WAREHOUSE STORES
Costco cracking down on sharing membership cards
It just got harder to use someone else’s Costco card. Following Netflix’s lead, the warehouse chain is cracking down on account sharing and said it will be checking membership cards to ensure the photo matches the person at the checkout line. Though Costco has always asked customers to show their membership cards at the register, the retailer said it’s seen more nonmembers shopping with other people’s cards as self-checkout expands. Membership runs from $60 to $120 a year, depending on the tier. — WASHINGTON POST
CLIMATE
Nestle backtracks on making brands carbon neutral
Nestle has abandoned pledges to make major brands including KitKat and Perrier carbon neutral, joining a nascent corporate pushback against programs that let polluters compensate for their own greenhouse gas emissions by investing in efforts to reduce them elsewhere. The world’s biggest food company joins airline EasyJet and Gucci owner Kering in backing away from so-called carbon offsetting as a way to meet net-zero emissions targets. Consumer groups say the practice is misleading for shoppers and doesn’t always mean emissions are falling. Nestle is shifting toward in-house programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and supply chain, a spokesperson said. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
INTERNATIONAL
Human trafficking raid in Philippines frees more than 2,700
Philippine police backed by commandos staged a massive raid on Tuesday and said they rescued more than 2,700 workers from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and more than a dozen other countries who were allegedly swindled into working for fraudulent online gaming sites and other cybercrime groups. The number of human trafficking victims rescued from seven buildings in Las Pinas city in metropolitan Manila and the scale of the nighttime police raid were the largest so far this year and indicated how the Philippines has become a key base of operations for cybercrime syndicates. Cybercrime scams have become a major issue in Asia with reports of people from the region and beyond being lured into taking jobs in countries like strife-torn Myanmar and Cambodia. However, many of these workers find themselves trapped in virtual slavery and forced to participate in scams targeting people over the Internet. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEDIA
USA Today revives bestseller list
USA Today’s weekly list of bestselling books, a publishing fixture that had been on hiatus since December, returned Wednesday. Gannett had not run the list since Mary Cadden, the longtime compiler, was among hundreds laid off late last year. According to Erik Bursch, senior vice president for product and engineering, the logging of sales figures — entered manually by Cadden — has been automated. The list otherwise will be managed by the paper’s books editor, Barbara VanDenburgh. The publishing industry has long valued the USA Today rankings as a comprehensive, data-focused way of measuring the consumer market. The list, which began in 1993 and includes the top 150 books, is “based exclusively on sales analysis from US booksellers including bookstore chains, independent bookstores, mass merchandisers, and online retailers.” Unlike The New York Times and other lists, USA Today does not have separate categories for hardcovers, paperbacks, audiobooks, and e-books, instead combining them all, no matter the genre or release date. The top seller on Wednesday’s list was Elin Hilderbrand’s latest beach read, “The Five-Star Weekend”; followed by Bonnie Garmus’s popular debut novel “Lessons in Chemistry,” and Ali Hazelwood’s comic romance “Love, Theoretically.” Others included range from such perennials as “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to Paul McCartney’s photography book “1964,” David Sedaris’ “Happy-Go-Lucky,” and “Blood Meridian,” the acclaimed novel by Cormac McCarthy, who died earlier this month. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
ENERGY
Norway announces 19 oil and gas projects
Norway announced Wednesday it approved 19 oil and gas projects on the Norwegian continental shelf, saying the total investments are worth over 200 billion kroner ($19 billion). “The projects are also an important contribution to Europe’s energy security,” said Terje Aasland, Norway’s minister for petroleum and energy. Norway was the only net exporter of oil and gas in Europe, he said. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Hotels and inns badly lacking in EV chargers
The journey is no longer the major pain point for electric car drivers embarking on the great American road trip. It’s the destination. For those who don’t already own an EV, rental car giants like Hertz offer plenty of options across the cost spectrum. And there are more than 63,000 places to plug in on the road scattered around the United States and Canada, with more coming soon at major gas stations. But EV chargers are still largely absent from one crucial node on many a road trip: hotels and inns. A recent survey of 17,000 hotels in the American Hotel and Lodging Association found only about a quarter offer EV charging. Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels have chargers at less than a third of their US properties. Calling around to more than two dozen Motel 8s and Days Inns across the country, not a single one had a charger. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
INNOVATION
California company wins approval to test flying taxi
Joby Aviation Inc. has received US regulatory approval to expand testing of its air taxi, marking another step toward building a business around electric-powered flying vehicles. The company, based in Santa Cruz, Calif., said in a statement that the go-ahead from the Federal Aviation Administration will let it test flying taxis coming off its production line; it previously could only try out a prototype made by hand. Joby was to produce the first aircraft from its manufacturing facility on Wednesday. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
CRYPTOCURRENCY
FTX accuses former compliance officer of helping Bankman-Fried
Bankrupt FTX is suing the former top compliance officer to the crypto empire, accusing the lawyer of helping company founder and alleged fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried raid customer funds. Daniel Friedberg allegedly enabled top FTX managers to misuse billions of dollars of customer funds, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday night in US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington. On Monday, FTX released an update on the alleged fraud that caused the company to fail. In that report, FTX managers said the transfer of customer funds was facilitated by a senior attorney whom it didn’t name. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
