WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department and China‘s Ministry of Finance launched a pair of economic working groups on Friday in an effort to ease tensions and deepen ties between the nations. Led by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Vice Premier He Lifeng, the working groups will be divided into economic and financial segments. The working groups will “establish a durable channel of communication between…

Wall Street’s worst week in six months closed on another weak note ByThe Associated Press September 22, 2023, 4:18 PM Wall Street’s worst week in six months closed on another weak note. The S&P 500 gave up an early gain and ended 0.2% lower Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 106 points, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%. Stocks slid this week because of…

MILAN — MILAN (AP) — Sabato De Sarno wants people to fall in love anew with Gucci — his Gucci — calling his debut collection “Gucci Ancora,” Italian for “Gucci Again.” The title is a touching admission of the challenges facing Gucci’s new creative director, who joined the fashion powerhouse this summer from Valentino, where he worked for 14 years after stints at Prada and…

For Lachlan Murdoch, this moment has been a long time coming. Assuming, of course, that his moment has actually arrived. On Thursday, his father Rupert Murdoch announced that in November he’ll step down as the head of his two media companies: News Corp. and Fox Corp. Lachlan will become the chair of News Corp. while remaining chief executive and chair at Fox Corp., the parent…

WASHINGTON — Congress has averted for now a threatened government shutdown that would have disrupted many services, squeezed federal employees and roiled politics. The threat was set aside late Saturday after Congress voted to keep agencies open until Nov. 17. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., dropped demands for steep spending cuts and relied on Democratic votes for House passage, before the Senate easily approved the measure…

Even after escalating its strike against Detroit automakers on Friday, the United Auto Workers union still has plenty of leverage in its effort to force the companies to agree to significant increases in pay and benefits. Only about 12% of the union’s membership is so far taking part in the walkout. The UAW could, if it chose to, vastly expand the number of workers who…

BOSTON — A leading Egyptian opposition politician was targeted with spyware multiple times after announcing a presidential bid — including with malware that automatically infects smartphones, security researchers have found. They say Egyptian authorities were likely behind the attempted hacks. Discovery of the malware last week by researchers at Citizen Lab and Google’s Threat Analysis Group prompted Apple to rush out operating system updates for…

LOS ANGELES — A Hollywood strike of nearly five months appears about to end as a tentative deal has been reached between unionized screenwriters and the studios, streaming services and production companies that hire them. Here’s a look at the steps to come for writers, and for the actors whose strike continues. After five days of marathon negotiating sessions that included the CEOs of Hollywood’s…

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine on Saturday morning launched another missile attack on Sevastopol on the occupied Crimean Peninsula, a Russian-installed official said, a day after an attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet that left a serviceman missing and the main building smoldering. Sevastopol was put under an air raid alert for about an hour after debris from intercepted missiles fell near a…

UNITED NATIONS — Artificial intelligence, and how and whether to regulate it, has gotten a lot of discussion in and around this year’s U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders. With a U.N. advisory group on AI set to convene this fall, the world organization’s top tech-policy official, Amandeep Gill, sat down with The Associated Press to talk about the hopes, concerns and questions surrounding…