(NEW YORK) — Reese’s fans know and love the sweet and salty flavors of a chocolate peanut butter cup, and now the candy is being added to another delicious confection: Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
The North Carolina-based doughnut chain on Monday announced a new lineup of flavors with Reese’s, including inspired ingredients like potato chips, pretzels and salted caramel icing.
The Reese’s Salty Sweet Dozen will include the three new specialty flavors, plus three Original Glazed, and will be available now for a limited time in-shop and for delivery.
The first of the three new Reese’s flavors is the Salty Sweet Crunch Doughnut, a shell doughnut filled with Reese’s peanut butter Kreme filling, dipped in Reese’s peanut butter icing, drizzled in Hershey’s milk chocolate icing and topped with sea salt praline pretzels.
Next up is the Reese’s Salty Sweet Crisp Doughnut, an Original Glazed dipped in Hershey’s milk chocolate icing, topped with potato sticks, a drizzle of milk chocolate icing and Reese’s peanut butter sauce, plus a dollop of Reese’s peanut butter Kreme filling.
Finally, the Reese’s Outrageous Doughnut starts with a Hershey’s chocolate iced original glazed, topped with mini Reese’s pieces and drizzled with both peanut butter sauce and salted caramel icing.
“Salty, Sweet, Reese’s and Krispy Kreme can now all be experienced in one incredible doughnut collection,” Dave Skena, global chief brand officer for Krispy Kreme, said in a statement about the new lineup.
The new lineup will be available for purchase from Feb. 20 through March 8. Customers can find a list of participating stores in their area at the official Krispy Kreme website.
(NEW YORK) — Reckitt, a British consumer goods company, said it would recall two batches of plant-based infant formula they produce due to “a possibility of cross-contamination with Cronobacter sakazakii.”
The product, ProSobee Simply Plant-Based Infant Formula in 12.9 oz containers, was manufactured between August 2022 and September 2022 and distributed through retail stores nationwide in the U.S., Guam and Puerto Rico, according to Reckitt.
All formula distributed went through testing, and tested negative for Cronobacter sakazakii, a bacteria, according to Reckitt. No illnesses from the formula have been reported.
This is the same bacteria that was at the heart of the formula recall last year. Contamination concerns at Abbott’s plant prompted the voluntary massive shutdown and recall of their own infant formula after four children contracted a Cronobacter infection. Two of the infants subsequently died, although Abbott maintains there has not been conclusive evidence that its formula caused the infant illnesses. The possible source for the cross-contamination of the Rickett’s Prosobee formula has been identified, coming from “a material from a third party,” the company said. Reckitt will look to aquire this unnamed material from a different supplier.
“We are committed to the highest level of quality and safety and it is for this reason that we have taken this extraordinary measure,” Reckitt said in their statement announcing the voluntary recall. “The batches in question tested negative for Cronobacter and other bacteria and this is an isolated situation. After a thorough investigation, we have identified the root cause, which was linked to a material from a third party. We have taken all appropriate corrective actions, including no longer sourcing this material from the supplier.”
Consumers who purchased ProSobee Simply Plant-Based Infant Formula should check the bottom of the can to identify whether the batch number is affected, Reckitt said.
“Product with batch codes ZLZHZF and ZLZHZZ both with a UPC Code of 300871214415 and a ‘Use By Date’ of ‘1 Mar 2024’ should be disposed of or returned to the place of purchase for a total refund,” said Reckitt.
“The health and safety of infants is our highest priority. All of our products undergo rigorous and industry leading quality tests and checks to ensure that they meet or exceed all standards set by regulatory bodies, including the World Health Organization and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” Reckitt said. “It is for this reason that we have the highest level of confidence in the safety and quality of every infant formula we make.”
(NEW YORK) — Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced a new paid subscription for its platforms on Sunday, which, among other features, would allow users to pay for a verified account.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the service, dubbed “Meta Verified,” in a Sunday morning Facebook post and said the move is about “increasing authenticity and security across our services.”
Zuckerberg added that the service would cost users who subscribe via an internet browser $11.99, or $14.99 if purchased through a Meta iOS app.
The news comes as social media companies seek to cut costs and increase revenue, with several others, such as Telegram, Snapchat and Twitter, launching their own services with varying features.
Meta released its third consecutive quarter of revenue declines this month and laid off 11,000 employees — 13% of its workforce — in November to become “a leaner and more efficient company,” Zuckerberg said.
In addition to a blue verification badge on profiles, Meta said the service would also offer “extra impersonation protection” for subscribers, direct access to a live support agent for account issues and increased reach and visibility on the platform.
Subscribers must also submit a government ID that matches their profile name and photo, be at least 18 years old and have a prior posting history.
Meta’s announcement follows a plan by Twitter CEO Elon Musk to offer a similar service called Twitter Blue, which allows users to pay for a verification check and will eventually prioritize tweets from verified users in comments and searches. Musk also promised to phase out Twitter’s previous verification system, which required users to be notable.
However, Twitter Blue’s rollout became overwhelmed by a wave of imposter accounts that forced the company to temporarily pull the verification feature down.
It was relaunched a few weeks later, with Twitter ultimately preventing users from changing aspects of their profile or face losing their verification checks to stamp out impersonators. Twitter Blue does not require users to submit a government ID to become verified.
New subscribers to Meta Verified will also be unable to change any profile details, like the picture, name and username, “without going through the Meta Verified subscription and verifications application process again.”
Meta said there will be “no changes to accounts on Instagram and Facebook that are already verified based on prior requirements, including authenticity and notability.”
The new service begins launching this week with a gradual test to “learn what’s most valuable” before a global launch.
“We’ll be rolling out in Australia and New Zealand this week,” Zuckerberg said, “and more countries soon.”
(NEW YORK) — When a group of Tesla workers at a factory in Buffalo launched a union organizing effort this week, it thrust employees into a high-profile standoff with a company led by CEO Elon Musk, one of the wealthiest people in the world.
A day later, on Wednesday, Tesla fired more than 30 workers at the facility, some of whom were involved in the organizing effort, the union said in a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
“We all saw people getting marched out,” Nick Piazza, 32, a participant in the union drive who works at the warehouse labeling videos to improve Tesla’s self-driving software, told ABC News. “I’m heartbroken by it.”
“The timing is very suspicious,” he added. “We feel it’s a scare tactic. But it emboldens me.”
In a blog post on Thursday, Tesla rejected allegations that there were retaliatory firings at the Buffalo facility. The company laid off 4% of the autopilot labeling staff as part of a routine performance review that takes place every six months, the company said.
According to Tesla, only one out of the 27 impacted employees was officially identified as part of the union campaign.
Tesla identified the affected employees on Feb. 3, approximately 10 days before the launch of the union campaign, the company added.
The labor campaign at Tesla follows a resurgence in union organizing last year that brought landmark victories at major corporations like Amazon and Starbucks, carrying over similar grievances about insufficient pay and closely tracked performance.
The newly formed union of Tesla workers, called Tesla Workers United, is affiliated with Workers United, the labor organization that gained prominence last year for helping Starbucks workers unionize more than 260 stores nationwide.
The union drive at Tesla faces formidable challenges, however, since a campaign encompassing thousands of workers will prove more difficult than an organizing drive at a Starbucks store, for instance, which typically employs a few dozen workers, experts told ABC News.
On top of that, workers will likely encounter a well-resourced effort to dissuade them from unionizing, a modern-day corporate playbook for responding to labor drives that in some cases includes employee termination, the experts said.
“We’re seeing a big upsurge of workers interested in joining a union,” Susan Schurman, a labor studies professor at Rutgers University, told ABC News. “The question is just do they feel strongly enough to take the risk of trying to organize, understanding that one of the risks is that they’re going to be fired?”
Tesla did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The organizing committee, which counts between 40 and 50 members, has so far focused on issues of pay and job security, Piazza added.
“It’s really hard to support a family in this economy,” he said. “Some people are really struggling.”
Workers also have taken issue with digital surveillance that closely tracks their performance, Piazza said. Such worker monitoring is “somewhat standard” in the industry, he said, but the technology overlooks some parts of the job, such as time spent coordinating with coworkers.
Roughly 800 employees at the Buffalo facility work labeling video for self-driving software, but at least a thousand additional workers at the warehouse do other tasks, Piazza said. The union aims to organize all of the workers, he said, claiming that the employees in other departments appear receptive.
Tesla and Musk appeared to oppose a previous union campaign among workers at a factory in Fremont, California. In 2021, the National Labor Relations Board ordered Tesla to ask Musk to delete an anti-union message posted on Twitter a few years prior.
“Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union,” Musk tweeted in 2018. “Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?”
Musk did not delete the tweet and Tesla is challenging the NLRB order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
While federal labor law protects unionizing workers from retaliation, the penalties are weak and the measures afford wide latitude for some anti-union tactics, such as mandatory meetings meant to deter workers, some labor observers say.
“The penalties are so slight that most employers consider it the cost of doing business,” said Schurman, of Rutgers University.
Anne Lofaso, a labor professor at West Virginia University, said she expects that Musk will respond forcefully to the union campaign but the approach could backfire.
“I find it hard to believe Elon Musk will be quiet through this,” she said. “If he starts to scare workers or over-respond, people get angry and say ‘fine, I’ll sign a card.'”
Organizing at a company led by Musk has induced some anxiety, Piazza said, adding that he doesn’t view the union campaign as adversarial.
“It can be quite intimidating with Musk being such a huge public figure,” Piazza said.
“Most of us like the company and like our jobs,” he added. “We just think we deserve a seat at the table.”
(NEW YORK) — U.S. consumer credit card debt has jumped to nearly $1 trillion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Thursday.
Credit card balances increased more than $60 billion over the three months ending in December, lifting the total amount of U.S. credit card debt to an all-time high of $986 billion, the report found.
The skyrocketing credit card balance has coincided with an increase in the interest rates paid on such debt, crunching household budgets as high inflation eats away at the savings that many amassed during the pandemic.
The average credit card interest rate offered in the U.S. over the last three months of 2022 stood at 21.6%, according to WalletHub, a jump from about 18% a year prior. An aggressive series of interest rate hikes imposed by the Federal Reserve has caused the jump in credit card rates.
Overall, total household debt increased over the last three months of 2022, jumping 2.4% to nearly $17 trillion, the New York Fed found.
The record credit card debt sounds an alarm about the health of U.S. borrowers despite a booming job market that boasts the lowest unemployment rate in more than 50 years, Wilbert van der Klaauw, an economic research adviser at the New York Fed, said in a statement.
“Although historically low unemployment has kept consumer’s financial footing generally strong, stubbornly high prices and climbing interest rates may be testing some borrowers’ ability to repay their debts,” van der Klaauw said.
The average credit card user carried a balance of $5,805 over the last three months of 2022, research firm TransUnion found. The figure marked an 11% increase from the previous year.
The Fed earlier this month imposed the latest in a series of borrowing cost increases as it tries to slash price hikes by slowing the economy and choking off demand.
Inflation has fallen significantly from a summer peak but is more than triple the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
Despite some indicators that suggest waning consumer strength, retail sales surged in January, according to government data released on Wednesday. U.S. retail sales jumped 3% in January compared to a month prior, exceeding the 2% increase expected by forecasters surveyed by Bloomberg.
Retail sales had fallen in December, ending the typically busy holiday shopping season with a whimper.
Consumer prices rose 6.4% in January compared to a year ago, easing slightly but still elevated.
“A lot of people may not have enough income coming in to support day-to-day expenses, so it lands on the credit card,” Ted Rossman, a senior analyst at Bankrate.com who focuses on the credit card industry, previously told ABC News. “That becomes a very persistent cycle of debt, unfortunately.”
(NEW YORK) — Oranges are synonymous with Florida, but between extreme weather and widespread citrus disease in the sunshine state, the fruit has failed to produce the same yield as years past, sending prices soaring.
Earlier this month the United States Department of Agriculture predicted Florida will produce 16 million 90-pound boxes of oranges, which is a 61% drop compared with last season, when 41 million boxes were produced. The fall is drastic compared to the ’90s, when Florida produced 200 million boxes per year.
Overall food prices rose 9.9% in 2022, according to the USDA, and earlier this year the agency predicted that would increase to 7.1%.
After months of sticker shock at the store and consumer complaints of skyrocketing prices on products like eggs, now orange juice is another pricey pain point.
Orange juice futures — contracts to buy and sell OJ — have nearly doubled over the last year to $2.32 per pound, which has led to price increases at stores.
Earlier this year, fresh orange juice, not from concentrate, hit $10 a gallon, and juice from concentrate hit $6.27 per gallon.
While Florida has long been the top purveyor of orange juice in the U.S., Brazil leads as the top global exporter for orange juice. Shipments from Brazil are up by 58% so far this season, as first reported by Bloomberg.
The damage sustained during hurricane season after Category 4 Ian slammed central Florida’s citrus groves in September further set back production and yield. That paired with extreme weather like deep freezes with a widespread bout of citrus greening disease, which has also plagued some orange juice producers.
According to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, citrus greening — also known as Huanglongbing (HLB) — is one of the most serious citrus plant diseases with no cure spread by a disease-infected insect that causes crops to produce green and bitter fruits, unusable for sale as fresh whole fruit or juice.
(NEW YORK) — PepsiCo, which releases bottled Starbucks coffee drinks, has announced a recall for one of its products.
Select lots of 13.7-ounce glass bottled Starbucks Frappuccino Vanilla drinks have been voluntarily recalled, a representative for PepsiCo, on behalf of the North American Coffee Partnership, said in a statement to ABC News.
More than 25,000 cases of the glass bottles have been recalled, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The drinks were distributed nationwide.
“The impacted products have best buy dates of March 8, 2023; May 29, 2023; June 4, 2023; and June 10, 2023 and were distributed across the United States,” the statement read. “The removal of these products from the marketplace is currently underway. The products are not sold at Starbucks retail locations.”
The representative did not explain to ABC News why the recall was initiated, though the FDA said it was due to “foreign objects (glass)” in the bottles.
“The North American Coffee Partnership is committed to a high level of quality in the products we serve. Delivering a quality experience to our consumers is our top priority and we always act with an abundance of caution whenever a potential concern is raised,” the statement continued. “If a consumer has purchased a product and has questions or concerns, they can call Consumer Relations at 1-800-211-8307.”
(NEW YORK) — Inflation has eased in recent months but remains sky-high, especially for some household items like eggs and flour.
Price hikes for other products, however, have not only slowed but reversed altogether, offering much-needed relief for buyers, government data released this week showed.
Used cars, for instance, cost roughly 10% less than they did a year ago. The price of bacon has dropped 4% over that time, the data showed.
Still, the overall surge in prices traces back to the pandemic-induced supply bottlenecks that made it harder to access a slew of goods, including essentials like gas and food.
Meanwhile, COVID forced billions worldwide indoors, shifting demand away from concert tickets and restaurant meals and toward the exact goods in short supply. The Russia-Ukraine war has exacerbated the shortages and sent prices even higher, experts said.
Some price drops show an easing of the dynamics behind inflation, but many items reveal a unique dynamic playing out in a corner of the economy with little connection to broader economic headwinds, experts said.
“Every good, every service has its own story,” Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told ABC News. “Whether you’re talking about a pound of ground beef, a gallon of milk, an iPad or a medical procedure.”
Here’s what you need to know about which prices are falling and why:
Steaks and bacon
Grocery shoppers may have noticed a friendlier price tag on some meat products.
The price of uncooked beef steaks has fallen 3% over the past year; while the cost of bacon has dropped nearly 4% in that period. Other pork products, like roasts and ribs, have undergone a price decline of almost 2%.
Those price decreases may appear slight but they contrast starkly with the cost of another protein staple: Eggs. The cost of eggs has jumped 70% over the past year, government data showed.
The decline in meat prices owes to a drought in the Western U.S. that has made it more expensive for farmers to raise some animals, said Zandi. In response, farmers have culled their herds and delivered a glut of meat, sending prices downward temporarily, he added.
“For the time being, we’re enjoying falling prices because they’re slaughtering more cattle,” he said. “That means ultimately smaller herds and prices will rise more in the future.”
Smartphones, televisions and home assistants
The most dramatic price drops have arisen in consumer electronics, where some popular items cost much less than they did a year ago.
The cost of a smartphone has fallen nearly 24% over the past year, while the price of a TV has dropped about 13%. Smart home assistants cost 6% less than they did a year ago, the government data showed.
The drop in electronics prices owes to a decadeslong trend in the sector: Over time, a new product or technology loses its novelty and its price falls, Elizabeth Renter, a data analyst at personal finance research firm NerdWallet, told ABC News. At the same time, companies often find more cost-effective ways of producing a given technology, further reducing its price.
The price of televisions, for instance, has declined annually by double-digit percentage points for decades, Renter said. Smartphones, meanwhile, have fallen in price since the government began collecting consumer price data on them in 2019, she added.
“It’s not so novel to have a smartphone or a flatscreen anymore,” Renter said. “Prices tend to come down.”
A pandemic-era financial force has amplified the longstanding cost savings in electronics, however, Zandi said. At the outset of COVID, consumers forced indoors shifted from buying services to goods, such as televisions; but they’ve reversed that shift, cutting demand for and pushing down the price of electronics.
“In the teeth of the pandemic we were buying stuff – now we’re not,” Zandi said. “We’re buying trips to Europe or going to see the Eagles play or going to a restaurant.”
Used cars
The easing of another pandemic-related price pressure has slashed the cost of used cars, which has fallen more than 11% over the last year, Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, told ABC News.
A COVID-induced supply chain disruption led to a shortage of auto parts, especially the electric chips used in many car models, McBride said.
As some of the supply bottlenecks have loosened up, car parts have become more accessible and the supply of cars has moved back up toward pre-pandemic levels.
“In the early stages of inflation taking off, used car prices were one of the big contributors,” McBride said. “As there’s been an easing of some of the manufacturing backlogs, we’re seeing downward pressure on used car prices.
Renter acknowledged the improvement of some supply challenges but also attributed the price drop to a base effect, in which price changes appear to be an improvement because the current price is compared to the highly elevated price point where products stood a year ago.
“We’re seeing a return to something closer to normal after historic highs,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York on Thursday raised the possibility of revoking bail and remanding Sam Bankman-Fried into custody for possible witness tampering but opted to give his attorneys and federal prosecutors more time to propose stricter conditions of his pre-trial release.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges that accused him of misappropriating billions of dollars from the crypto exchange he founded, FTX, and he has been free on a $250 million bail package.
Federal prosecutors have sought to prevent Bankman-Fried from contacting potential witnesses and restrict his use of encrypted communications and the internet but, during a hearing, the judge expressed concern the government’s proposed rules did not go far enough.
There may be probable cause to believe Bankman-Fried “committed or attempted to commit a federal felony,” witness tampering, by contacting FTX’s general counsel and others associated with the case, the judge said.
“There is a solution,” Lewis Kaplan said, but noted that prosecutors had not asked him to revoke Bankman-Fried’s bail.
“Having him live with his parents is a check against some other risks,” said assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Roos, who said the government was trying to balance a need to ensure Bankman-Fried behaves himself with the defendant’s First Amendment rights and his ability to prepare a defense.
“We’re trying to find the right balance,” Roos said, proposing Bankman-Fried be limited to using one mobile phone and one computer that are each equipped with monitoring software.
Kaplan wondered about other phones, computers and internet-connected electronics in the Palo Alto, California, home of Bankman-Fried’s parents, where he is confined.
“Why am I being asked to turn him loose in this garden of electronic devices,” Kaplan asked.
Alarmed by the prospect of bail revocation, the defense signaled it would agree to additional restrictions.
“We understand from your comments today there is no margin for error,” defense attorney Marc Cohen said.
Bankman-Fried is barred from using a VPN to access the internet after the government raised concerns about him trying to conceal his online activities. Kaplan was skeptical of the defense excuse that Bankman-Fried was merely trying to watch the Super Bowl by using his online NFL Game Pass account.
“What was he doing watching a football game on a VPN that anyone can turn on a television and watch for free,” Kaplan asked.
(WASHINGTON) — Tesla is recalling up to 362,758 cars equipped with its Full Self-Driving Beta software or pending installation over concerns it can increase the risk of a crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Thursday.
“The FSD Beta system may allow the vehicle to act unsafe around intersections, such as traveling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, entering a stop sign-controlled intersection without coming to a complete stop, or proceeding into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution,” the agency said.
The recall will affect some Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. Tesla will offer a software update free of charge to customers, the agency said.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
