Air-taxi startup Beta Technologies debuted its new aircraft Friday with a dramatic helicopter airlift of the sleek white model across Lake Champlain from Burlington, Vermont, to Plattsburgh, New York. Code-named Alia, the electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) airplane is the successor to Ava, a smaller prototype the company used to experiment with […]
A Bill in Congress Would Limit Uses of Facial Recognition
This week IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft all said they would halt sales of facial recognition to US police and called on Congress to impose rules on use of the technology. A police reform bill introduced in the House of Representatives Monday by prominent Democrats in response to weeks of protest […]
Mexico sheds 344,500 formal jobs in May to push coronavirus losses above 1 million
EconomyJun 12, 2020 03:15PM ET (C) Reuters. People walk past a building undergoing construction in Mexico City By Sharay Angulo and Alberto Fajardo MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s economy shed 344,526 formal jobs in May because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, pushing the number of lost jobs in the last […]
Deepfakes Aren’t Very Good. Nor Are the Tools to Detect Them
We’re lucky that deepfake videos aren’t a big problem yet. The best deepfake detector to emerge from a major Facebook-led effort to combat the altered videos would only catch about two-thirds of them. In September, as speculation about the danger of deepfakes grew, Facebook challenged artificial intelligence wizards to develop […]
The Covid-19 Economic Slump Is Closing Down Coal Plants
Although small, one analyst thinks the Minnesota battery experiment could be an energy game-changer. “It’s one speculative option,” says Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, who studies the transition to zero-carbon energy. “It could totally fail, but it’s one example of a utility making […]
U.S. consumer confidence rises; COVID-19, unemployment shadow lingers
2/2 (C) Reuters. Retail shops in Brooklyn as phase one reopening continues duing outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York 2/2 By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer sentiment perked up in early June as households cheered the reopening of businesses and a surprise rebound in hiring, […]
Argentine bonds edge higher as market waits on sweetened debt offer
Economic Indicators4 hours ago (Jun 12, 2020 11:50AM ET) (C) Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Argentine one hundred peso bills are displayed in this picture illustration BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina over-the-counter bonds edged higher on Friday as markets watched for signs of an expected sweetened offer from the government to restructure […]
Italy GDP may shrink slightly more than 8% in 2020, says economy minister
Economic Indicators5 hours ago (Jun 12, 2020 11:15AM ET) 2/2 (C) Reuters. Italian PM Giuseppe Conte hosts French President Emmanuel Macron for a one day Italo-Franco summit in Naples 2/2 ROME (Reuters) – Italian Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said on Friday that the country’s economic contraction this year may be […]
Cuba cancels economic fair as imports plummet
Economic Indicators5 hours ago (Jun 12, 2020 10:45AM ET) (C) Reuters. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Havana By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) – Cash-strapped Cuba has canceled its annual international trade and investment fair slated for November due to the pandemic, state-run media reported on Friday, even as fallout from […]
Petroleum, food boost U.S. import prices in May
2/2 (C) Reuters. Retail shops in Brooklyn as phase one reopening continues duing outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York 2/2 By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer sentiment perked up in early June as households cheered the reopening of businesses and a surprise rebound in hiring, […]