A history of the Panama Canal — and why Trump can’t take it back on his own
By WILL WEISSERT, JUAN ZAMORANO and GARY FIELDS
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Teddy Roosevelt once declared the Panama Canal “one of the feats to which the people of this republic will look back with the highest pride.” More than a century later, Donald Trump is threatening to take back the waterway for the same republic.
A million taxpayers will soon receive up to $1,400 from the IRS. Who are they and why now?
By SUSAN HAIGH, Associated Press
Approximately 1 million taxpayers will automatically receive special payments of up to $1,400 from the IRS in the coming weeks. The money will be directly deposited into eligible people’s bank accounts or sent in the mail by a paper check.
The IRS said it’s distributing about $2.4 billion to taxpayers who failed to claim a Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2021 tax returns. People who missed one of the COVID stimulus payments or had received less than the full amount were able to claim the credit. But the IRS on Friday said it discovered many eligible taxpayers hadn’t done so.
“Looking at our internal data, we realized that one million taxpayers overlooked claiming this complex credit when they were actually eligible,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement.
Here’s more about the unexpected cash this group of taxpayers will soon receive:
What’s the likelihood I’ll receive a check?
Sorry, it’s probably pretty low. The IRS said most taxpayers eligible for the federal stimulus payments, formally known as Economic Impact Payments, have already received them.
Bluesky finds with growth comes growing pains — and bots
By ALI SWENSON and BARARA ORTUTAY
Bluesky has seen its user base soar since the U.S. presidential election, boosted by people seeking refuge from Elon Musk’s X, which they view as increasingly leaning too far to the right given its owner’s support of President-elect Donald Trump, or wanting an alternative to Meta’s Threads and its algorithms.
The internet is rife with fake reviews. Will AI make it worse?
By HALELUYA HADERO
The emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools that allow people to efficiently produce novel and detailed online reviews with almost no work has put merchants, service providers and consumers in uncharted territory, watchdog groups and researchers say.
An analyst looks ahead to how the US economy might fare under Trump
By PAUL WISEMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump won a return to the White House in part by promising big changes in economic policy — more tax cuts, huge tariffs on imports, mass deportations of immigrants working in the United States illegally.