Senator Al Franken rips Donald Trump at the DNC
Senator Al Franken spoke to the crowd at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and called himself a "world-renowned expert on right-wing megalomaniac."
Senator Al Franken spoke to the crowd at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and called himself a "world-renowned expert on right-wing megalomaniac."
New orders for key U.S.-manufactured capital goods rose moderately in March and data for the prior month was revised lower, suggesting business spending on equipment was likely sluggish in the first quarter. Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, increased 0.2% last month, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said on Wednesday. Data for February was revised lower to show these so-called core capital goods orders rising 0.4% instead of 0.7% as previously reported.
Since the railroad already preannounced its disappointing results earlier this month when it disclosed a $600 million settlement over the disastrous February 2023 Ohio derailment there were few surprises in Wednesday’s numbers. Without the settlement and some other one-time costs, the railroad said it would have made $2.39 per share while Wall Street was predicting earnings of $2.60 per share. The Atlanta-based railroad’s profit was down from $466 million, or $2.04 per share, a year ago even though the railroad delivered 4% more shipments during the quarter.
A team of experts from the U.N. nuclear agency inspected the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Wednesday for a review of its ongoing discharge of treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific. A temporary blackout at the plant due to a mishap at a ground digging site apparently caused damage to an underground electric cable Wednesday morning and halted the treated water discharges for several hours, though the IAEA team was able to complete its inspection, according to the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings. TEPCO said the treated water release resumed Wednesday evening and no abnormalities have been found.
A sell-or-ban TikTok bill has created kitchen table debates for many families. Lawmakers aren't excluded.
The nation's school meals will get a makeover under new nutrition standards that limit added sugars for the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday. The final rule also trims sodium in kids' meals, although not by the 30% first proposed in 2023. And it continues to allow flavored milks — such as chocolate milk — with less sugar, rather than adopting an option that would have offered only unflavored milk to the youngest kids. The aim is to improve nutrition and align with U.S. dietary guidelines in the program that provides breakfasts to more than 15 million students and lunches to nearly 30 million students every day at a cost of about $22.6 billion per year.
EVERETT, Wash. — Two framed documents from a long career at Boeing hang side by side in Merle Meyers’ home: A certificate from 2022 that thanks him for three decades of service. And a letter he received months later reprimanding him for his performance. The documents reflect his conflicting emotions about the company. Meyers, who worked as a Boeing quality manager until last year, holds deep affection for the aircraft manufacturer, where both he and his mother worked. But he is also saddened and
German email service Tuta Mail has complained to European Union tech regulators about what it described as a sudden drop in Google search results on the day the bloc's new tech rules kicked in. The European Commission last month launched investigations into Alphabet unit Google, Apple and Meta Platforms over potential breaches of the new Digital Markets Act (DMA), with Google's case partly focused on whether search results discriminate against third-party services. Tuta Mail, which says it is the second-largest encrypted email service in the world with more than 10 million users, filed a complaint to the DMA taskforce on Tuesday.
South Sudanese authorities are holding up United Nations fuel tankers over a tax dispute, jeopardising the delivery of millions of dollars of aid during a humanitarian crisis, the U.N. mission there said. The trucks were held up at depots and the Ugandan border on Wednesday despite assurances from the minister of humanitarian affairs a day earlier that a new tax on trucks carrying fuel and other supplies did not apply to U.N. humanitarian operations, a spokesperson for the mission said. Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Albino Akok Atak and Information Minister Michael Makuei were not immediately available for comment.
Extreme heat scorched parts of South and Southeast Asia Wednesday, prompting schools across the Philippines to suspend classes, heat warnings in the Thai capital and worshippers in Bangladesh to pray for rain.The Philippine Department of Education, which oversees more than 47,600 schools, said nearly 6,700 schools suspended in-person classes on Wednesday.
Video uncovered by CNN significantly undermines two Pentagon investigations, the latest of which was released last week, into an ISIS-K suicide attack outside Kabul airport, during the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is facing unprecedented scrutiny this year and fighting to put out multiple fires that are denting its support ahead of European and local elections that threaten to upend German politics. The latest allegation was that Jian Guo, a staffer working for the AfD's top EU election candidate Maximilian Krah, was passing information to the Chinese secret service. Police arrested Guo a week after media reports that the FBI had also questioned Krah when he travelled to the United States about suspected payments from a pro-Russian activist.
BERLIN — After weeks of delays, negotiations and distractions, Israel appeared to hint this week that its assault of Rafah — a city in the Gaza Strip teeming with displaced persons above ground and riddled with Hamas tunnels below — was all but inevitable. In what some analysts and residents of the city saw as a sign of preparations for an invasion, an Israeli military official on Tuesday gave some details that include relocating civilians to a safe zone a few miles away along the Mediterranean
Ukraine received a new 1.5-billion-euro ($1.6 billion) tranche of financial support from the European Union on Wednesday and hopes to get another 10 billion euros later this year, officials said. Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said the EU, which has provided Ukraine with 31 billion euros, had become the biggest donor of budget financing to Ukraine since the start of Russia's invasion in February 2022. The United States, which has approved billions of dollars in a new aid package to Ukraine, is also an important donor.
Upcoming quarterly reports from U.S. tech giants may show Microsoft is closing the gap on cloud-computing market leader Amazon.com as more businesses switch to its services, attracted by a clutch of generative AI features that are powered by OpenAI's technology. The Redmond, Washington-based software giant has beaten rivals Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet to the market with AI services including the Copilot, a set of genAI tools that work in Microsoft's business apps, that was rolled out in November for $30 a month. Its earnings on Thursday will be an indicator of AI adoption and could influence the movement of technology stocks as a rally in the sector eases this month amid worries that interest rates in the U.S. could stay high for longer.
A ship near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait saw an explosion in the distance Wednesday, marking what may be a new attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels through the crucial waterway for international trade. The explosion, reported by the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, comes after a relative lull from the Houthis after they launched dozens of attacks on shipping in the region over Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis did not immediately claim responsibility for the blast, but suspicion fell on the group as they've repeatedly targeted ships in the same area.
A federal rule announced Wednesday will require airlines to quickly give cash refunds — without lengthy arguments — to passengers whose flights have been canceled or seriously delayed, the Biden administration said.
Two runaway military horses bolted through central London, leaving at least 4 people and the animals injured, officials said.
The European Parliament on Wednesday backed the EU's withdrawal from an international energy treaty over concerns it offers too much protection to fossil fuel companies.But the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said in July it was necessary to withdraw from the treaty in a coordinated manner since it is "no longer compatible" with the bloc's "enhanced climate ambition".
Boeing is expected to report first quarter earnings before the bell on Wednesday, following a quarter that could be called rocky to say the least.
Slovakia’s government on Wednesday approved a controversial overhaul of the country's public radio and television services, a move that critics say would result in the government taking full control of the media. Populist Prime Minister Robert Fico said the changes are needed because the public broadcaster, known as RTVS, is politically biased and “is in conflict with the Slovak government.” The Parliament, where the Fico’s coalition government has a majority, is expected to approve the changes in June.