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As the nation’s retailers and shoppers gear up for the holiday shopping sprint, two of the nation’s busiest ports, Los Angeles and Long Beach, say they are making progress clearing up the tens of thousands of shipping containers that have been backlogged at their facilities.

Photos: The 2021 Capitol Christmas Tree began its journey in California on Oct. 23, in the Mad River Ranger District of the Six Rivers National Forest. It was driven cross-country by the official designated tour carrier, System Transport, a division of Trans-System Inc. and arrived in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 19.

Walmart Inc. is expanding its efforts to offer aerial deliveries to homes, joining with startup DroneUp to begin dropping off items ranging from cans of tuna to children’s thermometers.

As the nation’s major seaports experience more congestion, another inland port facility will help to move freight along the Eastern Seaboard. The Carolina Connector, near Rocky Mount, N.C., is where shipping containers are transferred between trucks and trains.

DHL Express’ expansion of its hub facility at Miami International Airport doubles warehouse space and sorting capacity with twice the load positions for conveyable packages.

An Anchorage, Alaska, economic development group, alongside Anchorage airport and shipping officials, is making a pitch for what they say is an unexploited maritime shipping route from Anchorage to the U.S. Northwest that could help unlock West Coast shipping snarls.

Mountains of wheat and canola are stranded in Canada after storms blocked access to the Port of Vancouver during peak shipping season.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Gina Bartley, the director of recruiting at John Christner Trucking, was named the Transport Topics Recruiting Professional of the Year at the annual Recruitment and Retention Conference.

The Port of Los Angeles has suspended plans to charge shippers for containers that have been piling up at the facility, an announcement made the day that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during a virtual visit pledged support from the Biden administration to help ease stress on the nation’s crowded supply chain.

Royal Mail Plc will return $540 million to shareholders, saying it’s increasingly confident that the online shopping boom spurring parcel deliveries will persist.