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Airbnb, NYC agree to end their fight over host data-sharing

13Jun By AnkitaNo Comments

USA

Airbnb, NYC agree to end their fight over host data-sharing

New York, Jun 12, 2020 (AP): Airbnb and New York City will settle their fight over a law that sought to limit housing rental increases by requiring short-term rental platforms to share information about their listings, the two sides announced Friday. Under the agreement, the San Francisco-based Airbnb will dismiss its federal lawsuit against the city and the New York City Council will amend a 2018 law that required home-sharing platforms to provide detailed data on all their listings. Under the amended law, home-sharing companies will still be required to provide information including addresses and names of hosts, but the law will apply only to listings that offer an entire home or that allow three or more guests to stay at one time.The data will have to be provided on a quarterly b...

Twitter fact check controversy: President Trump threatens new regulation or shutdown

28May By NitishNo Comments

USA

Twitter fact check controversy: President Trump threatens new regulation or shutdown

Washington, May 28 (AP): President Donald Trump, the historically prolific tweeter of political barbs and blasts, threatened social media companies with new regulation or even shuttering after Twitter added fact checks to two of his tweets. He turned to his Twitter account to tweet his threats. The president can''t unilaterally regulate or close the companies, and any effort would likely require action by Congress. His administration has shelved a proposed executive order empowering the Federal Communications Commission to regulate technology companies, citing concerns it wouldn''t pass legal muster. But that didn''t stop Trump from angrily issuing strong warnings. Tech giants “silence conservative voices," he claimed on Twitter early Wednesday. “We will strongly regulate, or clo...

Twitter adds fact check warnings to President Trump’s tweets

27May By AnkitaNo Comments

USA

Twitter adds fact check warnings to President Trump’s tweets

Washington, May 27th, 2020: For the first time, Twitter has flagged some of President Donald Trump's tweets with a fact-check warning. On Tuesday, Twitter added a warning phrase to two Trump tweets that called mail-in ballots "fraudulent” and predicted that "mail boxes will be robbed,” among other things. Under the tweets, there is now a link reading “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” that guides users to a Twitter “moments” page with fact checks and news stories about Trump''s unsubstantiated claims. Until now, the president has simply blown past Twitter's half-hearted attempts to enforce rules intended to promote civility and “healthy” conversation on its most prominent user. Trump frequently amplifies misinformation, spreads abuse, and uses his pulpit to personally attac...

US government sees record monthly deficit of $737.9 billion

13May By AnkitaNo Comments

USA

US government sees record monthly deficit of $737.9 billion

The federal government piled up a record deficit in April, traditionally a month of big budget surpluses. The sea of red ink is being created by a drop in revenue and a massive increase in spending to fund efforts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The Treasury Department said Tuesday that the government racked up a shortfall of $737.9 billion last month. That was more than three times larger than the previous record monthly deficit of $235 billion set in February. The deficit so far for the fiscal year that began Sept. 1 climbed to $1.48 trillion. Treasury normally runs surpluses in April as the government revenues swell because of the annual April filing deadline for tax payments. But this year, among the many measures the government has taken to try to cushion the blow ...

Trump admin working to temporarily ban work-based Visas

9May By AdityaNo Comments

USA

Trump admin working to temporarily ban work-based Visas

The US is working to temporarily ban the issuance of some work-based visas like H-1B, popular among highly-skilled IT professionals, as well as students visas and work authorization that accompanies them, amidst the high level of unemployment due to the coronavirus, according to a media report on Friday. The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers from countries like India and China in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Nearly 500,000 migrant workers are employed in the US in the H-1B status. "The president's immigration advisers are drawing up plans for a coming executive order, expected this month, that would ban the issuance of some new temporary, work-based visas," The Wall Street Journal reported Fri...

More than 20 million US Jobs vanish in April

7May By AnkitaNo Comments

USA

More than 20 million US Jobs vanish in April

US businesses cut an unprecedented 20.2 million jobs in April, an epic collapse as the coronavirus outbreak closed of offices, factories, schools, construction sites and stores that propel the US economy. The Wednesday report from payroll company ADP showed the tragic depth and scale of job losses that left no part of the world's largest economy unscathed. The leisure and hospitality sector shed 8.6 million workers last month. Trade, transportation and utilities let 3.4 million people go. Construction firms cut nearly 2.5 million jobs, while manufacturers let go of roughly 1.7 million employees. This private industry report comes two days ahead of the official monthly figures from the U.S. Labor Department. Economists expect that report will show 21 million job losses, accor...

US Trade Gap rises to USD 44.4 billion as Virus slams Commerce

6May By AnkitaNo Comments

USA

US Trade Gap rises to USD 44.4 billion as Virus slams Commerce

The US trade deficit rose in March as the coronavirus outbreak battered America's trade with the world. The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the gap between what the United States sells and what it buys abroad widened 11.6 percent in March to USD 44.4 billion from USD 39.8 billion in February. US exports fell 9.6 percent to USD 187.7 billion on plunging orders for cars, auto parts, and industrial machines. Imports fell by 6.2 percent to USD 232.2 billion. Total trade exports plus imports came in at USD 419.9 billion in March, down 7.8 per cent from February and 11.4 per cent from March 2019. The politically sensitive deficit in the trade of goods with China fell 21.3 per cent to USD 15.5 billion in March as exports rose slightly and imports plummeted. The coronavirus...

Spelling Bee canceled for first time since WW-II

22Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

USA

Spelling Bee canceled for first time since WW-II

For the first time since World War-II, the prestigious spelling bee tournament, which has been dominated by Indian-Americans over the years, has been cancelled for 2020 in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The competition, which is only open to students in elementary and middle school, will return on June 1, 2021. However, the eighth graders who qualified this year for their last try at the national title won't be able to participate next year, spelling bee officials said in a statement on Tuesday. "Our hearts go out to the spellers who won't get their final shot at winning because of the pandemic and the difficult decisions it is prompting us to make. They are now part of a widely expanding group of children and adults who are missing out on opportunities due to the coronavirus," s...

NYC could lose 475,000 jobs, $9.7 bn in tax revenue

15Apr By NitishNo Comments

USA

NYC could lose 475,000 jobs, $9.7 bn in tax revenue

New York City could lose 475,000 jobs over the 12 months, the worst it has faced since the early 1970s, and experience a shortfall of USD 9.7 billion in tax revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a report by New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO) said. In a fiscal brief issued Wednesday, the budget office said the COVID-19 pandemic and the public health restrictions imposed to help limit the spread of infections have delivered a severe blow to the economy, leading to very large and abrupt job losses that are unprecedented in their scope and pace. Given the staggering job losses, IBO said it assumes that the US economy has entered a recession even though official statistics have not yet captured the scenario. In a pared-down economic forecast, IBO projected that that the loc...

Trump has small financial interest hydroxychloroquine firm: NYT

7Apr By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

USA

Trump has small financial interest hydroxychloroquine firm: NYT

President Donald Trump, who has aggressively promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients in and has asked India to export the anti-malarial drug to the US, has a small personal financial interest in the French pharma giant Sanofi, one of the manufacturers of the drug, according to a media report. Hydroxychloroquine, an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria, is seen as a viable therapeutic solution by President Trump to coronavirus that has so far killed more than 10,000 Americans and infected over 3.6 lakh within weeks. On Monday, Trump warned India that the US may retaliate if it did not export hydroxychloroquine despite his personal request, saying he would be surprised if New Delhi did not relent as it has good relations with Washington. If hy...

US Orders First Shutdown of Website over Coronavirus Fraud

23Mar By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

USA

US Orders First Shutdown of Website over Coronavirus Fraud

The US Department of Justice announced that it had shut down a website claiming to sell a coronavirus vaccine, in its first act of federal enforcement against fraud in connection with the pandemic. Lawsuits had been filed against the site coronavirusmedicalkit.com, which claimed to sell vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, when in fact there is no such vaccine, the Justice Department said in a statement. A Texas federal judge on Saturday ordered the site to shut down, according to the statement. Its homepage, however, was still accessible as of Sunday evening. "Due to the recent outbreak for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) the World Health Organization is giving away vaccine kits. Just pay $4.95 for shipping," read a statement on the homepage. It was ...

14Mar By PriyankaNo Comments

USA

Jack Ma offers 1 Million Masks to USA

Chinese billionaire businessman Jack Ma offered the United States 500,000 coronavirus test kits and a million masks, as the country faces a shortage of kits for diagnosing the potentially deadly disease. In a statement on Twitter, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba said, "drawing from my own country's experience, speedy and accurate testing and adequate protective equipment for medical professionals are most effective in preventing the spread of the virus.""We hope that our donation can help Americans fight against the pandemic!" he said in the statement, which was posted by the Jack Ma Foundation.Ma, who is China's richest man, said that over the past weeks, his organizations had helped provide similar supplies to virus-hit countries such as Japan, South Korea, Italy, Iran and Sp...