LeBron James had been in business with Mark Walter, whose business empire is under scrutiny from both federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission in tax fraud investigations, long before he joined the Los Angeles Lakers. 

Months before he signed with the Lakers in 2018, a limited liability company James controls borrowed $300 million from a pair of Midwestern life insurers advised by an arm of Guggenheim Partners, according to Bloomberg’s report. Walter was the CEO of Guggenheim at the time of the transaction.

The bonds are due in 2049 and were meant to give James an immediate influx of cash that was backed by a stream of future revenue tied to his non-NBA earnings, like sponsorship deals and his lifetime deal with Nike, according to the report. Walter began lending more as he began acquiring the Lakers. 

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Walter abruptly agreed to sell his share of the Lakers for $12.5 billion to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger earlier this month. He is cooperating with the investigation into his business empire. 

Walter first took a minority stake in the Lakers in 2021 before acquiring a majority controlling stake in 2025. James’ LLC and Walter’s Guggenheim made another transaction in 2022. 

In August 2022, when James signed a $97 million contract extension with the Lakers, the same Midwestern insurers provided James’ LLC with more cash. They bought almost $60 million of 34-year bonds with a 5.75% interest rate, according to the report.

ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW! 

The NBA directed FOX Business’ request for comment to a representative for James who said, “The 2018 and 2022 transactions were a securitization done by Mr. James with his personal, non-NBA salary, assets and income which is a very common financial structure for an individual with this level of earnings and assets.”

“Both transactions were fully approved by NBA. Mr. James has no affiliation with Guggenheim, Sammons Financial, North American Life or Midland National beyond their participation in these transactions.”

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FOX Business reached out to the Lakers and Guggenheim Partners for comment and did not immediately get a response. 

Walter’s sale of the Lakers came as the businessman was reshaping his portfolio with the investigation ongoing. 

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Business leaders are paying tribute to Dolly Parton, remembering the country music icon for her cultural impact and philanthropy.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Thrive Global founder Arianna Huffington took to X to honor Parton’s legacy after she died peacefully Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 80.

HOW DOLLY PARTON BUILT A LEGACY OF GIVING BEYOND COUNTRY MUSIC

Bezos said Parton “spent her whole life showing us what it means to lead with love.”

“Lauren and I are so grateful to have known her,” Bezos wrote on X. “She lifted everyone with her music, her generosity, and her joy. Sending our sincere condolences to her family and everyone she touched.”

AMAZON PLANS MASSIVE EXPANSION OF PRIME AIR DRONE DELIVERIES

Cook also honored Parton’s legacy.

“Dolly Parton’s music helped light up the world,” Cook wrote on X. “She was a brilliant songwriter, cultural icon, and dedicated philanthropist who helped instill a love of reading and learning in millions of children around the world. May she rest in peace.”

Thrive Global founder Arianna Huffington said Parton showed that “a life of extraordinary achievement can also be a life of extraordinary generosity.”

“Through her music, her humor and her commitment to giving children the gift of reading, she brought joy and possibility to millions. Her light will live on through the songs she gave us, and every young imagination she helped inspire,” Huffington wrote on X.

WARREN BUFFETT EXCLUDES GATES FOUNDATION FROM HIS ANNUAL DONATIONS OF BERKSHIRE STOCK

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Parton’s nephew revealed the news in a Tuesday Instagram video. 

The news comes after Parton spent months battling an unknown health issue.

Fox News Digital’s Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.

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Representatives of the Netherlands will be expelled from Kiryat Gat’s International Support Center for Gaza due to the Dutch government’s adoption of anti-Israel legislation, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Tuesday.

According to Sa’ar, the expulsion was ordered with the approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Dutch Embassy was notified on Tuesday evening.

“Our message is clear: Those who act against Israel will have no foothold in the region. Israel will not allow measures to be taken against it without a response,” he asserted. 

The representatives will be expelled from the center, previously known as the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), immediately and must leave the country within one week. 

Pro-Palestinian activists block the way of a police vehicle outside the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs on October 2, 2025 in The Hague, Netherlands.  (credit: Pierre Crom/Getty Images)

Dutch ban on West Bank goods accompanied by wave of antisemitism 

Sa’ar noted that the Dutch government’s anti-Israel policies have been accompanied by a wave of antisemitism in the Netherlands.

In a statement released on X/Twitter, Sa’ar highlighted the Netherlands’s recent ban on the import, sale, and purchase of products made in Israeli West Bank settlements and the Golan Heights. 

The ban was proposed in May of this year, made official in late July, and will take effect on September 22. 

When the ban was proposed, a government press release said Dutch nationals and entities inside and outside the Netherlands would be prohibited from buying, selling, or providing intermediary services related to goods produced in settlements.

The Dutch cabinet claimed that the ban was aimed at preventing “Dutch economic activities from contributing to the perpetuation of a situation that is contrary to international law.

Mathilda Heller contributed to this report.

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SEATTLE — Amazon has quietly changed the way millions of customers receive order-confirmation emails, replacing specific product names and images with broad labels such as “Household item,” “Essentials item” or “Beauty item” — a privacy-focused move that cybersecurity specialists warn could have an unintended consequence: making fake Amazon emails harder to identify.

Until recently, Amazon confirmation emails typically told customers exactly what they had purchased, often including the product name and image. That gave shoppers an immediate way to recognize whether an email matched an order they had actually placed.

The newer format removes much of that information from the email itself. Customers instead have to open Amazon’s app or independently visit its website to see precisely what was ordered.

Amazon has said the change is intended to simplify its communications and reduce the amount of customer information being shared outside Amazon-controlled channels.

That provides a legitimate privacy benefit. Purchase histories can reveal surprisingly sensitive information about a person’s health, finances, household, interests and daily habits, and keeping those details out of email reduces the amount of information sitting inside third-party inboxes.

But the change creates a tradeoff.

Fake order confirmations are already one of the tactics commonly used by scammers impersonating Amazon. Criminals send messages claiming that an unfamiliar purchase has been made, then pressure recipients to click a link, call a phone number or provide account information.

When legitimate Amazon messages themselves become intentionally vague, consumers lose one of the easiest clues they previously had for distinguishing a real confirmation from a generic fraudulent one.

There is currently no evidence that scammers are already exploiting Amazon’s new email design on a significant scale, making it important not to overstate the threat.

The vulnerability is instead about what the new format could make possible.

Amazon itself has warned consumers about fake order confirmations, shipping notifications and refund offers. The company says shoppers who receive a suspicious message should avoid relying on links inside the email and instead check their account directly through Amazon’s “Your Orders” page or the Amazon Shopping app.

That becomes particularly important under the new system.

If an email unexpectedly says an Amazon “Household item” or “Electronics item” has been ordered, consumers should not click the message simply to discover what the product is. They can independently open Amazon and check their order history.

If the purchase does not appear there, the email should be treated as potentially fraudulent.

For shoppers, Amazon’s change illustrates a growing tension in online commerce: protecting customer data can improve privacy while simultaneously removing information consumers once relied upon to recognize scams.

JBizNews Desk | Seattle

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Wall Street finished higher Tuesday, but the more important business story was what happened underneath the indexes. Bond yields and oil finally moved lower, giving investors some relief, while new housing and consumer data showed that high borrowing costs are increasingly affecting real purchasing decisions. Dick’s Sporting Goods lost nearly a third of its value after problems at Foot Locker, copper moved close to an all-time high despite an apparent global surplus, and Intuit’s results offered a fresh look inside the finances of millions of small businesses.

I screened Tuesday’s developments against JBizNews’ current news feed to avoid repeating stories already carried during the day. 

Markets — Tech Rebounds as Oil and Bond Yields Finally Retreat

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 53,577.17, up 160.01 points, or 0.30%. The S&P 500 gained 24.20 points, or 0.32%, to 7,677.20, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 171.64 points, or 0.66%, to 26,151.30

The rally was not especially large, but what drove it mattered.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.64% from 4.70% Monday, easing some of the pressure that has been hitting mortgages, business loans and highly valued technology stocks. Nvidia rose 1.8% ahead of Wednesday’s earnings report. 

Oil provided another major source of relief. Brent crude fell $3.59, or 3.9%, to $88.58 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate dropped $2.65, or 3.1%, to $82.36. Both settled at their lowest levels in roughly two weeks. 

For businesses, the combination matters more than Tuesday’s index gains. Lower oil reduces pressure on transportation, manufacturing and inflation, while falling Treasury yields can eventually lower financing costs across housing, commercial real estate and corporate borrowing.

The biggest individual loser was Dick’s Sporting Goods, down 30.1%. That was not simply an earnings miss — it exposed a much bigger problem with one of the retail sector’s most important acquisitions. 

Housing & Consumers — Lower Home Prices Still Aren’t Bringing Buyers Back

The housing market delivered one of Tuesday’s clearest warnings about what high interest rates are doing to the real economy.

Sales of newly built single-family homes fell 10.5% in July to an annualized 607,000, the lowest level since January.

Even more striking, the median new-home price fell to $393,800 — its lowest level in four years.

Normally, lower prices should bring buyers back.

They are not.

Mortgage rates remain close to 7%, and the combination of expensive financing, insurance, property taxes and uncertainty over employment is keeping potential buyers on the sidelines. 

Consumer confidence reinforced the message. The Conference Board’s index slipped to 89.4 in August from 90.2 in July, its lowest level in seven months.

That matters far beyond homebuilders.

Every home sale generates additional spending on furniture, appliances, renovations, contractors, moving companies, landscaping and local services. When housing transactions freeze, an entire ecosystem of small businesses loses activity.

The important takeaway is that housing is no longer simply suffering from high prices. Prices are now falling in parts of the new-home market, and affordability is still not improving enough to unlock demand.

Retail — Dick’s $2.4 Billion Foot Locker Deal Runs Into Trouble

Dick’s Sporting Goods bought Foot Locker for $2.4 billion last year, betting that combining the two companies would give it greater control over the global sneaker and athletic-wear market.

Tuesday showed how quickly an acquisition can become a liability.

Dick’s cut its full-year earnings forecast to $11 to $12 a share and now expects Foot Locker comparable sales to range from flat to down 2%.

Management blamed bloated footwear inventories, aggressive discounting and weaker-than-expected sneaker launches.

The stock plunged 30.1%, potentially its worst trading day on record. 

This matters to more than Dick’s shareholders.

Foot Locker sits between major manufacturers such as Nike and Adidas and millions of consumers. If inventory is piling up, retailers typically respond with promotions. That pressures margins at stores, weakens pricing power for brands and can ultimately affect orders going back to manufacturers.

It is also a reminder for business owners that buying revenue is not the same as buying profitable growth.

Dick’s acquired thousands of stores and a major international brand. It also acquired Foot Locker’s inventory problems, weak product launches and turnaround costs.

Small Business — Intuit’s Numbers Show Where Businesses Are Still Spending

After Tuesday’s closing bell, Intuit reported fiscal-year revenue of $21.4 billion, up 14%, giving investors an unusually broad look at what is happening among small businesses and individual taxpayers.

Its Global Business Solutions division — which includes QuickBooks — generated $12.9 billion, up 16%. QuickBooks Online Accounting revenue jumped 23% for the year, while Intuit said higher prices, customer growth and customers moving toward more expensive products helped drive the business.

TurboTax revenue rose 7% to $5.3 billion, while Credit Karma increased 20% to $2.6 billion

But Intuit’s outlook shows growth moderating.

The company expects fiscal 2027 revenue of approximately $23.3 billion to $23.5 billion, representing growth of 9% to 10%. Its Mailchimp business is expected to range from a 1% decline to no growth at all. 

That split is particularly interesting.

Small businesses continue paying for accounting, payroll, payments and financial-management tools that are essential to operating. Marketing software is having a harder time.

In other words, businesses may still spend aggressively on technology that runs the company or saves labor, while becoming more selective about technology whose return is less immediate.

That distinction could become increasingly important as AI companies compete for small-business budgets.

Commodities — Copper Nears a Record Even Though the World May Have Too Much of It

Copper climbed as high as $14,343 a metric ton in London Tuesday, approaching its record of $14,527.50.

Normally that would suggest the world is running out of copper.

The reality is considerably stranger.

Analysts at CRU expect the global copper market could actually produce a 639,000-ton surplus in 2026. Yet available inventories on the London Metal Exchange have fallen toward 90,000 tons while inventories held in the United States have surged to records. 

Why?

The threat of U.S. tariffs is pulling enormous amounts of copper into America before the rules potentially change.

The United States imported roughly 885,000 tons of refined copper during the first half of 2026 — more than twice the volume imported during the same period in 2024.

That is creating an unusual situation where the world can have enough copper overall while specific regions suddenly feel tight.

For contractors, electrical-equipment manufacturers, utilities, data-center developers and construction companies, this is extremely important.

Copper is inside wiring, transformers, motors, air-conditioning equipment, EVs and practically every major electrical project. The AI data-center boom is already dramatically increasing expected electricity demand.

Now trade policy is adding another variable.

A commodity does not need to be physically scarce globally for businesses to experience a shortage locally. Tariffs and inventory movements can create scarcity all by themselves.

Healthcare — McKesson Pays $2.25 Billion to Move Deeper Into Drug Development

McKesson announced Tuesday that it will acquire Precision Medicine Group for approximately $2.25 billion, expanding beyond its traditional role as one of America’s largest drug distributors.

Precision Medicine provides clinical-research, laboratory and commercialization services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

McKesson plans to place the business inside its oncology and multispecialty division, where quarterly revenue recently jumped 33% to $14.2 billion

The strategy is important.

Major drug distributors historically made money moving medicines from manufacturers to pharmacies and hospitals — a massive business, but one with relatively thin margins.

McKesson is increasingly moving upstream, where it can participate in clinical trials, specialty medicines, oncology treatment and the process of bringing drugs to market.

That gives the company access to higher-margin revenue before a drug ever reaches the pharmacy counter.

For pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and independent medical practices, it also means another part of the healthcare supply chain is consolidating around a small number of enormously powerful companies.

Technology & Regulation — Meta Faces a Potential $200 Billion Test

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri was expected to take the witness stand Tuesday in what legal experts described as the largest court test yet of whether social-media companies designed their platforms in ways that harm or addict children.

Twenty-nine states are suing Meta, alleging that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to maximize engagement among young users while failing to adequately protect them.

The states have indicated that Meta could potentially face nearly $200 billion in civil penalties.

Meta denies that it designed its platforms to addict children and disputes claims that research establishes a clear causal connection between social-media use and declining well-being.

The federal judge will decide liability, potential penalties and whether changes must be made to Facebook and Instagram. The trial is expected to continue through much of September. 

The business implications could be enormous even if the ultimate financial penalty is much smaller.

A ruling against Meta could force changes to recommendation algorithms, notifications, age verification and other features designed to keep users engaged.

Those same engagement systems are what make social-media advertising so valuable.

That means a case framed around children’s safety could eventually affect advertisers, influencers, retailers, app developers and practically every business that depends on social platforms for customer acquisition.

What to Watch Wednesday — PCE, GDP and Nvidia All Hit on the Same Day

Wednesday, August 26, could be considerably more important for markets than Tuesday.

At 8:30 a.m. ET, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis releases two major reports simultaneously: the second estimate of second-quarter GDP and corporate profits, and July Personal Income and Outlays, which contains the Federal Reserve’s preferred PCE inflation measures. 

That gives investors three critical answers at once: how quickly the economy actually grew, what happened to corporate profits and whether inflation is moving in the direction the Federal Reserve wants.

Then comes Nvidia.

The company says its fiscal second-quarter results will be released at approximately 4:20 p.m. ET Wednesday, followed by its earnings call at 5 p.m. ET

Nvidia is no longer just another technology earnings report.

Hundreds of billions of dollars are being committed to AI data centers, chips, power generation, transmission equipment and financing based on the assumption that demand for accelerated computing will continue rising extraordinarily quickly.

Wednesday gives investors another chance to see whether the company at the center of that spending boom is still growing fast enough to justify what is being built around it.

That makes the setup for Wednesday unusually clear:

Tuesday gave markets relief from oil and interest rates. Wednesday will tell investors whether inflation is actually cooling — and whether the AI boom is still delivering enough growth to support the extraordinary amount of money chasing it.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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Disney is moving forward with a program allowing longtime employees in certain roles the opportunity to accept an early retirement package ahead of anticipated restructuring.

The entertainment giant outlined the voluntary early retirement offer (VERO) available to tenured executives who meet eligibility criteria in an internal email sent by Disney Chief People Officer Sonia Coleman, which was reviewed by FOX Business. The early retirement program was first reported by Deadline.

Coleman’s note said that the voluntary early retirement packages are time-limited and are one of several actions Disney is taking to restructure the organization, including involuntary staff reductions that are underway in some parts of the company and are expected to continue into next year.

Disney’s memo said the eligibility criteria for executives and indicated that they will receive separate, personalized communications from the company that specify details of the offer, the election process, important dates and other resources that will be available to them as they weigh their decision.

DISNEY REPORTEDLY LAYS OFF HUNDREDS OF EMPLOYEES, PIXAR HIT HARD DESPITE BLOCKBUSTER SUCCESS

To be eligible for the voluntary early retirement package, employees must be based in the U.S. in roles ranging from director to executive vice president in Disney Entertainment, ESPN and the corporate divisions. They must also have 65 points – calculated based on their age plus years of service – with a minimum age of 50 and at least 10 years of service.

Disney’s offer includes separation pay, continued vesting of equity awards, healthcare support at active employee rates, as well as continued Silver Pass access.

Eligible executives will be given a defined election window followed by a confirmation period so they have an opportunity to consider whether accepting the VERO is the right decision for them. Participation is voluntary and eligible executives aren’t required to opt in to the early retirement plan.

DISNEY SPOTLIGHTS AMERICAN BUSINESSES POWERING ITS MAGIC IN NATION’S 250TH YEAR

The company’s intent with the voluntary retirement program is to give eligible employees a chance to make a decision on their own terms before Disney proceeds with finalizing broader organizational decisions.

The voluntary early retirement offer is time-limited, and once it closes, the company will continue moving forward with addressing organizational needs through its standard reduction-in-force process that will be on a separate timeline.

DISNEY CEO UNVEILS ENTERTAINMENT GIANT’S NEW 3-PILLAR GROWTH PLAN

Earlier this month, Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro and CFO Hugh Johnston said in a letter to shareholders that they “remain highly focused on reducing costs across the enterprise to create incremental capacity for growth and are evaluating a variety of levers, including reductions in labor and SG&A.”

They added at the time that they were “mid-stream in this work” and would provide future updates.

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A crew of painters, electricians, plumbers, and other specialists has been assembled to make speedy upgrades to playgrounds and recreation spaces across New York City. Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday announced the launch of Renew Crew, a team of 24 trade specialists who will improve conditions at city parks by repairing playground equipment, replacing flooring, fixing amenities, and making other upgrades. The team will complete as many as 30 projects per year, with each effort taking three weeks or less.

While not intended to undertake major rehabilitation projects, the crew will quickly address the issues parkgoers notice most. This includes repainting chipped equipment and fences and addressing general wear and tear, improving the visitor experience while extending the life of park infrastructure.

Despite the relatively minor nature of some of these issues, many New Yorkers have had to contend with parks in a dilapidated condition for months or even years without the city sending crews to address them.

The Renew Crew is focused on these smaller repairs, which, while seemingly minor, can substantially improve someone’s experience at a park, NYC Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura told The City Reporter.

“While you’re waiting for a project to go through the capital process, we can do a lot to improve your play with just the skills and talents of our in-house folks,” she told the outlet. “This was the idea that we would do very quick fixes but really improve the play quality.”

The Renew Crew will initially consist of in-house Parks staff, though the agency plans to hire additional workers in the spring. The city has invested $2.3 million in the team.

Mamdani announced the crew’s launch alongside Shimamura at Glendale’s Dry Harbor Playground, where workers are repairing and repainting two basketball courts, play equipment, a shuffleboard court, bocce and horseshoe courts, the park house’s exterior, benches, bollards, a drinking fountain, fence posts, and rails.

Similar efforts are already underway at playgrounds in every borough, including Fort Four Playground in the Bronx, American Playground in Brooklyn, Annunciation Playground in Manhattan, and Old Town Playground on Staten Island.

At the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan, the crew is also installing protective flooring, removing dead trees, mulching plant beds, pruning trees, and upgrading horticultural areas.

“The only thing worse than waiting for your turn on the swings is waiting for the swing to be fixed,” Mamdani said. “Renew Crew’s team of 24 painters, plumbers, and other specialists recognizes that play is a City service and well-maintained parks are essential infrastructure. New Yorkers shouldn’t have to wait months for the basic repairs that make our parks better.”

“We’re going to get the job done quickly and make sure every neighborhood has public spaces that New Yorkers can be proud of,” he added.

New Yorkers can keep track of the Renew Crew’s progress on park improvements here.

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WASHINGTON — Mortgage rates remain stubbornly high even after the U.S. Treasury announced a major expansion of its long-term bond-buyback program, underscoring how difficult it may be for Washington to push down borrowing costs while inflation and federal deficits continue pressuring the bond market.

The Treasury said it will at least double the size of its liquidity-support purchases of longer-dated government bonds, increasing the maximum from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation.

The expanded purchases begin September 9 and will run through November 4.

That distinction matters.

The program itself has not yet started, meaning it is too early to say the buyback effort has failed.

What has happened is that the announcement has so far failed to produce a lasting decline in borrowing costs.

Long-term Treasury yields initially fell after the announcement, giving mortgage markets some relief. But much of that move quickly faded as investors returned their attention to inflation, government borrowing and the massive supply of Treasury debt.

Mortgage rates closely follow the bond market, particularly yields on longer-term government securities and mortgage-backed securities.

That means Treasury can improve liquidity by buying older bonds, but it cannot simply order mortgage rates lower.

HousingWire reported this week that 30-year conforming mortgage rates had reached 6.92%, while jumbo rates climbed to 7.14%.

Other national rate surveys showed somewhat lower averages, illustrating how mortgage-rate estimates vary depending on the lenders, borrowers and methodology being tracked.

Mortgage News Daily, for example, showed its 30-year jumbo index at about 6.88% Tuesday, while another national survey placed conventional 30-year borrowing closer to the upper-6% range.

The broader message is the same: financing a home remains expensive.

Treasury’s buyback program is designed primarily to improve liquidity in older, less-traded government securities and help stabilize parts of the long-term bond market.

It is not a direct mortgage-rate program.

And the size of the intervention remains relatively small compared with the tens of trillions of dollars in outstanding Treasury debt.

That is why economists and bond investors remain focused on the larger forces driving rates — inflation expectations, federal deficits, Treasury issuance and investor demand.

For homebuyers, the practical takeaway is that meaningful mortgage relief may require more than Treasury buybacks alone.

If long-term Treasury yields stay elevated, mortgage rates are likely to remain elevated as well.

The September 9 launch will therefore become the real test.

If larger Treasury purchases succeed in improving demand and keeping long-term yields down, mortgage borrowers could eventually benefit.

If inflation and fiscal concerns continue overwhelming the effect of those purchases, homeowners and buyers may be waiting longer for meaningful relief.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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Country music icon Dolly Parton, who died Tuesday in Nashville, spent decades turning her success into support for children, medical research and communities recovering from disasters.

One of Parton’s best-known philanthropic efforts, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, has distributed more than 332 million free books since its founding, according to the organization’s website.

The program mails free books each month to children from birth to age 5. It launched in Sevier County, Tennessee – where Parton was raised – in 1995, expanded nationally in 2000 and later reached several other countries.

“The seeds of these dreams are often found in books and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world,” Parton said, according to the organization’s website.

DOLLY PARTON $650 MILLION EMPIRE: FROM HUMBLE ROOTS TO QUEEN OF COUNTRY MUSIC, MOVIES AND NOW MAKEUP

The Imagination Library is the signature program of the Dollywood Foundation, which Parton established in 1988 to improve educational outcomes in Sevier County. 

The foundation initially focused on reducing the local high school dropout rate before expanding its mission to promote childhood literacy.

Parton’s giving extended well beyond education.

After wildfires destroyed the homes of more than 1,000 Sevier County families in 2016, Parton asked the foundation to create the My People Fund.

The fund provided affected families with $1,000 per month for six months. By May 2017, it had raised and distributed more than $12 million. Additional money funded one-time scholarships for high school seniors who lost their homes, according to the Imagination Library.

CITY HARVEST FEEDS 1.5M NEW YORKERS AS CELEBRITIES, CHEFS RALLY FOR HUNGER RELIEF

Parton also contributed millions of dollars to medical research.

In 2020, she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville to support COVID-19 research, according to BBC News

In 2022, she contributed another $1 million for pediatric infectious disease research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, according to the Vanderbilt Health website. That same year, Parton received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in 2024, Parton donated $1 million to the Mountain Ways Foundation to help flood victims. Several of her East Tennessee businesses and the Dollywood Foundation pledged to match her gift with another $1 million, according to an announcement at the time from the Mountain Ways Foundation.

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“We believe that her many philanthropic achievements embody the values of our founder, who, with us, would surely greet Parton with ‘affection, gratitude, and admiration,’” the nonprofit stated at the time.

Parton died in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday, according to a press release obtained by Fox News Digital. 

Her nephew revealed the news in an Aug. 25 Instagram video. The news comes after Parton spent months battling an unknown health issue.

Fox News Digital’s Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.

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The Federal Trade Commission is moving to ensure companies disclose use of customers’ personal data to set prices, as technology makes it easier for retailers to tailor them to individual shoppers.

The FTC said that it is seeking public comment on an enforcement policy statement concerning “personalized pricing,” which the agency defines as using personal data to determine how much a company believes an individual consumer is willing to spend. The proposal would warn companies that failing to disclose that they are using personal data to set prices could violate the FTC Act’s prohibition on unfair or deceptive practices.

“When consumers see a listed price, they expect it to be the same price that everyone else sees, not the retailer’s estimate of how much they are willing to pay based on their personal data,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a press release. “The FTC does not have the legal authority to ban personalized pricing in all circumstances, but businesses that fail to tell consumers how their personal data is being used to set a price may be in violation of the FTC Act and other laws we enforce.”

The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune. The proposal is open for public comment through Sept. 18.

The regulator’s action comes after more than two years of scrutiny into what it calls “surveillance pricing.” In July 2024, the FTC ordered eight companies involved in pricing technology to provide information about how they use customer data—including location, demographics, credit history and browsing or shopping history to help companies determine prices. 

“Americans deserve to know whether businesses are using detailed consumer data to deploy surveillance pricing,” then FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said at the time, “and the FTC’s inquiry will shed light on this shadowy ecosystem of pricing middlemen.”

The FTC’s January 2025 findings said pricing intermediaries could use information ranging from a consumer’s precise location and browser history to shopping behavior and even mouse movements to help retailers tailor prices or promotions. The agency said the companies it examined had worked with at least 250 clients, including grocery retailers.

The deep dive into personalized pricing comes after the FTC recently flagged dynamic pricing—or setting prices based on supply and demand as well as inventory levels and competitor pricing.

An FTC research document noted that companies using e-commerce websites or electronic shelf labels could potentially make price changes with similar frequency.

“Consumers expect prices for products and services to change based upon supply and demand, not their web surfing habits or buying history,” it noted. “Retailers who represent or imply that a price is static when it in fact varies by individual are at risk of misleading customers.”

The distinction is becoming more significant as consumers contend with years of elevated inflation, including higher grocery bills. In July, prices for fruits and vegetables rose 5.1% from a year ago, while nonalcoholic beverages rose 4.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Food costs also take up a disproportionate amount of spending in lower-income American households. In 2024, those in the lowest quintile spent an average $5,498 on food—equivalent to 33% of their pretax income—compared to 12.2% for households in the middle income quintile, according to the USDA.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Vitruvias Therapeutics is recalling one lot of thyroid medication distributed nationwide after testing found the tablets could be more potent than intended, according to a recall notice published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The Auburn, Alabama-based company voluntarily recalled Lot 504950 of Thyroid Tablets, USP 30 mg at the consumer level because of the potential for the medication to be “superpotent.” 

The FDA published the company announcement Monday.

Taking superpotent thyroid tablets can cause hyperthyroidism, or an overactive thyroid, with symptoms that can include weight loss, heat intolerance, fatigue, nervousness, muscle weakness, high blood pressure, chest pain, rapid heart rate and heart rhythm disturbances, according to the company.

DOG FOOD RECALLED ACROSS US AND CANADA AFTER COMPLAINTS OF METAL CONTAMINATION

Elderly patients, pregnant women and infants face greater risks from excessive thyroid hormone levels, particularly with extended use, the company said. 

Excess thyroid hormone has been associated with cardiac problems in elderly patients, while overtreatment during pregnancy has been associated with premature delivery and low birth weight. In infants, overtreatment may negatively affect growth and development.

Vitruvias Therapeutics said it has not received any reports of adverse events known to be connected to the recall.

The recalled product carries NDC 69680-166-00 and an expiration date of Sept. 30, 2026. The company released 3,655 units and reported 1,955 units sold.

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The affected lot was distributed nationwide to the company’s direct accounts between Jan. 31, 2025, and Sept. 30, 2025.

Thyroid, USP is derived from porcine thyroid glands and contains levothyroxine and liothyronine. The medication is used to treat hypothyroidism, or an underactive thyroid.

Vitruvias Therapeutics is notifying wholesalers to stop distributing the recalled product and arranging for its destruction.

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Patients currently taking tablets from the affected lot should not stop taking the medication without first contacting their healthcare provider for guidance or a replacement prescription, the company said.

A representative for Vitruvias Therapeutics did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for additional information.

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Consumers with questions can contact Vitruvias Therapeutics at safety@vitruvias.com or at 256-239-9373. 

Anyone who has experienced problems that may be connected to the medication should contact a physician or healthcare provider.

The recall is being conducted with the knowledge of the FDA.

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Forget raining cats and dogs: In America’s increasingly crowded skies, it may soon be packages and takeout food falling from above. 

For one Texas woman, the future has already arrived, though perhaps not exactly as Amazon intended. Lindsey Austen was expecting an Amazon delivery by drone Monday when she heard it approaching her home in Richmond, Texas, and ran outside to record the delivery. Instead, she watched as the package dropped straight into her backyard pool

“When it went into the pool, I was shocked,” Austen told Storyful. “I don’t think I’ll be wanting drone deliveries anymore.”

The mishap comes at an awkwardly fitting moment for an industry that has spent years promising packages, takeout, and everyday essentials would eventually descend from the sky. After more than a decade of experiments, regulatory hurdles and technical setbacks, some of America’s biggest delivery companies are now making much bigger bets that drones are finally ready for prime time.

Amazon said Wednesday its Prime Air service will expand to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of 2026, a sixfold increase from its current footprint. The company currently operates drone delivery from 11 locations and plans to add markets including Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Syracuse, N.Y.. The company says its drones can deliver millions of eligible products weighing up to five pounds in as little as 30 minutes.

The expansion is the latest attempt to make good on a vision Jeff Bezos laid out more than a decade ago. The Amazon founder unveiled the company’s delivery drones on 60 Minutes in 2013 and predicted drone deliveries could arrive within four to five years. Instead, the program faced regulatory hurdles, technical setbacks, and noise complaints from residents

Amazon has delivered hundreds of thousands of packages by drone this year, Prime Air Vice President David Carbon said Wednesday. That remains a sliver of the nearly 20 million packages Amazon delivers each day in the U.S., according to market research firm ShipMatrix, as Fortune reported Wednesday.

But now, Amazon isn’t flying alone.

The drone delivery race takes off

DoorDash recently launched DoorDash Air after receiving a Federal Aviation Administration certification allowing it to operate its own commercial drone delivery service rather than relying solely on outside partners.

The company isn’t positioning drones as a replacement for the people delivering most of its orders. DoorDash told Fortune that Dashers still handle the vast majority of its millions of daily deliveries, including large orders and trips that require navigating apartment buildings. Drones instead join a network that also includes DoorDash’s Dot delivery robot and other autonomous delivery partners.

DoorDash has completed tens of thousands of drone deliveries to date, compared with more than 10 billion orders across its broader network. 

“We want drone delivery to work for any merchant, anywhere,” Harrison Shih, head of DoorDash Air said in a statement provided to Fortune. “Advances in hardware, compute, and AI are creating extraordinary new capabilities for local commerce, and becoming a certified air carrier accelerates everything we’re building.”

Uber is taking a different route into the skies. Rather than building the aircraft itself, it’s turning to Zipline, a drone delivery company most recently valued at $7.6 billion. The companies announced a strategic partnership Monday that will bring drone delivery to Uber Eats later this year. Uber is investing an undisclosed amount in Zipline, and the partnership comes with an ambitious target: 1 million drone deliveries per day by the end of 2029.

Under the partnership, drones would become one option within a delivery network that can also dispatch human couriers and sidewalk robots depending on the order, according to an announcement from Uber shared with Fortune.

Zipline, meanwhile, told Fortune the number of businesses offering delivery through its service grew 13-fold in the first half of 2026. The company now operates in Dallas, Houston, Cleveland, and Northwest Arkansas, with Phoenix and Austin expected to follow later this year. Zipline says it currently makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 20 seconds.

The company estimates there are already 5.5 billion instant deliveries annually in the U.S., excluding deliveries from Amazon, UPS, and FedEx. If the demand it is seeing in Dallas-Fort Worth were replicated nationwide, Zipline projects that could translate to demand for 55 billion deliveries a year.

“We don’t have enough people to make that many deliveries, and we don’t want to add more delivery trucks to the roads, increasing traffic and clogging our streets to move small packages,” Zipline said in a statement provided to Fortune. “Zipline’s drone delivery is the answer.”

The company is betting its new Uber partnership can help take that model nationwide.

Walmart is approaching 2 million drone deliveries, the company told Fortune, up from the 1 million milestone it announced in May. Customers are increasingly using the service for everyday purchases including eggs, ground beef, phone chargers, and ink cartridges, according to the company.

Drone delivery is one piece of Walmart’s broader push to give customers more control over how quickly orders arrive. Its delivery options now range from scheduled window and three-hour on-demand service to one-hour Express delivery and a 30-minutes-or-less option for more immediate purchases.

“Drone delivery gives customers another choice when speed matters, complementing our broader suite of same-day delivery options so they can choose what works best for each shopping mission,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement provided to Fortune.

Working with Wing, Alphabet’s drone delivery company, Walmart plans to build a network of more than 270 drone delivery locations in 2027 capable of reaching more than 40 million Americans. Wing and Walmart have since announced seven additional markets, including Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The sudden push toward scale marks a shift for a technology that spent years looking more like a Silicon Valley experiment than a serious alternative to putting a package in a car. Plenty of obstacles remain: Companies still need federal and local approvals, drones have limited carrying capacity and range, and residents have raised concerns about noise, privacy, and safety.

But the numbers companies are now putting behind their ambitions are getting harder to dismiss as experiments: Amazon is targeting nearly 500 cities and towns, Walmart and Wing want to reach more than 40 million Americans, and Uber and Zipline are aiming for one million deliveries a day.

For customers like Austen, there’s still at least one part of the technology that could use some work: the landing.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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A snack company is recalling certain lots of donuts after an allergic reaction was reported, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Monday.

The Better Bakehouse Snack Company said select lots of Donutful Chocolate Dipped Vanilla Cake Donuts were being recalled because the product may contain undeclared milk.

The manufacturer discovered the donuts were mislabeled and has taken “corrective measures,” the FDA said.

FDA WIDENS CYCLOSPORA OUTBREAK INVESTIGATION TO SIX MORE STATES AS CONFIRMED CASES TOP 6,000

“People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume this product,” warned the recall notice. The person who became ill has recovered, officials said.

LETTUCE FARMERS PLOW CROPS BACK INTO SOIL AS CYCLOSPORIASIS FEARS TANK DEMAND FOR FRESH GREENS

The recall is limited to certain lots made and distributed in March 2026: Donutful Chocolate Dipped Vanilla Cake Donuts, 10 Mini Donuts, packaged in a 7.05 oz carton containing five 1.41-ounce pouches, with UPC: 3 50041 39210 3.

The product was distributed to retailers nationwide and through Amazon.com, the FDA said.

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“Consumer safety is The Better Bakehouse Snack Company’s #1 priority and the company maintains rigorous food safety and quality control standards,” the company said in a statement released by the FDA. “The Better Bakehouse Snack Company is working with the contract manufacturer and retailers to remove any remaining affected product from the marketplace.”

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Dick’s Sporting Goods on Tuesday revised its 2026 outlook and warned of weakening consumer demand for athletic apparel and footwear.

The sports apparel and footwear retailer’s stock declined over 29% during Tuesday’s trading session, on pace for a record one-day percentage drop if the losses hold, after it also missed second-quarter estimates and reversed expectations for annual comparable sales growth at Foot Locker.

Dick’s acquired Foot Locker for $2.4 billion last year to boost its presence in the sneaker market and to get access to international markets.

Consumers in the U.S. have become more selective about discretionary purchases as more expensive gas and food squeeze household budgets, and are focusing discretionary spending on fresh launches in wellness and health categories.

DICK’S SPORTING GOODS PLANS TO CLOSE SOME FOOT LOCKER STORES

“Not only were there fewer launches in the second quarter, but those launches performed below both industry and our expectations,” Executive Chairman Ed Stack said, signaling a more cautious view of the rest of the year. “As a result, we are taking a more cautious view of the balance of the year.”

Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Lauren Hobart added that while the company is taking a more cautious outlook, it remains “highly confident in the strength of Dick’s Business and our long-term opportunity at Foot Locker.”

The comments by Dick’s executives on the call come after the company had raised its annual target in May and said that it saw encouraging “proof points” to return Foot Locker’s comparable sales to growth.

DICK’S SPORTING GOODS BUYS FOOT LOCKER FOR $2.4 BILLION

Executives said on a post-earnings call Tuesday that lifestyle and legacy silhouettes were “simply not resonating the way they once did,” which resulted in inflated inventory that led to heavy discounting.

Foot Locker bore the brunt of that trend due its exposure to legacy brands, as well as its presence in Europe and international markets that have struggled amid geopolitical uncertainties.

Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData, said that “does not bode well for the major sneaker brands, although they may have been able to offset some of the weakness by leaning more into apparel, especially around the World Cup.”

“Even so, it will set alarm bells ringing for investors,” Saunders added.

NIKE CEO ELLIOTT HILL OUTLINES SPORTS-FOCUSED STRATEGY TO REVIVE ICONIC SPORTSWEAR COMPANY

Dick’s projected annual sales of $21.9 billion to $22.2 billion, revised lower from its earlier forecast of $22.1 billion to $22.4 billion.

The company’s quarterly profit of $3.53 per share missed estimates of $3.76. It reported $5.59 billion in net sales for the 13 weeks ending on Aug. 1, which included the FIFA World Cup, which missed estimates of $5.65 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

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Dick’s also now expects Foot Locker’s annual comparable sales to be flat to down 2%, and signaled that part of the $59 million in tariff refunds it received will be invested in promotions.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warns Americans’ retirement plans may be sharing or selling personal information that can be used to market financial products and services.

Over 126 million Americans are enrolled in employer-sponsored retirement plans, such as a 401(k) or similar account, with total assets in those plans exceeding $9 trillion, according to the GAO.

Those plans are typically administered by external providers of financial services and the report explained that employers share some personally identifiable information with asset managers, payroll providers and record keepers who manage the investment and processing of contributions.

Personal data that employers may share with those service providers can include information like a birth date, Social Security number, account numbers and balances, as well as other data.

The GAO noted that while service providers can use that data to market financial products and services, they may, in some cases, sell that data to third parties, which can increase the risk of inadvertent exposure.

MOST AMERICANS STILL TRUST FINANCIAL ADVISORS OVER AI TOOLS FOR MAJOR MONEY DECISIONS, STUDY FINDS

GAO’s analysis included a review of privacy disclosures from 31 service providers, of which 29 either explicitly allowed data sharing or didn’t specify whether participant data could be shared for marketing purposes.

Additionally, over half of the financial service providers – 17 of the 31 – didn’t limit their ability to sell participant data to data brokers or other third parties.

It also found that just 12 of the 31 service providers have privacy disclosures allowing plan participants to opt out of data sharing.

AMERICANS’ 401(K) BALANCES HIT RECORD LEVELS IN 2025

The GAO’s report included a recommendation that the Labor Department provide additional guidance about data privacy for participants in retirement plans for sponsors and service providers.

In particular, GAO said that the labor secretary “should clarify what participant information should be considered private and the circumstances in which service providers should obtain written permission before using or sharing this information.”

“Such guidance could also identify best practices including for providing individual participants with choice, to the extent practicable, about how their personal information may be used, sold or shared,” GAO added.

FIDELITY ESTIMATES RETIREES WILL SPEND $185,500 ON HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL EXPENSES IN RETIREMENT

The Labor Department provided a response to the GAO’s analysis that said it “fully supports the goal of appropriately protecting the personal information of participants and beneficiaries of plans” though it neither agreed nor disagreed with the report’s recommendations.

The agency noted the GAO report’s discussion of a 2021 guidance on cybersecurity that discussed data privacy as a component of service providers’ fiduciary responsibilities to plan participants, which states that contracts should spell out the provider’s obligation to protect private information.

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The Labor Department’s response added that while it believes the 2021 guidance makes it clear to fiduciaries that they’re obligated to include data privacy considerations in their contracts, as resources permit, the agency will “carefully consider whether supplemental guidance aligned with the recommendation could or should be issued.”

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Montreal city council adopted an amended motion regarding the Middle East conflict on Monday. The final version of the motion passed during a council session by a 54-6 vote, stripping out initial opposition proposals that called on the city to sever institutional ties with Israel or accuse the state of apartheid and genocide. 

The original proposal, put forward by the opposition party Projet Montréal, sparked intense debate and deep division in the chamber over the proper scope of municipal governance. Proponents of the initial text argued that local governments carry a moral duty to take a public stand on international human rights crises. 

Projet Montréal Councilor Nathalie Goulet defended the motion during the proceedings by drawing on historical precedents, stating, “We have a duty to humanity. Today, voices are rising around the world. Our voices must rise as well.” 

Fellow Projet Montréal Councilor Alex Norris strongly supported the measure and argued for consistency in municipal foreign policy stances, telling the council chamber, “If we condemn crimes against humanity when Russia commits them, we must condemn them when Israel commits them too.” 

Opponents of the initial framework and members of the administration argued that global geopolitics fall entirely outside the jurisdiction of a municipal government and risk inflaming community tensions. 

 Pro-Palestine protester in Montreal performs Hitler salute (credit: SCREENSHOT/X)

Municipal responsibilities trump geopolitical concerns

Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada maintained before the vote that local leaders must focus strictly on municipal responsibilities, emphasizing that “municipal governments are elected to run the city, keep residents safe, deliver services and bring people together, not to inflame tensions by taking a controversial position on a distant geopolitical conflict.” 

Official Opposition Leader Ericka Alneus expressed dissatisfaction with the administration’s intervention and the resulting dilution of the text, stating, “I will not hide my disappointment at the major modifications imposed by the administration, which significantly diluted our intention.” 

The final adopted version stripped out the opposition’s demands to sever institutional ties and issue direct accusations of apartheid or genocide. Instead, the final text states that the city council expresses “solidarity with the Palestinian people as well as all civilian victims of hostilities” in the Middle East, calls for respect for international law and international humanitarian law, and supports any judicial process aiming to examine possible violations in the Gaza Strip. 

The vote followed months of mounting tension and public mobilization across Montreal. The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) previously raised concerns that municipal debates over international conflicts risked exacerbating local tensions. 

Following the vote, CIJA issued a statement acknowledging the removal of the proposal’s most controversial clauses while criticizing the broader political discourse, stating, “CIJA acknowledges the adoption of a modified motion by the Montreal City Council, following the efforts of Mayor Martinez Ferrada.”

The organization added that “We nevertheless continue to firmly oppose the very principle of importing international conflicts through such motions – a principle, moreover, rightly reaffirmed this morning by the Mayor herself during a press conference.”

‘Incendiary, unacceptable’ aspects removed from proposal

CIJA continued by noting that “We note that elected officials have come to their senses by removing many of the most incendiary and unacceptable aspects of Projet Montréal’s initial proposal,” while cautioning that “However, CIJA will remain extremely vigilant against any possible attempt that could once again weaken Montreal’s social fabric.”

The statement further emphasized that “The changes made ensure that the radicals have not achieved their goal of imposing their extremist agenda on our elected officials,” and noted that “We would like to highlight the many community and political leaders who said no to severing ties between our city of Montreal and Israel, as well as the more than 6,200 Montrealers of all backgrounds who wrote to their elected officials via our platform to express that they are tired of seeing the city council fail to focus on municipal issues.”

Addressing the debate inside the chamber, CIJA stated, “The importation of this conflict by Projet Montréal is all the more irresponsible given that some of its own elected officials do not even grasp the most tragic and basic facts.”

The group added, “Hearing an official opposition councilor refuse to designate Hamas as a terrorist group and speak of an ‘October 7, 2023, attack against Palestinian civilians’ – when the entire world knows it was a barbaric assault that killed more than 1,200 people, including Montrealer Alex Look – amounts to indecent revisionism that disgraces the city council.”

Concluding the response, CIJA stated, “In light of such an egregious lapse, we invite all elected officials to finally return to reality, to focus on the true priorities of Montrealers, and to permanently leave these divisive tactics behind,” and stressed that “It is imperative that our representatives stop yielding to radical groups that weaponize our democratic institutions to destroy the peaceful coexistence between our communities.”

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The bookends of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s nearly eight years in office have been defined by a crucial question: Who should cover the cost of damage from wildfires caused by utility equipment?

The most destructive wildfire in state history, a blaze that killed 85 people and destroyed more than 18,000 buildings in Northern California, started two days after Newsom won the governorship in 2018. Investigators determined it was caused by Pacific Gas & Electric equipment. Facing tens of billions of dollars in liability, the giant utility filed for bankruptcy just weeks after Newsom’s inauguration.

Months later, Newsom signed a law creating a $21 billion fund, paid for by utility shareholders and ratepayers, to help utilities pay for wildfire damages if they take certain safety measures.

Now, as the final legislative session of his governorship ends, Newsom is trying to broker a deal with lawmakers aimed at further shielding utilities from financial trouble if their equipment sparks a wildfire. His push comes as another major utility, Southern California Edison, faces claims from the state’s second-most destructive blaze, a 2025 fire that killed 19 people outside of Los Angeles. Investigators ruled this month that it was sparked by one of the company’s transmission towers.

Newsom’s plan could limit the amount electric and gas companies have to pay victims and attorneys. One of the goals is to stabilize the state’s electricity rates, which are among the highest in the nation and have continued to climb in recent years. Utilities have raised rates to pay for wildfire prevention and recovery as climate change has made the blazes more intense and frequent. Six of the state’s 10 most destructive wildfires have been caused by utility equipment.

Newsom says the state needs to act quickly because he expects the wildfire fund to run out soon. His plan would require survivors to get paid by utilities sooner.

“Status quo is not going to work,” Newsom recently told reporters. “It’s not going to work for victims, who consistently are last in line. And that’s at the core of this reform.”

But some of those victims are pushing back. They’ve said Newsom’s plan prioritizes utilities over the needs of fire survivors. Meanwhile, insurance companies are concerned they would foot more of the bill for property damage. A coalition including the state’s major utilities — PG&E, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric — has been urging lawmakers to pass the plan. The last-minute legislative battle could help shape Newsom’s legacy as he considers a run for president in 2028.

Newsom says his plan strikes a fair balance

Under California law, utilities have to pay damages for fires ignited by their equipment, even if a judge doesn’t find them negligent. Home insurers that pay for policyholders’ rebuilding expenses can try to get reimbursed by utilities.

Newsom’s plan could change that by making insurance companies cover more of the cost of property damage. The proposal would also require utility CEOs to forfeit bonuses if their company sparks a wildfire resulting in more than $1 billion worth of damage. And utility shareholders could be fined up to $10 million for violating wildfire prevention requirements, according to the governor’s office, which hasn’t released the full details.

Personal Insurance Federation of California, a group representing property insurers across the state, said insurance rates will increase if the plan is implemented. The onus should remain on utilities to pay, said Rex Frazier, the federation’s president.

“Being responsible for your actions is something that parents tell children,” he said in a statement. “Hopefully the Legislature will tell this to the utilities.”

Fire survivors are also frustrated with the plan, which could limit their payouts. Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, a group of survivors of the 2025 Los Angeles-area fires, blasted it at a virtual town hall this month.

“This is overall a massive transfer of liability for the three for-profit utility monopolies that have continued to burn down communities across California,” Chen said.

The California Professional Firefighters sent a letter to Newsom on Monday expressing its support for his proposal.

“The stability of the state’s utilities, insurance plans, and recovery funds must all be balanced with ensuring that wildfire victims and impacted communities are able to recover and rebuild,” the union wrote.

The Legislature has until Aug. 31 to pass a plan. If they don’t, Newsom could call them back for a special session.

Democratic legislative leaders say the state needs to address the issue but haven’t specified what a deal could include. Newsom proposed another $18 billion last year to supplement the wildfire fund, which the Legislature approved.

An economist says the state should reduce utility liability

California’s longstanding requirement that utilities cover the cost of wildfire damages regardless of whether they were negligent is based on the fact that they are providing a public service, said Meredith Fowlie, an economist who co-directs an energy institute at the University of California, Berkeley.

But as climate change has fueled more frequent and destructive fires, the state should rethink how to distribute the ballooning costs of recovering from those blazes, she said.

“Utilities can start fires, but they don’t by themselves create catastrophe,” Fowlie said.

Other factors make wildfires turn into catastrophes, such as failing to clear vegetation or upgrade homes to make them more fire-resistant, she said. The question of who should be held responsible — and by how much — is “a critical, core issue that we have not dealt with and is not going away,” Fowlie said.

Newsom says he’s prepared to tackle the issue he’s kept revisiting since he took office.

“I’m not going to walk away and hand a real mess to the next governor,” he said last week.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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The U.S. plans to reopen a border crossing in Arizona to cattle from Mexico on Monday as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reduce record-high beef prices, though economists doubt the move will mean much to grocery store shoppers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said concerns about the New World screwworm’s spread lessened enough to allow the movement of cattle from Mexico at a crossing in Douglas, Arizona, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) southeast of Phoenix. Over time, it hopes to reopen other crossings in New Mexico and Texas.

Beef prices clearly are a concern for President Donald Trump, who announced Friday that he would allow up to 331,000 tons (300,000 metric tons) of imported ground beef into the U.S., tariff-free, to be sold at below-market prices over the next 90 days. In February, the White House said closing the border to livestock imports from Mexico more than a year ago was “essential” to containing the screwworm but it has exacerbated a shortage of cattle for slaughter in the U.S.

“The administration obviously has a lot of incentive to try to be able to say that they’re doing something about high beef prices in particular,” said Derrell Peel, a professor of agribusiness at Oklahoma State University. “Beef has been singled out because it is an expensive product and because it’s just high profile.”

The Trump administration closed the border to cattle imports in May 2025 as part of its response to the screwworm, a parasite with flesh-eating larvae that can infest and even kill cattle or other animals. The move came as the U.S. already was struggling to meet beef demand, thanks to a cattle herd that has been shrinking for five years and now is the smallest in decades.

Because the USDA plans a phased reopening of the border, it will take months for Mexican imports to return to their traditional levels, Peel said. Mexico has traditionally provided 1.1 million head, or about 3% of the U.S. cattle supply.

“I don’t expect to see any measurable impact on cattle prices or beef prices soon,” Peel said.

The smallest US herd in decades fueled record prices

The USDA reported that on Jan. 1, the U.S. cattle herd had dropped to 86.2 million head, the lowest figure in 75 years. Beef prices skyrocketed over the past five years, rising significantly faster than food prices as a whole, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The average price of a pound (453 grams) of ground beef rose nearly 57% from July 2021 to July 2026, from $4.39 to $6.89 — hitting a peak of $6.90 in May — with a 10% increase over the previous year. Food prices have risen about 25% overall in those five years, according to the bureau’s numbers.

The price for a pound of uncooked steak rose 35% over the past five years, reaching a record $13.06 per pound in July, also 10% higher than a year before.

But Glynn Tonsor, a professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University, said the potential effect on beef prices from the smaller supply of cattle was lessened because the U.S. beef industry is more efficient and has been able to get more meat from each animal than in past years.

The USDA says the reopening starts at a safe spot

U.S. government and industry officials view the New World screwworm fly as a major threat to the nation’s $113 billion cattle industry. It was an annual warm-weather scourge for U.S. ranchers from at least the 1930s through the 1960s, until the U.S. largely eradicated it. The fly was contained for years near the Panama Canal, but returned to southern Mexico in late 2024 and advanced toward the U.S., with the first case in Texas since 1966 reported June 3.

Since then, more than 40 cases have been confirmed in southern Texas and southeastern New Mexico, with infestations of cattle, sheep, goats and dogs.

In her July announcement of plans for a phased reopening of the border, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said it was possible to start with an Arizona crossing because the northern Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua had stronger animal health programs than other parts of Mexico. She also said each animal would be inspected and declared free of the parasite before crossing the border.

U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman said the USDA is taking a “careful, science-based” approach to reopening the border and imposing strong animal health protocols.

“This is an important step for America’s cattle producers, especially our feeders in the border states,” Boozman, an Arkansas Republican, said in a statement. “Restoring this long-standing trade is critical to strengthening our cattle supply and supporting a healthy, competitive beef industry.”

Drought, low prices led to the smallest US herd in 75 years

Drought in cattle-producing regions of the U.S. is a major reason the national herd is so small, said David Anderson, professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M University. If grass doesn’t grow, cattle have nothing to graze upon, forcing ranchers to sell them off. Low cattle prices over the past two decades also are a factor.

“Where we are today is sort of the culmination of some 18, 19, 20 years of very low cattle prices,” he said. “That forces us to reduce our herds. Drought forces us to reduce them even further.”

The shortage of cattle also has left beef processing plants operating below capacity.

Tyson Foods, one of the nation’s largest meat processors, announced in November that it was reorganizing its beef operations and closing a plant in Lexington, Nebraska, about 220 miles (354 kilometers) southwest of Omaha. Earlier this month, it announced plans to close a plant in Utah outside Salt Lake City and another in Illinois about 150 miles (241 kilometers) southeast of Chicago.

In June, another major U.S. processor, JBS USA, announced plans to close beef plants in Memphis and outside Philadelphia, though it later said it would keep some operations at the Pennsylvania plant to preserve 400 jobs there.

Rebuilding the U.S. herd — and ultimately lowering prices — likely will take years, largely because a cow typically has only one calf a year, Peel said. In addition, breeding a heifer keeps her out of the food supply, tightening it further as the herd is rebuilt.

Peel said prices will remain high for some time and for elected officials, “There’s nothing you can do.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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The US State Department’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program requested information on five senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leaders, offering a reward of up to $10 million in a Monday post on X/Twitter.

The five terror leaders RFJ seeks information on are IRGC Chief Ahmad Vahidi; Ali Abdollahi, who was head of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters until being appointed head of the Islamic regime’s conventional military earlier in August; IRGC Aerospace Force’s drone chief, Saeed Aghajani; IRGC Cyber Electronic Command Chief Hamidreza Lashgarian; and IRGC Intelligence chief Majid Khademi.

Notably, Khademi was killed in an Israeli airstrike in early April during Operation Roaring Lion, as confirmed by Defense Minister Israel Katz. The IRGC also corroborated his “martyrdom” at the time, later including his remains in a public burial for assassinated IRGC officials and regime leaders.

RFJ’s statement noted that it is not only offering a financial reward but also protection and transfer to a safe location for those who provide information.

This may indicate an attempt by the State Department to encourage Iranian civilians, dissidents, and anti-regime activists from within Iran, including those who may be close to senior officials, to provide information on their whereabouts and activities.

Pro-regime Iranians mourn several political, IRGC leaders killed in Israeli-US airstrikes, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; illustrative. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)

The US states that these five officials lead military operations and cyberattacks against US entities and institutions.

US State Department’s RFJ offers reward for information on Iranian political leaders, including Khamenei, interior minister

RFJ also offered a reward for information on nine other Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Ali Asghar Hejazi, who served as deputy chief of staff of the Supreme Leader’s Office (SLO), Yahya Rahim Safavi, who was identified as the military adviser in the SLO, and Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni.

RFJ also offered rewards for roles without identifying the incumbents. These were the “secretary of the defense council,” “advisor to the Supreme Leader,” SLO military office chief, and the director-general of the Intelligence Ministry.

Additionally, a reward was issued for the Supreme National Security Council secretary without identifying who holds the role. Khamenei appointed Mohsen Rezaee to the position earlier in August.

The IRGC as a whole, including its global terror branch, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US since 2019, with various sanctions imposed on the organization, its assets, leadership, and global financial networks and supply chains.

Treasury Secretary Bessent calls on Iranian soldiers to question regime’s intentions when salaries are not paid

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, during the Monday launch of “Operation Economic Outcast,” directly addressed Iran’s soldiers, telling them that when their salaries stop coming, they should ask themselves whether their commanders are leading Iran “to victory or destruction,” and reminded them that the Berlin Wall fell when ordinary soldiers decided not to shoot their own people.

Additionally, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday added in a Truth Social post that Iran was not able to pay large portions of its military.

“The failing Islamic Republic of Iran is not paying large segments of their military, while at the same time killing protesters, even when they are not protesting, at levels not seen before,” he wrote. “It is a humanitarian  crisis of epic proportions, and must be stopped, NOW.”

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United Airlines announced on Tuesday that it is adding new routes from the U.S. to Europe and Asia, the largest international network expansion in company history.

Beginning as early as March 2027, United will fly to 10 new international cities across Europe and Asia, with flights originating from its hubs in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Newark, N.J.

“The creative and strategic way we’ve expanded our international network since the pandemic has made all the difference, not only for our customers and employees, but also as a way to differentiate United and build a brand focused on customers,” said United CEO Scott Kirby.

UNITED REPORTEDLY APPROACHED DELTA AIR LINES ABOUT A POTENTIAL MERGER

UNITED AIRLINES DROPS MERGER PURSUIT WITH AMERICAN, CEO KIRBY DETAILS WHY

United said on Tuesday it expects enough Airbus A321XLR deliveries to support its European expansion next summer, as the carrier pushes into smaller markets and sees travel to the region staying strong into the autumn months.

Patrick Quayle, United’s senior vice president of global network planning and alliances, acknowledged “a few teething issues” with the A321XLR program but said the airline expects to have an adequate number delivered to fly the routes.

“We feel confident that we will have the number of aircraft needed in order to operate the schedule,” he told reporters.

UNITED’S NEW SEATING OPTION DITCHES THE MIDDLE SEAT

United ordered the A321XLR, a long-range single-aisle jet, in 2019 and plans to begin international service with the aircraft on Dec. 1, 2026, from Washington Dulles to Amsterdam and Dublin.

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Quayle said United is phasing out its Boeing 757s as the A321XLR jets enter service, and that the fleet plan is continually updated to account for delays at aircraft manufacturers.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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The Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates again—and potentially as soon as its coming meetings—unless new economic data provide convincing evidence that inflation is finally moving lower.

Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins delivered that warning Tuesday, saying she supported the central bank’s decision to hold rates steady in July but would not support leaving them unchanged indefinitely if inflation remains elevated.

“Maintaining the current federal funds rate target range will require continued evidence that inflation is indeed coming down,” Collins said. “Should evidence of sustained inflation progress not materialize, I believe it will be appropriate to tighten policy soon.”

That is a far stronger message than simply saying the Fed intends to wait for more information.

Collins is effectively placing the burden of proof on the inflation data: Rates can remain where they are only if prices show sustained improvement. If that improvement does not appear, another increase becomes the appropriate next step.

The federal-funds rate has remained between 3.5% and 3.75% since December. That rate influences borrowing costs throughout the economy, including credit cards, auto loans, business financing and certain home-equity products.

Although Collins does not vote on monetary policy this year, her comments provide another indication that support for higher rates is growing inside the Fed.

Three officials voted to raise rates by a quarter percentage point at the central bank’s July meeting, while several other policymakers have since indicated that they also believed an increase was warranted or may become necessary.

The division reflects the Fed’s increasingly difficult position.

Economic activity continues to expand at what Collins described as a near-normal pace, while the labor market remains broadly consistent with full employment. Under ordinary circumstances, that would be viewed as a favorable economic balance.

But inflation has remained above the Fed’s 2% target for more than five years, and several new pressures threaten to prevent it from returning there.

Economists expect the Fed’s preferred underlying inflation measure—the core Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index—to show prices rising approximately 3.3% from a year earlier in July. That would leave inflation substantially above the central bank’s goal and essentially unchanged from the previous month.

The July inflation figures are scheduled to be released Wednesday and could immediately influence expectations for the Fed’s September 15-16 policy meeting.

Collins said inflation reports for June and July had been “mildly encouraging,” but warned that one or two favorable monthly readings are not enough to establish a dependable trend.

Tariffs, elevated energy prices and the continued disruption surrounding the Strait of Hormuz remain significant risks. The massive construction of artificial-intelligence data centers and related infrastructure may also be placing upward pressure on demand and the prices of core goods.

Higher oil and gasoline prices are already reducing the discretionary income available to American households.

Collins said business owners and residents across New England describe high prices as a pervasive concern. Some lower-income workers are taking multiple jobs simply to keep up with household expenses.

That real-world pressure is one reason the Fed cannot treat inflation as an abstract statistical problem.

The longer prices remain elevated, the greater the danger that businesses and consumers begin assuming high inflation will continue. Companies may raise prices more aggressively, while employees demand larger wage increases to protect their purchasing power.

Once those expectations become embedded, inflation becomes considerably more difficult—and more economically painful—to control.

Collins still believes inflation can gradually decline without another rate increase. Previous tariff costs may have largely passed through the economy, energy pressures could ease if shipping through the Strait of Hormuz improves, and continued productivity growth may allow companies to produce more without raising prices as quickly.

Long-term Treasury yields have also increased, raising mortgage and corporate borrowing costs even without additional action from the Fed. Those higher market rates may slow spending and investment enough to reduce inflationary pressure.

But Collins made clear that this relatively favorable outcome is not guaranteed.

If inflation stalls or begins accelerating again, the Fed may have to tighten policy even as consumers face rising financial stress and the labor market shows signs of weakening.

That would mean higher borrowing costs for households and businesses at precisely the moment many expected the next major move to be a rate cut.

The focus now shifts to Wednesday’s inflation report and Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh’s closely watched address at the central bank’s Jackson Hole symposium. Together, they could determine whether the Fed continues waiting—or begins preparing markets for another increase.

JBizNews Desk | Boston

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American consumers are increasingly uneasy about where the economy is headed—even though many believe their present circumstances have temporarily improved.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell to 89.4 in August from a downwardly revised 90.2 in July, marking the lowest reading since January and the second consecutive monthly decline.

Economists had expected confidence to remain unchanged.

The headline decline was relatively small. The divide beneath it was far more significant.

The Present Situation Index, which measures how consumers view current business and labor-market conditions, climbed 6.8 points to 121.2 after falling for three consecutive months.

But the Expectations Index—which measures what Americans anticipate for employment, income and business conditions during the next six months—dropped 5.8 points to 68.2.

A reading below 80 has historically been associated with an increased risk of recession.

In other words, Americans are saying that conditions today may be manageable, but they are losing confidence that those conditions will last.

Consumers became more pessimistic about every major component of the six-month outlook.

Only 14.6% expected more jobs to become available, down from 16.4% in July. Meanwhile, 26.1% expected fewer jobs, up from 25.3%.

Expectations for household income also weakened, although more consumers still anticipated their income would rise rather than fall.

The disconnect was especially visible in the labor market.

Twenty-seven percent of respondents said jobs are currently plentiful, up from 24.4% in July. The share saying jobs are difficult to find fell to 19.5% from 21.7%.

That suggests many workers do not yet believe the labor market has collapsed. Their concern is about what comes next.

Those fears follow a surprisingly weak July employment report in which the United States lost 23,000 jobs. Government revisions also erased another 103,000 jobs that had previously been reported for May and June.

Although the unemployment rate declined to 4.1%, the improvement came largely because people left the workforce rather than because companies created more jobs.

Inflation is adding another layer of pressure.

Consumers now expect prices to increase 5.8% over the next 12 months, up from 5.6% in July. Those expectations are considerably higher than the inflation rates measured by the government, but they reflect what households are experiencing and fearing when they pay for gasoline, groceries, housing and other necessities.

Survey responses showed that complaints about prices remained widespread, while references to oil, gasoline, food costs, war, trade and employment increased.

The continued U.S.-Iran conflict has kept gasoline prices above $4 per gallon across much of the country, forcing households to spend more on transportation and leaving less money available for restaurants, retail purchases, travel and other discretionary expenses.

That is why consumer confidence matters far beyond public opinion.

Household spending represents roughly two-thirds of the U.S. economy. Consumers do not need to stop spending completely to create problems for businesses. If enough families postpone buying a car, replacing an appliance, taking a vacation or dining out, the slowdown moves rapidly through retail, manufacturing, hospitality and employment.

The August report does not show that Americans have stopped spending. It shows something more subtle: Consumers remain functional today but are becoming increasingly defensive about tomorrow.

That widening gap between present conditions and future expectations is now the most important warning inside the report.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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Dick’s Sporting Goods suffered the worst stock-market collapse in its history Tuesday as investors confronted a troubling reality: The company’s core sporting-goods stores are still performing well, but the Foot Locker business it recently acquired is already weighing heavily on sales, profits and the retailer’s future.

Shares plunged as much as 25%, wiping billions of dollars from the company’s market value and pushing the stock to its lowest level in more than a year.

The collapse followed a second-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street’s expectations and forced Dick’s to sharply lower its full-year profit forecast.

Dick’s reported $5.59 billion in quarterly sales, below the approximately $5.64 billion analysts expected. Adjusted earnings reached $3.53 per share, compared with Wall Street’s estimate of roughly $3.76.

Net income fell more than 17% to approximately $315 million.

But the most important number was Foot Locker’s 3.6% decline in comparable sales.

Dick’s own stores performed considerably better, delivering comparable-sales growth of 4.9%. That means the company’s original business remains relatively healthy. The weakness is coming primarily from Foot Locker, which Dick’s acquired in 2025 to expand its international reach and strengthen its position in the global sneaker market.

The timing has become increasingly difficult.

Foot Locker entered the combined company with a heavy concentration of older sneaker styles just as consumers began demanding newer products and competitors increased discounts. Several new footwear launches also failed to generate the sales retailers expected.

That left Foot Locker carrying too much inventory in a market where shoppers can easily compare prices and wait for promotions.

Dick’s is now being forced to discount merchandise to remain competitive and protect its market share. Those promotions may help move sneakers off shelves, but they also reduce the amount of profit the company earns on each sale.

The consequences are already showing up in the company’s outlook.

Dick’s now expects adjusted earnings of $11 to $12 per share for the year, dramatically below its previous forecast of $13.50 to $14.50.

Annual sales are projected to reach between $21.9 billion and $22.2 billion, down from the earlier range of $22.1 billion to $22.4 billion.

The company also abandoned its expectation that Foot Locker’s comparable sales would grow between 1.5% and 3%. It now expects them to range from unchanged to a decline of as much as 2%.

That reversal is what alarmed investors.

This is not simply a weak quarter caused by temporary weather, shipping delays or a late holiday. Dick’s is warning that Foot Locker’s merchandise problems and the industry’s aggressive discounting could continue through the remainder of the year, including the critical holiday shopping season.

The pressure also extends beyond Dick’s.

Nike shares fell approximately 3% following the report as investors questioned whether weak product launches and excess sneaker inventory reflect a broader problem across the athletic-footwear industry.

For Dick’s, the central question is whether it can repair Foot Locker quickly enough to justify the acquisition without damaging the stronger business it already owned.

The company did not buy Foot Locker merely to add more stores. It bought access to new customers, international markets and deeper relationships with the world’s largest sneaker manufacturers.

Those advantages may still prove valuable over time. But for now, Wall Street sees Foot Locker less as a growth engine and more as an expensive turnaround—and Tuesday’s historic selloff represents the price investors are demanding for that risk.

JBizNews Desk | Pittsburgh

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

As Anthropic targets a $2 trillion IPO that could set records—and even eclipse SpaceX—the blockbuster valuation is expected to create an unprecedented amount of wealth for the AI company’s more than 2,500 employees. 

But that potential multimillion-dollar employee windfall appears to be raising concern among company leaders. Anthropic is reportedly now asking job candidates during culture interviews how they would feel if the company someday abandoned its AI ambitions for safety reasons—and that decision caused its stock to fall to zero, according to Axios.

“I was honest and said no, I would not be happy if the stock went to 0,” one candidate, who discussed the interview process on the anonymous workplace site Blind, said. “I would want to align doing the most good and remaining ethical while building a sustaining business.”

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who has an estimated net worth of $15.5 billion, has reportedly expressed concerns about the way the company’s enormous financial incentives could affect its ability to retain employees who are genuinely committed to its mission. Anthropic, a public benefit corporation, has long sought to distinguish itself from competition like OpenAI through a broader focus on AI safety and the “long-term benefit of humanity.”

“At the end of the day, the mission is what we’re all here for,” the company’s values statement reads. “It gives us a shared purpose and allows us to act swiftly together, rather than being pulled in multiple directions by competing goals.”

Anthropic is shelling out base salaries of $400K+ as the battle for tech talent rages on

Anthropic is simultaneously fighting to attract the world’s top AI talent while grappling with what could happen if that talent becomes extraordinarily wealthy in the process. 

The company is competing with the likes of Meta, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI for top researchers and engineers—and resultantly offering compensation packages well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Anthropic is currently dangling base salaries of $320,000 to $405,000 for staff software engineering roles, for example. And there’s plenty more work to be done. The company currently has more than 500 open roles, including about 90 in sales, over 60 in AI research & engineering, and 47 in security. 

In order to land an offer after such a highly competitive process, some candidates are reportedly spending more than $4,000 on private coaching to help them get hired.

“Spend a few thousand dollars, and now your salary goes up by $200,000—that calculus makes sense,” Aline Lerner, founder of prep company Interviewing.io, told Bloomberg.

AI’s wealth boom could create thousands of millionaires—but Amodei warns it could ‘break society’

The potential wealth creation at Anthropic is part of a much bigger phenomenon unfolding across the AI industry.

Following SpaceX’s $1.77 trillion IPO, thousands of current and former employees—from welders and coders to managers and executives—became millionaires as their company equity soared in value. Roughly 400 current and former SpaceX employees saw their stakes become worth more than $100 million.

As AI valuations continue to soar and employees cash in on equity grants, it is expected that more people will see similar wealth booms. However, Amodei has warned that the economic benefits of AI could become concentrated among a relatively small group of people. As a result, he and Anthropic’s other six cofounders, including his sister, Daniela Amodei, recently committed to giving away 80% of their wealth.

“The thing to worry about is a level of wealth concentration that will break society,” Dario Amodei wrote in a letter published earlier this year.

Amodei called out fellow tech leaders who have grown increasingly skeptical of philanthropy, arguing that wealthy individuals have a responsibility to help address the inequality that AI could exacerbate.

“Wealthy individuals have an obligation to help solve this problem,” Amodei wrote. “It is sad to me that many wealthy individuals (especially in the tech industry) have recently adopted a cynical and nihilistic attitude that philanthropy is inevitably fraudulent or useless.”

Fortune reached out to Anthropic for comment.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Muslim Brotherhood-aligned networks in Canada are not operating as isolated groups, but as part of a coordinated strategy to gain influence across government, civil society and higher education, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) claimed in its new report.

ISGAP is a research and advocacy institute focused on antisemitism and extremism. It has produced reports examining antisemitism, political Islam and foreign influence.

The new 200-page report alleges that Muslim Brotherhood-aligned networks in Canada should be understood not as isolated organizations but as “part of a structured transnational strategy of ideological entrenchment, institutional embedding, narrative control, and political and legal protection.”

The report does not accuse all Muslim organizations or Canadian Muslims generally, saying its focus is “Islamism as a political ideology” rather than Islam as a religion.

A core finding of the report is that the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy in Canada operates through four mutually reinforcing domains.

View of Ugo Bernalicis LFI deputy opposing the European resolution proposal of the DR group aiming to include the Muslim Brotherhood movement on the European list of terrorist organizations at the National Assembly in Paris France on January 22, 2026. (credit: Sami Karaali/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)

Islamism, institutional embedding, political mobilization, legal manipulation

The first is narrative development, through which the framing of Islam, Islamism, the Palestinian cause, and Islamophobia shapes public discourse, especially in relation to Israel and its legitimacy.

The second is institutional embedding, including interconnected infrastructures across mosques, charities, schools, universities, advocacy organizations, student groups, and professional networks.

The third is policy impact and political mobilization, through which institutional presence and narrative influence are translated into coalition building, advisory roles, and policy outcomes.

The fourth is what ISGAP describes as “legal framework manipulation,” including litigation, procedural challenges, and reputational pressure.

ISGAP said these domains operate as a single system, each reinforcing the others and collectively advancing long-term entrenchment.

Muslim Brotherhood in Canadian universities

Higher education is a particular focus of the report. ISGAP argues that universities have become a central arena for foreign funding, ideological influence and narrative shaping.

Across case studies involving the University of Toronto, York University, Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Waterloo, ISGAP raises concerns about foreign-funding transparency, disclosure of research agreements, research with potential dual-use applications, and the use of university campuses for political mobilization and advocacy.

The report refers to the University of Toronto as a “central node in the development and dissemination of anti-Israel and related narratives.” For example, Israeli Apartheid Week originated at UofT, and the university hosted one of the largest encampments in North America following October 7.

ISGAP says the institutional environment includes interconnected student organizations such as the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), operating in conjunction with faculty and funding (i.e., the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA), which voted in favor of divestment from Israel).

The MSA was established in 1963 by Muslim Brotherhood members and associates and is named in the Brotherhood’s 1991 Explanatory Memorandum. MSA National says it has chapters at more than 600 colleges and universities across North America, including Canada, and the report describes collaboration between MSA, SJP, and PYM. The organizations have also received support and resources from American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), according to ISGAP. AMP’s leadership has included figures associated with organizations identified during the Holy Land Foundation case as part of a US-based Hamas-support network.

UofT was identified as a significant site of Qatari-linked academic engagement. Research funded by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) includes projects in the fields of solar energy, corrosion modeling, carbon systems, and secure communications.

This is relevant, as ISGAP refers to the Muslim Brotherhood patronage as a “cornerstone of Qatar’s foreign and domestic policy.”

Similar conclusions were drawn about Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), which signed a memorandum of understanding with the Qatar-owned University of Doha for Science and Technology encompassing joint academic programming, research collaboration, and a business incubator operated jointly with TMU’s Digital Media Zone.

At the University of Waterloo (UW), Qatari state-linked research funding exceeds C$3.8 million across projects in smart grid systems, energy infrastructure, high-voltage insulation, and hydrocarbon-related environmental systems aligned with Qatar’s national priorities.

ISGAP argues that the combination of Qatari funding, limited disclosure, and the presence of organizations it identifies as part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s broader ideological network presents a potential avenue for foreign and ideological influence, including antisemitic incitement.

Political mobilization and Canada’s elections

The ISGAP report also argues that political mobilization around Israel and the Palestinian issue has become a significant channel through which Islamist-linked networks seek influence within Canadian politics.

ISGAP argues that concerns about Islamophobia and discrimination have sometimes been used to push back against scrutiny.

It cites the long-running CRA audit of the Muslim Association of Canada, which it says responded to regulatory scrutiny by framing the audit as Islamophobia. The report also acknowledges a 2025 review by Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, which found a lack of rigor in the CRA’s audit-selection process and risks of bias and discrimination in its scrutiny of Muslim charities.

The report examines several organizations involved in Muslim political engagement in Canada, including advocacy groups and community organizations, and argues that some have developed networks capable of influencing candidates, policymakers and public debate.

ISGAP recommends greater transparency around political advocacy, foreign funding and organizational affiliations, arguing that democratic institutions must balance freedom of expression with safeguards against foreign influence and extremist ideologies.

It also calls on the Canadian Government to coordinate its approach to monitor and confront the entryism of Muslim Brotherhood-linked networks with the United States Federal Government.

“Canada’s challenge is not simply the presence of individual extremist voices or isolated institutional weakness,” said Dr Charles Asher Small, Executive Director of ISGAP. “The report maps how interconnected ideological networks acquire legitimacy, institutional access, public funding, political influence, and protection from scrutiny.”

“Canadian democracy is built on openness, robust notions of citizenship, pluralism, civil liberties, and public trust. These principles must not be exploited to shield foreign influence, ideological entryism, antisemitism, or efforts to weaken democratic accountability. Canada requires a coordinated response based on transparency, institutional due diligence, and national security awareness and enforcement.”

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US President Donald Trump said the US Navy told him all mines have been cleared from the Strait of Hormuz in a Tuesday Truth Social post.

“All mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” the president wrote.

Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed,” he added.

“There is a Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement in full force and effect,” he said.

“Through Space Force, we are watching every square inch of the Strait, as we are also with Pickaxe Mountain and the three other already destroyed nuclear sites.”

A satellite view shows tunnel entrances at Pickaxe Mountain, of the Natanz nuclear facility, near Natanz, Iran, June 30, 2026. (credit: VANTOR/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

Pickaxe Mountain contains major Iranian nuclear enrichment sites bombed by US, Israel in recent operations

Pickaxe Mountain is located 220 km. (140 miles) south of Tehran and 2 km. (1.2 miles) from the Natanz nuclear complex.

The Natanz site, where two of Iran’s uranium enrichment plants were located, was bombed both in June 2025’s war, including by US Air Force B-2 stealth bombers as part of Operation Midnight Hammer as well as operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury earlier in 2026.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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The United States offered Iran sanctions relief and an end to the naval blockade imposed on it in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and halting attacks carried out by its proxies in the region, Saudi state-owned Al-Hadath reported on Tuesday.

According to a senior source who spoke with Al Hadath and Saudi channel Al Arabiya, the US delivered the proposal to Tehran through Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, during his visit to Iran.

The report said Munir carried a US proposal based on a memorandum of understanding previously discussed between Washington and Tehran. Under the proposal, the United States would be willing to end the blockade and lift sanctions if Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz and brought an end to the activities of its proxies.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary, Mohsen Rezaee, told Munir that Tehran would continue internal consultations and respond soon.

The report follows a one-day visit to Tehran by Munir and Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, as part of Islamabad’s efforts to advance a potential agreement between the United States and Iran.

IRANIAN PRESIDENT Masoud Pezeshkian meets with chief of Defence Forces of Pakistan, Field Marshal Asim Munir, in Tehran, Iran, May 23, 2026. (credit: IRAN'S PRESIDENTIAL WEBSITE/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY)/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

During the visit, Munir met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Rezaei, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni.

A statement from the Pakistani military said the talks focused on preventing further escalation, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and accelerating the end of the conflict. Pakistan’s interior minister also said that “significant progress” had been achieved in the discussions.

Pakistani visit to Tehran ‘very fruitful,’ presidential aide says

Iran’s presidential office described Munir’s visit in particularly positive terms. Mehdi Tabatabai, the president’s communications aide, wrote that the visit was “very fruitful” and included “highly valuable diplomatic achievements,” adding that its results would become clear soon.

At the same time, Pezeshkian demanded that the United States honor its commitments and change its “tone and approach” toward Tehran.

According to Al Hadath, the US message also addressed the continuation of attacks by Iran’s proxies despite the halt in direct attacks, an issue Washington wants included in any potential agreement.

Munir, according to the report, told Iranian officials that Pakistan does not take sides in the conflict and seeks to serve as a mediator.

Strait of Hormuz traffic remains constricted amid Iranian threats, restrictions

The Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for global oil and gas shipments from the Gulf, has been severely affected in recent months, with shipping traffic through the waterway sharply declining amid Iranian threats and restrictions.

The proposal was revealed one day after the Trump administration announced an expansion of economic pressure on Iran and threatened secondary sanctions against countries and companies that continue trading with Tehran.

Iran, meanwhile, warned that cooperation with such measures would be considered a hostile act.

Washington has not yet officially responded to the report.

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The Board of Peace (BoP) has conveyed a message to Hamas in recent days through Egyptian, Qatari, and Turkish mediators, demanding that the terrorist organization halt the launching of kites and all other activity directed at Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The message was delivered through a recently established monitoring mechanism led by the United States and BoP Director-General Nickolay Mladenov.

“There will be serious consequences for continued violations,” the message warned.

“All militant activity in the Gaza Strip must stop, including the flying of kites. We have conveyed this message directly through the established mechanism,” a BoP official told the Post.

The official stressed that Israel must also comply with the ceasefire agreement, adding that “military action cannot extend beyond responding to genuine and imminent threats.”

The high representative for Gaza under US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, Nickolay Mladenov addresses a press briefing in Jerusalem on May 13, 2026. (credit: AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP via Getty Images)

The BoP is seeking to calm the situation in Gaza and create the conditions necessary to implement the agreements and begin the process of disarming Hamas.

“We want to get onto a path of ending mutual violations so that we can begin collecting Hamas’s weapons,” the official said. “The sooner we reach that stage, the sooner we can move into the phase in which Hamas is disarmed.”

IDF accelerates efforts to kill October 7 terrorists

Israel has accelerated its efforts in recent weeks to kill terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre and held hostages.

On Monday, Israel carried out several strikes across the Gaza Strip, targeting five weapons storage facilities and a Hamas launch site.

“The warehouses that were targeted contained rockets, weapons, explosive devices, grenades and additional military equipment,” the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said in a joint statement. “The targeted warehouses were established inside mosques and adjacent to humanitarian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.”

The strikes came after several kites were launched from Gaza into Israel in recent days at the direction of Hamas, reviving memories of the incendiary and explosive kites and balloons the terrorist organization launched toward Israel during the previous decade.

BoP warned of increased IDF attacks if kites persist

Israeli officials warned the BoP on Sunday that Israel would escalate its activity in the Gaza Strip if the launches were not halted within 72 hours, an Israeli official told the Post.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz also warned in a joint statement that if the launches toward Israel were not stopped immediately, “the IDF will act to intensify targeted operations against those responsible for the launches and will evacuate civilians from areas from which kites, drones and balloons are launched.”

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Zcash is emerging as one of the stars of the sudden broad-based rally in crypto assets that went into high gear last week. The privacy-focused cryptocurrency has surged 66% over the past week, hitting an eight-year high of $841 on Monday.

Its surge came after investment manager Grayscale filed an amendment with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday to convert its existing Zcash Trust into an exchange-traded fund. If approved, the fund would trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ZCSH.

Zcash’s strong performance comes amid a broader rally across the crypto market. Cryptocurrencies have risen sharply since Wednesday, posting gains not seen in nearly a year. The Treasury Department’s bond-buyback announcement helped spark the move, while renewed political support for the industry and a wave of short-position liquidations pushed prices even higher. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, continued to climb and was trading just below $80,000 on Monday.

For Zcash, Grayscale’s proposed ETF came as an additional catalyst. If approved, the fund would give investors a regulated way to gain exposure to ZEC, Zcash’s native token, through their brokerage accounts, without having to buy or hold the token directly.

Its outperformance has revived discussion of whether Zcash can emerge as a more prominent alternative to Bitcoin for investors seeking financial privacy. Unlike Bitcoin, Zcash allows users to shield transaction details, such as the sender, recipient, and transaction amount, using zero-knowledge cryptography. 

Zcash supporters say that it improves on Bitcoin by offering Bitcoin’s fixed supply without the public ledger. As artificial intelligence grows, proponents argue that so will the risk of government surveillance. 

“Many are calling it ‘perfect Bitcoin,’” Arjun Khemani, a cryptographer and engineer, wrote on X. 

Influential crypto voices have also been speaking out about Zcash’s use cases. During a meeting of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Innovation Advisory Committee on Friday, Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss pointed to Zcash as an example of how developers can use artificial intelligence to identify vulnerabilities in complex blockchain code and strengthen networks before malicious actors exploit them.

But Zcash’s strongest feature is also its greatest limitation. Its privacy features make it harder for exchanges and law enforcement to trace illicit funds, potentially making Zcash a more attractive vehicle for money laundering or sanctions evasion.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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A video has emerged purportedly showing a Panda Express employee stepping around food while cleaning a frying station, as meals were being prepared. 

Paul Elisha Finger, who captured the footage, told Storyful that he “noticed the gentleman jump on the fryer that the lady had just put food into” when he visited a Panda Express location in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in early July. 

The worker then “started spraying the chemical and wiping [while] standing right over the food,” according to Finger. 

“I could not believe my eyes,” Finger told Storyful. 

POPULAR BEER BRAND TO CUT 220 JOBS AS PRODUCTION SHIFTS

FOX Business has reached out to Panda Express for comment. 

The video shows a female employee reaching through the cleaner’s legs to drop a bowl of food into one of the fry baskets, as the male worker apparently was cleaning the exhaust hood area of the fry station. 

E COLI AND SALMONELLA OUTBREAK LINKED TO ALFALFA SPROUTS SICKENS DOZENS ACROSS MULTIPLE STATES

Panda Express says on its website that its food is a “flavorful combination of Chinese regional cuisine and technique with bold American tastes.” 

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“Panda Express, the nation’s largest Asian restaurant chain, has revolutionized American Chinese cuisine. Founded in 1983, the family-owned business has grown into a culinary powerhouse, seamlessly marrying authentic Chinese flavors with American tastes,” adds Panda Restaurant Group, Inc., on its website. “With over 2,600 locations worldwide, Panda Express has played a pivotal role in popularizing American Chinese cuisine to millions around the world.”

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Tesla raised prices on two versions of its Cybertruck pickup in the U.S. on Tuesday, increasing their starting costs by $5,000.

The electric vehicle maker raised the price of the Cybertruck Dual Motor to $74,990 and the Premium All-Wheel Drive model to $84,990, according to Tesla’s website.

Tesla’s online configurator, reviewed by FOX Business, lists the Premium All-Wheel Drive Cybertruck at $84,990, while the company’s top-end Cyberbeast remains priced at $99,990.

The Premium All-Wheel Drive model has an EPA-estimated range of 325 miles, an 11,000-pound towing capacity and a 0-to-60 mph time of 4.1 seconds, according to Tesla’s configurator.

TESLA RECALLS NEARLY 3M VEHICLES OVER DOORS THAT MAY BE DIFFICULT TO OPEN AFTER CRASHES

Tesla did not provide an explanation for the price increases in the materials reviewed by FOX Business.

FOX Business reached out to Tesla for comment on what prompted the changes, when the new pricing took effect and whether the company made any corresponding changes to the vehicles’ features or specifications.

TESLA FILES PLANS FOR PROPOSED $10.1B TEXAS SOLAR MANUFACTURING PLANT

The Cybertruck is Tesla’s electric pickup truck and is manufactured at the company’s Gigafactory Texas facility.

The pricing changes come after Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles globally in the second quarter of 2026, according to the company’s latest production and delivery report. Of that total, 467,762 were Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, while 12,364 were listed under Tesla’s “Other Models” category.

MORE THAN 20,000 OFF-ROAD MOTORCYCLES RECALLED OVER DANGEROUS BRAKE DEFECT THAT COULD LEAD TO DEATH

Tesla does not separately disclose Cybertruck deliveries in that report, making it difficult to determine how many of the pickups were delivered during the quarter. The company also produced 451,758 vehicles during the three-month period, including 8,822 vehicles in the “Other Models” category.

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Tesla began delivering the Cybertruck to customers in late 2023.

Reuters contributed to this report. 

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The US aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln will dock in Thailand next week, a Thai official said on Tuesday, following a prolonged deployment in the Middle East and reports of mental health concerns and deteriorating conditions aboard.

The Lincoln, which left the Middle East on Saturday, has not made a port call in more ⁠than ​200 days, setting a modern-day record for consecutive ​days at sea, according to Democratic lawmakers.

Typically naval deployments are for between six and nine months, but during times of conflict, that can be extended.

The ship, which has roughly ​5,000 sailors and Marines aboard, will be in Thailand for “rest and recreation after their long sea journey,” the official said, asking not to be named.

Thailand’s Navy said a US Navy carrier strike group would make a brief stop in eastern Thailand for the purpose of rest and recuperation, with no exercises taking place. It did not name the three vessels or provide a date for the visit, citing security concerns.

An F/A-18E Super Hornet launches from the flight deck of the US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran April 1, 2026. (credit: U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS)

“The stop is a routine port visit intended to allow personnel to rest and recuperate … as well as to receive logistical support,” the Thai Navy’s spokesperson said in a statement.

The US Embassy in Bangkok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

USS Lincoln redirected from home port to aid in Operation Epic Fury

The Lincoln left its home port of San Diego in November and was ​later redirected ​to the Middle ⁠East to support US military operations in the US-Israel war with Iran.

Two military-focused outlets, Navy Times and Stars and ‌Stripes, this month reported suicide attempts and declining morale on the ship. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the reports “completely misrepresented” the conditions on board.

Thailand is the United States’ only treaty partner in mainland Southeast Asia, having been a treaty ally since 1954 and a major non-NATO ally since 2003. Both countries’ militaries maintain strong relations.

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The U.S. Secret Service has confirmed it is aware that Iranian state media has aired a video that appears to threaten the life of Barron Trump, President Donald Trump’s youngest son.

“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees,” Secret Service spokesman Nate Herring said in a statement. “Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence.”

Since the U.S. assassination of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian media have on multiple occasions circulated content threatening the president and family members. The assassination came at the start of the war in Iran that Trump launched alongside Israel.

CNN previously reported that the Secret Service had knowledge of the Barron Trump threat.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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NEW YORK — Updated 10:03 a.m. ET, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. U.S. stocks opened higher Tuesday, with technology and semiconductor shares leading a rebound from Monday’s selloff as investors positioned for Nvidia’s earnings and a major inflation report Wednesday.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 177.8 points, or 0.33%, to 53,594.92. The S&P 500 gained 23.8 points, or 0.31%, to 7,676.66, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 168.5 points, or 0.65%, to 26,148.71

The latest index reading available shortly after the open, at 9:41 a.m. ET, showed the Dow up 75.49 points to 53,492.65, the S&P 500 up 29.05 points to 7,681.91, and the Nasdaq up 194.45 points to 26,174.64

Chips Lead the Rebound

Technology was doing most of the heavy lifting. Nvidia rose 1.4%, Meta gained 0.9%, Intel climbed 3.1%, Micron advanced 3.9%, Western Digital gained 3.7%, and AMD jumped 3.4% after Raymond James upgraded the stock. Advancing stocks were outnumbering decliners on both the NYSE and Nasdaq. 

Nvidia remains the biggest single catalyst hanging over the market. The company reports Wednesday afternoon, and options traders are pricing in a roughly 5.4% move in either direction — equivalent to about $280 billion of market value. Investors will be looking beyond the headline earnings numbers for evidence that spending on AI infrastructure, chips and data centers remains strong enough to justify the sector’s valuations. 

The other major mover was decidedly negative. Dick’s Sporting Goods plunged 22.6% after cutting its full-year forecasts as weaker athletic-footwear demand and problems at its Foot Locker business weighed on results. Nike fell about 3.2% alongside it. Dick’s reported adjusted earnings of $3.53 a share on $5.59 billion in sales and lowered its annual sales outlook to $21.9 billion to $22.2 billion

Morning Economic Reports Send a Mixed Housing Signal

The morning’s economic data showed home prices continuing to rise nationally, but at a relatively restrained pace.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said U.S. home prices increased 2.1% from a year earlier in the second quarter and 0.3% from the first quarter. The agency’s June index was unchanged from May. Prices rose year over year in 46 states and Washington, D.C. 

Separately, the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller National Home Price Index rose 1.5% from a year earlier in June, accelerating modestly from May’s 1.2% increase. That still leaves home-price appreciation running well below broader inflation, limiting real gains for homeowners. 

A more cautionary signal came from the Philadelphia Fed’s service-sector survey. Its index measuring firms’ own business activity fell sharply to -8.2 in August from +17.5 in July, meaning more firms reported declining activity than improving activity. 

The 10:00 a.m. ET economic batch — Conference Board consumer confidence, July new-home sales and the Richmond Fed business surveys — had not yet populated with verified actual readings on their primary-source pages as of this 10:03 a.m. update. JBizNews is therefore not substituting forecasts for actual results. The Census Bureau confirms July new-home sales were scheduled for release at 10:00 a.m., while the Richmond Fed says its August surveys are released between 10:00 and 10:10 a.m. 

Bonds and Oil Give Stocks Some Breathing Room

Treasury yields were easing early Tuesday, with the benchmark 10-year yield around 4.67%, removing some of the rate pressure that hit growth stocks Monday. U.S. crude was also sharply lower, trading around $82 a barrel, reducing immediate inflation concerns even as geopolitical tensions surrounding Iran remain elevated. 

Boeing also entered the session with a major new defense headline after receiving an indefinite-delivery contract with a ceiling of roughly $131.2 billion covering F-15 production, upgrades, integration and sustainment work. The contract could stretch work on the program into the next decade. 

What to Watch for the Rest of Tuesday

The first immediate test will be the delayed reaction to the 10 a.m. consumer-confidence, new-home-sales and Richmond Fed numbers as those reports become fully available. At 1 p.m. ET, the Treasury’s two-year note auction will provide another reading on investor demand for government debt and could move yields.

But Tuesday’s trading is likely to remain heavily influenced by what comes next. Wednesday brings Nvidia earnings along with the PCE inflation report and other major economic data, creating the potential for a significantly larger market move than Tuesday’s opening bounce. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech Friday then becomes the week’s major monetary-policy event, with investors looking for clues on whether the Fed is prepared to raise rates again. Markets are currently pricing roughly one additional 25-basis-point increase by year-end. 

For now, the message from the opening tape is clear: Wall Street is buying back into technology, but investors are doing so immediately ahead of two potentially market-moving tests — Nvidia earnings and inflation.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

The United States canceled a joint amphibious landing drill scheduled for next month with South Korea, Seoul’s Marine Corps said on Monday, after Washington cited constraints on the availability of US forces due to the war in Iran.

The US Marine Corps formally notified its South Korean counterpart in June that force availability would be constrained for the division-level exercise, known as Ssangyong, a South Korean Marine Corps spokesperson told a press briefing.

The allies remain in close consultations on resuming the drills, the spokesperson said. He did not specify what measures might be taken to prevent future cancellations or to make up for lost training opportunities.

US Forces Korea did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rubio spoke with the South Korean foreign minister about a ‘range of issues’

Later on Monday, the US State Department said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun about a “range of issues” in their alliance.

Rubio told his South Korean counterpart that Washington and Seoul need to remain in close coordination on matters integral to their alliance, according to a State Department statement.

The cancellation of the amphibious landing drill follows US President Donald Trump‘s surprise order to scale back a separate annual joint military exercise that ended last Friday, citing the cost and Seoul’s refusal to take part in the Iran war.

Trump also wrote on his Truth Social platform that the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills sent “a signal that was totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.” Despite the reduction of the exercises, Pyongyang fired 10 short-range ballistic missiles last week and issued a statement denouncing the exercises.

North Korea has long condemned such joint exercises as rehearsals for invasion.

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Vet Tix surpassed an incredible milestone, as it has now handed out 40 million free event tickets to veterans, active military members, former and current first responders, and their families across all 50 states. 

Vet Tix began as a grassroots effort in a garage in Phoenix in 2008, and today, the nonprofit organization has grown into the nation’s largest Veteran Service Organization, serving more than 2.8 million members. They announced their milestone in a press release on Tuesday. 

“It’s not just 40 million tickets. It’s 40 million opportunities to create memories, strengthen family bonds and give something back to those who have served our country and communities,” Michael A. Focareto III, U.S. Navy veteran, CEO and founder of Vet Tix said in the press release. 

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“We’re grateful to the thousands of donors, including sports teams, venues, artists, ticketing organizations and individuals, who make these experiences possible. Every ticket helps us move closer to our goal of reaching veterans, service members and first responders in every community across the country. We also work to create opportunities for the family members and friends who support them by securing ticket donations that appeal to a wide range of interests.”

Vet Tix said that the Arizona Diamondbacks were its first major donor in 2008. About 40% of its tickets are sports-related. 

Through Vet Tix and 1st Tix, recipients gain access to sporting events, concerts, family attractions, comedy performances and performing arts events. A study conducted by IMPCT Group found that attending live events has significant benefits for the wellness and social engagement of veterans, first responders and their families. 

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The study showed that 90% of respondents reported that attending events positively affected their well-being, while 86% of respondents reported stronger family bonds. 

The tickets distributed have a combined face value exceeding $2.6 billion, while additional event-related spending has generated an estimated $3.75 billion in economic activity. The total estimated economic impact exceeds $6.5 billion. 

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On average, Vet Tix distributes 25,000 to 30,000 tickets a day.

“The act of service to our country and communities is something most Americans will never have to experience,” Focareto said. “In addition to enduring the impacts of military deployments or long shifts while on duty, many veterans, service members and first responders endure invisible emotional challenges. These events are much more than a way to pass the time. They create space for moments of joy that are an important part of recovery, rehabilitation, reintegration and reconnection.” 

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The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history and would likely face legal challenges.

Unless challenged or revised, the State Department is expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylumor are now seeking asylum, according to State Department documents obtained by The Associated Press and two U.S. officials. The action will be taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.

“We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.

He declined to comment on the number of visas that might be revoked, saying “as the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis.”

The revocations would not necessarily result in their immediate deportation, the officials said. Most of those with asylum cases currently pending would be recategorized but would lose their status as business or tourism travelers, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the revocations are not final yet.

Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term last year, his administration has steadily ramped up restrictions on visa applicants — demanding more information about their social media histories, requiring the posting of expensive bonds for the processing of visas, and outright banning the issuance of visas to citizens of certain countries.

In a social media post on Monday, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called out people who he said try to use tourist and business visas to get into the United States and then apply for asylum.

“People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims,” Landau wrote on X. “Asylum isn’t supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law.” Landau cited the case of a Colombian citizen who came to the U.S. in 2015 on a tourist visa and then applied for asylum.

B1 visas are generally issued for business trips and B2 visas are generally issued for tourism, family visits or medical care. It was not immediately clear from the documents or the officials how many of these visa holders are seeking or have sought asylum in the United States and would be affected by the revocations.

Current applicants for B1 and B2 visas are asked to affirm that they will not apply for asylum in the United States and prove that they intend to return to their home countries.

In the past 18 months, the State Department has revoked about 175,000 visas for people who have been convicted or accused of crimes ranging from drunken driving to rape and robbery, as well as for people who have spoken out publicly against U.S. policies, particularly in the Middle East.

The administration has also moved to crack down on so-called birth tourism, a practice the administration claims is used by foreign pregnant women to come to the United States to give birth so that their child will benefit from birthright citizenship. Trump has tried several times to end birthright citizenship, but those challenges have been rejected by courts, including the Supreme Court.

The State Department documents obtained by the AP suggest screening of current B1 and B2 visa holders began after the State Department received information about asylum requests from the Citizen and Immigration Service.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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US public approval of the war with Iran fell to its lowest level since the conflict’s early days, helping to hold President Donald Trump’s popularity at a record low, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday.

The four-day poll showed just 31% of Americans support US military action against Iran, down from 37% in a March Reuters/Ipsos poll and 34% earlier this month.

The decline was driven by fewer self-identified Republicans backing the conflict. Some 69% of Republican respondents support the war, compared with 77% in March.

Support for the conflict has remained below 40% since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28.

A July Reuters/Ipsos poll also found that 69% of Americans believed Trump had not clearly explained the goals of US military involvement in Iran.

Support for Iran war falls as Trump approval remains at record low

The war has been dragging on Trump’s public standing this year, and for the second survey in a row, just 33% of respondents said they approved of the Republican’s performance in the White House, the lowest level in polls from Trump’s first or second term.

US President Donald Trump delivers remarks with cryptocurrency executives in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington DC, US, August 19, 2026. (credit: Reuters/Kylie Cooper)

Trump’s approval had fallen to 33% in the previous Reuters/Ipsos poll, down from 35% earlier in August. That result tied the lowest approval rating recorded during his first term, reached in December 2017.

Some 83% of the country thinks the war will go on “for an extended period of time,” the Reuters/Ipsos poll found, up from 80% earlier this month.

The poll surveyed 1,215 US adults nationwide and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points in either direction.

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Hundreds of commercial flights will be told to change their paths over the northeastern Atlantic Ocean during the next two winters to show how minor altitude adjustments can reduce aviation’s climate impact.

The British government is backing the landmark airspace-scale trial, launched Tuesday, to avoid creating condensation trails, or contrails. Google UK is contributing its artificial intelligence-powered forecasts to identify the contrail regions.

When airplanes fly through cold and humid areas, ice crystals can form around the soot particles emitted from the engine, creating clouds that trap heat and warm the planet. The Shanwick Oceanic Control Area in the eastern half of the North Atlantic corridor, the location of the trial, is a busy gateway for air traffic between Europe and North America. It’s also a hot spot for where contrails form.

The 30-month research program known as Operation Blue Skies includes test periods this winter and next, when air traffic controllers will tell some flights to deviate up to 2,000 feet (610 meters) to avoid areas where contrails are likely to form. These will be minor altitude adjustments within standard flight operations, coordinated through established air traffic control communication channels, according to the British government.

There will be about 20 to 40 test days per winter, when there is less air traffic. Around 10,000 flights are expected to pass through the Shanwick airspace during the testing. Hundreds of those flights would deviate their routes. That 1 % to 5% would be enough to demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in contrail formation on an airspace-scale, said Paul Hodgson, Google’s technical lead for Operation Blue Skies.

Individual airlines have tested shifting altitudes to avoid contrail regions. Earlier this year, Google and American Airlines announced that the airline significantly reduced the climate impact of some flights using Google’s AI-based forecasting tool to help prevent contrails.

This new effort expands on individual airline trials to try mitigating contrails across an entire flight corridor.

The thin, white lines that form behind airplanes are responsible for a surprising amount of Earth’s warming — 1% to 2%, according to Contrails.org, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to reducing aviation’s climate impact through contrail management, as part of the Breakthrough Energy group founded by Bill Gates. Modeling shows that the Shanwick airspace accounts for about 5% of the total contributed by contrails, with a significant amount occurring during winter.

Keir Mather, the UK minister responsible for aviation, said the government is partnering with Google to back British experts and innovators to find practical ways to make flying cleaner. The government is paying for more than half of the 5 million pound ($6.76 million) study.

Google called contrails one of the most urgent yet solvable climate challenges facing aviation today.

Hodgson said testing over an airspace, versus individual airline trials, can show how it’s possible to move multiple planes away simultaneously from an area where contrails will form, and can show if contrails can be reduced overall for a region. This could provide a blueprint for similar airspaces, he added.

Along with Google and the UK Department for Transport, the consortium includes the Met Office, the UK’s leading air navigation service provider NATS, Contrails.org, Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge.

An Imperial College London study in 2020 found that small changes to flight paths could reduce the climate impact of contrails. Professor Marc Stettler said Operation Blue Skies is a chance to test that idea in the real world, on a scale never seen before.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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Walmart is making a new play for younger, style-conscious shoppers with a women’s fashion brand offering most items for less than $25.

The retail giant is rolling out Scenario, a modern bohemian collection featuring apparel, shoes, jewelry, handbags and other accessories, at all of its stores.

The launch includes 280 styles, according to Walmart.

“We’ve been on a journey to democratize fashion by focusing on expanding our assortment, elevating the experience in-store and online, reaching new customers and changing [the] perception [of] Walmart fashion,” a spokesperson for the retailer told FOX Business in an email.

The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

WALMART SAYS IT WILL USE BILLIONS IN TARIFF REFUNDS TO KEEP PRICES LOW

Scenario is designed to appeal to women around age 35 who want trendier details than Walmart’s existing brands traditionally offer, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The line includes embroidered blouses, pintuck denim shirts and faux leather bags, with a focus on natural fabrics such as cotton, the outlet reported.

Walmart said it developed the brand after research found nearly one in five women ranked bohemian fashion among their preferred styles, even though none of its existing private labels were perceived as directly catering to that look.

WALMART E-COMMERCE SALES SURGE AS CEO TOUTS ‘PRICE, SPEED AND CONVENIENCE’

Scenario will take over some space previously devoted to Time and Tru, Walmart’s women’s brand focused on classic wardrobe staples, according to the Journal.

The retailer tested elements of the bohemian aesthetic within its Time and Tru assortment before deciding to build a dedicated lifestyle brand, the company said.

The existing brand will continue with a smaller selection focused on its most popular items, the outlet reported.

“This is an ‘and’ strategy,” Denise Incandela, executive vice president of fashion for Walmart U.S., told the Journal. “We’re still going to cover those big-volume driving socks and underwear and denim and Ts.”

POPULAR WALMART NUT BUTTER RECALLED AFTER TESTING DETECTS SALMONELLA

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Walmart said it has launched or relaunched 15 private brands over the past five years as it works to modernize its fashion business. 

The retailer said it has also expanded its selection of premium brands through its online marketplace.

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Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis issued a strong warning to Turkey, saying that “the Greece of passive diplomatic stagnation belongs definitively to the past.”

“Any attempt to violate our sovereign rights will be met with every means at our disposal,” he said.

Gerapetritis described the “maritime parks” promoted by Turkey as “illegal and lacking legal validity,” while stressing that Greece is “fully prepared for any scenario,” despite continuing to pursue peace.

Gerapetritis said on Monday in an interview with Greek television channel OPEN TV that Greece is prepared to respond on the ground if Turkey takes steps that, according to Athens, violate its rights, N12 News reported on Monday.

Asked about the possibility of Turkey sending warships to the area, Gerapetritis said Greece does not intend to refrain from responding and has several options available.

Relations between Turkey and Israel (illustrative) (credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)

‘Greece has proven it can send frigates and F-16s’

“It is self-evident that Greece will fully exercise its sovereign rights,” Gerapetritis reportedly said, adding that “We will do whatever is necessary. We will respond to provocations and we will respond from a position of strength.”

When asked whether Greece would respond if Turkey sent frigates to the area, Gerapetritis emphasized Greece’s ability to deploy its own ships without specifying numbers, N12 reported.

“Greece has proven that it can send frigates and can send F-16s, and from next year onward it will also send F-35s,” he reportedly said.

The Greek foreign minister also pointed to Greece’s ongoing military buildup, citing Rafale fighter jets, upgraded F-16 aircraft, Belharra-class frigates, and F-35 fighter jets expected to join the Greek military in the future. 

Greece has already demonstrated its power in Cyprus and during the recent crisis in the Middle East, Gerapetritis said, according to the report.

“Yes, we want peace. But we want it from a position of strength. With security and without fear complexes,” Gerapetritis said.

Addressing Greece’s relationship with Israel, Gerapetritis said cooperation with Jerusalem is not an “overinvestment,” but rather part of a broader, multi-layered foreign policy in which Athens continues to maintain open channels with the Arab world.

Greek officials told N12 that relations between Israel and Greece are “warming up again,” and that security cooperation between the countries is due to expand.

“The war delayed processes, and now, with the end of the war, talks with Greece have resumed with greater intensity,” defense industry sources told N12.

The sources also described the recent air exercise held by the countries over the Mediterranean as a “message to the Turks,” the network reported. 

“From now on,” the sources said to N12, “military cooperation between Israel and Greece will be stronger and more visible.”

Idlib strike could be a model for strikes on Turkish assets, Greek media outlet reports

Meanwhile, Greek media outlet Pro News recently published a report outlining a possible scenario in which a military confrontation between Israel and Turkey could expand into the eastern Mediterranean and potentially involve Cyprus.

According to the report, Israel is allegedly considering a scenario in which it would strike Turkish targets in northern Cyprus if Jerusalem determines that Turkey’s military presence there threatens Israeli interests.

The report cited the Israeli operation against the Abu al-Duhur base in Syria’s Idlib province as a possible model, claiming that eight airstrikes were carried out there amid concerns over Turkish military entrenchment.

According to Pro News, one scenario mentioned in the report includes a strike on Ercan Airport in northern Cyprus and a Turkish naval base near Kyrenia, where warships are expected to be stationed.

However, the report did not provide any official indication that Israel has decided to carry out such an operation.

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission has sent subpoenas to major Wall Street banks regarding the hedge fund Situational Awareness, according to people familiar with the matter.

The information being sought is related to the trading activity of the hedge fund, which came under pressure and was forced to exit many of its positions last month, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a confidential matter. The New York Times earlier reported on the SEC’s subpoenas. 

Read More: The 24-Hour Race to Salvage Situational Awareness’ AI Bets

A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment. An SEC inquiry doesn’t mean that a firm or individual is the focus of an investigation and a probe by the regulator can end without an enforcement action.

The fund began liquidating some of its equity positions as it faced a barrage of margin calls during last month’s AI stock rout. Ken Griffin’s Citadel stepped in to buy the bulk of its public stock bets.

“It is to be expected that regulators would closely examine any funds that are high profile, produce significant returns, or have particularly dramatic drawdowns,” Situational Awareness said in a statement on Monday. “We are a highly-regulated business and will cooperate to the fullest extent with any regulatory request.”

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The US Supreme Court on Monday lifted a judicial decision blocking President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing his executive order to restrict the use of mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections that will decide ‌control of Congress – though another remains.

The justices granted a Justice Department emergency request to put on hold an injunction that Boston-based US Judge Indira Talwani’s imposed in June preventing the Republican president from proceeding with his directive in a coalition of 23 mostly Democratic-governed states and Washington, DC that had sued to stop it.

The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. The three liberal justices dissented from the decision.

The Supreme Court’s action leaves open the door to the states suing again in the coming months as the midterm contest approaches.

The court did not act, however, on another injunction issued by Talwani on August 11 that blocked the U.S. Postal Service nationwide from enforcing the directive’s tighter rules for voting by mail. The judge issued that order in a separate lawsuit filed by several voting-rights groups.

 A woman in polling station, voting in a booth with US flag in background (credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)

The Justice Department had urged the Supreme Court to make clear that its action applied to both of Talwani’s injunctions, but the justices did not do so on Monday.

Both lawsuits had challenged Trump’s order as unconstitutional.

Trump’s March executive order

Trump’s executive order, issued in March, directed the Department of Homeland Security to compile and ​transmit to the states a list of US citizens eligible to vote in each state, and the Justice Department to prioritize investigating and prosecuting state and local election ​officials who issue ballots to people deemed “not eligible” to vote in federal elections.

It also required the US Postal Service to ​deliver ballots only to voters on ⁠each state’s approved mail-in ballot list. The Postal Service recently moved to implement Trump’s directive.

Trump has vowed to end the use of mail-in ballots nationwide before the midterms, and has long cast doubt on the security of such ballots, although evidence of voter fraud is rare.

Republicans are seeking to retain control of Congress in the hotly contested midterms. Restricting mail-in ballots would stand to disproportionately benefit Republicans given that Democratic voters traditionally have been more likely to use mail-in ballots than Republican voters.

Justice Department deemed Trump lacked authority

In June, Talwani ruled that the president lacked the authority to order changes in how states administer federal elections, noting that under the US Constitution, states have the role of determining voter-eligibility requirements. The judge also noted that federal agencies lack the ability to compile accurate citizen lists for each state.

The Justice Department had said the lawsuit challenging Trump’s directive was premature and that the states did not have the required legal standing at this stage to sue. The agencies have not yet taken any concrete actions that impact the states and so any harm they allege is speculative, the administration said.

The states contend that their claims are not hypothetical and that the administration’s “rushed effort to change the rules of mail voting on the eve of the November midterms risks disenfranchising a substantial number of voters.”

The judge rejected the administration’s arguments, finding that the suit was not filed too soon and that the states had legal standing because they would face election administration disruption, compliance costs and a credible threat of criminal prosecution.

Trump’s executive order is part of his wider efforts to make fundamental changes in US elections. Trump, who has made false claims of widespread fraud in US elections including his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden, has pressed the Republican-controlled Congress to pass a contentious package of voting restrictions called the SAVE America Act.

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The US State Department implemented sanctions against Iranian military activities, cyber threats, and illicit oil trade, according to a statement from US State Department Spokesperson Tommy Pigott on Monday evening.

“Today, the United States took sweeping action against multiple entities, individuals, and vessels enabling the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities,” Pigott said.

“The measures target Iranian military officials responsible for procuring weapons and directing attacks against US servicemembers and regional partners, Iran-based entities that gathered intelligence for targeting US forces and allies, and a procurement ring supplying Iran’s military and missile programs,” he added.

“The US will continue to disrupt, expose, and dismantle Iran’s military and proliferation activities, procurement schemes, malicious cyber operations, and illicit oil trade that sustains the regime’s malign behavior.”

Sanctions target groups for supporting Iranian military actions

The sanctions targeted two Iran-based groups that were involved in procuring images used to attacks US forces and bases located across the Middle East.

 Model of petrol pump is seen in front of US and Iran flag colors in this illustration. (credit: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION)

DadeNegar Startup Studio and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cyber-Electronic Command (IRGC-CEC) were named in the sanctions package.

DadeNegar was sanctioned for supporting the “targeting of US and partner facilities in the Middle East for the Iranian military during Operation Epic Fury.” The State Department said DadeNegar used commercial Chinese satellite imagery to support Iran’s military in its efforts to target and damage US forces and bases in the region.

The IRGC-CEC was sanctioned due to obtaining information about US forces and bases that was used to support Iran’s targeting of US assets during the conflict.

Both groups were designated “for having engaged, or attempted to engage, in any activity that materially contributes to, or poses a risk of materially contributing to, the proliferation of arms or related materiel or items intended for military end-uses or military end-users, including any efforts to manufacture, acquire, possess, develop, transport, transfer, or use such items, by the Government of Iran.”

Individuals also sanctioned by US State Department

Monday’s announcement also targeted seven individuals responsible for directing the use of conventional weapons against US forces.

Sanctions targeted members of Iran’s Supreme National Council, several commanders of various military branches of the IRGC, the country’s deputy defense minister, and the spokesperson for Iran’s Defense Ministry.

Former Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, was targeted for having “an active role advocating for Iran’s continued support of its so-called Axis of Resistance.”

Zolghadr “was designated by the UN Security Council in Annex I of UN Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 1747 (2007), reimposed on September 27, 2025, in response to Iran’s ‘significant non-performance’ of its nuclear commitments,” the statement added.

Ahmad Vahidi, Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC, and Ali Abdollahi, Commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the Iranian government branch responsible for wartime operations were sanctioned for their roles in driving military decisions made by Iran during Operation Epic Fury. 

Sanctions also targeted Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Sayyid Hossein Mousavi Eftekhari, and Amir Hatami, Commander Iran’s conventional military. Both were sanctioned due to their responsibility for Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programs.

Deputy Defense Minister for Industrial and Research Affairs Seyyed Mahdi Farahi was sanctioned by the US for “directing the procurement of arms and related materiel and has demonstrated in-depth knowledge of various missile systems, including those that Iran has reportedly used against US forces and allies.”

Reza Talaei-Nik, spokesperson for Iran’s main defense ministry body was sanctioned for “engaging in activity that materially contributes to the supply, sale, or transfer, directly or indirectly, to or from Iran, or for the use in or benefit of Iran, of arms or related materiel, including spare parts.”

US sanctions also target fuel exports, shadow fleet

The Department of State also sanctioned companies that “engaged in the illicit trade of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products, activities that have generated millions of dollars in revenue for the Iranian regime,” the statement said.

“These Iranian petroleum, petroleum products, and petrochemical cargos,” the statement added, “are frequently transported by shadow fleet operators, including vessel management companies that regularly engage in dark activity and other deceptive shipping practices, endangering other vessels and trade flows.”

Sanctions targeted both Iranian and international companies that facilitated the trade of petroleum and petrochemical products with Iran.

Implications of the sanctions

The sanctions coming following US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s announcement of the start of Operation Economic Outcast and the implementation of an “economic D-Day” against Iran.

Monday’s sanctions mark the start of US action aimed “to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” said Bessent.

“We are no longer managing the Iranian threat,” he emphasized. “We are ending it.”

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The artificial intelligence boom is driving unprecedented demand for data centers, raising concerns about their growing energy consumption, water use and carbon footprint. These challenges are making companies look beyond traditional land-based data centers.

Some developers are now exploring the ocean as a new location for AI infrastructure in the hopes that underwater data centers could improve energy use and cooling efficiency while using less fresh water and land area than onshore buildings.

My research focuses on the societal, organizational and environmental implications of emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence and the digital infrastructure – including data centers – that supports its development and deployment. I see underwater data centers as a promising new approach for supporting the growth of AI.

But moving servers into the ocean does not make other underlying environmental challenges such as energy consumption and carbon emissions disappear. And it creates new concerns about harm to the marine environment, as well as questions about how these data centers can be regulated – and how companies can maintain and expand them if needed. Whether underwater data centers can become sustainable alternatives to traditional data centers depends on solving these economic, technical and environmental problems.

A large yellow cylinder surrounded by scaffolding sits on a platform next to a body of water.

An underwater data center is under construction in a Chinese shipyard in September 2025. CN-STR / AFP via Getty Images

The rise of ocean-based AI infrastructure

In 2015, Microsoft launched a research project to explore the feasibility, benefits and challenges of underwater data centers. Part of that effort included setting up a waterproof data center on the seafloor near Scotland’s Orkney Islands in 2018. It contained 864 servers and was connected to shore by an underwater cable.

After two years, Microsoft reported that the servers in the underwater data center failed at about one-eighth the rate of servers in comparable land-based data centers. The company is still studying the possible reasons but hypothesizes that in a sealed underwater environment the equipment is less exposed to oxygen, humidity and temperature fluctuations – as well as less jostling from people working to replace broken components.

However, Microsoft ended the project in 2024 and chose not to build more underwater data centers. The company didn’t say why, but others’ analyses suggest the reasons could include regulatory concerns, including the need for environmental permits, as well as a desire for faster upgrades and replacements for the computer equipment inside.

Instead the company has focused on land-based data centers, which can be larger and easier to expand, and also easier to access to repair or replace equipment.

Others have moved ahead, though. China built what may be the world’s first wind-powered underwater data center in Shanghai. The facility launched in June 2025 and began full commercial operations in May 2026.

The US$226 million project uses seawater as a coolant rather than have to refrigerate fresh water, reducing the electricity required to cool the computers. It uses at least 30% less electricity than traditional data centers, and offshore wind turbines reduce reliance on fossil fuels and cut the data center’s carbon emissions.

Japan is testing a different approach: Data centers housed in containers on floating platforms at sea can use seawater for cooling, have unobstructed conditions for solar panels and wind turbines, and reduce demand for land. In 2025, a data center in shipping containers opened on a floating platform near Yokohama. Its power comes from solar panels installed on the same floating platform, with batteries providing energy storage. The test will continue through March 2027.

Singapore is also moving toward commercial-scale floating data centers. In 2026, infrastructure company Keppel began building a four-story floating data center, scheduled to open in 2028. The project will use seawater for cooling, reducing reliance on treated water and improving cooling efficiency. And the fact that it floats means it won’t take up any of Singapore’s limited land availability.

In 2025, Ulsan, South Korea, began planning an underwater data center that could house more than 100,000 servers and use 30% less power than land-based centers by using seawater for cooling.

In Maine, DeepGreen Western Passage has proposed a submersible AI data center in the Bay of Fundy, powered by tidal turbines designed to harness the area’s strong tidal currents.

Land-based data centers could also take advantage of seawater cooling. In Portugal, the SIN01 AI data center in Sines uses seawater from the Atlantic to cool its servers before returning it to the ocean.

A diagram shows a floating barge tethered to a pier, with shipping containers, solar panels and a helipad.

An artist’s depiction of a floating data center in Yokohama, Japan. Yokohama City Government via Japan News

The promise of ocean-based data centers

These various approaches offer ways to reduce demand for grid-supplied electricity for powering data centers’ computers and cooling equipment, as well as using less fresh water.

The distance from people’s homes could also be an advantage for data centers in or on the ocean. A Gallup poll in March 2026 found that 70% of Americans oppose building AI data centers in their communities. However, more than half of the world’s population lives within 120 miles of a coast. Underwater could be another way to keep data centers physically close to users for speedy service.

Maintenance, though, is a major challenge. If a computer fails underwater, it cannot be repaired or replaced on site. The entire sealed data center module may need to be brought to the surface, even if just one computer needs work.

A view of an industrial room with metal boxes in rows on the floor and pipes and tubes running overhead.

Land-based data centers are easier to maintain and expand than floating or underwater data centers. Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP via Getty Images

Can the ocean sustain AI?

The main environmental concern about ocean-based data centers involves the seawater used for cooling. Discharging warm or hot water can potentially affect oxygen levels, pH and marine life in the surrounding waters.

That heat is already apparent at the few seaborne data centers now operating. HiCloud, the engineering contractor for China’s Hainan underwater data center, has reported a temperature increase of less than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the seawater near the facility. SIN01 in Sines, Portugal, also returns seawater about 1 C warmer.

Many marine species depend on stable water temperatures for breeding, feeding and migration, raising concerns that heat released by multiple underwater data centers could create localized thermal pollution and alter marine ecosystems. And the ocean is already under pressure. UNESCO, the United Nations agency for international cooperation, including in conservation, estimates that about 60% of marine ecosystems are already degraded or used unsustainably.

The ocean is already warming along with the atmosphere, without additional waste heat from data centers. That additional heat is already threatening coral reef and mangrove ecosystems, seagrasses and other aspects of the marine food web. As that warming continues, ocean waters will be less useful for cooling electronic equipment in some regions.

Underwater data centers could help AI grow while easing some of the pressure on land, energy and water. But the real test is whether the ocean can become AI’s next computing frontier without becoming its next environmental problem.

Nir Kshetri, Professor of Management, University of North Carolina – Greensboro

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

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CEOs have warned that AI will wipe out white-collar and entry-level jobs, but demand for the tools is already creating new opportunities. America’s energy sector is thriving during the world’s latest tech transformation—but there aren’t enough workers to meet the demand. 

The U.S. power and grid value chain will need around 500,000 additional workers by 2030, according to a recent report from Goldman Sachs. And seeing as these roles often require three to four years of training, it creates a years-long skilling obstacle in training up a workforce to meet growing demands. 

The energy apprenticeship pipeline only had 45,000 entrants in 2024, but really needs 65,000 professionals flowing in yearly to close the labor supply gap. And increasing demand for AI—which necessitates an even greater pool of power—could widen the gap even further. 

“Power is a critical bottleneck—but increasingly, the requisite labor presents a structural constraint of its own,” the report explains. “The technical workforce that constructs, wires, cools, and secures this infrastructure is in acute demand, and training cannot happen at the pace capital is being committed.”

America’s energy sector employed roughly 8.5 million workers as of 2024, who took home a median wage of $58,810 a year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. However, there are more lucrative career opportunities on the table, like traditional fuel production paying an average salary of $65,400, or power plant operators, who take home around $103,600 annually. Plus, energy jobs often don’t require a costly college degree—specialized training and on-the-job experience are king.

But autonomous equipment and human-like robots might have to step in to help lighten the load if worker supply can’t keep up.

Around 1.4 million humanoid robots will hit the market by 2035

The image of robotic arms, drones, and autonomous vehicles taking over factory floors may be jarring to many workers. But Goldman Sachs points out that an increased interest in physical AI like humanoid robots “is centered on the need for labor.” 

So long as people can’t fulfill demands, tech is another tool to help bridge the productivity gap. 

America’s manufacturing sector has a higher number of available jobs than available workers, the study finds, with more than one million materials-handling roles sitting unfilled. And techy companions may be one way to alleviate the shortage. 

Goldman’s investment research projects that the market for humanoids will grow from 20,000 in 2025 to 1.4 million in 2035—a 6,900% increase within the span of a decade. Some Chinese AI developers like Unitree and UBTECH are making headway with the robots, with widespread commercial deployment is expected between 2027 and 2029.

Other faceless autonomous equipment have already hit worksites with that strained labor-supply dynamic; take Deere’s field systems and Caterpillar’s mining platforms, as examples. Earlier this year Amazon also unveiled its autonomous mobile warehouse robot, Proteus. And EV giant Tesla has leveraged its own Optimus humanoid robots inside its manufacturing facilities, taking on early factory tasks and assembly line work. 

However, human-like robots with blank faces and steel legs won’t be marching onto assembly lines anytime soon. Building robots and factories takes years, and requires a load of financing. Private equity firms and banks don’t have much historical financial data to confidently invest in these projects, and companies are still figuring out how to use humanoids at large scale. 

Robot fleets are a few years away—but China’s energy sector is already deploying them

Humanoid robots have yet to take on a sizable amount of America’s blue-collar work, but experts say that the tech is on the up-and-up. Zornitza Todorova, head of thematic FICC research at Barclays, predicts that today’s humanoid market of around $3 billion will swell to $200 billion by 2035. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also believes in the potential of humanoid workers, but believes that the true unlock is still years away. 

“I think we are at the cusp of a transformation, we’re just scratching the surface of what humanoid robots can do,” Todorova told CNBC earlier this year, “And as the technology matures, as the models get better and faster at reacting to things in real time, I think we’ll see a lot of applications in more services-oriented roles.”

Meanwhile, China already seems to be racing ahead of the U.S.; the country has deployed robots across several jobs in the energy sector. 

In 2022, a robot completed the work of a maintenance professional by repairing power lines in the Wuhan province; and over at a power facility in Guangzhou, humanoid helpers have already taken over inspection duties usually completed by workers. 

Earlier this year, China announced a $1 billion initiative through the State Grid Corporation of China to get around 8,500 AI-powered robots for national power grid inspection and maintenance.

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U.S. futures are lower as bond market pressure will have investors eyeing an annual meeting of top U.S. economic officials at Jackson Hole, Wyoming later in the week.

The future for the S&P 500 was down 0.2%. On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% for just its second gain in the six days since setting its all-time high last week. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.1%, while Nasdaq futures slipped 0.7%.

Investors will get an important inflation update on Wednesday when the U.S. releases its report on personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, for July. It is the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation. Much like the consumer price index, it has shown that the rate of U.S. consumer inflation remains stubbornly above 3%.

Also on Wednesday, the Commerce Department will issue its second estimate of how the U.S. economy performed in the second quarter of 2026. The government’s first estimate, issued last month, showed that the U.S. economy expanded at a sluggish 1.5% pace from April through June as rising imports weighed on growth.

The Fed has been struggling to get inflation back to its target rate of 2%. Inflation has crept higher after the U.S. imposed a wide range of tariffs globally. It has climbed further as the Iran war slowed global oil shipments from the Strait of Hormuz.

Last week, rising bond yields forced the U.S. Treasury Department into an unusual intervention and raised the specter of higher borrowing costs weighing on consumer spending, the lifeblood of the economy. It also sparked concerns that investors balk at financing a seemingly endless flow of government borrowing.

The bond markets got only temporary relief from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s announcement that the government would double its buybacks of longer-term bonds. That was meant to bring down the 10-year Treasury yield and lower mortgages. The 10-year yield rose back to 4.73% Friday, matching its highest point in more than a year. It was at 4.72% on Monday.

The 30-year Treasury yield, which the Fed is also targeting with its bond repurchases, climbed and is near its highest level since 2007.

Higher yields can slow the economy and undercut prices for all kinds of investments.

The bond market has remained jumpy, and investors will be watching for signals from Federal Reserve Gov. Kevin Warsh regarding rates and other policies in a key speech at the annual gathering of U.S. economic leaders in Jackson Hole later this week.

U.S. markets are also starting the week with a focus on technology stocks. Shares of Sandisk dropped 5%, while Corning slid 3% and Coherent fell more than 5%. Micron Technology’s stock slipped 3%.

Oil prices also declined on Monday as Iran’s currency hit a record low as the U.S. prepared to announce new sanctions to try to break the impasse with Iran, adding pressure when its economy is already battered by earlier sanctions and a U.S. naval blockade.

The rial dropped to 2.02 million to the U.S. dollar on informal currency markets. Iran’s official Central Bank rate stood at around 1.5 million rial to the dollar, but the informal rate is what most Iranians pay.

Uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again has roiled markets, causing oil prices to rise and pushing up Treasury yields due to worries over inflation.

The outlook remained murky Monday. The new head of Iran’s top security body warned Sunday that Tehran will see any country’s support for new U.S. economic measures against the Islamic Republic as an “act of war,” while Iran’s president defended a memorandum of understanding with the United States as the best way out of the stalled conflict.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil was 1.7% lower at $91.06 on Monday. U.S. benchmark crude fell 2.2% to $85.18 per barrel.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX edged down slightly to 26,133.59, while the CAC 40 in Paris also gave up 0.1%, to 8,480.49. Britain’s FTSE 100 inched up 0.2% to 10,839.52. Asian markets declined.

In other dealings, the U.S. dollar bought 159.23 Japanese yen, up from 158.94 yen late Friday. The euro fell to $1.1665 from $1.1678.

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Canada is set to announce details of retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. on Tuesday after relations between the two countries deteriorated sharply Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned Canadian leaders on Monday to “fall in line” or face consequences “far WORSE” than existing tariffs and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney accused the U.S. government of attempting to subordinate Canada.

The U.S. imposed new 50% tariffs on Canadian goods such as wine, furniture and dairy products, while Carney said U.S. trade demands proved Washington wanted to “destroy our major industries,” including autos, steel and aluminum.

The U.S. president also threatened new 50% tariffs said tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, auto parts and steel would rise to 50% beginning Jan. 1, 2027.

TRUMP SAYS 50% TARIFFS ON CANADIAN VEHICLE, STEEL IMPORTS TO HIT JAN 1

“Without the United States, Canada couldn’t survive — It’s where they get all of their money and, because of their current bad leadership, primarily Governor Carney, and his Flunky, Ford, they will not be allowed to keep taking advantage of the United States — Their key to survival,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who had discussed the tariffs during a Monday afternoon news conference.

“Remember, much of the Electricity, Oil, and Gas that Canada gets is transported through the U.S.A. Someone should get these clowns to ‘fall in line’ or, the consequences for Canada will be far WORSE!” he added.

Carney suggested that Canada was ready to find a solution to the trade war, but only if the U.S. approached the talks as between two sovereign nations.

“An attitude at the negotiation table that Canada is a subsidiary of the United States is not something we are going to accept,” he said.

The forceful words from both sides show how relations have deteriorated since suspended negotiations late Friday, after Canada and the United States blamed one another for the collapse in talks. The U.S. imposed 50% tariffs the following day on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods.

The prime minister had also said over the weekend that Canada “will match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses.”

CANADA’S CARNEY SAYS US MADE LAST-MINUTE ‘POWER PLAY’ AS TRADE TALKS COLLAPSE; RETALIATORY TARIFFS IN PLACE

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“You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked,” Carney said when asked if Canada was engaged in a trade war.

The “dollar for dollar” tariffs on imports of U.S. steel, electronics and other products are expected to take effect on September 8.

Ford, whose Progressive Conservative Party typically opposes Carney’s Liberal Party, said that “everything is on the table” if the trade war continues. He also asserted that Canadians are “in for an economic war,” adding that they “know they’re going to have to sacrifice.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Computer programmer Fei Zhaojun’s boss asked him if artificial intelligence could soon replace humans in coding jobs. Two weeks later, he was laid off from his job in Beijing, together with about 160 of his colleagues.

It’s an increasingly common scenario as artificial intelligence, supported by government policies, reshapes China’s massive job market. Some economists believe that might eventually undermine the overall strength of the world’s second largest economy.

Rapid adoption of AI in many fields, from computer programmers to script writing and physical tasks, is pushing people out of their jobs or leaving them afraid that it might. China is at the vanguard of AI adoption as government policies encourage people and businesses to use AI applications and robotics in all aspects of life, so people like Fei are figuring out how to adapt.

“There appears to be far less anti-AI sentiment in China (than elsewhere). Most people seem either positive, neutral, or mildly interested in AI,” said Shujing He, a Beijing-based senior analyst at advisory and research firm Plenum.

“Individuals who worry about being replaced, as well as those who have already left traditional workplaces, are often eager to experiment with AI-enabled businesses and independent ventures,” she said. “The level of interest is striking.”

Until recently, Fei had doubted AI could do programming work perfectly, even though his bosses thought it was close enough.

“Mid-level coders’ job are essentially replaceable in most of the cases,” said Fei, 40. “Even if it is a disaster that leads to replacing all humans, at this stage, you just have to use it as everyone else is using it.”

Now he’s making vlog-style short videos during a career break while figuring out what he wants to do next. He’s not making a living off of his videos, which are about ordinary people’s lives, but hopes that they might help others.

If you can’t beat them, join them

Du Qinchun, a part-time translator, has been helping to train an AI model to do translations. That’s brought him more work, at least temporarily.

“But it’s true that the pay in the industry has been cut by more than half compared to what it was years ago,” said Du, who is based in southwestern China’s Chengdu city.

The trend is so evident that popular college programs in foreign languages have increasingly fallen out of favor as AI-powered translation tools have become more widespread.

The share of Chinese industrial enterprises saying they use AI models and “agents” jumped to 47.5% last year from 9.6% in 2024, according to the market intelligence firm IDC.

“China’s vibrant open-source model ecosystem fosters greater AI application innovation in industrial settings, gradually closing the gap between foundational model capabilities and real-world enterprise value creation,” said Yanze Du, an IDC senior research manager in Beijing.

Humanoid robots can now, for example, sort parcels in postal centers, although still on a small-scale basis, and are pushing the boundaries in performing more human tasks such as directing traffic and making coffee. Food delivery robots are also gaining ground across the country, potentially threatening the livelihoods of millions of Chinese food delivery workers.

Generative AI increasingly is used for creation, production and distribution in China’s short drama industry. The number of live-action short and vertical video series designed for mobile phones fell about 75% in the first quarter of this year from a year earlier, according to Chinese media reports.

“Tasks that once required specialized training can now be performed by almost anyone with access to AI tools. This is particularly evident in software development and multimedia creation,” said Plenum’s He. “As a result, workers whose roles are narrowly concentrated in these areas may face greater displacement risk.”

A report from International Labor Organization, meanwhile, found that women face higher risks of losing employment due to use of AI than men, as they tend to work in areas more suitable for automation, such as assembling electronics, and remain underrepresented in science and technology.

AI has mixed effects on the slowing economy

Under China’s “AI Plus” initiative and its five-year plan through 2030, the government is pushing to infuse AI across many industries, aiming to gain an edge in China’s technology rivalry with the U.S.

“What is specific to China is that the government is really into diffusing AI across the economy, so AI may get into different domains more quickly comparing to other countries,” said Zilan Qian, a research associate at Oxford China Policy Lab.

China’s economic growth has already been slowing. Consumer spending has lagged partly due to people becoming reluctant to spend because they’re worried about losing their jobs. It’s added to problems stemming from a prolonged downturn in the housing market that has undermined household wealth.

China’s tech industries may be innovative with high productivity, but they may not generate many new jobs, said Eswar Prasad, a professor of economics and trade policy at Cornell University.

“AI is likely to lift productivity across the board but could have a severe disruptive effect on employment, worsening the employment growth problem and resulting in a detrimental effect on social stability,” he said.

Similar to their U.S. rivals, Chinese tech giants have cut or restructured tens of thousands of jobs, partly due to AI. The outlook for the broader jobs market remains uncertain: China’s overall urban unemployment rate hovers around 5%, but unemployment for people aged 16 to 24, excluding students, is roughly triple that.

That said, in the longer run, some experts say unemployment rates could fall, since China’s population of 1.4 billion is rapidly aging and shrinking.

By 2050, China is projected to have fewer than two working-age adults to support each retiree, compared with more than 2.5 in the U.S., said Xuenan Cao, a professor at San Francisco Bay University whose focus includes technology and society.

“Automation could partially offset a shrinking workforce rather than being purely a threat to it,” Cao said.

Some embrace AI to find new ways to make a living

Wang Zhicheng, 32, often used AI for brainstorming and fact-checking in his previous job as a scriptwriter for a company that produces 3D animated educational videos and interactive exercises for children.

After its parent company laid off roughly half of its 13 script writers, he chose to resign and work independently, making illustrated children’s books.

While AI sometimes saved time the scripts it generated, they often felt strange, Wang said. Episodes tended to be repetitive and formulaic and the level of detail devoted to knowledge varied widely.

“You can treat AI as a tool just like (Microsoft) Word,” said Wang, who has started his own studio making picture books and other creative works. “Humans are still the decision makers on which one to pick or pursue among all that AI generates.”

High school chemistry teacher Yang Zheng said he doesn’t consider AI as a threat to his job even though students use AI for help with their homework.

“Teachers cannot be there all the time,” he said. “It is a good thing for students as it generates in real-time so that students can ask follow-up questions,” said Yang, 29. “It often gets things wrong, but it improves over time.”

____

Fu Ting reported from Washington. AP video producer Wu Jia in Beijing contributed to this story.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday posted what he described as his personal phone number and invited Israelis to contact him with their questions and problems. 

It was an election-season stunt that drew such a flood of responses that the number’s WhatsApp account was blocked within minutes and those calling received a busy signal.

It also drew suspicions that it was a ploy to collect voter data.

In a video posted to social media, Netanyahu is seen with longtime adviser Topaz Luk, who asks the prime minister whether he can publish his phone number. Netanyahu initially reacts with disbelief, saying, “Topaz, have you gone crazy?” before agreeing. 

“I want to hear from you. Your suggestions, your questions, your problems. I want to hear, so leave me a message,” Netanyahu said. He added that he could not promise to answer everyone but would respond to as many people as possible. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu casts his ballot at his party Likud's main polling station during primary elections ahead of Israel's general election in October in Jerusalem on August 17, 2026; illustrative (credit: Ohad Zwigenberg / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

Hundreds of messages and calls arrived within minutes and the WhatsApp account associated with the number was blocked. Luk later posted on X/Twitter that the account had been disabled because of the volume of calls and said Netanyahu’s team was working to restore it, directing people to Telegram in the meantime. 

Some suggested the number was used to get phone numbers of voters

Kan political correspondent Michael Shemesh questioned whether the number belonged to Netanyahu at all and suggested on X that the exercise was “probably designed to harvest the phone numbers of potential voters.” 

Other users pointed to another clue that the handset seen in the video was unlikely to be Netanyahu’s personal phone. One of the WhatsApp groups visible in Luk’s video was a synagogue updates group whose latest message appeared to back political rival Naftali Bennett, the former prime minister who now heads the Beyachad party. 

“Something tells me that Bibi isn’t signed up to the ‘Menachem’s House Main Shul Updates’ group,” one X user wrote, “especially not when the latest message there is ‘yalla, it’s time for Bennett.’” 

The Likud spokesperson had not responded to a request for comment on the accusations by the time of publication. 

Netanyahu has handed out his number in previous election campaigns

It was not the first time Netanyahu handed out what he presented as his personal number during an election campaign. In August 2022, little more than two months before the vote that returned him to power, the then-opposition leader published another number and invited Israelis to video call him. 

“Why should only some people have my phone number? Everyone should have it,” Netanyahu said at the time, joking that the move was a “dramatic, world-changing decision.” He told supporters who sent proof they had joined his Telegram channel that they would have a better chance of receiving a video call from him. 

The response was similarly intense. Likud said Netanyahu received 9,420 calls within the first 30 minutes, while follow-up videos showed calls and messages flooding the phone. 

Netanyahu’s rivals mocked the stunt. Then-Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman released a parody video saying Netanyahu “has not picked up the phone in 12 years,” while Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid dismissed it as a “fictional phone operated by Netanyahu’s aides.” 

Difficult reelection campaign for Netanyahu

The episode comes as Netanyahu faces a difficult reelection campaign, with roughly 20% of voters remaining undecided, many of whom are disillusioned Likud voters, according to pollsters and researchers cited by Reuters

A Channel 13 poll released earlier this month put Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party at 23 seats, ahead of Likud with 21, and Netanyahu’s current coalition projected to win just 49 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. Eisenkot also led Netanyahu 47% to 34% when respondents were asked who was better suited to serve as prime minister. 

The phone-number appeal is the latest in a series of efforts to put Netanyahu directly in front of voters, including a blitz of highly publicized appearances. Last week, the prime minister visited a restaurant in Hadera, a Likud stronghold, where owner Simo Shtivi said his arrival was “like hoisting the World Cup,” as diners lined up for photos and a chance to speak with him. 

Netanyahu also made a surprise appearance with his wife Sara at a concert by Israeli pop star Eden Ben Zaken. A few days earlier, he filmed a campaign video at Jerusalem’s Malha Mall meeting shoppers, including children. The Central Elections Committee later ordered the video removed because election law bars the use of children in campaign propaganda. 

Likud also rolled out billboards showing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani alongside the leaders of Iran, Turkey and Hezbollah under the slogan, “They want Netanyahu to lose. Don’t let them win.” 

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Giles Sims, 34, was sick of getting passed over for jobs because he didn’t have a college degree.

But with a wife and a widowed mother to help support, he needed a quick solution. So the laid-off web developer turned to one of a growing number of three-year degree programs.

“I can’t afford to be out of the workforce for four years. That just seems like forever, and the three-year made it seem less daunting,” said Sims, a student at Ensign College, a private Salt Lake City school that recently changed all its bachelor’s degrees to require fewer classes than a traditional four-year degree.

The condensed programs have exploded in popularity. As of this spring, 26 U.S. states have a college that offers at least one reduced-credit, three-year bachelor’s, according to the nonprofit research group RAND.

Advocates say these programs are a solution to the college affordability crisis and a godsend for non-traditional students like Sims.

Critics, however, worry that they’ll narrow too much what students learn, confuse employers, limit graduate school options and create headaches in fields that require state licenses.

The American Association of University Professors, for one, says the programs devalue the meaning of a college credential.

“This is not innovation. This is just cutting corners,” said Todd Wolfson, AAUP’s president.

A new option to graduate more quickly, but with reduced credit

For decades, colleges have offered accelerated programs that let students finish faster, often by forgoing long summer breaks, maximizing transfer credits and condensing semester-long courses into shorter, five- to 10-week terms.

But those programs maintained the same course load, measured as credits. The new programs let students finish faster by completing as few as 90 credit hours. That shaves a year off the typical 120-hour bachelor’s degree.

Three-year bachelor’s degrees are common in other countries including the United Kingdom, India, France and Italy. But they can create complications for graduates seeking admission to U.S. graduate schools, which sometimes require extra coursework.

Some of the earliest colleges in colonial America, modeled after English institutions like Oxford and Cambridge, initially had three-year degrees, said John Thelin, the author of “A History of American Higher Education.” By the 19th century, the four-year format had taken hold, partly because there wasn’t an established system of public high schools to prepare students, Thelin said.

“The colleges would have to kind of start from scratch,” he said.

A change in accreditation opened the door to shorter degrees

The idea of bringing three-year degrees to the U.S. got attention in 2009 when Robert Zemsky, the founding director of the Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, argued in a Newsweek cover story that three-year degrees could shake up a broken system.

But there was a roadblock, he recalled recently. “Accreditors said, ‘College is 120 credits, not 90 credits,’” he said.

Years passed. And in 2022, amid mounting concerns about college affordability, Zemsky helped revive the idea. The College-in-3 Exchange was born, and dozens of higher education institutions joined the network to look for ways to help students get degrees faster.

The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities was the first accreditor to say yes in 2023, when it approved reduced-credit programs at Ensign and Brigham Young University-Idaho. Other accreditors quickly followed.

As of May, 119 reduced-credit programs had been publicly announced, according to the RAND analysis, which was conducted to help education officials in Ohio as they weigh the feasibility of reduced-credit degrees.

It comes at a time when tuition and fees averaged $11,950 for in-state students at public schools and $45,000 at private nonprofits last school year, although many students get discounts that reduce the price, according to a report from the College Board, the nonprofit that oversees the SAT.

Some degrees are easier to compress

Private nonprofit schools offer three-quarters of the reduced-credit programs, frequently online. Typically, they compress the majors by reducing electives. Business degrees in fields such as marketing and management are the most common, followed by computer and information sciences.

Other majors, such as engineering, with its extensive math requirements, have been harder to shrink. And RAND found just six reduced-credit degrees in teacher education, which involves real-world experience requirements and state licensure.

Jill Cohen, 42, lives on a ranch in rural Yoder, Colorado, and is completing her teaching degree through one such program at Indiana Wesleyan.

She quit her old job selling life insurance and turned to teaching after a farming accident nearly claimed her life. Already, she is in the classroom, teaching middle school English, as she works on the degree through a special “Grow Your Own” program designed to address staff shortages.

Because her home is busy — she has twin 12-year-olds, along with a menagerie that includes horses, goats and chickens — she appreciates the streamlined degree.

“Why do I need to take, you know, underwater basket weaving when I could just take the evolutionary structure of the English language — what I’m going to be teaching,” she said.

However, programs with state licensing requirements are one of the biggest worries for Jenna Kramer, a policy researcher at RAND.

Indiana Wesleyan, which has a growing slate of reduced-credit offerings, said its education programs are specifically designed to meet Indiana licensing requirements. Students from elsewhere will need to check if the programs meet their state requirements, said Pam Downing, the school’s director of communications, in an email.

The RAND report also found the programs are so new that there are no standard practices for admitting three-year degree recipients into graduate school.

Students acknowledge it’s a gamble

Gabriella Staten, a 20-year-old student in the reduced-credit digital marketing program at Mount Mary University, a Catholic women’s institution in Milwaukee, estimates it will save her at least $20,000. While she sometimes wonders whether employers will take her degree as seriously as a four-year degree, she decided she could prove herself.

“Even if they were to look a little bit down on the three-year pathway, I can show them otherwise with the work,” she said.

Wesley Hardy, who is three semesters into a bachelor of applied science in accounting at Ensign, also sees the pros and cons. He likes that the three-year format will get him into the workforce faster.

But he noted that the requirements to become a certified public accountant — something he has considered — vary by state. Many require 120 semester hours to sit for the exam and 150 to become licensed. Graduate school often is needed.

Bruce Kusch, president of Ensign, said he has talked to multiple college presidents and doesn’t anticipate that graduate school will be a problem. But Hardy, 22, has questions about how it would work.

“Would I have to take extra classes?” he asked. “It’s definitely something I’ve thought of.”

___

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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Target has apologized for a circus clown Halloween costume that critics accused of evoking Blackface and 19th-century minstrel shows following online backlash.

The costume was sold as the “Kids’ Glows Under ‌Blacklight Circus Clown Halloween Costume,” according to the since-deleted listing. The costume was sold as part of the retailer’s seasonal Hyde and EEK Boutique brand.

Target removed the “offensive” costume and said that it should never have been featured in its stores.

TARGET RECALLS 200,000 CHILDREN’S SANDALS OVER POTENTIAL CHOKING HAZARD: CPSC

“As a company, we know we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry. The costume is offensive and should never have been part of our assortment. It is no longer available for sale,” company spokesperson Brian Harper-Tibaldo said in a statement to FOX Business.

“We know this is especially hurtful for our Black guests, team members and partners. Removing the costume is an important first step, and the company is looking closely at how this happened and what needs to change to ensure this won’t happen again,” he continued.

The move to pull the costume comes after social media backlash in which critics accused the Minneapolis-based retailer of selling racist merchandise.

“You really don’t have anyone left in Minneapolis to say, ‘Hey, that’s racist’? Y’all cut DEI and now you’ve got a minstrel clown costume for kids on your website,” one user said on Threads.

This comes on the heels of several reputational hits for the retailer that have hurt sales in recent years, including Target’s handling of its Pride Collection in 2023 and its rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives after President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

POPULAR PRODUCT SOLD AT TARGET RECALLED DUE TO CONTAMINATION CONCERNS

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Target joined a broad corporate effort to scale back diversity initiatives after Trump issued a series of executive orders aimed at rooting out DEI.

The retailer scaled back initiatives aimed at increasing representation of Black employees and supporting Black-owned businesses and suppliers, saying it needed to stay in step with “the evolving external landscape.” The reversal drew backlash from some Black consumers and business owners who had supported or benefited from Target’s diversity efforts.

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The US and Israel have demonstrated what military power can do to Iran. Bombs can destroy missile factories, military installations, drone warehouses, and command centers.

But there is another weapon that may ultimately prove even more decisive than another bombing campaign.

Economic warfare.

The Iranian regime can rebuild a destroyed factory if it has the money to do so. It can replace missiles, drones, and military equipment if it has access to foreign currency, international markets, and the financial networks necessary to acquire the materials it needs.

That is why the next phase of this war should not be measured only by how many bombs America drops on Iran. It should also be measured by how effectively the United States can cut Tehran off from the money it needs to rebuild its military, fund terrorism, and maintain its grip on power.

Iranian Rial banknotes over a backdrop of the Iranian flag; illustration. (credit: Shutterstock/Mehaniq)

Iran is already breaking

The numbers coming out of Iran are staggering. The war has caused approximately $270 billion in damage, equivalent to roughly 57% of Iran’s GDP. The scale of that destruction suggests that Iran’s recovery will take years, perhaps decades.

Even more alarming for Tehran is the compounding effect of the war. Each additional month of conflict could set the Iranian economy back by more than five years because of the destruction of capital stock, infrastructure, and productivity.

History shows how quickly economic damage can spread once the foundations of an economy begin to weaken. As businesses lose capital, productivity declines, investment disappears, and confidence collapses, the damage can move far beyond the original crisis and become increasingly difficult to reverse.

Iran entered this war economically weakened by decades of sanctions, corruption, mismanagement, inflation, currency collapse, and international isolation. Now the regime faces the enormous cost of rebuilding while its economy continues to deteriorate.

Meanwhile, ordinary Iranians are already suffering under rising prices, declining purchasing power, and a weakening currency. This is not simply an economic statistic. It is the daily reality of families struggling to afford basic necessities.

But we must make an important distinction. The Persian people are not our enemy. The mullahs are. The tragedy is that Iran is a nation with extraordinary natural resources, an educated population, and one of the world’s great civilizations. Yet the Islamic Republic has squandered its wealth on missiles, terrorism, and foreign wars while millions of Iranians struggle at home.

Trump’s ‘Economic D-Day’

With peace negotiations deadlocked and the war continuing, President Trump has now escalated the economic pressure under the banner of Operation Economic Fury.

Trump called it an “Economic D-Day” and warned that the United States would impose severe secondary sanctions against any nation’s financial institutions, businesses, airports, or governments that facilitate Iranian trade.

The message is unmistakable: nations and institutions will have to choose. They can do business with the United States, or they can help keep the Iranian regime alive.

For years, Tehran has survived sanctions by constructing an underground financial network comprising front companies, shadow banking systems, exchange houses, oil-smuggling operations, and intermediaries. These networks allow the regime to move money and sell its products despite international restrictions.

America must systematically dismantle them. If a bank knowingly helps Tehran move money, it should face consequences. If a company launders Iranian oil revenue, it should lose access to the American financial system. If a shipping network disguises Iranian petroleum, it should be exposed and sanctioned.

Access to the American financial system is not a right. No institution should be allowed to finance the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism while continuing to benefit from the American economy.

Destroy the ability to rebuild

This is the strategic difference between bombing Iran and bankrupting the regime. Bombs destroy what Iran has today. Economic warfare can destroy Iran’s ability to rebuild tomorrow. That should be America’s objective.

The Iranian regime needs money to pay the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, manufacture missiles and drones, maintain its military infrastructure, and finance Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and other terrorist proxies.

Follow the money, and you find the regime’s power. Cut off that money, and the Islamic Republic faces a far greater threat than the destruction of another military installation. A regime can survive a destroyed building, but it faces a much more serious problem when it cannot pay its security forces, finance its proxies, replace its weapons, or maintain the patronage networks that keep it in power.

Do not give Tehran a financial lifeline

This is where Washington must not blink. There will always be pressure to release frozen Iranian assets, ease sanctions, restore trade, and provide Tehran with billions of dollars in exchange for promises. America has seen that movie before and should not repeat the mistake of giving Tehran economic relief in exchange for vague assurances that cannot be trusted.

The Iranian regime should not receive another dollar in economic relief without concrete, verifiable, and irreversible concessions. There can be no return to business as usual while Tehran retains the ability to rebuild its military machine and finance terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East.

Any relief must follow genuine compliance, not empty promises. Iran must demonstrate that it is prepared to abandon the policies that have destabilized the region for decades. Otherwise, America risks financing the very regime it is trying to defeat.

Bankrupt the regime, not the people

The Persian people deserve better. They deserve an Iran where national wealth is invested in families, education, businesses, infrastructure, and opportunity rather than missiles, militias, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

America has already demonstrated that it can inflict devastating military damage on Iran. The next challenge is to ensure that the regime does not have the financial resources to restore the military and terrorist infrastructure it has lost. That means closing financial loopholes and dismantling the international networks that allow Tehran to sell oil, move money, and evade sanctions.

President Trump has now put economic warfare at the center of the conflict through Operation Economic Fury. If America follows through with precision and determination, this strategy could prove more consequential than another round of bombing.

Cut off the money that funds terrorism, and the regime loses its ability to project terror. Break the financial backbone of the Islamic Republic, and the Persian people may finally have an opportunity to break free from the regime that has oppressed them for nearly half a century.

The objective is not to destroy Iran. It is to bankrupt the regime that has stolen Iran’s future, financed terror across the Middle East, and kept its own people in chains.

The war may not ultimately be decided by the last missile fired.

It may be decided by the last dollar Tehran can spend.

Dr. Mike Evans has written 120 books, is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, and is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. He is the founder of the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem, the Ten Boom Museum in Holland, and Churches United with Israel, one of the largest Christian Zionist networks in America.

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Good morning. CFO turnover is accelerating at the nation’s largest public companies, according to newly released data in Crist Kolder Associates’ mid-year 2026 Volatility Report, shared with CFO Daily.

The executive search firm’s report studied corporate leadership at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies, a total of 665 companies. CFO turnover for the full year of 2026 is projected to reach 18.3%, compared to 18.2% in 2020 and 19.3% in 2019. The historical average for CFO turnover over the past 10 years is 16%.

“The demands of the job keep expanding, so it’s no surprise the churn continues,” Scott W. Simmons, co-managing partner at Crist Kolder, told me.

Some CFOs have decided to retire while other finance chiefs are being tapped to steer turnarounds or AI initiatives, for example. 

Several CFO moves in the Fortune 500 stand out from the first half of this year:

AT&T: Pascal Desroches, CFO since 2021, announced he’ll retire effective Dec. 31. Jennifer Biry—a 20-year AT&T finance veteran who most recently was CFO and COO of McAfee—was named deputy CFO effective July 6 and will officially succeed him Jan. 1, 2027.

Caterpillar: CFO Andrew Bonfield elected to retire effective Oct. 1, after eight years. Company veteran Kyle Epley, previously SVP of global finance services, took over as CFO, effective May 1, with Bonfield staying on in an advisory capacity through the transition.

Oracle: Hilary Maxson, former group finance chief at Schneider Electric with infrastructure and energy experience, began her tenure as CFO in April—a hire tied directly to Oracle’s buildout of AI and cloud infrastructure.

Nike: David Denton, a Pfizer finance executive, joined the sneaker and apparel giant as CFO on Aug. 17 as it works through a turnaround.

Pfizer: After David Denton stepped down and left the company on Aug. 15, Cecile Guegan, SVP of finance for the global biopharma business, took over as interim CFO Aug. 16 while Pfizer runs a full internal and external search.

(You can find more Fortune 500 moves here.)

Another finding from the mid-year 2026 Volatility Report, which is based on data through July 31, is that newly appointed CFOs are getting younger. The average age for a CFO in 2026 is projected to be 48, compared to an average of 52 in 2025.

Simmons explained that the average tenure of a sitting CFO is 4.5 years, and newly appointed CFOs only come from another sitting CFO position roughly 25% of the time.

“Those two data points taken together suggest the need to tap into talent that may be younger and less experienced,” he said.

Have a good weekend.

Sheryl Estrada
Sheryl.Estrada@fortune.com

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President Donald Trump is moving toward levying a new tariff on China that would penalize the world’s second-largest economy for flooding the global market with underpriced goods, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Two of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations still being finalized, said Trump is considering setting the new tariff at 7.5%. It’s a level administration officials believe would not endanger the one-year trade truce between Washington and Beijing or a planned White House meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to take place in late September.

The move, if finalized, appears to be a calibrated effort by the White House to work around a Supreme Court decision earlier this year that struck down Trump’s plan to implement a sweeping, high-tariff scheme not seen since the 1930s.

After that decision, the Trump administration announced in March it was launching formal investigations targeting excess industrial capacity and forced-labor regulations in China and other nations.

It isn’t clear if the U.S. administration is also nearing its decision in its probes of the other economies that it announced it was investigating for unfair trade practices, including the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan and India.

The White House and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the tariff deliberations, which Bloomberg News reported earlier Monday. The Chinese embassy in Washington also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The excess industrial capacity probe of China was initiated under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to levy tariffs against nations that discriminate against U.S. companies or commerce.

The new tariff would come on top of existing tariffs on China

The people familiar with the deliberations stressed that Trump could still change his mind on the new tariff on China.

It would come on top of tariffs of 10% to 12.5% announced last month for 60 economies around the globe that the Trump administration accused of failing to effectively enforce a ban on goods produced with forced labor.

Many countries, including China, protested that move, which took effect just as the clock ran out on temporary tariffs Trump had turned to after the Supreme Court in February struck down sweeping “reciprocal” tariffshe levied on nearly every U.S. trade partner.

China last month pushed back against claims of overcapacity, anticipating that the U.S. would soon release results of its probe and impose new tariffs.

Massive capacity in a slew of Chinese industries, from autos to solar panels, cement and steel manufacturing, has drawn increased attention from Beijing’s trading partners in recent years.

Although China’s own leaders have prioritized rebalancing the economy, slowing domestic demand has prompted companies to expand into overseas markets. Surging exports pushed China’s trade surplus to a record of nearly $1.2 trillion last year.

China has never sought a large trade surplus, the Ministry of Commerce said in a recently published report titled “China’s Position on the So-called Excess Capacity Issue.”

The deliberations come as the Treasury Department on Monday warned countries doing trade with Iran that new secondary sanctions are in the pipeline aimed at ostracizing nations that continue to do business with Tehran. China is Iran’s biggest trade partner.

Washington has promised the new sanctions would put even more pressure on an Iranian economy already battered by previous sanctions and a U.S. naval blockade as the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran nears the six-month mark.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s announcement Monday provided little detail and did not name which countries could face secondary sanctions.

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Buc-ee’s CEO suggested recently that the Texas-based travel center chain may be done looking into blue districts, saying some communities do not appreciate what the company brings while conservative states offer business-friendly and family-oriented values.

Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, the company’s president and co-founder, made the comments during the grand opening of Buc-ee’s newest location in Benton, Arkansas on August 17. The chain is known for its expansive gas stations, famously clean restrooms and in-house food offerings. 

We have a lot of opportunities. We’re growing. We’re building in a lot of places. But when you find a conservative business-friendly state with a phenomenal workforce, it makes a difference,” Aplin said. 

Aplin criticized states that he said do not appreciate what Buc-ee’s brings to their communities, suggesting the company would rather focus its expansion efforts elsewhere. 

BUC-EE’S OPENS FIRST ARKANSAS LOCATION AS CHAIN EXPANDS ACROSS US

“I’m starting to realize life’s too short to try to build in places that people don’t appreciate what you’re bringing, versus a place like this where people do appreciate what you are building,” he said.

Conservative states typically promote business-friendly and family-oriented policies that align with Buc-ee’s values, Aplin said.  

“That leadership, that concept, that idea of conservative, business-friendly, family-oriented concept works so much better if it trickles down from the very leadership from the top at the governor’s office, at the congressman, at senator, at the mayor, the representatives,” he said. 

Aplin pointed to Benton as an example of the approach, saying the city’s business-friendly environment helped pave the way for Buc-ee’s newest location.

“What we found when we got here into Benton was a business-friendly town,” he said.

CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN CO-FOUNDER OPENS UP ABOUT FAMOUS CHAIN’S WILD RISE, BANKRUPTCY AND COMEBACK

Founded in 1982, Buc-ee’s operates sprawling travel centers that typically feature 74,000 square feet of space and 120 fueling positions. The locations often create more than 200 jobs, according to the company.

Buc-ee’s currently has 58 locations, including 37 in Texas, according to the company’s website.

The chain has expanded to 13 other states, including Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia. 

Nearly all the cities where Buc-ee’s operates are located in areas that generally lean conservative, with a few exceptions where local political dynamics are more mixed.

Auburn, Alabama, for example, is a college town located in a predominantly Republican county, giving it a more politically mixed environment than some surrounding communities.

Brunswick, Georgia, has a Democratic-leaning municipal base despite being located in Glynn County, which has generally leaned Republican.

Goodyear, Arizona, has become a competitive suburban area in recent election cycles and is located in the West Valley of Maricopa County, a region that has historically leaned Republican but has become increasingly politically competitive.

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More Buc-ee’s locations are slated to open in the coming years, including a travel center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Nov. 16.

Six locations are also expected to open in 2027, including sites in Ruston, Louisiana; Kansas City, Kansas; Gallaway, Tennessee; St. Lucie, Florida; Boerne, Texas; and Monroe County, Georgia. 

Two additional locations are planned for 2028 in Mebane, North Carolina, and Lafayette, Louisiana.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that the regularly scheduled Treasury auctions of U.S. debt are expected to continue per usual after his agency announced an increase in the size of buybacks of longer-dated securities.

Bessent spoke Monday at a press conference to discuss a new plan for the “economic asphyxiation” of the Iranian regime through the implementation of secondary sanctions on Iran’s trading partners.

During the press conference, the Treasury secretary was asked about whether the agency may reduce the size of auctions for longer-term debt going forward or if there are other actions from the department’s toolkit that may be used to help lower yields.

“We are going to continue with our regular program of auctions. So you will be hearing from us again at the beginning of next quarter,” Bessent said. He added in response to a follow-up question that, “We haven’t bought a single bond yet.”

TREASURY YIELDS HIT MULTI-DECADE HIGHS AMID SURGING NATIONAL DEBT

Bessent noted that the next auctions of longer-dated Treasurys, such as the 10-year note and the 20- and 30-year bonds, aren’t scheduled until mid-September which is the earliest the new buyback structure could come into play after the change takes effect on Sept. 9.

Under the change, which was announced on Aug. 19, the Treasury’s maximum buyback authority rises from $2 billion per operation to at least $4 billion per operation, which will serve as a floor rather than a cap to allow the size of buybacks to respond to market conditions.

The change is expected to remain in effect through the rest of the quarter, or through Nov. 4, after which the Treasury will provide more information about future buyback sizes.

Treasury said in its announcement that the “increase in buyback operations reflects Treasury’s desire to provide greater liquidity support in longer-dated nominal sectors where there is consistent strong sponsorship from market participants, as evidenced by the significant volume of high-quality offers Treasury routinely receives in longer-dated buyback operations.”

US NATIONAL DEBT HITS $40 TRILLION MILESTONE FOR FIRST TIME EVER

Last week’s announcement lowered yields on the 10-year Treasury note and on 20- and 30-year bonds for a short period of time, though they largely retraced those declines by the end of the week. Yields were down modestly on Monday.

Bessent said last week that the higher buybacks aim to support liquidity in a more thinly traded portion of the market, particularly in the 30-year sector, while the longer-dated Treasurys are also competing with heavy issuance of corporate bonds at higher yields amid the artificial intelligence (AI) buildout.

Higher yields on Treasurys can cause fiscal pressure for the federal government, which is forced to pay more interest to service the national debt. The move comes as the U.S. gross national debt topped $40 trillion for the first time ever last week.

BESSENT LAYS OUT 5 PRINCIPLES GUIDING TRUMP ADMIN’S APPROACH TO ECONOMIC STATECRAFT

The Treasury Department’s announcement didn’t indicate the funding source for the Treasury buybacks. A Reuters report noted that the Treasury General Account (TGA) at the Federal Reserve could serve as a source because it would negate the need to issue new, shorter-dated Treasurys – though it would eat into the nation’s cash reserves.

The TGA effectively functions as the federal government’s checking account, as it’s used to pay for daily government operations ranging from federal worker salaries, contracts and Treasury’s interest and principal obligations.

As of last Wednesday, the TGA stood at about $940 billion in funding. Treasury has beefed up the TGA this year in part to help pay for some of the $166 billion in tariff refunds owed to importers in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key portion of President Donald Trump’s tariff regime.

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In the past year, the TGA has had an average balance of around $840 billion, which was the highest ever outside its rapid run-up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday that US President Donald Trump’s administration was not ruling out using military force against Iran, even as Washington unveiled an “economic D-Day” against Tehran.

“By no means are we foreclosing using kinetic strikes anywhere in the Strait of Hormuz or around Iran,” Hegseth told reporters, adding that Iran could not handle the economic pressure being put on it.

Iran won’t have nuclear weapon, State Dept. spox. maintains

Trump is still set on preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear bomb, US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a Newsmax interview on Monday afternoon.

“The president has been clear that he is going to see the Iranian nuclear weapons threat come to an end,” he said, adding that “He will see that objective be completed one way or another.”

“Past presidents have simply identified the threat.”

“President Trump is taking action to prevent that threat from becoming a reality, the untenable threat of the Iranian regime having a nuclear weapon.”

This is a developing story.

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For a man reportedly worth more than $10 billion, entrepreneur Mark Cuban spends a lot of time talking about wealth inequality—and how to distribute it more evenly.

The ‘Shark Tank’ star has long shared suggestions—and has enacted his plans—to better balance income throughout the U.S. economy. One of Cuban’s ideas was to give employees company stock: he told a recent episode of the ‘What It Takes’ podcast that he awarded 330 employees at his media company, Broadcast.com, stock ahead of Yahoo’s $5.7 billion acquisition of the company in 1999. Three hundred of those employees became millionaires as a result, he said.

Cuban also awarded equity and cash bonuses to employees of his first IT consulting company, MicroSolutions.

But the famed investor has now taken the suggestion a step further: If founders and CEOs don’t seek to share the wealth generated by their companies with their employees, they should be forced to give back to society by paying higher corporate taxes.

Writing on X, the cofounder of online pharmacy Cost Plus Drugs, was asked what his plan would be to reduce wealth inequality across the country. He responded: “Increase the taxes of any company that doesn’t offer equity to every employee on a pro rata basis to non-founder executives. If they get rich from the market, so do they.

“It’s exactly what I have done for employees in companies I have started. Most wealthy people get that way from selling their companies or taking them public.”

While Cuban proposes increased taxes as a motivator to get business leaders to share equity more broadly, a criticism of higher taxes (and tariffs, as consumers have learned the hard way) is that increases to company costs are often passed back to customers and ultimately the public. This represents a further stretch on budgets of consumers already dealing with above-target inflation, and without the boon of company stock to fall back on.

But Cuban disagrees, sharing his thinking on the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk: “Each entrepreneur decides what margins, gross or net, they are willing to accept. For competitive or any other reason.”

“Some of us realize that even though we might not enjoy paying taxes, and know that maybe 40% of the taxes paid actually get to people who need it, that’s still a value for the community, which can help your business. As far as equity. Every founder worth a damn knows that the greatest success, economic and personal, comes from aligning the goals and interests of as many stakeholders as possible. Everyone will benefit more, when everyone benefits more.”

Wealth imbalance is tipping

Wealth distribution has shifted toward the top end of the income ladder in recent years, and is expected to do so courtesy of the wealth effects generated by artificial intelligence.

According to Federal Reserve data, in Q1 of 2016, the bottom 50% of the wealth distribution owned $1.02 trillion in assets. The top 0.1% owned $10.75 trillion.

Compared to Q1 of 2026, the bottom 50% now own $4.27 trillion, a more than 300% increase over the past decade. However, the top 0.1% own $25.07 trillion in assets—a smaller percentage increase but a much higher leap in value.

Cuban’s suggestion can also be observed in the Fed data another way: At the time of writing, the top 90% to 99% of the wealth percentile own $20.5 trillion in corporate equities and mutual funds, while the bottom 50% own a little under $0.6 trillion.

Cuban isn’t the only entrepreneur thinking about wealth inequality, particularly when the AI stock boom is powering wealth creation in the U.S. at present. Jensen Huang, whose wealth has rocketed courtesy of his chipmaking company Nvidia, has been joined in billionaire rankings by members of his leadership team. Per calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Nvidia’s CFO Colette Kress and its executive vice president of worldwide field operations, Jay Puri, are now both worth more than a billion dollars courtesy of their stock holdings.

Tech companies may be forced to grapple with the effects of rewarding their staff so well: After all, how do you keep teams motivated if they’re worth 10 figures?

Huang reasoned it out on a panel hosted by venture capitalists running the All-In podcast last year, saying: “I review everybody’s compensation up to this day. I sort through all 42,000 employees, and 100% of the time, I increase the company’s spend on [operating expenses]. And the reason for that is because you take care of people, everything else takes care of itself.”

Cuban is inclined to agree, writing on X overnight: “If we continue to see growing disparity in income, you risk unrest and further division, which is the most expensive tax on every business.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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The Raiders continue to impact the Las Vegas community, as they announced their largest philanthropic commitment in the franchise’s history on Monday. 

The Raiders and Intermountain Health announced a $25 million gift to help build Nevada’s first-ever stand-alone children’s hospital. 

The gift by the Raiders was led by owners Mark Davis, Egon Durban, and Michael Meldman, who each contributed $5 million toward the hospital’s development. The Raiders committed an additional $10 million for this game-changing gift. 

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“We want this gift to remind children and families that they have our team backing them and that the support of the entire Raider Nation is in their corner,” Davis said in a statement about the philanthropic achievement. 

Mitch Cloward, Intermountain Health’s region president, added: “The Raiders are committed to excellence, and this gift is a generational investment that will keep families closer, strengthen our community, and give every kid every chance to thrive.

RAIDERS STAR ASHTON JEANTY SUFFERS APPARENT LEG INJURY DURING TRAINING CAMP PRACTICE, HELPED OFF FIELD

The hospital, which will be located at the UNLV Harry Reid Research and Technology Park, will be the first of its kind in Nevada, “anchoring a new future for kids and families across the state and delivering comprehensive, high-acuity pediatric care.”

The building will be 828,000 square feet and will rest on a 33-acre campus with 180 patient beds, with the design allowing room to grow. 

The hospital will provide advanced emergency services designed specifically for children and a full-spectrum outpatient center alongside with inpatient and specialty care. 

And as a result of the $25 million gift, Intermountain Health Nevada Children’s Hospital’s physical therapy and rehabilitation space, as well as its bistro, will be named in the Raiders’ honor. 

It will be the Las Vegas Raiders Bistro, which will sit adjacent to the hospital’s main lobby. The press release noted this as “a space where caregivers and parents navigating the complexities of having a child in the hospital can pause,” providing “a quiet meal, or seeking a moment of normalcy” where families can find support.

“Sports reminds us that we do our best when we have the right team around us,” Meldman said in a statement. “Families deserve to feel supported every step of the way. In addition to the experts at Intermountain Health, the Raiders family stands with our community’s kids.”

The Las Vegas Raiders Inpatient Rehab Gym will also play a vital role in helping children “heal, grow stronger, and regain confidence through movement and play.” The space will provide advanced therapeutic equipment alongside some playful design elements to make therapy feel more empowering and fun. 

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“When we invest in children, we invest in everything that comes next – their education, their opportunities, and their future,” Sandra Douglass Morgan, president of the Raiders, said in a statement. “We want Nevada’s kids to know that their home team is cheering them on.”

Construction on the landmark hospital is expected to start in coming months, with an anticipated opening date coming for 2030. 

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For roughly 76 million American households, federal income taxes could eventually disappear—if a proposal by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ever becomes reality.

The Blue Origin owner argued the bottom half of U.S. earners should pay no income tax, saying working Americans shouldn’t be placed under increased financial pressure, considering they contribute a relatively small share of total tax revenue anyway.

“The bottom half of income earners in this country pay only 3% of the taxes,” Bezos told CNBC. “I think it should be zero.”

To make his case, Bezos used a hypothetical health care worker as an example: “Why is a nurse in Queens who makes $75,000 a year paying more than $1,000 a month in taxes?”

Bezos added: “To me, it’s kind of absurd that we’re doing this. We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington. They should be sending her an apology. It really makes no sense.”

While Bezos did not elaborate on his exact calculations, but workers in the U.S. are generally required to pay federal income, Social Security, Medicare—and in most states, state income—taxes. Combined, it can stretch into the thousands of dollars.

Because the U.S. tax system is progressive, higher earners generally pay a larger share of their income in federal taxes. In 2023, the bottom half of taxpayers (those making roughly under $54,000) accounted for roughly 12% of total adjusted gross income—but they paid just 3% of all federal income taxes, according to IRS data analyzed by the Tax Foundation. The average household in that group paid about $913 a year in federal income tax. However, when refundable tax credits are factored in, the bottom 40% of taxpayers already pay effectively no federal income tax on average, CNBC reported.

Bezos, who has maintained a warm relationship with President Donald Trump, said he plans to advocate for the idea with political leaders, arguing exempting lower earners from federal income taxes would represent only “a small amount of money for the government.” 

“It is part of our job as citizens and as business leaders to share our ideas,” Bezos said. “And this one would actually help people.”

Bezos—with a net worth of $280 billion—says even if his tax bill was doubled, it wouldn’t help

Bezos’s concern for affordability may come as a surprise considering his estimated net worth north of $280 billion—among the top five of any person in the world. And while he said he personally pays “billions of dollars” in taxes, his tax history has long drawn scrutiny. 

A ProPublica investigation released in 2021 found that Bezos—like several of America’s wealthiest billionaires—used tax strategies that have dramatically reduced his tax burden in certain years. In 2007 and 2011, for example, he paid no federal income tax at all, in part because investment losses outweighed reported income. Analyzing Bezos’s wealth growth alongside his reported income and taxes paid between 2014 and 2018, ProPublica calculated his so-called true tax rate at 0.98%.

Still, Bezos said he is open to a policy debate about what constitutes a fair tax burden for the wealthy. The top 1% of taxpayers accounted for nearly 21% of total adjusted gross income in 2023, but paid roughly 38% of all federal income taxes that year.

“We can argue about what the fair share is. That’s a policy debate, that’s okay,” Bezos said. “But the vilification is the thing that’s just the distraction.”

But even fixing tax loopholes or increasing taxes on the wealthy would not address what Bezos sees as a larger government spending problem. He pointed to inefficiencies in New York City’s public school system as an example. 

“If we ran Amazon the way New York City runs their school system, your packages would take six weeks to arrive. We’d have to charge you a $100 delivery fee. And then when the package did finally arrive, it’d have the wrong item in it anyway.

“You could double the taxes I pay, and it’s not gonna help that teacher in Queens. I promise you,” he added.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani pushed back on X, writing: “I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ.”

Bezos plans to give away ‘most of his wealth’ in his lifetime—but his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott already has a head start

While Bezos has not signed the Giving Pledge—the philanthropic initiative created by Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Melinda French Gates encouraging billionaires to give away a majority of their fortunes in their lifetime or wills—the Amazon founder said he’s committed to giving away most of his wealth in his lifetime.

At the same time, he acknowledged the challenge of doing philanthropy effectively, echoing comments from billionaires including Buffett and Elon Musk, who have said giving away massive sums of money well is often harder than it appears.

But Bezos’s ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, already has a sizable head start. Since 2020, she has donated more than $26 billion to organizations focused on DEI, education, and disaster recovery. Meanwhile, Forbes estimates Bezos and his current wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, have donated roughly $4.7 billion over their lifetimes. 

Bezos argued to CNBC the long-term societal impact of companies like Amazon and Blue Origin may ultimately prove even more valuable than philanthropy alone. Creating products and services that improve people’s lives, he said, is the kind of impact aspiring entrepreneurs should prioritize.

“Everybody out there who’s a potential entrepreneur make sure you focus on that,” Bezos said. “You will be creating value for society if you’re successful at pleasing your customers.”

A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on May 21, 2026.

More on wealth inequality:

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The U.S. Open is back in Queens this week, as the final Grand Slam of the year brings millions of fans together at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center to witness some of the best men’s and women’s players in the world competing for glory. 

As fans gear up to soak in hundreds of matches over the next couple of weeks, IBM and the United States Tennis Association announced new and enhanced AI-powered fan features within the popular U.S. Open app and USOpen.org for this year’s tournament. 

For decades now, IBM has been working with the U.S. Open to truly evolve the fan experience, especially in recent years with AI-powered innovations that are designed to cut through all the noise and allow fans to personalize their tennis experience at their fingertips.

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That experience has evolved into one in which the fans demand AI-powered features because accuracy, not speed, has been shaping the digital sports realm for those consumers. According to new global research commissioned by IBM and conducted by Morning Consult, sports fans’ digital expectations are evolving as platform choices multiply, with 46% of more than 20,000 sports fans across 12 countries saying their expectations for digital sports experiences have increased in just the past one to two years. Also, 72% of surveyed fans say they use sports apps as their central hub for fandom, while 40% said having their information in one place is their leading motivation to follow along. 

As a result, IBM continues to transform that experience in a way fans can enjoy one of the best tournaments in all of sports this week. 

“I think we have such an incredible reputation in tennis through our two [Grand] Slam partnerships, as well as The Masters, where there’s this anticipation for the event, but also to see how we’re going to keep them connected,” Kameryn Stanhouse, vice president of sports and entertainment partnerships at IBM, told Fox Business in a recent interview. 

“That’s one of the things that I love about what we do in sports is that we actually leverage technology as a way to foster conversations and connection. You can talk to people whether they’re able to go to tennis matches [or not]. We’ve got 1 million people that are going to go to the [UTSA] Billie Jean Tennis Center across the two weeks, and then 14 million people are going to be engaged at home on their couch, but able to feel like they’re courtside and engage on that second-screen experience.”

TOP-RANKED JANNIK SINNER WITHDRAWS FROM US OPEN WITH RIGHT KNEE INJURY: ‘SAD AND DISAPPOINTED’

What will that second-screen experience look like for the 2026 U.S. Open? First, an all-new Live Updates homepage will provide fans with a smarter and more personalized way to follow the action they care about the most. Stanhouse emphasized fans being able to choose their favorite players and quickly zero in on those matches, while getting insight and stories they care about in the process. 

Another new feature Stanhouse is very excited to see in real time is the Serve Quality metric, which is a “first-to-market feature” that provides a whole new context to one of the most important aspects of tennis. 

Last year, American women’s star Coco Gauff came into the U.S. Open with a new coach specifically to help with her serves. Service can be the difference between winning and losing, and those generally with superior serves win matches. 

This new feature from IBM will be available across all 254 singles matches, where the AI-powered tool will use advanced limb-tracking technology developed with IBM Bob to help analyze the precise mechanics of every serve. And the continuous stream of this live data will be managed by IBM Confluent. 

“We basically trained this model to look at all the historic white papers, all the research about serves. Then, we’re looking at 21 specific joint points on the body – everything from the elbow to the big toe that looks at momentum,” Stanhouse explained. “The position of a serve on the court, where it lands. We have six different coordinates we’re looking at all the way to the racket positioning. Synthesizing all of that, it’s doing snapshots 50 times per second – lots of data points in this one. But overall, 1.2 billion data points that’s going to be analyzed over the tournament to give you a Serve Quality number.”

Also, the new “Key Moments” feature within the app takes the popular “Likelihood to Win” feature to the next level to help fans understand why someone is winning – not just who is up in the match. The “Likelihood to Win” feature became a hit as it calculated each player’s probability of victory using an AI-powered analysis of current and historical statistics, expert opinion and match momentum. 

Now, “Key Moments” will provide additional, more rich information, to summarize those momentum shifts in matches. 

“We’re looking at that structured and unstructured data, taking AI to make an analysis, and then make a pre-match projection that takes into consideration not only how they’ve been playing, but what’s the media saying? What’s been said on social media? What are the broadcasters saying? Did someone get a new tennis coach? Do they have a lingering injury? So, we take all that into consideration and provide a pre-match projection,” Stanhouse added. 

Finally, as fans have become more accustomed to an AI experience over the years, IBM’s enhanced “Match Chat” will act as an interactive companion to help provide whatever insight is needed to help guide the user through the tournament. Everything from analysis to finding out Serve Quality, to simply figuring out how to pronounce someone’s name properly, Match Chat, powered by watsonx Orchestrate, is a collection of AI agents and fit-for-purpose models trained to give fast, accurate responses that keeps fans informed whenever they need it. 

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For Stanhouse and her team, the U.S. Open is simply another opportunity to showcase what IBM can do for not just the sports world, but drive the conversation for other companies to utilize the fun, engaging technology they’ve developed for themselves. 

“Everybody says my team has the best job at IBM. There’s many, many great jobs, but I think what we do is so exciting because there’s a tangible output that people actually see and people are waiting for. Each tournament that we go to is not only a learning opportunity because we’re constantly thinking about how we’re going to evolve things for the next year, but it’s such a pay-off to see everything come to life. Because what we do is not just serve the fan experience, but we’re so creating unique conversation pieces for our clients. They see how IBM technology makes all of this possible and inspire what you could do with us.”

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The U.S. national debt crossed $40 trillion on Aug. 18, a record high and a milestone that sounds abstract until you convert it into something more familiar: your loan payments.

New economic modeling from The CEO Center, the public policy arm of The Conference Board, puts a dollar figure on what rising federal borrowing actually costs ordinary Americans — a student paying off loans, a family saving for a house, a small business owner expanding, and a retiree counting on Social Security.

The answer, in short: the gap between a responsible deficit path and a reckless one is worth tens of thousands of dollars over a decade, and jumps to six figures in a true fiscal crisis.

The mechanism is simple, even if the debt figures aren’t

Divide $40 trillion by the U.S. population and every American is on the hook for roughly $117,000. But that number doesn’t explain why it matters to someone who will never personally owe the Treasury a cent.

Here’s the actual chain of cause and effect: when the federal government runs a bigger deficit, it sells more bonds to cover the gap. Investors, wary of a less creditworthy borrower, demand higher interest rates on those bonds. Because student loans, mortgages, and small-business loans are all priced off the same benchmark — the 10-year Treasury yield — those higher government borrowing costs flow directly into the interest rate on everyone else’s debt too.

The Conference Board modeled five versions of the next decade: a baseline matching current Congressional Budget Office projections (deficits of 6%–7% of GDP), a “good case” where Washington cuts the deficit to 3% of GDP, a “bad case” where it balloons to 9%, a scenario simulating a one-week government default in 2029, and an extreme shock in which interest rates double to 1980s levels.

Under the current baseline, debt as a share of GDP climbs to 154% by 2036. If lawmakers get serious about cutting deficits, it settles at 126%. More reckless spending, however, puts it at 180%.

The student: an extra $20,000 by graduation

Take a high schooler heading to a four-year university in 2028, borrowing $45,000 for undergrad and another $30,000 for a two-year graduate program in 2032. Federal loan rates are pegged to the 10-year Treasury yield plus a fixed margin — 2.05 percentage points for undergraduate loans, 3.6 points for graduate loans — locked in whenever the loan originates.

Under the baseline scenario, that student repays $103,645 over a standard 10-year term. If Congress gets deficits under control, the bill drops to $102,776, saving roughly $870. If deficits worsen instead, it rises to $104,648. A one-week government default in 2029 would push it to $106,495.

But the real gut punch would be the extreme rate-shock scenario, driving total repayment to $123,736 — nearly $20,000 more than the baseline.

The family of four: waiting to buy a house gets more expensive, not less

A family targeting a $600,000 home with a 20% down payment and a 30-year fixed mortgage faces a similar squeeze — and it compounds the longer they wait. Buying in 2031, the gap between the good-case and bad-case scenarios is about $25,000 on total mortgage payments.

Push the purchase to 2036, and rising deficits widen the gap further: the family pays $24,000 more than baseline in the bad-case scenario, and a staggering $200,000 more — a 19.2% premium — if an extreme rate shock hits. The one-week default scenario alone tacks on $45,000 by 2036.

That’s money competing directly against costs already squeezing this household. For example, center-based childcare now averages $15,570 a year, rising 1.5 times faster than inflation, while long-term care for an aging parent can run anywhere from $75,000 a year for a home health aide to over $128,000 for a private nursing home room.

The small-business owner: financing growth costs more when Washington borrows more

A small-business owner planning two expansion loans — $100,000 in 2031, $150,000 in 2036, each priced at the 10-year Treasury yield plus a 2% bank premium — pays $334,747 in total under the baseline.

Deficit reduction saves about $6,300; a bad-case deficit path costs about $6,500 more. A government default adds $20,000. The extreme rate shock is the worst outcome across any case study in the report: $65,000 more than baseline, a 19.5% increase, at a moment when small-business profitability is already falling and gas costs for small businesses are up 31% year over year.

The retiree: no interest rate, just a shrinking check

The fourth case study works differently because there’s no loan to reprice. Instead, it’s about Social Security’s Trust Fund, which the CBO projects will run out of reserves in 2032. By law, once that happens, benefits automatically drop to whatever payroll tax revenue can cover, unless Congress intervenes. A retiree scheduled to receive $2,466 a month in 2032 would instead get $2,293 — a $173 cut — and by 2036 the shortfall widens to $754 a month.

Congress could avoid the cuts by transferring roughly $2.7 trillion from the general fund between 2032 and 2036. But doing so would add directly to the deficit, pushing the country further toward the “bad case” scenario and, by extension, higher costs for the student, the family, and the small-business owner in the other three case studies. There’s no version of this where the bill simply disappears; it just moves to a different balance sheet.

The bottom line

Three of the four Americans in this analysis pay more in interest, because Washington is borrowing more. The fourth pays through a smaller retirement check, because the money to keep it whole would have to come from more of the same borrowing.

The report’s authors argue that reframing the debt this way — not as a distant trillion-dollar abstraction, but as a line item on a 22-year-old’s student loan bill or a 67-year-old’s Social Security deposit — is what’s been missing from the political conversation.

The CEO Center is pushing Congress to establish a bipartisan fiscal commission, overhaul Social Security financing, modernize Medicare payment models, and reform the federal budget process. Whether lawmakers act may determine which of the report’s five debt scenarios — and which version of these four Americans’ bills — actually plays out.

For this story, Fortune journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Hearing aids are moving deeper into artificial intelligence, and Phonak is betting that the biggest consumer benefit will not be louder sound. It will be making speech easier to understand when the room is noisy.

Phonak launched its new EON hearing-aid platform in the United States on Monday, introducing a new generation of devices built around real-time AI sound processing, automatic scene recognition and broader wireless connectivity.

The flagship model, Audéo EON Sphere, is designed to separate speech from surrounding noise in real time so conversations stand out more clearly in restaurants, family gatherings, public transportation and other environments where hearing-aid users often struggle most.

That problem has long been one of the industry’s hardest to solve.

Traditional hearing aids can amplify sound effectively, but amplification alone does not necessarily help when multiple voices, dishes, music and background noise are competing at the same time. Phonak’s approach is to use AI processing to identify speech and suppress distractions continuously rather than forcing the user to manually change programs.

The new platform is powered by Sonova’s HYPERSONIC chip and also includes AutoSense OS AI 8.0, which automatically adjusts the hearing aid as the wearer moves between different environments.

The EON lineup includes Audéo EON Sphere, Audéo EON R and CROS EON R, the latter designed for people with hearing loss primarily on one side.

Connectivity is also becoming a larger part of the product.

The devices support standard Bluetooth as well as Auracast, a newer broadcast-audio technology that can allow hearing aids to receive audio directly in places such as theaters, airports, conference rooms, gyms and other public spaces as Auracast adoption expands.

For consumers, that pushes hearing aids closer to the functionality people already expect from wireless earbuds while preserving the medical-grade processing designed for hearing loss.

Phonak says the new models are also smaller and lighter than previous generations, addressing another persistent complaint among users who wear the devices for most of the day.

The launch comes as hearing technology becomes increasingly competitive. Prescription hearing-aid manufacturers are adding AI processing, while consumer-electronics companies are introducing hearing-related features into earbuds and other devices.

That competition is changing expectations.

Consumers increasingly want hearing aids that do more than amplify sound. They expect automatic adjustment, phone connectivity, streaming, rechargeable batteries and better performance in noisy environments without constantly manipulating settings.

The United States is the first major launch market for EON, with additional European markets and Australia expected to follow in September.

The broader shift is easy to see.

For decades, hearing aids were essentially specialized amplifiers.

The next generation is becoming something closer to an AI-powered audio computer worn behind the ear.

JBizNews Desk | Stäfa, Switzerland

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Google is reportedly moving forward with shifting all manufacturing of its Pixel devices outside of China starting in 2027.

The tech giant has previously made its Pixel phones, watches and earbuds in China – though that’s set to change next year, with Google informing suppliers that the production of those devices will move out of the country into Vietnam and India, according to a report from last week by Nikkei Asia.

The report cited a source who told the outlet that Google will be better-positioned to move production out of China than tech rival Apple because Pixel devices aren’t sold directly in the Chinese market, while it’s also a relatively small base of smartphone users.

Nikkei Asia previously reported in January that Google was planning to develop and manufacture Pixel 11 devices in Vietnam exclusively, with the process requiring investment in testing equipment as well as tooling machines. According to the latest report, the success of that process prompted Google to expand production for other Pixel devices in Vietnam.

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Google also reportedly told suppliers that it intends to increase shipments of Pixel phones by 8% to 10% this year after the company shipped 12 million Pixel phones a year ago.

The production boost comes against the backdrop of Google’s push to promote consumer usage of its Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

If Google proceeds with the move, it would follow Samsung in moving smartphone production out of China. Samsung’s production shifted out of China in a process that took over a year and concluded in 2019 with most of its manufacturing moving to Vietnam and India.

GOOGLE LAUNCHES GLOBAL STUDY OF MILLIONS OF AI CHATS TO UNDERSTAND HOW PEOPLE USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The ongoing shortage of memory chips caused by the AI buildout of data centers and cloud services is affecting companies across the tech sector.

Google has reportedly looked to address that issue by combining orders for phone memory chips with those for its AI and cloud businesses.

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By doing so, the company is able to enhance its negotiating position with major suppliers of memory chips, potentially leading to improved terms for its memory chip purchases across its business lines.

FOX Business reached out to Google for comment.

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Chung-Ang University partnership with the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce connects businesses across South Korea, the United States and Israel

A university alumni association may not immediately sound like a force in international commerce.

But Chung-Ang University’s alumni network includes South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Korea Development Bank Chairman and CEO Park Sang-jin, Hyundai Hospital President Boo-Seop Kim and corporate leaders across banking, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, healthcare, manufacturing and technology.

Now that network is establishing a new channel into the American business community through an agreement with the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce.

The partnership could give businesses access to something that is often difficult and expensive to obtain: trusted introductions to executives, investors, government relationships and potential commercial partners in South Korea, the United States and Israel.

The memorandum of understanding was signed Aug. 7 during the Korea-U.S. Economic and Trade Cooperation MOU Signing Ceremony at the DoubleTree by Hilton Fort Lee–George Washington Bridge in New Jersey.

The agreement creates a framework for trade, investment, entrepreneurship, innovation, professional exchange and assistance for companies seeking to enter new markets.

For a Korean manufacturer, that could mean help identifying an American distributor, investor, lender or professional adviser. For an American business, it could provide a path to Korean customers, suppliers, executives or strategic partners that would otherwise be difficult to reach.

The Orthodox Jewish Chamber’s relationships in Israel add another market to the partnership, creating potential connections in technology, healthcare, finance, infrastructure, manufacturing and innovation.

Chung-Ang University is one of South Korea’s prominent private universities, with programs spanning business, law, medicine, pharmacy, engineering, technology and the arts. Its alumni association has cited a global network of approximately 280,000 graduates.

The university previously reported that 40 Chung-Ang alumni were serving as CEOs among Korea’s 1,000 largest publicly listed companies by sales.

Its prominent alumni include Lee, who graduated from Chung-Ang’s College of Law, and Park, the first Korea Development Bank chairman to rise from within the government-owned lender’s own ranks.

The business community also includes semiconductor entrepreneur and GEO Element Chairman Shin Hyun-kook and the late Auh June-sun, who led Ahngook Pharmaceutical and previously served as president of the Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.

Chung-Ang’s global cultural reach includes Emmy Award-winning “Squid Game” actor Lee Jung-jae, actor Hyun Bin and actress Park Shin-hye.

That combination of government, corporate and cultural influence is what makes the agreement potentially valuable beyond the signing ceremony itself.

“Commerce is one of the most powerful ways to build lasting bridges between countries, CEOs and community leadership,” said Duvi Honig, founder and CEO of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce. “This partnership gives our members a platform to reach business leaders and opportunities that they would not ordinarily be able to access on their own.”

Honig said the Chamber’s role is to connect networks and then help turn those relationships into practical opportunities.

“The value we bring to our members is broader reach and trusted access,” Honig said. “We bring countries, companies, CEOs and leadership together and use commerce as the bridge. That is what ‘Uniting the World Via Commerce’ means in practice—giving businesses an opportunity to reach markets and decision-makers that may otherwise remain beyond their reach.”

“This agreement turns our shared relationships into a working platform for business,” said James Sungjin Kim, Korea Affairs Chair of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce. “By connecting Chung-Ang University’s influential alumni network with the Chamber’s members and international relationships, we can help companies identify partners, enter new markets and develop opportunities across South Korea, the United States and Israel.”

The agreement could be especially useful to small and midsized companies.

Large corporations can hire consultants, investment bankers and international development teams to enter foreign markets. Smaller businesses often have strong products and services but lack the relationships needed to identify a reliable distributor, approach a major customer or navigate an unfamiliar country.

A chamber-backed network can reduce that disadvantage by offering a credible starting point and access to organizations already operating in those markets.

An American healthcare company, for example, could use the relationship to seek introductions to Korean hospital or pharmaceutical leaders. A Korean technology company could look for an American distributor or Israeli innovation partner. A Chamber member providing legal, accounting, banking, insurance, logistics or commercial real-estate services could assist Korean companies establishing U.S. operations.

The agreement was signed during a U.S. visit by senior Chung-Ang alumni leaders.

Boo-Seop Kim, president of the Chung-Ang University Alumni Association and president of Hyundai Hospital, and Wonchul Choi, president of the North America Chung-Ang University Alumni Association, represented the Korean alumni organizations.

Honig participated live by Zoom. James Sungjin Kim, Korea affairs chair of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, attended in person and signed on the Chamber’s behalf.

Chung-Ang’s alumni leadership signed two additional agreements during the program, one with the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce and another with the Korean American Chamber of Commerce of the Northeast.

Mark Jaffe, president and CEO of the Greater New York Chamber, participated remotely. On-site participants included James Sungjin Kim and Amit Shah, co-chairs of international affairs for the Greater New York Chamber, and Kwang Suk Kim, chairman of the Korean American Chamber of Commerce of the Northeast.

The program also included a discussion of Empire State Development and potential future cooperation between Korean businesses and New York State.

The agreements do not guarantee that investments, contracts or jobs will follow. Their value will depend on whether the participating organizations identify companies ready to expand, organize targeted delegations and convert introductions into business.

The foundation, however, is now in place.

For an individual business owner, the most important result may be finding one international partner, reaching one decision-maker or entering one market that was previously inaccessible.

That is the tangible value behind the new network: trusted relationships and broader reach that many businesses could not build alone.

Disclosure: Duvi Honig is the publisher of JBizNews and the founder and CEO of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, one of the organizations participating in the agreement.

JBizNews Desk | Fort Lee, New Jersey

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Wall Street ended Monday split, with banks keeping the Dow positive while a sharp semiconductor selloff dragged the Nasdaq lower. But some of the day’s more consequential business developments happened away from the major indexes: a $13.7 billion AI-computing contract came with a major financing question, Tesla quietly ended one of Elon Musk’s best-known solar products, Shein returned to public markets at a fraction of its former valuation, and an EPA decision wiped out a large chunk of the value of ethanol credits.

Markets — Tech Slides While the Dow Holds On

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 53,418.68, up 141.67 points, or 0.27%. The S&P 500 fell 21.37 points, or 0.28%, to 7,653.00, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 200.80 points, or 0.77%, to 25,979.66.

Technology was the clear weak spot. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell about 2.6%, with Micron down 5.6%, Nvidia down 2.3% and Broadcom down 2.1% as investors reduced exposure ahead of Nvidia’s earnings Wednesday. Financial stocks moved higher, with JPMorgan Chase and Visa helping keep the Dow in positive territory. The 30-year Treasury yield remained above 5%, keeping pressure on expensive growth stocks and borrowing-sensitive businesses. 

One of Monday’s biggest individual losers was Applied Optoelectronics, which sank roughly 12% after disclosing a new program that could sell as much as $600 million of stock into the market. The optical-networking company has benefited heavily from demand for AI data-center equipment, but the reaction shows investors are increasingly paying attention not just to AI growth, but to how companies are financing that growth. 

AI Infrastructure — A $13.7 Billion Contract With a Catch

RUM Group announced one of the largest AI infrastructure contracts of the day: a six-year agreement worth approximately $13.7 billion to provide GPU computing services to an unnamed U.S. cloud customer from a data-center site under development in Maysville, Georgia.

The size of the contract is extraordinary. But so is what RUM may have to spend to fulfill it.

The customer is receiving warrants allowing it to purchase as many as 50.8 million RUM shares for one cent each, with the shares vesting as portions of the agreement are completed. The facility itself is still being developed, meaning RUM will need significant capital to build the computing capacity required to deliver the service. Shares initially jumped about 10% on the announcement. 

That is becoming one of the defining questions of the AI boom. Winning billions of dollars of future business sounds spectacular, but GPUs, electricity, buildings, cooling systems and grid connections have to be paid for before that revenue arrives. Investors are beginning to distinguish between companies benefiting from AI demand and companies that may have to issue enormous amounts of debt or stock to serve it.

Retail — Shein’s $100 Billion Dream Becomes a $27 Billion IPO

Shein launched its Hong Kong IPO Monday at a valuation of as much as $27 billion, a remarkable fall for a company that private investors valued at $98.2 billion in 2022.

The fast-fashion company is seeking to raise as much as $1.77 billion by selling 280 million shares.

The roughly 70% collapse in valuation tells a larger story about global e-commerce. Shein built its model around shipping extremely inexpensive packages directly to consumers. That became far less attractive after the U.S. eliminated duty-free treatment for many low-value packages and governments began imposing additional tariffs, fees and regulatory requirements. Competition from Temu and Amazon has also intensified. 

For retailers, this is important because one of the competitive advantages that allowed Chinese direct-to-consumer platforms to dramatically undercut American stores is weakening. For consumers, it can ultimately mean higher prices on extremely low-cost imported merchandise.

Shein is still a huge company. But public investors are effectively saying it is worth less than one-third of what private investors believed four years ago.

Temu — Sales Keep Growing, but the Cheap-Shopping Model Is Getting More Expensive

The same pressure showed up Monday at PDD Holdings, owner of Temu.

Second-quarter revenue rose 8% to 112.36 billion yuan, or about $15.7 billion, but missed Wall Street expectations. Net income fell 12% to 27.2 billion yuan.

At home, PDD is fighting Alibaba, JD.com and ByteDance in an aggressive Chinese price war. Overseas, Temu faces tariffs, the loss of duty-free treatment for low-value U.S. packages and a new European Union fee on small imported parcels. PDD executives warned that the changes are increasing costs and slowing fulfillment. 

The takeaway is bigger than one quarterly earnings report.

Temu’s explosive rise was based partly on making the distance between a Chinese factory and an American consumer almost irrelevant. Governments are now putting costs back into that distance. If that continues, the economics of ultra-cheap cross-border shopping begin moving closer to those faced by traditional retailers that import inventory, warehouse it domestically and pay tariffs before making a sale.

Clean Energy — Tesla Gives Up on the Solar Roof

Tesla has stopped selling its premium Solar Roof, nearly a decade after Musk unveiled the product as a way to turn the roof itself into a power-generating system rather than mounting conventional solar panels on top of it.

The Solar Roof page now redirects customers to Tesla’s traditional solar-panel business.

Tesla once targeted 1,000 Solar Roof installations per week, but industry estimates indicated actual installations remained far below that goal. The company is now focusing on conventional solar panels manufactured in Buffalo, New York. 

This does not mean Tesla is abandoning solar. In fact, the company filed plans this month for a $10.1 billion solar-cell factory outside Houston that it says could create 9,712 permanent jobs.

What changed is the product strategy. Tesla appears to be moving away from an attractive but complicated customized roofing product and toward something easier to manufacture and install at scale.

For contractors and business owners, there is a familiar lesson: a product can be innovative and still fail if installation, labor and customization make it too difficult to scale profitably.

Energy & Agriculture — EPA Decision Knocks Down Ethanol Credits

A single regulatory announcement caused a dramatic move in an obscure market that ultimately affects refiners, farmers and fuel producers.

The price of conventional ethanol blending credits, known as D6 RINs, fell to $1.75 Monday, down 34 cents in one day and well below the $2.50 level reached in July.

The EPA extended a September 1 compliance deadline and said it plans to decide 34 pending requests from small refineries seeking exemptions from federal biofuel requirements. Market participants estimate those exemptions could free up between 1.2 billion and 1.8 billion RIN credits

For refiners, cheaper RINs can substantially reduce the cost of complying with federal blending rules.

For ethanol producers — and indirectly corn growers — the effect can run the other way. If refiners receive more exemptions or can satisfy mandates with cheaper credits, the economic incentive to blend additional renewable fuel can weaken.

It is a good example of how a regulatory decision in Washington can move hundreds of millions of dollars through the energy and agricultural economy without most consumers ever seeing the mechanism behind it.

Media — California Raises the Stakes on Paramount’s $110 Billion Warner Bros. Deal

California Attorney General Rob Bonta canceled settlement talks Monday over Paramount Skydance’s proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, accusing Paramount of acting in bad faith by leaking details of earlier discussions. Paramount denied being responsible for the leaks.

California and 11 other states sued in July seeking to block the acquisition, arguing that the combination could reduce competition and give the enlarged company greater power to raise prices in film and television.

A trial is scheduled for March, and California has indicated that any settlement could require structural changes — potentially including the sale of assets — rather than simply promises about future behavior. 

That matters financially because time itself is becoming expensive for Paramount. The longer the acquisition remains unresolved, the greater the financing, legal and contractual costs of keeping a $110 billion transaction alive.

For consumers, the eventual structure could determine which company controls a massive collection of studios, cable networks and streaming assets.

Robotics — $900 Million Says Investors Think AI Is Leaving the Screen

Chinese automaker XPeng’s robotics division raised more than $900 million Monday at a valuation exceeding $6.3 billion, the largest single private financing yet in China’s embodied-AI sector.

Tencent and Alibaba participated alongside investment firms including IDG Capital. XPeng says the money will fund hardware, software, AI models and mass-production facilities.

The company is targeting production of 1,000 IRON humanoid robots per month by the end of 2026, initially using them in retail stores and industrial campuses before broader commercial sales in 2027. 

For businesses, this is the next stage of the AI investment cycle worth watching.

The first wave was software that could write, analyze and generate information. Increasing amounts of capital are now moving toward “physical AI” — machines intended eventually to work in warehouses, factories, stores and other environments where human labor is currently required.

What to Watch Tuesday

Tuesday, August 25, brings a useful test of both the American consumer and the housing market.

The U.S. Census Bureau will release July new-home sales at 10 a.m. ET. Housing has become particularly sensitive to elevated long-term interest rates, so the report will offer a fresh look at whether buyers are continuing to absorb expensive mortgage financing. 

The Conference Board is also scheduled to release its August Consumer Confidence Index, while regional manufacturing data will provide another read on business activity. These reports matter because markets are trying to determine whether the economy can continue growing while inflation, energy costs and interest rates remain elevated. 

On the corporate side, Dick’s Sporting Goods reports before the opening bell, providing another indication of discretionary consumer spending. Intuit, Zoom, HEICO and Box are among the companies scheduled after the close. Intuit will be particularly useful for small-business watchers because its QuickBooks and tax businesses give it exposure to millions of businesses and consumers. 

And technology investors will be trading Tuesday with one eye on Wednesday: Nvidia reports earnings August 26. After Monday’s semiconductor selloff, the results are becoming more than another earnings report. They will help determine whether investors still believe the extraordinary amount of money being poured into AI infrastructure can continue producing growth fast enough to justify current valuations. 

Monday’s biggest message was not that AI is slowing or that consumers have stopped spending. It was that the cost of growth is becoming harder to ignore. AI companies need enormous amounts of capital. Cheap global e-commerce is running into tariffs. An innovative Tesla product could not reach scale. And government decisions are moving billions of dollars through energy and media markets.

That is where Tuesday begins.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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What did Target, Starbucks, and Nike have in common barely a year ago? All three consumer icons had freshly announced new CEOs, which were wrongly greeted with hasty skepticism from analysts. Target’s Michael Fiddelke was scoffed at as an uninspired insider; Nike’s Elliott Hill was underestimated as a nostalgia hire, unable to stem Nike’s loss of market share, while questions abounded over whether Brian Niccol could actually turn around Starbucks amidst pervasive in-store service struggles, despite his sterling record at Chipotle

We saw it differently. At the time of their appointments, we vocally and presciently touted all three new CEOs as the right person for the job at the right time, while other analysts rolled their eyes. Unlike the frequent, sometime successful model of the messianic hiring of industry outsiders as turnaround tians, these new CEOs hit the ground running as each had decades of experience in their sectors with glowing track records, priceless relationships, and balanced expertise across marketing, finance, strategy, and operations,.

Furthermore, we were the first to confidently predict the certainty of their success, even knowing that it would take some time to reposition their enterprises and for their new leadership to gain traction. Now the receipts are in, showing striking progress in all three cases, with each already well on their way to cementing their reputations as the architects of some of the most remarkable corporate turnarounds of our era.  

Target – Michael Fiddelke’s stunning results despite widespread initial skepticism 

When Michael Fiddelke, a Target lifer who had risen up the ranks from a lowly intern over two decades ago, was named CEO, cynics sneered that the board had chosen entrenched groupthink over fresh blood. We argued precisely the opposite—that the data overwhelmingly shows internal candidates outperform splashy external saviors, with insider CEOs appointed over the prior year delivering roughly 15% annualized shareholder returns while external hires averaged negative 9%. New brooms sweep clean, but the old broom knows the corners. Furthermore, we argued that Fiddelke was uniquely positioned to build on the many successes of his widely admired predecessor, Brian Cornell, despite simultaneous urgent challenges. 

This week brought resounding vindication. Target’s second-quarter sales jumped 5.3%, digital sales grew nearly 9%, Target raised its full-year outlook for the second consecutive quarter, and the stock soared nearly 5%. Indeed, on a year to date basis, Target stock has soared nearly 60%. 

A year too late, Wall Street seems to be catching on to what we said first: Bank of America declared it a “impressive improvement in sales under new leadership” while remaining somewhat wary; Morgan Stanley credited Fiddelke with “pursuing the right initiatives” as “initial newness and innovation is gaining traction,” which Telsey sees as “a strong signal that the turnaround is working.” 

Behind the numbers is the simple fact that Tar-zhay is getting its verve back, as it is becoming newly cool and trendy again, ranging from buzzy partnerships from Pokémon to LoveShackFancy to Olivia Rodrigo, Isaac Mizrahi as creative director at large. We see this not only through the data, but anecdotally. Even our fashion-forward Assistant Director, Isabella Giansanti, tells us she is now back to shopping at Target and once again an avid fan, after having been disappointed by the brand for years – which we find more compelling as a barometer of where the puck is going in fashion than any data point!  

That turnaround has been the product of savvy decisions from Fiddelke and his impressive leadership team. Not only did Fiddelke have the courage to launch a $2 billion investment program to refresh Target’s stores, boost service quality and improve the in-store experience for customers; Fiddelke also leaned in on building out Target’s underleveraged digital platform, driving record sales growth there alongside high-margin digital advertising revenue growth, with a newly appointed chief AI officer well positioned to continue to build on that progress, including by harnessing partnerships with Google and OpenAI. 

Starbucks – astounding results from Brian Niccol’s investment in frontline workers and stores 

Brian Niccol entered the company at a time when so much of its prior turnaround efforts had fallen short and new item launches fell flat. Previous CEO Howard Schultz was vocal that the chain had lost its way, publicly stating that “The stores require a maniacal focus on the customer experience, through the eyes of a merchant. The answer does not lie in data, but in the stores…focus on being experiential, not transactional”. 

That is exactly the focus Niccol has adopted, as we touted he would at the time he was appointed, but now he is taking it to an even higher level. Relentlessly focused on frontline employees, Niccol unveiled an unprecedently generous incentive compensation program offering industry-leading pay and benefits, re-motivating a highly committed workforce passionate about improving the in-store experience for customers. Indeed, baristas and shift supervisors are now able to earn up to an additional $1,200 a year based on coffeehouse performance, with extended tipping options increasing what hourly partners receive by up to 8%, on top of pay packages valued at more than $30/hr on average plus comprehensive healthcare, stock awards, a paid college degree and flexible leave. Niccol has also committed to fill 90% of leadership roles from within the ranks, providing tangible pathways of career progression for the best frontline employees. 

The results of Niccol’s sustained investments and commitment to his employees have been nothing short of astonishing, bearing out in financial results which have defied Wall Street consensus by miles. Global and U.S. same-store sales surged nearly 8% last quarter, powered by genuine transaction growth of over 4%, not price hikes; operating margins expanded a stunning 430 basis points, and management has raised guidance two quarters in a row and counting. More than 1,000 coffeehouse “uplifts” are complete and ahead of schedule, peak service times have fallen below four minutes, and brand affinity has reached five-year highs—led, remarkably, by Gen Z. 

Morgan Stanley called these results “impressive in any industry backdrop”; and indeed, Niccol declared in January that “Starbucks is back”, with Wall Street analysts now rushing to upgrade the company, declaring how “impressed” they are with “management’s turnaround efforts that appear to have successfully repositioned Starbucks for sustainable multi-year growth” with the stock up 25% year to date, and counting. 

Nike – green shoots of progress under Elliott Hill 

Of these three remarkable turnarounds, Nike is in the earliest chapter. Critics point out that the stock is down 45% in the last 12 months and 78% from its 2021 peak, hitting a 12-year low, but what they miss are that the green shoots of progress are already visible. A closer look is warranted at what is happening underneath the surface at Nike, despite widespread cynicism and skepticism. 

Elliott Hill, the 32-year Nike veteran who came out of retirement to turn around the company, inherited an unenviable hand, after the unforced errors of his predecessors in cutting off vital wholesale distribution partners in a botched direct-to-consumer pivot, whose failures led to massive discounting, lack of innovation, and a self-reinforcing negative feedback cycle as Nike bled market share to upstart rivals like On and Hoka. 

Rather than hiding from the toughest challenges, Hill confronted them head-on despite knowingly taking on some short-term pain and cost. Hill started by rebuilding damaged wholesale partnerships, resulting in wholesale revenues in North America jumping 10% this quarter with the most important wholesale partners posting positive growth for the first time in four years. Similarly, Hill launched a program of deliberate strategic surgery after excessive discounting, initiating some store closures, a significant scaling back of certain lifestyle products, in particular three specific massive sportswear franchises across AF1, Dunks, and Air Jordan’s which were previously over-relined on, and a painful but important China reset, prioritizing brand & margin integrity over volume.

And most important of all, Hill’s return as CEO marked a return to Nike’s cultural core in celebrating elite performance across sports and running, with the core running category posting double-digit growth for every quarter under Hill’s watch, adding roughly $1 billion in revenue and 5% of global market share, and soccer momentum surging on the heels of successful World Cup partnerships. Indeed, Nike’s World Cup campaign drew 1.5 billion views in its first week, national-team kit sales more than doubled, and the Mercurial became the fastest-selling boot launch in Nike Direct history. No wonder that Wall Street analysts are now back to declaring that the question on Nike’s turn is no longer “if,” but “when.”

The emerging turnaround playbook for CEOs in 2026 

The common threads across these three revivals carry lessons that transcend the consumer sector alone. 

First, boards chose CEOs who know the business cold with loads of front-line and operational expertise —Elliott Hill at Nike and Michael Fiddelke at Target are decades-long insiders who practically grew up in their companies; while Brian Niccol is a proven brand-builder with a track record of prioritizing the customer experience—rather than celebrity saviors armed with slide decks detached from frontline experience. All three CEOs are personally lowkey and would rather shine a spotlight on their employees and their customers rather than themselves. 

Second, each of these three CEOs has prioritized investing in the core customer experience—whether boosting barista pay at Starbucks to unprecedented levels; making Target cool again by investing $2 billion in stores; or returning Nike to its elite sports and running performance roots. All three CEOs understood implicitly that prior alienation of primary points of customer contact are more destructive than any mere marketing campaign can fix. 

Third, each of these CEOs has focused on fixing operations rather than reaching for the tired but easier playbook of financial engineering, buybacks, and cost-cutting into oblivion. There were no shortcuts here: all three CEOs have committed to genuinely turning around the operational performance of their companies, investing for the long-term while understanding that stock multiples and re-ratings will follow if they get operations fixed first. 

And fourth, each moved fast, front-loading the painful medicine of store closures, marketplace cleanups, and resetting Wall Street expectations immediately upon taking over, rather than kicking the can down the road, letting problems fester. 

A century of business history—from IBM under Gerstner to Apple under Jobs to Microsoft under Nadella—teaches that iconic institutions can be reborn when leaders restore pride, purpose, and product; and Target’s Michael Fiddelke, Starbucks’ Brian Niccol, and Nike’s Elliott Hill are now writing the newest entries in the canon of successful turnarounds of iconic American brands, as all three are already well on their way to cementing their reputations as the architects of some of the most remarkable corporate turnarounds of our era.  

The old adage that “new brooms sweep clean” wrong seems to favor outsider newcomers but, in fact the second verse of this Rastafarian proverb is that “But old brooms know the corners.”  The success unfolding at Target, Starbucks, and Nike shows that wisdom, humility, hard work, and imagination can payoff when the boards are patient. 

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

This post was originally published here

Exxon Mobil is accelerating automation across its Permian Basin operations, with plans to have robots running about half of its drilling rigs by 2028 as the oil giant looks to increase production while reducing the number of workers exposed to some of the most dangerous jobs on a rig floor.

The company currently has two automated rigs operating among more than 30 in the Permian, according to Reuters. Those rigs use robotic systems to move heavy pipe, make connections and handle other repetitive tasks that traditionally required crews working directly around large machinery.

The technology is already showing productivity gains.

Exxon says its first automated rig drilled a roughly two-mile horizontal section in just over six days, demonstrating how robotics can speed up a process that is both physically demanding and operationally expensive.

The company’s broader goal is substantial.

Exxon is targeting nearly 40% growth in Permian production to 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030, and automation is becoming one of the tools it is using to get there.

The Permian Basin, which stretches across West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, is already the most important oil-producing region in the United States. Any technology that allows operators to drill faster, more safely and with fewer interruptions can have an outsized impact on U.S. energy output.

That is what makes this more than a story about robots replacing manual tasks.

On a conventional rig, workers may need to handle sections of steel pipe weighing around 2,000 pounds while operating near rotating equipment, high-pressure systems and elevated platforms. Those jobs carry obvious safety risks.

Robotic systems can move that pipe without putting workers directly in harm’s way.

For Exxon, that means fewer injuries, lower downtime and more consistent operations.

For the workforce, the shift is more complicated.

Automation does not necessarily eliminate the need for rig crews, but it changes the skills that are valuable. Fewer workers may be needed for some manual tasks, while demand grows for technicians, engineers, software specialists and operators who can monitor and maintain automated systems.

That transition is already playing out across manufacturing, warehouses and logistics.

Now it is moving deeper into the oil field.

The economics are also important.

Drilling rigs are extraordinarily expensive to operate, and every hour saved during a well’s construction can reduce costs. If automated rigs can consistently drill faster while also lowering safety-related disruptions, the savings can compound across hundreds of wells.

That can help producers remain profitable even when oil prices fall.

The move also reflects a broader strategy across the energy industry: use automation and artificial intelligence not simply to reduce headcount, but to extract more production from existing assets with fewer delays and less risk.

Exxon has been investing heavily in the Permian since its acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources, and the company is under pressure to prove that it can generate more output and better returns from that enlarged footprint.

Robotic drilling is becoming part of that answer.

The first stage is limited.

Two automated rigs out of more than 30 is still a small share of the fleet.

But if Exxon reaches its goal of automating half of those rigs by 2028, one of America’s most labor-intensive industries will have crossed an important threshold.

The oil field will still be powered by drilling equipment, steel and crews.

But increasingly, some of the hardest physical work may be done by machines.

JBizNews Desk | Houston

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta canceled a planned settlement meeting Monday with Paramount Skydance over its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, sharply escalating one of the biggest antitrust battles in the media industry.

The meeting had been expected to explore whether Paramount could resolve California’s lawsuit through concessions rather than proceed to a federal trial.

Instead, Bonta pulled out after accusing Paramount of leaking and misrepresenting confidential settlement discussions.

Paramount denied responsibility for the alleged leaks and said it remains willing to negotiate in good faith.

The breakdown matters because California is leading a coalition of 12 state attorneys general challenging the merger, which would combine two of Hollywood’s five major film distributors and two of the five largest owners of basic cable networks.

The states argue that the deal could reduce competition, raise prices, weaken bargaining power for workers and theaters, and give the combined company too much control over film and television distribution.

Paramount argues the opposite.

The company says the merger would create a stronger competitor to Netflix, Disney and other global entertainment companies and has pledged to increase theatrical output to roughly 30 films a year, with a 45-day exclusive theatrical window for releases.

California officials have been skeptical that operating promises alone are enough.

Bonta has signaled that any acceptable settlement may require structural remedies — meaning the sale or separation of actual businesses rather than promises about future behavior.

Among the remedies reportedly under consideration are the sale of certain cable channels and keeping Paramount’s movie studio operationally separate from Warner Bros.

That is where the business stakes become enormous.

Selling cable assets could reduce the value Paramount expects to capture from the transaction. Keeping the two studios separate could also limit cost savings and strategic integration that helped justify the $110 billion price in the first place.

The legal clock is already expensive.

Paramount has said delays beyond the merger agreement’s September 30 deadline trigger $7 million in daily ticking fees. The company has estimated those costs could reach roughly $1.3 billion by April if the transaction remains stalled.

Paramount has even asked a federal judge to require the states challenging the merger to post a $1.88 billion bond, arguing that the lawsuit could cause billions of dollars in delay-related costs.

The states oppose that request and say Paramount voluntarily accepted the financial risks built into its merger agreement.

The deal is already blocked from closing until at least June 1, 2027, or until the court rules, under an agreement California secured last month.

A federal antitrust trial is currently scheduled for March 2027.

That means Monday’s canceled meeting was more important than a routine negotiating session.

A settlement could have provided a path toward resolving the states’ challenge months before trial.

Instead, the relationship between Paramount and California has become more hostile just as both sides need to decide how far they are willing to compromise.

The merger has already received regulatory approval in dozens of countries, including China, making the U.S. state lawsuit one of the biggest remaining obstacles.

For Paramount, every month of delay adds financing costs, contractual penalties and uncertainty over what assets it may ultimately be allowed to keep.

For California, the case has become a test of whether state governments can force structural changes in a media deal of historic size even after much of the rest of the world has cleared it.

And for Hollywood, the outcome could determine whether two of the industry’s most recognizable companies are ultimately allowed to become one.

Monday did not kill the possibility of a settlement.

But canceling the meeting removed what had been the clearest near-term path toward one — and pushed the $110 billion merger one step closer to a full courtroom fight.

JBizNews Desk | Los Angeles

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Homebuyers and renters around the country are facing a challenging landscape in terms of affordability, and a recent report identified seven markets where conditions make renting a significantly more affordable option than buying.

An analysis by Apartments.com identified the cities of Austin, Texas; Sacramento, California; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Baltimore, Maryland; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Orlando, Florida, as metro areas where the average monthly rent is noticeably lower than the median monthly mortgage payment.

The two markets that top the list, Austin and Sacramento, shared the distinction of having average rents that are more than $1,000 lower than the median monthly mortgage payments.

Austin’s median monthly mortgage payment is $2,475, while the average monthly rent was $1,421, leading to a difference of $1,054. In Sacramento, the median monthly mortgage payment is $2,621 compared to an average rent of $1,579 per month, giving renters a $1,042 edge in affordability.

DALLAS EMERGES AS MAGNET FOR WEALTHY BUYERS AS HIGH TAXES WEIGH ON LUXURY MARKETS, BROKER SAYS

Dillar Schwartz, an eXp real estate agent based in Austin, told FOX Business in an interview that the housing market in central Texas remains very active for both homebuyers and renters.

“We have seen an uptick in rental leads and rental inquiries, and right now, they’re across the board. They’re relocating, they’re wanting to try different subdivisions. They’re moving here for work, and there’s not one big industry that’s moving people here,” Schwartz said.

“In terms of buyers and sellers, I’m seeing more first-time homeowners come through. We’re seeing a lot of the renters who inquired, and we helped find homes about two years ago, they’re now working on getting into homeownership,” she explained, noting that there’s a “really nice mix of sellers” with listings across price points.

“There’s a nice blend. However, I feel like this blend didn’t happen until about four or five months ago – there were a lot of people just on the sidelines,” she added.

SLOWING LABOR MARKET CREATES NEW HURDLE FOR FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS FACING AFFORDABILITY SQUEEZE

For prospective homebuyers and renters looking to move to the Austin area, Schwartz said that one of the first questions her practice likes to address is the cash reserves the home shoppers have available given the costs.

“Right now, due to Texas insurance, property taxes and the rates being high, the cost right out the gate to get in a home without even discussing a down payment is fairly high, and that trickles into the monthly payments,” Schwartz said.

She said that while prices in Austin have fallen, those costs are “really starting to shock buyers once they have that conversation with a lender,” adding that while rental rates are also lower, they can face a financial hurdle in getting into an apartment.

Schwartz said that for an apartment renting at about $2,000 a month, the prospective renter would need to be able to cover not only that first month’s rent but also a deposit of around $2,000, plus application fees and background checks that may run around $100 per person.

“When you add all of those costs, the average renter is going to need about $5,000 cash as well to make that move,” she said, noting that can jam consumers in certain situations.

THESE ARE AMERICA’S HOTTEST HOUSING MARKETS – SEE WHICH AREAS MADE THE LIST

Schwartz said that in most of the area in central Texas that her practice covers, she believes that “we can find you a place that’s a little bit more affordable to rent than to purchase right now.”

The Austin real estate market has solid levels of housing inventory available for both would-be homebuyers and renters, with the region having taken steps to ease regulatory barriers to increasing the supply of housing in recent years.

Schwartz said that the city recently added a new position to its permitting department that aims to expedite the process faced by homebuilders and people flipping homes, as well as allowing more infill development on lots to increase the number of homes.

“In Austin right now, if you truly do need to buy a home and want to invest in yourself and start building that wealth, all it takes is time and patience by working with a true professional – there are deals out there,” Schwartz said.

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The same holds true for renting, she added, noting that demand remains strong and that renters are still going to need cash available to get into a property.

“The opportunity is there. The Austin market just takes a little bit more time and patience to navigate,” she said.

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The Trump administration is moving to make a $103,265 fee for certain new H-1B visa petitions permanent, potentially turning what was once a several-thousand-dollar immigration expense into a six-figure hiring decision for employers seeking highly skilled foreign workers.

The Department of Homeland Security published the proposal Monday, targeting certain new H-1B petitions subject to the annual cap. The fee would not apply to renewals or to some applicants already in the United States, including certain students changing status. 

The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations including technology, engineering, science, finance and medicine. Congress currently allows 85,000 new cap-subject H-1B visas each year, including 20,000 reserved for applicants with advanced U.S. degrees.

The proposed fee is extraordinary because it would radically change the economics of using the program.

Employers historically paid several thousand dollars in government and legal fees for many H-1B petitions. Under the new proposal, some companies would have to decide whether a particular foreign hire is valuable enough to justify an additional cost exceeding $100,000 before salary, benefits and relocation expenses are even considered

That could have very different effects depending on the employer.

A large technology company hiring an engineer with unusually valuable artificial-intelligence expertise may decide the fee is manageable.

A smaller software company, laboratory, hospital, university-affiliated employer or startup competing for the same talent may not.

That difference is why the proposal could reshape more than immigration policy.

It could influence which companies are able to compete for specialized workers in the first place.

Supporters of the higher fee argue that the H-1B program has been used by some employers to bring in lower-cost foreign labor instead of hiring Americans and that making sponsorship more expensive would encourage companies to reserve the program for genuinely hard-to-fill, high-value positions.

Critics argue that the policy could instead make it harder for American companies to recruit scientists, engineers and other specialized workers who help build businesses and create jobs in the United States.

The proposal also arrives with significant legal history.

The administration previously imposed a temporary version of the six-figure charge, but a federal judge blocked it in June, finding that the government had exceeded its legal authority.

DHS is now attempting to establish the fee through the formal regulatory process before the temporary policy expires, potentially giving the administration a stronger legal foundation for defending it in court. 

That distinction matters.

Monday’s action does not mean every new H-1B petition suddenly costs $103,265.

This is a proposed rule. It must move through the regulatory process before becoming final, and additional lawsuits are likely if the administration adopts it.

But employers now have to prepare for the possibility that the economics of skilled-worker sponsorship could change dramatically.

For companies that rely heavily on H-1B workers, even a modest number of hires could become expensive very quickly.

Ten qualifying employees could mean more than $1 million in additional government fees.

Fifty could exceed $5 million.

For a company sponsoring 100 qualifying workers, the added cost could top $10.3 million before paying any of those employees.

That is what makes this more than an immigration story.

It is a labor-cost story, a competitiveness story and potentially a major change in how American companies decide where to locate highly skilled work.

If finalized, the administration would effectively be telling employers that access to the H-1B program remains available — but only at a price high enough to force companies to decide which foreign hires they truly cannot operate without.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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A YouTube video no longer needs to hold someone’s attention for even a few seconds before the platform calls it a view.

Beginning Monday, Aug. 24, YouTube is standardizing its public view count across Shorts, long-form videos, podcasts and livestreams so that a view is recorded from the first frame a video begins playing.

That means a Short appearing in someone’s feed, a long-form video autoplaying on the home page or a livestream beginning to play can all register a public view immediately.

The old measurement is not disappearing. YouTube is renaming it “engaged views.” That metric will show how many people actually continued watching beyond the initial start or deliberately clicked to watch.

The distinction is important because public view counts are likely to rise faster under the new system.

A creator who previously saw 100,000 views may now accumulate a larger headline number simply because more starts are being counted. That does not necessarily mean 100,000 people meaningfully watched the content.

YouTube says the change is designed to eliminate confusion created by different counting methods across its various formats. Shorts had already moved toward first-frame counting, while longer videos were measured differently.

For creators, advertisers and sponsors, that makes the headline “views” number less useful on its own.

The more meaningful question becomes how many of those views turned into engaged views, watch time and actual audience retention.

YouTube is keeping those deeper metrics inside Analytics, and monetization is not being loosened alongside the public count. Creator earnings will continue to depend on engaged Shorts views and engaged watch hours, while eligibility for the YouTube Partner Program will continue to rely on qualified views and watch hours.

In other words, creators may wake up to faster-growing view counts without automatically earning more money.

That matters well beyond YouTube influencers.

Businesses increasingly use YouTube numbers to judge advertising campaigns, sponsorships, podcasts, product launches and the reach of branded content. A company comparing this month’s campaign with one from earlier in the year will need to understand that the underlying definition of a “view” has changed.

The same applies to media outlets and creators selling sponsorships based on audience size. A video with 500,000 public views under the new system may not represent the same level of attention as 500,000 views under the old one.

YouTube says a thumbnail merely appearing on a page still does not count. The video itself has to begin playing.

The change therefore measures exposure more broadly, while engaged views remain the better signal of whether anyone stayed.

For anyone using YouTube numbers to measure success, the headline view count just became easier to earn.

The harder number — and probably the more valuable one — is now the number of people who actually kept watching.

JBizNews Desk | San Bruno, California

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The U.S. Treasury Department announced a new round of secondary sanctions Monday aimed at countries that continue to do business with Iran, a move by the Trump administration to exact “economic asphyxiation” on Tehran.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the launch of Operation Economic Outcast, an effort to sever the financial lifeline that sustains Iran’s regime, which the United States has accused of using illicit revenues to fund global terrorism.

“Iran now faces a very clear choice, with only two paths before them: complete global isolation and a subsistence economy, or a path back to normalcy with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy,” Bessent said during a news conference.

TRUMP’S IRAN CRACKDOWN ‘SUFFOCATING’ REGIME AS OIL WELLS COULD SHUT WITHIN DAYS, BESSENT SAYS

The aggressive strategy, labeled as an “Economic D-Day,” targets critical industries such as Iran’s digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping in an effort to eliminate the revenue streams that fund international terrorism, Bessent said. The Trump administration will implement secondary sanctions to pressure nations into severing ties with Tehran, while simultaneously blacklisting nearly 60 people, businesses and vessels involved in illicit trade.

President Donald Trump was speaking with several world leaders, asking them for unspecified assistance in helping to tighten the economic rope around Iran, Bessent said.

“We are following his calls up with visits and calls from the State Department and from the U.S. Treasury, telling the leaders, the countries and the entities exactly what we expect and the timelines,” he said. “I would expect that very quickly. If they do not respond, then you will see the ramifications of their actions.”

The secondary sanctions will not be implemented right away, Bessent said, describing his announcement as a “warning shot” to nations thinking of doing business with Iran.

“We are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior,” he said. “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system? We believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure, period. But they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious.”

“Treasury has mapped every node, every facilitator and every network that Iran has used to smuggle oil and evade sanctions. Beginning today, the actions of Treasury and other agencies will tighten the noose and block every potential source of revenue that funds the IRGC and the evil Iranian regime,” he added.

TRUMP CLAIMS IRAN ‘STARVING FOR CASH,’ ‘COLLAPSING FINANCIALLY’ AFTER EXTENDING CEASEFIRE

Iran has faced U.S. sanctions for decades, which have been aimed at curtailing a range of sectors in Tehran’s economy, including its oil revenues, as well as its ability to acquire weapons and other military equipment and cutting off funding for business enterprises controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Reuters previously reported.

In May, Bessent announced that the U.S. had seized roughly $1 billion in Iranian cryptocurrency assets.

Last week, Trump threatened “unprecedented” economic consequences for any nation assisting Iran, which he likened to an “economic D-Day.”

“I am also announcing that ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences,” he wrote on Truth Social at the time.

“Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW,” he continued. “You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat. These maniacs are on the ropes, and these HISTORIC MEASURES will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide.”

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Bessent warned nations doing business with Tehran, noting that no one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions.

“No nation should expect to enjoy the rewards of our system while helping those who seek to destroy it,” he said. “It is now a time for world leaders to make a decision between prosperity and isolation, peace and terror. America and Iran, the campaign we begin today will gather force with every day that follows, and it will not end until this regime stands alone.”

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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the start of “Operation Economic Outcast” on Iran in remarks at a press conference on Monday following earlier threats of an “economic D-Day” against the regime.

“Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” said Bessent.

Bessent described the operation as “a sustained campaign to collapse every last option for Iran,” saying that those involved in “any” economic cooperation with Tehran would expose themselves to “the full reach of American power.”

He noted the kinetic and prior economic actions of US President Donald Trump against the Islamic regime, which Bessent said signaled a different approach to Tehran than previous administrations.

“We are no longer managing the Iranian threat,” he emphasized. “We are ending it.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stands behind U.S. President Donald Trump who speaks to the media on the day of a NATO leaders' summit in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS)

He added that Iran faces a “very clear choice,” saying the regime can either accept “complete global isolation” or a path to normalcy.

Bessent described the operation’s methods as actions that will “tighten the noose” around Iran’s funding sources, leaving it “no breathing space.”

He further stressed that the “grey areas” some countries use to evade sanctions on Iran would “no longer” be acceptable.

“Countries cannot claim they are blind to enabling this activity,” he added. “The president is making phone calls to world leaders with specific requests to cease their interactions with the regime.”

He noted that countries that choose to continue cooperating with Tehran’s “withering” regime would face economic consequences, describing those who do as “foolish.”

Bessent listed five Iranian “vital lifelines” that the operation would initially target: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping.

“Any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the US Dollar system,” he emphasized. “the clock just started ticking.”

He further warned against any nation “testing” the resolve of the US government.

“It is now a time for world leaders to make a decision between prosperity and isolation, peace and terror, America and Iran,” he declared.

Bessent concluded his remarks by noting that Operation Economic Outcast would continue until Iran “stands alone.”

Trump: Iran ‘completely collapsing’

The operation’s announcement comes after claims by Trump in a Truth Social post earlier on Monday that Iran is completely collapsing.

The post came as the US Treasury is expected to broaden the scope of secondary sanctions it can impose on entities and countries that maintain business ties with Iran, as the Trump administration seeks to increase economic pressure on Tehran, a source familiar with the plans told Reuters.

The action is aimed at giving a final warning to countries to sever their business ties with Iran in an effort to force an end to the nearly six-month conflict that has bottled up the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf energy exports, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The source said that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also intended to provide a broader overview of an economic pressure campaign against Iran that he and Trump have described as an “economic D-Day,” and would make it clear to countries that they must side with the US or risk having key companies and entities cut off from the dollar-based financial system.

Bessent last week billed the action against Iran as the “toughest sanctions in history,” saying that along with the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, they would reduce the need for new “kinetic” military operations against Iran.

The US has maintained sanctions against Iran for decades, most of which have been aimed at curtailing the country’s oil revenues, aviation sector, cryptocurrency, procurement of weapons components and other military hardware, and cutting off funding for business enterprises controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a dominant force in the Iranian economy.

The sanctions bar designated entities from the dollar-based financial system, but Iran has been successful in quickly standing up new front companies, other entities and vessel registrations to evade the sanctions.

Bessent plan to include additional categories of sanctioned conduct

The source familiar with Bessent’s plans said the action is likely to reveal additional categories of Iran-related conduct that would be subject to secondary sanctions in the future, making it easier to take action against those facilitating the transactions on behalf of the Iranian government.

The source did not specify the activities that could be subject to sanctions, but said that for certain Iranian sectors, any activity, even in a third country, could be subject to secondary sanctions.

The Treasury currently approves licenses for transactions in a number of sectors in Iran, including for medicine and medical devices, cultural and arts exchanges and agricultural transactions.

A senior administration official said Bessent is expected to warn that any remaining financial lifelines, including through banks and third countries that have tolerated certain activity, must be shut down.

The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Treasury has “mapped Iran’s oil-smuggling and sanctions-evasion network” and will present this information to countries helping Iran evade the sanctions as a warning.

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Most job interviews last around 45 minutes. Bupa CEO Iñaki Ereño thinks that’s nowhere near enough time to know if someone is actually worth hiring—so he puts candidates through six hours of tests across three separate meetings instead, including a restaurant sit-down where he’s watching whether you’ll order wine.

“I tend not to like people that don’t have any initiative,” Ereño told Fortune. “Imagine if my drink is a glass of water. I’m very happy with someone who says, ‘Do you mind if I have a glass of wine?’”

In fact, the Fortune 500 Europe boss said he’d prefer for a candidate walking into the lunch interview, seeing his glass of water and ordering the same. 

“I don’t like followers, ‘oh I will have a glass of water as well, I don’t want wine.’ These sorts of things are very important,” Ereño said, adding he is specifically testing how confident you are. That kind of energy is exactly what separates leaders from the crowd.

“Be more proactive, less passive. Take some risks, take initiatives,” is Ereño’s advice on making it to the top. And ordering wine even when the boss hasn’t is exactly that—showing bold initiative.

It’s just one part of his ‘secret weapon’ test: three meetings, two hours each

Ereño runs one of Europe’s largest healthcare companies: Bupa, which reported £18.2 billion ($24.5 billion) in revenue in 2025, a giant spanning 190 countries and employing over 100,000 people. Getting a senior hire wrong at that scale is expensive—something he’s learned the hard way. Now, watching your drinks order is just one of his tests.

“When I was doing an interview of just one hour, that was not enough,” he said. “I reduced my level of mistakes when hiring people by setting up a system that is based on three meetings, two hours each. That’s my secret weapon.”

The first is a classic two-hour deep dive into the CV. The second moves to a restaurant for breakfast or lunch—and that’s where the real assessment begins. And it’s not just your drink order he’s looking at. 

“How you treat the waiter, for me, is an obsession,” Ereño said. “I want to see how nice you are. You need to be respectful.” He’s watching body language, confidence, how you hold yourself when the formal setting drops.

The third meeting is back in the office, where the questions get more personal. 

“And then there is another two hours after that,” he added. “Asking about your life: What do you like? What do you see in our company? What are you expecting from Bupa? All of those questions.”

From Steve Jobs to Steven Bartlett, he’s not the only CEO with an unusual test up his sleeve 

Ereño is far from the only CEO who thinks the restaurant table reveals more about a future hire than a cold interview room.

$31 billion Twilio CEO Khozema Shipchandler interviews senior candidates specifically for 45-minute dinners—he’s watching how they carry themselves off the clock while also listening for one word in particular. Say “I” too much and it signals you’re not a team player. 

Khozema also sets aside around 20 minutes for the interviewee to ask questions. If they have nothing up their sleeve? “That’s a pretty big red flag.”

One CEO won’t hire anyone who salts their food before tasting it. Another secretly asks the server to mess up the candidate’s order mid-meal just to see how they react.

Apple’s Steve Jobs had a “beer test.” But instead of actually doing the interview in a restaurant or bar, he’d take candidates on an informal walk-and-talk to find out what they’re like off-duty. He’d then ask himself: “Would I have a beer with this person? Would I talk to him or her in a relaxed way while taking a walk?” If the answer was no, they weren’t hired.

And even if you’re not meeting a potential boss in a restaurant surrounded by waiters, it still pays to be nice to the staff you meet on your way to your interview—wherever it is.

Diary of a CEO founder Steven Bartlett hired someone with “zero” experience because she thanked the security guard by name on her way into the building. Six months later, he called her one of the best hires he’d ever made.

Are you a CEO with an unusual hiring test? Fortune wants to hear from you: Orianna.Royle@fortune.com

A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on July 3, 2026

Read more on acing the job interview from Fortune’s Orianna Rosa Royle:

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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With U.S. debt hitting $40 trillion, markets are turning more attention to that burden and whether policymakers will address the root causes or just the symptoms.

The Treasury Department’s interventions in the bond and currency markets in recent weeks point to the latter.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent surprised Wall Street on Wednesday with a plan to increase buybacks of long-term bonds, after the 30-year yield hit the highest level in nearly 20 years.

That came just a few weeks after the U.S. and Japan took such joint action to boost the yen for the first time in three decades. But to make it happen, the U.S. sold euros instead of dollar-denominated assets, avoiding a sale of Treasury securities that would put more upward pressure on yields.

Japan also refrained from selling Treasuries and instead tapped an obscure Federal Reserve tool called the Foreign and International Monetary Authorities Repo Facility (FIMA). This mechanism allowed Japan, which is the world’s largest holder of U.S. debt, to borrow dollars against its Treasury stockpile, obtaining a limited form of liquidity. 

According to George Saravelos, head of FX research at Deutsche Bank, “we see both the buyback and encouragement to use the FIMA facility for FX reserves as soft-form financial repression policies aimed at containing the long-end of the US yield curve.”

Financial repression generally refers to policies that enable a government to keep interest rates artificially low by influencing financial markets.

Countries throughout history have practiced it, especially during times of high indebtedness. In fact, the U.S. and other developed economies used financial repression to slash their debt-to-GDP ratios after World War II.

Indeed, conflict and calamities are major factors in financial repression. A recent survey of 300 years of U.S. and U.K. history found that wars are “always disaster times” for holders of government debt because of inflation and financial repression.

It’s not good for currencies either. Saravelos warned that suppressing U.S. Treasury yields will merely shift the impact to the dollar.

“If the market price of USTs is not ‘allowed’ to adjust down, the foreign exchange price of UST owned by foreign investors has to adjust via a weakening in the dollar,” he explained.

Markets will next scrutinize how the Federal Reserve responds, Saravelos predicted, pointing out that Bessent’s moves to effectively loosen financial conditions would typically prompt the Fed to offset that with tightening measures.

That’s as the Fed has been especially wary of inflation, which has exceeded its 2% target for more than five years, with several central bankers ready to hike rates. But Chairman Kevin Warsh has refrained from so-called forward guidance, leaving Wall Street guessing on his stance.

“If Chair Warsh does not recognize the buyback as a factor driving an easing of financial conditions, we would take it as an additional dollar negative driver,” Saravelos added. “In all, the market is likely to be increasingly attentive to further measures intended to support the US Treasury market going forward. The more these are perceived as distortionary to market pricing, the more the dollar is likely to weaken.”

Since the debt buyback was unveiled, markets have ramped up bets on the “debasement trade,” with prices for gold and bitcoin surging on expectations of further dollar devaluation.

That’s because the root causes of the recent jump in bond yields—especially massive debt and deficits—are not priorities among most lawmakers.

The federal budget deficit is on track to hit $2 trillion this fiscal year, and debt interest costs alone are already $1 trillion annually, taking up a bigger and bigger share of spending. But there’s no sign Washington is serious about slashing the budget or raising taxes.

Absent such moves, the solution to higher borrowing costs is likely more repression. A research paper last month from the International Monetary Fund said the world is ripe for another wave.

“With the conditions historically associated with elevated repression present today, our evidence suggests that financial repression may see increased use going forward,” it said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Britain on Monday briefed energy company chiefs on steps to protect their assets after media reports said Iran-linked hackers had shut down a small energy facility, saying there was no threat to the wider electricity system.

The Telegraph and Financial Times reported that a cyberattack, which the newspapers said took place in July and was attributed to Iran-linked hackers, forced a small British generator offline for four days.

While not commenting on who was behind the incident or when and where it happened, Michael Shanks, the minister for energy, said the government and industry had taken the incident seriously and were working with regulators and the National Cyber Security Center to assess threats and strengthen protections.

An illustrative photo of a laptop displaying the Iranian flag, representing Iran in a digital or cyber context, March 27, 2026.  (credit: NATI SHOHAT/FLASH90)

No risk to the wider system, ‘highly resilient’ energy network

“To be clear: there was no threat to the wider grid, and nobody lost power,” Shanks wrote in a post on X/Twitter. “The generator in question is tiny, especially compared to what most of us would class as a ‘power plant/station’.”

A spokesperson for Britain’s energy department said there was no risk to the wider system, adding that the country had a “highly resilient” energy network.

The Iranian embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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An out-of-control wildfire that jumped over fire trucks and made it difficult for crews to reach hot spots destroyed homes in northwest Reno, Nevada, on Sunday. Shifting winds challenged firefighters trying to bring it under control, and authorities urged some 90,000 people to evacuate.

At least six people — three first responders and three civilians — were injured. Officials said the fire was “human-caused” but did not provide details on how they reached that conclusion, or whether it was intentionally set or accidental.

The Hawk Fire began Saturday and grew to more than 23 square miles (60 sq. km.) as it spread Sunday across the Peavine Peak area of the Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest, where rugged foothills are ringed by homes and businesses near the California state line. There was zero containment.

Some 42,000 residents have been ordered evacuated as the “GO NOW” zone expanded, reaching the edge of the University of Nevada. An additional 45,000 people were in the adjacent evacuation warning zone. Authorities urged people to be prepared to stay away for several days, because shifting and strengthening winds were expected to make the fire even more unpredictable.

“Please get out if you can right now,” Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said.

A Sunday evening update said crews observed “extreme fire behavior” as gusts pushed flames through dry brush.

“Over the next 12 hours, the fire is expected to continue to make moderate to high intensity runs in pockets of dense fuels,” the statement said.

A family raced to grab possessions but lost their home

It wasn’t known how many homes were destroyed. Cari Kieffer said a video posted on social media showed her house entirely burned down, with only a scorched basketball hoop still standing.

“I woke up this morning and just started crying — all my kids, they lost everything,” Kieffer said Sunday. “We lost all our stuff. Everything we own is gone.”

Kieffer had been watching her son’s football game Saturday when she learned that their home on the outskirts of Reno was in the evacuation zone. An app the family used to track the fire’s progress had been lagging significantly behind its actual location, she said, so they thought firefighters had kept the blaze from their neighborhood.

Instead, Kieffer, her husband and their four children ages 3 to 16 raced to save their dogs and whatever possessions they could retrieve. Ash rained down, and the wind blew like an oven blast from a wall of flames advancing down the hillside toward their neighborhood, she said.

“I kept looking outside and the flames just kept getting closer and closer every time I looked,” Kieffer said. “I was like, we gotta go like now.”

Eyes watering and throat burning, Kieffer grabbed a handful of clothes, a Bible, her wedding photos and her mother’s ashes. In the frenzy, as firefighters yelled at her family to leave immediately, she said she forgot her family’s birth certificates and was unable to salvage her childhood photos.

The family drove to a friend’s home but had to evacuate again. They learned later Saturday evening that their own home was gone.

Governor declares state of emergency and mobilizes National Guard

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency in Washoe County and mobilized the Nevada National Guard to support aerial firefighting with two helicopter crews as well as 60 troops to help police safeguard evacuated neighborhoods. Also responding were 800 fire personnel.

Nearly 10,000 customers were without power in Washoe County on Sunday, down from 60,000 on Saturday. Portions of U.S. Route 395, a major north-south highway, were closed due to the fire. Reno, with more than 280,000 residents, is the largest city in Nevada outside of metro Las Vegas.

Washoe County emergency officials opened the Reno-Sparks Convention Center to evacuees, but said they couldn’t bring their pets — small animals and large animals were to be left at two other locations. Casinos in Reno offered discounts on hotel rooms to evacuees.

The fire turned destructive fast

The fire was so small Saturday morning that it wasn’t even a concern, said Tyler Duvall, who went camping over the weekend. By the next day, his house was in the evacuation zone.

“The wind really blew it up,” Duvall said.

On Saturday alone, 15 new fires popped up across Nevada. Months of dry weather and a record lack of snow this past winter across the American West have created prime fire conditions. Earlier this month, wildfires in eastern Washington state forced the evacuation of 60,000 people in the Spokane area, while three wildfires north of Reno forced more than 13,000 residents from their homes.

A mountaintop home goes up in flames

Jaida Hargrove’s grandfather, Rick Arrate, lived alone on Peavine Mountain, which overlooks Reno and Sparks. Firefighters used a bulldozer, cut down trees and applied fire retardant in their attempt to contain the flames, Hargrove said.

“They all thought it would be OK,” she said. “And then, in about 30 minutes, the winds just changed and it came way too fast.”

Arrate and the firefighters were quickly forced off the mountain. “All he was able to take with him was his two golden retrievers,” Hargrove said.

Arrate spent Saturday night with Hargrove’s parents, his next steps unknown.

Separate GoFundMe crowdfunding campaigns were set up to assist Arrate and the Kieffer family.

A Nevada transplant gets a rude welcome to Reno

Retired police officer and firefighter Ted Melden has seen his share of Mother Nature’s fury since moving to Reno with his wife earlier this month from Chapin, South Carolina. So far, he has experienced a hailstorm with flash flooding, two different power outages and, now, the second wildfire incident in the region in two weeks.

“Just another natural disaster,” Melden said.

In the two years he lived in South Carolina, Melden said Hurricane Helene knocked over trees in his yard, while a tornado did some damage in his neighborhood.

For now, Melden hasn’t been ordered to leave his home, but he has his bags packed just in case.

“You just have to roll with the flow and be ready,” he said.

David Barb returned from a weekend hunting trip to find the fire had leveled his taxidermy shop, but his house nearby appeared to have been spared thanks to workers with a landscaping company who cut a fire break, he said. His wife was home when the fire started on the other side of the mountain and later evacuated to a friend’s house.

“I’m kind of devastated, but thank God everyone’s safe,” he said Sunday.

Residents just outside the evacuation zone are keeping watch

The University of Nevada, where many of the 20,000 undergraduates moved into their housing this weekend, was just outside the evacuation zone Sunday.

Two hospitals evacuated patients and the sheriff said his office was keeping a close watch on whether to evacuate the county jail.

The fire moved exceptionally fast Saturday night, jumping over fire trucks and making it difficult for responders to get to hot spots while residents were trying to get out, the sheriff said.

“It was extremely confusing,” Balaam said, describing how changing winds sent the flames in different directions.

___

Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia, Brook from New Orleans and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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What happens when large language models become commodities? Competitive advantage moves from the model itself to the balance sheet behind it. AI is now reversing 20 years of technology economics, turning what was once a software business into a capital-intensive industry.

For much of the past two decades, investors rewarded asset-light software companies that needed little capital and generated fat margins. Today, however, those same companies are spending at a scale the tech sector has never seen.

Since the AI boom began in 2023, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta have together poured $1.1 trillion into AI infrastructure. The four “hyperscalers” plan to invest another $745 billion this year alone. Capital intensity is, clearly, no longer something Big Tech can avoid. It has in fact become the cost of competing in the AI race.

But there is a far bigger shift under way: as AI models become increasingly interchangeable, competitive advantage will depend less on the models themselves than on who can finance, build and run the infrastructure behind them the most cheaply.

Which also helps to explain why Microsoft boss Satya Nadella said recently that “every model is substitutable” and Amazon chief Andy Jassy predicted that there will soon be “at least half a dozen” comparably good AI models.

That changes the basis of competition itself. Rather than betting the house on a single winning model, the hyperscalers are building more of the infrastructure capable of supporting many of them. And as that happens, financing and scale begin to matter more than owning the frontier model itself.

Yet one question still hangs over the investment cycle: whether the models themselves ultimately generate enough value to justify the trillions still being committed. The answer remains uncertain. Both OpenAI and Anthropic remain lossmaking today. Yet the flow of capital has anything but slowed.

Chipmaker Nvidia for instance, is now working with Apollo, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street giants to mobilize more than $500 billion of additional capital for AI infrastructure.

And Google has gone even further. Rather than simply writing cheques, it has assembled a $200 billion financing structure with Broadcom, Apollo, Blackstone and Morgan Stanley to fund Anthropic’s chips and data centers. Which just underlines how the locus of competition has expanded into finance itself.

The tech giants already hold the strongest hand. Microsoft, Amazon and Google have the balance sheets, the cheapest capital and are generating huge revenues from the same data centers they use to train AI models. Those advantages should endure even if AI models themselves become interchangeable.

Big Tech is unlikely to have the field to itself, however. SpaceX could emerge as a serious competitor, while sovereign wealth funds such as Saudi Arabia’s PIF and Abu Dhabi’s MGX combine cheap capital, abundant power and the flexibility to work with both western and Chinese AI companies.

Regardless of who ultimately wins, the money is already moving. Cloud providers are capturing the first commercial returns, with chipmakers selling the picks and shovels and Wall Street financing the build-out. Not everyone benefits, of course. Enterprise software companies are no longer just competing with one another, but with AI infrastructure for the same corporate budgets.

IBM’s second-quarter results brought that shift into sharp relief. Customers postponed software purchases as they rushed to secure AI infrastructure ahead of expected price hikes. The result: a 25% one-day collapse in IBM’s share price in mid-July.

That shift has understandably unsettled investors. For much of the past year, Big Tech shares have been whipsawed by a key question: will the AI spending boom ever generate a decent return? The sheer scale of that splurge has already weighed heavily on free cash flow. Alphabet’s spending has pushed free cash flow into negative territory for the first time since its IPO. Meta’s free cash flow also fell sharply in the latest quarter.

However, the latest Big Tech earnings showed the investment cycle is now delivering a return in cloud computing, even as capital spending continues to soar. Overcapacity in AI infrastructure may eventually appear, but the results season shows that moment is still a long way off.

Indeed, Microsoft’s cloud business grew 32% to $39.3 billion in the latest quarter, helping drive an 18% increase in revenues. Amazon Web Services grew 37% to $42.2 billion, its fastest growth in more than four years. And Google’s cloud business surged 82% to $24.8 billion. Investors duly rewarded Microsoft’s results by adding a record $450 billion to its market value in a single day.

Yet the market has not reached a verdict, and Apple is the exception that proves the rule. While its rivals have poured hundreds of billions into AI infrastructure, it held back, and investors briefly rewarded that restraint with a $5 trillion valuation last month. The iPhone maker has therefore become the market’s control group.

Investors are now placing two very different bets: one backs companies willing to spend whatever it takes to build AI infrastructure; the other backs those that refuse to sacrifice financial discipline in the process. One side will be proved right, and one wrong.

But whichever side wins, the rules of competition have already changed. As AI models converge in capability, the companies with the strongest balance sheets, the cheapest capital and the highest utilization of their infrastructure will have the edge. AI is, in effect, becoming a financial engineering business. 

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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New York City will move forward with repairs to the decrepit, city-owned section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway following decades of delays. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn on Monday announced plans to fix the aging corridor between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street by installing temporary bypass structures that will allow the DOT to repair the structure while ensuring minimal disruption to traffic flow. The move marks the first major action to rehabilitate the 70-year-old triple-cantilevered portion of the BQE, where each year of inaction adds an estimated $160 million to the cost of rehabilitation.

BQE, DOT, Brooklyn heights promenade, Regional Plan association, bqe redesign
The Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) from the south end of the Brooklyn Promenade. Photo by Joe Mabel via Wikimedia

Opened in 1957 with a 50-year design life, the BQE is a critical corridor for freight and mobility, serving more than 150,000 vehicles daily and playing a crucial role in transporting people and goods across the tri-state area, according to the New York Times.

However, the corridor was designed to handle substantially less traffic than it currently sees. For decades, advocates and city officials across multiple mayoral administrations have warned of the devastating consequences of an eventual shutdown.

Despite this, the project’s complexities slowed efforts to address the issue over the years, allowing the BQE to further deteriorate and costing the city an additional $160 million for each year it has remained in disrepair.

The city owns the 1.5-mile, triple-cantilevered section of the roadway. The portion, which the administration calls “BQE Central,” accounts for roughly 12 percent of the BQE, while the state owns the rest.

Designed by Robert Moses, its unique stacked structure and location through the center of several dense neighborhoods mean that, if it were to close, local streets would likely become clogged with rerouted car and truck traffic.

While the city has taken small steps in recent years, including reducing traffic to two lanes, implementing a program to limit overweight vehicles on the BQE, and carrying out several rounds of repairs through the DOT, those projects addressed the roadway’s immediate needs while the city worked to develop a long-term solution.

In 2016, the city said it needed to completely overhaul the triple-cantilevered section. While the structure remained safe for drivers, the city said it needed to take immediate action to maintain its safety, according to the Times.

A major sticking point of previous proposals was that they would have required the closure of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade; opponents called the plan an “unacceptable encroachment” on public space.

The Mamdani administration’s proposal, which fulfills a pledge made last year before he took office to find a “permanent solution” for the city-owned sections of the BQE, seeks to carry out the necessary repairs while minimizing disruptions to traffic.

DOT will build a temporary, two-level highway bypass on top of Furman Street, below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, running from Atlantic Avenue to Columbia Heights. No higher than the existing Queens-bound highway, the bypass would maintain views of the promenade while allowing traffic to continue as work crews reinforce the expressway.

The agency also plans to install a second temporary, elevated highway bypass running from Columbia Heights over the Brooklyn Bridge approach to the Manhattan Bridge.

According to the administration, the plan represents the most immediate rehabilitation needed to keep the structure safe while giving the city time to work with the state on a long-term vision for the entire highway.

DOT intends to begin the City Environmental Quality Review process this fall and will engage the community through informational sessions and public scoping. The agency anticipates completing an environmental impact statement in summer 2028.

The $4 billion project is expected to take a decade, with construction beginning in 2030, and will extend the section’s life by another 40 years.

“For decades, prior administrations have failed to deliver urgent long-term repairs to BQE Central—but we can no longer afford to wait for the perfect solution,” Mamdani said. “We’re going to fix the aging concrete, repair the deteriorating triple cantilever and build temporary roads that keep the highway operable during construction to avoid sending tens of thousands of cars and trucks onto local streets.”

“This plan allows us to safely fix the BQE without slowing our city down or wasting decades more on magical thinking,” he added. “The cost of inaction is too high, and the risks to New Yorkers are too important to delay any longer.”

As the city prepares for the massive project, work continues on proposals to transform dreary spaces beneath the BQE into vibrant public spaces and reconnect neighborhoods that were separated when the expressway opened in the 1950s.

Launched in Fall 2022, the BQE Corridor Vision initiative has engaged communities along the 12.1-mile section of the corridor to inform future design choices.

In the summary report for BQE Central, the 1.5-mile city-owned portion released in December 2024, respondents expressed a desire for new public spaces, preservation of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, improved bike and pedestrian connections to Brooklyn Bridge Park, and more.

In an official joint statement following the plan’s unveiling, State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon, and Council Member Lincoln Restler welcomed the project while expressing concerns about potential disruptions to adjacent neighborhoods.

“We are encouraged that the Mamdani Administration has listened to our community’s call to rehab, rather than replace, the BQE Triple Cantilever while maintaining only two lanes of traffic in each direction and the existing footprint of the structure,” they said. “This approach opens the possibility for future transformational change that communities up and down the BQE corridor have long advocated for.”

“This announcement is the beginning of a multi-year approval process, and we have many questions,” they added. “We are concerned about such an invasive and disruptive construction approach and are worried about the damaging impact of temporary highways in our dense neighborhood.”

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Planned new US sanctions on Iran and the United Arab Emirates‘s (UAE) halt on trade with Tehran could severely disrupt Indian exports of rice, tea and pharmaceuticals to Iran, which have been largely routed through Dubai’s port in recent years, Indian exporters said on Monday.

India has been among Iran‘s five largest trading partners, though bilateral trade has fallen by more than 90% from its 2018/19 highs of $17 billion, with exports now limited mostly to goods exempted on humanitarian grounds.

Indian exporters fear US President Donald Trump‘s proposed “economic D-Day” plan, likely to be unveiled later on Monday, could further squeeze trade weakened by sanctions, banking caution and shipping constraints.

The UAE last week suspended all trade activities, exchanges and financial transactions with Iran until further notice.

“We are already seeing indications that transactions and payment mechanisms traditionally routed through the UAE are exploring alternative jurisdictions,” said Dev Garg, vice president of the Indian Rice Exporters Federation, suggesting Turkey as an alternative.

A shopkeeper speaks on the phone as he sells rice and grains inside a wholesale market in Kolkata, India, January 13, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/Sahiba Chawdhary)

Exporters could face higher freight, other costs

In the first half of 2026, India exported $383.11 million of rice to Iran – the second-largest overseas market for premium rice, including long-grained basmati.

“Any prolonged disruption in this corridor will have a much greater bearing on the basmati industry, especially on millers and exporters in northern India than on India’s overall non-basmati rice trade,” Garg said.

Until recently, Indian exporters typically received payment through an Indian authorized-dealer bank from a UAE trader’s account – in dirhams, dollars or another permitted currency -while the trader separately collected payment from its Iranian customer through legally compliant banking channels.

Indian tea exports to Iran totaled $14.34 million in the first half of 2026. Prabhat Bezboruah, a senior tea planter and former chairman of the state-run Tea Board, said sales to Iran will be affected as a lot of that goes through the UAE.

There was no immediate comment from India’s trade and foreign ministries.

A New Delhi-based exporter said direct shipments could rise, but payment problems may worsen.

Ajay Srivastava of the Global Trade Research Initiative said India’s Iran trade has already fallen sharply since the previous sanctions.

“We hope food and pharmaceutical products may receive exemptions, although exporters could still face higher freight, insurance and payment costs,” he said.

Iran’s exports to India were dominated by crude oil, valued at about $707 million, with far smaller shipments of liquefied petroleum gas, apples, dates, almonds and kiwi fruit in the first six months of 2026. Officials have said crude oil imports from Iran were largely enabled by a US exemption granted earlier this year, and may be difficult to sustain.

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The Saudi Amzan ship was attacked in the Red Sea on Monday, Saudi Arabia’s national shipping company Bahri confirmed in a statement, noting that all crew members were safe and no injuries had been reported.

The confirmation comes following claims by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis earlier on Monday that they attacked a vessel off Saudi Arabia’s port city of Yanbu, in comments by the group’s ​military spokesperson Yahya Saree in a televised speech.

Earlier in the day, the United Kingdom ​Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile 63 nautical miles west of Yanbu.

The UKMTO said all crew were safe and accounted for with no reported environmental impact.

Yanbu is Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port, where millions of barrels a day are loaded, and has become the main route for Saudi oil skirting the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded.

Supporters of the Iran-backed Houthi movement brandish their weapons as they rally in solidarity with Iran and Lebanon amid the Middle East war, in the capital Sanaa on April 17, 2026.  (credit: Mohammed Huwais/AFP via Getty Images)

Red Sea blockade declared by Houthis against Saudi ships

Shipping from Yanbu has itself faced disruption since the Houthis declared a blockade on Saudi-linked vessels in the Red Sea last month.

The Houthis have carried out attacks on Saudi oil facilities and shipping in the Red Sea in recent weeks, and they claimed to have targeted Saudi oil giant Aramco facilities in Yanbu in July.

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President Donald Trump’s social-media company is charging financial firms as much as $100,000 a month for faster, machine-readable access to his Truth Social posts—a potentially valuable advantage when a presidential message can move stocks, currencies or commodities within seconds.

Trump Media & Technology Group’s interim chief executive, Kevin McGurn, defended the service Monday, saying it provides only slightly faster access to information that is already publicly available and operates like the premium data feeds routinely sold by stock exchanges, news organizations and other technology platforms.

More than 10 customers have already signed up, according to the company. They reportedly include high-frequency trading firms willing to pay between $60,000 and $100,000 a month for the service, known as Truth API.

The company is also holding discussions with news organizations, major technology companies and artificial-intelligence developers.

The controversy centers on the difference between seeing a social-media post and receiving it in a format that a computer can immediately process.

Ordinary Truth Social users can still view Trump’s posts publicly. Paying customers, however, receive a direct stream of data designed to reach automated systems faster than standard app notifications or manually refreshing the website.

For most people, a difference measured in fractions of a second would be meaningless.

For an algorithmic trading firm, it can be worth millions.

A computer receiving a Trump post about tariffs, interest rates, sanctions, military action or a specific company can instantly scan the language, determine which assets may be affected and place trades before an ordinary investor has finished reading the first sentence.

Truth API provides continuous access to posts from 10 influential Truth Social accounts, including Trump’s, along with historical material dating to 2022. Trump Media says the product also offers companies a legal alternative to scraping information from its platform without permission.

McGurn characterized the service as a commercial data-licensing business rather than the private sale of government information. His argument is that the underlying posts are public and the company is charging customers for speed, organization and reliable technical delivery—not for exclusive access to the president’s decisions.

That distinction is now being tested in federal court.

The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation filed a lawsuit in Manhattan seeking to block the arrangement. The plaintiffs argue that official presidential communications concerning government policy should be distributed equally rather than through a system that gives wealthy financial firms a technological advantage.

The lawsuit also challenges restrictions governing how paying customers can redistribute information obtained through the feed. Critics say those conditions could allow sophisticated subscribers to act on presidential statements before news organizations and the broader public can circulate them as widely.

Trump Media rejects those claims and says paid, tiered access to public information is common throughout the financial-data industry.

Stock exchanges, for example, sell premium market feeds that deliver prices and trading information directly to financial institutions. News organizations license real-time reporting to trading platforms and data terminals. Technology companies charge developers for high-volume access to their platforms through application programming interfaces.

The difference is that Truth API includes communications from a sitting president whose words can immediately affect national policy and global markets—and whose family retains a major financial interest in the company selling the feed.

That creates an unusual collision between public office, private business and the speed of modern financial trading.

Trump’s social-media posts have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to move markets. A surprise message about tariffs can alter expectations for retailers and manufacturers. A statement about military action can send oil or gold prices higher. Comments about the Federal Reserve can move Treasury yields and the dollar.

In April 2025, a Trump post encouraging investors to buy stocks arrived shortly before he announced a pause in some tariffs, contributing to a powerful market rally. Episodes like that illustrate why financial firms would pay heavily to receive his messages as quickly as technically possible.

Even a one-second advantage can matter when automated systems are competing to buy or sell the same securities.

For Trump Media, the service also offers something the company urgently needs: a potentially lucrative source of recurring revenue.

If 10 customers each paid the maximum rate of $100,000 a month, the product could generate as much as $12 million annually before expenses. That would be significant for a company whose core social-media and streaming operations have produced limited revenue compared with its market valuation and operating costs.

Trump Media reported approximately $1.7 million in second-quarter revenue while posting a net loss of about $238 million. Much of that loss reflected changes in the value of its cryptocurrency holdings, but its underlying expenses continued to greatly exceed the income generated by its operating businesses.

The company’s shares fell approximately 8% following the results, leaving Trump Media valued at roughly $2.5 billion. Trump retains an economic interest of about 41% through a trust controlled by his family.

Truth API therefore represents more than a technical service. It is an effort to turn the president’s enormous political influence and online following into a high-margin financial-data business.

The company says it may eventually broaden access to retail investors, though it has not explained whether an individual product would offer the same speed or data quality provided to institutional customers.

That could become important to Trump Media’s legal and public defense. A service available only to firms capable of paying up to $1.2 million a year will inevitably raise questions about whether wealthy traders are receiving an advantage unavailable to ordinary investors.

The legal case will likely turn on several complicated questions: whether Trump’s Truth Social posts constitute official government communications, whether the administration may choose a privately owned platform to distribute them and whether charging for faster technical access violates constitutional protections for the press or the public.

There is also a broader question the courts may not resolve.

Presidents have always influenced markets through speeches, press conferences and policy announcements. What is new is the ability of a company financially connected to a sitting president to package those statements into a premium data product built specifically for traders racing to act before everyone else.

Trump Media argues that it is simply selling speed.

Its critics argue that when the information comes directly from the president of the United States, speed itself becomes privileged access.

JBizNews Desk | Palm Beach, Florida

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The Justice Department has formally launched a new national division dedicated to fraud, creating a roughly 500-person operation designed to consolidate major federal cases involving healthcare, taxes, trade, government programs and other large-scale financial schemes.

The National Fraud Enforcement Division officially takes effect Monday, giving the department a single structure for investigations that previously could be spread across multiple offices and jurisdictions.

The new division will handle major criminal fraud matters involving federal healthcare programs, tax schemes, customs and trade fraud, misuse of government funds and other cases where losses can reach into the millions or billions of dollars.

The change is largely about scale and coordination.

Fraud investigations often involve enormous amounts of financial data, multiple agencies and defendants operating across state lines. By placing more attorneys and staff under one national operation, DOJ is trying to identify patterns faster, share intelligence across cases and pursue organizations rather than treat each incident as an isolated prosecution.

The division is also expected to rely heavily on data analytics, including claims data, tax information, financial records and other government databases that can reveal suspicious patterns long before a whistleblower or victim comes forward.

That could be especially important in healthcare fraud.

Medicare and Medicaid fraud cases can involve false billing, unnecessary procedures, kickback arrangements or claims for services that were never provided. Individual transactions may look small, but repeated across thousands of patients they can generate enormous losses.

Tax and trade fraud are another major focus.

The division will be able to pursue schemes involving false tax filings, customs duties, tariff evasion and fraudulent claims tied to federal programs, while also seeking restitution, forfeiture and other financial penalties.

For consumers, the connection is indirect but significant.

Fraud against Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs ultimately raises costs for taxpayers and can expose patients to unnecessary treatments or compromised personal information. Large tax and government-benefit schemes similarly drain money from programs funded by the public.

The creation of the division does not introduce a new crime or change the burden prosecutors must meet in court. It changes how the government organizes the people investigating and prosecuting those crimes.

DOJ says the operation will include approximately 500 attorneys and staff, making it one of the department’s largest concentrated anti-fraud efforts.

The practical test will be whether the new structure produces faster cases, larger recoveries and more coordinated prosecutions.

Fraud itself has become more sophisticated, increasingly moving through shell companies, digital payments, stolen identities and cross-border networks.

The Justice Department’s answer is to build an enforcement operation designed to operate at the same scale.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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Sapporo USA reportedly plans to lay off 220 workers at three Stone Brewing locations in Escondido, California, as production of the craft beer brand shifts to facilities elsewhere in California and Missouri.

The layoffs will begin with 58 workers on Oct. 19, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification letters filed by Sapporo with the state.

FOX Business has reached out to Sapporo USA for comment and confirmation of the total number of employees expected to be affected.

The workforce cuts follow Sapporo’s sale of the Stone Brewing brand and select hospitality locations to Firestone Walker Brewing Company and Duvel Moortgat USA. The transaction was announced in April and closed May 15.

STARBUCKS LAYS OFF OVER 200 CORPORATE WORKERS AS TURNAROUND STRATEGY MOVES FORWARD

Under the deal, Stone beer production is transitioning from Escondido to Firestone Walker’s brewery in Paso Robles, California, and Duvel USA’s Boulevard brewery in Kansas City, Missouri.

The acquisition included Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens at Liberty Station in San Diego, along with taprooms in Little Italy, Oceanside and Pasadena. Stone’s Escondido brewery and bistro were not included in the transaction.

COCA-COLA SHUTTING DOWN CALIFORNIA FACILITY AFTER MORE THAN A CENTURY

When the deal was announced, Sapporo said it would continue producing Stone beer at its Escondido and Richmond, Virginia, breweries during a transition period. It also said it would continue operating the Escondido bistro while evaluating “long-term strategic options” for the site.

Sapporo USA CEO Zach Keeling told the Los Angeles Times that the company is now winding down the Escondido brewery in phases after failing to find a “viable long-term solution” for the property.

“This is an understandably difficult time for our Escondido employees and community, and we’re committed to supporting them through this transition,” Keeling said in a statement reported by the newspaper.

THE SOBER SHIFT: GEN Z TURNING AWAY FROM ALCOHOL

Firestone Walker and Duvel said in April that they expected to offer jobs to a significant number of Stone employees in hospitality, sales and marketing, while production roles would be evaluated as brewing shifted to the companies’ other facilities.

Stone Brewing was founded in Southern California in 1996 and became one of the best-known brands associated with the West Coast craft beer movement. Sapporo acquired the brewer in 2022 before selling the Stone brand this year as it moves to concentrate its U.S. resources on its namesake beer.

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The Stone brand will continue under Firestone Walker and Duvel USA, while the Liberty Station location will remain both a hospitality venue and an active brewery, according to the companies’ acquisition announcement.

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The US State Department has approved a possible $4.5 billion sale of four Boeing KC-46A aerial refueling aircraft and related equipment to Qatar, according to a State Department notification to Congress.

The deal comes despite the Israeli defense establishment’s strict embargo on defense exports to to the oil-rich Gulf state.

The total cost of the deal reflects a comprehensive package that includes spare parts, maintenance, and long-term training support. The approval represents a preliminary stage ahead of a formal contract, and no firm delivery schedule has been set.

Given existing production backlogs and heavy global demand, Qatar is unlikely to receive the aircraft before 2030. To date, Qatar has lacked a dedicated tanker fleet.

The acquisition will, for the first time, allow its air force, which operates F-15s, Typhoons, and Rafales, to conduct long-range strike missions far beyond its borders, marking a dramatic shift in its operational reach.

US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during a meeting onboard Air Force One during its refuelling stop at Al Udeid Air Base near Doha, Qatar, October 25, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN)

KC-46A deal hands Doha long-range capabilities against Iran – and Israel

Recent conflicts involving Iran have underscored the vital strategic role of aerial tankers, which extend the range and loiter time of fighter jets, transport planes, and intelligence platforms.

In a sign of their operational importance, roughly 70 US tankers are currently deployed in the region, while the Israeli Air Force took delivery of its second KC-46 last week – part of a six-aircraft order placed by the Defense Ministry.

Although Qatar faced Iranian attacks during the war, suggesting the procurement may serve as a deterrent against Tehran, the deal simultaneously hands Doha a long-range force-projection capability toward Israel that it previously did not possess.

The United States remains the primary operator of the KC-46, with roughly 105 in service and plans to procure 283 in total, while Japan operates six and has approval for nine more.

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Moderna’s stock is riding high after news of a personalized cancer treatment, but CEO Stéphane Bancel is warning about a bigger threat: China’s state-backed push to challenge the U.S. in biotechnology.

In an interview on “Mornings with Maria” Monday, Bancel said that while Washington pulls back on mRNA funding, Beijing is pouring state money into biotechnology to challenge the U.S. Bancel said keeping drug manufacturing on American soil, including at Moderna’s facilities in Massachusetts, helps protect both U.S. patients and America’s lead in healthcare.

“I think the government has an active role to play in taking risk for really innovative medicine,” Bancel told FOX Business’ Cheryl Casone, “and indeed, if you think about what’s happening around the world, we know for example that in China there’s a lot of mRNA investments.”

“The technology has already proven itself during COVID with the vaccine, now with cancer, as I said, very soon in rare genetic disease, and I think that we want to make sure that there is investment because those investments in the long term help American patients,” he continued.

HOW GLP-1 WIGHT-LOSS DRUGS ARE RESHAPING THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY

The Chinese Communist Party has designated biotechnology as a “strategic emerging industry” and provided state financing and subsidies to support domestic firms as China seeks to dominate key parts of the biotechnology industry, according to the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last August that it would wind down nearly $500 million worth of mRNA vaccine development projects through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

HHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Instead of relying on foreign supply chains for pharmaceutical supplies and ingredients, Bancel said Moderna has countered this threat by expanding its manufacturing operations in Massachusetts, ensuring that advanced personalized medicines are engineered and produced on American soil.

“The team has done an amazing job to shrink the manufacturing process, the machines, because it’s the same technology that will make millions of doses in one reactor,” Bancel said. “It’s actually happening in America, in Massachusetts, in a factory that we built and that is ready to go.”

“In terms of cost, because it’s not using human material, like CAR-T cell therapy is a very expensive price because it’s a very expensive manufacturing process. In our case, it’s all used with enzyme[s], it’s in water, it is a very different thing. As we get the data and we get closer to discussing pricing, but we don’t have the very high cost of goods that the self-therapy products have.”

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Moderna’s shares surged 177% on Aug. 19 after the company and Merck announced that their personalized mRNA treatment, combined with Merck’s Keytruda, met key endpoints in a Phase 3 melanoma trial, giving investors new evidence of mRNA’s potential beyond infectious-disease vaccines.

“If you look at the company since day one, we try to use our technology across many therapeutic areas: Infectious disease, vaccine of course, cancer,” Bancel noted. “So last week was a big step forward. We became an oncology company, but I think by the end of the year, we should also become a rare genetic disease company.”

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Enrollment in the biggest federally funded food aid program in the U.S. dropped by more than 13% in a 12-month span — a decline far steeper than the government estimated as work requirements and other provisions of President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” take hold.

Those losing coverage in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, include people who don’t meet the tightening requirements to participate, and, advocates say, some who qualify for the help but are rejected because they miss deadlines or don’t have the needed documentation handy. It’s too early to tell exactly how many fall into each group.

It’s also unclear how many have lost coverage because some state agencies that run the programs are overwhelmed trying to keep up with changes. That was the case in Arizona, which saw the nation’s largest enrollment drop.

Tia Fields, who analyzes social safety net policies at the advocacy group Invest in Louisiana, said the main reason she’s seeing people lose coverage is not failure to meet work requirements. “A lot of it is administrative paperwork,” she said.

Proponents of welfare reform hope the roll reductions are driven by people earning too much to keep qualifying — a sign that policy changes are behaving as intended for a program they assert is riddled with fraud.

“If there are people that are leaving the welfare rolls because they’re working and they’re moving forward,” said Rachel Sheffield, a research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, which pushed for stricter requirements for SNAP, “that would be a step forward.”

Arizona has had the steepest decline so far, with a 12-month drop of more than 50%, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs SNAP. The decline was more than 20% in Georgia, Louisiana and Nevada — and in Florida, where the Department of Children and Families said in a statement that the decreasing number “is reflective of the state’s strong focus on advancing opportunities for Floridians and their families to achieve economic self-sufficiency.”

Eligibility requirements are tightening

SNAP helps more than 1 in 10 people in the U.S. buy food. Most of the beneficiaries have incomes below the poverty line. The monthly benefit, which is delivered on debit cards that can be used only for groceries, is $344 per household on average.

Newly released federal data found SNAP enrollment fell from 42.2 million in May 2025 to 36.6 million in May, a drop of more than 13% in a year. The May data are preliminary and could be revised.

Since 2010, the average number of monthly beneficiaries has been below 40 million for only two years — 2019 and 2020. The rolls started dropping after a recent peak of 43.3 million in October 2024. They’ve fallen much faster since implementation began last year for Trump’s “one big beautiful bill,” which cut taxes and overhauled social safety net programs.

The expanded SNAP work requirement has now kicked in for most of the country, but it won’t begin in some places until next year.

Many adults 54 and younger without minor children have long been required to work to get SNAP benefits. The new law requires most people who previously had been exempt from requirements to either work, volunteer or go to school to get benefits. It now includes those ages 55 to 64, and those with children ages 14 to 17. Those 65 and older or with children younger than 14 remain exempt, as do those with health limitations. Some other groups that had been exempted from the requirement — including homeless people — no longer are.

In February, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the new requirements and other factors would push SNAP enrollment down over the next decade, falling below 34 million by 2036. But the nonpartisan office did not expect the drop to be as fast as it’s been. By May, the number of people receiving the benefits was about as low as it was forecast to go in 2030.

Experts expect another impact when states are required to pay part of the cost of benefits if their rate of payment errors — when recipients receive more or less than they should — is above 6%. Advocates for recipients say states may deny benefits to some people entirely rather than risk errors.

The cost-sharing is scheduled to start in October 2027, though Congress has considered a delay.

Changes have been hard to implement in Arizona

In Arizona, enrollment plummeted by 55% from April 2025 to April 2026 — the biggest drop in the country, with more than 400,000 fewer people getting benefits now.

The state said the drop was driven largely by the state’s own struggles putting new federal requirements in place.

“Implementing the federally mandated changes triggered unprecedented call volumes and administrative hurdles, including additional verification requirements, creating real barriers for applicants,” said Brett Bezio, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Economic Security.

Bezio said that hiring more staff members and introducing ways for people to submit their documents online have stemmed the enrollment drop in recent months as the state has reduced the chance for people who qualify to lose benefits.

In Phoenix, LaDiamond Lopez lost her benefits in January, with officials telling her she needed more documentation about her income and household — something that’s needed for officials to determine whether enrollees meet work requirements.

She’s been skipping meals and some bill payments to ensure her children have enough to eat.

In her quest to be reinstated, she had previous employers sign forms confirming she no longer worked for them and added her children — ages 3 and 9 — to her apartment lease. She expected payments to resume in August, but she doesn’t know if they’ll last.

“I was approved at the end of May, but now they’re asking me for more documents,” she said. “It’s a panic.”

Other factors could be driving down enrollment

The Heritage Foundation’s Sheffield says that some of the drop in SNAP use is likely a natural decline after peaks in the coronavirus pandemic era.

Paco Velez, the president and CEO of Feeding South Florida, said the 22% one-year enrollment drop in Florida is driven partly by immigrants who are in the U.S. legally but fear being targeted by Trump’s immigration crackdown if they’re seeking government benefits.

Invest in Louisiana’s Fields said SNAP enrollment declines have broader consequences. For instance, children in households that receive the benefit can be automatically enrolled in free school lunch programs or in the SNAP for Women, Infants and Children program for low-income mothers, young children and expectant parents if they meet the other criteria.

“What happens when that child can’t pay for lunch?” she asked.

Some food banks have ramped up donations to try to meet a demand that they say has risen as SNAP rolls have declined. But that isn’t expected to bridge the gap fully.

“We’re very worried about it because we know that no other organization or program can replicate the scale and success of SNAP,” said Carolyn Vega, a policy analyst at the advocacy group Share Our Strength. “We know that schools can’t fill this gap. We know that food banks can’t fill this gap.”

___

Schuettler is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

___

Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Israir announced on Monday that it had received approval to start operating flights from and to the United States from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“Receiving the FAA approval is the final and decisive step in the regulatory process and joins the previous approvals the company received from aviation authorities in Israel and the US,” the company said in a statement.

The airline said that it had now completed all the requirements and flight permits required to operate flights to North America, noting that it expected to start selling flight tickets soon.

“This is an international expression of trust from the American aviation authority in the quality, safety and operational reliability of the company,” the statement added.

“We are excited to expand our map of destinations to North America, to increase competition in the market, and to provide our customers with quality service at competitive prices.”

Israir Airbus A320 aircraft. (credit: MONI SHAFIR)

Israir aims for October debut of US flights

Last week, the company announced that it had received approval to sell tickets from the US Department of Transportation, with the airline aiming to have the first flights on October 19.

Israir “is in continuous contact with the FAA and is working in full cooperation with the relevant authorities, with the expectation that the approval process will be completed as soon as possible,” the airline said.

The main flight would be from Tel Aviv to New York, according to the company, with no other routes announced yet.

Israir’s other destinations include only two locations outside Europe and the Caucasus, namely Zanzibar, Tanzania, and Marrakesh, Morocco.

James Genn contributed to this report.

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ChatGPT’s advertising business just made its biggest international move yet.

Beginning Monday, Aug. 24, OpenAI is rolling out ads across 31 European markets, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria.

The expansion comes six months after OpenAI began testing advertising in the United States and follows earlier launches in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea.

For users, the most important distinction is simple: ads will appear only on ChatGPT Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro and Enterprise remain ad-free.

The ads are also designed to remain separate from ChatGPT’s answers. OpenAI says advertising does not influence the responses ChatGPT gives, conversations remain private from advertisers and customer data is not sold.

That matters because advertising inside an AI assistant is fundamentally different from advertising beside a search engine.

People do not only type short keywords into ChatGPT. They explain what they are trying to do.

Someone may ask for help choosing accounting software, planning a vacation, furnishing a home, comparing business services or deciding which product best fits a particular budget. That gives advertisers access to consumers much closer to the moment when a decision is actually being made.

OpenAI is building the business around that distinction.

Advertisers will initially access European ChatGPT inventory through OpenAI’s Ads Solutions team, agency partners and technology partners. A self-service Ads Manager is expected later this quarter.

The company has also expanded the advertising system beyond simple impressions and clicks. OpenAI now offers conversion optimization, geographic targeting, custom audiences and measurement tools designed to show whether an ad eventually leads to a purchase or other business action.

For businesses, that creates a potentially significant new advertising channel.

Google built one of the world’s largest businesses by placing ads beside search intent. Meta monetized social attention. ChatGPT is trying to monetize something slightly different: the decision-making process itself.

The consumer tradeoff is equally clear.

Advertising helps OpenAI keep a powerful version of ChatGPT available free or at relatively low cost, but users on those plans will increasingly encounter commercial messages while asking for advice, comparisons and recommendations.

That makes transparency especially important.

OpenAI says sponsored content will always be labeled and visually separated from answers, and users can control ad personalization. People who do not want advertising can move to one of the paid ad-free plans.

The European rollout is also a test of whether that model can work under some of the world’s strictest privacy and consumer-protection rules.

For OpenAI, 31 new markets represent another major step toward turning ChatGPT from a subscription-and-software business into a global advertising platform.

For users, the change is more immediate.

Starting today across much of Europe, using ChatGPT for free increasingly comes with the same tradeoff familiar across the rest of the internet:

the service costs less because advertisers are paying to be there.

JBizNews Desk | San Francisco

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

President Donald Trump threatened Monday to impose 50% tariffs on Canadian-made vehicles, auto parts and steel beginning in January 2027, accusing Canada of “ripping off” the United States for years.

Trump issued the warning in a Truth Social post, writing, “WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!”

Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years. Their ridiculously high tariffs on our Farmers and farm products has made life impossible for these great American Patriots, and has long created a 60 Billion Dollar Deficit between our two Countries. Not sustainable, and NOT ANYMORE!” the president’s post read.

CANADA’S CARNEY SAYS US MADE LAST-MINUTE ‘POWER PLAY’ AS TRADE TALKS COLLAPSE; RETALIATORY TARIFFS IN PLACE

Trump said the 50% rate would apply to “all” Canadian cars and trucks, both “large and small,” as well as automotive parts and steel, beginning Jan. 1, 2027.

“Build in the U.S. and there are ZERO TARIFFS,” Trump wrote. “Canada will be treated like a State no longer!”

“On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in the World to deal with. They feel entitled, and yet, WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!” Trump continued. “They do 95% of their business with the U.S., with us, the exact opposite!”

Trump’s new tariff threat follows the collapse of trade talks between Washington and Ottawa after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended negotiations with the U.S. and ordered Canada’s trade team back to Ottawa.

Carney’s move came as a separate round of 50% U.S. tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian imports took effect early Saturday.

US-CANADA TRADE NEGOTIATIONS SUSPENDED, CARNEY VOWS DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR RETALIATION AGAINST TRUMP’S 50% TARIFFS

The prime minister on Saturday accused Washington of making a last-minute “power play,” saying the U.S. sought to restrict Canada’s ability to negotiate trade agreements with other countries.

According to Carney, trade talks broke down after the U.S. introduced new demands involving Canada’s other trading relationships, its auto sector and protections for Canadian culture and the French language.

“In short, they asked too much, and they offered too little,” Carney said.

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Carney previously said Ottawa plans to match the U.S. tariffs “dollar for dollar,” with the levies targeting multiple sectors, including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics. The duties are set to take effect the Tuesday after Labor Day, Sept. 8.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz and Fox Business’ Brittany Miller contributed to this report.

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Wall Street opened Monday under pressure as investors sold semiconductor and other high-growth technology stocks ahead of Nvidia’s earnings, while a fresh U.S. sanctions offensive against Iran and stubbornly high Treasury yields added another layer of risk.

By 9:45 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq Composite was down 164.5 points, or 0.63%, at 26,015.94. The S&P 500 fell 20.8 points, or 0.27%, to 7,653.60, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average bucked the weakness and rose 112 points, or 0.21%, to 53,389.19.

The split tells the story.

This is not a broad market panic. It is a concentrated selloff in the part of the market that has carried much of Wall Street’s gains: AI, semiconductors and other expensive growth stocks.

Nvidia fell 2.44% early Monday. Marvell Technology and Micron Technology each dropped more than 6%, while Sandisk plunged 10.62%. The S&P 500 technology sector fell 1.11%, making it the weakest major sector in early trading.

At the same time, advancing stocks actually outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange by roughly 1.15 to 1.

That is important.

The Dow is rising because money is not simply leaving the market. Investors are rotating away from the most expensive technology names and into other sectors while they wait to see whether Nvidia can justify the expectations already built into AI valuations.

Nvidia reports Wednesday.

Analysts are looking for quarterly revenue of roughly $92 billion — nearly double the level from a year earlier. That would normally be an extraordinary number.

The problem for Nvidia is that extraordinary has become expected.

The stock has become the most important single barometer of the AI investment boom, and its earnings now influence everything from semiconductor manufacturers to data-center operators, utilities, networking companies and the broader Nasdaq.

A strong quarter may therefore not be enough. Investors will be looking for evidence that orders remain strong enough to support the hundreds of billions of dollars being committed to AI infrastructure worldwide.

That concern is already spreading beyond Nvidia.

Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares fell about 1.2% after the Chinese technology giant announced a $10.2 billion share sale specifically to finance additional AI investment. The financing reinforces a question increasingly hanging over the sector: how much capital will companies need to spend before investors see sufficient returns?

The second pressure on Monday’s market is coming from Washington.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is scheduled to detail what he has called an “economic D-Day” against Iran, with the administration threatening sanctions not only against Iranian entities but potentially against companies and countries that continue trading with Tehran.

That raises the stakes considerably.

China remains the largest buyer of Iranian oil, meaning aggressive secondary sanctions could affect energy flows, shipping, international trade and relations between Washington and Beijing.

Oil prices were actually falling roughly 2% Monday morning, as traders took profits after last week’s sharp increase. But that decline could reverse quickly depending on what Washington announces and how Iran responds.

The third problem is the bond market.

The 30-year Treasury yield remained above 5% Monday, despite Treasury’s decision last week to expand purchases of older long-dated bonds.

That matters because high Treasury yields directly compete with stocks for investor money.

When investors can earn more than 5% lending to the U.S. government for decades, companies trading at extremely high valuations must offer an even stronger earnings argument to justify the additional risk.

That pressure is particularly severe for technology stocks, whose valuations depend heavily on profits expected years into the future.

Monday’s opening therefore is not simply about one bad morning for Nvidia.

It is a test of whether the market can continue supporting enormous AI valuations while long-term interest rates remain above 5%, companies borrow and raise billions more to fund AI expansion, and geopolitical risk threatens to push energy prices higher again.

There is also important economic data coming Wednesday.

The government will release the Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, on the same day Nvidia reports earnings.

Markets have now fully priced in at least one quarter-point Federal Reserve rate increase before the end of 2026, although expectations for an immediate September move have eased.

That makes Wednesday unusually important.

If inflation comes in hot while Nvidia disappoints, Wall Street could face pressure simultaneously from higher interest-rate expectations and weaker confidence in the AI trade.

If inflation cools and Nvidia delivers another exceptional quarter, Monday’s chip selloff could instead become another buying opportunity.

For now, the message from the opening bell is clear: investors are not abandoning stocks — they are demanding a much higher burden of proof from the companies that have become the most expensive and important part of the market.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

Israel is set to develop offensive space capabilities as part of the Defense Ministry’s multiyear budget plan for the space sector, including systems designed to defend Israeli satellites from hostile spacecraft and weapons capable of striking targets on Earth from space.

The plan includes upgrades to existing capabilities, including expanded intelligence collection from space and improved communications systems. A dedicated budget will be allocated for offensive space activity as part of a broader effort to strengthen Israel’s position in the space domain.

The Defense Ministry’s multiyear plan focuses on several areas.

The first is the expansion of IDF intelligence collection capabilities from space through multiple layers, allowing operations around the clock, in all weather conditions and across multiple locations simultaneously.

The second area involves establishing broad, resilient, and continuous communications capabilities for the defense establishment.

A nighttime satellite views shows Israel and the Middle East. (credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)

In addition, a dedicated budget will support offensive space operations focused on two main areas: weapons designed to protect Israeli satellites from hostile satellites, and weapons capable of striking targets on Earth from space, both to defend the Israeli home front and to strike hostile actors.

To advance these efforts, the Directorate of Defense Research and Development (MAFAT), the IDF, and Israel’s defense industries are engaged in a planning and development process.

Operation Roaring Lion 

One factor accelerating the process is Operation Roaring Lion, during which the Defense Ministry and the IDF expanded their use of satellites to gather precise intelligence from space. This strengthened their ability to build target banks during the war.

Defense Minister Israel Katz has argued in closed forums that the space domain requires a major, rapid upgrade to create an advantage over enemy states and position Israel among the world’s five leading countries in the field.

According to Katz, space-based capabilities will provide the IDF with a clear advantage in future conflicts, rather than relying solely on Military Intelligence and the Air Force.

“The space dimension allows us to photograph both day and night, penetrate clouds, and create additional high-resolution imaging capabilities,” Katz said regarding the Ofek 19 satellite.

‘Security superiority’ from space

“Operation Roaring Lion represented a very significant leap forward for us in the field of space,” said Avi Berger, head of the Defense Ministry’s Space Directorate, in an exclusive interview with Walla.

Berger received the Israel Defense Prize for technological projects in the space sector.

“We received the award for the launch of Ofek 13 and Ofek 19,” Berger said.

He explained that the two satellites are SAR satellites, meaning radar satellites, whose technology differs from standard electro-optical imaging satellites. Traditional imaging satellites rely on sunlight reflecting off the ground, returning to the satellite’s optics and creating an image.

“With a SAR satellite, the satellite itself creates the image: it transmits electromagnetic radiation toward the ground, and through special technology, everything that returns from the ground from that energy creates a synthetic image that allows us to produce intelligence,” Berger said.

Berger explained that “this allows us to photograph both day and night, penetrate clouds, and create additional high-resolution imaging capabilities in other contexts that cannot be discussed.”

Alongside further discussion of satellites and additional capabilities of the Space Directorate, Berger emphasized that “the State of Israel must, must, create security superiority in space, so that we can create freedom of action for the IDF and the defense establishment.”

According to Berger, “Based on this, we will be able to create additional effects against various geographic areas.”

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Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir spoke with US President Donald Trump last week, according to three Pakistani sources, days before Munir was expected to hold talks in the Iranian capital Tehran on Monday.

The call, which has not been previously reported, came as the US threatened to roll out major economic sanctions targeting Iran and its trade partners.

The White House Office of the Press Secretary did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was unclear what Munir and Trump discussed.

Pakistan’s military confirmed the visit on Monday, saying it was “part of Pakistan’s efforts to promote regional peace and stability.” Iranian officials had confirmed the visit on Sunday, saying it was focused on security and peace.

Trump last week warned of economic consequences against any country that provided “any type of lifeline to Iran” as he seeks to isolate the Islamic Republic. Iran in turn vowed ‌to shut down all oil exports from the Gulf.

Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir attends a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the Great Hall of the People on May 25, 2026 in Beijing, China. (credit: Tingshu Wang - Pool/Getty Images)

Pakistan plays mediating role between US, Iran

Pakistan, which has played a key mediating role between the US and Iran this year, has remained a trading partner of Iran throughout the recent fighting.

Munir was expected to meet with people close to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Monday, one Pakistani source said.

Another Pakistani government source said that while US-Iran tensions were a focus of the visit, Munir was also expected to discuss recent attacks by Iran-aligned Houthi fighters on Pakistan’s ally Saudi Arabia as well as the recently signed mutual defense agreement between Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan’s earlier mediation efforts between the US and Iran resulted in an interim peace agreement signed in June. But the Islamabad Memorandum quickly faltered, amid new fighting between Iran and the US that has threatened to spiral into a wider regional conflict in recent weeks.

“There is a trust deficit on both sides,” a third Pakistani source said about the US and Iran, adding that Munir’s aim was to mitigate the lack of mutual trust on Monday.

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Apple is preparing to raise iPhone prices as the same memory shortage that already pushed up the cost of Macs and iPads reaches the company’s most important consumer product.

The exact increase has not been announced, but Apple has been watching competitors Samsung and Google, both of which raised flagship-phone prices by about $100. A similar increase would push the expected iPhone 18 Pro from $1,099 to about $1,199, roughly a 9% jump.

The pressure is coming from inside the phone.

Memory chips have become dramatically more expensive as artificial-intelligence data centers consume enormous quantities of advanced memory and manufacturers struggle to expand supply quickly enough. Apple has already acknowledged that its component costs are rising sharply.

Chief Executive Tim Cook recently described the situation as a “100-year flood” in memory pricing, saying Apple had reluctantly raised prices across other product categories because the increases had become too large to absorb.

Mac and iPad prices rose earlier this summer, while the current iPhone lineup was largely spared.

That protection now appears unlikely to last.

Apple is expected to introduce its next premium iPhones in September, including the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, along with its first foldable iPhone. The new devices are also expected to use more expensive processors and camera components, adding another layer of cost beyond memory.

For consumers, a $100 increase matters beyond the sticker price.

Many buyers finance phones through carriers over 24 or 36 months, which can make a price increase appear small on a monthly bill. But households purchasing several devices can still end up paying hundreds of dollars more during an upgrade cycle, particularly once storage upgrades, AppleCare and accessories are added.

Apple also has an incentive not to push prices too far.

The company already raised prices sharply elsewhere in its product lineup, and an aggressive iPhone increase risks slowing upgrades at a time when consumers are keeping smartphones longer. A roughly $100 increase would keep Apple broadly aligned with competing premium phones rather than creating a substantially new pricing tier.

There is one important distinction for buyers: Apple has not announced the final prices yet.

The current expectation is based on rising component costs and reporting about Apple’s preparations, not an official price list. The final numbers are likely to arrive with Apple’s September product launch.

But the larger trend is increasingly difficult to avoid.

Artificial intelligence is not only making data centers more expensive to build. By consuming enormous amounts of memory and semiconductor capacity, the AI boom is beginning to raise the cost of everyday electronics as well.

The next place consumers may see that bill is in their pocket.

JBizNews Desk | Cupertino, California

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

Iran warned that U.S. sanctions set to be announced Monday would not bring peace to the region. Meanwhile, Israeli and Syrian officials met less than a week after Israeli strikes in Syria. And Israel said it killed a Hamas commander in Gaza.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East on Monday. Full coverage can be found here.

Iran threatens response ahead of US sanctions announcement

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson warned that Tehran would respond harshly to expanded U.S. sanctions, including measures against countries it sees as cooperating with Washington.

“Any escalation of this situation will undoubtedly bring about consequences,” Esmail Baghaei said. “Our hands are not tied.” The new head of Iran’s top security body warned Sunday that Tehran will see any country’s support for the sanctions as an “act of war.”

The expanded sanctions come after weeks of impasse. The United States has not dislodged Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passed before the war started nearly six months ago.

Iran’s demands for reopening the strait include lifting the U.S. naval blockade, withdrawing U.S. forces from the region and reparations for damages sustained in the war. It has held separate talks with Oman, on the other side of the strait, on jointly managing the waterway regardless of whether a new deal is brokered with the U.S.

Sanctions have historically raised prices of basic goods in Iran, but after decades of withstanding them, Iran’s economy has adapted through finding new trading partners and building domestic industries.

Ahead of the expected U.S. announcement, the country’s currency hit a record low on Monday.

Israeli and Syrian officials meet following an Israeli airstrike

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani met over the weekend with a high-level Israeli delegation in Jordan to try to defuse tensions after Israel last week struck an air base in northern Syria, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

The U.S.-mediated discussions on Sunday focused on restarting negotiations for a future security agreement, SANA said.

Israel struck the Abu Duhur air base in Idlib province, saying it aimed to stop Turkey — which has supported the new Syrian government’s efforts to rebuild its armed forces after 14 years of civil war — from establishing a presence there.

Syrian officials during the talks asserted the right to develop an army and freely forge alliances with any country, SANA said.

They also called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from a buffer zone in southern Syria they have occupied since December 2024, and reiterated Syria’s stance that the Golan Heights — which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed — is Syrian territory.

Israeli officials didn’t immediately comment on the meeting.

Israel says it killed another Hamas militant

Israel’s military said it killed a militant affiliated with Hamas’ special forces unit in an overnight airstrike, the latest targeted killing announced since U.S. officials met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week hoping to push last year’s ceasefire deal forward.

Israel says it targets and kills Palestinian militants it says participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war.

Israel has announced targeted strikes on six of the seven days since U.S. negotiator Jared Kushner’s meeting with Netanyahu.

At least 1,288 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect last October, according to Gaza’s health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government. Its numbers are generally considered reliable by the international community.

Palestinian American says he can’t freely leave West Bank home

The Palestinian American homeowner whose residence was besieged this month by Israeli settlers said he remained unable to move freely in the village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank. Loui Ridi traveled from Ohio to join his relatives defending his home a week ago.

The Israeli military declared the area a closed zone to restore order in Qusra. Ridi said settlers returned throughout the week to the hill above his house.

Since Israeli settlers surrounded the house more than two weeks ago, preventing occupants from leaving, Israeli soldiers have encouraged them to leave but Israel’s police have not announced arrests.

The siege and Israel’s response have sparked condemnation from Israeli rights groups and foreign officials, including U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who called the violence terrorism.

Palestinians consider the West Bank, home to some 3 million Palestinians and 560,000 Israeli settlers, the heart of any future state and have condemned Israel’s expansion there. This year has seen a dramatic spike in violence carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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U.S. forces have struck another vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two people the Pentagon says were trafficking drugs.

The U.S. Southern Command announced the strike in a social media post early Monday. The death toll from the Trump administration’s campaign of bombing boats off Latin America’s Caribbean coast and in the eastern Pacific now exceeds 210 after more than 60 strikes.

The Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere “executed a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific.” Intelligence confirmed the vessel was carrying illegal drugs, the statement said.

“We are committed to imposing total systemic friction on narco-terrorists — disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership, and eliminating cartel terror across the region,” said Gen. Francis Donovan, who leads U.S. Southern Command.

The latest strike comes days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. would extend its offensive to land across multiple Latin American countries. The secretary said during a visit to Panama that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the U.S. to carry out joint military operations against criminal groups on their soil. Guatemala denied reaching such an agreement.

Ecuador launched similar missions with the U.S. in March.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Google’s $10 million purchase of a vast archive of Spirit Airlines’ internal data—which includes employee emails—has run into opposition from flight attendants, who argue that the privacy protections attached to the deal do not adequately cover sensitive information. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents flight attendants nationwide, filed an objection in US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York challenging the proposed sale of the airline’s digital records to Google.

“The privacy architecture of this transaction is consumer-facing; its payload is disproportionately employee-facing,” the filing states. “Hence, the employee data is far more confidential than the customer data, yet receives far less protection than the customer data.”

Spirit Airlines has been one of America’s best-known low-cost airlines, building business off of affordable flights and charging separately for services. But its collapse has led investors and stakeholders to sell off the company’s remaining assets, which include physical and digital property. 

The dispute creates a wrinkle in Google’s effort to turn the remains of the bankrupt airline into fuel for its AI ambitions. The tech giant won a bankruptcy auction for $10 million, beating AI recruiting company Mercor who offered $7.5 million. The transaction includes roughly 100 million emails and 500 million Microsoft Teams messages—along with spreadsheets, calendars, software code and other internal business records.

Google has disputed the data risk and told Fortune it is currently reviewing the objection filed by the union. The company posits there will be no personal identifying information that is of concern by the AFA-CWA included in the data obtained by Google.

“We acquired part of an enterprise dataset from Spirit Airlines, which can be helpful in improving our products and AI models,” A Google spokesperson told Fortune. “We will not receive any personal information from this dataset.”

The company also said any data that is received through the sale will be de-identified by an unnamed third party before being obtained by the tech corporation.

According to Google’s sale filing, the data protections applied to the auction include consumer data—but doesn’t specifically state employee confidentiality.

“Assets shall not include information that relates to, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated with a consumer or is otherwise considered ‘personal data’, ‘personal information’, ‘nonpublic personal information’ or other similar term under applicable data protection laws,” the filing read.

Google says it has “no interest” in receiving employee or any individual personal identifying information.

However, the Association of Flight Attendants says Google’s safeguards aren’t enough. In a note published this week, the union said the auction filing “does not address whether the contents of the record are confidential.”

The union also wrote that they have concerns that the Sale Agreement’s “deidentification” might still preserve “referential integrity across the data set”—meaning the transmission of the data could possibly allow the confidential records to be followed.

The organization has also sent challenges to the failed airline itself, arguing the company did not adequately notify employees before shutting down. 

“Spirit Flight Attendants still haven’t been paid their accrued vacation and sick leave, along with other compensation they are due,” AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson told Fortune. “Attempting to now sell their data is adding insult to injury.”

But this doesn’t mean the union is committed to shutting down the sale—or the data transfer. According to its filing, AFA-CWA “does not seek to disrupt the Debtors’ sale process, to unwind the Auction, or to prevent the estates from monetizing data assets.” Instead, it only looks to remove all identifying information that can be traced back to individuals and employees related to the airline.

“The flight attendants’ interest is in confidentiality,” the filing states.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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As of 9 a.m. Eastern Time today, oil sold for $94.12 per barrel (using Brent as the benchmark, which we’ll get into momentarily). That’s 54 cents lower than yesterday morning and approximately a $26.21 rise over the past year.

Oil price per barrel % Change
Price of oil yesterday $94.66 -0.57%
Price of oil 1 month ago $101.22 -7.01%
Price of oil 1 year ago $67.91 +38.59%

Will oil prices go up?

It’s impossible to predict the future of oil prices. Several factors determine the movement of oil, but it ultimately boils down to supply and demand. Again, when threats of economic downturn, war, etc. are high, the oil trajectory can turn rapidly.

How oil prices translate to gas pump prices

When you pay for gas at the pump, you’re paying for more than just the crude oil itself; you’re also springing for links along the chain, such as the refineries and wholesalers—not to mention taxes and local gas station markups.

Still, the crude oil aspect affects the final price most dramatically, as it typically accounts for more than half the price per gallon. When oil prices spike, so do gas prices. And frustratingly, when oil prices drop, gas prices tend to take their time drifting down to the lower price (sometimes referred to as “rockets and feathers”).

The role of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve

In case of emergency, the U.S. has a store of crude oil known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Its primary purpose is energy security in case of disaster (think sanctions, severe storm damage, even war). But it can also go a long way toward softening crippling price hikes during supply shocks.

It’s not a long-term answer—more of an immediate relief to assist the consumer and keep critical parts of the economy running, like key industries, emergency services, public transportation, etc.

How oil and natural gas prices are linked

Oil and natural gas are both major energy fuels. A big change in oil prices can affect natural gas by extension. For example, if oil prices increase, some industries may swap natural gas for some segments of their operations where possible—which increases demand for natural gas.

Historical performance of oil

When examining oil’s performance, there are generally two major benchmarks:

  • Brent crude oil is the main global oil benchmark.
  • West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is the main benchmark of North America.

Between the two, Brent better represents global oil performance because it prices much of the world’s traded crude. And, it’s often the best way to track historical oil performance. In fact, even the U.S. Energy Information Administration now uses Brent as its primary reference in its Annual Energy Outlook.

Looking at the Brent benchmark across several decades, oil has been anything but steady. It’s seen spikes due to factors such as wars and supply cuts, and it’s also seen crashes from global recessions and an oversupply (called a “glut”). For example:

  • The early 1970s brought the first big oil shock when the Middle East cut exports and imposed an embargo on the U.S. and others during the Yom Kippur War.
  • Prices dropped in the mid-1980s for reasons such as lower demand and more non-OPEC oil producers entering the industry.
  • Prices spiked again in 2008 with increased global demand, but it soon plummeted alongside the global financial crisis.
  • During the 2020 COVID lockdown, oil demand collapsed like never before—bringing prices below $20 per barrel.

All to say, oil’s historical performance has been anything but smooth. Again, it’s hugely affected by wars, recessions, OPEC whims, evolving energy initiatives and policies, and much more.

Energy coverage from Fortune

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Frequently asked questions

How is the current price of oil per barrel actually determined?

The current price of oil per barrel depends largely on supply and demand, including news about potential future supply and demand (geopolitics, decisions made by OPEC+, etc.). In the U.S., prices also move based on how friendly an administration is to drilling, as it can affect future supply. For example, 2025 saw the Trump administration move to reopen more than 1.5 million acres in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, reversing the Biden administration’s policy of limiting oil drilling in the Arctic.

How often does the price of oil change during the day?

The price of oil updates constantly when the “futures” markets are open. A futures market is effectively an auction where people agree to buy or sell oil in the future. As long as people and companies are trading contracts, the oil price is changing.

How does U.S. shale oil production affect the current price of oil?

In short, shale is rock that contains oil and natural gas. Think of shale as energy yet to be tapped. The more shale the U.S. accesses, the more energy we’ll have—and the more easily oil prices can keep from spiking as much thanks to a greater supply.

How does the current price of oil impact inflation and the broader economy?

When oil is expensive, it tends to make everyday items cost more. This can be related to energy (your heating, gas utilities, etc.), but it’s also due to the logistics involved with making those items accessible to you. Shipping, for example, can affect the price of things at the grocery store, as it’s more expensive to get those products from warehouses and farms onto the shelf.

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The new head of Iran’s top security body warned Sunday that Tehran will see any country’s support for new U.S. economic measures against the Islamic Republic as an “act of war,” while Iran’s president defended a memorandum of understanding with the United States as the best way out of the stalled conflict.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday is expected to announce the new measures after the U.S. vowed to impose an “unprecedented” level of economic warfare and isolation on a country that has lived for decades under sanctions. Also Monday, Pakistan’s army chief is expected to visit Iran as mediators try to revive talks.

Meanwhile, attacks calmed on the Strait of Hormuz but posturing did not, as a recently created Iranian authority listed dozens of vessels it said will face restrictions on future transits.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East on Sunday. Full coverage can be found here.

Iran’s security chief sharpens warning to neighbors

The hard-line leader of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, issued his latest warning on X, with the comments quickly shared by Iranian state media.

It came a day after Rezaei’s most extensive public comments since being named to the post this month.

“If (Trump) wants to do something, we will retaliate in a seismic manner,” he had told the state broadcaster in an interview that aired late Saturday. He said Iran would target other oil-shipping routes from the Persian Gulf — alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz.

Rezaei, a former Revolutionary Guard commander and military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was part of senior appointments widely seen as hardening Tehran’s political and military stance.

Iranian president wants to move past ‘neither war nor peace’

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier Sunday said the memorandum of understanding signed in mid-June was the best way to move beyond a situation of “neither war nor peace,” adding that Tehran can’t attract investment nearly six months after the war began.

“There is not a single provision in this agreement that amounts to capitulation,” Pezeshkian said in a speech published by state-run IRNA. “The supreme leader sets the policies, and we will follow that path.”

The interim deal opened a 60-day period for talks aimed at ending the war and reaching an accord on Iran’s nuclear program. That period ended last week with no signs of compromise or extension.

No attacks confirmed on the strait, but new restrictions

There were no confirmed attacks in the Strait of Hormuz over the past 48 hours, a multinational coalition overseen by the U.S. Navy said Sunday, with shipping traffic still at reduced levels. The U.S. military said its blockade of Iranian ports had redirected 70 commercial ships and disabled three as of Sunday.

Iran’s recently created Persian Gulf Strait Authority, sanctioned by the U.S., published a list of dozens of ships it said had violated arrangements for transiting the strait and would face future restrictions like fines or seizures. The strait had been considered an international waterway before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28.

Iran and Oman, on the strait’s other side, are now discussing management of it, which likely will include ships paying fees.

Pakistan’s army chief will visit Tehran

Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir will lead a delegation to Tehran on Monday, Iranian state television reported, citing Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei.

Two regional officials said the visit was part of Islamabad’s efforts to de-escalate tensions between the United States and Iran and urge them to return to the negotiating table. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

— By Munir Ahmed in Islamabad

Iran executes man arrested during January protests

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported the latest execution connected to nationwide protests early this year, saying Majid Adineh was arrested Jan. 9 in Mohammadshahr, west of Tehran.

The judiciary said forensic examinations indicated the handgun found on him had been fired on Jan. 8 and 9. Mizan said Adineh had joined the unrest following calls by groups opposed to Iran’s government and alleged that he had received training from groups outside the country. He was convicted under Iran’s law imposing harsher penalties for espionage and cooperation with hostile states.

Israeli settler arrested in beating of Palestinian amputee

Police arrested a 16-year-old boy from the Israeli settlement of Avigayil in the beating of a 61-year-old Palestinian, Saeed Muhammad Ibrahim Rabah, outside his home in the occupied West Bank, a year after he lost a leg after being shot by a settler.

Rabah told The Associated Press that the violence at his home in Khirbet al-Rakeez on Saturday was an effort to make families leave, but “we will remain, no matter what happens.”

Separately, the West Bank Health Ministry said a 14-year-old in the Askar refugee camp in Nablus was shot dead by Israeli forces, who did not immediately comment. The uncle of Islam Maher Ajouri, Nehad Ajouri, called the shooting indiscriminate.

And Israel’s military said it detained a suspect in a stabbing attack that wounded a 24-year-old Israeli man in the area of al-Auja in the West Bank. Israel’s emergency services said the man was in moderate condition.

Airstrike in Gaza kills a 4-year-old child

Four-year-old Mohammed Taha died after an Israeli airstrike hit a central Gaza house on Sunday and wounded at least five others, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the casualties.

Israel’s military later said it struck and killed a Hamas commander in central Gaza. The hospital confirmed that the man named, Ismail Abu Ful, was killed.

An Israeli strike in southern Gaza wounded at least seven people, including three children, according to health officials at Nasser Hospital. The military did not immediately comment.

And Defense Minister Israel Katz in a statement said he instructed the military to “act immediately and forcefully” to prevent launches of balloons, kites or drones from Gaza toward nearby Israeli communities.

Before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas-led militants on Israel — when 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage — burning kites and balloons were sent from Gaza into southern Israel, causing fires and other damage.

Hamas in a statement Sunday accused Israel of “using children’s toys as a pretext” for attacks and further displacement of Gaza residents.

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A coalition representing immigrant-owned grocers is targeting New York City in a lawsuit over democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plans to open multiple government-owned grocery stores in the Big Apple, a government intervention that is expected to cut into the profits of regular markets.

The lawsuit was expected to be filed Monday at 8 a.m. ET, following efforts to resolve the solution out of court.

“Although we have not heard from you since May 2026, we are open to resolving this matter amicably with more sensible solutions to feed working class people with nutritious essential food items at affordable prices,” the group’s president Kenneth Roldan declared in a letter to City Hall, according to a New York Post report last week.

NYC TAXPAYERS COULD PAY TWICE UNDER MAMDANI’S CITY-OWNED GROCERY STORE PLAN

“We are asking the mayor to avoid litigation to sit down with us,” legal counsel for the coalition, Mark Jaffe, the president of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, told the outlet. “But we have to try to stop this if they won’t listen to us.”

Duvi Honig, Founder & CEO, Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce; Co-Founder & Secretary, Multicultural Business Coalition said “Government should be focused on helping small businesses succeed, not using taxpayer dollars to compete against them. At the same time, if City Hall wants to spend $70 million, it needs a serious business plan that protects taxpayers and shows how every dollar will be used to help people as effectively as possible.”

The first of five planned government-linked grocery stores is expected to open next year, the mayor’s office announced earlier this year.

MAMDANI’S LUXURY-HOME TAX GETS NEW LIFE AS APPEALS COURT LIFTS ROADBLOCK IN HOMEOWNER FIGHT

“Under the model, the City will own the land and cover overhead costs like rent and construction. A private operator, selected through a request for proposals, will manage daily operations and be contractually required to pass savings directly to customers on a core basket of everyday staples,” an April news release stated.

Mamdani has claimed that prices for a core basket of grocery items will be priced 30% lower than normal retail prices at the government-affiliated stores.

BILL ACKMAN SOUNDS ALARM ON MAMDANI’S ECONOMIC AGENDA: ‘SOCIALISM IS A DISASTER’

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“This core set of goods will include all fresh produce, meat and seafood along with 20 other essential items like cheese, milk and bread. Here’s how it will work: Once a month, our five city-run grocery stores will set prices for this core set of goods at 30% below typical retail prices,” he said last month.

FOX Business’ Madison Alsworth contributed to this report.

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The federal government keeps what amounts to its primary checking account at the Federal Reserve, using it to collect taxes, receive borrowed money and pay the nation’s bills. That account currently holds roughly $950 billion—and Treasury officials say some of that enormous cash reserve could potentially be used to expand purchases of long-term government bonds.

Two senior Treasury officials said Monday that the Treasury General Account, commonly known as the TGA, could help finance larger bond buybacks. They did not say how much money could be deployed or when a decision might be announced, leaving markets to calculate how aggressively Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent may be prepared to intervene.

That uncertainty is the heart of the story.

Last week, the Treasury surprised markets by announcing that it would at least double the maximum size of certain buybacks of older long-term bonds, increasing them from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The purchases will target securities with maturities ranging from 10 to 30 years beginning Sept. 9.

Bond buybacks allow the government to repurchase older Treasury securities that may be more difficult to trade. That can improve market liquidity, support bond prices and place downward pressure on yields—the interest rates the government must effectively offer investors to hold its debt.

The unanswered question was how Treasury would finance a significantly larger program.

Ordinarily, Treasury buybacks do not eliminate government borrowing. The department typically issues new securities and uses the proceeds to retire older ones, effectively changing the mix and maturity of the national debt rather than reducing it.

Many investors therefore assumed Treasury would finance expanded purchases by issuing additional short-term bills—borrowing at the short end of the market to buy back debt at the long end. That strategy has been compared with the Federal Reserve’s former “Operation Twist,” which was designed to influence long-term interest rates without dramatically expanding the central bank’s overall balance sheet.

Using existing Treasury cash would change the immediate calculation.

Treasury could initially fund purchases without issuing an equivalent amount of new debt at the same time, giving Bessent considerably more flexibility than the announced $4 billion-per-operation limit appeared to provide.

But the entire $950 billion is not unrestricted money waiting to be invested. The account also serves as the government’s operating reserve, covering Social Security, Medicare, military spending, federal salaries, debt payments and countless other daily obligations.

Treasury has also projected that its cash balance could rise above $1 trillion later this year because of unusually large expected outflows. Any money used for bond purchases may eventually have to be replenished through future tax receipts or borrowing.

Still, the size of the account gives the government substantial short-term firepower.

Treasury had previously operated with cash-balance targets closer to $550 billion to $600 billion. Its current projections assume a balance of approximately $950 billion at the end of September, followed by $850 billion at the end of December. Officials have said the balance could temporarily peak near $1.05 trillion in late October.

Markets reacted immediately to the possibility that some of that cash could support the bond market. Treasury yields moved lower Monday morning, with the 10-year yield retreating from around 4.70% to approximately 4.64%. The 30-year yield also pulled back after recently climbing above 5.30%.

The reaction reflected renewed confidence that Treasury may be prepared to purchase more than the market initially expected.

The previously announced $4 billion operations are small compared with a Treasury market exceeding $32 trillion. Treasury had earlier projected up to $38 billion in long-term liquidity-support buybacks during the quarter—a meaningful amount for individual parts of the market, but not enough by itself to transform the government’s borrowing outlook.

A cash reserve approaching $1 trillion creates the possibility of a much larger intervention, even if Treasury uses only a fraction of it.

For households and businesses, the consequences extend well beyond Wall Street.

The 10-year Treasury yield is a critical benchmark for mortgage rates, corporate borrowing and other forms of credit. When long-term government yields rise, lenders generally demand higher rates from homebuyers, companies and consumers. When those yields fall, borrowing conditions can gradually ease.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has been running near 6.7%, placing additional pressure on a housing market already strained by high prices and limited affordability. Businesses are also facing more expensive credit lines, equipment financing and construction loans.

That makes Bessent’s effort relevant to anyone trying to purchase a home, refinance debt, expand a company or finance a major investment.

The strategy is not without controversy.

Critics argue that Treasury is moving beyond routine debt management and attempting to influence long-term interest rates—traditionally the territory of the Federal Reserve. Lowering long-term yields could also loosen financial conditions while Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh is working to control inflation.

Treasury officials reject the suggestion that the department has abandoned its commitment to regular and predictable debt management. They say the expanded buybacks are intended to improve liquidity in older, less frequently traded securities—not to establish a permanent government program for controlling interest rates.

The distinction will become increasingly difficult to maintain if the purchases grow substantially.

With the national debt now above $40 trillion and annual federal interest costs approaching historic levels, rising bond yields have become more than a market problem. They directly increase the cost of financing the government and can consume money that would otherwise support federal programs, national defense or tax relief.

The question is no longer whether Bessent is willing to intervene in the Treasury market. He already has.

The question now is how much of the government’s enormous cash reserve he is prepared to put behind that intervention—and whether temporary support for bond prices can provide lasting relief from the deeper fiscal pressures driving yields higher.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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The Trump administration is preparing to launch what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called an “economic D-Day” against Iran, escalating pressure not only on Tehran but also on foreign governments, financial institutions and businesses that continue providing the country with economic lifelines.

The campaign could raise the stakes for companies and countries with financial, shipping and energy ties to Iran, as Tehran threatens to treat participation in the U.S. pressure campaign as an “act of war” and potentially disrupt oil exports across the Persian Gulf.

“At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary,” Bessent wrote in a Financial Times op-ed published Sunday ahead of planned remarks Monday.

Bessent said the administration intends to target the remaining commercial and financial links sustaining Iran, including countries and entities involved in purchasing and transporting Iranian petroleum, moving money through exchange houses and free-trade zones, maintaining ship registries and facilitating other financial activity.

US WARNS OF ACTIVE CYBER THREAT TARGETING CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

“Any nation that serves as a financial artery of a withering regime should expect to share in its isolation,” Bessent wrote.

President Donald Trump has separately described the campaign as the “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY,” warning that countries allowing their banks, businesses, airports or government entities to provide Iran with an economic “lifeline” could face U.S. economic consequences.

A POWERFUL COUNTRY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD IS QUIETLY SHAPING TRUMP’S LATEST TRADE FIGHT

Trump specifically cited oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries and front companies among the activities Washington is targeting.

Iran, meanwhile, is seeking to raise the potential cost for countries that align with Washington’s campaign.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned Sunday that Tehran could move against oil exports from the region if the pressure continues.

“If the economic war continues, not a single drop of oil will be exported, neither through the Strait of Hormuz nor from anywhere in the Persian Gulf,” Rezaei wrote on X. “Iran will regard any country’s participation in or support for America’s economic war against the Iranian people as an act of war.”

The dueling warnings are increasing pressure on governments and companies weighing whether to maintain economic ties with Iran and risk consequences from Washington or distance themselves from Tehran amid threats of Iranian retaliation.

China said Monday that sanctions and pressure would not resolve the dispute and that Beijing would take necessary steps to protect its rights and interests, according to reporting from Reuters. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian also urged the parties to act with restraint.

Pakistan, meanwhile, has continued its efforts to mediate between Washington and Tehran. Pakistani army chief Asim Munir arrived in Tehran Monday for talks that Pakistan’s military said were part of efforts to promote regional peace and stability.

Bessent has not yet publicly detailed the full legal and financial measures that will make up the new campaign. His op-ed said the administration is prepared to use “every agency, every authority” to isolate Iran economically.

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FOX Business has reached out to the Treasury Department for additional details on the scope of the planned measures. Bessent is expected to provide additional details on the administration’s Iran strategy later Monday.

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Five years ago, Bill Ackman said it would have been too hard to lure top scientists away from universities. Now, he thinks the balance of power has shifted.

The billionaire investor and his wife, designer and entrepreneur Neri Oxman, are launching a new Manhattan neuroscience and longevity center called the Ackman Oxman Institute, or AOI. Ackman said in a lengthy Aug. 19 post on X that the couple is donating roughly $400 million in Pershing Square stock to anchor the institute, with another gift of a similar or potentially greater size to come.

“Our goal is to build the world’s greatest brain research, rehabilitation, recovery, human optimization, and longevity institute,” Ackman wrote. 

The project is partly a bet on brain science, but also one that traditional universities have become more vulnerable in the competition for elite researchers.

Ackman said he and Oxman considered creating a brain institute half a decade ago, inspired in part by Oxman’s mother, who died from Alzheimer’s. They decided against it because New York real estate was too expensive and they believed it would be “too difficult to recruit the best talent from universities to our effort,” Ackman wrote.

But he said the equation has changed. The real estate needed for the project became available at a 70% discount. Universities, meanwhile, have become “a much less attractive place to work,” he wrote, citing campus politics, antisemitism and declining funding.

That claim fits into Ackman’s broader fight with elite universities. He helped lead the pressure campaign against former Harvard president Claudine Gay, criticized the university’s handling of antisemitism, attacked its DEI policies and later called for the ousting of several Harvard board members.

Ackman’s post didn’t mention data points about scientists leaving universities en masse. But his new institute is being structured around the idea that top researchers can be persuaded to leave, or at least work outside, the traditional university system.

AOI will be “patient-centric” and explicitly focused on turning scientific discoveries into treatments, Ackman wrote. It will not be an academic institute that produces “lots of papers” but “little if any results for patients.” Instead, its mandate will be to speed the path from research to cures, treatments and devices. 

“If you are going to have a devastating brain injury, now is the best time in history for that to happen,” Ackman wrote. “We are living in a world when you can be confident that the blind will soon see again.  We are going to do everything we can to help make that happen, including by assisting existing companies in the space.”

Though AOI will be a nonprofit, Ackman explained it will have “highly commercial instincts.” The institute plans to run its own venture funding operation, create and seed companies around technologies developed there, and reinvest the financial returns into further research.

The project also has a sizable physical footprint. Ackman said the Pershing Square Foundation acquired a nearly vacant, 400,000-square-foot biotech facility on Manhattan’s West Side after a real estate colleague alerted him to the property in May. The foundation also has an adjoining 130,000-square-foot building under contract and is acquiring a neighboring vacant lot.

With additional construction permitted under current zoning, Ackman said the campus could reach 680,000 square feet—larger than Rockefeller University’s laboratory footprint.

The institute will combine neuroscience, rehabilitation, nutrition, clinical trials and longevity research onto the same campus. Ackman also wants AOI to work across institutional boundaries, with Mount Sinai as an important partner but not its only collaborator.

“We don’t believe any institution has a monopoly on the best ideas or the best talent,” he wrote.

Inspiration for the institute 

The project grew out of a family crisis. His 26-year-old daughter Lucy had a brain hemorrhage and underwent emergency surgery after being found unconscious in her Brooklyn apartment. Ackman wrote in the X post that months of treatment and rehabilitation convinced his family of both the brain’s ability to recover and the limits of existing treatment.

“The interesting thing is that everything I’ve done in my life up till now has prepared me to help her,” he previously told Fortune, explaining that he had to exhort the doctors to try novel treatments like injecting mitochondria into Lucy’s eye to help preserve her sight. AOI will build off the insights gained from her treatment, he said. 

Ackman also sees AI and brain-computer interfaces as key to AOI’s mission, writing that Lucy might need brain-computer support that’s being developed at companies like Neuralink, Precision Neuroscience and Synchron. He argued his new institute should be “at the forefront of the interplay between the brain and AI.”

AOI has already identified a CEO whom Ackman expects to announce by October, and it is searching for a chief scientific officer, chief AI and technology officer and other senior leaders. He said the board includes inventor Dean Kamen (whom he described as ”our generation’s Thomas Edison”), Regeneron co-founder and chief scientific officer George Yancopoulos, Nobel Prize-winning biochemist James Rothman, neuroscientist Bernardo Sabatini, neurosurgeon Chris Kellner, Pershing Square Foundation CEO Olivia Flatto, Oxman and Ackman himself. 

“We have learned from Lucy that the brain can recover from even catastrophic injury,” he wrote. “There is so much more work to be done as the mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

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Fewer than 20 commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz at the weekend, shipping data showed on Monday, as Iranian and US blockades restrict traffic through the chokepoint for energy shipments.

Four vessels crossed the strait on Sunday, initial data from shiptracker Kpler showed by 0228 GMT, with 13 on Saturday. The figures could change as some ships had switched off transponders on their way through.

That compared with Friday’s figure of 16 transits, with two empty very large crude carriers (VLCCs) entering the Gulf with the tracking devices switched off, one heading to Iraq and the other to Bahrain, the data showed.

A VLCC carrying 2 million barrels of Emirati crude exited the strait on Thursday.

Eight very large gas carriers transited the strait over the past three days, the data showed, six of them entering empty while the others carried liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) loaded from Iran and exited the Gulf.

Drone view of oil tanker HELGA berthed at one of Iraq's southern offshore oil terminals near Basra as it prepares to load crude oil, becoming the second vessel to arrive since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, April 24, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/Mohammed Aty/File Photo)

Traffic ‘well below normal levels’

Overall traffic volumes remained suppressed in the week to August 21, as vessels aborted transit plans or switched routes through the strait’s north after attacks, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said in a report.

A total of 89 vessels exited the strait while 103 entered over the seven-day period, the report, based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, showed.

“Traffic remains well below normal levels, with AIS-detected transits approximately 90% below pre-conflict baselines and declining since the June 24 to June 26 peak,” it added.

Tanker traffic, at 45% of the total, continued to dominate movement through the strait, the agency said. Of these, 56% were tankers that carry crude oil, oil products or chemicals while LPG carriers accounted for a further 24%.

Since July 6, the UKMTO has reported 23 incidents of projectile strikes, leading to bridge, engine-room, and structural damage across vessels in the strait and its vicinity.

A total of 24 commodity vessels sailed through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Sunday, down from Saturday’s figure of 32, which was an increase from 22 on Friday, Kpler data showed.

Two VLCCs entered the Red Sea on Saturday with one carrying Iraqi Basrah crude and the other empty, it showed.

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Good morning. New York has overtaken the San Francisco Bay Area as North America’s largest tech-talent workforce by headcount, and Wall Street’s growing demand for AI talent is helping reshape the market—though San Francisco isn’t ceding its crown entirely.

The finding comes from CBRE’s “Scoring Tech Talent 2026” report. New York Metro’s tech-talent workforce grew by 30,640 to 394,300 between 2022 and 2025, while the San Francisco Bay Area’s contracted by 23,900 to 375,730—marking the first time New York has led by headcount in the report’s 13-year history.

The shift reflects New York’s more diversified tech economy. While 61% of San Francisco’s tech talent works directly in high-tech companies, New York’s tech workforce is spread more broadly across industries, including financial services.

Across the U.S. and Canada, the number of tech-talent workers with AI skills rose 45% year over year to 751,000 as of mid-2026. The San Francisco Bay Area still leads in raw AI-specialist numbers and has a higher concentration of AI job postings overall (26%, versus 17% in New York).

But when it comes to financial services specifically, New York and Dallas-Fort Worth tied for the highest concentration of AI-specialty talent among major markets, at 20% each, ahead of Toronto (19%) and Chicago (16%). Financial firms are increasingly competing with technology companies for workers who can put AI into production inside highly regulated businesses.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, recently said the bank will likely hire more AI specialists. “There will be all different types of jobs, and I think we will be hiring more AI people and fewer bankers in certain categories,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

JPMorgan’s Data & AI organization includes teams working on LLM applications, fraud models, risk systems, personalization and automation.

Big banks—including JPMorgan, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America—are all investing heavily in AI to boost efficiency, and Bank of America is already pointing to measurable returns.

I reported last month that during a media call regarding Bank of America’s second-quarter earnings, CFO Alastair Borthwick said, “New AI capabilities now allow more than 200,000 of our employees to work more effectively, and they’ve helped contribute to producing a 59% efficiency ratio, a roughly 360 basis point improvement from last year.”

Slower hiring and layoffs in the technology industry have also created opportunities for non-tech employers to build their tech-talent teams. CBRE found that financial services, insurance and real estate added 90,530 tech jobs since 2022, while the high-tech sector shed 21,262.

Although New York now leads in tech-talent headcount, San Francisco remains No. 1 in CBRE’s broader tech talent ranking—which incorporates 13 metrics including talent concentration, wages and AI strength, areas where the Bay Area’s smaller, denser workforce still gives it an edge.

Sheryl Estrada
Sheryl.Estrada@fortune.com

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One of the hottest debates in the energy industry right now is how much oil is actually coming out of the Persian Gulf, and the answer could determine how long the Iran war lasts.

Iran insists the Strait of Hormuz is closed and that it has control of the narrow waterway, which saw 20 million barrels of oil a day pass through before the U.S. and Israel started the war.

But the Trump administration has pushed back on that narrative. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the U.S. military helped ship over 15 million barrels of oil and products out of the strait on Tuesday, though the seven-day average is 8 million. When combined with oil exported by pipelines, the total leaving the region is closer to 20 million barrels, he posted on X on Friday.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials told Axios that about 10 million barrels of oil a day are being transported out of the strait through a corridor the U.S. military established that runs along Oman’s coast.

A two-week stretch of U.S. bombing last month degraded Iran’s radar and maritime surveillance systems, the report said, making it easier for tankers to sail through undetected at night with their transponders turned off. This has allowed vessels to make shuttle runs in and out, then unload oil to other tankers that deliver the cargo to customers.

David Wech, chief economist at energy intelligence firm Vortexa, told CNBC on Friday that the average over the last month has been 6 million-7 million barrels a day. But peak volumes over a seven-day moving average are nearly 10 million barrels, with the highest day at 14 million.

Either way, the upshot is that significant levels of oil supply are getting out and that the Strait of Hormuz isn’t really closed off after all.

To be sure, there’s still a supply deficit, forcing consuming countries to keep tapping their reserves, which are reaching critically low levels. And the U.S. naval blockade is preventing Iran from exporting its oil

But the amount leaking out of the Gulf buys more time before global markets go off a cliff—and that could also prolong the war as both sides remain locked in a stalemate.

“Barrels getting through raise the odds of a longer war, possibly deep into 2027: neither side feels urgency if oil does not materially move and Iran still earns enough to sustain the regime,” Dan Alamariu, chief geopolitical strategist at Alpine Macro, wrote in a note last week.

Indeed, there has been no diplomatic progress lately as Iran has made demands unacceptable to the U.S., while Trump wants the regime to relinquish its grip over the strait, its main source of leverage. At the same time, Trump has shied away from resuming all-out war, especially with key munitions supplies low, and instead is relying on economic pressure.

U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft fly in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility Aug. 7, 2026.
U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Brooklyn Golightly

Alamariu described the current equilibrium as a state of “managed disruption” marked by a permeable Hormuz blockage, occasional military flare-ups, and escalatory threats. But there’s potential for periods of sharp crisis as Iran’s economy continues to suffer and puts the regime at risk, he added.

“And if the Strait is not fully closed, Iran’s leverage is weak,” Alamariu pointed out. “Thus, Iran has reasons to escalate.”

U.S. midterm elections represent an opportunity for the Islamic Republic to hurt Trump by causing oil prices to spike and stirring more voter discontent against Republicans in Congress, he warned. That risks U.S. retaliation and even more escalation.

Until the election, Trump could maintain the blockade and hope for the best as long as Brent crude stays below $90-$100 per barrel, Alamariu wrote. But if oil tops $105-$110, then high gas prices and inflation could push the U.S. to try to reopen the strait by force or destroy more Iranian offensive capacity.

“These are not mechanical triggers, but they can make oil self-correct through violence,” he added.

Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder and CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation think tank, said Trump has erased the distinction between economic warfare and military conflict in the eyes of Iran’s leadership.

Tehran also interprets Trump’s reliance on economic pressure as a strong signal that he doesn’t have the stomach for renewed fighting, he said in a post on X.

“Iran’s leaders are confident they can go on the offensive because they are interpreting the shift to economic pressure as a sign of weakness. They believe that if they can land a few more punches, Trump will end up down for the count and have to return to the promises made in the MOU,” Batmanghelidj wrote.

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Some of Nvidia Corp.’s biggest customers have been told that the prices of servers containing its artificial intelligence chips are going up more than 15% in many cases with memory chip costs soaring.

The price hikes will go into effect on systems shipped early next year and will impact systems including those with the flagship Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell chips, according to people familiar with the process, who asked to not to be identified commenting on communications that haven’t yet been made public. The increases will depend on the generation of Nvidia chips and the memory configurations, they said.

Companies who build the servers under contract for large data center operators such as Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Oracle Corp. have recently notified their customers of the forthcoming increases, the people said. Nvidia representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment. 

The inability of the industry’s most dominant company to hold the line on prices or absorb growing costs shows how much leverage makers of memory chips – Samsung Electronics Co., SK Hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. – have amid a surge in demand for AI infrastructure. Major technology companies including Apple Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. have recently said they’ve been forced to charge more for their products because of chip shortages. 

Nvidia’s accelerator processors are the heart of computers that create and run AI software. Their effectiveness depends on how much dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, they are paired with. The two Korean companies and Micron account for most of the world’s production of that type of chip. While they’ve been increasing output, they still haven’t caught up with surging demand. That’s driven the price of the commodity-like components up massively and given their manufacturers unprecedented influence in technology. 

Nvidia is one of the most profitable companies in semiconductors. It’s able to charge tens of thousands of dollars per chip because supply — from contract manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. — still can’t meet runaway demand. The company has a gross margin, or percentage of sales remaining after deducting the cost of production, of 75%. Originally derived from PC gaming chips that sold for hundreds of dollars, AI accelerators have seen prices being driven up by incessant demand and, as yet, a dearth of viable alternatives for Nvidia’s offerings.  

Nvidia has also raised prices for its gaming-oriented PC graphics cards, industry news site Tom’s Hardware reported earlier this month.

How Nvidia’s customers react to this latest move and whether it will create an opening for its competitors will likely depend on whether they’re able to secure enough memory themselves. Major customers like Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta are all pursuing their own in-house chip programs but are still dependent on purchases from Nvidia for their data center build-outs. Their ability to push forward with greater independence will also depend on their access to supply from Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. 

The price increases are also likely to add complexity to the industry’s massive AI data center build-out ambitions. Project delays, labor shortages, tightening capital markets and community resistance to developments have already complicated many plans.

Nvidia is reporting fiscal second-quarter earnings next week. The updates by the world’s most valuable publicly-traded company have become a key update for the technology industry and investors who have poured money into AI infrastructure on the promise that it will transform the economy.

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Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi will visit Tehran on Tuesday to continue talks between Iran and Oman on the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday.

On Sunday, Baghaei said the army chief of Pakistan, which has mediated between the United States and Iran, will visit Tehran on Monday.

Free passage for cargo ships through the Strait of Hormuz has been one of the primary issues in talks with Iran, with Iran and the US frequently contradicting each other on whether the strait was open or closed and which country had control over it.

On Saturday, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that Iran had granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz following repeated requests from Baghdad through various channels.

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 18, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/STRINGER/FILE PHOTO)

IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad’s main requests during Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s visit to Iraq.

Iran claims Strait of Hormuz deal with Oman in final stages

Earlier this month, Iran said that a deal with Oman defining new shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz was in its final stages but reiterated that the strait would only reopen once the United States met other conditions.

Iran and the US are not engaged in talks, and Tehran will not start them as long as Washington breaches an interim deal signed in June, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said at the time, adding that messages are being exchanged via intermediaries.

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The Thursday staff strike at Ben-Gurion Airport was the result of serious management failures and insufficient preparation for summer staffing shortages, former Israel Airports Authority chairman Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eliezer “Chiney” Marom told 103FM on Sunday.

“I don’t want to point an accusing finger, but there is a management failure here. When you reach the summer without enough workers, and things deteriorate to the point where workers are collapsing from exhaustion, then there is a problem,” Marom, who also served as Israel’s Navy commander, said. 

“There is a major shortage of workers. It shows that preparations for the summer were inadequate.” 

Marom also addressed earlier warnings from workers’ committee chairman Pinchas Idan about the labor shortage and the Airports Authority’s failure to prepare for the summer months.

“There is a serious management problem here. There was a failure to prepare, and you can see it. There were warning after warning, and the situation kept getting worse and worse, but no preparations were made. This was not a surprise.”

El Al plane takes off at the Ben Gurion International Airport, outside of Tel Aviv, March 5, 2026. (credit: YOSSI ALONI/FLASH90)

‘A wildcat and unjustified strike’

According to the former chairman, when he returned from abroad earlier this month, he waited over two hours for his suitcase and was told there were not enough workers at the airport to move passengers’ luggage in a timely fashion.

“The matter is simple. Ultimately, this should not have happened. This was a wildcat and unjustified strike, even though Pinchas does not call it a strike,” Marom said.

He noted that while he respected Pinchas and the two had worked well together, what happened at the airport was “completely unacceptable.”

“You don’t stop work on the busiest day of the year, with tens of thousands of people,” he stressed.

An exceptionally long tenure as chairman

Marom was also asked about Idan’s exceptionally long tenure as chairman of the Airports Authority workers’ committee.

“Ultimately, these are elections that are held regularly, and the man is simply elected time after time,” he said. “One can ask whether the term should be limited, as, for example, with the prime minister’s term. That is a very, very good question.”

When asked about the employment of relatives at Ben-Gurion Airport and the subject of nepotism, Marom explained that the issue wasn’t always regulated in Israel

“A friend would bring in a family member, and so on. It wasn’t only at the Airports Authority; it happened everywhere. At a certain point, the issue was regulated, and ultimately the Civil Service Commissioner established certain percentages of employees who may be hired despite being relatives, and so on. The Airports Authority complies with that,” he explained.

“The State Comptroller examines it from time to time. It stopped many years ago. But this is really history, and many family members came in. Not only Pinchas’s, by the way. Family members worked at the railway, the ports, and elsewhere. That no longer exists.”

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The enormous mountain of debt hanging over the economy has overshadowed the AI boom as the center of attention on Wall Street.

For years—decades even—the spiraling trajectory of U.S. debt fueled dire warnings, which investors consistently brushed off as low borrowing costs helped turbocharge epic stock gains.

Meanwhile, the debt pile galloped higher, interest costs sucked up a bigger share of the federal budget, and deficits continued to expand. Rating agencies downgraded U.S. credit, and foreign central banks stopped buying as many Treasuries.

The precise tipping point was always unclear, especially as the U.S. dollar retained its status as the world’s top reserve currency. But the global bond selloff this past week that sent yields to the highest level in two decades showed debt is finally front and center as a concern.

“When does debt become unsustainable? When the global financial markets say it is,” RSM Chief Economist Joseph Brusuelas said in a note on Wednesday. “That appears to be happening.”

Debt worries weren’t limited to the U.S., with yields in other top economies like the U.K., France, Germany, and Japan also surging.

That’s as governments since the COVID pandemic have continued spending as if borrowing costs were still at crisis-era lows and letting deficits worsen as if their economies were still in desperate need of emergency stimulus.

But the economic landscape is totally different now. Interest rates have surged in recent years to combat high inflation, and the AI boom is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars a year into an economy that increasingly immune to higher rates.

In addition, the so-called hyperscalers are relying more on debt to finance their capital expenditures, competing with the Treasury Department for bond market dollars.

“Given that public debt is already so high for many countries, it’s only been a matter of time until markets run out of patience,” Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote in a Substack post on Tuesday. “It looks like that’s happening now.”

Yields went up so quickly that the Treasury Department suddenly announced it will increase buybacks of long-dated bonds. The move briefly lowered yields, but they went back up again as investors doubted such financial engineering can hold back the tide.

How did we get here?

In addition to deficits, other factors converged to finally set off alarm bells in the market. The more proximate cause was the return of higher oil prices amid the ongoing stalemate between the U.S. and Iran.

With no signs of any diplomatic progress, investors expect energy costs will keep inflation higher for longer, likely forcing central banks to hike rates.

But Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh has refused to offer forward guidance on how policymakers will respond to future inflation, creating uncertainty that put even more upward pressure on bond yields.

Brusuelas also pointed to an “elephant in the room,” namely economic populism from both sides of the aisle. From the left it takes the form of more spending. And from the right, it’s typically tax cuts.

Both versions also tolerate higher inflation and resist efforts by central banks to rein it in, he added.

“If such policies go on long enough without a course correction, banking and currency crises tend to follow,” Brusuelas warned. “Global investors understand the end game of such policies.”

Similarly, analysts at Capital Economics said in a note Tuesday that bond investors are demanding greater compensation for fiscal, geopolitical and policy uncertainty, describing it as a shift that will prove persistent. 

While the pace of the bond selloff isn’t justified by recent events, the market’s concerns are rational as governments show little indication of curbing deficits, they added.

That means a higher term premium, or the extra return that investors demand for holding an asset over the long term, is “fundamentally warranted.”

“As a result, we expect term premia to remain elevated and bond markets to remain susceptible to renewed bouts of volatility in the quarters ahead,” Capital Economics predicted.

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Business leaders, from JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon to Tesla’s Elon Musk, have argued that workers need to get back to the office in the name of productivity and collaboration. But a new study suggests the opposite may be better for employee well-being—and even company bottom lines.

Researchers tracked 7,704 employees at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center across three work arrangements: roughly one-fourth worked fully remotely, one-fourth worked hybrid, and about half worked entirely onsite.

The results? Employees who worked fully remotely reported the highest levels of workplace well-being—defined broadly to include physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial health—while those who worked entirely onsite reported the lowest. The study, which was published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology last month, also found little evidence that remote workers felt less connected to colleagues or workplace culture.

“Our findings challenge the idea that simply bringing people back into a building will automatically make them more engaged, connected, or likely to stay,” co-authors Stefanie Johnson, a professor at the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business, and Courtney Holladay, chief learning officer at MD Anderson Cancer Center, told Fortune in a joint statement.

“The mistake is treating physical presence as the outcome rather than asking what organizations are trying to accomplish through it. If the goal is collaboration, mentoring, innovation, relationship-building, or organizational culture, then employers should design experiences that actually produce those outcomes.”

Remote work could help companies save money—by keeping their best talent around

The benefits of remote work didn’t stop at how employees said they felt. One year after the initial survey was completed, researchers examined employee turnover and found that workers with higher levels of well-being were less likely to leave the organization, meaning those working remotely were associated with higher retention.

For companies, keeping talent around can be a major financial incentive. After all, even before the pandemic ushered in an era of remote work, U.S. businesses were losing $1 trillion annually due to voluntary turnover, according to a 2019 Gallup analysis. However, critics of return-to-office mandates have argued that requiring employees to return to the office can serve as a backdoor way to reduce headcount without formally laying off workers. A survey last year suggested that concern isn’t entirely unfounded: one in five HR professionals admitted their company’s in-office policy was intended to encourage employees to quit.

“Clearly we have to question the motive,” Johnson said, pointing to separate research that found that leaders who display stronger narcissistic qualities are more likely to dislike remote work.

But the answer may not be as simple as remote versus in-office. Hybrid work can sound like the best of both worlds—giving employees flexibility while preserving opportunities for face-to-face connection. Yet it can also create its own headaches, from coordinating schedules to commuting on some days and figuring out which colleagues will actually be around.

“We’ve heard from individuals who will go into the office and their day in the office is spent on Zoom or Teams calls, and then that’s really frustrating because it’s like, ‘Well, I could have done that at home,’” Holladay said, adding that remote work can also save money in terms of having to rent less office space.

While the researchers did not track productivity in their study, they argue overall that flexibility may matter more than any particular work arrangement. Johnson said that may be particularly important for younger workers who are still trying to build out meaningful relationships early in their careers.

“Not that you should have to bribe employees to go into the office,” Johnson said. But if workers are going to come in, she added, companies should give them a reason to feel that the time is valuable.

Public and private leaders are adamant that return to office is a good thing

The findings come as some of the most powerful voices in corporate America continue to make the case for getting workers back in the office.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, for example, has long been one of Wall Street’s most outspoken proponents of in-person work—calling his over 300,000 workforce back into the office five days a week.

“If you go to a meeting with me, you got my full friggin attention the whole time,” he said at the Hill and Valley Forum earlier this year, adding that remote work only works well for certain jobs like call centers, but for everyone else, including young people and managers alike, in-person working is best. Young people, especially, he said, need to work in-person because they are still learning.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken a similar hard line. In 2022, he told employees that anyone who wanted to work remotely had to spend at least 40 hours a week in the office or leave the company.

“Tesla has and will create and actually manufacture the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth. This will not happen by phoning it in,” Musk said.

The federal government has also been pushing its hundreds of thousands of employees back into the office, with Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor being the key driver of President Donald Trump’s return-to-office agenda.

“Even for jobs that can be done largely in isolation, that productivity can be impacted by distractions that pervade at the home,” Kupor wrote in a January 2026 blog post entitled “Why Showing Up Counts.” “Supervising a massive, largely remote federal workforce is not something the federal government is well equipped to do.”

However, in a leaked audio message obtained by Fortune, Kupor admitted in a hot mic moment that he intentionally filmed a video in front of a blank wall while he was working from home so he wouldn’t get blowback over working at home.

A spokesperson said that Kupor was taking a day off and therefore was not considered to be teleworking. Still, the episode illustrates the tension at the heart of the RTO debate: Even as companies and governments argue that workers are better off in the office, the appeal of working from home can sometimes be difficult for anyone—including the people making those rules—to ignore.

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Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is warning states and communities against broadly blocking new data centers, arguing that stopping construction across the United States could allow China to take the lead in artificial intelligence.

Zeldin acknowledged that communities have legitimate concerns about electricity costs, water consumption, pollution and the strain large data centers can place on local infrastructure. But he said those problems should be addressed project by project instead of through sweeping bans.

“What we can’t do is just say, well, let’s not have any data centers built all across the entire country and let’s just let China win,” Zeldin said Sunday.

His remarks come as opposition to data centers grows across the country. Residents and elected officials have raised concerns that the enormous facilities could consume large amounts of electricity, increase utility bills, require new power plants and place additional pressure on water systems.

New York imposed a one-year moratorium on permitting new large-scale data centers while the state studies their energy and environmental effects. Hundreds of local jurisdictions nationwide have enacted or considered restrictions, moratoriums or tighter approval requirements.

Zeldin has criticized New York’s approach as an “easy way to cop out,” arguing that state and local governments should remain engaged with developers and negotiate protections for their communities.

The EPA administrator said the federal government would not establish one nationwide environmental standard for every data center because conditions differ widely among states and individual projects. Some facilities, for example, use closed-loop cooling systems that sharply reduce their need for a continuous local water supply.

The Trump administration views data centers as essential national infrastructure. They house the advanced chips and computer systems needed to train and operate artificial-intelligence models, support cloud computing and process the rapidly expanding volume of digital information used by businesses and government agencies.

China is simultaneously investing heavily in domestic computing capacity, power generation and artificial-intelligence infrastructure. U.S. officials fear that delays in constructing American data centers could limit access to computing power and weaken the country’s position in the global technology race.

The challenge is finding a balance that protects communities without stopping development entirely.

Data centers can bring billions of dollars in construction investment and new tax revenue, but they generally employ fewer permanent workers than traditional factories of comparable size. The facilities can also require as much electricity as a small city, creating concerns that residential customers could ultimately shoulder part of the cost of expanding the power grid.

Zeldin’s position is that those risks require negotiation, transparency and local safeguards—not a nationwide retreat from building the infrastructure that will power the next generation of American technology.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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Hedge funds are increasing bets against the U.S. dollar as investors question whether the Trump administration’s coming fiscal plan will be strong enough to calm concerns over America’s growing debt and budget deficit.

Leveraged funds expanded their short-dollar positions during the week ended Aug. 18, according to the latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission data cited by Bloomberg. A short position allows traders to profit if the dollar falls.

The shift reflects growing pressure across U.S. financial markets.

The national debt has crossed $40 trillion, the federal deficit is on course to exceed $2 trillion this fiscal year and interest expenses have climbed to nearly $1.2 trillion. Those concerns recently pushed the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond to its highest level since 2007.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to stabilize the bond market by announcing that the government would at least double planned purchases of longer-dated Treasury securities. The buybacks will increase from approximately $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation beginning in September, with Bessent saying they could grow further if necessary.

The announcement initially lowered Treasury yields, but much of that improvement quickly disappeared. The dollar also weakened as investors concluded that buying back bonds could improve market liquidity without solving the underlying deficit problem.

Bessent has promised a broader fiscal-consolidation plan, expected as early as this week, developed with President Donald Trump and White House budget director Russell Vought. The administration is expected to focus on spending reductions, stronger economic growth, fraud prevention and additional tariff revenue.

Markets will be watching for specific numbers.

Investors want to know how much spending the administration intends to cut, how quickly the deficit could decline and whether the government can reduce its reliance on increasingly expensive borrowing. A plan lacking firm targets could place additional pressure on both Treasury bonds and the dollar.

A weaker dollar carries mixed consequences. It can make American exports more competitive and increase the overseas earnings of U.S. multinational companies. But it also raises the cost of imported products, international travel and commodities priced in dollars, potentially adding to inflation.

For businesses and consumers, the more immediate concern is the bond market. Persistently high Treasury yields feed directly into mortgage rates, business loans, auto financing and the federal government’s own borrowing costs.

Hedge funds are not necessarily predicting a collapse in the dollar. Their positions show that some of the world’s most aggressive traders now believe the risks are tilted toward further weakness unless Washington delivers a credible plan for controlling its finances.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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“At dawn begins an economic D-Day [against Iran],  the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote in an opinion piece in the Financial Times on Sunday, echoing US President Donald Trump’s statements on Truth Social last week.

“Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” he added.

The US military has “significantly dismantled Iran’s military capabilities and weakened its nuclear programme. Now we are entering endgame,” Bessent wrote.

“President Trump has decimated Iran’s economy to a point where the rial has never been weaker and inflation has rarely been higher,” Bessent said in the FT, “The regime’s final refuge now lies in the self-deception of fearful nations that still believe accommodating aggression can secure a durable peace.”

“Those who sever Iran’s remaining financial and commercial connectivity will reinvigorate their own. They will deepen their access to global capital, reinforce confidence in their markets and attain the standing they seek in the world economy.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stands behind U.S. President Donald Trump who speaks to the media on the day of a NATO leaders' summit in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS)

The treasury secretary added that continued economic support will have negative consequences, saying “any nation that serves as a financial artery of a withering regime should expect to share in its isolation.”

“Those who fear the danger of defying Tehran ought not to discount the cost of testing Washington,” he said, “Any remaining tie to Tehran will hasten the economic ostracism of countries and entities, whether that tie be purposefully constructed or wilfully ignored.”

The FT piece follows an interview Bessent gave to CNBC, and a series of statements from Trump which were posted to Truth Social about economic sanctions on Iran.

Bessent said US would ‘squash’ Iranian economy

“We are going to collapse this [the Iranian] regime,” Bessent told CNBC on August 20. “You are either with us or against us – we are going to squash the economy of this murderous regime.”

Bessent explained that the US will be increasing economic pressure pressure on Iran, adding that if any of American allies continue doing business with Iran, whether transferring money, or buying their oil, “then the US Treasury and the US government, they will put its full might and force toward enforcing against you.”

“I see lots of reports that said, ‘oh, well, this has never worked.’ It does work, because we have a combination. It is a one-two punch,” Bessent told CNBC. “We have the blockade, and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history. And I will tell you, this will work. It worked in Venezuela once we put up the blockade. It is working in Cuba right now. And it is going to work in Iran, and we are going to collapse this regime.”

“This is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world.”

Statements from Trump about economic sanctions on Iran

Trump warned on August 19 that there would be significant economic consequences for any country that provided “any type of lifeline to Iran.”

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Iran would face “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.”

“ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences,” Trump wrote.

The president also announced that the US would enact “an ECONOMIC D-DAY” against Iran.

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A financial crisis that has long been predicted by Russia experts and Kremlin insiders appears to have finally arrived as banks see depositors scramble to pull out their money amid fears it may be seized.

In the first half of August, Russians withdrew $3.4 billion (286.4 billion rubles), according to central bank data cited by the Washington Post. That’s after $7.3 billion was withdrawn in July and $4.5 billion in June.

“Drones are flying. Things are burning down. Nervousness is growing. And people’s everyday wisdom may be kicking in that they need to have cash under their pillow and not somewhere in banks where it may never be returned,” a former finance official told the Post, adding that banks have much of their capital tied in loans elsewhere.

The situation echoes the iconic scene from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, when panicked depositors show up at the Bailey Bros. Building & Loan demanding their cash, only to learn that it’s not all there.

The bank run in Russia may not be as dramatic or precipitous. But the stampede out of lenders this year is on track to nearly double the $24.7 billion pace that was seen in 2022, when Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine.

Back then, Russia was flush with cash and expected to pay for a short war. But more than four years later, the invasion has turned into a quagmire that has crushed the Kremlin’s finances.

The budget is sinking into deeper deficits, the sovereign wealth fund has been nearly depleted, and tax hikes are straining consumers who are already struggling with high inflation.

Moscow has directed banks to offer capital to the defense industry, but many of those loans turned into bad debts. Now, the financial sector’s loss of deposits has created a liquidity crunch so severe that it’s threatening Russia’s ability to fund its war.

Taras Skvortsov, a senior executive at top retail lender Sberbank, told Russian radio that many banks don’t have cash on hand to buy government bonds.

In fact, the finance ministry halted bond auctions indefinitely last month amid higher borrowing costs and weak investor demand. The auctions are the Kremlin’s main source of domestic borrowing to fill its budget deficit, which hit $76 billion at the end of July.

As the government’s sources of funding dry up, ordinary Russians fear their money may be next. The leader of Russia’s Communist Party told parliament recently that 130 trillion rubles held in bank accounts should be “mobilized” to address the country’s economic and budget woes.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry is preparing legislation that could let it gain access to $40 billion in pension savings held in privately managed funds.

That’s after Russian oligarchs have seen their businesses nationalized, with $51.5 billion in assets seized for the state last year.

“If the government needs cash, Putin will just do a grab for assets. He doesn’t care,” an associate of a Russian billionaire told the Post. “And that’s where I think it’s heading.”

Warnings about Russia’s finances have been building for months. In June 2025, Russian banks raised red flags on a potential debt crisis as high interest rates weighed on borrowers’ ability to pay off loans. Also that month, the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs warned many companies were in “a pre-default situation.”

The Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting, a state-backed Russian think tank, said in December the country could face a banking crisis by October if loan troubles worsen and depositors pull out their funds.

Earlier this year, Russian officials told Putin that a financial crisis could hit by the summer amid spiraling inflation. 

In May, sources told the Russian newspaper Izvestia that nearly 25% of the bond market is now at risk of default as businesses that borrowed at low rates must refinance at much higher ones. The volume of debt that needs to be rolled over this year is about double from last year, adding pressure on cash flows and raising competition for liquidity.

And according to a European intelligence report this past June, Russian lenders are vulnerable due to soaring indebtedness and deteriorating loans. It said the number of Russians who declared bankruptcy last year jumped by almost a third to more than 500,000.

“The situation creates the illusion of a dynamic economy ⁠that, in reality, conceals an explosive situation which an economic shock, such as an ambitious package of sanctions against banks … could trigger,” the report added, according to Reuters.

The worsening state of Russia’s financial sector mirrors its performance on the battlefield. New Ukrainian tactics and drones have halted Russia’s advance, decimated the country’s oil infrastructure, and pushed casualties above the replacement rate.

And just like Russia’s search for money to seize, reports indicate the military is preparing to ramp up the number of men it seizes to fill the ranks.

Authorities have already been using coercive tactics to find fresh troops. Now, sources told the Wall Street Journal that the military is preparing plans and procedures for a wider mobilization.

But because of an expected political backlash, the Kremlin may wait until after parliamentary elections next month to announce it.

An earlier mobilization in September 2022 set off a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of men, who fled to neighboring countries like Georgia and Kazakhstan.

Rumors of a new one have already sent cross-border traffic soaring. In addition, property prices have jumped recently in Georgia and Armenia in anticipation of another exodus, real estate agents told the Journal.

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The United States is putting another $500 million into seven domestic critical-mineral and battery projects, backing everything from lithium extraction in Utah to what could become the country’s only cobalt refinery as Washington tries to reduce one of the most consequential vulnerabilities in American manufacturing.

The Department of Energy selected the projects from hundreds of applications under its battery-materials processing and manufacturing programs. Three companies — Lilac Solutions, Jervois and Nth Cycle — are receiving $100 million each, while additional grants will support battery recycling, electrolyte chemicals and next-generation anode materials.

The money is not simply about electric vehicles.

Lithium, cobalt and other battery materials increasingly sit at the intersection of automobiles, consumer electronics, power storage, artificial intelligence infrastructure and national defense. Many of those supply chains remain heavily dependent on foreign processing, particularly China.

That dependence is what Washington is trying to change.

Lilac Solutions will receive $100 million for a direct-lithium-extraction facility at Utah’s Great Salt Lake. The BMW-backed company expects the operation to open by 2028 and eventually produce about 5,000 metric tons of lithium annually.

Direct lithium extraction is important because it attempts to pull lithium from brines without relying on the enormous evaporation ponds traditionally associated with lithium production. If the technology proves commercially viable at scale, it could open domestic resources that previously were difficult or uneconomic to exploit.

Another $100 million is going to Jervois, which controls a large cobalt deposit in Idaho.

The company plans to build what would be the only cobalt refinery in the United States.

That distinction illustrates the problem Washington is confronting. America can possess mineral deposits underground and still remain dependent on another country if it lacks the facilities needed to process those materials into usable industrial products.

Cobalt is used in certain batteries, electronics and defense applications. Jervois was taken private last year following a restructuring brought on partly by weak cobalt prices, demonstrating another difficulty in rebuilding domestic mineral supply chains: American projects must compete against global producers that can often supply material more cheaply.

The government is effectively trying to make strategically important projects viable even when commodity markets alone may not provide enough incentive to build them.

Nth Cycle will receive another $100 million to construct a facility processing “black mass” — the concentrated material created when used lithium-ion batteries are shredded.

Black mass contains recoverable lithium, nickel, cobalt and other valuable metals.

Instead of shipping those materials abroad for processing, Washington wants more of that recycling chain to remain inside the United States. The administration earlier this month blocked exports of black mass, increasing the pressure to develop enough domestic capacity to handle it.

Three additional companies will receive $50 million each.

Princeton NuEnergy is working on technology that reprocesses battery cathode materials. Arcanum Ventures produces chemicals used in battery electrolytes. Coreshell Technologies is developing silicon-based battery anodes as an alternative to graphite, another material whose global supply chain is heavily concentrated overseas.

The arithmetic explains why these projects matter.

Building a battery in America does not create a genuinely domestic supply chain if the lithium, cobalt, graphite, cathode materials and electrolyte chemicals still have to cross oceans before reaching the factory.

A disruption at any one of those stages can slow production regardless of where final assembly occurs.

That vulnerability has become more important as batteries move beyond electric cars.

Large battery systems increasingly stabilize power grids and support data centers. Defense contractors need critical minerals for weapons and electronics. Automakers are investing billions in U.S. battery plants. Consumer-electronics companies depend on many of the same materials.

The result is that minerals once treated largely as commodities are increasingly being viewed as strategic infrastructure.

President Donald Trump has said he wants the United States to become a global minerals superpower, and the administration has been using grants, loans, government investments, trade restrictions and other tools to accelerate domestic production.

The $500 million announced Thursday is relatively small compared with the tens of billions being invested in American semiconductor and battery factories.

But it targets something those factories cannot operate without: the materials entering through their front doors.

America has spent years building more capacity to manufacture advanced products domestically.

Washington’s next challenge is making sure the country can also supply what those factories are made from.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited. 

Dog owners are being urged to check their pet food after thousands of cases of canned dog food sold in the U.S. and Canada were recalled over potential metal contamination.

Fromm Family Foods is recalling roughly 5,800 cases of two wet dog food products after receiving complaints of metal contamination, according to a company announcement posted by the Food and Drug Administration.

The recall covers 3,852 cases of Fromm Turkey Pâté Wet Dog Food and 1,973 cases of Fromm Diner Classics Milo’s Meatloaf Pâté Wet Dog Food.

The products were distributed through neighborhood pet stores and online retailers across the U.S. and Canada.

DOG FOOD LINKED TO NEARLY 200 REPORTS OF POTENTIAL CANINE VISION LOSS, PROMPTING MASSIVE RECALL

No illnesses or injuries tied to the products have been reported, but ingesting metal can pose serious risks to dogs.

The company said symptoms can include choking, vomiting, loss of appetite, lethargy and stomach discomfort. Sharp pieces of metal can cause cuts to the mouth and gastrointestinal tract, while larger amounts could lead to a partial blockage or intestinal obstruction.

The affected Turkey Pâté comes in 12.2-ounce cans with UPC 072705118700 and lot code EP2A3306 551006.

The recalled Milo’s Meatloaf Pâté comes in 12.5-ounce cans with UPC 072705132324 and lot code EP2A3306 551029.

TESLA RECALLS NEARLY 3M VEHICLES OVER DOORS THAT MAY BE DIFFICULT TO OPEN AFTER CRASHES

Both have a best-by date of March 2029.

Fromm said it identified the error behind the recall and has taken corrective action to prevent it from happening again. The company did not provide further details about the source of the potential contamination.

A representative for Fromm Family Foods did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.

No other Fromm products are affected.

E COLI AND SALMONELLA OUTBREAK LINKED TO ALFALFA SPROUTS SICKENS DOZENS ACROSS MULTIPLE STATES

Consumers should stop feeding the recalled food to their dogs and return it to the retailer. Owners whose dogs ate the products and are experiencing symptoms should contact a veterinarian.

The recall comes just days after another dog food company pulled nearly all of its fresh meals amid reports of potential eye problems in dogs.

U.K.-based subscription pet food company Years said earlier this week that 192 customers had reported potential eye issues in their dogs, including sudden bilateral dry eye, a condition that can lead to permanent vision loss in severe cases if left untreated.

Years is investigating whether potentially contaminated buckwheat used in its meals could be a contributing factor. The company said no causal link between its food, buckwheat and the reported eye problems has been established, and testing remains underway.

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That recall is separate from the Fromm action.

Consumers with questions about the Fromm recall can contact the company at 1-800-325-6331 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CT or at info@frommfamily.com.

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In the hills of Emilia-Romagna, a bank vault holds more than half-a-million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, worth well over 300 million euros.

The vault belongs to the bank Credito Emiliano, known colloquially as Credem, which has accepted young wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano as collateral for loans to local dairy farms since 1953.

But now, extreme heat is threatening Italy’s “cheese banks,” and economists who study heat’s effect on growth say the exposure runs well beyond a single vault but into the country’s vineyards, its olive groves, and its broader economy.

A blockchain-backed cheese loan collateral program

After receiving the wheels of cheese from dairy farmers, a Credem subsidiary, Magazzini Generali delle Tagliate, ages the wheels in two warehouses in Reggio Emilia and Modena. Producers typically receive 60% to 80% of a wheel’s value upfront.

But the process has come a long way from the 1950s, as blockchain technology now lets farmers pledge wheels even while the cheese stays in their own facilities, doubling Credem’s lending capacity. The arrangement solves a real problem: Parmigiano needs at least 12 months to age, often 24 or 36, and small family farms can’t easily keep that much inventory tied up for that long without generating some cash. So the bank provides some before any sales are made.

The scale of that arrangement is bigger than the vault itself. Italy produces about 4 million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano a year, and the cheese banks hold about 500,000 of them, Giancarlo Ravanetti, who runs the bank’s cheese warehouse business, told CNN. His warehouses handle about 2.3 million wheels a year in total.

Meanwhile, Parmigiano Reggiano is a 4 billion euro ($4.7 billion) industry sustained by roughly 300 certified dairies, and keeping that much cheese at the right temperature has gotten more expensive. Thanks to this year’s record heat waves in Europe, daily energy consumption rose about 30%, forcing the bank to upgrade cooling systems and boilers, add insulation, and expand renewable power generation.

Climate change is affecting dairy farmers’ milk supply as well. Because it’s so hot outside, cows lie down more and eat less, reducing milk production by up to 10% a year. As longer and more intense heat events become all the more common, they hit both the quantity and quality of milk, ultimately driving up costs.

Climate change hits the vineyard

The same climate pressure is showing up on a similar timeline in Italy’s vineyards. In Lombardy’s Franciacorta sparkling-wine region, the 2026 harvest began July 30, the earliest start on record, after budbreak came more than a week ahead of the historical average. In Sicily, the harvest has stretched into what growers describe as a 100-day picking season across the island’s microclimates, as producers time each variety’s picking to stay ahead of the heat.

Coldiretti, Italy’s largest farmers’ association, has called 2026 one of the earliest harvests on record nationally, citing record temperatures and drought that are pushing sugar into the grapes faster than their flavor can develop, a mismatch that’s especially hard on late-ripening reds like the Nebbiolo grape behind Barolo.

Some producers have begun testing shade netting over vineyards, originally used against hail, to cut the sun exposure that would otherwise strip the grapes of acidity. Coldiretti also pointed to a cost layered on top of the weather: The conflict in Iran has added an estimated 250 euros per hectare in energy, fertilizer, and materials costs for wine producers this year, with export values already down 7% in the first four months of 2026.

But olive groves have taken the sharpest hit. Puglia and Calabria, Italy’s two largest olive oil producing regions, have seen national production fall well below its historical average of more than 350,000 tons, coming in around 270,000 to 300,000 tons for the 2025/26 season. In past drought years, Puglia’s output has fallen by more than half in a single season.

R. Jisung Park, a labor economist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and author of Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming World, says the pattern showing up across Italy’s cheese, wine, and olive oil industries fits a wider body of research that links heat directly to lost economic output.

A European Central Bank working paper found that the GDP hit from extreme heat is smaller in Spain and Italy than in Germany, since both those countries are more used to high temperatures. But Park said a small top-line number can still hide real damage elsewhere. “Supply-chain spillovers due to heat upstream actually lead to measurable downstream firm valuation impacts,” Park told Fortune.

That is close to what’s playing out in Emilia-Romagna, where a heat shock to dairy cows turns into a cost problem for a bank months later, and in Puglia, where a hot, dry spring turns into a production collapse hundreds of miles from where the olives grow. Park said heat’s economic toll tends to hide in these kinds of indirect, delayed effects instead of showing up all at once, which is part of why companies and governments still underprice the effects of climate change.

The U.S. has its own cheese caves

The idea of a government stepping in to protect dairy farmers from forces beyond their control is not new to the United States either. During the Great Depression, milk prices collapsed and dairy farmers dumped their own product in the street to protest.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal responded with subsidies for farmers who cut production and in 1933 created the Commodity Credit Corporation to buy up surplus butter, cheese, and dried milk to keep prices stable.

That policy long outlived the Depression. Decades later, the government was still buying surplus cheese and storing it in vast underground caves in Missouri, Wisconsin, and Kansas, warehouses cool enough to hold the cheese for years without spoiling.

By the early 1980s, the federal stockpile topped 500 million pounds. Italy’s cheese banks solve a similar problem with a different tool: Instead of a government buying surplus to prop up prices, a private bank lends against the cheese itself, betting that the wheels sitting in its vault will still be worth something by the time they are ready to sell.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and outside adviser Jared Kushner met privately recently in New York, a signal that the White House is seeking ways to work with Democrats if they wrest majority control from Republicans in the midterm elections.

The meeting, first reported Sunday by The New York Times, touched on issues ranging from housing, immigration to the high costs of living. People in the United States are struggling under inflationary prices that Democrats blame on Republicans, alongside Trump, for failing to get under control.

Kushner suggested that Jeffries, who is in line to become House speakerif Democrats regain power in November, meet with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles as a follow-up.

Jeffries, in a statement Sunday, did not mention the private conversation but said the Republican administration needed to drop the GOP’s “my-way-or-the-highway” approach that “has failed the American people.”

“To stop the madness, we have repeatedly made clear that an extremist approach will not work and will be met with forceful opposition,” the New York congressman said. “The question is whether Republicans will join us.”

The meeting shows the depth of Republican Party angst over losing their congressional majority, particularly the House, and the need to make inroads with the opposing party as the White House seeks to stem any potential political fallout on the president.

If Democrats retake power, the White House can expect an aggressive oversight agenda into what Jeffries has called the “crooks” in the administration, with the threat of impeachment among the many tools at the party’s disposal.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a close ally of Trump, bristled Sunday when asked about the meeting. He minimized the role that Kushner, who he said “hedges his bets,” plays in the White House.

“I’m telling you what, you better not bet against the House Republicans,” Johnson, R-La., told Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”

“I don’t know what that’s about,” Johnson said. “I know Jared has interests in lots of other things going on. He’s not really directly involved in the admin, at least in the day-to-day in the White House.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for Kushner also did not respond.

Kushner is a familiar Trump emissary to Democrats

Jeffries and Kushner are not strangers.

The New Yorkers allied during the first Trump administration on landmark legislation to allow sentencing flexibility for certain drug offenses as a way to curtail lengthy terms in the federal prison system.

While not necessarily close, the two have maintained a relationship despite the repeated attacks Trump has leveled against Jeffries and the Democratic leader’s responses. In Trump’s second term, Kushner has an oversize role despite having no formal position in the White House. He serves as an outside adviser and envoy, particularly shuttling to foreign diplomatic missions as the U.S. war against Iran drags into its sixth month.

Trump has only met with Jeffries once since the president returned to the White House, taunting the House leader and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York with red “Make America Great Again” 2028 caps on the desk in front of them in the Oval Office — a nod to Trump’s toying with an unconstitutional third term in office.

After that fall meeting, Trump posted a fake image of Schumer with Jeffries wearing a sombrero with a handlebar mustache in what was widely viewed as a racist trope as he mocked the Democrats before what became the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.

Trump has been able to alternately ignore the Congress as he relies on the sheer force of executive power to implement his priorities or to pressure the Republicans in the House and Senate, when needed, to fall in line behind the White House, particularly to confirm controversial Cabinet nominees.

All that is likely to change if Democrats control either chamber, with lawmakers eager for Congress to flex their own power as a coequal branch of government more willing to hold the White House in check.

Republicans and Democrats race for power in midterms

House Republicans are counting on Trump’s popularity among their core voters as they struggle to hold onto majority control, with Johnson believing the GOP will defy history that tends to reward the challengers in midterms and punish the party in power.

The House GOP has a slim majority. Control will likely be won — or lost — in a handful of battleground districts as Democrats put forward candidates in what they hope will be something of a repeat of 2018, when they swept to power riding a wave of voter unrest during Trump’s first term.

While the House is most at risk for Republicans this year, he narrowly split Senate is also increasingly in play. GOP strategists worry about an enthusiasm gap on their side as Democrats appear more eager to head to the polls.

At the same time, Democrats are nominating outsider candidates, some aligned with socialist agendas over establishment backed candidates, in a sign of voter unrest with the status quo.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Iran says it has discovered more than 7.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in southern Fars Province, adding another significant resource to a country that already holds the world’s second-largest proven gas reserves.

Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said approximately 5.7 trillion cubic feet—or more than 72% of the gas discovered in the Takht-e field—may ultimately be recoverable.

The field contains “sweet” natural gas, meaning it has relatively low levels of sulfur compounds and should be easier and less expensive to process than sour gas.

Iran also says the discovery includes substantial gas condensate, a valuable liquid hydrocarbon produced alongside natural gas. Paknejad estimated that the condensate could be worth tens of billions of dollars, although realizing that value will depend on whether Iran can finance and develop the field.

On the surface, 7.5 trillion cubic feet sounds enormous.

But the practical impact is smaller than the headline figure suggests.

Before the latest war-related disruptions, Iran was producing approximately 650 million cubic meters of natural gas per day—the equivalent of about 8.4 trillion cubic feet annually.

At that rate, the field’s estimated 5.7 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas would equal roughly eight months of Iran’s previous nationwide production.

Paknejad offered a different comparison, saying the recoverable reserves could supply one phase of the massive South Pars gas field for approximately 15 years.

Both comparisons demonstrate that the discovery is meaningful. But it is not large enough by itself to transform Iran into a substantially greater global gas supplier or dramatically alter international prices.

The bigger obstacle is not the amount of gas beneath the ground.

It is Iran’s ability to bring that gas to market.

Developing the Takht-e field will require drilling equipment, processing facilities, pipelines, financing and potentially export infrastructure. If Iran wants to sell the gas beyond neighboring countries, it would also need additional pipeline capacity or liquefied-natural-gas facilities capable of loading the fuel onto ships.

Iran currently lacks a major LNG-export industry comparable to Qatar’s, despite possessing far larger reserves than most gas-producing countries.

U.S. sanctions have historically restricted Iran’s access to the foreign investment, equipment and advanced technology needed to develop some of its largest energy projects. Sanctions also complicate payments, shipping, insurance and long-term supply agreements with international buyers.

The war has made those challenges even greater.

Iranian officials said attacks damaged energy facilities and eliminated approximately 230 million cubic meters per day of natural-gas production capacity—more than one-third of the country’s previously reported daily output.

The government expects approximately 100 million cubic meters of that capacity to return in the coming months. That would still leave Iran with a substantial shortfall unless additional repairs restore more production.

The disruption makes the latest discovery strategically important for Tehran, but commercially complicated.

Major natural-gas fields can take years and billions of dollars to develop. Companies must complete geological studies, drill production wells, build processing plants and connect the field to Iran’s national pipeline network before meaningful volumes can reach homes, power plants or industrial customers.

Iran therefore presents one of the world’s clearest energy contradictions.

It possesses enormous oil and natural-gas reserves, yet sanctions, aging infrastructure, underinvestment and now wartime damage severely restrict its ability to convert those resources into reliable supply and export revenue.

The Takht-e discovery could still strengthen Iran’s long-term energy security.

Iran depends heavily on natural gas for electricity generation, household heating, manufacturing and petrochemical production. New supplies could help replace declining output from older fields, reduce domestic shortages and support industrial activity—if the field is successfully developed.

But global consumers should not expect the discovery to produce cheaper natural gas anytime soon.

The continuing energy crisis has demonstrated that possessing resources underground is very different from having fuel available to consumers.

Iran may have discovered another 7.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The more important questions are how quickly it can develop the field, who will finance the work, how much infrastructure will remain available to transport the gas and whether international buyers will be permitted—or willing—to purchase it.

Until those questions are answered, the Takht-e field remains primarily a strategic asset for Iran, not immediate new supply for the world.

JBizNews Desk | Tehran

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A U.S. Army unit is offering its troops a special bonus if they reenlist soon: four extra days off timed around the November release of the video game Grand Theft Auto VI.

Commanders of the 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion based at Fort Stewart, Georgia, believe free time to indulge in the latest entry in the Grand Theft Auto series — in which players commit carjackings, battle police in shootouts and attempt audacious heists — will sway some soldiers to extend their military commitments.

The Nov. 19 release of Grand Theft Auto VI is expected to be one of the year’s biggest entertainment events. Game publisher Take-Two Interactive hasn’t released sales figures for preorders, but CEO Strauss Zelnick recently called them “unprecedented and astonishing.”

A career counselor with the Army engineer battalion hatched the idea with commanders to tie a retention perk to the game’s release, in part to remind soldiers of their approaching reenlistment dates, said Lt. Col. Angel Tomko, a Fort Stewart spokesperson.

“The idea was to have a unique incentives program that connects to what soldiers are interested in,” Tomko said Thursday in a statement to The Associated Press.

Battalion commanders wrote in a memo to soldiers that those who sign reenlistment contracts by Nov. 14 would receive “a special 4 day pass.”

“This special pass is specifically designed to coincide with the highly anticipated release of the video game Grand Theft Auto VI,” battalion commander Lt. Col. Ryan Hodgson wrote.

Tomko confirmed the authenticity of the July 28 memo, which was photographed and posted online.

She said at least 20 of 130 eligible soldiers have signed up for the bonus. To qualify, they must commit to serving at least two more years in uniform.

Buzz for Grand Theft Auto VI has been building since 2023, when its first cinematic trailer showed a return to the series’ fictional Vice City — a satirical analogue of Miami — and an expanded swath of Florida-based locales that include gator-infested swamps.

Underscoring the hype, developer Rockstar Games plans to debut gameplay video next week in an extended trailer on Netflix. The rollout was preempted when hackers leaked apparent footage online this week.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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The world does not need any more AI productivity tools.

We’ve evaluated such tools running well into triple digits in the past 12 months alone, and believe that the vast majority of those are destined for the graveyard.

We’re in the most exponential cycle of innovation, and therefore value creation, the world has ever seen. Not only has AI allowed for tremendous productivity increases, the rate of change is unprecedented. It is both the most exciting, and amongst the hardest, times to be a venture investor. 

The years 2023 and 2024 saw a mind-boggling rise in AI productivity tools. Vibe coding became real with Lovable, lawyers harnessed Harvey, doctors slashed admin with the likes of Abridge and even the common office worker became far smarter with note taking assistants like Granola. They all deliver as advertised: they search, they summarize, they automate, they save time and capture very useful context in the process. They play across both the first and second phases of the AI development cycle. 

The list of productivity tools, both horizontal and vertical, runs into the many hundreds today. When we are on the precipice of discovering new drugs using in-silico AI modeling, AI Notetaker #25 is not only not needed, it is unlikely to survive as a standalone business. 

Who survives 

Over 50 years ago, Charlie Munger convinced his best friend, Warren Buffett, to ditch the proverbial cheap cigar butts for buying durable, high-quality businesses, centered around their economic moat. Ironically, today, these moats are the weakest they have ever been, specifically in AI-native businesses. 

The pace of innovation that AI has brought about is unprecedented, as is the economic return. Yet the longevity of this economic return is the most unclear it has ever been. Our analysis estimates that around $1TR in net new AI ecosystem revenue was added since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 – an unprecedented rate. Meanwhile, the quality of that revenue is amongst the riskiest it’s ever been. AI models are under existential threat from open-source; incumbent chip manufacturers from new entrants; applications from the models themselves, and the weakest of those applications are the plain-jane productivity tools. 

AI applications collectively are today pushing an estimated $150-200BN in ARR, according to Northzone analysis. By far the largest and most mature vertical within this is AI Coding – 20-30% of these revenues – which has amongst the most sophisticated class of AI application products. They too evolved from a basic productivity tool i.e. the Github co-pilot, arguably the first real vertical AI application. From there, it went to a system of action – a Cursor, a Claude Code, a Codex and eventually a Cognition – capable of doing hours’ worth of human work independently. And now full-blown autonomous systems of work (Blitzy, Factory, etc.) that can ingest hundreds of millions of lines of code, understand objectives, and independently ideate, create, and deliver solutions over weeks of autonomous work. In fact, very early signs of recursive superintelligence are already appearing, 

The evolution of the coding vertical is unlikely to be unique. Most, if not all, verticals will follow a similar trajectory. AI doctors and lawyers will deliver autonomous value superior to any single human being. They might come from companies that don’t exist today, or perhaps some of the best aforementioned productivity tools will use their head start, i.e. proprietary data sets and embedded workflow, to evolve into these. 

Northzone’s investments in companies like Tandem Health are already showing this evolution from productivity tool to a true system of action. Others, like XBOW or Blitzy, are true autonomous systems of work, from day one.

So, a few will survive (and thrive) – the rest will perish. 

Where the world is headed

This doesn’t mean we stop funding productivity tools altogether. It does mean that we only focus on those that are creating meaningful new value for the world. 

If the last 24 months of AI were defined by efficiency and productivity increases, the next 12 will be defined by innovation. We’ll likely see a lot more investment behind AI for science – fueling the discovery of new drugs and materials. We’ll see the world become safer for the vast majority of the population (despite the feeling of the converse) through autonomous AI for Defense. Physical AI might be larger than all of Digital AI put together, and will have a lasting impact on human behavior like no other.

By definition, innovation is almost impossible to predict precisely, so perhaps the most meaningful to come is beyond those listed here. At Northzone, we spent almost two years examining what a truly autonomous system of work would look like. And for more than a year, we sat on this (then-) contrarian thesis, not actively deploying capital, even as productivity tools drew vast sums of it. The technology just didn’t exist.

But since the beginning of 2026, we have actively led rounds in excess of several hundreds of millions of dollars, as a convergence of vast foundational intelligence, deep reasoning, and early recursive learning loops saw the arrival of these systems, capable of acting autonomously over long horizons, without being told what to do next. A tool that requires human supervision simply cannot compete with a product that completes months of work in a weekend.

Crudely defined, AGI is the ability of AI to navigate ambiguity, form hypotheses, test them, hit dead ends, iterate to find a solution, execute and deliver value, all without any human intervention. That is the next frontier, and the new standard for investment.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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With so much going on in New York City’s northernmost borough, it’s hard to pick just one reason developers are looking to the Bronx as the place to build new homes and infrastructure to support a new wave of residents. Neighborhoods like Riverdale and Morris Park have remained desirable residential neighborhoods, while others, like Mott Haven and Hunts Point, have seen a decade-long residential renaissance. Major multi-phase new developments have focused on the South Bronx waterfront with luxury high-rises, affordable housing conversions, parks, promenades, and community and retail space to serve them.

Photo by David Vives on Unsplash

Some of the properties featured here are part of paid partnerships, which help support our editorial work. All buildings are selected and independently reviewed by the 6sqft team.

The Bronx Metro North Plan, a major rezoning approved in 2024, is slated to bring $500 million in investments and thousands of new homes and jobs to a 46-block corridor of the East Bronx. The Kingsbridge Armory, often cited as the largest armory in the world, is currently slated for redevelopment via a multi-use revitalization plan that will transform the 570,000-square-foot space into an entertainment, community, and manufacturing hub.

These investments build on attractions that have long attracted New Yorkers to the borough, like Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo, and Yankee Stadium.

At the same time, new rental apartment buildings such as The Arbor, Estela, and the massive Bankside complex have brought new residents to the borough, with amenities you’d expect in top Manhattan and Brooklyn buildings.

The Arbor
3260 Henry Hudson Parkway

The Arbor in leafy, historic Riverdale sits just outside the city’s urban hustle. Convenient access to important cultural destinations like the New York Botanical Garden and Van Cortlandt Park, combined with tranquil neighborhood charm, makes the Bronx neighborhood a unique place to call home.

Graciously proportioned interiors with floor-to-ceiling windows and lots of closet space feature conveniences like in-unit laundry, double dishwashers, kitchen islands, and custom window shades.

Amenities at this full-service rental address include a fitness center, children’s playroom, residents’ lounge, and on-site parking garage.

Current availabilities at The Arbor start at $3,140/month for a one-bedroom and go up to $6,050/month for a three-bedroom unit. See all available apartments here.

Estela
445 Gerard Avenue

The Mott Haven neighborhood has emerged in recent years as one of the city’s most vibrant, with a burgeoning residential community taking advantage of both proximity to Manhattan via the nearby 2, 4, and 5 trains and a fast-growing collection of shopping, dining, cultural, and entertainment destinations along the waterfront. The two buildings that make up Estela are inspired by the neighborhood and the surrounding city.

Masonry facades that nod to the area’s industrial heritage hold spacious apartments topped by roof decks with unobstructed views of upper Manhattan and the Harlem River. Interior finishes incorporate smart home features framed by oversized windows, oak wood floors, quartz worktops, and marble tile. In-unit laundry and plenty of closet space add convenience. A select number of furnished units are move-in ready.

A peerless collection of building amenities includes 35,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenity spaces. Waterfront-facing sun decks and private workspaces are ready for work or play. Additional perks include an on-site concierge, bike storage, parking with electric chargers, a kids’ playroom, a 24-hour fitness center, a screening room, lounges and game rooms.

Surrounding the complex are the borough’s noted park spaces, waterfront greenways, and Harlem River vistas.

A curated art program honors the creativity of the city and the neighborhood. Estela exhibits 59 original works by local artists throughout the building, 44 of which were created by Bronx artists, many with nearby studios.

Current availabilities at Estela East and West start at $3,005/month for a one-bedroom and go up to $4,895/month for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit. See all available apartments here.

Maven
2413 Third Avenue

Courtesy of RXR

In 2023, developer RXR opened Maven, a 27-story rental tower on the South Bronx waterfront. Located at 2413 Third Avenue in Mott Haven, the 145,643-square-foot building is the developer’s first foray into the Bronx. Designed by the award-winning architecture firm CetraRuddy, the residential tower offers 200 rental units. The building also hosts 721 square feet of retail space for local businesses. 

Courtesy of RXR

The building’s many canted façades allow every unit to take advantage of natural light and views. Apartments feature stainless steel appliances, white oak flooring, matte black iron fixtures, subway tile finishes, and glass and tile shower enclosures.

Courtesy of RXR

Amenities at the pet-friendly residence are anchored by a gallery space on the ground floor featuring one-of-a-kind works by local Bronx artists like graffiti artists Cope 2 and CRASH. Amenities include a fitness center, a flexible common area, and electric vehicle charging stations. Residents also get access to a lounge with a chef’s kitchen, banquet seating, a yoga room, a game room with a pool table and big-screen TVs, a media screening room with seating and a projector, and a landscaped roof deck with gas grills, dining areas, and a lounge.

Current availabilities at Maven start at $3,111/month for a one-bedroom unit and go up to $5,796/month for a three-bedroom. See all available apartments here.

Bruckner House
40 Bruckner Blvd

Rendering courtesy of S9 Architecture

Another relatively new Mott Haven rental is the 12-story Bruckner House at 40 Bruckner Boulevard. Designed by S9 Architecture, the building honors the neighborhood’s industrial past with its modern loft aesthetic. Within are 365 apartments and out-of-the-box amenities like a sunken indoor garden; the building was included in 2025’s Archtober design tours.

Apartments feature sustainable and repurposed materials like polished wood, exposed concrete, and black-and-white tile. Kitchens feature durable, high-end appliances and finishes like quartz countertops and a paneled refrigerator.

Twenty-first-century conveniences include a virtual doorman, keyless entry, a live-in super, garage parking, bike storage, laundry, round-the-clock security, a package room, and a cleaning service. More than 30,000 square feet of community space means space for work and entertainment throughout the building.

In addition to a tranquil inner garden, amenities include the rooftop Skyline Club, offering an open-air pool and pool house with waterfront and city views, an outdoor theater, a sun deck and BBQ lounge, and mini golf. Indoors you’ll find a fitness center, a yoga room, a bathhouse with a hot tub and wet and dry sauna, game rooms, a cinema room, a party room, and a social lounge. There’s also a children’s play space and outdoor playground, a pet spa, and a dog run.

You’re surrounded by the neighborhood’s growing collection of restaurants and bars, art and culture, waterfront, and parks. Connect to the rest of New York City at 4, 5, and 6 subway stations within a few blocks.

Apartments at Bruckner House start at $2,166/month for a studio and go up to $4,850/month for a two-bedroom.

One38
138 Bruckner Blvd

Courtesy of ONE38

Completed in 2024, One38 at 138 Bruckner Boulevard adds 579 studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments to the Mott Haven community. The building emphasizes eco-conscious and wellness-inspired living in its residences as well as its amenities. Open-concept layouts maximize space and light, complemented by sound-reducing windows. Energy-efficient climate control and smart keyless entry provide convenience and security.

Courtesy of ONE38

Streamlined kitchen designs feature oak finish cabinetry. Generous bedrooms and storage spaces are served by bathrooms with stylish Japanese penny tiling and in-residence washer/dryers. Private balconies extend living space outdoors.

Courtesy of ONE38

Over 70,000 square feet of health and wellness amenities include an Olympic-sized indoor pool, a state-of-the-art fitness center, and a basketball court. Three distinct outdoor spaces on multiple levels offer a dog run, a private outdoor playground, and shaded seating areas.

Courtesy of ONE38

A verdant outdoor courtyard offers winding garden paths and gathering spaces. A rooftop terrace offers Manhattan skyline views while playing tennis, paddle ball, or a number of other sports activities.

One38 is just a few blocks from the 4/5/6 subway lines for easy access to Midtown Manhattan. The surrounding Mott Haven neighborhood is a vibrant mix of local culture, spin-the-compass dining, trendy cafes and bars, and the parks and recreation areas the Bronx is known for.

Current availabilities at One38 start at $3,100/month for a studio and go up to $4,500/month for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit with a private terrace. See all available apartments here.

Bankside

Rendering courtesy of ArX Solutions

The $950 million South Bronx complex Bankside, developed by Brookfield Properties, represents the most expensive private development in the Bronx. The 4.3-acre development, designed by Hill West Architects, first broke ground in 2019. The seven-tower mixed-use waterfront complex in Mott Haven spans the Third Avenue Bridge on the Harlem River, with a parcel on either side. Its two residential anchors, Third at Bankside (2401 Third Avenue) and Lincoln at Bankside (101 Lincoln Avenue), opened in 2022.

Photo courtesy of Jakob Dahlin

Opened in 2024, a new public waterfront park and esplanade designed by MPFP aims to make the Harlem River more accessible to the community. The 34,000 square feet of public space offers seating and gathering spots surrounded by native plantings. Roughly 15,000 square feet of local retail space is joined by a tech-based community center run by the nonprofit Project Destined.

Lincoln at Bankside
101 Lincoln Avenue

Credit: Brookfield Properties

The four towers that comprise Lincoln at Bankside offer 921 studio to three-bedroom apartments in a range of design options. Residences are offered in two dramatic palettes.

Credit: Ray Cavicchio Photography

Apartments feature floor-to-ceiling windows, stainless steel appliances, in-unit washers and dryers, and dishwashers.

Amenities include a concierge, a state-of-the-art fitness center with studios for spin, yoga, Pilates, and HIIT, a game room, covered valet parking with EV charging stations, a residents’ lounge, a co-working space, a secret-garden-themed children’s playroom, a rooftop terrace, an indoor pool, an indoor basketball court, and reservable event space.

Photo courtesy of Jakob Dahlin

Blessed with views of Mott Haven, the Harlem River, Queens, and Manhattan, the new community is set in the midst of cafés, shops, bars, restaurants, and a vibrant cultural scene. It’s a short walk to the 4, 5, and 6 subway lines for easy access to all of New York City.

Current availabilities at Lincoln at Bankside start at $3,250/month for a one-bedroom and go up to $5,591/month for a two-bedroom, two-bath duplex townhome. See all available apartments here.

Third at Bankside
2401 Third Avenue

Rendering courtesy of LCP360

Situated along the Mott Haven waterfront where the South Bronx meets the Harlem River, Third at Bankside is part of the massive new Bankside community. The residential complex consists of three towers ranging from 17 to 25 stories, offering 458 total units from studios to three-bedroom apartments.

Oversized views frame the city skyline and the Harlem River. Interiors feature considered details like wood flooring, stainless steel appliances, gas ranges, prep islands, and quartz worktops. Some units have private balconies.

Amenities include coworking and maker spaces with state-of-the-art tools and resources, a pool deck, a game room, a children’s playroom, a 3,000-square-foot gym with indoor turf, high-end exercise equipment, free weights, strength machines, and dedicated studio spaces. Resident services include keyless entry, a double-height lobby with 24-hour concierge service, valet parking with electric charging stations, bike storage, and perks for pets.

Current availabilities at Third at Bankside include one-bedroom units starting at $3,250/month. See all available apartments here.

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Inexpensive interceptors developed by a small start-up based in West Palm Beach, Florida, could be used to counter the threat posed by Iranian drones, according to a report by The New York Times on Sunday. 

Powerus has been building its drone interceptors at a United Arab Emirates facility since July, where it produces 3-D printed components and assembles them into the finished product. The design, known as the “Guardian,” sells for around $5,000.

The report cited a Powerus spokesperson, who said the company produces 3,000 interceptors a month and hopes to increase that to 15,000 a month by 2027. This is helped by the product’s modular design, as the readily available components easily snap together.

According to the NYT, Powerus based the Guardian on a Ukrainian drone interceptor which showed promise against Russian suicide drones. The company’s website describes the interceptor as having a top “burst” speed of 340 kph, a 160 kph cruise speed, a range of 15 kilometers, 28 minutes of operational endurance, and “hundreds” of confirmed interceptions.  

The NYT noted that the Guardians, originally produced in the United States, are not a complete solution to the interceptor shortage currently facing the US military after its war with Iran. The design cannot counter ballistic missiles and other larger threats, which are better suited to more expensive options, such as Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3.

A drone is seen during a suspected drone strike targeting an oil warehouse on the outskirts of Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, on April 1, 2026. (credit: Gailan Haji / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

US company builds cheap interceptors as Pentagon hits shortage 

That said, the design still holds promise, with Powerus signing a $22.3 million contract on Thursday to protect Middle Eastern oil and gas infrastructure.

“This commercial contract reflects the direction we believe the counter-drone market is heading: toward integrated, networked protection of critical oil and gas infrastructure,” said company co-founder and COO Brett Velicovich.

“We are starting with the capabilities our customer needs today while providing an architecture that can expand as the threat and operational requirements evolve,” he added. 

“Powerus is bringing US-based engineering, manufacturing and technology to help protect the operations that power that infrastructure.”

Price competition for interceptor, UAE-interested in further involvement

Another spokesperson told the NYT that the company faces price competition, with a California-based drone interceptor developer listing a basic model for about $5,000.

According to the report, the UAE has recently sought out opportunities for the development and assembly of interceptors on its own territory, having faced thousands of drones and ballistic missiles fired by Iran recently.

UAE seeking ‘sovereign capability,’ regional researcher says

International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) research associate Albert Vidal, based in the region, told the NYT that the primary goal of constructing the interceptors in the UAE is to establish “sovereign capability.”

“The reaction in the UAE is: ‘We’re going to continue buying as much as we can from the US, but we will also buy from other players, and we are also going to produce stuff at home,’” he said.

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Mark Carney drew international attention as Canada’s prime minister by warning that middle powers must resist economic coercion by more powerful countries. Now President Donald Trump is putting that warning to the test with sweeping new tariffs that could show how much economic pain Canada can absorb.

Tensions escalated late Friday when Canada walked away from negotiations after Carney concluded the United States was demanding too much in exchange for tariff relief. The U.S. imposed 50% duties Saturday on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, and Carney announced dollar-for-dollar retaliation beginning Sept. 8.

“We’re going to hit back,” Carney said.

Carney is doing what many other American allies have so far avoided: risking economic pain rather than yielding to tariff pressure.

For Carney, the showdown is the clearest test yet of his argument that middle powers must stand up to economic pressure from great powers such as the United States and China, even when it comes at a cost. Canada’s response could show how countries navigate a world in which long-standing alliances offer less protection and economic ties themselves become sources of leverage.

It could also shape how Carney is viewed at home and abroad, and how other U.S. allies respond to the Republican president.

The trade dispute also has become a test of sovereignty.

Carney said Washington introduced language in the final hours of negotiations that would have restricted Canada’s ability to make trade deals with other countries. He said that demand was “unacceptable” and “a question of sovereignty.”

British Columbia Premier David Eby said accepting such a condition would have reduced Canada “to the economic equivalent of the 51st state” — a status Trump has mused about often.

Canada becomes a test case for the world Carney warned about

Carney’s message resonated in January when he addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as Europe braced for Trump’s threats over Greenland and new tariffs.

Carney said the international order was undergoing “a rupture, not a transition.” He argued that sovereignty would depend increasingly on a country’s ability to “withstand pressure” and warned that middle powers negotiating alone with great powers do so from weakness.

Trump responded a day later by stressing Canada’s dependence on the United States. “ Canada lives because of the United States,” he said. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

The president has repeatedly talked about making Canada the 51st U.S. state and dismissed the allies’ border as artificial. On Sunday, Trump returned to that theme, writing on Truth Social that “Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!” and accusing Canada of charging U.S. farmers “massive amounts” of tariffs for years. “No more!!!” he wrote.

Seven months since Davos, Canada has become a test case for the world Carney described.

“Our government understood, before many, that America would transform all its commercial relationships,” Carney said Saturday. He accused Washington of using “economic integration as a weapon” and said its “signature was written in pencil.”

The price of resistance and will Canada show the way?

Historian Robert Bothwell said Canada is uniquely vulnerable to U.S. pressure.

“No country is more exposed than Canada,” Bothwell said. “Other countries have to fear American misbehavior, but none as much as Canada.”

Bothwell said success ultimately means Canada retaining its independence “in the face of Trump’s desire to subordinate it and absorb it.” He said Carney “sees that very well.”

But Canada’s dependence on the U.S. market makes that difficult.

Nearly three-quarters of Canadian goods exports go to the United States, whose economy is roughly 10 times larger. Canada can sign new trade agreements, but replacing customers and supply chains built around the enormous U.S. market over decades is considerably harder.

Carney acknowledged retaliation would “raise costs and reduce choice for Canadians.”

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer rejected Canada’s account of the breakdown in talks, saying Ottawa introduced new demands and backed away from commitments even after Washington offered to reduce tariffs on steel, autos, lumber and other goods.

He said the United States was moving ahead with additional measures in response to Canada’s retaliation, raising the prospect of further escalation.

The European Union prepared retaliatory tariffs against the United States last year but repeatedly suspended them while negotiating with Washington.

Nelson Wiseman, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto, said Canada is providing the biggest test yet of whether Carney’s strategy can work and whether resistance by one middle power could change the calculations of others.

“Will there be a domino effect? We’ll see,” Wiseman said.

Carney tries to hold the line as anger grows among Canadians toward Trump

Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, said Americans underestimate how angry Canadians are with the Trump administration.

“Taking a hard line in response to U.S. policy perceived as predatory — even with major economic cost to Canada — is popular among most Canadians,” he said in a social media post.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Canadians should be prepared for a prolonged confrontation and that Trump could emerge weaker after the U.S. midterm elections in November.

“He’s got two more years left in office. We should be prepared to duke it out for two years, and then hopefully, sanity will return,” Kinew said.

Carney has framed the confrontation as a test of whether Canada can preserve its independence under U.S. pressure.

“Last spring, I warned that America is trying to break us so that they can own us,” Carney said Saturday. “And I promised: ‘That will never, ever happen.’ We are keeping that promise.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Walmart is expanding its fashion business with Scenario, a new women’s clothing brand offering current styles at prices designed for the retailer’s value-conscious customers.

The collection includes jeans, dresses, tops, footwear, handbags, belts, scarves and jewelry. Many clothing items are priced below $25, while shoes and larger accessories generally sell for approximately $20 to $40. Selected pieces are available in extended sizes up to 4X.

Scenario represents Walmart’s latest attempt to convince shoppers that its clothing departments can offer more than inexpensive basics. The brand features wide-leg and barrel jeans, textured tops, seasonal prints, faux-leather accessories and other designs influenced by current fashion trends.

The strategy could carry significant financial value for Walmart. Groceries bring customers into its stores regularly, but food typically produces narrow profit margins. Clothing and accessories can generate stronger returns, particularly when they are sold under a retailer’s own private label.

A customer who adds a $25 pair of jeans, a handbag or a pair of shoes to a grocery trip becomes considerably more valuable to Walmart. Because Scenario is a Walmart-controlled brand, the company can oversee its designs, pricing and distribution while avoiding direct comparisons with identical products sold by competitors.

Walmart has spent several years expanding and repositioning its clothing business. Its existing portfolio includes Time and Tru, Free Assembly, Scoop and No Boundaries, along with limited collections involving designers, celebrities and entertainment properties. Scenario gives the retailer another label that can target changing fashion preferences without altering its established brands.

The company is also using artificial intelligence to reduce the time required to identify trends and develop new merchandise. Walmart says its Trend-to-Product system can shorten the traditional fashion-production process by as much as 18 weeks, allowing certain products to move from an emerging trend to store shelves within six to eight weeks.

Speed is especially important in fashion because styles can rise and disappear before traditionally produced merchandise reaches stores. A faster process can help Walmart respond while a particular color, fabric or design is still popular and reduce the risk of being left with large quantities of unsold inventory.

For consumers, Scenario means greater access to fashionable clothing at prices closer to Walmart’s traditional value range. For the retailer, it is an opportunity to capture more of the money its existing customers currently spend at Target, Amazon, department stores and fast-fashion competitors.

Walmart does not need to transform every grocery customer into a dedicated fashion shopper for Scenario to succeed. Convincing even a portion of its enormous customer base to purchase one additional clothing item or accessory could produce substantial sales while making each store visit more profitable.

JBizNews Desk | Bentonville, Arkansas

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The CEO of a Chinese robotics company whose stock skyrocketed 460% after going public this week said humanoid robots might still be far away from their own “ChatGPT moment.”

The 36-year-old CEO behind robotics company Unitree, Wang Xingxing, said Thursday the industry’s breakthrough, or “ChatGPT moment,” could take “2 to 3 years at the fastest, and 5 or even 10 years at the slowest,” according to a translation of a speech he gave at the World Robot Conference in Beijing, previously reported by CNBC.

Robots will only reach this point when they can be placed in an unfamiliar environment or a home and handle about 80% of tasks through voice commands or text alone, he said.

Wang’s comments reflect a shift from last year at the same conference, when he said the breakthrough moment for robotics would come within five years at the latest. His statement also seemed to conflict with the outsized enthusiasm shown by investors who skyrocketed the company’s stock 460% on Wednesday when it listed on Shanghai’s STAR Market for the first time.

Despite having been founded by Wang a decade ago, Unitree became a household name in the robotics industry overnight last year after a viral video showed the company’s humanoid robots performing a coordinated dance alongside humans during the Spring Festival Gala broadcast on China’s state TV.

Less than a month later, Wang was one of only a handful of executives seated in the front row, alongside BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu and Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, during a private enterprise symposium hosted by China’s president, Xi Jinping in Beijing. 

“Artificial-intelligence-driven robots are evolving at an incredibly fast pace, surpassing my expectations. Every day brings new surprises,” Wang told China state TV following the meeting, the South China Morning Post reported.

Fast forward to this year’s Spring Festival Gala, and Unitree again impressed the crowd with its robots’ more advanced moves that included backflips and leaps over platforms.  

These feats culminated in Unitree’s exuberant public listing this week, in which it raised $900 million at a valuation of $9 billion. After trading opened, Unitree reached a valuation of $66 billion, dwarfing U.S.-based robotics company Figure AI, which was last valued at $39 billion after a funding round last year.

After a stellar first day of trading, which Fortune previously reported is not unusual in China because regulators tend to keep IPO valuations conservative to protect investors, Unitree’s stock fell about 19% on Thursday. Its stock closed down another 2% Friday as of market close in Shanghai.

Just because Unitree’s robots can perform impressive feats doesn’t mean the company is on the verge of ushering in a humanoid robot revolution. While ChatGPT’s release in late 2022, helped spark a flurry of competition and advances for large language models, the same idea isn’t easily applied to robots because of their complexity.

Wang admitted in the same speech Thursday that Unitree’s robots are still less efficient than human workers and must be retrained for every new task. The fact that robots still cannot adapt to new situations and tasks easily is holding back the robotics industry, he added. 

Still, Wang noted that the company is working on a self-evolving development loop where its AI tests a robot’s “control code” and continuously scores its results in collaboration with humans to help improve and ultimately perfect the precision of its robots’ movements, which he said can go awry in “the last few centimeters or millimeters.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Israelis Mali and Liel Yahalomi were reportedly tracked down from Vienna, Austria, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, by using the their chat history with artificial intelligence models, N12 News reported on Saturday. 

For cyber expert Osher Cohen, the pair’s discovery proves his point on how it represents a key aspect of how people should rethink the way they interact with AI.

“Users need to gain a new habit: think before you type into an AI chatbot,” Cohen told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday when asked about the privacy of users when searching a term in a chatbot versus doing the same thing with a normal search bar.

“People sometimes treat AI chatbots as if they are speaking privately to themselves. In reality, an AI chatbot is a cloud service. It may be connected to an account, a device, an email address, a browser, an IP address, privacy settings, and data retention policies,” he explained.

Cohen is a cyber specialist and the founder of Yo Secure, an Israeli company that handles digital identity crises, hacked and blocked accounts, online impersonation, social media recovery, and security incidents on digital platforms.

According to him, the main diference stands in the way people engage a chat bot, giving context beyond the question in order to get a more accurate result.

“They give context, explain a situation, ask follow-up questions, test ideas, ask for wording, and sometimes describe things they would not say out loud to another person,” he said.

Osher Cohen, cybersecurity expert and founder of YO SECURE. (credit: Courtesy of YO SECURE)

“In contrast, a regular search is usually short. You type a few words, get links, and decide what to read,” he added. 

Do not type what you don’t want to be stored in the cloud

Cohen also explained that sensitive data should never be entered into an AI chatbot that isn’t properly secured, mainly because it’s easier to overshare when chatting than when searching.

“A search can show what you wanted to know. A conversation with AI can show what you were thinking, what you were worried about, what you were considering, and what you were trying to achieve. From a privacy standpoint, AI conversations can be more sensitive than regular search history because people treat them like a private adviser. But technically, they are still using a digital service,” he said.

Additionally, many users might confuse the search with the AI chatbot now that many of them are directly embedded into the search bar, but this doesn’t change the fact that the tools are different and should be treated in different ways.

“The fact that an AI tool appears inside a search bar does not mean the conversation disappears. It still depends on the company operating the service, whether the user is signed in, the privacy settings, the data retention policy, whether history is enabled, and whether the information may be used for safety, product improvement, or legal compliance,” Cohen said.

“The biggest issue is psychological. When AI is built into search, people feel like they are “just searching”. In practice, they may be creating a richer record than a regular search query,” he added.

No real difference in tools or place; the best way to protect data is with actions

According to Cohen, while metadata is stored differently depending on the location of the user, the day-to-day activity remains in cloud servers that are managed by the companies owning the chatbot. 

“In most cases, a regular user does not know exactly where the data is stored. Large technology companies use global cloud infrastructure, and information may be processed or stored in different regions, depending on the provider, the product, the type of account, organizational settings, legal requirements, and the company’s internal architecture,” he said.

Additionally, while there are tools that might help with privacy and security, like VPNs, in the end there is a large list of providers, networks, apps, and more that might have access to the data shared in a chatbot even if the user thinks it is protected.

“With AI tools, the safest approach is behavioral, not only technical. With AI tools, the safest approach is behavioral, not only technical. Do not enter passwords, do not enter verification codes, do not enter credit card details, do not upload sensitive legal, medical, or business documents unless you understand the risk, and do not paste customer data into a personal AI account.”

What should people do to protect themselves?

Cohen also explained that, along with the mental practice of avoiding typing something you would not say out loud, people should clearly understand the privacy settings of the chatbot apps they use.

“People should check privacy settings, delete history when it is no longer needed, use temporary or incognito modes when appropriate, and avoid uploading sensitive documents into consumer AI tools,” he recommended.

“Businesses should create an internal AI policy. Employees need to know what they can paste into AI tools and what they cannot. Customer lists, contracts, legal documents, medical information, financial data, and internal strategy should not be casually uploaded into a personal chatbot account,” he added.

He described the AI tools as “an amazing tool, but it is not a safe deposit box,” and concluded: “The danger is not only what AI knows how to answer. The danger is what we choose to tell it.”

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President Donald Trump’s latest trade fight with Canada has a faraway force at its center: China.

As Washington presses Ottawa to do more to prevent Chinese steel, aluminum and other goods from reaching the U.S. market through North American supply chains, Canada is pursuing renewed economic ties with Beijing, adding a fresh complication to already tense trade talks.

At the heart of the fight is transshipment — routing goods through an intermediary country, sometimes after limited processing, before they reach their final market. U.S. officials fear steel and aluminum made in China or elsewhere could be processed in Canada or Mexico and then enter the United States as regional content.

TRUMP JUST EXPANDED HIS TARIFF PLAYBOOK WITH A POWERFUL TRADE WEAPON NO PRESIDENT HAS EVER USED

The U.S. and Canada addressed that risk in a 2019 joint statement resolving an earlier steel-and-aluminum tariff dispute. The countries agreed to prevent steel and aluminum made outside the U.S. or Canada from being transshipped into the other country, and said they could distinguish between steel melted and poured in North America and steel made elsewhere.

U.S. trade hawks now argue Canada should accept tougher safeguards as Washington seeks to limit China’s role in critical manufacturing supply chains.

Canada claims it is already taking steps to keep foreign steel from flooding its market. Ottawa limits some steel imports from countries without a free-trade agreement, including China, and imposes a 50% surcharge once those limits are exceeded.

A POPULAR COCKTAIL HAS A TRUMP TRADE PROBLEM YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT

But Canada has also moved to strengthen trade ties with Beijing.

In March, China agreed to reopen its market to several Canadian farm and seafood exports, including canola, peas, lobster and crab. Canada, meanwhile, established a 49,000-vehicle annual quota for Chinese EVs at the 6.1% most-favored-nation tariff rate, removing its previous 100% surtax.

Canada also extended tariff relief for some Chinese steel and aluminum products it says are in short supply. Officials say the arrangement is part of a broader effort to diversify Canada’s trade relationships. China is Canada’s second-largest merchandise trading partner.

The arrangement has fueled criticism in Washington that Canada is moving in the opposite direction from the Trump administration’s effort to build a more China-resistant North American trading bloc.

For Trump, the growing question is whether Canada is willing to embrace the same approach — or whether it’s bid to expand trade with Beijing will become another fault line in an already tense relationship.

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The U.S. national debt crossed $40 trillion for the first time this week, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants Americans—and markets—to shrug it off.

“There’s nothing magic about the $40 trillion number,” Bessent told CNBC‘s Sara Eisen in an exclusive interview on Squawk on the Street Thursday. “And we can grow our way out of that.”

The remark, delivered with the same even cadence he’s used to talk down bond-market jitters all year, was Bessent’s clearest attempt yet to reframe a debt milestone that has alarmed economists and fueled a selloff in long-dated Treasurys. The gross national debt crossed the $40 trillion mark, according to Treasury Department data, just five months after hitting $39 trillion in March.

Bessent’s comments came a day after the Treasury said it would at least double the size of its buyback operations for longer-dated securities—from a maximum of $2 billion per operation to “at least” $4 billion—in a bid to shore up liquidity in a bond market he described as thinly traded and, in his view, mispriced. The change takes effect Sept. 9 and applies through Nov. 4, covering the 10-to-20-year and 20-to-30-year sectors that have faced what CNBC has called a “buyers’ strike” since late June.

“We believe that there are many underlying factors in turn that the market is not looking at, and we are going to make a market… in these,” Bessent said. “I would note that it could be more than the $4 billion per issue.”

The fundamentals argument

Bessent’s core pitch is the deficit is smaller than it looks, and the money the government is “losing” isn’t being lost at all. He said the U.S. ran a fiscal consolidation in calendar year 2025, with the deficit landing around 5.7% of GDP. Part of what has inflated the headline deficit, he argued, are one-time tariff refunds that won’t recur: 2026 tariff income, he said, should roughly match 2025 levels as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer reimplements duties through the Section 301 process.

The other major drag on revenue, he said, is the cost of letting companies immediately expense new factories, equipment, and farm structures. Bessent said he doesn’t count that as spending.

“That is actually an investment in the future and we’re increasing the tax base,” he said. “That is what measures the wealth of a nation … the ability to increase after-tax return on capital.”

He described the strategy in physical terms: “Think of it as pulling back the slingshot here. We have a lot of potential energy that will turn into kinetic energy during this year, next year, as these factories come online.”

Asked directly whether the administration believes it has already seen the worst of the deficit, Bessent didn’t hedge.

“I think the very, very good chance we have,” he said, pointing to a coming joint effort with OMB Director Russell Vought and a separate crackdown led by the vice president’s Fraud Task Force that he said could “save several hundred billion dollars.”

He also teased a broader fiscal-consolidation announcement from the White House “probably at the end of this week, beginning of next week,” covering both spending cuts and revenue measures.

The deficit question

Fortune reported earlier this month Bessent has leaned unusually hard on short-term Treasury bills to finance the roughly $2 trillion annual deficit, taking advantage of a 3.8% three-month bill yield versus a 30-year rate that has traded above 5%—a multi-decade high. That approach holds down reported borrowing costs today, but leaves the government more exposed if inflation or rates rise, according to minutes from the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC), the panel of bond dealers and investors that advise Treasury on its own funding.

Those same TBAC minutes, released Aug. 5, warned that at current auction sizes, the government faces a $1.45 trillion funding shortfall in fiscal years 2027-28. Rising interest costs already drove the biggest jump in Treasury outlays this year—up $120 billion—and the government now spends more than $1 trillion annually just servicing debt, more than the U.S. spends on national defense.

Jon Hilsenrath, the longtime Federal Reserve watcher who spent decades at The Wall Street Journal and now runs Serpa Pinto Advisory, previously told Fortune he sees a collision brewing between the Treasury’s bill-heavy strategy and the Fed’s own moves under new Chair Kevin Warsh to shrink its balance sheet—which dealers expect to push the Fed toward shorter maturities just as Treasury is forced back toward longer-term bonds to refinance.

“It always comes back to fundamentals,” Hilsenrath said. “Trump and a new Congress came into power and chose not to do anything about the deficit.”

Notably, the strategy predates Bessent. It was his predecessor, Janet Yellen, who first leaned on short-term bills to fund deficits—a tactic Bessent himself criticized in 2024, when he amplified an analysis by economists Stephen Miran and Nouriel Roubini accusing Yellen’s Treasury of “activist Treasury issuance” designed to flatter the economy ahead of the election.

Skepticism from the bond market

Eisen pressed Bessent on whether the buyback signal was more theater than substance, noting Wednesday’s Treasury rally—yields fell as much as 9 basis points on the 30-year bond after the buyback news—had already partly reversed by Thursday morning. Bessent didn’t back down from the possibility of going further.

“We have a big toolkit, so we will see,” he said, though he insisted the moves aren’t a response to any particular yield level. “It’s not if the market cooperates. It’s: we will see what the conditions are, and we will analyze them then.”

He also dismissed the idea the buyback push constrains Warsh, who has signaled openness to shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet or raising rates if inflation stays elevated.

“I think that the Treasury and the Fed would work together if there was any change in the balance sheet,” Bessent said, adding the buyback decision “has nothing to do” with the rate outlook.

Inflation, jobs, and the dollar

Bessent argued headline inflation—pushed higher recently by Brent crude near $94 a barrel amid the ongoing conflict with Iran—is masking a friendlier underlying picture. He pointed to slower wage growth in hospitality, gains for the bottom 25% of earners, and what he called the “biggest decrease in pharma prices” on record.

“The core inflation is down,” he said. “We aren’t seeing anything that says that the second-order effects are spilling over into core inflation.”

On the labor market, where a soft jobs report last month stoked concern about cracks in the economy, Bessent called the data “quite noisy” and credited tighter immigration enforcement for reducing the number of jobs the economy needs to create. He pointed to manufacturing and construction employment at 15-year highs.

He also waved off recent dollar weakness.

“The U.S. is a big service economy. We don’t respond to the trade-weighted dollar,” he said, describing the greenback as “very, very stable” against top trading partners Canada and Mexico and insisting the administration maintains “a strong dollar policy.”

For this story, Fortune journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.

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The Gravity Park amusement park, a 2,000-square-meter complex featuring rides, games, and other attractions, opened last month at the Seven Stars Mall in Herzliya as part of an effort to transform the Israeli mall-going experience from one centered primarily on shopping to one increasingly built around leisure, dining, and entertainment.

The new complex features a suspended 200-meter electric go-kart track that runs as high as 12 meters above the main floor, a 16-meter-tall drop tower, and a roller coaster.

It also has a multisensory VR experience, an arcade with over 120 games, climbing walls, and a 400-square-meter trampoline area.

According to the mall, the park cost around NIS 50 million and took around four years of planning and construction to complete. 

The purpose of this project, Seven Stars Mall CEO Yaniv Fainshnider told The Jerusalem Post during a visit to the complex earlier this month, was to reshape the mall-going experience to meet the shifting landscape of consumer behavior.

The electric go-kart track at the Gravity Park at the Seven Stars Mall in Herzliya. (credit: Maximedia)

Seven Stars Mall CEO: Consumers looking for entertainment

“Today, the consumer doesn’t just think about where to buy his shirt. He’s looking for a reason to come and where to spend his time, not just to buy a shirt, but for entertainment,” Fainshnider said.

In the past, he explained, consumers generally went to a mall because they needed to buy something. Increasingly, however, shopping is becoming one part of a broader outing built around dining, leisure and entertainment.

“The consumer comes here; he can go to a restaurant or a cafe, and on the way buy what he’s missing at home,” Fainshnider said. “That’s why we need to provide as many experiences and as much entertainment as possible.”

According to Fainshnider, Gravity Park is part of that strategy alongside other efforts, including the addition of more dining and leisure offerings. 

“I think today the mall needs to reinvent itself,” Fainshnider said.

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Jerusalem will begin operating its second light rail line Friday, becoming the first Israeli city to move from a single rail route to an interconnected urban network.

The first section of the Green Line, designated L3, runs approximately seven kilometers, or 4.3 miles, between HaTurim—near Mahaneh Yehuda—and Malha in southern Jerusalem. It includes 13 stations, 12 of them new, with trains expected every eight minutes during peak periods.

The practical change is larger than the distance suggests. Until now, Jerusalem’s light rail functioned primarily as one long corridor: the Red Line connecting Neveh Ya’acov in northern Jerusalem with Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in the southwest. L3 gives passengers a second direction of travel and creates transfer points between separate rail services.

That moves Jerusalem ahead of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, whose Red Line remains its only operating light rail route.

“This is a historic day for the capital and great news for Jerusalem residents and visitors,” Mayor Moshe Lion said. “This is a giant step in the transition from a city that has a light rail to a city with a light rail network.”

The new route connects some of Jerusalem’s most concentrated centers of employment, government, education and recreation. Stops serve the International Convention Center, the government complex, Hebrew University’s Givat Ram campus, its high-tech park, the Botanical Gardens, Teddy Stadium, Pais Arena and Malha Mall.

It also reaches the Givat Mordechai, Pat, Gonenim and Malha neighborhoods.

For a worker or student, the difference is not simply having a train nearby. It is being able to move between neighborhoods, Israel Railways, city buses and the existing Red Line without completing the entire journey by car.

L3 connects with the Red Line at HaTurim and again near the Central Bus Station and International Convention Center, behind Yitzhak Navon railway station. That second connection allows passengers arriving in Jerusalem by intercity train to transfer directly toward Givat Ram, Malha and the city’s sports district.

The sports connection has an immediate consumer effect. Visitors arriving from outside Jerusalem for soccer games at Teddy Stadium or basketball events at Pais Arena can now use Israel Railways and the light rail instead of driving into Malha and searching for parking.

That option will exist only on weekdays. Like the Red Line and most public transportation in Israel, the new service will not operate on Shabbat. People attending Saturday events will still need private transportation.

Friday’s opening is not the completion of the Green Line. It is the first operational segment of a much larger system that has been delayed by the war and is now scheduled to open in stages.

The next major step is expected in December, when the L4 service is scheduled to connect the Central Bus Station with Gilo, Jerusalem’s largest neighborhood, home to more than 100,000 residents. That will give Gilo passengers faster access to Givat Ram and the Navon railway station.

The route is then expected to reach Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus in June 2027, passing through French Hill and the area near Israel Police national headquarters. A separate branch serving Givat Shaul and Har Nof is planned for the end of 2027.

Jerusalem is also building the Blue Line, which is intended to connect Gilo with the city center, Har Hotzvim and Ramot during the next phase of the network’s expansion.

The larger economic effect will depend on whether passengers actually leave their cars. Jerusalem’s narrow roads and mountainous geography leave little room to keep widening streets. A functioning rail network can move more people through the same corridor while reducing the time businesses, employees and delivery vehicles lose to congestion.

The first seven kilometers will not solve that problem. They do, however, change the structure of the system. Jerusalem no longer has one train running across the city. It now has the beginning of a network—and every extension that follows will make the lines already operating more useful.

JBizNews Desk | Jerusalem

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From the start of the 14-year civil war in Syria until the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, the country’s airspace was essentially a no-fly zone for the vast majority of the world’s airlines.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) declared Syrian airspace as high risk, warning in 2013 of potential missile fire directed at commercial aircraft during their approach to landing. That same year, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), advising US aircraft to stay at least 200 miles (about 322 kilometers) from Damascus due to the fear of missile fire.

The FAA went so far as to prohibit the operation of any US-registered aircraft in the Damascus area with limited exceptions, a regulation extended in December 2023 to December 2028, according to the agency’s Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) was less severe than the FAA and did not enact a legally binding ban, but has continually advised air carriers against operating in Syria’s airspace, according to the agency’s website.

Despite these restrictions remaining in effect, recent regional developments have given the war-torn nation an opportunity to renew its aviation industry, with a particular emphasis on the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, the long-closed Damascus International Airport resumed operations on December 18, with renovation work still ongoing on December 16, 2024 in Damascus, Syria. (credit: Ugur Yildirim/dia images via Getty Images)

The war-torn nation began its revival effort soon after the ousting of former president Bashar al-Assad, with Turkey providing new radar and navigation systems to Syrian airports in 2025, according to Turkish Transport ​Minister Abdulkadir Uralogl. In addition, the EU lifted sanctions on Syria in February 2025, which included those on national carrier Syrian Airlines.

The airline signed a $250 million agreement in August 2025 to acquire 10 Airbus A320 jets as part of an effort to overhaul its fleet, according to a report by The National. On January 20, the national carrier returned to scheduled international operations, beginning with a weekly flight between the Syrian capital and Saudi Arabia’s Medina, which resumed on August 11 after a war-related hiatus.

Iran war shifts overflights to Syrian airspace

The Iran war began on February 28, which forced airlines to consider transiting through Syrian airspace instead of neighboring countries. Given the Syrian government‘s decision around that time to impose a flat $499 fee on all flights transiting through its airspace, this arrangement was particularly beneficial for the redeveloping nation.

Notably, the war did have negative effects as well, with Syrian Airlines advising passengers of flight cancellations in March over safety concerns, though these internal flights were not related to the overflights of non-Syrian air carriers.

Even after the US-Iran ceasefire was signed in April, the overflight traffic did not stop, with airlines recognizing the time and fuel savings permitted by utilizing Syrian airspace over that of Iraq, specifically for flights between Europe and the major Gulf hubs of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha.

The increased fuel costs linked to the war further drove up the demand for Syrian overflights, with flight-tracking services Flightradar24 and AirNav showing that the majority of Gulf flights still preferred the route over nearby alternatives as late as June.

In May, Syrian Civil Aviation Authority chief Omar al-Hosari noted the “ongoing efforts to enhance operational readiness, strengthen air navigation systems, and apply recognized safety standards,” with Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reporting that twelve airlines had resumed flights to Syria that same month.

Syrian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, flydubai, Royal Jordanian, Air Arabia, flynas, Qatar Airways, Jazeera Airways, and AJet resumed operations to Damascus, while Syrian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Fly Cham, Royal Jordanian, Dan Air, and AJet returned to Aleppo, according to Anadolu.

“We are working directly with international aviation safety organizations to reassess Syrian airports, in preparation for restoring this vital route in line with the highest safety and compliance standards,” said Hosari.

Syrian national carrier returns to Europe with Amsterdam flight

Syrian Airlines returned to Europe on July 9, beginning a weekly service from Damascus to Amsterdam that, as of today, runs three times weekly, according to the airline’s website. As of today, the airline further operates flights to Moscow and across the Gulf, with flights to Copenhagen planned for the future.

Syrian airspace remains risky, according to aviation risk monitoring advisory body OPSGroup, with overall air traffic levels still below half of those before the civil war, despite the increase in overflights.

However, Syrian authorities remain hopeful for the industry’s future, with Hosari telling Reuters that the development “reflects the beginning of a real shift in how airlines view Syrian airspace, as a viable and dependable route once again ​within the regional air traffic network.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

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The net worths of CEOs and founders are largely at the whim of their company stock—all it takes is one breakout earnings report or blockbuster news to shake up their fortunes. Now, Moderna cofounder Robert Langer has re-entered the billionaires club following promising cancer vaccine trials that sent the company’s stock soaring. 

Langer, known as the “Edison of Medicine,” witnessed his equity in the biotech business double in value, shooting his net worth up to roughly $1.7 billion, according to a Forbes analysis

His wealth surge followed the news this Wednesday that Moderna and pharmaceutical company Merck’s mRNA cancer vaccine hit its goals in a Phase 3 trial targeting melanoma. The announcement sent Modern’s stock soaring more than 100%, valuing Langer’s roughly 3% stake past the billion-dollar threshold—a massive jump from the roughly $730 million he boasted on Tuesday.

This is the second time that Langer has made it to the billionaires club. Langer first came into 10-figure wealth back in November 2020, when Moderna shares surged after the company reported promising Phase 3 results for its COVID-19 vaccine. During the pandemic-era Moderna boom, Forbes even put his net worth as high as $4.9 billion in 2021, before plunging and knocking him out of the club. 

The 77-year-old cofounder’s stake was estimated to be just $343 million when Modern’s shares were at a rock-bottom low of $29.81 in early January. Now, he’s back in the ultra-rich club again—but still urges young workers to prioritize meaningful work over money and job security.

“What you want is somebody to have a great career and be happy,” Langer said in an interview with Big Think in 2018. “So my advice to students is don’t do what’s going to make you the most money or the most security, but do something that will make you happy, whatever that is.”

Fortune reached out to Moderna for comment.

Langer turned down 20 job offers to chase his dreams—he advises workers not to ‘give up too easily’

Langer’s major piece of advice to young workers is to be “broad and open-minded” when it comes to their careers. 

After all, the billionaire founder lived a whirlwind of a career, turning down lucrative job offers and weathering professional rejection before ultimately launching one of the world’s biggest biotech companies.

Langer developed his love for science while studying chemical engineering at Cornell University, later obtaining his doctorate at MIT in 1974. And upon graduating, the budding biotech pioneer was flooded with job offers. At that time the U.S. was reeling from a gas shortage, and oil companies were looking to lock down talent like Langer and his chemical engineer classmates. 

Nearly all of his peers took them up on the “very high-paying jobs,” Langer explained, but he was determined to make a different impact. One job recruiter told him that if he could increase the yield on one petrochemical by 0.1%, that gain would be worth billions of dollars. But he wasn’t sold on improving oil margins for the rest of his life. 

“I did get 20 job interviews from these companies, and I got 20 offers too, but I wasn’t very excited about doing that,” Langer said in the Big Think interview. “I just wasn’t excited about the impact that that would have, and I kept looking for ways where I guess I felt I could have more of an impact on the world.”

Even after turning down 20 high-paying job offers, Langer was met with rejection

Turning down those high-paying oil jobs, Langer chose a different path, joining Judah Folkman’s lab at Boston Children’s Hospital as a postdoctoral researcher. During his three-year stint he worked on ways to efficiently deliver drugs, developing a polymer matrix system for delivering large molecules like proteins into cells. The science was so new that Langer said the scientific community couldn’t believe it—and it even resulted in career roadblocks. His first nine grants were rejected, and when he went job-hunting, “no chemical engineering department in the world” would hire him.

“I ended up going into a nutrition department, but the problem there was that the people in that department didn’t think very much of what I was doing, and they basically told me I should start looking for another job,” Langer recounted. “So it was not very pleasant in the beginning. I think if I’d moved away from it, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Langer did end up snagging a faculty role at alma mater MIT in 1978, and went on to build the largest biomedical engineering lab in the world. And his most notable career break didn’t come until he was in his 60s; in 2010 he cofounded Moderna, transitioning his decorated academic career into launching a billion-dollar biotech company. Now, the $56 billion company has been credited with developing one of the first successful mRNA (COVID-19) vaccines, and is making headway with its melanoma trials. Langer says his journey required some trade-offs, but advises young professionals to stay on course to lead a fulfilling career like his own.

“If you give up too easily, that’s not good. Obviously, you don’t want to keep banging your head against the wall forever, so I think there’s some compromises you have to make,” the Moderna cofounder said. “But I think if I gave up on something like that, maybe I’d give up on other things that were important, too. I just don’t know. I’m glad I didn’t.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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A US judge on Friday struck down a Trump administration policy suspending the issuance of immigrant visas to applicants from 75 countries, saying that the policy exceeded Secretary of State Marco Rubio‘s statutory authority.

US District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan said the policy that the State Department announced in January was “patently unlawful” and ran afoul of federal immigration law, which explicitly stripped the secretary of state of authority over consular officers’ processing of immigrant visas.

“The Policy, which categorically prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas based upon the nationality of the applicant, represents a direct abrogation of this statutory scheme,” she wrote.

The State Department’s suspension, which also took effect in January, impacted applicants from Latin American countries including Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay; Balkan nations such as Bosnia and Albania; South Asian countries Pakistan and Bangladesh; and those from many nations in Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.

The State Department said applicants from those countries were “at a high risk for becoming a public charge and recourse to local, state and federal government resources in the United States.” The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

US President Donald Trump looks on as he participates in a call with service members of US Army, on Thanksgiving, in Palm Beach, Florida, US, November 27, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Anna Rose Layden)

Vargas, an appointee of Democratic former president Joe Biden, issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together along with applicants for immigrant visas and US citizens who are sponsoring family members from the designated countries for immigrant visas.

Trump cracking down on US immigration

US President Donald Trump has pursued an aggressive immigration crackdown that he says is aimed at improving domestic security.

Rights groups ⁠say ​the crackdown has violated free speech and due ​process rights and has created an unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities, who have raised ​concerns about racial profiling.

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The American Dream has typically looked something like this: A steady job, a shiny new set of keys to a first home, marriage, two kids (and maybe a dog), all while building wealth along the way. For generations, that’s been the familiar “white-picket fence” picture of making it in America.

But that has run smack into “the great postponement,” an affordability crisis and economic stagnation that haven’t been seen in many years. Some of the younger generation’s response to these factors has been caricatured as “financial nihilism,” but young adults are still by and large hitting the same milestones their parents did, just in a different sequence, in a different timeline and often with different tools. It’s a more improvisational shot at the American Dream, because it has to be.

Young Americans have spent years watching home prices climb out of reach, while marriage and children are happening later and the traditional career ladder has become less predictable. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve given up on the milestones generations before them chased. Instead, some are finding workarounds: buying homes that need work, renovating them piece by piece, earning money outside a traditional 9-to-5 and worrying less about doing any of it in the order they were supposed to.

And despite all the talk of Gen Z’s financial nihilism, many remain surprisingly optimistic. Nearly two-thirds of Gen Z adults say their generation faces tougher economic circumstances than previous generations, according to a nationally representative Urban Institute survey published in July. However, 56% still expect their personal financial situation to improve within the next year, and 42% think they’ll eventually be financially better off than their parents.

“They’re not just postponing life markers,” said Susan Wachter, a professor of real estate and finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, who has argued that this era amounts to a “great postponement”. Of Gen Z, she told Fortune,”They’re also taking a different path.”

To Wachter, the changes showing up in where young adults live, how they work and when they start families aren’t isolated trends. They’re different responses to the same economic constraints reshaping early adulthood.

Wachter said the economic world facing young people today looks dramatically different from the one their parents, and even some of their older siblings, entered. Housing affordability is a major part of it, but its effects extend well beyond whether someone can scrape together a down payment.

“We’ve not seen challenges in terms of affordability like this in more than a generation,” Wachter said.

The starter home isn’t so ‘turnkey’ anymore

Between 2019 and 2024, the inflation-adjusted median U.S. home value jumped 30%, from $269,600 to $350,000, according to Pew Research Center. Over the same period, inflation-adjusted median household income for households headed by someone under 40 increased just 9%.

The squeeze has dramatically changed who can afford to buy. In 2019, 56% of renter households under 40 earned enough to afford the monthly cost of owning a home. By 2024, just 37% did. And 89% of adults under 40 now say buying a home is harder for young adults than it was for their parents’ generation.

For young adults who do manage to break into the housing market, getting the keys may increasingly be just the beginning of the work.

Wachter said some young buyers are overcoming high housing costs by looking at older homes and fixer-uppers, putting their own time and labor into improvements or even renting out part of the property to help cover costs.

Those workarounds require “time, effort, and often creativity,” she said, and sometimes “an element of entrepreneurship.”

There’s plenty of evidence aspiring homeowners are willing to make those tradeoffs. Half of Americans planning to buy their first home in 2026 said they would feel comfortable buying a fixer-upper, according to a TD Bank survey of more than 1,000 prospective first-time buyers published in May. And despite the affordability crunch, 81% said they were optimistic about the housing market and the same share still considered homeownership a smart long-term investment.

The shift toward smaller projects is showing up at the country’s largest home-improvement retailer. Home Depot said this week that customers continued to spend on smaller repair and maintenance projects in its second quarter, even as housing affordability weighed on demand for larger renovations. The company said housing turnover remains at historically low levels, with no clear inflection point yet in sight.

Taskrabbit is seeing a version of that willingness to compromise play out among its customers.

As housing has become harder to afford, Chris Ager, Taskrabbit’s chief commercial officer, said the company is seeing younger customers take on smaller homes or properties that need more work rather than move farther away.

“Particularly younger generations are making the decision to optimize for location over perfection,” Ager told Fortune.

Once they’re in, the compromises continue. Customers are increasingly tackling renovations gradually rather than handing an entire project to a contractor.

“There isn’t the budget to do it all at once,” Ager said.

Instead, Ager said TaskRabbit is seeing clients renovate one room at a time, doing some of the work themselves and bringing in Taskers to handle other pieces as their budgets allow.

The shift is showing up in what people need help with, too. Furniture assembly, mounting, moving and cleaning are among TaskRabbit’s biggest categories, but yard work and outdoor maintenance is one of its fastest-growing categories this year, up roughly 40% year over year, according to Ager.

For a generation entering a housing market where the typical first-time buyer is now 40, those compromises offer one way around an affordability problem that isn’t going away quickly. Even prospective Gen Z buyers are still aiming considerably younger: 46% surveyed by TD said they expected to purchase their first home between ages 25 and 29.

The corporate ladder isn’t the only way up

Work is becoming less linear, too.

For many young workers, one paycheck is no longer the only way they earn. About 43% of Gen Z adults ages 18 to 29 report having a side hustle, according to a 2026 LendingTree survey. Gig and on-demand work, including food and grocery delivery, ridesharing, babysitting and pet sitting, was the most common form of side work among respondents.

Side hustles aren’t necessarily replacing traditional employment. For some, they’re another way to earn alongside it.

TaskRabbit is seeing its own version of that more flexible approach to work. The platform has Taskers who effectively use it as their full-time source of income, Ager said, alongside others who pick up jobs to fill gaps in their income or schedules while pursuing something else.

The company sees a bump in younger applicants each summer, he said, including people using TaskRabbit alongside school, part-time work or other pursuits.

“I think what we see in the Gen Z community is just a desire to have more non-traditional career paths,” Ager said. For some, the goal isn’t necessarily to leave a traditional career behind but to also have more than one way to earn.

And as artificial intelligence raises questions about the future of entry-level work, TaskRabbit occupies an unusual corner of the labor market. AI might help match a customer with the right person or better define a job before someone arrives, Ager said. It still can’t carry a couch up four flights of stairs or repaint a bedroom.

TaskRabbit sees its business as “pretty AI-resilient.”

“At the end of the day, those problems are going to be solved by two humans getting together to do the work,” said Ager.

The platform offers a window into how earning a living can increasingly be assembled from different sources rather than tied entirely to one employer.

Life doesn’t have to happen in order

Housing and work aren’t the only pieces moving around. Wachter’s research has found evidence connecting housing affordability with young adults remaining with their parents longer and postponing household formation, marriage and children.

For some, family wealth provides another route around the affordability problem. Parents who can afford to do so are helping adult children with down payments or giving them somewhere to live while they save, Wachter said.

That help is already built into the expectations of many would-be homeowners. Two-thirds of prospective first-time buyers surveyed by TD said they were receiving or expected to receive financial support from family or loved ones. Among Gen Z respondents, that figure climbed to 70%.

But that solution isn’t available to everyone. A parent’s home may not be near a strong job market, may not have room for an adult child, or the family may simply not have the wealth to provide a down payment.

For Wachter, those constraints help explain why the traditional sequence of adulthood is breaking apart. Young people are investing in financial assets, businesses and themselves while taking advantage of choices that weren’t always available to previous generations.

The bigger change may be the assumption that any of those milestones have to happen in a prescribed order.

“I do think this is the new normal,” Wachter said.

The American Dream hasn’t necessarily lost the house, financial independence, fulfilling work, marriage or children. But the step-by-step instructions that once came with it are becoming easier to ignore.

“It’s not a settled step-by-step pattern going through the march to adulthood markers that we’ve seen in the past,” Wachter said. “I think that’s a permanent shift.”

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Iran has made billions of dollars despite sanctions and amid the United States blockade, Supreme National Security Council head Mohsen Rezaee claimed in an interview with the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) station on Saturday.

He also stated that Iran had sold millions of barrels of oil, bypassing the US naval blockade.

“In the past month or two, we sold seventy million barrels of oil,” he said. “Now every day we sell oil to American ships on that side, as much as we produce.”

He also warned that other countries should not join the US “economic war” against Iran, threatening to strike any that participated.

“Of course, we negotiate with him first,” he said. “We hold a meeting, we say, ‘go and separate your ranks from America,’ and if they don’t act, we will strike. We will strike the interests of the country.”

(L to R) Head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami, Iran's former chief of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezaei, and head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, attend a commemoration ceremony in the capital Tehran on January 3, 2023. (credit: ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images)

In addition, Rezaee threatened the US, claiming that Iran had not attacked American bases unprovoked before. Now that the US had declared economic warfare, he explained, Iran would strike “a few oil and economic companies around Iran and elsewhere.”

Iran would also attack bases if the US added forces to it, he said.

“They will not make any movements in the southern direction,” he added. “We will find out if they have met with the counter-revolutionary groups. We will attack them there.”

US, Israel aiming to promote war to sell more weapons, Iran claims

During the interview, Rezaee accused the US and Israel of intentionally fostering the regional conflicts in order to sell weaponry, saying that Iran had no interest in the war. 

“If we were warmongers, would we have gone to three negotiations with the Americans?” he defended. “How many ceasefires would we have accepted? Of course, we are not warmongers, but we will not surrender under any circumstances. We will defend our nation wholeheartedly.”

The Strait of Hormuz is currently closed, he also claimed, and will reopen only if the US “fulfills its obligations.”

Discussing the Mecca defense pact between Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, Rezaee claimed that the Gulf countries had been spurred by the US abandoning them.

“America told them, ‘Goodbye, we are leaving.’ They want to fill America’s void.”

Iran would also be evolving its defenses in the wake of the war with Israel and the US, he said, saying that “Iran today will no longer be the Iran it was before the war.

“Of course, the pretentious and arrogant America will not be the America it was before the war,” he added.

US President Donald Trump’s “stupidity,” he said, came in creating a huge debt for Americans and their allies.

“He wanted to make America great again with his election slogan, but what did he make great?” he said. “He made the debts greater. The debt on the 30-year US bond rate has become greater.”

In order to finance itself now, Razaee claimed, the US “must borrow at a rate of three and seven tenths of 2020, meaning that for every hundred billion dollars in debt, it must spend three and seven tenths of a billion dollars more annually than in the past. If you multiply this by the thirty-year US bonds in those 40 trillion bonds, perhaps several times our annual budget is imposed on the American people and American companies.”

US endangered world by attacking Iran over nuclear weapon, Razaee accuses

The Supreme National Security Council head also addressed the US claims that it had begun the war with Iran in order to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, accusing America that by doing so it had actually put the world in greater danger.

“The United States said it came to prevent the atomic bomb,” he explained. “Now the whole world is saying, ‘Wow, neither the NPT [Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons] nor membership in the Atomic Energy Organization is effective. And it turned out that this atomic issue is very important. The United States has started a war. Why shouldn’t we go after the atomic bomb?'”

Iran, Razaee claimed, had accepted the presence of IAEA inspectors, numerous checks and forms of supervision, and other concessions for its nuclear energy projects.

“Well, now the world says that if Iran, which has been so obedient, is attacked, and its nuclear facilities are attacked, why don’t we go and make a bomb so that no one can attack us?”

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Iran has been invited to join the Mecca Agreement for Mutual Defense, the new security alliance established by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan earlier this month, Al Mayadeen reported on Saturday, citing a senior Iranian official.

The invitation has not yet been officially confirmed by Iran’s Foreign Ministry or by any of the three countries that are parties to the agreement.

Mehdi Rahimi, head of the Iranian parliament’s Khaneh Mellat news agency, told the channel that “Iran has received an invitation to join the Mecca Agreement, and the matter is under review.”

Rahimi added that countries in the region “are moving toward seeking a regional security umbrella,” and claimed that this represented “a victory for Iran, because it has been calling for this for a long time.”

The Mecca Agreement was signed on August 7 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, ahead of the expected signing of a defence deal between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, August 7, 2026.  (credit: Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Turkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS)

The agreement establishes a principle of mutual defense under which an attack on any one of the three countries would be considered an attack on all of them. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan compared the mechanism to Article 5 of the NATO treaty, but stressed that the agreement was not directed against Iran or any specific country.

The member states have already begun developing mechanisms for diplomatic and military coordination, including meetings among foreign and defense ministers and military commanders, joint exercises, and cooperation between their defense industries.

Alliance could expand to include more countries

Turkey has said the alliance could expand to include additional countries. Egypt has been publicly mentioned as a possible candidate for membership.

Iran has so far responded to the agreement with cautious approval. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on August 10 that Tehran had “no reason for concern” over the establishment of the alliance.

According to Baghaei, the move reflects growing recognition among countries in the region of the need to build regional security mechanisms.

If the claim that Iran was invited is officially confirmed, Iranian membership would significantly alter the character of the alliance, which was established by three countries with close security ties to the West, and would turn it into a substantially broader regional framework.

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Some successful entrepreneurs sitting atop billion-dollar businesses say they may look rich on paper, but take a peek into their bank accounts, and they’re actually cash poor. Social media mogul Jimmy Donaldson, known to his 514 million YouTube subscribers as MrBeast, claims he’s just as broke as everyone else despite running a $5 billion entertainment empire. 

“I’m borrowing money. That’s how little money I have,” Donaldson told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year. “Technically, everyone watching this video has more money than me in their bank account if you subtract the equity value of my company, which doesn’t buy me McDonald’s in the morning.”

The 28-year-old entrepreneur has said he keeps less than $1 million for himself, despite being a billionaire and owning more than half of his $5 billion company Beast Industries. Aside from his nine-figure Amazon deal and popular YouTube channel with 137.5 billion lifetime views, Donaldson hit the ultra-rich club—at least on paper—from a slew of successful businesses. He’s launched ventures including multimillion-dollar chocolate brand Feastables; Lunchly, a Lunchables-esque packaged food product; MrBeast Burger, a virtual restaurant that only allows for pickup and drop-off; and production company MrBeast LLC, which helps manufacture his viral videos.

Through his assets, Donaldson is projected to be worth at least $2.6 billion—although he emphasized it’s not a fat wad of cash burning a hole in his pocket. Forbes has also estimated his annual earnings reached $85 million between April 2024 and April 2025, a far cry from the typical American salary of $64,220 a year. However, that doesn’t mean he’s splurging on luxuries and only flying private. Donaldson claimed he’s actually in the red.

“It’s funny talking about my personal finances, because no one ever believes anything I say,” Donaldson explained. “They’re like, ‘You’re a billionaire!’ I’m like, ‘That’s net worth.’ I have negative money right now.”

“I wake up, I just work…I’m just so busy working I don’t really think about my personal bank account,” Donaldson continued. “I’m just laser-focused on making the greatest videos as possible, and building the business as big as possible.”

Why MrBeast says he’s in the red

Donaldson rakes in eight-figure earnings and runs a $5 billion business, yet still claims to be broke. So where is all of his money going? Right back into his business ventures, the YouTube star said. 

“I personally have very little money because I reinvest everything (I think this year we’ll spend around a quarter of a billion on content). Ironically I’m actually borrowing $ from my mom to pay for my upcoming wedding,” Donaldson wrote on X in response to a post heralding him as the only billionaire under 30 who didn’t inherit their wealth. 

“But sure, on paper the businesses I own are worth a lot,” he continued. 

The billionaire entrepreneurs who say they’re broke—or act like it

Other billionaire founders have echoed that they don’t feel as wealthy as their net worth suggests. Ben Francis, the founder and CEO of sportswear brand Gymshark, insisted his $1.3 billion net worth is “all on paper,” and that his wealth isn’t a “real” marker of success.

“People assume there is some bank balance with my name on it that has billions in which is just completely untrue,” Francis said on The SuperPower Podcast in 2023. “None of it is real.”

After all, it only takes one negative earnings report or fierce new industry competitor to jolt his net worth. Since Francis owns 70% of the company, his fortune is wrapped up in the success of his assets—which can fluctuate in value at any given moment. 

“It could double, it could [halve],” the Gymshark founder continued. “That’s why I think it’s important that no individual should ever pin their self-worth on things like wealth, net worth, or anything financial.”

Even the billionaires who do have cash to burn are just skirting by, out of choice. Lucy Guo, the cofounder of $29 million company Scale AI, isn’t keen to spend the $1.3 billion stake she has in the business. The youngest self-made billionaire woman in the world doesn’t like to “waste” money, opting to fly commercial, drive an old Honda Civic, wear Shein clothes, and leverage meal deals to get the best price. In fact, she believes flashing wealth and needlessly splurging on life luxuries is a sign of insecurity; Guo doesn’t feel the need to prove she’s successful. 

“Who you see typically wasting money on designer clothes, a nice car, et cetera, they’re technically in the millionaire range,” Guo told Fortune last year. “It’s like, act broke, stay rich.”

A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on January 13, 2026.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio currently holds an advantage over Vice President JD Vance in hypothetical matchups against several potential Democratic presidential candidates in the 2028 election, according to an Emerson College poll released over the weekend.

According to the poll, Rubio defeats both former vice president Kamala Harris and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in hypothetical races by the same margin, 48% to 43%. Vance, by comparison, narrowly defeats Ocasio-Cortez, 46% to 44%, but loses to Harris by four percentage points.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom performs better than both leading Republican figures in the poll, leading Vance 49% to 44% and Rubio 48% to 46%. The two Democrats showing the strongest results against the two Republicans are former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff. Buttigieg leads both Rubio and Vance by 49% to 44%, while Ossoff leads Rubio 47% to 44% and Vance 49% to 44%.

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR Gavin Newsom attends the inauguration of new installations at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center as part of the prison’s transformation plan, in San Quentin, California, US, February 20, 2026.  (credit: REUTERS/CARLOS BARRIA)

The findings are particularly notable amid questions over who could succeed US President Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. Rubio has already said he would not run for the nomination in 2028 if Vance decides to enter the race, while Vance has said he will make a decision after the November midterm elections.

Trump told donors to choose JD Vance for next president

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Trump told donors in private conversations that “ultimately, we need to choose JD,” but later publicly qualified his remarks, saying it was too early to discuss endorsing a candidate. Trump has also previously suggested that Vance and Rubio run together, calling them a “dream team,” without saying which of the two should lead the ticket.

The poll was conducted on August 16-17 among 1,000 registered voters, with a margin of error of three percentage points. This means that some of the closer gaps, including Newsom’s lead over Rubio, fall within the margin of error and should not be viewed at this early stage as predictions of the outcome of the 2028 election.

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Representatives for Paramount Skydance and California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office are expected to meet Monday to discuss a potential resolution to the lawsuit seeking to block Paramount’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to reports.

The talks come as the transaction remains on hold under a court agreement and the companies face a March 2027 antitrust trial unless the dispute is resolved sooner.

Variety first reported Friday that the two sides were expected to meet, citing sources familiar with the situation. The discussions are expected to focus on whether there is a path toward resolving the states’ antitrust case.

FOX Business has reached out to Paramount and Bonta’s office for comment.

Bonta led a coalition of 12 state attorneys general in filing the lawsuit in July, alleging the combination would reduce competition in theatrical film distribution and basic cable programming.

MOVIE THEATER GROUP REVERSES COURSE, URGES CALIFORNIA AG TO SETTLE $110B PARAMOUNT-WARNER BROS LAWSUIT

The states argue the merger would combine two of Hollywood’s five major film distributors and give the combined company roughly 27% of the wide-release theatrical film market. They also allege it would control more than 30% of anticipated top-grossing theatrical films and about 27% of the market for licensing basic cable channels.

Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have rejected the states’ view of the transaction, arguing the combination would strengthen competition in a rapidly changing media industry.

Bonta signaled openness to a possible resolution in a CNBC interview Thursday but said any settlement would require “robust structural remedies.”

“We do prefer to resolve cases in the boardroom instead of the courtroom,” Bonta told CNBC, while saying the states remain focused on the markets outlined in their complaint.

MARC STAD ASSUMES CONTROLLING STAKE IN TIMBERWOLVES, LYNX; ALEX RODRIGUEZ REMAINS WNBA FRANCHISE’S GOVERNOR

Under a July 24 court stipulation, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery agreed not to close the deal or begin integrating their operations until five days after a ruling on the merits or June 1, 2027, whichever comes first.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín has scheduled a 12-day trial beginning March 2, 2027. In an Aug. 4 scheduling order, the judge also encouraged the parties to identify potential magistrate judges to oversee a settlement conference.

Paramount agreed in February to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $31 per share in cash, valuing the transaction at roughly $110 billion including debt. Under the merger agreement, Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders begin accruing additional consideration if the transaction remains unclosed after Sept. 30.

CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO

The companies have said the combination would create a stronger global media competitor while maintaining both film studios and producing at least 30 theatrical films annually.

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The flight delays plaguing Ben-Gurion Airport are continuing into their third day following a strike on Friday led by Israel Airports Authority (IAA) workers’ union chairman Pinchas Idan, with the chairman rejecting claims that he was responsible for the airport shutdown in an interview with KAN News on Saturday.

Multitudes of arrival delays are expected on Sunday, some stretching as long as 10 hours, with some departure delays breaching the four-hour mark.

According to Walla, the IAA workers’ union attributes the delays to a labor shortage, saying at least 500 more workers are needed across the airport and linked facilities.

Idan claimed that not enough luggage handlers are available, Walla reported, forcing those who are available to work 12-hour shifts amid a regional heatwave. He noted that some of the shortage is due to workers reporting for required IDF reserve service.

Despite Idan’s comments, Walla learned that the number of luggage handlers at the airport has increased over the past six years, while passenger numbers have decreased during the same period.

The Ben-Gurion Airport arrivals flight board showing flight delays on August 23, 2026. (credit: Screenshot/IAA)

A source familiar with the issue told Walla that the union did not request more workers in 2019 despite the year marking a record in passenger traffic for Ben-Gurion Airport, a claim the union rejects.

“The committee always wants more workers, and that’s fine, but in this case there is no shortage of porters, because there are more,” the source said. “Besides, there is no connection between needs on the ground and closing down the country.”

A decrease in motivation amongst airport workers

An additional source told Walla that overall motivation amongst airport workers has decreased in recent years, partially due to an increase in permanent workers and a decrease in temporary workers.

According to the source, temporary workers are “less worn out, more flexible and motivated, while permanent workers are less eager to work.”

“A change needs to be made in the operating model,” the source added. “This needs to be done in cooperation with the workers’ union.”

Netanyahu moves against Idan’s Likud membership

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began a push to remove Idan’s Likud Party membership after the airport strike, filing an urgent petition with the Likud’s Supreme Court describing the strike as a “political and illegal shutdown,” which it alleged targeted the party, Netanyahu himself, and Transportation Minister Miri Regev.

Idan addressed the allegations during his KAN interview, emphasizing that he “never received anything from Likud” in his lifetime.

He blamed the airport manager for the chaos, then refused to comment on whether the delays will continue throughout the week.

Moshe Cohen contributed to this report.

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Jersey City this week banned the construction of new AI data centers, joining a growing number of municipalities across the country that have placed restrictions on the power-hungry facilities. The Jersey City Council on Wednesday unanimously voted to pass an ordinance banning data centers in the city’s industrial zones, where such facilities would otherwise be permitted. Jersey City is now the 34th municipality in New Jersey to ban data centers, with more than one million Garden State residents living in municipalities where the facilities are banned.

Ordinance 26-057 amends the city’s Land Development Ordinance to remove “cyber hotels” and data centers as permitted principal uses in the city’s industrial district, according to HudPost.

Jersey City already has five data centers that are located inside existing office buildings shared with other tenants; the new law does not affect the existing facilities, according to Jersey City Mayor James Solomon. The ordinance blocks new standalone data centers from industrial land.

The policy change fulfills a recommendation in the city’s Master Plan, which dates to 2000 and calls for a thorough review of data center development. A 2020 update went further, recommending that the city eliminate data centers as a permitted use in industrial zones.

On June 30, the city’s Planning Board recommended the amendment in a 6-0 vote, and the Council passed it on first reading on July 15.

“Data centers eat up power, drive up utility bills for every ratepayer in this state, and employ almost nobody,” Solomon said. “Our industrial land should be put to work for the people who live here by creating real jobs with real wages. I appreciate the tireless work of climate advocates and the City Council ensuring Jersey City is protected from data centers.”

Supporters of the ban have argued that the land being used for data centers should instead go to employers rather than facilities that increase utility costs and pollute the environment.

Local officials collaborated with grassroots activists from the Climate Revolution Action Network (CRAN) on the ordinance. The climate advocacy group has been one of the leading voices in the fight to ban data centers across New Jersey.

“Data centers are a bad deal for the neighborhoods around them. They drive up everyone’s electric bills and barely hire anyone once the construction is done,” Ben Dziobek, executive director of CRAN, said.

“When communities like Jersey City ban data centers, there’s more space for businesses that actually put people to work instead of server farms that just leave residents paying more.”

Council members have called for a statewide moratorium, similar to the one enacted by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in July, making New York the first state in the nation to enact such a ban.

The moratorium temporarily bans the construction of large new data centers that consume 50 megawatts or more of power, giving officials more time to develop measures to protect residents and the environment.

Those officials have argued that local governments should not have to fight these projects one at a time. Jersey City, the state’s second-largest city, joins other municipalities that have enacted similar bans, including Bayonne, Howell, Neptune Township, Millville, Red Bank, Warren Township, Andover Township, and about two dozen more municipalities, with more bans expected soon, as Patch reported.

In May, Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced a plan to “hold data centers accountable while positioning New Jersey to lead in AI innovation.” The governor’s plan includes establishing fair-share rules to make sure data centers contribute to grid infrastructure needs and developing statewide standards to help municipalities negotiate with companies.

RELATED:

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Jeff John Roberts here. This drone threat is giving me the chills. Weeks after the FBI busted a plot to launch explosive-laden drones at the White House, a U.S. Army division engaged a Ukrainian drone unit in a war games exercise—and got whupped so thoroughly they had to “respawn” to keep going. It feels like Americans in combat (and here at home) are sitting ducks for these lethal and inexpensive airborne weapons. That’s why it was refreshing to hear some good news from Mike Wior, the CEO of defense tech startup Allen Control Systems (ACS).

In June, Wior’s firm raised $200 million, in a round led by Smash Capital, on the strength of its Bullfrog platform, which can respond to a drone threat in seconds by shooting them out of the sky with bullets. The Bullfrog system is light enough to mount on the back of a Toyota Tacoma and, most critically, it is scalable. Wior says ACS is currently cranking out 10 units a week and is poised to announce the opening of huge new manufacturing plants in Texas and Alabama that will let it ramp up to thousands of units a month.

The Bullfrog units are already making a difference in the Middle East theater where Iran has used cheap Chinese drones to kill American service members and blow up high tech kits worth billions of dollars. Their arrival also comes at a time when the U.S. has been using Patriot and Thaad missiles to counter drones—an unsustainable tactic that has reportedly cost $4 million per shot.

The early phase deployment of a cheap and effective drone deterrent is encouraging news, but so too are recent procurement changes at the Department of War that have made it possible for startups like ACS to supply the military in the first place. Those changes include the introduction of online shopping forums such as the Army UAS marketplace, which was launched in partnership with Amazon’s AWS, and that allows commanders to “buy and try” drones from vetted vendors. There is also a similar site for counter-drone kit called C-UAS marketplace.

“This means you let the Army buy whatever they like, and let the best rise to the top rather than trying to pick winners ahead of time,” says Wior. All of this suggests the U.S. could regain some of its military mojo by infusing Silicon Valley-style innovation into its warfighting capacities. When it comes to the drone situation, the country may have no choice.

According to retired Brigadier General Houston Cantwell, who recently finished a fellowship at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, the goals of the Pentagon’s “Drone Dominance Program”—which calls for the annual production of 200,000 American-made drones—are laughable, and that China can easily outstrip that. He believes that focusing on making drone defense units is the way to go, and is cautiously optimistic about the recent changes to procurement policy.

“No one familiar with the DoD acquisition system is going to praise its agility but, in the last 18 months, the administration is starting to adapt,” said Cantwell, pointing to the C-UAS site as a particularly promising example.

All of this could be good news for American security, but also for investors. Wior wouldn’t share specific revenue figures but said ACS’s revenue, which came in around $10 million last year, is set to be in the “low nine figures” for 2026. ACS and other startups that offer anti-drone solutions, including Anduril and DroneShield, aren’t likely to go public for a while, but their shares are available on secondary platforms like Hiive and Forge.

Would-be investors should, of course, take all of these companies’ claims with a grain of salt, especially given recent talk of a defense tech bubble. If that’s the case, their VC investors could get blown up—hopefully just in the figurative sense. 

See you Monday, 

Jeff John Roberts
X:
 @jeffjohnroberts
Email: jeff.roberts@fortune.com
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Boeing’s engineers and technical workers have rejected the company’s proposed four-year labor contracts and overwhelmingly authorized their union to call a strike, creating a new threat to the aircraft manufacturer’s already strained recovery.

The vote does not mean workers are walking off the job immediately. The current contracts remain in effect through October 6, making October 7 the earliest date a strike could begin.

Members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA, rejected the agreements despite their own negotiating team having recommended approval.

Among Boeing’s professional employees, including engineers and scientists, 64.3% voted against the contract. Technical workers rejected their agreement by an even wider 71.9%.

The separate strike-authorization votes were much stronger. Nearly 88% of professional employees and approximately 90% of technical workers gave union leaders permission to call a strike if a satisfactory agreement is not reached before the existing contracts expire.

SPEEA represents approximately 17,000 Boeing employees, most of them concentrated in Washington state. The workforce includes engineers, technicians, analysts, planners and other specialists whose work supports aircraft design, testing, certification and production.

That makes the potential disruption different from a traditional factory strike. Boeing could continue operating some assembly lines, but losing thousands of engineers and technical specialists could slow the work required to resolve manufacturing problems, approve design changes and certify new aircraft.

The timing is especially sensitive. Boeing is still working to obtain regulatory approval for the 737 Max 10 and the long-delayed 777-9, while also attempting to increase production without compromising safety or quality.

Boeing said its proposal included the largest wage package it had offered SPEEA employees in approximately four decades, along with additional paid leave, limits on mandatory overtime and improvements to health and dental benefits.

The proposed wage structure would have produced approximately 32% compounded growth over four years for many employees, according to Boeing. But union members objected to provisions tying parts of their compensation to inflation and performance measures, while also raising concerns about job security, outsourcing and whether the agreement would keep pace with Seattle’s rising living costs.

SPEEA said the vote demonstrated that Boeing’s terms fell short and that employees were prepared to strike unless meaningful improvements were made.

Boeing responded that it was disappointed with the rejection and had begun implementing a strike contingency plan. No additional negotiations are currently scheduled.

The company now faces a narrow negotiating window and a difficult decision. Improving the offer could raise Boeing’s labor costs for years, but an engineering strike could create far greater costs by delaying aircraft certifications, deliveries and customer payments.

Boeing experienced the financial consequences of a large work stoppage in 2024, when approximately 33,000 machinists went on strike for seven weeks, halting production of several commercial aircraft. SPEEA’s last major strike occurred in 2000 and lasted 40 days.

For airlines and passengers, there would be no immediate interruption to flights. But a prolonged strike could delay new aircraft deliveries, complicate airline expansion plans and further limit the supply of planes in an industry already struggling with manufacturing backlogs.

The contract was rejected. The strike was authorized. But the walkout has not begun—and Boeing still has until October 7 to prevent it. ⁠

JBizNews Desk | Seattle

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

Welcome to Eye on AI. Beatrice Nolan here. In today’s issue:

  • AI testing is getting complicated.
  • Anthropic strengthens founder control.
  • OpenAI targets a 2027 listing.
  • Spirit flight attendants fight Google data bid.
  • And Anthropic lines up more credit.

The past few months have given us a glimpse of an uncomfortable new reality for AI labs. A slew of so-called rogue-agent hacks—where AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta took steps to hack real-world targets without explicit instruction—have shown that leading labs may not know as much about what their technology is up to as previously thought.

That realization began when OpenAI revealed its AI agents had hacked their way out of a secure sandbox, through the company’s infrastructure to gain access to the internet, and then attacked real companies, including open-source AI platform Hugging Face. OpenAI didn’t notice the agents had escaped the secure testing environment for at least a week.

In the following weeks, Anthropic revealed that its AI agents had also hacked three real companies back in April, unbeknownst to the company at the time. Not to be outdone, Meta later added that one of its models had accessed the internet during a cybersecurity test and exploited a security flaw at an unnamed third-party company. Meta and Anthropic both said access to the internet resulted from a misconfiguration by Irregular, the outside security firm running the evaluation.

The incidents proved that the AI models these labs are building are now capable enough to find security flaws, navigate complex computer systems, and act outside the carefully constructed environments intended to test them. But a new assessment suggests that the safety infrastructure meant to supervise these increasingly capable systems is still not up to the task at any leading lab.

A new report from Guidelight, a nonprofit AI-safety group founded by former OpenAI safety chief Steven Adler, reviewed public disclosures from Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI, and xAI to assess whether these AI companies are capable of controlling their own models. The report sought to answer questions about whether the companies keep track of what their models are doing, test whether their warning systems work, and assess whether they have ways to block or shut down risky behavior.

The report found that no company had fully succeeded in getting any of these basic safeguards in place. Anthropic and OpenAI came out strongest, while Google had the most detailed plans for future controls. Meta and xAI, however, lagged substantially behind on most of the criteria.

Labs appear comparatively better at detection—recording and reviewing some internal AI activity—than at prevention and containment. While they may be able to see signs that a model is misbehaving, they lack reliable ways to stop it—or, more crucially, hit the emergency brake when something goes wrong.

All the companies were weakest at preventing unintended AI behavior and containing it, according to the report. The researchers said this means that the current controls by AI companies are prone to being disabled by misbehaving AI and at risk of succumbing to a blitz of AI attacks.

What happens once something does go wrong is even more unclear, according to the research, with public disclosures offering little evidence that most labs have detailed, tested plans for containing a serious incident.

“We shouldn’t wait for a huge casualty event to take appropriate control measures,” Adler told me. “Companies’ approaches today are broadly known to be too weak, and a tragedy is sadly predictable, unless companies take prevention seriously.”

The report is not a definitive audit of what the labs are doing behind closed doors, however. Guidelight only assessed documents the companies themselves have made public, meaning a weak score can reflect poor disclosure rather than missing safeguards. But if that is the case, it’s part of the problem, according to the researchers. AI companies are asking businesses, governments, and consumers to trust them with ever more autonomous systems while leaving much of their own safety architecture opaque, the report says.

Warning systems are falling behind

Some of these concerns about AI safety and reliable monitoring are shared across the industry—especially in the wake of the recent accidental agent hacks.

Dan Lahav, CEO of Irregular, the cybersecurity company involved in incidents at Anthropic and Meta, recently told me that in some cases, “classical monitoring tools were not able to catch” what was happening at the time. The incidents his company was involved with, for example, were instead identified after deeper analysis of the underlying records rather than flagged at the time.

Anthropic and Meta previously said Irregular was involved in the incidents where their agents took real-world actions. Both companies said a misconfiguration in Irregular’s evaluation environment gave their models unintended internet access. Meta said its model then exploited a vulnerability in a third-party service, while Anthropic said its models gained access to—and took actions against—three outside organizations. Lahav said that, in some evaluation environments, a mistake meant models faced fewer controls on accessing the internet, and that additional monitoring might have helped catch the problem. Irregular has argued that these cases should be distinguished from OpenAI’s sandbox escape, describing the Anthropic and Meta events as an evaluation-environment issue rather than a model breaking out of containment on its own.

In the last few months, models have improved fast enough that the old monitoring playbook no longer applies, Lahav said. Going forward, he said better behavioral analysis—systems that look at an AI agent’s pattern of actions and the reasoning traces around them, rather than simply recording individual events—and tools that can assess an AI agent’s intent were needed.

Testing these AI models is becoming harder, too. To find out whether an AI is capable of harming a real network, evaluators need to give it a realistic network—multiple machines, defenses, and sometimes connections that resemble the real internet. While that makes the tests more meaningful, it also raises the stakes when the setup has flaws or the system behaves in unanticipated ways, Lahav said. 

Incidents may get worse before they get better

There is a growing consensus from those I’ve spoken to in the cybersecurity industry that more capable AI will eventually help cyber defenders as much as attackers. AI systems could help analysts sift through alerts, review code, and find flaws before they can be exploited. But the transition may be a messy one, as defensive tools and safety practices are still trying to catch up with the speed at which models are gaining offensive capabilities.

Recent “hacks” may not be a one-off embarrassment for a handful of labs, but rather a warning that the systems being tested are changing faster than the controls around them. 

The more advanced models become and the more realistic the test environments need to be, the more likely it is that an overlooked configuration setting, a weak monitor, or a delayed human review could cause real-world harm. Until companies can prove they can detect, block, and contain dangerous behavior in real time—not simply reconstruct it later—the industry may not have seen the last of these AI hacks.

“Unless companies institute actual preventative measures, I expect many more incidents,” Adler said.”With companies perpetually trying to play catch-up. Nobody should be surprised when companies’ current approaches continue to fail.”

With that, here’s more AI news.

Beatrice Nolan
beatrice.nolan@fortune.com
@beafreyanolan

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Baby Boomers may be the richest generation in American history, but that doesn’t mean they have the money when the bills are due.

Many of them enter retirement still carrying credit card balances and other debts, turning what looks like a strong balance sheet into a tighter monthly budget. The problem gets exacerbated as Boomers retire: their paychecks disappear, and they become reliant on Social Security and pensions to cover both everyday living expenses and debt payments. 

“Someone’s net worth and cash flow are two very different things,” Ashley Morgan, a Northern Virginia bankruptcy and debt attorney who works with consumers facing financial and credit problems, told Fortune.

Boomers had first built extraordinary wealth as home prices and stock markets soared, going from holding just 19.5% of household wealth in 1989 to more than half of it in 2026, according to Federal Reserve data. They also hold a record of nearly $90 trillion in wealth in 2026—twice that of Gen X’s household wealth, and more than quadruple that of Millennials’—despite making up just 20% of the population. 

But that wealth is unevenly held, and riddled with debts.

The top 10% of Boomer households controlled 71% of the generation’s wealth in 2022, while nearly a third of Americans 55 and older have no retirement savings at all. Of those who do, about half have saved less than $100,000. Crucially, debt accompanies that wealth. Over half of households headed by someone 75 or older carried debt in 2022, up from 41.3% a decade earlier, according to a separate Federal Reserve analysis. Experian data show the average Boomer carries $92,619 in debt mostly stemming from credit cards.

“We’re seeing more and more people carrying high-interest debt later in life, which becomes a much bigger problem for them when they retire, and their income is fixed,” Michael McAuliffe, president of the nonprofit Family Credit Management that helps people manage debt, told Fortune

Morgan said she regularly encounters older clients with significant home equity or retirement savings who are also juggling credit cards, car loans and other monthly obligations.

“Home equity has also created a false sense of financial security for some households,” Morgan explained. Housing wealth is a large part of that disconnect as decades of appreciation left many older homeowners sitting on valuable properties without the home equity itself materializing as income, unless it’s sold or borrowed against.

Older Americans are also driving the trend of people increasingly tapping the wealth tied up in their homes. After nearly 13 years of decline, balances on HELOCs have rebounded, rising 20% from their late-2021 low, according to the New York Fed. Of the roughly 1.8 million HELOCs originated in 2023 and the first half of 2024, about 57% went to borrowers aged 50 and older. But even selling the house isn’t always the best way to earn back money. Cashing out a highly appreciated home can trigger a Medicare surcharge known as IRMAA, meaning a large capital gain from a home sale can push up monthly Medicare premiums up hundreds of dollars. 

Morgan explained higher property taxes and healthcare costs have pushed some retirees beyond the assumptions they made when planning for retirement years earlier. At her practice, she’s seen people who saved responsibly in the past that are now sometimes turning to credit cards when monthly costs outpace their retirement income.

The data reflects this. Medicare premiums have climbed faster than both general inflation and Social Security’s own cost-of-living adjustment. Long-term care costs have climbed even faster. Home care prices rose 7.9% over five years, nearly triple the rate of medical inflation, while nursing home costs jumped 25% between 2019 and 2024, outpacing the 22% income growth over-65 households saw in that same span

Some Boomers are also financially strained because they are supporting their families. Morgan said it’s not uncommon to see Boomers taking out debt or delaying their own retirement savings to help children and grandchildren pay for college, childcare and other family expenses.  

“Unfortunately, we often see people borrow money to help support their kids and grandkids,” said Morgan. “Some Boomers are still working for years because they cannot afford to stop working.”

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Chinese humanoid robots broke records set by humans, including beating Usain Bolt’s 100-meter sprint world record, on the opening day of the Olympics-like World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday.

More than 2,000 humanoid robots were participating in the event, the organizer said.

The five-day games, now in its second year, are a spectacle demonstrating China’s rapid progress in advanced robotics as the technology race with the U.S. heats up, with 51 events and more than 1,000 competitions taking place including running, table tennis and soccer.

The games, which are taking place in the National Speed Skating Oval built for the 2022 Winter Olympics, opened the same week as Beijing held the 2026 World Robot Conference, where companies showcased around 3,000 products, including humanoid robots.

China makes the majority of the world’s humanoid robots. The U.S. has stepped up scrutiny of robots from the country.

Last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots. The FCC cited national security reasons in a move that targeted China. The Pentagon recently also added Unitree, one of China’s leading humanoid robot makers, to its list of companies that it deemed have ties with the Chinese military. Beijing has hit back at the accusations.

At Saturday’s opening of the robot games, the organizer and robot makers said that Chinese humanoid robots defeated human world records, as hundreds of humanoid robots marched in formation onto the field in a massive display of synchronized coordination.

At a 100-meter sprint, a humanoid robot achieved a result of 9.39 seconds, beating the human record of 9.58 seconds set by Jamaican athlete Bolt in 2009.

In a standing high jump, a humanoid robot was able to reach 2.88 meters, well above the 0.95 meters best result by a humanoid in last year’s first edition of the games. It surpassed the human high jump record of 2.45 meters set by Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor in 1993.

Both robots were from Beijing-based X-Humanoid.

Before the opening, a humanoid robot from Chinese smartphone company Honor completed a 100-meter sprint in a record of 9.32 seconds during a trial of the games, the company said, at a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second.

Still, experts say humanoid robots are still mostly used for demonstrations, performances and research — at least for now — and it will still take time to achieve mass real-world deployment.

Some spectators at the robot games said they were excited about the humanoid robots’ quickly improving abilities.

Humanoid robots are “evolving rapidly,” said Li Yanfeng, an education worker and a Beijing resident.

“At first, I wasn’t very accepting of artificial intelligence. I was even a bit resistant to it, because of the possibility that it might replace or displace humans,” she said. “But now that I see this development is unstoppable, I decided to come and take a look.”

“These sports are perfectly normal for humans, but now robots can do them. I find it amazing,” said Yang Shangzheng, another spectator.

Liu Tao, who was watching the games with his son, said that he was hoping to see “the best robots China currently has to offer.”

This year’s robot games — which the organizer said has 16 countries participating, among them Germany, Japan and the U.S. — also include other events such as weightlifting and tug of war.

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This full-floor co-op off Fifth Avenue at 11 East 92nd Street among the mansions of Carnegie Hill has been recently transformed into an elegant city refuge. The complete makeover at the hands of the designer/owner includes a large walled garden, landscaped and irrigated, ready to be a rare retreat from Manhattan’s urban demands. The two-bedroom co-op is asking $2.85 million.

Through the entry foyer is a sunken great room anchored by a fireplace made of Porcelanosa stone. Wide French doors frame views of the garden below.

Throughout the home are carefully selected design details like stone finishes, custom wood doors, brushed-bronze hardware, antique mirrored glass walls, and custom Maya Romanoff wallpaper. Spare-no-expense modern comforts include air-conditioning, a laundry room, motorized shades, and custom Lutron lighting.

A design-minded kitchen has worktops of three-inch-thick stone above custom cabinetry with brushed-bronze hardware. Doing the heavy lifting are Bosch, SubZero, and Fisher-Paykal appliances.

The private walled garden just outside is a romantic idyll, lit by gas lanterns and an outdoor fireplace. Visible just above the garden’s walls are the neighborhood’s stately private homes.

Handmade slatted doors guard a hallway to a secluded primary bedroom suite overlooking the garden. This tranquil chamber gets its own dressing area with custom closets and a stone-clad bathroom with radiant heated floors, a Toto toilet, and a glass-enclosed Kohler steam shower.

At the opposite side of the home is a second bedroom featuring a separate lounge/office zone. The home’s second bathroom has marble accents and a deep soaking tub.

Built in 1884, the pet-friendly co-op building offers more storage in the basement. The equally friendly co-op board allows new buyers and sublets.

[Listing details: 11 East 92nd Street #1 at CityRealty]

[At Brown Harris Stevens by Richard Orenstein]

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From Tom Brady to Snoop Dogg, American billionaires, CEOs and celebrities are buying into English football—or as they would call it, soccer. In fact, over half of the Premier League’s 20 clubs are currently majority-owned by U.S. investors. And now, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the latest to invest in Europe’s biggest sport.

That’s because the consortium 1892 Holdings—led by Bezos, British-Indian millionaire businessman Amit Bhatia and billionaire Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin—has just bought 38% of Liverpool Football Club (FC) from the club’s current owner Fenway Sports Group for around £2 billion (around $2.7 billion). 

It’s a drop in Bezos’ fortune, who, with a $273 billion net worth, is the third richest person on the planet. But it’s not without its risks.

Although Liverpool FC’s currently worth between £5 billion and £6 billion (around $6.8 to $9.5 billion), when FSG bought it for £300m (around $409 million) in 2010, the club was, according to its CEO Billy Hogan, “literally on the brink of bankruptcy.”

And while Liverpool’s in a strong financial position today, Bezos is buying into his first football club at a period of turbulence: They are trying to bounce back from a disappointing fifth-place finish in the top flight last season; Its manager, Arne Slot, was sacked as a result.

But the deal is structured as a long-term bet—a minority stake now in an iconic team, with the option to take majority control within 12 months—and that patience lines up with an investment philosophy Bezos has credited to somebody else entirely: Warren Buffett.

Bezos once asked Warren Buffett why more people don’t copy his investment strategy

Bezos has long credited the legendary investor, Buffett, as a mentor. The chairman and former CEO of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway has long shouted out about the benefit of investing for the long haul: For many years, Buffett has preached parking your money in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund and not touching it again, rather than trying to outsmart the market by picking individual stocks.

It’s a philosophy so simple that Bezos once asked Buffett directly why more people don’t just copy it. 

“Why don’t more people copy your investment strategy? It’s not that difficult to understand in principle,” Bezos said he asked Buffett, speaking at the America Business Forum in 2025.  

Buffett’s one-line answer was blunt. “He said, ‘Jeff, that’s easy. My approach is a get-rich-slowly scheme.’ And people don’t like those, but there’s a lot of truth in that for everything.”

And that’s an ethos that Bezos says he himself has stuck by: “If you can think in terms of seven years instead of three years, and you can defer gratification and think long term, that will give you a head start against all of your competitors, because most people can’t do that.” 

So, if Bezos takes his own advice, Liverpool fans can expect him to stick around for at least seven years.

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The first days of the second Trump administration offered the newly elected president a chance to share the spotlight with some of his most important allies. While some of the featured leaders were ones you’d expect—cabinet nominees, congressional leaders, megadonor Elon Musk—at least one was a surprise: Masayoshi Son, the Japanese billionaire tech investor.

The occasion for Son’s star turn in the White House Roosevelt Room on Jan. 21 was an announcement that [hotlink]SoftBank Group[/hotlink], Son’s Tokyo-based conglomerate, would put up most of the funding for Stargate, an ambitious partnership with OpenAI and Oracle that aims to turbocharge American leadership in artificial intelligence. Flanked by Oracle chairman Larry Ellison and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and standing on a box to be seen above the lectern, Son promised Trump that Stargate would invest a staggering $500 billion to build a nationwide network of data centers, power plants, and research centers. Trump lavished praise on “my friend Masa” for bankrolling “the largest AI infrastructure by far in history.”

“This the beginning of a golden age for America,” Son told Trump. “We wouldn’t have decided [to invest] unless you won.”

It’s also a golden age for gambling on AI, and Son seems determined to be the table’s highest roller. SoftBank is leading a funding round of $40 billion for OpenAI, valuing it at $300 billion, in what could be a record single round for a private company. If finalized, that investment would position SoftBank as one of OpenAI’s largest shareholders. Meanwhile, SoftBank and OpenAI are launching a joint venture to develop and market AI in Japan.

(On March 31, after this story was originally published, SoftBank said it had agreed to lead a funding round of up to $40 billion in OpenAI Global, a for-profit subsidiary of the ChatGPT maker, valuing the company at $300 billion, in what could be a record single round for a private company. SoftBank plans to invest up to $30 billion in the subsidiary, with a syndicate of co-investors providing the remaining $10 billion.)

The surge is all the more striking because in some circles Son is best known for his failures. Indeed, the last time Son loomed so large in global headlines was in 2022, when his Vision Fund posted a $27 billion loss and teetered on the brink of collapse. Among its most spectacular debacles: office-sharing startup WeWork, for which the fund was forced to write down $14 billion.

But the comeback is vintage Son. Over the years, he has made and lost larger fortunes than perhaps any investor in the history of capitalism. From his early days as a scrappy software distributor, Son has demonstrated a flair for grand gestures, an unshakable faith in charismatic young founders with big ideas—and the capacity to bounce back from failed bets. It’s not far fetched to compare him to a daruma, a traditional Japanese doll that’s a symbol of perseverance. Daruma dolls have heavy, weighted bases; like America’s Weebles, they wobble but don’t fall down.

The wobble-and-rebound pattern has recurred throughout Son’s career—and each boom-and-bust cycle has seemed to leave his financial base more solid. SoftBank’s first big success was a bet on Yahoo, darling of the dotcom boom, which cemented Son’s reputation as a venture visionary and made him, briefly, the world’s richest man. Then Yahoo made a string of strategic errors, the boom went bust, and SoftBank’s market capitalization plummeted from more than $180 billion to $2.5 billion, a decline of 98%.

Son clawed his way back thanks to a $20 million investment, made just a month before the dotcom crash, that gave SoftBank a 34% stake in a then obscure Chinese e-commerce startup, Alibaba. Son famously claims to have decided to invest based on pure gut instinct after a six-minute meeting with founder Jack Ma. “It was the look in his eye, it was ‘animal smell,’” he recalled years later.

At its peak in 2020, SoftBank’s Alibaba stake was worth more than $200 billion, enabling SoftBank to borrow money for investments in hundreds of other ventures. In Japan, the company pioneered the expansion of high-speed internet and broadband, just in time to serve one of the world’s most tech-savvy younger generations. In 2006 SoftBank acquired Vodafone Japan, later rebranding it as SoftBank Mobile, a game-changing move that effectively put Son in control of one of Japan’s top telecom providers. That success paved the way for SoftBank to buy a majority stake in Sprint, which Son later merged with T-Mobile, creating the third-largest U.S. mobile carrier.

Son’s luck seemed to run out after 2017 when he launched the $100 billion Vision Fund, the world’s largest tech investment fund, with major backing from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The fund’s myriad wipeout losses eventually forced Son to unload many of SoftBank’s assets, including the bulk of its stake in Alibaba.

But if Son is unnerved by these gyrations, he has rarely shown it. He lives in a lavish mansion in Tokyo’s pricey Azabu Juban neighborhood, and in 2019, even as SoftBank’s fortunes were straining under the weight of WeWork’s failed IPO, he took out a personal loan from SoftBank to pay $117 million—then the most ever paid for a U.S. residential property—to acquire a sprawling European-style villa in Woodside, in the hills above Silicon Valley.

When it suits him, Son, who displays samurai swords and armor from his personal collection in his office atop SoftBank’s Tokyo headquarters, can be as intimidating as any feudal warlord. Anthony Tan, cofounder of Southeast Asian super app Grab, remembers being summoned to Tokyo for a meeting with Son in 2014. After an hour, Son cut to the chase: He was making Tan an offer he shouldn’t refuse. “You take my money, good for me, good for you,” Tan recalls Son saying. “You don’t take my money, not so good for you.” (Tan took the money.)

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has offered a succinct explanation for why tech CEOs have made countless 11-hour flights from San Francisco to Tokyo to meet with Son: “Rather than having their capital cannon facing me, I’d rather have their capital cannon facing behind me.”

Son’s cannon may have misfired at Vision Fund. But what enabled him to reload is the success of another singular investment: British chip designer Arm Holdings, which SoftBank took private in 2016. Since September 2023, when SoftBank listed Arm on the Nasdaq, its market cap has soared to nearly $120 billion, enabling SoftBank to pledge some of its 90% stake as collateral to take on debt.

SoftBank will need that new ammunition. For Stargate, SoftBank has pledged to provide $19 billion of the initial $52 billion in funding commitments for the venture in exchange for a 40% stake. In mid-March, it splashed out $6.5 billion to buy Ampere Computing, a U.S. chip designer focused on AI compute. SoftBank’s overall AI spending commitments far exceed the $31 billion in cash it had on its balance sheet at the end of last year. The Information reports that SoftBank is in talks with bankers to borrow $16 billion to invest, in addition to $18.5 billion it recently arranged to borrow, secured by its Arm stake.

The larger question looming over the Stargate bet is whether it will be worth the returns. On Jan. 27, only six days after the White House ceremony, global investors woke up to reports that DeepSeek, a little-known startup based in Hangzhou, China, had developed an AI model that performs as well as or better than OpenAI’s leading model but requires far less memory and guzzles far less electricity. DeepSeek said it developed the model for less than $6 million, a fraction of the billions Big Tech companies say they are spending on their models.

$19 billion

SoftBank’s initial funding commitment for the Stargate AI infrastructure project

The “DeepSeek shock” challenged prevailing assumptions about the correlation between how AI models perform and how much they cost. But much of the tech community sees those doubts as a distraction from a bigger truth—that growing demand for AI will create a voracious need for power and hardware, even if AI models themselves become more efficient. Altman has argued in a paper on the OpenAI website that “infrastructure is destiny.”

Clearly, the huge estimates of what it will cost to build that infrastructure don’t scare Son. “Some people say, after the DeepSeek syndrome, ‘Oh, you are overspending,’” he said shrugging at a February appearance with Altman at a SoftBank conference in Tokyo. “‘You know, you can save so much more by spending less.’ But I think you are looking at it the wrong way…How much of global GDP will be replaced by something a billion times smarter?”

Son estimates that within a decade, AI-driven solutions will replace at least 5% of global GDP, and potentially as much as 10%: “You shouldn’t be scared of spending a few trillion dollars if it returns $9 to $18 trillion per year. Why should you try to be efficient? For what? I don’t get it.”

At the same event, Son reminisced about past meetings with Altman. In 2017, Altman came to Tokyo looking for funding, but Son sent him away empty-handed. Two years later, as OpenAI developed one of the world’s most sophisticated AI models, Son offered to invest $1 billion in the venture. This time Altman refused.

Onstage, Son had a rosier recollection of the 2019 encounter: “You said that you’re going to go for AGI [artificial general intelligence]. I immediately said, ‘I believe you. I want to invest.’ From there I was a believer. I never doubted. Most people at that time thought you were crazy, right?”

“Some people think you’re crazy too,” Altman replied. “It all works out.”

This article appears in the April/May 2025 issue of Fortune with the headline “The nine lives of Masayoshi Son.”


A gambler at tech’s highest-stakes tables

Son with Microsoft’s then-CEO Bill Gates in 1997, not long after SoftBank’s bet on Yahoo established Son’s reputation as a venture-investing visionary.
Lennox McLendon—AP Photo
In the 2000s, Son, shown at a Yahoo Japan event, built a powerful business base around broadband internet and mobile services in his home country.
Yoshikazu TSUNO—AFP/Getty Images
Son bought a 34% stake in Alibaba for $20 million in 2000 after a six-minute meeting with founder Jack Ma. In 2020, the stake’s value topped $200 billion.
Visual China Group/Getty Images
Son with Steve Jobs (right) at an Apple event in 2010. SoftBank bought Vodafone Japan in 2006 and later turned it into Japan’s exclusive iPhone provider.
David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images
Son’s $100 billion Vision Fund, the biggest venture fund in tech history, took huge losses on the likes of office startup WeWork and robotic pizza maker Zume.
KAZUHIRO NOGI—AFP/Getty Images
In January, Son joined President Trump, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman to announce a $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure.
Andrew Harnik—Getty Images

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President Donald Trump lashed out at Canada early Sunday in his first public comments since trade negotiations between the two countries collapsed, accusing Ottawa of wanting the “benefits of being a State, without being one.”

“Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“They have also charged our great farmers, for many years, massive amounts of Tariffs,” he added. “No more!!!”

The comments come a day after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended negotiations with the U.S. and ordered Canada’s trade team back to Ottawa as Trump’s 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian imports took effect early Saturday.

CANADA’S CARNEY SAYS US MADE LAST-MINUTE ‘POWER PLAY’ AS TRADE TALKS COLLAPSE; RETALIATORY TARIFFS IN PLACE

For its part, Canada has vowed to retaliate.

Carney said Friday that Ottawa plans to match the U.S. tariffs “dollar for dollar,” with the levies targeting multiple sectors, including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics.

The duties are set to take effect the Tuesday after Labor Day, Sept. 8.

The prime minister on Saturday accused Washington of making a last-minute “power play,” saying the U.S. sought to restrict Canada’s ability to negotiate trade agreements with other countries.

US-CANADA TRADE NEGOTIATIONS SUSPENDED, CARNEY VOWS DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR RETALIATION AGAINST TRUMP’S 50% TARIFFS

“It’s a power play,” Carney said. “It becomes a question of sovereignty.”

According to Carney, trade talks broke down after the U.S. introduced new demands involving Canada’s other trading relationships, its auto sector and protections for Canadian culture and the French language.

“In short, they asked too much, and they offered too little,” Carney said.

The Trump administration has disputed Carney’s version of events, arguing that Canada walked away from terms the two countries had already agreed to.

TRUMP ALLOWS 300,000 METRIC TONS OF TARIFF-FREE BEEF IMPORTS IN BID TO CUT PRICES, DRAWING RANCHER BACKLASH

“Our interest is in protecting American workers and protecting American supply chains. We’ve been offering to bring the Canadians along on that path, really to cut the tariffs on them on steel, on autos, even lumber, things that are sensitive for them,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Saturday on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

“And they’ve always had the best deal, and they still would have an even better deal, but they didn’t want that,” he continued.

Greer said no additional trade negotiations with Canada have been scheduled.

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FOX Business’ Brittany Miller and Fox News Digital’s Madison Colombo contributed to this report.

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Hungary is preparing to restore more generating capacity at its Paks nuclear power plant after emergency work raised the Danube River near the facility’s cooling-water intake, easing an energy threat that had forced the country’s most important power station to operate at a fraction of its normal output.

Paks ordinarily supplies nearly half of Hungary’s electricity. But exceptionally low Danube levels caused by prolonged drought and extreme heat forced the plant to sharply reduce production, leaving only two of its eight turbines operating and cutting overall output to roughly 25% of capacity.

The government now expects the six idle turbines to begin returning gradually, with the plant potentially reaching full output later in the week if river conditions and safety requirements permit.

The recovery is not being driven by rainfall alone. Hungarian authorities used emergency engineering measures to increase the water level around the plant’s intake system by approximately 10 to 15 centimeters. The work included positioning barges in the river and beginning construction of a submerged riverbed barrier designed to hold more water upstream near the facility.

The plant’s nuclear reactors generate heat, but the Danube provides the water needed to remove excess heat and operate the electricity-producing turbines safely. When the river falls too low, the plant cannot draw enough cooling water, forcing operators to reduce or stop production even if the reactors themselves remain functional.

That distinction is important: Hungary is not restarting a reactor that failed. It is restoring electricity-generating equipment that was taken offline because the river could no longer reliably support normal cooling operations.

The disruption exposed a major weakness in Hungary’s energy system. With Paks producing nearly half the country’s power, a prolonged shutdown could increase electricity imports, raise wholesale prices and force Hungary to rely more heavily on natural gas and other fossil fuels.

Solar generation helped prevent a more serious shortage. At certain points during the nuclear reduction, solar power supplied more than half of Hungary’s electricity, providing critical daytime support. But solar production falls sharply in the evening and cannot independently replace the stable, round-the-clock electricity normally produced at Paks.

The crisis stretches beyond Hungary. Romania shut down nuclear generation at its Cernavoda plant because of low Danube water levels, while Bulgaria reduced output at its Kozloduy nuclear facility for the first time in its history for the same reason.

For European businesses and consumers, the episode demonstrates how drought can affect far more than farming and shipping. Low rivers can interrupt electricity production, increase industrial energy costs and place additional pressure on regional power markets.

Hungary’s immediate danger is easing, but the larger problem remains. If severe droughts become more frequent, countries that depend on rivers to cool nuclear and conventional power plants may need new cooling systems, greater renewable capacity and stronger cross-border electricity connections.

The Danube’s recovery is allowing Paks to return—but it has also delivered a warning about how closely Europe’s energy security is tied to its water supply. ⁠

JBizNews Desk | Budapest

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Instead of adding new roses, President Donald Trump’s White House Rose Garden is growing statues.

Trump put statues of some of America’s founders in the garden just off the Oval Office after he replaced its plush lawn with a white stone patio, turning the historic outdoor space into a look-alike of the one at his Mar-a-Lago home and private club in Palm Beach, Florida.

At least one statue was a gift. Others are on loan from people who wish to remain anonymous.

The latest addition, a bronze depiction of a seated Thomas Jefferson signing the Declaration of Independence, was a gift from George Lundeen, a sculptor from Loveland, Colorado. It joins statues already displayed there of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Ben Franklin. A fifth sculpture named “Freedom’s Charge” is also on the patio.

The statues are part of Trump’s sweeping series of White House renovations, from his gilded makeover of the Oval Office to the ballroom and helipad that the Republican president is having built on the south grounds. These projects fit into Trump’s broader plan to leave his mark on downtown Washington through other construction projects, including a statue garden on federal land near the National Mall.

Thomas Jefferson returns to the White House

Lundeen said he made the sculpture of Jefferson, the third U.S. president, decades ago and kept it at his ranch until he decided to spruce it up and send it to Trump for display at the White House in time for July Fourth celebrations of America’s 250th birthday. Steven Barber, his friend and collaborator, had reached out to contacts at the White House on Lundeen’s behalf.

“I thought it would just be a real nice thing on the 250th for people to look at Thomas Jefferson as he was writing the Declaration of Independence,” Lundeen said in a telephone interview.

But the statue did not get to the White House in time. Barber said it was stuck on a truck partly because of heavy security around the celebratory events. Trump was shown photos and liked the sculpture so much that he decided to put it in the Rose Garden.

When the president called Lundeen to thank him, he got voicemail. After the holiday, Lundeen’s office manager insisted he listen to one message in particular.

“Hi, George. It’s your favorite president, Donald Trump, and I just wanted to thank you,” the president said on the recording, which Lundeen shared with The Associated Press. “The sculpture, it looks really beautiful … just by the picture I can see it’s really incredible, and we have a wonderful place right in the Rose Garden, and I appreciate it.”

Barber said in a separate telephone interview that he had been calling the White House for months to discuss the statue but got little in the way of a response until about three weeks before Independence Day, when in came a “flurry of emails saying they wanted it.”

White House signals that more statues are possible

Details on the other statues added to the Rose Garden are relatively sparse.

The statue of Washington, America’s first president, was lent by Harlan Crow, the White House said. Representatives for the Texas-based real estate tycoon and GOP megadonor, who made headlines in recent years for his friendship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, did not respond to email messages from the AP seeking comment.

A third statue, “Freedom’s Charge,” a 14-foot-tall (4.3-meter-tall) bronze sculpture of two Revolutionary War soldiers separated by a flag, was relocated from Dallas. Chas Fagan, the sculptor, did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

The Franklin and Hamilton statues are from anonymous donors, according to the White House.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle explained Trump’s fondness for statues by saying that no other president has done more to beautify the White House and its surroundings.

“From restoring our treasured landmarks, which had suffered years of abuse and vandalism, to cleaning our parks and the Reflecting Pool, President Trump’s bold vision ensured that America rang in its 250th birthday celebration with glory and pride,” Ingle said in an emailed statement that referenced Trump’s troubled effort to spruce up the pool near the Lincoln Memorial.

He said Trump continues to make “long-overdue and necessary” renovations to the White House.

“Thanks to the Builder-in-Chief, the White House will be properly glorified and remain in excellent condition for generations to come,” Ingle said.

Trump’s love of statues extends beyond the White House

Next door to the White House, Trump had a statue of Christopher Columbus installed on the grounds of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in March.

More recently, the National Park Service installed a series of sculptures of Revolutionary-era subjects and themes at a plaza near the White House.

Trump’s marquee statue plan involves building a National Garden of American Heroes near the National Mall that would feature sculptures of 250 Americans who have made significant cultural, political and other historical contributions to the United States. Several preservation and cultural heritage organization have sued to block the project, arguing that Congress must first authorize it.

Barber said he and Lundeen are “in the mix” to make statues for that garden, too.

At his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump has on display a 7-foot (2.1-meter) bronze sculpture depicting him with his fist raised after the 2024 assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. It was also made by Lundeen and was given to Trump by Anthony Constantino, a businessman and Republican congressional candidate from New York.

The White House doubles as an art gallery

The White House has long been a showcase for art, perhaps no work more famous than the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington that hangs in the East Room and was saved by first lady Dolly Madison after the British set the White House on fire during the War of 1812.

Presidents have access to the White House’s vast art collection. Trump has said he went to the “vaults” and found the presidential portraits and other art he hung in the Oval Office and in other rooms in the White House. Portraits of former presidents and former first ladies also adorn hallways and public rooms in the mansion.

In Trump’s first term, first lady Melania Trump installed a piece by Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi near the Rose Garden, making him the first Asian American artist to be featured in the White House collection.

Before that, then-first lady Michelle Obama’s renovation of the Old Family Dining Room in 2015 included the addition of a painting by Alma Thomas, who was the first African American female artist to have her work added to the collection.

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The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a landmark bill to bring crypto assets into the economic mainstream, is on life support. This comes despite months of hard work and compromise for a set of rules that would be overwhelmingly positive for America by creating new business opportunities and reducing the risk of another FTX. Polymarket currently has the odds of passage this year at 25%.

The bill known as Clarity has struggled to get across the finish line for multiple reasons, but the biggest has arguably been the vicious interference campaign run by the banking industry. Their gripe? The fact the Genius Act—an important stablecoin law that passed last year—only bans direct interest payments to customers, which left the door open for third parties to reward their clients who use stablecoins like USDC. Clarity wasn’t supposed to be about stablecoins at all, but the banks weren’t content with the protectionist measures they’d already won, so they held Clarity hostage.

If you didn’t know any better and saw the scorched-earth tactics used to make their case, you’d assume American banks were in some kind of trouble. That their deposits must already be so scarce—and their profits so scant—that the industry needs government protection just to survive. How else do we explain the unlikely allies they found for their anti-stablecoin crusade, ranging from progressive think tanks to the Wall Street Journal editorial board?

But fear not, for the state of banking in the Union is strong. Profitability is up and the regulatory burden is down—two reasons why the KBW Bank Index has outperformed the NASDAQ over the past year. At the center of the current boom is the $740 billion in net-interest income (NII) the industry took home last year, per government data.

NII is the purest measure of how much money banks make from the simple act of taking money from depositors and lending it to borrowers, and at three-quarters of a trillion dollars, is a very big number. Larger than the GDP of Australia, or what the Magnificent Seven (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla) made in net income during the same period. Nobody in their right mind would argue that Alphabet and Nvidia need laws to protect them from competition, but lots of otherwise intelligent people believe that banks, an even more profitable group of companies, do need such protection. In this view, J.P. Morgan, a bank that made almost $100 billion in NII last year, might have to exit banking altogether if the crypto bros using Coinbase earn a few extra shekels on their USDC.

Of course the stablecoin snowflakes never put it that way. Instead they say fancy things like “competition for deposits may erode the banking industry’s ability to create credit, hurting farmers and small businesses.” But that’s an absurd claim given how most banks operate. JPM currently pays nothing to depositors, but charges close to 20% for credit card loans. Do we really think they’d stop issuing credit cards if they had to pay depositors a tad bit more interest?

For the record, there has never been a credible academic argument that even direct remuneration to stablecoin holders would deplete bank deposits. Even the Genius Act’s prohibition on direct interest payments was based more on myth than merit. Stablecoins are a private form of money, and all private forms of money eventually recycle through bank deposits. That’s exactly what happened with money market funds, another savings instrument that the banks fought using questionable arguments, only to be proven wrong. Trillions of dollars flowed into those products in the ensuing decades, but bank deposits are higher than ever.

In their mendacious campaign against Clarity, the bank lobby has also been careful not to mention that banks account for only 20% of credit creation in the U.S., and the largest banks only lend out half of the money they get from deposits. Likewise, we’ve heard little about how banks are far more likely to use deposits to park money at the Fed or to buy Treasuries than to give small business or farm loans, or about the industry’s periodic crises that have forced the government to rush in with bailouts costing billions[JJR1] . There is also the inconvenient truth that savers would benefit from competition for deposits, and there are more savers than borrowers. But instead of talking about these facts, the trade groups that represent the largest banks argue stablecoins threaten community banks, even though their “too big to fail” status keeps sucking in deposits from everyone else.

The whole thing is a headscratcher. Here we have a highly profitable industry that is also the recipient of various subsidies, but it acts like it’s doing us a favor. It has some of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, and they spend most of their time lobbying for less regulation, except for stablecoins, which they’d like to see regulated to death. Banks also love to argue against giving FinTechs and crypto firms equal access to government-run infrastructure, citing safety and soundness concerns. The industry that gave us Lehman and SVB would have you believe it’s really PayPal you should be worried about. It also wants you to believe that crypto is an unusual enabler of illicit activity, as if no bank ever moved money to facilitate any kind of illicit activity.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this but have no idea why America loves its banks so much, even though the banks clearly don’t love it back. Maybe it’s a form of Stockholm syndrome. We’ve been entrapped by this one industry for so long that we can’t let ourselves believe there are alternatives. Regardless, what I do know is that this kind of unrequited love usually ends badly. What begins as longing eventually turns into rage. All of the arguments banks make against potential competition could be used to justify more onerous restrictions on banks.

For instance, how about an American cap on credit card swipe fees? Why not? Europe and Australia already have this. How about a windfall tax on net-interest margins? If banks get to have a monopoly on interest-bearing deposits, they should be forced to pass the savings to borrowers, not pocket it as profit. Or we could have Congress reinstate Glass-Steagall, which for decades barred retail banks like JP Morgan from engaging in risky trading. After all, separating core banking from other activities is the best way to protect Americans from the risks banks keep projecting on FinTechs and crypto firms.

During the stablecoin debate, the banking industry has constantly argued that it should be treated like a utility performing an important social service. They should not be surprised if the forces of populism that are upending the rest of the economy eventually decide to do just that.

Omid Malekan is an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and the author of several books on crypto and finance. The opinions expressed here are entirely his own.

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When Chevron reported its highest quarterly profit in six years on July 31, 2026, it was just one detail in a larger picture: Analyst firm Wood Mackenzie estimates the global oil and gas industry is on course for a cash windfall of US$495 billion in 2026. That’s profit above and beyond what the industry expected before the U.S.-Israel war with Iran began.

Three separate bills seeking to tax those profits are now in Congress, and President Donald Trump has even said the oil companies are “making too much money.”

As an applied microeconomist, I am often asked how taxes affect economic activity. Economists have long held a more nuanced view of windfall taxes than either side of the current debate suggests. Advocates often make overly optimistic revenue projections, and opponents often overstate how much such a tax might discourage investment. A 1980s U.S. windfall-tax experiment is instructive on both counts.

A person pumps gas into a car.

As customers pay more, oil giants are raking in the cash. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Other nations have this type of tax

In the U.K., a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas – layered on top of existing levies to produce a combined rate of 78% on profits – is on course to generate an estimated 8 billion pounds in 2026 (about $10.8 billion), roughly double its 2024–25 revenue.

A similar European Union-wide tax imposed as a one-time measure after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine raised 26.15 billion euros ($30 billion). Five EU countries are now calling for a second one in response to the Iran war.

How to tax a windfall

Many taxes are deliberately designed to change behavior. But a windfall tax is different: It goes after money that results from a company making the same production decision it was already planning to make before prices rose. The oil was going to be pumped regardless; the war just made each barrel worth more.

A textbook windfall tax would not fall on all profits, but only on the amount exceeding a baseline level. Australia’s Petroleum Resource Rent Tax and Norway’s special petroleum tax are the closest working examples. Under those, companies deduct all costs — including exploration and investment – plus a normal rate of return, before any windfall tax is owed.

In the U.S., the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax, enacted in 1980, was projected to raise $393 billion over its planned 10-year life. It raised about $80 billion before being repealed in 1988 – roughly a fifth of the projection. Prices collapsed after 1986, domestic production was increasingly exempted, and the tax was generating almost nothing by the time it was repealed.

A large industrial tower rises out of a gray seascape.

The U.K. heavily taxes revenue from oil and gas wells in the North Sea. Lars Penning/picture alliance via Getty Images

What Congress is considering

The bills currently in Congress are structured very differently from the textbook design – and from each other.

A proposal by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, both Democrats would levy a 50% excise tax per barrel on the difference between the current average Brent crude price and the 2025 average of $69. With a July 2026 average of $84, a company would owe $7.50 per barrel – regardless of production costs or profitability.

A second bill, the Iran War Oil Crisis Windfall Profits Tax Act by Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California, is more aggressive: a 100% tax on the amount by which crude prices exceed $75 per barrel. At the July 2026 average of $84, companies would owe $9 per barrel. That tax would be in effect only until hostilities end and prices fall below that threshold.

Both are triggered by prices, not by any measure of underlying profit. A third proposal, the Taxing Buybacks from Big Oil Windfalls Act by Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden, Chuck Schumer, and Michael Bennet, takes a different approach: raising the excise tax on stock buybacks from 1% to 25% for large oil and gas companies, targeting not the windfall itself but what companies do with it.

People in ties and stock-trader jackets stand near multiple electronic monitors.

Oil companies are not using their skyrocketing profits to buy back their stocks. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Where the money is going

The American Petroleum Institute has argued that proposals like these “erode the certainty needed to make investment” decisions. The Tax Foundation has warned that “taxing producers is the opposite of a solution to a supply crisis.” Neither side, however, has put a specific dollar figure on how much investment would actually be deterred.

The data tells a different story. According to Wood Mackenzie, the 49 largest oil and gas companies will pocket about $272 billion of the sector’s windfall – roughly equal to 70% of their combined annual investment budgets. Yet investment spending has barely moved, stock buybacks are on course to fall, and dividends have stayed flat. The cash is simply accumulating on balance sheets.

This is exactly what economic research predicts: When a windfall doesn’t change a firm’s underlying investment opportunities, managers hold the cash and wait. In 2026, the industry is waiting for clarity on how long the war lasts, whether prices have peaked and whether Congress will pass a windfall tax. The argument that such a tax would prevent important economic activity weakens by the day.

A person holds up a sign that says 'people over profit.'

High, and still rising, energy costs have sparked protests across the U.S. Photo by Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for People’s Action

What the current proposals would mean

For oil companies, the direct effect is straightforward: Every dollar paid in tax is a dollar less in earnings. The indirect effect – discouraging investment – is likely weaker than usual because the windfall isn’t being invested now anyway.

For government revenue, the 1980 experience is a cautionary tale: Projections built on current prices tend to overstate what a tax will collect.

For consumers, a tax only on domestic production is largely borne by producers, while a tax that touches imports can raise pump prices.

But the use of the revenue matters too. Both the Whitehouse-Khanna and Sherman bills rebate proceeds directly to households. The Whitehouse-Khanna proposal could give an estimated $216 a year to a single taxpayer at $100-per-barrel oil – helping offset pump prices particularly for lower-income families, who spend a larger share of their budgets on fuel.

Whether the trade-off between taxing companies’ war-driven windfall profits and the risks of market intervention is worth making depends on human values as much as on financial estimates. People differ on how fair it is to let companies keep profits that result from a war, and on the reliability of projections about revenue raised and investment lost. Those are not questions economists alone can settle.

Tibor Besedeš, Professor of Economics, Georgia Institute of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

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With a slew of unexpected maneuvers this year, Scott Bessent has emerged as the most interventionist Treasury secretary in financial markets in decades — putting his credibility on the line in an effort to quell a potentially damaging rise in US borrowing costs.

Wednesday brought the latest surprise. Just two weeks after releasing its schedule for buying back older Treasury securities, the Treasury Department announced it would “at least double” its planned purchases of outstanding 10-year to 30-year debt.

That came after the Treasury earlier this month opened the door to potential cuts in issuance of longer-dated debt. On July 31, Bessent oversaw the first purchases of yen by US authorities in three decades, an action seen as reducing the need for Japan to sell down its Treasuries stockpile to fund its own yen buying. And early this year, Bessent deployed so-called rate checks — calls by authorities to banks for quotes on the yen — surprising even a former Japanese official.

“He’s activist, absolutely,” said Mark Sobel, a former US Treasury official now at the research group OMFIF. “It harkens back to his hedge-fund background.” 

As for the motive: “It seems clear to me that he and the administration are concerned about the rise in long-term yields,” Sobel said.

The Treasury didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Bessent’s market measures.

As stewards of the nation’s economic policy and its financial markets, Treasury secretaries have often been forced to intervene in moments of crisis. 

That’s not the case now, given that the bond selloff has been orderly and building for months. But his action after 10-year Treasury yields, his self-specified financial benchmark, rose above where they were before Trump returned to office, shows mounting worries in Washington.

The rise in yields, on a combination of concerns about inflation, Federal Reserve policymaking and outsize fiscal deficits, has kept mortgage rates elevated and poses a headwind to economic growth months before the November congressional election.

When it comes to debt issuance, the Treasury has long hewed to the principle of being “regular and predictable,” and not surprising investors. It’s a concept Bessent himself endorsed in a keynote speech at a Treasury market conference in November.

What he also said in that speech, however, was that “my job is to be the nation’s top bond salesman. And Treasury yields are a strong barometer for measuring success in this endeavor.” And he highlighted the economic importance of lower Treasury rates.

“It is going against ‘regular and predictable’ — but that’s the world we live in,” Gregory Faranello, head of US rates trading and strategy at AmeriVet Securities, said of Wednesday’s announcement. “The messaging is clear: stop the rise in yields.”

Bessent’s predecessor, Janet Yellen, also moved to stanch a rise in yields in 2023. Bessent was among a number of Republicans who criticized that step — done via the regular quarterly debt-issuance statement — as politically motivated, being aimed at juicing the pre-election economy. Stephen Miran, President Donald Trump’s former chief economist and an ex Fed-board member, had co-written a paper in July 2024 inveighing against “activist Treasury issuance,” or ATI.

‘Election Season’

“Once one political party begins using ATI to stimulate the economy into election season, it may be used repeatedly by all future administrations,” Miran and co-author Nouriel Roubini wrote.

The Treasury’s move comes just weeks after Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh had enthused over financial markets being freed of forward guidance. “Market participants are learning to play the ball, not the referee, and market prices will continue to respond in the direction and magnitude they see fit.”

Bessent has shared Warsh’s sentiment in the past, writing in an essay last year that Fed bond purchases had created “distortions” in markets and “disrupted an essential source of feedback.”

As it turns out, “this is not an administration that sets stable rules and then lets the market chips fall where they may,” said Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

In the case of the recent yen initiative, Bessent recommended the Fed expand one of its facilities, a call seen as designed to stem Japanese outright sales of Treasuries. 

Old-Days Maneuver

Bessent, 63, was famed for his role in successful, high-stakes bets on the British pound and Japanese yen during his work for George Soros. And some market participants viewed Wednesday’s action as drawing on that career.

“It is like the ‘lift everything on the screen’ trick from the old days,” said Brad Golding, a portfolio manager at Christofferson Robb & Co. That’s a reference to a hedge fund technique of hitting big dealers with orders all at the same time to trigger a large move in the market.

Being the main cabinet member responsible for stewardship of the world’s biggest economy, Treasury secretaries have had a long tradition of major interventions in times of crisis. The department played a key role during Covid, ran the main bailout program of the global financial crisis, and took point on multiple emerging market rescues in the 1990s.

Bessent’s maneuvers are distinct, some observers say, by not being prompted by crisis or particularly disorderly market conditions.

Historical Comparison

“Bessent is letting everyone know that his approach is more actively interventionist, even absent the kind of catalyst that might have been required in recent decades,” said Douglas Rediker, a managing partner of the political advisory firm International Capital Strategies in Washington.

Sobel, who served at the Treasury from the late 1970s to 2015, said Bessent has at least been the most activist since the early 2000s. Historical comparisons, such as to James Baker — who helped engineer the Plaza and Louvre Accords of the 1980s that had a strong influence on exchange rates at the time — are fraught by historical contexts being different, he said.

Many market participants and economists highlighted that the fundamentals behind today’s higher yields challenge the Treasury’s operational toolkit. With two months to go in the fiscal year, the deficit so far for 2026 is $1.8 trillion, 5% wider than last year. Spending is being propelled by Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the debt. Defense spending is also set to rise, and Republicans are exploring more tax cuts.

“While the Treasury’s announcement offers near-term relief to bond markets, the structural drivers” pushing rates higher remain in place, ABN Amro Bank rates strategists wrote in a note Thursday. “It is difficult to see the Treasury maintaining increasingly large buybacks on a sustained basis, particularly given the ongoing (and rising) financing needs,” Larissa Fritz and her colleague Jaap Teerhuis wrote.

Market Signals

Bessent has indicated, however, that he’s a believer in the power of the government to influence markets. Speaking last month about the Trump administration’s stakes in a number of technology and resource companies, he said, “What we’re trying to do is create market signals.” Speaking on Fox Business, he said, “In essence, trying to tell investors, OK, here’s where the puck’s going to be. Skate to it quickly.”

Investors skated, some, on Wednesday. Ten-year yields closed down around 6 basis points, while 30-year rates were 9 basis points lower. Treasuries were retracing some of the moves Thursday.

“This only works for so long,” said Guy Miller, chief strategist at Zurich Insurance. “It can be quite a potent intervention when you’ve got the Treasury saying that they’re very much committed to doing this. But ultimately, unless you tackle profligate policy, that’s not sustainable indefinitely.”

As for Bessent’s yen operation, Japan’s currency has this month surrendered a portion of the intervention-spurred advance. Wednesday’s drop in Treasuries yields also gave the yen a push higher, however. The drop in rates even pulled the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index down to the lowest level in three months.

“He’s picking a fight with two massive markets — Treasuries and FX,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Onepoint Bfg. “And that’s a really tough battle.”

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Security sources said on Friday that the chances of expanding the military confrontation with Iran in the near term have decreased, following a series of meetings and discussions with senior US officials.

According to the officials, US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose another harsh package of economic sanctions is intended to “buy time” until after the US midterm elections.

Accordingly, the IDF will increase its level of preparedness for the worst-case scenario of renewed strikes against Iran across all areas: intelligence, weapons procurement, interceptor production, target bank development, and Air Force readiness for both defensive and offensive operations.

At this stage, it is unclear whether the US will succeed in deterring and forcefully pressuring countries that support the Iranian regime, either directly or indirectly, through oil trade, bank accounts, money transfers, raw materials, and other means. Security officials said that without extreme decisions and aggressive American enforcement, the US president will not achieve the desired outcome.

Meanwhile, the defense establishment fears that without government intervention and a rapid legislative process to increase the budget deficit framework, it will not be possible to carry out rapid procurement of various types of munitions that serve as the foundation for high-intensity warfare, as well as advance procurement of fighter aircraft squadrons and additional advanced weapons systems.

Israeli Air Force fighter jet seen in central Israel amid the ongoing war, March 30, 2026. (credit: NATI SHOHAT/FLASH90)

Netanyahu responsible for final decision on Iran war

Additional discussions between the IDF, the Defense Ministry, and the Finance Ministry will take place early next week in order to advance the process.

A security official said that the person ultimately responsible for making the decision on the matter is the prime minister, who must advance legislation in the Knesset before the recess; otherwise, the consequences will be strategic.

Amid Trump’s announcement of economic sanctions against Iran, which he called “D-Day,” the spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent a sharp message and claimed that if the war resumes, “we will use more destructive weapons.” He added that “the warheads used on Iranian missiles are far more destructive than those used in previous wars. Iran’s weapons will be completely different in every respect if another war breaks out.”

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A split in Iran’s leadership has grown sharper recently, revealing increased impatience with the current stalemate as the economy continues to crash.

Moderate officials in particular have expressed anxiety with hardliners’ aggressive military-first approach, signaling that time is running out to obtain some economic relief as the U.S. and Iran remain in limbo with no sign of diplomatic progress.

“No matter how strong we are militarily, if the people are hungry and we do not have financial circulation, economic growth and domestic production, we will not endure,” parliamentary speaker Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said while visiting Iraq on Friday.

In another swipe at Iran’s hawks, he added, “As someone who has experienced war, we understand the true value of peace.”

Also on Friday, President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is responsible for Iran’s economy, similarly pushed back on hardliners’ criticism about the ceasefire deal with the U.S., saying it didn’t represent capitulation.

In comments carried by state media, he also called for the war to wind down, hinting that Tehran has leverage that it must use sooner rather than later.

“It is better to end it today, as we are in a position of strength and dignity,” Pezeshkian said. “The whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasizes that America has attacked our schools, hospitals and infrastructure in violation of all regulations and is hated around the world.”

In addition, Iran’s central bank governor, admitted on state TV this week that the U.S. blockade has prevented Iran from selling it oil, a top source of revenue for the regime.

“It is a reality that we are not exporting oil,” Abdolnaser Hemmati said. “The Americans have frozen our foreign exchange reserves and do not allow us to access them.”

The blockade is also preventing critical products from coming into Iran. On top of that, the United Arab Emirates’ decision this week to impose a total embargo on trade and financial transactions with Iran will cut off a vital lifeline.

Indeed, the deputy head of Iran’s Energy Optimisation Organisation flagged limitations in fuel imports, forcing the industry to significantly tap reserves in recent months.

The stark, public remarks contrast with similar concerns that were aired anonymously about Iran’s economy and the damage being inflicted on it by the U.S. naval blockade.

Still, some officials have been on the record as well. Iran’s deputy foreign minister has said the economy desperately needs sanctions relief that a deal with the U.S. could provide.

And the head of the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce has warned the U.S. blockade will have far worse consequences for the economy than the war will.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attending a press conference in the capital Tehran, on August 8, 2026.
Iranian Presidential Office / AFP via Getty Images

The economic toll is already catastrophic. Inflation has soared above 80%, with prices for certain food staples up 100%. The currency, which triggered nationwide protests late last year after it collapsed, has lost a further 30% of its value this year.

The International Monetary Fund said in April Iran’s economy will shrink 6.1% this year, the worst contraction in decades. And a labor ministry official estimated that more than 1 million jobs had been lost by late May.

Experts have cautioned that Iran’s repressive regime is unlikely to be swayed by the suffering of ordinary citizens and is prepared to wait out economic hardship longer than the U.S. public can endure high gas prices.

In fact, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei recently reshuffled the country’s leadership, elevating hardliners who favor a return to war than another ceasefire deal.

An adviser to Khamenei also said Iran has shifted its military posture to be more offensive, suggesting preemptive attacks to extract concessions rather than a reactive stance focused on retaliating against U.S. strikes.

And Brig. Gen. Yadollah Javani, a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told state media that “Iran’s actions are defensive, although they may also take on an offensive aspect in the future.”

Such tough talk comes as the U.S. has seen its own military options narrow amid depleted inventories of key munitions and readiness concerns among the Navy ships pointed at Iran.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly shied away from resuming all-out war, even after Iran crossed his “red line” by killing more U.S. troops.

Instead, he has pivoted to sanctions and recently vowed an “economic D-Day” against Iran, teasing an unprecedented level of economic warfare and isolation.

Details of the plan are thin, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated it would entail secondary sanctions on nations and companies that engage with Iran.

“If you insist on doing business with them, then the U.S. Treasury and U.S. government will put its full might and force against you,” he told CNBC. “It’s time for our allies and the rest of the world to make a decision.”

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Iran on Saturday denounced US plans to announce new sanctions that could put further strain on the Islamic Republic’s economy and have an impact on its most important trading partners, including China.

After nearly six months of war since the US and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on February 28, the sides are not firing at each other but also showing no sign of pursuing peace talks.

Oil shipments are at a virtual standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran threatening to strike any unauthorized oil tankers that try to transit the vital waterway, and Iran’s economy is already under immense pressure from sanctions.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday after threatening “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran.

Bessent has also urged cooperation with Washington by China, which buys more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler. Beijing has urged diplomacy.

Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, August 17, 2026.  (credit: REUTERS/STRINGER)

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Saturday the imminent US announcement of new economic sanctions was an “assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations.”

“Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law,” he said in a post on X.

The chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Major General Ali Abdollahi, promised on Friday that Iran would respond to enemy threats militarily with “crushing, punishing and devastating responses.”

US President Donald Trump, who has warned of economic consequences against any country that provides “any type of lifeline to Iran,” said on Friday that Washington was observing “what happens” in the conflict.

“They would love to make a deal, but they’re not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion,” Trump said of Iran.

Strait of Hormuz traffic bottled up

While the US has effectively blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, the Strait of Hormuz remained bottled up with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels.

Only four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, ship-tracking data showed.

However, Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait following repeated requests from Baghdad, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad’s main requests during a visit to Iraq by Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels a day of oil through the strait. That’s down from more than 20 million per day before the war or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide.

US attacks have severely diminished Iran’s economy and devastated its navy and air force, but Tehran maintains enough missile and drone capability to impede oil tanker traffic and attack regional rivals.

Abdollahi, the armed forces chief of staff, sought to underline Iran’s missile capabilities during a visit to an underground plant manufacturing ballistic missiles that was reported by state television on Saturday.

“This plant has been able, much better than in the past, to produce equipment superior both in capacities and quality and in quantity,” he said.

Iran exploring new security arrangements with neighbors

Qalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, said Tehran had received “numerous messages” from neighboring countries about establishing new regional security arrangements and economic cooperation.

Qalibaf, who did not say which countries he was referring to, accused the US of endangering the security of its allies in the region for the sake of Israel, adding that an independent, “homegrown” regional order would deliver peace and security.

Trump, meanwhile, has yet to achieve objectives he set at the start of the war such as dismantling Iran’s nuclear program – the state of which remains uncertain given that U.N. inspectors have been shut out since 2025 – and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.

Thousands have been killed, mainly in Iran, where 168 Iranian school children were killed on the first day of the war. The US has reported more than 750 military personnel wounded and 18 killed.

While Iran remains defiant, President Masoud Pezeshkian has also called for a diplomatic solution.

“It would be better to end the war today, when we are powerful and have dignity, and the whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasizes that America, contrary to all regulations, attacked our schools, hospitals, and infrastructure and is hated in the world,” the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying on Friday.

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The United States and Canada, historic allies along an undefended border, fell deeper into a trade war Saturday marked by angry recriminations and new tariffs that are expected to raise prices for products in both countries.

Each side blamed the other for the collapse of negotiations in Washington late Friday, leading the U.S. to impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods and Canada setting Sept. 8 as the start of its retaliatory penalties.

President Donald Trump’s import taxes will hit about 5% of what Canada ships to the United States every year, ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors. Prime Minister Carney said Ottawa would respond with targeted tariff protection for industries exposed to the new U.S. duties, including some steel products. He also mentioned the dairy, appliance, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics sectors.

No further talks were planned. Whatever the eventual outcome, a loss of trust seems one of the earliest casualties.

Carney accused Washington of using “economic integration as a weapon” and said “its signature was written in pencil.” Resorting to the language of battle, he said his country had been “attacked” by the new American tariffs. “You’re at war when you get attacked,” he said, adding that Canada had the reserves, resilience and plan to respond.

But to Trump’s chief trade negotiator, Jamieson Greer, the U.S. was compelled to act after a year of retaliation by its longtime partner.

“We’ve said enough, and so we’ve taken countermeasures. Our interest is in protecting American workers and protecting American supply chains,” the U.S. trade representative told “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

Canada cites ‘unacceptable demands’ as US says it offered favorable terms

Carney said Canada had been willing to drop remaining retaliatory tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos if the U.S. substantially lowered its own, and to encourage provinces to restore U.S. alcohol sales. But he said Washington’s final demands went too far. “They asked too much and offered too little,” Carney said.

Greer said the Republican administration was offering to cut tariffs on steel, autos and lumber, “things that are sensitive for them. And they’ve always had the best deal, and they still would have an even better deal, but they didn’t want that.”

As a result, he said, “We’re moving forward with measures that respond to Canadian retaliation.”

Carney said the U.S. added last-minute terms that would have reduced tariff relief for Canadian-made vehicles, restricted Canada’s ability to strike trade deals with other countries and weakened protections for language, culture and sovereignty.

He said such demands were “unacceptable.”

The breakdown in negotiations marked a sharp reversal from two days earlier, when officials from the two countries sounded as if they were headed toward a compromise.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who leads Canada’s most populous province, praised Carney for rejecting the deal, saying it would have hurt Ontario’s auto, steel and manufacturing sectors. Ford urged Canada to use “every tool in our toolbox” to fight the U.S. tariffs.

The moves also call into question the future of a North American trade agreement covering the United States, Canada and Mexico that is crucial to industry in all three countries.

Carney said the breakdown was “certainly not good news” for the review of that agreement and that the failed negotiations had given Canada “a new perspective” on what Washington wants from the broader economic relationship.

A typically cooperative alliance goes sour

The political impact will likely be even bigger than the economic fallout. The countries sold each other $880 billion worth of goods and services last year.

The tariffs were initially supposed to kick in at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Trump extended the deadline for three days to allow talks to continue, but the countries could not reach an agreement in time.

The U.S. and Canada have wrangled for decades over trade, poking each other over sore spots such as Canadian softwood lumber imports and U.S. access to Canada’s protected dairy market.

Somehow, they still managed to remain friends, allies and trading partners. Canadian soldiers fought alongside Americans in Afghanistan after 9/11. The 5,525-mile U.S.-Canada border is undefended, and nearly 330,000 people and $2 billion worth of goods cross it every day; 800,000 Canadians live in the United States.

Trump’s approach to dealing with Canada marks an extraordinary departure from the traditionally cooperative relationship between the two countries. Trump has imposed tariffs on Canadian goods in a push to bring manufacturing back to the United States and made inflammatory comments about turning Canada into America’s 51st state.

Carney said Canada had recognized that “America has changed” and that the two countries would “not return to our old relationship.”

Canadians and Americans are frustrated

The Canadian public is fed up. A petition to expel U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, a Trump ally, has collected nearly 248,000 signatures since July 21. It accuses the former Republican congressman from Michigan of having “normalized’’ Trump’s talk of annexing Canada, among other things.

The two countries had good reasons to find a compromise.

Nearly 72% of Canada’s goods exports last year went to the United States. The Trump administration might be wary of imposing new tariffs — paid by U.S. importers who try to pass along the cost to consumers via higher prices — before the November midterm elections. American voters are already frustrated with the high cost of living.

“Both sides will be under immense pressure in the coming days to still find an off-ramp,” said Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding and a former U.S. trade official.

Joshua Bolten, CEO of the Business Roundtable, which represents leaders of major U.S. companies, warned the tariffs and retaliation risk “raising costs for American businesses and families” and disrupting vital supply chains, and urged both governments to resume negotiations.

Trump has turned to Depression-era trade penalties

Trump has made tariffs the centerpiece of his second-term economic agenda. Last year, he imposed double-digit import taxes on almost every country, justifying them by declaring the long-standing U.S. trade deficit a national emergency. The Supreme Court in February ruled that he had overstepped his authority. The justices struck down the trade penalties and set the stage for the federal government to pay refunds to importers.

So Trump has looked for other legal authority to justify tariffs.

After the Supreme Court struck down much of Trump’s earlier tariff program in February, the administration turned to other legal authorities. For Canada, Trump invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a rarely used Depression-era provision allowing tariffs of up to 50% against countries deemed to discriminate against U.S. businesses.

The provision is part of the Smoot-Hawley tariff law, widely blamed by economists and historians for worsening the Great Depression by restricting global trade. Section 338 has never previously been used to impose tariffs.

The rift comes as the United States, Mexico and Canada are trying to renew a trade agreement that Trump negotiated in his first term and once praised as a triumph. The United States has begun formal talks with Mexico over revamping the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, known as USMCA. But talks with Canada have not begun and escalating trade conflict casts doubt on whether they will.

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The countertop was a problem far too unruly for AI to solve.

When the customer called in to Ikea’s remote-sales center in Helsingborg to order a custom-cut slab for his kitchen counter, the dimensions he shared revealed it to be a lopsided hexagonal monster—no two sides the same length—with an electric stove in the middle. Could the Swedish home furnishings brand produce a countertop in such an irregular shape?

Melanie Lindell, the senior sales representative who had answered the call (in Swedish), ran the request up the chain, calling on Madeleine Barr, a senior sales specialist, who has been designing kitchens at Ikea for more than a decade.

“It’s a lot of angles,” Barr said, as she worked to puzzle it out. Soon Barr was back with good news: Ikea could make the dimensions work if the counter’s overhang was extended just a bit. Lindell smiled, evidently relishing the chance to guide the customer toward a solution—and a potential sale—that might otherwise have fallen through.

Lindell and her colleagues are at the center of a daring bet at Ikea: that in an era defined by automation, human interaction can be a revenue driver, not a cost to be stripped away. As the company has used AI to absorb routine customer service work, it has also retrained roughly 8,500 call center employees to handle more complex customer queries or work as sales-oriented design consultants.

Design advisors like Lindell use judgment, human chemistry, and friendly reassurance to turn calls that a bot can’t handle into conversations that have proved remarkably successful at driving sales.

Ikea’s 83-year-old business model is based on affordability—its founder Ingvar Kamprad was so frugal he reportedly reused tea bags—and it has maintained its low prices, in part, by stripping labor out of its system. Customers retrieve their own items from Ikea’s warehouses and typically assemble their Malm bed frames, Lack tables, and Hemnes dressers themselves.

But despite its already lean operations, Ikea didn’t join the AI-era rush to impose more austerity. When so many companies are measuring success in AI adoption by how many expenses they can cut and how many workers they can let go, Ikea is treating the technology as a way to free up human workers for higher-margin work that boosts its bottom line.

The Swedish furniture giant is quietly running a counterprogram to the standard AI story: Yes, it’s deploying automation to replace workers, but it’s also using the technology to make human skills more valuable.

And it’s providing one answer to the pressing question of what employers should do with workers whose roles are at risk from AI. Some 92 million jobs could be displaced because of AI, related technologies, and demographic shifts by 2030, the World Economic Forum estimates.


Five years ago, a worker in Lindell’s position—seated in a cubicle in an office park 65 kilometers north of Malmö, Sweden, a zip-up in Ikea’s trademark yellow draped over her chair—would likely have been fielding much more basic calls from shoppers. Among the most common: “What time does Ikea open?” and “Can I bring my dog into the store?”

That changed in 2021 when Ikea introduced its AI-powered customer service bot Billie, named after the retailer’s ubiquitous particleboard-and-laminate Billy bookcase, a staple of many a starter apartment. The bot could handle those repetitive questions with ease, and in its first two years it could assist 47% of customers who used the tool; now that figure is 74%.

Automating aspects of customer service is not unique to Ikea, but what happened next surely was: Instead of laying off the call center workers whose jobs the bot had partly taken over, Ikea retrained them to handle more complicated customer queries or to work as interior design sales advisors who help customers plan room redesigns and buy home furnishings. The two teams—resolutions and sales—operate from 24 remote-sales centers that cover all 31 countries where Ingka Group, the owner of most Ikea stores, has a presence.

The centers have been Ikea’s fastest-growing sales channel over the past three years, with year-on-year growth of between 15% and 20% annually. Last fiscal year, they accounted for 1.25 billion euros ($1.37 billion) in sales, up from 1.08 billion euros ($1.17 billion) the year prior. Meanwhile, Ikea says its in-house customer happiness score is now 89%, up from 60% prior to Billie’s rollout.

Ikea’s efforts to distinguish itself come at a crucial moment, as its flat-pack dominance is under pressure from Wayfair, Amazon, and design-forward challengers like Article. Ikea has responded to the pressure with an aggressive push on affordability. The chain’s biggest retail and franchising arms reported drops in revenue for fiscal 2025, even as customer visits and units sold edged higher. The bottom line: Every sale counts.

Brandon Mikula is one of the 8,500 workers Ikea retrained.
Patrick Brown/Panos Pictures for Fortune

Those arms, Ingka Group (which owns and operates most Ikea stores worldwide) and Inter Ikea Group (which owns and franchises the Ikea brand globally), both laid off hundreds of corporate workers this spring to streamline operations and keep prices low. (None of the layoffs affected the remote-sales centers, nor were any attributed to AI.)

But the fact that these two companies that govern Ikea are private gives it the luxury of experimenting with price and people strategies that might spark shareholder blowback at a listed company. Perhaps that’s why it remains one of the few examples of a company that has successfully reskilled employees whose jobs have been automated—one of the biggest challenges of the AI age.


The advantage Ikea built with its AI-related reskilling initiative started from a deficit. Ikea was famously slow to embrace e-commerce. It had built its business around getting people into massive warehouse stores, where the maze-like layout, stylish room displays, and Swedish meatballs encouraged hours-long visits. The formula was so effective that for some time e-commerce didn’t seem necessary.

COVID cut that time short. When the pandemic hit, Ikea had to turn its shuttered stores into fulfillment centers almost overnight, which supercharged its e-commerce operations. Digital channels that generated negligible sales before COVID hit 30% of total sales last fiscal year and account for half of all sales in some regions, according to Ingka Group.

That “hockey stick” growth, as Ingka chief digital officer Parag Parekh describes it, upended Ikea’s approach to customer service—the store clerk who “helps clarify everything.” But e-commerce customers still had questions, and they hit the phones to track down answers. Ikea’s call centers quickly became overwhelmed, fielding up to three times their normal volume. Most customer queries were fairly basic or about existing orders—prime targets for automation.

Ikea is providing one answer to the question of what to do with workers displaced by AI.

The key to successful reskilling is finding and leveraging skill adjacencies, says Prasanna Tambe, a professor of operations, information, and decisions at Wharton. Ikea, he says, offers a good example of how to redeploy workers’ domain expertise in new and more useful ways. “Companies have for so long been in a mode where they’re using people to satisfy things that customers need,” he says. “The question is, is there an opportunity to move these people into providing things that customers want?”

If a customer wants to air complaints about a delivery or requests help piecing together Ikea’s modular furniture systems, they’re now routed to a human who can explain, empathize, and—if the opportunity presents itself—upsell.

It took two years for Ikea to reskill its 8,500 customer service workers as its Billie bot grew more and more capable. Through in-person and online classes, the trainees became experts on using Ikea’s digital room-planning tools. They also learned how to ask the right questions in a planning session, from the basics about measurements and color preferences to the psychologically probing: “What is not working in the room?” and “How are you feeling?” The training takes five to six weeks for new hires who go through it now.


There’s also an employee-satisfaction element to Ikea’s program. Workers often regard automation in their workplaces with a sense of dread. A February 2026 global survey of 12,000 workers and business leaders by Mercer found that 40% of workers fear AI will make their job obsolete, up from 28% in 2024.

Richard Richardson, who works at a remote-sales center in Sheffield, England, says he never felt any kind of apprehension about being displaced when Ikea introduced the Billie bot. He went through a slew of training modules, including a two-week “kitchen school” to learn the ins and outs of the company’s product lines, and made field trips to a nearby Ikea store to study the countertops up close.

92 million

jobs globally that could be displaced by 2030.
Some 170 million new roles could also be generated, a 2025 World Economic Forum report found, but upskilling is urgently necessary to fill them. Nearly 40% of skills required on the job are set to change.

He remembers noticing how wood grain lined up along joints, and now he can tell a customer that the Havsen sink needs to be paired with a drawer front to cover the waste pipe. One training on communication taught him the importance of letting customers tell their side of the story before jumping in to answer—a tip he still uses today.

AI is great at knowing the by-the-book “terms and conditions,” Richardson says, but it can’t yet determine “what the customer has already been offered” and “what we can do to resolve [the problem] further.” It also might miss opportunities to make a sale: The primary goal of Richardson’s team is solving customer problems—but workers still ask callers if they’d like to add items to an order that’s already being delivered for free.

One big question that hangs over Ikea’s experiment is whether Billie will come for these workers’ new roles, as it did for their customer service jobs. Parekh didn’t rule out future layoffs, but said any cuts would likely be the result of macroeconomic factors, not necessarily AI.

And workers might take some reassurance from the fact that even though Ikea offers free partially automated design tools on its website, some portion of customers are still opting for the consulting sessions with human design advisors (which are also free). In the past fiscal year, Ikea workers helped 10 million customers via its remote-sales centers like the one in Helsingborg.

Ikea’s product catalog is vast. Home renovations are expensive, and there’s nuance to designing a home, like positioning a dishwasher so you don’t trip over its open door between the sink and the stovetop. For some situations, customers simply want the input of a human, not a bot.

After solving the hexagonal countertop conundrum, Barr unpacks new slab samples that are on display in the Helsingborg center, so sales specialists can touch the real thing. (Her favorite is Lockebo, a composite worktop made from recycled glass that comes in shades of white and gray, with a marble effect.) Customers rely on the advisors to tell them what it’s like to live with the materials they’re considering, Barr says. They want to know what a cook surface feels like to the fingertips, or whether a knob clicks satisfyingly when it’s turned.

Those are questions a bot like Billie can’t answer now—and it’s hard to imagine it ever will.

This article appears in the August/September 2026 issue of Fortune with the headline “Ikea’s human upgrade.”

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Four kites that officials believe crossed over from the Gaza Strip were found in the Kibbutz Nahal Oz area in the past 24 hours, the IDF confirmed on Saturday. 

The IDF emphasized in its statement that it found no suspicious items on the kites and that the public was in no danger. 

However, some fear that objects crossing above the border fence can mark the beginning of a visible escalation. Incendiary balloons or rockets could follow the kites.

Gaza Border community officials demand IDF response 

Uri Epstein, head of the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council, demanded a stronger IDF response. 

“We demand that the IDF act against every kite that crosses into Israeli territory, locate it, and deal with it in a timely manner. Not after it has landed. Not in retrospect. In real time,” Epstein said

The kite, which crossed from Gaza to Israel, didn't carry any explosive devices. (credit: according to Article 27 A of the Copyright Law)

“After October 7, we will no longer receive the words ‘it will be okay,’ the writing is already in the sky.”

The Atid LaOtef movement also warned that the kites should not be dismissed as harmless but should be investigated.

“Four kites in less than 24 hours join a series of similar incidents in recent weeks,” the movement said. 

“It would be a mistake to treat this as an innocent or isolated incident. Against the backdrop of developments in the Gaza Strip, the defense establishment must examine the phenomenon as a whole and determine who is behind it and for what purpose,” it added. 

Head of Yisrael Beytenu, MK Avigdor Liberman, also called for stronger action, writing that “whoever allows explosive balloons and kites will receive rockets and missiles,” in a post on X/Twitter, adding that this mirrored the situation from before the October 7 massacre.

“The government of the massacre has learned nothing and is bringing us closer to another disaster,” he wrote. 

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Trade talks between the US and Canada collapsed Friday in part amid a last-minute standoff over cutting US tariffs on Canadian medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, people familiar with the matter said. 

Both countries had the outline of a deal, which would have lowered US sectoral tariffs on autos, steel, aluminum and lumber, and were locked in talks Friday. But the two sides remained at odds over the treatment of larger vehicles, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe private negotiations. 

The Canadians insisted on the additional relief in a phone call late Friday, and the Americans balked, the people said.

Under the deal the two countries were working toward, the regular auto tariff would have been lowered to 15% from the current 25%. Canada wanted that relief expanded to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, which typically range from large pickup trucks to commercial vehicles, they said. 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday that to deny such relief to trucks “is a big change, obviously.”

Carney said without the tariff relief on trucks, Ford’s new plant in Ontario, which makes F-350s and larger pickup trucks “would have been excluded. No rationale,” he added.

The US considered this request to be an additional demand that wasn’t part of the deal, the people said. 

But one Canadian industry official said it was the Americans who tried to divide the industry.

“At the last minute, the Americans pulled that classification out of the class of product that would get a reduced tariff,” Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’​ Association, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Saturday, referring to super-duty pickup trucks such as the Ford F-350s.

Volpe suggested the impetus may have been to “get rid of auto manufacturing in Canada.”

Both sides blamed the other for the sudden collapse of talks, which resulted in the US imposing new 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods. Carney on Saturday announced dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs on American goods starting Sept. 8. 

Read More: Canada Unveils $20 Billion Counter-Tariffs to Mirror Trump Levy

Lana Payne, national president of Canada’s largest private-sector union, Unifor, told reporters Saturday that Canada had no choice but to draw a line in the sand.

She said autoworkers were concerned that agreeing to a tariff carveout on US parts only would lead to more aggressive demands when negotiating the wider North American trade pact. 

“And eventually you’re getting away from being able to have a competitive sector in Canada. And that was really problematic,” she added.

Unifor had told the Carney government that it wanted auto parts compliant with the existing North American trade deal to be exempt from tariffs. 

Carney’s office declined to comment, while the White House and the office of the US Trade Representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Steve Hanke earned the moniker “Money Doctor” after advising governments across the globe on how to use currencies to get inflation under control.

The professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University is now helping Venezuela and has been named a special advisor to the country’s National Assembly.

He told Fortune’s Shawn Tully that his solution for Venezuela’s 400% inflation is full adoption of the U.S. dollar, meaning bolivars and the central bank would be abandoned. The idea is to remove the risk of a central bank printing money to help the government pay its bills, stoking higher prices.

“Taming inflation is the key to restoring stability in Venezuela, and all the other progress flows from that,” Hanke explained. “Stability isn’t everything, but without stability, which means stable prices, you have nothing. And there’s no better case study showing that’s true than Venezuela.” 

He should know. The Money Doctor persuaded Montenegro in 1999 to dump theYugoslav dinar for the Deutschemark. He also oversaw Ecuador’s switch from the sucre to the U.S. dollar in 2000, marking the first dollarization in Latin America since Panama a century earlier.

Then in 2009, Hanke became an informal advisor to the prime minister of Zimbabwe, which dollarized and reined in inflation. But a new government ditched the dollar in 2013, and hyperinflation returned.

Hanke is now on his second attempt in Venezuela, after his plan for a currency board in the mid-1990s failed to win a majority in the National Assembly. This time, he sees 50%-80% odds that dollarization will be approved.

“It would be the biggest switch from domestic currencies to an alternative since the introduction of the euro in 1999,” he told Fortune’s Tully.

Despite the ambitious plans, the U.S. dollar is already in integral part of the Venezuelan economy. Due to the collapsing bolivar, which has tanked 78% against the greenback over the past year alone, most consumers buy virtually everything with dollars.

In fact, almost everyone not working for the government or receiving aid and pensions from the government uses dollars. Hanke said this “spontaneous dollarization” raises the chances of an official currency switch.

But the prospect of losing the central bank, which acts as a lender of last resort, and essentially handing over monetary policy to the Federal Reserve are still daunting obstacles.

Even Argentine President Javier Milei, who campaigned on dollarization, backed off the idea after he took office. While he helped cool inflation sharply by slashing subsidies and the budget deficit, the annual rate is still high.

Argentina must also continue defending the peso, which is pegged to the dollar. Regional elections last year that crushed Milei’s party sent the peso into a tailspin, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent came to the rescue with a currency swap line.

Still, Hanke sees dollarization as the key to unlocking Venezuela’s economy, which is highly dependent on oil exports. A currency switch would induce a big surge of foreign investment into the oil sector, he predicted.

Then there’s the $250 billion in Venezuelan debt, which is equivalent to about 150% of GDP. Hanke said increased production would provide the dollars needed to pay the principal and interest.

The end of hyperinflation would also lower interest rates, encouraging a wave of borrowing by consumers and businesses. That would in turn ignite the housing market and drive domestic investment, he added.

“If it happens soon, Venezuela would take off from negative growth this year to positive growth next year,” Hanke said.

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Iranian state television released footage of the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Ali Abdollahi, visiting an underground ballistic missile production facility, BBC reported on Saturday. 

In the video, Abdollahi claimed that Iran’s production has increased significantly in the past year. 

Iranian state media said that Iran‘s production of suicide drones had tripled since the beginning of the war. 

An Iranian drone is displayed at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Museum in Tehran, Iran. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA/REUTERS)

Iran’s reconstruction takes Israeli officials by surprise

Israeli defense officials have been shocked by the speed of Iran’s recovery following the early 2026 war, The Jerusalem Post learned earlier in the month. 

Numerous foreign media reports have poked holes in specific aspects of Israel’s narrative of military success setting back Iran’s military-industrial complex by years already dating back to March of this year, but for months, apolitical IDF expert officials held the line that the damage was so extensive that even if some specific claims were off, Israel’s general narrative of setting Iran back years held. 

Four months after the main war ended in April, the Post understands that the IDF is now seeing a stunningly speedy turnaround that it did not expect, and not in merely one or another specific area, but in many areas, including regarding the ballistic missile threat.

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Prediction markets are headed for a legal reckoning. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and state regulators are battling over who gets to police the fast-growing platforms, a conflict that could force the Supreme Court to settle the question before the end of next year, according to Flip Pidot, a prediction market executive with nearly 20 years of experience in the industry.

“When you have a high-stakes intergovernmental conflict where a federal regulator like the CFTC is opposed in their position to a supermajority of state attorneys general… then that can get the Supreme Court’s attention,” Pidot, the Chief Strategy Officer at PredictIt, told Fortune.

In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit sided with Kalshi in its dispute with New Jersey, finding that federal commodities law overrode the state’s gambling laws for the platform’s contracts. The ruling affirmed a lower-court decision allowing Kalshi to continue operating in the state.

Several pending cases could produce rulings more favorable to state regulators. Earlier this year, a Ninth Circuit panel heard arguments over Nevada’s effort to enforce its gambling laws against event contract platforms. The judges appeared skeptical of the arguments made by three prediction market companies. Over the past two months, Kalshi has also appealed to the Second Circuit in response to adverse rulings by federal judges in New York and Connecticut.

If just one of these appeals courts side with the states over Kalshi, it will create a circuit split that will likely prompt the Supreme Court to step in. Pidot expects that to occur as soon as November and, if the Supreme Court does choose to hear the case, a ruling would likely come next June. (Pidot first made the remark at a prediction markets event in New York City this week).

The legal tussle comes as prediction markets have proliferated in the United States over the past two years. Under the Trump administration, the CFTC has taken a more accommodating stance toward the platforms, arguing that event contracts traded on CFTC-registered exchanges fall under its exclusive authority. States have pushed back, saying that contracts tied to sports amount to unlicensed wagering. The conflict carries especially high stakes in states that rely heavily on gaming revenue.

Economic stakes

Beyond a circuit split, other factors make Supreme Court review of the prediction markets regulatory dispute nearly inevitable, according to Stephen Piepgrass, a prediction markets lawyer and partner at law firm Troutman Pepper Locke.

Those factors include the fact that the dispute raises constitutional questions. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not prevent states from allowing sports betting because doing so violated the Tenth Amendment. The decision allowed each state to decide whether and how to regulate sports betting. Since prediction market contracts resemble sports bets, states have argued that the CFTC is taking away their power to regulate them. In response, the CFTC has said that the Commodity Exchange Act gives it sole power over swaps and futures contracts, preempting state laws.

Prediction markets’ rapid growth has also raised economic stakes that could draw the Supreme Court’s attention. The platforms threaten established gambling businesses like casinos and disrupt Native American economies that rely heavily on gaming revenue. At the same time, companies and institutions are increasingly exploring prediction markets as financial tools for hedging risk.

“This is top of mind for so many Americans… It has a huge potential impact on the economy, and we’ve only scratched the surface of it,” Piepgrass said.

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In 1930, John Maynard Keynes wrote one of the most optimistic predictions in the history of economics. Thanks to technology and rising productivity, he argued, future generations would work no more than 15 hours a week. They would have so much leisure time they would barely know what to do with it. Keynes was one of the most brilliant economic minds of the twentieth century. He was also spectacularly wrong on this question. In 1950, Americans averaged 38 hours a week. Today, we average 34. Nearly a century of technological progress, from electrification to the PC to the internet to the cloud, moved the needle by four hours.

I have been researching the four-day workweek for seven years, tracking pilots across Iceland, Japan, the UK, Australia, and the U.S. In 2018, I led one of the largest global studies on working hours conducted at the time, surveying 3,000 employees across eight countries including the United States, Britain, and Germany. What we found was telling: 45% of workers believed they could easily finish their tasks in five hours a day without interruptions, but many were exceeding 40 hours a week anyway, with the United States leading the way, where 49% said they regularly worked overtime. Workers were not burning through those extra hours because the work demanded it. They were filling time, managing appearances, and absorbing the inefficiencies that long workweeks encourage.

So when I heard Jamie Dimon predict that AI will usher in a four or three-and-a-half-day workweek within a few decades, or Anthony Scaramucci declare we are moving to a three or four-day week in our lifetimes, or Bill Gates float the idea of a two-day workweek powered by AI abundance, I understand the optimism. I also understand, based on seven years of data and a century of history, why it is almost certainly wrong.

The Evidence for Shorter Workweeks Is Strong. The Path to Getting There Is Not.

Let me be clear about something: a shorter workweek can benefit both companies and employees. The data supporting it is among the most consistent in modern workplace research. Microsoft Japan reported a 40% productivity boost after moving employees to a four-day schedule. Meetings were capped at 30 minutes. Attendance was limited to five people. Electricity costs fell 23%. The company printed 60% fewer pages. Less time, more focus, better results.

A landmark trial coordinated by nonprofit organization  4 Day Week Global, with research partners at Boston College, Cambridge University, and University College Dublin, put more than 900 workers across 33 businesses on a four-day schedule for six months, paying them 100% of their salary for 80% of the time. The results were striking: workers rated the experience 9.1 out of 10, 97% said they wanted to continue, and not a single participating company planned to discontinue the policy. Businesses that provided data reported an 8% revenue increase during the trial period and a 38% increase compared to the same period the prior year. Self-reported burnout and fatigue declined, productivity went up, and 42% of employees said they would need a 26% to 50% pay raise to return to a five-day week. Thirteen percent said no amount of money would get them back.

My own 2018 research found that only 4% of workers, when asked how many days they would want to work if pay remained constant, said zero. The biggest share, 34%, chose four days. The standard five-day week came in second at 28%. People want to work. They just do not want to waste time doing it.

The evidence is not the problem. The problem is the system that evidence must survive in.

Under American Capitalism, Efficiency Gains Go to Output, Not to Workers

Here is the uncomfortable truth about new technologies and productivity revolutions: the gains tend to go to companies, not to workers’ calendars. The PC did not shorten the workweek. It extended the workday into evenings and weekends. The internet did not free us from the office. It followed us home.

Mark Dixon, CEO of IWG, the world’s largest flexible workspace provider with more than 8 million users across 122 countries, said it plainly when asked about Gates’ and Musk’s predictions: ‘Everyone is focused on productivity, so no time soon.’ His reasoning cuts to the core of the issue. Companies and workers are both squeezed by cost-of-living and cost-of-operating crises. Businesses cannot afford to pay the same wages for fewer hours, and they cannot pass the difference on to customers. So any time freed by AI is far more likely to be filled with new tasks than handed back as a long weekend.

Dixon’s broader argument is one I find historically compelling. Every major technological shift has followed the same arc: fear of displacement, followed by an expansion of opportunity and, critically, an expansion of workload. AI will speed up companies’ development, he says, so there will be more work. Just different work. The Luddites smashed looms in 19th century Britain to stop automation. What they got instead was the Industrial Revolution.

The four-day workweek is not a technology problem. It is a policy problem. For example, Iceland ran one of the most successful trials ever documented, and as a result 86% of the country’s workforce now work reduced hours or gained the right to do so. 

However, in the US, the federal standard for a full-time workweek, 40 hours, has not changed since the Fair Labor Standards Act was amended in 1940. No federal legislation mandating or incentivizing a four-day week is on the near-term horizon.

Without that foundation, the math Dimon and Scaramucci are describing simply does not hold in the American context. A CEO optimistic about AI’s long-term impact on working hours is making a prediction about technology. The actual outcome depends on labor law, union density, corporate incentive structures, and the balance of power between employers and employees. Technology is the least complicated variable in that equation.

What AI Will Actually Do to Your Workweek

AI is already saving workers real time. My firm’s research, conducted with GoTo, found that employees are recouping more than two hours per day thanks to AI tools, or over 10 hours a week. That is a meaningful efficiency gain. The question is what happens to those two hours.

Based on everything I have seen over fifteen years of workforce research, the answer in most American workplaces is: more work gets added. When a company discovers that its employees can now process three reports where they previously processed two, the response is rarely to send them home an hour early. The response is to assign a fourth report. 

Dixon put it well when he said AI will speed up companies’ development and therefore create more work, not less. My research found something similar: workers who are already exceeding 40 hours a week are not doing so because they lack the tools to finish faster. They are doing so because the culture, the expectations, and the incentive structures of their organizations reward presence and output volume over focus and recovery.

AI will make workers more efficient. Companies will use that efficiency to do more. And the workweek will stay roughly where it is, because it has stayed roughly where it is through every previous wave of technology that was supposed to free us.

None of this means the four-day workweek is impossible. The research says it works. The pilots say it works. My own data from 2018 says workers want it and are fully capable of delivering it. What it requires is not a better AI model. It requires companies willing to redesign how work is structured, governments willing to create the policy frameworks that make shorter hours viable at scale, and a cultural shift away from the idea that time at a desk is the same thing as value created.

Keynes was not wrong about productivity. He was wrong about what we would do with it. So far, we have done the same thing with every efficiency gain technology has ever delivered: we have used it to do more. Until something changes about the system around the technology, AI will be no different.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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Bitcoin is surging again. The cryptocurrency climbed above $78,200 on Friday for the first time since May. But it wasn’t the only crypto asset posting big gains. Hyperliquid, the decentralized perpetual futures exchange, reached a record $75, leaving its HYPE token up over 195% so far this year, according to CoinGecko.

Hyperliquid’s gains have drawn market share that might otherwise have flowed into Bitcoin, according to Ish Asad, a research analyst at crypto index fund manager Bitwise Investments.

“If Hyperliquid and perpetual futures weren’t so popular, people would just be buying spot Bitcoin,” Asad told Fortune.

Hyperliquid, which lets users trade through self-custody wallets rather than a traditional centralized exchange, has emerged as a major force in crypto derivatives trading over the past year. During the first quarter of 2026, the platform processed more than $633 billion in combined spot and perpetual futures volume, over six times its total during the second quarter of 2024, according to investment manager VanEck.

Its growing success has “sucked away volume” from direct purchases of smaller crypto tokens. Perpetual futures let traders speculate on a cryptocurrency’s price, often with leverage, without buying or holding the token itself, making the platform attractive to active traders.

“All the crypto trading happens on Hyperliquid now, so most of the other crypto assets are getting less buying pressure,” Asad added. 

Hyperliquid’s most recent price jump came two days after President Donald Trump said his administration was working to bring the platform to the U.S.

“I understand that [Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair] Mike [Selig] is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion, working very hard on that,” Trump said at a White House event. 

Behind the rally

Despite Hyperliquid drawing some capital away from direct Bitcoin purchases, the cryptocurrency still gained nearly 25% over the past week. Macro factors, including the Treasury Department’s recent bond-buyback announcement, helped set the rally in motion, but Asad said liquidations drove Bitcoin’s most recent surge.

On Tuesday, as Bitcoin traded around $64,000, traders liquidated $1.3 billion in short positions in a single day. Another $1 billion in Bitcoin shorts were liquidated over the following 48 hours, bringing the week’s total to $4.5 billion, according to Bitwise.

Political developments also helped support the rally. At a meeting with crypto industry leaders this week, Trump urged Congress to pass the Clarity Act, a bill that would establish a long-awaited market structure framework for digital assets. On Thursday, Selig said he had directed the CFTC to begin developing clearer crypto rules if Congress does not pass the legislation before the end of the year.

In the meantime, worries over U.S. debt surpassing $40 trillion and a weakening U.S. dollar have renewed investor interest in alternative assets such as gold and Bitcoin.

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A new analysis has identified 152 Polymarket wallets that collectively made about $8 million betting on U.S. military and defense outcomes with an average win rate of 97.2%, raising a disturbing question for the rapidly growing prediction-market industry: what happens when a profitable trade may also reveal a government secret?

The findings were published Thursday by the nonprofit Anti-Corruption Data Collective, which analyzed settled markets on Polymarket International and looked for unusually successful bets placed on low-probability outcomes.

The researchers focused on what they called “long-shot” wagers — at least $2,500 placed within an hour on outcomes priced at odds of 35% or less.

They identified 556 wallets with unusual trading patterns and labeled them “Orcas.” Among them were 152 particularly successful accounts concentrated in military and defense markets.

Those 152 wallets earned about $8 million combined.

Their average winning rate: 97.2%.

That number is extraordinary, but it is not proof that all of the traders possessed classified information.

The researchers explicitly acknowledged that some patterns could have other explanations, including luck, sophisticated analysis or information obtained legally. Wallets on Polymarket are also anonymous, making it difficult to determine who was actually behind individual trades.

But the concern becomes more serious when the trading patterns are considered alongside recent real-world cases.

A U.S. soldier was charged earlier this year with allegedly using classified information to make roughly $400,000 betting on the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He has pleaded not guilty.

The new research suggests the potential problem may extend far beyond a single trader.

Prediction markets allow users to buy contracts tied to whether future events will occur. Prices function almost like probabilities: a contract trading at 30 cents broadly implies the market sees roughly a 30% chance of that event happening.

That makes them useful for forecasting.

It can also make them valuable intelligence signals.

Because Polymarket International records trades publicly on a blockchain, outsiders can watch anonymous wallets place unusually large bets in real time.

If a wallet with an exceptional record suddenly places a large wager that a military strike will occur within hours or days, other traders can copy the position.

According to the researchers, that is already happening.

Large investors and automated trading bots sometimes follow unusually successful wallets, meaning a trade potentially based on confidential information can rapidly influence the broader market price.

That creates a problem far larger than unfair betting.

Foreign intelligence services can watch those same markets.

A sudden surge in betting on a specific military operation, target or date could theoretically provide clues about activity that governments intended to keep secret.

Polymarket says it has controls for suspicious trading and has referred dozens of wallets to authorities. The company has also argued that the transparency of blockchain trading makes questionable activity easier to identify than it might be in less transparent markets.

The Department of Defense declined to comment on the findings.

The regulatory question is becoming increasingly important because prediction markets are moving rapidly into the financial mainstream.

Billions of dollars now trade on political elections, economic data, government decisions, wars and other events that can be influenced by information known to a relatively small number of people before the public learns it.

Traditional stock markets have established insider-trading rules for corporate information.

Prediction markets are now forcing regulators to confront a different version of the same problem: what rules should apply when the inside information belongs to the government — and the event being traded is a military operation?

The 97.2% winning rate does not answer that question.

But it makes it increasingly difficult to ignore.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said on Friday that Iran must plan to overcome “unjust sanctions,” a day after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced what he described as the toughest sanctions ever imposed on Iran.

Bessent said on Thursday the measures would be detailed on Monday, suggesting they could lessen the need for further major military operations.

Ghalibaf, one of Iran‘s most influential political figures and Tehran’s top negotiator in talks with the United States, said economic development and security were closely linked.

He accused the United States and Israel of waging economic and “cognitive” warfare after concluding they could not prevail in a direct military confrontation with Iran and Iraq.

US and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken March 23, 2026.  (credit:  REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)

Plans to overcome ‘unjust sanctions’

“If you look at the resources and raw materials of Muslim countries, you will realize that our enemies come to plunder them,” Ghalibaf told Iranian and Iraqi business representatives in Baghdad, according to his Telegram channel.

“Therefore, we must make plans to deal with the unjust sanctions so that we can overcome them.”

He also called for stronger economic ties between Baghdad and Tehran and said the two countries could use their national currencies in trade to reduce reliance on the US dollar.

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Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx co-owner Marc Lore has agreed to sell his controlling stake in the franchises to businessman and limited partner Marc Stad.

The deal values the NBA and WNBA franchises at $4.5 billion, ESPN reported.

Alex Rodriguez, a 14-time MLB All-Star and FOX MLB studio analyst, said Friday that he plans to increase his equity stake in both franchises. Lore, meanwhile, will retain a minority stake. The size of Lore’s and Rodriguez’s respective ownership stakes was not immediately clear.

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Lore stepped away from his roles as co-owner and co-chairman to focus on a planned IPO for his food-tech company, Wonder Group, over the next year. He believed transferring controlling ownership to Stad put the franchise in a position to keep experiencing success.

Stad, the founder and managing partner of Dragoneer Investment Group, was a major minority investor in the Timberwolves and Lynx under Lore and Rodriguez. 

Sources told ESPN the ownership transition followed months of discussions and will allow Stad, Rodriguez and Lore to preserve the teams’ current leadership structure, including Timberwolves President Tim Connelly, general manager Matt Lloyd and coach Chris Finch, as well as Lynx coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve.

“We have been working together for years with a shared goal of building the Timberwolves and Lynx into the best organization in basketball on and off the floor,” read a joint statement from Stad, Rodriguez and Lore issued Friday. “Our priority is and always will be championships. Our new agreement, pending league approval, is an evolution of the partnership we have built together and strengthening of our commitment to our team and our culture.

“While we’re proud of the great work we’ve done, there’s so much more to do and we’re just getting started.”

Rodriguez reacted to the developments on social media writing, “One of the great joys I’ve had in my career is spending the last few years helping build the Timberwolves and Lynx with my friend and partner Marc Lore. I’m very excited to announce that this incredible journey reaches a new level today. Marc and Elisa Stad, who have been our partners and friends since we bought the teams, will be increasing their investment and joining me as Co-Chairman.”

He continued: “I will also be increasing my investment and spending even more time with the teams as Co-Chairman, Governor of the Lynx, and alternate Governor of the Timberwolves, pending league approval. While Marc Lore will be reducing his role and ownership to focus on his business, he remains an investor and a key part of our partnership. I could not be more energized about this evolution and what we’re all going to do together for the Twin Cities.”

The deal now heads to the NBA Board of Governors, which is expected to consider and approve the transaction at its Sept. 15-16 meeting.

LOS ANGELES LAKERS BUYER, EX-DISNEY CHIEF BOB IGER ONCE SAID ROOTING FOR TEAM WAS ‘NOT IN MY DNA’

The $4.5 billion valuation ranks as the fourth-largest franchise sale in NBA history, trailing the Boston Celtics’ $6.1 billion sale in 2025 and two Los Angeles Lakers transactions over the past year that valued the team at $10 billion and $12.5 billion, respectively.

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Since Lore and Rodriguez bought into the franchise, the Timberwolves have reached the playoffs in five consecutive seasons. Minnesota has advanced beyond the opening round in each of the past three trips.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney accused the United States on Saturday of making a last-minute “power play” by trying to restrict Canada’s ability to strike trade deals with other countries, offering new details about what he said caused negotiations between the two sides to collapse.

Carney said the U.S. introduced new demands in the final hours of negotiations involving Canada’s other trading relationships, its auto sector and protections for Canadian culture and the French language.

“The U.S. introduced at the last hours, in the last hour, efforts to restrict our ability to have other trade deals,” Carney told reporters.

Asked what he believed the U.S. was trying to accomplish, Carney responded: “It’s a power play. It’s a power play and, you know, [it] becomes a question of sovereignty.”

US-CANADA TRADE NEGOTIATIONS SUSPENDED, CARNEY VOWS DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR RETALIATION AGAINST TRUMP’S 50% TARIFFS

The comments came a day after Carney suspended negotiations and ordered Canada’s trade team back to Ottawa as President Donald Trump‘s 50% tariffs on roughly $28 billion in Canadian goods took effect.

Canada said it plans to match the U.S. tariffs dollar for dollar, with Carney saying Saturday that the retaliation will target sectors including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics. 

The measures will take effect the Tuesday after Labor Day on Sept. 8.

Washington has disputed Carney’s account of why the negotiations broke down.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Friday that Canada declined to finalize terms agreed to earlier in the week, accusing Ottawa of making new demands and walking back previous commitments.

TRUMP PAUSES 50% TARIFFS ON CANADA HOURS BEFORE DEADLINE AFTER ANNOUNCING POTENTIAL DEAL

“Tonight [Friday], Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week,” Greer said in a statement. “Despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days.”

Greer said the U.S. offered Canada significant tariff reductions on steel, aluminum, autos and lumber, along with a broader economic and national security partnership covering digital trade, critical minerals, aerospace and export controls.

Carney offered a different account Saturday.

“In short, they asked too much, and they offered too little,” he said.

US, CANADA STRIKE DEAL TO OPEN BRIDGE LINKING DETROIT AND WINDSOR AFTER DISPUTE DELAYED LAUNCH

Autos were another major sticking point. Carney said the two sides disagreed over tariff levels, the treatment of Canadian content and which vehicles would be covered by a potential agreement.

He said the U.S. also continued efforts to seek changes involving Canada’s protections for its culture and the French language, which Carney said Ottawa would not accept.

The breakdown came just days after Trump paused the 50% tariffs for three days and announced that the U.S. and Canada, subject to final documentation, had reached a “DEAL!”

Carney said Saturday that the two sides had made significant progress before the negotiations unraveled.

Canada is now preparing additional support for businesses affected by the tariffs, particularly small and medium-sized companies, with Carney saying the government will release details alongside its retaliatory measures.

Asked whether the latest escalation amounted to a full-scale trade war, Carney said Canada was responding to an attack.

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“We’re attacked, like you’re at war when you get attacked, we got attacked,” Carney said.

“We’ve got the reserves, we’ve got resilience, we have the plan, we get the focus, we respond, we’re going to focus on what we can control, we are going to build.”

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President Donald Trump’s effort to bring down grocery prices by increasing foreign beef imports is sparking resistance from Republicans in ranching states, who warn American producers could pay the price.

Trump announced Friday on Truth Social that the U.S. will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to enter tariff-free over the next 90 days, a move he said would lower consumer prices while giving American ranchers time to rebuild the national herd.

The move comes as affordability and high grocery prices are top of mind for voters just months away from the midterm general election, when Trump and the GOP will seek to hold their congressional majority. Since the pandemic, beef prices have steadily increased, with the average price of beef per pound last month priced at $6.89, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

But Republican lawmakers are arguing that Trump’s plan to allow the import of foreign beef tariff-free only acts as a “quick fix” for consumer prices and will undermine ranchers’ efforts to rebuild the herd. 

TRUMP’S AFFORDABILITY PLAN FACES CONSERVATIVE PUSHBACK AS POCKETBOOK ISSUES LOOM OVER MIDTERMS

“This hurts!” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., wrote on X. “American cattle producers have been disadvantaged for far too long. What our market really needs is a stable, America-First national policy that promotes American beef rather than continuing to import foreign beef as a quick ‘fix.’” 

South Dakota is home to roughly 5% of the nation’s beef cows, according to a USDA report.

“This instability harms hardworking American ranchers and consumers who want American-made beef,” Rounds continued. “This is the exact opposite approach we take compared to manufacturing, and it doesn’t make sense.”

He added that Trump’s latest maneuver makes the push to mandate that beef labels include country of origin — a crucial step in ensuring American ranchers and farmers have a chance.

“Opening the market to even more foreign beef, which American consumers cannot differentiate because of current labeling rules, will only exacerbate the problem and hurt domestic producers,” Rounds wrote.  “Our producers will compete all day long, but only if there is a level playing field. Beef prices will come down when American ranchers have a greater ability to supply more product.”

TRUMP WILL WELCOME FARMERS AND RANCHERS TO WHITE HOUSE DINNER TO CELEBRATE TRADE, TAX WINS

Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., echoed those concerns, warning that lower grocery prices should not come “on the backs of North Dakota ranchers and producers.”

“Importing foreign beef tariff-free — and selling it below market price — undercuts producers who are investing millions of dollars in an already risky business to rebuild their herds,” Fedorchak said in a statement. “At a time when ranchers need certainty to increase domestic production, this sends the wrong signal.”

Fedorchak said the timing is particularly harmful because many producers are bringing feeder cattle — young animals not yet ready for slaughter — to market, making the prices they receive especially consequential.

She also called for imported beef to meet the same inspection and safety standards as American-raised meat and said she had asked the USDA for details on how it will address those concerns.

“Short-term market intervention will not lower prices over the long term,” Fedorchak said. “The lasting solution is to strengthen American cattle production and address the problems in the packing industry that are driving up prices.”

TOP GOP GROUP PUMPS $37M INTO FIGHT ON KEY ISSUE DOMINATING MIDTERM RACES: ‘MUCH MORE TO COME’

The USDA estimates that four major companies buy about 85% of U.S. steers and heifers, and its research suggests their market power, combined with limited processing capacity, may be driving down the prices ranchers receive for cattle.

Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., backed Trump’s push to lower grocery bills, but warned that short-term relief cannot come at the expense of American producers.

“President Trump is right to make lowering grocery costs for American families a priority,” Cammack wrote on X. “I share his commitment to bringing those costs down. At the same time, short-term relief can’t come at the expense of American ranchers, free markets and long-term solutions.”

Cammack said Florida ranchers, already grappling with drought, rising input costs, and an “out-of-control regulatory system,” could feel the squeeze from increased imports.

Virginia Farm Bureau President Scott Sink said in a statement to Fox News Digital that ranchers and farmers understand the need to ease grocery costs, but warned that greater reliance on imports would not solve the supply pressures behind higher beef prices.

CHINA’S CROP-CONTROL CHOKEHOLD PUTS AMERICA’S DINNER TABLE IN DANGER

“Rebuilding the U.S. cattle herd takes time — it cannot happen overnight,” Sink said. “Increasing reliance on foreign beef may provide temporary relief, but it does not address the supply challenges contributing to higher prices or strengthen our domestic cattle industry.”

Sink urged the administration to instead reduce costs for fuel, feed, equipment and financing, while creating conditions that allow ranchers to retain heifers and rebuild the national herd.

“Virginia’s farmers and ranchers stand ready to work with the administration on solutions that support consumers while strengthening the American cattle industry,” Sink said. “A strong domestic food supply benefits everyone.”

The White House did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.

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Building wealth may have less to do with looking rich and more to do with resisting the pressure to spend like you’re rich.

“The Frugal Rich” founder JC Rodriguez joined FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” to discuss the habits he has observed among everyday millionaires, along with saving, investing and how young people can approach major financial decisions.

Rodriguez said a common trait among the wealthy people his content has spotlighted is a deliberate approach to spending, particularly when it comes to impressing others.

“We have spotlighted America’s everyday millionaires in our content and what we found is amongst America’s wealthy is they all have this aspect of frugality within their life that they’re always living… They’re very intentional about how they spend their money and they don’t care to impress others,” Rodriguez said.

That same focus on intentional money management can begin well before someone reaches millionaire status. Rodriguez encouraged people to consistently direct part of their paycheck toward savings or investments, even when the amount is relatively small.

YOUNG MILLIONAIRE REVEALS THE WEALTH-BUILDING LESSONS HE LEARNED FROM BILLIONAIRES

“We always encourage people to pay yourself first. Whenever you get your paycheck, just set up an automation to move money from your checking into your high-yield savings account or into your brokerage account if you want to start investing… No matter where you are on your financial journey or your income, you can still just start off with $50, $100 towards saving and investing,” he said.

For those beginning to invest, Rodriguez also drew a distinction between long-term investing and activities he characterized as speculative, including sports betting and prediction markets.

FINANCIAL INFLUENCER ARGUES ‘MONEY IS MORE MENTAL THAN IT IS MATHEMATICAL’ IN NEW APPROACH TO PERSONAL FINANCE

“I believe in good old low-cost, diverse index funds as a place to begin your investing journey… A lot of times prediction markets might be the fun thing to do, but isn’t the best approach to invest your money,” Rodriguez said.

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As Americans continue to feel the squeeze from high housing, food and energy costs, affordability has emerged as a defining issue ahead of November’s midterm elections, with both parties under pressure to show voters they can bring down the cost of living.

Now, a new report from the conservative group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence is offering its own prescription, laying out 10 proposals aimed at lowering costs by cutting red tape and boosting production across the economy.

“Yes, there’s an unaffordability crisis, and it’s the government’s fault,” Richard Stern, vice president of the Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at Advancing American Freedom (AAF), told Fox News Digital.

That argument is at the heart of the report, “10 Ways to Improve Affordability Now Across 10 Levels of the Economy,” which calls affordability the “No. 1 issue facing the American people” and targets costs associated with housing, energy and business, among others.

The report’s proposals range from easing zoning restrictions and expanding oil and gas access to overhauling Social Security and SNAP eligibility, echoing parts of President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda.

But the conservative blueprint breaks with Trump on two key pocketbook issues: tariffs and credit card interest rates.

THINK YOUR STATE IS EXPENSIVE? NEW DATA REVEALS WHERE AMERICANS FACE THE HIGHEST COST OF LIVING

On trade, the report argues Trump’s sweeping tariffs have come at a cost to American consumers and the broader economy, raising prices, straining U.S. alliances and resulting in nearly 900,000 fewer jobs than expected.

The authors at AAF call for shifting more tariff authority back to Congress.

But while the report paints a bleak picture of the tariffs’ broader economic impact, they have generated a windfall for Washington. In January alone, duties totaled $30.4 billion, up about 242% from $8.9 billion a year earlier, according to Treasury data.

On housing, the report blamed zoning restrictions for pushing families farther from jobs and making homeownership harder for younger Americans.

Those costs can be substantial. The National Association of Home Builders estimates government regulations account for about 26% of the price of a new single-family home.

THE SURPRISING HIDDEN COST QUIETLY ADDING NEARLY $132K TO NEW HOME PRICES REVEALED

The report recommends limiting local zoning restrictions, streamlining approval for projects that meet existing rules and tying roughly $50 billion in annual federal housing aid to zoning reform.

On energy, the proposal calls for more oil and gas leasing and rejecting state fracking bans. Stern argued greater domestic production could lower costs throughout the economy because energy touches “every good we move, every service provided.”

Stern warned that economic frustration can turn Americans against one another, toward “viewing each other as the enemy, and that’s what socialism is.”

“I hope that people can take away from this, that it’s not businesses that are the problem,” he said. “It’s not entrepreneurs. It’s not other Americans. It’s government.”

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Tesla announced Friday that it is recalling nearly 3 million vehicles in China over concerns that doors may be difficult to open in an emergency, marking the largest automotive recall in the country’s history.

Tesla’s action comes alongside recalls announced by eight other automakers, affecting a combined total of about 4.3 million vehicles in China.

Tesla’s recall is the largest, affecting approximately 2.98 million vehicles.

The U.S. automaker said the recall covers imported and China-made Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X vehicles, according to notices filed with China’s State Administration for Market Regulation.

TESLA FILES PLANS FOR PROPOSED $10.1B TEXAS SOLAR MANUFACTURING PLANT

According to one of the recall notices, Tesla’s electronically operated, retractable door handles could become difficult to operate after a severe collision if the vehicle’s low-voltage system fails.

The company said the resulting problem “could hinder occupants from quickly opening the doors to escape and impede rescue efforts by those outside the vehicle, posing a safety hazard.”

To address the issue, Tesla said it would “affix warning labels” to affected vehicles and remotely upgrade its window-control software so the windows automatically lower following an accident.

Tesla also issued a recall addressing problems with driver-monitoring systems in certain vehicles, which are designed to help ensure drivers remain alert and ready to take control of steering or braking when necessary.

FORD BOOSTS US LINCOLN PRODUCTION AS IT PHASES OUT IMPORTS FROM CHINA

The automaker said it would provide a software upgrade and “in-cabin camera monitoring” to help drivers remain vigilant.

Tesla said it will contact owners of vehicles that cannot receive the fixes through remote software updates to schedule service appointments.

Other automakers announcing recalls included Xiaomi, Leapmotor, Xpeng and Geely Holding.

MORE THAN 20,000 OFF-ROAD MOTORCYCLES RECALLED OVER DANGEROUS BRAKE DEFECT THAT COULD LEAD TO DEATH

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday that the automakers have not disclosed plans to issue similar recalls in the U.S.

The announcement comes after Tesla issued two recalls in May.

The automaker recalled roughly 175 Cybertrucks over concerns that wheel studs could separate, potentially causing wheels to detach.

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Tesla also recalled more than 218,000 Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X vehicles because of delayed rearview camera images that could increase the risk of a crash.

FOX Business has reached out to Tesla for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended trade negotiations with the United States late Friday, blaming “unfair” last-minute changes to Washington’s proposed terms and announcing retaliatory tariffs against the U.S.

Carney said the move comes as President Donald Trump‘s 50% tariffs on roughly $28 billion in Canadian goods were set to take effect at midnight.

The breakdown came just days after Trump paused the 50% tariffs for three days and announced that the U.S. and Canada, subject to final documentation, had reached a “DEAL!”

While Carney said progress had been made in recent weeks toward improving Canada’s position and reaching an agreement with the U.S., he said the two sides ultimately could not finalize a deal.

TRUMP PAUSES 50% TARIFFS ON CANADA HOURS BEFORE DEADLINE AFTER ANNOUNCING POTENTIAL DEAL

“However, that progress has not been enough to meet our objectives for Canadians,” Carney said in a statement.

“As a result, this evening, I have decided to suspend trade negotiations with the U.S. and have directed Canada’s negotiators to return to Ottawa,” he continued. “They have worked hard, in good faith, to defend the interests of Canadians throughout these negotiations up until the very last minute. However, last-minute changes in the U.S. proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) offered a sharply different account of the breakdown, saying Canada declined to finalize terms that had been agreed to earlier in the week.

“Tonight, Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week,” USTR Jamieson Greer said in a statement. “Despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days.”

Greer said the U.S. had offered Canada significant tariff reductions on steel, aluminum, autos and lumber, along with a broader economic and national security partnership covering areas including digital trade, critical minerals, aerospace and export controls.

“This is a missed opportunity for Canada to partner with the United States, which is the fastest growing economy in the G7,” Greer said.

Carney said Canada would retaliate by matching the U.S. tariffs.

US, CANADA STRIKE DEAL TO OPEN BRIDGE LINKING DETROIT AND WINDSOR AFTER DISPUTE DELAYED LAUNCH

“At midnight tonight, the U.S. intends to impose a 50% tariff on roughly $28 billion of Canadian goods. Canada will match those tariffs dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses,” he said.

“In the coming days, the government will introduce additional measures to support Canadian workers and businesses, building on the nearly $25 billion in support provided over the past 18 months,” Carney added.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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A food safety alert has been issued over an E. coli and salmonella outbreak that has sickened dozens of people across 15 states, most of whom reported eating alfalfa sprouts before they fell ill, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So far, 55 people have reported falling ill, including four hospitalizations.

No deaths have been reported.

FDA WIDENS CYCLOSPORA OUTBREAK INVESTIGATION TO SIX MORE STATES AS CONFIRMED CASES TOP 6,000

The affected alfalfa sprouts were produced by Everything Sprouts and sold under the Calco and Everything Sprouts brands at retailers and grocery stores.

Customers should throw away or return any of the affected products and wash surfaces that may have come into contact with sprouts.

E. coli symptoms include stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea and nausea, and salmonella symptoms involve diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever.

The CDC urged people to see a doctor immediately if they experience diarrhea and fever higher than 102 degrees, bloody diarrhea or diarrhea for more than two days, the inability to keep anything down or signs of dehydration, including not peeing much, dry mouth and throat and feeling dizzy when standing.

MICHIGAN REPORTS 2 DEATHS IN RARE PARASITE OUTBREAK THAT HAS SICKENED MORE THAN 11,000

The majority of people sickened were in Minnesota (21) and Wisconsin (17), while two people were sickened in New York, North Dakota, North Carolina and Florida. 

One illness was reported in Washington, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

LETTUCE FARMERS PLOW CROPS BACK INTO SOIL AS CYCLOSPORIASIS FEARS TANK DEMAND FOR FRESH GREENS

Along with the CDC, public health and regulatory officials in several states and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating the outbreak, which involves three strains of E. coli and one of salmonella.

DOCTORS WARN YOUR ‘STOMACH BUG’ MAY ACTUALLY BE A PARASITE THAT’S HARDER TO DETECT

Of those sickened, 46 were infected with E. coli, seven with salmonella, and two with both. The CDC said that some people were infected with more than one strain of the infections.

The illnesses started in late May and continued through Aug. 8.

This outbreak comes amid several other food-borne outbreaks reported recently linked to jalapeños, iceberg lettuce, eggs and blueberries.

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President Donald Trump said Friday that he would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported into the United States tariff-free for the next 90 days, with a commitment that the meat would be sold at 25% below current market prices.

The announcement immediately drew backlash from cattle industry groups and several Republican senators who warned that increasing imports could hurt American ranchers.

In a Truth Social post announcing the plan, Trump said it would “substantially lower” the price of ground beef for American families, arguing that prices had soared under the Biden administration as the domestic cattle supply shrank.

“As we work to rebuild this herd and help our ranchers, for the next 90 days, the United States will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported with no out of quota tariff,” Trump wrote.

A HISTORIC SHORTAGE IS SQUEEZING AN AMERICAN DINNER STAPLE AND RELIEF COULD BE YEARS AWAY

“We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices,” he continued. “This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again.”

Following Trump’s announcement, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said it was “disappointed” by the plan, arguing that introducing below-market beef could negatively affect American cattle producers.

Speaking with FOX Business’ Nicole McManus, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall urged the federal government not to interfere with the cattle industry.

“The best thing is to stay out of our business. That’s what we want first and foremost,” Woodall said. “Let us work the way we do as producers to take care of our cattle, to take of our natural resources and to be able to grow.”

TRUMP PAUSES 50% TARIFFS ON CANADA HOURS BEFORE DEADLINE AFTER ANNOUNCING POTENTIAL DEAL

Woodall sharply criticized Trump’s plan, arguing that the president was overlooking strong consumer demand for U.S. beef.

“This is the third time in less than a year that the president has made a similar announcement about increasing imports in order to decrease the price of beef,” Woodall said.

“And once again, he’s missing the point,” Woodall continued. “He’s missing the picture, and he’s definitely lost the plot line. This is about demand. The consumer demands our product. The customer loves what we’re producing. We’re producing the highest quality beef we ever have, and they have shown their willingness to pay for it. The American consumer does not have to buy beef. They want to buy beef and unfortunately the president is just not not factoring that into his consideration.”

The American Farm Bureau Federation also responded to Trump’s announcement, warning that “short-term measures could have long-term negative effects” for consumers and ranchers.

PIZZA HUT MAKES SURPRISING CHANGE TO ICONIC NAME AHEAD OF NFL SEASON

U.S. Cattlemen’s Association President Justin Tupper also criticized the plan.

“You don’t put America first by putting U.S. cattle producers last,” Tupper said in a statement. “This move will weaken our markets and gamble with food safety in the process.”

Several Republicans on Capitol Hill also pushed back, including Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., who said he had advised Trump against the move and warned it could hurt ranching families.

“The President’s heart is in the right place on wanting lower prices for the American people, and beef prices have been impacted by the Mexican screwworm,” Sheehy posted on X.

FORD’S US MANUFACTURING EXPANSION TO BRING ‘THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF JOBS,’ LUTNICK SAYS

“But the reality is this action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people. And most importantly, this will harm our ranching families who feed the nation,” he added.

Trump responded to the criticism while speaking to reporters Friday.

“I love the ranchers; they’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump said. “But they admit that we need a little help, and, in order to get the prices down, so that’s what we’re doing.”

Trump did not specify which countries would supply the beef, telling reporters only that “there are a few” and that they would send the “highest quality beef.”

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The announcement comes as U.S. ranchers face the smallest domestic cattle herd in 75 years and Tyson Foods announced last week that it would close beef facilities in Illinois and Utah.

FOX Business has reached out to the White House for additional comment.

This post was originally published here

Across 250 years, only three elected governors out of thousands have been Black –- all Democrats and all men, including current Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.

But Moore could soon have company.

With Florida Republicans nominating U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds on Tuesday, there are seven Black major party gubernatorial nominees in addition to Moore — men and women, Democrats and Republicans — on November ballots.

“We do have a unique moment here,” said Moore, who recently became chair of the National Governors Association. He often says that his historic status is “not an applause line” but instead represents a bigger challenge that this country is still looking to overcome.

The Black nominees typically do not focus on the history at stake, instead emphasizing their experience and policy proposals.

“Florida is a great meritocracy in America,” Donalds told reporters Tuesday night after not mentioning his race at all in his victory speech. “I’ll let you guys write about that,” he added.

But many said that more reflective representation matters given the nation’s history, from slavery to Jim Crow and the lingering effects.

“It’s not a secret that some issues in the African American community get ignored and don’t have a voice,” said Aaron Ford, Nevada’s first Black attorney general and now the Democratic nominee for governor. Ford said he brings a focus to issues ranging from voting rights and civil rights to the economy.

Republican Lisa Demuth said she “has never led with any type of identity politics” as Minnesota’s first Black House speaker and now her party’s nominee for governor. “But I recognize the historic state we are in right now,” she said. Michigan Republicans also chose U.S. Rep. John James, who is Black, as their gubernatorial nominee.

Former New York Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat who was not elected but ascended when Eliot Spitzer resigned in 2008, celebrated that the slate crosses party lines. “This is one day when maybe the Democrats and Republicans could stand in front of a statue of George Washington and let him know that we’re finally getting it right,” he said.

Democrats, meanwhile, emphasized that their Black candidates – who also include Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, Jermaine Johnson in South Carolina and David Crowley in Wisconsin – are especially important after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for states to redraw legislative districts that are majority or plurality nonwhite. That was compounded by President Donald Trump’s attacks on diversity initiatives and push to rewrite how the U.S. tells its history of the slave trade and Jim Crow segregation.

“Governors, in many ways, are becoming the last lines of defense against what we’re seeing in Washington,” Moore said.

A challenge for Black politicians, even more so than reaching the US Senate

Karen Finney, who helped push Democrat Joe Biden to select a Black woman as his vice presidential running mate, said Black politicians often are the first and loudest advocates on issues that acutely affect Black constituents. She and others cited health disparities such as maternal and infant mortality and sickle cell disease, and Finney noted that an inflationary economy hits harder in Black communities that, on average, have lower income and net worth than the wider population.

She said it is important for legislators to raise those matters and even more impactful when it is an executive.

“These are people who have the power to shape our lives, and they shape the agenda,” Finney said.

But the governor’s seat has been notoriously hard for Black politicians to reach, even more difficult than the U.S. Senate. Democrat Douglas Wilder of Virginia took office in 1990 as the nation’s first elected Black governor.

“I didn’t become Maryland’s first Black governor because the Democratic Party said, ‘I think it’s time for us to put Wes Moore up in the seat’,” Moore said. “I had to run against the party.”

“I don’t think that the party is doing enough,” Moore added, specifically bemoaning a “negligence” in Southern states where Black voters anchor Democrats’ base.

Stacey Abrams, who lost two Georgia governor’s races, recalled white Democratic power players raising money for her primary opponent in 2018, although she disputed that explicit racism was the issue.

“We do what we’ve done because it’s what we did,” she said. “Black women have not been executives, and the absence of that proof point becomes a self-reinforcing philosophy.”

This time, she noted, Bottoms already has been an executive as mayor of Atlanta.

Democrats and Republicans talk about ‘identity politics’ differently

In Minnesota, history will be made in November when the state elects its first female governor as Demuth competes against Democrat Amy Klobuchar, a U.S. senator. Demuth said she looks forward to a day when such distinctions seem less notable.

“One of the things that I really do look forward to is where it’s already done, where it no longer makes history,” she said. “So I think of young women, little girls that are looking at you, could I ever be governor of Minnesota? I hope when I win, they’re able to look at, point to that and say she’s already done it.”

In Georgia, Bottoms told the National Association of Black Journalists last week that she does not “give a lot of talk … about the historical nature” of her campaign. Yet she notes her family’s Georgia ties go “back at least five generations through a plantation in Crawfordville” and that her grandfather had to “walk through these back doors” when he moved to Atlanta. She never mentioned slavery or segregation but said her ancestry “is always present with me.”

Abrams, who has campaigned for Bottoms and other Democrats this year, was more direct, arguing that all politics is identity politics of some kind — and that Republicans’ version is simply more coded.

“When your Constitution specifically strips a race of its humanity, you cannot then later on say identity doesn’t matter and has no effect, and we’ve spent 250 years trying to reckon with that identity” with social, political and legal fights, she continued. “So, it’s deeply disingenuous, if not woefully naive, to say that identity does not matter.”

Race shapes many decisions, but not all of them

Deval Patrick, whose tenure in Massachusetts overlapped with Paterson’s in New York, said his race mattered especially to his Black constituents and what they wanted from him. It was “just different than the expectations of my predecessors,” he said, recalling criticism after he did not visit a Boston neighborhood where a teenager had been killed by gun violence.

“His mother was on the news grieving, and at some point she said while the cameras were rolling, where is Gov. Patrick?” he said. “Nobody had ever asked one of my predecessors to come to a crime scene in a neighborhood. Never.”

In Nevada, Ford said being governor still means recognizing how many core issues – jobs, housing and healthcare – cross demographic lines.

“It could be a white man, a Latino woman. It could be a person urban, suburban or rural Nevada. It could be someone from northern Nevada, southern Nevada. These are the issues that are important to them,” he said.

Patrick, who talks regularly with Ford and Moore, agreed, saying that is not just how a governor does the job, but how a candidate wins it in the first place.

“The successful candidates are the ones who present themselves as candidates for everyone,” he said, “and not candidates for just some.”

___

Sloan reported from Washington.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin helped build Google into one of the world’s most valuable technology companies. Now, the former Google chief executive and the company’s co-founder find themselves on the same side of a California political fight—but a new report finds they are increasingly at odds over how to use their combined contributions. The disagreement centers on the ultra-rich coalition that has spent more than $100 million trying to bring down Proposition 40.

The New York Post reported Sunday that Schmidt has grown frustrated with the anti-tax coalition led in large part by Brin after the group failed to prevent California Democrats from endorsing the wealth-tax measure. The proposition, backed by SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, has notable Democratic Party leaders Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna to champion it. To add insult to injury, Propositions 41 and 42 were also shot down by the party—the party opposed the billionaire-backed counter-measures, though both still go before voters in November. The party narrowly passed the endorsement threshold at 61.7%.

According to an advisor to Schmidt, the former Google CEO was not “irate” about the endorsement outcome. Conversely, the advisor told Fortune that Schmidt’s “only current involvement in politics is his contributions to defeating the billionaires tax”—meaning the divergence stemmed from his contributions also being used to oppose other measures that had created the split between the former Google partners.

Schmidt and Brin have both contributed millions to the political organization Building a Better California to oppose Proposition 40. But according to the advisor, the millions in funding are also going towards other areas, such as Proposition 45—an environmental policy—instead of solely focusing on barring the billionaire tax. 

The Post suggests Schmidt’s internal dispute also stems from the coalition’s political effectiveness. Despite millions in opposition funding, California Democrats endorsed the tax and killed opposing propositions. That outcome contributed to Schmidt’s frustration with the campaign and its leadership, the report says.

Prop. 41 and 42 are two proposed ballot measures backed by Schmidt and Brin through Building a Better California. Proposition 41 would require state audits of programs funded by new special taxes, making it harder for the state to use funds raised by the billionaire tax. Proposition 42 would outlaw retroactive taxation, directly countering Proposition 40 and killing the wealth tax.

Billionaires fighting back against the tax

Schmidt and Brin are both major financial backers of the effort opposing the tax, with millions of dollars spent through Building a Better California. Brin has supplied the majority of the money behind the political organization he helped establish, contributing over $100 million. Schmidt, in turn, has contributed over $3 million. Other financial contributors opposing the proposal through the political organization include venture capitalist John Doerr, who contributed $7.5 million; executive chair of blockchain company Ripple, Chris Larsen, who contributed $10 million; and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, who contributed $7 million.

The money is being spent against Proposition 40, California’s proposed billionaire wealth tax—imposing a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of California residents whose wealth exceeds $1 billion on Jan. 1, 2026. The state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates the tax would affect a few hundred people and could produce tens of billions of dollars.

Other notable billionaires have also publicly opposed the proposition. Business mogul Mark Cuban recently entered a seven-part grudge match on X with California congressman Ro Khanna over the measure’s potential tax implications. Anduril Industries co-founder Palmer Luckey has also feuded with Khanna on X, saying the proposal was “extraordinarily frustrating politician-speak that nobody in the industry is dumb enough to fall for.”

Schmidt’s own financial interest in the issue is substantial. He was the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, and later served as Google’s executive chairman. He built his fortune largely through the technology industry, and Bloomberg estimates his wealth at $58.1 billion—making him one of the people who could be affected by Proposition 40. 

Schmidt did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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The U.S. Department of Justice has secured a $400 million settlement from TikTok and parent company ByteDance in a case related to children’s privacy legislation, the DOJ announced on Friday.

“This settlement is a major victory for American children and parents,” Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said in a statement. “The Department’s priority is ensuring that children are protected online and that companies entrusted with their personal information meet their legal obligations. This resolution secures a substantial recovery while reinforcing the protections that families expect and deserve.”

The lawsuit, related to compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, was filed by the Biden administration’s DOJ in 2024.

UK TO BAN TIKTOK, YOUTUBE, OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA APPS FOR CHILDREN UNDER 16, STARMER SAYS

The Justice Department said the settlement is one of the largest ever reached in a case involving the privacy act.

Under the terms of the settlement, TikTok and ByteDance will pay $300 million immediately and then $100 million “upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered against TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.”

FEDERAL EMPLOYEES CAN DOWNLOAD TIKTOK ON GOVERNMENT DEVICES AFTER BYTEDANCE’S DIVESTITURE, DOJ SAYS

The Justice Department said that since the lawsuit was first filed, “TikTok has undergone significant changes to its ownership, management, compliance functions, and privacy practices.”

“The company has implemented extensive measures designed to strengthen safeguards for younger users, improve age-related controls, and enhance parental oversight,” the DOJ added, saying that those developments have “strengthened protections for millions of American families.”

NEW MEXICO SEEKS MASSIVE PENALTY FROM META AFTER JURY FOUND TECH GIANT LIABLE FOR ENDANGERING CHILDREN

The DOJ said the settlement shows their commitment to protecting the public while also acknowledging the progress TikTok has made.

“The most important result is that children and parents are better protected today than they were when this case began,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in a statement. “This settlement reflects substantial progress, secures a significant monetary recovery, and brings this matter to a successful conclusion.”

TikTok did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.

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Taiwan is proposing the largest defense budget in its history, putting nearly 29 cents of every dollar in next year’s central government spending plan toward the military, coast guard and related security costs.

The Cabinet approved NT$1.1225 trillion, approximately $35.2 billion, for defense in 2027. That is an 18% increase from this year and the first time Taiwan’s annual defense allocation has exceeded NT$1 trillion.

The money carries two messages. To Beijing, Taiwan is signaling that a blockade or invasion would become increasingly expensive. To Washington, it is answering demands that the island spend more of its own money on defense rather than assume the United States will absorb the cost of protecting it.

The arithmetic is more complicated than the record headline suggests. The allocation equals approximately 3.01% of Taiwan’s projected 2027 economic output, slightly below this year’s 3.32%, because the economy is expected to expand sharply. President Lai Ching-te wants defense spending to reach 5% of GDP by 2030, which would require tens of billions of dollars in additional annual commitments.

The proposal includes NT$691.9 billion for the Ministry of National Defense, NT$218.2 billion in special budgets and NT$60.7 billion in other special funds. Military pensions account for NT$103.8 billion, while the coast guard receives NT$47.9 billion.

New procurement will emphasize drones, missiles, air defense, coastal surveillance and other systems designed to make Taiwan difficult to blockade or occupy. The strategy is not to match China ship for ship or aircraft for aircraft. China’s military budget remains many times larger. Taiwan instead wants mobile weapons that can survive an initial attack and continue threatening Chinese forces afterward.

That creates a substantial commercial pipeline for American defense contractors as well as Taiwan’s domestic drone, electronics, shipbuilding and missile industries. But it also exposes production bottlenecks: approving money does not guarantee that weapons can be manufactured and delivered quickly enough.

The largest uncertainty is political. Taiwan’s opposition-controlled legislature must approve the budget and has delayed or reduced previous defense requests. Earlier this year, lawmakers approved only about two-thirds of an additional military package, excluding some domestic programs.

The debate therefore reaches beyond the size of one budget. Washington will judge whether Taiwan is prepared to finance its own survival, while Beijing will measure whether the money produces real weapons and trained forces—or remains trapped in Taiwan’s divided parliament.

JBizNews Desk | Taipei

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

Nearly 40,000 bottles of eye drops are being recalled nationwide due to potential contamination, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Tarrytown, New York-based Prestige Brand Holdings is voluntarily recalling 39,060 bottles of its Clear Eyes Maximum Itchy Eye Relief eye drops due to a “lack of assurance of sterility,” according to an FDA enforcement report.

The affected product comes in 15-milliliter bottles with the lot code 2552A and an expiration date of Sep. 30, 2027. They were distributed by Medtech Products Inc., a Prestige Consumer Healthcare company.

NEARLY 12 MILLION BOTTLES OF ROHTO EYE DROPS RECALLED OVER STERILITY CONCERNS, FDA ANNOUNCES

The FDA classified the recall as a Class II recall, which it describes as a “situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.”

MILLIONS OF PRESCRIPTION EYE DROPS RECALLED NATIONWIDE OVER CONTAMINATION CONCERNS

Other brands in the Prestige portfolio include Dramamine, Luden’s and Anacin.

The company completed the acquisition of the Breathe Right brand – known for its nasal strips – and other assets from Foundation Consumer ​Healthcare in June in a deal valued at about $1.05 billion.

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FOX Business reached out to Prestige Brands for comment.

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Wall Street recovered Friday, but the rebound did not erase what changed underneath the market this week. Long-term borrowing costs remain near levels not seen in almost two decades, oil has climbed for six consecutive sessions, and investors are moving money into gold and cryptocurrency even as the American economy is showing surprising strength.

The most important economic news Friday was actually positive: U.S. businesses are growing considerably faster than economists expected. At the same time, several developments in technology, privacy regulation and global shipping showed where new costs and risks are appearing for companies.

Markets — Dow Jumps More Than 500 Points, but Bonds Remain the Problem

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 53,280.14, up 520.93 points, or 0.99%. The S&P 500 gained 32.94 points, or 0.43%, to 7,674.10, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 112.20 points, or 0.43%, to 26,179.37.

All three still finished the week lower. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq snapped three-week winning streaks, while the Dow recorded a second consecutive weekly decline. 

The issue investors have not solved is the bond market. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to roughly 4.73% Friday, while the 30-year yield remained near its highest level since 2007. That matters well beyond Wall Street. Treasury yields flow directly into mortgages, commercial real-estate financing, corporate borrowing and the valuation investors are willing to place on expensive technology stocks. 

Oil added another source of pressure. Brent crude settled at $94.39 a barrel, up 6.4% for the week, while U.S. crude finished at $87.06, after President Trump threatened economic consequences for countries continuing to trade with Iran. 

Gold moved in the opposite direction from the dollar. U.S. gold futures jumped 2.4% to $4,680.60 an ounce, while spot gold climbed above $4,600 for the first time since May. Investors increasingly appear to be using gold as protection against uncertainty surrounding government debt, inflation and monetary policy. 

Crypto stocks were among Friday’s biggest winners. Bitcoin moved above $77,000, helping Robinhood jump about 13% and Coinbase roughly 8%. Freeport-McMoRan climbed about 7.6% alongside stronger metals prices. On the downside, security-equipment maker OSI Systems fell more than 8% after weaker revenue and delays tied to Middle East disruptions. 

Economy — U.S. Business Activity Suddenly Accelerates

The strongest economic development of the day may have received less attention than the stock rally.

S&P Global’s preliminary August survey showed the U.S. services PMI jumping to 56.8 from 54.6, its strongest reading since December 2024. The broader Composite Output Index rose to 56.0, its highest level since April 2022.

Anything above 50 indicates expansion.

Manufacturing moved in the other direction, slipping to 53.2, a five-month low, as supply disruptions and reduced inventory building slowed factory activity.

But services are so strong that S&P Global said its surveys currently point toward annualized third-quarter economic growth approaching 3%, roughly double the 1.5% pace recorded in the second quarter. Services companies also increased hiring at the fastest pace in 19 months. 

For business owners, this is an important distinction.

The economy is not broadly slowing. Restaurants, financial companies, professional services, travel and other service businesses are expanding rapidly even while manufacturers face higher energy costs and supply problems.

That makes the Federal Reserve’s job harder. Strong growth reduces the urgency to cut interest rates, while oil and elevated business costs keep the inflation threat alive.

AI & Infrastructure — Nvidia Moves Beyond Chips and Into the Land and Power Behind Them

Nvidia made another move Friday showing that the AI boom is becoming as much an infrastructure business as a semiconductor business.

The company took a minority stake in Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a developer that works with utilities, energy companies and investors to secure powered sites for large data centers.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Cloverleaf says it has already delivered multiple gigawatt-scale projects in North America. Under the partnership, the company will use Nvidia’s DSX platform to coordinate decisions involving land, electricity, cooling and computing capacity. 

The important part is what Nvidia is becoming.

It is no longer simply waiting for Microsoft, OpenAI, Amazon and other customers to build data centers and buy its GPUs. Nvidia is increasingly investing in the power developers and infrastructure companies that make those data centers possible.

The bottleneck in AI is shifting.

Chips remain scarce and expensive, but electricity, grid connections, water, land and construction capacity are increasingly determining how quickly new computing capacity can actually come online.

That means utilities, contractors, electrical-equipment manufacturers, real-estate developers and communities with available power are becoming part of the AI investment story.

Regulation — Uber Hit With $966 Million Fine Over Automated Worker Decisions

Europe delivered one of its strongest warnings yet about allowing algorithms to make employment decisions without meaningful human involvement.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority fined Uber €825 million, approximately $966 million, after finding that driver accounts had been automatically deactivated without drivers receiving adequate explanations or human review.

It is the second-largest penalty issued under Europe’s GDPR privacy law.

Uber disputes the decision and said it will appeal. The company says its current system includes human review and allows drivers to challenge suspensions. 

The broader business implication goes well beyond Uber.

Companies are increasingly using software and AI to screen job applicants, detect fraud, determine creditworthiness, evaluate employees and decide which customers or workers should be removed from platforms.

European regulators are signaling that when an automated decision can cost someone their livelihood, businesses cannot simply point to an algorithm and consider the matter finished.

That creates a new compliance requirement for companies deploying AI: automation may save labor, but consequential decisions increasingly require explanation, appeal procedures and human oversight.

Technology & Consumer Privacy — TikTok Agrees to $400 Million Children’s Privacy Settlement

TikTok and the U.S. Justice Department reached a $400 million settlement Friday resolving allegations that TikTok and parent company ByteDance violated federal children’s privacy law.

The government sued in 2024, alleging TikTok knowingly allowed children younger than 13 to use regular accounts and collected personal information without obtaining required parental consent.

Under the settlement, the government’s lawsuit is being dismissed with prejudice.

The case is especially important because TikTok now serves more than 200 million Americans and recently reorganized its U.S. operations through a majority American-owned joint venture. 

For technology companies, retailers and websites collecting customer information, the message is straightforward.

Age verification, parental consent and data-retention rules are moving from technical compliance issues into nine-figure financial risks.

As companies use increasingly sophisticated AI systems to identify and target customers, regulators are simultaneously demanding much tighter controls around children’s information.

Global Trade — Low Rhine River Levels Trigger New Container Fees

A less glamorous development Friday could soon show up on invoices paid by importers.

French shipping giant CMA CGM announced an emergency inland surcharge because unusually low water levels on the Rhine and other European rivers are reducing barge capacity and causing congestion and longer terminal stays.

The company will charge €50 per container for certain shipments moving through Belgium and the Netherlands and €75 per container for shipments connected to Germany, Switzerland and France.

The fees apply to inland shipments routed through major European ports including Rotterdam, Antwerp and Zeebrugge

The amount itself is relatively small compared with an ocean freight bill.

The warning behind it is more important.

Low river levels reduce the amount of cargo barges can safely carry. That forces freight onto additional barges, trucks and rail networks and can create bottlenecks extending far beyond the river itself.

For American importers buying European machinery, chemicals, automotive components or manufactured goods, it is another reminder that weather can become a supply-chain cost almost immediately.

Corporate Tax — Apple Paid Ireland $17.1 Billion in One Year

Apple disclosed Friday that it paid $17.1 billion in taxes to Ireland during its last fiscal year, representing roughly 40% of the company’s entire worldwide income-tax bill.

Apple paid $43.2 billion in income taxes globally.

The Irish figure was unusually large because it included roughly €13 billion in back taxes Apple was ordered to pay after the European Union’s highest court concluded that Ireland had provided the company with illegal tax advantages. 

The number demonstrates just how consequential international tax structures have become for multinational companies.

For years, U.S. technology and pharmaceutical companies used Ireland as a European headquarters because of its business environment and tax system. Governments are now scrutinizing those structures far more aggressively.

The Apple payment shows that a tax dispute that begins as an accounting question can eventually turn into a liability measured in tens of billions of dollars.

What to Watch Saturday — and the Setup for Monday

U.S. markets are closed Saturday, August 22, so the immediate watch is for developments that could change prices before futures reopen Sunday evening.

The first is Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. Oil has now risen for six consecutive sessions, and any weekend escalation, sanctions announcement or movement toward reopening shipping routes could produce a sizable move when energy trading resumes.

The second is the bond market. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s effort to calm long-term yields produced only temporary relief this week. If investors continue demanding higher returns to hold 10- and 30-year U.S. debt, borrowing costs will remain one of the biggest obstacles facing stocks, housing and business investment. 

And the next major test for technology arrives Wednesday, August 26, when Nvidia reports earnings. Investors will be looking beyond chip sales to determine whether the enormous amounts of money being committed to AI data centers are still translating into sufficient demand and profits. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole appearance and the next PCE inflation report will follow later in the week. 

Friday’s message was therefore more complicated than a 500-point Dow rally suggests.

American businesses are growing faster. But money remains expensive, oil is rising, AI infrastructure is consuming extraordinary amounts of capital, and regulators are beginning to impose enormous costs when technology moves faster than oversight.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump an important victory Friday, allowing construction of his $400 million White House ballroom to continue while the justices consider the administration’s emergency appeal.

Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked a lower-court order that would have forced above-ground construction to stop, giving the administration the immediate result it was seeking: the project stays active while the legal fight continues.

That matters because this is no longer an early-stage proposal.

The approximately 90,000-square-foot complex is already about 65% complete, according to court filings. Roughly 250 workers are operating as much as 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and major structural work is already in place.

The project includes far more than a ceremonial ballroom.

Court filings describe an integrated White House complex with extensive underground construction, hardened structural elements, secure communications areas, medical facilities and other security-related infrastructure.

The administration says millions of pounds of reinforcing steel and thousands of cubic yards of concrete have already gone into the project, with portions extending roughly 50 feet underground.

That helps explain why the Supreme Court’s intervention is so significant.

Stopping a project at this stage is not the same as delaying construction before ground is broken. Contractors, workers, equipment, materials and engineering schedules are already committed. A prolonged shutdown could create substantial additional costs and threaten the timetable for completing the complex.

The legal battle centers on a much larger constitutional question: how much authority does a president have to make major changes to the White House without specific congressional approval?

The National Trust for Historic Preservation argues that Trump exceeded presidential authority by demolishing the East Wing and moving ahead with a project of this scale without Congress.

Lower courts agreed sufficiently to order the construction stopped.

The Trump administration argues that presidents have historically exercised broad authority over White House renovations, security improvements and executive-property management, and that courts should not interfere with decisions tied partly to presidential security.

The Supreme Court has not yet decided who is right.

Roberts’ order is temporary and does not guarantee that the administration will ultimately win the underlying case.

But for Trump, the immediate victory is substantial because construction itself is time-sensitive.

The main concrete structure is expected to be completed by November 2026, according to the project schedule submitted in court. The exterior facade is expected to be substantially completed by April 2027, with the full complex currently targeted for completion in August 2028.

That would put completion approximately five months before the end of Trump’s second term.

A lengthy shutdown now could have threatened that timetable.

Instead, workers can continue pushing toward the November structural milestone while the Supreme Court considers whether to grant longer-term relief.

The financing also raises the stakes.

Private donors have committed about $355 million toward the estimated $400 million project, with roughly $200 million already spent or committed, according to administration filings.

That means the legal dispute now involves not simply an architectural vision, but hundreds of millions of dollars in construction contracts, materials, labor and private commitments already tied to the site.

For contractors and suppliers, Friday’s ruling means schedules continue.

For workers, it means the job site remains active.

For donors, it means their money remains attached to a project that is still moving forward.

And for Trump, it prevents lower courts from stopping one of the most visible projects of his second term at the moment when construction is already roughly two-thirds complete.

The Supreme Court could still eventually rule that the administration lacked authority to proceed without Congress.

But that decision may come after significantly more of the project has been built.

That is what makes Friday’s action so consequential.

The Supreme Court has not yet ruled that Trump can ultimately keep the ballroom. It has ruled, for now, that he can keep building it — and on a $400 million project already about 65% complete, every additional day of construction matters.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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Meta is spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year buying artificial-intelligence access from Microsoft, even as it commits extraordinary sums to building competing models, chips and data centers of its own.

The relationship makes Meta one of Microsoft’s largest customers for Azure AI Foundry, the cloud marketplace through which companies can access models from OpenAI and other developers. Meta consumes trillions of tokens through the service each week, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. Neither company has confirmed the figures.

A token is the small unit into which an AI system divides words, numbers and code before processing them. One trillion tokens can represent hundreds of billions of words. Meta’s reported weekly usage therefore points to industrial-scale use rather than employees occasionally asking a chatbot questions.

Meta developers use outside models for software development and to evaluate the output of the company’s own AI systems. Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth has previously acknowledged that Meta rents leading models from outside providers when availability, cost or performance makes doing so useful.

The arrangement reveals how tangled the AI business has become. Meta competes with Microsoft for engineers, advertising customers and leadership in artificial intelligence. Yet it also pays Microsoft to access models and computing capacity that help it develop competing products.

For Microsoft, the revenue is real. The larger question is where the money ultimately originates. Microsoft says Foundry has reached 100,000 customers, but many of its largest users remain technology companies, including Meta, ByteDance, Adobe, Perplexity and customer-service AI company Sierra.

OpenAI alone generated $24.1 billion in commercial revenue for Microsoft during the fiscal year ended in June. Bloomberg estimated that this represented roughly 70% of Microsoft’s total AI-related sales.

That concentration matters because technology companies are simultaneously investing in one another, purchasing one another’s computing capacity and using one another’s models. A dollar can move from an AI developer to a cloud provider, then to a chipmaker or data-center operator, producing revenue at several companies before a customer outside the technology industry has paid for a finished service.

The arrangement does not mean the demand is artificial. Meta’s willingness to spend heavily on outside models suggests that AI computing remains constrained enough that even one of the world’s largest data-center builders cannot supply everything internally. Renting also allows Meta to compare competing models without waiting for its own infrastructure to be completed.

But it does complicate the investment case. The industry still must prove that factories, hospitals, retailers, banks and ordinary consumers will eventually generate enough economic value to support the hundreds of billions of dollars now circulating among technology companies.

Meta may eventually replace much of its Microsoft usage with its own models and an internal model marketplace, just as it previously used Microsoft’s Bing search technology before developing alternatives. For now, one of Microsoft’s biggest AI customers is also one of the companies working hardest to need Microsoft less.

JBizNews Desk | Redmond

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For roughly 40% of American adults living with obesity, the medical playbook has barely changed in decades: Eat less, move more, and if that fails, wait until the disease progresses far enough to justify surgery. GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound have broken that script—but according to Robin Wenzel, head of Wells Fargo Industry Insights, the drugs are exposing a harder problem than obesity itself: who can afford to wait for them to work.

“It’s a game-changer,” Wenzel told Fortune, describing how GLP-1s have shifted obesity treatment “upstream”—from late-stage interventions like gastric bypass and orthopedic surgery toward proactive weight management that can head off disease before it starts. “That’s what we’re seeing, how this filters through the economics within healthcare.”

The numbers back her up. A 2026 JAMA Surgery analysis found as GLP-1 use rose more than 140% between 2022 and 2024, bariatric surgery volumes fell 34.1% over the same stretch—a direct substitution effect, according to a Wells Fargo Industry Insights report co-authored by Wenzel and John Teasley, a market executive in the bank’s healthcare commercial banking group.

Cardiovascular outcomes may be an even bigger story: The SELECT trial found semaglutide reduced major adverse cardiovascular events by 20% in overweight or obese adults without diabetes—a result Wenzel called “an eye-opener” given cardiology’s status as one of the most lucrative lines of business within healthcare. Obesity therapies now account for roughly 25% of pharma’s forecast late-stage drug pipeline value, up from just 1% in 2022, surpassing oncology for the first time in 16 years of tracking by Deloitte.

Emerging research is also linking GLP-1s to reduced substance abuse, including alcohol use disorder. A Washington University School of Medicine study published in The BMJ in March found GLP-1 use was associated with an 18% lower risk of alcohol use disorder and similar reductions across other major addiction categories, adding to a growing body of clinical evidence the drugs’ effects extend well beyond weight loss.

A disease, not a failure of willpower

Central to Wenzel’s framing is a reset of how obesity itself should be understood.

“It’s a very complex disease, a recognized medical disease,” she said, pushing back on the historical medical framing that treated obesity primarily as a matter of “reshaping reasonable habits” through diet and exercise. “The hope, and what we’ve seen with GLP-1s, is it’s finally giving people a path to truly address it and prevent it in many cases.”

That reframing has real economic backing. Federal health agencies now recognize obesity as a chronic disease shaped by genetics, environment, and food systems as much as individual behavior. A 2019 National Institutes of Health inpatient trial found people offered ultra-processed diets ate roughly 500 more calories per day than those given minimally processed meals—even when the meals were matched for calories, sugar, fat, fiber and macronutrients. The federal government’s 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released Jan. 7, moved away from nutrient-counting advice and toward “real food,” a shift Wells Fargo’s Agri-Food Institute says is already visible in how GLP-1 users shop.

For all the clinical promise, Wenzel was candid about the industry’s central unresolved problem: cost.

“We all need to continue talking about the affordability of the drugs,” she said. “Coverage under different programs—Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance—doesn’t always include access to GLP-1s for weight loss.”

List prices for Wegovy and Ozempic can be as high as $1,000 to $1,300 a month, according to Wenzel, and both major obesity drugs remain under patent, limiting competition. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated authorizing Medicare to cover anti-obesity medications broadly would add about $35 billion to federal spending between 2026 and 2034—with near-term costs of roughly $5,600 per user in 2026 dwarfing the offsetting savings from improved health, estimated at just $50 per user that same year.

“This is something that doesn’t necessarily pencil out on an annual basis,” Wenzel said. “We can see the weight loss, we can see the positive benefits,” she added, but the way the drugs work is more like a process that plays out over time.

Similar to her colleague at Wells Fargo, economist Michael Swanson, she compared the drugs directly to statins’ role in cholesterol treatment: a chronic therapy that people may need to stay on for life, where meaningful results—losing 20% of body weight, say—unfold gradually rather than immediately. “GLP-1s have a lot of similarities with statins… The benefit here is long-term.”

That framing points to a subtler problem than affordability alone: Even where GLP-1s are covered, the economics only work for patients—and payers—who can absorb years of cost before the benefit arrives. It is, in effect, a patience tax layered on top of a price tag—and patience, like capital, is not evenly distributed. Two inequalities, of wealth and and of time, are the obstacle to the game-changing revolution in healthcare that these drugs represent.

When asked if GLP-1s in general, and peptides in particular, are sort of like a healthcare equivalent to AI’s potential as a general purpose technology, Wenzel said it was a fair comparison and we will have to wait and see how both play out.

Relief is coming—just not yet

Some price relief is already on the calendar. Novo Nordisk announced on Feb. 24 it will cut U.S. list prices for Wegovy by 50% and Ozempic by 35%, bringing both to $675 a month effective Jan. 1, 2027. Analysts cautioned, however, Novo plans to simultaneously reduce the rebates it pays to insurers and pharmacy benefit managers—a move that could offset much of the list-price reduction in terms of actual net cost.

Separately, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched a temporary “GLP-1 Bridge” program on July 1, offering eligible Medicare beneficiaries access to the drugs for a $50 monthly copay through the end of 2027. State Medicaid programs have a parallel, voluntary pathway to adopt similar pricing under a model known as BALANCE.

But both fixes are partial and temporary. The bridge program expires at the end of 2027 unless renewed. Coverage decisions remain fragmented at the state level: As of early 2026, only 13 states covered GLP-1s for obesity through Medicaid, while four states—California, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina—eliminated that coverage entirely effective Jan. 1, regardless of manufacturer price cuts. Roughly 64% of large employers say covering GLP-1s for weight loss has meaningfully increased their prescription drug spending, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, a pressure that is pushing some insurers to tighten prior-authorization requirements rather than loosen them.

Patent timelines complicate the picture further. Wenzel pointed to patent expirations over the next several years as a path toward Medicare’s ability to negotiate lower prices—and international markets do move faster, with semaglutide’s patent protection lapsing in China, India, and Canada as early as 2026.

Meanwhile, competitive pressure between manufacturers is already reshaping pricing dynamics independent of patent expiration. Eli Lilly has overtaken Novo Nordisk in U.S. market share—60.9% to 38.8% as of August—driven partly by its rival obesity drug, Zepbound, and an oral pill in development that Goldman Sachs projects could capture 60% of the daily-pill segment by 2030. Novo and Lilly together still control more than 90% of the premium GLP-1 market, meaning pricing so far reflects a two-company duopoly rather than genuine market competition.

Asked whether this amounts to an inequality story, Wenzel didn’t hesitate—but she also expressed hope the current imbalance would narrow.

“The hope is that the playing field evens out over time,” she said. “A wide percentage of population stands to benefit from these drugs. Right now it is tough, it’s expensive, insurance doesn’t necessarily cover it unless you meet certain criteria. Because of all of that, it’s not widely available.”

For this story, Fortune journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Airbus has backed away from a plan that would have required white-collar employees to work in the office four days a week, allowing managers to continue offering roughly two remote-work days after weeks of protests and strikes.

The aerospace giant had planned to reduce remote work to just one day a week beginning in September, part of a broader push by CEO Guillaume Faury to get more employees back on site.

That plan is now effectively suspended.

Managers have been told they can maintain existing arrangements that allow employees to work from home an average of two days a week, according to people familiar with the decision. Airbus says it still wants more employees working on site, but will make the transition more gradually. 

The reversal follows significant employee resistance.

In Spain, about 40% of Airbus’s 14,000 workers have participated in strikes over issues including remote work, transportation, holidays and pay. Protests have also taken place in France. 

The dispute is especially important because Airbus is not a traditional office company.

It is one of the world’s largest industrial manufacturers, building aircraft through enormous networks of engineers, production workers, suppliers and technical teams that often need to collaborate in person.

Management argues that increased office attendance improves knowledge transfer, collective efficiency and faster decision-making.

That concern has grown because Airbus has hired aggressively since the pandemic.

French unions estimate that 25% to one-third of Airbus employees joined the company within the past three years, meaning a large share of its workforce is relatively new and still learning from more experienced colleagues. 

At the same time, aerospace companies are competing for younger engineers, software developers and other skilled employees against technology and AI companies that frequently offer more flexible work arrangements.

That creates a difficult trade-off.

Airbus wants employees physically together to improve collaboration and transfer technical knowledge.

Workers increasingly view remote work as part of their compensation and quality of life.

For employers everywhere, that tension has become one of the most persistent workplace issues left behind by the pandemic.

Many large companies have tightened return-to-office policies, arguing that collaboration, training and corporate culture suffer when employees spend too much time apart.

Employees often see the issue differently.

Remote work can eliminate hours of commuting, reduce transportation costs and make childcare and family responsibilities easier to manage.

Airbus’s experience shows that even a company with enormous industrial demands cannot always impose a stricter office mandate without risking significant employee resistance.

So far, the strikes have not disrupted aircraft production.

But that may be precisely why Airbus chose to compromise before the disagreement escalated further.

For businesses watching the return-to-office debate, the message is becoming clearer: companies may still have the authority to demand more office attendance, but skilled employees increasingly have enough leverage to influence how quickly — and how aggressively — those mandates are imposed.

JBizNews Desk | Toulouse

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Uber has been fined €825 million, about $966 million, by the Dutch Data Protection Authority over the way its automated systems suspended driver accounts, creating one of the largest penalties ever imposed under Europe’s GDPR privacy law. 

The case centers on European drivers whose accounts were temporarily or permanently restricted after Uber’s systems flagged behavior such as suspected fraud, unnecessary detours or low customer ratings.

Dutch regulators said Uber violated drivers’ rights by relying on automated decision-making in situations that could have major consequences for their ability to earn a living, while also failing to adequately explain how those decisions were made.

Under GDPR, companies generally cannot make important decisions about a person solely through an algorithm without meaningful human review and a way for the affected person to challenge the outcome.

That principle is now becoming much more expensive to ignore.

The €825 million fine would be the second-largest GDPR penalty ever issued, behind the €1.2 billion fine imposed on Meta in 2023.

Uber strongly disputes the decision and says it will appeal.

The company says its policies include human review and opportunities for drivers to dispute suspensions, and it argues the regulator’s penalty is disproportionate. Uber also says the number of drivers affected was relatively small and that it no longer permanently deactivates accounts solely through automated systems.

The dispute matters far beyond Uber.

Companies across transportation, banking, insurance, hiring and other industries increasingly use algorithms to determine who gets access to work, credit, insurance coverage or other economically important services.

The Dutch ruling sends a clear message that regulators may treat those automated decisions differently when they directly affect someone’s livelihood.

For gig-economy platforms, that creates a new layer of risk.

Automation is one of the main ways companies such as Uber can manage millions of drivers at relatively low cost. But if every serious suspension requires additional human review, documentation and appeals processes, that can increase operating expenses and slow decision-making.

The case also raises a larger business question about artificial intelligence and automated management.

Algorithms are increasingly being used not simply to recommend products or personalize advertising, but to make decisions about people.

Those decisions can determine whether someone gets hired, receives a loan, keeps an insurance policy or continues earning income through a digital platform.

Europe is now demonstrating that companies may face enormous financial consequences when those systems operate without sufficient transparency and human oversight.

For Uber, the immediate issue is a nearly $1 billion regulatory fight.

For every business relying on automated decision-making, the longer-term message may be more important: using an algorithm does not eliminate responsibility for the decision it makes.

JBizNews Desk | Amsterdam

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Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani said on Thursday that Syria, like other countries, is closely reviewing the trilateral defense agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, but has not yet decided whether to join the pact. 

Speaking to journalists during an exclusive interaction in Islamabad, al-Shaibani said, “Like other countries, we have also reviewed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement.” 

“These are three important countries in the region. We are reviewing our options, but for now, we have not made any decision about joining it,” he said. 

When asked whether Pakistan’s mediation to improve relations between Iran and Syria had been discussed during his visit, al-Shaibani ruled it out. 

However, he said, “If Iran stops what it has been doing to the Syrian people over the past 14 years, there could be a possibility of dialogue.” 

TURKISH PRESIDENT Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, pose after signing a joint defense agreement in Mecca last Friday.  (credit: Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Turkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS)

“We are not currently seeking to improve relations with Tehran. If Iran changes its policy, we would have no objection,” he said. 

Responding to a question about a possible visit to Iran, al-Shaibani said there were no limits to diplomacy. 
“If it benefits Syria, we will certainly go,” he added. 

Shaibani accuses Israel of expansionist ambitions

During the conversation, al-Shaibani strongly criticized Israel, saying relations had remained tense since the change of government in Syria on December 8, 2024. 

“Israel is violating the 1974 agreement. Its ambitions are expansionist and unjust,” he said. 

He said the United States was playing a mediating role in efforts to ease tensions between Syria and Israel. 

The Syrian foreign minister also praised Turkey’s role, saying Ankara had stood by the Syrian people for the past 14 years. 

Al-Shaibani arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday night and held meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and other senior officials. 

Following these meetings, he said Pakistan and Syria would soon work to appoint ambassadors to each other’s capitals, launch direct flights between Islamabad and Damascus, and reactivate the Joint Ministerial Commission. 

He also said a meeting of the trade forum would soon be held in Damascus, but made no mention of cooperation in the defense sector. 

Describing his visit to Islamabad as historic, al-Shaibani said, “We have come to expand relations with Pakistan, not to restore them.” 

According to state broadcaster Radio Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for Syria’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity during his meeting with al-Shaibani. 

The prime minister said the resumption of direct flights between the two countries would strengthen people-to-people exchanges and facilitate the travel of Pakistani pilgrims undertaking religious visits to Syria. 

Pakistani PM invites Syrian president to visit Islamabad

Shehbaz also invited Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to undertake an official visit to Pakistan and said Islamabad would firmly support Syria’s position on the Golan Heights. 

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Syed Tariq Fatemi, and Foreign Secretary Ambassador Amna Baloch were also present during the meeting. 

The visit is the first by a Syrian foreign minister to Pakistan since the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in December 2024. Pakistan has maintained diplomatic relations with Syria throughout the political transition, with its embassy continuing to operate in Damascus. 

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Climate change could cost London as much as £36 billion ($50 billion) a year by the 2050s, the Mayor of London’s office said in a report. 

Lost working hours, disruption to businesses and damage to infrastructure caused by extreme weather in a warmer climate are likely to reduce the capital’s GDP over the coming decades, according to the report, published by the mayor and the city’s councils. 

Businesses need to adapt to climate change, the report said, by adjusting working hours, allowing employees to work from home and relaxing dress codes and uniform rules. The city’s authorities will prioritize protecting and improving parks, advertising public cool spaces during hot weather and expanding access to public toilets and water, as well as adding shading to public spaces. The report also called on Transport for London, which operates the city’s underground train network, to add air conditioning to new tube trains and look for new ways to keep carriages and platforms cool. 

Climate change “is already threatening Londoners’ lives, disrupting vital services and costing our economy hundreds of millions of pounds,” Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said in a statement on Thursday. “We must create cooler homes and buildings, greener and shadier neighbourhoods, and infrastructure that can withstand a hotter climate.” 

This summer, five successive heat waves and weeks without meaningful rain have put significant pressure on the U.K.’s public services, water systems and infrastructure. Hospitals have suffered overheating and large parts of the country are in drought. One heat wave this June cost the British economy £1.15 billion, research published in July found, as outdoor workers were forced to cut back their hours and the heat worsened health problems. Some of the highest temperatures have been felt in the capital, where urban streets and a naturally warmer, drier climate exacerbated the national trend. 

Middle-aged Londoners are at greater risk of death from heat than people of the same age around the country, according to the report. Temperatures do not need to reach record levels to cause extra deaths – roughly 90% occur when temperatures are between 24C and 32C.

Rising temperatures affect businesses by disrupting transport services, reducing customer footfall and decreasing staff productivity, said John Dickie, chief executive officer of BusinessLDN, a nonprofit representing London-based businesses, responding to the report. “This new research underscores the vital role that investment in climate resilience plays in supporting London’s economy,” he said in a statement.

Homes and public buildings should also be retrofitted to help them better cope with heat, the report said. Modifying the most vulnerable homes is likely to cost between £9 billion and £45 billion, but would save as much as 1.8 times the cost through better productivity, health and sleep.  

In 2022, when temperatures in the UK hit 40C for the first time, economic losses included buckled lines on railways, failures at data centers used by hospitals which required £1.4 million of extra spending to resolve, and a 50% rise in water consumption. Overall that summer’s heat waves were estimated to cost the city £1.5 billion.  

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Normally quiet, the bond market can occasionally send warning signals loud enough to hit stock markets worldwide and even grab the attention of U.S. presidents and other world leaders.

After the bond market’s alarm bells rose in volume through the summer, the Trump administration announced on Wednesday a move that could help calm it down. The U.S. Treasury Department said it will more than double the amount of U.S. government bonds that it will buy back, and the move worked in getting longer-term yields lower, for now at least.

Yields worldwide had earlier climbed to heights not reached in years and, in some cases, decades, because of the jump in oil prices due to the war with Iran, worries about big and growing debts for governments and other concerns.

The stakes are high because high yields drag on economies and bring downward pressure on stock markets after Wall Street hit records on excitement about big corporate profits and the promise of artificial-intelligence technology.

But what’s to come is still uncertain, and some analysts warn the Treasury Department’s move could even ultimately backfire.

Here’s a look at what’s going on and how things got this way:

Bond yields have been rising

In the United States, the centerpiece of the bond market recently touched its highest yield in more than a year. The 10-year Treasury yield, which shows how much interest investors want the U.S. government to pay them before they’ll lend it money for a decade, topped 4.70%, before falling back to 4.65% Wednesday.

That’s up from just 3.97% before the Iran war began in late February, and it’s a significant move for the bond market.

More notably, the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield has jumped well above 5%, back to where it was in 2007, before the 2008 financial crisis sent yields crashing toward zero worldwide.

In Japan, the yield on the 10-year government bond has touched its highest level in nearly 30 years, while the German 10-year yield is back to where it was in 2011.

High yields can slow the economy

When the U.S. and other governments have to pay more in interest to borrow money, so do people and companies.

For many U.S. households, that’s most easily seen through rates for mortgages. Such rates have climbed with the 10-year Treasury yield since the Iran war began, and the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is near its highest level in a year.

Higher yields also make it more expensive for U.S. companies to borrow money to build factories and otherwise grow. That’s particularly dangerous at this moment, when big investments in data centers to power AI are a major driver of the U.S. economy’s growth.

High yields affect all kinds of investments

If high yields slow the economy, that puts pressure on the stocks. An economic slowdown would threaten how much profit companies can make, which is the lifeblood of the stock market.

High yields undercut the stock market in other ways too. When a Treasury is paying more in interest, that can draw investors away from investments that carry more risk. Why pay record prices for U.S. stocks when a U.S. government bond is paying more than before to wait in relative safety?

Gold, bitcoin and many other investments can also feel downward pressure from high yields.

Then there’s the impact on the government

When yields rise, the U.S. and other governments have to pay more in interest to cover their debts. That’s painful when debt loads for governments worldwide are ballooning as they spend far more than they’re bringing in through revenue.

And if the U.S. government is already paying this much to borrow money when the economy is growing, what will happen if it needs to borrow even more to manage the pain when the next severe recession hits?

That’s why jumps in yields can scare politicians even more than swings in the stock market.

The bond market helped make Liz Truss the United Kingdom’s shortest-serving prime minister in 2022, when it revolted against her plan to cut taxes and raise spending without a way to pay for them.

Last year, President Donald Trump said the bond market may have played a role in his decision to delay many of his proposed tariffs, saying that he noticed investors there “were getting a little queasy.”

The long-term effect of the Treasury department’s move is uncertain

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s move is a high-stakes effort to contain the rise in long-term yields, and some analysts are skeptical the impact will last.

“The operation changes almost nothing in terms of the fundamentals, in particular the unchanged need to finance the tidal wave of hyperscaler debt in addition to very large government deficits,” Krishna Guha, an analyst at Evercore ISI, and colleagues wrote in a note to clients.

“Hyperscalers” refers to the Big Tech companies that are borrowing mountains of money to build AI data centers. The bonds they’re selling are competing with U.S. Treasurys for buyers, which can push bond yields higher.

The U.S. government, meanwhile, continues to run its own large deficits regardless of what the Treasury Department does with its repurchases.

“The move could even backfire if the limited firepower results in little sustained impact,” Guha said.

A rate cut by the Federal Reserve won’t magically solve the problem

The Federal Reserve could always cut the federal funds rate, which affects very short-term, overnight loans.

But longer-term yields like the 10- and 30-year Treasury yields are set by investors in the bond market. And recently, they have been demanding more in interest to make up for the growing risks of high inflation, continued government deficits and other factors.

The Fed also appears more likely to raise its benchmark short-term rate than to cut it. At its last meeting in late July, three Fed policymakers voted to raise the fed funds rates even as nine voted to keep it unchanged. And Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s decision to signal little about the Fed’s next moves appeared to push longer-term Treasury yields higher amid questions about what the central bank will do to get inflation back to its 2% target.

The government’s most recent inflation data suggest inflation may be slowing, leading many on Wall Street to forecast the Fed will keep the federal funds rates steady at its next meeting in September. The next big potentially market-moving event may come on Aug. 28, when Warsh will give a speech at the Fed’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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A California helicopter manufacturer whose R66 helicopter was selected for use in a major new U.S. Army flight training program said the effort could support hundreds of American jobs.

Robinson Helicopter Company, based in Torrance, California, will provide its R66 turbine helicopter for the Army’s Flight School Next program as part of a team led by M1 Support Services.

The program will train the next generation of Army helicopter pilots at Fort Rucker, Alabama. The R66 was selected as the team’s aircraft for the Army’s Initial Entry Rotary-Wing training program.

“Robinson didn’t just check the boxes; it blew past them, beating out competitors on price, performance and resiliency,” company spokesperson Erica Dumas told FOX Business.

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Robinson Helicopter CEO David Smith said the selection shows that an American-made aircraft can compete with foreign-built products in a critical military training role.

“This is a really powerful demonstration of American-made displacing what are currently foreign products that occupy this very important role of training Army aviators,” Smith told FOX Business. 

Smith said the program will create demand for maintenance workers, instructors and overhaul specialists in Alabama while also driving additional work at Robinson’s California factory.

“There’s an opportunity for us to both sell these aircraft and the parts that feed them for 26 years,” he said, adding that future exports to allied nations could help create “likely hundreds of jobs over time” in Torrance, California.

Robinson says the R66 is 100% U.S.-designed and manufactured, with more than 85% of its parts produced at the company’s vertically integrated Torrance facility.

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“We absolutely have the skills, the resources to design, the resources to innovate, and ultimately to make the hard manufactured products that build these products,” Smith said.

The company says the R66 has the lowest acquisition price and direct operating cost of any turbine helicopter in its class over the past decade while giving Army pilots experience with modern avionics, autopilot systems and night-vision capabilities.

Smith said those savings could allow the Army to redirect funding toward other priorities.

“One of the great benefits of this project is it will help the Army allocate more funding to some of the more significant projects they have [in] the future,” he said.

The contract also advances Robinson’s expansion into defense.

“This is a way for us to contribute directly to an area of great need,” he said.

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Smith also argued that rebuilding America’s defense industrial base will require renewed emphasis on skilled trades.

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“We need to rebuild that first, the appetite and the interest of the workforce to go into these very important skilled areas and make it a fun and cool business to be in again,” Smith said.

Robinson also plans to reinvest proceeds from the program into research and development, including unmanned aircraft and other defense technologies.

“I’m an engineer first,” he said. “And so my mindset is, how can we continue to use wins like this to reinvest in the business and grow in the years to come?”

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears to be heading down a path similar to Japan’s, and it signals “debasement” of the dollar, according to a top economist.

In a Substack post on Thursday, Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, sounded the alarm on the Treasury Department’s plan to increase buybacks of long-term bonds.

The announcement came after the 30-year yield hit the highest level in nearly 20 years. While yields briefly retreated, they soon climbed back to their earlier levels as Wall Street doubted Bessent’s ability to hold back the $32 trillion Treasury market.

Brooks dismissed the buyback scheme as mere financial engineering that doesn’t address the mounting stress in the Treasury market. At the same time, it also confirmed there’s no desire to tackle the underlying problem of the deficit, which is on track to reach $2 trillion this fiscal year.

“When fiscal policy is out of control, governments can obviously do many things to cap yields, but this just puts depreciation pressure on the currency because markets don’t get paid the kind of risk premium they desire,” he wrote. “What would be a debt crisis thus morphs into a currency crisis, which is why the Yen has been falling for so many years.”

Brooks has long highlighted Japan’s efforts to keep its bond yields artificially low as a way of keeping its massive debt burden, which tops 200% of GDP, in check. With markets unable to price Japanese debt properly, investors have sent the yen lower.

Similarly, the Treasury’s buyback plan caused the dollar to tumble in what Wall Street has dubbed the return of the “debasement trade.” That was accompanied by a jump in precious metal prices, as investors anticipate further dollar devaluation.

“Markets are primed for Dollar debasement to resume and — as Japan shows — it can be next to impossible to stabilize a currency once it enters a devaluation spiral,” Brooks warned. “The U.S. is playing with fire with this buyback.”

Jonas Goltermann, chief markets economist at Capital Economics, said in a note Thursday that debasement trade worries are overblown and predicted the dollar with strengthen in the coming months on the back of the robust U.S. economy.

The dollar’s recent drop was also consistent with differences in yields versus doubts about U.S. credibility on fighting inflation, he added.

“That said, if the steady stream of unconventional policy ideas continues, that may well change,” Goltermann said. “As such, we are becoming less convinced that the dollar will rebound as far as our current forecasts imply over the coming months, even if we are right that the US economy will pick up more momentum over the coming months.”

The run-up in Treasury yields that preceded the Bessent’s debt buyback plan is a necessary normalization from the earlier era of near-zero levels instead of a crisis or market dysfunction, according to Lawrence Gillum, chief fixed income strategist for LPL Financial.

He pointed out that rate volatility remains subdued, inflation expectations are still anchored, and bond auctions continue to draw enough demand.

Still, Gillum expects long-term yields to continue climbing, given the steep budget deficit the U.S. is running as well as all the fresh debt being issued from the Treasury and AI hyperscalers.

That means the yield will likely become front and center again, prompting more actions like the buyback, even if it’s more a symbolic Band-Aid than an actual fix.

“But it is a reminder that the Treasury Department is paying attention and will do whatever it can to keep yields from getting too high too quickly,” he said.

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The magnitude of tariff refunds the Trump administration must dole out is now outpacing how much money it’s bringing in through the import taxes, and it’s dealing a new blow of damage to the U.S. economy, one think tank warned.

In May, when the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) rolled out its online tariff refund portal, the U.S. Treasury refunded $21.97 billion, exceeding the $21.93 billion it collected that month—and a complete reversal of the month before, when the Treasury distributed only about $2 billion in tariff refunds, according to a report published this month by the Tax Foundation, a tax policy nonprofit, citing monthly Treasury statements. In June, the balance sheet became even more lopsided, with $49.18 billion refunded as compared to the $23.63 billion collected, resulting in a net customs revenue of negative $25.56 billion.

Tariff revenue makes up just a small fraction of the government’s total revenue, but the Tax Foundation warned the chaos surrounding the tariffs and their legal fallout has had an outsized economic impact, exemplified by the government hemorrhaging billions of dollars monthly through refunds.

“While importers will experience some relief by receiving refunds, the economic damage from the chaotic tariff regime cannot be refunded—and the remaining tariffs means economic damage will continue to grow,” the report said.

The economic fallout of Trump’s tariffs

After collecting $166 billion in revenue from tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the Supreme Court struck down the levies in February, resulting in a mandate forcing the Trump administration to redistribute the income to up to the 330,000 eligible importers who footed the bill for the levies. While President Donald Trump has tried to rebuild his tariff policy in the aggregate—imposing duties under Sections 122, 232, and 301 of the 1974 Trade Act—he has not been able to recoup the money lost through refunds.

The continued drain on tariff revenues represents a failure of the Trump administration to deliver on its lofty promises of using the income to reduce the federal deficit and offset tax cuts from the One Big Beautiful Bill act, argued Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation.

“The president himself and the administration have been talking so much about how they’re going to raise a lot of revenue with tariffs, how they’re going to supposedly fix the fiscal situation with tariffs,” York told Fortune. “And that really mismatches what we’re seeing play out in the data, which is that they have relied on really shaky legal grounds to try to impose these tariffs.”

Meanwhile, tariffs have increased inflation, with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis finding the levies hiked the prices of pharmaceuticals and household utensils by more than 4% over the last year.

A graph showing how much prices in different retail categories increased since the implementation of tariffs.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

That’s on top of the uncertainty accompanying Trump’s whipsaw tariff policy, which York said has been as disruptive as the levies themselves, leaving companies scrambling to adapt supply chains, as well as holding off on hiring or increasing wages as they navigate new variables. She noted tariff policy has changed more than 50 times since Trump took office again in January 2025, most recently this week, with Trump announcing a three-day pause on a proposed 50% tax on Canadian imports as the countries negotiate a trade deal.

“It hasn’t just been, ‘Here’s a new tariff done in a very transparent way,’ and then businesses can plan around it,” York said. “It has been a chaotic environment.”

The hitch with tariff refunds

To be sure, the Trump administration won’t have to distribute tariff refunds forever. The Treasury Department has already given out $100 billion in refunds since May, crossing the halfway point of total revenue collected through IEEPA tariffs. But the Tax Foundation suggested the remaining $66 billion will be harder to distribute, as the next phase of refunds deal with more complex claims filed after the established liquidation period, raising procedural questions.

At the same time, refunds yet to be disbursed are accruing interest, up to 4.5% on overpayments on $10,000 or more and 6% on overpayments less than that, according to the Cato Institute, meaning taxpayers are still footing the bill on refunds yet to be returned to them.

York expects tariff revenues to rise back into the positive in a matter of months, but warned the uncertainty surrounding the existing levies remain, with companies suing the administration to remove Section 301 tariffs.

“Even though we’re past the IEEPA saga, we’re not past the chaotic tariff environment saga,” York said. “I think we are stuck in that for at least the next couple of years.”

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Thirteen years ago, Jeff Bezos strode into a room on the set of CBS’ 60 Minutes and revealed Amazon’s first delivery drone, predicting 30-minute drop-offs of airborne packages within the next four to five years. Ever since, the e-commerce giant has struggled to live up to that promise.  

On Wednesday, it took a step forward, announcing plans to expand drone delivery to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of this year, which it said represents a sixfold increase in its drone network footprint and will total tens of millions of customers. The expansion comes after years of floundering to get its drone project off the ground and widespread skepticism that the effort—however attractive—will ever amount to more than a limited side project. It signals that Amazon is still serious about creating the reality Bezos predicted in 2013.

Amazon said its drone deliveries are expanding to the Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, and Atlanta areas, among other metro areas and towns, though it didn’t make clear how many deliveries it expects per day or how large its fleet of drones will be in each location. Almost any item weighing five pounds or less that can fit in a large shoebox is eligible for delivery, Amazon said, with customers ordering through the Amazon app. Delivery is free for Prime members who spend $50 or more. Otherwise, it’s a $2.99 fee. Non-Prime members pay $4.99 per delivery.

The company’s current drone delivery operations include San Antonio, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Kansas City, Kansas; and eight other areas. The drones, which depart from Amazon fulfillment sites, can deliver items to customers in as little as 30 minutes, according to Amazon. But even in its existing markets the service is relatively limited. The drones can’t fly beyond a roughly seven mile radius, limiting their reach, and they operate primarily in suburban locations in order to avoid tall buildings and other tricky obstacles.

Amazon has delivered hundreds of thousands of packages to customers by drone this year, Prime Air boss David Carbon said in a statement. Impressive as the figure may be, it’s just a fraction of the nearly 20 million packages that Amazon delivers every day in the U.S., according to market research firm ShipMatrix.

Several companies, including Amazon competitors like Walmart, have also been trying to crack drone delivery to quicken their shipping speeds and to rely less on human drivers. Company goals have been sidetracked by regulatory hurdles, costly tech, and complaints by local residents.

“It’s still clearly a work in progress, but they have a vision that this is one of the best ways to get things to people in less than 45 minutes,” said Josh Lowitz, co-founder of Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, which studies Amazon Prime members. Lowitz, who visited Amazon’s Prime Air drone lab in Seattle this week, said the company is primarily delivering via drone in suburban areas because it needs a 10-foot radius to deliver safely.

“They’re working on battery technology and sound technology, trying to make it better and better. If the delivery range goes from seven miles to 15 miles, they could reach people in rural areas,” Lowitz said.

Regulatory challenges

While Amazon is best positioned to make drone delivery happen, given its hundreds of fulfillment centers and technology resources, it has faced a wave of problems in meeting its ambition. Gaining certification from the Federal Aviation Administration has been a key issue, since the FAA’s standard methods of evaluating aircraft are based on human-piloted aircraft.

Amazon VP of Prime Air David Carbon
JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images

Flying and landing in people’s yards was unprecedented before Amazon and others began to test their drones, and Amazon had to build its standards from scratch. Amazon also initially approached the project from a technological perspective, not staffing enough people who knew how to navigate the regulatory system, former employees told Fortune.

In 2020, Amazon replaced the visionary founder of the project, Gur Kimchi, with former Boeing executive David Carbon. While the move showed Amazon taking the regulatory part of the project earnestly, it initially sparked a culture clash, the former employees said. Many of the original Prime Air employees left, stalling the project as Carbon rebuilt talent to figure out robotics, autonomy, and other technical aspects.

The growing pains didn’t stop there. In the fall of 2025, two Amazon delivery drones collided with a crane in Arizona, causing damage and a fire. This July, one of the company’s drones crashed into a garden while attempting a delivery in Darlington, UK.

Amazon also left two sites, in Lockeford, Calif., and College Station, Texas, after initially testing its drones there. Some residents complained about a loud buzz from drones, though Amazon has said the noise is no louder than an idling delivery truck. An Amazon spokeswoman said each generation of Prime Air technology has brought significant sound improvements.  

Walmart, together with Alphabet’s Wing, has been expanding its efforts, recently adding seven new delivery markets, with a plan to reach more than 40 million American customers by 2027.

An FAA rule that would make it easier to deliver packages via drone in longer flights beyond an operator’s line of sight awaits approval. In recent regulatory filings, Amazon said GPS signals degrade at lower altitudes for its drones, with the company asking regulators for permission to use a special wireless frequency in some drone tests.

Human drivers vs. drones

Aside from drones being a coveted Bezos pet project, the decision to press on may come down to the company maintaining its edge on speed, and the expansion comes as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is supporting a bill that would force Amazon and other companies to make their delivery drivers employees instead of subcontractors.

Speed has been a bedrock for Amazon since it pioneered two-day shipping. It has crept closer, year by year, to the reality of almost-instant delivery. It has done this by opening centers equipped to move popular products and everyday essentials quickly through its system.

It has at least 65 so-called sub-same-day centers throughout the U.S. and is also operating out of small locations in inner cities to get to customers faster, according to logistics consultant MWPVL International. Some of these locations have refrigerators inside for perishable items, MWPVL said.

The company has sharpened its efficiency with AI, robotics, and its strategy to be as close to customers as possible. For fast deliveries, it is also leaning on on-demand drivers with their own vehicles, who can more easily turn around deliveries compared to the regular Amazon vans that follow less-scattered routes.

Amazon subsidizes its vast delivery system with the fees it collects through its third-party sellers, as well as the more than 200 million Prime members it has (who each pay $139 a year). The money it collects from seller fees accounts for nearly a quarter of its overall revenue. The funds, along with its virtually unmatched logistics expertise and increasing demand, have enabled the company to spread throughout the U.S., including into corners of rural America.

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