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Adidas CEO: Kanye West didn’t mean his antisemitic comments
(JTA) – The new CEO of the athletic wear giant Adidas said he doesn’t believe the company’s former collaborator, Kanye West, “meant what he said” when the rapper went on a months-long series of antisemitic tirades that cost him the company’s endorsement last fall.
Bjørn Gulden, who joined Adidas from rival Puma in January after it had already dropped West, made his comments last week on a podcast hosted by Norwegian hedge fund manager and philanthropist Nicolai Tangen.
Adidas dropped West, who now goes by Ye, after weeks of public pressure that followed him tweeting he was going “Death Con 3 on Jewish people” and saying on a podcast about the company, “I can literally say antisemitic [expletive] and they cannot drop me.”
In his latest comments, Gulden didn’t mention the reason behind the partnership ending, referring to West’s remarks as “some statements, which wasn’t that good. And that caused [Adidas] to break the contract and withdraw the product.”
He called the collapse of West’s Yeezy brand “very unfortunate, because I don’t think he meant what he said and I don’t think he’s a bad person. He just came across that way. And that meant we lost that business, one of the most successful collabs in the history. Very sad.”
An Adidas spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company’s position on ending the Yeezy partnership hasn’t changed. West himself has since announced that he no longer hates Jewish people after watching the Jewish actor Jonah Hill in the movie “21 Jump Street.”
The Yeezy brand collaboration was worth more than $1 billion and accounted for a significant share of Adidas’ revenue. The company is now stuck with a large surplus of Yeezy-branded merchandise. Gulden announced earlier this year that Adidas would sell off the products and donate the proceeds to “the organizations that are helping us and that were also hurt by Kanye’s comments.”
So far that plan has generated at least $400 million in revenue for the company, of which Gulden said it has donated at least $10 million to organizations including the Anti-Defamation League (whose CEO sported Adidas sneakers onstage once the company agreed to drop West and partner with them on new initiatives), Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change. The company expects its donations to anti-hate groups to ultimately exceed $100 million; West will also receive a portion of the proceeds from his royalties plan.
Also on the podcast, Gulden discussed the Dassler brothers who founded Adidas “during and after the Second World War,” without mentioning that the German brothers were Nazi Party members.
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The post Adidas CEO: Kanye West didn’t mean his antisemitic comments appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions
ILLUSTRATIVE: The Iranian flag waves in front of the IAEA headquarters before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Lisi Niesner
Iran’s currency fell on Saturday to a new all-time low against the US dollar after the country’s supreme leader rejected talks with the United States and President Donald Trump moved to restore his “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran.
The rial plunged to 892,500 to the dollar on the unofficial market on Saturday, compared with 869,500 rials on Friday, according to the foreign exchange website alanchand.com. The bazar360.com website said the dollar was sold for 883,100 rials. Asr-e-no website reported the dollar trading at 891,000 rials.
Facing an official inflation rate of about 35%, Iranians seeking safe havens for their savings have been buying dollars, other hard currencies, gold or cryptocurrencies, suggesting further headwinds for the rial.
The dollar has been gaining against the rial since trading around 690,000 rials at the time of Trump’s re-election in November amid concerns that Trump would re-impose his “maximum pressure” policy against Iran with tougher sanctions and empower Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump in 2018 withdrew from a nuclear deal struck by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 and re-imposed U.S. economic sanctions on Iran that had been relaxed. The deal had limited Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, a process that can yield fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Iran’s rial has lost more than 90% of its value since the sanctions were reimposed in 2018.
The post Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media
Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun walks after being elected as the country’s president at the parliament building in Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
i24 News – A photo showing US President Donald Trump’s deputy Middle East envoy donning a ring embellished with the Star of David to a meeting with Lebanon’s leader triggered outrage in Arabic social and broadcast media.
As Morgan Ortagus, who is Jewish, shook hands with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, her Star of David ring was visible in the frame, sparking accusations such as her being “more Zionist than her predecessors.”
Her direct superior, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, is likewise Jewish-American, as is his predecessor Amos Hochstein, who was born in Jerusalem and served in the Israel Defense Forces.
Ortagus is the first senior Trump admin official to visit Lebanon amid the fragile ceasefire agreed by Israel and the Lebanon-based Shiite jihadists of Hezbollah.
The post US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing
Supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir at a pro-Hamas rally in London. Photo: Reuters/Martin Pope
i24 News – Anti-Israeli activists in Britain applied for a permit to stage a demonstration through London on the morning of October 7, 2023, as Gazan jihadists were rampaging through southern Israel and slaughtering civilians, the Daily Telegraph reported.
At 12:50 PM, as the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was still ongoing, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) notified the Metropolitan Police that they intended to hold a rally the following week.
Reports and videos of the Hamas-led onslaught began appearing on social media, and Israeli and then international broadcast media, several hours earlier.
“The Met was contacted on Saturday Oct 7 at approximately 12.50pm via telephone call and informed of the intention to protest,” a police spokesman was quoted by the Telegraph as saying. “The Met committed this to our systems on the same day and are satisfied being contacted by telephone was a sufficient means in which to notify the MPS as the event was taking place seven days after notification.”
The group’s spokesperson defended the move, telling the Telegraph it was “clear” as early as Saturday noon that “the Israeli attacks on Gaza would be of an indiscriminate violence we had not witnessed before, and that 2.3 million people in Gaza – more than 50 percent of them children – were at severe risk.”
The post UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing first appeared on Algemeiner.com.