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Travel scams get harder to spot

NEW YORK — Pickpockets were once the biggest worry for travelers heading to new destinations on vacation. But travel scams have become more sophisticated, and scammers using new artificial intelligence tools have become better at creating fake websites and using stolen data to their advantage, said Florent Silve, an executive at Engine, a corporate travel management platform. “What used to look like a fake website now becomes much harder to spot by consumers,” Silve said. According to a Federal Trade Commission report published in June, Americans last year reported losing ...

Stocks jump after oil eases

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks rebounded Friday and regained much of their losses for the week after oil prices eased off their recent spurt. An update on inflation across the United States that came in close to economists’ expectations, even if prices are still rising too quickly for everyone’s liking, also helped calm the market. The S&P 500 climbed 0.9% and snapped a four-day losing streak, its longest since June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 509 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1%. They got help from a pullback in oil prices, which had jumped to their highest ...

Daily briefing

Nation Florida Man executed in ‘Hog Trail Murders’ STARKE — A Florida man convicted in one of a series of suspected killings that became known as the “Hog Trail Murders” in the 1990s was put to death Thursday, becoming the state’s 15th person executed this year. Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. after receiving a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Texas Vance takes stage at GOP convention DALLAS — Vice President JD Vance took the stage Thursday on the second and final night of the Republicans’ midterm ...

Ticker: Oil prices leap to their highest since May

U.S. stocks sank after oil prices jumped to their highest levels since May. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% Thursday for a fourth straight loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.7%. Stocks felt pressure as the price for a barrel of Brent crude briefly topped $108 because the war with Iran continues to clog the global flow of crude. Treasury yields leaped in the bond market on increased worries about inflation, and the 10-year yield jumped to 4.95%. That’s up nearly a whole percentage point since the war with Iran began. Anthropic blocks misuse of ...