Things To Do In SW Florida

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google’s accelerating shift into artificial intelligence helped propel its corporate parent to another quarter of solid growth while a crackdown on its internet empire looms in the background.

Related Articles

• 
  Tesla profit plunges in latest quarter as Musk’s turn to politics continues to keep buyers away

• 
  Meta launches new teen safety features, removes 635,000 accounts that sexualize children

• 
  US automakers say Trump’s 15% tariff deal with Japan puts them at a disadvantage

• 
  Hershey raising candy prices by double digits on high cocoa costs

• 
  UK regulator seeks special status for Apple and Google that could mandate changes for Big Tech

The results released Wednesday for the April-June period provided the latest sign that Google is deftly navigating the technological landscape’s tilt toward AI while still capitalizing on well-worn techniques that have made it the internet’s main gateway for the past quarter century. read more

By BERNARD CONDON

NEW YORK (AP) — The fallout from Elon Musk’s plunge into politics a year ago is still hammering his Tesla business as both sales and profits dropped sharply again in the latest quarter.

Related Articles

• 
  Google’s AI push pays off with solid second quarter, but doubts about company’s future persist

• 
  Meta launches new teen safety features, removes 635,000 accounts that sexualize children

• 
  US automakers say Trump’s 15% tariff deal with Japan puts them at a disadvantage

• 
  Hershey raising candy prices by double digits on high cocoa costs

• 
  UK regulator seeks special status for Apple and Google that could mandate changes for Big Tech

The car company that has faced boycotts for months said Wednesday that revenue dropped 12% and profits slumped 16% in the three months through June as buyers continued to stay away.

“The perception of Elon Musk, its chief executive, has rubbed the sheen right out of what once was a darling and soaring automotive brand,” wrote Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee in an email. Tesla is “a toxic brand that is inseparable from its leader.” read more

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, Associated Press

Instagram parent company Meta has introduced new safety features aimed at protecting teens who use its platforms, including information about accounts that message them and an option to block and report accounts with one tap.

The company also announced Wednesday that it has removed thousands of accounts that were leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images from adult-run accounts of kids under 13. Of these, 135,000 were commenting and another 500,000 were linked to accounts that “interacted inappropriately,” Meta said in a blog post.

Related Articles

Today in History: July 24, Apollo 11 returns home from the moon

Post office arson case for Pat Tillman’s brother suspended for competency exam

Flight attendant who police say secretly recorded girls in airplane bathroom sentenced to 18.5 years

Google’s AI push pays off with solid second quarter, but doubts about company’s future persist

Man who killed Idaho firefighters had been turned away by fire department, Army read more

By JOSH BOAK and ALEXA ST. JOHN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. automakers are concerned about President Donald Trump’s agreement to tariff Japanese vehicles at 15%, saying they will face steeper import taxes on steel, aluminum and parts than their competitors.

“We need to review all the details of the agreement, but this is a deal that will charge lower tariffs on Japanese autos with no U.S. content,” said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents the Big 3 American automakers, General Motors, Ford and Jeep-maker Stellantis.

Blunt said in an interview the U.S. companies and workers “definitely are at a disadvantage” because they face a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum and a 25% tariff on parts and finished vehicles, with some exceptions for products covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that went into effect in 2020.

The domestic automaker reaction reveals the challenge of enforcing policies across the world economy, showing that for all of Trump’s promises there can be genuine tradeoffs from policy choices that risk serious blowback in politically important states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, where automaking is both a source of income and of identity. read more

By Kristina Peterson, Bloomberg News

Hershey Co. is raising prices on its candy due to historically high cocoa costs.

The Pennsylvania-based maker of Hershey’s chocolates and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups told its retailers last week that it would be implementing a roughly double-digit price increase, company officials said Tuesday. That increase reflects a higher list price as well as adjustments to the weight and number of candies in a bag, a practice known as shrinkflation.

“This change is not related to tariffs or trade policies,” Andrew Archambault, president of US confection at Hershey, said in a statement. “It reflects the reality of rising ingredient costs including the unprecedented cost of cocoa.”

The company previously announced a price increase a year ago.

Related Articles

Today in History: July 24, Apollo 11 returns home from the moon

Post office arson case for Pat Tillman’s brother suspended for competency exam

Flight attendant who police say secretly recorded girls in airplane bathroom sentenced to 18.5 years read more