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How AI and automation will reshape grocery stores and fast-food chains 2024-07-15 19:54:00+00:00 - AI isn't just a hyped innovation in the tech sector; the food industry is also investing heavily in the red-hot trend. Americans heading to the grocery store or their favorite fast-food restaurant will already have noticed the introduction of the new technology in such services as self-checkout kiosks and even AI ordering in drive-thru lanes. While U.S. consumers facing continued food inflation hunt for deals and shift their spending habits accordingly, the food industry is working to stay competitive by investing in artificial intelligence to help curb high labor operating costs and reduce prices on some items. For example, fast-food chains like McDonald's, Taco Bell and Wendy's have reintroduced value menus. And big-box retailers Walmart and Target have lowered the price of certain grocery goods. "It's very difficult in this environment to engineer great profits, great sales and to keep customers satisfied," said Neil Saunders, GlobalData's managing director and retail analyst. "It's a very difficult equation to balance. And I think until the economy is on a different footing, it's not going to be balanced completely. That's the reality of it." Amid this tough economic backdrop, McDonald's announced its plan this year to spend $2 billion into employing AI and robots into restaurant and drive-thrus. And in 2022, grocery stores spent $13 billion on tech automations, according to research by FMI, The Food Industry Association. FMI expects spending on innovations like smart carts and revamped self-checkout aisles to soar 400% through 2025. "We see a lot of upside over the next several years, with AI and technology being able to enhance customer experience while making the team members' jobs a lot easier, " said Joe Park, Yum Brands' chief digital and technology officer. Watch the video to find out more about how the food industry is using AI to reshape the customer experience.

Gaming Industry Revenues To Hit $307 Billion By 2027: Analysis - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Sony Gr (NYSE:SONY) 2024-07-15 19:46:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... Bain & Company forecasts that global video gaming revenue will grow from $199 billion in 2022 to $307 billion by 2027. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9%. What’s Driving This Growth? Analysts at Bain & Company credit the heavy engagement of younger gamers, particularly those aged 13 to 17. This demographic spends about 40% more time in video game environments than on other forms of media, including social media, music, and TV. Surge In Deal Activity The gaming sector is also experiencing a surge in deal activity, particularly in gaming software and financial investments. Key transactions in recent years include Microsoft Corp‘s MSFT proposed acquisition of Activision for $69 billion, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc‘s TTWO acquisition of Zynga for $12.7 billion, and Sony Group Corp‘s SONY acquisition of Bungie for $3.6 billion. Meanwhile, the total deal value in gaming software reached $95 billion, with financial investments amounting to $49 billion, e-sports at $39 billion, and gaming hardware at $19 billion between 2019 and 2022. The uptick in M&A activity coincides with the integration of advanced technology and the development of metaverse environments. Bain & Company (via Insider Gaming) predicts global revenues will increase by over 50% in the next five years. See Also: US Gaming Market: April Sees 3% Spending Drop, Software Soars Despite Hardware Plunge Moreover, successful franchise management and fan engagement are becoming crucial, with companies placing these aspects at the core of their strategic decisions. Innovative monetization strategies are also revolutionizing the financial dynamics of the gaming industry. The competition is intensifying, making scale an essential factor for success. Furthermore, leading companies are focusing on acquiring and retaining top creative and technical talent, which remains challenging as developers are often lured away by larger tech firms. Read Next: Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash

Uber Loses VAT Lawsuit For Rivals Outside London - Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) 2024-07-15 19:41:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... Uber Technologies Inc's UBER competitors in the taxi industry will not face a 20% VAT charge on their profit margins outside of London following a court ruling on Monday that overturned a previous decision. The Court of Appeal reversed the ruling that private-hire operators enter into a contract with passengers, sparing them from the value-added tax (VAT) obligations. The original case was initiated by Uber after a 2021 Supreme Court decision classified its drivers as workers, affecting Uber's tax obligations, Reuters reports. Uber sought to establish that private-hire taxi operators enter into contracts with passengers, which London's High Court affirmed last year. This decision imposed a 20% VAT on operators. However, the Court of Appeal's reversal came after challenges from Delta Taxis and Veezu, who argued against the tax imposition. Also Read: Uber's Hong Kong Operations In Limbo As Government Plans Regulation For Ride-Hailing Services Delta's lawyer, Layla Barke-Jones from Aaron & Partners, hailed the ruling as "a victory for the taxi industry and all those who depend on it." She emphasized that avoiding the VAT imposition would protect passengers and taxi firms outside London from additional financial burdens. An Uber spokesperson said the company would review the judgment and consider further steps. The spokesperson also highlighted the inconsistency in requirements for operators between London and the rest of England and Wales. UBER stock has gained more than 58% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the stock via IShares U.S. Transportation ETF IYT and Fidelity Electric Vehicles And Future Transportation ETF FDRV. Price Action: UBER shares are trading lower by 0.39% at $72.15 at the last check on Monday. Read Next: Uber's Latest Wave: Launches Luxury Yacht And Boat Rides Across European Destinations Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo via Shutterstock

Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to confirm delay in Aug. 8 robotaxi unveil event to make design change 2024-07-15 19:36:49+00:00 - DETROIT (AP) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday appeared to confirm a report that the company’s much-ballyhooed event to unveil a robotaxi will be delayed beyond its scheduled Aug. 8 date. Musk didn’t give a new date for the event, but in a posting on X, the social media site he owns, he wrote that he requested a design change to the front of the vehicle. “The extra time allows us to show off a few other things,” he wrote. A message was left Monday seeking comment from Tesla. Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that the robotaxi event would be delayed until October due to changes sought by Musk. That sent Tesla shares down 8% for the day. But they have since rallied and closed Monday up 1.8% at $252.64. Tesla shares had been down more than 40% earlier in the year, but are up more than 80% since hitting a 52-week low in April. For many years Musk has said Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” system will allow a fleet of robotaxis to generate income for the company and Tesla owners, making use of the electric vehicles when they would have been parked. Musk has been touting self-driving vehicles as a growth catalyst for Tesla since “Full Self Driving” hardware went on sale late in 2015. The system is being tested on public roads by thousands of owners. But in investigative documents, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it found 75 crashes and one death involving “Full Self Driving.” It’s not clear whether the system was at fault. Tesla, which is based in Austin, Texas, has said the system cannot drive itself and that human drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.

Mexico’s costly Maya Train draws few passengers in its first six months of partial operation 2024-07-15 19:18:43+00:00 - MEXICO CITY (AP) — The pet rail project of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador could wind up costing as much as $30 billion, is only half finished as he heads into the final two months of his term, and has wreaked major damage on the environment. But the most damning judgment on the Maya Train tourist line, which runs in a loop around the Yucatan Peninsula, are the ridership figures on about half the railway that is now open: only about 1,200 people per day use the train, according to government figures released Monday. Most ride it only on short stretches between the city of Merida and Cancun, or the nearby city of Campeche. The big hope for paying the train’s massive cost was that tourists would use it to depart from the resort of Cancun and explore the whole 950-mile (1,500-kilometer) route to visit the Mayan archaeological sites that dot the peninsula. But a round-trip route from Cancun to the well-known Mayan temple complex of Palenque has drawn only about 100 passengers per day each way in the first six months of operation. That is a volume that a bus or two per day could handle. The government had originally promised the train would carry between 22,000 and 37,000 people per day. Current ridership is about 3-5% of that, with three of the four most popular stations — Cancun, Merida, Palenque and Campeche — already in service. Admittedly, the rail line down the heavily traveled corridor linking Cancun and the resorts of Playa del Carmen and Tulum — an area known as the Riviera Maya — isn’t finished yet, and only 17 trains are operating; three times as many may eventually be added. But critics say there is little hope that the Cancun-Tulum line will make the project profitable, because it doesn’t run particularly near any of the resort towns it is supposed to serve. The Cancun-Tulum railway was originally supposed to run on an elevated line over the coastal highway, where most hotels are. But facing technical difficulties, the government changed the route by cutting a 68-mile (110-kilometer) swath through the jungle and moving the tracks about 4½ miles (7 kilometers) inland. So instead of hopping one of the micro-buses that run constantly down the coastal highway, tourists or resort workers would have to take a taxi to the train station, wait for one of the few daily trains, and then take another taxi to the resorts once they reach their destination. “The uselessness of this project was foreseeable,” said Jose “Pepe” Urbina, a local diver who opposes the train because its steel pilings have damaged the caverns he has explored for decades. “In reality, the train doesn’t go anywhere you couldn’t get to by highway before.” “These are rail lines that don’t provide any useful service for workers, for students, for any daily use,” Urbina said. One thing the railway project did create was jobs: Manuel Merino, the governor of the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, said the Maya Train had created 20,000 direct or indirect jobs in his state and lowered the unemployment rate by 40%. “This makes it truly a motor for developing the south,” a historically poorer and undeveloped part of Mexico, Merino said. But most of those jobs will be gone once construction is finished, and federal officials are also casting around for ways to try to make the railway pay for itself. Officials have suggested freight trains may run on the tracks as well, but there is little industry in the region, and thus freight demand is limited. It’s not clear whether the government ever thought the railway would be profitable. López Obrador had already decided to build it before feasibility studies were carried out. According to a 2019 government study, the railway was going to cost $8.5 billion, and the estimated benefits would be about $10.5 billion. But those “estimated benefits” always included a lot of intangibles, like reduced traffic on highways, quicker travel or increased tourism revenues, all of which either didn’t happen or were unrelated to the train. Moody’s Analytics Director Alfredo Coutiño noted that cost overruns are common on such projects. “As was expected, the Maya Train project was not finished as planned and the cost was much higher than the original budget,” Coutiño wrote. “The question that still must be resolved is if this project will be profitable in the medium term when it is expected to be fully functional, operating at full capacity and managed as a government concern and not as a private enterprise.”

Trump picks political newcomer JD Vance as running mate 2024-07-15 19:11:55+00:00 - Donald Trump has picked Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate, a decision that would potentially elevate a novice lawmaker to the position of the second-most powerful person in the United States. Trump announced his decision in a Truth Social post on Monday, the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. "As Vice President, J.D. will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," Trump wrote. "Congratulations to Senator J.D. Vance, his wife, Usha, who also graduated from Yale Law School, and their three beautiful children. MAGA2024!" Out of the reported front-runners for the ticket, Vance, 39, has the least experience in elected office. Before he was sworn into the Senate in January 2023, the military veteran and law school graduate worked as an author and a venture capitalist. Vance sharply criticized Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 election, privately comparing him to Adolf Hitler and publicly describing him as "noxious" and "reprehensible." But Vance's 180 on the former president during his Senate campaign — and his friendship with Trump's oldest son — eventually earned him a spot in Trump's good graces. Vance openly jockeyed to be Trump's running mate. He made a slate of media appearances as a Trump surrogate, he fervently attacked witnesses in the former president's New York hush money trial, and he acted as a sort of conduit between his Silicon Valley connections and Trump. Vance said in an interview in late June that he would be disappointed if he wasn't picked to join Trump's ticket. Vance is known as one of the most MAGA-aligned Republicans in the Senate. Like the presumptive GOP nominee, he has championed an extreme brand of conservatism. As Paul Waldman wrote for MSNBC Daily last month: Two years ago, Vance said in an interview that if Trump wins he should “fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people” and defy the courts if they try to stop him. To change government in the way he wants, Vance said, “we’re going to have to get pretty wild and pretty far out there and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.” ... He has proposed that the government “seize the assets” of foundations whose agendas he objects to. Although the FBI has not yet determined the shooter’s ideology, Vance immediately blamed President Joe Biden for the attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally on Saturday, claiming that the president's campaign rhetoric accusing Trump of being "an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs" led to the attack. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

J.D. Vance Is an Oil Booster and Doubter of Human-Caused Climate Change 2024-07-15 19:08:00+00:00 - J.D. Vance is Trump’s pick for vice president. Follow live updates. Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio, is a strong supporter of the oil and gas industry, opposes solar power and electric vehicles, and has said climate change is not a threat. It wasn’t always that way. Mr. Vance, a fierce critic of Mr. Trump before becoming one of his most loyal MAGA supporters, also appears to have undergone an evolution on the issue of climate change. As recently as 2020, Mr. Vance said in a speech at Ohio State University that “we have a climate problem in our society.” He praised solar energy and he called natural gas an improvement over dirtier forms of energy, but not “the sort of thing that’s gonna take us to a clean energy future.” Fast forward to 2022. As Mr. Vance sought Mr. Trump’s endorsement for his bid for the Senate, his positions on climate change took a sharp turn. “I’m skeptical of the idea that climate change is caused purely by man,” Mr. Vance told the American Leadership Forum that year.

UN body that regulates the deep sea tackles proposed mining code amid growing concerns 2024-07-15 18:51:10+00:00 - SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tense deliberations over how and if to allow deep sea mining unfolded Monday in Jamaica as at least one company threatened to apply for permission before rules and regulations are in place. More than two dozen countries have called for a ban, pause or moratorium on deep sea mining — including most recently Peru and Greece — as the U.N. International Seabed Authority resumed talks over a proposed mining code after last meeting in March. “We have two very busy weeks ahead of us,” said Olav Myklebust, the authority’s council president as some countries warned that the proposed regulator framework has significant gaps and does not include some of their proposals. The Jamaica-based authority, which is the global custodian for deep waters that don’t fall under a country’s jurisdiction, has granted 31 mining exploration contracts but has not authorized any exploitation as the debate continues. Much of the ongoing exploration is centered in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, which covers 1.7 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometers) between Hawaii and Mexico. It is occurring at depths ranging from 13,000 to 19,000 feet (4,000 to 6,000 meters). Scientists have said that minerals at those depths take millions of years to form, and that mining them could unleash noise, light and suffocating dust storms. “The deep ocean sustains crucial processes that make the entire planet habitable, from driving ocean currents that regulate our weather to storing carbon and buffering our planet against the impacts of climate change,” said Sofia Tsenikli with the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition ahead of the meeting. Those who support deep sea mining argue that it is cheaper and has less of an impact than land mining. Among those pushing for exploitation is The Metals Company, a Canadian business that is largely expected to be the first to seek permission to start mining. The debate over deep sea mining comes amid growing demand for precious metals including cobalt, nickel and copper that grow in the ocean’s bowels and are used in electric car batteries and other green technology. “There is a lot of work that remains to be done,” said France’s representative, Olivier Guyonvarch. of the proposed mining code. Elza Moreira Marcelino de Castro, the representative for Brazil, said the draft needs more clarity about issues including liability and additional details about a proposed environmental compensation fund. The council is scheduled to debate the issue for two weeks and will then hold an assembly to elect a secretary general.

EU leaders ‘open-minded’ about future relations with UK, says senior official 2024-07-15 18:43:00+00:00 - European leaders are “open-minded” about how to reset relations with Britain and are not ruling rule out a UK-EU summit in the future, a senior EU official has said before a meeting of European leaders in Oxfordshire on Thursday. But they have indicated the ball is firmly in the UK’s court and they expect an offer from London on issues such as youth mobility and citizens rights to get things rolling. The Labour government’s intention to reshape the relationship will not be on the formal agenda of the European Political Community at Blenheim Palace but Keir Starmer is expected to discuss it at two bilaterals – one with the Irish prime minister, Simon Harris, at Chequers on Wednesday night and a second one with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Oxfordshire on Thursday. “We are open-minded to see what can be achieved. We have clear demands when it comes to youth mobility, when it comes to citizens and I think would appreciate more coordination, more cooperation [with the UK],” the senior EU official said. EU sources said while there was a “clear” appetite for coordination on foreign policy and it was happy to look at the trading relationship, which has become more challenging with Brexit requirements for customs and standards documentation. They stressed the original Brexit deal was not open for renegotiation, something that chimes with the prime minister’s pledge before the election that the UK would not re-enter the EU single market or customs union. The new EU relations minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, visited Brussels on Monday for an introductory meeting with Maroš Šefčovič, the vice-president of the European Commission who leads on relations with the UK. EU sources said meetings with Starmer on the sidelines of last week’s Nato summit went well; they were aware of the UK’s desire to “reset” the relationship and if there was a desire to go forward with a new strategic relationship they would entertain that. Asked whether this would include a UK-EU summit, mirroring those that happen with many other non-EU countries such as Egypt, senior officials said they were “not excluding anything”. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to First Edition Free daily newsletter Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters 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 Around 45 EU and non-EU leaders will descend on Blenheim, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, on Thursday. EU diplomats say they expect Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be among them. The brainchild of Macron, the short, informal summit is designed to facilitate ad hoc meetings between prime ministers to forge and strengthen bonds in a way that is not possible at other meetings. EU sources say Macron will co-chair a working group on defence and democracy along with Maia Sandu, the president of Moldova, while a second group with the same theme will be chaired by the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, and Montenegro’s representative. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni will for a second time chair a working group on migration along with Edi Rama, the prime minister of Albania. At the last EPC in Spain in October the two leaders, along with Rishi Sunak, Macron and the then Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, agreed a five-point plan to tackle people smuggling gangs. One EU diplomat said Thursday’s EPC summit was an “opportunity for the Starmer to set a different tone on migration” after killing off Sunak’s Rwanda deportation plan. A third group of leaders will discuss energy. At least one country will be looking to move forward on other ad hoc projects including protection of monuments and cultural heritage in conflict zones and rail interconnectivity. Many EU countries are expected to press Starmer regarding their desire for youth mobility and Erasmus university exchange programmes, something they see as an important way of helping the next generation forge cross-border bonds of understanding. “Otherwise they will grow up without knowing each other, which will be bad for Europe,” said one diplomat.

Panel recommends removing ex-chancellor from Wisconsin college faculty post for making porn videos 2024-07-15 18:29:49+00:00 - A faculty committee has recommended that a former chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse be removed from his tenured position over his involvement in adult entertainment. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that the committee’s unanimous decision over Joe Gow sets up a vote by the University of Wisconsin’s Board of Regents to fire him. Gow is on paid leave because he holds a tenured faculty appointment and wants to return to teaching. The regents fired Gow as chancellor in December 2023 for creating pornographic videos posted on adult websites. At a hearing last month, the school argued in favor of firing Gow for unethical conduct, refusing to cooperate with an investigation and violating computer policies. A report on the faculty committee’s decision obtained by the newspaper said it was not unethical to create pornographic videos but Gow’s reaction to publicity over them raised issues. It said instead of responding “in a way that supports the best interests of the university,” he exploited his position on the La Crosse faculty to generate more interest and revenue from the videos. Gow was unsurprised by the decision. He said his videos and two books he and his wife Carmen have published about their experiences in adult films are protected by the First Amendment. “Carmen and I remain firmly committed to defending free speech and expression,” he said, adding that he would be ready for a public hearing before the Board of Regents. There is no date set for the hearing. The committee cited three instances of alleged unethical conduct. First, Gow invited adult film star Nina Hartley to speak on campus in 2018 without disclosing that Gow and his wife had made a sex video with her. The committee was unmoved by Gow’s argument that it wasn’t a business relationship requiring disclosure. The committee also questioned Gow’s “intellectual honesty” for describing the couple’s two books as true accounts despite acknowledging the authors took “creative liberties.” And it chastised Gow for allegedly not cooperating in the investigation despite having no job duties while on paid leave. Gow had offered to answer questions in writing and said he was not informed about the completion of the investigation. The panel dismissed one allegation, finding insufficient evidence that Gow deleted information from his computer to hinder the investigation.

What Biden must say during his NBC News interview tonight with Lester Holt 2024-07-15 18:26:25+00:00 - The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump will no doubt be the subject of the first question NBC News’ Lester Holt asks President Joe Biden during a previously scheduled interview that will air Monday evening. However, that doesn’t mean the focus will be taken off the ongoing feud within the Democratic Party and whether Biden should be its nominee against Trump. The calls for Biden to step aside have quieted over the last couple of days, but they will return. The calls for Biden to step aside have quieted over the last couple of days, but they will return. It’s been more than two weeks since the president’s horrible debate performance against Trump; it’s time for him to flip the script, and Monday’s interview with Holt is the perfect time and place for him to do it. Since that debate, Biden has been working to assure the country that he is up to the job. Yet, his biggest obstacle appears to be a small but growing group of Democrats who are pressuring him to bow out of the race. Some have explicitly called for him to step aside. Then there are those such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who are chumming the waters with snide comments like, “I want him to do whatever he decides to do.” While it took far too long, Biden finally addressed the American public by doing a one-on-one interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. Since then, the president has been on the campaign trail and at long last, on Thursday, he had his first solo news conference of 2024. Each step of the way, Biden has managed to marginally calm fears about his fitness and his ability to win re-election. He has done this by being conciliatory and has shown a willingness to address these issues, going as far as to say, “I think it’s important that I allay fears by letting them see me out there.” The next step is for Biden to demonstrate that he is in charge and call for an end to the brewing rebellion once and for all. While Biden carried the right tone during the ABC interview, he must mix it up in the NBC interview. If Biden wants to be re-elected, then he needs to project strength, show he is in command and, most of all, be bold. Here’s what the president should be thinking about: The goal for the ABC interview was not to be defensive. It is now time to go on the offensive. Make it clear that you are running and do not need to think about it: I am the nominee, full stop. And add that by insinuating there is a decision that needs to be made — other Democrats, not you, are putting our democracy at risk. If the health issue comes up, which it most certainly will, put it all out there at once. Including if you underwent a cognitive test, if are you taking any medication for a neurological condition and the last time you saw a neurologist. Providing all the information first limits follow-up questions. Don’t swing for the fences at every question. In some cases, a single or double is just fine. Every question does not require a lengthy response. Plus brevity will help prevent rambling. Although Biden’s perceived frailty may connote weakness, he should use this interview to show power. If fueled with the right words, his softer voice will roar with strength. While typically Biden would use this moment for a pre-convention attack on Trump, he should now use it to express the need for unity. As he said in his address to the nation Sunday night, “While we might disagree, we are not enemies … we are fellow Americans. And we must stand together.”

Fed’s Powell Welcomes Cooler Inflation but Steers Clear of Rate Cut Timing 2024-07-15 18:14:15.126000+00:00 - Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, avoided sending a clear signal about when the central bank would begin to cut interest rates even as he welcomed a recent cool-down in inflation. “Today I’m not going to be sending any signals one way or the other on any particular meeting,” Mr. Powell said while speaking at the Economic Club of Washington on Monday. “Just to ruin the fun right at the beginning.” The Fed’s chair was speaking after several inflation reports in a row suggested that price increases were moderating in earnest, a development that had spurred some economists to think that it could make sense for officials to cut interest rates sooner rather than later. The Fed meets at the end of July and then again in September, and investors have been largely expecting that officials will begin to lower borrowing costs as the September meeting. Economists at Goldman Sachs wrote in a research note on Monday that cutting rates later this month could be appropriate, given how much inflation had come down.

Dollar General to pay $12 million for alleged violations including blocking exits 2024-07-15 18:06:00+00:00 - Target, Dollar General reducing self-checkout lanes Target, Dollar General reducing self-checkout lanes 00:52 Dollar General will pay $12 million and improve safety at its 20,000 stores nationwide to settle claims it put workers in danger with practices including blocking emergency exits, the Department of Labor said. The discount retailer will have to significantly scale back its inventory and improve stocking to prevent unsafe storage that hinders exits and makes electrical panels and fire extinguishers inaccessible, the federal agency announced last last week. "This agreement commits Dollar General to making worker safety a priority by implementing significant and systematic changes in its operations," Douglas Parker, assistant secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, stated. "These changes help give peace of mind to thousands of workers." Dollar General faces fines of up to $100,000 a day, up to $500,000, if such problems are found in the future and not fixed within 48 hours, the settlement stated. The accord includes all of Dollar General's 20,000 stores in the United States other than its pOpshelf locations, the Labor Department said. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement with OSHA to resolve these matters. We remain committed to ensuring a safe working environment for our employees and a pleasant shopping experience for our customers," a spokesperson for Dollar General said in an email. Based in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, Dollar General operates the country's biggest chain of dollar stores and employs more than 170,000 people. The $12 million fine is not the first for the company, which since 2017 has been handed more than $15 million in penalties. Last year, Dollar General became the first employers to be listed by OSHA as a "severe violator" for repeatedly violating workplace regulations. The chain's stores have also been backdrops for robberies and gun violence. Nearly 50 people have died and 172 injured in Dollar General stores between 2014 and 2023, according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archives. In September, Dollar General said it was donating $2.5 million after a shooting killed three people at one of its stores in Jacksonville, Florida, including a 19-year-old employee.

Even Nigel Farage opposes the two-child cap. Labour must scrap it 2024-07-15 17:49:00+00:00 - As your editorial (14 July) and the piece by Larry Elliott (14 July) say, Labour should not hesitate in scrapping the two-child cap on benefits. How this cruel and unfair policy can be tolerated by a Labour government “laser-focused on poverty” is anyone’s guess. As Elliott states, there are plenty of ways the chancellor could find the £1.7bn needed to fund its abolition – and scrapping it, in fact, would cost much less when the economic multipliers, with poor families spending most of their income, are taken into consideration. An additional reason to do it now is for those “left behind” to see that this government really is on their side, before they can be persuaded to move their allegiance to Reform. If Keir Starmer is being persuaded to delay its scrapping, perhaps by those on the right wing of the party, he needs to remember that Tony Blair’s government did so little in its early years that it lost 3 million votes by the time of the 2001 election. And unlike Starmer, Blair didn’t have an already frighteningly popular rightwing party to contend with. Bernie Evans Liverpool If the new government wants growth, it can happen at a stroke, throughout Britain: just remove the cap on benefits for more than two children in a family. Simples! Poorer families not only spend more of their income, but crucially, they are more likely to spend it locally: on food, clearly, but also perhaps getting their washing machine repaired, or even (shock! horror!) on a couple of drinks in the pub. As local businesses and their suppliers begin to feel the benefit of increased spending, they may feel inclined to take on extra staff, who in turn will have more money to spend on local services. In this way, prosperity begins to circulate within a community. It’s called “the multiplier effect”. Did Rachel Reeves not study Keynes in her philosophy, politics and economics course at Oxford? Hazel Davies Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside Following the king’s speech on 17 July, an amendment to the humble address should call for legislation to tax unearned income at the same rate as earnings, as was the case under Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson, in order to abolish the two-child benefit cap, restore the £20 a week uplift to universal credit (two in five claimants of which are in work), and extend that uplift to disability benefits. Across six parties, plus five leftwing independents, there are at least 97 MPs who ought to sign that amendment. Moreover, Nigel Farage has said that he is in favour of lifting the cap. Since he now leads five MPs, that takes the total to 102. Suella Braverman is of the same view, and ought to bring with her any MPs who supported her candidacy for leader of the Conservative party. David Lindsay Lanchester, County Durham Every year £23bn of benefits to which people are entitled go unclaimed, according to Policy in Practice, the social policy software and analytics company. Abolishing the two-child limit would cost just £3.4bn. So the money is there to end this cruel policy. Jan Pahl Professor emeritus of social policy, University of Kent We hear a lot about the cost of lifting the cap. What about the costs of retaining it? The educational and health costs of poverty – costs which are both economic and social. Jon Marks Tring, Hertfordshire

Israeli drone strike along Lebanon-Syria border kills Syrian businessman close to the government 2024-07-15 17:46:08+00:00 - BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli drone strike on a car Monday near the Lebanon-Syria border killed a prominent Syrian businessman who was sanctioned by the United States and had close ties to the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to pro-government media and an official from an Iran-backed group. Mohammed Baraa Katerji was killed when a drone strike hit his car near the area of Saboura, a few kilometers or miles inside Syria after apparently crossing from Lebanon. Israel’s air force has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in recent years, mainly targeting members of Iran-backed groups and Syria’s military. But it has been rare to hit personalities from within the government. The strike also came as Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group have been exchanging fire on an almost daily basis since early October, after the start of the Israel-Hamas war. An official from an Iran-backed group said that Katerji was killed instantly while in his SUV on the highway linking Lebanon with Syria. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. The pro-government Al-Watan daily quoted unnamed “sources” as saying that Katerji, 48, was killed in a “Zionist drone strike on his car.” It gave no further details. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based opposition war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that Katerji was killed while in a car with Lebanese licence plates, adding that he was apparently targeted because he used to fund the “Syrian resistance” against Israel in the Golan Heights, as well as his links to Iran-backed groups in Syria. Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in its northern neighbor, has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges them. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, sanctioned Katerji in 2018 as Assad’s middleman to trade oil with the Islamic State group and for facilitating weapons shipments from Iraq to Syria. The U.S. Treasury declined Associated Press requests for comment. The sanctions imposed on Katerji were authorized under an Obama-era executive order issued in 2011 that prohibits certain transactions with Syria. A search of the OFAC database indicates that the sanctions were still in effect against Katerji and his firm at the time of his death. OFAC said in 2018 that Katerji was responsible for import and export activities in Syria and assisted with transporting weapons and ammunition under the pretext of importing and exporting food items. These shipments were overseen by the U.S. designated Syrian General Intelligence Directorate, according to OFAC. It added that the Syria-based Katerji Company is a trucking company that has also shipped weapons from Iraq to Syria. Additionally, in a 2016 trade deal between the government of Syria and IS, the Katerji Company was identified as the exclusive agent for providing supplies to IS-controlled areas, including oil and other commodities. Katerji and his brother, Hussam — widely referred to in Syria as the “Katerji brothers” — got involved in oil business a few years after the country’s conflict began in March 2011. Hussam Katerji is a former member of Syria’s parliament. ___ Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Fatima Hussein in Washington, contributed to this report.

Labour donor Dale Vince has libel case against Daily Mail thrown out 2024-07-15 17:30:00+00:00 - The millionaire Labour donor Dale Vince’s £100,000 libel case against the Daily Mail has been thrown out after a high court judge ruled it did not have a realistic chance of success. The green energy businessman and Forest Green Rovers chairman claimed the newspaper libelled him in a June 2023 article titled “Labour repays £100,000 to ‘sex harassment’ donor”. The Daily Mail article was about an entirely separate Labour donor called Davide Serra, who was said to be “a high-flying City financier accused of sex harassment”. The article included a photograph of Vince in his capacity as another high-profile Labour donor who had been the subject of press attention after attending a Just Stop Oil protest in Westminster. Vince’s lawyers accepted that anyone who read the entire article “would appreciate very quickly that he was not the person being accused of sexual harassment”. However, they claimed the Daily Mail had defamed Vince by innuendo, by putting a picture of him under a headline about a Labour donor being accused of sexual harassment. They said an ordinary reader would assume a headline and picture contained accurate information and “they did not need to read any further than to understand what the article was saying”. Associated Newspapers, the Daily Mail’s parent company, said the case was without merit as case law in England and Wales did not allow a headline and picture to be considered in isolation from the rest of the text. The company said a hypothetical reader, in the eyes of the law, would have read the whole piece and “readers who read only part of an article are not reasonable readers”. They successfully cited a precedent set in a 1995 legal case involving the News of the World and the actors who played Harold and Madge Bishop in the television soap Neighbours. The tabloid had published an article under the headline “Strewth! What’s Harold up to with our Madge?” accompanied by a photograph seemingly showing the two actors having sex. The text of the article later made it clear that the photographs had been produced by the makers of a “sordid” pornographic video game by superimposing the faces on to graphic images. The lords who ruled on the case described the News of the World article as “gutter journalism” that had caused great offence. However, they concluded that for the purposes of libel law, it must be assumed that an ordinary person would read beyond the headline and take in all the nuances of an article. Judge Jaron Lewis concluded that this principle applied to Vince’s case against the Daily Mail, meaning the headline and picture could not be considered in isolation from the rest of the article. As a result, he concluded that Vince’s case was “bound to fail” and could not proceed to trial. Vince said he would seek to appeal against the judge’s decision in an attempt to overturn the legal precedent, arguing that it did not reflect the reality of how people consume the news. He said: “A substantial number of people only read headlines and would have thus been given an entirely false impression. As it stands the Daily Mail can get away with this kind of personal smear – I’m trying to change that.” Vince, who gave millions to Labour in the run-up to the general election, is also suing the rightwing Guido Fawkes blog, the Reform UK MP Richard Tice and the former Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey over comments they made about Vince’s views on Hamas. Paul Staines, the editor of Guido Fawkes, has always hosted his blog offshore to minimise legal threats. He has now said he will give up these protections and fight the case.

Forget the football! Eleven days into a Labour government, here are reasons to be hopeful | Zoe Williams 2024-07-15 17:02:00+00:00 - Looking for a boost on a grey day full of awful news, I was trying to remember the last time I felt politically optimistic. Was it for a real reason, or just a surfeit of youthful idiocy? Anyway, I accidentally diverted to a different memory, a time I looked around the Timpson Prison Training Academy at HMP Wandsworth donkey’s years ago. Here was an objectively good idea: train prisoners for a job they could plausibly get when they were released. Politicians talk constantly about reoffending rates and very rarely about what drives them: the difficulty of making a living once you have served a prison sentence. They also talk constantly about the private sector as though it’s universally pro-social and efficient, when in fact it’s rare to see a CEO and think: I would love to put him in charge of a problem. James Timpson is the only businessman I have ever thought that about, so it seemed like a certainty that politics would never call upon him. Yet here he is, minister for prisons. There are more reasons for optimism in the early days of this Labour government. Its stance on Israel, for example, which is getting lost in the narrative about independent MPs who won on the issue of Gaza, and whether or not that was legitimate. That is a displacement conversation for a much more important one: has Labour’s position changed since last October, when the party took the legally and morally bizarre stance that Israel had a right to do what it liked? The answer is yes. The foreign secretary, David Lammy, is calling for an immediate ceasefire now and, while pushing for the release of all hostages, is calling for urgent humanitarian aid in Gaza. Labour has pledged to recognise Palestinian statehood; the government is expected to drop the UK’s challenge to the international criminal court over Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest warrant. Even though peace campaigners are still calling for an end to arms exports, and even though none of this came soon enough, it’s still better than many predicted. Moreover, it appears to come from a sense of purpose, rather than outside pressure. Has Ed Miliband’s push for solar power – three huge sites that the Tories have blocked for years, plus new-build requirements that aren’t a million miles from the far greener manifesto pledges of the Greens and the Lib Dems – come as a surprise? Miliband was, after all, the architect of the Climate Change Act 2008, which remains some of the most ambitious legislation in the world. Years of Tory rhetoric, twisting any which way according to whim and making promises that lasted no longer than a news cycle, wiped my memory of politicians who believe in the climate crisis and want to fix it. I’m still bracing for disillusion, though, just because it’s worse when you don’t. Lisa Nandy is trying to put an end to the culture wars – not by adjudicating once and for all on Ulez, just by drawing a line under it, saying: let’s move on. How many times since 2016 have you wished for someone senior in government to correctly identify an argument that was being performed just for the nastiness? Sure, other members of government are doing the opposite, possessed by some unscientific zeal about puberty blockers, locked in a complicated losing battle with yesterday’s conversation, but still – still – there are reasons to be cheerful here. I dislike the formulation “the grownups are back in charge”, suggestive as it is of a technocratic, post-ideas world in which the most we can wish for is basic competence, so we can all forget about politics and go back to doing whatever we did before (was it gardening?). I disliked the manner of this electoral victory, the hushed tones in which ambitions were delivered, as if the most important thing was to make sure everyone remained asleep and a government could install itself by stealth. I remain sceptical about a large number of things: in no particular order, the plan for dealing with the far right, beyond “pretending it’s the same as the centre right”; the idiotic political metaphors (“looked under the bonnet”; “maxed out the credit card”) that spill out of new ministers like lullabies, designed to make us switch off and leave someone else to worry about the economy. And yet, 11 days into a government – and particularly if you were never that invested in England’s sporting victory and if you don’t care about the weather (which is nobody) – there are reasons to be in a good mood.

These are the victims of the Trump rally shooting 2024-07-15 16:47:39+00:00 - The shooting at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday injured the former president and left one rallygoer dead and two others seriously wounded. Authorities said the man killed in the assassination attempt on Trump was 50-year-old Corey Comperatore of Sarver, Pennsylvania. At a news conference Sunday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Comperatore dived on his family to protect them and had “died a hero.” Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania. via Facebook The Democratic governor called Comperatore an avid Trump follower who had been excited to be at the rally. “Corey was a girl dad. Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community. And most especially, Corey loved his family,” Shapiro said. President Joe Biden also praised Comperatore on Sunday. “He was a father. He was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired,” Biden said at a White House news conference. “And he lost his life. God love him.” Two other rallygoers from Pennsylvania were reported to have been critically injured in the shooting: David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township. They were both listed in stable condition as of Sunday. Shapiro ordered that the American and Pennsylvania flags be flown at half-staff. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Biden Policies Offer Benefits, but Little Political Payoff, in Pennsylvania 2024-07-15 16:27:26+00:00 - On a blighted industrial corridor in a struggling section of Erie, Pa., a long-abandoned iron factory has been humming with activity for the first time in decades. Construction crews have been removing barrels of toxic waste, knocking down crumbling walls and salvaging rusted tin roofing as they prepare to convert the cavernous space into an events venue, advanced manufacturing hub and brewery. The estimated $25 million project is the most ambitious undertaking the Erie County Redevelopment Authority has ever attempted. It was both kick-started and remains heavily funded by various pots of money coming from Biden administration programs. Yet there is no obvious sign of President Biden’s influence on the project. Instead, the politician who has taken credit for the Ironworks Square development effort most clearly is Representative Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican who voted against the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law that is helping to fund the renovation. It is one example of a larger problem Mr. Biden faces in Pennsylvania, a swing state that could decide the winner of the 2024 election. In places like Erie, a long-struggling manufacturing hub bordering the Great Lake that is often an election bellwether, Mr. Biden is struggling to capitalize on his own economic policies even when they are providing real and visible benefits.

Macy's ends talks with investment firms that bid $6.9 billion for ailing retailer 2024-07-15 16:09:00+00:00 - Macy's is ending discussions with Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management, saying a revised offer to take the department store private remained a dicey proposition. "We have concluded that Arkhouse and Brigade's proposal lacks certainty of financing and does not deliver compelling value," Macy's lead independent director Paul Varga said in a statement. Arkhouse and Brigade did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The two investment firms in December offered to buy Macy's for $5.8 billion before eventually raising its bid to $6.9 billion. Shares of Macy's were down more than 14% in early trading. The retailer will now focus on turning things around on its own, Macy's said in a news release. "While it remains early days, we are pleased that our initiatives have gained traction, reinforcing our belief that the company can return to sustainable, profitable growth," CEO Tony Spring, who stepped in as chief executive in February, said in a statement. Macy's, which earlier this year said it planned to close 150 underperforming stores and lay off more than 2,000 workers, has struggled to boost growth as elevated inflation and higher interest rates keep a lid on spending. Macy's expects fiscal 2024 revenue to range between $22.3 billion and $22.9 billion, which would represent a decline from $23.09 billion in 2023.