Kanye West usually has a Teflon-like ability to remain unscathed after 18 years of controversies.

In the past, West, who now legally goes by Ye, has made claims that slavery was a choice, invited known-homophobe DaBaby and accused abuser Marilyn Manson to perform with him, and defended convicted rapist Bill Cosby.

He has asserted himself in politics by accusing George Bush of hating black people, aligned himself with divisive figures like Donald Trump, and ran his own presidential campaign founded on anti-abortion, capital punishment, and the return of school prayer to no avail.

But while Ye has always managed to return to the top echelons of the music and fashion industry, his latest controversy may have just burned his empire to the ground.

What began as a controversial Oct. 3 Paris fashion show, where Kanye sent models down the runway wearing White Lives Matter shirts, has ended in almost all his corporate sponsors and partners dropping him following an unhinged conspiratorial anti-Semitic rant.

Ye told reporters outside his daughters basketball game on Oct. 22, that after attacking the Jewish people, theyll try to mute you at all costs.

But when asked what he would say to people who are trying to cancel him, Ye shrugged it off and laughed: Im here. What are we talking about? We here. We aint going nowhere, baby.

Over his prolific career spanning 18 years, Ye has been a mainstay of the entertainment industry, but whether he stands to survive his latest self-destructive test remains an open question.

How it started

The controversy began after Yes Oct. 3 YZY show at Paris Fashion Week, when he sent models down the runway and posted photos of conservative pundit Candace Owens wearing White Lives Matter shirts, which has become a de facto white supremacist slogan rallying against the Black Lives Matter social movement that highlights systematic racism, discrimination, and inequality experienced by black people.

West said in a Tucker Carlson interview on Oct. 6: The answer to why I wrote White Lives Matter on a shirt is because they do.

I thought the shirt was a funny shirt, I thought the idea of me wearing it was funny, Kanye told Carlson, and when he asked his father, Ray West, a former Black Panther, if he thought it was funny, he responded just a Black man stating the obvious.

But before Ye went on Carlson, he gave a different account of why he put White Lives Matter on the shirts, posting on his Instagram on Oct. 4: Everyone know that Black Lives Matter was a scam now its over youre welcome.

The shirts set off an outcry in the fashion world, which an embittered Ye viciously defended on his Instagram. Ye attacked Supreme creative director Tremaine Emory, model Gigi Hadid, and former Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson in what he claimed to be a WAR.

But things took a turn when Sean Diddy Combs posted on his Instagram hitting back against the YZY show, saying he did not rock with the White Lives Matter movement. All America has planned for [Black Americans] is poverty, incarceration, and death, Diddy said in the Instagram video.

Ye then posted a text conversation with Diddy on his Instagram, accusing Diddy of being controlled by Jewish people. Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.

Ye was swiftly kicked off Instagram on Oct. 7, so he then turned to Twitter.

After not having posted for two years, Ye returned to the platform on Oct. 8 tweeting: Im a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up Im going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.

He was then kicked off Twitter too.

How its going

Ye bases his anti-Semitism on the fact that he cant really be anti-Semitic since black people are the real Jews.

Five days after the Tucker Carlson interview, new unaired footage was revealed by Vice on Oct. 11, showing a more incoherent and paranoid Ye.

He claimed black people were the real 12 lost tribes of Judea, that fake children and professional actors were being placed in his house to sexualize his kids, and that Margaret Sanger, a known eugenics, along with KKK, founded Planned Parenthood to control the Black population. Carlson edited down the final interview before airing.

Two days later, on Oct. 14, JPMorgan announced it would be ending its association with Ye and his brand Yeezyalthough the banks decision predated Yes anti-Semitic comments.

Ye then appeared on Drink Champs, a hip-hop community podcast hosted by N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN, on Oct. 16 to continue his rant. The interview was taken down a day after it was posted for spreading false information about the death of George Floyd (Ye claims Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose rather than police brutality), but one important line from the interview circulated social media showing Ye boasting about his untouchable status.

I can say anti-Semitic things, and Adidas cant drop me. Now what? Now what? Ye is seen asking in a short video clip from the interview.

Two things swiftly followed on Oct. 17.

West offered to buy the controversial free-speech platform Parler, which is known for housing right-wing extremists and espousing misinformation and conspiracy theories, and Balenciaga began taking Yes imagery off of its websitemaking it the first corporate client to distance itself from Ye since the anti-Semitic comments began.

Ye called it the happiest day of his life, saying it weeded out the people who werent truly with him.

Yes decision to buy Parler aligned him with Americas conservative right wing. Ye said in a statement with Parler on Oct. 17: In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial, we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves.

While many came online to defend Ye, blaming his anti-Semitism on his diagnosed bipolar disease, his opinions nonetheless gave weight to white supremacists and antisemitic extremists in fringe hate groups.

Soon after Ye began his rant, the anti-Semitic hate group Goyim Defense League hung banners above freeways in Los Angeles that read Kanye is right about the Jews, while giving Nazi salute signs.   

Soon Yes corporate clients began dropping one after another.

Balenciaga formally severed ties with Ye on Oct. 22, with parent company Kering telling fashion trade magazine WWD: Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.

Talent agencies Creative Artists Agency and United Talent Agency, Yes lawyers at Cohen Clair Lans Greifer Thorpe & Rottenstreich, fashion magazine Vogue, and production company MRC entertainment all condemned Ye and severed ties with the artist.

Footlocker and Gap began removing all Yeezy merchandise from their stores, and even collectors of his shoes and clothes began offloading them, deflating the market for second-hand Yeezys by 30%.

But the biggest loss for Ye was Adidas ending their partnership with Yeezy. Adidas was Yeezys main source of income and the loss of his partnership with the German sportswear giant led to the market valuation of Yeezy plummeting and $1.5 billion evaporating from his net worth.

Where its heading

Ye has little places to turn to.

While Ye is free to continue designing new shoes, he may have some trouble making any money from them.

As he looks to partner with other fashion houses and resume collecting royalties, there may not be many clients willing to work with the toxic Ye brand.

This played out in action on Wednesday as Ye showed up unannounced at the Manhattan Beach, Calif. headquarters of shoemaker Skechers and was promptly escorted off the property.

A spokesperson for Skechers told TMZ that the company is not considering and has no intention of working with West. We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech.

Over the last three weeks, Ye has dug himself into a hole, with even the most ardent Kanye fans finding it difficult to defend his words or his new status as an anti-Semitic mouthpiece for Americas growing extremist right wing.

And while Ye has usually managed to survive and thrive in controversy, theres a big question mark over whether he can do it again from here.

The IRSs recently announced record increases to the standard deduction, tax brackets, and retirement plan contributions present opportunities for workers to save and invest more in 2023.

Next year, almost everybody [will] pay lower taxes on the same amount of income they had this year owing to the IRSs inflation adjustments to the federal tax brackets, says Kenneth Waltzer, a Los Angelesbased certified financial planner. The 2023 tax brackets are being increased by roughly 7% from the 2022 brackets. On top of that, the standard deduction is also increasing by $900 for individuals and $1,800 for married couples.

And workers will also be able to put more into tax-deferred investment accounts like 401(k)s, IRAs, SEP-IRAs, etc., saving them even more on taxes, says Waltzer. The 401(k) contribution limit, for example, is increasing from $20,500 this year to $22,500 next yearan unprecedented boost.

Youll not only be allowed to contribute more, but likely have more cash to do so because your taxes are already lower, says Waltzer.

One thing workers may want to consider for next year, then: adjusting their tax withholding or estimated quarterly tax payments, says Alicia Waltenberger, senior director of wealth planning strategies at TIAA.

With the increase in the income tax brackets this year, you may be able to keep more of your money, says Waltenberger. That said, if your income increases next year, you may not notice much of a tax difference.

Max out your retirement accounts if you can

Retirement account changes, however, are significant. If you can swing it, take advantage of the increased contribution limits for retirement accounts. And if you spread out your contributions throughout the year, make sure to increase them starting in January. Waiting a few months will make the change seem more significant.

Maximizing contributions to retirement plans will help reduce taxable income, says Waltenberger. This could allow you to drop into a lower tax bracket or keep you from pushing up into higher bracket in 2023.

To make the most of the changes, taxpayers should understand their tax rate and adjusted gross income, says Eric Presogna, a Pennsylvania-based CFP.

A married couple over the age of 50 making approximately $268,000 this year and maxing out their 401(k)s would be not be able to contribute directly to a Roth IRA, because they would exceed the income limits, he says.

Next year, though, this same coupleassuming 401(k)s are still being maxedcould effectively receive a 4% raise next year, have a slightly lower average tax rate, and now be able to directly fund Roth IRAs, says Presogna.

Finally, the tax changes also present an opportunity for those who want to convert part of their IRA to a Roth IRA. In a Roth conversion, you pay taxes on the money your investments earned in the original IRA and on any contributions you deducted on your taxes. But then your investments grow tax-free (if you follow all of the withdrawal rules).

For those who are concerned about taxes rising in the future or those who have kids in high tax brackets, conversion of IRA to Roth just got cheaper, says Keith Singer, a a Florida-based CFP.

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Sitting on a bench in front of Soldier Field, about to watch his beloved Chicago Bears play in person, money wasnt exactly a big concern for Corey Metzger.

Or any concern, really.

This trip has been a long time in the making, and Im splurging whatever I got to spend to make it happen, said the 45-year-old Metzger, who works in law enforcement in Fargo, North Dakota.

Metzers eager pilgrimage is a familiar one for sports fans, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic eased. But persistently high inflation and gas prices are looming over the monetary pipeline that resumed when fans returned.

U.S. inflation jumped 8.2% in September from a year ago, the government reported this month. Thats not far from a four-decade high of 9.1% in June. Higher prices for housing, food and medical care were among the largest contributors to the rise.

Given the industrys reliance on disposable income, the inflation numbers are a troubling sign for sports business leaders.

Whats historically accurate for teams is that they tend to try to take less on the ticketing side because once somebody comes in they typically will make up for it once they are inside, said Ron Li, a senior vice president at Navigate, a consulting firm in sports and entertainment. But with costs rising pretty much across the board after the turnstile, I think they have some decisions they need to make.

According to Team Marketing Report, the average cost for a family of four to attend a 2022 Major League Baseball game was $256.41, an increase of $3.04 from the previous season. The main engine behind the rise was the cost of tickets, with the average general ticket price increasing 3.6% to $35.93.

Despite the jump in prices, Americans have largely kept up their spending, particularly on entertainment and other services like travel that they missed out on during the pandemic. Still, there are signs the solid spending wont last: Credit card debt is rising and savings have declined as consumers, particularly low-income ones, have taken hits to their finances from the spike in inflation.

Casey Lynn, 43, a low-voltage technician from Minneapolis, and his wife, Lori, 44, a commercial lender, arent big football fans, but they decided to check out the Bears on a trip to Chicago. While Casey Lynn said he is bothered by the ticket surcharges, the couple didnt want to pass on the opportunity to see the game.

The gas is a necessity. Electrics a necessity. The sports isnt a necessity, he said. But when in Rome, why not?

Dan Coyne, 38, a life insurance wholesaler from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, makes an annual trip to Chicago to see the Bears with his brother, Dave, 47, of Valparaiso, Indiana, who has season tickets. But this time around was a little different.

Flying out here, rental cars have like tripled in price, it definitely factored in, he said. But this is a once-in-a-year thing.

The brothers got something to eat a couple hours before the game. Dave Coyne normally stays away from the concessions at Soldier Field, but I only had to pay for myself tonight, he said. I didnt have a kid or my wife with me.

Concessions typically have a higher profit margin for sports teams and providers, but increased costs for goods, transportation and labor have cut into those margins. The changes come after concessions companies were already profoundly impacted by the pandemic.

The whole model has been kind of disrupted in a pretty big way as were dealing with inflation of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30% when we have typically underwritten 2 or 3%, said Jamie Obletz, president of Delaware North Sportservice. And you can imagine the impact that thats had on us and what its forced us to think about and do over the past six to 12 months, like a lot of companies.

Paul Pettas, a vice president with Sodexo Live!, estimated overall costs are up 10% to 15% over the past 12 to 24 months.

In reality, costs are up across the board, but we certainly try to do as much as we can to keep that down and not have that affect the average fan or guest who comes to our events, he said.

Concessions companies also are experiencing lingering issues with their supply chains, which have improved recently but remain a factor. Obletz recalled his company running out of peanuts midway through the 2021 World Series in Atlanta, so two workers drove a truck to another venue, loaded up and then drove through the night to get back to Truist Park.

Things are not great, Obletz said. Theyre better than they were, it feels like, three to six months ago, and our hope is that it continues to improve.

The issues have forced concession companies to get creative in an effort to address the rising costs with minimal effect on consumers in terms of culinary options and price.

Chefs are redesigning menus to replace items that face significant cost increases and consolidating other options. They are using analytics to examine portion sizes do consumers need six chicken fingers or will five work instead? and taking a closer look at their vendors.

Theres dozens of things like this that weve tried to do and are doing as we speak, trying very desperately to offset those pricing increases that were seeing, Obletz said.

Alison Birdwell, the president and CEO of Aramark Sports + Entertainment, said the company is leaning on analytics and its data science team more than ever when it comes to menu strategies and new concessions items.

With that guidance, we are working to give fans the items theyre looking for while simultaneously being efficient with our product and mitigating significant increases in cost, Birdwell said in a statement to AP.

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AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

Prince Harrys memoir, an object of obsessive anticipation worldwide since first announced last year, is coming out Jan. 10.

The book will be called Spare and is being billed by Penguin Random House, as an account told with raw, unflinching honesty and filled with insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

In a statement released Thursday, Penguin Random House summoned memories of the stunning death in 1997 of Prince Harrys mother, Diana, and of Harry and his brother, William, walking behind their mothers coffin as the world watched in sorrow and horror.

As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling and how their lives would play out from that point on, the statement reads in part.

For Harry, this is his story at last.

The memoirs title is an apparent reference to Prince Harrys being a royal spare, not the first in line to succession. William, Prince of Wales, is next in line.

The 416-page book will come out in 16 languages, from Dutch to Portuguese, and also will be released in an audio edition read by Prince Harry. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Harry, the Duke of Sussex, will be using proceeds from Spare to donate to British charities. He has already given $1.5 million to Sentebale, an organization he co-founded with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to help children and young people in Lesotho and Botswana affected by HIV/AIDS.

Penguin Random House identifies Prince Harry as a husband, father, humanitarian, military veteran, mental wellness advocate, and environmentalist.

Royals watchers and the public at large have speculated endlessly since the book was first announced in July 2021, billed as intimate and heartfelt and tentatively scheduled for this year.

The Duke of Sussex had already revealed a news-making willingness to discuss his private life when he and his American-born wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, were interviewed for a March 2021 broadcast by their neighbor in Santa Barbara, California, Oprah Winfrey. The couple spoke of Meghans deep unhappiness with her new life in England, the alleged racism within the royal family and Harrys fear that his wifes life might be endangered had they remained in his native country.

In 1992, Diana worked with author Andrew Morton on her explosive memoir Diana: Her True Story, in which she described at length her unhappy marriage to the future King Charles, Harrys father.

Harry and Meghan stepped back from their royal duties in 2020 and moved to the U.S. Harry told Winfrey that his family cut him off financially and that he helped pay for his security with money left to him by his mother. They have launched numerous initiatives, including a Netflix production deal and the impact-driven non-profit Archewell Foundation.

The books delay led to rumors that Harry was hesitating to say too much about his family, or was perhaps revising the narrative after his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, died in September. He has spoken of being estranged from his brother, William, although the siblings and their wives appeared in public together during the mourning period following the Queens death.

Penguin Random House is honored to be publishing Prince Harrys candid and emotionally powerful story for readers everywhere, the global CEO of Penguin Random House, Markus Dohle, said in a statement. He shares a remarkably moving personal journey from trauma to healing, one that speaks to the power of love and will inspire and encourage millions of people around the world.

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A former CIA officer who spied on Qatars rivals to help the tiny Arab country land this years World Cup is now under FBI scrutiny and newly obtained documents show he offered clandestine services that went beyond soccer to try to influence U.S. policy, an Associated Press investigation found.

The monthslong FBI probe focuses on whether Kevin Chalkers work for Qatar broke laws related to foreign lobbying, surveillance and exporting sensitive technologies and tradecraft, said two people with knowledge of the investigation who requested anonymity because they werent authorized to discuss it.

Chalkers goal, AP found, was to burnish Qatars image among American decision makers while undermining critics who have accused the Persian Gulf monarchy of financing terrorists and other wrongdoing. Federal investigators have focused increasing scrutiny in recent years on Qatars influenceefforts, including those alleged to involve former U.S. national security officials.

APs reporting in the past year has detailed how Chalker and his company, Global Risk Advisors, sought to help Qatar host the 2022 World Cup by spying on soccer officials in rival countries. That included deploying a Facebook honeypot in which an attractive woman is used to get close to a target, having someone pose as a photojournalist to keep tabs on one nations bid and, after the decision was announced in 2010, waging a failed two-year campaign to get a top German soccer official to soften his criticism of Qatar.

New AP reporting based on internal Global Risk Advisors records and interviews with Chalkers associates shows much of his work in the years since has focused on seeking to strengthen Qatars influence in the U.S. That included attempting to set up high-level meetings between Qatari officials and top CIA leaders and pitching a sprawling covert influence operation to damage the reputations of U.S. officials perceived as Qatars enemies. The company even boasted in internal records of using spycraft to try and gather information on a congressman who sponsored legislation Qatar opposed.

Global Risk Advisors has consistently protected Qatar by attacking the attackers, the company said in one internal document.

Chalkers lawyer, Kevin Carroll, said Global Risk Advisors had never engaged in any unlawful activity and was unaware of any federal investigation.

The FBI said it could neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation. Qatar did not respond to requests for comment.

Qatar, an energy-rich sheikdom that is home to a massive U.S. military base, has spent billions in recent years to successfully fend off attempts by its neighboring rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to isolate the country and sour its relationship with the U.S.

Chalker began a long and lucrative relationship with Qatar after working as an undercover operations officer for the CIA in the 2000s. His work on the World Cup helped Qatar become Global Risk Advisors main client, allowing it to open offices in New York, Washington, London and Doha.

GRA is on the cusp of rapid expansion, said a 2014 memo to employees, adding that the company has been pursuing a number of extraordinary projects.

The companys work included a covert information campaign against Qatars rivals that involved helping make a 2018 film called Enemies of Peace that was highly critical of Saudi Arabias crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, according to two former Chalker associates. The films director told the AP he was unaware an advisor on the film was working for GRA.

Global Risk Advisors and its affiliates also provided military and intelligence training for several years to Qatari officials, including members of the royal family, interviews and records show. Courses ranged from hostage rescue to how to operate undercover.

Essentially, he wants us to conduct mini-Farm courses both for ops and for tech ops, said an internal Global Risk Advisors document describing a Qatari officials request for training. The Farm is the nickname given to the CIAs covert training facility in Virginia.

One member of the Qatari royal family received a perfect score of 100 in a technical surveillance countermeasures course despite missing much of the instruction and not showing a genuine desire to learn the material, according to a company document.

Federal law prohibits sharing certain tactics the U.S. government teaches its own soldiers and spies, and some former Chalker employees said they were concerned that some of the Qatari trainings crossed the line.

Chalkers attorney said Global Risk Advisors has received proper authorization from the U.S. government whenever its work has required it.

APs reporting was based on hundreds of pages of documents provided by former Chalker associates who requested anonymity because they feared retaliation.

Several of those sources described Chalker as a chaotic and mercurial boss whose priorities constantly shifted, with many projects ultimately going nowhere. They said Chalker prized secrecy, regularly used codenames his own was Hercules and often kept employees in the dark about the work Global Risk Advisors did for Qatar or the research reports it produced.

Nobody really knew who these were going to, why they were being produced, what the real driver was other than they were what Kevin wants us to work on, said one former employee.

Company records and interviews show Chalker consulted with and received advice on some of his proposals from then-CIA employee Denis Mandich, who worked as an agency liaison to Silicon Valley. Those projects included a multibillion-dollar proposal in 2014 to have Global Risk Advisors invest in tech startups on Qatars behalf, pitched as a way to block the sale of potentially sensitive technology to its Persian Gulf rivals.

Its unclear from company documents if that project moved forward and Mandich later left the agency and joined Global Risk Advisors to become one of Chalkers top lieutenants. Mandichs attorneys did not respond to questions about his work for GRA.

Global Risk Advisors also created a detailed security plan in 2014 to install a surveillance system in Qatar that could track mobile phones in the country with extreme accuracy and allow analysts to isolate individual conversations and listen in real-time, according to internal company records that include a draft contract.

That plan, dubbed Project Berlin, also suggested creating a World Cup 2022 mobile phone app that could record users location and movements. Chalker indicated in internal company documents that Qatar gave preliminary approval to Project Berlin but its unknown whether it was ever implemented.

Chalkers efforts at boosting Qatars ties with the U.S. included an effort to set up a face-to-face meeting between top officials at the CIA and Qatars prime minister. One Qatari official told Chalker that such a meeting help would provide a golden stamp of approval for Chalkers various projects, company records show.

But those records show Chalkers initial efforts to broker such a meeting failed despite his boasting of having unparalleled access to the highest levels of the Qatari government.

The CIA declined to comment.

Other company records showed Global Risk Advisors pushed to have oversight and control of Qatars U.S. lobbying efforts, saying it could manage those efforts more productively.

A March 2017 proposal called Project ENDGAME said Qatars enemies were seeking to inject the country into proxy fights involving its allies such as the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group backed by Qatar.

In response to that threat, the company boasted in internal records that it had developed an approach to a close contact of the congressman who sponsored legislation that year to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Developed an approach is intelligence jargon for seeking to recruit a potential asset.

That congressman, Florida Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, said he was unaware of such efforts and that hes continued to sponsor similar legislation in the years since.

The allegations that a former CIA officer is actively trying to influence an important national security bill on behalf of a foreign country are deeply disturbing, Diaz-Balart told AP.

The Project ENDGAME proposal also warned that President Donald Trump was unpredictable and his inner circle was being co-opted by the UAEs well-connected ambassador in Washington, Yousef Al-Otaiba.

The proposal suggested Qatar obtain total information awareness into Otaiba and his U.S. allies and then spread damaging information through friendly media outlets.

Now is the time to once again seize the initiative to dominate the information battlefield, the proposal said.

In April 2017, Chalker and a Qatari government official signed a letter of intent that said Global Risk Advisors would provide Qatar with enhanced tracking and monitoring, intelligence collection, predictive intelligence, information operations and other spy services for $60 million over three years. Other records show a Gibraltar-based company owned by Chalker began receiving seven- and eight-figure payments from Qatar shortly afterward.

Anonymous hackers began leaking selectively curated copies of Otaibas emails in June 2017. Those emails included potentially embarrassing messages showing Otaibas close relationships with top U.S. officials and significant influence at some think tanks.

Theres no direct evidence linking Global Risk Advisors to the release of Otaibas emails. Chalker has categorically denied playing any role in a hack-and-leak operation, and no former Chalker associates who spoke with the AP said they saw the company engage in such activities.

The hackers targets in the Otaiba leaks included a former Defense secretary, former high-ranking diplomats and intelligence officials, and two think tanks that had been critical of Qatar and were specifically named in the Project Endgame pitch document.

After going dormant for several months, the hackers released a new round of Otaiba emails in 2018 focused on Tom Barrack, a close Trump adviser who is currently on trial for allegedly working illegally for the UAE and whose hacked-and-leaked emails form part of the Justice Departments case.

Former Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy has accused Chalker and Global Risk Advisors in an ongoing lawsuit of overseeing the Otaiba hack and leak on Qatars behalf as well as a similar operation targeting Broidy that began in early 2018. Chalkers lawyers have called the lawsuit baseless.

Chalker associates say he has shifted his focus away from Global Risk Advisors in recent years to a quantum computing cybersecurity company he formed with Mandich called Qrpyt, which has signed a technology licensing agreement with the Department of Energys Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Suderman reported from Richmond, Virginia. Investigative reporter James LaPorta in Wilmington, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

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The rapper formerly known as Kanye West was escorted out of the California-based headquarters of athletic shoemaker Skechers after he showed up unannounced Wednesday, a day after Adidas ended its partnership with the artist following his antisemitic remarks.

The Grammy winner, who legally changed his name to Ye, arrived unannounced and without invitation at Skechers corporate headquarters in Manhattan Beach, southwest of Los Angeles, the company said.

Considering Ye was engaged in unauthorized filming, two Skechers executives escorted him and his party from the building after a brief conversation, according to a company statement.

Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West, the company said. We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech.

The rappers Instagram account which had been suspended over antisemitic comments resumed posting Tuesday night. A new message showing a screen grab of a text message that appeared to be from a contact at a high-profile law firm spelled out when Ye could resume making apparel and new shoe designs.

Details of the message could not be verified; email messages sent to representatives for Ye werent immediately returned.

For weeks, Ye has made antisemitic comments in interviews and social media, including a Twitter post earlier this month that he would soon go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE, an apparent reference to the U.S. defense readiness condition scale known as DEFCON. His posts led to his suspension from both Twitter and Instagram.

He apologized for the tweet on Monday.

On Tuesday, sportswear manufacturer Adidas announced that it was ending a partnership with Ye that helped make him a billionaire, saying it doesnt tolerate antisemitism and hate speech.

The German sneaker giant said it expected that the decision to immediately stop production of its Yeezy products would cause a hit to its net income of up to 250 million euros ($246 million).

The company had stuck with Ye through other controversies after he suggested slavery was a choice and called the COVID-19 vaccine the mark of the beast.

Other companies also have announced they were cutting ties with Ye, including Foot Locker, Gap, TJ Maxx, JPMorgan Chase bank and Vogue magazine. An MRC documentary about him was also scrapped.

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Tesla is facing an over year-long criminal investigation by the U.S. federal government into its controversial self-driving technology it may have failed to disclose to shareholders. 

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that the Department of Justice is considering whether to press charges against the company or individual executives following a series of deaths related to its Autopilot feature. It cited three separate people familiar with the alleged inquiry.

As part of the latest probe, Justice Department prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco are examining whether Tesla misled consumers, investors and regulators by making unsupported claims about its driver assistance technologys capabilities, it wrote, adding the DoJ declined to comment.

As a matter of corporate policy, Tesla does not engage with professional media organizations and ignores requests for a statement. 

Should the report prove accurate, a criminal investigation would signify a considerable escalation above and beyond an existing regulatory probe by U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Furthermore, it could conceivably constitute grounds for potential civil lawsuits should Tesla be found to have hidden its existence. Musk is a fan of non-disclosure agreements and has attempted to bury unflattering revelations in the past.

Tesla classifies inquiries from state and federal authorities including the Department of Justice as a potential risk to its business, and lists material pending legal proceedings in its annual and quarterly filings to the SEC.

Nevertheless it has stated on several occasions, most recently in Mondays 10-Q, that it has not received any requests from the DoJ on any topic at all since it last provided information in May 2019 on a separate and unrelated issue. 

There have not been any additional developments in these matters that we deem to be material, it said on Monday in its filing.

It is however entirely possible that the DoJ opted to hide the existence of its criminal investigation from Tesla if prosecutors thought that would help them build a more effective case.

Hopes for a stock price rally

The claims revealed by Reuters come at a critical juncture for Tesla.

Shareholders have been waiting on Musk to close his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in the hopes that it will end unwanted uncertainty over how many shares in Tesla he made need to sell in order to close the deal. The deal needs to be completed by Friday or a trial will commence that is expected to see a Delaware chancery court judge rule in favor of Twitter and against Musk.

The report is therefore bound to raise suspicion among its devoted retail investor base. Many believe professional media outlets are deliberately and unfairly targeting their company, since it does not spend money on advertisements.

The stock has been attempting to draw support around the $200 mark, a level it first exclipsed back in December 2020. Bulls believe it is set for a major rally once there is clarity surrounding the purchase. 

The Tesla CEO recently tried to assuage investor concerns over the companys outlook last Wednesday during an earnings call. He held out the prospect of a significant stock buyback program next year and set a long-term target for Tesla to exceed the market cap of Apple and Saudi state-owned oil giant Aramco, the two most valuable companies, put together. 

Since its vaunted Optimus droid is not included in that calculation, a key driver of that forecast earnings growth is his software-as-a-service (SaaS) business centered on autonomous cars. 

While the more advanced Full Self-Driving feature is only enabled for some 160,000 Tesla customers in the U.S., who paid thousands for the added option, Autopilot comes standard in every Tesla built. 

Regulators have however been cracking down of late on the technology, fearing Tesla is creating a false sense of security among its customers that poses a risk to them and everyone else on the road (one reason this issue is popping up repeatedly in the U.S., is that other countries are far more stringent with permitting Teslas technology).

In June NHTSA escalated a probe that layed the preliminary groundwork for a potential recall. A formal (and extensive) information request on Autopilot and Full-Self Driving followed in August. 

Much of it focused on securing detailed company data over driver attentiveness when self-driving features were engaged, such as those collected by the cabin camera mounted above the rearview mirror.

No public records are available concerning Teslas subsequent response, as the company requested earlier this month the entirety of its submission be classified as confidential business information.

Last week, NHTSA reported eleven people were killed in U.S. crashes involving vehicles that were using automated driving systems during a period from mid-May through September this year. Ten vehicles involved had been made by Tesla, though it is unclear from the data whether the technology itself was at fault or whether driver error might have been responsible.

Repeated false dawns

A decision by the justice department on the outcome of its criminal investigation into Autopilot was not expected any time soon, according to one of the Reuters sources, in part because it was competing with two other DoJ investigations involving Tesla.

One former U.S. attorney in Detroit that has prosecuted auto companies and staff in cases of fraud, Barbara McQuade, told the publication investigators would have a high threshold for pursuing any potential case, such as uncovering black-and-white evidence of deliberate attempts by Tesla to mislead. 

Musk has always talked up his technology, but added important caveats that leave wiggle room. Last week, for example, he said that while FSD is pretty close, its not quite ready to drive without a human behind the wheel, returning to his age-old pledge first promised in April 2019 that the proverbial next year would finally bring the promised capability of fully autonomous driving.

Musk has admitted he was too optimistic, saying earlier this year he had been fooled by false dawns and can point to other companies that likewise predicted the technology would mature quicker.

For example, Ford invested in 2017 in self-driving startup Argo AI with the anticipation of bringing a robotaxi to market by 2021 by its own account. It has now decided in conjunction with joint shareholder Volkswagen Group to cease further investments in favor of closing down the company. 

Things have changed, Ford CEO Jim Farley said on Wednesday. Profitable, fully autonomous vehicles at scale are a long way off.

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