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Anonymous ID: 5f605e Aug. 2, 2020, 6:33 p.m. No.10165962   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6215 >>6284 >>6509 >>6638

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8586393/Microsoft-says-prepared-explore-purchase-TikTok-CEO-spoke-Trump.html

 

Trump tells Microsoft CEO he 'may allow' them to buy TikTok in the US only if it's separate from China following total ban threat as Seattle tech giant confirms it 'is prepared to explore the purchase'

 

Donald Trump has reportedly told Microsoft's CEO he 'may allow' the company to buy TikTok in the United States - but only if the app is completely separated from Beijing.

 

Microsoft Corp said on Sunday that it would continue discussions to acquire the popular short-video app from Chinese internet giant ByteDance. The president had threatened to ban it as early as Saturday.

 

The company made the statement following a conversation between is CEO Satya Nadella and Trump. It said it would ensure that all private data of TikTok's American users is transferred to and remains in the United States.

 

Over the last several months, U.S. officials have repeatedly said TikTok under its current Chinese parent company, Beijing-based software firm ByteDance, poses a national risk because of the personal data it handles. The White House did not immediately comment on the Microsoft statement.

 

'Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President's concerns. It is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury,' Microsoft said in a statement.

 

The company added that there was no certainty a deal, which could be worth billions of dollars, would be reached but that it was aiming to conclude the negotiations by September 15.

 

ByteDance was previously seeking to keep a minority stake in the U.S. business of TikTok, a proposal which the White House had rejected. Under the new proposed deal, ByteDance would exit completely and Microsoft Corp would take over TikTok in the United States, sources said Saturday.

Anonymous ID: 5f605e Aug. 2, 2020, 7:24 p.m. No.10166325   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6340 >>6509 >>6638

>>10166312

>https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1290109392440836098

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/510209-deutsche-bank-launches-investigation-into-longtime-banker-of-trump

 

Deutsche Bank launches investigation into longtime banker of Trump, Kushner

 

Deutsche Bank launched an internal investigation into the longtime personal banker for President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a bank spokesman confirmed to The Hill on Sunday.

 

The New York Times first reported Sunday that the bank was looking into Rosemary Vrablic to determine if she had acted improperly when she and two colleagues bought an apartment for about $1.5 million in 2013 from Bergel 715 Associates.

 

In a financial disclosure report filed Friday, Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, said they had received $1 million to $5 million from Bergel 715 in 2019. The couple had not previously reported having an ownership stake in the company.

 

A person familiar with Kushner’s finances told the Times he had an ownership stake in Bergel 715 at the time Vrablic bought the apartment. The 2019 reported income is unrelated to Vrablic’s purchase in 2013.

 

The Times reported Deutsche Bank did not know Vrablic and her colleagues had bought the apartment from a company Kushner had a stake in until it was contacted by the newspaper.

 

“The bank will closely examine the information that came to light on Friday and the fact pattern from 2013,” bank spokesman Daniel Hunter said.

 

Kushner and President Trump were clients of Vrablic at the time of the 2013 sale and had received about $190 million in loans from Deutsche Bank. Both were also granted hundreds of millions of dollars after that point, according to the Times.

 

Banks usually prohibit employees from conducting personal business with clients out of concerns of conflicts of interest.

 

But Christopher Smith, the general counsel for Kushner Companies, told The Hill in a statement that “Kushner is not the managing partner of that entity and has no involvement with the sales of the apartments.”

 

Vrablic’s lawyer, a senior private banker and managing director at Deutsche Bank, declined to comment to the Times.

 

It is unclear how big Kushner’s stake is in the company, which has sold several condo units in the apartment building since the 1980s, according to records viewed by the Times. At least one apartment had been sold to Kushner Companies.

 

The Times noted that there is no evidence Vrablic and her colleagues purchased the apartment at a below-market price. The apartment was also sold at “a not-unheard-of 22 percent increase from the 2013 purchase price,” the newspaper reported.

 

Kushner testified during a 2017 closed-door House Intelligence Committee meeting that he introduced Vrablic to the president.

 

The president borrowed $175 million for his Doral golf resort and the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago in 2012. The bank had also lent him money to create his Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., out of the Old Post Office building.

Anonymous ID: 5f605e Aug. 2, 2020, 7:34 p.m. No.10166379   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6381 >>6425 >>6453 >>6509 >>6638

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/professional/coronavirus-covid-19-target-walmart-wearing-masks-in-stores

 

What Happens When Shoppers Refuse to Wear Masks?

 

Fashion brands are getting dragged into a war with shoppers over wearing masks and other Covid-19 shopping precautions. Here's how they should respond.

 

NEW YORK, United States — At a Target in Arizona, a shopper threw an entire display of face masks to the ground. At a Skechers in Oklahoma, a customer threw shoeboxes at an employee who had asked her to put on a mask. At the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania, shoppers tweeted photos of maskless crowds streaming past signs asking them to wear face coverings and practice social distancing.

 

As retailers cautiously reopen after months on lockdown, they are finding themselves on the frontlines of a new battlefield: enforcing safety measures meant to prevent the spread of coronavirus. In an industry where the customer is always right, brands are struggling with how to police behaviour in stores that would have been normal six months ago but now carry potentially deadly consequences.

 

Masks are the main flashpoint. A Pew survey in June found that two-thirds of Americans say they wear masks in stores all or most of the time. That leaves tens of millions of shoppers who don’t (and the survey didn’t ask whether those in the first group wear their masks below the nose, reducing their effectiveness).

 

In the UK, face masks were finally made mandatory inside stores on Tuesday, with shoppers subject to £100 fines for violating the rules. France is considering tightening its laws around masks too. Currently, they’re only mandatory on public transportation. In Southwest France, a bus driver was assaulted and killed last week by angry passengers who refused to wear masks.

 

The brawls that took place at Target and Skechers are rare. More often, stores introduce rules that shoppers simply ignore. Employees don’t feel empowered to order customers to put on a mask or to order them to leave if they refuse. Government guidelines vary from country to country, and within the US, state by state.

 

At the same time, consumers and retail workers are pressuring brands to be more proactive, as customers who fail to wear masks or follow social distancing guidelines put everyone else in the store at risk. Some retailers that relied on voluntary mask policies and friendly floor stickers to enforce social distancing are toughening up. Among major fashion retailers, though, mandatory policies are rare.

 

It’s just as important a business decision as a health one.

 

Some see a strict masks policy as better for their brands in the long run. Veja, for example, is barring maskless customers from entering its stores in New York and Paris, and has dedicated retail associates standing outside to enforce the rule.

 

“If they don’t follow the rules, and the numbers get higher … what will that do? We’d have to shut down again,” said founder Sébastien Kopp. “So it’s just as important a business decision as a health one.”

 

A Patch work of Rules

 

The science around masks is clear: wearing one greatly reduces the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected over 12 million people worldwide.

 

It’s often up to retailers to enforce their use, however. Only some US states require facial protection, including New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina. Elsewhere, including newer hot spots like Texas, Arizona and Florida, it’s up to cities and counties to set their own rules.

 

The discrepancies are causing confusion and contribute to shoppers’ lax attitudes, said Brian Dodge, chief operating officer of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, an American retail trade group. In early July, RILA, whose members include Gap Inc., Target, Ulta Beauty and Levi’s, wrote a letter to the National Governors Association asking that states make wearing face coverings mandatory. Last week, the American Apparel & Footwear Association sent a letter to President Trump asking his administration to "institute federal face mask guidelines to assist retail stores as the country continues efforts to safely reopen."

 

The strongest outcome will be if the government steps in.

 

“It’s important for customers to know what’s expected of them, and there shouldn’t be any guessing,” Dodge said. “The strongest outcome will be if the government steps in.”

 

A nationwide mandate is unlikely in the near future. Trump wore a mask in public for the first time only recently and has been ambivalent about their wider use.

Anonymous ID: 5f605e Aug. 2, 2020, 7:34 p.m. No.10166381   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6425 >>6509 >>6638

>>10166379

>https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/professional/coronavirus-covid-19-target-walmart-wearing-masks-in-stores

 

How Brands Should Handle the Situation

 

RILA recommends retailers place signs at store entrances to recommend shoppers wear masks. Dodge said stores should also place employees at the front to hand out masks to shoppers who forget to bring one.

 

“Give people the benefit of the doubt and offering a mask is a subtle but direct signal,” he said.

 

What to do once a maskless shopper enters the store is less clear. Many retailers have advised employees to avoid escalating disputes over masks, said Bill Thorne, a senior vice president of the National Retail Federation, another trade group, in an email.

 

“Many retailers have said they do not want to become the face mask police,” he said.

 

Many retailers have said they do not want to become the face mask police.

 

Direct-to-consumer menswear brand Untuckit is encouraging shoppers to wear masks, but will not force the issue, said Director of Retail Brent Paulsen. If a shopper declines, the store will close down for other patrons until they leave.

 

“It's really hard to tell a customer coming to a store to leave,” Paulsen said. “We are trying to balance safety while staying away from creating a confrontational experience.”

 

Kopp, with Veja, sees things differently.

 

“I don’t care if we lose 50 percent of our customers,” he said. “I would prefer that the other half feel secure, and know that we are taking care of them.”

 

Gabriella Santaniello, founder of retail consultancy firm A Line Partners, said stores should feel empowered to enforce strict rules, especially when their retail employees’ health is at risk.

 

I don’t care if we lose 50 percent of our customers. I would prefer that the other half feel secure.

 

“If a store or restaurant can say no shoes, no shirt, no service, masks can be enforced,” she said.

 

Retailers that don’t enforce mask policies could also open themselves up to lawsuits from employees who get sick, said Perry Kramer, a managing partner at Retail Consulting Partnership.

 

“Employees will be filing class-action lawsuits down the road for not being tough enough about this,” he said. “You’re looking out for employees, but also thinking long-term.”

 

The New Normal

 

Kramer and Santaniello said consumers will eventually adapt to pandemic shopping rules, much as they did to stricter airport security measures after 9/11.

 

Kramer said retailers should also be spending money on extra security guards, so that retail associates aren’t forced to handle violent confrontations themselves. Employees also need to be trained on the best ways to enforce mask rules and how to handle belligerent customers.

 

If a store or restaurant can say no shoes, no shirt, no service, masks can be enforced.

 

These measures will take time and money, both of which are in short supply at many brands right now. Brands paying for Covid-19 protective gear, security and other costs are already struggling with declining sales from the months of lockdown and general consumer disinterest in nonessential items like fashion. A slew of brands, including Brooks Brothers, J.Crew, Neiman Marcus, Lucky Brand and J.C. Penney have filed for bankruptcy.

 

“If retailers are going to be serious about it, they are going to need to add resources,” Kramer said.

 

Santaniello said retailers should want to be on the list of brands that took these safety measures seriously early on.

 

“Nobody wants to be the store where shoppers say, ‘Oh… that’s probably where I got Covid,’” she said. “It’s uncomfortable, and it can get touchy and political. But we’re at a point where you might get into fights with people who don’t want to wear masks, or your store becomes a viral picture of hundreds of people not following social distancing and getting everybody sick. What’s worse?”

Anonymous ID: 5f605e Aug. 2, 2020, 7:58 p.m. No.10166527   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6542

>>10166429

>https://twitter.com/alexnapoNJ/status/1289993550495535106

https://www.nj.com/news/2020/08/sue-epstein-veteran-star-ledger-reporter-dies-at-68-she-was-a-trailblazer.html

 

Sue Epstein, veteran Star-Ledger reporter, dies at 68. ‘She was a trailblazer.’

 

She could write compelling, detailed stories about the most notorious killers in New Jersey with the grit and nuance of an old-school court reporter.

 

She had the institutional knowledge about many events in the Garden State, earned over the course of more than 40 years with the state’s largest daily newspaper.

 

Sue Epstein, a veteran award-winning reporter for The Star-Ledger and NJ.com, died Saturday at the age of 68 from complications related to a brain tumor. Epstein, a long-time Old Bridge resident, passed away surrounded by family in hospice care at her brother’s home in Northfield.

 

She joined the staff of The Star-Ledger in 1974, riding a wave of college grads driven to do investigative reporting following the Washington Post’s famed coverage of the Watergate scandal. She joined the paper just weeks after graduating from Rutgers University’s Douglass College with a degree in English.

 

Epstein retired in 2016.

 

During her 42-year career, she covered an array of topics, from education and transportation to healthcare and community news. The majority of her career, however, was spent covering crime and courts in Monmouth and Middlesex counties. She also served as the assistant chief of the Ledger’s Middlesex County News Bureau.

 

She was “a trailblazer,” said Kevin Whitmer, the former editor-in-chief of The Star-Ledger who is now the senior vice president for content, expansion and development of NJ Advance Media.

 

“She broke in and fought for every story at a time when it wasn’t easy for women in this business,” Whitmer said. “The result was an extraordinary 42-year career — one built on developing sources and her ability to talk to those sources about anything. It could be music, baseball or some disgraced politician from the 1970s. Sue knew it all and could tell stories with anyone.”

 

Her brother, Warren Epstein, referred to his sister as the “epitome of an investigative journalist.”

 

“It didn’t matter, TV ratings or any other ratings,” he said. “A story was a story. She was proud of that.”

 

Warren Epstein noted that his sister was part of a team of journalists that won a Pulitzer Prize, the highest honor in journalism, in 2005 for coverage of the resignation of former Gov. James McGreevey. She also won numerous awards from the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists, the New Jersey Press Association and the national Education Writers Association.

 

But Epstein wasn’t in the business to win awards, noted her former bureau chief and fellow Ledger reporter, Tony Gallotto.

 

“Sue was an old-school newswoman. She wanted to get the story first,” Gallotto said. “More importantly, she wanted to get facts right and give readers a fair, balanced article. She was just as diligent about writing someone’s obituary or a crime brief as she was about writing a front-page story.”

 

Though the Star-Ledger newsroom was based in Newark, Epstein spent most of her time in the courthouse, digging through criminal records and spending long days covering trials, arraignments and sentencings. She had an office in the courthouses of Superior Court in Monmouth County in Freehold and then later in Middlesex County in New Brunswick.

 

In Monmouth, she covered some of the county’s most notorious murder cases, including serial killers Robert Zarinsky and Richard Biegenwald.

 

Epstein was as a “consummate reporter,” remembered Alton D. Kenney, the former first assistant Monmouth County prosecutor.

 

“She was fair. She diligently explored every side of the story,” he said, adding that she was a constant presence in the courtroom in “every celebrated murder case” in Monmouth County history.

 

Tom Haydon, a long-time Ledger reporter who worked alongside Epstein in the Middlesex bureau, said Epstein was often tapped by the news editors to assist on major crime stories because of her institutional knowledge of certain cases.