The sneaker wall at a Foot Locker

Bethany Biron/Business Insider

• As Nike’s eased back at places like Foot Locker, it’s opened up shelf space for more brands.
• Formerly niche brands like Hoka are expanding beyond specialty channels.
• Sizable competitors like Lululemon also are pushing harder into footwear.

For years, Nike and Adidas dominated the sneaker walls at shopping malls and sporting goods stores.

Expect that to change in 2023.

As Nike pulls back from some of its biggest retail partners and focuses on direct sales, it’s opening up shelf space for competitors. Wall Street analysts who spoke with Insider said that means several upstarts could be filling more shelves next year. 

“You have a lot of brands that have had a very narrow distribution but are rapidly growing their brand awareness and are now expanding into bigger retailers that will give these brands so much more visibility,” Wedbush analyst Tom Nikic told Insider. 

Hoka sneakers

Hoka One One

“There are so many more doors they can go into”

Hoka, which is owned by Deckers, historically has been sold at running stores. But that’s changing.

“They entered Dick’s Sporting Goods one or two years ago, but they’re still in less than 20% of Dick’s doors,” Nikic said. “They just entered Foot Locker over the summer and are only in a small slice of their massive store footprint. They’re not in Academy Sports, the second-biggest sporting goods retailer in the country, they’re not in Finish Line yet. There are so many more doors they can go into, which should cause the brand awareness to keep growing and growing.”

Nikic said On and Hey Dude could follow similar trajectories next year. 

In a recent note, Williams Trading analyst Sam Poser said Hey Dude could hit $1 billion in fiscal year 2022 sales. Poser recently met with the management of Crocs, which bought Hey Dude this year. 

“We came away from our meetings confident that the Crocs brand will realize its 2026, $5 billion revenue target, and that Hey Dude, if managed well, which we expect, has sales opportunities that exceed that of Crocs,” Poser wrote. 

Nikic noted Crocs already is sold by a lot of retailers, which could help get Hey Dude on shelves everywhere from family footwear stores to Foot Locker locations.

A Lululemon Blissfeel sneaker

Lululemon

“Keep an eye on Lululemon’s nascent footwear business”

Lululemon launched its footwear line this year. It exceeded the brand’s expectations. 

“Keep an eye on Lululemon’s nascent footwear business,” Nikic told Insider. “They’re planning a slow, cautious ramp-up of that business, which just launched nine months ago. But as one of the few ‘female-first’ sneaker brands out there, they have potential to make a lot of headway in the category by serving a demographic that might feel under-served by the broader sneaker industry.”

Poonam Goyal, senior e-commerce and athleisure analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, is less bullish on Lululemon’s footwear.

“They have a long way to go,” she said, noting how rivals like Nike and Adidas have decades more experience making performance sneakers.

But she continues to be impressed with the brand. 

“Lululemon is just one of those retailers that continues to deliver,” she told Insider. “The execution has been there.”

Bethany Biron/Business Insider

“We spent a lot of time with Mary Dillon and her team at Foot Locker”

In 2017, Nike announced its Consumer Direct Offense, which focuses on direct sales. In 2020, Nike ramped up the effort, renaming the plan the Consumer Direct Acceleration.

As part of the focus on direct sales, Nike cut 50% of its wholesale accounts since 2018, splitting with thousands of retailers and pulling back products from others, including Foot Locker. That’s opened up shelf space for more brands. 

But that dynamic is changing. Nike’s no longer cutting accounts, and it’s working more deeply on connecting its inventory with a handful of partners, reemphasizing the importance of its wholesale partners.

That includes Mary Dillon, the new CEO of Foot Locker. In September, Nike hosted its wholesale partners at its Oregon headquarters for the first time in three years, CEO John Donahoe said on a December earnings call. 

“This quarter, we spent a lot of time with Mary Dillon and her team at Foot Locker,” Donahoe added. “There’s a lot of excitement, I would say, with our wholesale partners and what we can accomplish together.”

A Walmart store.

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

• The single-use bag policy will go into effect on New Year’s Day in Colorado and Jan. 18 in New York.
• Walmart has been touting this effort since at least 2020, collaborating with both Target and CVS.
• Customers can buy reusable bags at Walmart from 74 cents to $3.98, depending on the size and function.

If you’re a Walmart shopper in Colorado or New York, you better be ready to bring your own bag to the retailer — or be ready to spend a little extra. 

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant will stop offering single-use bags, both plastic and paper, in its New York and Colorado stores in January 2023, a Walmart spokesperson confirmed with Insider. The policy will go into effect on New Year’s Day in Colorado and on Jan. 18 in New York.

Instead, customers in those two states will either have to bring their own bags to the retailer, or they will have the option to purchase some at the store. Reusable bags range from 74 cents to $3.98 depending on size and functionality, per a graphic from Walmart.

New York and Colorado will join three other states — New Jersey, Maine, and Vermont — where Walmart has eliminated single-use bags as part of a greater sustainability effort.

“Eliminating single-use bags is part of our commitment to achieve zero waste across our operations and ultimately shift gradually toward a circular economy built on advancing reuse, refill and recycling habits,” Walmart spokeswoman Lauren Willis told Insider.

Walmart will sell reusable bags in states where it has banned single-use bags. The prices for these bags range from 74 cents to $3.98.

Walmart

Walmart has been pushing to be more sustainable with its bags since at least 2020. 

In the summer of that year, Walmart announced in a blog post that it was joining forces with Target and CVS in the “Beyond the Bag” initiative, which is being spearheaded by sustainability focused investment firm Closed Loop Partners. The goal of the initiative is to “identify, test and implement innovative new design solutions that serve the function of today’s single-use plastic retail bag, according to the initiative’s website.

“While the convenience of the plastic retail bag cannot be disputed, the average working life of one of these bags is only 12 minutes,”  then-Walmart Director of Sustainability Anna Vinogradova wrote in the blog post. “It’s estimated that 100 billion plastic bags are being used annually in the U.S. alone, and less than 10 percent of them are recycled.”

In the states in which Walmart has or will be eliminating single-use bags, legislatures have already passed laws that ban single-use plastic bags and require retailers to charge a fee for, or outright ban, single-use paper bags.

Walmart has set a goal “to achieve zero waste” in its own operations in the US and Canada by 2025. It’s unclear if that includes eliminating single-use plastic bags at all stores. A Walmart spokesperson did not respond to questions on that goal and if Walmart would ban single-use bags in any other states in 2023.

Do you live in Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, Colorado, or New York and have thoughts on Walmart’s ban of single-use bags? Contact the reporter Ben Tobin by email at btobin@insider.com or on Signal at +1 703-498-9171.

Lisa Frank.

LBF Strategies

• Veteran recruiter Lisa Frank says many Gen Z workers lack professional maturity and context.
• Negotiations should happen over the phone or video, she says, to show your excitement for a job.
• She also says Gen Zers should find mentors and not let a slightly lower salary deter them.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lisa B. Frank, the CEO of recruitment firm LBF Strategies. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve been recruiting in the public relations, communications, and marketing space since 2006, and I’ve had my own firm where I recruit nationally and at all levels for 10 years. I also offer career-coaching services where I help people navigate their job search.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve started seeing Gen Z workers enter the job market.

Right now is the most intense job market that I’ve ever recruited in — even more intense than the 2008-2009 recession. Earlier this year, it was a candidate’s market, but right now there’s a lot of uncertainty about how a recession will impact the job market. So far we’ve largely seen it affecting tech, but other sectors are considering their resourcing, too.

Salary ranges are likely to come down a little bit after inflating earlier this year, and that’s most likely to affect Gen Zers with one to four years of job experience, as they tend to be paid the least.

Gen Z is struggling with a lack of context in the job market

The main issue with Gen Z is not asking too much or too little, but not knowing how to ask and whom to ask for what they want. Gen Zers really only have the context of maybe their roommates or their parents to guide them because many of them came out of school after we went into lockdown.

What I’m seeing over and over again is that there’s a gap in professional socialization — and sometimes professional maturity. They simply haven’t grown up sitting in an office with a boss who will say “meet this client” or “come into this meeting.” They also haven’t watched more experienced people handle a crisis situation.

The one thing I urge all Gen Z job seekers to do is to find a mentor. Mentors can help you identify your skill set and hone in on cultural fit.

There’s also a lack of knowledge on how to position yourself to ask for more money 

Often, when my clients ask for a certain amount of money, I’ll ask how they got there, and they’ll say that their dad told them to ask for that — or even a social-media influencer said this is what they should be asking for. There’s one TikTok influencer who coaches young people to always ask for more than $100,000.

When people tend to ask for too much, it’s usually because they’re unsure what they should be asking for. Sometimes, particularly for those in New York City, it’s based on their own cost of living and might not be industry appropriate.

I prefer to think about a job offer or negotiation as, “What’s the best way to get more empowerment?” Jobs are more than just a salary. Young people need to be conscious of whether the workplace aligns with their values, whether they want to be remote or hybrid, and whether it’s a good stepping stone for better jobs down the track.

Recently, I had a client who was fine with the compensation range we talked about. Then the company came forth with an offer within that compensation range, and she responded that she was highly insulted by the offer. She was only three years out of school.

I don’t want to sound negative — I believe wholeheartedly that candidates should be paid fairly. But there will be a disparity between where your skill set is and the salary you’re asking for, and it might make it very difficult for you to advance because your skill set has to grow into it.

When I coach people through a negotiation, I phrase it in a way that indicates how excited they are about the company and also leaves room for flexibility

If money is the most important factor in accepting the offer, what’s the amount you want or need? Be direct about what you’re asking for, and be mindful about what’s reasonable in your industry by consulting trade publications or associations in your field. A salary-expectation difference of up to $5,000 shouldn’t be a deal breaker. “I’d really like to be as close to $100,000 as possible” or “If we could get to $120,000, I’m ready to give notice today” are two ways to phrase it.

If you want a specific title, you could ask, “Would it be possible to do a review in three to six months with the option of a title promotion?” To nail down a certain start date, you could say, “I noticed that you included a start date that’s three weeks from now. I already have a week-long vacation planned for next month. Would you be open to me starting earlier and taking that time off next month?”

So much gets lost in translation with email. If you’re really excited about an opportunity, you want the hiring manager to hear the excitement and enthusiasm in your voice over the phone or on video. A formal offer letter should always reflect what was agreed upon during these conversations, so make sure you see it all in writing before you formally accept.

Hundreds of laptop-toting professionals line up outside the public library in the Ukrainian town of Irpin, desperate to get plugged in and online amid the latest energy blackout.

Boston corruption has always had tangled roots among organized crime, politics and crooked cops.

And today is the 58th anniversary of a little-remembered event that symbolizes just how depraved the situation was – and still to some degree is – in Boston, in Massachusetts and more generally the entire nation.

I was going over my files on Cadillac Frank Salemme, the Mafia boss who died in a federal prison hospital in Missouri at age 89 earlier this month. That was when I noticed his mention in Congressional testimony of a murder that took place exactly 58 years ago today.

Stevie Flemmi, Salemme’s partner, had an older brother, Jimmy the Bear, who was like his sibling a serial killer, even more bloodthirsty than the Rifleman.

Despite being serial killers, both Flemmis were paid informants of the FBI because… FBI. Nothing has changed, except the G-men getting ever more corrupt as the years go by.

Anyway, on Dec. 28, 1964, the Bear was sitting in a Ford Falcon on Harrison Avenue, on the Roxbury-South End line, with a small-time jailbird named George Ashe. High on something or another, Flemmi suddenly pulled out a gun and shot Ashe in the head.

Then the Bear stumbled out of the car and wandered off in search of another drink, or fix, or something. The problem was, as he murdered Ashe, across the street two uniformed Boston cops from what was then District 2 were watching him.

The cops had witnessed a murder, by a well-known local hoodlum and killer. The cops pondered the situation, and quickly made their decision. The compact car was on the corner of Mass Ave. If they pushed it across the street, it would be in District 4, in other words not their problem.

“It would be in another division and they wouldn’t have to investigate it, so they wouldn’t have to explain what they did,” said Salemme in his Congressional testimony.

And then Stevie Flemmi, who had a little convenience store on Dudley Street called Jay’s Spa, would return the favor. He’d do the right thing, with cash. Hey, it was Christmas, and as Whitey Bulger used to say, “Christmas is for cops and kids.”

As Flemmi himself explained a few years later in his official DEA-6 confession:

“Officers reported the incident directly to FLEMMI. FLEMMI promptly paid (redacted names) $1,000. FLEMMI then chastised his brother Jimmy and reminded him how lucky he was that he ran into two police officers who were friends.”

How lucky the Flemmis were! Not to mention the Bulgers! And in so many cases, they shared the same… friends.

As always, no arrests were made. Of course, not only the BPD but the FBI did know who’d clipped Ashe – Jimmy the Bear, informant BS-919-PC. The feds mentioned it matter-of-factly in a report a few months later, in which they also mentioned that the Bear had murdered Teddy Deegan.

(The G-men framed four guys for that Deegan hit, to protect BS-919-PC, among others.)

“That’s the era it was,” Frank Salemme explained to Congress, “anything for money, even murder. But the end justified the means. Like I think I said to you before, it wasn’t considered illegal to do that kind of thing, as crazy as that may sound today.”

Doesn’t sound crazy at all, Frank. Maybe today less than ever.

Look at what the FBI and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) did to shut down any attempts to tell the truth about Hunter Biden’s laptop, or the Russian collusion hoax, or about the overblown COVID conspiracy to destroy Donald Trump.

The Deep State, which was then mostly the FBI but since the Patriot Act is so much more, allowed the Flemmis and the Bulgers to carve out their criminal empires, in return for assorted favors.

Has anything really changed? The local FBI agents used to get jobs working at, say, utilities regulated by politicians whose brothers were serial killers. Now retiring agents get jobs at… Twitter. And at all the other Big Tech companies.

Only now the FBI isn’t just conducting unconstitutional wiretaps of gangsters. They’ve upped their game to trying to railroad presidents of the United States, not to mention anyone else who dares engage in WrongThink.

Providing explosives to hoods to blow up an investigative reporter, or de-platforming Alex Berenson for daring to tell the truth about Anthony Fauci – the difference is only in degrees.

Frank Salemme connected some of the dots, but obviously not nearly enough, or he wouldn’t have died in prison. That’s why his 2003 Congressional interview remains so fascinating.

He told how, after 17 years in prison for a bombing with Flemmi that the FBI snitch didn’t do a day for, he ran into John “Zip” Connolly, another infamous local hitman/FBI agent who’d been involved the generations of corruption in the local FBI office.

After his retirement, Zip had been hired by Boston Edison – think of it as the Twitter of its day. Another nationwide search!

Zip invited Cadillac Frank up to his swank offices in the Prudential Center for a chat, and was soon parading Cadillac Frank around like an exotic wild animal captured on safari.

“John could not wait to introduce me as Frank Salemme. He couldn’t wait!” Salemme told Congress.

Again, what exactly has changed? All these G-men – they’re “briefers.” They don’t solve crimes anymore, if they ever did. They just walk around with their chests puffed out, proud of rigging elections for the Democrats.

Fake tough guys, 95% of them

They brought down Donald Trump for Dementia Joe Biden, and as a reward they all got big jobs from Big Tech. Boston Edison may be gone, but today’s gigs are even sweeter.

I just wonder, though, who exactly they parade around their campuses in Silicon Valley now the way Zip used to show off Frank Salemme.

“I have a reputation up there. I’m in the paper like seven days a week, you know. Front page. Like I used to tell my son, I’m riding in a train and everybody stares at me. And he says, Pa, look, that’s the front page of the Herald, you’re on it.”

By the way, the intersection of Harrison and Mass Ave., where the Roxbury cops pushed the death car into District 4 – it’s not that far from Mass & Cass, is it?

The more things change….

Jimmy ‘The Bear’ Flemmi (File photo)

 

George Ashe

 

Francis P. “Cadillac Frank” Salemme

 

 

In the last few weeks, over a dozen U.S. states have banned TikTok from government devices, citing national security concerns. A similar bill was included in the omnibus spending bill, requiring the social media video app to be removed from the devices used by federal agencies. But addressing the concerns over how the Chinese government could coerce TikTok’s parent company to get access to Americans’ data raises interesting questions about the existing data protection and privacy frameworks in the U.S.

To discuss what is going on, Lawfare’s Fellow in Technology Policy and Law Eugenia Lostri sat down with Caitlin Chin, a fellow with the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who has been closely following these developments. They discussed why TikTok is considered a national security threat to the United States, why a ban might not be the right solution to this problem, and her recommendations for what a comprehensive data protection framework should look like.

It takes a lot to be a real American.

You can look the part, like Hulk Hogan, Kevin Costner in Yellowstone, or anyone who owns a Ford F-150. You can talk the talk, like Kid Rock, George W. Bush, or Larry the Cable Guy. But only real, true, honest-to-God Americans can walk the walk. Most men can’t walk the walk, even after a lifetime of breathing in that sweet, precious, musty American air. But for the rare few, the walk comes naturally.

Enter Alfonzo.

Alfonzo worked his tail off to get to the United States. He left his native Venezuela in the heat of summer, and through a series of long bus rides and onerous walks, he made it to Texas. And, with President Joe Biden’s open border, who can blame Alfonzo for deserting his communist hellhole of a home in favor of the Lone Star State? We certainly can’t.

But Alfonzo never really set foot in Texas. The second he arrived, the Texans threw him on a bus, and three days later he was in New York City’s Port Authority. The liberals may call it a “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants, but it didn’t feel like a sanctuary for Alfonzo. He had just $130 in his pocket, nowhere to go, and nothing to do. Surrounded by filth and homelessness, you have to imagine he was wondering whether it was all worth it.

But he was in the land of opportunity now, and opportunity immediately presented itself. Alfonzo was approached by a woman who wanted to spend the day with him.

That’s right. Merely five minutes after Alfonzo touched ground, a woman was asking him out on a date—and better yet, she was paying! Now sure, she was a reporter and was only taking Alfonzo out to interview him. And yes, through a translation app Alfonzo told the reporter that he was married and had kids. But she was also really nice to him. So when the reporter messaged Alfonzo to see whether he found a place to stay that night, our hero saw an opening.

He responded in the most American way possible. With a picture of his penis.

Alfonzo’s X-Rated Hail Mary didn’t work. The reporter—former Washington Free Beacon intern Emma-Jo Morris—is married, and Alfonzo isn’t exactly her type. But as any good reporter would, the Free Beacon-trained scribe wrote about her day with Alfonzo, ensuring that his ballsy move would live forever. The Free Beacon exclusively obtained the image, but we have opted to redact it for the safety of our readers.

Being an American is about taking risks and shooting your shot, even when the odds are stacked against you. Was it the safe play for George Washington to sneak across the Delaware on Christmas 1776? Nope. Did it take balls for Supreme Allied commander Dwight Eisenhower to storm Normandy in 1944? You’re damn right it did. Those men walked the walk and paved the road for Alfonzo to roll the dice in 2022.

And Morris says Alfonzo’s still trying, sending her pictures on the reg, including the below of Alfonzo wearing a shirt that says, “Love Needs No Translation.” Alas, they just don’t see eye to eye. (Well, they kinda did.)

Who knows whether illegal immigrant Alfonzo will ever become an American citizen. Honestly, we hope he never does. But for taking an American risk on his first day in the United States and going out on his limb, we’re proud to call Alfonzo a Washington Free Beacon Man of the Year.

The post 2022 Man of the Year: Illegal Immigrant Alfonzo appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Russian forces stepped up mortar and artillery attacks on the recently liberated city of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, Ukraine’s military said, while also exerting constant pressure along front lines in eastern regions of the country.

Russia fired 33 missiles from multiple rocket launchers at civilian targets in Kherson in the 24 hours to early Wednesday, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in its morning report. Russia denies targeting civilians.

Heavy fighting also persisted around the Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut, now largely in ruins, in the eastern province of Donetsk, and to its north, around the cities of Svatove and Kreminna in Luhansk province, where Ukrainian forces are trying to break Russian defensive lines.

Air raid sirens also sounded across Ukraine on Wednesday morning, officials said. Ukrainian social media reports said the nationwide alert may have been declared after Russian jets stationed in Belarus took off. Reuters was unable to immediately verify that information.

Britain’s defence ministry said in its latest update on the military situation in Ukraine that Russia had likely reinforced the Kreminna section of the frontline as it is logistically important to Moscow and has become relatively vulnerable following recent Ukrainian advances further west.

There is still no prospect of talks to end the war, now in its 11th month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is vigorously pushing a 10-point peace plan that envisages Russia fully respecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity and pulling out all its troops, something Moscow refuses to contemplate.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday he was open to negotiations but only on his terms, which include Ukraine accepting the loss of four regions – Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. Together, they comprise about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory.

“There has been very little change in terms of the front line but pressure from the enemy has intensified, both in terms of the numbers of men and the type and quantity of equipment,” said Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.

Zhdanov said that fighting had intensified with Russia deploying armoured vehicles and tanks.

Russian forces abandoned Kherson city last month in one of Ukraine’s most significant gains of the war. Kherson region, located at the mouth of the mighty Dnipro River and serving as gateway to Russian-annexed Crimea, is strategically important.

The joy of Kherson residents over the city’s liberation has quickly given way to fear amid relentless Russian shelling from the east bank of the Dnipro, and many have since fled.

Russian forces shelled the maternity wing of a hospital in Kherson, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Zelenskiy’s deputy chief of staff, said on Telegram. No one was hurt and the staff and patients had been moved to a shelter, he added.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the report.

A Russian strike killed at least 10 people and wounded 58 in Kherson last Saturday, Ukraine said.

In Wednesday’s report, Ukraine’s General Staff also reported further Russian shelling in Zaporizhzhia region and in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions of northeast Ukraine, near to the Russian border.

Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.

In Bakhmut, home to 70,000 people before the war and now a bombed-out ghost town, which Russia has been trying for months to storm at huge cost in lives, Reuters reporters this week saw fires burning in a large residential building. Debris littered the streets and the windows of most buildings were blown out.

“Our building is destroyed. There was a shop in our building, now it’s not there anymore,” said Oleksandr, 85, adding he was the only remaining resident there.

Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, calling it a “special military operation” to demilitarize his neighbour, which he said posed a threat to Russia.

Russia set out to subdue Ukraine within days, but its forces were defeated on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, in the spring and forced to withdraw from other areas in the autumn.

Putin responded by summoning hundreds of thousands of reservists for the first time since World War Two.

On Tuesday Putin retaliated against a price cap of $60 per barrel of Russian oil imposed on Dec. 5 by Western countries, saying Moscow would now ban oil sales to nations that implement it.

The cap, unseen even in the times of the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union, is aimed at crippling Russia’s military efforts in Ukraine – without upsetting markets by actually blocking its supply of oil.

The oil ban decree from Putin was presented as a direct response to “actions that are unfriendly and contradictory to international law by the United States and foreign states and international organisations joining them”.

Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, and any actual disruption to its sales would have far-reaching consequences for global energy supplies.

In a late night address on Tuesday, Zelenskiy said 2023 would be a decisive year. “We understand the risks of winter. We understand what needs to be done in the spring.”

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Former pope Benedict, 95, who in 2013 became the first pontiff in 600 years to step down, is “very sick,” his successor Pope Francis said on Wednesday.

“I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the Church,” Francis said in a surprise announcement in Italian at the end of his weekly general audience.

“Let us remember him. He is very sick, asking the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church, until the end,” Francis said, speaking in Italian.

There was no immediate comment from the Vatican on the state of Benedict’s health. Phone calls to the former pope’s residence in the Vatican were not answered.

Until a few weeks ago, those who had seen Benedict said his body was very frail but his mind was still sharp.

One of the latest known photographs of Benedict was taken on Dec. 1, when he met the winners of a prize for theologians named after him. He was seated and looked exceptionally weak.

Since his resignation Benedict has been living in a former convent inside the Vatican gardens, with his secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, and a few other aides and medical staff.

Benedict announced his intention to resign on Feb. 11, 2013, shocking a meeting of cardinals. He said he no longer had the physical and mental strength to run the Church.

He formally stepped down on Feb. 28 that year, moving temporarily to the papal summer residence south of Rome while cardinals from around the world came to Rome to choose his successor.

Francis, the first pope from Latin America, was elected to succeed him on March 13, 2013.

While Francis has often praised the former pope, saying it was like having a grandfather in a home, the presence of two men dressed in white in the Vatican was at times troublesome.

Conservatives looked to the former pope as their standard bearer and some ultra-traditionalists even refused to acknowledge Francis as a legitimate pontiff.

Benedict, the first German pope in 1,000 years, was elected on April 19, 2005 to succeed the widely popular Pope John Paul II, who reigned for 27 years.

Cardinals chose him from among their number seeking continuity and what one called “a safe pair of hands”.

For nearly 25 years, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was the powerful head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, then known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).