As the old folklore goes, if you are feeling extra tired and cranky this week, the upcoming full moon might be to blame. And while you definitely won’t turn into a werewolf, there is some data to suggest the old folklore is true, even if the scientific research on the topic is limited: A 2013 sleep study found that during a full moon, participants spent 30% less time in deep sleep and lost out on 20 minutes of slumber on average.
However, skywatchers are in for a treat this weekend, even if they may be missing a little sleep, as a full moon will rise on Saturday night. Here’s what to know about the full moon, and how best to see it.
What is the name of the full moon?
Typically there are 12 full moons a year, one for every month. Each of these has a nickname given to it by the Old Farmers Almanac, based on Native American culture and other traditional North American historical sources.
Aprils full moon is known as the Pink Moon, but this does not refer to the color of the orb. It is based on the flowers that begin to bloom in spring.
There are other names for Aprils full moon that celebrate the season. The Algonquin called it the Breaking Ice Moon, while the Lakota dubbed it the Moon When the Ducks Come Back. Even within the same tribe, there were different preferred monikers. The Dakota referred to it as both the Moon When the Streams Are Again Navigable, and the Moon When the Geese Lay Eggs.
Anything else to know about the full Pink Moon?
Beyond its colorful name, the full Pink Moon will occur just before apogeethis fancy NASA vocab word means the moon is the farthest away from Earth during its elliptical orbit. Because of the distance, the full Pink Moon is considered a micromoon, as it is smaller and dimmer to the human eye compared to a normal full moon or a supermoon.
How does Easter play into the full pink micromoon?
Full moons are also a tool used by the Christian Church to determine when the Easter holiday will occur. Christmas is always December 25, but Easter is on the Sunday after the so-called Paschal Full Moon. So this year, the full Pink Moon and the Paschal Full Moon happen to be two names for the same celestial event, depending on your religious preferences. This is not always the case.
How can you best view Aprils full moon?
To catch a glimpse of this cosmic wonder, head outside on April 12. According to the Old Farmers Almanac, the moon will rise at 8:22 p.m. EDT.
For best viewing, find a location away from bright city lights. A pair of binoculars or a telescope will help you see more details of the moon.
Whats the next celestial event to look forward to?
If you need something to look forward to, the night sky has your back. On the evenings of April 21 and 22, the annual Lyrid meteor shower will reach its peak. More to come on this cosmic wonder.
Tax Day is right around the corneran annual reminder that without the option to file jointly, singles pay more per dollar earned than married people. Tax advantages are just one of more than 1,000 legal and economic benefits married couples enjoy, a disparity worsened by marketplace and employer practices.
Despite its disadvantages, single living is on the rise. While the average age of first marriage was just 21 in 1960, today it has risen to 29. Half the adults in the U.S. are unmarried, and half of them arent seeking a relationship. As many as a third of Zoomers may never tie the knot.
But this shift is more than culturalits redefining the rules of personal finance. Freed from the constraints of shared decision-making, single people are earning, spending, and investing on their own terms.
And as a behavioral economist who studies single living, I think this could mean big things for the future of money. As more people opt out of marriage, I expect that governments, businesses, and financial systems will adaptjust as they did in response to womens economic independence.
The price of singlehood
As a lifelong bachelor, I have a cheeky response when filing my taxes: Thats the price of freedom.
For many singles, the price is too steep. More than half of singles over 30 feel financially insecure, one survey found, and their economic reality backs it up. For example, singles spend about $5,500 more annually than their married peerswhich adds up to more than $200,000 over a 40-year career.
Some of the challenge is mathematical. Married couples split major expenses like housing, transportation, and travel, and rely on dual incomes as a buffer against job loss or disability.
Policy amplifies the financial burdens. One-person households are the most common type in the U.S., yet developers still prioritize building large single-family housesdriving up apartment and condo costs. Retirement presents another stark contrast. Singles cant claim spousal or survivor Social Security benefits and solely fund their retirement.
Employers design benefits around families, offering spousal coverage, dependent tax breaks and family leave. Single employees tend to shoulder more responsibilities yet receive 3.6 fewer paid days off per year than their married peers.
In the marketplacefrom travel to tech and insurancebusinesses often price goods and services with couples and families in mind. Solo travelers often pay single supplements on cruises and tours. Streaming, phone, and retail memberships offer family plans with no option for solo users subscribing as part of a group. Even auto insurance penalizes solo driverstwo-door cars cost 16% more to insure.
The costs add up. But the news for singles isnt all bad.
The financial upside of going solo
I study how singles build financial security through the hallmarks of single living: autonomy and adaptability.
An obvious financial factor is the cost of children. While some singles are parents, theyre far less likely than married couples to shoulder the expense of raising a childan outlay of more than $300,000 per child before college.
A key advantage: Singles have complete financial control. They choose how to earn, save and spend. Theres less risk of absorbing a partners credit card or student loan debt, covering for reckless spending, or facing the financial fallout of divorce.
Career flexibility is another key advantage. Singles can more easily relocate for higher-paying jobs or lower-cost locales , freedom that enables powerful financial arbitrage. Many digital nomads, most of them single, choose countries with lower costs and better quality of life.
Singles also have greater control over when and how they retire. Unlike couples, who must coordinate timing and strategies, singles have more freedom to retire early, ride out a down market, or ease into semiretirement.
Building a financial system for everyone
As a business school professor, Ive seen how slow business and government can be to respond to demographic shifts. The tax system wont change overnightgovernments have long used the tax code to promote marriagebut other policies and practices will evolve. I believe the rise of singles, and the power of their votes and dollars, will make the status quo unsustainable.
Scandinavia and parts of Asia are setting precedents. In Sweden, solo adults are recognized as a family of one, with access to housing support, parental leave, and pension benefitsno marriage required. Smart companies will also adapt to recruit and retain singles, who make up a large portion of the labor force. I expect to see an expansion of single-inclusive offerings like caregiving leave, flexible work arrangements, and individual-friendly health plans.
Singles also build lifelong support systems outside marriage. Sweden again offers a glimpse of what might be: A landmark court case recently granted life insurance benefits to a platonic partner, proving that legal protections dont have to hinge on romance.
Housing remains another legacy system built for couples. While most new developments still prioritize single-family homes, markets like Japan and Hong Kong have embraced lower-cost micro-apartments with shared community spacesan appealing model for solo dwellers. Some U.S. cities are beginning to experiment with similar designs, signaling a shift toward more inclusive urban housing.
Chinas celebration of solo living, Singles Day (held every year on 11/11) is now the worlds largest e-commerce holiday, generating more sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. The company that created it, Alibaba, promotes deals on single-serve appliances, one-way flights, and self-care bundles.
Western companies are catching on: Travel brands are waiving singles supplements, restaurants are welcoming solo diners with dedicated seating, and telecom companies are rolling out friends and family plans that dont require a romantic partner.
Finally, I believe wealth management will respond to the rise of singles. While Ive found that most financial advice still assumes that people will eventually marry, solo earners need different strategies, such as bigger emergency funds, flexible housing options, and proactive estate planning. Expect a wave of financial products designed for solo living, from retirement tools to mortgages built for one.
As singles become the majority in many countries, governments, businesses, and financial institutions will adapt by necessity.
The bottom line
As an advocate for singles, I am an optimist. Yes, singles pay more on Tax Day, among other challenges. But they also have one undeniable advantage: financial freedom. Singles can do more than survive in a system built for twothey can thrive.
Americans are not going back to the 1960s. As solo living becomes the norm, financial systems will evolve. Governments will face pressure to modernize policy, businesses will launch products and services for one-person households, and financial professionals will adapt to better serve solo earners.
The institutions that recognize this shift first will shape the futurefor everyone.
Peter McGraw is a professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
With President Trumps tariffs looming, companies are scrambling to figure out how to adjust their pricesespecially now that the pause doesnt apply to China, which just hit back by raising its tariffs on U.S. goods to a whopping 125%.
Instead of waiting to see how they will hit, some businesses are introducing “tariff surcharges,” alerting customers in letters and adding a tariff price to websites and bills, passing those extra costs to American consumers, according to CBS News. For example, for high-end machine tools and parts, Little Machine Shop will label the cost as a tariff charge below the price on each products page, per Quartz.
Nobu Yamanashi, head of Yama Seafood, a New York seafood supplier, told ABC, “What I’ve seen . . . what one of my customers say is that they might put a surcharge, a tariff surcharge, instead of changing the menu price, so that it’s very clear.”
A new survey of 400 U.S. company leaders by Zilliant research firm found 44% of those businesses plan to pass tariff costs onto consumers.
From automakers to chipmakers, Quartz reported that a number of companies will be imposing a tariff surcharge including, but not limited to: truck manufacturer Peterbilt; Creston, a video-conferencing solutions company; chip manufacturer Micron; SWFcontract, maker of commercial window treatments; DynaEnergetics, an equipment manufacturer for the oil and gas industry; and Honeywell Building Automation systems.
Honeywell announced the tariff charges back in March, when it said it would pass a 6.4% tariff surcharge across all building-management-system products on relevant orders placed on or after March 1, but which had not shipped by March 4.
The price increases also apply to luxury goods. New York magazine’s The Strategist reported knife and cookware maker Zwilling is increasing its prices. Theres just no way around it, Joanna Rosenberg, Zwillings chief sales and marketing officer, said, adding that the increase starts June 1.
Last week, Labucq, a popular luxury footwear brand took to Instagram to alert customers that it was raising prices incrementally with a 10% hike on April 15, then another 10% on May 7.
As tariff tensions between the U.S. and China escalate, its becoming clear that consumers will bear much of the financial burden. Whether its through quietly added surcharges or visible price hikes on everyday items and luxury goods alike, businesses are adapting quicklyand passing those costs along. With more companies expected to follow suit, the ripple effects of trade policy are already showing up on receipts, menus, and product pages across the country.
Millennials were told the 2008 recession was a “once in a generation” economic crisis. Almost two decades later, d�j vu has struck.
While the U.S. market rose following President Trumps decision to pause global tariffs on most countriesand global banks reset their recession risk assessmentslingering fears of economic collapse are driving millennials to TikTok, where theyre passing down survival tips to Gen Z.
“We don’t panic during recessions, we prepare for them,” content creator and marketer Itzett Romero said on TikTok. “Listen to your millennial friends.”
@itzettromero #recession #fyp #stockmarket #stockmarketcrash #politics #economy #shoppingtips #millennial #latinacontentcreator #latinos #latinas #mexicanamerican original sound – itzettromero
Romero advised her 70,000 followers to “make alliances” by sharing the cost of subscriptions and bulk grocery items with friends and neighbors.
“Cannot stress buying bulk and buying EARLY,” a user commented on Romero’s video. “You don’t want to be in the store when everyone is panicking.”
In a separate video, TikTok user @yaptrapped, who graduated college in 2011, also emphasized sharing. “Make friends because you can share a lot,” she said. “We survived a long time like that.”
@yaptrapped Just my thoughts. #recession #millennial original sound – yaptrapped
Financial advice was also widely shared across various videos. In one video, TikTok creator Rach to Riches advised that people “Build up your emergency fund, you should have three to six months of living expenses saved.”
Separately, Saprina Danise, a creator focused on personal finance, said she will scale back her retirement contributions. “Anything above my minimal contribution I am diverting into my emergency fund for the foreseeable future,” she said in a video.
@moneywithsaprina Replying to @FAM_embroidery heres what Im doing with my money right now Avoid Copyright – Wolf
Other popular tips offered budget-friendly recipes and grocery shopping strategies. Advice included checking your fridge before heading to the store, meal-prepping with whats already in the pantry, buying meat in bulk to freeze, stocking up on shelf-stable goods like canned tuna, and cooking from scratch using dry ingredients like beans.
Other millennial creators took a separate approach, simply sharing a glimpse of what life during 2008 looked like. “Working crappy retail jobs, making just barely above minimum wage, living at home with my parents,” user @sellingnwa shared on her TikTok. “On the weekends I was putting on business casual outfits and going to house parties.” She explained how jungle juicea cheap liquor concoctionwas served with no food.
@sellingnwa 2008 what a time to be alive #recession #2008recession #millennial original sound – Stephanie
Senators including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chuck Schumer of New York signed a letter on Friday asking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate President Trump. The move comes after the presidents April 9 Truth Social post in which he told followers it was a GREAT TIME TO BUYjust hours before announcing a 90-day pause on the sweeping international tariffs that hed enacted just days earlier.
The letter urges the SEC to determine if any administration officials or insiders engaged in insider trading, market manipulation, or other securities laws violations. It also comes following a video filmed in the Oval Office of Trump explaining how much several of his guests made in the market on Wednesday.
He made $2.5 billion today and he made $900 million. Thats not bad, Trump said in the video, posted by More Perfect Union on X, pointing out his friend and investor Charles Schwab as one of the beneficiaries of the intense gains the stock market made on Wednesday.
U.S. stocks rose at record-breaking speeds on Wednesday as Trump paused some of his tariffs. The S&P 500 surged 9.5% in response to his announcement, marking the third-best day for the index since 1940.
Questions around SEC’s ability to pursue enforcement
The senators letter, addressed to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, also poses a series of questions, including about cutbacks in staff and enforcement activity at the SEC. The questions ask explicitly about the SECs ability to monitor and respond to large-scale market events and “investigate and pursue enforcement actions.�
Warren posted a tweet Friday morning concerning the investigation request.
Did President Trump tip off big donors or family to cash in on his tariff chaos? she wrote. Today with @SenSchumer and Senate Democrats, I officially called for an SEC investigation to find out. Presidents are not kings.�
Jordan Belfort, a former Wall Street stockbroker and convicted financial criminal known as the Wolf of Wall Street, told Sky News that theres no way Trump is guilty of illegal insider trading.�
I personally dont find it overly suspicious. Especially since hes told it to everybody at once, Belfort said in a segment of The World.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai responded to Fast Companys inquiry with the following statement:�
It is the responsibility of the President of the United States to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering, Desai said. Democrats railed against Chinas cheating for decades, and now theyre playing partisan games instead of celebrating President Trumps decisive action [Wednesday] to finally corner China.�
A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment.
On Thursday, Senators Adam Schiff of California and Ruben Gallego of Arizona also sent a letter, this one to White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles and U.S. Office of Government Ethics Acting Director Jamieson Greer, requesting an urgent inquiry into whether President Trump, his family, or other members of the administration engaged in insider trading or other illegal financial transactions.�
A list of questions requesting information about alleged ethical violations by White House administration or members of Trumps family follows, with a deadline of April 18.
On a panel this week, U.S. secretary of education Linda McMahon, the former WWE CEO who is now charged with making sweeping decisions for 100 million American school children, repeatedly referred to AI technology as A1.
For McMahon, who was speaking at the ASU+GSV Summit for educators, it was an embarrassing mistake. But for Kraft Heinzs A.1. steak sauce, it was basically free product placementand the brand didnt hesitate to take its cut.
McMahons first slip-up occurred when she shared an anecdote with the audience about a school system that’s going to start making sure that first graders, or even pre-Ks, have A1 teaching in every year. Matters only got worse when she continued, Kids are sponges. They just absorb everything. It wasn’t all that long ago that it was, We’re going to have internet in our schools! Now let’s see A1 and how that can be helpful. Maybe it can make the cafeteria meatloaf tastier?
A.1. was thinking along the same lines. The brand jumped on Instagram yesterday with a spoofed ad for a McMahon-inspired A.1. bottle, complete with a photoshopped version of the sauce with the label For educational purposes only accompanied by the slogan, Agree, best to start them early. The post was captioned, You heard her. Every school should have access to A.1.
Heinz is no stranger to thinking up limited-edition novelty goods, from its neon pink Barbie-cue sauce to a Taylor Swift-inspired ranch and portable Velveeta packets. However, this is the first time (to Fast Companys knowledge) that the company has used its stunt marketing resum� to make a jab at a political figure.�
So far, A.1.s loyal fans seem to be in support of its new sauce.
My husband wants a bottle for his desk, one commenter wrote under the brands post. He teaches middle school, at least until they replace him with A.1.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by A.1. Original Sauce (@a1originalsauce)
When people talk about how AI might reshape media, the term hyper-personalization comes up a lot. In broad terms, it means that AI can tailor the experience around your preferencesassuming it has enough data about you. To some extent, algorithms and ad tech have been doing this for years, recommending links and stories based on your clicks and browsing behavior.
What generative AI brings to the table is the ability to adapt the content itself. A large language model could, in theory, understand the kinds of stories I care about and modify what Im readingmaybe by adding an angle relevant to my region. It could even offer up different lengths or even formats. If I’m about to go for a run, maybe I want that feature article as a podcast. Or if Im in a hurry, a short video in TikTok style might do.
But this frames AI as a kind of Santa Claus: a magical benefactor dropping content “presents” on demand. In the AI courses I teach, I often explain that a key unlock of AI is that, once you use it enough, you start to realize the value is often more in the conversationthe questions you ask and the answers it givesthan the so-called output.
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Verbal features such as ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode are ideal for this. If you haven’t engaged in a brainstorming session while driving or walking, you’re missing out. AI can be an excellent brainstorming partner when you need to think through something. Even better: it can be a superb writing assistant, helping you develop ideas, stay on track, and fill in the holes in your argumentswithout taking over the writing itself.
Rethinking how we read the news
Now apply that same idea to how we consume news. When you hit a point in the story you’re reading where you want to go deeper, you can instantly do that. If, say, you were reading a story about bringing the dire wolf back from extinction, you could ask about whether the same technique could be applied to other extinct species, how ethicists are responding, or how the news is affecting the biotech sector. The AI could bring in all that context without needing to “navigate” anything.
Were already seeing early signs of this behavior. On X, for example, people often tag Groka chatbot built into the platformto ask follow-up questions about trending stories. Its a small but telling behavior: instead of passively reading the news, users are instinctively treating it as a jumping-off point for a deeper conversation.
Most news stories aim to deliver the latest facts, often with only a perfunctory amount of backgroundusually tucked into a paragraph or two at the end. For exotic topics like crypto, this often leaves the subject impenetrable to casual readers. With AI, however, a news story can be a conversationone that explains things at exactly your level.
In other words, the most powerful personalization tool isnt dataits your words. This is the eureka moment in Joshua Rothman’s recent New Yorker essay that contemplates how AI might improve the news. The only catch? It requires a mindset shiftfrom AI giving you things to AI helping you discover things for yourself. There needs to be some education in the use of AI on the part of the reader.
AI still needs a map
But for that vision of AI and news to work, context is everything: In other words, the machines still need a map. For AI to bring you the absolute best information for whatever news rabbit hole you want to go down, you need a data set that’s oriented towards news topics. The massive data sets in today’s large language models are probably overkill, since they bring noise or generic knowledge when specificity is whats needed. However, restricting the context to just the stories on the site you’re reading would be too limiting.
A better idea would be something like a “general news corpus” of vetted sources that publishers could opt into, which other sites could access to bring a wide-ranging context into their AI experiences. ProRata and NewsGuard are building these kinds of products, but their best use case might not be general search engines like Perplexity or ProRata’s own Gist. Context is arguably more important when a reader has already clicked on an article and begun to go down a path. With AI, that path doesn’t have to be on railsthe reader can go in any direction, and the right context will follow.
The most compelling thing about this vision of personalized news is that it doesn’t require Big Tech to be part of it, at least outside of building the large language models themselves. Journalists provide the raw information, product designers can build the experiences, and third-party content brokers assemble the context.
Participation, not prediction
For the past two decades, media organizations have optimized their platforms by trying to anticipate what audiences would respond to. But AI may be rendering that approach obsolete. Imagine a news experience where every reader gets the background they need, the angles they care about, and the context to go deeperall just by asking. Thats not personalization by prediction. Thats personalization by participation.
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Attending�the Masters�for the first time was a new experience for Thomas Abraham, and it wasn’t just about the golf.
The 16-year-old from Houston had the rare opportunity to use a public telephone for the first time.
It was kind of cool, said Abraham, who phoned a friend while attending the Masters Par 3 competition on Wednesday with his father, Sid. I’ve never used one before. I figured it out. If I had to use one of those (rotary) phones I probably would’ve had to ask my dad.
Augusta National requires its patrons to leave their cellphones and other electronic devices behind. In place of those security blankets, there are several public telephone banks of those throwback devices from days gone by. They are a foreign sight for many in the younger generation who’ve never seen a phone with an attached cord.
Abraham is not unlike most teenagers or adults, for that matter who are very much attached to the world through their cellphones.
At some point, chances are, patrons check for their phone patting their pockets, reaching for the clip on their belts, wherever it usually is.
And when they can’t find it, well…
It’s kind of panic mode,” Abraham said. “We were at 18th (hole) and I went to reach in my pocket and it wasn’t there. Then I remembered it’s in the car.”
He wasn’t alone.
“I’ve checked my pockets for my phone no less than 10 times today,” said Ryan O’Connor from Little Rock, Arkansas. I was sitting in the bleachers on the 16th green and someone dropped a water bottle and it made a loud noise and I instinctively reached for my phone. Not there.”
The line at the public phone bank can stretch up to 10 people deep at the height of the Masters. And while they provide an outlet for those looking to touch base with the world outside of Augusta National’s gates, there are some issues that come with them.
Like, remembering phone numbers.
Bill Kehoe, 50, from Raleigh, North Carolina came prepared.
As he approached the public phones, Kehoe whipped out a sheet of paper with a handful of names and numbers written on them with a black Sharpie. He picked up the receiver on the phone, punched in the number 1 to start the call and then looked down at the paper and entered the remaining numbers to complete the free call.
I cant even remember my own phone number, let alone anyone elses number, Kehoe joked. They’re all saved in my phone.
One of the calls he made was to his 14-year-old son Connor, who was on a school fieldtrip to Washington. D.C.
Connor had asked his dad to call at a prearranged time while he was on a bus, and his 8th grade classmates were shocked when his caller ID popped popped up as Augusta National Golf Club.
You could hear all of the kids like, Oh, thats so cool!, Kehoe said with a laugh. “But then they all started asking for merchandise so I had to hang up.
The reasons patrons disrupt their round of watching professional golf to make a call.
One person was calling to hear about the day’s dramatic movement in the stock market. Another said he was checking in with work. And several others were simply touching base with family or loved ones.
Tyler Johnson and his wife Lauren called home to Roswell, Georgia to check on their 5-year-old son, who is staying with his grandparents, “just to make sure there’s no blood, Tyler said with a laugh. As mom and dad alternated talking to their son, they took pictures of each other talking on the odd-looking black public phone.
“I think the last time I used one of these was 1999, before Y2K, I think,” Tyler joked.
While not having a cellphone is an inconvenience for some, others have come to relish the liberating feeling of being disconnected from the world for a little while.
Fletcher Lord from Little Rock texted his wife after he arrived at the course around 6 a.m. and reminded her not to expect to hear from him all day. He then set out to enjoy a few refreshments on a sunny, 70-degree day amid the serene backdrop of blooming azaleas and tall pines.
Once you get over the anxiety of not having your phone, it’s a very freeing feeling because it forces you to just be here in the moment,” Lord said.
O’Connor agreed.
He phoned one of his old friends from high school just to see if he’d pick up. He did.
He didn’t recognize the number obviously, but when he saw Augusta National pop up he said I better pick this one up, O’Connor said.
Then it was off to enjoy the day.
Is not having a phone a pain?” O’Connor said. “No, I think it’s actually good for me. Those emails will be there when I get back home.
Steve Reed, AP sports writer
Meta is set to face off against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday in an antitrust trial that could force the social media giant to divest Instagram and WhatsApp.
The closely watched trial carries high stakes for Metas $1.3 trillion market value. The company depends heavily on advertising revenue from Instagram, and losing control of the platform could deal a significant blow to its business.
Here’s what to know about the FTC trial.
The case focuses on decade-old acquisitions
Meta acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014. The government argues that Meta didnt buy these companies for their products or technology, but rather to eliminate potential competition. Prosecutors say it reflects CEO Mark Zuckerbergs well-known strategy of buying rivals instead of competing with them.
“Acquiring these competitive threats has enabled Facebook to sustain its dominanceto the detriment of competition and usersnot by competing on the merits, but by avoiding competition,” the FTC wrote in a complaint. That strategy, they allege, has led to a decrease in quality of Meta’s products.
The government wants Meta to divest Instagram and WhatsApp
The FTC wants Meta to breakup with Instagram and WhatsApp. That would mean the tech giant would have to spin off the two highly popular platforms into their own companies.
Such a move could be detrimental to its broader advertising business. Instagram this year is expected to bring in more than half of Meta’s total U.S. ad revenue, or more than $32 billion, Adweek reported.
Meta is standing its ground
To no surprise, Meta is maintaining its innocence.
The FTCs lawsuit against Meta defies reality, Meta said in a statement shared with Fast Company. The evidence at trial will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage and many others. More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared our acquisitions, the Commissions action in this case sends the message that no deal is ever truly final. Regulators should be supporting American innovation, rather than seeking to break up a great American company and further advantaging China on critical issues like AI.
The case is being tried before a familiar judge
The FTC first brought this case before the courts in 2020. But Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington dismissed it, saying that the government didn’t have enough evidence. The agency amended its suit in 2022 and Boasberg allowed it to move forward.
Boasberg is already a well known judge among the public during this second Trump administration. He’s presiding over both the White House’s deportations to Venezuela and the fallout of top U.S. officials and advisors discussing imminent war plans over the Signal messaging app.
Meta recently met with Trump
Meta has reportedly been lobbying President Donald Trump and other White House officials to agree to a settlement ahead of the trial. The Wall Street Journal reported that Zuckerberg has visited the White House a handful of times since Trump’s inauguration.
Former FTC leader Lina Khan expressed concerns in January that she hoped the Trump administration wouldn’t give Meta a “sweetheart deal.”
If youve talked to any senior citizens lately, theres a good chance theyve brought up their concerns about looming changes to the anti-fraud policies of the Social Security Administration (SSA). Many seniors are worried that the changes may mean that they will stop receiving their Social Security payments, or that there could be a delay in receiving them.
The messaging around Social Security’s anti-fraud changes has been a bit confusing, not to mention constantly evolving. Heres what you need to know about the latest information available.
Whats happened?
As Fast Company reported last month, the Trump administration is implementing changes to the SSA’s anti-fraud policies. At the time, it was stated that from March 31, any individuals who began a Social Security benefits claim would be required to travel to a Social Security Administration office to verify their identity in person.
This raised grave concerns from lawmakers and senior citizen rights groups since some seniors either have mobility issues, which make it hard to travel, or they live in rural areas, meaning they would need to travel great distances just to verify their identity.
After significant public blowback to the requirement, the Trump administration backtracked. In a March 26 statement, the Social Security Administration said it was exempting individuals applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Medicare, or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) who cannot use a personal my Social Security account from the in-person requirement, allowing them to complete their claim over the phone.
But some other individuals would still need to appear in person at an office to verify their identity, including those who need to change their direct deposit information for any benefit if they could not use the online “my Social Security” portal. However, the SSA moved the date back two weeks, from March 31 to April 14.
The rules have changedagain
Yet now the SSA has announced further changes, likely due to continued concerns from lawmakers and the public. While the April 14 datenext Mondaystill holds, not everyone who was originally required to appear in person will now have to, reports NPR.
Individuals will now still be able to apply for certain changes over the phone. However, if those individuals are flagged for anti-fraud checks, they will then need to appear in person at a SSA office.
According to an unnamed White House official who spoke with NPR, the change was made because the SSA anti-fraud team implemented new technological capabilities so quickly.
What the new changes mean
For now, the bottom line appears to be a less strict stance: From April 14, most people will still be able to manage their Social Security accounts online and on the phone.
However, you may still be flagged with a fraud alert. If that happens, you will then need to appear in person at an SSA office.
As the SSA posted on its official X account on April 8: Beginning on April 14, #SocialSecurity will perform an anti-fraud check on all claims filed over the telephone and flag claims that have fraud risk indicators.�
In a follow-up post, the agency said that Individuals that are flagged would be required to perform in-person ID proofing for the claim to be further processed, adding that Individuals who are not flagged will be able to complete their claim without any in-person requirements.
Addressing the administrations reversal of its policy, Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, told NPR that the change was “a victory for Social Security beneficiaries across the country. He went on to say, “The Trump administration did not change the policy out of the goodness of their hearts. They responded to public pressure.
The reversal will be welcome to the millions of American senior citizens who rely on their Social Security payments to pay the bills. But its understandable that the chaotic nature and messaging surrounding the changes have caused so much alarm.
