UNITED STATES
Post office loses US$1.9bn
The Postal Service ended its second quarter with a net loss of US$1.9 billion as first-class mail volume continued to tumble and legislators remained at odds over providing any financial relief, the agency said on Friday. The Postal Service’s net loss for the fiscal second quarter ended March 31 surpassed the first quarter’s loss of US$354 million, but it remained flat from the previous year. It was the 20th of the last 22 quarters that the agency has posted a loss, it said. The volume of first-class mail, the agency’s most profitable product, fell 4.1 percent in the second quarter as more residents chose to communicate and pay bills via the Internet. In the meantime, its shipping and packaging business remained a bright spot, with volume increasing 7.3 percent as e-commerce grows.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford recalls 692,000 SUVs
Ford is recalling more than 692,000 Escape small SUVs and C-Max gas-electric hybrids in North America to fix two safety problems. The recalls cover vehicles from the 2013 and 2014 model years. Most of the Escapes have both problems. The first case covers 692,500 Escape and C-Max vehicles. A software glitch can stop the side curtain air bags from inflating in certain types of rollover crashes. The company says it has no reports of crashes or injuries. Dealers will reprogram the air-bag control computer for free. About 65,000 of the recalled vehicles are C-Max models, and the rest are Escapes. About 591,000 are in the US, with 3,500 more in US territories. The affected Escapes were built from Oct. 5, 2011 through Feb. 14 this year. The C-Max vehicles were built from Jan. 19, 2012, through Feb. 24 this year. The second case covers about 692,700 Escapes. Exterior door handles can bind and stop the door from latching properly. This could allow doors to open while the SUVs are in motion.
BANKING
Swisspartners settles with US
Swiss asset management firm, Swisspartners Group, agreed to pay US$4.4 million to the US to settle a probe over whether it helped US taxpayers evade their federal income taxes, the US Department of Justice said on Friday. From about 2001 to about 2011, Swisspartners helped its US clients open and maintain undeclared foreign bank accounts, which allowed them to avoid paying taxes in full, a US Department of Justice statement said. US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara — whose office negotiated the settlement — said Swisspartners avoided criminal charges “as a direct result of its decision to self-report misconduct.”
ENERGY
Obama reveals solar plans
US President Barack Obama unveiled new solar energy plans on Friday, hailing the measures as a vital job-creating tool in the fight against climate change. Obama, wrapping up a three-day fundraising tour of California, announced commitments to develop solar power and energy efficiency by more than 300 private and public sector groups. Separate energy-efficiency investments will lower utility bills for more than 93 million m2 of buildings, the White House said. Obama also unveiled executive actions set to provide for an extra US$2 billion in energy-efficiency investments, improved buildings and smarter appliances.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
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