SEATTLE — Alaska Airlines closed its $1 billion purchase of Hawaiian Airlines on Wednesday, a day after the federal government removed the last major regulatory obstacle to the deal. Alaska will also assume about $900 million in Hawaiian debt. Alaska says it will keep Hawaiian as a separate brand, elimiinating the need to repaint planes. … Read more
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The National Toy Hall of Fame is floating the idea of inducting balloons. Praised for their versatility and universal appeal, balloons made the list Wednesday of 12 finalists being considered for the honor later this year, alongside other first-time contenders including the trampoline and the party game Apples to Apples. A panel … Read more
LONDON — Qualcomm lost its bid on Wednesday to get a European Union antitrust penalty thrown out after a top court largely rebuffed the technology company’s arguments in the case involving cellphone chipsets. The European Union’s General Court said it was rejecting most of Qualcomm’s appeal against the 242 million euro ($269 million) fine that … Read more
Tupperware Brands, the company that revolutionized food storage decades ago, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company plans to continue operating and will seek court approval for a sale, it said just before midnight on Tuesday. The company is seeking bankruptcy protection amid growing struggles to revitalize its business. Tupperware sales growth improved … Read more
LONDON — Google won a court challenge on Wednesday against a 1.49 billion euro ($1.66 billion) European Union antitrust fine imposed five years ago that targeted its online advertising business. The EU’s General Court said it was throwing out the 2019 penalty imposed by the European Commission, which is the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer. … Read more
Determined to thwart the automating of their jobs, about 45,000 dockworkers along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts are threatening to strike on Oct. 1, a move that would shut down ports that handle about half the nation’s cargo from ships. The International Longshoremen’s Union is demanding significantly higher wages and a total ban on … Read more
WASHINGTON — Having all but tamed inflation, the Federal Reserve is poised to do something Wednesday it hasn’t done in more than four years: Cut its benchmark interest rate, a step that should lead to lower borrowing costs for consumers and businesses just weeks before the presidential election. And yet an unusual air of uncertainty … Read more
SPRING VALLEY, Sri Lanka — Whoever Sri Lanka’s next president is, Muthuthevarkittan Manohari isn’t expecting much to change in her daily struggle to feed the four children and elderly mother with whom she lives in a dilapidated room in a tea plantation. Both leading candidates in Saturday’s presidential election are promising to give land to … Read more
TOKYO — Japan posted a trade deficit for a second straight month in August, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday, despite signs of sluggish consumer spending that weighed on imports. Japan’s trade deficit totaled 695 billion yen, or $4.9 billion, down 26% from a year earlier, the ministry said. Exports totaled 8.4 trillion yen ($59 billion), … Read more
K0TWA, Zimbabwe — Since childhood, Loveness Bhitoni has collected fruit from the gigantic baobab trees surrounding her homestead in Zimbabwe to add variety to the family’s staple corn and millet diet. The 50-year-old Bhitoni never saw them as a source of cash, until now. Climate change-induced droughts have decimated her crops. Meanwhile, the world has … Read more