US regulators seek to break up Google, forcing Chrome sale as part of monopoly punishment

U.S. regulators want a federal judge to break up Google to prevent the company from continuing to squash competition through its dominant search engine after a court found it had maintained an abusive monopoly over the past decade.

The proposed breakup floated in a 23-page document filed late Wednesday by the U.S. Justice Department calls for Google to sell its industry-leading Chrome web browser and impose restrictions designed to prevent its Android smartphone software from favoring its search engine.

The recommended penalties underscore how severely regulators operating under President Joe Biden believe Google should be punished following an August ruling by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta that branded Google as a monopolist. The Justice Department decision-makers who will inherit the case after President-elect Donald Trump takes office next year might not be as strident. The Washington, D.C. court hearings on Google's punishment are scheduled to begin in April and Mehta is aiming to issue his final decision before Labor Day.

If Mehta embraces the Justice Department's recommendations, Google will almost certainly appeal the punishments, prolonging a legal tussle that has dragged on for more than four years.

Besides seeking a Chrome spinoff and corralling of the Android software, the Justice Department wants the judge to ban Google from forging multibillion-dollar deals to lock in its dominant search engine as the default option on Apple’s iPhone and other devices.

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'Bomb cyclone' kills 2 and knocks out power to over half a million homes across the US Northwest

ISSAQUAH, Wash. (AP) — A major storm battered the U.S. Northwest with strong winds and rain, causing widespread power outages, closing schools and downing trees that killed at least two people.

The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks through Friday, and hurricane-force wind warnings were in effect as the strongest atmospheric river — a large plume of moisture — that California and the Pacific Northwest has seen this season overwhelmed the region. The storm system, which hit starting Tuesday, is considered a “ bomb cyclone,” which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly.

In California the weather service extended a flood watch into Saturday for areas north of San Francisco. Up to 16 inches of rain (40 centimeters) was forecast in Northern California and southwestern Oregon through Friday. Dangerous flash flooding, rock slides and debris flows were possible, officials warned.

A winter storm watch was in place for the northern Sierra Nevada above 3,500 feet (1,066 meters), where 15 inches (28 centimeters) of snow was possible over two days. Wind gusts could top 75 mph (120 kph) in mountain areas, forecasters said.

Heavy, wet snow was expected to continue along the Cascades and in parts of far Northern California. Forecasters warned of blizzard and whiteout conditions and near impossible travel at pass level due to accumulation rates of 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.6 centimeters) per hour and wind gusts of up to 65 mph (105 kph).

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Republicans on House Ethics reject for now releasing report on Matt Gaetz

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Ethics Committee Republicans voted Wednesday against releasing the panel’s long-running investigation into President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, the top Democrat on the panel said.

The outcome, however, is only a temporary reprieve for Gaetz, who faces allegations of sexual misconduct, as he works to personally secure his embattled nomination to be the nation's top law enforcement official.

The House panel expects to meet again Dec. 5 to reconsider releasing its findings.

"There was no consensus on this issue," said Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, the panel's ranking Democrat, who said the vote fell along party lines on the evenly split committee.

The standoff comes as Trump and Gaetz are digging in for a potentially lengthy, brutal confirmation fight ahead. Gaetz met privately for hours Wednesday with Republican senators who have heard questions about the allegations and will be considering their votes on his nomination.

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Lawmakers are concerned about background checks of Trump's Cabinet picks as red flags surface

WASHINGTON (AP) — As senators prepare to consider President-elect Donald Trump's picks for his Cabinet, they may be doing so without a well-established staple of the confirmation process: an FBI background check.

The Trump transition team has so far not signed the requisite agreements with the White House or the Justice Department to allow the FBI to screen his personnel choices, both for the process of obtaining security clearances and meeting the Senate’s usual standards for nominations.

That means the Senate could be asked to vote on Trump's picks without the usual rigorous background checking meant to uncover personal problems, criminal histories or other red flags that would raise questions about a nominee's suitability for the job. There already are questions about problematic issues related to a number of the people Trump wants in his administration.

“There are very real liabilities on the security side if you don’t get this right,” said Dan Meyer, a Washington lawyer at the Tully Rinckey law firm who specializes in background checks, security clearances and federal employment law.

At issue is a memorandum of understanding under which a president — or in this case, an incoming one — submits requests for name and background checks and the FBI commits to flagging to the White House any adverse information uncovered during the process.

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Susan Smith is denied parole 30 years after drowning 2 sons by rolling car into South Carolina lake

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A parole board decided unanimously Wednesday that Susan Smith should remain in prison, despite her plea that God has forgiven her for infamously killing her two young sons 30 years ago by rolling her car into a South Carolina lake while they were strapped in their car seats.

It was the first parole hearing for Smith, 53, who is serving a life sentence after a jury convicted her of murder but decided to spare her the death penalty. She is eligible for a parole hearing every two years now that she has spent 30 years behind bars.

Smith made her case by video link from prison. She started by saying she was “very sorry,” then broke down in tears and bowed her head.

“I know what I did was horrible,” Smith said, pausing and then continuing with a wavering voice. “And I would give anything if I could go back and change it.”

In her final statements, Smith said God has forgiven her. “I ask that you show that same kind of mercy, as well,” she said.

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US charges billionaire Gautam Adani with defrauding investors, hiding plan to bribe Indian officials

NEW YORK (AP) — An Indian businessman who is one of the world’s richest people has been indicted in the U.S. on charges he duped investors by concealing that his company's huge solar energy project on the subcontinent was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme.

Gautam Adani, 62, was charged in an indictment unsealed Wednesday with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. The case involves a lucrative arrangement for Adani Green Energy Ltd. and another firm to sell 12 gigawatts of solar power to the Indian government — enough to light millions of homes and businesses.

The indictment paints Adani and his co-defendants as playing two sides of the deal.

It accuses them of portraying it as rosy and above-board to Wall Street investors who poured several billion dollars into the project over the last five years while, back in India, they were paying or planning to pay about $265 million in bribes to government officials to help secure billions of dollars' worth of contracts and financing.

Adani and his co-defendants sought to “obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller said.

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Biden has become notably quiet after the 2024 election and Democrats' loss

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has been notably quiet since the Democrats' gut-wrenching defeat at the polls.

After warning voters for years that a Donald Trump win would be calamitous for American democracy, Biden has gone largely silent on his concerns about what lays ahead for America and he has yet to substantively reflect on why Democrats were decisively defeated up and down the ballot.

His only public discussion of the outcome of the election came in a roughly six-minute speech in the Rose Garden two days after the election, when he urged people to “see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans” and to “bring down the temperature.” Since then, there's been hardly a public peep — including over the course of Biden's six-day visit to South America that concluded on Tuesday evening. His only public comments during the trip came during brief remarks before meetings with government officials and a climate-related speech during a visit to the Amazon.

At a delicate moment in the U.S. — and for the world — Biden’s silence may be leaving a vacuum. But his public reticence has also underscored a new reality: America and the rest of the world is already moving on.

“His race is over. His day is done,” said David Axelrod, who served as a senior adviser in the Obama-Biden White House. “It’s up to a new generation of leaders to chart the path forward, as I’m sure they will.”

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The US is sending antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine. Here's what it means

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. decision to provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines expands the use of a weapon that the international community has long condemned because of its danger to innocent civilians. And it reflects another in a long line of American policy shifts on the controversial issue in the past 30 years.

U.S. officials say the mines are needed to help Ukraine stall Russian progress on the battlefield, where Moscow's forces are moving in smaller ground units on the front lines rather than in more heavily protected armored vehicles.

The Defense Department has been providing Ukraine with anti-tank mines throughout the war. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the new policy will give Ukraine “nonpersistent antipersonnel land mines” that are safer because they lose the ability to detonate over time.

The change shows the Biden administration "has clearly and belatedly become less risk averse as it eyes troubling battlefield developments in Ukraine and worries how U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Russia may change on January 20,” when President-elect Donald Trump takes office, according to Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Trump has criticized U.S. support for Ukraine and vowed to quickly end the war.

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Israeli officials demand the right to strike Hezbollah under any cease-fire deal for Lebanon

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli officials demanded Wednesday the freedom to strike Lebanon's Hezbollah as part of any cease-fire deal, raising a potential complication as a top U.S. envoy was in the region attempting to clinch an agreement.

The development came as an airstrike hit the historic Syrian town of Palmyra, killing 36 people, according to Syrian state-run media, which blamed the attack on Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar each said Israel sought to reserve the right to respond to any violations by Hezbollah under an emerging proposal, which would push the militant group’s fighters and Israeli ground forces out of a U.N. buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

There have been signs of progress on the cease-fire deal and on Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said the Lebanese militant group supports the ongoing negotiations but has “some reservations” and rejects a provision for “freedom of movement” for Israeli troops in Lebanon.

“In any agreement we will reach, we will have to maintain our freedom to act if there will be violations,” Israeli Foreign Minister Saar told diplomats in Jerusalem.

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Chris Stapleton scores big early wins at the Country Music Association Awards

It was Chris Stapleton's night early at the Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday.

The country traditionalist Stapleton, who has dominated many of the genre's awards shows in recent years, won both single and song of the year for “White Horse,” scoring something of an upset in both categories over Post Malone and Morgan Wallen's “I Had Some Help,” which led to Malone getting four nominations and helped Wallen get seven coming into the show.

Stapleton joined Malone to open the ceremony from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville with a performance of Malone's “California Sober," and later performed his own “What Am I Gonna Do” with his wife Morgane.

He won three CMAs, taking two for single of the year as both producer and performer on “White Horse.” But he lost out on album of the year to Cody Johnson, who won for “Leather.”

“I thought Chris Stapleton or Jelly Roll was going to win,” Johnson said.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024