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Cambodia said Friday it has drafted its first law targeting online scam centers, after vowing to shut them down by the end of April.Cambodia is a major hub for scam operations, which extort money from victims online through bogus investment schemes and feigned romances. Victims around the world are estimated to have been cheated out of tens of billions of dollars annually.At the same time, thousands of people, especially from other Asian nations, have been recruited with false job offers and then forced to work in scam centers in conditions of near-slavery.“This law is the most important legal instrument for Cambodia in combating scams online, fighting money laundering and demonstrating that Cambodia is not a paradise or a safe haven for criminals,” Information Minister Neth Pheaktra said in a statement.The new legislation approved by the Cabinet sets five to 10 years in prison and a fine of 500 million to 1 billion riels ($125,000-250,000) for organizing or directing a technology fraud site. In case of human trafficking or violence, detention or confinement, the penalties rage from 10 to 20 years plus a fine of up to 2 billion riels ($500,000). In case of a death linked to a scam center, the offense is punishable by imprisonment from 15 to 30 years, or life. Workers have died when they tried to escape.The new legislation must be approved by Parliament.Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, in charge of the Commission for Combating Online Scams, told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday that the government since July had targeted 250 locations believed to be carrying out online scams, and has shut down about 200.Since last July, the government has filed 79 cases involving 697 alleged scam ringleaders and their associates, according to Chhay Sinarith.Cambodia has repatriated almost 10,000 scam center workers from 23 countries, with fewer than 1,000 waiting to return home. Others who have escaped or been released from raided centers have returned on their own.Neth Pheaktra said that the government “has made strong efforts to combat this crime in order to protect Cambodia’s reputation and economy, which have previously been damaged by online scams, and the government does not receive any revenue from these activities.”Cambodia has launched previous crackdowns but without major effect on scam centers, and some experts are skeptical it can eliminate the criminal industry.“The real question is whether this effort targets the system that enables the industry, not just the buildings where scams happen,” said Jacob Sims, an expert on transnational crime and a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Center. “Past crackdowns in Cambodia have often left the financial and protection networks intact, allowing operations to quickly reconstitute.”Associated Press writer Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report. Sopheng Cheang, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump is scrambling to replace the revenue the federal government lost when the Supreme Court struck down his biggest and boldest tariffs last month.If the effort succeeds, congressional Democrats warn in a study out Friday, the administration’s import taxes will cost American households an average of $2,512 in 2026, up 44% from $1,745 in tariff costs last year. And this at a time when U.S. consumers are already angry over the high cost of living and the war with Iran is pushing up energy prices.“Despite a Supreme Court ruling that much of Trump’s tariff agenda is illegal, the Trump administration refuses to provide relief for families,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee. “As American families continue to struggle with high costs, the President keeps choosing to institute new tariffs that will push prices even higher.”Calling the study “phony,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said “President Trump will continue using tariffs to renegotiate broken trade deals, lower drug prices, and secure trillions in investments for the American people.”Trump last year invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose double-digit tariffs on almost every country on Earth.But the Supreme Court ruled Feb. 20 that the law did not give the president the authority to levy tariffs. The government now must provide refunds expected to come to around $175 billion to the importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs now declared illegal.The administration has moved quickly to impose new tariffs, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that that new levies “will result in virtually unchanged tariff revenue in 2026.”Trump has already announced a 10% tariff, invoking Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, and may raise it to 15%. But those levies can only last 150 days unless Congress agrees to extend them. And the Section 122 tariffs are also being challenged in court.A sturdier option is Section 301 of the same 1974 trade law, which authorizes the president to impose tariffs and other sanctions on countries engaged in “unjustifiable,” “unreasonable” or “discriminatory” trade practices. Trump, accusing China of using unfair tactics to gain an advantage in high tech industries, used Section 301 to impose tariffs on Chinese imports in his first term, and they withstood legal challenges.On Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, announced a sweeping Section 301 investigation into whether 16 U.S. trading partners, including China and the European Union, are overproducing goods, flooding the world with their products and hurting American manufacturers.“The United States will no longer sacrifice its industrial base to other countries that may be exporting their problems with excess capacity and production to us,” Greer said in a statement. The probe is widely expected to end in a new round of hefty tariffs.“The fact that they launched 301 investigations is not surprising,” said trade lawyer Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding and a former U.S. trade official. “We all knew that’s what they were going to pivot to. The challenge is that this is way more sprawling than anyone expected.” That is because so many countries were targeted and because the inquiry whether countries have excess industrial capacity and are overproducing goods “can be framed pretty broadly.”The administration is rolling out another Section 301 investigation into banning imported goods made by forced labor. Greer told reporters Wednesday that additional Section 301 investigations could cover issues such as digital services taxes, pharmaceutical drug pricing and ocean pollution.The administration is also expected to make more use of Section 232 of Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the president to impose tariffs on goods deemed to be threats to national security after an investigation by the Commerce Department. The U.S. already has Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos and auto parts and other products.The report from Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee finds that the new tariffs will increase the burden on American households this year. That is partly because the tariff revenue would be collected for the full year; Trump needed time to impose tariffs in 2025 and occasionally suspended them.The Democrats also assume that American households will absorb 100% of the tariff cost. They cite a Congressional Budget Office report concluding that importers can pass along 70% of the tariff costs to consumers. But the tariffs also allow domestic producers to raise prices because of less competition from imports and increased demand for their tariff-free products. Combined, passed-along costs from importers and higher prices from domestic companies effectively mean that consumers end up footing the entire U.S. tariff bill, according to CBO.The Trump administration’s new tariff push comes as the war in Iran pushes up the price of gasoline and other commodities in the runup to November’s midterm elections. Voters are already disgruntled by high prices.“If the affordability and other political issues really start to become cumbersome, that certainly can impact all this,” Majerus said. “What the world’s going to look like two months from now is going to be very different from what it is now.” Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Nearly every part of the United States is getting walloped by wild weather or just about to be.Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus (38 Celsius-plus) heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes states. And the dreaded polar vortex will again invade the Midwest and East with soul-crushing Arctic chill.This forecast of extremes comes as weather whiplash already hit much of the East. On Wednesday, Washington, D.C. residents walked around in shorts in record-breaking 86 degrees Fahrenheit (about 30 Celsius). On Thursday, it snowed.“All of the country, even if you’re not necessarily seeing extremes, are going to see generally changing from cold to warm, or warm to cold to warm,” said meteorologist Marc Chenard of the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.Former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue said he expects extreme weather in all 50 states. Triple-digit heat persists in Southwest A heat dome will form early next week and park over the Southwest, baking temperatures to triple digits that haven’t been seen this early in the year, Maue and Chenard said.Some forecasts see 98 (almost 37 Celsius) in Phoenix on Tuesday, followed by 103, 105 and two days of 107 (almost 42 C). In 137 years of record-keeping, Phoenix never hit 100 before March 26 and usually hit its first 100-degree day in early May, according to the weather service, which warned people: “Since we are not acclimated to this level of heat this early in the year, it will be more impactful than usual.”It has already started in Los Angeles with unusual 90-degree March weather that had people in shorts and tank tops seeking shade anywhere they could get it, even if it was as slender as a light post.Shane Dixon, 40, usually runs about 5 miles near his home in Culver City without much effort, he said, his face glistening with sweat and his T-shirt tucked into his shorts. But Thursday was hard because of the heat, and he had to cut it short.“The back of my neck was melting,” he said. But he preferred it to the cold and snow that will hit elsewhere.“I could go literally soak myself and walk out in the sun and I’ll make it home fine. If it was freezing cold I could not do this,” he said. Single-digit cold invades North Around the same time as the heat starts blasting Phoenix, the polar vortex a system that usually keeps frigid air penned up near the North Pole is forecast to send its chill deep into the Midwest and East, even bordering some of the Southeast, Maue saidMinneapolis will hover around zero for a low, and Chicago will be in the single digits Tuesday. The next day “temperatures in the teens and 20s in the northeast and 20s in the Mid-Atlantic,” Maue said. Even Atlanta could drop to the 20s. One-two snowstorm punch Two storm systems in a row one Friday, then another Sunday into Monday will chug along the country’s northern tier and Great Lakes and between them could dump 3 to 4 feet of snow in places, Maue said.That bigger second storm system will see its barometric pressure drop so quickly and sharply meaning it is intensifying and winds are strengthening that it will qualify as a bomb cyclone, which is quite unusual to develop over land. Normally bomb cyclones get their energy from warm ocean waters, but this one will draw power from the polar vortex. Even Alaska and Hawaii aren’t quite right Maue said Hawaii is getting an atmospheric river that will have such persistent heavy rain that flooding will be a major issue. Oahu is under a flash flood warning.And Alaska is normally frigid now, but it will be about 30 degrees colder than usual, he said.It is “the time of year where we can see stuff like this,” Chenard said. “But this does seem even anomalous from what you would typically see. I mean, some of these areas will be setting records. Record-high temperatures for March and maybe multiple times.”In the past week or so, tornadoes have killed at least eight people in Oklahoma, Michiganand Indiana. The forecast for severe storms doesn’t look as big or widespread for the next week, but dangerous thunderstorms could pop up “anywhere from the Mississippi Valley toward the East Coast” on Sunday or Monday, Chenard said. The jet stream goes nuts Underlying this is a jet stream gone wild, Maue and Chenard said.The jet stream is the river of air that moves weather from west to east on a roller-coaster-like path. Usually the plunges are as mild as a kiddie roller coaster. But now that jet stream is going on near-vertical, scream-inducing drops following by straight-up ascents.“Which means you get a lot of extremes next to each other,” Maue said. Storm fronts coming from the Pacific hit that high pressure heat dome in the Southwest and are pushed north to climb that mountainous jet stream peak, “grab access to that cold air reservoir up there” and bring it back down south down the other side of the hill, he said.Numerous studies have connected unusual jet stream and polar vortex activity to shrinking Arctic sea ice and human-caused climate change.But there is hope.“The first day of spring is 20th (of March), and then after that we get recovery,” Maue said. Associated Press writer Dorany Pineda contributed. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Gone are the days when marketers can think in five- or 10-year plans. These days, its about tomorrow, not the next 16 months, because culture and what captures consumers’ attention is changing faster than ever. Today, its Love Island and Traitors reality TV star Rob Rausch posing shirtless on a giant billboard in Times Square for MAC Cosmetics. And tomorrow, its Punch the Monkey holding on to his plush doll. (And if you know what were talking about, congrats, you are chronically online and in tune with the culture. If you dont, youve got some work to do, but thats why were here.) The state of brand building in 2026 looks vastly different than what any veteranor newmarketer remembers from even two years ago. Consumers have pulled back on purchases, with retail sales falling 0.2% in January, according to Commerce Department statistics. More consumers have mixed feelings about the economy than overall negativity, says global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in its February research report. But consumers are still buying, whether it’s “little treat culture” or bigger luxury products at both retail shops and the grocery store. Its how we convince them as brands to keep buying with us thats changing. And thus, the state of brand marketing in 2026 is bornits fast, its weird, and honestly, at times, it makes no sense. But for those of you in the room making decisions on how to engage consumers, it could be the time of your life, as long as you keep your finger on the pulse and move quickly and intently with these principles in mind. KPIs are cringe: Instead, understand the data, but dont rely on it To be a responsible marketer, you need to understand any data a campaign or activation provides. But besides that, execute without key performance indicators, or KPIs, in mind. (To us, this term is cringe in 2026.) Its about gut calls, vibes, and how anything is going to make someone feel in order for them to buy with their heart, not their heads. Vibe marketing is resonating with consumerswe know, because some of us started that trend. At the organic infant formula company Bobbie, we led the first breastfeeding billboard in Times Square with cookbook author Molly Baz; we also empowered mothers to parent with confidence by naming artist Cardi B chief confidence officer. At Poppi, our Super Bowl campaign with Charli XCX and Rachel Sennott was all vibesit did not take itself too seriously, which is exactly how the company operatesleaning into top-of-funnel marketing moments for our highly captive audience of women and Gen Zers. All of this changes depending on your marketing budgets, of course. But reaching people doesnt always take a multimillion-dollar campaign. Its surprising and delighting your community with moments that were once exclusive to media and influencers; its engaging with your comments sections and turning those into campaign moments, or simply a touchpoint to send someone merch “just because.” Leaning into your community and who your consumers already are will help you develop the best messaging for your brand: Whats the story you want people to tell your brand when theyre talking to their friends, family, and neighbors? Say something, do something Culture isnt the only thing thats rapidly evolving. With escalating geopolitical and domestic issues, consumers are looking for their favorite brands to weigh in and stand by their values. Its important to stress that not every brand has to take a stance if its not in its DNA, and thats okay. However, many companies have always been purpose-driven. But its no longer enough to have a random web page with a vague statement. Consumers want to see companies put their money where their mouth is by donating or partaking in some sort of advocacy work. It doesnt always mean launching a new product or campaign with the hopes that someone purchases your product. At Bobbie, we just released our Paint the Hill Green docuseries, which shows our efforts to bring the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act back to Congress. Our workalong with countless othershas resulted in the bill being reintroduced to Congress under this administration for the first time. We didnt just sign a petition or pledge to do something. We put in the time and work and brought our community along with us. For SolComms, our communications agency has advised countless brands on when they should enter a political conversation. We assess the risk and a brands right to win within a certain issue, and then we execute. For example, with August, the sustainable period care company, we helped them work to fight the tampon tax by refunding customers whove paid a sales tax on menstrual products. And for Blueland, the sustainable cleaning product brand, we assisted in introducing a bill in the New York City Council to ban the distribution and sale of plastic detergent pods and sheets in NYC. Both efforts were actionable and on-brand, and resonated strongly with their respective target audiences. Stay true to your customers Whether its social media, email, or even direct mail, consumers are being sold to at every single possible moment. And theyre over it. Theyll let a brand know if they dont believe in their product and post on social media to tell peoplewhere it can quickly take off and turn into a nightmare that no one saw coming. Instead of working on crisis communications, brands should stay true to who they are and what their products are about. Continue to make sure your products have the best quality. If youre marketing to a certain generation, stay the course, and theyll most likely stay with you. Drunk Elephant has become another example of this in practice. The company enjoyed an uptick in sales and awareness from Gen Alpha tweens who would stock up on the brands $79 serums and $66 moisturizers. The pivot to relying on this generation meant leaving behind older consumers. Tweens are fickle consumers, however, as theyre quick to chase whatever the latest trend might be. And soon Drunk Elephant was not at the top of their list. The companys sales dropped 65% year over year in the first quarter of 2025. In January, Drunk Elephant announced a new brand direction along with a Please Enjoy Responsibly campaign. At Poppi, we thought we had to gain more audience, so we signed a bunch of creators and influencers, and expanded our reach into sports because we wanted to reach more men. We didnt see any positive results from these initiatives, so we pivoted an found that talking to our female customers is how wed get to men. Its easy to get obsessed with other audiences and not your core audiences, in order to chase the shiny new generation. But the smarter strategy is to go deeper into your core audience. Its easier than ever to get distracted by the hundreds of signals we think we should be followingwhether its AI, community building, LinkedIn posts, flashy out-of-home advertisements, activations at every single major music festival, and the list goes on and on. But the brands that are capturing a consumers attentionand dollarsare the ones thinking about them, and only them, and what they want. Those are the brands receiving $2 billion exits, major retail exposure, and organic love from consumers; those are the companies well still be writing about 20 years from now, and that will eventually become the rare, coveted 100-year-legacy brand.
Category:
E-Commerce
My new favorite creator on TikTok is Apple. Yes, that Apple. On March 4, Apple launched its newest product, the head-turningly affordable $599 MacBook Neo. That same day, the company also deleted all of the content that once populated its TikTok page and started over. Its new videoson view there are now 15run the gamut from a clip inspired by Steve Jobss original introduction of the 1984 Macintosh to a cutesy animation of the Mac finder icon giggling and blushing. The videos have consistently debuted in batches of three, each corresponding to one of the brand colors associated with the Neo. This TikTok refresh is a clear play to cater to the audience that Apple knows is most interested in the Neo: Gen Z. The new laptop model, powered by the same architecture inside your iPhone, is targeting a younger user base with its unprecedentedly low price point and aesthetic color options, which tap into Gen Zs long-demonstrated obsession with retro-tech. So far, the new TikTok strategy seems to be working. Based on a Wayback Machine capture from February 28, Apple was sitting at 7 million followers and 21.9 million likes before the change; figures that have now jumped to 7.8 million and 31.6 million, respectively. Apple also recently debuted a secondary Instagram account called @helloapple, which will be dedicated to news, product marketing, and customer stories. This account has a decidedly more corporate feel than the brand’s TikTok, but demonstrates the company’s broader desire to expand its presence on socials. Apples new TikTok page works because it takes an amalgamation of trending aesthetics and blends them with Apples high design point of view, turning every silly video into a loopable work of art. Why Apple’s new TikTok is genius Plenty of brands have experimented with how to best capture Gen Z on TikTok, and Apples team has evidently taken notes out of multiple playbooks. The company is experimenting with everything from brain rot content to y2k nostalgia, ASMR, goofy branded songs, and creepy edits. Ordinarily, such a wide range of aesthetics might make a brand seem cringeworthy and pandering. For Apple, though, the meticulous creative execution of the launch ties everything together. Take, for example, one 14-second clip of a woman opening and swatching a pink blush, referencing the Blush-hued Neo. The concept is simple, but every detail of the video has been optimized to tap into Gen Zs love for y2k aestheticsfrom the models striped top and the pink shag rug to the custom blush container, featuring Apples logo, that appears to be an allusion to the colorful plastic shell of the 90s iMac G3 computer. This mash-up of nostalgiacore with a direct reference to a recognizable Apple product of the era makes the video feel authentic, not forced. The posts engagement reflects that: as of this writing, its notched more than 64 million views and nearly 35,000 comments, most of which are begging for Apple to bring back some of its beloved colorful hardware. In a similar vein, other clips cleverly pair Apples signature sonic design with eye-catching visuals, like a 3-second video of the sun rising to the Mac startup chime, or a juicy mash-up of citrus fruits choreographed to an edit of various notification sounds. The account is also testing some videos that brush into brain-rot territory, a social trend we’ve described as a form of digital marketing that embraces head-turning, often nonsensical choices, like fried visuals, abrasive design, and unsettling storylines. These include clips like a slightly unnerving compilation of people with their hands dyed blue (presumably as a reference to the Indigo Neo), a custom brand song dedicated to Apples fingerprint recognition software, and a silly clip of a lemon facetiming a lime (mimicking the colors of the Neos default background screen). While other brands like Duolingo, Nutter Butter, and Brita have taken similar brain-rot strategies to the extreme on their accounts, Apples twist on brain-rot demonstrates that it understands what makes this content resonatea combination of irreverence and unexpectednessyet also knows to keep its approach restrained and aesthetically pleasing, giving it a distinctly Apple feel. Its Steve Jobs-meets-brain-rot, in the best way possible.
Category:
E-Commerce
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