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By Auzinea Bacon, CNN (CNN) — Teddy bears and stuffed plushies have long been a mainstay in toy collections. But today they don’t talk back in a child’s imagination — some talk through built-in AI chatbots. Sometimes that’s a problem, though: A scarf-wearing teddy bear recently went off the rails during a playtest with researchers

By Auzinea Bacon, CNN (CNN) — Walt Disney Animation’s “Zootopia 2” and Universal’s Broadway musical adaptation “Wicked: For Good” delivered movie theaters a much-needed one-two punch for the holiday weekend box office. “Zootopia 2” debuted on Wednesday, kicking off a five-day Thanksgiving opening weekend. Its $156 million estimated gross is the second-best five-day Thanksgiving debut,

UNIVERSAL PICTURES, WALT DISNEY PICTURES, LIONSGATE MOVIES, 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS, PARAMOUNT PICTURES, CNN By Auzinea Bacon, CNN (CNN) — Walt Disney Animation’s “Zootopia 2” and Universal’s Broadway musical adaptation “Wicked: For Good” delivered movie theaters a much-needed one-two punch for the holiday weekend box office. “Zootopia 2” debuted on Wednesday, kicking off a five-day Thanksgiving

By Nathaniel Meyersohn, Auzinea Bacon, CNN (CNN) — US retail sales on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, climbed 4.1% compared with last year, according to data released Saturday by Mastercard SpendingPulse. Online shoppers alone spent $11.8 billion, up 9.1% from 2024, according to data collection platform Adobe Analytics. But those gains

By Samantha Delouya, Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN (CNN) — Greg Bettinelli discovered Pasta Rummo on his honeymoon in Florence in 2002, at a time when the brand was nearly impossible to find in the United States. He and his wife stuffed their suitcases with as much of it as they could carry. These days, the Italian

By Chris Isidore, CNN (CNN) — Sears, once America’s largest and most important retailer, could very be going into its last Christmas shopping season. The Sears chain had 2,000 stores as recently as 20 years ago and more than 200 stores when it emerged from bankruptcy in 2019. Now it has just five, after three

By Hadas Gold, CNN (CNN) — Chipmaker Nvidia posted yet another blockbuster earnings report this month. The stock fell anyway, as many investors worry that the market is in the middle of an about-to-burst AI bubble. But for AI’s biggest believers, the report was just another sign that the industry’s train isn’t running out of

By Gordon Ebanks, CNN (CNN) — In Polk County, Iowa, the Urbandale Food Pantry started giving out turkeys and Thanksgiving sides weeks ago. Demand was so high, with over 2,000 families visiting so far this month, that the pantry ran through its allotment of Thanksgiving staples. Fortunately, additional funding, including donations from the community, meant

CNN By Scottie Andrew, CNN (CNN) — If the guests at your Thanksgiving table this year are a bit moonier than usual, don’t assume they ate too much turkey. And if they seem extra enthused about digging into pie after a filling meal, well — Adding to late November’s ever-growing list of festivities and shopping

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — Whether it’s due to the stress or financial burden of planning a multi-course meal, an increasing number of people are choosing to eat out for Thanksgiving this year. Restaurant reservations for Thursday’s holiday are 13% higher year-over-year, according to exclusive data shared with CNN from OpenTable, a

By Scottie Andrew, CNN (CNN) — If the guests at your Thanksgiving table this year are a bit moonier than usual, don’t assume they ate too much turkey. And if they seem extra enthused about digging into pie after a filling meal, well — Adding to late November’s ever-growing list of festivities and shopping promotions,

By Clare Duffy, CNN New York (CNN) — Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat know exactly how addictive their platforms can be to teens. And they continue to target teen users anyway. Those are allegations a group of school districts is making in a lawsuit against the social media giants, according to a newly unsealed legal

By David Goldman, Matt Egan, CNN (CNN) — Americans, enraged about years of rising prices, are going into the 2025 holiday shopping season prepared for battle. But this holiday shopping season could look a lot stronger than you’d expect – on paper, anyway. How’s that possible? High-income consumers keep spending like they’ve never heard of

By Matt Egan, CNN New York (CNN) — President Donald Trump and his economic team often respond to concerns about the affordability crisis by touting how much cheaper gasoline is than under his predecessor. For the vast majority of 2025, this was a legitimate bragging point for the White House. Until now. For the first

CNN By Hadas Gold, CNN (CNN) — A new X feature over the weekend revealed that several pro-Trump accounts with large followings are not US-based, despite content and some bios suggesting otherwise. On X account profiles, clicking on an account’s date of creation reveals the country or region where the account is based. Users can

By Hadas Gold, CNN (CNN) — A new X feature over the weekend revealed that several pro-Trump accounts with large followings are not US-based, despite content and some bios suggesting otherwise. On X account profiles, clicking on an account’s date of creation reveals the country or region where the account is based. Users can toggle