Author: Editor

The CEO of one of France’s largest supermarket chains, and one of the world’s largest retailers, said that 50 of its stores were targeted by rioters on Saturday.Alexandre Bompard, who leads Carrefour, France’s version of Walmart, took to X on Sunday to condemn the riots and commend his employees as France reels from widespread civil unrest and looting.”Nothing can justify such violence,” Bompard said on X in French. “Those who attack the work tools of courageous entrepreneurs and their teams in this way must face an uncompromising response.””The Republic must protect its shopkeepers!” he added.Riots swept across France on Saturday…

When California voters head to the polls next month, they’ll be asked whether to adopt a new proposal that calls for billionaires to be taxed like never before. Jo Ling Kent shares what Proposition 40 is all about: “There’s never been a proposal like this anywhere in the world, so it’s a novel idea,” said healthcare workers union leader Dave Regan. “We are facing an emergency.”An emergency that began, according to Regan, with President Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which includes cuts targeting federal funds to Medicaid over the next few years. “What we’re trying to do is restore $100…

When my husband and I bought our apartment in Kyiv back in 2017, we were thrilled to finally have a family nest of our own. It was a cozy, 500-square-foot place with one bedroom, and we meticulously planned to optimize every inch of it. Our kitchen table doubled as my workspace, and our living room couch became the guest bed whenever family stayed over. Hosting required pure creative problem-solving and, with limited seating around our small table, I’d sometimes feed guests in shifts. It was chaotic at times, but I didn’t mind. After our son was born, bright plastic toys,…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Andrew Koller, 31, a freelance camera operator who purchased a home in Yamagata, Japan, in March. Koller, who’s based in Edmonton, Canada, renovated the home and plans to use it as a vacation home. The following has been edited for length and clarity.Like a lot of millennials, I was exposed to Japanese culture in some sense early on with “Naruto,” “Pokemon,” and “Dragon Ball Z.” After that, I don’t think my interest really left.Come 2020, I had a bunch of time on my hands like everybody else. It seemed like a…

For most of my career, I was a lawyer. There was something reassuring about how expertise worked in law. The longer I practiced, the more I knew.But after years in a demanding profession, I burned out. It wasn’t that I stopped enjoying law. I just needed a change.Around two years ago, I started shifting my career toward AI because I thought it was the future. I didn’t want to wake up 10 years later and realize technology had changed my profession without me.It seemed like the smartest career move I could make. Now, I’m not so sure.Joining the AI boom…

The credibility concernWhen questions began swirling about new (and now former) White House press secretary Katie Zacharia’s legal credentials, a colleague asked the obvious question: Why should anyone care?She was hired to be President Donald Trump’s spokesperson, not his lawyer. Does it really matter if she overstated her qualifications?It does.She was let go on Friday, five days after starting the job. That’s half the time Anthony Scaramucci infamously lasted as White House communications director during Trump’s first term.Zacharia was widely panned for her performance during her first (and final) press briefing on Monday, as well as for misrepresenting herself as…

Berkshire Hathaway’s latest bet isn’t a no-brainer or a head-scratcher; it’s somewhere in between.What’s the deal?Berkshire — which has seen Warren Buffett retire as CEO and chairman since the turn of the year — has agreed to invest $330 million in Bending Spoons, on top of a $600 million injection when the Italian tech conglomerate went public in July, giving the Nebraska behemoth a 4% stake.Bending Spoons disclosed Berkshire’s backing in a press release on Wednesday, catapulting its stock up nearly 50% over two days, a phenomenon known as the “Buffett effect.” The stock fell on Friday, but still ended…

The following is adapted from a book excerpt. I began my career as an entertainment lawyer in a major firm. It was a lucrative, predictable professional path that likely would have generated more money over time than my far more circuitous one —studio executive, startup CEO, media/tech advisor, music dealmaker, author, podcaster — has.But early on, I chose a different path to pursue my bigger dream of playing a part in a major Hollywood studio. And after seemingly endless rejection, and through sheer tenacity and will, I scored the lottery when I found my way “in” — jumping the industry’s…

Low and high earners have at least one thing in common: they’re more likely than those somewhere in the middle to say they’re living paycheck to paycheck.A July survey of over Americans by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and behavioral economics firm Escalent showed about 61% of working respondents with less than $50,000 said they’re primarily living paycheck to paycheck, meaning they struggle to save or make progress toward long-term goals. The share dropped to 22% for those with $100,000 to $200,000 but rose to about 37% for those with more than $500,000.”Financial security as reported does not rise in a…

Donald Knierim planned his retirement around student-loan forgiveness.He spent most of his career designing financial data systems for major companies. At the age of 60, he took a pay cut and moved to the public sector, working for Metra, Chicago’s commuter railway. His primary draw to the job was lower stress, and an added bonus was that it qualified for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which erases student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years.Knierim had a $62,000 balance remaining on the student loans he took out to send his kids to college. If all went according…