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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 […]

Washington Expands Blacklist of Chinese Tech Firms

As U.S. pressure intensifies on Chinese tech firms, the Commerce Department blacklisted Wednesday a new list of Chinese firms under the pretense of direct affiliation with the Communist Party Apparatus. Officials have taken these measures as a plan to halt rising American technologies from being implemented for quantum computing purposes, given it would aid the […]

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 […]

UK draws up plans to heighten digitalization of global trading

The UK government’s Board of Trade uncovered Friday a report with plans to enhance digitalization of global trading to deliver significant opportunities for local businesses to play a role in empowering economic growth. The board, led by the country’s trade minister Anne Marie Trevelyan, structured the report to highlight the vitality of heightening digitalization of […]

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 […]

Senate Calls for Testimony from Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri

Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri, will give testimony before Congress on December 6th, in a set of hearings for the platform’s approaches towards teens’ online protection, The New York Times reported. The testimony will be a follow-up after Senate lawmakers intensified their scrutinizing gaze on the platform concerning how its parent company Meta – previously Facebook – […]

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 […]

Coalition of States Examines Instagram’s Psychological Effect on Teens

A coalition of states attorneys general launched Thursday an investigation into Instagram’s ways of attracting and affecting the younger generation, especially younger girls, in their latest attempt to harshen regulatory scrutiny on Meta Platforms Inc, according to The Wall Street Journal. The examination into the social networking platform led by eight states, with Massachusetts and Nebraska […]

U.S.-Taiwan meeting covers semiconductor chip shortage, China coercion

Taiwan’s Economy Minister Wang Mei-Hua revealed on Tuesday that the U.S. discussed with its country potential plans to address the semiconductor chip shortage, in addition to finding the needed approaches to counter China’s economic “coercion.” During the second session of an economic dialogue initiated last year, the discussion followed a week after a virtual meeting […]

GM exploring electric boats, buys 25% stake in engine maker

General Motors is testing the water in electric boating by buying a 25% stake in a Seattle company that makes battery-powered outboard motors. The Detroit automaker said Monday that it bought the stake in Pure Watercraft for a venture that it says will develop and commercialize battery electric watercraft. Pure Watercraft, founded in 2011, is […]