Lawmakers set to confirm Scott Bessent for US Treasury chief

The US Senate is widely expected to confirm billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent for Treasury secretary Monday, putting him at the forefront of implementing Donald Trump’s economic agenda — which is already sparking global jitters. Bessent, a Wall Street veteran who was born and raised in South Carolina, has...

In Brazil, disinformation deals Lula a bruising defeat

An avalanche of disinformation about a new economic measure proved so tricky for Brazil’s government to navigate that they backtracked entirely this week in a rout egged on by the opposition. The political fiasco centered around the beloved instant money transfer system known as PIX, used tens of millions of...

Instagram courts TikTok stars during turbulent times

Meta-owned Instagram has been wooing creators from TikTok as the China-based video-snippet sharing app’s future remains uncertain in the United States. After officially increasing the allowed length of videos and adding a new editing tool, Meta recently began letting TikTok creators earn as much as $5,000 over the course of...

Brazil gives Meta 72 hours to explain new fact-checking policies

Brazil on Friday gave social media giant Meta 72 hours to explain its fact-checking policy for the country, and how it plans to protect “fundamental rights” on its platforms. Attorney General Jorge Messias told journalists his office could take “legal and judicial” measures against Meta if it does not respond...

US Supreme Court upholds law banning TikTok

The US Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law that will ban TikTok in the United States, potentially denying the video-sharing app to 170 million users in two days. In a major defeat for TikTok, the court ruled that the law does not violate free speech rights and that the...

US grounds SpaceX’s Starship after fiery mid-air explosion

The United States on Friday grounded SpaceX’s Starship and ordered Elon Musk’s company to investigate why the spaceship spectacularly disintegrated in a fiery cascade over the Caribbean during its latest test mission. Authorities in the Turks and Caicos Islands confirmed they diverted all flights from their airspace during the incident...

Apple sidelines AI news summaries due to errors

Apple pushed out a software update on Thursday which disabled news headlines and summaries generated using artificial intelligence that were lambasted for getting facts wrong. The move by the tech titan comes as it enhances its latest lineup of devices with “Apple Intelligence” in a market keen for assurance that...

Asian markets drop as trades fret over US inflation, rates outlook

Asian markets struggled Thursday after a tepid lead from Wall Street, with investors growing increasingly worried about the outlook for inflation and US interest rates as Donald Trump’s second presidency looms. A report saying the president-elect was considering declaring a national economic emergency to provide legal cover to impose tariffs...