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A driver drove a car into a labor union demonstration in central Munich on Thursday, injuring 30 people including children, authorities said. Officials said it was believed to be an attack. The suspect, an Afghan asylum-seeker, was arrested. The incident follows a series of attacks involving immigrants in recent months that have pushed migration to the forefront of the campaign for Germanys Feb. 23 election. Participants in a demonstration by the service workers union ver.di were walking along a street at about 10:30 a.m. when the suspect’s Mini Cooper overtook a police vehicle following the gathering, accelerated and plowed into the back of the group, police said. Officers arrested the suspect after firing a shot at the car, deputy police chief Christian Huber said. Some of the victims sustained serious injuries. The car, with a battered front and a shattered windshield, was lifted onto a tow truck late Thursday afternoon after investigators inspected it among debris including shoes. The suspect was a 24-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker, police said. Bavarias state interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said said officials believe the protest was likely targeted at random. The state’s justice minister, Georg Eisenreich, said a prosecutors department that investigates extremism and terror was looking into the case. Police said the man, who they added lived in Munich and had a valid residence permit, was known to authorities from investigations in which he had been a witness because of a former job as a store detective. We feel with the victims, we are praying for the victims we hope very much that they all make it,” Bavarian governor Markus Söder told reporters at the scene. It is suspected to be an attack a lot points to that,” Söder added. Mayor Dieter Reiter said that children were among those injured. A string of recent attacks The Munich incident comes three weeks after a 2-year-old boy and a man were killed in a knife attack in Aschaffenburg, also in Bavaria. An Afghan whose asylum application was rejected was the suspect in that attack, which propelled migration to the center of the German election campaign. The Aschaffenburg attack followed knife attacks in Mannheim and Solingen last year in which the suspects were immigrants from Afghanistan and Syria, respectively in the latter case, also a rejected asylum-seeker who was supposed to have left the country. In the December Christmas market car ramming in Magdeburg, the suspect was a Saudi doctor who previously had come to various regional authorities attention. Demands for political consequences Germany’s main opposition conservative bloc, in which Söder is a prominent figure, has demanded a tougher approach to irregular migration, calling for many more people to be turned back at the border and for an increase in deportations. Curbing migration is also a core issue for the far-right Alternative for Germany, which polls put in second place behind the conservatives. This is more evidence that we can’t go from attack to attack and show dismay, thank police for their deployment,” Söder said. This is not the first such act … We are determined that something must change in Germany, and quickly. Alternative for Germany’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, posted on social network X: Is this supposed to carry on forever? Migration turnaround now! Center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government said it already has done a lot to reduce irregular migration, and that the opposition’s plans are incompatible with German and European Union law. Scholz described the latest incident as a terrible attack. Anyone who commits crimes in Germany will not just be punished severely and have to go to prison, but must expect that he cannot continue his stay in Germany and that also goes for countries that it is very difficult to send people back to, he said. The chancellor noted that his government deported convicted criminals to Afghanistan on a flight in August and is working to do so again and not just once, but continually. Herrmann said the Munich suspect’s asylum application apparently had been rejected but it hadn’t been possible to deport him. The Bavarian capital will see heavy security in the coming days because the three-day Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of international foreign and security policy officials, opens on Friday. Herrmann said authorities do not believe the car ramming was connected to the conference, but they still need to determine the motive. Geir Moulson, Associated Press Stefanie Dazio contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
Denny’s Corporation (NASDAQ: DENN) told investors it is closing another 30 restaurants, for a total of 180 closures combined in 2024 and 2025, while reporting fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday. (It had previously said it would close a total of 150 locations.) The move is part of the restaurant chain’s plan to jumpstart its waning growth. Denny’s, like many fast-food and casual-dining chains, has been struggling in recent years due to inflation, changing customer habits, and skyrocketing food prices. It’s just one of many major chains to announce store closures recently, a list that includes TGI Fridays, Shake Shack, and Wendy’s as well. But Denny’s told Fast Company that, regarding the restaurants that will be closing, it is “unable to provide specific location information at this time.” Shares of Denny’s were down nearly 2% in midday trading Thursday and closed nearly 25% lower yesterday after it missed earnings expectations. Denny’s reported operating revenue of $114.7 million, down from $115.4 million last quarter; $52.4 million in sales, down from $54.0 million last quarter, and a net income of $6.8 million. Overall, Denny’s stock is down about 50% since a year ago. In its fourth-quarter-earnings release, the Spartanburg, South Carolina-based company said it closed 88 locations in 2024 and will shut another 70 to 90 locations in 2025. According to the company, many of the locations marked for closure are less profitable, have leases that are expiring, or are too old to be remodeled. However, some good news: Denny’s opened 14 franchised restaurants and renovated 23 locations last year. “We have made significant progress in our strategy to enhance the overall health of our flagship brand by accelerating the closure of lower-volume restaurants and completing 23 remodels, and also opened a record number of Kekes Cafes while expanding into six new states,” CEO Kelli Valade said in an earnings statement. “Looking ahead to 2025, there is still work to be done within our brands, particularly as we navigate near-term-consumer sentiment that has been affected by macroeconomic factors.
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E-Commerce
If any husbands or boyfriends mess up Valentine’s Day this week, it’s not because of a shortage of flowers. In the run up to Feb. 14, agricultural specialists at Miami International Airport have processed about 940 million stems of cut flowers, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Around 90% of the fresh cut flowers being sold for Valentine’s Day in the United States come through Miami, while the other 10% pass through Los Angeles. Roses, carnations, pompons, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums and gypsophila arrive on hundreds of flights, mostly from Colombia and Ecuador, to Miami on their journey to florists and supermarkets across the U.S. and Canada. Miami’s largest flower importer is Avianca Cargo, based in Medellín, Colombia. In the past three weeks, the company has transported about 18,000 tons of flowers on 300 full cargo flights, senior vice president Diogo Elias said during a news conference last week in Miami. We transport flowers all year round, but specifically during the Valentines season, we more than double our capacity because theres more than double the demand, Elias said. Flowers continue to make up one of the airport’s largest imports, Miami-Dade chief operation officer Jimmy Morales said. The airport received more than 3 million tons of cargo last year, with flowers accounting for nearly 400,000 tons, worth more than $1.6 billion. With 1,500 tons of flowers arriving daily, that equals 90,000 tons of flower imports worth $450 million just in January and February, Morales said. It’s a big job for CBP agriculture specialists, who check the bundles of flowers for potentially harmful plant, pest and foreign animal diseases from entering the country, MIA port director Daniel Alonso said. “Invasive species have caused $120 billion in annual economic and environmental losses to the United States, including the yield and quality losses for the American agriculture industry,” Alonso said. Colombia’s flower industry was recently looking at a possible 25% tariff, as President Donald Trump quarreled with the South American country’s leadership over accepting flights carrying deported immigrants. But the trade dispute came to a halt in late January, after Colombia agreed to allow the flights to land. Colombian President Gustavo Petro had previously rejected two Colombia-bound U.S. military aircrafts carrying migrants. Petro accused Trump of not treating immigrants with dignity during deportation and threatened to retaliate against the U.S. by slapping a 25% increase in Colombian tariffs on U.S. goods. Officials at Friday’s news conference declined to answer any questions about politics or tariffs. David Fischer, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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