Breaking News

Business

COVID-19 aid may have been stolen, federal watchdog says

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than $200 billion may have been stolen from two large COVID-19 relief initiatives, according to new estimates from a federal watchdog investigating federally funded programs that helped small businesses survive the worst public health crisis in more than a hundred years. The numbers issued Tuesday by the U.S. Small Business Administration inspector general are much greater than the office’s previous projections and underscore how vulnerable the Paycheck Protection and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs were to fraudsters, particularly during the ...

2,700 people tricked into working for fraudulent cybercrime groups

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine police backed by commandos staged a massive raid on Tuesday and said they rescued more than 2,700 workers from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and more than a dozen other countries who were allegedly swindled into working for fraudulent online gaming sites and other cybercrime groups. The number of human trafficking victims rescued from seven buildings in Las Pinas city in metropolitan Manila and the scale of the nighttime police raid were the largest so far this year and indicated how the Philippines has become a key base of ...

New Zealand Prime Minister Hipkins visits China to boost economic ties

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins discussed his country’s interest in boosting economic ties with China during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday. Hipkins said the focus of his meeting with Xi was to “reaffirm our close economic relationship by supporting businesses (to) renew their connections with Chinese counterparts and helping grow new ones to support New Zealand’s economic recovery.” Hipkins is on a five-day visit to China, his first since becoming prime minister in January, along with a business delegation ...

Meta launches more parental supervision tools for platforms

The Associated Press Instagram and Facebook’s parent company Meta is adding some new parental supervision tools and privacy features to its platforms as social media companies face increasing scrutiny over their effects on teen mental health. But many of the features require minors — and their parents — to opt in, raising questions about how effective the measures are. Instagram, for instance, will now send a notice to teens after they have blocked someone, encouraging them to let their parents “supervise” their account. The idea is to grab kids’ attention when they might ...

Calif. law aimed at fast food wages on hold; Lawmakers may have found a way around it

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A new California law aimed in part at boosting salaries for fast food workers has been delayed for nearly two years following industry resistance. Now the Democrats who control the state Legislature might have figured out how to raise worker pay anyway. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law last year. It created a 10-member council with the authority, among other things, to increase the state’s $15.50 minimum wage to a maximum of $22 per hour for some fast food workers. Some experts quickly hailed the law as one of the “most significant pieces of employment ...

Still hiring: Big Tech layoffs give other sectors an opening

The Associated Press For the thousands of workers who’d never experienced upheaval in the tech sector, the recent mass layoffs at companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta came as a shock. Now they are being courted by long-established employers whose names aren’t typically synonymous with tech work, including hotel chains, retailers, investment firms, railroad companies and even the Internal Revenue Service. All of those sectors have signaled on recruiting platforms that they are still hiring software engineers, data scientists and cybersecurity specialists despite the ...