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The holiday shopping season is underway, and this year small businesses have less time to capitalize on the busy shopping period. Only 27 days separate Thanksgiving and Christmas — five fewer than last year. But there are still ways to make the most of a shorter season. The National Retail Federation predicts that retail sales will rise between 2.5% and 3.5% compared with same period a year ago. Online shopping is expected to grow too. Adobe Digital Insights, a division of software company Adobe, predicts an 8.4% increase online for the full season. But small businesses have to work extra hard to compete against bigger retailers. One key strategy is to promote deals to customers wherever you can, from social media to physical ads. Also, cultivate repeat customers by offering…

General Motors said this week it will retreat from the robotaxi business and stop funding its money-losing Cruise autonomous vehicle unit. Instead the Detroit automaker will focus on development of partially automated driver-assist systems for personal vehicles like its Super Cruise, which allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel. GM said it would get out of robotaxis “given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market.” The company said it will combine Cruise’s technical team with its own to work on advanced systems to assist drivers. GM bought control of San Francisco-based Cruise automation in 2016 with high hopes of developing a profitable fleet of robotaxis. Over the years GM invested billions in the subsidiary…

China has banned exports of key materials used to make a wide range of products, including smartphones, electric vehicles, radar systems and CT scanners, swiping back at Washington after it expanded export controls to include dozens of Chinese companies that make equipment used to produce advanced computer chips. Both sides say their controls are justified by national security concerns and both accuse the other of “weaponizing” trade. Analysts say the latest restrictions could have a wide impact on manufacturing in many industries and supply chains. “Critical mineral security is now intrinsically linked to the escalating tech trade war,” Gracelin Baskaran and Meredith Schwartz of the Center for Strategic International Studies, wrote in a report on Beijing’s decision. The full impact will depend partly on whether U.S. industries can compensate for…

Boeing has laid off hundreds of additional employees in Washington state and California as part of planned cuts that will eventually reduce the company’s workforce by about 17,000. Nearly 400 Boeing employees were laid off in Washington state and more than 500 in California, news outlets reported this week. The aerospace giant announced previously it would reduce its workforce by 10% in the coming months as it tries to recover from financial and regulatory troubles and a strike by its machinists that lasted almost two months. CEO Kelly Ortberg has said the strike did not cause the layoffs, which he said was the result of overstaffing. In November, the company started notifying workers who would be laid off. Notices filed with state employment agencies showed the first round of cuts…

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Chinese electric battery company CATL and automaker Stellantis will build a major battery factory in northern Spain, the partners announced this week. They said the plant will be located in Zaragoza and start producing lithium iron phosphate batteries by the end of 2026. The joint venture represents an investment of 4.1 billion euros ($4.3 billion), they said in a statement. The plant plans to be carbon neutral, apparently by making use of Spain’s ample supplies of solar, wind and water power. The announcement comes after CATL and Stellantis agreed in November 2023 to collaborate on fabrication of batteries to help build electric cars in Europe. European carmakers are struggling to keep up with their Chinese counterparts in electric cars, a key pillar of the green transition that the European Union…

Shares of Nvidia slid this week after China said it is investigating the high-flying U.S. microchip company over suspected violations of Chinese anti-monopoly laws. In a brief press release with few details, Chinese regulators appear to be focusing on Nvidia’s $6.9 billion acquisition of network and data transmission company Mellanox in 2019. Nvidia shares dipped 2.5%, falling below $140 each. Considered a bellwether for artificial intelligence demand, Nvidia has led the AI sector to become one of the stock market’s biggest companies, as tech giants spend heavily on the company’s chips and data centers needed to train and operate their AI systems. Nvidia’s shares have nearly tripled this year with the California company revenue and profit soaring on AI demand. According to data firm FactSet, about 16% of Nvidia’s revenue…

The holiday season is upon us, and what better way to show your loved ones you care than with a thoughtful tech gift? Apple has been a favorite for those looking to surprise friends and family with functional, stylish, high-performance gadgets. There’s something for everyone! THE ULTIMATE IN AUDIO Apple’s AirPods are some of today’s most recognizable and sought-after tech products. Apple’s AirPods market alone is worth almost $200 billion and counting. Offering a range of options, Apple has something for every type of listener, whether they prefer casual listening or audiophile-quality sound. The AirPods 4 are ideal for an affordable and reliable wireless earbud solution. With seamless integration with iOS devices, excellent sound quality, and a comfortable fit, they offer everything most users need for everyday tasks. Whether for…

Keira Knightley starred in one of the most popular Christmas films of the 21st century, the 2003 romantic comedy “Love Actually.” Her new Netflix series “Black Doves” is also set during the holidays, but in this, she plays a spy alongside Ben Whishaw’s assassin. Knightley says the show falls under the “Die Hard” category of Christmas fare. “It’s like, ‘I’ve spent too much time with my family, I hate them all, I need to watch something blow up,’” Knightley said during a recent interview alongside Whishaw. “If you’re having a nice time, you can watch ‘Love Actually.’ And if you’re feeling quite cross, you can watch ‘Black Doves.’ Christmas entertainment is provided. You’re welcome!” Knightley’s character Helen is a spy for a secret agency called Black Doves, which has no…

A tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to lead NASA. Jared Isaacman, 41, CEO and founder of a credit card-processing company, has been a close collaborator with Musk ever since buying his first chartered flight with SpaceX. He took along contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a flight where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits. If confirmed, Isaacman will replace Bill Nelson, 82, a former Democratic senator from Florida who was nominated by President Joe Biden. Nelson flew aboard space shuttle Columbia in 1986 – on the flight right before the Challenger disaster — while a congressman. Isaacman said he…

Attorneys for Meta shareholders asked a Delaware judge this week to sanction the company’s former Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and fellow Facebook board member and current White House chief of staff Jeff Zients for deleting emails related to the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, despite being told to preserve such records. The plaintiff attorneys contend that Sandberg and Zients used personal email accounts to communicate about key issues relating to their 2018 shareholder lawsuit that alleged Facebook officers and directors violated both the law and their fiduciary duties in failing for years to protect the privacy of user data. “Although Sandberg and Zients received a litigation hold requiring them to preserve documents from these accounts, they both knowingly and permanently destroyed electronically stored information from such sources,” attorneys said in…

California, home to some of the largest technology companies in the world, would be the first U.S. state to require mental health warning labels on social media sites if lawmakers pass a bill introduced this week. The legislation sponsored by state Attorney General Rob Bonta is necessary to bolster safety for children online, supporters say, but industry officials vow to fight the measure and others like it under the First Amendment. Warning labels for social media gained swift bipartisan support from dozens of attorneys general, including Bonta, after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to establish the requirements earlier this year, saying social media is a contributing factor in the mental health crisis among young people. “These companies know the harmful impact their products can have on our…

The Walt Disney Co.’s animated film “Moana 2” remained at the top of the box office in its second weekend in theaters as it brought in another record haul. The film added $52 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. That brings its domestic total to $300 million, surpassing the original, and its global tally to a staggering $600 million. The amount set a record gross for a movie on the weekend following Thanksgiving weekend, unseating “Frozen II,” which earned $35.2 million in the same time frame in 2019. The numbers are not adjusted for inflation. Originally conceived as a Disney+ series, “Moana 2” has already broken into the top five highest grossing releases of the year. Its performance means Disney has three films in this year’s top five, including “Inside…

U.S. consumers who were “tricked” into purchases they didn’t want from Fortnite maker Epic Games are now starting to receive refund checks, the Federal Trade Commission said this week. Back in 2022, Epic agreed to pay a total of $520 million to settle complaints revolving around children’s privacy and payment methods on its popular Fortnite game. The FTC alleged the video game giant used deceptive online design tactics to trick Fortnite players, including children, into making unintended purchases “based on the press of a single button.” Consumers could be charged while doing something as simple as attempting the wake the game from sleep mode, for example, or by pressing a nearby button when trying to preview an item, the agency said. The FTC also accused Epic of blocking some users…

TikTok asked a federal appeals court on Monday to bar the Biden administration from enforcing a law that could lead to a ban on the popular platform until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge to the statute. The legal filing was made after a panel of three judges on the same court sided with the government last week and ruled that the law, which requires TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest its stakes in the social media company or face a ban, was constitutional. If the law is not overturned, both TikTok and its parent ByteDance, which is also a plaintiff in the case, have claimed that the popular app will shut down by Jan. 19, 2025. TikTok has more than 170 million American users who would be affected,…