One of the highlights of the summit was the keynote address by Amazon Global Selling executives, sharing their insights on the future of cross-border e-commerce and the opportunities available for sellers looking to reach customers around the world. The event also featured success stories from local Jiangsu sellers who have achieved remarkable growth through Amazon Global Selling, inspiring others to take their businesses to new heights.The "Mistaken Identity" series has garnered a dedicated fan base over the years, thanks to its gripping storytelling, compelling characters, and unexpected twists and turns. With each installment, the franchise has managed to push the boundaries of the thriller genre, keeping audiences on the edge of their seats from start to finish.
Macaulay Culkin has told his kids that he is working for Santa Claus in the North PoleBlueTriton — North America’s biggest bottled water firm — recently announced it will close Canada’s largest water bottling plant and its entire operations in Ontario. While the company gave no reasons for the move , its retreat is a strong indication of the changing fortunes of the bottled water industry, both domestically and globally. It also illustrates the growing effectiveness of social movements that have challenged bottled water , weakening the industry’s sales . As an environmental sociologist, my research explores social conflicts over water commodification. My current work focuses on bottled water and asks what its rapid growth means for the human right to water . Bottled water is the world’s most-consumed packaged beverage . It has grown rapidly into a USD$340 billion global market led by major food and beverage corporations. However, bottled water also has a host of negative environmental and social impacts. Read more: When communities face drinking-water crises, bottled water is a 'temporary' solution that often lasts years − and worsens inequality I am particularly interested in how the growth of the bottled water industry has generated diverse and surprisingly effective opposition movements. These movements fall into two broad categories. On one hand are campaigns challenging the industry’s groundwater extraction in specific places. On the other are efforts to reduce the consumption of single-use bottled water and increase access to public tap water. The exit from Ontario by BlueTriton — a private equity consortium that purchased Nestlé’s North American bottled water business in 2021 — is a clear victory for opponents that reflects the impact of both of these strands of opposition. Opposing bottling In 2000, the Swiss food and beverage giant Nestlé acquired a bottling plant in Aberfoyle, Ont. Included in the sale were two water wells and permits to extract 4.7 million litres of groundwater daily — the highest volume of water extraction rights of any bottler in the province. In 2016, the firm bought another well that would have allowed it to expand to 6.2 million litres per day. Ontario is dependent on sub-surface groundwater for nearly all its water uses, including municipal water supply. Opposition to Nestlé’s water extraction operations emerged when the grassroots advocacy group Water Watchers was established in 2007 and expanded when Save Our Water was founded in 2015. Their efforts were supported by national organizations including the Council of Canadians . Droughts in 2012 and 2016 highlighted tensions over the region’s finite groundwater. While residential water use was curtailed, Nestlé continued to pump largely unrestricted . This contrast enabled Nestlé’s opponents to effectively leverage the issue of water scarcity — and the prospect of future drinking water shortages — in their efforts . Nestlé countered that its water-taking volume was insignificant relative to total groundwater use. More recently, water advocates have collaborated with Indigenous activists and the traditional leadership of Six Nations of the Grand River Haudenosaunee First Nation . Only 17 per cent of residents on the Six Nations reserve are connected to safe drinking water, and two-thirds need to rely on packaged water . In this case, activists have framed Nestlé’s and BlueTriton’s water extraction as an issue of human rights , water injustice and land sovereignty . These campaigns attracted significant media attention, which — against the backdrop of the 2016 drought — made water bottling into a volatile political issue at the provincial level. An opinion poll (sponsored by opponents) found that 64 per cent of Ontario residents across party lines favoured ending groundwater extraction for commercial bottling entirely . Even Ontario’s Premier Kathleen Wynne criticized the industry in 2016 . The result was substantial policy change. Ontario’s government imposed a moratorium on new water-taking permits for commercial water bottlers and raised their extraction fees dramatically . These moves drew strong industry protest . Read more: How the bottled water industry is masking the global water crisis Even so, Doug Ford’s Conservative government extended the moratorium until 2021, when it announced a major groundwater policy revision . Among the reforms was a local veto over new large water-bottling operations , which doomed BlueTriton’s expansion to a third site. Similar campaigns have also helped to stop water bottling by these companies elsewhere, including California and Oregon . Reclaiming the tap Meanwhile, another set of movements has challenged bottled water from the consumer end. Initiatives to “reclaim the tap” involve municipalities , universities and other institutions banning bottled water sales on their premises. At the same time, activists have pressured local authorities to expand access to tap water by installing new filtered drinking fountains in public spaces, including airports . This has taken place alongside efforts to educate the public about tap water quality. These end-user strategies have also been energized by a growing awareness of the crisis of single-use plastic pollution . Roughly 600 billion single-use plastic beverage bottles are consumed and disposed of annually, of which packaged water represents the largest share . Canada is the epicentre of this phenomenon. Since 2008, Toronto , Montréal , Vancouver and dozens of smaller communities have banned government purchases of bottled water and its sale on public property. Most have also installed refilling stations and promoted tap water consumption. Hundreds of cities worldwide have followed suit. Similar policies have been passed in San Francisco , Los Angeles , New York , Berlin , Paris , Brussels , Munich and South Delhi, India . Some of these efforts are co-ordinated internationally. For example, the Blue Communities Project links more than 80 municipalities in eight countries that have enacted such policies. These initiatives have substantial reach. I estimate that nearly 14 million Canadians, and more than 200 million people worldwide, live in jurisdictions that have banned or restricted bottled water and expanded tap water access. Moreover, fewer Canadians are buying single-use bottled water and 85 per cent of households now frequently use refillable bottles . These shifting patterns are stoking demand for convenient places to fill those bottles, and initiatives including Refill and Blue W help users find the nearest free refill points. Stalling growth The cumulative impact of these governmental policies and the refilling movement is becoming apparent. After more than four decades of steady growth, the volume of bottled water consumed per person is now stagnant or falling across the Global North, including Canada , the United States , Germany , France and the European Union . Worldwide, per-capita consumption of packaged water is projected to flatline in coming years. Industry market analyses have expressed deep concern about this sea change. A Nestlé sustainability manager recently stated that: “The water bottle has in some ways become the mink coat or the pack of cigarettes. It’s socially not very acceptable to the young folks, and that scares me.” These factors influenced Nestlé’s 2021 decision to sell its North American bottled water business to BlueTriton. Its CEO attributed the move to falling sales and environmental opposition . Now, BlueTriton too appears to have scaled back in closing its Ontario operations, as it faces increased costs, heightened regulation, falling demand and an inability to expand. All of these adverse conditions are due at least in part to the efforts of opposition movements. This move, and the industry’s flagging fortunes, provide strong evidence that organized opposition and the public backlash against single-use plastic bottled water are having a major impact.
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UEFA Champions League Preview: Bayer Leverkusen vs. Inter Milan - Who's in Hotter Form?Get essential daily news for Fort Worth area Sign up to receive insightful, in-depth local stories today. 📩 A Fort Worth ISD committee tasked with supervising the district’s $1.2 billion bond program wants to double down on its oversight. During the committee’s most recent meeting, Isaac Manning, president and CEO of Trinity Works Fort Worth, was elected chairman, taking over from Libby Willis, an Oakhurst neighborhood community leader and historic preservation consultant. Manning, who’s served stints on previous district bond committees, doesn’t think this edition of the committee is doing enough. He proposed meeting more often, and encouraged district trustees to be more involved, especially considering how much will soon be spent on various projects. “I’m not sure how much of an impact we’re making with our volunteer time,” Manning told members Dec. 2. “I think we need to be able to be more engaged.” Made up of members recommended by trustees — including community leaders in sectors such as construction, financial management, land development, public agencies and parent leadership — the group meets quarterly. Often during those meetings, members are presented with progress on construction along with updated expenses related to the 2021 bond. Part of Manning’s frustration stems from previous meetings, in which not enough members were present to adopt amendments to the committee’s policies, or elect a new chair and vice chair. In his previous stints on 2007 and 2013 bond committees, reaching quorum was never an issue, Manning said. Members showed up, as did superintendents and trustees. Get essential daily news for the Fort Worth area. Sign up for insightful, in-depth stories — completely free. “They thought it was important,” Manning said. “And we weren’t wasting our time.” No Fort Worth ISD trustee was present during the committee’s December meeting, nor the October meeting that didn’t have a quorum. Interim Superintendent Karen Molinar attended the December meeting to address members’ questions and comments. As to why trustees haven’t been attending recent meetings, board President Roxanne Martinez said trustees receive regular updates from their representatives and may attend meetings as their schedules allow. “Each trustee has appointed and/or recommended representatives to serve on the Citizens’ Oversight Committee,” Martinez said. “The board appreciates the dedication, commitment and service of the members. In addition, the Board Facility Committee keeps board trustees updated on facility related issues.” The 2021 Citizens’ Oversight Committee was established by trustees in April 2022 with the purpose of assisting the district in maintaining the accountability and integrity of the bond program, which was narrowly approved by voters in November 2021 . So far, the district has allocated nearly $280 million spread out across 27 different projects. The district has paid nearly $119 million to date, leaving the district with $834.5 million left to spend. “Today as a community, we are at a tipping point,” Manning told trustees during an Oct. 22 Fort Worth ISD board meeting. “We still have options to let the master facilities plan process play out to give trustees options with data and community input.” Manning referenced the district’s facilities plan, which officials spent $2 million on to determine the long-range use of campuses. The plan and its preliminary findings, assembled by Alabama-based Hoar Program Management, were presented to trustees in May. In July, committee members received further updates from the firm, specifically in regard to middle school projects listed in the bond. “The volume of information was overwhelming and extremely disturbing,” Manning told trustees. “In layman’s terms, we are overbuilding by 99%.” Manning told trustees that based on what’s expressed within the bond, the district would renovate 17 middle schools for a post-construction capacity of 25,251 students. Hoar Program Management expects the number of students living within the attendance zones of those campuses to eventually fall to 12,709 students, he said. “The point is, you have a rare window of opportunity to hit the pause button and to get through the plan,” Manning said. “Look at the projects you are spending money on today, in light of the entire picture of what facilities the district will actually need to meet our students’ requirements.” As of the committee’s Dec. 2 meeting, seven projects had been put on strategic hold by the district. Eight projects are currently under construction, another four are preparing for construction to begin and five campuses are still in the design phase. One project, Rolling Hills Elementary School, has been completed. The new campus in Benbrook opened in 2023 and cost the district $58.7 million. Manning sees the district’s “window of opportunity” to adjust bond projects affected by declining enrollment closing by the first quarter of 2025. “You are projected to spend another $450 million (in the first quarter of 2025),” Manning told trustees. “At that point, you are done. You will have encumbered $860 million. It is game over.” The plan — and its findings — make what was initially approved for the bond look more and more suspect, Manning said. He recommended freezing spending on construction until the plan is complete and trustees have a full picture on where the bond money needs to go. “This is going to require lots of hard choices that have been kicked down the road for far too many years, but hard choices are what you as trustees were elected to make,” Manning said. In terms of dollars, trustees can approve the shifting of voter-approved funds from one project to another whenever they see fit , according to state law. The money doesn’t need to be spent exactly on what voters approved, as long as the funds go toward district facilities. District leaders have already shown a willingness to veer from what was originally proposed in the 2021 bond. Trustees approved a consolidation of McLean Sixth Grade and McLean Middle School, which is set to kick in for the 2028-29 school year. Originally, both campuses were set to receive renovations funded by bond dollars. Instead, $27.2 million was shifted from the McLean Sixth Grade project to support a new, expanded McLean Middle School after the facilities master plan found that enrollment at both McLean campuses had steadily declined since the 2018-19 school year, and isn’t expected to bounce back. Those efforts could be replicated across the district, as Fort Worth ISD officials held meetings earlier this year at Kirkpatrick Middle School and Morningside Middle School to discuss consolidation efforts within those school pyramids. Though trustees pulled those closures in late May following community concern, administrators continue to recognize the need to downsize the district to address declining enrollment. “We want to come up with some options to make the consolidation a lot more appealing for the community,” Molinar said in regard to the potential merger between Kirkpatrick and J.P. Elder middle schools. Judy Needham, a former Fort Worth ISD trustee who now serves on the oversight committee, asked Kellie Spencer, deputy superintendent of operations, when the district expects a decision regarding those projects. “Options are being discussed,” Spencer said, noting the district will continue to hold community campus meetings across the district. “I anticipate that sometime around March-ish, we’ll start to see recommendations forming.” While Willis, who now serves as vice chair, said on Dec. 3 that meeting more often as a committee is an option, she wanted to caution members in veering from the group’s initial responsibility. The district must avoid repeating previous mistakes that resulted in criminal fraud cases in 2004. “Remember why this committee started. People were convicted and went to prison for having wrongfully used the funds,” Willis said. “Initially, I would think there was a huge focus on the money. Our job is not to do the trustees’ job. Our job is to report.” Still, trustees must make the tough decisions, Manning said. Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @matthewsgroi1 . At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here . Related Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative for adhering to standards for ethical journalism . Republish This Story Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License . Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS). Do not copy stories straight from the front-end of our web-site. You are required to follow the guidelines and use the republication tool when you share our content. The republication tool generates the appropriate html code. You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. You can’t sell or syndicate our stories. Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization. If you use our stories in any other medium — for example, newsletters or other email campaigns — you must make it clear that the stories are from the Fort Worth Report. In all emails, link directly to the story at fortworthreport.org and not to your website. If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @FortWorthReport on Facebook and @FortWorthReport on Twitter. You have to credit Fort Worth Report. Please use “Author Name, Fort Worth Report” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Fort Worth Report” and include our website, fortworthreport.org . You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories. You can’t sell or syndicate our stories. You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection. Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization. If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @FortWorthReport on Facebook and @FortWorthReport on Twitter. by Matthew Sgroi, Fort Worth Report December 7, 2024
IsoEnergy Announces Voting Results from Special MeetingThe announcement of the FIFA annual best team lineup has once again sparked controversy among football fans and analysts worldwide. This year, the emergence of three key positions that have stirred up debate - goalkeeper, midfielder, and forward. With four players from Manchester City making the cut, while Real Madrid notching a few as well, the football world is buzzing with opinions and discussions.
7. Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea) - The German defender played a key role in Chelsea's Champions League triumph last season. Talks over a new contract have hit a roadblock, leading to speculation about Rudiger's potential departure from Stamford Bridge.
As we delve into the rental housing market of 2024, it becomes evident that there are notable shifts taking place across various cities. While rent prices have been on the rise in many metropolitan areas in recent years, there are some cities where we are now seeing a decline in rental rates. Let's take a closer look at some of these cities where rent decreases are being observed.
In conclusion, Zhang Meng's prenatal check-up encounter with Xiao Wu symbolizes the beauty of friendship, the power of companionship, and the overflowing happiness that comes from sharing life's milestones with a loved one. May their bond continue to inspire others to cherish their friendships, support each other through life's ups and downs, and embrace the joy that comes from being there for one another.
The popular mobile game "Fantasy Beast Palu" has recently rolled out a major update that has left many players scratching their heads in disbelief. One of the key features of the game, the ability to summon mythical creatures by throwing Pokeballs, has been completely removed. This move has sparked controversy and backlash within the gaming community, with many fans expressing their disappointment and frustration."National Prettiest" follows the story of a young talented musician, played by Yang Zi, who strives for success and love in the entertainment industry. With a strong female lead and a plot centered around ambition, dreams, and challenges faced by modern women, this drama promises to be a riveting and empowering watch for audiences.Furthermore, there is a growing consensus among experts that public awareness campaigns and educational initiatives are crucial in changing social attitudes and norms surrounding harassment in public transit. By promoting respect, empathy, and zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior, these campaigns can help create a safer and more inclusive environment for all passengers.