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Reactions to president-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation promise
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Aga Khan emerald, world’s most expensive green stone, fetches record $9 million at auction
A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
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Kraft Heinz removes Lunchables from school meals program
Kraft Heinz is pulling Lunchables — prepackaged boxes of deli meat, cheese and crackers — from the program that provides free and discounted meals to about 30 million low-income school children, the food conglomerate said on Tuesday.
Consumer Reports applauded the move, months after the advocacy group sounded alarms about the product popular with kids, saying its tests found troubling levels of lead and sodium in them.
“Lunchables and other lunch kits with concerning levels of sodium and harmful chemicals have no place on the school lunch menu,” Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, stated on Tuesday. “We’re pleased that Heinz Kraft has pulled Lunchables from the school lunch program after lower than expected demand from school districts across the country.”
In an Oct. 30 earnings call, Kraft Heinz CEO Carlos Abrams-Rivera called Lunchables a “very important” part of the company’s business, while noting what he described as “misleading” negative publicity regarding the product.
Kraft Heinz changed two of its Lunchables — Turkey & Cheddar Cracker Stackers and Extra Cheesy Pizza Lunchables — to qualify for the USDA-run program. Sales of those two products were less than 1% of overall Lunchables sales, so the business impact is negligible, according to the company.
In a statement emailed to CBS MoneyWatch, Kraft Heinz said demand for Lunchables from school districts across the country did not meet its targets. “Lunchables products are not available in schools this year, and we hope to revisit at a future date,” the company said.