Wire stories category, Page 102
Trump says U.S., China have reached deal; Sunday tariffs offVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. has canceled plans to impose new tariffs on $160 billion worth of Chinese imports Sunday as part of a modest interim agreement that de-escalates a 17-month trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. The United States is also reducing...
Reports: FTC may try to block Facebook from integrating apps
Facebook’s stock dropped almost 3% in regular trading after news reports suggested that the FTC may take antitrust action to prevent Facebook from integrating its disparate messaging apps. The reports said the Federal Trade Commission may seek a court injunction that would block Facebook’s “interoperability” plans for Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp...
Trump says US, China have reached deal; Sunday tariffs offVideo
President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. and China have reached a Phase 1 trade deal, de-escalating a 17-month dispute between the economic powers. The U.S. is dropping plans to impose tariffs Sunday on $160 billion in Chinese imports and is reducing some existing tariffs on Chinese goods. In...
Pound and stocks jump on U.K. election, talk of U.S.-China deal
BANGKOK — Stock markets and the British pound rose Friday after Britain’s Conservative Party claimed a big win in the country’s general election, easing uncertainty over Brexit, and amid talk of a China-U.S. trade deal. The British pound jumped to $1.3470 from $1.3150 late Thursday but then eased back to...
Indoor lettuce growers find a wedge to market amid another E. coli outbreak
MINNEAPOLIS — The latest outbreak of E. coli in romaine lettuce has sickened more than 100 people nationwide and left others wondering if raw salad is safe. As food-safety investigators clear the vegetable aisle of contaminated lettuce, authorities provided more guidance on how to shop for safer product. Consumers should...
U.S., China near deal that would suspend planned tariffsVideo
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration and China are close to finalizing a modest trade agreement that would suspend tariffs that are set to kick in Sunday, de-escalating their 17-month trade war. “We’re close to a deal,” said Myron Brilliant, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s head of international affairs, who has...
Cheerios changes shape for new marketing campaign
MINNEAPOLIS — Out with the “O” and in with the heart. General Mills is replacing the most recognizable shape in the cereal kingdom, the Cheerios’ “O”, with heart-shaped pieces. It’s all a part of the food maker’s ongoing marketing campaign that claims its whole-grain cereals can be good for heart...
Facebook, Google drop out of top 10 ‘best places to work’ list
SAN FRANCISCO — Big tech companies such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, long seen as some of the world’s most desirable workplaces offering countless perks and employee benefits, are losing some of their shine. The Silicon Valley companies dropped out of the Top 10 “best places to work”...
Ex-Fed Chair Volcker dies, tamed inflation with recession
Paul Volcker, who as Federal Reserve chairman in the early 1980s elevated interest rates to historic highs and triggered a recession as the price of quashing double-digit inflation, has died, according to his office. He was 92. Volcker took charge of the Fed in August 1979, when the U.S. economy...
Jury: Elon Musk did not defame British caver in tweet
LOS ANGELES — Elon Musk defeated defamation allegations Friday from a British cave explorer who claimed he was branded a pedophile when the Tesla CEO called him “pedo guy” in an angry tweet. Vernon Unsworth, who participated in the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped for weeks...
OPEC countries, Russia to cut oil output, pushing up prices
The OPEC oil-producing countries and ally Russia said Friday they have agreed to cut crude production, prompting a surge in global crude prices that they hope to sustain into next year. The group decided to cut output by an extra 500,000 barrels a day as they try to support the...
Amazon says delivery times back to normal after delays
NEW YORK — Amazon said Friday that it’s back to delivering its packages on time after bad weather and a rush of orders caused some delays earlier in the week. “We quickly rebalanced capacity and it’s all systems go now,” tweeted Amazon executive Dave Clark, who oversees Amazon’s warehouse and...
Ford recalls big pickups; tailgates can open unexpectedly
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is recalling nearly 262,000 heavy-duty pickup trucks in the U.S. and Canada because the tailgates can open unexpectedly. The recall covers F-250, F-350 and F-450 trucks from the 2017 through 2019 model years. All the trucks have electric tailgate latch release switches in the tailgate...
U.S. gains a robust 266,000 jobs; unemployment falls to 3.5%
WASHINGTON — Hiring in the United States jumped last month to its highest level since January as U.S. employers shrugged off trade conflicts and a global slowdown and added 266,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% from 3.6% in October, matching a half-century low, the Labor Department reported Friday....
Coffee so strong you can build car parts out of it
CHICAGO — McDonald’s coffee bean remnants are getting a second purpose in life in the form of car parts. Researchers from Ford, the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker, are using McDonald’s coffee chaff — the waste left over after the roasting process — to make headlamp housings and other auto components. Ford...
Uber reports more than 3,000 sexual assaults on 2018 rides
SAN FRANCISCO — More than 3,000 sexual assaults were reported during U.S. Uber rides in 2018, the company said in a long-awaited safety report. That figure includes 229 rapes across the company’s 1.3 billion rides. Uber noted that drivers and riders were both attacked, and that some assaults occurred between...
Google co-founders step down as execs of parent AlphabetVideo
SAN FRANCISCO — The co-founders of Google are stepping down as executives of its parent company, Alphabet, ending a remarkable two decades during which Larry Page and Sergey Brin shaped a startup born in a Silicon Valley garage into one of the largest, most powerful — and, increasingly, most feared...
Gun background checks are on pace to break record in 2019Video
Background checks on gun purchases in the United States are climbing toward a record high this year, reflecting what the industry says is a rush by people to buy weapons in reaction to the Democratic presidential candidates’ calls for tighter restrictions. By the end of November, more than 25.4 million...
U.S. proposes tariffs on up to $2.4 billion in French imports
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is proposing tariffs on up to $2.4 billion worth of French imports — including Roquefort cheese, handbags, lipstick and sparkling wine — in retaliation for France’s tax on American tech giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative charged Monday...
‘Cyber Monday’ sales on track to hit record
“Cyber Monday” is still holding up as the biggest online shopping day of the year, even though the same deals have been available online for weeks and the name harks back to the days of dial-up modems. Shoppers are expected to spend a record $9.4 billion on purchases made on...
Facebook tests tool to move photos to Google, other rivals
LONDON — Facebook started testing a tool on Monday that lets users move their images more easily to other online services, as it faces pressure from regulators to loosen its grip on data. The social network’s new tool will allow people to transfer their photos and videos directly to competing...
Trump to tariff steel and aluminum from Argentina and Brazil
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday accused Argentina and Brazil of hurting American farmers through currency manipulation and said he’ll slap tariffs on their steel and aluminum imports to retaliate. Trump also called on America’s central bank to take action to prevent other countries from devaluing their currencies. Both...
Merry Clickmas: Black Friday online sales hit record $7.4B
NEW YORK — This year’s Black Friday was the biggest ever for online sales, as fewer people hit the stores and shoppers rang up $7.4 billion in transactions from their phones, computers and tablets. That’s just behind the $7.9 billion haul of last year’s Cyber Monday, which holds the one-day...
Black Friday kicks off scramble in a shorter shopping season
NEW YORK — Black Friday shoppers fought for parking spots and traveled cross-state to their favorite malls, kicking off a shortened shopping season that intensified the mad scramble between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The shopping season is the shortest since 2013 because Thanksgiving fell on the last Thursday in November —...
Papa John’s founder has 40 pizzas in 30 days, says pizzas are not good
Papa John’s founder John Schnatter, who was ousted as CEO in 2017, said the pizza and company are not the same. In an interview with WDRB-TV in Kentucky, Schnatter said the company he started in 1984 has declined since he was pushed out. “I’ve had over 40 pizzas in the...
