general news

Mattel, known for the Hot Wheels brand, is set to report its earnings this week. Photo: Daniel Becerril/Reuters…

SINGAPORE—Chinese authorities fined ride-hailing company Didi Global Inc. DIDIY 5.12% the equivalent of about $1.2 billion, bringing an end to a yearlong investigation into the company’s cybersecurity practices. The fine accounts for about 5% of Didi’s revenue last year, and is the largest regulatory penalty imposed on a Chinese technology company by this metric since Beijing launched a clampdown on its internet giants two years ago.…

SINGAPORE—China’s Baidu Inc. BIDU -1.10% unveiled a new autonomous car with a detachable steering wheel that it wants to use for its robotaxi service in 2023—up to a year before Tesla Inc. plans to start mass producing a similar vehicle. Baidu, China’s long-dominant search-engine giant, priced the new model at about $37,000, nearly half of the $71,000 for the previous version of the car that was released in…

United Airlines Holdings Inc. on Wednesday reported its first quarterly profit without the help of government aid since the start of the pandemic, but the carrier is planning a more restrained schedule to try to run more reliably.“It’s nice to return to profitability––but we must confront three risks that could grow over the next 6-18 months,” Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby said in a statement. “Industrywide operational challenges that limit the system’s capacity, record fuel prices and…

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is planning to drop Nicaragua from the list of countries eligible for low-tariff shipments of sugar into the U.S., stepping up pressure on the government of President Daniel Ortega, an authoritarian leader with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The step comes as part of the U.S.’s schedule for sugar import quotas for the fiscal year starting October, to be unveiled by the U.S.…

BERLIN—Russian natural gas began flowing again at a reduced volume through a critical pipeline into Europe on Thursday, according to the operator of the pipeline, buying time for governments to decouple from the Kremlin’s exports amid what they expect will be an increasingly unreliable supply of energy from Moscow heading into the winter.The Nord Stream pipeline connecting Russia with Germany under the Baltic Sea resumed operation after its annual maintenance, ending 10 days of tense speculation about whether…

Casinos in the gambling hub of Macau will be allowed to reopen Saturday after a nearly two-week shutdown amid a Covid-19 outbreak, according to the government.The citywide lockdown that began July 11 was the first shutdown of casinos in Macau since the early days of the pandemic in 2020. The government said most nonessential industries, companies and venues would be allowed to reopen starting Saturday through July 30. Casino operators in Macau have been dealing with a longer-than-expected recovery there.…

WASHINGTON—U.S. lawmakers moved closer to a bipartisan agreement on new legislation that would regulate so-called stablecoins as part of efforts to impose basic safeguards on volatile cryptocurrency markets.The potential deal would mark the first significant step to apply tougher rules on an industry that developed with virtually no regulation. Biden administration officials and a bipartisan group of lawmakers worry that current laws don’t provide comprehensive standards for the new assets and have warned of potential…

Freight operators in Oakland, Calif., are bracing for continued protests by truckers that have blocked operations this week at the West Coast’s third-busiest container port, adding new disruptions to already-strained U.S. supply chains. Truck drivers have stopped vehicles from entering Port of Oakland container terminals, effectively halting all but a trickle of business in a protest over a California law that would toughen restrictions on the use of independent drivers. …

Tesla Inc. TSLA 1.55% is expected to report its first sequential decline in quarterly profit in more than a year as it recovers from an extended shutdown at its Shanghai assembly plant. Tesla, after market close, is expected to report second-quarter sales of around $16.5 billion, analysts estimate. That’s up from roughly $12 billion during the same period last year, though below the company’s $18.8 billion in first-quarter revenue.…