Walmart

Days after Walmart pulled a controversial sweater featuring a cartoon Santa Claus doing cocaine with the tagline ‘Let It Snow’ from its website, the infamous novelty item has now become a best-selling item on Amazon. The supermarket chain faced a swell of backlash earlier this week when the holiday-themed crew neck sweater - which shows Santa holding a straw in front of three lines of what appears to be cocaine - was listed for sale on its website in Canada. Soon after, Walmart apologized and pulled the sweater from its site along with many others like it that also depicted the festive figure in uncompromising and sometimes sexually-suggestive positions. The retail giant acknowledged through a spokesperson that the sweaters 'do not represent Walmart's values’ and blamed a third party seller for why they ended up online. Amusingly listed as being ‘perfect for cozy days with your family!’, the $31.99 sweatshirt has also been receiving plenty of glowing … [Read more...] about Walmart’s controversial ‘Cocaine Santa’ sweater becomes an Amazon bestseller days after the supermarket removed it from their site

The Unwinding is the right title for George Packer's epic, sad and unsettling history of the last four decades in the US. His topic is the coming apart of something in the national fabric: the unravelling of unspoken agreements about the limits to Wall Street's greed; about what a congressman would or wouldn't do for the right price; about what a company owes its workers, or what the wealthy should contribute in tax. The result of all this unwinding is more personal freedom than ever before: "Freedom to change your story, get your facts, get hired, get fired, get high, marry, divorce, go broke, begin again, start a business, have it both ways, take it to the limit, walk away from the ruins, succeed beyond your dreams." But it is the loneliest sort of freedom. What Packer's disparate characters share – as his narrative moves up and down the spectrum of inequality, from inner-city Ohio to Silicon Valley, to the exurban McMansions of Florida, to Washington's … [Read more...] about The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer – review

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been crowned Forbes' most powerful woman for the ninth year running.  The German leader topped the Forbes 2019 list of the most powerful women in the world, closely followed by Christine Lagard and Nancy Pelosi.  The publication praised her for her 'steely reserve', for standing up for US President Donald Trump and her 'open door' refugee policy which saw more than a million Syrian refugees enter the country amid the 2015 migrant crisis.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been crowned Forbes' most powerful woman for the ninth year running Growing up behind the iron curtain in the former East Germany, Merkel rose to become the Chancellor of Germany, a position she has served in since 2005. She led the country's centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party for 18 years, from 2000-2018.  She has often been hailed as the de facto leader of the European Union and even the 'leader of the free world'.   Her time … [Read more...] about Angela Merkel is named the world’s most powerful woman by Forbes for ninth year running, as she is praised for ‘standing up to Trump and allowing a million refugees into Germany’