Tech Ghost

After a torrid week for US stocks, the treasury secretary was keen to get reassurances from big banks. from BBC News - Business https://bbc.in/2RfCVft via Online Shopping

Heavy discounting has not been enough to get shoppers to High Streets for last-minute Christmas gifts. from BBC News - Business https://bbc.in/2LxLehf via Online Shopping

A Trump aide says deadlock over federal budget spending could drag on until the next Congress. from BBC News - Business https://bbc.in/2T8KTUL via Online Shopping

Alan Barratt, CEO of Grenade, advises entrepreneurs to "always follow your gut". from BBC News - Business https://bbc.in/2GBQd1z via Online Shopping

Andy Mooney went from Scottish miner's son to earning billions for Disney and now running guitar firm Fender. from BBC News - Business https://bbc.in/2CuyOE6 via Online Shopping

Christmas and Santa have long had a commercial connection. from BBC News - Business https://bbc.in/2AdTvmd via Online Shopping

Running down the players and competing interests at Lordstown from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2Rhhiey via Latest News

The conditions are among the first details of Michael Kovrig’s detention since the International Crisis Group senior adviser was taken into custody by China’s spy agency on Dec. 10. The case -- along with that of another Canadian citizen detained on the same day -- have plunged Canada’s ties with its second-largest trading partner into crisis. “We are deeply concerned by the arbitrary detention by Chinese authorities of two Canadians earlier this month and call for their immediate release,” Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2rPEyCn via Latest News

New surveillance video was released Saturday of the moments before a 72-year-old woman was struck and killed in a hit-and-run crash in Glendale. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2Lv7cl3 via Latest News

Mattis, a retired Marine general who was highly regarded by Republicans and Democrats, had far wider political support in Washington than Trump himself when he walked into the White House on Thursday afternoon. Sources said Mattis had already made up his mind that it was time to go. Later in the afternoon, Trump announced Mattis was retiring, only to be rapidly contradicted as Mattis circulated his eight-paragraph resignation letter. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2SeGMGT via Latest News

The shutdown likely leaves hundreds of thousands of federal workers on furlough and hundreds of thousands more working without pay. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2V0X0Fv via Latest News

Ford is recalling 874,000 of its best-selling F-series pickup trucks due to fire risk from the engine block heater system, the company announced Friday. The problem occurs when there is corrosion in a connector in the engine block heater, which is used in trucks to keep engines warm on cold days. Corrosion can make the system inoperable, or cause a short circuit, the company said. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2SgUGbm via Latest News

Catholic priests who sexually abuse children are “vicious wolves” who should turn themselves into the authorities, Pope Francis said on Friday. His remarks came at the end of a year in which he was accused of mishandling an abuse scandal in Chile and in which the Vatican’s third most senior figure, economy minister Cardinal George Pell of Australia, was put on trial in Melbourne for sexually abusing boys. Any priest who abused a child was “a vicious wolf ready to devour innocent souls”, the Pope said in his annual address to the Curia, the Vatican’s governing body. Survivors of clerical abuse have long accused the Pope of coming out with strong rhetoric to condemn the rape of children but of failing to take concrete steps to address the scandal. In his address, the Pope acknowledged that the Catholic Church had hugely underestimated the phenomenon and failed to punish predatory priests and the bishops who cover up for them, often by moving them from parish to parish rather than reporti

About 15 police officers were at the Target on Wednesday night, helping disadvantaged children pick out Christmas presents for their families from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2PZtHzr via Latest News

Brett McGurk, U.S. special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat the militant group, submitted his resignation effective Dec. 31 to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, a State Department official said. In an abrupt policy shift, Trump announced on Wednesday that Washington would withdraw the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, upending a pillar of American policy in the Middle East and alarming U.S. allies. The decision was followed on Thursday by the surprise departure of U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who in a resignation letter to Trump laid bare the growing divide between the two over foreign policy. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2Re8WEH via Latest News

Republican lawmakers say the momentum is on their side because Americans want a border wall. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2QOvlJe via Latest News

As President Trump threatens a government shutdown over funding for his border wall, one U.S. Border Patrol agent offered some insight on the immediate impact that would have. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2R9cjwK via Latest News

Fallout 76 Players to Receive Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics Free    Game Rant Bethesda says sorry to 'Fallout 76' players with free games    Engadget Fallout 76 players will get Fallouts 1, 2 and Tactics for free next month    PC Gamer Bethesda Gives Away Fallout Classic Collection to All Fallout 76 Owners    Bleeding Cool News 'Fallout 76' Players Are Getting Some Free Games Next Month    Comicbook.com View full coverage on Google News from Technology - Latest - Google News http://bit.ly/2EHfO6F via Technology

Microsoft executive says Surface hardware with all-new form factor is in the works    BGR Microsoft reportedly working on Xbox and Windows 10 webcams for 2019    The Verge Microsoft's first webcams in years might include Xbox One support    Engadget Microsoft rumored to be working on 4K webcam for Windows 10, Xbox One    Digital Trends Microsoft’s Panos Panay talks about Windows Phone and Surface lineup    WindowsLatest View full coverage on Google News from Technology - Latest - Google News http://bit.ly/2EG9A72 via Technology

Package thieves ambushed by an engineer's 'glitter bombs' were not all real robbers, he admits    CNN NASA Engineer Admits Parts Of Epic Glitter Fart Bomb Prank Were Fake    Hot Hardware A porch pirate glitter bomb brought Christmas joy to millions who’ve been stung. But some of it was staged.    St. Paul Pioneer Press YouTuber Reveals Part Of His Viral Video May Have Been Unintentionally Faked    The Daily Wire Porch pirates ambushed by an engineer’s ‘glitter bombs’ were not all real robbers, he admits    WGHP FOX 8 Greensboro View full coverage on Google News from Technology - Latest - Google News https://cnn.it/2EK3zHy via Technology