Latest news with #Washington-based
The Star
14 minutes ago
- Business
- The Star
Tax operations declared as "essential services" in Bangladesh
DHAKA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Bangladeshi interim government has declared tax operations as "essential services," in a bid to better safeguard local and foreign trade and commerce. Bangladesh's Ministry of Labor and Employment issued a gazette notification in this regard Tuesday. According to the notification, tax operations are declared as essential operations for meeting revenue collection targets of the government and for keeping the financial management of the government dynamics. The Bangladeshi interim government last month through an ordinance created two new divisions by abolishing the country's National Board of Revenue in an apparent move to modernize tax administration and boost revenue collection. The ordinance stated that the Revenue Policy Division will monitor the implementation of tax laws while the Revenue Management Division will mainly look into revenue collection. The restructuring reportedly followed a key condition set by the International Monetary Fund to separate tax policy from administration. The Washington-based lender has long pushed for tax reforms to raise Bangladesh's tax-to-GDP ratio, one of the lowest in Asia.
Miami Herald
37 minutes ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Starbucks rolls out new pricing for sauces, syrups. Here's how much you'll pay
Your next custom Starbucks order could cost more as the coffee giant rolls out new standardized pricing on syrups and other add-ins. Some drinks, though, like a mocha with added vanilla, may cost you less under the new structure. This week, the Washington-based coffeehouse began charging an 80-cent fee for any combination of sauce or syrup in unflavored drinks. The new flat fee allows for more consistent pricing on customizations, which used to vary depending on the sauce or syrup and drink. Now, there's a standardized price — regardless of the number of pumps. Want to add vanilla to your Caffè Mocha? Starbucks said customers can now add or substitute any sauce or syrup for free in pre-flavored drinks. Classic syrup can also be added to any beverage, free of charge. Other add-ins, however, will be priced by serving, the coffee giant said. Going forward, extra matcha will cost $1 per scoop (in non-matcha drinks), and chai concentrate is 80 cents if you want an extra serving. Additionally, dried fruit inclusions — often used in Starbucks Refreshers — are priced at 50 cents per scoop, the company said. The changes have drawn the ire of some customers who felt their daily coffee is already priced too high. The pricing shakeup is the latest in recent changes made under new CEO Brian Niccol, who stepped into the role in September 2024. His 'back to Starbucks' plan has included everything from dropping the extra charge for non-diary milk to less popular changes, like efforts to slash 30% percent of the coffeehouse's menu. Starbucks said the updated pricing on customizations is aimed at adding value and increasing transparency. Additionally, the company said it's testing a new feature in the mobile app that reflects pricing updates in real time during the ordering process, instead of on the checkout screen. Find your nearest Starbucks here.
New York Post
2 hours ago
- Business
- New York Post
Lululemon sues Costco over alleged sale of 'dupes' copying $128 pants
Athletic apparel giant Lululemon is suing Costco for allegedly selling cheap 'dupes' of its pricey pants and sweatshirts. In a lawsuit filed Friday in California, Lululemon alleges Costco has 'unlawfully traded' on the brand's 'reputation, goodwill and sweat equity by selling unauthorized and unlicensed apparel employing knockoff, infringing versions' of its products. Lululemon, for example, sells its popular ABC men's pants for $128 – and alleges that a pair of Costco pants that retail for just $10 rip off their design. Advertisement Leggings and yoga pants on display in a Lululemon store in New York. Bloomberg via Getty Images Its Scuba hoodies sell for $118, while Costco's private label Kirkland Signature sells copycat sweatshirts for $8, the company alleged in the suit. 'As an innovation-led company that invests significantly in the research, development and design of our products, we take the responsibility of protecting and enforcing our intellectual property rights very seriously and pursue the appropriate legal action when necessary,' Lululemon told The Post in a statement. The Vancouver-based company is accusing Costco of leading customers to believe that these dupes, slang for duplicates, 'are in fact manufactured by the authentic supplier of the 'original' products.' Advertisement Lululemon and Costco did not immediately respond to The Post's requests for comment. Lululemon claimed it sent the Washington-based big box retailer a letter in November 2024 accusing it of selling hoodies using the Scuba design. Costco 'subsequently removed at least some of the products that infringed lululemon's SCUBA,' but later started selling similar products, according to the lawsuit. Advertisement The retailer is still selling the alleged dupes today, Lululemon said in the suit. Clothing folded on tables at a Costco store in New Jersey. Bloomberg via Getty Images The luxury leggings maker is seeking to 'fully recover' financial losses through unspecified damages and a court order to block Costco from selling the products. Lululemon has gone after alleged copycats in the past, suing stationary bike giant Peloton in 2021 for allegedly selling apparel using similar designs. Advertisement That suit was settled in 2022, and the companies announced a five-year partnership the following year to sell co-branded clothing. Lululemon recently slashed its full-year forecast, citing a 'dynamic macroenvironment' with added costs from tariffs, low demand amid economic uncertainty and heated competition from other athletic brands. Shares of Lululemon jumped 2.2% Tuesday. The stock is down 36% so far this year.
The Hill
4 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Iran assesses the damage and lashes out after Israeli and US strikes damage its nuclear sites
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran is assessing the damage and lashing out over the American and Israeli airstrikes on its nuclear sites, though Tehran kept open the possibility Tuesday of resuming talks with Washington over its atomic program. The comments by government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani also included another acknowledgment that Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz — key sites within Iran's nuclear program — had been 'seriously damaged' by the American strikes. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency quoted Mohajerani as making the remarks at a briefing for journalists. That acknowledgment comes as Iran's theocracy has slowly begun to admit the scale of the damage wrought by the 12-day war with Israel, which saw Israeli fighter jets decimate the country's air defenses and conduct strikes at will over the Islamic Republic. And keeping the door open to talks with the United States likely shows Tehran wants to avoid further economic pain as another deadline over U.N. sanctions looms. 'No date (for U.S. talks) is announced, and it's not probably very soon, but a decision hasn't been made in this field,' Mohajerani said. Israeli airstrikes, which began June 13, decimated the upper ranks of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard and targeted its arsenal of ballistic missiles. The strikes also hit Iran's nuclear sites, which Israel claimed put Tehran within reach of a nuclear weapon. U.S. intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency had assessed Iran last had an organized nuclear weapons program in 2003, though Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. On Monday, Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir offered a sharply increased, government-issued death toll from the war. He said that the Israeli attacks killed 935 'Iranian citizens,' including 38 children and 102 women, IRNA reported. 'The enemy aimed to change the country's circumstances by assassinating military commanders and scientists, intending to spread fear and exert pressure,' Jahangir added. However, he asserted — like others up to 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — that Iran had 'won' the war. Iran has a long history of offering lower death counts around unrest over political considerations. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, has put the death toll at 1,190 people killed, including 436 civilians and 435 security force members. The attacks wounded another 4,475 people, the group said. Meanwhile, it appears that Iranian officials now are assessing the damage done by the American strikes conducted on the three nuclear sites on June 22, including those at Fordo, a site built under a mountain about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Tehran. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press show Iranian officials at Fordo on Monday likely examining the damage caused by American bunker busters. Trucks could be seen in the images, as well as at least one crane and an excavator at tunnels on the site. That corresponded to images shot Sunday by Maxar Technologies similarly showing the ongoing work. The tunnels likely had been filled in by Iran before the strikes to protect the facility. The presence of trucks before the attacks has raised questions about whether any enriched uranium or centrifuges had been spirited away before the attack, something repeatedly claimed by Iranian officials. Even before the strikes, the IAEA warned that its inspectors had lost their 'continuity of knowledge' regarding the program, meaning material could be at undeclared sites in the country. Iran hasn't said what work is being done at the sites, though it has said that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran planned to issue a report about the damage done by the strikes. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, whose profile sharply rose during the war, also has kept open the possibility of talks with the U.S. However, hard-liners within Iran are increasingly criticizing any effort at negotiations or cooperation with the West. Iran's hard-line Kayhan newspaper, in a piece written by its Khamenei-appointed managing editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, mocked any possible talks Tuesday by saying being a 'traitor or stupid are two sides of the same coin.' Shariatmadari's newspaper on Saturday also suggested that the IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi, should be 'tried and executed' if he visited Iran — something that drew immediate criticism from European nations and others.
Winnipeg Free Press
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Iran assesses the damage and lashes out after Israeli and US strikes damage its nuclear sites
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran is assessing the damage and lashing out over the American and Israeli airstrikes on its nuclear sites, though Tehran kept open the possibility Tuesday of resuming talks with the Washington over its atomic program. The comments by government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani also included another acknowledgment that the American strikes at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz — key sites within Iran's program — had been 'seriously damaged' by the bombing. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency quoted Mohajerani as making the remarks at a briefing for journalists. That acknowledgment comes as Iran's theocracy has slowly begun to admit the scale of the damage wrought by the 12-day war with Israel, which saw Israeli fighter jets decimate the country's air defenses and conduct strikes at will over the Islamic Republic. And keeping the door open to talks with the United States likely shows Tehran wants to avoid further economic pain as another deadline over U.N. sanctions loom. 'No date (for U.S. talks) is announced, and it's not probably very soon, but a decision hasn't been made in this field,' Mohajerani said. Iran offers rising death toll Israeli airstrikes, which began June 13, decimated the upper ranks of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard and targeted its arsenal of ballistic missiles. The strikes also hit Iran's nuclear sites, which Israel claimed put Tehran within reach of a nuclear weapon. U.S. intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency had assessed Iran last had an organized nuclear weapons program in 2003, though Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. On Monday, Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir offered a sharply increased, government-issued death toll from the war. He said that the Israeli attacks killed 935 'Iranian citizens,' including 38 children and 102 women, IRNA reported. 'The enemy aimed to change the country's circumstances by assassinating military commanders and scientists, intending to spread fear and exert pressure,' Jahangir added. However, he asserted — like others up to 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — that Iran had 'won' the war. Iran has a long history of offering lower death counts around unrest over political considerations. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, has put the death toll at 1,190 people killed, including 436 civilians and 435 security force members. The attacks wounded another 4,475 people, the group said. Activity seen at Iran's Fordo facility Meanwhile, it appears that Iranian officials now are assessing the damage done by the American strikes conducted on the three nuclear sites on June 22, namely those at Fordo, a site built under a mountain about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Tehran. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press show Iranian officials at Fordo on Monday likely examining the damage caused by American bunker busters. Trucks could be seen in the images, as well as at least one crane and an excavator at tunnels on the site. That corresponded to images shot Sunday by Maxar Technologies similarly showing the ongoing work. The tunnels likely had been filled in by Iran before the strikes to protect the facility. The presence of trucks before the attacks has raised questions about whether any enriched uranium or centrifuges had been spirited away before the attack, something repeatedly claimed by Iranian officials. Even before the strikes, the IAEA warned that its inspectors had lost their 'continuity of knowledge' regarding the program, meaning material could be at undeclared sites in the country. Iran hasn't said what work is ongoing at the sites, though it has said that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran planned to issue a report about the damage done by the strikes. Hard-liners lash out Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, whose profile sharply rose during the war, also has kept open the possibility of talks with the U.S. However, hard-liners within Iran are increasingly criticizing any effort at negotiations or cooperation with the West. Iran's hard-line Kayhan newspaper, in a piece written by its Khamenei-appointed managing editor Hossein Shariatmadari, mocked any possible talks Tuesday by saying being a 'traitor or stupid are two sides of the same coin.' Shariatmadari's newspaper on Saturday also suggested that the IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi, should be 'tried and executed' if he visited Iran — something that drew immediate criticism from European nations and others.
