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The number of domestic travelers in the U.S. is expected to break a record for Memorial Day weekend that was set in 2005. AAA anticipates that 45.1 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home over the weekend, an increase of 1.4 million travelers compared to last year. Those traveling by car see the biggest difference, with more than a million extra travelers expected on the roads compared to last year. While 87% of travelers choose to take road trips during Memorial Day weekend, this year, they’re also aided by the lower crude oil prices making gasoline cheaper nationwide. (Typically, gas prices will peak in the summer as the busy travel season commences. You can avoid price hikes by staying away from the gas stations closest to the interstate, and optimizing your fuel economy.) As for traffic, AAA expects peak congestion in the afternoons all weekend, with the best travel times in the mornings. Get out early if you can, and on Monday, try to get back home before 2 p.m. Airports will also see a more crowded weekend than last year, with AAA projecting 3.61 million air travelers. In 2024, 3.55 million passengers chose flight as their preferred mode of travel, a difference of nearly 2% compared to the projection for this year. However, flights are more expensive than last year, with the average roundtrip ticket price costing $850. Popular destinations include Chicago, New York, Orlando, Denver, and Seattle. (If youre planning to travel by air, follow the recommended airport arrival time of at least two hours before your domestic flight.) Other modes of transportation travelers are utilizing this weekend include trains, buses, and cruises. Those have increased 8.5% compared to last years numbers, with cruises seeing a high demand for Alaskan destinations for Memorial Day weekend, including Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Juneau.
Category:
E-Commerce
Brazilian meat giant JBS came a step closer Friday to its long-held goal of trading its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The company’s minority shareholders voted to approve the company’s plan to list its shares both in Sao Paulo and New York, casting aside opposition from environmental groups, U.S. lawmakers and others who noted JBS’ record of corruption, monopolistic behavior and environmental destruction. JBS Global CEO Gilberto Tomazoni said the outcome showed shareholders were confident in the benefits a dual listing would bring. The company said before the vote that listing shares in the U.S. would boost its global profile and attract new investors. JBS said it expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on June 12. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission granted the companys request to list its shares in New York late last month. JBS is one of the worlds largest food companies, with more than 250 production facilities in 17 countries. Half of its annual revenue comes from the U.S., where it has more than 72,000 employees. Its Americas top beef producer and its second-largest producer of poultry and pork. JBS’s planwhich has been in the works for yearshas generated significant pushback. Last fall, 20 environmental organizationsincluding Mighty Earth, Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Networksigned an open letter to JBS investors opposing the listing, saying it would put the climate at greater risk. Glass Lewis, an influential independent investor advisory firm, was also among those recommending that shareholders reject the plan. In its report, Glass Lewis said the recent return of brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista to the JBS board should concern investors. The brothers, who are the sons of JBS founder, were briefly jailed in Brazil in 2017 on bribery and corruption charges. In our view, the involvement of the company and of Joesley and Wesley Batista in multiple high-profile scandals has tarnished the companys reputation, undermining stakeholder trust and posing a significant risk to its competitive position, Glass Lewis said. Glass Lewis also objected to the companys plan for dual share classes, which would give the Batistas and other controlling shareholders more voting power. In its response to Glass Lewis’ report, JBS said it has established more stringent controls and anti-corruption training at the company in recent years. It also said a U.S. listing would ensure more oversight from U.S. authorities. We believe this transaction will increase our visibility in global markets, attract new investors and further strengthen our position as a global food industry leader, Tomazoni said in a statement last month when the company announced Fridays vote. Many U.S. lawmakers also aren’t convinced JBS belongs on the New York Stock Exchange. In a letter sent last week to JBS, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, noted that Pilgrims Pridea U.S. company owned by JBSwas the largest single donor to President Donald Trumps inaugural committee, with a $5 million gift. The SECs approval came just weeks after that donation, Warren said. I am concerned Pilgrims Pride may have made its contribution to the inaugural fund to curry favor with the Trump administration, Warren wrote in the letter, which asked the company why the donation was made. In a statement, JBS said it has a long bipartisan history of participating in the civic process. Warren was also among a bipartisan group of 15 U.S. senators who sent a letter to the SEC in January 2024 urging the agency to reject a U.S. listing for JBS. The senators, a diverse group that rarely agrees on policy, included Republicans Marco Rubio of Florida and Josh Hawley of Missouri, Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey and Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The letter noted that in 2020, J&F Investments, a controlling shareholder of JBS that is owned by the Batista family, pleaded guilty to bribery charges in U.S. federal court and agreed to pay fines of $256 million. It also said Pilgrims Pride pleaded guilty to price-fixing charges in 2021. And it said U.S. Senate investigations found that JBS is turning a blind eye to rainforest destruction in the Amazon by its suppliers. Approval of JBS proposed listing would subject U.S. investors to risk from a company with a history of blatant, systemic corruption, and further entrench its monopoly power and embolden its monopoly practices, the letter said. Dee-Ann Durbin, AP business writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Iran and the United States prepared for a fifth round of negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program Friday in Rome, with enrichment emerging as the key issue.U.S. officials up to President Donald Trump insist Iran cannot continue to enrich uranium at all in any deal that could see sanctions lifted on Tehran’s struggling economy. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi early Friday insisted online that no enrichment would mean “we do NOT have a deal.” “Figuring out the path to a deal is not rocket science,” Araghchi wrote on the social platform X. “Time to decide.”The U.S. will be again represented in the talks by Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director. Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi is mediating the negotiations as the sultanate on the Arabian Peninsula has been a trusted interlocutor by both Tehran and Washington in the talks.A car carrying Araghchi arrived at the Omani Embassy in Rome’s Camilluccia neighborhood around 12:30 p.m. Witkoff had yet to be seen, but the embassy previously served as the site of another round of talks. Enrichment remains key in negotiations The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic, closing in on half a century of enmity.Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.“Iran almost certainly is not producing nuclear weapons, but Iran has undertaken activities in recent years that better position it to produce them, if it chooses to do so,” a new report from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said. “These actions reduce the time required to produce sufficient weapons-grade uranium for a first nuclear device to probably less than one week.”However, it likely still would take Iran months to make a working bomb, experts say.Enrichment remains the key point of contention. Witkoff at one point suggested Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later began saying all Iranian enrichment must stop. That position on the American side has hardened over time.Asked about the negotiations, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said “we believe that we are going to succeed” in the talks and on Washington’s push for no enrichment.“The Iranians are at that table, so they also understand what our position is, and they continue to go,” Bruce said Thursday.One idea floated so far that might allow Iran to stop enrichment in the Islamic Republic but maintain a supply of uranium could be a consortium in the Mideast backed by regional countries and the U.S. There also are multiple countries and the International Atomic Energy Agency offering low-enriched uranium that can be used for peaceful purposes by countries.However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry has maintained enrichment must continue within the country’s borders and a similar fuel-swap proposal failed to gain traction in negotiations in 2010.Meanwhile, Israel has threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities on their own if it feels threatened, further complicating tensions in the Mideast already spiked by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.Araghchi warned Thursday that Iran would take “special measures” to defend its nuclear facilities if Israel continues to threaten them, while also warning the U.S. it would view it as being complicit in any Israeli attack. Authorities allowed a group of Iranian students to form a human chain Thursday at its underground enrichment site at Fordo, an area with incredibly tight security built into a mountain to defend against possible airstrikes. Talks come as U.S. pressure on Iran increases Yet despite the tough talk from Iran, the Islamic Republic needs a deal. Its internal politics are inflamed over the mandatory hijab, or headscarf, with women still ignoring the law on the streets of Tehran. Rumors also persist over the government potentially increasing the cost of subsidized gasoline in the country, which has sparked nationwide protests in the past.Iran’s rial currency plunged to over one million to a U.S. dollar in April. The currency has improved with the talks, however, something Tehran hopes will continue as a further collapse in the rial could spark further economic unrest.Meanwhile, its self-described “Axis of Resistance” sits in tatters after Iran’s regional allies in the region have faced repeated attacks by Israel during its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government during a rebel advance in December also stripped Iran of a key ally.The Trump administration also has continued to levy new sanctions on Iran, including this week, which saw the U.S. specifically target any sale of sodium perchlorate to the Islamic Republic. Iran reportedly received that chemical in shipments from China at its Shahid Rajaei port near Bandar Abbas. A major, unexplained explosion there killed dozens and wounded over 1,000 others in April during one round of the talks. Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. Jon Gambrell and Giada Zampano, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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