This week on AI: Apple's $350B US cash influx, Chinese labor scandal, HomePod coming soon & more

By Roger Fingas

With newsmakers finally back from the holidays, the Apple sphere finally began spinning at high speed again -- particularly after Apple's announcement that it plans to pump a lot of money into the U.S. economy through 2023.

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Everything you need to know:

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A roundup of all of our hottest stories this week:

Apple to pump $350B into US economy over next 5 years, pay record $38B in repatriation taxesApple diverting worker shuttles because of smashed windowsChina Labor Watch again cites Apple for poor Chinese factory working conditionsiPhone owners will be able to disable CPU throttling in future iOS version, Cook saysApple's first million HomePods now shipping from Inventec - reportApple slugs it out with HBO over new J.J. Abrams TV drama - reportIreland's plans for Apple to pay $15.9B in back taxes may be delayed until Q2 2018Kristen Wiig on tap for new Apple-funded scripted comedy seriesToyota concedes, reveals plans to launch first cars with Apple CarPlayIndia loosens 30 percent sourcing requirement on sale goods, paving the way for Apple StoresApple, ARM & Intel facing potential Israeli class action suit over Meltdown & SpectreApple under fire from U.S.-based class action suit over Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities in A-series chipsApple's first South Korean store set to open in Seoul on Jan. 27Siri learns to play news podcasts automaticallyNew leases give Apple a large footprint in Los Angeles for content pushApple joins other tech companies in urging protection of US work permits for highly-skilled immigrants' spousesFix for 'chaiOS' malicious link that crashes Messages coming in next iOS updateApple, Samsung under investigation by Italian government over planned obsolescence allegationsMicrosoft improves Office 2016 for Mac with real-time collaboration & automatic cloud savesApple to decide location of new campus without public bidding processTrump talks up Apple's $350B US investment, says thanked Tim Cook by phoneApple CEO Tim Cook named in South Korean complaint over iPhone slowdownsApple hires away tech team from SVDS, potentially to improve enterprise business