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Salvagers abandon effort to tow burning oil tanker in Red Sea

Salvagers abandoned an initial effort to tow away a burning oil tanker in the Red Sea targeted by Yemen's Houthi rebels as it "was not safe to proceed," a European Union naval mission said, leaving the Sounion stranded and its 1 million barrels of oil at risk of spilling.

While a major spill has yet to occur, the incident threatens to become one of the worst yet in the Iranian-backed rebels' campaign that has disrupted the $1 trillion in goods that pass through the Red Sea each year over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. It also has halted some aid shipments to conflict-ravaged Sudan and Yemen.

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Volkswagen aims to cancel a no-layoffs pledge and won't rule out closing plants in Germany

Germany's Volkswagen says auto industry headwinds mean it can't rule out plant closings in its home country - and must drop a longstanding job protection pledge in force since 1994 that would have barred layoffs through 2029.

"The European automotive industry is in a very demanding and serious situation," Oliver Blume, Volkswagen Group CEO, said in a statement Monday.

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Federal Reserve welcomes a 'soft landing' even if many Americans don't feel like cheering

When Jerome Powell delivered a high-profile speech last month, the Federal Reserve chair came the closest he ever had to declaring that the inflation surge that gripped the nation for three painful years was now essentially defeated.

And not only that. The Fed's high interest rates, Powell said, had managed to achieve that goal without causing a widely predicted recession and high unemployment.

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Markets headed for losses at open ahead of key US jobs report later this week

Wall Street was poised to open with losses Tuesday, kicking off a holiday-shortened week that features another hefty slate of earnings and the government's latest jobs report.

Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were each down 0.5% before the bell.

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Riad Salameh detained in Lebanon over embezzlement charges

Lebanon's controversial former central bank governor Riad Salameh was detained Tuesday after being questioned in several corruption cases, according to three judicial officials.

Salameh served a 30-year term as central bank governor beginning in 1993.

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Harris opposes US Steel's sale to Japanese firm in joint Pennsylvania event with Biden

Vice President Kamala Harris used a joint campaign appearance with President Joe Biden in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania on Monday to say that U.S. Steel should remain domestically owned — concurring with the White House's monthslong opposition to the company's planned sale to Japan's Nippon Steel.

Her comments came during a rally before cheering union members marking Labor Day in the industrial city of Pittsburgh, where Harris said U.S. Steel was "an historic American company and it is vital for our country to maintain strong American steel companies."

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Strikes start at top US hotel chains as housekeepers seek higher wages and daily room cleaning work

With up to 17 rooms to clean each shift, Fatima Amahmoud's job at the Moxy hotel in downtown Boston sometimes feels impossible.

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AI may not steal many jobs after all. It may just make workers more efficient

Imagine a customer-service center that speaks your language, no matter what it is.

Alorica, a company in Irvine, California, that runs customer-service centers around the world, has introduced an artificial intelligence translation tool that lets its representatives talk with customers who speak 200 different languages and 75 dialects.

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Global benchmarks are mixed in cautious trading ahead of US holiday and jobs report

Global shares were mixed in cautious trading Monday ahead of the Labor Day holiday in the U.S., when stock exchanges are closed.

France's CAC 40 slipped 0.3% in early trading to 7,611.64, while Germany's DAX fell 0.1% to 18,881.14. Britain's FTSE 100 was little changed, down less than 0.1% at 8,370.39. U.S. shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures down 0.1% at 41,613.00. S&P 500 futures fell 0.1% to 5,654.25.

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Iran's president says his country needs more than $100 billion in foreign investment

Iran's president said his country needs some $100 billion in foreign investment to achieve an annual target of 8% economic growth up from the current rate of 4%.

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