• Reuters

    Wall Street's "fear gauge" at over 5-month high on rate cut, Mideast worries

    Wall Street's "fear gauge" hit its highest in more than five months on Friday due to a sharp pullback in interest U.S. rate cut expectations and escalating geopolitical tensions. The CBOE Volatility index, an options-based measure of investor expectations for near-term stock market gyrations, hit 21.33 points, crossing the psychological mark of 20 points for the first time since Oct. 30, 2023.

  • Associated Press

    Ukraine claims it shot down a Russian strategic bomber. Moscow says the plane crashed

    Ukraine’s air force claimed Friday it shot down a Russian strategic bomber, but Moscow officials said the plane crashed in a sparsely populated area due to a malfunction after a combat mission. Previous Ukrainian claims of shooting down Russian warplanes during their more than two-year war have met with silence or denials from Moscow. Russia’s air force is vastly more powerful than Ukraine’s, but sophisticated missile systems provided by Kyiv’s Western partners are a major threat to Russian aviation as the Kremlin’s forces slowly push forward along the around 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line in what has become a grinding war of attrition.

  • Associated Press Finance

    Japanese doctors demand damages from Google over "groundless" reviews

    A group of Japanese doctors has filed a civil lawsuit against U.S. search giant Google, demanding damages for what they claim are unpoliced derogatory and often false comments. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Tokyo District Court, demands 1.4 million yen ($9,400) in damages for 63 medical professionals. Google said in an emailed statement Friday that it is working “24 hours a day” to reduce misleading or false information on its platform, combining human and technological resources “to delete fraudulent reviews.”