Party City shutters after nearly 40 years, firing workers without severance pay

The party is over at Party City, once the largest supplier of balloons and other fun-time supplies in the US, as the company announced Friday it was closing down all of its stores, ending nearly 40 years in business.Barry Litwin, the Party City CEO, told employees that the chain was “winding down” operations immediately and that today would be their last day of employment.Staff were told they would not receive severance pay, and they were told their benefits would end as the company goes out of business, CNN reported.Litwin said the company’s “very best efforts have not been enough to overcome” its financial challenges that had included inflation that had contributed to higher costs and dragged on consumer spending.The abrupt end comes just four months after Litwin was appointed CEO of the New Jersey-based company

FTSE 100 share index records biggest weekly loss in a year, as US shutdown fears hit markets – as it happened

London’s stock market is sliding this morning, as investors worry that the US government could shut down tonight in a spending row.The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares has dropped by 55 points, or 0.7%, to 8050 points, with banks among the big fallers.That means the FTSE 100 has lost 3% of its value this week, the worst weekly drop since August 2023.European stock markets are also in the red, with Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 both down 1

US judge finds Pegasus spyware maker liable over WhatsApp hack

WhatsApp claimed legal victory over the maker of Pegasus spyware late on Friday.The Israeli company, NSO Group Technologies, was accused in a lawsuit by Meta’s messaging app of infecting and surveilling the phones of 1,400 people over a two-week period in May 2019 via its notorious Pegasus software.The judge in the case, Phyllis Hamilton, found the company had violated state and federal US hacking laws as well as WhatsApp’s own terms of service.NSO Group will face a separate jury trial in March 2025 to determine the damages it owes WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging service.WhatsApp said in a statement: “After five years of litigation, we’re grateful for today’s decision

Workers in Saudi Arabia say Amazon failed to compensate them for labor abuses: ‘They played a game against me’

Thirty-three of 44 current and former contract workers who paid large recruiting fees say they didn’t receive refunds after working within the company’s Saudi operations In February, one of the world’s richest employers, Amazon, announced it had refunded nearly $2m to more than 700 overseas workers who had been forced to pay big recruiting fees to get work at the company’s warehouses in Saudi Arabia.It was a rare win for migrant laborers, a class of vulnerable workers who are often targeted for deceptive recruiting tactics and other abuses. One Nepali laborer said he was so shocked when a refund from Amazon appeared in his bank account that he stayed up much of the night, rechecking his account balance on his phone.But not all of the migrants who had worked for Amazon in Saudi Arabia are happy with the online retailer’s efforts to make things right. Many say they never got any reimbursement from the company

Michael van Gerwen promises ‘more to come’ after fast start at PDC worlds

Michael van Gerwen began his bid for a fourth PDC world title with a comfortable 3-0 victory against England’s James Hurrell.Van Gerwen, champion in 2014, 2017 and 2019, has struggled for form of late and not won a major televised tournament this year. But the Dutchman eased past Hurrell, who beat Jim Long on his world championship debut on Tuesday, in winning each set 3-1.“I think I played OK, of course like everyone knows it’s been a tough year for me,” Van Gerwen, the No 3 seed, told Sky Sports after his second-round victory. “To stand up here and do the thing you want to do always takes a lot of energy

Tyson Fury weighs in with war cry at 50lb more than Oleksandr Usyk

Tyson Fury will weigh at least 50lb more than Oleksandr Usyk when the two men fight for the world heavyweight championship in Riyadh. At the official weigh-in on Friday night, Fury scaled 281lb while wearing all his clothes, including a heavy black leather jacket to keep him warm in the biting December cold. Usyk, the defending champion, weighed 226lb after removing only his tracksuit top.The 55lb weight discrepancy will be slightly reduced in the ring – but it is striking that Fury weighed 19lb more than he did on the scales before their first fight in May. Usyk was just 3lb heavier than last time and, once he has stripped down to his boxing trunks and boots, he will be very close to the exact weight he was when he became the undisputed world heavyweight champion after he defeated Fury in an extraordinary and very close fight