The two “Frozen” movies have 17 songs between them, but none solely spotlights the two sisters, singing together. For that, fans will need to see the national tour of the “Frozen” musical, which kicks off Friday at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles with a new, moving duet performed by Anna and Elsa.

“Since 2011, all of the creators of ‘Frozen’ have been wanting to write a proper duet for the sisters, but for various story-development-under-a-tight-deadline reasons, we never found the right one,” co-composer Kristen Anderson-Lopez said by email. “So when Tom Schumacher, our Broadway producer, mentioned he was longing for one more moment to have our lead actresses sing together in the stage production, we were ready with this idea we had been brewing.”

Anderson-Lopez’s co-composer, husband Robert Lopez, said they “had been itching to write the sisters a song like this. It was like a spare firework, and all we had to do was light it. We had fun building this song to an operatic frenzy.”

The new number — first announced in a tweet by Anderson-Lopez — replaces the show’s second-act reprise of “For the First Time in Forever,” a song from the 2013 movie that, in under three minutes, attempts to cover quite a bit of ground. Upon arriving at Elsa’s remote hideaway, Anna melodically informs her sister that their kingdom has frozen over, and she has arrived to help fix that. But Elsa wails that she doesn’t know how to undo what she’s done; all she knows is that when she’s by herself, she doesn’t harm others.

That reprise has the two leads technically partaking in the same track, but at this point in the story, they’re disconnected from each other and focused on the snow. They’re singing at each other rather than with each other. There’s a word for it: cold.

The new song forgoes functional information for an emotional depth previously left unexplored. Titled “I Can’t Lose You,” the moving duet manages to reveal each sister’s intense and prolonged yearning to be with the other, while illustrating how complicated friendships between adults — tender from bruises and broken hearts — can be.

“I Can’t Lose You” takes place just after Anna (played by Caroline Innerbichler) has learned of the family secret: Elsa’s powers nearly killed Anna as a child, which is why they’ve been separated ever since. It’s a rare scene in which these two lead characters are the only ones onstage, and after all these years apart, they finally get to explain themselves.

“The last time they were probably alone together was 10 years ago, and when their parents were still alive, so the stakes are very high,” noted Caroline Bowman, who plays Elsa. Under the direction of Michael Grandage, “we worked and worked on that dialogue to make sure we really earned the new song after it.” (Anna now informs Elsa that Arendelle is trapped in an eternal winter in efficient post-duet dialogue.)

Once Bowman’s Elsa sings a few lines from Demi Lovato’s version of “Let It Go,” Innerbichler’s Anna chimes in with the first verse of the new song. She loves that they’re talking again, and that Elsa seems so peaceful upon letting go. She’s so sorry for any resentment she’s held over the years, and she asks Elsa to lean on her and share her burden — an attempt to be supportive in only the way she knows how. “I can’t lose you, not again, I can’t lose you like then,” Anna sings in the chorus. “If you could see yourself the way I do, then you’d see why I can’t lose you.”

It’s not so simple for Elsa, however. She’s happy they’ve finally reunited, but she’s terrified of all the damage her powers might cause — to others, yes, but most specifically to Anna. Though she can’t really verbalize what it is she needs to heal, she decides it’s best to contain her self-destructive behavior so she doesn’t further hurt the person she cares for most. “I can’t lose you, not again, I can’t lose you like then,” Elsa sings in her chorus. “You don’t know the things I can do, keep your distance ‘cause I can’t lose you.”

Poignantly, the siblings then face each other and harmonize over the last chorus — Bowman with her powerhouse belt and Innerbichler with her bright and pure tone. They’re singing the same heartfelt lyrics — including the knockout closing line, “If you loved yourself the way I do, then you’d see why I can’t lose you” — but the shared sentiment leads them to different conclusions about how best to help the other.

Both actresses said “I Can’t Lose You” brings out something new in their characters. “Even though we’re really disagreeing, Anna is just like, thank God we’re at least talking,” said Innerbichler. “There’s always been a door between them for years, and a pain and lack of clarity, so having that moment to look [Elsa] in the eyes and tell her how much she means to her is really special.”

Bowman said the song “gives Elsa a moment of redemption. Everyone loves Elsa, but she does spend a lot of time in fear and hiding from everyone, and this is her moment for the audience to see her sacrificing for her sister, even though I want this relationship more than anything in the world.”

The sisters’ dissonance in the song is a pattern the songwriters noticed as they finished up the “Frozen” sequel.

“Because of their childhood trauma, both have an intense fear of losing the other,” said Anderson-Lopez. “In Elsa, it always manifests in pushing her sister away; for Anna, it always manifests in holding on too tight. I’ve definitely felt both emotions myself. … I just poured both of those well-meaning but mistaken ways I’ve tried to love someone into the song.”

As of now, Disney Theatrical Productions has no plans to record the new song. And though there’s no official word on whether the Broadway version will adopt the addition, it’s possible. Disney has made occasional edits to its stage productions, like adding a song to “Beauty and the Beast” in 1998 and slightly trimming “The Lion King” in 2010.

For those touring audiences who will hear “I Can’t Lose You,” Innerbichler considered it a reminder of what the “Frozen” franchise is all about. “This is more than just a fairy tale story with magical powers; this is about real human beings and the difficulties and joys of loving another person,” she says. “It’s complicated and it’s bittersweet, but the motivation is all love.”

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Get your hands on swank little travel journals with an attitude, a bodyguard for collared shirts in transit, a clamp-on device that lets your tablet or laptop monitor hold papers at eye level and, finally, an Ethernet adapter with a Lightning connector.

Write on

Fringe Studio makes classy-looking faux-leather travel journals — gilt-edged pages, posh cover linings, ribbon bookmark — with an attitude. Embossed in gold lettering on the cover of each 192-page journal is a title, such as “I came, I saw, I made it awkward,” “Hold on. Let me overthink this” and “People. Am I right?”

The 6½-by-4½-by-¾-inch journals have an internal expandable paper pocket on the back cover and a built-in loop with a sleek metallic-tone pen.

Cost, info: Travel journals cost $20 from the maker, but are available for less at many online retailers.

Neat shirt

No matter how carefully you fold your crisply ironed collared shirt in luggage or hang it in a suit bag, creases and wrinkles are inevitable — unless that shirt is safely ensconced in the PackTidy Shirt & Tie Commuter Travel Organizer.

The lightweight hard-shell zippered case is molded to hold and protect a single shirt and necktie from being crushed in transit. The 14-by-11-by-3-inch deep case comes with a folding board with printed illustrations for correct shirt folding.

Cost, info: PackTidy Shirt & Tie Commuter Travel Organizer costs about $25 at various retailers, including Amazon.

Laptop gallery

Your tablet or laptop can display more than what’s on its screen. Clip on a NoteTower Monitor Mount, and the sides and/or top of the monitor can hold documents in view as you work with them. The 9-inch-tall lightweight plastic mount clamps to the monitor edge using a padded spring clip.

Slide paper items into one or more of the eight flexible clips cut into the front of the mount, and you have a kind of vertical desktop. Slim top and bottom arm levers on the rear of the tower extend to provide steadying support for documents, photos and memos. With mounts (sold separately) on each side and/or the top of the monitor, you have a spacious mobile gallery you can stash intact in your computer bag.

Cost, info: NoteTower Monitor Mount costs about $20

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Lightning strikes Ethernet

You asked and we found. This is a high-quality Ethernet adapter with a Lightning connector, so your iPhone or Lightning-port-equipped iPad does not have to rely on shaky or nonexistent Wi-Fi. Enter Belkin’s Ethernet + Power Adapter with Lightning Connector. If you have access to Ethernet, just connect your Ethernet cable (not included) to the adapter and connect the adapter’s built-in Lightning cable to your device’s Lightning port.

The adapter has an extra built-in Lightning port that also lets you plug in and charge your device. You’ll need to download the Belkin|Connect app from the Apple App Store to get firmware updates for the Belkin Ethernet + Power Adapter. I found the connection works best if you power off your device before plugging in the Belkin adapter, then power back on. You’re welcome.

Cost, info: Belkin Ethernet + Power Adapter with Lightning Connector costs about $100

Technology companies led a broad slide for stocks on Wall Street Monday, handing the market a downbeat start to the month after notching strong gains in November.

Industrial, communication services and financial stocks also accounted for a big share of the sell-off. Energy stocks notched the biggest gain, aided by a 1.4% increase in the price of U.S. crude oil. Bond yields rose.

Trade tensions flared with China’s diplomatic retaliation for U.S. support of protesters in Hong Kong, putting investors in a selling mood. The selling accelerated after the U.S. government issued weak manufacturing and construction spending reports.

Wall Street has been hoping that the world’s two biggest economies can make progress toward at least stalling new tariffs scheduled for Dec. 15 on $160 billion worth of Chinese products, including smartphones and laptops. The latest friction between Washington and Beijing could hamper that progress.

The S&P 500 index fell 27.11 points, or 0.9%, to 3,113.87. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 268.37 points, or 1%, to 27,783.04.

The Nasdaq lost 97.48 points, or 1.1%, to 8,567.99. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks gave up 16.92 points, or 1%, to 1,607.58.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.82% from 1.77% late Friday.

The stumbling start to December is a departure from the market’s strong performance last month. The S&P 500 closed out November with its best monthly gain since June. Last week also marked the benchmark index’s seventh weekly gain in eight weeks. In that time span, the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq each set multiple record closing highs.

Investor optimism that the U.S. and China were nearing a trade deal helped spur the market’s milestone-setting run this fall, lifting it from a summer slide brought on by recession fears and uncertainty over trade.

The negotiations to end the longstanding trade war could face a tougher path this month after a flareup over Hong Kong, however.

China said Monday it will suspend U.S. military ship and aircraft visits to the semi-autonomous territory and sanction several American pro-democracy groups in retaliation against Washington for enacting into law legislation supporting anti-government protests.

The law, signed last Wednesday by President Trump, mandates sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials who carry out human rights abuses and requires an annual review of the favorable trade status that Washington grants Hong Kong.

In other trade developments, Trump on Monday accused Argentina and Brazil of hurting American farmers through currency manipulation and said he’ll slap tariffs on their steel and aluminum imports to retaliate.

Both South American nations were among a group of U.S. allies that Trump had exempted from steel and aluminum tariffs in March 2018. United States Steel climbed 4.2% and AK Steel rose 4.7% after Trump’s remarks.

New data on manufacturing and construction spending also helped drag stock indexes lower Monday.

U.S. manufacturing shrank more than expected in November, according to figures released by the Institute for Supply Management.

Solid job growth, along with consumer spending, have been among the key factors pushing economic growth. But manufacturing has been a weak spot in the broader economy.

Home builders fell broadly after the government report showing that spending on construction projects declined unexpectedly in October. Hovnanian Enterprises slumped 6.9%.

Technology stocks were the biggest drag on the market Monday. Many of the companies in that sector rely on China for sales, and supply chains and can become very volatile with new developments in trade negotiations. Adobe fell 2.2% and Microsoft slid 1.2%.

Industrial and communication services companies also moved lower. Honeywell shed 2.4% and Netflix dropped 1.5%.

Energy stocks held up the best as oil prices rose. Halliburton gained 1.4%.

Companies that make or sell consumer goods such as cigarettes, food and beverages also eked out a gain. Hormel Foods added 2% and Campbell Soup rose $1.2%.

Benchmark crude oil rose 79 cents to settle at $55.96 a barrel. Brent crude oil, the international standard, gained 43 cents to close at $60.92 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline fell 2 cents to $1.57 per gallon.

Gold fell $3.30 to $1,462.30 per ounce, silver fell 13 cents to $16.84 per ounce and copper fell 1 cent to $2.63 per pound.

The dollar fell to 108.98 Japanese yen from 109.48 yen on Friday. The euro strengthened to $1.1078 from $1.1017.

European markets closed broadly lower Monday.

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T-Mobile US Inc. has jumped to an early lead in the race to offer 5G service nationwide, a step toward showing it can be a serious competitor to larger rivals if it gains approval for its $26.5 billion takeover of Sprint Corp.

Starting Friday, when T-Mobile stores begin offering their first two 5G phones, the service will be available across the country. But it won’t be the much-vaunted 5G experience that wireless carriers have been promising: The service is on a low-band 600-megahertz signal, which provides broad coverage but not blazing speeds.

The offering is a precursor to a more robust network that the company says will be made possible with the combination of Sprint’s massive airwave holdings.

“This is the foundational layer of our 5G service,” said Karri Kuoppamaki, vice president of network technology development and strategy. The 600-megahertz band covers large territories and travels through walls and deep into buildings. “You won’t have to go to a specific street corner to get a signal that works,” he said.

U.S. carriers are vying to become leaders in 5G, hoping to capture early adopters and the first wave of new revenue. But the arrival of full-fledged 5G service — with as much as 100 times faster speeds and nearly zero lag time — is still a few years away.

The initial 5G service with low-band spectrum can deliver performance that’s comparable to the current T-Mobile network. But like all the other wireless operators, T-Mobile will follow up in the coming months and years with higher-frequency signals to move data faster and provide greater network capacity.

Verizon Communications Inc. has started a high-band 5G service in small parts of 15 cities, with expansion to 30 markets expected by year-end. Verizon initially charged an extra $10 a month for the service but has since waived the fee.

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AT&T Inc. plans to have its own low-band 5G in parts of 12 cities in the coming weeks, available only to its high-tier customers, and has vowed to extend the service nationwide by the middle of next year.

Expanded 5G service is a crucial promise T-Mobile has made to secure approval for the Sprint takeover. The deal has won approval from the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission, but it faces a lawsuit from several state attorneys general. The case is scheduled for trial Dec. 9.

T-Mobile is promoting the 5G launch with special prices on two new phones: the OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren, made by Oppo Co., a Chinese manufacturer, and the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ 5G. T-Mobile’s 5G service will be available to regular monthly subscribers and pay-as-you-go customers at no extra cost.

Just as they did with previous generations of wireless technology, the carriers are providing coverage maps so consumers can compare service. T-Mobile will have a website to explore where its 5G service is available. Verizon has city maps that show where it has its high-band “ultra” 5G service. And AT&T has its own city maps.

Some of China’s wealthiest tycoons steered billions of dollars into electric-car companies in order to fuel the country’s dreams of becoming a leader in the field. Now a reckoning may be looming as car sales slow and the government reduces subsidies for the nascent industry.

That leaves the flagship companies of Jack Ma, Pony Ma, Hui Ka Yan and Robin Li facing an increasingly steep path to profitability on their bets that electric vehicles can be smartphones-on-wheels connecting passengers to other businesses. Their capital, along with dozens of startups raising $18 billion, helped inflate an electric bubble that now looks to be in danger of popping.

China’s car market is experiencing a prolonged sales slump, prompting EV makers to slash earnings outlooks. With China considering further cuts to the subsidies for consumer purchases in order to force automakers to compete on their own, a shakeout is looming that not even the tycoons’ support may be able to prevent, said Rachel Miu, an analyst with DBS Group Holdings Ltd. in Hong Kong. “For the new kids on the block in the EV space, it’s a steep uphill climb,” she said.

Here’s what China’s richest people have to show for their companies’ EV investments:

Alibaba: Xpeng Coupe, Accusations

Jack Ma stepped down as chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in September after amassing a fortune of more than $40 billion, but China’s richest man retains his board seat — and influence — at the e-commerce emporium he created.

Alibaba has participated in several funding rounds for Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors Technology Co., or Xpeng Motors, including one in 2018 that raised 2.2 billion yuan [about $313 million] for the carmaker co-founded by former Alibaba executive He Xiaopeng.

Xpeng launched its first vehicle, the five-seat G3 SUV, last year and has sold 11,940 vehicles so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The company, founded in 2014, also is teaming up with more-established automakers. A factory built with Haima Automobile Co. can produce 150,000 EVs annually. Another should soon begin assembling the P7 coupe, scheduled to begin deliveries next year.

The journey hasn’t been without controversy, as some engineers bound for Xpeng stand accused of stealing from their ex-employers in the U.S. In March, Tesla sued a former engineer, alleging he uploaded files, directories and copies of source code to his personal cloud storage account before resigning. Also, a former Apple Inc. engineer was indicted last year on charges of pilfering self-driving car secrets on his way to an Xpeng job. His trial is upcoming.

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Xpeng wasn’t accused of wrongdoing.

“We are very adamant that we pursue our own R&D,” President Brian Gu said. “Copyright is very important to us.”

Hangzhou-based Alibaba, the second-largest shareholder in Xpeng, didn’t answer specific questions about the automaker.

Xiaomi Corp., the consumer-electronics company, participated in another $400 million fundraising round, the automaker said Nov. 13.

Tencent: NIO Lists, Then Cuts

Pony Ma’s Tencent Holdings Ltd., whose WeChat messaging app helped make him China’s second-richest person, led a $1-billion investment round in NIO Inc. in 2017. With more than 26,000 vehicles sold, NIO’s one of the few Chinese start-ups making multiple models, and it beat rivals with an initial public offering in New York last year.

But losses piled up with the overall sales slump and as the company, which has been described as “China’s Tesla,” plowed money into marketing and real estate. It sponsored a Bruno Mars concert and opened luxury clubs for NIO owners that feature showrooms, coffee bars and performance spaces. By August the company had opened 19 NIO Houses over 22 months, and combined rental expenses were equivalent to 6.3% of revenue during the 12 months ended March, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

“NIO chooses the direct sales mode and pays great attention to user experience,” the company said. It doesn’t plan to close its existing clubs — or open new ones.

NIO lost $2.8 billion in the 12 months ended June on revenue of $1.2 billion, and its shares have plunged this year. The Shanghai-based company cut about 20% of its workforce through September, when Tencent injected another $100 million.

“Our sales have been under pressure since the subsidies went down,” NIO Chief Executive Officer William Li said. “It has come to a new era that one can only win customers with quality products and services.”

Shenzhen-based Tencent expressed support for EVs but didn’t answer specific questions about NIO.

Evergrande: High Hopes

One of the more startling entrants in the EV industry is property developer China Evergrande Group, which declared it wanted to be the world’s biggest manufacturer within three to five years. That means surpassing Tesla, which just opened a factory in Shanghai. Between September 2018 and June 2019, Evergrande invested more than $3.8 billion in EV-related companies, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, and will start producing its Hengchi brand next year.

Evergrande, which wants to open 10 production bases, plans to spend 45 billion yuan on new-energy vehicles between 2019 and 2021. On Nov. 10, a unit announced it would spend almost $3 billion to boost its stake in National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB to 82% from 68%.

Billionaire chairman and founder Hui Ka Yan, who’s diversifying into businesses such as soccer and healthcare, acknowledged there isn’t much overlap between Evergrande’s real-estate business and its EV ambitions.

“We don’t have any talent, technology, experience, or production base in manufacturing cars,” Hui said. “How can we compete with the century-old automakers in the world?”

His answer: By opening Evergrande’s wallet.

“Whatever core technology and company we can buy, we will buy,” he said.

Yet Hui’s whatever-it-takes strategy may take a toll on Evergrande because of the cash-burning nature of NEV investments. The company’s forecast of spending 45 billion yuan is probably an underestimate, and that may exacerbate its cash crunch, according to BI.

“This could crimp its home-sales margin given an urgency to sustain price cuts to boost cash collection from sales,” analyst Kristy Hung said in a Nov. 22 report.

Baidu: WM Factories, Lawsuit

Robin Li, the CEO of China’s dominant internet search-engine company, made WM Motor Technology Co. part of Baidu’s move into autonomous driving. Baidu led a fundraising round this year that generated 3 billion yuan for the Shanghai-based automaker. Baidu owns a 13% stake.

WM rolled out an electric SUV last year and has delivered more than 19,000 vehicles, Chief Strategy Officer Rupert Mitchell said. So far this year, WM sold 14,273 of its battery-powered SUVs, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That puts WM behind market leader BYD Co. — backed by Warren Buffett — and NIO, but ahead of Xpeng. WM launched a second SUV model on Nov. 22.

WM has an advantage over rivals started by employees from internet companies, Mitchell said. Founder Freeman Shen used to run Volvo Car Group in China.

“We are not moonlighters from the technology industry that are having a crack at mass-market automotive,” he said.

Volvo parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group has sued WM, seeking compensation of 2.1 billion yuan for alleged copyright infringement, Chinese state media reported in September. WM has denied wrongdoing.

WM is producing vehicles at fully owned factories, which helps maintain quality control, Mitchell said. The company, which is opening a second factory next year that can make 150,000 vehicles annually, wants to raise another $1 billion, Mitchell said.

Baidu declined to comment.

There’s a powerful new player watching what you buy so it can tailor product offerings for you: the bank behind your credit or debit card.

For years, Google and Facebook have been showing ads based on your online behavior. Retailers including Amazon and Walgreens also regularly suction up your transaction history to steer future spending and hold your loyalty.

Now banks, too, want to turn data they already have on your spending habits into extra revenue by identifying likely customers for retailers.

Banks are increasingly aware that they could be sitting on a gold mine of information that can be used to predict — or sway — where you spend. Historically, such data have been used mostly for fraud protection.

Suppose you were to treat yourself to lunch while out holiday shopping. If you order ahead at Chipotle — paying, of course, with your credit card — you might soon find your bank dangling 10% off lunch at Little Caesars. The bank would earn fees from the pizza joint, both for showing the offer and processing the payment.

Wells Fargo began customizing retail offers for individual customers on Nov. 21, joining Chase, Bank of America, PNC, SunTrust and a slew of smaller banks.

Unlike Google or Facebook, which try to infer what you’re interested in buying based on your searches, web visits or likes, “banks have the secret weapon in that they actually know what we spend money on,” said Silvio Tavares of the trade group CardLinx Association, whose members help broker purchase-related offers. “It’s a better predictor of what we’re going to spend on.”

Although banks say they’re moving cautiously and being mindful of privacy concerns, it’s not clear that consumers are fully aware of what their banks are up to.

Banks know many of our deepest, darkest secrets — that series of bills paid at a cancer clinic, for instance, or that big strip-club tab that you thought stayed in Vegas. A bank might suspect someone’s adulterous affair long before the betrayed partner would.

“Ten years ago, your bank was like your psychiatrist or your minister — your bank kept secrets,” said Ed Mierzwinski, a consumer advocate at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Now, he says, “they think they are the same as a department store or an online merchant.”

The startup Cardlytics, one of the field’s pioneers, runs the offer programs for Wells Fargo, Chase and other banks. Though these partnerships, Cardlytics says it gets insights on about $2.8 trillion worth of annual consumer spending worldwide.

A Cardlytics rival named Augeo runs a similar program with other banks, which it declined to name. American Express has an in-house program for its cardholders. Visa targets offers on Uber’s app for credits toward rides and food delivery.

Even though banks only know where you’ve shopped — and not specifically what you bought — they’re often able to make educated guesses. After all, it’s not likely you’re at a liquor store for the potato chips.

The bank can then infer other things you may like. It would have a pretty good idea that you’re about to travel if you’ve charged a flight or hotel stays. HSBC is looking into using that data to set up automatic alerts, so that it wouldn’t decline your card use as fraudulent when you start charging for meals in Kathmandu or Karachi.

The next step is to make location-specific offers, perhaps for a car rental, as soon as you land. Marcos Meneguzzi, HSBC’s U.S. head of cards and unsecured lending, said cardholders will welcome such offers, at least when they’re relevant. But he warns that banks could easily overstep and lose their customers’ trust.

Many of these efforts remain in their infancy, and it’s not yet clear how well they’ll catch on.

The Cardlytics programs, for instance, don’t push offers through notifications. You have to look for them in your banking app or website.

Abeer Bhatia, an executive with Chase’s credit-card business, said commissions barely cover operational costs. To Chase, the program is more important for incentivizing rewards-conscious consumers to use its cards. If a Chase card gets you an extra 10% at Rite Aid, why pull out your Citi card?

As far as these companies are concerned, Americans have repeatedly demonstrated that they value freebies and discounts more than intangible privacy concerns.

“Consumers understand the banks are giving them ways to save money based on how they shop,” said Scott Grimes, chief executive and co-founder of Cardlytics.

But banks often don’t explain clearly what they’re doing with your data, even though they sometimes share your transactions with outside data companies such as Cardlytics to process offers. And many banks don’t seek explicit consent, instead including these programs by reference in general agreements for the card or online banking.

“It’s totally long, and people don’t read that,” said Saisattha Noomnual, a graduate student in Chicago who gets targeted offers through her Chase and Bank of America cards.

Under federal law, banks merely have to let you withdraw from marketing, or opt out. That’s difficult to do if you’re not aware it’s happening.

Noomnual said she can only guess she gets more offers for Starbucks because she visits Starbucks a lot. She reasons that based on how well banks analyze her spending for fraud alerts. She said she doesn’t mind that, but she wishes banks were more forthcoming.

Bank of America declined to comment. Chase said it tries to keep disclosures simple and understandable without overwhelming consumers.

Banks insist they don’t share personal information with other companies because they replace names with anonymous ID numbers. Privacy researchers, however, have shown that such data can be “de-anonymized” under the right conditions.

Privacy advocates worry that past transactions could come back to haunt you. Frequent visits to fast-food joints might flag you as a health risk, which could be a problem if your health insurer could pay to learn about that. Auto insurers might grow wary of cardholders who run up large bar tabs.

And ultimately, these targeted offers could inadvertently encourage people to overspend or double down on unhealthy habits such as fast food.

“Consumers aren’t aware of the subtle nudges apps are giving them to buy, buy, buy,” Mierzwinski said. “They are basically digging deep into your psyche and figuring out how to manipulate you.”

Jesdanun writes for the Associated Press.

CHICAGO — 

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot fired the city’s retiring police superintendent Monday, citing “ethical lapses” that included telling lies about a recent incident in which Supt. Eddie Johnson was found asleep at the wheel of his car after having drinks.

Former Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who had already been announced as the interim superintendent in Chicago, was to take over immediately, Lightfoot said. Johnson had been set to leave at the end of the year.

Named to the job after a police shooting that killed a black teenager, Johnson was dismissed after the mayor reviewed an inspector general’s report and video evidence related to the night in mid-October when officers discovered him unconscious in his SUV. He initially blamed failure to take his blood pressure medication and said he had a few drinks with dinner earlier in the evening.

The officers did not conduct any sobriety tests and let their boss drive home.

Johnson “engaged in a series of actions that are intolerable for any leader or position of trust, particularly the head of the Chicago Police Department,” the mayor said. Johnson’s conduct was “not only unbecoming but demonstrates a series of ethical lapses and flawed decision-making.”

Lightfoot said the police chief of the nation’s third-largest city repeatedly lied about the events that unfolded the night of Oct. 16 and morning of Oct. 17.

“What he portrayed to me, what he portrayed to the public was fundamentally different than what the facts show,” she said. The underlying conduct “warranted this significant and serious action of relieving him of his role.”

At a hastily called news conference, the mayor declined to offer details “out of deference” to Johnson’s wife and children and the ongoing investigation. The report may become public in the future, she said.

A Chicago police spokesman did not immediately return messages seeking comment from Johnson, who in more than 30 years with the department held almost every rank on the force. He declined to discuss his firing with a Sun-Times reporter who came to his South Side home.

In October, Johnson called for the department’s internal affairs division to investigate the incident, saying he wanted the public to be confident that both he and the officers acted properly. He said he had felt lightheaded while driving home, pulled over and fell asleep.

During his tenure, he was hospitalized for a blood clot and a kidney transplant.

Weeks after the incident, Johnson announced he would retire at the end of the year. He appeared with Lightfoot at an emotional news conference commemorating his long career, an appearance that Lightfoot said Monday she now regretted.

“This department has to be about creating a culture of integrity and accountability, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Lightfoot said.

Johnson, a native Chicagoan, was named superintendent in 2016 by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who had fired Supt. Garry McCarthy after the release of the now-infamous video showing officer Jason Van Dyke shooting teenager Laquan McDonald. At the time, Emanuel was scrambling to restore public confidence.

Eschewing the recommendations of his police board, which conducted a national search, Emanuel settled on Johnson, the interim superintendent, who had not even applied for the job. An African American who spent his early childhood living in one of the city’s most notorious public housing projects, the soft-spoken Johnson was a popular choice with the rank-and-file, who felt they could trust him far more than McCarthy, a brash outsider who had spent most of his career in New York.

Johnson took over the department of roughly 13,500 officers as the city grappled with a spike in already high violent crime. By the end of the year, which saw thousands of shooting incidents, the number of dead totaled nearly 800 — 300 more than just the year before.

He presided over an effort to hire more officers that increased the size of the force by about 1,000. Under his leadership, police also expanded the use of technology, including installing more surveillance cameras and embarking on the largest rollout of police body cameras in the country.

As the McDonald case advanced through the courts, Johnson also looked for ways to restore public confidence that had been shattered by allegations that police had engaged in a cover-up. The McDonald video was withheld from the public for months.

Questions about Johnson’s willingness to cover for fellow officers arose after media reports that, as a deputy chief, he had agreed after watching the video that the shooting was justified.

In a blistering report, the Justice Department found a long history in the police force of racial bias and excessive force by officers. That led to wholesale changes in the way officers are investigated and last year the implementation of a federal consent decree that calls for more community policing, better officer training and requiring paperwork every time officers point a gun at someone, even if they don’t fire.

Johnson largely enjoyed support from the public and his department, partly because he was willing to show his human side. He became emotional when he faced reporters to talk about the shooting death of a longtime commander and close friend. He showed anger when he announced the arrest of actor Jussie Smollett, casting what he said was Smollett’s staged racist attack as an attack on Chicago itself. And the city rooted for him when he had a kidney transplant — a kidney he said was donated by his son.

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The Trump administration is proposing tariffs on up to $2.4 billion worth of French imports — including Roquefort cheese, handbags, lipstick and sparkling wine — in retaliation for France’s tax on American tech giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative charged Monday that France’s new digital services tax discriminates against U.S. companies. The trade office will accept public comments on the tariffs, which could hit 100%, through Jan. 6 and hold a hearing on Jan. 7.

The French tax is designed to prevent tech companies from dodging taxes by putting headquarters in low-tax European Union countries. It imposes a 3% annual levy on French revenues of digital companies with yearly global sales worth more than $830 million and French revenue exceeding $27 million.

The U.S. also criticized the French tax for targeting companies’ revenue, not their profits, and for being retroactive.

The decision to pursue tariffs “sends a clear signal that the United States will take action against digital tax regimes that discriminate or otherwise impose undue burdens on U.S. companies,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said.

His agency investigated the French tax under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 — the same provision the Trump administration used last year to probe China’s technology policies, leading to tariffs on more than $360 billion worth of Chinese imports in the biggest trade war since the 1930s.

Lighthizer warned that the U.S. is also exploring whether to pursue Section 301 investigations into digital taxes introduced by Austria, Italy and Turkey.

The decision to target France got bipartisan endorsement from Iowa Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley and Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden. In a joint statement, they assailed the French digital tax as “unreasonable, protectionist and discriminatory.”

The tech trade group ITI said it welcomed the administration’s decision and urged continued negotiations on international taxes under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The tariff announcement is likely to increase tension between the United States and Europe. The U.S. is already readying tariffs on $7.5 billion in EU imports over illegal subsidies for the European aircraft giant Airbus. The World Trade Organization on Monday gave the U.S. a greenlight to impose those levies, ruling that the EU had not complied with an order to end the subsidies.

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And in another reminder that Washington’s trade conflicts extend well beyond a 16-month standoff with China, President Trump on Monday pledged to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina.

Both South American nations were among a group of U.S. allies that Trump exempted from steel and aluminum tariffs in March 2018. The American president’s threat to reverse that decision and impose the metals tariffs is the latest example of his mercurial approach to trade policy.

Trump accused the countries of manipulating their currencies lower to make their exports less expensive in world markets and gain an unfair trade advantage.

But the countries’ weak currencies reflect their weak economies. Brazil is contending with double-digit unemployment and economic stagnation after two years of deep recession. Argentina is battling an economic crisis marked by runaway inflation, huge debts and widespread poverty.

The U.N. weather agency says that the current decade is likely to set a new 10-year temperature record, adding further evidence that the world is getting hotter.

The World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday that preliminary temperature data show the years from 2015 to 2019 and from 2010 to 2019 “are, respectively, almost certain to be the warmest five-year period and decade on record.”

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In a report released on the sidelines of this year’s U.N. climate change conference in Madrid, the agency said this continues the trend that “since the 1980s, each successive decade has been warmer than the last.”

While full-year temperature measurements won’t be available for several more months, the agency also said that 2019 is expected to be the second or third warmest year on record.

Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

From ‘Witch Hunt’ to Guilty Plea

For years, he called it “fake news,” “a witch hunt” and a product of the “deep state.” This morning, Rep. Duncan Hunter is scheduled to appear in federal court to plead guilty in a sweeping campaign finance investigation.

Hunter, a Republican who represents parts of San Diego and Riverside counties, told a TV station that he would plead guilty to one of the 60 criminal charges against him and suggested that he is likely to spend time in custody.

Though Hunter did not explicitly say he would be stepping down — often an outcome in any such plea agreement — he said, “I’m confident that the transition will be a good one” and stated, “I think it’s important to keep the seat a Republican seat.”

Biden Versus Buttigieg

Ahead of the Iowa caucuses, former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg are competing for similar voters: the kind of Democrats who favor political and economic change, but not as drastic a change as proposed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. But if their politics are similar, Biden and Buttigieg are 40 years apart in age and come in very different packages. Here’s how the race is playing out in the Hawkeye State.

More Politics

— The House is moving forward in a landmark impeachment week, with Democrats who once hoped to sway Republicans now facing the prospect of an ever-hardening partisan split over the question of removing President Trump from office. Today, the House Intelligence Committee is expected to release its report.

— Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, Trump’s pick to succeed Rick Perry as Energy secretary, has won easy Senate confirmation, despite a Democratic senator’s objections that the nominee hadn’t fully answered questions related to the Trump impeachment investigation.

— Former Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein told the FBI that he was “angry, ashamed, horrified and embarrassed” at the way James B. Comey was fired as FBI director, according to records released Monday.

— The Trump campaign has banned Bloomberg News from its rallies and other events. Now that Michael R. Bloomberg is running for the Democratic nomination, the news organization — which has long had an unusual policy of not covering its majority owner — plans not to investigate him or his primary rivals.

A New Tool in the LAPD’s Kit

It sounds like a gun, but instead of deadly bullets, it fires a Kevlar cord that entangles around an individual’s body to restrict mobility. Though it sounds like something that might be found on Batman’s utility belt, the BolaWrap 100 will soon be in the hands of several hundred Los Angeles police officers for a 90-day test. The goal is to help them detain individuals without using lethal force. But not everyone is happy with the idea.

A Football Player’s Legacy

Kevin Ellison was a hard-hitting defensive back, team captain and fan favorite at USC. He went on to play one season for the San Diego Chargers. The three words tattooed on the football player’s left arm summed up his approach to life: “Be the best.” After he died at age 31 last year, his family donated his brain to be studied for CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Today’s Column One feature looks at the life of Ellison and the final journey of K-0623, as his brain became known to researchers.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

On this date in 1945, a few months after the end of World War II, the Caltech Optical Shop resumed grinding work on the mirror of a 200-inch Palomar Observatory telescope. The work had been halted in 1942, when engineers, scientists and Caltech laboratories were assigned war-related work.

“As the Big Eye revolved again on the grinding table, Dr. John A. Anderson, who has directly supervised work on the Palomar Observatory project since 1928, and Marcus H. Brown, chief optician and head of the optical shop, were all smiles,” The Times reported the next day.

The mirror would finally make its way to the observatory in 1947.

CALIFORNIA

— Peter Lynn is stepping down as head of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority after five years as the face of bad news on the homelessness crisis.

— David Geffen has donated another $46 million to the UCLA medical school already named for him to fund more scholarships, giving more than 400 future doctors a free education.

— Southern California is about to get more rain. Blame the atmospheric river.

— Coastal fog may be carrying toxic levels of methylmercury, which is then dumped on the land, makes its way up the food chain and contaminates mountain lions living in the region, UC Santa Cruz researchers found.

— The federal government sued the city of Hesperia and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, accusing them of illegally targeting black and Latino tenants for evictions.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— Anna Paquin barely speaks in “The Irishman.” Robert De Niro is OK with that.

— Here’s what’s going on with Gabrielle Union, “America’s Got Talent” and reports NBC fired her in retaliation for reporting a toxic and racist backstage culture.

— “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness just made history with a Cosmopolitan U.K. cover.

— With every viewing, “Frozen 2″ keeps getting more adult and more political.

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— Longtime Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich reflects on 40 years of chaos, flubs and impromptu immortality ahead of his swan song.

NATION-WORLD

— Amnesty International says at least 208 people in Iran have been killed amid protests over sharply rising gasoline prices and a subsequent crackdown by security forces.

—Can an American’s comments about cryptocurrency violate his country’s sanctions against North Korea? That question is at the heart of a criminal case against Virgil Griffith, a rabble-rousing computer scientist.

— Trump has heaped praise on Boris Johnson. But the British prime minister would rather he not — at least until after the Dec. 12 parliamentary election. Is his effort to distance himself too little too late?

— A decade after Poland and dozens of other nations committed to the return of private property stolen from Jews by the Nazis or nationalized by the communist government, the country’s ascendant far right is pushing for a bill that would not just ban restitution but criminalize it.

— Bad news for globe-trotting troublemakers: Starting Jan. 1, it will be easier to prosecute passengers who get unruly on international flights.

BUSINESS

— California’s monopoly electric utilities asked state officials to sign off on higher profits earlier this year. Now, regulators are poised to reject those pleas.

— With Cyber Monday consumer spending on track for a record, critics of Amazon — including labor, environmental and digital privacy groups — staged protests around the globe, including at a San Bernardino shipping hub and Jeff Bezos’ Manhattan penthouse.

— Riot Games will pay at least $10 million to women who worked there in the last five years to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit.

— A Los Angeles jury has found billionaire and hologram entrepreneur Alki David liable for sexual battery and sexual harassment against a former employee and ordered him to pay $50 million in punitive damages. It’s among the biggest awards ever for an employment case.

SPORTS

— Lionel Messi received his record sixth Ballon d’Or, and Megan Rapinoe won her first.

— The Chargers’ playoff outlook looks grim, but quarterback Philip Rivers says the team will be “fighting like crazy.”

— Coming off Sunday’s loss, tonight the Lakers will face just as tough a test against the Nuggets.

OPINION

— Trump is right that our national parks are in crisis, but his plan to fix it by commercializing campgrounds is absurd, write two professors who co-wrote a book on U.S. national parks.

— Why China won’t let Hong Kong become another Tiananmen Square.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— Match Group, which owns most major online dating services, screens for sexual predators on Match — but not on Tinder, OkCupid or PlentyofFish. (ProPublica)

— Who broke the color barrier for modern professional basketball? Wataru “Wat” Misaka, a 5-foot-7 Japanese American player in the Basketball Association of America, or BAA, the precursor to the NBA. He died last month at 95. (The Undefeated)

— The Apostrophe Protection Society, dedicated to preserving the correct use of the punctuation mark, has shut down because “ignorance has won.” (Evening Standard)

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA

Look magazine called it the “House of Tomorrow.” Elvis and Priscilla Presley called it their honeymoon retreat in 1967. Today, someone could call this Palm Springs Midcentury Modern house their home, as it’s back on the market. This time, the asking price is $3.2 million; it has dropped roughly a dozen times since the property first came on the market for $9.5 million in 2014. But you can take a look inside for a song.

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