• The sale of 23andMe’s genetic data has prompted a lawsuit from 27 states and the District of Columbia, which sought to block the sale of genetic material the company has collected from 15 million people as part of its operations. The states argue, despite Regeneron’s claims that it will follow 23andMe’s privacy policies and applicable law, genetic data is too personal to be sold without the explicit consent of 23andMe’s customers. 

Dozens of state attorneys general have sued to block the sale of 23andMe’s genetic material just as a biotechnology company is seeking to buy the company out of bankruptcy for hundreds of millions of dollars.

The bipartisan group of 27 states and the District of Columbia allege 23andMe has collected and is now looking to sell “genotype data,” or raw genetic code, from 15 million people that is paired with data on a person’s physical appearance and their family tree. The news comes as the potential buyer, biotechnology company Regeneron, faces a bidding war with 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki, who offered $305 million for the company through her recently founded nonprofit TTAM Research Institute.

Genetic data is highly personal, the states claim, and its sale could have ramifications for people related to a 23andMe customer or their descendants.

“Virtually all of this personal information is immutable. If stolen or misused, it cannot be changed or replaced,” the lawsuit reads. “Furthermore, this data is exclusively personal and unique, representing that customer’s identity and no other human being.” 

Regeron has said it promises to follow 23andMe’s privacy policies and applicable law, but the lawsuit argues genetic data—unlike other forms of data routinely sold between companies—could remain in existence in a company database forever and could be used in everything from research to cloning long after future generations of the original 23andMe customer have died.

Importantly, the states allege that selling 23andMe’s genetic data conflicts with privacy protection laws in their individual states. Florida, for example, bars the sale of genetic data without express customer consent under the threat of prison time and up to a $10,000 fine.

In a statement, a spokesperson for 23andMe claimed the argument by the attorneys general were without merit.

“The sale is permitted under 23andMe privacy policies and applicable law. We required any bidder to adopt our policies and comply with applicable law as a condition to participating in our sales process. Customers will continue to have the same rights and protections in the hands of the winning bidder. Both remaining bidders are U.S. companies, have committed to abide by 23andMe privacy policies, and will continue to operate 23andMe as it has always been operated,” the spokesperson wrote.

Daniel Gielchinsky, a Florida-based bankruptcy attorney at DGIM Law not involved in the case, told Fortune despite the states’ lawsuit, the decision on whether 23andMe can sell its genetic material will be made in bankruptcy court, which has full jurisdiction over the issue. The lawsuit may have been made outside of bankruptcy court because the states believe they won’t get a fair shake for similar objections already raised in bankruptcy court, which has a reputation for being pro-debtor and mostly looking to facilitate either a sale or reorganization.

Furthermore, if the states succeed in preventing the sale of 23andMe’s genetic data, it would render the company essentially worthless, said Gielchinsky. If the bankruptcy court does approve the sale it will likely come with consumer privacy protections that the buyer, Regeneron, must adhere to. 

Still, if the sale of the genetic data is allowed to go forward, it could set a precedent for future cases, as companies collect increasingly more personal data about Americans, Gielchinsky said.

“I wouldn’t say it’s as saleable as browsing data, for instance, but certainly this would create a marketplace where that data, that medical data, or biogenetic data, can ultimately be sold to someone who the consumer didn’t sign up with in the first place,” Gielchinsky told Fortune.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• A new report by the World Bank claims global economic growth could slow to its weakest level since the 1960s. The report pointed to an environment of trade obstacles and tariff policy uncertainty as the underlying reason for sluggish growth as President Donald Trump continues to threaten tariffs against America’s biggest trading partners.

A new era of global tariffs spurred by President Donald Trump could make the 2020s the slowest decade of world economic growth on average in more than 50 years, claims a new report from the World Bank.

The World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report, published Tuesday, paints a bleak picture of the world economy over the first seven years of the 2020s—although it stopped short of predicting another global recession such as that caused by the pandemic.

The international financial institution predicted 70% of the world’s economies would see lower-than-expected growth and that overall global growth would top out at 2.3% in 2025, nearly half-a-percentage-point lower than expected at the start of the year.

Partly to blame for this slowing growth is increased trade barriers and policy uncertainty.

“The sharp increase in tariffs and the ensuing uncertainty are contributing to a broad-based growth slowdown and deteriorating prospects in most of the world’s economies,” the report states.

Although Trump was not mentioned by name in the report, one expert said the uncertainty the president has brought to U.S. trade policy as well as the possibility that burdensome tariffs could be implemented on major trading partners could play a major role in slowing world economic growth.

Tariffs will both raise prices for businesses and consumers, causing pressure on both the demand and supply side of the economy. This effect could cause customers to spend less and businesses to supply fewer products to those consumers, effects that ripple across economies. At worst, it could lead to stagflation, the double whammy of low growth and high inflation which plagued the U.S. economy during the 1970s, said Rebecca Homkes, a lecturer at London Business School and faculty at Duke Corporate Executive Education.

“If tariffs to the level the administration is proposing do go into effect, it will have a tangible and noticeable impact on the economy, and the U.S. economy has implications for the global economy,” Homkes told Fortune.

If countries are able to mitigate the effects of tariffs with trade deals such that tariff levels are halved from what was announced in May, a month after Trump’s so-called “liberation day,” world economic growth would increase 0.2 percentage points on average between 2025 and 2026, the World Bank wrote in its Tuesday report. 

However, Homkes said the most pressing need right now is to decrease uncertainty brought on by the Trump administration’s careening policy decisions.

“Every time a tariff announcement or the possibility of a deal is announced, it’s met with a lot of skepticism that that’s going to be the same one in a few weeks, let alone a few years. So this level of uncertainty makes it incredibly difficult to plan, to model, to think about future growth, future jobs, hiring, etc.,” said Homkes. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Elon Musk’s feud with President Donald Trump could especially weigh on Musk’s companies because of their reliance on the government, said investor and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood. Musk’s companies, such as SpaceX, are especially vulnerable as its COO last year said it had $22 billion worth of federal contracts.

Elon Musk’s feud with President Donald Trump isn’t just petty drama, it could have real consequences for Musk’s companies because they rely so much on the government, said Ark Invest CEO and investor Cathie Wood. 

Among Musk’s companies, both SpaceX and Tesla have benefitted from billions of dollars in subsidies and grants—and SpaceX CEO COO Gwyne Shotwell said last year the company had $22 billion in federal contracts, the bulk of which came from NASA.

This reliance on the government could become a problem not just for Musk’s companies, but for investors amid his spat with Trump, said Wood in a video uploaded to Ark Invest’s YouTube channel Friday.

“I think the way this is evolving is Elon, Tesla, and investors are beginning to understand more and more just how much the government has control here,” Wood said in the video. “Elon is involved in companies that are depending on the government.”

For Neuralink, a more hostile regulatory environment could also be a problem. While Musk’s brain-implant company has already received FDA approval for human trials, any future commercialization would also require federal approval. Meanwhile, Tesla could later need to deal with federal regulations for its autonomous-taxi plan, added Wood. Any regulation on AI imposed by the executive branch could also affect xAI, Musk’s AI company that also owns X, his social network. 

Last week, Tesla’s stock plummeted by as much as 14% before rebounding, as Musk criticized Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” and Trump shot back threatening to terminate Musk’s government contracts. Finally, Musk came back and said SpaceX would decommission its Dragon spacecrafts, one of which brought home two NASA astronauts in March after an unexpected 9-month stay on the International Space Station.

Later, though, Musk took back his statement on the Dragon spacecraft, and has since appeared to have deleted at least one of his most inflammatory posts on X attacking Trump.

Wood said Musk is starting to walk back the feud with Trump, adding he “certainly doesn’t want to be impaired,” as the U.S. negotiates with China, on which Tesla depends both for the production and sale of its products. China recently granted licenses for rare-earth minerals to suppliers of the Big Three U.S. automakers, Reuters reported. Tesla was not included, said Wood.

“Clearly there has been some brand damage to Tesla, which he readily admits, and I think he’s trying to disengage from the government and being associated with one party or another,” she said.

Still, Wood said she believes the pair will ultimately work out their issues.

“One of the things I’ve observed over the years, since we’ve held Tesla, is that Elon Musk works really well under pressure, and he creates a lot of that chaos and pressure himself.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Women’s sports are growing in popularity globally, and athletes from the Middle East are increasingly making their mark on the world stage.

As part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 development plan, the state has supported women athletes and encouraged participation in everything from mixed martial arts (MMA) to motorsports. During the Fortune Most Powerful Women conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, three women athletes spoke on the importance of sports in the Middle East and beyond. 

Thanks to government support, women’s sports are thriving in Saudi Arabia, said MMA athlete Rasha Alkhamis.

“From year 2021 to 2024, women’s boxing grew by 460%,” she said. “Women are registered across 84 government clubs where they’re competing with men.”  

By competing, especially in combative sports such as boxing, women are not just staying healthy but also learning essential skills, added Alkhamis.

“I’ve seen the impact of boxing mentally, physically; you gain those skills, the discipline, the determination, and … you also learn how to set goals,” she said. 

While women competing in organized sports is a relatively recent phenomenon in Saudi Arabia, the popularity of many sports has skyrocketed, and women are already showing their talent on the world’s biggest stages, added Mashael Al Obaidan, the first woman to obtain a rally license in Saudi Arabia.

“We are part of male-dominant industry sports, right? But I believe that women proved themselves because we showed our talent in spaces that we weren’t historically allowed to be part of,” she said.

Other highlights: 

Aalia Al-Rasheed, Head of the Women’s Football Department, Saudi Arabian Football Federation: “When I first started at the age of 14, back in 2011, we used to find some obstacles, challenges, finding fields to play at. But today, we’re very proud that every young girl in the country has the ability and has the platform she deserves to play football.”

Zamzam Al Hammadi, Fighter, Professional Fighters League: “I’m happy that investors are really believing in the athletes, or in the organization, for us to keep going and improve the sports more, especially in the female field.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Iman Al-Dabbagh—Fortune

• Dr. Somi Javaid dedicated her life and her career to improving women’s health after her mom was diagnosed with a cardiovascular condition. Javaid is now the founder of HerMD, which focuses on treating women in areas such as gynecology, sexual health, and menopause.

When a health scare affected her mother, Dr. Somi Javaid knew that she would dedicate her career to improving women’s health.

While her mom’s health condition improved, she could have died because of undiagnosed cardiovascular disease. At the time, Javaid made a promise to herself that she would not let what happened to her mom happen to others. 

“I was pre-med at Northwestern at the time, 21 years old, and made a promise to her and to myself that this was never going to happen again and that I was going to change the world,” she said.

Fast forward to today and Javaid is an expert on women’s healthcare. She’s also the founder of HerMD, which helps connect patients and doctors for in-person and virtual consultations on gynecology, sexual health, menopause, and other areas. HerMD most recently secured an additional $8 million in Series A funding last year, bringing its total funding to over $36 million.

Speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Javaid told attendees that more information about women’s health is needed in the medical field, especially when it comes to menopause and postmenopause. 

“Menopause affects us from head to toe, undiagnosed, untreated menopause led to, just in the United States, $1.8 billion losses in work,” she said.

While menopause affects a billion people, most doctors are not trained appropriately to address health issues for people in this stage of life. Javaid highlighted that with the proper care, women need not make drastic changes to their lives because of menopause. 

When it comes to other medical conditions, such as the cardiovascular disease that affected her mother, more resources and education are still needed, Javaid added. 

“We were treating women in the United States like little men,” she said. “So that’s why my mother almost died. Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer of women in the United States.”

Companies such as HerMD are filling this gap in care, Javaid said. The company will soon train medical providers across the country especially on postmenopause and has expanded its virtual care to reach women across the country.

“Women live longer than men, but we live those years in much poorer health. And so if we can integrate hormonal health and understand our ovaries much better, it’s a key to longevity, and not just living longer, but living those years healthier,” Javaid said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Stuart Isset—Fortune