ROME –– Chinese President Xi Jinping recruited Italy's populist government to his global Belt and Road development project with the signing of an agreement that worries the U.S. and the European Union as China pushes for economic domination.

Italy is the first Group of Seven nation to volunteer for a role in the big international project.

...Read more

Cuba would have to spend nearly $2 billion a year to meet its domestic oil needs if Venezuela's National Assembly and interim president Juan Guaido manage to stop deliveries to the Caribbean island.

"Cuba's demand for oil is about 130,000 barrels per day, and Cuba produces about 50,000 barrels per day, which means a deficit of about 80,000 ...Read more

With spring officially back in swing, be prepared for gas prices to begin their annual ascent.

Small yet significant changes in your driving habits can help you cut a few bucks off your monthly gas expenses. Many drivers have come to realize that subtle alterations to their driving strategies become second nature in a matter of weeks. Here are ...Read more

After a slow January, California employers boosted hiring in February as workers moved more rapidly off the sidelines into the job market to expand the labor force.

Payrolls rose by 14,600 positions, accounting for nearly three quarters of an unusually low 20,000 jobs added nationwide last month, state employment officials reported. California'...Read more

Viacom Inc. is locked in a high-stakes showdown with AT&T as the telecommunications giant weighs whether to drop Viacom's cable networks -- including MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, BET and Nickelodeon -- to save $1 billion a year in programming costs.

The two companies have been negotiating this week to try to hammer out a new carriage contract with...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. posted its biggest monthly budget deficit on record last month, amid falling corporate and individual tax revenue and increasing federal spending.

The budget gap widened to $234 billion in February, compared with a fiscal gap of $215.2 billion a year earlier. That gap surpassed the previous monthly record of $231.7 ...Read more

After weeks of criticism over its U.S. manufacturing cuts, General Motors said Friday it plans to spend $300 million to build a new electric car at its Orion Assembly Plant north of Detroit and provided a vigorous defense of its U.S. manufacturing commitment.

GM said it plans to add about 400 workers at the Orion factory, which currently builds...Read more

Comcast said Thursday that it will launch a $5-a-month streaming platform for internet-only customers, targeting consumers who have ditched traditional pay TV for online video streaming.

The new service, called Xfinity Flex, will let customers access their subscriptions to such streaming services as Netflix and Amazon Prime, as well as 10,000 ...Read more

Neel Kashkari, the Minneapolis Fed president who has been a vocal opponent of interest rate hikes, Friday laid out new thinking on a key benchmark as he expressed support Friday for the central bank's decision earlier this week to hold rates in place, likely for the year.

Kashkari, who will get a vote on the Fed's rate-setting committee again ...Read more

SUVs justify their workhorse reputation in a survey of longest lasting vehicles by car-buying website iseecars.com.

The vehicles most likely to reach 200,000 miles or more are overwhelmingly likely to be SUVs, according to the website's analysis of 13.8 million used cars sold in 2018. Vehicles in the survey were built from 1981 to 2018. The ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- A fierce struggle over automation has erupted at the Port of Los Angeles, as local union officials representing some 12,000 dockworkers demand that one of the world's largest shipping firms abandon a plan to introduce driverless electric cargo trucks.

Shouting, whistling and jeering, more than 1,200 union members, local business ...Read more

Q: I have been experiencing a water leak in our GMC Yukon.

It does not have a sunroof. There is no crack in the windshield. For approximately one month we noticed a soggy carpet on the front passenger side. There have been heavy rains this past month. Then a week later we noticed the front drivers side carpet soaked. Our fear is mold will set ...Read more

Q: I read the column in which a reader who owns a 2007 Ford Fusion in need of $1,100 in suspension repairs was asking whether to do the work if the car's airbags had not been replaced.

I own a 2008 Acura RL, which was included in the airbag recalls. I received the standard letter from Acura letting me know repairs would be covered and to ...Read more

The pharmacy's workers cleared the shelves. A maintenance crew took down the signs. And then they shut the pharmacy's doors for the final time in July.

Dave Falk said he was forced to close his Sav-Mor Pharmacy in rural Mount Pulaski, Ill., after the recent expansion of a state program that relies on private insurers to administer Medicaid ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- It started with installing some red and green LED lights. Then came the disco balls, neon eyeglasses and a gold Bluetooth karaoke microphone.

Daniel Flannery had transformed the car he drives for Uber and Lyft into a party on wheels.

"You put everything together, and it encourages people to loosen up," he said. "Sometimes...Read more

The passenger jets that crashed in Ethiopia and Indonesia, killing hundreds, reportedly lacked special safety features in their cockpits -- features that Boeing charged extra for.

Meanwhile, buyers of new cars have to decide how much extra they want to shell out for add-on safety features such as lane-departure warnings, technology that could ...Read more

A unicorn comes to Wall Street in the week ahead.

Riding sharing company Lyft is expected to list its stock on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange beginning Friday morning. It may be the second-largest transportation network firm behind Uber, but it would become the first to the public market.

If Lyft is as successful as expected at selling its stock to...Read more

A legless bird, the founder of Detroit and meticulous hand-craftsmanship all define Cadillac's most exclusive and expensive engine: The Blackwing.

It's such a prized piece of engineering that Cadillac refuses to share it with other General Motors brands despite speculation it could go in the Chevrolet Corvette.

"Over my dead body," Cadillac ...Read more