Headlines this week signaled that a major boycott against Target had come to an end. The retail giant has been under fire since winding back many of its commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion a year ago, which sparked widespread criticism from the Black community and consumer boycotts that had a tangible impact on the business. Over the course of 2025, Targets already sluggish sales dropped further, and its share price fell by more than 30%; by August, the company had announced that CEO Brian Cornell would be stepping down.
One of those boycotts, which originally started as a 40-day Target Fast led by Atlanta-based pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant, has now been called off, following what Bryant described as productive conversations with company leaders. But that boycott reportedly did not result in any meaningful changes to Targets DEI policiesand the Minnesota civil rights activists behind another major boycott have made clear that they dont plan to back down anytime soon.
Lets be clear: The Target boycott is not over, Nekima Levy Armstrong, one of the boycott cofounders, said in a statement. This is a grassroots movement led by communities demanding corporate accountability, and we will not stop until Target reverses its retreat from diversity, equity, and inclusion. Another cofounder, Jaylani Hussein, emphasized that Target had not met the demands of the boycott, and therefore the boycott continues. (When contacted by Fast Company, Target was not available for comment.)
Bryant suggested in a March 12 press conference that the company had reassured him of its continued commitment to DEI, and in particular the Black community, which until last year Target had long supported through internal DEI programs and efforts to boost supplier diversity and Black-owned brands.
They have a program called Belonging, which gives access to everybody, not just for entry-level positions, but to be able to ascend into C-suites,” Bryant elaborated in an interview with USA Today. It is essentially DEI as I read it. It is the exact same thing.
In conversations with Bryant and other activists, Target also reportedly acknowledged that the company had lost the trust of Black consumers and employees, according to The Wall Street Journal. Target has not, however, walked back its reversal on DEI or reinstated any of its previous policies in response to the boycotts. (Bryant told USA Today that Target had addressed some boycott demandsnamely that the company would continue investing in Black-owned businesses.)
While the company did sign on to a letter penned by a group of prominent CEOs in Minnesota, Target has not spoken forcefully about the immigration crackdown and violence in its home stateeven as its stores and workers were directly affected.
Target is, of course, not alone in distancing itself from DEI. The company is just one of many corporate employers that have taken pains to disavow DEIat least publiclyover the past few years. While this shift started with the Supreme Court ruling that overturned affirmative action in 2023, it has accelerated in the past year as the Trump administration has explicitly targeted DEI programs across the federal government and in the private sector. Some companies have opted to rebrand their DEI programs to mitigate legal risk without abandoning them outright.
Like many other employers, Target took steps to shield itself from legal liability due to the evolving external landscape, concluding many of its DEI initiatives. But Target has been particularly vulnerable to blowback because of its reputation as a company that has historically supported the Black community. In the aftermath of George Floyds murder in 2020which happened just miles from company headquartersTarget made significant commitments to promote racial equity, pledging to increase its share of Black workers by 20% over the following three years and invest $2 billion in Black-owned businesses by 2025.
Amid the political environment, its not clear whether the ongoing boycott will move Target to reevaluate its approach to DEI, especially as the company continues to navigate broader business woes and falling sales. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently embarked on a major investigation into Nikes DEI practices, which could eventually have significant consequences for corporate DEI effortsand, in the meantime, discourage employers from engaging in entirely legal forms of diversity work. At the moment, it seems companies like Target have little incentive to openly support DEI or draw attention to any DEI initiatives they may have in place.
The sudden wind-down of Anthropic technology within the U.S. government is raising concerns about whether federal officials, without access to Claude, might fall behind in the quest to guard against the threat of AI-generated or AI-assisted nuclear and chemical weapons.
Though the rollout has been messyand Claude remains in use in some parts of the governmentthe Trump administrations anti-Anthropic posture could have a chilling effect on collaborations between AI companies and federal agencies, including partnerships focused on critical national security questions related to these kinds of futuristic threats, several sources tell Fast Company. The worry is that severing ties with the company could both limit government researchers understanding of how, in the future, bad actors could use AI to generate new types of nuclear and biological weapons, and hold back scientific progress more broadly.
Since at least February 2024, Anthropic has participated in a formal partnership with the National Nuclear Security Administration, the federal agency charged with monitoring the countrys nuclear stockpile. The point of that work, the company has previously said, is to evaluate our AI models for potential nuclear and radiological risks. The concern, here, is that developing nuclear weapons requires specialized knowledge, but that AI, as it continues to advance, could eventually become adept at developing this expertise on its own. Eventually, a large language model might be able to help someone figure out how to design an incredibly dangerous weaponor even come up with a novel one itself.
Now, in the wake of President Donald Trumps Truth Social post demanding that federal workers stop using Anthropic tech, its not clear what might happen to Anthropics efforts to guard against these future threats. Some federal agencies appear to still be weighing how to approach the Claude use cases they already have, while others are cutting off access to the tool entirely.
As directed by President Trump, the Department of Energy is reviewing all existing contracts and uses of Anthropic technology, a spokesperson for the NNSA tells Fast Company. The Department remains firmly committed to ensuring that the technology we employ serves the public interest, protects Americas energy and national security, and advances our mission. Anthropic declined to comment.
Safety concerns at the Energy Department
For the past few years, Anthropic has been collaborating with or providing technology to the myriad agencies and national labs that fall under the Department of Energy. For instance, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory began using Claude for Enterprise in 2025 and, at the time, made the tool available to about 10,000 scientists. The lab said last year that the technology was supposed to help accelerate its research efforts in the domains of nuclear deterrence, energy security, materials science, and other areas.
Anthropic has also worked with the National Nuclear Security Agency on evaluating potential AI-related nuclear safety risks. For example, the agency has provided Anthropic with high-level metrics and guidance that have helped the company analyze the threat of its own technology. Anthropic has also worked with the NNSA on developing technology that can scan and categorize AI chatbot conversations and search for signs that someone might be using an LLM to discuss building a nuclear weapon.
An inventory for 2025 for the Department of Energy disclosed that the agency was using Claude at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Idaho National Laboratory in pilots. Anthropic is also one of several partners in the agencys Genesis mission, which aims to accelerate scientific development by leveraging artificial intelligence.
Those collaborations may now be in jeopardy. Claude is everywhere in the Energy Department’s labs, including at the NNSA, according to Ann Dunkin, the departments former chief information officer. If labs, or the NNSA, are working on projects using Anthropic as their AI tool, they are going to have to, at the very least, stop work and start with a new vendor, Durking tells Fast Company. This will cost time and money. More than likely, there will be [new] work as they will have to train a new model. To conduct simulations that involve studying various AI risks, its important to understand how all AI models might behave, she adds.
In regard to nuclear weapons, theres worry that AI could be used to gather enough information to build one such weaponor be jailbroken so that it could provide that information, Dunkin says.
A former Department of Homeland Security official who focused on AI safety issues echoes those concerns. Anthropic, the person tells Fast Company, was a leader on evaluating how AI models, including its own, might create serious safety risks related to chemical and nuclear weapons. Pressure to remove Anthropic risks wasting peoples time and may not be successful anyway, they say. It also puts federal officials behind on trying to understand the full risks related to artificial intelligence, or to fully benefit from its efficiencies, given that Anthropic is still the leading provider of some AI capabilities. Theres no ban on Claude for the bad guys, the former official adds.
Overall, the governments sudden turn against Anthropic risks scaring off other companies that might want to work on serious issues, including those related to nuclear security. Anthropic learned that once youre serving the U.S. government, you might not have the right to say no, at least now without retaliation. Naturally that will deter others from working for the government, especially on sensitive topics, says Steven Adler, an ex-OpenAI employee who focuses on AI safety issues.
There’s a bitter irony here: The administration is simultaneously demanding AI companies help with national security and making it harder for responsible actors to do exactly that, Alex Bores, who is running for a House seat in New York on a platform focused on AI regulation, tells Fast Company in a statement. AI companies working with NNSA to evaluate risk isn’t a liabilityit’s a model. Punishing it sends exactly the wrong signal at exactly the wrong time.”
An incomplete exit plan
Its not immediately clear how federal agencies are supposed to approach Anthropic technology right now. Trump used Truth Social to demand that federal agencies immediately cease all use of Anthropics technology, though such instructions are ordinarily communicated through the federal chief information officer. The Trump administration is reportedly working on an executive order related to Anthropic, while Anthropic has filed a lawsuit challenging its designation as a supply chain risk.
The General Services Administration, according to one post, seems to be interpreting the Truth Social post as a national security directive. Te agencys GitHub repository shows that Claude was recently removed for its interagency AI resource, and a person within the agency confirmed that employees could no longer access Claude internally. Still, another person at the agency tells Fast Company that no official instructions about how to actually enforce removing Claude from federal use cases have actually been sent to employees.
One major challenge with stripping Anthropics technology from the federal government is that the technology can be delivered in many ways. In Claudes case, this includes products sold by Anthropic directly, but also integrations with popularand controversialgovernment contractors like Palantir and Amazon Web Services.
Notably, Claude for Government is still listed as one of the features offered within the Palantir Federal Cloud Service, and several agencies have authorized the use of this package, including the Brookhaven National Lab and the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center, as well as the State Department and the Treasury. The product describes Claude as purpose built to meet high government security requirements. Palantir also has a long-standing relationship with the NNSA that predates LLMs.
The NNSA spokesperson declined to comment on how they were approaching the use of Claude and classified systems. At the time of this writing, Palantir had not respondd to a request for comment.
On the military side of government, much ado has been made of the fact that only Caude, and not systems like ChatGPT, has been cleared to operate in classified environments. The Pentagon has since sent a memo to employees that prioritizes removing Claude from any systems that involve nuclear security. Classified environments are also important to civilian agencies. Though Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said his agency will be terminating use of Anthropic products and Claude, there was at least some grumbling at a recent meeting focused on AI use within the agency that other AI tools werent similarly available for classified information.
For decades, the relationship between a fan and a content franchise was defined by scarcity: You watched a movie or binged a season, then had to wait months or years for the next installment. Fans were spectators, limited to going to the concert, game, or movie, buying merch, and tweeting about their favorite moments.
Scarcity trained audiences to wait. Abundance taught them not to.
The greatest challenge facing intellectual property (IP) owners today is staying connected and culturally relevant in a world where content is everywhere, all the time, and limitless. While these players historically have been limited by the time and budget required to create premium content, the audiences appetite to relate to their favorite brands has only grown.
With the rise of generative AI, media companies can now leverage technology to bridge this gap, transforming how audiences engage with IP and creating opportunities for fan experiences that operate 24/7.
Fandom as creation
Over the past 10 years, the demographics of fandom have shifted dramatically. According to Ogilvys Fandom Flux study, 86% of Gen Z identify as fans. But for this group of fans, consuming their favorite story doesnt cut it; they want to step inside it, remix it, and co-author the worlds they love.
Younger audiences are already making this shift. Gen Alpha is the first generation to experience fandom as an act of creation rather than consumption, according to Ogilvy. As a testament to this trend, 66% of Gen Z and Gen Alpha report spending more time with fan-created content than with official content.
Generative AI can solve this discrepancy. By collaborating across industries, IP owners can meet this need, using AI to scale fan engagement in ways that traditional production pipelines cant. Disneys agreement with OpenAI allows fans to generate scenes featuring hundreds of characters within brand-safe parameters. This turns casual Disney fans into active creators. By enabling canon-adjacent storytelling, studios can transform viewers into stakeholders. And when fans can contribute to a world, the franchise grows with its community, and engagement becomes shared rather than one-sided.
Gaming already provides a blueprint for whats possible. Fortnite Creative 2.0 has evolved beyond a “battle royale” into a social ecosystem where brands like Star Wars inhabit “living maps, where players can roam, complete challenges, and interact with characters in real time. Now, AI brings that interactive agency to pure storytelling, removing technical barriers so that engaging with a character is as natural as texting a friend.
Infinite worlds, infinite engagement
As more fans expect this level of immersion with the brands they love, we see a future where AI-powered characters live anywhere, engaging consumers wherever they are. Instead of waiting for the next film or episode, these characters will be available around the clock. Fans can create new moments with their favorite characters, rather than re-watching the same story on repeat.
For media companies, AI characters serve as more than just engagement and monetization tools; they are a powerful feedback loop. By partnering with AI platforms, studios can test character dynamics, gauge reactions to new lore, and understand what resonates with their most highly engaged users before greenlighting expensive productions. The business case is undeniable: Platforms that integrate AI-driven personalization are already seeing an average 35% increase in engagement rates, with streaming leaders leveraging these tools as the backbone of their fan retention strategies for younger audiences.
Design for participation
The future of entertainment is no longer one-way. AI is enabling experiences that are persistent, co-created, and reciprocal. Instead of measuring success by how many people buy a ticket for the latest movie premiere, it will be measured by how deeply audiences engage with the franchise.
The next generation of IP will be built by designing immersive experiences, not just content. By embracing partner-driven AI solutions, media leaders can transform viewers into stakeholders. As these fans become true stakeholders, franchises will continue to grow and evolve with their communities, ensuring that today’s favorite characters remain culturally resonant for the next generation of audiences.
Karandeep Anand is CEO of Character.AI.
The ongoing war in the Middle East continues to embroil new participantsfrom residential properties in Dubai to protestors in Iran getting caught in the crossfire of drones and missiles.
And at the same time, global trade is slowing to a crawl, thanks to the effective shutdown of the Hormuz Strait, through which 11% of all global trade passes.
Yet another sector finding itself in the firing lineliterallyis data centers. A number of them in the region have been hit by enemy strikes during the two-week war, causing damage and outages.
Data centers are an important part of modern economies, enabling the delivery of digital services that keep countries going. Therefore, its little surprise that theyve been targeted by both sides of the war as an attempt to sow chaos and force a capitulation.
Data centers are also deeply exposed to wider disruption in the region because they sit at the end of long, fragile supply chains.
Many of the chips, memory modules, networking switches, and cooling systems they rely on depend on materials that transit through Middle Eastern choke points or are produced in nearby statesfrom helium and other specialty gases used in semiconductor manufacturing to metals and finished components moving between Asia, Europe, and North America.
The nearhalt in shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has pushed up transport costs, squeezed airfreight capacity, and driven insurers to hike warrisk premiums, making it more expensive and slower to move everything from server racks to backup generators and fuel.
At the same time, the strait is a critical artery for oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG), so any prolonged disruption feeds directly into higher global energy pricesraising the cost of the vast amounts of electricity and cooling that hyperscale data centers consume, and making new projects harder to finance.
Thats less of a problem for the United States, which has its own energy supplies, is the worlds largest LNG exporter, and is insulated from Gulf disruptions by its own abundant domestic production.
Data centers already face threats
Beyond the immediate impact, theres a corollary risk to the conflict for data centers beyond the Middle East.
Abe Silverman, an assistant research scholar at Johns Hopkins Universitys Ralph OConnor Sustainable Energy Institute, says the Middle East conflict isnt primarily a direct supply-chain story for data centers.
The biggest threat to data centers isn’t actually oil traffic or disruption to global supply chains, he says. The biggest threat to data centers today is the perception that they are raising costs of electricity for everyday consumers.”
Currently, marine traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has practically stopped, including shipments of LNG from the region. If that ongoing disruption continues and pushes up natural gas and electricity prices, consumers may blame data centers for worsening already painful power bills, Silverman believes.
While those physical and economic pressures will take months to fully work through supply chains and power markets, the more immediate consequence may be political: As energy prices rise, regulators and communities could increasingly scrutinize whether new data center campuses are worth the extra strain on already expensive electricity bills.
We would not anticipate a material shift in companies’ plans and a further expansion in U.S. data centers, but it is a consideration for those focused on Europe and the Middle East, says Julien Dumoulin-Smith, managing director and senior equity analyst at Jefferies, a global investment bank.
Theres also the financing of these megaprojects, particularly closer to the center of the conflictand whether its possible for them to be safely insured to be built.
Some $2.5 billion of deals to build data centers in the Middle East were brokered last year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. If the safety of that infrastructure, and the return on investment, cant be guaranteed as tension in the region continues to ratchet up, it becomes a much harder choice to invest there.
That could cause some projects to fall by the waysideor worse, to shift investment in them to states hostile to the West.
The impact will be that theyll be rebuilt fairly quickly, and if the Americansand Europeansarent quick off the mark, theyll be rebuilt with Chinese investment, says Lynette Nusbacher, a former Canadian and British army intelligence officer.
But beyond that, each new attack sends a message, reckons Nusbacher. Data centers are an important part of the post-petroleum future of the Gulf monarchies, she says. Attacking a data center isnt symbolic, but its a way to show that the U.S. cant guarantee any kind of security for their future.
As the war in Iran shocks global gas and oil prices, more Americans are considering home solar systems and searching for electric vehicles.
In the 11 days after the conflict began, EnergySage, an online comparison-shopping marketplace for clean energy systems, saw a 17% increase in homeowners requesting quotes for solar installations, and a 23% increase in requests for solar plus a home battery.
Thats compared with the 11 days before the escalation. The company notes that it can’t specifically credit those increases to one cause, such as the conflict; there may be multiple factors at play.
But it still believes the war is part of this directional change. And that growth is notable, a spokesperson adds, because demand for these installations has been soft since the federal tax credits for such home upgrades expired in December.
EnergySage has also seen a 30% increase in requests for EV charger installations.
Its not yet clear if that increase is directly related to a surge in EV sales. (It could be, for example, that drivers who already own plug-in hybrids are actually going to start plugging them in instead of relying on gas.)
But there are signs of a growing interest in that market, too. Edmunds, an online retailer for new and used cars, says searches for hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and EVs are up 20% in one week.
Sunlight doesn’t need to go through the Strait of Hormuz
The conflict in Iran is highlighting how our energy sources move around the worldand how vulnerable they can be to geopolitical events.
With the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, about a fifth of the worlds oil and gas has essentially been removed from the global market, causing prices to surge.
But as many climate experts have been noting, sunlight (and wind) dont need to travel through that strait.
Though surging oil and gas prices have dominated headlines since the Iran conflict began, experts say natural gas prices could be hit even harder, which would directly affect Americans utility prices.
Renewable power can buffer countries, and individuals, from fossil fuel price volatility. And Americans are understanding that, too. When energy prices spike, people start looking for ways to take control of their bills, says EnergySage CEO Naman Trivedi.
Geopolitical instability has a way of making energy independence feel urgent and personal, he adds. People dont want their familys utility bills tied to events happening halfway around the world.
Solar leads to real energy bill savings
Natural gas prices have already been on an upward climb, in part because of the AI data center boom, which has spiked energy bills for Americans.
The wars effect on overall energy prices could mean Americans will hit a breaking pointwhere its like, I have to do something about this, says Jesse Lee, senior adviser for Clean Energy Economy at Climate Power, a climate communications and advocacy organization.
The things theyve been postponing that they know can save them money in the long term . . . this is kind of the moment where people start to pull the trigger, he adds.
Those monetary savings are real. A June 2024 study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that the median residential solar customer saves $1,987 annually off their home energy bills.
Adding solar requires an up-front cost, of course, but even factoring off-bill costs in, the median customer sees a total net savings of $691.
Though the Trump administration removed the Inflation Reduction Acts federal incentives for home solar installations, Lee says that cities and states often still offer rebates that could reduce installation costs.
Americans can find information about those programs through Rewiring America.
The way off the fossil fuel merry-go-round
Switching to an EV also comes with a tangible financial impact. A 2024 report found that EV drivers save an average of $100 every month, or $1,200 a year, on fuel, compared with gasoline-powered cars.
Electric vehicles are also cheaper to maintainand sticker prices are dropping, particularly for used EVs. Theres always been a strong connection between spiking gas prices and people starting to look at EVs, Lee says.
Whats unique about this particular energy price spike, he adds, is that it coincides with solar energy and EVs becoming affordable for everyday Americans.
Its not clear how long this conflict will last, and what that means for energy prices in the future. But this likely isnt the last geopolitical event to disrupt fossil fuel markets.
Americans seem to be realizing that, despite the Trump administration’s move away from renewables, they can make their households less vulnerable to such price shocks through home solar systems and EVs.
Theres just absolutely no question that in the short term, but also the long term . . . this is how you escape the fact that were going to have international entanglements that spike gas prices for, probably, forever, Lee says.
Home solar and EVs, he adds, are the way off those merry-go-rounds.
More than 444,000 people who rented homes with Invitation Homes will soon receive checks as part of a $47.2 million settlement stemming from a 2024 lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission.
The Dallas-based company, which owns and/or manages more than 110,000 single-family homes in the U.S., is accused of deceiving 441,131 consumers with undisclosed fees and charges totaling $45 or more. People who paid for certain fees and charges between January 2021 and September 2024 will be eligible for checks that will be sent by the FTC.
One of the largest single-family home landlords in the country, Invitation Homes is currently advertising thousands of available rentals in 13 different states, heavily concentrated in core markets like Atlanta, Tampa, Phoenix, Charlotte, Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville, Denver, and Las Vegas.
As part of the FTC settlement, the corporate landlord will be required to clearly disclose its leasing prices, establish policies and procedures to handle security deposit refunds fairly, and stop other unlawful behavior. Its rental listings currently include a breakdown of the various fees included in the all-in-rent fee.
Renters who paid Invitation Homes $45 or more for covered fees or charges between January 2021 and September 2024and who have not already received a credit or refund from the companywill be eligible for payment. The FTC will be sending out the checks, which must be cashed within 90 days.
Though the company agreed to pay more than $48 million to compensate consumers, that amount is slightly more than the amount the FTC will send outtotaling about $106, on average, for each affected renter.
INVITATION HOMES INVITES SCRUTINY
The settlement comes about 18 months after the FTC sued Invitation Homes in September 2024 alleging various unlawful actions, according to the settlement details. Such actions included deceiving applicants about lease costs, charging renters undisclosed fees, failing to inspect homes before residents moved in, unfairly withholding tenants security deposits or imposing deceptive and unfair charges when renters moved out, and not permitting renters to opt out of certain services, like smart home technology.
The company didnt immediately respond to a request for comment from Fast Company.
Dallas Tanner, CEO of Invitation Homes, was asked about the companys legal issues with the FTC during a February meeting to discuss another company he leads, MIXT Industries, leasing a golf course in Polson, Montana. Though Tanner said he cant speak publicly about things like that, he did tell the public meeting that it became very popular during President Joe Bidens administration to sort-of pick on housing groups, according to reporting by the Lake County Leader.
But Invitation Homes has been under fire on multiple fronts recentlyand from both sides of the political aisle. Its among a number of large corporate buyers of single-family homes thats drawn the ire of President Donald Trump and other lawmakers in Washington, D.C. and beyond. This January, Trump signed an executive order, Stopping Wall Street from Competing with Main Street Homebuyers to crackdown on large, institutional investors purchasing single-family homes.
In 2024, the company agreed to a $19.9 million settlement to resolve claims that alleged Invitation Homes had failed to obtain the necessary permits to avoid permit fees and property tax increases in 35 California cities.
Shares of Invitation Homes (NYSE:INVH) rose nearly 0.4% on Friday, though the stock has tumbled more than 23% in the past year.
A recent class-action lawsuit against David Protein, filed in January, alleges the company misrepresented the amount of calories and fat in its popular, healthy-branded bar, claiming that it had “way more” of both than customers were led to believe.
Now, in response to the lawsuit, social media is having a field day with comparisons to the 2004 movie Mean Girls, with one TikTok user and apparent David Protein customer posting, “I have been Regina Georged.”
Here’s a quick brief on what’s happening.
Wait, remind me, what’s the ‘Mean Girls’ plot again?
If you’re like me, you’ve seen Mean Girls a dozen times. The plot is a hilarious and biting commentary on the social pressure on American teenage girls today.
One major through-line in the high school teen girl drama is when protagonist and outcast Cady Heron (played by Lindsay Lohan) decides to fight back against popular Queen Bee Regina George (played by Rachel McAdams), and dupes her into eating fattening Kälteen Bars protein bars, pretending they are for weight loss:
So how is this like the David protein bar lawsuit?
David Protein says its bars have 150 calories, 28 grams of protein, two grams of fat, and zero grams of sugar. However, the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last month alleges the bars actually have 83% more calories and 400% more fat, according to third-party testing.
Linus Technologies, the main defendant in the class-action lawsuit, operates under brand name David Protein. Fast Company has reached out to David Protein for comment.
The lawsuit claims customers unwittingly bought the product without knowing its actual nutritional content, and requests payment for their damages or $50, whichever is more.
David Protein, for its part, did acknowledge the social media references to Mean Girls.
“No one is getting Regina Georged” David Protein posted on Instagram on Wednesday. “And the David bar still has 150 calories.”
Its possible that the IRS may owe you some money from the COVID era.
Last month, a U.S. Court of Federal Claims decision broadened the interpretation of a particular part of the tax code, IRC Section 7508A, which concerned the postponement of tax deadlines during disasters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Specifically, a February ruling in Kwong v. United States (2025)a lawsuit concerning a plaintiffs attempt to get a refund for tax penaltiesdecided that deadlines for filing tax returns, paying taxes, or filing for refunds needed to be completed by July 11, 2023. So, if a taxpayer was supposed to file their 2020 tax return by April 15, 2021, the date was shifted to July 11, 2023.
Accordingly, this could have caused incorrect calculations by the IRS in terms of penalties, refunds, or claims of interest due on refunds. In effect, the courts are saying that the IRS didnt have standing to charge penalties or interest while the emergency postponement was in effect, plus 60 days. The public health emergency caused by the pandemic lasted between January 20, 2020, and May 11, 2023. Sixty days after that: July 11, 2023.
In short: Its possible that taxpayers could be due for a refund, or to have penalties or interest levied against them for unpaid taxes relieved. Its possible, though, that the IRS and federal government can appeal the ruling, so nothing is set in stone.
How to find out if you may be owed money, and what to do next
For taxpayers who feel like they may be owed some additional reliefthat is, they think they were unfairly charged penalties or interest during the period between January 20, 2020, and July 10, 2023its possible to request a refund. One company, Western Digital, took action last month, suing the IRS for $21 million, claiming that it was unfairly charged interest during the disaster period.
As for individual taxpayers, youll want to check your tax records to see if you were actually hit with any penalties or interest during the disaster period, in order to ensure you have standing. That can be done by looking at your tax account transcript, available from the IRS. Further, you or a tax professional can file Form 843 with the IRS to request a refund using the information on the transcript.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has said it would commit $100 million to training the next generation of skilled trades workers who can support a growing demand for new infrastructure.
In its announcement, BlackRock explained that its philanthropic Future Builders Initiative will “help address urgent labor needs,” noting that there’s been an increase in “demand for workers in skilled trades such as electricians, HVAC technicians, plumbers, and ironworkers.” The company said that demand is expected to continue to surge in the coming years, and explained that it would help to meet that demand by supporting future workers during all stages of training through licensure.
Throughout our history, tradespeople have built our country, Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, who also serves as the chairman of the AI Infrastructure Partnership. said in the announcement.
America needs an estimated $10 trillion in infrastructure investment by 2033 to modernize aging systems and build new energy, digital, and AI infrastructure. Capital alone is not enough people are central to building our nations future.”
The announcement comes at a time when the rate of joblessness for Gen Z is surging, and college enrollment may be on the decline. As more young adults skip college degrees, unconvinced that four years of college, and oftentimes, taking on the burden of thousands in student loans will actually ensure a financially stable future, they’re pursuing blue-collar work more often.
According to a 2025 Resume Builder report, 42% of Gen Z adults are turning to the trades in the wake of rising economic concerns and growing job instability.
Experts say that a greater investment in the trades can help solve some of today’s current workforce challenges. Julian Scadden, CEO of Nexstar Network, an organization that helps skilled trades workers grow their business, says those jobs are “hand-on, high-impact and future proof.”
Scadden explains that, “For too long, we’ve treated the trades as a fallback rather than a first-choice career option, but that perception is finally changing. The need isnt just a flash in the pan, as there are longer term prospects and enormous opportunities for people in skilled trade careers.
That certainly feels true as concerns about finding a job that can actually enable young adults to afford modern living are real, and they’re rampant. But cost of living conversations aside, also driving those concerns are fears around AI taking human jobs. Interestingly, while AI may be able to take on a growing number of tasks once done by human workers, it’s also increasing the need for more skilled trade workers (at least for now).
When speaking at the World Economic Forum alongside Larry Fink in January, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang spoke to the fact that demand for skilled trade workers is surging as construction for AI data centers rises.
“This is the largest infrastructure buildout in history and that’s gonna create a lot of jobs,” Huang said, while adding that pay for skilled trade work is increasing at the same time. “Salaries have gone upnearly double,” the CEO said.
He continued, “Everybody should be able to make a great living. You don’t need to have a PhD in computer science to do so.”
Through that lens, experts say the investment in trades comes at the right time.
Steve Metzmen, CEO of iBusiness Technologies, a mobile technology integrator and Apple partner, where he developed the Connected Apprentice platform for trades workers, tells Fast Company the investment is “very smart” and that “deep funding for trades training is needed now.” The CEO says that’s true given we’re at what he calls an “inflection point” where “cutting-edge technology and long-overdue appreciation for skilled trades are converging at exactly the same moment.”
Metzmen continues, comparing the current transformative period to that of the 1800s, when railways were first being built: “Without those tracks, the great transformations of American industry and capitalism were not possible,” Metzmen says. “Required infrastructure had to come first, everything else waited and followed,” the CEO adds.
Ironically, while BlackRock is clearly invested in supporting trade workers, they’re also deeply committed to the power of AI.
In a 2025 transactionone of the largest data center transactions everthe firm purchased Aligned Data Centers in a $40 billion deal. “With this investment in Aligned Data Centers, we further our goal of delivering the infrastructure necessary to power the future of AI,” Fink said at the time.
Likewise, per the recent announcement, the firm’s contribution will also go toward the building of new AI data centers.
Still, while the investment may eventually add to the growing anxiety around AI taking over a growing number of jobs, BlackRock’s investment is bound to help those who want to pursue work in the trades find financial stability in the near future.
Metzmen says, “This investment doesn’t just support laborit helps to relieve the greatest constraint on the entire resource delivery pipeline.”
The U.S. economy, hobbled by last falls 43-day government shutdown, advanced at an unexpectedly sluggish 0.7% annual rate from October through December, the Commerce Department reported Friday in a big downgrade of its initial estimate.
Growth in gross domestic product the nations output of goods and services was down sharply from 4.4% in last years third quarter and 3.8% in the second. And the fourth-quarter number was half the governments first estimate of 1.4%; economists had expected the revision to go the other way and show stronger growth.
Federal government spending and investment, clobbered by the shutdown, plunged at a 16.7% rate, hacking 1.16 percentage points off fourth-quarter growth.
For all of 2025, GDP grew 2.1%, solid but down from an initial estimate of 2.2% and from growth of 2.8% in 2024 and 2.9% 2023.
In the fourth quarter, consumer spending grew at a 2% clip, down from 3.5% in the third quarter and the 2.4% the government had initially estimated. Business investment, excluding housing, increased at a healthy 2.2% pace, likely reflecting money being poured into artificial intelligence, but the increase was down from 3.2% in the third quarter and from the 3.7% advance in the Commerce department’s initial estimate.
Exports fell at a 3.3% annual rate in the fourth quarter, a bigger drop than the government first estimated.
A category within the GDP data that measures the economys underlying strength came in weaker than previously reported, growing at a 1.9% clip, down from 2.9% in the third quarter and from the first estimate of 2.4%. This category includes consumer spending and private investment, but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending.
Following two consecutive strong readings for the second and third quarters, the economy was expected to soften heading into year-end. Its now increasingly clear that the economy not only slowed but stumbled into the finish line, Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, said in a commentary. “The government shutdown was certainly a major factor in the loss of momentum, but a sharp decline in consumption growth also played a role.”
The U.S. economy the worlds largest has shown surprising resilience in the face of President Donald Trumps policies, including sweeping import taxes and mass deportations. But the war with Iran has driven up oil and gas prices and clouded the economic outlook.
Meanwhile, the American job market is in a slump. Last month, companies, nonprofits and government agencies cut 92,000 jobs. In 2025, they added fewer than 10,000 jobs a month, the weakest hiring outside recession years since 2002.
Fridays GDP was the second of the three estimates of fourth-quarter growth. The final report is due April 9.
Paul Wiseman, AP economics writer
