NEW YORK (AP) — Hate mealy apples and soggy french fries? Science can help. Food companies are increasingly turning to chemistry and physics to tackle the problem of food waste. There are spray-on peels and chemically enhanced sachets that can slow the ripening process in fruit and digital sensors that can tell when meat is safe to consume. Packets affixed to the top of a takeout box use thermodynamics to keep fries crispy. Experts say growing awareness of food waste has led to an uptick in efforts to mitigate it. More than one-third of food produced in the U.S. goes uneaten; much of that winds up in landfills.
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Ex-FTX CEO Bankman-Fried says he will testify to Congress
NEW YORK (AP) — The former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX says he is willing to testify to Congress next week. But he says he will be limited in what he can say and that he “won’t be as helpful” as he’d like to be. Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted in response to a tweet from House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters, who on Monday requested that Bankman-Fried attend next week’s hearings over the collapse of FTX. Waters said in a series of tweets to Bankman-Fried that based on multiple media interviews since FTX collapsed that it was “clear to us that the information you have thus far is sufficient for testimony.”
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Wholesale inflation in US further slowed in November to 7.4%
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale prices in the United States rose 7.4% in November from a year earlier, a fifth straight slowdown and a hopeful sign that inflation pressures across the economy are continuing to cool. The latest year-over-year figure was down from 8% in October and from a recent peak of 11.7% in March. On a monthly basis, the U.S. producer price index, which measures costs before they reach consumers, rose 0.3% from October to November for the third straight month. Rising prices are still straining Americans’ finances. Yet several emerging trends have combined to slow inflation from the four-decade peak it reached during the summer.
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Wall Street falls as US inflation slows but remains hot
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed lower on Wall Street after a report showed inflation is slowing, though not by as much as hoped. The S&P 500 fell 0.7% Friday, marking its first losing week in the last three. The weakness came after the U.S. government reported that prices at the wholesale level were 7.4% higher in November than a year earlier. That’s a slowdown from October but worse than economists expected. High inflation, along with the Federal Reserve’s economy-crunching response to it, have been the main reasons for the stock market’s painful tumble this year. Treasury yields rose.
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US sanctions firms for rights abuses on Anti-Corruption Day
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department says it is imposing sanctions on a broad array of people and companies around the world for corruption and human rights abuses — from illegal fishing operations in Chinese waters to kickbacks in Guatemala. The sanctions on Friday are a recognition of International Anti-Corruption Day. Among those being sanctioned is the 15-member Russian elections commissionm, which oversaw a sham referendum in Russia-occupied Ukraine in September. Others sanctioned include a group of companies and people linked to illegal fishing operations and human rights abuses in Chinese waters, and a church founder in the Philippines charged with sex trafficking.
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US reports another Takata air bag death, bringing toll to 33
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety regulators and Honda Motor Co. are urging drivers once again to make sure their vehicles haven’t been recalled after another person was killed by an exploding Takata air bag. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the person was killed in a crash involving a 2002 Honda Accord when the driver’s air bag inflator ruptured and hurled shrapnel. No location or date of the crash were given. The death brings the number of people killed by the air bags to 33 worldwide and up to 24 in the U.S. The death was confirmed recently and announced on Friday.
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WTO rules against Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs
WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Trade Organization has rejected the 2018 import taxes that then-President Donald Trump imposed on foreign steel and aluminum, saying they violated global trade rules. Trump’s tariffs of 25% on foreign steel and 10% on aluminum outraged America’s long-standing allies, including the European Union and Japan. That’s because he relied on a little-used provision of U.S. trade law to declare their steel and aluminum a threat to U.S. national security. China and other trading partners challenged the tariffs at the 164-nation WTO. In a ruling issued Friday, the organization said it was not persuaded that the United States faced an international emergency that would justify the tariffs.
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American, JetBlue expand deal that US is trying to kill
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines and JetBlue are expanding their partnership in the Northeast even while the government tries to kill the airlines’ agreement. American and JetBlue said Friday they plan to add some new routes in New York and Boston next spring. And they will trade places on New York-to-Atlanta flights, with American dropping that route after JetBlue picks it up. The move comes while a federal judge is deciding the government’s lawsuit to block an American-JetBlue partnership in New York and Boston. The government says the deal reduces competition and will lead to higher fares. The airlines say it will let them improve service in the Northeast. The judge is expected to rule early next year.
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Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle is stepping down
NEW YORK (AP) — The CEO of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade publisher, is stepping down. Markus Dohle’s decision is effective at the end of the year. It comes just weeks after a federal judge blocked the company’s attempt to buy rival Simon & Schuster. Dohle is also leaving his seat on the Bertelsmann executive board. The Bertelsmann announcement said his departure was made at “his own request and on the best of mutual terms.” Dohle will be succeeded, on an interim basis, by Nihar Malaviya, 48, currently president and COO of Penguin Random House.
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The S&P 500 slipped 29.13 points, or 0.7%, to 3,934.38. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 305.02 points, or 0.9%, to 33,476.46. The Nasdaq lost 77.39 points, or 0.7%, to 11,004.62. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped 21.63 points, or 1.2%, to 1,796.66.