A U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce legislation in coming weeks to verify the location of artificial-intelligence chips like those made by Nvidia after they are sold.
The effort to keep tabs on the chips, which drew bipartisan support from U.S. lawmakers, aims to address reports of widespread smuggling of Nvidia’s chips into China in violation of U.S. export control laws.
Nvidia’s chips are a critical ingredient for creating AI systems such as chatbots, image generators and more specialized ones that can help craft biological weapons. Both President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, have implemented progressively tighter export controls of Nvidia’s chips to China.
But Reuters and other news organizations have documented how some of those chips have continued to flow into China, and Nvidia has publicly claimed it cannot track its products after they are sold.
U.S. Representative Bill Foster, a Democrat from Illinois who once worked as a particle physicist, said the technology to track chips after they are sold is readily available, with much of it already built in to Nvidia’s chips. Independent technical experts interviewed by Reuters agreed.
Foster, who successfully designed multiple computer chips during his scientific career, plans to introduce in coming weeks a bill that would direct U.S. regulators to come up with rules in two key areas: Tracking chips to ensure they are where they are authorized to be under export control licenses, and preventing those chips from booting up if they are not properly licensed under export controls.
Foster told Reuters that there are already credible reports – some of which have not been publicly disclosed – of chip smuggling occurring on a large scale.
“This is not an imaginary future problem,” Foster told Reuters. “It is a problem now, and at some point we’re going to discover that the Chinese Communist Party, or their military, is busy designing weapons using large arrays of chips, or even just working on (artificial general intelligence), which is as immediate as nuclear technology.”
Nvidia declined to comment for this story.
Chip smuggling has taken on new urgency after the emergency of China’s DeepSeek, whose AI systems posed a strong challenge to U.S. systems and were built with Nvidia chips that were prohibited for sale to China, according analyst firm SemiAnalysis. Prosecutors in Singapore have charged three Chinese nationals with fraud in a case that involved servers that may have contained Nvidia chips.
Though it has not been put into broad use, the technology to verify the location of chips already exists. Alphabet’s Google already tracks the location of its in-house AI chips and others in its vast network of data centers for security purposes, according to two sources with direct knowledge of its operations.
Google did not respond to a request for comment.
Foster’s legislation would give the U.S. Department of Commerce six months to come up with regulations to require the technology.
Bipartisan support
Foster’s bill has support from fellow Democrats such as Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking member on the House Select Committee on China. “On-chip location verification is one creative solution we should explore to stop this smuggling,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement.
Republicans are also supportive, with Representative John Moolenaar, who chairs the committee, telling Reuters that “the Select Committee has strong bipartisan support for requiring companies like Nvidia to build location-tracking into their high-powered AI chips and the technology to do it already exists.
The technology for verifying the location of chips would rely on the chips communicating with a secured computer server that would use the length of time it takes for the signal to reach the server to verify where chips are, a concept that relies on knowing that computer signals move at the speed of light.
Tim Fist, a former engineer and director of emerging technology policy at Washington think tank Institute for Progress, said such tracking would provide a general, country-level location for chips. But that is far more information than the Bureau of Industry and Security, the arm of the U.S. Commerce Department responsible for enforcement of export controls, currently has.
“BIS has no idea which chips they should be targeting as a potential high priority to investigate once they’ve gone overseas,” Fist said. With location verification, “they now at least have bucketed the set of chips that are out there in the world into ones that are very likely to not have been smuggled and ones that warrant further investigation.”
Foster’s second legislative goal of preventing AI chips from booting up if they are not properly licensed under U.S. export controls would be more technologically complex to implement than location verification, but he said the time has come to begin discussions for both efforts.
“We’ve gotten enough input that I think now we can have more detailed discussions with the actual chip and module providers to say, ‘How would you actually implement this?'” Foster told Reuters.
Stephen Nellis and Max A. Cherney, Reuters
The Trump administration says the sweeping tariffs it unveiled April 2, then postponed for 90 days, have a simple goal: Force other countries to drop their trade barriers to U.S. goods.Yet President Donald Trump’s definition of trade barriers includes a slew of issues well beyond the tariffs other countries impose on the U.S., including some areas not normally associated with trade disputes. Those include agricultural safety requirements, tax systems, currency exchange rates, product standards, legal requirements, and red tape at the border.He’s given countries three months to come up with concessions before tariffs ranging from 10% to more than 50% go into effect. Tariffs on China are already in effect.On many issues it will be difficult, or in some cases impossible, for many countries to make a deal and lower their tariff rates.In addition, many trade officials from targeted countries say privately that it isn’t always clear what the Trump administration wants from them in the negotiations.Vice President JD Vance announced that India has agreed to the terms of trade talks with the United States, but other countries are still trying to set the contours for any negotiations. The White House has highlighted conflicting goals for its import taxes: It’s seeking to raise revenues and bring manufacturing back to the U.S., but it also wants greater access to foreign markets and massive changes to other nations’ tax and regulatory policies.Here are several non-tariff areas the administration is targeting:
CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATES
Trump has accused Germany, China and Japan of “global freeloading” by in his view devaluing their currencies to make their exports cheaper.The European Central bank has been cutting interest rates to support growth. That could also weaken the euro, which has strengthened sharply against the dollar since Trump took office. The ECB says it doesn’t target the exchange rate.In Japan’s case, the Bank of Japan has been gradually raising rates anyway after keeping them at zero or in negative territory for years, which should drive the yen up against the dollar. The U.S. dollar has fallen recently to 140-yen levels, down from about 160 yen last summer. Shrikant Kale, a strategist at Jefferies, believes the dollar will fall to 120 yen over the next 18 months.
FARM PRODUCTS
Agricultural safeguards against importing pests or health hazards have been a sticking point with U.S. trade partners for years. They include Japan’s restrictions on rice and potato imports, the EU’s ban on hormone-treated beef or chlorine-disinfected chickens and Korea’s ban on beef from cows more than 30 months old.Yet changes face stiff political resistance from voters and farm lobbies in those countries.For years, U.S. potato growers have sought access to Japan’s potential $150 million market for table potatoes. Japan has engaged in talks but taken years simply to supply a list of concerns to U.S. negotiators. The delay is “pure politics,” intended to protect domestic growers, says National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles. If Japanese politicians perceive the pain from Trump’s tariffs might be worse than from their own potato growers, “that makes it more likely to make a deal,” Quarles said.But “if they perceive the pain domestically will be worse than the Trump administration can bring to them we’re going to be stuck where we are.”Korea’s beef restrictions started as a measure to keep out bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. The 30-month rule has been maintained in the wake of mass protests in 2008, even as the U.S. has become the largest beef exporter to Korea.“It’s still politically controversial because of the scar at the time in 2008. I think the government will be very cautious,” said Jaemin Lee, professor of law at Seoul National University and an expert on trade issues.
TAXATION
Trump has railed against value-added tax as a burden to U.S. companies, although economists say this kind of tax is trade-neutral because it applies equally to imports and exports. Value-added tax, or VAT, is paid by the end purchaser at the cash register but differs from sales taxes in that it is calculated at each stage of the production process.Trump’s view could mean higher tariffs for Europe, where individual countries levy VAT of 20% or more depending on the type of good, and for the more than 170 countries that use this kind of tax system. The U.S. is an outlier in that it doesn’t use VAT; instead, individual states levy sales taxes.There’s little chance countries will change their tax systems for Trump. The EU for one has said VAT is off the table.“The domestic taxation system has not been a conventional topic in trade negotiation because domestic taxation is directly related to national sovereignty or the domestic economic regime,” trade expert Lee said. “It’s very hard to understand why VAT has become an important topic in the trade discussion.”
PRODUCT STANDARDS
U.S. officials have complained about Japan’s non-recognition of U.S vehicle safety standards and its different testing procedures for car equipment.Japan also provides subsidies for the Japanese-designed ChaDeMo plug standard for electric cars, requiring foreign makers to use an outdated technology if they want the subsidy.
BUREAUCRACY
Concerns about excessive or baffling bureaucratic procedures to get goods into a country are mentioned repeatedly in the administration’s latest trade assessment. The U.S. has complained about expensive delays getting permission to export seafood to Japan. Meanwhile, Japan requires wheat imports to be sold to a government entity and has “highly regulated and intransparent” quota system that keeps rice imports from the U.S. to a minimum.Most of these issues are years old, raising questions about whether 90 days is enough to make a deal over them.U.S. pharmaceutical companies have complained about Korea’s system for drug imports, while automakers say environmental equipment standards are unclear and expose only importers to criminal penalties in case of violations.
BUY AMERICAN
Analysts say that despite the long list of non-tariff issues, the administration’s main focus may lie elsewhere: on Trump’s desire to reduce trade deficits, cases where a country sells more to the U.S. than it buys.And the solution may be other countries buying more U.S. products, from energy to soybeans, and builingd more plants in the U.S.U.S. energy is already a major export to Europe. Trump has mentioned a figure of $350 billion for potential EU gas imports. The EU does need imported gas. But Trump’s figure would be a stretch given that last year’s exports of liquefied natural gas to the EU were around $13 billon, and that Europe is seeking to reduce its use of fossil fuels over the longer term.
THE HEART OF THE MATTER?
Discussions about non-tariff issues may simply be leverage to nderpin Trump’s stiff tariff levels.“It’s just a thing that’s there to justify my tariffs,” said Tobias Gehrke, senior policy fellow at the European Council of Foreign Relations.While lower level trade officials and industry representatives are acutely aware of non-tariff issues like agricultural safety, “Trump and his cabinet don’t really care about chlorinated chicken regulations in Europe and food standards,” Gehrke said. “They have much bigger thinking.”“They want to have European companies significantly move production to America and to export from America to Europe. That would change the trade balance.”“And if that’s the main logic, then there’s no real deal to be had on non-tariff barriers.”
Rugaber contributed from Washington DC and Kageyama from Tokyo.
David McHugh, Christopher Rugaber and Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writers
A teenager who admitted being “addicted to speed” behind the wheel had totaled two other cars in the year before he slammed into a minivan at 112 mph (180 kph) in a Seattle suburb, killing the driver and three of the five children she was transporting for a homeschool co-op.After sentencing Chase Daniel Jones last month to more than 17 years in prison, the judge tacked on a novel condition should he drive again: His vehicle must be equipped with a device that prevents accelerating far beyond the speed limit.Virginia this year became the first state to give its judges such a tool to deal with the most dangerous drivers on the road. Washington, D.C., already is using it and similar measures await governors’ signatures in Washington state and Georgia. New York and California also could soon tap the GPS-based technology to help combat a recent national spike in traffic deaths.“It’s a horror no one should have to experience,” said Amy Cohen, who founded the victims’ advocacy group Families for Safe Streets after her 12-year-old son, Sammy Cohen Eckstein, was killed by a speeding driver in front of their New York home more than a decade ago.
Turning tragedy into activism
Andrea Hudson, 38, the minivan driver who was killed when Jones ran a red light, was building a backyard greenhouse with her husband to help educate several kids who shuttle between homes during the school day, her father, Ted Smith, said.Also killed in the March 2024 crash near Hudson’s home in Renton, Washington, were Boyd “Buster” Brown and Eloise Wilcoxson, both 12, and Matilda Wilcoxson, 13. Hudson’s two children were sitting on the passenger side and survived, but they spent weeks in a hospital.“You always hear of these horrific accidents, and it’s always far away, you don’t know anybody. But all of a sudden, that’s my daughter,” Smith said. “This guy did not swerve or brake. And it was just a missile.”Smith knew Washington state Rep. Mari Leavitt, who reached out to offer condolences and tell him she was sponsoring legislation to mandate intelligent speed assistance devices as a condition for habitual speeders to get back their suspended licenses.Leavitt predicts it will have an even more powerful impact than revoking driving privileges, citing studies showing around three-quarters of people who lose their licenses get behind a wheel anyway.Between 2019 and 2024, the state saw a 200% increase in drivers cited for going at least 50 mph (80 kph) over the speed limit, according to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.“I guess I don’t understand why someone is compelled to want to drive that fast,” Leavitt said. “But if they choose to drive that fast with the speed limiter, they can’t. It’s going to stop them in their tracks.”The measure, which Washington legislators passed last month and Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson is expected to soon sign, is called the BEAM Act, using the first letters of the names of the four victims: Buster, Eloise, Andrea and Matilda.Because Jones, 19, didn’t receive a speeding ticket in his two previous crashes, he likely wouldn’t have been required to use the speed-limiter ahead of the fatal one. And because it could be 2029 before the law takes effect, the judge’s requirement at sentencing only applies to his time on probation after being released from prison, Smith said.
Evolution of a safety tool
Competing tech companies that joined forces to lobby for ignition interlock requirements for drunken drivers have been working in unison again the last few years to pitch intelligent speed assistance.Brandy Nannini, chief government affairs officer at one manufacturer, Grapevine, Texas-based Smart Start, said fleet vehicles including school buses in the nation’s capital have been trying it out for years.But it took a lot of refinement before the GPS technology could instantly recognize speed limit changes and compel vehicles with the devices installed to adjust accordingly.“We’ve got a lot more satellites in the sky now,” said Ken Denton, a retired police officer who is the chief compliance officer at Cincinnati-based LifeSafer, part of the coalition of companies.When court-mandated, the devices would prevent cars from exceeding speed limits or whatever threshold regulators set. An override button allows speeding in emergencies, but states can decide whether to activate it and authorities would be alerted any time the button is pushed.A more passive version, which beeps to alert drivers when they are going too fast, is required for new cars in the European Union. California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar proposal last year, explaining vehicle safety requirements are set by the federal government and he was concerned a patchwork of state laws could stir confusion.
Parents take up the cause
Before Del. Patrick Hope agreed to sponsor the proposal in the Virginia Legislature, he tried out the device in Nannini’s car, which was calibrated to not go more than 9 mph (14 kph) over the speed limit.“That was my first question: Is it safe?” Hope said.Not only did he come away convinced it was safe, Hope is now pondering whether to install it on the cars of his three children, all of whom are new drivers.For those mandated by a court, the price could be hefty: $4 per day and a $100 installation fee. The fee would be reduced for low-income offenders.Cohen with Families for Safe Streets, which provides support services to the loved ones of crash victims, knows firsthand the kind of impact slowing down speeders can make. A year after her son was struck and killed in front of their New York apartment, another boy was injured in the same spot.By then, the road’s speed limit had been lowered.“That boy lived when he was hit, and mine did not,” she said. “When you are going a few miles slower, there’s more time to stop. And when you hit somebody, it’s much less likely to be deadly.”
Jeff McMurray, Associated Press
Austin has been on a building boom since it started becoming a tech hub. The Texas city has seen its skyline shift and its fortunes grow. Major tech firms like Apple and Amazon have established key offices, and in the 2010s alone, the city grew 21%, adding 171,000 residents. It now has more than 974,000, the 10th largest in the country.
Builders have raced to erect housing for these new arrivals; Austin has seen a boom in market rate apartments in recent yearsso much that it led rents to decrease after years of big jumps.
And in recent years, according to a new report, part of that building boom has included affordable housing, including permanent housing for the formerly unhoused, low-cost studio units, and even housing for teachers.
Austins affordable housing construction pipeline outpaces all other U.S. cities, according to research from Yardi Matrix, a real estate data source. In 2024, the city delivered 4,605 affordable unitsdefined as properties that agree to limit rents as a condition of a tax credit or subsidy. That’s double the rate in 2023. The research shows Austin will also deliver the most affordable units this year, 3,452more than LAs 2,752, despite the California city having more than four times as many people. And Austin will continue to lead, with the forecast of units in the pipeline through 2027 showing Austin with 9,528, compared to Seattles 6,289.
[Chart: Yardi Matrix]
We want to ensure that the population that made Austin what Austin is can stay in Austin, said James May, Housing and Community Development Officer for the City of Austin Housing Department.
Its also worth mentioning that Austins changing demographics are playing a large role in the housing market. As the city continues to morph from a capital and college town to a tech and healthcare nexus, wealth and median income have risen. A recent city memo noted that the citys housing market had dramatically changed since it laid out its housing plan in the mid 2010smedian home sale price has risen by 58%, and rents went from an average of $1,350 in 2017 to a peak of $1,709 in 2022so Austin needs to recalibrate its strategy and focus more on deeply affordable units.
Austin used to be a city of musicians and artists, and now income and rent are far higher than what it was 10 years ago, said Heather Way, a professor at the University of Texas-Austin who specializes in housing law.
[Chart: Yardi Matrix]
May credited the growth in affordable housing in Austin to three factors. First, was community: Multiple providers including the city, county, housing authority, and private builders have been looking to invest in new housing, with private developers investing in significant new construction using the citys density-bonus program.
The second was money. A series of local bonds for affordable housing raised significant funds for new construction, including a 2022 bond for $350 million, which helped fund new affordable units. In addition, the construction of new transit lines included $300 million in anti-displacement funds that also helped pay for new buildings. May said the city recently purchased a 100-acre property formerly owned by the Top Deal electronic company that it plans to use for mixed-income development, which will include affordable housing.
And finally, the third pillar was regulatory reform. The city council has passed many initiatives in recent years to increase density and make it easier to build: transit-oriented development rules allowed for higher buildings near bus and train lines, Affordability Unlocked allowed housing development on land zoned for commercial projects, and the HOME Initiative shrunk the required lot size for homes and made it legal to build multiple units on lots zoned for single-family homes.
But even with that surge, its still not enough. Despite Austins recent lead, the construction rate still lags well behind whats actually needed to provide sufficient access to affordable housing: tens of thousands of new units would be needed to adequately meet the demand.
A record-breaking number of evictions in the surrounding county last year attest to the pressure renters feel making ends meet. And while new supply is definitely a step in the right direction, what isnt being built is deeply affordable housing. Defined as housing that can support those making around 30% of the median income; in 2023, just 63 such units were built, even though thi group makes up 17% of the citys population.
Creating enough affordable units, and building more for those with extremely low incomes, will be even more challenging due to the changing landscape for construction. Stubbornly high interest rates will make getting financing more difficult. Tariffs will make materials more expensive. And the Trump administration’s actions against HUD, including threats to withhold funding from sanctuary cities like Austin, might end vital federal support.
Its going to be a tough market, we wont see the entire pipeline go all the way through, May said.
Austins boost in housing production is a start. But its sadly far from finished.
Skywatchers, you’re in for a treat. You’re going to want to look up into the night late Monday, May 5 into the early hours of Tuesday, May 6, to see the debris of Halleys comet as it lights up the sky with a meteor shower called the Eta Aquarids.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Eta Aquarids and the chance to see debris from Halley’s comet in 2025.
What are Halleys comet and the Eta Aquarids meteor shower, anyway?
While Halley’s comet itself only travels around the sun every 75 or so years, each time it returns to the inner solar system, it sprays debris (ice and rock) into space, which results in two meteor showers each year: the Eta Aquarids in May, and the Orionids in October, creating what we know as shooting stars. (Halley’s comet was last seen in 1986, and won’t come around again until 2061.)
When comets pass by the sun, the dust they emit eventually creates a dusty trail around their orbits. Then, when Earth passes through these trails, they interact with our atmosphere, creating those dazzling shows of light in the sky.
The Eta Aquarids peak early in the month of May, and are known for their speed; they travel at about 40.7 miles per second into Earth’s atmosphere, according to NASA. That’s important, because fast meteors can leave glowing incandescent “trains” of debris, which last for several seconds to minutes. During the peak of the Eta Aquarids, viewers can see up to 50 meteors each hour, depending on visibility.
What’s the best time to see the Eta Aquarids meteor shower in 2025?
Peak viewing is this Monday night, May 5 into Tuesday morning, May 6 in the predawn hours, according to NASA’s Bill Cooke, who told the AP that visibility will likely be affected by the moon, which will be two-thirds full. The good news: viewing opportunities will last through the month until May 28.
You can view the Eta Aquarids in both the northern and southern hemispheres, but the southern hemisphere is preferable.
For those of us in the northern hemisphere, viewers can expect to see about 10 meteors an hour, depending on your latitude and conditions that night. Expect to see “Earthgrazers,” which are long meteors “that appear to skim the surface of the Earth at the horizon,” per NASA.
NASA viewing tips for the Eta Aquarids meteor shower
Our friends at NASA offer these tips:
Find a viewing spot away from city or street lights.
Lie flat on your back with your feet facing east. You may want to bring a blanket or a lounge chair.
Look up, taking in as much of the sky as possible. After about 30 minutes in the dark, your eyes will adapt and you will begin to see meteors.
Be patient. The show will last until dawn, so you have plenty of time to catch a glimpse.
The death of Joann fabrics is turning out to be a big gain for at least one other retailer.
Following the beloved craft chains bankruptcy and subsequent plan to wind down its operations, discount retailer Burlington Storesformerly known as Burlington Coat Factoryis moving to scoop up dozens of leases from former Joann locations across more than 20 states, court documents reveal.
The 45 locations, some of which have been home to Joanns stores for decades, were listed as being taken over by various Burlington subsidiaries on a bankruptcy court filing last week, with the company expected to assume control of most of the leases on June 1.
In January, Joann filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for a second time in less than a year, having succumbed to inflationary pressures and shifting habits among consumers who had embraced at-home crafts during the early years of the pandemic.
The company has since said it would close every location, with a sizable chunk of those stores closing for good last week. All of Joann’s almost 800 stores are expected to be closed by the end of May.
The relatively quick wind-down creates an opportunity for other retailers that are looking for space, with leases available for low cure amounts or no cure price at all, court records show. The transfer of leases to Burlington is not a done deal, as interested parties still have time to object.
Fast Company reached out to Burlington for comment and additional details.
‘2,000-store target’
Headquartered in Burlington, New Jersey, Burlington Stores offers merchandise at so-called off prices, specializing in apparel, footwear, and of course coats. The company formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory earned $504 million in profit on revenue of $10.6 billion in fiscal 2024.
Last week’s filing shows Texas as the state with the most Joann stores that will be transferred to Burlington, with nine locations in the Lone Star state, followed by California with five.
The filing also offers a window into the growth plans of a brick-and-mortar brand with ambitions to significantly increase its store count.
While many chain retailers have reduced their physical footprint or shuttered entirely over the past few years, Burlington has been growing at a healthy clip. The company opened more than 100 net new stores in 2024, CEO Michael OSullivan said in an earnings release in March, and it plans to open another 100 locations this year.
Burlington has also been relocating dozens of locations that OSullivan described as oversized, part of a national trend in which retailers are trying to do more with smaller-format stores.
As of the end of its last fiscal year, Burlington operated 1,108 stores in 46 states, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. It has said it has a long-term target of 2,000 stores.
In addition to Burlington, the filing also listed other retailers that were taking over a handful of Joann locations, including Hobby Lobby, Boot Barn, and furniture retailer Massa Gallery.
Below you can find the full list of locations that Burlington is seeking to take over. The oldest lease on the list, in Flagstaff, Arizona, dates back to April 1979.
Arizona
1717 N Dysart Road in Avondale, AZ
1514 S Riordan Ranch St in Flagstaff, AZ
Arkansas
3835 North Mall Ave in Fayetteville, AR
California
5885 Lincoln Avenue in Buena Park, CA
26583 Carl Boyer Drive in Santa Clarita, CA
2210 Daniels St in Manteca, CA
3010 Ming Ave in Bakersfield, CA
12779 Main Street in Hesperia, CA
Colorado
2580 South Colorado Blvd in Denver, CO
7360 South Gartrell Road in Aurora, CO
Florida
10261 River Marsh Drive Ste 149 in Jacksonville, FL
540 N us Hwy 441 in Lady Lake, FL
1131 S Federal Hwy in Pompano Beach, FL
Georgia
2655 N. Decatur Road, Decatur, GA
1074 Bullsboro Drive Unit #6 in Newnan, GA
Illinois
7511 Lemont Rd Ste 101 in Darien, IL
2056 N. State Route 50, Bourbonnais, IL
Kentucky
4600 Shelbyville Rd Ste 280 in Louisville, KY
Massachusetts
96 Providence Highway in East Walpole, MA
Michigan
9052 Highland Road in White Lake, MI
Mississippi
3875 North Gloster Street in Tupelo, MS
Nebraska
10521 S. 15Th Street in Bellevue, NE
New Mexico
558 E. Main St., Farmington, NM
New York
3225 State Route 364 in Canandaigua, NY
1530 County Route 64 in Horseheads, NY
North Carolina
80 South Tunnel Road Suite 30 in Asheville, NC
Ohio
4600 W Broad Street in Columbus, OH
3872 Paxton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH
Boardman Poland Road, Youngstown, OH
Oregon
783 Lancaster Dr. Ne. Suite #133 in Salem, OR
South Carolina
1120 Seaboard Street, Myrtle Beach, SC
1215-B North Main Street in Summerville, SC
Texas
1219 North Fry Road in Katy, TX
10515 N Mo Pac Expy Bldg 1 in Austin, TX
9500 S I-35 Frontage Rd. Building K, Austin, TX
4127 N Hwy 75 in Sherman, TX
2640 West University Dr in Denton, TX
2050 West Unversity Dr Suite 250 in Mc Kinney, TX
19105 Lyndon B Johnson Fwy., Mesquite, TX
10501 Gateway Blvd W Bld 9 in El Paso, TX
201 University Oaks Blvd in Round Rock, TX
Utah
720 W. Telegraph in Washington, UT
Washington
700 Ocean Beach Hwy Ste 100 in Longview, WA
Wisconsin
1226 Koeller St in Oshkosh, WI
4045 Commonwealth Ave in Eau Claire, WI
Pharrell Williams has high hopes for the Met Gala, the first to focus exclusively on Black designers, and the first in more than 20 years to have a menswear theme.“I want it to feel like the most epic night of power, a reflection of Black resiliency in a world that continues to be colonized, by which I mean policies and legislation that are nothing short of that,” he recently told Vogue.“It’s our turn.”Indeed. And welcome to the first Monday in May.
How to watch the 2025 Met Gala
Vogue will livestream the gala starting at 6 p.m. Eastern on Vogue.com, its YouTube channel and across its other digital platforms. Teyana Taylor, La La Anthony and Ego Nwodim will host the stream. Emma Chamberlain will also do interviews on the carpet.The Associated Press will livestream celebrity departures from the Mark Hotel beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern and will stream the gala carpet on delay beginning at 6:30 p.m. The feeds will be available on YouTube and APNews.com.E! will begin live coverage at 6 p.m. on TV. The livestream will be available on Peacock, E! Online and YouTube, along with the network’s other social media feeds.
Who’s hosting the 2025 Met Gala?
This year, the fundraising gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosted by a group of Black male celebrities, including Williams, the musical artist and Louis Vuitton menswear director, and Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, and A$AP Rocky, with NBA superstar LeBron James as honorary chair. They’re joined by Vogue’s Anna Wintour, the mastermind behind the gala, considered the year’s biggest and starriest party.Also guaranteed to show up is a second tier of hosts from a variety of worlds: athletes Simone Biles and husband Jonathan Owens; Angel Reese and Sha’Carri Richardson; filmmakers Spike Lee, Tonya Lewis Lee and Regina King; actors Ayo Edebiri, Audra McDonald and Jeremy Pope; musicians Doechii, Usher, Tyla, Janelle Monáe and André 3000; author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; artists Jordan Casteel, Rashid Johnson and Kara Walker; playwrights Jeremy O. Harris and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; and fashion figures Grace Wales Bonner, Edward Enninful, Dapper Dan and Olivier Rousteing.The gala raises the bulk of the curation budget for the museum’s Costume Institute.
This year’s Met Gala dress code is
It’s more like a firm suggestion. From Wintour. This year, it’s about tailoring and suiting as interpreted through the history and meaning of Black dandyism across the Atlantic diaspora. The theme is inspired by the annual spring exhibition, which this year is based in large part on “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” a book written by Monica L. Miller. She is guest curator of the exhibit.“Historical manifestations of dandyism range from absolute precision in dress and tailoring to flamboyance and fabulousness in dress and style,” Miller writes in the exhibit catalog. “Whether a dandy is subtle or spectacular, we recognize and respect the deliberateness of the dress, the self-conscious display, the reach for tailored perfection, and the sometimes subversive self-expression.”How the dress code goes, in terms of taste and style, is anyone’s guess. Wintour has a hand in virtually all things gala, so the presumption is things can’t go too far off the rails. She recently knocked down the rumor that she approves all looks, telling “Good Morning America” she’ll weigh in if asked.The exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” draws on other sources beyond Miller’s book. It’s organized into 12 sections. Each symbolizes a characteristic of dandy style as defined by Zora Neale Hurston in her 1934 essay, “Characteristics of Negro Expression.”Among them: ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, respectability and heritage. Presumably, for gala guests who do deep-dive research (or have stylists to do it), some of these factors will play out on the museum steps that serve as the event’s red carpet.
Who else is going to show up?
The guest list amounts to about 450 high-profile people from tech, sports, art, entertainment and more. The mix, Williams said, is a must.“It’s so important to me to have successful Black and brown people of every stripe in the room: not just athletes and actors and actresses, entertainers, but also authors, architects, folks from the fintech world,” he told Vogue. “We’ve got to invest in each other. We’ve got to connect with each other, because it’s going to take everybody to coalesce the force of Black and brown genius into one strong, reliable force.”
For full coverage of the Met Gala, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/met-gala
Leanne Italie, AP Lifestyles Writer
President Donald Trump is opening a new salvo in his tariff war, targeting films made outside the U.S.In a post Sunday night on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has authorized the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to slap a 100% tariff “on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote, complaining that other countries “are offering all sorts of incentives to draw” filmmakers and studios away from the U.S. “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”It wasn’t immediately clear how any such tariff on international productions could be implemented. It’s common for both large and small films to include production in the U.S. and in other countries. Big-budget movies like the upcoming “Mission: ImpossibleThe Final Reckoning,” for instance, are shot around the world.Incentive programs for years have influenced where movies are shot, increasingly driving film production out of California and to other states and countries with favorable tax incentives, like Canada and the United Kingdom.Yet Trump’s tariffs are designed to lead consumers toward American products. And in movie theaters, American-produced movies overwhelming dominate the domestic marketplace.China has ramped up its domestic movie production, culminating in the animated blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” grossing more than $2 billion this year. But even then, its sales came almost entirely from mainland China. In North America, it earned just $20.9 million.In New Zealand, where successive governments have offered rebates and incentives in recent years to draw Hollywood films to the country, the film industry has generated billions of dollars in tourism revenue driven by the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” films, which featured the country’s pristine and scenic vistas. More recently, the blockbuster “Minecraft” movie was filmed entirely in New Zealand, and U.S. productions in 2023 delivered $1.3 billion New Zealand dollars ($777 million) to the country in return for NZ$200 million in subsidies, according to government figures.New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was awaiting more details of Trump’s measures before commenting on them but would continue to pitch to filmmakers abroad, including in India’s Bollywood. “We’ve got an absolutely world class industry,” he said. “This is the best place to make movies, period, in the world.”The Motion Picture Association, which represents major U.S. film studios and streaming services, didn’t immediately respond to messages Sunday evening.The MPA’s data shows how much Hollywood exports have dominated cinemas. According to the MPA, the American movies produced $22.6 billion in exports and $15.3 billion in trade surplus in 2023.Trump, a Republican, has made good on the “tariff man” label he gave himself years ago, slapping new taxes on goods made in countries around the globe. That includes a 145% tariff on Chinese goods and a 10% baseline tariff on goods from other countries, with even higher levies threatened.By unilaterally imposing tariffs, Trump has exerted extraordinary influence over the flow of commerce, creating political risks and pulling the market in different directions. There are tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, with more imports, including pharmaceutical drugs, set to be subject to new tariffs in the weeks ahead.Trump has long voiced concern about movie production moving overseas.Shortly before he took office, he announced that he had tapped actors Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone to serve as “special ambassadors” to Hollywood to bring it “BACKBIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”U.S. film and television production has been hampered in recent years, with setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Overall production in the U.S. was down 26% last year compared with 2021, according to data from ProdPro, which tracks production.The group’s annual survey of executives, which asked about preferred filming locations, found no location in the U.S. made the top five, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Toronto, the U.K., Vancouver, Central Europe and Australia came out on top, with California placing sixth, Georgia seventh, New Jersey eighth and New York ninth.The problem is especially acute in California. In the greater Los Angeles area, production last year was down 5.6% from 2023 according to FilmLA, second only to 2020, during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. Last, October, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, proposed expanding California’s Film & Television Tax Credit program to $750 million annually, up from $330 million.Other U.S. cities like Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco have also used aggressive tax incentives to lure film and TV productions. Those programs can take the form of cash grants, as in Texas, or tax credits, which Georgia and New Mexico offer.“Other nations have been stealing the movie-making capabilities from the United States,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday night after returning from a weekend in Florida. “If they’re not willing to make a movie inside the United States we should have a tariff on movies that come in.”
Associated Press writers Gary Field in Washington and Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report from Washington.
Jill Colvin and Jake Coyle, Associated Press
Youve probably heard of Charles and Ray Eames, the designers behind the iconic Eames chair and ottoman, and Georgia OKeefe, the trailblazing artist. But you might not know about how these artists were connected during their careersor the art that came from their camaraderie.
Herman Miller, in collaboration with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, is bringing that history to light with a new limited-run furniture line. The New Mexico Collection, set to be released on May 20, celebrates the Eameses, OKeeffe, and designer Alexander Girard, the founding director of Herman Millers textile division. Included in the launch are 300 special Eames Wire Chairs, retailing for $1,995, and 100 iterations of the never-before-sold Girard Snake Table, retailing for $895.
Both of the items offer a look into the intertwined artistic legacies of three designers whose work continues to shape the art world today.
[Photo: Mariko Reed for Herman Miller]
An oft-overlooked network of friends
Georgia OKeeffe first met Alexander Girard and his wife, Susan, when the couple moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1953. OKeeffe had already been living in the remote rural town of Abiquiú, New Mexico, since the 1940s, and was already a household name across the country at the time of their meeting for her lush and evocative depictions of the natural world, many of which were inspired by flora and fauna native to her local surroundings.
[The Georgia OKeeffe Museum] can’t say for sure exactly when and how they met, but suffice it to say there weren’t too many world renowned artists and designers living in that area, and apparently they felt a real kinship, says Kelsey Keith, brand creative director at Herman Miller.
For the New Mexico collection, Keith visited the museums archives, where she learned that there are records of 20 to 30 years of correspondence between the Girards and OKeeffenot just to advise each other on artistic projects, which they did plenty of, but also to trade the kinds of casual stories that maintain a decades-long friendship.
They ended up traveling together all over the world, Keith says. Girard and his wife would go on these folk art collecting trips to Central and South America and to Japan, and [OKeeffe] actually accompanied them on some of those trips. I think you have to be pretty good friends with someone to take those kinds of trips together.
It was through the Girards that the Eameses entered the picture. Girard was already close to the Eameses; in fact, the design duo had actually landed him his job. When the Eameses first began to design furniture for Herman Miller in the 40s (the company has now owned the exclusive distribution rights to Eames designs for decades), Charles and Ray asked for Girard to be brought on with them as a real design partner, not just someone to sort of decoratively apply fabrics after the fact, Keith says. Through this professional collaboration, the Girards and the Eameses became both close colleagues and friends.
The Girards soon introduced the Eameses to OKeeffe. While their friendship wasnt as close, since the Eameses lived a state away from OKeeffe in Los Angeles, they also kept up a correspondence, and were known to attend the Girards annual Christmas parties. At the heights of their careers, the personal links between Girard, OKeeffe, and the Eameses informed the work of all four creatives.
A new design and a revived prototype
The new Eames Wire Chair Low Base and Girard Snake Table both serve as a window into this period of artistic cross-pollination.
The chair is inspired by a wire chair originally gifted by Ray Eames to OKeeffe as decor in her Abiquiú home and studio. OKeeffes home and studio are now preserved as museum exhibitions, and for good reason: Her minimalist-yet-aesthetically pleasing and highly curated approach to interior design draws visitors to view her former residence year-round. Suffice it to say, OKeeffe had high standards when it came to outfitting her space. Rays chair surpassed them.
[Photo: Mariko Reed for Herman Miller]
Georgia loved [the chair] so much that she wrote a thank-you note and actually asked for another one just like it, which is hilariousthat someone sends you a gift, and you’re like, I love it so much, can I have one more? Keith says. But she could do that, obviously. The original chair has a little label on it that Ray hand-drew to Georgia.
Instead of making an exact replica of Rays original gift to Eames, Herman Miller decided to create a product that would merge elements of the Eames design and OKeeffes interior decor. The New Mexico Collections wire chair is a classic Eames frame on a low base, an homage to the fairly low ceilings and smaller furniture in OKeeffes home. The chair is upholstered in a bikini style (think two inverted triangles stacked together) with an chre and sienna striped fabric designed by Girard and intended to match with the Abiquiú homes adobe interiors.
While the new wire chair is a contemporary design made from archival elements, the Girard Snake Table is a close replica of a prototype made by Girard in the 50s that was never widely produced (though it occasionally pops up on auction sites.) The table features a splayed-leg aluminum base and steel top, printed with a custom illustration of a snake made by Girard.
Snake imagery was a preoccupation of both Girards and OKeeffes. OKeeffe was so enamored with the snakes form, in fact, that when an archaeologist fan sent her a preserved skeleton, she had it encased in a bench in her living room. Today, visitors to the OKeeffe house will find the snakes final resting place, as well as an original pillow made by Girard featuring one of his snake drawings.
[Photo: Mariko Reed for Herman Miller]
This is New Mexico, so snake motifs are really prevalent, Keith says. I think what’s interesting about this is that Girard interpreted that motif in his own wayin a very graphic senseand then [OKeeffe] also took inspiration from the natural world, and had this snake skeleton embedded in the banco in her house.
For Keith, the New Mexico Collection truly came together when she was able to see the final products arranged in OKeeffes home, overlooking the New Mexico landscape through sweeping glass windows.
I will say, I think we hit it just right, because when we brought in the limited-run products to photograph in [OKeeffes] house, they fit so perfectly, it looks like they were meant to be there, Keith says.
