Computer giant IBM Corp., financial services company Western Union Co. and European police launched a project Thursday to share financial data that they said may one day be able to predict human trafficking before it occurs. The shared data hub will collect information on money moving around the world and compare it with known ways that traffickers move their illicit…
read moreU.S. stocks fell more than 1 percent on Thursday as the European Commission issued a warning regarding Italy’s budget and concerns mounted about the possibility of strained relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia. S&P 500 technology stocks fell more than 2 percent, as did the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Wall Street’s major indexes pared early losses in morning trading but…
read moreWith tens of thousands still without power, Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday relaxed or waived voting rules for eight counties hammered by Hurricane Michael last week. Scott’s order represents a delicate balancing act for the Republican governor since most of the Panhandle counties affected by the decision are GOP strongholds that usually deliver thousands…
read moreSeveral major Russian companies are exploring ways to do deals abroad without using dollars, spurred on by a U.S. threat to broaden sanctions that have impeded access of some Russian firms to the international banking system. The Kremlin has been pushing companies to conduct more deals using other currencies to reduce reliance on the dollar.…
read moreCongressional Democrats say they have evidence that President Donald Trump personally directed subordinates to scrap a long-planned relocation of FBI headquarters from downtown Washington to the suburbs. In a letter Thursday, Democratic lawmakers say Trump’s direct involvement presents a brazen conflict of interest. Trump owns a downtown hotel across the street from FBI headquarters…
read moreHundreds of taxis on Thursday drove at a snail’s pace across the Polish capital Warsaw in protest at the ride-sharing app Uber and other unlicenced competitors. Other cab drivers gathered in front of the justice ministry to call for legislation to regulate the industry. Traditional cab operators argue that the Uber app and others like…
read moreU.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has pulled out of an investment conference next week in Saudi Arabia, as Riyadh continues to face questions about its involvement in the disappearance and alleged killing of a U.S.-based Saudi journalist in Turkey. Mnuchin made the announcement Thursday on Twitter, following numerous Western corporate chiefs who have dropped out…
read moreThe U.S. appears willing to give Saudi Arabia a bit more time to finish its investigation into Turkish allegations that Saudi agents killed a U.S.-based journalist inside Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, after meeting with Saudi and Turkish leaders this week, briefed President Donald Trump at the White House on…
read moreEven in the country that invented the internet, access has remained painfully slow for many rural residents in places like the central state of Arkansas, far from the big cities of the East and West coasts. That may be about to change. The Federal Communications Commission — a government agency — recently auctioned off almost…
read moreIn an otherwise innocuous part of Facebook’s expansive Silicon Valley campus, a locked door bears a taped-on sign that reads “War Room.” Behind the door lies a nerve center the social network has set up to combat fake accounts and bogus news stories ahead of upcoming elections. Inside the room are dozens of employees staring…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday rekindled his criticism of California’s wildfire prevention steps and threatened to withhold billions of dollars of federal funding amid one of the most destructive fire seasons on record. “It’s hurting our budget, it’s hurting our country and they better get their act together,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting about…
read moreThe Trump administration is moving to reassign a political appointee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to lead an internal watchdog agency at the Interior Department. An email sent by HUD Secretary Ben Carson to staff says assistant HUD secretary Suzanne Israel Tufts will take over as acting inspector general at Interior. Tufts…
read moreA Minnesota Democratic candidate for Congress is poised to become the first Somali-American elected to the U.S. House. But as the election approaches, Ilhan Omar is dogged by questions about her past. The allegations first raised by conservative media in 2016 include claims that she married her brother and committed immigration fraud. More recent claims…
read moreJubilant customers stood in long lines for hours then lit up and celebrated on sidewalks Wednesday as Canada became the world’s largest legal marijuana marketplace. In Toronto, people smoked joints as soon as they rolled out of bed in a big “wake and bake” celebration. In Alberta, a government website that sells pot crashed when…
read moreElectric auto brand Tesla Inc. said it signed an agreement Wednesday to secure land in Shanghai for its first factory outside the United States, pushing ahead with development despite mounting U.S.-Chinese trade tensions. Tesla, based on Palo Alto, California, announced plans for the Shanghai factory in July after the Chinese government said it would end…
read moreOn Wednesday, Twitter released a collection of more than 10 million tweets related to thousands of accounts affiliated with Russia’s Internet Research Agency propaganda organization, as well as hundreds more troll accounts, including many based in Iran. The data, analyzed and released in a report by The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, are made…
read moreWestern corporate chiefs are continuing to pull out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia next week, distancing themselves from questions about Riyadh’s involvement in the disappearance and alleged killing of a U.S.-based Saudi journalist in Turkey. At first, many of the business leaders reserved judgment on what happened to the missing journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.…
read moreHackers have infected three energy and transport companies in Ukraine and Poland with sophisticated new malware and may be planning destructive cyber attacks, a software security firm said on Wednesday. A report by researchers at Slovakia-based ESET did not attribute the hacking activity, recorded between 2015 and mid-2018, to any specific country but blamed it…
read moreIt’s now possible to check in automatically at Shanghai’s Hongqiao airport using facial recognition technology, part of an ambitious rollout of facial recognition systems in China that has raised privacy concerns as Beijing pushes to become a global leader in the field. Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport unveiled self-service kiosks for flight and baggage check-in, security…
read moreA group representing black voters is suing the election commission in Tennessee’s largest county, which includes Memphis, after thousands of registrations were deemed invalid by the commission. The Tennessee Black Voter Project filed a lawsuit Monday in Shelby County Chancery Court asking a judge to allow the group to inspect voter registration forms that the…
read moreFundraising records are falling in this year’s U.S. congressional campaign season, driven in part by unprecedented hauls by at least five candidates from both major parties, according to a Reuters analysis of campaign finance disclosures. Candidates for the House of Representatives have collectively raised $1.2 billion from January 2017 through the end of September, more than…
read moreAn Uber driver in New York City kidnapped a woman who fell asleep in his vehicle, groped her in the back seat and then left her on the side of a highway in Connecticut, federal authorities said Tuesday. Harbir Parmar, 24, of Queens was charged in U.S. District Court with kidnapping. It wasn’t immediately clear…
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