Latest Technology News
Holiday shoppers increased spending by 3.8% despite higher prices
Sales rose this year during the holiday shopping season even as Americans wrestled with elevated prices for many groceries and other necessities, according to new data. Holiday sales from the beginning of November through Christmas Eve climbed 3.8%, outpacing the 3.1% increase from a...
How the stock market defied expectations again this year, by the numbers
NEW YORK (AP) — What a wonderful year 2024 has been for investors. U.S. stocks ripped higher and carried the S&P 500 to records as the economy kept growing and the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates. The year featured many familiar winners, such as Big...
AI is a game changer for students with disabilities. Schools are still learning to harness it
For Makenzie Gilkison, spelling is such a struggle that a word like rhinoceros might come out as “rineanswsaurs” or sarcastic as “srkastik.” The 14-year-old from suburban Indianapolis can sound out words, but her dyslexia makes the process so draining that she often...
Five facts about electric vehicles in 2024
DETROIT (AP) — Electric vehicles had another whirlwind year around the globe, driven by buyers in China, and growth in parts of Europe and the United States, despite headwinds. In a milestone for China, the world's biggest auto market, EVs hit 50% of new car sales in July. That...
Japan Airlines was hit by a cyberattack, delaying flights during the year-end holiday season
TOKYO (AP) — Japan Airlines said it was hit by a cyberattack Thursday, causing delays to more than 20 domestic flights but the carrier said it was able to stop the onslaught and restore its systems hours later. There was no impact on flight safety, it said. JAL said the problem...
Undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia hit by outage, prompting investigation
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A power cable linking Finland and Estonia under the Baltic Sea suffered an outage, prompting an investigation, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said Wednesday. Writing on X, Orpo said that power transmission through the Estlink-2 cable stopped...
Iran restores access to WhatsApp and Google Play after they were banned amid protests
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's government on Tuesday said it had lifted a ban on access to WhatsApp and Google Play after more than two years, the official IRNA news agency reported. The report said the country’s Supreme Council of Cyber Space made the decision in a meeting led by...
Japanese atomic bomb survivors say Nobel Peace Prize gives fresh impetus to disarmament push
TOKYO (AP) — Survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki said receiving a Nobel Peace Prize has given them a fresh incentive to campaign for nuclear disarmament ahead of the 80th anniversary of the 1945 attacks. “I felt like I needed to work even harder on...
Movie Review: Nicole Kidman commands the erotic office drama 'Babygirl'
The demands of achieving both one-day shipping and a satisfying orgasm collide in Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl,” a kinky and darkly comic erotic thriller about sex in the Amazon era. Nicole Kidman stars as Romy Mathis, the chief executive of Tensile, a robotics business that...
As TikTok bill steams forward, online influencers put on their lobbying hats to visit Washington
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers, meet your latest lobbyists: online influencers from TikTok. The platform is once again bringing influencers to Washington, this time to lobby members of Congress to reject a fast-moving bill that would force TikTok's Beijing-based parent company to sell...
