Friday, February 09, 2024

Canada’s Tim Hortons to launch in Panama in 2024

IMPERIALISM THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALI$M

The Ontario-based coffee chain will make its Central American debut in Panama later this year and has outlined plans to open 30 stores by 2034

Ontario-based Tim Hortons currently operates more than 5,700 stores across 17 markets globally | Photo credit: Erik Mclean

Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons will enter Panama this year and plans to open 30 stores in the central American country within the next 10 years.

Parent company Restaurant Brands International (RBI) said the first store in partnership with Vortex Investment SA will open in the coming months, with outlet growth focused on Panama City.

“We look forward to bringing Tim Hortons renowned quality coffee in Panama and to introduce our delicious food and our welcoming Tim Hortons experience to guests later this year,” said Renato Rossi, Regional President, Latin America and the Caribbean, RBI.

The move will mark Tim Hortons’ debut in Central America and adds to its growing presence in the US and Mexico, where it currently operates 630 and 89 stores respectively.

The Ontario-based coffee chain currently operates more than 5,700 stores across 17 markets globally, having entered Pakistan, Singapore and South Korea in 2023.

Panama’s branded coffee shop market is led by 24-store Kotowa Coffee House. However, international brands Starbucks and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf also have a modest presence, opening 16 and 10 outlets since their respective debuts in 2015.

Tim Hortons to expand South Korea presence with two new Seoul stores

The Canadian coffee chain made its South Korea debut in December 2023 and says two existing sites in Seoul are its strongest performing across east Asia

Tim Hortons sold over 100,000 cups of coffee at its first two Seoul sites in the last month | Photo credit: Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons will add two new outlets in Seoul this month amid strong consumer demand for the brand across the South Korean capital.

The Canadian coffee chain entered South Korea in December 2023 with two stores in Seoul’s Sinnonhyeon and Seolleung districts. Tim Hortons sold over 100,000 cups of coffee and 300,000 donuts at the sites over the last month – marking a stronger performance than comparable sites in China, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore, according to a spokesperson.

Tim Hortons will open its third and fourth sites at Sungnyemun Grand Central and Seoul National University Station on 30 and 31 January respectively. The brand is seeking to open 150 outlets in South Korea within five years.

With more than 31,100 stores, South Korea is the second largest branded coffee shop market by outlets in east Asia, behind China which has nearly 50,000.

Alongside Tim Hortons, Germany’s The Barn, France’s Terres De Café and China’s Cotti Coffee also opened their first stores in South Korea last year.

World Coffee Portal research forecasts the total South Korean branded coffee shop market will surpass 41,700 outlets by the end of 2028.

Tesco transforms bog-standard cardboard into luxury toilet rolls

by Fiona Briggs

February 8, 2024

in Retailer News

Sainsbury’s invests in living wages for banana workers three years ahead of industry commitment

by Fiona Briggs
February 8, 2024
in Retailer News

From today, every single banana bought at Sainsbury’s will contribute towards paying thousands of workers a fairer wage and support the future of banana growers in Cameroon, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Ghana.

Last year, Sainsbury’s, along with nine other UK retailers brought together by IDH, committed to enabling banana workers – those employed on large banana plantations – to receive a living wage by 2027. Sainsbury’s has taken action to address living wages now, three years ahead of the industry commitment.

The price Sainsbury’s is paying for every box of bananas now covers the cost of the fruit, plus a premium which is invested into workers’ wages. This additional money helps the workers to cover food, housing, education and healthcare costs, improving their livelihoods and those of their families.

The remainder of the premium goes towards helping the environment, by supporting the banana growers to implement sustainable farm practices, such as capturing carbon, reducing water footprints and improving biodiversity and soil health.

Sainsbury’s has also moved to four year contracts to give its growers greater stability and financial security.

Sainsbury’s worked with longstanding partner Fairtrade and banana supplier Fyffes to make these changes possible. The retailer is now calling on others to also meet the industry commitment early, so that every banana worker across the whole industry can be paid a living wage.

Ruth Cranston, Sainsbury’s director of corporate responsibility & sustainability, said: “Bananas are our bestselling fruit and by improving wages on this product we can positively impact the lives of thousands of people in the countries we source from. But we want every banana worker across the entire industry to benefit and we can’t do this alone, that’s why we’re urging other retailers to act now so that all workers can be paid fairly.

“By choosing Sainsbury’s bananas, our customers are helping to both enrich workers’ livelihoods through fairer pay and tackle climate change, supporting a thriving and enduring banana industry for the long term.

“This has all been possible thanks to our longstanding relationships with Fairtrade and Fyffes. We look forward to many more years of working together as partnership is the key to creating resilient and responsible supply chains.”

Minel Bellamir, employee at Bananeros los Ríos Plantation, Dominican Republic, said: “We are glad that thanks to Fairtrade and the Fairtrade Premium we are able to improve our living conditions and wages. To me, living wages means more security, better housing, and giving an education to my children. When Fairtrade and companies like Sainsbury’s work together and commit to support banana workers in earning decent wages, our families and communities have a better chance to establish decent living conditions. Fairtrade and Sainsbury’s are also supporting the development of better growing practices, which is especially important as I feel the effects of climate change and the impact this has on the production of bananas.”

Michael Gidney, CEO of the Fairtrade Foundation, said: “We are thrilled to be working with our valued long term partner Sainsbury’s to work towards closing the living wage gap for the women and men who grow Fairtrade bananas.

“Fairtrade’s vision is a world where farmers and workers have the power to improve their livelihoods through better pay and working conditions. Paying a living wage is central to sustainability, and this ground-breaking new commitment from Sainsbury’s comes after detailed consultations with producers, who have helped shape the partnership – in particular by securing multi-year contracts which is a huge step forward.”

Diana Copper, UK country director at IDH, said: “Sainsbury’s is making commendable steps towards getting more pay into the pockets of banana workers. We only started the UK Retail Commitment last year and perhaps the most critical part is responsible procurement practices and paying suppliers fairly. By paying the Fairtrade Living Wage Reference Price and committing to longer-term contracts, Sainsbury’s is addressing these key elements and showing that they are listening to their banana suppliers and producers. We have faith that more retailers will follow suit as the more retailers that embed similar solutions, the greater the impact will be on the workers’ wages.”

Sainsbury’s is the world’s largest retailer of Fairtrade bananas. Since 2000, Sainsbury’s has invested over £75 million via Fairtrade in improving social infrastructure for banana producing communities. This investment has laid the foundations for Sainsbury’s and Fairtrade to focus on wages and climate resilience to secure banana production for future generations.

SAINSBURY LAY OFFS IN THE UK

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2024/02/uk-sainsburys-boss-refuses-to-rule-out.html

Corporate America Retreats from ESG Rhetoric

By ZeroHedge - Feb 08, 2024

ESG funds in the US experienced net outflows of $13 billion in the last year, marking a significant downturn in investor interest.
Accusations of greenwashing and increased political scrutiny have contributed to a "chilling effect" on demand for ESG investments.
Corporate mentions of ESG and related terms have dramatically decreased in earnings calls, indicating a shift in focus away from ESG rhetoric amid the current economic and political climate.

Investors are pulling funds from sustainable investments as the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) bubble deflates, triggered by high interest rates, poor returns, plummeting stocks in renewable energy, stricter SEC regulations, political backlash, and Elon Musk's war on woke capitalism. At the same time, ESG mentions on earnings calls by corporate America have plunged.

In 2021, during the pandemic boom, US ESG funds hit a record $358 billion in assets, up from $95 billion in 2017. But since then, investor interest has waned as higher borrowing costs impact capital-intensive clean tech stocks.

Last week, Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld published a stunning graphic, citing Morningstar data. It shows investors dumped $5 billion from ESG exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the fourth quarter, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of net outflows. For the full year, investors disposed of $13 billion in US ESG ETFs, more than offsetting positive flows in Europe and sending the entire global industry into turmoil. This was the worst calendar year for these funds since Morningstar began tracking a decade ago.

"We're at a bit of an inflection point within the sustainable investing landscape in the US, where it's really incumbent upon sustainable investing advocates to be very clear about what they're doing within their investment processes to regain investor confidence in the sector," Alyssa Stankiewicz, associate director of sustainability research at Morningstar, told Yahoo Finance while referring to the Morningstar report.

Stankiewicz said that political scrutiny over ESG funds has surged primarily because of "greenwashing," which has had a "chilling effect" on demand.

The underperformance of ESG investing comes as corporate America has dialed back the number of mentions of "ESG" or synonyms related to ESG on investor calls this earnings season.

For some context, peak ESG and related synonyms, such as "climate change" and "clean energy" and green energy" and net zero," among other terms, peaked at 28,000 mentions in the first quarter of 2022. Ever since, the number of mentions has rapidly plunged. Halfway through the first quarter earnings season, mentions are around 4,800.

Andy Wiechmann, the Chief Financial Officer of MSCI, mentioned during his earnings call that "Clients are taking a more measured approach to how they integrate ESG."

On a Jan. 12 earnings call, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink explained how his firm plans to purchase private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners without mentioning ESG. This makes sense since BlackRock dropped the ESG term after blowback last summer.

Woke capitalism is undergoing a rebranding, and the term ESG is being phased out by corporate America.

By Zerohedge.com

UN Accuses North Korea of Stealing $3 Billion in Crypto

PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL

By Harsh Notariya

8 February 2024,

In Brief

North Korea is under UN investigation for cyberattacks aimed at stealing $3 billion in crypto, believed to fund its missile programs.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) reportedly engaged in 58 cyberattacks on crypto firms from 2017 to 2023.
Lazarus Group, a state-sponsored hacking collective, is at the forefront of these operations, with recent heists on crypto exchanges.

The United Nations (UN) has unveiled that North Korea is under rigorous investigation for a series of cyberattacks aimed at pilfering $3 billion in crypto.

International watchdogs believe that the cyber heists are part of a bigger plan to support the isolated nation’s nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea Conducted 58 Attacks on Crypto Firms

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has reportedly engaged in 58 cyberattacks targeting crypto firms from 2017 to 2023. Consequently, these illicit activities are believed to have funded the nation’s weapons of mass destruction development.

“The panel is investigating 58 suspected DPRK cyberattacks on cryptocurrency-related companies between 2017 and 2023, valued at approximately $3 billion, which reportedly help fund DPRK’s WMD development,” the UN wrote.

North Korea continues to defy international norms with ballistic missile tests, satellite launches, and a new tactical nuclear attack submarine. Its last nuclear test was in 2017. Yet, Pyongyang keeps advancing its nuclear and missile capabilities, which has led to increased attention on its cyber warfare tactics.

Hackers switching to centralized exchanges to fund crypto attacks

Feb 08, 2024
—by Protos Staff

There is growing concern about the number of crypto hackers using centralized exchanges to fund their attacks.

In order to pay the transaction fees necessary to carry out attacks, hackers must first fund their wallets. However, given the transparency of a public ledger, they have to carefully consider how to do this without linking themselves to the crime.

Tornado Cash used to be the industry standard for covering one’s tracks, used by hackers and privacy advocates alike.

Now, it appears that in many cases, hackers simply opt to skirt their way around exchanges’ know-your-customer (KYC) procedures when funding their accounts.

Blockchain monitoring firm Forta Network’s analysis of funding sources for recent attacks shows that the hacker’s favourite Tornado Cash now represents just under half the hacks studied, with funds coming from centralized exchanges (CEXs) in a third of cases.

Other funding methods included novel privacy tool Railgun and ‘middleware operations software’ UnionChain, making up 6.7% apiece, as well as cross-chain swaps via Squid router, which accounts for 3.3%.

Read more: Explainer: What to know about crypto mixer Tornado Cash

The dataset is made up of addresses used in 30 recent flash-loan attacks, including November’s intricate $48 million hack of decentralized exchange KyberSwap, back-to-back attacks on Arbitrum projects Radiant Capital and Gamma Strategies, and a thwarted $1 million governance attack on NFT project Loot last month.

Although Tornado Cash remains the dominant source of funding for on-chain hacks, matters have been complicated for hackers trying to cash out after the US Treasury placed sanctions on the crypto mixing service in August 2022.

After the sanctions, addresses that have touched any ‘tainted’ funds originating from the mixer are generally flagged by exchanges, making it a poor choice when needing to convert any ill-gotten gains to fiat currency.

A recent article from 404 Media claims to have used a $15 AI-generated fake ID from a website named OnlyFake to pass KYC checks on OKX, the funding source of one of the attacks studied by Forta.

With these AI tools, there is no need to purchase stolen credentials, or ‘fullz’ on the darknet, hackers can simply generate an entirely new person, and all their corresponding documentation.

Such a significant proportion of attacks being exchange-funded shows just how easy bypassing KYC has become, a trend that is likely to continue with more widespread use of similar tools.

Read more: Iranian crypto exchange Bit24 reportedly leaks 230,000 users’ KYC data

Although the hackers run the risk of the CEX blocking their funds, they might feel somewhat safer leaving less of a trail on-chain.

While dodging genuine KYC checks may present a problem to the crypto industry in on-ramping hackers, the problem is bound to affect many other industries. Ironically, the widespread use of cryptographic proofs, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies, may be the solution to these kinds of issues in the future.

However, for now, there are reasonable doubts over how seriously exchanges take their role and how stringent KYC controls really are.

Meta platforms are ‘hotbeds’ for financial scams, says Revolut exec

60 per cent of scams in the UK reported to Revolut came from Instagram, Fscebook and Whatsapp, the fintech said

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M; BUSINESS AS USUAL

BUSINESS POST

Tech companies, meanwhile, signed a voluntary online fraud charter last year to try and block more scams from reaching customers, with some institutions complaining have that Meta isn’t doing enough. Picture: Bloomberg

Most scams reported to finance app Revolut in the UK last year started their journey on Meta’s social media platforms, with most money lost to “get-rich-quick” investment schemes.

The London-based fintech found 60 per cent of UK scam cases came from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, dwarfing other platforms and frauds conducted by telephone. Revolut found a similar trend across Europe, where 61 per cent of scams originated on Meta services.

Woody Malouf, Revolut’s head of financial crime, said Meta platforms were “being used as a hotbed for scams,” and urged Revolut customers to avoid so-called investment opportunities. “Banks and financial institutions should be the last line of defence, not the only line of defence.”

Malouf appeared alongside finance and technology executives this week at the UK’s home affairs committee in parliament, which is scrutinizing the surge in authorized push payment fraud. These scams trick customers into moving their money to accounts controlled by criminals and were responsible for almost £500 million in losses in 2022, according to the Payment Systems Regulator.

Related Reads
Online fraudsters con consumers out of €8.6m in first half of 2023

Starting in October, payment firms that allow fraudulent payments to be sent and received must reimburse victims, unless they can show they were grossly negligent.

The rule change will affect newer, smaller finance companies in particular. The PSR found Monzo, Starling and Metro Bank Holdings Plc were among firms with the greatest proportion of APP fraud, with over 100 frauds per million transfers sent.

Tech companies, meanwhile, signed a voluntary online fraud charter last year to try and block more scams from reaching customers. Starling and others have complained that Meta isn’t doing enough about the problem.

“We don’t want anyone to fall victim to these criminals, which is why our platforms have systems to block scams, financial services advertisers now have to be FCA authorized to target UK users and we run consumer awareness campaigns on how to spot fraudulent behavior,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

“We also work closely with law enforcement and regulators and encourage our community to report scams immediately so we can take action against this kind of content swiftly.”

Meta accused of not taking Facebook Marketplace fraud seriously

Meta has been accused by MPs on the Home Affairs Committee of not taking the problem of online fraud on its platforms seriously (Tim Goode/PA)

By Martyn Landi,

PA Technology Correspondent

Yesterday

Meta has been accused by MPs of not taking the problem of online fraud on its platforms seriously.

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram came under scrutiny from the Home Affairs Select Committee after representatives from the banking sector said the “majority” of scams they see start on Meta platforms.

Paul Davis, financial crime prevention director at TSB, told the committee that Facebook Marketplace is the “main place” where purchase scams originate, which, along with investment and impersonation scams, are the most common types of fraud affecting bank customers.

“For those three types, which as I say are the main ones, we see about 80% start on social media,” Mr Davis told MPs.

“Indeed, let’s not walk past the fact that, when I say social media there, the majority of them start from the channels owned by one company in particular, which is Meta.”

He added: “Facebook Marketplace doesn’t have a payments channel attached to it, it’s not like a website you might use to buy something off a high street shop, for example, or Amazon. So, you have to get bank details from the seller of that item.

“What we see are customers telling us that they get bank details from the seller, send them money and then the item never turns up.”

In response, Philip Milton, public policy manager for fraud at Meta, told the committee that the tech giant takes the issue “extremely seriously”.

When suggested by the committee that evidence given to MPs by the banks shows Meta is not doing all it can to prevent online fraud, Mr Milton said: “I disagree with that.”

He went on: “To give you an idea of the scale that we’re putting in place to tackle this kind of thing, since 2016 we’ve invested 20 billion dollars on safety and security, and that’s not slowing down – five billion of that was in the last year alone.

“We have 40,000 people working across the company on safety and security. Half of that number are involved in directly reviewing content, so we invest significantly in trying to prevent this kind of thing from happening.”

He added that fraud “fundamentally undermines the experience we’re trying to provide for people” and said this, combined with fraudulent advertising affecting trust in the company from advertisers and its wider reputation, means the firm is “directly incentivised” to do all it can to prevent criminal activity.

However, committee member Tim Loughton, Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, argued that the five billion dollars Meta said it spent last year on safety and security equates to less than 4% of the firm’s annual revenue for the year – a figure he suggested is “not very high”.

You apparently have no financial skin in the game for clamping down on fraud on Facebook Marketplace other than potential reputational damageTory MP Tim Loughton to Meta's Philip Milton

Mr Loughton also questioned whether the 20,000 people reviewing content for Meta is an adequate number given the site has “four billion active accounts”, and suggested the social media giant is not taking the issue “terribly seriously” because, as Facebook Marketplace does not have a payments channel linked to it, the site is not financially liable if fraud takes place there.

“You apparently have no financial skin in the game for clamping down on fraud on Facebook Marketplace other than potential reputational damage,” he said.

“Unless there’s a clear link with advertisers walking away with their revenue because they’re concerned at (banking sector research showing) 80% of fraud starting on (social media platforms) and 68% of it specifically your platforms, then you don’t really have to take it terribly seriously – and the fact you’re spending five billion dollars out of an annual revenue of 134.9 billion, which, as I say, is three and a bit percent for a people-based service, is tiny.

“So you’re not taking this problem seriously, are you?”

In response, Mr Milton said: “I don’t agree with that at all”, and argued that “the scale of our investment demonstrates how seriously we take this problem”, adding that it is “market-leading” levels of funding for safety and security.

He added that, in response to tactics from fraudsters who demand payment or ask for an item to be sent before it is paid for, Meta has “removed the ability to ship an item on Facebook Marketplace”, and that there is “no way to pay for an item” on the platform because the firm is trying to “design out” the ability for criminals to use the platform for fraud.

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