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Alexey Navalny’s team confirms the death of Putin critic; says his mother is searching for his body
Alexey Navalny’s spokesperson confirmed Saturday that the Russian opposition leader had died at a remote Arctic penal colony and said he was “murdered,” but it is unclear where his body is.
An official note handed to Navalny’s mother stated that he died at 2:17 p.m. local time Friday, Kira Yarmysh said. She added that an employee of the prison colony said that Navalny’s body was taken to the nearby city of Salekhard as part of a probe into his death. She demanded that his body be handed over to his family.
When a lawyer and Navalny’s mother visited the morgue in Salekhard, it was closed, Navalny’s team said, writing on their Telegram channel. The lawyer called the morgue and was told that Navalny’s body is not there, his team said.
“We demand that Alexey Navalny’s body be handed over to his family immediately,” Yarmysh wrote on X, previously Twitter. The cause and the circumstances of Navalny’s death Friday remain largely unclear.
Dmitri Lovetsky / AP
Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported that Navalny felt sick after a walk and became unconscious at the penal colony in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow. An ambulance arrived, but he couldn’t be revived. The cause of death is still “being established,” it said.
Maria Pevchikh, head of the board of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said that the opposition leader would “live on forever in millions of hearts.”
“Navalny was murdered. We still don’t know how we’ll keep on living, but together, we’ll think of something,” she wrote on X.
Arrests continued Saturday after more than 100 people were detained in various Russian cities Friday when they came to lay flowers in memory of Navalny at memorials to the victims of Soviet-era purges, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political repression in Russia.
The tributes were removed overnight, but people continued trickling in with flowers on Saturday. In Moscow, a large group of people chanted “shame” as police dragged a screaming woman from the crowd, video shared on social media showed.
More than 10 people were detained at a memorial in St. Petersburg, including a priest who came to conduct a service for Navalny there.
In other cities across the country, police cordoned off some of the memorials and officers were taking pictures of those who came and writing down their personal data in a clear intimidation attempt.
AP
Navalny had been jailed since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow to face certain arrest after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. He was later convicted three times, saying each case was politically motivated, and received a sentence of 19 years for extremism.
After the last verdict, Navalny said he understood he was “serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of life of this regime.”
The news of Navalny’s death comes less than a month before an election that will give President Vladimir Putin another six years in power.
It shows “that the sentence in Russia now for opposition is not merely imprisonment, but death,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus and senior fellow for Russia & Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
Hours after Navalny’s death was reported, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, made a dramatic appearance at a security conference in Germany where many world leaders had gathered.
She said she was unsure if she could believe the news from official Russian sources, “but if this is true, I want Putin and everyone around Putin, Putin’s friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family and to my husband.”
U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington doesn’t know exactly what happened, “but there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something Putin and his thugs did.”
The Kremlin bristled at the outpouring of anger from world leaders, with Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov as “inadmissible and outrageous,” noting that medics haven’t issued their verdict on the cause of Navalny’s death.
A U.S. District judge has halted the merger between the makers of Coach and Michael Kors handbags, saying it would reduce competition and hurt consumers.
In her ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon noted that Tapestry Inc. and Capri Holdings are “close competitors” and that the merger would result in “the loss of head-to-head competition” and raise prices for shoppers.
The decision followed seven days of testimony.
In after hours trading shares of Capri fell more than 50% while shares of Tapestry rose 12%.
The ruling came six months after the FTC sued to block Tapestry’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Capri, saying that the deal would eliminate direct competition between the fashion companies’ brands like Coach and Michael Kors in the so-called affordable luxury handbag arena.
The agency also said that the deal announced in August 2023 threatens to eliminate the incentive for the two companies to vie for employees and could depress employees’ wages and workplace benefits. The combined Tapestry and Capri would employ roughly 33,000 people worldwide, the agency said.
The two companies’ brands cover a wide array of items from clothing to eyewear to shoes. Tapestry has been on an acquisition binge for the past several years, and already owns Kate Spade New York, Stuart Weitzman and Coach. Capri owns the Versace, Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo brands.
Specifically, Tapestry’s Coach and Kate Spade brands and Capri’s Michael Kors brand are close rivals in the handbag market. The FTC had said that they continuously monitor each other’s handbag brands to determine pricing and performance, and they each use that information to make strategic decisions, including whether to raise or reduce handbag prices.
Tapestry said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press on Thursday that the decision granting the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction was “disappointing” and “incorrect on the law and the facts.”
“Tapestry and Capri operate in an industry that is intensely competitive and dynamic, constantly expanding, and highly fragmented among both established players and new entrants,'” Tapestry said in a statement. “We face competitive pressures from both lower- and higher-priced products and continue to believe this transaction is pro-competitive and pro-consumer. “
The company said it intends to appeal the decision, consistent with its obligations under the merger agreement.
Capri could not be immediately reached for comment.
Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a published note that the blocking of Tapestry’s acquisition of Capri will come as a blow to both companies.
“For Tapestry, it puts an end to the goal of becoming a bigger house of brands, and it leaves its plans for future growth in tatters,” he said. He noted that in a slower market, Tapestry will now need to rely on pushing its existing brands harder, which he believes will be challenging. He noted that the group could, in time, also look to make smaller acquisitions.
The ruling leaves Capri “in poor shape and, in betting on being acquired, has neglected the hard work that needs to be done to course correct many of its weak brands,” Saunders said.
Capri will either need to find another party to buy it or it will have to embark on a major reinvention plan, he said.
Costco is recalling packages of salmon over concerns they could be contaminated with listeria.
Acme Smoked Fish Corp, the shopping club’s salmon provider, sent a notice to Costco shoppers this week informing them of the recall of Kirkland Signature Smoked Salmon, due to potential contamination with listeria monocytogenes bacteria.
The notice was sent to customers who Costco records show purchased affected fish products between October 9-13. Only packages from lot number 8512801270 are affected.
Customers who purchased the recalled salmon are instructed not to eat it and to return it to a Costco store for a full refund.
“We regret this unfortunate incident and have taken immediate corrective steps to ensure that this issue never happens again,” Acme Smoked Fish Corp. CEO Eduardo Carbajosa said.
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Biden administration rolls out new student debt plan, this time aimed at people with big debts
The Biden administration’s efforts to erase student debt for the 46 million Americans who are carrying college loans have repeatedly hit legal roadblocks. Now, the Department of Education is rolling out a new plan that could provide debt relief to 8 million borrowers who are suffering from financial hardships.
The new plan, unveiled Friday, would provide loan relief for approximately 8 million people with student loans who are suffering financial distress caused by other debts, ranging from medical expenses to costs due to a natural disaster. The Education Department said the proposed rules will be published in the Federal Register in the next few weeks, and that it expects to finalize the regulations in 2025.
President Joe Biden made delivering debt relief to people with student loans a key policy issue of his 2020 campaign, but Republican-led states have sued to block many of those efforts, while the Supreme Court in 2023 ruled 6-3 against his plan to erase up to $20,000 in debt for millions of borrowers.
At the same time, Americans are holding more than $1.7 trillion in student loans, a debt load that has impaired their ability to save or buy a home, among other issues.
“For far too long, our student loan system has made it too difficult for borrowers experiencing hardships, often financial hardships, to access relief,” Education Department Miguel Cardona said on a call with reporters. “It’s not fair, it’s not right and it’s not who we are as Americans.”
How people would get relief
Under the proposal, there would be two ways borrowers could qualify for the debt relief. Some people with student loans could receive forgiveness without an application, with the Education Secretary providing one-time relief to borrowers whom the agency determines have an 80% chance of being in default within two years, Cardona said.
“A big reason why we’re fighting for student debt relief is to address the more than 1 million defaults we see annually in the student loan system,” he said.
The second pathway for loan relief would provide forgiveness after borrowers fill out an application, with the department assessing 17 factors such as the applicant’s overall debt balance, household income, and whether their student loan payments are keeping them from affording basics like housing or health care.
“Financing a college education is supposed to help students climb the economic ladder, not leave them buried in a ditch,” Cardona said.
