Technology

NEW YORK (AP) — A top executive of Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies resolved criminal charges against her as part of a deal Friday with the U.S. Justice Department that paves the way for her to return to China and concludes a case that roiled relations between Washington and Beijing.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s central bank on Friday declared all transactions involving Bitcoin and other virtual currencies illegal, stepping up a campaign to block use of unofficial digital money.

Friday’s notice complained Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies disrupt the financial system and are used in money-laundering and other crimes.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Department of Defense is taking input on its plan to build an advanced mobile nuclear microreactor prototype at the Idaho National Laboratory in eastern Idaho.

The department began a 45-day comment period on Friday with the release of a draft environmental impact study evaluating alternatives for building and operating the microreactor that could produce 1 to 5 megawatts of power.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley certainly didn’t phone in her speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Friday — but she did have what appeared to be an iPhone in hand while delivering impassioned remarks to fellow world leaders.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A group of Dutch students has reimagined van life and is hitting the road to Portugal. Just don't call their groundbreaking new solar-powered vehicle a campervan.

“We call it a self-sustaining house on wheels," said Lotte van Dasler, part of a team from the Technical University in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven.

LONDON (AP) — The European Union announced plans Thursday to require the smartphone industry to adopt a uniform charging cord for mobile devices, a push that could eliminate the all-too-familiar experience of rummaging through a drawer full of tangled cables to find the right one.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A major U.S. port was the target last month of suspected nation-state hackers, according to officials.

The Port of Houston, a critical piece of infrastructure along the Gulf Coast, issued a statement Thursday saying it had successfully defended against an attempted hack in August and “no operational data or systems were impacted.”

BEIJING (AP) — China’s central bank will soon have access to the private credit information of hundreds of millions of users of Ant Group’s online credit service, in a move signaling more regulatory oversight of the financial technology sector.

U.S. Census Bureau officials said Friday that they were pondering whether to produce less granular data in the next round of 2020 census data, dealing with housing and family relationships, in a decision that could upset researchers, city planners and others who rely on neighborhood-level information.

Luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz is teaming up with Stellantis and TotalEnergies in a European electric vehicle battery joint venture, Automotive Cells Co.

Each will hold a one-third stake in the venture, which will have an investment of more than 7 billion euros ($8.2 billion).

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Shortages of semiconductor chips and other raw materials are continuing to hit Germany's manufacturers, as bottlenecks leave companies struggling to fill orders from a rebounding global economy.

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mixed Friday amid concerns over troubled Chinese real estate developer Evergrande and over the pandemic.

Japan’s benchmark jumped after reopening from Thursday’s national holiday, but shares were little changed in South Korea and China.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. safety investigators are asking anyone who witnessed a fiery Tesla crash last week near Miami that killed two people to send them video or photos taken at the scene.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent three investigators to the Sept.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In what officials call a key step to combat climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency is sharply limiting domestic production and use of hydrofluorocarbons, highly potent greenhouse gases commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Chicago-based aerospace giant Boeing has announced plans to build a new type of drone military aircraft in Australia.

Boeing said Wednesday it has selected Toowoomba city in Queensland state as the final assembly point for its unmanned Loyal Wingman planes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid rose last week for a second straight week to 351,000, a sign that the delta variant of the coronavirus may be disrupting the job market's recovery, at least temporarily.

NEWTON, Mass. (AP) — She was orphaned during Rwanda’s genocide and lost much of one of her legs to childhood cancer, but Claudine Humure has dreams of giving back to her once war-torn homeland.

First, though, she needed a new leg to propel her on the next part of her journey.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California on Wednesday became the first state to bar mega-retailers from firing warehouse workers for missing quotas that interfere with bathroom and rest breaks under a new law signed by Gov.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Former U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis testified Wednesday in the trial of fallen tech star Elizabeth Holmes, saying the entrepreneur misled him into believing she was on the verge of rolling out a blood-testing breakthrough that he hoped would help save lives of troops in battle.

BEIJING (AP) — The ruling Communist Party’s campaign to tighten control over China’s industries and use less foreign technology is slashing economic growth, a foreign business group warned Thursday.

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Fortnite maker Epic Games Inc., said Wednesday it’s been told by Apple that the game will be “blacklisted from the Apple ecosystem” until the companies’ legal case is resolved and all appeals are exhausted, which could take as long as five years.

Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer is stepping down from the social media company, taking on a part-time role while longtime executive Andrew Bosworth will replace him next year.

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Big Tech companies that operate around the globe have long promised to obey local laws and to protect civil rights while doing business. But when Apple and Google capitulated to Russian demands and removed a political-opposition app from their local app stores, it raised worries that two of the world's most successful companies are more comfortable bowing to undemocratic edicts — and maintaining a steady flow of profits — than upholding the rights of their users.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Lithuanian cybersecurity experts are urging the country's government agencies to abandon the use of Chinese smartphone brands after an investigation identified security vulnerabilities and censorship concerns with certain devices.

LONDON (AP) — Netflix has acquired the works of Roald Dahl, the late British author of celebrated children's books such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

The video streaming giant said Wednesday that it acquired the Roald Dahl Story Co., which manages the rights to the author's characters and stories.

BANGKOK (AP) — A U.S.-based private cybersecurity company said Wednesday it has uncovered evidence that an Indian media conglomerate, a police department and the agency responsible for the country's national identification database have been hacked, likely by a state-sponsored Chinese group.

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is investing $50 million in an upstart electric vehicle battery recycling company as the automaker moves to shore up its U.S. battery supply chain.

The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker will invest in Redwood Materials, a Nevada-based company founded by former Tesla executive JB Straubel.

Facebook’s semi-independent oversight board says it will review the company’s “XCheck,” or cross check, system following an investigation by The Wall Street Journal into the use of this internal system that has exempted high-profile users from some or all of its rules.

Asian shares were mostly lower on Wednesday after major indexes ended mixed on Wall Street.

Benchmarks fell in Tokyo, Shanghai and Taiwan but rose in Sydney. Markets in South Korea and Hong Kong were closed for holidays.

MIAMI (AP) — The disappearance and death of Gabby Petito and the police hunt for her boyfriend have generated a whirlwind online, with a multitude of armchair detectives and others sharing tips, possible sightings and theories by way of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration sought Tuesday to choke the finances of criminal ransomware gangs, announcing sanctions against a Russia-based virtual currency brokerage that officials say helped at least eight ransomware gangs launder virtual currency.

A U.S. government committee that reviews foreign investment in telecom is probing videoconferencing company Zoom's $14.7 billion deal for cloud call center company Five9.

LONDON (AP) — The British government agreed Tuesday to support an American-owned firm that produces much of the U.K.'s carbon dioxide, a deal designed to avert shortages of meat, poultry and packaged foods amid a crisis triggered by soaring energy costs.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The top U.S. diplomat in El Salvador said Tuesday she sees “a decline in democracy” the country, where President Nayib Bukele changed his Twitter profile to read “the coolest dictator in the world.”