Author: ALJAZEERA

Eight of the world’s largest shipping associations have urged the United Nations to oppose tolls in the Strait of Hormuz amid reports that Iran and Oman are nearing a deal to manage the critical waterway.In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez, the group said that allowing authorities to charge vessels to transit the strait would violate international norms and harm the global economy.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list“Introducing compulsory charges for transit, or service fees that are a toll in all but name, through the Strait of Hormuz would represent…

Critics say the 39 percent cap was a safeguard against excessive concentration of media ownership in the US.Published On 6 Aug 20266 Aug 2026The United States Federal Communications Commission has voted to rescind the rule that bars local broadcast station owners from reaching more than 39 percent of the total number of US TV households in a move that could help spark industry consolidation.The FCC on Thursday voted 2-1 to lift the cap in favour of a new case-by-case approach. The commission’s sole Democrat, Anna Gomez, said the proposal was illegal and argued only the US Congress can lift the…

Move comes after the US Supreme Court struck down many of Trump’s sweeping levies in February.Published On 6 Aug 20266 Aug 2026United States President Donald Trump’s administration has refunded about $100bn in tariffs since the nation’s top court ruled against its use of emergency powers to impose duties on dozens of trade partners, according to customs officials.The Trump administration collected about $166bn from US importers before the US Supreme Court struck down a large portion of the president’s tariff regime in a 6-3 ruling in February.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listIn a court filing on Tuesday, the US…

The United States and Japan last week staged a coordinated intervention to halt the slide of the yen after the Japanese currency fell to a 40-year low against the US dollar.While it is unusual for authorities to intervene to help prop up another country’s currency, the yen has an important role in international finance as the world’s third-most-traded currency, meaning its depreciation has repercussions far beyond Japan.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listHere is everything you need to know about the currency intervention:What is a currency intervention and how did the US and Japan coordinate?A currency intervention occurs when…

Defence giants Lockheed and Northrop see billion-dollar deals as Pentagon accelerates missile arsenal productionPublished On 3 Aug 20263 Aug 2026The United States Department of Defense penned a new deal with defence giants Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman in an effort to ramp up production capacity for parts used in missile defence systems.The deal, which will impact the Patriot PAC-3 and THAAD missile interceptor systems, was announced on Monday.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list“Building the Arsenal of Freedom requires robust, dynamic supply chains at every level of the industrial base,” said Michael P. Duffey, Undersecretary of War for Acquisition…

The announcement by United States President Donald Trump that Morocco had named an important highway after him came as a surprise to many, not least because Rabat itself has remained silent.In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump thanked Morocco’s monarch, King Mohammed VI, and said he looked forward to travelling on the “Great Highway one day”.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listIf confirmed, however, experts say the gesture would be far from surprising. Morocco and the US have long enjoyed close ties, and both of Trump’s administrations were particularly beneficial for Rabat.Morocco was one of…

The incidents have heightened concerns about AI agents, software products designed to perform tasks autonomously.Published On 31 Jul 202631 Jul 2026Anthropic has said its Claude AI model hacked into the systems of three organisations during testing that was supposed to keep them isolated from the internet.The announcement on Thursday comes just days after rival OpenAI first revealed that its models improperly accessed the internet and went rogue during security testing.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listAnthropic said a misconfiguration allowed Claude models to reach the internet. The company said it discovered the incidents after reviewing 141,006 test sessions.The review…

Published On 31 Jul 202631 Jul 2026New York officials have sued prediction market platform Kalshi, calling it an “illegal, unlicensed gambling operation” as the state seeks to halt its operations and force the company to forfeit its profits.With its lawsuit on Friday, New York joins a growing number of states filing cases against Kalshi and other companies in a dispute with United States President Donald Trump’s administration over who regulates the fast-growing prediction market. Kalshi and other platforms argue they are federally licensed and regulated, and states have no authority to govern them.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listIn…

By Reuters and The Associated PressPublished On 30 Jul 202630 Jul 2026Zoox, Amazon’s brand of autonomous vehicles, has won approval in the United States for limited commercial deployment of its steering-wheel-free robotaxis, a first for the autonomous transportation industry.On Thursday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave its approval for Zoox to begin charging customers for rides, once it secures state and local approval.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listAs part of that approval, the company was granted an exemption from federal rules that require human controls on motor vehicles.NHTSA administrator Jonathan Morrison told the Reuters news agency that…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has met with US senators to discuss his company’s upcoming models, as President Donald Trump said he is considering AI “controls” following OpenAI’s disclosure that one of its AI systems escaped containment during a security test.“We’re looking at controls,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in response to a question about OpenAI’s rogue agent, adding that he did not want to “restrict” AI developers from building new products.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listA rogue agent escaped the handling of ChatGPT maker OpenAI and hacked the AI firm Hugging Face last week. Then, on Tuesday,…