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President Donald Trumps first 100 days of his second term in office have been marked by whipsawing tariff policies; declarations that handicap his own goals; confusion as federal workers are fired, rehired, and fired again; and government officials quitting. In other words: chaos. And the next 100 days will likely be full of chaos, too. Some of this is intentional, like the rapid clip of executive orders, DOGE’s assault on federal workers, and the spate of illegal deportations. This flooding the zone” strategy was developed by Trumps first-term adviser Steve Bannon, who has remarked on Trump’s ability to overwhelm Democrats and the media with an onslaught of actions. This bombardment of activity, much of which is unconstitutional, has made it difficult for lawmakers and courts to keep up with Trump. But when they’re able to, theyre often ruling against him, showing that Trumps directives crumble under the law. In February, over one 90-minute span, three separate federal judges delivered legal setbacks to Trumpblocking the administration from freezing federal grants and loans, ordering the administration to pay foreign aid-related money it owed, and halting Trumps executive order suspending refugee admissions and funding. In just the past week, judgesboth liberal and conservativeruled against Trump in 11 different lawsuits. And these are just some of the setbacks. Outside of the courts, when Trump gets pushback, he has backtracked on his comments or switched course. Trump threatened to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, but when that prompted a major stock sell-off, he told reporters he had no intention of doing so. After issuing 145% tariffs on China, spurring concerns about a recession, he told reporters that 145% is very high and it wont be that high, and that the tariffs will come down substantially. The Trump administration took aim at Harvard University, threatening to cut off federal funding and investigating them for permitting antisemitism. When the elite university stood up to himsaying no government should dictate what private universities can teach, who they can hire, or what topics they can pursuethe administration once again walked back their comments; it blamed a mistake for setting off that confrontation. There’s been disarray and turnover among government officials, too. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been caught in multiple controversies for his use of Signal to discuss military attacks. Last week, Hegseths chief of staff left that role following “friction” between him and other senior advisers, and also after facing questions about how the Pentagon is being managed under Hegseth. Some longtime government workers have also resignedincluding a Treasury Department official, a director at the Food and Drug Administration, and the acting Social Security Administration commissionerin protest of the Trump administrations actions, including those of DOGE. (More than 20 DOGE workers have also resigned.) Others have been forced out or fired by the administration, though some of those action were unlawfulincluding Trump’s termination of National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox. Turnover was also a hallmark of Trumps first term: By 2018, just 14 months into his first term, Trump had replaced four Cabinet members, outpacing any first-term president in the past 100 years. By 2019, he fired his third national security adviser, another record. He also ran through multiple communications directors, including Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted just 10 days. Per the Brookings Institution, the total first-term turnover of his A-team (including senior advisers) reached 92%. Trumps actions have also seemed to run counter to his own purported goals. By clawing back renewable energy projects, hes hurting his own aim of increasing American energy production. By stoking fears of a recession with his economic actions, he’s made it less profitable for oil companies to boost production, despite his “drill, baby, drill” goal. Trump is also frequently contradictory; in just one example, he released an Earth Day statement about reducing global emissions, while also advocating for the increased use of coal and hobbling climate action broadly. Trump’s “flood the zone or shock and awe strategies are intended for maximum chaos, aimed outward to disarm and overwhelm his opposition. But other examples show a different kind of chaos, an internal disorder he perhaps can’t quite control. Already, Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 39%, down from 45% in February, and Americans feel worse about the economy now than they did a month ago. Almost half of poll respondents would give him a failing grade for his fist 100 days. Though the Trump administration has largely followed the policies outlined by Project 2025, it has also been clear that Trump will waver on some things in the face of opposition. One former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) communications worker said in a recent press briefing that the administration will measure the uproar to canceled government contracts, and if there’s enough blowback, they’ll end up approving the funding. Trump’s relationships with wealthy advisers have also influenced his actions, like when he shilled for Tesla on the White House lawn. All this makes it even harder to know what to expect in the next 100 days, or six months, or three years. “A lot of this is not really an agenda, and more sort of random impulses by individuals, said Jesse Young, former chief of staff to climate envoy John Podesta, during that same press briefing. He doesnt really seem particularly well coordinated. Young pointed to how the State Department recently fired Pete Marocco, a Trump appointee who was in charge of dismantling USAID, as an example of this lack of coordination. That firing caused blowback against Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had clashed with Marocco. Some say Rubio disliked Marocco’s “bulldozer” style, while Marocco allies say Rubio was obstructionist. Per Politico, Marocco’s firing was described by one White House official as the first MAGA world killing from inside the White House. What that means for the future of the foreign aid isn’t clear, but it hints at how senior leaders under the Trump administration may find themselves fired or caught in scandal, or may resign because of internal conflicts. And that means more chaos going forward. The agenda and the policy of the administration will shift a lot as they lose people, Young says. Its just going to be enormously unpredictable.
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E-Commerce
Since its inception in 1965, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has enforced antidiscrimination laws and acted as the first line of defense for Americans who experience workplace discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, age, disability, or sexual orientation. Even while facing a shrinking budget and staffing constraints, the agency has managed to secure significant payouts for workers who have been the target of discrimination. In 2024, the EEOC recovered nearly $700 million for about 21,000 workers, a sum far beyond its $455 million budget. The past year also saw an uptick in the number of discrimination charges fielded by the EEOC, an increase of about 9% from the year prior to over 88,500 charges. Over the past few months, however, President Trump has taken multiple steps to undermine the authority and independence of the EEOC. Presidents typically allow commissioners of federal agencies to serve out their terms, regardless of their political affiliation. But just days into his presidency, Trump fired two EEOC commissionersJocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows, who was chair of the agency under President Bidenbefore their term limits were up. In doing so, he eliminated the Democratic majority and left the agency without a three-person quorum. (Samuels has filed a lawsuit contesting her termination.) Without a quorum, the EEOC cannot vote to issue new regulations or guidance or revise existing regulations or guidance. The agency also cannot pursue certain types of litigation or systemic cases of discrimination. A new acting chair Andrea Lucas, the new acting chair of the EEOC and a conservative voice known for her criticisms of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the workplace, has furthered the president’s anti-DEI agenda since being instated. Former EEOC officials like Jenny Yang, a partner at workers rights law firm Outten & Golden and onetime EEOC chair, have been alarmed by Trump’s influence over the agency’s priorities. It’s really an unprecedented and quite radical shift from pursuing the historic mission of the EEOCwhich was to advance equal opportunity for everyone and to ensure employers prevent and remedy discriminationto one that is really turning our civil rights laws on their head and targeting employers for taking efforts to prevent discrimination, Yang says. [The EEOC is] seeming to suggest that its mission is actually only focused on some workers that have the kinds of claims that this administration thinks are worthy. (The EEOC did not respond to a request for comment for this story.) As she stepped into the role of acting chair in January, Lucas suggested that the EEOC had not thoroughly investigated certain types of discrimination. I look forward to restoring evenhanded enforcement of employment civil rights laws for all Americans, she said in a statement. In recent years, this agency has remained silent in the face of multiple forms of widespread, overt discrimination. Lucas went on to note that her priorities would be in line with Trumps executive orders and would include rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination and defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including womens rights to singlesex spaces at work. Alleged overreach Lucas has executed on those priorities in the months since, issuing a document on DEI-related discrimination that defines what constitutes an unlawful DEI initiative and addressing questions like whether a DEI training could create a hostile work environment. In a particularly controversial move, Lucas sent letters to 20 law firms in March asking for details on their DEI-related employment practices, specifically flagging diversity fellowships and employee resource groups in some cases. Yang and other former EEOC officials have described this move as a clear overreach and beyond the scope of a commissioners authority, even outlining their concerns in a letter addressed to Lucas. (A group of law students has also brought a lawsuit against the EEOC over its inquiries to law firms.) It was really just stunning and frightening to see such a blatant disregard of Title VII statutory language because the commission only has authority as enumerated by Congress, Yang says. The commission’s authority stems from opening an investigation of a charge. But there’s no authority to ask employers for sensitive information not through the charge process. Part of the reason for that, she points out, is a confidentiality provision that ensures privacy as the EEOC collects information related to the charge. While the EEOC may have lacked the authority to send those letters, four law firms have already reached settlement agreements with the agency in response to the inquiries, even promising to drop the term DEI and committing to merit-based employment practices. It seems like these letters were really an attempt to intimidate the firms into voluntarily dropping any efforts that they might have been engaged in to advance equal opportunity in the workplace, says Katie Sandson, the senior counsel for education and workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center. Shifting agency priorities Beyond explicitly targeting DEI programs, multiple reports indicate that the EEOC has already started deprioritizing charges related to gender identity. EEOC employees have reportedly been instructed to classify charges of gender identity discrimination as low priority, a category typically intended for charges that lack merit. The agency is also reportedly dismissing lawsuits that involve discrimination against transgender and gender-nonconforming workers, citing Trumps executive order that recognizes only two biological sexes. Other reports have found that EEOC judges are being asked to stop hearing cases that involve allegations of discrimination over gender identity. A number of EEOC employees have reportedly left the agency since Lucas took over, according to The New York Times, in part due to concerns that the agency has been politiized; some employees, like administrative judge Karen Ortiz, have publicly pushed back on the new directives and refused to stop evaluating cases. A new executive order handed down by Trump just last week could put more pressure on the EEOC to dismiss certain cases outright, Yang says. The order challenges the theory of disparate impact liability, which refers to when someone is treated differently on the basis of protected characteristics like race and genderthe concept behind countless discrimination cases. Trump instructed the EEOC to take appropriate action on all investigations or suits that involve a theory of disparate impact. It could be a criminal background screen, pay equity issue, or hiring discrimination, Yang says. It’s likely, based on that executive order, that all of those pending charges are just going to be dismissed rather than investigated, and that will have a significant impact on many workers. A changing footprint Workers who turn to the EEOC could also face more hurdles if the agency shuts down eight field offices that have been marked for lease termination by the Department of Government Efficiencya concern that Democrats in Congress have also raised in a letter to Lucas. Field offices play a really important role in the EEOC, Sandson says. For many workers, theyre the first point of contact with the EEOC in their own communities, and it’s where they go when they want to pursue an action. They investigate these cases, they do intakes, they do outreach and education events. Closing those offices would just be another action that would really undermine the EEOCs ability to serve workers across the country. The EEOC is often the sole option for workers who face discrimination on the job, particularly those in low-wage jobs who cant afford to hire a lawyer on a contingency basis. But that could change if the agency is now deprioritizing certain types of employment discrimination. “Many workers will have no recourse,” Yang says. “The private bar can step in, in some cases, but there are many other workers who won’t be able to vindicate their rights. Laws require enforcement to have meaning, and this is just a giant step backwards for equal opportunity. I worry that many workers won’t know where to go.”
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E-Commerce
Floor tiles designed to block cellphone signals. Special window film to ruin the photos of overhead drones. A bevy of hidden electronic jamming devices. This might sound like the arsenal of a high-tech spy, but its actually just a few of the trappings required to keep a conclave secret in 2025. In the wake of Pope Franciss death and funeral this weekend, the Catholic Church is now in a high-stakes race to prepare for the papal conclave, the traditional ceremony that will determine the next pope. On May 7, around 135 Roman Catholic cardinals will be sequestered in the Sistine Chapel for a series of ballot votes to decide who will inherit leadership of the churcha process that can take anywhere from two days to several weeks. The conclave is designed to be a highly secretive process, wherein the outside world is entirely ignorant to the discussions happening inside the Sistine Chapel, and the cardinals themselves likewise have no connection to the outside world. However, with all of the technology available in 2025 (like drones, AI, and advanced microphones), maintaining that secrecy is much more difficult than it was in 2005, when cellphones were first banned. It doesnt help that thousands of conclave followers are turning the event into a gambling opportunity, betting their hard-earned cash on the events outcome and making the public even more ravenous for a glimpse inside the chapel walls. To prepare for this highly publicized event, the Vatican is currently in the process of a design overhaul of the Sistine Chapel to host its temporary residentsand to keep information tightly contained. View of the Vatican City and Rome from the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. [Photo: Grzegorz Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images] Jamming devices, armed guards, and high-tech floor tiles Right now, much of what we know about the Vaticans conclave security measures comes from reports on the last conclave back in 2013. That year, fears surrounding potential leaks through hidden devices or internet signal were a serious concern, especially after an unfortunate incident in 2005 when a German cardinal reportedly accidently leaked the conclaves papal choice before the official announcement. To prevent any similar oversights in 2013, the Vatican disabled its internet signal by using jamming devices that prevented messages from any device transmitting information in or out of the chapels walls. There was a rumor that the jamming devices were placed in the floorboards, which was ultimately dispelled by the Reverend Thomas Rosica. They won’t work if you put them there, Rosica told reporters. Instead, he said, the jamming devices were installed high up on the walls, like a shield on an airplane. At the time, veteran Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli, who is currently the editorial director of the Holy See publication Vatican News, reported that the Vaticans anti-bugging technology took the form of a Faraday cage inside the Sistine Chapel, the Santa Marta residence, and Synod Hall, where pre-conclave meetings took place. A Faraday cage is a kind of enclosure that prevents the transmission of electromagnetic waves by surrounding a targeted area with an electrically conducting material. Further security measures at the last conclave included privacy film on all windows to prevent any drone photography, rigorous checks for hidden devices inside the chapel and on the cardinals themselves, and an elite force of guards armed with heavy weapons. This time around, information on the Vaticans security plans is not yet widely available. However, there is one detail thats already emerged. According to an interview with NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose today, The floor being installed in the Sistine Chapel right now has special cellphone-blocking technology to keep inside information in and outside information out. Fast Company has reached out to the Vatican for more information on new security measures, and will update this story accordingly. Because insight on the cardinals decision cannot be transferred to the public via the internet, they will instead use a tried-and-true method: smoke. Each day that the cardinals do not reach a decision, black smoke will issue from a chimney at the Sistine Chapel. When the choice is made, the smoke will be white. Per a report from the Associated Press, the Vatican is currently working on installing a new chimney to ensure that all of the cardinals ballots are properly burned. Meanwhile, a second chimney installed beside it will issue the ceremonial black or white smoke.
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E-Commerce
A new partnership between music creation platform BandLab and Sony is set to bring users production tools that are aimed at making independent musicians competitive with big-budget artists. Starting this summer, BandLab will integrate Sonys spatial sound technology, 360 Reality Audio, directly into its song-creation appallowing the songwriters and producers who use it to build immersive songs on their smartphones, using any headphones. A lot of these creators dont have access to expensive equipment and gear, says Jordy Freed, who leads brand, business development and strategy for Sonys personal entertainment business. When we look at 360 [Reality Audio] and some of the other technologies well integrate, wed be doing a disservice to current and future trends of music creation and listening if we didn’t open this up to more people. Executives from both companies say the features that BandLab will add in the coming months are just the start of a broader partnership that positions Sony and its personal entertainment businesswhich encompasses its consumer and professional audio businessesas a ground-floor partner to BandLab’s 100 millionstrong user base. Making amateur production immersive During the production process for most songs, producers and musicians assign elementsvocals and instruments, for exampleto a channel (left or right in the most basic form). With spatial sound tools offered by companies such as Sony and Dolby Atmos, song-makers can assign any element, or object, a position and volume based on distance in a virtual sphere around a listeners head. Though Apples spatial audio on Apple Music can be paired with hardware capabilities like head tracking to create a more dynamic spatial experience, a listener doesnt always need special headphones to listen to an immersive song. But the tools for making immersive music have been reserved for pricier software suites and studio equipment. For many years, its been so limiting for who can create in spatial, just from a pure economic basis, Freed says. A lot of the tools that have existed in spatial are often on the higher end in terms of price points and knowledge needed to use them. If youre an emerging creator, are you seeing the return on investment if youre spending that money? He says the BandLab partnership will be the first time a broad swath of musicians will be able to experiment with immersive audio. Initially, users will have access to a free set of curated, spatial-enabled beats onto which theyll be able to add vocals, instruments, and other production elements, with the final song being sa BandLab cofounder and CEO Meng Ru Kuok says the partnership is designed to make sure BandLab users are able to compete in a music industry in which streamers have been building demand for immersive listening steadily for years. In January 2024, Apple implemented a bonus payout of up to 10% for songs that are also available in spatial audio on Apple Music. The move came as a growing number of listeners opted for the immersive versions of songs on the streaming platform. Last summer, Apple VP of Apple Music and Beats told Wallpaper that 90% of Apple Music users were listening to songs with spatial audio. Though Apples spatial experience is powered by Dolby Atmos, Amazon music currently support Sonys 360 Virtual Audio. (Tidal removed its support for Sony’s 360 Virtual Audio summer.) From the consumption and listening side, theres been massive progress, but creation and music has always laggedlargely because of the infrastructure of people needing desktop equipment, expensive audio interfaces, expensive mixing gear, and those kinds of things, Kuok says. We dont want our creators to be left behind. We see in Sony a partner that is technologically able to make it accessible for people just through a pair of headphones. Equipping smartphone creatives for the future The spatial audio tools are just the start of multiyear partnership between Sony and BandLab. Freed says Sonys work with BandLab is part of his divisions broader efforts to engage with emerging artists and creators. The company works closely with the Recording Academy on its Grammy U program, which supports up-and-coming music professionals via events and networking opportunities. Additionally, in March, Sony and New York University announced the creation of the Sony Audio Institute, which over the next 10 years will offer students in the schools Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development access to Sony tech and research opportunities. It was important for us to have a fully rounded-out effortfrom the Grammy folks to the 100 millionplus BandLab users, most of whom are under 25 years old and creating with smartphones, Freed says. BandLab is seeing its fastest user growth in Nigeria and South Africa, as well as Latin America, all areas where smartphones are the dominant tech among creators. Freed says the partnership could expand to include creator camps and other educational opportunities with BandLab users to train them on Sony technology or connect them with industry professionals. This is not something that we look at and ask what the business impact is for the next quarter, Freed says. You do something like this because you really care deeply about community and growing a creator base to bring everyone together and shape where things are going for what it means to be a music creatorbecause its changing.
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E-Commerce
A decade ago, Scott Osborn would have eagerly told prospective vineyard owners looking to join the wine industry to jump into it. Now, his message is different. Youre crazy, said Osborn, who owns Fox Run Vineyards, a sprawling 50-acre (20-hectare) farm on Seneca Lake, the largest of New Yorks Finger Lakes. Its becoming riskier to grow grapes in the states prominent winemaking region. Harvests like Osborns are increasingly endangered by unpredictable weather from climate change. Attitudes on wine are shifting. Political tensions, such as tariffs amid President Donald Trumps trade wars and the administrations rollback of environmental policies, are also looming problems. Despite the challenges, however, many winegrowers are embracing sustainable practices, wanting to be part of the solution to global warming while hoping they can adapt to changing times. ___ EDITORS NOTE: This story is a collaboration between Rochester Institute of Technology and The Associated Press. ___ The Finger Lakes, which span a large area of western New York, have water that can sparkle and give off a sapphire hue on sunny days. More than 130 wineries dot the shorelines and offer some of Americas most famous white wines. At Fox Run, visitors step inside to sip wines and bring a bottleor twohome. Many are longtime customers, like Michele Magda and her husband, who have frequently made the trip from Pennsylvania. This is like a little escape, a little getaway, she said. Traditionally, the plants buds break out in spring, emerging with colorful grapes that range from the cabernet francs deep blues to the soft greens of the regions most popular grape, riesling. However, a warming world is making that happen earlier, adding to uncertainty and potential risks for farmers. If a frost comes after the buds have broken, growers can lose much of the harvest. Year-round rain and warmer night temperatures differentiate the Finger Lakes from its West Coast competitors, said Paul Brock, a viticulture and wine technology professor at Finger Lakes Community College. Learning to adapt to those fluctuations has given local winemakers a competitive advantage, he said. Globally, vineyards are grappling with the impacts of increasingly unpredictable weather. In France, record rainfall and harsh weather have spelled trouble for winegrowers trying their best to adapt. Along the West Coast, destructive wildfires are worsening wine quality. Winegrowers as part of the solution Many winegrowers say they are working to make their operations more sustainable, wanting to help solve climate change caused by the burning of fuels like gasoline, coal, and natural gas. Farms can become certified under initiatives such as the New York Sustainable Winegrowing program. Fox Run and more than 50 others are certified, which requires that growers improve practices like bettering soil health and protecting water quality of nearby lakes. Beyond the rustic metal gate featuring the titular foxes, some of Osborns sustainability initiatives come into view. Hundreds of solar panels powering 90% of the farms electricity are the most obvious feature. Other initiatives are more subtle, like underground webs of fungi used to insulate crops from drought and disease. We all have to do something, Osborn said. One winegrower’s sustainability push For Suzanne Hunt and her familys seventh-generation vineyard, doing something about climate change means devoting much of their efforts to sustainability. Hunt Country Vineyards, along Keuka Lake, took on initiatives like using underground geothermal pipelines for heating and cooling, along with composting. Despite the forward-looking actions, climate change is one of the factors forcing the family to make tough decisions about their future. Devastating frosts in recent years have caused catastrophic crop loss. Theyve also had to reconcile with changing consumer attitudes, as U.S. consumption of wine fell over the past few years, according to the wine industry advocacy group Wine Institute. By this years end, the vineyard will stop producing wine and instead will hold community workshops and sell certain grape varieties. The farm and the vineyard, you know, its part of me, Hunt said, adding that she wanted to be able to spend all of her time helping other farms and businesses implement sustainable practices. Ill let the people whose dream and life is to make wine do that part, and Ill happily support them. Tariffs and U.S. policy changes loom Vinny Aliperti, owner of Billsboro Winery along Seneca Lake, is working to improve the wine industrys environmental footprint. In the past year, hes helped establish communal wine bottle dumpsters that divert the glass from entering landfills and reuse it for construction materials. But Aliperti said hed like to see more nearby wineries and vineyards in sustainability efforts. The wine industrys longevity depends on it, especially under a presidential administration that doesnt seem to have sustainability at top of mind, he said. I think were all a bit scared, frankly, a bit, I mean, depressed, he said. I dont see very good things coming out of the next four years in terms of the environment. Osborn is bracing for sweeping cuts to federal environmental policies that previously made it easier to fund sustainability initiatives. Tax credits for Osborns solar panels made up about half of over $400,000 in upfront costs, in addition to some state and federal grants. Osborn wants to increase his solar production, but he said he wont have enough money without those programs. Fox Run could also lose thousands of dollars from retaliatory tariffs and boycotts of American wine from his Canadian customers. In March, Canada introduced 25% tariffs on $30 billion worth of U.S. goodsincluding wine. Osborn fears he cant compete with larger wine-growing states like California, which may flood the American market to make up for lost customers abroad. Smaller vineyards in the Finger Lakes might not survive thes economic pressures, he said. Back at Fox Run’s barrel room, Aric Bryant, a decade-long patron, says all the challenges make him even more supportive of New York wines. I have this, like, fierce loyalty, he said. “I go to restaurants around here, and if they dont have Finger Lakes wines on their menu, Im, like, What are you even doing serving wine? ___ The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. ___ This story was first published on April 23, 2025. It was updated on April 28, 2025, to add context about the decision to close Hunt Country Vineyards by the end of the year. Natasha Kaiser of Rochester Institute of Technology and Makiya Seminera of The Associated Press
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E-Commerce