We’ve already had a few glimpses of Okja, Bong Joon-Ho’s first movie since Snowpiercer, about a little Korean girl named Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun), who befriends a monstrous creature that’s being hunted by an evil corporation. But this is the first trailer, which includes Tilda Swinton as a creepy scientist. What could…
Game of Throne Risk, Calvin Klein underwear, and Google Home lead off Tuesday’s best deals from around the web.
It has almost been a year since NVIDIA launched the GTX 1080, the crowning glory of its latest Pascal-powered GeForce 10 series. In the fast-paced world of computing, that means it’s overdue a successor. At GDC 2017, the world’s biggest game developers’ event, NVIDIA did just that by unveiling the GTX 1080 Ti. The numbering is a bit deceptive, implying … Continue reading
Jared the Galleria of Jewelers and Kay Jewelers’ parent company, Sterling Jewelers, is facing a class-action arbitration case from thousands of former and current employees, 250 of whom allege the company “fostered rampant sexual harassment and discrimination,” The Washington Post reported Monday.
Women at the company have come forward to say that they “were routinely groped, demeaned and urged to sexually cater to their bosses” during the late 1990s and 2000s. More than a dozen women initially filed for arbitration in 2008.
Not all class members are alleging sexual impropriety. There are also accusations of wage violations, which argue that women were paid less than men and “passed over for promotions given to less experienced male colleagues.”
This information hasn’t come to light until now because the employees’ attorneys were only granted permission to release the information publicly on Sunday. The case is being settled through arbitration (re: privately) and it’s not clear why it’s taken so long to settle.
Sanya Douglas, a Kay sales associate and manager in New York from 2003 to 2008, told the Post that a manager had a saying for male leaders coaxing women into sexual favors to advance their careers, calling it “going to the big stage.”
“If you didn’t do what he wanted with him,” she said in the 2012 sworn statement, “you wouldn’t get your [preferred] store or raise.”
Sterling Jewelers disputed the allegations, telling The Huffington Post in a statement that they believe “the story published by the Washington Post is patently misleading, as the referenced arbitration matter contains no legal claims of sexual harassment. We are currently seeking to have the Post correct this inaccurate story.”
They also said that they’ve “created strong career opportunities for many thousands of women working at our stores nationwide” and they’re taking the allegations “very seriously.”
Sterling also indicated that the allegations “involve a very small number of individuals” and that “they are not substantiated by the facts and certainly do not reflect our culture.”
Read the whole story here.
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WASHINGTON ― Back in mid-January, while Democrats were still recovering from the shock of the presidential election, 13 Democrats cast a dead-of-night vote that in previous years would have gone largely unnoticed.
It was against an amendment from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that directed a Senate committee to write legislation allowing for the re-importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. Perhaps the most prominent of the baker’s dozen was Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who just the day before had given controversial and impassioned testimony against Attorney General-nominee Jeff Sessions, at the time a fellow senator from Alabama.
The backlash caught Booker and his colleagues by surprise, and in many ways it presaged the furious energy that would soon be unleashed by progressives against both Trump and elected Democrats unwilling to stand up to him. It was a sign that things had changed in Washington and that standard operating Democratic procedure would no longer be acceptable.
The memo has been received. On Tuesday, Booker will join with Sanders at a press conference on Capitol Hill to announce his support for a drug re-importation bill.
From a policy angle, Booker has previously been open to the idea of re-importing drugs from Canada and even voted that same night for a measure aimed at lowering drug costs. But politically, activists have long considered him to be a reliable ally of Big Pharma, which is a dominant industry in New Jersey. Thus, his break with the industry at a public event with Sanders is meaningful politically. If the goal of the resistance has been to stiffen the spines of Democrats, it’s working.
Of course, there is no policy without politics. If and when Democrats gain control of government, they’ll be under tremendous pressure from their base to follow through on their promise and do something about soaring drug costs.
The drug industry is powerful in Pennsylvania, too, and Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) joined Booker on that late-night vote in January. Since then, resistance in Pennsylvania has been fierce, with activists gathering every Tuesday to pressure lawmakers to oppose the Republican corporate agenda. Casey has not been immune and he faces re-election in 2018 in a state that Trump won with an upset victory. He, too, will join Booker and Sanders on Tuesday in announcing his backing of the bill.
Booker and Casey said they were able to add robust safety provisions to the measure, which won over their support.
The bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), as well as Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Angus King (I-Maine).
Watch the full press conference below:
CORRECTION: Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett is a Democrat, not a Republican.
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Billionaire Warren Buffett has a long history of telling dirty old man style stories to explain boring business stuff. Most people usually overlook the creepiness because the Berkshire Hathaway CEO has cultivated a folksy manner and it’s kind of refreshing when a CEO isn’t a jargon-spewing automaton.
But in an interview with CNBC earlier this week, the 86-year-old crossed a line. Buffett was trying to explain why he and his investors made a public $143 billion bid to buy Unilever, even though as it turned out the consumer-goods conglomerate was emphatically not interested.
When Buffett’s people initially reached out, he explained to anchor Becky Quick, Unilever’s executive was apparently too polite and noncommittal ― leading to some confusion.
Then, he tried explain it all like this:
“Well, if a diplomat says yes, he means maybe. If he says maybe, he means no. And if he says no, he’s no diplomat. And if a lady says no, she means maybe. And if she says maybe, she means yes. And if she says yes, she’s no lady.”
This isn’t Buffett’s metaphor. It’s an old story, he said. And it’s one that’s clearly well past its expiration date. In 2017, it should be common knowledge that when it comes to courting a woman for romance or sex, no means no. And joking around about women giving mixed signals (they said no but meant yes) just helps perpetuate an illusion of consent that can lead to rape.
It’s pretty standard for Buffett to deploy dirty talk to explain dry and complex business concepts.
He offers a “quaint pattern of old jokes and creaky tropes,” is how a Bloomberg article describes him, while citing numerous examples of his quotes.
In a 2007 letter to investors, the billionaire likened bad business deals to women’s physical appearance, saying: “A line from Bobby Bare’s country song explains what too often happens with acquisitions: “I’ve never gone to bed with an ugly woman, but I’ve sure woke up with a few.”
The objectionable statement this time around comes at a time of heightened sensitivity to sexual harassment in the business realm. Ride-hailing giant Uber is facing charges that it cultivates a hostile atmosphere toward women; and on Monday night news broke of widespread sexual shenanigans at mall retailer Kay Jeweler.
A few people on Twitter were quick to take Buffett to task:
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President Donald Trump is making good on a campaign promise to reverse a key environmental achievement of former President Barack Obama.
Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order targeting the controversial Waters of the United States rule, also known as the Clean Water Rule, as he advances his assault on the Environmental Protection Agency and environmental protections. Another executive order targeting Obama’s Clean Power Plan could be signed as soon as this week, according to previous reports.
Tuesday’s order instructs the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to “review and reconsider” the rule, according to The Washington Post and other media outlets. Final language has not yet been released.
The rule, implemented in 2015, was intended to clarify which of the nation’s waterways should be protected under the federal Clean Water Act. It includes streams, wetlands and other smaller waterways that collectively provide drinking water for an estimated 117 million people — one in three Americans, according to the EPA.
The rule has been tied up in courts, however, with some 31 states, businesses and agricultural groups characterizing it as federal government overreach that would cripple industry.
A vocal critic of the rule has been EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who as Oklahoma attorney general sued the EPA over the rule, claiming it was unconstitutional and burdensome to farmers, developers and property owners. Pruitt reiterated his opposition to the rule, during an address at the Conservative Political Action Conference over the weekend, citing it as an example of overregulation.
Despite the Trump administration’s strong opposition to the rule, reversing it is no easy matter, triggering a new, potentially lengthy, rule-making process.
“It’s going to be hard to walk away from the huge scientific record the rule is based on,” Jon Devine, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told HuffPost. “If they try to run away from the legal test, that would be not only bad policy, but terrible law.”
Nevertheless, the order makes it clear that the Trump administration will attempt to do just that. The order urges the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to consider limiting protected waterways to larger, navigable bodies of water. That definition would be consistent with what the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the 2006 Rapanos v. United States case. That opinion, Devine pointed out, was shared by only four of the court’s justices.
“It would blow a huge hole in the middle of the Clean Water Act,” Devine said. “If those waters are off limits, the act will be virtually ineffective.”
Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy also criticized the executive order. In light of reports of major EPA budget cuts, she characterized the order as giving “the illusion they’re fulfilling a campaign promise to gut the EPA.”
“Only a new rule based on a new record can make current rules go away,” McCarthy said in a statement. “The only thing these orders do is make clear this administration will defer needed public health protections for the American people for the sake of partisan politics.”
Others applauded Trump’s order.
American Farm Bureau Foundation President Zippy Duvall called Trump’s action “welcome relief to farmers and ranchers across the country.” The rule “has proven to be nothing more than a federal land grab, aimed at telling farmers and ranchers how to run their businesses,” Duvall said in a statement.
But not all agriculture groups were united in their support of Trump’s order.
Tom Driscoll, a spokesman for the National Farmers Union, said his organization opposed the clean water rule and supports its repeal. But he expressed concern with how the Trump administration will approach a revamp.
“I don’t think we’ve seen a lot to make us confident that this administration will revisit this rule in careful way that recognizes peoples’ concerns and protects shared water resources,” Driscoll told HuffPost.
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Good news for cord cutters, YouTube is getting into live TV.
On Tuesday, the company announced its launching a new live and on-demand internet TV streaming service called YouTube TV.
Subscribers will have access to more than 30 networks, including ABC, CBS FOX, NBC, USA, FX and 10 sports networks, including ESPN, Fox Sports and NBCSN for $35 per month, in addition to paid YouTube content from YouTube Red. That price also includes six accounts, which allows for personalized recommendations for each member of the household, though only three accounts can stream at one time.
Notably absent from YouTube’s service are Viacom-owned channels Discovery, A&E, AMC, TBS, TNT, MTV, Comedy Central and CNN.
While no specific launch date has been announced as of yet, YouTube TV joins the growing space of internet TV streaming services as more people look for ways to say goodbye to traditional cable.
In addition to the more established Sling TV and Sony’s Playstation Vue, AT&T recently launched a similar service with DirecTVNow, though it seems to have been launched prematurely. As of January, The Verge called the service a “complete mess” citing frequent interruptions, missing features and billing issues as major problems.
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Starbucks is stirring up some backlash over a decision to open its first location in Italy in late 2018.
The coffee chain announced Tuesday that it will open a new Reserve Roastery cafe in Milan next year. The Roastery will reside in the Poste di Milano building and take up some 25,000 square feet of space, according to a press release. Customers can expect goodies from Rocco Princi’s chain of bakeries, as well as small-batch Reserve coffee and, according to a Starbucks spokesperson, beer, wine and spirits as well.
“Now we’re going to try, with great humility and respect, to share what we’ve been doing and what we’ve learned through our first retail presence in Italy,” Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, said in a release. “Our first store will be designed with painstaking detail and great respect for the Italian people and coffee culture.”
He added, “And, my hope is that we will create a sense of pride for our partners – so much so that every partner who sees our store or walks through the doors will say: ‘We got it right.’”
People on Twitter already have a lot to say about Starbucks moving to the holy grail of espresso. Let’s just say they’re not too happy about it:
And don’t even get people started on the palm trees Starbucks planted near the Piazza del Duomo in Milan as part of a landscaping project with the city. According to the Los Angeles Times, some people even tried to burn them!
“We are happy the way we are,” 70-year-old Milan resident Christine Kung told the LA Times. “We don’t need to be invaded by American scenery. We already have McDonald’s and that’s enough.”
When asked about the backlash, a Starbucks spokesperson told The Huffington Post via email: “Everything we’ve done to date sits on the foundation of the passion, craftsmanship and love Italian people have for great coffee. We are coming to Italy to learn from the best, but also to bring our own unique offer to the Italian consumer: a third place between home and work to take time and enjoy a perfectly crafted cup of coffee. We believe that there is a strong consumer base in Italy.”
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Ever wonder what your Uber driver really thinks of you?
For the sake of comparison, here’s a video of what it took for Uber CEO Travis Kalanick to earn a one-star rating.
Uber “black car” driver Fawzi Kamel captured this dash-cam video of Kalanick accompanied by two female passengers on Super Bowl Sunday and shared it with Bloomberg, which published the video Tuesday.
In it, Kalanick and his companions chat idly at first, discussing things like the weather and astrological signs (apparently Kalanick is a Leo, in case you were wondering).
At one point, one of the women makes a comment about Uber having a bad year, prompting Kalanick to respond, “I make sure every year is a hard year.” He adds, “That’s kind of how I roll. I make sure every year is a hard year. If it’s easy I’m not pushing hard enough.”
“I make sure every year is a hard year. That’s kind of how I roll. I make sure every year is a hard year. If it’s easy I’m not pushing hard enough.”
As the car arrives at its destination, however, Kamel can’t resist pressing Kalanick on the company’s compensation for drivers and decreasing fares.
To his credit, Kalanick appears to take the complaint ― which is a common one among Uber drivers ― seriously.
“So, we are reducing the number of black cars on the road over the next six months,” he tells Kamel, who responds encouragingly at first.
“But… you’re raising the standards and you’re dropping the prices,” Kamel responds. Kalanick replies, confused, “We’re not dropping the price on black.”
The two go back and forth several times, debating the company’s price structure, with Kalanick asserting his actions were necessary to save Uber from competition, and Kamel telling him drivers are hurting.
Kalanick says the company is considering rolling out a new “luxe” service that could demand higher fares, if Kamel is interested.
“But people are not trusting you anymore,” Kamel responds. “I lost $97,000 because of you. I’m bankrupt because of you. You keep changing [fares] every day.”
That seems to fire Kalanick up, who presses Kamel on his specific gripes about Uber’s more expensive black car service:
“Hold on a second,” Kalanick asks. “What have I changed about black? What? What?”
“You changed the whole business,” says Kamel. “You dropped the prices [on black].”
“Bullshit!” replies Kalanick, who starts gathering his belongings as Kamel keeps pressing his case.
“You know what?” Kalanick asks rhetorically, clearly not interested in the rest of what Kamel has to say. “Some people don’t like to take responsibility for their own shit.”
Then he adds, wagging his finger in the air as slides out of the car, “They blame everything in their life on somebody else.”
“Good luck,” Kalanick says, sarcastically, then slams the car door shut.
Uber didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
The video continues a string of high-profile hits for the company, including a lawsuit over claims it stole technology from a competitor, allegations of rampant sexism, the resignation of a top engineer, and a #DeleteUber protest that forced Kalanick off President Donald Trump’s advisory council.
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