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China’s exports rebounded in November after an unexpected contraction the previous month, pushing its trade surplus past $1 trillion for the first time, according to data released Monday. Exports climbed 5.9% from a year earlier in November while imports rose just under 2%. The customs data released on Monday also showed that shipments to the U.S. dropped nearly 29% year-on-year. But as trade with the U.S. weakens, China is diversifying its export markets throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. China’s exports had contracted just over 1% in October. November’s worldwide exports of $330.3 billion exceeded economists’ estimates. Imports tot…

The long battle over control of Warner Bros. Discovery took another turn Monday when Paramount Skydance announced a hostile bid for the entertainment giant, following Warner’s acceptance of a competing offer from Netflix last week. Paramount, which many once deemed the frontrunner in the original bidding war, announced a tender offer that tops the Netflix bid by $2.25 per share, appealing directly to shareholders. That adds another layer of complexity to the deal, which will see a significant consolidation of Hollywood’s power players, no matter who ends up on top. With all the back and forth, it’s easy to have lost track of who’s proposing what. Here’s a rundown …

A Cinnabon worker in Wisconsin has been fired after a racist outburst directed at two customers went viral, the Georgia-based cinnamon roll chain said. Cinnabon posted a statement on social media that the worker, who it did not identify, was “immediately terminated” by the franchise owner over a “disturbing video” of the incident. “Their actions and statements are completely unacceptable and in no way reflect the values of Cinnabon, our franchisees, or the welcoming environment we expect for every guest and team member,” the company added in a follow-up statement to The Associated Press on Sunday. The video was posted on TikTok and showed a white, female emplo…

For many who grew up visiting older relatives during the holidays, memories of childhood Christmas are swathed in a warm glow that feels like the calling card of the season: a combination of colorful bulbs, lit candles, and soft lamplight. In recent years, though, it feels like the holiday season has traded its cozy tones for a much cooler, even sterile color palette. As it turns out, that’s not just a quirk of our rosy collective memory. David Andora, a multidisciplinary creative who’s worked in branding, production design, specialized lighting, and parade events, set out to understand why Christmas looks so different today. He discovered that, with the advent of LED…

When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built Apple in a garage, the incumbents they were up against were slow-moving hardware companies. When Jeff Bezos started Amazon, Barnes & Noble wasn’t pouring billions into machine learning or cloud infrastructure. This doesn’t mean that it was easy for these entrepreneurs to change the face of whole industries. It was not. But it was at least possible. Back then, giants could be out-innovated because they were bureaucratic, cautious, and often blind to the potential of what the upstart start-ups were building. The situation is very different today. The startup landscape has changed radically. Where once it was populated by boots…

For global companies, Africa’s promise has long been tempered by a persistent operational myth: that the continent is not ready for complex business. The reality is different, however. The barrier isn’t a lack of demand, but the inability of traditional global systems to handle Africa’s unique financial landscape. Nearly 400 million African adults remain on the fringes of the formal financial system, yet digital adoption is exploding. The conversation has decisively shifted from basic financial access to a more critical question: How can multinationals efficiently manage their core operations like paying suppliers, collecting revenue, and moving money across borders, …

Miami Art Week usually exists behind invisible velvet ropes. It is a place where private dinners, celebrity walkthroughs, and invitation-only installations dominate the social landscape. But this past week, Capital One tried something unusual. It opened one of Art Week’s most insular cultural moments to people who are not part of the traditional art world by giving its cardholders access to the kind of programming that normally requires a personal invitation, using Art Week not simply as a cultural stage but as a strategic laboratory for understanding what premium consumers now expect from financial brands. The brand’s presence featured a collaboration with artist…

Massachusetts’ highest court heard oral arguments Friday in the state’s lawsuit arguing that Meta designed features on Facebook and Instagram to make them addictive to young users. The lawsuit, filed in 2024 by Attorney General Andrea Campbell, alleges that Meta did this to make a profit and that its actions affected hundreds of thousands of teenagers in Massachusetts who use the social media platforms. “We are making claims based only on the tools that Meta has developed because its own research shows they encourage addiction to the platform in a variety of ways,” said State Solicitor David Kravitz, adding that the state’s claim has nothing to do the company’s al…

President Donald The President is planning a $12 billion farm aid package, according to a White House official — a boost to farmers who have struggled to sell their crops while getting hit by rising costs after the president raised tariffs on China as part of a broader trade war. According to the official, who was granted anonymity to speak ahead of a planned announcement, The President will unveil the plan Monday afternoon at a White House roundtable with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, lawmakers, and farmers who grow corn, cotton, sorghum, soybeans, rice, cattle, wheat, and potatoes. Farmers have backed The President polit…

Planner vs. Engineer is a well-known professional rivalry in the infrastructure world. The arguments are sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile, sometimes about important issues, sometimes insignificant. I’m in a peculiar spot because of my career as a “plangineer.” My parents helped me buy a civil engineering degree, but several years into my career, I bought the certified planning certificate. I know the two camps very well. The roundabout question Roundabouts are one of the many Planner vs. Engineer debates, and it happens to be a very important issue where emotions cloud good judgment. As much as I criticize the engineering profession, they are generally correc…

The new Pentagon press corps gathered last week for their first in-person briefing. That’s since almost all credentialed reporters from traditional media companies surrendered their passes in October to protest new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s strict media policy. Refusing to sign a 21-page Pentagon document that in effect banned journalists from trying to solicit any kind of information that was not pre-approved, the Pentagon instead issued passes to a newly credentialed corps of influencers, conspiracy theorists, and conservative commentators who happily agreed to the strict rules. The handpicked press corps were active on social media last week as they doc…

Each business has its unique challenges, but one commonality today is that AI is poised to disrupt almost every business everywhere. Organizations aren’t the only ones rapidly shifting to adopt AI—attackers are too, and they’re doing it faster. The implications of this AI arms race are alarming for legitimate businesses around the world. Security teams must rapidly evolve their cyber strategy to meet these new threats, moving away from a reactive posture that detects and then responds after an incident happens. To outpace attackers, organizations will need to be preemptive instead—deterring, neutralizing, and preventing threats before they happen. HOW AI IS CHANG…

CIOs are grappling with how to leverage AI, but most are asking the wrong question. It’s not about an “AI strategy.” It’s about a business strategy powered by AI. At Samsara, when we focused AI on clear business problems, we cut support chat volume by 59% with virtual agents, our IT help assistant auto-resolved 27% of tickets during the pilot, and engineers accepted about 40% of suggested code from AI code-assist, freeing teams to ship faster and tackle harder work. My takeaway is that if you treat AI as a separate initiative, you’ll chase tools. If you treat it as leverage on a business KPI, you’ll create impact. The VC Mindset: Investing in AI My philosop…

Across America, a new generation of farmers is reimagining what it means to work the land. They are engineers, ecologists, and entrepreneurs—people who see farming not only as a way to grow food, but as a form of innovation. In fields across the country, these farmers are harnessing soil science, biodiversity, and technology to restore what decades of extractive agriculture have depleted. Their work represents one of the most powerful opportunities of our time: The opportunity to regenerate our planet from the ground up. Yet, the odds they face are immense. Land prices have soared, access to capital is limited, and isolation comes with choosing a career path few under…

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” scored a leading nine nominations to the 83rd Golden Globe Awards on Monday, adding to the Oscar favorite’s momentum and handing Warner Bros. a victory amid Netflix’s acquisition deal. In nominations announced from Beverly Hills, California, “One Battle After Another” landed nods for its cast—Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, and Chase Infiniti—and for Anderson’s screenplay and direction. It’s competing in the Globes’ category for comedy and musicals. Close on its heels was Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” a Norwegian family drama about a filmmaking family. The Neon release’s eight nominations includ…

Joshua Aaron, the developer of the ICE agent tracking app ICEBlock, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice and ICE for unconstitutionally pressuring Apple to remove the app from its App Store. Apple pulled ICEBlock in early October after Justice Department officials contacted the company claiming that the app enables users to evade immigration raids and endangers ICE agents. The app, which has more than a million downloads, gives users notifications when ICE agents are nearby, and allows users to anonymously report the location of ICE agent activity, but only if they are located in the same area. Aaron’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the …

On December 5, the entertainment world was rocked when Netflix and Warner Bros. announced a massive deal setting Netflix up to purchase the legendary Hollywood studio, creating one of the largest media entities of all time. Today, Paramount Skydance—which has been vying for Warner Bros. for months—appears to be saying, “Not so fast.” Paramount Skydance, the David Ellison-led company fresh off of its own merger earlier this year, has been circling around a potential buy-out of Warner Bros. Discovery (Warner Bros.’ parent company) since at least September. Last week, it appeared that Netflix was swooping in to snatch a large part of the deal. And now, Paramount Skydance…

The U.S. workforce is facing a pivotal challenge: A widening skills gap that threatens economic growth and innovation. While demographic trends—like declining birth rates and a shrinking pipeline of young workers—are real, the more actionable issue is the growing mismatch between the skills employers need and those available in the labor market. According to Pearson’s recent “Lost in Transition” research, nearly 90% of U.S. employers report difficulty finding candidates with the right skills, and more than half of workers feel unprepared for the demands of the future workplace. This problem is decades in the making, and its consequences will be global. Without …

If your sofa was made between 1970 and 2014, its foam is likely loaded with flame retardants—chemicals that can escape into dust and end up in the air you breathe. A new study led by the California Department of Public Health shows the payoff of swapping it out: people who replaced their old, chemical-filled sofas or chairs with new, flame-retardant-free models saw levels of one common chemical, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), drop by half in just over a year. The chemicals became ubiquitous in upholstered furniture thanks to older regulations in California. The state’s large market meant that flame retardants were used in furniture nationwide. The tob…

From return-to-office mandates, anxiety about AI taking (or reshaping) jobs, and a highly competitive atmosphere for recent graduates and other job seekers, 2025 has been a year of change. It’s also been a big year of change for women in the workplace, with a record number exiting the workforce. And, according to a new report, women are now also less inclined to seek promotions. LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Co. just released their 2025 Women in the Workplace report based on a survey of 124 organizations employing around 3 million people. The survey research found that while companies overwhelmingly say that diversity (67%) and inclusion (84%) are top priorities, just…

For most leaders these last five years have been ones of great volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Political dynamics, economic shifts, massive layoffs, strategy pivots, technology disruptions, and more are shaping how we lead and what we can accomplish together. Leading through uncertainty is no longer a mere possibility, it’s core to the job description. Times of uncertainty call for fast executive decision-making with limited information, “good enough” risk assessment, and repeated pivots. I know this because I led a global philanthropy network while the world shut down in 2020. During those initial months, I relied less on staff input to determine…

A majority of those expecting a holiday bonus this year are planning to check out once the check clears. According to a recent survey of 2,000 American workers by AI job application assistant JobHire AI, 59% are “maybe” or “definitely” expecting a bonus this year. Among them, 48% are already job hunting or planning to quit after their bonus is paid, and another 20% are considering leaving in the new year. The job market often sees a lot of activity following the holiday lull, as many spend the break reflecting on the previous year and setting goals for the next. This year, however, may see even more aggressive job -hopping, as many workers have become more f…

The hype train on corporate purpose keeps steaming down the tracks. I have written about it before and tried to be positive. But I feel the need to be more constructively critical. If everyone has been convinced that they need to have a corporate purpose, let’s at least have it be a useful one. I try to contribute to that goal in this Playing to Win/Practitioner Insights (PTW/PI) piece. And as always, you can find all the previous PTW/PI here. The hype train The articles and books on corporate purpose just keep coming. For example, in the past month alone, Harvard Business Review published four pieces on purpose (one, two, three, four). And the books keep coming, w…

Below, Jane Marie Chen shares five key insights from her new book, Like a Wave We Break: A Memoir of Falling Apart and Finding Myself. Jane is a leadership coach, public speaker, and cofounder of Embrace Global, a social enterprise that developed a low-cost infant incubator. She has been a TED Fellow, an Echoing Green Fellow, and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. Her many honors include being recognized as a Forbes Impact 30 and receiving The Economist’s Innovation Award. What’s the big idea? Like a Wave We Break is a story of self-discovery. When achievements define us or serve as an escape from hidden scars of trauma, we do ourselves and othe…

Large language models have started creating their own terms and mixing them into everyday speech. Experts call it ‘lexical seepage.’ View the full article