Wednesday Morning Briefing: Hurricane Michael set to punish Florida's Gulf coast

Highlights

Hurricane Michael strengthened into a Category 4 storm early on Wednesday before it was expected to plow into Florida’s Gulf shore with towering waves and roof-shredding winds as 500,000 people were under evacuation orders and advisories.

President Donald Trump used the bitter Senate confirmation battle for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to try to boost Republican voter enthusiasm and prevent a Democratic takeover of Congress in the Nov. 6 elections.

Trump repeated his threat to slap tariffs on an additional $267 billion of Chinese imports if Beijing retaliates for the recent levies and other measures the United States has imposed in an escalating trade war between the economic giants.

World

Turkish pro-government newspaper Sabah said it had identified a 15-member intelligence team it said was involved in the disappearance of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump said his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be held after U.S. congressional elections on Nov. 6.

A Bulgarian man has been detained in Germany over the rape and murder of television journalist Viktoria Marinova, officials said, as Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said journalists in Bulgaria had total freedom to write and report.

Exclusive: The Bank of England has asked UK-based lenders to provide six-hourly health-checks on their balance sheets in the days after a possible ‘no-deal’ Brexit as it seeks to avert a shock squeeze in credit supply to the economy, a senior industry source said.

 

Two @Reuters journalists have been imprisoned in Myanmar for 303 days. See full coverage: https://reut.rs/2yPnwus

6:12 AM - Oct 10, 2018

Tech

Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women

Amazon’s machine-learning specialists uncovered a big problem: their new recruiting engine did not like women.

8 min read

Google challenges record $5 billion EU antitrust fine

Google challenges record $5 billion EU antitrust fine | Reuters Alphabet unit Google challenged a record 4.34 billion euro ($5 billion) fine imposed by European Union antitrust regulators three months ago for using its popular Android mobile operating system to thwart rivals.

2 min read

Google unveils new Pixel phone, adds tablet in Apple challenge

Google also unveiled the third edition of its Pixel smartphone, a Google Home smart speaker with a display and its first tablet computer as it makes a come-from-behind push into hardware.

5 Min Read

Huawei unveils new AI chips amid Chinese technology ambitions

China’s Huawei, the world’s largest telecom-equipment maker, unveiled an AI chip that will power its servers, in a push to boost its nascent cloud-computing business.

4 min read

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