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Federal officials on Thursday approved a new type of pain pill designed to eliminate the risks of addiction and overdose associated with opioid medications like Vicodin and OxyContin. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Journavx for short-term pain that often follows surgery or injuries. It’s the first new pharmaceutical approach to treating pain in more than 20 years, offering an alternative to both opioids and over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen and acetaminophen. But the medication’s modest effectiveness and lengthy development process underscore the challenges of finding new ways to manage pain. Studies in more tha…

If you enjoy snacking on chocolate-covered pretzels, you’ll want to make sure you don’t have a specific variety of the tasty snacks from Fresh Direct in your possession. That’s because the chocolate-covered pretzels in question contain an undeclared milk allergen that could cause life-threatening health consequences in some people, up to and including death. Here’s what you need to know about the recall. What’s happened? Food distributor United Natural Trading LLC of Edison, New Jersey, has announced a recall of one of its Fresh Direct Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzels products after it was found to contain an undeclared milk allergen. As a result, the company de…

Recently, the IRS realized that it owes $2.4 billion total in COVID stimulus payments to about one million taxpayers, with a maximum payment of $1,400. If you’re eligible for a stimulus check, you don’t have to do anything to receive it: The IRS is sending out honest-to-goodness windfalls to a million Americans. Unlike your tax refund—which is a portion of your salary being returned to you—no one is likely to wag a finger at you for getting a stimulus check. But that doesn’t necessarily make it easy to figure out what to spend your stimulus money on. If you’re looking for good uses for your stimulus money, here are several strategies that can help you make the mos…

Over 15 years of working with leaders, I’ve noticed a clear pattern: Burnout often stems from what I call the Superman leadership style. Many cultures hold tightly to this image of a leader as strong, confident, and capable of fixing anything. This ideal isn’t just a societal expectation—it’s one that leaders impose on themselves. But striving to be a “Superman” leader is a recipe for burnout, because it’s both unrealistic and unattainable. Burnout, as highlighted by the World Health Organization, is an occupational phenomenon. It’s marked by exhaustion, reduced professional effectiveness, and a sense of detachment from one’s work. And leaders that fit the Superma…

We live in a world that is saturated with leadership wisdom—from countless books to endless streams of think pieces—yet the gap between what leaders know and what they do is as wide as ever. The thing is, leadership transformation is hard. It takes courage to step outside the status quo. And it’s deeply human to cling to comfort and choose habit over risk. In our years of working with leaders, we’ve noticed those who succeed at continuously evolving their leadership mettle strike a balance between three impulses. To make the concept easier to grasp, we visualize each impulse as a persona: the Kid, the Scientist, and the Gardener. These personas act as a framewor…

Now this is a Lego set suitable for framing. Soon Lego will release an artful 2,615-piece set based on Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which has the original work in its permanent collection. There’s no oil paint required for this rendition, though: The Lego set has enough blocks to make 16 sunflowers with adjustable petals, plus a tile with Van Gogh’s signature and a removable frame. The set is currently available for preorder for $199.99 and will ship starting March 1. Lego’s Amsterdam store and the Van Gogh Museum will permanently display sets of their own beginning March 1 as well. [Photo: Lego…

When I recently needed to find a last-minute place to stay for a week in Palo Alto, I picked one of the cheapest options on Airbnb: a 13-by-13 foot tiny house. Inside, the main living area was smaller than a parking space. Still, it had room for everything you might find in a typical studio apartment. Along the back, a tiny loveseat disguised a Murphy bed that could be pulled down from the wall; the coffee table was exactly the right size to move to the opposite side of the room when it was time to use the bed. On the other side of the house, there was a minuscule kitchen with a tiny fridge, a two-burner stove, and a sink, next to a semi-normal-sized bathroom with a s…

“I didn’t know what to say, so I avoided him.” That’s what a leader confessed to me during a coaching session, his voice low with shame. One of his team members had just lost a child, and instead of reaching out, he kept his distance. “What could I possibly say to make it better?” he asked me. “I was terrified I’d make things worse.” It’s a moment many leaders face but few talk about. When employees are dealing with loss, crisis, or personal hardship, the instinct to avoid, to stay in the safe zone of tasks and deadlines, can be overwhelming. But leadership during hard times isn’t about having the perfect words—it’s about having the courage to show up. The Emo…

Digital transformation is the most important investment that organizations can make to drive enterprise value. That’s according to 68% of 1,600 business leaders surveyed by Deloitte. And while I largely agree with their thinking, I would take things one very important step further. In my six years as CEO of Argyle, a technology company whose existence hinges on other organizations’ willingness to digitally transform their income verification process, I have learned this: A transformation that prioritizes the needs, skills, and experiences of the humans operating the technology being adopted is the key to long-term success. Consider the users Some call it takin…

Decades of research show the benefits of women in leadership are invaluable. Females embody a more transformational leadership style fostering mission-driven cultures. Female presence also improves team dynamics, with better collaboration and collective intelligence; the greater the ratio of women, the greater equality is seen in conversations, thus capitalizing on the team’s full knowledge and skillsets. All this translates into measurable results: meta-analyses link female leadership with improved sales, and their representation on the board of directors is also directly associated with financial performance. The largest study of women in corporate America marked i…

At the Exceptional Women Alliance (EWA), we empower high-level women to mentor one another, encouraging personal and professional fulfillment through meaningful connections. This month, I am delighted to introduce Malika Begin, CEO and founder of Begin Development, a consulting firm based in Malibu, California. Malika shares her insights on the transformative power of generous leadership—an approach rooted in empathy and purpose—especially during crises like the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles. Q: In moments of crisis, what leadership styles or qualities have the greatest impact on nurturing trust, resilience, and forward momentum within a team? Malika Begin: …

MrBeast’s fast-cutting, non-stop dramatics are already quick enough. Now, some users can watch his videos (and more) at 4x speed. YouTube is continuing their push for pace. In a new experiment, Premium users will be able to quadruple the speed of their videos. That’s up from YouTube’s previous ceiling of double speed. Meanwhile, TikTok users can up the tempo with a simple push-and-hold. And on Spotify, which is pushing to become video platform with their drive towards filmed podcasts, the speed cap is 3.5x. Ever since TikTok gained dominance, social media companies have worked quickly to shorten their video offerings. Meta and X pumped out TikTok clones for their…

In early 2024, Ryan Broderick, a surgeon at UC San Diego Health, was commiserating with some colleagues about the profusion of screens in today’s operating rooms. Though the displays provided essential guidance for minimally invasive operations in progress, they also added complexity. “We were looking around the operating room,” he remembers. “We have a lot of monitors, a lot of clutter. We were like, ‘There’s got to be a better way to do this.’” It wasn’t just about tidiness. ”For [a] monitor to be in the ideal position for surgery, it really should just be directly in front of your head without having to turn your neck or adjust your body,” explains Dr. Broderick. “Bu…

Anthony Obi never imagined the night of Jan. 7 would be the last time he’d step inside his safe haven. The Houston rapper, known professionally as Fat Tony, has lived in the Altadena neighborhood for a year and says he and his neighbors were prepared for heavy winds and perhaps a few days of power outages. “I totally expected, you know, maybe my windows are going to get damaged, and I’ll come back in like a day or two and just clean it up,” said the rapper. But residents like Obi woke up the following morning to news that thousands of homes and entire neighborhoods had been burned to ash, destroyed by flames that wiped out large areas of Pacific Palisades and …

The Army helicopter and regional American Airlines jet that collided over Washington are both workhorse aircraft that operate around the world on a daily basis. There were 60 passengers and four crew members on the jet, a Bombardier CRJ700, officials said. Three service members were on a training flight on the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. None are believed to have survived the Wednesday night collision, which caused both aircraft to plunge into the frigid Potomac River. What to know about the aircraft: Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk There are about 5,000 Black Hawks in use around the world, according to the aviation site FlightGlobal.com. The twin-engine, four-b…

On Thursday, United Parcel Service (UPS) predicted downbeat 2025 revenue as it cut back service with its largest customer, Amazon, in order to focus on more profitable businesses. The decision will cut Amazon’s transported volumes by more than 50% by the second half of 2026. The unexpected announcement came with disappointing revenue results, with UPS failing to meet expectations for 2024. UPS’s Q4 revenue was $25.3 billion, slightly below the predicted $25.42 billion. This decision came at a time when UPS is struggling due to a decline in parcel demand following the e-commerce boom of the pandemic and an increase in shipments from discount online retailers such …

This story was originally published by ProPublica. The icebreaker Aiviq is a gas guzzler with a troubled history. The ship was built to operate in the Arctic, but it has a type of propulsion system susceptible to failure in ice. Its waste and discharge systems weren’t designed to meet polar code, its helicopter pad is in the wrong place to launch rescue operations and its rear deck is easily swamped by big waves. On its maiden voyage to Alaska in 2012, the 360-foot vessel lost control of the Shell Oil drill rig it was towing, and Coast Guard helicopter crews braved a storm to pluck 18 men off the wildly lurching deck of the rig before it crashed into a rocky beach…