Associated Press

News Agency

Nissan investing in electric vehicles, battery development

Nissan said Monday it is investing 2 trillion yen ($17.6 billion) over the next five years and developing a cheaper, more powerful battery to boost its electric vehicle lineup. The Japanese automaker’s chief executive, Makoto Uchida, said 15 new electric vehicles will be available by fiscal 2030. Nissan Motor Co. is aiming for a 50% […]

Italy, France deepen economic, defense cooperation

Italian Premier Mario Draghi said that a bilateral treaty signed on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron to strengthen bilateral cooperation would in turn strengthen the European Union, including such areas as defense, aerospace and technology. The treaty deepens cooperation “in crucial sectors, from security to justice, from research to industry,” Draghi told a press […]

Workers' paradise? Portugal's new teleworking law takes flak

Portugal’s new law on working from home makes the European Union country sound like a workers’ paradise. Companies can’t attempt to contact their staff outside working hours. They must help staff pay for their home gas, electric and internet bills. Bosses are forbidden from using digital software to track what their teleworkers are doing. There’s […]

Edmunds: Low inventory means high car prices on Black Friday

This has been a tough year to buy a new or used car in America. With COVID-19 factory shutdowns, semiconductor chip shortages, rising prices and supply chain issues, it’s been nothing but bad news for car shoppers. And for those who’ve waited, hoping Black Friday sales would bring some reprieve from high prices, we’re afraid […]

NASA launches spacecraft to test asteroid defense concept

NASA launched a spacecraft Tuesday night on a mission to smash into an asteroid and test whether it would be possible to knock a speeding space rock off course if one were to threaten Earth. The DART spacecraft, short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base atop a SpaceX Falcon […]

EU to limit political ads, ban use of certain personal info

Concerned by the misuse of political advertising to undermine elections, the European Union on Thursday unveiled plans to help people better understand when they are seeing such ads online and who is responsible for them. The proposals, aimed at ensuring fair and transparent polls or referendums, would also ban political targeting and “amplification techniques” used […]

EU regulator authorizes Pfizer's COVID vaccine for kids 5-11

The European Union’s drug regulator on Thursday authorized Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for use on children from 5 to 11 years old, clearing the way for shots to be administered to millions of elementary school pupils amid a new wave of infections sweeping across the continent. It is the first time the European Medicines Agency has […]

Collins Dictionary picks NFT as word of the year 2021

Collins Dictionary has chosen the term NFT as its word of the year after surging interest in the digital tokens that can sell for millions of dollars brought it into the mainstream. NFT is short for non-fungible token. Collins defines it as “a unique digital certificate, registered in a blockchain, that is used to record […]

Apple suing Israeli hacker-for-hire company NSO Group

Tech giant Apple announced Tuesday it is suing Israel’s NSO Group, seeking to block the world’s most infamous hacker-for-hire company from breaking into Apple’s products, like the iPhone. Apple said in a complaint filed in federal court in California that NSO Group employees are “amoral 21st century mercenaries who have created highly sophisticated cyber-surveillance machinery […]

Italian competition watchdog fines Apple, Amazon $225M

Italy’s antitrust watchdog has fined Apple and Amazon a total of more than 200 million euros ($225 million) for cooperating to restrict competition in the sale of Apple and Beats branded products in violation of European Union rules. An investigation found that provisions in a 2018 agreement between the U.S. tech giants limited access to […]