Free Republic

Brewing giant Heineken has announced plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs as part of a cost-cutting drive to compensate for a slump in beer sales. The company, which also brews Amstel and Birra Moretti, unveiled the proposal amid weaker beer demand and what it described as 'challenging market conditions'. Heineken said it plans to reduce its workforce by between 5,000 and 6,000 positions over the next two years, affecting up to 7 percent of its 87,000 global employees. 'We really do this to strengthen our operations and to be able to invest in growth,' finance chief Harold van den...

Time for Ozempic to walk the plank? Top dietitians in Australia this week are waving a red flag about an unforeseen impact of the GLP-1 class of weight-loss drugs, including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. In a new systematic review of existing research, led by professor Clare Collins of the Newcastle School of Health Sciences in New South Wales, Australia, it appears that very few global trials of the drugs have taken into consideration what and how much patients are eating while using them. This, experts have said, means many patients have been functionally malnourished — sometimes developing serious vitamin deficiencies...

The California Department of Public Health is urging people to avoid mushroom foraging altogether this year because death cap mushrooms are easily confused with safe, edible varieties. Since Nov. 18 there have been more than three dozen cases of death cap poisonings reported, including the four deaths and three liver transplants, according to the health department. Many who sought medical attention suffered from rapidly evolving acute liver injury and liver failure. Several patients required admission to an intensive care unit. They have ranged in age from 19 months to 67 years old. The death cap is one of the most...

A prediction market company best known for allowing users to bet on world events is stepping into New York City’s food scene — if only briefly — with the launch of what it’s calling the city’s first-ever free grocery store. Polymarket will be open for New Yorkers in Lower Manhattan starting at 12PM from Feb. 12 through Feb. 16, according to the NYC for Free website. It’s being described as the city’s first free grocery store, "fully stocked" and requiring no purchase. Polymarket posted on X, Tuesday, that the idea took "months of planning." In addition to paying for the...

Amazon told shareholders Thursday that it made nearly $78 billion in net income during 2025 — while workers at its subsidiary Whole Foods Market say they struggle to afford basic necessities due to unlivable working wages. Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017 and now employs over 100,000 workers nationwide offering a starting wage of $17 an hour. Philadelphia Whole Foods workers organized a union in January 2025 and its members claim their employer’s parent company —founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos — has violated labor law, illegally retaliated against workers and rejected and delayed bargaining with the union for better wage...

(NewsNation) — It’s never been easier to tap a button and have dinner show up at your door, but the line between convenience and cost is drawing new attention. A recent New York Times story explored the rise of America’s food-delivery culture, prompting fresh scrutiny of how much people are spending on apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub. The Times spoke to a 34-year-old woman in San Diego with a $50,000 annual salary who said she spends at least $200 to $300 a week on food delivery — a pattern she said has eaten away at her savings. Another...

Douglas bought the bread on September 22, 2025, at the Walmart store located at 1575 Space Center Drive in Colorado Springs, per the lawsuit. The loaf of MarketSide-branded bread allegedly had a 'sell-by' label placed directly over its preparation instructions. This included the detail that the bread was actually a 'take and bake' product, rather than ready-to-eat. A Colorado man sued Walmart after he claimed to suffer 'severe' injuries from eating raw bake-to-eat bread that allegedly expanded in his stomach. Jordan T. Douglas, of El Paso County, said he spent three days at UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central after ingesting the...

A sweeping new report from the World Health Organization found that up to four in 10 cancer cases around the globe could be prevented with lifestyle changes. In the large international study, researchers identified 30 modifiable risk factors that fuel the disease — including, for the first time, nine cancer-causing infections. “This is the first global analysis to show how much cancer risk comes from causes we can prevent,” Dr. André Ilbawi, the WHO’s team lead for cancer control and the study’s author, said in a press release. “By examining patterns across countries and population groups, we can provide governments...

A popular honey product has been voluntarily recalled by its manufacturer, Akkarco, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified the company that samples of the product contained an undeclared drug—commonly used to treat erectile dysfunction—according to a press release issued by Akkarco on Janaury 28, 2026, and the official FDA announcement, which was published on February 3, 2026. What Product Has Been Recalled? The recall covers Ashfiat Alharamain Energy Support honey, which is packaged in a glass bottle with a gold lid and an orange label. According to Akkarco’s press release, the product carries the Unified Product Code...

Huang Kaihong, often described online as 'China’s loneliest rider', works in Medog county in Nyingchi, located in the Tibet region of south-western China. Medog, which sits at the foothills of the Himalayas and has a population of fewer than 15,000 people, was the last county in the country to gain road access, South China Morning Post reported.A 24-year-old delivery rider has become an essential link for residents and businesses in one of China’s most isolated counties, handling up to 200 orders a day as the only full-time delivery worker in the area. Huang Kaihong, often described online as “China’s loneliest...

The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

China has suspended imports of Irish beef following the detection of an outbreak of bluetongue in County Wexford last week, while more cases of the virus have been confirmed in three additional cattle herds in the county. Minister for Agriculture said that his department informed Chinese authorities of the cases and that they “subsequently informed us that they have suspended the acceptance of Irish beef exported from Ireland with effect from 27 January 2026”. Minister Heydon added: “As with all temporary suspensions, it is a matter for the importing country when they will recommence the acceptance of exports of Irish...

Some Costco customers are crying fowl over the big-box chain’s popular $4.99 rotisserie chickens, saying they contain preservatives in spite of the company’s claims to the contrary, according to a new lawsuit. Two California-based people say Costco “has systematically cheated” consumers “out of tens — if not hundreds — of millions of dollars” by advertising the poultry as being free of preservatives. The class-action lawsuit, filed last week in San Diego federal court, alleges that Costco makes the claim despite the fact that the rotisserie chickens contain sodium phosphate and carrageenan.

Grocery delivery app Instacart abruptly began charging Big Apple residents a new “regulatory response fee” this week after sweeping changes to the city’s delivery worker laws were enacted Monday, The Post has learned. “NYC regulatory response fees appear in the order summary,” the FAQ section of Instacart’s website now reads — a marked change from archived versions of the site just one month prior. An explanation of the fee reads that it “helps cover increased operating costs in NYC due to government regulations on delivery platforms.” A Post analysis of orders prior to Monday found no such fee tacked on....

Only recently described by science, the mysterious mushrooms are found in different parts of the world, but they give people the same exact visions. Every year, doctors at a hospital in the Yunnan Province of China brace themselves for an influx of people with an unusual complaint. The patients come with a strikingly odd symptom: visions of pint-sized, elf-like figures – marching under doors, crawling up walls and clinging to furniture. The hospital treats hundreds of these cases every year. All share a common culprit: Lanmaoa asiatica, a type of mushroom that forms symbiotic relationships with pine trees in nearby...

Waffle House locations across the South locked their doors in a rare move as a monster winter storm threatens much of the country this weekend — a stark warning of the havoc to come. The 24-hour Southern breakfast chain, famous for rarely closing in bad weather, shut down its griddles as locations in South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi went into a “Code Red” Saturday as Winter Storm Fern barrels across the Midwest and East Coast, multiple outlets reported. In South Carolina — where the incoming system has prompted its first ice storm warning since 2005 — Waffle House employees...

Jan 22, 2026 ICE is now raiding Somalian and African run grocery stores Transcript 0:00 ISIS is now raiding Somali and 0:01 Africanrun grocery stores. 0:03 They're not supposed to come in here. 0:05 Oh no. Wait, they can't do this. 0:09 How they entering here? You guys don't 0:11 have the right to be in here. 0:13 It's a safe zone, guys. You can't

“Dad… when did you start selling insurance?" the celebrity chef's son Hunter wroteIs that you, Guy Fieri? The Food Network star debuted an unexpected new look as he celebrated his 58th birthday on Thursday, Jan. 22. In an Instagram video Fieri shared, he sports a conservative ensemble that includes a checkered button-down shirt and belted khaki trousers. His facial hair is shaven off, and he’s traded in his signature spiky blonde locks for a neatly parted brown hairdo. “Hey there! After so many years of celebrating my birthday as Guy, I figured this year I’d celebrate it as just...

A pet cow named Veronika uses a tool in a surprisingly sophisticated way—possibly because she has been allowed to live her best life. In news that is sure to delight fans of a certain Gary Larson cartoon turned meme about the limitations of bovine cognition, cow tools are real. Larson’s 1982 comic for his series The Far Side showed a cow standing behind a table bearing an array of oddly shaped objects. The text below the image read simply “cow tools.” Now a pet cow named Veronika has been documented not only using a tool but doing so in a...

Shoppers are being warned to avoid certain cans of Genova Yellowfin Tuna that were mistakenly sent to stores across nine states, even though the products were recalled last year. The products are linked to a recall issued in February 2025 by Tri-Union Seafoods, which discovered a manufacturing defect affecting the "easy open" pull-tab lids on some cans. The defect could cause the cans to "leak, or worse, be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, a potentially fatal form of food poisoning," according to a Monday announcement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Ingesting Clostridium botulinum bacteria can lead to botulism,...