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A widening war in Iran has halted oil tankers, made targets of refineries and spooked investors worried about the cascading impact of spiking energy prices.In response, the International Energy Agency agreed on Wednesday to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, with the Paris-based organization pledging to make 400 million barrels of oil available from its member nations’ stockpiles. The announcement marked a shift in momentum in government response to the war upending the flow of oil, with other global leaders previously indicating reluctance to tap into stockpiles.Here is a look at the energy supplies that countries hold and when they tap them: Many countries have reserves of oil Since war erupted in the Middle East on Feb. 28 with the U.S. and Israel’s joint attacks on Iran, the flow of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz has all but stopped, cutting off a vital passageway where roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil sails through on a typical day. Major producers in the region like Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have also cut production because they are running out of storage space. And Iran, Israel and the U.S. have all struck oil and gas facilities, worsening supply concerns.That has sent prices soaring with dramatic swings almost every day. On Monday, Brent crude oil the international standard surged to as high as nearly $120 a barrel, before falling to under $90 after President Donald Trump suggested the war could be near an end. But attacks have continued to escalate since, pushing prices back to about $100 a barrel.Countries around the world hold vast quantities of oil that they can use in the event of a crisis.Because oil is a global commodity and flooding the market with a sudden stream of new supply has international implications, countries often talk to one another before tapping reserves. That includes coordinating with the IEA, an organization created in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis. It has 32 members including Germany, Austria and Japan, all of whom confirmed Wednesday that they would be tapping parts of their reserves. The U.S., Mexico, Australia and other major countries are also part of the IEA.IEA members currently hold over 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation. The largest-ever previous collective release of emergency stocks by IEA member countries was 182.7 million barrels following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.Each of the IEA member countries promises to have a reserve at least equivalent to what they import in a 90-day period. The U.S. exports more than it imports, maintaining its own reserve known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve despite there being no requirement. But for other countries, tapping their reserves means that they will eventually need to replenish what was removed.“Because of that, countries tend to keep reserves for a last-resort scenario, should the disruption be prolonged,” said Maksim Sonin, an energy executive who works with Stanford University’s Hydrogen Initiative. Timing a release is tricky Opting to use oil reserves is never a simple calculation, particularly when linked to a war with constantly shifting parameters and no clear timeline.When nations tap into strategic reserves in situations like the war in Iran, the oil is sold into the global marketplace, theoretically increasing supply and thus, lowering prices.“The key question on drawing down these reserves remains one of, ‘How long will this conflict last?'” said Tom Seng, an energy finance professor at Texas Christian University. “And, more importantly, ‘How long will the Strait of Hormuz remain blocked?'”Oil reserves have been tapped when the market has faced major disruption in the past, including wars in Iraq, Libya and, most recently, in Ukraine.Kenneth Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University, said it’s not a matter of whether the current conflict is serious enough to merit intervention, but whether the precise moment has arrived.“The price is up but it could get worse,” Medlock said. “What happens if this drags on for two, three months? Then you run into a situation where you lose your buffer.” Shift in discussions and the impact on prices Before Wednesday, countries were reticent to tap reserves. Over the weekend, Trump downplayed the idea of turning to the U.S. reserve, maintaining that supplies were ample and prices would soon fall.But that’s changed. On Wednesday, the president told WKRC Local 12 in Cincinnati his administration would tap into the SPR “a little bit” to bring down prices. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright later confirmed the U.S. would release 172 million barrels as part of the IEA’s effort.Representatives from the Group of Seven major industrialized powers previously held off on using strategic reserves earlier this week, too. But G7 nations also joined the IEA effort. French President Emmanuel Macron praised Wednesday’s decision and noted the amount pledged by the G7 nations alone comprises 70% of the total, including 14.5 million barrels from France.Talk of tapping into national reserves helped ease energy markets earlier this week. But crude prices actually ticked up after the withdrawal was confirmed Wednesday, with Brent rising 4.8% to settle at $91.98. That is far higher than the roughly $70 it was selling for before the war started less than two weeks ago.Analysts maintain the IEA’s release of 400 million barrels is a short-term bridge, making up for just a few weeks of lost supply. Matt Sedensky and Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Shares in Bumble Inc. (Nasdaq: BMBL), maker of the Bumble dating app, are surging this morning after the company announced its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results. The stock price bounce will be a relief to investors in dating companies, an industry that has suffered severely in recent years due to so-called swipe fatigue among users. Heres what you need to know about Bumbles earnings and why its stock is surging this morning. Bumble beats on Q4 revenue Today, Bumble reported its Q4 2025 results. And on the surface, those results werent great. As a matter of fact, just purely based on a year-over-year comparison, many of the companys most important metrics were down across the board, including: Total Revenue: $224.2 million, down 14.3% from the same quarter a year earlier. Bumble App Revenue: $181.0 million, down 14.8% Badoo App and Other Revenue: $43.2 million, down 12.4% Total Paying Users: 3.3 million, down 20.5% Net loss: $611.1 million (versus a Net profit of $9.3 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Still, despite these poor year-over-year results, BMBL shares are popping this morningand there are two main reasons why. Bumble beats revenue expectations, and embraces AI The most immediate reason for Bumbles premarket stock bump is the companys total revenue of $224.2 million for the quarter. Yes, that sum is down more than 14% from the $261.6 million in revenue during the same quarter a year earlier, but critically, it still beat analysts relatively low expectations. As Reuters points out, analysts had expected Bumble to bring in $221.3 million in total revenue for the quarter. Bumble ended up beating this figure by nearly $3 million. And while that $3 million sum is relatively small, it signals to investors that things werent as bad in the quarter as many analysts expected. But investors are also likely feeling optimistic about another Bumble announcement today. On the companys earnings call, founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd revealed that Bumble is revamping the app while also adding new AI tools to help users find more relevant matches. Wolfe Herd said that Bumble 2.0 will deliver a new experience designed to help address dating app users dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction is usually referred to as swipe fatigue, and it has turned many younger people off dating apps in recent years. Those users have grown tired of the endless swipes that turn individuals into commodities and often lead to few real-world meetups. Bumble 2.0 introduces a chapter-based structure designed to help members tell their stories more authentically and understand one another more deeply, Wolfe Herd said on the call, according to a PitchBook transcript. This will enable them to see matches with stronger compatibility signals, build confidence in the experience, and get to meaningful in real life dates more quickly. Additionally, Wolfe Herd said the company is embracing artificial intelligence, announcing a new AI chatbot that is in development, called Bee. The chatbot is designed to interact with Bumble users to find out about their likes, interests, and dating objectives, and then use that information to better match them with other users who share the same interests and goals. Bee, Wolfe Herd told analysts, is designed to become a personal dating assistant and matchmaker, learning members’ values, relationship goals, communication style, lifestyle, and dating intentions through private conversations, then using those insights to identify mutual compatibility to find better dates with a higher degree of confidence and relevance. Bumble 2.0 and Bee are expected to roll out sometime in 2026. Some users in the key Gen Z age demographic have expressed skepticism about whether AI features will ultimately improve the dating app experience, as Fast Company reported last year. Still, as artificial intelligence is all the rage in the tech industry, investors are likely pleased to know that Bumble isnt sitting on the sidelines in the AI era. Bumble stock has had a horrible recent run After Bumbles Q4 results were announced, the price of the companys shares surged. As of this writing in premarket trading, BMBL shares are up over 23% to $3.51. Yesterday, the companys shares closed at $2.84. However, despite the massive stock price jump today, BMBL shares have had a horrible run in recent years. As of yesterday, the closing price of BMBL shares has fallen more than 41% over the past 12 months. And over the past five years, the companys stock price has collapsed by more than 95%. In March 2021, BMBL shares had traded over $74 apiece. But Bumble isnt the only dating app to see its stock price crash. Over the past year, Match Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: MTCH), owner of Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, and more, has seen its shares decline about 2.4%. But over the past five years, the companys shares have declined a staggering 80%. Likewise, shares of dating app maker Hello Group Inc. (Nasdaq: MOMO) have declined by more than 63% over the past five years. The only major dating app to be up over that five-year timeframe is Grindr Inc. (NYSE: GRND), whose shares have risen more than 19% over the period. The declines of these major dating app makers coincide with increasing dissatisfaction among dating app users, who frequently argue that the apps have become too expensive and that matches are fewer and farther between. While investors may be rewarding Bumble today, the company will need to address this user disillusionment if it is to successfully turn around its business.
Category:
E-Commerce
Since its founding in 2010, GoFundMe has become the go-to platform for helping others in need, with more than $50 million raised every week and more than 8,000 fundraising campaigns launched every day. But using the platform to raise money from friends, family, and generous acquaintances or strangers often doesnt come naturally, especially when people are already dealing with a traumatic situation like a house fire, medical problem, or other emergency. In order for help to occur, people have to do something quite difficult, which is asking for help, says GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan. Thats something that almost no one likes doing, so it’s a hard threshold to cross. To make the process a bit easier, GoFundMe has rolled out an AI-powered smart fundraising coach that can assist people raising money for themselves or others from the moment they begin to plan a campaign. The coach can chat with users to gather information about their situations, show some AI-generated sympathy, and help draft an initial fundraising message and set an appropriate goal based on GoFundMes wealth of data. While much of what GoFundMes AI offers is similar to smart features that have sprouted up across marketing and sales software, it is also specifically designed to help users through what can be an unfamiliar, stressful, and even embarrassing process. We spend a lot of our time thinking about and working on products that make it easier for people to believe that they can ask for help and be successful, Cadogan says. The coach also provides a set of suggestions for campaign titles, which Cadogan says most users end up adopting. They typically perform better than user-generated headlines, he says. It can also help fundraisers select appropriate and effective photos to use for their campaigns, again based on GoFundMe data. The automated assistance helps people make practical decisions about a sensitive subject at a difficult time and, perhaps equally important, relieves some of the stress around raising funds. Between 65 and 75 percent of the folks we’ve surveyed say that the smart fundraising coach helps them feel more confident, less stressed, and critically, less alone, Cadogan says. Once users launch a fundraising campaign, the coach can continue to assist them through AI-generated daily action plans and notifications via the app, text, and email. That assistance includes guiding users to share their campaign with people likely to give, since GoFundMes research shows fundraisers who send one-on-one messages to likely donors are more successful. Successful campaigns often raise a few donations from fundraisers inner circles, gaining momentum before reaching out to looser connections, Cadogan says. Users can now also import their phone contacts into GoFundMe and see in a dedicated tab which contacts have donated or shared their fundraiser, making it easier to customize appeals to specific people. A common strategy that does work very well is to start by texting one-on-one to the people you know best, build that momentum, and then share on your social media platforms, he says. The coach can also advise people when and how to thank donors, set up automatic thank-you replies, and follow up with potential contributors. It also offers advice on when to post updates and when and how best to share a fundraiser on social media. The AI can even draft platform-appropriate posts for various social media sites, including generating video material suitable for TikTok and other content for more photo- or text-oriented social networks. It is often easier for users to tweak AI-drafted content than to start from scratch with a blank page, and the auto-generated material can help with formats like video that not all fundraisers find intuitive, Cadogan says. Based on early testing, GoFundMe anticipates that the new AI features will help users raise an additional $125 million this year. Cadogan says the company will likely continue to iterate as it gathers more data about whats helpful to users managing successful fundraisers. The awesome thing about a product like this is we’re going to learn so much about so many different dimensions, he says. Expect it to evolve quickly.
Category:
E-Commerce
Charles Armstrong, the product manager on Google Maps, is trying to explain how the platforms turn-by-turn directions are getting their biggest update since the service launched in 2009. Maps is an almost unfathomably impactful platform that reaches around 2 billion people worldwide; it dominates navigation apps by commanding as much as 70% of the global market share. But as Armstrong attempts to walk me through the rich redesign, he keeps getting interrupted by his own demo. And I have to admitanyone who has ever attempted to converse in the car while navigating would find the moment more than a little vindicating. Schadenfreude aside, I have to admit, the updates, launching on March 12, look promising. In an exclusive discussion with the Google Maps development team, heres a look at the most significant UX updates. Google Maps is in 3D now Maps’ single most significant update is to the 2D navigation weve grown so accustomed to over the last 17 years. Now, the camera has been tilted down to reveal a real-time 3D mapcomplete with buildings, crosswalks, and off-ramps. [Image: Google] What may sound like a glitzy gimmick is all about lowering cognitive load by de-escalating the oft-stressful experience of being told where you need to turn next but not actually following where that is in real life. Hopefully [3D] means that it’s more relatable, says Paolo Malabuyo, director of UX on Google Maps. So it’s much easier for you to know, Oh, I’m here and I know where I need to go in a couple blocks. Oh, there’s a stop sign. So as I’m coming up to that maneuver, I’m much calmer than I normally would be. Practically speaking, its easy to see Malabuyos point. Overpasses, for instance, are tricky to scrutinize on a 2D map. But in the redesign, natural shape and shadow demonstrates that they are different than a flat intersection. [Image: Google] Buildings dont block sight lines as you turn around a bend thanks to dynamic x-ray views that kick in automatically as you drive. Instead of photorealism, Google opted for a more abstracted, wireframe look to reduce noise and focus your brain on what matters most. Notably, much of the 3D map is generated with Gemini AI, which the company used to translate their own satellite street scans graphics. Elements like off-ramps dont just come in one or two widths; the map is built to closely mirror the proportions of real-life roads. At the same time, AI adds some elements, like parking garages or landmarks, dynamically based upon choices like your final destination. A more cinematic camera, more logical turns Google Maps old camera floated over your car, mirroring your turns at 1:1 speed. On paper, this should work perfectly: the map shows exactly what youre doing. In practice, the team says its the sort of design decision that made drivers feel more stressed. The new Maps changes the perspective so that the “camera” zooms in and out, with real cinematic heft, depending on your speed and road position. This doesnt mean all that much for straightaways on the highway. Its during those turns in particular that Google Maps will actually send the camera ahead of your car by just a little bit, giving you a preview of the street and landmarks to come. [Image: Google] We refer to this internally as giving the driver the ability to see around corners, says Malabuyo. Coupled with dynamic x-ray vision, which turns any building blocking your view transparent, it looks like Google Maps will make congested downtown streets far more forgiving to navigate. That camera is accompanied by what the team calls more colloquial voice guidance, also powered by Gemini AI. This entire redesign is focused on triaging 14 particularly error-prone moments for drivers that cause them to miss turns. Sharper audio instructions are meant to help during many such scenarioslike when youre on the highway with two back-to-back exits, and you dont know which is the right one. There have been solid improvements to reduce the amount of rote, repetitive, and sort of awkwardly timed streams or language, so that [it] speaks more like a human, says Armstrong. If the highway has two different highway names connected with a forward slash, we’re not going to just keep repeating that. This more conversational interface is a two-way street, because Gemini AI will also field your questions through a new “ask Maps” button within Google Maps. Google says it allows you to ask plain language questions, like “My phone is dyingwhere can I charge it without having to wait in a long line for coffee? While I didn’t see it demoed, the system will answer your question verbally, then generate a custom map to show you the way. [Image: Google] More time for your eyes on the road Google sits on decades of driver data, which it says informed many of these decisions. It further validated the work by running eye-tracking driver simulations in a lab, and even challenging its own staff to drive what it calls a platinum route. Based in Seattle, this route would probably be better named hell route, as it features all 14 of the most challenging situations to navigate. The team would drive the route, film it, and drive it again with new UX prototypes in attempts to validate which decisions actually assisted drivers the most. While Google is reluctant to share any data demonstrating how much time or frustration its maps redesign should save drivers, they insist that the UX updates will make a measurable improvement to driving. Via simulations and test drives, the team is closely tracking a state called total eyes on road, which follows how long were looking at a navigational display versus looking through our windshield. Even though the new Google Maps has a far richer interface that ultimately conveys more data, its simultaneously easier to grok. Google says its own testing confirms that drivers using the new Google Maps should look at their screens less than they did with the old version. Thats important, because while the entire auto industry seems to be admitting the danger of touchscreens, its hard to imagine reversing to a world before turn-by-turn directions. Google needs to be optimizing its UX to keep lowering cognitive load and encourage driver awareness.
Category:
E-Commerce
Hiroshi Fujiwara is perhaps the most dramatically lit person Ive ever interviewed on Zoom. Joining me at his preferred time (midnight) from Tokyo, the man known as the godfather of streetwearwho launched his own label at 26, was among the first hip-hop DJs in Japan, wrote a regular column for Popeye, and now runs his own consultancy, Fragmenthas met with me to discuss his latest collaborations with Nike. But when I dig in, asking about the hidden details lurking in his shoes? He admits, I don’t really want to talk about it, without an ounce of rudeness. Sometimes, if you see a movie and you don’t really get the ending, you have to guess what [the creators] think. I like that kind of situation. In a world of overt and overstated sneaker collabs, Fujiwara prefers to operate with a soft touch. The semiotics of streetwear like much of fashion are born from winks and nodsan if you know you know mentality. His three new pieces for Nike celebrate that. At the same time, Fujiwara insists he isnt only trying to build enigmas that people can investigate it forever. When he visits Nike, he still designs the shoes hed like to wear. [Photo: Nike] I always like black shoes! His three new shoes start with his take on Nikes new Air Liquid Max (April 1, $225)an organic expansion of its Air Max technology, where the air bubbles almost seem to melt or morph underfoot like the toes of a tree frog. He didnt touch the materiality or the silhouette. And youll need to squint to notice the light white text like Fragment Concept Testing on the side. But he turned the swoosh chrome, and filled the three printed layers of pigment on top of the shoe with various flavors of black. I imagine that in person it almost shimmers like snakeskin (which wouldn’t be the first or even second time Fujiwara used animal textures on a sneaker). I always like black shoes! Fujiwara says. I like colorful shoes also, but I wanted to have the black one for myself. Especially that shoe. I always like those air bag shoes. Many [designers] want to do the Jordan 1, Air Force One, or Dunk. No one really want to touch the newest things. I always do that. For the Mind 001 (March 18, $95)Nikes brain-calming slide shoe, which uses little nubs in the bottom to activate a sense of mindfulnessFujiwara also wanted to go with black. But for the nubs, he chose blue. Black and military blue are the trademark colors of Fragment. [Photo: Nike] Small details are really, really important. I see some comments, people say, Oh, its only changing color; Its only little things, Fujiwara says. But the little things are really important, especially for the shoe. Like even 1 millimeter really makes it different. Indeed, the Mind 001 reads completely differently in blackready to outfit an ensemble of broody technical garments beloved by corners of the fashion scenein a way that the Mind 001s original infrared and orange colorway did not. Yet black and blue seem like the worst colors to use to stand out: an almost stubborn choice on Fujiwaras part to squint through their universality to see his fingerprint. Is there more to them? When I asked about his exact approach to blue at Fragment, he did share more on its origins. The first Air Jordan I had in the 80sthe original Air Jordan 1that was black and blue, Fujiwara says. And I always like black and blue. The shoe left such an imprint on his mind that he adopted Nikes colorways for himself, which he occasionally, circuitously, reapplies to the brand. [Photo: Nike] An excuse to look closer Fujiwaras collaborations with Nike trace back to the 90sat one point, he even teamed up with Nike design god Tinker Hatfield and CEO Mark Parker on a special line called HTM (Hiroshi, Tinker, Mark). Hes always seen his role as translating Nikes performance approach to a more fashion-forward audience. Fujiwara himself flagged his use of croc leather on an Air Force 1 as being the sort of polarizing choice even Nikes designers didnt get at the time (about 20 years later, it seems like a downright common treatment to realize a luxe sneaker). When I started working for Nike with a collaboration in the late 90s, there were many rules. You couldnt touch a swoosh. And at first, it was difficult. But then I got used to it, and I kind of started enjoying it, Fujiwara says. Nike already had their own creative design, so I don’t want to mess around too much. . . . I talk to the designers, I like to respect what they do. That mentality carries across Fujiwara’s collaborations and projects. He keeps his design simple. He keeps his staff simple. He keeps his business simple. Fragment is a creative team of three, which ensures he doesnt have the overhead and payroll of managing his own brand. But Ill admit that I appreciate it when Fujiwara takes a firmer touch with Nikes silhouettes, as he demonstrated with his Nike Mind 002 (March 18, $140). He requested a new upper made of Flyknit, while breaking free of black and blue by introducing a second color scheme in particle gray. A closer look reveals more nuance. The top of the shoe is fuzzyalmost reading like fleece. All of that softness is caged by a one-pull performance lace system, managed with Fragments own tooling that can lock down the shoe like a bolo tie. While the silhouette itself stays the same, Fujiwara introduced a new sock liner that raises the heel of the shoe, giving it more forward momentum than what we see in the Mind 002 (a silhouette that Ive thought looks stuck in place, given that its outsole and upper peak in the center like a triangle). Sneaker critics have been gushing about Fujiwaras approach to the Mind 002, and his most overt statement is what fans appear to want. But ultimately, Fujiwara asks that you keep looking closer. When I was really young, the information I had was just pictures in magazines. Like, pictures of my favorite people. Id want to see, what do they have in the closet? Or what do they have on posters? Those kinds of small details, he says. But many people [dont get there now] because they have so much information already.
Category:
E-Commerce
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