Author: rpnadmin

BRUSSELS — The European Union on Thursday hit Google with a fine of $1 billion after it said the technology behemoth broke digital antitrust regulations by setting up Google Play and its ubiquitous search engine to corral consumers towards its own services and apps to the detriment of competitors. It was the latest major crackdown on Big Tech by Brussels, which has led the world in reining in some of the world’s largest companies from Silicon Valley to Beijing. Google had recently lost its appeal of a $4.5 billion antitrust fine imposed by the EU for throttling competition and reducing…

A Memphis pizza restaurant that drew national backlash after refusing to serve National Guard members says the boycott effort has backfired, with supporters packing the restaurant nightly in what locals are calling a “buy-cott.” Miles Tamboli, owner of Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza in the city’s Midtown neighborhood, turned away four uniformed members of the Memphis Safe Task Force on July 11, citing his opposition to the federally led initiative’s presence in the city. Mr. Tamboli has argued that using National Guard troops in support of local law enforcement has made Memphis less safe rather than more secure, a position he…

The number of gig workers relying on federal assistance programs for the poor while driving for ride-sharing and delivery services has soared, the Government Accountability Office found in a report published Wednesday. The federal auditing agency estimated that the number of Amazon employees enrolled in Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program nearly tripled from February 2020 to September 2025 in 11 states that reported their numbers. It also found that Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Grubhub and Instacart collectively replaced Walmart – the nation’s biggest employer – as the company with the most recipients of SNAP food subsidies. Amazon, the nation’s…

WASHINGTON — R. James Woolsey, a national security expert who led the CIA for two turbulent years after his appointment by President Bill Clinton, has died. He was 84. Woolsey, who became CIA director in early 1993, died Tuesday at his home in Washington, according to several newspapers. His wife, Conchita Sarnoff Woolsey, told the newspapers that he died from a stroke. She told The Washington Post that his health had declined in recent years due to “Havana syndrome,” a mysterious condition that’s been reported by some U.S. diplomats and other government personnel. Symptoms that include headaches, balance problems and…

WASHINGTON — One Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has been referred for discipline over a use of force incident since the beginning of the Trump administration, said Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Committee after a briefing with ICE officials Wednesday about body cameras, vehicle stops and training. The closed-door briefing for committee members comes in the wake of two shootings in which ICE officers shot and killed two immigrants that they were trying to arrest, raising concerns over the agency’s tactics at a time that it is ratcheting up its arrests. The shootings in Maine and Houston over…

HOUSTON — The immigration officer who shot and killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston was not in danger of being run over, two passengers in his van told a federal court this week. The Department of Homeland Security said shortly after the July 7 shooting that Salgado Araujo had “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,” and that the officer had fired in self-defense. But two men who were riding with Salgado Araujo wrote in statements submitted in court that the officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement were to the sides of…

MADISON, Wis. — A Madison police officer shot and killed a man who had injured him with a knife while resisting arrest, the city’s police chief said Wednesday. Cellphone video of the shooting circulated on social media shortly after the incident. Three gunshots can be heard on the cellphone video. Madison Police Chief John Patterson stressed at a news conference that the footage circulating was just one perspective of what happened. “I want to take a moment to honestly and sincerely offer my heartfelt sympathies to his family for this loss,” Patterson said. The dead man was in his 30s,…

Tropical Storm Bertha crawled onto the southern tip of Louisiana on Wednesday, making landfall and packing strong winds far from its center after closing beaches from the Florida Panhandle to Mississippi. The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said Bertha made landfall in St. Bernard Parish, about 40 miles east of New Orleans and 45 miles southwest of Biloxi, Mississippi. Damaging wind and storm surge are the main threats for the Deep South states. A tropical storm warning along the Gulf Coast includes New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain, the National Hurricane Center said. Tropical storm force winds extend over 100 miles out…

DETROIT — Winter Storm Uri, the multiday freeze that slammed Texas in February 2021 and pummeled the state’s power grid, has been on Kenneth Kovar’s mind ever since. Though the resident of New Braunfels, northeast of San Antonio, didn’t lose power at the time, he wasn’t able to run his septic tank – it is independent from local systems. He had to fill his toilets with water from his backyard pool. So when Kovar, 64, bought a Ford F-150 last fall, his hope was to be better prepared for any new crisis. “I was interested in trying to find some…

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is planning to put screen doors along platforms at Metrorail stations on the Red Line. The doors will stand 5 feet, 6 inches, Metro said in a report to be presented at its Thursday board meeting. Installing the doors will require the removal of existing granite platform edges and the round lights embedded in them. In their place will be concrete edges capable of supporting the doors and screens across the length of the platforms, per the report. Metro is moving forward with the screen door plan due to the number of people who…