Business

A Purdue analysis of NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs found that virtual REUs produced similar or stronger learning outcomes while reducing costs and allowing more students to participate.

A surge in new apartment construction has increased rental supply and pushed asking rents down year-over-year in seven U.S. metros, led by Austin with a 6.6% decline; other named cities include Jacksonville, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami, and San Diego.

Nvidia announced that its BlueField-4 data processor will power the Nvidia Inference Context Memory Storage Platform, described as a new class of AI-native storage infrastructure. CEO Jensen Huang said this move reflects a broader shift in how storage fits into AI computing.

Morgan Stanley filed paperwork for a Bitcoin trust and a Solana trust that would hold the respective cryptocurrencies and be sponsored by Morgan Stanley Investment Management; the Solana product would allocate a portion of assets for staking.

Tesla's EV sales declined and BYD overtook it, while investors remain focused on the company's autonomy, AI and robotics promises despite limited detailed disclosure.

Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin said policy faces a delicate balance between rising unemployment and still-high inflation, and he noted last year’s 75 basis points of easing has put interest rates near estimates of the neutral rate.

AIG said Eric Andersen will join as president and CEO‑elect on Feb. 16 and will become CEO after June 1, while Peter Zaffino will step down as chief executive midyear and move to the role of executive chair.

The East London coroner warned that automated Jubilee Line operators were not paying sufficient attention after 72-year-old Brian Mitchell was struck and later died at Stratford station, and has issued a report with recommendations to the Mayor, Transport for London and the Department for Transport.

Wegmans says it collects facial recognition and other biometric data in a small number of stores for security, and a New York county legislator has requested a substantive written response within 30 days.

Aldi's U.S. expansion has drawn long lines at new openings and the chain reported about $29 billion in U.S. sales in 2024; Aldi US plans to operate more than 3,000 locations by the end of 2028.

A poll of nearly 20,000 people finds most British voters say Brexit has hurt the economy, reduced control over national affairs, and not improved border control, while many European respondents say they would welcome the UK rejoining the EU.

Thailand recorded 32.9 million foreign arrivals in 2025, a 7.2% decline from 2024, and officials attribute the fall to several reported incidents and natural events.

The article says US fiscal pressures make higher taxes likely, and it argues that current proposals—tariffs, wealth levies and abrupt surtaxes—are creating economic distortions rather than raising revenue efficiently.

Around 600 tourists are stranded on Yemen's Socotra after the UAE withdrew troops amid a public rift with Saudi Arabia, and the island's main airport is closed while control shifts.

Secure 2.0 requires Roth-only catch-up contributions this year for certain higher-income workers in workplace plans, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act raised the SALT deduction cap to $40,000.

Nvidia has released Alpamayo, an open-source 10-billion-parameter vision-language-action model, and the company has announced partnerships with firms such as Uber and Lucid. The move could broaden access to advanced self-driving technology that has so far relied in part on large fleets of real-world driving data.

A Teaching Regulation Agency panel found Patrick Lawler guilty of professional misconduct and banned him indefinitely; the panel said he distributed material intolerant of others' faiths and made inappropriate remarks in class.

Semiconductor stocks climbed early in 2026 led by memory chip makers as AI-related demand and DRAM shortages drove price gains, and Counterpoint Research forecasts memory prices to rise about 40% through the second quarter of 2026.

A food reporter says shopping at the online discount grocer Martie helped them buy pantry staples at far lower prices, and the site sells overstock and near‑best‑by items while donating $5 of food per order to the North Texas Food Bank.

Gold climbed to a one-week high after US Federal Reserve remarks reinforced expectations of interest rate cuts, and tensions involving Venezuela increased demand for safe-haven assets.

Next PLC said full-price sales for the nine weeks to Dec. 27 rose 10.6% and it raised its pretax profit forecast for the year ending late January to £1.15 billion; the company also gave initial guidance for fiscal 2027 expecting 4.5% full-price sales growth.

The SMMT says discounts on electric cars exceeded £5bn in 2025 while EVs made up 23.4% of new registrations, short of the government's ZEV Mandate targets.

Aeva's Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave 4D LiDAR has been selected for NVIDIA's DRIVE Hyperion autonomous vehicle reference platform, and the company says this expands its role as a core LiDAR supplier to global passenger and commercial vehicle OEMs that use NVIDIA's architecture.

A Week 18 win over the Baltimore Ravens gave Mike Tomlin his 193rd regular-season victory, tying him with Hall of Famer Chuck Noll and securing the Steelers' AFC North title and a playoff spot.

State-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) is reported to control the majority of the country's oil production and reserves, and foreign firms including Chevron and Russian and Chinese partners operate through joint ventures.

U.S. forces captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife; they are in federal custody in Brooklyn awaiting trial on narcoterrorism charges, and Venezuela’s leadership is reported as uncertain.

Aboard Air Force One, President Trump said Cuba could soon collapse and warned Colombia's president; he also reiterated U.S. interest in acquiring Greenland.

Oil and precious metals rose and major Asian stock indexes climbed after reports of the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Gold and silver climbed as investors moved toward safe-haven assets after reports that US forces captured Venezuela's leader Nicolás Maduro; oil slipped amid questions about crude flows from the country.

Pizzerias have fallen from the second-most common U.S. restaurant type and now trail coffee shops and Mexican-inspired eateries, and pizza-chain sales growth has lagged the broader fast-food market.