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Israel and Iran seemed to honor the fragile ceasefire between them for a second day Wednesday and U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that American and Iranian officials will talk next week, giving rise to cautious hope for longer-term peace.Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire that took hold Tuesday on the 12th day of the war, told reporters at a NATO summit that he was not particularly interested in restarting negotiations with Iran, insisting that U.S. strikes had destroyed its nuclear program. Earlier in the day, an Iranian official questioned whether the United States could be trusted after its weekend attack.“We may sign an agreement, I don’t know,” Trump said. “The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done.”Iran has not acknowledged any talks taking place next week, though U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries. A sixth round of U.S.-Iran negotiations was scheduled for earlier this month in Oman but was canceled after Israel attacked Iran.Earlier, Trump said the ceasefire was going “very well,” and added that Iran was “not going to have a bomb, and they’re not going to enrich.”Iran has insisted that it will not give up its nuclear program. In a vote underscoring the tough path ahead, its parliament agreed to fast-track a proposal that would effectively stop the country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. watchdog that has monitored the program for years.Ahead of the vote, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticized the IAEA for refusing “to even pretend to condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities” that the U.S. carried out Sunday.“For this reason, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran will suspend cooperation with the IAEA until security of nuclear facilities is ensured, and Iran’s peaceful nuclear program will move forward at a faster pace,” Qalibaf told lawmakers.IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he wrote to Iran to discuss resuming inspections of their nuclear facilities. Among other things, Iran claims to have moved its highly enriched uranium ahead of the U.S. strikes, and Grossi said his inspectors need to reassess the country’s stockpiles.“We need to return,” he said. “We need to engage.”French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped Tehran would come back to the table. France was part of the 2015 deal with Iran that restricted its nuclear program, but the agreement began unraveling after Trump pulled the U.S. out in his first term. Macron spoke multiple times to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during the war.International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi said Wednesday that Iran must quickly resume cooperation with international inspectors, telling French broadcaster France 2 that the IAEA had lost visibility over sensitive nuclear materials since the onset of hostilities.Grossi said Iran is legally obligated to cooperate with the IAEA under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.“During a war, inspections are not possible. But now that hostilities have ceased, and given the sensitivity of this material, I believe it is in everyone’s interest that we resume our activities as soon as possible,” he said.Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon.Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, which it has never acknowledged. Questions over effectiveness of the US strikes The Israel Atomic Energy Commission said its assessment was that the U.S. and Israeli strikes have “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.” It did not give evidence to back up its claim.The U.S. strikes hit three Iranian nuclear sites, which Trump said “completely and fully obliterated” the country’s nuclear program. When asked about a U.S. intelligence report that found Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months, Trump scoffed and said it would at least take years to rebuild.Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed that the strikes by American B-2 bombers using bunker-buster bombs had caused significant damage.“Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,” he told Al Jazeera on Wednesday, refusing to go into detail.He seemed to suggest Iran might not shut out IAEA inspectors for good, noting that the bill before parliament only talks of suspending work with the agency, not ending it. He also insisted Iran has the right to pursue a nuclear energy program.“Iran is determined to preserve that right under any circumstances,” he said.Witkoff said late Tuesday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” that Israel and the U.S. had achieved their objective with “the total destruction of the enrichment capacity” in Iran, and Iran’s prerequisite for talks that Israel end its campaign had been fulfilled.“The proof is in the pudding,” he said. “No one’s shooting at each other. It’s over.” Hopes for a long-term peace agreement An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the ceasefire agreement with Iran amounted to “quiet for quiet,” with no further understandings about Iran’s nuclear program going ahead.Witkoff told Fox News that Trump is now looking to land “a comprehensive peace agreement that goes beyond even the ceasefire.”“We’re already talking to each other, not just directly, but also through interlocutors,” Witkoff said, adding that the conversations were promising.However, Baghaei, the Iranian spokesman, said Washington had “torpedoed diplomacy” with its attacks on nuclear sites, and that while Iran in principle was always open to talks, national security was the priority.“We have to make sure whether the other parties are really serious when they’re talking about diplomacy, or is it again part of their tactics to make more problems for the region and for my country,” he said.Grossi said Iran and the international community should seize the opportunity of the ceasefire for a long-term diplomatic solution.“Out of the bad things that military conflict brings, there’s also now a possibility, an opening,” he said. “We shouldn’t miss that opportunity.” A rare video by Mossad Israel revealed details of the intelligence and covert operations that it said allowed the country to effectively target Iranian military commanders,nuclear scientists and key facilities.In a rare video released by Israel’s Mossad spy agency, chief David Barnea thanked the CIA for being a key partner, and his own agents for work over years to achieve what was “unimaginable at first.”“Thanks to accurate intelligence, advanced technologies and operational capabilities beyond imagination, we helped the air force strike the Iranian nuclear project, establish aerial superiority in Iranian skies and reduce the missile threat,” the agency said in a Facebook post alongside the video.Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the military chief of staff, asserted that commandos had operated secretly “deep inside enemy territory” during the war.Tehran on Tuesday put the death toll in Iran at 606, with 5,332 people wounded. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group released figures Wednesday suggesting Israeli strikes on Iran had killed at least 1,054 and wounded 4,476.The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, said 417 of those killed were civilians and 318 were security forces.At least 28 people were killed in Israel and more than 1,000 wounded, according to officials.In the past two weeks, Iran has executed six prisoners accused of spying for Israel, including three on Wednesday. Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, Chris Megerian and Sylvie Corbet in The Hague, Netherlands, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report. Jon Gambrell, David Rising and Farnoush Amiri, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Swedish fashion retailer H&M reported slightly stronger second-quarter profit on Thursday, an encouraging sign as CEO Daniel Erver tries to attract more shoppers with trendier clothes. H&M shares were up 4% by 1000 GMT as investors focused on the profit rather than second-quarter sales, which fell slightly more than predicted. Erver has said his focus is on profitability rather than solely sales growth. The world’s second-largest listed fashion retailer also said it expected sales in June, measured in local currencies, to rise 3%, an improvement after a 6% fall in the same period a year ago. “Our collections are more current, they are more on trend, more fashionable, and the customer reception has been strong throughout this quarter,” Erver said in a press conference. Erver said gingham and check patterned dresses, blouses and skirts have been especially popular this season, with the trend continuing into the autumn. Accessories sales have picked up, with social media also driving a craze for mini-accessories on bags, sneakers, and cellphones, he said. In the U.S., where H&M has around 500 stores, Erver said consumer sentiment has dropped significantly due to the “turbulent” tariffs situation since President Donald Trump hiked duties on imports, and competitors have started raising prices as a result. H&M, which sources its products primarily from China and Bangladesh, is focused on keeping prices competitive, Erver said, as consumers are particularly price-sensitive given uncertainty around the economy in the U.S. and globally. H&M’s sales were 56.7 billion Swedish crowns ($5.99 billion) in the March to May quarter, down from 59.6 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by LSEG had forecast revenue of 57.0 billion crowns. Zara owner Inditex earlier this month also reported disappointing sales, in a sign consumers are pulling back from spending on clothes as U.S. tariffs create risks for global economic growth. H&M’s second-quarter operating profit was 5.91 billion crowns, beating analysts’ forecast of 5.88 billion, and the operating profit margin was 10.4%, down from 11.9% a year ago but still better than analysts had feared. “The slightly better than expected margin delivery sends a positive signal to the market,” said Alphavalue analyst Jie Zhang. “The brand upgrading strategy has started to pay off.” H&M said its higher-priced brand COS had done especially well and shoppers are opting for more medium- and high-priced items across the board, helping to boost profitability. But Erver flagged more discounting in the June to August quarter as he said summer markdowns across the market were highly competitive. Even as it reduces store numbers globally, H&M is also searching for growth in new markets with a growing middle class, with plans to open its first stores in Brazil in the second half, as well as in El Salvador and Venezuela, and to launch in Paraguay next year. ($1 = 9.4635 Swedish crowns) Greta Rosen Fondahn and Helen Reid, Reuters
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E-Commerce
On Tuesday, New Yorkers lined up to cast their vote in the city’s Democratic primaries, hoping to elect its next mayoral candidate nominee. But while some turned to the polls, others took to election bettingand made thousands along the way. In the weeks before the election, the race seemed to be between two candidates: former governor Andrew Cuomo, who left office following sexual harassment allegations in 2021, and state assemblyman and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. As votes started to kick in on Tuesday for the first round of the ranked-choice election, the race seemed uncertain. Early polling showed Cuomo leading the way by at least a 12-point lead weeks before. Yet tides quickly shifted, with a recent Emerson poll showing a statistical tie between the candidates. As the votes were counted, Mamdani surged as the likely nominee with Cuomo conceding later in the night. But before that happened, the internet had already crowned its winner on the prediction market trading platform Kalshi, where U.S. users can bet on current events like yesterday’s elections. “Zohran had one of the most impressive runs we’ve ever seen on Kalshi,” Jack Such, business and media development lead at Kalshi, told Fast Company. “He was at 7% to win this earlier, less than a month ago.” What is election betting? Election betting is like betting on any other current events, positing the probability of one event happening over another. Still, it is a somewhat recent phenomenon. Kalshi operates like a stock market, with two parties on each side, some buying or selling sharesor bets in this case. Each “yes” or “no” contract is capped at $1 dollar, usually going between zero and 99 cents, with the price reflecting the probability of an event happening according the bets. Election betting gained notoriety during last year’s presidential election, bringing in upwards of $3.6 billion to Polymarket, another betting platform that supposedly does not allow U.S. users. While criticism surrounds the ethics of the practice, as some argue that it may commodify decision-making and it does not promote responsible participation, it seems as if it is poised to grow. Just a day after the New York election, Kalshi hit a $2 billion valuation following a recent funding round. Additionally, the live aspect of the projection is attracting the attention of users yearning for faster results. Kalshi’s projection showed Mamdani surpassing Cuomo as soon as 9 a.m. that morning. While the projection fluctuated during the day, the platform called the election in favor of Mamdani at 9:43 p.m. on social media, before Cuomo conceded. “People who just want to know who wins love the markets because they just work faster than anything else,” Such says. Kalshi calls a victory once one of the sides reaches 99 cents for at least 10 minutes. “It’s basically like a 99% confidence interval,” Such says. “It indicates that this market is going to resolve a certain way.” High returns For those who jumped on the election market and bet on Mamdani early, returns will prove financially beneficial should Mamdani become the Democratic nominee for mayor as expected. The best single trade for the market will see a payout of $85,650, as the trader bet $3,426 in favor of Mamdani when his probability to win was just 4%. Another user commented on the market saying, “I want to thank all the unimaginative centrists out there,” following his $41,099 payout. During the election, the market had a live voting count powered by Decision Desk HQ, showcasing voting results in real time for users to follow. However, not all bets are made solely based on polls and electoral results, Such explained. For instance, Kalshi reported that 71% of pro-Mamdani bets were placed by women users, echoing the popular “hot girls for Zohran” grassroots movement. “What makes prediction markets efficient is this ability to aggregate all the information that’s available,” Such says. “like polling data, but also everything else: sentiment, what your neighbors think, what your family thinks.”
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E-Commerce
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