(NEW YORK) — Attention all Croissan’wich fans: There’s a new carb contender hitting the breakfast menu at Wendy’s.
The fast food chain announced its latest a.m. innovation on Tuesday, launching two new English Muffin Sandwiches. Customers can choose between oven-baked applewood smoked bacon or a savory grilled sausage patty, topped with American cheese.
McDonald’s has long been known for its iconic Egg McMuffin and two subsequent English muffin sandwich offerings, but Wendy’s believes its recipes will set it apart.
The culinary development team said it tested 60 recipe variations over a year and a half to get the perfect product.
“We have high standards for what ultimately makes it onto our menu,” John Li, global vice president of culinary innovation for Wendy’s, said in a statement.
He added that the muffins are “made with a touch of honey and topped with a savory buttery spread” before adding the fresh cracked eggs and meat of choice “for the perfect harmony of breakfast flavors.”
Wendy’s currently offers other items like the Breakfast Baconator, Homestyle French Toast Sticks, and Frosty Cream Cold Brew during morning menu hours.
The English Muffin Sandwiches hit menus nationwide on Aug. 22 and Wendy’s is offering $2 off any breakfast combo — including the new English Muffin Sandwiches — through Sept. 3.
Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(HONOLULU) — Shares of Hawaiian Electric have plummeted nearly 40% since trading opened Monday over concerns that the utility company could be held liable for damage wrought by the Maui wildfires.
A class-action lawsuit filed against Hawaiian Electric on Saturday alleges that the company “inexcusably kept their power lines energized” despite forecasts of high winds that could topple power lines and potentially ignite a fast-spreading blaze. Hawaiian Electric provides power for 95% of Hawaii residents, according to the company’s website.
The wildfires that erupted on the Hawaiian island of Maui on Aug. 8 have claimed the lives of at least 99 people as of Tuesday, while many more remain unaccounted for, according to authorities.
Much of the historic community of Lahaina has been “destroyed,” officials said, and the inferno has burned thousands of residential and commercial buildings to the ground.
The estimated value of the roughly 2,700 buildings damaged in Lahaina as of Sunday totals $5.6 billion, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said in a video statement.
On Tuesday, S&P Global Ratings announced that it had downgraded Hawaiian Electric’s credit rating and warned of potential additional downgrades in the coming months, citing the class-action litigation.
“While the full resolution of these lawsuits may take years, should the plaintiffs prevail, the company’s financial measures would materially deteriorate,” S&P Global Ratings said in the announcement.
Authorities have yet to determine the cause of the Maui wildfires, the fifth-deadliest wildfire in U.S. history and the deadliest in more than a century.
Hawaiian Electric, which oversees subsidiary Maui Electric, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
In response to a previous query from ABC News about the class-action lawsuit, Jim Kelly, vice president for government and community relations and corporate communications for Hawaiian Electric, said in a statement that the company would cooperate with local officials in their investigation of the cause of the wildfires.
“As has always been our policy, we don’t comment on pending litigation. Our immediate focus is on supporting emergency response efforts on Maui and restoring power for our customers and communities as quickly as possible,” Kelly said. “At this early stage, the cause of the fire has not been determined and we will work with the state and county as they conduct their review.”
At a news conference on Monday, Hawaiian Electric President and CEO Shelee Kimura said that an investigation is underway. When pressed about why power lines were not de-energized during powerful winds, Kimura said that, unlike California, the state does not have a shut-off program. She described such programs as “controversial,” adding that they’re not universally accepted and create a hardship for vulnerable residents and those with medical needs.
Kimura also noted that electricity has powered the pumps that in turn have provided water to fight the fire.
“We all believe it’s important to understand what happened,” Kimura said. “And we all believe it’s important to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
The wildfire in the historic Maui community of Lahaina has burned a total of 2,170 acres since Aug. 8 and is 85% contained, according to a press release from Maui County on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Upcountry/Kula wildfire, which was initially reported on Aug. 8, has burned a total of 678 acres and is now 65% contained, officials said.
The Pulehu/Kihei wildfire, also initially reported on Aug. 8, was declared 100% contained on Saturday and remains so. However, 100% containment does not mean the blaze has been extinguished, but rather that firefighters have the flames fully surrounded by a perimeter, according to Maui County.
Hawaiian Electric has restored power to about 80% of the customers who have been without electricity since Aug. 8, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said at a news conference Monday night that 2,000 rooms have been secured for those displaced by the Maui fires.
In addition to loss of life and the damaged property, the Maui wildfires have also “left severe mental stress and emotional devastation in its wake,” according to the class-action lawsuit filed against Hawaiian Electric.
(NEW YORK) — Starbucks is adding a new spin to three of its drinks for the final weeks of summer.
Creating unique customizations has long been popular with Starbucks fans, especially on social media, but starting Monday, an official Summer Remix Menu will be available in person, online and in-app with three twists on fan-favorite cold drinks.
Check out all three new options below with custom ordering tips from the Seattle-based coffee chain:
Chocolate Cream Cold Brew with Caramel Syrup in a Caramel Lined Cup
For anyone ordering this customization in the app or online, Starbucks said to “select your favorite drink, click ‘customize’ and click ‘add line the cup'” to get even more caramel for this drink.
Iced Chai Latte with Matcha Cream Cold Foam
This mashup takes a classic Iced Chai Latte and tops it with Matcha Cream Cold Foam for the best of both tea worlds.
“To add cold foam to a beverage, in the Starbucks app, select your favorite drink, click ‘customize’ and click ‘add cold foam’ under the toppings category,” the brand instructed.
Starbucks Iced Black Tea Lemonade
To make this refreshing drink even cooler, Starbucks suggests ordering the Arnold Palmer-style beverage blended with ice.
In the app, select the drink and click “customize,” then choose “add blended” under the preparation method.
(NEW YORK) — Nestlé USA issued a voluntary recall of a “limited quantity” of its Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough “break and bake” Bar product due to the “potential presence of wood fragments,” the company said.
The announcement, issued Thursday and also posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration site, indicated that “a small number of consumers” reached out to the food company about the issue, and the recall was initiated out of “an abundance of caution.”
The specific batch codes consumers should look out for are 311457531K and 311557534K, the company said. If a consumer purchased cookie dough with either of those codes, they “should not prepare or consume the product and should return the product to the retailer where it was purchased for a replacement or refund,” Nestlé said.
No consumers have reported illness or injury related to the possible presence of wood fragments, the company added.
The cookie dough in question was produced in late April and distributed by U.S. retailers, according to Nestlé.
The company reiterated that the recall did not impact any other Nestlé Toll House products.
“We are confident that this is an isolated issue and we have taken action to address,” the company said.
(NEW YORK) — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Sunday that X owner Elon Musk “isn’t serious” about a potential cage match, adding that it’s “time to move on” from the much-hyped plans.
“If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me,” Zuckerberg added in a post on the Meta-owned social media network Threads.
Plans for a cage match between the billionaire entrepreneurs appeared to regain momentum one week prior when Zuckerberg said in a Threads post that he had suggested to Musk the date of Aug. 26 for the fight.
A day later, Musk said in a tweet that he may need surgery for his neck and back, adding that the “exact date is still in flux.”
Musk previously sent a text message to Zuckerberg requesting a practice fight in the mixed-martial arts training facility at Zuckerberg’s home, according to text messages posted on X by Walter Isaacson, the author of a forthcoming book on Musk.
In his Threads post on Sunday, Zuckerberg characterized the actions by Musk as part of an effort to delay a fight or avoid one altogether.
“Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead,” Zuckerberg said.
X, formerly known as Twitter, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Meta declined to comment.
On Friday, Musk announced in a post that the fight would be broadcast on X and Meta and arrangements for the event would be organized jointly by foundations affiliated with Musk and Zuckerberg. The event was set to take place in Rome, Italy, Musk added.
“Everything in camera frame will be ancient Rome, so nothing modern at all,” Musk said. “Everything done will pay respect to the past and present of Italy.”
All proceeds from the event were set to go to charities in support of veterans, Musk said.
Such a competition would not be the first for Zuckerberg. In May, he won two medals in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament held at a high school in Silicon Valley.
In the text messages released by Isaacson, however, Musk acknowledged that he had “not been practicing much.”
The run-up to a hypothetical fight between the two has played out alongside a real-life competition waged by their near-identical social media platforms: Zuckerberg’s newly-launched Threads and Musk’s X.
Days after its launch last month, Threads reached 100 million users faster than any app ever created; user engagement, however, has fallen dramatically since the initial burst of enthusiasm, according to data firm SimilarWeb, which tracks social media use.
By the end of July, Threads retained just 8 million daily active users, down 82% from its peak, according to data from research firm Sensor Tower first reported by CNN.
By comparison, X boasted 238 million users before Musk took the company private in October, the company said in an earnings report last year.
Threads faces formidable obstacles to overtaking X despite a flurry of changes imposed by Musk over the past year that have sent some users looking for an alternative, analysts previously told ABC News.
Still, Threads benefits from an army of potential users and the deep pockets afforded by parent company Meta, which also owns platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. If any platform can overtake X, experts said, Threads may very well stand the best chance.
Over the weeks since a cage match was proposed earlier this summer, Zuckerberg has offered regular updates about the possible fight on Threads, where he boasts 3.3 million followers.
“Not holding my breath for Elon, but I’ll share details on my next fight when I’m ready,” Musk said in a post on Saturday.
The following day, Zuckerberg added in a Threads post, “I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.”
(NEW YORK) — Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has had his bail revoked and he has been immediately remanded to custody of the U.S. Marshals.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made the ruling to send Bankman-Fried to jail during a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in New York City. Bankman-Fried’s attorneys shortly filed a notice of appeal of the judge’s decision to revoke his bail.
Federal prosecutors argued in a recent court filing that Bankman-Fried deserves to have his bail revoked and to be detained before he is tried for fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from the collapse of FTX.
Prosecutors balked at Bankman-Fried sharing with The New York Times excerpts from the personal documents of Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend, who led his Alameda Research hedge fund and who has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate.
Bankman-Fried considered those private writings of Ellison “detrimental to her” and accused him of sharing them with the newspaper “in order to affect the public’s perception of her,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of witness tampering.
“The record here establishes that the defendant went beyond benignly exercising a constitutional right to speak to the press — he took covert steps intended to improperly discredit a trial witness and taint the jury pool,” prosecutors said. “[T]he Government seeks the only appropriate relief consistent with the defendant’s escalating evasions of his bail conditions: that bail be revoked and the defendant be detained pending trial.”
The 31-year-old was initially released in December 2022 on a $250 million personal recognizance bond signed by his parents and secured by their Palo Alto, California, home. A prosecutor called it the largest pretrial bond ever.
Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to 13 charges, including fraud, conspiracy and bribery, after federal prosecutors said he misappropriated billions of dollars from FTX before it went bankrupt. Prosecutors allege he used the money to cover losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research, to buy lavish real estate and to make political donations.
A campaign finance charge against him was dropped after officials in the Bahamas, where Bankman-Fried was arrested, said they had not agreed to extradite him based on that count.
In a letter to the judge this week, however, prosecutors said they intend to file a superseding indictment next week that will seek to incorporate Bankman-Fried’s alleged campaign finance scheme into seven other existing charges.
The trial is scheduled for October.
Ellison pleaded guilty in December to two counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to court documents.
(NEW YORK) — Fearless Fund, a venture capitalist firm that invests in female entrepreneurs of color, is now the target of a lawsuit launched by a group founded by the man who led the fight to take down affirmative action in higher education.
“When we set out to start we had one clear vision in mind, and that was to change the game for women of color,” said Ayana Parsons, the co-partner of Fearless Fund, which was founded in 2019. “Our rationale was simple. These women are the most founded, yet the least funded. They’re starting businesses at a much higher rate than any other demographic. Yet they lack access to capital, access to resources, access to networks,” she continued.
Representatives of Fearless Fund partners Parsons and Arian Simone told reporters Thursday during a press conference in Manhattan that the fund was established to address the wide gap in venture capital funding for businesses led by women of color “who confront barrier after barrier to obtain support and investments for their businesses.”
“They want us to pretend that inequalities do not exist. They want us to deny our history,” said Alphonso David, co-counsel of the Global Black Economic Forum. “Their cynical legal theory is based on a law that was passed in 1866 after the Civil War. A law that was created to allow Black people to enter into contracts, when they had been denied that ability for decades.”
Research from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found evidence of racial bias in the investment decisions of asset allocators.
“Of the $69.1 trillion global financial assets under management across mutual funds, hedge funds, real estate, and private equity, less than 1.3% are managed by women and people of color,” the study read.
The fund is being sued by the American Alliance for Equal Rights, whose founder Edward Blum also led the Students for Fair Admissions, the group that initiated the anti-affirmative action case that reached the Supreme Court.
The conservative group aimed to take down affirmative action, which was implemented to address racial inequities in access to higher education, alleging it violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The decision sided in part with Students for Fair Admissions, limiting how affirmative action can be used in higher education.
The recent lawsuit against Fearless Fund argues that the fund is “operating a racially discriminatory program that blatantly violates Section 1981’s guarantee of race neutrality.”
The Fearless Strivers Grant Contest hosted by the fund awards $20,000 grants to winning applicants. According to the lawsuit, the program states it is “open only to Black females.”
Section 1981 prohibits race discrimination in the making and enforcing of contracts. American Alliance for Equal Rights argues “the submission of an entry forms ‘a contract’ between Fearless Fund and the applicant,” according to the complaint.
ABC News has reached out to the American Alliance for Equal Rights for comment on the litigation.
Blum told TechCrunch+ that his group was contacted by a woman-owned business that sought to challenge the fund.
“The program being challenged is racially exclusive, thus violating our nation’s civil rights laws,” Blum told the news organization. “It is to be hoped that other programs like this one end these practices and offer the benefits to all small businesses regardless of the owner’s race.”
Fearless Fund partners are defending their work, pointing to the poor representation of women of color among venture capital recipients and the underlying bias that causes such inequity.
“Our vision is to promote a global society where marginalized and underrepresented communities are empowered with unbiased access to the resources and assistance that are critical to achieve business success,” the fund said in a statement to ABC News.
According to research and news organization Crunchbase, women received only 2.3% of venture capital funding in 2020. That number shrinks when it comes to women of color.
In 2021, Black women received less than .35% of the total venture capital spent in the U.S., according to a Crunchbase analysis.
The fund said it has worked with major corporate partners across many sectors.
(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — Zoom, whose sales and cultural prominence soared when the pandemic forced millions of workers to stay home, said last week that it plans to bring employees back to the office.
The San Jose, California-based company, which employs about 7,400 people, last week requested that all workers who live within 50 miles of an office come into work at least part of the time. The New York Times first reported on the policy change.
The adoption of in-office workdays at a company emblematic of remote work underscores the boomerang back toward the workplace that followed a mass exodus undertaken by white-collar workers in the early days and months of the pandemic, experts told ABC News.
Zoom’s decision to require workers to return to the office only part of the time, however, indicates the limits of the return-to-office migration, the experts added. Rather than return to their typical pre-pandemic schedule, many white-collar employers have settled into a mix of both in-office and remote work.
“It’s so ironic,” Joan Williams, a professor emeritus at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, and founding director of the school’s Center for WorkLife Law. “But, Zoom is not saying, ‘Come to the office five days a week.'”
“This is not a situation where people are going back to the pre-COVID status quo and they’re abolishing remote work,” Williams added. “People are trying to figure out what the new status quo is — and that’s more of a hybrid workforce.”
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, a Zoom spokesperson said in a statement that the company prefers a hybrid model that continues to make use of its teleconference technology.
“We believe that a structured hybrid approach — meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams — is most effective for Zoom,” the spokesperson said. “As a company, we are in a better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers.”
“We’ll continue to leverage the entire Zoom platform to keep our employees and dispersed teams connected and working efficiently. Additionally, we will continue to hire the best talent, regardless of location,” the spokesperson added.
When lockdowns forced people into their homes during the early months of the pandemic, remote work expanded dramatically, research shows.
Before the pandemic, 5% of paid work hours across the U.S. economy were spent at home; but between April and December of 2020, that share climbed to 50%, according to researchers at Stanford University, the University of Chicago and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México or ITAM.
While many white-collar workers initially took up full-time work from home, employers have gradually brought workers back into the office, at least for part of the time, experts said.
The momentum behind the shift toward hybrid work was “hugely accelerated” by the pandemic, Raj Choudhury, a professor of business administration at Harvard University Business School, told ABC News. In the view of many companies, it offers the “best of both worlds,” he added.
The approach provides workers with some of the flexibility that they prized during the pandemic but also affords an opportunity for the type of collaborative in-person work that companies value, Choudhury said.
As of last month, three of every 10 full-time employees in the U.S. operated with a hybrid work schedule, and an additional 12% were fully remote, researchers at Stanford University, the University of Chicago and ITAM found.
Meanwhile, the office occupancy rate in the nation’s 10 largest cities stands just below 50%, according to security company Kastle, which tracks entrance activity through key card use.
As companies have mandated that workers return to the office part of the time, some employees have mounted resistance. Hundreds of corporate employees at Amazon staged a walkout in June after the company announced a mandatory partial return to the office. At Zoom, employees voiced frustration at a virtual meeting after the hybrid policy was announced, the Times reported.
“Worker expectations have changed and if employers insist on more than a day or two in the office, they’ll sharply constrict the number of people who want that job,” Williams said. “If you think it’s more important to choose people based on schedule than talent, be my guest.”
Workers in recent years have derived leverage from a tight jobs market, which still boasts a near 50-year low unemployment rate, Ayelet Fishbach, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, told ABC News.
Plus, advancements in technology, like Zoom’s video-conference platform, have eased the way for a credible argument that workers can perform as effectively at home as they do in the office, Fishbach added.
“Speaking of Zoom,” Fishbach said. “Now we have the infrastructure and we take advantage of it.”
(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices rose 3.2% last month compared to a year ago, marking an uptick that reverses some of the progress achieved in the monthslong fight to bring inflation down to normal levels, government data showed. The data, however, outperformed economist expectations of a larger increase.
Inflation stands well below its peak last summer of over 9% but remains more than a percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate.
Core inflation — a measure that strips out volatile food and energy prices — rose 4.7% in July compared to a year ago, in part because price increases for commodities like new vehicles and housing stand above the overall inflation rate.
Consumer prices increased a modest 0.2% in July compared to the previous month, which matched the month-over-month inflation rate in June, according to the data released on Thursday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That reading suggests that the uptick recorded for the July data compared to a year ago arose in part from a decline in the inflation rate a year ago to which the fresh data was compared.
An increase in shelter prices accounted for more than 90% of the month-to-month price increases, the data showed. Food prices ticked up modestly in July compared to the previous month.
The price increases for some grocery store staples remain well above the overall inflation rate. The price of flour rose 8.5% in July compared to a year ago; while bread prices rose 9.5% and rice prices jumped 6.7% over that period.
Egg prices, by contrast, fell nearly 14% in July compared to a year ago, when a severe avian flu outbreak decimated supply.
Bacon prices dropped nearly 11% in July compared to a year ago, and chicken prices fell 2.5% over that period.
The fresh data arrived roughly two weeks after the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate another quarter of a percentage point, reviving its aggressive inflation fight despite a slowdown of price hikes.
By comparison, consumer prices rose 3% in June compared to a year ago.
The year-over-year inflation rate for July came in lower than economist expectations. Forecasters predicted a rise of 3.3% in July compared to a year ago.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C. late last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell downplayed the progress achieved so far in reducing inflation.
“Inflation has moderated somewhat since the middle of last year,” Powell said. “Nonetheless, the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go.”
The Fed remains open to raising rates again at its next meeting in September, depending on the economic data released over the months prior to that decision, Powell added.
For more than a year, the Federal Reserve has aimed to roll back price increases by slowing down the economy and slashing consumer demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the economy into a recession.
So far, the rate hikes appear to have slowed but not imperiled the nation’s economic growth.
Some key economic indicators have sustained robust performance. A jobs report on Friday showed the labor market cooled, but still grew solidly in July, adding 187,000 jobs.
In June, a major upward revision of government data showed gross domestic product increased at a 2% annualized rate for a three-month period ending in March — a sizable jump from the previous estimate of 1.3%.
The cooldown of inflation alongside resilient economic performance has given rise to optimism among some observers that the U.S. will avert a recession.
The Fed staff no longer forecasts a recession for the U.S., and there is a chance inflation could return to target without high job losses, Powell said in July.
Still, the Fed offered words of caution last month.
“The Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks,” the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed’s decision-making body on interest rates, said in a statement.
ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki and Ivan Pereira contributed reporting.
(NEW YORK) — Inflation data to be released on Thursday will show whether a monthslong cooldown of price increases continued in July.
The fresh data arrives roughly two weeks after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate another quarter of a percentage point, reviving its aggressive inflation fight despite a slowdown of price hikes.
Consumer prices rose 3% in June compared to a year ago, marking a significant slowdown from a peak last summer, but remaining at a level one percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate.
Economists expect that inflation will have increased to 3.3% in July compared to a year ago, marking an uptick from the preceding month and reversing some of the progress made in slowing price hikes.
Still, an inflation rate of 3.3% would stand well below the peak of 9.1% recorded in June 2022.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C. late last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell downplayed the progress achieved so far in reducing inflation.
“Inflation has moderated somewhat since the middle of last year,” Powell said. “Nonetheless, the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go.”
The Fed remains open to raising rates again at its next meeting in September, depending on the economic data released over the months prior to that decision, Powell added.
For more than a year, the Federal Reserve has aimed to roll back price increases by slowing down the economy and slashing consumer demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the economy into a recession.
So far, the rate hikes appear to have slowed but not imperiled the nation’s economic growth.
Some key economic indicators have sustained robust performance. A jobs report on Friday showed the labor market cooled, but still grew solidly in July, adding 187,000 jobs.
In June, a major upward revision of government data showed gross domestic product increased at a 2% annualized rate for a three-month period ending in March — a sizable jump from the previous estimate of 1.3%.
The cooldown of inflation alongside resilient economic performance has given rise to optimism among some observers that the U.S. will avert a recession.
The Fed staff no longer forecasts a recession for the U.S., and there is a chance inflation could return to target without high job losses, Powell said in July.
Still, the Fed offered words of caution last month.
“The Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks,” the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed’s decision-making body on interest rates, said in a statement.
ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki and Ivan Pereira contributed reporting.
