Martine Roch

Beauty brands are hiring — or buying — technology companies that let customers virtually try on makeup, hair and skin care products.

Why it matters: With COVID keeping people away from cosmetics counters, the latest thing in “beauty tech” is the VTO — or virtual try-on. Customers love playing with these apps so much that companies see big revenue boosts after introducing them.

Driving the news: Hair, skin and makeup companies used to focus on acquiring smaller brands with cult followings, but now they’re also chasing AI and AR firms that can help them develop personalized customer experiences.

• L’Oreal led the charge by buying ModiFace, an AR specialist, in 2018 and using its patents “to create a number of virtual try-on tools that consumers can experiment with across a number of their brands,” Vogue Business reports.
• L’Oreal has its own technology incubator with a team of 30+ physicists, engineers,

• Tucker Carlson has interviewed Thomas Caldwell three times since January 6.
• Caldwell has been indicted on charges of seditious conspiracy and faces up to 20 years in prison.
• Caldwell organized the Oath Keepers’ quick reaction force teams, according to an unsealed indictment.

Since the Capitol insurrection, Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson has repeatedly interviewed Thomas Caldwell, who was indicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday on charges of seditious conspiracy for his role in coordinating the Oath Keepers’ attack, Media Matters reported.

Caldwell first joined “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in October 2021. During his appearance, he said he never entered the Capitol and was not part of the Oath Keepers, a far-right, anti-government paramilitary organization, according to Media Matters.

An FBI affidavit from January 2021 revealed the extent of Caldwell’s participation in the insurrection through records collected from his Facebook account.

“Us

Construction company Bechtel Corp. sent some contractors home while it tried to collect on more than $1 billion in unpaid bills.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

BMY 0.51%

,

Gilead Sciences Inc.

GILD -0.15%

and other drugmakers have complained unsuccessfully for years that their intellectual property was being stolen.

The result is foreign investment in Saudi Arabia has remained stubbornly low and some companies are scaling back their operations or delaying promised expansion plans.

That is a blow to Crown Prince

Mohammed bin Salman,

the country’s de facto leader. He vowed in 2016 to build new industries unrelated to oil by improving the business climate and creating a global hub for innovation. Since then, reducing Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil has grown increasingly urgent as

There are signs that the worst of the turbulence was beginning to ease late last year. The number of job openings posted by employers fell in November, the Labor Department said Tuesday, though it remained high by historical standards. Hiring picked up, too. Earlier data showed that more people returned to the labor force in November, and various measures of supply-chain pressures have begun to ease.

But that was before the explosion in coronavirus cases linked to the Omicron variant, which has forced airlines to cancel flights, businesses to delay return-to-office plans and school districts to return temporarily to remote learning. Forecasters say the latest Covid-19 wave is all but certain to prolong the economic uncertainty, though it is too soon to say how it will affect inflation, spending or the job market.

Despite the demand for workers and the pay increases landed by some, Americans are pessimistic about the