Author: arthursheikin@gmail.com

CNN  —  The American penny isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The US Treasury Department announced Thursday that it plans to start winding down production of the one-cent coin it has been minting for more than 230 years. But the penny will still remain legal tender, and will still be in use at thousands of retailers around the country for sometime to come. “If we look at the experience in Canada, for the first year after they stopped making pennies, there’s really no change in transactions,” Jeff Lenard, spokesperson for the National Association of Convenience Stores, told CNN. Convenience stores do…

New York CNN  —  In early April, Wall Street threw a temper tantrum that would make a toddler proud. Fearing President Donald Trump’s chaotic trade war would ignite a global recession, investors scrambled to dump US assets. The rare simultaneous selloff of both stocks and bonds reflected a serious loss of confidence in White House policy. Then Trump changed his tune. The president paused so-called “reciprocal tariffs” for 90 days and later slashed tariffs on China, though many items still face higher tariffs than before the Trump administration. US stocks reversed course, too, setting off a historic rally on Wall…

CNN  —  Texting on the Moon? Streaming on Mars? It may not be as far away as you think. That’s the shared vision of NASA and Nokia, who have partnered to set up a cellular network on the Moon to help lay the building blocks for long-term human presence on other planets. A SpaceX rocket is due to launch this year — the exact date has yet to be confirmed — carrying a simple 4G network to the Moon. The lander will install the system at the Moon’s south pole and then it will be remotely controlled from Earth. “The…

Britain prides itself on being a payments champion. The UK pioneered instant bank transfers with the launch of faster payments in 2008. A decade later, new data-sharing technology promised to usher in a new era.But while “open banking” has found success in various corners of finance — such as by enabling faster lending decisions and new budgeting tools — it has so far failed to deliver the promise of powering a payments revolution.Open banking powered a total of 27mn payments in the UK in March, according to Open Banking Limited. By contrast, the Payments Systems Regulator recorded 1.92bn card transactions…

A global bond market sell-off sparked by US debt fears has put fresh pressure on UK chancellor Rachel Reeves and her self-imposed fiscal rules.Yields on the 30-year gilt are approaching a 27-year high and closed at 5.48 per cent on Friday, following gains in US and Japanese government bond yields in recent weeks.Meanwhile, UK 10-year gilt yields, the benchmark debt watched most closely by investors, have risen more than equivalents in any other G7 country barring Japan over the past year. With UK economic growth still sluggish, investors have warned that Reeves will need to cut public spending further or raise…

CNN  —  First lady Melania Trump released an audiobook version in her voice of her memoir on Thursday — but she won’t actually be the one narrating it. “I am honored to bring you Melania – The AI Audiobook – narrated entirely using artificial intelligence in my own voice,” she wrote in a post on X. “Let the future of publishing begin.” Trump is far from the first person to use AI this way. But her choice to put the technology and its use in media creation on a bigger stage hints at the bigger role AI may soon play…

CNN  —  President Donald Trump on Friday demanded Apple and other smartphone makers like Samsung make their phones in the United States or face a 25% tariff. “I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump posted Friday morning on Truth Social. “If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.” Speaking to press in the Oval Office on…

It’s the new K-pop concert starter kit: a T-shirt emblazoned with your favorite singer’s name, a band light stick, and a rented Samsung phone with a razor-sharp zoom.K-pop fans clamoring for a picture of their favorite singers have carved out a niche market within the South Korean tech industry, with people shelling out money to rent Samsung Galaxy phones for a day.K-pop concerts have been known to easily and repeatedly sell out arenas that can seat upward of 16,000 people, such as the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. And a strong zoom lens is crucial for fans seated far from…

Google announced last week that it is rolling out a new search tool powered by AI that it’s calling, simply, AI Mode.That could be bad for Reddit.Reddit has grown significantly over the past year, thanks in large part to Google prioritizing Reddit links in its search results and because searchers are often looking for human input on an internet increasingly dominated by AI and automated bots.At Google I/O last week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai described AI Mode as a “total overhaul” of the company’s search tool. AI Mode will offer users a more conversational experience, rather than the traditional list…

CNN  —  RedBird Capital Partners announced on Friday that it has purchased Telegraph Media Group for £500 million (nearly $675 million), concluding a protracted bid to acquire the news company. The deal makes US-based RedBird the sole controlling owner of The Telegraph, the right-leaning British news outlet founded in 1855. Per the deal, RedBird will invest funds in The Telegraph’s digital operations to help continue growing subscriptions and expand the outlet’s foothold in the United States, where RedBird already has a constellation of media investments. The deal comes after RedBird struggled for two years to acquire The Telegraph, stymied in…