ResidentialBusiness

Renovating your house has serious upsides in terms of your enjoyment of the property and the return on your investment—but there’s a price to be paid in time and discomfort. Renovation projects can take weeks or months to complete, and during that time your home will mostly likely be filled with dust, debris, and workers. It’s little wonder people choose to move out of their homes and live in a rental while the work is being done. Not everyone can do that, of course—and not everyone can spend the next few months living in a construction zone. If you’ve got limited time (and limited tolerance for the mess and disruption), you might choose to put off home improvement projects until you have more of each. Or you could re-calibrate your expectations, because there are several one-day renovation projects (including clean up) that will have a big impact but have you relaxing on the couch by dinner time. Refresh a bathroomA complete bathroom remodel can take weeks or months to complete, which is seriously inconvenient—especially if you only have one bathroom in the house. But you can accomplish a pretty dramatic refresh of your bathroom in one day if you keep your focus narrow: Re-caulking the shower should take just a few hours. This not only gets rid of unsightly stained, discolored caulk—it will also help prevent future leaks resulting from failing old caulk. A new showerhead can be installed in less than an hour. Alternatively, clean the one you have: Remove the existing showerhead and soak it in white, distilled vinegar for about an hour, then rinse, scrub, and re-install. Similarly, a new faucet on the vanity can be installed within an hour, unless accessing the supply lines and drain is difficult. Boom! A day’s work and your bathroom can be dramatically improved. You could also consider intalling a bath liner, instantly transforming your shower or bath in (theoretically) just a day. PaintPaint is the easiest and cheapest remodel of them all, and you can get a lot done with one day and a gallon of good-quality paint: Paint a room—you can absolutely paint an entire room in one day. You’ll need to budget in a few hours between coats, so get an early start and have a plan. Paint furniture: Any piece of furniture in your house that’s looking a little drab can be upscaled with a coat of paint—including upholstered pieces. You can also paint floors that have seen better days; additionally, lampshades, fireplaces, radiators, and kitchen appliances can all be successfully painted in just a few hours. Update your kitchen's detailsJust like your bathroom, a full-scale kitchen remodel can take a long time, and have your house filled with dust for ages. But you can transform your kitchen in one day by targeting a few relatively easy but visually powerful spots: New pulls. Swap out the old, tarnished, probably outdated pulls on your drawers and cabinets for shiny new ones. New faucet. Swapping out the old faucet for a new one shouldn’t take more than a few hours. Lighting. Adding adhesive lights under your cabinets will a) make the space brighter, which in turn will make it look cleaner and fresher, and b) add a touch of glamour to the space. Cover the backsplash with peel-and-stick tiles for a whole new look. Install vinyl plank flooringIf your current floors are a little sad and worn out, you might think that installing a whole new floor will take at least several days, if not a week. But you can install brand-new vinyl plank flooring in a day, as you can see here (and this guy tore out and replaced his subfloor, then installed vinyl plank, all in one day). Granted, your mileage will vary on how comfortable you are measuring and cutting the planks, but this kind of flooring is one of the easiest to install—and it looks great and wears well. Replace bathroom vanityIf you’re thinking about replacing the faucet in your bathroom as noted above, why not take it one step further and upgrade the entire vanity? Disconnecting the plumbing, removing the old vanity and faucet, and installing new ones requires just some basic plumbing knowledge and the use of a power drill, and should only take you a few hours from beginning to end—even if you include going out to buy the new vanity. Add new light fixtures and switchesIf you’re not afraid to do a little basic wiring, you can change the light fixtures in your house, the plates over the outlets and switches, and even the outlets and switches themselves all in one day. Once you’ve turned off the power so there’s no chance of killing yourself, changing out existing light fixtures can take just a few minutes for each one, so unless you’ve got a football field of lights in your house it shouldn’t take more than an hour or two to tackle them all (or however many you want to change). Similarly, swapping out outlet and switch plates takes just a few minutes each (and requires just a screwdriver). And upgrading your light switches to dimmer switches is a similarly quick and relatively easy project that you can do all over the house in one day, easily. Stick decals on your tile floorsIf you’ve got tile floors that need a little upgrade but you don’t want to install a floor over them or tear them out entirely, you can cover them up with peel-and-stick tile tiles or decals very quickly. While you shouldn’t rush, because the end result depends heavily on how accurately and neatly you cut your pieces to fit your space, you can definitely complete an average-sized room within a day, and you can probably do multiple rooms in one day if you’re focused once you get the hang of it. View the full article

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will double his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% for Canada, escalating a trade war with the United States’ northern neighbor and standing unmoved by recent stock market turmoil and rising recession risks. Trump said on social media that the increase of the tariffs set to take effect on Wednesday is a response to the price increases that the provincial government of Ontario put on electricity sold to the United States. “I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD,” Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social. After a brutal stock market selloff on Monday and further jitters Tuesday, Trump faces increased pressure to show he has a legitimate plan to grow the economy instead of perhaps pushing it into a recession. But so far the president is doubling down on the tariffs he talked up repeatedly during the 2024 campaign and throwing a once stable economy into utter turmoil as investors expected him to lead with deregulation and tax cuts instead of colossal tax hikes. The U.S. president has given a variety of explanations for his antagonism of Canada, saying that his separate 25% tariffs are about fentanyl smuggling and voicing objections to Canada putting high taxes on dairy imports that penalize U.S. farmers. But he continued to call for Canada to become part of the United States as a solution, a form of taunting that has infuriated Canadian leaders. “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” Trump posted on Tuesday. “This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear.” Incoming Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that his government will keep tariffs in place until Americans show respect and commit to free trade after Trump threatened historic financial devastation for Canada. Carney, who will be sworn in as Justin Trudeau’s replacement in the coming days, said Trump’s latest tariffs are an attack on Canadian workers, families, and businesses. “My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade,” Carney said in a statement. Canadian officials are planning retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s specific steel and aluminum tariffs and they are expected to be announced Wednesday. Carney is referring to Canada’s initial $30 billion Canadian (US$21 billion) worth of retaliatory tariffs have been applied on items like American orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, footwear, cosmetics, motorcycles and certain pulp and paper products. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, after responding to Trump by raising electricity prices, said Tuesday on MSNBC that the U.S. people and its business leaders needed to speak up against the “chaos” caused by Trump’s launching of a trade war. “If we go into a recession it’s self made by one person. It’s called President Trump’s recession,” Ford said. “It shouldn’t be this way. We should be booming, both countries.” The U.S. president condemned the use of electricity “as a bargaining chip and threat,” saying in a separate social media post on Tuesday that Canada “will pay a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come!” Ontario provides electricity to Minnesota, New York and Michigan and Trump pledged to declare a national emergency in those states. Trump also has targeted Mexico with 25% tariffs because of his dissatisfaction over drug trafficking and illegal immigration, though he suspended the taxes on imports that are compliant with the 2020 USMCA trade pact for one month. Asked if Mexico feared it could face the same 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as Canada, President Claudia Sheinbaum, said “No, we are respectful.” Trump was set to deliver a Tuesday afternoon address to the Business Roundtable, a trade association of CEOs that during the 2024 campaign he wooed with the promise of lower corporate tax rates for domestic manufacturers. But his tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China, steel, aluminum — with plans for more to possibly come on Europe, Brazil, South Korea, pharmaceutical drugs, copper, lumber and computer chips — would amount to a massive tax hike. The stock market’s vote of no confidence over the past two weeks puts the president in a bind between his enthusiasm for taxing imports and his brand as a politician who understands business based on his own experiences in real estate, media and marketing. Harvard University economist Larry Summers, a former treasury secretary for the Clinton administration, on Monday put the odds of a recession at 50-50. “All the emphasis on tariffs and all the ambiguity and uncertainty has both chilled demand and caused prices to go up,” Summers posted on X. “We are getting the worst of both worlds – concerns about inflation and an economic downturn and more uncertainty about the future and that slows everything.” The investment bank Goldman Sachs revised down its growth forecast for this year to 1.7% from 2.2% previously. It modestly increased its recession probability to 20% “because the White House has the option to pull back policy changes if downside risks begin to look more serious.” Trump has tried to assure the public that his tariffs would cause a bit of a “transition” to the economy, with the taxes prodding more companies to begin the years-long process of relocating factories to the United States to avoid the tariffs. But he set off alarms in an interview broadcast on Sunday in which he didn’t rule out a possible recession. “I hate to predict things like that,” Trump said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” ”There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. And there are always periods of — it takes a little time. It takes a little time. But I don’t — I think it should be great for us. I mean, I think it should be great.” The promise of great things ahead did not eliminate anxiety, with the S&P 500 stock index tumbling 2.7% on Monday in an unmistakable Trump slump that has erased the market gains that greeted his victory in November 2024. The S&P 500 index fell roughly 1% in Tuesday afternoon trading. Trump has long relied on the stock market as an economic and political gauge to follow, only to seemingly ignore it as he remains determined so far to impose tariffs. When he won the election last year, he proclaimed that he wanted his term to be considered to have started Nov. 6, 2024 on Election Day, rather than his January 20, 2025 inauguration, so that he could be credited for post-election stock market gains. Trump also repeatedly warned of an economic freefall if he lost the election. “If I don’t win you will have a 1929 style depression. Enjoy it,” Trump said at an August rally in Pennsylvania. —Josh Boak, Rob Gillies and Michelle Price, Associated Press Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report. View the full article

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber took a clear swipe at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg when she took the stage at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin this week wearing a shirt that copied an infamous one he’d worn last year at a Meta product reveal event. Graber’s shirt read Mundus sine Caesaribus, or “A world without Caesars” in Latin. It was the same design as Zuckerberg’s shirt from last year that read, Aut Zuck aut nihil, which is a play on the phrase, Aut Caesar aut nihil: Either Caesar or nothing. Graber’s not-so-subtle message seemed to be that decentralized platforms, like the one she’s building with Bluesky, prioritize users over the platform’s bottom-line interests. “If a billionaire came in and bought Bluesky or took it over or, if I decided tomorrow to change things in a way that people really didn’t like, then they could fork off and go on to another application,” Graber said while onstage. “There’s already applications in the network that give you another way to view the network or you could build a new one as well. And so that openness guarantees that there’s always the ability to move to a new alternative.” Seeking freedom from billionaire control Bluesky, which is built on the open-source AT Protocol, really took off after the November presidential election, when X owner Elon Musk gained a large stake in President Trump’s campaign and subsequent administration. Users like the fact that Bluesky’s open social media ecosystem ultimately means that no one person controls it. So far, it’s amassed more than 33 million total users. To be sure, it’s still a long way from reaching the user numbers that Zuckerberg’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp enjoy. Meta said in its full-year 2024 earnings report that it has 3.35 billion daily active users across its whole family of apps. Still, Graber is optimistic in Bluesky’s model. “We want to give people real choice—not just a new platform, but a new paradigm,” she said. View the full article

Nationally, starts are higher even when seasonal differences are accounted for and in some areas distress is far above the U.S. average, Attom found. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Tomorrow Apple will be releasing new MacBooks and iPads, which is why you're seeing discounts on the older MacBooks and iPads. There are two iPads being released tomorrow, the M3 iPad Air, which you can pre-order right now for $559 (originally $599) for the 11-inch version, or the the 11th-generation iPad for $329 (originally $349) for the 11-inch version, or $749 (originally $799) for the bigger 13-inch version. Impressive by Apple's standards considering they haven't even released yet. However, this could be because the older versions might be a better deal for you. Brand: Apple, Model Name: iPad, Memory Storage Capacity: 128 GB, Screen Size: 11 Inches. Apple iPad 11-inch (A16 chip) $329.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $349.00 Save $20.00 Pre-order Here Pre-order Here $329.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $349.00 Save $20.00 Brand: Apple, Model Name: iPad Air, Memory Storage Capacity: 128 GB, Screen Size: 11 Inches. Apple iPad Air 11-inch (M3 Chip) $559.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $599.00 Save $40.00 Pre-order Here Pre-order Here $559.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $599.00 Save $40.00 Brand: Apple, Model Name: iPad Air, Memory Storage Capacity: 128 GB, Screen Size: 13 Inches. Apple iPad Air 13-inch (M3 chip) $749.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $799.00 Save $50.00 Pre-order Here Pre-order Here $749.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $799.00 Save $50.00 Brand: Apple, Model Name: iPad Air, Memory Storage Capacity: 256 GB, Screen Size: 11 Inches. Apple iPad Air 11-inch (M2) $699.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg Get Deal Get Deal $699.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg SEE 1 MORE Yes, it's always nice to get the shiny new toy, but as Jake Peterson, Lifehacker's Senior Technology Editor explains, the new iPad Air might not be worth it when you can get the very capable M2 iPad Air for cheaper. Most people can justify an M3 chip over an M2 chip on a laptop, where there's more multitasking, heavier applications running, and speed is more important. But unless you're looking to do those things on a tablet, the difference between the M2 and M3 chip's speed might not be worth the money for you. If you can wait until after the release of the new iPads on March 12 to make your purchase, that will be the most sensible decision, as the M2 iPads will likely drop in price and be a better value than the new iPad Air (if you can find the M2 iPads in stock). While Apple might not sell the older iPads in new conditions, Amazon and Best Buy will. However, if money is not an issue and you want the best iPads available, both the iPad 11th-generation and the M3 iPad Air will be your best options. View the full article

Torsten Bell says government is ‘encouraging, not instigating’ investment in wider range of assetsView the full article

Washington says it will ‘immediately’ restore intelligence sharing and military aidView the full article

Southwest Airlines’ signature tagline “Bags Fly Free” seems to be a thing of the past. Since its inception nearly 60 years ago, the airline has offered customers two complimentary checked bags as part of its pitch to distinguish it from competitors. But by this summer, it seems, Southwest will have to replace its oft-repeated slogan with a new one: “bags fly for an added fee.” That’s because any customers who are not members of Southwest’s frequent fliers programs or traveling in an upgraded seat will have to pay for their checked bags, starting with flights booked after May 28, according to a company press release. The airline did not provide specific rates for the new fees. Southwest also announced that flight credits will now expire after one year, walking back a policy put in place during the pandemic that allowed customers to keep their credits indefinitely. So far, the reaction to the new bag fees has been overwhelmingly negative. But, when observed alongside all of the other changes that Southwest has made to its programming over the past several months, it’s not exactly surprising. As of last month, shares of Southwest’s stock (NYSE: LUV) were down nearly 50% compared to five years ago. In an effort to appease its investors, Southwest has been on a mission to aggressively cut costs and implement a slew of added fees. Those cost-saving policy changes appear to jettison all of the elements that once made Southwest’s brand identity distinct. Turbulence for Southwest’s leadership From its inception in 1966, Southwest has cultivated a reputation as a quirky, lower-cost carrier with unique perks and an equitable approach to seating that endeared it to a base of loyal fans. However, those perks have been first on the company’s chopping block as it’s reduced costs and implemented more Spirit-esque fees to drive sales. Over the past several months, Southwest has been rolling out an overhaul intended to catch up with competitors like Delta and United by reviving its shrinking profits and the downward trajectory of its stock. The breakneck pace of this overhaul has been egged on by hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, which owns a $1.9 billion minority stake in the company and has frequently publicly criticized Southwest for not adapting to the times and cutting costs. Southwest kicked off 2024 by debuting an interior cabin redesign, which is set hit runways this year. While the company argued that the revamped look was made with comfort in mind, customers pointed out that the seating looked like a major downgrade—mainly because, based on renderings provided by the company, the seats looked almost comically thin and rigid. TikTok users dubbed them “lawn chairs” and “Ozempic seats.” But, as it turns out, the lackluster seating was only a harbinger of the airline’s larger plans to come. A once-quirky airline joins a sea of corporate sameness Southwest has spent the last few months nixing its most distinctive offerings. In September, the company announced that it would slash its open seating policy, one of its characteristic brand traits, which allowed every Southwest passenger to choose their own seat when boarding. At the same time, the company revealed that it would swap a third of its seats for more “premium” chairs, which come with more legroom, faster Wi-Fi, and larger overhead bins—for an added cost, of course. This new seating policy on its own was enough to cause Fast Company to ask whether Southwest was losing its “Southwest-ness” by sacrificing its unfussy reputation for greater profits. Even during the September investor call announcing the end of open seating, though, Southwest executives argued that ending the signature “Bags Fly Free” plan would be a “destructive” step too far, adding that they estimated charging bag fees would bring in about $1.5 billion per year but cost another $1.8 billion in lost business. The program was so central to Southwest’s identity that the company trademarked the “Bags Fly Free” slogan and has a whole backlog of ads, going back decades, that center on the promise (see this spot from 2009 and this one from 2023.) Now, Southwest is scrapping the last vestige of its recognizable brand identity by backtracking on free bags. The backlash from fans has been swift. On X, one recent tweet with 4,000 likes and counting reads, “If Southwest Airlines had assembled a focus group and asked them ‘what’s the stupidest thing that we could do to ruin our company,’ this is what they would have come up with.” Another tweet with 11,000 likes adds, “Is Southwest aware that now people are no longer incentivized to fly with them??” Popular opinion may have turned against the airline, but the market seems to approve. As of this writing, Southwest stock is up around 9%. The market also responded positively last month when the airline announced that it planned to lay off 15% of its corporate workforce in another cost-cutting measure. As Southwest continues to whittle away the perks it once touted, it’s become just another set of wings in an industry full of likeminded competitors. View the full article

After years of intense rumor and speculation, Nintendo finally revealed the Switch 2 in January of this year. While the company hasn't yet announced each and every new feature the Switch's successor will sport, the company did confirm a number of details leakers had been hinting for a long time, including a larger display, redesigned magnetic Joy-Cons, a new kickstand, backwards compatibility, and, least consequentially, a large "2" embossed on the console and dock. Since the initial announcement, we've learned a bit more about the Switch 2 in advance of its full unveiling later this year. Nintendo announced a worldwide tour, where fans can try out the Switch 2 early. It also appears that the new Joy-Cons will have a "mouse mode" that will let you drag a controller around on a table...like a computer mouse. Other than that, things have been a tad quiet—until now. Here are new Switch 2 details, courtesy of FCC filings—and what they might hint for the future of the system. The Switch 2 will use NFC, which bodes well for Amiibo supportAs spotted by The Verge, Nintendo has submitted a number of filings to the FCC. The outlet scanned through these documents, and discovered the Switch 2 will support NFC (near field communication)—the technology the enables products like Amiibo to wirelessly communicate with the console. (It's also the tech behind tap-to-pay features like Apple Pay and Google Play.) If you've used Amiibo before, you might remember NFC communication happens through the right Joy-Con on the Switch. That appears the be the case for the Switch 2 as well. A second USB-C portAnother interesting confirmation in these filings concerns the console's second USB-C port. You could see this new port in the official Switch 2 announcement video, but Nintendo didn't elaborate on what it was meant for. Now we know: You'll be able to charge your Switch 2 via either USB-C port, which is great news for portable players. With the first generation of Switch, the USB-C port is on the bottom, meaning you can't charge the console while playing with the kickstand out (unless you get very creative). A second port on the side will solve for that issue. This isn't a necessarily reason to upgrade to a Switch 2, but it is a perk—perhaps one that should have been thought through a decade ago with the first Switch. Wi-Fi 6 supportFinally, the filings show that the Switch 2 supports Wi-Fi 6 with up to 80MHz of bandwidth. The OG Switch supports Wi-Fi 5, as Wi-Fi 6 wasn't even a thing when it came out back in 2017. The upgrade should enable faster internet speeds for game downloads and online play while potentially increasing battery life, as Wi-Fi 6 connections can turn off when you aren't using them. That said, we won't know how much the Switch 2's speed and battery life improve over the original Switch until reviewers are able to put the console through its paces. Mark you calendar for an April 2 Nintendo DirectThe Switch 2 has no current release date. However, the company did say in the announcement video that there will be a Nintendo Direct on Wednesday, April 2 at 6 a.m. PDT, specifically intended to offer "a closer look at Nintendo Switch 2." We'll see how much more information is leaked before that date. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: I work in manufacturing, and I more or less have a desk job. My “office” is a clump of desks off to the side of the manufacturing floor. I have a coworker, Laura, who also works in this clump of desks, who is dating a technician. Laura is younger than me, was homeschooled, and sometimes has a hard time picking up on social cues. She has been dating her boyfriend, Nixon, for a few months now. The problem is that he spends every break in our desk clump, to the point that he made himself a folding chair so he can sit by Laura. I am super annoyed every time he is over here. They sit leaned over one another, and are constantly flirting, bickering, giggling, and sometimes even awkwardly touching each other (soft lingering touches on the arm / leg). I have even seen them kiss when they don’t think anyone is around. I don’t mind that they spend their breaks together, but does it have to be right next to my desk? We have a break room. There is a culture of people taking breaks at their desks here, but his desk is not over here, nor does he really have a desk. I find having Nixon around really annoying and distracting. He will insert his opinion on things I am working on my computer and most of the time he has no idea what he is talking about. He will also loudly complain about anything and everything that is happening at the company. I have talked to my other coworkers in the desk clump and they are also really annoyed about the situation. Do I have the right to ask my manager to talk to her (who also manages Laura)? My manager is pretty passive, but I believe he would talk to her if I ask. He has observed some of the behavior, but he isn’t in my building all of the time, so I do not think he knows the extent of the situation. I don’t want to ruin my working relationship with Laura and I believe it would crush her if she heard it was me complaining about her. What should I do in this situation? Do you have any advice for managing upwards, I really don’t want him to mishandle the conversation and worry that he will make her feel awkward around the rest of the people in the desk clump. Would you have any advice for my manager in this situation, if he does go talk to Laura? Should he get Nixon’s manager involved as well? Yes, you have the standing to talk to your manager and ask him to intervene; Laura and Nixon’s hang-outs are affecting your ability to focus on your work, and that gives you the standing to say something. However, it would be better to try to address it with Laura directly first — because it might take care of it, because ideally she’d have the opportunity to hear it’s a problem and fix it on her own before you involve your manager, and because there’s a good chance your manager will ask you if you’ve said anything to Laura directly about it and you want to be able to say that you tried to handle it yourself first. To be clear, there are situations where something is so egregious that none of the above would be considerations, like if she were, I don’t know, being abusive to people or falsifying documents. And if she were known to react hostilely to feedback, she’d have forfeited the opportunity to hear a concern directly from peers before it’s escalated to a manager. But in this case, the right next step is to say to Laura, “It’s really hard to focus with Nixon hanging out here. Could you take breaks with him in the break room instead?” You can also say something right in the moment when they’re being distracting. It’s fine to say, “I’m having trouble focusing — could I ask you to move to the break room?” If you try that and it doesn’t work, then the next step is to alert your manager. You’ll have given Laura a chance to fix the problem herself first and if she doesn’t … well, that’s what happens. You said you’re worried she’ll feel crushed, but there’s much less chance of that if you do try to talk to her first. And if she does feel awkward … well, she’s been doing something inconsiderate to the people around her, and sometimes feeling awkward after realizing that is part of how lessons stick. We’ve all been there, and she’ll survive. You asked if your manager should get Nixon’s manager involved as well, and he could but he doesn’t need to. It’s enough for him to tell Laura, the person he manages, to handle this differently. He could certainly speak to Nixon directly in the moment too if he needs to — there’s nothing wrong with him saying in the middle of one of these interludes, “Nixon, if you don’t need anything work-related from our team, I’m going to ask you to head out since we’ve got folks trying to focus here.” But in his shoes I’d just talk to Laura, tell her to cut it out, and expect her to handle it appropriately from there. View the full article

From service and support to IT, data, and development, ServiceNow acts as the ticket management interface between users (internal and external) and the IT department or support team that solves their tech problems. Salesforce is the go-to platform to manage customer data and streamline workflows for your customer success agents and sales team, converting opportunities into sales, and keeping your contacts organized across all business functions. Put together, these two tools become a powerhouse duo, sharing data, reinforcing pipelines, improving analytics, and creating more accurate forecasts. Let’s take a look at a couple of methods to get the most out of Salesforce and ServiceNow by integrating them. Why a ServiceNow-Salesforce integration? While Salesforce does have some service management features, many organizations prefer a dedicated platform like ServiceNow. An integration is incredibly valuable if critical data needs to be shared between environments, but doing so manually would be time-consuming and risk data errors from manual entry. For example, let’s take a company that uses Salesforce as a CRM to manage purchases, sales, and revenue generation with opportunity pipelines. Salesforce also generates a wealth of data crucial to sales predictions and forecasting. Internally they use ServiceNow for IT support and ticketing, incident management, and technical support. When integrated, either tool can then become a collection point for data, allowing users to perform analytics in one place without the need to manually collect data from multiple other tools or sources. You could either consolidate everything with Now Platform Reporting or build comprehensive data visualizations in Tableau through Salesforce. Integrating these tools opens the door to a streamlined analysis process and a quicker path to action. First method: Using ServiceNow Integration Hub ServiceNow integration hub is an additional module for the Now Platform that comes with nearly 200 connectors out-of-the-box, called Spokes. These spokes come in two forms: pre-built through templates, and customizable versions. It’s one of the most common ways to set up a Salesforce-ServiceNow integration. The pre-built spokes can be configured using triggers and actions to easily add some limited functionality to your workspace that pulls data into ServiceNow. The hub also supports the development of custom spokes for users who want to create their own integration for ServiceNow’s API. To do this requires training, scripting knowledge, or 3rd party consulting services. Step 1: Verify that your installation supports Integration Hub Step 1: Verify that your installation supports Integration Hub Before you can integrate Salesforce and ServiceNow, you have to ensure your tools are compatible. Here’s how: Verify that the Salesforce Classic or Lightning module you wish to connect is supported: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Platform, Customer Community, Partner Community, Company Community, or Chatter. Verify that the account you’re going to use to facilitate the integration has the correct permissions for the tasks the integration will need to perform. You can find a list of these here. Step 2: Register the Salesforce application in Salesforce With a Salesforce Admin account, register the Salesforce Application. Login and select Classic Environment. Go to Setup. In the left menu, select Build > Create > Apps. Under Connected Apps select New. Fill in the required information. Set the Refresh token policy value to Refresh token is valid until revoked. Click Save. Copy the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret fields and save them in a secure location. The Consumer Key (or client ID) and the Consumer Secret (or client secret) are sensitive information and should not be shared. Create a profile for the Salesforce Integration in ServiceNow. Make sure to set the scope to Global. Create an integration profile for the first Salesforce organization where you want to track software subscriptions and optimize licensing. Go to the Integration Profile: All > Software Asset > SaaS License > Direct Integration Profiles. Fill in the fields with the information below: FieldDescriptionDisplay nameName of the integration profile.Best practice is to use a name that easily identifies this profile with the organizations it integrates. A shorter name will format better on reports.Connection & CredentialConnection and credential alias for Salesforce.For the first integration profile, use the automatically populated default connection and credential alias.StatusStatus of the integration profile.Draft for when the integration is not published.Published will appear once the integration is launched.Profile typeThis value is automatically populated.Source Navigate to the Download Subscription Subflow tab. Make sure that the Subflow field displays Salesforce CRM Download Subscriptions. Go to the Reclaim Subscription Subflow tab. Make sure the Subflow field displays Salesforce CRM Reclaim Subscription. Lastly, go to the Download Consumption Subflow tab. Same as above, make sure that the Subflow field displays Salesforce CRM Download Consumption. Click Save Go to the connection & credential aliases record. Select the preview icon beside the Connection & Credential field. Click Open Record in the preview. While in the Connection & Credential Aliases form, click Create New Connection & Credential. This will open the Create Connection and Credential dialog box. Fill in the field with the below information: FieldDescriptionConnection NameName of the connection.The name should easily identify the organization you’re creating this connection and credential for.Connection URL (Instance URL)This is the URL that displays after logging into Salesforce, or the custom domain URL used for Salesforce.OAuth Client IDClient ID (consumer key) assigned to the Salesforce application.OAuth Client SecretClient secret (consumer secret) assigned to the Salesforce application.OAuth Redirect URLURL for the OAuth provider that users are redirected to. This field populates automatically based on the callback URL that you specified in Register a Salesforce application.Source Click Create and Get OAuth Token. Use the same Salesforce Admin account you used to create the application in Salesforce to login to the OAuth2 dialog box. ServiceNow will then create an OAuth token for Salesforce and automatically return to the Integration Profile form. Select Publish. Once the integration is published, ServiceNow will start pulling data from Salesforce. Smaller organizations with fewer than 100 users in Salesforce should see this complete in a few minutes. It may take up to an hour or more for organizations with 5000+ users in Salesforce. Limitations of this method One-way integration: ServiceNow only pulls data from Salesforce. Changes in ServiceNow are not reflected in Salesforce. Manual process: Setting up this integration can be slow and complex. High skill level: This integration requires some technical skills and admin permissions. Not scaleable: Additional connections require a similar manual process. Second method: Use Unito’s ServiceNow-Salesforce integration Unito is an extensible, enterprise-grade sync platform that’s fully configurable, yet no-code. With 50+ connectors to choose from, Unito lets users keep all their tools up to date with live 2-way flows. Here’s why Unito is the best way to do this: Lowest total cost of ownership: No need for specialized internal resources or third party consultants. Plus, a single Unito license includes all connectors. Launch in days or weeks, not months. POCs can be built quickly through an easily-repeatable flow creation process that our team keeps up-to-date with the latest releases from ServiceNow and Salesforce. Two-way sync: Unito can sync historical data without user maintenance required. Straightforward setup: Quickly set up, tune, monitor and evolve each integration with configuration options that anyone can understand. Below you’ll find a brief overview of the necessary steps, or if you’re more of a visual learner, you can follow along with this video tutorial from a Unito product expert. Step 1: Connect your tools Unito’s flow builder allows you to connect more than 50 tools, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, Jira, and Asana. Unito will need to connect to a ServiceNow account that has create, read, update and delete (or CRUD) permissions for the records or tables that you want to sync. Users can connect Unito to ServiceNow with either OAuth2 or a Username and Password. For details on how to connect using OAuth2, check out this guide. On the Salesforce side, make sure that the account used has permission to authorize third-party integrations. A quick list of permissions can be found here. Once the accounts are correct, go to your Unito dashboard and select Connect a New Tool from the top bar and follow the prompts. A detailed guide can be found here. Step 2: Pick flow direction This 2-way flow will automatically create new Salesforce objects based on ServiceNow records, and new ServiceNow records based on Salesforce objects. Unito syncs in either one or two directions. A one-way flow will behave much like the built-in ServiceNow spoke, but can be set to go either to or from ServiceNow. A two-way flow means that a change on either side will update on the other, ensuring that the data in both tools is always in sync and the same. Step 3: Build rules In this example, any Salesforce case created after July 22, 2024 with the custom field ServiceNow Assignment Group set to Product, will tell Unito to create a matching incident in ServiceNow. Rules determine what syncs and what doesn’t. Using the drop-down options provided in the interface, select the rules for how you want your flow to function at a larger scale. You could choose to filter out work items with specific labels, automatically set them to a specific status, or only sync items created after a specific date. Step 4: Map your fields Each pair of fields can have its own sync direction. This manages conflict resolution easily by setting a source and destination for all updates. In the case of 2-way updates, the most recent change will take effect. Finally, choose what fields sync to each other across the tools. Unito can do this automatically in most situations. For more detailed customizability, it can be done manually, which lets you choose exactly which information moves where. Some fields can also be set to be one-way or two-way at this level. Connect Salesforce and ServiceNow with the right integration ServiceNow and Salesforce have a lot of potential when working together. ServiceNow’s native integration is a great starting point for testing out what these two software can achieve together, but is limited by the manual connection process and unidirectional flow. Unito gives users the ease of use and the customization to truly see what these two tools can do together. Wanna see this integration in action? Sync up with us! Book a Demo FAQ: ServiceNow-Salesforce integration What is an integration between Salesforce and ServiceNow? A Salesforce-ServiceNow integration is software that takes data from work items in Salesforce (e.g. tasks, tickets, contacts) and pushes it to work items in ServiceNow (e.g. cases, incidents). ServiceNow offers one of these integrations natively, meaning you don’t need to install any additional software. You can also use third-party software to integrate Salesforce and ServiceNow. Some examples of this software include: Unito Zapier Workato Tray.io Mulesoft Will ServiceNow overtake Salesforce? There are currently no signs that ServiceNow will overtake Salesforce. According to some numbers, ServiceNow has over 7,700 customers while Salesforce has over 150,000. Additionally, ServiceNow reported $10.98 billion in revenue in 2024 while Salesforce reported $37.89 billion in revenue that year. What are the integration methods for ServiceNow? You can integrate ServiceNow with other tools using any of these options: 2-way sync tools like Unito ServiceNow IntegrationHub Salesforce’s built-in Mulesoft integrations Automation platforms like Zapier Is ServiceNow part of Salesforce? ServiceNow is not part of Salesforce. It’s a separate, distinct software platform. While there is some overlap between them, since both tools can be used to manage customer issues and service requests, they’re different platforms run by different companies. Can Salesforce integrate with ServiceNow? Yes, there are multiple ways to integrate Salesforce with ServiceNow. Here are a few of your options for integrating these tools: 2-way sync tools like Unito ServiceNow IntegrationHub Salesforce’s built-in Mulesoft integrations Automation platforms like Zapier Does Salesforce compete with ServiceNow? Yes, Salesforce competes with ServiceNow to some extent. Both can be used to handle support tickets and manage business processes within customer support teams. That said, many organizations use both ServiceNow and Salesforce, since they’re specialized in distinct areas. View the full article

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Far-right presidential candidate backed by Russia cannot run in May voteView the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The M3 lineup of MacBook Air laptops is already seeing big discounts before the release of the new M4 MacBook Air laptops tomorrow. You can get the 13-inch MacBook Air laptop with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage for $794.99 (originally $1,099) after an additional $54.01 on-page coupon on Amazon. This is the lowest price this MacBook has been since its release, according to price-tracking tools. M3 MacBook Air 13-inch Laptop (2024) $794.99 at Amazon $1,099.00 Save $304.01 Get Deal Get Deal $794.99 at Amazon $1,099.00 Save $304.01 If you're looking for longevity in your laptop, the 16GB RAM on any MacBook Air is vital and will last you a long time. All "older" MacBook Airs, including those with M2 and M1 chips, have good discounts right now (if you can find them in stock), but if you can afford to upgrade to the new M4 MacBook Air that comes out tomorrow, March 12, you'll be getting a better value for your money, according to Jake Peterson, Lifehacker's Senior Technology Editor. It's an even better value than the M4 Pro. However, if you prefer to save yourself some $200, the M3 is still a capable and powerful laptop in 2025. You can see the full breakdown of the M3 MacBook Air in CNET's review. The M2 is also deeply discounted, but it's not easy to find a new one in stock right now. Keep in mind the M3 chips have almost double the read speeds of the M2 and 33% faster write speeds. If you're not sure if it's worth upgrading from the M2 or are undecided about which one to get, you can read our breakdown comparing the two. One of the advantages of getting the M3 over the M2 is the dual monitor support on the M3 MacBook Air, a feature that used to come only from the MacBook Pro lineup. View the full article

More than three million developers are using OpenAI’s APIs as shorthand code to infuse apps and websites with an engine of advanced AI. And today, the company’s most popular API, called Chat Completions, is getting a significant sequel called Responses. Eight months in development, it will vastly expand upon and simplify the experience of plugging into OpenAI. For developers, Responses will mean using less code to stack more complex questions to the AI. A hundred lines of code will turn into just three, as the company is courting a wider set of developers who don’t consider themselves LLM experts. For consumers, it will mean you’ll soon be interacting with AI that’s faster, more fluid in using forms of media other than text, and more capable of taking more steps on your behalf. “Completions were very much designed in a world where you could only put text into it, and you could only get text out of it. But now we have models that can do work across multiple mediums. We can put images in, we can get audio out of the model, and [users] can speak to the model in real time and have it speak to you back,” says Steve Coffey, an engineer at OpenAI. “[Completions] is just like the wrong tool for the job…so Responses was designed from the ground up.” What is OpenAI’s new Responses API update? APIs are basically the software gateways to use features from a service or platform inside your own. And to OpenAI, its APIs are as carefully designed as any product—even if we don’t tend to consider APIs as designed objects. The iPhone has APIs for apps using its camera and accelerometers, for instance, while Stripe’s APIs make it possible for websites and apps to take payments—and in each case, the ease of integrating these APIs has been vital to courting developers and growing a business. OpenAI created the modern API for AI in 2020 (and Chat Completions in 2023) so developers could plug into its AI platform. Its competitors have since copied OpenAI’s approach to be something of an informal standard across the industry. Thousands of apps, ranging from Perplexity (an AI search engine) to Harvey (an AI for lawyers), currently integrate OpenAI APIs. Today, OpenAI offers a few different APIs, including one that generates images for Dall-E and another that exclusively works to summarize or write text from scratch. For this release, OpenAI is focusing on Responses, the evolution of its Chat Completion API—the company’s popular way that app developers can plug into the core conversational technology behind ChatGPT. The way the Chat Completions was designed, developers could only send one query in text at a time, and get a single answer in text back. Practically speaking, that meant complicated questions could take several steps, and each individual new question took time, introducing more latency. Now, a developer plugs strings of code into the Responses API, crossed with natural language queries that developers can use that are more or less the way you or I would talk to ChatGPT. (A long user manual helps developers understand what they can and can’t do.) OpenAI’s API will offer “multi turn” conversations that understand context and conversational flow—even when you mix in multimedia like images and, soon to arrive, voice/sound. Responses can also juggle several processes at once, because with a single line of code, you can connect “Tools” hosted by OpenAI into this process. These tools will include a web search (so OpenAI’s responses can be grounded in more real time data), a code interpreter to write and test code, and a file search to analyze and summarize files. The new API will also let developers connect to Operator—OpenAI’s agentic tool that can analyze screens and actually take actions on the user’s behalf—and comes with a new kit of software that helps developers juggle multiple AI agents at the same time. As the company explains, building APIs requires forecasting years ahead at the functions developers may want, and if you squint, it’s not hard to deconstruct OpenAI’s own thesis on the future lurking in the feature set. The API has vastly expanded upon what’s possible to do when you plug into OpenAI as a developer—embracing fuzzy inputs of multimedia, integrating information so responses are current, and perhaps most notable of all, acting on behalf of the user to save them time and effort. “I’m very excited for this year because of the agentic behavior that our models will unlock… the model is taking multiple steps on its own volition and giving you an answer,” says Atty Eleti, an engineer at OpenAI. “On the far end, [it makes way for] AI engineers, AI designers, AI auditors, AI accountants. Little junior interns that you can instruct and operate and ask them to go up and do these things. And I think we’re on the cusp of that becoming a very tangible reality.” Still, these long-term possibilities are grounded in immediate efficiencies. The API updates mean that a simple question, “what’s the weather in San Francisco,” goes from taking a hundred lines of code to just three. Adding all of the aforementioned tools requires just one line of code. This means that coding AI apps should be faster for developers. And because many queries hit OpenAI’s servers all at once, responses should come faster for end users. [Image: OpenAI] The challenge of bringing developers along Like any tool, APIs have to be designed for ease of use. They are not just about coding capabilities, the OpenAI team argues, but about designing clarity and possibility. “The education ladder of an API is something that has to be very consciously designed, because our target audience is not people who know how AI works or how LLMs work,” says Eleti. “And so we introduce them to AI in a sort of a ladder way, where you do a bit of work and you get some reward out of it. You do a bit more work, you understand some more concepts, and then over time, you can graduate to the more complex functionality.” OpenAI gives this instructive feedback to developers through their own mistakes. Whenever it generates errors, OpenAI tries to explain what went wrong in plain language, so the developer can actually understand how to improve their technique. The OpenAI team believes that such feedback, coupled with autocomplete coding tools, should make Responses easy for developers to learn. “I think that really good APIs sort of allow you to start off with the gas pedal in the steering wheel and graduate slowly to the airplane cockpit by exposing more and more functionality in the form of knobs, in the form of like settings and these other things that are hidden from you first, but exposed over time,” says Coffey. The tricky part of updating an API, however, is not just making it self-explanatory. The API also needs to be backwards compatible because software that’s already been built to connect to OpenAI can’t suddenly go dark after an update. So Responses is backwards compatible with software built upon Chat Completions. Furthermore, the Completions API itself will continue working as it always has. OpenAI will continue to support it into the future, offering updates that put Completions as close to feature parity with Responses as it can. (But to use those nifty tools, you’ll need to graduate to Responses.) Over time, the OpenAI API team bets that most of its developers will land on Responses, given the extra capabilities and that it will be price-equivalent to run. Assuming that OpenAI has bet on the right future, AI software is about to become faster, more capable, and more proactive than anything we’ve seen to date. View the full article

AI-powered search engines (e.g., OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Perplexity) are failing to drive meaningful traffic to publishers while their web scraping activities increase. That’s one big takeaway from a recent report from TollBit, a platform that says it helps publishers monetize their content. CTR comparison. Google’s average search click-through rate (CTR) was 8.63%, according to the report. However, the CTR for AI search engines was 0.74% and 0.33% CTR for AI chatbots. That means AI search sends 91% fewer referrals and chatbots send 96% less than traditional search. Why we care. This is bad news for publishers because it shows AI search won’t replace traditional search traffic. As AI-generated answers replace direct website visits, you should expect to see this trend continue. By the numbers. AI bot scraping doubled (+117%) between Q3 and Q4 2024. Also: The average number of scrapes from AI bots per website for Q4 was 2 million, with another 1.89 million done by hidden AI scrapers. 40% more AI bots ignored robots.txt in Q4 than in Q3. ChatGPT-User bot activity skyrocketed by 6,767.60%, making it the most aggressive scraper. Top AI bots by share of scraping activity: ChatGPT-User (15.6%) Bytespider (ByteDance/TikTok) (12.44%) Meta-ExternalAgent (11.34%) PerplexityBot continued sending referrals to sites that had explicitly blocked it, raising concerns about undisclosed scraping. Context. One company, Chegg, is attempting to sue Google over AI Overviews. Chegg claims Google’s search feature has severely damaged its traffic and revenue. Google announced last week an expansion of AI Overviews. It is now starting to show AI Overviews to users who aren’t logged in. About the data. There’s no methodology section, so it’s not entirely clear how many websites were analyzed, just that it’s based on “all onboarded ToolBit sites in Q4.” Toolbit says it “helps over 500 publisher sites.” The report. TollBit State of the Bots – Q4 2024 (registration required) View the full article

For the first time in almost two years, mortgage products available for consumers are at a level established in 2012. View the full article

Shares in Elon Musk’s Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) have gained very slightly in early morning trading today after the stock crashed around 15% yesterday. The decline in TSLA’s share price yesterday, which saw shares hit lows of around $215 before closing at just north of $222, was the electric vehicle maker’s worst single-day drop in nearly half a decade. Here’s what you need to know about Tesla stock this morning. What is Tesla’s stock price? As of the time of this writing, TSLA shares are trading at about $224 apiece. That’s about a half-percent gain since markets opened. Shares had climbed over 5% before giving up much of those early gains. But any share price gain will likely be music to many Tesla investors’ ears. This is especially true after yesterday’s more than 15% fall in Tesla’s stock price. It signals the bleeding may have stopped—at least temporarily. Why did Tesla shares crash yesterday? While Tesla was one of the biggest losers on the stock market yesterday, it’s important to note that very few major stocks performed well. In fact, all the major stock markets declined significantly yesterday, including the Nasdaq, S&P 500, and Dow Jones. The market crash followed President Trump’s comments that he couldn’t rule out the possibility of America entering a recession—a scenario economists have long feared after Trump’s insistence on raising tariffs on goods from America’s largest trading partners. That said, TSLA shares were among the hardest hit yesterday. There’s no doubt that TSLA shares fell partly due to the broader market sell-off, but that sell-off likely also acted as an accelerant for investors who were already concerned about the company’s declining share price in recent weeks. Since the beginning of the year, Tesla shares have plunged a staggering 45%, and last week, the company lost all the gains it had made since the “Trump bump”—the colloquial term for the dramatic growth TSLA shares experienced following Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election. On November 4, TSLA shares closed at approximately $242. By mid-December, TSLA shares reached an all-time high of over $488. However, since Trump took office, Tesla shares have plummeted, dropping from a peak of around $433 the day after Trump’s inauguration to as low as $215 just yesterday. In the run-up to yesterday’s crash, investors have become increasingly concerned about falling Tesla sales in many key markets, including China and Europe. Tesla’s declining sales in Europe have come after Elon Musk spent the latter part of 2024 propping up a far-right party in Germany. Domestically, investors are worried that Musk’s involvement with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is alienating Tesla’s core customer base: liberal progressives who previously flocked to Tesla EVs because of their concerns about climate change. However, Musk’s closeness to Trump and his role in the administration’s cuts of tens of thousands of jobs from the federal workforce, coupled with his insistence on voicing his divisive political views, have turned many off the brand. In recent weeks, Tesla showrooms across the country have also become demonstration points for protestors seeking to voice their grievances against both Elon Musk and the Trump administration. All this means investors worry Tesla’s brand image may be being harmed beyond repair. Many fear the tarnishment of the brand will lead to decreased sales in the future. Why were Tesla shares up today? It’s impossible to pinpoint one reason why Tesla shares were up briefly today. However, one of the most likely reasons is that, after yesterday’s massive selloff, some investors saw the stock as being “on sale” and bought shares while they were discounted. It’s common to an extent for shares in a company to recover somewhat in the days following a major selloff. Yet as of the time of this writing, TSLA shares have now given up those early modest gains. The only other news around Tesla in the past 24 hours is that President Trump has openly signaled his support for the company after yesterday’s stock price fall. In a move that would be unusual for most presidents, Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social network yesterday that he is “going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk.” However, it is unlikely that the president’s open support of Musk and Tesla—and the promise to buy one of its vehicles—is a significant mover behind the stock’s price today. Where does Tesla’s share price go from here? Where TSLA shares go from here is anyone’s guess. In January, JP Morgan issued the stock a $135 price target. If accurate, Tesla shares could still fall nearly $100 per share. However, other analysts still maintain much higher price targets for the stock. According to data from Yahoo Finance, Wedbush has a $550 price target for TSLA shares, and Piper Sandler has a $500 target. However, the stock also has bears other than JP Morgan. Bernstein, for example, has maintained a $120 price target on Tesla shares since October. View the full article

“Deals are my art form,” Donald Trump boasted in his signature book, 1987’s The Art of the Deal. “Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.” In the second term of his presidency, Trump is still getting his kicks quite often. His approach to deal-making, however, no longer resembles an artform–if it ever did–so much as it does a game of Russian roulette: erratic, overconfident, and mutually destructive. Through his whiplash-inducing tariff flip-flops and shabby treatment of Ukraine, Trump is demonstrating how his idea of a “good deal” differs from the rest of the world’s. He’s also assuring other leaders they’d do well to avoid sidling up to his negotiation table unless they absolutely have to. While many leaders surely have their own little idiosyncrasies around what constitutes a good deal, there seems to be some general consensus in the business world. The business book canon is brimming with tomes like William Ury’s Getting to Yes, which emphasize the importance of mutual respect and collaboration in forging win-win outcomes, while Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation prizes clarity and fairness. And beyond the realm of pure business, the last century of diplomacy was built on deals that were fair and equitable, and where all parties stood to gain something. Think of the Marshall Plan in 1948, when the U.S. provided over $13 billion to help post-WWII Europe rebuild itself–with the U.S. gaining strong trade partners, political allies, and immeasurable goodwill in return. Or the Camp David Accords in 1978, where Israel got security provisions, Egypt reclaimed some of its lost territory, and the U.S. burnished its ties with both countries in brokering the deal. These mutually beneficial moments from the highlight reel of international history are about as close to universally recognized good deals as they come. It’s unclear, however, if Trump would see them that way. “You hear lots of people say that a great deal is when both sides win,” the president wrote in his 2007 book, Think Big and Kick Ass. “That is a bunch of crap. In a great deal, you win—not the other side. You crush the opponent and come away with something better for yourself.” In Trump’s philosophy, deals are evidently a zero-sum game with clear winners and losers and no set rules. Forged in the fires of New York City real estate in the 1980s, this outlook ultimately shaped Trump’s first term as president, where he deployed extortion-like tactics to beef up his bargaining position. Sometimes he prevailed; other times, he didn’t. But he almost always operated by creating a potential crisis and dangling a solution advantageous only to himself. In 2018, he was able to forge the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), a revised version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), only by threatening to withdraw the U.S. from NAFTA, or purge Canada from it. Later that year, after the Senate unanimously passed a stopgap bill to continue funding the government, Trump refused to get behind it unless the bill included $5.7 billion for his border wall. In this case, the threatened crisis came to pass, resulting in the longest government shutdown in U.S. history… with no additional border funding. And perhaps the most notorious “deal” from Trump’s first term came during fall of 2019, when he paused a promised $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, allegedly to pressure the country into investigating Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. The deal was technically a success, in that Ukraine did indeed pursue such an investigation, but the victory was short-lived, in that it eventually earned Trump his first of two impeachments. Trump’s coercive approach to deal-making was a decidedly mixed bag in his first term. Any hopes that he might rein in his impulses and apply a more mutually beneficial touch the second time around, however, vanished immediately after January’s inauguration. How the rest of the world would respond to Trump’s extractive tactics, now that the surprise factor is long gone and unpredictability is just baked into the equation, remains an open question. Ukraine has very little leverage, for instance, in ongoing negotiations with the Trump White House to end three years of Russian-led war. During an ill-fated Oval Office meeting on February 28, which had been expected to firm up plans for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seemed caught off guard by Trump and JD Vance’s demands for a display of gratitude. (It’s unclear now whether the meeting was indeed meant to advance negotiations, or if it was intended as more of a planned humiliation ritual.) In the aftermath, Trump paused aid to Ukraine, along with intelligence-sharing. He will reportedly resume both, and broker peace talks with an apparently blameless Russia, once Zelenskyy not only agrees to share minerals with the U.S., but undergoes an attitude adjustment. (Zelenskyy seems to be relenting.) Iran, on the other hand, is calling Trump’s bluff. The president reportedly sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week, threatening military action if the republic refuses to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear program. “There are two ways Iran can be handled,” Trump told Fox Business on Friday, “militarily or you make a deal.” So far, Khameni refuses to make a deal. “The insistence of some bullying governments to negotiate is not to solve problems, but to impose their own expectations,” the leader said, according to Iran’s state media. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will definitely not accept their expectations.” The ball is now back in Trump’s court to either follow through with a military attack on Iran–not likely a popular option in Congress at this particular moment–or let his empty threat hang in the air. For now, he seems content to do the latter. One form of deal-making where Trump has produced unquestionable results in his second term, though, is through his liberal use of tariffs. Not that those results have all been positive, exactly. Trump scored an early win through using tariffs as a cudgel, just days after his inauguration. On January 26, Colombia objected to accepting deported migrants from the U.S. that were flown in on military planes, shackled in handcuffs. In response, Trump threatened the country with 25% tariffs. Colombia quickly backed down. Although the country’s objection resulted in better treatment for its deported migrants, the standoff was viewed by many as an unequivocal success for Trump’s tariffs. It would prove to be the last one to date. Trump initially promised that 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico would begin on February 4. After the stock market appeared spooked in response, though, and both countries tentatively agreed to beef up border security, he delayed the tariffs for a month. After briefly musing that he might further delay the duties, until April 2, Trump went ahead with applying 25% tariffs against Mexico, Canada, and China on March 4. Since then, amid pandemonium at the stock market, he has delayed some of these tariffs until April 2, but confusingly left others in place. (Even more confusing, he has placed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which automakers depend on, and increased them again on Tuesday, while also attempting to minimize disruption to the auto industry with an executive order.) Meanwhile, Canada has not paused its retaliatory tariffs, and neither has China, who seems completely unfazed by Trump’s trade war. These “deals” seem less like the five-dimensional chess moves of a savvy tactician than the arbitrary flailing of a leader drunk on power and an expectation of always getting his way. He has reserved a special animosity toward Canada, framing the trade war as an effort to force the country into becoming the U.S.’s 51st state, despite very little stateside enthusiasm for the idea. Whatever meager concessions the U.S. has gained in border security from this multi-front trade war are vastly dwarfed by the economic turmoil of a spooked stock market, fears of an approaching recession, and global animosity toward the U.S. Trump may see deal-making as a show of power, but his deals in 2025 seem to only show the power of indiscriminate destruction. Forget “mutually beneficial”; Trump now seems all too willing to make moves that benefit no one. And if he keeps it up much longer, even some of his most ardent voters may soon conclude they got a raw deal. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: I’m a recently appointed executive director who is hiring a number of people for newly created roles. In the past, I’ve hired but never had the overwhelming response I’m getting now. Much of it is coming through my personal channels, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and even my personal email. Our organization uses an electronic applicant tracking system and we are vetting candidates that way. More and more, I’m receiving messages non-stop, to the point where my wife and some former colleagues have received requests for my contact details. A few candidates have sent surly follow-up notes. Is it okay to respond to them telling them not to contact me at my private email or on Facebook? I feel like they may need a refresher on networking and that this isn’t it. How should I handle these people? I answer this question — and three others — over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here. Other questions I’m answering there today include: Talking about pumping in a male-dominated office How to politely decline buying a shirt when it’s about cancer My colleagues are uninterested in my work View the full article

The arrest of a Palestinian activist who helped organize campus protests of the war in Gaza has sparked questions about whether foreign students and green card holders are protected against being deported from the U.S. Mahmoud Khalil was arrested Saturday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Homeland Security officials and President Donald Trump have indicated that the arrest was directly tied to his role in the protests last spring at Columbia University in New York City. Khalil is being held at an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, while he awaits immigration court proceedings that could eventually lead to him being deported. His arrest has drawn criticism that he’s being unfairly and unlawfully targeted for his activism while the federal government has essentially described him as a terrorist sympathizer. A look at what kind of protections foreign students and green card holders have and what might be next for Khalil: Can someone with a green card be deported? A green card holder is someone who has lawful permanent residence status in the United States. Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer is a law professor at Cornell Law School who teaches immigration law. She said lawful permanent residents generally have many protections and “should be the most protected short of a US citizen.” But that protection isn’t absolute. Green card holders can still be deported for committing certain crimes, failing to notify immigration officials of a change in address or engaging in marriage fraud, for example. The Department of Homeland Security said Khalil was taken into custody as a result of Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism. Trump has argued that protesters forfeited their rights to remain in the country by supporting the Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza and has been designated as a terrorist organization. Khalil and other student leaders of Columbia University Apartheid Divest have rejected claims of antisemitism, saying they are part of a broader anti-war movement that also includes Jewish students and groups. But the protest coalition, at times, has also voiced support for leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Islamist organization designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group. Experts say that officials seem to indicate with their rhetoric that they are trying to deport Khalil on the grounds that he’s engaging in some sort of terrorist activity or somehow poses a threat. Khalil has not been convicted of any terrorist-related activity. In fact, he has not been charged with any wrongdoing. But experts say the federal government has fairly broad authority to arrest and try to deport a green card holder on terrorism grounds. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, green card holders do not need to be convicted of something to be “removable,” Kelley-Widmer said. They could be deported if the secretary of homeland security or the attorney general have reasonable grounds to believe they engaged in, or are likely to engage in, terrorist activities, she said. But Kelley-Widmer said she’s never seen a case where the alleged terrorist activity happened in the U.S., and she questioned whether taking part in protests as Khalil did qualifies. What did ICE say about why they were arresting him? One of the key issues in Khalil’s case is what ICE agents said to his lawyer at the time he was arrested. His lawyer, Amy Greer, said the agents who took him into custody at his university-owned home near Columbia initially claimed to be acting on a State Department order to revoke his student visa. But when Greer informed them that Khalil was a permanent resident with a green card, they said they would revoke that documentation instead. Kelley-Widmer said that exchange raises questions about how familiar the agents who arrested him were with the law or whether there was a “real disregard for the rule of law.” “I think we should be really concerned that this is happening,” she said. What are the next steps in his case? Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a message posted Sunday on X that the administration will be “revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.” If someone is in the country on a student visa, the State Department does have authority to revoke it if the person violates certain conditions. For example, said Florida immigration attorney John Gihon, it’s quite common for the State Department to cancel visas of foreign students who get arrested for drunk driving. But when it comes to someone who’s a lawful permanent resident, that generally requires an immigration judge to determine whether they can be deported. Gihon said the next step is that Khalil would receive charging documents explaining why he’s being detained and why the government wants to remove him, as well as a notice to appear in immigration court. Generally, he should receive those within 72 hours of being arrested, and then he would make an initial appearance before an immigration judge. That could take from 10 days to a month, Gihon said. But he cautioned that right now he’s seeing extensive delays across the immigration court system, with clients often moved around the country to different facilities. “We are having people who are detained and then they’re bounced around to multiple different detention facilities. And then sometimes they’re transferred across the country,” he said. Khalil’s lawyers have also filed a lawsuit challenging his detention. A federal judge in New York City ordered that Khalil not be deported while the court considered his case. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. —Rebecca Santana, Associated Press View the full article

Avoid the dreaded “what’s the status of” questions. By Frank Stitely The Relentless CPA Go PRO for members-only access to more Frank Stitely. View the full article

Avoid the dreaded “what’s the status of” questions. By Frank Stitely The Relentless CPA Go PRO for members-only access to more Frank Stitely. View the full article

Reason for crash still unknown after container vessel struck tanker carrying US military fuel View the full article

Whether you're self-employed or a partner, you may be able to deduct certain expenses for the part of your home that you use for business. To deduct expenses for business use of the home, you must use part of your home as one of the following: Exclusively on a regular basis as your principal place of business for your trade or business;Exclusively on a regular basis as a place where you meet or deal with your patients, clients, or customers in the normal course of your trade or business;A separate structure that's not attached to your home, used exclusively on a regular basis in connection with your trade or business;On a regular basis for storage of inventory or product samples used in your trade or business of selling products at retail or wholesale, so long as your home is the sole fixed location of such trade or business;For rental use; orAs a daycare facility.If the exclusive use requirement applies, you can't deduct business expenses for any part of your home that you use both for personal and business purposes. For example, if you're an attorney and use the den of your home to write legal briefs and for personal purposes, you may not deduct any business use of your home expenses. Further, under the principal place of business test, you must determine that your home is the principal place of your trade or business after considering where you perform your most important business activities and where you spend most of your business activity time, in order to deduct expenses for the business use of your home. A portion of your home may qualify as your principal place of business if you use it for the administrative or management activities of your trade or business and have no other fixed location where you conduct substantial administrative or management activities for that trade or business. You also may take deductions for business storage purposes when the dwelling unit is the sole fixed location of the business or for regular use of a residence for the provision of daycare services; exclusive use isn't required in these cases. For more information, see Publication 587, Business Use of Your Home (Including Use by Daycare Providers). Deductible expenses for business use of your home include the business portion of real estate taxes, mortgage interest, rent, casualty losses, utilities, insurance, depreciation, maintenance, and repairs. In general, you may not deduct expenses for the parts of your home not used for business, for example, lawn care or painting a room not used for business. Regular method - You compute the business use of home deduction by dividing expenses of operating the home between personal and business use. You may deduct direct business expenses in full, and may allocate the indirect total expenses of the home to the percentage of the home floor space used for business. A qualified daycare provider who doesn't use his or her home exclusively for business purposes, however, must figure the percentage based on the amount of time the applicable portion of the home is used for business. Self-employed taxpayers filing Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business (Sole Proprietorship) first compute this deduction on Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home. Simplified option - While taxpayers can still figure the deduction using the regular method, many taxpayers may find the optional safe harbor method less burdensome. Revenue Procedure 2013-13 PDF allows qualifying taxpayers to use a prescribed rate of $5 per square foot of the portion of the home used for business (up to a maximum of 300 square feet) to compute the business use of home deduction. Under this safe harbor method, depreciation is treated as zero and the taxpayer claims the deduction directly on Schedule C (Form 1040). Instead of using Form 8829, the taxpayer indicates the taxpayer's election to use the safe harbor option by making two entries directly on the Schedule C for the square footage of the home and the square footage of the office. Deductions attributable to the home that are otherwise allowable without regard to business use (such as qualified residence interest, property taxes, and casualty losses) are allowed in full on Schedule A (Form 1040), Itemized Deductions. For more information, see Simplified option for home office deduction and FAQs – Simplified method for home office deduction. Regardless of the method used to compute the deduction, you may not deduct business expenses in excess of the gross income limitation. Under the regular method for computing the deduction, you may be able to carry forward some of these business expenses to the next year, subject to the gross income limitation for that year. There's no carryover provision under the safe harbor method, but you may elect into and out of the safe harbor method in any given year. In the farming business or a partner - If you're in the farming business and file Schedule F (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Farming, or a partner and you're using actual expenses, use the "Worksheet to Figure the Deduction for Business Use of Your Home" to figure your deduction. If you're using the simplified method to figure the deduction, use the "Simplified Method Worksheet" to figure your deduction. Both worksheets are in Publication 587. Farmers claim their expenses on Schedule F (Form 1040) PDF. Partners generally claim their unreimbursed partnership expenses on Schedule E (Form 1040), Supplemental Income and Loss. Additional informationPublication 587 has detailed information on rules for the business use of your home, including how to determine whether your home office qualifies as your principal place of business. View the full article