Pepsi pulls commercial featuring Kendall Jenner

Pepsi says it's "halting any further rollout" of an ad that has been widely mocked and criticized. The ad shows model Kendall Jenner joining a crowd of smiling young protesters, who cheer after she hands a can of Pepsi to a police officer. The story line provoked a backlash, with people saying it trivialized protests for social justice issues. Many said the imagery was reminiscent of a famous photo of a Black Lives Matter protester approaching an officer.

Fed minutes reveal debate over inflation

Federal Reserve officials last month struggled to come to grips with two big uncertainties facing the U.S. economy — whether it would be safe to let inflation rise faster for a while and how to assess the impact of President Donald Trump's ambitious economic stimulus plans. Minutes of the Fed's discussion at its March meeting showed near-unanimous support for the quarter-point increase in its key policy rate, the second rate hike in three months.

Republicans urge Trump to fire IRS commissioner

Unhappy that their favorite whipping boy is still in charge of the IRS, House Republicans asked President Donald Trump on Wednesday to fire Commissioner John Koskinen.

Fifteen Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee sent Trump a letter asking him to can Koskinen. They said trust in the IRS has hit rock bottom and that under Koskinen, the IRS destroyed evidence when Congress was investigating the tax agency for inappropriately singling out conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

FDA approves drugs faster than in Europe

New research shows that contrary to some political claims, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved more drugs, and two to three months faster on average, than European regulators did over five years.

Researchers studied the track record of the FDA and its overseas counterpart, the European Medicines Agency, between 2011 and 2015. Results were published Wednesday.

Amazon picks off Thursday NFL games from Twitter

Amazon's new deal gives Prime Time football a whole new meaning.

The e-commerce powerhouse will stream NFL Thursday Night games this season via its Amazon Prime video service, replacing Twitter. The live-streams of the games will be available to the estimated 65 million members of Amazon Prime, which costs $99 per year and also includes other perks like free videos, books and shipping.