San Francisco Financial News

Some California farming communities have been plagued for years by problems with their drinking water due to nitrates and other contaminants in the groundwater that feeds their wells

Baltimore Ravens are the sole team in the American Football Conference (AFC) to have secured their playoff spot after Week 15. In the AFC race, everything remains up for grabs, with quarterback injuries introducing an element of uncertainty. The Miami Dolphins currently hold the second position in the conference, while the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, are situated third in the AFC standings.

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) — A local court in El Salvador has ordered the arrest of former President Alfredo Cristiani for the alleged cover-up of the 1981 El Mozote massacre during the Central American country's civil war that lasted twelve years.

OpenAI is in early talks to raise a fresh round of funding at a valuation at or above $100 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The terms, valuation and timing of the funding round have not yet been finalised and could still change, the report said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke Tuesday alongside FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker in Arlington, Virginia.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned his US counterpart Joe Biden that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided, NBC News reported. NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC.

UK have initiated the first phase of trials for a revolutionary non-hormonal male birth control pill. YCT-529: A hormone-free innovation

Google will pay a penalty of $700 million and rework its Android Play Store policy to settle an antitrust lawsuit in the United States. While the deal was finalised in September, the final terms of the settlement were revealed on December 19, when documents were filed in San Francisco federal court.

Google has agreed to pay $700 million and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store — the same issue that went to trial in another case that could result in even bigger changes

Alphabet Inc. will pay $700 million and alter its Google Play policies to settle claims that the app store unlawfully dominates the Android mobile applications market, resolving antitrust complaints brought by attorneys general of about three dozen states and consumers. The deal, disclosed in a court filing late Monday, calls for changes to Play Store policies to reduce barriers to competition in the markets for app distribution and payment processing.

Portland resident Damian Bunting provides insight on the citys crisis on The Bottom Line.

Marvel Studios has severed ties with actor Jonathan Majors following his conviction on Monday for assaulting and harassing his former girlfriend, a source familiar with the situation revealed. Majors, anticipated to lead the next phase of Marvel Cinematic Universe as the supervillain Kang the Conquerer, had portrayed the character in two prior Marvel projects. His role in «Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,» scheduled for 2026, was also confirmed.

(Reuters) — U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Tuesday, building on strong gains in recent weeks as investors continued to bet on a policy pivot by the Federal Reserve next year.

The European Union has made Elon Musk’s online platform X the first tech company to face an investigation under Europe’s tough new regulations designed to clean up social media and protect people from toxic online content

Oak casks, once used to store bourbon and wine, are stacking up in a distillery near New Delhi, filled with ageing whisky as workers churn out almost 10,000 bottles a day of Indian single malt Indri, recently named the world's best whisky. Sugarcane and mustard fields, not peat bogs, ring the distillery, where the two-year-old Indian brand's owner Piccadily is ramping up production and building a three-hole golf course to lure connoisseurs and tipplers in the whisky-loving nation. As India comes into its own as a maker, not just consumer, of whisky, its single malts are reshaping the country's $33 billion spirits market. Established global brands such as Glenlivet, made by France's Pernod Ricard, and Talisker by Britain's Diageo fight for shelf space with local rivals Indri, Amrut and Radico Khaitan's Rampur. Unlike many Asian countries where beer dominates alcohol sales, India is predominantly a whisky-drinking nation. Global awards, increased affluence and a mass of drinkers trying new brands while cooped up during COVID-19 have rocked India's whisky landscape, industry executives and analysts say. Aditya Prakash Rao for years drank foreign brands but now increasingly buys Indian malts for himself and for gifts during festive seasons.

Short-term rental platform Airbnb has agreed to pay 576 million euros ($621 million) to settle a years-long dispute over unpaid taxes in Italy but won’t try to recover the money from its hosts

California energy regulators have voted to allow the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant to operate for an additional five years, despite calls from environmental groups to shut it down

Elon Musk must testify again for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's probe of his $44 billion Twitter takeover, handing the SEC a victory in its latest skirmish with the world's richest person. During a hearing in San Francisco, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler quickly rejected arguments by Musk's attorney that SEC officials do not have the authority to issue subpoenas, saying the agency has broad investigative powers and that no judge would «second guess» an SEC probe.

Yellen said former President Donald Trump's policies toward China left America «more vulnerable and more isolated» in the global economy, a rare jab by her at the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Yellen, at a US-China Business Council event Thursday night, said the Trump administration «failed to make investments at home in critical areas like infrastructure and advanced technology, while also neglecting relationships with our partners and allies that had been forged and strengthened over decades.» Her comments come as the US rebuilds its relationship with the Asian superpower, including a November meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco. The two nations agreed to curb the production of illicit fentanyl, a deadly component of drugs sold in the United States, and agreed to resume military-to-military communications.

General Motors’ troubled Cruise autonomous vehicle unit is cutting over 900 jobs as it moves to reduce costs and remake itself after a series of safety problems in San Francisco

NewEdge Capital Group says that 2023 has been a record-breaking year for growth, with advisors managing $9.6 billion in client assets joining its growing footprint.