MEDIA
More allegations of sexual misconduct against Moonves
A report by CBS lawyers outlines more allegations of sexual misconduct by longtime chief Les Moonves, The New York Times reported. The report alleges that Moonves destroyed evidence and misled investigators as he attempted to protect his reputation and severance payments. It says investigators had received ‘‘multiple reports’’ about a network employee who was ‘‘on call’’ to perform oral sex on Moonves. The report was prepared by lawyers the network hired to determine if Moonves violated the terms of his employment agreement, the newspaper reported Tuesday. CBS declined to comment Wednesday and lawyers for Moonves did not immediately respond. The 59-page report is to be presented to CBS’s board of directors before the company’s annual meeting next week, it said. It says Moonves could be denied his $120 million severance package after he had to quit in September amid numerous allegations of sexual misbehavior. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESEARCH
Deadline looming on fight over transporting monkeys via airplanes
A deadline is approaching in the fight by researchers to fly their monkeys on airplanes. On one side are some of the world’s biggest airlines, while on the other are prominent drug companies like Pfizer and universities including Harvard. In a complaint filed with the US government, the nonprofit National Association for Biomedical Research accuses China Southern Airlines, United Airlines, British Airways, and Qatar Airways of illegally refusing to transport lab animals such as the non-human primates used in live research trials. The US Department of Transportation set a Dec. 6 deadline for public comments, and so far has received more than 20,000 submissions. The association says many other airlines also refuse to carry animals used in biomedical research even though the carriers will fly those same species if they’re pets or destined for zoos and sanctuaries. That policy is hampering vital research needed to develop medicines and therapies, according to the Aug. 21 complaint supported by big names such as Novartis, Johns Hopkins University, and actor Michael J. Fox’s foundation for Parkinson’s disease research. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
PHILANTHROPY
Lego donates $100m to Sesame Workshop
The Lego Foundation says it will donate $100 million to Sesame Workshop to fund projects aimed at helping young children affected by the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh and the civil war in Syria. The Danish foundation said Wednesday that the grant ‘‘will benefit some of the world’s most vulnerable children and call attention to the critical importance of learning through play to set them on a path of healthy growth and development.’’ The Lego Foundation, set up in 1986, owns 25 percent of the shares in Lego Group, the privately held Danish toymaker. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
INTERNATIONAL
EU authorities want net firms to file monthly reports on fighting fake news
European Union authorities want Internet companies including Google, Facebook, and Twitter to file monthly reports on their progress eradicating ‘‘fake news’’ campaigns from their platforms ahead of elections next year. Officials from the EU’s Executive Commission unveiled the measures Wednesday as part of an action plan to counter disinformation in the lead up to the continent-wide vote in the spring. The Internet companies will have to submit their reports from January until May, when hundreds of millions of people in 27 EU member countries are scheduled to vote for 705 lawmakers in the bloc’s Parliament. The Commission singled out Russia. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
LIQUOR
Maker of Jack Daniel’s sees income rise after stockpiling to counter tariffs
Liquor company Brown-Forman Corp. reported slightly higher second-quarter net income Wednesday on the strength of its American whiskey and tequila sales, but cautioned that it’s starting to feel the pinch from tariffs slapped on its spirits in key European markets. The Louisville, Ky.-based company — best known for its Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey brand — said tariff-related inventory reductions shaved an estimated 2 percentage points off its underlying net sales growth in the three-month period. Brown-Forman, like other large spirits companies, stockpiled inventories in bracing for the effects of tariffs imposed in the European Union that targeted American whiskey and other US products in response to President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on European steel and aluminum. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
E-COMMERCE
Dozens of Amazon warehouse workers sickened in New Jersey
Dozens of workers at a sprawling Amazon warehouse in New Jersey have been sickened after an aerosol can containing bear repellent fell from a shelf, dispersing fumes into the air, officials said. About 80 employees reported trouble breathing Wednesday morning inside the 1.3 million-square-foot facility in Robbinsville Township, less than 10 miles from Trenton, Robbinsville spokesman John Nalbone told The Washington Post. Nalbone said 10 people had been transported to a nearby hospital and 10 more were on the way. Robert Wood Johnson Hospital told NBC affiliate WNBC that one person was admitted into the hospital’s intensive care unit. The condition of the other patients was not immediately known. — WASHINGTON POST
SELF-DRIVING CARS
Waymo launches small-scale service in Phoenix area
Google’s self-driving car spinoff is finally ready to try to profit from its nearly decade-old technology. Waymo is introducing a small-scale ride-hailing service in the Phoenix area that will include a human behind the wheel in case the robotic vehicles malfunction. The service debuting Wednesday marks a significant milestone for Waymo, a company that began as a secretive project within Google in 2009. Since then, its cars have robotically logged more 10 million miles on public roads in 25 cities in California, Arizona, Washington, Michigan, and Georgia while getting into only a few accidents — mostly fender benders. The service, dubbed Waymo One, at first will only be available to a couple hundred riders, all of whom had already been participating in a free pilot program that began in April 2017. It will be confined to a roughly 100-square-mile area in and around Phoenix, including the neighboring cities of Chandler, Tempe, Mesa, and Gilbert. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUTOMOTIVE
Ford offers buyouts to many remaining Venezuelan workers
Ford Motor Co. is offering buyouts to much of its remaining labor force in Venezuela as the automaker struggles to keep assembly lines running in the crisis-stricken nation, union officials said on Wednesday. One of the only carmakers still producing vehicles in Venezuela, Ford began to offer severance packages this week to workers in its plant in Carabobo state, according to Gilberto Troya, a Ford employee and leader of the Sutra-Automotriz union. He said factory workers, team leaders, and managers were offered buyouts starting around 70,000 bolivares per year worked, or roughly $150 at the black-market rate. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
HOLIDAYS
Target uses augmented reality to sell Christmas trees
Target Corp.’s augmented-reality shopping tool has Christmas trees selling at twice the normal rate, according to a company official. The retailer is offering a new feature, dubbed “See It in Your Space,’’ on its shopping app. It allows smartphone-toting customers to virtually place an artificial tree, or other home decor items, in their living room, senior vice president of digital Dawn Block said in an interview. The service is part of Target’s holiday push, which also includes expanded toy sections and free two-day delivery with no minimum purchase. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
