In 2020, a disgruntled litigant posing as a deliveryman opened fire at the New Jersey home of District Judge Esther Salas, killing her 20-year-old son Daniel Anderl. Five years later, as President Donald Trump steps up hiscriticism of federal judges who have blocked some of his agenda, dozens of judges have had unsolicited pizzas delivered to their homes, often in Daniel Anderl’s name.

District Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. of Rhode Island, who stalled Trump’s initial round of across-the-board spending cuts, is among those who received pizzas in Anderl’s name. His courtroom also has been flooded by threatening calls, including one profanity-laced one that called for his assassination.

McConnell, Jr. played a recording of the call during an unusual discussion Thursday where multiple federal judges discussed threats they have received — a notable conversation because judges usually only speak publicly from the bench and through their rulings, and rarely if ever, about personal threats and attacks. Salas and others said the number of attacks has escalated in recent months.

Without using his name, Salas called on Trump and his allies to tone down the rhetoric and stop demonizing the judiciary, for fear of what more could happen.

“We’re used to being appealed. But keep it on the merits, stop demonizing us,” Salas said. “They’re inviting people to do us harm.”

Thursday’s event was sponsored by Speak up for Justice, a nonpartisan group supporting an independent judiciary. District Judge John C. Coughenour of Washington recalled having a police SWAT team called to his home to respond to a false report of an attack after Coughenour in January halted Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for children of people in the country illegally.

District Judge Robert S. Lasnik of Washington also had pizzas delivered in Anderl’s name to both his home and those of his two adult children, each in different cities, after an article in which he was quoted as being critical of attacks on judges was picked up by a television station in the Pacific Northwest, where he hears cases.

“The message to me was ‘we know where you live, we know where your kids live, and they could end up dead like Daniel Anderl did,’” Lasnik said in an interview.

Salas says U.S. Marshals have told her of more than 100 cases of so-called “pizza doxings,” unwanted deliveries to the homes of federal judges and their families, since 2024, with most occurring this year. Salas added that she’s heard of additional cases targeting state judges in states ranging from Colorado to Florida, incidents that wouldn’t be tracked by Marshals, who protect federal judges.

“This is not some random, silly act, this is a targeted, concentrated, coordinated attack on judges,” Salas said in an interview, “and yet we don’t hear any condemnation from Washington.”

Salas, nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, in 2022 was critical of protests at the homes of Republican-nominated Supreme Court justices who revoked women’s right to have an abortion, which were followed by the arrest of a man at the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh who said he was there to assassinate the justice. Salas said both sides of the political aisle have used worrying rhetoric about judges, but it’s reached a new peak since Trump took office.

“I’ve often referred to it as a bonfire that I believe the current administration is throwing accelerants on,” Salas said.

Trump himself has led the charge against judges, often going after them by name on social media. He’s said judges who’ve ruled against his administration are “sick,” “very dangerous” and “lunatic.” Trump’s allies have amplified his rhetoric and called for impeaching judges who rule against the president or simply disobeying their rulings. Earlier this year, several judges at the panel noted, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee had a “wanted” poster of judges who’d crossed the president hanging outside his congressional office.

Lasnik said many judges appointed by presidents of both parties have told him of concerns but are nervous about discussing the issue openly.

“A lot of them don’t know how to speak up and are afraid of crossing a line somewhere where they would get a judicial complaint like judge Boasberg did,” Lasnik said, referring to District Judge James E. Boasberg of D.C., who infuriated the Trump administration by finding they likely committed criminal contempt by disobeying his order to turn around a deportation flight to El Salvador.

Though Chief Justice John Roberts has come to Boasberg’s defense, Trump’s Department of Justice this week filed a complaint against Boasberg over comments he made at a judicial conference that other judges worry the Trump administration won’t obey their orders. Last month, Trump’s Justice Department took the extraordinary step of suing every federal judge in Maryland over rules governing how they handle immigration cases.

More than five dozen judges who’ve ruled against Trump are receiving enhanced online protection, including scrubbing their identifying information from websites, according to two Trump-appointed judges who wrote Congress urging more funding for judicial security. In 2022, Congress passed a law named after Daniel Anderl allowing judges to sue internet sites to take down identifying information.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Esther Salas via AP

Apple blew past Wall Street expectations with its third-quarter earnings report released Thursday, revealing robust growth driven by persistent iPhone demand, surging services revenue, and resilience in key international markets—even as tariff anxieties and questions over its artificial intelligence (AI) roadmap loomed over the industry.

For the quarter ended June 28, 2025, Apple posted revenue of $94 billion, representing a 10% increase compared to the same period last year. Net income soared to $1.57 per share—up 12% from a year ago and significantly ahead of analyst forecasts, which had pegged earnings per share at $1.43 on expected revenue of $89.22 billion. Gross margin nudged up to 46.5%.

CEO Tim Cook celebrated the results, noting “Apple is proud to report a June quarter revenue record with double-digit growth in iPhone, Mac and Services and growth around the world, in every geographic segment.” Apple’s board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share, payable August 14 to shareholders of record as of August 11. 

The installed base of active devices hit a “new all-time high,” according to CFO Kevan Parekh, underscoring Apple’s customer loyalty amid intensifying market competition. Apple shares climbed more than 2.5% post-market on the results.

Segment highlights

Apple’s signature iPhone business was the principal engine of growth, generating $44.6 billion in sales—up from $39.2 billion the previous year. This far exceeded most forecasts and reinforced the iPhone’s dominance, even as competitors ramp up their global push.

The Services segment, encompassing the App Store, Apple Pay, Apple TV+, Apple Music, and iCloud, also set a new record: revenue there hit $27.4 billion, a 13% increase over last year. The success of Apple TV+ was underscored by the summer box office triumph of “F1: The Movie,” which has grossed nearly $513 million worldwide. Mac sales also posted double-digit growth, rising to $8 billion.

In contrast, iPad and Wearables revenue both saw modest declines, but these were more than offset by the core and services businesses.

International & trade dynamics

Growth was broad-based—notably including China, where Apple outperformed expectations with $15.4 billion in sales. This comes amid a tense geopolitical environment: President Donald Trump, seeking to enact tariffs of at least 25% on non-U.S.-made iPhones, had warned Apple to “manufacture in the U.S., not India, or anyplace else.” The company had projected a $900 million headwind from tariffs this quarter but successfully navigated the challenge, in part by accelerating its shift in device manufacturing from China to India.

Looking ahead

Despite these achievements, investor scrutiny remained focused on Apple’s comparative lag in artificial intelligence rollouts—especially as competitors like Meta and Microsoft grab headlines for major AI advances.

Apple’s stock, while buoyed after the earnings beat, has fallen 16% year-to-date, underperforming the broader S&P 500. Still, many analysts remain bullish, citing Apple’s ecosystem strength, user retention, and ability to deftly manage global headwinds. Some analysts have expressed impatience with Tim Cook, even arguing for him to be replaced. Longtime Apple bull Dan Ives has thrown his support behind Cook but argued for a transformative M&A deal for Apple to get a leg up in the AI race, slamming a recent presentation as something that “felt like an episode out of ‘Back to the Future,'” although though that was a film, not an episodic TV series.

For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Financial innovation has come full circle. The blockchain is bringing the U.S. back to the era of private money, when banks and companies could issue their own currencies. This time, instead of gold and silver coins, corporate America is eager to issue their own stablecoins. 

The U.S.’s decision to embrace cryptocurrency through legislation like the GENIUS Act doesn’t just matter domestically. Washington’s move is placing pressure on countries around the world to signal their own stance on stablecoins and cryptocurrency. 

In recent months, financial officials and academics within China have spoken up on the need to at least consider authorizing stablecoins, which Zhiguo He, a professor of finance at Stanford University, says is motivated by the “fear of missing out.” 

And on Friday, the autonomous Chinese city of Hong Kong—which is betting on cryptocurrencies to bolster its status as a financial center—will start accepting applications for a Hong Kong-dollar backed stablecoin, potentially opening the door for a renminbi-backed token too. 

With the U.S. going all-in on crypto, Beijing now faces a difficult decision: Does it match the U.S.’s risky bet on a stablecoin-centric future? Or does it play it safe, and risk missing out on cutting-edge financial technology? 

A crypto-happy U.S. 

Stablecoins, unlike their more volatile counterparts in the cryptocurrency space, are meant to be a bit boring. These virtual assets are pegged to the value of a reference asset, such as a fiat currency. Almost all stablecoins are pegged to the U.S. dollar, the world’s reserve currency. Users can tap stablecoins to easily transfer funds between different cryptocurrencies without needing to resort to real-world money.

Users trust stablecoin issuers to have enough liquid reserves to redeem coins for fiat currency at any time. But unlike banks, stablecoin issuers don’t have a lender of last resort to fall back on. The 2022 collapse of TerraUSD, a so-called algorithmic stablecoin, spread concerns about other cryptocurrencies, including more well-established tokens. 

The potential for stablecoins to spark the cryptocurrency version of a financial panic has led governments to be wary of stablecoins. But now U.S. president Donald Trump, in his second term, wants to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet.” 

“Trump has done a 180 for the United States and just said, ‘deregulate, deregulate, deregulate,’” says Harvard professor and former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff. 

The U.S. Congress passed the GENIUS Act on July 17^th, establishing the first regulatory framework for dollar-pegged stablecoins. The Act requires issuers to maintain reserves, such as in cash or U.S. Treasury bills, to back their stablecoins on at least a 1:1 basis. 

China considers crypto  

The U.S.’s sudden crypto-happy stance could worry other nations. Dollar-backed stablecoins will be appealing in “really poor countries where people don’t trust the currency and central bank,” says Paul Blustein, journalist and author of King Dollar: The Past and Future of the World’s Dominant Currency. But even countries with strong local currencies could face a future where “citizens prefer to transact with this type of instrument.” 

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is now in a frustrating position. China has banned all cryptocurrency transactions since 2021, citing the risks they could post to the country’s financial system.  

But China doesn’t want to find itself behind the curve—or behind the U.S.—if stablecoins and blockchain technology really are the future of finance.  

Wang Yongli, former vice president of Bank of China, wrote to WeChat in June that it “would be a strategic risk if cross-border yuan payment is not as efficient as dollar stablecoins.” Yongli recommended a “proactive response from other countries, particularly China” to U.S. legislation, according to the Pekinology newsletter.

PBOC governor Pan Gongsheng similarly noted the rising use of stablecoins for cross-border payments at the 2025 Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai on June 18. 

Days later, the Securities Times, a newspaper owned by state media outlet People’s Daily, wrote that industry insiders “generally believe that, as an emerging payment tool, the unique advantages and potential risks of stablecoins cannot be ignored, and that the development of [renminbi-pegged] stablecoins should be sooner rather than later.” 

The South China Morning Post reported on July 14 that China was exploring the feasibility of allowing the launch of stablecoins. Two local officials told the newspaper that state-owned entities including the securities firm Guotai Haitong and data infrastructure firm Shanghai Data Group were looking into a trial run of renminbi-pegged tokens. 

“It’s not the fact that the U.S. is going into crypto, per se, that matters,” Evan Auyang, group president of Hong Kong-based blockchain technology company Animoca Brands, says. “It’s really what started as a result of this change…Stablecoins became institutional” after gaining legitimacy from the U.S. (Animoca Brands intends to apply for a license to issue stablecoins in Hong Kong.) 

De-dollarization 

There’s a geopolitical element to the stablecoin conversation. If adoption of U.S. dollar stablecoins grows, issuers will need to hold more dollars and dollar-based assets to back the peg. Tether, which issues the world’s largest stablecoin, was already the world’s seventh largest purchaser of U.S. debt in 2024. 

After chipping away at the dollar’s global dominance for decades, China does not want to give the U.S. an opportunity to regain ground. 

“They’re very concerned about the U.S. exercising power, expanding the use of the dollar,” says Rogoff. 

China has tried to promote greater use of the renminbi for cross-border trade, with limited success. Trade with isolated countries like Russia and Iran may be conducted in the renminbi, but most countries in the world still prefer using the U.S. dollar. The popularity of dollar stablecoins could “smother” Beijing’s efforts to develop its own financial networks, Rogoff says. 

Trump’s trade war has spurred talks of “de-dollarization,” or reducing reliance on the U.S. dollar, due to concerns about the future of the U.S. economy and fears of dollar weaponization. Even Trump himself is worried about challengers to the dollar, threatening massive tariffs against the BRICS bloc if it considered creating an alternative currency.  

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that stablecoins can help keep the U.S. dollar as the dominant reserve currency.  

Some Chinese officials agree with Bessent: former vice minister of finance Zhu Guangyao argued in June that “the strategic purpose behind the United States’ promotion of stablecoins—closely tied to U.S. dollar liquidity—is to preserve dollar supremacy,” as translated by the East is Read newsletter,

Can China launch a stablecoin? 

But even if Beijing is open to launching a stablecoin, it must overcome another hurdle: its closed capital account, which means officials can’t authorize a Chinese yuan renminbi (CNY)-pegged stablecoin. 

There are “still a lot of concerns over capital flight issues” that make the liberalization of China’s capital account unlikely, Auyang says. 

China could authorize a stablecoin pegged to the offshore renminbi (CNH). And since over 70% of offshore renminbi payments are processed in Hong Kong, Huang Yiping, an advisor for the PBOC, suggested using the city as a testing ground for China’s stablecoin launch. Chinese tech giant JD.com reportedly proposed a similar scheme in its discussions with the PBOC. 

Hong Kong’s Stablecoin Ordinance, due to go into effect on August 1^st, already establishes a legal framework for leveraging the city’s offshore renminbi pool, if the PBOC chooses to go in that direction and provide sufficient liquidity for offshore renminbi-pegged stablecoin issuers. 

Although the law requires issuers to hold reserves in their stablecoin’s reference currency, since the Hong Kong dollar itself is pegged to the U.S. dollar, HKD-pegged stablecoin issuers can hold U.S. dollar reserves. 

“Hong Kong is pegging to the USD. So, in some sense, they are basically helping the U.S.,” He, from Stanford, explained. “This is perhaps why Beijing [could say], when you do the HKD [stablecoin], I want you to do the CNH as well.” 

‘Rein in the euphoria’ 

Currency experts are worried about how stablecoins could end up posing a threat to the economy—whether in the U.S. or in China. 

Blustein points to the risk of “currency substitution.” If the appeal of stablecoins outweighs the appeal of the local currency, it “screws up the central bank’s ability to control the economy,” he argues, as everyone is engaging in transactions in an instrument outside the bank’s control. 

And without a central bank or lender of last resort, stablecoins are vulnerable to runs—users rushing to redeem their tokens for fiat currency all at once. The possibility of a stablecoin crisis is “very parallel to the U.S.’s free banking era in the 1800s,” says Rogoff.  

“The risk of a financial crisis is high,” he says. 

Blustein, for his part, is less worried about stablecoins messing things up—in part because they make up “a tiny part of international payments.”  

“Stablecoins cannot possibly buy that many short-term treasuries” to compete with central banks and multinational companies, he suggests.  

Another person expressing some skepticism about stablecoins? Eddie Yue, the head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the city’s de facto central banker. 

In a press conference last week, Yue told the public to “rein in the euphoria” over stablecoins, pointing to “overly idealistic” discussions on how they might “disrupt the mainstream financial system.” 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Amazon reported robust second-quarter 2025 financial results on July 31, surpassing Wall Street expectations with sharp revenue growth and notable gains in key business segments. Yet, investor enthusiasm was tempered as the company’s shares dropped as much as 3% in after-hours trading, reflecting lingering concerns about retail headwinds and long-term spending plans.

For the April-June period, Amazon posted revenue of $167.7 billion, climbing 13% year-over-year and outpacing analyst predictions of $162.1 billion. Earnings per share came in at $1.68, also topping the expected $1.33. Net income for the quarter reached an impressive $18.2 billion, more than a 10% increase from last year.

Amazon’s financial outperformance stems from strong execution across several areas. Though its sprawling retail operations remain the largest part of its business, the real engine of profit growth continues to be Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud-computing arm.

AWS and AI power profitability

AWS generated $30.9 billion in revenue, marking a 17.5% increase year-over-year and landing squarely in line with industry forecasts. The unit contributed $10.2 billion in operating profit—more than half of Amazon’s total $19.2 billion operating income for the quarter. This confirms AWS’s role as Amazon’s financial powerhouse, driven by surging demand for AI and cloud infrastructure as businesses accelerate technology investments.

Chief executive Andy Jassy has spotlighted AI as a transformative force for Amazon, with the majority of 2025’s planned $100 billion in capital expenditures dedicated to expanding AWS’ capacity for generative AI and machine learning. As major clients move more workloads to the cloud and adopt AI-driven services, AWS remains positioned for long-term leadership, despite short-term margin pressures from its heavy investments.

Retail and advertising show resilience

Despite ongoing concerns about tariffs and consumer spending, Amazon’s core online store sales grew 11% to $61.5 billion. The company’s third-party seller services also expanded, with revenue rising 11% to $40.3 billion. Physical stores, including Whole Foods, delivered a 7% increase to $5.6 billion, while subscription revenue—such as Prime memberships—rose 12% to $12.2 billion.

Amazon’s advertising segment was a standout performer, raking in $15.6 billion in revenue, up 23% from the prior year. This ad business is becoming an increasingly critical pillar within Amazon’s profit structure, as brands compete for consumer eyeballs on the platform’s massive shopping interface.

Challenges and outlook

The company is navigating a complex macroeconomic climate that includes inflation, changing trade policies, and labor market constraints. Shipping expenses climbed 6% to $23.4 billion, reflecting both global cost pressures and heightened demand for fast delivery.

Although Amazon’s Q2 earnings don’t reflect the impact of July’s Prime Day—held after quarter’s end—the company remains optimistic, projecting third-quarter revenue in the range of $174 billion to $179.5 billion, above analyst expectations. Operating income is forecast between $15.5 billion and $20.5 billion.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s headcount inched up 1% year-over-year to 1.55 million, with CEO Andy Jassy signaling further workforce streamlining as automation and generative AI gain traction internally. “Our AI progress across the board continues to improve our customer experiences, speed of innovation, operational efficiency, and business growth, and I’m excited for what lies ahead,” he said in the earnings press release.

Investor response

Despite the upbeat earnings report, Amazon stock fell in extended trading, illustrating Wall Street’s wariness about continued retail volatility, capital-intensive growth, and competitive dynamics in cloud and AI. Still, analysts remain bullish on Amazon’s strategic direction, citing leadership in cloud innovation, resilient retail fundamentals, and an aggressive expansion into the future of artificial intelligence.

For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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The tariffs planned by President Donald Trump on Friday touched off a feverish bout of activity among trade partners as key details remained unclear and nations didn’t know the taxes their goods could face — keeping an element of surprise to an event long hyped by the U.S. leader.

Just hours before the deadline, Trump on Thursday said he would enter a 90-day negotiating period with Mexico over trade as 25% tariff rates stay in place, providing a bit of clarity to a massive rewiring of the global economy that will require the president to sign a new executive order.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that his phone conversation with Mexican leader Claudia Sheinbaum was “very successful in that, more and more, we are getting to know and understand each other.”

The Republican president had threatened tariffs of 30% on goods from Mexico in a July letter, something that Sheinbaum said Mexico gets to stave off for the next three months.

“We avoided the tariff increase announced for tomorrow and we got 90 days to build a long-term agreement through dialogue,” Sheinbaum wrote on X.

The leaders’ morning call came at a moment of pressure and uncertainty for the world economy. As Trump’s deadline loomed, nations were scrambling to finalize the outlines of trade frameworks so he would not simply impose higher tariff rates that could upend economies and governments.

Trump reached a deal with South Korea on Wednesday, and earlier with the European Union, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. His commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” that there were agreements with Cambodia and Thailand after they had agreed to a ceasefire to their border conflict.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “at some point this afternoon or later this evening” will sign an order to impose new rates starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT Friday. Countries that have not received a prior letter from Trump or negotiated a framework will be notified of their likely tariff rates, either by letter or executive order, she said.

Among those uncertain about their trade status were wealthy Switzerland and Norway.

Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg said it was “completely uncertain” whether a deal would be completed before Trump’s deadline.

But even the public announcement of a deal can offer scant reassurance for an American trading partner.

EU officials are waiting to complete a crucial document outlining how the framework to tax imported autos and other goods from the 27-member state bloc would operate. Trump had announced a deal Sunday while he was in Scotland.

“The U.S. has made these commitments. Now it’s up to the U.S. to implement them. The ball is in their court,” EU commission spokesman Olof Gill said. The document would not be legally binding.

Trump said as part of the agreement with Mexico that goods imported into the U.S. would continue to face a 25% tariff that he has ostensibly linked to fentanyl trafficking. He said autos would face a 25% tariff, while copper, aluminum and steel would be taxed at 50% during the negotiating period.

He said Mexico would end its “Non Tariff Trade Barriers,” but he didn’t provide specifics.

Some goods continue to be protected from the tariffs by the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which Trump negotiated during his first term.

But Trump appeared to have soured on that deal, which is up for renegotiation next year. One of his first significant moves as president was to tariff goods from both Mexico and Canada earlier this year.

U.S. Census Bureau figures show that the U.S. ran a $171.5 billion trade imbalance with Mexico last year. That means the U.S. bought more goods from Mexico than it sold to the country.

The imbalance with Mexico has grown in the aftermath of the USMCA as it was only $63.3 billion in 2016, the year before Trump started his first term in office.

Besides addressing fentanyl trafficking, Trump has made it a goal to close the trade gap.

___

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File

A rural Texas county was missing some of its key leadership in the initial hours of a catastrophic flood that came barreling through the region, causing widespread destruction and killing more than 130 people earlier this month.

Kerr County’s sheriff and its emergency management director both acknowledged Thursday during a legislative hearing that they were asleep when it first became apparent that a major flood event was unfolding. Moreover, Judge Rob Kelly, the top executive of Kerrville County, was out of town on July 4, the day of the flood.

Their testimony, which came during a joint House and Senate panel of lawmakers who visited the hard-hit Texas Hill Country, revealed a lack of on-duty leadership in the key initial moments of the flooding that killed at least 136 people, including 27 youths and counselors at an all-girls camp.

William “Dub” Thomas, Kerr County’s emergency management coordinator, told lawmakers that he was sick the day before the flooding occurred and missed two calls with Texas Emergency Management officials. Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha and Thomas both acknowledged being asleep as a crisis was unfolding.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick expressed his frustration.

“I’m not pointing a finger, I’m not blaming you, I just want to set the record straight. Everyone was here that day working their ass off, and you were nowhere to be found,” Patrick said as the audience applauded.

Thomas said on the morning of July 4, he was first awakened by his wife around 5:30 a.m., about two hours after emergency rescue operations were underway, and quickly drove to the sheriff’s office.

“There was no visible flooding on my drive into the office, but it quickly became clear that the situation was escalating,” he said.

In other testimony, local officials said they needed but lacked an updated warning system, when flash flooding swept away homes and vehicles and left families begging for rescue on the roofs of their homes earlier this month.

Others who testified Thursday before an audience of hundreds of people — some who wore green ribbons in memory of the victims — called for urgent improvements for better flood warnings and flood mitigation.

Kelly said residents had virtually no warning of the impending weather catastrophe until it was too late.

“We need stronger communications and better broadband so we can communicate better,” he said, adding that poor cell service did not help those along the river. “What we experienced on July 4 was sudden, violent and overwhelming.”

Leitha presented a timeline of events to lawmakers and said emergency responders realized they had an “all-hands-on-deck” situation as early as 3:30 a.m., when dispatchers received a call from a family stranded on their roof requesting air evacuation. But Leitha acknowledged he was not alerted of the flooding until about an hour later, at around 4:20 a.m.

Kelly, who holds a position in Texas that functions as the county’s chief executive officer, testified that he was out of town at Lake Travis on the morning of the flood and woke up around 5:30 a.m.

Rep. Ann Johnson, a Democrat from Houston, asked Leitha whether the county should have a protocol in place for when three of the top county officials are not available during an emergency.

“Yes, ma’am, we can look at that real hard,” Leitha said. “Yes, I can look and maybe they can call me earlier.”

Residents along the Guadalupe River have said they were caught off guard and had no warning when rainfall struck. Kerr County does not have a warning system along the river after several missed opportunities by state and local agencies to finance one.

The hearing comes as authorities have begun publicly releasing records and audio — including 911 calls — that have provided new glimpses into the escalating danger and chaos in the early hours of the July Fourth holiday. They include panicked and confused messages from residents caught in trees as well as families fleeing with children from homes with water creeping up to the knees.

“People are dying,” one woman tells a 911 operator in call logs released by nearby Kendall County. She says she had a young relative at a church camp in Kerr County who was stranded along with his classmates because of the high waters.

“I don’t want them to get stuck in a low-water crossing. And what are they going to do? They have like 30 kids,” the woman says.

___

Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Eric Gay

Figma, the design software company led by CEO and cofounder Dylan Field, saw its stock price more than triple in a stunning debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Shares of Figma were trading as high as $107 within minutes after it began trading under the ticker FIG. The company and its early shareholders raised $1.2 billion in its IPO on Wednesday, with shares priced at $33. The stock began trading Thursday at $85 a share, and took off like a rocket from there.

The surge gave Figma a market cap of roughly $46 billion, eclipsing the $20 billion price that Adobe had planned to acquire the company for before the merger was abandoned in 2023 due to regulatory pushback. Adobe, with a market cap of around $152 billion, will now be Figma’s key public markets competitor as the upstart chases market share. Praveer Melwani, Figma’s CFO, told Fortune on Thursday morning that it will be business as usual for Figma moving forward, with possible acquisitions in the pipeline.

“Candidly, the way we’re running this—or the way the offering shaped up—it’s a majority secondary transaction with a small portion of primary that facilitates to pay the tax that’s owed on the RSU [restricted stock unit] settlement,” said Melwani, who became Figma’s first business operations head in 2017. “So, we’re net neutral from a cash impact on technology. The story stays the same. We have been acquisitive in the past—primarily small teams and talent.”

Figma’s securities filing for its public debut showed a growing, profitable business, with revenue up in Q1 2025, 46% year-over-year to $228.2 million and a net income for the quarter at $44.8 million.

Figma’s opening pop reflects not only optimism about Figma, but optimism about the venture-backed IPO landscape overall. Muted in recent years, tech IPOs have been in the midst of a slow but decisive recovery. Recently, VC-backed darlings like Circle, Chime, Hinge Health, and CoreWeave have all gone public, with varying degrees of success.

Figma itself is backed by a number of Silicon Valley stalwarts, including Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Greylock, and Sequoia Capital, all of whom hold stakes worth north of $1 billion in the company. For Figma moving forward, the biggest question is how the company will adapt to and capitalize on AI. Greylock venture partner John Lilly told Fortune that Figma and Field are well-positioned.

“The way we’re going to be interacting with more systems and technology over time means interfaces have to be designed right,” said Lilly. “Figma is the way organizations design together, it’s sort of the operating system… As long as we keep investing and keep making sure that we’re on top of AI—integrating the best tools and creating some of them—then AI looks like a huge opportunity to me.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Ebay turns 30 this September and the company is showing some signs that it’s starting to turn back the clock.

The auction giant’s stock surged more than 19% on Thursday to an all-time high of $92 a share on the back of revenue growth and earnings that both surpassed analyst expectations, and an outlook that was far less gloomy than it could have been.

That’s the top-line good news.

The reality check, though, is that Ebay still accounts for less than 4% of the overall e-commerce market in the U.S., compared to around 40% for Amazon, 6% for Walmart, and pressure from a collection of discount or product-specific apps and marketplaces from Temu to Whatnot, a live-streaming commerce startup valued at $5 billion.

So what gives? Where is the eBay optimism coming from and is this current moment an aberration and blip or, as the internet analyst Mark Mahaney wrote in a research note on Thursday, “something of an inflection point”?

As Mahaney wrote, eBay’s gross volume and revenue growth rates, excluding the impact of foreign exchange rate changes, both rose 4% year-over-year in the past quarter. Those numbers sound meager because they are, but it’s the fastest that the commerce marketplace has grown in two years—which is…something.

The one-time e-commerce darling has been trying to lean into its historic strengths or “focus areas”—product categories where it can win—and that seems to be paying off. Those categories grew 10% in the quarter compared to about 1% for everything else.

“Collectibles was once again the largest contributor to growth as year-over-year growth in trading cards GMV accelerated for the 10th straight quarter on the back of continued momentum in both collectible card games and sports trading cards,” CEO Jamie Iannone told analysts on the earnings call.

Collectible categories have been booming across the board since the onset of the pandemic, as nostalgia coupled with new shopping experiences and sales tactics drive renewed interest in trading cards like Pokemon as well as sports cards. Startups like Whatnot, Fanatics, and Courtyard, which is selling $50 million in cards and comics a month, are playing a role. But eBay is still the biggest online player in the space and also capitalizing on the consumer interest.

To that end, the company is pushing aggressively into live-streaming commerce, with eBay Live, where Fanatics and Whatnot are finding success, and the early signs are encouraging, according to Iannone.

“We have already seen significant evidence that live commerce can deepen engagement among eBay enthusiasts and unlock even greater velocity in our strongest verticals, which validates our continued investment in this experience,” he told analysts.

(For what it’s worth, top live-streaming card seller Rene Nezhoda, of Storage Wars fame, had this to say about eBay Live when I interviewed him about his business on Whatnot, where he sells $15 million to $18 million a year in sports cards. “I wouldn’t be surprised if eBay Live might become the market leader because they just have such a big user database,” he told Fortune in June.)

Ebay’s Iannone said his company is also seeing both top-line and bottom-line benefits from integrating the Klarna Buy Now Pay Later payment method into the shopping site, by expanding its on-site advertising business, and by integrating generative and agentic AI experiences into the shopping marketplace for both buyers or sellers, though it’s too early to tell how much the latter will boost the business long term.

No, eBay isn’t immune to the U.S.-China tariff war, though it shouldn’t be crippled by it. No, it’s not a threat to giants like Amazon and Walmart that specialize in everyday, new goods. But riding hot, historically strong product categories, while keeping up with new industry tablestakes like Gen AI integrations for sellers and buyers, and popular payment types like Klarna, has the 30-year-old company’s future looking brighter than it has in a long while. And that’s not nothing.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Mortgage rates have remained stubbornly high: hovering near 7%, well above the sub-3% rates during the pandemic. That makes homeownership increasingly unaffordable for many Americans, as home prices have risen over 50% since 2020.

During the pandemic, home buyers got accustomed to sub-3% mortgage rates, which made purchasing a house feel more achievable. But in the past couple of years, buyers have had no such luck.

In late 2023, mortgage rates peaked at 8%. While they’ve let up some, today’s 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 6.75%, according to Mortgage News Daily. Economists and real-estate groups have warned they don’t see that figure budging much in the near future. And to make matters worse, some have said the mortgage rate it would take to make homes feel affordable again isn’t achievable. 

On Tuesday, Zillow economic analyst Anushna Prakash reported mortgage rates would need to drop to 4.43% for a typical home to be affordable to an average buyer. But “that kind of a rate decline is currently unrealistic,” Prakash wrote. Meanwhile, not even a 0% interest rate would make a typical home affordable in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, San Diego, or San Jose, she added. 

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices also said in an early July report that mortgage rates are one of the main deterrents for both home buyers and sellers.

“Many homeowners are reluctant [to] put their homes on the market and give up the low mortgage rates they already have,” according to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. “To them, high price gains won’t mitigate their ability to pay more for another home at significantly higher interest rates.”

This issue is also referred to as golden handcuffs—or the locked-in mortgage rate effect. The idea is that current homeowners have no incentive to put their homes on the market, even if they want to move, because they’d forgo a much lower mortgage rate they had locked in years ago. 

This causes a litany of other problems in the housing market, namely inventory.

The number of unsold existing homes for sale rose 9% month-over-month in April, according to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, to 1.45 million; that’s equal to 4.4 months’ supply on hand at the current sales pace and the highest level in five years. That’s shown itself in more sellers delisting their properties after sitting on the market for longer than expected.

“Homes are sitting on the market nearly three weeks longer than last year,” Realtor.com Senior Economist Jake Krimmel recently told Fortune. “That’s a sign of sellers still anchored to pandemic-era prices even though the market is telling them otherwise.” 

That doesn’t mean there’s an influx of housing in the U.S.; in fact, we’re still short millions of units. It just means there aren’t enough people who can actually afford to buy a home.

The factors influencing housing affordability

Although inventory levels are increasing, home prices and mortgage rates continue to be a roadblock for potential home buyers. Mortgage rates have remained “stubbornly high,” Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices said, deterring new buyers from the market.

According to a Realtor.com report published Thursday, the typical home spent 58 days on the market in July, which is 7 days longer than the same time last year. 

Mortgage rates are certainly a factor among buyers when deciding to make an offer, and home prices are also up more than 50% since the onset of the pandemic, according to the U.S. Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

All the while, wages haven’t grown at the same pace as home appreciation, making buying a house feel even more unaffordable. And if nothing changes like mortgage rates, inventory, or wage growth, it’s likely the housing affordability crisis in the U.S. will persist, Alexandra Gupta, a real-estate broker with The Corcoran Group, told Fortune.

“Some first-time buyers are turning to long-term renting or even co-living models because the idea of owning a home has become so out of reach. Others are relying more on family support to get into the market,” Gupta said. “We’re seeing a reshaping of the housing ladder.”

The small glimmer of hope, though, is home price growth appears to be slowing, according to the Case-Shiller indices.

“With affordability still stretched and inventory constrained, national home prices are holding steady, but barely,” Nicholas Godec, head of fixed-income tradables and commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• There should be only one true place to buy a Birkin bag, according to Hermès CEO Axel Dumas. The chief executive told investors this week the luxury handbag’s secondhand marketplace was a “real cause for concern,” as many customers were purchasing the item just to resell it for exponentially higher than its retail price.

Hermès CEO Axel Dumas wants to make one thing clear: There’s only one Birkin bag and one place to get it.

The luxury brand boss expressed his frustration with the resale market that has emerged for the collectible handbag, telling investors during a second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday buyers purchasing the arm candy just to hike up its price for a secondhand sale are diluting Hermès’ true consumer base.

“Sometimes we have false customers come to our stores to buy them, to resell them, and they prevent us from serving our real customers, and that is a real cause for concern for us,” Dumas said.

“So, I’m not at all happy to see this development of new bags that are sold in the secondhand market,” he added. “I pull a face, and I’m not happy, and it doesn’t make me feel in a good mood.”

The Birkin bag, which can run buyers at least $12,000 and up to six figures, has been worn by a litany of celebrities like Cardi B and Victoria Beckham, with its exclusivity making the accessory a status symbol. In Q2 2025, Hermès reported a 9% sales bump, largely due to the continued popularity of its Birkin, Kelly, and Constance bags, which have helped it weather the luxury slowdown.

While the bag’s coveted status has buoyed Hermès’ sales, it’s also encouraged an active secondhand market for the bag. Because of the bag’s limited production and Hermès’ elusive criteria to even be allowed to purchase the item, resellers have jumped at the opportunity to auction off the bags. The Birkin’s resale cost can exponentially appreciate beyond its sticker price, comfortably doubling in cost and, by some measures, outpacing the S&P 500 and the price of gold.

The original Birkin bag, once owned by late British actress and singer Jane Birkin, sold earlier this month at Sotheby’s Paris for a cool $10 million.

Hermès did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

The behavior of buying to sell may be viewed by Dumas as taking “opportunistic advantage” of the brand, according to Marie Driscoll, an equity analyst focused on luxury retail.

“He looks at the product and the brand as something more than a commodity,” Driscoll told Fortune. “Intrinsically, he thinks these are artistic pieces that are a product of someone’s imagination and someone’s hard work and labor and some of the best that Hermès can do. I think some of it has taken on a life of its own.”

Dumas has long been an advocate for the sustained exclusivity of the Birkin. Last year, Walmart launched a lookalike—or “dupe” of the bag for $78, which quickly  emptied off the discount retailer’s shelves. The Hermès CEO told investors in February he was “irritated” by the copy-cat’s popularity, though he said he understood consumers weren’t buying the “Wirkin” believing it was the real deal.

“Making a copy like this is quite detestable—it’s stealing the creative ideas of others,” Dumas said.

Still, the luxury brand’s exclusivity has drawn the ire of some shoppers, including two California customers who sued Hermès in 2024, claiming the company engaged in “anti-competitive” practices by requiring prospective Birkin buyers to establish themselves as “worthy” customers by purchasing ancillary Hermès products.

While some luxury brands like Gucci and Balenciaga have engaged more with the certified resale market to attract new customers, Hermès likely won’t, Driscoll said. There’s still sustained demand for the bag and, therefore, little reason for Hermès to disturb the mystique it has worked so hard to create.

“You’re going to have to have a longer engagement, which is kind of, in a very romantic sense, like being engaged to someone before the culmination of the wedding night,” she said. “You’re just going to have to postpone gratification.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Welcome to Eye on AI. AI reporter Sharon Goldman here for the Thursday newsletter! In this edition...

This week, I got a sneak peek at ChatGPT’s new Study Mode during an OpenAI press demo on Zoom, ahead of its Tuesday release. 

Toggling the tool button in the “Ask Anything” chat to “Study and Learn” transforms ChatGPT from a straightforward Q&A assistant into a personalized tutor. Instead of simply spitting out answers, it uses Socratic questioning, hints, and step-by-step guidance to encourage active learning. Tell it what you want to study, and it will assess your skill level and even remember your progress across chats.

As I watched the demo, my eyes widened and my breath quickened. Study Mode may have been designed with college students in mind—powered by system instructions crafted with input from teachers, scientists, and learning experts. But while it’s been several decades since my own academic experience, I instantly knew that I wanted to use Study Mode. And I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for: high school algebra. 

My math failure shaped my life

Along with the rest of the math curriculum in those years, I completely bombed in algebra—and I can’t overstate how much that failure shaped my life. I carried a deep sense of shame about how hard math was for me, even with tutors. It stood in stark contrast to how easily I excelled in subjects like English and social studies, and it felt like no one really understood how curious I actually was about math. There were so many questions that were never answered. What is algebra, anyway? Why do we learn it in the first place? Why does it come before geometry and trigonometry? What’s the point of all these rules about x and y?

It might seem ironic, given that I now write about AI and regularly interview researchers with PhDs in mathematics who casually reference linear algebra in conversation. But I’ve always wished I could get a do-over on high school math.

Yes, there are real concerns about how AI will affect student learning—from cheating and over-reliance to privacy and bias. New reporting this week from Rest of World found that when students in rural Colombia gained access to AI, students started failing exams.

But for me, ChatGPT’s new Study Mode is already becoming something deeply personal: a long-overdue redemption arc.

Study Mode at my own pace

I started where I never really could before, and Study Mode immediately had a refreshing response:

“Let’s treat this like the first day of Algebra 1—only better. This time, you get to ask questions whenever you want, and we move at your pace.” 

I was on board with that: What is algebra, I asked.

Algebra is the part of math where we stop just working with numbers and start working with relationships between numbers.

Instead of asking:
What’s 3 × 5?
We ask:
What number x would make this equation true?

It’s like math with mystery—something is hidden, and our job is to solve for it.

“Math with mystery”—ooh, I loved that. After giving me the lowdown on the “big ideas” in algebra–everything from solving equations to graphing lines and word problems, Study Mode offered a few options: 

Want to:
A) Ask questions about any of this?
B) Choose a puzzle type to start with?
C) Keep going with the intro and build slowly from here?
Your call!

I said I’d like to solve equations. Study Mode dove right in:

🔍 Solving Equations: What’s the Goal?

An equation is like a balance scale—whatever you do to one side, you have to do to the other.

Here’s your first equation:
3x + 4 = 19

👉 What do you think we should do first to start solving for x?
(Just take a guess—we’ll figure it out together.)

The promise of AI-powered personalized learning

I sat back and smiled. Apparently, it’s never too late to solve for x—even for a journalist who always thought she was good with words but terrible with numbers. I spent a couple of hours progressing through one-step and two-step equations; equations with variables on both sides; equations with parentheses; and equations combining like terms. I asked lots of questions along the way and occasionally peppered my responses with “Wow!” and “I never knew that!”

Like every AI use case, there are tradeoffs. The risks of over-reliance on AI and diminished critical thinking are real. But I find myself leaning toward the view of my colleague Jeremy Kahn, who, in his recent book Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future, highlights the promise of AI-powered personalized learning. He frames the idea of AI as a one-on-one tutor as one of its most powerful educational opportunities.

My late-in-life return to algebra may not have been OpenAI’s target use case. But who knows—maybe I’ll make it to calculus.

With that, here’s the rest of the AI news.

Sharon Goldman
[email protected]
@sharongoldman

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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The CEO of JPMorgan Chase gave a shout out on Wednesday to stablecoins, one of the buzziest sectors in the crypto. “I’m a believer in stablecoins, believer in blockchain, not personally, a believer in Bitcoin itself,” Jamie Dimon said in an interview with CNBC.

He added that his bank “will have” a stablecoin, or cryptocurrency pegged to underlying assets like the U.S. dollar. “There are things that stablecoins maybe can do that your traditional cash can’t,” Dimon said, adding later: “It’s what the customer wants. It’s not what JPMorgan personally wants.”

Dimon has long drawn a distinction between the technology of blockchain, or decentralized ledgers, and Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency. His Wednesday comments with CNBC are in line with his prior thinking, but his disavowal of Bitcoin was softer than his previous takedowns.

In 2017, he said that he would fire JPMorgan Chase employees who were trading Bitcoin because it was evidence that they were “stupid.” In 2023, he said Bitcoin was “hyped-up fraud,” compared the token to a “pet rock,” and said that cryptocurrencies are a “waste of time.” Still, he conceded that blockchains were useful.

“Blockchain is a technology ledger system that we use to move information. We’ve used it to do overnight repo, intraday repo, we’ve used it to move money, right? So that’s a technology ledger that we think will be deployable,” he said.

Dimon heads the largest bank in the U.S and his comments on stablecoins add further legitimacy to the fast-growing crypto industry, especially after the landmark passage of GENIUS Act in Congress, a bill that regulates stablecoins.

JPMorgan Chase has long had its own blockchain division. The team, originally called Onyx, has rebranded to Kinexys and has started to expand beyond the bank’s “walled garden,” an industry term for blockchains that are private.

In May, the bank settled its first transaction on a public blockchain. And, in June, Kinexys announced that it was piloting what it called JPMD, a stablecoin-like asset known as a tokenized deposit. The token will represent a dollar of deposits into JPMorgan Chase.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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On Thursday, Securities and Exchange Commission chair Paul Atkins delivered an address signaling a new era for the top regulator. After the SEC spent years combating the blockchain industry through enforcement actions, the newly appointed Atkins announced an initiative dubbed “Project Crypto” that will turn the U.S. into the “crypto capital of the world.”

Atkins’ speech comes just a day after the White House released a 166-page report outlining its own approach to regulating the crypto industry, and just over three months into his tenure leading the top financial regulator. Atkins has repeatedly signaled he plans to take a markedly different approach to crypto regulation than his predecessor, Gary Gensler, who was widely reviled by the industry.

In his Thursday address, Atkins laid out a series of priorities for SEC staff, including drafting “clear and simple rules of the road” for different crypto behavior, including custody and trading, as well as allowing intermediaries like exchanges to become “super-apps” that offer a broad range of services.

“When our regulatory posture is calibrated to meet innovation with thoughtfulness rather than fear, America’s leadership position has only grown stronger,” Atkins said.

The new SEC

Atkin’s speech on Thursday reflected the most explicit overview to date of the agency’s new approach. It comes as crypto dominates the headlines, with Bitcoin reaching record highs and Fortune 500 companies exploring blockchain projects.

In his address, Atkins detailed the top initiatives for his staff: bringing crypto activity back to the U.S. after many companies fled under Gensler, modernizing the SEC’s custody requirements for companies that want to hold digital assets, and allowing firms to experiment with new types of on-chain technology, such as “tokenizing” equities, or creating blockchain versions of assets like stocks and money market funds.

“Under my leadership, the Commission will encourage our nation’s builders rather than constrain them with red tape and one-size-fits-all rules,” Atkins said.

The challenge for the new chair will be establishing its own rules as Congress continues to debate broad legislation that would regulate the market structure of digital assets, which governs how cryptocurrencies can be issued and managed. While the House passed its own version of a bill, the Senate has yet to signal its own approach.

A sharp break from the Gensler era

Under Gensler, the SEC cracked down on top crypto companies such as Coinbase and Gemini, arguing that they were operating outside of long-established securities laws and presenting threats to consumers—a reaction, in part, to the high-profile collapses of projects such as Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX in 2022.

Aggrieved by Gensler’s campaign, the crypto industry fought back by raising hundreds of millions of dollars to back pro-blockchain candidates in the 2024 election, including Donald Trump, who embraced the sector on the campaign trail and was swept into office promising to staff his administration with digital asset-friendly officials. Those included Atkins, a former SEC commissioner who served as an advisor to crypto projects after leaving the agency in 2008.

Even before Atkins was sworn in as agency head in April, the SEC began to roll back Gensler’s actions, with the reversal led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, who has adopted the moniker “crypto mom” for her open stance toward the industry. That included dropping a series of lawsuits against companies such as Coinbase and launching an agency-wide effort to engage in new rulemaking.

Gensler sympathizers in D.C. are likely to raise alarm bells that a lax approach to crypto will usher in a new era of fraud and collapses like FTX. “As happened when [Atkins] was an SEC Commissioner from 2002-2008, Wall Street’s megafirms and politically favored companies will be protected while investors will be left to protect themselves,” said Dennis Kelleher, the CEO of the consumer advocacy organization Better Markets, when Atkins was sworn in.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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IBM Vice Chairman Gary Cohn, the former Director of the National Economic Council under President Trump, sounded a cautious note on the state of the U.S. economy in his July 30 interview with CNBC’s Money Movers, warning that despite upbeat surface indicators, troubling signs are brewing beneath the headline numbers.

Cohn’s assessment came in the aftermath of a surprisingly robust GDP report showing 3% growth, which he acknowledged looked positive on its face. He said if you take a “big, wide aperture snapshot of the economy, the headline looks really good,” before arguing that a deeper analysis, even a “half-step back,” reveals important red flags. Notably, he highlighted a 15% drop in investment and concerning labor market statistics, including a significant decline in voluntary quits—a traditional signal of worker confidence in the job market. Cohn cited the latest JOLTS report, which showed 280,000 jobs lost and 150,000 fewer voluntary quits, suggesting Americans are growing more cautious about leaving their jobs for better opportunities. “People quit their job when they believe the next job is better and higher-paying,” he said, calling that a “bold statement on individuals’ view on the economy.”

Who eats the tariffs and who drinks the coffee?

“A snapshot of the economy right now is, ‘we’re fine, we’re good,’” Cohn said, referencing both the strong labor market and inflation measures that have moderated closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. In fact, he argued the Fed is fulfilling its dual mandate of full employment and price stability, as the jobs market looks close to full employment, in his view. However, he warned about softer data such as consumer sentiment and in specific segments of the economy. Cohn noted that several soft retail earnings, such as Starbucks, show that “consumers are not out there willfully spending money.”

One of the interview’s major themes was the effect of tariffs and trade uncertainty. Cohn, who famously resigned from the Trump White House in 2018, seemingly after internal disagreements over tariffs, argued that tariffs should be applied carefully and strategically. He has clarified in 2024 and onwards that he supports tariffs on products the U.S. also produces, such as electric vehicles, but warned that indiscriminate tariffs risk inflaming inflation, especially on goods the U.S. does not manufacture domestically. Cohn has been saying for months that tariffs are “highly regressive” and essentially function as a tax on all Americans, with a greater impact on poorer people.

Cohn told Money Movers on July 30 that initially, U.S. companies may absorb some tariff-related costs, but said this was unsustainable in the long term due to shareholder and debt obligations. Ultimately, he argued, “companies are going to pass these costs along” to the consumer, squeezing household budgets and creating “one-time price shocks” that erode purchasing power if wages do not rise accordingly. Host Sara Eisen pushed back, arguing corporate balance sheets are healthy, companies are incorporating AI to boost efficiency, and companies may not want to anger the Trump administration, which has famously instructed companies to “eat the tariffs.”

Cohn’s consistent warnings about tariffs through the years have not come to fruition so far, but he’s far from alone in seeing a massive hit coming—at some point—from tariffs. The entire economics establishment has warned about the delayed impact of tariffs for months; as of July, though, the Trump administration has collected $100 billion in tariff revenue with seemingly little impact on inflation. Fortune‘s Irina Ivanova reported on how economists explain that, ranging from “it’s too soon” to “consumers won’t stand for it.” At the same time, Trump is increasingly winning trade deals on favorable terms to the United States, such as the EU’s agreement to a 15% tariff, with carve-outs on pharmaceuticals and metals, while U.S. imports to the EU will be duty-free.

Cohn’s question remains: Who will ultimately eat the tariffs, and who will buy the coffee? The American consumer is waiting for the economic dust to settle.

IBM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the company’s second-quarter earnings call that people who don’t wear smart glasses in the future may be at a “pretty significant cognitive disadvantage” compared to those who do. Zuckerberg’s comments come as Meta has established a “superintelligence” lab fueled with highly paid researchers to progress on AI. The company’s second-quarter earnings reported Wednesday surpassed analyst expectations. 

Billionaire Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has always been an early adopter of new tech, but now he says those who don’t adopt smart glasses, which sit at the bleeding edge of wearable technology, may be at risk of falling behind.

Zuckerberg said in the company’s second-quarter earnings call that future humans will want to wear smart glasses, like his company’s $299 Meta Ray-Bans, out of necessity.

“I think in the future, if you don’t have glasses that have AI or some way to interact with AI, I think you’re kind of similarly, probably [going to] be at a pretty significant cognitive disadvantage compared to other people and who you’re working with, or competing against,” he said during the call. 

Just like regular eye glasses that help correct bad vision, smart glasses will be the main way people access and use AI, as well as “superintelligence,” to which Zuckerberg’s company has dedicated a highly paid team of researchers led by AI wunderkind Alexandr Wang.

Zuckerberg said he is encouraged by the sales growth for the smart glasses and added that people are using Meta’s smart glasses more often because they are actually “stylish eyewear.” Revenue from the Meta Ray-Bans more than tripled year-over-year, according to Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica’s most recent earnings report.

The Meta AI that runs the glasses is continually improving, Zuckerberg added, and the future could hold more notable hardware upgrades as well, including a visual display.

“That’s also going to unlock a lot of value where you can just interact with an AI system throughout the day in this multimodal way. It can see the content around you, it can generate a UI for you, show you information and be helpful,” he said. 

This type of full immersion in tech, with the help of smart glasses, could also help Meta realize Zuckerberg’s former favorite buzzword: the metaverse.

“The other thing that’s awesome about glasses is, they are going to be the ideal way to blend the physical and digital worlds together. So the whole metaverse vision, I think, is going to end up being extremely important, too, and AI is going to accelerate that, too,” Zuckerberg said.

After debuting its Meta’s Ray Ban smart glasses in 2021, the company has since expanded the collection to include the Oakley brand for a line of “performance AI glasses” for athletes. The company plans to release full-fledged AR glasses by 2027, The Verge reported. 

Meta on Wednesday beat analyst expectations and its performance in the same quarter last year with revenue of $47.5 billion for the second quarter. The company also reported a 36% year-over-year jump in profit at $18.3 billion for the quarter.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Microsoft has listed the jobs least likely to be impacted by artificial intelligence. Healthcare and blue collar jobs are the safest, while those in the communication field are most at risk.

For all the doomsaying about the effect of artificial intelligence on the job market, there are some positions that are, for now at least, relatively safe.

While people in the communications field have good reason to be worried, Microsoft has unveiled a study showing which careers are most and least likely to be affected by generative AI. What it avoided saying directly, though, was whether those careers would vanish in the coming years.

To determine the risk factor, Microsoft analyzed a “dataset of 200k anonymized and privacy-scrubbed conversations between users and Microsoft Bing Copilot” to assess an AI applicability score. The jobs that appear to be most at risk, were those that involve “providing information and assistance, writing, teaching, and advising.”

That said, Microsoft cautioned that a high (or low) AI adaptability was not a sure sign that a job would or wouldn’t become obsolete.

“It is tempting to conclude that occupations that have high overlap with activities AI performs will be automated and thus experience job or wage loss, and that occupations with activities AI assists with will be augmented and raise wages,” the company wrote in the report. “This would be a mistake, as our data do not include the downstream business impacts of new technology, which are very hard to predict and often counterintuitive.”

The study’s not the first to send up a flare about creative positions. What it did that really stood out was look at the jobs where AI seems to have the lowest applicability – and healthcare and blue-collar jobs seem positioned to best withstanding an AI assault.

Here’s a ranked look at the 20 careers that posted the lowest AI applicability score:

• Dredge operators
• Bridge and lock tenders
• Water treatment plant and system operators
• Foundry mold and coremakers
• Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators
• Pile driver operators
• Floor sanders and finishers
• Orderlies
• Motorboat operators
• Logging equipment operators
• Paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators
• Maids and housekeeping cleaners
• Roustabouts (oil and gas)
• Roofers
• Gas compressor and gas pumping station operators
• Helpers–roofers
• Tire builders
• Surgical assistants
• Massage therapists
• Ophthalmic medical technicians

Other jobs that are in the safety zone include industrial truck and tractor operators, highway maintenance workers, dishwashers, automotive glass installers, embalmers and phlebotomists.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• TikTok and Instagram are reportedly working on apps designed for television viewing. The move follows the success of YouTube’s TV app. At present, however, neither social network is reportedly courting a partnership with broadcasters.

While streaming services are seeing more customer churn lately due to escalating prices, two of the biggest names in social media are reportedly planning to throw their hats in the ring and launch television-streaming offerings.

TikTok and Instagram are both looking to follow the path YouTube charted with its YouTube TV service, which currently has an estimated 9.4 million subscribers. The two social-media companies are reportedly building apps that are designed for TV viewing.

The services, which were first reported by The Information, won’t be quite the same as what YouTube offers, however. Meta’s entry in the field would reportedly be populated with Reels. As yet, no other deals with broadcasters have been signed.

TikTok, however, is said to have spent the past six months working on the best way to approach the app, which seems to be with higher production-value videos. (TikTok previously had a TV app in 2021, but didn’t promote it heavily and it was pulled earlier this year.)

While there has been no official comment from either Meta or TikTok about the reported apps, TikTok’s Global Head of Product Operations and Solutions, David Kaufman, told Cannes Lions attendees last week that “the living room is definitely a new frontier for us that we’re taking very seriously.”

Beyond the capital earned from those subscription fees, YouTube’s streaming TV service has kept eyes on the app, increasing viewership of native short videos.

“These social networks are seeing how well YouTube has done in the living room and how they’ve really cemented themselves as one of the top streamers,” eMarketer analyst Minda Smiley said on a recent episode of the Behind the Numbers podcast. “I’m surprised it took this long.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Microsoft’s list of 40 jobs that have high crossover with AI is going viral—and professionals are warning that it highlights the careers “most at risk,” with historians, translators, and sales reps high on the list. While Microsoft says high applicability doesn’t automatically mean those roles will be killed by AI, employers have been putting a pause on hiring and cutting roles to make way for enhanced productivity.

As companies like Amazon publicly announce AI-driven workforce reductions, workers are scrambling to understand which careers might soon disappear and be outsourced to technology.

A new report from Microsoft researchers studying the occupational implications of generative AI offers some clarity.

Translators, historians, and writers are among the roles with the highest AI applicability score, meaning the job’s tasks are most closely aligned with AI’s current abilities, according to the report released this month that ranked professions. Customer service and sales representatives—which make up about 5 million jobs in the U.S.—will also have to compete with AI. 

Overall, the jobs most exposed are ones that involve knowledge work—like people doing computer, math, or administrative work in an office, the researchers wrote. Sales jobs are also high on the list, since they often involve sharing and explaining information.

While Microsoft said high applicability doesn’t automatically mean those jobs will necessarily be replaced by AI, the list of roles quickly went viral—with professionals deeming them “most at risk.” It comes as companies like IBM have been freezing thousands of would-be new roles that it expects AI will take over in the next 5 years, and graduates in the U.K. are facing the worst job market since 2018 as employers pause hiring and use AI to cut costs, says Indeed.

Of course, there are some jobs that are unlikely to be touched by AI: Dredge operators; bridge and lock tenders; and water treatment plant and system operators are among the jobs with virtually no generative AI exposure, thanks in part to their hands-on equipment requirements.

Still, business leaders like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have said that every job will be touched by AI in some way, and so it’s best to embrace it. 

“Every job will be affected, and immediately. It is unquestionable,” Huang said at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in May. “You’re not going to lose your job to an AI, but you’re going to lose your job to someone who uses AI.”

A degree won’t save you from AI’s jobs revolution

Many of the jobs with high chances of getting upended by AI soon, like political scientists, journalists, and management analysts, are all ones that typically require a four-year degree to land a job. And as the researchers point out, having a degree—which was once considered a surefire path to career advancement—is no longer a safeguard against the changing tides. 

“In terms of education requirements, we find higher AI applicability for occupations requiring a Bachelor’s degree than occupations with lower requirements,” wrote the researchers, who studied 200,000 real-world conversations of Copilot users and cross-compared the AI’s performance with occupational data.

On the flip side, there are some career paths with low AI exposure, that are growing in demand. The healthcare sector, in particular, is an area that is experiencing this heavily. The home health and personal care aid industry is expected to create the greatest number of new jobs over the next decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

At the same time, the researchers recognized that even their findings don’t capture the full scope of the AI revolution—and there could be further automation caused by more than just generative technology: “Our measurement is purely about LLMs: other applications of AI could certainly affect occupations involving operating and monitoring machinery, such as truck driving.”

Kiran Tomlinson, a senior Microsoft researcher, tells Fortune the study focused on highlighting where AI might change how work is done, not take away or replace jobs.

“Our research shows that AI supports many tasks, particularly those involving research, writing, and communication, but does not indicate it can fully perform any single occupation. As AI adoption accelerates, it’s important that we continue to study and better understand its societal and economic impact,” Tomlinson says.

Gen Z’s big bet on education might not be all glam

After seeing the rollercoaster of layoffs across the tech industry over the past few years, many Gen Zers have turned to seemingly steadier fields like education.

The sector was the fastest-growing industry among recent U.K. graduates last year, and it was similarly a top career choice for American graduates. And while the profession can provide further work-life balance and decent benefits, the ability for AI to do the work may cause further headache. The report singles out farm and home management educators—as well as postsecondary economics, business, and library science teachers—as roles with relatively high AI applicability.

While it’s unlikely that schools will roll out AI teachers en masse, the report’s findings underscore how quickly the technology could reshape the education profession—and many others.

The top 10 least affected occupations by generative AI:

1. Dredge Operators
2. Bridge and Lock Tenders
3. Water Treatment Plant and System Operators
4. Foundry Mold and Coremakers
5. Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators
6. Pile Driver Operators
7. Floor Sanders and Finishers
8. Orderlies
9. Motorboat Operators
10. Logging Equipment Operators

The top 40 most affected occupations by generative AI:

1. Interpreters and Translators
2. Historians
3. Passenger Attendants
4. Sales Representatives of Services
5. Writers and Authors
6. Customer Service Representatives
7. CNC Tool Programmers
8. Telephone Operators
9. Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks
10. Broadcast Announcers and Radio DJs
11. Brokerage Clerks
12. Farm and Home Management Educators
13. Telemarketers
14. Concierges
15. Political Scientists
16. News Analysts, Reporters, Journalists
17. Mathematicians
18. Technical Writers
19. Proofreaders and Copy Markers
20. Hosts and Hostesses
21. Editors
22. Business Teachers, Postsecondary
23. Public Relations Specialists
24. Demonstrators and Product Promoters
25. Advertising Sales Agents
26. New Accounts Clerks
27. Statistical Assistants
28. Counter and Rental Clerks
29. Data Scientists
30. Personal Financial Advisors
31. Archivists
32. Economics Teachers, Postsecondary
33. Web Developers
34. Management Analysts
35. Geographers
36. Models
37. Market Research Analysts
38. Public Safety Telecommunicators
39. Switchboard Operators
40. Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• After having her newly purchased car repossessed, an Ohio woman found that the dealer had failed to renew the registration of its name. She took possession of the name. A legal fight is proceeding, with an appeals court showing her some support.

An Ohio woman, whose car was repossessed by the dealership just one month after she bought it, has pulled off a revenge move for the ages.

Tiah McCreary discovered, as she explored legal options against the company, that the dealer has failed to renew the registration on the company’s name with the Ohio Secretary of State, so she registered it in her name—then hit the dealer with a cease-and-desist order, ordering them to no longer use the name they’ve used since 2012.

As you might guess, a legal battle is underway..

To back up: McCreary, according to court documents, received preliminary approval for a loan when buying a used Kia K5 at Taylor Kia of Lima. The lender later determined the information regarding McCreary’s income was not sufficient for final approval and the car was repossessed while she was at work.

Once she responded in court, with the demand that the owner cease using the name, the dealer argued that an arbitration clause in her agreement to buy the K5 made the court case invalid. A judge agreed.

That could have been that, but the Third District appeals court ruled that while McCreary signed the arbitration agreement and that would apply to the matter of the repossession, the claim over the use of the name “Taylor Kia of Lima” was not subject to arbitration, as it had nothing to do with the Kia purchase.

The court reversed the previous decision, writing “this claim is a separate matter that could be pursued independently of the other claims in the complaint that address the consumer transaction at issue.  Since this claim does not fall within the scope of the arbitration agreement, this claim should not have been dismissed and sent to arbitration.”

The case is now headed back to lower courts for additional legal proceedings.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Tripadvisor’s former CEO, Steve Kaufer, said he’s been ghosted on LinkedIn routinely since stepping down from the role three years ago. “Getting ghosted or shut out after leaving a position can happen, and even high-level leaders aren’t immune to it,” a career expert tells Fortune. Workers and hiring managers have also been leaving each other on read, but there are a few tricks to get a ghoster’s attention—or make even stronger connections who will actually message back. 

People aren’t only getting ghosted on dating apps—workers, hiring managers, and even CEOs are being left on read in their professional lives. After Tripadvisor’s former chief executive, Steve Kaufer, stepped down from the top job three years ago, he’s been on the receiving end of radio silence. 

“I laugh at it sometimes when I reach out to someone on LinkedIn and I get ghosted,” Kaufer recently admitted on the Grit podcast. “And I’m like, ‘Wow, that didn’t used to happen to me. But okay, get used to your new life.’”

Kaufer said he’s unbothered by people not responding to his messages. He explained that he kept a pretty low profile as Tripadvisor’s CEO, preferring to be in the thick of business problems and operations, only wanting to do speaking gigs when the publicity would help the company. 

But while Kaufer seems fine with slowly retreating from the limelight—even to the point of getting ignored by his own former peers on LinkedIn—job-seekers and managers are getting fed up with people not responding to them.

A career expert tells Fortune that there are a few common reasons why professionals get ghosted, and shares steps on how to deal with the silent rejection. The truth is ghosting isn’t always personal—and there’s no harm in following up, strengthening other industry connections, and tailoring professional materials to get visibility. Ghosting may even be a “blessing in disguise.”

“Getting ghosted or shut out after leaving a position can happen, and even high-level leaders aren’t immune to it,” Jasmine Escalera, career expert for LiveCareer, tells Fortune. “Always remember that rejection or silence is just part of the process, not a representation of how awesome you are as a candidate.”

CEOs aren’t the only ones getting ghosted

Tripadvisor’s former CEO being left on read is a high-profile example of a very common professional habit that’s hurting workers and employers alike.

The number of job candidate interview reviews on Glassdoor mentioning ghosting more than doubled, climbing 112%, between 2020 and 2023, according to the platform’s data. And hiring managers are even fessing up to doing it—about 69% of HR professionals admit to frequently closing a job search and cutting communication with candidates, according to recent data from Resume Builder and LiveCareer. Then there is the issue of “ghost jobs”—fake job listings that employers put up to feign company growth. Three in five job candidates say they’ve encountered one of these false postings, never hearing back from employers on the opportunity. 

But despite applicants describing the tiring hiring process as “frustrating,” “inequitable,” and “poor,” being ghosted may actually not be the worst thing in the world. 

“Being ghosted can actually be a blessing in disguise. Just like in dating, if someone disappears without a word, they’re simply not the right match,” Escalera says. 

“The same goes for companies, hiring teams, or recruiters. If they’re not communicating, it could very well be a sign that they’re not the environment where your skills and contributions will be truly valued.”

In response to ghost jobs, hiring managers’ radio silence, and exhausting hiring processes, job-seekers are turning the tables on their potential bosses. About 75% of workers say they’ve ignored a prospective employer in the past year, according to 2025 data from Indeed. And Gen Z are the worst offenders—about 93% have admitted that they’ve skipped out on an interview. 

What workers should do when they’re getting ghosted 

Job-seekers may feel powerless when a connection or hiring manager has ghosted them—but career expert Escalera suggests a few ways workers can make the most of it.

1. Build up a reputation beyond your role: Just like with the former Tripadvisor CEO, Escalera says some professionals get typecast into their role. If they leave, it makes it hard for others to see them out of the context of that job: “This is why it’s so important to build real relationships where people understand your expertise and contributions beyond your title or company.”
2. Tailor your applications: When leaving a job or making a career pivot, ghosting might occur if a worker is no longer the perfect fit for new opportunities. “You might get shut out before you have a chance to prove you’re a fit. This is why it’s crucial not only to tailor your applications to highlight transferable skills but also to invest in networking and connections in the industry you’re hoping to move into.”
3. Don’t be afraid to follow up: Double-texting is totally appropriate, and Escalera says it’s good to follow up with recruiters, hiring managers, and potential connections. “Politely ask for a status update or express continued interest in connecting. One no-response doesn’t always mean no. People get busy, inboxes get crowded, and professional persistence can often pay off.”
4. Grow your network: Sometimes old connections still won’t respond after a follow-up, so it’s crucial for workers to expand their networks and keep the momentum up. “If you still don’t get a response, just keep building momentum by focusing on growing your network, applying to other roles, and staying visible.”

While it can be very dejecting for workers to be ghosted by others, Escalera says it’s important for professionals to keep their heads held high. The right companies or opportunities will come. 

“The right company will make it known they want you by engaging, following up, and making space for your brilliance,” Escalera says. “Keeping a positive mindset and knowing your worth helps reframe ghosting not as rejection, but redirection toward better-aligned roles and companies.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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