Walmart defied a gloomy government December retail sales report, delivering fiscal fourth-quarter profits and sales that beat Wall Street expectations. The world’s largest retail also enjoyed another quarter of surging e-commerce sales during the critical holiday period as it expands its online assortment and services. Shares moved sharply higher in early morning trading Tuesday.
Honda to shut plant in Brexit-shaken Britain
LONDON — Japanese carmaker Honda says it plans to close its car factory in western England in 2021. While the company says it’s not related to Brexit, the move is a fresh blow to the British economy as it struggles with the uncertainty associated with leaving the European Union. Honda’s decision was announced Friday and will imperil at least 3,500 jobs.
Jailed Citgo executives in limbo amid Venezuela turmoil
HOUSTON — Six executives from the Houston-based Citgo oil company, five of them Americans, have spent 15 months jailed in Venezuela on what their families say are trumped-up corruption charges. As the Trump administration plunges headlong into an effort to unseat Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the fate of the six lies in the balance. As does that of the U.S. company they worked for — a major prize in the power struggle between Maduro and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido.
EU gets heavy-duty on pollution: 1st standards for trucks
BRUSSELS — The European Union on Tuesday reached a tentative agreement on the first specific EU standards for trucks, seeking to get polluting CO2 levels down. The agreement among negotiators from the European Parliament and member nations says such emissions for new trucks will have to be 30 percent lower by 2030 compared with today’s levels. The move is part of the EU’s plan to cut emissions of greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050 in an attempt to avoid catastrophic global warming.
EU, UK to have more Brexit talks but key disagreement intact
BRUSSELS — The European Union has warned British Prime Minister Theresa May that her trip to EU headquarters to seek an elusive breakthrough in Brexit negotiations stands no chance of success when it comes to her central demand for the divorce deal to be reopened. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also made it clear he had little hope that something fruitful would emerge during his talks Wednesday with May and that the stalemate between Britain and the 27 other EU nations would likely continue.
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