Apparel retailers are finally winning back shoppers just as a new potential problem arises: more expensive cotton.

After the Pride of York ferry sailed into the Belgian port of Zeebrugge from Hull in the U.K. earlier this month, dozens of cargo containers were offloaded and whisked away on trucks. The hundreds of passengers weren’t as lucky: They had to line up for border checks.

China tightened its grip on the global supply chain for battery raw materials as Tianqi Lithium Corp. struck a deal to take a $4.1bn stake in Chilean rival SQM, the second-largest lithium producer.

In December, the sticker price on the average U.S. automobile hit $38,616, a level not seen since “Tesla” evoked the image of an electrical engineer. Come summer, carmakers will probably break that price record again. It’s true, there are still plenty of cheap wheels to be had in the reasonably priced basement. It’s just that the top of the market is speeding away.

The U.K. government has asked business groups to map their supply chains to flag the areas of the economy most at risk if Brexit imposes additional trading costs on exporters, two people familiar with the matter said.

The outlook for Indian online retailer Flipkart was decidedly gloomy when Kalyan Krishnamurthy became chief executive officer in January 2017. The startup’s valuation was dropping, fundraising was more difficult and Amazon.com Inc. was pledging $5bn-plus to siphon away customers.

In the race to start the world’s first driving business without human drivers, everyone is chasing Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo.