Shopping on Temu can feel like playing an arcade game. Instead of using a joystick-controlled claw to grab a toy, visitors to the online marketplace maneuver their computer mouses or cellphone screens to browse colorful gadgets, accessories and trinkets with prices that look too good to refuse. A pop-up spinning wheel offers the chance to win a coupon. Rotating captions warn that a less than $2 camouflage print balaclava and a $1.23 skeleton hand back scratcher are “Almost sold out.” A flame symbol indicates a $9.69 plush cat print hoodie is selling fast. A timed-down selection of discounted items adds to the sense of urgency. Pages from the Shein website, left, and from the Temu site, right. Welcome to the new online world of impulse buying, a place of guilty pleasures where the selection is vast, every day is Cyber Monday, and an instant dopamine hit is always just a click away. By all accounts, we’re living in an accelerating age for consumerism, one that Temu, which is owned by the Chinese e-commerce company PDD Holdings, and Shein, its fierce rival , supercharged with social media savvy and an interminable assortment of cheap goods, most shipped directly from merchants in China based on real-time demand. The business models of the two platforms, coupled with avalanches of digital or influencer advertising, have enabled them to give Western retailers a run for their money this holiday shopping season. A Christmas tree ornament purchased on Temu. Software company Salesforce said it expects roughly one in five online purchases in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada to be made through four online marketplaces based or founded in Asia: Shein, Temu, TikTok Shop — the e-commerce arm of video-sharing platform TikTok — and AliExpress. Analysts with Salesforce said they are expected to pull in roughly $160 billion in global sales outside of China. Most of the sales will go to Temu and Shein, a privately held company which is thought to lead the worldwide fast fashion market in revenue. Lisa Xiaoli Neville, a nonprofit manager who lives in Los Angeles, is sold on Shein. The bedroom of her home is stocked with jeans, shoes, press-on nails and other items from the ultra-fast fashion retailer, all of which she amassed after getting on the platform to buy a $2 pair of earrings she saw in a Facebook ad. Neville, 46, estimates she spends at least $75 a month on products from Shein. A $2 eggshell opener, a portable apple peeler and an apple corer, both costing less than $5, are among the quirky, single-use kitchen tools taking up drawer space. She acknowledges she doesn’t need them because she “doesn’t even cook like that.” Plus, she’s allergic to apples. “I won’t eat apples. It will kill me,” Neville said, laughing. “But I still want the coring thing.” Shein, now based in Singapore, uses some of the same web design features as Temu’s, such as pop-up coupons and ads, to persuade shoppers to keep clicking, but it appears a bit more restrained in its approach. Shein primarily targets young women through partnerships with social media influencers. Searching the company's name on video platforms turns up creators promoting Shein's Black Friday sales event and displaying the dozens of of trendy clothes and accessories they got for comparatively little money. But the Shein-focused content also includes videos of TikTokers saying they're embarrassed to admit they shopped there and critics lashing out at fans for not taking into account the environmental harms or potential labor abuses associated with products that are churned out and shipped worldwide at a speedy pace. Neville has already picked out holiday gifts for family and friends from the site. Most of the products in her online cart cost under $10, including graphic T-shirts she intends to buy for her son and jeans and loafers for her daughter. All told, she plans to spend about $200 on gifts, significantly less than $500 she used to shell out at other stores in prior years. “The visuals just make you want to spend more money,” she said, referring to the clothes on Shein's site. “They're very cheap and everything is just so cute.” Unlike Shein, Temu's appeal cuts across age groups and gender. The platform is the world’s second most-visited online shopping site, software company Similarweb reported in September. Customers go there looking for practical items like doormats and silly products like a whiskey flask shaped like a vintage cellphone from the 1990s. Temu advertised Black Friday bargains for some items at upwards of 70% off the recommended retail price. Making a purchase can quickly result in receiving dozens of emails offering free giveaways. The caveat: customers have to buy more products. Despite their rise, Temu and Shein have proven particularly ripe for pushback. Last year, a coalition of unnamed brands and organizations launched a campaign to oppose Shein in Washington. U.S. lawmakers also have raised the possibility that Temu is allowing goods made with forced labor to enter the country. More recently, the Biden administration put forward rules that would crack down on a trade rule known as the de minimis exception, which has allowed a lot of cheap products to come into the U.S. duty-free. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to slap high tariffs on goods from China, a move that would likely raise prices across the retail world. Both Shein and Temu have set up warehouses in the U.S. to speed up delivery times and help them better compete with Amazon, which is trying to erode their price advantage through a new storefront that also ships products directly from China. 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The Darnold-Jefferson connection is thriving for the surging Vikingswashington — President Joe Biden on Monday announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump , an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings , including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities. The decision leaves three federal inmates to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. “I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement . “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.” Reaction was strong, both for and against. A Trump spokesperson called the decision “abhorrent.” “These are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones.” said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung. “President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he is back in the White House after he was elected with a massive mandate from the American people.” Heather Turner, whose mother was killed during the 2017 robbery of a Conway, South Carolina, bank, blasted the decision in a social media post, saying Biden didn’t consider the victims of these crimes. “The pain and trauma we have endured over the last 7 years has been indescribable,” Turner wrote on Facebook, describing weeks spent in court in search of justice as “now just a waste of time.” “Our judicial system is broken. Our government is a joke,” she said. “Joe Biden’s decision is a clear gross abuse of power. He, and his supporters, have blood on their hands.” Some of Roof’s victims supported Biden’s decision to leave him on death row. Michael Graham, whose sister Cynthia Hurd was killed by Roof, said Roof’s lack of remorse and simmering white nationalism in the U.S. means Roof is the kind of dangerous and evil person the death penalty is intended for. “This was a crime against a race of people who were doing something all Americans do on a Wednesday night — go to Bible study,” Graham said. “It didn’t matter who was there, only that they were Black.” The Biden administration in 2021 announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden’s term. But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings. While running for president in 2020, Biden’s campaign website said he would “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level , and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.” Similar language didn’t appear on Biden’s reelection website before he left the presidential race in July. “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden’s statement said. “But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president, and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.” He took a political jab at Trump, saying, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.” Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has spoken frequently of expanding executions. In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign , Trump called for those “caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.” He later promised to execute drug and human smugglers and even praised China’s harsher treatment of drug peddlers. During his first term as president, Trump also advocated for the death penalty for drug dealers . There were 13 federal executions during Trump’s first term, more than under any president in modern history, and some may have happened fast enough to have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus at the federal death row facility in Indiana. Those were the first federal executions since 2003. The final three occurred after Election Day in November 2020 but before Trump left office the following January, the first time federal prisoners were put to death by a lame-duck president since Grover Cleveland in 1889. Biden faced recent pressure from advocacy groups urging him to act to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The president’s announcement also comes less than two weeks after he commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and of 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes, the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The announcement also followed the post-election pardon that Biden granted his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges after long saying he would not issue one, sparking an uproar in Washington. The pardon also raised questions about whether he would issue sweeping preemptive pardons for administration officials and other allies who the White House worries could be unjustly targeted by Trump’s second administration. Speculation that Biden could commute federal death sentences intensified last week after the White House announced he plans to visit Italy on the final foreign trip of his presidency next month. Biden, a practicing Catholic, will meet with Pope Francis, who recently called for prayers for U.S. death row inmates in hopes their sentences will be commuted. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has long called for an end to the death penalty, said Biden’s decision is a “significant step in advancing the cause of human dignity in our nation” and moves the country “a step closer to building a culture of life.” Martin Luther King III, who publicly urged Biden to change the death sentences, said in a statement shared by the White House that the president “has done what no president before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness.” Madeline Cohen, an attorney for Norris Holder, who faced death for the 1997 fatal shooting of a guard during a bank robbery in St. Louis, said his case “exemplifies the racial bias and arbitrariness that led the President to commute federal death sentences,” Cohen said. Holder, who is Black, was sentenced by an all-white jury. Weissert reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Jim Salter in O’Fallon, Missouri, contributed to this report.
Pandora's Box: The Places of Worship Act and Its Contemporary Resonance
This afternoon, the Canadiens lost to the Rangers. Missed the game? My colleague Félix Forget has published an excellent complete summary of the game. I invite you to read it by clicking on the link here. But without burning the midnight oil, there’s one aspect of the game that caught the eye in particular: the work of the referees. The officials made some questionable decisions, and it hurt the Habs. Case in point? In the second period, Josh Anderson was sent off for roughing... When he clearly didn’t deserve to be in the dungeon. The Rangers took advantage, scoring on the powerplay. That said, it was at the end of the game that things really started to go wrong. Will Cuylle tripped Joel Armia and it was as obvious as day, but the officials decided not to crack down. The result? The Blue Shirts scored late in the game to run away with the win, with just over 20 seconds left to play: Before getting the primary pass on the Rangers’ winning goal, Will Cuylle tripped Joel Armia. It was obvious... But the officials today = pic.twitter.com/l2SvKoYyn0 – Maxime Truman (@MaximeTruman) November 30, 2024 After the game, Martin St-Louis went before the media... And let’s just say he wasn’t happy. His press conference lasted a minute and ten seconds. And he repeated the same sentence after every question, in both English and French: I loved our match. I won’t talk about the referees. – Martin St-Louis You could see the frustration in his face: “I loved our game. I won’t talk about the referees’ work.” Martin St-Louis’ answer to ALL reporters’ questions after the Habs – Rangers game pic.twitter.com/4HcG1Q8BQJ – RDS (@RDSca) November 30, 2024 It’s frustrating because there have been a few times when referees’ work has been the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons. And here, Martin St-Louis decided to send a message without necessarily saying much. In the end, the Habs were chased six times during the game and allowed three goals. The numerical disadvantage has to be better, especially against the offensive strength of a club like the Rangers... But at the same time, the Habs found themselves in this situation at least twice when they simply didn’t deserve it. That’s what pisses me off. And that’s why Martin St-Louis was angry after the game, which is normal. Overtime – That’s right. “The Josh we love!” – Guy Carbonneau pic.twitter.com/q52aHx4P4c – L’Antichambre (@Antichambre) November 30, 2024 – It’s far from bad. Lane Hutson officially gets the assist on the Nick Suzuki goal. He now has 13 points in 23 games. pic.twitter.com/3OkTZC8PdC – /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) November 30, 2024 – Happy reading. We wonder why they don’t spend. https://t.co/BWIHWf7so0 – Passion MLB (@passion_mlb) November 30, 2024 This article first appeared on Dose.ca and was syndicated with permission.There were two recent articles published, one titled “Corvallis looks to drum up millions for facilities project” (Dec. 19) and “Albany residents decry solutions that would usher in more affordable housing” (Dec. 21). I would like to provide a viewpoint of how these two issues are related. The Corvallis article basically details the quandary of how to fund a new city hall complex with a price tag of $189 million. It lists three options for funding the project: new revenue sources, expanding existing revenue and freeing up existing revenue. One important thing highlighted was identifying the revenue sources that do not require voter approval. This is important because it seems the city and some council members recognize that many in the community are not supportive of more taxes and fees. Missing from the discussion is how much revenue the city of Corvallis has lost in handing out 30-year property tax exemptions for affordable housing. More on that later. The article on Albany details the Dec. 11 City Council meeting where individuals like myself spoke opposed to both an excise tax on construction and a 20-year tax exemption for new affordable housing projects. While city staff can estimate how much money they would steal with a construction excise tax, they are unable to put a dollar figure on the lost revenue from a 20-year property tax exemption. The city has no idea how that future revenue shortfall would be made up. As an Albany resident and business owner, this greatly concerns me, as I believe it should concern every Albany taxpayer. Now here is the tie-in of these two issues. Corvallis previously enacted both a construction excise tax and 30-year property tax exemption to incentivize affordable housing. But as I warned back in December of 2022 , this scam is really creating “subsidized” housing and a future financial disaster. I estimated that a single project could cost the city $10 million to $15 million over 30 years in lost revenue. How ironic that Corvallis is now trying to figure out how to fund a new city hall. I question whether they even know how much revenue they have forfeited on projects with the 30-year property tax exemption. My warning to Albany was to not go down this same rabbit hole. The idea that Albany has to follow Corvallis’ lead and enact every tax and policy is absurd. Some people live in Albany because they cannot afford to live in Corvallis. Enacting the same policies, taxes and fees that increase the cost of housing in Albany is not beneficial to those coming to Albany in search of more affordable housing. We can disagree on the actual amount of lost revenue. The reality is there’s no cap on the number of projects that the city will give a property tax exemption to. Portland does not have an actual cost of the revenue they have lost on their 10-year property tax exemption for affordable housing, but it estimates it is between $129 million to $135 million on just the current projects. Past history in Albany reveals a city council that mostly rubber stamps every proposal that city staff present. This needs to change. Why is it that city employees (who are not elected) are able to decide which issues are socially pressing and then formulate their “solution” to said problem(s) with the result always involving more taxpayer money? This grows government and the need for more people to manage said programs. I hope this is a wakeup call because from what I see — the new affordability crisis is the cost of government. John Robinson Albany businessman John Robinson is a general contractor involved in residential remodeling and building activities. Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly!Miguel Tomley scores 28 to lead Weber State over Pepperdine 68-53 at Arizona Tip-Off