(NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.) — Thousands of academic workers at Rutgers University, including professors and graduate student workers, launched a strike on Monday, picketing outside of campus buildings and urging colleagues to forego teaching classes.
The strike marks the first in the university’s nearly 257-year history, according to a group of unions representing the workers.
Contract negotiations began nearly one year ago for some 9,000 workers represented by three unions participating in the strike, the unions said.
The unions are seeking salary increases that keep up with inflation, a $15 minimum wage for campus workers, longer contracts for non-tenured faculty, five years of guaranteed funding for graduate students and a new set of standards for racial and gender equity, among other demands.
Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway voiced dissatisfaction on Sunday in response to the impending strike.
“To say that this is deeply disappointing would be an understatement,” Holloway said in a letter posted online. “We have all been hard at work trying to resolve issues around compensation, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment.”
The disruption of classes at Rutgers University, where 67,000 students study, prompted New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, to call for a “productive dialogue” between the university and workers in his office on Monday.
In one of several protests on Monday morning, 50 faculty, graduate and undergraduate students marched in a picket line outside of the student center on the Rutgers University satellite campus in Livingston, New Jersey, Sebastian León, an assistant professor of Latino and Caribbean Studies and Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, told ABC News.
The picketing amounts to “a full-time job from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on every campus across multiple shifts,” León said, noting workers’ plans to supply protesters with food, water bottles, safety gear and sunscreen.
“We hope that the strike produces extra impetus to settle a fair and a reasonable contract,” he added.
León, who began teaching at Rutgers University in 2018, said he supports the strike because the workers’ contract proposal aims to break down a “pretty messed up hierarchy” between full-time faculty, adjunct professors and graduate students.
“I’ve been an adjunct where you’re basically sub-human – your opinion and professional views don’t count,” he said. “You’re lucky to have your own office and place to store your papers.”
The university has offered to raise the minimum salary for postdoctoral fellows and associates in the faculty union by more than 20% over the contract period, Holloway said in a statement on Sunday.
“Significant and substantial progress has been made, as I have noted, and I believe that there are only a few outstanding issues,” Holloway added. “We will, of course, negotiate for as long as it takes.”
León said he had heard of some faculty opting to teach on Monday, despite the strike. However, he said the workers participating in the strike understand that the protest could last several days or longer.
“This is a full-time organizing job that we’ll be doing as long as it takes,” he said. “We’re not asking for new iPads or brand new buildings or a second car.”
(NEW YORK) — As young professionals navigate the workforce with an emphasis on valuing self-care and work-life balance, behavioral trends like “quiet quitting” and pushes for a four-day workweek have emerged. Now, the latest career trend to take hold of the internet is “Bare Minimum Mondays.”
“I think what I’m seeing at least is a trend that started with quiet quitting. Now we’ve got Monday’s bare minimum Mondays and a big, a big push towards a four-day workweek. It clearly is an indication that people are burned out and trying to find ways to re-energize themselves while doing the things they have to do to get a paycheck,” Tessa White, a career expert, told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
The term “Bare Minimum Mondays” was coined by TikTok content creator Maris Mayes, who said the idea is to ease into the work week by prioritizing self-care over productivity on Mondays.
The #BareMinimumMondays hashtag has racked up more than two million views.
Physical therapist Logan Lynch decided to take Mayes’ advice and said she no longer takes patients on Mondays.
“I’m very familiar with hustle culture and the grind and doing everything all the time. So to have a mindset, to have a system to kind of give yourself a break, I really resonated with that,” Lynch told Good Morning America.
Lynch said the new parameters actually increase her productivity.
“I have been trying to put into place boundaries around my work and knowing that it’s OK to take a little extra rest time,” Lynch said.
Mother and entrepreneur Juliana Walker said that the Bare Minimum Mondays strategy has helped her be more intentional with her time.
“I started getting migraines on Mondays and I was overworking myself and bringing myself up into the ground,” the mother of one told Good Morning America. “So that’s when I started scheduling doctors’ appointments, haircuts, getting my nails done.”
According to a Gallup poll from November, 68% of Gen Z and millennials reported feeling more stressed overall compared to their older counterparts and 54% of young workers reported they were also less engaged at work than their senior co-workers.
With the pandemic blurring the lines between work and home, younger workers are setting more boundaries between their professional and personal lives. White said whether you like it or not, younger workers “rebelling” against traditional career structures have already redefined employer relationships.
“They’re insisting on work-life balance and insisting that mental health is important as a result of where they’re at in this generation,” she said. “They don’t have a lot to lose by actually laying it out on the line and saying, ‘I really want to have a better experience at work.'”
(NEW YORK) — The place where dreams come true is making magic for Disney theme park fans who have asked about Walt Disney World Annual Passes.
“New sales of the Disney Incredi-Pass, Disney Sorcerer Pass and Disney Pirate Pass will resume and can be purchased online beginning on April 20,” Disney Parks announced on its blog Thursday.
At launch, the number of passes will be limited and passes — or a pass type — “may become unavailable for purchase at any time,” which the release explained is subject to the Walt Disney World Resort Annual Pass Terms and Conditions.
Starting April 13, eligible Disney Vacation Club members will also have the opportunity to purchase the DVC Disney Sorcerer Pass online as part of their Membership Magic benefits.
“We are so grateful for our Passholders who have a deep, strong connection to Walt Disney World, and we are looking forward to welcoming more of you to the Annual Passholder family, just in time to experience the feelings of a Disney Thrill this spring and summer,” Senior Manager of Communications Eric Scott wrote.
For non-Florida residents and non-Disney Vacation Club members, only the Disney Incredi-Pass will be available for purchase.
The Walt Disney World Annual Passholder program incorporated feedback to make new changes, like adding access to select Disney PhotoPass benefits and the ability for passholders to visit the theme parks after 2 p.m. without a reservation — except Saturdays and Sundays at Magic Kingdom Park.
The updates are intended to help passholders enjoy the new Walt Disney World experiences, such as the return of the “Happily Ever After” nighttime spectacular; the world’s first Toy Story-themed table-service restaurant, Roundup Rodeo BBQ; and the new Journey of Water — inspired by “Moana” — coming to Epcot later this year. Disney’s Animal Kingdom is also celebrating its 25th anniversary throughout April.
Annual pass sales were halted in November 2021 as the park looked to manage crowds amid the pandemic.
Current Annual Passholders can check for news and updates in The Passholder Buzz section of the My Disney Experience app.
Read more about renewal and pass upgrade options and other terms and conditions online here.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News and “Good Morning America.”
(NEW YORK) — Electric bikes have made headlines for the dramatic leap in sales of the devices during the pandemic. However, they’ve also drawn notoriety for occasionally sparking deadly fires.
The U.S. e-bike market grew 269% between 2019 and 2022, with $885.5 million in sales last year, according to market research firm Circana. Sales of e-bikes — which are much pricier than traditional bicycles — outperformed the overall bike market in 2022 in terms of sales growth, growing 14% while total bike sales declined by 12%, according to Circana.
“There was a lot of interest in riding, and we’ve actually seen that interest and rider participation continue as we move out of the height of the pandemic,” Ash Lovell, electric bicycle policy and campaign director for the advocacy group PeopleForBikes, told ABC News. “We want to keep them riding and we want to give them more opportunities and more places to ride.”
As interest in e-bikes has grown as an eco-friendly means for travel and hauling cargo, so have ways to make them more accessible. At the city and state levels, governments are finding ways to make e-bikes more affordable through incentive programs. Building off those local efforts, federal lawmakers recently reintroduced a bill that would give consumers a tax break on the purchase of a new e-bike. The Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment Act would offer a refundable tax credit amounting to 30% of the e-bike’s price, capped at $1,500.
Other legislation has been aimed at safety. Last month, New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed a package of e-bike safety legislation that also sets new standards for e-mobility devices such as e-bikes, including that any micro-mobility device meets standards set by UL Solutions, an industry leader in battery technology. The move came after New York saw 219 fires related to e-bikes in 2022, causing 147 injuries and six deaths.
“This is a real issue and it could jeopardize the safety of you or your family,” Adams recently told “Good Morning America.” “We must educate people.”
If new to e-bikes, here’s what to know.
Are e-bikes safe? Role of battery certification
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are found in everyday items, from cellphones to laptops, as well as e-mobility devices like e-bikes and e-scooters. Though generally safe, they carry with them a fire risk if abused or not high-quality.
“There’s a lot of energy being condensed into a very small battery,” Steve Kerber, vice president and executive director of UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute, which performs testing and research around fire safety risks, including hazards associated with lithium-ion batteries, told ABC News.
Uncertified batteries are one of the factors that impact the likelihood of a lithium-ion battery failure, according to the institute. A major component of certification criteria is making sure the battery management system is sending the right signals to tell the battery to stop charging. A faulty system could lead to what’s known as a thermal runaway, causing a battery to overheat and possibly explode.
“If you go to purchase an e-bike, you should be able to get one that’s certified by a nationally recognized testing lab,” Kerber said.
Can you pedal? Understanding e-bike classes
Anyone looking to buy an e-bike should also familiarize themselves with the three-class system for electric bikes, which has been adopted by 40 states, Lovell said.
“It really defines what an electric bicycle is and what it isn’t,” Lovell said.
Typically, class 1, the most common type of e-bike, means an e-bike where the motor is engaged by pedaling — or pedal-assist — and can provide assistance up to 20 mph; class 2 means an e-bike where the motor can be engaged through a throttle and can assist up to 20 mph without pedaling; and class 3 means a pedal-assist e-bike where the motor can provide assistance up to 28 mph.
E-bikes typically start around $1,000, while a more high-end model could cost upward of $12,000. Lovell recommends trying out different models before purchasing.
“There’s actually inventory now — there wasn’t during a lot of the pandemic,” Lovell said. “So this is a really good time to try out a few models to figure out which one works right for you.”
Best e-bike battery practices
Rare, but at times deadly, fires due to e-bikes have helped raise awareness about best practices, particularly in New York City, Kerber said. Though elsewhere “we’ve got a bigger lift,” he said.
“We need to make sure that people hear this message before the incidents are happening,” Kerber said. “We need to learn from the failures that are happening so we don’t repeat those and a lot of times it does come down to public education. It comes down to people being smart with their devices and knowing what to look for — whether it’s cellphones, laptops, tablets, scooters — I mean everything has lithium-ion batteries in it now.”
E-bike users should read their instruction manual to ensure they are following best practices for charging and storing their device, Kerber said.
In addition to uncertified batteries, other factors that increase the likelihood of battery failure include battery abuse, modifications and mismatched parts — such as using a charger that is incompatible with the battery — according to UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute. If the battery and charging cord are incompatible, the battery could overcharge and lead to a “pretty catastrophic failure and thermal runaway,” Kerber said.
Among other best practices, people should avoid charging their e-bike when they’re asleep and not charge it in a path of escape, Kerber said. They should also keep the battery at room temperature and not tinker with the battery system themselves. An odor, changing color, leak or weird noises are all signs to “get out of your house” and call 911 to have the fire department investigate, Kerber said.
Lithium-ion batteries — whether in e-bikes or other devices — also need to be recycled properly.
“You can’t throw them away,” Kerber said. “We’ve seen a number of garbage truck fires … because people will just throw some of these things in the trash.”
E-bike rider restrictions, safety and etiquette
When considering an e-bike, it will be helpful to know where you are allowed to ride it in your state.
“It’s up to local municipalities to determine if they are open to having e-bikes on their trails and multi-use paths,” Lovell said.
States may have other restrictions on e-bike usage, such as age minimums.
Riders, especially first-time cyclists, should brush up on biking etiquette and safety, such as how to ride with a group, said Lovell.
“What we found during the pandemic is that a lot of people who are riding and ordering electric bicycles haven’t ridden a traditional bike before,” Lovell said. “So they don’t really have the education or the etiquette training on here’s how you signal, here’s what you should do in a crowded multi-use path, how’s how to store your bike, here’s when you should take it in to be serviced.”
Given the continued interest in e-bikes, PeopleForBikes and the League of American Bicyclists plan to launch an e-bike rider-specific safety curriculum in July that will feature guidance on “responsible e-bike ownership,” including roadway positioning, sharing the trail, riding predictably and other safe practices.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Bob Lee, Cash App founder and current executive at cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin, has died, the company told ABC News. He was 43 years old.
A longtime tech executive, Lee was the first chief technology officer at Square, a digital payment company founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
“Bob was a dynamo, a force of nature,” Joshua Goldbard, the CEO of MobileCoin, told ABC News in a statement.
“He was made for the world that is being born right now, he was a child of dreams, and whatever he imagined, no matter how crazy, he made real,” Goldbard added.
During the 2000s, Lee worked at Google, where he helped develop Android.
Cash App and the San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lee is survived by his wife, Krista, and their two children.
“Bob’s real resume is the hearts and minds he touched in his time on earth,” Goldbarb said. “Bob’s legacy is the feeling that you can make a difference if you try, and of course his amazing children.”
(NEW YORK) — Johnson & Johnson announced Tuesday that the company has agreed to pay $8.9 billion over 25 years to settle “all current and future” claims that the company’s baby powder and other cosmetic talc products allegedly caused cancer.
The company announced in the securities filing that its subsidiary LTL Management, Inc. will be re-filing for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy to resolve the allegations. The filing is not an admission of wrongdoing and the company maintains its position that the talcum powder products are safe, according to the release.
Johnson & Johnson and its other affiliates did not file for bankruptcy protection and will continue to operate their businesses as usual, the release added.
“The Company continues to believe that these claims are specious and lack scientific merit,” Erik Haas, vice president of litigation at Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement, in part. “However, as the Bankruptcy Court recognized, resolving these cases in the tort system would take decades and impose significant costs on [the company] and the system, with most claimants never receiving any compensation.”
The announcement comes months after a federal appeals court ruled in January that the company could not use the bankruptcy court to resolve some 38,000 lawsuits that alleged the talc in its products caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, ABC News reported. At the time, the company said it planned on challenging the ruling.
Critics had urged the court to reject the legal maneuver, fearing it could prompt other big companies to avoid bringing mass tort lawsuits before juries.
In 2019, Johnson & Johnson recalled a shipment of baby powder when a sample tested positive for a trace amount of asbestos, according to an advisory from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sales of the talc-based product ended in North America the following year.
The company announced last year that it would stop using talc in its baby powder worldwide in 2023 and that the ingredient would be replaced with cornstarch.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Max Zahn contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A tech start-up CEO once considered a preeminent American entrepreneur has been arrested and charged with fraud for allegedly lying to J.P. Morgan Chase, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
Charlie Javice, previously featured as a Forbes magazine “30 Under 30” honoree, was arrested Monday night in New Jersey for lying about the number of customers her company serviced with its student loan assistance program, according to DOJ.
“She lied directly to JPMC and fabricated data to support those lies — all in order to make over $45 million from the sale of her company,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “This arrest should warn entrepreneurs who lie to advance their businesses that their lies will catch up to them, and this Office will hold them accountable for putting their greed above the law.”
A spokesperson for Javice said she denies the allegations and her lawyer declined to comment.
The company, Frank, had been billed as a way to simplify the student loan application process. Javice is accused of fabricating data to make it appear as though the platform had millions more users in order to sell the company for $175 million.
She is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, one count of wire fraud affecting a financial institution and one count of bank fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. She also faces one count of securities fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Javice enlisted the help of a data scientist to create a fake database that was used to convince JP Morgan Chase the platform had more than 4.25 million users, according to charging documents. The tech CEO also allegedly purchased real data on 4.25 million college students that she tried to pass off as her user data.
Javice made an initial appearance in court on Tuesday, and she was released on a $2 million bond that restricts her to certain parts of New York and southern Florida.
ABC News’ Luke Barr and Lisa Sivertson contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A crippled banking system, stubbornly high inflation, recession fears — the growing set of threats has tipped the U.S. into precarious economic territory but the leader of the nation’s largest bank is nonetheless optimistic about the financial outlook.
Resilient consumer spending and a strong job market have buoyed the economy, padding the savings of many households and buttressing them against a possible downturn, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said in an annual shareholder letter on Tuesday.
“When one talks about risk for too long, it begins to cloud your judgment,” Dimon said. “Looking ahead, the positives are huge.”
Consumer balance sheets are in “great shape,” Dimon added, noting that “unemployment is extremely low, and wages are going up, particularly at the low end.”
The unemployment rate stands at 3.6%, hovering near a 50-year low.
Meanwhile, Americans retain $1.2 trillion more “excess cash” in their checking accounts than they held before the pandemic, Dimon said, citing JPMorgan Chase data. Those savings have kept consumer spending relatively robust even as pandemic-era fiscal support fades further into the past.
Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of the U.S. economy.
Still, the bank’s measure of excess savings held by U.S. households has fallen nearly by half since November 2021, suggesting that Americans have drawn down their accounts to contend with high inflation.
Inflation has fallen significantly from a summer peak, though it remains more than triple the Fed’s target of 2%.
To fight high prices, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates last month for the ninth time in a year, making its policy the most aggressive since the 1980s.
The Fed’s borrowing cost increases aim to slash prices by slowing the economy and choking off demand, but the approach risks tipping the U.S. economy into a recession and putting millions out of work.
On top of these headwinds, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last month, the second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history, thrust the financial system into distress.
Acknowledging economic uncertainty and persistently high inflation, Dimon described last year as one marked by “significant challenges.”
Addressing the recent banking distress, he added, “The current crisis is not yet over, and even when it is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come.”
In the aftermath of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure, some Democrats called for strengthening banking regulations that they say could have prevented the collapse. Such officials, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have focused their ire on a 2018 measure that weakened banking oversight imposed by the previous Dodd-Frank Act.
Rejecting calls for stronger regulation, Dimon said additional protections would not have prevented the recent banking crisis.
“Regarding the current disruption in the U.S. banking system, most of the risks were hiding in plain sight,” he said, referring to long-term treasury and mortgage bonds that were known to risk a loss of value if the Fed rapidly raised interest rates.
“It is unlikely that any recent change in regulatory requirements would have made a difference in what followed,” he added.
Returning to a sunny tone taken up elsewhere in the letter, Dimon downplayed the threat posed by the current financial distress.
“Recent events are nothing like what occurred during the 2008 global financial crisis,” he said.
A group of big banks, including JPMorgan Chase, made money from the recent banking distress, since a flood of depositors opened new accounts at large lenders amid the uncertainty.
JPMorgan Chase received a huge wave of customers and deposits, amounting to hundreds of accounts and billions of dollars, a source familiar with the matter previously told ABC News.
In his letter, Dimon rebuked the notion that JPMorgan Chase, or any bank, emerged from the turmoil unscathed.
“Any crisis that damages Americans’ trust in their banks damages all banks – a fact that was known even before this crisis,” Dimon said.
“While it is true that this bank crisis ‘benefited’ larger banks due to the inflow of deposits they received from smaller institutions, the notion that this meltdown was good for them in any way is absurd,” he added.
Dr. Uma Valeti, founder and CEO of UPSIDE Foods, gives a tour of his Emeryville, Calif., facility to ABC News. — ABC News
(EMERYVILLE, Calif.) — A scientific quest to feed the world, protect animals and simultaneously cut down on greenhouse gas emissions is on the cusp of a major milestone in the U.S., advocates say.
In the last five months, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared two American producers of lab-grown meat to bring their products to market, finding “no questions” about the companies’ claims the protein is safe for human consumption — though critics still have concerns about the industry’s financial viability relative to long-term output.
“That is a watershed moment because it’s never happened before in the history of humanity,” said Dr. Uma Valeti, founder and CEO of UPSIDE Foods, one of the approved producers.
Regulators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture are now deciding how to label cultivated meat for public sale and inspect facilities that produce it. The guidelines are expected sometime this year — a final hurdle before the products can hit store shelves.
Americans were estimated to consume roughly 75 billion pounds of red meat and chicken last year, according to USDA data. That’s nearly 225 pounds per American.
“I think of our cultivated meat as the one that can fill the delta between how much meat we eat now and how much we’re going to have to produce for the next 30 years,” Valeti said.
Cultivated, or cultured-cell, meat is grown in steel bioreactors from animal stem cells that are fed a mixture of vitamins, fats, sugars and oxygen. The process results in real meat tissue without having to raise or slaughter an animal.
Meat cultivating companies like UPSIDE and some environmentalists say the technique has the potential to dramatically curb greenhouse gas emissions from traditional animal farming, which also requires vast swaths of land and water as well as antibiotics for disease control.
ABC News was granted an inside look at the nation’s first and largest cultivated chicken facility, run by UPSIDE Foods in an office park outside San Francisco.
“It takes two weeks to grow the equal to one chicken, a thousand chickens or 100,000 chickens,” said Valeti, who is a cardiologist by training. What limits production is infrastructure.
UPSIDE says it can produce 50,000 pounds of cultivated chicken a year using current technology in its $50-million facility. Valeti said UPSIDE will need significant additional investment to scale up to 400,000 pounds a year — but that’s the goal.
“When we have the full force of humanity wanting to do something that is impossible, or perceived to be impossible, magical things can happen,” Valeti said.
As demand for meat products continues to soar globally, advocates and investors say cultivating meat has the potential to dramatically supplement and expand the world’s existing food supply.
Animal rights advocates say “no kill” meat is also a way to reduce suffering and alleviate concerns about unethical treatment of animal populations on large commercial farms.
The concept has drawn billions of dollars in investment. UPSIDE has attracted high-profile financing from Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Whole Foods founder John Mackey.
President Joe Biden has also thrown support behind the effort, signing an executive order in September directing the Department of Agriculture to support “cultivating alternative food sources.”
“Although the power of these technologies is most vivid at the moment in the context of human health, biotechnology and biomanufacturing can also be used to achieve our climate and energy goals,” the order states.
Animal agriculture is responsible for at least 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, nearly equivalent — by some estimates — to the share of emissions produced by cars, trucks, trains, airplanes and ships combined.
Most of those earth-warming gasses come from cows, which produce methane, scientists say.
While UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat, the second FDA-approved cultivated meat company, produce chicken, dozens of other start-up companies are preparing to produce and sell cultivated beef, lamb, pork and seafood from animal cells.
Critics contend that cultivating meat is an enticing prospect but remains little more than a novelty.
“The data’s not there yet and the investment is known to be very expensive. How are you going to make an impact in the environment if you cannot scale this at a reasonable cost?” said Ricardo San Martin, director of the Alternative Meat Lab at the University of California at Berkeley.
“The narrative is very attractive. ‘I don’t need to kill chickens, and I can kind of just grow them in a vat and that’s it’ — right? But those vats are very expensive and [have] very sophisticated people running them,” said San Martin, who told ABC News research shows plant-based foods are most affordable and sustainable.
A study published in 2020 by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future concluded that cultivated meat produces roughly one-fifth of the greenhouse gas emissions of traditional beef but is still five to 21 times higher than plant proteins such as tofu or peas.
Bioreactors, like those used at UPSIDE Foods, are energy intensive, said researcher Raychel Santos.
There is also a debate over what to call a new competitor in the meat department. Trade groups representing American farmers and ranchers have been lobbying the USDA to clearly brand cultured-cell products as distinct from their own pasture-raised cuts.
“All I’m asking is that it be clearly identified because there’s going to be a difference when that consumer eats that product,” said Todd Wilkinson, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. “And my product doesn’t have to be genetically engineered.”
Wilkinson wants the USDA to require products from UPSIDE and GOOD to bear the markers “cultured meat” or “lab grown.”
“Something that just stands out and lets the consumer know what they’re eating,” he said.
UPSIDE’s Valeti concedes customer education will be a big hurdle to clear.
“People are buying meat right now despite how it’s made,” Valeti said of what he calls the paradox of meat. “What if we can make the process more kinder, caring, healthier, nutritious? I believe everybody will get behind it.”
He said he anticipates price-per-pound of UPSIDE chicken would start “slightly above organic,” with a goal of competing on par with conventional chicken in five to 15 years.
Once USDA labeling is approved, UPSIDE chicken is expected to land first on fine-dining menus in a handful of California restaurants.
“Our goal is to be able to be available at Michelin star restaurants or at the backyard barbecue,” Valeti said. “It’s going to take some time to get to a point where we can be everywhere.”
(NEW YORK) — Endeavor, the parent company of UFC, acquired World Wrestling Entertainment on Monday in a merger that values the WWE at $9.3 billion, forming a worldwide combat sports behemoth, the companies said in a joint announcement.
Ari Emanuel, the CEO of Endeavor, will remain the head of the newly formed company, which holds a total value of $21 billion, the announcement said. UFC is worth an estimated $12.1 billion, according to the announcement.
“This is a rare opportunity to create a global live sports and entertainment pureplay built for where the industry is headed,” Emanuel said in a statement.
Ultimately, Endeavor will retain a 51% controlling interest in the new company and WWE will hold the other 49% share.
Vince McMahon, the executive chairman of WWE, will continue in that role. The announcement comes a day after the WWE’s biggest event of the year, WrestleMania. The two-day event had more than 160,000 in attendance, the company announced and featured celebrities like rapper Snoop Dogg, NFL star George Kittle and former UFC competitor and current WWE star Brock Lesnar.
“Given the incredible work that Ari and Endeavor have done to grow the UFC brand – nearly doubling its revenue over the past seven years – and the immense success we’ve already had in partnering with their team on a number of ventures, I believe that this is without a doubt the best outcome for our shareholders and other stakeholders,” McMahon said in a statement.
UFC and WWE brought in a combined $2.4 billion in revenue during fiscal year 2022, marking 10% annual revenue growth since 2019, the announcement said.
Dana White, the president of UFC, will retain that position under the new company.
The new company will appoint a board of directors made up of six representatives from Endeavor and five from WWE.
“For decades, Vince and his team have demonstrated an incredible track record of innovation and shareholder value creation, and we are confident that Endeavor can deliver significant additional value for shareholders by bringing UFC and WWE together,” Emanuel said.
