HEALTH CARE
Boston Children’s gets $20 million donation to research, treat pediatric heart disease
Boston Children’s Hospital on Tuesday said it has received a $20 million donation from the Benderson Family Foundation to research and treat pediatric heart disease. The donation will create two endowed chairs at the heart center and fund research programs, hospital officials said in a news release. “Ten years from now, we will look back and remember that a decade of progress began today with this generous gift,” said Dr. Pedro del Nido, chairman of the department of cardiovascular surgery. The hospital’s cardiovascular programs, renamed as the Benderson Family Heart Center, will move into a new clinical tower on the Boston Children’s Longwood campus, which is expected to open next summer. The heart center will span more than five floors at the new Hale Family Building. — PRIYANKA DAYAL MCCLUSKEY
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TECH MEDIA
IDG buys California marketing firm
IDG Communications has acquired a Silicon Valley marketing tech firm, KickFire, for an undisclosed amount. This is IDG’s first acquisition since Blackstone announced it would buy International Data Group, the Needham-based tech media and research company that includes IDG Communications, in June. About 30 KickFire employees, based in San Jose, Calif., are joining IDG as a result. IDG will add KickFire’s data analytics to its broader marketing technology platform; KickFire helps business-to-business marketers analyze and put to use website traffic and purchasing data without using cookie tracking. “KickFire’s technology is already the industry standard used by most technology marketers, providing visibility into how audiences and technology buyers are researching products,” said Andre Yee, chief product officer at IDG Communications. — JON CHESTO
GROCERY STORES
Kroger and Instacart to offer deliveries in 30 minutes
Kroger is teaming up with Instacart on a new delivery service that can get grocery items to customers in as little as 30 minutes. The announcement comes at a time when many people are having groceries delivered for convenience and want their items to arrive quickly. Kroger Co. said Tuesday that the service, called Kroger Delivery Now, will offer 25,000 items and reach up to 50 million homes. The company, which has more than 2,700 stores, will offer the service for its namesake stores as well as Ralphs, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Fry’s, Mariano’s, and Smith’s locations. Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen said in a statement that the grocery chain had more than $10 billion in online sales last year and anticipates doubling its online sales and profitability rate by the end of 2023, with the delivery service helping to achieve that goal. Kroger and Instacart first partnered in 2017, with two-hour grocery delivery and now 30-minute delivery nationwide. Two years ago they added alcohol delivery to their services. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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AVIATION
Ryanair to add 5,000 jobs as travel rebounds
Ryanair plans to create 5,000 European jobs over the next five years as the airline returns to growth following the coronavirus slump. The Dublin-based carrier will need to add aviation crew to meet demand from an expanded Boeing Co. 737 fleet, unit Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wilson said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday. The airline expects passenger numbers to more than double to 200 million a year by 2025, after the addition of 210 Boeing 737 Max narrow-bodies, he said. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Mistrial declared in Backpage.com trial
PHOENIX — A judge declared a mistrial Tuesday at the trial of the founders of the lucrative classified site Backpage.com on charges of facilitating prostitution and laundering money after deciding prosecutors had too many references to child sex trafficking in a case where no one faced such a charge. Michael Lacey and James Larkin were accused of taking part in a scheme to knowingly sell ads for sex on the site. US District Judge Susan Brnovich said that the cumulative effect of the child sex trafficking references made by prosecutors in opening statements and by witnesses for the government “is something that I can’t overlook and will not overlook.” Lacey and Larkin said the site never allowed ads for sex and used people and automated tools to try to delete such ads. While prosecutors say the site published many ads that depicted children who were victims of sex trafficking, no one in the federal case in Arizona is charged with sex trafficking or child sex trafficking. The new trial date was set for Oct. 5. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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CREDIT CARDS
Amex Platinum cards still a draw despite hefty fee
American Express customers are sticking with the tony Platinum card even after the company decided to ratchet up the annual fee. AmEx earlier this year revamped many of the rewards on its Platinum product — from adding $200 in annual hotel credits to offering deals for chartering private jets — as part of a broad revamp of the card. It also increased the annual fee to $695 from $550. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
INTERNATIONAL
UK delays Brexit border checks on food amid supply chain problems
The UK delayed new post-Brexit border checks on food from the European Union to mitigate a supply chain crisis in a move that was immediately criticized as handing the bloc’s producers a competitive advantage. Physical inspections of EU food imports due to start in January 2022 will now happen in July 2022, Brexit minister David Frost said in a Tuesday statement. A requirement to pre-notify border staff of arriving food products has also been delayed, he said. Introducing the new import checks was expected to add extra pressure to supply lines at a time when supermarkets are already struggling with shortages. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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AVIATION
Boeing optimistic about industry recovery from pandemic
Boeing said Tuesday that the airline industry is showing signs of recovering from the pandemic, and the company is bullishly predicting a $9 trillion market over the next decade for airline and military planes and other aerospace products and services. The company’s outlook outlook is even rosier than the one it gave in 2019, before the pandemic, when it predicted industrywide sales of $8.7 billion market over the next decade. An average of 1.85 million passengers boarded planes in the US each a day in August, up from about 700,000 per day last year. However, that was still down 23 percent from the 2.4 million daily average in August 2019, according to government figures. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
INTERNATIONAL
South Korea fines Google for abusing market position
South Korea’s antitrust watchdog will fine Google nearly $177 million for using its dominant market position to prohibit other companies from building out alternatives to its Android operating system. Tuesday’s order from the Korea Fair Trade Commission is the latest in regulatory efforts attempting to rein in tech giant’s influence over consumer technology. It prohibits the tech giant from requiring smartphone makers to sign ‘’anti-fragmentation” agreements when signing contracts with Google over app store licenses. The agreements ostensibly are meant to reduce software incompatibilities that could cause devices to malfunction. A Google spokesperson said the compatibility program ‘’has led to greater choice, quality and a better user experience for Korean consumers,’’ adding that Tuesday’s decision ‘’ignores these benefits, and will undermine the advantages enjoyed by consumers.’’ The company plans to appeal. — WASHINGTON POST
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