Iranian crude oil imports by Asia’s top four buyers dropped to the lowest volume in three years in 2018 amid U.S. sanctions on Tehran, but China and India stepped up imports in December after getting waivers from Washington. Asia’s top four buyers of Iranian crude — China, India, Japan and South Korea — imported a…
read moreFacebook said Thursday it took down hundreds of “inauthentic” accounts from Iran that were part of a vast manipulation campaign operating in more than 20 countries. The world’s biggest social network said it removed 783 pages, groups and accounts “for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior tied to Iran.” The pages were part of a campaign…
read moreU.S. immigration officials blame the government shutdown and the extreme winter weather for confusion about immigration court hearings. In an emailed statement, the part of the Justice Department overseeing immigration courts said some immigrants with notices to appear Thursday wouldn’t be able to proceed with those hearings. The Executive Office for Immigration Review…
read moreA recent Harvard University graduate who is the first so-called Dreamer to receive a Rhodes scholarship will attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address as a guest of a New York congresswoman. Democratic Rep. Grace Meng said she invited Jin Park to attend Trump’s address Tuesday in the hope of bringing more attention to…
read moreHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump hasn’t paid attention to warnings from his own administration about threats posed by North Korea, Iran and other countries. Pelosi says U.S. intelligence officials were “courageous” in speaking “truth to power” by contradicting Trump to Congress. She says she’s dismayed that, in her words, Trump “just doesn’t…
read moreGhirardelli and Russell Stover have agreed to pay $750,000 in fines after prosecutors in California said they offered a little chocolate in a lot of wrapping. Prosecutors in Sacramento, San Joaquin, Shasta, Fresno, Santa Cruz and Yolo counties sued the candy makers, alleging they misled consumers by selling chocolate products in containers that were oversized…
read moreApple says Facebook can no longer distribute an app that paid users, including teenagers, to extensively track their phone and web use. In doing so, Apple closed off Facebook’s efforts to sidestep Apple’s app store and its tighter rules on privacy. The tech blog TechCrunch reported late Tuesday that Facebook paid people about $20 a…
read morePresident Donald Trump will sign an executive order Thursday pushing those who receive federal funds to “buy American.” The aim is to boost U.S. manufacturing. Peter Navarro, director of the White House National Trade Council, told reporters during a telephone briefing the policies are helping workers who “are blue collar, Trump people.” Later he amended…
read moreGlobal smartphone sales saw their worst contraction ever in 2018, and the outlook for 2019 isn’t much better, new surveys show. Worldwide handset volumes declined 4.1 percent in 2018 to a total of 1.4 billion units shipped for the full year, according to research firm IDC, which sees a potential for further declines this year.…
read morePresident Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would let the Justice Department decide how to handle the special counsel’s report on an investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Moscow. Republican Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, William Barr, said at his confirmation hearing this month…
read moreThousands of commuters flock to Manila’s railway tracks every day, but rather than boarding the trains, they climb on to wooden carts pushed along the tracks, to avoid the Philippine capital’s infamous traffic gridlock. The trolleys, as the carts are known, most of them fitted with colorful umbrellas for shade from the sun, can seat…
read moreThe Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate judiciary panel Wednesday requested a briefing from the FBI on the arrest of Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Donald Trump, in an inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Senator Lindsey Graham said he was concerned about the number of agents involved, tactics employed…
read moreU.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation to limit the president’s power to levy import tariffs for national security reasons. The bills face an uncertain future but underscore bipartisan concerns on Capitol Hill over the rising costs of the Trump administration’s trade policies. The United States in 2018 slapped duties on aluminum and steel from other…
read moreWhether it’s haggling for a better price or negotiating for a higher salary, there is a skill to getting the most of what you want. Researchers at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies are conducting research on how a virtual negotiator may be able to teach you the art of making a…
read moreThe Philippines ranked among Asia’s 10 fastest growing economies in 2017. Consumer power, remittances from overseas workers and an influx of call centers had given it that status, raising hopes for easing rampant poverty. Then GDP expansion wobbled in 2018 because of rising prices and lack of new direct investment. Now state spending on new…
read moreThe indictment of President Donald Trump’s longtime ally Roger Stone has raised new questions about just what special counsel Robert Mueller has uncovered during his 20-month investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. One question is whether the indictment gets Mueller’s prosecutors any closer to the heart of the investigation: determining whether there…
read moreBrazilian miner Vale SA identified concerns around its tailings dams in 2009 and studied but did not implement several steps that could have prevented or lessened the damage from last week’s deadly disaster, according to a corporate presentation seen by Reuters. A tailings dam, used to store the muddy detritus of the mining…
read moreApple hoped to offset slowing demand for iPhones by raising the prices of its most important product, but that strategy seems to have backfired after sales sagged during the holiday shopping season. Results released Tuesday revealed the magnitude of the iPhone slump – a 15 percent drop in revenue from the previous year. That decline…
read moreU.S. intelligence chiefs are sounding alarms about an ever more perilous future for the United States, one in which the country is in danger of seeing its influence wane, its allies waiver and key adversaries team up to erode norms that once kept the country safe and the world more stable. Director of National Intelligence…
read morePresident Donald Trump is dismissing — and potentially bolstering sales — of a new tell-all book by a former White House aide, calling it “made-up stories and fiction.” The book by Cliff Sims, called Team of Vipers, is the latest in a series of insider accounts by journalists and former Trump staffers that paint an…
read moreRussia and China pose the biggest espionage and cyber attack threats to the United States and are more aligned than they have been in decades, the leader of the U.S. intelligence community told U.S. senators on Tuesday. While the two countries seek to expand their global reach, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said, some…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump on Monday accepted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to deliver his State of the Union address in the House chamber on Feb. 5. The speech comes as Trump faces an uphill battle to secure funding for his border wall, as well as a special investigation on Russian election meddling, and lawsuits…
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