Author: arthursheikin@gmail.com

CNN  —  Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer, but this year, it may also kick off a season of higher prices. Small businesses that sell beer, fireworks and other summer staples told CNN they are grappling with higher costs amid new tariffs that the Trump administration placed on nearly all imports to the United States last month. Here’s what you should know. What could cost more — and what could cost less While many economists expect prices to rise from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, it’s certainly true that not all items are seeing price increases — yet. In…

Uber’s quest to compete with owning a car has come home for CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.Like many young people, Khosrowshahi’s son doesn’t have his license despite being over 18. The reason: he can get around using the ride-hailing app that his father oversees, the CEO said on an episode of The Verge’s Decoder podcast.”I’m still trying to get my son to get his driver’s license, but Uber’s freed him up,” Khosrowshahi said.Uber executives have long said that they view their ride-hailing offering as an alternative to car ownership. Khosrowshahi’s son and others like him show how much progress Uber may have…

As more CEOs call it quits, it could get harder for companies to find the next superstar leaders.A mix of sometimes poor succession planning, a tendency by some young go-getters to job hop rather than rise through the ranks, and a thinning of middle management could cause headaches for companies trying to find a new chief, corporate observers told Business Insider.Because of a “collapse of the leadership pipeline” at many organizations, the pool of candidates ready to step in and lead is often lacking, Shawn Cole, president and founding partner at the executive search firm Cowen Partners, told BI.That’s in…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Disappointing returns from private equity investments meant Canada’s big pension funds underperformed last year, as a downturn in the buyout sector weighed on some of the world’s largest investors in private assets. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec have all lagged their benchmarks over the past year, according to their latest reports. A rise in global borrowing costs in 2022 and 2023 ushered a more difficult period for private equity, with…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nick Parker. It has been edited for length and clarity.Any parent knows that having a flexible job is important. You might need to stop working at a moment’s notice to go pick up a sick kid or be home for two weeks while the stomach flu works its way through the family.For me, this is even more important. I’ve got three kids and they all have autism. My son, 9, didn’t speak for a long time, but with early intervention, he’s thriving. My middle daughter, 7, is nonverbal and uses a…

Ahmed Shubber, a 25-year-old founder from Connecticut, wants to compete with the Caterpillars of the construction industry by building the Tesla of bulldozers.Shubber’s company, Lumina, has been operating in stealth since 2021 and has since grown to a team of 26 people and raised an $8 million seed round, according to the founder.On Wednesday, Shubber demonstrated Lumina’s first prototype, the Moonlander, in San Francisco.In an interview with Business Insider, Shubber said he spent around $3 million building the all-electric, 32-ton bulldozer. The tractor was assembled in the UK, with parts coming in from nearly 200 different suppliers, he said. The…

CNN  —  Denmark is set to have the highest retirement age in Europe, after lawmakers voted to raise it to 70. Parliamentarians passed a bill mandating the rise on Thursday, with 81 votes in favor and 21 against. The new law will apply to people born after December 31, 1970. The current retirement age is 67 on average, but it can go up to 69 for those born on January 1, 1967, or later. The rise is needed in order to be able to “afford proper welfare for future generations,” employment minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said in a press release Thursday.…

Meta’s open-source Llama models helped define the company’s AI strategy. Yet the researchers who built the original version have mostly moved on.Of the 14 authors credited on the landmark 2023 paper that introduced Llama to the world, just three still work at Meta: research scientist Hugo Touvron, research engineer Xavier Martinet, and technical program leader Faisal Azhar. The rest have left the company, many of them to join or found its emerging rivals.Meta’s brain drain is most visible at Mistral, the Paris-based startup co-founded by former Meta researchers Guillaume Lample and Timothée Lacroix, two of Llama’s key architects. Alongside several…

London CNN  —  Labubu, a palm-sized plush toy with sharp teeth and a cult following, has become a toy too popular to sell. After chaotic scenes of queueing, crowd surges and reported fights, distributor Pop Mart has suspended all in-store sales of the collectible across the United Kingdom. “Due to the increasing demand for our beloved Labubus, we’ve seen a significant rise in customer turnout on restock days — with long queues forming outside our stores and Roboshops (self-service stores),” the Chinese-based toy company wrote in an Instagram post Tuesday. “To ensure the safety and comfort of everyone, we will…

New York CNN  —  The unofficial start of summer is here, which means people will be hosting barbeques and pool parties — and finally bringing out the all-white outfits. But Memorial Day, the federal holiday falling on the last Monday of May, honors members of the US armed forces who died while serving their country. This year, Memorial Day is on Monday, May 26. It also means many schools, government facilities and businesses will be closed. Here’s what will be open and closed on Memorial Day 2025. It’s a bank holiday, so the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will…