asked whether the world’s largest economy should completely and immediately divest from fossil fuels. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg attends a session at the Congres center during the World Economi

Anthony Scaramucci, former director of communications for the White House and founder of SkyBridge Capital LLC, speaks during the Skybridge Alternatives (SALT) conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Wednesday, May 8, 2019. Joe Buglewicz | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesSkyBridge Managing Partner Anthony Scaramucci believes President Donald Trump will lose the election later this year, accusing his former boss of “bullying,” “gaslighting” and “nonsensical inanity.” However, with income inequality at

Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, gestures as he attends a session at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 23, 2020. China cares “as deeply” about the ethics around artificial intelligence as the U.S. does, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on Thursday as he called for global rules around the technology. Microsoft, which is investing heavily in AI, is part of a growing number of technology companies calling for regulation around AI.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits a fire damaged property on Kangaroo Island on January 8, 2020. David Mariuz | Pool | Getty ImagesThe Australian prime minister has received praise for his leadership in tackling devastating bush fires that have flared for months. Protestors marched across most of Australia’s state capital cities earlier this month, calling for Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s resignation and slamming the government’s stance on climate change. Speaking to CNBC at the World Econ

The chief executive world’s largest cargo shipping company says the “phase one” trade deal is unlikely to improve flagging volumes at sea, any time soon. After months of testy negotiations on trade, China and the United States have co-signed a preliminary trade deal that beefs up rules on intellectual property, technology transfer and obliges China to buy more American farm goods. Speaking to CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Maersk CEO Søren Skou, said it was “too early to

Sanna Marin, the world’s youngest prime minister, hopes that the election of female leaders will not get as much attention in the future but would be considered the “new normal.” Marin also highlighted that she was not Finland’s first female prime minister — Anneli Jäätteenmäki was the first woman to be elected to the role in 2003 and Mari Kiviniemi took office in 2010. At the same time, she said having women leaders was not only better for women but also for men. In fact, Finland’s gender equal

The European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday held interest rates steady as it launched its first strategic review since 2003, in a bid to establish whether its inflation target is still appropriate. In its first rate decision of the year, the central bank’s Governing Council voted unanimously to keep the main deposit rate at a historic low of -0.5%, in line with market expectations. Lagarde added that the Governing Council “stands ready to adjust all of its instruments as appropriate” in order to

Explosive allegations that tie Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the hacking of Amazon CEO and billionaire Jeff Bezos’ phone are “nonsense,” Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs said on Thursday. “It was based on false and unproven allegations, people trying to sensationalize something that is pure fiction.” I can’t read people’s minds, but I do know it’s a total fabrication, a total lie. Bezos, through his security consultant Gavin de Becker, has flatly accused the Saudi

DAVOS, Switzerland — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned business and political leaders that the ongoing conflict in Libya could have similar ramifications to the war in Syria. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Merkel said the ongoing dispute in Libya could result in a similar situation. “And now if we look at Libya we have to be very careful that the same doesn’t happen there again.” “We made a first attempt and that’s only a first attempt to find a solution for Libya, befor

Gebran Bassil, Lebanon’s former foreign minister, came to Davos “on his own expenses,” he told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Thursday. Bassil’s claim came as a defense against a torrent of accusations of public funds misuse by a politician viewed as the face of Lebanon’s political corruption and economic disintegration. “I came simply on my own expenses,” Bassil, who heads the largest political bloc in Lebanon’s parliament, told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble. Bassil is a target of gr

Calls for a digital dollar have been on the rise. The comments come as China is working on a digital yuan which some experts believe could come this year. He recently set up the Digital Dollar Foundation along with Accenture to work on the design and potential framework for a digital dollar. Digital dollar timelineThe digital dollar could be 10 to 15 years away, according to Jeff Schumacher, CEO of 55 Foundry, a company incubator and investor. A digital dollar may introduce volatility to the dol

More than 470 million people worldwide are working fewer paid hours than they would like to or lack access to paid work, according to a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The United Nations agency found that in addition to the 188 million people unemployed globally, there were a further 165 million adults unable to get enough paid work. Along with another 120 million people who had given up actively searching for work or had less adequate access to jobs, this totaled close to

“I just got the [Sudoku] book and there’s like 150 physical puzzles in it, and I knocked out 15 already this week,” Gronkowski says. “[I fast] every other day, you know, depending on what I’m doing, where I’m traveling,” Gronkowski says, adding that he never does a long fast on days he has a tough workout. “I just did my longest fast this week, about six days ago, it was for 24 hours,” Gronkowski tells CNBC Make It on Tuesday. And while there is some research that shows intermittent fasting can

Despite the name, Americans are spending far more than they are saving in their health savings accounts. In 2018, the average HSA balance was $2,803, according to data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. For those with accounts open for one year, the average individual HSA contribution was $1,166, according to EBRI. Cyriac attributes the lack of saving to “ingrained behavior” where people assume these funds should be used to cover health-care costs as they come up. Lively’s report esti

Gwen Merz of Fiery Millennials cites restaurant spending as an easy place to cut back and save big. If you want to end up $1,000 richer by the time April rolls around, just make some small changes. Cut spending in areas that aren’t as important to you. “When you add it up, you learn the most about yourself and your spending,” said Stephanie Kibler, a personal finance blogger. Gwen Merz, who saved $200,000 by the time she was 27 and blogs at Fiery Millennials, says the average American spends abo

Founder and CEO Matt Maloney said the food delivery company is focusing on marketing the technology to small- and medium-sized restaurants. Industry-wide orders for pickup account for more than 50% of takeout sales and 58% of all digital orders, according to market researcher the NPD Group. Pickup orders are growing faster than dine-in orders, with sales improving by 32% last year compared to 15.5% for digital delivery, NPD said. Providing a new tool for pickup orders could help it to grab more

US President Donald Trump speaks during a “Keep America Great” campaign rally at Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio, on January 9, 2020. President Donald Trump plans to address Friday’s March for Life, becoming the first sitting president in the event’s 47-year history to attend the Washington protest against the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling. Other presidents have addressed the rally via phone or through a video message, but Trump will be the first president to attend in person. Jeanne Mancini, M

An employee works on the assembly line installing parts on the Duratech 35 V6 engine at the Ford Motor Co. Engine Plant in Lima, Ohio, U.S. on Friday, March 28, 2014. DETROIT — Ford Motor expects to take a pretax hit of about $2.2 billion in the fourth-quarter due to contributions to its employee pension plans and retirement benefits. It said about $400 million of those losses are expected to be offset by gains associated with pension plans in the United States. On an after-tax basis, the loss i

NYSE president: We can’t underestimate the value of the public marketsThe New York Stock Exchange was home to the larges IPO of 2019: Uber. The rideshare company raised over $8 billion when it went public. The NYSE also executed the only direct listing of the year with Slack. Stacey Cunningham, president of the New York Stock Exchange, joins “Squawk Box” at the World Economic Forum in Davos to discuss the IPO environment in 2020.