With Black Friday just around the corner, retailers are revealing their tactics for vacuuming up consumers’ holiday gift dollars. And with this year’s playbook, Amazon.com Inc. — often vaunted as the industry’s pacesetter — is surprisingly taking some cues from the old guard. The e-commerce giant’s first print toy catalog started making its way to shoppers’ mailboxes this week. Yes, ...

Telecom Italia SpA’s headquarters sits about 200 meters from the Porta Salaria, the city gate through which salt arrived in ancient Rome from the Adriatic coast. Some of that salt is being rubbed into the wounds of the aggrieved Italian carrier, which announced a 2 billion-euro impairment on the value of its home operations, partly a consequence of new competition ...

What does strongman showmanship look like? In India, it’s 25,000 tons of steel, 3,550 tons of bronze and 210,000 cubic meters of cement and concrete — towering over the world at a cost of about $400 million. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently unveiled the Statue of Unity in his home state of Gujarat. The likeness is of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, ...