Consumer staples have been one of the hottest sectors so far this year. Last November, I called out the State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP +1.51%) as my top high-yield exchange-traded fund (ETF) to buy for passive income. My investment thesis centered around the fund's quality value-stock holdings and reliable passive income. I did not expect the ETF to already be up 13.2% i...
Consumer staples have been one of the hottest sectors so far this year. Last November, I called out the State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP +1.51%) as my top high-yield exchange-traded fund (ETF) to buy for passive income. My investment thesis centered around the fund's quality value-stock holdings and reliable passive income. I did not expect the ETF to already be up 13.2% in 2026 compared to a mere 1.3% gain in the S&P 500. Here's why the seemingly boring consumer staples sector is scorching hot, and why the Consumer Staples SPDR ETF remains a buy for broad-based exposure to it. Generating passive income from companies you can trust Top holdings in the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF include Walmart, Costco Wholesale, Procter & Gamble, and Coca-Cola. These aren't the kind of stocks that investors expect to achieve breakneck growth or make pioneering strides in artificial intelligence (AI). But they can be relied on to produce strong results no matter what the economy is doing, and many such companies pay stable and growing dividends. You may have heard the term Dividend King, which refers to companies that have paid and raised their dividends annually for at least 50 consecutive years -- names like P&G, Coke, PepsiCo, and Colgate-Palmolive. Consumer staples dominate the group, making up 15 of the 57 Dividend Kings. But the consumer staples sector has been under pressure due to pullbacks in customer spending, and many companies are struggling to pass along higher costs through price increases. In fact, consumer staples was the worst-performing stock market sector in 2025. This year, it is the third-best-performing sector. Understanding sector rotations Years of underperformance relative to the S&P 500 and a discounted valuation aren't even the primary reasons the consumer staples sector is exploding higher in 2026. Rather, it has more to do with shifting sentiment in growth-focused sectors like tech, communications, and consumer discre...
Data Centers Are A Repeat Of History In PA's Coal Region Authored by Jake Wynn via RealClearPennsylvania , By the 1920s, Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region was already living with the consequences of decisions made far from its towns and patch villages. The industry that had built the coal towns and cities of eastern Pennsylvania was no longer organized around mineworkers or the communities the...
Data Centers Are A Repeat Of History In PA's Coal Region Authored by Jake Wynn via RealClearPennsylvania , By the 1920s, Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region was already living with the consequences of decisions made far from its towns and patch villages. The industry that had built the coal towns and cities of eastern Pennsylvania was no longer organized around mineworkers or the communities they lived in, but around efficiency, scale, and centralized control. Mechanization, electrification, and consolidation were already reshaping daily life above and below ground. Coal companies framed these changes as modern necessities. In 1929, the president of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company (P&RC&I) explained declining production not as a crisis of employment, but as a problem of outdated infrastructure. The solution, Andrew J. Maloney argued, lay in “more flexibility in our producing units,” achieved through “the construction of two modern centralized breakers to electrify the mines tributary thereto.” The new Locust Summit and St. Nicholas district breakers, authorized just before the stock market crash of 1929, embodied that logic. Electricity would streamline production, while centralization would reduce costs. Smaller collieries – especially those farther from rail lines or markets – would simply disappear under this scheme. They did. As mammoth central breakers came online, operations of the P&RC&I in places like Tower City, at the western edge of Schuylkill County, and other outlying communities were shuttered. Instead of work migrating slowly and evenly toward the centralized facilities, jobs vanished completely in many communities. According to historians Thomas L. Dublin and Walter Licht in their 2005 book, Face of Decline , about this topic, Mahanoy City saw six of seven collieries closed. In Shamokin, four of five mines stood idle. They also noted that in Lykens, the town’s lone mine, the Short Mountain Colliery, was shut down entirely. The promis...
The sell-off in financial services stocks on new fears over artificial intelligence has created a buying opportunity, according to Wall Street analysts. Several wealth management companies tumbled on Tuesday after tech platform Altruist announced a new AI-powered, tax planning tool on its AI platform, Hazel. LPL Financial closed more than 8% lower, Charles Schwab lost 7.4%, Raymond James Financial...
The sell-off in financial services stocks on new fears over artificial intelligence has created a buying opportunity, according to Wall Street analysts. Several wealth management companies tumbled on Tuesday after tech platform Altruist announced a new AI-powered, tax planning tool on its AI platform, Hazel. LPL Financial closed more than 8% lower, Charles Schwab lost 7.4%, Raymond James Financial fell nearly 9% and Ameriprise Financial slumped about 6%. The stocks, except for Raymond James, continued to move lower on Wednesday. "[W]e think the market looked at this new AI tool and fears scope for other potential AI tools yet to come in wealth management, that could raise questions around sustainability of wealth mgmt fee streams (which have generally been quite stable) and competitive dynamics," said Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys. LPLA YTD mountain LPL Financial year to date He called the sell-off "outsized and overdone." Instead, brokers and wealth managers are well-placed to benefit from the productivity gains that could be unlocked by using AI. "This will be crucial especially as we see potential for a generational wealth transfer from baby boomer/silent generations for gen x/millennials/gen Z that will increase those who seek out advisory services via wealth mgmt," Cyprys said in a note Wednesday. "Further, we see a bull market for advice approaching given aging populations, longevity trends and increased burden on the individual to prepare and manage through an extended retirement to ensure they don't outlive their nest egg." This should further cement the role of financial advisors, he said. In fact, many brokers are already making investments in AI, he said. Altruist's offering is also available to advisory firms, he noted. Morgan Stanley prefers Schwab and LPL Financial, both of which Cyprys rates overweight. SCHW YTD mountain Charles Schwab year to date Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Bedell is similarly reinforcing his buy rating on Schwab. He called ...
Thoma Bravo managing partner Holden Spaht talks with Dani Burger on “Bloomberg Deals. Wall Street has been dumping software-as-a-service providers in recent weeks amid fears that the products they offer will become redundant in the age of AI. Thoma Bravo has specialized in software investing since being founded in 2008. “To think that all software is the same, they’re missing the mark a bit,” Spah...
Thoma Bravo managing partner Holden Spaht talks with Dani Burger on “Bloomberg Deals. Wall Street has been dumping software-as-a-service providers in recent weeks amid fears that the products they offer will become redundant in the age of AI. Thoma Bravo has specialized in software investing since being founded in 2008. “To think that all software is the same, they’re missing the mark a bit,” Spaht said. “We think this could be a really exceptional buying opportunity.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Revenue1 growing 18.4% in Q4 and 11.2% in the FY Adj. operating margin1,2 at 16.0% in the FY Group’s revenue at Euro 28,491 million in the FY, +11.2% at constant exchange rates 1 , with Q4 at +18.4% North America, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions all growing double digits in Q4 and FY AI-glasses selling more than 7 million units in the FY, with all the regions and brands contributing Nuance Audio’s y...
Revenue1 growing 18.4% in Q4 and 11.2% in the FY Adj. operating margin1,2 at 16.0% in the FY Group’s revenue at Euro 28,491 million in the FY, +11.2% at constant exchange rates 1 , with Q4 at +18.4% North America, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions all growing double digits in Q4 and FY AI-glasses selling more than 7 million units in the FY, with all the regions and brands contributing Nuance Audio’s year-one closing on a promising tone, now available in 12 markets and 15k doors worldwide Myopia management portfolio +22% in revenue worldwide, US on the blocks for a strong start Adjusted 2 operating margin at 16.0% at constant exchange rates 1 , impacted by US tariffs and AI-glasses Record free cash flow 4 at Euro 2.8 billion in the FY, Euro 400 million higher than 2024 Dividend proposed at Euro 4.00, offering a scrip dividend option New long-term outlook: on average, over the next five years, at constant exchange rates1, the Company is planning to deliver a solid growth of its total revenue and a broadly aligned growth of the adjusted2 operating profit Paris, France (February 11, 2026 - 6:00 pm) – The Board of Directors of EssilorLuxottica met on February 11, 2026 to approve the consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2025. These financial statements were audited by the Statutory Auditors whose audit report is in the process of being issued. Francesco Milleri, Chairman and CEO, and Paul du Saillant, Deputy CEO at EssilorLuxottica commented: “This year marks a historic milestone: for the first time in EssilorLuxottica’s history, we delivered annual double-digit sales growth at constant currency, following another record quarter in Q4, up 18.4%. In an uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, and despite headwinds from US tariffs, we reached record earnings, while making bold investments to advance our innovation agenda. This sharp acceleration reflects the depth of our leadership across all our activities and our new categories, capab...
Disclosure of Share Capital and Voting Rights Outstanding as of January 31, 2026 (Pursuant to Article L.233-8 II of the French Commercial Code and articles 221-1 and 223-16 of the General Regulations...
Disclosure of Share Capital and Voting Rights Outstanding as of January 31, 2026 (Pursuant to Article L.233-8 II of the French Commercial Code and articles 221-1 and 223-16 of the General Regulations...
Disclosure of Share Capital and Voting Rights Outstanding as of January 31, 2026 (Pursuant to Article L.233-8 II of the French Commercial Code and articles 221-1 and 223-16 of the General Regulations...
Disclosure of Share Capital and Voting Rights Outstanding as of January 31, 2026 (Pursuant to Article L.233-8 II of the French Commercial Code and articles 221-1 and 223-16 of the General Regulations...
Part of gaining experience as an investor is understanding the lifecycle that most companies face. Many investors start out by becoming familiar with a company at the peak of its success, having generated strong growth and seeming to be on a path that will lead to even greater heights for revenue and profits. Sometimes, that growth can continue for a long time. Eventually, though, most companies r...
Part of gaining experience as an investor is understanding the lifecycle that most companies face. Many investors start out by becoming familiar with a company at the peak of its success, having generated strong growth and seeming to be on a path that will lead to even greater heights for revenue and profits. Sometimes, that growth can continue for a long time. Eventually, though, most companies reach a point at which what has worked in the past no longer works quite as well, forcing them to switch gears and try something new. When that happens, it can cause a big shift in sentiment and create a challenge for longtime shareholders to figure out what to do next. In creating the Voyager Portfolio , one of my goals was to cover companies that don't get very much attention. In that light, it might make very little sense to look at streaming video giant Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) , which has one of the best track records in the Motley Fool universe as a longtime recommendation. However, Netflix makes a great example of a company has dealt with growing pains in the past and now finds itself in a similar predicament today. With that in mind, this three-part series on Netflix will examine the growth stock 's history, its financials, and its future prospects. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Nine people have been killed and dozens injured after a mass shooting at a school in Canada. The suspect was also found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted injury. The tragedy has sent shockwaves through the remote town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, which has a population of only 2,400. It is the second-worst mass shooting in Canada’s history. Lucy Hough speaks to reporter Leyla...
Nine people have been killed and dozens injured after a mass shooting at a school in Canada. The suspect was also found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted injury. The tragedy has sent shockwaves through the remote town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, which has a population of only 2,400. It is the second-worst mass shooting in Canada’s history. Lucy Hough speaks to reporter Leyland Cecco Continue reading...
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday responded to House Democrats' heated questions about the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files by chastising them for ignoring stock market gains and other of President Donald Trump 's political wins. "The Dow is over 50,000 right now," Bondi said in sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee after Rep. Jerrold Nadler , D-N.Y., slamm...
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday responded to House Democrats' heated questions about the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files by chastising them for ignoring stock market gains and other of President Donald Trump 's political wins. "The Dow is over 50,000 right now," Bondi said in sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee after Rep. Jerrold Nadler , D-N.Y., slammed her and the Department of Justice for so far failing to indict any of convicted sex predator Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirators. The S&P 500 is also up and the Nasdaq is "smashing records," while Americans' retirement accounts are "booming," Bondi said after celebrating the Dow Jones Industrial Average's gains . "That's what we should be talking about." Democrats balked at the rhetoric, but Bondi doubled down. Read more CNBC politics coverage Trump Canada tariffs face House vote after Republican leaders fail to block rebellion These Democrats aren’t ready to jettison big business as party stalwarts shift left DC grand jury declines to indict Sens. Kelly, Slotkin for seditious conspiracy: MS Now "What does the Dow have to do with anything? That's what they just asked. Are you kidding?" she said as Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, banged a gavel and called for order in the hearing room. Trump has repeatedly mentioned stock market gains as a barometer for his presidency after having been elected to a second term amid voter concerns about rising prices for consumer goods. The Dow closed above 50,000 for the first time on Friday and added to that record each day this week. The DOJ oversight hearing had already devolved into partisan shouting matches on multiple occasions prior to Bondi's references to the stock market. This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a "Morning Meeting" livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here's a recap of Wednesday's key moments. 1. The S & P 500 is little changed Wednesday, coming off an earlier bounce following the better-than-expected January jobs report. Nonfarm payrolls rose 130,000 in the month, above the Dow Jones estimate of 55,000. But "keep an eye on software," sa...
Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a "Morning Meeting" livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here's a recap of Wednesday's key moments. 1. The S & P 500 is little changed Wednesday, coming off an earlier bounce following the better-than-expected January jobs report. Nonfarm payrolls rose 130,000 in the month, above the Dow Jones estimate of 55,000. But "keep an eye on software," said director of portfolio analysis for the Club, Jeff Marks. The group is once again feeling pressure, weighing on the Nasdaq, following a few days of stability. Portfolio holding Salesforce is down 5%. Separately, Dupont is up nearly another 4% after posting a strong quarter Tuesday. 2. GE Vernova and Eaton are both on track for fresh record closes on the back of a strong quarter from AI trade peer Vertiv . For Eaton, it would be its first record close since July. Shares of Vertiv, which specializes in equipment used in data centers, are surging more than 18% Wednesday and are on pace for a record close of their own. Vertiv's orders momentum accelerated significantly in the fourth quarter, with organic orders up approximately 252% from a year ago, further solidifying our data infrastructure theme and the role industrials play in the AI build out. The Club does not own Vertiv. 3. Cisco reports after the bell Wednesday. The Club trimmed 100 shares Tuesday to lock in some profit. The stock is up roughly 12% year to date despite weakness in many technology names. Cisco is now trading at roughly 20 times forward earnings, higher than its historical mid-to-high teens multiple. "We wanted to take a little bit off the table, considering that the re-rating that we've pounded the table on for many, many months has happened," Jeff said. "But we should see continued strong order growth here, especially from their AI customers," he added. "Some wild cards into the quarter would be the impact from rising memory prices." (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long CSCO, DD, GEV, ETN CRM. See h...
Here is Arsenal boss Renée Slegers on why Stina Blackstenius and Beth Mead are not involved: “Stina and Beth didn’t travel. Stina still has issues with her calf and Beth needs some time to offload her shin.” Here is that Leuven team news , the side could not play Veefkind as she is suspended. The team news is in. Arsenal are without Beth Mead and Stina Blackstenius , more on that shortly, and desp...
Here is Arsenal boss Renée Slegers on why Stina Blackstenius and Beth Mead are not involved: “Stina and Beth didn’t travel. Stina still has issues with her calf and Beth needs some time to offload her shin.” Here is that Leuven team news , the side could not play Veefkind as she is suspended. The team news is in. Arsenal are without Beth Mead and Stina Blackstenius , more on that shortly, and despite being a few attacking players down Alessia Russo starts from the bench. Hello and welcome to the Women’s Champions League play-off game between Leuven and Arsenal. This is the first leg of the play-off with the second being hosted by Arsenal next week. The play-offs are new to the women’s competition this year and it comes after the groups were scrapped in favour of the league. The top four automatically qualified for the quarter-finals, while the other spots will be decided by these play-offs. Arsenal are the defending champions and so it will be a difficult task for Leuven to come out on top but today’s match is the perfect time to put some light between them and the Gunners. If they come off the losers in this encounter, overturning that in London will be a mountain to climb. The team news will be up shortly before kick-off at 5.45pm GMT. So stay tuned for all of the updates and some build-up to this game which should be a cracker.
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri is set to take the stand at a landmark trial over social media addiction and face a plaintiff attorney’s “very blunt questions” about how his platform balances safety and engagement. Mosseri will be the first company executive to testify during the Los Angeles trial, which started Monday and centers on a 20-year-old woman blaming Meta Platforms Inc. ’s Instagram and Goo...
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri is set to take the stand at a landmark trial over social media addiction and face a plaintiff attorney’s “very blunt questions” about how his platform balances safety and engagement. Mosseri will be the first company executive to testify during the Los Angeles trial, which started Monday and centers on a 20-year-old woman blaming Meta Platforms Inc. ’s Instagram and Google ’s YouTube for her years of mental health struggles. Lawyers are expected to question Mosseri Wednesday on internal company communications in which an employee says he “freaked out” when confronted with concerns about how Instagram affects the brains of young users, among other topics. The trial will serve as a critical test for thousands of lawsuits that target not only Meta and Google, but also TikTok Inc. and Snap Inc. The latter two companies aren’t participating in the current case because they reached confidential settlements with the woman’s lawyers at the Seattle-based Social Media Victims Law Center shortly before trial. How Lawsuits Seek to Make Social Media Safer for Kids: QuickTake While the companies have denied wrongdoing, they face billions of dollars in potential damages if they don’t prevail in early trials. Mark Lanier , a lawyer for the woman who’s suing, told jurors that she would spend hours scrolling on Instagram every day, with her highest usage recorded as 16.2 hours on a single day in March 2022. Lanier said she felt “trapped” on the platform. During his opening statement, Lanier said he planned to ask Mosseri about a chain of messages between a Meta researcher and one of her colleagues. Lanier read excerpts from the messages to the jury. “IG is a drug,” the researcher said, referring to Instagram. “LOL, I mean, all social media. We’re basically pushers,” her colleague said. Later in the conversation, one of the two mentioned that they had raised concerns to “Adam” about how the platform was impacting people’s internal “reward tolerance.” “I kno...
Uwe Krejci/DigitalVision via Getty Images We regularly cover the mortgage REIT sector. We also focus on preferred shares and baby bonds for the mortgage REITs that we cover. Preferred shares behave very differently from the common stock and are generally a much safer option. Rithm Capital Corp.’s ( RITM ) Preferred Share RITM-D ( RITM.PR.D ) RITM-D is one of my largest holdings. I have been invest...
Uwe Krejci/DigitalVision via Getty Images We regularly cover the mortgage REIT sector. We also focus on preferred shares and baby bonds for the mortgage REITs that we cover. Preferred shares behave very differently from the common stock and are generally a much safer option. Rithm Capital Corp.’s ( RITM ) Preferred Share RITM-D ( RITM.PR.D ) RITM-D is one of my largest holdings. I have been investing in RITM-D for many years. You can see the performance of those positions below. The REIT Forum RITM-D offers investors a respectable dividend yield (about 7.07%) and a much more attractive yield to call (about 8.3%, but it was around 9.5% in early February). If the shares are not called immediately when call protection ends, the dividend rate would reset to yield around 10% on the current price if 5-year Treasury rates in November are similar to the 5-year Treasury rates today. I believe there is a significant chance that these shares will be called when that date arrives. The spread over the five-year Treasury rate is quite attractive and would lead to a significant increase in the dividend rate unless the five-year Treasury rate plunges before then. The calculated rate after the shares become callable will be fixed for another five years based on the five-year treasury rate at that time plus the spread of 6.223%. The REIT Forum Given that spread and the resulting projected dividend increase, I believe it is very likely that we will either see the shares called or that they will trade at least moderately above the $25 call value plus the dividend accrual. The logic there is that investors would be willing to risk a small loss on a call to get such an attractive yield if the shares are not called. Is The Risk Worth It? Investors may be willing to accept that risk so long as the amount of the potential loss was relatively small. So, for instance, if they were paying 1% above the amount they would expect to get back in the case of a call, then they could justify that it m...
Maybe I’m just getting older, but it seems there are more potholes than ever – big, deep, ruinous and a metaphor for Britain today If you’re in the UK, anywhere in the UK, please imagine yourself levitating, rising on a light mist of my despair. Don’t rise too high, for the clouds are low, and I don’t want your aerial view obscured. Look at the roads – the grey ribbons snaking their way through th...
Maybe I’m just getting older, but it seems there are more potholes than ever – big, deep, ruinous and a metaphor for Britain today If you’re in the UK, anywhere in the UK, please imagine yourself levitating, rising on a light mist of my despair. Don’t rise too high, for the clouds are low, and I don’t want your aerial view obscured. Look at the roads – the grey ribbons snaking their way through the grey-green February countryside. Note how scarred are these roads, with dark, irregularly shaped marks, big and small. If the road was your skin, you’d be off to the doctor soonest. See how cars and bikes try to negotiate these lesions. Bobbing and swerving, gingerly they’ll try to slalom their way through the minefield. This isn’t driving, it’s dodgems. Some drivers, either oblivious to the danger or because their patience has snapped, will hold their line and proceed straight over or into one of them. Wince as you watch. Cast your eye wider and you’ll see stricken victims, cars and bikes strewn around, motionless. Recovery vehicles do brisk business; the queues outside tyre places are long. It’s hell down there. Because this, my friends, is peak pothole season. It’s wet, it’s freezing and then not freezing, and then it rains some more. And so surfaces fracture and craters deepen. And there’s not the money or the people to either fill the holes or stop them happening in the first place. Continue reading...
Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, February 11, 2026 at 11 a.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS President and Chief Executive Officer — Ken Bernstein Chief Financial Officer — John Gottfried EVP, Head of Asset Management and Leasing — AJ Levine EVP, Co-Head of Investments — Reggie Livingston Analyst, Asset Management — Will Delts Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] TAKEAWA...
Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, February 11, 2026 at 11 a.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS President and Chief Executive Officer — Ken Bernstein Chief Financial Officer — John Gottfried EVP, Head of Asset Management and Leasing — AJ Levine EVP, Co-Head of Investments — Reggie Livingston Analyst, Asset Management — Will Delts Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] TAKEAWAYS Same Property NOI Growth -- 6.3% for the quarter and 5.7% for the full year, at the upper end of guidance, driven by street and urban portfolios. -- 6.3% for the quarter and 5.7% for the full year, at the upper end of guidance, driven by street and urban portfolios. FFO per Share -- $0.34 reported, including $0.03 of gains from the final sale of Albertsons shares and a $0.01 one-time tax benefit; run-rate FFO was $0.30, up $0.01 sequentially from the prior quarter on a comparable basis. -- $0.34 reported, including $0.03 of gains from the final sale of Albertsons shares and a $0.01 one-time tax benefit; run-rate FFO was $0.30, up $0.01 sequentially from the prior quarter on a comparable basis. Occupancy -- Economic occupancy increased 30 basis points to 93.9%; street and urban economic occupancy rose 80 basis points sequentially and 370 basis points over 2025. -- Economic occupancy increased 30 basis points to 93.9%; street and urban economic occupancy rose 80 basis points sequentially and 370 basis points over 2025. Street Occupancy Upside -- Street and urban occupancy at approximately 90%, below prior peaks in excess of 95%, indicating embedded NOI and earnings growth potential. -- Street and urban occupancy at approximately 90%, below prior peaks in excess of 95%, indicating embedded NOI and earnings growth potential. Lease-Up Progress -- Economic shop occupancy increased from approximately 81% at year-end 2021 to over 90% at present, with additional runway remaining. -- Economic shop occupancy increased from approximately 81% at year-end 2021 to over 90% at present, ...
The US labor board is abandoning a years-long legal battle against Elon Musk’s SpaceX and signaling it will steer clear of future cases against the company, according to a letter from the board cited by the New York Times and Bloomberg. Two years after issuing a complaint accusing the aerospace firm of firing eight engineers because of their involvement in an open letter criticizing Musk, the Nati...
The US labor board is abandoning a years-long legal battle against Elon Musk’s SpaceX and signaling it will steer clear of future cases against the company, according to a letter from the board cited by the New York Times and Bloomberg. Two years after issuing a complaint accusing the aerospace firm of firing eight engineers because of their involvement in an open letter criticizing Musk, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said it was dismissing the case, disclaiming jurisdiction over it, according to the letter. In a letter to the attorneys of the former employees, the labor board cited a recent opinion issued by a separate agency, the National Mediation Board, arguing that SpaceX engineers belonged under its jurisdiction rather than NLRB’s. Danielle Pierce, a regional director of the agency said: “Accordingly, the National Labor Relations Board lacks jurisdiction over the Employer and, therefore, I am dismissing your charge.” SpaceX and the National Mediation Board did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The NLRB declined comment on the report. In August last year, a US appeals court agreed with SpaceX and two other companies that the NLRB’s structure is likely unlawful and blocked the agency from pursuing cases against them. The National Mediation Board oversees railroad and airline companies such as American Airlines Group, while the NLRB oversees most other private sector employers, including manufacturers like Boeing. Under federal law, workers covered by the NLRB have a right to participate in a wide range of collective action aimed at improving their working conditions, with or without a union. Workers under National Mediation Board jurisdiction are covered by a different law, which lacks equivalent protections, the report said.
Andriy Shevchenko will seek a meeting with Gianni Infantino on Thursday to discuss the Fifa president’s recent comments that favoured Russia’s return to international football competitions. Infantino sparked condemnation in Ukraine when, speaking in an interview last week, he said the ban on Russia’s participation should be reassessed. Shevchenko, the Ukrainian Association of Football president, i...
Andriy Shevchenko will seek a meeting with Gianni Infantino on Thursday to discuss the Fifa president’s recent comments that favoured Russia’s return to international football competitions. Infantino sparked condemnation in Ukraine when, speaking in an interview last week, he said the ban on Russia’s participation should be reassessed. Shevchenko, the Ukrainian Association of Football president, is looking to restate Ukraine’s position in private when the pair attend Uefa’s congress in Brussels. Speaking to a domestic audience on Monday, Shevchenko said he hoped soon to “convey, in concrete terms, information about the war in Ukraine and our position”. It is understood he may get the opportunity on the sidelines of Uefa’s annual convention, which Infantino is also expected to address. The consistent stance held by Shevchenko and his governing body is that nothing has changed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago and that a route back for its clubs or national sides is unthinkable under the status quo. Russia remains a member of Fifa and Uefa and the former Fifa council member Alexey Sorokin, who advises the Russian Football Union president, Alexander Dyukov, saw the pathway to a return in Infantino’s remarks. “It’s a good sign – at least we took it that way,” he said. Russia were frozen out of competitive football because prospective opponents refused to play them. There is no groundswell to reverse that trend and, in practice, it is highly unlikely their return to World Cup or European Championship qualifiers would be viable even if Infantino and Fifa managed to welcome them back. But Infantino’s comments risk serving to normalise the idea of Russia’s comeback and have caused serious concern in Kyiv. Ukraine has continued to suffer during a particularly harsh winter in which temperatures have plummeted while power and water supplies have been severely hit by Russian strikes. Shevchenko and the UAF have helped colleagues by offering overnight ...