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A bill to avert a partial government shutdown that was backed by President-elect Trump failed to pass the House of Representatives on Thursday night.

Congress is inching closer to the possibility of a partial shutdown, with the deadline coming at the end of Friday.

The bill needed two-thirds of the House chamber to pass, but failed to even net a majority. Two Democrats voted with the majority of Republicans to pass the bill, while 38 GOP lawmakers bucked Trump to oppose it.

The margin fell 174 to 235.

It comes after two days of chaos in Congress as lawmakers fought among themselves about a path forward on government spending – a fight joined by Trump and his allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Meanwhile, the national debt has climbed to over $36 trillion, and the national deficit is over $1.8 trillion.

The legislation was hastily negotiated on Thursday after GOP hardliners led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy rebelled against an initial bipartisan deal that would have extended the government funding deadline until March 14 and included a host of unrelated policy riders.

The new deal also includes several key policies unrelated to keeping the government open, but the 116-page bill is much narrower than its 1,547-page predecessor.

Like the initial bill, the new iteration extended the government funding deadline through March 14 while also suspending the debt limit – something Trump had pushed for.

It proposed to suspend the debt limit for two years until January 2027, still keeping it in Trump’s term but delaying that fight until after the 2026 Congressional midterm elections.

The new proposal also included roughly $110 billion in disaster relief aid for Americans affected by storms Milton and Helene, as well as a measure to cover the cost of rebuilding Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was hit by a barge earlier this year.

Excluded from the second-round measure is the first pay raise for congressional lawmakers since 2009 and a measure aimed at revitalizing Washington, D.C.’s RFK stadium.

The text of the new bill was also significantly shorter – going from 1,547 pages to just 116.

‘All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote ‘YES’ for this Bill, TONIGHT!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

But the bill hit opposition before the legislative text was even released.

Democrats, furious at Johnson for reneging on their original bipartisan deal, chanted ‘Hell no’ in their closed-door conference meeting on Thursday night to debate the bill.

Nearly all House Democrats who left the meeting indicated they were voting against it.

Meanwhile, members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus also said they would vote against the bill.

‘Old bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid for), $0 increase in the national credit card. New bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid for), $4 TRILLION+ debt ceiling increase with $0 in structural reforms for cuts. Time to read the bill: 1.5 hours. I will vote no,’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote on X.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

When athleisure brand Vuori launched in 2015, it was headquartered in a garage, sold only men’s shorts and couldn’t get investors to give it the time of day. 

Now, the Carlsbad, California, retailer is expanding globally, backed by a string of marquee investors including General Atlantic, SoftBank and Norwest Venture Partners, after raising $825 million in November in a funding round that valued the company at $5.5 billion.  

It’s become the envy of incumbents such as Lululemon, Gap’s Athleta and Levi’s Beyond Yoga, and it’s poised to be one of the retail industry’s biggest IPOs when it eventually files to go public, which people close to the company say it plans to do.

“It’s a notable deal for the category it’s in … you haven’t seen many deals in that market at all over the last couple of years, and the deals that have happened have been more, I’d say, challenged, or more at value-oriented situations,” Matthew Tingler, a managing director in Baird’s global consumer and retail investment banking group, said of the recent funding round.

“Vuori’s bringing a lot of excitement and growth to the market,” added Tingler, an expert in the athletic apparel space who wasn’t involved in the transaction. “In ways, they’ve been taking share in that athleisure market broadly … they’re challenging the legacy players of Athleta and Lululemon.” 

As Vuori went from a no-name brand to one of the most highly valued private apparel retailers on the planet, it saw robust sales growth and consistent profitability, winning over consumers in a crowded space with its coastal California take on athleisure.

“Vuori competes on a differentiated product, a differentiated brand, a differentiated store experience, differentiated materials,” Vuori CEO and founder Joe Kudla told CNBC in an interview. “If you were to just survey our customer base [and ask], ‘Why is Vuori so special?’ They would tell you it’s because of our product, it’s because of the comfort, the textile, the fabrics we work with, and the fit. We are all about product, product, product, and that’s ultimately what results in great performance in our industry.” 

Despite its success, Vuori faces challenges ahead. The company operates in a crowded athleisure space that analysts aren’t sure will grow as quickly as it has in the past. Some see it as one of the fastest-growing apparel categories, while others expect it to slow as consumers look to dress up after years of dressing down.

Customers also seem to be worrying about whether Vuori’s products will stay the same as it scales and faces the demands of being a publicly traded company.

“If you go look at message boards right now, the thing that consumers of Vuori are most concerned about is, is the quality of the fabric going to fall?” said Liston Pitman, a strategy director with Eatbigfish and an expert in challenger brands. “Are they going to water down the brand that I love as an exchange for growth?”

Plus, Vuori faces the same issues as other consumer discretionary companies. Retailers have been forced to work harder to win customer dollars, and demand has been unsteady as consumers think twice before buying things that may be wants rather than needs.

Since it is still private, not much is known about Vuori’s financial performance. But analysts estimate that it generates around $1 billion in annual revenue, and the company says it has been profitable since 2017. 

While its sales are a fraction of the $431 billion global athleisure market, Vuori has seen steady growth and has outperformed the overall sportswear market at least since 2020, according to data from Euromonitor and sales estimates from Earnest. As of the end of October, Vuori has grown sales by 23% so far this year at a time when the overall sportswear market is expected to grow by 4.3%. Last year, it grew 44% while the sportswear market expanded by only 2.4%. 

Retail analyst Randy Konik, a managing director with Jefferies, said Vuori and fellow upstart Alo Yoga have been so successful in part because they’re taking share from Lululemon, which he said has alienated its primary customer base as it has expanded into new categories. 

“Five years ago, Alo and Vuori were … nothing burgers, and that’s when Lululemon was growing 20% a year, whatever it is, or more. Today, you look at the numbers and you’re like, wait a second, the business is flat,” said Konikreferring to Lululemon’s largest market, the Americas. “It’s not growing, and yet it’s coinciding with the hypergrowth of Alo and Vuori. So … in my opinion, the data proves that that is a market share issue.”

Analytics firm GlobalData found that Lululemon’s customers are now spending more at Vuori than they did previously. In 2018, 1.2% of Lululemon’s customers shopped at Vuori, but that number grew to 7.8% as of the end of November.

Last week, the longtime category leader gave a cautious outlook for the all-important holiday shopping season as it contends with slowing growth and product missteps. It wasn’t asked about the competitive threats it’s facing but acknowledged that its core customer is slowing down. 

Vuori’s valuation and interest from private equity come as investors flee the consumer sector. Its success has left some industry observers scratching their heads and wondering: How can a leggings and joggers company be worth this much, in this economy? Analysts say it comes down to Vuori’s business model, its ability to grow profitably and its product assortment, which has resonated with shoppers.

Kudla said the company was laser focused on growing profitably from the beginning because it really didn’t have another choice. Unlike other direct-to-consumer brands that were raising piles of cash at the time, investors weren’t interested in the mens-only brand that Kudla was pitching.

So he was forced to bootstrap the company using funding from family and friends. 

“We developed a working capital model that would self-fund the business, and so we were built very counter to the trend of the time, and that resulted in a really great business with a lot of discipline,” said Kudla, who was a CPA for Ernst & Young before he got into fashion. “I managed the entire business through this complicated spreadsheet, so every decision that I made, I could forecast the cash-flow impact six months from today.” 

To save money, Kudla didn’t pay himself for two years, ran the business out of a garage and hired employees who were willing to trade equity for compensation. Perhaps most importantly, he developed partnerships with his suppliers, which alleviated the cash-intensive burden of acquiring inventory and paying for it up front. 

“I started treating our suppliers like they were investors in the business, and really helping them see the vision for what we were building,” said Kudla. “I was able to convince our early factory partners to give us really great terms so that I could receive the inventory, sell it, collect cash from my wholesale partners, or sell it direct to consumer and then pay for the inventory, and that strategy ultimately led me to building a working capital model that self-funded our growth.” 

While Vuori started out as a purely online business, Kudla wasn’t precious about partnering with wholesalers at a time when many founders in the direct-to-consumer space were against the idea. By getting his products on the shelves at REI in the brand’s early days, he was able to build awareness and acquire customers in a way that didn’t drain Vuori’s balance sheet. 

“We got profitable in 2017, we started generating free cash flow … there was no institutional capital involved in our business, no venture money involved in our business, until 2019, when we were already very profitable and on a pretty strong growth trajectory,” said Kudla. 

Years later, Kudla’s approach almost feels prescient. Many of the DTC peers that Vuori came up with are now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, unable to make the unit economics of their business work. Investors no longer have patience for companies that have no path to profitability.

Now, most brands and retailers recognize that selling only online often doesn’t work. It has proven critical to partner with wholesalers and open up stores, alongside building direct channels online.

“I like how [Vuori is] going about growth,” said Jessica Ramirez, senior research analyst at Jane Hali & Associates. “With REI, it was one of their top accounts, and I feel like it was a different way of going into wholesale, but very targeted wholesale, so knowing that that is a customer that would be purchasing a particular kind of activewear.”

Vuori’s investment from General Atlantic and Stripes in November is further evidence of a robust balance sheet. The deal was structured as a secondary tender offer, which allowed early investors to sell their shares and cash in. None of it went to the balance sheet, and Vuori didn’t need new funding for its aggressive growth plans, which include expanding into Europe and Asia and having 100 stores by 2026, said Kudla. 

“We’re going to continue growing the business the same way we’ve always grown the business, which is very calculated with a lot of discipline,” he said. 

In many ways, the brands jostling for share in the crowded athleisure space can blur together. They all sell leggings, they all sell sports bras, and they’re all looking to win over consumers with their unique blend of comfort, style and performance. The same can be said for the broader apparel industry, which is why having products that stand out separates the industry’s winners and losers.

Fans of Vuori say the brand’s quality, fit, fabric and comfort are what sets it apart from competitors and keeps them coming back. Meanwhile, product missteps at Lululemon have been blamed for a sales slowdown in its largest region, the Americas. 

In the three months ended April 28, Lululemon’s comparable sales in the Americas were flat after the company failed to offer the right color assortment in leggings and the sizes that customers desired. 

In early July, Lululemon launched its new Breezethrough leggings, designed for hot yoga classes, but ended up yanking them from the shelves after it received complaints about the product’s unflattering fit. Its lack of desirable new products is also limiting how much Lululemon’s core customer is spending with the brand, the company said when reporting fiscal third-quarter earnings Dec. 5. The company said it expects its assortment to be back in line with historical levels in 2025, which Truist anticipates will be the “key driver” for better U.S. sales, especially as it laps easier comparisons from the year-ago period. 

“It seems that they’ve snoozed on where the customer is going … you have to remember that today’s consumer isn’t necessarily a loyal consumer,” said Ramirez.

“Fabric does matter, movement matters … if someone you know mentions there’s another brand that, ‘Oh, you know it held me in better, or I was able to run quicker, I didn’t sweat as much, I didn’t feel as gross,’ these very, like, small things that do matter in your performance, people will give them a try.”

— Additional reporting by Natalie Rice

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

The fate of President Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, is in the hands of the incoming Republican-controlled White House, Senate and House of Representatives.

At the White House level, President-elect Donald Trump has already nominated three people to posts in his administration who are likely to be key to the future of the IRA, if they are confirmed by the Senate: hedge fund executive Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary, oilfield services company Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy, and at the Interior Department, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Any full repeal of the IRA would have to be passed by both chambers of Congress, where Republican lawmakers so far have been reluctant to completely discredit the law’s benefits. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told CNBC in September that he would use “a scalpel and not a sledgehammer” on the IRA.

There’s a good reason for this approach: As of late October, roughly three quarters of the clean energy investments that have been made with IRA funds benefitted congressional districts that backed Trump in the 2020 presidential election, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the clean energy think tank Rhodium Group.

But what future Trump Cabinet members would do is also “pretty profoundly important” to the future of the massive legislation, said Tanuj Deora, a former director for clean energy at the Biden administration’s Office of the Federal Chief Sustainability Officer. The agencies hold considerable power over the interpretation and implementation of the IRA’s programs and incentives, like tax credits and business loans. 

A priority for Republicans going into 2025 is extending the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Trump is looking to extend the tax cuts within his first 100 days in office next year.

This extension would cost $4.6 trillion over the 10-year budget window, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

“In addition, Trump promised another seven to eight trillion in tax breaks during the last few weeks of the [presidential] campaign,” said Keith Martin, co-head of projects at the law and lobbying firm Norton Rose Fulbright.

The money for all this has to come from somewhere, however, and experts say provisions of the IRA are the most likely candidates for potential cost-savings. In an interview with the Financial Times last October, Bessent called the IRA “the Doomsday machine for the deficit,” suggesting that Trump could dismantle it to cut spending.

The IRA contains a range of targeted tax incentives designed to drive clean technology and energy production across the country.

Among them, the renewable energy tax credits, especially those for carbon capture technologies, domestic manufacturing and the green economy job transition are well-liked by Republicans, Martin said, and likely to be safe from any potential repeal efforts. 

But the current phase-out dates for the IRA tax credits are likely to be accelerated, experts predict, and the Trump transition team is already in talks to completely dismantle a $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicles.

Most of the final rules governing implementation of the IRA tax credits have either been finalized or are expected to be by the end of the year.

But there is still considerable fear that the remaining money could be rescinded, frozen or “awarded in ways that are aligned with a shift in priorities” in a new administration, said Julie McNamara, deputy policy director of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Theoretically, a future Treasury could reverse course on interpretation and implementation, but that would take a long time and would need to be justifiable and defensible if challenged in the courts,” she added.

The more immediate concern, experts say, is the future of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO), which provides financing for green projects. While Wright has yet to voice an opinion on the LPO, several Republicans have called for scaling it back or doing away with it altogether.

As of November, private companies were seeking more than $300 billion in funding applications from the LPO. Beneficiaries of the loan program have included Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk is co-heading Trump’s outside advisory council, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The Inflation Reduction Act expanded the LPO’s lending authority and eligibility requirements for projects.

“I think that a lot of the private sector is very concerned about the loan program,” said Claire Broido-Johnson, co-founder and president of Sunrock Distributed Generation, a financier and developer of commercial-scale solar projects. “Everybody’s trying to slam as many projects as they possibly can into this process before the administration changes.”

With the boom in AI data centers, domestic manufacturing and electrification, the U.S. is facing “a significant challenge in meeting a growing demand for energy,” said Frank Macchiarola, chief policy officer of the American Clean Power Association, which represents renewable energy interests in Washington.

This demand can only be met by an “all-of-the-above” energy policy, Martin says, especially if Trump is planning to reduce energy prices by 50% within his first year, as he promised.

Trump’s potential Cabinet officials in the energy space are consistent with that message, according to both Macchiarola and Deora.

“Burgum has a pretty clear track record in being supportive of all kinds of energy investment and given the very real need for more energy infrastructure of all types, it seems hard to imagine that somebody of his background and his business competence and his governance competence would try to suppress any reasonable technology from being deployed as quickly as possible,” Deora said. 

North Dakota is one of the leading states in wind energy, utilizing the source for more than one-third of the state’s electricity.

As for Wright, although he has denied the existence of a climate crisis, he worked in the solar industry as well as oil and gas, according to Trump’s statement announcing his nomination.

“He’s not necessarily against any technology, he’s just going to be for certain technologies,” Deora said. 

Ultimately, an all-of-the-above approach to energy would effectively defeat the purpose of climate policy, even though it might sound reassuring to sectors that would be negatively impacted by a targeted attack on renewables.

“Climate change isn’t about how many solar panels we put up. Climate change is how much carbon dioxide and methane that we do not admit,” said Deora.

“The concern isn’t about whether we keep business and keep solar developers happy. This is really about, are we going to produce more fossil fuels?”

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Malls used to be the destination for the buzziest stores. Now they’re home to the hottest restaurants.

The slow death of department stores and rise of online shopping have hurt U.S. shopping malls, particularly over the last decade. The once-essential shopping centers have seen their numbers drop from a peak of 2,500 in the 1980s to roughly 700 these days, according to Coresight Research.

But now many in the retail industry say that rumors of the mall’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Many Gen Z consumers prefer to shop in person and love the mall experience. Creative solutions from developers have turned empty department stores into housing, bringing consumers even closer to stores.

And landlords are devoting more square footage to restaurants and bars, which have become a bigger draw to visit malls.

“It’s been a big shift,” said David Henkes, senior principal at Technomic, a market research firm focused on the restaurant industry. “It used to be that the shopping occasion drove people to the mall and then maybe you grabbed a bite to eat. In a lot of ways, that’s been flipped on its head. Now, the dining options drive people there, and then you’re hoping that they’re going to do a little shopping while they’re there.”

Yelp found that 17 of the 25 most popular mall brands, based on consumer interest, were restaurants, according to a report published in October.

Going back 10 or 20 years ago, restaurants accounted for only about 5% to 10% of general leasing area in malls operated by Brookfield Properties, according to Chris Brandon, the company’s senior vice president of leasing for eating and drinking retail. That would typically include a food court and several full-service restaurants. That’s changed in recent years.

“It’s increased an incredible amount over the last five to 10 years,” Brandon said. “In some of our shopping centers, we’re seeing 20% to 30% of the total [general leasing area] being dedicated to food, and that’s 100% by design.”

Brookfield’s portfolio of 129 malls include Tysons Galleria in McLean, Virginia; Christiana Mall in Newark, Delaware; and First Colony Mall in Sugar Land, Texas. Its mall restaurant tenants include more than 540 full-service eateries and around 2,000 fast-casual establishments.

More than half a century ago, the Paramus Park shopping mall in New Jersey opened a food court on its second floor, becoming the first example of a successful mall food court in the U.S. A decade later, food courts had become of a staple of the American mall, helping the expansion of chains like Sbarro, Mrs. Fields and Auntie Anne’s.

Full-service chains like the Cheesecake Factory, TGI Fridays and California Pizza Kitchen also became mall mainstays.

But those familiar names are no longer the only options for shoppers. These days, malls offer a much wider selection of eateries and refreshments, from regional restaurants to local chefs and emerging bubble tea chains.

“What malls are looking for tend to be more high end, what we might call a ‘contemporary casual’ restaurant,” Henkes said. “It’s not fine dining, per se, but it’s sort of that notch up from just traditional casual.”

Those contemporary casual eateries include upscale options like Korean barbeque, steakhouses or sushi. While price points vary, a meal at these new mall eateries will likely cost upward of $30 per person, if not more.

For James Cook, head of retail research for real estate firm JLL, the expansion in dining options offers an experience that’s familiar — but still elevated.

“The distinction that I make is that I’m not necessarily dressing up nice to go to a mall,” he said. “This is a restaurant where I could pay more money, but not necessarily feel like I have to wear a suit jacket or anything like that.”

The pandemic also made malls a more attractive option to restaurateurs.

During lockdowns, operators saw their traffic disappear. Even when consumers started dining out and commuting again, restaurants in central business districts still struggled to attract diners, given the new hybrid workforce and other changes to consumer behavior. But malls bounced back.

“Even today, foot traffic to suburban malls is back above pre-pandemic levels, where in the cities and the city centers, foot traffic has not returned,” JLL’s Cook said.

That foot traffic also appeals to emerging chains that are looking to expand quickly. Restaurant companies like Sweetgreen and Mendocino Farms have opened new locations in malls as they seek to grow their sales and brand awareness.

“The one thing that our properties can offer is scale, and scale really quickly. If they’re used to doing X in their food truck, now they’re doing X times two or three,” Brandon said.

For example, Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese restaurant chain, has honed in on malls for its U.S. expansion, according to Alison Lin, Yelp’s head of restaurants. Upcoming locations will open in Scottsdale Fashion Square in Arizona and Brea Mall in Southern California, according to the chain’s website. Din Tai Fung ranked second in Yelp’s report on most popular mall brands by consumer interest. (Din Tai Fung declined to comment).

As malls devote more space to food and drinks, food courts have been supplemented by a newer, more upscale alternative: food halls.

Like food courts, food halls offer an array of dining options, usually from stalls, with general seating available once diners have purchased and picked up their food and drinks.

But unlike food courts, the halls typically offer more expensive options, usually touting ties to local chefs and promising more interesting cuisine than that found at a food court. While a food court sells fare from national chains, food halls typically stick to local vendors that have few locations.

“A food court is to give you a burger, fries or a slice of pizza to keep you shopping longer at the mall,” Cook said. “A food hall is part of the experience.”

Oftentimes, food halls feature multiple vendors. But Eataly is one exception.

The Italian chain sells itself as a trip to Italy, without the plane ride. Its large locations feature full-service restaurants; artisanal groceries; quick-service counters that sell gelato, pizza and espresso; along with cooking classes. Eight of Eataly’s 13 U.S. locations are in malls, with more on the way next year.

Eataly’s North American CEO Tommaso Bruso joined the company last year after two decades in the fashion industry, leading mall brands like Benetton and Diesel.

“People go to the mall for shopping, but also they go for a cultural experience,” Bruso said, adding that Eataly has found success with consumers both in and outside of malls.

But food halls haven’t won over everyone. Brandon said that food courts have performed better for Brookfield’s malls. He pointed to Chick-fil-A and Panda Express as two tenants that typically see strong sales in food courts. In 2023, the average annual revenue for a mall location of a Chick-fil-A was $4.5 million; the chain’s best-performing mall restaurant raked in nearly $19 million in annual sales, according to franchise disclosure documents.

Even with more competition than ever for shoppers, The Cheesecake Factory has managed to stay on top. And it’s showing how restaurants can help a broader mall.

The chain, known for its comprehensive menu and towering columns, was ranked No. 1 in Yelp’s mall brand report.

It’s been a rocky year for the company. Like many restaurants, the chain has struggled to attract diners, many of whom have pulled back their restaurant spending. In its latest quarter, the company’s same-store sales grew just 1.6%. Activist investors have also been putting pressure on the company to spin off its smaller brands, like North Italia. (The Cheesecake Factory declined to comment.)

Still, the company is outperforming the broader casual-dining category, based on metrics provided by industry tracker Black Box Intelligence.

Shares of the Cheesecake Factory have risen 43% this year, outstripping the S&P 500′s gains of 27% over the same period.

While fellow mall staples like California Pizza Kitchen and TGI Fridays have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in recent years, the Cheesecake Factory has escaped the same fate.

And it’s maybe even helped its landlords’ finances. Enclosed malls with a Cheesecake Factory location are more likely to be current on their loan payments, according to a Moody’s Analytics report from 2023. Author Matt Reidy, director of commercial real estate economics for Moody’s, said it was more likely the result the company’s strong site selection, rather than cheesecakes saving a mall.

Still, Reidy said having one of the restaurant’s locations helps. And Brookfield’s Brandon agrees.

“My god, are they productive. It’s pretty incredible what they’re able to do, and they’re a valued partner of ours. We have dozens of leases with them, and we truly value them as a tenant,” he said.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Toxicology tests on the ingredients of drinks consumed by seven tourists who fell ill in Fiji showed “no methanol or illicit substances,” authorities on the South Pacific island said Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Viliame R. Gavoka delivered the update with an apology to the tourists that their holiday to the luxury destination had ended “on such a note.”

Fiji has been in damage-control mode since seven tourists, including four Australians, suffered nausea, vomiting and “neurological symptoms” after reportedly drinking piña colada cocktails at a bar inside the upscale Warwick Fiji resort on Saturday.

It’s still not clear what caused their illness, but Gavoka, who is also the island’s tourism minister, said all seven tourists – ages 18 to 56 – had since been discharged from medical care and had “fully recovered.”

The case comes just weeks after six tourists died from methanol poisoning in Laos, in a case that prompted safety warnings about consuming alcohol abroad, and heightened alert among travelers about the content of locally brewed spirits.

Sydney resident David Sandoe told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation earlier this week that he’d received a call saying his daughter and granddaughter were among those hospitalized. He said they were among a group of people who drank a piña colada cocktail before falling ill.

“There was a group of them in the lounge of this resort and they had a similar cocktail and unfortunately, seven people came down with the symptoms that have been talked about,” Sandoe said. His relatives have since returned home.

Gavoka assured travelers earlier this week that the incident was “extremely isolated.”

“No other incidents have been reported either at the resort, or across Fiji. The resort has been operating in Fiji successfully for many years and holds a strong reputation, particularly among our Australian visitors,” he said in a statement.

The Warwick Hotels and Resorts operates luxury accommodation worldwide, including in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

In a statement Tuesday, Warwick Resort Management said the incident was “unprecedented” during the 40 years it had been operating in Fiji.

“We want to reassure all our visitors that we maintain the highest standards of food and beverage safety,” the statement said.

Almost one million tourists visit the remote Pacific Island each year to experience its tropical beaches. It’s generally considered a safe place to travel, though after the incident Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs updated its advice to warn visitors to the island about the danger of drink spiking and methanol poisoning.

In November, the deaths of two Australian teenagers, a British woman, an American man and two Danish women after drinking shots in Laos, in Southeast Asia, prompted warnings from several Western nations about the potentially fatal consequences of drinking tainted alcohol.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Israel’s military struck Houthi targets in Yemen early on Thursday, just hours after the Iran-backed militant group launched its latest attack on Israel.

The Israeli airstrikes, including on ports and energy infrastructure in the capital Sanaa, were retaliation for Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel over the past year, most of which were intercepted, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV said the Israeli strikes targeted the Heyzaz and Dhahban power stations near the capital, and the Hodeidah port and Ras Isa oil facility, where casualties were reported.

Tensions between Israel and the Houthis have escalated for months as Israel wages its war on Hamas in Gaza following the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attacks – with world leaders warning of the potential for a wider Middle East conflict.

Earlier Thursday, sirens were heard in central Israel after the Israeli military intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, the IDF said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

A teen charged with killing three girls and wounding 10 other people in a stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England this summer remained silent in court Wednesday as not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, who has refused to speak in each court appearance, was read the charges of three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and additional charges related to possessing the poison ricin and for having an al-Qaida manual.

Justice Julian Goose ordered a clerk to enter the pleas in Liverpool Crown Court as Rudakubana stayed mum during a video appearance from a London prison where he is held.

His trial is scheduled for Jan. 20.

It was the first time in a court appearance that the teen did not pull his sweatshirt collar over his nose to obscure his face.

He appeared to smile as an officer confirmed that the court proceeding could be heard at the prison. The judge noted that Rudakubana was not responding. He swayed from side to side as the charges were read and bent forward at one point.

Rudakubana was charged in August with murdering three girls — Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6 — and stabbing 10 other people on July 29 in the seaside town of Southport in northern England.

The attack at a small dance and yoga studio on the first day of summer vacation sparked rioting across England and Northern Ireland fueled by far-right activists that lasted a week.

The violence, which injured more than 300 police officers and led to fiery attacks on hotels housing migrants, began after Rudakubana — then unnamed –-was falsely identified as an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in Britain by boat.

Rudakubana was born in Wales to Rwandan immigrants.

More than 1,200 people were arrested for the disorder that lasted a week and hundreds have been jailed for up to nine years in prison.

A report released Wednesday was critical of police for failing to recognize the threat of violent disorder after a number of smaller incidents across the U.K. in the previous two years.

The report from the Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services said there were also lapses in gathering intelligence from social media and the dark web.

Rudakubana was charged in October with additional counts for production of a biological toxin, ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism for having the manual in a document on his computer.

Police have said the stabbings have not been classified as acts of terrorism because the motive is not yet known.

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Ukraine has developed a laser weapon capable of shooting down targets from more than a mile away, the country’s drone force commander has claimed

Speaking at a defense summit in Kyiv this week, Vadym Sukharevskyi, Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems said, “Today, we can already shoot down aircraft with this laser at an altitude of over 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).”

“It truly works, it truly exists,” he said, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported, adding that efforts were being made to enhance the weapon’s scale and capabilities.

The laser is named the Tryzub, or Ukrainian for “trident,” a nod to Ukraine’s national symbol representing independence, strength, and unity.

“This is particularly achievable by using commercial, off-the-shelf welding lasers combined with other available technologies,” Senft said, pointing to the US Navy’s Laser Weapons System (LaWS) that has operated at comparable ranges since 2014.

Senft explained that laser directed-energy weapons (DEW) were particularly effective against slow, low-flying drones deployed by Russia, as those drones consist of comparatively fragile components that are vulnerable to heat.

Low-flying UAVs, like the Shahed-136/Geran-2 one-way-attack drones’ low altitude and steady flight pattern “make them particularly susceptible to sustained laser exposure,” Senft said, “as the weapon can concentrate energy on a specific point to destroy critical components.”

Senft added that such weapons had two key limitations, related to how fast their target is traveling and how the lasers lose energy the farther they travel. Faster-moving or heat-resistant targets (e.g., artillery shells, ballistic missiles) are much harder to neutralize and demand a more advanced system, he said.

Fabien Hoffmann of the Oslo Nuclear Project (ONP) said there were several technical challenges to deploying an effective laser system to counter drones or missiles.

“These challenges include overcoming issues related to laser beam strength and the cooling of the system, atmospheric absorption and reflection of the laser beam (e.g., due to clouds or rain), and a phenomenon known as ‘thermal blooming.’ Thermal blooming occurs when the laser beam heats the surrounding air, causing it to spread out, which reduces its power and effectiveness at damaging the target,” he said.

“To assess how effective it is in a missile defense role, we’ll need to see how it performs in practice,” Hoffmann added.

Only a few countries are understood to be in possession of laser weapons, including the US, China and Israel.

The UK is also currently developing its own laser weapons system, called the DragonFire, which is set to be operational in 2027.

In April, former Defense Minister Grant Shapps said that the DragonFire could potentially be used in Ukraine to counter Russian drones, Reuters reported.

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China and India agreed on Wednesday to work on easing their long-running border dispute, as the two Asian giants resumed a formal high-level dialogue for the first time in five years.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met in Beijing on Wednesday, the first time they held formal talks as their countries’ special representatives on border issues since late 2019.

The meeting follows an agreement the two countries reached in October on military disengagement and patrolling arrangements along parts of their contested border, where the two nuclear-armed rivals have engaged in a tense standoff since a deadly clash in 2020.

A statement from China’s Foreign Ministry said Wang and Doval reaffirmed their commitment to seek a package of solutions to the border dispute that were “fair, reasonable and acceptable to both sides.”

They vowed to continue to implement the disengagement agreement and emphasized that the dispute should be handled properly, to “avoid impacting the development of bilateral ties.”

“Both sides agreed to continue taking measures to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas and to promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations,” the Chinese statement said.

The two officials also agreed to strengthen cross-border exchanges, including the resumption of trips by Indian pilgrims to Tibet, cross-border river cooperation and border trade at Nathula, a mountain pass in the Indian state of Sikkim, according to the statement.

A statement from India’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the broad details of the meeting, adding that the ministers “emphasised the need to ensure peaceful conditions on the ground so that issues on the border do not hold back the normal development of bilateral relations.”

“Drawing on the learnings from the events of 2020, they discussed various measures to maintain peace and tranquility on the border and advance effective border management,” the Indian statement added.

The latest effort to ease tensions between the two neighbors comes amid China’s diplomatic charm offensive to mend ties with several American allies and partners, including Japan and Australia, in the lead-up to US President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Ties between China and India have been strained severely since June 2020, when a bloody hand-to-hand battle in the Galwan Valley killed at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.

Both India and China maintain a significant military presence along their 2,100-mile (3,379-kilometer) de facto border, known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which has never been clearly defined and has remained a source of friction since a bloody war between the two countries in 1962.

The clash four years ago along the disputed border between Indian Ladakh and Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin caused the conflict’s first known fatalities in more than four decades.

Since then, the two sides have held rounds of border talks to defuse tensions, but friction points have remained, including in areas that both sides previously patrolled but which have since become so-called buffer zones.

The border patrol agreement reached in October is seen by experts as a positive development. It was struck just days before Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in Kazan, Russia, on the sidelines of a BRICS summit.

During their meeting on Wednesday, Wang told Doval that the “hard-won” resumption of their dialogue was a “timely and powerful measure” to implement the consensus reached by Xi and Modi in October.

“The two leaders of the two countries emphasized viewing China-India relations from a strategic and long-term perspective. At a critical moment, they recalibrated the course and clarified the direction for the recovery and development of China-India relations,” Wang was quoted as saying in a separate statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

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Israel captured the strategically important mountain, Syria’s highest peak, following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime to a rebel-led coalition earlier this month. Israeli officials including Netanyahu had initially characterized the advance as a temporary security measure.

The source said Netanyahu’s order was intended to keep forces in place long enough for the political-security situation in Syria to stabilize. He is also waiting, the source said, for clarity on whether Syria’s new leaders intend to honor a 1974 agreement that created a buffer zone along the shared border, on which Mount Hermon’s summit sits. Until the takeover, the summit was demilitarized and patrolled by UN peacekeepers – their highest permanent position in the world.

Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, accused Israel of crossing “the lines of engagement” with its actions in Syria. Meanwhile, several Arab states have accused Israel of exploiting instability in Syria to execute a land grab and “occupy more Syrian territories.”

Netanyahu however has doubled down on the security need for control of the area saying that “Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities” in the occupied Golan Heights, an area in southwestern Syria that abuts Mount Hermon and which Israel captured and later annexed in 1981.

Just this past Sunday, the Israeli government approved a plan by Netanyahu to expand settlements in the Golan Heights, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office, saying that was “out of a desire to double the population” there.

Mount Hermon is a strategic position that overlooks Lebanon, Syria and Israel. It’s also just over 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) from Damascus, which means that control of its Syrian foothills – also currently in the hands of Israeli troops – put the Syrian capital within artillery range.

Mostafa Salem and Nadeen Ebrahim contributed to this report.

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