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Many will have seen TV footage of woebegone travellers unable to visit their families during the holidays because of a cyclone-induced meltdown at Southwest Airlines, America’s largest domestic carrier. Very few, however, know about the travel hell just south of the border at Tijuana airport, due to fog-induced mayhem at Volaris, a low-cost carrier that is Mexico’s largest airline. Your columnist does. He and Mrs Schumpeter spent much of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day stranded there along with thousands of other travellers, trying to rebook cancelled flights to destinations across Mexico. For most of the time, resignation not rage prevailed. But yuletide cheer did fade when, after standing in line for 11 hours to rebook tickets, people were told by a Volaris representative they were in the wrong queue. At exactly the same moment, the company sent out a seasonal tweet: “The magic of Christmas extends to the whole Volaris family.” Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

It is the stuff of parental nightmares. Between July and October 70 children in Gambia died of kidney failure. In December 18 perished in Uzbekistan from renal problems and acute respiratory disease. In both cases Indian-made cough syrups may have been at fault, according to allegations by a Gambian parliamentary committee and the Uzbek authorities. Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant will soon be able to help EV drivers find and navigate to charging stations while on the road.
Amazon is teaming up with EVGo, one of the largest U.S. charging networks, to add this functionality to Alexa later this year.
If the EV driver chooses an EVGo charging station, Alexa will be able to initiate and pay for the charge.

Alexa for EV charging
Source: Amazon

Amazon is betting that Alexa, its voice-activated virtual assistant, can help ease one of electric vehicle drivers’ biggest worries: finding a charging station while on the road.
At CES on Thursday, Amazon announced a new collaboration with EVGo, one of the largest U.S. charging networks, that will soon allow Alexa to navigate EV drivers to public charging spots and pay for the service.

Alexa will draw on data from EVGo’s PlugShare community to help guide EV drivers to nearby charging stations. If the driver chooses an EVGo station, Alexa will be able to initiate and pay for the charge with simple voice commands. Amazon expects the new feature to be available later this year.
“The EV charging experience is a lot more fragmented than for gas customers, who can pretty much stop at any location,” said Anes Hodžić, vice president at Amazon’s Smart Vehicles group.
While Tesla owners can rely on the company’s proprietary “Supercharger” network, drivers of non-Tesla EVs are confronted with a mishmash of competing charging networks, chargers that may not be well maintained, and apps that provide incomplete — and sometimes outdated — information.
Unlike the traditional stop for gas, EV drivers must factor in charging speed, plug type and payment options, Hodžić said, all while using several different apps to find charging stations, and as their vehicle’s range may be dwindling.
“We want Alexa to be useful for customers in their everyday lives, and EV charging is a great example of a task that can be simplified and made more convenient through the power of AI,” Hodžić said.

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Online holiday sales rose 3.5% year over year to $211.7 billion, according to Adobe Analytics.
Discounts hit a record high during the season and persuaded shoppers to spend.
Retailers are bracing for a tougher year ahead, as inflation weighs on wallets.

D3sign | Moment | Getty Images

Online sales during the holiday season jumped 3.5% year over year to $211.7 billion, according to Adobe Analytics, as record high discounts persuaded shoppers to open up their wallets.
That spending marked a new record for e-commerce sales during the major retail season, according to Adobe. The overall spending got a boost from key shopping holidays, including $35.3 billion in online sales during Cyber Week, the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.

The latest holiday numbers come as retailers brace for a tougher year and weigh if consumers are running out of gas. As inflation remains high, Americans are running up credit card balances and socking away less money in savings accounts. Sales of some big-ticket items, such as jewelry and consumer electronics, have declined. And retailers have dangled discounts and cut merchandise orders while trying to sell through excess inventory and prepare for a potential recession.
In a separate report, which includes in-store spending, holiday sales rose 7.6% in stores and online from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24, according to data from Mastercard SpendingPulse. The figure includes all forms of payment and restaurant spending. It is not adjusted for inflation, which rose 7.1% year over year in November.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

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Walgreens Boots Alliance posted better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter earnings.
The company also boosted its full-year revenue outlook due in part to its U.S. health-care segment’s acquisition of Summit Health.

Walgreens Boots Alliance on Thursday reported fiscal first-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street’s estimates after an early flu season boosted demand for cough and cold medicine.
The company said it also raised its full-year revenue outlook due in part to its U.S. health-care segment’s just-sealed acquisition of Summit Health. For the most recent quarter, however, the segment’s revenue came in below expectations.

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Here’s how Walgreens did in its first fiscal quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: $1.16, adjusted, vs. $1.14 expected
Revenue: $33.38 billion vs. $32.84 billion expected

Despite the strong sales, Walgreens swung to an unadjusted loss of $3.7 billion, or $4.31 per share, for the three-month period that ended Nov. 30, compared with net income of $3.58 billion, or $4.13 per share, a year earlier.
The loss was driven by a $5.2 billion settlement Walgreens was ordered to pay for opioid-related litigation after a number of states alleged the company mishandled prescriptions and should’ve realized they were prescribing the ultra-addictive drug too often.
Thanks to an early flu season and strong demand for over-the-counter cough and cold medicine, sales jumped to $33.38 billion, down slightly from $33.9 billion a year earlier. The company also saw a boost in beauty and personal-care sales, which helped offset losses from a dip in demand for Covid vaccines and home test kits, which drove profits in previous quarters.
For the last five quarters, Walgreens has beat Wall Street’s expectations as the ubiquitous drugstore chain continues to transform itself from a pharmacy-led retailer to a broader health-care company.

While the company has made significant investments to bring that vision to life, sales from its U.S. health-care segment fell short of expectations at $989 million but still grew significantly from the prior-year period.
The company is in the process of acquiring CareCentrix, which coordinates home care for patients after they’re discharged from the hospital, and Shields Health Solutions, a specialty pharmacy company.
That’s on top of the $5.2 billion deal they already struck with primary-care provider VillageMD, which has opened 393 total clinics clinics adjacent to Walgreens stores.
Since the end of the last quarter, an additional 59 VillageMD clinics were opened and the program will continue to expand after the provider announced plans to acquire urgent care provider Summit Health-CityMD for about $8.9 billion. The deal closed Tuesday.
The acquisition led Walgreens to increase its full year sales guidance to $133.5 billion to $137.5 billion.
Following the news of the Summit Health acquisition in November, Walgreens raised its US Healthcare targets to $14.5 billion to $16 billion for fiscal year 2025, up from their previous target of $11 billion to $12 billion.
The company is also maintaining its full-year earnings per share guidance of $4.45 to $4.65, compared to estimates of $4.50.
The earnings release comes after Walgreens confirmed it would be among the pharmacy chains to offer abortion pill mifepristone after the FDA ruled it can be sold at drug stores.
“We intend to become a certified pharmacy under the program,” the company told CNBC late Wednesday.
“We are working through the registration, necessary training of our pharmacists, as well as evaluating our pharmacy network in terms of where we normally dispense products that have extra FDA requirements and will dispense these consistent with federal and state laws.”
Read the company’s earnings release here.
— CNBC’s Bertha Coombs contributed to this report.

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Pickleball now boasts the support of LeBron James, Tom Brady and more than 36 million other Americans.
The rapidly growing sport is easy to learn and inexpensive.
The pickleball restaurant-entertainment model is also gaining steam. From Chicken N Pickle to Camp Pickle, entrepreneurs are hoping to capitalize on the craze.

South Pasadena, CA – July 23: Pete Dinero, right, eyes a shot as his partner David Valera looks on as they play pickleball at the Arroyo Seco Racquet Club in South Pasadena on Saturday, July 23, 2022.
Keith Birmingham | Getty Images

The pickleball boom is real.
More than 36.5 million people played pickleball from August 2021 to August 2022, according to a new report by the Association of Pickleball Professionals released exclusively to CNBC. Earlier data pinned the participation rate of the sport at 5 million players in 2021.

The latest numbers unveiled in the 2023 APP Pickleball Participation report, via a study conducted by YouGov, shows that 14% of Americans played pickleball at least once in that 12-month period. And over 8.5 million people played pickleball eight times or more.
“When you look at participation rates alongside golf, and basketball and tennis. … I don’t think anybody would have thought a year ago that pickleball would be right up there with those more traditional sports,” said Tom Webb, chief marketing officer of the Association of Pickleball Professionals, the group that represents professional, recreational and amateur players.
In recent months, star athletes ranging from LeBron James and Tom Brady to Kevin Durant and Patrick Mahomes have brought more high-profile attention to the sport by investing in professional pickleball teams. What began as a way to get in on a professional sport early has become one of the hottest sports investments with the ability to own a team in the low seven-figure range.
The sport is also attracting a new wave of sponsors. Familiar names like Holland America, Anheuser-Busch, Sketchers and Carvana have all signed recent pickleball deals.
“When you look at the number of people that are now picking up a paddle and playing for the first time, it is inevitable that the investment market is going to look at that and say, this is something worth us investing in,” said Webb.

The real dill

Across the country, tennis courts and being replaced, and pickleball courts are moving in as other investors are shoring up big money. In Southern California, the Santa Monica Tennis Center just invested $250,000 in a new facility dedicated to pickleball. Outside of Sarasota, Florida, real estate developers have invested $180 million into a 15-court facility called The Pickleball Club. They expect to have 600 members.
The pickleball restaurant-entertainment model is also gaining steam. From Chicken N Pickle to Camp Pickle, entrepreneurs are hoping to capitalize on the craze. Food and entertainment industry veteran Robert Thompson says he plans to roll out at least 10 Camp Pickle facilities across the country in 2024.

Ben Johns hits a backhand shot during the 2022 US Open Pro Men’s Doubles at the East Naples Community Park on April 29, 2022 in Naples, Florida.
Bruce Yeung | Getty Images

Terri Graham, the co-founder of the Minto US Open Pickleball Championships, the largest event in the sport since 2016, says enthusiasm is at an all-time high.
Player applications are up 30% over last year and they’ve seen a 25% uptick in sponsorships with their leading sponsors Minto and Margaritaville, which both signed multiyear extensions at a 30% increase.
“Last year we established a new record for attendance at a pickleball tournament with more than 35,000 spectators — 10,000 more than we estimated. And from the early demand for tickets, “The Biggest Pickleball Party in the World,” will be even bigger in 2023.” She says when tickets go on sale later this month, she expects they will sell out within 48 hours.
Life Time founder and CEO Bahram Akradi is a pickleball player himself and it led to him getting in on the craze early. The upscale fitness center, described as an athletic country club, has deployed the equivalent of half a billion dollars of assets into pickleball at 120 of its more than 160 locations to date.
Since 2022, Life Time has constructed indoor and outdoor pickleball courts at a rate of five new permanent courts each week. It now has 400 courts across their clubs, with the goal of exceeding 600-700 by the end of 2023. Members are offered lessons, social play and even competitive leagues and tournaments.
“Pickleball participation [at Life Time] in a given month has risen from about 16,000 people to like 160,000. So, it’s almost tenfold January to December,” Akradi tells CNBC.
Major League Pickleball and the Professional Pickleball Association took notice and they have partnered with Life Time to host multiple tournaments across the country this year.
Equipment makers are also benefiting. Selkirk Sport, one of the top paddle makers in the sport, has grown from a family-owned business in Idaho to selling gear across the country at big-box stores at major chains.
The company’s business with retailers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Costco and Walmart is growing at more than 100% year over year, Selkirk co-CEO Rob Barnes told CNBC.

Pickleball’s bread and butter

Pickleball, a combination of tennis, badminton and ping pong, was first created in 1965 in Bainbridge Island, Washington, by three fathers looking to give their bored children a new activity by using a hodgepodge of other sports as inspiration.
The sport saw some success among boomers in more recent years. The Villages in Florida now features more than 220 pickleball courts.
Then came the Covid-19 pandemic, and the sport saw an unexpected boom. As the coronavirus prevented people from playing traditional team sports, people flocked to the paddle sport as a socially distant way to be outdoors and stay active.
Experts also pin the rapid popularity of the sport to a few other factors — the ease of play, the low cost of entry and sociability. Pickleball can be learned in a just a few lessons, and players can find tournaments at varying competitive level.
The cost of entry is also more affordable than sports like tennis or golf. You don’t need a fancy country club membership, and a good paddle can be found between $100 and $200.
Pickleball is also incredibly social and provides an outlet for many to make new friends of all ages. While boomers dominate the sport, younger players are increasingly taking to the court.

The sour side?

There is some concern that pickleball is growing too fast.
Sports Illustrated outlined many of the problems of the rapid rise in May of 2022, including too many leagues, battling billionaires and bad behavior. Since that article was published, the two competing leagues have merged, and other changes have been made.
There are still widespread noise complaints, leading some to even take legal action regarding the “pop, pop” sound that a pickleball ball makes when making contact with a paddle. The unique noise is driving many neighbors crazy and even dividing towns. But slowly these things are being worked out and attributed to normal growing pains.
Webb said he believes the sport is just getting started and is not a fad since people are returning to the sport and playing regularly after picking up a paddle for the first time.
He also pointed to the expanding coverage of the sport from major TV networks and the fact it is being considered as a possible event at a future Olympics.
“I think it’s inevitable that it will reach a certain number and growth trajectory will start to flatten out,” Webb said. “But who knows what that number could be. I don’t think we’ve gotten close to it yet.”

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Passengers departing from China will likely have to present a negative Covid test before leaving the country if heading toward one of the 27 EU countries.
Officials in China have criticized recently imposed testing requirements on travelers from the country and threatened to take reciprocal countermeasures.
The U.S., India, U.K., Japan and Australia have all announced tougher measures on travelers from China in a bid to prevent a surge in Covid cases.

European nations are looking at new travel requirements from China after Beijing lifted Covid restrictions.
China News Service | China News Service | Getty Images

European nations on Wednesday recommended imposing new restrictions on travelers from China amid fears of an increase in Covid cases.
Passengers departing from China will likely have to present a negative Covid test before leaving the country if heading toward one of the 27 EU countries. They will also likely be asked to wear facial masks during the flights and potentially be subjected to random testing on arrival.

“The Member States agreed on a coordinated precautionary approach in the light of Covid-19 developments in China,” said a statement issued Wednesday, following a meeting of EU officials that lasted several hours.
Health policy comes under the jurisdiction of individual governments. It is up to the various capitals to decide whether they will follow EU recommendations. Several EU nations have already stepped up their protection measures against potential new cases from China.
Officials in China have criticized recently imposed testing requirements on travelers from the country and threatened to take reciprocal countermeasures. China currently requires foreign visitors to produce a negative Covid-19 test before entering the country, as well as to quarantine for eight days following their arrival. Beijing targets to scrap the confinement requirement this coming weekend, but will continue to demand proof of negative Covid-19 tests from visitors from abroad. In December, it also said it would restart issuing visas for residents to travel abroad.
The U.S., India, U.K., Japan and Australia have all announced tougher measures on travelers from China in a bid to prevent a surge in Covid cases.
Italy was among the first EU nations to take action in the aftermath of Beijing abruptly abandoning strict measures that were in place for much of the pandemic.

Rome, one of the hardest hit in Europe by the pandemic, ordered compulsory testing last week. France and Spain had also taken similar stances.
The latest move by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, aims to coordinate rules across the region.
In late December, Chinese authorities said they would restart issuing visas for residents to travel abroad. They also said travelers arriving in China would no longer have to quarantine.
However, China has experienced a rise in Covid infections since November and there are concerns about the level of immunization among its population. The country has nine vaccines developed domestically, according to Reuters, but these have not been updated for the omicron variant, considered highly infectious.
European authorities offered to send vaccines to China, but Beijing has not yet responded, according to a spokesperson for the European Commission.
The commission spokesperson told CNBC that the EU had reached out via its delegation in Beijing “to offer solidarity and support, including through sharing of public health expertise and variant-adapted EU vaccine donations.”
Asked on Tuesday about the offer from Europe to provide Covid vaccines, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning replied, “China has established the world’s largest production lines of Covid vaccines with an annual production capacity of over 7 billion doses and an annual output of over 5.5 billion doses, which meet the needs of ensuring that all people eligible for vaccination have access to Covid vaccines.”
“China’s Covid situation is predictable and under control,” she added.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that European officials on Wednesday recommended pre-flight testing of travelers from China.

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Cox Communications, the privately held cable and internet company, plans to announce the national launch of Cox Mobile on Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Cox is joining its publicly traded peers Comcast and Charter, which have been adding customers for their mobile services at a fast clip. 
Mobile and broadband offerings are becoming the new bundle for cable companies as consumers ditch traditional pay-TV packages for streaming. 

In this photo illustration, the Cox Communications logo is displayed on a smartphone screen.
Rafael Henrique | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Cox Communications is ringing in the new year with the official launch of its mobile business. 
The privately held cable and internet operator plans to announce the national launch of Cox Mobile Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. 

Cox has trailed peers like Comcast, Charter Communications and Altice USA, which started offering mobile service to their customers in recent years and have been adding customers at a fast clip.
Like Comcast and Charter’s services, Cox Mobile will only be available to new and existing customers. Cox has 7 million customers in 18 states, and has started quietly offering mobile service in certain markets in recent months. 
Cable operators began offering mobile service with the aim of giving customers another reason not to leave their broadband plans. This holds true now more than ever, as profitability for these business units is in sight. 
Cable companies have been losing pay-TV customers that opt for streaming-only services, although that accelerated recently. However, broadband subscriber growth has stalled in recent quarters as competition has ramped up and customers’ moving activity stagnates as the housing market slows down. 
“I think now they’re reusing wireless as a way to reinforce their broadband business. There’s not much profitability in it yet, but that’s not their concern. The concern is holding on to broadband customers,” said John Hodulik, an analyst at UBS. 

How the competition shapes up

Although wireless companies like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile hold the large bulk of wireless customers in the U.S., Comcast and Charter’s mobile businesses have been growing at a faster rate due to cheaper and more flexible plans. 
Charter’s Spectrum Mobile offers a $30 unlimited data plan, or $14 by the gigabyte of internet used in the month plan. Similarly, Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile starts at $30 for unlimited data, or $15 by the gigabyte. 
The cheaper options stem from their ability to rely heavily on home broadband Wi-Fi and hotspots for data usage. When their mobile customers leave Wi-Fi and rely on a network, they’re offloaded to the cable companies’ partner operator — Verizon for both Comcast and Charter — still giving the wireless company a piece of the pie. 
Cox Mobile will offer similar plans, unlimited at $45 a month or $15 by the gig. Cox is also reportedly using Verizon as its network partner, which the company is expected to confirm at Thursday’s event.
A wrench was thrown in Cox’s plans to launch its mobile business when T-Mobile sued the company in 2021, saying Cox was obligated to pursue a partnership with them. Earlier this year, a Delaware court judge reportedly ruled in Cox’s favor. 
Charter said it had 4.7 million wireless customers as of Sept. 30, while Comcast said it reached 5 million. 
“We started off with this reimagined mobile service because we knew customers would spend a significant amount of time on Wi-Fi,” said Danny Bowman, chief mobile officer at Charter, adding Spectrum Mobile customers spend about 85% of their time on Wi-Fi. 
“By keeping the mobile package simple, we have exponential growth,” Bowman added. Charter and Comcast also allow customers to bring their own devices, an option Cox won’t yet offer. Currently, customers must purchase Samsung phones through Cox for service. 

‘We need to do this’

Smaller cable operators are also seeing the value in offering a mobile plan to customers. 
The National Content and Technology Cooperative, or NCTC, an industry group made up of more than 700 cable and broadband providers, has been in discussions to create a mobile offering for its members. 
“It’s become such a focal point. It’s the thing everybody seems to think is what you need to have,” NCTC President Lou Borrelli said of mobile offerings. “I’ve seen it referred to as the new bundle. I don’t dispute that.” 
Since NCTC’s membership includes small providers — many in rural areas — the cooperative started discussions with wireless operators last year on behalf of its entire base. 
Borrelli said NCTC hadn’t been in a rush to offer mobile until it saw how Charter and Comcast did in net additions in 2021. “I remember getting calls from some of our board members saying, ‘You know, maybe we should look at this,'” he said.
NCTC’s negotiations should wrap up this year, Borrelli said. Some have already added mobile. Colorado-based WOW! Internet, Cable & Phone unveiled a mobile plan in July through a partnership with Reach Mobile. 
Borrelli said consumer research in certain markets showed companies had no choice in the matter. “Members have told us they don’t care what the results are, we need to do this.” 
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC.

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