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Cava revenue beats estimates as Mediterranean chain reports double-digit same-store sales growth

Cava on Thursday reported better-than-expected sales in its latest fiscal quarter, shaking off the malaise the broader restaurant industry has felt as consumers have cut back on dining.

The Mediterranean chain said its same-store sales grew 10.8% in the three months that ended April 20, lifted by traffic growth of 7.5%. Analysts surveyed by StreetAccount were projecting same-store sales growth of 10.3%.

“When we look at our consumers in the quarter, we saw an increase in premium attachment on higher priced items, like our pita chips or amazing housemade juices. We also saw that our per person average continued to increase, and then when we look at our results, there’s positive traffic across all of our geographies, across all of our income cohorts, as well as the different formats of our restaurants and dayparts,” Chief Financial Officer Tricia Tolivar told CNBC.

She added that diners have been trading up from fast food and down from casual-dining restaurants into Cava’s bowls and pitas, a trend the company has seen for several quarters.

Elsewhere in the restaurant industry, companies have been reporting very different behavior from consumers, although many companies’ results did not include any time in April, when the industry’s sales and traffic performance improved.

Fast-casual rival Chipotle said its transactions fell 2.3% in the first quarter as consumers pulled back their spending in February, spooked by economic uncertainty. Sweetgreen reported its first quarterly same-store sales decline since it went public in 2021. McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said fast-food industry data showed both low- and middle-income consumers spending less. The burger giant said U.S. same-store sales declined 3.6% for the first quarter.

Despite the strong quarterly performance, Cava reiterated its same-store sales forecast, sticking with its projections of a 6% to 8% increase. The chain said last quarter that it is expecting slower growth in the back half of its fiscal 2025.

The stock fell 5% in extended trading. As of Thursday’s close, Cava shares have slid 11% so far this year, hurt by investor concerns over its conservative outlook for the fiscal year and the economic fallout from the Trump administration’s tariffs.

Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

The company reported fiscal first-quarter net income of $25.71 million, or 22 cents per share, up from $13.99 million, or 12 cents per share, a year earlier. Cava reported an income tax benefit of $10.7 million related to stock-based compensation, which boosted its earnings this quarter.

Net sales climbed 28% to $332 million. On a 12-month trailing basis, Cava’s revenue has surpassed $1 billion, representing a major milestone for the company.

The company did raise some of its projections for the fiscal year.

Cava now anticipates adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $152 million to $159 million, up from its prior forecast of $150 million to $157 million. The company also plans to open between 64 and 68 new locations, higher than its previous outlook of between 62 and 66 restaurant openings.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

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Boeing would avoid guilty plea, prosecution over 737 Max crashes in possible DOJ deal

The Justice Department isn’t planning to prosecute Boeing in a case tied to two crashes of the aerospace giant’s 737 Max, a person familiar with the matter said, a tentative agreement that would allow the plane-maker to avoid a guilty plea.

Boeing agreed to plead guilty in the case last summer in a deal with the Justice Department after the Biden administration found earlier that year that the company violated a 2021 agreement tied to the crashes. A judge rejected that plea deal last year, citing concerns about diversity, equity and inclusion, and opened the possibility that Boeing could face trial.

The fraud charge stems from Boeing’s development of the 737 Max. The U.S. had accused Boeing of misleading regulators about its inclusion of a flight-control system on the Max that was later implicated in the two crashes.

A final, non-prosecution agreement hasn’t been reached yet, the person said. The Justice Department and Boeing didn’t immediately comment.

Under the new agreement, Boeing could pay family members of victims of the two Max crashes. In total, the two crashes of the best-selling Boeing jet killed all 346 people on board the planes.

The new tentative agreement, which was reported earlier on Friday by Reuters, would mean Boeing wouldn’t be labeled a felon. That label could have come with restrictions on defense contractor work.

Boeing is the country’s biggest exporter and, in addition to making commercial jetliners, it’s a major defense contractor. The Trump administration recently awarded the company a multibillion-dollar contract to build a next-generation fighter jet.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

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Trump and Abu Dhabi ink partnership to build massive AI data center complex in UAE

The United States and United Arab Emirates will partner to build a massive data center complex in Abu Dhabi to advance artificial intelligence capabilities with 5-gigawatts of capacity — enough to power a major city.

The agreement, announced Thursday during US President Donald Trump’s visit to the UAE, will mark the largest data center deployment outside of the United States, according to the Commerce Department. It will begin with a 1-gigawatt AI data center, but will eventually span 10 square miles.

The project is also expected to expand the footprint of American AI and cloud companies in the Middle East, allowing them to better serve the global south.

No companies were named in the Commerce Department’s announcement, although Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was spotted at one of Trump’s UAE meetings. Nvidia declined to comment.

Trump has been working to push AI investment, as the success of US tech companies are seen as key to retaining the US’s position as a global superpower.

“By extending the world’s leading American tech stack to an important strategic partner in the region, this agreement is a major milestone in achieving President Trump’s vision for US AI dominance,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement.

The UAE has also said it wants to become a global leader in artificial intelligence by 2031.

Ahead of Trump’s visit, UAE Minister of Education Sarah Al Amiri said the country is looking to diversify its economy, especially in the areas of AI and technology. Investments in AI infrastructure are seen as crucial to securing the region’s post-oil future.

The White House also announced on Thursday an agreement under which the UAE has committed to build or finance data centers in the United States that are “at least as large and as powerful” as those in the UAE.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Construction tycoon among 17 wanted in Thailand over deadly tower collapse

A Thai court has issued arrest warrants for 17 people including a high-profile construction tycoon, police said on Thursday, over their alleged involvement in the building of a skyscraper that collapsed and killed scores of workers during a powerful March earthquake.

Search teams recovered 89 bodies in a six-week operation in the rubble of the partially constructed 30-story State Audit Office tower in the capital Bangkok, which was the only skyscraper to collapse during tremors caused by a massive 7.7 magnitude quake in neighboring Myanmar.

The charges included building code violations that caused deaths, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, said deputy Bangkok police chief, Police Major General Somkuan Puengsap.

Thai authorities are investigating the cause of the building collapse and have yet to release findings. It was one of the deadliest accidents of its kind in Thailand and seven people are still missing.

An anti-corruption watchdog has said it had flagged to authorities irregularities in the construction of the skyscraper before it collapsed, while industry officials said initial tests of materials at the site indicated the presence of substandard steel.

Those charged include executives and engineers from seven companies involved in the design, construction and building supervision of the collapsed tower, police said, without providing more details.

Police named only one of the 17 wanted individuals, Premchai Karnasuta, a former president of Thailand’s largest construction company Italian Thai Development Pcl ITD.BK.

Italian Thai Development has held meetings with investors and has said it was cooperating with the probe.

Premchai could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

He was convicted and sentenced to more than three years in jail in 2021 for poaching protected species after he was caught by rangers at a jungle campsite in a wildlife sanctuary with carcasses of protected animals, including a black Indochinese leopard.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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American basketball player arrested in Indonesia for alleged drug smuggling, could face death penalty

An American basketball player for the Indonesian league was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle illegal drugs to the country, police said Thursday.

The Southeast Asian country has extremely strict drug laws, and convicted smugglers are sometimes executed by firing squad.

Jarred Dwayne Shaw, 34, from Dallas, Texas, was arrested May 7, after police raided his apartment in Tangerang regency, just outside the capital, Jakarta, and seized 132 pieces of cannabis candies, said Ronald Sipayung, the Soekarno-Hatta Airport police chief.

The arrest followed a tip from the airport’s customs that reported Shaw had received a suspicious airway package from Thailand, Sipayung said. Cannabis has been decriminalized in Thailand since November 2024. Under Indonesia’s anti-drug laws, Shaw faces up to life sentence or death penalty if found guilty, Sipayung said.

A video circulating on social media purportedly showed Shaw, wearing a black T-shirt and shorts, resisting as he’s being pushed away by police and shouting “Help … help!” when he was about to be arrested.

Shaw has played for several clubs in the Indonesian Basketball League since 2022, and signed a contract with Tangerang Hawk last year. He told police during interrogation that he wanted to share the cannabis candy with fellow basketball players, according to Sipayung.

He said the candy contained a total gross weight of 869 grams (30.6 ounces) of illegal cannabinoid inside a package.

“We are still running the investigation to uncover the international drugs network behind this case and to stop its distribution,” Sipayung said.

Shaw did not make any statement when he was presented by the authorities at a news conference Wednesday wearing a detainee orange T-shirt and a mask with his hands tied.

Tangerang Hawks’ manager, Tikky Suwantikno, told reporters on Thursday that they regretted what had been done by Shaw and the club had immediately fired him as he has breached the contract.

The Indonesian Basketball League banned Shaw from playing for life, said its chair, Budisatrio Djiwandono.

“We don’t tolerate players, administrators or anyone in the field involved in drugs. There is no room for drug users in the basketball world,” Djiwandono said.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.

About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data showed. Indonesia’s last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Thai man arrested for alleged smuggling of two baby orangutans

Police in Thailand have arrested a man on suspicion of wildlife trafficking after he was found with two baby orangutans in a basket at a gas station in the Thai capital.

The 47-year-old suspect was apprehended Wednesday as he was about to deliver the two primates to a customer, Thai police said in a statement on Thursday.

Officers discovered the orangutans – one about 1-year-old and the other 1 month-old – in plastic baskets, police said.

Images released by authorities showed one of the orangutans in a plastic basket, wearing a diaper and hugging a soft toy alongside feeding bottles.

The man was arrested on charges of “illegally possessing protected wildlife” under Thai law and could face up to four years in prison, police said.

One of the rescued baby orangutans feeds from a milk bottle.
Crime Suppression Bureau of the Royal Thai Police

The man had admitted he was delivering the animals, “but he didn’t say where he got the babies from,” Kasidach said.

Police said they had uncovered an illegal wildlife trade network and were working to find out whether the orangutans had been bred in Thailand or abroad, he added.

The operation was carried out in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wildlife Justice Commission in the Netherlands, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the police statement said.

The department said that Stefan, the 1-month-old, is in an incubator because of weak health and Christopher, the 1-year-old, has been relocated to a sanctuary run by the agency.

Authorities said the orangutans are believed to have been sold for around 300,000 Thai baht ($9,050).

Orangutans are native to Sumatra and Borneo, two Southeast Asian islands that are home to some of the world’s most diverse rainforests, and have come under threat as a result of deforestation, habitat destruction and poaching.

They are listed as “critically endangered” under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, which assesses extinction risks.

The gentle apes, once found in greater numbers across Southeast Asia, have experienced sharp population declines, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Thailand has long been a hub for the illegal wildlife trade.

Its border area with Myanmar, Laos, and China – known as the Golden Triangle – is a hotspot of cross-border trafficking, illegal wildlife trade and consumption, according to WWF.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Israeli and Syrian official hold rare direct talks, Israeli source says

Israel and the new Syrian regime have recently held direct talks, according to an Israeli source familiar with the matter – an indication of shifting dynamics between the former enemies as Israel expands its military presence in the country.

The talks were held in Azerbaijan and were attended by the chief of the Israeli military’s Operations Directorate, Maj. Gen. Oded Basyuk, the source said, adding that Basyuk met with Syrian government representatives in the presence of Turkish officials.

Interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said last week that his government was holding indirect talks with Israel to bring an end to its attacks on his country “so matters don’t reach a point where both sides lose control.”

There’s been no word from Damascus on any direct talks with Israel.

The source did not disclose the topics of the meeting, nor who was mediating. Channel 12 in Israel was the first to report the meeting.

This week, US President Donald Trump met Sharaa – a former jihadist who was designated a terrorist by the US in 2013 – in Saudi Arabia. Trump pledged to remove crippling sanctions imposed against the regime of Bashar al Assad. Assad was overthrown in an uprising led by Sharaa and fled Syria in December.

The White House said that Trump urged Sharaa take a series of measures, including normalization with Israel, expelling foreign and Palestinian “terrorists,” and helping the US to prevent the resurgence of ISIS.

Since the Assad regime fell, Israel has taken more territory in Syria and staged multiple attacks that it says are aimed at preventing the reconstitution of military capabilities and rooting out militancy that could threaten its security. Israel’s move into Syrian territory was initially described as temporary but officials have since said that the military will remain indefinitely.

Israel has also declared a buffer zone in the south of Syria with the stated aim of protecting Syria’s Druze minority. It also occupies the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in the 1967 war and later annexed.

Prospect of sanctions returning every six months

The US Treasury said Thursday it was working to Trump’s direction on Syria sanctions and aims to implement “the necessary authorizations that would be critical to bringing new investment into Syria.”

It added in a post on X that the “Treasury’s actions can help rebuild Syria’s economy, financial sector, and infrastructure and could put the country on a path to a bright, prosperous, and stable future.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio clarified that the US will issue waivers to Syria sanctions and is not fully repealing them for the time being.

“As we make progress, hopefully we’ll be in a position soon, or one day, to go to Congress and ask them to permanently remove the sanctions,” Rubio said in Antalya, Turkey, adding that the Trump administration hoped to eventually repeal the waivers because the prospect of sanctions returning every six months is a deterrent to investment.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Trump says US has given Iran proposal for nuclear deal

President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. has given Iran a proposal for a nuclear deal.

‘Yeah they have a proposal, but more importantly, they know they have to move quickly or something bad, something bad is going to happen,’ Trump said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned this week that the United States is facing a critical moment with Iran to curb its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon and limit its uranium enrichment.

U.S. and Iranian officials have held four rounds of talks, primarily in Oman, since Trump took office to address Tehran’s nuclear program.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, often referred to as the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, noted in a March report that Iran’s stockpile of 60% enriched uranium had alarmingly grown from 182 kg to 275 kg, approximately 401 pounds to 606 pounds, in early 2025.

‘Once you’re at 60, you’re 90% of the way there. You are, in essence, a threshold nuclear weapons state, which is what Iran basically has become,’ Rubio said Thursday on ‘Hannity’.

‘They are at the threshold of a nuclear weapon. If they decided to do so, they could do so very quickly. If they stockpile enough of that 60 percent enriched, they could very quickly turn it into 90 and weaponize it. That’s the danger we face right now. That’s the urgency here,’ he said.

The president also said Thursday in the United Arab Emirates that the U.S. and Iran have ‘sort of’ agreed to terms on a nuclear deal.

‘Iran has sort of agreed to the terms. They’re not going to make — I call it, in a friendly way — nuclear dust,’ Trump told reporters. ‘We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran.’

Congressional Republicans are urging Trump to remain committed to a hardline Iran strategy, calling for the complete dismantlement of the regime’s nuclear enrichment capabilities in a letter that drew wide support. 

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan and Christina Shaw contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

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Blue state congressman ditches Dem playbook, seeks to codify Trump’s latest executive order

While Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has been a vocal opponent of President Donald Trump’s tariff and deportation policies, the president’s latest executive order targeting prescription drug prices inspired the Silicon Valley congressman to trade political disses for diplomacy. 

Khanna proposed legislation on Wednesday to codify Trump’s executive order aimed at lowering drug prices, and the Democrat is urging his Republican colleagues to follow his lead, reaching across the aisle to deliver for everyday Americans. 

‘President Trump’s executive order says that Americans should pay the least price. We should not pay any more than people are paying in countries overseas. Then, it gives the Cabinet secretaries the ability to go after Big Pharma companies that are price-gouging. Now, he tried something similar in his previous administration. Big Pharma sued him, it got tied up in courts, nothing happened. That’s why we need Congress to act. I have introduced something that codifies President Trump’s language, and I’m hoping we get a Republican co-sponsor,’ Khanna told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. 

As Democrats search for party unity after losing the White House, the Senate and failing to regain the House of Representatives last year, Democrats have gravitated toward an outright rejection of the Trump administration, as depicted through ongoing protests. Khanna, however, said he does not mind if Trump ‘gets a political win’ if it benefits the American people. 

‘If Donald Trump says that’s something that’s good for the American people, I’m not going to oppose it just for political points,’ Khanna said. 

Khanna is considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate and, like many ambitious Democrats, has crisscrossed the United States this year, bringing his vision for America to the national conversation. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., also expected to harbor 2028 ambitions, faced some flack within the party this year for engaging directly with Trump to deliver for Michiganders. 

‘If Donald Trump has a good idea that’s going to help the American people, we should work with him. If we have a philosophical disagreement, we shouldn’t. But the barometer for me, the test case is, is this helping people? Is this something that I think is going to help this country? Where I have philosophical disagreements, I speak up. But when I think that it is good legislation, I am willing to support him. And I don’t care, like some people, if he gets a political win. So much of politics is, ‘Oh, we don’t want to give the other side a political win.’ For all I care, he can have a great political win if the American public gets lower drug prices,’ Khanna told Fox News Digital. 

While Khanna said he has not communicated with Trump directly about codifying his executive order, he delivered a now-viral House floor speech Wednesday, urging his Republican colleagues to join the bipartisan effort to lower prescription drug prices. 

‘Are you on the side of the people, or are you on the side of the $16 billion in Big Pharma lobbyist money that was spent last year? My legislation, there’s no trick to it. It is President Trump’s idea, President Trump’s executive order, President Trump’s language into law. Every Republican should support this, and every Democrat should,’ Khanna added. 

Ahead of Trump’s executive order signing, Khanna affirmed his support for lowering drug prices, reminding Americans that he proposed similar legislation alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., with the same goal in mind. 

‘I just don’t understand why any Republican wouldn’t support this. It’s President Trump’s executive order, and every American agrees that prescription drug price costs are too much, that it’s so unfair that Americans are stuck with all these high bills when other countries are paying pennies on the dollar for their drugs. It’s time that Americans be treated fairly,’ Khanna said. 

As Khanna, who was a surrogate for then-President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign in 2024, finds common ground with the current administration, he told Martha MacCallum on ‘The Story’ Wednesday that Biden should not have run in 2024. 

‘I do think it’s important that, given what has come out, that we take accountability,’ Khanna said. ‘Obviously, he should not have run. We should be clear to say that. Obviously, there should have been an open primary. And, I don’t think that’s very difficult that Democrats should just be straight up that he should not have run, now that we have all the facts. There should have been an open primary. I think to move on and move forward, it’s important to take accountability and be straight-forward with the American people.’

While Khanna said he did not have the full picture of Biden’s health and mental acuity when he defended him before the disastrous debate performance, Khanna admitted, ‘We should be honest as a party that we made a mistake.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

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Trump calls Springsteen ‘highly overrated’ after rocker labels him ‘treasonous’ overseas

President Donald Trump slammed Bruce Springsteen as being ‘highly overrated’ Friday after the rocker called his administration ‘corrupt, incompetent and treasonous.’

‘I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Springsteen tore into Trump on Wednesday during the first of a series of concerts in Manchester, England.

‘The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll in dangerous times. In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,’ Springsteen said, drawing applause from his audience. 

‘Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!’ Springsteen added in a video posted on his YouTube page. 

Trump said in his Truth Social post that ‘Sleepy Joe didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, but Springsteen is ‘dumb as a rock,’ and couldn’t see what was going on, or could he (which is even worse!)? This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!’

Springsteen declared last year that ‘I’ll be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’ in the presidential election. Harris ended up losing the race to Trump.

The ‘Born in the USA’ singer, in an Instagram video endorsing Harris, attacked Trump as ‘the most dangerous candidate for President in my lifetime’ with a ‘disdain for the sanctity of our constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law, and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power.’

The Harris campaign later announced a concert series with Springsteen in battleground states to mobilize voters in the weeks leading up to Election Day last year.

Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

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