It’s not just you: McDonald’s really was everywhere this year
CNN
2024 may not have been the best or worst year ever for McDonald’s — but it was certainly a memorable one.
2024 may not have been the best or worst year ever for McDonald’s — but it was certainly a memorable one. It seemed no matter where the news spotlight landed, the golden arches were always shining somewhere off to the side, at times an unwitting set piece on the global stage (and at times, a reluctant main character). That was true during the Republican and the Democratic presidential campaigns, with Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband both trumpeting their working-class roots as former employees, and President-elect Donald Trump following up with a brief and carefully staged appearance at the fry station and drive-thru of a McDonald’s in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Another Pennsylvania McDonald’s became the backdrop for the culmination of a massive manhunt this week, when an employee at an Altoona location alerted police to a patron who resembled the suspected gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in Manhattan last week. (The scene had an echo of an April 2022 subway shooting in Brooklyn, New York, in which the gunman eluded capture for 30 hours before calling in a tip on himself from inside, you guessed it, a McDonald’s.) Even Major League Baseball had a McDonald’s subplot this year, when Grimace became the lucky charm who (briefly) gave the Mets hope for a world championship and New Yorkers hope for a Subway Series (but then the Mets lost to the Yankees in the playoffs, of course).
A federal judge in Oregon blocked Kroger’s proposed $25 billion tie-up with Albertsons, ruling that the largest merger in US supermarket history would limit competition and harm consumers.
Walgreens is reportedly looking to take itself private in a deal with Sycamore Partners, sending the stock nearly 20% higher Tuesday.
1-star McDonald’s reviews and sympathetic merch: Companies try to stop online support for CEO killer
After police found the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” printed on shell casings near the site where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down, merchandise bearing those words started to appear online.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has warned the United States against restarting a trade war, saying there would be “no winners” even as he vowed to defend the country’s economic interests.
The global airline industry will likely rake in more than $1 trillion in revenue next year, as passenger numbers look set to hit an all-time high of 5 billion, the International Air Transport Association said Tuesday.
President-elect Donald Trump views tariffs as a not-so-secret weapon — one that can be deployed to pressure friends and foes alike to address issues from drug trafficking and illegal immigration to the dominance of the US dollar.
Two families have sued artificial intelligence chatbot company Character.AI, accusing it of providing sexual content to their children and encouraging self-harm and violence. Theirs is the second lawsuit filed against Character.AI over youth safety concerns since October.
Former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz is expected to announce he is joining One America News Network as an anchor, a source familiar told CNN.
Rupert Murdoch cannot amend his family trust to put the power of his media companies in the hands of his chosen successor, a Nevada commissioner has ruled.
Google on Monday said that it has overcome a key challenge in quantum computing with a new generation of chip, solving a computing problem in five minutes that would take a classical computer more time than the history of the universe.
Mondelez, the maker of Oreo and Cadbury, is reportedly exploring an offer to buy rival Hershey Company to potentially create one of the world’s largest candy companies.