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☆ Investors will reap billions if Kroger takes over Albertsons. Workers and shoppers may not be as happy.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Gretchen Morgenson | Gretchen Morgenson Is The Senior Financial Reporter For The Nbc News Investigative Unit. A Former Stockbroker | She Won The Pulitzer Prize In For Her | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

Wealthy investors in Safeway’s parent, Albertsons Companies, have done better. And next week, they were slated to reap a $4 billion cash dividend in connection with a proposed $25 billion takeover of Albertsons by rival Kroger. Based on that stake and the amount of the dividend, Cerberus stands to receive roughly $1 billion of the dividend payout. Six of Albertsons’ 14 directors who voted for the dividend are affiliated with the major investors. This is the last, best and final hope for a truly unionized chain.”Nervous about the pensionThe proposed $4 billion cash dividend is large by many measures.

☆ Biden vows to 'free Iran' in West Coast campaign speech
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

OCEANSIDE, Calif., Nov 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday vowed to "free" Iran, and said that demonstrators working against the country's government would soon succeed in freeing themselves. "Don't worry, we're gonna free Iran. They’re gonna free themselves pretty soon," Biden said during a wide-ranging campaign speech in California, as dozens of demonstrators gathered outside holding banners supporting Iranian protesters. Biden did not expand on his remarks or specify what additional actions he would take during the remarks at MiraCosta College near San Diego. Seven weeks of demonstrations in Iran were ignited by the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Iran's morality police.

☆ The Canva craze has helped these 4 people quit their jobs and turn their graphic-design side hustles into full-time gigs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Canva's popularity is exploding, bringing with it a boom in creators selling digital products. Her online business, Digital Empires, sells digital-marketing courses for entrepreneurs made on Canva, a popular graphic-design platform known for being easy to use. The digital products creators sell include Instagram and Pinterest post templates, custom YouTube profile banners, wedding invitations, and printable daily planners. But it supports the "huge range of ways people are using Canva to start and scale businesses," Rob Kawalsky, the head of product at Canva, told Insider. Sales of digital products fluctuate, and not every Canva creator has seen financial gainsThe market for Canva products has become flooded with products.

☆ Officials condemn 'cowardly' and 'despicable' antisemitic messages displayed at University of Florida-Georgia football game supporting Ye
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

The same antisemitic message appears to have flashed across at least one other nearby building soon after appearing at the stadium, another video shows. An antisemitic message referencing Kanye West was projected on a building in Jacksonville, Fla. He was also locked out of his Twitter account and restricted from posting on Instagram earlier this month after he posted antisemitic messages on the platform. As of Sunday afternoon, he had not made any public comments on the antisemitic message that appeared at the game. Jacksonville City Council President Terrance Freeman and state Rep. Angie Nixon (D) also denounced Saturday's message in statements they posted on Twitter.

☆ Kanye West: What took Adidas, Gap and others so long to cut ties?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

New York CNN Business —Earlier this week Adidas ended its partnership with rapper and fashion designer Ye (who previously went by Kanye West). He even called out Adidas directly during a podcast appearance in which he made antisemitic comments, bragging the company would never cut ties with him. He referenced Adidas directly: “I can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me,” he said. Gary Gershoff/WireImage/Getty ImagesAdidas didn’t announce it was severing ties with Ye until Tuesday, October 25, over a week after the podcast was released. Adidas said it will take a big loss in the fourth quarter because its cutting ties with Ye.

☆ Fact Check-Nazi symbols in Warsaw were part of movie set for World War Two film
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Social media users are sharing images of Warsaw, Poland decorated with Nazi flags and swastikas, but the images are missing context. The images show the headquarters of the Polish Academy of Sciences, whose representatives told Reuters that the building and its immediate surroundings were turned into a movie set for a World War Two production. Photos of the Staszic Palace can be found on Google Maps (www.shorturl.at/nvMOU), showing a building that matches the one circulating on social media. More information on Skarbek, known as Christine Granville in England, and her work for the British Special Operations Executive during World War Two can be found (here). Nazi symbols in Warsaw were part of a movie set for a film about World War Two.

☆ Kanye West has a disturbing history of admiring Hitler, sources tell CNN
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Chloe Melas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Several people who were once close to the artist formerly known as Kanye West told CNN that he has long been fascinated by Adolf Hitler — and once wanted to name an album after the Nazi leader. The executive told CNN that West spoke openly about reading “Mein Kampf,” Hitler’s 1925 autobiographical manifesto and expressed his “admiration” for the Nazis and Hitler for their use of propaganda. Four sources told CNN that West had originally suggested the title “Hitler” for his 2018 album that eventually released as “Ye.” They did not want to be named, citing concern for professional retribution. TMZOne of the sources who spoke to CNN and was at the TMZ interview said West had favorably referenced Hitler. The revelation of West’s alleged history of admiring Hitler comes amid a wave of inflammatory actions by West that began earlier this month.

☆ Banner saying 'Kanye is right' hung over Los Angeles freeway
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Chantal Da Silva | Chantal Da Silva Is A Breaking News Editor For Nbc News Digital Based In London. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

An antisemitic hate group was behind a banner hung over a busy Los Angeles freeway on Saturday saying “Kanye is right about the Jews,” watchdog groups said, after Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, made a string of antisemitic comments in recent weeks. A third banner promoted a video platform that streams antisemitic content operated by the Goyim Defense League, a network of antisemitic conspiracy theorists. "Hate has no place in Los Angeles or elsewhere and these attempts will not divide us," it said. The ADL has warned that "extremists across the ideological spectrum," including members of the GDL, have been embracing Ye's antisemitic statements and celebrating news of his plans to acquire Parler. The Los Angeles and Beverly Hills police departments said they were investigating antisemitic fliers that were distributed in Beverly Hills, according to The L.A. Times.

☆ Adidas is on the hot seat to cut ties with Kanye West
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Jon Sarlin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Balenciaga and Vogue publicly cut ties last week, and on Monday talent agency CAA dropped West as a client, and production company MRC said that it’s shelving a documentary on West. Celebrities including Kat Dennings, Josh Gad and Meg Stalter condemned Adidas for sticking by West. We are waiting @adidas,” read Shannon Watts’ tweet in response to the incident that received more than 100,000 likes. Earlier this month after West wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt in public, Adidas said that it was reviewing its lucrative partnership with his Yeezy brand. With pressure mounting and West’s hate campaign against Jewish people continuing, it seems the question is when, not if, Adidas will cut ties.

Three of the four new Standing Committee members owe their political rise to Xi, and the fourth is believed to be closely aligned with him. All but Guangdong party chief Li Xi worked under Xi in the 2000s, either in affluent Zhejiang province or in Shanghai. By excluding Li Keqiang and Wang Yang, both 67, from the party Central Committee and Standing Committee, Xi broke with the "seven-up/eight-down" rule that those aged 67 or under would remain for another five years. No woman has ever made it onto the Standing Committee. NOT TROUBLE-FREEThe run-up to the party congress was hardly smooth, with China facing sharp economic slowdown, frustration over zero-COVID and worsening relations with the West.

In 10 years of ruling China, Xi Jinping has expunged political rivals, replacing them with allies. With Comrade Xi Jinping as the core” Unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core. Take practical actions to welcome the victory of the Party's 20th National Congress” With Comrade Xi Jinping as the core” With Comrade Xi Jinping as the core” Unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core. Take practical actions to welcome the victory of the Party's 20th National Congress” With Comrade Xi Jinping as the core” With Comrade Xi Jinping as the core” Unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core. Earlier this year, local officials in the southern region of Guangxi printed and distributed small red booklets about Xi Jinping Thought.

☆ China’s Premier Li Keqiang dropped in leadership shuffle
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Only Central Committee members can serve on the Standing Committee. The party congress also approved an amendment of the party constitution Saturday that could further enhance Xi Jinping’s stature as China’s leader. Xi is expected to retain the top spot when the new Standing Committee is unveiled Sunday. The roughly 2,000 delegates to the party congress — wearing blue surgical masks under China’s strict zero-Covid policy — met in the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing. President Xi Jinping, right, looks on as former Chinese President Hu Jintao, is assisted to leave the hall.

☆ Anti-Xi protest spreads in China and worldwide as Chinese leader begins third term
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Cnn Staff | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

Obtained by CNNCNN spoke with two Chinese citizens who scribbled protest slogans in bathroom stalls and half a dozen overseas Chinese students who put up anti-Xi posters on their campuses. Chen had tried to share the Sitong Bridge protest on WeChat, China’s super app, but it kept getting censored. But as the widespread anti-Xi posters have shown, the rising nationalistic sentiment is by no means representative of all Chinese students overseas. In the day following the protest in Beijing, Jolie saw on Instagram an outpouring of photos showing protest posters from all over the world. But the extensive censorship around the Sitong Bridge protest also betrays its paranoia.

☆ Protester says he was ‘kicked and punched’ at Chinese consulate in Britain
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

It is the latest diplomatic spat between Britain and China, whose relationship has soured in recent years. Bob Chan, who is aged in his 30s and originally from Hong Kong, said the attack started when masked men came out of the consulate to take away banners from peaceful protesters. I held on to the gate where I was kicked and punched,” he told reporters. He said that a protester had grabbed a member of staff during a scuffle and refused to let go. Points of contention include a British program allowing almost three million people in Hong Kong to apply for visas.

General view of signage outside the Chinese Consulate General in Manchester, Britain, October 17, 2022. REUTERS/Phil NobleLONDON, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Britain expects China to waive diplomatic immunity for any official facing police charges over an attack on a protester who was dragged inside the grounds of a Chinese consulate, a junior British foreign office minister said on Thursday. China has disputed the account of events which took place during a demonstration on Sunday against Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying protesters had stormed its grounds. "Let me be clear that if the police determine there are grounds to charge any officials, we would expect the Chinese Consulate to waive immunity for those officials. The Chinese Consul-General Zheng Xiyuan told Sky News it was an emergency situation and his colleagues' life had been threatened.

Protester Bob Chan, who was seen being pulled into the grounds of a Chinese consulate in Manchester and beaten, attends a news conference, in London, Britain, October 19, 2022. Bob Chan, who is aged in his 30s and originally from Hong Kong, said the attack started when masked men came out of the consulate to take away banners from peaceful protesters. I held on to the gate where I was kicked and punched," he told reporters. "I could not hold on for long and was eventually pulled into the grounds of the consulate." Points of contention include a British programme allowing almost three million people in Hong Kong to apply for visas.

The announcement by Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee antitrust panel, and Republican Senator Mike Lee confirmed a previous report by Reuters. A Kroger spokesperson said the company looked forward to the hearing. "We welcome the opportunity to outline how this transaction will benefit America’s consumers by expanding access to fresh, affordable food," the company said in a statement. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterSeparately, Klobuchar and fellow Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Cory Booker released a letter expressing concern about the deal. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz; Editing by Franklin Paul, Josie Kao and David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

A Warriors team famous for its unity saw that tested when veteran forward Draymond Green punched Jordan Poole in the face at a practice earlier this month, an incident Green apologized for. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterGreen, a four-time All-Star, was fined but not suspended over the incident. Former Knicks and Rockets head coach Jeff Van Gundy told Reuters he thought the team could move past the episode. "He has defied age as well as anybody who has played for this long," Van Gundy said. "The season is going to be difficult for everybody," said Van Gundy.

Oct 17 (Reuters) - Police in the British city of Manchester are investigating an incident involving a protester who appeared to have been pulled inside the grounds of the Chinese consulate and beaten, after a demonstration against Chinese President Xi Jinping. Police on the scene eventually stepped through the gate and pulled the man out. "Greater Manchester Police are aware of an incident that took place at around 3pm on Sunday 16 October 2022 at the Chinese Consulate in Manchester," a police spokesperson told Reuters in a written response. There was no immediate reply to Reuters requests for comment from the Chinese consulate in Manchester and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. The man who was beaten, who Leung said is known by the first name, Bob, had cuts to his face afterwards, Leung said.

☆ Xi Jinping's Party Congress speech: yes to zero-Covid, no to market reforms?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Priorities presented at the political gathering of more than 2,000 party members will also set China’s trajectory for the next five years or even longer. In his speech Sunday, Xi struck a confident tone, highlighting China’s growing strength and rising influence under his first decade in power. China's President Xi Jinping speaks during the opening session of the 20th Chinese Communist Party's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 16, 2022. And China’s economy is in bad shape. Meantime, a comparison between this year’s speech and the last one delivered by Xi in 2017 at the 19th party congress revealed a potentially worrying trend.

☆ A merger with Albertsons could bring Kroger's tech initiatives, like automated warehouses and smart carts, to over 5,000 locations
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Alex Bitter | Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Kroger is building its own tech infrastructure, including automated warehouses for delivery orders. Here are Kroger's biggest e-commerce and technology initiatives:A ClusterTruck ghost kitchen inside a Kroger in the Midwest. The delivery-focused ghost kitchen touts a Cheesecake Factory-inspired menu of 80 to 100 food items. Over the last few years, ClusterTruck opened locations inside Kroger stores in Indiana and Ohio. Another partnership, this one with the autonomous-car startup Nuro, has stationed self-driving vehicles to deliver grocery orders in certain cities since 2018.

A 20-ounce packet of Sara Lee Classic White Sandwich bread goes for $2.50 at Kroger, compared to $2.24 at Walmart. Nearly two-thirds of Kroger's 2,700 stores are unionized, like a "majority" of Albertsons stores, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union says on its website. Grocery stores such as Kroger, Albertsons, in contrast, are often forced to rely on coupons or buy-one-get-one-free promotions funded by companies like P&G and Conagra in order to compete. Euromonitor data shows that 25.2% of all dollars spent on groceries in the United States last year went to Walmart, while Kroger got 8.1% and Albertson's 4.8%. Walmart shoppers have a median income of $73,000.

☆ Chinese Internet Users Lose Access to WeChat App After Beijing Protest
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Liza Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Chinese censors are crippling access to the country’s do-everything app for some users as part of a campaign to kill discussion of a rare protest in Beijing, an escalation in the Communist Party’s drive to cleanse the country’s internet of even the whiff of dissent. The crackdown came after two banners condemning Chinese leader Xi Jinping were hung from a busy highway bridge in the Chinese capital early Thursday afternoon—a rare act of defiance in the seat of Communist Party power that captivated the country’s social-media users.

The companies said Kroger agreed to buy Albertsons for $34.10 a share in a deal valued at $24.6 billion. The tie-up comes during a challenging time in the grocery industry. The grocery industry is highly fragmented. Albertsons’ share was about 5%. Consolidation in the grocery industry has not historically paid off in the form of higher profits, he said.

A 20-ounce packet of Sara Lee Classic White Sandwich bread goes for $2.50 at Kroger, compared to $2.24 at Walmart. Nearly two-thirds of Kroger's 2,700 stores are unionized, like a "majority" of Albertsons stores, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union says on its website. Grocery stores such as Kroger, Albertsons, in contrast, are often forced to rely on coupons or buy-one-get-one-free promotions funded by companies like P&G and Conagra in order to compete. Euromonitor data shows that 25.2% of all dollars spent on groceries in the United States last year went to Walmart, while Kroger got 8.1% and Albertsons 4.8%. Walmart shoppers have a median income of $73,000.

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