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Military ships may be banned in strait

Iran won’t allow military vessels to transit through the Strait of Hormuz under an agreement that the Islamic Republic is negotiating with Oman, Iran’s deputy foreign minister said. The top diplomats of the two countries met to discuss managing commercial shipping traffic in the vital waterway, which remains largely shut down nearly six months after the Iran war began. No military vessels in the strait, Iran says Iran and Oman have reached a potential agreement for managing ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz that would exclude military vessels from traversing the vital ...

Meta settles for $18B in addiction suit

OAKLAND, Calif. — Meta agreed Wednesday to pay up to $18 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of a landmark legal settlement that ended a trial over teen social media addiction and settled claims filed by nearly every state. The settlement resolved a pivotal case years in the making that sought to hold the tech giant accountable for the role its platforms played in undermining children’s mental health. The effort targeted features designed to hook young people’s attention. The agreement “institutes real change, real ...

How the No. 2 pencil became a school staple

For generations of Americans, a sharpened No. 2 pencil has represented childhood and coming of age. Still a fixture of back-to-school shopping lists, it outlines a child’s first letters, erases their mistakes and lets them doodle in the margins when they daydream. For decades, sweaty hands ...

First butter boutique opens in Paris

PARIS — The contradiction of the trim Parisian and the butter croissant now has a storefront. Le Butter Shop, billed as Paris’ first boutique devoted entirely to butter, opened last month a short walk from the Eiffel Tower — with 30 varieties from small family producers in Brittany, ...

Ticker: Strong AI chip demand fuels Nvidia’s Q2 results

Nvidia’s latest quarterly results once again blew past Wall Street’s expectations as revenue for the computer chip company’s high-end artificial intelligence chips soared, the latest sign that AI infrastructure spending remains strong. The company on Wednesday reported net income of $59.69 billion, or $2.46 per share, for the May-July period. Excluding certain items, earnings were $2.22 per share, well above the $2.09 per share consensus forecast by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet. Revenue more than doubled from a year earlier to $96.22 billion, surpassing analysts’ ...