Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Virginia’s Performance Food Group exploring merger with US Foods

SUMMARY:

  • and reached an agreement to share confidential information
  • Agreement signals companies are exploring a , but nothing is guaranteed
  • Sachem Head Capital Management has pushed for the merger, nominating directors to ‘s board
  • A merger would create the largest U.S. food service distributor

-based company Performance Food Group announced Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement with US Foods to begin sharing information — a move indicating the two companies are considering a merger.

Should PFG merge with US Foods, it would create the largest United States food service distributor, with roughly $100 billion in combined revenue.

PFG said it entered “a clean team agreement” with US Foods, which allows the companies to share confidential information with each other to determine what types of synergies might come from the combined companies and if the merger would face challenges from regulators.

The company stated that the agreement follows discussions between PFG’s management team and board members with several of PFG’s large stockholders, who shared their perspectives. It also follows PFG engaging with US Foods on how the two companies could explore a potential business combination while safeguarding confidential information.

The clean team process will involve a group of independent lawyers, economists and consultants performing analysis using more detailed confidential information.

“There can be no assurance that this information sharing will result in any transaction proposal, or any assurance as to its outcome or timing,” PFG said in a news release. “PFG does not intend to make additional comments regarding this matter unless and until a definitive agreement is executed or PFG and US Foods terminate discussions.”

JP Morgan and BofA Securities are serving as financial advisers in the process, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is serving as legal adviser to PFG.

New York-based investment firm Sachem Head Capital Management, which is managed by Scott Ferguson, has advocated for PFG and US Foods to merge. Reuters reported earlier this month that Sachem Head has recently begun building its stake in Performance Food and that it has nominated four directors to the board of PFG. One of the four nominated was Ferguson, according to PFG.

In a September announcement about Sachem Head nominees, PFG noted that it has recently seen growth.

“Against this backdrop, Sachem Head has focused its dialogue with us on the suggestion that PFG explore a potential business combination with US Foods and, absent a transaction, that PFG consider ways to further improve margins,” PFG stated.

PFG and US Foods did not immediately return requests for comment.

PFG is No. 80 on the 2025 and No. 272 on the Fortune Global 500. In August, the company reported $63.3 billion in net sales for fiscal 2025, a 8.6% increase from the previous year. The company, which employs about 43,000 people, went public in 2015. PFG delivers food products to more than 300,000 locations in the United States and Canada, including restaurants, businesses, schools, theaters and retailers.

Headquartered in Illinois, US Foods Holding is ranked No. 122 on the Fortune 500 rankings for 2025 and No. 413 on the Fortune Global 500. It reported $37.8 billion in revenues in the last fiscal year and employs 30,000 people.

Retail sales up 0.6% in August from July even as tariffs hurt jobs and lead to price hikes

Summary

NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers increased their spending at a better-than-expected pace in August from July, helped by , even as President ‘s tariffs start to hurt the job market and lead to price increases.

Retail sales rose 0.6% last month from July, when sales were up a revised 0.6%, according to the ‘s report. In June, retail sales rose 0.9%, the government agency said.

The August performance, announced Tuesday, was also likely helped by the continued efforts by Americans to keep pushing up purchases ahead of expected price increases.

The sales increases followed two straight months of spending declines in April and May.

Excluding auto sales, which have been volatile since Trump imposed on many foreign-made cars, retail sales rose 0.7% in August. Sales at auto vehicle and parts dealers rose 0.5%.

The data showed solid spending across various other outlets. Business at electronics and appliance stores was up 0.3%, while online retailers saw a 2% increase. Business at clothing and accessories retailers rose 1%.

And business at restaurants, the lone services component within the Census Bureau report and a barometer of discretionary spending, rose 0.7%. Business at furniture and home furnishings stores was down 0.3%.

A category of sales that excludes volatile sectors such as gas, cars, and restaurants rose last month by 0.7% from the previous month. The figure feeds into the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s consumption estimate and is a sign that consumers are still spending on some discretionary items.

“This is further evidence that we shouldn’t underestimate the strength of the consumer,” Bankrate senior industry analyst Ted Rossman wrote in a note Tuesday. “Back-to-school shopping was a key theme in August, as evidenced by the strong clothing and electronics sales.”

Government retail data isn’t adjusted for , which rose 0.4% from July to August, according to the latest government report. That was faster than the 0.2% pace the previous month. So that could have inflated the sales figures as well.

Consumer prices increased 2.9% in August from a year earlier, the Labor Department said last week, up from 2.7% the previous month and the biggest jump since January. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 3.1%, the same as in July. Both figures are above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

Stronger-than-expected retail sales, coupled with higher inflation as well as data showing soaring applications for unemployment aid, all create a complicated picture of the economy. Such data put the Federal Reserve in an increasingly tough spot as it prepares to cut rates at its meeting this week, economists said.

Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers — companies, government agencies and nonprofits — added 22,000 jobs last month, down from 79,000 in July and well below the 80,000 that economists had expected.

Carl B. Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, noted the retail sales increase “will not be enough of a surprise to stop the Fed from cutting rates this week, but it should support a hawkish message from the Fed Chair that a knock-on rate cut is not assured.”

Major retailers including Walmart, Macy’s and Best Buy recently reported their quarterly results, underscoring that shoppers are still buying, but are choosy. Some have raised prices ,but many have described the hikes as modest.

Still, so far, shoppers haven’t felt the big sting as some economists predicted earlier in the year as many retailers ordered goods ahead of tariffs and absorbed a big chunk of the costs as they came in, worried about passing on any hefty price increases.

The price gains have also been gradual enough to mute changes in consumer behavior, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told analysts last month.

But Walmart and others said they expect to see costs increase as they replenish inventory at post-tariff levels.

Jewelry maker Pandora hasn’t announced specific price increases, but Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik said in a call with analysts last month that the company is monitoring the scenario.

He noted that “the U.S. consumer will eventually have to bear the brunt of these tariffs,” but added, “it’s not just on jewelry, it’s on many product categories. So the big question mark is, what happens with inflation in the U.S., unemployment rates, all sorts of other macro drivers, and I think this is ahead of us.”

Matt Priest, president and CEO of trade group Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, told reporters Monday that members are starting to pass along price increases to shoppers. Its members had previously paid a total of $3 billion in tariffs annually for years; that number is now on track to hit $5 billion by year-end. He warned that women’s shoes will be affected first.

“Women’s shoes are more fashion-oriented,” Priest said. “Our ability to front-load women’s product based on fashion trends was limited, and so we are seeing that those increases start to hit consumers first.”

New York judge tosses terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, lets murder count stand

Summary

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Tuesday dismissed terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione in New York state’s case over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, but he kept the state’s second-degree murder charges against him.

In a written decision released as Mangione appeared in court, Judge Gregory Carro said that although there is no doubt that the killing was not an ordinary street crime, New York law doesn’t consider something terrorism simply because it was motivated by ideology.

“While the defendant was clearly expressing an animus toward UHC, and the industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to ‘intimidate and coerce a civilian population,’ and indeed, there was no evidence presented of such a goal,” Carro wrote.

The judge also said there was insufficient evidence that Mangione intended to influence or affect government policy by intimidation or coercion — another element of the terrorism charges — and noted that federal prosecutors opted not to charge Mangione with terrorism offenses even though the federal terrorism statute served as a model for the state law.

But in keeping the second-degree murder charge, Carro ruled there was sufficient evidence that Mangione “murdered Brian Thompson in a premeditated and calculated execution.”

Mangione’s lawyers did not comment after the hearing.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office issued a brief statement, saying, “We respect the Court’s decision and will proceed on the remaining nine counts.”

The judge scheduled pretrial hearings in the case for Dec. 1, which is days before Mangione is next due in court in the federal case against him.

Mangione handcuffed and shackled for court appearance

It was Mangione’s first court appearance in the state case since February. Wearing beige prison clothes, he was handcuffed and his ankles were shackled as police officers escorted him into and out of the courtroom. He was mostly silent, only talking with his lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo. While leaving the courtroom, he appeared in good spirits and raised his eyebrow at the gallery crowd.

The 27-year-old Ivy League graduate has attracted a cult following as a stand-in for frustrations with the . Supporters of Mangione took up three rows in the courtroom gallery. As was the case at his last hearing, a few dozen supporters, mostly women, showed up to Tuesday’s proceedings. Some were dressed in green — the color the Mario Bros. video game character Luigi wears — as a symbol of solidarity, and one woman sported a “FREE LUIGI” T-shirt.

Outside, some supporters who gathered across the street from the courthouse cheered and clapped as news of the dropped terrorism charges spread.

Mangione earlier pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism, in the Dec. 4, 2024, killing. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as he arrived for an investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione was arrested five days later after he was spotted eating breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City. Since then, he has been held at the same Brooklyn federal jail where Sean “Diddy” Combs is locked up.

Judge rejects ‘double jeopardy’ argument

Mangione’s lawyers argued that the New York case and a parallel federal death penalty prosecution amounted to double jeopardy. But Carro rejected that argument, saying it would be premature to make such a determination.

Bragg’s office contended that there are no double jeopardy issues because neither of Mangione’s cases has gone to trial and because the state and federal prosecutions involve different legal theories.

Mangione’s lawyers said the dueling cases have created a “legal quagmire” that makes it “legally and logistically impossible to defend against them simultaneously.”

The second-degree murder charge carries a potential penalty of 15 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 25 years. The federal charges allege that Mangione stalked Thompson and do not involve terrorism allegations.

Diary writings a basis for terrorism charges

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in April that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

Bragg’s office quoted extensively from Mangione’s handwritten diary in a court filing seeking to uphold his state murder charges. They highlighted his desire to kill an insurance honcho and his praise for Ted Kaczynski, the late terrorist known as the Unabomber.

In the writings, prosecutors said, Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” and said killing an industry executive “conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming.” They also cited a confession they say he penned “To the feds,” in which he wrote that “it had to be done.”

Mangione’s “intentions were obvious from his acts, but his writings serve to make those intentions explicit,” prosecutors said in the June filing. The writings, which they sometimes described as a manifesto, “convey one clear message: that the murder of Brian Thompson was intended to bring about revolutionary change to the healthcare industry.”

In Tuesday’s ruling, Carro noted that terrorism “has been famously difficult to define.” He was critical of state prosecutors for emphasizing the phrase “revolutionary anarchism” in Mangione’s diary when they accused him of intending to influence government by intimidation or coercion.

“Not only does this stretch the import of a two-word phrase beyond what it can carry, but it ignores other, more explicit excerpts from defendant’s writings in which he states that his goal is to spread a ‘message’ and ‘win public support’ about ‘everything wrong with our health system,’” the judge wrote.

Eli Lilly to invest $5B in Goochland plant, creating 650 jobs

SUMMARY:

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. plans to invest $5 billion in a manufacturing facility in Goochland County that’s expected to create 650 permanent jobs and support 1,800 construction jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday.

According to the governor’s office, the project’s an upgrade from the company’s previous plans, which called for a $2.148 billion investment and hiring 468 workers.

Located in the West Creek Business Park, the facility’s production area will be more than 200,000 square feet, not including offices and other spaces.

The plant will produce antibody drug conjugates, Lilly Chair and CEO David A. “Dave” Ricks said Tuesday at a press conference held in Richmond’s Main Street Station.

“It’s a combination of two special kinds of medicine: one to guide, say, a chemotherapy just to cancer cells, and then the therapy itself to kill the cancer cell,” he said. “That sort of combination medicine is at the cutting edge of science we have today, and we’re building that right here.”

The Goochland facility will be one of four plants Lilly is building nationwide as part of a $50 billion initiative to increase its domestic pharmaceutical production.

“Lilly is now defining the standard for building new manufacturing sites in our country,” Ricks said, “a new network that will strengthen our supply resilience, that will scale innovation, create an export economy and ensure reliable access to life-saving, life-changing medications. Today marks an important milestone in bringing that vision to life.”

Additionally, he said, “our new site in Goochland County … will be our first dedicated, fully integrated active pharmaceutical ingredient and drug product facility for cancer, autoimmune conditions and other advanced therapies.”

In August, the state Major Employment Investment Project Approval Commission (MEI) unanimously voted to recommend that the General Assembly approve state incentives packages valued at more than $10 million apiece for Lilly and AstraZeneca, which is expected to propose a project in Albemarle County, according to a state official.

The Goochland facility ‘will truly break barriers of delivering solutions, cures, health to not just Virginians and Americans, but around the world,” Youngkin said Tuesday. “A facility that is breaking through some of the historic norms of combining active pharmaceutical ingredients and the manufacturing of the pharmaceutical itself in the same place, doing it in a campus where innovation will … literally find its home and its destination right here in the commonwealth of Virginia.”

Goochland’s West Creek Business Park, where Lilly is building its facility, is home to used car retailer CarMax’s headquarters and a campus for Fortune 100 financial services company Capital One Financial.

Construction is expected to begin imminently and take about three years, Ricks said in response to a Virginia Business question, although the facility likely won’t be manufacturing antibody drug conjugates at that point.

“We’re ready to go now. We’ll begin with ground preparation, permitting and all that, and you’ll see activity on the site in the coming weeks, so it’s going to happen quickly,” Ricks said.

“The typical timeline for a facility like this is five years,” he added. “That seems like a very long time to me, … so we’d like to beat that timeline. That includes regulatory approval processes, which can be up to a year, so we’re working with the federal administration, FDA and others to speed those timelines up.

“But within three years, we’ll be having sort of a facility built. It will look like a manufacturing site. The rest is up to the regulatory approval process … making sure we can make the medicine perfectly from there,” he said.

In terms of hiring full-time workers, “that will evolve over the coming year or two,” Ricks said. “There’s quite a bit of training required to begin working in a pharmaceutical plant, so we have a bit of a runway in front of that, but we’ll be excited to engage with community partners to find permanent talent for the site in the coming years.”

The average wage in Lilly plants is about $100,000 a year, Ricks said, and “the benefits our workers in the plant have are the same ones I have.”

Ricks said he expects that once the facility is operational and running with 650 employees, “the vast majority will be from the community here in Virginia.” Often there is a single-digit percentage of employees in management rotating between sites to share expertise, he said, “but engineering and certainly almost all, if not all, the operators … and technicians will be from the region.”

The Virginia Partnership will support Lilly through the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program. Created by VEDP in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, the program provides free customizable workforce recruitment and training services to qualified new and expanding companies.

Choosing the plant’s location was a competitive process, Ricks said.

“We chose Virginia,” he said, “because we have learned we have reliable partners here and great people who turn commitments into results. … We did a request for information originally in February to land the site and received over 400 responses from across the country, from 46 states, and we chose this site amongst all those.”

Gov. Glenn Youngkin said a team, including himself, visited Lilly in Indianapolis. The trip included walking a manufacturing line and meeting employees, he said.

An S&P 100 company based in Indianapolis, Lilly has manufacturing plants in nine countries and products marketed in approximately 95 countries. The company employs about 49,000 people worldwide and posted $45.04 billion in revenue last year.

ABB announces $28.5M expansion in Henrico, adding 100 jobs

ABB, a Switzerland-based electrical engineering corporation, will invest $28.5 million to expand its operations in , creating more than 100 jobs in the next three years, announced Tuesday.

, which has its U.S. headquarters based in North Carolina, established its Henrico County facility at 5900 Eastport Blvd. in 1968. The plant employs 184 people and manufactures approximately 2,500 power production products per year, including power distribution units and static transfer switches, which support data centers, hospitals and manufacturing plants. ABB’s new facility will be 130,000 square feet and will create 108 jobs, according to Anthony Romanello, executive director of the Henrico Authority.

Products manufactured at the facility are designed to protect infrastructure such as servers, MRI machines and production lines from electrical failures.

“ABB’s decision to invest again in Henrico County doubles down on nearly 60 years of success here in Virginia,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Virginia’s workforce continues to prove they can rise to the challenge and deliver world-class results. Together, we’re powering the future and meeting America’s energy needs with the groundbreaking work ABB is leading right here in Henrico County.”

An ABB spokesperson said construction is ongoing and the new facility is expected to be operational by the end of the year.

“ABB is continually investing in our workforce and advanced manufacturing footprint in the U.S. — our largest global market — to support our customers as they focus on improving energy efficiency and uptime while reducing their energy costs,” said ABB Senior Vice President of Industry Partnerships Franklin Sullivan in a statement. “The expanded facility in Richmond will increase ABB’s production capacity to meet significant market demand for advanced electrification solutions and enable us to continue to optimize customer service in this growing market.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership collaborated with the county to secure the project, and Youngkin approved a $300,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to support the county’s efforts.

VEDP will support ABB’s through the state-funded Virginia Jobs Investment Program, which provides consultative services and funding to companies creating jobs to support employee recruitment and training activities.

Headquartered in Switzerland, ABB employs 110,000 people and operates over 170 manufacturing facilities worldwide. In the United States, it employs about 17,000 people and has nearly 40 manufacturing, distribution and operational facilities spread across 20 states, including nine major research and development centers.

Reagan airport concession operator to lay off 55

SUMMARY:

 

Travelers flying out of  Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in soon won’t be able to pick up Magic Pan’s hazelnut crepes as they wait for their departures.

That concession operation, along with Say Si Bon, a grab-and-go kiosk, is expected to close Sept. 26. Another operation, U Street Pub, which sells French dip sandwiches and small plates, is expected to close Oct. 20. The closings of the concession operations, all located in the airport’s Concourse C, were announced in an Aug. 28 notice sent to the state in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

The closures coincide with , a multiyear project to upgrade Reagan National Airport’s Terminal 2.

Atlanta-based Paradies Lagardère, a travel retailer and restaurateur that operates more than 700 stores, restaurants and bars in more than 90 airports across North America, including Say Si Bon, U Street Pub and Magic Pan at Reagan National Airport, expects to lay off 55 employees as the concessions close.

In the WARN notice, Dino Venianakis, a manager for Paradies Lagardère, noted the company was unable to provide 60 days’ notice of the job losses “due to the airport unexpectedly accelerating the closure date of the restaurants.”

A spokesperson for Paradies Lagardère, which is a subsidiary of Paris-based Lagardère SA, confirmed that it “will no longer be operating” the restaurants but declined further comment.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, did not respond to a request for comment.

Outside of team lead and assistant manager positions, the employees at the three restaurants are represented by , a union representing airport workers. According to the WARN notice, “the applicable collective bargaining agreement contains a job bumping provision.” That provision will be applied if there are remaining bargaining unit positions,

United Here Local 23 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fraport USA, the Pennsylvania-based developer and manager of retail, food and beverage programs at airports, has a 10-year contract to lease, develop and manage the concessions program at Reagan National and Dulles that went into effect in 2024.

Virginia casinos report $84.8M in August revenue

August gaming revenues from Virginia’s three totaled $84.8 million, up about $90,000 from July, according to a report released Monday by the Virginia Lottery.

The state’s newest permanent , ‘s resort, led the field with about $34.48 million in adjusted gaming revenues (wagers minus winnings). Roughly $26.53 million came from its 1,478 slots and about $7.95 million from 100 table games.

In Southwest Virginia, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino reported about $22.32 million in adjusted gaming revenues, of which $18.61 million came from its 1,384 slots and $3.72 million came from its 73 table games.

generated $20.44 million in August from its 1,422 slots and $7.59 million from its 84 table games, for total adjusted gaming revenues of about $28.03 million.
Virginia law assesses a graduated tax on a casino’s adjusted gaming revenue. For the month of August, taxes from totaled about $17.6 million.

Under Virginia law, 6% of a casino operator’s adjusted gaming revenue goes to its host locality until the operator passes $200 million in AGR for the year, at which point the host locality’s tax rate rises to 7%. If an operator passes $400 million in AGR in the calendar year, that rises to 8%.

For August, Portsmouth received 6% of the Rivers Casino Portsmouth’s AGR, getting roughly $1.8 million. Danville received 7% of the Caesars Virginia casino’s adjusted gaming revenue, amounting to roughly $2.41 million. For the Bristol casino, 6% of its adjusted gaming revenue — nearly $1.34 million last month — goes to the Regional Improvement Commission, which the General Assembly established to distribute Bristol casino tax funds throughout Southwest Virginia.

The Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund receives 0.8% of total taxes — about $140,860 last month. The Family and Children’s Trust Fund, which funds family violence prevention and treatment programs, receives 0.2% of the monthly total, which was approximately $35,215 in August.

Two more casinos are on the horizon in Virginia.

Construction began on the long-awaited $750 million Norfolk casino by development partners Boyd Gaming and the Pamunkey Indian Tribe in February. A temporary casino, dubbed The Interim Gaming Hall, is expected to open in November.

In November 2024, more than 80% of Petersburg voters approved a casino referendum. Baltimore-based The Cordish Cos. and Virginia Beach developer Bruce Smith Enterprise broke ground on the $1.4 billion casino in March.

In May, Rivers Casino and Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming announced they are planning to break ground on a $65 million hotel in Portsmouth this summer, more than two years after the casino first opened.

Shipping companies support a first-ever global fee on greenhouse gases, opposed by Trump officials

Summary

  • Nearly 200 shipping firms urge adoption of global emissions fee
  • Proposal to be debated at meeting in London next month
  • U.S. rejects plan, calls it a “global carbon tax” and threatens retaliation
  • Supporters say one global system prevents costly regional patchworks
  • IMO aims for net-zero by 2050

Nearly 200 shipping companies said Monday they want the world’s largest maritime nations to adopt regulations that include the first-ever global fee on to reduce their sector’s emissions.

The , an alliance of companies, governments and intergovernmental organizations, is asking member states of the International Maritime Organization to support adopting regulations to transition to green shipping, including the fee, when they meet in London next month. The statement was shared exclusively with The Associated Press in advance.

“Given the significance of the political decision being made, we think it is important that industry voices in favor of this adoption be heard,” Jesse Fahnestock, who leads work at the Global Maritime Forum, said Monday. The forum manages the Getting to Zero Coalition.

The unequivocally rejects the proposal before the IMO and has threatened to retaliate if nations support it, setting the stage for a fight over the major climate deal. The U.S. considers the proposed regulatory framework “effectively a global carbon tax on Americans levied by an unaccountable U.N. organization,” the U.S. Secretaries of State, Commerce, Energy and Transportation said in a joint statement last month.

U.S.-based shipping companies, however, have endorsed it. The Chamber of Shipping of America wants one global system, not multiple regional systems that could double charge vessels for their emissions depending on the route, said Kathy Metcalf, the chamber’s president emeritus.

Shipping emissions have grown over the last decade to about 3% of the global total as vessels have gotten bigger, delivering more cargo per trip and using immense amounts of fossil fuels. The IMO, which regulates international shipping, set a target for the sector to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by about 2050, and has committed to ensuring that fuels with zero or near-zero emissions are used more widely.

In April, IMO member states agreed on the contents of a regulatory framework to impose a minimum fee for every ton of greenhouse gases emitted by ships above certain thresholds and set a marine fuel standard to phase in cleaner fuels. The IMO aims for consensus in decision-making but, in this case, had to vote. The United States was notably absent.

Now nations have to decide if the regulations will enter into force in 2027. If agreed upon, the regulations will become mandatory for large oceangoing ships over 5,000 gross tonnage, which emit 85% of the total carbon emissions from international shipping, according to the IMO.

If nations don’t agree, shipping’s decarbonization will be further delayed and “the chance of the sector playing a proper and fair part in the fight to keep global heating below dangerous levels will almost certainly be lost,” said Delaine McCullough, president of the Clean Shipping Coalition and Ocean Conservancy shipping program director.

The U.S. secretaries said in their statement that “fellow IMO members should be on notice” the U.S. will “not hesitate to retaliate or explore remedies for our citizens” if they do not support the United States, against this action. They said ships will have to pay fees for failing to meet “unattainable fuel standards and emissions targets,” driving up costs, and the fuel standards would “conveniently benefit .” China is a leader in developing and producing cleaner fuels for shipping.

While U.S. opposition and pressure cannot be taken for granted, it still appears as though a majority of countries currently support the regulations, said Faig Abbasov from Transport and Environment, a Brussels-based environmental nongovernmental organization. Abbasov said the deal reached in April was not ambitious enough, but this is an opportunity to launch the sector’s decarbonization and it can be strengthened.

Shipping companies want the regulations because it gives them the certainty needed to confidently make investments in cleaner technologies, such as fuels that are alternatives to fossil fuels and the ships that run on them. In addition to the Getting to Zero Coalition, the International Chamber of Shipping, which represents over 80% of the world’s merchant fleet, is advocating for adoption when nations meet at IMO Headquarters in London from Oct. 14 to 17.

U.S., China reach framework deal on TikTok ownership

Summary

  • U.S. and reach framework agreement on ownership
  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says commercial terms agreed
  • Trump and Xi to discuss details Friday
  • Deal aims to transfer TikTok’s ownership to U.S. entities
  • Talks part of wider trade negotiations launched under Trump

MADRID (AP) — A framework deal has been reached between China and the U.S. for the ownership of popular social video platform TikTok, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after weekend trade talks in Spain.

Bessent said in a press conference after the latest round of trade talks between the world’s top two economies concluded in Madrid that U.S. President and Chinese Premier would speak Friday to possibly finalize the deal. He said the objective of the deal would be to switch to U.S. ownership.

“We are not going to talk about the commercial terms of the deal,” Bessent said. “It’s between two private parties. But the commercial terms have been agreed upon.”

Li Chenggang, China’s international trade representative, said the two sides have reached “basic framework consensus” to properly solve TikTok-related issues in a cooperative way, reduce investment barriers and promote related economic and trade cooperation, according to China’s official news agency Xinhua.

Li said the two sides had “candid, in-depth” discussions over TikTok and matters of concern to China.

The meeting in Madrid is the fourth round of trade talks between U.S. and Chinese officials since Trump launched a tariff war on Chinese goods in April. A fifth round of negotiations is likely to happen “in the coming weeks,” Bessent said, with both governments planning for a possible summit between Trump and Xi later this year or early next year to solidify a trade agreement.

However, nothing has been confirmed, and analysts say possible trade bumps could delay the visit.

Chinese officials didn’t immediately speak to the media following the Madrid talks, but Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, who led the Chinese delegation, was seen smiling when he left the venue.

During Joe Biden’s Democratic presidency, Congress and the White House used grounds to approve a U.S. ban on TikTok unless its parent company, , sold its controlling stake.

Trump, a Republican, has repeatedly extended the deadline for shutting down TikTok, even though the law allows for just one 90-day reprieve, and only if there’s a deal on the table and a formal notification to Congress.

The current extension expires Wednesday, two days before Trump and Xi are scheduled to discuss the final details of the framework deal. Although Trump hasn’t addressed the forthcoming deadline directly, he has claimed that he can delay the ban indefinitely.

TikTok is one of more than 100 apps developed in the past decade by ByteDance, a firm founded in 2012 by Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming and headquartered in Beijing’s northwestern Haidian district.

In 2016, ByteDance launched a short-form video platform called Douyin in China and followed up with an international version called TikTok. It then bought Musical.ly, a lip-syncing platform popular with teens in the U.S. and Europe, and combined it with TikTok while keeping the app separate from Douyin.

Soon after, the app boomed in popularity in the U.S. and many other countries, becoming the first Chinese platform to make serious inroads in the West. Unlike other platforms that focused on cultivating connections among users, TikTok tailored content to people’s interests.

The often silly videos and music clips content creators posted gave TikTok an image as a sunny corner of the internet where users could find fun and a sense of authenticity. Finding an audience on the platform helped launch the careers of music artists like Lil Nas X.

TikTok gained more traction during the shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, when short dances that went viral became a mainstay of the app. To better compete, Instagram and YouTube eventually came out with their own tools for making short-form videos, respectively known as Reels and Shorts. By that point, TikTok was a bona fide hit.

Challenges came in tandem with TikTok’s success. U.S. officials expressed concerns about the company’s roots and ownership, pointing to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government. Another concern became the proprietary algorithm that populates what users see on the app.

Nvidia violated antimonopoly laws, China says

Summary

  • ‘s State Administration for Market Regulation cites Nvidia for antitrust violations
  • Probe linked to Nvidia’s acquisition of
  • Nvidia says it complies with the law
  • Announcement follows China’s new probe into U.S.
  • Investigation comes as talks open in Spain

LONDON (AP) — China accused Nvidia on Monday of violating the country’s antimonopoly laws and said it would step up scrutiny of the world’s leading chipmaker, escalating tensions with Washington as the two countries held trade talks this week.

Chinese regulators said a preliminary investigation found that Nvidia didn’t comply with conditions imposed when it purchased Mellanox Technologies, a network and data transmission company.

The one-sentence statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation statement did not mention any punishment, but said it would carry out “further investigation.”

An Nvidia spokesperson said, “We comply with the law in all respects. We will continue to cooperate with all relevant government agencies as they evaluate the impact of export controls on competition in the commercial markets.”

Regulators said in December that they were investigating the company for suspected violations stemming from the $6.9 billion acquisition of Mellanox. The deal was completed in 2020 after the Chinese regulator gave conditional approval for Nvidia to buy the Israeli company.

The announcement, which came as the two sides held trade talks in Spain, is the latest tit-for-tat move between Washington and Beijing in their trade battle over focusing on semiconductors and the equipment to make them.

On Saturday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it was carrying out an antidumping investigation into certain analog IC chips imported from the U.S., including commodity chips commonly made by companies such as Texas Instruments and ON Semiconductor.

The ministry also announced a separate antidiscrimination probe into U.S. measures against China’s chip sector.

A day earlier, the U.S. had sanctioned two Chinese companies accused of acquiring equipment for major Chinese chipmaker SMIC.

The talks in Madrid between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Madrid concluded Monday with Bessent telling reporters the two sides reached a framework deal for U.S. ownership of . However, details were scant and Chinese negotiators provided no confirmation of a deal.

It’s the fourth round of discussions after meetings in London, Geneva and Stockholm. The two governments have agreed to several 90-day pauses on a series of increasing reciprocal , staving off an all-out trade war.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia has become central to the U.S.-China trade war, as the two sides battle for tech supremacy. The artificial intelligence boom has fueled demand for the Nvidia’s advanced processors, making it the world’s most valuable company.

The company has faced restrictions on chip exports to China imposed by President Joe Biden’s administration that were then reinforced by President . Nvidia won approval in July from the to sell China its H20 graphics processing unit, which is less powerful and designed to comply with U.S. export curbs.