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A wave of vital prescription drugs is about to get a lot cheaper for people on Medicare. The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it has successfully negotiated lower prices for 15 drugs, including medications used for asthma, diabetes, arthritis and multiple forms of cancer. The list includes Ozempic and Wegovy, Novo Nordisks drugs for Type 2 diabetes and weight management, as well as Rybelsus, Novos oral GLP-1 for treating diabetes. The deal for cheaper prescription drugs grew out of an initiative put in place by the Inflation Reduction Act, the signature legislative package passed in 2022 during the Biden administration. That law opened the door for Medicare to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. The first wave of those negotiations happened last year, when the Biden administration secured pricing for 10 prescription drugs, including diabetes drug Januvia, arthritis drug Enbrel and Eliquis, which is used for blood clots. Many of the drugs the federal government wanted to make cheaper have life-saving applications. The new round of 15 drugs with lower prices came out of negotiation through that same process rather than Trumps Most-Favored-Nation plan to lower prescription drug prices through executive action and direct pressure on drug makers. Earlier this month, the Trump administration secured a separate deal to lower the price of drugs like Novo Nordisks Wegovy and Eli Lillys Zepbound in exchange for three years of tariff relief. That deal will also reduce costs for people who want to buy weight loss drugs directly out of pocket. Whether through the Inflation Reduction Act or President Trumps Most Favored Nation policy, this is what serious, fair, and disciplined negotiation looks like, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medicare Director Chris Klomp said in a press release. New pricing under the deal reflects the prices Medicare will pay drug companies, not what consumers will pay to fill their prescriptions. Under the new terms, Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy drop from $959 for a 30-day supply to $274, while Trelegy Ellipta, an asthma inhaler, drops from $654 to $175. The full list of renegotiated drug prices is available on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website. Trump officials clash over GLP-1s In a press release, even Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr praised the new drug prices. Kennedys public support for the drug deal suggests that he has fallen in line behind Trump, who wants to make GLP-1 drugs available to more Americans. Kennedy is famously opposed to weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and has made misleading statements about them in the past, including the false claim that Novo Nordisk doesnt market its own drugs in its home country of Denmark. Theyre counting on selling it to Americans because were so stupid and so addicted to drugs, Kennedy said in an interview he shared on Instagram last year. Kennedy sang a different tune in the announcement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, vowing to use every tool at our disposal to make healthcare more affordable for seniors. President Trump directed us to stop at nothing to lower health care costs for the American people, Kennedy said. Historically, Medicare cant legally cover the cost of drugs prescribed solely for weight loss, but the Trump administration is pushing to get around those rules something the Biden administration also pursued. While the nations top health official has reservations about prescription weight loss drugs being made available to more people, most Americans dont share that view. A survey last year from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 61% of adults think Medicare should cover the cost of GLP-1 drugs for people wishing to lose weight.
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E-Commerce
Discussions around the role of work in our lives are frequently divided into two camps. Do what you love and youll never work a day in your life, one side proclaims. The other: A job just needs to pay the bills. The first school of thought is an example of intrinsic motivation. Here, the enjoyment of work for works sake is motivating enough, rather than relying on external rewards like money or praise. And while its great to love your job, recent research suggests that it can become problematic when intrinsic motivation is regarded as morally superior to other motivations. When a neutral preference becomes charged with moral meaning, social scientists call it moralization, Mijeong Kwon, assistant professor of management in organizational behavior at Rice Business, recently wrote for The Conversation. Once intrinsic motivation becomes moralized, loving what you do is seen as not only enjoyable but virtuous. A 2023 study co-authored by Kwon found that those who saw intrinsic motivation as virtuous, also looked down upon other common motives, such as money or recognition. So deeply embedded in the consciousness of the American workforce is the idea that its not enough to just have a job, you must also love that job. If you dont define yourself by your professional achievement, it must, therefore, be a sign of something lacking. While there are many benefits to being intrinsically motivated, there are also downsides to placing moral value on this way of working. Most jobs (yes, even the ones we love) include long stretches of tedious work or less enjoyable tasks. When intrinsic motivation becomes a moral imperative, workers may feel guilty for not springing out of bed eager to get to the office each day. It can also lead to burnout or result in staying too long in an unsuitable role while overlooking other important life needs, like making sure the bills get paid. Theres also the fact that many workers will never experience this type of love for their job. This isnt a moral failure; its a fact of life. Yet, researchers found those who moralize intrinsic motivation also are guilty of pushing that expectation onto others around them. In a study of nearly 800 employees across 185 teams, Kwon and her fellow researchers found employees who moralized intrinsic motivation were less willing to help out colleagues they saw as less passionate than those they perceived as loving their job. And yet The Great Detachment has 79% of employees disengaged at work, the lowest level seen in a decade. Mass lay-offs and stagnant wages have only added to this feeling, as well as a pull towards career minimalism, as disillusioned workers instead save their real ambitions and passions for off the clock. After all, why give everything to a role when it may no longer exist next month? Still, a belief in the ideal of intrinsic motivation is very convenient for those at the top of the food chain who profit from workers willingness to go above and beyond without the promise of being fairly compensated in return. As many continue to reevaluate the role of work in their lives, its worth keeping in mind that loving what you do is a privilegenot a sign of moral superiority.
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E-Commerce
Ikea just launched a new collection of speakers that double as actual pieces of art. The collection, which includes three round bluetooth speakers, two lamp speakers (called the Kuglass), and one new version of Ikeas beloved Fado lamp, was made in collaboration with the Swedish designer Tekla Evelina Severin (also known as Teklan). Severin, who is known for her work as a colorist, photographer, and designer, brings a keen eye for color and pattern to the designs, turning a product that might otherwise be an eyesore into one worthy of display. In fact, it would be difficult to even recognize the products as speakers upon first glance. Tekla Evelina Severin [Photo: Ikea] This collection is an evolution of Ikeas broader mission to make in-home tech products not only functional, but also aesthetically pleasing. Teklans colorful touch bumps that goal up a notch by turning the new line of speakers into true design objects. How Ikea is making home tech aesthetic Ikea introduced its first line of speakers, called Eneby, in 2018. They were ultra-simple, square, and wall-mountable, available in a dark and light gray colorway. The companys new collection with Teklan shows just how much our relationship with home electronics has expanded since then. As tech becomes more integrated throughout the average American home, customers are increasingly looking for products that blend seamlessly with their decorand dont draw too much attention to their actual functions. In recent years, Ikea has built out its speaker portfolio with more creative additions like the Symfonsik picture frame speaker and Vappeby outdoor speaker lamp . While the brand is known for its minimalist style, in recent months, its started to inject more color and surprising forms into its home electronics offerings. Just earlier this month, Ikea introduced a wide range of updated smart home products, designed to simplify the connected smart home experience, that look like analog devices on the outside and come in hues like rust orange and mint green. [Photo: Ikea] Tech is everywhere and growing, but I think few see it as part of the homes identity, says Sara Ottosson, product developer at IKEA of Sweden. Most of the time you end up adjusting your home to the tech, rather than the other way around, simply because these products arent designed to harmonize with anything, and we dont think it should be like that. With this new collection, Ottosson says, the whole point was to make speakers feel like they belong among furniture and textiles. [Photo: Ikea] Inside the the design of the new collection To do that, Ottossons team started by approaching the design of the new collection similarly to how they would approach a new chair or lamp. The speaker archetype is often this sharp box, where the design is something added onto the technology, Ottosson says. Thats just how the category has looked for a long time. We come from home-furnishing design, so we naturally approach things from a different side. We were curious about what happens when you work with softer shapes, colors, and patternsthings that make a product feel more like part of the home, that harmonizes with the rest. [Photo: Ikea] For the three circular speakers (called the Solskydd family), the team tapped longtime Ikea designer Ola Wihlborg. He reimagined the tech as round, soft objects that can either rest on decorative stands or mount directly to the wall. And for the two speaker lamps (called Kuglass), Ottoson says the product team pushed the concept of an embedded speaker further than they ever have before. The lamps are designed to read instantly as a table lamp, with the soft shade and friendly silhouette almost entirely disguising the tech component. [Photo: Ikea] What truly elevates the collection to design object status is Severins selection of colors and patterns. The speakers come in a teal striped design, a subtly 3D red pattern, and a soft orange; while the lamps are available in dual-tone red and green. [Photo: Ikea] The result, Ottoson says, is something we simply havent had before at Ikea: a combination of shapes, colors, patterns, and light that feels like a sensory experience. Teklan pushed us toward her ways and unconventional combinations, going for colors from nature, and tones that feel nostalgic and emotional, Ottoson says. The idea was to make the products truly feel like home furnishing design with technology inside, rather than technology wrapped in a design.
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E-Commerce
They go by names like @TRUMP_ARMY or @MAGANationX, and their verified accounts proudly display portraits of President Donald Trump, voter rallies, and American flags. And theyre constantly posting about U.S. politics to their followers, sounding like diehard fans of the president. But after a weekend update to the social media platform X, its now clear that the owners of these accounts, and many others, are located in regions such as South Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. Elon Musks X unveiled a feature Saturday that lets users see where an account is based. Online sleuths and experts quickly found that many popular accounts posting in support of the MAGA movement to thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers are based outside the United Statesraising concerns about foreign influence on U.S. politics. Researchers at NewsGuard, a firm that tracks online misinformation, identified several popular accountspurportedly run by Americans interested in politicsthat instead were based in Eastern Europe, Asia, or Africa. The accounts were leading disseminators of some misleading and polarizing claims about U.S. politics, including ones that said Democrats bribed the moderators of a 2024 presidential debate. What is the location feature? Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, announced Saturday that the social media platform is rolling out an About This Account tool, which lets users see the country or region where an account is based. To find an account’s location, tap or click the signup date displayed on the profile. This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square. We plan to provide many more ways for users to verify the authenticity of the content they see on X, Bier wrote. In countries with punitive speech restrictions, a privacy tool on X lets account holders only show their region rather than a specific country. So instead of India, for instance, an account can say it is based in South Asia. Bier said Sunday that after an update to the tool, it would 99.99% accurate, though this could not be independently verified. Accounts, for instance, can use a virtual private network, or VPN, to mask their true location. On some accounts, there’s a notice saying the location data may not be accurate, either because the account uses a VPN or because some internet providers use proxies automatically, without action by the user. Location data will always be something to use with caution,” said Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech and a former director of the International Fact-Checking Network. “Its usefulness probably peaks now that it was just exposed, and bad actors will adapt. Meta has had similar information for a while and no one would suggest that misinformation has been eliminated from Facebook because of it. Which accounts are causing controversy? Some of the accounts supported slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk as well as President Donald Trumps children. Many of the accounts were adorned with U.S. flags or made comments suggesting they were American. An account called “@BarronTNews_,” for instance, is shown as being located in Eastern Europe (Non-EU),” even though the display location on its profile says Mar A Lago. The account, which has more than 580,000 followers, posted on Tuesday that This is a FAN account, 100 % independent, run by one guy who loves this country and supports President Trump with everything Ive got. NewsGuard also found evidence that some X users are spreading misinformation about the location feature itself, incorrectly accusing some accounts of being operated from abroad when theyre actually used by Americans. Investigators found several instances where one user created fake screenshots that appear to suggest an account was created overseas. It’s not always clear what the motives of the accounts. While some may be state actors, it’s likely that many are financially motivated, posting commentary, memes and videos to draw engagement. For the most visible accounts unmasked this week, money is probably the main motivator, Mantzarlis said. That doesnt mean that Xas documented extensively by prior work done by academic and nonprofit organizations that are being attacked and defundedisnt also a target for state actors. Users were divided over the new ability to see an accounts location information, with some questioning whether it went too far. Isnt this kind of an invasion of privacy? One X user wrote. No one needs to see this info. Barbara Ortutay, AP technology writer Associated Press Writer David Klepper contributed to this story.
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E-Commerce
Landlords could no longer rely on rent-pricing software to quietly track each others moves and push rents higher using confidential data, under a settlement between RealPage Inc. and federal prosecutors to end what critics said was illegal algorithmic collusion. The deal announced Monday by the Department of Justice follows a yearlong federal antitrust lawsuit, launched during the Biden administration, against the Texas-based software company. RealPage would not have to pay any damages or admit any wrongdoing. The settlement must still be approved by a judge. RealPage software provides daily recommendations to help landlords and their employees nationwide price their available apartments. The landlords do not have to follow the suggestions, but critics argue that because the software has access to a vast trove of confidential data, it helps RealPages clients charge the highest possible rent. RealPage was replacing competition with coordination, and renters paid the price, said DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater, who emphasized that the settlement avoided a costly, time-consuming trial. Under the terms of the proposed settlement, RealPage can no longer use that real-time data to determine price recommendations. Instead, the only nonpublic data that can be used to train the softwares algorithm must be at least one year old. What does this mean for you and your family?” Slater said in a video statement. “It means more real competition in local housing markets. It means rents set by the market, not by a secret algorithm.” RealPage attorney Stephen Weissman said the company is pleased the DOJ worked with them to settle the matter. There has been a great deal of misinformation about how RealPages software works and the value it provides for both housing providers and renters,” Weissman said in a statement. “We believe that RealPages historical use of aggregated and anonymized nonpublic data, which include rents that are typically lower than advertised rents, has led to lower rents, less vacancies, and more procompetitive effects. However, the deal was slammed by some observers as a missed opportunity to clamp down on alleged algorithmic price-fixing throughout the economy. This case really was the tip of the spear,” said Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel for the American Economic Liberties Project, whose group advocates for government action against business concentration. He said the settlement is rife with loopholes and he believes RealPages can keep influencing the rental market even if they can only use public, rather than private, data. He also decried how RealPages does not have to pay any damages, unlike many companies that have paid millions in penalties over their use of the software. Over the past few months, more than two dozen property management companies have reached various settlements over their use of RealPage, including Greystar, the nation’s largest landlord, which agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class action lawsuit, and $7 million to settle a separate lawsuit filed by nine states. The governors of California and New York signed laws last month to crack down on rent-setting software, and a growing list of cities, including Philadelphia and Seattle, have passed ordinances against the practice. Ten states California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington had joined the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit. Those states were not part of Mondays settlement, meaning they can continue to pursue the case in court. R.J. Rico, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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