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☆ Heineken, Unilever and Oreo maker Mondelez accused of breaking promises to leave Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

It’s shameful and unethical.”Sonnenfeld, who has testified before Congress about companies leaving Russia, is not accusing these corporations of breaking the law. ‘Implied endorsement of the Putin regime’The “poster child” for this problem is the popular Dutch brewing giant Heineken, Sonnenfeld said. In March 2022, just one month after the invasion of Ukraine, Heineken won praise for promising to leave Russia. “We expect a significant financial loss to the Heineken company. The Yale research said Mondelez shows “no tangible signs of progress towards exiting” and continues to do business in Russia.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Jeff Sonnenfeld, Philip Morris, ” Sonnenfeld, “, ”, ‘, Putin, Sonnenfeld, Steven Tian, ExxonMobil –, ” Heineken, ” Mondelez, Mondelez, That’s, Lipton, Mark Dixon, Nestle, Kit Kat, Purina, Sbarro, Carl’s Jr, Carl’s, Yale, Tim Calkins, Calkins Organizations: New York CNN Business, Yale, Heineken, Unilever, CNN, ”, Institute . Yale, BP, ExxonMobil, Nabisco, Kyiv School of Economics, Agency, Nestle, WeWork, Mondelez, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Restaurants Holdings, CKE, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Russian, ”, American, South Africa

☆ The ‘Forbidden Planet’ That Escaped a Fiery Doom
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Becky Ferreira | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

All across the Milky Way, dying stars are gobbling up their planets. Even Earth is likely to perish this way about five billion years from now, when the sun expands and devours its innermost worlds. But the giant planet Halla, which closely orbits a star 520 light years from Earth, appears to have narrowly escaped such an apocalyptic fate. Halla is “a forbidden planet of sorts,” said Marc Hon, a NASA Hubble fellow at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an author of the study. In some systems, planets may even cannibalize each other, according to another recent study that found evidence of a gas giant that ate a Mercury-size world.

Persons: ”, Marc Hon Organizations: Halla, NASA Hubble, University of Hawaii Locations: Manoa

☆ Rare video footage shows a cannibalistic killer crab gobbling up babies. 'I have never seen this behavior before,' one expert said.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Every year, millions of Christmas Island red crabs make their way to the Indian Ocean to lay eggs. David Attenborough's Netflix series "Our Planet II," shows an adult crab feasting on baby crablets. The Christmas Island crabs are terrestrial, inhabiting the island's rainforests during most of the year. When the eggs hit the water, the red crab larvae hatch. You can watch "Our Planet II" on Netflix.

Persons: David Attenborough's, Lucy Turner, —, I've Organizations: David Attenborough's Netflix, Service, Netflix, University of Plymouth, Parks Australia –

☆ As regional bank stock rally regains steam, investors should watch out for these spoilers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Christina Cheddar Berk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

With the Federal Reserve expected to pause its rate-hiking campaign at this week's meeting, regional banks stocks have made a comeback, but that doesn't mean all the trouble is in the rearview mirror. Still, the upward march resumed on Tuesday, begging the question of what's ahead for bank stocks. As the Treasury sells tens of billions of dollars in Treasury bills, it could pressure bank deposits. Graseck predicts that a reacceleration of deposit outflows would snuff out the bank stock rally. In addition, regional bank earnings estimates, which had been cut severely in March and April, had leveled off in May.

Persons: Jack Ablin, Ablin, outflows, SVB, Aditya Bhave, Bhave, Morgan Stanley, Betsy Graseck, Graseck, Nicholas Colas, Huntington Bancshares, Matt O'Connor, KeyCorp, Albin Organizations: Federal Reserve, Fed, Cresset, Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, PacWest Bancorp, Bank of America, Treasury, DataTrek Research, Citizens Financial Group, Truist, Morgan Stanley U.S, Financials, CRE Conference, Deutsche Bank, TFC Locations: Silicon, Federal, U.S, 2Q23, New York

☆ The world’s largest city is a futuristic paradise. But some things stay stuck in the past
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Richard Quest | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Tokyo CNN —It’s the biggest city in the world, a vast metropolitan area that’s home to more than 37 million people. Onigiri – savory rice balls wrapped in nori or seaweed – have been a comfort food staple for thousands of years. Known as “The Monk In Heels,” Nishimura juggles his life as a monk with his work as a makeup artist. Origami, too, remains a powerful, soothing way to use such skills and step away from the fast-paced world of the modern city. He is the face of a timeless, sedate Tokyo, an antidote to the hectic way things often feel here.

Persons: Tokyo CNN —, Ukon, Onigiri Bongo, ”, Salmon, It’s, Yumiko, CNN's Richard Quest, Takefumi Hamada, chef, Hamada, you’re, ‘, Kodo Nishimura, ” Nishimura juggles, Nishimura, “, ’, Kazuo Kobayashi Organizations: Tokyo CNN, Michelin, CNN, Netflix, Disney Locations: Tokyo, Akihabara, Japan, Tokyoites, CNN Tokyo, Shibuya, Shinjuku

☆ Opinion | When Corporations Take Over Health Care
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “Insurers Add Primary Care to Portfolios” (front page, May 9):It seems to me that the fact that “multibillion-dollar corporations, particularly giant health insurers,” are gobbling up primary care practices to make more money and increase their control of health care delivery is old news to most American physicians. As the power of the corporations in our health care system increases, the power of our physicians decreases. Back in the day when physicians, and not corporations, ran the whole show, it used to be a beautiful thing to be a primary care physician in America. To the Editor:In 1980 the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Arnold Relman, saw the rise of a “new medical-industrial complex” as “the most important health care development of the day.”Having built a vast empire, corporate America is now solidifying it by adding primary care, squelching any remaining autonomy in the medical profession. Profit-seeking organizations should not be given this overwhelming authority to administer health care, precisely because it is a conflict of interest: profit motive over equitable patient care.

☆ The top large-cap fund manager from the past 12 months shares the simple change he made that completely turned around his performance — and 13 stocks he loves now
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( James Faris | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

That realization led portfolio manager David Miller to launch the Catalyst Insider Buying Fund (INSIX) nearly 12 years ago. While many funds factor in insider transactions when selecting stocks, few use it as their main prerequisite when screening investments. But in the last 12 months, it's the best-performing large-cap fund on the market through April 30, according to Kiplinger. All of these companies have benefitted from insider buying to some extent, but some have been lifted even more by company buybacks. "They've just been gobbling up their own stock," Miller said of O'Reilly Automotive.

☆ Astronomers spot the biggest cosmic explosion ever seen, and it's 100 times the size of our solar system
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

This enormous fireball, which is about 8 billion light years away, is approximately 100 times bigger than the solar system. While it's not the brightest flash ever seen, it is "by far the most energy released" from a single explosion, Wiseman added. This may be a black hole slurping up a cloud of gas and dustThe world's first picture of a black hole, unrelated to this story. One theory is that explosions could emerge from the black hole to stop gas from falling into the black hole. Right now, the explosion is so bright that it's not possible to see a galaxy around the black hole.

☆ Corporate Giants Buy Up Primary Care Practices at Rapid Pace
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Reed Abelson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It’s no surprise that the shortage of primary care doctors — who are critically important to the health of Americans — is getting worse. So why are multibillion-dollar corporations, particularly giant health insurers, gobbling up primary care practices? CVS Health, with its sprawling pharmacy business and ownership of the major insurer Aetna, paid roughly $11 billion to buy Oak Street Health, a fast-growing chain of primary care centers that employs doctors in 21 states. And Amazon’s bold purchase of One Medical, another large doctors’ group, for nearly $4 billion, is another such move. The appeal is simple: Despite their lowly status, primary care doctors oversee vast numbers of patients, who bring business and profits to a hospital system, a health insurer or a pharmacy outfit eyeing expansion.

☆ Astronomers Catch a Star Swallowing a Planet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Joseph Pisani | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An artist’s impression of a doomed planet skimming the surface of its star. Photo: K. Miller, R. Hurt/Caltech/IPACAstronomers have long theorized that stars swallow up planets whole. But they haven’t had evidence of it—until now. Researchers said in a new study that for the first time they caught a star in the act of gobbling up a planet in its orbit.

☆ Why First Republic Bank may not be the end of the crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —After a six-week spiral, First Republic bank finally collapsed in the wee hours of Monday morning. Everyone on Wall Street appears to be drinking from the same punch bowl as Jamie Dimon, who framed the sale as a bookend to the crisis. To his mind, the sale just makes JPMorgan, already the nation’s largest bank, even bigger, and the power of the biggest Wall Street banks more concentrated. That idea got an extra boost on Monday, when the FDIC itself released a report advocating for an increase in the deposit insurance limit for business payment accounts. “You can think of federal deposit insurance as being a bit like nuclear weapons,” he said.

☆ DeSantis may have overreached when he went to war with Disney, and Trump smells blood in the water
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Florida Gov. "DeSanctus is being absolutely destroyed by Disney," Trump wrote earlier this week. "DeSanctus is being absolutely destroyed by Disney," Trump crowed on his social media platform Truth earlier this week. The Florida governor wanted to burnish his national image by torching Disney. And by gobbling up intellectual property and broadcasting rights, Disney continues to be virtually inescapable.

Kashtanova received a copyright in September, and declared on social media that it meant artists were entitled to legal protection for their AI art projects. Copyright Office suddenly reversed itself, and Kashtanova became the first person in the country to be stripped of legal protection for AI art. A spokesperson for the copyright office declined to comment. Copyright Office, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court and has a patent case before the U.K. Supreme Court. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton 1 2 3 4Meanwhile, many artists and companies that own creative content fiercely oppose granting copyrights to AI owners or users.

☆ Snapchat and Meta lead social media stocks higher as TikTok CEO gives 'disaster' testimony to Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Snapchat and Meta Platforms jumped on Thursday as the CEO of TikTok gave testimony to Congress. CEO Shou Chew sought to quell concerns that TikTok is a Chinese asset that could spy on its 150 million American users. "We would characterize today's testimony by TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in the Beltway as a 'disaster' moment," Wedbush said. Both President Biden and former President Trump have called for the social media app to be either banned or sold to a US-based company. According to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, Chew failed at his objective of containing those concerns.

☆ DeSantis' plans for Florida this year include tax cuts for gas stoves and more elections police. The proposals are widely viewed as targeting GOP voters nationally.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Banning vaccine and mask mandatesDeSantis wants the Florida legislature to permanently ban COVID vaccine and mask mandates. It's not clear how much of a difference a new, permanent Florida law would make. DeSantis will ask the Florida legislature to permanently lift the state's 6% sales tax on baby necessities including on cribs, strollers, clothing, shoes, wipes, and diapers. But some analysts, such as Howard Gleckman at the Tax Policy Center, have warned that tax breaks could actually worsen inflation because people will spend and consume more at a time when supplies are limited. Currently, state law requires a vote be unanimous.

☆ Jim Nelson ran the 2 best international stock funds in the world in 2022, according to Kiplinger. He told us how he's positioned them for success, and why investors should go global now.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Marley Jay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Jim Nelson managed the two best global stock funds of 2022, according to Kiplinger. Nelson detailed his overall approach, and why he thinks international value stocks will thrive. In 2022, Kiplinger named Nelson's EuroPac International Dividend Income Fund as the highest-returning international large-cap value stock fund of the year, and his EuroPac International Value Fund ranked second. About half of the Value Fund's assets are dedicated to either defensive consumer-facing companies or basic materials makers. While international stocks have lagged US-based stocks for a long time, he says indicators are favoring non-US stocks today.

☆ Americans Are Gobbling Up Takeout Food. Restaurants Bet That Won’t Change.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Heather Haddon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

McDonald’s Corp. has a new restaurant outside Fort Worth, Texas, with no tables or seats for customers and a conveyor belt that routes food to drivers who order ahead. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. also offers no place for customers to sit inside an Ohio restaurant that only takes digital orders. Taco Bell is evaluating a new design that features four drive-through lanes, double the typical two. America’s biggest restaurant companies made a bet during the pandemic that you would rather eat the food cooked on their premises someplace else. Now they are gambling you will want to do so for years to come.

REUTERS/Andrew KellyOAKLAND, Calif/BANGALORE, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Microprocessor giant Intel Corp (INTC.O) says it will regain its footing against AMD and other chip rivals which are gobbling up market share, but Wall Street is skeptical. That's a headwind for Intel and AMD, both of which are rolling out new chips, but Intel is facing a larger inventory correction. Intel still dominates the markets for PC and server processing chips, with a market share greater than 70%, tech research firm IDC calculated. Chipmaker shares were hammered across the board on Friday, but Intel led the decline, slumping by 10% while AMD lost 1.8%. AMD set to overtake Intel in market cap, again AMD set to overtake Intel in market cap, againReporting By Jane Lanhee Lee and Chavi Mehta; Editing by David Gaffen, Peter Henderson, Kirsten Donovan and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Sequoia-backed grocery startup Getir pushes into the US after gobbling up European rival Gorillas in $1.2 billion deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Shona Ghosh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Getir has appointed its first US general manager after its $1.2 billion deal to buy rival Gorillas. The US market is smaller for Getir than the UK but expansion is a priority for 2023, Van Beveren told Insider. Its founder, Nazim Salur, previously told Insider that the firm would look to float in 2023, likely in the US. Retail analysts have previously told Insider the model can be profitable but requires efficiency. Van Beveren noted that Chaaya's appointment was indicative of a successful integration between the two businesses.

☆ DeSantis' 'Freedom Blueprint' for Florida is taking shape, and it's widely viewed as paving the way for a 2024 presidential run
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

It's widely viewed as a blueprint for theHe has already made some of his intentions clear, on areas from Disney to anti-China policy. DeSantis will ask the Florida legislature to permanently lift the state's 6% sales tax on baby necessities including on cribs, strollers, clothing, shoes, wipes, and diapers. He also wants the state to nix the sales tax on medical equipment and on medicines for pets. Other tax cuts would be temporary, including lifting the sales tax for a year on children's books, athletic equipment, and toys, as well as a proposal to suspend the sales tax on pet food and on household items that cost $25 or less. Loosening gun restrictionsDeSantis wants lawmakers to pass legislation that would change Florida law so that gun owners could carry a gun in public without a concealed weapons permit.

☆ DeSantis considers banning 'hostile nation' China from buying Florida real estate, polishing tough-on-China foreign policy stance amid 2024 speculation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

DeSantis is considering asking the Florida legislature to ban China from real estate investments. Ron DeSantis is poised to ask state lawmakers to ban China from buying farmland and residences in Florida, the governor confirmed Tuesday. While foreign policy generally tends to be a small part of a governor's role, such actions on China could add to DeSantis' foreign policy portfolio. Before becoming governor, DeSantis representing Florida in the US House, where he served on the Foreign Affairs Committee and chaired the Subcommittee on National Security. Santa Claus may need to not do Chinese toys."

☆ Iowa Considers Allowing Year-Round Hunt of Corn-Gobbling Raccoons
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Joe Barrett | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Shine a light at any of the buildings on Ethan Crow’s central Iowa farm at night and you are likely to see several pairs of eyes staring back, he says, and piles of scat covering the floor—signs of what farmers are calling an out-of-control raccoon problem. A couple who own a nearby farm counted more than 60 raccoons inside their cattle feeder one night a few years ago and more atop the rafters of their barn—like pigeons lined up on a telephone wire, Mr. Crow says. Another farmer discovered that a raccoon had been sleeping inside his combine when he started it up, killing the animal and causing thousands of dollars in damage, he says.

☆ Bob Dylan says that streaming has made music 'too smooth and painless' and people are now 'pill poppers, cube heads and day trippers'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bob Dylan told The Wall Street Journal that streaming has made music "too smooth and painless." He said people are now "pill poppers, cube heads and day trippers." Dylan said that streaming has made music "too smooth and painless" in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, published on Monday and timed with his new book "The Philosophy of Modern Song." We're pill poppers, cube heads and day trippers, hanging in, hanging out, gobbling blue devils, black mollies, anything we can get our hands on. Dylan has over 9 million monthly active listeners on music streaming platform Spotify.

☆ Why Have Netflix, Hulu, and the Rest of Streaming TV Gotten so Boring?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Paris Marx | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

As a result, Netflix and other streamers are retreating from any sort of creative risk in favor of humdrum, lowest-common-denominator shows. But just as Netflix was pulling back from its most creative content, the streaming wars were heating up. Netflix is now churning out cheap and broadly appealing reality TV shows like "Is It Cake?" Despite positioning itself for years as the ad-free way to watch TV, Netflix in October launched a lower-cost, ad-supported tier in many of its major markets. As the cheap money disappears, we're starting to get a better picture of the actual price of streaming media.

☆ The golden age of streaming TV is over
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Paris Marx | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

That August, the streaming analyst Eric Schiffer told The Verge that the "golden age" was over as competition increased, and Netflix was putting creators on a shorter leash. But just as Netflix was pulling back from its most creative content, the streaming wars were heating up. Netflix is now churning out cheap and broadly appealing reality TV shows like "Is It Cake?" Despite positioning itself for years as the ad-free way to watch TV, Netflix in October launched a lower-cost, ad-supported tier in many of its major markets. As the cheap money disappears, we're starting to get a better picture of the actual price of streaming media.

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