NEWS AROUND US: October 2019

Thursday, 31 October 2019

Radical French Novels Welcomed to German Stages

By BY A.J. GOLDMANN from NYT Theater https://ift.tt/2N5GmCE

Late Night Prepares for a Very Long Impeachment

By BY TRISH BENDIX from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/327KLsO

Word + Quiz: unhinged

By BY THE LEARNING NETWORK from NYT The Learning Network https://ift.tt/3377gzk

What’s on TV Friday: ‘Dickinson’ and ‘American Son’

By BY GABE COHN from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/335wUEP

Your Friday Briefing

By BY MELINA DELKIC from NYT Briefing https://ift.tt/2NuwZeB

C&L's Late Nite Music Club With Mudhoney

'Tis the evening! Tricks and treats. Hope yours were neat.

Mudhoney are one of my favorite bands ever. In 1989, they did a split single with Sonic Youth where they covered a song by each other. The one they chose to do was "Halloween." It's a quite a creepy-crawly take on '85 SY anthem.

What are you listening to tonight?

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Samantha Bee Takes On Revenge Porn

We covered Katie Hill's powerful farewell address to Congress earlier today.

Open thread below...

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Connecticut Home Invasion Convict Is Undergoing Gender Transition in Prison

By BY NEIL VIGDOR from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/33fe4vb

7-Year-Old Girl Is Shot in Chicago While Trick-or-Treating, Police Say

By BY AIMEE ORTIZ AND MIHIR ZAVERI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2WxlqYn

The Value of Working Expeditiously

By BY DEB AMLEN from NYT Crosswords & Games https://ift.tt/3357PKb

Beer With Bella: Benjamin Law

By BY ISABELLA KWAI from NYT World https://ift.tt/320T8q5

Corrections: November 1, 2019

By Unknown Author from NYT Corrections https://ift.tt/2PybuMu

Altria writes down $4.5 billion from its investment in Juul

Facing increasing scrutiny from international and domestic regulators, the Altria Group has decided to write down its investment into the e-cigarette company JUUL by $4.5 billion.

That’s roughly one-third of the $12.8 billion that the tobacco giant had invested into JUUL a little less than one year ago.

Juul Labs gets $12.8 billion investment from Marlboro maker Altria Group

What a difference a year has made.

JUUL, which has become synonymous with the vaping phenomenon that has swept the U.S., was once hailed as being at the forefront of a wave of companies that were making smoking obsolete and nicotine consumption safer for consumers.

Vaporization Startup Pax Labs Introduces Juul, Its Next-Gen E-Cigarette

The company began running into problems as its popularity increased exponentially (in part by allegedly turning to some of the same tactics big tobacco used to target underage consumers).

As the complaints began to roll in, and as JUUL was held responsible for an explosion in the use of tobacco products among underage Americans, the regulatory scrutiny also began to increase.

First the company was compelled to limit its sale of flavored tobacco products. Now it may be forced to pull all of its flavored products outright.

None of the company’s troubles have been helped by the wave of vaping related illnesses that have swept through the U.S. causing several deaths in users across multiple states.

Indeed, a new lawsuit against the company (filed two days ago) alleges that JUUL knowingly sold contaminated pods despite warnings from at least one employee.

As Juul announces mass layoffs, a new lawsuit alleges it shipped a million contaminated pods

First reported by BuzzFeed, the lawsuit was brought by Siddharth Breja, a former senior vice president of global finance at Juul from May 2018 to March 2019.

Breja alleges he was fired for complaining about the charge — a claim that a spokesperson for JUUL called “baseless”.

“[Breja] was terminated in March 2019 because he failed to demonstrate the leadership qualities needed in his role,”a spokesperson for JUUL wrote in an email. “The allegations concerning safety issues with Juul products are equally meritless, and we already investigated the underlying manufacturing issue and determined the product met all applicable specifications.”

The write down by Altria follows an announcement from JUUL that it intends to lay off around 500 people — or roughly 10% of its workforce.

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Quotation of the Day: What Recovery? Life on the Edge

By Unknown Author from NYT Today’s Paper https://ift.tt/2PCspxu

Memphis Clerk Sentenced to 22 Years for Killing Teenager Who Stole Beer

By BY MIHIR ZAVERI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2NsQe8h

Toronto’s City of Tomorrow Is Scaled Back Amid Privacy Concerns

By BY DAN BILEFSKY from NYT World https://ift.tt/33b97DC

Japanese instant-credit provider Paidy raises $143 million from investors including PayPal Ventures

Paidy, a Japanese financial tech startup that provides instant credit to consumers in Japan, announced today that it has raised a total of $143 million in new financing. This includes a $83 million Series C extension from investors including PayPal Ventures and debt financing of $60 million. The funding will be used to advance Paidy’s goals of signing large-scale merchants, offering new financial services and growing its user base to 11 million accounts by the end of 2020.

In addition to PayPal Ventures, investors in the Series C extension also include Soros Capital Management, JS Capital Management and Tybourne Capital Management, along with another undisclosed investor. The debt financing is from Goldman Sachs Japan, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. Earlier this month, Paidy and Goldman Sachs Japan established a warehouse facility valued at $52 million. Paidy also established credit facility worth $8 million with the three banks.

This is the largest investment to date in the Japanese financial tech industry, according to data cited by Paidy and brings the total investment the company has raised so far to $163 million. A representative for the startup says it decided to extend its Series C instead of moving onto a D round to preserve the equity ratio for existing investors and issue the same preferred shares as its previous funding rounds.

Launched in 2014, Paidy was created because many Japanese consumers don’t use credit cards for e-commerce purchases, even though the credit card penetration rate there is relatively high. Instead, many prefer to pay cash on delivery or at convenience stores and other pickup locations. While this makes online shopping easier for consumers, it presents several challenges for sellers, because they need to cover the cost of merchandise that hasn’t been paid for yet or deal with uncompleted deliveries.

Paidy’s solution is to make it possible for people to pay for merchandise online without needing to create an account first or use their credit cards. If a seller offers Paidy as a payment method, customers can check out by entering their mobile phone numbers and email addresses, which are then authenticated with code sent through SMS or voice. Paidy covers the cost of the items and bills customers monthly. Paidy uses proprietary machine learning models to score the creditworthiness of users, and says its service can help reduce incomplete transactions (or items that buyers ultimately don’t pick up and pay for), increase conversion rates, average order values and repeat purchases.

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New Threats Put Wildfire Fighters’ Health on the Line

By BY JULIE TURKEWITZ from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/34hJr8d

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There's a huge market for new Christmas movies, and The Late Show is not going to let Hallmark Channel hog all the nog. Check out our massive lineup of over 900 new holiday films coming soon to a screen near you!

Open thread below...

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C&L's Late Nite Music Club With The New York Dolls

An experiment goes awry. A monster has been created. No, I am not talking about the Republican party ever thinking Trump was a good idea. I am talking Frankenstein!

Now that I think about though, they are kinda one in the same.

What are you listening to tonight?

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Thursday, 31 October 2019

Wednesday, 30 October 2019

Tuesday, 29 October 2019