Bloomberg Move over, Instant Pots. Robot vacuums are also now at the top of the most-sought after items this holiday season, according to Kohl’s Corp Chief Executive Officer Michelle Gass. Their popularity was “a litttle bit more surprising,” Gass said in an interview. “We’re seeing a lot of demand this year for vacuums. There’s a lot of innovation, there’s a ...

Bloomberg Meet Yona. She loves reading Margaret Atwood and articles about teenage life and sings about loneliness and relationships on her newly released track. If this sounds a bit scripted, that’s because it is: Yona’s not human. Yona has been created by London-based company Auxuman and trained using artificial intelligence (AI), fed on music and literature, and learning from reactions ...

Bloomberg France’s government said the European Union (EU) would retaliate if the US follows through on a threat to hit about $2.4 billion of French products with tariffs over a dispute concerning how large tech companies are taxed. “It’s not worthy of an ally, and it’s not the behaviour we expect from the US towards one of its main allies, ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG is facing one of the largest-ever UK class action lawsuits, with almost 100,000 vehicle owners accusing it of misleading them by installing emissions-cheating software that made it appear their diesel vehicles met environmental standards. Lawyers for the drivers opened their case and must first prove that the allegations belong in court. They need judges to follow findings ...

Bloomberg Euro-zone factory activity rose to a three-month high last month, though job losses continued as the sector remained stuck in a slump. The Purchasing Managers’ Index for the 19-nation euro region rose slightly to 46.9 in November as confidence improved and a drop in new orders slowed. The reading was up from a preliminary 46.6 but still below the ...

Bloomberg Twitter Inc Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey returned from a trip touring African startups ready to go back. He said in a Twitter post recently that he’ll spend three to six months somewhere on the continent next year. Dorsey had spent much of November meeting with startups and people in the tech industry in South Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria and ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump, once the primary critic of NATO, blasted France’s Emmanuel Macron for his “very insulting” comments about the military alliance that’s celebrating its 70th anniversary in London. The full-throttled attack came on Tuesday, hours before the two leaders were scheduled to meet face-to-face in London. The US president, who in the past has expressed admiration for the French ...

Bloomberg Typhoon Kammuri barrelled into the Philippines’ main island, killing at least three people, displacing half a million more and shutting its main airport. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte canceled work in government offices in Metro Manila, while schools were closed as Kammuri battered the capital region on Tuesday. The foreign exchange and stock markets were open. About half a million ...

Bloomberg Iran for the first time acknowledged that its security forces shot and killed protesters last month during one of the most violent crackdowns on dissent since the 1979 Islamic revolution. State television on Tuesday reported that “rioters” had been shot dead in several areas as they joined anti-government protests, including in Tehran, the capital, and Mahshahr in the country’s ...

Bloomberg North Korea said it was preparing a choice of “Christmas” gifts for President Donald Trump, in the country’s latest effort to pressure the US to offer more concessions in nuclear talks before the new year. Top North Korean diplomat Ri Thae Song said in a statement Tuesday that the onus was on the US side to determine how the ...