Europe and the United States are meeting in Paris to negotiate a settlement of a tense tariff spat with global economic ramifications between two global economic powerhouses.The European Union’s top trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, met Wednesday with his American counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.“We’re advancing in the right direction at pace,” Šefčovič said at a news conference. He said ongoing technical meetings between EU and U.S. negotiators in Washington would be soon followed by a video conference between himself and Greer to then “assess the progress and charter the way forward.”Brussels and Washington are unlikely to reach a substantive trade agreement in Paris. The issues dividing them are too difficult to resolve quickly.President Donald Trump regularly fumes about America’s persistent trade deficit with the European Union, which was a record $161 billion last year, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.Trump blames the gap between what the U.S. sells and what it buys from Europe on unfair trade practices and often singles out for criticism the EU’s 10% tax on imported cars. America’s was 2.5% until Trump raised it to 25% in April. The EU has argued its purchases of U.S. services, especially in the technology sector, all but overcome the deficit.After the Trump administration’s surprise tariffs last week on steel rattled global markets and complicated the ongoing, wider tariff negotiations between Brussels and Washington, the EU on Monday said it is preparing “countermeasures” against the U.S.The EU has offered the U.S. a “zero for zero” deal in which both sides end tariffs on industrial goods, including autos. Trump has rejected that idea, but EU officials say it’s still on the table.The EU could buy more liquefied natural gas and defense items from the U.S., and lower duties on cars, but it isn’t likely to budge on calls to scrap the value added tax, which is akin to a sales tax, or open up the EU to American beef.“We still have a few weeks to have this discussion and negotiation,” French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said in Paris on Wednesday ahead of the OECD meeting. “If the discussion and negotiation do not succeed, Europe is capable of having countermeasures on American products and services as well.”Greta Peisch, who was general counsel for the U.S. trade representative in the Biden administration, said the zero-for-zero proposal could provide a way to make progress if the Trump administration “is looking for a reason not to impose tariffs on the EU.”But Peisch, now a partner at the Wiley Rein law firm, wondered: “How motivated is the U.S. to come to a deal with the EU?” Trump, after all, has longstanding grievances and complaints about EU trade practices.One target of his ire is the value-added tax, similar to U.S. state sales taxes.Trump and his advisers consider VATs unfair protectionism because they are levied on U.S. products. But VATs are set at a national level, not by the EU, and apply to domestic and imported products alike, so they have not traditionally been considered a trade barrier. There is little chance governments will overhaul their tax systems to appease Trump.Likewise, the Europeans are likely to balk at U.S. demands to scrap food and safety regulations that Washington views as trade barriers. These include bans on hormone-raised beef, chlorinated chicken and genetically modified foods.“When you start talking about chickens or GMOs or automobile safety standards, you’re talking about the ways countries choose to regulate their economies,” Peisch said. “We think that’s protectionist. They think it’s keeping their citizens healthy . . . It’s been a sore point for 60 years.”
McNeil reported from Barcelona and Wiseman reported from Washington, D.C.
Catherine Gaschka, Sam McNeil and Paul Wiseman, Associated Press
TikTok, a platform where misinformation and dangerous rhetoric often spreads far and wide, has officially removed the #SkinnyTok hashtag from its search results. The hashtag had become a space for creators to promote restrictive eating and other forms of unhealthy weight-loss content.
TikTok spokesperson Paolo Ganino told Politico that the move was part of a regular review of the platforms risks, but it followed considerable pressure from the European Union.
Fast Company has reached out to TikTok for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
‘Revolting and absolutely unacceptable’
In April, Frances minister for digital media, Clara Chappaz, requested that the nations media regulator, Arcom, look into the hashtag. The agency teamed up with the European Commission to review the revolting and absolutely unacceptable videos, as Chappaz described them.
The European Commission has also been investigating TikToks risk management of addictive design and harmful content since February 2024.
Users searching #SkinnyTok will now see a landing page that reads, If you or someone you know has questions about body image, food, or exerciseit is important to know that help is out there and you are not alone. If you feel comfortable, you can confide in someone you trust or check out the resources below. Please remember to take care of yourselves and each other.
It also has a resources link with an explainer on eating disorders, steps to take if you or your friend needs support, and emergency information.
TikTok’s community guidelines prohibit videos that promote eating disorders and dangerous weight loss behaviors, and selling or promoting products to lose weight. Last year, TikTok even banned Liv Schmidt, a popular user known for posting controversial eating habits, for violating community guidelines.
However, she freely posted to her 670,000 followers until The Wall Street Journal sent questions to TikTok for a profile on Schmidt. She created a new account following her ban.
Could other platforms see a #SkinnyTok spillover?
Now, #SkinnyTok might be gone from TikTok’s search results, but whos to say that users wont migrate to another hashtag or platform to keep sharing these harmful videos?
Despite the community guidelines, this content continued out in the open through a well-known hashtag. Before regulatory agencies stepped in, users who searched for #SkinnyTok would see a message from TikTok stating, You are more than your weight, accompanied by a resources button.
But the harmful content followed right behind it, violating the rules and risking the health of the users who absorbed it.
TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, has 1.58 billion monthly users, according to data from SproutSocial. Its largest audience is in the United States.
Discount store operator Dollar Tree forecast its second-quarter adjusted profit to be down as much as 50% from a year ago, accounting for volatility caused due to changing tariffs.
Shares of the company were down about 3% in premarket trading.
The Trump administration’s roller coaster tariff swings have thrown businesses into turmoil and unsettled consumers worldwide, who now brace for price hikes on everything from groceries to sneakers.
Dollar Tree said on Wednesday that its second-quarter profit from continuing operations, which exclude its Family Dollar business, could be down as much as 45% to 50% year-over-year before re-accelerating in the second half of the year.
In March, the company said it would sell its less-profitable Family Dollar banner for $1 billion to a group of private equity investors.
Dollar Tree maintained its annual comparable store sales forecast, a day after rival Dollar General raised its full-year targets after beating quarterly estimates on resilient demand.
However, Dollar Tree raised its annual profit forecast, benefiting from lower freight costs and resilient demand for affordable essentials.
It expects fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $5.15 to $5.65, compared with its prior forecast of $5.00 to $5.50.
However, Dollar Tree reiterated that the company’s full-year earnings per share will be hurt by 30 cents to 35 cents related to the Family Dollar sale, with that impact concentrated in the first two quarters of the fiscal year.
The company posted first-quarter revenue of $4.64 billion, compared with analysts’ estimates of $4.54 billion, as per data compiled by LSEG.
Its adjusted profit of $1.26 per share topped estimates of $1.20.
Anuja Bharat Mistry, Reuters
Smoke from Canadian wildfires carried another day of poor air quality south of the border to the Midwest, where conditions in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan were rated “very unhealthy” Tuesday.The fires have forced more than 27,000 Canadians in three provinces to flee their homes, and the smoke has even reached Europe.The smell of smoke hung over the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on Tuesday morning despite rain that obscured the full measure of the dirty air. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an alert for almost the entire state into Wednesday, but the Twin Cities area got the worst of it in the Midwest on Tuesday.“As the smoke continues to move across the state Tuesday, air quality will slowly improve from northwest to southeast for the remainder of the alert area,” the agency said. “The smoke is expected to leave the state by Wednesday at noon.”The Iowa Department of Natural Resources warned that air quality in a band from the state’s southwest corner to the northeast could fall into the unhealthy category through Thursday morning. The agency recommended that people, especially those with heart and lung disease, avoid long or intense activities and to take extra breaks while doing strenuous actions outdoors.Smoky conditions that have reached the U.S. periodically in recent weeks extended as far east Tuesday as Michigan, west into the Dakotas and Nebraska, and as far to the southeast as Georgia.
Conditions at ground level are unhealthy
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow map showed a swath of red for “unhealthy” conditions across the eastern half Minnesota into western Wisconsin and northern Iowa. The map also showed purple for “very unhealthy” across much of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, where the Air Quality Index numbers of 250 and were common, though conditions started to improve slightly by late morning.The Air Quality Index AQI measures how clean or polluted the air is, focusing on health effects that might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. It is based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Particulates are the main issue from the firesThe index ranges from green, where the air quality is satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk, to maroon, which is considered hazardous. That level comes with health warnings of emergency conditions where everyone is more likely to be affected, according to AirNow.While Minnesota officials warned on Monday that conditions in the northwest part of the state could reach the maroon category on Tuesday, conditions there were generally yellow, or moderate. There were a few scattered locations in the Twin Cities area that temporarily hit maroon on Tuesday morning. But by midday Tuesday, most of the remaining maroon spots in the region were on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.Hospitals are seeing more patients with respiratory symptomsHennepin Healthcare, the main emergency hospital in Minneapolis, has seen a slight increase in visits by patients with respiratory symptoms aggravated by the dirty air.Dr. Rachel Strykowski, a pulmonologist, said there is usually a bit of a delay before patients come in, which is unfortunate because the sooner those patients contact their doctors, the better the outcome. Typical symptoms, she said, include “increase in shortness of breath, wheezing, maybe coughing a bit more, and flares of their underlying disease, and that’s usually COPD and asthma.”What happens, Strykowski said, is that the fine particulate matter from the wildfire smoke triggers more inflammation in patients’ airways, aggravating their underlying medical conditions.Strykowski noted that this is usually a time those patients can go outside and enjoy the summer weather because there are fewer triggers, so the current ones forcing them to stay inside can feel “quite isolating.”People can protect themselves by staying indoors or by wearing N95 masks, she said. Strykowski added that they must be N95s because the cloth masks many people used during the COVID-19 pandemic don’t provide enough filtration.
The Canadian fire situation
Canada is having another bad wildfire season, and more than 27,000 people in three provinces have been forced to evacuate. Most of the smoke reaching the American Midwest has been coming from fires northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg in Manitoba.Winnipeg hotels opened Monday to evacuees. More than 17,000 Manitoba residents have been displaced since last week, including 5,000 residents of the community of Flin Flon, nearly 400 miles (645 kilometers) northwest of Winnipeg. In neighboring Saskatchewan, 2,500 residents of the town of La Ronge were ordered to flee Monday, on top of more than 8,000 in the province who had been evacuated earlier.In Saskatoon, where the premiers of Canada’s provinces and the country’s prime minister met Monday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said all of Canada has come together to help the Prairie provinces.Two people were killed by a wildfire in mid-May in Lac du Bonnet, northeast of Winnipeg.Canada’s worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months.
The smoke reaches Europe
Canada’s wildfires are so large and intense that the smoke is even reaching Europe, where it is causing hazy skies but isn’t expected to affect surface-air quality, according the European climate service Copernicus.The first high-altitude plume reached Greece and the eastern Mediterranean just over two weeks ago, with a much larger plume crossing the Atlantic within the past week and more expected in coming days, according to Copernicus.“That’s really an indicator of how intense these fires are, that they can deliver smoke,” high enough that they can be carried so far on jet streams, said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the service.The fires also are putting out significant levels of carbon pollution an estimated 56 megatonnes through Monday, second only to 2023, according to Copernicus.
Associated Press writers Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, and Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
Steve Karnowski, Associated Press
U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to hike nearly all of his tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum to a punishing 50% on Wednesday, a move that would hammer businesses from automakers to home builders, and likely push up prices for consumers.Foreign-made steel and aluminum is used in household products like soup cans and paper clips as well as big-ticket items like a stainless-steel refrigerators and cars. Economists warn that the latest tariffs will significantly squeeze the wallets of both companies and shoppers alike.Here’s what we know.
What’s the tariff rate on imported steel and aluminum now?
Steel and aluminum imports are currently taxed at 25%a rate that both metals have faced across the board since March 12 when Trump’s order to remove steel exemptions and raise aluminum’s levy from his previously-imposed 2018 import taxes went into effect.That’s about to double. In a proclamation issued Tuesday, Trump confirmed that the U.S. will begin taxing nearly all steel and aluminum imports at 50% after the clock strikes midnight Wednesday. Steel and aluminum from the U.K., meanwhile, will continue to be levied at 25% due to a recent trade deal.
Why is Trump raising these tariffs?
Trump says it’s all about protecting U.S. industries. He reiterated that argument on Friday, when he first announced the 50% tariff during a visit with steelworkers in Pennsylvania, where he also discussed a “planned partnership” between U.S. Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel.In his speech at U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley WorksIrvin Plant in suburban Pittsburgh, Trump said that the tariff hike would “further secure the steel industry in the U.S.” Shortly after, he took the same tone when sharing plans to also raise tariffs on imported aluminum.In Tuesday’s proclamation, Trump also said that the higher tariffs would ensure that imported steel and aluminum would “not threaten to impair the national security.”“In my judgment, the increased tariffs will more effectively counter foreign countries that continue to offload low-priced, excess steel and aluminum in the United States,” he said in the proclamation.
How is the industry responding?
While some analysts have credited the tariffs Trump imposed during his first term with strengthening domestic production of steel and aluminum, many others have warned that stark new levies can make it difficult for the industry to adjust.Some organizations representing metal workers also note that tariffs aren’t the only solution needed to boost U.S. manufacturing.“While tariffs, used strategically, serve as a valuable tool in balancing the scales, it’s essential that we also pursue wider reforms of our global trading system,” David McCall, international president of the United Steelworkers union said in a statement, noting that work must be done “in collaboration with trusted allies” like Canadathe top exporter of steel and aluminum to the U.S.to help “contain the bad actors.”Matt Meenan, vice president of external affairs at the Aluminum Association, added that the trade group “appreciates President Trump’s continued focus on strengthening the U.S. aluminum industry,” but that “tariffs alone will not increase U.S. primary aluminum production.”“We also need consistent, predictable trade and tariff policy to plan for current and future investment,” Meenan said.
What kinds of products could be impacted by heightened steel and aluminum tariffs?
A range of businesses that rely on foreign-made steel and aluminum have already begun feeling the impacts of Trump’s previously-imposed levies. But the latest anticipated hikes could drive up costs even more.Steel and aluminum are used in a range of products like washing machines, consumer electronics and cars. Much of the auto industry relies on a global supply chain. And even if you aren’t in the market to buy a new vehicle, repairs could involve parts that use imports of either metal, driving up overall maintenance and ownership costs.In the grocery aisle, steel and aluminum are ubiquitous in the packaging for many foods, including canned tuna, soup and nuts. Experts warn that hiking import taxes on these materials could led to higher grocery prices overall, further straining consumers wallets.The aluminum and metal tariffs also carry wider implications for construction and transportation as a whole, as many key building parts and materials are made with these metals. Economists further warn of spillover impacts. Even if a product isn’t directly packaged in steel or aluminum, there could be higher costs to build the shelf it’s sold on, for example, or truck used to transport it to the store. And all of that could trickle down to the consumer down the road.If foreign competition becomes “priced out” due to these new tariffs, U.S. steel and aluminum producers may also find room to raise their own prices. As a result, even companies that don’t buy these foreign metals could end up paying more.Steel prices have already climbed 16% since Trump became president in mid-January, according to the government’s Producer Price Index. And as of March 2025, steel cost $984 a metric ton in the U.S., significantly higher than than in Europe ($690) or China ($392), per the U.S. Commerce Department.
Will there be any exceptions?
The new 50% tariff rate will apply to nearly all steel and aluminum coming into the U.S. from other countries. But the U.K., which recently reached a sweeping trade agreement with the U.S., will see an exception.As part of trade deal reached between the two nations on May 8, the U.K. said that the U.S. had agreed to eliminate its current 25% duties on British steel and aluminum down to zero. That exemption had yet to go into effect in the weeks followingbut in his proclamation issued Tuesday, Trump acknowledged that it was “necessary and appropriate” to implement the deal, and would “accordingly provide different treatment” for these metals coming from the U.K.Per Trump’s proclamation, the duty on British steel and aluminum will now stay 25%. But that rates could be adjusted starting on July 9 if the U.S. government determines that Britain has not complied with the framework.Trump’s planned hikes for steel and aluminum tariffs for the rest of the world could spark retaliation from other trading partners. In response to levies imposed on these metals earlier in the year, for example, the European Union previously outlined countermeasures.The 27-nation bloc later delayed those actions until July 14 in efforts to ease negotiations, but said on Monday that was preparing a list of measures to enact if a trade deal with the U.S. crumbles.
AP Writers Jill Lawless in London, Josh Boak and Michelle Price in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP Business Writer
Shares in Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY) jumped yesterday after the air taxi company announced a potential deal with the Saudi Arabia-based Abdul Latif Jameel. The deal could lead to Joby supplying up to 200 of its eVTOL aircraft. Heres what to know about the potential and its effect on Jobys stock price.
What is Joby?
Joby Aviation, better known as Joby, is a Santa Cruz, California-headquartered aviation company that is developing a fleet of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehiclesin other words, flying taxis.
Joby was founded in 2009 and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 via a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Prior to its NYSE debut, Joby was named one of Fast Companys Most Innovative Companies for 2021.
While the company is developing flying taxi vehicles, one of its primary aims is to become a servicean Uber of the skies, so to speak.
Because of its relatively small market cap of around $6.7 billion and interesting futuristic product (a flying rideshare service), Joby’s stock is somewhat popular with investors who lean more toward dabbling in meme stocks and small-cap stocks that have potential to see sky-high returns if their products eventually take off (no pun intended).
Joby says it currently has strategic partnerships with Toyota, Delta, and Uber, and it employs more than 1,700 engineers. For its Q1 2025, which ended March 31, Joby reported a net loss of $82.4 million.
What deal did Joby announce yesterday?
Yesterday, Joby Aviation announced a potential deal with Abdul Latif Jameel, a business based in Saudi Arabia.
Potential is the key word here.
Thats because the two companies didnt actually agree to sell anything to or buy anything from one another. Instead, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This MoU will see the companies explore opportunities to establish a distribution agreement in Saudi Arabia for Jobys electric aircraft, according to Joby.
That potential distribution agreement may see Joby deliver up to 200 air taxis and other related services valued at up to $1 billion to Abdul Latif Jameel over the coming years.
Joby has positioned the potential deal as a win-win for both American and Saudi Arabian business interests.
This collaboration is about bringing Americas leadership in electric air mobility to the world, Joby Aviation CEO JoeBen Bevirt said in a statement announcing the deal.
Joby stock rises on the news
Given that Joby has recently been worth about $6 billion in total, its no wonder the companys stock jumped yesterday after it announced it was exploring a single deal worth up to $1 billion. By the close of the market yesterday, JOBY stock had risen over 7% to $8.03 per share.
In premarket trading this morning, as of the time of this writing, JOBY stock is up another 2%.
However, while JOBY stock has been flying high over the past two days, its important to put the stocks past performance into perspective. Despite JOBYs stock price surge in the last 24 hours, the companys stock was still down year-to-date by 1.23% as of yesterdays close.
At the same time, when you look at the last 12 months, JOBY shares have had a significant return. Since last June, the stock has risen nearly 65%.
Where the stock goes from here is anyones guess. However, the company has had some exciting advances in recent years.
In February 2024, Joby announced that it plans to launch an air taxi service in Dubai by 2026, and in October 2024, Joby showed off one of its air taxis to much fanfare in New Yorks Grand Central Station.
The company said that an air taxi could carry up to 1,000 pounds of payload/people, had a range of 100 miles, and could reach speeds up to 200 mph.
Matty Matheson is a star and producer on the award-winning shoe The Bear, a massive YouTube personality, best-selling cookbook author, restaurateur, entrepreneur, and more. No one will ever confuse him with the ShamWow guy, but thats exactly what Matheson is going for in a new brand campaign from outdoor oven brand Gozney.
The extremely fitted blue shirt is all part of an infomercial vibe concocted by Matheson and the Gozney creative team. I found that shirt on eBay, says Matheson. Because I just felt like I needed to wear a stupid shirt, like the ShamWow guy or something.
Its also part of the brands first paid media advertising push for a new campaign called Cook Different. And perhaps the crown jewel of it all is a signature Matty Matheson edition of Gozneys new Tread portable outdoor oven that drops June 18.
Since 2021, Gozney has grown from $25 million in revenue to nearly $100 million last yeardespite the outdoor pizza oven market exploding over COVID-19 and since contracting. Gozney has strategically used design and content to differentiate itself, and build a healthy brand identity. Key to the brands success is the relationships it has built with chefs and personalities like Matheson. With Cook Different, Gozney is out to prove it.
Meeting Matty
Tom Gozney founded his company in 2010 as the Stone Bake Oven Company, producing custom-built commercial pizza ovens for the U.K. market. But in 2016, with the launch of the Roccbox oven, Gozney shifted its focus to everyday people.
He knew that if he could convince chefs of the portable outdoor oven’s value, then the home kitchen heroes would follow. So he began building relationships with influential U.K. chefs. One of them was Lee Tiernan, owner of Black Axe Mangal. Tiernan was trying out Gozneys Roccbox oven, and was among a few who spread the world to Matheson in Canada.
Several my friends in England that are chefs were like, yo, there’s this fucking oven that’s sick, you should check it out, says Matheson. I got one. We used it. It’s sick. I loved it. And then Tom brought me over to England and we just hit it off.
Gozney was a fan of Mathesons based on his work with Vice, so was keen to get him an oven. Soon after, Matheson was posting clips of himself using it, not even as a paid ambassador. It was so brand elevating for us at the time, says Gozney. Matty was a subcultural figurehead through Munchies and Vice and all of that stuff.
Since then, Matheson has been involved in other Gozney content, but also a sounding board behind the scenes on new and potential ambassadors. Gozney says that it’s one of the companys longest relationships and a standard-bearer for what they aim for overall.
I didn’t want to build an outdoor cooking brand. I wanted to build something culturally relevant, says Gozney. And I was always fundamentally focused on, who are the people that we’re going to interact with? Even if someone has 10 times the followers, but they’re not culturally right for the brand, we just won’t fuck with them. And Matty is just the epitome of what were looking for.
Theyve been working together for so long that when the idea for a signature oven came up, Gozney says there was really only one choice. Mattys obviously got an incredible way about him from a brand perspective, and we wanted to lean into collaborations, says Gozney. And it just felt like the right move for us to start with these Matty campaigns. Hes been the leading, most passionate brand partner and friend for so many years, it just felt fitting. It would feel like I was cheating on him if I did it with anyone else.
[Photo: Gozney]
Enter the Tread
This is only the companys third signature product. Both Tom Gozney and Brad Leone have had limited signature Roccbox designs. The Tread is a new oven, designed for being as portable as possible. It weighs in at less than 30 pounds, fits 12-inch pizzas and cast iron pans, can hit 950 degrees Fahrenheit in 15 minutes, and features a stand with adjustable legs, a built-in level, and a roof rack cutting board. The growth trajectory of the company, combined with a new product, presented an opportunity for the brand to lean a bit more into its relationship with Matheson.
The limited edition Matty x Tread oven is bright orange, featuring illustrations by Matty’s longtime artist, Christopher Wilson, engraved onto its stainless steel exterior. It looks a bit like a Stars Wars droid that just happens to cook pizza. In a good way. Theres also a capsule collection of customized placement peels and other merch.
This was just one of those perfect opportunities to kind of just put a little bit of my character into this perfect thing they’ve developed, says Matheson. I’m not some pizza master. It makes amazing pizzas, but I’m a meat and potatoes kind of guy, so I think it’s a perfect outdoor oven. The blaze orange is so iconic.
[Photo: Gozney]
Retaining heat
The videos were shot on a sound stage in Salt Lake City and Matheson says the process was pretty loose. It’s this thing where they came with a really good idea, and we just started riffing back and forth, he says. It was all just really collaborative. Their team knows me, they understand my wheelhouse, and they wanted to do something fun. So we had a basic outline and then we just had fun with it.
Jonathan Kantor, Gozney’s chief revenue and marketing officer says he was aiming for something like a cross between HexClad and Liquid Death. The former effectively leverages its partnership with Gordon Ramsay, while the latter creates hilarious content that plays with our cultural relationship with brands and advertising. The concept of Cook Different is about elevating Matty’s presence within Gozney, along with our background with professional chefs and commercial ovens, and doing a brand campaign that’s more about captivating eyeballs and telling a story versus more direct response, transactional marketing.
Gozney is investing in more traditional paid media for this campaign than ever before, specifically on connected TV, and will have a shared billboard in Times Square.
At the same time, it continues to invest in longer form content, like its ongoing YouTube series Pizza with Frank, starring Frank Pinello. Pinello is the founder of Brooklyn pizzeria Best Pizza, and is about to start his second full season of the Gozney-backed show.
It’s completely entertainment storytelling, says Kantor. These episodes get 500,000 to a million views a piece, and there’s not a single paid media dollar behind them. So we’re thinking about who shows up in content, who shows up on our own channels, and how we can tell stories around it.
In a world flooded with collabs, Matheson says the longevity and real connection between them is what makes this collaboration different, and he hopes it shows in the content and the product.
We’ve been both doing this thing since the beginning, says Matheson. With other brands, it’s a job, it’s how we pay the bills. It’s how I’m able to continue my YouTube and continue a lot of things. Sometimes a brand just wants you for this one thing. No problem. But this is very different.
“Gozney has been holding on to a lot of the people that have been there since the beginning, and I think that really shows the importance of true alignment, that is really special and really organic. We have a genuine, good relationship. Some brands are like that. Some aren’t, says Matheson.
Nepal’s capital Kathmandu is one of the most polluted cities in the world. But its also one of the fastest-growing markets for EVs: Nepals electric cars now outsell new fossil-fueled vehicles. In the U.S., around 9% of new cars sold last year were electric. In Nepal, that number was around 65%.
Theres been a really remarkable transformation in the uptake of electric vehicles, says David Sislen, the World Bank country director for Nepal, Maldives, and Sri Lanka. Only five years ago, EVs made up a tiny fraction of new car sales in Nepal. Three-wheeled mini-buses, a popular vehicle in the country, were also mostly gas. For those vehicles now, the adoption rate went from less than 1% to 83%, Sislen says.
There was one main reason for the change. So many public policy challenges are complicated and nuanced and hard to understand, but this one is the opposite, he says. Its incredibly simple. In July of 2021, the government radically dropped the import duties and excise taxes on electric vehicles. You make it cheaper, and suddenly people will adopt them. (The country has recently slightly increased taxes on EVs, likely because it was missing the revenue. But electric vehicles are still a better bargain.)
After someone owns an EV, its also cheaper to operate than a gas or diesel vehicle. Thats true anywhere, but especially in Nepal, where fuel is imported and expensive. Charging an EV could be a tenth of the cost of refueling another vehicle, or even less. The models that are availablefrom companies like Chinas BYD and Indias Tataare also desirable. (Tesla also recently started selling cars in Nepal, though Chinese alternatives are more affordable and arguably even better-performing.)
“You see electric vehicles every day, all day long,” says Sislen. “It feels like it’s half of what’s on the road. And the number of [electric] dealerships is amazing.”
Nepal was an early adopter of electric three-wheeled vehicles, known locally as tempos. The first wave of hundreds of electric tempos, funded by USAID and manufactured locally, rolled out in the Kathmandu Valley in the 1990s. But by the turn of the century, government policy helped kill the early industry by cutting import taxes on gas microbuses. Now, modern electric tempos are quickly growing again.
Charging can still be a challenge, though charging infrastructure is also quickly growing, along with alternatives like battery swapping. We want to deploy technology to make the entire journey seamless, says Deepak Raunier, an entrepreneur who is working on a network of battery-swapping stations for two-wheeler and three-wheeler EVs throughout the region.
Kathmandu is also beginning to roll out a fleet of larger electric buses. Last year, Satja Yayatat, a coop bus service that serves the city, added 40 new electric buses and a large new charging station, and it now plans to add another 100. The buses cost around 33 times less to charge than fueling a bus with diesel, although the upfront cost is higher.
The charging essentially runs on clean electricity, since most of the country’s energy comes from hydropower. “That makes this even more impactfulyou’re not charging your vehicles with coal-fired power,” says Sislen. “You’re charging them with green energy.”
Nepal’s climate goals under the Paris agreement include getting to 90% adoption of EVs for private four-wheeled vehicles by 2030. Though with just 0.027% of global emissions, climate isn’t the biggest reason for the country to actinstead, it’s air pollution.
Kathmandu’s geography, surrounded by mountains, traps pollutants. Climate change is leading to more drought in the winter, meaning less rain to help clear the air. Pollution comes from a variety of sources, including wildfires (also increasing because of climate change), and outdated boilers at factories, which the World Bank is pushing to help replace. But transportation is another key factor. And with fewer vehicles belching black exhaust on roads in Kathmandu, the city will be a healthier place to live.
For decades, the one-on-one meeting has been a sacred ritual of managerial life. Its the office equivalent of a treadmill session: repetitive, well-intentioned, and mostly endured out of guilt.
Conventional wisdom says every manager should have regular 1:1s with their direct reports to build trust, boost engagement, and drive performance. However, as work evolveswith a faster pace, flatter structures, hybrid and asynchronous communication, AI tools that manage tasks more efficiently than most humans ever willits worth asking: Do we still need all these 1:1s?
A Brief History
In the early 20th century, Frederick Taylor’s influential Scientific Management (1911) introduced the idea of optimizing work through detailed observation and individual instruction. While strictly not 1:1 meetings in a modern sense, this era laid the groundwork for formal manager-employee check-ins, focused almost exclusively on productivity and control.
Similarly, military hierarchies institutionalized briefings and debriefingsstructured one-on-one conversations that inspired corporate management systems, especially during and after WWII. Think of it as command-and-control performance reviews, with little space for career development or psychological safety.
After WWII, workplace psychology gained prominence. The famous Hawthorne Studies showed that individual attention improved morale and productivity. This era birthed the “manager as coach” concept, which has recently reemerged in the form of Herminia Ibarras leader as coach.
In 1960, Douglas McGregor’s Theory Y reframed employees as intrinsically motivated individuals rather than passive workers. In this context, 1:1 meetings began to evolve into opportunities for feedback, mentorship, and development, especially in management training programs pioneered by companies like GE, IBM, and Procter & Gamble.
With the decline of manufacturing and the rise of the knowledge economy, especially in tech and consulting, the nature of workand therefore managementchanged. As workers were paid more for thinking than doing, interpersonal communication became a management imperative.
By the early 1980s, books like Andy Groves High Output Management popularized 1:1s as tools for alignment, coaching, and decision-making. Grove, the legendary Intel CEO, explicitly advocated for weekly 1:1s as a way to catch small issues before they became large ones, and to ensure both parties shared the same context. His model influenced Silicon Valley and remains widely cited in tech.
Meetings Without Meaning
Steven G. Rogelberg, an organizational psychologist and author of Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings, compellingly illustrates that while 1:1s can be powerful tools for enhancing employee engagement and satisfaction, they often become counterproductive and misused.
Rogelberg identifies several common pitfalls that can render 1:1 meetings ineffective:
Manager-Dominated Conversations: When managers monopolize the discussion, speaking more than they listen, or focus solely on task lists, it undermines the meeting’s purpose. Rogelberg notes that such practices serve the manager’s needs rather than supporting the employee’s development.
Lack of Personal Engagement: Effective 1:1s should address both tactical and personal aspects of an employee’s role. Neglecting the personal dimension can lead to missed opportunities for deeper connection and support.
Over-Frequency Leading to Micromanagement: Holding these meetings too often can make employees feel micromanaged. Rogelberg suggests a biweekly cadence of 25 to 50 minutes to balance oversight with autonomy
Productivity Tax
Too often, 1:1s are where status updates are mumbled, calendars are synced, and passive-aggressive comments are politely ignored. They are, in short, a productivity tax, one which alas is often not properly quantified or accounted for. Harvard Business Schools Ashley Whillans reckons the typical knowledge worker spends over 20 hours a week on meetings.
The problem is not the 1:1 itself. Its how, why, and how often its done. Managers cling to weekly 1:1s out of habit or guilt, not strategy. In some orgs, these meetings are confused with therapy; in others, with micromanagement. And worse still, many managers show up to 1:1s with no agenda, no questions, and no curiositya surefire way to destroy psychological safety.
As a matter of fact, most 1:1s are ineffective. Recent research suggests that 70% of meetings hinder employees from completing their tasks, leading to decreased productivity. Despite a 20% reduction in average meeting length during the pandemic, the number of meetings attended by workers increased by 13.5%, exacerbating the issue.
To be sure, not all 1:1s are created equal. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes leaders make is treating all 1:1s the same. Effective managers treat 1:1s like tools in a leadership tool kitused with intention, tailored to the task. Importantly, good management is not about treating everyone the same, but as they deserve and would like be treated. In that sense, it would be foolish to assume that everyone is equally interested in 1:1 meetings, or benefits from the same kind or type of meetings.
Why AI Makes 1:1s Redundant
In an age where Slack pings, shared docs, performance dashboards, and real-time feedback tools bombard us with continuous signals, the weekly or biweekly 1:1 starts to feel like a nostalgic ritualless essential leadership practice, more management cosplay.
The workplace has become asynchronous, distributed, and data-rich. Managers can monitor performance in real-time through productivity aalytics. Employee sentiment can be gauged with pulse surveys and engagement tools. Peer feedback, 360 reviews, personality assessments, and even mood indicators from collaboration software give you more insight than a 30-minute Zoom ever could. And unlike human memory, these systems dont forget, distort, or sugarcoat.
Even the emotional dimension of 1:1sthe human check-inis being digitized. AI tools like Microsoft Copilot or Reclaim.ai can summarize conversations, flag coaching opportunities, and recommend follow-ups before youve even had your morning coffee. Platforms can infer burnout risk from calendar density or written tone. Want to know who feels neglected or disengaged? Ask the algorithm, not your gut.
The very technologies designed to enhance 1:1s are replacing the need for them. Just as calculators made mental math optional, AI makes manual managerial check-ins look like horse-drawn meetings in an era of hyperloops.
Less ritual, more relevance
That doesnt mean we dont need feedback, coaching, or empathy. But it does mean the format of the traditional 1:1calendarized, synchronous, performativemay be overdue for rethinking. In a world of always-on data and generative simulations, the manager who insists on a standing weekly check-in may look less diligent and more . . . analog. So, what replaces them? Perhaps a mosaic of micro-interactions, data-driven nudges, and intentional (not habitual) human moments. In other words, less ritual, more relevance.
As generative AI matures and avatars become indistinguishable from their human counterparts, we may not need to show up to 1:1s at all. Instead, well delegate them to our digital twinshyperrealistic, fine-tuned, emotion-simulating versions of ourselves, trained on our past performance reviews, Slack tone, and leadership competencies. Imagine logging into Zoom and seeing your bosss AI twin nodding empathetically at your AI twin, while both exchange perfectly polite updates and preapproved feedback. The meeting ends, the logs are summarized, and the human versions skim the transcripts over lunch, ideally while doing something more usefullike actual work.
This isnt as far-fetched as it sounds. Companies like Synthesia and Soul Machines are already building digital avatars that can hold unscripted conversations. Microsoft and Meta are investing in personal AI agents that will schedule, negotiate, and even attend meetings on your behalf. In a world of 60% scheduling excess and skyrocketing manager-to-report ratios, letting your digital clone handle routine 1:1s might feel less dystopian and more like time management. The only question is: when both participants are AI, will the meeting be more productiveor just faster at getting nowhere?
Requiem for the 1:1
The one-on-one meeting, once a cornerstone of modern management, now teeters on the edge of obsolescencea charming relic from an analog era, repurposed but rarely rethought. What began as a well-intended vehicle for alignment, coaching, and connection has too often devolved into a managerial placebo: comforting, habitual, and questionably effective. The demands of todays workplacefaster, flatter, and far more fluidsimply dont align with the lumbering cadence of standing check-ins.
In a world where performance is visible in real-time, where emotional states are algorithmically inferred, and where digital twins can carry out conversations better than most middle managers, the weekly 1:1 risks becoming the corporate equivalent of sending a faxquaint, unnecessary, and performed mostly by those resistant to better alternatives.
This doesnt mean we should abandon human connection or stop developing talent. It means rethinking how and when its best delivered. Great managers will still check inbut with intention, not obligation. Theyll coach, not calendar. And the smartest ones will know when to step aside and let technology take the busywork out of empathy.
The future of leadership may still (hopefully) be personalbut it wont always be synchronous, sentimental, or stuck in a recurring Zoom slot.
When Spencer Rascoff took over as CEO at the struggling dating app giant Match Group in February, one of his first orders of business was to acquaint himself with all the services under his purview. Match, which owns and operates more that 45 dating apps, including Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid, and Match.com, has seen its stock price drop more than 80% from its 2021 high amid growing fatigue with online dating and a generation shift away from apps. After explosive growth during the pandemic, Matchs annual revenue has been flattening, in large part because growth at Tinder, its once-reliable cash cow, has stalled. Rascoff, the cofounder and former CEO of Zillow Group, is tasked with turning things around.
Rascoff asked the leadership of Tinder and Hinge to each take three hours and present their apps to him. The Tinder team began by walking him through the apps financial results and business metrics. They then got to the product road map, and finally to the people and culture. The team behind Hingewhich grew revenue by 39% last year, providing a rare bright spot in the Match Group portfoliotook an entirely different approach.
They started with consumer insights. This is where Gen Z is at. This is where Millennials are at. This is the zeitgeist of the world. This is what they want. This is how they date. This is how they think. This is how they connect, Rascoff recalled in May, as he told the story to the audience at the JPMorgan Global Technology, Media, and Communications Conference. Only at the very end, did they actually share, briefly, revenue and financial metrics.
Rascoffs conclusion: If you want to understand why Hinge is winning and Tinder was losing, thats it. Thats why. A little more than a week later, Tinder CEO Faye Iosotaluno announced that she would step down in July, after less than two years in the role. Rascoff is taking the reins himself. Match shares rose 1.3% following the announcement.
Tinder, which accounts for more than half of Match Groups revenue, has had a difficult run. It grew revenue only 1% last year and has been shedding users: Its lost more than 1.2 million paying subscribers since the start of 2024. (When Match Group reported its Q1 earnings in May, it also announced it was laying off 13% of its workforce.)
Tinders not alone: In January, rival dating app Bumble announced that founder Whitney Wolfe Herd would return as CEO, replacing Lidiane Jones, who had been in the role for all of a year. In 2024, Bumble app grew its paying users by 11% to 2.8 million. But in the first quarter of this year, its revenue decreased 6.5% year over year, to $201.8 million, and it shed nearly 100,000 paying users since the end of 2024. Meanwhile, the average revenue per user has dropped 15% since 2021. Bumble has signaled in earnings that it has had difficulty retaining younger users, particularly Gen Z. Its stock is down more than 40%, year over year, and off 90% from its post-IPO high in 2021. (Match and Bumble both declined to make executives available for interviews for this story.)
Rascoff and Wolfe Herd are now embarking on ambitious turnaround plans that have them rethinking what users want from Tinder and Bumbleand how the dating apps underlying user experiences can deliver it. This generation doesnt want more matches. They want better ones, Rascoff said in a recent Instagram post.
And though their target audiences may be different, its a lesson both can learn from Match Groups emerging darling, Hinge.
Hinging on connection
Led by CEO and founder Justin McLeod, Hinge launched in 2012the same year as Tinder and two years ahead of Bumble. But while Tinder became a pop-culture staple, thanks to its addictive swipe-right UX, Hinge remained fairly under-the-radar. Its motto is designed to be deleted, and McLeod has focused on creating a user experience that optimizes for lasting connections. Customers logging off the app for good rather than swiping forever is considered a success.
That ethos is paying off. In 2024, Hinge took in $550 million in revenue, driven by a 23% rise in paying users. In October, it leap-frogged over Bumble to become the second most downloaded dating app in the U.S. for the first time ever (Tinder retained its no. 1 status).
To guide this kind of user behavior, Hinge has deployed a counterintuitive product strategy. Most apps try to reduce friction to make the user experience easy and addictive: Think of the simplicity and elegance of swiping through unlimited options on Tinder, without any pressure to message potential matches.
In September, Hinge bucked that trend and deliberately inserted a stumbling block for users with a feature called Your Turn Limits. The feature solves one of the biggest challenges users face when trying to secure a date: unanswered messages from people who ghost their matches. Now, Hinge users with too many unanswered messages are required to send a reply or end the conversation before being allowed to connect with other users.
Our north star metric is whether users are getting out on great dates or not, McLeod told Fast Company in an interview in February. After Your Turn Limits was released, the app saw fewer matches and likes, but more people going on dates. There are all of these kinds of techniques that can be really engaging and keep people sending lots of likes, but don’t necessarily lead to more dates, McLeod explained. So we do things differently.
Hinge has a longer sign-up process than Tinder and Bumble. It asks users to submit at least six photos and answer a minimum of three prompts. On Tinder, users simply fill out basic information like their name, birthday, and sexual orientation, and add at least one photo; Bumbles sign-up process is similar.
Hinge also takes a different approach to its premium offerings than Tinder. Tinders premium tiers focus on giving users access to more swipes or a profile boost to put them in front of more people, which helps with engagement but doesnt necessarily lead to quality matches. Hinges premium subscriptions have similar features but they also prioritize optimizing for better matches. Premium subscribers are able to filter profiles for characteristics like political affiliation, education level, family plans, or whether someone smokes. Subscribers can also get enhanced recommendations, where the apps algorithm surfaces profiles based on users recent activity. Perhaps taking inspiration from Hinges playbook, Tinder recently started letting users filter profiles by height.
The new rules of dating
Rascoff and Wolfe Herd diagnose the problems with Tinder and Bumble differently, but the result is the same: a decline in quality of matches.
In interviews and earnings calls, Rascoff has said that Tinder suffers, first and foremost, from a perception problem as a hookup appa message that doesnt resonate with Gen Z users. Instead, he wants to help Gen Z users create casual, spontaneous connections without the pressure of hooking up. Were aiming to introduce new ways to meet new people in lower-pressure environments. Thats really what Gen Z wants. Rascoff said at the Wall Street Journals Future of Everything conference in late May. He signaled that even the apps core usr experiencethe profile swipecan be problematic. The high-pressure kind of product offering of looking at a photo and judging it, that is cringey for a lot of Gen Z people, he said. It makes them feel bad about themselves to look at photo and say thumbs up, thumbs down. (Rascoff went even further, writing on Instagram last week that The next era of dating wont be built on swipes alone, but he has since edited that line out of his post.)
To create more casual dating experiences, Tinder is testing a new Double Date feature that allows users to pair up with a friend and swipe on other pairs of friendsand ultimately go on group dates. Currently available in Europe and rolling out in the U.S. later this year, the feature appeals to younger users: On Matchs Q1 earnings call, Rascoff reported that nearly 90% of Double Date users are under 29 years old. The feature is also helping the company grow its user base, as users invite friends to join (or reactivate) the app to take part in Double Date.
Just as Hinge incorporates speed bumps in its user experience, forcing users to send messages to prospects before getting more swipes, Tinder also seems to be experimenting with adding a bit more friction into its own UX. To encourage good behavior on the app, the company recently introduced Are You Sure?, a feature that asks users to reconsider sending a message if it contains anything that could be considered distasteful.
Rascoff has also announced plans to attract younger users by focusing less on making money from them through premium subscriptions. He told the crowd at the J.P. Morgan conference in May to think about Tinder as a bar for singles to meet. We’ve had two or three years of declining attendance at our bar. And the solution, to date, has been to increase the price of the drinks at the bar, and then occasionally come up with slightly different drinks or maybe sell food to an ever decreasing number of people at the bar. We must increase the number of people at the bar.
According to Wolfe Herd, Bumbles problem isnt a lack of people at the barin some ways, its the opposite. During Bumbles Q1 earnings call, she noted that the company pulled in a lot of new users during the pandemic, but we now know they werent always the right fit, which led to fewer and lower-quality matches on the platform. As match quality dropped, some members got discouraged, found fewer successful matches and dates, and fewer people recommended the app to others, she said. The solution for Bumble is simple: Showing members people they want to see, getting them quality matches, quality chats, and closer to love.
She has said that the company is pausing its efforts around monetization and growth marketing to instead focus on improving its matching algorithm and driving user engagement ahead of an app update this summer. And although she hasnt revealed too many specifics around how the app will change, she used her Q1 earnings call to highlight the importance of helping users create better profiles, giving them dating coaches to assist them through the process, and refining the apps ability to anticipate quality matches.
She also signaled that its less about what new products Bumble will launch. We want you to see great people in great simple ways, efficient ways, but this is not about more features. Instead, the metrics that matter here are the quality of the engagement that people have on our product. In other words, shes orienting the app towards a north star that sounds very similar to Hinges.
Incorporating AI
Hinges recommendations algorithm has been a big draw for users. While Tinder relies heavily on a users location, age preferences, and swiping behavior to surface a users profile, Hinge generates matches primarily based on how a user answers prompts. Once it detects a pattern in the profiles a user is drawn to, it shows them more of that type of user towards you.
In March, Hinge tweaked its algorithm to give users more targeted AI-powered recommendations. That update led to a 15% increase in matches and contact exchanges according to Match Groups Q1 earnings. We really have an understanding of your inclination to like someone and their inclination to like you back. We have more and more information about you and we have more information about your taste and your preferences, we can much more strongly predict that match, Mcleod told Fast Company, explaining that the more time a user spends on the app, the better the algorithm gets to know them. Now, Tinder and Bumble seem to be following its lead.
Introducing himself to investors on Match Groups Q4 earnings call, Rascoff stressed that AI can help with user engagement and retention on dating apps, just as it has for social media apps like TikTok and Snapchat. Tinder is currently rolling out a Hinge-like AI-powered matching, which generates more personalized connections based on user data and activity in select markets. Meanwhile, in a May interview with The New York Times, Wolfe Herd said that she wants to use AI to make Bumble the worlds smartest matchmaker over the next two years. The AI can now select the best people and start showing the best people the best people and start getting you to a match quicker, more efficiently, more thoughtfully, she said.
All three apps are also harnessing AI to help users optimize their profiles to get better matches. On Hinge and Tinder, if a user says they are afraid of snakes, for example, an AI prompt might counsel them to write a couple of sentences about why to make their profile more engaging. Wolfe Herd has said that the company plans on introducing a coaching hub, powered by humans and AI, that will help users improve their profiles and dating skills. In a somewhat bleak turn, Tinder is using AI to teach users how to behave on dates. Rascoff also mentioned a voice-based AI coach that Tinder rolled out for the month of April in Matchs Q1 earnings call. [It] let users practice flirting with an artificial intelligence date to learn to break the ice through humor, storytelling, and playful interaction.
Ultimately though, Bumble and Tinders success may hinge on whether or not theyre able to incorporate Hinges secret sauce into their apps: features that attract high quality, intentional users who engage with the app and find a great match. To a large extent, the companies need to go back to their original strategies, before monetization and a growth at all costs mindset ruined their user experiences.
As Wolfe Herd said in Bumbles latest earnings call, There has been this mindset that has been pervasive in the dating industry that more features equal better outcomes. And let’s just launch something new. But some of the greatest consumer products have not changed all that much in the last decade if you think about it.
