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Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., is urging House GOP leaders to hold a chamber-wide vote on impeaching President Biden days after a highly anticipated report accused the commander in chief of committing impeachable offenses.

‘I’ve felt that way for a long time. I’m on the Oversight Committee, I’ve seen all of the evidence up close and personal. It is without a doubt that he used his office when he was vice president to enrich his family as pay for play,’ Donalds told Fox News Digital. ‘That’s public corruption.’

Referencing the phone call with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy that precipitated the first impeachment of former President Trump, Donalds added, ‘Listen, if a phone call is quote-unquote, an impeachable offense, then public corruption absolutely is. I think the House should hold that vote.’

House Republicans released a 292-page report on Monday, a joint effort by the House Oversight Committee, House Judiciary Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, arguing Biden engaged in ‘impeachable conduct.’

Those committees have been working on a monthslong investigation into whether Biden helped enrich himself and his family through foreign business deals while he was vice president.

Donalds’ public pressure is significant; while a majority of House Republicans have publicly accused Biden of at least acting improperly, it’s not clear that House leaders would risk forcing their most vulnerable GOP members to take such a weighty vote with just a razor-thin majority in the chamber.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., indicated in March that criminal referrals could be the end of the road for the probe. He told Newsmax the House ‘would vote to impeach Joe Biden right now,’ but ‘the best path to accountability is criminal referrals.’

In his statement on the impeachment report on Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., praised the investigation as ‘thorough, diligent and thoughtful’ but made no mention of a House-wide vote. Johnson himself has previously said he believes Biden is guilty of wrongdoing.

Donalds appeared to reference his colleagues’ hesitation when he told Fox News Digital he would make the case for an impeachment vote to Johnson the next time he spoke with the GOP leader.

‘It’ll definitely probably come up, and we’ll see where it is,’ Donalds said. ‘And look, I know members, they all are trying to figure out what they’re going to do in their re-elections, but we have a responsibility to hold the executive branch accountable. That is the job of Congress.’

‘I think one of the reasons why a lot of people are losing faith in our institutions is because it appears that people at the top of our politics just get away with everything and are never held accountable. And that’s wrong.’

In their report, Republicans said there is ‘overwhelming evidence’ that Biden participated in a ‘conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family.’ They alleged that the Biden family and their business associates received tens of millions of dollars from foreign interests by ‘leading those interests to believe that such payments would provide them access to and influence with President Biden.’ 

The committees said the Biden family and its associates received more than $27 million from foreign individuals or entities since 2014.

They also alleged that the Biden family leveraged Biden’s position as vice president to obtain more than $8 million in loans from Democratic benefactors. The loans ‘have not been repaid and the paperwork supporting many of the loans does not exist and has not been produced to the committees.’

The White House said in response to the report, ‘This failed stunt will only be remembered for how it became an embarrassment that their own members distanced themselves from as they only managed to turn up evidence that refuted their false and baseless conspiracy theories. The American people deserve more from House Republicans, and perhaps now they will finally join President Biden in focusing on the real issues that American families actually care about.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Donalds’ remarks.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

The House GOP is setting its sights on a handful of Democratic candidates who have been bankrolled by left-wing billionaires whose money has also gone toward promoting what Republicans call ‘soft-on-crime’ policies.

At least eight Democratic House candidates who have positioned themselves as left-of-center or moderate have received donations from the same wealthy liberals who poured thousands into promoting progressive crime policies in states like California and Florida, campaign finance records show.

All eight are also running in competitive districts, making them prime targets for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the House Republicans’ campaign arm.

‘Defund the police donors backed up the Brink’s truck to bankroll the campaigns of extreme House Democrats,’ NRCC spokesman Will Reinert told Fox News Digital. ‘If elected, these far-left Democrats will work hand in hand with San Francisco liberal Kamala Harris to send violent crime rates soaring, reward felons and punish cops for trying to keep communities safe.’

Among the eight is Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., one of the most vulnerable Democrats this election cycle — the most recently available campaign finance data shows Davids received $3,300 in April from Quinn Delaney, a California billionaire who runs the nonprofit Akonadi Foundation.

The Akonadi Foundation committed $12.5 million to an Oakland-based initiative whose goals include closing youth prisons and taking police officers out of schools, according to its website.

Delaney also spent hundreds of thousands to help elect progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, whose progressive reforms have been accused of making residents feel less safe during his tenure.

Delaney along with California megadonor Patty Quillin were named as two of four billionaires who ‘channeled $22 million toward criminal justice ballot measures and allied candidates the previous two years,’ Politico wrote in 2021.

Quillin and her husband, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, also donated $1 million to support a California measure to end the cash bail system and replace it with a risk-based assessment.

Recent campaign finance records show Quillin donated $3,300 to Will Rollins, a former prosecutor running against Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif.

Delaney and Quillin also both gave $3,300 to Adam Gray, who is running to unseat Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif.

Gray, a former state lawmaker, has also received two $6,600 checks from Django Bonderman and Cale Bonderman respectively, both of whom donated significantly to support a 2018 Florida ballot initiative to grant most felons the right to vote.

Django Bonderman is also linked to Mountain Philanthropies, which Influence Watch has classified as a left-wing dark money group that has supported causes promoting leniency in criminal justice.

Campaign finance records show the Bondermans have also donated similar amounts to George Whitesides, who is running against Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif.; Laura Gillen, who is challenging Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y.; Monica Tranel, who is challenging Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont.; and former House Rep. Mondaire Jones, who is running to unseat Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.

The Bondermans have also donated $3,300 each to Oregon state Rep. Janelle Bynum, who is challenging Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore.

Django Bonderman has given small amounts to more moderate members of the House GOP as well, giving $1,000 each to Reps. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, and Steve Womack, R-Ark., in late June. 

A spokesperson for Womack said he returned the donation.

‘Voters have to remember what happened when George Soros funded all of those left-wing DAs,’ John Feehery, a former aide to ex-Speaker Dennis Hastert and current partner at EFB Advocacy told Fox News Digital.

‘Crime spiraled out of control. The same principle applies to these candidates. They will do what the billionaires want and the results won’t be pretty.’

Feehery argued there was a dissonance between such Democrats running more moderate campaigns while accepting funds from progressive sources. ‘They can try, but voters know where their bread is buttered,’ he said.

Crime and perceptions of public safety are likely to play a critical role in suburban districts where Republicans have hammered big-city Democrats as soft on crime. 

Democrats, particularly in competitive districts, have sought to dispel those arguments during this election cycle.

Both Gray and Rollins have touted campaign endorsements from local law enforcement in their areas. Gray has support from both the district attorney and the sheriff of Merced County, while Rollins is endorsed by the Palm Springs Police Association.

‘As a former federal prosecutor with the support of local law enforcement, I understand more than most that defendants should be detained if they’re a danger to our communities, that Prop 47 needs to be repealed so that cops aren’t put in the position of rearresting the same people for theft crimes again and again, and that our police officers need all of the support they can get to keep our families safe,’ Rollins told Fox News Digital. ‘I believe no one is above the law and that we should fund both local police and federal law enforcement.’

He also knocked rival Calvert for once claiming the FBI was ‘infiltrated’ by ‘rot’ and for House GOP proposals, not led by him, that would have seen funding cut to various law enforcement offices.

Tranel, meanwhile, told Fox News Digital, ‘Over half of my donors are from Montana, while only 7% of Zinke’s contributions came from Montanans. If we’re going to talk about donors, let’s look at Ryan Zinke, who took money from a company controlled by the Chinese Communist Party that has bought up US farmland and voted to make it harder for Montana ranchers to compete with China and drive up the cost of living. Montanans deserve a representative who stands up for them, not one who continues to exploit Montana for their own personal profit.’

Zinke’s campaign pointed out that Tranel also received donations from Jonathan Soros and his wife, adding, ‘Ryan Zinke continues to outperform perennial failed candidate Monica Tranel in every aspect of this campaign. Talk about a liberal afraid to be truthful to voters, she refuses to acknowledge that her top client wants to defund the police, she refuses to answer questions about her support for her VP nominee who let criminals burn Minneapolis to the ground, and her presidential nominee who tried to bail them out of jail.’

‘And on the point of Tranel’s statement — Congressman Zinke is the only person in this race who has actually taken action against the Chinese buying farmland, whereas Monica Tranel is pushing American’s reliance on Chinese-made solar, wind and EVs,’ the campaign added.

In Oregon, Bynum previously touted her support for recriminalizing fentanyl possession after the state’s controversial decision to ease drug penalties, which has since been reversed.

‘Voters can see right through the NRCC’s weak falsehoods for what they are: a lame attempt to hide the fact that it’s only been House Republicans who’ve voted for cuts to cripple local law enforcement and make our communities less safe, all while rewarding their convicted felon presidential nominee,’ Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) spokesperson Viet Shelton told Fox News Digital.

The remaining candidates did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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CHICAGO – As day two of the Democratic National Convention gets underway Tuesday in blue state Illinois’ largest city, former President Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, will be in nearby battleground states.

It is part of the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee’s plan to offer a full week of counter-programming to the Democrats’ national nominating convention.

‘Donald Trump is barnstorming all across the country over the course of this next week,’ RNC Chair Michael Whatley emphasized in a Sunday interview on Fox News’ ‘America’s Newsroom.’

‘We are going to be out directly talking to every American family across the country the way that only Donald Trump can. And we are absolutely asking for their votes. We’re asking for their support,’ Whatley highlighted.

The move is partially to try and blunt the momentum of Vice President Kamala Harris heading into the Democrats’ convention. Harris has been riding a wave of energy and enthusiasm – both in polling and in fundraising – since replacing President Biden at the top of the Democrats’ 2024 ticket four weeks ago.

However, it also appears to be another move to try and put pressure on Harris for not holding a news conference or a major interview since Biden bowed out and backed his vice president.

‘At the DNC, Kamala Harris will hide behind celebrities because everyday families know that she has been an absolute disaster for our nation, and real Americans are worse off now than four years ago,’ Trump campaign co-chairs Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita charged in a statement on the eve of the convention.

They argued that the vice president ‘has failed to answer media questions for 28 days because she can’t explain away her record of supporting policies that cause inflation, bans on private health insurance, destroying American energy, and higher taxes.’

As Fox News first reported last week, both Trump and Vance are on the campaign trail during the Democrats’ convention, headlining ‘messaging events’ in the states that will likely decide the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

Additionally, as a Trump adviser revealed last week, ‘a whole cadre of people’ – including top surrogates – will also be making the GOP’s case throughout the week.

Trump’s schedule is packed with more events than he has done in months.

On Monday, he was in York, Pennsylvania, taking aim at Harris over the economy, while Vance was also talking about pocketbook issues during a stop in Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania, with 19 electoral votes up for grabs, is the largest prize among the crucial swing states.

At his event at a factory in York, Trump reiterated his pledge to cut taxes if he returns to the White House.

‘Our plan will massively cut taxes,’ Trump said. ‘I gave you the best tax cut in history.’

Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chikita took aim at Trump, charging that ‘Americans should be clear on what he will do: He will raise costs on middle class families by $3,900 a year. He will ship American jobs overseas. He will cut Social Security and Medicare and repeal the Affordable Care Act — just like he tried to do last time he was in the White House.’

On Tuesday, Trump will be in Michigan while Vance spotlights the issue of crime during a news conference in southeastern Wisconsin, close to the Democrats’ convention in Chicago.

On Thursday, Trump will visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona while Vance highlights the issue of immigration during a stop in Georgia. On Friday, the former president stumps in Arizona and Nevada on his ‘no tax on tips’ pledge.

‘As they meet Americans where they are in battleground states across the country, President Trump and Senator Vance will remind voters that under their leadership, we can end inflation, protect our communities from violent criminals, secure the border, and Make America Great Again,’ LaCivita and Wiles said.

On Monday, as the convention kicked off, top Trump allies in the Senate – Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin – were also making the case for the former president and slammed Harris and Walz at a news conference in downtown Chicago’s Trump International Hotel and Tower. 

Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a top House ally of Trump, fills the role on Tuesday, and the campaign plans Wednesday and Thursday news conferences as well. 

The Biden campaign counter-programmed with news conferences that included top surrogates in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention last month.

Meanwhile, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will travel Tuesday from Chicago to nearby Milwaukee to headline a rally in the key Midwestern battleground.

In years past, it was traditional for a presidential candidate to lie low while the other party held its national nominating convention. 

However, last month, as the Republicans held their convention in Milwaukee, Biden briefly campaigned in the key swing state of Nevada before cutting his trip short after catching COVID.

Days later, Biden’s blockbuster announcement that he was ending his re-election campaign following his disastrous late June debate performance against Trump upended the 2024 election.

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife, first lady Gwen Walz, have clarified that they conceived their children not through IVF, as the governor had previously said or implied in interviews, but through another fertility treatment. 

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, took to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to seize on the revelation and ask, ‘Who lies about something like that?’ after asserting that Walz had deceived the public about having children via IVF, adding to his earlier attack that Walz had ‘lied’ about his service in the National Guard. 

But the Harris-Walz campaign hit back at Vance:

‘The Trump campaign’s attacks on Mrs. Walz are just another example of how cruel and out of touch Donald Trump and JD Vance are when it comes to women’s healthcare,’ Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg told Fox News Digital. ‘Infertility is a deeply personal journey, but the Governor and Mrs. Walz came forward to share their story because they know that MAGA attacks on reproductive rights are putting all fertility treatments at risk.’

Harris campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg argued to CNN that Tim Walz ‘talks how normal people talk. He was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments.’ The couple did not receive in vitro fertilization (IVF) but instead intrauterine insemination (IUI). 

In a statement shared with media, Gwen Walz said that the journey through fertility treatments is riddled with anxiety, agony and ‘desperation that can eat away at your soul.’ 

‘I cannot fathom the cruelty of politicians who want to take away the freedom for couples to access the care they need,’ she said. ‘After seeing the extreme attacks on reproductive health care across the country — particularly, the efforts in Alabama that jeopardized access to fertility treatments — Tim and I agreed that it was time to formally speak out about our experience.’

‘Like so many who have experienced these challenges, we kept it largely to ourselves at the time — not even sharing the details with our wonderful and close family,’ Gwen Walz explained. ‘The only person who knew in detail what we were going through was our next-door neighbor.’

‘She was a nurse and helped me with the shots I needed as part of the IUI process. I’d rush home from school, and she would give me the shots to ensure we stayed on track.’

Tim Walz stated during an interview with MSNBC in July that he had IVF to thank for their children, saying, ‘Thank God for IVF, my wife and I have two beautiful children.’ In other instances, Walz referred to ‘fertility treatments’ and stressed that the issue of IVF rights remained ‘personal’ for him due to the struggles he and his wife went through to have their children. 

Tim Walz has made his support of IVF a central cause after the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos created by IVF treatments should be considered children, which would lay the groundwork for further legislation on treatments. Embryos that have been fertilized but go unused are often discarded, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The ’embryo disposal decision’ deals with the question of storage after successful childbearing. Many couples end up donating good-quality embryos to a research program, but discarding fertilized embryos remains a common practice. 

IVF requires the removal of several eggs and fertilization outside the body before transfer into the uterus, while IUI directly injects the sperm into the uterus. IUI also involved ‘washing’ sperm to separate them from seminal fluid to increase the number of sperm transferred and increase chances of successful fertilization, according to Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials.

Former President Donald Trump shortly after the Alabama ruling stressed, ‘We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder! That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America.’ 

‘Today, I am calling on the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama,’ Trump said in a post on Truth Social following the decision. ‘The Republican Party should always be on the side of the Miracle of Life – and the side of Mothers, Fathers, and their Beautiful Babies.’

The correction issued by the Harris-Walz campaign is another they have had to make regarding previous statements Tim Walz has made, including clarification on his National Guard service. 

The team altered its biography of Tim Walz on the campaign website amid ongoing scrutiny of Walz’s service, changing it from saying he was a ‘retired Command Sergeant Major’ to ‘served as a command sergeant major.’

Tim Walz retired from the Guard after nearly 25 years of service, but his rank was reduced months later, leaving him as a master sergeant. 

National Guard officials have said that he retired before fulfilling requirements for the position, including coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. The subsequent lower rank was due to benefit requirements and a technicality.

The Trump-Vance campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment by the time of publication. 

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report. 

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Shares of former President Donald Trump’s social media company on Monday touched their lowest price since they began public trading on the Nasdaq nearly five months ago after a merger.

Trump Media, the company that owns the Republican presidential nominee’s preferred social messaging platform Truth Social, closed down more than 3.5% to settle at $22.24 a share.

The previous low point for the stock, which trades under the DJT ticker, was in mid-April when the price plummeted to $22.55 following the company’s slingshot rise in its frenzied public trading debut.

The notoriously volatile stock’s downward trajectory over the past month coincided with a swirl of seismic developments for Trump, who is both the majority stakeholder of Trump Media and a main draw for Truth Social users.

The share price surged on July 15, the first trading day after Trump was nearly assassinated at a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania.

Trump was formally nominated at the Republican National Convention two days later, bolstering the momentum he had already built up against President Joe Biden, who at the time was the presumptive Democratic nominee.

But Trump’s growing lead suddenly shrunk when Biden dropped out of the election contest on July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement to lead their party’s ticket.

The historic switch flipped betting markets’ views on who will win in November. Harris is now favored over Trump.

Trump Media has said in regulatory filings that its success is at least partly tied to Trump’s popularity and reputation.

Some Trump supporters seem to treat the company’s stock as a way to support the former president or bet on his chances of winning a second term.

On Aug. 9, Trump Media reported a loss of over $16 million for the fiscal quarter ending June 30, while posting just $837,000 in revenue in the same period.

The company attributed about half of its loss to ongoing legal expenses related to its merger with the special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp., which was delayed for more than two years after it was announced.

Despite its meager revenue, the company currently has a market capitalization of nearly $4.5 billion due to its stock price.

Trump is bound by a licensing agreement that requires him to make “non-political” social media posts on Truth Social first.

But he is free to post political messages on any site without restriction — and he has recently exercised that ability by posting on X and TikTok, two social media giants whose audiences dwarf Truth Social’s.

Trump on Aug. 12 was interviewed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a livestream on the social media app X, which Musk owns.

Trump has periodically posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, since the interview.

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It’s become a familiar sight at Starbucks cafes: a counter crowded with mobile orders, frustrated customers waiting for the drinks they ordered and overwhelmed baristas trying to keep up with it all.

Fixing that problem will likely top incoming CEO Brian Niccol’s list of tasks to turn around the struggling coffee giant when he steps into the role on Sept. 9.

Investors and executives alike have pointed to operational issues as one reason the chain’s sales have lagged in recent quarters. Other culprits for its recent same-store sales declines include a weakening consumer, boycotts and the deterioration of the Starbucks brand.

Former CEO Howard Schultz, who lacks a formal role with the company but remains involved, has also pointed the finger at the mobile app. He said it has become “the biggest Achilles heel for Starbucks,” on an episode of the “Acquired” podcast in June.

Mobile orders account for roughly one-third of Starbucks’ total sales, and tend to be more complicated. While add-ons like cold foam or syrups are more profitable for Starbucks, they tend to take up more of baristas’ time, frustrating both them and customers.

“I agree with Howard Schultz,” said Robert Byrne, senior director of consumer research for Technomic, a restaurant market research firm. “This is not in the data — this is in the store. This is where the issue lies.”

In late April, the current CEO, Laxman Narasimhan, said the company was struggling to meet demand in the morning — and scaring away some customers with long wait times.

Schultz said he experienced the problem himself when he visited a Chicago location at 8 a.m.

“Everyone shows up, and all of a sudden we got a mosh pit, and that’s not Starbucks,” Schultz said on the “Acquired” episode.

Making mobile orders more efficient is one of the key ways Niccol can reduce crowding at Starbucks.

When Schultz was building Starbucks to become the coffee behemoth it is today, he positioned it as a “third place” between work and home. Since then, the chain has lost that reputation as more customers lean on the convenience of mobile ordering and prefer not to linger at its cafes.

“Because it’s a beverage, and because I’m frequently consuming it in the car or on the go, it needs to be incredibly convenient,” Byrne said.

But Starbucks also didn’t make significant adjustments to its operations to anticipate that shift in consumer behavior.

In 2017, Schultz stepped down as CEO for the second time, handing the reins to Kevin Johnson. Prior to joining the coffee chain as its chief operating officer, Johnson served as chief executive of Juniper Networks, a tech company. Under his leadership, Starbucks invested in technology and kept growing digital sales, but restaurant operations were already struggling when he left the company.

Schultz stepped back in as interim CEO when Johnson retired in 2022.

“The company did not do a good job of anticipating the technological refinements that needed to be put in place to avoid what was happening. … The stock was at record high, the company was not investing ahead of the curve, not paying attention to the velocity of the mobile app and what it was becoming until it was too late,” Schultz said.

Shareholders have also experienced the frustration with digital orders — and see it as a critical area for Niccol to address.

“The problem you have in New York City, for example, is what is the wait time,” said Nancy Tengler, CEO and chief investment officer of Laffer Tengler Investments, which owns shares of both Starbucks and Chipotle. “And then the mobile orders taking precedence over the in-store orders. [Niccol’s] going to have to flip that somehow to get people to spend more time and more money in stores.”

The mobile-order issues have added pressure on baristas. Burnout, fueled in part by the app, helped inspire some employees to unionize, beginning in 2021.

This November, Starbucks Workers United, which now represents workers at roughly 450 of the chain’s U.S. stores, pressed the company to turn off mobile ordering when it’s running promotions. (Starbucks said at the time that it was already in the process of making the change possible.)

Digital sales aren’t the same albatross for Niccol’s current employer, Chipotle.

In its latest quarter, 35% of the company’s revenue came from online orders. The pandemic fueled a shift to online ordering that has stuck around, as the share of digital orders has jumped from 18% in 2019.

When Niccol joined Chipotle in 2018, most of its restaurants had already installed a second prep line dedicated to digital orders, aiming to avoid bottlenecks as online sales became more important to the business. That same year, it also began adding drive-thru lanes just for online order pickup, which it calls “Chipotlanes.”

In his six and a half years at Chipotle, Niccol and his executives boosted digital sales through different promotions: sports stars’ favorite orders, limited-time deals, a rewards program and the long-awaited launch of quesadillas. In particular, quesadillas became a digital-only option because they would otherwise slow down operations.

Chipotle has also been testing automation to make burrito bowls ordered through its mobile app through a partnership with robotics firm Hyphen.

Starbucks has been taking steps to speed up service and improve baristas’ work experience.

In 2022, under Schultz’s leadership, Starbucks introduced a reinvention plan that included tackling bottlenecks through new equipment and other measures to speed up service.

Narasimhan has largely stuck to that strategy. This February, its mobile app finally started showing customers the progress of their orders, giving them a better idea of when their drinks will be ready. And in late July, Starbucks rolled out its “Siren Craft System” across North America, a series of processes to make drinks faster and baristas’ jobs easier.

But the problem for Starbucks, could require more drastic measures.

For example, the equipment rollout has been slow, with roughly 40% of North American locations expected to install the new machines by the end of fiscal 2026. Speeding up that timeline could cut service times in half — as promised at the investor day in 2022 — and reduce the strain on baristas.

“It’s not an easy lift by any means to do that, like that’s going to take time and training and investment and [capital expenditure],” TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles said.

“In our view, Brian has tremendous credibility, where if he tells investors, ‘This is the answer to the problem we’re having,’ and can explain why he believes that — he’s going to get a pass,” Charles said.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday said it fined billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn and his company $2 million, settling allegations that he failed to disclose billions of dollars worth of personal margin loans pledged against the value of his Icahn Enterprises stock.

Icahn and the publicly-traded company that bears his name settled those charges without admitting or denying wrongdoing. They agreed to pay $500,000 and $1.5 million in fines, respectively, the SEC said in a press release Monday.

The SEC said that Icahn, who established himself as a ruthless corporate raider before adopting the friendlier mantle of activist investor, pledged anywhere from 51% to 82% of Icahn Enterprises, or IELP, shares outstanding to secure billions worth in margin loans without disclosing that fact to shareholders or federal regulators.

Icahn’s cumulative personal borrowing was as much as $5 billion, according to an SEC consent order.

As the effective controlling shareholder of IEP, Icahn would have been expected to make what are known as Schedule 13D filings, which typically detail what a controlling shareholder expects to do with their influence over a company. They also would have had to include information about any encumbrances, like margin loans, on a stake.

“The federal securities laws imposed independent disclosure obligations on both Icahn and IEP,” Osman Nawaz, a senior SEC official, said. “These disclosures would have revealed that Icahn pledged over half of IEP’s outstanding shares at any given time.”

Icahn’s margin borrowing was highlighted in a May 2023 report issued by short-seller Hindenburg Research, which put pressure on Icahn Enterprises’ stock after alleging that the holding company was, among other things, not estimating the value of its holdings correctly.

Icahn amended, consolidated and disclosed his margin borrowings in July, according to the SEC’s consent order, two months after the Hindenburg report.

“The government investigation that followed has resulted in this settlement which makes no claim IEP or I inflated NAV or engaged in a ‘Ponzi-like’ structure,” Icahn said in a statement to CNBC. “We are glad to put this matter behind us and will continue to focus on operating the business for the benefit of unit holders.”

Hindenburg Research wrote on X on Monday that IEP is “still operating a ponzi-like structure” and reiterated that it remains short the stock.

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The Inflation Reduction Act has sparked a manufacturing boom across the U.S., mobilizing tens of billions of dollars of investment, particularly in rural communities in need of economic development.

The future of those investments could hinge on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. The prospect of a Republican victory has shaken the confidence of some investors who worry the IRA could be weakened or in a worst-case scenario repealed.

Companies have announced $133 billion of investments in clean energy technology and electric vehicle manufacturing since President Joe Biden signed the IRA into law in August 2022, according to data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Rhodium Group.

Actual manufacturing investment has totaled $89 billion, an increase of 305% compared to the two years prior to the IRA, according to MIT and Rhodium. Overall, the IRA has leveraged half a trillion dollars of investment across the manufacturing, energy and retail sectors, according to the data.

“It is having a transformative effect within the manufacturing sector,” said Trevor Houser, a partner with the Rhodium Group. “The amount of new manufacturing activity that we’re seeing right now is unprecedented in recent history, and is in large part due to new clean energy manufacturing facilities.”

Some 271 manufacturing projects for clean energy tech and electric vehicles have been announced since the IRA passed, which will create more than 100,000 jobs if they are all completed, according to the advocacy group E2, a partner of the National Resources Defense Council. The investments sparked by the IRA have been a boon for rural communities in particular, Houser said.

“Unlike investment in AI and tech and finance, which is clustered in big cities, clean energy investment really is concentrated in rural communities, and is one of the brightest sources of new investment in those areas,” Houser said.

The IRA has also accelerated the deployment of renewable energy, with $108 billion in invested in utility-scale solar and battery storage projects. Investments in solar and battery storage have surged 56% and 130%, respectively, over the past two years, according to the Rhodium data.

“The more mature technologies, so like wind and solar generation, electric vehicles, those have achieved escape velocity,” Houser said. “They will continue to grow no matter what. It’s a question of speed.”

But the “manufacturing renaissance” is still in its early stages and remains fragile, Houser said. Without the IRA, the resurgence of new factories would not have taken off, said Chris Seiple, vice chairman of Wood Mackenzie’s power and renewables group.

Former President Donald Trump has threatened to dismantle the law as he advocates for more oil, gas and coal production.

“Upon taking office, I will impose an immediate moratorium on all new spending grants and giveaways under the Joe Biden mammoth socialist bills like the so-called Inflation Reduction Act,” Trump told supporters at a May rally in Wisconsin.

“We’re going to terminate his green new scam,” he said. “And we’re going to end this war on American energy — we’re going to drill, baby, drill.”

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DETROIT — General Motors is laying off more than 1,000 salaried employees globally in its software and services division following a review to streamline the unit’s operations, CNBC has learned.

The layoffs, including roughly 600 jobs at GM’s tech campus near Detroit, come less than six months after leadership changes overseeing the operations, including former Apple executive Mike Abbott leaving the automaker due to health reasons.

“As we build GM’s future, we must simplify for speed and excellence, make bold choices, and prioritize the investments that will have the greatest impact,” a GM spokesman said in an emailed statement. “As a result, we’re reducing certain teams within the Software and Services organization. We are grateful to those who helped establish a strong foundation that positions GM to lead moving forward.”

GM declined to disclose the entire number of layoffs, but a source familiar with the action confirmed more than 1,000 salaried employees would be laid off, including 600 in Warren, Michigan. Impacted employees were notified Monday morning.

The layoffs represent about 1.3% of the company’s global salaried workforce of 76,000 as of the end of last year. That included about 53,000 U.S. salaried employees.

The cuts come as automakers attempt to reduce costs and, in many instances, employee headcount amid fears of an industry downturn, and as they’re spending billions of dollars on emerging markets such as all-electric vehicles and so-called “software-defined vehicles.”

Software, specifically monetizing it, has been a major focus for automakers, including GM, as it eyes recurring revenue opportunities such as subscriptions to boost profits.

The software and services division covers a wide variety of areas for the automaker, including infotainment, its OnStar brand and emerging areas such as subscriptions and other vehicle features.

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Ukraine, officials said Monday, weeks after he made his first trip to Moscow since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

His forthcoming visit to Ukraine – also his first since the start of the war – comes at a crucial moment, as Kyiv’s troops push further into Russian territory in a shock military offensive that stunned even Kyiv’s closest allies.

Modi has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Ukraine, without condemning Russia’s aerial campaign or denouncing the ground invasion. India has also abstained from all resolutions on Ukraine at the United Nations.

India remains heavily reliant on the Kremlin for its military equipment and has ramped up purchases of discounted Russian crude oil, giving Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nation a major financial lifeline as it faces isolation from the West.

Modi visited Putin in July, a sign that the two nations remain close. Images and video showed the two leaders hugging, chatting over tea, riding in an electric vehicle and watching a horse show.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the meeting that coincided with a brazen assault on several Ukrainian cities and a deadly strike on a children’s hospital.

The Ukrainian leader described the meeting as a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day.”

Modi did not address the strikes directly during his trip, but did say solutions to conflict are unlikely to come through war, but rather peace and dialogue. The remarks appeared to be his most critical comments to date against Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Whether it’s conflict, war or terror, any person who believes in humanity is troubled when there are deaths, especially when innocent children die,” Modi said while seated alongside the Russian president.

“As a friend, I have always said that peace is necessary for the prosperity of future generations, but I also know that on the battlefield, solutions aren’t easy to come by between guns, bombs and bullets. We have to adopt a path to peace through dialogue,” he added.

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