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HSBC has downgraded Anheuser-Busch InBev stock to hold amid a "crisis" following Bud Light's marketing campaign featuring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. Carlos Laboy, managing director at HSBC's global beverage sector, told CNBC that there are "deeper problems than ABI admits" after the social media partnership with Mulvaney in April. "Is ABI’s leadership getting the brand culture transformation right? It’s mixed," Laboy wrote Wednesday in a note. At Ambev, we think the answer is ‘yes;’ in the US, we think it’s ‘no.’ The way this Bud Light crisis came about a month ago, management’s response to it and the loss of...

Fast-food giant Wendy’s is set to automate its drive-through service by employing an AI chatbot powered by Google, replacing human employees who normally take orders. One Wendy’s executive gave the chatbot high ratings, saying, “It’s at least as good as our best customer service representative, and it’s probably on average better.” The Wall Street Journal reports that fast-food chain Wendy’s plans to automate its drive-through service by using an AI chatbot and Google’s natural-language processing technology.

They’re showering this viral craze with ultra-high praise. SNIP The newest trend in grooming is the “everything shower,” which entails taking an extremely warm, steamy shower for two to four hours, soaping up every nook and cranny while they blast their favorite music. On TikTok, the indulgent practice has gone viral, with #EverythingShower racking up over 168.9 million views. “An everything shower with hot water and Taylor Swift is better than sex. Sorry,” social media influencer Kourv Annon, 22, told her fiance when he questioned the lengthy scrub sessions.

A beer analyst has pinpointed the moment that Anheuser-Busch began its billion-dollar decline, slamming the iconic brand's shift away from sport and humor after its founding dynasty lost control of the company. Harry Schuhmacher, a 30-year veteran of the beer business and podcast host, said the brewery was doomed as soon as family patriarch - August Anheuser Busch III - retired from the company in 2006. 'I always looked up to and feared Anheuser Busch,' Schuhmacher said. 'They were the most respected, they knew the market better than anybody... August III knew that sports and humor were the way to...

Congressman Byron Donalds represents Southwest Florida CD-19; he comes from good stock. After the CNN attack townhall in New Hampshire last night, Donalds appeared on a CNN panel to discuss.Prior to Donalds joining the panel, the six other panelists were echo-chambering their narrative talking points without rebuttal. Donalds put that nonsense to rest. However, beyond the epic pushback, notice how the panel reacts to having their narrative challenged; this should be very familiar to people.Notice how when confronted by an opposing viewpoint the panel uses a familiar tactic. Instead of discussing the policy points, the issues at the heart of...

The program is the first in the country to continuously monitor sewage from airplanesInternational travelers can now contribute valuable data to COVID-19 surveillance efforts in the United States from above the clouds. San Francisco International Airport has launched a new program to test airplane wastewater for variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, the airport announced May 9. The program is the first in the country to continuously monitor sewage from airplanes, after previous studies demonstrated the potential value of this work. Airplane wastewater is a key source for COVID-19 surveillance because international travelers frequently bring new variants into...

The Biden administration announced it is providing more than $830 million to help make low-income housing energy efficient using funds from the Inflation Reduction Act that passed last year. The White House said in a release on Thursday that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is making the money available through a funding notice for the Inflation Reduction Act’s Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, which makes investments in energy and water efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, generating clean energy and implementing climate strategies in multifamily housing.

The SuperPac supporting Ron DeSantis called Never Back Down, has taken hundreds of millions of dollars from the Wall Street, billionaire, Sea Island, multinational corporation and hedge fund donors. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is injecting another $85 million from his leadership pac in Florida. All told it is the largest single assembly of political cash in the history of presidential campaigning, estimated value well north of $500 million.With all of that in mind, this is the best the communications team can come up with:Now, please do not misconstrue what I am saying. I am not saying these people are just...

The Washington, D.C. home of right-wing activist Steve Bannon appears to have been swatted again. Police and rescue workers responded to a shooting call at Bannon’s Thursday morning.

By backing Cannes Film Festival opener 'Jeanne du Barry' and courting its mercurial star, the Gulf nation is continuing its post-Khashoggi push for legitimacy in the global film community. So far, it’s working.Earlier this year, Johnny Depp was given a VIP tour of AlUla (pronounced AL-yoo-lah), the historic region of Saudi Arabia being heavily touted as both a tourism and filming destination. His guide: Saudi culture minister Prince Badr (or, in full, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al Saudi), a well-connected royal and governor of AlUla’s Royal Commission. “Good times,” Badr posted on Instagram alongside a photo...

CNN faced backlash from opponents of former President Donald Trump for hosting him in a town hall on the network Wednesday, charging that they gave him a stage.“CNN should be ashamed of themselves,” lamented socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). “They have lost total control of this ‘town hall’ to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim. The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host.”“This is a Trump infomercial,” lamented Meghan McCain.“This is an irresponsible disaster of journalism. We have absolutely learned nothing,” said Matt...

— Responses range the spectrum, from asking patients to mask, to not changing a thingA photo of a male physician showing his female patient a clipboard, both are wearing N95 masks. The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency in the U.S. may mark as close to an "end" to the pandemic as one could get, but that doesn't mean the lessons of the last 3 years have been forgotten. MedPage Today reached out to about a dozen clinicians to get their take on the way the pandemic has changed them and their practice -- and which alterations will carry...

A Republican Hispanic leader, Lydia Maldonado, organized what seems to be a Democrat Hispanic rally opposing Governor DeSantis’ bill signing for legislation to crack down on illegal immigration, and she’s running for chair of the local Palm Beach County Republican Party (REC). Maldonado claims to be against illegal immigration and supports SB 1718, ensuring that illegal immigrants will not be encouraged to come to Florida. Still, she was part of a group that tried to prevent DeSantis from signing the bill into law. It didn’t work. On May 10th, Governor DeSantis signed the bill, just in time for the end...

A man and a woman were allegedly assaulted and had homophobic slurs shouted at them when three men thought they were buying Bud Light beers. The suspects are accused of shouting anti-gay comments and physically attacking the shoppers outside the liquor store in Vaughan, Ontario. Police are now investigating the 'concerning, hate-motivated' assaults. Bud Light's disastrous marketing campaign with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney has sent shockwaves across the US - and now it seems the steadfast boycott has sprawled into Canada. One of the suspects approached the 26-year-old man, believing he was purchasing the now-controversial beer, and uttered derogatory comments...

How the Media Became the Pentagon’s PlumbersLast month New York Times international correspondent David Philipps offered a mea culpa.“I just deleted a tweet that lacked nuance,” the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner wrote.Philipps, who in 2022 received the top award in journalism for his reporting on previously undisclosed US military strikes that killed thousands of civilians in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, was walking back an observation made following the arrest of 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking state secrets. Philipps noted the Times had worked “feverishly” to assist the Pentagon in identifying Teixeira.“Ironically, if the same...

Activist and scholar Julia Serano defines cissexism as “the belief or assumption that cis people’s gender identities, expressions, and embodiments are more natural and legitimate than those of trans people.” It may be easier to break this concept down if you understand the pieces that make it up. The word cissexism is composed of two parts: the prefix “cis-” and the word “sexism.” “Cis” is derived from the term “cisgender.” Cisgender is a term used to describe someone who identifies with the sex and gender they were assigned at birth.

The New York democratic-socialist congresscritter known as AOC fumed on Twitter Wednesday night that CNN “set up a sexual assault victim to be targeted and attacked” by inviting Donald Trump to appear on a special town hall segment that evening. “People were sounding the alarm about this exact scenario,” she continued. “They let it happen anyway without a plan.” “This, the choice to platform election disinformation, lies about January 6th, totally unchecked and reckless claims about abortion… they need to take ownership of what just happened.” AOC said that CNN allowing Trump on the air “cannot be normalized. It’s dangerous.”...

A group of high school students in suburban Kansas City organized a walkout over a teacher who went public in an online op-ed about her problems with the district's diversity, equality and inclusion policies. The students at Shawnee Mission North High School were met with counter protesters who support English teacher Caedran Sullivan's outrage. According to her LinkedIn page, Sullivan has taught at the school for 15 years. Students accuse Sullivan of not using the correct pronouns when addressing transgender students and of critiquing non-white students experiences of racism, reports Fox Kansas City. 'It's not acceptable that she's still here,...

After years spent stoking weird culinary culture wars, the influential right-wing TV host has been beat by his ultimate made-up enemy: the Green M&M.The internet was set ablaze Monday when news broke that Tucker Carlson, the infamous right-wing news host, is out at Fox News. Almost instantly, Twitter and Instagram feeds were flooded not by think pieces, but with Green M&M memes. To some this may seem like a strange reaction, but Carlson and the Green M&M have had a long, caustic, and desperately one-sided relationship. The two go back to early 2022 (longer, in candy years), when they clashed...

If a permanent Martian settlement of any scale is to be established and maintained, it’s likely women will need to get pregnant and give birth beyond Mother Earth. NUS Centre for Biomedical Ethics’ Victor Cole looks at the implications.If humans are to survive as a species, the late cosmologist Stephen Hawking once argued, at some point we will need to make our home among the stars because the Earth will one day be engulfed by the Sun. More imminent threats to humanity’s survival include nuclear or biological war, runaway artificial intelligence, and climate change. The colonisation of the Earth’s Moon,...