This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.“We’re going to start being smart, and we’re going to start being very wealthy again,” President Donald Trump announced today as he laid out a plan that risks derailing America’s economy. At his “Liberation Day” event, he unveiled a 10 percent–minimum tariff on all imports, with no change for Canada and Mexico but significantly higher rates for other countries, such as China and India, that far exceeded what many economists had expected.With today’s announcement, Trump is tariffing essentially all foreign goods. The administration says that the levies will bring in some $6 trillion, which would amount to the biggest tax hike in U.S. history. Some of the most perplexing updates are in countries where the United States has existing free-trade agreements, such as South Korea, my colleague Annie Lowrey, who covers economic policy, told me. The Trump administration claims that South Korea has a 50 percent tariff on the U.S., but it is basing its tariff estimations in part on currency manipulation and trade barriers. It hasn’t yet provided evidence confirming that such factors, insofar as they exist, are equivalent to a 50 percent tariff.Such all-encompassing tariffs will cost each American family thousands of dollars, economists predict. Americans will likely feel the effects of this while standing in a grocery-store aisle, purchasing auto insurance, or undertaking home renovations. These levies have the potential to increase inflation and slow down the economy in the longer term, and the uncertainty of what happens next will also contribute to the confidence of shoppers and businesses. “The way that Trump does tariffs is he often makes these really big announcements and then rolls them back,” perpetually modifying the rules, as in a game of Calvinball, Annie explained. “That’s really hard if you’re a business. Should we wait this out? Are they actually going to do it?”Given the sweeping nature of the new tariffs, Trump may have just essentially encouraged other countries to consider banding together to impose further tit-for-tat levies on the United States. The best-case scenario, Annie told me, is that after some countries threaten reciprocal tariffs, a negotiation is reached that allows Trump to feel like he has won but also “gives some certainty” to businesses and people; shoppers absorb high costs at first, but then the uncertainty declines. If Republicans realize after this whole ordeal that this level of chaos could affect their chances at reelection and opt for fewer surprises going forward, the economy could bounce back, she argued.America’s economy is full of mixed signals right now—or at least it was, before Trump’s announcement. “If you knew nothing about it and you came in and looked at the main figures, you would say this is not an economy in a recession or anything close to it,” Annie said. The unemployment rate is fairly low, at 4.1 percent; GDP numbers are strong. But things start looking worrisome when you consider that consumer confidence is the lowest it’s been since early 2021, and that Trump’s new tariff plan won’t quell those fears. The solution for the kind of post-tariff downturn the economy might face is simple: Remove the tariffs. But the Trump administration is not likely to let them go easily, Annie noted: “We could be getting ourselves into a bad situation where we’ve taken options for improving the situation off the table.”Related: Jonathan Chait: The good news about Trump’s tariffs The tariff man is coming for America’s entrepreneurs. Here are four new stories from The Atlantic: Wisconsin’s message for Trump Elon Musk lost his big bet. The question progressives refuse to answer Ashley Parker: Miscarriage and motherhood Today’s News Susan Crawford won a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, beating an opponent backed by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. A judge dismissed the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and ruled that the charges can’t be brought again. An extreme weather event brought flooding, heavy snow, and high winds to the central United States. Evening Read Illustration by Jonelle Afurong / The Atlantic. Sources: alfalfa126 / Getty; MirageC / Getty. The New Singlehood StigmaBy Faith Hill Just to be clear: Today is, in many ways, the best time in American history to be single. In the 18th century, bachelors paid higher taxes and faced harsher punishments for crimes than their betrothed counterparts. (“A Man without a Wife,” Benjamin Franklin said, “is but half a Man.”) Single women—more likely, naturally, to be seduced by the devil—were disproportionately executed for witchcraft … Forgive me, then, if I sound ungrateful when I say this: Americans are still extremely weird about single people. But now the problem isn’t just that singlehood is disparaged; sometimes, it’s that singlehood is celebrated. Relentlessly, annoyingly celebrated. Read the full article.More From The Atlantic David Frum: No tariff exemptions for American farmers Trump’s day of reckoning Trump’s Salvadoran gulag Why you should work like it’s the ’90s “Can I teach the First Amendment if I only have a green card?” Culture Break Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Play. The new Nintendo Switch 2 is expensive, Ian Bogost writes. But what if you think of it as an appliance instead of a video-game console?Ruff day? Take a look at these brave search-and-rescue dogs that help find people after disasters.Play our daily crossword.Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.Explore all of our newsletters here.When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

The idea of politics as a sport is a familiar analogy. For a little more than 25 hours from Monday to Tuesday evening, politics left behind the metaphor and became a grueling, perhaps even dangerous, ultramarathon. Senator Cory Booker’s record-breaking speech—an “oratorical marathon” and a “feat of political endurance,” according to reporters—was nearly an hour longer than Strom Thurmond’s 1957 attempt to filibuster the Civil Rights Act. The impact of Booker’s effort remains to be seen, but to judge it through a strictly political lens is to miss a grittier athletic drama—and overlook how sports science might help a future senator extend “filibusterthon” endurance even further.Before he took to the lectern, clad in a dark suit and black sneakers, Booker announced his intention of pushing the limits of his 56-year-old body. “I’m going to go for as long as I’m physically able to go,” he said.This is precisely the kind of challenge that animates amateur endurance athletes like me, as well as the professionals I write about as a journalist who specializes in the science of endurance. The open-ended nature of such boundary-pushing is particularly alluring. The current world record for “backyard ultras,” which involve running about four miles every hour until everyone else gives up, is 110 laps—that’s 458 miles over four and a half days. Research on these competitors has found that the physical demands of such a prolonged effort pale in comparison to the psychological toll.Still, Booker’s speech presented some unique physiological challenges—most notably that he couldn’t yield the floor to go to the bathroom. That’s no trivial feat: In 2007, a woman died shortly after participating in an on-air “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest held by a radio station. Her problem was drinking too much. To forestall the call of nature, Booker stopped eating on Friday, and refrained from drinking on Sunday evening, a full 24 hours before he started speaking.Scientists assess that, on average, humans can survive without water for about three days. Long before that, your kidneys will be stressed, your cognitive function will be impaired, and you may develop a headache as your brain—which is mostly water—shrinks. Just as well that Booker didn’t have to debate anyone.Then there’s the effect on your muscles. “I’m a former athlete, so I know when you get dehydrated you get a lot cramps,” Booker, who played football for Stanford in the early 1990s, told reporters after his speech. “That was the biggest thing I was fighting, is that different muscles were really starting to cramp up, and every once in a while I’d have a spasm.” As a matter of scientific fact, the link between dehydration and muscle cramps is no longer as widely accepted as it was when Booker was in college. Instead of sipping water occasionally during his speech, he might have had better luck warding off cramps with pickle juice, which is thought to reset the nervous-system reflexes that go haywire when you cramp.Fasting for more than four days also made Booker’s task considerably harder. Among Tour de France cyclists and other endurance athletes, the trend is to scarf down astonishingly large quantities of carbohydrates, as much as 120 grams—the equivalent of three plates of pasta—every hour while competing. Booker’s jaw muscles clearly didn’t need that much fuel, but letting blood-sugar levels drop is associated with mental fog, lightheadedness, and the risk of fainting. Strangely enough, you can counteract some of these symptoms simply by swishing sports drink in your mouth and then spitting the drink out. Just a whiff of glucose will trigger calorie sensors in your brain and make you feel better. It’s the perfect solution for future filibusterers, because it won’t make you need to pee.Missing a night’s sleep is one element of Booker’s feat that most of us have replicated at some point in our life. That’s nothing compared with what those backyard-ultra competitors endure, but it has an effect: Researchers have famously found that staying awake for 24 hours makes you a worse driver than drinking alcohol to the legal limit. The standard advice among ultrarunners, backed by scientific findings, is that getting extra sleep in the week prior to your ordeal can help buffer some of the effects of sleep deprivation.Even if the distance Booker covered during his event was zero miles, he still faced the considerable physical challenge of standing for more than 24 hours. Just a few hours into his speech, he had a Senate page remove his chair—to eliminate the temptation to sit down.Although the evils of sitting all day are well known, standing all day is no picnic either. Research has found that people whose jobs require standing all day are twice as likely to develop heart disease as those who sit, and are vulnerable to a host of other ills, ranging from varicose veins to “spontaneous abortions.” And yes, muscle cramps: the most likely culprit for Booker’s spasms was muscle fatigue rather than dehydration. There’s no easy fix, but marching in place might help engage different muscles to spread the strain, along with a pair of highly cushioned supershoes. The shoes of Senator Cory Booker, photographed while he spoke to reporters on Tuesday after surpassing the record for the longest Senate speech (Eric Lee / The New York Times / Redux) Even if another senator optimized all of these details, could they break Booker’s new record? For an answer on that, I am persuaded by the great Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi. “Mind is everything: muscles—pieces of rubber,” he said. “All that I am, I am because of my mind.”When he emerged from the Senate Chamber after his oratorical marathon, Booker pulled a slip of paper from his pocket. It was a passage from the Book of Isaiah: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Anyone who wants to beat Booker will need to draw from a similar wellspring of belief and commitment. But they should probably also bring some pickle juice.

Last night, X’s “For You” algorithm offered me up what felt like a dispatch from an alternate universe. It was a post from Elon Musk, originally published hours earlier. “This is the first time humans have been in orbit around the poles of the Earth!” he wrote. Underneath his post was a video shared by SpaceX—footage of craggy ice caps, taken by the company’s Dragon spacecraft during a private mission. Taken on its own, the video is genuinely captivating. Coming from Musk at that moment, it was also somewhat depressing.X fed me that video just moments after it became clear that Susan Crawford, the Democratic judge Musk spent $25 million campaigning against, would handily win election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Given Musk’s heavy involvement—the centibillionaire not only campaigned in the state but also brazenly attempted to buy the election by offering to pay voters $100 for signing a petition from his America PAC opposing “activist judges”—the election was billed as a referendum of sorts on Musk’s own popularity. In that sense, it was a resounding defeat. Musk, normally a frenetic poster, had very little to say about politics last night, pecking out just a handful of terse messages to his 218.5 million followers. “The long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary,” he posted at 1:23 a.m. eastern time.In the light of defeat, the SpaceX post feels like a glimpse into what could have been for Musk—a timeline where the world’s richest man wasn’t algorithmically radicalized by his own social-media platform. It’s possible that Musk’s temperament and personal politics would have always led him down this path. But it’s also easy to imagine a version where he mostly stayed out of politics, instead leaning into his companies and continuing to bolster his carefully cultivated brand of Elon Musk, King of Nerd Geniuses.[Read: The “rapid unscheduled disassembly” of the United States government]Unfortunately, he surrendered fully to grievance politics. Like so many other prolific posters, he became the person his most vocal followers wanted him to be and, in the process, appears to have committed reputational suicide. Since joining President Donald Trump’s administration as DOGE’s figurehead—presiding over the quasi-legal gutting of the federal government—Musk has become not just polarizing but also genuinely unpopular in America. Now his political influence is waning, Tesla is the object of mass protest, and sales of his vehicles are cratering. This morning, only hours after his candidate lost, Trump reportedly told his inner circle and Cabinet members that Musk will be “stepping back” from his perch in the administration for a more “supporting role.” In Trumpworld, nothing’s over until it’s over, but Elon Musk seems to have overstayed his welcome. (Musk did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the White House referred me to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s post calling the report that Musk is stepping back “garbage”; Musk posted on X that the reporting is “fake news.”)Musk’s appeal to Trump has always been about two things: money and optics. As the richest man in the world, Musk is both a cash cow and a kind of enforcer: His checkbook and closeness to Trump remind Republicans in Congress that they can and will be primaried if they break from the administration. But Musk’s reputation is just as important to Trump, who respects great wealth and clearly enjoys being shadowed and adored by a man of Musk’s perceived stature and technological acumen (although Trump is easily impressed—take, for example, “Everything’s Computer!”) Musk’s image in Silicon Valley was useful to the Trump campaign, bringing in new fanboy voters and sending a message that the administration would transform the government and run it like a lean start-up.But although his money is still good, the Wisconsin election suggests that Musk himself is an electoral liability. A poll released today, conducted in Wisconsin by Marquette University Law School, showed that 60 percent of respondents view Musk unfavorably, and a recent Harvard/Harris poll shows that his national favorability dropped 10 points from February to March. (He now has a net favorability rating of –10 percent.) An aggregation of national polls shows that the approval rating of his DOGE efforts has also dipped dramatically: Just 39 percent of Americans approve of his work, nearly 10 points lower than in mid-February.To many observers, it seemed inevitable from the outset that, over time, Musk would clash with, and alienate himself from, Trump, a man who does not like to share the spotlight. But behind Musk’s low favorability rating is a simple notion: Americans (including Trump supporters) are uncomfortable and resentful of an unelected mega-billionaire rooting through the government, dismantling programs and blithely musing about cutting benefit programs such as Social Security. Musk has long behaved in business as though laws and regulations don’t apply to him—a tactic that seems to backfire more easily when applied to politics. His posts, which use captions such as “Easy money in Wisconsin” to offer thinly veiled bribes to state residents for posing outside polling locations, aren’t just questionably legal; they’re blatant reminders that the world’s richest man was attempting to purchase an election.There is also, perhaps, a creeping sensation that Musk’s efficiency hunt into the government has not yielded the examples of corruption that Trump supporters crave. During a Q&A at Musk’s rally in Wisconsin on Sunday, one attendee asked if DOGE had found any evidence that “radical left” Democrats have received money from USAID, and if so, whether Musk planned to share the evidence. Musk stammered, explaining only that USAID’s money flowed circuitously and that it was suspicious that members of Congress were so wealthy. Throughout the rally, Musk seemed more interested in role-playing as a politician, delivering “extended monologues about immigration policy, alleged fraud in the Social Security system and the future of artificial intelligence,” as The New York Times reported.[Read: Elon Musk looks desperate]Trump may be realizing that though tech products and services may be quite popular, their creators are often less appealing. (Two-thirds of Americans have an unfavorable view of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for example, even as billions of people around the world use his platforms.) To those outside of the techno-optimist bubble, plenty of the obsessions of the tech elite (artificial general intelligence, cryptocurrency) can come off as weird or inscrutable. “As I mentioned several years ago, it increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence,” Musk posted on X in the wee hours today, as if to prove the point.Musk seems, at least outwardly, unable to reckon with his current position. Just days after framing this race as a hinge point for “the entire destiny of humanity,” Musk said on X that “I expected to lose, but there is value to losing a piece for positional gain.” From the outside, though, it’s difficult to see what he’s gained. Last week, protesters demonstrated outside hundreds of Tesla locations; Musk has long been erratic, but his dalliance with DOGE has alienated environmentally conscious liberals, a major demographic for electric vehicles. And by seeming so focused on DOGE, he’s frustrated investors who worry that Tesla is losing its first-mover advantage in the United States. Foreign rivals, such as China’s BYD, are quickly gaining steam. Tesla’s stock price instantly rose 15 points on the reports that Musk would soon leave the administration.There is a case to be made that Musk’s cozying up to Trump will ultimately benefit Musk’s empire—avoiding regulations that may help with Tesla’s self-driving plans or SpaceX and Starlink contracts, for example. But so many of the signs point to a less desirable outcome. Musk’s outsize support of Trump was always a political risk, but his decision to come aboard the administration and, at one time, position himself as a kind of shadow president is arguably the biggest bet of his career. In the short term, it does not appear to be paying off. Musk woke up this morning less popular than he’s been in recent memory. He’s alienated himself from an American public that used to widely revere him, and his political capital seems to be fading rapidly. The only question now is whether, after getting a taste of the political spotlight, he’ll be able to give it up without a fight.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is finally getting his wish of sucker punching the federal health agencies. This week, Kennedy began the process of firing some 10,000 employees working under the Health and Human Services umbrella. Even before he took office, Kennedy warned health officials that they should pack their bags, and on Tuesday, he defended the cuts: “What we’ve been doing isn’t working,” Kennedy posted on X. He is focused on “realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.” But instead of improving how the federal health bureaucracy works, RFK Jr. is throwing his agencies into chaos.The Trump administration hasn’t released details about which offices specifically were targeted, but the cuts seem to be so deep and indiscriminate that they are going to hamstring Kennedy’s own stated priorities. Kennedy has made clear that he’s singularly focused on reducing rates of chronic disease in America, but the health secretary has reportedly laid off officials in the CDC’s office tasked with that same goal. While cigarette smoking remains a leading cause of chronic disease, the top FDA official in charge of regulating tobacco is now on administrative leave, and everyone working for the CDC office that monitors tobacco use has been fired, according to the former CDC director Tom Frieden. Despite Kennedy’s promises to establish a culture of “radical transparency” at the federal agencies, he also appears to have fired the employees whom journalists and the greater public rely on to provide essential updates about the government’s actions. (In a statement, a spokesperson for HHS said that the personnel cuts were focused on “redundant or unnecessary administrative positions.”)Kennedy, an anti-vaccine advocate, seems to have targeted more than just the most pro-vaccine voices in the government. During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy said he would “empower the scientists” as health secretary, but here are just a few of the M.D. and Ph.D.s who were reportedly targeted yesterday: the head of the FDA’s Office of New Drugs, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, the head of CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, the director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the director of the NIH’s Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, the director of the National Institute of Nursing Research, and the director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.No plan—not his MAHA agenda, not efficiency, nothing—can realistically explain cuts like these. Instead, the mass firings don’t seem to be a means to an end on the way to overhauling American health. They are an end in themselves.It’ll take months, if not years, to fully appreciate the effect that the cuts will have on America’s scientific enterprise. The decimation at the FDA is particularly galling. Several of the agency’s top leaders charged with reviewing and approving innovative new treatments have been ushered to the exit. This is likely to lead to slower development of advancements in biomedical science; although the FDA doesn’t fund biomedical research, its leaders play a crucial role in advising pharmaceutical companies on how to conduct research and ultimately get their breakthroughs approved. America was just beginning to reap the benefits of these efforts. There are now gene therapies that can treat genetic blindness. Young children who previously would have been condemned to certain death at the hands of a rare disease, such as severe spinal muscular atrophy, now have a chance at life. The government invested in mRNA technology for decades before it was leveraged to create vaccines that saved us from a once-in-century pandemic.One particularly dispiriting departure is that of Peter Marks, the longtime leader of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. I’d guess that, unlike me, you didn’t spend the early pandemic binge-watching scientific meetings where vaccine policy was debated. Marks was impossible to miss—a bespectacled man speaking from a bunkerlike basement, a painting of a polar bear serving tea behind him. He gets a hefty portion of credit for Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, the effort to turbocharge the development of COVID vaccines, and he came up with the moniker. His center also regulates gene therapies, stem cells, and the U.S. blood supply.Marks reportedly resigned under pressure from Kennedy on Friday, just before mass firings hit the FDA. The two men—one, America’s top vaccine regulator and the other, its top vaccine-conspiracy theorist—have a long history. In 2021, when Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization formerly chaired by Kennedy, petitioned the FDA to revoke authorization for COVID shots, Marks is the one who signed the letter denying the request. It’s reasonable to assume that Kennedy and Marks were never going to see eye to eye on vaccines. But Marks publicly insisted that he wanted to stay in his role, and that he was willing to work with Kennedy. In a resignation letter, Marks wrote that Kennedy demanded nothing short of “subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” (Marks declined to comment for this story.)Of course, not all 10,000 people who were fired had this type of history with their new boss. But the cuts, in many ways, appear to be rooted in a similar antagonism. In his welcome address to HHS staff in February, Kennedy offered reassurance that he was not coming in with biases, and said that people should give him a chance. “Let’s start a relationship by letting go of any preconceptions that you may have about me, and let’s start from square one,” Kennedy told the crowd. “Let’s establish a mutual intention to work toward what we all care about, the health of the American people.” In firing a huge swath of his staff, Kennedy has made clear what he believes: Anyone with an HHS badge is complicit in the current system, whether or not they have anything to do with the country’s health problems. As Calley Means, a top adviser to Kennedy, said during a Politico health-care summit earlier today, the scientists who were laid off “have overseen, just demonstrably, a record of utter failure.”Kennedy can argue all he wants that the focus of federal health agencies needs to shift more toward chronic disease. Means and other MAHA acolytes are right that, in some ways, America has gotten less healthy and federal bureaucrats haven’t done enough to solve the problem. But decimating the entire health bureaucracy in this country is not proving his point. Kennedy doesn’t look like he is setting the agencies on a productive new course. He looks like he’s just out for revenge.Katherine J. Wu contributed reporting.

All Donald Trump had to do was start telling people the economy was good now. Take over in the middle of an economic expansion and then, without changing the underlying trend line, convince the country that you created prosperity. That’s what he did when he won his first term, and it is what Democrats expected and feared he would do this time.But Trump couldn’t do the easy and obvious thing, apparently because he did not view his first term as a success. He considered it a failure, and blamed the failure on the coterie of aides, bureaucrats, and congressional allies who talked him out of his instincts, or ignored them. The second term has been Full Trump, as even his most delusional or abusive whims are translated immediately into policy without regard to democratic norms, the law, the Constitution, public opinion, or the hand-wringing of his party.That is why Trump’s second term poses a far more dire threat to the republic than his first did. But it is also why his second term is at risk of catastrophic failure. Nothing illustrates this more clearly than Trump’s insistence on sabotaging the U.S. economy by imposing massive tariffs.This afternoon, in an event the administration hyped as “Liberation Day,” Trump unveiled his long-teased plan to impose reciprocal trade restrictions on every country that puts up barriers to American exports. Although at least some economists would defend some kinds of tariff policies—such as those targeted at egregious trade-violating countries, or those designed to protect a handful of strategic industries—Trump has careened into an across-the-board version that will do little but raise prices and invite reprisal against American exports. As an indication of the mad-king dynamic at play, the new plan imposes a 20 percent tariff on the European Union, partly in retaliation against the bloc’s value-added tax system—even though the VAT applies equally to imports and domestic goods and is therefore not a trade barrier at all. U.S. stocks, which have fallen for weeks in anticipation of the tariffs, plunged even more sharply after Trump’s announcement.[Rogé Karma: The wild Trump theory making the rounds on Wall Street]Trump would not be the first president to encounter economic turbulence. But he might become the first one to kill off a healthy economy through an almost universally foreseeable unforced error. The best explanation for why Trump is intent on imposing tariffs is that he genuinely believes they are a source of free money supplied by residents of foreign countries, and nobody can tell him otherwise. (Tariffs are taxes on imports, which economists agree are paid mostly by domestic consumers in the form of higher prices.)He has compounded the unavoidable damage to business confidence of any large tariff scheme by floating his intention for months while waffling over the details, paralyzing business investment. Even taken on its own terms, a successful version of Trump’s plan would require wrenching dislocations in the global economy. The United States would need to create new industries to replace the imports it is walling off, and this investment would require businesses to believe not only that Trump won’t reverse himself but also that the tariffs he imposes are likely to stay in place after January 20, 2029.If businesses don’t believe that Trump will stick with his tariffs, the investment required to spur a domestic industrial revival won’t materialize. But if they do believe him, the markets will crash, because Trump’s tariff scheme will, by the estimation of the economists that investors listen to, produce substantially lower growth.Probably the likeliest outcome is an in-between muddling through, with slower growth and higher inflation. Even Trump’s gestures toward sweeping tariffs have already made the economy wobble and lifted inflationary expectations. At this point, getting back to the steady growth and cooling inflation Trump inherited will require a great deal of luck.Why didn’t anyone around Trump talk him out of this mistake? Because the second Trump administration has dedicated itself to filtering out the kinds of advisers who thwarted some of his most authoritarian first-term instincts, as well as his most economically dangerous ones. The current version of the national Republican Party, by contrast, is dedicated to the proposition recently articulated by one of Elon Musk’s baseball caps: Trump was right about everything.In this atmosphere, questioning Trump’s instincts is seen as a form of disloyalty, and Trump has made painfully evident what awaits the disloyal. As The Washington Post reports, “Business leaders have been reluctant to publicly express concerns, say people familiar with discussions between the White House and leading companies, lest they lose their seats at the table or become a target for the president’s attacks.” Asked recently about the prospect of tariffs, House Speaker Mike Johnson revealingly said, “Look, you have to trust the president’s instincts on the economy”—a phrase containing the same kind of double meaning (have to) as Don Corleone’s offer he can’t refuse.[William J. Bernstein: No one wins a trade war]This dynamic allows Trump to do whatever he wants, no doubt to his delight. But the political consequences for his administration and his party could be ruinous. Public-opinion polling on Trump’s economic management, which has always been the floor that has held him up in the face of widespread public dislike for his character, has tumbled. This has happened without Americans feeling the full effects of his trade war. Once they start experiencing widespread higher prices and slower growth, the bottom could fall out.A Fox News host recently lectured the audience that it should accept sacrifice for Trump’s tariffs just as the country would sacrifice to win a war. Hard-core Trump fanatics may subscribe to this reasoning, but the crucial bloc of persuadable voters who approved of Trump because they saw him as a business genius are unlikely to follow along. They don’t see a trade war as necessary. Two decades ago, public opinion was roughly balanced between seeing foreign trade as a threat and an opportunity. Today, more than four-fifths of Americans see foreign trade as an opportunity, against a mere 14 percent who see it, like Trump does, as a threat.As the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way point out, “Authoritarian leaders do the most damage when they enjoy broad public support.” Dictators such as Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chávez have shown that power grabs are easier to pull off when the public is behind your agenda. Trump’s support, however, is already teetering. The more unpopular he becomes, the less his allies and his targets believe he will keep his boot on the opposition’s neck forever, and the less likely they will be to comply with his demands.The Republican Party’s descent into an authoritarian personality cult poses a mortal threat to American democracy. But it is also the thing that might save it.

Updated at 8:25 p.m. ET on April 2, 2025President Donald Trump said he pushed his so-called “Liberation Day” from yesterday to today to avoid April Fool’s Day—“because then nobody would believe what I said.” Now, instead of falling on a date devoted to pranks, Trump’s announcement about a new wave of reciprocal tariffs comes at a moment when his White House is facing a sobering reality.Last night, Republicans took a double-digit loss in a closely watched Wisconsin election—a campaign that became a referendum on top Trump adviser Elon Musk—and had to sweat out wins in a pair of deep-red Florida House districts. The first major scandal of Trump’s second term, his team’s use of Signal to discuss sensitive military attack plans, could spawn an independent investigation. Some influential MAGA luminaries and immigration hawks have begun to criticize the administration’s deportation tactics for lacking due process. Consumer prices aren’t falling, but the stock market sure is. And as Trump moves to escalate his trade war, fears of a recession are rising.For the first time since Trump reclaimed the White House, some of his close allies and aides are privately acknowledging that a president who returned to office after a historic political comeback has been knocked off his stride. They admit that the past two weeks—particularly the Signal scandal, which has led some congressional Republicans to defy Trump and demand a probe—have been the most challenging of his term.For months now, Trump has tried very hard to make “Liberation Day” a thing. Soon after his January swearing-in, he christened the day as the moment when he would enact reciprocal tariffs on major trading partners, particularly those that contribute the most to the $1.2 trillion U.S. trade deficit. He first eyed holding the day in February but pushed back the implementation of the levies to April 1—the date by which he ordered the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department to complete studies on what the policies might look like in practice—before nudging it one more day.[Read: Wisconsin’s message for Trump]At 7:06 eastern time this morning, Trump saluted the occasion on Truth Social: “IT’S LIBERATION DAY IN AMERICA!” But the more telling post had come six hours earlier, at nearly 1 a.m. EST. Trump advisers have long told me that the clearest revelations about the president’s frustrations and insecurities come late at night, when he is alone with his phone. In this case, his anger was directed at four fellow Republicans—Senators Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Rand Paul—whom he said were being “extremely difficult to deal with and unbelievably disloyal” by opposing tariffs on Canada. “What is wrong with them, other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly known as TDS?” Trump wrote.Trump, used to tightly controlling the GOP during partisan fights, was furious that he was not getting a united Republican front for his prized tariffs, two White House officials and a close outside ally told me, granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations.While those four Republicans have gone public with their misgivings about the tariffs, many others have quietly expressed concerns to colleagues and reporters, or tried to lobby the White House for carve-outs that would spare their state’s constituents or favored industries. Business leaders who thought Trump was largely bluffing with his trade-war talk (the tariffs in his first term ended up being milder than expected) have also tried to lobby the president or Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to ease up, the White House officials told me.Trump has vacillated on the size and targets of the tariffs—they were still being settled in the hours before the Rose Garden announcement, one of the White House officials confirmed to me—but never on whether to impose them. Trump assigns outsize weight to the stock market when judging the nation’s economy, but even tumbles on Wall Street have not dissuaded him. Trump possesses few consistent political ideologies but has promoted tariffs since the 1980s as a means to reduce trade deficits and spur U.S. manufacturing, and he has dismissed economists’ warnings that they would drive up prices for Americans and potentially stagnate the nation’s economy.[Read: The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans]“Republicans are crashing the American economy in real time and driving us to a recession. This is not Liberation Day; it’s Recession Day,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol today.The pushback to his tariffs has not been the only source of ire for Trump during a sudden eruption of negative headlines. Democrats seized on the results in three off-year elections yesterday, held just 70 days into Trump’s term. Although Republicans won both special elections to fill vacant Florida congressional seats, both winning candidates earned about 20 percent fewer votes than Trump did in those same districts in November. Of note: In the ruby-red Florida panhandle, Escambia County went Democratic for the first time in any national election since 1992—a result, many political observers have said, of the Trump administration’s cuts to Veterans Affairs programs in a region with many military families.The face of those cuts, of course, is Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has chainsawed its way through the federal bureaucracy on Trump’s orders. And Musk—whose personal poll numbers have been cratering along with Tesla’s stock—received much of the blame for the outcome of yesterday’s Wisconsin state-supreme-court election. The world’s richest man threw himself into the race with his time and fortune, declaring that “humanity’s destiny rests” on the outcome. Despite the lofty stakes, Musk’s preferred candidate lost by 10 points.Some in Trump’s orbit hope that the loss might represent the beginning of the end of Musk’s influence. For weeks, Republicans in Congress have quietly complained to the White House that Musk’s often indiscriminate cuts are making them the target of voter anger. Cabinet secretaries’ complaints also led Trump to somewhat rein in his billionaire aide. Trump has told advisers in recent days that Musk will begin winding down his time in the White House in the weeks ahead, likely when his 130-day window as a “special government employee” runs out at the end of next month, according to the two White House officials.“Musk’s ‘sell by date’ is rapidly approaching,” the outside ally wrote to me. “He was a heat shield for a time. Now he’s a heat source.”[Read: Is DOGE losing steam?]Trump has at times chafed at Musk’s more politically incendiary comments, such as his declaration that Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” But the president, according to the two White House officials, has told advisers that—at least for now—he plans to have Musk remain in his orbit even after he leaves the administration.Trump has recently taken to phoning allies late at night to complain about a series of negative stories, according to the outside ally and another person who has received such calls. He remains angry at National Security Adviser Mike Waltz for inadvertently adding Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, to a Signal chat about attack plans to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen. He has resisted firing Waltz so as not to be seen as giving in to the media, though he has fumed about Waltz having Goldberg’s number in his phone. Having pledged to bring a quick end to wars in both the Middle East and Ukraine, Trump has watched as a cease-fire in Gaza has been shattered and as Vladimir Putin has refused to agree to American terms to bring a temporary halt to the fighting in Europe. And although Trump has delighted in the showy deportations of alleged gang members to a notorious El Salvador prison, he was annoyed that friendly media voices including Joe Rogan questioned a lack of due process, and that the right-wing pundit Ann Coulter openly balked at the arrest of a Columbia University graduate student who led pro-Palestine protests.Asked whether the White House was concerned that Trump’s political momentum might be stalling, Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, told me in a statement: “President Trump has accomplished more in 72 days than any president in four years” and that he is “just getting started—there’s more work to do to clean up the crises of the incompetent Biden-Harris Administration.”But the administration is clearly hoping that Liberation Day will reset the political narrative.Trump has “spent a lot of political capital in his first 100 days, but Republicans will see it as a good investment if he can ultimately deliver on tax cuts and deficit reductions,” Alex Conant, a GOP strategist who worked in President George W. Bush’s White House and on then-Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign, told me. “But recessions and inflation are politically devastating for any president. Trump is risking both with his trade wars, so it’s understandably making his allies extremely nervous.”In a tacit acknowledgment of the skepticism the tariffs are generating, the White House pushed back the Rose Garden event from early afternoon until after the markets had closed.

If your virtual kart-racing life was missing something, you’re in luck. Nintendo, the Japanese electronics manufacturer, announced its new Mario Kart appliance today. The Switch 2, which can be used handheld or connected to a television, allows players to race go-karts piloted by characters from the company’s entertainment franchises: Mario, Yoshi, Princess Peach.The karting games that ran on previous appliances allowed racers to compete on only a series of discrete tracks. But the updated hardware allows for something else: Mario Kart World, as the new software is called, presents its users with the tantalizing prospect of a digital commute. Racers may now convey from one track to the next through a large and continuous simulated world. This new capacity will unlock other new ways to kart, among them 1980s-style arcade racing and more contemporary, open-world kart tourism.Longtime kart racers will surely celebrate the opportunity to kart anew. Someone who might have played Mario Kart 8—the previous fully original home release in the franchise—in 2014, when they were 12, has now graduated college. In the gaps between soul-crushing weeks at an investment bank or a management consultancy, karting sons and daughters who became karting adults might sneak in a nostalgic trip or race with their aging parents or once-baby siblings, now adolescents.To facilitate the process, Nintendo has finally improved its online kart-racing infrastructure. Its competitors Sony and Microsoft, whose entertainment appliances mostly facilitate simulated sports or ritualistic arena murder, have allowed players to connect by voice or even video while playing, both to coordinate matches and to issue racist or homophobic taunts. The Switch 2 finally adds this capacity to kart racing, deployed via a “C” (“Cart”? No, “Chat”) button on its controllers.[Read: Video games are better without stories]All of this kart racing comes at a hefty price: $450 for the appliance itself, or $500 for the device bundled with the Mario Kart software. Those who would choose to forgo the bundle in favor of purchasing inscrutably updated rehashes of previous works, such as embarrassing fantasy-adventure games and insipid party titles, will have to hand over $80 for Mario Kart World if they choose to add it later. That might put kart-based home entertainment out of reach for many Americans. But others will surely see the value in the Switch 2, given the appeal and frequency of these karting delights.Games such as Mario Kart World will be delivered on cartridges matching the size and shape of those from the previous appliance. Those carts may not contain software, instead acting as dummy keys that will unlock a probably time-consuming download. In exchange for this inconvenience, players will be able to “gameshare” some software titles with up to four friends, allowing the games to trickle down, Reaganomics-style, from the wealthy to the aspirant underclasses (though even these paupers will apparently still have to pay for a separate Nintendo Switch Online subscription to voice- or videochat with their game-giving overlords). But not Mario Kart World, which is ineligible for gameshare. All citizens must purchase their own access to karting.[Read: The quiet revolution of Animal Crossing]Nintendo has also updated the guts of the Switch 2 kart appliance. It will finally be capable of using the entire 4K resolution of the televisions that were being sold back when your college graduate was still 12. Note that the appliance itself features an LCD screen rather than the rich OLED displays that have been commonplace in smartphones for the past decade or so.Nintendo has also failed to heed the lessons from its previous Mario Kart appliance. That device, the Switch, featured finicky, removable Joy-Con kart-racing controllers. Inevitably, kart-racing fanciers elected to pay exorbitant prices for traditional, add-on controllers instead. A new version of those controllers is also on offer for the Switch 2, requiring a new investment of $80 each for a racing tether that features the new “C” button.Will this new kart chaos be worthwhile? Emphatically yes. I spent $1,600 on a new washer-dryer this year, and I use it only once a week, whereas I kart (or long to kart) far more often. Similarly, a good countertop air fryer might cost hundreds of dollars; why not a karting appliance too? And like an air fryer, which can toast and roast in addition to convection bake, the Switch 2 Mario Kart appliance is also capable of supporting other Nintendo-crafted experiences, such as an ape-oriented romp game announced today and, perhaps eventually, attempts to rehabilitate the non-karting titles from which the Mario character and his kindred had been mercifully liberated.

Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube A recent infographic published by Media Matters depicted America’s political-podcast space as dominated by extremist voices, mostly far-right, a few far-left.Yet most of us are levelheaded people. Most of us want insights, not insults. We want to invest our time to feel smarter, not angrier. We want to renew our ideals and remember together that America’s democracy has always proved stronger than its enemies and doubters.On April 9, The Atlantic and I will launch a new video podcast called The David Frum Show. It will post every Wednesday, on YouTube and anywhere you listen to podcasts, with eminent guests from the worlds not only of politics, but of economics, medicine, and history. I hope every viewer and listener will find that the show offers the most informed and entertaining conversations of the day—sparkled with enough humor to brighten these dark times.In today’s media, truth is often hard to find. Lies are everywhere—and too often for free. I hope all who seek something better will feel the warmth of welcome at The David Frum Show.Watch the teaser here:(Video photo credits: ​​Robert Alexander / Getty; Tami Chappell / AFP / Getty; Leonardo Munoz / AFP / Getty; Jeremy Hogan / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty; Bob Grannis / Getty; Bettmann / Getty; Drew Angerer / AFP / Getty; J. Countess / Getty; Kevin Dietsch / Getty; Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP / Getty; Samuel Corum / Getty)

There is a temptation to overhype or read too much into the results of off-year elections. In this case, I suggest we succumb.Yesterday, Wisconsin voters exposed, humiliated, and decisively rejected the world’s richest man. And they sent a stark message to Republicans in Washington.On Sunday, when Elon Musk parachuted in for a rally that featured $1 million checks for voters, he described the race for state supreme court here in apocalyptic terms. Tuesday’s vote, he declared, would determine which party controlled the House of Representatives, presumably because of the court’s role in redistricting. “That is why it is so significant,” he said. “And whichever party controls the House, you know, it, to a significant degree, controls the country, which then steers the course of Western civilization. So it’s like, I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it’s going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will. Yeah. So it’s a super big deal.”Yesterday’s result—a decisive victory for liberal Susan Crawford over conservative Brad Schimel—was, indeed, a super big deal. Not just for Democrats, who desperately needed this kind of win, but for Musk himself. By inserting himself into the Wisconsin race, Musk, the billionaire who has become a top adviser to President Donald Trump, had hoped to cement his status as MAGA enforcer and kingmaker. Instead, he provided Republicans with graphic evidence that he has become a political boat anchor. Late last night, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board fretted: “The MAGA majority may have a shorter run than advertised.”[John Hendrickson: Musk is still paying for political influence]It was a message that jittery Republicans in Congress are not likely to miss. As for Trump himself, he notoriously hates both losing and losers.The stakes for Wisconsin in yesterday’s election were huge. The outcome of the judicial race would affect everything including abortion rights, gerrymandering, and public-employee bargaining rights. But along the way, Musk turned the race into a referendum on himself and the president.Conservative groups flooded the state with literature featuring Schimel cheek by jowl with Trump, whose picture was … everywhere. Musk hoped to turn out low-propensity Trump voters by convincing them that Trump was, in effect, on the ballot. Musk and his allies hammered the message over and over in mailers: “Schimel will support President Trump’s agenda!” “President Donald Trump needs your vote. Stop the radical liberal takeover.” “Together, we won the White House. Now it’s time to win the courthouse!”In the end, it all backfired, and the election wasn’t close. In a state where many elections are decided by razor-thin margins and where Trump won only narrowly in November, Musk’s conservative candidate was shellacked. Democrats turned out in massive numbers, and Schimel failed to hit the targets he needed. The suburban vote continued a leftward shift.[Jonathan Lemire: Elon Musk is president]As she claimed victory, Crawford gave a shout-out to Musk. “Growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I would be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin,” she said. “And we won.”The timing of Crawford’s win is important. Wisconsin’s vote came amid stories about Musk’s assault on Social Security and circulating reports about massive cuts to public-health agencies, just a week after The Atlantic’s reporting on the Signal security breach, and just before Trump’s expected announcement about huge new tariffs.At the rally on Sunday, Musk—who has become one of the loudest voices on the right calling for the impeachment of federal judges who rule against Trump—bounced onto a stage in Green Bay wearing a cheesehead and brandishing million-dollar checks. How would this play in the swingiest of swing states? we all wondered. How popular was Musk? How did voters feel about Trump’s shock-and-awe agenda?Wisconsin voters have given their answer. They delivered a grim verdict on Musk’s chainsawing of government and his crude attempt to buy their state’s high court.

When search-and-rescue teams deploy to any of the numerous natural or man-made disasters around the world, they bring along their own teams of highly trained dogs to help discover victims in need. When these dogs are not in the field, they frequently take part in training sessions simulating events such as earthquakes, wildfires, and water or avalanche rescues. Gathered below are images of some of these rescue dogs and their handlers, on the job and in training, from the past several years.To receive an email notification every time new photo stories are published, sign up here.

"The Nasdaq peaked on DeepSeek day so that's a Mag 7 problem, not a MAGA problem," Bessent said.

Tech stocks fell in late trading Wednesday following President Donald Trump's announcement of reciprocal tariffs.

The announcement, which came alongside a set of sweeping new tariffs, gives customs officials, retailers and logistics companies a month to prepare.

Chinese companies are jumping at a window of opportunity to go public in Hong Kong as global investors start to return to the region.

U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a 10% baseline tariffs on most imported goods from global trading partners.

Advertisers are seeking flexible terms with media companies as uncertainty grows from President Donald Trump's looming tariffs.

Ireland has the strongest passport in the world, according to the Nomad Passport Index 2025.

President Trump's so-called 'liberation day' will reveal new tariffs on trading partners. Inside the supply chain, importers have been preparing for months.

TikTok's future in the U.S. hangs in the balance ahead of a potential ban on April 5.

Consumer electronics companies reliant on manufacturing operations in China, Mexico and Canada are reeling from the uncertainty surrounding Trump's tariffs.

President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that DOGE chief Elon Musk has done an "amazing" job but noted that the Tesla CEO has "got a big company to run."

Tesla shares rose after Politico reported that CEO Elon Musk could leave his post at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

As President Donald Trump announced 'reciprocal tariffs' on Wednesday, CNBC's Jim Cramer said the president is focused on punishing U.S. trading partners.

Tesla reported a 13% year-over-year drop in first-quarter deliveries two days after the company's stock wrapped up its worst quarter since 2022.

Every weekday, the Investing Club releases the Homestretch; an actionable afternoon update just in time for the last hour of trading.

The stock tumbled a whopping 77% Wednesday, following a 2,230% surge in Newsmax's first two days of trading after debuting on the New York Stock Exchange.

Eric Trump told CNBC that his family was "driven toward cryptocurrency" due to the way their business was treated.

Boeing's CEO Kelly Ortberg faces senators' questions about its recovery from a series of manufacturing and safety crises.

Canned beer imports will be subject to a 25% tariff, putting pressure on Constellation Brands' bottom line.

As the U.S. president weighs increasing tariffs on imports, economists find that prices across many categories could rise as a result.

AppLovin is one of the potential bidders attempting to acquire TikTok, sources familiar with the situation told CNBC's David Faber on Wednesday.

The launch is a pivotal step toward beginning commercial service for Kuiper, Amazon's initiative to beam high-speed internet to customers from low earth orbit.

The Trump administration's appeal of a temporary restraining order blocking DOGE access to personal Social Security data has been denied.

Many student loan borrowers are experiencing challenges on their timeline to debt forgiveness. Here's what they can do to stay on track for the relief.

Payroll gains were stronger than expected in March, countering fears that the labor market and economy are slowing.

Insiders and major stakeholders, including the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, can sell stock "from time to time," the company disclosed in a filing.

The DOJ argued that charges against Adams should be tossed to avoid hurting the mayor's ability to cooperate with immigration policies of President Trump.

Nintendo will launch game titles including "Mario Kart World" and "Street Fighter 6" alongside the new hardware.

United Airlines is adding service to Vietnam and Thailand in October and nonstop service from San Francisco to Adelaide, Australia, in December.

Colorado-based Suerte Tequila said it will absorb all tariff costs.

The announcement, which came alongside a set of sweeping new tariffs, gives customs officials, retailers and logistics companies a month to prepare.

Trump's plan sets a 10% baseline tariff across the board. But the president's list makes it clear that many countries will face significantly higher rates.

Tech stocks fell in late trading Wednesday following President Donald Trump's announcement of reciprocal tariffs.

TikTok's future in the U.S. hangs in the balance ahead of a potential ban on April 5.

Canned beer imports will be subject to a 25% tariff, putting pressure on Constellation Brands' bottom line.

The launch is a pivotal step toward beginning commercial service for Kuiper, Amazon's initiative to beam high-speed internet to customers from low earth orbit.

President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that DOGE chief Elon Musk has done an "amazing" job but noted that the Tesla CEO has "got a big company to run."

Nintendo will launch game titles including "Mario Kart World" and "Street Fighter 6" alongside the new hardware.

The DOJ argued that charges against Adams should be tossed to avoid hurting the mayor's ability to cooperate with immigration policies of President Trump.

Tesla reported a 13% year-over-year drop in first-quarter deliveries two days after the company's stock wrapped up its worst quarter since 2022.

Payroll gains were stronger than expected in March, countering fears that the labor market and economy are slowing.

United Airlines is adding service to Vietnam and Thailand in October and nonstop service from San Francisco to Adelaide, Australia, in December.

QVC Group, the owner of the QVC and HSN TV networks, is teaming up with TikTok Shop for 24/7 live shopping streams in an effort to revive its business.

Meta and mixed martial arts league UFC reached a multimillion-dollar, multiple-year sponsorship deal that will span the tech company's portfolio, UFC told CNBC.

Mortgage rates and demand have moved in a narrow range recently, as uncertainty over tariffs weighs on the markets.

Nicknamed the "Detroit of Europe" due to its thriving automotive industry, Slovakia produces more cars per capita than any other country in the world.

Boeing's CEO Kelly Ortberg faces senators' questions about its recovery from a series of manufacturing and safety crises.

The debate over how Norway's wealth fund should respond to the security landscape comes at a time of higher defense spending and soaring industry profits.

As the U.S. president weighs increasing tariffs on imports, economists find that prices across many categories could rise as a result.

President Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs on countries around the world will hit food and consumer businesses particularly hard, say CEOs in the sector.

President Donald Trump is set Wednesday to begin the biggest gamble of his nascent second term.

Meta Vice President of AI Research Joelle Pineau will leave the social media company on May 30.

The Social Security Administration's reported plans to switch its technology systems on an accelerated timeline may put benefit payments at risk, experts warn.

Luigi Mangione is accused of stalking UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and killing him outside a New York hotel in December.

A drop in consumer confidence and a decline in travel spending is weighing on travel stocks.

GM reported a 16.7% jump in U.S. sales compared to the first quarter of 2024, led my incremental gains in sales of new EVs and notable gains in full-size SUVs.

As TikTok nears another ban deadline, creators and firms say they believe the Chinese-owned app will remain in the U.S. They are, however, hedging their bets. 

Anthropic on Monday announced updates to the "responsible scaling" policy for its AI.

Amazon has resumed making drone deliveries in Texas and Arizona after it halted the program earlier this year.

LightSource, a supply chain software startup, has raised $33 million in a funding round led by Bain Capital and Lightspeed.

• Fox-Dominion trial delay 'is not unusual,' judge says • Fox News' defamation battle isn't stopping Trump's election lies

The judge just announced in court that a settlement has been reached in the historic defamation case between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems.

A settlement has been reached in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation case against Fox News, the judge for the case announced. The network will pay more than $787 million to Dominion, a lawyer for the company said.

• DeSantis goes to Washington, a place he once despised, looking for support to take on Trump • Opinion: For the GOP to win, it must ditch Trump • Chris Christie mulling 2024 White House bid • Analysis: The fire next time has begun burning in Tennessee

• 'A major part of Ralph died': Aunt of teen shot after ringing wrong doorbell speaks • 20-year-old woman shot after friend turned into the wrong driveway in upstate New York, officials say

Newly released body camera footage shows firefighters and sheriff's deputies rushing to help actor Jeremy Renner after a near-fatal snowplow accident in January. The "Avengers" actor broke more than 30 bones and suffered other severe injuries. CNN's Chloe Melas has more.

It's sourdough bread and handstands for Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Lee Curtis.

A tiny intruder infiltrated White House grounds Tuesday, prompting a swift response from the US Secret Service.

Jamie Foxx remains hospitalized in Georgia nearly a week after his daughter revealed the actor experienced a "medical complication," a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN on Monday.

A 13-year-old in Ohio has died after "he took a bunch of Benadryl," trying a dangerous TikTok challenge that's circulating online, according to a CNN affiliate and a GoFundMe account from his family.

Pizza guy delivers more than a pie, taking out a fleeing suspect. CNN's Jeanne Moos shows him putting his best foot forward.

Netflix is officially winding down the business that helped make it a household name.

Artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT could lead to a "turbocharging" of consumer harms including fraud and scams, and the US government has substantial authority to crack down on AI-driven consumer harms under existing law, members of the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday.

Gobbling up too many refined wheat and rice products, along with eating too few whole grains, is fueling the growth of new cases of type 2 diabetes worldwide, according to a new study that models data through 2018.

At some middle and high schools in the United States, 1 in 4 teens report they've abused prescription stimulants for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder during the year prior, a new study found.

CEO Tim Cook personally welcomed customers to the new Apple store in Mumbai as the tech company opens its first retail stores in India. CNN's Vedika Sud reports.

Senate Democrats railed against Justice Clarence Thomas on Tuesday amid reports that the Supreme Court conservative failed to disclose luxury travel, gifts and a real estate transaction involving a GOP megadonor, but their plan to investigate the conservative jurist remains unclear.

• Jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich denied detention appeal in Moscow • Putin visits Russian troops at military headquarters in Kherson • Watch moment WSJ journalist appears in Russian court

Two Russian men who claim to be former Wagner Group commanders have told a human rights activist that they killed children and civilians during their time in Ukraine.

CNN panelists react to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis floating the idea of building a competing theme park next to Disney World in Orlando.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that he hopes to replace Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee with Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland and aims to set up a floor vote on the issue this afternoon, which Republicans are expected to block.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy traveled to Wall Street on Monday to deliver a fresh warning that the House GOP majority will refuse to lift a cap on government borrowing unless Biden agrees to spending cuts that would effectively neutralize his domestic agenda.

The US has sensitive nuclear technology at a nuclear power plant inside Ukraine and is warning Russia not to touch it, according to a letter the US Department of Energy sent to Russia's state-owned nuclear energy firm Rosatom last month.

Atiq Ahmed, a former lawmaker in India's parliament, convicted of kidnapping, was shot dead along with his brother while police were escorting them for a medical check-up in a slaying caught on live television on Saturday. CNN's Vedika Sud reports.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the terms of its emergency use authorizations for the Pfizer and Moderna bivalent vaccines on Tuesday, allowing people ages 65 and older and certain people with weakened immunity to get additional doses before this fall's vaccination campaigns.

Maine authorities have detained a person of interest and continue to investigate after two shooting incidents that appear to be connected left at least four people dead and three others injured, state police said.

• Delta Air Lines reports record bookings for summer travel • Air France and Airbus acquitted in trial over 2009 plane crash

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who has been cleared to resume football activities, said Tuesday his cardiac arrest during an NFL game in January was caused by commotio cordis.

Polish pilot Lukasz Czepiela made history after landing a plane on a helipad at the top of a 56-story hotel in Dubai.

The top US Navy admiral ardently defended a non-binary sailor on Tuesday amid some criticism from Republican lawmakers, saying he is "particularly proud of this sailor."

The Fulton County District Attorney's office said some fake electors for Donald Trump have implicated each other in potential criminal activity and is seeking to disqualify their lawyer, according to a new court filing.

High speed trains have proved their worth across the world over the past 50 years.

It's April 18, the official deadline to file your federal and state income tax returns for 2022. (It is also, apparently, National Animal Crackers Day for those who celebrate.)

It's a surprising fact that's often overlooked in the immigration debate.

Tuesday is Tax Day in America, one of the most stressful days of the year, when many taxpayers will finally end their procrastination, file their federal returns, and hope for a refund from the IRS. But for many of the nation's wealthiest, it's just another Tuesday.

There are many ways to explore the seven mountains that surround the picturesque UNESCO World Heritage city of Bergen on Norway's fjord-studded west coast. The newest, however, might well be record-breaking.

A German artist has rejected an award from a prestigious international photography competition after revealing that his submission was generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society has found two of three ships that sank in the same Lake Superior storm more than a century ago, locating one in 2021 and the other in 2022.

What does intimacy look like for seniors? There's no end to sex scenes and other steamy content featuring the young and unwrinkled, but past a certain age, popular culture largely draws a blank — or treats sex as a punchline.

China's economy is off to a solid start in 2023 following its emergence from three years of strict pandemic restrictions.

• Four out of the five US metro areas with the lowest unemployment are in Florida. Here's why • Opinion: The overlooked problem with raising the retirement age for Social Security

McDonald's, which has been focusing on upgrading its core items to boost sales, is rolling out a series of changes designed to improve its signature burgers.

Shares of Google-parent Alphabet fell more than 3% in early trading Monday after a report sparked concerns that its core search engine could lose market share to AI-powered rivals, including Microsoft's Bing.

The ruling earlier this month by a Texas federal judge to suspend the US Food and Drug Administration's approval of a drug that is used frequently for medication abortions, is very personal for me.

On Monday, the GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee — chaired by Donald Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan — is set to hold a field hearing in New York City called "Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan." A statement bills the hearing as an examination of how, the Judiciary Committee says, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's policies have "led to an increase in violent crime and a dangerous community for New York City residents."

In 1917, British analysts deciphered a coded message the German foreign minister sent to one of his country's diplomats vowing to begin "unrestricted submarine warfare" and seeking to win over Mexico with a promise to "reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona" if the US entered the world war. When it became public, the Zimmerman Telegram caused a sensation, helping propel the US into the conflict against Germany.

Four years ago, almost to the day, the people of Sudan were celebrating a revolution after overthrowing longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir. Now the East African country faces the possibility of a complete collapse similar to the chaos we see today in Yemen or Libya.

Live long and prosper, Michelle Yeoh.

After the shock came the aftershocks, the power vacuum, and perhaps most significantly and impressively, the laughs, as "Succession" pivoted to face life after Logan Roy, in an episode that finally put the HBO show's title into full flower.

Of the many dark gifts Showtime's eerie hit series "Yellowjackets" serves up for us, the juiciest this season is by far the music.

Jeremy Renner is continuing his recovery after his devastating snowplow accident in January, and recognizing those who've helped him along the way.

"Barry" has taken chances from the very beginning, which is certainly true of a fourth and final season that picks up where the third left off, with its hitman-turned-wannabe actor getting arrested. That paves the way for an even darker season that accentuates the show's ensemble aspect while leaning a little too heavily on blurring lines with flights of fancy.

Much as they did during the 2024 presidential election, inflation and the health of the economy ranked as the top concerns among hundreds of constituents who listened to U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans break down his first three months in office during a telephone town hall Wednesday night. An instant phone poll, taken during the hour-long virtual meeting with the freshman Republican congressman, highlighted concerns over the potential inflationary effects of sweeping tariffs announced by President Trump earlier in the day, especially on farmers and ranchers in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District trying to sell their products overseas. “What are you doing to do to help us save money?” asked one constituent from Greeley. Evans, a military veteran and 10-year police officer with the Arvada Police Department, said it comes down to all countries acting fairly in global commerce. He said he’s heard from ranchers and farmers — including those growing sugar beets and onions — in his district who bemoan the tariffs long charged by other countries that make it harder for them to compete in those markets. “They are being taken advantage of (internationally),” Evans said. “Free trade has to be fair trade as well.” He compared the current upheaval in the global trade markets to breaking a rack of pool balls in billiards, where the balls initially scatter chaotically across the table until the players can impose order on the game. In Colorado’s most heavily Latino congressional district, immigration was raised during the call. One caller asked how Evans planned to help Latinos living in the district, which stretches from the suburbs north of Denver to the oil and gas fields surrounding Greeley. Invoking his immigrant grandfather from Mexico, Evans said it’s critical to ensure that applications for “permanency” are considered first for those making the effort to follow the nation’s immigration laws. “We have to make sure we are rewarding the people who are doing it the right way,” he said, criticizing the record-high number of illegal crossings under former President Joe Biden over the past four years. Another caller from Thornton asked Evans why he didn’t advocate more forcefully for Ukraine in its three-year war with Russia, especially because the West had promised security guarantees 30 years ago in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons stockpile. Evans called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “violent and brutal dictator” who must not be appeased in “any way, shape or form,” but that it was also critical to consider the impact billions of dollars in aid sent to Ukraine is having on the nation’s fiscal health. Until Wednesday, Evans had yet to hold a town hall meeting since his swearing-in three months ago. That didn’t stop the state Democratic Party from taunting the freshman congressman with a news release hours before the event that asked why Evans wouldn’t conduct the town hall in person. “Why exactly is Gabe Evans so afraid of talking to his own constituents?” the Colorado Democratic Party asked in an email. The liberal advoacy group ProgressNow Colorado last month organized a town hall in Northglenn titled “Where’s Gabe?” Evans was not in attendance. Members of Colorado’s Republican congressional contingent have avoided live large-scale constituent events, given the pushback and dissent other GOP officeholders have faced at similar get-togethers across the country. This year national Republican campaign leaders urged members to host virtual town halls instead of in-person gatherings. They’ve accused Democrats of organizing protests and paying “troublemakers” to attend although they haven’t presented evidence of such. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert held a virtual town hall meeting last week, her first since winning a seat in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District in November. She answered questions, which were read live by audience members and also taken in written form, from Washington, D.C. Her office said approximately 7,700 listened to the meeting. Related Articles Gabe Evans flips 8th Congressional District for Republicans as Rep. Yadira Caraveo concedes race Colorado Democrats have harnessed town hall politics before — will it work against Rep. Gabe Evans? U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo lost despite per-vote spending that reached $151 — compared to $96 for winner Gabe Evans Evans won a very close election in November against Democrat Yadira Caraveo, who was the first member of Congress to represent the newly established district starting in 2023. After having been ousted after serving a single term, Caraveo told Colorado Public Radio last week that she is considering making another run for her old seat next year. So far Evans has an officially declared Democratic challenger in 2026 — state Rep. Manny Rutinel has launched a campaign to take back the seat for the Democrats. The race for the 8th District is expected once again to be one of the most competitive House races in the country. Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.

You gotta wonder if Kyle Freeland was born under a bad sign. Because, once again, if it wasn’t for bad luck, he would have no luck at all. The veteran lefty pitched his heart out Wednesday night, but once again, the Rockies were left singing the blues after a 5-1 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Ballpark. Freeland was charged with three runs on nine hits, but his line doesn’t tell the whole story. The Phillies dinked and dunked their way to those runs on a frigid night when the baseball gods smiled down on them. And on a night when the Phillies had ace Zack Wheeler on the mound. The right-hander dominated the scuffling Rockies hitters, striking out 10, walking none, and allowing just three hits over seven innings. The one run Wheeler allowed came on a solo homer by catcher Hunter Goodman in the seventh. Goodman also hit a double in the ninth, accounting for two of the Rockies’ four hits. “Good pitching from the starters tonight, for sure,” manager Bud Black told reporters in Philadelphia. “Wheeler, for me, is one of the best five pitchers in the game. He’s a legit No. 1.  And Kyle matched him. Kyle did great.” Colorado continues to receive excellent starting pitching, but it’s been paired with a powerless, strikeout-prone offense. The Rockies, who fell to 1-4, struck out 14 times, bringing their season total to 58 over five games for a 32.9% strikeout rate. To make things worse, they have hit only three homers in their first five games. First baseman Michael Toglia led the whiff parade. He fanned four times and has just one hit this season for a .056 average (1 for 18). He’s struck out 11 times in 19 plate appearances (57.9%). “It was a combination,” Black said when asked if the Rockies’ struggles at the plate had to do with Wheeler or their poor approach. “Wheeler is really good. As a group, we are not swinging the bats great.” Freeland, meanwhile, showed his mettle. His ferocity was on full display in the fifth. Philly packed the bases with three singles, including a bunt by Johan Rojas in which no one covered first for the Rockies and an infield hit to third by Trea Turner. With no outs, the heart of the Phillies’ order (Bryce Harper, Alec Bohm and Kyle Schwarber) stepped up to the plate. Freeland struck them all out, swinging. The lefty let loose with a primal scream as he departed the mound. Philly took a 2-0 lead in the fourth. Bohm led off with a solid single up the middle and scored on Schwarber’s excuse-me double down the left-field line. Schwarber was fooled by Freeland’s sinker but got wood on the ball. Schwarber advanced to third on Nick Castellanos’ groundout to second and then scored on J.T. Realmuto’s swinging bunt in front of the plate. Freeland covered home plate and was upended by Schwarber as Freeland tried to make the tag on a throw back to the plate from Toglia. Related Articles Rockies Mailbag: Is Kris Bryant done and what does Colorado do with him? Phillies rip Rockies bullpen to negate German Marquez’s dazzling season debut Rockies’ poor defense costs them game, series vs. Tampa Bay Rays Rockies’ defense rules in 2-1 win over Rays Rockies Journal: Sean Bouchard is Colorado’s best-kept secret Philly reached Freeland for another run in the seventh. Edmundo Sosa hit a leadoff single, took second on a passed ball by Goodman, advanced to third on John Rojas’ sacrifice bunt, and scored on Trea Turner’s single. Colorado’s young bullpen continues to get burned in its baptism by fire. Philly tacked on two runs in the eighth off right-handers Angel Chivilli and Seth Halvorsen to put the game away. The Phillies hunt for the three-game sweep on Thursday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. Thursday’s pitching matchup Rockies RHP Antonio Senzatela (0-0, 0.00 ERA) at Phillies RHP Taijuan Walker (3-7, 7.10 in 2024) 11:05 a.m. Thursday, Citizens Bank Park TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region). Radio: 850 AM, 94.1 FM Trending: Senzatela did not allow a run in his first start of the season on Saturday in Tampa Bay, allowing nine hits and two walks over 4 1/3 innings. He became the first pitcher in the majors to allow no runs on nine hits with no strikeouts since the Padres’ Dave Dravecky did so on June 6, 1986, at San Francisco. Pitching probables Friday: A’s RHP Osvaldo Bido (1-0, 1.80) at Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (0-0, 3.6), 2:10 p.m. Saturday: A’s LHP JP Sears (0-1, 2.70) at Rockies TBD, 6:10 p.m. Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.

An injured baby great horned owl that was discovered and reported to Broomfield police near the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield on Tuesday is expected to fully recover, according to Broomfield animal services officers. Related Articles Embattled Englewood dog rescue Moms and Mutts surrenders state license after failing inspections Should it be illegal to shoot wild bison that wander into Colorado? Lawmakers will decide. Hundreds of wild horses roam Colorado. Can more state involvement head off helicopter roundups? Firefighters rescue yak from frozen pond in Evergreen Memorial Park Denver Zoo’s Rocky Mountain goats to be relocated to cooler climate Broomfield Police Department’s Animal Services unit found the owlet near a hangar with several broken feathers, according to Broomfield police public information officer Sgt. Todd Dahlbach. He said the animal services officers believe the baby owl likely fell from a building while trying to fly. Officers brought the owlet to the Birds of Prey Foundation for treatment and rehabilitation. The young bird happily obliged to being weighed by Birds of Prey staff, according to a post on X from Broomfield police. The owl is expected to make a full recovery and be released back into the wild, Dahlbach said. The Birds of Prey Foundation could not be reached for information on the owlet’s status. Anyone who finds injured wildlife can call the Broomfield Police Department at 303-438-6400 and ask for Animal Services. Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of anticipation and speculation, President Donald Trump followed through on his reciprocal tariff threats by declaring on Wednesday a 10% baseline tax on imports from all countries and higher tariff rates on dozens of nations that run trade surpluses with the United States. Related Articles Watch: Trump announces new ‘reciprocal’ tariffs in financial and political gamble Trump administration revokes visas for at least 10 international students at Colorado colleges Supreme Court appears divided over whether states can cut off Planned Parenthood funding Judge who ordered fired federal workers to be reinstated now says ruling applies to 19 states and DC Senate rebukes Trump’s tariffs as some Republicans vote to halt taxes on Canadian imports In announcing the reciprocal tariffs, Trump was fulfilling a key campaign promise by raising U.S. taxes on foreign goods to narrow the gap with the tariffs the White House says other countries unfairly impose on U.S. products. “Reciprocal means ‘they do it to us and we do it to them,’” the president said from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday. Trump’s higher rates would hit foreign entities that sell more goods to the United States than they buy. But economists don’t share Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs since they’re a tax on importers that usually get passed on to consumers. It’s possible, however, that the reciprocal tariffs could bring other countries to the table and get them to lower their own import taxes. The Associated Press asked for your questions about reciprocal tariffs. Here are a few of them, along with our answers: Do U.S.-collected tariffs go into the General Revenue Fund? Can Trump withdraw money from that fund without oversight? Tariffs are taxes on imports, collected when foreign goods cross the U.S. border by the Customs and Border Protection agency. The money — about $80 billion last year — goes to the U.S. Treasury to help pay the federal government’s expenses. Congress has authority to say how the money will be spent. Trump — largely supported by Republican lawmakers who control the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives — wants to use increased tariff revenue to finance tax cuts that analysts say would disproportionately benefit the wealthy. Specifically, they want to extend tax cuts passed in Trump’s first term and largely set to expire at the end of 2025. The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, has found that extending Trump’s tax cuts would reduce federal revenue by $4.5 trillion from 2025 to 2034. Trump wants higher tariffs to help offset the lower tax collections. Another think tank, the Tax Policy Center, has said that extending the 2017 tax cuts would deliver continued tax relief to Americans at all income levels, “but higher-income households would receive a larger benefit.’’ How soon will prices rise as a result of the tariff policy? It depends on how businesses both in the United States and overseas respond, but consumers could see overall prices rising within a month or two of tariffs being imposed. For some products, such as produce from Mexico, prices could rise much more quickly after the tariffs take effect. Some U.S. retailers and other importers may eat part of the cost of the tariff, and overseas exporters may reduce their prices to offset the extra duties. But for many businesses, the tariffs Trump announced Wednesday — such as 20% on imports from Europe — will be too large to swallow on their own. Companies may also use the tariffs as an excuse to raise prices. When Trump slapped duties on washing machines in 2018, studies later showed that retailers raised prices on both washers and dryers, even though there were no new duties on dryers. A key question in the coming months is whether something similar will happen again. Economists worry that consumers, having just lived through the biggest inflationary spike in four decades, are more accustomed to rising prices than they were before the pandemic. Yet there are also signs that Americans, put off by the rise in the cost of living, are less willing to accept price increases and will simply cut back on their purchases. That could discourage businesses from raising prices by much. What is the limit of the executive branch’s power to implement tariffs? Does Congress not play any role? The U.S. Constitution grants the power to set tariffs to Congress. But over the years, Congress has delegated those powers to the president through several different laws. Those laws specify the circumstances under which the White House can impose tariffs, which are typically limited to cases where imports threaten national security or are severely harming a specific industry. In the past, presidents generally imposed tariffs only after carrying out public hearings to determine if certain imports met those criteria. Trump followed those steps when imposing tariffs in his first term. In his second term, however, Trump has sought to use emergency powers set out in a 1977 law to impose tariffs in a more ad hoc fashion. Trump has said, for example, that fentanyl flowing in from Canada and Mexico constitute a national emergency and has used that pretext to impose 25% duties on goods from both countries. Congress can seek to cancel an emergency that a president declares, and Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, has proposed to do just that regarding Canada. That legislation could pass the Senate but would likely die in the House. Other bills in Congress that would also limit the president’s authority to set tariffs face tough odds for passage as well. What tariffs are other countries charging on US goods? U.S. tariffs are generally lower than those charged by other countries. The average U.S. tariff, weighted to reflect goods that are actually traded, is just 2.2% for the United States, versus the European Union’s 2.7%, China’s 3% and India’s 12%, according to the World Trade Organization. Other countries also tend to do more than the United States to protect their farmers with high tariffs. The U.S. trade-weighted tariff on farm goods, for example, is 4%, compared to the EU’s 8.4%, Japan’s 12.6%, China’s 13.1% and India’s 65%. (The WTO numbers don’t count Trump’s recent flurry of import taxes or tariffs between countries that have entered into their own free trade agreements, such as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that allows many goods to cross North American borders duty free.) Previous U.S. administrations agreed to the tariffs that Trump now calls unjust. They were the result of a long negotiation between 1986 to 1994 — the so-called Uruguay Round — that ended in a trade pact signed by 123 countries and has formed the basis of the global trading system for nearly four decades.

To understand how Connor Caponi has impacted the DU Pioneers amid their pursuit of a third national title in four seasons, rewind the tape to his senior year at Culver Military Academy in Indiana. As a senior star on one of the country’s top prep hockey teams back in 2018, Caponi was all intensity and aggression. One time, that meant laying the hammer down with a series of checks that reversed the course of a game in which Culver was getting dominated by a bigger opponent. “He kept looking back at me like, ‘Can I go?'” recalled Steve Palmer, Caponi’s coach at Culver. “I finally just (unleashed him) — and he went out there and hit about four kids in a row and totally changed the complexion of the game with his intensity. “They were looking over their shoulder from that point on because of how he played. We ended up winning that game, and I don’t think we do so without him setting that tone.” Caponi brought that same style to DU, where the graduate student forward couldn’t care less about credit as the Pios prepare for their 20th Frozen Four and a showdown with Western Michigan next Thursday at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The gritty details and leadership Caponi provides are key for the University of Denver. Coach David Carle explained that the Pios’ all-time leader in games played “does a lot of the little things that are required to win.” “He’ll finish checks, he’ll get above people, and that (fourth) line has found a way to chip in a little bit offensively over the last month, which has been really helpful,” Carle said. “He’s playing with two freshmen (Jake Fisher and Hagen Burrows) on that line, which is not easy to do, and you see the growth in those two freshmen. A lot of that is from his leadership and his ability to communicate to them as far as what’s needed and required to play this time of year.” Caponi, who is also the NCAA’s active leader in games played at 184, broke DU’s mark in the category when he played his 169th contest on Feb. 8 at Arizona State. He’s only missed seven games over five seasons with the Pioneers, including playing in 62 straight — a streak that ended on Dec. 6 because of a lower-body injury. He doesn’t light up the stat sheet (18 career goals and 19 assists) but has two goals across DU’s last four games. That includes what Caponi calls “the luckiest goal I’ve ever scored” in the regional semifinal win over Providence, when Friars goalie Philip Svedback misplayed a puck behind his net directly to Caponi for an easy open-net tally just 2:25 into the game. Denver forward Connor Caponi (22) skates during the first period of an NCAA hockey regionals game against Providence on Friday, March 28, 2025, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper) But it’s Caponi’s dirty work that’s stood out the most throughout his career. Case-in-point: The veteran tied a career-high with four blocked shots in last year’s 2-0 win over Boston College in the national championship. Goalie Matt Davis describes him as the team’s “spark plug.” “He brings a lot of energy night in and night out,” Davis said. “Every time we need (an energy boost), he goes out there and makes a big hit, big block. He’s really good on faceoffs (with a team-best 54.5 win percentage), he’s great on the penalty kill. He does a lot of things that don’t pop up on the stat sheet but are huge for us.” From a young age, the 5-foot-9, 185-pound Caponi has understood and embraced his role as a team’s rabble-rouser. Unsurprisingly, the second-year alternate captain leads the Pioneers in penalty minutes this season with 65. “By the time I was 16 years old, I knew that my physicality was the No. 1 thing that was going to get me far in the game,” Caponi said. “I learned how to get under people’s skin at that age as well. It works for me. Related Articles Renck vs. Keeler: CU, CSU, DU made headlines. Which school won the weekend? DU Pioneers, Matt Davis stun Boston College to return to Frozen Four for third time in four years DU Pioneers blast Providence behind Zeev Buium tour de force to advance in NCAA Tournament Keeler: DU Pioneers hockey star Matt Davis has thighs on NCAA championship prize DU Pioneers hockey heading to New England — again — to begin NCAA Tournament “Throwing top guys off their game is something that somebody needs to do, and I’m more than happy to do it. … I definitely try to hit people and make them uncomfortable when they have the puck. Maybe say some (trash-talk) here and there, too.” Caponi’s seeking his third ring with the Pioneers, as are Davis and forwards Jack Devine and Carter King. Those latter three players are part of a record-setting senior class that’s won 124 games. For Caponi, next week marks his second Frozen Four appearance. He was injured for the Pioneers’ NCAA Tournament run in 2022. “It was hard to sit and watch that, but being able to come back the next year and give everything I had to the program (was a momentum boost),” Caponi said. “It was tough, but I’m glad we won that year, had a great season in 2023, and then won again in 2024. Hoping to do it again in 2025.” Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Gas stations across Colorado would have to post a sticker warning drivers that their fuel use contributes to climate change under legislation that narrowly passed the state House on Wednesday. House Bill 1277 squeaked out of the chamber with 33 votes, the minimum needed to clear the chamber; 30 representatives voted no, with some Democrats joining Republicans. The measure will now advance to the state Senate. If passed, it would essentially establish a prominent warning requirement similar to the labels affixed to cigarette packages for decades. By July 1, 2026, gas stations and other fuel retailers would have to display a sticker that states: “Warning: Use of this product releases air pollutants and greenhouse gases, known by the state of Colorado to be linked to significant health impacts and global heating.” At gas stations, the sticker would be placed on the pump. The warning must also be displayed conspicuously in black letters on a white background. The bill’s sponsors said the labels were intended to inform Coloradans about the sources of climate change, and they wrote in the bill that the warnings “may encourage consumers to reduce their consumption” of fossil fuels and “to use alternative produces when appropriate.” “The purpose of this bill is to equip our neighbors with knowledge so they make decisions accordingly,” said Denver Democratic Rep. Jennifer Bacon, the House’s assistant majority leader and the bill’s sponsor. Rep. Junie Joseph, a Boulder Democrat, is also sponsoring it. Related Articles Colorado bill adding protections for transgender people — including against “deadnaming” — passes first hurdle Colorado Democrats call for “a reckoning” on TABOR and taxes, as GOP vows to “fight very hard” Gov. Jared Polis signs bill to let CU, CSU and other colleges pay athletes directly — but with “concerns” State budget, single-payer study bill, age verification for porn websites in the Colorado legislature this week Colorado House member faced investigation over ignored harassment complaint, aide mistreatment Failing to display the sticker would constitute a deceptive trade practice, which could prompt an investigation by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. But the bill would require a violation notice to be sent to the gas station or retailer, giving the business 45 days to fix the problem before any enforcement action is possible. House Republicans said the bill would have little impact on the state. “Putting a sticker on gas pump (and) telling (Coloradans) what they already know does nothing but insult their intelligence,” said Rep. Ron Weinberg, a Loveland Republican, “and burden the businesses that keep the state moving.” Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.

Carmelo Anthony is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. The basketball world knew that the Brooklyn-born former Knicks star wouldn’t have to wait long to add his name to the list of the game’s immortals. Confirmation came Wednesday when ESPN’s NBA insider Shams Charania revealed that the 10-time NBA All-Star has been notified he’s been elected into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2025. Anthony, a six-time All-NBA selection and 2003 All-Rookie Team selection, is elected to the Hall of Fame after a career that included 19 NBA seasons in which he averaged 22.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game over 1,260 appearances (1,120 starts). For the player who led Syracuse to a national championship as a freshman in 2003 and later went on to be the face of the Knicks, the news will become official on Saturday when the announcement of the full class comes at the men’s Final Four in San Antonio. The announcement at the Final Four will come 22 years after Anthony helped coach Jim Boeheim end his championship drought at Syracuse. The fresh-faced Anthony led the No. 3-seeded Orange to the national title after beating Kansas, 81-78, in the championship game at the Superdome in New Orleans. It was Boeheim’s third trip to the title game. For Anthony, who had 20 points and 10 rebounds against the Jayhawks and earned Final Four Most Outstanding Player, the win culminated one of the greatest freshman campaigns in college hoops history. The Big East Rookie of the Year averaged 22.2 points per game in a season in which he started every game. Anthony’s quick ascension into one of the NBA’s deadliest scorers started in 2003 when the Denver Nuggets selected him third overall, two picks behind future first ballot Hall of Famer LeBron James. “CONGRATULATIONS MY BROTHER!” LeBron James wrote on X of Anthony’s Hall of Fame news. Anthony averaged 21.0 points and 6.1 rebounds on 42.6% shooting his rookie year, but finished second behind James for the Rookie of the Year award. From there, Anthony’s scoring only increased. His highest points per game average came during the 2006-07 season with the Nuggets when he averaged 28.9 points in 65 games for a Denver team that lost, 4-1, to the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs in a Western Conference first-round series. The soon-to-be Hall of Famer spent seven seasons in Denver before a 2011 blockbuster three-team trade to New York made him the biggest star on Broadway. Alongside Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman landed in New York from Denver. In return, the Nuggets received Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, Raymond Felton and draft compensation. A 2016 pick swap eventually landed Jamal Murray in Denver. The third team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, received Eddy Curry, Anthony Randolph and cash in exchange for Corey Brewer from the Knicks. Anthony was selected to the All-Star team in all seven seasons he spent in New York (2010-17). He won the NBA scoring title in 2013 after recording 28.7 points per game. Anthony also finished third for MVP that season, behind winner James and Kevin Durant. During his Knicks career, the Garden favorite averaged 24.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists, but never managed to carry the Knicks past the second round of the playoffs. He reached the Western Conference Finals as a member of the Nuggets once, but his team fell in six games to Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers in 2009. Anthony’s tenure with the Knicks ended after a 2017 offseason trade sent him to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Enes Kanter Freedom, Doug McDermott and draft compensation. Anthony, who was 33 at the time, waived his no-trade clause to execute the deal. Related Articles Renck: Russell Westbrook Experience must be curtailed after Nuggets’ deflating loss to Timberwolves Michael Malone defends Russell Westbrook after disastrous sequence costs Nuggets in 2OT: “He’s a guy that hates to lose” Despite 61-point triple-double from Nikola Jokic, Nuggets fall again in double OT to Timberwolves Keeler: Nuggets’ biggest problem going into NBA Playoffs? Nobody fears Michael Malone’s bench, analyst says Michael Malone: Timberwolves have approached Nuggets games “like it’s a rivalry” Anthony then spent parts of his final four NBA seasons with the Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers. The star simply known as “Melo” finished his career with 28,289 points, good for 10th on the NBA all-time scoring list. He never won an MVP award or captured an elusive NBA title, but he finished his career as one of the most decorated Olympic basketball players of all-time. He won three consecutive gold medals during the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. He also took home the bronze medal in 2004. Anthony officially announced his retirement in 2023. Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.

A missing 14-year-old boy may be in the Denver area after leaving Rifle with a woman on Tuesday, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Austin Mairel was last seen near the 1100 block of East Eighth Street in Rifle on Tuesday getting into a vehicle with 19-year-old Aaliyah Quintanilla, the agency said in an endangered missing person alert. Austin and Quintanilla’s last known location was the intersection of Santa Fe Drive and West Seventh Avenue in Denver. Police are concerned for his safety, according to the alert. Related Articles Group accused in burglaries of 21 Aurora homes charged with attempted burglary, conspiracy Nebraska man gets prison time for sexual assault of Weld County juvenile 2 dead in apparent murder-suicide at Lakewood apartment Colorado ski coach charged with sexually assaulting preteen skier Sheridan man sentenced to 192 years for girlfriend’s murder Austin is described as white; 5 feet, 10 inches tall; and 140 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Quintanilla is described as white; 5 feet, 8 inches tall; and 160 pounds with black or multi-colored hair and green eyes. Anyone who sees Austin or Quintanilla should call 911 or the Rifle Police Department at 970-625-8095. Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.

Five people suspected of burglarizing 21 homes in Aurora have been formally charged by the Arapahoe County District Court. The suspects, all Colombian nationals, each were charged with criminal attempt to commit second-degree burglary and conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary,but the charges still could be changed or modified, Eric Ross, spokesperson for the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s office, said. Related Articles Police arrest “highly sophisticated crew” suspected of 21 Aurora home burglaries Boulder NAACP chapter to shut down, citing city’s efforts to “suppress and undermine” push for racial equity Suspect arrested by Aurora police after townhome standoff As Arapahoe County struggles with cost, Aurora rebuffs request for more time to take its domestic violence cases Police detain woman after fatal shooting in west Aurora They are being held in an Immigrant and Customs Enforcement detention facility. The suspects are accused of robbing 21 Aurora homes by placing cameras around victims’ houses and trackers in their cars, following and watching them, and then using WiFi signal jamming technology to bypass alarm systems, according to Joe Moylan, Aurora police spokesperson. The Aurora Police Department led an operation with Douglas and Arapahoe counties to arrest the crew March 27, where they served search and arrest warrants in central Aurora in the 1400 block of Fairplay Street and the 1400 block of Altura Boulevard. Officials said that during the investigation, they recovered stolen weapons, including handguns and rifles, as well as cash, jewelry, high-priced clothing and accessories. The burglaries are still under investigation, and anyone with information about the incidents can contact Metro Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.

A Nebraska man was sentenced to 15 years to life on March 28 for the sexual assault of a juvenile, according to a post on X from Weld County Sheriff’s Office. The Weld County Sheriff’s Office investigated Micah Rojas, 25, for the reported October 2023 sexual assault of a juvenile, according to the post. Detectives were able to connect the assault to a similar child sexual assault case in Nebraska. Rojas was already in custody in Nebraska when Weld County detectives interviewed him, according to the post. Rojas reportedly admitted to the acts he was accused of in the Weld County case. The post did not include identifying details about the victim, including their age and gender, or more details about the accusations. Related Articles Missing, endangered Western Slope teen may be in Denver Group accused in burglaries of 21 Aurora homes charged with attempted burglary, conspiracy 2 dead in apparent murder-suicide at Lakewood apartment Colorado ski coach charged with sexually assaulting preteen skier Sheridan man sentenced to 192 years for girlfriend’s murder Rojas was sentenced to 10 to 15 years for attempted first-degree sexual assault in April 2024 in the Nebraska case, according to the Weld County Sheriff’s Office and the Nebraska Sex Offender Registry. He was then tried in the Weld County case and found guilty. Rojas was sentenced in that case to 15 years to life in prison on Friday on two counts of sexual assault of a child with a pattern of abuse, according to the post. His Weld County sentence will run consecutive to his Nebraska sentence. Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.

A Manhattan judge rejected a majority of motions by OpenAI and Microsoft to dismiss parts of a lawsuit accusing the tech companies of swiping stories from The Denver Post, the New York Times and other newspapers to train their artificial intelligence products. The Post, its affiliated newspapers in MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing, the Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting have accused OpenAI and Microsoft of stealing millions of copyrighted news stories to benefit popular AI products like ChatGPT. Manhattan Federal Judge Sidney Stein’s ruling Wednesday preserves the core elements of the lawsuit, which will now go forward to trial. While Stein rejected efforts to dismiss claims related to statute of limitations, trademark dilution and stripping content management information from the content in question, he dismissed CMI claims against Microsoft along with a secondary CMI claim against OpenAI, and one other unfair competition claim against both defendants. The judge dismissed additional claims for the Center for Investigative Reporting and the New York Times. “We get to go forward with virtually all of our claims intact, including all of the copyright filings,” Steven Lieberman, a lawyer for The Daily News and the Times, said. “It’s a significant victory, albeit a preliminary stage of the case.” A spokesperson for Microsoft declined to comment. In a statement, a spokesperson for OpenAI said “hundreds of millions of people around the world rely on ChatGPT to improve their daily lives, inspire creativity, and to solve hard problems. We welcome the court’s dismissal of many of these claims and look forward to making it clear that we build our AI models using publicly available data, in a manner grounded in fair use, and supportive of innovation.” Microsoft and OpenAI don’t deny they depend on copyrighted material, instead arguing that it’s under their rights to do so under the fair use doctrine. Under that doctrine, the use of copyrighted materials are permitted under certain circumstances, including using the materials for educational purposes. The Post and affiliated newspapers filed the suit in 2024, challenging that notion, alleging the companies “simply take the work product of reporters, journalists, editorial writers, editors and others who contribute to the work of local newspapers — all without any regard for the efforts, much less the legal rights, of those who create and publish the news on which local communities rely.” “This decision is a significant victory for us,” said Frank Pine, executive editor at MediaNews Group. “The court denied the majority of the dismissal motions filed by OpenAI and Microsoft. The claims the court has dismissed do not undermine the main thrust of our case, which is that these companies have stolen our work and violated our copyright in a way that fundamentally damages our business.” The Post brought its suit alongside its sister newspapers, MediaNews Group’s The Mercury News, The Orange County Register and the St. Paul Pioneer Press; and Tribune Publishing’s Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, The New York Daily News and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Pine also addressed recent efforts by Big Tech to lobby the Trump administration to weaken copyright protections. Related Articles Vail Resorts cutting 64 human resources positions in Broomfield Stem Ciders sells Lafayette property for $12M Olive & Finch picks Golden Triangle for sixth location Ex-Tattered Cover CEO Kwame Spearman buys building for return to bookselling Dealin’ Doug selling former Bronco’s mansion in Cherry Hills Village for $7.7 million “OpenAI lobbying the government to loosen copyright laws to make their thievery legal is shameful and un-American. They have a $150 billion valuation for a product they acknowledge could not have been built without the copyrighted content they stole from journalists, authors, poets, scholars and all manner of creatives and academics. Makers pay for their raw materials, and good businesses bolster their communities by creating economies and industries, not by destroying them.” Microsoft and OpenAI are accused in the litigation of harming the newspapers’ subscription-based business model by misappropriating journalists’ work and providing it for free. The cases allege that the AI models also risk tarnishing reporters’ reputations by sometimes misstating their reporting or attributing it to others. The papers are seeking unspecified damages, restitution of profits and a court order forcing the companies to stop using their materials to train chatbots. “We look forward to presenting a jury with all the facts regarding OpenAI and Microsoft copying and improper use of the content of newspapers across the country,” Lieberman said. Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.

JUBA, South Sudan — After being gang-raped by armed men while collecting firewood, the 28-year-old tried in vain to get help. Some clinics were closed, others told her to return later and she had no money to access a hospital. Five months after the assault, she lay on a mat in a displacement camp in South Sudan’s capital, rubbing her swollen belly. “I felt like I wasn’t heard … and now I’m pregnant,” she said. The Associated Press does not identify people who have been raped. Sexual assault is a constant risk for many women in South Sudan. Now one aid group is trying to bridge the gap with technology, to find and help survivors more quickly. But it’s not easy in a country with low connectivity, high illiteracy and wariness about how information is used. Five months ago, an Israel-based organization in South Sudan piloted a chatbot it created on WhatsApp. It prompts questions for its staff to ask survivors of sexual assault to anonymously share their experiences. The information is put into the phone while speaking to the person and the bot immediately notifies a social worker there’s a case, providing help to the person within hours. IsraAID said the technology improves communication. Papers can get misplaced and information can go missing, said Rodah Nyaduel, a psychologist with the group. When colleagues document an incident, she’s notified by phone and told what type of case it is. Tech experts said technology can reduce human error and manual file keeping, but organizations need to ensure data privacy. “How do they intend to utilize that information, does it get circulated to law enforcement, does that information cross borders. Groups need to do certain things to guarantee how to safeguard that information and demonstrate that,” said Gerardo Rodriguez Phillip, an AI and technology innovation consultant in Britain. IsraAID said its data is encrypted and anonymized. It automatically deletes from staffers’ phones. In the chatbot’s first three months in late 2024, it was used to report 135 cases. When the 28-year-old was raped, she knew she had just a few days to take medicine to help prevent disease and pregnancy, she said. One aid group she approached scribbled her information on a piece of paper and told her to return later to speak with a social worker. When she did, they said they were busy. After 72 hours, she assumed it was pointless. Weeks later, she found she was pregnant. IsraAID found her while doing door-to-door visits in her area. At first, she was afraid to let them put her information into their phone, worried it would be broadcast on social media. But she felt more comfortable knowing the phones were not personal devices, thinking she could hold the organization accountable if there were problems. Related Articles Vail Resorts cutting 64 human resources positions in Broomfield Stem Ciders sells Lafayette property for $12M Olive & Finch picks Golden Triangle for sixth location Ex-Tattered Cover CEO Kwame Spearman buys building for return to bookselling Dealin’ Doug selling former Bronco’s mansion in Cherry Hills Village for $7.7 million She’s one of tens of thousands of people still living in displacement sites in the capital, Juba, despite a peace deal ending civil war in 2018. Some are afraid to leave or have no homes to return to. The fear of rape remains for women who leave the camps for firewood or other needs. Some told the AP about being sexually assaulted. They said there are few services in the camp because of reduced assistance by international aid groups and scant government investment in health. Many can’t afford taxis to a hospital in town. U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to freeze USAID funding during a 90-day review period is exacerbating the challenges. Aid groups have closed some services including psychological support for women, affecting tens of thousands of people. Technology isn’t widely used by aid groups focused on gender-based violence in South Sudan. Some organizations say that, based on survivors’ feedback, the ideal app would allow people to get help remotely. Stigma surrounding sexual assault further complicates efforts to get help in South Sudan. It’s especially hard for young girls who need to get permission to leave their homes, said Mercy Lwambi, gender-based violence lead at the International Rescue Committee. “They want to talk to someone faster than a physical meeting,” she said. But South Sudan has one of the lowest rates of mobile access and connectivity in the world, with less than 25% of market penetration, according to a report by GSMA, a global network of mobile operators. People with phones don’t always have internet access, and many are illiterate. “You have to be thinking, will this work in a low-tech environment? What are the literacy rates? Do they have access to devices? If so, what kind? Will they find it engaging, will they trust it, is it safe?” said Kirsten Pontalti, a senior associate at Proteknon Foundation for Innovation and Learning, an international organization focused on advancing child protection. Pontalti has piloted two chatbots, one to help youth and parents better access information about sexual reproductive health and the other for frontline workers focused on child protection during COVID. She said technology focused on reporting abuse should include an audio component for people with low literacy and be as low-tech as possible. Some survivors of sexual assault say they just want to be heard, whether by phone or in person. One 45-year-old man, a father of 11, said it took years to seek help after being raped by his wife after he refused to have sex and said he didn’t want more children they couldn’t afford to support. It took multiple visits by aid workers to his displacement site in Juba before he felt comfortable speaking out. “Organizations need to engage more with the community,” he said. “If they hadn’t shown up, I wouldn’t have come in.” ___ For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse ___ The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.

According to Margo Harrison, the 1911 invention of Midol was the last time a new period pain product hit the market. That was until last week, when her company, Wave Bye, launched its line of supplements to promote cycle regularity and help curb bleeding and cramps. “(Women) are not trying to be superhuman,” the OB-GYN said. “They just want to feel normal.” Wave Bye, which Harrison founded in 2023, sells a “backbone” daily supplement called Bye Irregularity to make periods more predictable. Those are intended to treat several symptoms, including potential migraines, fatigue and irritability that come from premenstrual syndrome. Once you know your schedule, the company’s period-specific products, called Bye Cramps and Bye Bad Cramps, are more effective, she said.  They prevent messengers from telling the uterus to contract and bleed, she added. “You need to take the supplement every day to regulate your cycle, and then what differentiates our (other) products is they need to be taken two days before bleeding,” Harrison explained. “If you block symptoms two days before, you totally change the period experience.” Other medications and remedies are sparse, Harrison said. Though women will use Midol and Tylenol for relief, those pills target the brain rather than the uterus directly, she said. There are also gummies on the market for PMS, but she added that there’s nothing like Wave Bye’s two-pronged, premenstrual attack on irregularity and period pain using its Vitamin E-based product. Heating pads and relief patches only do so much, too, Harrison added. She hopes that Wave Bye can be a more encompassing approach to the menstruation problem about half the population manages for decades of their lives. The company sells the products in four bundles — each for different severities of symptoms – on its website. They cost between $70 and $80 on a monthly subscription, with one-time purchases and three-month and 12-month packs also available. Harrison is also in negotiations to sell Wave Bye at yoga studios and health shops including Bridget’s Botanicals in Littleton. The company also offers revenue sharing or discount opportunities for health care professionals such as OB-GYNs and nurses. “There’s no benefit from bleeding just to bleed. If you cut your hand, are you supposed to just let it keep bleeding? You’re not getting any benefit from not turning off the faucet,” Harrison said. “It’s not necessarily bad – it’s meant to support a pregnancy. But we want to reduce period pain and bleeding and make that period experience better in order to give people their time back.” Harrison was a clinical researcher at Columbia University and the University of Colorado Anschutz, focusing on pregnancy in poor countries. She then went to consult VC-backed women’s health firms three years ago. Through that and her work as an abortion provider for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains over the last two-and-a-half years, she saw the need for Wave Bye. “I’d have patients sit up from an abortion and hear them say, ‘Well, at least that was less painful than my period,’” she said. “People get gaslit, and the OB-GYNs don’t deal with period pain until it’s really profound. It feels like there’s this gap. They just do what their moms or friends or community are doing.” Wave Bye has so far raised $300,000 out of what Harrison hopes is an $875,000 round. Most of that is angel funding, she said, along with one Denver-area institutional investor. She hopes to close the round in the next couple of months. The money will mostly be used to develop another product, which Harrison said will likely take at least two years, and continue work on a yet-to-be-released app to help users schedule their doses. Related Articles Vail Resorts cutting 64 human resources positions in Broomfield Stem Ciders sells Lafayette property for $12M Olive & Finch picks Golden Triangle for sixth location Ex-Tattered Cover CEO Kwame Spearman buys building for return to bookselling Dealin’ Doug selling former Bronco’s mansion in Cherry Hills Village for $7.7 million Wave Bye already saw some traction from a small batch of users late last year, so Harrison is confident sales will take off now that her business is officially off the ground. Of the 25 units Wave Bye has sold, she said about half came from three- and 12-month purchases. “If people trust the product,” she said, “they’re gonna get more.” Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.

After a few years of writing what she called a “niche newsletter for Washington insiders,” political journalist Tara Palmeri decided she wanted to reach a wider audience. A much wider audience. She’s taking her reporting to YouTube. Palmeri said she is leaving the startup Puck to strike out on her own, focusing much of her effort on the streaming giant. She joins a slew of other journalists who have left news organizations to build their own businesses around podcasts and newsletters. But in politics, the most successful of these independent media stars have strong views and clear allegiances. Conservative hosts such as Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly remain atop the podcasting charts, and anti-Trump media collectives are rapidly growing; two of them, The Contrarian and MeidasTouch, each have more than 500,000 newsletter subscribers, many of them paid. That is not Palmeri. “I’m not on a crusade,” said Palmeri, 37, the type of political journalist who proudly abstains from voting in elections while she’s covering them in order to maintain objectivity with her audience. “I’m not sold on either party, and that’s why I don’t really have a lot of friends.” In her new venture, Palmeri wants to speak to audiences from the underdeveloped territory of “the middle,” she said, without a political agenda. “There isn’t really anyone there yet, and I want to try.” In focusing on YouTube, Palmeri is also taking a slightly a different tack from many of the journalists who have recently left media companies — whether voluntarily or through layoffs or firings — to release their own content, typically on Substack. (Although she will have a Substack newsletter, too.) YouTube says its viewers want more long-form news analysis, especially via podcasts. It recently announced having more than 1 billion monthly podcast listeners, outpacing any other media platform. (Watching and listening to podcasts is an increasingly fuzzy distinction.) Palmeri is part of a program meant to support “next generation” independent journalists on the platform with training and funding. But whether “news influencers” like Palmeri can succeed at the same scale of popular partisan commentators is still untested. Many people say they want more unbiased news. Do they really? Adam Faze, an emerging-media guru known for producing TikTok shows who is informally advising Palmeri, said he wasn’t aware of other political journalists approaching YouTube quite like her. Related Articles Vail Resorts cutting 64 human resources positions in Broomfield Stem Ciders sells Lafayette property for $12M Olive & Finch picks Golden Triangle for sixth location Ex-Tattered Cover CEO Kwame Spearman buys building for return to bookselling Dealin’ Doug selling former Bronco’s mansion in Cherry Hills Village for $7.7 million “Not with her access,” he said. Piers Morgan has been successful, Faze pointed out, but his YouTube channel is largely reminiscent of his cable news days, with cacophonous cross-talking panels and a green-screen cityscape backdrop. “I don’t want you to go to this YouTube page and think, ‘I could have watched that on a cable channel,’” Palmeri said. She aspires to “speak like a normal person,” rather than a news anchor, and also “be more gritty.” Palmeri takes pride in her grit. She often describes herself as “feared and fearless” — a daughter of New Jersey whose parents did not go to universities. Her zeal for scoops has made her variously unpopular among both Democrats and Republicans and occasionally other journalists. Before Puck, while working for Politico, Palmeri reported on an investigation into a gun owned by Hunter Biden, a story that she said had “ostracized” her from her newsroom. In 2021, a deputy White House press secretary resigned after telling Palmeri that he would “destroy” her for reporting on his relationship with an Axios journalist who had covered the president. An old-school tabloid sensibility drives Palmeri, who in her 20s door-knocked a couple of White House gate-crashers for The Washington Examiner and chased a “cop-killer” in Cuba for The New York Post. On her new Substack, The Red Letter, she plans to include blind gossip items, Palmeri said. “She has a cadence that makes you feel like you’re just talking to a girlfriend” rather than a journalist, said Holly Harris, a veteran Republican strategist who encouraged Palmeri to go independent. This disposition can prove “a little dangerous,” Harris added: “All of a sudden you realize you’ve given up the state secrets.” In November, at a cocktail party in Washington, a former congressional staff member approached this reporter with the warning not to trust Palmeri, who was also at the party. (“I love that,” Palmeri later said.) Palmeri has at times struggled to fit in while working at more traditional newsrooms, such as ABC News, where she spent about two years as a White House correspondent — the first of which she appeared infrequently on the air. “I’ve always felt like there’s never really been a place that I’ve been at home,” she said. After ABC, she hosted investigative podcasts for Sony about disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and the wealthy family of his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell. She intends to continue making podcasts; her current show, “Somebody’s Gotta Win,” an election collaboration between Puck and Spotify’s The Ringer, is set to end in April, she said. Puck, which she joined in 2022, was more suited to her self-driven (and self-promotional) streak than any other employer. “We’re kind of renegades,” Palmeri said, crediting Puck with helping find her voice. “It was the closest place I had gotten to me writing directly to an audience, but it was still edited in a style that was not me,” she said. The tone was more “elite and impressive” than her natural voice; one example she offered was the frequent use of the word “indeed.” To go independent, she is giving up her $260,000 base salary at Puck and funding her new venture with her savings. The dining table of her one-bedroom New York City apartment in brownstone Brooklyn has become her recording studio. With an initial grant from YouTube, Palmeri bought about $10,000 worth of equipment, and tested and hired editors. (She and YouTube both declined to disclose the size of the grant.) In return, she has committed to publishing about four videos per week. Investors are also interested in Palmeri, she said, though she has not decided whether or when to take their money. She would prefer to accept “squeaky clean” funding from both ends of the political spectrum, she said: “This is a trust business.” She has also considered a new line of credit or a small-business loan. “I’m willing to bet on myself,” Palmeri said. “There’s no one over me telling me, ‘This is the headline, this is the angle.’ You don’t like it? It’s me. There’s no one else to blame.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.

LONDON — If you’ve got a smartphone, you probably spend too much time on it — checking Instagram, watching silly TikTok videos, messaging on WhatsApp or doomscrolling on X. It can be hard to curb excessive use of smartphones and social media, which are addictive by design. Reducing your screen time is often more than just a matter of willpower, especially for younger people whose brains and impulse control are still developing. If you’re a phone addict who wants to cut down on the hours a day spent looking at your device, here are some techniques you can try to free up more IRL time: Delete apps An easy first step is getting rid of any apps you’ve been wasting time on. Over the past year, I’ve deleted Facebook, Instagram and Twitter from my phone because I wanted to use them less. Now and then I’ll have to go the app store and reinstall one because I need to do something like post a photo I took on my phone. (Sometimes I’ll transfer the photo to my laptop and then post it to the web from there, but usually, it’s too much hassle.) The danger with this approach is that if you do reinstall the app, you won’t bother deleting it again. Use built-in controls Both iPhones and Android devices have onboard controls to help regulate screen time. They can also be used by parents to regulate children’s phone usage. Apple’s Screen Time controls are found in the iPhone’s settings menu. Users can set overall Downtime, which shuts off all phone activity during a set period. If you want a phone-free evening, then you could set it to kick in from, say, 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. The controls also let users put a blanket restriction on certain categories of apps, such as social, games or entertainment or zero in on a specific app, by limiting the time that can be spent on it. Too distracted by Instagram? Then set it so that you can only use it for a daily total of 20 minutes. The downside is that the limits aren’t hard to get around. It’s more of a nudge than a red line that you can’t cross. If you try to open an app with a limit, you’ll get a screen menu offering one more minute, a reminder after 15 minutes, or to completely ignore it. Android users can use turn to their Digital Wellbeing settings, which include widgets to remind users how much screen time they’ve had. There’s also the option to create separate work and personal profiles, so you can hide your social media apps and their notifications when you’re at the office. Don’t be distracted There are other little tricks to make your phone less distracting. I use the Focus mode on my iPhone to silence notifications. For example, If I’m in a meeting somewhere, I mute it until I leave that location. Android also has a Focus mode to pause distracting apps. Change your phone display to grayscale from color so that it doesn’t look so exciting. On iPhones, adjust the color filter in your settings. For Android, turn on Bedtime Mode, or tweak the color correction setting. Android phones can also nag users not to look at their phones while walking, by activating the Heads Up feature in Digital Wellbeing. Block those apps If the built-in controls aren’t enough, there are many third-party apps, like Jomo, Opal, Forest, Roots and LockMeOut that are designed to cut down screen time. Related Articles Vail Resorts cutting 64 human resources positions in Broomfield Stem Ciders sells Lafayette property for $12M Olive & Finch picks Golden Triangle for sixth location Ex-Tattered Cover CEO Kwame Spearman buys building for return to bookselling Dealin’ Doug selling former Bronco’s mansion in Cherry Hills Village for $7.7 million Many of these apps have both free and premium versions with more features, and strongly push you toward signing up for a subscription by minimizing the option to “skip for now” on the payment screen. I tested out a few on my iPhone for this story. To try out Opal, I reinstalled Facebook so I could block it. Whenever I tapped the Facebook icon, Opal intervened to give me various inspirational messages, like “Gain Wisdom, Lose Facebook,” and tallied how many times I tried to open it. To get around the block, I had to open Opal and wait through a six-second timeout before requesting up to 15 minutes to look at Facebook. There’s an option to up the difficulty by increasing the delay before you can look again. Jomo, which I used to restrict my phone’s Reddit app, worked in a similar way: tap the Unlock button, which took me to the Jomo app, where I had to wait 20 seconds before I could tap the button to unlock Reddit for up to 10 minutes. The OneSec app takes a different approach by reminding users to first take a pause. The installation, which involves setting up an automation on the iPhone’s Shortcuts, can be confusing. When I eventually installed it for my Bluesky app, it gave me a prompt to run a shortcut that wiped my screen with a soothing purple-blue and reminded me to take a deep breath before letting me choose to open the app — but in practice it was too easy to just skip the prompt. The Android-only LockMeOut can freeze you out of designated apps based on criteria like your location, how many times you’ve opened an app, or how long you’ve used it. The obvious way to defeat these apps is simply to delete them, although some advise users to follow the proper uninstall procedure or else apps could remain blocked. Use external hardware Digital blockers might not be for everyone. Some startups, figuring that people might prefer a tangible barrier, offer hardware solutions that introduce physical friction between you and an app. Unpluq is a yellow tag that you have to hold up to your phone in order to access blocked apps. Brick and Blok are two different products that work along the same lines — they’re squarish pieces of plastic that you have to tap or scan with your phone to unlock an app. The makers of these devices say that software solutions are too easy to bypass, but a physical object that you can put somewhere out of reach or leave behind if you’re going somewhere is a more effective way to get rid of distractions. What about stashing the phone away entirely? There are various phone lockboxes and cases available, some of them designed so parents can lock up their teenagers’ phones when they’re supposed to be sleeping. Yondr, which makes portable phone locking pouches used at concerts or in schools, also sells a home phone box. See a therapist Perhaps there are deeper reasons for your smartphone compulsion. Maybe it’s a symptom of underlying problems like anxiety, stress, loneliness, depression or low self-esteem. If you think that’s the case, it could be worth exploring therapy that is becoming more widely available. One London hospital treats “technology addiction” with a plan that includes dealing with “discomfort in face-to-face time” with other people, and exploring your relationship with technology. Another clinic boasts that its social media addiction treatment also includes working on a patient’s technology management skills, such as “setting boundaries for device usage, finding alternative activities to fill the void of reduced online interaction, and learning how to engage more with the physical world.” Downgrade your phone Why not trade your smartphone for a more basic one? It’s an extreme option but there’s a thriving subculture of cellphones with only basic features, catering to both retro enthusiasts and people, including parents, worried about screen time. They range from cheap old-school brick-and-flip phones by faded brands like Nokia to stylish but pricier devices from boutique manufacturers like Punkt. The tradeoff, of course, is that you’ll also have to do without essential apps like Google Maps or your bank. ___ Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip. Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.

LAMAR — The land runs deep in southeastern Colorado. For Bob Bamber, the connection goes back to his great-great-grandfather, who homesteaded north of Pritchett, a tiny Baca County town of barely 100 people not far from the Oklahoma state line. So the 44-year-old rancher took notice when he found out that a portion of the 10,000 acres of ranchland he and his father own and lease in neighboring Prowers County had been placed in a zone designated by the U.S. Department of Energy as a potential high-voltage electric transmission corridor. And he got agitated. “It’s an emotional reaction because of that family connection,” said Bamber, bouncing in his truck along dirt roads that slice through prairie dotted with cedar trees, yucca and prickly pear cactus. “It sounds cliche, but you are part of the land out here.” His worry echoes that of his over-the-fence neighbor. Val Emick fears that a transmission corridor, with towering pylons marching from New Mexico into three rural Colorado counties — Baca, Prowers and Kiowa — could disturb a fragile short-grass prairie landscape in the state’s far-southeast corner, lowering land values and disrupting ranching and farming operations that span generations. “You go out seven days a week, and you build it and want to pass it down to your kids and your grandkids — it seems unfair,” said Emick, who has lived in the same house south of Lamar for 35 years and runs a cow-calf operation on some 5,000 acres. “And they come in with that threat.” That threat is eminent domain — the power the government has to condemn and take land for public uses, like the construction of highways and other infrastructure. It must pay fair market value to the property owner for the land. No determination has been made about the use of eminent domain to accommodate electric transmission lines as part of the Energy Department’s National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors initiative, or NIETC. But people in this part of the state have fresh and raw memories of the specter of condemnation that hung over the U.S. Army’s plan to expand its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, northeast of Trinidad, nearly 20 years ago. After both of Colorado’s U.S. senators expressed opposition to involuntary land sales for the expansion, the idea was scuttled in 2013. “The biggest concern we have is eminent domain,” Prowers County Commissioner Ron Cook recently told The Denver Post inside the county courthouse in Lamar. “We’ve got third- and fourth-generation farmers and ranchers running these properties, and we sure don’t want them run off their land.” The concern over the NIETC proposal brought a crowd out to the same courthouse last month. Some in the room, including Cook, said they had only recently learned of the project. They were frustrated by a lack of communication from the federal government. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert joined the meeting via video link and told the attendees she would push back hard on the corridor designation. In an email to the Post this month, the Republican congresswoman said she reached out to newly confirmed Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a fellow Coloradan, and got the public input period for the project extended from mid-February to April 15. In a Feb. 10 letter to Wright, Boebert said what was started under the Biden administration should be looked at again, with an option for the agency under President Donald Trump’s new administration to “shut this project down.” “We can all agree that access to reliable energy is important for the health and prosperity of rural Coloradans, but that doesn’t mean we need to be forced into a one-size-fits-all approach dictated by D.C. bureaucrats who have failed to include community leaders in this process,” she said. Rancher Bob Bamber drives out to check on a few of his cattle at his family’s ranch outside Lamar on March 10, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post) “Very important corridor” for grid The NIETC program, which Congress authorized in 2005, tasks the Department of Energy with identifying areas of the country where transmission is lacking. It’s charged with determining where infrastructure is “urgently needed to advance important national interests, such as increased electric reliability and reduced consumer costs,” according to the program’s website. Impacts from a compromised electric grid include more frequent and longer power outages and higher prices for energy due to a lack of capacity to move lower-cost electricity from where it is produced to where it is needed, the website says. So far, no NIETC corridors have been established in the United States. Click to enlarge The Post asked the Department of Energy for comment via multiple phone and email requests but received no response. The department’s latest designation effort began last May with the release of a list of 10 possible transmission corridors, based on a National Transmission Needs Study that was completed in 2023. That list was winnowed in December to three corridors, including what is known as the Southwestern Grid Connector — which would run up the eastern edge of New Mexico, scrape the western edge of the Oklahoma panhandle and pierce the southeast corner of Colorado. The other two NIETC corridors being considered are in the Lake Erie portion of Pennsylvania and across parts of the Dakotas and Nebraska. The Department of Energy says the Southwest Grid Connector could be anywhere from three miles to 15 miles wide, though the ultimate transmission line built would cover far less land. The corridor, the government says, is designed to follow existing transmission line rights-of-way for parts of its path. “It’s a very important corridor,” said Adam Kurland, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund who specializes in federal energy policy. “It’s probably the one that adds the most value to the grid.” The Southwestern Grid Connector would help link the nation’s eastern and western interconnections, Kurland said, and would provide the ability “to exchange more power and serve a national grid.” According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the eastern interconnection operates in states east of the Rocky Mountains while the western interconnection covers states west of the Rockies. “There’s very limited transfer between these two interconnects,” Kurland said. “There’s a lot of value for doing that, for reliability of the grid and for resilience against weather systems. You could more easily move power and supply power where it’s needed.” An abandoned car rusts in a field near the area where the federal Department of Energy is proposing to expand the electric grid, stretching from southern New Mexico into southeastern Colorado, south of Lamar, on March 10, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post) More data centers, fewer coal plants Grid Strategies, a consultant for the power sector, said in a December report that demand for electricity nationwide is forecast to rise by nearly 16% by 2029. Among the main drivers, according to the company, are power-hungry data centers and manufacturing facilities. A study that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden participated in last fall concluded that the U.S. transmission system — consisting of a half-million miles of power lines — will need to at least double in size by 2050 to remain reliable at the lowest cost to ratepayers. And a 2024 report by the nonprofit North American Electric Corp. determined that about half the continent was at elevated or high risk of energy shortfalls over the next five to 10 years. That risk comes as power plants are retired and the pressure for more electricity increases. In Colorado, coal plants across the state have been shut down in recent years as worries about their climate-warming emissions escalate. All are expected to close by the end of 2030. “The more transmission we build, the more flexibility and resilience we create,” said Mark Gabriel, the president and CEO of the Brighton-based electric cooperative United Power. For eight years, Gabriel headed the Western Area Power Administration, a federal agency that sells and conveys electricity across 17,000 miles of transmission lines to 15 western and central states. “As coal goes away, we still need to move electrons,” he said. “How do we meet a growing demand at the same time we’re closing down generator resources?” The state’s future demands on electric power are ambitious. While campaigning for his first term in office, Gov. Jared Polis said he wanted all of the power on Colorado’s electric grid to come from renewable energy sources by 2040. Rules adopted by Denver and the state aim to eventually make buildings all-electric. And Colorado, with its goal of getting nearly 1 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2030, recently moved ahead of California for the nation’s top spot in market share of electric vehicles sold. “You want to have a diverse portfolio of generation resources, and that portfolio is helped by more transmission,” Gabriel said. “And we can’t (achieve that) unless we have projects like this, and others, constructed.” Rancher Val Emick works on her family’s ranch outside Lamar on March 10, 2025. Emick repurposes old wind turbine blades, seen in the background, to help shield her animals from the wind. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post) Farmers lament lack of “bargaining power” But it’s how projects are constructed that matters to Steve Shelton, a sixth-generation farmer and rancher who lives about 10 miles south of Lamar. He grows wheat, corn and sorghum on 20,000 acres. Shelton, 69, was on the other side of the transmission debate about 15 years ago, when he joined neighboring ranchers in exploring deals with a wind farm near Kit Carson to string electric wires across land in the state’s southeast corner. “We had some farmers who said ‘No,’ and we’d have to find another path or sweeten the pot,” he said of the effort, which eventually fizzled out. With the shadow of eminent domain in the mix this time, Shelton said, “you have no bargaining power.” “They would get the development rights or the easement, and the farmer and rancher would have no income off of that,” he said. The county’s fiscal health would also be impacted by a condemnation action by the government, said Prowers County Commissioner Roger Stagner, who served as mayor of Lamar for a decade. Taking land off the tax rolls would not only hit the county’s $41 million annual budget but would also have a ripple effect on the local economy, he said. Boebert, in her Feb. 10 letter to the energy secretary, said the contemplated Southwestern Grid Connector would “affect approximately 325,000 acres of private land in Baca, Prowers and Kiowa counties in Colorado.” There are fewer than 20,000 residents combined in the three counties. “Everything revolves around agriculture. If you’re going to take out that much land, it can affect the entire county,” Stagner said. “If there’s no alfalfa grown on that ground, that farmer doesn’t spend as much in town. That’s a big concern for us.” Bamber, the Prowers County rancher, says he has no issue with the deployment of energy infrastructure across his property, so long as it’s done with full disclosure and landowner input. In fact, he and Emick, his neighbor, host dozens of wind turbines on their acreage that power the Twin Buttes wind farm. “We’ve been able to live with the wind farm because they’ve compensated us,” Bamber said. “We’ve made the tradeoff for the money.” Lease agreements they hammered out with the wind energy company to use their land made the deal palatable, Emick said. “There was no hiding anything,” she said. A small windmill pumps water into a stock tank for Val Emick’s cattle at her family’s ranch outside Lamar, Colorado, on March 10, 2025. Large wind turbines in the background generate electricity. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post) Broken trust, uncertain future With the NIETC process already in the third of four phases, Cook is frustrated and befuddled that he and his fellow commissioners didn’t catch wind of the project before late January. That uncertainty has been a driving force behind much of the resistance to it among his constituents. “That is what we’re struggling with — we have no idea how this is going to end up and what they’re going to do with it,” he said. The Department of Energy describes the third phase of the designation process as the “public and governmental engagement phase.” During this period, the agency will decide the level of environmental review that applies to each NIETC project. It will conduct any required reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. The agency conducted a webinar on the latest developments with the Southwestern Grid Connector in mid-January. And it issued a news release about the latest phase in December. But many in southeast Colorado think the federal government could have done a better job of outreach to local officials and property owners. Related Articles Can Colorado’s electric grid keep up as coal plants close and data centers open? Demand fueled by electric vehicles, rooftop solar drives Xcel Energy’s $5B plan for system upgrades 80% of new cars and trucks for sale in Colorado would need to be electric by 2032 under new rule Some take hope in the success of opponents in Kansas last year who eliminated the Midwest-Plains and Plains-Southwest NIETC corridors that were part of the original 10 first proposed in the spring. U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann, who represents that state’s 1st Congressional District, issued a statement in December after the Kansas transmission corridors were dropped. “Kansans made it clear from the very beginning that we were not interested in the federal government seizing our private land,” Mann said, adding: “I’m glad our voices were heard in stopping this federal overreach.” Boebert, in her letter to the energy secretary last month, cited Kansas’ resistance and urged the agency to “reconsider and halt further actions on current NIETC designations in Colorado initiated by the previous administration.” That’s the right call, Bamber said. “I’d like to see it just stopped — the trust is broken,” he said. “We’re an afterthought and we should have been partners in this.” Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.

To members of his synagogue, the voice that played over the speakers of Congregation Emanu El in Houston sounded just like Rabbi Josh Fixler’s. In the same steady rhythm his congregation had grown used to, the voice delivered a sermon about what it meant to be a neighbor in the age of artificial intelligence. Then, Fixler took to the bimah himself. “The audio you heard a moment ago may have sounded like my words,” he said. “But they weren’t.” The recording was created by what Fixler called “Rabbi Bot,” an AI chatbot trained on his old sermons. The chatbot, created with the help of a data scientist, wrote the sermon, even delivering it in an AI version of his voice. During the rest of the service, Fixler intermittently asked Rabbi Bot questions aloud, which it would promptly answer. Fixler is among a growing number of religious leaders experimenting with AI in their work, spurring an industry of faith-based tech companies that offer AI tools, from assistants that can do theological research to chatbots that can help write sermons. For centuries, new technologies have changed the ways people worship, from the radio in the 1920s to television sets in the 1950s and the internet in the 1990s. Some proponents of AI in religious spaces have gone back even further, comparing AI’s potential — and fears of it — to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. Religious leaders have used AI to translate their livestreamed sermons into different languages in real time, blasting them out to international audiences. Others have compared chatbots trained on tens of thousands of pages of Scripture to a fleet of newly trained seminary students, able to pull excerpts about certain topics nearly instantaneously. But the ethical questions around using generative AI for religious tasks have become more complicated as the technology has improved, religious leaders say. While most agree that using AI for tasks like research or marketing is acceptable, other uses for the technology, like sermon writing, are seen by some as a step too far. Jay Cooper, a pastor in Austin, Texas, used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to generate an entire service for his church as an experiment in 2023. He marketed it using posters of robots, and the service drew in some curious new attendees — “gamer types,” Cooper said — who had never before been to his congregation. The thematic prompt he gave ChatGPT to generate various parts of the service was: “How can we recognize truth in a world where AI blurs the truth?” ChatGPT came up with a welcome message, a sermon, a children’s program and even a four-verse song, which was the biggest hit of the bunch, Cooper said. The song went: As algorithms spin webs of lies Related Articles Vail Resorts cutting 64 human resources positions in Broomfield Stem Ciders sells Lafayette property for $12M Olive & Finch picks Golden Triangle for sixth location Ex-Tattered Cover CEO Kwame Spearman buys building for return to bookselling Dealin’ Doug selling former Bronco’s mansion in Cherry Hills Village for $7.7 million We lift our gaze to the endless skies Where Christ’s teachings illuminate our way Dispelling falsehoods with the light of day Cooper has not since used the technology to help write sermons, preferring to draw instead from his own experiences. But the presence of AI in faith-based spaces, he said, poses a larger question: Can God speak through AI? “That’s a question a lot of Christians online do not like at all because it brings up some fear,” Cooper said. “It may be for good reason. But I think it’s a worthy question.” The impact of AI on religion and ethics has been a touch point for Pope Francis on several occasions, though he has not directly addressed using AI to help write sermons. Our humanity “enables us to look at things with God’s eyes, to see connections, situations, events and to uncover their real meaning,” the pope said in a message early last year. “Without this kind of wisdom, life becomes bland.” He added, “Such wisdom cannot be sought from machines.” Phil EuBank, a pastor at Menlo Church in Menlo Park, California, compared AI to a “bionic arm” that could supercharge his work. But when it comes to sermon writing, “there’s that Uncanny Valley territory,” he said, “where it may get you really close, but really close can be really weird.” Fixler agreed. He recalled being taken aback when Rabbi Bot asked him to include in his AI sermon, a one-time experiment, a line about itself. “Just as the Torah instructs us to love our neighbors as ourselves,” Rabbi Bot said, “can we also extend this love and empathy to the AI entities we create?” Rabbis have historically been early adopters of new technologies, especially for printed books in the 15th century. But the divinity of those books was in the spiritual relationship that their readers had with God, said Rabbi Oren Hayon, who is also a part of Congregation Emanu El. To assist his research, Hayon regularly uses a custom chatbot trained on 20 years of his own writings. But he has never used AI to write portions of sermons. “Our job is not just to put pretty sentences together,” Hayon said. “It’s to hopefully write something that’s lyrical and moving and articulate, but also responds to the uniquely human hungers and pains and losses that we’re aware of because we are in human communities with other people.” He added, “It can’t be automated.” Kenny Jahng, a tech entrepreneur, believes that fears about ministers’ using generative AI are overblown, and that leaning into the technology may even be necessary to appeal to a new generation of young, tech-savvy churchgoers when church attendance across the country is in decline. Jahng, the editor-in-chief of a faith- and tech-focused media company and founder of an AI education platform, has traveled the country in the last year to speak at conferences and promote faith-based AI products. He also runs a Facebook group for tech-curious church leaders with over 6,000 members. “We are looking at data that the spiritually curious in Gen Alpha, Gen Z are much higher than boomers and Gen Xers that have left the church since COVID,” Jahng said. “It’s this perfect storm.” As of now, a majority of faith-based AI companies cater to Christians and Jews, but custom chatbots for Muslims and Buddhists exist as well. Some churches have already started to subtly infuse their services and websites with AI. The chatbot on the website of the Father’s House, a church in Leesburg, Florida, for instance, appears to offer standard customer service. Among its recommended questions: “What time are your services?” The next suggestion is more complex. “Why are my prayers not answered?” The chatbot was created by Pastors.ai, a startup founded by Joe Suh, a tech entrepreneur and attendee of EuBank’s church in Silicon Valley. After one of Suh’s longtime pastors left his church, he had the idea of uploading recordings of that pastor’s sermons to ChatGPT. Suh would then ask the chatbot intimate questions about his faith. He turned the concept into a business. Suh’s chatbots are trained on archives of a church’s sermons and information from its website. But around 95% of the people who use the chatbots ask them questions about things like service times rather than probing deep into their spirituality, Suh said. “I think that will eventually change, but for now, that concept might be a little bit ahead of its time,” he added. Critics of AI use by religious leaders have pointed to the issue of hallucinations — times when chatbots make stuff up. While harmless in certain situations, faith-based AI tools that fabricate religious scripture present a serious problem. In Rabbi Bot’s sermon, for instance, the AI invented a quote from Jewish philosopher Maimonides that would have passed as authentic to the casual listener. For other religious leaders, the issue of AI is a simpler one: How can sermon writers hone their craft without doing it entirely themselves? “I worry for pastors, in some ways, that it won’t help them stretch their sermon writing muscles, which is where I think so much of our great theology and great sermons come from, years and years of preaching,” said Thomas Costello, a pastor at New Hope Hawaii Kai in Honolulu. On a recent afternoon at his synagogue, Hayon recalled taking a picture of his bookshelf and asking his AI assistant which of the books he had not quoted in his recent sermons. Before AI, he would have pulled down the titles themselves, taking the time to read through their indexes, carefully checking them against his own work. “I was a little sad to miss that part of the process that is so fruitful and so joyful and rich and enlightening, that gives fuel to the life of the Spirit,” Hayon said. “Using AI does get you to an answer quicker, but you’ve certainly lost something along the way.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.

Imagine a scene in an old Western movie where the camera follows a sheriff driving an old pickup truck on a dirt road. The scene then cuts to the sheriff stopping the car on the road, opening the door and stepping onto the dirt road in his leather boots. He reaches for his holster and pulls out a revolver, points at the camera and shoots. All of these sounds in the scene are important and carefully curated: the sound of the old truck, the dirt road, the leather boots and the revolver. “All of these things have context, and that sound is what we’re focused on,” University of Colorado Boulder alum and sound design startup CEO and founder Isaiah Chavous said. “We’re focused on footsteps, door creaks, environmental noise, room tone and transitions.” Chavous and his cofounders have raised $1.8 million to fund their sound design startup company called Noctal. Noctal is a platform that uses artificial intelligence, or AI, to automate the sound design process for content creators and filmmakers. The investment firm Caruso Ventures invested the majority of the $1.8 million, joining other investors including Media Empire Ventures, X’s, formerly known as Twitter, head of original content Mitchell Smith and Major League Baseball player Tony Kemp. “I think these guys could emerge as the leader in applying AI to sound effects,” said Dan Caruso, Caruso Ventures managing director. “And if they do that, they will have a huge impact. There’s going to be a lot of job creation.” Noctal works by identifying the action sequences and events that take place in a video and then accurately placing relevant sound files where they need to go based on the on-screen events. James Paul, Noctal’s chief operating officer and co-founder, said the traditional process of developing sounds in movies is extremely time-intensive. Paul has more than 10 years of media experience working in physical production in Hollywood on films, including the 2016 Ghostbusters movie, and is an active member of the Producers Guild of America. Paul said the process requires a person sitting in a chair watching hours of footage and marking where sounds need to go on a timeline. For example, marking when the sheriff’s truck begins to drive away and when his boots hit the dirt. Then, it requires going into folders, bins or the field to record the sounds. “Using our platform, it automates a lot of that by extracting each of those different events,” Paul said. “The best way we see to use AI is like a creative augmentation. You’re still going to switch things out here and there, but it speeds up that process of having to watch all that footage.” Before founding Noctal, Chavous was a student at CU Boulder. He was student body president, helped co-found the Center for African and African American Studies, co-founded the first-ever police oversight board on campus and received an award from the Colorado Senate for his work with eliminating prison labor contracts with the university. Six days after he graduated in 2021, he moved to California. Chavous led business development and partnerships at an augmented reality game company, working with industry icons such as Lewis Hamilton, Snoop Dogg, Michael Bay, Elton John and Grimes. He said his time at CU Boulder helped him grow and develop important skills, including team management and budget management. “That in and of itself led to being able to create plans you can actually execute under timelines that would be considered impossible, which is the entire objective of building a startup, which is (that) you’re under time constraints that most people would say is impossible with limited resources,” he said. “… and also having conviction over a vision.” Caruso said that when everything in sound design is done by hand, typically, there are one to three main sounds in a scene. But if AI helps, it can help identify background sounds as well, so there are five or six sounds in a scene instead. Related Articles Group accused in burglaries of 21 Aurora homes charged with attempted burglary, conspiracy Amazon’s last-minute bid for TikTok comes as a US ban on the platform is set to take effect Saturday Denver mayor faces questions over Signal use amid national rise in officials’ reliance on private messaging app Feeling overstimulated at Meow Wolf in Denver? Find a stairwell. What is Signal? “You wouldn’t do that because it would be twice as much work,” Caruso said. “But if AI does it, knows the volume of each, it can make a more enhanced video as well.” Chavous said he hopes to positively impact people’s lives through Noctal’s capabilities. “What we’re doing is redefining a workflow, we’re redefining what it means to create,”  Chavous said. “And being a part of that process to embolden the user or the creative is at the center of our DNA of our why.” For more information, visit noctal.xyz/en. Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.

LONDON — Unwanted phone calls are out of control. Whether it’s a robocall trying to sell you something or spam calls from scammers trying to rip you off, it’s enough to make you want to stop answering your phone. So what can you do to stop them? The scourge of unwanted phone calls has been branded an epidemic by consumer groups, while the Federal Communications Commission says it’s the top consumer complaint. The calls are a nuisance to many ordinary people, some of whom have complained to The Associated Press. “I need help on getting spam calls to stop,” one reader said in an email. She’s getting up to 14 calls a day despite the countermeasures she’s employed. As the name implies, robocalls are automated calls to deliver recorded messages to a large number of phones. A robocall purely to deliver a message or collect a debt is allowed under U.S. regulations, but the Federal Trade Commission says robocalls with a recorded voice trying to sell you something are illegal unless you’ve given explicit written permission to receive them. Many robocalls are also probably scams, the FTC warns. If you’re flooded by unsolicited calls, here are some ways to fight back. Phone settings Smartphone users can turn on some built-in settings to combat unknown calls. Apple advises iPhone users to turn on the Silence Unknown Callers feature. Go to your “Settings,” then scroll down to “Apps,” and then to “Phone,” where you’ll see it under the “Calls” section. When you turn this on, any calls from numbers that you’ve never been in touch with and aren’t saved in your contacts list will not ring through. Instead, they’ll be sent to voicemail and show up in your list of recent calls. Android has a similar setting that allows you to block calls from private or unidentified numbers, although you will still receive calls from numbers that aren’t stored in your contact list. After this story was first published, a reader wrote in with a workaround for that problem: Leave your Android phone on Do Not Disturb but configure it so that anyone on your Contacts list is allowed to interrupt. Just keep in mind that you could also end up not getting important calls, which sometimes come from unknown numbers. If an unwanted call does get through, both Android and iPhone users can block the individual phone number by tapping on it in the recent callers or call history list. You can also enter numbers directly into your phone’s block list. Do not call Sign up for the national Do Not Call registry, which is a list of numbers that have opted out of most telemarketing calls. The Federal Trade Commission, which runs the registry, says it only contains phone numbers and holds no other personally identifiable information, nor does the registry know whether the number is for a landline or a cellphone. The FTC says there are some exemptions, including political calls, calls from non-profit groups and charities, and legitimate survey groups that aren’t selling anything. Also allowed are calls from companies up to 18 months after you’ve done — or sought to do — business with them. But it also warns that while having your number on the registry will cut down on unwanted sales calls, it won’t stop scammers from making illegal calls. Other countries have similar registries. Canada has its own Do Not Call list while the U.K. has the Telephone Preference Service. Carrier filters Check whether your wireless carrier has a call-blocking service. Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, three of the biggest U.S. networks, all have their own call filters for customers to block robocalls and report spam. There’s typically a free basic version and an advanced version that requires a subscription fee. Try an app If your phone company’s filters aren’t good enough, try third-party apps to weed out unwanted callers. There are a host of smartphone apps available that promise to block spam calls, like Nomorobo, YouMail, Hiya, RoboKiller, TrueCaller and others. Many charge a monthly or annual subscription fee but some offer a free basic option. Some also can be installed on landline phones, but only if they use VOIP technology, not copper cables. The Associated Press hasn’t tested any of these apps and isn’t making specific recommendations. We recommend you read user reviews and try some out for yourself. Apple says the apps work by comparing a caller’s number with a list of known numbers and labeling them, for example, spam or telemarketing. Then it might automatically block the call. “Incoming calls are never sent to third-party developers,” the company says. Report calls Did you know you can file a complaint with the FCC about specific spam calls? You can do so easily through an online form. It might not give you immediate satisfaction, but the National Consumer Law Center says data on complaints is the best tool federal agencies have for determining how big a problem robocalls are. Just say no While companies you’ve done business with can make robocalls to you, the National Consumer Law Center says it’s probably because you gave consent – possibly hidden in fine print. But you can also revoke your consent at any time. Just tell the company representative that you want to “revoke consent,” and if that doesn’t stop them, contact customer service and tell them that you don’t consent to receive calls and want your number added to the company’s “do not call” list, the center says. Hang up You might be tempted to try to engage with the call in an attempt to get your number off the call list or be put through to a real person. The FTC warns against doing this and recommends that you just hang up. “Pressing numbers to speak to someone or remove you from the list will probably only lead to more robocalls,” the agency says on its advice page. “And the number on your caller ID probably isn’t real. Caller ID is easy to fake” and can’t be trusted, it says. Related Articles Vail Resorts cutting 64 human resources positions in Broomfield Stem Ciders sells Lafayette property for $12M Olive & Finch picks Golden Triangle for sixth location Ex-Tattered Cover CEO Kwame Spearman buys building for return to bookselling Dealin’ Doug selling former Bronco’s mansion in Cherry Hills Village for $7.7 million Cybersecurity company Kaspersky advises not even saying anything when you receive what you think is a robocall. We’ve all received scammy calls that start with something like “Hello, can you hear me?” to which you’ve probably replied “yes” without thinking. Scammers “can then store the recording of your confirmation and use it for fraudulent activities,” Kaspersky says. “So, avoid saying yes where possible.” ___ Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip. Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.

SAN FRANCISCO — Almost every day, Grant Lee, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, hears from investors who try to persuade him to take their money. Some have even sent him and his co-founders personalized gift baskets. Lee, 41, would normally be flattered. In the past, a fast-growing startup like Gamma, an artificial intelligence company he helped establish in 2020, would have constantly looked out for more funding. But like many young startups in Silicon Valley today, Gamma is pursuing a different strategy. It is using AI tools to increase its employees’ productivity in everything from customer service and marketing to coding and customer research. That means Gamma, which makes software that lets people create presentations and websites, has no need for more cash, Lee said. His company has hired only 28 people to get “tens of millions” in annual recurring revenue and nearly 50 million users. Gamma is also profitable. “If we were from the generation before, we would easily be at 200 employees,” Lee said. “We get a chance to rethink that, basically rewrite the playbook.” The old Silicon Valley model dictated that startups should raise a huge sum of money from venture capital investors and spend it hiring an army of employees to scale up fast. Profits would come much later. Until then, head count and fundraising were badges of honor among founders, who philosophized that bigger was better. But Gamma is among a growing cohort of startups, most of them working on AI products, that are also using AI to maximize efficiency. They make money and are growing fast without the funding or employees they would have needed before. The biggest bragging rights for these startups are for making the most revenue with the fewest workers. Stories of “tiny team” success have now become a meme, with techies excitedly sharing lists that show how Anysphere, a startup that makes the coding software Cursor, hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue in less than two years with just 20 employees, and how ElevenLabs, an AI voice startup, did the same with about 50 workers. The potential for AI to let startups do more with less has led to wild speculation about the future. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has predicted there could someday be a one-person company worth $1 billion. His company, which is building a cost-intensive form of AI called a foundational model, employs more than 4,000 people and has raised more than $20 billion in funding. It is also in talks to raise more money. With AI tools, some startups are now declaring that they will stop hiring at a certain size. Runway Financial, a finance software company, has said it plans to top out at 100 employees because each of its workers will do the work of 1.5 people. Agency, a startup using AI for customer service, also plans to hire no more than 100 workers. “It’s about eliminating roles that are not necessary when you have smaller teams,” said Elias Torres, Agency’s founder. Related Articles Vail Resorts cutting 64 human resources positions in Broomfield Stem Ciders sells Lafayette property for $12M Olive & Finch picks Golden Triangle for sixth location Ex-Tattered Cover CEO Kwame Spearman buys building for return to bookselling Dealin’ Doug selling former Bronco’s mansion in Cherry Hills Village for $7.7 million The idea of AI-driven efficiency was bolstered last month by DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup that showed it could build AI tools for a small fraction of the typical cost. Its breakthrough, built on open-source tools that are freely available online, set off an explosion of companies building new products using DeepSeek’s inexpensive techniques. “DeepSeek was a watershed moment,” said Gaurav Jain, an investor at the venture firm Afore Capital, which has backed Gamma. “The cost of compute is going to go down very, very fast, very quickly.” Jain compared new AI startups to the wave of companies that arose in the late 2000s, after Amazon began offering cheap cloud computing services. That lowered the cost of starting a company, leading to a flurry of new startups that could be built more cheaply. Before this AI boom, startups generally burned $1 million to get to $1 million in revenue, Jain said. Now, getting to $1 million in revenue costs one-fifth as much and could eventually drop to one-tenth, according to an analysis of 200 startups conducted by Afore. “This time, we’re automating humans as opposed to just the data centers,” Jain said. But if startups can become profitable without spending much, that could become a problem for venture capital investors, who allocate tens of billions to invest in AI startups. Last year, AI companies raised $97 billion in funding, making up 46% of all venture investment in the United States, according to PitchBook, which tracks startups. “Venture capital only works if you get money into the winners,” said Terrence Rohan, an investor with Otherwise Fund, which focuses on very young startups. He added: “If the winner of the future needs a lot less money because they’ll have a lot less people, how does that change VC?” For now, investors continue to fight to get into the hottest companies, many of which have no need for more money. Scribe, an AI productivity startup, grappled last year with far more interest from investors than the $25 million it wanted to raise. “It was a negotiation of what is the smallest amount we could possibly take on,” said Scribe CEO Jennifer Smith. She said investors were shocked at the size of her staff — 100 people — when compared with its 3 million users and fast growth. Some investors are optimistic that AI-driven efficiency will spur entrepreneurs to create more companies, leading to more opportunities to invest. They hope that once the startups reach a certain size, the firms will adopt the old model of big teams and big money. Some young companies, including Anysphere, are already doing that. Anysphere has raised $175 million in funding, with plans to add staff and conduct research, according to the company’s president, Oskar Schulz. Other founders have seen the perils of the old startup playbook, which kept companies on a fundraising treadmill where hiring more people created more costs that went beyond just their salaries. Bigger teams needed managers, more robust human resources and back-office support. Those teams then needed specialized software, along with a bigger office with all the perks — and so on, which led startups to burn through cash and forced founders to constantly raise more money. Many startups from the funding boom of 2021 eventually downsized, shut down or scrambled to sell themselves. Turning a profit early on can change that outcome. At Gamma, employees use about 10 AI tools to help them be more efficient, including Intercom’s customer service tool for handling problems, Midjourney’s image generator for marketing, Anthropic’s Claude chatbot for data analysis and Google’s NotebookLM for analyzing customer research. Engineers also use Anysphere’s Cursor to more efficiently write code. Gamma’s product, which is built on top of tools from OpenAI and others, is also not as expensive to make as other AI products. (The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. The two companies have denied the suit’s claims.) Other efficient startups are taking a similar strategy. Thoughtly, a 10-person provider of AI phone agents, turned a profit in 11 months, thanks to its use of AI, said co-founder Torrey Leonard. Payment processor Stripe created an AI tool that helps Leonard analyze Thoughtly’s sales, something he would have previously hired an analyst to do. Without that and AI tools from others to streamline its operations, Thoughtly would need at least 25 people and be far from profitable, he said. Thoughtly will eventually raise more money, Leonard said, but only when it is ready. Not worrying about running out of cash is “a huge relief,” he said. At Gamma, Lee said he planned to roughly double the workforce this year to 60, hiring for design, engineering and sales. He plans to recruit a different type of worker from before, seeking out generalists who do a range of tasks rather than specialists who do only one thing, he said. He also wants “player-coaches” instead of managers — people who can mentor less experienced employees but can also pitch in on the day-to-day work. Lee said the AI-efficient model had freed up time he would have otherwise spent managing people and recruiting. Now, he focuses on talking to customers and improving the product. In 2022, he created a Slack room for feedback from Gamma’s top users, who are often shocked to discover that the CEO was responding to their comments. “That’s actually every founder’s dream,” Lee said. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.