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Starbucks appoints Chipotle’s Brian Niccol as chief executive

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Starbucks appoints Chipotle’s Brian Niccol as chief executive

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Starbucks has named Chipotle head Brian Niccol as its chief executive, in a major shake-up as the world’s largest coffee chain contends with falling sales and pressure from activist investor Elliott.

The company said on Tuesday that its current chief executive, Laxman Narasimhan, would step down immediately.

Niccol will join as CEO on September 9, with the company’s chief financial officer Rachel Ruggeri serving as interim CEO until then.

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The appointment of Niccol comes after Starbucks founder Howard Schultz criticised Narasimhan’s leadership at a time when the company is grappling with sluggish demand and a push for changes from Elliott.

Starbucks on Tuesday also made Mellody Hobson, currently chair of the board and a close ally of Schultz, its lead independent director.

“[Niccol] has my respect and full support,” said Schultz. “I thank Mellody and the Starbucks board for their deep commitment to shaping the future of this remarkable global phenomenon that is Starbucks.”

“We are thrilled to welcome Brian to Starbucks. His phenomenal career speaks for itself,” added Hobson, citing his “proven track record of driving innovation and growth”.

Shares in Starbucks rose 11 per cent in pre-market trading. Chipotle shares fell 10 per cent.

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Map: 2.4-Magnitude Earthquake Reported in New Jersey

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Map: 2.4-Magnitude Earthquake Reported in New Jersey

Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 3 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “weak,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown.  All times on the map are Eastern. The New York Times

A minor, 2.4-magnitude earthquake struck in New Jersey on Friday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The temblor happened at 3:42 p.m. Eastern about 4 miles northeast of Whitehouse Station, N.J., or about 35 miles west of Manhattan, data from the agency shows.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.

Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Eastern. Shake data is as of Friday, Jan. 30 at 3:59 p.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Friday, Jan. 30 at 5:58 p.m. Eastern.

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Alex Pretti shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis prompts DOJ civil rights probe

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Alex Pretti shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis prompts DOJ civil rights probe

People attend a candlelight vigil this week organized by health care workers at the site where Alex Pretti was killed in Minneapolis.

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One of two shooting deaths of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents is the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation.

The Civil Rights Division is investigating the Saturday killing of Alex Pretti, but not the shooting death earlier this month of Renee Macklin Good by federal agents in Minneapolis, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in Washington on Friday.

Pretti was shot multiple times Jan. 24 as Border Patrol officers tried to arrest him while he was recording immigration officers on his phone.

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Blanche says the probe is separate from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s shooting investigation of the incident.

“It means talking to witnesses. It means looking at documentary evidence, sending subpoenas if you have to,” Blanche told reporters at a news briefing Friday on multiple topics. “And the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division has the best experts in the world at this.”

Blanche gave no investigation timetable nor did he commit to the release of body camera footage of the agents. He said the department’s investigation would encompass events of that day as well as the days and weeks that preceded the Pretti shooting.

Under questioning, Blanche said the fatal shooting of Good isn’t receiving similar DOJ scrutiny.

“There are thousands, unfortunately, of law enforcement events every year where somebody is shot,” he said. “The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice does not investigate every one of those shootings. There has to be circumstances or facts, or maybe unknown facts, but certainly circumstances that warrant an investigation.”

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Federal officials have excluded Minnesota investigators from assisting with reviews of both shootings, leading to a state lawsuit that seeks to require evidence of the Pretti shooting be maintained. State authorities haven’t ruled out bringing charges against federal officers after completing their own investigations.

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Trump sues IRS and Treasury for $10 billion over leaked tax information

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Trump sues IRS and Treasury for  billion over leaked tax information

The Internal Revenue Service building May 4, 2021, in Washington.

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Patrick Semansky/AP

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is suing the IRS and Treasury Department for $10 billion, as he accuses the federal agencies of a failure to prevent a leak of the president’s tax information to news outlets between 2018 and 2020.

The suit, filed in a Florida federal court Thursday, includes the president’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. and the Trump organization as plaintiffs.

The filing alleges that the leak of Trump and the Trump Organization’s confidential tax records caused “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs’ public standing.”

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In 2024, former IRS contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington, D.C. — who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense and national security tech firm — was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking tax information about Trump and others to news outlets.

Littlejohn, known as Chaz, gave data to The New York Times and ProPublica between 2018 and 2020 in leaks that appeared to be “unparalleled in the IRS’s history,” prosecutors said.

The disclosure violated IRS Code 6103, one of the strictest confidentiality laws in federal statute.

The Times reported in 2020 that Trump did not pay federal income tax for many years prior to 2020, and ProPublica in 2021 published a series about discrepancies in Trump’s records. Six years of Trump’s returns were later released by the then-Democratically controlled House Ways and Means Committee.

Trump’s suit states that Littlejohn’s disclosures to the news organizations “caused reputational and financial harm to Plaintiffs and adversely impacted President Trump’s support among voters in the 2020 presidential election.”

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Littlejohn stole tax records of other mega-billionaires, including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

The president’s suit comes after the U.S. Treasury Department announced it has cut its contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, earlier this week, after Littlejohn, who worked for the firm, was charged and subsequently imprisoned for leaking tax information to news outlets about thousands of the country’s wealthiest people, including the president.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time of the announcement that the firm “failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.”

Representatives of the White House, Treasury and IRS were not immediately available for comment.

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