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John Lamb | Digital Vision | Getty Images

Thanksgiving is a holiday that's uniquely American in its origin, and celebration. And shopping on Black Friday is as much a tradition for many American families as turkey is the day before.

From Russia to Mexico to China, they may not celebrate Thanksgiving, but more and more global consumers are coming to know what the day after means: 50 percent off cashmere sweaters.

( Read more: Black Friday: Not always about deals)

"Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the two highest days of sales that we see from all the way around the world," said Borderfree CEO Michael DeSimone.

Borderfree is a company that works with many American retailers, including J.Crew, Aeropostale, Neiman Marcus and others, to convert the retailers' websites to country-appropriate language and currency translations. Once a sale is made, Borderfree steps in to help collect taxes and tariffs and facilitates shipping to get the merchandise to the consumer wherever they may live.

"In the Middle East much of the population doesn't even celebrate Christmas, but they are still shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so I think it's an interesting way that we have sort of exported our American retail culture," DeSimone said.

Read more: Holiday gift guides:
Pssst, Santa! This is what kids want this holiday
10 must-have gifts for gadget lovers
Hit a home run: Gifts for the sports lover
Must-have video games this holiday season

Macy's may be the American retailer most closely associated with the holiday season for many consumers domestically, and abroad. It's hard to think of another that has the equivalent of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the classic movie "Miracle on 34th Street" that uses the retailer's flagship store almost as a character itself.

The retailer, which also owns Bloomingdales, said, macys.com and bloomingdales.com ship to more than 100 countries, and a spokesperson for the company acknowledged Black Friday and Cyber Monday are "very busy days everywhere on the Web."

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Retailers exporting this US staple: Black Friday

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John Lamb | Digital Vision | Getty Images Thanksgiving is a holiday that's uniquely American in its origin, and celebration. And shopping on Black Friday is as much a tradition for many American families as turkey is the day before.

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The ever-widening use of artificial lights is making the nighttime Earth glow increasingly brighter, with the amount of global light growing about 2 percent each year.

That worries advocates for the protection of dark skies, who say that artificial night glow can affect wildlife like migrating birds and keeps people from connecting to the stars. What's more, they say, all that wasted light sent out into space is effectively wasted money.

The findings are in a new study in the journal Science Advances that used five years of data from a satellite launched in 2011. This satellite has an instrument that gives scientists a more reliable way to measure nighttime light than they've had in the past.

"The areas that are getting brighter rapidly are developing countries," says Christopher Kyba, a researcher at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. "So a lot of places in South America, Africa and Asia are brightening really, really rapidly, up to 10 percent or more per year, even, in some cases."

Only a few countries - like war-ravaged Yemen and Syria - showed a decrease. Some of the very brightest places on Earth, such as the United States, Spain, and Italy, appeared to remain relatively stable.

With new solid-state lighting technology becoming available, some areas have started making a switch to LEDs. And because this satellite is not able to see all of the light emitted by LEDs, Kyba says the brightening that's actually happening is probably greater than what's been measured.

"For the United States, for example, we don't see much of a change. But we know that a lot of LEDs are going in. And that means that the United States is almost certainly getting brighter, in terms of how people see the world with their human eyes," Kyba explains.

Some have suggested that energy-savings from LEDs will reduce the cost of lighting. But the researchers found that "as light gets cheaper, we use more of it, nearly proportionately to the rate at which it's getting cheaper," Kyba says.

On a global or national scale, all this wasted light is expensive, he says: "It costs a lot of money to radiate that light into space and it's not doing anybody any good."

He and others argue that lighting efforts must be well-designed to reduce the amount of light going out into space while still providing a safe and comfortable experience for people on the ground who need to see at night.

The rapid increase in night lighting has been a profound change, a kind of global experiment, that has happened in just the last 100 years."My mum, for example, grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, in a time before they had electrification," Kyba says. "So she grew up with an amazing starry sky, and now she lives, within one lifetime, under a very light-polluted sky."

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The ever-widening use of artificial lights is making the nighttime Earth glow increasingly brighter, with the amount of global light growing about 2 percent each year. That worries advocates for the protection of dark skies, who say that artificial night glow can affect wildlife like migrating birds and keeps people from connecting to the stars.

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Ari Melber: Facebook Censors Speech But Can't Stop Fake News | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC

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MSNBC's Ari Melber breaks down Mark Zuckerberg's global reach beyond Russia, reporting on meetings with foreign autocrats and why Facebook is developing special censorship software. " Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines, insightful political commentary and informed perspectives.

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50 Central Highlight: See 50 Cent and Lance Gross Go Head To Head In Smash, Marry Or Kill

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Wanna see how popular 50 Cent really is with the ladies?

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China is outmaneuvering the U.S. and other countries in the global scramble for a vital element for electric cars.

As demand for the vehicles surges, Chinese companies have been doing deals around the world to secure supplies of lithium, a silvery-white metal mined from rocks in Australia and brine pools in South America.

China is the top market for electric and hybrid cars, accounting for roughly half of global sales, and the government is pushing the development of the industry within its borders. That calls for a lot of lithium, a key component of the vehicles' batteries.

"Whoever controls the lithium supply chain will control the future of the electric vehicle space," said Simon Moores, managing director at research and data provider Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. "There's a global battery arms race."

Related: How China plans to beat the U.S. at technology

China has limited lithium resourcesof its own, so it's looking abroad.

In September, Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor bought a stake in Pilbara Minerals , an Australian lithium miner. Earlier this year, China's Ganfeng Lithium snapped up 20% of an Argentine project. Last year, China's Tianqi Lithium took a 2% stake in Chile's SQM , one of the world's top miners of the metal.

The Chinese government has been quietly instructing state-owned enterprises to hunt down lithium resources outside China, according to Francois Perrin, a portfolio manager at investment firm East Capital. He predicts that over the next few years, China will wield increasing influence over the supply of lithium and other metals used in electric batteries.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he didn't have any specific information on the trend of Chinese investment in lithium supplies.

"We always strive to deepen economic cooperation with all countries in all fields, including in energy and auto sectors," he said in response to a question from CNN. "I wouldn't find it surprising if there is Chinese cooperation with other countries in mining certain minerals."

The Chinese firms involved in the recent deals didn't respond to requests for comment. Neither did the National Development and Reform Commission, which helps guide the country's economic policies.

Beijing has a track record of directing Chinese companies to do its bidding, such as squeezing South Korea's tourism industry earlier this year over a dispute with Seoul over a U.S. missile defense system.

It also has history of using crucial natural resources under its control as diplomatic weapons: it was widely accused of restricting exports in 2010 of a group of minerals that are vital for many high-tech devices.

The pursuit of lithium for electric cars fits with Chinese President Xi Jinping's plans, according to analysts.

"China's aggressive moves in the lithium sector speak to the country taking leadership around important issues such as public health and fighting climate change," said Chris Berry, founder of research firm House Mountain Partners. China wants to be a global leader in lithium, from mining the metal to processing it, he said.

Related: These countries want to ban gas and diesel cars

Western companies haven't so far shown much interest in the kinds of investments for electric cars made by their Chinese counterparts, according to experts.

"They're late to the party," Moores said.

Like China, the U.S. and Europe have few lithium resources of their own and rely on supplies shipped from elsewhere. Tesla and other electric car makers could end up scrambling for a limited supply of crucial resources where China is the biggest player.

The growing global appetite for lithium is already driving up its price. It's gained 40% since the start of the year to trade around $14,000 per ton, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

"This is an incredible bull market like lithium's never seen," Moores said.

A lot of the demand comes from China's large and growing battery manufacturing industry.

Tesla's huge Gigafactory in the Nevada desert gets a lot of headlines, but China produces about two-thirds of the global supply of batteries for electric vehicles, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. And the firm estimates that China is building about half of the 20 or more battery mega-factories currently in the works.

Related: Inside Tesla's enormous Gigafactory

With the biggest market for electric vehicles and the biggest battery supply, China is making itself an inescapable destination for global automakers. They have been lining up recently to announce plans to make their electric cars in the country.

"The message to Tesla and other aspiring electric vehicle makers: 'You are free to produce anywhere in the world, but better to produce electric vehicles inside China,'" said Michael Dunne, head of Hong Kong-based consultant Dunne Automotive.

Tesla has said its working on plans for building its cars in China. Volkswagen , the world's biggest automaker, has just announced a $12 billion plan to make electric cars in the country. Experts say others will soon follow.

Related: Volkswagen needs batteries that would fill 4 Gigafactories

And it's not just lithium that China's locking down.

Cobalt, another metal used to make electric vehicle batteries, is even scarcer. Almost two-thirds of supply is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a war-torn country in central Africa.

Last year, China bought a majority stake in Congo's biggest cobalt mine for more than $2.5 billion, helping secure long-term supply of the metal. Since that deal, the price of cobalt has more than doubled.

"The cobalt supply situation is a serious concern," Perrin said.

CNNMoney (Hong Kong) First published November 20, 2017: 7:27 AM ET

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China is winning 'arms race' for electric cars

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As demand for the vehicles surges, Chinese companies have been doing deals around the world to secure supplies of lithium, a silvery-white metal mined from rocks in Australia and brine pools in South America. China is the top market for electric and hybrid cars, accounting for roughly half of global sales, and the government is pushing the development of the industry within its borders.

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Cleveland Cavaliers vs Detroit Pistons Full Game Highlights / Week 6 / 2017 NBA Season

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Cleveland Cavaliers vs Detroit Pistons Full Game Highlights / Week 6 / 2017 NBA Season For those who want to support my channel https://www.patreon.com/MLGHighlights Follow Us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stayhls Like Us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stayhls Subscribe To Me On Social Networks To Keep Up To Date With Updates On My Channel :) Disclaimer: * Companies that claim rights to my videos are entitled to the monetisations and will earn a profit from my videos if they decide to monetize them.

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Iran's state TV is reporting that the European Union has donated €20 million to develop safe nuclear energy in Iran.

The TV's website on Tuesday quoted Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as saying that "this measure shows that the Europeans are welcome to cooperate with Iran on nuclear issues."

Kamalvandi's announcement came during a press conference after the second round of high-level talks in Tehran between Iran and the EU, titled "Nuclear cooperation; Progresses and Prospects."

EU's senior diplomat Helga Schmid attended the gathering.

The talks come after President Donald Trump refused to re-certify the 2015 landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that curbed Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions on Iran.

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EU donates ?20 million for safe nuclear energy in Iran

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Iran's state TV is reporting that the European Union has donated €20 million to develop safe nuclear energy in Iran. The TV's website on Tuesday quoted Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as saying that "this measure shows that the Europeans are welcome to cooperate with Iran on nuclear issues."