Last year was a record year for disasters in the United States. A new report from the British charity International Institute for Environment and Development finds that 90 disasters were declared nationwide in 2024, from wildfires in California to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.
The average number of annual disasters in the U.S. is about 55.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides funding and recovery assistance to states after disasters. President Donald Trump criticized the agency in January 2025 when he visited hurricane-stricken western North Carolina. Though 41% of Americans lived in an area affected by disaster in 2024, according to the institutes report, the Trump administration is reportedly working to abolish or dramatically diminish FEMAs operations.
FEMA has been a very big disappointment. They cost a tremendous amount of money. Its very bureaucratic, and its very slow, Trump declared, saying he thought states were better positioned to take care of problems after a disaster.
A governor can handle something very quickly, he said.
Trumps remarks have prompted a heated response, including proposals to fundamentally overhaulbut not abolishfederal disaster recovery.
But I believe the current discussion about FEMA handling U.S. disasters puts the emphasis in the wrong place.
As a scholar who researches how small and rural local governments cooperate, I believe this public debate demonstrates that many people fundamentally misunderstand how disaster recovery actually works, especially in rural areas, where locally directed efforts are particularly key to that recovery.
I know this from personal experience, too: I am a resident of Watauga County, in western North Carolina, and I evacuated during Hurricane Helene after landslides severely impaired the roads around my home.
Volunteers and Vermont Army National Guardsmen help to unload pallets of emergency drinking water at a community food and resource share at the Ludlow Community Center. The emergency drinking water was supplied by FEMA. [Photo: Vincent Alban/The Boston Globe via Getty Images]
When disaster strikes
Here, in short, is what happens after a disaster.
Federal legislation from 1988 called the Stafford Act gives governors the power to declare disasters. If the president agrees and also declares the region a disaster, that puts federal programs and activities in motion.
Yet local officials are generally involved from the very start of this process. Governors usually seek input from state and local emergency managers and other municipal officials before making a disaster declaration, and it is local officials who begin the disaster response.
Thats because small and rural local governments actually have the most local knowledge to lead recovery efforts in their area after a disaster.
Local officials determine conditions on the ground, coordinate search and rescue, and help bring utilities and other infrastructure back online. They have relationships with community members that can inform decision-making. For example, a county senior center will know which residents receive Meals on Wheels and might need a wellness check after disaster.
However, small towns cannot do all this alone. They need FEMAs money and resources, and that can present a problem. The process of applying and complying with the requirements of the grants is incredibly complex and burdensome. According to FEMAs website, there are eight phases in the disaster aid process, composed of 28 steps that range from preliminary damage assesment to recovery scoping video to compliance reviews and reconciliation. Getting through these eight phases takes years.
The FEMA Public Assistance National Delivery Model Workflow Snake [Graph: FEMA]
Larger cities and counties frequently have dedicated staff that apply for disaster aid and ensure compliance with regulations. But smaller governments can struggle to apply for and administer state or federal grants on their ownespecially after a disaster when demands are so high.
Thats where regional intergovernmental organizations come in. Every region has its own name for these entities. Theyre often called councils of government, regional planning commissions or area development districts. My colleagues and I call them RIGOs, for their initials.
What is a RIGO?
No matter the name, RIGOs are collaborative bodies that allow local governments to cooperate for services and programs they might not otherwise be able to afford. Bringing together local elected officials from usually about three to five counties, RIGOs help local officials cooperate to address the shared needs of everyone in their area. They do this in normal times; they also do this when disasters strike.
RIGOs operate throughout most of the U.S., in big cities and rural areas, in turbulent times and in calm. They serve different needs in different regions, but in all cases, RIGOs bring together local elected officials to solve common problems.
One example of this in western North Carolina is the Digital Seniors project, launched during COVID-19. Here, the local RIGO is called the Southwestern Commission. In 2021, the RIGO area agency on aging coordinated with the Fontana Regional Library to help dozens of elders who had never been connected to the internet get online during the pandemic. The Southwestern Commission used its relationships with the local senior centers to identify people who needed the service, and the library had access to hot spots and laptops through a grant from the state of North Carolina.
In rural areas, RIGOs work alongside regional business and nonprofits to allow local governments to offer regular services and programs they might not otherwise be able to afford, such as public transportation, senior citizen services or economic development.
Part of that work is helping member governments navigate the maze of federal and state funding opportunities for the projects they hope to get done, often by employing a specialized grant administrator. Each small local government may not have enough work or revenue to justify such a staff member, but many together have the workload and funding to hire someone specially trained to abide by the rules of funding from states and the federal government.
This system helps small local governments receive their fair share in federal grant money and report back on how the money was spent.
Transparency, technical compliance and action
Disasters rarely respect borders. Thats why governments generally work together to distribute grant money for rebuilding communities.
In the summer of 2022, eastern Kentucky faced deadly flooding after receiving about 15 inches of rain over four days600% above normal. The North Fork of the Kentucky River crested at approximately 21 feet, killing over two dozen people and damaging 9,000 homes and more than 100 businesses.
Laura Humphrey walks a wheelbarrow to a pile of debris while volunteering to clean up in Perry County, Kentucky. [Photo: Michael Swensen/Getty Images]
The Kentucky River Area Development District, a RIGO representing eight counties, played a key role in the areas recovery. It secured millions in FEMA aid and maintained critical services, including expanded food delivery and transportation for elderly residents.
Similarly, after disastrous flooding hit Vermont in 2023 and 2024, another RIGO, the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission, jumped into action. It quickly provided emergency communication to the 23 small villages and towns in its region and has since supported local governments applying for grants and reimbursements.
Today, it continues to assist in Vermonts disaster planning and flood mitigation. This is also part of the recovery process.
Local control
Rebuilding after a disaster is a long, arduous process. It begins after national journalists and politicians have left the area and continues for years. That would be true no matter how Trump restructures emergency aid: The damage is massive, and so is the repair.
For example, heres how western North Carolina looks six months after Helene: Most businesses have reopened, most folks have running water again, and people can drive in and out of the area.
But many roads are still full of broken pavement. Mud from landslides presses up against the sides of the highway, and condemned housing teeters on the edge of ravaged creek beds.
It is, in other words, too soon to see the full impact of local government efforts to rebuild my region. But RIGOs across the region are hiring additional temporary staff to help local governments get federal money and comply with complex guidelines. Their support ensures that decisions affecting North Carolinians are voted on by the city and county leaders they electednot decreed by governors or handed down from Washington, D.C.
Locally led rebuilding is slow and difficult work, yes. But it is, in my opinion, the most community-responsive way to deal with disaster.
Jaylen Peacox, a graduate student in public administraion at North Carolina State University, contributed to this story.
Jay Rickabaugh is an assistant professor of public administration at North Carolina State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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The landscape of home automation has sparked numerous discussions about security and control. According to SonicWalls comprehensive 2025 Annual Cyber Threat Report, smart home products experienced a staggering 124% increase in cyberattacks during 2024, with smart plugs emerging as particularly vulnerable targets. These vulnerabilities have ignited growing consumer concern about the safety of cloud-dependent technologies that have dominated the smart home market.
As our homes become increasingly connected, the cloud-connected home automation weve been seeing for the past decade is being critically examined. A growing segment of consumers now seeks alternatives emphasizing local control, data privacy, and system resilience. Here well examine the emerging paradigm of locally controlled smart home technologies, an approach that promises to return technological autonomy to homeowners.
The current landscape of smart home technology
The modern smart home ecosystem has evolved into an interconnected network predominantly reliant on cloud infrastructure. This cloud-centric approach requires constant internet connectivity, routing even the simplest commands through distant data centers thousands of miles away.
While promising convenience, this model introduces vulnerabilities:
A single network interruption can render home systems inoperable.
Each connected device becomes a potential cybersecurity entry point.
Data privacy becomes increasingly compromised as more personal information is transmitted and stored remotely.
Real-world IoT and smart home security failures
The most troubling aspect of cloud-dependent smart home technology is the threat of planned obsolescence. Manufacturers can shut down cloud services that power devices consumers have already purchased, rendering functional hardware useless.
For example, in February 2024, Amazon announced that its Echo Connect landline adapter would cease functioning, giving users just three weeks’ notice. This transition forced vulnerable users to quickly adapt to new technologies or lose access to a potentially life-saving communication tool.
The Echo Connect shutdown is far from an isolated incident. In April 2022, Insteon abruptly shut down its servers without warning, rendering thousands of connected devices instantly nonfunctional.
These incidents expose a critical flaw in cloud-dependent systems: Consumers never truly own their devices. When business interests change or financial pressures mount, companies canand sometimes mustabandon their customers.
Beyond platform shutdowns, security researchers continue to uncover alarming vulnerabilities in cloud-connected devices. For example, in 2020, multiple families experienced privacy violations when their Ring security cameras were compromised, allowing strangers to speak directly to family members through the devices meant to protect them.
Corporate resistance to local control
Some manufacturers have actively blocked consumers from maintaining local control of purchased devices. In January 2024, appliance giant Haier issued legal threats against a developer who created Home Assistant integration plugins for the company’s smart appliances. These open-source tools allowed consumers to control their purchased devices without relying on Haier’s cloud infrastructure.
Despite overwhelming community support, with users creating hundreds of backup copies of the developer’s work, Haier’s aggressive stance exemplifies how manufacturers prioritize maintaining control over their ecosystems rather than respecting consumer ownership rights.
These failures underscore fundamental problems with cloud-dependent smart home technologies that consumers are increasingly recognizing:
Personal security is compromised when critical home systems depend on external servers.
Single points of failure make entire ecosystems vulnerable.
Personal data faces unnecessary exposure and transmission risks.
Manufacturers maintain excessive control over hardware consumers believe they own.
There is a growing community focused on local control, like Home Assistant, where users actively discuss strategies to maintain autonomy and minimize cloud dependency.
The local control revolution
Locally controlled smart home technology represents a paradigm shift in home automation, offering a fundamentally different approach to device management and data processing. At its core, this approach keeps all smart device functionalities within your home’s local network, providing unprecedented levels of privacy, reliability, and user control. The key principles of local control are simple.
Locally controlled smart home technology represents a paradigm shift, offering fundamentally different approaches to device management and data processing:
Local processing: Devices process information directly within the home network, delivering near-instantaneous response times
Network independence: Systems operate independently of internet connectivity
Privacy by design: Data processing remains within the home network, creating a barrier against external data collection
Platforms like Home Assistant and Hubitat have emerged as leaders in this revolution, offering robust, customizable ecosystems that prioritize user autonomy. These platforms empower tech-savvy users to build truly personalized smart home experiences that reflect their unique needs and values.
The path forward
The shift toward locally controlled smart home technology presents a significant opportunity for forward-thinking developers and manufacturers. As consumer demand for privacy, security, and true ownership grows, businesses that embrace this paradigm wll gain competitive advantage in an increasingly crowded market.
For developers and product teams, the strategy is clear: Incorporate local processing capabilities alongside cloud features, respect user autonomy through open APIs, and build trust through transparent data practices. Companies that prioritize these values aren’t just serving a nichethey’re positioning themselves at the forefront of the next evolution in smart home technology.
The most successful smart home ecosystems won’t be those that lock users into vulnerable cloud dependencies, but those that empower customers with genuine control while delivering exceptional experiences.
Svetlin Todorov is cofounder of Shelly and CEO of Shelly U.S.A.
Pope Francis’ funeral mass will be held on Saturday morning in St. Peters Square, a large plaza in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
Francis’ funeral will take place six days after he died of a stroke and heart failure at age 88. It comes after three days of public viewing at St. Peter’s Basilica, where tens of thousands of people flocked to pay their respects to the first Latin American pope.
After the mass, the pope’s coffin will be taken to Rome and entombed at St. Mary Major Basilica, near his favorite Madonna icon, making him the first pope to be buried outside of the Vatican in over a century, according to NPR. (Leo XIII was the last pope buried outside the Vatican in 1903.) Francis wrote about his plans for a pared-down burial in his autobiography, and reportedly left instructions that future popes will also have simplified burial rites.
The break with tradition is in line with “the People’s Pope’s” progressive 12-year reign as pontiff, characterized by a concern for the poor and greater inclusion in the church. Known to be humble, Francis chose to be buried in a simple wooden coffin instead of the more traditional three-nested coffins (one made of cypress, one made of lead, and one made of elm), according to CBS News.
A number of heads of state from over 100 foreign delegations are expected to attend the funeral, including U.S. president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer, and Prince William (on behalf of King Charles III), NPR reported. The Italian government expects as many as 200,000 people to attend in person.
One notable absence: Russian president Vladimir Putin, according to Russian media reports, due to his arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
What time is Pope Francis’ funeral?
Saturday’s funeral mass will begin at 10 a.m. local time, which is 4 a.m. ET.
The Vatican said the mass will be presided over by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. The College of Cardinals will meet in a few weeks, between May 6 and May 11, to elect a new pope, as required by the rules governing the conclave.
How can I watch or stream Pope Francis’ funeral live?
All networks will be covering this historic day. Traditional cable subscribers or those with an over-the-air antenna can tune in, as well as those with certain streaming service subscriptions:
ABC: Coverage starts at 3:30 a.m. ET, including on Disney+ and Hulu
CBS: Coverage starts at 4 a.m. ET, and concludes at about 7 a.m.
NBC: Coverage is also available on Peacock+
If you cut the cord and dont have an over-the-air antenna, you can try live TV streaming services, including:
Hulu + Live TV
Fubo
Peacock+
YouTube TV
You can also livestream coverage of the funeral and procession to St. Mary Majors on the Vatican News YouTube channel. However, coverage will stop before the burial in the Basilica.
Whats your favorite brand? Now ask yourself, why? Brands That Matter is Fast Companys effort to answer that question on a broader scale. To recognize the brands that have significant cultural relevance, find unique and powerful ways to connect with audiences, and of course, drive business impact.
Now, were calling for brands of all shapes, sizes, and stripes to apply. Tell us your story!
Here are three reasons why you should apply:
1. Celebrate cultural relevance
It’s what distinguishes a brand from its competitors. Its what forges emotional connection with people. It may be a film, an event, or something that helps make our days easier or more efficient. But finding an audience and then crafting unique and meaningful ways to engage with them is one of the keys to long-term brand health.
Cultural relevance is one of the most important metrics for any brand today. This is an amazing chance to show it off.
2. Spotlight on CMOs
The role of the chief marketing officer is ever-evolving, and often bespoke to the company and brands with which they work. But the job has become more complicated while still being a crucial linchpin to commercial growth and success. In order to succeed, marketing execs must continuously straddle the growing collection of media and platforms to elevate their brands cultural resonance, and connect to audiences.
This is your chance to shine a spotlight on the executives making the biggest difference at your brand.
3. Get your brand story seen
Brands That Matter regularly receives more than 1,000 applications. But while only a relative handful are ultimately chosen to be recognized, for the Fast Company editors and writers judging each application, its also a treasure trove of potential stories and sources for the future.
So what are you waiting for? Apply now!
Ugly might be the new cute: Just look at Labubu, a “kind of ugly” plush toy that has sparked a buying frenzy across the world, especially in Asia, reported CNN. People from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur flocked to shopping malls on Friday to get the latest edition of the oh-so-collectible furry, while they quickly sold out online.
Inspired by Nordic folklore, the toothy stuffed animal has high, pointy rabbit-like ears; big round eyes; and a mischievous grin with serrated teeth. Made by Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, Labubus come in so-called “blind boxes” the size of a hand, which keep the contents a mystery until the box is opened.
Pop Mart, which sells collectibles, has sold Labubus as part of its The Monsters series for a few years, making a staggering 3 billion yuan (roughly $410 million in sales) last year alone, reported CNN.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. on Friday, dozens of people lined up in the early morning hours in front of a Chicago Pop Mart store for the toy. By 6 a.m., a long line of fans snaked around the block.
Labubu mania
Celebrities from Rihanna to Lisa from Blackpink are fans of Labubu. The K-pop singer, who recently appeared in the television hit series White Lotus, recently proclaimed on Instagram: Labubu is my baby. On Wednesday, Lisa showed off her new pink-and-yellow tie-dye Labubu from the latest collection, which is big news because she is credited in part with the toys extreme popularity in Southeast Asia, per CNN.
In 2015, according to Pop Mart’s website, illustrator Kasing Lung created a fairy tale world inspired by Nordic mythology, populating it with magical characters both good and evil, called “The Monsters.” The most prominent is Labubu, who is “kindhearted and always wants to help, but often accidentally achieves the opposite.”
Lung was born in Hong Kong but grew up in the Netherlands, and he draws from both cultureswhich could explain Labubu’s cross-cultural global appeal.
Independent bookstores have long been champions of community, curiosity, and cultureand on Saturday, April 26, they get their moment in the spotlight. Independent Bookstore Day, a nationwide celebration of indie bookstores, invites readers to shop locally and support the spaces that keep storytelling vibrant. But this year, the festivities come with a wrinkle: Amazon is holding a major book sale at the same time, and many booksellers and readers aren’t having it.
Independent bookstores and users on BookTok are expressing their frustration with Amazon while encouraging readers to stay off of the online shopping site and instead make the trek to their local bookstore for the day. Some are even directly calling out Amazon and another large book retailer, Barnes & Noble, for having their sales so close to Independent Bookstore Day.
So if you didnt knowand its okay if you didnt, because I feel like Amazon is working overtime to try and overshadow the whole daythis Saturday, April 26, is Independent Bookstore Day, TikTok user torithatnerd said in a video posted Thursday.
Independent Bookstore Day began as California Bookstore Day in 2013, as a take on Record Store Day, according to Samantha Schoech in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Schoech wrote that it was a way for indie bookstores to band together and encourage a celebration of all things independent bookstores have to offer the public.
Independent bookstores are not just storestheyre community centers and locals anchors, Schoech wrote. They are entire universes of ideas that contain the possibility of real serendipity.
While the celebratory day started in California, sponsored by the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, Schoech took the event nationwide in 2014. Soon after, the American Booksellers Association (ABA) began sponsoring the event, and this year a record-breaking number of stores are participating. Over 1,600 bookstores from all 50 states plan to celebrate on Saturday.
Protecting books in a digital age
Andy Hunter is CEO and founder of Bookshop.org, a website and business with a B Corp certification that works to acknowledge and encourage the convenience of online shopping for books while still supporting local bookshops.
On the website, customers choose a bookstore theyd like to support when buying books, and the profits from orders are sent directly to the bookstore they selected. If customers opt not to choose a story, their purchases contribute to a profit-sharing pool that helps all associated bookshops affiliated with Bookshop.org.
Every independent bookstore is kind of an advocate and activist for the importance of books and reading in our society, Hunter said. So we want books to survive. We dont want Amazons rise to be an extinction for local bookstores that are precious.
In April 2024, the ABA filed a motion to intervene in the Federal Trade Commissions antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. The motion argues that Amazon has a monopoly power over books and can offer books at prices that independent bookstores find impossible to match. The motion, however, was eventually denied due to both the FTC and Amazons argument that ABAs claims were distinct from the FTCs allegations.
For some BookTok-ers, though, the timing of Amazons sale feels intentional. Though Amazons books may be cheaper than an average independent bookstores prices, influencers are still encouraging their followers to avoid Amazon, or even go to their local library if independent bookstores are too far out of their price range.
It feels like an intentional kick in the face to local bookstores, Hunter said regarding the Amazon sale. Independent bookstores generally have to charge full price because those margins are what help them survive. Amazon engages in predatory pricing.
Amazon denied these allegations. A spokesperson said, The overlap was unintentional. The dates for our sale were set this year to accommodate additional participating countries.
Whether intentional or not, Amazons sale dates seem to be callously ignoring the importance of Independent Bookstore Day, Hunter said.
Books are really important, and theyre too important to society to entrust to a single retailer, whether or not that retailer has good intentions, he said. Independent bookstores are fighting to keep an independent marketplace for books and ideas alive, and Independent Bookstore Day is a day that everybody who supports that effort, who wants a diverse ecosystem around books, shows their support.
Meta profits, kids pay the price, was the message delivered by dozens of grieving families at the doors of Meta’s Manhattan office on Thursday.
Forty-five families traveled from across the U.S. and as far as the United Kingdom to hold a vigil outside the East Village headquarters of Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Holding photos of their children, they spoke about lives lost to cyberbullying, sextortion scams, and suicide-glorifying contentcalling on Meta to take immediate action to protect children on its platforms.
On a pile of rose bouquets, the families and demonstrators placed an open letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg. Signed by more than 11,000 individuals and 18 safety organizations, the letter urges Meta to “end the algorithmic promotion of dangerous content to children under 18, including explicit and sexualizing content, racism and hate speech, content promoting disordered eating or self-harm, dangerous viral challenges, and content promoting drugs and alcohol.”
The letter also calls for concrete steps to prevent nefarious actors including sexual predators, sextortionists, and drug dealers from finding, meeting, and grooming children and teens across all Meta platforms,” along with faster, more transparent responses to reports of harmful content or behavior.
The vigil was organized by Heat Initiative, ParentsTogether Action, and Design It for Us. Among those in attendance was Tammy Rodriguez, a mother from Connecticut, whose 11-year-old daughter died by suicide after becoming addicted to Instagram and later being groomed by men on another platform. In an effort to understand her daughters experience, Rodriguez created a fake Instagram account as a 12-year-old. “Within weeks the whole algorithm changed, I would never have received that on my own, just suicide content, self-harm content,” Rodriguez said, per ABC 7.
Mary Rodee, another mother who lost her 15-year-old son in 2021, shared that he was coerced into sending intimate photos by a sextortion scammer on Facebook. My kid is dead. I have nothing else to lose, Rodee said at the vigil, according to Bloomberg. Like so many other families, Ive been trying to meet with Mark Zuckerberg for years on this issue, but he refuses. Were all here to show that were willing to do whatever it takes.
“We know parents are concerned about their teens’ having unsafe or inappropriate experiences online,” a Meta spokesperson told Fast Company. “It’s why we significantly changed the Instagram experience for teens with Teen Accounts, which were designed to address parents’ top concerns. Teen Accounts have built-in protections that limit who can contact teens and the content they see, and 94% of parents say these are helpful. We’ve also developed safety features to help prevent abuse, like warning teens when they’re chatting to someone in another country, and recently worked with Childhelp to launch a first-of-its kind online safety curriculum, helping middle schoolers recognize potential online harm and know where to go for help.”
Starting today, shopping on Shein and Temu is going from dirt cheap to slightly less dirt cheap.
In updates to U.S. customers last week, the rival retailers shared similar announcements that their pricing would go up beginning on April 25, citing rising operating expenses from global trade rules and tariffs. The retailers even encouraged shoppers to get one last order in before it was too late: Until April 25, prices will stay the same, so you can shop now at todays rates, Temu wrote in its announcement. Weve stocked up and stand ready to make sure your orders arrive smoothly during this time.
By this morning, that shopping window had passed. Heres what we know so far about the price hikes, and how they might impact your favorite TikTok influencers next haul:
Why is this happening now?
This update from Shein and Temu doesnt exactly come as a surprise. Since early February, President Trumps new tariff policies made it clear that neither companys business model could survive unchanged for long.
Both Shein and Temu operate by using labor in Chinese factories to manufacture ultracheap goods and ship them abroad. But unlike other companies with a similar manufacturing strategylike Gap or H&MShein and Temu cut the middleman of stocking in U.S. warehouses by shipping goods directly from China to shoppers doors. This strategy has historically allowed them to take advantage of a tax code loophole called de minimis, which allows all packages under $800 to ship into the U.S. duty-free.
In early April, Trump signed an executive order thats set to end the de minimis loophole starting on May 2. That means that Shein and Temus packagespart of a total of four million low-value packages that arrive in the U.S. every daywill no longer be exempt from duties. For companies relying on Chinese-made goods, that’s an especially heavy financial burden, given that Trump also recently slapped a 145% tariff on most products made in China.
As experts predicted back in February, Shein and Temu are unable to absorb the major costs associated with Trump nixing the de minimis loophole. Now, theyve been forced to forfeit some of their competitive advantage by offloading costs onto consumers.
How will this affect pricing?
So far, its not entirely clear what those added consumer costs will look like. Neither Shein nor Temu provided specific price hike rates or an idea of how shipping might be affected, and its not immediately evident whether markups are the same across the board or variable based on items.
Pricing on Shein and Temu is difficult to navigate at the best of times, given that both sites rely on a nightmarish UX of constant promotions, markdowns, and discount codes to obscure the actual cost of individual items and make them appear even cheaper than they already are. To get some sense of how costs have increased, Fast Company took a look through TikToks that track Shein orders from earlier this week (when customers were flocking to place their last orders) and compared them to prices on the sites today.
On Tuesday, creator Chiara Aceto made a video showing followers what to add to your Shein cart before you place that order on April 25th. In the TikTok, she recommends a $21.59 yellow two-piece set, a $17.86 pair of heels, and an $8.79 sparkly tank top, among other items. Those pieces are now $44.71, $22.90, and $17.69, respectively, with both the set and the tank top nearly doubling in price. Other pieces, like a relatively pricey ($63.80) knockoff Miu Miu handbag only went up by about $1, while still others, like a Stanley cup dupe, have gone down slightly in price.
Aceto followed up with another video on Wednesday sharing her favorite bags on the site. Most of the bags are hovering around the same prices today, while a few have shot up considerably, like one Prada dupe that was $36.85 and is now $56.20. Overall, nearly all of the items mentioned by Aceto in the two TikToks are at least slightly more expensive today than they were earlier in the weekthough, given that Sheins prices are known to fluctuate on a regular basis, its difficult to tell how much of the change can be attributed to tariff price hikes, and how much is just par for the course.
Nvertheless, customers appear to be noticing a difference today. In a video posted on Wednesday, creator @lifeoqhi0js, who is a Shein ambassador, also warned followers to get their orders in before April 25. Several commenters under the video reported seeing prices go up this morning, including one user who wrote that their cart had increased by $60 overnight, and another who asked, why did a $3 shirt go up to $11?
Shein and Temus futures are currently looking relatively bleak, given that their business models revolve almost entirely around offering the lowest possible prices compared to competitors. To be clear, both retailers prices are still unbelievably cheap. But for consumers, the difference between a $3 T-shirt and an $11 T-shirt might be enough to abandon a $700 Shein haul in favor of investing in fewer pieces that will last a bit longer.
The Trump administration is loosening rules to help U.S. automakers like Elon Musks Tesla develop self-driving cars so they can take on Chinese rivals.
U.S. companies developing self-driving cars will be allowed exemptions from certain federal safety rules for testing purposes, the Transportation Department said Thursday. The department also said it will streamline crash reporting requirements involving self-driving software that Musk has criticized as onerous and will move toward a single set of national rules for the technology to replace a patchwork of state regulations.
Were in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldnt be higher, said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a statement. Our new framework will slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard.
The new exemption procedures will allow U.S. automakers to apply to skip certain safety rules for self-driving vehicles if they are used only for research, demonstrations and other noncommercial purposes. The exemptions were in place previously for foreign, imported vehicles whose home country rules may be different than those in the U.S.
The decision comes a day after Musk confirmed on a conference call with Tesla investors that the electric vehicle maker will begin a rollout of self-driving Tesla taxis in Austin in June.
Its not clear how the exemptions from National Traffic Safety Administration rules will affect Tesla specifically. The company has pinned its future on complete automation of its cars, but it is facing stiff competition now from rivals, especially China automaker BYD.
The crash reporting rule being changed has drawn criticism from Musk as too burdensome and unfair. Tesla has reported many of the total crashes under the rule in part because it is the biggest seller of partial self-driving vehicles in the U.S.
Traffic safety watchdogs had feared that the Trump administration would eliminate the reporting rule. The transportation statement Thursday said reporting will be loosened to remove unnecessary and duplicative requirements but that the obligation to report crashes will remain.
Bernard Condon, AP business writer
Wall Street’s big three-day rally is running out of steam, and U.S. stocks are drifting in mixed trading Friday as they near the end of another roller-coaster week.
The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in midday trading, as nearly three out of every four stocks fell within the index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 237 points, or 0.6%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher thanks to gains for a handful of influential Big Tech stocks.
Intel weighed on the market after the chip company said its seeing elevated uncertainty across the industry and gave a forecast for upcoming revenue and profit that fell short of analysts expectations. Its stock fell 6.8% even though its results for the beginning of the year topped expectations.
Eastman Chemical fell 5.9% after it gave a forecast for profit this spring that fell short of analysts expectations. CEO Mark Costa said that the macroeconomic uncertainty that defined the last several years has only increased and that future demand for its products is unclear given the magnitude and scope of tariffs.
Skechers U.S.A., the shoe and apparel company, pulled its financial forecasts for the year due to macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from global trade policies even though it just reported a record quarter of revenue at $2.41 billion. Its stock fell 4.3%.
Theyre the latest companies to say the uncertainty created by President Donald Trumps trade war is making it difficult to give financial forecasts for the upcoming year.
Stocks had rallied earlier in the week on signals that Trump may be softening his approach on tariffs and his criticism of the Federal Reserve, which had earlier shaken markets. The hope is that if Trump rolls back some of his stiff tariffs, he could avert a recession that many investors see as otherwise likely because of his trade war.
But Trumps on-again-off-again tariffs may nevertheless be pushing households and businesses to alter their spending and freeze plans for long-term investment because of how quickly conditions can change, sometimes seemingly by the hour.
Business owners scrambling to figure out their supply chains and exposure to tariffs is more than just a distraction, according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. It could be an existential threat, especially for smaller businesses that dont have the scale or resources to have the same supply chain flexibility as larger firms.
Helping to keep Wall Streets losses in check was Alphabet, which rose 2.2%. Googles parent company reported late Thursday that its profit soared 50% in the first quarter, more than analysts expected.
Alphabet is one of the biggest companies on Wall Street in terms of size, and that gives its stock’s movements extra influence on the S&P 500 and other indexes. Another market heavyweight, Nvidia, also helped push the S&P 500 index upward after the chip company rose 2.2%
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly across much of Europe following more mixed movements in Asia. Tokyos Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9%, but stocks in Shanghai slipped 0.1%.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased some more, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.28% from 4.32% late Thursday.
Its been generally falling since approaching 4.50% earlier this month in a surprising rise that had suggested investors worldwide may be losing faith in the U.S. bond markets reputation as a safe place to park cash.
Yields have dropped as several reports on the U.S. economy have come in weaker than expected, raising expectations that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates later this year to support growth.
A report on Friday morning said sentiment among U.S. consumers sank in April, though not by as much as economists expected. The survey from the University of Michigan said its measure of expectations for coming conditions has dropped 32% since January for the steepest three-month percentage decline seen since the 1990 recession.
The value of the U.S. dollar meanwhile strengthened against the euro and other rival currencies. It’s been recovering some of its sharp, unexpected losses from earlier this month that rattled investors.
Stan Choe, AP business writer
AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.
