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After brands dump Kanye West, many people ask: What took so long? | CNN Business

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After brands dump Kanye West, many people ask: What took so long? | CNN Business


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CNN Enterprise
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Earlier this week Adidas ended its partnership with rapper and dressmaker Ye (who beforehand glided by Kanye West). Its choice got here across the similar time {that a} flurry of different corporations additionally minimize ties with the artist — however weeks after Ye started making offensive remarks.

Many puzzled: What took Adidas and others so lengthy?

In spite of everything, Ye’s habits had been troubling for a while. He even referred to as out Adidas instantly throughout a podcast look during which he made antisemitic feedback, bragging the corporate would by no means minimize ties with him.

The most recent saga started in early October when Ye wore a shirt with the slogan “White Lives Matter,” an announcement that the Anti-Defamation League has linked to the Ku Klux Klan. At the moment Adidas, which first partnered with the artist in 2013 for Yeezy-branded footwear and garments, mentioned it was reviewing the partnership.

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Then, throughout an look on a “Drink Champs” podcast episode the weekend of October 16, Ye repeated antisemitic conspiracy theories amongst different offensive claims. He referenced Adidas instantly: “I can say antisemitic issues, and Adidas can’t drop me,” he mentioned. “Now what?”

For a number of days, that gave the impression to be true.

Adidas didn’t announce it was severing ties with Ye till Tuesday, October 25, over every week after the podcast was launched.

In that assertion the corporate mentioned it “doesn’t tolerate antisemitism and every other type of hate speech,” calling Ye’s latest feedback “unacceptable, hateful and harmful” in addition to in violation of the corporate’s “values of variety and inclusion, mutual respect and equity.”

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Adidas wasn’t the one firm to take its time: Balenciaga minimize ties with Ye final week, and whereas Hole and Ye parted methods in September, it didn’t pull the Yeezy Hole line from cabinets till this week. Foot Locker additionally mentioned this week that it might take away Yeezy merchandise, and TJ Maxx adopted by saying it might not buy the gadgets on the market in shops.

However Adidas took a lot of the highlight following Ye’s feedback on the “Drink Champs” podcast.

Why the delay? In such a scenario, corporations face a dilemma, mentioned Andrew Gilman, founder and CEO of CommCore, a consulting group with experience in disaster communication. On the one hand, they “need to be actually quick,” he mentioned. “On the similar time, they wish to be deliberate.”

When strolling that tightrope, corporations can slip. And a unsuitable transfer may have penalties for his or her funds and repute.

It appears that evidently the final straw for Adidas was a picture that went viral this weekend. Pictures from a Los Angeles freeway overpass present a small group of demonstrators with their arms raised in what seems to be the Nazi salute behind banners studying, “Honk if you realize” alongside “Kanye is true in regards to the Jews.”

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As that picture caught traction on-line, stress mounted for Adidas to take a stance.

The incident “woke these corporations up,” mentioned Amy Shanler, affiliate professor of public relations on the Boston College School of Communication, referring not simply to Adidas however to the opposite corporations that minimize ties with Ye this week. It made them notice “it’s not simply Kanye speaking to Kanye … there are different people who find themselves listening.”

These individuals, who affirmed Ye’s antisemitic message, should not ones corporations wish to be linked with. From their perspective,”we are able to’t be in any respect related — even a second-degree affiliation — with these hate teams,” Shanler mentioned.

As for the earlier incidents, Shanler famous that corporations don’t at all times understand how far is just too far, even when critics have been calling them out. Plus, corporations might concern that by addressing a controversial incident, they’ll find yourself publicizing it.

And so they’re nervous about being the primary to take a stance.

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“Once you’re the primary, you turn out to be essentially the most seen, you’re the primary model that everyone’s speaking about,” Shanler mentioned. “Once you’re not the primary, it’s rather a lot simpler to hitch that bandwagon.”

After which, in Adidas’ case particularly, there’s the monetary fallout that outcomes from severing ties.

Adidas will take a €250 million (about $249 million) within the fourth quarter due to the choice, the corporate mentioned this week. Issues may worsen from there, famous Douglas Hand, a vogue lawyer who’s a companion within the agency Hand Baldachin & Associates.

“That’s simply the short-term affect,” he mentioned. “Kanye and Yeezy have been a big aspect of their revenues and profitability,” he famous. “They’re actually, in impact, shuttering a model that has been very, very profitable for them.”

Yeezy merchandise generated practically $2 billion in gross sales final 12 months for Adidas, 8% of the corporate’s whole income, based on Morgan Stanley. The road helped Adidas appeal to new prospects and get extra shelf house in shops. (Adidas mentioned it stays “the only real proprietor of all design rights to present merchandise in addition to earlier and new colorways below the partnership” with Ye.)

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Adidas said it will take a big loss in the fourth quarter because its cutting ties with Ye.

Adidas has a monetary obligation to its shareholders. Earlier than it abandons such a profitable deal, it has to make certain that’s the correct transfer.

Most public corporations “are very a lot beholden to monetary choices, above and past choices that could be extra aligned with mission,” mentioned Hand.

However there are prices to dragging your ft.

The corporate might maintain injury to its repute. It’s not but clear whether or not that may occur on this case, famous Gilman. “What they’ll lose will depend on how sturdy the model is to start with,” Gilman mentioned.

And by holding quiet for days after Ye’s podcast apperance, Shanler mentioned, Adidas “missed a possibility to make a forceful and immutable assertion in opposition to antisemitism.”

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— CNN Jordan Valinsky, Sonya Hamasaki and Nathaniel Meyersohn contributed to this report.

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Video: Mexico Navy Sailing Ship on Good Will Tour Crashes Into Brooklyn Bridge

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Video: Mexico Navy Sailing Ship on Good Will Tour Crashes Into Brooklyn Bridge

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Mexico Navy Sailing Ship on Good Will Tour Crashes Into Brooklyn Bridge

There were 277 people on board when the ship drifted directly into the underside of the bridge on Saturday night, the authorities said. Two crew members were killed.

Today, about approximately 2020 hours, the ship was departing from, from Pier 17, where it was heading out to sea. The pilot, the captain that was maneuvering the ship, lost, I guess, power of the ship in the current. A mechanical function caused the ship to go right into the pillar of the bridge, hitting the masts of the ship where there was a couple of sailors on top of it. These sailors were injured as a result of the masts striking the bridge.

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UK and EU locked in intense talks over key terms of post-Brexit reset

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UK and EU locked in intense talks over key terms of post-Brexit reset

Britain and the EU are locked in intense haggling over key details of their revamped relationship, including on fisheries, food trade and youth mobility, ahead of a historic first joint summit since Brexit.

The summit at Lancaster House in London on Monday will see both sides sign a security and defence partnership, the centrepiece of the “reset” in relations, but talks in Brussels on other details ran late into Sunday night.

The EU offered Britain a new open-ended deal to lower barriers to trade in agrifood, but only in exchange for a 10-year rollover of a current deal allowing EU fishermen to operate in UK waters.

Downing Street, which had previously offered a five-year extension, declined to comment on the offer, confirmed by officials on both sides. Sir Keir Starmer, UK prime minister, knows he risks being accused of “selling out” by British fishermen.

The summit is due to start at 10am on Monday, and EU ambassadors will meet early on Monday to consider the results of the last-minute horse-trading by UK officials and European Commission negotiators.

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One senior EU diplomat said there would be a deal, adding: “They will need to find a solution, even if it takes the whole night.”

Starmer is scheduled to sign the defence pact and a communiqué promising deeper economic co-operation during a two-hour meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president António Costa.

The EU-UK summit, the first since Brexit took effect in 2020, is expected to emphasise a spirit of reconciliation, but the tense talks in Brussels on Sunday were a reminder that the relationship is now highly transactional.

British officials said on Sunday evening that “huge progress” had been made in some areas but that “negotiations are going down to the wire”.

Details of the EU-UK deal are highly politically sensitive. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has warned that Starmer is about to “surrender” British interests.

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British officials admitted that the EU would not agree to an open-ended deal to remove post-Brexit barriers to trade in food and animals — one of the biggest “asks” of the UK — unless Brussels was satisfied with a deal on fish.

“We want to give confidence to business,” said one UK official, admitting that a time-limited veterinary deal — known as a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement — would leave too much uncertainty for farmers and supermarkets.

Brussels had insisted that any SPS deal should only last for as long as Britain agreed to maintain current fishing rules for EU boats. European diplomats viewed the offer of an unlimited SPS deal in exchange for a 10-year fisheries agreement as a significant concession.

Meanwhile Britain has conceded that removing barriers to trade in foodstuffs will require the UK to “dynamically align” with rules made in Brussels, and also make payments to the EU to fund work on food and animal standards. Conservatives claim this is a “betrayal” of Brexit.

The EU is also trying to get Britain to sign up to an ambitious youth mobility scheme — including better access for students to UK universities — in a “common understanding” communiqué to be issued alongside the defence pact.

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The EU has warned Starmer that it will not make it easier for British touring musicians to travel across national borders in Europe or for UK travellers to use passport e-gates unless he is bolder on youth mobility, according to officials briefed on the talks.

Starmer has conceded that a youth mobility scheme will happen, but is trying to keep the language in the communiqué vague, allowing detailed talks about controversial areas such as numbers and student fees for further negotiations later this year.

Downing Street said the Lancaster House summit would include an agreement to cut “queues on holiday”, with European relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds confirming on Sunday he was looking for a deal to allow the use of e-gates at borders.

But a second EU diplomat denied the request — which was also previously made by Starmer’s predecessor Rishi Sunak — had been granted.

“Starmer sees some of the outcomes of the summit as a done deal already which is not the case, and he wants to appear as a dealmaker,” the diplomat said. “UK negotiators need to show they really want a reset on a ‘win-win’ basis, and not only look at potential gains for one side only.”

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One person involved in talks on the EU side said the discussions had always been expected to go to the wire. “The British are tough negotiators. But we should get a deal in the end.”

EU diplomats complained of Starmer’s recent tactics to force a deal. Last week British ministers called counterparts in EU capitals to push for a deal, bypassing the commission — which one diplomat dubbed a “divide and rule tactic”.

Issues that are unresolved overnight could be “kicked into the long grass” for further talks, British officials say, although the EU wants to extract as many firm commitments as possible from London now.

Details of the final text are due to be published at midday on Monday, but Starmer and his EU interlocutors will be at pain to stress areas of agreement, rather than tensions exposed by the painful last-minute talks.

Additional reporting by Barbara Moens in Brussels

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FBI says primary suspect in Calif. fertility clinic bombing likely died in the blast

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FBI says primary suspect in Calif. fertility clinic bombing likely died in the blast

A damaged building is seen after an explosion in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday.

Eric Thayer/AP


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Eric Thayer/AP

Guy Edward Bartkus, 25, has been identified as the primary suspect in the fatal explosion outside a California fertility clinic Saturday morning.

Investigators also said that they suspect Bartkus was the sole fatality in the Palm Springs blast, which injured four others.

“We are working through some other technical means to positively identify the decedent here, but we believe at this moment based on the evidence that we’ve gathered that that is Mr. Bartkus as the decedent here,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said at a Sunday morning press conference.

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Davis reiterated that law enforcement is treating the bombing as an act of terrorism and said investigators have gathered some clues showing Bartkus’ state of mind, including online posts and other writings that investigators are now examining. “The subject had nihilistic ideations, and this was a targeted attack against the IVF facility.”

FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller confirmed that the agency was also investigating evidence “indicating antinatalist views.” Antinatalism refers to a belief system that suggests it is wrong to have children.

Davis added that investigators believe Bartkus was attempting to live stream the bombing.

Law enforcement officials also executed a search warrant in Bartkus’s hometown of Twentynine Palms, nearly 60 miles northeast of Palm Springs.

Davis said this was the first time Bartkus had appeared on the FBI’s radar but that he may have had contacts with other law enforcement agencies.

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The bomb used was powerful enough “to throw pieces of vehicle hundreds of feet in the air and then several blocks away. You can use your imagination for how big that that bomb device was,” Davis said. He would not comment on the type of materials used in the bomb, saying it was still under investigation. Bartkus was driving a silver 2010 Ford Fusion sedan, Davis said.

A firefighter stands at the scene of an explosion in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday.

A firefighter stands at the scene of an explosion in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday.

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Eric Thayer/AP

Palm Springs Police Chief Andrew Mills said Sunday that the public was not in any more danger. “I am absolutely confident that this city is safe. There is no continuing threat to our community as a result of this incident,” he said.

American Reproductive Centers said Saturday in a post on Facebook that a vehicle had exploded in the parking lot near its Palm Springs facility earlier in the day. The clinic said no staff members were hurt and there was no damage to any of its eggs, embryos and reproductive material.

“This moment has shaken us—but it has not stopped us,” the post reads. “We will continue to serve with strength, love, and the hope that brings new life into the world.”

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Attorney General Pam Bondi said Saturday evening that she had been briefed on the explosion. “We are working to learn more, but let me be clear: the Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America,” she said in a post on X. “Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable.”

Bomb technicians were scouring the blast site over the weekend as part of the ongoing investigation, which was being led by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

First responders arrived at the scene around 11 a.m. local time Saturday morning to find a debris field stretching over 250 yards, Davis said.

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