PRESS DIGEST- Wall Street Journal - April 18

April 18 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

- Alphabet's Google said it fired 28 employees who protested this week against the tech giant's cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government.

- Oracle plans to invest more than $8 billion in Japan over the next decade to meet the growing demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure in the world's fourth-largest economy.

- 23andMe's CEO Anne Wojcicki is seeking to take her DNA-testing company private after three years in public markets that saw the once-hot company's valuation collapse from a high of $6 billion.

- U.S. government said it would allow some American and European oil companies to carry on in Venezuela after its efforts to coax President Nicolas Maduro into democratic overhauls by lifting economic sanctions ended in a hardening of his authoritarian regime.

- U.S. President Joe Biden called for raising tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from China, beginning what is expected to be a broadside of protectionist steps against Beijing during a presidential election in which trade is a flashpoint.

- Beijing said it opposes a U.S. probe into China's shipbuilding industry, calling the investigation a politically driven move full of "false accusations" and threatening to take further action. (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)