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Carnival Cruise Line has announced plans to sail from more homeports in Australia and New Zealand in its 2027 and 2028 season. The cruise line will continue year-round sailings from Sydney and Brisbane in addition to adding two new ports in Adelaide and Aukland.   “Carnival is sailing from five homeports in Australia and New Zealand in 2027/28 and we remain the only global cruise line committed to sailing in this region year-round,” said Carnival Corporation & plc Country Manager Peter Little.He added, “Carnival Cruise Line has answered the call from our interstate and New Zealand guests who’ve been asking…

Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie doesn’t think AI agents will replace enterprise SaaS (software-as-a-service) companies. Instead, he believes that the more likely future is a hybrid combination of SaaS plus agents, he said, speaking onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 conference on Wednesday. “Generally, once you have a business process, you want to be able to define that in, effectively, business logic with deterministic systems — just because the risk of that changing any given day is very high,” explained Levie. “If you’re doing something mission critical — we’ve already seen great examples of either data being leaked because…

A customer carries a Chipotle bag in San Francisco, California, US, on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesChipotle Mexican Grill on Wednesday reported quarterly revenue that fell short of expectations and cut its same-store sales forecast for the third straight quarter.Chipotle is expecting its full-year same-store sales to shrink by a low-single digit percentage in fiscal 2025. That’s a big change from February, when the burrito chain was projecting same-store sales would grow by a low- to mid-single digit percentage.CEO Scott Boatwright said the company is seeing “consistent macroeconomic pressures.” Traffic fell by 0.8%, the third straight…

The 2024 runner-up in the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, geCKo Materials, returned to the stage at this year’s show to debut new products as it pushes deeper into commercializing its tech. Founder Dr. Capella Kerst revealed four new uses of geCKo’s super-strong dry adhesive: a semiconductor wafer handling tool, a robotic gripper for smooth surfaces (like solar panels or glass), a curved robotic “end effector” for more irregular shapes, and an all-purpose gripper for robotic arms. The geCKo tech is inspired by the way real-life lizards use their feet to grip surfaces. Kerst positions it like a new form of…

NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point Wednesday for the second time since September. Before that, it had gone nine months without a cut.The federal funds rate is the rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another. While the rates consumers pay to borrow money aren’t directly linked to this rate, shifts affect what you pay for credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, and other financial products.“While the full economic impact of such a move will unfold over time, early indicators suggest that even modest rate cuts can have meaningful…

The American multinational chain Starbucks Coffee store and logo seen displayed. Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesStarbucks on Wednesday reported that its quarterly same-store sales returned to growth for the first time in nearly two years, showing that its turnaround strategy is winning over lapsed customers.The coffee chain’s global same-store sales rose 1%, lifted by international markets. Its U.S. same-store sales were flat for the quarter but turned positive in September. Wall Street was projecting global same-store sales declines of 0.3% and a 0.9% decrease in U.S. same-store sales.”We’re a year into our ‘Back to Starbucks’ strategy, and it’s…

Travelers passing through Utah have a spacious new place to relax before their flight, thanks to Delta Air Lines’ newest lounge opening. The carrier just debuted a massive new Sky Club at Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) that is the second-largest lounge in its network. The airline says SLC is one of its key hubs, and the sweeping new lounge is a reflection of its deepening commitment to the Salt Lake market. The space measures 34,000 square feet and can accommodate a whopping 600 guests at one time. Only the Sky Club at New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) is larger,…

Pleasant Holidays is in the midst of a restructuring and enhancement process, which includes two new brands: Member First and EVOKE | INSPIRE.“Under the A | T Collective holding company, Pleasant Holidays will continue as the reinvigorated flagship brand providing vacation packages to travel advisors, agencies and consortia nationwide,” the company said. “The newly introduced Member First will focus exclusively on services for AAA Travel, and destination services provider Pleasant Activities will continue to offer tours, activities, transportation and hotel concierge desk services.”EVOKE | INSPIRES, a brand that will focus on luxury bespoke experiences, is set to launch in the…

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is here! If you’re still on the fence about attending in person, dive into the extensive schedule of speakers, networking opportunities, workshops, after-parties, and more that’s available here. There’s still time to get a last-minute ticket, and we’re giving a 50% discount since there’s just one day left! If you’re not able to attend in person, the next best thing is to check out our livestream of the Disrupt Stage, which features some of our most prominent speakers and the highly anticipated Startup Battlefield 200 pitch competition. We’re streaming via YouTube, so you can catch the embed…

Character.AI is banning minors from using its chatbots amid growing concerns about the effects of artificial intelligence conversations on children. The company is facing several lawsuits over child safety, including by the mother of a teenager who says the company’s chatbots pushed her teenage son to kill himself. Character Technologies, the Menlo Park, California-based company behind Character.AI, said Wednesday it will be removing the ability of users under 18 to participate in open-ended chats with AI characters. The changes will go into effect by Nov. 25 and a two-hour daily limit will start immediately. Character.AI added that it is working…