NASCAR Truck Series driver suspended for intentionally crashing competitor

Reuters

PepsiCo, retailers share purchase data to improve sales forecasting, exec saysPepsiCo, which is overhauling some of its top brands like Lay’s potato chips as shoppers look for cheaper options, is increasingly sharing data with major retailers and in return getting coveted information on shoppers’ purchases, a PepsiCo executive said in an interview this week. PepsiCo’s declining snack volumes are triggering product changes. On Tuesday, a top PepsiCo strategy executive told Reuters that PepsiCo has begun using more of retailers’ own data on their sales of PepsiCo products to better forecast demand and make its supply chain more efficient.

Associated Press

Jurors, judge and former prison director all ask for mercy for condemned South Carolina inmateSouth Carolina death row inmate Richard Moore has more than 20 people asking the governor to spare his life in a clemency petition filed Wednesday, just two days before he is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the 1999 killing of a store clerk. There is a former director of the state prison system who says Moore deeply regrets his crime and is a force for good behind bars both for fellow inmates and his children and grandchildren. Also asking for clemency are six childhood friends, five relatives, several former attorneys who said Moore still checks on their families after they couldn’t keep him off death row, and the partner of a psychologist whose examination of Moore led to a deep friendship for them both, according to Moore’s petition.

AFP

Lebanon hospital’s burns unit bears scars of Israel-Hezbollah warFor weeks, Fatima Zayyoun has tended to her daughter Ivana, whose bandaged fragile body is in a Beirut hospital after an Israeli strike near their home engulfed her in flames.At the Lebanese Hospital Geitaoui, home to the country’s only burns unit, 35-year-old Zayyoun is still in shock, five weeks after a third of her daughter’s body was burned in a September 23 strike on south Lebanon.  

AFP

Migrant dies trying to cross Channel, three more bodies foundA migrant died Wednesday trying to cross the Channel to Britain, French authorities said, while the date of death was not immediately clear for three more people found dead on beaches.It was not immediately clear when the men might have died.

Associated Press

Greek leaders tell German president a WWII reparations claim is very much aliveGreek leaders on Wednesday revived a long-standing demand for war reparations stemming from Nazi Germany’s World War II occupation of Greece, during a visit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Steinmeier ruled out German compliance, telling Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou that for his country, from a legal point of view the issue has been long settled. “But we remain committed to our historic responsibility” over the occupation, said Steinmeier, whose three-day visit to Greece includes stops at sites of Nazi atrocities.

Associated Press

England cricket captain Stokes says his home was burglarized with his family presentEngland cricket captain Ben Stokes says masked burglars stole jewelry in a break-in at his home while his family was in the house and he was away in Pakistan. Stokes announced on Wednesday that the break-in took place Oct. 17 at his Castle Eden home in northeast England. Among the items taken was his OBE, or Order of the British Empire, a medal given on behalf of the country.

AFP

Georgia president refuses prosecutors’ summons after alleging vote-riggingGeorgia’s pro-European president on Wednesday refused a summons by prosecutors to give evidence after she accused the ruling party of fraud in the weekend’s disputed parliamentary election.A group of Georgia’s leading election monitors said they had uncovered evidence of a complex scheme of large-scale electoral fraud that swayed results in favour of the ruling party.

Associated Press

Biden, Cyprus president discuss administration push to win cease-fires in Gaza and LebanonPresident Joe Biden and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides on Wednesday discussed a new effort by the U.S. administration and mediators in the Middle East to forge cease-fires to end fighting in Lebanon and Gaza. Christodoulides leads the European Union nation closest to Gaza. The small Mediterranean island nation has played a critical role in efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza since the war between Hamas and Israel began more than a year ago.

Associated Press

Roaring Kitty has dissolved his holdings in Chewy, but meme stocks are alive and wellA pivotal actor in the meme stock craze that began during the pandemic continues to hold a powerful sway over the movement of shares in major U.S. corporations. Nearly four months after revealing a massive stake in the online pet supply retailer Chewy, Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, has dissolved his entire holdings in the company. Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July revealed that Gill had acquired 6.6% of the company’s shares after hinting at investments using pictures of dogs on the social media platform X.

Reuters

Canada would have to double defense spending by 2032-33 to meet NATO target, watchdog saysCanada would have to double current defense spending by fiscal 2032-33 to achieve its stated goal of meeting NATO targets, an increase that could violate fiscal anchors put in place last year to control expenditures, a parliamentary watchdog said on Wednesday. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to increasing defense spending to at least 2% of gross domestic product after coming under mounting pressure from the United States and other NATO powers to spell out a timetable for coming in line with the alliance’s target. But if the government keeps that promise, it may need to compromise its stated ambition of shrinking its fiscal deficit as a proportion of GDP, the Parliamentary Budget Office said on Wednesday.

Associated Press

PepsiCo is closing 4 bottling plants and cutting nearly 400 jobs as it streamlines operationsPepsiCo said Wednesday it plans to close four U.S. bottling plants and lay off nearly 400 workers as part of its efforts to streamline its operations. PepsiCo confirmed that closure earlier this week. Earlier this month, PepsiCo lowered its sales forecast for the year as consumers in the U.S., China and elsewhere pulled back on buying its drinks and snacks after years of price hikes.

Associated Press

Indigenous people march in Brazil’s capital against bill limiting land rightsBearing images of animals and covered in body paint, hundreds of Indigenous people marched Wednesday in Brazil’s capital, urging Congress to drop a proposed constitutional amendment that has the potential to paralyze and even reverse land allocations. The bill aims to add to the Constitution a legal theory, championed by the agribusiness caucus, that the date the Constitution was promulgated — Oct. 5, 1988 — should be the deadline for Indigenous peoples to have already either physically occupied claimed land or be legally fighting to reoccupy territory. Indigenous rights groups have argued that establishing a deadline is unfair, as it does not account for expulsions and forced displacements of Indigenous populations, particularly during Brazil’s agriculture frontier expansion in the 20th century.