Business

Reuters reports: The European Union ruled out renegotiating the Brexit divorce treaty or its Irish border protocol on Tuesday as Prime Minister Theresa May sought last ditch assurances from the bloc to save her deal after pulling a vote she acknowledged she would lose. Less than four months until the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on …

The New York Post reports: Now 47, Armstrong reached a $5 million settlement with the US federal government in April when they could have sought up to $100 million if the doping fraud suit went to trial. But that doesn’t appear to come close to the windfall he’s made on an early investment in Uber. The Texas native invested $100,000 …

The Associated Press reports: The Commerce Department said Thursday that the gap between the United States sells and what it buys from foreign countries hit $55.5 billion in October, the fifth straight increase and highest since October 2008. The politically sensitive deficit in the trade of goods with China rose 7.1% to a record $43.1 billion.  The goods gap with …

The New York Times reports: Can play help refugee children heal from trauma? That’s the belief behind a new partnership formed by the Lego Foundation, Sesame Workshop and organizations working with Syrian and Rohingya refugees. In its first major humanitarian project, announced on Wednesday, the foundation will provide $100 million over five years to the makers of “Sesame Street” to …

Reuters reports: Volkswagen will develop its final generation of vehicles using combustion engine technology in 2026, the company’s strategy chief said today. VW made a strategy shift toward battery-driven vehicles in the wake of a damaging diesel-emissions cheating scandal in 2015, which forced the carmaker to pay billions of dollars in fines for hiding excessive pollution. “In the year 2026 …

CNBC reports: Marriott International said on Friday that a guest reservation database of its Starwood Hotel brand was breached, potentially exposing information on about 500 million guests. The company said its investigation showed that an unauthorized party had copied and encrypted information, and that there had been unauthorized access to the Starwood network since 2014. The company said it had …

The BBC reports: The Frankfurt headquarters of Deutsche Bank have been raided by prosecutors in a money laundering investigation. Germany’s public prosecutor alleged that two staff members have helped clients launder money from criminal activities. Police cars were seen outside the tower blocks that house the headquarters of Germany’s biggest bank. Other Deutsche offices in the city were searched in …

CNBC reports: It’s been a year in the making, but CVS Health finally closed Wednesday on its acquisition of Aetna, creating a new health-care powerhouse. The merger combines CVS’ pharmacies with Aetna’s insurance business, blurring traditionally distinct lines in hopes of lowering costs. CVS also has one of largest pharmacy benefits managers through CVS Caremark and a major Medicare Part …

Slate reports: President Trump signaled in a Wall Street Journal interview that he is expecting to place tariffs on all Chinese imports, including potentially the iPhone and other Apple products, if negotiations at the upcoming G20 summit with President Xi Jinping fall through. “I can make it 10 percent and people could stand that very easily,” Trump said of price …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump will consider cutting all subsidies to General Motors after the company announced plans to slash productions at several American plants, he said Tuesday. The automaker’s shares fell following the tweet and were down more than 2 percent on Tuesday afternoon. The tweet escalates the president’s public threats against GM as he pushes the company to …

NBC News reports: A New Jersey college asked its students what new restaurant they wanted on campus — but then took Chick-fil-A off the menu. Rider University, a private university in central New Jersey, polled students in the spring about what franchise they would like to see on campus. The results showed a preference for Chick-fil-A, which boasts the slogan …

The Chicago Tribune reports: General Motors will lay off 14,700 factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles. The reduction includes 8,100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. Most of …

Axios reports: In trading this morning, the Dow, the S&P and Nasdaq all wiped out their gains for the year. Retail stocks were hit hard just two days before Black Friday, the biggest brick-and-mortar shopping event of the year. Many traditional retailers have reported strong sales growth quarter after quarter this year — Target reported today that sales surged 5.1% …

USA Today reports: Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co.’s influential chairman Carlos Ghosn was fired and arrested Monday after an internal probe found he underreported his salary and for other financial violations, including the personal use of company assets, the firm and Japanese state media said. Nissan said in a statement that Ghosn would be dismissed after an internal probe based …

STAT News reports: For years, so-called influencers — celebrities, former reality television contestants and sometimes, former lawyers or other professionals — have hawked diet teas and hair products everywhere from Facebook to Snapchat. And now, pharma is catching on. An entire industry has cropped up to link drug makers with the industry’s own version of an influencer — people, usually …

The New York Times reports: Facing mounting government pressure and a public backlash over the epidemic of teenage vaping, Juul Labs announced on Tuesday that it would stop selling most of its flavored e-cigarette pods in retail stores and would discontinue its social media promotions. The decision by the San Francisco-based company, which has more than 70 percent of the …

The New York Daily News reports: Amazon will get $1.5 billion in tax breaks and grants from New York to host half its new headquarters in Long Island City. The company announced Tuesday, after weeks of speculation, that it will open new headquarters in Queens, and Arlington, Virginia. Each location is expected to be home to more than 25,000 employees, …

Forbes reports: Today Petco announces it will stop selling pet food and treats containing artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. After May 2019 customers will no longer find brands containing such ingredients on their shelves. More than 40 artificial ingredients are on its banned list. The private San Diego-based company is rated #100 in Forbes’ America’s Largest Private Company list with …

Reuters reports: Amazon.com Inc will on Tuesday announce it has selected New York and Northern Virginia for its second headquarters, a source told Reuters, ending a more than year-long contest that has seen frenzied bidding from locales across North America. Amazon’s plan to split its second headquarters, dubbed “HQ2”, evenly between two cities will boost its presence around New York …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Google is gearing up for an expansion of its New York City real estate that could add space for more than 12,000 new workers, an amount nearly double the search giant’s current staffing in the city, according to people familiar with the matter. The plan, which hasn’t been previously disclosed, would give Google room for …