As you scroll through your FYP, a sweet elderly man or woman appears, asking for a moment of your attention to help save their struggling animal shelter.
Please stay 8 seconds so I dont have to shut down my cat shelter I poured my love into, the text on screen reads. You stay and watch. After all, its only eight seconds. Maybe you even buy the slippers theyre selling to raise additional funds.
Its a scam.
The man in the video is real, but he doesnt run an animal shelter. He owns a menswear and tailoring shop in Canton, Ohio.
One night I was scrolling on TikTok watching videos and I see my dads face pop up, saying Stay for a few seconds and help my husband or grandpas cat shelter, And Im like, What? Daisy Yelicheck told WMBF News. Then Im getting text messages from family members across the country, saying, Do you know your dads being used in these videos?
Daisys father, George Tsaftarides, 84, does post on TikTok, where he teaches his 41,000 followers how to sew. Now, bad actors have taken his content, edited it, and used it for their own gain.
@georgethemastertailor
Tsaftarides isnt the only target. Charles Ray, an 85-year-old retiree in Michigan, has also had videos from his TikTok account repurposed without his permission. In one instance, scammers used a clip of him rubbing his eye, making it look as if he was crying, he told The Guardian.
TikTok, in a statement to the Guardian, said its community guidelines prohibit impersonation accounts and content that violates intellectual property rights. Still, both Tsaftarides and Ray have had difficulty getting the stolen videos removed, even after reporting them.
Beyond stolen content, the Better Business Bureau has received reports of AI-generated scams designed to solicit fake donations. According to an FBI report, American consumers lost $12.5 billion to cybercrime last year, a 25% increase from the year before.
Now, some TikTok users are stepping in to raise awareness, warning others not to fall for every cat shelter or cow farm asking for donations. The sob story, after all, is one of the oldest tricks in the book.
@sesagraham wtf is going on and shame on you @MilkStep @KittyBags @LINK IN BIO TO SUPPORT #scammer #fakepages #help #scam #scammers original sound – Sesa
Israel and Iran seemed to honor the fragile ceasefire between them for a second day Wednesday and U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that American and Iranian officials will talk next week, giving rise to cautious hope for longer-term peace.Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire that took hold Tuesday on the 12th day of the war, told reporters at a NATO summit that he was not particularly interested in restarting negotiations with Iran, insisting that U.S. strikes had destroyed its nuclear program. Earlier in the day, an Iranian official questioned whether the United States could be trusted after its weekend attack.“We may sign an agreement, I don’t know,” Trump said. “The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done.”Iran has not acknowledged any talks taking place next week, though U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries. A sixth round of U.S.-Iran negotiations was scheduled for earlier this month in Oman but was canceled after Israel attacked Iran.Earlier, Trump said the ceasefire was going “very well,” and added that Iran was “not going to have a bomb, and they’re not going to enrich.”Iran has insisted that it will not give up its nuclear program. In a vote underscoring the tough path ahead, its parliament agreed to fast-track a proposal that would effectively stop the country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. watchdog that has monitored the program for years.Ahead of the vote, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticized the IAEA for refusing “to even pretend to condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities” that the U.S. carried out Sunday.“For this reason, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran will suspend cooperation with the IAEA until security of nuclear facilities is ensured, and Iran’s peaceful nuclear program will move forward at a faster pace,” Qalibaf told lawmakers.IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he wrote to Iran to discuss resuming inspections of their nuclear facilities. Among other things, Iran claims to have moved its highly enriched uranium ahead of the U.S. strikes, and Grossi said his inspectors need to reassess the country’s stockpiles.“We need to return,” he said. “We need to engage.”French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped Tehran would come back to the table. France was part of the 2015 deal with Iran that restricted its nuclear program, but the agreement began unraveling after Trump pulled the U.S. out in his first term. Macron spoke multiple times to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during the war.International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi said Wednesday that Iran must quickly resume cooperation with international inspectors, telling French broadcaster France 2 that the IAEA had lost visibility over sensitive nuclear materials since the onset of hostilities.Grossi said Iran is legally obligated to cooperate with the IAEA under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.“During a war, inspections are not possible. But now that hostilities have ceased, and given the sensitivity of this material, I believe it is in everyone’s interest that we resume our activities as soon as possible,” he said.Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon.Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, which it has never acknowledged.
Questions over effectiveness of the US strikes
The Israel Atomic Energy Commission said its assessment was that the U.S. and Israeli strikes have “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.” It did not give evidence to back up its claim.The U.S. strikes hit three Iranian nuclear sites, which Trump said “completely and fully obliterated” the country’s nuclear program. When asked about a U.S. intelligence report that found Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months, Trump scoffed and said it would at least take years to rebuild.Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed that the strikes by American B-2 bombers using bunker-buster bombs had caused significant damage.“Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,” he told Al Jazeera on Wednesday, refusing to go into detail.He seemed to suggest Iran might not shut out IAEA inspectors for good, noting that the bill before parliament only talks of suspending work with the agency, not ending it. He also insisted Iran has the right to pursue a nuclear energy program.“Iran is determined to preserve that right under any circumstances,” he said.Witkoff said late Tuesday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” that Israel and the U.S. had achieved their objective with “the total destruction of the enrichment capacity” in Iran, and Iran’s prerequisite for talks that Israel end its campaign had been fulfilled.“The proof is in the pudding,” he said. “No one’s shooting at each other. It’s over.”
Hopes for a long-term peace agreement
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the ceasefire agreement with Iran amounted to “quiet for quiet,” with no further understandings about Iran’s nuclear program going ahead.Witkoff told Fox News that Trump is now looking to land “a comprehensive peace agreement that goes beyond even the ceasefire.”“We’re already talking to each other, not just directly, but also through interlocutors,” Witkoff said, adding that the conversations were promising.However, Baghaei, the Iranian spokesman, said Washington had “torpedoed diplomacy” with its attacks on nuclear sites, and that while Iran in principle was always open to talks, national security was the priority.“We have to make sure whether the other parties are really serious when they’re talking about diplomacy, or is it again part of their tactics to make more problems for the region and for my country,” he said.Grossi said Iran and the international community should seize the opportunity of the ceasefire for a long-term diplomatic solution.“Out of the bad things that military conflict brings, there’s also now a possibility, an opening,” he said. “We shouldn’t miss that opportunity.”
A rare video by Mossad
Israel revealed details of the intelligence and covert operations that it said allowed the country to effectively target Iranian military commanders,nuclear scientists and key facilities.In a rare video released by Israel’s Mossad spy agency, chief David Barnea thanked the CIA for being a key partner, and his own agents for work over years to achieve what was “unimaginable at first.”“Thanks to accurate intelligence, advanced technologies and operational capabilities beyond imagination, we helped the air force strike the Iranian nuclear project, establish aerial superiority in Iranian skies and reduce the missile threat,” the agency said in a Facebook post alongside the video.Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the military chief of staff, asserted that commandos had operated secretly “deep inside enemy territory” during the war.Tehran on Tuesday put the death toll in Iran at 606, with 5,332 people wounded. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group released figures Wednesday suggesting Israeli strikes on Iran had killed at least 1,054 and wounded 4,476.The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, said 417 of those killed were civilians and 318 were security forces.At least 28 people were killed in Israel and more than 1,000 wounded, according to officials.In the past two weeks, Iran has executed six prisoners accused of spying for Israel, including three on Wednesday.
Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, Chris Megerian and Sylvie Corbet in The Hague, Netherlands, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Jon Gambrell, David Rising and Farnoush Amiri, Associated Press
Swedish fashion retailer H&M reported slightly stronger second-quarter profit on Thursday, an encouraging sign as CEO Daniel Erver tries to attract more shoppers with trendier clothes.
H&M shares were up 4% by 1000 GMT as investors focused on the profit rather than second-quarter sales, which fell slightly more than predicted. Erver has said his focus is on profitability rather than solely sales growth.
The world’s second-largest listed fashion retailer also said it expected sales in June, measured in local currencies, to rise 3%, an improvement after a 6% fall in the same period a year ago.
“Our collections are more current, they are more on trend, more fashionable, and the customer reception has been strong throughout this quarter,” Erver said in a press conference.
Erver said gingham and check patterned dresses, blouses and skirts have been especially popular this season, with the trend continuing into the autumn. Accessories sales have picked up, with social media also driving a craze for mini-accessories on bags, sneakers, and cellphones, he said.
In the U.S., where H&M has around 500 stores, Erver said consumer sentiment has dropped significantly due to the “turbulent” tariffs situation since President Donald Trump hiked duties on imports, and competitors have started raising prices as a result.
H&M, which sources its products primarily from China and Bangladesh, is focused on keeping prices competitive, Erver said, as consumers are particularly price-sensitive given uncertainty around the economy in the U.S. and globally.
H&M’s sales were 56.7 billion Swedish crowns ($5.99 billion) in the March to May quarter, down from 59.6 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by LSEG had forecast revenue of 57.0 billion crowns.
Zara owner Inditex earlier this month also reported disappointing sales, in a sign consumers are pulling back from spending on clothes as U.S. tariffs create risks for global economic growth.
H&M’s second-quarter operating profit was 5.91 billion crowns, beating analysts’ forecast of 5.88 billion, and the operating profit margin was 10.4%, down from 11.9% a year ago but still better than analysts had feared.
“The slightly better than expected margin delivery sends a positive signal to the market,” said Alphavalue analyst Jie Zhang. “The brand upgrading strategy has started to pay off.”
H&M said its higher-priced brand COS had done especially well and shoppers are opting for more medium- and high-priced items across the board, helping to boost profitability.
But Erver flagged more discounting in the June to August quarter as he said summer markdowns across the market were highly competitive.
Even as it reduces store numbers globally, H&M is also searching for growth in new markets with a growing middle class, with plans to open its first stores in Brazil in the second half, as well as in El Salvador and Venezuela, and to launch in Paraguay next year.
($1 = 9.4635 Swedish crowns)
Greta Rosen Fondahn and Helen Reid, Reuters
On Tuesday, New Yorkers lined up to cast their vote in the city’s Democratic primaries, hoping to elect its next mayoral candidate nominee. But while some turned to the polls, others took to election bettingand made thousands along the way.
In the weeks before the election, the race seemed to be between two candidates: former governor Andrew Cuomo, who left office following sexual harassment allegations in 2021, and state assemblyman and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.
As votes started to kick in on Tuesday for the first round of the ranked-choice election, the race seemed uncertain. Early polling showed Cuomo leading the way by at least a 12-point lead weeks before. Yet tides quickly shifted, with a recent Emerson poll showing a statistical tie between the candidates.
As the votes were counted, Mamdani surged as the likely nominee with Cuomo conceding later in the night.
But before that happened, the internet had already crowned its winner on the prediction market trading platform Kalshi, where U.S. users can bet on current events like yesterday’s elections.
“Zohran had one of the most impressive runs we’ve ever seen on Kalshi,” Jack Such, business and media development lead at Kalshi, told Fast Company. “He was at 7% to win this earlier, less than a month ago.”
What is election betting?
Election betting is like betting on any other current events, positing the probability of one event happening over another. Still, it is a somewhat recent phenomenon.
Kalshi operates like a stock market, with two parties on each side, some buying or selling sharesor bets in this case. Each “yes” or “no” contract is capped at $1 dollar, usually going between zero and 99 cents, with the price reflecting the probability of an event happening according the bets.
Election betting gained notoriety during last year’s presidential election, bringing in upwards of $3.6 billion to Polymarket, another betting platform that supposedly does not allow U.S. users.
While criticism surrounds the ethics of the practice, as some argue that it may commodify decision-making and it does not promote responsible participation, it seems as if it is poised to grow. Just a day after the New York election, Kalshi hit a $2 billion valuation following a recent funding round.
Additionally, the live aspect of the projection is attracting the attention of users yearning for faster results.
Kalshi’s projection showed Mamdani surpassing Cuomo as soon as 9 a.m. that morning. While the projection fluctuated during the day, the platform called the election in favor of Mamdani at 9:43 p.m. on social media, before Cuomo conceded.
“People who just want to know who wins love the markets because they just work faster than anything else,” Such says.
Kalshi calls a victory once one of the sides reaches 99 cents for at least 10 minutes. “It’s basically like a 99% confidence interval,” Such says. “It indicates that this market is going to resolve a certain way.”
High returns
For those who jumped on the election market and bet on Mamdani early, returns will prove financially beneficial should Mamdani become the Democratic nominee for mayor as expected.
The best single trade for the market will see a payout of $85,650, as the trader bet $3,426 in favor of Mamdani when his probability to win was just 4%.
Another user commented on the market saying, “I want to thank all the unimaginative centrists out there,” following his $41,099 payout.
During the election, the market had a live voting count powered by Decision Desk HQ, showcasing voting results in real time for users to follow. However, not all bets are made solely based on polls and electoral results, Such explained.
For instance, Kalshi reported that 71% of pro-Mamdani bets were placed by women users, echoing the popular “hot girls for Zohran” grassroots movement.
“What makes prediction markets efficient is this ability to aggregate all the information that’s available,” Such says. “like polling data, but also everything else: sentiment, what your neighbors think, what your family thinks.”
While completing a master’s degree in data analysis, Palwasha Zahid moved from Dallas to a town near Silicon Valley. The location made it easy to visit the campuses of tech stalwarts such as Google, Apple, and Nvidia.Zahid, 25, completed her studies in December, but so far she hasn’t found a job in the industry that surrounds her.“It stings a little bit,” she said. “I never imagined it would be this difficult just to get a foot in the door.”Young people graduating from college this spring and summer are facing one of the toughest job markets in more than a decade. The unemployment rate for degree holders ages 22 to 27 has reached its highest level in a dozen years, excluding the coronavirus pandemic. Joblessness among that group is now higher than the overall unemployment rate, and the gap is larger than it has been in more than three decades.The rise in unemployment has worried many economists as well as officials at the Federal Reserve because it could be an early sign of trouble for the economy. It suggests businesses are holding off on hiring new workers because of rampant uncertainty stemming from the Trump administration’s tariff increases, which could slow growth.“Young people are bearing the brunt of a lot of economic uncertainty,” Brad Hersbein, senior economist at the Upjohn Institute, a labor-focused think tank, said. “The people that you often are most hesitant in hiring when economic conditions are uncertain are entry-level positions.”The growth of artifical intelligence may be playing an additional role by eating away at positions for beginners in white-collar professions such as information technology, finance, and law.Higher unemployment for younger graduates has also renewed concerns about the value of a college degree. More workers than ever have a four-year degree, which makes it less of a distinguishing factor in job applications. Murat Tasci, an economist at JPMorgan, calculates that 45% of workers have a four-year degree, up from 26% in 1992.While the difficulty of finding work has demoralized young people like Zahid, most economists argue that holding a college degree still offers clear lifetime benefits. Graduates earn higher pay and experience much less unemployment over their lifetimes.The overall U.S. unemployment rate is a still-low 4.2%, and the government’s monthly jobs reports show the economy is generating modest job gains. But the additional jobs are concentrated in health care, government, and restaurants and hotels. Job gains in professions with more college grads, such as information technology, legal services, and accounting have languished in the past 12 months.The unemployment rate has stayed low mostly because layoffs are still relatively rare. The actual hiring ratenew hires as a percentage of all jobshas fallen to 2014 levels, when the unemployment rate was much higher, at 6.2%. Economists call it a no-hire, no-fire economy.For college graduates 22 to 27 years old, the unemployment rate was 5.8% in Marchthe highest, excluding the pandemic, since 2012, and far above the nationwide rate.Lexie Lindo, 23, saw how reluctant companies were to hire while applying for more than 100 jobs last summer and fall after graduating from Clark Atlanta University with a business degree and 3.8 GPA. She had several summer internships in fields such as logistics and real estate while getting her degree, but no offer came.“Nobody was taking interviews or responding back to any applications that I filled out,” Lindo, who is from Auburn, Georgia, said. “My résumé is full, there’s no gaps or anything. Every summer I’m doing something. It’s just, ‘OK, so what else are you looking for?'”She has returned to Clark for a master’s program in supply chain studies and has an internship this summer at a Fortune 500 company in Austin, Texas. She’s hopeful it will lead to a job next year.Artificial intelligence could be a culprit, particularly in IT. Matthew Martin, senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, has calculated that employment for college graduates 28 and above in computer science and mathematical occupations has increased a slight 0.8% since 2022. For those ages 22 to 27, it has fallen 8%, according to Martin.Company announcements have further fueled concerns. Tobi Lutke, CEO of online commerce software company Shopify, said in an April memo that before requesting new hires, “teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI.”Last week, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AI would likely reduce the company’s corporate work force over the next few years.“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy said in a message to employees. “We expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”Zahid worries that AI is hurting her chances. She remembers seeing big billboard ads for AI at the San Francisco airport that asked, “Why hire a human when you could use AI?”Still, many economists argue that blaming AI is premature. Most companies are in the early stages of adopting the technology.Professional networking platform LinkedIn categorized occupations based on their exposure to AI and did not see big hiring differences between professions where AI was more prevalent and where it wasn’t, said Kory Kantenga, the firm’s head of economics for the Americas.“We don’t see any broad-based evidence that AI is having a disproportionate impact in the labor market or even a disproportionate impact on younger workers versus older workers,” Kantenga said.He added that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes have also slowed hiring in tech. Many IT firms expanded when the Fed pinned its short-term rate at nearly zero after the pandemic. In 2022, the Fed began cranking up rates to combat inflation, which made it harder to borrow and grow.In fact, IT’s hiring spree when rates were lowfueled by millions of Americans ramping up their online shopping and video conferencingleft many firms with too many workers, economists say.Cory Stahle, an economist at the job-listings website Indeed, says postings for software development jobs, for example, have fallen 40% compared with four years ago. It’s a sharp shift for students who began studying computer science when hiring was near its peak.Zahid, who lives in Dublin, California, has experienced this whiplash firsthand. When she entered college in 2019, her father, who is a network engineer, encouraged her to study IT and said it would be easy for her to get a job in the field.She initially studied psychology but decided she wanted something more hands-on and gravitated to data analysis. Her husband, 33, has a software development job, and friends of hers in IT received immediate job offers upon graduation a few years ago. Such rapid hiring seems to have disappeared now, she said.She has her college diploma, but hasn’t hung it up yet.“ will put it up when I actually get a job, confirming that it was worth it all,” she said.
AP Writer Matt Sedensky in New York contributed to this report.
Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
Robotaxis are crashing into the rideshare market.
Drivers for apps like Uber and Lyft are growing worried about autonomous vehicles. Waymo has already deployed their vehicles across a handful of cities, taking riders from place to place without the need for a human driver. Waymo partnered with Uber in Austin, where Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the robotaxis were busier than over 99% of all drivers. The gig workers worry that their demand may be crushed, or that their wages and tips will be suppressed, thanks to the growing self-driving alternative.
As Lyft dips into the AV race, the rideshare company is hoping to involve its drivers directly into the process. Lyfts new Driver Autonomous Forum will convene 6 to 10 drivers to discuss individual points of challenge in the AV expansion. Lyft envisions the program as a direct channel between drivers and senior leadership. The first will be held in Atlanta, where Lyft is soon debuting their partnership with May Mobility.
We know AVs are going to transform the transportation network business, and we know this is something that drivers who come to Lyft care about deeply, Jeremy Bird, Lyfts executive vice president of driver experience, writes in an email to Fast Company. We wanted to create an intentional, structured way to gather their feedback on how we can innovate in a human-centered way.
Inside the Lyft Driver Autonomous Forum
As Lyft debuts its Atlanta AV options, the company is looking for feedback. The company has no plans to eliminate human drivers entirely; Bird continuously refers to a hybrid economy of human-driven and autonomous vehicles. But Lyft understands that robotaxis will necessarily distort the rideshare labor market.
We’re using qualitative datathings like driver ratings and loyalty statusto identify drivers who are both highly qualified and invested in our shared success, Bird wrote. Some drivers will participate in multiple meetings to ensure continuity, while others will rotate in based on their specific expertise or regional knowledge.
Rideshare drivers have already seen their business hurt by robotaxis. Phoenix and Los Angeles are especially overloaded with Waymos. Drivers from those cities told Business Insider that they saw decreased earnings after the deployment, and that they had to focus on more lucrative airport trips to earn their living.
As these self-driving vehicles flood the market, part of the battle might be shifting gig-work drivers to other positions. Lyft understands this; the Driver Autonomous Forums will spend time discussing the growth of alternative work. Things like remote vehicle support, fleet management, or other roles we haven’t even thought of yet, Bird wrote.
How can rideshare companies prepare their drivers for robotaxis?
Most rideshare companies are unwilling to claim that their drivers will be directly replaced by robotaxis. In his email, Bird noted that AVs don’t just compete with drivers for a slice of the rideshare pie; they grow the pie. Ubers robotaxi chief Andrew McDonald previously said that there will be more Uber drivers in 10 years, not less.
But drivers are worried. Michele Dottin is a longtime rideshare driver and the executive director for education at the Independent Drivers Guild. She doesnt want to temper or collaborate on the robotaxi expansionshe wants to stop it.
How many hundreds of thousands of drivers are going to be out of work? Dottin asks. These vehicles wont be buying food. They wont be going to the grocery store or buying clothes. Not only does it affect our immediate economy, but it affects all the other industries that rely on people to go out and shop.
Dottin makes the comparison to the shift from in-person retail to e-commerce. Customers were told that the solution was more convenient. How many teenagers used those jobs in the summer to make a little money? Now theres nowhere for them to go, Dottin says. The drivers Dottin has spoken to arent just worried about a loss of incometheyre also worried about a loss of independence, just like those retail workers now relegated to an Amazon warehouse.
Lyft and Uber drivers operate in the gig economy, where their work is highly variable. According to a 2015 survey, 69% of Uber drivers had other part-time or full-time jobsa number experts expect has increased in the proceeding decade. In high-cost New York City, the average Uber driver makes about $32 per hour, though their income varies based on the time and distances they drive, as well as how many rides they take on.
Because of the variable market, Andrew Garin cautions against thinking of robotaxi replacement as job loss. Garin studies the gig economy as an assistant professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University. His research demonstrates that ridesharing is not the primary job for most drivers. Drivers may not be losing their 9-to-5, but they could be losing an income stream.
Its going to be hard to make the same living you did when there were great jobs waiting every second when you drop someone off, Garin says. So yes, its going to cut into that.
Lyfts Driver Autonomous Forum isnt going to change these market conditions. It wont stop the shifting demands for a labor market already hit hard by COVID-19, and it wont make sure high-tipping riders are always available for human drivers. But it will, at a minimum, hear them out.
We’re committed to managing this transition in a way that continues to support drivers who come to our platform and recognizes their enormous contributions, Bird wrote.
Shares of Nvidia Corp (Nasdaq: NVDA) reached a new record high on Thursday in premarket trading.
As of the time of writing, the stock had peaked at $156.99 before slightly sliding to $156.68. The uptick follows Wednesdays all-time high closing price of $154.31, which rose to $154.59 in after-hours trading.
DeepSeek and tariffs worried investors earlier this year
Nvidia has been a de facto representative of AI investment in the market. It reached a high of $153.13 in early January, but its shares soon tumbled alongside Chinas success with AI company DeepSeek and uncertainty around tariffs. DeepSeek used Nvidia chips to build its AI systems despite the United States banning their sale to China.
The stock hit a low of $86.62 on April 7, just five days after President Trumps Liberation Day, on which he announced a series of tariffs worldwide.
But now, at nearly double that price, it has recovered its lossesand signaled a renewed investment in AI. However, it comes as the dollar hits a three-year low after reports that Trump will move up his selection of a new Federal Reserve chair, the Wall Street Journal reports.
What’s fueling Nvidia’s recent rally?
The chipmakers current ascension was fueled in part by Loop Capitals decision yesterday to raise its price target from $175 to $250. Our work suggests we are entering the next Golden Wave of Gen AI adoption, and NVDA is at the front-end of another material leg of stronger than anticipated demand, Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah stated in a client note, according to Reuters.
Helped along by Nvidias 4% rise on Wednesday, the Nasdaq composite also neared its record high with a 0.3% increase.
Oprah Winfrey arrived in Venice on Thursday, leading a star-studded guest list of celebrities descending on the lagoon city for the weekend wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez.Winfrey’s private jet landed at Venice’s Marco Polo airport. Former American footballer Tom Brady arrived soon thereafter.The bride and groom pulled into the Aman Hotel dock on the Grand Canal on Wednesday, traveling via water taxi with security boats in tow. A few hours later they slipped out of the hotel, with Sánchez wearing a sleek black and white striped, one-shoulder gown.The details of the nuptials have been a tightly kept secret, though the locations now appear to have firmed up as has the guest list.Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, and their three children arrived Wednesday.Other celebrities on the guest list, according to two people close to the wedding who spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, include: Kim Kardashian Mick Jagger Leonardo DiCaprio Orlando Bloom Microsoft founder Bill Gates Diane von Furstenberg and her husband Barry Diller Katy Perry had originally been expected but the latest update had her as not attending.The wedding has divided Venice, with some activists protesting it as an exploitation of the city by the billionaire Bezos while ordinary residents suffer from overtourism, high housing costs and the constant threat of climate-induced flooding.One group called Extinction Rebellion staged a small protest in St. Mark’s Square on Thursday featuring a masked bride and groom and people holding posters decrying climate change and income inequalities.“The planet is burning but don’t worry, here’s the list of the 27 dresses of Lauren Sanchez,” read one, a reference to the bride’s reported wedding weekend wardrobe.Protesters said that their plans to disrupt the arrivals of guests at one of the wedding venues forced organizers to move the event to the more secure Arsenale area beyond Venice’s congested center.The city administration has strongly defended the nuptials as keeping with Venice’s tradition as an open city that has welcomed popes, emperors and ordinary visitors alike for centuries.“We will always respect the right to speak out, but we reject every form of intolerance and prejudice,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in Thursday’s edition of Italian newspaper Il Foglio Quotidiano. “No one in Venice can claim the right of deciding who can enter, who can love, who can celebrate.”
Luca Bruno, Associated Press
Earlier this year, a new variant of COVID-19 began spreading globally. Some of those infected with the new variant, nicknamed Nimbus, reported an uncomfortable side effect known as razor blade throat.
By spring, the variant was present in the United States, and by May, it began to gain a foothold when compared to other circulating variants. But as of last week, Nimbus has jumped to be the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the U.S. Heres what you need to know.
What is Nimbus?
As Fast Company previously reported, Nimbus is the nickname given to the NB.1.8.1 lineage of COVID-19. Nimbus is a subvariant of Omicron. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that Nimbus was first detected in January 2025 and soon after began circulating around the globe.
The Nowcast tracker operated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that by the week ending March 15, NB.1.8.1 was already detected in America. At that point, it accounted for a minuscule amount of COVID-19 cases in the country. Yet by the week ending April 26, NB.1.8.1 accounted for about 2% of all cases.
In May, Nimbus began to assert its rise to dominance. By the week ending May 10, NB.1.8.1 had risen to 5% of cases in the United States. That share jumped to 10% by May 24. By the week ending June 7, NB.1.8.1 accounted for 24% of COVID-19 cases in America, and, most recently, for the week ending June 21, it accounted for 43% of all COVID-19 cases in America, making it the now dominant variant in the U.S.
Which U.S. states is Nimbus in?
Just because Nimbus is now the most dominant COVID-19 variant in America doesnt mean it is circulating in all states.
But it also could be.
The uncertainty of where Nimbus is circulating is because a lower number of sequences are being reported to the CDC than in the past.
This makes it harder for the CDC to determine where and to what extent COVID-19 variants are spreading in America. Because of this lack of sequencing reporting, the CDC cautions that its Nowcast datas precision in the most recent reporting period is low.
Today cites sequence data shared with the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) database that shows NB.1.8.1 has now been reported in 18 states as of June 25. Those states include:
Arizona
California
Colorado
Hawaii
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Nebraska
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Rhode Island
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
That is four more states than GISAID data showed NB.1.8.1 earlier in June. The four new states where the variant has been detected this time around are Michigan, Nebraska, Texas, and Utah.
What are the symptoms of NB.1.8.1 Nimbus?
The symptoms of Nimbus are much the same as other symptoms of COVID-19. However, there are reports of people saying they feel more harsh throat pain with Nimbus than with previous variants. This throat pain is nicknamed razor blade throat because it feels like you are swallowing razor blades.
Symptoms can include:
Body aches
Congestion
Cough
Fatigue
Fever or chills
Headache
Loss of smell
Loss of taste
Runny nose
Shortness of breath
Sore throat
What can I do to protect myself from Nimbus?
The precautionary measures you can take to mitigate the risk of contracting Nimbus are the same as those you would take for any other COVID-19 variant. The CDC says these measures include:
Staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccines
Practicing good hygiene
Make sure there is fresh, circulating air flowing through any spaces you are in. One way to help circulate fresh air through a space is by opening windows at home or in the office
Precautionary steps are important as Nimbus, like previous COVID variants, can be deadly. According to WHO data from the seven-day period ending June 8, there were 228 reported COVID-19-related deaths globally. A majority of those deaths128 of themoccurred in the United States.
As record heat waves hit much of the U.S., the Senate is about to pass a bill that will decimate clean energyand take away our best shot at curbing extreme weather and climate disasters. But while the headlines are dire, most Americans dont realize how close we are to a thriving clean energy economyand what a dramatic impact that would have on averting the worst impacts of climate change.
The clean energy revolution
I served in the White House Climate Policy Office under President Biden. Since leaving the White House, it has become painfully clear that we failed to convince the American people of the urgency of the climate crisis and that clean energy is our path to a secure, thriving future. Yet in the background, the U.S. has quietly launched a clean energy revolutionin March, for the first time in U.S. history, clean energy generated more electricity than fossil fuels in a single month.
Twice as many Americans now work in clean energy than in fossil fuels. In the past four years, the U.S. catalyzed over $860 billion in private clean energy investments and announced 400,000 new clean energy jobs. And we were reigning in the climate crisis, on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% by 2030 and by 100% by 2050.
But that progress is now being threatenedand there will be profound consequences. To pay for Trumps tax cuts for the richest Americans, Congress is on the verge of passing a budget bill that will add $3 trillion to the deficit, gut the clean energy economy, and eliminate our chance at averting future climate disasters. But it hasnt passed yet. And its not too late to try to convince Congress to back off these extreme measures.
Giving China a leg up
By harnessing sun, wind, and other clean sources, the U.S. was on track for 100% of our electricity to come from clean energy by 2035. In the past four years, the U.S. doubled solar power, enough to run 40 million homes. Last year, 93% of new electricity generation came from clean energy. In that same period, $127 billion was invested in 900 new clean manufacturing facilitiesmost in red statesto produce everything from wind turbines and heat pumps to electric vehicles.
Now, just five months into the Trump administration, the Republican budget bill will end that growth if its passed by Congress. It will eliminate tax credits that help families, schools, and churches cut their energy bills with solar, geothermal, and energy efficiency. The EV tax credit will end. The bill kills solar and wind farms, eliminates hundreds of thousands of jobs, undermines U.S. manufacturing, and gives China a leg up on clean energy.
Meanwhile, it expedites permits for dirty, higher-cost fossil fuels. In exchange for tax breaks for the wealthiest, Trump will increase consumer energy costs and hurt national security. In anticipation, solar companies that were thriving six months ago are now going bankrupt and laying off workers. At stake are almost a million existing and new jobs through 2030, over $522 billion in planned clean energy investments, and our opportunity to curb future climate disasters.
Maintaining legacy power
Todays political crisis is about consolidating and maintaining legacy power and money. During his campaign, Trump made a deal with fossil fuel executives that for $1 billion in campaign donations hed decimate environmental regulations, expedite oil and gas permits, expand their tax advantage, and cut the clean energy economy off at its knees. Since the Supreme Courts 2010 Citizens United ruling, oil and gas lobbying has grown 75-fold. In 2023, when consumer energy bills skyrocketed and climate disasters caused $182.7 billion in damages, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BPs profits exceeded $100 billion.
Now, the fossil fuel industry is getting what it paid for. Since January, large-scale clean energy and electric vehicle factories with investments of $14 billion have been canceled or downsizedleading to 10,000 jobs lost. The largest steel plant in America abandoned plans to replace its fossil fuel furnaces with clean hydrogen. Offshore wind projects that could power millions of homes were canceled. And even the most popular consumer energy efficiency program, EPAs Energy Star, which generated $40 billion in consumer energy savings at a price tag of just $32 million a year, has been eliminated. In March, Congress passed a bill that prevents California from transitioning to electric vehicles by 2035 (a policy 11 other states adopted).
This action by the President and Congress predictably raises consumer costs and makes households less economically secure in a country where one in four Americans and one in two low-income Americans already struggle to pay their energy bills. Ending clean energy tax credits will make rooftop solar at home more expensive. Without new solar and wind farms, consumer prices will spike as data centers and AI demand more power.
Climate crisis
Dismantling the clean energy sector and amping up fossil fuels will also intensify the climate crisis. Disasters like Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and the Los Angeles wildfires will only grow in frequency and power. Record-breaking extreme heat, like Phoenixs 70 days above 110 degrees Fahrenheit or Salem, Oregons 117-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, will become the norm.
Climate disasters are already causing property insurance ratesnbsp;to skyrocket and carriers to leave markets. All major property insurance companies now have climate scientists on staff to minimize the financial risk of climate disasters to their bottom line (while at the same time they invest more than a half a trillion dollars per year in fossil fuel assets that cause climate change). In February, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified before the Senate that if you fast-forward 10 or 15 years, there are going to be regions of the country where you cant get a mortgage because of climate change. To hide the climate truth, FEMA has been directed to stop collecting climate disaster data.
And this is just the beginning. Earth systems could collapse, choking food production, leading to loss of land, and causing mass migration and conflict, even here at home.
This is supposed to be our decade of action to keep global temperature increases under 1.5 degrees Celsius. Instead, were tearing down institutions that could grow a thriving clean energy economy.
