Sunday, August 30
A year ago, Mohammad Marwan found himself stumbling, barefoot and dazed, out of Syria's notorious Saydnaya prison on the outskirts of Damascus as rebel forces pushing toward the capital threw open its doors to release the prisoners. Arrested in 2018 for fleeing compulsory military service, the father of three had cycled through four other lockups before landing in Saydnaya, a sprawling complex just north of Damascus that became synonymous with some of the worst atrocities committed under the rule of now-ousted President Bashar Assad. He recalled guards waiting to welcome new prisoners with a gauntlet of beatings and electric shocks. "They said, 'You have no rights here, and we're not calling an ambulance unless we have a dead body,'" Marwan said. His Dec. 8, 2024, homecoming to a house ful
Beverages giant PepsiCo announced a review of its North America supply chain on Monday, and said it would aggressively reduce costs to drive growth after weeks of discussions with activist investor Elliott Investment Management. Elliott had disclosed a $4 billion stake in PepsiCo in September, and pushed the company to take several steps including refranchising or spinning off its bottling operations, as well as consider selling non-core assets in its food business. PepsiCo has lagged rival Coca-Cola over the past five years as consumers increasingly prefer healthier snacks and sodas, and have traded down to smaller pack sizes as inflation squeezed budgets. PepsiCo also said it would be making structural changes to its business, which would affect some U.S. and Canadian jobs in the company
ET Intelligence Group: Nephrocare Health Services, which operates dialysis care clinics, plans to raise ₹353.4 crore through a fresh issue to repay debt and fund capital expenditure. It will also raise ₹517.6 crore through an offer for sale. The promoter group's stake will fall to 66.7% after the IPO from 78.9%. It is the largest dialysis service provider in Asia and the fifth largest globally based on the number of treatments performed in FY25. However, it operates in a highly fragmented market with the unorganised segment that includes standalone private and government clinics, accounting for 80% of the total market. It has just started reporting profit from FY24 onwards and attrition in nephrologists has jumped in the past two years. Given these factors, investors may wait to see cl
