A few presenters at this years Oscars made jokes at Donald Trumps expense, without ever mentioning him by name. The real rebuke to the president, howeverand to some other aspects of our current momentcame from genuine displays of humility in the winners speeches.
Although an actors livelihood literally depends on faking emotions, most of last nights winners appeared truly humbled by their victory, and grateful to those who helped them achieve it. Taken together over the 3.5-hour broadcast, they created a perfect contrast to a government and tech sector whose gauche displays of dominance feel as unwelcome as they are unearned.
Trumps grotesquely narcissistic self-regard may have been more jarring back when he first became president. He seemed to embody every quality that parents tend to dissuade their children from adoptingconstantly boasting about his own qualities and accomplishments, real or imagined.
In 2026, the consequences and limits of his notorious, self-aggrandizing vanity are now on shameful display for the entire world.
After recklessly rushing into war with Iran, and declaring victory at every shaky turn, he is trying desperately to strongarm allies into joining his conquest, rather than even attempting to entreat or inspire them.
Paul Thomas Anderson backstage during the live 98th Oscars at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 15, 2026. [Photo: Etienne Laurent / The Academy]
Beyond this administration, the AI industry is similarly dripping with arrogance. The executives pushing the techs inherent utility in every aspect of modern life seem to have never considered, for instance, polling that shows widespread deep reservations about it. Instead, they plow forward, with an air of gruesome inevitability, dragging the hesitant masses along whether they like it or not.
Given that nihilistic egotism is now as common as the data-center-polluted air we breathe, it was refreshing this week to see a class of Oscar winners with such clearly articulated appreciation of community, legacy, and the fact that pride should ideally be deserved and respectful.
Autumn Durald Arkapaw accepts the Oscar for Cinematography during the 98th Oscars at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 15, 2026. [Photo: Etienne Laurent / The Academy]
In it together
You make a guy work hard for one of these, One Battle After Another director Paul Thomas Anderson said upon winning an award for Best Director, his second Oscar of the night. (He would ultimately accept a third, for Best Picture.)
That line referred to Andersons prior dearth of Oscars, despite having been an acclaimed director and recurring nominee for the past 30 years.
Apart from making one mild joke about the long, strange path to victory, though, Andersons speeches emphasized his gratitude, with his strained voice and constant fidgeting suggesting he wasnt just paying lip service.
In contrast with a certain someone who forever grumbles about not getting a Nobel Peace Prize, he betrayed zero bitterness about being passed over in the past.
Elsewhere, he stressed the community aspect of filmmaking. Anderson recognized all of his collaborators, ceding the spotlight to his producer, Sarah Murphy, to make a speech after winning Best Picture together. He was especially a class act, though, when it came to his competitors, whom he counted as worthy peers.
During his acceptance speech for that final award, Anderson used a moment in movie history to laud the directors hed just beaten out for it, waving away his own films supposed superiority.
I just want to say that in 1975, the Oscar nominees for best picture were Dog Day Afternoon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jaws, Nashville, and Barry Lyndon, the filmmaker said. There is no best among them. There is just what the mood might be that day.
ZHUN, EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, and NHD pose backstage with the Oscar for Original Song during the live ABC Telecast of the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 15, 2026. [Photo: Etienne Laurent / The Academy]
What we owe history
Another first-time winner, Michael B. Jordan, was similarly magnanimous when accepting a Best Actor award for his performance in Sinners, the nights other front runner. He thanked his parents, his collagues, the executives who green lit the movie, the audiences who loved it, and the voters who voted for it.
But he also placed himself humbly as the inheritor of a legacy.
Michael B. Jordan backstage during the live 98th Oscars at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 15, 2026. [Photo: Etienne Laurent / The Academy]
I stand here because of the people that came before me, Jordan said, before listing six prominent Black actors who had previously won Oscars. To be up amongst those giants, amongst those greats, amongst my ancestors, amongst my guysthank you to everybody in this room for supporting me in my career.
While Jordan appeared touched at becoming part of that cinematic lineage, Autumn Durald Arkapaw reflected the honor of starting a new one.
Earlier in the night, the Sinners cinematographer became the first woman ever to win in that categoryand made the victory about something bigger than herself.
During her acceptance speech, Arkapaw asked every woman in the audience to stand up, because I feel like I don’t get here without you guys.
Needless to say, they largely complied.
Compare this groundbreaking winners appreciation of her place in history with that of, say, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who recently boasted of having zero introspection because, Ive found that people who dwell on the past get stuck in the past.
All the wrong people have impostor syndrome
In an era when the people who might benefit most from a crisis of confidence never seem to have one, its nice to see public figures celebrate themselves appropriately.
Perhaps the prime example at this years Oscars was K-pop star EJAE, one of the artists behind Best Original Song winner, Golden.
Despite the tracks enormous success prior to the Oscarsif youre the parent of a young child, you probably hum this tune in your sleepthe songwriter looked shocked into utter disbelief as she slowly glided to the stage.
Once she arrived there, however, as the enormity of her achievement seemed to sink in, she began to exult in her triumph. But modestly so.
Growing up, people made fun of me for liking K-pop, she said through tears, but now everyone’s singing our song and all the Korean lyrics. I’m so proud!
As if humility werent sufficiently on display at the Oscars, it seems worth noting that one of the least humble nominees did not win.
Timothée Chalamet, who has been upfront throughout this awards season about his desire to be recognized as one of the greats, walked away without an Oscar for his performance in Marty Supremedespite having been considered a mortal lock for the award earlier in the Oscar race.
Who said theres no such thing as a Hollywood ending?
One of the main functions of movies is to offer escapism, a chance for viewers to nope out of their own lives for a while and visit another world. Last nights Oscars broadcast did the same thing, in its own way. The winners offered viewers a brief but glorious escape from a moment in time when arrogance is rewarded and humility is for suckers.
A new research note just named Waymo the Kool-Aid man of the ride-haling economy.
And it might leave Uber, Lyft, and Tesla playing catchup.
The study, published on March 16 by Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson, is a 21-page exploration into how Alphabet’s self-driving car company is poised to disrupt the existing ride-sharing landscape as it continues to aggressively scale.
Waymos incursion into the U.S. rideshare narrative reminds us of the Kool-Aid commercials from our childhood, the analysis begins. The Kool-Aid man kicks down walls, causes havoc, screams oh yeah, and runs off into the next scene.
In the case of Waymo, it continues, theyre kicking down the walls of an entrenched industry, wreaking terror on the multiples, and then running off to the next city announcement.
The analysts demonstrate that Waymo has amassed a major head start against other players in the autonomous vehicle (AV) space, and is beginning to pose a competitive threat to Uber and Lyft, which currently corner the market on ride-haling in the United States.
Meanwhile, the researchers argue, Waymos expansion in multiple major cities is leaving Teslas self-driving efforts in the dust, casting doubt on whether Elon Musk’s EV company will ever be able to compete in an industry its been desperate to enter.
Whats next for Waymo?
Waymo had a big year in 2025, and MoffettNathansons researchers believe that the companys upward trajectory is only getting started.
In early 2025, Waymo was fully operational in five U.S. cities. By early 2026, the company had expanded its reach to active operations in 10 U.S. cities and was testing its services in at least 19 other locations.
According to MoffettNathansons analysis, the company expanded its total share of the ride-hailing economy from 0.2% to 0.8% over the course of 2025, reaching a total of 450,000 weekly rides by the end of the year.
While those numbers are still relatively small, they forecast an upcoming shift in the industry as driverless tech expands.
MoffettNathanson predicts that Waymos total rides will grow by over 100% in 2026 to 34 million, in line with the companys stated goal to end 2025 with a rate of 1 million trips per week.
If those estimates prove accurate, Waymo could snag 1.2% of the rideshare market by the end of 2026 and 4% by the end of 2028an outlook that MoffettNathansons analysts say they do not consider to be overly optimistic.
What this means for Uber and Lyft
Waymos projected expansion leaves competitors like Uber and Lyft in a bit of a tricky position.
Waymo and Uber have partnered together to bring Waymos robo-taxi services to Austin, Atlanta, and Phoenix. MoffettNathanson notes that the partnership has been promising, but the researchers said “we would be surprised” if it were to keep expanding, given Waymo’s head start in self-driving and its success in San Francisco.
Essentially, Waymo is in a unique position as one of the only current players in the AV industry that’s scaling broadly (aside, perhaps, from Amazon’s Zoox, which is growing on a much smaller scale), leaving Uber with limited chips to bargain with.
Further, MoffettNathansons analysis notes that Waymo announced its plans to independently test in new locations.
Where Tesla stands in the AV race
Meanwhile, MoffettNathanson’s analysis essentially writes Tesla out of the AV ride-share competition.
Tesla first launched its own robotaxi services in Austin in June 2025 and in the San Francisco Bay Area in July.
For years, CEO Elon Musk has been touting the companys autonomous driving goals as an inevitable futureand those goals became even more important to the company amidst a catastrophically difficult year for Tesla in 2025 and Waymos expanding success in the market.
However, as Fast Company has reported, Teslas robo-taxi aspirations currently seem more like a pipe dream than a reality. Whereas Waymo operates driverless vehicles in multiple major cities, almost all of Teslas first robo-taxis launched with human drivers at the wheel, presumably as an added safety measure.
We acknowledge the potential of the companys [full self-driving] technology, but until Tesla is consistently operating at scale without a human in the car and without accident rates above humans, we believe robotaxis market share impact will be limited, MoffettNathansons analysis reads.
Nearly 4,000 workers at a Colorado meatpacking plant went on strike on Monday, marking the first labor strike at a U.S. slaughterhouse in more than four decades.
The strike began early Monday morning at the Swift Beef Co. plant, which is owned by JBS USA, a subsidiary of the largest meatpacking company and protein producer in the world.
About 3,800 workers, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7, are involved in the strike. The union says that the company has committed multiple unfair labor practicesincluding retaliation against workers, threats to withhold bonuses or pension payments if workers strike, and intimidation.
The Colorado action is the first at a U.S. slaughterhouse since workers went on strike at a Hormel plant in Minnesota in 1985, which ended up lasting for more than a year.
JBS has also charged workers to offset the costs of safety equipment, has proposed wage increases of less than 2% per year, and has raised health care premiums in a way that workers say is consuming their wages as the general cost of living rises, the union says.
In a statement to Fast Company, JBS says its Greeley, Colorado, location complies fully with all federal and state labor and employment laws, and that it is committed to open communication with workers and to safe operations.
What’s the beef?
The union and JBS have been negotiating a new contract for nine months. In February, 99% of union members voted to authorize a strike; the previous contract expired Sunday night.
They continue to increase chain speeds and create dangerous working conditions, all while reducing hours for workers, Leticia Avalos, a JBS worker, said in a statement in early February.
Safety conditions are a big concern for such workers. Meatpacking is considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the country.
At poultry, beef, and pork processing plants, workers are exposed to dangerous equipment, slippery floors, and biological hazards related to feces and blood; they can even breathe in bacteria from infected animals or be exposed through cuts.
Despite these conditions, labor disputes in the industry are rare. Union workers say thats because such plants often rely on vulnerable workers like refugees and immigrantsincluding those who are undocumented, who make up anywhere from 30% to 50% of the meatpacking workforce.
The industry hasnt had a labor dispute for a very long time, and its because they hire a very vulnerable workforce and the expectations are they keep their head down, Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, told The Guardian. Theyre doing the work, frankly, no one in this country wants to do.
Cordova also suggests the company has been emboldened by the Trump administration. Pilgrims Pride, a subsidiary of the JBS conglomerate, donated $5 million to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committeewhich is more, Sen. Elizabeth Warrens office noted, than contributions from Apples CEO plus Amazon, Meta, and Google combined.
Meat prices are soaring in 2026
In the background of the strike is the fact that U.S. meat prices are skyrocketing. In December 2025, prices for beef in particular were up 15% year over year, and those prices have continued to rise nearly 7% so far in 2026.
Experts say those increases are affected by overall inflation, a parasitic fly crisis in Mexico, and the fact that the U.S. cattle herd is at a 75-year low.
Its not yet clear if the strike will affect those prices even more. A JBS spokesperson said the company is adjusting production across its network in order to minimize disruptions.
A limited-time dime design that the U.S. Mint is releasing this year is drawing attention over a very symbolic omission. The Emerging Liberty dime, created for the U.S. Semiquincentennial, shows a woman who personifies Liberty on the heads side; on the tails side, there’s a bald eagle holding arrows in its talons for war, but it’s missing olive branches in its other talons for peace.
The coin design was announced late last year, but those missing olive branches seem especially glaring as the Iran war enters its third week.
Left: 2026 SemiQ Dime Uncirculated Reverse; Right: 2025 Roosevelt Dime Uncirculated Reverse [Photo: U.S. Mint]
During his presidency, Trump’s has used the mint to make a statement about his priorities. The administration has been trying to put Trump’s visage on a commemorative $1 coin, despite a U.S. law barring living former and current presidents from appearing on coins. Meanwhile, the four-year American Women Quarters program ended last year and wasn’t renewed. Trump’s Mint also scrapped plans from the Biden Administration for commemorative 2026 coin designs that would have depicted advancements in civil and voting rights in U.S. history. Instead, the coin designs will focus on the U.S. founding and American Revolution.
The new Emerging Liberty dime will temporarily replacing the classic Roosevelt dime showing Franklin D. Roosevelt on one side and a torch, olive branch, and oak branch on the other side for liberty, peace, and strength. The Roosevelt dime will return in 2027.
A new symbolism
Left: 2026 SemiQ Dime Uncirculated Obverse; Right: 2025 Roosevelt Dime Uncirculated Obverse [Photo: U.S. Mint]
Critics say that the new dime design sends a pointed message, and given the administration’s track record, that’s a fair read of the situation. Trump hasn’t pursued a foreign policy of peace in his second term, despite campaign promises to do so. Still, he has been an effective marketer of the idea.
Trump used logos for initiatives like the so-called “Board of Peace” and “Shield of the Americas” summit, and after forcibly taking over the U.S. Institute of Peace last year, his State Department put his name on it. His push to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War is estimated to cost as much as $2 billion, and after after wearing a branded “USA” hat to the dignified transfer of six U.S. troops, his political action committee used a photo from the event in a fundraising email promising donors they’d get “private national security briefings.”
For its part, the Mint says the new dime was designed to symbolize the past, not the present. It said the eagle’s arrows represent “the American Revolution and the colonists fight for independence.” Eric David Custer, the Mint medallic artist who created the image, told WPSU Public Media he left out the olive branches to represent the fact that colonists didn’t yet have peace at the time. The eagle’s talons are left open to show that it’s waiting for peace, though, he said.
Custer’s past work includes designs for the 2022 Negro Leagues Baseball Commemorative Coin Program, 2023 American Women Quarters Program, and 2024 Harriet Tubman Commemorative Coin Program.
Emerging Liberty dime is up against some tough optics, even with its intended meaning. Ditching the olive branch might be a story about the country’s founding, but doing so as the country embarks on a deeply unpopular war creates an irony that’s hard to ignore. The bald eagle on the Emerging Liberty dime might be waiting for peace, but in this moment, it seems primed for war.
Melania Trumps self-titled documentary may have been more than a mediocre movie: Its also the grounds for questioning whether Amazon violated federal anti-bribery laws.
In a March 15 letter, a group of U.S. lawmakers, including Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), called on Amazon to explain its deal to acquire Melania, particularly about the reasoning behind its sky-high price tag. Amazon spent $40 million to acquire the movie (and the rights to a proposed docuseries), the most expensive deal for a commissioned documentary ever, and $26 million more than Disney, the next highest bidder, offered for the first ladys film.
“The fact that Amazon is seeking favorable treatment from the Trump administration while paying a far-above-market sum to produce and promote the Trump familys film raises questions about Amazons exposure under federal anti-bribery law,” the letter states, as revealed to USA Today. “When corporate giants […] transfer tens of millions of dollars to the family of a sitting president, that not only raises questions about corporate governance but also risks eroding public trust in the fairness of our economic and political systems.”
The documentary deal joins a growing list of controversial interactions between Amazon and the Trump administration. The company donated $1 million to Donald Trumps reelection campaign, with founder Jeff Bezos himself attending his inauguration in 2025.
Amazon also backed down on its plan to display how Trumps tariffs were impacting its prices, after the president reportedly spoke to Bezos directly. He did the right thing. Good guy, Trump said of Bezos to reporters at the time.
The letter also cites evidence that Amazon and Bezos have financial stakes in being on good terms with the Trump administration, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseths visit to one of Bezoss Blue Origin space facilities in February of this year.
The letter gives Amazon a deadline of March 30 to respond to a list of questions “to assist Congress in understanding the circumstances surrounding this transaction and in assessing Amazons compliance with applicable federal anti-bribery laws.”
Giant corporations shouldnt be able to bribe their way out of paying taxes or fines theyve been issued for breaking the law,” Warren said in a statement about the letter to USA Today. “If Amazon is bribing the Trump administration, the company and its executives should be subject to criminal penalties.
Among the letters demands is a commercial rationale for the $40 million Amazon shelled out for the film, along with the $35 million the company then spent on marketing.
Those numbers seem to make little sense when taking Melania at its artistic merits: The movie was almost universally panned, not only for its controversial subject matter (the first ladys life in the two weeks leading up to Trumps second inauguration) or its choice of director (Brett Ratner, who previously hadnt made a film since 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct), but for what critics called its poor craft of filmmaking.
On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a critics score of only 11%, with reviewers decrying it as shallow, agonizingly dull, and two hours of almost pure absence. At Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony, Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at the film while presenting the award for best documentary, saying: He is gonna be mad that his wife wasn’t nominated for this, all without ever mentioning Trumps name.
Amazon did not reply to Fast Companys request for comment by the time of publication. But the company has previously fielded accusations of bribery surrounding the deal, with a spokesperson saying at the time: “We licensed the film for one reason and one reason onlybecause we think customers are going to love it.”
Encyclopedia Britannica is suing OpenAI for allegedly misusing its reference materials to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
The Chicago-based Britannica Group runs Britannica.com and Merriam-webster.com, the online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Creator of the 250-year-old Encyclopaedia Britannica, the company ended its print edition in 2012, survived Wikipedia, and has since focused on educational software and digital growth, including selling artificial intelligence agent software, according to The New York Times.
Britannica had acquired Melingo AI in 2000, which offers “AI-powered solutions and naturallanguage processing” in multiple languages by leveraging artificial intelligence and computational linguistics, according to Britannica’s website.
The Britannica Group alleges OpenAIwhich is backed by Microsoftused information from its encyclopedia and dictionary to train its AI chatbot ChatGPT. The problem is, OpenAI now automatically generates AI summaries of that content on its own platform, which is resulting in Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster’s own web traffic plummeting.
The lawsuit was filed in a Manhattan court on Friday.
“Our models empower innovation, and are trained on publicly available data and grounded in fair use,” an OpenAI spokesperson told Fast Company in an email statement. “ChatGPT helps enhance human creativity, advance scientific discovery and medical research, and enable hundreds of millions of people to improve their daily lives.”
Fast Company has also reached out to the Britannica Group for comment.
Since 2013, the Britannica Group, also known as Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., has not only survived, but is thriving. In 2024, it took the first steps to go public, filing a draft registration statement for an initial public offering at a valuation of around $1 billion, The New York Times and Yahoo Finance reported.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer but plans to continue working through her treatment, retaining her place as one of President Donald Trumps closest aides during a period of political turbulence.
Wiles, 68, announced on Monday that she had been diagnosed over the previous week. She gave no indication she would pull back from her work as she undergoes treatment.
Nearly one in eight women in the United States will face this diagnosis, said Wiles, who’s the first woman to hold her position. Every day, these women continue to raise their families, go to work, and serve their communities with strength and determination. I now join their ranks.
In a social media post, Trump described Wiles as one of the strongest people I know and said her prognosis is excellent.
During the treatment period, she will be spending virtually full time at the White House, which makes me, as President, very happy! Trump said on his Truth Social platform. She will soon be better than ever!
Within 20 minutes of Trump’s post, Wiles was sitting alongside the president at a meeting of the Kennedy Center board of trustees. In opening remarks, Trump said Wiles had already begun treatment and described her diagnosis as a minor difficulty” that she would overcome.
It comes as the Republican president confronts mounting challenges on global and national fronts, from the war in Iran and soaring oil prices to this falls midterm elections and Americans’ concerns over affordability.
Wiles is a longtime Trump ally who rose from his campaign co-chair to his closest adviser and counsel. She spent decades as a lobbyist and political operative in Florida and led his 2016 effort in the state.
She mostly shuns the spotlight but drew attention in December with an unusually candid Vanity Fair interview in which she made critical remarks about Trump administration leaders including Vice President JD Vance and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump underscored his trust in Wiles in the aftermath, calling the interview a hit piece and describing Wiles as fantastic.
More than 300,000 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society.
Treatment varies depending on how early the cancer is caught but usually involves either removing the tumor, followed by radiation, or removing the breast, whats called a mastectomy. The cancers stage, subtype, and genetic makeup can help determine if additional treatment of the original tumor is needed, or certain therapy to help prevent recurrence.
In his Monday post, Trump reiterated that Wiles is tough and deeply committed to serving the American People.
Melania and I are with her in every way, and we look forward to working with Susie on the many big and wonderful things that are happening for the benefit of our Country, Trump said, referring to first lady Melania Trump.
By Collin Binkley, Associated Press
AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.
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While active listings are rising year-over-year in most regional housing markets, a slight majority of markets are still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
Generally speaking, housing markets where inventory (i.e., active listings) has returned to pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced weaker home price growth (or outright declines) over the past 42 months. Conversely, housing markets where inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced more resilient home price growth over the past 42 months.
Many of the softest housing markets, where homebuyers have gained the most leverage since the Pandemic Housing Boom ended, are located in Southern and Mountain West regions. Many of those areas were home to many of the nations top pandemic boomtowns, which experienced significant home price growth during the Pandemic Housing Boom, which stretched housing prices beyond local income levels.
Once pandemic-fueled domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates spiked, markets like Punta Gorda, Florida, and Austin, Texas, faced challenges as they had to rely on local incomes to sustain frothy home prices.
The housing market softening in these areas was further accelerated by the abundance of new home supply in the pipeline across the Sun Belt. When and where needed, builders are often willing to reduce prices or make other affordability adjustments to maintain sales. These adjustments in the new construction market also create a cooling effect on the resale market, as some buyers who might have opted for an existing home shift their focus to new homes where deals are available.
In contrast, many Northeast and Midwest markets were less reliant on pandemic domestic migration and have less new home construction in progress. With lower exposure to that migration pullback demand shockand fewer homebuilders doing large incentivesactive inventory in these Midwest and Northeast regions has remained relatively tight.
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Although active inventory is rising year-over-year, much of the Midwest and Northeast remain below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels. In contrast, many parts of the Gulf Coast, including Tampa and Atlanta, and the Mountain West have ticked back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels.
Among major markets, home sellers in markets like Hartford and Chicago have retained more leverage/power.
Among major markets, homebuyers in markets like Tampa, Denver, and Austin have gained more leverage/power.
In total, 16 of the nations 50 largest metro area housing markets are entering the spring 2026 selling season with more active inventory than they had in pre-pandemic 2019. Those markets include San Antonio, TX; Denver, CO; Memphis, TN; Austin, TX; Orlando, FL; Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; Tucson, AZ; Houston, TX; Nashville, TN; Tampa, FL; Phoenix, AZ; Oklahoma City, OK; Charlotte, NC; Salt Lake City, UT; and Las Vegas, NV.
Here’s what Phillippe Lord, CEO of Meritage Homes, said on the company’s January 29, 2026 earnings call:
In Q4, demand patterns were highly localized by market with a generally tougher selling environment nationwide. Across all regions, incentive utilization increased to get buyers off the fence. In our most favorable markets, Dallas, Houston, North and South Carolina, we maintained a strong absorption pace supported by resilient local economic conditions. Conversely, our teams faced lower demand and aggressive local competition in Austin, San Antonio, parts of Florida, Northern California and Colorado. We deliberately chose to hold our ground in these markets and accept lower sales volumes as we look to the spring selling season to work through our excess home inventory.
That said, in some pockets of relatively higher-inventory markets (such as pockets of Dallas and even Cape Coral), some homebuilders have firmed up sales if theyve already made the necessary pricing and incentive adjustments to meet the market. As is always the case in real estate, at the ground and neighborhood level there can be a tremendous amount of nuance.
Digg is shutting downat least for now. Just two months after relaunching with an open beta, the once-influential social news site says it is pulling the plug while it reassesses its strategy.
The announcement came from CEO Justin Mezzell in a message posted to the sites homepage. The relaunch has been scrapped, he wrote, and the company has decided to significantly downsize the Digg team. As the company figures out its next move, Mezzell said, Digg founder Kevin Rose will return to Digg on a full-time basis starting in April.
The shutdown marks another twist in the long, uneven history of a platform that once helped define the early social web. Twenty-two years agolong before Reddit, YouTube, or Facebook were dominating peoples time onlineDigg was one of the hottest sites on the internet, pioneering the concept of users upvoting and downvoting the stories they liked and loathed the most. Today, though, the site has become an afterthought for many users.
Rose was responsible for building Digg, in its heyday of 2008, to an estimated value of $160 million. A 2010 redesign was so unpopular, however, that the audience migrated over to Reddit (which offered a similar upvote/downvote functionality). Rose sold the company in 2012 for just $500,000.
Last year, however, he and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian bought Digg back with plans to revive it. Backed by True Ventures (where Rose is a partner) and Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, the revived Digg said it would offer a human-centered experience.
That has proven to be easier said than done. Mezzell, in his note, said the site was quickly overwhelmed by bots and AI when it relaunched as spammers looked to boost their SEO rankings based on Digg’s authority, which remains high with Google.
“Within hours, we got a taste of what we’d only heard rumors about,” he wrote. “The internet is now populated, in meaningful part, by sophisticated AI agents and automated accounts. We knew bots were part of the landscape, but we didn’t appreciate the scale, sophistication, or speed at which they’d find us.”
Mezzell’s comments seem to align with the “dead internet” theory that has been floating online for years. At its core, that line of thinking argues that the human-created content that powered the web in the 1990s and 2000s has been replaced with artificially created content. (The argument got another boost earlier this year with the debut of Moltbook, a social media site designed for AI agents instead of humans.)
At the same time, Digg said it underestimated the loyalty users had built up with competing sites. Luring them back after they had been gone so long proved challenging, especially as the bots dominated the site.
Despite banning tens of thousands of accounts and putting up additional defenses, Digg was unable to stop the onslaught. Rather than letting human users be duped by the bots, the company decided to pull the plug for now.
“When you can’t trust that the votes, the comments, and the engagement you’re seeing are real, you’ve lost the foundation a community platform is built on,” Mezzell wrote.
While insisting that it wasn’t going away permanently, Digg also acknowledged that it doesn’t really know where it’s going next and did not give any estimate for when it might be back. Admitting it had not yet found the right product-market fit, Digg said its existing Digg podcast will continue and Rose will hopefully help them find a way to assemble a site that can fend off bots and AI agents and stay true to that human-centric mission discussed when he bought back the site.
The problem is: no one seems quite sure how to do that.
“A small but determined team is stepping up to rebuild with a completely reimagined angle of attack,” Mezzell wrote. “Positioning Digg as simply an alternative to incumbents wasn’t imaginative enough. That’s a race we were never going to win. What comes next needs to be genuinely different . . . Ultimately, the internet needs a place where we can trust the content and the people behind it. We’re going to figure out how to build it.”
Were now one month into a partial U.S. government shutdown due to a Department of Homeland Security funding lapse.
Yet, employees with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are still expected to show up for work.
As of last Friday, many TSA employees missed their first full payday and instead received $0 paychecks. Due to financial concerns, many have been calling out sick or resigning to find alternative income sources.
Staffing issues have led to longer lines and increased wait times at U.S. airport security checkpoints nationwide.
Now the CEOs of major U.S. airlines are publicly calling on Washington to end the shutdown.
In an open letter to Congress, the executives demanded that lawmakers immediately come together to reach an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
The letter was signed by Robert Isom of American Airlines Group, Ed Bastian of Delta Air Lines, Scott Kirby of United Airlines, and Bob Jordan of Southwest Airlines, among others.
Executives from UPS, FedEx, and the trade group Airlines for America (A4A) where the letter was published on Sundayalso signed the letter.
Its difficult, if not impossible, to put food on the table, put gas in the car and pay rent when you are not getting paid,” the letter reads.
The senior executives further urged Congress to take action to ensure essential airline workers never go without pay again.
Specifically, they want Congress to pass the Aviation Funding Solvency Act and the Aviation Funding Stability Act, which would ensure that air traffic controllers are paid regardless of the governments funding status.
The letter also urges Congress to come together to pass the Keep America Flying Act, which would extend the same protections to TSA workers.
Travel demand is expected to increase in the coming months
The letter notes that U.S. airports are likely to face heavier crowds this spring and summer. An increase in travelers is anticipated to occur during spring break and for events such as the FIFA World Cup 2026.
According to Airlines for America, U.S. airports are expected to see 171 million passengers this spring, up 4% from 2025.
The group projects that U.S. airlines will carry about 2.8 million passengers per day from March 1 through April 30.
Airline stocks have faced a challenging start to 2026
U.S. airline stocks have had a rough start to the year. Most recently, shares have fallen significantly due to soaring jet fuel prices amid the war in Iran.
The three major U.S. airline stocks have fallen significantly since the start of the year:
Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL): Down more than 12% YTD.
United Airlines (Nasdaq: UAL): Down more than 20% YTD.
American Airlines (NYSE: AAL): Down more than 30% YTD.
