Author: Staff Writers

[ad_1] Christmas stockings and dresser drawers might start to feel a little lonely. Those plastic gift cards we buy as presents could finally be headed to the land of the lost.Digital gift cards have been bubbling under the chart for a while, but things are now starting to take off. The global digital gift card market is forecast to rake in $724.3 billion by 2028, growing 14.2% a year – pinning much of its hopes on the younger generation who’s all-in on digital.One of the newest players in the game is Hallmark. Its angle comes in a partnership with Venmo.…

[ad_1] VIENNA — No one does victimhood quite like Austria. Over the past century, the Central European country has presented itself to the outside world as an innocent bystander on an island of gemütlichkeit, doing what it can to get by in a treacherous global environment. “Austria was always apolitical,” insists Herr Karl, the archetypal Austrian opportunist, brought to life in 1961 by Helmut Qualtinger, the country’s greatest satirist. “We were never political people.” Recalling Austria’s collaboration with the Nazis, Herr Karl, a portly stockist who speaks in a working-class Viennese dialect, was full of self pity: “We scraped a…

[ad_1] Maren Morris is divorcing herself from the music genre she got famous in — saying modern-day country music is unrecognizable to her … and has morphed into pure political posturing. The singer — who cut her teeth in country and, for a long time was considered a Nashville darling — has gone scorched earth on her peers … this after dropping two new tracks this week that speak to her anger and disillusionment over where things stand in the biz. In one of the music videos for her new songs, Maren can be seen walking away from a burning…

[ad_1] Authorities in Bangladesh must stop weaponizing labour laws and immediately end their harassment and intimidation of the Nobel Peace Laureate Mohammad Yunus, Amnesty International said today. Mohammad Yunus, who is also the chairman of the board at Grameen Telecom, is accused of employment-related violations and faces a criminal case in Bangladesh under the Labour Act 2006. Three other board members, Ashraful Hasan, Nur Jahan Begum and Mohammad Shahjahan, face the same charges. The ongoing trial is just one of more than 150 cases filed against Mohammad Yunus after the ruling Awami League party came into power in 2008. Amnesty…

[ad_1] Embattled developer faces deadline to pay $15m as China’s property sector struggles with debt crisis.Embattled Chinese property developer Country Garden faces yet another liquidity test with a deadline to pay $15m in interest linked to an offshore bond after having dodged default at the last minute twice this month. The country’s top private developer, whose financial woes have worsened the property sector outlook and prompted Beijing to unveil a raft of support measures, will have a 30-day grace period after Monday’s deadline to pay the coupon before it would be considered in default. If Country Garden fails to pay…

[ad_1] NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that the war Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging on Ukraine won’t be over any time soon. “Most wars last longer than expected when they first begin,” Stoltenberg in an interview with Germany’s Funke media group published Sunday. “Therefore we must prepare ourselves for a long war in Ukraine.” “We all want a quick peace,” said Stoltenberg. “At the same time, we must recognize that if [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians stop fighting, their country will no longer exist. If President Putin and Russia stop fighting, we will have peace.” The head of…

[ad_1] Ford Motor Company is recalling 169,277 model year 2020-2023 Lincoln Aviators, model year 2018-2021 Lincoln Navigators, model year 2022-2023 Ford Transits, and model year 2021 Ford Broncos. The rearview camera, or 360-degree view camera — if equipped — may not display a rearview image when the vehicle is in reverse. Loss of the rearview camera image can reduce the driver’s rear visibility, increasing the risk of a crash. What to do Dealers will replace the rearview camera, and update the software and wiring — as necessary — free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed October…

[ad_1] Play video content TikTok / @adeleslittleloveee Adele may be a married woman again — at least that’s what the Internet thinks, yet again, after she gave her boyfriend, Rich Paul, a very significant promotion in the title department. The singer was doing her Vegas residency show Saturday, and per usual … she was going around chopping it up with her audience, weaving in and out of rows of seats and interviewing folks on the spot Oprah-style. What else is new, right? However, this time around — a slip of the tongue appears to have befallen Adele … ’cause when…

[ad_1] Eight months after the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett was appointed to be the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan. The New Zealander has a long career working on human rights issues, both at the United Nations as well as independent organizations, such as Amnesty International.  Now, his focus is the human rights situation in Afghanistan, where the misogynistic and repressive edicts of the Taliban regime are rapidly transforming the country into one of the most tyrannical countries in the world. Bennett calls the Taliban’s edicts against women including the “absolute erasure” of them…

[ad_1] Two California school boards banned Pride flags from buildings in their districts during separate meetings on Tuesday, the latest development in a conservative campaign against such flags in the Golden State.The Temecula Valley Unified School District board voted on Tuesday to ban the display of any non-government or military flags on school campuses. Although Pride flags are not singled out in the the new rules, they were a major focus of public comment, according to KABC; some conservative parents said that seeing a rainbow flag in their child’s school made them “so upset” and alleged that seeing Pride iconography…