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Image Focus: Trump’s Muzzle Imposition
An enormous number of individuals eagerly anticipate seeing a photograph of Donald Trump incarcerated. While that may not be the current scenario, Trump’s case regarding the suppression payment at Manhattan Criminal Court nudges that possibility slightly forward.
During his frequent media interaction sessions that took place outside the courtroom, the ex-president made remarks about the incredibly chilly temperatures inside the court. Much like anyone else would feel. However, his disdain for the judge’s extremely unfair gag order stood out – a restriction made with the intention to curb his ability to verbally attack and threaten witnesses.
“They’ve stripped away my inherent right to express myself,” uttered an upset Trump about the gag order. “I ought to have the right to express my thoughts. The gag order needs to be lifted.” Meanwhile, the prosecutors on the lookout for imposing fines pointed out multiple instances where Trump had repeatedly breached the imposed gag order.
Chocolate Theft Statistics:
£134,000 – The amount in which Kinder Buenos were stolen, according to a headline regarding the theft of a lorry loaded with these chocolate bars from a factory site in Lancashire. Count Binface, a comic electoral candidate, jested about inflation being on the rise whilst referring to this incident.
200,000 – The number of Cadbury Creme Eggs stolen by an individual, humourously nicknamed as the “Easter bunny”, from Shropshire last year. These stolen goods amount to a value over £30,000 or €35,000.
€7 million – This number pales in comparison with the gargantuan Lindt theft in 2014, where £7 million worth of the Swiss chocolates were unlawfully taken from a Milan warehouse by alleged mafiosi, leading to a host of arrests.
Getting Acquainted: Merle Meyers
As the weeks roll on, yet another whistleblower surfaces from Boeing, this time it is Merle Meyers. The 65-year-old quality head, until the previous year, had a longstanding career at the aircraft production giant, a place of work shared with his wife’s family and his mother. Presently, he is expressing his apprehensions over the management’s shift in focus from maintaining quality to hastening the production process, supported by a treasure trove of emails and other paper trails.
Meyers shared with the New York Times his powerful bond and intense commitment towards the company, which he believes fuels his unwavering advocacy. Having initially joined Boeing in 1979, Meyers, like many fellow whistleblowers, contends that the integrity and engineering-led mindset of the company started to dwindle post the 1997 amalgamation with McDonnell Douglas. To keep operations going, the Everett manufacturing facility in Washington would allegedly misappropriate parts intended for other airplanes, utilise brand-new components prior to inspection, and retrieve parts that were supposed to be discarded.
Now shifting focus to potential acquirers of TikTok, ByteDance, the Beijing-headquartered mother company, has 270 days to offload the US operations of TikTok to evade being cut-off in the country. The contenders include:
1. Mnuchin consortium: It was only last month that former US treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin voiced his intention to establish a consortium to purchase the US assets of TikTok, terming it as a lucrative venture.
2. Microsoft: The highest-valued company globally, assessed at around $3 trillion, Microsoft had mulled over purchasing the US operations in 2020. Perhaps the second time might yield successful results?
3. Oracle: The tech powerhouse had earlier considered making a bid in conjunction with Walmart. Whether Larry Ellison, the co-founder and chairman, who seems preoccupied considering a change of headquarters for Oracle from Austin to Nashville, still has an interest remains to be seen.
4. Meta and Google: Although Meta, who owns Facebook and Instagram, would be extremely interested in acquiring TikTok, the unfortunate truth is that likely competition laws would prevent them, and Google, from executing such a deal.
5. Kevin O’Leary: Affectionately known as “Mr Wonderful”, the Canadian business tycoon and jury member on America’s version of Dragons’ Den, Shark Tank, is considering assembling a team to buy TikTok, which signals potential trouble for entrepreneurs looking for funding in the upcoming season of Shark Tank.