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President Donald Trump on Thursday revealed his intention to force changes at the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order that targets funding for programs that advance “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology,” the latest step in a broadside against culture he deems too liberal.Trump claimed there has been a “concerted and widespread” effort over the past decade to rewrite American history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth,” adding that it casts the “founding principles” of the United States in a “negative light.”The order he signed behind closed doors puts Vice President JD Vance, who serves on the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents, in charge of overseeing efforts to “remove improper ideology” from all areas of the institution, including its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.It marks the Republican president’s latest salvo against cultural pillars of society, such as universities and art, that he considers out of step with conservative sensibilities. Trump recently had himself installed as chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the aim of overhauling programming, including the annual Kennedy Center Honors awards show. The administration also recently forced Columbia University to make a series of policy changes by threatening the Ivy League school with the loss of several hundred million dollars in federal funding.The executive order also hints at the return of statues and monuments of Confederate figures, many of which were taken down or replaced around the country after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is detested by Trump and other conservatives.The order also calls for improvements to Independence Hall in Philadelphia by July 4, 2026, in time for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.Trump singled out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016 near the White House, the Women’s History Museum, which is in development, and the American Art Museum for criticism.“Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learnnot to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” he said.Linda St. Thomas, the Smithsonian Institution’s chief spokesperson, said in an email late Thursday, “We have no comment for now.”Under Trump’s order, Vance will also work with the White House budget office to make sure future funding for the Smithsonian Institution isn’t spent on programs that “degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law and policy.” Trump also wants to ensure that the women’s history museum celebrates women and not “recognize men as women in any respect.”It also requires the interior secretary to reinstate monuments, memorials, statues, and similar properties that have been removed or changed since January 1, 2020, to “perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology.”The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex. It consists of 21 museums and the National Zoo. Eleven museums are located along the National Mall in Washington.The institution was established by Congress with money from James Smithson, a British scientist who left his estate to the United States to found “at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” Darlene Superville, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Today is the initial public offering for one of the most anticipated stock market listings of the year. Its the day when shares in AI infrastructure company CoreWeave, Inc. will begin trading. However, the companys public listing isnt without some last-minute surprises. Heres what you need to know about CoreWeaves IPO. What is CoreWeave, Inc.? CoreWeave, Inc. hasnt always been known by its current name. The company was originally founded in 2017 as Atlantic Crypto. As its original name suggests, the company operated in the cryptocurrency industry and focused on crypto mining infrastructure using graphics processing units (GPUs), notes CNBC. However, in 2019, the company pivoted and began offering its powerful GPU resources to companies working in the burgeoning AI space. Today, CoreWeaves main business is in providing AI infrastructure to AI companies. It operates data centers across the country that are full of powerful GPUsmainly from Nvidiaand offers the power of those GPUs out to companies over the cloud. In other words, CoreWeave provides the AI hardware infrastructure that AI software companies need. CoreWeave was founded by Mike Intrator, Brian Venturo, and Brannin McBee and is based in Livingston, New Jersey. CoreWeave lowers its IPO price CoreWeaves IPO has been one of the most anticipated of 2025. Not only will it act as a sort of bellwether for tech IPOs in the coming year, but some feel the markets reaction to its public offering could help signal how investors are feeling about a shaky stock market landscape that has been rattled in recent months by President Trumps unending string of tariffs. However, a last-minute change to CoreWeaves IPO price may suggest investor confidence in the IPO marketand the markets in generalis not as high as some would like. When CoreWeave originally filed its Form S-1 prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it expected its IPO share price to be between $47 and $55 per share. However, Reuters reported yesterday that CoreWeave had decided to lower the price of its IPO shares from the $47 to $55 range to just $40 apiece. That reporting turned out to be correct, as CoreWeave confirmed soon after in a press release that its IPO share price would be $40. The business model doesnt appear fundamentally flawed, but this suggests investors are recalibrating AI infrastructure valuations, noted IPOX research analyst Lukas Muehlbauer. CoreWeave by the numbers According to the companys second amendment of its Form S-1 dated March 20, 2025, CoreWeave has the following metrics as of December 31, 2024: 2024 revenue of $1.9 billion. 2024 net loss of $0.9 billion. 2024 revenue growth of 737% over the year-earlier. 2024 operating income margin of 17%. More than 250,000 GPUs online. 32 data centers. On March 10, CoreWeave announced a deal with ChatGPT maker OpenAI to provide AI infrastructure to the company. In its S-1 filing, CoreWeave listed several growth opportunities that it believes it has. This includes continuing to acquire more workloads from its existing customers, expanding internationally, and acquiring new customers in new industries, including banks, high-frequency trading, and pharmaceutical companies. When is CoreWeaves IPO? CoreWeaves initial public offering is today, Friday, March 28, 2025. What is CoreWeaves stock ticker? CoreWeaves stock ticker is CRWV. What market will CoreWeave shares trade on? CoreWeave shares will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. What is the IPO share price of CRWV? CoreWeaves IPO share price is $40 per share. How many CRWV shares are available in its IPO? There are 37.5 million Class A common shares available in CoreWeaves public offering. However, not all those shares are offered by the company itself. Of the 37.5 million shares, CoreWeave is selling 36,590,000 of them. The remaining 910,000 shares are sold by CoreWeaves existing shareholders. How much will CoreWeave raise in its IPO? CoreWeave will only receive the profits from the 36,590,000 it sells. That means CoreWeave potentially raised more than $1.46 billion in its IPO. What is CoreWeaves valuation? At its $40 per share IPO price, CoreWeave has a fully diluted valuation of around $23 billion, according to Reuters.
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E-Commerce
The U.S. government is on a global egg hunt, seeking exports from countries in Europe and elsewhere to ease a severe shortage that has caused egg prices at grocery stores to hit record highs.Germany, Italy, Poland, and Sweden are among the nations the U.S. Department of Agriculture approached to address the shortage brought on by a bird flu outbreak, according to European industry groups.But supplying Americans with eggs would be complicated for foreign producersand not because of political tensions over the myriad import tariffs President Donald Trump has imposed or threatened to impose on his nation’s top trading partners.Even if they were eager to share, European countries don’t have many surplus eggs because of their own avian flu outbreaks and the growing domestic demand ahead of Easter.One of the biggest obstacles, however, is the approach the United States takes to preventing salmonella contamination. U.S. food safety regulations require fresh eggs to be sanitized and refrigerated before they reach shoppers; in the European Union, safety standards call for Grade A eggs to be sold unwashed and without extended chilling.“These are two systems that could not be more different,” said Hans-Peter Goldnick, the president of the German Egg Association. Feathers on eggs at the supermarket It is common in parts of Europe, for example, for consumers to buy eggs that still have feathers and chicken poop stuck to them.Farmer David Karlsch described the simple process that gets eggs from hens to customers of the family-owned Saballus poultry farm in Schoeneiche, a town just outside Germany’s capital: The eggs are taken from nests, placed into cartons, and sold on the premises or from a refrigerated vending machine just outside the property.“The demand at Easter time is of course very, very high, as many children naturally want to paint eggs,” Karlsch said.Poland, a major egg exporter, fielded a U.S. query about the availability of eggs, according to Katarzyna Gawrońska, director of the National Chamber of Poultry and Feed Producers. The issue of washed versus unwashed was a major factor as European officials considered such requests, she said.Eggs are not cleaned in most of the 27 EU member nations because of concerns that removing the natural protective coating from eggshells makes them more vulnerable to bacteria, Gawrońska said.Polish veterinary officials are trying to determine if the country and its farmers can meet U.S. requirements, such as whether the exporting country has a comparable food safety inspection system or a significant bird flu outbreak. Powdered egg products Although European Union regulations state that table eggs “shall not be washed or cleaned,” member countries have some leeway if they authorized egg baths at packing plants decades ago.Danish Egg Association CEO Jrgen Nyberg Larsen said national customs are part of it; washed eggs are the norm in Sweden, for example. But Sweden and Norway have informed the U.S. they don’t have extra eggs to export, Larsen said.For now, any increased U.S. egg imports from Europe are more likely to arrive in powdered form or other products that can be shipped frozen or dried, Larsen said.That’s the response Poland’s trade association gave U.S. officials. If the U.S. certifies Poland as a source, the organization’s members would have a limited number of shell eggs to sell but could supply “very large volumes of egg processing products,” Gawrońska said.Processed eggs usually are pasteurized to prevent foodborne illnesses and then used in food manufacturing or by restaurants, hospitals, and nursing homes, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Baked goods, pasta, and sauces like mayonnaise are some of the commercial products made with egg powder. Europe’s own production problems U.S. officials also tried to sound out farmers in northern Italy’s Veneto region for emergency egg supplies, according to Coldiretti, the main Italian agricultural lobbying organization.But Italy only produces enough eggs to cover the national demand, so most of the region’s producers said they could not help. Bird flu outbreaks since the start of last year also have taken a toll on the Italian poultry industry.Germany cannot contribute much either. Its domestic poultry industry generates about 73% of the eggs consumed in the country, “and we ourselves essentially have to import eggs from Holland every day to keep everyone satisfied,” the German Egg Association’s Goldnick said.“We have around 45 million eggs that we can collect from the chicken coops every day, and in America, there’s a shortage of around 50 million eggs a day. That shows how difficult it is,” he said. An improving U.S. market and Easter demand Other countries the U.S. government contacted include Austria, Norway, Spain, and Denmark. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it secured new egg commitments from Turkey and South Korea in recent months, although it did not specify the amount or type.Imports of liquid, frozen, and dried eggs may help free up some domestic shell eggs for consumers, but the U.S. made its appeal for foreign eggs amid a significant deficit; last month, the country produced 720 million fewer table eggs than in February 2024, a decline of nearly 10%.The U.S. also cut its own egg exports to boost supplies at home, the Agriculture Department said.While the informal trade talks continue, the U.S. market has shown signs of improvement. It’s been nearly a month since a major bird flu outbreak impacted egg-laying hens, the department said. It reported the national wholesale price for large eggs dropped to $3.27 per dozen as of March 21, or less than half its peak of $8.15 per dozen on Feb. 21.U.S. consumers are just starting to see those falling wholesale prices translate to lower prices on grocery shelves, the department said. The big demand for eggs that usually accompanies Easter and Passover could cause prices to edge up again next month. Business is business Trump hasn’t exactly walked on eggshells with the people of Europe since starting his second term. The president’s repeated threats to seize Greenland, a Danish territory, infuriated many in Denmark. His posture toward Ukraine and disparaging remarks from top members of his administration have alarmed America’s European allies.The European Union, which is the third-largest trade partner of the U.S., was not exempted from the tariffs Trump ordered on steel, aluminum, and automobiles. Bracing for more, it has prepared counter-tariffs on American products.But many officials in Europe say none of that would rule out exporting eggs.Goldnick said an egg producer friend recently told him that “if the price is right, then I’ll deliver.” Any deals made or not would come dwn to business decisions, he said.“I have two souls in my chest. On the one hand, I would say, ‘No, we can’t support this system,’ but that’s not the right answer,” he said, referring to the new U.S. tariffs on European goods.“The right answer is we have to help where we can. And it concerns the people. It doesn’t concern the government. You wouldn’t prop them up or anything, but it’s just people’s demand at Easter, for eggs, and that’s just as important to satisfy in America as it is here.” Gera reported from Warsaw, Poland. Pietro De Cristofaro in Schoeneiche, Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit, Giada Zampano in Rome and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report. Vanessa Gera and Kerstin Sopke, Associated Press
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