Thousands of US air passengers were facing delays Wednesday after United Airlines halted many departures in the wake of a systemwide problem.So-called “mainline flights” — those moving between major hubs — were grounded for over an hour before engineers were able to get things up and running again.”We are working with customers to get them to their destinations after a technology disruption on Wednesday evening,” the airline said in a statement.”The underlying technology issue has been resolved, and, while we expect residual delays, our team is working to restore our normal operations.”The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates flight in the United States, had issued ground stops at several major airports.”We’re aware United experienced a technology issue disrupting their operations. Some delays may continue as they work through the recovery process,” the FAA said in a statement. “We’ve offered full support to help address their flight backlog and remain in close contact with United.”The orders affected airports in Denver, Newark, Houston and Chicago and only applied to United, the FAA’s website said.The outage was the latest problem to afflict America’s aviation sector.Last month Alaska Airlines suffered an IT problem that left its planes on the ground for several hours.That came after air traffic control systems went down at a Newark area airport on more than one occasion this year, shaking passengers’ faith in the system.In January a mid-air collision near Washington’s Reagan National Airport involving a passenger jet and a military helicopter claimed dozens of lives.

Apple will invest an additional $100 billion in the United States, taking its total pledge to $600 billion over the next four years, US President Donald Trump said Wednesday.Trump announced the increased commitment at the White House alongside the tech giant’s CEO Tim Cook, calling it “the largest investment Apple has made in America.” “Apple will massively increase spending on its domestic supply chain,” Trump added, highlighting a new production facility for the glass used to make iPhone screens in Kentucky.In February, Apple said it would spend more than $500 billion in the United States and hire 20,000 people, with Trump quickly taking credit for the decision. It builds on plans announced in 2021, when the company founded by Steve Jobs said it would invest $430 billion in the country and add 20,000 jobs over the next five years.”This year alone, American manufacturers are on track to make 19 billion chips for Apple in 24 factories across 12 different states,” Cook said in the Oval Office.Trump, who has pushed US companies to shift manufacturing home by slapping tariffs on trading partners, claimed that his administration was to thank for the investment.”This is a significant step toward the ultimate goal of… ensuring that iPhones sold in the United States of America also are made in America,” Trump said. Cook later clarified that, while many iPhone components will be manufactured in the United States, the complete assembly of iPhones will still be conducted overseas.”If you look at the bulk of it, we’re doing a lot of the semiconductors here, we’re doing the glass here, we’re doing the Face ID module here… and we’re doing these for products sold elsewhere in the world,” Cook said.- ‘They’re coming home’ -Trump has repeatedly said he plans to impose a “100 percent” tariff on imported semiconductors, a major export of Taiwan, South Korea, China and Japan. “We’re going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors,” he told reporters Wednesday at the White House.Taiwanese giant TSMC — the world’s largest contract maker of chips, which counts Nvidia and Apple among its clients — would be “exempt” from those tariffs as it has factories in the United States, Taipei said Thursday. While he did not offer a timetable for enactment of the new tech levies, on Tuesday he said fresh tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals and semiconductors and chips could be unveiled within the coming week.The US is “going to be very rich and it’s companies like Apple, they’re coming home,” Trump said.Trump specified further that “Apple will help develop and manufacture semiconductors and semiconductor equipment in Texas, Utah, Arizona and New York.” He noted that if tech companies commit to manufacturing their wares in the US, “there will be no charge.”Apple reported a quarterly profit of $23.4 billion in late July, topping forecasts despite facing higher costs due to Trump’s sweeping levies.The tariffs are essentially a tax paid by companies importing goods to the United States. This means Apple is on the hook for tariffs on iPhones and other products or components it brings into the country from abroad.

Officials in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca accused sportswear giant Adidas of cultural appropriation after the fashion brand debuted sandals similar to a traditional design from the region.The Oaxaca Slip-On sandals were created by American fashion designer Willy Chavarria, who has Mexican heritage, but drew pushback from both state and local officials in Oaxaca, which has one of the highest Indigenous populations in the country.Oaxaca Governor Salomon Jara first addressed the issue during a press conference on Tuesday, saying the sandals were a “reinterpreted huarache model,” particularly one that was uniquely found in the state.In another instance, Isaias Carranza, a Oaxacan legislator of Indigenous Zapotec descent, wrote on his Facebook account: “The Adidas company, in conjunction with designer Willy Chavarria, appropriated a unique design of the traditional huaraches (sandals) from the people of the Hidalgo Yalalag village.”Jara also threatened to take legal action against Chavarria.”This huarache is from Yalalag…we are also going to ask our Yalalag siblings to work with us so we can file a complaint” against the designer, he said at the press conference.For its part, the Ministry of Cultures and Arts of Oaxaca said in a statement that using cultural elements for commercial purposes without the consent of Indigenous peoples was “a violation of our collective rights,” demanding that Adidas stop selling the sandals, publicly acknowledge their origin and begin a process of “dialogue and redress of grievances” with the Yalalag community.The controversy is the latest instance of Mexican officials denouncing major brands or designers using unauthorized Indigenous art or designs from the region, with previous complaints raised about Chinese fast fashion company Shein, Spanish mega-brand Zara and high fashion house Carolina Herrera.Adidas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If Donald Trump is to be believed, millions of Americans could receive a financial slice of the fortunes generated by the US president’s sweeping tariffs.But the eyebrow-raising suggestion from a leader with a flair for creating headlines is largely opaque — with key questions left open about how the giveaway would be funded. Trump himself has acknowledged the difficulty in splashing cash at a time when the United States faces crushing debt.”We have so much money coming in, we are thinking about a little rebate,” Trump said last month, “but the big thing we want to do is pay down debt.”He has since referred to the so-called rebate as a “dividend,” and said it could be for “people that would be middle income people and lower income people.”His idea has, naturally, roused interest. Republican Senator Josh Hawley introduced a bill in July that would see $600 checks sent to each adult and dependent child in American families.Trump has a track record in dishing out money — or at least taking the credit for it.During the Covid pandemic, he insisted that his name be put on government checks distributed to tens of millions of Americans as financial support. – Looming questions -Trump’s latest plan raises a key question: How will it be financed?The United States faces a national deficit that worsened from October to June compared to the same period a year earlier. That was despite a rise in revenue generated by tariffs that Trump has slapped on dozens of US trading partners. Handing out cash to Americans would add to the deficit and increase the country’s debt, which was at more than $36.8 trillion by early August.Trump, when explaining his dividend idea, has claimed the United States is raking in trillions of dollars from other countries thanks to his protectionist agenda. The Republican has also cited large investments promised by Japan and the European Union — deals that coincided with agreements on US tariffs. But foreign leaders paint a different picture. Japan, for example, has stated that its $550 billion pledge will largely be in the form of loans and guarantees — certainly not just hard cash. And Trump’s claims about the revenue generated by tariffs can also be misleading. The president claims — wrongly — that tariffs are paid by foreign countries to the US government. Yet, in reality, it is importers in the United States that are on the hook.Most economists note that American consumers therefore end up paying more as businesses, facing rising costs, raise prices on their products.