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High Noon has recalled certain variety 12 packs due to a potentially serious labeling error. The packs include cans that were labeled as Celsius energy drinks but in fact contained vodka seltzer, according to a recall notice posted this week by the the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There are obviously quite a few problems with an energy drink containing vodka, the least of which being that most people would likely agree that these beverages are meant for different parts of the day. The recall applies to High Noon “Beach Variety” 12 packs shipped between July 21 and July 23, many of which contain cans that were labeled Celsius Astro Vibe energy drink, Sparkling Blue Razz edition. According to the FDA, consumers should check their individual Celsius cans to make sure they dont contain lot codes “L CCB 02JL25 2:55” to “L CCB 02JL25 3:11.” While the two brands are not owned by the same companyHigh Noon is owned by E. & J. Gallo and Celsius is owned by PepsiCothe mix-up happened at a packaging supply facility that works with both brands. The recall was initiated after High Noon discovered that a shared packaging supplier mistakenly shipped empty Celsius cans to High Noon,” the notice explains. The product was shipped to eight states: Florida Michigan New York Ohio Oklahoma South Carolina Virginia Wisconsin Reached for comment, a representative from E. & J. Gallo referred Fast Company to a press release and explained that the recall is limited to products from two production lots. However, the representative could not provide the exact number of impacted cases and cans. We are working with the FDA, retailers and distributors to proactively manage the recall to ensure the safety and well-being of our consumers,” E. & J. Gallo said in a statement. A representative for Celsius did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Both the FDA notice and the press release shared images of the impacted Celsius cans, which have silver lids as opposed to their normal black lids. While no illnesses or adverse events have been reported, High Noon is advising consumers to dispose of these specific 12 packs or mislabeled Celsius cans. For refunds and more information on next steps, customers can contact consumerrelations@highnoonvodka.com.
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E-Commerce
The United States will impose a 25% tariff on goods from India, plus an additional import tax because of Indias purchasing of Russian oil, President Donald Trump said Wednesday. India is our friend, Trump said on his Truth Social platform, but its tariffs on U.S. products are far too high. The Republican president added India buys military equipment and oil from Russia, enabling Moscow’s war in Ukraine. As a result, he intends to charge an additional penalty starting on Friday as part of the launch of his administrations revised tariffs on multiple countries. Trump told reporters on Wednesday the two countries were still in the middle of negotiations on trade despite the tariffs slated to begin in a few days. Were talking to India now,” the president said. “Well see what happens. The Indian government said Wednesday it’s studying the implications of Trump’s tariffs announcement. India and the U.S. have been engaged in negotiations on concluding a fair, balanced and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement over the last few months, and New Delhi remains committed to that objective, India’s Trade Ministry said in a statement. Trump’s view on tariffs Trump’s announcement comes after a slew of negotiated trade frameworks with the European Union, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia all of which he said would open markets for American goods while enabling the U.S. to raise tax rates on imports. The president views tariff revenues as a way to help offset the budget deficit increases tied to his recent income tax cuts and generate more domestic factory jobs. While Trump has effectively wielded tariffs as a cudgel to reset the terms of trade, the economic impact is uncertain as most economists expect a slowdown in U.S. growth and greater inflationary pressures as some of the costs of the taxes are passed along to domestic businesses and consumers. There’s also the possibility of more tariffs coming on trade partners with Russia as well as on pharmaceutical drugs and computer chips. Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would announce the Russia-related tariff rates on India at a later date. Tariffs face European pushback Trump’s approach of putting a 15% tariff on America’s long-standing allies in the EU is also generating pushback, possibly causing European partners as well as Canada to seek alternatives to U.S. leadership on the world stage. French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday in the aftermath of the trade framework that Europe does not see itself sufficiently as a global power, saying in a cabinet meeting that negotiations with the U.S. will continue as the agreement gets formalized. To be free, you have to be feared, Macron said. We have not been feared enough. There is a greater urgency than ever to accelerate the European agenda for sovereignty and competitiveness. Seeking a deeper partnership with India Washington has long sought to develop a deeper partnership with New Delhi, which is seen as a bulwark against China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has established a good working relationship with Trump, and the two leaders are likely to further boost cooperation between their countries. When Trump in February met with Modi, the U.S. president said that India would start buying American oil and natural gas. The new tariffs on India could complicate its goal of doubling bilateral trade with the U.S. to $500 billion by 2030. The two countries have had five rounds of negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement. While U.S. has been seeking greater market access and zero tariff on almost all its exports, India has expressed reservations on throwing open sectors such as agriculture and dairy, which employ a bulk of the countrys population for livelihood, Indian officials said. The Census Bureau reported that the U.S. ran a $45.8 billion trade imbalance in goods with India last year, meaning it imported more than it exported. At a population exceeding 1.4 billion people, India is the worlds largest country and a possible geopolitical counterbalance to China. India and Russia have close relations, and New Delhi has not supported Western sanctions on Moscow over its war in Ukraine. The new tariffs could put India at a disadvantage in the U.S. market relative to Vietnam, Bangladesh and, possibly, China, said Ajay Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations. We are back to square one as Trump hasnt spelled out what the penalties would be in addition to the tariff, Sahai said. The demand for Indian goods is bound to be hit. Josh Boak and Rajesh Roy, Associated Press Associated Press writers Samuel Petrequin and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
If you read the typical 2025 mass layoff notice from a tech industry CEO, you might think that artificial intelligence cost workers their jobs. The reality is more complicated, with companies trying to signal to Wall Street that they’re making themselves more efficient as they prepare for broader changes wrought by AI. A new report Wednesday from career website Indeed says tech job postings in July were down 36% from their early 2020 levels, with AI one but not the most obvious factor in stalling a rebound. ChatGPTs debut in late 2022 also corresponded with the end of a pandemic-era hiring binge, making it hard to isolate AI’s role in the hiring doldrums that followed. Were kind of in this period where the tech job market is weak, but other areas of the job market have also cooled at a similar pace, said Brendon Bernard, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. Tech job postings have actually evolved pretty similarly to the rest of the economy, including relative to job postings where there really isnt that much exposure to AI. The template for tech CEO layoff notices in 2025 includes an AI pivot That nuance is not always clear from the last six months of tech layoff emails, which often include a nod to AI in addition to expressions of sympathy. When he announced mass layoffs earlier this year, Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach invited employees to consider the bigger picture: Companies everywhere are reimagining how work gets done, and the increasing demand for AI has the potential to drive a new era of growth for Workday.” Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost explained that a need to shift resources to accelerate investments in AI was one of the reasons the company had to cut 1,350, or about 9%, of workers. The Why We’re Doing This section of CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz’s announcement of 5% job cuts said the cybersecurity company needed to double down on AI investments to accelerate execution and efficiency. AI flattens our hiring curve, and helps us innovate from idea to product faster, Kurtz wrote. It’s not just U.S. companies. In India, tech giant Tata Consultancy Services recently characterized its 12,000 layoffs, or 2% of its workforce, as part of a shift to a Future-Ready organization that would be realigning its workforce and deploying AI at scale for our clients and ourselves. Even the Japanese parent company of Indeed and Glassdoor has cited an AI shift in its notice of 1,300 layoffs at the job search and workplace review sites. AI spending, not replacement, is a more common factor Microsoft, which is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday, has announced layoffs of about 15,000 workers this year even as its profits have soared. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees last week the layoffs were weighing heavily on him but also positioned them as an opportunity to reimagine the company’s mission for an AI era. Promises of a leaner approach have been welcomed on Wall Street, especially from tech giants that are trying to justify huge amounts of capital spending to pay for the data centers, chips and other components required to power AI technology. Its this sort of double-edged sword restructuring that I think a lot of tech giants are encountering in this age of AI, where they have to find the right balance between maintaining an appropriate headcount, but also allowing artificial intelligence to come to the forefront, said Bryan Hayes, a strategist at Zacks Investment Research. Google said last week it would raise its budget for capital expenditures by an additional $10 billion to $85 billion. Microsoft is expected to outline similar guidance soon. The role of AI in job replacement is hard to track One thing is clear to Hayes: Microsoft’s job cuts improve its profit margin outlook for the 2026 fiscal year that started in July. But what these broader tech industry layoffs mean for the employment prospects of tech workers can be harder to gauge. Will AI replace some of these jobs? Absolutely, said Hayes. But its also going to create a lot of jobs. Employees that are able to leverage artificial intelligence and help the companies innovate, and create new products and services, are going to be the ones that are in high demand. He pointed to Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which is on a spree of offering lucrative packages to recruit elite AI scientists from competitors such as OpenAI. The reports published by Indeed on Wednesday show that AI specialists are faring better than standard software engineers, but even those jobs are not where they have been. Machine-learning engineers which is kind of the canonical AI job those job postings are still noticeably above where they were pre-pandemic, though theyve actually come down compared to their 2022 peak, said Bernard, the Indeed economist. Theyve also been impacted by the cyclical ups and downs of the sector. Economists are watching for AI’s effects on entry-level tech jobs Tech hiring has particularly plunged in AI hubs such as the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Boston and Seattle, according to Indeed. But in looking more closely at which tech workers were least likely to get hired, Indeed found the deepest impact on entry-level jobs in the tech industry, with those with at least five years of experience faring better. The hiring declines were sharpest in entry-level tech industry jobs that involve marketing, administrative assistance and human resources, which all involve tasks that overlap with the strength of the latest generative AI tools that can help create documents and images. The plunge in tech hiring started before the new AI age, but the shifting experience requirements is something that happened a bit more recently, Bernard said. Matt O’Brien, AP technology writer
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E-Commerce
While tariffs were initially enacted to help promote domestic manufacturing, one particular industry is getting the short end of the stick: chocolate. Due to chocolate’s main ingredient, which is rarely grown in the country, US-based chocolate brands depend on cacao exports, and are now subjected to high import tarriffs. Just last month, the popular chocolate company Hershey’s announced a price increase for its products in an effort to offset rising production costs related to cacao. “[For years,] weve worked hard to absorb these costs and continue to make 75% of our product portfolio available to consumers for under $4, a Hershey representative told Fast Company at the time. The price increase followed the companies pursuit for a tariff exemption with Trump’s administration, estimating a tariff expense of upwards of $20 million in its second quarter. After speaking with 11 experts in the chocolate industry, Reuters found that tariffs are hurting American companies’s competitively amid rising costs of cacaoyet others and benefiting. Reaping the benefits Almost everyone loves chocolate, and its popularity continues to rise, with chocolate amounting to $21.4 billion in confectionery sales last year. As chocolate’s birthplace, Mexico does not rely on imported cacao, as its tropical weather can sustain the growth of beans. Due to its local harvest, Mexican brands can produce chocolate without paying for the Trump imposed 10-25% tariffs. Similarly, Canada benefits from a lack of tariffs, as it imports its cacao with zero additional duties, making production up north cheaper than in the U.S. Additionally, the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade pact (USMCA), the trade agreement that replaced NAFTA, chocolate imports from both Canada and Mexico are tariff free, regardless of cacao origin. American companies are required to pay taxes to import cacao, which cannot be nationally produced at scale, while Mexico can produce its own and Canada buys in without extra fees, setting American companies back. Still, as American companies continue to struggle, it seems a new trade deal might revert back tariffs and help those in the chocolate industry. On July 29, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested that natural resources not found in the U.S. could be tariff exempt as soon as upcoming trade deals close. “If you grow something and we don’t grow it, that can come in for zero,” Lutnick told CNBC.
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E-Commerce
The Trump administration is pushing an initiative for millions of Americans to upload personal health data and medical records on new apps and systems run by private tech companies, promising that will make it easier to access health records and monitor wellness. President Donald Trump is expected to deliver remarks on the initiative Wednesday afternoon in the East Room. The event is expected to involve leaders from more than 60 companies, including major tech companies such as Google and Amazon, as well as prominent hospital systems like the Cleveland Clinic. The new system will focus on diabetes and weight management, conversational artificial intelligence that helps patients, and digital tools such as QR codes and apps that register patients for check-ins or track medications. The initiative, spearheaded by an administration that has already freely shared highly personal data about Americans in ways that have tested legal bounds, could put patients’ desires for more convenience at their doctors office on a collision course with their expectations that their medical information be kept private. There are enormous ethical and legal concerns, said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University law professor who specializes in public health. Patients across America should be very worried that their medical records are going to be used in ways that harm them and their families. Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who will be in charge of maintaining the system, have said patients will need to opt in for the sharing of their medical records and data, which will be kept secure. Those officials said patients will benefit from a system that lets them quickly call up their own records without the hallmark difficulties, such as requiring the use of fax machines to share documents, that have prevented them from doing so in the past. We have the tools and information available now to empower patients to improve their outcomes and their healthcare experience, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for CMS, said in a statement Wednesday. Popular weight loss and fitness subscription service Noom, which has signed onto the initiative, will be able to pull medical records after the system’s expected launch early next year. That might include labs or medical tests that the app could use to develop an AI-driven analysis of what might help users lose weight, CEO Geoff Cook told The Associated Press. Apps and health systems will also have access to their competitors’ information, too. Noom would be able to access a person’s data from Apple Health, for example. Right now you have a lot of siloed data, Cook said. Patients who travel across the country for treatment at the Cleveland Clinic often have a hard time obtaining all their medical records from various providers, said the hospital system’s CEO, Tomislav Mihaljevic. He said the new system would eliminate that barrier, which sometimes delays treatment or prevents doctors from making an accurate diagnosis because they do not have a full view of a patient’s medical history. Having seamless access to health app data, such as what patients are eating or how much they are exercising, will also help doctors manage obesity and other chronic diseases, Mihaljevic said. These apps give us insight about whats happening with the patients health outside of the physician’s office, he said. CMS will also recommend a list of apps on Medicare.gov that are designed to help people manage chronic diseases, as well as help them select health care providers and insurance plans. Digital privacy advocates are skeptical that patients will be able to count on their data being stored securely. The federal government, however, has done little to regulate health apps or telehealth programs, said Jeffrey Chester at the Center for Digital Democracy. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and those within his circle have pushed for more technology in health care, advocating for wearable devices that monitor wellness and telehealth. Kennedy also sought to collect more data from Americans medical records, which he has previously said he wants to use to study autism and vaccine safety. Kennedy has filled the agency with staffers who have a history of working at or running health technology startups and businesses. CMS already has troves of information on more than 140 million Americans who enroll in Medicare and Medicaid. Earlier this month, the federal agency agreed to hand over its massive database, including home addresses, to deportation officials. The new initiative would deepen the pool of information on patients for the federal government and tech companies. Medical records typically contain far more sensitive information, such as doctors’ notes about conversations with patients and substance abuse or mental health history. This scheme is an open door for the further use and monetization of sensitive and personal health information, Chester said. Amanda Seitz, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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