Lego just announced its first book nook: Sherlock Holmes Baker Street. I was guessing this was coming sooner than later, with Lego’s ever-increasing focus on the adult market and the growing popularity of book nooks. The design is fantastic, full of the fine details you expect of high-quality book nooks, which are miniature dioramas that are designed to fit between books on a shelf. But, unlike those, you can actually take this off the bookshelf, unfold it into a three-building Victorian London street, and play with it.
[Photo: Lego]
Conceived by Japanese artist Monde in 2018, book nooks often depict a street, a room, or some other structure inspired by a theme from a real book. Originally, people made their own but they quickly became popular on social media, so companies in Japan and China started to sell kits. These precious windows into literary realities are very intricate and complex to build, usually with LED lights to illuminate the scene at night. People who build them find them relaxing.
[Photo: Lego]
Since adult Lego fans mostly buy sets to chill, it makes sense that the Billund, Denmark-based toy company decided to make its own version. It has been doubling down on a trend that began in the late 2000s, when it released the huge 7,500-brick Millennium Falcon, a massive set that started the Ultimate Collector Star Wars line of sets that catered to grown-up Lego fans (like me) by appealing to their childhood fetishes.
[Photo: Lego]
The success of these earliest complex sets spurred the company to release other lines, like Lego Architecture, which allow people to build anything from Frank Lloyd Wrights Guggenheim Museum to Ludwig Mies van der Rohes Farnsworth House. Last year it launched a Botanical Collection line, which got deeper into the adult-oriented relaxing space, and iconic pop culture objects in a line aptly named Lego Icons. This is where you will find the Sherlock Holmes Book Nook, available for pre-order for $120 for shipping on June 1.
[Photo: Lego]
They are playable!
When folded and placed in-between books, the book nook offers a view of a street flanked by precious buildings full with architectural details, and a cobblestone street. You will notice that the façades dont run parallel to each other, but converge towards the back in a faux one-point perspective, a design conceived to create an optical illusion that makes it look deeper than what it actually is. Theres Sherlock and Watson minifigs, plus Irene Adler, Paige and Professor Moriarty. I just wish Lego had included LED lighting, too.
[Photo: Lego]
Unlike assembled wooden or carton book nooks, you can take the Lego book nook out of the bookshelf and unfold it to form a perfectly straight lineup of three buildings. Not surprisingly, the designers found ways to make the set fully interactive. Theres even a secret hideout for Moriarty, which you can operate by turning a chimney in the buildings roof. You can peek intoHolmes’ study by pushing open the top floor wall of 221B Baker Street. Theres also a bookshelf in a book nook in a bookshelf inside the window display of the book store in one of the buildings, which you can access by rotating its cylindrical window display. The kind of clever infinite loop that can open real portals between our reality and Sir Arthur Conan Doyles universe.
President Donald Trump’s media company said Tuesday that institutional investors will buy $2.5 billion in the company’s stock with the proceeds going to build up a bitcoin reserve.
About 50 institutional investors will put up $1.5 billion in the private placement for common shares in the company and another $1 billion for convertible senior notes, according to Trump Media and Technology Group, the operator of Truth Social and other companies.
Trump Media said it intends to use the proceeds for the creation of a bitcoin treasury.
This investment will help defend our Company against harassment and discrimination by financial institutions, which plague many Americans and U.S. firms,” said Trump Media CEO and Chairman Devin Nunes in prepared remarks.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., based in Sarasota, Fla., tumbled 9%
Other companies have adopted similar strategies through cryptocurrency. Cloud and mobile software developer MicroStrategy Inc. has built up a treasury reserve containing billions worth of bitcoin through stock sales and debt financing.
Trump, who referred to cryptocurrencies in his first term as not money, citing volatility and a value “based on thin air,” has shifted his views on the technology.
During an event at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida during his presidential campaign in May 2024, Trump received assurances that crypto industry backers would spend lavishly to get him reelected.
Last week, Trump rewarded 220 of the top investors in one of his other cryptocurrency projects the $Trump meme coin with a swanky dinner luxury golf club in Northern Virginia, spurring accusations that the president was mixing his duties in the White House with personal profit.
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac support the mortgage industry by buying mortgages from lenders and selling mortgage-backed securities to investors. They were placed into conservatorship by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in September 2008 after suffering massive losses during the housing crash, threatening the stability of the U.S. financial system. The U.S. Treasury provided a bailout to keep them afloat, and they have remained under government control ever sincedespite returning to profitability.
While the U.S. Treasury owns the majority of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac profits through senior preferred stock agreements, the common and preferred shares that existed before conservatorship were never fully wiped out. Once Wall Street realized Donald Trump had won the 2024 election, the stocks of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac spiked as the market priced in higher odds that the second Trump administration would attempt to end that conservatorship. After all, one of Trumps biggest backers this cycle was Bill Ackman, a leading proponent of releasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from conservatorship.
The odds of conservatorship endingor at the very least, an attempt to unwind itincreased this week after Trump posted on social media: Im giving very serious consideration to bringing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public. Then, on Thursday evening, Bill Pulte, the director of FHFA, tweeted out a podcast he did with Donald Trump Jr. centered on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Those arent the kind of public moves the administration would make unless it is seriously considering a push to end conservatorship or wants to further test financial market reaction to the idea.
What would this do to mortgage rates?
The reason housing stakeholders should pay attention is the long standing concern that ending conservatorship could put upward pressure on mortgage rates and more strain on housing affordability.
Once released, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could need to hold more capital to absorb losses. To build and maintain that capital, they may need to increase guarantee fees charged to lenders. In addition, upon release, unless there’s an explicit guarantee or backstop from Congress, investors may demand higher returns to account for increased risk.
Those concerns are real enough that back in February, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae wouldnt get released from conservatorship if doing so put upward pressure on mortgage rates/mortgage spreads.
The priority for a Fannie and Freddie release, the most important metric that Im looking at is any study or hint that mortgage rates would go up. Anything that is done around a safe and sound release [of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] is going to hinge on the effect of long-term mortgage rates, Bessent said in February.
On Friday, Bessent reaffirmed in an interview with Bloomberg that the privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hinges on mortgage rates, saying: It [privatization of Fannie and Freddie] is a goal for this administration. Again, we’re doing peace deals, tax deals, and trade deals. As we land some of those deals then we will focus on that [privatization of Fannie and Freddie]. But what I can tell you is that we are doing a great deal of studying at Treasury because the one requirement for this privatization is that they are privatized in such a way that mortgage spreads do not widen.
To understand how mortgage rates could respond in different Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae release scenarios, read this housing research we published earlier this year.
Americans views of the economy improved in May after five straight months of declines sent consumer confidence to its lowest level since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, largely driven by anxiety over the impact of President Donald Trumps tariffs.
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose 12.3 points in May to 98, up from Aprils 85.7, its lowest reading since May 2020.
A measure of Americans short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market jumped 17.4 points to 72.8, but remained below 80, which can signal a recession ahead.
The proportion of consumers surveyed saying they think a U.S. recession is coming in the next 12 months also declined from April.
Trumps aggressive and unpredictable policies including massive import taxes have clouded the outlook for the economy and the job market, raising fears that the American economy is headed toward a recession.
However, Trump’s tariff pullbacks, pauses and negotiations with some trading partners may have calmed nerves for the time being.
“The rebound was already visible before the May 12 US-China trade deal but gained momentum afterwards, said Stephanie Guichard, senior economist at The Conference Board.
Trump had initially imposed a stunning 145% tariff on most goods from China, but agreed to a 90-day pause for negotiations. The U.S. also came to an agreement with the U.K. earlier in May.
Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Trump and European Union leaders announced that the president’s 50% tariff on imports from the E.U., which he announced Friday, are on hold until July 9. That announcement would not have impacted the Board’s survey, which closed on May 19.
The Conference Board said the rebound in confidence this month was broad-based across all ages and income groups.
Consumers assessments of the present economic situation also improved, with the exception of their view on job availability, which weakened for the fifth straight month despite another strong U.S. jobs report.
However, less than 25% of respondents said they were worried about losing their jobs, compared with the 50% of respondents who said they were concerned about not being able to buy the things they need or want.
The Labor Department earlier this month reported that U.S. employers added a surprising 177,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate remained at a low 4.2%.
Write-in responses to the survey showed that tariffs are still consumers biggest concern. Inflation is also still weighing on their minds, though some noted that inflation seemed to be easing, along with gas prices.
Earlier in May, the Commerce Department reported that consumer prices rose just 2.3% in March from a year earlier, down from 2.7% in February. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.6% compared with a year ago, below Februarys 3%. Economists track core prices because they typically provide a better read on where inflation is headed.
Gas prices have hovered around $3.17 per gallon this month, down from $3.59 a year ago, but up a few pennies from April.
The slowdown in inflation could be a temporary respite until the widespread duties imposed by Trump begin to push up prices in many categories. Most economists expect inflation to start ticking up in the coming months.
Robert Frick, an economist with Navy Federal Credit Union, said that while the tariff rollbacks may have boosted Americans’ confidence this month, that optimism may be fleeting.
When prices start rising from existing tariffs in a month or two, it will be a sobering reminder that a new inflation fight has just begun, Frick said.
The Board’s survey Tuesday also showed that Americans’ plans to spend on homes, cars and vacations also increased from April, with significant gains coming after the May 12 China tariff pause.
Matt Ott, AP business writer
One of the most popular smartphone apps in the world has finally come to the iPad. Today, Meta has officially released WhatsApp for iPad. The release comes nearly sixteen years after WhatsApp debuted on the iPhone, and went on to become the de facto messaging app for most of the world.
WhatsApp comes to the iPad
WhatsApp debuted on the iPhone in 2009, and within just five years, that messaging app had become so popular that Facebook (now Meta) announced in 2014 that it was acquiring it for a staggering $19 billion.
But the extraordinary sum Meta paid for WhatsApp seems to have been worth it. On Metas financial conference call on April 30, Mark Zuckerberg announced that WhatsApp now has 3 billion monthly active users worldwide. Thats a billion more than the app had just five years earlier in 2020, notes TechCrunch.
Outside of the United States and China, where Apples iMessage and Tencents WeChat respectively dominate the messaging app market, WhatsApp is the preferred communication app for the rest of the world.
Its no wonder, then, that fans of the app have hoped it would come to Apples iPad since the tablet was introduced in 2010. Today, those hopes have finally been realized. Meta has now released an updated WhatsApp app on Apples App Store that runs natively on both the iPhone and iPad.
Based on the App Store listing images, WhatsApp for iPad supports many of the features of WhatsApp for iPhone, including messaging, calls, and app lock.
How to get WhatsApp for iPad
To get WhatsApp for iPad, go to the App Store on your iPad and search for WhatsApp. Youll now see the app show up in your search results.
Simply click on the Get button to download the app (or the cloud download button if you previously downloaded the app to your iPhone).
WhatsApp will then install on your iPad, and youll be ready to chat on Apples tablet.
You can check out the App Store listing for WhatsApp for iPad here.
What has Meta said about WhatsApp for iPad?
Surprisingly, Meta has launched WhatsApp for iPad with little fanfare. As of the time of this writing, Meta has not published any announcement that WhatsApp is now available on the iPad.
Even the release notes for the latest build of WhatsApp for iPhone dont mention that the app now natively supports the iPad (Meta uses a single binary for the iPhone and iPad versions of the app).
The only public comment Meta has given about WhatsApp for iPad was in a post on X yesterday. The official WhatsApp account on X replied with an eye emoji to a comment suggesting that the app should be released on the iPad.
https://t.co/RWs0L40cBm— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 26, 2025
Regardless of the lack of fanfare from Meta, WhatsApp and iPad fans will be happy that 15 years after Apples tablet debuted, and 16 years after the app debuted, its now usable on the iPad.
After six years in the game, Nuuly, the clothing rental service from Urban Outfitters, has done what few thought possible: turned a profit. In an industry full of flashy failures and billion-dollar burns, Nuuly is quietly winning with a strategy that’s shaking up fashion and business.
Money-losing Japanese automaker Nissan is banking on its latest “e-Power” technology for a turnaround.A kind of hybrid, e-Power comes equipped with both an electric motor and gasoline engine, much like the Toyota Motor Corp. Prius. It’s different from a Prius in that it doesn’t switch back and forth between the motor and engine during the drive.That means the car always is running on its EV battery, ensuring a quiet, smooth ride.“Nissan has a proud history of pioneering innovative technology that set us apart,” Chief Technology Officer Eiichi Akashi told reporters on the sidelines of a test drive at its Grandrive course outside Tokyo.The advantage of e-Power vehicles is that they never need to be charged like EVs do. The owner just fuels up at a gas station and the car never runs out of a charge.Nissan Motor Corp., which racked up a $4.5 billion loss for the fiscal year through March, sorely needs a hot-seller, especially in the lucrative North American market. But the U.S. market is proving a big headache for all the Japanese automakers because of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.To achieve a turnaround, Nissan is working on reducing costs, strengthening business partnerships and redefining its lineup. That’s where e-Power fits in, according to Akashi.Yokohama-based Nissan announced earlier this month that it’s slashing about 15% of its global work force, or about 20,000 employees, and reducing the number of its auto plants to 10 from 17, under an ambitious recovery plan led by its new Chief Executive Ivan Espinosa.Nissan officials did not give a price for the upcoming e-Power models. The one other automaker that offers a similar technology is “kei,” or tiny car, manufacturer Daihatsu Motor Co.E-Power is already offered on the Nissan Qashqai and X-Trail model in Europe, and the Note in Japan. The upgraded version will be offered in the new Rogue in the U.S.Nissan, a pioneer in EVs with its Leaf, which went on sale in 2010, is also preparing beefed up EV models. It’s also working on a solid-state battery which is expected to replace the lithium-ion batteries now widely used in hybrids, EVs and e-Power models.Analysts say Nissan is in danger of running out of cash and needs a partner. Speculation is rife its Yokohama headquarters building will get sold, or one of its Japan plants will be turned into a casino.Nissan started talks last year with Japanese rival Honda Motor Co. for a business integration but announced in February that it was dropping the talks.
Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment rates have not shifted much in recent years. The current unemployment rate is reported as being 4.2%just a slight increase from the 4% it hovered around between 2022 and 2024. But according to a new report, another measure of unemployment is much higher, and steadily growing.
The April report, which comes from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), a nonprofit that produces original economic research, documents what it calls the “true rate” of unemployment. That rate refers to “functional unemployment,” which takes into account those who are job-seeking yet unable to find work, as well as those with full-time jobs but whose earnings put them below the poverty line (under $25,000/year).
The functional unemployment rate has risen for three consecutive months and is currently 24.4%. That means about one in four U.S. adults are considered functionally unemployed.
LISEP Chair Gene Ludwig said in a press release that the outlook on the trend shows “little signs of improvement” amid lack of an influx of dependable, good-paying jobs.” The report showed the functional unemployment rate rising 1.4% among Black workers to 26.7%. It decreased slightly for white workers, moving from 23.1% to 23%. While the rate for men increased (by 1.2%) bringing the total to 20%, women narrowed the gender gap. Women’s true unemployment rate dipped 0.8 percentage points to 28.6%.
While it’s no secret that the federal government has been steadily shedding jobs, there haven’t been major increases in the unemployment rate. However, the new findings paint a grim picture of how many U.S. workers are struggling to find employment and a livable income. Meanwhile, wage increases haven’t kept up with a rising cost of living, not to mention the cost to raise a child, which has ticked up 25% in the past two years alone.
Amid an already uncertain economic outlook, the rise in functional unemployment is a concerning development,” Ludwig explains. “This uncertainty comes at a price, and unfortunately, the low- and middle-income wage earners ultimately end up paying the bill.
Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a multistate investigation of a Salmonella outbreak linked to cucumbers believed to have been grown by Bedner Growers Inc. of Boynton Beach, Florida.
That outbreak has so far sickened 26 people in 15 states. And now, that outbreak has caused Walmart to recall a select cucumber product from some of its stores. Heres what you need to know about Walmarts cucumber recall.
Whats happened?
On May 22, Walmart announced that it was recalling a select cucumber product over fears that it had the possibility of being contaminated with Salmonella. The notice about the recall was published by the FDA a day later.
According to the notice, Walmart is voluntarily recalling a cucumber product because it is believed Bedner Growers, Inc. may have supplied the cucumbers in the product.
What cucumber product is Walmart recalling?
The recall involves just one cucumber productMarketside Fresh Cut Cucumber Slices that were produced in select Texas-area stores between May 13, 2025 and May 20, 2025.
Here are the details of that product:
Product Description: Marketside Fresh Cut Cucumber Slices
UPC/PLU: 62969
Av. Unit Weight: 1.5 lbs
Date Codes: All date codes up to 5/24/2025
A photo of the recalled Marketside Fresh Cut Cucumber Slices can be found here.
Has anyone been harmed by the recalled product?
Unlike with the wider cucumber recall, no known illnesses have been specifically linked to the recalled Walmart cucumber product.
More than two dozen individuals are known to have been sickened by the cucumbers involved in the wider recall.
What should I do if I have the recalled Walmart cucumber product?
If you have the recalled Marketside Fresh Cut Cucumber Slices, you should not consume them or let them be consumed by anyone else, nor should you give them away. Instead, you should throw out the product or return it to Walmart for a refund.
The recall notice also states that you should clean and sanitize surfaces that the recalled product has come into contact with in order to reduce the chances of cross-contamination.
What is Salmonella?
Salmonella is a bacterium that can cause potentially fatal infections in people. While most Salmonella infections can resolve within a week, individuals who are young or elderly, or those who have weakened immune systems, can experience more severe consequences from a Salmonella infection.
You can find out more details about Salmonella infections on the CDCs website here.
Salesforce is buying AI-powered cloud data management company Informatica in an approximately $8 billion deal.Informatica’s shareholders will receive $25 per share, a premium of about 11% from Friday’s closing price of $22.55.The transaction will give Salesforce access to Informatica’s data management capabilities.Informatica was taken private in 2015 by private equity firm Permira and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for about $5.3 billion. It went public again in 2021.“Joining forces with Salesforce represents a significant leap forward in our journey to bring data and AI to life by empowering businesses with the transformative power of their most critical asset their data,” Informatica CEO Amit Walia said in a statement on Tuesday. “We have a shared vision for how we can help organizations harness the full value of their data in the AI era.”Robin Washington, president and chief operating and financial officer at Salesforce, said in a statement that the acquisition will look to take advantage of Informatica’s capabilities quickly, particularly in areas such as the public sector, life sciences, health care, and financial services. San Francisco-based Salesforce is set to report its quarterly financial results Wednesday after the bell.Both companies’ boards have approved the deal, which is expected to close early in Salesforce’s fiscal 2027.Shares of Salesforce rose slightly before the market open, while Informatica’s stock jumped 5.7%.
Michelle Chapman, AP Business Writer
