BRIEFLY

MAIL-IN VOTING: A federal judge blocked the U.S. Postal Service's proposed restrictions on mail-in voting Wednesday, finding that they violated a settlement with a leading civil rights group that required expedited mail-in ballot handling.

CHATBOTS: The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that AI companies whose chatbots produce responses that reflect "ideological objectives" may violate federal law, as part of a proposed policy on how the FTC will apply its authority to the sector.

CENTRAL BANK: Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh said Wednesday he will stick firmly to the U.S. central bank's 2% inflation target and will "disappoint" anyone who expects loose monetary policy despite President Donald Trump's call for interest rate cuts.

TAIWAN: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the U.S. to handle matters related to Taiwan with "the utmost caution" during a phone call Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Wang's ministry said Wednesday.

GOOGLE: A Swedish court on Wednesday ordered Alphabet's Google to pay about $1.5 billion in damages to PriceRunner, the price comparison business owned by payments platform Klarna, for favoring its own shopping service in search results.

GAS PIPELINE: Germany's top prosecutor indicted a Ukrainian national Wednesday over the 2022 explosions that crippled the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea, moving one of Europe's most politically sensitive sabotage cases closer to trial.

— Reuters