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Food stamp benefits to increase by more than 25% in October
WASHINGTON: President Joe Bidens administration has approved a significant and permanent increase in the levels of food aid available to needy families the largest single increase in the programs history. Starting in October, average benefits for food stamps officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP will rise more than 25 percent above pre-pandemic levels. The increased assistance will be available indefinitely to all 42 million SNAP beneficiaries. The increase coincides with the end of a 15 percent boost in SNAP benefits that was ordered as a pandemic protection measure. That benefit expires at the end of September.
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Official: Chinas growth likely to slow due to virus, floods
BEIJING: Chinas economic growth will soften this year due to summer flooding and anti-coronavirus controls, an official said Monday, after consumer sales and other activity weakened in July. Chinas economy still is in a recovery trend from last years pandemic-induced slowdown but is likely to weaken after a relatively strong first half, said Fu Linghui, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics. This years main economic growth trend will be low after high, Fu said at a news conference. Fu gave no growth forecast. Private sector forecasters say the worlds second-largest economy should easily achieve 8% growth over last years depressed level.
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US probing Autopilot problems on 765,000 Tesla vehicles
DETROIT: The U.S. government has opened a formal investigation into Teslas Autopilot partially automated driving system after a series of collisions with parked emergency vehicles. The investigation covers 765,000 vehicles, almost everything that Tesla has sold in the U.S. since the start of the 2014 model year. Of the crashes identified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as part of the probe, 17 people were injured and one was killed. NHTSA says it has identified 11 crashes since 2018 in which Teslas on Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control have hit vehicles at scenes where first responders have used flashing lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board or cones warning of hazards.
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Hachette Book Group in deal to acquire Workman Publishing
NEW YORK: The publisher of such bestsellers as the What to Expect books for parents and the Brain Quest educational series has reached an agreement to be acquired by Hachette Book Group. Workman Publishing has been an independent company for decades, and also includes the literary imprint Algonquin and the nature publisher Timber Press. Hachette is one of the worlds largest book publishers, with authors ranging from Donna Tartt and James Patterson to J.K. Rowling and David Sedaris.
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S&P hits new record amid rising concerns about pandemic
NEW YORK: A choppy day on Wall Street ended Monday with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average notching new highs after recovering from an early slide. The indexes each rose 0.3%, extending their winning streak to a fifth day, while the Nasdaq fell 0.2%. Technology and health care stocks accounted for much of the gain in the S&P 500. Sectors traditionally considered lower risk, including utilities and companies that make food and personal goods also helped lift the market. Those gains outweighed a pullback in banks, energy stocks and a swath of retailers and travel sector companies. Despite the latest gains, there are signs that investors have turned cautious with the market at all-time highs amid rising coronavirus infections in the U.S.
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Discovery obtains Dutch license for Polish news station
WARSAW, Poland: The U.S. company Discovery Inc. said Monday it has been granted a Dutch license that would allow it to keep broadcasting its independent news channel TVN24 into Poland. The announcement comes as Polands state broadcasting authority has for a year and a half refused to renew TVN24s license, which expires Sept. 26. The independent television channel is watched by millions of people daily in Poland and has published reports that criticize the countrys right-wing nationalist government. In another challenge for Discovery, the lower house of Polands parliament gave initial approval last week to a bill which if it gets final passage and the presidents approval would force Discovery to sell its controlling share in its Polish network.
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T-Mobile confirms data breach, says its investigating scope
NEW YORK: T-Mobile says it is investigating a leak of its data after someone took to an online forum offering to sell the personal information of cellphone users. The company said Monday that it has confirmed there was unauthorized access to some T-Mobile data but was still determining the scope of the breach and who was affected. It also said it was confident that it has closed the entry point used to gain access. Vices Motherboard reported Sunday that someone who posted in an underground forum was offering to sell personal data from more than 100 million people. The Vice report says the data includes Social Security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique device identifiers and driver license information.
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Japan ekes out economic growth in recovery from pandemic
TOKYO: Japans economy grew at an annual rate of 1.3% in the last quarter, raising hopes for a gradual recovery from the painful impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The Cabinet Office reported Monday seasonally adjusted gross domestic product, or GDP, the sum of the value of a nations products and services, grew 0.3% in April-June, marking a reversal from the 0.9% contraction in the previous quarter for the worlds third-largest economy.
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The S&P 500 rose 11.71 points, or 0.3%, to 4,479.71. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 110.02 points, or 0.3%, to 35,625.40. The Nasdaq fell 29.14 points, or 0.2%, to 14,793.76. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped 19.69 points, or 0.9%, to 2,203.41.
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