Influencers get a lot of stick these days. The latest thing theyre being blamed for: shark attacks.
Scientists have noted a recent rise in shark attacks, and according to new research published in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science, of the 74 recorded bites in the seas around French Polynesia, 5% were assessed as acts of self-defense.
Professor Eric Clua of PSL University in France, who led the research, holds social media responsible. I dont encourage, as many influencers do on social networks, [people] to cling to a sharks dorsal fin or stroke it, under the pretext of proving that they are harmless, Clua told The Times.
The sharks here feel like family, one such influencer with 111,000 followers wrote in the caption of an Instagram post. In one picture, she is seen grabbing the nose of a shark; in another, she reaches out and gently pushes its nose as it swims toward her. Dont get it twisted, the sharks dont give a f*** about me, she adds in the caption. Which absolutely makes me a crazy shark lady.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Taylor Cunningham | Sharks & Freediving (@taylork.sea)
While they might feel like family, that doesnt mean the sharks consent to being used as props in a social media posta lesson some people have unfortunately learned the hard way. Earlier this year, a tourist vacationing in the Caribbean was allegedly trying to take a photo of a bull shark swimming in shallow waters when it bit off both her hands.
Although sharks are not naturally inclined to bite humans, they are wild predators that will act in self-defense. Researchers examined a global database known as the Shark Attack Files and found more than 300 incidents fitting the same defensive pattern, dating back to the 1800s. Most of these bites involved small and medium-size sharks, including gray reef sharks, blacktip reef sharks, and nurse sharks. When it comes to great whites, which are more dangerous, humans are generally wise enough to steer clear.
People know the difference between a [Yorkshire terrier] and a pit bull, whereas they dont know the difference between a blacktip reef shark and a bull shark, which are their marine equivalents, Clua said. They are responsible for fewer than 10 human deaths a year worldwide. Whereas dogs are responsible for more than 10,000 deaths and are perceived positively by the public.
Even using the term shark attack is misleading, researchers argue, as it creates the perception of sharks as aggressors and undermines conservation efforts that rely on public support. Around 100 million sharks are killed annually (about 274,000 per day), targeted for their fins, meat, and as bycatch. As it stands, they have more reason to be scared of you than you have of them.
So, if you find yourself swimming alongside a shark, the scientific advice is simple: Look, don’t touch.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
Doom-and-gloom narratives about artificial intelligence going rogue to the detriment of humans are a staple of popular culture. For some people, just say AI, and visions of Skynet from the Terminator movies taking over the world will instantly pop into their heads.
Skepticism about AI isnt just in the realm of science fiction, of course. As AI becomes more mainstream, legitimate concerns about its accuracy, privacy, transparency, and the possibility of job displacement continue to be voiced. Theres simply not an overabundance of trust when it comes to AI. A quick internet search will turn up plenty of surveys indicating more people than not are tired of the hype around AI and worried about potential risks.
I have a different point of view. Im not the guy to ask about the downsides of AI. Im the guy who says a world you cant even imagine is right around the corner, thanks to AI. What happens with this new technology is entirely up to us. Its ours to own and do amazing things to make lives better. If we embrace and employ it wisely, AI will be a tremendous positive for people.
I believe in AI for good.
Why Im optimistic
I come to my optimism in the most personal way possible. Technology changed my life and perhaps even saved it. In my mid-20s, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, a chronic condition where my immune system attacked insulin-producing cells in my pancreas. For years, my body was a constant chemistry experiment due to a lifelong dependence on prescription insulin. I had to check my blood sugar with a fingerstick 10 times a day, and then inject myself with insulin another 10 times a day. Administering too much or too little made for some very panicky moments.
Today, I have an insulin pump attached to one side of my abdomen and an insulin sensor on the other. Those two amazing devices communicate in real time and deliver the proper dosage I need to stay healthy. It just happens automatically. The result is that Im blessed with a safer, more productive, and more enjoyable life. So, I have a deep appreciation of the profound and transformative nature of technology in our lives.
Lets extend this to AI. I recently spoke with leaders at a hospital network who are reimagining how AI can improve care. Their vision? When a child is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, theyre immediately supported by a lifelong AI assistantone that understands their condition, offers guidance, and grows with them. I wish Id had that kind of support years ago. Its not about replacing doctors or caregivers. Its about augmenting care with intelligencesafely, consistently, and with empathy.
Thats just one example. I believe AI should be used to solve real human problems making essentials like food, shelter, healthcare, and opportunity more accessible to more people. The promise of AI is longer, healthier lives. Smarter, more sustainable systems. At its best, AI doesnt remove the human element, it amplifies it. Thats what this moment demands, not just building technology, but building a better world with it.
We still need guardrails
Now, theres a difference between being optimistic and a starry-eyed Pollyanna. This vision only happens if AI is carefully curated and managed. Secure guardrails must be in place to ensure AI is used responsibly, ethically, and morally. We must be careful to ensure AI models are free of biases and inaccuracies. And in the workplace, we must deploy AI to help people perform their jobs better, not replace them.
The biggest worry I hear about AI is the fear of employment loss. Trust me, I get how AI can be a scary topic if we think it will impact our livelihoods. But history is a good guide in showing us what ultimately happens when new technologies emerge and change the old ways of doing things. Consider some of the great shifts of the past, whether it was the Industrial Revolution, the manufacturing revolution, or the computing revolution. There was always the concern that the machines were coming for our jobs. Yes, there were adjustment periods. But the jobs didnt go away. They just changed. In the process, quality of life improved.
Well likely see something similar with AI. The people who will thrive in this new era and have nothing to fear are those who learn to use AI in their daily roles. Thats because humans will always be in the loop. Well be the ones overseeing and orchestrating AI processes.
Instead of AI eliminating roles for humans, we should think more about the era of the super-human thanks to AI. Great technology reduces tedious work, makes our lives easier, and allows us to focus on the activities that make our careers more rewarding. AI will take that to the next level.
Weve all been hearing so much about the potential of AI agents to help us do our jobs. But they will need watchful management and governance to ensure they aid, not hinder, our businesses. Well need to be attentive stewards to increase AIs veracity and credibility to ensure it becomes practical in our lives.
When properly managed, I unequivocally believe AI should be embraced, not feared.
If we do that, powerful agentic systems will do far more than make our businesses hyperproductive. They will transform everything. What this world looks like in 10 years will be extraordinarythanks to AI.
Steve Lucas is CEO and chairman of Boomi. Hes the author of the new book Digital Impact: The Human Element of AI-Driven Transformation.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
We all want our companies to make a real difference, but how often does our message truly cut through the noise? It’s a complex challenge: How do we ensure our genuine efforts to create social impact actually resonate with the people we want to reach? Because in today’s world, simply doing good isn’t enough; we need to communicate the impact of that work effectively to build trust and inspire real change.
Build trust through transparency
These days, with everything online, people expect brands to be upfront and honest. Being transparent isnt just a nice thing to do; its how to build trust. Patagonia stands out in this area, demonstrating how their sustainability efforts and environmental impact can cultivate a loyal customer base that genuinely trusts their brand. With initiatives like Footprint Chronicles, they give a peek behind the curtain, showing where their products come from and exactly how they affect the environmentfor example, in terms of carbon footprint and water use. This level of transparency has not only built trust with Patagonias customers but also inspired confidence in their brand. Research shows that genuinely conveying your social responsibility values and illustrating how you operate by those values, significantly enhances consumer trust and loyalty
Engage employees and communities
Effective engagement goes beyond building trust; it’s also about connecting with employees and communities in meaningful ways. Ben & Jerry’s does a great job of getting their employees and customers involved in social justice initiatives and sharing their stories in different ways. They highlight the contributions of employees and customers who are making a difference, fostering a sense of belonging and connection.
At Humble, our model is built on empowering customers to support important causes while getting games, books, or software they love. Through our Humble Choice subscription service and monthly bundles, we make it easy for our community to contribute to charities while shopping for great deals. We also use our platform to help our charity partners get their message out to more people. Each month, we feature a selected charity partner across our social media channels and dedicate space on our YouTube channel for them to share their mission and work with our community of millions. Additionally, we profile their initiatives on our blog, providing additional visibility and context about the causes we support. This approach not only highlights these organizations impactful work, but also demonstrates how businesses can use their platforms to authentically amplify significant social and environmental causes. By finding ways to foster these types of connections, businesses can strengthen their audiences engagement with the social impact initiatives theyve worked hard to build.
Beyond initiative-by-initiative engagement, companies that are doing this work should consider implementing proactive communication strategies that focus on telling the companys overall social impact story in an authentic and engaging way. As an example, our recently finalized 2024 Social Impact Report highlights our efforts across the year, colorfully illustrating how the $12.4 million we raised with our community last year made a meaningful difference for more than 4,500 charities worldwide that we were able to support.
Strategies for authentic communication
To build engagement and trust around their CSR initiatives, companies can adopt specific social impact communication strategies:
Transparency in reporting: Be open and share detailed reports about your social impact. Its a great way to make an impression with your audience and show youre truly committed. TOMS Shoes sets a great example by sharing comprehensive reports on their One for One model, which outlines the impact of every purchase on communities in need. Companies should consider tracking metrics like community feedback or employee engagement levels to enhance their reporting.
Storytelling: Tell stories about the impact of your work. It helps people really connect emotionally with what youre doing. Warby Parker effectively highlights the lives changed through their buy-a-pair, give-a-pair program. For instance, they share stories of how access to glasses has improved education and education outcomes for recipients, showcasing the tangible difference their initiative makes.
Regular updates and engagement: Make sure you keep your community in the loop about what youre doing and how its going with regular updates. Salesforce excels at this by providing annual sustainability reports that detail its initiatives. Companies can also use platforms like newsletters or social media for ongoing engagement.
Understand your audience: Really knowing what your audience cares about is key to making your message land. Use the right tone, speak their language, and focus on what matters to them. At Humble, we understand that our community is passionate about gaming and giving back. On the product side, we curate bundles that align with these interests, pairing great content with opportunities to support meaningful causes, and then we take every opportunity we can to tie it all together with relevant outreach through blogs, videos, social media, and more. This approach strengthens engagement and reinforces shared values.
A call to action
When companies communicate well, it can bring everyone togetheremployees, customers, and the wider community. It can build trust, get people involved, and help create real change.
As we continue our journey at Humble, we remain committed to these principlesleveraging our platform not only as a marketplace but as a tool for meaningful change driven by our passionate community of gamers and givers alike. By focusing on clear, relatable communication, we can collectively strengthen our ability to create the positive change the world needs.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
In a world increasingly shaped by the potential of artificial intelligence, the life sciences industry may be one of the largest beneficiaries of its transformative potential. Artificial intelligence (AI) has already revolutionized elements of the drug discovery and development process, redefined research methodologies, enhanced disease detection and diagnosis, and paved the way for personalized medicine. Knowing that we have just begun to scratch the surface of AIs potential, I am excited to see how its continued evolution will accelerate our collective mission of bringing novel medicines to patients in need. But I am also cognizant of its limitations.
While we can outsource human tasks to AI, we simply cannot outsource humanity. AI is not intelligent when it comes to emotion, imagination, empathy, or qualities critical to creating and leading. Similarly, the spark of ingenuity and the recognition of serendipity exists solely within the bounds of the human experience. AI also lacks context and nuancea critical component when considering the myriad factors needed to be successful in drug development, such as evaluating patient needs, defining new white spaces in an increasingly competitive environment, and other macro considerations.
A case study for humanity
In founding Tarsus, we set out to develop a treatment for a large, underdiagnosed eyelid disease, Demodex blepharitis (DB). Both the literature and our discussions with many eye care providers validated early on that this was a highly prevalent disease, with very low disease awareness, and no FDA-approved therapies. We needed to prove how significant the unmet need was and build a market that would support an entirely new category in eye careand there were no benchmarks to assist us in establishing a path forward.
Our early clinical trials were conducted in Mexico City. I recall sitting in a large eye hospital, packed with hundreds of patients and family members of all ages, while we worked with the eye care team to find patients with visible signs of DB. After many hours searching individual clinics for DB patients with very little return, we questioned our initial prevalence modeling and wondered whether this disease was, in fact, as large as we predicted.
Recognizing a potential lost opportunity in front of me, our clinical team used the microphone for the waiting area. In Spanish, we asked if anyone in the waiting roomwhether they were there to see a doctor or notwas experiencing eyelid irritation, redness, crusting, and itching (all signs of DB). To our surprise, a couple dozen people stood up and got in line to be seen by an eye care provider, and roughly half of them were diagnosed with DB during a routine exam.
This serendipitous moment changed everything, and it would not have occurred without several very human elements: instinct, informed risk taking, and an inherent sense of how to connect and engage with other humans. After seeing hundreds of people line up over the next few months, we knew we had uncovered a unique opportunity to potentially serve millions of patients living with DB.
Active listening and human connections
Our Mexico City experience further reinforced that AI is no match for the type of insights and perspectives that can be gained from human-centric approaches like active listening and empathy. These very personal interactions inform the work we do every day across every aspect of our businessfrom clinical development to strategic marketing to building an award-winning culture, and so much more. More recently, as we listened carefully to the thousands of doctors now prescribing our treatment for DB and doing careful eyelid exams, we identified another large, underdiagnosed eye disease, ocular rosacea, that now presents a promising opportunity in our pipeline to potentially serve millions more.
The human ability to adapt, relate, and emotionally connect with other humans, and our aptitude to make ethical and rational decisions has ensured that people come first in medicine and science. And that will not change.
It is clear we are on the cusp of a technology-enabled revolution that will improve howand how quicklywe can deliver innovative new treatments to patients. And we are finding numerous ways to strategically leverage AI. But our collective success as an industry will be dictated by our ability to maintain a nimble, empathetic, and uniquely human-centered approach.
Bobak Azamian, MD, PhD is CEO and chairman of Tarsus Pharmaceuticals.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
Tariffs, trade, imports, exports, prioritization, energy, and dominance are all words that have been flooding the headlines lately. In this world of globalization, it is an equilibrium of exchanges, ensuring we have enough of something but not too much. We see this balance come to life in supply and demand graphs of critical minerals, often in the context of batteries or energy dominance.
The supply and demand of materials required to support growing energy-related technology and sectors, such as energy storage needs, plays a crucial role in the critical minerals market, both in the United States and globally. Today, the U.S. imports a large number of batteries that are used in consumer devices, vehicles, military, and grid storage. And the demand for batteries is set to continue growing quickly based on current policy settings, estimated to rise by more than four times by 2030 and by at least seven-fold by 2035. This growth is a clear sign that the owner of the critical minerals source will hold more control over the supply chain. This is why a diversified approach to critical minerals is vital. Battery recycling is a key to that strategybecoming a major source of domestically manufactured critical materials.
Chinas control in the lithium-ion battery manufacturing industry is expected to decline between now and 2034, which can be attributed to cell manufacturing operations coming online in other regions. To further highlight this shift in the global marketplace, the U.S. battery recycling market size was estimated at $374.28 million in 2023, and is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 38.1% from 2024 to 2030.
Diversify and stabilize domestic supply chains
Original equipment manufacturers and battery cell manufacturers are not slowing down their production timelines and the global demand for large-format batteries will continue to rise. The U.S. must capitalize on these opportunities to diversify and stabilize domestic supply chains, all while becoming a leading producer of critical minerals.
Materials from recycled content will play an increasingly important part in meeting this demand, with predictions that battery recycling could meet 20-30% of lithium, nickel, and cobalt demand by 2050. Reuse of critical minerals is necessary to diversify and domesticate our supply chains and is work that is already being done.
To further the need for increasing battery recycling capacity, the critical minerals market will begin to experience an undersupply in the form of black mass (the output of end-of-life and scrap batteries that have been recycled and processed that is put back into the supply chain), as early as 2026. For example, by 2030, lithium will see a supply and demand gap that is considered high risk, according to the International Energy Agency, due to price volatility and high geopolitical risk factors in the countries its currently sourced from. The expected growth, combined with supply gaps, is why the U.S. needs to continue its focus on enhancing our domestic critical minerals supply chains, with a heavy emphasis on recycled content.
Recycling is important
The U.S. has developed a large battery recycling capacity in anticipation of the large number of end-of-life batteries predicted to enter the market. Fueled by public and private investments, the United States battery recycling and critical mineral refinement sectors are fundamental to becoming a divergent player and seriously competing with those in Asia for the limited supplies of black mass.
To encourage the build-out of battery recycling capacity, we must recognize that it aligns with domestic priorities related to the sourcing of critical materials. Strengthening our domestic supply chains will position the U.S. as a leading producer of critical minerals; it furthers the National Defense Stockpile sources to reduce the nations mineral reliance on foreign entities of concern; and it accelerates access to domestically sourced critical minerals, enhancing national security and global competitiveness.
The largest operating mine of critical minerals is in our pockets, offices, garages, on the roads, and supplying energy to data centers and power grids.Recycling these materials at their end-of-life is a must.
David Klanecky is CEO and president of Cirba Solutions.
As artificial intelligence gets smarter, a growing number of companies are increasing its implementation in their operations or more heavily promoting their own AI offerings. The buzzword for this is “AI first.”
Duolingo is among the latest to adopt an AI-first approach. The company’s CEO Luis von Ahn announced the change in an all-hands email Monday, saying it would stop using contractors to do work AI can handle and only increase headcount when teams have maximized all possible automation.
The way we work is fundamentally shifting. AI is becoming the default starting point,” said Duolingos Chief Engineering Officer Natalie Glance in an internal Slack message she shared on LinkedIn. “Start with AI for every task. No matter how small, try using an AI tool first. It won’t always be faster or better at first – but that’s how you build skill. Don’t give up if the first result is wrong.”
Von Ahn, in his email, said the AI-first approach was already paying dividends, helping the company with its content creation process. Without AI, it would take us decades to scale our content to more learners,” he wrote.
Earlier this month, Shopifys CEO told workers at that company that using AI was now a fundamental expectation in daily tasks. Our task here at Shopify is to make our software unquestionably the best canvas on which to develop the best businesses of the future, Tobi Lütke wrote. We do this by keeping everyone cutting edge and bringing all the best tools to bear. . . . For that we need to be absolutely ahead.
AI’s rise in business has been forecast for years, of course, but as more companies make it a priority, there are other impacts to be considered.
A scientific paper released by Cornell University late last year titled The Unpaid Toll: Quantifying the Public Health Impact of AI said the pollution from data centers powering the AI industry could lead to up to 1,300 premature deaths each year by 2030. It further estimated, public health costs related to the air pollution those centers put out are already at $20 billion per year.
Data centers are nothing new. They’ve been around since the 1940s, when the University of Pennsylvania built one to support the first general-purpose digital computer, the ENIAC. But as generative AI has grown, so too has the demand for newer, more powerful centers.
The power requirements of data centers in North America increased from 2,688 megawatts at the end of 2022 to 5,341 megawatts at the end of 2023, according to MIT. And demand is only growing. (Energy Secretary Chris Wright, in February, called for more nuclear power plants to meet the growing demands of AI companies.)
The demand for new data centers cannot be met in a sustainable way, said Noman Bashir, a Computing and Climate Impact Fellow at MIT’s Climate and Sustainability Consortium. “The pace at which companies are building new data centers means the bulk of the electricity to power them must come from fossil fuel-based power plants.”
This is all occurring as concerns about the environment have been deemphasized at many Big Tech firms. Companies like Walmart, Siemens and Apple all opted against signing an open letter earlier this year reaffirming commitment to the Paris Agreement. (Duolingo, which released an environmental statement last March, did not reply to questions about how the AI-first approach might impact the company’s environmental footprint.)
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has dismantled dozens of climate programs in its first 100 days. And the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering overturning previous findings that classify greenhouse gas pollution as harmful, which could impact its ability to regulate carbon emissions.
By 2030, Cornell forecasts, the public health burden of AI data centers will be double that of the U.S. steelmaking industry. And it could be on par with all of the cars, buses, and trucks in California.
Shopify and Duolingo are hardly the only companies adopting an AI-first approach. Many companies large and small are racing to incorporate AI into all levels of their services and workflows. Financial services firm Lettuce leans into AI to assist with tax solutions. Findigs lets property managers use AI to screen rental applicants. And a real estate brokerage in Portugal is using an AI interactive real estate agent, which has already booked $100 million in sales.
In the grand scheme, though, corporate use of AI is still in its infancy. ServiceNow’s Enterprise AI Maturity Index last year measured AI maturity at 4,500 businesses in 21 countries on a scale of 0 to 100. The average score was 44, with only one in six companies topping 50.
Part of what’s keeping that score low is the newness of the technology. Another factor is cost. (Does using AI, especially one that’s developed in house, actually save money given the cost of data centers, for instance?)
But in the coming months and years, more companies are likely to move to an AI-first approach. And that will likely increase emissions, pumping more CO2 and pollution into the atmosphere, raising even more health concerns.
No, this article was not written with AI. You know how you can tell? Because it’s got a bit of personality (mine), and even though it’s about artificial intelligence (arguably one of the most boring topics on the planet, in my opinion), this doesn’t read like a computer generated it. (Just me, standing at my very-expensive standing desk, writing away on my laptop!)
Which gets us to the reason for this article: a new study on AI.
Researchers from Cornell University looked at how Western-centric AI models provide writing suggestions to users from different cultural backgrounds. The study, titled AI Suggestions Homogenize Writing Toward Western Styles and Diminish Cultural Nuances, included 118 participants from India and the United States. And it found that when Indians and Americans used AI writing assistance, it often came at the expense of the Indians in the group.
Why, you ask? Even though the tools helped both groups write faster, the Indian writers had to keep correcting the AIs suggestions, resulting in a smaller productivity boost. One reason for that is because AI tools like ChatGPT are primarily developed by American tech companies, which are powered by large language models that don’t contain all the linguistic nuances of 85% of the world’s population, who live in the Global South and are using AI-writing tools. (The Global South is defined as those countries primarily in the Southern Hemisphere, often considered developing or less developed than their northern counterparts in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.)
Study researchers had the two groups write about cultural topics like food and holidays. Half used an AI-writing assistant that gave autocomplete suggestions. The writing samples showed that the Indian participants kept 25% of the suggestions while Americans kept only 19%, but also found the Indian writers made significantly more modifications to those suggestions, rendering them less helpful.
For example, when some of the Indians wrote about food, a common suggestion included pizza. Or when they wrote about holidays, the AI tool suggested Christmas.
In short, this study shows AI isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and benefits some users more than others. This is one of the first studies, if not the first, to show that the use of AI in writing could lead to cultural stereotyping and language homogenization, according one of the study’s authors, Aditya Vashistha, an assistant professor of information science. People start writing similarly to others, and thats not what we want. One of the beautiful things about the world is the diversity that we have.
The study’s main author, Dhruv Agarwal, a doctoral student in the field of information science, said that although the technology brings a lot of value into peoples lives, “for that value to be equitable and for these products to do well in these markets, tech companies need to focus on cultural aspects, rather than just language aspects.
Consumers are only just starting to feel pain from Trumps Liberation Day tariff spree. Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos, however, may be starting to feel something else from the tariffs: regret.
When a report emerged overnight claiming that Amazon would start displaying tariff costs on its main page, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded by torching Amazon in a Tuesday morning press briefing. (According to CNN, Trump had already personally chewed Bezos out by then.) Despite everything that Bezos has done to support Trump in his second term, the administration just made it crystal-clear that presidential support under Trump only flows in one direction.
Evidently, no amount of fealty was ever going to save Amazon from Trumps wrath if throwing Bezos under the bus ever proved advantageous in the slightest.
Although Amazon strongly disputes the initial report about displaying tariff costs (“This was never approved and is not going to happen.”), such a move would not be unheard of. Other businesses, including Fabletics and Temu, have been introducing tariff surcharges, alerting customers in letters, and adding tariff prices to websites and bills. Meanwhile, Amazon has reportedly been hurting more than most under Trumps 145% tariffs on China.
Leavitt did not seem to think Amazon was justified in potentially joining those other companies, though. Speaking on behalf of Trump, she described it as a hostile and political act by Amazon.
REPORTER: Amazon will soon display a number next to the price of each product that shows how much the Trump tariffs are adding. Isn't that a perfect demonstration that it's the American consumer who is paying for these policies?
LEAVITT: This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.[image or embed]— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 29, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Its not a surprise, Leavitt continued, because, as Reuters recently wrote, Amazon is partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm. She held up a printout of the article, about an Amazon project known as China Books, to prove it was realthough recent is a bit of a stretch, considering the article came out in 2021.
This broadside seems designed to provide a handy talking point about why Amazon is, in this administrations apparent view, in cahoots with China against Trump. Surely, Amazons reported stab at pricing transparency is an act of political hostility and sabotage, Leavitts comments suggest, not an accurate temperature-read of a climate in which consumer confidence has already plunged to its lowest levels since peak pandemic 2020.
Its obvious why the administration would want to paint Amazon as the villain in this situation. An April survey of 400 U.S. company leaders by the research firm Zilliant found 44% of businesses plan to pass tariff costs onto consumers. A company of Amazons size and stature leading the charge would give any companies who remain on the fence permission to go for it. If Amazon is displaying tariff costs, showing customers who to blame, it becomes standard procedure.
What is far less obvious, though, is why Bezos ever worked so hard to get on Trumps good side in the first place.
During Trumps first term, Bezos had a contentious relationship with the president. Trump would frequently affix Amazon to the title of the newspaper Bezos owns, The Washington Post, when speaking about the paper after he received unfavorable coverage. The implication was that the paper was little more than a lobbying arm for Bezoss personal business interests. Bezos even argued in a 2019 court case that Trumps bias against Amazon had cost it a chance to win a $10 billion Pentagon contract.
In Trumps second term, though, past has not been prologue. Bezoss sharp pivot toward MAGA began last October with his out-of-nowhere announcement that the Post would not be endorsing a candidate in the November election.
Though he cited the move as a way to avoid a perception of bias at a time when many Americans dont believe the media, the last-minute announcement only fostered a perception of biasat the Post, specifically. The non-endorsement reportedly cost the paper over 250,000 subscribers.
At the time, Bezos could have plausibly still maintained a sheen of neutrality. He has only since further positioned himself firmly in Trumps corner, though. In the past few months, hes drastically scaled back DEI policies at Amazon, donated a million dollars to Trumps inauguration fund (and prominently attended it), dined at Mar-a-Lago, and overhauled the Posts op-ed section in support of two Trump-friendly pillars: personal liberties and free marketsa move that reportedly cost the paper another 75,000 subscribers.
In Bezoss most sycophantic-seeming gesture of all, Amazon even shelled out $40 million for a documentary on Melania Trump.
The ostensible reason for this red carpet rollout is that Bezos is a businessman, frst and foremost. In a December interview at The New York Timess DealBook Summit, he explained why he was more optimistic about Trumps second term: He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. If I can help do that, Im going to help him.
But if an interest in deregulation was all that animated Bezoss enthusiasm, he probably wouldnt have been so ostentatious in his support of the president and his policies. Whats more likely is that he made a cold calculation that an if-you-cant-beat-em-join-em ethos and some financial support could neutralize the threat of Trumps antagonism.
If so, it was a critical miscalculation. Even if it werent obvious from Trumps entire political life that loyalty is a one-way street, it should have been clear that hed only view with contempt those who have suddenly decided to butter him up (Everybody wants to be my friend, Trump crowed in December, as business leaders including Bezos began to kiss the ring.)
What is the hypothetical difference between where Bezos finds himself todaywith the administration smearing Amazon as Chinese propagandists over a story that the company thoroughly denieshad he either opposed Trump or maintained an air of neutrality?
Theres no way of knowing. Whatever it is, though, its probably a better position than Trump continuing to antagonize him while the anti-Trump crowd occasionally boycotts his company.
Best of luck with the Melania doc, though.
Interior designer and stylist Jonny Carmack has a fruit room in his Danbury, Connecticut, home. Colorful faux produce bedecks every inch, from the cherry-shaped ceiling fixture to a strawberry side table and a bunch of other juicy gems in decorative forms.
He’s part of a trend: Love for fresh fruits and vegetables is showing up not just in the kitchen but in imagery throughout the home.
Carmack sees it as fun escapism, and a cause for conversation and celebration. Design experts say it also reflects a cultural embrace of sustainability and an upbeat connection to nature.
Theres a certain romance to the farmstand it speaks to the pastoral lifestyle everyones craving these days, says Rachel Hardage Barrett, Country Living magazines editor-in-chief.
This gravitation toward produce motifs intersects with spikes in interest around gardening, wellness and antiques.
Barrett sees the trend in everything from home decor to apparel. She notes the recent viral trend Tomato Girl Summer; along with the color red, and various iterations of tomatoes, the vibe was one of Mediterranean cafes, beach walks and lazy summer days.
Tomato Girl Summer obviously had a good run, but now theres a whole bumper crop of produce to choose from, from cabbage and radishes to strawberries and peaches,” Barrett says.
Nostalgia is in play, too
Barrett sees a revival in interest around items with cabbages and lettuce, which were common motifs in the 18th and 19th centuries. Cabbageware and lettuce ware enjoyed a revival with the Palm Beach crowd in the 60s, with fans like Jacqueline Kennedy, Bunny Mellon and Frank Sinatra. Now, theyve found a new audience.
It ties into the grandmillennial design movement that champions beloved heirlooms,” Barrett says. “Target recently introduced a cabbageware-inspired collection that garnered more than 15 million TikTok posts.
Social media has helped drive the fruity décor trend. In 2023, TikTokers went wild over a lemon-shaped ceramic stool at HomeGoods. The piece sold out, but the popularity of tables shaped like citrus wedges continued to grow.
This winters interior design, décor and lifestyles shows in Paris and Frankfurt, Germany, sometimes felt more like vibrant produce markets than trade fairs.
Booths at Maison et Objet and Ambiente were full of planters festooned with 3D grapes and watermelons; mirrors encircled in peapods or pineapples; tomato-covered cups, glasses and tableware. Lamp shades and tablecloths wore artful imagery of berry baskets and carrot bunches. Cushions burst with juicy prints. Vases were peppered with well, peppers, in clay or papier-mache.
Los Angeles-based design editor and author Courtney Porter was at Februarys Ambiente fair in Frankfurt and enjoyed seeing the playful directions that designers were taking the trend. Colors were supersaturated, shapes were exaggerated and cartoonish, she said.
And she liked the obvious tie-in to healthy living.
Theres an emphasis on sustainable materials and youthfulness with this trend, as well. People are nostalgic for natural abundance, she said.
Designers just wanna have fun
Carmack, whose social media accounts include @vintageshowpony, says the Fruit Room has been his most popular design project, “and its because of the cartoon references like Dr. Seuss and Animal Crossing. It just makes people happy.
A fantastical fruit called the truffula shows up in The Lorax. And fruits in the Animal Crossing video games serve as trade tokens, village builders and currency.
Carmack imparts a little personality to his favorite fruits.
Cherries are flirty and fun. Strawberries are like their younger sisters, cutesier and sweeter in nature, he says.
Cookbook author and food columnist Alyse Whitney has embraced whats sometimes referred to on social media as the Grocery Girl vibe. Her apartments got a wreath made out of metal mushrooms and a ceramic stool that looks like a cut lemon. Then theres all the banana-themed stuff: a platter, salt and pepper shakers, napkin rings.
Whitney says shes been drawn to food décor her whole life, collecting fun pieces from discount retailers and thrift stores. But when she moved from New York to Los Angeles, she went to an estate sale.
There, I got my first Murano-style glass produce a bell pepper, a peach and a pear. And a small ceramic soup tureen shaped like a head of cauliflower, complete with 3D leaves and a matching plate that looked like its root and greens. Those pieces got her on a full-fledged food collectible mission.
Its a trend that spans decorating aesthetics, says Barrett.
If your style is more retro or youthful, you can embrace a little kitsch. For a more sophisticated look, opt for fruit motifs in the form of wallcovering or fabric, she says.
So, eat it or decorate with it; there are lots of ways to show your love for a favorite veg or fruit.
Dressing your home with this aesthetic is an experiment in self-expression that so many people are connecting to, says Carmack, and I love to see it.
Kim Cook, Associated Press
Since her birth 10 years ago, Mackenzie Holmes has rarely called one place home for long.
There was the house in Houston owned by her grandmother, Crystal Holmes. Then, after Crystal lost her Southwest Airlines job and the house, there was the trio of apartments in the suburbsand three evictions. Then another rental, and another eviction. Then motels and her uncle’s one-bedroom apartment, where Mackenzie and her grandmother slept on an inflatable mattress. Finally, Crystal Holmes secured a spot in a women’s shelter so the two would no longer have to sleep on the floor.
With nearly every move came a new school, a new set of classmates, and new lessons to catch up on. Mackenzie only has one friend shes known longer than a year, and she didn’t receive testing or a diagnosis for dyslexia until this year. She would often miss long stretches of class in between schools.
Schoolchildren threatened with eviction are more likely to end up in another district or transfer to another school, often one with less funding, more poverty and lower test scores. They’re more likely to miss school, and those who end up transferring are suspended more often. That’s according to an analysis from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, published in Sociology of Education, a peer-reviewed journal, and shared exclusively with The Associated Press’ Education Reporting Network.
Pairing court filings and student records from the Houston Independent School District, where Mackenzie started kindergarten, researchers identified more than 18,000 times between 2002 and 2016 when students lived in homes threatened with eviction filings. They found students facing eviction were absent more often. Even when they didnt have to change schools, students threatened with eviction missed four more days in the following school year than their peers.
In all, researchers counted 13,197 children between 2002 and 2016 whose parents faced an eviction filing. A quarter of those children faced repeated evictions.
As eviction rates in Houston continue to worsen, there might be more children like Mackenzie.
Falling behind on rentand finding a way to finish the school year
Neveah Barahona, a 17-year-old big sister to seven siblings, started kindergarten in Houston but has moved schools half a dozen times. Her mother, Roxanne Abarca, knew moving can be disruptive. So whenever she fell behind on rent and the family was forced to move, she tried to let them finish the school yeareven if it meant driving them great distances.
Neveah, a strong student who hopes to join the military, said the moves took a toll.
It is kind of draining, meeting new people, meeting new teachers, getting on track with … what they want to teach you and what you used to know, Neveah said. Then there’s finding her way with new classmates. A spate of bullying this year left her despondent until she got counseling.
Households with children are about twice as likely to face eviction than those without children, Eviction Lab research has shown. That’s 1.5 million children getting evicted every yearand 1 in 20 children under 5 living in a rental home. Still, much of the discourse focuses on adultsthe landlords and grown-up tenantsrather than the kids caught in the middle, said Peter Hepburn, the study’s lead author.
Its worth reminding people that 40% of the people at risk of losing their homes through the eviction process are kids, said Hepburn, a sociology professor at Rutgers University-Newark and associate director at the Eviction Lab.
Households often become more vulnerable to eviction because they fall behind when they have children. Only 5% of low-wage earners, who are especially vulnerable to housing instability, have access to paid parental leave.
Under a federal law that protects homeless students, districts are supposed to try to keep children in the same school if they lose their housing midyear, providing daily transportation. But children who are evicted don’t always qualify for those services. Even those who do often fall through the cracks, because schools don’t know why children are leaving or where they’re headed.
Evicted families navigate invisible school boundaries
In the sprawl of Houston, it can be especially challenging for transient students to stay on track. The metropolis bleeds seamlessly from the city limits to unincorporated parts of Harris County, which is divided into 24 other districts. Its easy to leave Houston’s school district without realizing it. And despite the best efforts of parents and caretakers, kids can miss a lot of school in transition.
That’s what happened in January, when Mackenzie’s grandmother, then staying in her son’s one-bedroom apartment with her granddaughter, got desperate. Fearful her son would get evicted for having family stay with him, Crystal Holmeswho had no home, no car, and no cellphone servicewalked miles to a women’s shelter.
The shelter, where she and Mackenzie now share a room, is in another district’s enrollment zone. She worried about Mackenzie being forced to move schools againthe fifth grader had already missed the first three weeks of the school year, when her grandmother struggled to get her enrolled.
Thankfully, the federal law kicked in, and Mackenzie’s school, Thornwood Elementary, now sends a car to fetch her and other students from the shelter.
Houston Independent School District did not respond to interview requests.
Millicent Brown lives in a public housing project in Houston, alongside an elevated highway so noisy that she had to buy a louder doorbell. She and her daughter, Nova, 5, were forced to move last year when Novas father threatened to hurt Brown.
Nova had attended a charter school. But when she moved, the school said it could only bus Nova from her new home if she waited on a street that Brown said was too dangerous. Instead, Nova missed a month of school before enrolling in a nearby public school.
Brown grew up bouncing between schools and wants better for Nova. But she may have to move again: The state has plans to widen the highway. It would wipe out her housing projectand Nova’s new school.
Nearly three years ago, Neveah and her family settled into a ranch-style home down a country road in Aldine. It’s brightly lit, with four bedrooms and a renovated kitchen. Neveah adopted a neighborhood cat named she named Bella. Her sister Aaliyah painted a portrait of the home that’s displayed in the living room.
When we were little, we always kept moving, Aaliyah said. I dont want to move. I already got comfortable here.
Then, last year, her mother once again egan to fall behind on rent. Ultimately, Roxanne Abarca received an eviction notice.
The mother was lucky. At the courthouse, she met an employee tasked with helping families stay in their homes. The employee connected her with a nonprofit that agreed to pay six months of her rent while Abarca got back on her feet.
And she did, working from home as a call operator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
But the siblings’ dream of a forever home” may still come to an end. Abarca learned this month the home’s owner hopes to sell to an investor, displacing them once again.
____
The Associated Press education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Moriah Balingit, AP education writer
