Apple’s AirPower charger has been cancelled, Apple confirmed on Friday.

“After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project. We apologize to those customers who were looking forward to this launch. We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward,” said Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in a statement. 

AirPower was first announced in 2017 alongside the iPhone X and iPhone 8, the first Apple phones to support wireless charging. At the time, Apple said it would launch in 2018.

AirPower was planned to be a wireless charger for Apple products that allowed users to fill up their batteries by simply placing their device on the mat.

However, Apple users can still wirelessly charge their phones using charging mats from other makers that use the Qi wireless charging standard.

A new version of AirPods with wireless charging capability was released this week. Its packaging mentioned AirPower.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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The European Parliament has approved controversial copyright reforms without any changes, thus paving the way for an early implementation.

If you’re an internet user in Europe, chances are the way you use platforms like YouTube and Facebook could be about to shift drastically in the coming years.

The European Parliament recently passed sweeping changes to the EU’s almost two decades-old copyright rules, and critics are worried it could be a misfire that ultimately results in online censorship.

The aptly-named directive on “Copyright in the Digital Single Market” is all part of the bloc’s efforts to update its laws to reflect the challenges posed by the age of information.

First introduced by the European Commission in 2016, the new copyright law contains two particular sections that have attracted heavy scrutiny from activists and internet giants alike: Articles 11 and 13 (or 15 and 17 as they’re now numbered after a recent update).

The former is aimed at giving news organizations more protections to ensure they’re paid fairly for the dissemination of their stories online. Services like Google News will be under particular pressure, as the rules will mean tech firms need to agree to licenses with publishers to share their articles.

In fact, Google has gone as far as to suggest that it may even be forced to pull its news aggregation platform from Europe as a result of the new legislation.

But the biggest source of worry for the people and companies protesting the new measures by far is Article 13. Currently, the onus is on rightsholders to flag copyright violations with tech firms, who can then take action to pull content if they find it’s in breach of copyright.

With the new rules, liability now lies with tech giants to ensure their platforms aren’t open to copyright breaches. Detractors have said this would lead to controversial pre-filter systems, where everything from memes to GIFs are blocked from online platforms.

For its part, the European Parliament has said this won’t be the case, and that memes, GIFs, hyperlinks and snippets of articles will still be able to be shared freely. But that hasn’t allayed the concerns of tech companies, freedom of speech campaigners and regular internet users themselves.

Starting May 1, Disney parkgoers in the U.S. will no longer be allowed to smoke or vape inside the company’s theme parks.

The House of Mouse said Thursday that smoking areas would be removed from all Walt Disney World and Disneyland parks as well as at water parks and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, according to the Disney parks website.

Designated smoking areas will be available outside of the entrances to these parks.

“As we expand our offerings, we will continue to take steps to enhance the guest experience and make it more enjoyable for everyone who visits,” Disney said in a statement Thursday.

In addition, Disney has also changed its guidelines for what types and sizes of strollers are permitted in the park. Strollers wider than 31 inches or longer than 52 inches will not be permitted into the park. The company has also prohibited stroller wagons.

This major change comes as Disney prepares to open new Star Wars-themed lands in California on May 31 and Florida on Aug. 29. Galaxy’s Edge is expected to draw huge crowds, and removing these smoking areas will help with reducing congestion within the park.

The new lands in Orlando and Anaheim are set on a new planet called Batuu. It’s a thriving port filled with rogue traders, droids and unique alien species. Visitors will be able to pilot the Millennium Falcon and take part in a battle between the First Order and the Resistance in two new rides.

Telecom stocks tumbled on Thursday, posting declines while the overall market was slightly positive.

Here’s where some of the major telecom stocks stood as of about 1:30 p.m. in New York:

• AT&T down 1.4 percent to trade around $31
• Verizon down 3.4 percent to trade around $59
• Sprint down 4.3 percent percent to trade around $6
• T-Mobile down 3.5 percent to trade around $70

For comparison, the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index were both just slightly positive as of Thursday afternoon. Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are still trading in the positive over the past 12 months, with shares increasing 22.8 percent, 18.3 percent and 14.3 percent, respectively. AT&T has remained in the negative over the past year, down 13 percent.

The dip among telecom companies may be due to reports of potential setbacks in Sprint and T-Mobile’s merger approval process. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Sprint has privately told regulators that it will not be able to compete effectively in the market if the merger is blocked. Its argument has been met with skepticism from regulators, according to Bloomberg.

Sprint and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

If the deal between Sprint and T-Mobile is approved, the telecom market would slim down from four to three major wireless carriers. While critics worry this will harm competition, the companies argue they will be able to use their combined power to help ready the U.S. for faster 5G networks and compete more effectively with the top two players, AT&T and Verizon. Narrowing the field to three players could lift the industry overall by increasing pricing power.

The FCC paused the informal 180-day “shot clock” to review the $26 billion merger deal earlier this month to allow more time for the public to comment on the deal, according to Reuters. The FCC said at the time it typically takes this action after merger applicants submit “substantial” new information and said it expects the process to resume in early April.

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A Saudi Aramco logo sits on display during the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Nov. 13, 2018.

Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled energy giant Aramco plans to issue a $10 billion bond as early as next week, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

The move is designed to help raise funds for a down payment on the oil giant’s $69.1 billion purchase of a majority stake in petrochemicals firm Sabic Basic Industries, the Wall Street Journal reported.

It would also mark the first-ever debt issuance from the world’s largest oil firm, shedding a light on the firm’s financial performance.

Aramco Chairman Khalid al-Falih has reportedly said the firm will release data on its financial health and oil and gas reserves as part of a bond prospectus.

Aramco was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC Thursday morning.

Saudi Arabia is attempting to diversify its economy and reduce its reliance on oil revenues under a plan called Vision 2030 directed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Read the Wall Street Journal’s full article here.

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The Bayer AG logo sits behind silhouetted members of the management board during the company’s annual general meeting in Bonn, Germany, May 25, 2018.

A U.S. jury on Wednesday awarded $80 million to a man who claimed his use of Bayer‘s glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup caused his cancer, in the latest legal setback for the company facing thousands of similar lawsuits.

The jury in San Francisco federal court said the company was liable for plaintiff Edwin Hardeman’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

It awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages to Hardeman after finding that Roundup was defectively designed, that Monsanto failed to warn of the herbicide’s cancer risk and that the company acted negligently.

Bayer bought Roundup maker Monsanto last year for $63 billion.

The company denies the allegations, saying decades of studies by independent scientists have shown glyphosate and Roundup to be safe for human use.

The trial is only the second of more than 11,200 Roundup lawsuits set to go to trial in the United States. Previous litigation setbacks and a prior jury verdict against the company have sent Bayer shares plunging.

The verdict comes roughly a week after the same jury on March 19 found Roundup to have been a “substantial factor” in causing Hardeman’s cancer, allowing the trial to proceed into a second phase to determine liability and damages. Bayer shares fell more than 12 percent after last week’s jury finding.

Official correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the jury awarded over $80 million to the man, including $5 million in compensatory damages. Reuters misstated the figures in a previous version of its story.

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google LLC, arrives to the White House for a meeting in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai will meet with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Gen. Joseph Dunford, on Wednesday after the military chief said the company is “indirectly benefiting the Chinese military” through its work there.

“We watch with great concern when industry partners work in China knowing that there is that indirect benefit,” Dunford told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee at a March 14 hearing. “The work that Google is doing in China is indirectly benefiting the Chinese military.”

At an event last week, Dunford announced he had at least two meetings planned with Google. A source confirmed to CNBC that Dunford will meet with Pichai in D.C. on Wednesday. Google and a Department of Defense spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Google has slowly renewed its efforts in China after withdrawing its search service from the country in 2010 amid growing concern about censorship and cyberattacks. Lawmakers and Google employees were outraged when details for the company’s plans for a censored search engine in China leaked and were reported by The Intercept.

Tech employees working for Google and other giants like Microsoft have sparked internal backlash over their companies’ decisions to provide work with the U.S. Defense Department, arguing they did not choose to develop products that could be used in warfare.

Google employees protested a partnership with the Pentagon called Project Maven, which involved developing AI surveillance tools to analyze drone footage. The company told employees in June that it would not renew that contract. In October, Google dropped out of the competition for a different Pentagon cloud computing contract that could be worth $10 billion, saying the contract could conflict with its values.

—CNBC’s
Josh Lipton
and
Amanda Macias
contributed to this report.

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Visitors pass in front of the Huawei’s stand on the first day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelonaon on February 27, 2017 in Barcelona.

EU nations will be required to share data on 5G cybersecurity risks and produce measures to tackle them by the end of the year, the European Commission said on Tuesday, shunning U.S. calls to ban China’s Huawei Technologies across the bloc.

The aim is to use tools available under existing security rules plus cross-border cooperation, the bloc’s executive body said, leaving it to individual EU countries to decide whether they want to ban any company on national security grounds.

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Portugal are all preparing to auction 5G licenses this year while six other countries will do so next year.

The European Union move came despite U.S. pressure to boycott Huawei, citing fears of China using the company’s equipment for espionage. Huawei has strongly rejected the allegations and launched a lawsuit against the U.S. government.

The EU provided additional detail on the plans first reported by Reuters on March 22, with European digital chief Andrus Ansip saying that the measures announced on Tuesday aimed to address concerns about foreign governments using companies for espionage.

Last week French President Emmanuel Macron said that Europe was wakening up to potential Chinese dominance in the region.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday said investors should not panic about February’s “truly pathetic” housing starts number because the market is primed to bounce back.

Single-family home construction declined 8.7 percent last month to a 1-1/2-year low, but housing forecasts are looking better as mortgage rates decrease. The housing market is not flashing recession signals, he said.

“Don’t be afraid of the hideous housing numbers. Be aware that this is a natural decline, which I think will be followed by an advance that you can profit from as housing enjoys its annual spring rebound,” the “Mad Money” host said.

Cramer predicted home building will be stronger in March. The Federal Reserve’s rate hike in December, despite Cramer’s objections, made home prices and mortgages more affordable, and raw materials costs have fallen faster than housing prices, he said. The decrease on 10-year Treasury yields is also a “godsend for the industry,” he added.

So he’s throwing his faith behind Lennar, the leading homebuilder, and DR Horton, the top affordable homebuilder. The respective stocks are up 25 percent and 18 percent this year.

“But they remain incredibly cheap on a price-to-earnings basis and I bet they could be huge beneficiaries of pent up demand now that we’ve put the bad weather behind us,” he said. “We got a very good number just this evening from KB [Home] and they are predicting a very good spring selling season.”

Poor weather made it tough to build homes, as illustrated in the fourth-quarter earnings of home improvement retail rivals Home Depot and Lowe’s, Cramer said. Restrictive zoning laws across the country, notably in the San Francisco Bay area, have led to construction constraints and higher home values. Other factors to consider, he added, are the removal of state and local tax deductions from federal tax returns, lower housing affordability and high student debt pushing more young adults to live at home with their parents.

Tuesday’s housing data pressured Home Depot and Lowe’s stocks, which fell 0.18 percent and 0.07 percent, respectively, during the session. Cramer pointed out it’s blooming season and Lowe’s is becoming more competitive with Home Depot.

“I think they’re both worth buying into weakness—anyone selling these two stocks here I think maybe get their head checked,” he said. “Because we’re going into the outdoor season right now, which is Christmas time for these companies as people start spending a lot of money on gardening and, of course, outdoor furniture and grilling.”

Disclosure: Cramer’s charitable trust owns shares of Home Depot.

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Internet furniture retailer Wayfair is the latest company to go from clicks to bricks.

Wayfair on Tuesday announced it will be opening its first full-service store at the Natick Mall in Natick, Massachusetts, which is managed by Brookfield Properties, in early fall of this year. That’s after it tested a few pop-up shops, including one at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, during this past holiday season.

Now, Wayfair CEO and co-founder Niraj Shah said a permanent location will allow the company to bring its website to life, and hopefully win more customers over with “knowledgeable support and expertise of our in-store design team” that can’t be matched online.

Born-online brands opening up bricks-and-mortar locations is a frequent occurrence in the retail industry today. Mattress company Casper has said it plans to open 200 locations over the next two years. Apparel company Untuckit recently hit 50 stores. And glasses maker Warby Parker is at about 100. A new mall in New York, Hudson Yards, has an entire floor dedicated to e-commerce retailers like sock brand Stance and men’s athletic apparel company Rhone.

Wayfair’s new store will allow shoppers to either purchase products there to take home, or have orders placed for delivery to home, the company said.

Wayfair also said it’s planning to open four pop-up locations this summer. It didn’t comment further about how many permanent locations it plans to open in the future.

Wayfair shares have surged nearly 140 percent over the past 12 months to trade around $162. Analysts say the company has done particularly well on the internet considering it sells furniture items, like sofas and coffee tables, that are bulky and not easy to take home from a store. But the new store will also help Wayfair grow brand awareness and let shoppers try out its products in real life.