Business Highlights: Retailers improve delivery speeds, Brazil sues meatpacker JBS
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Retailers are improving their delivery speeds, meaning good news for late holiday shoppers
NEW YORK (AP) — Haven’t ordered any of your holiday gifts yet? Well, you might find solace in discovering some of America’s biggest retailers are working to increase their shipping speeds to please shoppers expecting faster and faster deliveries. Walmart, Target and Amazon are all-in on the shipping wars, a move retail experts say will help them maintain a competitive edge against low-cost China-founded retailers Shein and Temu. For Walmart and Target, their investments are also aimed at narrowing the gap in delivery speed with Amazon, which has set the standard for fast shipping and remains the king of speed.
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Brazil lawsuits link JBS to destruction of Amazon in protected area, seek millions in damages
JACI-PARANA, Brazil (AP) — In an unusual series of legal actions, Brazilian prosecutors have sued multinational meatpacker JBS and three smaller slaughterhouses for allegedly buying cattle directly from illegal ranches in a protected area. The lawsuits include a type of evidence that is turning heads among Brazilian environmental autorities — transit documents that purport to show a direct sale of cattle from deforested protected areas to the meatpackers. Usually when deforestation beef is at issue, the cattle have had their origin obscured. JBS said nearly all its cattle are purchased legally.
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Takeaways from lawsuits accusing JBS, others of contributing to Amazon deforestation
JACI-PARANA, Brazil (AP) — Authorities in a western Brazil state are taking aim at deforestation of the Amazon with a slew of lawsuits against slaughterhouses and farmers accused of illegally raising cattle in a protected area. The lawsuits seek millions of dollars for environmental damage in the Jaci-Parana reserve, an area that was once rainforest. It’s now mostly grassland after decades of misuse by land-grabbers, loggers and cattle ranchers. The state of Rondonia has brought the lawsuits against meat processing giant JBS and three smaller slaughterhouses, along with farmers accused of raising and selling cattle illegally. And prosecutors say key evidence was provided by the ranchers themselves.
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Google to pay $700 million to US states, consumers in app store settlement
Google has agreed to pay $700 million and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store — the same issue that went to trial in another case that could result in even bigger changes. Although Google struck the deal with state attorneys general in September, the settlement’s terms weren’t revealed until late Monday. The disclosure came a week after a federal court jury rebuked Google for deploying anticompetitive tactics in its Play Store for Android apps. The settlement includes $630 million to compensate U.S. consumers funneled into a payment processing system that state attorneys general alleged drove up prices.
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White House backs industry effort to standardize Tesla’s EV charging plugs
The White House is lending its support to an auto industry effort to standardize Tesla’s electric vehicle charging plugs for all EVs in the United States, part of a broad effort to stimulate their sales to help combat climate change. Purchases of EVs in the U.S. have lagged behind sales in such countries as China and Germany. One key reason is that the limited availability of charging infrastructure across the country has been a widespread concern for many would-be buyers of EVs. Tesla, the leader in the EV market, operates the largest network of fast-chargers. And many of its Supercharger stations are in prime locations along highly traveled corridors, where other charging stations are sparse.
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Meta’s initial decisions to remove 2 videos of Israel-Hamas war reversed by Oversight Board
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — A quasi-independent review board has ruled that Facebook parent company Meta should overturn two decisions it made this fall to remove posts “informing the world about human suffering on both sides” of the Israel-Hamas war. In both cases, Meta ended up reinstating the posts — one showing Palestinian casualties and the other, an Israeli hostage — on its own, although it added warning screens to both due to violent content. So the company doesn’t need to do anything about the board’s decision. That said, the board also said it disagrees with Meta’s decision to bar the posts in question from being recommended “even in cases where it had determined posts intended to raise awareness.”
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It’s not a happy holiday at Starbucks, facing boycotts over the Middle East war and unionization
It’s been a tough few weeks for Starbucks. At a time when it hoped to be spreading holiday cheer, it’s juggling boycotts over the war in the Middle East and over a unionization effort at home. Seattle-based Starbucks won’t yet say how its sales have been impacted. The company’s next quarterly sales report won’t come out until February. But there are indications Starbucks is taking a sales hit. Earlier this month, J.P. Morgan analyst John Ivankoe lowered his U.S. sales forecast for Starbucks’ fiscal first quarter, saying holiday sales appeared to be slower than promotions in the fall.
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Members of a union representing German train drivers vote for open-ended strikes in bitter dispute
BERLIN (AP) — Members of a union representing German train drivers have voted overwhelmingly to stage open-ended strikes in a bitter dispute with the main national railway operator over working hours and pay. The GDL union said Tuesday that 97% of members who voted in a ballot authorized fully fledged strikes at state-owned Deutsche Bahn. That result easily beat the 75% approval required. GDL already has staged two one-day “warning strikes” which is a common tactic in German wage negotiations. But this dispute has escalated unusually fast. GDL’s chairman declared last month that negotiations with Deutsche Bahn had failed after only two rounds of talks. He says there will be no strikes before Jan. 8 but is leaving open when and for how long members will walk out.
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Stock market today: Wall Street ticks up, and S&P 500 pulls closer to a record on rate-cut hopes
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street ticked higher amid hopes that moves by Japan’s central bank to keep interest rates easy for investors could be a preview for the rest of the world. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% Tuesday and is just shy of its record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.7%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was one of the world’s biggest winners after its central bank decided to keep its benchmark rate below zero in hopes of encouraging more borrowing and spending. Hopes are building that the Federal Reserve may cut U.S. interest rates several times next year.
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Apple to halt sales of its newest watches in US over patent dispute
If two of the latest Apple Watches are on your holiday shopping list, don’t dawdle for much longer because the devices won’t be available to buy in the U.S. later this week if the White House doesn’t intervene in an international patent dispute. Apple plans to suspend sales of the Series 9 and Ultra 2 versions of its popular watch for online U.S. customers beginning at 3 p.m. ET Thursday and in its stores on Sunday. The move stems from an October decision from the International Trade Commission restricting Apple’s watches with a Blood Oxygen feature as part of an intellectual property dispute with medical technology company Masimo.
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The S&P 500 rose 27.81 points, or 0.6%, to 4,768.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 251.90 points, or 0.7%, to 37,557.92. The Nasdaq composite rose 98.03 points, or 0.7%, to 15,003.22. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 38.54 points, or 1.9%, to 2,020.95.
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