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With President Trump’s tariffs looming, companies are scrambling to figure out how to adjust their prices—especially now that the pause doesn’t apply to China, which just hit back by raising its tariffs on U.S. goods to a whopping 125%. Instead of waiting to see how they will hit, some businesses are introducing “tariff surcharges,” alerting customers in letters and adding a tariff price to websites and bills, passing those extra costs to American consumers, according to CBS News. For example, for high-end machine tools and parts, Little Machine Shop will label the cost as a “tariff charge” below the price on each product’s page, per Quartz. Nobu Yamanashi, head of Yama Seafood, a New York seafood supplier, told ABC, “What I’ve seen . . . what one of my customers say is that they might put a surcharge, a tariff surcharge, instead of changing the menu price, so that it’s very clear.” A new survey of 400 U.S. company leaders by Zilliant research firm found 44% of those businesses plan to pass tariff costs onto consumers. From automakers to chipmakers, Quartz reported that a number of companies will be imposing a tariff surcharge including, but not limited to: truck manufacturer Peterbilt; Creston, a video-conferencing solutions company; chip manufacturer Micron; SWFcontract, maker of commercial window treatments; DynaEnergetics, an equipment manufacturer for the oil and gas industry; and Honeywell Building Automation systems. Honeywell announced the tariff charges back in March, when it said it would pass a 6.4% tariff surcharge across all building-management-system products on relevant orders placed on or after March 1, but which had not shipped by March 4. The price increases also apply to luxury goods. New York magazine’s The Strategist reported knife and cookware maker Zwilling is increasing its prices. “There’s just no way around it,” Joanna Rosenberg, Zwilling’s chief sales and marketing officer, said, adding that the increase starts June 1. Last week, Labucq, a popular luxury footwear brand took to Instagram to alert customers that it was raising prices incrementally with a 10% hike on April 15, then another 10% on May 7. As tariff tensions between the U.S. and China escalate, it’s becoming clear that consumers will bear much of the financial burden. Whether it’s through quietly added surcharges or visible price hikes on everyday items and luxury goods alike, businesses are adapting quickly—and passing those costs along. With more companies expected to follow suit, the ripple effects of trade policy are already showing up on receipts, menus, and product pages across the country. View the full article

Verizon Business has introduced My Biz Plan, a new customizable wireless offering for small and midsized business (SMB) customers, now available nationwide. The new plan allows business owners to tailor wireless services based on their needs, marking a shift away from traditional carrier packages. Unlike the “good, better, best” options often offered by wireless carriers, My Biz Plan provides a single base plan with unlimited calling, data, and texting. Customers can then add business-specific features such as international connectivity and productivity tools, and make adjustments as needs change. Verizon highlights this plan as a flexible solution designed to offer more control to business users. Included with My Biz Plan is a three-year price lock guarantee, described by Verizon as an industry first. This guarantee ensures the core monthly plan price will not change for 36 months, offering cost stability for small business owners. The price lock excludes taxes, fees, the Economic Adjustment Charge, and optional add-ons. The plan also includes Verizon Business Mobile Internet Security to help protect devices against malware, ransomware, and phishing threats when connected to the Verizon network. Additional security features can be added as needed. Plans start at $29 per month for five or more lines with autopay and paper-free billing. Add-ons begin at $5 per month. For international needs, customers can access unlimited data, talk, and text in over 210 countries starting at $10 per month. Verizon is also offering a limited-time introductory promotion from April 10 to June 10. New lines added to the My Biz Plan will receive 15% off the core monthly price, applied each month for 36 months. Under this promotion, business customers can get five lines for $25 per line per month with autopay and paper-free billing. “We understand the unique challenges that small businesses face because we are with them every single day,” said Iris Meijer, Chief Product & Marketing Officer, Verizon Business. “We are so excited to launch My Biz Plan. It is the only plan in the industry that directly addresses their needs for control and flexibility, empowering them to stay a step ahead.” According to the company, My Biz Plan is informed by insights from the 2024 State of Small Business Survey, which found that many small businesses struggle to balance operational costs with the need for digital tools and connectivity. Verizon says the plan is intended to help small businesses manage costs while gaining access to vital resources. More information on My Biz Plan and additional offerings for small businesses can be found at verizon.com/mybizplan. Image: Verizon This article, "Verizon Launches My Biz Plan with Custom Options and Industry-First Price Lock for Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Verizon Business has introduced My Biz Plan, a new customizable wireless offering for small and midsized business (SMB) customers, now available nationwide. The new plan allows business owners to tailor wireless services based on their needs, marking a shift away from traditional carrier packages. Unlike the “good, better, best” options often offered by wireless carriers, My Biz Plan provides a single base plan with unlimited calling, data, and texting. Customers can then add business-specific features such as international connectivity and productivity tools, and make adjustments as needs change. Verizon highlights this plan as a flexible solution designed to offer more control to business users. Included with My Biz Plan is a three-year price lock guarantee, described by Verizon as an industry first. This guarantee ensures the core monthly plan price will not change for 36 months, offering cost stability for small business owners. The price lock excludes taxes, fees, the Economic Adjustment Charge, and optional add-ons. The plan also includes Verizon Business Mobile Internet Security to help protect devices against malware, ransomware, and phishing threats when connected to the Verizon network. Additional security features can be added as needed. Plans start at $29 per month for five or more lines with autopay and paper-free billing. Add-ons begin at $5 per month. For international needs, customers can access unlimited data, talk, and text in over 210 countries starting at $10 per month. Verizon is also offering a limited-time introductory promotion from April 10 to June 10. New lines added to the My Biz Plan will receive 15% off the core monthly price, applied each month for 36 months. Under this promotion, business customers can get five lines for $25 per line per month with autopay and paper-free billing. “We understand the unique challenges that small businesses face because we are with them every single day,” said Iris Meijer, Chief Product & Marketing Officer, Verizon Business. “We are so excited to launch My Biz Plan. It is the only plan in the industry that directly addresses their needs for control and flexibility, empowering them to stay a step ahead.” According to the company, My Biz Plan is informed by insights from the 2024 State of Small Business Survey, which found that many small businesses struggle to balance operational costs with the need for digital tools and connectivity. Verizon says the plan is intended to help small businesses manage costs while gaining access to vital resources. More information on My Biz Plan and additional offerings for small businesses can be found at verizon.com/mybizplan. Image: Verizon This article, "Verizon Launches My Biz Plan with Custom Options and Industry-First Price Lock for Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Millennials were told the 2008 recession was a “once in a generation” economic crisis. Almost two decades later, déjà vu has struck. While the U.S. market rose following President Trump’s decision to pause global tariffs on most countries—and global banks reset their recession risk assessments—lingering fears of economic collapse are driving millennials to TikTok, where they’re passing down survival tips to Gen Z. “We don’t panic during recessions, we prepare for them,” content creator and marketer Itzett Romero said on TikTok. “Listen to your millennial friends.” Romero advised her 70,000 followers to “make alliances” by sharing the cost of subscriptions and bulk grocery items with friends and neighbors. “Cannot stress buying bulk and buying EARLY,” a user commented on Romero’s video. “You don’t want to be in the store when everyone is panicking.” In a separate video, TikTok user @yaptrapped, who graduated college in 2011, also emphasized sharing. “Make friends because you can share a lot,” she said. “We survived a long time like that.” Financial advice was also widely shared across various videos. In one video, TikTok creator Rach to Riches advised that people “Build up your emergency fund, you should have three to six months of living expenses saved.” Separately, Saprina Danise, a creator focused on personal finance, said she will scale back her retirement contributions. “Anything above my minimal contribution I am diverting into my emergency fund for the foreseeable future,” she said in a video. Other popular tips offered budget-friendly recipes and grocery shopping strategies. Advice included checking your fridge before heading to the store, meal-prepping with what’s already in the pantry, buying meat in bulk to freeze, stocking up on shelf-stable goods like canned tuna, and cooking from scratch using dry ingredients like beans. Other millennial creators took a separate approach, simply sharing a glimpse of what life during 2008 looked like. “Working crappy retail jobs, making just barely above minimum wage, living at home with my parents,” user @sellingnwa shared on her TikTok. “On the weekends I was putting on business casual outfits and going to house parties.” She explained how jungle juice—a cheap liquor concoction—was served with no food. One user commented on that video saying that millennials “know how to party on a budget.” “You wan’t to know how to survive a recession,” another user commented. She offered a quick response in the description, “Cheap booze, that’s how.” View the full article

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it will not enforce or supervise nonbank financial firms that miss upcoming compliance deadlines for the nonbank registry of repeat offenders. View the full article

Senators including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chuck Schumer of New York signed a letter on Friday asking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate President Trump. The move comes after the president’s April 9 Truth Social post in which he told followers it was a “GREAT TIME TO BUY”—just hours before announcing a 90-day pause on the sweeping international tariffs that he’d enacted just days earlier. The letter urges the SEC to determine if any administration officials or insiders engaged in “insider trading, market manipulation, or other securities laws violations.” It also comes following a video filmed in the Oval Office of Trump explaining how much several of his guests made in the market on Wednesday. “He made $2.5 billion today and he made $900 million. That’s not bad,” Trump said in the video, posted by More Perfect Union on X, pointing out his friend and investor Charles Schwab as one of the beneficiaries of the intense gains the stock market made on Wednesday. U.S. stocks rose at record-breaking speeds on Wednesday as Trump paused some of his tariffs. The S&P 500 surged 9.5% in response to his announcement, marking the third-best day for the index since 1940. Questions around SEC’s ability to pursue enforcement The senators’ letter, addressed to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, also poses a series of questions, including about cutbacks in staff and enforcement activity at the SEC. The questions ask explicitly about the SEC’s ability to “monitor and respond to large-scale market events” and “investigate and pursue enforcement actions.” Warren posted a tweet Friday morning concerning the investigation request. “Did President Trump tip off big donors or family to cash in on his tariff chaos?” she wrote. “Today with @SenSchumer and Senate Democrats, I officially called for an SEC investigation to find out. Presidents are not kings.” Jordan Belfort, a former Wall Street stockbroker and convicted financial criminal known as the “Wolf of Wall Street,” told Sky News that there’s “no way” Trump is guilty of illegal insider trading. “I personally don’t find it overly suspicious. Especially since he’s told it to everybody at once,” Belfort said in a segment of The World. White House spokesperson Kush Desai responded to Fast Company’s inquiry with the following statement: “It is the responsibility of the President of the United States to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering,” Desai said. “Democrats railed against China’s cheating for decades, and now they’re playing partisan games instead of celebrating President Trump’s decisive action [Wednesday] to finally corner China.” A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment. On Thursday, Senators Adam Schiff of California and Ruben Gallego of Arizona also sent a letter, this one to White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles and U.S. Office of Government Ethics Acting Director Jamieson Greer, requesting an “urgent inquiry into whether President Trump, his family, or other members of the administration engaged in insider trading or other illegal financial transactions.” A list of questions requesting information about alleged ethical violations by White House administration or members of Trump’s family follows, with a deadline of April 18. View the full article

President Donald Trump unleashes an all-out assault on global trade, the status of Treasury bonds as the world's safe haven is increasingly coming into question. View the full article

Senior Fed official helps ease market jitters by signalling readiness to act if market strains grow View the full article

A version of the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act has been introduced in three prior sessions of Congress, but has never made it through the process. View the full article

On a panel this week, U.S. secretary of education Linda McMahon, the former WWE CEO who is now charged with making sweeping decisions for 100 million American school children, repeatedly referred to AI technology as “A1.” For McMahon, who was speaking at the ASU+GSV Summit for educators, it was an embarrassing mistake. But for Kraft Heinz’s A.1. steak sauce, it was basically free product placement—and the brand didn’t hesitate to take its cut. McMahon’s first slip-up occurred when she shared an anecdote with the audience about “a school system that’s going to start making sure that first graders, or even pre-Ks, have A1 teaching in every year.” Matters only got worse when she continued, “Kids are sponges. They just absorb everything. It wasn’t all that long ago that it was, ‘We’re going to have internet in our schools!’ Now let’s see A1 and how that can be helpful.” Maybe it can make the cafeteria meatloaf tastier? A.1. was thinking along the same lines. The brand jumped on Instagram yesterday with a spoofed ad for a McMahon-inspired A.1. bottle, complete with a photoshopped version of the sauce with the label “For educational purposes only” accompanied by the slogan, “Agree, best to start them early.” The post was captioned, “You heard her. Every school should have access to A.1.” Heinz is no stranger to thinking up limited-edition novelty goods, from its neon pink Barbie-cue sauce to a Taylor Swift-inspired ranch and portable Velveeta packets. However, this is the first time (to Fast Company’s knowledge) that the company has used its stunt marketing resumé to make a jab at a political figure. So far, A.1.’s loyal fans seem to be in support of its “new sauce.” “My husband wants a bottle for his desk,” one commenter wrote under the brand’s post. “He teaches middle school, at least until they replace him with A.1.” View the full article

But only now are asset managers beginning to reconsider the story of America as an inexhaustible well of safe betsView the full article

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had accused the Dallas bank of "deliberately disconnecting 24 million customer service calls" among other "unfair" acts. But the motion to dismiss allows the CFPB to refile the case again. View the full article

The Federal Housing Finance Agency ended comments on expanded suspended counterparties list criteria in December and has done nothing with it since. View the full article

Attending the Masters for the first time was a new experience for Thomas Abraham, and it wasn’t just about the golf. The 16-year-old from Houston had the rare opportunity to use a public telephone for the first time. “It was kind of cool,” said Abraham, who phoned a friend while attending the Masters Par 3 competition on Wednesday with his father, Sid. “I’ve never used one before. I figured it out. If I had to use one of those (rotary) phones I probably would’ve had to ask my dad.” Augusta National requires its patrons to leave their cellphones and other electronic devices behind. In place of those security blankets, there are several public telephone banks of those throwback devices from days gone by. They are a foreign sight for many in the younger generation who’ve never seen a phone with an attached cord. Abraham is not unlike most teenagers — or adults, for that matter — who are very much attached to the world through their cellphones. At some point, chances are, patrons check for their phone — patting their pockets, reaching for the clip on their belts, wherever it usually is. And when they can’t find it, well… “It’s kind of panic mode,” Abraham said. “We were at 18th (hole) and I went to reach in my pocket and it wasn’t there. Then I remembered it’s in the car.” He wasn’t alone. “I’ve checked my pockets for my phone no less than 10 times today,” said Ryan O’Connor from Little Rock, Arkansas. “I was sitting in the bleachers on the 16th green and someone dropped a water bottle and it made a loud noise and I instinctively reached for my phone. Not there.” The line at the public phone bank can stretch up to 10 people deep at the height of the Masters. And while they provide an outlet for those looking to touch base with the world outside of Augusta National’s gates, there are some issues that come with them. Like, remembering phone numbers. Bill Kehoe, 50, from Raleigh, North Carolina came prepared. As he approached the public phones, Kehoe whipped out a sheet of paper with a handful of names and numbers written on them with a black Sharpie. He picked up the receiver on the phone, punched in the number “1” to start the call and then looked down at the paper and entered the remaining numbers to complete the free call. “I can’t even remember my own phone number, let alone anyone else’s number,” Kehoe joked. “They’re all saved in my phone.” One of the calls he made was to his 14-year-old son Connor, who was on a school fieldtrip to Washington. D.C. Connor had asked his dad to call at a prearranged time while he was on a bus, and his 8th grade classmates were shocked when his caller ID popped popped up as “Augusta National Golf Club.” “You could hear all of the kids like, ‘Oh, that’s so cool!,” Kehoe said with a laugh. “But then they all started asking for merchandise so I had to hang up.” The reasons patrons disrupt their round of watching professional golf to make a call. One person was calling to hear about the day’s dramatic movement in the stock market. Another said he was checking in with work. And several others were simply touching base with family or loved ones. Tyler Johnson and his wife Lauren called home to Roswell, Georgia to check on their 5-year-old son, who is staying with his grandparents, “just to make sure there’s no blood,” Tyler said with a laugh. As mom and dad alternated talking to their son, they took pictures of each other talking on the odd-looking black public phone. “I think the last time I used one of these was 1999, before Y2K, I think,” Tyler joked. While not having a cellphone is an inconvenience for some, others have come to relish the liberating feeling of being disconnected from the world for a little while. Fletcher Lord from Little Rock texted his wife after he arrived at the course around 6 a.m. and reminded her not to expect to hear from him all day. He then set out to enjoy a few refreshments on a sunny, 70-degree day amid the serene backdrop of blooming azaleas and tall pines. “Once you get over the anxiety of not having your phone, it’s a very freeing feeling because it forces you to just be here in the moment,” Lord said. O’Connor agreed. He phoned one of his old friends from high school just to see if he’d pick up. He did. “He didn’t recognize the number obviously, but when he saw Augusta National pop up he said I better pick this one up,” O’Connor said. Then it was off to enjoy the day. “Is not having a phone a pain?” O’Connor said. “No, I think it’s actually good for me. Those emails will be there when I get back home.” —Steve Reed, AP sports writer View the full article

When people talk about how AI might reshape media, the term “hyper-personalization” comes up a lot. In broad terms, it means that AI can tailor the experience around your preferences—assuming it has enough data about you. To some extent, algorithms and ad tech have been doing this for years, recommending links and stories based on your clicks and browsing behavior. What generative AI brings to the table is the ability to adapt the content itself. A large language model could, in theory, understand the kinds of stories I care about and modify what I’m reading—maybe by adding an angle relevant to my region. It could even offer up different lengths or even formats. If I’m about to go for a run, maybe I want that feature article as a podcast. Or if I’m in a hurry, a short video in TikTok style might do. But this frames AI as a kind of Santa Claus: a magical benefactor dropping content “presents” on demand. In the AI courses I teach, I often explain that a key unlock of AI is that, once you use it enough, you start to realize the value is often more in the conversation—the questions you ask and the answers it gives—than the so-called output. Verbal features such as ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode are ideal for this. If you haven’t engaged in a brainstorming session while driving or walking, you’re missing out. AI can be an excellent brainstorming partner when you need to think through something. Even better: it can be a superb writing assistant, helping you develop ideas, stay on track, and fill in the holes in your arguments—without taking over the writing itself. Rethinking how we read the news Now apply that same idea to how we consume news. When you hit a point in the story you’re reading where you want to go deeper, you can instantly do that. If, say, you were reading a story about bringing the dire wolf back from extinction, you could ask about whether the same technique could be applied to other extinct species, how ethicists are responding, or how the news is affecting the biotech sector. The AI could bring in all that context without needing to “navigate” anything. We’re already seeing early signs of this behavior. On X, for example, people often tag Grok—a chatbot built into the platform—to ask follow-up questions about trending stories. It’s a small but telling behavior: instead of passively reading the news, users are instinctively treating it as a jumping-off point for a deeper conversation. Most news stories aim to deliver the latest facts, often with only a perfunctory amount of background—usually tucked into a paragraph or two at the end. For exotic topics like crypto, this often leaves the subject impenetrable to casual readers. With AI, however, a news story can be a conversation—one that explains things at exactly your level. In other words, the most powerful personalization tool isn’t data—it’s your words. This is the eureka moment in Joshua Rothman’s recent New Yorker essay that contemplates how AI might improve the news. The only catch? It requires a mindset shift—from AI giving you things to AI helping you discover things for yourself. There needs to be some education in the use of AI on the part of the reader. AI still needs a map But for that vision of AI and news to work, context is everything: In other words, the machines still need a map. For AI to bring you the absolute best information for whatever news rabbit hole you want to go down, you need a data set that’s oriented towards news topics. The massive data sets in today’s large language models are probably overkill, since they bring noise or generic knowledge when specificity is what’s needed. However, restricting the context to just the stories on the site you’re reading would be too limiting. A better idea would be something like a “general news corpus” of vetted sources that publishers could opt into, which other sites could access to bring a wide-ranging context into their AI experiences. ProRata and NewsGuard are building these kinds of products, but their best use case might not be general search engines like Perplexity or ProRata’s own Gist. Context is arguably more important when a reader has already clicked on an article and begun to go down a path. With AI, that path doesn’t have to be on rails—the reader can go in any direction, and the right context will follow. The most compelling thing about this vision of personalized news is that it doesn’t require Big Tech to be part of it, at least outside of building the large language models themselves. Journalists provide the raw information, product designers can build the experiences, and third-party content brokers assemble the context. Participation, not prediction For the past two decades, media organizations have optimized their platforms by trying to anticipate what audiences would respond to. But AI may be rendering that approach obsolete. Imagine a news experience where every reader gets the background they need, the angles they care about, and the context to go deeper—all just by asking. That’s not personalization by prediction. That’s personalization by participation. View the full article

International visitors stay away as political and economic tension and fears of a hostile border rise View the full article

Another major data breach has compromised the sensitive health records of more than 1.6 million patients—including minors under 18—who received care at Planned Parenthood in more than 30 states. Laboratory Services Cooperative (LSC), which provides lab testing services to reproductive health clinics across the U.S., is notifying individuals who may have been affected by a security incident that took place in October 2024. Planned Parenthood itself has been the target of cyberattacks in 2021 and 2024. What happened with LSC?According to LSC's filing with the Maine attorney general's office, hackers accessed its systems on Oct. 27, 2024—the breach was identified the same day—and stole the data of 1.6 million individuals. The information compromised varies from patient to patient but may include the following: Personal information: Name, address, email, phone number Medical information: Date(s) of service, diagnoses, treatment, medical record and patient numbers, lab results, provider name, treatment location Insurance information: Plan name and type, insurance company, member/group ID numbers Billing information: Claim numbers, bank account details, billing codes, payment card details, balance details Identifiers: Social Security number, driver's license or ID number, passport number, date of birth, demographic data, student ID number LSC employee data may also have been leaked, including details about dependents and beneficiaries. What patients can do if their information was compromisedIf you (or someone whose medical bills you pay) have received care at a Planned Parenthood center, you can check to see if clinics in your state are partnered with LSC for lab testing. LSC has a list on its FAQ site, and you can call the company's service center at 855-549-2662 to verify specific clinic locations. While you can't undo the potential damage of a data breach, you can take steps to secure your information and accounts, like keeping an eye out for suspicious activity and reviewing your credit report regularly (you can request a free copy every week from each of the three major credit bureaus). Freeze your credit, place a fraud alert, and lock down your Social Security number to protect against identity theft. LSC's website about the breach has information about reporting identity theft to federal and state agencies. LSC is also offering 12–24 months of credit monitoring to affected individuals via CyEx Medical Shield Complete. To register, call the customer support number listed above between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET Monday to Friday to request an activation code, which you'll need to enroll online. Affected minors and those without an SSN or credit history are eligible for a separate service called Minor Defense, which has a similar enrollment process. The deadline to sign up is July 14, 2025. View the full article

Officials around the world are dashing to diversify their economies. But the fight between the US and China casts a long shadowView the full article

The notes will get credit enhancement from balances on the subordinate bonds, which are permitted to amortize. View the full article

Meta is set to face off against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday in an antitrust trial that could force the social media giant to divest Instagram and WhatsApp. The closely watched trial carries high stakes for Meta’s $1.3 trillion market value. The company depends heavily on advertising revenue from Instagram, and losing control of the platform could deal a significant blow to its business. Here’s what to know about the FTC trial. The case focuses on decade-old acquisitions Meta acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014. The government argues that Meta didn’t buy these companies for their products or technology, but rather to eliminate potential competition. Prosecutors say it reflects CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s well-known strategy of buying rivals instead of competing with them. “Acquiring these competitive threats has enabled Facebook to sustain its dominance—to the detriment of competition and users—not by competing on the merits, but by avoiding competition,” the FTC wrote in a complaint. That strategy, they allege, has led to a decrease in quality of Meta’s products. The government wants Meta to divest Instagram and WhatsApp The FTC wants Meta to breakup with Instagram and WhatsApp. That would mean the tech giant would have to spin off the two highly popular platforms into their own companies. Such a move could be detrimental to its broader advertising business. Instagram this year is expected to bring in more than half of Meta’s total U.S. ad revenue, or more than $32 billion, Adweek reported. Meta is standing its ground To no surprise, Meta is maintaining its innocence. “The FTC’s lawsuit against Meta defies reality,” Meta said in a statement shared with Fast Company. “The evidence at trial will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage and many others. More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared our acquisitions, the Commission’s action in this case sends the message that no deal is ever truly final. Regulators should be supporting American innovation, rather than seeking to break up a great American company and further advantaging China on critical issues like AI.” The case is being tried before a familiar judge The FTC first brought this case before the courts in 2020. But Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington dismissed it, saying that the government didn’t have enough evidence. The agency amended its suit in 2022 and Boasberg allowed it to move forward. Boasberg is already a well known judge among the public during this second Trump administration. He’s presiding over both the White House’s deportations to Venezuela and the fallout of top U.S. officials and advisors discussing imminent war plans over the Signal messaging app. Meta recently met with Trump Meta has reportedly been lobbying President Donald Trump and other White House officials to agree to a settlement ahead of the trial. The Wall Street Journal reported that Zuckerberg has visited the White House a handful of times since Trump’s inauguration. Former FTC leader Lina Khan expressed concerns in January that she hoped the Trump administration wouldn’t give Meta a “sweetheart deal.” View the full article

If you’ve talked to any senior citizens lately, there’s a good chance they’ve brought up their concerns about looming changes to the anti-fraud policies of the Social Security Administration (SSA). Many seniors are worried that the changes may mean that they will stop receiving their Social Security payments, or that there could be a delay in receiving them. The messaging around Social Security’s anti-fraud changes has been a bit confusing, not to mention constantly evolving. Here’s what you need to know about the latest information available. What’s happened? As Fast Company reported last month, the Trump administration is implementing changes to the SSA’s anti-fraud policies. At the time, it was stated that from March 31, any individuals who began a Social Security benefits claim would be required to travel to a Social Security Administration office to verify their identity in person. This raised grave concerns from lawmakers and senior citizen rights groups since some seniors either have mobility issues, which make it hard to travel, or they live in rural areas, meaning they would need to travel great distances just to verify their identity. After significant public blowback to the requirement, the Trump administration backtracked. In a March 26 statement, the Social Security Administration said it was exempting “individuals applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Medicare, or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) who cannot use a personal my Social Security account” from the in-person requirement, allowing them to complete their claim over the phone. But some other individuals would still need to appear in person at an office to verify their identity, including those who need “to change their direct deposit information for any benefit” if they could not use the online “my Social Security” portal. However, the SSA moved the date back two weeks, from March 31 to April 14. The rules have changed—again Yet now the SSA has announced further changes, likely due to continued concerns from lawmakers and the public. While the April 14 date—next Monday—still holds, not everyone who was originally required to appear in person will now have to, reports NPR. Individuals will now still be able to apply for certain changes over the phone. However, if those individuals are flagged for anti-fraud checks, they will then need to appear in person at a SSA office. According to an unnamed White House official who spoke with NPR, the change was made because the SSA anti-fraud team “implemented new technological capabilities so quickly.” What the new changes mean For now, the bottom line appears to be a less strict stance: From April 14, most people will still be able to manage their Social Security accounts online and on the phone. However, you may still be flagged with a fraud alert. If that happens, you will then need to appear in person at an SSA office. As the SSA posted on its official X account on April 8: “Beginning on April 14, #SocialSecurity will perform an anti-fraud check on all claims filed over the telephone and flag claims that have fraud risk indicators.” In a follow-up post, the agency said that “Individuals that are flagged would be required to perform in-person ID proofing for the claim to be further processed,” adding that “Individuals who are not flagged will be able to complete their claim without any in-person requirements.” Addressing the administration’s reversal of its policy, Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, told NPR that the change was “a victory for Social Security beneficiaries across the country.” He went on to say, “The Trump administration did not change the policy out of the goodness of their hearts. They responded to public pressure.” The reversal will be welcome to the millions of American senior citizens who rely on their Social Security payments to pay the bills. But it’s understandable that the chaotic nature and messaging surrounding the changes have caused so much alarm. View the full article

US central bank prepared to act with ‘various tools’, Susan Collins saysView the full article

Fairway promotes top producer to national leadership role, NMB adds industry veteran to head sales and operations and Finance of America grows C-suite. View the full article

For many, Microsoft Edge's only purpose is to download another browser entirely, like Chrome or Firefox. But this isn't Internet Explorer: Edge is a competent browser in its own right, whether you have a Mac or a PC. If you do use the browser, you might be pleasantly surprised by how snappy it feels after you update it—at least, according to Microsoft. Edge 134 and newer's performance gains In a Thursday post on Windows Blogs, Microsoft confirmed that, starting with version 134, Microsoft Edge is a tad faster than previous iterations. In fact, Edge 134 is up to 9% faster, when you run it through Speedometer 3.0, a benchmarking tool for web browsers. Microsoft says that when testing Edge version 134 on an Intel i5-13500 running Windows 11, the browser scores a 32.7 on the Speedometer 3.0 benchmark. The company compares it to Edge 133, which scored 29.6, and Edge 132, which scored 28.8. Edge 132 (left), Edge 133 (center), and Edge 134 (right). Credit: Microsoft In addition to this raw benchmark score, Microsoft touted some Edge 134 stats: The company says the latest version of the browser can navigate the web 1.7% faster; browser start is 2% faster; and web pages are 5% to 7% more responsive when compared to Edge 133. Microsoft based their results from its "field telemetry," which simulates how someone may use the web on various devices and sites. Microsoft didn't point to any specific changes in Edge 134 that could contribute to this performance boost. However, the company credits code changes to Edge and Chromium (the underlying engine that powers many webs browser, Chrome included) to improved browser speeds. Microsoft does say that these improvements may differ depending on your setup, which should go without saying: Edge 134 may vary in performance between a PC running Windows 11 and a Mac running macOS Sequoia. Similarly, an older Intel Mac may perform slower than the latest Intel chip on PC, and it's not clear how well a Mac running Apple silicon compares to other devices. Whatever your setup, you can likely expect this latest version of Microsoft Edge to perform at least slightly better after the update. There's a bit more to the storyIf you're an avid Edge user, you might know that Edge 134 isn't actually the latest version. That would be Edge 135, which dropped earlier this month. Edge 134 came out on March 6, but Microsoft didn't acknowledge these performance gains until April 10. If you regularly keep Edge updated, you might have already been living with the speed boosts for over a month. However, not all of us are so on it: When checking my own version of Edge, I found it to still be on a version of Edge 133. Now, I'm on 135—I never even had the chance to run 134! In my own very unofficial test running Speedometer 3.0, 135 only scored 24.4, plus or minus 0.67. That might sound low when compared to Microsoft's tests, but the latest version of Chrome scored 22.1, plus or minus 0.28, while Safari scored 21.5, plus or minus 0.92. I suspect my various extensions could affect the scores, but I did quit all other open applications to run the test (I'm on an M1 Mac). Performance gains aren't the only improvements to Edge this year. Back in February, Microsoft started testing a feature that can block fullscreen pop-ups. Shortly after, the company rolled out a RAM management feature for gamers that had been in beta testing for some time. View the full article

Many companies are acutely aware that a notable portion of their workers are struggling with burnout. The data makes that much clear: A Mercer report from last year found that 82% of workers said they were at risk of burnout. In another study conducted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Ipsos, over half of the workers surveyed said they had experienced burnout because of their job in 2023. Even so, it seems that employers may be underestimating just how widespread burnout really is among the workforce. A new report by the online marketplace Care.com indicates that while the vast majority of companies surveyed—84%—know that burnout can noticeably impact retention, they don’t fully understand the scope of the issue. While employers believed only about 45% of their workers were at risk of burnout, 69% of employees said they were at moderate to high risk of burnout. The Care.com report, which polled 600 human resources executives and 1,000 rank-and-file employees, points to caregiving responsibilities as a driving factor behind burnout. Of the respondents who pay for family care, most of them say caregiving puts them at higher risk of burnout, and that their stress in the workplace is amplified by the burden of managing work expectations alongside caregiving. For many working parents, particularly those in their forties, caregiving responsibilities can take the form of both eldercare and childcare. What helps with burnout What does seem to help, at least according to Care.com’s findings, are workplace benefits that help support caregivers—an offering that has become increasingly common at companies that have invested in more niche employee benefits. Mental health resources have become some of the most popular benefits, along with fertility and family-building support. A number of companies also provide caregiver support in the form of subsidies or backup care coverage, which can help families manage gaps in childcare and offset the exorbitant cost of care. Despite the popularity of these employee benefit, companies don’t always see high rates of utilization across the board. But according to the Care.com report, when employers provide benefits tailored to caregivers, there can be a clear correlation with retention and stronger performance. The benefits that employees want About one in five employees said that they have quit jobs over a lack of caregiver benefits—or that they would leave for a role that offers those benefits. Among employees who have access to those benefits, 45% say that their productivity increased while 40% report lower rates of absenteeism. The emotional impact, too, can be significant: Over half of employees said caregiver benefits boosted their quality of life, improved their work-life balance, and reduced stress levels. According to the report, it seems that employees and employers alike are largely aligned on the expectation that companies can and should help families manage the cost of caregiving. What’s not always clear is the form that assistance should take. Narrow benefits like on-site childcare may not be the right solution for all parents, or companies may find that many of their employees are actually looking for help with eldercare—which is why it’s important that employers actually take the time to understand what their workforce really needs. View the full article