MAINE LAW RESTRICTS FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY STATEWIDE

A bill touted as the country’s strictest statewide regulation on the use of facial recognition technology has become law in Maine.

ROBINHOOD PAYS $70 MILLION TO SETTLE RANGE OF ALLEGATIONS

Robinhood Financial will pay nearly $70 million to settle a wide range of allegations, including that it gave customers misleading information and improperly allowed some users to make riskier trades after they lied about their trading experience.

CALIFORNIA TESTS OFF-THE-GRID SOLUTIONS TO POWER OUTAGES

When a wildfire tore through Briceburg nearly two years ago, the tiny community on the edge of Yosemite National Park lost the only power line connecting it to the electrical grid.

BRANSON'S VIRGIN ORBIT LAUNCHES 7 SATELLITES FROM 747 PLANE

Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit delivered satellites from three countries into space Wednesday, its second successful rocket launch from a plane.

DIGITAL TRAVEL PASS KICKS OFF EU-WIDE AS VACATIONS GAIN PACE

As the European summer vacation season hit its stride Thursday with a new EU-wide travel pass in place, the bloc’s medical office and a top airline chief issued reassuring messages on traveling, despite the threat of the surging delta coronavirus variant.

HOW IS TECHNOLOGY AIDING MIAMI RESCUERS' SEARCH?

Search teams have been using drones, sonar, highly sensitive microphones and a range of other new and established technologies to help search for people in the oceanside condominium building near Miami that collapsed into a smoldering pile of rubble.

NAVY DITCHES FUTURISTIC RAILGUN, EYES HYPERSONIC MISSILES

The U.S. Navy pulled the plug, for now, on a futuristic weapon that fires projectiles at up to seven times the speed of sound using electricity.

NSA DISCLOSES HACKING METHODS IT SAYS ARE USED BY RUSSIA

U.S. and British agencies disclosed on Thursday details of methods they say have been used by Russian intelligence to break into the cloud services of hundreds of government agencies, energy companies and other organizations.

VIRGIN GALACTIC GETS FAA'S OK TO LAUNCH CUSTOMERS TO SPACE

Virgin Galactic finally has the federal government’s approval to start launching customers into space from New Mexico.

MICROSOFT DEBUTS WINDOWS 11; FIRST MAJOR UPDATE IN 6 YEARS

Microsoft has unveiled the next generation of its Windows software, called Windows 11, that has a new Start Menu and other features.

EU INVESTIGATES GOOGLE'S CONDUCT IN DIGITAL AD TECH SECTOR

European Union regulators have launched a fresh antitrust investigation of Google, this time over whether the U.S. tech giant is stifling competition in digital advertising technology.

DUTCH GROUP LAUNCHES DATA HARVESTING CLAIM AGAINST TIKTOK

A Dutch consumer group is launching a 1.5 billion euro ($1.8 billion) claim against TikTok over what it alleges is unlawful harvesting of personal data from users of the popular video sharing platform.

CHINESE BANKS PROMISE TO STEP UP CRYPTOCURRENCY BAN

China’s biggest banks promised this week to refuse to help customers trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies after the central bank said executives were told to step up enforcement of a government ban.

AMAZON ANNOUNCES PLANS TO BUILD SOLAR FARM IN MISSISSIPPI

Amazon has announced plans to build a solar farm in Mississippi and in at least 10 other states, including Arkansas and Pennsylvania.

CAN ET SEE US? STUDY FINDS MANY STARS WITH PRIME EARTH VIEW

Feeling like you are being watched? It could be from a lot farther away than you think.

REMBRANDT'S HUGE ‘NIGHT WATCH' GETS BIGGER THANKS TO AI

One of Rembrandt van Rijn’s biggest paintings just got a bit bigger.

US BLOCKS SOLAR PANEL MATERIALS FROM CHINA OVER LABOR ABUSES

Chinese-made materials used in solar panels will be barred from the U.S. market as part of a broader effort to halt commerce tied to China’s repressive campaign against Uyghurs and other minorities, the Biden administration said Thursday.

HOTTEST SELLER AT GAMESTOP IS ITS OWN STOCK, $1B RAISED

GameStop raised more than $1 billion in its latest stock sale, capitalizing on a newly arrived and fervent army of online investors.

BUZZFEED TO BECOME A PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANY

Digital media company BuzzFeed is setting its sights on growth. It plans to become a publicly-traded company with an implied value of $1.5 billion through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

‘A Summer Of Freedom': Vaccine Gives New Meaning To July 4th

President Joe Biden wants to imbue Independence Day with new meaning this year by encouraging nationwide celebrations to mark the country’s effective return to normalcy after 16 months of coronavirus pandemic disruption and more than 600,000 lives lost.

US Ends Oil, Gas Lease Sales From Public Land Through June

The U.S. Interior Department is cancelling oil and gas lease sales from public lands through June amid an ongoing review of how the program contributes to climate change, officials said.

LOUISIANA CREATES RULES FOR SELF-DRIVING DELIVERY DEVICES

Louisiana has created a framework for self-driving delivery robots to drop off packages on the state’s streets, under a bill backed by lawmakers and Gov. John Bel Edwards.

SELF-DRIVING CAR PIONEER WAYMO GETS $2.5B TO FUEL AMBITIONS

Waymo, the self-driving car pioneer spun off from Google, isn’t allowing a recent wave of executive departures to detour its plans to expand its robotic taxi service.

HONG KONG WATCHING CHINESE NUCLEAR PLANT AFTER LEAK REPORTED

China’s government said Tuesday no abnormal radiation was detected outside a nuclear power plant near Hong Kong following a news report of a leak, while Hong Kong’s leader said her administration was closely watching the facility.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHINA'S NEW SPACE STATION

Adding a crew to China’s new orbiting space station is another major advance for the burgeoning space power.

CASSILL TO BE PAID IN CRYPTOCURRENCY IN DEAL WITH VOYAGER

Landon Cassill will be the first NASCAR driver paid entirely in cryptocurrency in a sponsorship deal with Voyager that begins at Nashville Superspeedway this weekend.

INTERNET OUTAGES BRIEFLY DISRUPT ACCESS TO WEBSITES, APPS

A wave of brief internet outages hit the websites and apps of dozens of financial institutions, airlines and other companies across the globe Thursday and Friday.

CAN YOU MIX AND MATCH COVID-19 VACCINES?

Can you mix and match two-dose COVID-19 vaccines?

AMAZON ALLOTS $300 MILLION FOR HOUSING NEAR MASS TRANSIT

Amazon is providing $300 million in low-interest loans to support housing located near mass transit in the Washington, D.C., area and the Seattle and Nashville, Tennessee, regions.

AIRBUS-BOEING DEAL EASES US EU TENSIONS BUT CONFLICTS REMAIN

The deal the United States and the European Union reached this week to end their long-running rift over subsidies to Boeing and Airbus will suspend billions in punitive tariffs. It will ease trans-Atlantic tensions. And it will let the two sides focus on a common economic threat: China.