Dive into the exhilarating world of innovation with FC Explains, a video series that spotlights the game changers and visionaries from Fast Companys prestigious Most Innovative Companies list. This annual ranking celebrates the trailblazers who are reshaping industries and cultures, pushing boundaries, and transforming the world. First up is Bluesky.
Whatever else Donald Trump intends with his assault on the federal workforce, labor unions, and the National Labor Relations Board, one potential effect is clear: a devastating blow to Black Americans who for decades have used public-sector jobs to move up from subsistence living and toward the middle class.
Federal employment has been a pathway to the middle class for African American workers and their families since Reconstruction, including postal work and other occupations, explained Danielle Mahones, director of the leadership development program at the University of California, Berkeley, Labor Center. [Now y]oure going to see Black workers lose their federal jobs.
Black people are the only racial or ethnic group to be overrepresented in government jobs. Data analysis by the Pew Research Foundation shows that while Black people make up 12.8% of the nations population, they account for 18.6% of the federal workforce.
At the U.S. Postal Service, Black workers comprised 30% of the total workforce in fiscal year 2022. Although the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that African Americans are still underrepresented in executive positions within the postal service, the overall numbers reflect a robust history of Blacks seeking out USPS jobs to move their lives forward.
California has the second-largest population of federal workers outside the Washington, D.C., area. Deep federal job cuts will affect the states roughly 150,000 workers, and Black employees make up more than 10% of that total.
Historically, Black workers have used federal positions, many of them union represented, as pathways to homeownership, higher education for their children, and retirement savingsopportunities that were not widely available to previous generations, said Andrea Slater, director of the Center for the Advancement of Racial Equity at Work at the University of California, Los Angeles, Labor Center.
Those opportunities didnt insulate Black families from the decades-old practices of redlining housing policies, wage theft, and other inequities, Slater said, but a government job usually meant dependable employment and some form of pension. Federal jobs and government contracts have helped build and establish cohesive Black middle-class communities from the Bay Area to San Diego, Slater added.
* * *
Postal workers nationwide have publicly protested a proposed cut of 10,000 jobs, which they consider a step toward an Elon Musk-led attempt to privatize the postal service. At a Los Angeles rally in March, Brian Renfroe, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told the crowd, We had an election in November, and some people voted for President Trump, and some people voted for Vice President Harris, some people voted for other candidates. But you know what none of them voted for? To dismantle the Postal Service.
Still, a sense of unease hangs over the process. Asked for comment this week, a union representative in Northern California, who said the situation had their colleagues worried about losing jobs and civil service careers, refused to be quoted or identified.
Trumps true motives for clear-cutting federal jobs and going after the unions arent known, but his animus toward union labor is no secret. During his first term, the presidents policymakers acted to weaken or abandon regulations that protected workers pay and safety, and Trump directed particular force against federal workers, more than a third of whom are covered by union contracts.
Many workers and their unions were caught flat-footed by the scale and intensity of Trump 2.0s effort to decimate their ranks. Nobody was ready for this, UC Berkeleys Mahones said. This is part of a long-term project to eliminate the labor movement and unions. What is new, though, is the accelerationdoing something so massive, so quickly and chaotically, with no regard to the law nor humanity.
Trump signed an order in March directing 18 departments to terminate contracts it had already signed with unions representing federal workers, and to shutter the process through which employees could file job-related grievances. Trump cited a 1978 law that makes exceptions from collective bargaining for departments that have national security missions.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 820,000 federal and D.C. government workers, said Trump has abused that narrow cutout in the law to go after multiple departments that are heavily unionizedand an accompanying fact sheet distributed by the White House all but confirmed that. The release claimed that certain federal unions have declared war on President Trumps agenda, adding that Trump refuses to let union obstruction interfere with his efforts to protect Americans and our national interests.
The AFGE and several other unions filed suit in federal district court in Northern California seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent Trumps mandate from taking effect. Caught in the middle, meanwhile, are hundreds of thousands of federal employees whose jobs are on the line, including Black workers who may have spent their entire careers in a single area of public-sector service.
The specific requirements of government sector positions will likely require Black displaced workers to acquire new job skillsand ageism and racism continue to influence hiring practices, even in California, Slater said.
This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
Cancer research in the U.S. doesnt rely on a single institution or funding streamits a complex ecosystem made up of interdependent parts: academia, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology startups, federal agencies, and private foundations. As a cancer biologist who has worked in each of these sectors over the past three decades, Ive seen firsthand how each piece supports the others.
When one falters, the whole system becomes vulnerable.
The United States has long led the world in cancer research. It has spent more on cancer research than any other country, including more than US$7.2 billion annually through the National Cancer Institute alone. Since the 1971 National Cancer Act, this sustained public investment has helped drive dramatic declines in cancer mortality, with death rates falling by 34% since 1991. In the past five years, the Food and Drug Administration has approved over 100 new cancer drugs, and the U.S. has brought more cancer drugs to the global market than any other nation.
But that legacy is under threat. Funding delays, political shifts and instability across sectors have created an environment where basic research into the fundamentals of cancer biology is struggling to keep traction and the drug development pipeline is showing signs of stress.
These disruptions go far beyond uncertainty and have real consequences. Early-career scientists faced with unstable funding and limited job prospects may leave academia altogether. Mid-career researchers often spend more time chasing scarce funding than conducting research. Interrupted research budgets and shifting policy priorities can unravel multiyear collaborations. I, along with many other researchers, believe these setbacks will slow progress, break training pipelines, and drain expertise from critical areas of cancer researchdelays that ultimately hurt patients waiting for new treatments.
A 50-year foundation of federal investment
The modern era of U.S. cancer research began with the signing of the National Cancer Act in 1971. That law dramatically expanded the National Cancer Institute, an agency within the National Institutes of Health focusing on cancer research and education. The NCI laid the groundwork for a robust national infrastructure for cancer science, funding everything from early research in the lab to large-scale clinical trials and supporting the training of a generation of cancer researchers.
This federal support has driven advances leading to higher survival rates and the transformation of some cancers into a manageable chronic or curable condition. Progress in screening, diagnostics and targeted therapiesand the patients who have benefited from themowe much to decades of NIH support.
But federal funding has always been vulnerable to political headwinds. During the first Trump administration, deep cuts to biomedical science budgets threatened to stall the progress made under initiatives such as the 2016 Cancer Moonshot. The rationale given for these cuts was to slash overall spending, despite facing strong bipartisan opposition in Congress. Lawmakers ultimately rejected the administrations proposal and instead increased NIH funding. In 2022, the Biden administration worked to relaunch the Cancer Moonshot.
This uncertainty has worsened in 2025 as the second Trump administration has cut or canceled many NIH grants. Labs that relied on these awards are suddenly facing funding cliffs, forcing them to lay off staff, pause experiments, or shutter entirely. Deliberate delays in communication from the Department of Health and Human Services have stalled new NIH grant reviews and funding decisions, putting many promising research proposals already in the pipeline at risk.
Philanthropys support is powerfulbut limited
While federal agencies remain the backbone of cancer research funding, philanthropic organizations provide the critical support for breakthroughsespecially for new ideas and riskier projects.
Groups such as the American Cancer Society, Stand Up To Cancer, and major hospital foundations have filled important gaps in support, often funding pilot studies or supporting early-career investigators before they secure federal grants. By supporting bold ideas and providing seed funding, they help launch innovative research that may later attract large-scale support from the NIH.
Without the bureaucratic constraints of federal agencies, philanthropy is more nimble and flexible. It can move faster to support work in emerging areas, such as immunotherapy and precision oncology. For example, the American Cancer Society grant review process typically takes about four months from submission, while the NIH grant review process takes an average of eight months.
But philanthropic funds are smaller in scale and often disease-specific. Many foundations are created around a specific cause, such as advancing cures for pancreatic, breast, or pediatric cancers. Their urgency to make an impact allows them to fund bold approaches that federal funders may see as too preliminary or speculative. Their giving also fluctuates. For instance, the American Cancer Society awarded nearly $60 million less in research grants in 2020 compared with 2019.
While private foundations are vital partners for cancer research, they cannot replace the scale and consistency of federal funding. Total U.S. philanthropic funding for cancer research is estimated at a few billion dollars per year, spread across hundreds of organizations. I comparison, the federal government has typically contributed roughly five to eight times more than philanthropy to cancer research each year.
Industry innovationand its priorities
Private-sector innovation is essential for translating discoveries into treatments. In 2021, nearly 80% of the roughly $57 billion the U.S. spent on cancer drugs came from pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Many of the treatments used in oncology today, including immunotherapies and targeted therapies, emerged from collaborations between academic labs and industry partners.
But commercial priorities dont always align with public health needs. Companies naturally focus on areas with strong financial returns: common cancers, projects that qualify for fast-track regulatory approval, and high-priced drugs. Rare cancers, pediatric cancers, and basic science often receive less attention.
Industry is also saddled with uncertainty. Rising R&D costs, tough regulatory requirements, and investor wariness have created a challenging environment to bring new drugs to market. Several biotech startups have folded or downsized in the past year, leaving promising new drugs stranded in limbo in the lab before they can reach clinical trials.
Without federal or philanthropic entities to pick up the slack, these discoveries may never reach the patients who need them.
A system under strain
Cancer is not going away. As the U.S. population ages, the burden of cancer on society will only grow. Disparities in treatment access and outcomes persist across race, income, and geography. And factors such as environmental exposures and infectious diseases continue to intersect with cancer risk in new and complex ways.
Addressing these challenges requires a strong, stable, and well-coordinated research system. But that system is under strain. National Cancer Institute grant paylines, or funding cutoffs, remain highly competitive. Early-career researchers face precarious job prospects. Labs are losing technicians and postdoctoral researchers to higher-paying roles in industry or to burnout. And patients, especially those hoping to enroll in clinical trials, face delays, disruptions and dwindling options
This is not just a funding issue. Its a coordination issue between the federal government, academia, and industry. There are currently no long-term policy solutions that ensure sustained federal investment, foster collaboration between academia and industry, or make room for philanthropy to drive innovation instead of just filling gaps.
I believe that for the U.S. to remain a global leader in cancer research, it will need to recommit to the model that made success possible: a balanced ecosystem of public funding, private investment, and nonprofit support. Up until recently, that meant fully funding the NIH and NCI with predictable, long-term budgets that allow labs to plan for the future; incentivizing partnerships that move discoveries from bench to bedside without compromising academic freedom; supporting career pathways for young scientists so talent doesnt leave the field; and creating mechanisms for equity to ensure that research includes and benefits all communities.
Cancer research and science have come a long way, saving about 4.5 million lives in the U.S. from cancer from 1991 to 2022. Today, patients are living longer and better because of decades of hard-won discoveries made by thousands of researchers. But science doesnt run on good intentions alone. It needs universities. It needs philanthropy. It needs industry. It needs vision. And it requires continued support from the federal government.
Jeffrey MacKeigan is a professor of pediatrics and human development at Michigan State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The first 100 days of Trump’s second presidential term have included a surprising player that doesn’t seem likely to go away anytime soon: Signal.
The encrypted messaging platform wasn’t necessarily in the public conscious until last month when top government officials discussed details of an impending military attack in Yemen in a group chat on the platform that inadvertently included The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg.
The editor-in-chief published a piece called “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans” about his shocking inclusion, and quickly set off national interest in Signal. Signal subsequently told Wired that the incident led to a huge uptick in downloads of the app on top of what had already been a “banner year.”
Critics argued that if the nation’s top officials were talking about war plans in one chat, there must be other unreported chats. And just a few weeks later, another chat was revealed by The New York Times.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was on that original Signal thread, also was reported to have shared detailed information about those same forthcoming strikes in another Signal chat thatfor some reasonincluded his wife, brother, and personal lawyer.
Signal itself collects virtually no user data on its 30 million monthly users. But it’s still an unsecured consumer platform, often operated on a user’s personal phone, that’s vulnerable to hacks and surveillance. The Associated Press reported last week that Hegseth had an unsecured internet connection set up in his office so that he could use the Signal app on his computer.
The app has a feature that allows users to set messages to automatically delete after a set period of time. That’s given some a false sense of security, but this week’s Semafor report on the massive right-leaning Signal group that’s attracted billionaires has reiterated that people can leak messages, and phones can always take screenshots.
Turns out, what happens on Signal doesnt always stay on Signal.
After Pope Francis’s funeral was held over the weekend, attention has now turned to the papal conclave to choose the next pope. If youre Catholicor if you recently watched Conclaveyou might be hedging your bets on who next will be seated at the Vatican.
While the process usually happens behind closed doors, one TikTok user has created a “Fantasy Pope League,” in a similar style to fantasy football, an online game in which players collect points based on how real-life footballers perform each week, allowing people to play along at home and win points based off the real-life conclave.
There are 10 times the number of people in this sweepstake as there are cardinals in the Catholic Church, says @itismaxhooray. Making it bigger and therefore more legitimate than the real conclave.
@itismaxhooray What name will the new pope take? Youve had your say! Enter the pope fantasy league now! #pope #league #conclave #competition #fun #fantasy #guy #papal #name original sound – Max
Although sign-ups have now closed, those playing along will be assigned a cardinal via sweepstake from the College of Cardinals. If they do well in the voting, you do well in the pope league, @itismaxhooray explains. Players must also answer extra questions when they sign up to score “pope points,” which apparently will prove vital when it comes to the final leaderboard. There may even be a prize.
@itismaxhooray PLAY THE FANTASY POPE LEAGUE NOW! Link in bio #pope #league #conclave #fun #competition #fantasy original sound – Max
The original post has more than 100,000 views at the time of writing and reportedly saw 2,000 sign-ups on its first day. Im a normal girl who can be trusted not to get too intense about the fantasy pope league, one person commented. Immediately signed up, wrote another. 15 years of Catholic school have prepared me for this. Cardinals are now on their way to everyone who registered.
Today, the Vatican announced May 7 as the start date for the official conclave. The last two conclaves, held in 2005 to elect Pope Benedict XVI and in 2013 to elect Pope Francis, each lasted two days. Currently, there are 135 cardinals eligible to participate.
My cardinal is 40:1 according to Oddschecker, not awful, one player commented. Just me and 99-year-old Angelo Acerbi against the world, wrote another.
Martinellis, the apple juice brand that has previously gone viral for its apple-shaped packaging, has issued a voluntary recall of more than 170,000 bottles of juice. The recall comes due to potential patulin contamination. Patulin is a byproduct of mold thats commonly found in rotten apples. Heres what to know.
What is the reason for the recall?
According to an enforcement report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Martinellis voluntarily initiated the recall on March 18. The FDA then classified the recall as Class II on April 22, meaning it is considered a situation in which exposure to the product may cause “reversible adverse health consequences,” or where the probability of serious health consequences is “remote.”
Fast Company has reached out to Martinellis for comment. The FDA notice says no press release was issued for the recall.
According to a statement sent by Martinellis to NBC News: “In 2024, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) routine testing indicated that one lot of 10-ounce Martinellis Apple Juice glass bottles (in 4-packs only) produced in December 2023 may contain elevated levels of patulin, a naturally occurring substance produced by molds that can grow in apples.
The company added that it has reached out to retailers that received the recalled product, and that any remaining items from the batch in its inventory have been removed.
In all, the potential patulin contamination impacted 7,234 cases of apple juice, which equals about 170,000 individual bottles.
What product is being recalled?
The recall notice is for Martinellis apple juice, packaged in four-packs of 10-ounce cans. Here are the details, according to the FDAs description:
Product Description: Apple Juice; clear/translucent bulbous/round glass bottle with white metal screw top lid; (4 10-oz. bottles per pack; 6 packs per case)
Package size: 200g package
Company Name: S. Martinelli & Company
Recall number: F-0734-2025
UPC barcode: 0 41244 04102 2
Best by date: 05DEC2026
Where was the recalled product sold?
The affected apple juice was distributed in 28 states:
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Michigan
Mississippi
Missouri
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Texas
Utah
Virginia
Wisconsin
What is patulin?
Per the National Library of Medicine, patulin is a mycotoxin produced by a variety of molds, and it’s most commonly found in rotting apples.
It is not a particularly potent toxin, but a number of studies have shown that it is genotoxic, which has led to some theories that it may be a carcinogen, though animal studies have remained inconclusive, the National Library of Medicine notes.
Side effects of consuming apples or apple juice contaminated with patulin can include stomach irritation, nausea, and vomiting.
Has anyone been harmed by the recall?
So far, no health issues related to the recall have been reported.
What should I do if I have the recalled product?
If you have the recalled apple juice, you should not consume. Instead, throw it away. According to the Martinellis website, concerned customers can contact the company through an online form.
Shares of Deliveroo, the food delivery service based in London, are hitting three-year highs on Monday after it received a $3.6 billion proposed takeover offer from DoorDash.
Deliveroo announced the bid after markets closed in Europe on Friday. On Monday, the company also said that it was suspending a $133.5 million share buyback it had announced last month.
Deliveroo said Friday that its board has informed DoorDash that if a firm offer is made at the financial terms provided, it will recommend the bid to its shareholders.
Deliveroo added that its board has decided to engage in talks with DoorDash about the possible offer and has given the company access to due diligence.
Deliveroo said DoorDash must decide by May 23 whether it plans to make a firm buyout offer or not.
The proposed deal comes a few months after technology investment company Prosus agreed to buy food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com for 4.1 billion euros ($4.29 billion). Acquiring Just Eat Takeaway.com will boost Prosus food delivery portfolio in Europe, a move that DoorDash is also looking to make.
DoorDash currently runs its business in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Deliveroo, which was founded in 2013, operates in 10 markets worldwide, including the U.K., Italy and France. The company reported its first annual profit last year.
In January 2024 Delivery Hero sold its minority stake in Deliveroo after holding it for less than three years. The two companies worked together earlier this year, with Delivery Hero buying some of Deliveroo’s Hong Kong assets after the company decided to exit that market.
Ronald Josey of Citi Investment Research can see a few reasons why DoorDash is interested in Deliveroo.
While we continue to believe that DoorDash is more focused on organic expansion, Deliveroo meets several of DoorDash’s merger and acquisition criteria, including expanding geographies and total addressable market whereby it would take DoorDash time to do organically while delivering long-term free cash flow, he wrote.
Shares of Deliveroo jumped more than 17% on the London Stock Exchange on Monday.
Michelle Chapman, AP business writer
One went to the United States. The other went to China. It was a sign of the times.
While the Swiss president was in Washington last week to lobby U.S. officials over President Donald Trump’s threatened 31% tariff on Swiss goods, the Swiss foreign minister was in Beijing, expressing his nation’s willingness to strengthen cooperation with China and upgrade a free trade agreement.
As Trump’s trade war locks the worlds two largest economies on a collision course, America’s unnerved allies and partners are cozying up with China to hedge their bets. It comes as Trump’s trade push upends a decade of American foreign policyincluding his own from his first termtoward rallying the rest of the world to join the United States against China. And it threatens to hand Beijing more leverage in any eventual dialogue with the U.S. administration.
With Trump saying that countries are kissing my ass to negotiate trade deals on his terms or risk stiff import taxes, Beijing is reaching out to countries far and near. It portrays itself as a stabilizing force and a predictable trading partner, both to cushion the impact from Trump’s tariffs and to forge stronger trade ties outside of the U.S. market.
America and China are now locked in a fierce contest for global supremacy, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said in an April 16 speech. Both powers claim they do not wish to force countries to choose sides. But in reality, each seeks to draw others closer into their respective orbits.
The tariffs on Chinese goods are off the charts
Trump has paused some of his steepest tariffs on most American partners for 90 days after global financial markets melted down. But the Republican president has raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%, drawing rebukes from Beijing, which has vowed to “fight to the end. U.S. companies are warning of higher prices, meaning Trump could face both higher inflation and empty store shelves.
The magnitude of the taxes are already dramatically affecting American imports, with shipping containers set to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles down nearly 36% over the past two weeks, according to Port Optimizer, which tracks vessels. It’s lending urgency for both the U.S. and China to bolster support from alternate partners.
While Trump administration officials suggest the president could ease the duty rates on Chinese goods at his discretion, there has been no indication he’s yet looking for a reduction. That, after all, could suggest his protectionist policies were hurting the American economy.
They want to make a deal obviously,” Trump told reporters Sunday, saying the U.S. had gone cold turkey on trade from China. Right now, theyre not doing business with us.
The White House has framed any negotiations as being between the U.S. president and Chinese President Xi Jinping, but neither leader seems willing to make the initial outreach without some kind of concession. The two countries can’t even agree publicly whether they are holding talks.
Earlier this month, Xion his first foreign trip this yearvisited Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia, resulting in mutual pledges for closer economic and trade ties. In Vietnam, which faces the 46% tariff from the U.S., Beijing and Hanoi agreed to strengthen industrial and supply chain cooperation. In Malaysia and Cambodia, Xi secured similar agreements. Cambodia is faced with a 49% tariff from the U.S., and Malaysia, 24%.
Then there’s Japan: Despite its long-standing enmity toward the nation that once colonized parts of it, the Chinese government has reached out to Tokyo and urged a coordinated response, according to Kyodo News.
China is digging in
China is ready to use the stick, too. A South Korean newspaper has reported that China is demanding South Korean businesses not to ship goods containing China’s rare earth minerals to U.S. defense companies or face likely sanctions.
Earlier this month, Beijing warned that no country should reach a deal with the U.S. at China’s expense and vowed to take countermeasures in a resolute and reciprocal manner should such a situation arise.
Hal Brands, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said China will try to exploit Trump’s abrasive behavior to make inroads with U.S. allies and countries in the Global South.
Some scholars say Beijing is already gaining. People lost the confidence, or even trust, for the United States, particularly for Donald Trump in the U.S. Not for China, said Li Cheng, professor of political science at the University of Hong Kong. So in that regard, China gains in the geopolitical landscape.
Countries have to choose, but it’s difficult
China is the worlds largest exporter and the U.S. is the largest importer. Total trade for China reached a record 43.85 trillion yuan (US$6 trillion) in 2024, and the country is the biggest trading partner for most of the world, including the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and the grouping of the 10 Southeast Asian countries known as ASEAN.
The U.S. is the biggest destination for Chinas exports, though China is only the third-largest trading partner with the U.S., behind Mexico and Canada. Total trade for the U.S. last year was US$5.4 billion, with a record deficit of $1.2 trillion. For ASEAN countries, trade with the U.S. totaled $477 billion in 2024, including $352 billion worth of goods sold to the U.S. But China does more business with ASEAN.
Countries caught between the U.S. and China are in an impossible situation because they need to stay economically connected both to China, “a source of a lot of their input and imports and to the powerhouse U.S. market, said Matthew Goodman, director of the Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
They cannot choose one or the other, because they need both, Goodman said.
In Europe, China is preparing to lift sanctions to revive a trade deal, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. Chinese state media have been calling on European leaders to join China in safeguarding the multilateralism.
Back in Beijing, Xi has been receiving foreign leaders. On Thursday, he told Kenya’s president that Chinas market has always kept its door open to high-quality products from Kenya and that China encourages more capable Chinese enterprises to invest and start businesses in Kenya, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. On Wednesday, Xi met Azerbaijan’s president. Xi criticized the trade war as undermining the rights and interests of all countries.
Beijing sounds resolute
On Friday, when Xi presided over a key economc meeting, Beijings leadership struck a positive tone but acknowledged increasing impact from external shocks and urged preparing for worst-case scenarios with sufficient planning, according to Xinhua.
Wang Yiwei, a senior fellow at Beijing’s Center for China and Globalization, said China, after dealing with Trump’s first term, is prepared for his latest tariff approach. China is prepared for the worst, Wang said, and it is no longer living in the fantasy of globalization.
Victor Gao, vice president of the Center for China and Globalization, said Beijing is prepared for decoupling. What will be the end? It’s a complete halt, meaning no more U.S exports to China, no more China exports to the United States, he said.
And, despite high costs to China’s economy, China will survive, Gao said. For a country especially like China, with a history of 5,000 years, what kind of people have we not seen? Whatever invaders, robbers, and barbarians, Gao said. But at the end, they all leave. They all disappear. All get defeated.”
Didi Tang and Zeke Miller, Associated Press
AP Writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.
IBM plans to invest $150 billion in tech manufacturing, research, and development in the United States over the next five years. The technology giant announced this commitment in a news release on Monday. IBM says the investment will accelerate American production of quantum computers and fuel the economy.
The $150 billion investment includes more than $30 billion to fund research and development to advance American manufacturing of mainframe and quantum computers. IBM is one of the largest technology employers in the U.S. The company currently has manufacturing facilities in Poughkeepsie, New York.
“We have been focused on American jobs and manufacturing since our founding 114 years ago, and with this investment and manufacturing commitment, we are ensuring that IBM remains the epicenter of the world’s most advanced computing and AI capabilities,” IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in a statement.
Largest fleet of quantum computer systems
According to the company, IBM’s advancement of quantum computer systems “will not only help us better understand the fundamentals of how the world works but [it’s] projected to transform American competitiveness, jobs, and national security.”
The tech giant says it operates the largest fleet of quantum computer systems and will continue to design, build, and assemble quantum computers in the U.S. Earlier this month, IBM announced the z17, its next-generation mainframe, which is fully engineered with AI capabilities.
IBM is the latest company to announce U.S.-based manufacturing commitments following the Trump administration’s push to increase American manufacturing. Other companies that have pledged similar initiatives include Apple, GE Aerospace, and Nvidia.
Last week, IBM announced that it had lost 15 government contracts due to the cost-cutting initiatives of the Trump administration. This impacts about $100 million in future revenue.
Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of worshippers lined the streets of Rome and Vatican City as Pope Francis was laid to rest. As a pope, he will be remembered for modernizing Catholicism with a viewpoint of empathy, from his calls to include trans people in sacraments of the church to his final address that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Its a legacy that deserves a more considered resting place, as many on the internet have pointed out an unfortunate reality: The kerning on Pope Franciss tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major is objectively awful.
Pope Francis’s tomb is simple by design. Francisa modest man who opted to live in humble quarters alongside his peers rather than in The Vatican’s official housing for the leader of the churchrequested nothing more than his name and a cross to adorn regional marble (the stone of Liguria, the land of his grandparents). Vatican News goes as far as to position this stone, not the most premium, as the peoples stone.
It really is quietly beautiful. But atop that marble is a tomb inscribed with the name Franciscus. Or whatdue to terrible spacing between letters, known as kerningreads something more like F R A NCIS VS.
Multiple Reddit threads have taken to criticizing the kerning, along with several posts across social media.
View on Threads
"FR A NCISC VS"Mumbles about kerning.Photo via https://t.co/MZAjIwKG5C pic.twitter.com/s3IKzn46lB— Jeroen Wiert Pluimers @wiert@mastodon.social (@jpluimers) April 27, 2025
While some have argued that the bad kerning is actually a gesture of humility under God, theres no evidence of similar kerning errors in other papal tombs. Cheryl Jacobsen, a calligrapher and adjunct assistant professor at the Center for the Book at the University of Iowa, calls the engraving horrifically bad, noting that there is no historical reason for spacing that bad.
It’s a sentiment also shared by Christopher Calderhead, editor and designer of Letter Arts Review, who has written several books on ancient and religious letterforms. No, there is no historical or aesthetic reason why the kerning is so poor, he writes over email, while also pointing out that the inscription was set in Times New Roman and then carved.
I find that a pretty lazy choice, he says. It was also a choice that emphasized the ensuing errors in kerning. The Roman capital letters (or majuscules) that fill Times New Roman are considered masterpieces that have survived across languages for thousands of years. These formal letters should be kerned exquisitely, says Calderhead. That task requires spacing each letterform dynamically to balance the letters around it. Instead, in analyzing the kerning, he found that each letter appears to be spaced equally from the furthest edge of each glyph.
That’s would be the most bone-headed rookie mistake you can imagine (pun intended), he writes. Calderhead suspects the work was farmed out to a run-of-the-mill tombstone company.
[Image: courtesy Christopher Calderhead]
If they had chosen a looser letterform, like inscriptions in the catacombs, they could have played with irregular spacing, he concludes, pointing to this example of a looser religious font. But they chose a formal letterform that demands careful letter spacing.
Perhaps in the grand scheme of things, the kerning on Franciss tomb really isnt of much consequence, as it does little to mar the legacy he leaves behind. And indeed, for a pope famous for his humility, perhaps there is no greater immortalization of that virtue than his name being chiseled so poorly in stone for the rest of time.
