SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — She is probably the most loathed 20-year-old in South Korea, the privileged daughter of the woman at the center of a corruption scandal that brought down a president.
By David Ingram RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday she suspects President Donald Trump's campaign gave guidance to Russian government propaganda efforts during last year's U.S. presidential campaign, leveling her most serious charge yet against the person who defeated her. The former Democratic presidential candidate, appearing at a tech conference near Los Angeles, said propaganda spread on sites such as Facebook helped cost her the election, and she urged Silicon Valley firms to move faster to stop false stories. Trump has said that there was no collusion between his campaign and Russia.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The developer of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, which is expected to begin shipping oil on Thursday, will face scrutiny later this summer on whether it violated North Dakota rules during construction.
With WWDC just around the corner, we're just a few days away from Apple unveiling iOS 11 along with new versions of macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. While WWDC is typically a software-only affair, rumor has it that Apple at WWDC this year will have a slew of hardware announcements. In addition to a brand new edgeless 10.5-inch iPad and a refreshed MacBook line, there are rumblings that Apple will introduce a Siri-based speaker next week at WWDC.
According to reports which surfaced over the past few weeks, Apple's Siri-based speaker will compete with Google Home and Amazon's Echo. Feature wise, the product will reportedly incorporate Beats audio technology and will offer users a premium acoustic experience.
As for how Apple's offering might differ from existing smart speakers already on the market, there are rumblings that the device will feature a touchscreen, a design that Apple executive Phil Schiller arguably confirmed just earlier this month during an interview.
"So there’s many moments where a voice assistant is really beneficial, but that doesn’t mean you’d never want a screen," Schiller said a few weeks back. "So the idea of not having a screen, I don’t think suits many situations."
Additionally, a new Bloomberg report sheds some more light on how Apple may carve out space for itself in a market currently dominated by Google and Amazon. Specifically, the report relays that Apple's Siri speaker will feature virtual surround sound technology and will be tightly integrated with the entirety of Apple's ecosystem.
Apple hopes that more advanced acoustics technology will give the speaker an edge over competitors, according to people with knowledge of the product’s development. Along with generating virtual surround sound, the speakers being tested are louder and reproduce sound more crisply than rival offerings, the people said. Apple has also considered including sensors that measure a room’s acoustics and automatically adjust audio levels during use, one of the people said.
This is all very intriguing, but it remains to be seen if the acoustic features Apple might deliver will prove to be enough of a draw for users who might reasonably prioritize functionality over premium acoustics. In other words, a top of the line acoustic experience might be an altogether moot point if Siri performance can't keep pace with what Amazon and Google are able to deliver. The upside, though, is that a Siri speaker will be able to incorporate larger and more advanced microphones which should help processing. What's more, there are rumors that Apple at WWDC this year will introduce an enhanced version of Siri.
On a related note, Apple is supposedly working on its own neural network that will reportedly help bolster Siri's artificial intelligence capabilities significantly. With WWDC set to kick off this coming Monday, we won't have to wait too much longer to find out.
Saint-Nazaire (France) (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that his government would seek to renegotiate the sale of the STX France shipyard to Italy's Fincantieri, in order to "guarantee job preservation" at the site. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire will negotiate "a new shareholding structure" for the sale "in the coming weeks", Macron said during a visit to the Saint-Nazaire shipyard, the last gem in France's once-thriving shipbuilding industry.
The death toll from mudslides and floods in Sri Lanka has climbed past 200, with 96 others missing, the government said Wednesday. The Disaster Management Center said 203 people were confirmed dead. More than 77,000 have been displaced and over 1,500 homes destroyed since rains began inundating the southern and western areas of the Indian Ocean island nation last Friday.
Alerted by authorities in Pennsylvania, officers of the Metropolitan Police Department detained a man from the state, identified as Brian Moles, 43, at around 1 am at the hotel a short distance from the White House. In his car, they recovered an AR-15 semi-automatic assault style rifle, a handgun and ammunition, police chief Peter Newsham told a news conference. "The officers and our federal partners… averted a potential disaster in the nation's capital," Newsham said.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Populist leader Aleksandar Vucic was sworn in as Serbia's president on Wednesday, pledging to work for peace and stability in the war-weary Balkans while strengthening the country's armed forces.
The Student Loan Ranger receives many questions from readers. On occasion, we like to share some queries that other borrowers are likely to relate to .
Emirates, the Middle East's largest airline, faced fierce criticism in Taiwan Wednesday after it reportedly banned cabin crew from wearing the island's flag on their uniforms due to pressure from China. Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had lodged protests with Emirates in both Dubai and Taipei. The airline's cabin crew traditionally wear the flag pin of their own country on their uniforms.
Deadly Cyclone Mora continues on her path of destruction, battering cities across Bangladesh and India, as Sri Lanka works to recover from her might.Samantha Vadas reports.
A major car bomb blast near the German Embassy in Kabul kills several people and damages houses hundreds of metres away. No reporter narration.
The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation on a New Jersey city's rejection of a planned mosque, a spokesman confirmed on Tuesday. The U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey, in conjunction with members of the department's civil rights headquarters in Washington, D.C., is examining whether officials in Bayonne, New Jersey, properly denied plans to build a mosque, according to Matthew Reilly, a spokesman for the New Jersey office. The Bayonne Muslims, the group seeking to construct the mosque, filed a federal lawsuit against the city last week.
MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — A man punched his girlfriend as she was driving a van carrying him and her four children along an Indiana highway, causing a single-vehicle crash that killed her 6-year-old daughter, police said.
The Philippine Army battles Islamic State-linked Maute group leaving many displaced.
White House Communications Director Mike Dubke has resigned. Axios, which first reported the news, said he handed in his resignation May 18 but offered to stay through President Trump’s first foreign trip to ensure a smooth transition. In a letter to friends and associates, Dubke cited personal reasons for leaving.
Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric breaks down the impact of automation on the American workforce and how the country is adjusting for the future.
"[It] should be entirely dependent on the needs of the client," says Jeremy Shipp, managing partner of O'Dell, Winkfield, Roseman and Ships in Richmond, Virginia. A commission or percentage fee-based advisor is like having your advisor on retainer, and this can be beneficial for clients who want 24-7 access, says Paul Murray, president of PTM Wealth Management in Chalfont, Pennsylvania. "Most clients pay me in this manner and they can freely engage me on any issue or topic without being nickel and dimed by hourly fees.
German carmaker Opel on Tuesday pushed back the first step in its takeover by France's Peugeot, after workers raised hurdles over the future of a prized research centre. Workers have blocked the firm's legal reorganisation, a vital first step in the merger process, local newspaper the Allgemeine Zeitung reported citing sources inside the firm. A source close to the employee representatives told AFP that there were still questions to be negotiated between workers and managers at Opel and American parent company General Motors, while adding that the talks were not confrontational.
The White House counselor dismissed concerns over reports that President Trump’s son-in-law had proposed a secret back channel between Russia and the Trump transition team during a December meeting with the Russian ambassador.
Yoshie Oka, the first person to raise the alarm outside Hiroshima that the Japanese city had been hit by an atomic bomb, has died aged 86, media and acquaintances said Tuesday. Oka was 14 years old on August 6, 1945 and working in Hiroshima as a communications operator at an underground command centre of the Imperial Japanese Army. After the bomb fell, she contacted another military unit in the city of Fukuyama east of Hiroshima, local media including public broadcaster NHK reported.
Two leading Venezuelan opposition figures were wounded in anti-government protests Monday, as demonstrators vowed to intensify pressure on President Nicolas Maduro and against his plans to hold a constitutional assembly. Henrique Capriles, a former opposition presidential candidate, said he and his team were beaten by National Guard troops as they left a rally that had been broken up by tear gas. Separately, lawmaker Carlos Paparoni was wounded when he was struck on the head by a tear gas canister.
Tensions between Republicans and Democrats boiled over on the floor of the Texas Legislature on Monday as protesters filled the gallery on the last day of the session to denounce a new law cracking down on cities giving sanctuary to illegal immigrants. With the state House of Representatives in Austin preparing to adjourn, a bystander's video showed one lawmaker appearing to shove a colleague as about a dozen others rushed together in an angry clutch before tempers cooled and the two sides separated. Afterward, one of the legislators at the center of the confrontation said in a statement on Facebook that he was physically assaulted by a Democratic colleague while a second Democrat threatened his life.
Japanese household spending dropped again in April, official figures showed Tuesday, as consumers kept a tight hold on their purse strings despite years of government efforts to boost spending. The fresh data attests to what analysts believe is a broader picture of the world's third largest economy -- it is picking up steam overall but tepid consumption continues to act as a drag. Japan's prospects have been improving on the back of strong exports, with investments linked to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics also giving the economy a shot in the arm.
North Korea confirmed its test-firing of a precision-guided ballistic missile was "successful", the state-run news agency KCNA reported Tuesday, a day after the projectile landed in waters provocatively close to Japan. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un supervised the launch of the "new-type precision guided ballistic rocket" -- the third missile test by the nuclear-armed regime in less than three weeks and carried out in defiance of UN sanctions warnings and US threats of possible military action. South Korea's military earlier said the Scud-type missile travelled eastward for 450 km (280 miles).
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel for joint cabinet talks in Berlin Tuesday as the Asian population giant and Europe's top economy seek to deepen ties. Merkel has long cultivated strategic relations with the world's biggest democracy and rival Asian power to China, whose Prime Minister Li Keqiang will also visit Berlin this week. Merkel often stresses that Germany and the European Union must compete with the new emerging economic giants, and on Sunday she said that Germany can no longer completely depend on traditional allies the United States and Britain in the age of President Donald Trump and Brexit.
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Russian Vladimir Putin to Versailles and then blasted Russian media for meddling in the French elections. Colette Luke reports.
With Tesla's final Model 3 reveal set to take place sometime in July, we won't have to wait long to see what the final version of Tesla's highly-anticipated mass market EV is going to look like. In the interim, Tesla a few days ago released an updated product sheet comparing the Model 3's specs to the Model S. In doing so, we were able to glean a treasure trove of information about what the Model 3 will bring to the table. For example, we learned that the Model 3 won't be anywhere close to as fast as the Model S, hardly a surprise given the car's $35,000 price tag. Specifically, the Model 3 will feature a 0-60 MPH time of 5.6 seconds. As far as range is concerned, the entry-level Model 3 will be able to go 215 miles on a single charge.
Amid a slew of other details, one of the more interesting data points from Tesla's product sheet relayed that the Model 3 will be a lot less customizable than the Model S. Whereas the Model S is currently available in more than 1500 different configurations, the Model 3 will have fewer than 100 configuration options available. While this may disappoint some prospective buyers, it's actually an incredibly smart move on Tesla's part. Remember, Tesla has a bad habit of missing production deadlines. That said, anything Tesla can do to help streamline the production process is a step in the right direction. Historically, Tesla has shot itself in the foot by being overly ambitious with a new release, with the delays and technical problems surrounding the Model X launch being a prime example.
Having said that, it's not as if the Model 3 will come in a one-size-fits-all type of package. On the contrary, some intriguing configuration options will exist. To this point, Tesla recently updated its product sheet with a few examples of premium features Model 3 buyers will be able to purchase.
That updated list now reads:
Full Self-Driving Capability
Aluminum and Steel Body
Coil Suspension
Optional Glass Roof
18″ or 19″ Wheels
As a point of comparison, some of the Model S features that will not be available on the Model 3 include a HEPA Filtration System, Smart Air Suspension, a panoramic sunroof, auto-presenting door handles, and 21-inch performance wheels.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Latest on a protest at the Texas state Capitol over a new law that compels local police to enforce federal immigration law (all times local):
