Seven years after opening its first store in Italy, Domino’s Pizza is reportedly departing with its tail between its legs.
Key points:
The chain’s last 29 Italian franchises have reportedly closed
Domino’s thought its delivery model would give it a slice of the market in Italy
But the rise of other food delivery services during the pandemic took away its advantage
The last of the chain’s 29 Italian stores has shut down, according to a Bloomberg news report.
The company opened its first stores in Italy in 2015 with ambitious plans.
It was planning to open 880 stores and control about 2 per cent of the Italian pizza market by2030, Italian CEO Alessandro Lazzaroni told Italian economics and finance news platform Money.it in 2019.
“There’s a lot of pizza, but there’s not a lot of delivered pizza,” Domino’s chief executive Patrick Doyle said at the time.
“So there may still be an opportunity.”
However, the rise of delivery services such as Deliveroo, Just Eat and Glovo took away any advantage the American company thought it would have, according to a report to investors in 2021.
Many shops on Domino’s Italian website were marked as permanently closed on Wednesday, while others did not appear to be accepting orders.
Domino’s Pizza has over 18,500 stores worldwide in at least 90 countries. The greatest number of stores, outside of the United States, are in India, followed by the United Kingdom and Japan.
You know when you see somebody playing a game and think to yourself, ‘Wow, I would be so incredibly great at this,’ and you walk through life holding that opinion of yourself, just waiting for the right opportunity to provide yourself to someone who do you care? Yeah, me too.
There have been countless times where I’ve seen a trailer for a game or watched somebody stream themselves playing it, and for some unknown reason, I suddenly think that I would become the greatest gamer to live and crush the game and bring actual tears to those who watched me play it.
Have I ever actually played any of those games to prove that hypothesis? No, not at all. I just let the ego grow until it’s actually insufferable having to listen to myself think about how great I’d be at them.
I should probably preface this entire article with the fact that I am an extreme perfectionist with a crippling fear of failure (how quirky and unique of me). That basically means that I need everything I do to be flawless (unachievable) and that if I start something, I need to be immediately good at it (unattainable). Please keep this in mind while you read this list of games that I just assumed I’d be good at without ever playing them.
I also want to point out that whilst I’m poking fun at these games, I am intensely jealous of those who are actually good at them. I envy you, beautiful gamers.
5 games I’d be good at, with no proof whatsoever
The Quarry
Image: 2K/Playstation
now listen, The Quarry is a game I’m reasonably confident I’d be good at. Spectacular at, even.
My reasoning for this all boils down to the same cliche that everyone always says, that I’m obsessed with horror/slasher movies and, therefore, I’d know how to survive one.
I think I just heard the collective groan from the audience but hear me out. I’m different, okay? Lo prometo. I’m not like all the other girls!
I like to believe that I make smart decisions, and I’ve watched a lot of slasher films, so I think I’d have a pretty good chance of surviving. Plus, I give off tremendous final girl energy. But, again, that assumption is based on nothing else besides my own juicy ego.
And before you shout at me, I know there are alternate endings in The Quarry. So how can you really be that great at it when there are many different ways to play and end the game? Well, my answer to that hateful question is that I just feel it deep in my soul that I would get a good storyline and make it to the end.
To put my ego to the test, I actually bought The Quarry the other day because it seems like such a Me type of game.
However, every time I went to put the disc in, I was overcome by a cacophony of voices that told me how soul-crushing it would be if I were bad at this game. It was at that point that my hands started to tremble, sweat started dripping off my brow, and I was frozen in fear. ‘What if I am bad at this?’ I thought to myself. ‘How could I possibly deal with myself? How could I continue working for a gaming journalism site if I couldn’t play a simple slasher game?’ I then dropped to the floor, disc still in hand, and curled up into the fetal position for roughly an hour.
Anyways, how was your weekend?
FIFA
Image: EA/Playstation
FIFA is actually a game that I have played and have failed at.
Wow, being so vulnerable on here with all of you is hard.
Before you ask, yes, I did think that I’d be good at this game without having any prior knowledge of FIFA besides the fact it was a virtual soccer game. It also did not help that my brother was incredible at it, which made sense because soccer has been his entire life. But this didn’t seem to be the case for me.
I mostly believed I’d be good at this game because otherwise, my six years of playing soccer would be for nothing.
I originally thought my being bad at FIFA had something to do with being a flaming homosexual, and that felt okay with me because there’s nothing I can do to fix that. But then, when I started meeting more queer gamers, I realized that perhaps the issue, for once, was me and not my sexuality.
The revelation was earth-shattering. The ground beneath me started crumbling, and I questioned my very existence. How could it possibly be my fault? Those laborious six years of soccer were, in fact, for nothing. What was the point of playing the game in real life if I couldn’t excel at it?
I understand that physical capabilities don’t necessarily translate into video games, but I also feel there’s no way I could be bad at it.
It also baffles me how bad I was at it when I first played it. Like how is that even possible? You’re literally kicking a ball around on a screen. How did I manage not to be good at that?
But even though I used to play and was horrifically awful at it, I still hold the belief that if I played it again, I would be exceptional. Should I ever play FIFA again, I would be the second coming of Messi, a virtual Messi. To Vessi, if you will. (I was also workshopping Virssi, but that lowkey sounds like a disease, so I’ll keep working on that).
Maybe I’ll play FIFA 23 purely because Sam Kerr is on the cover of it.
Fortnite
Image: Epic Games / PlayStation
The biggest reason I think I’d obliterate Fortnite is that there was a moment where everyone was obsessed with it, so it must be a pretty easy game. That’s how that works, right?
Honestly, it was probably because I wanted to fit in, so I told everyone I had played it and was great at it, and I got so caught up in the lie that I just started to believe it myself.
My dirty little secret, however, is that I have never played Fortnite nor attempted to. And if I did have to play it, I’d probably be terrible at it.
But really, how hard can it be? Don’t you just go around shooting people and climbing things? Sounds easy to me. Please don’t tell me it’s hard; just let me live in my fantasy world where two things are true—one that it’s easy, and two that I’d come first every time.
Also, the fact that literal children were winning further proves to me that I should, hypothetically, be fantastic at Fortnite.
Grand Theft Auto V
Image: Rockstar Games/Playstation
It must be said: I love crime.
Just kidding! Please don’t arrest me.
But there is something about simulated crime on a video game that I just feel speaks to my soul. Have I ever committed a crime in my life? No. Do I get crippling anxiety that I’ve broken every law possible when a cop walks past me? Yes, yes, I do.
Despite that, the allure of Grand Theft Auto appeals to me despite me having never played it. But from seeing others play it and clips of gameplay online, I reckon I’d have a pretty good go at it. You’re just driving around and robbing people, right? That’s basically what I do on the sims.
A big part of my reasoning for not playing Grant Theft Auto but believing I’d be good at it is because I’ve seen so much online that I feel like I already have played the game.
I also am worried that, given recent controversies, the allure of GTA is bigger than what it actually is and that if I play it, I won’t be able to live in my fantasy world anymore.
Grand Touring
Image: Sony/Playstation
My thoughts about the Grand Touring franchise mirror those I have for FIFA. David might virtually beat me up for saying this, but how hard is it to drive a car around a track in a game? (Editor’s note: I am preparing a five-page rant as we speak — David)
I also fear that I lack a general level of understanding about racing, so my ignorance bleeds into Grand Touring because, again, is it that hard to just like, drive? (Editor’s note: I’m fine. I’m fine. – David)
Here are my reasons for thinking I’d be good at GT:
I learned how to drive in Sydney, a notoriously awful place to drive
My Corolla goes vroom, and I get happy
I have the need, the need for speed (I’m so sorry)
Again, car + track = Grand Tourism. I dropped maths in high school, but that seems like a simple equation to me
(Editor’s note: I take it all back, you’ve actually cleared the bar to be a Supercars driver by quite a way — David)
Will I ever play these games? Maybe.
Will I actually be good at them? Probably not.
Does that determine me from wanting to play them so I can keep my ego intact and live in a fantasy world where I am the greatest gamer ever to grace this broken earth? Yes, absolutely.
But I want to hear from you, the people, my fellow ego-driven gamers; what games did you just assume you’d be great at? Are you actually great at it? Let me know in the comments below!
Sydney Roosters hooker Sam Verrills has elected to move on from the Tri-colours to sign a two-year deal with the Gold Coast Titans.
The Roosters 2019 grand final hero will officially join the club from November 1 and is locked in for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Verrills has made 43 appearances for the Roosters since making his NRL debut three years ago.
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Roosters hooker Sam Verrills. (NRL Imagery)
The Titans have been active in the player market after a tough 2022 season, also acquiring Manly veteran Kieran Foran. Gold Coast coach Justin Holbrook said the club’s prime motive heading into next year is to revitalize their spine.
“Sam has great vision and is a real threat from that hooker position,” Holbrook said.
“He’s learned his craft under Origin hooker Jake Friend and has been able to really shine in that number nine jersey for the Roosters in recent seasons.
Kieran Foran will also join the Titans. (Brett Costello/NRL Imagery)
“We’ve got a great experience joining our spine next year with the arrival of Kieran Foran and our key positions will be further bolstered with Sam’s arrival.
“When you add those two players to our mix of exciting young players who have come through our pathway programs here on the Coast like AJ Brimson, Jayden Campbell and Toby Sexton, we’re really confident with the squad we are building for next year and beyond.”
Verrills departure has seemed inevitable since the Roosters signed Storm star Brandon Smith earlier this year.
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The backstories and controversies that have ignited feuds involving athletes
MEXICO CITY (AP) — They call him “El Jefe,” he is at least 12 years old and his crossing of the heavily guarded US-Mexico border has sparked celebrations on both sides.
“El Jefe” — or “The Boss” — is one of the oldest jaguars on record along the frontier, one of few known to have crossed a border partly lined by a wall and other infrastructure to stop drug traffickers and migrants, and the one believed to have traveled the farthest, say ecologists of the Borderlands Linkages Initiative, a binational collaboration of eight conservation groups.
That assessment is based on photographs taken over the years. Jaguars can be identified by their spots, which serve as a kind of unique fingerprint.
The rare northern jaguar’s ability to cross the border suggests that despite increased impediments, there are still open corridors and if they are kept open “it is feasible (to conserve) the jaguar population in the long term,” said Juan Carlos Bravo of the Wildlands Network, one of those groups in the initiative.
But some fear for the Jaguars’ future. Although it was the government of President Donald Trump that reinforced and expanded the border wall with Mexico, the Biden administration has announced plans for closing four gaps between the US state of Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora — the two states the jaguars traverse.
Conservationists do not know how many jaguars there are in the Sierra Madre Occidental, but of the 176 that have been identified over two decades by the Northern Jaguar Project — another group in the initiative — only two others besides “El Jefe” are known to have crossed the border, Bravo said. In one case, conservationists are not sure if the jaguar crossed the border alive or dead since only its skin was found.
The first photograph of “El Jefe” was taken by a hunter southeast of Tucson, Arizona, in 2011, Bravo said. The jaguar became famous in Arizona and a local school named him “El Jefe.” Motion sensor cameras installed in transit areas photographed the jaguar in Arizona again in 2012 and in 2015.
Conservationists were stunned when they confirmed that a photograph taken by another member of the coalition, Profauna, last November in the center of Sonora was “El Jefe.” The discovery meant not only that jaguars could still cross the border but that other jaguars had lost track of could also still be alive, the initiative said in a statement.
Hunted in the southwestern United States for rewards offered by the government to promote cattle ranching, they were thought to have disappeared from the US by the end of the 20th century. Jaguar populations are currently concentrated on Mexico’s Pacific coast, southeastern Mexico, Central America and central South America.
A sighting of jaguars in the United States in 1996 prompted studies that found a reproductive point in the center of Sonora.
The NGOs banded together to operate on both sides of the border to track the cats, create sanctuaries, understand where they moved and seek the support of landowners in the US and Mexico to protect them, Bravo said.
Besides the difficulty of determining where to put cameras to record the animals and the subsequent analysis of the images, conservationists in Mexico face another problem: drug cartels.
“There is a presence of armed groups and drug traffickers” who pass through the same isolated areas as the jaguars, Bravo said by telephone from Sonora. “It is important to move carefully, work with the people in the communities that tell us where not to go. … All of this is making it very, very complicated.”
The border is the main challenge for hopes to repopulate the American Southwest with jaguars, with walls impeding movement by those animals as well as the American antelope, the black bear and the Mexican wolf, Bravo said. Light towers and the roads used by the Border Patrol are also a problem, I added.
It’s time we fixed consumer protection laws surrounding travel cancellations.
The past three years have been the ultimate stress test of our travel rules and regulations, as tens of thousands of trips have been ruined – first by government lockdowns and then, this winter, by labor shortages – and our consumer laws have been found wanting.
A Choice survey found one-quarter of all pandemic-related travel vouchers expired before they could be used.Credit:
It is not that consumer protections don’t exist, but multiple laws are operating in tandem, creating a seemingly impenetrable legal minefield for many travellers.
The overarching Australian Consumer Law sets out rights called consumer guarantees. These include your rights to a repair, replacement or refund, as well as compensation for damages and loss, and being able to cancel a faulty service.
The law also guarantees that services, including airfares and accommodation, must be provided “within a reasonable time”. So, if an airline cancels your flight and cannot put you on another within a reasonable period of time, you are probably entitled to a refund.
You might even be entitled to compensation for “consequential loss” – if you are out of pocket because you have missed bookings made at your destination.
However, a big problem is that there is no set definition of “reasonable time:” What if you think one hour is reasonable while the airline thinks six hours is reasonable?
The next problem is: There is no clear definition of what entitles you to compensation. Nowhere is it written down. Consumers are simply told it depends “on the individual circumstances” of their booking and cancellation.
So, we are expected to contact the airline (if we can get through on the phone, which can sometimes take hours), and then to know enough about consumer law to negotiate a refund from a large, sophisticated business.
Blizzard has announced when loot boxes will be phased out of Overwatch in anticipation of the new Battle Pass system.
The announcement was quietly mentioned in a blog post about the Overwatch Anniversary Remix Volume 3 event. The company confirmed that the loot boxes would “no longer be available for sale” come August 30th.
However, the post notes that you’ll still be able to earn standard loot boxes after the Remix event.
Overwatch 2 – Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase 2022
This Anniversary Remix event is Blizzard’s way of “cleaning house” of sorts, allowing players to earn (or buy) cosmetics before Overwatch 2 launches on October 4, 2022. This includes skins and cosmetics from previous Overwatch Challenge events.
Players will also be able to participate in “brawls” and relive certain game types such as past story missions such as Uprising and Storm Rising and past Summer Games modes like Lucioball.
Blizzard formally announced that loot boxes were going away in June, replacing them with a battle pass and in-game store. The company said they wanted to give players “a lot more control over how they interact with the game and acquire new content.”
Loot boxes have long been a controversial subject in the gaming industry. Games such as Overwatch, Call of Duty, and EA Sports franchises have been criticized for their monetization methods. Additionally, there have been links found between loot boxes and gambling.
Fortunately, it seems Blizzard wants to get away from those tactics and stick with a more fair method of dolling out skins and cosmetics (maybe). In fact, Blizzard confirmed that all unopened loot boxes in Overwatch will automatically open before the launch of Overwatch 2.
Overwatch 2 releases this year on October 4th and will completely replace the original Overwatch. Check out the major differences between the original game and the sequel.
David Matthews is a freelance writer specializing in consumer tech and gaming. He also strongly believes that sugar does not go in grits. Follow him on Twitter @packetstealer
The cricket world has been paying tribute to Rudi Koertzen, the South African umpire famous for his long, slow finger of fate upon giving a player out, after he died in a car crash aged 73.
A hugely popular umpire on the global circuit, Koertzen officiated in 331 international matches during an 18-year career – a record at the time and one that has since been broken by Aleem Dar of Pakistan – before his retirement in 2010.
News of Koertzen’s death broke on Tuesday morning when South Africa’s men emerged for the first morning of their four-day warmup match against England Lions in Canterbury wearing black armbands. “Koertzen’s status as a legend of the game will live on for ever,” Cricket South Africa said in a statement.
According to reports in South Africa, the former umpire was one of four people killed in a head-on collision while driving back from Cape Town to his home in Despatch, Eastern Cape, after a golf weekend with friends.
Dar, who like Koertzen is one of three ICC elite umpires to stand in more than 100 Tests, told ESPNCricinfo: “It is a very big loss foremost for his family and then for South Africa and cricket.
“I stood in so many games with him. He was not only very good as an umpire but also an excellent colleague, always very cooperative on the field and also always willing to help off the field. Because of the way he was, he was also well respected by players.”
Kumar Sangakkara, the great Sri Lankan batter, was among the former players who shared their thoughts, tweeting: “Saddened at the tragic loss of Rudi Koertzen. What a wonderful friend and umpire. Honest, forthright and loved the game. Shared many a beer at the bar talking cricket with him. RIP my friend.”
As well as his trademark slow raising of the finger that prolonged the agony for batters and added to the theatre, Koertzen was well known to supporters in the UK as the umpire who ceremoniously removed the bails at the end of the 2005 Ashes.
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Koertzen, who worked in the construction industry before becoming a full-time umpire in 1993, signed off from top-level officiating during the 2011 Indian Premier League but still stood in matches for his local club, Despatch CC.
A statement from the club read: “A legend in his own right passed away this morning and will definitely leave a great void in the cricket world. We want to express our heartfelt sympathy and empathy to Uncle Rudi Koertzen’s family and loved ones.”
The first sitting of the new federal parliament agreed against the backdrop of a world in turmoil, reinforcing both the limitations and possibilities of an Albanese government.
As Labor took charge, China was firing missiles off Taiwan while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was putting pressure on a global economy already cleaving under the stress of the pandemic.
The global village that emerged after the cold war is imploding in the face of populist nationalism, fueled by the inherent unfairness of the neoliberal project and forcing societies to seek refuge behind national borders that have never been weaker.
Despite their trappings of power, the levers at the hands of our leaders are limited. After four decades of methodically stripping back the powers of the state, so much of this geopolitical buffering is now outside the control of any individual government.
The Albanese government risks becoming a victim of this crossroads moment in history, when the gap between public expectation and the reality of what government can control has become a chasm.
The latest Essential Report shows that cost of living is emerging as a major challenge for voters, with nearly everyone saying it is concerning them.
But even more worrying will be findings which show most people think the government has the sort of control over the economy that the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, could only dream of.
In your view, how much influence do you think the federal government has on the following
The majority of respondents regard the economy as the product of a set of levers that our elected leaders choose to pull. But right now, debt, unemployment and workplace supply are all hostage to the pandemic; inflation and fuel prices are driven by a foreign war; While the easing of interest rates is the decision of the Reserve Bank of Australia, an independent body.
Compounding this mismatch between perception and reality is our appetite for the government to meet its spending commitments on aged care, early learning, women’s safety and the NDIS – while also reducing the budget deficit.
This crowded list of expectations flows from the “small target” strategy from before the election that further ties the government’s hands by committing to the Morrison government’s tax cuts that disproportionately favor the very rich.
As Jim Chalmers conceded in his budget update, there is not much the government can do but hunker down as inflation runs rampant, wages lag profits and interest rates rise – and pray the world stabilizes.
The one thing tit can control is the moral legitimacy it carries into these urgent global conversations after the previous government managed to have Australia all but shunned from polite global society.
Scott Morrison managed to unify the French, the post-Trump US administration, the Pacific and China with mutual disdain – a truly comprehensive lack of diplomacy.
It is already clear that Australia’s willingness to end its internal climate wars and legislate a more ambitious 2030 target (a floor, not a ceiling) has raised our stocks internationally with Pacific nations, the regions and global forums.
On first blush, the proposed voice to parliament which the prime minister articulated at the Garma festival in Arnhem Land last month might seem a sidebar to these global machinations.
But our response to the invitation of First Nations peoples to make peace, first issued five years ago in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, will frame our legitimacy as a credible nation-state every bit as much as our position on climate change.
This week’s report shows a growing majority of Australians ready to RSVP to the invitation embodied in the Uluru Statement from the Heart to enable a direct Indigenous voice to the federal parliament to address the “torment of our powerless”.
A voice to parliament is a body enshrined in the constitution that would enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to provide advice to the parliament on policies and projects that impact their lives. Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice?
These figures show the conditions to build a genuine consensus around a voice are strong, with majority support for a voice already registered by Labor, Coalition, Green and unaligned voters alike.
Labor has a strong record of confronting if not totally reconciling our history: Whitlam’s iconic hand back of land to Vincent Lingiari, Paul Keating’s Redfern truth-telling and Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generation.
The Coalition has not covered themselves with the same glory, weaponizing the landmark Mabo and Wik high court decisions to foment division, militarizing the response to Indigenous community breakdown. But most of their voters want them to be better.
The Greens are demanding more long-term ambition around the Treaty and truth-telling but, as with climate change, they must recognize that their voters expect them to support the immediate advances on the table.
This leaves self-appointed “No” campaigner Pauline Hanson to stand in the way of constitutional change. Finding a way to respond to her fear and confusion with the open heart that lies at the center of the Makarrata will help build the path to the necessary majority.
Contrary to the braying from some on the right, the voice is not about symbolism. It’s about the sort of nation we will be as the world begins to understand itself as a collection of nation-states again.
Ukraine has shown the value of strong nationhood in an uncertain world, the commitment of ordinary citizens to take up arms and hold back what seems to be an unrelenting tide. Taiwan, too; its citizens’ engagement with government is recognized as world-leading.
Australia’s role in the world will be tested in the years to come. Addressing the weight of history that sees our first peoples the most incarcerated on the planet will heal us in ways we haven’t even imagined.
A 26-year-old off-duty Monterey Park police officer shot and killed in Downey Monday afternoon has been identified.
Gardiel Solorio was hired as a police recruit earlier this year and had just started field training in late July.
Monterey Park Police Department Chief Kelly Gordon described the Bell Gardens native as being hardworking, dedicated and family oriented. He is survived by his parents, brothers, sisters and fiancé.
Solorio had a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Cal State LA, he strived to be a good role model for his nephews and wanted to make an impact on the community, Gordon said.
“Right now our main focus is making sure that the person who did this is brought to justice and the investigation is allowed to take place the way it needs to take place,” Gordon said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Downey police responded to an LA Fitness in the 12000 block of Lakewood Boulevard around 3:30 pm to find a man down in the parking lot with gunshot wounds.
Solorio was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators are still trying to determine if there was a confrontation prior to the shooting, or an exchange of gunfire.
Overnight, a number of law enforcement agencies came together to honor the fallen officer during a procession to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office in Boyle Heights.
The Downey Police Department is leading the investigation but has not released any suspect information or possible motive for the shooting.
Police released no new details about the shooting during the news conference.
The shooting has community members concerned.
“It just makes my stomach hurt … My prayers are to the family,” LA Fitness member Christina Baca said.
Detectives are asking witnesses to come forward and call the Downey Police Department with any information.
Shoppers who have active, young kids to keep busy are excited over a new outdoor range from Kmart that features a climbing ramp and slide.
A photo series shared by blogger Oh So Busy Mum to Facebook showed mud kitchen, a climbing ramp and slide and hopscotch mat.
“Wow! Kmart Australia have some fantastic outdoor play items at the moment,” the photos were captioned.
The giant hopscotch mat retails for $16, while a wooden climbing frame sells for $39, an adjustable basketball hoop is going for $59 and 4 balance beams also sold for $16.
Parents were extremely excited about the range and what it would mean for their children.
One social media user commented: “My son has Autism Spectrum Disorder and we have spent a fortune on therapy equipment over the years.
“Most of these items are just as good and for such a better price.”
Another said: Go Kmart! It’s so good to see that they have more things to encourage kids to be and playing inside and outside instead of being still and sitting around playing video games/iPads/watching TV.”
Another added: “They have some great things. Now if it’d just stop raining long enough to dry out the backyard to be able to play outside.”
One eager shopper revealed they had already gotten their hands on some of the outdoor equipment.
The social media user said: “Have a heap of the outdoor equipment already put away for Xmas.
“Found a lot on sale in June so grabbed some. Lucky have room in the shed.”
The buzz around the range is growing, with Kmart announcing it has plans to expand the range.
A Kmart spokeswoman told news.com.au: “Over recent years, our Kmart outdoor range has continued to grow in popularity and we are currently expanding these ranges.
“In particular, we have seen huge demand for our kids development, soft play and wooden development products and we have a number of new exciting products in these ranges coming soon both in stores and online.”
