According to AP, Coke said Monday it paid $5.6 billion for the remaining 85% of BodyArmor. Coke originally bought a 15% stake in the BodyArmor in 2018.
Coke confirmed that BodyArmor is its largest-ever brand acquisition. The deal is part of a multiyear effort at Coke to move beyond sugary soft drinks and into other categories like juices, enhanced waters and sports drinks. Coke bought the Fairlife milk brand in 2020 and Costa coffee in 2019.
BodyArmor was founded a decade ago by Lance Collins, the founder of Fuze Beverage, and Mike Repole, who started the Smartwater and Vitaminwater brands. Coke also bought Fuze and Repole’s company __ Energy Brands __ in 2007.
Basketball star Kobe Bryant was an early investor in BodyArmor, becoming its third-largest shareholder and a member of its board in 2013.
In a statement Monday, Repole credited Bryant __ who died in a 2020 helicopter crash __ with the brand’s growth. Coke announced the acquisition at 8:24 a.m. EDT Monday to honor Bryant, who wore the jersey numbers eight and 24 in his NBA career.
Bryant’s estate stands to gain $400 million from the BodyArmor sale, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing anonymous sources. Coke and BodyArmor would not confirm that amount.
With Coke’s 2018 investment, BodyArmor gained access to the company’s sprawling distribution network and sales skyrocketed.
BodyArmor had the third-highest market share in the U.S. sports drink category in 2020, with 9.3%, according to Euromonitor. PepsiCo’s Gatorade, the market leader, controlled 68%, while Coke’s Powerade brand was second with 14%.
The Philippines’ Cinderella “Cindy” Faye Obenita was crowned Miss Intercontinental 2021 on Friday (early Saturday in Manila) in Egypt.
The 25-year-old government employee, host, and model from Cagayan De Oro, Misamis Oriental, competed against 70 candidates in the competition held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc. (BPCI) congratulated Obenita, also Cagayan de Oro City native, for winning the Philippines’ second Miss Intercontinental crown.
Filipino-Australian beauty queen Karen Gallman was crowned Miss Intercontinental in January 2019.
“Stella Marquez Araneta and BPCI congratulate [Obenita] for bringing home the second Miss Intercontinental crown to the Philippines,” the organization said on social media.
The Cagayan de Oro City senior tourism officer was also proclaimed Miss InterContinental Asia. – Philippines Daily Inquirer/ANN
The five leading candidates for mayor include Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore, former Mayor Kasim Reed, council members Antonio Brown and Andre Dickens and attorney Sharon Gay.
The latest poll by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows the race for Atlanta mayor is a tossup, with Reed and Moore in a statistical dead heat and nearly 41% of likely voters still undecided.
The runoff election day for the races will occur Tuesday, Nov. 30. A runoff will occur if none of the candidates get more than 50% of the vote.
Voting in Georgia’s new election law
Under Georgia’s new voting law, voters will need to submit a driver’s license number, state ID number or other documentation when both requesting and returning absentee ballots.
Georgia’s voting law permits drop boxes if they’re located inside early voting locations, available only during in-person voting hours, and shut down when early voting ends the Friday before an election.
The new law bans distributing food and drinks to voters within 150 feet of the outer edge of a polling place or within 25 feet of any voter standing in line.
Poll workers can still install self-service water receptacles for voters waiting in line. Handing out water is a misdemeanor, amounting up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Only months after calling for a boycott of Major League Baseball, former President Donald Trump did the tomahawk chop with Atlanta Braves fans at Game 4 of the World Series on Saturday night.
Trump stood beside his wife, Melania, as he chopped away with fans before the game between the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros from a private suite.
Trump was expected to be joined by political allies, including U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker.
Trump released a statement in a mass email to his supporters Saturday about his planned World Series appearance:
“Looking forward to being at the World Series in Atlanta tonight. Thank you to the Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred, and Randy Levine of the New York Yankees, for the invite. Melania and I are looking forward to a wonderful evening watching two great teams!”
MLB denied making the invitation and said in a statement, “He requested to attend the game.”
Acordding to AP, Trump may have selected Atlanta in hopes of a more positive reception than he received in his last World Series appearance. When still in office, he was booed when he sat in the stands at Game 5 of the 2019 World Series between the Astros and Washington at Nationals Park.
The tens of thousands of Braves fans who gathered at Game 5 on Sunday night to witness their team’s first coronation in 26 years were subjected instead to a resurrection. An Astros team that had been invisible on offense for much of this World Series overcame a first-inning grand slam from Adam Duvall and a go-ahead third-inning solo homer from Freddie Freeman by cranking out one heartbreaking hit after another in a 9-5 victory that sends this Fall Classic back to Houston for Tuesday’s Game 6, with the Braves up 3-2.
The Astros won this one the hard way. They didn’t get a sterling start from Framber Valdez. They didn’t hit a home run. They had to explore the lengths of their lineup and their bench, getting production not just from a star like Carlos Correa, who knocked in a pair, but from totally unexpected places — most notably the three RBIs from catcher Martín Maldonado.
But the Astros did what they had to do. They became the first road team to beat the Braves in this postseason, and they avoided elimination. They still have a chance to become just the seventh team in 47 tries — and the first since the 2016 Cubs — to win it all after falling behind 3-1 in a best-of-seven World Series.
“We were down 3-0 last year [to the Rays in the American League Championship Series], we forced a Game 7,” Correa said. “Now we [were] down 3-1, why can’t we force a Game 7 again?”
Houston’s three-run fifth inning against a previously untouchable A.J. Minter stunted the celebratory atmosphere that had been built by the Braves’ tight wins in Games 3 and 4 and an early offensive eruption for Atlanta on this night.
Just six batters into the ballgame, the Braves went up 4-0 on the might of Duvall’s 377-foot grand slam over the high right-field wall. Valdez had shakily surrendered two singles and a walk to load the bases, and Duvall, one of the many in-season acquisitions who had allowed Atlanta to overcome the absence of Ronald Acuña Jr. and reach this stage, made him pay.
For the second straight game, they faced a Braves starter unknown to them and pretty much anybody, with Tucker Davidson getting an assignment like the one given to fellow fresh face Dylan Lee a day earlier. The Astros got to Davidson in the second by putting two aboard for the struggling Alex Bregman, who had been moved down to the seventh spot in the batting order but delivered an RBI double to right-center. Maldonado followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2.
Facing Drew Smyly, the Astros padded their lead in the seventh (when Tucker doubled and Maldonado struck yet again with an RBI single) and again in the eighth (when Altuve singled, stole second and scored on a Correa’s second RBI hit).
Pope Francis meets South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-Sook at the Vatican, October 29, 2021. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERS
(Reuters) – South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Pope Francis on Friday, giving him a cross made from barbed wire from the peninsula’s demilitarized zone and again urging him to visit North Korea on Oct29,2021.
Moon, who is Catholic, was in Rome for the G20 summit of world leaders. He held private talks with the pope for about 25 minutes, the Vatican said.
Moon’s office said the president, who will leave office in May, had told Francis that a papal visit to Pyongyang would help revive the peace process on the Korean Peninsula.
“If you send me an invitation, I will gladly go to help you, for the sake of peace. Aren’t you brothers who speak the same language? I’m willing to go,” it quoted the pope as saying.
The Vatican said in a statement that the two sides discussed “the promotion of dialogue and reconciliation between Koreans” and the hope that “joint effort and good will may favour peace and development in the Korean peninsula, supported by solidarity and by fraternity”.
When he met the pope in 2018, Moon relayed a verbal invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Francis for the pontiff to visit North Korea.Report ad
Vatican officials said at the time that the pope, who has made many appeals for rapprochement between the two Koreas, would consider such a trip under certain conditions if it could help the cause of peace.
North Korea’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion as long as it does not undermine the state.
But beyond a handful of state-controlled places of worship – including a Catholic church in the capital Pyongyang – no open religious activity is allowed and the authorities have repeatedly jailed foreign missionaries.
There is little information on how many of North Korea’s citizens are Catholic, or how they practice their faith.
Negotiations between Pyongyang, Washington and Seoul aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes have been stalled amid efforts by both Koreas to develop increasingly sophisticated weapons.
North Korea last week confirmed it test-fired a new, smaller ballistic missile from a submarine.
It’s been a couple of years since world leaders including President Moon, S.Korea, have been able to get together at the G-20. And like most gatherings since the COVID-19 pandemic started, there were some awkward moments in Rome on Saturday as people tried to figure out when they should wear masks, whether to shake hands, and how close they should get to each other.
President Moon met Pope dated on 29th, and urged him to visit North Korea, Pop said “”If you send me an invitation, I will gladly go to help you, for the sake of peace. Aren’t you brothers who speak the same language? I’m willing to go,” it quoted the pope as saying.
According to the NPR, Each leader walked down the red carpet into La Nuvola, the convention center named after a cloud-like structure floating inside of it, toward Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Canada’s Justin Trudeau bowed slightly from his waist as he greeted the host. India’s Narendra Modi went in a for a hug. Germany’s Angela Merkel stuck with a fist bump. Argentine President Alberto Fernandez forgot to take off his mask for the photo, until Draghi nudged him.
Draghi invited a group of first responders in white lab coats and uniforms to join the traditional “family photo” that takes place at the beginning of each summit — a symbol of the central issue that the leaders will be addressing.
“I’d like to say that it’s great to see you, all of you here, after a difficult few years for the global community. The pandemic has kept us apart, as it did with all our citizens,” Draghi told the other leaders before cameras were shooed out of the room.
“We can finally look at the future with great — or with some — optimism,” he said.
President Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson talk prior to the opening session of the G-20 summit.Brendan Smialowski/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The G-20 leaders are poised to formally endorse a new global minimum tax of 15% on corporations — a move aimed at cracking down on tax havens.
For the United States, the White House estimates this could bring $60 billion in revenues per year, and it’s part of what Biden and Democrats hope will help pay for new spending on social programs and climate measures.
A senior administration official said Biden told leaders at the summit that “while we don’t see eye to eye on every issue, we can tackle shared interests.”
Not everyone made the trip to Rome. China’s Xi Jinping isn’t traveling outside the country during COVID, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin didn’t leave home either.
Biden also met with Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the summit to talk about Iran’s nuclear program.
Thousands of activists are in Rome looking to bring attention to a number of issues including climate change and economic inequality.
Some climate protesters briefly staged a sit-in on the main route to the summit on Saturday, according to the New York Times.
Climate activists try to block traffic on a main road leading to La Nuvola, the convention center where the G-20 summit is taking place.Luca Bruno/AP
After the G-20 wraps up, Biden will head to the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, where he’s expected to press world leaders to commit to drastically cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
But that message will be complicated by the fact that Biden has been unable to pass significant climate legislation in the United States. Democrats scrapped one key proposal that would have fined power companies for continuing to use fossil fuels after the measure faced opposition from West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.
The Atlanta Braves are rolling out the red carpet for the first World Series games being held at Truist Park. It is getting a little Southern star power to help kick off the weekend in Atlanta.
Friday, Zac Brown, a life-long Braves fan and lead singer of a band with his namesake will perform the national anthem, likely wearing red along with tens of thousands of other Braves fans expected to attend Game Three. This is not the 43-year-old Georgia native’s first time performing at the 4-year-old stadium, his band was part of the 2018 post-game concert series.
The American Legion Steve Young Deer Post 143, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will present the nation’s colors as well as the EBCI tribal colors. The post is the first Native American post in the country and proudly honors all veterans both Tribal and American.
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – AUGUST 25: Lauren Alaina performs during the 14th Annual Academy Of Country Music Honors at Ryman Auditorium on August 25, 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for ACM)
Award-winning country singer and Georgia native Lauren Alaina will have the honor of singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” on Sunday. Alaina grew up a Braves fan watching games with her dad. She was excited to play at Truist Park in 2018 along with Jason Aldean, Hootie & the Blowfish, and Luke Combs and said she even got to meet Chipper Jones. She was spotted back at the park on the three-year anniversary of her performance earlier this year once again rooting on the Braves.
Game Three, Four, and Five will take place Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Truist Park in Atlanta. Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m.
According to a recent building permit application, Torch Restaurant will open at 64 3rd St NW.
The new concept will move into the existing 2,500-square foot space as is. Its predecessor was Apache Café, a popular club offering live music, open mic nights, DJs and simple soul food. According to Arts ATL, Apache left 3rd Street in 2019 due to rent increase and frustration with the dilapidated building. It has since reopened at 393 Marietta St NW.
Per the permit filing, Messay Negash is the lead architect on the project which has a projected construction cost of $50,000. Harold Singer of Atlanta-based Gibeon Consulting Group is agent for the property. The owner of the restaurant is listed as Berhane Tassaw.
According to that filing, Torch Restaurant will seat 53 guests. Operating hours will be 12 PM-12 AM on Sundays, 5 PM-12 AM Mondays thru Thursdays, and 5 PM-3 AM on Fridays and Saturdays.
