As private messages from Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, and other tech leaders spilled into public view, the trial underscored a growing reality of corporate life: nothing stays private forever.
Elon Musk’s loss in his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI, decided on Monday by a jury and upheld by a judge, wasn’t the only damaging revelation to emerge from the California courtroom. The two-week trial also punctured the carefully managed public images of some of the most prominent figures shaping AI for hundreds of millions of people.
Milk powder linked to California Dairies has sparked yet another recall over fears of contamination. Here’s the latest and what you need to know.
Grocery giant Kroger Co. is the latest in a growing number of companies whose brands have been impacted by potential Salmonella contamination involving milk powder.
AI is making employees dramatically more productive, but many workers say the technology is also making them lose confidence in their skills.
AI is saving workers more than two hours a day. That sounds like an unqualified win, and in many ways, it is. But beneath the productivity headlines, something more complicated is happening. Employees are getting faster, but some are also getting less confident, less skilled, and less certain they can do their jobs without a machine doing much of the thinking for them. That tension is the defining workforce challenge of 2026, and most companies aren’t prepared to address it.
The owner of 59 Carl’s Jr. restaurants has asked for court permission to reject the leases on some California locations that it says are operating at a loss.
After filing for bankruptcy several weeks ago, a large franchisee that operates dozens of Carl’s Jr. restaurants in California is planning to cut loose some of its underperforming locations, according to newly filed court documents.
It used to be that my friend Kristin had a vague sense of how her husband’s day went. He’d come home with a story to share or sometimes he didn’t. Sometimes he seemed annoyed, and when he was in one of those moods, she didn’t press. They’d kick their feet up, pour some wine, and talk about the upcoming weekend.
Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan says fears of AI-driven political persuasion may be overstated.
As large language models seep into everyday life, some worry the technology could trigger a mass political realignment. Chatbots, the theory goes, can be shaped by training data and system instructions to privilege certain worldviews, and users who interact with them daily may gradually absorb those biases at scale.
Colossal’s first-of-a-kind 3D-printed eggs function like the real thing.
A flock of chickens living in a coop near Dallas, Texas, are ordinary birds. But they hatched inside 3D-printed artificial eggs in a lab at Colossal Biosciences, the Dallas-based “de-extinction” company.
Before Steve Jobs built the world’s most iconic company, he nearly wrecked it. His mistakes hold lessons for every founder.
After losing a boardroom power struggle with Apple CEO John Sculley, Steve Jobs was exiled to a small building across the street from Apple’s headquarters. It was May 1985. He and his colleagues called his new office “Siberia.”
By tying their bottom lines to how much AI they can sell, consultants have created a conflict of interest that erodes their clients’ trust.
Google recently announced its partnership with Accenture, Deloitte, and McKinsey—backed by a $750 million fund—to speed up enterprise adoption of its tech stack.
In 2011, a study of Israeli judges found that in the early sessions of the day, prisoners had roughly a 65% chance of parole. By the end of each session, that probability had fallen to nearly zero. After a break, it returned to 65%. The judges didn’t vary. The cases didn’t get harder. The types of prisoners didn’t change. What changed was the judges’ cognitive resources.
As the World Cup arrives in the U.S. at a moment of peak division, people who still believe in the civic potential of sports have a narrow window to act to reclaim their purpose.
Every institution was once a design decision. Pierre de Coubertin didn’t stumble into the creation of the modern Olympic Games, he painstakingly designed them around a clear civic purpose: that sports could model fair play, international respect, and the ethics of effort over victory.
Literati has spent years rebuilding the elementary school book fair into something closer to an art installation. Now, with an acquisition by private equity, it’s ready to scale fast.
Imagine walking into your elementary school library and finding it transformed overnight into a forest at dusk. Mossy green canopies arch over the bookshelves. Glowing mushrooms create a path between display cases. Twinkle lights flicker through the leaves like fireflies.
Resale used to be seen as a threat. Now companies like Woom, Lovevery, and Hanna Andersson have discovered it’s one of their cheapest customer acquisition channels.
Your four-year-old needs a bike. The cheap ones from a big box store will work, sure—but they’ll be heavy, clunky, and harder for them to learn on. The premium Woom bike weighs half as much—but it costs $400. You want the best for your kid, but do you want to drop that much for something they’ll use for a few months?
We live, eat, travel, and breathe in physical spaces, and no amount of algorithms and data centers will change that.
Fifteen years ago, tech investor Marc Andreessen published his famous essay, “Why Software Is Eating the World.” He predicted at the time that technology companies were tremendously undervalued, and that low startup costs and almost infinite scalability would lead software-based companies to dominate every industry.
In the 1980s, when Intel was floundering, its leaders asked this simple question that ended up setting it back on track.
In 1985, Intel was in trouble. Japanese competitors were dominating the memory chip market that Intel had helped invent. Inside the company, leadership debated what to do. During one conversation, Andy Grove, then Intel’s president and COO, asked CEO Gordon Moore a deceptively simple question: “If we were replaced tomorrow, what would a new CEO do?” Moore didn’t hesitate. “He would get us out of the memory business.”
The ‘smart ring wars’ are well underway. Here how the contenders stack up.
While smartwatches have spent the last decade fighting for our attention with buzzing notifications and glowing screens, a quieter revolution has been moving down to our fingers.
Jon Stewart, Steven Spielberg, Bruce Springsteen, and more will join Stephen Colbert in his last week as host of The Late Show.
A decade of light-night history is closing out this week, with Stephen Colbert’s tenure as the host for “The Late Show” coming to an end on Thursday.
Filmed in the Ed Sullivan Theater, The Late Show is CBS’s flagship late night talk show, first airing in 1993 with David Letterman hosting. Colbert first joined the show in 2015 following successful stints at The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, with his political monologues during the first Trump administration helping grow his popularity, particularly among more liberal viewers.
The technology is both a threat and an opportunity, says CEO Matt Garman. To confront it, cloud computing’s pioneer is calling on old skills and new muscles.
In 2006, Amazon Web Services was a fledgling—and a bit of an oddity. Amazon had taken the cloud-computing technologies it had created for its own operations and turned them into a business. Any organization could use them to build out an online presence without managing any infrastructure. Amazon watchers struggled to suss out what the e-tailer was up to: “I have yet to see how these investments are producing any profit,” carped one Wall Street analyst.
A judge’s swift ruling against Musk removes a legal cloud hanging over the $500 billion AI company, potentially accelerating what could become one of the biggest public offerings in Wall Street history.
OpenAI has prevailed in its fight against Elon Musk.
Half a billion records flow through healthcare systems, but too often they sit idle.
Have you been there? A medical emergency lands you in the ER only to be discharged with a stack of papers, prescriptions to fill, and instructions for your doctor. Will those papers make it to your next appointment? Will you be able to answer, “What diagnosis did the ER give? How many weeks are you supposed to take this RX?” It depends on what kind of fog you were in when you left.
Airlines deny surveillance pricing based on browser histories. A social media trend may say more about the erosion of trust than it does about the truth.
Online creators are giving their followers some unusual advice to help lower their flight ticket prices: head to the public library.
A 9-person jury unanimously found that Elon Musk waited too long to file his lawsuit and missed the deadline for the statute of limitations.
A federal jury has sided with OpenAI and its top executives in a feud with Elon Musk, who accused them of betraying a shared vision for it to guide artificial intelligence’s development as a nonprofit dedicated to humanity’s benefit.
AI is changing the job hunt for candidates and employers, but also the recruiters caught in the middle. From AI-screened video interviews to platforms like Paraform that reward recruiters for smart matches, the hiring industry is evolving fast. But as these tools get smarter, one question remains: Will human recruiters still have a seat at […]
AI is changing the job hunt for candidates and employers, but also the recruiters caught in the middle. From AI-screened video interviews to platforms like Paraform that reward recruiters for smart matches, the hiring industry is evolving fast. But as these tools get smarter, one question remains: Will human recruiters still have a seat at the table?
Steven Soderbergh’s film ‘John Lennon: The Last Interview,’ debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.
The day John Lennon was shot, on Dec. 8, 1980, he and Yoko Ono gave an interview to a San Francisco radio crew from their home in New York’s Dakota Apartments.
They were promoting their new album “Double Fantasy,” but the two-hour conversation was wide ranging. Though the interviewers had been warned “no Beatles questions,” Lennon and Ono were thrillingly open. That day, Annie Leibovitz also shot the famous portrait of a clothes-less Lennon wrapped around Ono.
The interview is similarly naked. The two, particularly Lennon, riff on love, their relationship, creativity, life after the Beatles, raising their toddler son, writing songs in bed and much more. At the age of 40, Lennon sounds like someone who has found real clarity.
“I feel like nothing happened before today,” said Lennon.
In “John Lennon: The Last Interview,” Steven Soderbergh turns those surviving tapes into a documentary that does as much to demystify Lennon and Ono as “Get Back” did to the Beatles. The film debuted Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival.
“I was just so compelled by their generosity of spirit throughout the conversation,” Soderbergh explained in an interview Saturday in Cannes. “It’s like the world took place in one day, in this apartment.”
Making it posed an acute problem. Soderbergh was resolved to let the audio play. He could finds ways to visualize much of the film, but that still left a large gap where the conversation grows more philosophical.
“I worked on everything that could be solved except that for as long as I could,” Soderbergh says. “Then there was the inevitable moment of: OK, but really what are we going to do? We just started playing and ran out of time and money. That’s where the Meta piece came in.”
Soderbergh accepted an offer to use Meta’s artificial intelligence software to conjure surreal imagery for those sections, which make up about 10% of the film. When Soderbergh let the news out earlier this year, it prompted an uproar. One of America’s leading filmmakers was using AI? In a film about a Beatle, no less?
The AI parts (overwhelmingly slammed by critics in Cannes) are fairly banal and don’t differ greatly from special effects — there are no deepfakes of Lennon. But they put Soderberg at the forefront of an industrywide debate about the uses of AI in moviemaking. It’s a conversation the director, who has made movies on iPhones, is eager to have.
Six years after it was launched during the COVID pandemic, Teams is retiring Together mode.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone was looking for connection wherever they could find it. To connect with friends, maybe that meant playing a long-distance round of Among Us. To connect with family, perhaps you hopped on a group FaceTime. And to connect with coworkers, you used Microsoft Teams’ beloved Together mode for meetings.
Partnerships also help the emerging workforce prepare for needed jobs.
Higher education is under pressure from every direction. Shifts in finance and policy, high tuition costs, and a decline in public trust have forced colleges and universities to rethink how they prepare people for work. At the same time, employers face persistent talent shortages and widening skills gaps.
China has been increasingly turning to other countries like Brazil and Argentina for imported farm goods.
China has agreed to ramp up trade for U.S. agricultural products such as beef and poultry, buying at an annualized rate of $17 billion per year for 2026 and at that level for 2027 and 2028, the White House announced Sunday, two days after President Donald Trump returned from a high-stakes summit in Beijing where he sought to ease the impact on American farmers from the trade war he launched last year.
China would restore market access for U.S. beef and resume imports of poultry from U.S. states determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be free of the bird flu, the White House said. The deals are on top of China’s soybean purchase commitments last year.
The agreements offer some hope to American farmers harmed by the trade war as they saw a major export market for soybeans and other products dry up. Farmers also are feeling new pressure from Trump administration policies — the war that the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran has curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade corridor that has restricted global fertilizer supplies and sent those prices soaring.
There was no immediate confirmation of the terms from Beijing.
China’s Ministry of Commerce on Saturday said the two sides would “resolve or make substantial progress toward resolving certain non-tariff barriers and market access issues” regarding agricultural goods.
The U.S. would “actively work” to address China’s concerns regarding detention of its dairy products, seafood, the export of potted bonsai, and the recognition of Shandong province as a bird-flu-free zone, while the Chinese side will “likewise actively work” to address U.S. concerns regarding the registration of beef processing facilities and the export of poultry meat from certain states to China, a ministry spokesperson said.
The two sides also agreed to expand trade, including that of farm goods, through measures such as reciprocal tariff reductions on “a specific range of products,” though the spokesperson did not specify the products.
China, recognizing the link between food security and national security, has diversified its sources of imported soybeans, beef and other farm goods, turning increasingly to Brazil, Argentina and other countries over the U.S.
Algorithmic literacy is changing how brands are appearing to audiences.
The most challenging conversation to have with brands is one that defies a commonly held belief: great content is enough. For decades, the marketing industry has abided by the same foundational belief that if they create something worthy of attention, their target audience will naturally engage with it. But this approach is a liability for both their reach and revenue.
Why creator-led networks will be the next media business ecosystem.
For most of the past decade, individuals have largely defined the creator economy: one creator, one channel, and one voice, building a direct relationship with an audience. That model has produced massive businesses and cultural influence. It’s not the end state. It’s the starting point.
With negotiations stalled and no viable alternatives to the sprawling train network, commuters are being asked to work from home if they’re able to.
The New York City metro area is facing major travel disruptions as a historic Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) strike entered its third day for the start of the workweek on Monday.
“We apologize most specifically for those Americans who may now be priced entirely out,” Spirit lawyer Marshall Huebner said in court, thanking all the passengers who relied on the airline during its 34-year run, many of whom, he said, “could not otherwise have afforded air travel.”
Spirit’s May 3 demise is not the only curveball confronting people planning trips a week before the summer travel season has its traditional U.S. launch on Memorial Day. Rising jet fuel costs tied to the Iran war have pushed up airfares and associated fees across the commercial aviation industry. Two of the remaining U.S. budget carriers just finalized a merger.
Everlane spent a decade championing sustainable and ethical fashion. Its reported $100 million sale to the industry’s worst polluter is a humiliating coda—and not just for Everlane.
Everlane—once an icon of ethical fashion—is reportedly being sold for $100 million to Shein, arguably the least ethical fashion brand on the market.
The company is scrapping its cluttered packaging for a new look that’s harder to walk past.
When Bob’s Red Mill began in 1978, it was a flour company operated out of a literal red mill by one dedicated married couple. Since then, it’s grown into a grocery store staple with more than 200 products—and, along the way, its fascinating brand story has gotten lost amidst a sea of colorful, overwhelming packaging. To fix that, the company has spent three years on a full branding overhaul to bring all of its products back under one mill roof.
Visa CMO Frank Cooper shares how the new work starring Jason Sudeikis ties into the brand’s overall World Cup efforts.
It starts with Jason Sudeikis in the make-up trailer for what must be the latest season of Ted Lasso, where he’s asked if he’s heading back stateside for the World Cup. He says no, then for some weird reason, taps his script with his Visa card. Poof! The script is now a World Cup match ticket.
AI may be attracting billions in venture capital, but money is not flowing to every founder with a chatbot demo and a slick deck. In fact, as AI makes building a great product faster and more accessible, founder behavior, judgment, and credibility become even more important. In a crowded market where every pitch claims “category-defining AI,” red flags can surface fast.
Former Spotify employees now run some of Sweden’s most ambitious startups and venture firms, turning the music-streaming giant into the country’s most influential tech incubator.
When Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon founded Spotify in April 2006, they were two Stockholm entrepreneurs with a prototype so skeletal that Per Roman, the cofounder of investors Bullhound Capital, who would later back the company, says his first look at it was “world-changing,” despite there barely being a product to look at.
Governance and responsibility are non-negotiables, says the president of Mozilla.
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
Matching colors, shapes, and sounds is harder than it seems.
A father-son duo has vibe-coded a gaming company that’s generated nearly 30 million plays and 20 million visits across four mini-games in just 90 days. Say hello to Dialed.
One cold Friday night a few years ago, I collapsed to the ground in the arrivals hall of a small French airport. I started sobbing and couldn’t stop. It took physical collapse for me to acknowledge that I was burned out and that my work life was unsustainable.
These green corridors ditch parking and instead capture stormwater, reduce heat, and put people first.
To make room for more housing without losing green space, planners in a new Toronto neighborhood flipped the usual approach: Instead of carving out room for parks and plazas, they made the streets do that work instead.
100+ women tell Fast Company how balancing motherhood and their careers has become increasingly fraught. Their clever fixes—and why they’re not enough to fix a broken system.
One of the best days of Gabriella’s career was also one of her hardest days as a parent. Gabriella, who asked for a pseudonym to protect her children’s privacy, had just filmed the launch video for her new company. On the train ride back home, she got a call from her daughter’s school. The new nanny she’d hired, who had been thoroughly vetted, had left her two-year-old son locked in the car in the school’s parking lot and disappeared for half an hour before teachers heard the crying and rushed to help.
It’s graduation season and my email inbox is flooded with inquiries from students entering the workforce, looking for career advice. How do I land my dream job? What should I do at the company where I’ve been recently hired to get where I really want to be? How do I go from what I have to do to what I want to do?
I used to think I was a great salesperson because I had all the right answers. I knew my product inside and out. I could explain every feature, every benefit, every reason someone should say yes. And I did what most people do—I led with that. Confident. Certain. Ready to convince. And I lost deals I should have won.
Here’s a 90-day plan to start building the organizational capability you need to succeed.
In a recent survey of senior leaders at large U.S. and U.K. professional services firms, 61% said they had abandoned at least one AI project in the past year because their people lacked the skills to deliver it. Deloitte’s “2026 State of AI in the Enterprise” report, based on a survey of more than 3,200 business and IT leaders across 24 countries, found that insufficient worker skills are now the single “biggest barrier to integrating AI into the business.”
These are the companies quietly inserting themselves into critical decision points.
Ah, the olden days of choosing where to spend your money on dining, travel, and all that connected those experiences. Neighborhood restaurants would drop flyers in your apartment lobby to let you know they were there. Hotels would rent space on billboards and place ads in newspapers and magazines. Some joined industry groups, such as the Leading Hotels of the World, which got its start by promising ship passengers when they arrived at their destinations there would be appropriate accommodation for them. The go-to reference for figuring out where to eat would have been the iconic burgundy Zagat guides, one of the original crowdsourced review guides with quotes from ordinary restaurant goers about what places were like.
The tech giant emailed customers who bought the new Studio Display XDR with a promise of a refund.
One of the more annoying things that could happen is that you spend $3,300 on a brand-new display, only to find out that, just after you’ve passed the return window, the price has dropped by $400. Nothing else has changed; just the price gets cheaper after you’ve already paid for it and can no longer return it to the store.
The veteran writer and producer talks about AI’s uneasy arrival in Hollywood and the enduring appeal of the sitcom format.
Michael Patrick King has spent decades writing about people navigating worlds where everything feels transactional. With the colossally successful Sex and the City, which spawned multiple films and the sequel series And Just Like That…, King explored how identity, romance, and status become tangled up in consumerism and self-invention. In the long-running sitcom 2 Broke Girls, the focus shifted toward economic precarity and the humiliations of trying to survive in a world where money shapes nearly every relationship.
From accurate text rendering to remixable prompts and flexible design styles, Ideogram remains a compelling AI image generator for posters, thumbnails, social graphics, and more.
This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps.
Your email address is your identity, so you should treat it with care. Here’s how.
Using your email address as your username has become the standard. In many cases, you simply enter your email address and choose a password. Some services remove the need for a password altogether, allowing you to register using just your email address and a onetime code sent to it. Others offer the option to connect your account directly to your Google or Apple identity.
Too many employees say yes to goals without understanding the impact, effort, or trade-offs involved. These six questions help change that.
Organizations invest in setting the right goals to drive strategy, and increasingly they’re using AI to help. To be sure, AI can support the mechanics: draft objectives, align to strategy, track progress. But the questions that determine whether you can deliver on a goal, sustainably, aren’t ones an algorithm can answer: Are you clear on the target? Do you know why it matters? Is it realistic given your capacity?
High-performing leaders don’t automatically create high-performing teams. The teams that succeed invest in building strong relationships, creating trust, and showing up for one another.
High-performing leaders don’t automatically create high-performing teams. Even the most impressive executive teams on paper can struggle with alignment, trust, and collective execution. When a team isn’t functioning, a leader’s instinct is to blame individual performance, skill gaps, or the strategy. More often the underlying issue is that the team doesn’t know how to operate together.
A 20-year retrospective of couture from fashion’s most interesting designer lands at the Brooklyn Museum.
When Olympic skier Eileen Gu walked the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the Met Gala on May 4, she wore a short, shimmering gown that appeared to be made of thousands of iridescent soap bubbles caught mid-float, clustered across her body and trailing into the air behind her.
Today’s graduates are facing serious economic headwinds. Here are some ways you can help a new grad launch both their career and personal financial success.
Graduation season is upon us, which means copies of Oh, the Places You’ll Go! are flying off bookstore shelves—since whimsical Seussian life advice has been the go-to gift for new graduates since 1990.
It’s one of the most important decisions you can make in your business.
RETN started with a bold ambition to build a nine-figure business. After doubling our revenue to nearly $80 million in the last five years, that goal is now within close reach.
Content creators and IP holders are getting creative in order to fight back against the LLMs that are trawling their data illegally.
In order for a chatbot to become more intelligent, and thus more useful to the end-user, it needs to assimilate data continuously. This process is known as “training.” The problem is that many AI companies never explicitly ask for consent from data owners before scraping their webpages and adding the data to the corpora of the large language models (LLMs) that power AI chatbots.
Apple may have given up on HyperCard decades ago, but the app’s spirit lives on—and is now available virtually anywhere.
Decades ago, when a classmate and I were supposed to be learning Photoshop in our high school computer lab, we stumbled upon something much cooler—and weirder.
The epic Western drama, having emerged as one of TV’s most lucrative franchises, continues the storyline on Paramount’s linear network and streaming platform.
Giddy up, Yellowstone fans: The epic saga of the Dutton family continues.
What happens when a smartphone’s AI-powered camera tool makes pictures look worse? Maybe it doesn’t matter as long as it gets people talking.
Artificial intelligence has notoriously struggled with creating images, writing out gibberish on signs, or adding extra fingers to people. But it doesn’t seem to be much help for photography either—and the internet is having a field day over it.
Pilot-deployment program addresses industry needs through startup collaborations.
The global energy industry is under pressure to innovate. Energy companies need vetted, field-tested technologies that improve efficiency, enhance safety, and streamline operations. On the other side of the spectrum, early-stage startups developing new technologies struggle to access customers, test environments, and capital. These parallel challenges can slow crucial energy innovation, creating a commercialization gap.
One resident estimated seeing 50 empty robotaxis pass through the neighborhood in a single morning, leaving social media confounded.
A normally quiet Atlanta neighborhood has suddenly found itself flooded with traffic early in the mornings. It’s not tourists. It’s not new neighbors. In fact, it’s not people at all, but an overwhelming amount of driverless cars.
Adidas is supplying a new ball for the matches, which it has done for every tournament since 1970.
Every four years, the men’s World Cup delivers some certainties. The pitch dimensions are tightly regulated, offside is signaled with a flag, and referees end the match with a blast of a whistle. But one key piece of equipment is changed on purpose: the ball.
Thinking about going solo? Try a side hustle first.
There’s a popular narrative around starting a solo business: quit your job, take the leap, figure it out along the way. It sounds bold. It also ignores what many successful solopreneurs actually do: start while they still have a paycheck, figure it out, and then quit.
The same satellite network used by activists and federal agencies alike may be easier to monitor than many users realize.
A handful of technology companies now claim that they can track and identify users of Starlink, the satellite internet communications service operated by SpaceX, according to a spate of new documents. These services not only raise privacy questions for Starlink consumers, but also a growing number of government agencies that deploy SpaceX’s service for internet and communications networks.
Pope Leo’s comments on AI were made in a speech at Rome’s La Sapienza University.
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday denounced how investments in artificial intelligence and high-tech weaponry were leading the world into a “spiral of annihilation,” as he called for peace in the Middle East and Ukraine during a visit to Europe’s largest university.
Leo’s speech at Rome’s La Sapienza University marked the first time a pope has visited the campus since Pope Benedict XVI called off a planned speech there in 2008 in the face of protests from faculty and students.
The American pope was warmly welcomed on Thursday, including by some of Sapienza’s newest students: Young Palestinians who arrived in Italy this week on a “humanitarian corridor” from Gaza to continue their studies at the university. The Italian government, working with Catholic organizations, has brought hundreds of Palestinians to study and receive medical care in Italy since the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza began in 2023.
Leo met some of the Gaza students during a brief greeting at the campus chapel, and again after his speech in the main lecture hall of the university, which was founded by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303.
In his speech, Leo denounced how military spending had increased dramatically this year, especially in Europe, at the expense of education and healthcare, while “enriching elites who care nothing for the common good.”
He called for better monitoring of how AI was being developed and used in military and civilian contexts “so that it does not absolve humans of responsibility for their choices and does not exacerbate the tragedy of conflicts.”
“What is happening in Ukraine, in Gaza and the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon, and in Iran illustrates the inhuman evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation,” he said.
The pope said education and research must move instead in the opposite direction that values life “the lives of peoples who cry out for peace and justice!”
Leo has identified AI as one of the most critical matters facing humanity, especially its application in warfare and everyday life. They are themes he’s expected to explore more fully in his first encyclical, due to be released in the coming weeks.
Nada Rahim Jouda, 19, was one of the Gazans who met Leo, just two days after she arrived in Italy. She was still marveling at her new life studying business science in Rome, a city that she said was “like heaven for me.”
“Everything here is green and it’s not gray and troubles everywhere and miserable people in the streets,” she said.
But Jouda remains concerned for the family she left behind: her mother, recovering from leukemia, and younger sisters aged 17 and 13. Over the course of the war in Gaza, the family was forced to move four times, and her mother was unable to receive care or check-ups for her cancer.
“They all rely on me. I’m the only hope that they have,” she said.
The two world powers are still divided on the war in Iran and Taiwan’s independence.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up critical talks on Friday, claiming important progress in stabilizing U.S.-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran, Taiwan and more.
Following the trip, Trump said he had not yet made a determination on whether a major U.S. sale of arms to Taiwan can move forward. Speaking to reporters as he flew back on Air Force One, Trump said he’d not decided on the sale, but he added, “I will make a determination.”
Trump’s Republican administration has authorized the sale but it has yet to move forward. China opposes the deal and has suggested that Washington’s relationship with the self-governing island is the key factor in China-U.S. relations.
Trump said Xi told him that he was opposed to Taiwan’s independence. “I heard him out,” Trump said. “I didn’t make a comment.”
Trump also said he raised a potential three-way nuclear deal among the U.S., Russia and China. He wants each of the three countries to sign a pact that would cap the number of nuclear warheads in its arsenal. China has previously been cool to entering such a pact.
Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the U.S. and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads. But Trump suggested Xi was receptive to the idea.
“I got a very a positive response,” Trump said. “This is the beginning.”
The last nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century. As the treaty was set to expire, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved, and modernized” deal that includes China.
The Pentagon estimates China will have more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030.
Xi welcomed Trump at his official residence, Zhongnanhai, on Friday for their final engagement of the summit before the U.S. leader’s return to Washington. The leaders took a short walk through the grounds that feature ancient trees and Chinese roses, and they strolled through a covered passageway with green columns and archways painted with birds and traditional Chinese mountain scenes.
Over tea and lunch, Trump and Xi — with top aides and translators in tow — huddled for nearly three hours of talks before the U.S. leader completed his three-day visit to China.
“It’s been really a great couple of days,” Trump told reporters.
Xi, for his part, called it a “milestone” visit. “We have established a new bilateral relationship, or rather a constructive, strategic, stable relationship,” he said.
But the optimistic outlook collides with some difficult truths about the thorniest issues between the two superpowers.
Beijing has shown little public interest in U.S. entreaties to get more involved in solving the conflict in Iran, even though Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Xi had in their conversations offered to help. In recent weeks, the U.S. State Department has accused Chinese firms of providing satellite imagery to the Iranian government and the Treasury Department has moved to target Chinese oil refineries accused of buying oil from Tehran, as well as shippers of the oil.
And the White House believes China can still do more to stem the flow of Chinese-made precursor chemicals into Mexico used to make illicit fentanyl that has wreaked havoc on many U.S. communities.
Xi, meanwhile, warned Trump during private talks that their differences on the self-ruled island of Taiwan, if handled poorly, could hurtle the world’s dominant powers toward “clashes and even conflicts,” according to Chinese government officials.
Trump appeared impressed by the bucolic grounds, remarking the roses were the most beautiful he had ever seen. Xi promised to send him some rose seeds.
The compound is wrapped around two artificial lakes that had been built for the pleasure of emperors. Zhongnanhai is often compared to the White House, the Kremlin or South Korea’s Blue House. But unlike the other presidential residences, Zhongnanhai does not serve as the main venue for diplomatic visits. The invitation appeared to be an attempt by Xi to extend a personal touch to a U.S. leader who appreciates big gestures.
“I think he’s a warm person, actually. But he’s all business,” Trump said of Xi in the Fox News interview. “There’s no games.”
The Chinese government also bid farewell to Trump with great pomp.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi saw a smiling Trump off at the airport. And schoolchildren dressed in Air Force One’s light blue and white colors waved American and Chinese flags in a coordinated movement as the U.S. president arrived to board the plane.
Halupedia is a wiki dedicated to everything that never happened—but its infinite capabilities are creating a big problem.
As the preeminent internet encyclopedia, Wikipedia is known for having articles on every topic under the sun. From the commonplace to the esoteric, if it’s at all noteworthy in the grand scheme of the universe, it’ll have its own Wikipedia entry.
In March, the design software firm started enforcing AI credit limits. Now it just revealed that customers are opting to buy more after hitting their caps.
With its AI credit limits officially up and running, design software maker Figma has just notched another successful quarter under its belt.
Halupedia is a wiki dedicated to everything that never happened—but its infinite capabilities could create another online cesspool.
As the preeminent internet encyclopedia, Wikipedia is known for having articles on every topic under the sun. From the commonplace to the esoteric, if it’s at all noteworthy in the grand scheme of the universe, it’ll have its own Wikipedia entry.
The Long Island Rail Road that serves New York City’s eastern suburbs has been negotiating for months on a new contract with labor officials representing locomotive engineers, machinists, signalmen and other train workers.
A strike was temporarily averted in September when President Donald Trump’s administration agreed to help. Those efforts ended without a deal, giving both sides 60 days — ending 12:01 a.m. Saturday — to again try to resolve their differences before the union was legally allowed to go on strike or the agency could lock out workers.
Five labor unions representing about half the train system’s 7,000-person workforce warned this week that Saturday’s deadline was approaching.
The LIRR is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, carrying about 250,000 customers each weekday. LIRR workers last went on strike in 1994, for about two days. Workers nearly walked out in 2014 before then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached a deal with unions.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the LIRR and other area transit systems, has said it will provide free but limited shuttle buses during the morning and afternoon rush hours. The agency says the shuttles will depart from designated LIRR train stations to subway stops in the New York City borough of Queens.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has urged LIRR riders to work from home, if possible, as the free shuttles are meant for essential workers and those who cannot telecommute. The Democrat, months earlier, slammed the LIRR unions for “greedy asks” that threaten to “destabilize the local economy.”
But there have been signs of progress in negotiations this week.
Months ago, the MTA had proposed to the unions a 9.5% wage increase over three years, in line with what the system’s other unionized workers have already agreed to. The unions, however, held out for another yearly salary increase of 6.5%, for a total raise of 16% over four years.
But following Wednesday’s closed door meetings, Gary Dellaverson, the MTA’s chief negotiator, said the agency offered the unions what it said would effectively amount to a 4.5% raise in the fourth year of the contract. That offer, he said, was in line with what federal officials had recommended and would come in the form of lump sum payments rather than wage increases, as the union sought.
“The difference between those two positions is not unbridgeable,” Dellaverson said in a news conference. “It is describable simply in terms of money. There are no longer any complexities involved with the parties.”
Kevin Sexton, a spokesperson for the unions, acknowledged Wednesday that there was “positive movement” toward a settlement but dismissed the notion that a deal was close as “far-fetched.”
“We would like to reach an agreement that reflects the rising cost of living,” he said. “Anything short of that amounts to a cut in real wages.”
Spokespersons for MTA didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Thursday, but the union said the two sides were expected to continue talks later that night and reconvene Friday if there was still no deal.
Susanne Alberto, a personal trainer from Long Island, said she’s already made plans with her Manhattan clients to hold virtual sessions in the event of a shutdown.
She said the union likely has the upper hand, even if she believes raises should be based on job responsibilities and not made across the board.
“The MTA is going to cave, and they know that,” Alberto said. “Why don’t they just do it now instead of waiting until virtually millions of people get inconvenienced?”
Rob Udle, an electrician who takes the LIRR at least five days a week, said he’ll likely use his vacation days rather than navigate the “nightmare” of commuting into Manhattan if the rail service shuts down.
A union member, he sympathized with the unions’ affordability concerns, but said he didn’t agree with their strongarm tactics.
“I get it, the cost of living is going up and stuff like that,” Udle said while waiting at Penn Station for a train home. “But they shouldn’t hold everybody hostage to do it. There’s a better way. You’re affecting a lot of other people.”
With his startup ProRata, the Idealab founder is trying to build a marketplace for AI attribution and compensation before legal and economic pressure forces the industry’s hand.
Bill Gross has a long history of betting on technological shifts and watching those bets pay off. But the latest proposition from one of Silicon Valley’s most storied founders and investors depends on forces far beyond the Bay Area.
The cost of attending a private nonprofit university rose faster last year than it did for public universities. Some schools are doing more to expand access.
The University of Chicago has announced a new initiative to provide financial support for students to attend the college for free.
Airports around the world tend to fall somewhere between the beautifully designed and artfully efficient (think Changi, in Singapore) and the messy and chaotic (sorry, Newark Liberty). But a newly redesigned airport in Noto, Japan, a seaside town 300 miles northwest of Tokyo, offers another option with its whimsically themed Pokémon attraction.
The trends and strategies from this year’s Most Innovative Companies will give you actionable insights for your own workplace.
In this era of AI-powered rapid change, what defines innovation at the world’s most cutting-edge companies? Fast Company’s executive editor, Amy Farley, and editorial director, Jill Bernstein, two architects of the annual Most Innovative Companies list, take you inside the ideas and approaches that earned MIC recognition for 2026. In this interactive session, they break down the trends behind this year’s most forward-thinking organizations and share practical strategies that leaders at all levels can apply right now. Whether you’re refining your roadmap or scanning the horizon for what’s next, you’ll gain actionable insights and valuable new perspectives.
What looks like a communication problem is usually something deeper.
Most teams respond to communication problems by adding more meetings. Another weekly check-in to keep everyone aligned. Another “quick sync” because the email thread got messy. Another call because half the team left the last one with different interpretations of what had just been decided.
You need to figure out how to think in a strategic way.
If you’ve been in the corporate world long enough, you might have seen technical specialists hit a career ceiling. They’re brilliant at what they do, but they can struggle to advance to leadership positions.
Many local government leaders across the country know the types of street designs that reduce the number of severe crashes, but they keep delaying the changes because they’re waiting for money. Waiting for a big federal grant. Waiting for a full reconstruction project. Waiting for the perfect, permanent solution. But while Americans wait, people keep getting hurt.
By becoming one version of ourselves, we inevitably give up others. Here’s how to think about that.
A few weeks ago, I was reconnecting with a former colleague from my higher education days, and we started talking about our current work. At one point, she paused and said, “I love the path you’ve taken, but if you’d asked me 10 years ago, I would have said you’d definitely end up a dean somewhere.”
These small mindset shifts can help reduce exhaustion and improve wellbeing.
Chances are, you’re working hard, hustling along, and doing your best to stay ahead of things. But when you strive for success, you can risk burnout by concentrating on a limited definition of success. It’s possible, however, to reduce the likelihood you’ll burn out and ensure you stay energized by redefining what you’re trying to accomplish and how you’re making the effort.
You don’t have to be the loudest person in the room to command it, but these three habits might be quietly costing you credibility without you even realizing it. From the words you choose to how you walk through the door, here’s what to change so your ideas actually land.
You don’t have to be the loudest person in the room to command it, but these three habits might be quietly costing you credibility without you even realizing it. From the words you choose to how you walk through the door, here’s what to change so your ideas actually land.
Why the next generation is building with portfolios of ventures and impact.
Leadership is no longer linear. Among the founders I meet, there’s a clear shift: Younger entrepreneurs are starting earlier, building faster, and often working across multiple ventures at once. More than half of Gen Z has a side hustle. Entrepreneurship is beginning to look less like a single trajectory and more like a portfolio.
From creatine to pickleball, each leader figured out methods to preserve health during stressful periods.
Stress is built into every leader’s work life. But sometimes it’s even more intense. Just as airlines say to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others, executives need to take care of their physical and mental health to effectively lead the team and the company.
Bill Lawrence, the showrunner behind Scrubs, Ted Lasso, and Shrinking, explains his creative process, from finding the emotional core of a story to surviving writer’s block, writing through a pandemic, and building shows that can make you laugh one second and gut-punch you the next.
Bill Lawrence, the showrunner behind Scrubs, Ted Lasso, and Shrinking, explains his creative process, from finding the emotional core of a story to surviving writer’s block, writing through a pandemic, and building shows that can make you laugh one second and gut-punch you the next.
Companies using the same AI message for every audience risk losing credibility with all of them.
We are facing our generation’s digital divide: the AI Acumen Gap. According to our latest Brand Expectations Index, trust in AI is not a baseline; it’s a spectrum defined by professional proximity and generational sentiment. On one side, you have knowledge workers and younger generations who use these tools daily and largely trust the trajectory of big tech and AI startups. Within the general population and older generations, however, only a small fraction trusts AI companies, while nearly half view the technology as a harbinger of a more dangerous future.
Cisco gave a forecast for profit in the current quarter that easily topped analysts’ expectations.
The U.S. stock market is rising toward more records Thursday after Cisco Systems joined the parade of U.S. companies reporting fatter profits for the start of 2026 than analysts expected.
The mayor’s new budget proposal closes a massive deficit while expanding social programs.
Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old mayor of New York City, who campaigned on making the city more affordable, is facing one of the hardest tests of leadership: delivering on ambitious promises despite facing a challenging landscape.
With the two world powers vying for global AI supremacy, the safety of global cybersecurity networks is in jeopardy.
Two world powers are in an arms race to develop the most advanced AI systems, and neither of them trusts each other—but each relies on the other’s compliance to proceed. This contradiction lies at the core of a dangerous standoff for our time.
Surveys show adoption is rising fast, but most small business owners are still scratching the surface of what AI can do for them.
Welcome toAI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can signup to receive this newsletter every week via email here.
The movement to limit screen time in classrooms is gaining momentum across the U.S.
For high school senior Aliyah Pack, getting distracted during school is the norm. Kids in her Pennsylvania school district use iPads starting in kindergarten, switch to Chromebooks in second grade and get their own MacBooks in eighth grade.
Aliyah has ADHD, and finds it difficult to concentrate when she’s learning from a screen. She’ll watch Netflix in class on her school laptop, hiding her earbuds behind her long, curly hair.
“It’s very hard to get into the mindset of being in school,” Aliyah said.
Aliyah’s mother saw her grades were falling and asked the school to take away her laptop. But she was told that wasn’t possible.
Across the country, parents are voicing concerns about excessive screen time in schools and lobbying educators to go back to pencil and paper. In places like Lower Merion Township, where Aliyah goes to high school, some are taking it even further. Over 600 people in the affluent Philadelphia suburb have signed a petition asking to preserve parents’ ability to opt their children out of using digital devices during the school day. The public school district has pushed back, saying it’s not feasible to let hundreds of students opt out of technology that is essential to the curriculum.
The tech giant has added surveillance software to all company devices—and employees are not having it.
As Meta has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into outpacing its competition in the AI arms race, employees have been forced to get on board with its big bet. Meta employees have been asked to enthusiastically adopt AI and are now evaluated on their AI use in performance reviews. Recurring layoffs have reportedly stoked discontent: According to a recent New York Times report, employees have built websites to count down to another round of rumored job cuts next week.
A shadow industry of data middlemen is turning publishers’ work into fuel for AI agents—and forcing media companies to rethink what “outputs” really mean
There are several dimensions to the ongoing legal war between the media industry and AI companies over copyright, and one of the major ones is the question of outputs. Which is to say: Scraping content without permission may be detestable, but if the party doing the scraping isn’t doing anything with it that would compete with the content creator, it’s difficult to prove harm. And many legal proceedings, especially civil claims, depend on showing the actions were harmful.
Back in December, Trump approved an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, but the U.S. has yet to deliver it.
Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump started a crucial series of meetings in Beijing on Thursday in a U.S.-China summit where stability in the relationship is the main goal of the two days of discussions.
The White House and Chinese state media said the leaders concluded their meeting Thursday morning after about two hours. Trump is expected to leave just after midday Friday after a final private meeting with Xi. But few breakthroughs are expected on divisive issues ranging from the Iran war, trade, technology and Taiwan.
Trump hopes to focus the summit talks on trade and deals for China to buy more agricultural products and passenger planes, setting up a board to address their differences and avoid a repeat of the trade war ignited last year after Trump’s tariff hikes.
In their closed-door meeting, Xi told Trump that if Taiwan is handled well, U.S.-China relations “will enjoy overall stability.” If not, the two countries risk “clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy,” Xi said, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.
Trump in December authorized an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own territory. The U.S. has not yet moved forward with delivery.
Xi said China’s door of opening to U.S. business will only open wider, he told American corporate leaders who accompanied Trump. The U.S. president said the business leaders all respect and value China and he encourages them to expand cooperation with China, Xinhua reported.
The war with Iran is also likely to be a key topic. Ahead of the meetings, Trump hoped China would use its considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. terms to end the two-month old war or reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz, but he has tempered those calls ahead of the summit.
FIFA has announced that, for the first time, the final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19 will include a Super Bowl-style concert.
The governing body said the show would support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which is raising $100 million to help children access education and soccer.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said it would bring together “music and football on the biggest stage in sport for a very special cause.”
“Every child should have the opportunity to dream, and together we can help make that possible,” he posted on Instagram.
The show will be curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
The Super Bowl is famed for its halftime show — attracting the world’s biggest stars for spectacular performances. This year featured Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny.
Previous headliners included Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen and Rhianna.
But halftime shows are not so commonplace in soccer, with events such as the Champions League final featuring a pre-match concert. This year will see the Killers headline European club soccer’s biggest game between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest.
FIFA describes its halftime show as “a singular moment at the intersection of sport, culture and purpose, broadcast live around the world.”
This year’s World Cup is co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and runs through June and July.
Shares of the networking giant, already near record highs, jumped by double digits as Chuck Robbins laid out plans to make Cisco ‘one of those winners.’
On Wednesday, Cisco Systems announced impressive quarterly earnings alongside nearly 4,000 job cuts.
Dozens of brands are using the 2026 FIFA World Cup as a chance to cash in on themed ads, products, and brand collaborations. But the home goods giant Lowe’s is doing something unique: debuting a 10-foot-tall inflatable of Lionel Messi for fans to put in their front yards.
A $20 million investment from Krea demonstrates that promising AI innovation can come from smaller companies betting big.
Custom AI models are not just for the AI giants anymore. Because the 37-person startup Krea is releasing its first generative AI model as the design tools startup repositions itself as a full-fledged AI research lab.
Three decades after Brewster Kahle founded the Internet Archive to preserve humanity’s digital record, the nonprofit behind the Wayback Machine is confronting AI scraping fears, antagonistic publishers, and rising storage costs that threaten the future of the open web.
If you were to travel back in time to 1996 with a 2TB thumb drive, you’d be able to fit the entire World Wide Web on it.
Franchisees in international markets can make their restaurants light blue instead of red. Visually, it signals digital ordering. But does it make you hungrier?
You know about IQ and EQ. But what about TQ, WQ, and VQ?
For most of the last century, we believed human potential could be measured through intelligence, and we built whole institutions around that belief. IQ was the metric. If you were analytical enough, technically proficient enough, quick enough on your feet, doors opened, schools rewarded it, employers screened for it, and entire industries grew up around identifying and elevating it.
If you told the market the layoff was about AI, and your people know it was about a missed product launch, you’ve just taught your company that leadership says what’s useful, not what’s true.
Layoffs used to be something that made a company’s stock tank. But after Block announced layoffs recently, its stock went up. And they weren’t the only ones: Snap did the same thing a few months earlier, as did Meta and Amazon. The common thread? They all cited AI as their reason for cuts.
New-construction homes are proving cheaper to maintain long term, according to new research from Realtor.com.
According to a new report from Realtor.com, buying a new home could save you a ton of money in your first decade of homeownership. But those savings depend on where you live.
As AI-related lawsuits explode, major insurers are quietly adding exclusions that could leave businesses exposed to the technology’s mistakes.
Artificial intelligence isn’t just a headache for human resources. More and more, corporate legal teams are becoming entangled in the technology’s mistakes.
Apple’s VP of marketing opens up about 10 years of steering the legendary company’s advertising—what’s changed and what hasn’t, what’s worked and what hasn’t.
Tor Myhren is going to kind of hate this article. Because it’s about him, not his entire team.
For decades, the conversation around gender equality at work has been dominated by one glittering metaphor: the glass ceiling. We count women in boardrooms, track female CEOs, and debate the glass cliff awaiting women promoted during crises. But for millions of women over 45, the problem isn’t getting to the top. It’s getting unstuck from the bottom.
MIT’s Sinan Aral has the data . . . and a warning. Outsourcing creativity to AI may be the most rational move leaders make, and the most dangerous one.
Imagine hiring every all-star on the market, paying top dollar, and then finishing sixth in your division. That’s not a hypothetical. It’s what happened to Sinan Aral’s beloved Liverpool F.C. last season, and it’s also, he argues, an almost perfect metaphor for how most organizations are deploying AI right now.
I pay close attention to parenting advice that makes sense.
All writing is autobiographical. Even if you’re not explicitly writing about your own experience, it shows up in the topics you choose, the details you focus on, even the things you leave out.
Threads is testing a feature that lets users summon Meta AI into posts and replies for real-time context, though many users say they never asked for it.
Threads is rolling out Meta AI, which will provide real-time context when mentioned in a post or reply.
The Chinese e-commerce company’s U.S.-traded shares rose more than 7% after Wednesday’s earnings announcement.
China’s Alibaba said that growth accelerated for both its artificial intelligence and cloud businesses in the latest quarter, driven by the AI boom, even though overall revenue rose just 3% to 243 billion yuan ($36 billion).
Google is planning to fill hundreds of these positions, while Anthropic and OpenAI are also expanding their use of the role.
In 2011, Palantir created a combined role for their solutions engineers and integration engineers. The company called this new role “forward-deployed engineers,” or FDEs, for short. An Andreessen Horowitz blog post dubbed the recasting “title arbitrage,” arguing that Palantir had created this new title to signify the important, new capabilities and powers evolving at the company. Put simply: FDEs are people who can sell AI products to businesses while also teaching AI models how to work for said businesses.
In a new report, employees say Amazon tracks their consumption of ‘AI tokens,’ and they’ve been creating unproductive AI agents just to eat them up.
According to Amazon employees, the company is pushing them to incorporate more and more AI in their workflows. What exactly they should be using it for is less clear—leaving the door open for employees to waste AI resources on unnecessary tasks.
The nationwide promotion also includes discounts on popcorn, drinks, and snack packs.
Cinemark is giving customers a break at the box office this summer. The movie chain that operates over 300 theaters in the U.S. just announced it’s offering a major deal on tickets as part of its Summer Movie Clubhouse program.
Skywatchers are in for a treat this week, as the planets will put on a rare show in the early morning hours.
You won’t want to miss a chance to look up tonight into the sky, in the early morning hours on Thursday, May 14. Before dawn, skywatchers are in for a treat with a rare sighting of the moon, Saturn, and Mars as they a form a gorgeous, cosmic triangle in May’s dark sky.
What truly matters? Whether stakeholders are on board with the transformation.
In early 2000, with their company on the brink of failure, Netflix founders Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph flew to Dallas to meet with Blockbuster executives. As the story is told, they offered to sell their company for $50 million and got laughed out of the room. Humiliated, but determined, they built a business that toppled the industry giant.
The automaker is the latest company to slash jobs over AI—but this time, with the intent of hiring new workers with in-demand skills.
Multiplereports this week revealed that General Motors is cutting hundreds of jobs in its IT department—but not with the intent to replace them outright with AI. The layoffs are reportedly impacting about 600 employees, or about 10% of the IT team, and the job cuts are partly designed to allow the company to bring on new employees with specific AI skills.
Follow these expert tips to maximize your savings when buying a hybrid.
Does the high price of gas have you considering a hybrid for your next vehicle? We don’t blame you, especially if you drive a lot. Fortunately, there are lots of hybrids to choose from, and many don’t cost much more than their non-hybrid counterparts. But to recoup the extra cost of a hybrid the quickest and start saving money, we don’t recommend purchasing just any hybrid. The car experts at Edmunds outline four tips that will give you the tools you need to find a hybrid that will maximize your savings.
The product launches with 15 ready-to-run agentic workflows, 15 reusable AI skills, and connectors to platforms including QuickBooks, Canva, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, and others.
Anthropic on Wednesday launched Claude for Small Business, a new package of agentic workflows, skills, and connectors designed to automate business tasks common to smaller companies.
A creative cluster is taking shape in Stockholm’s meatpacking district, part of the Swedish capital’s bet on music as an engine of urban renewal.
The country that gave the world ABBA punches far above its weight in global pop music. In early April, Zara Larsson was the fourth-biggest female artist on Spotify, behind Taylor Swift, Olivia Dean, and Raye. The month prior, Larsson had become the first Swedish artist to top the Billboard Global 200. Her fans were delighted. So were Swedes.
The clever concept shows the limitations of a simple, sans-serif logo.
Yeti’s logo is simple: just its name written in an all-caps sans-serif font, placed within a rounded rectangle. But to speak to new consumers, they’re getting rid of the one element that gives it brand recognition.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a reality TV road show, then doubled down after the backlash. It’s a tone-deaf move from a tone-deaf administration.
At least, that’s the message former Road Rules star and current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent by announcing his new reality series as gas hit a national average of $4.49 a gallon.
Trump’s tax cuts from his Big Beautiful Bill are no match for the surging costs of basic necessities in the U.S.
Standing behind a downtown bar, Evan Duke smiled when he thought about no longer paying federal income tax on the hundreds of dollars in tips he earns on a busy night pouring beers and mixing drinks.
Duke’s dilemma is an economic microcosm of Donald Trump’s second presidency. Although the Republican president has tried to put more money in middle-class pockets with tax cuts, the benefits are being eroded as prices keep rising, especially during the war with Iran. The latest numbers, released Tuesday, showed the rate of inflation continued to climb.
It’s a financial tug-of-war shaping people’s lives as they consider the upcoming midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress during the final two years of Trump’s tenure.
All of these economic issues have been center stage in the battleground state of North Carolina and its U.S. Senate race. Michael Whatley, the Republican nominee and former national party chairman, is championing Trump’s tax overhaul. Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate and a former governor, is panning Trump’s management of the U.S. economy.
Duke, a registered independent, isn’t sure who he’ll support. Like a lot of Americans who vote with their wallets, he expects to decide based on “how things are going at the time.”
The bad news: they make your brand appear safe and generic. The good news: brands that distinguish themselves can stand out even more.
Anthropic has just announced Claude Design, a tool that lets teams generate and iterate visual design outputs through natural-language prompts. On the surface, it’s hard not to like the proposition: competent layout and typography on demand, fewer blank-page moments and faster shipping for everything from landing pages to pitch decks.
Prices for food eaten at home rose 2.9% in April compared to the same month a year earlier, according to government figures released Tuesday. That was the highest year-over-year inflation rate for the category since August 2023.
Prices at restaurants, fast-food chains and other places to get prepared meals also increased, putting overall food prices up 3.2% in the last year, the Labor Department’s consumer price index showed.
Fuel prices have soared while the Iran war prevents cargo ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for global oil supplies. Diesel fuel powers fishing boats, tractors and the trucks that ship 83% of U.S. agricultural products. As of Tuesday, the average price per gallon was up 61% from a year ago, according to AAA.
The meat, produce and dry goods vendors that supply Sparrow Market, a small independent grocer in Ann Arbor, Michigan, all added fuel surcharges to their deliveries in recent weeks, owner Raymond Campise said. Wholesale prices for meat, produce and some other products also have gone up, he said.
“For independent markets operating on narrow margins, even small increases can have a major impact,” Campise said.
The full impact of rising energy costs on food likely has not hit retail grocery prices yet in the U.S., according to Purdue University economists Ken Foster and Bernhard Dalheimer. Higher costs to produce, process, store and transport food can take three to six months to show up on supermarket shelves, where prices typically fall slowly once increased, they said.
“Most of what we’re seeing now in the food price chain probably predates the conflict,” Foster, a professor of agricultural economics, said. “We’re cautiously waiting to see what the June numbers and the May numbers might show as they come out in terms of … the extent to which energy shocks in the Strait of Hormuz and shipping blockades and so forth are going to impact food prices.”
The consumer price index measures changes in what people in U.S. cities paid at retail stores for meat, bread, milk, produce and other grocery staples. Over the last 20 years, grocery prices increased an average of 2.6%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Prices for perishable and refrigerated products tend to increase faster than prices for packaged goods when energy is an issue. Consumers paid 6.5% more for fresh fruit and vegetables in U.S. cities last month than they did in April 2025, and 8.8% more for meat, the Labor Department reported.
But U.S. trade policies and extreme weather also have weighed on U.S. food prices in the last year. In July 2025, the Trump administration imposed a 17% duty on fresh tomatoes imported from Mexico; consumer prices rose 40% in the 12 months before April.
Dry weather in the Western U.S. has been one of many factors pushing up beef prices, which in April were 15% higher year-over-year. Coffee prices were up 18.5%, partly due to drought and other weather conditions that have hurt global coffee production in recent years.
“Today’s CPI showed that food prices have been rising 3.2 percent in the past year, but the story behind that number is more complicated than just an energy shock,” said Dalheimer, an assistant professor of macroeconomics and trade in Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics.
Prices for some foods remained more or less flat or declined over 12 months. Milk and chicken dipped slightly. Butter cost 5.8% less in April than it did a year earlier. Egg prices fell 39% as farmers rebuilt flocks that were decimated by an ongoing bird flu outbreak.
Food prices and broader inflation are likely to feature prominently in November’s midterm elections. During his 2024 campaign, President Donald Trump often cited the prices of bacon, cereal, crackers and other groceries as reasons why voters should return him to the White House.
Some food producers say they’re struggling now because of higher fuel costs. The Southern Shrimp Alliance, which represents shrimpers in eight states, said some boats haven’t left the dock this spring because they can’t catch enough shrimp to compensate for the cost of diesel.
Fuel typically makes up 30% to 50% of the costs for U.S. shrimpers, but because they supply only 6% of the shrimp that Americans consume, they have limited ability to raise prices or add surcharges for fuel, the organization said.
Higher fuel prices may also be impacting food costs in other ways. Part of April’s 5% annual increase in prices for nonalcoholic beverages may be due to the petroleum derivative that goes into making plastic bottles, Foster said.
“It’s possible some of that’s starting to seep down the supply chain and get into those prices,” he said.
Over the next year or more, Americans could also see higher food prices due to spiking fertilizer costs, since around 30% of the world’s fertilizer travels through the Strait of Hormuz.
Fertilizer costs are less of an issue for U.S. farmers this year, since many already had fertilizer supplies in place before the war began, according to Foster. But the effects could become more noticeable next year if the war drags on, he said.
“I expect the Iran conflict to impact the coming years’ food prices through a couple of channels. One, the energy costs and transportation handling. The other would be through packaging costs,” Foster said. “If the conflict were to last longer, then we might see more coming online as fertilizer prices start to impact longer-term planting decisions and cropping decisions.”
The Nvidia CEO’s late addition to Trump’s Beijing delegation underscores how central compute power has become to the two countries’ AI rivalry.
Air Force One touched down in China today as a hastily convened U.S.-China summit begins this week. Alongside President Donald Trump on the flight to Beijing is a cavalcade of Silicon Valley executives.
Luis von Ahn says his viral AI memo was misunderstood, and that the company has learned a hard lesson: AI can boost productivity, but it still produces plenty of ‘slop.’
When Luis von Ahn, Duolingo’s CEO, sent an internal memo about AI last year, he didn’t expect it to go viral—or to ignite a firestorm about the future of work. Now he unpacks what he got right, what he got wrong, and what the backlash taught him about the real limitations of AI. It’s a candid reckoning with hype, growth, and the surprisingly complicated promise of technology in education.
Aseon Labs wants to help AV fleets scale with automated service pods that charge, clean, and inspect cars without sending them back to faraway depots.
While most folks embrace the futuristic vibe of autonomous cars, two veteran mobility entrepreneurs quickly spotted a looming chokepoint in their scaling efforts. The robotaxi industry desperately needs a faster, more streamlined way to service its fleets if it hopes to become profitable.
George Kalligeros, a Greek car enthusiast and former Tesla engineer, and the British business strategist Dan Keene were all too aware of new mobility infrastructure. They’d navigated similar logistics with their London startup Pushme Bikes, a massive battery-swapping network for shared e-scooters & e-bikes that raised $600 million before selling to Germany’s Tier Mobility in 2020. (The global platform now serves 5,000 locations across 40 cities.)
In a memo to staff, Walmart executives notably did not mention AI as a driver of a new round of layoffs and relocations. Here’s what to know.
Retail giant Walmart Inc has confirmed that it will eliminate some jobs. However, the affected positions will not impact the company’s retail staff, which makes up the overwhelming majority of its 1.6 million-strong U.S. workforce. Here’s what you need to know about Walmart’s latest round of layoffs.
Collecting those funds isn’t charity; it’s earned.
At my latest networking “meeting” with my bro Alex—also known as a free lunch with a marketing executive who still has a job and a corporate card—we talked about freelance opportunities that might be coming up. We talked about who was hiring, who claimed they were hiring, and which companies were pretending that “lean teams” were somehow a point of pride instead of a warning sign.
The influential showcase on the French Riviera will feature fewer American entries than normal this year, but there will be many buzzy movies on display.
Since 1946, the Festival de Cannes (a.k.a. the Cannes Film Festival) in France has been a beacon of cinematic excellence and cultural exchange.
Move over, Gen Z (and everyone else). A resourceful generation weaned on influencer culture will be entering the workforce before you know it.
It’s time to stop calling Gen Z the youngest generation in the workforce. Gen Alpha has entered the chat. Although the oldest Gen Alphas have only just hit their teen years, they are deeply financially motivated and ready to be put to work.
Glossy, cozy, FOMO-inducing. How Adam Selman designed a store that he hopes will get Gen Z and Gen Alpha girls off their phones and into Pink.
The closest thing to the idealized mall you recall either from personal memory or from cultural lore exists on a block in the Soho neighborhood of New York City, New York Magazine aptly dubbed “Tween Row.”
From Strava to Peloton to WHOOP, fitness companies are racing to turn biometric data into personalized workout plans, health advice, and round-the-clock wellness guidance.
Whether it’s giving you workout plans or summarizing your sleep, AI has hit fitness apps hard.
SpaceX and startups like Starcloud want to put solar-powered data centers in orbit. There are challenges.
When SpaceX filed an FCC application earlier this year proposing to launch a million satellite data centers into orbit, the company argued the project would have no meaningful environmental impact. On SpaceX’s website, Elon Musk made the case for space-based AI infrastructure in simpler terms: “It’s always sunny in space,” he wrote, arguing that orbital data centers are “obviously the only way to scale.”
The new Ikea PS collection features a range of whimsical furnishings that could redefine the future of the company’s design approach.
Inside Ikea’s movie studio-size marketing and production facility at the company’s headquarters in Älmhult, Sweden, a corner of a vast soundstage is piled with a multicolored array of what look like props from some fantastical children’s show. There’s a bench that rocks from side to side, a bright blue lamp that hides two transformative elbows in its skinny post, a glass vase with jug ears sticking out from its sides, and a clock on the end of a curvaceous red tube that looks like a worm wiggling its way out of the dirt.
Rising oil prices have set the stage for sustainable aviation fuels. Are airlines ready for them?
As the conflict in Iran strains the world’s oil supplies, a lot of attention has focused on gasoline: Average gas prices have increased more than a dollar a gallon since the war began, exceeding $4 a gallon for the first time in four years.
‘Reliability is a form of respect’ — and other invaluable lessons.
I mowed a lot of lawns and cleaned a lot of gutters as a kid, but my first consistent job was delivering newspapers. Today that sounds quaint, but it was a rite of passage back in the day.
The backlash to the actress’s Cannes comments reveals how conversations about artificial intelligence keep collapsing into shallow pro- and anti-AI tribalism.
Oops, it happened again. A celebrity was asked what they think about artificial intelligence and, after sharing their reflections, received intense blowback on social media.
CompanyCam began as a way for White Castle Roofing to monitor the work on its job sites. Now it’s valued at nearly $2 billion.
There are many ways to measure the success of CompanyCam, a Lincoln, Nebraska-based startup unicorn that popularized a photo-focused construction tracking app that’s become popular within the roofing industry.
But one of the clearest signs that its design, utility, and functionality are hitting the mark is the variety of users the app continues to attract.
As investors panic over an AI-driven “SaaSpocalypse,” the legend enterprise software CEO explains what AI agents can and can’t do, the industry’s biggest moat, and his ‘Goldilocks formula’ for pricing. Plus: Three SaaS companies most at risk of AI disruption.
Enterprise software has long operated on a relatively stable hierarchy of power: The companies that owned the interface largely owned the customer relationship. Employees moved through dashboards, tabs, forms, and menus; software vendors sold more seats, expanded across departments, and steadily compounded recurring revenue.
In a state where major data center construction is now banned, the residents of a small town blocked the adoption of an AI-generated logo.
After proposing a new design for its municipal logo on Facebook, one tiny Maine town faced backlash in the comments section when it admitted the mark was generated by AI. The post and page are now private.
I’ve sat across from enough designers to know that the moment someone starts questioning whether to leave their role, they rarely lack options, they lack permission. And most of the time, that permission is being held hostage by a story that got repeated so many times it just became as normal as talking about the weather.
AI policing tools are used in dozens of U.S. cities, and several injustices have already occurred.
In Baltimore on October 20, 2025, a 17-year-old student named Taki Allen was sitting outside his high school after football practice when an artificial intelligence-enhanced surveillance camera falsely identified the Doritos bag in his pocket as a gun. Within moments police cars arrived, officers drew their weapons and Allen was forced to his knees and handcuffed while they searched him. All they found was a crumpled bag of chips. The AI’s misidentification and the human decisions that followed turned a normal evening into a traumatic confrontation.
Intelligence is one of the most consequential human traits. It is also one of the most socially awkward to discuss. Few topics trigger as much discomfort, denial, or moral posturing. Suggest that IQ matters and you risk being accused of elitism, determinism, or worse.
In an interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God, the comedian-turned-business leader revealed what he considers his ‘greatest currency.’
On May 11, media entrepreneur Byron Allen announced a deal to buy a majority stake in BuzzFeed—the millennial-favorite news site that closed its Pulitzer Prize-winning news division in 2023.
The Meta CEO has apparently been vibing with Jack Harlow, Doja Cat, and other milquetoast music.
Meta founder, chairman, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that the company’s Meta Connect conference, which offers a glimpse into what the tech giant sees as the future, will take place September 23–24. The conference is typically a major event for the company. Last year, Meta used the stage to debut its AI glasses.
Long considered Instagram’s little sibling, Threads is ready make a name of its own.
When Threads launched in 2023, it was almost entirely defined in relation to other platforms: It was an offshoot of Instagram, an alternative to Twitter, and a competitor to Bluesky. Three years later, the platform is finally ready to strike out on its own, starting with a few subtle but meaningful changes to its brand identity.
Here’s why the talent pipeline is failing long before job training even starts.
A few years ago, I sat across from the CEO of a Fortune 500 company who told me, “We can’t find people who can solve problems.” When I asked him where he thought the issue began, he answered, “Somewhere in college, I guess.”
During a commencement speech at Carnegie Mellon University, Huang said that now is the best time to start a career.
Jensen Huang left Carnegie Mellon University’s class of 2026 with a message that pushed back against graduation-season anxiety: there’s no better time than now to be starting a career.
Homebuilders spent much of the past year cutting prices, upping incentives, cutting specs, and slowing starts in the softest Sun Belt markets. Now, unsold completed new-build inventory has stopped surging.
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Calbee says shortages tied to the Strait of Hormuz blockade are forcing some of its best-known products into monochrome packaging.
Known for their unique flavors and vibrant designs, Japanese snacks are coveted around the world. But now, thanks to geopolitical tensions, one of Japan’s biggest snack makers is deciding to dial back its vibrant packaging, at least temporarily.
‘Naegleria fowleri’ was detected in tourist hot spots across the country. Learn about the risks, safety guidance, and symptoms of infection.
Yes, you read that right: Brain-eating amoeba have been found in two popular U.S. national parks, according to a recent study from the U.S. Geological Survey, and a number of other institutions, published in the American Chemical Society’s journal, ES&T Water.
Popcorn, nuts pork rinds, potato chips, and cheese curds are among the treats linked to ingredients produced by California Dairies that may be contaminated.
More than three dozen snack products sold under numerous brand names are being recalled due to fears that one of their ingredients could be contaminated with the potentially deadly bacterium Salmonella. Here’s what you need to know about the snacks recall.
A TikToker used ChatGPT to make her chicken order look raw—but her post’s 4.4 million viewers included DoorDash itself.
Food delivery service DoorDash is quick to hold restaurants accountable for their mistakes—but not without evidence. Dissatisfied customers have to provide proof that something was wrong with their order, be it a missing item, late delivery, or improperly prepared food, before the company will issue a refund (potentially on the restaurant’s dime, depending on the nature of the mistake).
The popular burger chain has seen its overall U.S. footprint grow over the last few years, but a handful of its stores have recently closed or will close soon.
As operating costs rise and consumers curb spending in the wake of an affordability crisis, restaurants of all stripes are feeling the pinch from multiple directions.
After a failed relaunch earlier this year, Digg has returned with a stripped-down new approach focused on surfacing the most important stories and voices in artificial intelligence.
When the history of the internet is written, the story of Digg might be one of its most fascinating chapters.
According to sales execs, Amazon has already penetrated 90% of U.S. households. Next up is an adaptation of Rebecca Yarros’ best-selling novel.
Amazon can deliver anything—including, increasingly, eyeballs to advertisers. And now, its upcoming slate of content, including an adaptation of the best-selling novel Fourth Wing and a list of young adult content, is sure to have advertisers excited.
Elon Musk’s lawsuit is seeking to unseat Sam Altman from OpenAI’s leadership for a second time.
In a trial featuring a clash between Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, neither of the tech titans has emerged as an overly sympathetic character. But nobody has more to lose than Altman, who is expected to take the stand this week to defend himself.
Already, testimony about Altman’s turbulent tenure at the ChatGPT maker has become prime fodder for internet jokes. One piece of evidence that has inspired countless memes was a text exchange between Altman and a company officer, Mira Murati, in 2023 during his short-lived ouster as CEO, when Altman asked if things were moving “directionally good or bad” and she wrote back: “Sam this is very bad.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, is seeking Altman’s second ouster from the company leadership as part of a civil lawsuit accusing him of betraying their shared vision for OpenAI. Since its start as a nonprofit funded primarily by Musk, Open AI has evolved into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.
Even if Musk loses, the trial has invited further scrutiny of Altman’s leadership at a pivotal time for the company and its competition with Musk’s own AI firm and another rival, Anthropic, formed by a group of seven ex-OpenAI leaders. All three firms are moving toward planned initial public offerings that are expected to be some of the largest ever.
A jury that’s already heard about Altman’s character from a parade of his former allies and adversaries will ultimately decide the verdict. But the repercussions could reverberate widely.
“This is not looking good for any of them and I think that that’s a little bit unfortunate for the AI industry at a time when the public perception of AI is quite negative and seems to be getting worse,” said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute.
The AI implementation gap is a lack of connection between activity and business performance.
Most of the executive teams I work with have been investing in AI for a few years. The ones who are frustrated are not the skeptics. They are the believers whose programs have not connected to the P&L. They have the pilots, the internal momentum, the board slide showing everything in flight. What they do not have is a clear line between that activity and business performance, and at this point in the AI cycle, that gap is no longer acceptable.
Starmer is trying to shore up support within his Cabinet following a febrile few days in the wake of hefty losses for the Labour Party in local elections last week, which if repeated in a national election would see it overwhelmingly ejected from power.
The meeting, which lasted about an hour, took place as around 80 Labour backbenchers, or nearly a fifth of the party’s representation in the House of Commons, said Starmer should stand down, or at least set out a timetable for his departure. Under Labour party rules, 81 lawmakers are needed to formally trigger a leadership contest.
However, no one has yet announced they will stand as a candidate for the leadership, directly challenging Starmer.
Away is launching its new Topside luggage in partnership with Amtrak. It’s part of the railroad company’s push to reimagine train travel.
As Amtrak continues to roll out new high-speed trains, it’s also improving on another pain point of train travel: unwieldy suitcases. A new partnership with Away is promoting a set of sleek luggage designed to tackle some of the issues of maneuvering a suitcase through the tight spaces on a moving train car.
When all employees are encouraged to participate, we build something far more meaningful than a volunteer program.
For a long time, we thought we were doing our part. Our firm gave generously, supported causes we believed in, and showed up when asked. But over time, it became clear that something was missing. Our giving wasn’t balanced. It was concentrated. It didn’t always reach far enough into the communities where we live and work. And it didn’t always invite everyone to take part.
Utilizing a network of smaller locations ‘designed for efficient order fulfillment,’ Amazon is betting that customers will pay extra for more speed.
Back in March, Amazon announced new 1-hour and 3-hour delivery options for tens of thousands of items in over 2,000 cities across America. But now the e-commerce juggernaut is making those short wait times look relatively long.
Countries around the world are rapidly deploying laser weapons for air defense and counter-drone operations. The real challenge now is producing enough systems to withstand modern saturation attacks.
This article is republished with permission from Laser Wars, a newsletter about military laser weapons and other futuristic defense technology.
As TikTok plays a growing role in how businesses reach customers online, the app is creating a new economy around its library of commercial music.
If you’re a sports fan on TikTok, you’ve almost certainly heard the song “Orla” by the British DJ and producer Nimino. Since its release in early March, the song has soundtracked nearly 150,000 videos on the platform.
Standing out in today’s job market requires more than listing AI tools on a résumé. It demands proof of real-world application and measurable results. So how can professionals signal genuine AI fluency on their résumés or LinkedIn profiles? Industry experts reveal eleven concrete strategies to demonstrate AI competence that hiring managers actually notice. These techniques show how to translate hands-on experience into credible signals that separate casual users from skilled practitioners.
The polygonal vehicle was already a joke on four wheels. Now it can lose those, too.
The headline sounds like a pun: “The wheels are falling off Tesla’s Cybertruck.” But it isn’t a joke. Tesla is recalling 173 Cybertrucks because the wheels can literally fall off while the vehicle is in motion.
Bieber flipped Rhode into a billion-dollar brand in three years. Here’s an inside look at her creative process—and her do’s and don’ts.
A few weeks ago, a Rhode billboard appeared on the road along the way to Coachella. Powder pink background, hot pink type, and multicolored daisies. It didn’t look like Rhode’s typical visual brand, which is defined by subtle Swiss minimalism, conveyed in cool grays, white, and boxy sans serifs. It signaled something new. “See you down the Rhode,” it said. What was at the other end?
‘This will be the enduring legacy of Spirit Airlines. It set off a race to the bottom.’
I flew Spirit Airlines out of LaGuardia on April 28th. With the announcement just days later that the carrier was shutting down, it felt a little like catching the last chopper out of Saigon. Then again, every time you flew Spirit felt a little like catching the last chopper out of Saigon. There were the improbably tiny bags, people packed tightly in seats, and an everpresent sense that the simmering confusion could at any moment break out into full blown calamity.
There are real costs to short-term optimizations, while set-asides offer a way to reap superior economic returns in the medium term.
A useful rule of thumb is that when a problem persists for decades despite serious effort, the failure is usually not one of effort or intelligence, but of framing. Climate change sits squarely in this category. We have poured talent, capital, policy, and good intentions into solving it, and yet the core dynamics continue to worsen. This suggests that something foundational is off in how we are thinking about the problem.
More than 7 million Americans currently live with Alzheimer’s disease.
From sugary cereals to Pop-Tarts and other pastries, many of the things Americans are used to eating first thing in the morning aren’t optimal for health. But according to new research, one traditional breakfast food could help protect your brain, and no, it’s not coffee. It’s eggs.
Rather than seek answers, New York Times-published author Simone Stolzoff wants us to get better at sitting with the unknown.
Simone Stolzoff has a gift for asking questions that slice the soul. In his first book, The Good Enough Job, he asks how work came to be so central to our identities, and what we can do to rebalance our lives. He’s a journalist whose writing on the intersection of work, identity, and relationships has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Wired, and National Geographic.
Two negotiation professors explain how to turn people down with kindness, and zero room for pushback.
You know the feeling we are talking about. Your friend calls to ask for your help moving on a Saturday when you were planning on doing nothing. Or your sister-in-law asks you to invest in her business, and you are afraid there is no way it will succeed. Even when the person asking for the favor isn’t someone central to your life, it is still painful to say no. Most of us don’t even like saying no to telemarketers. That’s why there are so many jobs in sales. Often, we end up making bad decisions to avoid the short-term discomfort of turning people down.
The Swedish cafe is billed as a ‘controlled experiment’ to explore how AI might be deployed going forward.
The coffee might be poured by a human hand, but behind the counter, something far less traditional is calling the shots at an experimental cafe in Stockholm.
San Francisco-based startup Andon Labs has put an artificial intelligence agent nicknamed “Mona” in charge at the eponymous Andon Café in the Swedish capital. While human baristas still brew the coffee and serve the orders, the AI agent — powered by Google’s Gemini — oversees almost every other aspect of the business, from hiring staff to managing inventory.
It is not clear how long the experiment will last, but the AI agent appears to be struggling to turn a profit in Stockholm’s competitive coffee trade. The cafe has made more than $5,700 in sales since it opened in mid-April, but less than $5,000 remains from its original budget of $21,000-plus. Much of the cash was spent on one-time setup costs, and the hope is that it eventually levels out and makes money.
Many cafe patrons have found it amusing to visit a business that’s run by AI. Customers can pick up a telephone inside the cafe and ask the agent questions.
“It’s nice to see what happens if you push the boundary,” customer Kajsa Norin said. “The drink was good.”
The number of men working or looking for a job has dropped lower than it has been in decades, with the exception of a blip during the pandemic.
It has become clear that women—and working mothers, in particular—are up against all kinds of challenges that threaten their foothold in the labor force. But one trend that may be less evident is that men are also dropping out of the workforce, albeit for different reasons.
Existing home sales edged up 0.2% last month from March.
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were essentially flat in April, another lackluster showing for the housing market during what’s traditionally its busiest time of the year.
The case centers on a backstage photo, TV boxes sold nationwide, and fans allegedly buying the TVs because they saw her face.
British pop star Dua Lipa is suing Samsung Electronics for at least $15 million in damages, alleging the South Korean electronics company illegally used a copyrighted image of her without permission.
‘People ask what I did to get here,’ the tennis star wrote in a piece for Fortune. ‘But the truest answer might be this.’
Naomi Osaka once believed that winning meant saying yes to everything. Over the years of her successful tennis career, though, the four-time Grand Slam champion has found that this no longer rings true.
There are new types of pollen (and more of it) in the air this spring season, thanks to climate change.
Climate change is making your allergies worse, in part by creating longer and more intense pollen seasons, according to a growing body of research from a number of scientists and physicians.
First you choose a partner, then you choose a genome? For this episode of FC Explains, Fast Company Senior Writer Ainsley Harris digs into the rapidly growing world of embryo genetic screening, including IVF startups like Orchid and Nucleus that offer parents the ability to select embryos based on genome sequencing. Proponents say this kind […]
First you choose a partner, then you choose a genome? For this episode of FC Explains, Fast Company Senior Writer Ainsley Harris digs into the rapidly growing world of embryo genetic screening, including IVF startups like Orchid and Nucleus that offer parents the ability to select embryos based on genome sequencing.
The case for ‘the album and the mixtape’ approach.
In the United States, we recognize a separation between church and state, but does that delineation apply to work, too? That’s an earnest question from a self-identifying choirboy—literally, I grew up in church and I direct the choir—who has been asked throughout my career to leave religion out of my work. Do we need the Jesus reference in the deck? Do I have to use Bible scripture in that essay? Is the religious example in the class lecture necessary? It’s almost always polite but definitely unambiguous: ease up on the religious stuff because it likely doesn’t have a place here because the workplace is neutral. But is that really so?
In new research from CMU, Oxford, MIT, and UCLA, having a GPT-powered assistant taken away left people fumbling to solve math problems on their own.
Critics of artificial intelligence caution that, as a relatively new technology, its long-term effects on the human brain are still unknown. But a new study shows that AI could be dangerous even in the short term, with just 10 minutes of AI use leading to impaired brain performance.
ESPN+ starts coverage before sunrise this week as golf’s biggest stars arrive at Aronimink Golf Club.
Golf fans are eagerly awaiting the start of the 2026 PGA Championship, which kicks off this week. From May 14 to the 17th, the biggest 156 names in golf will compete to earn the coveted Wanamaker trophy.
The Senate is expected to vote on their version of the proposal this week.
Republicans returning to Washington on Monday are facing questions about a $1 billion Senate security proposal that could help pay for President Donald Trump’s ballroom as Democrats say they will try to defeat it.
Senate Republicans added the money for White House security to a spending bill that would restore funding for immigration enforcement agencies that Democrats have blocked since February. The steep security proposal was put forward after a man was charged with trying to assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last month.
Republicans are using a partisan budget maneuver to push the spending legislation through Congress without any Democratic votes. But in a letter to colleagues Monday morning, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats will fight it in other ways, including by pushing the Senate parliamentarian to strike the ballroom security money from the budget bill and offering amendments forcing Republicans to vote on it.
“The Republican-controlled Congress is preparing to answer this moment with a deficit-busting, party-line bill that pours billions more taxpayer dollars into a rogue ICE operation and a billion-dollar ballroom, while doing nothing to end the illegal war in Iran or ease the Republican affordability crisis bearing down on working families,” Schumer wrote in the letter.
It’s unclear if the security money will even have enough backing among Republicans. The House has not released its bill yet, but the Senate is expected to start voting on its version of the legislation this week.
While most GOP lawmakers have remained quiet on the proposal as they spent their recess out of Washington, some have publicly questioned whether they would support it.
“I’m going to look at it very carefully and make sure those things are in the national interest,” said Rep. Rob Wittman, a Virginia Republican who was in the Capitol last week to briefly gavel in a pro forma session of the House.
“I want to know the exact nature of the expenditures that would go there for security. So I think it’s a little premature to look at that and say, you know, yes or no to it,” Wittman said.
Wittman wants to better understand the details of the Senate proposal and “how it’s part of what the total construction cost is,” he said.
Trump has said the ballroom’s construction would cost $400 million and use private funds, but he had not proposed a number for security costs.
The Senate bill would designate the money for the U.S. Secret Service, including for “security adjustments and upgrades” related to the ballroom project, which Trump and other Republicans have been pushing since Cole Tomas Allen was charged with storming the April 25 media dinner at the Washington Hilton with guns and knives.
The legislation says the money would support enhancements to the ballroom project, “including above-ground and below-ground security features,” but specifies it may not be used for non-security elements.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle praised Republicans last week for including the money for the “long overdue” project, saying it would “provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS.”
The White House has said in court documents that the East Wing project would be “heavily fortified,” including bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility underneath the ballroom. Trump has said it should include bulletproof glass and be able to repel drone attacks.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued to block construction of the project, but a federal appeals court said last month that it can continue in the meantime.
The show is scheduled to premiere in 2027, and casting is underway.
Wordle, the game originally designed as a gift for the creator’s partner, has been a national obsession for years. Now it’s becoming a television game show.
Marketers are being held accountable for revenue without full measurement visibility.
In our 2026 Performance Marketingsurvey with Harris Poll, we asked more than 300 marketing decision-makers about the trends and investments they predicted for 2026. The biggest takeaway—75% report increased expectations for accountability. And nearly two-thirds say leaders now evaluate them based on pipeline contribution rather than traditional top-of-funnel metrics like lead volume.
The state visit will probably not have the ceremonial splendor of Trump’s 2017 trip, during his first term.
Long before this week’s trip to China, President Donald Trump was already predicting on social media that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, would “give me a big, fat hug when I get there.”
But Beijing’s deep economic ties to Iran, as well as trade tensions over tariff threats stretching back to Trump’s first term, could crimp the good feelings when Trump flies to Beijing this week — even though the Republican president has for years effusively praised Xi, making it clear he sees China’s leader as a competitor strong enough to warrant his respect and admiration.
Trump lately isn’t very fond of long plane rides or extended stretches away from the White House or his properties in Florida and New Jersey. He arrives in Beijing on Wednesday night and the next morning will take part in a welcome ceremony and meet one-on-one with Xi before the two leaders tour the Temple of Heaven — a religious complex dating to the 15th century symbolizing the relationship between Earth and heaven.
Trump will attend a state banquet on Thursday evening and then have a tea and working lunch with Xi on Friday before leaving, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said Sunday. She said they will discuss creating a new Board of Trade to keep their countries talking on economic issues, as well talking up key industries like energy, aerospace and agriculture.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Monday that Beijing is willing to work with the U.S., based on equality and mutual respect to expand cooperation, manage differences, and add stability to a turbulent world. The diplomacy between the leaders “plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role” in the bilateral relation, he said.
There will be plenty of ceremonial splendor, but the grandeur is not expected to rival Trump’s first visit to China in 2017, which Beijing dubbed a “state visit-plus.”
“Even before this whole conflagration with Iran, they weren’t going to go state visit-plus like last time, just because things are tense,” said Jonathan Czin, a former director for China at the National Security Council during the Biden administration.
The State Department is repatriating 17 American citizens who were aboard the M/V Hondius. One tested positive and another has symptoms.
As countries continue to deal with a hantavirus outbreak linked to passengers aboard the M/V Hondius cruise ship, government and public health agencies have begun repatriating both those confirmed to have the virus and those potentially exposed to it.
The update takes Venmo’s UX from phone book vibes to modern payment platform.
Venmo is getting its first full app overhaul since its inception in 2009, and it’s addressing some major UX issues that have made using the platform feel like the digital equivalent of flipping through a phone book.
