Britain wants to boycott products made by Jews in Yehuda V’Shomron.

Then perhaps Britain should start looking at everything else Israeli innovation has helped build.

Start with the iPhone.

Apple is hiring engineers in Israel today to work on next-generation Apple silicon, camera hardware, advanced optics, Wi-Fi and other technology that goes directly into Apple products. Its Israeli engineering operations stretch across Herzliya, Jerusalem and Haifa.

So when the newest iPhone reaches Britain, perhaps the people cheering an Israeli boycott should leave it on the shelf.

But don’t stop there.

Look at the car.

Even Tesla’s rise in autonomous driving has an Israeli chapter. Israeli-founded Mobileye supplied chips and software for Tesla’s early Autopilot system before the companies ended their relationship in 2016.

That means one of the most famous technology companies of the modern era once depended on Israeli-developed technology to help build one of its signature products.

Then look at the rest of the automotive industry.

Mobileye, founded in Jerusalem, went on to become one of the world’s most important companies in driver-assistance and automotive safety technology.

Now check your computer.

Israeli engineers have played major roles in developing Intel processors and technologies that helped shape modern mobile computing.

Check your cybersecurity.

Check Point was founded in Israel and helped pioneer technology at the foundation of modern network security.

Check the little device people carried in their pockets for years before cloud storage became commonplace.

Israeli company M-Systems helped commercialize the USB flash drive and change the way the world moved digital information.

Check the cloud.

Israeli engineers work at some of the world’s biggest technology companies building semiconductors, networking systems, artificial intelligence and infrastructure powering the modern digital economy.

Then look up.

Iron Dome.

David’s Sling.

Arrow.

And look at the battlefield.

Trophy.

Israel has built systems designed to intercept rockets and missiles in the sky and destroy incoming anti-tank threats before they strike soldiers.

These aren’t slogans.

They are technologies built to solve problems the world actually has.

Which raises a question Britain should answer before congratulating itself on another boycott:

What have you contributed to mankind in this new technological era while trying to punish the people helping build it?

Britain is free to disagree with Israel politically.

It is free to argue over borders, diplomacy and policy.

But something becomes deeply hypocritical when Britain happily enjoys Israeli innovation while deciding that a Jewish farmer, manufacturer or business owner becomes economically unacceptable because of where he lives.

The Israeli engineer is good enough to help build your phone.

Israeli technology is good enough for your car.

Israeli cybersecurity is good enough for your bank.

Israeli innovation is good enough for your computer.

Israeli defense technology is good enough when missiles start flying.

But the Jewish businessman in Yehuda V’Shomron?

Boycott him.

That is the contradiction.

Britain’s government announced this week that it intends to restrict trade in goods from Israeli communities in Yehuda V’Shomron as part of a coordinated move with other countries.

The products targeted may represent only a small piece of global commerce.

But the principle Britain is embracing is much bigger.

It wants the economic power to determine which Jews may participate in international commerce depending upon which side of a politically disputed line they live.

Meanwhile, Israel keeps building.

A country with a population smaller than many of the world’s great metropolitan areas has produced companies, engineers and technologies that have reached into phones, computers, cars, hospitals, data centers and military systems across the globe.

Israel did not get there by boycotting Britain.

It got there by innovating.

By taking risks.

By solving problems.

By turning ideas into products that billions of people can benefit from.

And that is why Britain’s boycott deserves a response that goes beyond diplomatic statements.

If you genuinely believe Israeli economic activity should be rejected, then be consistent.

Don’t just boycott the easy product with “Made in Israel” written on the package.

Look inside the technology you depend on.

Look at your new iPhone.

Look at the history of Tesla.

Look at your computers.

Look at your cars.

Look at your cybersecurity.

Look at your cloud infrastructure.

Look at the technology protecting soldiers and civilians from missiles.

Then ask yourselves the same question you apparently feel entitled to ask Israel:

What have you contributed to mankind lately?

Israel’s answer is sitting in your pocket, driving down your streets, running through your networks and defending lives.

So Britain, if you really want to boycott Israel, go ahead.

Start with the iPhone.

Then Tesla.

Then the technology you depend on.

Let us know how far you get.

JBizNews Desk | New Jersey
© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved.

How many students made up your college cohort? Odds are its about 4,000—the same, if not more, than the total number of billionaires on earth.

Think about the last time you went to a sports stadium, to a concert venue, or even visited a small coastal town ahead of the fall holidays. The fewer-than 3,800 billionaires worldwide make up just one-fifth of a full house at MSG, a tenth of Yankee Stadium, and the population of your average New England town. And out of a world of more than 8 billion people, they make up a sliver so thin it barely registers: about 0.00005%, or one in every two million people alive today.

And yet, that sliver holds a record $15.1 trillion, according to Altrata’s Billionaire Census 2026 — close to half the size of the entire U.S. economy (at $32.5 trillion per the St. Louis Fed), and nearly 30% of the combined GDP of the G7 nations (at $52.06 trillion per the IMF).

The population grew 8.2% in 2025, the fastest pace in five years, but the gains are not shared equally. Twenty-nine people now hold fortunes above $50 billion, dubbed superbillionaires in Altrata’s report, and together, they hold $4.1 trillion, or 27.2% of all billionaire wealth. But less than a decade ago, in 2017, just 10 people held that same status and controlled only 7.2% of the total billionaire wealth.

Most of the superbillionaire rise has come in the last two years alone, as the share stood at 16.3% as recently as 2023, while public rankings point to who many of these people are: Elon Musk, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, and Warren Buffett dominate the list.

Maeen Shaban, Altrata’s director of research and analytics and a lead author of the report, points to one cause above the rest: artificial intelligence. Altrata identified the 150 public companies where the most billionaire wealth sits, then split them into two groups: those that made a meaningful investment in AI since 2023, and those that did not. The AI investors beat the rest by 23% in market cap growth over 2024 and 2025 combined.

“Hundreds of billions have been injected into that space,” Shaban told Fortune. But he cautioned against treating the number as precise, since some billionaires built AI companies outright while others simply used it to cut costs elsewhere.

“It’s a very, very complicated thing to do,” he said.

A geographical divide

AI isn’t the only thing that divides billionaires: so do urban areas. New York gained 12 billionaires in 2025, now bringing the total up to 164 in Gotham City, while Singapore and San Francisco grew just as fast. Hong Kong and London were the only two of the top 15 cities to lose billionaires. Still, there’s no rhyme nor reason as to why some cities see this growth while others fall.

“With these really small populations, it’s very hard to call it a trend,” Shaban said.

He said the scale of AI investment in the U.S. is one pull, but there’s a pull in the other direction, too, as some wealthy people have moved back toward the Middle East amid the war there.

“Mobility for them is not a luxury, it’s a need,” he said.

Public data suggests the wealth may be even more concentrated than the city rankings show: The San Francisco Bay Area alone is reportedly home to six of the world’s richest people, including Musk, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Page, Brin, and Huang.

Germany, with the world’s third-largest nominal GDP, still has no German city that cracks the top 15, because, Shaban said, “the wealthy in Germany… are more distributed across the country than you would see, for example, in the UK, where 60% are in London.”

That same pattern shows up in who counts as a local: About one-fifth of the world’s billionaires were born somewhere other than where they now live—Musk a clear example among them—and the share of foreign born climbs above half in Singapore and London.

The great wealth transfer for billionaires

And just as we’re in the middle of the Great Wealth Transfer for all socioeconomic statuses, so too will the billionaire class experience this as well. Altrata expects billionaires to pass $6.6 trillion to spouses and children over the next decade, estimating that amount would be split among roughly 5,000 people, with about 2,000 of them spouses.

“In 10 years, that could be double that,” but said even with the minting of new billionaires through generational wealth, the greater number will still be self-made, Shaban said. “More than 60, 70% are going to be self-made,” he added. “The main contributor to future growth, in our opinion, is not [inheritance]. It’s more like entrepreneurship.”

“Billionaires are literally tiny as a population on the world stage,” he continued. “It’s like a needle in a haystack.”

Even the broader $30 million-plus tier holds only about half a million people worldwide, he said. But the ability to reach millionaire status and above has gotten greater, for everyone. Technology, shifting regulations, and wider entrepreneurial opportunity have made that wealth level more attainable than a generation ago, even if it remains rare in absolute terms. By Altrata’s count, the ultra-wealthy population grew roughly seven times faster than the world’s adult population between 2005 and 2025.

He expects the churn to accelerate. Altrata’s internal estimate, not yet published, is that by 2040, about 70% of the ultra-wealthy population will be people who aren’t in it today.

“That’s just 15 years away,” he said. “If you’ve got banks that are 300 years old, 15 years is nothing.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

“I was born in a country that no longer exists,” Igor Tulchinsky tells me simply at the beginning of our interview. “The Soviet Union.” 

Tulchinsky, who was born in what is now called the Republic of Belarus, left his home at the age of 11. It was the 1970s, when the Cold War between the communist East and the USA-led West was at its most dangerous. Many believed the third world war, and maybe even nuclear conflict, was coming as the two super-powers battled for control and influence around the world. 

His parents, both accomplished musicians, were allowed to leave with 1 ruble, worth anywhere between 20¢ and 50¢ according to black market rates (no Soviet citizens could gain the official rate of 1 ruble to $1.30). “My father spent it on a piece of gum as soon as we crossed the border,” Tulchinsky tells me. “And symbolically it was Polish gum, and it melted in my mouth as I chewed it.” 

His childhood experience taught him that life was often about risk. And that without risk, results are often poorer. 

“My parents took very big risks,” he says. “In those days, when you applied to get out, you could get permission, or you could get a denial. If you got into a denial process, you were without a job. Everybody thinks you’re a traitor, and you just kind of live in the shadows. But thankfully, that didn’t happen, and we went to Italy, applied for refugee status in the United States, and received the status in about four months. 

“It’s a kind of move that changes you. It puts you in a place where you’re okay taking risks and understanding that sometimes big risks should be taken because even if you don’t try to take them, they can take you.” 

Igor Tulchinsky pictured with his mother. His parents are both accomplished musicians.

WorldQuant

Tulchinsky made his fortune in the world of algorithmic trading in the financial markets. He is the founder of the hedge fund, WorldQuant, which was spun-out from Millennium, Israel Englander’s U.S. quant business. 

Tulchinsky says AI is changing everything they do and will soon lead to a 100-fold leap in productivity for WorldQuant. The firm is investing heavily in structuring presently unstructured financial data and finding value as they progress. 

So, it may seem odd that a man whose net worth is estimated at $1.7 billion and who works at the cutting edge of the technological revolution is interested in a 1,000-year-old tapestry that is the centerpiece of the British Museum’s biggest blockbuster show in 50 years. 

The Bayeux Tapestry exhibition opened this month in London. More than 65,000 people queued online for tickets when they were first released and it is now sold out until the end of the year. More than 1 million people are expected to file past the 70-meter-long embroidery, which marks the French Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England in 1066—the last time Britain was successfully invaded. It is the first time the tapestry has been seen in the U.K. 

Tulchinsky has donated £5m ($6.8m) to the British Museum to support the exhibition which has been described by King Charles as a “remarkable artwork”. Tulchinsky says bringing history to the next generation of young people drives him to act, and that seeing something that is both physical and ancient leads to greater creativity and a deeper sense of what only humans can do. In the age of always-on social media and large language models, such skills are increasingly important. 

“When you just give money to somebody, they take the money, they spend it, it’s gone,” he says. “When you give somebody a skill, the skill stays with them their whole life, and maybe a part of it gets transferred across generations, and so on. It’s like in business. I look for maximum output per dollar spent. In philanthropy, I also look for maximum impact for dollar spent. 

“If businesses are doing philanthropy in a way that’s not maximally impactful, we’re not getting the full benefit of it. It’s just money shifting locations. We really want philanthropy to create permanent skills that compound exponentially over time. [We say that] talent is distributed equally around the world, but opportunity is not. So, in the big picture, we want to close that gap by providing opportunity to talent where there isn’t any opportunity, and by education.” 

The WorldQuant Foundation funds WorldQuant University, which offers free online education programs in financial engineering and applied AI. As technology advances and the delivery of information expands, slowing down and considering longer timeframes becomes increasingly valuable. 

More than 1 million people are expected to file past the 70-meter-long embroidery, which marks the French Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England in 1066—the last time Britain was successfully invaded. 

The British Museum

“Looking at what [the Bayeux Tapestry] is, how important it is historically; it shows essentially the formation of England,” Tulchinsky says. “And [then] the huge size of it, the precision, the fact that it’s a physical object that you can go and look at. It takes you away from the war of the world of Instagram and TikTok and all that stuff.” 

King Charles, President Emmanuel Macron of France and the U.K. Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, were given a private view of the tapestry last week. Macron said the work was a “masterpiece”. 

“People who see the tapestry become influenced,” Tulchinsky says. “They take a few steps back from Instagram and a few steps into the past, and looking into the past is a little bit like flying really high in the sky. You look down, and everything looks small and inconsequential. And when you look into the past, it does the same thing for the present. 

“We really want philanthropy to create permanent skills that compound exponentially over time”

Igor Tulchinsky

“If you look deeply enough, [it gives you a] kind of respect and humility and understanding that perhaps in some ways those times were much more difficult and demanded strength and character that may not be in such demand today.” 

The tapestry is thought to have been embroidered in England by a large group of skilled craftswomen before being taken back to Bayeux in France to be displayed. It was commissioned by a cousin of the victor in the war against England, the Duke of Normandy, later known as William the Conqueror. In its complexity, Tulchinsky sees the earliest echoes of what we now call systems thinking. 

“They compressed a big tale into 70 meters of art—that’s mathematical. It requires broad understanding. It requires compression. It requires putting things in the right places and doing that without losing the meaning of the story. So definitely, there is an art to math connection.” 

Philanthropy focuses on the mechanisms of giving to others. But Tulchinsky also knows its positive effects can be felt closer to home. Until his team approached him about the opportunity to fund the Bayeux exhibition, he had not heard of the embroidery. 

“Social media doesn’t require attention span,” he says. “Everything is served to you to build up your dopamine. But here you have to examine something very big, and you have to think.  

“And we cannot lose these things because if we do, there’ll be nobody around who can manage the AI. Somebody has to manage it, and the person who manages it has to be a broad thinker and has to have a deep understanding of not only AI but different subjects, critical thinking. 

“Seeing these kinds of things in a new way, that are out of this world, they increase your creativity because your brain just puts things together in different ways, and you see something here, and then you apply it there. So, in ways that can’t even be foreseen, I expect to get a creativity boost following seeing and understanding the tapestry.” 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

The United States attempted to recruit its NATO allies for a move aimed at “systematically dismantling” the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Politico reported on Thursday.

According to three NATO diplomats, the US administration called on member states of the alliance to withdraw from the Rome Statute, the court’s founding treaty, and end their support for it.

US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker made the demand during a closed-door meeting of ambassadors from the alliance’s 32 member states, held in Brussels in mid-July. According to the diplomats, Whitaker asked allies to help dismantle the court and concluded his remarks with a warning: “We will be watching closely who stands with America.”

At the same time, the US delegation to NATO circulated a document among the delegations outlining the administration’s demands. “The United States will systematically dismantle the capabilities of the International Criminal Court,” the document stated. Washington asked allies to “immediately take steps to withdraw” from the Rome Statute.

The countries were also asked to “examine the threat” that the United States claims the court poses to them, publicly condemn what was described as the ICC’s “overreach of authority,” and immediately halt “any material support” for it. “Let’s end once and for all the charade of the International Criminal Court,” the document stated.

NATO itself is not a party to the Rome Statute, but all alliance members except the United States and Turkey are members of the court.

France, Netherlands stand against US attack on ICC

The US move sparked opposition during the meeting. France and the Netherlands defended the institution and made clear they did not intend to comply with the American demand.

One diplomat who attended the meeting described Whitaker’s remarks as “quite shocking,” while another said they were “disappointing.”

The US mission to NATO did not respond to Politico’s request for comment. The French delegation declined to address the details of the closed-door discussion but stressed that France’s support for the court was “unwavering.” The Dutch delegation referred to comments by Foreign Minister Tom Brandsen, who said the Netherlands fully supports the court.

According to the report, US envoys also raised the demand in bilateral discussions with European countries. The US State Department warned that it would increase scrutiny of countries that refuse to distance themselves from what it called the court’s “false authority” while continuing to rely on American assistance.

The campaign against the ICC was launched over the summer by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who accused the court of undermining US sovereignty. “The International Criminal Court and its friends are waging war against our country, not through bullets or missiles, but through laws, treaties, and the power of what is called international law,” Rubio said on July 13. “If they believe they can deprive us of our sovereignty, we will teach them the full meaning of American resolve.”

The US campaign against the court stems in part from concerns that American officials and soldiers could face prosecution for war crimes. In 2020, the ICC opened an investigation into alleged crimes by US soldiers in Afghanistan, though the investigation was given lower priority the following year.

The US administration is also acting against the court over proceedings against Israeli officials and the arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

US sanctions ICC officials, President Tomoko Akane

Last month, Washington imposed sanctions on ICC officials, including President Tomoko Akane.

In response to the US move, an ICC spokesperson said the institution “remains focused on fulfilling its mandate impartially, independently, and in accordance with the Rome Statute, for the benefit of victims and in the name of justice.” The spokesperson added that despite attempts to obstruct its work, the court “remains steadfast and resilient.”

The confrontation comes at a sensitive time in relations between the United States and its European allies. Tensions have risen after many European countries refused to join the US war against Iran, as well as following US President Donald Trump’s previous threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory belonging to Denmark, a NATO member.

According to Politico, the demand regarding the ICC was raised shortly after the NATO leaders’ summit in Ankara had reportedly succeeded in reducing tensions. The diplomats estimated that Washington was not attempting to issue an explicit ultimatum to its allies, since the issue was raised as a side topic during a routine meeting. However, they emphasized that raising such a demand within NATO was particularly sensitive because of the United States’ role as the alliance’s de facto leader.

This post was originally published on here.

The government revealed on Monday that Israel ranks third worldwide in artificial intelligence commercialization in its annual economy report, unveiled ahead of Rosh Hashanah.

According to the report, Israel is still among the top ten powerhouses in terms of AI development, research, and commercial implementation, something that also translated into higher investment rates in the Israeli high-tech ecosystem.

The report noted that the country recorded a 53% increase in capital raised by high-tech ventures during the first half of 2026, compared with the same period in 2025.

At the same time, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) TA-125 Index rose by 35% during the last Jewish calendar year, while the shekel strengthened 11% against the dollar, even amid the uncertainty created by the war.

Inflation also went down according to the report, from 2,5% in 2025 to 1,5% in 2026, and the budget deficit stayed within the 4,9% target, with the latest numbers indicating a 3,3% deficit.

Aiming for $70,000 GDP per capita

While the government announced that Israel’s nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita was projected to reach the $70,000 milestone, it also pointed out that the purchasing power of per capita still remained $4,000 below the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average.

This difference stands mainly because Israeli prices are marginally higher than the OECD average, meaning that even with a high GDP per capita in nominal terms, the actual purchasing power of Israelis is lower than average.

In terms of actual growth, the government reported a 3,2% growth in the GDP during the first six months of 2026, compared to the second half of 2025.

In the employment market, the government reported a 3,3% unemployment rate, while the employment rate among people aged 15 to 64 stands at 71%, a little below the 74% reported in OECD countries.

This post was originally published on here.

National Resistance Front forces, a coalition of anti-Houthi forces led by former Houthi ally and senior member of the Yemeni government, Tareq Saleh, have obtained intelligence and maps revealing an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) plan for a phased advance and takeover of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Iran International reported, citing a Wednesday Yemeni military media announcement.

The information was found on the laptop of a Houthi commander captured by government forces in western Yemen, according to the military, which added that the individual was responsible for Houthi operations.

“The Republic Network,” affiliated with the NRF, also published images of military maps that the outlet said show four stages of an advance toward Bab al-Mandab and the city of Hodeidah, as well as parts of the Houthis’ military plans and movements, according to Iran International.

The Iranian-backed Houthi terror group took control of Mocha, a Yemeni port city on the Red Sea and less than 50 miles from the Bab al-Mandab Strait, three anti-Houthi Yemeni government officials told Reuters on Thursday.

Arab media outlets first reported that Yemeni government forces had withdrawn from the city on Thursday morning as the Houthis advanced, and online social media posts displayed photos and videos of Houthi fighters within the city.

NRF commander leads military contingent into Mocha

According to the NRF, a force commander led a military contingent into Mocha on Thursday morning.

“Force reorganization and consolidation [of Mocha’s defenses] are underway in coordination with the anti-Houthi coalition,” NRF’s official media outlet reported.

The NRF forces clashed with Houthi naval forces, the outlet added.

This post was originally published on here.

President Trump has promised that every adult American could receive a $5,000 windfall if Republicans win both chambers of Congress in the midterms in November, and, while light on details, the plan would cost more than $1 trillion.

The president did not specify who would pay for the scheme, but said the money would have to be spent on U.S. goods and services. According to Census Bureau data for 2020, there were 260 million adults living in the U.S.—a figure likely to have increased as the population continues to age. Yet even with this more conservative figure in mind, the plan would still cost at least $1.3 trillion.

If the plan were deemed legal and feasible, it would be funded by the U.S. Treasury, which is already financing deficits and the interest payments required to service its public debt.

The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) latest monthly budget update, released yesterday, reports the federal budget deficit totaled $2 trillion in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2026, beginning in October and ending in August. This was $6 billion less than the deficit recorded for the same period last year.

However, the CBO points out that this reduction is only due to shifts in payment timings. Payments that had been due to land on September 1, 2025, were instead moved to August of that year—if it weren’t for the reallocation, this year’s deficit would stand at $82 billion more than the same period in 2025.

These deficits add to the pile of debt the U.S. has accrued over decades—now sitting at more than $40 trillion. For the past 11 months, the CBO reports that the U.S. Treasury has spent $1.05 trillion servicing that debt—approximately $95 billion every month.

Interest payments alone have cost the Treasury more than its outlays for the Department of Defense, the Department of Education, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Commerce, and the Environmental Protection Agency, combined. Indeed, interest is still $50 billion ahead of the combined spend.

Hypothetically, President Trump’s $5,000 suggestion would stimulate spending and thus would generate revenue for the Treasury in the long term. However, it’s not clear whether the proposed outlay would be financed ahead of time or rely on further Treasury borrowing.

That being said, it’s difficult to estimate how the plan might shape up. The president’s promise was broad: Speaking at the Republican party’s first-ever midterm convention last night, he said “If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump dividend. Congratulations.”

Previous examples

While the premise of Trump’s offer is unusual, as it is based on a political outcome rather than a perceived economic need, it’s not unheard of for governments to put cash in the hands of American households.

Already in his second term, Trump has suggested that tariffs would generate so much cash that it could be shared with the public in the form of $2,000 checks. The president’s math raised eyebrows, as he suggested the duties could both help pay off national debt and leave some over for consumers in the scheme estimated to cost $135 billion.

This was, at the time, nearly half of the tariff revenues expected to be generated annually. However, the proposal was razed when the Supreme Court ruled the basis of Trump’s tariffs was illegal, and ordered the government to refund more than $100 million of the revenues.

In his first term during the coronavirus pandemic, Trump also attempted to increase aid to American households by $2,000—an increase on the $600 agreed by Congress. The motion was knocked down by Senate Republicans, and the proposal never reached a vote.

The plan was later followed through by President Joe Biden, and questions linger over the extent to which the extra soending contributed to rocketing inflation during the period (peaking at 9.1% in June 2022).

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Historic South Jersey amusement park Clementon Park & Splash World has closed its doors and will be put up for sale, its corporate owner announced Wednesday.

The decision marks the second time in seven years that the historic site has shuttered. Owned and operated by Chicago-based IB Parks & Entertainment, the park officially ended operations Monday following the conclusion of its 2026 summer season.

“After five memorable years, we are saddened to announce that we have made the difficult decision to close the park and plan to offer the park for sale,” management said in a statement posted to the park’s website. “It has been a privilege to care for a place that has meant so much to generations of families. We are hopeful that we will find a buyer who shares our love for Clementon Park and will carry its history and legacy forward.”

IB Parks & Entertainment acquired the 52-acre property at a foreclosure auction in March 2021 for $2.37 million. The venue had previously closed unexpectedly in late 2019 under prior ownership following a $4.5 million loan default, remaining dark until IB Parks purchased and reopened it in summer 2021.

Founded in 1907 by Theodore Gibbs and his two sons, Clementon Park began as a traditional “trolley park” built at the end of a transit line to encourage weekend ridership and provide recreation for nearby Philadelphia residents. Situated on a spring-fed lake between Philadelphia and Atlantic City, the venue remained family-run for more than a century before its first sale in 2011.

Over the decades, the site expanded into a hybrid amusement and water park following a $5 million renovation in July 1993 that added the Splash World water park. Its major attractions include the Hellcat wooden roller coaster, the Dragon Coaster, a drop tower, a giant Ferris wheel, and various water slides.

IB Parks & Entertainment, which also operates Indiana Beach Amusement and Water Park in Monticello, Indiana, did not state a specific financial reason for the closure.

Management noted that additional details regarding the property sale will be released as they become available.

Anyone who has lived in Israel over the past few years can attest to the constant volatility, uncertainty, and stress that we have been living through.

We are in constant survival mode, especially since October 7, 2023, and that state of being can crack even the best of us. With budgets logically earmarked in a top-heavy fashion toward defense and security, other vital resources and issues are suffering from a lack of attention and proper budgeting.

Yet we must promote, finance, and treat education as if Israel were in the middle of a peaceful oasis. It’s the primary realm, besides security, that ensures our future. Based on results published this week, we’re failing in education security.

Israel suffered a dramatic collapse in the 2025 PISA exam, which assesses 15-year-old students’ performance in mathematics, reading, and science. In all three subjects, Israel recorded its lowest-ever scores, significantly below those in the previous exam, held in 2022.

Israel’s average score across the three subjects fell by 29 points, the second-sharpest decline among the 75 countries and economies tested, after Latvia.

Israel’s divided school system is failing its future

Israel’s mathematics score fell to 433 points, down 25 points from 458 in 2022, the second-sharpest decline worldwide after Malta. Israel’s science score fell to 442 points, down 23 points from 465 in 2022 and the third-sharpest decline worldwide.

The steepest decline was in reading. Israel’s score fell to 436 points, down 38 points from 474 in 2022 and the second-sharpest decline worldwide, after Latvia.

Of course, those results must be seen in the context of the upheaval the country – and the nation’s students – have faced over the last three years. Education Minister Yoav Kisch did just that, attempting to put a positive spin on the results.

“After nearly a year and a half of war, the evacuation of communities, and deep disruptions to the continuity of learning, I believe these results demonstrate the extraordinary resilience of Israel’s education system,” Kisch said. “Israel maintained its ranking in reading and science compared with 2018, and in math it dropped just one place.”

The Education Ministry also attributed the low scores to the chaotic disruptions to regular learning schedules forced on the education system by the war.

But as valid as war excuses may be, there’s an underlying factor to the scores that can’t be ignored. The education system desperately needs reform.

In 2025, 23% of all first-graders were Arabic speakers, and 25% were haredim (ultra-Orthodox). Israel’s Arabic-speaking students scored below many Third World countries – including below six of the seven Arab countries that participated in the PISA exam. Nearly all of the haredi students in Israel do not even study the material and, as a result, are not even tested.

According to Prof. Dan Ben-David, president and founder of the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research, the bottom line is that about half of Israel’s children – among them haredim, Arab Israelis, and those living in Israel’s geographic and socioeconomic peripheries – are receiving a third-world level education.

“And as if that were not enough, these children belong to the fastest-growing segments of the population. When they eventually constitute half, and later a majority, of Israel’s adult population, they will not be able to maintain a first-world economy,” Ben-David told The Jerusalem Post.

Ben-David’s solution is to dismantle the four separate education streams that currently function in Israel (state, state religious, haredi, and Arab) and replace them with a new, single education system for all.
“The basic tenets of such an overhaul need to include a significant upgrade of the compulsory, identical, core curriculum (allowing the remaining curriculum to reflect local parental preferences). Funding should be only for fully compliant schools, with complete cessation of funding for all others,” he proposed.

Ben-David’s proposal is worth considering, but even if it’s too ambitious, education must take a prominent spot at the table of any future government.

As we head to next month’s election, every party will try to convince the electorate that it has the answer to the country’s pressing issues. They’ll talk about security and the economy. But just as important is what their plans are for the future.

Just as defense is paramount to securing a thriving future for Israel, education is vital to the well-being and continued success of the Jewish state. Brushing the issue aside because we’re fighting for our survival is not an option.

This post was originally published on here.

When Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial pied-à-terre tax took effect, some critics warned it could drive wealthy residents and investment out of New York City.

But inside Manhattan’s high-end real estate market, brokers and market data paint a more nuanced picture: while the policy has triggered confusion among buyers and sellers, some high-net-worth buyers appear to be adapting rather than leaving.

“Any time you add more taxes and your barrier to entry is harder, then it’s not going to be great for the real estate,” Douglas Elliman’s No. 2 agent by volume in Manhattan, Michelle Griffith, told Fox News Digital. “Am I for the pied-à-terre tax? Absolutely not. What I always look at is the opportunity cost… So that remains to be [seen].”

“[The next] two quarters will not tell us the full impact. This is uncharted territory: prior taxes were one-time closing costs, not a recurring annual charge, and whether it produces capital flight is a question we may not be able to answer until 2029,” Douglas Elliman Senior Vice President of Research and Analytics Charles Snyder also told Fox News Digital.

About one month ago, a New York judge temporarily blocked parts of Mayor Mamdani’s rollout of the new tax on luxury second homes, ordering City Hall to take down a controversial list containing the names, addresses and property values of more than 900,000 New York City property owners. The Aug. 10 order temporarily restrained the Mamdani administration from moving ahead based on the disputed property roll or mailed notices and barred the city from enforcing its deadlines against homeowners caught up in the rollout. The city appealed that same day, automatically staying the temporary restraining order and allowing the rollout to continue while the case proceeds.

The signed order would also have prevented the city from imposing, assessing or collecting the surcharge against homeowners identified on the supplemental roll or sending a notice without first making an individualized determination and providing the notice required under state tax law.

The tax has sparked a legal battle, while opponents have warned it could push wealthy New Yorkers toward lower-tax states such as Florida, Texas and Tennessee. However, recent Manhattan transaction data shows continued luxury-market activity despite uncertainty surrounding the surcharge.

“The luxury market entered the tax era from a position of strength rather than weakness. Manhattan contracts rose 4% year-over-year in Q2 to 3,188, closings above $10 million were up 31%, and July, the first month under the tax, saw 98 contracts signed at $4 million and above, down 24% from June but up 5% from a year ago,” Snyder said.

“[Luxury property historically] absorbs [tax increases], but not right away and not for free,” Snyder added. “After the 2019 mansion tax expansion, luxury closings fell 20% in 2017, and the luxury median dropped to $5.4 million from $6.5 million. The catch is that this tax is an annual charge on top of the closing taxes, which raises the odds that this may have a greater impact on the luxury market.”

“The number one word to summarize the pied-à-terre tax is confusion. It’s created so much confusion in the market, not only for our buyers and our sellers, but whether it’s real estate attorneys… real estate professionals. And I think part of why it’s so confusing, is the valuation,” Griffith noted. “If you were to sell the apartment, what is it worth? But now, in having conversations about the pied-à-terre tax, it’s the Department of Finance’s (DOF’s) assessed value… I’ll give you an example: I was looking at an apartment this morning. It sold for $9.5 million, but the Department of Finance’s assessed value was $1.5 [million].

“[It’s] a lot of unknowns that people are trying to get their head around. So we always say, anytime there’s uncertainty, what happens in the market, certain people pause. So whether it’s a presidential election, whether the mayor’s being elected, and whether we’re talking about pied-à-terre taxes, it’s creating some moments of pause. But really what it’s created is uncertainty,” she continued.

In the tax’s first two years, through June 30, 2028, condo and co-op units that are not used as a primary residence may be subject to the surcharge if their DOF market value is at least $1 million, with rates ranging from 4% to 6.5%. One-, two- and three-family homes that are not used as a primary residence may be subject to the surcharge if their DOF market value is at least $5 million, with rates ranging from 0.8% to 1.3%. Beginning July 1, 2028, the $5 million threshold and 0.8% to 1.3% rate structure will apply to covered properties, while DOF will value condo and co-op units under a new methodology that considers comparable condo and co-op sales.

“I would say probably one of the biggest levels of confusion is people are saying, ‘Well, if my property is worth a million dollars, am I going to be taxed?’ And that’s because we’re not looking at fair market value. We’re looking at the DOF assessed value, which can sometimes be a fifth or less of the actual valuation,” Griffith said.

When asked whether property valuations are clustering around the $1 million and $5 million tax thresholds, Snyder responded, “Not in a measurable way yet, and through mid-2028 the law is harder to game than the mansion tax because the trigger is assessed value on the city’s roll, not sale price. That changes in July 2028, when the condo and co-op threshold moves to $5 million of market value tied to comparable sales, and at that point we would expect real clustering just below $5 million, the same pattern the market has shown at the mansion tax thresholds.”

Douglas Elliman data shows that luxury supply tightened following the tax announcement: Q2 new listings fell 7% year over year, with $5 million to $10 million condo listings dropping 10%. In July, the first month the tax took effect, new listings for properties priced at $4 million or more fell 53% from June and 41% from the previous year.

“There is no mass exodus. Our big crisis is inventory,” Griffith said. “The biggest challenge we have in the market right now is inventory. The lack of inventory at every single price point is making it a very difficult market to transact in. And things that come to market are going into bidding wars immediately… Although I know the headlines are much more sensationalized talking about the pied-à-terre tax, really, our biggest challenge is lack of inventory.”

“Unsold sponsor inventory is down 15% year-over-year to 3,334 units, the lowest level since 2014, suggesting owners are waiting rather than a wave of forced selling,” Snyder said.

Market metrics from Douglas Elliman also indicate that properties are not taking longer to sell (July median condo days-on-market fell 14% to 88 days), but buyers are demanding higher price concessions. Additionally, sellers with properties hovering just above key benchmarks such as $5 million are being forced to price below the line to satisfy pied-à-terre buyers capitalizing the recurring tax cost into their offers.

“I had a couple of properties that we sold this summer and they were priced slightly above five. Bids came in, they were slightly below that number, and then we have serious conversations with our sellers and we say, ‘Listen, this is going to come up multiple times. Most of the buyers that have been serious about this property are all looking at it as a pied-à-terre, so you’re likely gonna have to be below that $5 million mark,” Griffith explained.

“I think certain clients are evaluating their usage and how much time they’re spending in New York,” she said. “But I want to be completely transparent. No one’s rushing and listing it for sale or listing it to rent… I think certain people that maybe don’t want to sell the property and keep it in their portfolio are thinking about renting.”

“We are confident in both the pied-à-terre surcharge and the City’s ability to implement it fairly and effectively,” Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for the mayor, previously said. “This surcharge asks those who own second homes valued at $5 million or more to contribute their fair share to the city they benefit from.”

Griffith and Snyder warned that aggressive tax surcharges could backfire if transaction volume drops or prices fall, potentially reducing city revenue from real property transfer and mansion taxes and offsetting some revenue from the new surcharge.

“The early behavioral signal is that some high-end buyers are choosing to rent in Manhattan for now and others are being far more selective about what they buy, which reads as a delay in commitment and a higher bar for the right property rather than a departure from the city,” Snyder detailed. “At the same time, our Florida new development portfolio is having a banner year, but most of that product will not deliver for one to three years, and we do not yet know how many of those buyers will be NYC relocators.”

“You don’t come to Manhattan for anything to be easy,” Griffith admitted. “I think the biggest thing is, we need to reduce the size of our budget, right? They keep talking about, how are we going to get money to make up for the deficit? Well, you need to also decrease spending. So maybe we need to shift that conversation into, are the programs effective? Where’s the money going? How is it being utilized, and how do you decrease spending?”

Fox News’ Stepheny Price and Maria Paronich contributed to this report.

Apple on Wednesday unveiled a highly anticipated foldable version of the iPhone along with other consumer tech devices embedded with artificial intelligence in the first major product event under the leadership of new CEO John Ternus.

Wednesday’s event marked the first major product launch since Ternus stepped into the top job at Apple after former CEO Tim Cook stepped down at the end of August after 15 years leading the company.

Ternus has worked at Apple since 2001, primarily in its product design and hardware engineering teams, and brings deep knowledge of key products like the Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods to the role.

The two Apple veterans joked about the transition during the event, with Cook appearing in a video about how to start the presentation that ended with a closeup of the former CEO saying, “Not me. That’s your guy,” and pointing back to Ternus.

Leander Kahney, editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, spoke with FOX Business following Apple’s event and said that Ternus does a “very good job of putting a human face on the big corporation that is Apple.”

“He talked a lot about the team, about the people behind the products and what a privilege it was to be able to lead the team, and he thanked them at the end,” Kahney said. “I think that’s something Steve Jobs used to do, and it’s a good continuation of that, to acknowledge that he’s not just the one guy – that he might be the face of Apple, but it’s definitely a big team of people behind him.”

Here’s a look at some of the key topics discussed during Apple’s event.

The new iPhone Duo, which is foldable and offers the largest ever iPhone display, will come with a starting price of $1,999. Duo’s 7.6-inch display is 50% larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and when opened is also the thinnest iPhone. It comes with storage options from 256 GB to 2 TB, and serves as Apple’s entry into the foldables market that has been dominated by Android devices.

The Duo’s folding system is made of more than 100 small precision components, and Apple said that it used AI algorithms during manufacturing to match each hinge with its best-fit housing to ensure perfect alignment.

“I think it’s going to be really popular,” Kahney said. “It combines portability with the big screen. Performance seems to be fantastic. It looks like it’s a really good phone for gaming and for productivity, of course, for working on the go. The cameras look pretty good – they’re obviously not the best cameras, but they look plenty good enough for all those everyday uses.”

Kahney added that the selfie feature was a “very clever” use case, as it allows users to not have to rely on a camera when setting up a group picture and will instead wait until people are in the picture and begin taking pictures automatically.

The Duo will be available starting on Oct. 23, with pre-orders opening a week earlier at 5:00 a.m. PT on Oct. 16.

“The key thing with Ternus was talking about the Apple ecosystem,” Kahney said. “Being a product guy, he’s worked on all of these different things – the Apple Watch, the iPad, the iPhone. And this is Apple’s strength, I think, having an ecosystem of products that complement each other and work well together.”

“They had new phones, new AirPods, new Apple Watches – all of them powered by AI,” Kahney said. “AI, of course, is going to have a massive impact on the kind of experiences and the kind of things you can do with watches, with tech products, and they seem to be well-integrated.”

Apple unveiled AirPods 5, which have “industry leading” active noise cancellation, improved sound quality, hands-free Siri AI and live translation, the company said. The devices start at $129.

The Apple Watch Series 12 boasts an updated health sensing system, including higher-frequency heart rate and heart rate variability measurements. Those updates pair with a redesigned Health app to track users’ workouts, sleep, heart rate and more. The Apple Watch Series 12 starts at $399.

AI features were a notable focus in the latest products Apple rolled out at the event, and Ternus himself said that if you were designing a new product from scratch that would serve as an AI-powered personal hub, it would look a lot like the iPhone.

“There’s no product in the world better designed to be your intelligent personal hub than iPhone,” Ternus said. “As your personal hub, your iPhone can do so much more for you because it understands your context. This includes your calendar, your relationships, your routines, the most private details of your daily life.”

Ternus said that Apple Intelligence runs on devices whenever it can to protect users’ data, calling it “personal intelligence that’s actually personal,” and outlined how AI is making the company’s products more capable.

“From Siri becoming more capable and more personal across your Apple products, to meaningful health insights with Apple Watch, to powerful new AirPods, features like live translation, and so much more,” Ternus said.

Kahney noted the Apple Watch’s live rewind tool, which can provide subtitles for conversations and summarize important discussions for reference.

“It’s very smart for Apple to take an Apple Watch, which a lot of people wear these days, and layer in those kinds of AI features without coming up with a whole new product,” Kahney said.

• In today’s CEO Daily: An interview with GM CEO Mary Barra
• The big leadership story: Jensen Huang declares the start of the AGI era.
• The markets: Mixed globally as Brent crude tops $100 a barrel
• Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. Alyson Shontell, Fortune’s Editor-in-Chief, writing from New York this morning. When I had the chance recently to interview Mary Barra for Fortune’s Titans podcast, the GM CEO made clear that the company has no plans to abandon EVs, even as consumer adoption has slowed, improvements to the charging infrastructure have taken longer than expected, and the Trump administration has pulled back on policies designed to accelerate the transition.

“I don’t think it’s shifted our mission,” she told me. “We still think EVs are the end game.”

That conviction matters, given that GM has spent years investing in electric vehicles, batteries, software, and charging. Going forward, Barra is applying a pragmatic framework: GM will keep selling EVs and hybrids; it will also keep selling the lucrative trucks and SUVs that many Americans still want. Investors by and large have applauded her embrace of the messy middle: The stock is trading near its all-time high and is up nearly 6% YTD.

The mantra that Barra returned to again and again in our interview was choice. She invoked the goal of the legendary GM CEO Alfred P. Sloan: to reach “a lot of pocketbooks.” It’s an idea that feels newly relevant in an inflationary era, as automakers try to serve customers with very different budgets, driving habits, and comfort levels with electrification.

As for her broader management philosophy, Barra told me, “Agility is a superpower now.” It’s a lesson she learned early in her tenure as CEO, when it became clear that a disastrous ignition-switch malfunction had not been addressed for months because of what she called at the time a “deeply troubling” culture of bureaucratic inaction. Barra quickly instilled a set of protocols to prevent anything like that from happening again: Solve problems immediately, build mechanisms for employees to surface concerns, and repeat the message until it becomes embedded in the culture. 

That’s still her approach. “Rarely do problems get smaller,” she told me. Today, GM starts every meeting with a safety message—a way to keep the lessons learned from the ignition switch crisis top of mind—and maintains a “speak up for safety” culture. 

Creating an agile organization also means anticipating what lies ahead. To that end, GM is investing in automation, aiming to offer eyes-off-the-road highway driving in a Cadillac Escalade IQ by 2028. It is spending more than $250 million on skilled-trades training, which Barra has told high school students may be “a little more AI-proof” than some white-collar jobs. And it is experimenting with AI in factories and vehicle design to help its workforce move faster.

These approaches add up to a clear strategy other leaders can learn from: Play the long game and don’t let shifts in the landscape throw you off course. Address problems as they arise and retain the flexibility to meet customers where they are now.

Check out my full interview with Mary Barra here.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

The Transportation Security Administration has launched a new program allowing eligible TSA PreCheck members who are not flying to go through security and enter secure areas to greet arriving passengers or say goodbye to departing loved ones at the gate at some U.S. airports.

Under the program, eligible TSA PreCheck members without tickets can pass through security and enter gate areas, bringing back access that was largely restricted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that led to heightened airport security measures.

The move would bring back the emotional send-offs and gate-side reunions that were common before 9/11. The program would also allow guests to meet someone during a layover or visit airport restaurants and shops.

After 9/11, access beyond airport security checkpoints was generally limited to ticketed travelers, although airlines could issue gate passes in certain circumstances.

“As an exclusive benefit for our most trusted travelers, this new program makes it easier to return to the gate for welcomes and send-offs, meet friends during a layover, and enjoy dining and shopping along the way, bringing back the moments that once defined air travel,” the TSA said on its website.

The program, Gateside by TSA PreCheck, is free, but members interested in a guest pass must apply online at least one day and no more than three days before their planned visits and receive approval before showing up at the airport.

If approved, guests can enter security using a TSA PreCheck lane with an acceptable form of identification. Visitors who do not have an acceptable form of identification can use TSA ConfirmID to attempt to verify their identity for a $45 fee. TSA does not guarantee that it will be able to verify their identity.

The passes are valid for only one calendar day, although reentries are permitted for that day.

Children can also go through security but must be included on their parent or guardian’s application.

The TSA said members of other trusted-traveler programs who have a Known Traveler Number may also apply for access to the gates.

The initial rollout applies to 13 airports, including Los Angeles International Airport, San Diego International Airport, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Salt Lake City International Airport and Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.

The other participating airports are Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, John Glenn Columbus International Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport, Indianapolis International Airport, Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Will Rogers International Airport and Eppley Airfield.

But the agency said it plans to expand the program to additional airports in the coming months.

This comes as 21 airports across the country have adopted policies allowing non-ticketed visitors to receive a guest pass to move through airport security and into the terminal at no charge, with Pittsburgh International Airport being the first major U.S. airport to enact such a policy in 2017.

Cream cheese and ready-to-eat deli-style salads are facing a recall over potential listeria contamination.

New York-based Made Fresh Salads, Inc. issued a recall this week for all of its cream cheese products and Ready-to-Eat Deli Style Salads in response to the listeria risk.

Made Fresh Salads’ recalled cream cheese items include 5-pound and 30-pound tubs of various flavors, such as 5-pound apple cinnamon cream cheese, 5-pound tofu vegetable spread, 30-pound whipped cream cheese and 30-pound scallion cream cheese.

The company also recalled dozens of ready-to-eat salad products, including 5-pound chickpea salad, 5-pound bowtie pesto, 30-pound macaroni salad and 30-pound potato salad.

The company’s 7-pound chocolate pudding, 6-pound vanilla pudding, 12-piece crab cakes and 12-piece potato croquettes were also subject to the recall.

Affected items have expiration dates ranging from Sept. 3 to Sept. 18.

The salads and cream cheese items were distributed in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx in New York City in 5-pound and 30-pound white plastic tubs with a Made Fresh Salads label or Northside label and half-size aluminum pans.

The products may have been repacked by retail locations in deli-style or other retail packaging, according to the company, although retail packaging and coding can vary based on purchase location.

The recall was initiated following environmental sampling by the company and the Food and Drug Administration, revealing that some areas of the facility tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes. The company has ceased production and distribution of the products as it continues to investigate, along with the FDA, what caused the contamination.

A listeria infection can cause symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, as well as miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

It can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems.

No illnesses have been reported thus far in connection with the recalled products.

Consumers who purchased the affected items are urged to return them to the place of purchase for a full refund.

In the real world, President Donald Trump is struggling to stop inflation, rout the Iranian government and restore American manufacturing with tariffs.

However, it’s a different story in the fantastical vision that he shares with supporters on social media. Over Labor Day weekend, Trump and the White House unleashed an extraordinarily heavy torrent of memes that portrayed the president as singularly powerful.

One video depicted Trump as a superhero wielding Green Lantern’s ring to effortlessly build a wall to keep out migrants and erect a slew of busy factories. Another post showed him in a U.S. hockey uniform looming over Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as Carney cowered on the ice. And another had Trump on a military ship as it bombarded an enemy fleet.

Trump’s allure has always relied on a mythical version of himself, from “The Apprentice” to the White House, but the gap between meme and reality has become glaringly stark ahead of the midterm elections. Most U.S. adults are unhappy with Trump’s handling of the economy and say the Iran war hasn’t been worth it, but Trump has responded with outlandish images of himself as unstoppable and omnipotent.

Memes risk sidestepping reality

Some of the pictures are generated with artificial intelligence, and the administration has previously defended the memes as funny and their critics as humorless. Yet the stakes right now are serious for congressional Republicans who have tied their own fate to a president with low approval numbers. Trump’s party will put him center stage at an unusual midterm convention on Wednesday and Thursday in Dallas in hopes of stoking voters’ enthusiasm.

Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist, said that Trump’s social media posts can energize his base of “Make America Great Again” followers, although the tradeoff is that he’s not talking about how to fix inflation.

The voters who are likely to determine control of Congress in the midterms “are not going to be won over with memes,” Madden said. “The affordability voter is driving this election cycle and the issues they care about are anchored in the economy.”

The White House press office did not respond to a request for comment. Trump sometimes plucks memes from a sprawling ecosystem of online conservative supporters, and sometimes his government staff produces them as part of their official messaging. Recently they created a series of old-school video games, such as a “Tetris” knockoff called “Build the Wall.”

“The memes will continue,” Kaelan Dorr, a member of the White House communications team, recently posted on social media. “The winning will continue.”

Aging presidents promote vitality online

The problem for Trump is that voters have other images they’re using to define him. Drivers can spot through their windshields that gasoline is averaging $4.15 a gallon, up nearly 30% from a year ago because of the Iran war. And social media is inundated with questions about the 80-year-old president’s health and vitality, spurred by pictures of his bruised hands or video clips of him appearing to fall asleep in meetings.

White House officials have said the bruising is caused by “frequent handshaking” and Trump’s aspirin regimen, and they’ve denied that he’s dozed off.

Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, is three years older and faced relentless scrutiny about his age while in office. His White House came to embrace a meme version of Biden with lasers for eyes, suggesting that he was powerful and focused rather than infirm.

Andrew Bates, who was a deputy press secretary for Biden, said that Trump’s memes seem to be about avoiding the actual responsibilities of governing. He said they risk angering voters who see Trump as more focused on redecorating the White House than bringing the Iran war to a successful end.

“When a president who ran on bringing gas prices under $2 a gallon is now saying, ‘You’re at four dollars, it’s OK,’ it unfortunately makes sense that he’s also posting fever dreams,” Bates said.

Some memes have caused trouble

The memes have occasionally gotten Trump into trouble. He posted an image of himself as Jesus in April, which caused a degree of consternation among some supporters. The president later claimed he thought the image showed him as a medical doctor — albeit a doctor in Biblical robes with light emanating from his hands.

In February, his account posted a racist video of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as primates, which he deleted after a backlash.

Last October, Trump shared a video of him in a fighter jet dumping feces on Americans who were protesting his policies.

What the memes have not done so far is boost his wider approval ratings. Only 33% of U.S. adults approve of how he is handling the job of being president, according to a July AP-NORC poll.

But the polling also hits at a reason why he might be sending the memes to rally his core supporters. Just 15% of U.S. adults strongly approve of his presidency, the poll found, a slight decline from 22% shortly after he took office.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

The Iranian nuclear site buried under Pickaxe Mountain has seen an increased level of construction work over the last year, analysts reviewing satellite imagery shared with CNN on Wednesday.

Construction at the site, analysts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank told CNN, “has shifted from active excavation toward probably internal construction and continued exterior reinforcement.”

The site has seen “more road activity,” as well as “raising and hardening of the (tunnel) portal accesses, paving of the internal road network, reinforcement around access areas, and the flattening and removal” of excavated dirt.

According to CSIS, the site has likely been designed to be a safe haven for Iran’s nuclear program, CNN reported.

CSIS analysts said that the site could serve as a centrifuge assembly facility, an enrichment facility, or other “nuclear-weapons-relevant” work. However, based on the continuous construction, the analysis estimated that the site “is not yet capable of enrichment work, if that is the intended purpose.”

A source familiar with the matter told CNN that the United States had considered Pickaxe Mountain one of the potential targets if the war against Iran escalated in the last several months.

One source said that the Defense Department had recently held a “planning sprint” on the topic of strikes against Iranian underground facilities, including Pickaxe Mountain.

US explores options for striking deeply buried Iranian sites

Pickaxe Mountain could prove difficult to strike with existing US non-nuclear bombs due to the granite surrounding the underground facility, according to the CSIS analysis cited by CNN.

Four days before the US launched Operation Epic Fury, a Defense Threat Reduction Agency program manager signed an emergency $1.2 million contract justification for repairs to an underground test facility at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, CNN reported.

The document referred to preparations for a live-fire test of classified capabilities and said the work needed to be completed within two to three weeks due to a “time-sensitive national security directive.”

Three sources told CNN that the planned test was connected to the Iran war and efforts to develop ways of targeting Iran’s deepest underground facilities.

CNN said it could not independently verify whether the test occurred or confirm the purpose of activity observed at the White Sands site.

US developing next-generation penetrator

The US struck Iranian nuclear sites during Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025. A top US general later told lawmakers that only the entrances to the deeply buried Isfahan nuclear site were buried because the Pentagon believed its Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs could not destroy the facility, CNN reported.

The US military is also developing a successor to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator that could potentially target more deeply buried facilities.

A prototype contract was awarded in September 2025, and the Air Force sought defense industry sources for the weapon in June, CNN reported.

CNN also reported that the US maintains operational plans to strike Pickaxe Mountain. The site was included in a target package considered earlier this summer, although it remains unclear whether existing US munitions could penetrate deeply enough to destroy what Iran may have moved underground.

This post was originally published on here.

One of the crypto industry’s oldest firms is splitting in two. Consensys announced on Wednesday that it is rebranding as MetaMask, which is the name of its flagship wallet product. This unit will operate as an independent corporate entity, focused entirely on its consumer MetaMask platform, while the rest of the firm’s operations—which include various protocols and Ethereum software for institutions—will be housed in a new and separate unit.

Under the new corporate arrangement, Consensys founder Joe Lubin will be CEO of the standalone MetaMask unit, while longtime executive Mike Kriak will lead the new, institution-focused entity that will carry on the legacy Consensys name. Lubin will also serve as Executive Chairman of the latter.

In an interview with Fortune, Lubin explained the decision to split the company came upon recognizing that its consumer-focused MetaMask operation was accruing value at a more rapid pace than the rest of Consensys’s business units.

The shake-up comes at a delicate moment in the corporate evolution of Consensys. Founded over a decade ago in Brooklyn as an Ethereum startup incubator, it relocated to Texas in 2023, and a year ago signaled plans to go public early this year, but those plans appear to have been scuttled by a major downturn in the crypto market.

Lubin declined to comment on the renewed timeline for an IPO, but his comments about the rapid growth of its consumer platform, and the company’s decision to split the firm suggest the standalone MetaMask firm might seek a listing as soon as early 2027.

Over the years, Consensys has sought to align its corporate values with the decentralized ethos of the Ethereum blockchain, of which Lubin was one of the cofounders. This goal has served to keep the company close to developers and longtime crypto enthusiasts, but has also meant that Consensys has at times suffered from the same chaos and strategic drift as Ethereum itself.

In the last several years, Consensys has carried out rounds of layoffs, and also got in a bruising but successful fight with the Biden-era Securities and Exchange Commission over the right to build decentralized software.

During this time, Consensys also sought to build out MetaMask, which began as a decentralized wallet for Ethereum, but has since expanded into something more like the crypto version of a neo-bank.

“We see a massive opportunity ahead of us as MetaMask is really maturing,” said Lubin, who pointed out to the brand’s recent launch of “Master Account,” which lets users hold various assets—including various forms of crypto and fiat currencies—in a single account, which they can spend using a Mastercard-supported debit card.

MetaMask also has a suite of other services, including perpetual futures and prediction markets, that Lubin says are providing an increasingly diversified revenue stream.

Lubin has hinted in recent years that MetaMask, which has a stablecoin, was poised to drop its own token, but on Tuesday told Fortune that the current business and regulatory climate means that fewer firms are inclined to issue their own cryptocurrencies.

As for the new corporate unit focused on protocols and institutional software, it will use the legacy name Consensys. Lubin said the recent push by banks and other companies to push portions of their operations on-chain will presage a long-term boom for both Ethereum and the newly-constituted Consensys.

In response to why the company chose to split its business units, and the new firms’ timeline for an IPO, a spokesperson declined to provide specific details.

“We don’t comment on market speculation or potential future capital markets activity. What we can say is that MetaMask and Consensys are two strong businesses operating in distinct markets, with different growth trajectories and paths to value creation. Separating them gives each company the dedicated leadership, focus and strategic flexibility to pursue its opportunity independently and maximize its long-term potential,” said the spokesperson.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

For centuries, French and Italian mountain communities on the flanks of Western Europe’s highest peak have gazed upon seemingly eternal glaciers and snow that gave the colossus its name: Mont Blanc, the white mountain.

But climate warming is dismantling the picture at alarming speed.

Europe’s record heat waves this summer savaged permafrost that for millennia has acted like glue on the Alpine landscape. Defrosting cliffs came apart as high-altitude cold gave way to higher temperatures, sending rock falls cascading from the heights. A famously dangerous rock-prone gully that climbers have long braved on ascents to the summit, 4,805 meters (15,766 feet) up, became temporarily impassable.

“We weep for our mountain, the way it’s changing. It hits us in the gut,” said Stéphane Bozon, a deputy mayor in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, a French town at the foot of the giant that straddles France’s border with Italy.

“From mid-July onward, we saw an increase in rock falls. We saw areas becoming difficult to access because of glacial retreat and snowmelt on the glaciers, with crevasses opening up and rock collapses making some areas difficult to reach or traverse,” he told The Associated Press.

Each degree of warming can have an outsized impact. On the Aiguille du Midi peak, which rises to an altitude of 3,842 meters (12,605 feet) in the Mont Blanc range, average temperatures for July have soared. From a chilly 1.6 C (33.8 F) in 1994, the monthly average for this July was the warmest ever recorded, at 3.3 C (37.4 F), says Meteo France, the national weather service.

“The mountain really dried out, with temperatures unlike any I had ever experienced,” Bozon said.

The Himalayan flood disaster hits close to home in the Alps

In the wake of devastating floods in the Himalayas, AP talked to researchers, climbers and residents coping with the risks and uncertainties of climate change on Mont Blanc.

The Aug. 26 floods that swept through Nepal and China were triggered after a collapse of bedrock and glacier ice sent debris and water surging through multiple Himalayan rivers. Initial assessments of many scientists are that climate change played a key role in creating conditions for the catastrophe.

As Earth’s global average temperature rises because of the burning of oil, gas and coal, the chances of such disasters increase.

In the Alps, glaciers once admired for their icy majesty are being eyed with trepidation as they shrink and lose stability.

Bozon, who is in charge of safety for Chamonix, says his town urgently needs to prepare for “serious scenarios” of chunks of glacier or mountain potentially falling onto inhabited areas.

“We have to move quite quickly because this summer has shaken us and year after year we’re being shaken by the glaciers’ retreat,” he said.

In Italy, researchers are also documenting dramatic damage wrought by heat on glaciers this year. In Lombardy, Alpine glaciers have lost more than 40% of their surface area since 1991, according to the region’s glacier service.

“While it used to snow at high altitudes in the past, now it rains,” said Vanda Bonardo, head of the Italian branch of the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps, a nongovernmental organization.

“So we’ve also seen the effects on the stability of the terrain,” she said.

Rock falls in the Mont Blanc area have surged

Permafrost that has held Alpine peaks in its icy grip for thousands of years acts as a cement, helping to hold their steep rock faces together. It took a beating from the succession of heat waves.

“That doesn’t mean that all the rock faces will collapse in the coming years or decades but quite a number of them are on the verge of becoming unstable and remain stable today only because of the presence of that ice. As the ice changes, we have seen a huge, huge number of rock falls and rock collapses this year,” said Ludovic Ravanel, a researcher at Savoie Mont Blanc University who specializes in climate change’s impact on mountain snows, glaciers and frosts.

A collapse is a major fall involving more than 100 cubic meters (3,531 cubic feet) of rock — more than enough to fill a large shipping container. Ravanel expects this year’s tally of collapses in the Mont Blanc massif “will probably reach around 400.” He says that is about 10 times more than two decades ago.

The last time things got close to this bad was the ’’catastrophic year″ of 2022, he said, with nearly 300 collapses.

“This has really been one of the defining features of the summer of 2026,” he said.

A Mont Blanc climbing guide juggles the risks

Chamonix-based mountain guide Stuart MacDonald says it shocks him to see how rapidly and extensively glaciers that hang from the flanks of the Mont Blanc massif are retreating.

When he guides people up the peaks, he points them to “where the glacier was last year and this is where it was 10 years ago. And that usually has quite an effect.”

Melting and the risk of rock falls made his job “pretty challenging” this summer and forced him to cancel plans to lead a group to Mont Blanc’s summit last week.

“You hear it before you see it and then you’ll turn round and you’ll just see an enormous cascade of rocks coming down a slope and it can be quite terrifying,” MacDonald said.

“What’s most scary is that sometimes these rocks are falling on routes that we used to be climbing at this time of year,” he added. “It can be depressing sometimes when you look at something that you maybe climbed in July or August in the past and you see that it’s absolutely impossible to do it now.”

___

Leicester reported from Paris. Associated Press journalists Trisha Thomas and Paolo Santalucia in Rome and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

In July, Saudi Arabia and the United States bombed Iran-backed militias in Iraq after blaming them for drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities that had been claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, another Iranian ally.

Now, regional officials tell The Associated Press that the Houthis helped the Iraqi militias plan and execute the two-day swarm attack, showing a new level of coordination.

Iran spent decades building up armed groups on Israel’s frontiers that suffered major losses in the wars following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza. Israel battered the Palestinian militants as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which had been Iran’s most powerful ally.

Regional officials and experts say Iran is now using the Iraqi militias and the Houthis to threaten Saudi Arabia and other American allies in the Gulf in order to drive up the costs of the war launched by the U.S. and Israel in February.

It is a risky strategy. A wave of Houthi attacks on Saudi oil facilities on Tuesday threatened to reignite full-scale war with the kingdom. Iraq has ordered militias to disarm by the end of this month, though powerful Iran-backed groups have refused to do so. A new American effort to economically isolate Iran could spark further escalation.

Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq form a pincer movement

The Houthi involvement in the Iraqi drone attack was confirmed by two Saudi officials, citing intelligence, and a senior Iraqi security official. They said Houthi emissaries worked in an operations room run by Iraqi militias.

Saudi Arabia and the U.S. responded with joint airstrikes that killed at least 20 Iraqi fighters, six Iranian advisers and at least one Houthi official. The death of the Houthi, not previously reported, was confirmed by a Houthi official and an Iraqi militia member.

A U.S. military official said Houthis had been killed in previous strikes in Iraq. The U.S. is concerned about the Houthi presence there and their ability to launch attacks on other countries, including Saudi Arabia, the official said.

Two officials with the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of militias that is officially part of Iraq’s security forces, denied involvement in the attack on Saudi Arabia and denied that the Houthis were operating under its auspices. The PMF includes powerful militias backed by Iran that sometimes act independently.

All the officials and the militia member spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. The Houthis did not respond to a request for comment.

Cooperation grew during the war in Gaza

Cooperation between the Iraqi militias and the better organized Houthis had grown throughout the war in Gaza, when they coordinated attacks on Israel, according to the Houthi and regional officials. At the height of the war, Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi spoke of a joint operations room.

After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Iran and its allies began firing on Gulf nations to broaden the conflict and inflict pain on major oil producers hosting American forces.

“Iran has a hybrid strategy in the current war. We are not fighting on one front and we are not using one tool,” Mahdi Mohammadi, an adviser to Iran’s parliament speaker, wrote on social media in June.

“The Houthis’ growing prominence during the Gaza war opened up a new horizon in Iraq. Many groups there became eager to support the Houthis, and in return, the Houthis started sharing their military expertise with Iraqi militias,” said Ahmed Nagi, senior Yemen analyst at the Crisis Group, an international think tank.

Now they are “squeezing Saudi like with pliers,” Nagi said.

Houthi blockade of Saudi Arabia ramps up pressure

A week before the drone swarm attack, the Houthis declared a blockade against Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, threatening another critical trade route as the wartime disruption of the Strait of Hormuz has jolted the world economy.

Since late July, the Houthis have carried out over a dozen attacks against Saudi oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea, according to the war monitor group ACLED.

On Tuesday, they launched a wave of attacks on oil and other facilities in southern Saudi Arabia, wounding more than 70 people, including women and children, Saudi authorities said.

The Houthi blockade has forced Saudi Arabia to adopt a “dark” transit policy that includes turning off tracking signals on oil tankers in the Red Sea, according to ACLED.

Saudi oil exports are in the crosshairs

Saudi Arabia had diverted much of its oil to the Red Sea after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz. When the Houthis began attacking, the kingdom started shipping more oil north to the Suez Canal and Egypt’s SUMED pipeline, whose flows have risen from 650,000 barrels a day in June to over 1.9 million in August, according to global shipping monitor Kpler.

Last month, the Houthis showed they can target that route as well, striking a Saudi tanker in the northern Red Sea with a missile. The tanker had reportedly traveled from the Saudi port of Yanbu to the Suez Canal, some 1,000 kilometers (700 miles) from Houthi territory.

The Houthis “are willing to weather some shorter term pain for what they feel will be longer term gains,” such as extending their reach along the Red Sea coast, said Adam Baron, a Yemen expert at the New America think tank in Washington.

“The train to a return to full scale war has left the station, and it’s unclear if anyone is going to jump in to stop it,” he said, citing the U.S. focus on Iran and the Saudis’ reluctance to intervene in Yemen again.

The Houthis have their own reasons for fighting Saudi Arabia

The rebels seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014. The following year, the Saudis joined with Yemen’s internationally recognized government in a counteroffensive, likely fearing that the kingdom could end up with a Hezbollah-like group on its doorstep.

The civil war has killed at least 150,000 people, according to U.N. estimates, and at times pushed Yemen to the brink of famine. A ceasefire that had mostly held since 2022 is now in tatters.

For years, a Saudi-led blockade has raised pressure on the Houthis while exacting a heavy toll on ordinary people in rebel-held parts of Yemen.

The Houthis have often responded by escalating hostilities, and renewed fighting could allow them to gain control of energy-rich areas of eastern Yemen, said Elisabeth Kendall, a Yemen expert at Cambridge University’s Girton College.

The Houthis have no shortage of advanced weaponry

The Houthis, who control northern and central Yemen, have been smuggling in advanced weapons for years, circumventing the blockade and a U.N. arms embargo. Iran denies arming the rebels, but Iranian-made weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in intercepted shipments.

The rebels have an array of cruise and ballistic missiles, drones and unmanned submarines.

Saudi-backed forces in Yemen are fighting back on a number of fronts, including the crucial port city of Hodeida and the province of Taiz along Yemen’s west coast. The Houthis have attacked Mokha, the main Red Sea port still held by the government.

Saudi Arabia appears reluctant to directly target the Houthis again, but if the rebels continue to escalate, “it will have to act decisively once and for all,” Kendall said.

___

El Deeb reported from Beirut and Abdul-Zahra from Baghdad. Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

The widow of a man killed in Sunday’s fiery Amazon jet crash in Miami has filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing the retail giant and its aviation partners of negligence and a string of dangerous landing mistakes. 

Yaraisi Santiso Morejon alleged the disaster was caused by pilot error, inadequate personnel training and the use of an unairworthy aircraft, according to the complaint reported by Courthouse News.

Her husband, Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, was among five people killed when the Boeing 767 overran a runway at Miami International Airport and slammed into two vehicles before erupting in flames.

Morejon also alleged that the flight was conducted under hazardous conditions, citing an active thunderstorm in the area, the outlet reported. 

“This disaster was not an unavoidable accident,” Morejon said. 

The complaint named the pilots as Captain Joseph Carroll, 55, and co-pilot Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, 37, accusing them of touching down far past the safe zone on the runway.

The plane reportedly landed more than 40 knots, or 46 mph, faster than the recommended speed, touched down 4,000 feet past the target zone and failed to perform a proper nose-flare maneuver, in which the pilot gently raised the aircraft’s nose just before touchdown to slow its rate of descent.

When the approach became unstable, the pilots failed to execute a mandatory go-around or declare an emergency, the suit alleged.

The jet ultimately plowed through the perimeter fencing and overran the runway by about 1,300 feet.  

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Tuesday said investigators are still working to determine what happened during the crash and have not released an official cause. 

Flight operator 21 Air was also accused of inadequately training its pilots, providing poor crew supervision and imposing demanding flight schedules.

Prior safety complaints from former employees were also ignored or suppressed, according to the outlet. 

Crews were reportedly pushed to fly without proper rest, pilots with limited English skills were allowed to fly and aircraft remained in service despite ongoing problems, the suit alleged. 

In a statement to Fox Business, Amazon said every jet operated on its behalf was flown by an FAA-certified air carrier under FAA-approved operations and maintenance programs. 

“The FAA actively oversees each carrier’s programs and any changes are individually reviewed and approved by the FAA,” the company said. “These programs require: licensed individuals to perform regulated activities, recurrent training of licensed personnel, and routine aircraft inspections and maintenance at regular intervals.”

After the incident, 21 Air issued a statement extending its condolences to those impacted. 

“Our deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives. Our immediate priorities are supporting those affected, assisting the authorities, and ensuring that accurate information is communicated as it becomes available,” the operator said. 

Meanwhile, the aircraft owner, Atlas Air, was accused of supplying an aging 32-year-old plane and failing to ensure that critical stopping systems were fully operational and safe. 

Authorities on Tuesday revealed that key braking systems, including speed brakes and thrust reversers, were not deployed during landing, citing available recorded data recovered from the crash. The NTSB said investigators will continue analyzing the circumstances of the incident. 

Amazon was also named in the suit for allegedly failing to adequately oversee the operations. 

In a statement, the retail giant expressed its sympathies to those affected by the crash and said it was working with investigators and its operators on the matter. 

Amazon added that using independent air carriers was “standard practice in commercial aviation.” 

“Major U.S. (and foreign) passenger airlines also contract with independent carriers to operate flights under their brand but as separately certificated and regulated air carriers,” Amazon said.

Israel opened its first embassy in Slovenia on Wednesday, signaling warming relations after populist Janez Janša formed a center-right government following elections in March.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar opened the embassy in a ceremony attended by his Slovenian counterpart, Tone Kajzer.

In a moving ceremony, together with my friend and colleague @TKajzer, the Foreign Minister of Slovenia, I inaugurated the Embassy of Israel in Slovenia just an hour ago.

This is the fifth new Israeli embassy within a year and a half.

We have friends in Europe and around the… pic.twitter.com/mNdBk7VbaO

— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) September 9, 2026

“This is the fifth new Israeli embassy within a year and a half,” Sa’ar noted in an X/Twitter post. “We have friends in Europe and around the world, and we must strengthen relations and cooperation with them.”

Slovenia’s Foreign Ministry marked the event as “an important milestone in relations between our two countries.”

“An embassy is more than a diplomatic mission,” it said. “It is a bridge between our countries, economies, institutions and people. We want today’s opening to mark the beginning of a period of greater dialogue, stronger cooperation and, above all, more tangible results for the benefit of our people.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that Slovenia’s new government and Prime Minister Janša “have demonstrated their friendship toward Israel through both words and actions, and have expressed support for Israel within the European Union.”

The rapprochement comes as Israel faces growing diplomatic isolation elsewhere, including import bans from Britain, France and Canada on products from Israeli settlements.

A turnaround for the first European country to recognize a Palestinian state

The embassy’s opening marks a sudden turnaround for Slovenia, a tiny Alpine country which is a member of the European Union and the NATO military alliance. Under the previous government of liberal Robert Golob, it was one of a few European countries to recognize a Palestinian state.

The move is not universally popular in Slovenia. 

Protests were scheduled against the opening of the embassy on Wednesday evening by student movements, a left-wing political opposition party and pro-Palestinian groups.

Slovenia one of first EU countries to ban West Bank imports, PM Netanyahu

Slovenia was also among the first EU countries to ban imports from the West Bank and entry for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his two hardline ministers, decisions the new government quickly revoked.

Israel was among the first countries to recognize Slovenia’s independence, and the two established diplomatic relations in 1992. Slovenia opened an embassy in Israel in 1994, while Israel had been represented until then by a non-resident ambassador.

This post was originally published on here.

Good morning. Most CFOs aren’t giving up on junior talent. They’re giving up on the old way of developing it.

That’s the subject of a conversation I had with James Tucker, who leads corporate finance and strategy globally at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Tucker talks to hundreds of finance chiefs a year. His read: entry-level hiring hasn’t totally stopped, but the job itself is being rewritten in real time.

“The old reliable model was, ‘I’ll hire people who’ve studied and got their accounting certificates, and what they’re really good at is doing a replicable task at a high level of accuracy and quality,” Tucker said. Firms hired large cohorts to do routine finance work, like reconciliations, journal entries, and basic reporting. They then watched who rose to the top.

AI is changing that.

What replaces the old model, in Tucker’s framing, is a pillar: fewer people, hired for judgment rather than task execution, operating as quality control on top of AI-built systems rather than producing the numbers themselves.

That’s the tension. The work AI is taking over is also how junior employees traditionally developed judgment. AI can do the research, drafting and problem decomposition; junior employees get fewer chances to practice those skills.

The concern is showing up in the data. A recent working paper by Harvard researchers suggests generative AI adoption can reduce hiring of junior workers, particularly in AI-exposed jobs, while having much less effect on existing senior workers.

In a BCG global study of C-suite leaders, half said they’re already seeing “de-skilling” in their organizations, and more than 60% expect it to become a material problem within three to five years. More than half cited slower junior-talent development as an underlying driver.

So what should CFOs do?

Tucker’s answer is to replace volume with concentration—and automation with apprenticeship. Rather than spreading the remaining manual, judgment-based work, such as the roughly 10% of reconciliations that resist automation, across a large junior class, firms should concentrate those reps on fewer people so an experience curve still forms.

Junior staff also need to be in the room for real decisions, not processing “widgets” in the back office, so they absorb judgment through observation and repetition. Rotations between finance and the business can help, too. Tucker sees a consistent gap in junior talent: strong technical acumen, weak business acumen. Getting people closer to pricing, operations, and strategy gives them context that spreadsheets alone can’t provide.

Hiring criteria are shifting accordingly. Accounting skills are still desired, but there’s more focus on pattern recognition and the instinct to know when an output looks wrong.

Sheryl Estrada
[email protected]

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

British sanctions will impact wine imports and Israeli wineries in the short term, but will have little negative impact in the long term, two wine businesses told The Jerusalem Post.

On Tuesday, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced an import ban on goods from “illegal” settlements in the West Bank. He was joined by 11 other countries that all introduced varying import bans or sanctions.

One of the most affected goods, if the ban goes into effect, will be wine from settlement wineries because they are well-labeled and exported in high numbers.

The Post reached out to Aaron Schapiro of London-based Arele’s Kosher Wines, which stocks one of the biggest selections of Israeli and kosher wines in the United Kingdom.

‘I’m imagining it will go very hard on us’

“We don’t know [the impact] as long as things don’t go into effect, but if it does, I’m imagining it will go very hard on us,” Schapiro told the Post Tuesday.

He said that many Israeli wines stocked by UK stores are produced in settlement wineries – for example Psagot, Gush Etzion and Shiloh.

“If we can’t import them, we will lose more than half of our inventory,” he told the Post.

“The thing is, the consumers of these wines specifically want Israeli wines,” he explained. “I don’t know how far they’ll go to find the substitute and to go to the French or go to the Italian. Maybe they will choose to buy just the Israeli wine that is not sanctioned, but that will be a very small amount of wineries.

“So in terms of the effect on our business, then then then then the turnover will be less sales – that’s a massive impact.”

Schapiro mentioned a friend who stocks Israeli wines in Belgium, which already announced a goods ban in July 2026.

“Some of the wine he is bringing in is from so-called occupied territory, and no one has stopped him. But it’s a very risky situation.”

Schapiro also raised the question of how Britain and the other boycotting nations will determine what wines to sanction and which are acceptable.

He explained that there are wineries that are situated in internationally recognized Israel, but which grow or obtain their grapes in the settlements, and vice versa. For example, commercial giants like Carmel and Barkan source substantial portions of their grapes or operate industrial park facilities in the West Bank and Golan Heights.

“So, how are you going to know what is coming from where? It’s very tricky.”

If it does go into effect, Schapiro thinks that importers of kosher settlement wine will be able to exempt it from sanctions by empathizing the religious necessity of having it.

Religious exemptions yield further complications for businesses

Miliband mentioned a religious exemption for imports, and kosher wines and grape juices are required for many Jewish practices and celebrations.

As a result, unfermented kosher grape juice for use at Jewish rituals like Seder or Kiddush is zero-rated for VAT, provided it is prominently marked in English as “for sacramental use only”.

Schapiro suggested that kosher wine could be deemed ‘for sacramental use’ and therefore exempt from the ban. In fact, the same could be said for many, if not all, kosher products exported from Israel.

For these reasons, Schapiro told the Post he is not overly worried about the impact of the sanctions, and thinks it was mainly a political stunt.

“I believe it’s something good is gonna come out of this,” he told the Post.

The Post also spoke to Psagot Winery CEO Yaakov Berg. Psagot is the largest settlement winery, and exports about 60% of its wines, or around 350,000 to 750,000 bottles a year. Kedem Europe imports Psagot wines into the UK, and major supermarkets such as Tesco also stock them, along with smaller kosher stores like Arele’s and Kosher Kingdom.

Berg told the Post on Wednesday that, in the short term, “it will hurt our business” but “in the long term, everything will be okay.”

Berg acknowledged that wine is easier to sanction than other products because wineries directly label their products and where they come from, unlike a tomato, which could have been grown anywhere.

But Berg said he has been boycotted many times before, and has survived each time.

“When I started the winery 20 years ago, the first harvest was 3,000 bottles. Last year’s harvest, we produced more than 1 million bottles. We really don’t care about the boycotts; it’s not going to affect us.”

“We are proud Jews. We are not afraid of them. We are not going to change anything,” Berg added.

Berg nevertheless lamented the sanctions for what they represent for him: pure antisemitism.

He told the Post that he has traveled much of the world, and almost everywhere he has been he has found British history – and “it’s not such a nice history.”

“Usually the British conquered the place, and then they took everybody as slaves, and it’s [relatively speaking] not such a long time ago. The Jewish people, we have a history of 4,000 years here. The land that I’m growing my grapes on, and on which I have my winery, we have been here 4,000 years, and the British people did not even exist yet.”

“Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob stood here 4,000 years ago. King David built his kingdom here exactly where I’m standing now, 3,000 years ago.”

“And yet this is the only place the British people boycott. It is pure antisemitism. Antisemitism always starts like this. First, they say, we just want to mark the Jews. Then they say, ” It’s forbidden to buy from the Jews.”

“We need to stand up and say: ‘You just hate Jews. You just put it in a very nice package.”

The longevity of the Jewish people is exactly why Berg is not worried. To those who wish to single out and harm the Jewish people, he has one message: “We are not afraid of you. We are much stronger than you. In 100 years, I’m not sure if England will exist, but I am sure that we will exist here.”

This post was originally published on here.

President Trump will speak to the nation tonight from the GOP midterm convention at Dallas. To quote my friend Kellyanne Conway, the GOP has the money, the message, but they don’t have the right sales pitch. That’s Mr. Trump’s assignment tonight, and there’s no one who can make a sale the way he can.

We already got a preview that he’s on message, when he told reporters at the airport that “we’re heading over to Dallas. I think we’re going to have a tremendous crowd tonight. Sold out. Looks very big. It looks very exciting. And we’re going to, explain what we’ve done.” 

Mr. Trump added: “We’ve done things that have never been done in the first term or the second term, frankly, of a president. The economy is very strong. The investment in our country is the biggest in the history of any country, not just our country. We have factories being built all over the world right now. And it’s very exciting to see.”

I have said again and again, we’re in an economic boom. It should be the biggest story in this election. It may be the greatest story never told up until now, but I believe Mr. Trump will tell it. And when he does, it will have a powerful impact. Now here’s some more advice from Senator Ted Cruz yesterday: “I would say, objectively speaking, the last two years, with Donald Trump in the White House and a Republican House and Senate, we have won more conservative victories in these two years than any time since you and I have been alive.”

Mr. Cruz added that we have seen “the largest investment in border security in American history, over $100 billion, and illegal border crossings dropping 99 percent. The murder rate, down 20 percent nationwide. Crime in general. The number of deaths from drug overdoses, down twenty percent. You look at the biggest tax cut in American history, no tax on tips, no taxes on overtime, no tax of Social Security.”

The Texas senator concluded: “And then two provisions that were in that bill that I think are the most consequential. The biggest federal school choice program ever enacted, and the Trump accounts, and both of those I authored”

We’re a business show, so I’m going to focus on the economic story, which is the strongest manufacturing boom in many decades. From the Federal Reserve’s production index, computer and electronics year-over-year are rising by 10 percent. High tech and semiconductors are rising by 12 percent. Business equipment overall, up 7 percent. That’s CapEx.

Institute for Supply Management indexes for manufacturing are up eight straight months. Durable goods, the heart of manufacturing shipments, are up 11 percent year over year. Orders are up 13 percent. Construction is booming. And goods-producing jobs are booming, up almost 100,000 so far this year. Construction jobs are rising by double-digit percentage points every month recently.

Total wages are up more than 4 percent and beating inflation. We just had a huge jobs report and with revisions it was up over 220,000. Since Mr. Trump has been in office, private payrolls have increased by more than a million, while federal government payrolls have fallen by more than 300,000.

Mr. Trump’s tax cuts, and lighter regulation, and “drill, baby, drill” have restructured the economy back to free enterprise, and away from President Biden’s big-government socialism. It’s a huge change. Along the way, productivity and profits have boomed, stock markets have set records, the wealth of Americans is now more than $180 trillion. And by some measures, as many as 156 million Americans have shared in the stock market wealth creation.

Here’s what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, taking a time out from his economic-strangulation Iran-war responsibilities, had to say about the economy at Southern Methodist University at Dallas yesterday: “I think of the working families tax cut also knows one big beautiful bill. It had great symmetry to it because on one side you had these very powerful business incentives. So full expensing of equipment, full expensing of factories, full expensing of farm structures.” 

Mr. Bessent added that “on the other side, the working Americans have been able to keep more of what they make. So no tax on tips, no tax on overtime.” Some “85 percent of our seniors are paying no tax on Social Security and then deductibility on interest on American made cars. So economic boom manufacturing reshoring which we are seeing.”

It’s a great rundown by Mr. Bessent, who’s a very busy fellow indeed. So, as I’ve said, to wrap-up, now it’s really been the greatest story never told up to now. Now’s the time for Mr. Trump to tell it. He can swing the midterm election. I believe this is possible, and I think he’s going to make a case that we do not need big-government socialism from the far-left crazies. We’ll stick with free enterprise and markets and yes, capitalism. And I’ve warned many, many times regarding Mr. Trump, never bet against him.

Energy giant NextEra Energy has secured a federal loan of up to $1.9 billion from the Department of Energy to restart Iowa’s Duane Arnold Energy Center, marking a major milestone as the country works to meet soaring power demand driven in part by the AI boom.

The 615-megawatt facility in Linn County operated for 45 years before closing in 2020 as Iowa’s sole nuclear power plant. The project cleared a major state regulatory hurdle in June when the Iowa Utilities Commission issued a certificate authorizing construction and operation.

NextEra aims to bring the reactor back online by the first quarter of 2029, subject to final oversight and licensing approvals from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The nuclear restart is anchored by a 25-year power purchase agreement with Alphabet’s Google, which will buy electricity from the plant. Surging power demand, including from AI data centers and other high-tech computing infrastructure, is pressuring the nation’s electrical grid and prompting renewed interest in extending the lives of existing nuclear plants and bringing shuttered reactors back online.

The project is also expected to provide significant economic benefits for Iowa. An economic study estimates the restart will generate more than $9 billion in economic value for Iowa over 25 years; create thousands of construction and refurbishment jobs; support more than 400 permanent, high-paying operational positions; and generate approximately $75 million in tax revenue.

State leaders have backed the effort, with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signing legislation to provide incentives for nuclear power development.

NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum said bringing new generation online to serve rising demand could help keep power affordable for existing customers while ensuring Iowa families and businesses are not asked to bear the costs of grid growth.

While multiple efforts are underway nationwide to reactivate retired reactors, no shuttered U.S. nuclear power plant has yet resumed operations.

NextEra’s project joins other high-profile nuclear revival efforts across the country, including Constellation Energy’s plan to restart a reactor at Pennsylvania’s former Three Mile Island plant for Microsoft and Holtec International’s efforts to revive Michigan’s 800-megawatt Palisades facility.

Welcome to this week’s Fortune Gulf Brief. We’ll be covering:  

• Gulf oil flows return as market eyes potential glut  
• Mubadala unlocks $25 billion credit portfolio for outside investors 
• U.S.’ Lux Capital leads Gulf’s $30 million AI funding round 
• Saudi courts China amid strained U.S. relations 

OPEC+ has agreed to raise oil production by a further 188,000 barrels per day from August, marking the fifth consecutive monthly increase in output quotas as the group continues to unwind its earlier production cuts. 

That brings the total increase in output quotas to around 940,000 barrels a day since the war began. 

The move comes as oil prices continue to ease amid Gulf states ramping up production and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz calming fears of major supply disruptions.  

Brent crude is now trading around $72 per barrel, down from its April peak of $126 per barrel and close to pre-conflict levels. 

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top exporter, shipped an average of 6.3 million barrels a day last week, restoring flows to almost 90% of February’s pre-war levels. 

Meanwhile, UAE oil exports have now overtaken pre-war levels, according to data compiled by energy intelligence company Kpler. 

The country, which formally exited OPEC+ on May 1, shipped 3.94 million barrels a day of crude and condensate in June.  

In addition to ramping up its production since leaving OPEC+, Kpler senior oil analyst Johannes Raubal said the UAE has also been drawing down crude inventories, further enhancing export volumes. 

But the surge in supply is beginning to raise concerns. Analysts at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs warned last week that the market could be heading for a glut next year if producers continue pumping without consideration of demand. 

China, the world’s largest oil importer, remains one of the biggest question marks.  

The Middle East typically accounts for around half of China’s crude oil imports, but shipments declined in April to their lowest level in almost a decade, according to Kpler data. 

Despite cutting imports by roughly 5 million barrels a day compared with pre-war levels, it has yet to significantly increase its buying. 

Meanwhile, more than 60 million barrels of oil that were effectively stranded when the war broke out have now been released onto the market, following the signing of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, Bloomberg reported last week. 

It noted that UAE oil is traveling as far afield as the U.S. and is even being offered to buyers in Hawaii. 

Melissa Hancock
[email protected]

Get in touch: Reply to this email with feedback or contact me directly at the address above.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Apple made its long awaited entry into the foldable smartphone market on Wednesday with the launch of the iPhone Duo. The foldable phone will go on sale October 23, with a starting price of $1,999.

The Duo will be available in two colors: Star White and Night Sky.

The device is the size of a passport, and opens and closes like a book. There’s a 5.4-inch screen on the exterior cover that you use just like a standard smartphone. Open the device up, and you get a wide 7.6-inch display.

Apple is late to the foldable game. Samsung launched its first Galaxy Fold back in 2019.

“Others have created foldables that just feel like two phones stuck together,” said Apple CEO John Ternus as he unveiled the device. That’s not entirely true. The latest Samsung Z Fold 8 and Z Ultra 8 have earned rave reviews for a virtually crease-free foldable screen and the product build.

But hey, all’s fair in the marketing game.

When opened, Apple says the Duo is the thinnest phone it has ever made.

Apple livestream

Here’s a close up look at the special hinge, built with carbon fiber support plates, that allows the Duo to fold.

Apple uses a titanium bottom layer, and multi-layer lamination design that it says glide over the OLED screen like pages of a book to prevent the panel from showing signs of wear or distortion over time. Of course, we’ll have to see how that claim holds up once the phone has been available in the real world.

Apple is bringing back its Touch ID for the Duo. A sensor on the right side of the phone scans your thumbprint to unlock the phone. Also note the repositioned task bar, now on the right rail of the home screen.

When opened, the Duo’s screen is 50% larger than iPhone Pro Max.

That makes it ideal for productivity and entertainment.

Here’s what reading your email looks like when the screen is opened and in landscape mode:

The extra screen real estate seems like it will be great for cooking recipes and other instructional applications.

You can also have different apps open on each side of the screen.

And you can hold it with the screens only partially opened, like a book, to reduce glare or evesdroppers.

You can also use the opened display in vertical mode. Apple showed off the example of watching a video at the top of the screen while having a conversation with friends on the bottom.

Watching sports this way could be fun.

You can use the exterior, front-cover screen to let others join in a FaceTime video call.

And the foldable design means you can position the phone to stand on its own for video calls or just watching movies.

The iPhone Duo is Apple’s first foldable phone. And first generation devices often come with some unexpected wrinkles that need to be ironed out and flaws that don’t become apparent until the product has been used by real customers in the real world.

Many of the other smartphone companies with foldables, like Samsung, Motorola, and Google, have spent years evolving and refining the technology. But of course, those are all Android devices.

If you’re an iOS user, and you’re OK with being an early adopter, the iPhone Duo goes on sales October 23, with pre-orders starting October 16.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Six Flags is giving a popular roller coaster a second life after acquiring ArieForce One, the fan-favorite steel coaster that operated at Fun Spot America Atlanta.

The amusement park operator announced Tuesday that it plans to reopen the attraction at one of its parks during the 2028 or 2029 operating season. However, it has not yet revealed which location will get the ride.

“From the moment ArieForce One closed, we knew how much this coaster meant to the enthusiast community and to guests who traveled from around the world to experience it,” Mark Pauls, chief operating officer of Six Flags, said in a statement. 

“This is a ride that consistently generated excitement, acclaim and passionate fan support. We are thrilled to preserve its legacy, invest in its future and bring this extraordinary attraction to a new generation of guests. This acquisition represents our commitment to delivering world-class thrills and creating unforgettable experiences across the Six Flags portfolio.”

ArieForce One originally opened at Fun Spot America Atlanta in March 2023 before the Fayetteville, Georgia, park permanently closed in August 2026.

Earlier this year, Fun Spot America announced it would shutter its Atlanta-area location, while keeping its Orlando and Kissimmee, Florida, parks open. 

Built by Rocky Mountain Construction, ArieForce One earned a reputation for its “relentless pacing, massive airtime moments, innovative elements and unforgettable ride experience,” according to Six Flags.

The coaster stands 154 feet tall, features a 146-foot first drop at an 83-degree angle and reaches speeds of 64 mph.

The ride also features the largest zero-gravity stall element in the world, according to Six Flags.

Six Flags said it plans to keep the ArieForce One name when the coaster is rebuilt at its new location.

“When we built ArieForce One, we wanted to create something truly special. Something that would put Fun Spot America on the map with coaster enthusiasts and families around the world and create memories that would last a lifetime,” Fun Spot America CEO John Arie Jr. said in a statement.

“Seeing ArieForce One preserved and finding a new home with Six Flags means a great deal to me and my family. Its story isn’t ending, it’s beginning a new chapter and we are excited that future generations will get to experience ArieForce One.”

Six Flags said it will announce the roller coaster’s future location and construction timeline at a later date.

“Until then, the coaster community’s biggest mystery remains unsolved,” Six Flags said.

FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.

In 2013, as Michael Dell fought Carl Icahn to take his company private, we asked a simple question in the New York Times: how do you keep the revolution forever young? It’s the same question Thomas Jefferson wrestled with when he argued no generation should be bound by the last one’s answers. Dell just gave his own answer again last week.

Four years ago, while others were playing with chatbots, treating AI as parlor games or sounding cataclysmic alarms over LLMs’ threats to society, Dell saw AI’s emerging utility as a new pillar of the economy and prepared his company accordingly, culminating in perhaps the 12th strategic reinvention of his enterprise strategy since he launched his business in 1984 as a 19-year-old in his college dorm room.  

Last week, Dell Technologies delivered one of the most lopsided beats of this earnings season. Revenue of $47 billion rose 58%, and adjusted earnings of $7.04 per share crushed already enthusiastic expectations of roughly $4.90. Dell booked a record $60.9 billion of AI server orders in a single quarter, exited with a record $95 billion backlog and raised its full-year outlook by $25 billion to $192 billion, roughly 70% y/y growth. 

The skeptics’ story about Dell has always been the same: a heritage as a mere assembler of parts, a legacy PC maker rather than an AI innovator. For years it traded below the multiple of its AI peers, and below the S&P 500. This bearish narrative was already dead in the water, but with this latest earnings release, there should be no doubt that Dell Technologies is positioned to be one of the biggest winners as the provider of the critical infrastructure on which the AI build-out physically runs.

Dell sits at the center of the data-center wave as the world’s largest server maker, assembling the compute, storage, and networking that hyperscalers and enterprises are buying as fast as it can ship them. What the skeptics missed is that Dell’s role spans the full range of how firms deploy AI, from the public-cloud and co-location facilities that anchor large-scale training to the hybrid configurations that let a company keep some critical workloads close to home.

And now, Dell is readying the firm to ride the tailwind of a new secular growth wave: the shift of enterprise AI spending to “on-premise” and the most smoothly integrated tech titan across IT segments in the world.

What are these mysterious words, on-premise, what does this actually mean and why is this important? Simply put, companies are moving their AI away from computers they rent in someone else’s data center – that of the hyperscalers Amazon, Microsoft and Google – and onto AI machines that they buy, control, and keep in their own buildings – closer to their own data, under their own lock and key, with heightened security guardrails. It is this shift that positions Dell as one of the biggest beneficiaries in the months and years to come. 

With shifts in business risk and decision making, the significant majority of mission-critical data is now stored on premises, despite all the “cloud” computing activity. As Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on  their last earnings call: “Remember, by the way, that 85% of the global IT spend is still on premises.” Now as data is being created in the real world  vs the cloud,  faster than ever before, the major change is that this data can now be converted into a competitive advantage using AI. Customers are figuring out they want to bring AI to the data, not the other way around. This is increasingly true for physical AI like robotics and advanced manufacturing.

Companies are bringing AI home for three plain reasons. First, this is where every company’s most sensitive enterprise data lives — the files, contracts, telemetry and patient charts generally already sit on private servers companies own, not in the netherworld of some public hyperscaler cloud. Needless to say, it is cheaper, faster and safer to bring AI agents to the data than the data to the AI. Second, on premise AI provides much greater control — banks, hospitals, defense contractors and entire governments wisely resist letting sensitive data leave the building or the country.

As Michael Dell put it in May, “The risk is losing control of your data, your cost, your security, your intellectual property and your speed.” Third, money: training a model is a burst of computing you might sensibly rent, but running agents never stops, and renting around the clock is the most expensive way to own anything. As AI agents proliferate and as they continue to run 24/7, companies want to optimize their spending on AI agents, which means setting them up closest to home in the fully-owned, secure way which Dell provides, rather than renting compute by the hour driving costs up unnecessarily. 

And this is only the beginning, because AI agents, by definition, drive exponentially more demand: unlike humans, AI agents don’t need to eat, sleep, take bathroom breaks, shop online, or play office politics. AI agents work continuously, and every new task generates more data to store and secure. All this creates a virtuous flywheel where more use of AI agents creates more demand for Dell’s servers, and vice versa. No wonder Dell now counts more than 6,500 AI enterprise customers, 3,300 added in the last three quarters, and its pipeline grew again even after $131.7 billion of orders. Traditional servers grew fully 122%. Storage grew by  26%.

That is also why Dell’s margins have expanded, with infrastructure operating margin expanding 620 basis points to 15%, which Morgan Stanley called “unprecedented.” That is the dividend of an integrated portfolio no rival can match: Dell sells AI servers, storage, networking, PCs and services, and buys components for all of them together — a weapon in a year of unprecedented memory shortages, providing Dell with the preferential access to crucial memory chips and purchasing power that few competitors have. 

None of this happened by accident, and the proof is in the long list of former Dell competitors from its founding era, who have faded into oblivion. Just consider some of the many names from the chart below: Wang Labs went bankrupt; Control Data was broken up; Sun Microsystems peaked at $18.3 billion and was sold to Oracle. Compaq, the world’s largest PC maker at $42 billion in 2000, was swallowed by Hewlett-Packard, which then dismembered itself into four public companies. Digital Equipment, once the second largest IT giant overall met a similar fate.  And Data General, the inspiration for the cult-like worship in Tracy Kidder’s 1981 book The Soul of a New Machine, once the world’s second-largest minicomputer maker and many times Dell’s size, was bought by EMC in 1999 — and Dell bought EMC in 2016. Dell did not merely outlast its rivals; in some cases; it ended up owning them.

Almost every one of these once mighty competitors was a specialist stranded by a shift it did not see coming. Michael Dell built the opposite kind of company – an integrated generalist spanning diverse business lines – and smartly maintained the governance control needed to transform the company through changing eras when its competitors lacked that governance flexibility, thanks to Dell’s dual class share structure, which provides Michael Dell with substantive control of the business. We have previously taken a look at cases when dual class shares work and when dual class shares don’t work, and Dell stands as a shining exemplar of all that is possible when dual class shares are used correctly. 

As Michael Dell himself told us this week:

“Dell Technologies leads not only in servers but also in data storage (the EMC acquisition was exactly 10 years ago). After all, data is the fuel for AI. Bad data, bad AI. No data, no AI….In data storage and servers we’re bigger than #2, #3 and #4 combined. We happily maintain a lower gross margin percent, delivering enduring value to our customers and shareholders through a far lower cost structre and massive scale advantages that grow every day ”

Of course, all of Dell’s successes are further vindication of Michael Dell’s triumph over activist investor Carl Icahn’s objections in 2013 when Dell attempted to take the company private, when Icahn tried to carve up the company for spare parts. Dell told us back then ““It’s a big poker game to him. It’s not about the customers. It’s not about the people. It’s not about changing the world. He doesn’t give a crap about any of that.” We argued then that Dell should prevail over Icahn’s financial engineering. 

He did! Dell led the way in design, production, and distribution of personal computers, laptops, tablet devices, servers, enterprise systems and cloud computing, steering his company through bold moves into cloud computing, networks, data storage, analytics and services. Most notably, he  bet $67 billion on EMC, the largest technology buyout in history, that enterprises would want to own their infrastructure rather than rent it. This prescience reads as astounding prophecy today, amidst the shift of enterprise AI spending towards on-premise.

That shift of enterprise AI spending towards on-premise is one which markets have largely missed, exactly as it pessimistically misread the “SaaSpocalypse” earlier this year. As we argued in the pages of Fortune in our prior piece critiquing the magnitude of the frenzied Saaspocalypse, the test separating AI’s winners from its roadkill is whether a company owns something AI cannot operate without. For Salesforce, that scarce asset is trusted proprietary data. For Dell, it is becoming the AI server provider of choice for the on-premise AI buildout, the next secular growth wave within AI. 

Fully 32 years ago, we confidently awarded the then 29-year Michael Dell with our Legend in Leadership award, to the surprise of many, and we feel quite vindicated. The humble, candid, generous, and patriotic Michael Dell never jumps in front of cameras to make his case breathlessly like some boastful tech evangelists, nor does he preannounce his strategic triumphs with Silicon Valley’s infamous preemptive and often misleading “vaporware” tactics. He merely delivers the future – repeatedly. As Mark Twain famously observed “Action speaks louder than words, but not nearly as often.”

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

The Treasury Department on Wednesday revealed that it will buy back up as much as $6 billion in longer-dated U.S. debt in an operation this week.

The agency’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service announced that it will purchase up to $6 billion in 10-year notes and 20-year bonds in an operation. The securities that will be bought in the operation, which is scheduled to occur from 1:40 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, have maturity dates ranging from February 2037 and August 2046.

The buybacks follow Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s announcement that Treasury’s buyback operations would be at least $4 billion until early November, an increase from the $2 billion that the agency would typically buy back in an operation.

Yields on Treasurys have been elevated in recent years due to stubborn inflation, which has been exacerbated by the Iran war and has caused interest rates to rise further.

Treasury framed the buyback in its August announcement as intended 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.”

Yields on both the 10-year note and 20-year bond rose following the announcement.

The yield on the 10-year note rose to the highest level since 2023, climbing to above 4.85% during Wednesday’s trading session. The 20-year bond yield also rose above 5.3%.

Matt Cole, CEO of Strive Asset Management, told FOX Business in an interview that the “market’s calling a bluff because these [buybacks] are very small sizes.”

Cole said buybacks of $2 billion or $6 billion pale in comparison to both the gross national debt of more than $40 trillion and the level of debt issuance that’s expected to continue in the future with annual deficits projected to rise above $2 trillion.

“There’s so much debt out there, and there’s so much need over the next couple of years to issue more debt out there, that the market is just saying this is not enough,” he explained. “I think that’s the signal, and ultimately it’s not going to be fixed if he raises it from $6 billion to $12 billion.”

He noted that most developed countries are facing similar debt problems, while corporate debt issuance is also rising to help finance the artificial intelligence (AI) buildout with yields that are competing with the debt issued by Treasury and foreign governments.

Bessent noted that dynamic in remarks on Tuesday, saying that if markets were concerned about U.S. bonds and default risks, they would be turning to German or Japanese bonds – but that the U.S. bond market has outperformed those.

Cole added that he thinks Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh may be the brightest people to hold their roles but are in a difficult spot given the U.S. government’s fiscal position.

“The problem is not them, the problem is a structural debt crisis playing out,” he said, adding, “I think that they should, to the maximum degree possible, be trying to foster a high-growth environment.”

“I know Bessent talks about trying to grow his way out of it. I don’t think you actually can grow your way out of it. But I do think it’s the best thing to be trying to do, and at worst, you at least help the U.S. not slow down too much during… an industrial revolution in this AI data center buildup,” Cole said, emphasizing the need for the U.S. to compete and win in AI to drive growth.

“Of all the impossible options, that’s the best to try,” Cole added. “I just think that there’s not a path to be successful here outside of stopping spending, and I just don’t think we will do that.”

Robotaxis will be a common sight on the world’s streets within five years, predicted James Peng, founder and CEO of the Chinese autonomous driving firm Pony.ai. “I think the technology problem is pretty much already solved,” he said at the Fortune Leaders Forum in Macau on Sept. 8. “You’ll be able to hail a robotaxi just like a normal taxi.”

While Waymo dominates the robotaxi conversation in the U.S., Chinese robotaxi firms like Pony.ai are gaining ground almost everywhere else. Pony.ai, founded in 2016, runs commercial robotaxi services across Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai. The company now averages about 25 rides per day per vehicle.

“Our riders are very diverse across different age groups, different professions,” Peng said. “It’s definitely not something unique, just for the tech-savvy people to try.”

The company is also pushing abroad. In August, Pony.ai announced an expanded partnership with Uber to deploy more than 2,000 robotaxis across Europe, building on their launch in Zagreb, Croatia, and agreed to bring 200 robotaxis to South Korea by 2028. It also has partnerships in the Middle East and Singapore. 

LUCAS SCHIFRES for Fortune

When deciding where to expand, Peng said he looks for cities with a relatively expensive taxi market and a favorable regulatory environment. Partnerships with companies like Uber can help foster trust in a community and convince governments and policymakers to embrace a driverless future.

Other robotaxi providers, like WeRide and Baidu, are also pushing abroad with new ventures in Southeast Asia and Europe. 

Peng credited China’s “supportive” regulatory environment for the country’s strength in autonomous driving. “The key challenge is it’s such a complex system,” he said. “It requires hardware, software, talents… China provides a good system to support this kind of innovation.”

More widespread robotaxis could reshape how cities work. “Most private cars are used for two hours a day,” Peng said. “If robotaxis are more ubiquitous, we’ll save on parking spaces.”

“The implications will be profound,” he added. “It will change the whole urban planning and change the way of our life.”

Pony.ai generated robotaxi revenue of $12.1 million in the second quarter of the year, a jump of almost 700% from a year earlier. Still, the company also reported an operating loss of $65.7 million.

In a March interview with Fortune, Peng noted some ways that robotaxis were changing user behavior. Passengers, for example, sometimes forget to close the car door when leaving; without a human driver, Pony.ai ends up asking nearby delivery gig workers to close the door for them.

At the Fortune Leaders Forum, Peng shared another observation: The share of female riders trends upwards during evening hours. “They feel a lot safer because there are no drivers,” Peng said. “It’s safe, private, and, also, it’s consistent.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

The price of oil surpassed $100 a barrel for the first time since July after attacks on oil facilities and ships in the Middle East threatened to debilitate an already weakened supply chain.

Brent crude, the international standard, jumped nearly 3% to $100.72 early Wednesday.

U.S. benchmark crude gained 2.4% to $95.25 a barrel, and U.S. gasoline prices rose sharply overnight.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline ticked up 7 cents overnight to hit $4.22, now more than a dollar above what it cost at this point last year, according to AAA.

Diesel prices, which can have an outsized impact on consumers because it is used in shipping and production, hit an all-time high Friday and has continued to climb since. The average price for a gallon reached $5.94 overnight and is now 9 cents higher than it was Friday.

Jet fuel has become so expensive that U.S. and international carriers have cut flights while raising fares and fees.

Markets reacted after the U.S. military reported striking five Iranian tankers in response to attempted missile attacks on a Navy warship and after attacks by an Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group ignited fires at oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.

Crude oil prices shot up after Israel and the United States initiated a war with Iran, and they have fluctuated considerably during the more than six months since then. The fighting has halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply passed before the war began.

Brent traded between about $70 to $100 a barrel for much of March, April and May. In July, prices swung between $72 and $102, reflecting rising and falling hopes that the U.S. and Iran would agree on a plan that would allow stranded tankers to move oil safely out of the Persian Gulf.

“In our view, reaching a durable deal before the U.S. midterm elections is increasingly unlikely, and it could remain elusive even beyond that,” Bank of America analysts said in a Tuesday research note.

The analysts increased their oil price forecast for the second half of the year to $83 a barrel “in light of more persistent disruptions to Hormuz,” but said they still expected shipping through the strait to gradually pick up. If attacks keep a chokehold on traffic, prices could reach $95 to $120 a barrel, while damage to major energy infrastructure could produce spikes of up to $150 a barrel, the analysts wrote.

Negotiations over a preliminary deal between the U.S. and Iran to end the conflict broke down over control of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran insists it has the right to set the terms and charge fees for ships traveling through the waterway off its coast. The U.S. wants passage to remain free and has used a Navy blockade to block Iran’s ports and oil tankers.

Recent stepped-up attacks by Yemen’s Houthis could constrain global oil supplies even more because they targeted an alternative shipping route that Saudi Arabia has relied on to transport oil during the war.

Higher energy costs have weighed on consumers, businesses and national economies this year, particularly outside of the U.S. Refinery outages in Russia, reduced refining activity elsewhere and sharply declining inventories have pushed diesel and gasoline prices sharply higher globally, Bank of America said this week.

Yet rising prices may have an outsized impact on the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, now just 8 weeks away.

___

AP Business Writer Rio Yamat contributed from Las Vegas.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

The Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce is inviting business owners, professionals and community members to join its WhatsApp group and email list to stay directly connected to opportunities, events, government programs, networking, advocacy and Chamber activities.

Business moves quickly, and many opportunities are most valuable when you hear about them early.

By joining the Chamber’s WhatsApp group and emails, members can stay informed about upcoming events, business resources, job opportunities, government initiatives, trade and economic-development programs, important advocacy efforts and opportunities to connect with other business leaders.

The Chamber works year-round to open doors for businesses, strengthen relationships with government and industry, create networking opportunities and make sure the community has access to information that can help people grow and succeed.

The goal is simple: stay connected, stay informed and be in a position to benefit when opportunities arise.

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Don’t hear about opportunities after they happen. Be connected when they happen.

Republicans appeared to have a firm grip on the Senate heading into the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term. But with less than two months until Election Day, control of the chamber is now up for grabs.

Democrats have found themselves competing in states that once seemed beyond their reach as Trump’s slipping approval ratings and voters’ dissatisfaction with the economy create a difficult political environment for Republicans. But races Democrats once counted on winning have also become more complicated.

It’s a battle that’s expected to exceed $3.4 billion in spending across all races during the midterm campaign. The implications are huge for Trump’s agenda and his ability to fill administration jobs and open court seats for the remainder of his term, as the Senate is empowered to confirm or block presidential nominees.

Republicans say it’s unlikely for everything to break in Democrats’ favor, but they acknowledge they’re facing a difficult landscape. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told South Dakota’s KELOLAND News last week that he does “worry” about losing the chamber.

“I’m a realist,” Thune said. “I don’t ever try and sugarcoat things. I think it’s a competitive environment right now.”

Democrats face a scrambled path to the majority

Democrats need to net four seats to win the majority. The original path had been to hold Michigan, Georgia and New Hampshire while winning back Republican-held seats in Alaska, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio. But things have changed.

“We now have multiple paths for the majority,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said last month. “We found new states — Iowa, Texas — which people a year ago weren’t even paying attention to.”

Some of the states where Democrats were feeling most optimistic at the start of the election cycle, such as Michigan and Maine, have grown murkier.

In Michigan, where there’s an open seat this fall, no GOP candidate has won a Senate race since 1994. But Democrats are struggling to unite behind nominee Abdul El-Sayed. The favorite of progressives narrowly defeated moderate U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in the August primary, and feelings remain raw from a bruising contest that saw nearly $70 million spent against El-Sayed.

Republicans believe Mike Rogers, who lost the 2024 Senate race by fewer than 20,000 votes, has an improved shot against El-Sayed. The Senate Leadership Fund — Senate Republicans’ spending PAC — added $6 million to its Michigan advertising investment after El-Sayed won, bringing their total spending to $51 million, the third-highest total.

Democrats also saw a prime opportunity to finally defeat five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, where Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris won more votes than Trump in 2024.

Progressive Graham Platner easily won the nomination in June, but he left the race the next month over a sexual assault allegation that he denies. Democratic delegates in late July chose Troy Jackson, a lesser-known former state legislative leader, to replace him.

Jackson has been forced to play catch-up. Collins and aligned super PACs have spent almost $80 million so far, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, while Jackson and Democratic-aligned groups have spent and reserved close to $45 million since he became the nominee.

As one path narrowed for Democrats, others widened

Democrats increasingly see a real possibility in Texas, a state that has been an elusive goal for decades, and other GOP-led states including Iowa, Alaska and Ohio.

In Texas, Democrat James Talarico faces state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who ousted four-term incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn to win the GOP nomination. Senate GOP leadership backed Cornyn, seeing him as the stronger general election candidate.

Paxton has been shadowed for decades by legal and ethical questions, including indictments for securities fraud, though he was not convicted.

Talarico and allied groups have spent nearly $30 million on advertising since the May runoff, compared to less than $3 million by pro-Paxton groups. The political fund associated with Trump last week spent $10 million on TV and digital ads to help Paxton — the first major general election investment by MAGA Inc. for the midterms. Senate GOP leaders had petitioned Trump’s political team to spend some of the more than $400 million it had last month to help Paxton.

Democrats have also upped their spending in Alaska, Iowa, Ohio and North Carolina, all states currently held by Republicans. The GOP, meanwhile, is feeling more optimistic about New Hampshire as well as Michigan, while spending more to defend seats in Iowa and Alaska.

The expanded map has upped the anticipated total spending this cycle. AdImpact in June projected $3.4 billion in advertising spending on Senate races, a significant increase from the $2.8 billion the ad spending firm projected in the fall of 2025.

Why more states are in play than expected

Democrats’ path has widened in part because of Trump’s slumping job approval, notably on handling the economy, which was at 32% according to an AP-NORC poll in July — down from 40% in March 2025, shortly after he took office.

Trump’s trade policies and the war in Iran, with its corresponding inflated fuel costs, have added to the economic uncertainty for voters less than two months before Election Day.

“Things still cost too much. And so we’ve got to work on that issue,” Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio told The Associated Press. “We understand that and we know that’s real.”

Ohio Sen. Jon Husted heard the concern firsthand at a roundtable last month. Husted is looking to fend off a comeback from former Sen. Sherrod Brown in another key matchup for both parties.

During the discussion on housing, one attendee told Husted that costs were “skyrocketing” in part because of uncertainty around tariffs.

“Uncertainty is the killer to this economy,” said Dean Windham, a real estate developer who previously ran for office as a Republican.

Some Republican Senate candidates have defended Trump’s policies while confronting concerns about their economic impact.

In Michigan, where Trump’s tariffs on Canada have become a central issue, Rogers has backed the president’s approach while leaving room for disagreement.

“President Trump is right to put America First — and tariffs are necessary, but are not a one-size-fits-all solution,” Rogers said in a recent statement.

Republicans believe the math still favors them

Even if Democrats hold every seat they currently control, they would need to flip at least two seats in states Trump carried by double digits in 2024 to win the majority.

Republicans are betting that those underlying advantages will matter more as Election Day approaches — particularly as Trump and the party turn their attention toward mobilizing voters who helped return him to the White House.

Trump told reporters last week that he will “be making a lot of stops” in the last 30 days before the election.

This week, Republicans will hold a midterm convention in Texas, where Trump is set to speak and top Senate candidates including Rogers and Husted are expected to attend.

But Republicans acknowledge they have work to do.

“Politics is local,” Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said. He pointed to Trump’s decision to import beef, which he said made farmers and ranchers “feel just like the administration pulled the rug right off from underneath” them.

“They’re hurt,” Rounds said. “They feel like they’ve been let down.”

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the GOP midterm convention is this week, not next week.

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Apple is adding a long-awaited device to its product lineup.

The tech giant announced the iPhone Duo during its annual fall keynote on Wednesday, marking the company’s foray into the foldable phone space.

The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 and will be available with storage options from 256 GB to 2 TB.

The launch is Apple’s attempt to rival previous Android releases of foldables, including the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and Google Pixel Fold, released in 2019 and 2023 respectively.

Apple also announced the release of the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max phones on Wednesday, as well as a revamped version of Siri called Siri AI. Siri AI acts as a personal chatbot for users. The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 and the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299 with lease options through Apple Upgrade.

Apple has recently hiked prices across its overall product lineup. The tech giant said the surge is brought on by ongoing global chip shortages driven by a growing demand for artificial intelligence.

Apple’s iPhone division reported $54.25 billion in revenue in the third fiscal quarter, up 22% and outperforming analysts’ expectations of $53.86 billion.

Senator Bernie Sanders is renewing his push for a shorter workweek. Critics warn the 32-hour workweek proposal could come at a steep cost for American workers.

Club for Growth President David McIntosh argues the plan could cost workers jobs and benefits while making life “more unaffordable for Americans.”

McIntosh joined FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” to discuss Sanders’ renewed push for a 32-hour workweek and the potential impact on American workers.

Sanders’ proposal would lower the federal standard workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours over four years without reducing workers’ pay or benefits, with overtime applying after 32 hours. He has tied the renewed effort to advances in artificial intelligence and argued workers should share in productivity gains.

McIntosh pushed back on the proposal, arguing that while AI could boost productivity and wages, mandating a shorter workweek could have unintended consequences for employees.

“AI will make people more productive, and they’ll get paid more, but Bernie’s idea will hurt the very workers he’s trying to help. A lot of people will lose their job, lose their benefits when they implement something like that,” McIntosh said.

He also framed the proposal as part of a broader economic agenda he believes could raise costs, criticizing what he called “far-left radical socialist policies” and warning they risk “making life more unaffordable for Americans.”

In an appearance on “The Sunday Briefing,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins also discussed the idea of a shorter workweek.

“We believe in the dignity of work. It is a biblical foundation. I can’t imagine a scenario where we’d say, oh, everyone just stay home a couple more days. We’re only gonna work a couple of days. The American dream does not include a four-day work week from my perspective, at least,” Rollins said.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced new sanctions Wednesday against Xinbi Guarantee, an online platform she described as “an illicit scamming marketplace” used by Chinese cybercriminals.

According to officials, Xinbi helped facilitate scams targeting Americans by laundering money that victims sent to anonymous individuals online, many of whom were promoting fraudulent cryptocurrency investment opportunities.

Tara McLeese, a special agent with the Secret Service, told reporters that one Virginia resident reported losing $800,000 in a scheme like this.

“Our team was able to follow the funds as they were laundered through the Xinbi Guarantee Network,” McLeese said.

Pirro said her Scam Center Strike Force restrained $52 million in cryptocurrency that was being used in digital wallets across the Xinbi network. 

The Treasury Department designated Xinbi a transnational criminal organization, accusing it of being tied to North Korean hackers and other criminal syndicates.

The designation effectively cuts Xinbi off from the U.S. financial system by prohibiting Americans from doing business with the organization and requiring any blocked assets to be reported to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Pirro said Xinbi operated as a primarily Chinese-language marketplace on Telegram where scammers could purchase fake investment websites and money laundering services. 

Pirro said there was also evidence of Xinbi recruiting trafficking victims to work at scam compounds operating primarily in Southeast Asia.

“It’s where vendors market their services to scam us,” Pirro said. “Once the scammer purchases a service from the vendor, Xinbi holds the money for the vendor until the vendor’s services are complete.”

“It is a double protection to make sure that Americans are scammed properly and unwittingly,” Pirro added. “Xinbi sells tools of industrial fraud, including custom-built fake investment websites designed to look like real brokerages.”

The U.S. government seized Telegram channels used by Xinbi, cutting off their ability to operate for a time, prosecutors said. This came after a federal court in Washington, D.C., authorized the action on Monday.

In response to a reporter’s question about whether Xinbi could relocate to another platform, Pirro acknowledged it would be “very easy” for the group to establish a new operation.

“Old crimes are being committed in new ways,” Pirro said. “They’ve got this figured out, and it took us a while to understand where it was coming from, who was doing it, how they were doing it. And now that we understand that we will keep pace, and we will beat them.”

Officials at the press conference repeatedly said Americans should be wary of any investment schemes being freely offered by people they don’t know on social media.

“If you know someone that thinks they’ve got an opportunity that’s too good to be true, or that they’ve been contacted by someone who’s got the in on cryptocurrency,” Pirro said.

She continued: “You’ve got to tell them to stop. Whether it started on a mistaken phone call or WhatsApp or any of the other social media websites. A text, a wrong number. Do not send a dollar. Do not send a penny.”

Separately, Pirro announced that her team, as well as the FBI, recently traveled to Madagascar and assisted local authorities in shutting down 13 scam centers allegedly being run by Chinese organized crime groups.

Pirro said 500 people were arrested, adding that 30 Chinese leaders of the scam compounds were repatriated to China.

Pirro also said President Donald Trump has been briefed on the cryptocurrency scam operations targeting Americans. To date, the U.S. government says it has restrained $938 million linked to such schemes.

Americans’ satisfaction with the quality of K-12 education in the country has hit a low point, driven by a growing political divide and concerns that schools are not preparing children for college and future jobs.

Just 32% of American adults say they are “completely” or “somewhat” satisfied with the U.S. school system, according to an August poll published Tuesday by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation and shared exclusively with The Associated Press. That’s an 11-point drop over the past two years and the lowest since Gallup began polling on the subject 27 years ago.

At the same time, dissatisfaction has increased to a high of 67%.

Experts on education and school policy say the findings are deeply concerning but not surprising.

Democrats are driving the recent slide, with their satisfaction dropping about 19 points since President Donald Trump’s second term began in 2025. Independents’ satisfaction appears to be down as well, about 10 points from 2024, while Republicans’ satisfaction has also fallen slightly, about 6 points.

The Trump administration has played a role in eroding public confidence by depicting schools as political battlegrounds, raising concerns about what teachers should be allowed to say in the classroom and moving to abolish diversity programs and dismantle the Education Department, said Jack Schneider, director of the Center for Education Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“It’s terrifying. We’re on the precipice of the dissolution of the public education system as we have known it,” Schneider said. Democrats, he said, are also particularly concerned by Trump’s signature school choice program that will use taxpayer-supported scholarships to pay for kids’ private school tuition.

National test scores have fallen since the pandemic

But politics alone does not explain the dissatisfaction. Gallup polling shows public confidence in schools generally has declined since the COVID-19 pandemic closed classrooms, exacerbating academic declines, mental health issues and other problems.

Headlines have consistently told a story of a national drop in test scores, especially in reading, which sends a message that schools have struggled to rebound since COVID lows.

“We’ve had a drumbeat of bad news about test scores and other social trends that could be driving this,” said Sarah Reckhow, a political science professor at Michigan State University who specializes in public policy. “There’s a ton of debate, discussion and noise about technology and AI in education,” she said. And recently, kids’ screentime at school has dominated education headlines locally and nationally.

However, parents have a different view about their own children’s education. About two-thirds of parents with school-age children say they are satisfied with their child’s education, which is also a low point in the trend — parents haven’t had a similarly discontented view since 2013 — but double the 32% satisfaction with U.S. education among adults overall.

That reflects a steady trend of parents feeling more confident about their own schools than the narrative they hear from elected officials and headlines about the national picture.

“When people weigh in about the nation’s schools, what they are commenting on are 98,999 schools that they haven’t set foot in,” Schneider said.

A separate survey, also conducted in August by Gallup and Walton, asked Americans how well they thought schools were preparing kids for the future. Only about 2 in 10 said schools are doing a “good” or “excellent” job teaching critical thinking or preparing students for the current workforce. Schools’ highest marks were for preparing students to adapt to new technologies, with 44% giving schools a high ranking in this area.

Gallup senior education researcher Zach Hrynowski says the findings highlight a frustration with institutions more broadly.

“People have a general negative vibe about everything in the country right now,” Hrynowski said. “People are frustrated, and don’t think any institution is working particularly well.”

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The first Gallup poll was conducted by telephone from Aug. 3-24, 2026, using a sample random sample of U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The margin of sampling error for U.S. adults overall is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for parents of K-12 students is plus or minus 8.3 percentage points.

The second poll of 2,143 U.S. adults ages 18 and older was conducted Aug. 3-17, 2026, using a sample drawn from Gallup’s probability-based panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for U.S. adults overall is plus or minus 3.0 percentage points.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and climate.

____

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.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Economists are warning that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “dollar-for-dollar” tariff strategy could mean some economic pain for the Great White North, but Canadians are so frustrated with the Trump administration they support the move anyway.

Canada implemented retaliatory tariffs of 15% to 50% that took effect on Tuesday and will impact hundreds of U.S. goods, including paper, steel, aluminum, furniture, as well as cheese and seafood. The levies were in response to a breakdown of trade talks between the countries and the Trump administration’s piling on of tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods earlier this summer.

But the strategy of imposing steep import taxes on the U.S. could cause a phenomenon similar to what happened to American importers, where Canadians carry the burden of the tariffs. In a report published after Canada announced the tariffs on Aug. 25, Oxford Economics analysts warned that while the retaliatory tariffs may help protect some domestic manufacturers, it will also force Canadian businesses to absorb added business costs and increase consumer prices.

Canada depends on the U.S. buyers for about 70% of its exports, and the U.S. economy is about 13-times larger than Canada’s.

Oxford projected that Canada’s GDP will likely grow by 0.8% in 2026, but tariffs will reduce growth in 2027 by 0.2% to 0.3% relative to its August baseline calculations. It predicted inflation to increase by about 0.3% compared to the August 2027 baseline.

Canada’s retaliatory tariffs will most likely be felt in certain regions of the country, Oxford economists said. For example, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Quebec have the highest concentration of manufacturers impacted by the tariffs and rely the most on U.S. exports. British Columbia meanwhile has the highest percentage of its exports, 6.1%, subject to Section 338 Trump invoked to tax Canadian exports. Alberta, Newfoundland, and Saskatchewan—provinces that produce the most oil—will be less impacted on average. 

“Canada’s new retaliatory tariffs will help some industries but hurt most and weaken economic growth across the country by raising costs for producers and consumers,” economists Tony Stillo and Michael Davenport wrote. “The macroeconomic impacts on Canada will likely be modest, but the regional and sectoral implications will be far more significant.”

What are the stakes for Canada in its trade war with the U.S.?

Even as the economic stakes of Canada’s involvement in the trade war escalates, Canadians have supported Carney, who is one of the few world leaders standing up to Trump, in the hopes that the import taxes on the U.S. will mount economic pressure and protect Canadian industry. 

A Nanos Research survey conducted for CTV News this month found that support for Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. are at an all-time high, with 75% of the more than 1,000 respondents supporting the counter levies, and another 10% somewhat supporting the policy. Most even said they were willing to look past inflation the move would cause: 38% of Canadians were willing, and 31% were somewhat willing to pay more for everyday goods as a result of the retaliatory tariffs. That’s despite nearly two-thirds of respondents saying they were worried about the tariffs having personal impacts.

Canadians have seemingly had no problem opposing U.S. import taxes and repeated threats of their home becoming a 51st state by voting with their wallets. Canadian tourists and business leaders alike are snubbing U.S. cities with fewer visits, and Canadian retailers are pulling American products off the shelves, instead stocking domestic alternatives.

The urgency around which everyday Canadians are putting their money points to the potential economic consequences should Trump’s tariff barrage be ignored. Trump’s tariffs risk the loss of 90,000 Canadian jobs, according to Trevor Tombe, a professor of economics at the University of Calgary. These job losses could be a direct result of tariffs, such as in agriculture, textiles, and furniture; but they could also show up indirectly due to the import taxes, like less trade between the U.S. and Canada requiring less freight transportation, and therefore fewer truck drivers.

“The macroeconomic effects of this round may be fairly muted—I reckon a couple of tenths of a percentage point off of GDP growth,” Tombe wrote in a recent article. “But the labour market effects are larger, and they reach well past the provinces the tariffs were aimed at.”

What risks to Canada still remain?

Carney is aware of the risks associated with the retaliatory tariffs, saying in a Tuesday video address that they “will come at a cost” to Canadians. Canada is prepared for some of the economic pressures the counter tariffs will bring, with Carney introducing a $7.5 billion support package that includes aid for workers to access income support, new job transitions, and liquidity support for businesses impacted by the taxes. Still, Oxford economists anticipate the aid will only act as a bandaid on a larger economic scrape and “won’t offset the overall drag from the new bilateral US-Canada tariffs.

Then there’s the practical matter of Canada being able to sustain its efforts to combat Trump’s trade policy. While the popularity of Carney’s trade tactics are popular now, political analysts suggest support for the Canadian government’s tariff payback could wane should the economy take a downturn.

“Carney’s leverage will start to diminish if this escalating trade war starts to show up in palpable increases in unemployment, factory shutdowns and declining income,” Julian Karaguesian, a former adviser at Canada’s Finance ​Ministry and economics professor at McGill University, told Reuters last month. “Canada cannot win an economic war of attrition with the U.S.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Professionals can get bogged down by a continuous stream of emails, notifications, and meetings. But investing icon Kevin O’Leary says late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs taught him a simple formula to make the most of his days: focusing on what actually matters and drowning out the chaos. 

“During the day, you only need to get three things done,” O’Leary recently said on the Build or Break podcast with Daniel Lubetzky. “They’re important each day—not the big vision. Just three things done. You have to do those first. Anything that stops you from getting the three things done is noise.”

O’Leary says the best of the best in business share one quality in common. They can tune out the “noise” of their personal lives—like watercooler small talk, or phone calls from aunts—and hone in on the “signal” of what actually needs to get done straight away. Mr. Wonderful says his former business partner Jobs had the perfect signal-to-noise ratio of 80:20. It may have made him “extremely difficult to work with,” O’Leary explains, but points to what he’s accomplished with a “tough” and “brutal” leadership style. 

Other entrepreneurs can muffle the static of life and zero in on what actually matters. The 72-year-old Canadian businessman also says he’s seen Elon Musk’s intense “signal” personality up close at entrepreneur Mark Burnett’s Shark Tank Christmas parties. O’Leary recounted that if the Tesla founder didn’t find value in a conversation, he would simply walk away from the group. It might be a faux pas in the grand scheme of social norms, but it plays out well in the world of business. O’Leary knows the mindset all too well; the successful investor is known both for his brutal honesty and financial wins. 

“[Musk] just doesn’t want to waste his time, and look at what he’s achieved,” O’Leary continued. “This idea of signal to noise is going to make you a difficult person, and it has. That’s why I have so many critics…I don’t care, because it’s noise. It just doesn’t matter to me. And so if it doesn’t matter to me, why should I put any energy into it at all?”

O’Leary discovered the ‘founders mindset’ while working with Jobs in the 1990s

For O’Leary, the lesson Jobs taught him went beyond simply getting more done. He also developed a “founder’s mindset” to cut through the noise—knowing what deserves your attention and having the discipline to shut out everything else.

In the 1990s, SoftKey Software Products—later named The Learning Company—spearheaded the development of Apple’s educational software. O’Leary suggested that Jobs hear input from students and teachers about what they wanted from the program. But Jobs had none of it, saying their opinions didn’t matter and that the games would be most successful if they followed the Apple cofounder’s lead. 

O’Leary said Jobs led with a brutal leadership persona, but respected how he kept his eye on the ball. The Shark Tank investor has also managed to reach that 80:20 dynamic, striking a balance between business and hobbies like watch and guitar collecting to stay dynamic. Others, like Musk, let signal dominate the space where noise creates harmony. 

“I’ve had to work on it, because I didn’t even know that was important till I went through my whole thing with Jobs way back in the early 90s,” O’Leary told Fortune last year. “But I also deal with it in every aspect of what I’m doing…[If] business is biting, you focus on making money or losing money.”

Without cultivating that 80:20 founder’s mindset, O’Leary’s entrepreneurial track record could have looked a whole lot different. He’s had massive entrepreneurial success, founding SoftKey Software Products in the basement of his Toronto pad in 1983, and later selling the company to Mattel for $3.7 billion in 1999. He has since built a reputation as a prolific investor, backing dozens of companies like Groove Book, Blueland, and Basepaws. And most notably, he’s held his role as no-nonsense Shark Tank investor “Mr. Wonderful” for 17 seasons. 

O’Leary may come across as prickly to some, but he believes that his haters have turned out to be great motivators. With over 40 years of skin in the game, O’Leary isn’t easily deterred by a snide comment or occasional failure; he’s practiced being able to tune out the “noise” of critics and external pressures, and focus on the three most important things for the day.

“I’m fairly lucky. I’ve made lots of mistakes in investing, but I’ve also had some extraordinary outcomes…I’m not scared to fail,” O’Leary told Fortune. “I never bet the farm on any one thing.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

The United States is banning the import of some dairy products and motorcycles from Canada along with most alcoholic beverages, the White House said Tuesday, as part of a trade war that shows little sign of cooling off.

The ban will take effect Sept. 29 and comes after retaliatory tariffs promised by Canada kicked in earlier Tuesday on $20 billion in U.S. imports. Canada had responded to tariff moves by U.S. President Donald Trump after trade talks between the countries broke down last month.

Trump also moved to shut Canadian products out of large, long-term U.S. government contracts and directed the U.S. General Services Administration to declare Canadian products ineligible for those contracts until Canada allows “full and fair reciprocity″ for American products.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada’s strategy was about becoming more independent and vowed to speed those efforts. “It’s about ensuring that no country can hold us hostage. And that we can live how we want to live,” he said.

The rupture has upended one of the world’s closest relationships. On Aug. 22, the U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on about 5% of Canadian imports, charging that Canada had unfairly treated the American dairy, alcoholic beverage and auto industries.

The U.S. and Canada have long sparred over trade, particularly Canada’s protected dairy market and its subsidies for producers of softwood lumber. But they remained friends and staunch allies.

Under Trump, U.S.-Canada relations have deteriorated rapidly. In addition to imposing tariffs on Canadian products, Trump has repeatedly made inflammatory comments about making Canada the 51st U.S. state. Carney came to power in a come-from-behind political victory last year by promising to stand up to him.

Some Canadian provinces have banned the sale of U.S. alcoholic products — a move that prompted the retaliatory U.S. ban on Tuesday on various Canadian wines and spirits. Also subject to the ban are some motorcycles and mopeds, dairy products, including whey, and various types of molasses.

Canada is exploring ties with the European Union that could stop just short of membership, a Canadian official familiar with the discussions said.

Options could include expanding existing agreements, negotiating a new treaty or creating other forms of cooperation. The official said Canada is already consulting provinces, territories and labor groups about what a deeper relationship with the EU could look like, but no model has been chosen.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks publicly.

Carney is due in Strasbourg, France, next week, where he will attend European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union address Sept. 16 and address the European Parliament the following day.

Canada looks beyond the US

Carney acknowledged the trade actions would cause short-term pain but said they would push Canada to move faster on investment, infrastructure and trade diversification.

“It was easy business, but it meant we relied too much on one economic partner,” he said. “That time is over.”

More than 70% of Canadian exports still go to the United States, underscoring the scale of Carney’s push to diversify trade. He said Canada’s exports to other countries are rising sharply and are on track to double over the next decade.

Canada retaliates as Trump responds

Carney defended the retaliation, saying Canada could not let American goods enter tariff-free while Canadian companies face U.S. tariffs.

Canada was not seeking to escalate the confrontation, he said, but the tariffs were necessary to protect Canadian workers.

Carney said the larger problem was what Washington had sought in the failed negotiations.

“The most fundamental issue is that the cumulative U.S. demands revealed that they wanted us to become even more reliant on them, not less,” he said. “In too many areas, they wanted dependency, not a true economic partnership.”

The prime minister said Washington sought limits on French-language and cultural protections, influence over future trade deals and terms that would weaken the auto, steel and forestry sectors.

How the trade war ends could carry consequences far beyond Canada, testing whether a smaller U.S. ally can resist Trump’s economic pressure without being forced to yield.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Canadian official said Ottawa did not intend to change course regardless of whether Trump responded with nothing or what the official called a “nuclear response.” The government’s strategy will remain focused on building more at home and diversifying trade abroad, the official said.

The tariffs hit hundreds of American products, including steel, aluminum, cheese, appliances, clothing, cosmetics and farm equipment, at rates of 15%, 25% or 50%. They cover about $20 billion in American goods, roughly 6% of the $333.6 billion the United States exported to Canada last year.

Since Canada-U.S. trade talks collapsed Aug. 21, Trump and his administration have imposed additional tariffs and issued a series of threats and attacks portraying Canada as weak and dependent.

Trump’s trade war and repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state have fueled anger across the country. Canadians have sharply cut travel to the United States and boycotted U.S. goods, moves Carney praised as signs of national resolve.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said the province will install new signs at U.S. border crossings reading: “Welcome to British Columbia, Canada. Strong, proud and will NEVER be the 51st state. Sorry!”

“While our kindness is one of our greatest strengths, you should never, ever mistake that kindness for weakness,” Eby said.

Neither side is rushing back to the table

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government was assessing the latest U.S. tariff measures and that he remained in contact with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, adding that Canada was ready to engage when Washington was.

The senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters during a conference call late Tuesday that was arranged by the White House said U.S. and Canadian trade representatives have had “constructive conversations” and would speak again in coming days to see if there’s a “path forward.”

Former U.S. trade official Wendy Cutler said Carney’s public approval rating, now topping 70%, gives him little reason to restart talks.

“Clearly, at this point each side does not want to look too anxious to reengage in fear of looking weak,” she said.

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Wiseman reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Airlines scrambled Wednesday to dig out from the backlog triggered by technical problems at Britain’s air traffic control system that has forced the cancellation of more than 1,750 flights.

Delays continued for a second day Wednesday, rippling across 15 U.K. airports and beyond as airlines and airports worked to clear a huge backlog of canceled and delayed flights. The problems stranded passengers for hours on airport runways and in terminals.

Flight delays were expected to continue through the day Wednesday as airlines rebook stranded passengers and work to reposition aircraft left at the wrong airports by the cancellations.

NATS, formerly known as National Air Traffic Services, which operates Britain’s air traffic control system, attributed the problems to “an issue in our flight processing system.” The company said it was supporting airlines and airports while they recover from the “ongoing disruption,” although the original technical issue was resolved Tuesday afternoon.

But airlines were furious, demanding that the head of NATS, Martin Rolfe, consider resigning after the second air traffic meltdown in three years.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander met with Rolfe on Wednesday and gave him one week to complete a full investigation into the incident to make sure lessons are learned. Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s office said Rolfe retains the confidence of the government.

The UK government owns 49% of NATS, making it the largest shareholder and giving it a veto over key decisions. Airlines, airports, investors and employees own the remaining shares in the public-private partnership.

Rolfe on Wednesday apologized for the inconvenience caused by the outage but said the U.K. air traffic control system remains one of the safest and most efficient in the world.

“Our job is also to make sure that people stay safe,” he told the BBC. “We never do this lightly. We only ever do it when there is an issue that cannot be resolved quickly, and we have to take action to make (sure) those who are flying, who are in the air at that time, are safe. And when we can restore these incredibly complex systems we do so as quickly as we can.”

Meanwhile, passengers were left to fend for themselves.

Cartoonist Charlie Adlard, who worked on the “Walking Dead” comic book series, was traveling from his home in western England to a comic book convention in Palermo, Sicily, when he was derailed by the air traffic issues. After running into the chaos at Heathrow, he tried and failed to reach his carrier, British Airways, by phone.

“Due to the lack of information, due to everything crashing now, due to the fact that apparently BA have now switched off their customer service phone number because there’s so many calls, we’re not really sure what to do,” Adlard, 60, said.

After losing a day of work, spending money on an airport hotel and paying for dinner and breakfast, he decided to turn around and go home.

“So yeah, I’ve lost quite a bit of money on this rather wasteful journey,” Adlard said.

Other airports experience similar problems. At Gatwick Airport, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of central London, passengers stretched out on the bare floor beside their suitcases. Others huddled around message boards, hoping for information.

In a statement on X, Heathrow, Europe’s largest airport, urged passengers to check their flight status before traveling to the airport and to “only travel if your flight is confirmed to be operating.″

“We apologize to those affected and have extra colleagues across our terminals to support passengers while we work with NATS and airline partners to restore normal operations as quickly as possible,” Heathrow said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Sweltering nights. Water and power shortages. Dwindling fuel and crumbling homes. Limited public transportation and weak cellphone signals.

The psychological toll of daily life in Cuba is pushing many to their breaking point on this island of nearly 10 million people, with no relief in sight as a U.S. energy embargo persists and longtime economic and financial troubles deepen.

“Before there was hope,” Dr. Yomeidis Felicó Riverón said. “Right now, what people have lost is exactly that.”

Felicó Riverón is a primary care physician, but she has embraced an additional role as Cubans grind through their days.

“They come and cry about their troubles, because they have no one else to vent to,” she said of her patients. “We end up having to play psychologist.”

Parents shield children from Cuba’s realities

On a recent sunny afternoon, six girls and one boy crowded around a table as their parents sat in the background, trying to fan away the stifling heat.

The children were learning how to make gift bags and perfume, a free workshop that offered them a brief respite from Cuba’s realities.

“My son doesn’t know if there’s food or if there’s no food,” Felicó Riverón said, confiding that she never tells him when she doesn’t have money to buy something he wants.

Instead, she distracts him: “Let’s go play, let’s go to the park. We’ll come back another day.”

Dianne Tamayo was among the mothers present that day. The workshop served as an oasis for her and her daughter. Tamayo socialized and temporarily forgot what awaited at home.

“My husband is my rock,” she said. “When I’m going crazy, my husband tells me, ‘Sit down, breathe … let’s put on some music.’”

He sometimes has to remind Tamayo that their daughter is coming home from school soon, and that they need to keep their troubles, anxieties and frustrations to themselves.

“I do the best I can with the tools I have, but there’s still a moment where I get overwhelmed,” she said.

Tears fell as she confided that she doesn’t have anything in her life that relaxes her, and that she has never questioned how to release her feelings about life in Cuba.

“They are exterminating us,” she said, “and we remain complacent.”

U.S. Embassy issues health alerts

Cuba’s crises worsened after U.S. President Donald Trump announced in late January that he would impose tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to the Caribbean country. Longtime U.S. sanctions also have taken their toll, Cuba’s government said.

From March 2025 to the end of February, “the U.S. policy of economic strangulation” amounted to more than $8 billion, “a record figure,” according to Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodríguez.

Island-wide blackouts have increased this year, and daily outages now surpass 24 hours. As a result, water is often scarce, and small protests have erupted, despite the fear of being detained, as anger and frustration boil over.

The situation has worsened to a point that the U.S. Embassy recently issued two public health alerts.

On Aug. 28, the embassy noted that “Cuba’s water supply infrastructure is increasingly unstable ” and that there are “residential neighborhoods experiencing long periods without water from municipal or public sources.”

On Friday, the embassy warned of an increase in gastrointestinal illnesses linked to the “degradation of the water and energy infrastructure. …. Recent cases have included E. coli, norovirus, Shigella, and other gastrointestinal pathogens.”

Water and power shortages persist, but 81-year-old Havana resident Oscar Joaquín López said that he doesn’t dwell on what he lacks.

“Why?” López said. “Because it drives you crazy, and nobody is going to drive me crazy.”

On a recent afternoon, he leaned against the doorframe of his home as he watched his 58-year-old roommate fill up nearly a dozen plastic containers with water that flowed from a pipe on the street. They had been without water for several days, so they acted quickly.

With temperatures hovering above 90 F (32 C), López said that he sits in his doorframe until midnight to catch a breeze from the nearby ocean, a steel pipe nearby to ward off any intruders. After midnight, he goes to bed, hoping the wooden slat he wedged into his window will catch any wind, however slight.

Nearby, 62-year-old mason José Laó Faviel dug through overflowing garbage on the street, looking for food to feed his pig and her 10 piglets, because he had none to give them.

“What are you going to do?” he said. “We’re living through difficult times.”

Minutes later, another man rifled through the same pile of garbage. After opening several bags, he found something to eat.

Cubans find solace in family

Sweat gathered around Armando Lafita’s brow as the 60-year-old pushed a cart through the crumbling buildings in Old Havana. Authorities have evacuated some residents in the area for safety reasons, but those with nowhere else to live now sleep on the street, ducking inside their building when they need something.

Lafita’s cart was filled with red roses and white ginger lilies, Cuba’s national flower. He sells them for 10 to 40 cents a bunch, but sometimes he goes home without a single sale.

“Everybody is fighting to survive here,” he said. “It’s getting harder every day.”

Like many Cubans, Lafita said the only thing that keeps him going is family: his 19-year-old son.

It’s the same reason that 70-year-old José Manuel Borroto Díaz and his 93-year-old mother, Teresita del Rosario González Ricardo, keep going: they have each other.

“Our situation is like something out of a movie, but we’re going to press on,” said Borroto, a retired aviation official who was in Angola during Cuba’s military intervention in the 1970s.

Across the island, Cubans are pressing on even as the crises deepen, including 90-year-old Lázaro Alfonso Oviedo. He recently attended a weekly gathering to help raise the spirits of elderly people.

Oviedo danced and sang in a deep, robust voice “to forget for a little while the suffering the empire puts us through,” he said, referring to the United States.

“We are not going to give up,” he said as he praised Cubans’ unwavering resilience. “We get it precisely from the spirit forged by the revolution itself — a revolution spanning more than 60 years.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

The U.S., due to its business-friendly policies and the world’s deepest and most liquid capital markets, has long attracted global investors. But, amid geopolitical turmoil and concern about debt, investors may be increasingly turning to China.

“When there’s a hit to the system, do you want to be with the anti-fragile or the profit-maximizing?” economist Louis-Vincent Gave asked at the Fortune Leaders Forum in Macau on Sept. 8. “This is where increasingly the markets are starting to diverge, where you’re looking at the U.S. Treasuries delivering horrible returns, and Chinese government bonds delivering very good returns.”

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Chinese government bond currently sits below 1.7%, far beneath the 4.8% offered by the 10-year U.S. Treasury note. Bond investors are growing wary of debt across the Western world: U.S. national debt now sits at $40 trillion. 

That means Chinese government bonds, buoyed by deflation and a vast pool of domestic savings, are offering investors a safe-haven asset. 

China is now reaping the fruits of its investments in social stability, says Gave, founding partner and CEO of Hong Kong-based financial services firm Gavekal. “Ninety percent of the time, when things go well, you want to be [invested] in the U.S,” he noted. “But the 10% of times where it goes badly, you want to be in China.”

That may be a tough judgment to make given China’s weak GDP growth, retail sales, and investment. “China should be going gangbusters, and it’s not,” Gave said, blaming “crushed” consumer and business confidence. “The match that turns around business and consumer confidence? That’s the key.”

Rising complexity

Even as the world fragments along geopolitical faultlines, business leaders should not fixate solely on geopolitics, argued Ziad Haider, McKinsey’s global director of geopolitics. “It’s not the only point of transition,” he said. “We’re seeing changes on the energy, technology, and demographic fronts.”

Governments are also turning to geoeconomics, or the strategic use of tariffs, sanctions, and industrial policy, to achieve national security goals. U.S. President Donald Trump has recently launched a new round of tariffs, targeting Canada in particular; Canada’s retaliatory tariffs kick in on Sept. 8.

“Traditionally, we’ve thought about geopolitics as the contestation of security and political issues,” Haider said, pointing to examples like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Middle East conflict. “But that whole world of security has now been complemented by a world of geoeconomics…and the chessboard that boards have to look at on geopolitics has become significantly wider.”

Both speakers pointed to energy as today’s biggest geopolitical stress point. “The lower the cost of energy, the easier it is to produce economic growth,” Gave explained. “We live in a world where the uncertainty around the energy cost has grown considerably for mostly geopolitical reasons.”

Oil prices have surged since the Iran war began earlier this year, sparking energy shortages across much of Asia-Pacific. While prices have come down since the peak in April, they still remain far above where they were at the beginning of the year.

Still, Haider was optmistic that businesses can find opportunities in this more complicated political environment. Companies may see tariffs as a source of risk, but Haider argued that they’re also driving the creation of new trade agreements, citing the EU-Mercosur deal and ASEAN’s digital economy framework agreement. Similarly, he suggested out that fossil fuel constraints spurred by the war in Iran could drive demand for renewables and other types of energy.

“The greatest danger in an era of turbulence is not the turbulence itself,” Haider concluded. “It’s to act with yesterday’s logic.”

Gave, for his part, has a simpler rule for navigating the unknown: “When it comes to Chinese policy making, I’m not paid to forecast; I’m paid to adapt,” he said. “Anybody who tells you they know what goes on inside the Politburo is either delusional or lying to you.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Hello and welcome to Eye on AI. In this edition:

• OpenAI claims it made a mathematical breakthrough. But some mathematicians raise questions about cheating—and intimidation.
• Google DeepMind uses AI to predict the impact of genetic mutations.
• OpenAI agents swarmed a German wiki—and OpenAI stayed quiet about it.
• Mistral valued at $24.4 billion in new fund raise.
• Google DeepMind examines why AI agents cheat.
• Average Americans are pessimistic about AI’s impacts.

Apologies, in advance for a long essay today. But there’s several important points to be made and the background is, well, complicated.

Over the weekend, rumors swirled that Anthropic was on the cusp of announcing that one of its AI models had cracked one of the Millennium Prize Problems. These are seven complex mathematical challenges that the Clay Mathematics Institute, founded by American mutual fund magnate Landon Clay, selected in the year 2000, offering a $1 million prize for the first correct solution to each problem.

The specific problem that Anthropic had cracked, the rumors said, was something called the Navier-Stokes equations. These come from the field of physics, where they explain certain properties in fluid dynamics, and are useful for everything from weather forecasting to aircraft design. For everyday, empirical purposes, the equations work well, but mathematicians have never been able to prove whether the equations hold for all fluid interactions across all time sequences. Are there are special circumstances under which the equations break down, resulting in what is known as a “singularity”: a point at which one or more fluid properties, such as pressure or velocity, “blow up”—i.e. race off to infinity? Proving that such singularities exist or that the equations hold for all conditions is what the challenge is all about.

Now, as I write this on Tuesday, we’ve learned a bit more about what happened—and the story turns out to be more complicated, controversial, and acrimonious than simply being the case that one of Anthropic’s AI models has solved Navier-Stokes, which it turned out it did not. Instead, OpenAI today announced that a multi-agent system, powered and coordinated by an unreleased internal model, and which at one point had 10,000 different sub-agents working different parts and variations of the problem, has solved Navier-Stokes. OpenAI’s AI proved that, in fact, there are conditions under which the equations will “blow up.” Yet, how exactly OpenAI came to solve Navier-Stokes is, it turns out, a matter of great controversy.

Mathematician questions how OpenAI hit upon its approach

In short: Tristan Buckmaster, a well-regarded mathematician at New York University’s Courant Institute, also released a statement prior to OpenAI’s saying that he and Levent Alpöge, a mathematician who works for Anthropic, used several different AI models from both Anthropic and OpenAI to discover an almost identical solution to one portion of the Navier-Stokes Millenium Prize problem—although they did not have a proof for the entire problem.

Buckmaster says that he and Alpöge took a concept for tackling the Navier-Stokes problem that had been pioneered by two other mathematicians, Diego Cordoba and Luis Martinez-Zoroa, and then used Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s Codex powered by the GPT-5.6 Sol model, to push Cordoba and Martinez-Zoroa’s lines of attack through to completion. (Buckmaster said they also used OpenAI’s new Astra model to help them audit and write up their results but not for the actual mathematical reasoning and calculations.) Buckmaster says that he and Alpöge worked for most of a year, making only slow progress, but that with help from several AI models, they made rapid progress from mid-August onwards. He calls this “a Deep Blue-Kasparov” moment for mathematics (referring to the 1997 contest in which a computer chess program first defeated a human grandmaster) and says “the significance of this with respect to the way we train students, assign credit, referee, and decide what is worth one human life’s attention cannot be understated.” (We’ll get back to this theme later.)

Then, however, Buckmaster made a series of explosive revelations. He said OpenAI had desperately asked for a phone call with him, starting on September 3rd, and that when he did finally have a call with several OpenAI researchers on September 6th, he learned that OpenAI was about to claim one of its unreleased AI models had solved Navier-Stokes using the exact same line of attack Buckmaster and Alpöge had used.

Over the course of the call, after repeated questioning, Buckmaster said that the OpenAI team admitted that they had only tried to solve the problem in the past week—after rumors began circulating that Anthropic was about to announce a solution—and that the effort had involved a large team of researchers who had initially prompted the model to use a different approach, and that it had also consumed large amounts of computing power. (OpenAI told reporters in a briefing today that it had used computing resources that were at least 1,000 times greater than what it had used to solve some previous mathematical challenges for which it had used about $2,000 worth of compute—so that would be about $2 million.) 

The fact that the model eventually used the exact same approach he and Alpöge had been pursuing set off alarm bells, Buckmaster said. He questions whether OpenAI either intentionally accessed his Codex account or if the unreleased model might have been trained on his interactions with Codex. “I asked whether the model had been trained on, or had access to, our sessions in Codex, into which we had been putting all our drafts for the whole of this project,” he writes. “I was told the model did not look up user data. I asked again, about training, and I did not get an answer.”

If either is true, this alone would be a scandal for OpenAI. It would prove what CEOs like Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Palantir’s Alex Karp have been alleging lately—that OpenAI and Anthropic and other frontier AI companies train on their customer’s prompts and data and use them to build competing products.

Sebastien Bubeck, the OpenAI researcher in charge of the project, denied that OpenAI’s model had any access to Buckmaster’s and Alpöge’s data. “We did not use their prompts or proofs to prompt our models or direct our agents,” Bubeck said in a press conference. “We, whether it’s the researchers or the agents, did not see any of their work until they were released publicly yesterday night.”

Buckmaster says OpenAI researcher threatened him

But Buckmaster’s revelations continued. He said that Bubeck, a well-known AI researcher at OpenAI, had offered that either he and Alpöge could publish a paper on their partial solution to Navier-Stokes, with OpenAI then publishing the next day that its model had solved the whole shebang, but with a note saying that Buckmaster and Alpöge deserved the Millennium prize for being the “closest humans to the problem.” Or, and this is the especially controversial bit, that Buckmaster could publish himself and claim the prize, but only if he said that OpenAI’s model had also solved the challenge—and only if Buckmaster removed Alpöge’s name from the paper because OpenAI did not like his Anthropic affiliation.

Buckmaster said he declined and said he would go public if OpenAI published in the way it proposed. At this point, Buckmaster claims that Bubeck threatened him, saying “Why would you ruin your career?” and said “If you don’t want me to be nice, then I don’t have to be nice.”

Bubeck said in a post on X that “A series of false and inflammatory allegations against me are currently circulating on social channels. To clarify, I came into the discussion following academic norms, and I’m disappointed that it has come to this. Anyone who knows me knows that academic standards are of the highest importance to me. Will have more to say tomorrow.” In the briefing with reporters today, he said “I want to be extremely clear that we recognize the priority of Levent Alpöge and Tristan Buckmaster’s work” and that “we have nothing but congratulations to them on this monumental achievement that they have made.

The whole thing is a mess—and frankly an example of OpenAI managing to steal a public relations defeat from the jaws of victory. The company freely admits in its own blog post that it only decided to go after Navier-Stokes because of the rumors Anthropic was on the cusp of solving it. That tells you how heated this rivalry really is. I don’t know if Buckmaster’s concerns that OpenAI’s internal model had access to his Codex chats are true, but the sad fact is, it sounds plausible. What’s more, how much money, electricity, computing power and human brain power did OpenAI waste on this quest this past week? And for what? This isn’t solving cancer. Sure, plenty of scientific progress has been driven by ego and rivalry. But this is, frankly, ridiculous. And you wonder why these two companies are racing one another to Armageddon?

Why this matters to more than just mathematicians

As the rumors about Navier-Stokes swirled over the weekend, Terrence Tao, generally considered one of the world’s greatest living mathematicians, lamented on social media about AI companies using these longstanding mathematical challenges as marketing proof points for the prowess of their AI models.

Tao noted that he had initially been hopeful that AI, in the hands of expert mathematicians, would be a wonderful tool—like a microscope for biologists or a telescope for astronomers. But increasingly, he said, AI was being used autonomously to produce answers to mathematical problems without providing much insight. While AI models sometimes cleverly applied ideas from one field of mathematics to solving a problem in a seemingly unrelated area, it was often unclear why the model decided to do so. What is it that made the model believe there was a connection? The model often doesn’t say. These insights often matter far more to the progress of mathematics, Tao argues, than the answers themselves.

By focusing on the answers, Tao says, AI discourages mathematicians from working on alternative approaches that might arrive at the same solution. What’s more, Tao argues that AI companies rarely reveal all the things their models tried that didn’t work. But it is precisely such “dead ends” that often provide the insights that mathematicians use to make progress on other problems or that open up whole new fields of mathematics.

“The indiscriminate strip-mining of open problems for solutions may destroy the ecosystem from which the next generation of mathematical techniques, problems, and practitioners would have developed,” Tao writes, comparing it to using excavators to loot on archaeological sites, destroying the historical context needed to give treasures any historical meaning.

I happened to be at a party over the weekend where an academic mathematician echoed these laments. He said the field was adrift, with many mathematicians wondering what the point of mathematical research even is, in light of AI’s ability to crack almost every problem. His friends tried to cheer him up. At the same time, they discussed the encroachment of AI on their own fields and the way the zone for human insight, inspiration, and creativity seemed to be becoming increasingly circumscribed.

That’s ultimately why Tao’s and Burbank’s worries about what AI is doing to mathematics research matters far more than Burbank’s specific accusations against OpenAI’s tactics in this particular case. Soon all knowledge workers will face the same crisis of meaning that mathematicians are wrestling with today.

With that, here’s more AI news.

Jeremy Kahn
[email protected]
@jeremyakahn

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

A senior Anthropic safety researcher said on Tuesday that artificial intelligence (AI) has a greater than 10% chance to “kill all humans” within “the next decade,” responding to a former employee who resigned after accusing the company of acting irresponsibly. 

Former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher Jacob Coxon wrote in a lengthy resignation thread posted to X on Sunday that “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

“I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives,” he wrote.

Responding to Coxon’s thread in a quoted post, the company’s alignment science lead, Evan Hubinger, conceded that Coxon’s assessment was correct, though he added some caveats.

“Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!” Hubinger wrote. 

“I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to,” he continued. 

Hubinger added that the potentially deadly risk did not come from present models.

“To be clear, as we say in our latest Risk Report, I think the risk from present models is low. What I am worried about is superintelligence arising from recursive self-improvement, as we have said is happening faster than we thought,” he wrote. 

Research on self-improvement – an AI model’s ability to continuously enhance its own source code or training methodologies – is an avenue of development Coxon specifically cited in his resignation thread as a main reason he quit.

“These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources. We have all witnessed the progress in each of these domains, and progress is not slowing,” Coxon’s thread continued. 

Coxon also said that, unlike researchers at other companies, Anthropic’s scientists understand the risks of their work, but press forward because they fear a less responsible company might unlock the potentially disastrous capabilities first.

“At Anthropic, the stakes are well-understood, but they are locked in a race to get there first – they believe no one else will act responsibly, so they must do it themselves, despite the risk,” Coxon added. 

Coxon suggested that, to prevent utter catastrophe, the world may require a temporary ban on model improvement. 

“I don’t feel like we’re on track to prevent a global race, which may require costly actions such as a temporary ban on improving model capabilities,” he wrote. 

He ultimately called on global AI researchers and developers to think and act more responsibly. 

“If you are a lab researcher, I urge you to consider what the next few years will actually feel like. Do you want to kick off a superintelligent RL run without a rigorous understanding of its mind? Should you put your head down because ‘it’s happening anyway’ – or take this moment to call for different conditions?” his X thread concluded. 

FOX Business reached out to Coxon, Hubinger, Anthropic and OpenAI for further comment.

Japan has protested against Chinese controls that will limit its exports of a key chemical used to make computer chips, saying Tuesday that Tokyo is studying the potential impact on Japanese companies.

China imposed the curb on imports of dichlorosilane from Japan, saying its exports of the material, also known as DCS, have violated anti-dumping regulations and harmed China’s domestic industry.

Beginning Tuesday, companies importing the chemical compound from Japan must provide cash deposits to China’s customs at rates of up to 99.2%. The measure applies to Shin-Etsu Chemical and Denal Silane, among other Japanese exporters of DCS.

Beijing says the measure is provisional as an investigation continues. A final ruling will come later.

Relations between China and Japan have been strained since November, when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi angered Beijing by suggesting Japan’s military could intervene if China used military force on Taiwan, a self-ruled island Beijing claims as its territory.

In Tokyo, Japan’s top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, protested against the controls and said Tokyo would “respond appropriately” to avoid unfair harm to Japanese companies.

China’s commerce ministry launched its anti-dumping probe into Japanese DCS as part of various measures against Japan. Beijing has also imposed export controls on Japanese firms for dual-use items that can be used for military purposes.

DCS is used in a chemical vapor process to put thin layers of silicon, oxide, or other films in semiconductor logic and memory chips. The global market for DCS is highly competitive, but Japan is the leading producer of ultrapure DCS for computer chip fabrication.

___

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

As we enter Rosh Hashanah, I want to share something personal.

Google DeepMind has now mapped predictions for roughly nine billion possible single-letter changes in human DNA. Think about that: nine billion possible changes inside one human genome, each potentially affecting something different in the body.

A scientist can spend a lifetime trying to understand one tiny part of one gene, one atom or one biological process, and we rightly call that brilliance. Entire generations can spend decades and centuries collectively trying to understand just one small piece of what was already there before any of us arrived.

Now look at what already exists.

The human body. The brain. DNA. Trees. Flowers. Oceans. Animals. Gravity. Light. The laws that hold the universe together.

Billions upon billions of systems and wonders, all working with a depth and precision mankind is still struggling to understand.

Recently, scientists at CERN created what they called a “little Big Bang,” using one of the most advanced scientific facilities on earth, decades of research, extraordinary engineering and enormous energy just to reproduce for a fraction of a second one tiny condition they believe existed near the beginning of the universe.

And somehow that is supposed to make God less obvious?

To me, it does exactly the opposite.

If I dropped a brand-new Rolls-Royce in front of your house tomorrow and told you nobody designed it — there was just a huge explosion and somehow the engine, computer, leather, wheels, wiring and every screw landed exactly where they belonged — you would look at me like I had lost my mind.

You would say: Someone made this.

Yet a Rolls-Royce is nothing compared with a human body.

The car cannot heal itself. It cannot grow from a single cell. It cannot reproduce. It cannot think, love, remember, see, hear or repair its own DNA.

Science is not the enemy of faith. Science keeps opening our eyes.

Every discovery reveals another layer of Creation that was already there before we knew how to see it.

And maybe that is really the message.

We do not have to look very far to find God.

We just have to open our eyes.

My grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. He lost his family. He went through the camps. Six million Jews were murdered. He saw horrors no human being should ever have to see.

People asked him directly: After everything you went through, how can you still believe in God? Where was God?

His answer was simple.

He said: I look at the grass. I look at the trees. I see God. How could there not be a God?

He had questions. Of course he had questions. He had lived through terror and hell. He had seen suffering beyond anything most of us can imagine. He did not pretend to understand why.

But the questions did not erase what he saw in front of him.

Creation was still there.

God was still there.

For him, the grass and the trees were enough to say: I see the Creator.

And now it is our turn.

We live in a digital world that my grandfather could never have imagined. Google has now opened our eyes to see what earlier generations could not — billions of possibilities hidden inside human DNA, each tied to systems so deep that brilliant scientists can spend lifetimes trying to understand only a fraction of them.

What my grandfather saw in the grass, we can now see inside the genome.

So how can we not open our eyes?

This year especially, with anti-Semitism rising, wars raging and so much uncertainty around us, my message for Rosh Hashanah is simple:

God controls the world.

God controls our lives.

That does not mean we understand everything that happens. We do not. We have questions. We experience fear, pain, loss and uncertainty.

But when we recognize Hashem in our lives, we begin to see how many open miracles surround us every single day.

A child. A heartbeat. A recovery. A door that opened at the right moment. Protection we did not even realize we needed. A problem that somehow worked itself out. A new morning. Another year.

We call some of these things coincidence because we have become used to them.

Maybe Rosh Hashanah is our chance to stop calling them coincidence and start recognizing Who is running the world.

That is what I want to say to this generation.

Google DeepMind used artificial intelligence to map billions of possibilities inside DNA.

Now it is our turn to look at what it uncovered and say:

מָה רַבּוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ ה׳

How great are Your works, Hashem.

Wow.

Look at what Hashem created.

If artificial intelligence has brought us to a point where we can see deeper into Creation and recognize even more clearly how extraordinary it is, then perhaps AI was worth it for that alone.

Not just to make us smarter, but to make us more aware, more humble, more grateful and more connected to the Creator.

We spend Rosh Hashanah asking Hashem to recognize us, to remember us for life, to bless us, protect us and see us as His nation, His people and His children.

But first, we have to recognize Him.

Recognize His glory. Recognize His wisdom. Recognize His leadership. Recognize His presence in our own lives.

And once we recognize Him, we can ask Him to recognize us and bless us in return.

That is my message for Rosh Hashanah 5787.

Open your eyes.

See Hashem.

See the miracles already around you.

Bring that recognition into your home, your business, your family and your everyday life.

Especially now, when the Jewish people and the world are living through such challenging times, let us remember Who is ultimately in control.

May Hashem protect Klal Yisrael, bring peace to the world, bless our families and communities, and grant each of us health, parnassah, nachas, happiness and a year filled with open blessing.

May we be able to look back one year from now and see clearly how Hashem carried us through.

מָה רַבּוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ ה׳ כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ

Wishing you and your family a Shana Tova U’Mesuka and a כתיבה וחתימה טובה.

May we all be written and sealed for a happy, healthy, peaceful and blessed new year.

Duvi Honig
Publisher, JBizNews
Founder & CEO, Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce

Senior officials from Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works were in Israel last month, meeting with Israeli defense tech companies as well as senior defense officials in a trip organized by Lockheed Martin Israel.

Skunk Works is Lockheed Martin’s advanced development division, known for pioneering new aerospace and defense technologies, including advanced aircraft, autonomy, and command-and-control systems.

Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post understands that the Skunk Works team was in the country looking to identify battlefield-proven technologies from companies to integrate them into their solutions – similar to what they have done with Xtend by integrating the Israeli defense tech’s operating system (XOS) into Skunk Works’ MDCX autonomy platform.

Paul Fogel, chief engineer, and his team met with over a dozen defense tech companies in several special events, including a demo day held in the Gaza border communities. 

D&T understands that one special event was held by Lockheed Martin Israel in cooperation with Israel’s Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development, MAFAT. Senior MAFAT officials attended the event held in central Tel Aviv.

Several companies attended the event, which focused on drones, command and control, and autonomy. Among them were Pixelsite, which specializes in visual intelligence and passive optical systems to detect low-signature threats; Regulus, which builds a full-spectrum counter-drone solution; and Particle Labs, a deep tech company that is currently still in stealth mode.

Another event was held by CET Sandbox where about 10 start-ups in the fields of electronic warfare, battlefield dominance, autonomy, and force protection took part. D&T understands some of the companies that took part included Tenna Systems, Ion Flux, Invisig, BEX Robotics, Resight, Sharksense, Asio Technologies, Airwayz, R2 Wireless, and Insignito. 

The day concluded with a public event at Start-up Nation Central, sponsored by Shibolet and Asio in Tel Aviv, where more than 100 representatives from Israeli start-ups gathered to meet the Lockheed Martin team. The evening included a panel discussion on the future of the defense landscape, followed by an open Q&A session.

CET Sandbox is a US-Israel defense tech innovation hub connecting Israeli defense tech start-ups to the US defense industrial base, government agencies, and capital markets. 

In an earlier interview with D&T, Candis Roussel, Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS) at Lockheed Martin, said that Skunk Works has “always been at the forefront of cutting‑edge technology, and we love tackling new challenges.”

“Skunk Works has been around since the 1950s, driving innovation in aerospace engineering,” Roussel said. “Our mission is to keep pace with the rapidly evolving environment and provide the safety, data, and agility that pilots and warfighters need to operate quickly and effectively – improving both their safety and their success.”

“Ninety‑seven percent of our work is classified, but the remaining three percent gives you a glimpse into the complexity and advanced capabilities our teams are developing,” she added.

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CUPERTINO, Calif.—Nearly 20 years ago, Steve Jobs upended the consumer hardware space by introducing the world to the iPhone, propelling Apple to unprecedented heights. While few product launches can top that moment, Apple today is poised to host one of its most exciting events in recent memory when it unveils its latest hardware, which is expected to include its first foldable phone.

At the Steve Jobs theater on Apple’s campus, the company is expected to reveal the foldable, along with its iPhone 18 Pro models, Apple Watch Series 12, AirPods 5, and potential updates to its MacBook and home products. It could also unpack more details about Siri AI, its supercharged assistant—partly reliant on Google technology—that users have been testing in beta mode.

It’s also Apple’s first big event to be led by new CEO John Ternus. And with questions growing over Apple’s business momentum, its AI strategy, and challenges such as the industry’s memory chip shortage, it’s safe to say that this will be one of Apple’s most closely watched product launches in years. 

The foldable in particular would vault Apple into its next age by introducing a new form factor after years in which it has iterated on its original iPhone. While the cost is expected to be around $2,000 for the base model, the phone would help Apple compete in a market set by Samsung and hand Ternus a flashy new product to tout as he begins his tenure. 

Apple’s events in recent years have “been a wash, rinse, and repeat cycle,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst and former Apple marketing employee. With its event Wednesday, however, the company has something distinctly new it can present to consumers and potentially show off a different approach to foldables from the ones Samsung and Google currently make.

“Everyone, whether you’re the kid at home saving their money for a new iPhone, or an analyst on Wall Street, will pay close attention to everything that Ternus says and does,” Gartenberg told Fortune.

And while the expected $2,000-plus price of Apple’s foldable is likely to limit the potential buyers, the price will be comparable to competing products such as Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 phone, which starts at $1,899.99, and the upgraded Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, which begins at $2,099.99.

Apple isn’t abandoning its traditional bar type iPhone design, and its expected iPhone 18 Pro will be the latest version of its premium iPhone model. But the company’s base model, the iPhone 18, is not expected until Spring 2027, according to a note by analysts at Bank of America. That’s a change from Apple’s standard playbook. “The split launch could support mix and (average selling prices) but creates some risk that price-sensitive consumers defer upgrades until the lower-priced models arrive,” analysts wrote.

Apple, like other companies, raised prices recently due to a shortage in memory chips brought on by the intense demand for AI computing resources. The company’s price hikes ranged from 15% to 33% across its Mac, iPad, and home device lines (it also increased monthly subscriptions by $2) in what former CEO Tim Cook called a “100-year-flood” event.

In July, Apple issued a disappointing revenue forecast for its fiscal fourth quarter owing to supply-chain constraints. Investors are also examining the company’s progress on AI, with its new Siri AI being rolled out this fall that is promised to better understand data across apps, answer questions based on what is on users’ screens, and act autonomously within apps. The update has drawn praise by some analysts who have tested it. Apple has also bet that much of AI could happen locally on-device, rather than in the cloud.

Ternus, who took over on Sept. 1, told employees in a note that day that he was “so excited about everything we have in store.” He added that he’s “just as excited about what lies beyond that, including the incredible products already in the works and the ones we haven’t even imagined yet that we’ll dream up and create together.”

The 51-year-old executive is widely regarded as a low-key product-engineer savant with an encyclopedic memory of Apple product minutiae and an all-around nice guy who has played a significant part in building many of Apple’s most successful hardware products, Fortune reported in a profile this month.

He’s stepped into the role as Apple looks to compete in AI after mostly ceding the AI model ground to competitors like Google and OpenAI, which are also keen on beating out the iPhone-maker on consumer hardware devices in the AI era. OpenAI has not yet released a product but is working with former Apple star designer Jony Ive. Roughly half of Apple’s revenue is from iPhone sales.

Analysts and former Apple employees interviewed by Fortune have said they hope Ternus, given his product engineering background, can revive some of the company’s innovation and design mojo it has lost over the years. It’s likely Ternus will not make drastic changes to start out, experts pointed out, especially since hardware cycles are usually a few years in the making. But nevertheless, he could make a dent in a different way than the supply-chain minded Cook did.

Gartenberg and other analysts said Wednesday could be the start of that, as Apple promised some “surprise and shine” in its event description. That is likely to include a specialized hinge—the kind that would open a foldable device.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Meta rolled out on Tuesday a long-touted AI assistant that can autonomously send emails, sell a car, and book travel on a person’s behalf, despite internal concerns that the technology mismanages its access to sensitive personal data.

The company’s Muse agent, known internally as Hatch, is the centerpiece of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to supply “personal superintelligence” to the billions of people who use Meta’s services daily.

That plan is part of the Facebook and Instagram owner’s latest attempt to diversify its revenue sources beyond advertising and build a viable business out of its enormous investments in AI chips and other infrastructure, which it forecasts will exceed $130 billion this year.

The product will be available only in the US initially, via a dedicated Muse app or Meta’s WhatsApp messaging service, the company said in its announcement. Meta said it plans to add the agent to its line of smart glasses “soon,” without elaborating.

A basic version of the agent will be available for free, while Meta will offer subscriptions priced at $20 a month and $100 a month for heavier usage, a company spokesperson said.

People can opt out of their interactions being used to train Meta’s AI models, and the company plans to introduce an encrypted version of Muse later this year, it said.

Raising stakes for safety 

Modeled on the open-source AI agent OpenClaw, Muse is designed to access a person’s apps across categories like email, calendar, payments, health, shopping and the smart home, Meta said. People choose which apps it connects to and can revoke access at any time.

Each Muse agent runs on its own virtual machine, a cloud-based emulation of a personal computer, which enables it to keep carrying out requests in the background even when a person is not actively using it.

Syncing up with apps containing a person’s real data both increases the agent’s potential usefulness and significantly raises the stakes for safety, both for the people who have entrusted it with their information and for others who may be on the receiving end of agent misbehavior.

Vishal Shah, vice president of AI products at Meta, told Reuters the company had initially delayed the release of the product in April to make it more secure. Meta determined the extra work had allowed it to “cross the threshold” and “hit the minimum bar we needed to, to be able to put this into the hands of people,” he said.

“It is impossible to say that there is never going to be a mistake, but every single part of the architecture has been designed to make this as safe, as secure, as private as we can possibly make it,” Shah said.

Among the protections Meta built into the Muse system is a separate agent that monitors planned actions and, in certain cases, prompts Muse to seek authorization before carrying them out, the company said in its announcement.

Internal tests reveal mixed results

However, as recently as this week, Meta employees testing the tool have reported mixed results, according to internal posts seen by Reuters.

One person wrote that the product had been so useful in arranging vacation logistics that Muse had become “the third participant” on a recent three-week honeymoon in Indonesia.

Others flagged serious security flaws, like an agent routing around guardrails to expose a person’s personal iCloud photos after being prompted to identify toys visible in pictures from a child’s birthday party.

Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth posted that he kept getting logged out and needing to log back in, sometimes several times within a few minutes.

In another post, an employee who had prompted Muse to monitor for tickets and other items that sell out quickly reported encountering “many failure modes that made it unreliable.” The product stopped refreshing the page after about 15 minutes, silently ignored other errors and at times disabled monitoring “for no apparent reason,” the person said.

Meta did not respond to a request for comment on the specific incidents described in the internal posts.

The launch comes amid revelations that AI agents from multiple leading labs, including OpenAI and Anthropic as well as Meta, have caused unintended problems by bending rules and behaving in other unpredictable ways.

Inside Meta, major technical and security incidents have spiked 40% from last year as a result of an AI-driven coding surge and agent-related issues, while time staffers spent “firefighting” those incidents has gone up 70%.

This post was originally published on here.

Google DeepMind said Tuesday that it has used artificial intelligence to predict the biological consequences of all 9 billion possible single-letter changes to human DNA, and is making the resulting database available free to academic researchers worldwide.

AlphaGenome Atlas, as DeepMind calls the database, is a precomputed catalogue of what each substitution of a single DNA base is likely to do to the machinery that switches genes on and off. Until now researchers had to run such a model one variant at a time or had to test variants in the laboratory, a process that was painstakingly slow. It would have taken many human lifetimes to discover the consequences of all 9 billion possible single-letter mutations. 

The Atlas promises to make the job of biologists and medical researchers considerably easier, potentially speeding up the understanding of genetic diseases and the hunt for possible cures. 

Pushmeet Kohli, DeepMind’s vice president for research and head of its AI for science team, told reporters on a briefing call that this was the first time any researcher in the world could reach a comprehensive map of human genetic variation “by simply opening a browser.”

Kohli also framed the release as helping to complete the unfinished business of the Human Genome Project, which in 2003 succeeded in mapping the entire human DNA sequence. “As the saying goes, we bought the book,” he said, “but we did not understand how to read it.”

Atlas is available for non-commercial use from today through a website Google DeepMind has set up for it. The company said it would be available for commercial use through a licensing arrangement through Google Cloud “soon.” Kohli said that Google DeepMind’s sister company, Isomorphic Labs, which is using AI for drug discovery, would have access to Atlas but that it would also require a commercial license for access. He did not specify exactly what the terms would be for commercial licensing. A paper describing the Atlas and how it was created is being released on bioRxiv, a repository for biomedical preprint academic papers.

Helping understand mutations in DNA’s vast ‘non-coding’ segments

DNA provides the recipe for the proteins a living cell can make. It consists of two chains of nucleotides, or molecules containing nitrogen, that coil around one another to produce a double helix. The nucleotides in DNA are formed of one of four different base components, cytosine (C), guanine (G), adenine (A), or thymine (T), as well as a sugar and a phosphate group. The bases form pairs, with guanine always binding with cytosine and adenine always binding with thymine. But sometimes, a single one of these letters will mutate, swapping an A for a G, for instance. This will ultimately switch the entire base pair when the DNA is copied. This base pair substitution can, in some cases, radically change the shape of the protein the DNA instructs a cell to produce. Those changes, in turn, can cause diseases.  

DeepMind built Atlas by running AlphaGenome—an AI model DeepMind released last year that predicts the effects of single-letter genetic mutations—across a reference sample of the human genome, and then comparing each reference base against each of the three possible alternatives.

According to DeepMind’s research paper on Atlas, each variant is linked to an average of about 27,000 individual predictions about how the mutation will affect everything from gene expression to how it will alter the way in which the DNA sequence is transcribed into specific instructions for protein manufacture. It makes these predictions across hundreds of cell types and tissue types from both humans and mice. The team also scored more than 100 million insertions and deletions observed in population databases, including the U.K. Biobank and All of Us, a large database run by the U.S. National Institutes of Health that collects genetic, medical, and lifestyle data from Americans.

To make all of these predictions more usable, DeepMind is also releasing a summary metric, which it calls the AlphaGenome Variant Impact (AVI) score. That score folds AlphaGenome’s predictions about the effect of mutations on gene regulation together with predictions from AlphaMissense— an earlier model that DeepMind built that looks specifically at protein-altering mutations. An AVI score of 10 puts a variant among the 10% most impactful in the genome, while an AVI score of 30 places it among the strongest one in a thousand. Each score is broken down into the processes driving it, showing whether a variant is flagged for splicing, gene expression or protein change.

That breakdown matters because the protein-coding part of DNA accounts for about 2% of the genome; the other 98% governs when and where genes are switched on. Mutations to this “non-coding” portion of DNA have been far harder for scientists to interpret so far. “AlphaMissense looks at proteins,” said Žiga Avsec, DeepMind’s genomics lead. “With AlphaGenome, we are focusing on the regulatory part of the genome.”

Atlas also includes a catalogue of more than 2,500 recurring short DNA sequences, or motifs—the segments transcription factors bind to—mapped across the genome.

Early testers report promising results

DeepMind gave several scientists access to Atlas to beta test it prior to today’s release. Laura Covill and Anne O’Donnell-Luria of the Broad Institute worked with the GREGoR Consortium, which works on unexplained rare genetic disorders, to use the AVI score to re-examine several unsolved cases. In a patient with epileptic encephalopathy, Atlas pointed the scientists to a variant in DNM1, a gene important to synaptic function in brain cells. Sixty-nine percent of its score came from splicing: the model predicted the variant creates a spurious splice site in a version of the gene found only in the brain, lengthening the resulting protein by 13 amino acids. Because that segment is barely expressed in blood, earlier RNA sequencing of blood samples had been inconclusive. Laboratory experiments confirmed the prediction, and the variant was reclassified as likely pathogenic.

In a retrospective test on previously solved GREGoR cases, the paper reports, AVI placed the known causal variant among a patient’s top 50 candidates 29.5% of the time, against 12.5% for CADD, an existing ranking method.

Gareth Hawkes, a Medical Research Council fellow at the University of Exeter, applied Atlas to whole-genome data from more than 54,000 U.K. Biobank participants, hunting for rare non-coding variants affecting levels of proteins circulating in the blood. Filtering candidates by their predicted molecular effect yielded 22% more associations than the same analysis run without Atlas, and in one case narrowed a region from 526 candidates to four. “The human genome is a massive search space,” Hawkes said in a statement supplied by DeepMind. “We can use it to shrink the haystack.”

Julia Zeitlinger, an investigator at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, used the motif maps to sort transcription factors by what they do in different cell types—separating, for instance, repressors that leave DNA accessible but still block a gene from switching on. Mapping thousands of such sites without Atlas “would not have been possible,” she said, because doing it experimentally is laborious. Four decades of that work, she added, has validated only a tiny share of the motifs the model predicts.

Ewan Birney, director of EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute, said his organization is working to integrate the AVI score into Ensembl’s Variant Effect Predictor, a widely used annotation tool that the EMBL hosts. “These tools reach their full value when they’re open and plugged into the wider data ecosystem,” he said in a statement.

Atlas predictions don’t replace the need for lab experiments

DeepMind acknowledged that the Atlas predictions are not a substitute for experimental evidence. Avsec said AlphaGenome works well for some classes of variant, such as those affecting splicing or promoters, but can miss others, particularly in enhancers. He said the Atlas predictions are not, overall, as accurate as what the DeepMind AI model AlphaFold was able to achieve for protein structure prediction. The predictions are “accurate enough to really point us in the right direction with downstream studies,” he said, but researchers should not treat them as “the universal truth.”

DeepMind’s paper on Atlas describes it as a research tool that can form only part of the evidence chain behind a clinical diagnosis, and notes gaps in its training data and a limited ability to capture effects that act indirectly, through changes in the levels of regulatory proteins.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday dissolved parliament and announced snap elections for next month as he seeks to extend his hold on power by running for prime minister.

Vucic, a populist who has been in power as ‌president or prime minister for 12 years, has faced nearly two years of anti-corruption demonstrations triggered by the collapse of a railway station awning in the city of Novi Sad in November 2024 that killed 16 people.

“Were the elections necessary for us if there were no such tensions, if there were no such political conflicts, certainly they would not be necessary,” Vucic said in a televised statement. He added that any delay in the election “would threaten the survival of democracy.”

He set the election date as October 25, confirming earlier statements on timing. A parliamentary vote was initially scheduled for next year.

Growing animosity against Vucic’s authoritarianism

Vucic ​has ruled as prime minister or president since 2014 and held the strings of power in both positions. While he has overseen a chapter of economic development, he has faced growing rancor against perceived corruption and authoritarianism.

Still, he commands support from his ruling Serbian Progressive Party, which on Saturday nominated him to run for prime minister in the upcoming elections. It is unclear if Vucic will resign from his position as president before the parliamentary elections or after.

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[DAMASCUS] Users in Syria have begun regaining access to the Microsoft Store in recent days without the need for virtual private networks (VPNs), marking a new development after years of restrictions that limited Syrians’ access to a range of digital services provided by US technology companies.   

Users inside Syria said they were able to open the store through Syrian internet connections, browse apps and games, download and install them, and update software directly. Previously, accessing the service often required a VPN or a connection routed through networks outside the country.   

Access, however, does not yet appear to be universal. Other users said the store remains blocked for them or that they are still unable to access some of its services, suggesting that availability may be rolling out gradually or could vary depending on internet service providers or account settings.   

Microsoft has not yet issued an official statement explaining the apparent restoration of access in Syria or why availability continues to differ among users.   

The development is significant beyond access to an app store. For years, Syrians faced restrictions on US-based digital products and services due to sanctions and other controls on business and technology services provided to the country.  

Syrian users, technology companies, and software developers often relied on technical workarounds to bypass geographic restrictions and access certain platforms, while other services remained entirely or partially unavailable.

US policy toward Syria undergoes transformation

The change comes as US policy toward Syria undergoes a broader transformation, with Washington easing or removing a number of restrictions previously imposed on the country. Those changes have opened the way for international companies to reassess which products and services they can legally provide to users in Syria.   

So far, however, Microsoft has not publicly linked the apparent restoration of Microsoft Store access directly to those policy changes. It therefore remains unclear whether the shift in US policy is the immediate reason for the service’s availability.   

The return of the Microsoft Store also does not necessarily mean that all Microsoft products and services are now available in Syria. Certain subscriptions, payments, cloud products, and other services may be subject to separate rules and restrictions.   

Still, the ability of some Syrians to access the Microsoft Store without using a VPN represents another indication that part of the digital isolation the country experienced for years may be beginning to recede.   

The extent of that shift could become clearer in the coming weeks, particularly if Microsoft expands access to additional services and other major US technology companies take similar steps to restore their products and platforms for users in Syria. 

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Israel kept being the world’s top target for hacktivist attacks in the first half of 2026, with one in six attacks targeting the country, the Radware H1 2026 Global Threat Report revealed Wednesday.

A hacktivist attack is carried out by non-state actors, often sponsored by states but not officially part of their organization, against selected countries for geopolitical reasons.

According to the report, Israel absorbed 16% of all the hacktivist campaigns, with 784 recorded claims of attacks; the United States was second with 8%, and the United Kingdom was third, while many European countries supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia absorbed a significant number of secondary attacks.

The report pointed out that a spike in attacks of this style was recorded during the war between the US, Israel, and Iran, after seeing these types of attacks hit a record low during the first months of the year.

In comparison to previous years, the first half of 2026 has been one of the lowest recorded, with the peak of hacktivism attacks being reached after the October 7 massacre and the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, the report noted.

“The most significant finding is not merely that Israel once again ranks first, but that the gap between it and the other countries continues to widen,” says Ron Meyran, vice president of Cyber Intelligence at Radware.

“The digital arena has become an inseparable part of every military conflict, and the campaign against Iran demonstrated how quickly dozens of groups can mobilize and act against organizations in Israel,” he added.

The report also noted that most hacktivist groups active in the first half of the year were from the pro-Russia, anti-Western collective, with 85% of attacks claimed by groups in the collective. The most active group was NoName057, which accounted for almost 40% of the attacks.

Targeting infrastructure, autonomous systems

The report also noted that the attacks centered on infrastructure, with the main targets being industrial facilities that provide essential services and could pressure public officials.

According to the findings, 37% of the attacks targeted governmental institutions, while other targets included manufacturing services (8%), business (7%), hospitality (6%), and the financial sector (5%).

In terms of the services targeted, the main objective was to disrupt autonomous system numbers (ASNs), with the main companies affected by these attacks being Microsoft (22%), Amazon Web Services (13%), and Google Cloud Platform (7%).

Secondary targets included several European hosting providers, such as Hetzner Online GmbH (8.4%), because their infrastructure is key to supporting Ukrainian and Israeli networks, including uPress, Radware, Hosting Ukraine, and Cellcom.

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Joshua Stancle runs Clean Saint out of Los Angeles. The product is a waterless oral-care film. The company is him. He uses AI for sourcing, marketing, web development, and customer support, and when we asked him what that felt like, he put it this way: “In a sense, there are ten of me.”

I keep coming back to the second half of that sentence. If there are ten of you, you need some way of knowing whether the other nine are getting the work right.

Most of the AI conversation still runs on a single question. Which model is the best? For a business, that is the wrong unit of measurement. A model reasons. Commerce means calling a supplier, filing a customs form, chasing a container that missed its vessel, handling a return, and a model does none of that by itself. Work gets done by an agent: the model that thinks, a harness that gives it tools and memory and the ability to act, and context that tells it what a good outcome looks like in a specific industry. At Alibaba.com, that context comes from 27 years of watching global commerce actually happen.

What commercial work asks of an agent

The industry has become very good at measuring intelligence. Benchmarks cover reasoning, coding, mathematics, factual recall, and increasingly tool use. But real commercial work is somewhat messier than any of that. Sourcing looks simple written down. In practice, it means comparing dozens of quotes, catching an inconsistency buried on the fourth page of a specification sheet, reading payment terms closely enough to notice when they have quietly changed, and confirming that a promised delivery date survives contact with your shipping schedule.

Product listings have the same texture. Attributes have to be right. Categories have to be right. The same listing may have to satisfy one set of regulatory requirements in Germany and a different set in California. Plausible output has very little value here. The job has to be finished, correctly, in the system where it lives.

Testing an AI agent only on what it says is like grading pilots on a written exam without asking them to land the plane.

Grade the outcome

That is why the Accio team at Alibaba.com, which offers an AI agent built for global commerce, developed a test that grades outcomes. CommerceAgentBench is open source and available on GitHub. It contains 107 end-to-end tasks pulled from real e-commerce operations across procurement, logistics, product listing, fulfillment, and after-sales service.

We assembled them from what we could see in our own data: 10 million active small-business users, 1.6 million real conversations, and 200,000 execution traces, sorted into seven categories of commercial work.

Grading happens on the end state. The listing either went live with the correct attributes or it did not. Freight moves on a route that exists, or it sits on a dock in Ningbo while somebody works out what went wrong.

Commerce has always kept score this way. A customer who receives the wrong product has no interest in how articulate the agent sounded when it placed the order. Execution is the benchmark that matters.

What we found

The strongest frontier model we tested successfully completed 61.7% of the tasks.

That figure is high enough to be useful and low enough to be a warning. Multi-step commercial work that sat beyond the reach of automation until recently now completes most of the time. But close to four in ten tasks still came back wrong.

The failures clustered in recognizable places. Agents struggled to spot a payment anomaly hiding inside a long supplier email thread, the kind of thing that reveals itself as fraud only after somebody has read all 300 messages. Landed cost gave them trouble once the calculation involved several moving variables at once. After-sales disputes broke down whenever the answer required reconciling documents that disagreed with each other. Multi-leg shipping routes were consistently hard.

Every one of those happens thousands of times a day in real businesses.

The risk changes as adoption scales. Across thousands of businesses using similar agents, individual mistakes could become correlated ones: inaccurate listings could multiply, fraud signals could be missed, and routing or compliance errors could ripple through supply chains. Measurement shows where automation is ready to scale, and where human oversight still needs to keep pace.

One result surprised me more than the headline number. No single model won. Leadership rotated by category. The model that ranked first on request-for-quote work and market research slipped behind on claims settlement and listing compliance, where a different model led. A third was strongest at publishing products and handling returns. A ranking built from general reasoning scores tells you very little about which system will perform on a particular commercial task, which is why the choice of model belongs to the job.

Precision delegation

For an individual business, that broader risk translates into a practical question:The question worth asking is narrower than the one the industry argues about. wWhich workflows can I hand over now, and which ones still need me? A benchmark that grades outcomes answers exactly that. Where the pass rates are high, supplier comparison and routine listing work can come off your desk. Where they are low, on unusual compliance questions and complicated negotiations and the exceptions that make up more of any commerce operation than anyone expects, keep a person in the loop and check the work.

I call this precision delegation. Once you know where an agent is dependable you can stop supervising it, and once you know where it breaks you can catch the failure before a customer does. Both save money. Neither is available without measurement.

Commerce needs a test like this and so does everything else. Logistics has its own edge cases, and so do finance, manufacturing, medicine, and legal services. Each field will need a benchmark built by people who understand what a bad outcome costs there, and those benchmarks should be open, so that a buyer can check a vendor’s claim against something.

Authority will move to agents one workflow at a time, as each one earns it. Joshua has ten of himself now. What he needs next is a way to know which of the ten he can stop checking.

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

Oil crossed one of the market’s most important psychological lines Wednesday morning: $100 a barrel.

Brent crude climbed above $100 for the first time in nearly six weeks, trading around $100.70 a barrel, while U.S. crude rose above $95. Oil is now up roughly 25% since last month as the U.S.-Iran conflict increasingly moves from a geopolitical story into a direct global supply problem. 

The biggest issue is no longer simply fear of what could happen in the Strait of Hormuz.

The oil is already not moving.

About 10 million barrels a day of global oil supply is currently offline, according to Reuters, while shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains severely disrupted. Only six commodity vessels passed through Tuesday, compared with a 10-day average of 12. Before the conflict, the strait handled roughly 125 commercial vessels a day and about 20% of global oil and LNG supply. 

Now another major energy route is under pressure.

Iran-backed Houthi forces attacked Saudi oil facilities and utilities this week, igniting fires and injuring 73 people. The attacks shattered a four-year truce in Yemen and raised fears that instability could spread toward Saudi export infrastructure and the Red Sea shipping corridor. 

At the same time, the United States and Iran are directly targeting energy shipping.

U.S. Central Command said American forces destroyed five Iranian crude-oil tankers after Iran fired missiles at a U.S. warship. Iranian state media later claimed its forces attacked multiple tankers and two U.S. vessels, although CENTCOM said the claims that American warships were hit were false. 

That matters because the oil market is losing both production and transportation capacity at the same time.

For American businesses, $100 Brent does not stay on an oil trading screen.

Diesel moves trucks. Jet fuel moves airplanes. Bunker fuel moves cargo ships. Petrochemicals go into plastics, packaging, manufacturing and thousands of everyday products.

The average U.S. gasoline price has already climbed to about $4.22 a gallon, more than $1 higher than a year ago, while diesel has reached approximately $5.94 a gallon — a record. 

That makes the math painful for nearly every business that moves something.

A trucking company buying 10,000 gallons of diesel a week is now spending almost $60,000 just on fuel. A distributor running hundreds of trucks cannot absorb those increases indefinitely. Eventually some of that cost moves into freight rates, grocery prices, construction materials and consumer goods.

Airlines face the same problem with jet fuel. Shipping companies face it with marine fuel. Manufacturers pay more both for energy and for moving raw materials into factories and finished products out.

And the higher oil goes, the harder the Federal Reserve’s job becomes.

Wall Street had spent much of the year debating when interest rates could come down. Now energy inflation is pushing the conversation in the opposite direction.

U.S. stock futures were lower Wednesday morning, with the Dow down roughly 0.5%, S&P 500 down 0.3% and Nasdaq down 0.4%, as investors worried that another energy shock could keep inflation elevated and interest rates higher for longer. 

Markets are now waiting for the next U.S. inflation reports and the Federal Reserve meeting next week.

The supply cushion is also thin.

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is sitting at its lowest level since 1982, limiting Washington’s ability to offset a prolonged disruption with emergency barrels. The International Energy Agency expects global oil supply to decline by roughly 4.3 million barrels a day this year, even with additional production coming from countries including the United States, Canada and Guyana. 

That makes every additional attack more consequential.

The world has already seen significantly higher oil prices during this conflict, so $100 is not itself a worst-case scenario.

But Wednesday’s move is important because of what it signals.

The market is no longer pricing this as a short-lived Middle East scare.

It is beginning to price the possibility that millions of barrels of oil remain unavailable for much longer — while the world simultaneously loses confidence in the shipping routes needed to move the barrels that are still being produced.

For businesses, that means one of the largest costs in the global economy is rising again.

And unless supply starts moving normally through the Gulf, $100 oil may be the beginning of the problem, not the end of it.

JBizNews Desk | New York
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Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

U.S. debt hawks frequently warn that while the nation’s $40 trillion national debt is managed by policymakers, it is ultimately financed by the public. Congress’s Joint Economic Committee (JEC) has put a figure on that burden: Gross national debt now amounts to $117,279 per person.

In its monthly budget update, the committee calculated how fast public debt is growing: According to data compiled by the committee’s chairman, David Schweikert, debt has increased by $85,111.72 per second over the past year.

The JEC reported that gross national debt is $2.67 trillion higher relative to the same period last year, and $11.68 trillion greater than five years ago. If the current average daily rate of growth over the past three years continues, the report adds, the U.S. will hit $41 trillion in debt by mid-January. After that, an increase of another trillion dollars would be hit after 151 days—approximately June 2027.

On a more granular breakdown, the rate of debt growth averages around $7.35 billion a day, the report adds, or $306.4 million per hour, or $5.11 million per minute.

This, in turn, has consequences for the breakdown per person for the U.S. debt: the JEC reports it is now $117,279 per person or $297,522 per household—an increase in the past year amounting to $7,806 per individual and a little under $20,000 per household.

Debt experts point out that while Americans won’t receive a bill for these sums, the debt is still being financed by the public. This is a point Michael Peterson, the chairman and CEO of the Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to putting the U.S. on a more sustainable fiscal path, has previously highlighted to Fortune.

Speaking when debt surpassed $40 trillion last month, Peterson said: “When the U.S. borrows this much—and continues to borrow more and more—that drives up interest rates, which then increases household expenses because your mortgage goes up, your car loan, your credit card bills, and inflation more generally.

“So [we] may not get a bill at the end of the month for national debt, but [we] are paying that bill both in the form of taxes as well as an inflated level of expenses.”

Debt bulls argue that, despite the large sums, the value of debt isn’t the issue for the world’s largest economy. Their case is reasonable: Firstly, despite years of warnings, there has yet to be a market meltdown sparked by debt. Warning signs of a crisis would come from the Treasury market, where—although longer-dated yields are elevated—analysts suggest this is due to factors outside of debt concerns.

Interest breakdown

The U.S. Treasury isn’t immune to the sting that comes with borrowing: Interest.

Despite efforts from the Treasury in recent weeks to stabilize Treasuries in the form of buybacks, the level of interest it is paying remains elevated compared to a year ago.

The JEC notes that in August 2026, the average interest rate on the total marketable national debt was 3.475%, and a year ago it was 3.415%. Five years ago, the interest was 1.458%.

“Interest rates have a significant impact on how much the U.S. pays on debt,” the JEC update adds. “The total amount of interest paid to trust funds over the past 12 months was $294.76 billion, an average of $24.56 billion per month.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Israel’s population stands at an estimated 10.305 million ahead of Rosh Hashanah, after growing by approximately 124,000 people over the past year, the Central Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. 

The figures were released as part of the CBS’s annual “Israel in Numbers” report ahead of Rosh Hashanah, which compiles data covering population, health, education, employment, housing, the economy, transportation, agriculture, the environment and other aspects of Israeli life. 

The annual population growth rate was 1.2%, according to the CBS figures. Of the country’s residents, about 7.828 million are Jews and others, representing 78.3% of the Israeli population, while approximately 2.173 million are Arabs, or 21.7%. Another 304,000 residents are foreign nationals.

The figures show that approximately 182,000 babies were born over the past year, while around 50,000 people died. At the same time, Israel recorded a negative international migration balance, with roughly 8,000 people deducted from the Israeli population through migration. 

Around 24,000 new immigrants arrived in Israel over the period, along with some 4,000 people through family reunification. Approximately 21,000 Israelis who had previously emigrated returned to the country, while some 57,000 Israelis left after being classified as having emigrated abroad, according to the CBS. 

Israel’s migration rate has risen sharply since 2023, as a Tel Aviv University study published in August, based on CBS data, found that a total of 268,930 Israelis left Israel in 2023 (86,509), 2024 (91,499), and 2025 (90,922). For comparison, the study showed that during the same period in 2013, 2014, and 2015, only 83,219 citizens left Israel.

The bureau uses a specific methodology for determining when a person is classified as an emigrant, and noted in the report that its population data are provisional and are based on the 2022 census, with changes made to the method for calculating Israelis living abroad and the addition of the foreign population. 

At the end of 2025, Israel’s total population was estimated at 10.203 million, including 9.916 million Israelis and 286,700 foreign residents. During 2025, 20,900 new immigrants arrived, down from 31,100 in 2024, while 69,500 Israelis were recorded as leaving and 18,800 as returning under the CBS’s annual migration methodology.

A separate Aliyah and Integration Ministry report released in June said that more than 22,500 new immigrants moved to Israel in 2025, with increased immigration from several Western countries despite the security challenges of recent years.

Israel also remains home to nearly half of the world’s Jewish population. As of January 1, 2026, there were an estimated 15.9 million Jews worldwide, approximately 46% of whom lived in Israel, according to the CBS. 

Israel’s fertility remains far above OECD average

The bureau’s annual figures also highlighted Israel’s relatively high fertility rate. A total of 183,678 live births were recorded in the relevant annual data, with the total fertility rate standing at 2.88 children per woman, compared with an OECD average of 1.41.

There were more than three million private households in Israel, with an average of 3.17 people per household, compared with approximately 2.5 across OECD countries. Some 53,025 couples married in 2024 and 16,499 divorced.

Life expectancy remained high by international standards. Israeli men had a life expectancy of 81.4 years and women 85.9 years, according to the latest figures. CBS international comparisons placed Israeli men seventh among OECD countries and women eighth based on the comparable 2024 data. This continues a pattern in which Israeli life expectancy ranks among the highest in the OECD.

The labor market remained tight, with 4.577 million people participating in the labor force and the unemployment rate standing at 2.9%. The employment rate among Israelis aged 15 and over was 60.9%, including 63.6% among men and 58.2% among women. 

Housing data presented a mixed picture. The housing price index fell 1% and the index for new-home prices declined 2.8%, while average rent rose 4.3%. The average home price stood at approximately NIS 2.33 million, while average monthly rent reached NIS 4,919.

This post was originally published on here.

An Israeli legal advocacy group accused the United Nations commission investigating Israel and the Palestinian territories of applying different standards to Israel and Hamas, arguing in a report circulated Tuesday that alleged Israeli wrongdoing is traced to state policy and senior officials – while Palestinian responsibility is more often described in general terms.

The 48-page report by the Jerusalem Institute of Justice challenges the credibility of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including east Jerusalem, and Israel. The commission’s findings are not court judgments, but its mandate includes collecting and preserving evidence and identifying those believed responsible for violations, giving its work potential significance for international legal and diplomatic proceedings.

The Jerusalem Post queried the commission for comment.

The institute said it examined nine major commission reports issued between its establishment in 2021 and May 2026, alongside UN documents, budget records, public statements by commissioners, and other UN investigations.

Its central argument is that the commission repeatedly connects alleged Israeli violations to named officials, military units, government institutions, state policies, and institutional intent, while more often describing Palestinian perpetrators as “armed groups,” “militants,” “attackers,” or members of military wings.

The report focuses in part on the commission’s June 2024 findings concerning the October 7 massacre and the first months of the war.

UN commission attributes alleged Israeli violations to authorities, security forces

In its main report, the commission attributed crimes committed during the attack to members of Hamas’s military wing, other Palestinian armed groups, and Palestinian civilians. Its conclusions regarding Gaza, by contrast, attributed alleged violations to “Israeli authorities” and members of the Israeli security forces.

The institute argued that this difference dispersed responsibility for the Hamas-led attack among broad groups of perpetrators without examining Hamas’s political leadership, chain of command, operational planning, and organizational policy to the same degree as Israeli institutions and decision-makers.

The UN commission did not, however, ignore Hamas’s organizational role. Its separate detailed investigation found that the October 7 attack was led and coordinated by Hamas, documented what it described as indications of standing operational instructions, and concluded that Hamas’s military wing and six other Palestinian armed groups deliberately attacked civilians and committed war crimes.

The institute acknowledges those findings. Its criticism is narrower: that Hamas’s leadership and institutional responsibility did not receive the same depth of analysis or carry the same weight in the commission’s broader legal conclusions.

“Impartiality is tested by one thing: whether the same rules apply to everyone,” said attorney Uri Morad, director of the institute’s international law and public diplomacy department. “In this case, the answer is no.”

The report also alleges an evidentiary double standard. It says the commission repeatedly rejected Israeli military and security explanations when it considered them insufficiently supported, while relying on information from Palestinian authorities, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, advocacy groups, confidential witnesses, and social media without always explaining how that material was independently verified or reconciled with conflicting evidence.

The commission has said its findings are based on interviews, submissions, satellite imagery, medical records, and verified open-source material. Israel has refused to cooperate with the inquiry or permit its investigators access, saying the body is structurally biased. The commission has said the lack of access obstructed its investigations.

That dispute complicates the institute’s comparison. Restricted access may help explain why the commission relied on remote interviews, confidential sources, and publicly available material, although it does not by itself answer whether evidence from the two sides was tested equally.

Report criticizes UN commission’s open-ended mandate

The report separately criticizes the commission’s open-ended mandate, which allows it to investigate violations occurring since April 2021, earlier events leading up to them, and the broader “root causes” of the conflict without a fixed end date.

That structure has drawn criticism beyond Israel. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom said jointly in 2025 that they regretted the commission’s open-ended establishment, describing it as contrary to usual practice, while continuing to support proportionate scrutiny of alleged violations by all sides.

The institute called on UN member states to terminate the commission and replace it with time-limited investigations governed by clearer evidentiary and impartiality standards.

This post was originally published on here.

Russia hopes that US-mediated peace talks on ending the war in Ukraine will resume soon, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

No such talks between Russia and Ukraine have taken place since February, but US President Donald Trump sent his negotiators to Moscow and then Kyiv at the weekend in a bid to relaunch the stalled process.

Peskov was responding to a comment by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it may be possible to draw up a roadmap to restart talks and work towards an acceptable outcome for both sides.

A huge gulf remains between Russia and Ukraine on how to end the 4-1/2-year war, with Kyiv rejecting Moscow’s demands that it give up more territory.

Peskov said Moscow would not publicly discuss any specifics of a potential settlement, but there was a “confirmed political will” to resume talks.

“We hope that these negotiations will resume in the foreseeable future, and we remain in contact with our American counterparts,” he said, a day after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone.

Prisoner exchange a ‘constant item’ on agenda, Peskov says

Peskov added that the issue of exchanging prisoners between Russia and the US was “a constant item on the agenda,” including between the two presidents. He noted that Russia had released one American prisoner, Robert Gilman, at Trump’s request last month.

The two countries have traded prisoners at several points in the past few years. 

The biggest such deal was in August 2024, when Russia got back eight prisoners held in the West, including a member of its FSB security service convicted of murder in Germany.

In exchange, 16 people were released from Russian and Belarusian jails. Among those freed by Moscow were prominent Russian dissidents and three US citizens, including Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich.

This post was originally published on here.

WASHINGTON — Some Chinese rare-earth suppliers are refusing to ship critical materials to American customers, reopening a supply-chain problem Washington thought it had partially stabilized and putting U.S. manufacturers back on alert ahead of President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to Washington later this month.

The refusals began after China imposed sanctions in August on the Responsible Business Alliance, a U.S.-based organization used by companies to monitor labor, sourcing and supply-chain practices.

Chinese suppliers now fear that dealing with American customers that use the alliance or related responsible-minerals programs could expose them to punishment from Beijing.

That means some exporters are choosing the safest option:

Do not ship to the United States at all.

The problem is especially serious because the materials involved are not ordinary commodities.

Rare earths and other critical minerals are used in semiconductors, fighter aircraft, missiles, medical equipment, electric motors, telecommunications systems, energy infrastructure and advanced manufacturing.

A shortage of one specialized material can stop production of an entire product worth thousands or even millions of dollars.

China Still Controls the Chokepoint

The United States has spent billions trying to reduce its dependence on China for strategically important minerals.

But China still dominates the processing and refining of many rare-earth materials.

That means an American company can build a semiconductor factory, defense plant or advanced manufacturing facility in the United States and still depend on a Chinese supplier for a small but essential ingredient.

That vulnerability is now showing up again.

Chinese suppliers have reportedly declined some American orders since early August, while other shipments remain delayed by export-license approvals.

One of the most important materials is yttrium, which is used in aerospace coatings, electronics, medical technologies and advanced industrial applications.

China resumed limited yttrium exports in July after a two-month halt, but American buyers are still struggling to receive enough material.

U.S. imports remain substantially below earlier levels.

Other materials facing restrictions or delays include gallium, terbium, tungsten and indium phosphide, all of which are important to high-technology and defense supply chains.

A Small Mineral Can Stop a Huge Factory

The business risk is easy to underestimate because rare-earth materials often represent only a tiny fraction of the cost of a finished product.

But they can be impossible to substitute quickly.

A semiconductor manufacturer may have billions of dollars of equipment and thousands of employees ready to produce chips.

If it cannot obtain one specialized mineral needed for a component, coating or manufacturing process, the entire production line can slow down.

The same applies to aircraft, missiles, medical equipment and electric motors.

That is why critical minerals increasingly resemble the semiconductor shortages companies experienced during the pandemic.

The missing item may be inexpensive.

The economic damage from not having it can be enormous.

American Companies Have Already Been Waiting Months

Some U.S. companies have reportedly waited six months or longer for Chinese export licenses.

Earlier this year, suppliers serving American aerospace and semiconductor customers were already turning away some buyers because they could not obtain enough material.

The latest refusals make the problem more complicated.

This is no longer simply Beijing delaying an export license.

In some cases, the Chinese supplier itself may decide an American customer is too politically risky to serve.

That makes traditional supply-chain planning much harder.

A company cannot solve the problem simply by submitting paperwork earlier if the supplier does not want the business.

Xi’s Washington Visit Just Became More Important for American Industry

President Xi is expected in Washington on September 24, and critical-mineral access is now expected to be part of the U.S. planning around the visit.

Washington has repeatedly pressed China to honor previous commitments to maintain a smoother flow of rare-earth export licenses.

The persistence of shortages shows those assurances have not removed the underlying problem.

China understands how valuable its mineral-processing dominance is.

The United States understands how dangerous that dependence has become.

That makes rare earths one of the most important pieces of leverage Beijing possesses in the broader U.S.-China relationship.

Tariffs can make a Chinese product more expensive.

A mineral restriction can make an American product impossible to manufacture.

That is a much more powerful weapon.

Washington Is Spending Billions to Build Alternatives

The United States is now financing new mines, processing plants, recycling operations and domestic supply agreements in an attempt to build alternatives.

The Defense Department has invested heavily in domestic rare-earth production, while private capital is increasingly moving toward companies capable of mining or processing strategic minerals outside China.

But those projects take years.

Opening a mine is difficult.

Building processing facilities is expensive.

Environmental reviews, financing, technical expertise and customer contracts all take time.

So even as billions are being committed to independence, American manufacturers remain dependent on Chinese material today.

That gap between the supply chain America wants and the supply chain America actually has is where the current risk sits.

What Businesses Should Be Watching

For manufacturers that depend on specialized minerals, this is no longer a procurement issue that can be left entirely to purchasing departments.

Companies need to know where their critical materials actually originate — including materials buried several layers deep inside components purchased from another supplier.

They also need to know whether alternative suppliers exist outside China and how long qualification of those suppliers would take.

Because the next shortage may not arrive with a formal government announcement.

It may simply arrive as an email from a supplier saying:

We cannot fill your order.

That is what makes the latest Chinese refusals so important.

The United States and China may still be negotiating tariffs, investment and trade balances.

But underneath those negotiations is a much more fundamental contest.

America wants to control the factories of the future. China still controls many of the materials those factories cannot operate without.

Until that changes, a small number of Chinese suppliers can continue holding extraordinary leverage over some of the most important industries in the American economy.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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

The fuel that carries your groceries across the ocean costs 76 percent more than it did before the Iran war started.

That is a bigger jump than crude oil itself, which is up about 40 percent over the same stretch, and the gap is the whole story. Very low sulphur fuel oil, the heavy fuel most cargo ships burn, was going for just under $825 a metric ton in Singapore as of Sept. 1, roughly $130 a barrel, according to bunker platform ZeroNorth.

Here is why it is running short. A refinery splits a barrel of crude into several fuels, and diesel, gasoline and jet fuel pay far better than the heavy stuff left at the bottom. When refineries get knocked out and crude gets scarce, refiners make the profitable fuels first and let ship fuel come last.

Ukrainian drone strikes have torn into Russia’s refineries, and the Iran war has cut Middle East output. Russia’s fuel oil exports fell to a record low 591,000 barrels a day in August, down from over 860,000 a day in 2025. Middle East exports dropped 45 percent from a year ago.

At the same time ships are burning more of it, because vessels routing around conflict waters sail longer voyages.

Less made, more needed.

Energy Aspects now expects the world to come up 218,000 barrels a day short in the third quarter. A year ago the gap was 6,000 barrels a day.

That is 36 times wider.

Rystad sees the same picture.

The cushion is thin too. Stockpiles at the three big refueling hubs — Singapore, Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, and the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp cluster — are about 30 percent below their three-year seasonal norms.

Where there would normally be 10 barrels sitting in a tank, there are 7.

Singapore, the world’s biggest bunkering port, imports more than half of the nearly 1 million barrels a day it burns, which leaves Asia most exposed.

For American shoppers this is the second fuel bill arriving at once.

Diesel hit a record $5.85 a gallon on Sept. 4, up from $3.71 a year ago, and that lands on every truck and railcar moving goods inside the country.

Ship fuel is the same cost at the ocean end of the trip.

Carriers recover it through bunker surcharges written into container rates, so it reaches importers within weeks and store shelves within months.

The timing is awkward.

Inflation ran 3.4 percent in July, well above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target, and Chair Kevin Warsh said at Jackson Hole that prices should be the Fed’s main focus.

Futures markets put the odds of a quarter-point rate increase at the Sept. 16 meeting somewhere near 60 percent.

The fix is not complicated, only slow.

Refiners can swing production back toward fuel oil once crude flows steady and damaged plants come back online.

Until then, importers with freight contracts up for renewal should be locking rates now, before the surcharges reset.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

Singapore’s prime minister is set to get a whopping 64% pay increase next month thanks to a boost in ministerial compensation. 

Starting on October 15, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will see his salary increase to 3.6 million Singapore dollars – roughly the equivalent of $2.85 million USD. 

Singapore already has some of the world’s highest ministerial salaries. The latest changes to political salaries are the first in 15 years.

For ministers and other political officeholders, Wong clarified that immediate adjustments will be limited to a one-off increase of up to 9%, depending on individual circumstances, including performance.

He also pledged to donate the entire salary increase he receives to charitable causes for the next five years. 

“The sums involved are more than what most citizens earn, so I understand why Singaporeans scrutinize them closely,” Wong told parliament. 

He added that while leaving pay levels frozen would have been “easier politically,” maintaining an updated system is necessary to attract capable people who might otherwise choose careers in the private sector. 

Under Singapore’s executive compensation model, political salaries are benchmarked against the median earnings of the country’s top 1,000 corporate earners—with a mandatory 40% haircut to reflect public service. 

Political salaries had remained unchanged since the framework was introduced in 2011. A 2017 review recommended adjustments in line with the benchmark, but the government decided not to raise salaries at the time, while a scheduled 2023 review was deferred amid economic uncertainty.

Coordinating Minister for Public Services Chan Chun Sing noted in a parliamentary statement that while major corporate CEOs in Singapore earn S$6 million to S$7 million annually, government salaries are not intended to match private sector levels.  

“If money is your main reason for wanting to be a Minister, frankly, you are not the person we are looking for,” Chan said. “We will never be able to match the pay of all the people we hope to get…. But we cannot pretend that such opportunity costs do not exist.” 

The framework features a “clean wage” structure, with no pensions or hidden perks. Compensation is structured as roughly 65% fixed pay and 35% variable pay, with the variable component reflecting both individual performance and national socioeconomic outcomes such as real GDP growth, unemployment and income growth.

Singapore’s political salaries remain among the highest globally, structured in part to deter public sector corruption. By comparison, the U.S. president earns a set salary of $400,000 annually, the Swiss president earns roughly $606,000, and the British prime minister receives approximately $230,000. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

Australia on Tuesday proposed giving social media users the option to select the content they see on their feeds, marking the next step in the government’s push to improve online safety, following its world-first social media ban for children.

Under draft laws proposed by the center-left Labor government, social media platforms will be required to notify users and offer them a choice over their default feed.

Users can choose to opt in to having their default feed include personalized content recommended by an algorithm. Alternatively, they can opt out of algorithmically recommended content and instead see posts only from the friends and creators they choose to follow.

“This is sensible, pragmatic, practical reform,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters. “It gives users choice, and it will hold the big tech companies responsible for inaction if they don’t follow our laws.”

Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and Alphabet’s Google did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Algorithms designed to encourage addictive behavior?

Australia follows in the footsteps of the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which has since 2024 required platforms to offer users the option of switching off profiling. However, the rollout had a bumpy start, with regulators complaining that platforms did not make it simple enough for users to opt out.

Social media companies face growing scrutiny around the world over concerns that algorithms have been designed to encourage addictive behavior, with users drawn into prolonged viewing through recommendations that push them toward similar content.

Albanese said the “My Feed, My Way” initiative would also require digital platforms to document the measures taken to address identified risks of harm to Australian users and ensure those measures remain effective over time.

Failure to comply could attract penalties of up to A$109.2 million ($79 million), with Australia’s internet regulator, eSafety, responsible for compliance and enforcement.

eSafety will also be granted the power to issue notices requiring Big Tech companies to swiftly remove harmful, nudity-related and illegal content. However, free speech advocates warned the proposed legislation could result in censorship.

“It’s not about giving government control. It’s about giving people control,” Albanese said.

The government will seek feedback from digital platforms, industry bodies, civil society organizations and advocates on the draft legislation, with the bill expected to be introduced to Parliament this year.

This post was originally published on here.

Business leaders can’t predict their way through today’s turbulent environment—and should stop trying.

“Instead of trying to predict the future, it’s probably better off to really enhance the muscle of adaptability,” Carol Liao, chair of BCG Greater China, said at the Fortune Leaders Forum on Sept. 8. And in an era when AI is commoditizing knowledge, she added, “judgment does have a premium.”

Liao spoke alongside Chanda Beppu, president of Starbucks Asia Pacific, and Feroz Sheikh, chief information and digital officer at Syngenta Group, and all three arrived at the same prescription: Leaders should focus less on forecasting and more on building organizations that can change course quickly.

Today’s executives face several challenges at once, Liao said. “There are a few anxieties Chinese leaders have,” she noted. “Globalization anxiety, AI anxiety, as well as generational shift… It’s quite a lot for leaders to think about.”

“We can’t always create certainty about what’s to come,” said Beppu. “We can create clarity about what matters most to our business and to our teams.”

Sheikh echoed his fellow panelist to suggest that “the way to deal with all of these complexities is to build that muscle of being able to adapt.”

He added that companies must not be afraid to fail when attempting to navigate uncertainties. To fail is a “data point,” said Sheikh. “It’s safe to fail, and it’s not a blip on your career.” He encouraged businesses to create a “culture of experimentation,” and see short term failure as an opportunity to learn for the future.

Syngenta needs to be adaptable this year. Heat stress in Europe wiped out almost 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) of agricultural production this year, Sheikh said. “These are shocks that companies have to be prepared to absorb.”

Going global

Many Chinese companies are also navigating a generational handover. As the first generation of entrepreneurs adapts to the demands of international business, these companies are moving beyond simply selling products abroad and starting to behave like true multinationals.

Liao pointed to China’s EV sector as an example of this transformation. Car companies like BYD are building factories around the world and knitting together global supply chains, either bringing Chinese suppliers with them or growing local ones. 

“Globalization has been going on for Chinese companies for 20, 30 years. But for a long time, it’s been a trading model. It’s about exporting the products, exporting the capacity to the world,” she said. But now, “globalization, in a way, [has] become localization,” she said, requiring a more flexible approach.

That shift demands a new leadership style, Liao said: from “command and control, symphony-type leadership to a more jazz leadership—more distributed decision making, more experimentation, more tolerance for failure.”

She said that her consultancy firm sees AI being used creatively by companies. “Many of our clients find AI helps even more when they go global … because the intelligence on the market can be gathered quickly. The supply chain can be managed more efficiently,” she added.

But she cautioned that technology is the easy part. “Seventy percent [of AI transformation] is really about people: changing organization, ways of working, incentives, dealing with organizational inertia. That’s a hard problem,” Liao said. 

“Technology often is not the problem. The problem is often how you run this human transformation,” she added.

Beppu, from Starbucks, also sees AI’s value in how it affects people. “Where [AI] enhances our culture and our purpose, where it removes friction for our baristas,it’s valuable to us,” she said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Two supplements for dogs are facing a recall over concerns they could be contaminated with salmonella.

New York-based Fi initiated the recall for the potential salmonella contamination linked to an ingredient supplied to the company’s manufacturer. The manufacturer has suspended production while it investigates.

The two affected products are Fi Calming supplement for Dogs 180g with lot number 26118 and Fi 8-in-1 Formula supplement for Dogs 180g with lot number 26159.

The recalled products were distributed directly to consumers and through online retailers Amazon and Chewy.

Anyone who has purchased either of the affected products should stop using it and throw it away.

Salmonella poses a health risk to both pets and people.

The animal can become infected by eating the product, while people can be affected through handling contaminated products or through animal waste after their pets have ingested the product. The risk to people is greater if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after coming into contact with the products, surfaces exposed to the products or animal waste.

Pets with salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever and vomiting. Some pets may only have a decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or people.

Anyone with a pet that has consumed any of the recalled products and has these symptoms is urged to contact their veterinarian.

Symptoms in healthy people infected with salmonella can include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. While rare, salmonella can cause additional ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation and urinary tract symptoms.

People showing these symptoms after contact with the recalled products should contact their healthcare provider.

Costco is slated to expand across North America over the next couple of months, with more than a dozen warehouses scheduled to open in the U.S. and Canada.

The company has already been growing this year in the U.S. and beyond, opening stores in California, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, New York, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin, as well as Mexico and Taiwan.

Now, more warehouses are expected to open before the end of the year.

Five new Costco warehouses are set to open in October in Lee’s Summit, Missouri; The Colony, Texas; Amherst, New York; Lawrence, Kansas, and Camarillo, California.

In November, Costco will open nine additional warehouses, including four in Canada — Northeast Edmonton and Lloydminster in Alberta and East Windsor and Wasaga Beach in Ontario.

The U.S. stores set to open in November will be in South Meridian, Idaho; Vallejo, California; Chandler, Arizona; Newport News, Virginia, and Franklin, Wisconsin.

For some of the new stores, Costco is just relocating within the same city.

For example, the warehouse set to open soon in Newport News is replacing a store that has been in the city since 1988, after Costco purchased a 32-acre property a few blocks from its current warehouse, aiming to build a 163,000 square-foot retail warehouse and fuel station.

Costco is also planning to open warehouses in even more communities.

Downey, California, approved a plan earlier this year for a new store, while proposals were submitted over the summer in Charleston County, South Carolina, and Hillsborough County, Florida, according to local media.

The company is also exploring possible warehouses in Fresno, California; Lake St. Louis, Missouri; Southborough, Massachusetts; Silver Spring, Maryland; Scottsdale, Arizona, and Des Plaines, Illinois.

Despite the expansion plans, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Wyoming will have to wait for now, as Costco is not expected to expand into any new states.

This comes after CEO Ron Vachris said earlier this year that the company wants to open 30 or more warehouses annually over the next five to 10 years. About half of those would be new warehouses in the U.S., while the remainder would open in locations around the world, with Vachris pointing out Mexico, Canada, Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand as potential spots for some of the future warehouses.

A nationwide outbreak of cyclospora tied to contaminated lettuce has heightened safety concerns about imported food, while underscoring a longer-term trend: U.S. regulators are conducting fewer international inspections to catch contaminated produce before it lands on American plates.

Food and Drug Administration inspections of foreign food sites — including the Mexican farm linked to the ongoing outbreak — are down nearly 35% since 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to agency records reviewed by The Associated Press. The pandemic kicked off a wave of retirements and departures among FDA inspectors that continues to this day.

Even before COVID-19, the agency had long failed to hit its congressionally mandated targets for international inspections. And recent staffing cuts, reorganizations and other upheavals under President Donald Trump could mean even fewer inspections in the years ahead, according to former senior FDA officials.

“When you look at the numbers of inspections balanced against the responsibility of the FDA — in terms of all the firms domestically and internationally under its oversight — the agency just can’t achieve what is required,” said Michael Rogers, who spent nearly 35 years in various inspection roles within the agency. He added that FDA continues to do many things “very well with limited resources.”

The Trump administration has proposed new approaches to stretch agency resources — including a pilot program of one-day inspections. Rogers and other officials say the abbreviated inspections are not equivalent to traditional ones, which can take a week or more to document serious problems.

FDA officials have long made the case that inspections are only one tool to oversee safety.

“Inspections will never be the only way to ensure the safety of imported products given the massive volume coming into the country,” said Susan Mayne, FDA’s former food director who is now at Yale University. “That’s why FDA uses border inspections, importer inspections, sampling and other tools.”

But the outbreak in iceberg lettuce has also laid bare the potential downsides of those approaches.

In July, regulators were forced to retract a faulty test result that they claimed found cyclospora on a sample of Taylor Farms’ lettuce obtained at the border. Despite the error, FDA officials say they are confident the company’s farm is the source of the diarrhea-causing parasite. Mexican food authorities, however, say they have not found any positive samples or other red flags there.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees FDA, said the agency’s investigation is ongoing. Additionally, FDA officials are studying how many foreign inspections should be conducted annually “to ensure oversight comparable” to the U.S. food supply.

FDA inspectors took a month to arrive at Mexican farm

FDA inspectors arrived at the Taylor Farms site in Guanajuato, Mexico, in mid-August, about one month after the recall was announced July 17.

It was their first visit there since 2019. That year marked an all-time high for foreign food inspections before the FDA pulled most of its staff from the field during the pandemic.

Inspections for food — along with drugs, medical devices and other products — still haven’t recovered. And foreign food inspections actually fell further behind last year, down 17% to 1,140 in fiscal year 2025 from the prior year.

While inspectors were not among the 3,500 jobs targeted for termination by the Trump administration, the agency did eliminate more than half the staffers who handle travel bookings. That’s left inspectors to handle most of their own flights, lodging and other logistics.

Food experts say it shouldn’t have taken four weeks to get inspectors on-site in Mexico, considering the scale and number of people sickened.

“It took us too long to get boots on the ground,” said Frank Yiannas, the former top food safety official at FDA. “When these outbreaks happen in fresh produce, you have to respond quickly because these are very complex and changing ecosystems.”

The Taylor Farms recall involved thousands of packaged salad products combining iceberg lettuce with other vegetables. The products were shipped to major U.S. restaurant chains, including Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC.

According to FDA figures, companies have announced more than 480 food recalls in the current fiscal year, already surpassing four out of the five previous years.

Food inspection targets have gone unmet for over a decade

Washington has tried before to overhaul the U.S. food safety system.

A string of deadly outbreaks involving spinach, cantaloupe and other produce led Congress to pass the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, which required additional testing, training and monitoring of hygiene conditions at farms. The legislation also set aggressive goals for FDA foreign inspections — targets the agency has never met.

Under the law, the FDA is supposed to inspect more than 19,000 international food sites annually. The agency hit an all-time high of 1,700 in 2019 — less than one-tenth of the target, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Former FDA regulators say the 19,000 target is unachievable and has never been properly funded by Congress — which has left FDA’s food budget essentially flat for years. Still, the FDA “has not identified an appropriate annual target,” GAO noted.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to boosting inspections is recruiting new inspectors, and retaining those FDA already has.

The FDA’s food inspection workforce includes more than 420 staffers, although 10% to 15% of its positions have been chronically unfilled, according to the GAO and former staffers.

Inspectors who work internationally can spend 50% or more of their working time traveling, a grueling schedule that has long caused turnover among FDA staff.

“Until you can better incentivize people to stay in those positions, I think the agency is going to continue to see high attrition, younger and less experienced investigators,” said Rogers. “That ultimately may impact FDA’s ability to enhance and increase inspections.”

Many experts say new approaches, including machine learning and remote monitoring of supplier practices, could help alleviate some of the need for inspections.

“We have to rethink how we oversee the safety of foreign producers,” Yiannas said. “We can’t use the same approaches and limited tools that we’ve used for the past 30 years.”

The 2011 food safety law called on manufacturers to place bar codes on each batch of produce, so that it can be quickly traced in the event of contamination. The rule was supposed to take effect in January, following years of discussions and revisions with produce companies. But the FDA again delayed its implementation after pushback from industry.

“There’s widespread acknowledgment that these are complex issues, but when you have 17 years to prepare for a final exam you should be able to pass it,” said Brian Ronholm, a former Department of Agriculture official who is now with Consumer Reports.

___

The Associated Press’ health and science coverage receives financial support from the AP Fund for Journalism and 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.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Election-season trading on prediction markets, including in this fall’s biggest races, is skyrocketing while states fight to outlaw the platforms as unlicensed casinos and begin to worry about how high-stakes odds will affect American democracy in unpredictable ways.

Already this year, prediction market odds have gotten tangled up with real-life elections, and it is quickly becoming a hot topic for election administrators, who for years have battled misinformation and conspiracy theories.

Their concerns are broad, but many revolve around the fear that pervasive financial incentives will further damage confidence in elections and democracy if Americans think they are influencing the outcome.

“This is a troubling trend that election administrators across the nation must deal with,” said Jared DeMarinis, the administrator for the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Polymarket, Kalshi and other prediction markets allow participants to buy and sell contracts tied to the probable outcome of an event. The contracts are typically priced between 1 and 99 cents, and customers can trade on everything including races for mayor, governor and U.S. Senate.

The explosion in prediction market trading comes as President Donald Trump has pressed sweeping changes to voter identification and voting by mail procedures to address what he falsely claims is rampant fraud in mail voting and widespread voting by noncitizens.

Stock market is seen as an example of hedging election risk

Kalshi and Polymarket officials, for their part, contend that the activity is neither gambling nor a danger to elections or democracy.

It is, they say, barely different from people who trade stocks, bonds or commodities ahead of an election to protect themselves against how the eventual winner’s policies might affect their investments or business. Some independent analysts agree.

“One can make the argument that the entire stock market, at some level, is affected by elections and outcomes,” said Joshua Mitts, a Columbia Law School professor who researches corporate and securities law.

Kalshi and Polymarket officials say they have insider trading protections, required by federal law, that are meant to prevent, for instance, candidates and their campaign staffers from trading on their own races. On Aug. 31, Kalshi disclosed that it gave a three-year suspension and fine to a North Carolina congressional candidate, Republican Laurie Buckhout, for trading on her own race.

And Kalshi says its research shows that its markets correlate strongly to outcomes — for instance, events given a 60% chance end up happening nearly 60% of the time — and that any effort to manipulate the odds is kept in check by traders who profit by putting money on the correct outcome.

Still, prediction markets have suffered black eyes this year. In one example, they heavily favored a losing candidate in a primary for Wisconsin governor. The polls were way off in that race, too. And in Los Angeles, as votes were being counted for its mayoral primary, online influencers accused election officials of cheating to oust Republican candidate Spencer Pratt from qualifying for the runoff, pointing to market odds that favored him finishing in second place.

States want a role in regulating prediction markets

For now, courts are crammed with litigation over whether states can regulate prediction markets — or ban them — under state gambling laws that, among other things, cover casinos and sports betting.

Half the states also have statutes that broadly ban betting on elections, according to information from the National Conference on State Legislatures, laws that were motivated by a desire to ensure people vote based on who they think is the best candidate, and not due to a financial stake in the outcome.

Courts are unlikely to decide the litigation before the election, all but ensuring that trading will play out on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket at levels never seen before in nearly every state.

Billions of dollars could be traded on questions like whether Democrats will gain control of the House or Senate or who will be governor of the largest states.

In state and local election offices, administrators are talking about the need to proactively educate the public about how prediction markets odds are not the same thing as a polls or vote counts.

They are also talking about how they can use their office’s policy to protect elections.

States try to protect election integrity

In Delaware County, in suburban Philadelphia, elections director Jim Allen asked the election board to add prediction market trading to the state-required oath that requires each polling place and county election worker to swear not to bet on the election.

DeMarinis, the Maryland election administrator, said he will ask the state election board to impose a similar requirement statewide.

One key question for the midterms is how prediction markets could be used or manipulated to help candidates.

For instance, wealthy partisans who don’t care about losing money could bid up the odds on their favored candidate in hopes of swaying public opinion. Some voters might see the long odds against their candidate and stay home, rather than go to the polls, analysts say.

Candidates could point to the favorable odds, like they might with a poll, and use it to fundraise or garner endorsements.

“And all of a sudden, they’re the front-runner, for no reason other than an outside actor places a large bet on them,” said Ben Schiffrin, director of securities policy for Better Markets, a nonprofit that advocates for the public interest in financial markets.

Could a prediction market swing an election?

Eric Talley, a Columbia University law professor who co-hosts the Beyond Unprecedented podcast, cited research by behavioral economist Colin Camerer that showed that one person betting a large sum in the run-up to a horse race induced others to bet on that same horse. It temporarily skewed the odds before dying off closer to the race.

“Other people thought, ‘Oh my god, people know something I don’t,’ and they all started betting on the same horse,” Talley said. It was “an interesting analog to the current moment.”

That sort of advantage is short-lived, prediction markets officials say. Financially motivated traders will descend on a bad trade because they know they can win it — and that returns the odds to where an unbiased market might otherwise set them, they say.

“If you’re going to try to manipulate the pricing in a highly liquid market with strong traders, it’s not going to work. The pricing will snap back, and you’ll simply lose money,” Kalshi general counsel Rick Heaslip said.

Columbia’s Mitts said a variant that might concern states could be a candidate in a state or local election encouraging people to put money on them in a prediction market — thus motivating people to vote with their wallet.

That sort of gambit would presumably be logistically easier to pull off in a smaller election — say, one that might be decided by 100 votes or so — although the idea is somewhat abstract because the financial incentive would have to be big enough, Mitts said.

Still, it creates a headache for law enforcement.

“You can understand why states would say from the election integrity standpoint, ‘We don’t want this sort of contract to trade at all,’” Mitts said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Some Americans may think saving $1,000 in just a matter of months is out of reach, but personal finance expert Jade Warshaw says they may be making it harder than it needs to be.

The co-host of “The Ramsey Show” told FOX Business that many Americans can stash away $1,000 in as little as 30 days — but only if they’re willing to make temporary sacrifices and take what she calls a “scorched earth” approach to their finances.

“It’s more realistic than people think,” Warshaw said. 

“Most people are able to do it in 30 days,” she added, referring to Ramsey Solutions’ first “Baby Step,” which calls for saving $1,000 before moving on to paying off debt, building a larger emergency fund and investing for retirement.

Just 47% of Americans say they have enough cash or accessible funds to cover a $1,000 emergency expense, according to a Bankrate survey.

The strategy starts with building a budget, according to Warshaw.

“If you don’t have a budget, it’s not going to work,” she said.

From there, Warshaw then recommends attacking the problem from both sides by both spending less and bringing in more.

That could mean taking on overtime work, driving for a rideshare company, tutoring or selling unused belongings while simultaneously trimming recurring expenses like subscriptions, restaurant meals and transportation costs.

Warshaw said food is one of the easiest places for Americans to find quick savings.

Restaurant meals, takeout and delivery can quietly eat up hundreds of dollars a month. Bringing lunch from home, for example, can help cut the cost dramatically.

“For the average person, they could spend anywhere between $12 to $15 going out for lunch, but making that same lunch at home, you could save half and only spend $5 or $6,” Warshaw said.

With the holiday shopping season approaching, Warshaw said Americans don’t necessarily have to cancel Christmas or abandon family traditions to hit a savings goal.

Instead, consumers should decide whether it’s more realistic to temporarily cut spending or increase their income.

“If a family says, ‘I’d like to save $1,000 in the month of December,’ well, it’s going to be tough because you’ve got Christmas going on,” she said. 

Rather than skipping holiday traditions, she suggested finding ways to earn extra cash through temporary side gigs rather than trying to eliminate every holiday expense.

Warshaw also noted that some Americans receive large tax refunds because too much money is withheld from their paychecks. Adjusting a W-4 could put more money in workers’ pockets during the year rather than leaving them waiting for a refund.

For Americans trying to get out of debt, Warshaw also said it may make sense to temporarily pause retirement contributions while building the initial $1,000 emergency fund and paying off high-interest consumer debt.

“The first thing that you want to do is get $1,000 saved,” she said. “The next thing that you want to do is pay off your consumer debt.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed on Wednesday it attacked two US vessels and eight oil tankers in the Gulf in response to what it called a US attack on five Iranian tankers, Iranian state media reported, citing a statement from the group.

The group said it attacked 10 ships attempting to cross what it described as a “prohibited and unsafe” area of the Strait of Hormuz.

Earlier on Wednesday, the IRGC confirmed in a statement on Iranian media that it had attacked a US base in the eastern Jordanian city of Al Azraq with ballistic missiles in retaliation for earlier US attacks on Iranian oil tankers. 

This came following reports of missiles being launched from 12 different cities across Iran in the heaviest barrage since the end of Operation Roaring Lion, Army Radio reported late Tuesday night, citing Iranian media. 

At least 35 missiles were launched towards Jordan, according to Israeli news outlets, activating sirens in the country’s US military base. 

Jordan’s state news agency, citing armed forces, reported that 20 ballistic missiles had been launched from Iranian territory, 18 of which were destroyed by Jordanian air defense systems. 

Two missiles fell in unpopulated areas, and there were no casualties, the news agency cited Jordan’s military as saying.

Monitoring and assessment operations were continuing, the agency reported.

Jordan has not yet confirmed reports of the strikes. 

A US official told Jerusalem Post earlier on Tuesday that CENTCOM had struck the tankers as Iranian media outlets reported explosions near Kharg Island.

According to Iran‘s Mehr News Agency, there were explosions heard in the vicinity of the Iranian oil hub, which serves as the country’s main point for refining and exporting oil.

An additional report by semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported that the attacks on the Iranian vessels left no casualties, with the tripulation aboard being evacuated.

The report, citing local sources, also said the targeted vessel was about four miles from Kharg Island.

Additionally, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing US officials, that Iran had launched an attack against US Navy ships on Monday. 

US forces struck multiple Iranian tankers tied to the IRGC in response to the attempted attack, according to a US official. CENTCOM confirmed later that it had destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers on Tuesday.

_WSJ’_s report confirmed, citing US officials, that no American ships were struck in Iran’s Monday attacks.

US, Iran, advance threats

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters (the central command of the Iranian Army) warned the US that if its vessels were struck, then it would reply with strikes against American interests in the Middle East, Reuters reported, citing Iran’s state media.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said early on Wednesday that ships in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports that host Americans will be targeted in response to US attacks on Iranian oil tankers.

The Guards Navy warned all crews to evacuate, according to a statement carried by state media.

Additionally, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Iran on Tuesday that the US would continue to strike Iranian oil tankers in retaliation for attempted attacks on US warships.

“Iran continues to try to hit Us naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Colombia.

Iran ready to announce restricted zone in Strait of Hormuz

The American attack happened days after Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said that a restricted zone was planned to be announced outside the Strait of Hormuz soon.

The Sunday announcement, reported by state media, detailed that the zone would include areas in the Gulf.

Rezaei added that maps of ships’ passage in the Strait of Hormuz, agreed upon with Oman, would also be signed in the coming days.

This post was originally published on here.

The Trump administration will ban imports of Canadian dairy products, most alcoholic beverages and motorcycles, the White House announced Tuesday, marking a sharp escalation in the trade dispute between the neighboring countries.

The restrictions will take effect in three weeks, according to the White House. The move came hours after Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of U.S. imports.

The latest action deepens a trade conflict between two of North America’s largest trading partners, with both governments imposing new measures despite their closely integrated economies and longstanding commercial relationship.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

Target is set to open eight new stores this fall, bringing its total store openings for 2026 to 32 as the retailer works toward opening more than 300 locations by 2035.

The new stores will open in Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, following the 24 locations Target has already opened this year.

The openings are part of Target’s $5 billion capital investment plan for 2026, which also includes more than 130 store remodels and additional investment in employee pay and training. 

Target said the eight stores are expected to create more than 2,000 jobs, with starting wages ranging from $15 to $24 an hour, along with benefits and tuition-free education assistance.

“Our continued commitment to opening new stores is really about showing up for our guests and our communities — and it starts with our incredible store team members,” Chief Stores Officer Adrienne Costanzo said in a statement. 

The new stores will be located in:

Seven of the eight locations will be larger than Target’s average store size of 125,000 square feet as the retailer continues investing in larger-format stores.

Most of the new stores are scheduled to open on Oct. 11, while the Lima, Ohio, location is slated to open on Nov. 8.

“These new stores give our teams the tools and environments to bring our merchandising strengths to life, create easier and more inspiring shopping experiences, and use technology to move smarter and faster every day,” Costanzo added. “It’s how we keep growing thoughtfully, stay connected to our communities and make Target an even better place to work and shop.”

Mathew Davis, who lives in a homeless shelter in Austin, Texas, would love an apartment of his own. But with the little money he makes donating blood plasma, even a $450-a-month tiny home with no running water and a communal bathroom would be a stretch.

Meanwhile, over 4,500 units the city classifies as affordable — nearly 16% — sit empty.

“I don’t make enough money really to afford anything,” Davis, 49, said of the few hundred dollars he earns a month. “I just keep trying to swim uphill.”

The poorest people in the U.S. face the most acute shortages of affordable homes. But the majority of low-income housing financed in recent years is for those earning 50% of an area’s median income or above, according to a survey of state housing agencies.

Some cities are now seeing an uptick in vacancies as rents for these units approach market rates. The result: Apartments designated as affordable sit empty because the poorest of the poor cannot afford them.

Meanwhile, some people are forced into homelessness and others into desperate circumstances to pay for housing they can’t afford.

The poorest have few housing options

There are only about 4 million affordable rental units available for the country’s 11 million extremely low-income renter households, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s most recent annual report.

These are people with annual incomes either below the federal poverty guidelines — just under $16,000 for a single-person household — or 30% of the median income in their area, whichever is higher. They comprise about a quarter of U.S. renter households, and include many people working low-wage jobs, seniors and those with disabilities living on fixed incomes.

About three-quarters of extremely low-income renter households pay over half their income on rent and utilities, the report said, leaving little leftover for other necessities.

Yet homes set aside for these renters were only about 12% of the affordable housing units financed in 2024 by the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit — a federal program providing tax credits to developers in exchange for keeping rents low for at least 30 years, according to figures from the National Council of State Housing Agencies.

The majority are for those earning at least 50% of an area’s median income, or AMI. In Austin, that’s a single person earning roughly $47,000 a year, as compared with an extremely low-income person earning under $28,000.

The program has financed nearly 4 million affordable units nationwide since its creation 40 years ago. But some experts say it’s inefficient — and more costly than housing vouchers.

“It’s enormously complex and bureaucratic, and it raises the cost of construction enormously because the rules are so complicated,” said Chris Edwards, an economist at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, who told Congress the program’s complexity “spawned” an industry of law and accounting firms just to administer it.

“If you’re going to subsidize affordable housing, you should give the money directly to tenants,” he said, referring to housing vouchers.

Other experts say the two programs work together well because properties built with the tax credit are required to accept vouchers — while landlords of market-rate apartments in many states are not.

Still, there’s a major federal funding shortfall: Experts estimate only one-in-four eligible families ever receive vouchers. Vouchers can help the poorest pay for housing that’s targeted to higher income groups, but the waitlist can be yearslong.

Some affordable housing developers say that without vouchers, it’s not economically feasible to provide units for extremely low-income people.

True Ground Housing Partners, an affordable housing developer in the Washington, D.C., area, gives an example: A unit for those earning 60% of the area’s median income — nearly $70,000 a year — brings in $1,715 per month in rent. But after $1,575 in mortgage and operating expenses, only $140 is left.

“The math does not lie,” said president and CEO Carmen Romero, noting that an extremely low-income person would pay only half that rent.

“Our expenses don’t make it really possible to create a 30% AMI unit, unless there was this extraordinary amount of subsidy that just doesn’t exist.”

Affordable housing competes with market-rate rents

Meanwhile, affordable housing rents for 60% AMI units are approaching those of market-rate apartments in U.S. cities like Austin, Denver and Portland, Oregon.

As a result, some people are opting to pay a bit more for market-rate apartments with less income-verification and faster approval — leaving growing numbers of affordable units vacant.

In Austin, the vacancy rate for all affordable housing is nearly 16% with over 4,500 vacant units, according to real estate data and analytics firm CoStar. A healthy vacancy rate is around 5%.

LDG Development, an affordable housing developer, cited a 12% vacancy rate for its 60% AMI units in Austin. Chief portfolio officer Rebekah Fischer said LDG is “in direct competition” with the thousands of new market-rate apartments recently built in Austin.

“I have to have every bank statement, every pay check, every bill, every Venmo transaction that you had with your friends,” Fischer said of affordable housing applicants.

“When we’re almost going after the same renter, you can be approved within two minutes at a market-rate deal, where unfortunately in affordable housing … it takes time.”

In Denver, there’s a 13% vacancy rate among 60% AMI units financed by the federal tax credit program — and a 21% vacancy rate for 80% AMI units, according to the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority. Meanwhile, there is far too little housing for the city’s poorest.

In Portland, where there is also a housing shortage for the lowest income groups, there are over 1,700 vacant affordable units for an overall vacancy rate of 7.5%, according to the Portland Housing Bureau. Most are for those earning 60% AMI, or about $54,000 for a single-person household, with rent capped at $1,444 per month.

That’s close to the average rent of $1,581 for a one-bedroom market-rate apartment, according to CoStar figures shared by the bureau.

Portland resident Jaiden Barbee earns around 55% of the area median income and is on waitlists for affordable housing. But, he says, he’d pay more for a market-rate apartment to avoid the lengthy application process.

“I’d rather spend the $200 extra just to get into a place easier that’s wherever I want” and doesn’t have “all these hoops,” he said.

‘I want to shut the door at night and sleep’

Austin officials set a goal of building 20,000 units between 2018 and 2027 for extremely low-income people — 17% of the city’s households.

Just 543 were built as of 2024, city documents show.

Meanwhile, all 15,000 units planned for those earning between 60% and 80% of area median income were built.

In response to questions from The Associated Press, the Austin housing department said it recognized the need to do more to produce housing for the poorest people and was taking steps to do that, including giving preference to funding proposals that include 30% AMI units.

For Davis, who lived in his car for a year before getting a bed in the Austin shelter, the housing shortage for people like him is frustrating.

“I want to shut the door at night and be able to sleep,” he said. “I really just want to find the right place.”

__

Former AP writer Charlotte Kramon contributed.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Amazon has been accused of discriminating against potentially thousands of pregnant employees by allegedly firing or retaliating against workers seeking additional accommodations, according to a nationwide class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday. 

The lawsuit, brought by four former hourly warehouse employees, alleged that the retail giant violated the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and New York state law, which require employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers without penalty. 

“This case arises from Amazon’s systematic, company-wide failure to accommodate pregnant workers and its deliberate policies of retaliation against workers who seek pregnancy accommodations,” the lawsuit stated. 

According to the complaint, Amazon required “unnecessary” medical documentation for every accommodation request, with plaintiffs saying the added requirements often resulted in denials or delays for basic needs such as requests for chairs and bathroom and water breaks. 

The lawsuit also alleges that time off for medical appointments and emergencies is automatically deducted from workers’ limited banks of unpaid time off. Once that time is exhausted, workers can receive termination warnings and ultimately be fired, according to the complaint. 

Amazon’s tracking practices are also under scrutiny. The company reportedly uses handheld scanners to monitor workers’ activities minute-by-minute, including time spent in lactation rooms, according to the suit. The complaint alleges the system could penalize employees for taking legally protected pumping breaks. 

Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, rejected the accusations, saying the company approved more than 99.9% of pregnancy-related accommodation requests over the past year. The adjustments included additional breaks, modified duties and seated roles. 

“Ensuring the health and well-being of our employees is one of our greatest responsibilities, and we strive to provide a safe and supportive environment for everyone, which includes supporting tens of thousands of employees with pregnancy accommodations each year,” Nantel told FOX Business. 

The company said accommodations are provided on an individualized basis, adding that the approach is consistent with federal law. 

“Our accommodations policies follow the Pregnancy Workers Fairness Act, and any implication we don’t follow federal law is false and misleading,” Amazon said. 

According to the lawsuit, plaintiff Willamina Barclay had a high-risk pregnancy with preeclampsia and severe morning sickness but was denied a seated position. 

Amazon allegedly delayed her request for weeks while waiting for paperwork, with one manager reportedly saying, “If I give you a chair, I have to give everybody else a chair,” the suit said. 

The company then deducted her approved extra breaks and time spent in the emergency room from her unpaid time off (UPT), according to the complaint. She was reportedly fired on June 22, 2025, after her UPT balance fell below zero. 

Plaintiff Kristina Green, who was at risk of preeclampsia, was also denied additional accommodations after a two-month delay, according to the lawsuit. 

Her UPT was drained during unpaid maternity leave and while taking lactation breaks, the complaint said. 

She received a final written warning for about two hours of unverified inactive time and was fired on May 7, 2026, according to the lawsuit. 

Plaintiff Jennifer Hatch, who had a high-risk pregnancy and asthma, also had four emergency room visits for severe abdominal pain, according to the lawsuit. 

An operations manager allegedly ordered her to stand and refused to let her use an available chair because her accommodation had not been approved, the complaint said. 

Hatch was fired on April 2, 2025, after her UPT balance fell below zero, according to the lawsuit. 

Plaintiff Dazaria Parks, who suffered from pregnancy-related sciatica, was also denied permission to sit, according to the lawsuit.

She was reprimanded by automated monitoring systems for avoiding packages weighing more than 20 pounds and penalized for taking approved medical leave, the complaint said.

Parks was automatically fired on July 13, 2026, according to the lawsuit.

Amazon said it is reviewing each case but maintained that the allegations in the lawsuit do not present the full picture.

“The details provided in this lawsuit do not reflect the full facts of these cases or the reality of our extensive accommodations process,” the company said. 

“While we’re not able to discuss individual employee details, we have conducted thorough internal reviews of each case referenced. We’re limited in discussing ongoing legal matters, however we look forward to a timely resolution of these matters, as extended investigation timelines benefit neither employees nor employers.”

There are reports that the administration is cooking up a plan to allow married couples with a stay-at-home spouse to collect childcare subsidies, using funds from a Health and Human Services program, also intended to assist working parents. The HHS fund was created a while back to help low income and working-class parents afford child care, so they could go to work.

Under the new plan, parents who stay at home with their children could be eligible for about $9,000 per child each year, by redirecting money from the HHS working parents, to the new stay-at-home parents. Kind of sounds like taking from Peter in order to give to Paul. I don’t think it’s a really good idea.

According to reports, about 80 percent of the 870,000 families who currently get the childcare subsidies, have single working parents, most of them mothers, according to HHS data.

So let’s step back for a moment. I’m for parents having tots. And I’m certainly for work. Both are Godly. But this sounds like big government Republicanism. Too much government directing to this, and too much government directing to that. 

Why not just reform the tax code, and let everybody keep more of what they earn, and then let them decide how to spend their own money? In other words, that means not the government deciding how to spend their money, but letting individuals and families decide how to spend their own money — probably more astutely than the government.

We should be reforming the tax code. Take a police detective and his schoolteacher wife. I’ll bet their combined income is $150,000 to $200,000 a year. That’s good money. But they shouldn’t have to pay a 32 percent tax rate. I’d knock their rate down to 15 percent or 20 percent. In other words, a middle-class tax cut. And by the way, we don’t need seven tax brackets, which is overly complex.

Let’s knock it down to 3 brackets; 10, 20, and 30. Ronald Reagan, more than 40 years ago, left it at 28 percent and 15 percent. If you make $500,000 or $ 600,000 a year, you can pay 30 percent, not 37 percent. The middle bracket is if you make $200,000 or 250,000, you should pay only 15 percent or 20 percent.

The bottom bracket could be 10 percent but nobody really pays taxes there anyway. This would simplify the tax code, clean out a lot of unnecessary IRS flotsam and jetsam. And it’ll let people keep much more of what they earn. It’ll help families, it’ll help their children, and by the way it’ll be a big help to small businesses who pay the individual income tax. And it will keep big government’s nose out of peoples lives.

Picture this: you’ve just been offered a job after endless rounds of interviews and tests, when the interviewer asks, “What are your salary requirements?” According to one billionaire, the number you should be asking for isn’t a salary at all.

Dylan Taylor, the founder of space-tech company Voyager Technologies, became a millionaire at 27—five years before Warren Buffett hit the same milestone. His advice for Gen Z hoping to grow their wealth in the current economy? Stop negotiating for a bigger paycheck, and start negotiating for equity instead.

“I think it’s very difficult to make a lot of money working for somebody,” Taylor tells Fortune. “There’s two different ways to make money: income and equity. Whether you’re an employee or a founder, I think you should push for more equity and less income. That’s really what compounds over time.”

It’s advice Taylor took himself, long before he made his fortune in space. “I always wanted equity as opposed to higher base salary,” he says of the employment deals he negotiated early in his career. “I think that ended up being very wise.”

It did indeed. Taylor made his millions running public companies across electronics, finance and banking, while also investing in real estate and various companies including Robinhood, Relativity Space, and Calm. 

Now, thanks to the return on investments he made from his twenties and Voyager’s IPO, he’s a billionaire.

Fortune reviewed a summary of his financial records, which verifies his billionaire status.

How entry-level workers can ask for equity instead of a raise

Taylor’s advice isn’t just for founders or executives with leverage to spare—he says even a 24-year-old, a few years into their career, can ask for equity over income. Not only that, but he says most employers would be impressed because it shows how seriously you’re invested in their firm.  

“If someone came to you and said, ‘I actually want to make less money, but I want more of the value we create together’—I think most bosses, assuming they’re not totally insecure and see this person as a threat, would welcome that.” 

Most managers, he adds, are open to that conversation even if they don’t personally have the authority to approve it. “They might have to run it up to the next level, but from a company standpoint, it makes a lot of sense, too. With equity, you only really pay on success.”

Not every industry will bite, Taylor admits. “If you’re working for an industrial valve company in Newcastle, I’m not sure you’d be able to do that. But if it’s a tech company, they’re issuing options—so there’s no reason why you can’t ask the question.” 

And even if the answer is no, he says, that’s still useful information for both you and your future boss. 

“You could just say, ‘Okay, well, at what point would I be eligible?’ I think it really reframes you in their mind. It’s like, this is someone who’s focused on creating value. I think it’s good signaling.” 

His other piece of advice for young people trying to build wealth is almost as bold as asking bosses for equity: a barbell investing strategy. That is, putting the bulk of your money somewhere safe, and a smaller slice somewhere genuinely risky with potentially higher returns. “As crazy as it sounds, you’d have 70% of your money in the FTSE 100, and 30% in Bitcoin,” he adds. “It seems crazy, but I think those strategies work.”

He’s not alone: Martin Mignot and Ramit Sethi became millionaires before turning 30 thanks to early investments

Taylor isn’t the only self-made millionaire telling Gen Z to chase equity over income

Martin Mignot, the first investor in Deliveroo, similarly became a millionaire before turning 30. While other twenty-somethings were climbing the corporate ladder, he was busy investing in some of Europe’s most iconic startups, including Revolut, Trainline and Personio. By his late 20s, the millennial had cemented his reputation as one of the industry’s most notable investors—and made his first millions along the way.

He’s now a partner at Index Ventures—the firm behind early bets on Figma, Scale AI, and Wiz—and his advice for Gen Z boils down to the exact same principle as Taylor’s.

“It’s about owning equity, that is the key,” he previously told Fortune. “The best career accelerator you can have is joining a Revolut, Robinhood, or Figma early enough—and you don’t have to be the first employee. If you’re employee 100 or 200, you’re going to make a lot of money.”

And for those who don’t work for a company that offers stock options, Netflix’s finance guru Ramit Sethi, the New York Times best-selling author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, recommends a far less glamorous strategy: automate your investments into a low-cost index fund, then leave it completely alone. 

“Timing the market is for suckers,” he told Fortune. “Treat your investments like a Thanksgiving dinner. Put the turkey in the oven, close it, and let it cook for the next 30 years.”

“When you’re young, you have one luxury that no one else has, and that is the luxury of time,” he added. “When it comes to investing, time is one of the most powerful allies to live a rich life and grow your investments. So one of the most important things is to be consistently investing even $50 a month, starting from as young as possible.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Wall Street returned from the Labor Day weekend with a sharp split inside the market: energy and AI hardware rose while software, healthcare and the Dow fell hard.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 620 points, or 1.2%, to roughly 52,787. The S&P 500 lost 0.58% to 7,673.94, and the Nasdaq Composite declined about 0.3% to roughly 26,421. It was the Dow’s worst session in nearly three weeks. 

Two forces drove the selling.

First, Brent crude briefly reached $99.46 after Houthi attacks struck Saudi energy facilities, before settling at $97.92 a barrel. U.S. crude settled at $93.03, its highest level in nearly three months. The 10-year Treasury yield pushed around 4.80%, increasing borrowing-cost pressure just days before the final inflation reports preceding the Federal Reserve’s September 16 decision. Markets are pricing roughly a 60% probability of a rate increase. 

Second, investors again questioned whether artificial intelligence will destroy portions of the traditional software business. Salesforce fell roughly 4%, while ServiceNow and Intuit each lost around 5% as OpenAI’s new GPT-6 Astra renewed fears that businesses may replace expensive specialized software with increasingly capable general-purpose AI. The S&P software and services index fell for a second consecutive session. 

That is becoming one of the most important divisions in the stock market: AI infrastructure companies are being rewarded for building the technology while some software companies are being punished because investors fear the same technology could replace them.

Main Street — Small Businesses Say Sales Are Getting Harder

America’s small businesses became less optimistic in August.

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell 1.1 points to 98.7, down from 99.8 in July, although it remains slightly above its 52-year average of 98.0. 

The headline number was not the most important part.

A net 9% more businesses reported declining rather than increasing sales during the previous three months, the weakest reading since November 2025. Expectations for better overall business conditions fell five points, while the share of owners planning to create jobs dropped three points to a net 17%. 

Inflation also moved back up the worry list. Sixteen percent of owners named inflation as their single biggest problem, up two points from July.

There was one meaningful piece of relief: labor costs as the biggest business problem fell to their lowest level since March 2021.

Why it mattered today: Main Street is describing a different economy from the one suggested by Friday’s strong national jobs report. Employers are not collapsing, but customers are becoming harder to capture and businesses are growing more cautious about hiring and expansion.

That matters especially if oil and interest rates continue rising simultaneously.

AI Chips — Amazon Could Buy $60 Billion From Qualcomm

Qualcomm landed one of the largest potential AI infrastructure orders yet.

Amazon can purchase as much as $60 billion of Qualcomm AI data-center chips and related products under a new long-term agreement.

Qualcomm is giving Amazon warrants worth roughly $4 billion, allowing it to purchase as many as 25 million Qualcomm shares at $161.26 apiece as product-purchase targets are reached. Qualcomm shares rose following the announcement. 

The arrangement covers custom AI processors and optical-connectivity technology needed to move enormous quantities of data between chips inside AI data centers.

For Qualcomm, this is an attempt to build a second enormous business as it prepares eventually to lose Apple’s modem business and faces softer smartphone demand.

The company is targeting $15 billion in annual data-center chip revenue by 2029.

Why it mattered today: Amazon is actively creating alternatives to Nvidia rather than accepting permanent dependence on one dominant AI-chip supplier.

That means AI’s next phase is increasingly about custom chips, networking and bargaining power, not simply buying more Nvidia GPUs.

Artificial Intelligence — Meta Launches an Agent That Can Spend Your Money

Meta launched Muse, an autonomous AI assistant capable of doing something fundamentally different from a conventional chatbot.

It can act.

Muse can connect with email, calendars, shopping services, payments, health applications and smart-home systems. Meta says it can book travel, send emails, make payments and even help sell a car on a user’s behalf. It launches initially in the United States through a dedicated app and WhatsApp. 

The business opportunity is enormous.

If AI agents begin actually making purchases rather than merely recommending products, companies may increasingly be selling to algorithms acting for customers.

But the risks are equally large.

Internal testing reportedly uncovered incidents involving unexpected data transfers, connection problems and exposure of sensitive personal information. Meta says the product meets its safety and privacy standards while acknowledging agents can make mistakes. 

Why it mattered today: AI is moving from answering questions to controlling transactions.

For businesses, that potentially changes advertising, e-commerce, customer acquisition and payments. For consumers, it raises a much bigger question: how much authority should software receive to act with your money and personal information?

U.S.-China Technology — Washington Accuses Chinese AI Firms of Copying American Models

The U.S. government accused six Chinese AI companies, including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Alibaba, of using American AI systems to accelerate development of their own models.

Officials said Chinese firms used a technique known as distillation, feeding outputs from American systems into smaller models to reproduce capabilities more cheaply and quickly. They named technology originating from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceX among the systems allegedly targeted. 

U.S. officials went further, saying the activity occurred likely with Chinese government awareness and warning that the resulting technology could strengthen Chinese military and cyber capabilities.

The accusation arrives only weeks before the planned Trump-Xi meeting later this month.

Why it mattered today: The AI competition between the United States and China is rapidly becoming an intellectual-property and national-security battle.

Exporting advanced chips is one issue.

Preventing a competitor from extracting the capabilities of an already-trained American AI model may prove significantly harder.

Autos & Manufacturing — Washington Tells Ford Its China Dependence Has Gone Too Far

The Trump administration sharply criticized Ford over its relationships with Chinese companies including CATL, Geely and BYD.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Ford CEO Jim Farley that the company’s continued reliance on Chinese technology poses national-security concerns. 

The administration specifically highlighted Ford’s licensing of CATL battery technology for its Michigan battery plant, its partnership with Geely in Spain and discussions with BYD involving hybrid-vehicle components.

Officials also criticized Ford for waiting until 2030 to move production of its Lincoln Nautilus from China to the United States.

This is increasingly becoming the central argument surrounding American industrial policy.

Washington is no longer concentrating only on where the final automobile is assembled.

It is scrutinizing who supplies the battery technology, software, electronics and underlying intellectual property.

Why it mattered today: Manufacturers can no longer assume that building the final product in America will satisfy Washington if strategically important technology inside that product still comes from China.

Cybersecurity — One Attack Just Knocked Boston Scientific Off Its Annual Forecast

Boston Scientific warned that a cybersecurity attack discovered August 25 caused enough disruption that the medical-device company is now unlikely to achieve its previous third-quarter and full-year sales and profit guidance.

The attack disrupted networks used for manufacturing, order processing and other operations around the world. Major distribution centers and most manufacturing operations have restarted, but the company still cannot quantify the full financial damage. 

Before the attack, Boston Scientific expected full-year adjusted earnings of $3.28 to $3.32 a share and revenue growth of 5.5% to 6.5%.

Shares fell sharply Tuesday.

Why it mattered today: Cybersecurity has become an operating-cost issue, not simply an IT problem.

A company can have customers, factories and products ready to go and still lose revenue because the digital systems connecting orders, manufacturing and shipping are unavailable.

For business owners, the lesson is straightforward: cyber insurance and backup systems belong in the same risk conversation as property insurance and supply-chain continuity.

Broadband & AI Infrastructure — Verizon Orders 80 Million Miles of Fiber

Verizon signed a multibillion-dollar agreement with Corning covering more than 80 million miles of high-density optical fiber and connectivity products between 2027 and 2032. 

The fiber will support Verizon’s residential and business broadband expansion.

But AI is an important part of the economics.

Hyperscale data centers require enormous bandwidth connecting campuses, servers and network infrastructure. The computing boom therefore creates demand far beyond chips and electricity.

It requires fiber.

Why it mattered today: Investors increasingly need to look beyond Nvidia to understand where AI money is flowing.

The buildout is creating business for utilities, construction companies, fiber manufacturers, electrical-equipment companies, cooling suppliers and networking firms.

Corning is another example of an older industrial company finding itself directly inside the AI capital-spending boom.

New Jersey & Wall Street — Holtec Seeks a $10.2 Billion Valuation

Camden, New Jersey-based Holtec launched plans for an initial public offering that could value the nuclear-technology company at as much as $10.2 billion.

Holtec plans to offer 50 million shares at between $15 and $18, potentially raising as much as $900 million. 

The offering arrives as nuclear power is being revalued because AI data centers and other electricity-intensive industries require enormous quantities of reliable power.

It is also an important test of the fall IPO market.

Strong trading after Holtec’s offering could encourage additional private companies to move ahead with listings before year-end.

Why it mattered today: Nuclear power has moved from an industry many investors considered stagnant to one increasingly linked directly to America’s AI and electricity strategy.

Holtec is attempting to put a multibillion-dollar public-market valuation on that change.

Pharmaceuticals — Novartis Loses $32 Billion in One Day

Novartis suffered its worst one-day stock decline on record, dropping 10.9% in Switzerland and erasing approximately $32 billion in market value.

The trigger was failure of a late-stage study of del-desiran, an experimental treatment for myotonic dystrophy. 

The failure is particularly painful because Novartis obtained the drug through its approximately $12 billion acquisition of Avidity.

Analysts had previously estimated peak annual sales of roughly $3.1 billion for the treatment.

It is also Novartis’ second significant clinical disappointment within days, putting additional pressure on CEO Vas Narasimhan’s acquisition-driven strategy for replacing revenue from drugs approaching patent expiration.

Why it mattered today: Pharmaceutical acquisitions are increasingly priced around drugs that have not yet reached the market.

A single failed clinical trial can therefore destroy not only the expected sales of a product but billions of dollars of assumed acquisition value overnight.

Key Market Movers

Intel was one of Tuesday’s strongest large-cap stocks, jumping close to 10% amid renewed enthusiasm around AI and data-center chips. Qualcomm gained roughly 3% after unveiling the Amazon agreement. Energy companies including Marathon Petroleum and Occidental Petroleum advanced as oil rose. 

On the other side, Salesforce fell roughly 4%, ServiceNow and Intuit about 5%, reflecting fears that generative AI will disrupt established software businesses. Novartis plunged 10.9% in Europe and its U.S.-listed shares fell even more sharply, while Boston Scientific declined after its cyberattack warning. Crypto-related names also weakened as bitcoin slipped below $80,000, with Coinbase and Strategy falling. 

The market’s message Tuesday was unusually clear:

Owning the infrastructure behind AI was rewarded. Owning businesses that AI could potentially replace was not.

What to Watch Wednesday, September 9

The biggest scheduled corporate event arrives at 1 p.m. ET, when Apple holds its first major product launch under new CEO John Ternus.

Wall Street expects Apple to unveil its first foldable iPhone, with analysts anticipating a price above $2,500, alongside new high-end iPhones and a major Siri AI upgrade. Analysts estimate the foldable device could eventually generate more than $45 billion in revenue by the end of 2027. 

For investors, however, Siri may matter more than the hinge.

Apple must convince Wall Street that it can remain a central gateway for artificial intelligence rather than allowing OpenAI, Google and Meta to control the next generation of consumer computing.

Oil will remain the other major market driver.

Brent came within roughly $2 of $100 Tuesday. Another attack on Gulf energy infrastructure or additional disruption to Hormuz shipping could push energy through that psychological threshold and increase expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise rates next week.

Markets will also begin positioning for the Producer Price Index on Thursday and Consumer Price Index on Friday, the final major inflation readings before the Fed’s September 16 decision. Economists expect wholesale inflation to accelerate, making those numbers particularly important after the latest surge in energy costs. 

Wednesday also brings a group of consumer and business earnings, including Chewy, American Eagle Outfitters and AeroVironment, offering additional reads on discretionary spending and defense demand. 

Bottom Line

Tuesday was not simply a bad day for stocks.

It exposed several of the most important shifts happening underneath the economy.

Small businesses say sales are weakening. Oil is nearing $100. Interest rates may rise again. Cyberattacks are now knocking major corporations off their earnings forecasts. Washington is forcing manufacturers to reconsider Chinese supply chains. And AI is beginning to separate corporate winners from potential casualties.

At the same time, Amazon is potentially committing tens of billions to alternative AI chips, Verizon is ordering tens of millions of miles of fiber and a New Jersey nuclear company believes the public market may value it above $10 billion.

There is still enormous capital available.

But investors are becoming much more selective about which side of the economic transformation receives it.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved.

Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang declared that the era of artificial general intelligence (AGI) has arrived after OpenAI released its latest model.

OpenAI on Thursday unveiled the GPT-6 Astra model, which the company said features major improvements in computer use, coding, scientific research and professional work.

Astra began rolling out to OpenAI’s enterprise customers with Daybreak access with the initial announcement. The company is also rolling it out to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise, as well as through the OpenAI API and Amazon Web Services.

Huang wrote a post on X congratulating OpenAI on the breakthrough, saying that it marks the outset of the AGI era.

“GPT-6 Astra, trained on ~100K+ NVIDIA Grace Blackwell NVLink72. From ChatGPT to o1 to Astra in 4 years. AGI has arrived. Congratulations @OpenAI team. 400K GPUs coming online next,” Huang said in his post on X.

AGI lacks a common definition across the tech sector, though it generally refers to an AI system that has human-level cognitive abilities for learning and reasoning, and is able to learn new skills and capabilities without being retrained.

OpenAI defines AGI as “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work.”

Huang and Nvidia have defined AGI as an AI system that’s able to pass professional certifications and standardized tests across a range of professional fields with scores in the top tier.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman told reporters before Astra’s launch that the new model is a turning point in the pursuit of AGI, saying that “I think it’s not unreasonable to feel that we are now in the AGI era.”

The company said that Astra can carry out “tedious” computer-based tasks, such as filling out online forms, updating customer records, organizing calendars and conducting research.

OpenAI added that Astra can create documents, spreadsheets and presentations, while it also called it the “best model for software engineering to date” and touted its cybersecurity capabilities.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that one of the model’s capabilities that impressed him the most was Astra’s ability to identify problems that users hadn’t considered.

“Not only could it excel at doing a bunch of research about, you know, a complex supply chain for chips that we’re trying to produce,” Altman said. “But parts of that task that I didn’t ask it for, it can come back and say, ‘You didn’t think to ask me about this other part of the supply chain.'”

FOX Business’ Sophia Compton and Reuters contributed to this report.

Chinese esports player Jian “Uzi” Zi-hao was more than a star “League of Legends” player: He was so talented that his team structured its entire strategy around his abilities, funneling resources to him and another teammate, Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming, so the duo could lead the team to victory. Over the course of his career, he earned more than $500,000 in tournament prize money.

And yet in 2020, Jian announced his retirement, his storied career cut short by chronic wrist and arm injuries.

He was 25 years old.

Video games have a reputation for keeping people glued to the couch. But for those who compete against the best players in the world, gaming can be surprisingly physically and mentally taxing.

The strain of ‘climbing the ladder’

The best esports players often have grinding schedules. They’re expected to regularly practice, participate in scrimmages and compete in official matches. Even at the recreational level, esports players cite the mental toll: playing for hours a day, every day, to hone their skills so they can “climb the ladder.”

A 2021 study of Portuguese esports players found that 37% experienced anxiety and depression, and 45% experienced sleep disturbances. The most common physical injuries in esports generally fall under eye problems and musculoskeletal issues.

Prolonged screen time leads to many types of vision problems in gamers, from the more common eye fatigue to a decreased ability to focus. Furthermore, the light emitted from screens appears to contribute to sleep disturbances by disrupting the release of melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle.

A member of the all-female computer gaming team QWER uses eye drops at her team’s training center in Seoul. Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

Many esport players – professional or otherwise – also battle hand and wrist pain, with repetitive button-smashing causing injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis and “gamer’s thumb,” which arises from overuse or irritation of the tendons around the thumb and wrist. Many of the overuse injuries seen among video game players are also familiar to assembly-line workers, whose jobs can involve similarly repetitive movements.

Then there are the back injuries. Players can remain seated for three or more hours without a break, and this prolonged sitting can take a toll on the lower back and spine.

The sedentary nature of esports has also led to a lesser-known – sometimes fatal – injury called deep vein thrombosis: a blood clot, often in the leg, that can become life-threatening if it travels to the lungs. In 2011, British gamer Chris Staniforth – who would play for as long as 12 hours at a time – died of the condition.

Preventative measures

As more esports injury research has been published, more treatment and prevention strategies have emerged.

Top esports teams now have physical therapists, performance psychologists, athletic trainers and even massage therapists on staff to optimize the performance and recovery of their players.

Teams often incorporate group exercise activities to both build rapport among players and reduce the risk of injuries. During competition, proper positioning of the spine and limbs has become an essential injury prevention strategy. For example, selecting a chair that encourages an upright posture can reduce pain and injury risk, especially when gamers couple ergonomics with an exercise program that centers on functional strength, mobility and stretching of the upper limbs.

Brazilian esports athletes attend a physical training session in Rio de Janeiro in May 2021. Mauro Pimentel/AFP via Getty Images

Looking to the stage

When esports began gaining mainstream popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s, its proponents were eager to draw comparisons to traditional sports and athletic competition. The parallels helped establish esports’ legitimacy and gave non-gamers a familiar framework for understanding the competition.

As esports became a big business and a lucrative career path, players and teams hired a web of support staff – trainers, coaches and therapists – that mirrored the structure of professional sports. In this vein, a lot of esports injury research has pulled from the training methods of traditional sports.

However, as a scholar of exercise science, I think injury treatment and prevention strategies could be further improved by seeing esports competitors as more like musicians and dancers than football players and basketball players.

Performance optimization and injury research on professional performing artists has existed for centuries, and I think it represents a valuable, untapped resource. That’s because the physical and mental stresses experienced during musical performance have a lot in common with esports competition: long stretches of sitting; small, dexterous hand movements; and performing without the real-time input of a coach.

For example, biomechanics research has found similar patterns of forearm muscle fatigue among esports players and piano players. However, no studies to date have directly compared the two groups.

And what if the interest in joint hypermobility or hand size among performing artists were translated to esport populations? Could popular piano warm-up exercises be effective for esports athletes who use keyboards?

Even research on sports like car racing might offer valuable insights. As with gamers, many people overlook how physically demanding car racing can be – and yes, that includes sitting for extended periods of time.

A member of the esport team Vitality observes a demonstration of a reflex-training machine in Enstone, England. Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty Images

Prevention and rehabilitation techniques continue to improve. Even Jian, the player who retired in 2020, returned to play for a few splits, or partial seasons, in 2022 and 2023.

In July 2023, “League of Legends” star Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok was relegated to the bench due to cubital tunnel syndrome, an injury that emerges from arm and hand overuse.

Through a treatment plan that included changing his gaming posture and intensive physical therapy, Lee was able to return to play just a month later. He went on to win three consecutive world championships, with his support team helping prevent recurrence of injury throughout each season.

Thanks to his rehabilitation, Lee’s fans will be able to follow his hunt for his fourth “League of Legends” World Championship, which kicks off in October 2026 in the United States.

Sienna Cinti assisted with the research and writing of this article.

Erica D. Henn, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology and Exercise Science, Temple University

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

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is accusing Ford Motor Co. of becoming too dependent on Chinese companies, warning CEO Jim Farley that the automaker’s business ties to China threaten U.S. national security and American manufacturing.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Farley and obtained by FOX Business, Duffy criticized Ford’s growing reliance on Chinese technology and manufacturing partnerships, arguing that the strategy raises national and economic security concerns.

The letter marks one of the Trump administration’s strongest public rebukes of a major American automaker over its business relationships with China.

“I am writing to express the profound concern of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regarding the strategic trajectory of Ford Motor Company,” Duffy wrote, adding that the company’s recent decisions “paint a troubling picture of a foundational American brand actively intertwining its future with Chinese state-backed enterprises.”

Administration officials argue the concerns are twofold: that Chinese law can require companies to provide the government access to proprietary and customer data, creating potential national security risks, and that increased reliance on Chinese manufacturing comes at the expense of American workers.

Duffy pointed to several examples in the letter, including Ford’s continued use of licensed battery technology from Chinese manufacturer CATL at its BlueOval Battery Park in Marshall, Michigan; the company’s joint venture with Chinese-owned Geely in Spain; reported discussions with BYD over hybrid vehicle components; and the company’s delayed plans to reshore Lincoln models such as the Nautilus, which Duffy said could extend until 2030.

He argued those moves deepen Ford’s reliance on Chinese supply chains while helping strategic competitors expand their influence in the global auto industry.

“When a company intentionally chooses to deepen operational dependencies on strategic competitors, it fails to act as the reliable partner the American public and this DOT require,” Duffy wrote.

Duffy also urged Ford to reduce its dependence on foreign technology.

“Iconic American companies, like Ford, are also expected to out-innovate competitors,” he wrote. “To that end, they need to chart clear paths to technological self-reliance.”

The letter comes as lawmakers and the auto industry have pushed for tighter restrictions on Chinese involvement in the U.S. automotive market.

In July, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved bipartisan legislation that would ban the import, sale and operation of vehicles manufactured by companies designated as foreign entities of concern, including firms based in China. The measure would also prohibit certain connected vehicle technologies developed by those countries.

Separately, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation urged congressional leaders in September to enact a permanent ban on Chinese-made vehicles in the United States.

Ford did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.

Meta on Tuesday rolled out a long-planned personal AI agent aimed at helping users complete daily tasks.

The Muse agent can autonomously send emails, book travel on a person’s behalf, sell a car and lower a bill, according to the social media giant.

Modeled on the open-source AI agent OpenClaw, Muse is designed to access a person’s apps across categories like email, calendar, payments, health, shopping and the smart home, Meta said. People choose which apps it connects to and can revoke access at any time.

Each Muse agent runs on its own virtual machine, a cloud-based emulation of a personal computer, which enables it to keep carrying out requests in the background even when a person is not actively using it.

Reuters contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump is escalating his pressure campaign against Canada, warning Bombardier that it will not be allowed to keep selling aircraft into the U.S. market unless it manufactures them in America.

Trump said Monday that Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier should no longer be allowed to sell in the United States unless it begins building planes in the country, opening another front in the widening U.S.-Canada trade dispute.

“NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!” Trump wrote, adding that if the company wants access to the American market, “they must build here.”

The White House has not yet explained how such a restriction would be implemented or whether it would take the form of tariffs, certification changes, procurement limits or another trade measure.

That distinction matters.

For now, Trump’s statement is a political and trade warning — not yet a fully detailed regulatory action.

Bombardier is particularly exposed because the United States is one of its most important markets.

Roughly half of the company’s approximately 5,100-aircraft global fleet is operated by U.S. customers, making American access central to its business.

Bombardier does already have an American footprint.

The company operates facilities in the United States, including a defense operation in Wichita, Kansas, but its primary aircraft manufacturing remains centered in Canada.

Trump’s demand therefore goes beyond simply asking the company to invest more in the United States.

He is effectively saying that access to American customers should be tied to where the aircraft themselves are built.

The confrontation did not begin Monday.

Earlier this year, Trump threatened to impose 50% tariffs on Canadian-made aircraft and said the United States would move to decertify Bombardier Global Express business jets unless Canadian regulators approved several aircraft manufactured by U.S. rival Gulfstream.

Those threats were never fully carried out.

Canada later certified several Gulfstream aircraft.

But the latest statement shows that Bombardier remains directly in the administration’s crosshairs.

The timing is important.

Canada and the United States are already locked in a broader tariff fight involving steel, autos, agriculture and other manufactured goods.

Ottawa is preparing new retaliatory tariffs on American imports, while Washington continues pressing Canadian companies to shift more production south of the border.

Bombardier has also been expanding strategically.

The company recently announced plans to acquire a Canadian wing-manufacturing facility, strengthening its control over a key part of its aerospace supply chain.

Its latest quarterly revenue rose approximately 6%, helped by strong aftermarket-services demand.

What It Means for You

This is the clearest example yet of how Trump wants to use access to the U.S. market as leverage to force foreign manufacturers to move production into America.

The message is simple:

If you want American customers, build in America.

For Bombardier, the stakes are enormous because the U.S. market is too large to simply walk away from.

For aerospace suppliers, however, the pressure could create opportunities.

If Bombardier ultimately shifts more manufacturing into the United States, that could mean new factories, jobs and contracts for American suppliers.

But there is also risk.

Aircraft manufacturing depends on deeply integrated international supply chains, and abrupt trade restrictions can raise costs, delay deliveries and create uncertainty for customers who have already ordered planes.

The bigger issue is that Washington is increasingly applying the same strategy across multiple industries:

Autos. Steel. Pharmaceuticals. Semiconductors. Aerospace.

Trump is making market access conditional on domestic investment.

Bombardier may now become one of the highest-profile tests yet of whether that strategy actually forces companies to move production — or simply pushes the U.S. and Canada deeper into a costly trade fight.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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The housing market is cooling as summer draws to a close and begins to transition into fall, with some cities around the U.S. seeing larger price decreases to attract buyers.

Home sellers are moving to meet buyers in the middle with price reductions as high mortgage rates contribute to affordability challenges, particularly in metro areas that saw significant price growth during the pandemic.

An analysis by Realtor.com found that the price per square foot decreased year over year for the 10th straight month in August, with nationwide prices down 1.8% from a year ago.

Around the country, median list prices fell year over year in three of the four major regions in the country (-3.6% in the Northeast, -2.6% in the South, and -2.1% in the West), and remained flat in the Midwest.

The report found that the median list price per square foot fell in 36 of the top 50 metro areas in the U.S. in August compared with a year ago.

The largest declines were in Austin (-8.1%); Tampa (-5.6%); and Memphis (-4.1%). Metros that saw the largest gains were Providence, R.I., (+9.3%); Indianapolis (+4.4%); and Chicago (+3.6%).

Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel said that “One common thread for most markets – including Austin, Tampa, San Antonio, Denver – is 2020-22 boomtowns continuing to give back some of their pandemic-era gains. These are also, by and large, places with much more inventory now than pre-pandemic norms.”

San Francisco is an outlier in the analysis, as the city saw a 3.9% decline in list price per square foot in August from a year ago, which ranked fourth nationally despite the market remaining hypercompetitive.

The number of active listings in San Francisco was down 16.3% in July from the prior year, which compressed the housing market. The median listing price in the city remains high at $908,700, even though it has decreased by 5.2% year over year.

“It’s not about San Francisco homes losing value, but rather how expensive the available inventory is this year relative to last,” Krimmel said.

“There are fewer small, pricey homes in the center of the city for sale. They are scarce and selling fast,” he explained. “On the flip side, this year there are relatively more large, less expensive per-square-foot homes coming up for sale in outer suburbs.”

Other metro areas that experienced the biggest annual declines in listing price per square foot in Realtor.com’s analysis include San Antonio (-3.6%); Denver (-3.4%); Baltimore (-3.2%); San Diego (-2.7%); Orlando (-2.6%); and Portland, Oregon, (-2.4%).

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” remained the No. 1 movie in theaters over the weekend, becoming just the second film this decade to top the box office for six straight weeks.

Since the end of July, the Sony superhero movie has ruled over cinemas with rare dominance. The last release to enjoy such a long stretch leading the box office was 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water.” “Brand New Day,” the fourth standalone Spider-Man film starring Tom Holland, collected $18 million over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Sony is forecasting $23.3 million for the four-day holiday weekend.

“Brand New Day” has grossed $2.4 billion worldwide.

Universal Pictures’ “The Odyssey,” as it has for much of the “Spider-Man” run, remained in second place. Christopher Nolan’s epic added $13 million domestically over the weekend, bringing its global haul to $1.63 billion. More than $1 billion of that has come from overseas sales, making “The Odyssey” the first to achieve that international milestone since 2009’s “Avatar.”

Both blockbusters — “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” — helped lead Hollywood to its best summer since before the pandemic. Through Aug. 31, the domestic box office totaled $4.6 billion for the season, according to Rentrak, an increase of 26.1% from 2025 and just shy of 2013’s record summer.

On Sunday, Rentrak forecast that, including the Labor Day weekend, the summer will end up with $4.759 billion, a whisker above the $4.758 billion of summer 2013. That time frame, though, spans 130 days this year, compared with 123 days in 2013.

Accounting for inflation and higher ticket prices, Hollywood’s summer wasn’t quite so historically sensational. Admissions are still well below pre-pandemic marks. But it’s nevertheless a remarkable rebound for a film industry that has struggled to string together such a hit-filled summer through the pandemic, labor strife and the expansion of streaming.

Labor Day weekend is typically a sleepy time in theaters. And neither new release — Paramount’s “By Any Means” and A24’s “Onslaught” — made much of a mark. One of the weekend’s best performers was “Coyote vs. Acme,” the hybrid live-action-animated Looney Tunes movie. It dipped a modest 29% to gross $11.3 million in its second weekend.

“Coyote vs. Acme” is turning out to be a good investment for Ketchup Entertainment. The indie distributor acquired the film for approximately $50 million after Warner Bros., which produced the $70 million film, opted to can it. In two weeks, “Coyote vs. Acme” has ridden strong reviews and good word-of-mouth to $33.8 million domestically.

“By Any Means,” a 1960s-set civil rights action thriller starring Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, opened with $7.4 million. Paramount is projecting $9.2 million for the four-day holiday weekend. Audiences gave it a “B+” CinemaScore.

“Onslaught,” however, flopped with $1.9 million on 1,918 screens for the three-day weekend and a projection of $2.3 million for the four-day weekend. The A24 release, directed by Adam Wingard, stars Adria Arjona as a former Army sniper who defends her trailer park home from three escaped, experimental super soldiers. “Onslaught” cost a modest $15 million to make. But reviews (57% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience scores (a “C” CinemaScore) weren’t good.

Meanwhile, “Buddy,” a low-budget dark comedy, has turned into a surprise success. Made for just $3 million, the film, directed by Casper Kelly and from the producers of “Weapons,” is about a group of children trapped inside a surreal 1990s children’s television series. After overperforming in its opening weekend, “Buddy” actually increased its ticket sales over its second weekend. The film grossed $5.7 million, up 5%, to bring its two-week total to $14.3 million.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:

1. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” $18 million.

2. “The Odyssey,” $13 million.

3. “Coyote vs. Acme,” $11.3 million.

4. “By Any Means,” $7.4 million.

5. “Insidious: Out of the Further,” $6.5 million.

6. “Cars” (20th anniversary): $6.1 million.

7. “Buddy,” $5.7 million.

8. “PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie,” $3.3 million.

9. “The End of Oak Street,” $2.9 million.

10. “The Dog Stars,” $2.7 million.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson is warning that the rise of socialism poses a “grave threat” to American cities, drawing a sharp contrast between that movement and the pro-business, free-market approach he says has helped Dallas thrive.

Johnson joined FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” to discuss the rise of socialism in U.S. cities and why he believes it poses a broader threat to the country’s economic future.

Johnson, who served as a Democratic state lawmaker before being elected mayor in 2019 and switched to the Republican Party in 2023, argued that the political divide extends beyond party labels and centers on how cities approach work, accountability and free markets.

“Cities are critical to the future of this country, and they are under a grave threat of the rise of socialism,” Johnson said. “There’s no question that there is a socialist movement in the United States that would like to change the way we arrange our economy in this country and the way we approach life in general.”

He pointed to Dallas as a different model, describing the city as strongly pro-business and crediting its growth to competition and free markets. Johnson said financial services companies have been relocating to the Dallas area or expanding their operations there, while the region’s financial sector continues to grow.

“This is a very, very pro-business city. Y’all Street is booming. Business is booming here, because we still embrace competition and free markets and believe that individuals ought to have an ability to achieve their dreams by working hard and doing what they want to do with their lives,” he said.

Johnson returned to the socialism issue while discussing data centers, arguing that debates over their development are secondary to questions about how the country governs itself and structures its economy.

“Our country is facing a graver threat than whether or not we support data centers being permitted in our local jurisdictions,” Johnson said. “We’re gonna talk about the rise of socialism and how we push back on that.”

The Treasury Department slammed Iran Tuesday by sanctioning 36 targets linked to its aviation sector, which officials said the regime uses to “move weapons, personnel, and illicit cargo.” 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration is taking action under Operation Economic Outcast, where the Treasury “promised severe consequences for those providing financial lifelines to the Iranian regime.” 

“Today, we followed through on that promise with sanctions on companies that continue to support Mahan Air,” Bessent said, naming one of the country’s largest airlines. “Let this be a warning to anyone doing business with Iran’s remaining airlines, all of which we sanctioned today: You are at risk of being cut off from the global financial system.” 

The Treasury Department said Iran’s commercial airlines have “long supported the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps using ostensibly private airlines, such as Mahan Air, for the procurement and transport of weapons and the ferrying of personnel.” 

“Today’s action also targeted covert front companies, foreign intermediaries, and deceptive transshipment routes that Iran relies on to obtain U.S.-origin aircraft and sensitive technology,” it added. 

The 27 Iranian airlines sanctioned under Tuesday’s actions are: Air Shiraz, Asa Jet Airline, Ata Airlines Company, Atlas Aviation Group, Ava Airlines, Chabahar Airlines Company, Erwan Airline Company, Fly Kish Airlines, Fly Persia Airlines, Iran Air Tour, Iran Aseman Airlines, Jsky Airlines, Kish Airlines, Karun Airlines Company, Lad Airways, Mehr Airways, Nasim Air, Pars Oghyanous Kish Company, Qeshm Air, Raimon Airways, Saha Airlines, Sepehran Airlines, Soroush Air, Taban Airlines, Toos Airlines, Varesh Airlines and Zagros Airlines. 

The other sanctions included targeting United Arab Emirates-based ECT Aviation Support LLC (ECT Aviation Support UAE) and Turkey-based Sky Phoenix Hava Yollari Tasimaciligi Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Sky Phoenix), which the Treasury said “served as intermediaries in the scheme to transfer U.S.‑origin aircraft to Mahan Air.”  

“Lastly, [the] Office of Foreign Assets Control is taking action against cargo service providers and general sales agents that have serviced Mahan Air’s international flights,” according to the Treasury.  

“Turkey-based S Sistem Lojistik Hizmetler Anonim Sirketi (S Sistem) has coordinated shipments, including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) components and industrial equipment destined for Iran, on behalf of Mahan Air,” it said in naming one of the sanctioned entities.

TerraPower is targeting 2034 to begin generating electricity in Britain, taking Bill Gates’ advanced nuclear company into its first international market as governments race to secure more reliable power for AI, industry and the grid.

TerraPower is planning to bring its Natrium advanced nuclear reactor to the United Kingdom by 2034, marking the company’s first commercial deployment outside the United States.

The company has already entered Britain’s formal regulatory review process and launched TerraPower UK, signaling that the expansion has moved beyond preliminary discussions.

Each Natrium unit is designed to provide 345 megawatts of continuous electricity, with an integrated energy-storage system capable of temporarily boosting output to 500 megawatts.

That ability to increase power when demand spikes is one of the technology’s biggest selling points.

Traditional nuclear plants are generally built to produce steady baseload electricity.

TerraPower’s design combines nuclear generation with large-scale molten-salt energy storage, allowing the plant to act more flexibly as electricity demand rises and falls.

That has become increasingly valuable as grids absorb more renewable energy and as data centers create enormous new around-the-clock power requirements.

TerraPower Chief Executive Chris Levesque said the company believes its reactors could produce electricity in Britain at a competitive cost of less than £100 per megawatt-hour.

A final UK site has not yet been selected.

The company has said its British operation could ultimately be based in Liverpool, while work continues with regulators and potential partners on the location of the first reactor.

The United Kingdom has been trying to accelerate new nuclear development as part of a broader effort to improve energy security, cut dependence on imported fossil fuels and replace aging generating capacity.

Britain is also encouraging privately financed advanced reactors through a new regulatory and investment framework.

TerraPower’s first Natrium project is already under construction in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

Construction formally began in April after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a construction permit.

That plant is targeted for completion around 2031.

TerraPower is simultaneously expanding the supply chain around the technology.

Last week the company announced another 12 supplier contracts supporting the Wyoming plant, including equipment needed for its reactor and sodium systems.

Fuel remains one of the most important challenges.

Natrium uses high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, a specialized nuclear fuel that historically relied heavily on Russian supply.

The United States and United Kingdom are now investing in domestic HALEU production as Western governments try to eliminate that dependency.

TerraPower also has major ambitions beyond Britain.

The company already has an agreement with Meta that could eventually support up to eight Natrium reactors in the United States, showing how closely advanced nuclear power is becoming tied to the growth of AI data centers.

What It Means for You

The nuclear revival is increasingly becoming an AI infrastructure story.

The biggest technology companies are planning data centers that require enormous amounts of uninterrupted electricity.

Wind and solar can provide cheap power when conditions cooperate.

But data centers operate 24 hours a day.

That is why companies including Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have been looking increasingly seriously at nuclear energy.

TerraPower is betting that its smaller, more flexible reactor design can meet that demand faster and more efficiently than traditional giant nuclear projects.

For Britain, the project could mean new construction, engineering and manufacturing jobs.

TerraPower estimates each Natrium reactor could support roughly 1,600 construction jobs and 250 permanent positions.

For the broader energy industry, the significance is even larger.

If TerraPower can successfully move from its first Wyoming reactor to commercially operating plants overseas, advanced nuclear would begin transitioning from experimental technology into a repeatable global business.

And with AI power demand accelerating, that transition may be happening at exactly the moment the electricity market needs it most.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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