Page 7 - Us Federal Agency

US agency seeks updated responses, data from Tesla in Autopilot probe

NHTSA has said evidence had raised questions about the effectiveness of Tesla's alert strategy, which seeks to compel driver attention

US antitrust regulator plans to target Amazon's online marketplace

The main allegation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is expected to be that Amazon leverages its power to reward those online merchants that use its logistics services and punish ones who don't

Over $200 bn may have been stolen from Covid-19 aid: Federal watchdog

More than USD 200 billion may have been stolen from two large COVID-19 relief initiatives, according to new estimates from a federal watchdog investigating federally funded programmes that helped small businesses survive the worst public health crisis in more than a hundred years. The numbers issued on Tuesday by the US Small Business Administration inspector general are much greater than the office's previous projections and underscore how vulnerable the Paycheck Protection and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programmes were to fraudsters, particularly during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. The inspector general's report said at least 17 percent of all COVID-EIDL and PPP funds were disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors. The fraud estimate for the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programme is more than USD 136 billion, which represents 33 per cent of the total money spent on that programme, according to the report. The Paycheck Protection fraud estimat

US govt confirms MOVEit cyber attack hit several federal agencies

Clop claimed on its website that government data had been erased and no government agencies have yet been listed as victims

US federal govt agencies targeted in major global cyberattack: Report

A concerted large hacking campaign, which began two weeks ago, has hit major universities and state and local governments across the US

Zydus Lifesciences gets USFDA nod to its generic medicine for high BP

Zydus Lifesciences Ltd on Thursday said it has received final approval from the US health regulator to manufacture and market its generic version of metoprolol tartrate tablets used to treat high blood pressure. The approval granted by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) is for metoprolol tartrate tablets of strengths 25 mg, 50 mg, and 100 mg, Zydus Lifesciences said in a regulatory filing. The drug will be manufactured at the group's formulation manufacturing facility at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, it added. Metoprolol is used with or without other medications to treat high blood pressure (hypertension), the company said, adding the medication is also used to treat chest pain (angina) and to improve survival after a heart attack. Metoprolol tartrate tablets 25 mg, 50 mg, and 100 mg had annual sales of USD 45.2 million in the US, the company said citing IQVIA MAT February 2023 data.

Stop OpenAI from launching new GPT models: AI policy group to US FTC

The group is asking the FTC to require OpenAI to establish an independent assessment of GPT products before they are deployed in the future

Fed slowdown expectations drive gold towards second quarterly rise

Gold prices held steady on Friday, but the safe-haven metal was bound for its second straight quarterly gain after recent banking turmoil

Era of low interest, easy credit over, inflation pronounced in India: S&P

The era of low interest rates and easy credit is over in the Asia Pacific region. Amid greater market volatility and slower Asia-Pacific economies, funding access could tighten sharply, said S&P Global Ratings in a report.

Fed official: SVB management itself was responsible for bank's failure

The nation's top financial regulator is asserting that Silicon Valley Bank's own management was largely to blame for the bank's failure earlier this month and says the Federal Reserve will review whether a 2018 law that weakened stricter bank rules also contributed to its collapse. SVB's failure is a textbook case of mismanagement, Michael Barr, the Fed's vice chair for supervision, said in written testimony that will be delivered Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee. Barr pointed to the bank's concentrated business model, in which its customers were overwhelmingly venture capital and high-tech firms in Silicon Valley. He also contends that the bank failed to manage the risk of its bond holdings, which lost value as the Fed raised interest rates. Silicon Valley Bank, based in Santa Clara, California, was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on March 10 in the second-largest bank failure in US history. Late Sunday, the FDIC said that First Citizens Bank, bas

Apply for jobs, give interviews on tourist, biz visa in US: Federal agency

The US has announced that individuals travelling to the country on a business or tourist visa - B-1 and B-2 - can apply for new jobs and even appear in interviews, but the prospective employees must ensure that they have changed their visa status before starting a new role. B-1 and B-2 visas are generally referred to as B visas, and they are the most common types of visa issued for a wide range of uses in the United States. The B-1 visa is issued mainly for short-term business trips, while the B-2 visa is issued mainly travelling for tourism purposes. In a note, and a series of tweets, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Wednesday when nonimmigrant workers are laid off, they may not be aware of their options and may, in some instances, wrongly assume that they have no option but to leave the country within 60 days. The move by the USCIS came as thousands of highly skilled foreign-born workers, including Indians, in the US, have lost their jobs due to a series

FDIC considers Silicon Valley Bank break-up after failing to find a buyer

Bids are due Friday for the so-called "bridge bank" that the FDIC set up to take receivership of SVB's assets and liabilities

Dollar holds near three-month highs on rates outlook by Jerome Powell

The yuan weakened after the government reported unexpectedly low inflation

FTC intensifies probe into Twitter's privacy practices after mass layoffs

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Elon Musk's mass layoffs at Twitter and trying to obtain his internal communications as part of ongoing oversight into the social media company's privacy and cybersecurity practices, according to documents described in a congressional report. The FTC has been watching the company for years since Twitter agreed to a 2011 consent order alleging serious data security lapses. But the agency's concerns spiked with the tumult that followed Musk's Oct. 27 takeover of the company. The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee published excerpts from the FTC's letters Tuesday as part of a report alleging that the agency was overreaching to harass Elon Musk's Twitter." The House said the requests amounted to a deluge of "demands about its personnel decisions in each of the company's departments, every internal communication relating to Elon Musk and even Twitter's interactions with journalists" who Musk's team allowed to see certain employee email

Uncertainty on US Fed's stance, actions can impact demand in India: RBI

The uncertainty around the actions and stance by the US Federal Reserve will have a detrimental impact on the aggregate demand in India, a paper written by Reserve Bank of India executives said on Friday. Making it clear that the article published in the monthly bulletin does not represent the RBI views, the paper also asked major central banks to be circumspect on their actions and communication, saying the same have a bearing on emerging markets. Changes in the monetary policy stance of the US Federal Reserve tend to impact the Indian economy, altering domestic output and inflation, it said. "Heightened uncertainty around the stance and actions of the US Federal Reserve is estimated to reduce aggregate demand in the Indian economy," the paper added. The country's economic growth is widely expected to decline to 6 per cent or even lower in FY24. The US Fed has been hiking interest rates to record levels in order to cool inflation. The paper termed cross-border transmission of ...

Meta wins court battle against USFTC to acquire VR company 'Within'

Meta recently acquired the Netherlands-based 3D smart glass maker Luxexcel, as it doubles down on its metaverse dream in 2023

US hits debt ceiling, Treasury Department takes measures to finance govt

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that her department would put the temporary brakes on new investments

US authorities charge more than 100 with gun, drug crimes in 3 states

Federal authorities announced a blitz of arrests and indictments Wednesday against more than 100 people charged with gun and drug crimes in three US states. The flurry of charges from the Justice Department in Georgia, West Virginia and New York comes as federal officials work to combat an uptick in violent crime, particularly involving guns. The Biden administration has tried to showcase federal, state and local efforts to get guns and repeat shooters off the streets. Federal prosecutors and FBI agents were particularly busy in southern Georgia, where an indictment was unsealed charging 76 people with involvement in what authorities called a gang-related network that distributed methamphetamine, fentanyl and other illegal drugs. Authorities called it the largest indictment ever filed in the 43-county Southern District of Georgia. The FBI sent SWAT teams and agents from Atlanta and neighbouring South Carolina and Florida Wednesday to help round up more than 30 suspects in coastal ..

US FTC sues Microsoft to block its $69 bn Activision Blizzard acquisition

The deal would enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business

Twitter's hectic overhaul under Musk puts world's regulators on alert

In a rare intervention on Thursday, the US Federal Trade Commission said that it was tracking developments with "deep concern" and said that "no CEO or company is above the law"