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[ad_1] A sign hangs outside the Shein warehouse in Whitestown, Indiana, on Nov. 29, 2023. Scott Olson | Getty Images The chair of a powerful House committee is drilling down on Shein's data privacy practices and its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party as the fast-fashion giant moves closer to a U.S. initial public offering .  Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican who leads the House's Committee on Energy and Commerce, sent a letter to Shein on Wednesday asking about the user data it collects and the communications it has had with the Chinese government. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., who chairs the panel's Subcommittee on Innovation, Data and Commerce, co-signed the letter. The lawmakers sent similar missives to TikTok, Temu and Alibaba.  "Media reports indicate that Chinese-owned e-commerce marketplaces are increasingly popular in the western world. This is a serious risk for e-commerce, consumer safety, and people's data privacy and s...

[ad_1] The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2023. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday blocked in full a lower court ruling that would have curbed the Biden administration's ability to communicate with social media companies about contentious content on such issues as Covid-19. The decision in a  short unsigned order  puts on hold a Louisiana-based judge's ruling in July that specific agencies and officials should be barred from meeting with companies to discuss whether certain content should be stifled. The Supreme Court also agreed to immediately take up the government's appeal, meaning it will hear arguments and issue a ruling on the merits in its current term, which runs until the end of June. Three conservative justices noted that they would have denied the application: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. "At this time in the history of our country, what the court has done, I fear, will be seen by so...

[ad_1] KHARTOUM, Sudan - May 6, 2023: Sudanese Army sodliers walk near armoured vehicles stationed on a street in southern Khartoum, amid ongoing fighting against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. AFP via Getty Images One month after fighting between Sudan's two military factions broke out in the capital, Khartoum, internationally-brokered peace talks in Saudi Arabia have yielded no solution. Airstrikes and artillery continued to pound the country's capital and surrounding regions in recent days, and violence has also spread to the long-embattled Darfur region in the west. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Monday that more than 600 people had been killed and over 5,000 injured as a result of the fighting. The real toll is expected to be far higher. Almost a million people have fled their homes, both to locations within Sudan and across the border to neighboring countries . Meanwhile, those who have stayed put often have no access to essentials despite a ...

[ad_1] Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after surrendering at the Fulton County jail on August 24, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. Joe Raedle | Getty Images For  former President Donald Trump , a picture is worth... more than $7 million. Trump's campaign says he has raised $7.1 million since Thursday when he was  booked at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia  on charges that he illegally schemed to  overturn the 2020 election in the state  and became the first former president in U.S. history to ever have  a mug shot taken . Spokesman Steven Cheung said that, on Friday alone, the campaign brought in $4.18 million — its highest-grossing day to date. The record haul underscores how Trump's legal woes have been a fundraising boon for his campaign, even as his political operation  has spent tens of millions  on his defense. The mounting legal charges have also failed to dent Trump's standing in the Republica...

[ad_1] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) walks with China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang (R) ahead of a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on June 18, 2023. Leah Millis | Afp | Getty Images U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing on a high-stakes diplomatic mission to cool U.S.-China tensions that have overshadowed geopolitics in recent months. The trip by Blinken makes him the highest-level American official to visit China since Joe Biden became U.S. president and the first U.S. secretary of state to make the trip in nearly five years. Blinken had "candid, substantive, and constructive talks" with Qin, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in a statement Sunday . He raised concerns as well as "opportunities to explore cooperation," and he emphasized the importance of open communication, according to the statement. "The Secretary made clear that the United States w...

[ad_1] Bristol Myers Squibb on Friday sued the Biden administration over Medicare's new powers to slash drug prices, the third such lawsuit to be filed against the program in a matter of days. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in New Jersey, argues the Medicare negotiations violate the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Bristol Myers Squibb has asked the court to declare the program unconstitutional and prevent the Health and Human Services Department from forcing the company to enter negotiations. The drugmaker's arguments mirror those lodged by Merck last week, which was the first company to sue the federal government over the drug negotiations. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also sued HHS over the program with similar arguments. Bristol Myers Squibb said its blood thinner Eliquis, used to treat clots and strokes, will be subject to the negotiations this year. The company generated $11.8 billion in revenue from Eliquis last year, about 25%...

[ad_1] WASHINGTON — The Biden administration's 2024 budget relies almost entirely on additional revenue created by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and corporations and by letting the Trump-era tax cuts expire. If several of the proposals, like a billionaire minimum tax, sound familiar, it's because they have been part of the president's domestic agenda wish list for years. And while a White House annual budget is always one part wish list and one part plan, Biden's tax hikes are even less realistic now — with a Republican majority in the House — than they were when he first tried to pass them through a Democratic-controlled House and Senate. The plan released Thursday by the Treasury Department in its annual Green Book, calls for an even higher minimum tax this year on the top 0.01% of earners and households worth more than $100 million, up to 25% from 20% last year. Read more on Biden's fiscal year 2024 budget plan: It would also quadruple the stock ...

[ad_1] Hurricane Idalia barreled toward southeastern Georgia after hitting Florida's Gulf Coast with life-threatening storm surges, leaving at least two people dead and hundreds of thousands without power. More than 280,000 people in Florida were without power as of early afternoon, according to PowerOutage.US. At least two people died in weather-related car crashes in Alachua and Pasco counties, police said.  At least 30 of Florida's 67 counties issued some type of evacuation order prior to the storm. People who did not evacuate should shelter in place, according to the state's emergency management agency. Idalia made landfall in the morning as a catastrophic Category 3 storm at Keaton Beach on the Big Bend coast, less than 90 miles southeast of the state capital of Tallahassee. The hurricane has since weakened to a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.  Idalia is expected to weaken further as i...

[ad_1] Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) (C), chair of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, joins Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) (L) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) for a news conference following a GOP caucus meeting at the Republican National Committee offices on Capitol Hill on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images A group of lawmakers will travel to California to meet with tech and media executives, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Disney CEO Bob Iger, to discuss China-related topics, CNBC has confirmed. Nearly a dozen lawmakers representing both parties on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party are set to make the three-day trip, led by Chair Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., a spokesperson for the committee told CNBC. Bloomberg and Axios previously reported details of the trip. The trip highlights how the committee's work could affect the tech and media i...

[ad_1] A GSK lab in London. Oli Scarff | Getty Images The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved an RSV vaccine produced by GlaxoSmithKline for use on adults ages 60 and older. The approval, the first ever globally by a regulatory body for an RSV vaccine , is a decisive victory for GSK in a race against drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna to bring to market a shot that targets the respiratory syncytial virus . Shares of GSK rose nearly 2% Wednesday following the approval. GSK's chief scientific officer Tony Wood said in a statement the decision "marks a turning point" in the company's effort to reduce the "significant burden" of RSV. The company will now focus on ensuring eligible older adults in the U.S. can access the vaccine "as quickly as possible," he said. GSK will also work toward regulatory review and approval of the shot in other countries. London-based GSK during an earnings presentation last week said it has "mil...

[ad_1] Daniel Zhang, chairman and chief executive officer Alibaba Group, said the company's financial year from April 2021 to March 2022 was impacted by the uncertainties around Covid, "new expectations" on China's internet sector and the "high frequency" of international geopolitical conflicts. Wang Zhao | AFP | Getty Images Alibaba Group said on Sunday that Daniel Zhang will step down as chairman and chief executive officer of its cloud business. Zhang had previously been concurrently serving in three roles, heading the group as well as its cloud unit. He handed over the role of the group's CEO to Eddie Wu on Sunday, who will also take charge of the cloud unit after Zhang's departure. [ad_2] Source link https://worldnews2023.com/top-stories/alibaba-says-daniel-zhang-steps-down-from-cloud-business/?feed_id=308249&_unique_id=667f96249b2bd

[ad_1] Bob Iger, chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company, pauses while speaking during an Economic Club of New York event in Midtown Manhattan on October 24, 2019 in New York City. Drew Angerer | Getty Images Disney has abandoned plans to open up a new employee campus in Lake Nona, Florida, amid rising tensions with the state's governor. Citing "changing business conditions" and the return of CEO Bob Iger, Josh D'Amaro, chairman of Disney's parks, experiences and products division, penned a memo to employees Thursday, announcing that the company will not move forward with construction of the campus and will no longer be asking more than 2,000 California-based employees to relocate to Florida. "This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one," D'Amaro told employees. Many Disney employees balked at the company's relocation plans when they were first announced in July 2021 by former CEO Bob Cha...

[ad_1] Eric Adams, mayor of New York, speaks during the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images New York City banned TikTok on government-owned devices Wednesday, pointing to security concerns that have made the app a target of bipartisan scrutiny across the country. Congress already voted to ban TikTok on federal devices last year and several states have taken similar steps. The concern generally stems from TikTok's ownership by China-based tech company ByteDance, since many policymakers fear that structure could make U.S. users' information vulnerable to being accessed by the Chinese government, if forced to hand over information to comply with Chinese law . An NYC City Hall Spokesperson told WNBC in a statement that the ban was a result of the city's Cyber Command's conclusion that TikTok "posed a security threat to the city's technical networks." City agencies h...

[ad_1] A United Auto Workers member on a picket line outside the Ford Motor Co. Michigan Assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Sept. 15, 2023. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Biden administration is no longer sending two key officials to Detroit this week to potentially help broker a deal between striking autoworkers and the Big Three car companies, a White House official told NBC News. President Joe Biden last week said he would dispatch White House senior advisor Gene Sperling and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su to support discussions between the companies and the United Auto Workers union. But the White House and the UAW mutually agreed it would be better to speak virtually via Zoom, the official said Tuesday. Sperling and Su could still go to Detroit next week but there are no firm plans for them to do so, the official added. "We'll continue to assess travel timing based on the active state of negotiations," the White House official said. Biden large...

[ad_1] Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs for his second civil trial after E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her decades ago, outside a Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., January 26, 2024.  Eduardo Munoz | Reuters A federal jury on Friday said that Donald Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in compensatory and punitive damages for defaming her in statements he made as president when the writer said he had raped her in the 1990s. The massive verdict came less than three hours after the nine-member jury began deliberating in U.S. District Court in Manhattan following closing arguments in the trial. Trump was not in court for the verdict's reading at 4:40 p.m. ET. Judge Lewis Kaplan told jurors before their deliberations that they had to accept as facts that Trump "sexually assaulted" Carroll in the mid-1990s and defamed the writer in statements he made as president in 2019. "What remains for you to decide," Kap...

[ad_1] Your Hometown Deli in Paulsboro, N.J. Google Earth A former fugitive wanted on criminal stock manipulation charges related to a money-losing New Jersey deli once valued at $100 million has agreed to be extradited from Thailand to the United States, Thai authorities said. Peter Coker Jr., 54, was arrested last week by Thai police in the resort area of Phuket, more than three months after he, his father, Peter Coker Sr., and an associate, James Patten, were indicted in New Jersey federal court. The 12-count complaint alleges financial crimes related to two publicly traded companies, Hometown International , which owned only a modest, now-closed deli in Paulsboro, New Jersey, and E-Waste , a shell company that had no assets. Coker Jr., an American who most recently was known to be living and working as a businessman in Hong Kong, is being held in a Bangkok jail for the next several weeks before his expected extradition, the Associated Press reported Friday. Thai police, in...