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Secret Service says it denied some Trump requests for more security, walking back previous story 2024-07-21 15:55:00+00:00 - Former US President Donald Trump exits after attending the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, on Monday, July 15, 2024. The Secret Service denied some of former President Donald Trump's requests for additional security resources over the past two years, an official with the agency confirmed to NBC News. The Secret Service official said extra security accommodations could not always be made for Trump due to the department's limited resources. The Washington Post was first to report the Secret Service's acknowledgement. The requests that were denied did not pertain to the July 13 shooting at Trump's Pennsylvania rally where the former president was injured, one person was killed and two others were critically wounded. "In some instances where specific Secret Service specialized units or resources were not provided, the agency made modifications to ensure the security of the protectee," Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told NBC News. "This may include utilizing state or local partners to provide specialized functions or otherwise identifying alternatives to reduce public exposure of a protectee." Guglielmi's statement represents a change of script. Last Sunday, he said the assertion that the Secret Service had rebuffed the Trump team's requests for additional security were "absolutely false." In the wake of the attempted assassination of Trump, the Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny. Lawmakers are pressuring the agency and its director, Kimberly Cheatle, to explain any security lapses that allowed a gunman to mount a rooftop 148 yards from Trump, open fire on the rally, and graze the former president's ear. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., are among the top Republicans calling for Cheatle's resignation, though she has maintained that she will remain in her post. "Of course she needs to be fired," House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio., said on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "President Biden should fire her. She's clearly not going to resign." Turner will be among the lawmakers questioning Cheatle on the record this week on Capitol Hill where she is expected to testify in several hearings about what went awry in security protocols at the rally shooting.
Mark Cuban Reveals 4 Rules To Becoming A Millionaire: 'Find Something You Can Be Good At. Then...' 2024-07-21 14:56:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... Entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban is one of the most well-known figures in the business and sports worlds. Cuban is also pretty open to sharing advice and tips on how to make money and potentially become a millionaire. What Happened: Cuban is well known for his ownership of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and in recent years for his commentary on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin BTC/USD and Dogecoin DOGE/USD. Cuban led the way with the Dallas Mavericks becoming one of the first sports teams to accept Dogecoin as a form of payment back in March 2021. The five-year chart from Benzinga Pro below shows Dogecoin surging from March to May 2021 before falling after hitting all-time highs. Dogecoin has fallen in recent years, but remains higher than when Cuban led the initiative. Investing in cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin has helped some people become millionaires, but like other investments requires levels of patience, luck and can be risky. For everyone else, Cuban has some advice that could lead to becoming a millionaire. In 2022, Cuban shared four rules to making money and becoming a millionaire in an interview with GQ, as shared by CNBC. "If you want to be a millionaire, you can do it, but there's a couple things you have to be able to accomplish," Cuban said. Rule 1: "Find something you can be good at. Then, be great at it." Cuban's first rule is possibly the most important, as a person needs to focus on their strengths and develop those skills as their focus area. This could be a certain vocation, a sport or creating content. A passion for something can often translate into putting in the necessary work and effort to be successful. Rule 2: "Know how to sell." Cuban sold trash bags door-to-door when he was 12 years old, CNBC reported. This was done by Cuban to earn money to buy sneakers. Cuban bought the trash bags for $3 and sold them for $6. Part of Cuban's sales pitch was the offer to be available by phone whenever someone needed the trash bags and the offer of delivering them in his wagon. Read Also: Mark Cuban On Guns, Immigration, Sleeping Habits And His Favorite Word — ‘It Makes My Day’ Rule 3: "Be curious and always learning." Finding something a person is good at and becoming great is a key step. Another key step might be to continue learning and getting better at the subject or skill. Cuban has preached over the years that people should be willing to continue learnings and striving to improve. Rule 4: "When you walk into a room, you (need to know) your s*** better than anyone else in the room." Cuban said that this is the important step before starting your own company and being able to "control your own destiny." Cuban has often shared that many times great leaders and businessmen fail several times before making it. Cuban said it doesn't matter how many times you fail, since being right only one time can be the difference in life. Read Next: This article was previously published by Benzinga and has been updated. Photo: Shutterstock
Warner Bros. Discovery & Coinbase Are Among 10 Large Cap Stocks That Shined Most Last Week (July 14-July 20): Are The Others In Your Portfolio? 2024-07-21 14:53:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... These ten large-cap stocks were the best performers in the last week. Are they in your portfolio? Also Read: Photo by rafapress on Shutterstock
Sen. Joe Manchin calls on Biden to drop out of presidential race 2024-07-21 14:28:00+00:00 - Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is seen in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, September 6, 2023. Independent Sen. Joe Manchin on Sunday called on President Joe Biden to exit the race against former President Donald Trump. "I came to the decision with a heavy heart that I think it's time to pass the torch to new generation," said Manchin on CNN's "State of the Union." The West Virginia senator, who registered as an independent in May but caucuses with Democrats, also called for an open nomination process, suggesting Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear as contenders. That contrasts with others who view Vice President Kamala Harris as the favorite to take over the top of the ticket. As Manchin made the rounds on the Sunday broadcast media junket, he reiterated that he still believes Biden has the mental acuity to finish the rest of his term. Manchin also said that the Biden team knew ahead of time that he was going to make this call. The pressure campaign on Biden to drop his reelection bid has been growing since his debate disaster against Trump in June. Along with Manchin, at least 36 Democratic lawmakers, including four senators, have called on Biden to exit the race and allow a new nominee to take the helm of the ticket. Over the past week, Manchin had been hinting at his slipping support for Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee. The day after the attempted assassination of Trump at his Pennsylvania rally, Manchin released a statement condemning political violence and acknowledging the vulnerabilities of the Democratic Party with Biden at the top of the ticket. "At a time when the Democratic Party must realize they risk losing the Senate and even the House, in addition to losing the presidency, they are doing nothing to broaden the tent and appeal to more Americans," Manchin wrote last Sunday. "Sadly, their vocal support for President Biden in the face of his irreparable debate performance, are just evidence of how much control the far left has over the current administration," he added. Throughout the Biden administration, Manchin has positioned himself as a conservative Democrat, sometimes opposing large parts of the president's agenda. Earlier this election cycle, he appeared to toy with the idea of launching his own bid for the White House as an independent, which seemed more likely after he announced he would not run for Senate reelection, leaving his seat open in a deep-red state. But in February, he quieted the speculation and stated he would not launch a third-party campaign.
Developing countries face worst debt crisis in history, study shows 2024-07-21 14:28:00+00:00 - Developing countries are facing the worst debt crisis in history with almost half their budgets being spent on paying back their creditors, a study has found. The report, by the campaign group Debt Relief International for Norwegian Church Aid, says more than 100 countries are struggling to service their debts, resulting in them cutting back on investment in health, education, social protection and climate change measures. Debt service is absorbing 41.5% of budget revenues, 41.6% of spending, and 8.4% of GDP on average across 144 developing countries, according to the study. It said that without urgent action problems would persist into the 2030s, and that pressures were greater than during both the Latin American debt crisis of 1982 and the debt crisis of the 1990s. The latter prompted relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC). In 2020 the G20 group of leading developed and developing countries launched the common framework, a scheme designed to speed up and simplify the debt relief process. However, progress has been much slower than hoped, reflecting the fact that much poor country debt is now owed to China and private bondholders. The report said the common framework was falling “way short of expectations in terms of timeliness, participation by creditors, and the scale of relief provided”. Countries would still be paying an average 48% of their budget revenue on service after relief and as a result few were applying to join the process. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Among the suggestions made by the report are that debt relief should be: available to countries of all income levels and regions, and tailored to their needs provided in ways that reduces service to less than 15% of budget revenue provided rapidly and with immediate standstills of payments when a country applies for relief include all creditors provide legal protections for debtors against holdouts and lawsuits in all major financial centres Matthew Martin, one of the report’s authors, called on the new government to legislate to prevent so-called vulture funds – funds that buy up debt cheaply and then seek to make a profit on it – from using the UK courts to sue poor countries. “We now have the worst debt crisis in history, largely because more and more countries have gone to international bond markets and developed domestic bond markets to finance their development”, Martin said. “There are three things the new UK government can do as priorities – pass a vulture fund law to push commercial creditors to provide debt relief; insist with the G20 that there be a fundamental independent review of the Common Framework to make it cancel debt service so governments can spend more on fighting climate change and inequality; and cancel debt service now for the Caribbean islands hit by Hurricane Beryl.” Dagfinn Høybråten, the secretary general of Norwegian Church Aid, said: “A high debt burden is a huge drain on a country’s economy and hit the poorer parts of the population first through cuts in welfare, education, or health expenditure to pay debts. “A debt crisis is paralysing and undermines all other development efforts. The 1982 crisis lasted over 20 years with much suffering before it was finally resolved in 2005. We do not have a generation to tackle this new debt crisis.”
Why do Visa and Mastercard advertise to consumers? 2024-07-21 14:02:00+00:00 - Why do Visa, Mastercard and so on advertise to consumers? As far as I know, the way in which bank payments are processed is immaterial to the account holder. In any case, you can’t choose – you get whichever one your bank decides. Tom Gretton, Exeter Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.
China Shows Few Signs of Tilting Economy Toward Consumers in New Plan 2024-07-21 13:32:44+00:00 - China engaged in a monthslong drumbeat of anticipation that a Communist Party leaders’ meeting would show the way to a new era of growth for the slowing economy. The outcome was a plan released on Sunday offering more than 300 steps on everything from taxes to religion. It echoed many familiar themes, like an emphasis on government investments in high-tech manufacturing and scientific innovation. There was little mention of anything that would directly address China’s plunging real estate prices or the millions of unfinished apartments left behind by failed developers. Many economists had called for a comprehensive effort to rebalance the Chinese economy away from investment and toward consumer spending. But the document — roughly 15,000 words in the English translation — made a brief and cautious call to “refine long-term mechanisms for expanding consumption.” The Communist Party’s Central Committee doubled down on industrial policy. The party promised to “promote the development of strategic industries” in eight sectors, from renewable energy to aerospace. Those were essentially the same industries as in the country’s decade-old Made in China 2025 plan to replace imports of high-tech goods with locally produced products, as part of a national push for self-reliance.
Nepal’s new prime minister seeks vote of confidence in parliament, secure more than two-third votes 2024-07-21 13:15:09+00:00 - KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s newly appointed prime minister secured overwhelming support in parliament on Sunday with more than two-thirds of members voting in his favor. Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli got the support from members of his Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), his main coalition partner Nepali Congress and several smaller parties. During voting in the House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament, 188 out of a total of 275 members voted in his favor during the vote of confidence motion, Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire announced. Supporting members applauded soon after the announcement was made and they lined up to shake hands with Oli to congratulate him. Oli was named Nepal’s prime minister last week after the previous coalition government collapsed after Oli’s party withdrew their support earlier this month. The next election in Nepal is scheduled for 2027. This is the fourth time that Oli, 72, is serving as prime minister of the Himalayan nation. Oli’s biggest challenge as prime minister will be balancing Nepal’s relationship with its giant neighbors India and China, as both seek to wield influence over the small nation. Landlocked Nepal is surrounded by India on three sides and imports all of its oil and most supplies from the country. It also shares a border with China. Oli was born in a village in east Nepal and has been involved in politics since he was young. He worked his way up the ranks of the communist party and was jailed a total of 14 years for opposing the autocratic rule of Nepal’s monarchs. The royals banned political parties until 1990, when street protests forced then King Birendra to hold free elections that turned Nepal into a constitutional monarchy, which was formally abolished in 2008. Oli has had two kidney transplants.
Pig transplant research yields a surprise: Bacon safe for some people allergic to red meat 2024-07-21 13:01:07+00:00 - BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Some people who develop a weird and terrifying allergy to red meat after a bite from a lone star tick can still eat pork from a surprising source: Genetically modified pigs created for organ transplant research. Don’t look for it in grocery stores. The company that bred these special pigs shares its small supply, for free, with allergy patients. “We get hundreds and hundreds of orders,” said David Ayares, who heads Revivicor Inc., as he opened a freezer jammed with packages of ground pork patties, ham, ribs and pork chops. The allergy is called alpha-gal syndrome, named for a sugar that’s present in the tissues of nearly all mammals - except for people and some of our primate cousins. It can cause a serious reaction hours after eating beef, pork or any other red meat, or certain mammalian products such as milk or gelatin. David Ayares, president and chief scientific officer of Revivicor, holds a package of frozen meat during an interview at the company’s offices in Blacksburg, Va., on May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum) But where does organ transplantation come in? There aren’t enough donated human organs to go around so researchers are trying to use organs from pigs instead — and that same alpha-gal sugar is a big barrier. It causes the human immune system to immediately destroy a transplanted organ from an ordinary pig. So the first gene that Revivicor inactivated as it began genetically modifying pigs for animal-to-human transplants was the one that produces alpha-gal. While xenotransplants still are experimental, Revivicor’s “GalSafe” pigs won Food and Drug Administration approval in 2020 to be used as a source of food, and a potential source for human therapeutics. The FDA determined there was no detectable level of alpha-gal across multiple generations of the pigs. Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics, isn’t a food company — it researches xenotransplantation. Nor has it yet found anyone in the agriculture business interested in selling GalSafe pork. Still, “this is a research pig that FDA approved so let’s get it to the patients,” is how Ayares describes beginning the shipments a few years ago. Revivicor’s GalSafe herd is housed in Iowa and to keep its numbers in check, some meat is periodically processed in a slaughterhouse certified by the U.S. Agriculture Department. Revivicor then mails frozen shipments to alpha-gal syndrome patients who’ve filled out applications for the pork. Thank-you letters relating the joy of eating bacon again line a bulletin board near the freezer in Revivicor’s corporate office. Separately, pigs with various gene modifications for xenotransplant research live on a Revivicor farm in Virginia, including a GalSafe pig that was the source for a recent experimental kidney transplant at NYU Langone Health. And that begs the question: After removing transplantable organs, could the pig be used for meat? No. The strong anesthesia used so the animals feel no pain during organ removal means they don’t meet USDA rules for drug-free food, said United Therapeutics spokesman Dewey Steadman. —- The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Meet some of the world’s cleanest pigs, raised to grow kidneys and hearts for humans 2024-07-21 13:01:06+00:00 - BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Wide-eyed piglets rushing to check out the visitors to their unusual barn just might represent the future of organ transplantation – and there’s no rolling around in the mud here. The first gene-edited pig organs ever transplanted into people came from animals born on this special research farm in the Blue Ridge mountains – behind locked gates, where entry requires washing down your vehicle, swapping your clothes for medical scrubs and stepping into tubs of disinfectant to clean your boots between each air-conditioned barn. “These are precious animals,” said David Ayares of Revivicor Inc., who spent decades learning to clone pigs with just the right genetic changes to allow those first audacious experiments. The biosecurity gets even tighter just a few miles away in Christiansburg, Virginia, where a new herd is being raised – pigs expected to supply organs for formal studies of animal-to-human transplantation as soon as next year. This massive first-of-its-kind building bears no resemblance to a farm. It’s more like a pharmaceutical plant. And part of it is closed to all but certain carefully chosen employees who take a timed shower, don company-provided clothes and shoes, and then enter an enclave where piglets are growing up. Behind that protective barrier are some of the world’s cleanest pigs. They breathe air and drink water that’s better filtered against contaminants than what’s required for people. Even their feed gets disinfected – all to prevent them from picking up any possible infections that might ultimately harm a transplant recipient. “We designed this facility to protect the pigs against contamination from the environment and from people,” said Matthew VonEsch of United Therapeutics, Revivicor’s parent company. “Every person that enters this building is a possible pathogen risk.” The Associated Press got a peek at what it takes to clone and raise designer pigs for their organs – including a $75 million “designated pathogen-free facility” built to meet Food and Drug Administration safety standards for xenotransplantation. Creating pigs to ease the shortage of human organs Thousands of Americans each year die waiting for a transplant, and many experts acknowledge there never will be enough human donors to meet the need. Animals offer the tantalizing promise of a ready-made supply. After decades of failed attempts, companies including Revivicor, eGenesis and Makana Therapeutics are engineering pigs to be more humanlike. So far in the U.S. there have been four “compassionate use” transplants, last-ditch experiments into dying patients — two hearts and two kidneys. Revivicor provided both hearts and one of the kidneys. While the four patients died within a few months, they offered valuable lessons for researchers ready to try again in people who aren’t quite as sick. Now the FDA is evaluating promising results from experiments in donated human bodies and awaiting results of additional studies of pig organs in baboons before deciding next steps. They’re semi-custom organs — “we’re growing these pigs to the size of the recipient,” Ayares noted — that won’t show the wear-and-tear of aging or chronic disease like most organs donated by people. Transplant surgeons who’ve retrieved organs on Revivicor’s farm “go, ‘Oh my god that’s the most beautiful kidney I’ve ever seen,’” Ayares added. “Same thing when they get the heart, a pink healthy happy heart from a young animal.” PIgs stand in pens at the Revivicor research farm near Blacksburg, Va., on May 29, 2024, where organs are retrieved for animal-to-human transplant experiments. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum) In this photo provided by the United Therapeutics Corporation, genetically modified pigs stand inside the protective barrier at the company's designated pathogen-free facility in Christiansburg, Va., in May 2024. These pigs will eventually supply organs for clinical trials. (United Therapeutics Corporation via AP) Genetically modified piglets gather together at the Revivicor research farm near Blacksburg, Va., on May 29, 2024, where organs are retrieved for animal-to-human transplant experiments. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum) The main challenges: how to avoid rejection and whether the animals might carry some unknown infection risk. The process starts with modifying genes in pig skin cells in a lab. Revivicor initially deleted a gene that produces a sugar named alpha-gal, which triggers immediate destruction from the human immune system. Next came three-gene “knockouts,” to remove other immune-triggering red flags. Now the company is focusing on 10 gene edits — deleted pig genes and added human ones that together lessen risk of rejection and blood clots plus limit organ size. They clone pigs with those alterations, similar to how Dolly the sheep was created. Twice a week, slaughterhouses ship Revivicor hundreds of eggs retrieved from sow ovaries. Working in the dark with the light-sensitive eggs, scientists peer through a microscope while suctioning out the maternal DNA. Then they slip in the genetic modifications. A worker at United Therapeutics’ designated pathogen-free facility in Christiansburg, Va., on May 29, 2024 retrives a UV sterilized item from behind a protected barrier within the facility. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum) “Tuck it in nice and smooth,” murmurs senior researcher Lori Sorrells, pushing to just the right spot without rupturing the egg. Mild electric shocks fuse in the new DNA and activate embryo growth. Ayares, a molecular geneticist who heads Revivicor and helped create the world’s first cloned pigs in 2000, says the technique is “like playing two video games at the same time,” holding the egg in place with one hand and manipulating it with the other. The company’s first modified pig, the GalSafe single gene knockout, now is bred instead of cloned. If xenotransplantation eventually works, other pigs with the desired gene combinations would be, too. Hours later, embryos are carried to the research farm in a handheld incubator and implanted into waiting sows. United Therapeutics’ designated pathogen-free facility in Christiansburg, Va., on May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum) Luxury accomodations for important pigs On the research farm, Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” was serenading a piglet barn, where music acclimates the youngsters to human voices. In air-conditioned pens, the animals grunted excited greetings until it’s obvious their visitors brought no treats. The 3-week-olds darted back to the security of mom. Next door, older siblings laid down for a nap or checked out balls and other toys. “It is luxury for a pig,” Ayares said. “But these are very valuable animals. They’re very smart animals. I’ve watched piglets play with balls together like soccer.” About 300 pigs of different ages live on this farm, nestled in rolling hills, its exact location undisclosed for security reasons. Tags on their ears identify their genetics. “There are certain ones I say hi to,” said Suyapa Ball, Revivicor’s head of porcine technology and farm operations, as she rubbed one pig’s back. “You have to give them a good life. They’re giving their lives for us.” A subset of pigs used for the most critical experiments – those early attempts with people and the FDA-required baboon studies – are housed in more restricted, even cleaner barns. But in neighboring Christiansburg is the clearest signal that xenotransplantation is entering a new phase — the sheer size of United Therapeutics’ new pathogen-free facility. Inside the 77,000-square-foot building, the company expects to produce about 125 pig organs a year, likely enough to supply clinical trials. David Ayares, president and chief scientific officer of Revivicor, looks at pigs at the company’s research farm near Blacksburg, Va., on May 29, 2024, where organs are retrieved for animal-to-human transplant experiments. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum) Company video shows piglets running around behind the protective barrier, chewing on toys and nosing balls back and forth. They were born in sort of a porcine birthing center connected to the facility, weaned a day or two later and moved into their super-clean pens to be hand-raised. In addition to the on-site shower, their caretakers must put on a new protective suit and mask before entering each suite of pig pens — another precaution against germs. The pig zone is surrounded on all sides by security and mechanical systems that shield the animals. Outside air enters through multiple filtration systems. Giant vats hold backup supplies of drinking water. Standing over the pig rooms, VonEsch showed how pipes and vents were placed to allow maintenance and repair without any animal contact. It will take years of clinical trials to prove whether xenotransplantation really could work. But if it succeeds, United Therapeutics’ plan is for even larger facilities, capable of producing up to 2,000 organs a year, in several places around the country. The field is at a point where multiple kinds of studies “are telling us that there’s no train wrecks, that there’s no immediate rejection,” Ayares said. “The next two or three years are going to be super exciting.” —- The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Top Wall Street analysts are confident about the potential behind these 3 stocks 2024-07-21 12:36:00+00:00 - The stock market is in a rough patch as of late while investors grapple with macro pressures, upcoming elections and geopolitical tensions. However, investors and their portfolios can hold up in the tumult – if they're able to ignore the short-term noise and choose stocks with attractive return prospects over the long term. In this regard, the ratings of top Wall Street analysts and their investment theses can provide useful insights and help us make the right decisions. Bearing that in mind, here are three stocks favored by the Street's top pros, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance. Costco Wholesale Membership-only warehouse chain Costco Wholesale (COST) is this week's first pick. The company recently reported its June sales and announced an increase in its membership fee. Costco is increasing the annual fee for its "Gold Star" membership by $5 to $65, effective Sept. 1. Moreover, the fee for the premium "Executive Membership" will now cost $130, up from $120. Reacting to Costco's first membership hike since June 2017, Jefferies analyst Corey Tarlowe reiterated a buy rating on COST stock and boosted the price target to $1,050 from $860, saying the stock remains a top pick. The analyst thinks the membership hike is a favorable catalyst for the stock and the company's earnings. Tarlowe noted that in the past, Costco has hiked its membership fees every 5.5 years, on average. However, this time, the retailer increased the fee after a seven-year gap. He thinks that the timing of the fee hike is good, given the consistent membership health the company is experiencing and strong June numbers. "Historically, COST has not experienced a significant impact on membership trends when fees are increased, so we think the impact will be muted," said Tarlowe. The analyst expects the higher fee to enhance sales and earnings before interest and taxes, as membership fee accounts for a substantial portion of Costco's consistently increasing operating profit. He estimates a potential benefit of nearly 3% to the company's earnings per share over each of the next two years. Tarlowe ranks No. 321 among more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 67% of the time, delivering an average return of 18.8%. (See Costco Dividends on TipRanks) MongoDB Next up is the database software company MongoDB (MDB). The stock plunged in May after the company announced weak guidance for the fiscal second quarter and lowered its full-year outlook. MongoDB blamed a slower-than-expected start to the year for both new workload wins and the consumption growth of its cloud-based database software offering Atlas. Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth recently lowered the price target on MDB stock to $400 from $500 to reflect the near-term pressures but reaffirmed a buy rating, as he views the sell-off in the stock as a good buying opportunity. Despite the weak start to the year, Feinseth is bullish on MongoDB, as the company continues to gain traction among developers. He also mentioned the growing momentum for MDB's Atlas DBaaS (database as a service) product. He expects the company to benefit from the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into its offerings. "MDB's incorporation of new AI-powered capabilities improves developer productivity, accelerates application development, and accelerates its rapid enterprise adoption trends," said Feinseth. The analyst also highlighted the company's expansion into other major verticals, such as health care, insurance, manufacturing and automotive production. He is optimistic about the prospects of MDB's solid DBaaS platform, given its superior functionality and cost advantages compared to traditional database solutions. Feinseth ranks No. 191 among more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 62% of the time, delivering an average return of 13.6%. (See MongoDB Stock Buybacks on TipRanks) Nvidia Semiconductor giant Nvidia (NVDA) is this week's third pick. The generative artificial intelligence wave has significantly increased the demand for the company's advanced graphics processing units. Even after the stock's impressive year-to-date rally, Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari thinks that it has more room to run. Following a meeting with Nvidia's CFO Colette Kress, Hari reiterated a buy rating on the stock with a price target of $135. The analyst said that the meeting bolstered his "belief in the sustainability of the ongoing Gen AI spending cycle." The meeting also reassured the analyst about NVDA's potential to maintain its dominance through robust innovation across compute, networking and software. Commenting on Nvidia's next-generation AI graphics processor, Blackwell, the analyst reported that the CFO had said the company's key suppliers are better positioned for the Blackwell ramp than the previous generational transitions. Hari expects notable revenue contribution from the Blackwell platform in Q4 FY25 and Q1 FY26, but he sees limited contribution in Q3 FY25. The analyst is confident that despite rising competition, Nvidia will continue to maintain its leadership position based on several factors, like a large installed base and better access to supply. Moreover, the rapid speed at which large enterprises and cloud service providers are building and deploying generative AI models gives Nvidia an edge over competitors who are still developing advanced AI GPUs. Hari ranks No. 30 among more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 69% of the time, delivering an average return of 30.2%. (See Nvidia Options Activity on TipRanks)
Trump's VP Pick, Kim Jong Un's Sister's Warning To South Korea And More: Top Political Updates This Week 2024-07-21 11:58:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... The week has been a whirlwind of political developments, with the spotlight on former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden. From Trump’s controversial VP pick to Biden’s health concerns, the political landscape is heating up. Let’s dive into the top stories of the week. Trump’s VP Pick Raises Eyebrows Former President Donald Trump announced Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate, a move that has been met with mixed reactions. Anthony Scaramucci, former White House Communications Director, labeled this as Trump’s “first obvious error” since his nomination. Scaramucci suggested that Trump’s choice was driven by his desire to keep all credit for his electoral success or failure. Read the full article here. Marco Rubio’s Bold Statement on Biden Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has proposed that President Biden should step down from the presidency if he decides not to run for re-election in 2024. Rubio’s comments come amidst growing concerns about Biden’s health and increasing pressure from influential Democrats for him to reconsider his re-election bid. Read the full article here. See Also: Trump Says He Will ‘End The Electric Vehicle Mandate On Day One’ Days After Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Endorse Kim Jong Un’s Sister’s Warning to South Korea Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued a stern warning to South Korea over a new leafleting campaign by its civilians. The move comes amid North Korea’s retaliation by sending trash-filled balloons across the border. Read the full article here. Biden’s Election Odds Despite Poor Debate Performance Despite a poor debate performance against Trump and a swing in polls favoring the former president, predictive model FiveThirtyEight shows Biden winning the election 53 times out of 100 in its simulations. The model uses polling data, historical trends, and other factors to calculate these odds. Read the full article here. Scaramucci Criticizes JD Vance’s Economic Views Anthony Scaramucci weighed in on Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, in a recent podcast episode. Scaramucci criticized Vance’s economic views, stating that his desire to devalue the dollar to boost domestic manufacturing could be disastrous for the U.S. and the world economy. Read the full article here. Read Next: Chewy Founder, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen Posts ‘TRUMP’ 665 Times On Elon Musk’s X: Cryptic Message Has Internet Guessing Image Via Shutterstock
Growing UK’s services-based economy was never going to be easy 2024-07-21 11:10:00+00:00 - I’m due a haircut and in the past week received a message from my barber containing the news that the price will be 10% higher than the last time I went for a trim. If I call in for a coffee on my way to work it will be a similar story. After recent price rises, I can expect to pay the thick end of £4 for a flat white. These are two examples of what Rachel Reeves calls the everyday economy in action, and they tell us something about the challenge facing the chancellor as she seeks to improve the UK’s poor economic performance. It’s not hard to see why a haircut and a cup of coffee are going up in price. Rents are higher, insurance is more expensive and so are fuel and labour. Businesses have a choice: they can either absorb these extra costs themselves or they can try to pass them on to their customers. Many are doing the latter, which is why inflation in the services sector is running at 5.7% while overall inflation is at 2%. This matters. These days, the UK is primarily a service-sector economy. Manufacturing and construction are still important, but services account for about 80% of national output. Prices have risen by about 20% in the past three years and labour shortages have made it harder for employers to resist pressure for higher pay to compensate. Much of the service sector is labour-intensive and, unsurprisingly, workers don’t want to see their living standards eroded. The very nature of the service sector makes productivity improvements hard to chisel out. My haircut takes as long as it did a year ago; the flat white comes in the same-sized cup and tastes the same. As a customer, I am getting the same service but paying more for it. As a nation, output per worker is up by 1.5% in the four years since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic; in the public sector – where Reeves is contemplating above-inflation pay awards this year – productivity is 6% lower. Productivity is easy to measure in a car factory but harder to assess in the NHS. If a GP spends five minutes more per patient but by doing so saves lives does that count as productivity loss, because of the extra time spent, or (as it should) a productivity gain? Similarly, a restaurant meal might take as long to produce as it did a year ago but be of a higher quality. If this means the customers have a better time than they did before then that’s a productivity improvement in any meaningful sense of the term. But time-wise, it’s no better. Nor is it impossible to think of ways in which technology has helped to boost service-sector productivity. Checking a fact or referring to a previously written article meant a visit to the cuttings’ library when I started as a journalist many moons ago. Now search engines make the process quicker and simpler. Even so, the fact that the UK is a labour-intensive service-sector economy has made the Bank of England warier about cutting interest rates than it might otherwise have been. A blog on Threadneedle Street’s Bank Underground site by a staff member, Tomas Key, found that trend (underlying) wage growth is currently 6%, double its pre-pandemic level. This raises two questions. The first is whether higher wage growth is merely a response to higher inflation and will come down now that prices are rising less quickly. That appears to be the case. The annual growth in average earnings was 5.1% in the year to May compared with 8.2% in the same month of 2023. The second is whether the Bank can do much to bring down wage growth, short of keeping interest rates at a punitive enough level to cause economic distress. The answer is no, not really. Higher interest rates are a crude tool that work by making businesses too nervous to risk raising prices and by forcing workers to accept below-inflation pay increases through the fear of losing their jobs. So far, the evidence is that the economy has withstood a year of interest rates at 5.25% much better than might have been expected. There was a short, shallow, technical recession in the second half of 2023 but activity is now gently recovering. It would be doing so more quickly were it not for the 14 increases in official borrowing costs between December 2021 and August 2023. All that said, the answer to Britain’s productivity weakness does not lie with the Bank of England. Instead, it will depend on changes to the supply side of the economy. Reeves will chair the first meeting of the Treasury’s new growth mission board on Tuesday. Higher levels of private and public investment would help boost productivity and growth. If manufacturing represented a bigger share of national output that would help too because there is more scope for labour-saving efficiencies in a factory than in a care home. Productivity growth would be faster were Britain’s industrial base bigger. AI has the potential to be an a gamechanger, because it will have an impact on all sectors of the economy and not just manufacturing. Indeed, there is already evidence of that happening. Labour is unsure how to regulate AI but if it wants faster productivity growth then AI is going to be an important part of the mix. Even then, though, it is important to be realistic. Britain is going to remain predominantly a service-sector economy and there are services that do not readily lend themselves to productivity gains. A robot cutting my hair? I don’t think so.
Aircraft industry high-flyers touch down at Farnborough airshow amid supply chain turbulence 2024-07-21 11:01:00+00:00 - The residents of Farnborough, Hampshire, are constantly disturbed by flights to and from the UK’s busiest airport for private jets. But for one week in July every two years, the whine of commercial aircraft is replaced by the bone-juddering roar of fighter planes. The occasion is the Farnborough international airshow, a gathering of top executives from airlines, aircraft makers and arms manufacturers hoping to sell their wares and press flesh. Two years ago, the aerospace and defence industry was starting to emerge from the turmoil of the pandemic. For many of the attendees this week, the question will be less about whether there is demand for their products and more about whether they are able to make them fast enough. “The supply chain was supposed to be acute in 2022 and better by now,” says Nick Cunningham, an aerospace and defence equity analyst at Agency Partners. But that has not panned out as expected. The International Civil Aviation Organization forecasts that global air travel could triple by 2050. Without technological improvements, that would mean carbon dioxide emissions rising from about 500m tonnes to more than 1.5bn tonnes. The question of how to eliminate those carbon emissions is always the shadow hanging over airshows (particularly in 2022 during a record English heatwave), but that has not stopped Europe’s Airbus and America’s Boeing from racing to pile up orders from airlines. Airbus had a backlog of 8,626 orders to get through at the end of last year, but Boeing has only 5,600. That reflects the latter’s lurch from crisis to crisis since two crashes of its bestselling 737 Max in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people. Boeing’s latest disaster – thankfully with no loss of life – was a door panel blowing out during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The US plane maker this month pleaded guilty to criminal charges of violating a plea deal related to the 737 Max crashes. A strong airshow order book may help the company restart its turnaround efforts again. The crisis has made Airbus the clear industry leader and at the show it will fly an A321XLR. The demand for the passenger jet’s “extra long range” has put immense pressure on Boeing to respond. Yet Airbus is struggling to press home its advantage. The new variant was delayed by a year and last month the company cut its forecast for the number of planes it will make this year from 800 to 770, as it struggles to source engines, seats and parts for aircraft cabins. Robert Stallard, an analyst at Vertical Research Partners, says “supply chain and other issues have continued to hold up new aircraft deliveries and cloud the outlook”. The “narrative of gradual improvement” , he adds, has been replaced by doubts over the ability to accelerate manufacturing. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Observed Free weekly newsletter Analysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Executives will want to know if the newly announced strategic defence review will mean a delay to orders in the pipeline On the defence side, Farnborough is a handy shop window for companies hoping to sell to the UK government. The town itself – part of the constituency of Aldershot – is evidence of the change on that front: the home of a large British army garrison was Conservative for more than a century, before turning Labour at the general election. Francis Tusa, editor of the Defence Analysis newsletter, says then Tory prime minister David Cameron was “mobbed” when he opened the show in 2012, as bosses tried to work out the government’s thinking. He said it is likely to be a similar situation for Labour’s new defence ministers, among them John Healey, Vernon Coaker and Maria Eagle, who are expected to attend – possibly alongside Keir Starmer. Executives will want to know if the newly announced strategic defence review will mean a delay to orders in the pipeline. The grim increase in wars in recent years has been a bonanza for arms manufacturers. The market values of UK weapons companies Babcock, BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce are up by 60%, 64% and nearly 400% respectively since the last Farnborough airshow. The global aerospace and defence industry made record revenues of $829bn in 2023 as the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza helped to increase military budgets. Cunningham says government weapons plans suggest an “upturn on the scale and duration of the prewar rearmament” before the second world war. Yet for all the defence industry demand, manufacturers may have to answer some of the same pointed questions about whether they are ready. After the pandemic, “defence didn’t suffer that extreme initial impact of the supply chain that we saw in civil,” says Cunningham. But there are signs it may be coming, he adds: “We’ve just not seen any of it yet.”
‘Twisters’ Takes Off at the Box Office 2024-07-21 09:01:53.437000+00:00 - So much for those theories about moviegoers being hungry for original stories. After a dismal start to the summer ticket-selling season — Memorial Day weekend attendance was the lowest in 43 years — Hollywood has bounced back by delivering nostalgia-heavy sequels. The latest is “Twisters,” a loose follow-up to “Twister,” the 1996 action-adventure about storm chasers in Oklahoma. “Twisters” was on pace to collect roughly $80 million in the United States and Canada over the weekend. That total, easily enough for No. 1, turned heads in Hollywood. Box office analysts had predicted “Twisters” would take in about $50 million, citing prerelease surveys that track audience interest. “Twisters” cost an estimated $155 million to make, not including tens of millions in marketing costs. It was released in North America by Universal Pictures, which booked it into 4,151 theaters. (To compare, the first movie cost $182 million in today’s dollars and arrived to $83 million, going on to collect nearly $1 billion worldwide.) You should perhaps brace for “Twisters: Even More Twisters.” Based on strong turnout in North America over the weekend, it is almost guaranteed that Universal will explore another sequel.
Corvette Bucked a Sports Cars Decline. Can It Thrive in an E.V. Era? 2024-07-21 09:01:44+00:00 - Sales of sports cars have been steadily declining for about three decades, but there has been one exception to that trend. The Chevrolet Corvette has recently stormed back to near-record popularity. Like the company that makes it, General Motors, the Corvette must now slalom around a trickier obstacle: transitioning to an electrified lineup, even as most sports-car buyers insist they have no interest in switching from gas pumps to plugs. G.M. sold 53,785 of the eighth-generation Corvettes, or C8s, worldwide last year, just 22 shy of its top sales year in 1979. Americans bought about 34,000 of those, including Stingray coupes that start from $66,000, nearly twice as many Corvettes as they bought in 2019. The car’s revival has been driven by a change that may not seem a big deal to the average commuter. After seven decades as a classic front-engine two-seater, Chevrolet moved its V-8 behind the passengers, a midengine design typically associated with supercars from Ferrari or Lamborghini. Engineers at G.M. chose the $250,000 Ferrari 458 Italia as a target in performance and technology.
7 Takeaways From Our Investigation Into a Secret Investor in Jack Ma’s Companies 2024-07-21 09:01:08.838000+00:00 - No businessman in China was more successful, famous or rich than Jack Ma, whose magic touch turned companies like Alibaba into international juggernauts. He was also unafraid to cross the Chinese authorities, insisting he would not do business with them. But an investigation by The New York Times and The Wire China found that another Chinese businessman, with deep connections to relatives of China’s political elite, had been secretly investing in Mr. Ma’s companies. Through a network of shell companies and stand-ins, that businessman, Xiao Jianhua, entered into deals in Mr. Ma’s companies over a period of five years, the investigation found. Mr. Xiao, a billionaire, is now in detention serving a 13-year-sentence for bribery and corruption, a high-profile target in President Xi Jinping’s dramatic consolidation of power. Mr. Ma, for his part, has all but retreated from public life, having no formal role in the companies he founded. A lawyer for Alibaba said that Mr. Ma “never had any business relationship with Mr. Xiao,” and that “the connections you claim to exist do not have any basis in fact.” Two of Mr. Ma’s major partners said they had looked and found no links to Mr. Xiao.
Campus Protests Led to More Than 3,100 Arrests, but Many Charges Have Been Dropped 2024-07-21 09:00:22+00:00 - July 21, 2024 As pro-Palestinian demonstrations rocked college campuses this spring with protests of the war in Gaza, many university administrators found themselves eager to quell the action however they could. Some negotiated with the demonstrators. Many sent in the police. When Columbia University called in the police in April to break up an encampment, it was the first major detainment of protesters. Since then, more than 3,100 people have been arrested or detained on campuses across the country. Most were charged with trespassing or disturbing the peace. Some face more serious charges, like resisting arrest. But in the months since, many of the charges have been dropped, even as some students are facing additional consequences, like being barred from their campuses or having their diplomas withheld.
Israel shoots down a missile fired from Yemen hours after a deadly Israeli strike on Houthi rebels 2024-07-21 08:46:52+00:00 - JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen early Sunday, hours after Israeli warplanes struck several Houthi targets in the Arabian Peninsula country. The Israeli airstrikes — in response to a deadly Houthi drone strike on Tel Aviv — were the first time Israel is known to have responded to repeated Houthi attacks throughout its nine-month war against Hamas. The burst of violence between the distant enemies has threatened to open a new front as Israel battles a series of Iranian proxies across the region. The Israeli army late Saturday confirmed the airstrikes in the western Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, a Houthi stronghold and crucial entry point for aid and other supplies. It said the strikes, carried out by dozens of aircraft, including U.S.-made F-15 and F-35 warplanes, were a response to hundreds of Houthi attacks. The Health Ministry in Yemen said the Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 83 others, many with severe burns from a major fire. Another three people were missing, the ministry said in a statement shared by the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam posted on X that the “blatant Israeli aggression” targeted fuel storage facilities and the province’s power station. ”The Israeli enemy picked those targets specifically as part of their targeting of the Yemeni economy,” said Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, leader of the rebels. The Israeli military said that the surface-to-surface missile fired Sunday was intercepted before reaching Israeli territory. Israel, along with the U.S., the U.K. and other Western allies with forces in the region, have intercepted almost all of the Houthi missiles and drones. But early Friday, a Houthi drone penetrated Israel’s air defenses and crashed into Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial and cultural capital, killing one person. An Israeli air force official said Sunday that human error accidentally classified the drone as a non-threat as Israel was simultaneously tracking other drones launched from Yemen and approaching Israel from the east. The Israeli military said Saturday’s strike on Hodeidah, about 1,700 kilometers (more than 1,000 miles) from Israel, was among the most complicated and longest-distance operations by its air force. It said it hit the port because the area is used to deliver Iranian arms to Yemen. Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, vowed to carry out similar strikes “in any place where it may be required.” The Houthis are among several Iranian-backed groups to have attacked Israel in solidarity with Hamas since the Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group triggered the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza. In addition to fighting Hamas, the Israeli military has been engaged in daily clashes with the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. These clashes have raised concerns that the fighting could spill over into a full-blown war with Lebanon and beyond. Yemen has been engulfed in civil war since 2014, when the Houthis seized much of the north and forced the internationally recognized government to flee from Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in support of government forces, and in time the conflict turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. The Houthis said Israel’s attacks will only make Yemen’s people and armed forces more determined to support Gaza. “There will be impactful strikes,” Mohamed Ali al-Houthi of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen wrote on X. “All of this won’t stop the Yemeni people or the Yemeni leadership, military and missile forces in targeting the Israeli entities,” said Moatasem Abdel Salah, a Sanaa resident. Since January, U.S. and U.K. forces have been striking targets in Yemen, in response to the Houthis’ attacks on commercial shipping that the rebels have described as retaliation for Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza. However, many of the ships targeted weren’t linked to Israel. On Sunday, officials said that the Houthis repeatedly targeted a Liberia-flagged container vessel transiting the Red Sea, the latest assault by the group on the crucial maritime trade route. The captain of the ship reported attacks from three small Houthi vessels, an uncrewed Houthi aerial vehicle and missile fire off the coast of Mocha, Yemen, resulting in “minor damage” to the ship, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The Joint Maritime Information Center, a coalition overseen by the U.S. Navy, identified the ship as the Pumba and reported “all crew on board safe.” Early Sunday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack on the Pumba. Analysts and Western intelligence services have long accused Iran of arming the Houthis, a claim Tehran denies. The joint force airstrikes so far have done little to deter them. The Houthis have long-range ballistic missiles, smaller cruise missiles and “suicide drones,” all capable of reaching southern Israel, according to weapons experts. The Houthis are open about their arsenal, regularly parading new missiles through the streets of Sanaa. ___ Michael Wakin reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Melanie Lidman contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
Adidas pulls Bella Hadid ad from campaign linked to 1972 Munich Olympics after Israeli criticism 2024-07-20 15:19:00+00:00 - Adidas has pulled its ad featuring supermodel Bella Hadid from its campaign for running shoes inspired by a design dating back to the time of the 1972 Munich Olympics. The German-based sportswear company drew criticism from Israel for including Hadid in the advertising for the retro SL72 shoes, which it describes as a "timeless classic." In a post Thursday on X, Israel's official account objected to Hadid as "the face of their campaign." The 27-year-old model, whose father is Palestinian, has repeatedly made public remarks criticizing the Israeli government and supporting Palestinians over the years. She has also been a prominent advocate for Palestinian relief efforts since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on Oct. 7. In a lengthly Oct. 23 statement on Instagram, Hadid lamented the loss of innocent lives while calling on followers to pressure their leaders to protect civilians in Gaza. Supermodel Bella Hadid, whose father is Palestinian, has long been a supporter of Palestine. Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images Adidas on Friday apologized and said they are "revising the remainder of the campaign." "We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events — though these are completely unintentional — and we apologize for any upset or distress caused," it said. "We believe in sport as a unifying force around the world and will continue our efforts to champion diversity and equality in everything we do," the company added. It did not specify what changes would be made; however, social media posts of the campaign featuring Hadid were purportedly taken down. The "Originals' SL 72" running shoe campaign was launched Monday and is also fronted by footballer Jules Koundé, rapper A$AP Nast, musician Melissa Bon and model Sabrina Lan. The American Jewish Committee decried Adidas' decision to include Hadid and said choosing a "vocal anti-Israel model to recall this dark Olympics is either a massive oversight or intentionally inflammatory." "Neither is acceptable," it added in a post on X. The group did not provide evidence or detail for its allegation that Hadid was "anti-Israel." Hadid has not publically commented on the controversy. A photo she shared showing her standing in front of an Adidas billboard, wearing one of the sportswear manufacturer's tops, has been removed from Instagram. The 1972 Munch Olympics is where members of the Palestinian group Black September broke into the Olympic village on Sept. 5, 1972, and killed two athletes from Israel's national team. They took nine more as hostages. The attackers hoped to force the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel as well as two left-wing extremists in West German jails. All nine hostages and a West German police officer died during a rescue attempt by German forces. The ad campaign also marks 52 years since the Munich Games. The Paris Olympics are set to begin on July 26. This is the latest controversy surrounding Adidas. In April, Germany's soccer federation said it was redesigning its national team's Adidas jerseys after claims that the kits' No. 44 numbering looked similar to the logo of the Schutzstaffel – Adolf Hitler's infamous paramilitary force. "Our company stands for the promotion of diversity and inclusion, and as a company we actively oppose xenophobia, anti-Semitism, violence, and hatred in any form," Adidas told CBS News at the time. The Associated Press contributed to this report.