It is a story that now happens just about every September: Apple introduced new iPhones that have slightly bigger screens, faster speeds and better cameras — but no new major advances.

In a prerecorded infomercial, Apple executives framed the improvements in the new iPhone 13 as significant innovations, but they result in a device that looks and performs much like the iPhones that Apple touted last year.

Apple said the new iPhones have a brighter screen, longer battery life and more powerful cameras and computer processors. Having already pushed the screen nearly to the edge of the device, Apple slightly increased its size by reducing the small notch at the top of the screen. Apple kept the same flat-edge design of the phone that it has used in other recent models.

Apple is hoping that by adding new features and making slight design improvements, customers will keep shelling out more money. It is a strategy that has worked for a long time. The iPhone, now in...

China Evergrande, the troubled property giant that has become a symbol of debt and excess in the world’s second-largest economy, said on Tuesday that it faced “tremendous” financial pressure and had hired restructuring experts to “explore all feasible solutions” for its future.

The company’s fate, however, remains unclear, as it struggles in a country where business troubles often attract the direct attention — and the direct meddling — of Beijing.

Evergrande’s admission that its finances have taken a sharp turn sent its already battered shares down by 12 percent on Tuesday. Its shares have lost more than four-fifths of their value over the past year.

Its foreign-traded bonds plunged, too, leaving global investors in some cases with investments valued at roughly 25 cents to the dollar.

Apple on Tuesday introduced the new version of its entry-level $300 iPad with a 10.2 inch screen.

At its annual product event, which the company holds to set the stage for its holiday sales, the iPad was the first gadget to be showcased. The new tablet emphasizes video calls, a popular use for the devices during the pandemic. The new version includes improved cameras and special software to make video calls more pleasant by detecting people and automatically following their movements.

Apple also updated the iPad Mini, its smaller $500 tablet, giving it a new design and larger, brighter screen. It now includes flat edges, matching the aesthetic of newer iPhones, and the home button was removed to make more room for the 8.3-inch display.

The new tablets join an already crowded iPad portfolio. The company now offers five models of the iPad in various screen sizes with prices ranging from $300 to $2,400.

The iPad has been Apple’s fastest-growing product...

Apple on Tuesday introduced the new version of its entry-level $300 iPad with a 10.2 inch screen.

At its annual product event, which the company holds to set the stage for its holiday sales, the iPad was the first gadget to be showcased. The new tablet emphasizes video calls, a popular use for the devices during the pandemic. The new version includes improved cameras and special software to make video calls more pleasant by detecting people and automatically following their movements.

Apple also updated the iPad Mini, its smaller $500 tablet, giving it a new design and larger, brighter screen. It now includes flat edges, matching the aesthetic of newer iPhones, and the home button was removed to make more room for the 8.3-inch display.

The new tablets join an already crowded iPad portfolio. The company now offers five models of the iPad in various screen sizes with prices ranging from $300 to $2,400.

The iPad has been Apple’s fastest-growing product...

It’s that time of the year again, when Apple unveils its latest gadgets ahead of the holiday season.

On Tuesday, the iPhone maker will hold its annual product event — virtually, because of the coronavirus pandemic — and present its newest lineup. The new products — including iPhones and Apple Watch — will have a strong focus on screens, in an era when people are increasingly glued to them.

The company plans to broadcast a video presentation starting at 10 a.m. Pacific time to show new iPhones with improved displays and Apple Watches with slightly larger screens, according to people briefed on the event, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the products. Apple declined to comment.

The aesthetic of the new iPhones will closely resemble that of last year’s models, the people said. The biggest change will be to the screen, which will have what is known as a higher “refresh rate” that will make videos and motion look smoother. The camera will also be...

The plan sounded simple enough.

The federal government has long owned more real estate than it knows what to do with — buildings that sit empty and sites that are underdeveloped — but it must jump through hoops before it can sell its holdings. So surplus properties languish while taxpayers foot the bill for maintenance.

The solution, springing from legislation passed in 2016, was an independent agency that would quickly identify underused properties and expedite their disposal.

But nothing has been simple about the Public Buildings Reform Board, as the little-known agency is called.

It took three years for the five existing board members to be sworn in, and two empty seats remain, including that of the chairman. The Government Accountability Office reported that the board did not adequately document how it went about selecting properties for sale. The board was sued when it sought to sell a Seattle building that is a repository of important tribal...

A recent run-up in consumer prices cooled slightly in August, signaling that although inflation is higher than normal, the White House and Federal Reserve may be beginning to see the slowdown in price gains they have been hoping for.

Policymakers have consistently argued that a surprisingly strong burst of inflation this year has been tied to pandemic-related quirks and should prove temporary, and most economists agree that prices will climb more slowly as businesses adjust and supply chains return to normal. The major question hanging over the economy’s future has been how much and how quickly the jump will fade.

Tuesday’s data suggested that a surge in Delta-variant coronavirus cases is weighing on airfares and hotel rates, but it also showed that price increases for key products — like cars — are beginning to moderate, helping to cool off overall inflation. The Consumer Price Index rose 5.3 percent in August from the prior year, data released by the Labor...

The coronavirus pandemic last year left millions of people out of work and set off the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression. Yet the share of people living in poverty in the United States last year actually declined by at least one measure because of the government’s enormous relief effort.

About 9.1 percent of Americans were poor last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, down from 11.8 percent in 2019. That is based on a measure of poverty that accounts for the impact of government aid programs, which last year lifted millions of people out of poverty. The government’s official measure, which leaves out some major aid programs, rose to 11.4 percent, from a record low 10.5 percent in 2019.

The fact that poverty did not rise more during such an enormous economic disruption reflects the equally enormous government response. Congress expanded unemployment benefits and food aid, doled out hundreds of billions of dollars to small businesses and sent...

Senator Elizabeth Warren says Wells Fargo has run out of time to fix the many internal problems that have harmed its customers.

In a letter to the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, on Monday, Ms. Warren asked the Fed to force the financial giant to break off its core banking activities, like offering checking and savings accounts and loans, from its other financial services.

Divorcing Wall Street-centric work — which can include managing investment funds and providing financial market sales and trading services — from the bank would ensure that Wells Fargo’s everyday customers did not continue to suffer, Ms. Warren wrote. The Fed could accomplish this, she explained, by revoking Wells Fargo’s financial holding company license — essentially making it impossible for the company to operate any nonbanking businesses.

“Continuing to allow this giant bank with a broken culture to conduct business in its current form poses substantial risks to consumers and...

A recent run-up in consumer prices cooled slightly in August, signaling that although inflation is higher than normal, the White House and Federal Reserve may be beginning to see the slowdown in price gains they have been hoping for.

Policymakers have consistently argued that a surprisingly strong burst of inflation this year has been tied to pandemic-related quirks and should prove temporary, and most economists agree that prices will climb more slowly as businesses adjust and supply chains return to normal. The major question hanging over the economy’s future has been how much and how quickly the jump will fade.

Tuesday’s data suggested that a surge in Delta-variant coronavirus cases is weighing on airfares and hotel rates, but it also showed that price increases for key products — like cars — are beginning to moderate, helping to cool off overall inflation. The Consumer Price Index rose 5.3 percent in August from the prior year, data released by the Labor...

China Evergrande, the troubled property giant that has become a symbol of debt and excess in the world’s second-largest economy, said on Tuesday that it faced “tremendous” financial pressure and had hired restructuring experts to “explore all feasible solutions” for its future.

The company’s fate, however, remains unclear, as it struggles in a country where business troubles often attract the direct attention — and the direct meddling — of Beijing.

Evergrande’s admission that its finances have taken a sharp turn sent its already battered shares down by 12 percent on Tuesday. Its shares have lost more than four-fifths of their value over the past year.

Its foreign-traded bonds plunged, too, leaving global investors in some cases with investments valued at roughly 25 cents to the dollar.

The S.E.C. chair Gary Gensler will testify before the Senate Banking Committee today, after five months on the job. Since his confirmation, his public statements have generated much debate, many headlines and more than a few market movements. This morning, based on his prepared remarks, he’ll make the case for additional resources to achieve a more expansive agenda than many of his predecessors at the commission.

Here’s what to expect on some hot-button issues:

Gensler wants to “freshen up” the rules. To promote efficiency and competition, he’s considering structural issues, like whether there is too much concentration among market makers, and conflicts of interest, like those arising from payment for order flow. Speeding up transaction settlements, which now take about two business days, is also a goal Gensler notes in his remarks, and one that Republican senators want him to pursue, a committee aide said.

When it comes to crypto, buyers beware. Gensler will...

The news release went out at 9:30 a.m. Monday, just as the U.S. stock market opened. It claimed to be from Walmart and had some big news for the cryptocurrency industry: The nation’s largest retailer would soon begin accepting payment in Litecoin, a digital currency.

The announcement appeared real enough that several media outlets wrote it up. Even the Twitter account for the Litecoin Foundation, which promotes the use of the currency, touted the release in a post. The value of Litecoin jumped more than 30 percent before Walmart put out a statement saying the news was false.

The newest thing in finance had apparently fallen prey to one of the oldest investor hoaxes around — a classic pump-and-dump scheme. Someone issued a false news release, likely taking advantage of the general hoopla around cryptocurrency to stoke enthusiasm for Litecoin, which is far less popular than Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Litecoin’s price jumped to about $230 from around $175...

China’s buzzy high-tech companies don’t usually recruit Cambodian speakers, so the job ads for three well-paid positions with those language skills stood out. The ad, seeking writers of research reports, was placed by an internet security start-up in China’s tropical island-province of Hainan.

That start-up was more than it seemed, according to American law enforcement. Hainan Xiandun Technology was part of a web of front companies controlled by China’s secretive state security ministry, according to a federal indictment from May. They hacked computers from the United States to Cambodia to Saudi Arabia, seeking sensitive government data as well as less-obvious spy stuff, like details of a New Jersey company’s fire-suppression system, according to prosecutors.

The accusations appear to reflect an increasingly aggressive campaign by Chinese government hackers and a pronounced shift in their tactics: China’s premier spy agency is increasingly reaching beyond its own...

In 1962, rival divisions inside General Motors — Oldsmobile and Chevrolet — concluded a furious intramural race to build an advanced engine using battle-proven technology used in World War II fighter planes. This technology boosted both engine power and gas mileage. It also pointed the way for Detroit to break its addiction to ever larger gas-guzzling engines by getting more power from lighter, more efficient motors.

That cutting-edge technology was called a turbocharger. In the 1960s it was exotic, it was innovative, and for G.M. it was — above all — a disaster.

The Olds F-85 Jetfire and the Chevy Corvair Monza Spyder were America’s first mass-produced turbocharged passenger cars, and they were such technological and commercial flops that Detroit would shun turbos for years to come.

The turbo, now found on everything from Honda Civics to Dodge Hellcats, would not gain mass acceptance until the 1980s, when its reputation was restored by a quirky Swede.