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Britain's health secretary says the government will introduce new laws targeting online social media companies if they don't do more to protect children. In a strongly-worded letter to Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Twitter and others, Jeremy Hunt said their failure to prevent young children using social media and exposing children to its "harmful emotional side effects" was "unacceptable and irresponsible.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank repeatedly warned at their meetings this week that intensifying trade tensions could jeopardize a healthy global economic expansion. But U. S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed cautious optimism Saturday that countries could settle their differences without a trade war. Mnuchin met during the past three days with financial officials from China, Japan and Europe over a series of punitive tariffs unveiled by the Trump administration against China and other trading partners. In a session with reporters, Mnuchin refused to say how close the United States was to resolving the various trade disputes, but he did say progress had been made. The United States and China are on the brink of what would be the biggest trade dispute since World War II.

Mexico and the European Union reached a deal to update their nearly 20-year-old free trade agreement on Saturday, including the elimination of tariffs on a number of Mexican agricultural products. President Enrique Pena Nieto, who arrived in Hannover, Germany, in the afternoon to begin a five-day tour of three European nations, said via Twitter that the "agreement in principle" was struck in Brussels. "The modernization of this instrument broadens our markets and consolidates us as priority partners of one of the most important economic blocs in the world," Pena Nieto said. The announcement comes amid uncertainty for both Mexican and European commercial ties with the United States under the presidency of Donald Trump, who has espoused a more protectionist stance on trade. Mexico is in ongoing talks with the United States and Canada on overhauling the North American Free Trade Agreement.

An entrepreneur wants to bring a global trend to the U. S. and put commercial airport terminals in the hands of private companies instead of the government. Starting in the fall, Brett Smith will get his chance at Paine Field in Everett, Washington. He is the founder and CEO of Propeller Investments, which secured a deal in 2015 to build and operate a passenger terminal at the airport Boeing uses to test its jets. The deal is notable because so-called public-private partnerships are rare in U.

Facebook has taken the lion's share of scrutiny from Congress and the media for its data-handling practices that allow savvy marketers and political agents to target specific audiences, but it's far from alone. YouTube, Google and Twitter also have giant platforms awash in more videos, posts and pages than any set of human eyes could ever check.

A Mickey Mantle baseball card from 1952 was sold at auction for $2.88 million, falling just short of setting a record. The card, sold by former NFL lineman Evan Mathis through Heritage Auctions, earned the second-highest figure for a card at an auction, trailing only the $3.12 million paid for a 1909 Honus Wagner card two years ago. Issued as part of its first full set of baseball cards by Topps, the Mantle card is one of six versions to have been rated a Mint 9 by PSA, one of the leading sports memorabilia authenticators, with three others having earned a Mint 10 rating. Mathis decided to sell the card, which was estimated to be valued at $3.5 million by Heritage, to free up money so he could move his wife and daughters to Tennessee to be closer to where he grew up in Alabama. A third-round pick by Carolina in the 2005 NFL draft, Mathis retired in January 2017 after 12 seasons as an offensive guard with the Panthers, Miami, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Denver and Arizona.

North Korea said Saturday it has suspended nuclear and long-range missile tests and plans to close its nuclear test site. The announcement came ahead of a new round of nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington, but there was no clear indication in the North's announcement if it would be willing to deal away its arsenal. The North rather expressed confidence about its nuclear force, which leader Kim Jong Un declared as complete in November after a slew of weapons tests that included the underground detonation of a purported thermonuclear warhead and flight tests of three intercontinental ballistic missiles. Some analysts believe Kim is entering the negotiations from a position of strength and is unlikely to accept a significant cut of his arsenal.

An audit of Facebook's privacy practices for the Federal Trade Commission found no problems even though the company knew at the time that a data-mining firm improperly obtained private data from millions of users.

The New York Times and other news outlets are reporting that federal regulators plan to fine Wells Fargo as much as $1 billion as early as Friday for abuses tied to its auto lending and mortgage…

The "Fearless Girl" statue near Wall Street that has become a global symbol of female can-do business spirit will be moved from her spot facing the "Charging Bull" to a location by the New York Stock Exchange. The ponytailed girl in a windblown dress became an internet sensation last spring when the artwork popped up confronting the famous bull that was a symbol of the American financial resilience in the wake of the 1987 stock market crash. State Street Global Advisors, the firm that installed the "Fearless Girl" statue in March 2017, said Thursday that it will be moved by the end of the year. "Fearless Girl" was designed to call attention to a State Street initiative to increase the number of women on corporate boards.

Higher mortgage rates are making the already challenging task of buying an affordable home even tougher for many Americans this spring.

Free food pantries are becoming nearly as common as the campus book store at a growing number of colleges. More than 570 campus food pantries nationwide are registered with the …

The chair of the British Parliament's media committee says that Cambridge Analytica's former CEO, Alexander Nix, says he will no longer testify at un upcoming session on fake news, citing an ongoing investigation by the information commissioner's office.

U. K. scientists at the University of Portsmouth accidentally engineered an super enzyme that degrades plastic even better than a known natural enzyme.