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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. 2026 is already overflowing with new and improved sites and services. In today’s post I’m sharing five I’ve tested and found particularly useful. Kraa: Make Gorgeous Documents I love minimalist tools like the free Kraa, a wonderful new digital writing surface. I’ve started experimenting with creating quick, simple pages, which Kraa calls “leaves.” The example pages shared by Kraa’s founding team will give you a feel for it: A news story with an image gallery, pull quotes, and comments A blog post with images, quotes, an…

The southern side of the Colosseum in Rome has just undergone a subtle but much-needed facelift. This side of the world-famous monument is where the empire’s elite once entered the grand amphitheater to watch gladiators fight to the death, and where a series of earthquakes over its nearly 2,000-year lifespan have chewed away at the structure. Through deep archaeological research and a clever architectural intervention, the ancient monument’s original layout has been restored after centuries of decay. It’s giving modern day visitors a more accurate sense of how the space was originally used. The project focuses on the southern perimeter of the Colosseum, restoring of …

KitKat’s newest invention isn’t a chunky bar, or an F1 car-shaped chocolate, or even a branded ice cream. It’s a KitKat wrapper that blocks your cell phone signal. The product is called “Break Mode,” and it was produced via a collaboration between KitKat Panama and the creative agency Ogilvy Colombia. It looks like an oversized KitKat wrapper, but it’s actually a Faraday cage, or a conductive enclosure designed to block electromagnetic fields. While Faraday cages are most commonly used in medical labs, data security applications, and to protect electrical equipment, KitKat’s spin on the tech turns it into a pouch that renders your cellphone unusable. KitKat and …

A new cafe in Stockholm just opened its doors and, though there’s a human behind the counter making drinks and light bites, an AI manager is calling the shots. Andon Cafe is the latest autonomous organization experiment run by AI research company Andon Labs, tasking its AI to sell coffee and manage European bureaucracy. The result? Curious customers, $1,000 in sales in four days, and a lot of surplus supplies. A viral experiment Like the company’s AI-run retail experiment in San Francisco, Andon Labs secured a lease in Stockholm on a quaint corner coffee shop, then handed it over to an AI—in this case, Mona, powered by Gemini. At the beginning of the exper…

Iran offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz without addressing its nuclear program, officials with knowledge of the proposal said Monday. Iran also wants the United States to end its blockade of the country as part of its proposal, according to the two regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations. Oil prices were up Monday as a standoff between the U.S. and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz remained despite a ceasefire, while Pakistan leaders were seeking to revive stalled talks between the two countries. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Russia Monday for a meeting with President Vladimir…

Technology tycoons Elon Musk and Sam Altman are poised to face off in a high-stakes trial revolving around the alleged betrayal, deceit and unbridled ambition that blurred the bickering billionaires’ once-shared vision for the development of artificial intelligence. The trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection, centers on the 2015 birth of ChatGPT maker OpenAI as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion. The trial’s outcome could sway the balance of power in AI — breakthrough technology that is increasingly being feared as a potential job killer and an existential threat to h…

Yum Brands is delivering on its promise to shutter hundreds of Pizza Hut locations. Three months after the fast-food giant announced its intention to close 250 underperforming Pizza Hut restaurants during the first half of 2026, the chain’s U.S. footprint appears to be notably smaller, according to a Fast Company analysis. A review of local media reports, online review platforms such as Yelp and Google Reviews, and Pizza Hut’s own store locator tool has found more than 50 locations that have closed in recent months, spanning cities across the United States. The true tally is likely much higher. Ranjith Roy, CFO of Yum Brands, indicated on an earnings call in…

Two years ago, Josephine Timperman arrived at college with a plan. She declared a major in business analytics, figuring she’d learn niche skills that would stand out on a resume and help land a good job after college. But the rise of artificial intelligence has scrambled those calculations. The basic skills she was learning in things like statistical analysis and coding can now easily be automated. “Everyone has a fear that entry-level jobs will be taken by AI,” said the 20-year-old at Miami University in Ohio. A few weeks ago, Timperman switched her major to marketing. Her new strategy is to use her undergraduate studies to build critical thinking and interpersonal ski…

For years, leaders have treated transformation as a question of strategy and technology. Do we have the right plan? The right tools? The right talent? Most leadership teams think they have a speed problem. They don’t. They have a friction problem. Not the obvious kinds, like failed systems or bad strategy. Friction is quieter, far more pervasive, and seems innocuous. But friction, the invisible drag embedded in how organizations structure work, make decisions, and align teams, is becoming a material leadership risk. And as organizations push harder for agility, that friction comes with serious costs. WHERE WORK SLOWS DOWN Friction rarely shows up as a drama…

If you’ve been avoiding giving feedback to someone on your team, you’re not alone. You’re in good company. Well . . . common company, at least. Most managers aren’t avoiding feedback because they don’t care. It’s because it feels awkward and uncomfortable, and they’re hoping things will somehow get better on their own. Spoiler alert: they almost never do. I’ve seen this from multiple angles—as an employee, a manager, an employment lawyer, and someone who spent years in HR—and the cost of avoiding feedback is almost always higher than the cost of the conversation you didn’t want to have. What Happens When You Keep Waiting On the legal side, this patter…

In the fast-paced world of consumer packaged goods (CPG), innovation has become one of the most overused—and misunderstood—terms in our vocabulary. Walking the halls of Expo West this year, the sheer scale of innovation on display is staggering. Every aisle promises a new solution to our food system’s woes—higher protein, added fiber, or the latest superfood infusion. Yet a troubling question persists: How much of this is actual food innovation, and how much is marketing dressed up as engineering? The modern CPG landscape excels at generating hype but often fails to create lasting value. Brands appear overnight, fueled by venture capital and massive marketing spends, …

Below, Amy Leneker shares five key insights from her new book, Cheers to Monday: The Surprisingly Simple Method to Lead and Live with Less Stress and More Joy. Amy is founder and CEO of the Center for Joyful Work. She has helped more than 100,000 leaders and teams, including those at Fortune 100 companies, lead with less stress and more joy. With more than 25 years of leadership experience, including a decade in the C-suite, she has studied leadership at Yale, neuroscience at the NeuroLeadership Institute, and stress resilience at Harvard Medical School. She leads the annual national workforce study, The State of Stress and Joy at Work, and hosts the Less Stress, More…

Scan the headlines and you couldn’t blame anyone for thinking AI portends the consulting profession’s imminent demise. Yes, artificial intelligence is automating large portions of knowledge work, but AI is only one of many forces creating the perfect storm currently bearing down on Big Consulting’s long-standing business model. Higher interest rates and macroeconomic volatility tightened professional services budgets, forcing executives to scrutinize consulting spend. And clients themselves are demanding something very different from the firms they hire. They now expect a return from every dollar. They don’t just want strategy, nor do they want PowerPoint decks, banks…

After a few months of job hunting, I drastically reduced my time on TikTok and Instagram. LinkedIn became my preferred social media app, less for entertainment and more for anything that looked like it might turn into a paycheck. A couple of weeks ago, I stepped away from the search and fired up Threads, hoping to find something lighter. I didn’t. Instead, I stumbled upon a job posting that was trending for all of the wrong reasons. The post sought a remote full-time creative strategist to join a Charlotte-based baby product retailer. The role sits at the content, branding, and social media crossroads, word to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. “You need to be sharp, fast, and…

In a social media landscape dominated by obnoxious ads, algorithms, and AI, Letterboxd has stood firm as a cult favorite. The app, which acts as a digital diary for users to log and leave reviews of any movie they watch, has been described by a Letterboxd spokesperson as “less a social media platform, more a community.” It’s resisted adding the infinite scroll feature that now seems omnipresent online, instead letting users curate their own feeds of friends and popular reviewers. But news that a controlling stake in Letterboxd could be going up for sale has users worried that their online safe haven could go the way of other resold apps like X. Canadian holdin…

From layoffs and return-to-office mandates to challenges around AI and creativity, it’s not all fun and games for video game workers. And now, some are seeking to unionize. On April 27, a group of game developers behind the digital collectible card game Magic: The Gathering Arena announced the intent to form a union in affiliation with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The group is a part of the gaming studio Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), a division of Hasbro. The group, which is coming together as United Wizards of the Coast – CWA, said it reached a supermajority of eligible Arena workers in support for unionization a week before the announcement. The …

On April 26, all eyes turned to the London Marathon as the event became the site of multiple broken records in long-distance running. Fans watched with bated breath as their favorite athletes crossed the finish line, but there was one detail that the top runners had in common that viewers might not have noticed—and it had to do with their feet. The marathon included multiple sport-defining highlights. Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe set a new world record of 1:59.30 (the first sub-two-hour marathon in an official race); followed by Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, who finished with a time of 1:59.41; while fellow Ethiopian Tigist Assefa set a women’s world record of 2:15.41. All thr…

If you’ve caught a movie in the theater recently, you may have noticed the crowd leaned, well, decidedly younger. Gen Z and millennials are driving a renaissance of sorts at movie theaters, taking in more movies each year and spending more money per outing than older generations, according to the results of an annual moviegoing trends and insights study released this month by Fandango. But Gen Z was a standout in a couple key ways: 87% of people born after 1997 said they had watched at least one movie in the theater in the past year, the highest share of any generation, and they were also the most likely to purchase tickets online or pre-order snacks, according t…

In 2024, JPMorgan Chase applied to receive financial assistance from Rockland County, New York, in order to expand a data center in Orangeburg, a hamlet of under 4,300 people. The development agency approved the assistance, which totaled nearly $77 million in state and local tax breaks for the project. In return, documents show, the company said the expansion would create just one full-time job. Now, government accountability group Reinvent Albany has called out the deal as “the largest government subsidy ever recorded within the United States,” prompting questions about how much public money goes to projects that don’t create meaningful jobs for communities. …

While the court battle between Elon Musk and OpenAI may draw more eyes Monday, another case getting underway could carry far broader implications for personal freedom. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in a case that will determine the legality of geofencing, a technique law enforcement uses to mine location history data to identify who was near the scene of a crime and may have been involved. Geofencing, in essence, draws a virtual perimeter around a crime scene. The government then obtains a warrant requiring tech companies to search their location data for anyone within that area during the relevant time frame. In this case, Google’s location his…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. There was a five-week window this spring during which four different U.S. homebuilders—one of them publicly traded, Tri Pointe Homes—were acquired by Japanese firms. At the time, ResiClub estimated that, once those deals close, Japanese firms would control more than 5.5% of the U.S. single-family homebuilding market. This wave of Japanese firms buying U.S. homebuilders isn’t just a 2026 phenomenon—it’s been building for a decade. According to new construction analytics firm Zonda: Back in 2015, Japanese firms owned U.S. homebuilders that acc…

In October 2024, I wrote that the tech industry was entering an era of silent firing. Jobs were not being eliminated overnight, but subtly reshaped in ways that encouraged attrition, as companies quietly prepared for large-scale automation. At the time, this was largely a warning. With age, it looks more like a pattern. Amazon’s January 2026 announcement of 16,000 layoffs brings corporate staff reductions to roughly 10% of its workforce. Publicly, leadership has been careful to separate these cuts from artificial intelligence. As CEO Andy Jassy put it after earlier reductions, “the announcement that we made…was not really financially driven, and it’s not even really A…

Starting today, you can use Spotify to knock out a 10-minute Pilates session, a weighted glutes circuit, or a bit of morning yoga. The music platform just announced its first foray into the fitness world (not counting the 150 million user-generated playlists on the app, of course). Under the new “Fitness” section, all users will be able to access a library of content, including follow-along videos, from popular fitness creators like Chloe Ting and Yoga with Kassandra. The new feature also includes a partnership with Peloton, which makes a catalog of more than 1,400 ad-free Peloton classes available to Spotify’s Premium subscribers. Whether you’re a runner, weight…