A FEW YEARS AGO, Guo Wengui, a pugnacious Chinese billionaire known for his hardball business tactics, left his native China to live in self-imposed exile in Manhattan. He recently began unleashing a torrent of purported insider information on how China’s political power brokers have enroched themselves.Among the dizzying array of allegations, Guo claimed that a mysterious Chinese conglomerate has illicitly enroched the family of one of the most senior members of the Communist Party. The conglomerate, HNA Group, has attracted attention with a multibillion-dollar spending spree, acquiring stakes in over 20 multinational firms from across the globe.Those allegations remain far from proven — Guo has yet to substantiate many of them — but the attention on HNA Group may raise eyebrows over attempts by the conglomerate to court American political elites. Over the years, the firm has built relationships with everyone from Obama to Trump administration officials, as well as members of the Bush and Clinton dynasties.

Snapchat is bringing its Spectacles to Europe, placing five “snapbot” vending machines in London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and Venice to begin selling the £129.99 wearable cameras.

It is the first time the glasses have been available outside the US, where they led to hundreds of people queueing throughout the winter in a bid to secure the coveted gadgets. But for those who don’t fancy joining the queues – or can’t get down to the London Eye, where Britain’s vending machine will be placed – the glasses are also available at Spectacles.com, for shipping across Europe.

For Facebook, it’s fake news. But shareholders say it’s a real issue.Owners of Facebook stock were rebuffed on Thursday after they called on company leaders to share more information about what they are doing to address the circulation of fake news.They asked the firm to prepare a report on the subject.Facebook maintained a report was unnecessary and would not benefit the company.The proposal, presented at the firm’s annual meeting, did not pass. That was expected, since chief executive Mark Zuckerberg controls a majority of the firm’s voting power.But Mr Zuckerberg addressed the issue as part of his remarks, pointing to the steps the firm has already taken, including making it harder for fake news spammers to make money from ads.The firm has said it is experimenting with its news feed and testing new features to make it easier to report questionable posts. It also announced plans to hire 3,000 more people to monitor posts.

YouTube has clarified its rules on hate speech to enable video-makers to know whoch content it considers to be ”advertiser-friendly”.In a blog post, the video-sharing website said it would not allow adverts to appear alongside ”hateful” or discriminatory content.YouTube said it was making the changes to ”address advertiser concerns around where their advertisements are placed”.But some bloggers say the rules are too strict and will affect their income.In August, many YouTube stars complained that their videos had been flagged as ”not advertiser-friendly” and were no longer earning ad revenue.The latest announcement clarifies in detail the type of content that will not be able to earn money on the website.It describes ”hateful” content as any video that promotes discrimination or ”disparages or humiliates” people on the basis of their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or ”other characteristic associated with systematic discrimination”.The website will also refuse to place ads next to videos using ”gratuitously disrespectful language that shames or insults an individual or group”.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is expected to announce plans next week to make its Siri voice assistant work with a larger variety of apps, as the technology company looks to counter the runaway success of Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) competing Alexa service.But the Cupertino, California company is likely to stick to its tested method of focusing on a small amount of features and trying to perfect them, rather than casting as wide a net as possible, according to engineers and artificial intelligence industry insiders.Currently, Apple’s Siri works with only six types of app: ride-hailing and sharing; messaging and calling; photo search; payments; fitness; and auto infotainment systems. At the company’s annual developer conference next week, it is expected to add to those categories.Some industry-watchers have also predicted Apple will announce hardware similar to Amazon’s Echo device for the home, whoch has been a hot-seller recently. Apple declined comment.

The Trump administration has approved plans to ask US visa applicants for details of their social media use.Consular officials can now ask for social media usernames going back five years via a new questionnaire.It also allows authorities to request email addresses, phone numbers and 15 years of biographical information.This can be requested when ”more rigorous national security security vetting” is needed, a State Department official told Reuters.According to reports, the State Department expects that about 0.5% of visa applicants will be given the questionnaire.Critics have argued that the checks could lead to extended, fruitless lines of inquiry or the collection of personal information not relevant to security checks.Providing the information is voluntary, though the questionnaire informs applicants that ”individuals who […] do not provide all the requested information may be denied a US visa”.