This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.Not everything creative needs a prompt. The Web is increasingly flooded with AI-generated images and videos, much of it aimed at kids. Sometimes its nice to break free of that synthetic media.
As a dad of 10 and 12-year-old daughters, I appreciate resources for kids and families that celebrate human imagination, curiosity, and hands-on exploration.
I had a fruitful recent conversation about resources for kids with a fellow dad, Kevin Maguire, who writes the great newsletter The New Fatherhood. If youre a dad looking for great reads and a sense of community, check out Kevins newsletter. (Also read Recalculating, by Ignacio Pereyra). Kevin wrote the section below about simplifying screens and shared the tip about muted.io.
The rest of the apps and resources below are ones Ive enjoyed in recent years with my wife and daughters. From coding with visual blocks to identifying plants on nature walks, these are some of our favorite tools for sparking creativity.
Building brains without bots
Scratch, developed at the MIT Media Lab, is a superb program for learning to code. Its fun and free for kids and adults. My daughters like assembling Scratchs visual blocks on screen to create interactive stories, games and animations. Its designed for kids 8 to 16. ScratchJr is a great alternative for kids 5 to 7. Free
Dash Robot lets kids program it to move, light up, and make sounds. It teaches block coding, like Scratch, and our daughters enjoy making up their own instructions to send Dash on creative adventures. For kids 5 to 14. $180.
Seek is one of our favorite family apps. Point the app at any plant, flower, animal, or bug you see on a walk to learn more about it. Its given us insight into much of the greenery (& critters) around us. iOS & Android. Free
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Words that work wonders
Libby lets you access thousands of free ebook or audiobooks with a free library card. It works for more than 90% of public libraries in North America, and Libby can be found in 78 countries worldwide. Free
Khan Academy is the most robust online spot for helping kids with learning almost any school subject. Its completely free. No ads. Khan Academy Kids has great learning activities and games for kids 2-8. Its also free and ad-free, and its fun for both math and reading. Free
Family screen time that actually works
Common Sense Media | Wondering if a show, movie or video game is age appropriate? Get a quick sense of whether its a good fit for your family. Free
Kanopy is a terrific free resource for educational videos, documentaries and classic films. Access it with your library card. A unique feature: watch Oscar-winning short films you wont find on other streaming platforms. Kanopy Kids is a curated collection for learning, less commercial than the kids section on Netflix. Free
JustWatch | See which platform hosts a particular movie or show. Free
Nex | Like a Nintendo Wii made for 2025, this video game systm gets our bodies moving with fun, non-violent, family-friendly games. It was easy to set up, pluging right into an HDMI port on our TV. Its a little bigger than a Rubiks Cube.
We love playing with the Nex Playground
Four of us can play together. We like the sports, dancing and trivia games. Some titles are just for little kids (e.g. Elmo, Peppa Pig), but most are engaging for older kids and adults. The device costs $249 with five included games. An $89 annual subscription gets you 40+ more games.
Read my Fast Company interview [gift link] with Nexs founding CEO about how his game system has spread.
Making music
Chrome Music Lab Compose little tunes, even if you have no musical experience. Explore digital instruments and sound games. Save your favorite clips to share. Googles MusicFX is a fun alternative for generating music with a prompt. Free
Metronaut This sheet music app lets kids play along with an accompaniment from an phone or iPad. It supports 20+ instruments ranging from strings and woodwinds to piano, guitar, and brass. $27/year on iOS.
Metronaut lets you play with digital sheet music and an accompaniment
Tomplay is another great sheet music app that works well on Android and iOS and includes a wider range of chamber music. I pay $82/year for it.
muted.io has a vibrant collection of interactive tools and visual references to help kids or their parents absorb music theory. Free [by Kevin Maguire]
Art adventures & creative experiments
Tate Kids An Arty Playground. Play art games, watch cute videos, try out little projects, and stretch your artistic mind with this well-designed resource from one of the UKs great art museums. Free
Make an animated drawing. Turn a sketch into a playful moving image. This service from Meta lets you turn coloring into animation. Free
Draw A Fish. This simple, low-fidelity game lets you draw a little fish with your computer mouse, then see it swim on screen. Free
Googles Arts & Culture Experiments include dozens of playful free apps for learning about the worlds of painting, sculpture, music, and more. Free
Spark curiosity
How to Raise a Reader by Pamela Paul and Maria Russo is a wonderful guide to fabulous books for kids. It grew out of this free NYTimes guide (gift link). As of this writing, its $9.51 on Amazon.
The Week Junior is a terrific print magazine. Its aimed at kids 8 to 14, but my wife and I also enjoy reading it. The 32 colorful pages feature short curated stories about the news of the week. It also includes puzzles, a weekly debate, and photography pages. Cost: 25 issues/year for $49, or $59 for print + digital access. (See the magazine layout design)
Simplifying screens, from Kevin Maguire
Consider a Light Phone. Experiment with freeing yourself (and your kids) from smartphone addiction with a full-on dumbphone. Reviews for the 3rd edition have been glowing Wired gave it 8/10. $699 for version 3 or $299 for version 2.
Try the Dumb Phone app. Simulate a simple device with an app that strips away everything but simple links to the core phone functions: camera, maps, calendar, and photos. Imitate a simple device without dropping $500 on the love child of a Nokia and a Kindle. Free or $10/annual; $30/lifetime.
The Dumbest Phone Is Parenting Genius. A landline for kids? If its not too late, consider a tactic from Rheana Murrays Atlantic article: install a landline. Buy that hamburger phone you always dreamed of as a kid; go with a landline as a service company like Tin Can and their gorgeous house phones; or if youre more technically inclined roll your own VoIP line for a fraction of the cost. The bottom line: delay the start of smartphone life.
Three different Coca-Cola sodas are being recalled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a result of the “potential presence of foreign material (metal) in the product.”
Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages LLC ordered the voluntary recall for cans of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Coca-Cola, and Sprite on October 3which the FDA subsequently announced earlier this week on October 20.
“We can confirm all recalled product has been removed from the market,” a Coca-Cola Company spokesperson told Fast Company in an emailed statement. “[We] voluntarily recalled a very limited quantity of [the] 12oz cans (12-, 24-, and 35-packs) in the state of Texas. This action was taken out of an abundance of caution due to the potential presence of foreign material. The recall was limited to McAllen/Rio Grande Valley market. It was confined to Texas.”
This Class II FDA recall comes with a warning that the products “may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences,” and “the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.”
What are the details for the recalled Coca-Cola products?
Here are the specific items being recalled, along with their identifying information:
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar 12oz. can 12-pack 49000042559 / FEB0226MAA
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar 12oz. can 35-pack 49000058499 / FEB0226MAA
Coca-Cola 12oz. can 24-pack 49000012781 / JUN2926MAA
Coca-Cola 12oz. can 35-pack 49000058468 / JUN2926MAA
Sprite 12oz. can 35-pack 49000058482 / JUN2926MAA
Sprite 12oz. can-12 pack 49000028928 / JUN2926MAA
Sprite 12oz. can-12 pack 49000028928 / JUN3026MAB
What if I have these Coke products in my kitchen?
“Any consumer who purchased the identified product below may return it to the place of purchase for an exchange or refund, or contact Coca-Cola’s Consumer Interaction Center at (800) 438-2653,” Coca-Cola told Fast Company.
Its time to crown the champion of Americas pastimeeven if a Canadian team earned its way into the battle.
The first pitch of the 2025 World Series will be thrown out tonight: Friday, October 24. The Toronto Blue Jays will try to stop the Los Angeles Dodgers from becoming the first team since the 2000 Yankees to win consecutive championships.
The Blue Jays will also try to prevent Shohei Ohtani from making any baseball history. Both feats are a tall order.
Before we get into how to watch the World Series, lets take a look back at how the two teams got here and speculate on Ohtanis potential firsts.
The road to the World Series
Ironically, the Blue Jays represent the American League in the Series, having earned 94 wins and 68 losses this season.
They faced off against the Seattle Mariners to get here. George Springers game-winning home run in the final playoff matchup cemented their spot, as CNN reported. Toronto has not competed in a World Series game since 1993, which was the year the organization won its second consecutive championship.
On the other side of the coin, the National Leagues Dodgers have a regular-season record of 93-69, just one win less than the Blue Jays. The boys in blue swept the Milwaukee Brewers, who had the best regular-season record, in the playoffs.
This is the franchises fifth appearance in the World Series in the last nine years. Ohtani already made history in Game 4 against the Brewers with what some are calling the greatest playoff performance in Major League Baseball history.
He hit three home runs and pitched six scoreless innings, only allowing two hits. He struck out 10 batters. With this kind of momentum, it’s easy to get excited about the possibilities for the World Series.
What historic feats could Ohtani accomplish?
Ohtani has many opportunities to make history in the Series, as reported by MLB.com. The easiest way to do so would be by breaking any number of offensive performance records, such as most hits or home runs by a pitcher.
The record for most hits by a pitcher in a postseason game is three, and the one for most home runs is one. And the record for most RBIs by a pitcher is four, and the one for total bases is seven. These all seem easily attainable for the talented player.
Insteador additionallyOhtani could make hitting history. He has more competition here, though, as all players can accomplish this, no matter their position. No one has ever hit four home runs in a postseason game.
In this years regular season, this happened three times, which was a firstso the stage is set. Batters just have to do it during the World Series. No pressure.
The least likely outcome could happen from the mound. Ohtani has the chance to become the first pitcher to throw a World Series no-hitter or perfect game since Don Larsen in Game 5 of the 1956 championship.
At that point, anything at the plate would just be gravy.
This accomplishment would take some cooperation from the coaching staff, as Ohtani has only pitched one full game in his career. (It is important to note this one-hit shutout against the Detroit Tigers occurred when Ohtani was still playing for the L.A. Angels in 2023.) Since recovering from Tommy John surgery on his elbow, he tends to pitch an average of six innings.
How can I watch or stream the 2025 World Series?
Only time will tell what Ohtani accomplishes.
The best-of-seven fall classic begins on Friday, October 24, at 8 p.m. ET. The entire series will be broadcast on Fox, which means traditional cable subscribers and those with an over-the-air antenna and reception are all set.
Additionally, if you have a pay-TV provider, you can stream it on FoxSports.com, the Fox Sports app, and Fox One.
For those who cut the cord, try a live-TV streaming service, such as Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, or Fubo. Just be sure to check regional differences before committing to a new monthly charge.
Heres the full World Series Schedule.
Game 1: Friday, October 24, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox)
Game 2: Saturday, October 25, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox)
Game 3: Monday, October 27, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox)
Game 4: Tuesday, October 28, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox)
Game 5: Wednesday, October 29, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox), if needed
Game 6: Friday, October 31, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox), if needed
Game 7: Saturday, November 1, at 8 p.m. ET (Fox), if needed
The Trump administration is deliberately pulling up the welcome mat for people seeking legal status in the United States.
This Monday, the federal government rolled out a new civics test for green card holders applying for U.S. citizenshipan exam that critics have said is needlessly more complex than its predecessor.
Applicants who filed for naturalization prior to October 20 will continue to take the 2008 version of exam. However, those submitting applications after that date will be subject to the 2025 civics test, with special provisions extended to applicants 65 or older who have been permanent residents for at least 20 years.
Matthew Tragesser, spokesperson for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), endorsed the changes in a statement.
The updated test, he said, ensures only those aliens who meet all eligibility requirements, including the ability to read, write, and speak English and understand U.S. government and civics, are able to naturalize,” and that “the American people can be assured that those joining us as fellow citizens are fully assimilated and will contribute to Americas greatness.
How the new test differs from the old version
The old test required 6 correct answers out of 10. While the new version asks for 12 correct out of 20.
Meanwhile, the question pool has expanded from 100 to 128, with many questions now being more demanding. According to the immigration law firm Vega and Associates, roughly 75% of the 2025 test draws on prior material, and additional questions cover U.S. history and government in greater depth.
Geography and holiday questionssuch as What ocean is on the West Coast?are replaced by more challenging ones, as NPR reported.
Examples include, Why did the United States enter the Persian Gulf War? (Answer: To force the Iraqi military from Kuwait.) and Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War? (Answer: To stop the spread of communism.)
The exam is also administered differently: Officers stop asking questions once an applicant either passes or fails. Nine incorrect answers and the assessment ends.
Vega and Associates advises test takers to focus on understanding concepts rather than memorizing exact answers, as questions may be phrased differently during the exam.
Civics knowledge isnt the only new requirement
Applicants must now demonstrate good moral character.
Previously, a clean record sufficed, but applicants may now need to provide evidence of positive contributions to American society, with officers potentially interviewing coworkers, neighbors, or family members.
According to The Washington Post, these changes are part of a broader initiative by the Trump administration to make citizenship more difficult and to increase scrutiny of immigrants and visa holders.
Immigration advocates worry that the updates could pose additional barriers, particularly for applicants with limited literacy or access to preparation courses.
Its hard to imagine these changes dont reduce the number of people who can complete the naturalization process, Julie Mitchell, legal director at the Central American Resource Center in Los Angeles, told NPR.
And this may only be the beginning. Officials are reportedly considering additional measures, such as essays demonstrating attachment to the U.S. Constitution.
They are opening the door for more biased decision-making based on arbitrary factors like race, Eric Welsh, partner at Reeves Immigration Law Group, told Axios. Its extremely dangerous and a slippery slope.
You might have a tough time getting your hands on a pumpkin spice latte over the next few days.
Starbucks Workers United, the union representing more than 12,000 workers across 650 stores nationwide, is planning to picket and stage rallies outside 60 locations of the coffee chain this weekend.
Seventy rallies and pickets will take place from today through November 1, the union said.
Today the union will begin voting on a work strike authorization, stemming from demands for new contracts that address better staffing hours, higher pay, and resolution for hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practice charges, according to the union.
Starbucks has faced a myriad of challenges in the past year, including store closings, layoffs, and uniform changes that many employees seemed to hate.
All of this happened under the purview of Brian Niccol, who has been CEO of Starbucks since September 2024. Niccol implemented the Back to Starbucks plan, which encourages baristas to be warm and engaging with customers in a bid to turn Starbucks visits into a repeat occurrence.
Meanwhile, in September of this year, Niccol announced a $1 billion dollar restructuring plan which involves closing 500 of Starbucks retail storesof which 59 are unionized.
When reached for comment, Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson had this to say: Workers United only represents around 4% of our partners but chose to walk away from the bargaining table. If theyre ready to come back, were ready to talk. Any agreement needs to reflect the reality that Starbucks already offers the best job in retail including more than $30 an hour on average in pay and benefits for hourly partners. Were investing over $500 million to put more partners in stores during busy times. The facts show people like working at Starbucks.
This month, Southwest Airlines unveiled a new cabin design thats already rolling out in new planes across its fleet. It includes slimmer seats, updated amenities, and lots and lots of blue.
The new cabin was revealed on October 14, and there are currently six aircrafts in operation with the revamped design. For Southwest, this design is part of what it calls a larger transformational plan. So far, that plan has included nixing some of its most iconic brand featureslike its bags fly free policy and flat cost open seating arrangementin order to compete in an airline industry thats increasingly reliant on charging ancillary, premium fees to drive up profits.
[Photo: Southwest]
Starting in January 2026, Southwest will offer a new, pricier seating option that comes with extended leg room (ELR). These ELR seats are expected to take up one-third of each aircrafts total seatingand in order to implement the new tiered assigned seating process, the airline is replacing seating across its fleet. In the coming months, every new aircraft that Southwest receives from Boeing will be fitted with the fully updated cabin, while older planes will be retrofitted with new seats.
According to Julia Melle, Southwests director of brand and content, the new cabin design is intended to offer new experiences for a broadening affluent consumer base, while still keeping core customers in mind.
After the pandemic, we took a look at the data, and there is a more affluent audience that is growing across the category, Melle says. We wanted to be able to make sure we offered our core customers and an affluent customer more choices than ever before, and that includes an elevated experience within our cabin.
[Photo: Southwest]
A very blue cabin design
The main change that guests might notice when they enter an updated Southwest cabin is a whole lot of blue.
Throughout the customer research process, Melle says, her team found that passengers are primarily looking for a calming, relaxing, and friendly environment. To achieve that, the design team filled the cabin with an array of complimentary blue tones, from sky blue on the headrests to navy blue on the seats and a swirling, atmospheric blue on the carpet. Even the lighting scheme has been adjusted to all-blue tones.
We had a red that would appear at a certain portion of the flight along with the blues, and now it’s a completely a blue color scheme, Melle says. She adds that the new lighting system also has fewer options available, simplifying the process for flight crew when theyre selecting a light setting for takeoff, cruising, and landing.
[Photo: Southwest]
A slimmer seat
Southwests new seats are a model designed by Recaro Aircraft Seating, which faced some backlash earlier this year when internet critics nicknamed them the Ozempic seat for their skinny profiles. Melle says the seats are engineered for maximum comfort through customer feedback and product testing, from the way they maximize seat width to the specific upholstery material. Each seat comes with a personal electronic device holder on the back and a headrest that can be adjusted up and down or folded in toward the face.
The new ELR seats will offer up to five inches of additional pitch for passengers to stretch out, while the seating redesign will maintain a standard seat pitch for those in economy, according to a Southwest spokesperson. To make this work in older planes, Southwest is removing six seats from its Boeing 737-700 aircraft. Boeing MAX 8 and 737-800 planes will keep the same number of seats.
[Photo: Southwest]
In addition to these aesthetic changes, the new cabins also include larger overhead bins, an added cupholder on tray tables, and USB-A and USB-C port on each seatback. And, for passengers sitting in the ELR tier, Southwest will now serve an exclusive new snack of either honey roasted or salted pistachios (luxurious!).
Overall, the updated cabin isnt exactly reinventing the wheel. Still, for Southwest, customer reactions to the design will serve as a crucial data point for the reception of the airlines broader brand transformation.
China‘s leaders are vowing to reduce reliance on foreign advanced technology and spur stronger domestic demand as it weathers high winds amid elevated trade tensions with the U.S.
An outline of the ruling Communist Party’s blueprint for the next five years was laid out in a 5,000-word communique released Thursday after a four-day top level meeting in Beijing, just days ahead of planned talks between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Five-year plans are a throwback to the days of Soviet-style central planning. China still relies heavily on them to map out policy priorities and decide on funding. Party plenum meetings like the one held this week are also used to rally the party rank-and-file around Xi’s leadership.
Thursday’s announcement signaled no major policy shifts. Despite mounting trade tensions, China intends to remain a global manufacturing power while building stronger economic growth at home.
China gains confidence in the trade war
The communique does not refer directly to the trade war between Beijing and Washington, but warns of rising uncertainties and unforeseen factors.
Han Wenxiu, a senior party official in financial and economic policy, told reporters Friday that China is well placed to handle such risks in an era when great-power competition is becoming more complex and the international balance of power is undergoing profound adjustments.
He predicted China’s strength and international status would grow in the next five years. There is always opportunity in crisis and crisis can be turned into opportunity, Han said.
Chi Lo, an Asia Pacific senior market strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management, said an emphasis in the communique on substantial improvements in scientific and technological self-reliance likely reflects confidence that China is less vulnerable to pressure from the trade war.
The party vowed to achieve markedly stronger international influence by 2035 and to safeguard the multilateral trading system, portraying Beijing as a defender of free trade, noted Leah Fahy, a China economist at Capital Economics.
Domestic economic challenges remain
A downturn in the property sector that began while China was still in the midst of disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic has sapped consumer confidence, reducing household wealth and leading to widespread layoffs.
Chinas communique emphasized the strategic need to expand domestic demand. The government has already encouraged investment to modernize factories and paid subsidies to people who replace old appliances and vehicles with new ones.
The economies of major countries are all driven by domestic demand and the market is the most scarce resource in todays world, said Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, Beijings main planning agency.
But manufacturing capacity exceeds demand in many industries. That has caused damaging price wars and led companies to boost exports, adding to trade tensions with the U.S., the European Union and others.
Even with strong government support, the economy grew 4.8% in the last quarter, the slowest pace in a year. Factory activity shrank for the sixth consecutive month in September, as domestic demand remained sluggish.
China’s leaders have stuck to their goal of attaining the status of a mid-level developed country” and doubling the size of the economy in 2020 by 2035.
That implies an average annual growth rate of about 4-5% in the next decade, said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank.
China will remain a manufacturing juggernaut
China is the worlds biggest manufacturer, accounting for roughly 30% of global production and about a quarter of its overall economy. The new 5-year plan calls for keeping manufacturing at an appropriate level with advanced industries as the backbone.
Chinas focus on the manufacturing sector “will remain a top priority, even in the face of overcapacity (and) price wars, said Fahy of Capital Economics.
Over the years, Chinese manufacturing has progressed from labor-intensive, low-cost production to higher-value products including electric vehicles, robots and batteries. In coming years, the emphasis will be on advanced manufacturing, said Robin Xing, chief China economist at Morgan Stanley.
That includes areas such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, artificial intelligence and next-generation mobile communications, said Zheng, the planning agency chief.
These industries are ready to take off, he said. It means that in the next 10 years we will build another high-tech industry in China and this will inject continued impetus to our efforts to achieve Chinese modernization.
It’s unclear if China’s commitment to catalyzing more consumer spending and domestic investment will make much of a dent in its exports.
Chinese companies like BYD and CATL have become global leaders in EV battery technology and production. China plays a pivotal role in global supply chains and has shown it can control access to rare earths, materials used in many products.
The Chinese government sees manufacturing as a core issue in security and geopolitical leverage over other countries, added Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis.
Xi continues to centralize power
The four-day plenum was marked by relatively low attendance.
Out of 205 full members in the elite Communist Party central committee, only 168 were there, according to the communique. Many have been purged in anti-corruption campaigns that also enforce loyalty to Xi within the party.
An “unprecedented proportion of central committee members are in political trouble,” said Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institutes Center for China Analysis.
The meeting appointed Gen. Zhang Shengmin as China’s second highest ranking general. He replaced He Weidong, who was ousted from the party along with eight other senir officials in a recent anti-corruption drive.
As the party continues to centralize power, the political position faced by Xi and his dominance within the party is still relatively secure said Xin Sun, a senior lecturer in Chinese and East Asian business at Kings College London.
Chan Ho-Him, Huizhong Wu, and Ken Moritsugu, Associated Press
Associated Press researchers Yu Bing and Shihuan Chen in Beijing contributed.
Snack maker Mondelez is using a new generative AI tool to cut costs for the production of marketing content by 30% to 50%, a senior executive told Reuters.
The packaged food manufacturer began developing the tool last year with IT firm Accenture and expects that it will be capable of making short TV ads that would be ready to air as soon as next year’s holiday season, and potentially for the 2027 Super Bowl, said Jon Halvorson, Mondelezs global senior vice president of consumer experience.
The Cadbury chocolate producer has invested more than $40 million in the tool, Halvorson said, adding that savings would grow if the tool is able to make more elaborate videos.
Faced with tariffs and shrinking shopper budgets, Mondelez, like other consumer goods companies, is looking to adopt AI to slash fees paid to advertising agencies, and speed up how long it takes to develop and sell new products.
Rivals such as macaroni-and-cheese maker Kraft Heinz and Coca-Cola have also been trying out AI for ads. Coke in 2024 ran AI-created holiday ads, though the computer-created people in them were ridiculed by some consumers for lacking real emotion.
Mondelez is not yet putting human likenesses in its AI-created content.
It is using content generated by the new tool on social media for its Chips Ahoy cookies in the U.S. and Milka chocolate in Germany. An eight-second Milka video shows waves of chocolate rippling over a wafer, along with different backgrounds depending on which consumer Mondelez is targeting.
The cost to do animations “is in the hundreds of thousands,” Halvorson said. “This type of set-up is orders of magnitude smaller.”
In the U.S., Oreo will use the tool for product pages on Amazon and Walmart in November. Mondelez plans to use the tool in the coming months for Lacta chocolate and Oreo in Brazil, and Cadbury in the UK, Halvorson said.
Tina Vaswani, vice president of digital enablement and data for the company, said humans will always check what the tool produces to avoid any mishaps. Mondelez has rules prohibiting highlighting unhealthy eating habits, vaping, over-consumption, emotionally manipulative language and the use of offensive stereotypes, according to a document shared by the Chicago-based company.
Jessica DiNapoli, Reuters
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Since mortgage rates spiked in 2022, many large homebuilders have tried to make homes more affordable by shrinking them, stripping them down, or pushing buyers farther out. Allan Merrill, CEO of Atlanta-based Beazer Homesa publicly traded builder with a $710 million market capitalization and the 23rd-largest single-family homebuilder last yearbelieves thats the wrong approach.
The way I think about it is, I dont want to sell you a cheaper home, Merrill told ResiClub last week. I want to sell you a home that costs you less every month to live inand one that will still hold its value five or ten years from now.
Beazers plan focuses on three key areas: lowering the cost to power, insure, and finance a home.
If you can take $150 or $200 a month out of your operating cost [monthly payment], thats real affordability, Merrill said. Were not trying to sell you less housewere trying to sell you a better, more efficient one.
Allan Merrill [Photo: Beazer Homes]
Affordability lever #1: Cutting energy bills through design, not gimmicks
The centerpiece of Beazers affordability push is its energy efficiency standard. Every Beazer home is built to the Energy Rated Valuea benchmark that exceeds building codes and emphasizes insulation, air filtration, and low humidity levels.
We pride ourselves on building beyond [local] energy codes so you are buying a home from the future today, Merrill says. You dont want to buy a home thats functionally obsolete the day you close. Beazer sees this as more than a sustainability moveits a financial one. Lower energy bills directly reduce a homeowners monthly cost of living, which Merrill calls material savings.
Its $100 a month, $200 a month on the margin, he says. The present value of that is in the thousands of dollars, but over the life of the loan could be over $30,000 [in savings].
Beazer says its homes are designed to feel tangibly different: quieter, better insulated, and healthier. It feels different in here, Merrill says. It sounds different. It smells different. A home with double-filtered fresh air and low humidity literally feels different.
Merrill says this is all underscored in Beazers new campaign, “Enjoy the Great Indoors.”
Affordability lever #2: Lowering insurance costs through an in-house agency
The second affordability lever comes not from the home itself, but from the insurance that protects it. Beazer has its own insurance agencyand it gives away the profits.
Beazer wanted to have an agency to organize the proposals from the different firms, Merrill explains, adding: But that entity distributes its profits to our charitable foundationand thats actually what we do with title insurance as well.
The Beazer insurance agency operates in-house, handling the paperwork and logistics of homeowners and title insurance while keeping buyers costs competitive. Because it isnt structured to make money for Beazer, it can pass along more savings to the buyer. Its a small but symbolic move in a business where hidden transaction fees are common.
We dont need to make money on every piece of the home purchase, he says. Were trying to make homeownership more attainable.
Affordability lever #3: Reducing mortgage costs with an in-house competition platform
The third pillar of Beazers affordability strategy is the companys in-house mortgage platform, which hosts a marketplace of competing lenders. In mortgage, there are literally no economics to us, Merrill says. We are not lenders, we are not brokers, we are in no way in the mortgage business. We have a platform where the banks can compete effectively, directly for the buyers.
Unlike some other builders, Beazer doesnt have a captive finance arm that earns interest or fees, he says. Instead, the company uses its internal program to connect buyers directly to multiple banksand takes no profit from the transaction. That competition, Merrill says, often drives rates below what buyers would find on their own.
Today, youll see permanent buydowns in the 4.99% range [in many markets], down from the low sixes, he explains. Every 25 basis points costs about a pointbut were not adding a margin on top of that. By building both the insurance and mortgage processes in-housebut running them as service models, not profit centersBeazer is says its able to lower monthly payments for its homebuyers.
Building forward, not backward
What some other buildersthose going smaller or cutting back on qualityare doing, Merrill argues, would be like Apple bringing back the iPhone 13 or 14 instead of rolling out the iPhone 18. I dont think thats a great long-term strategy, he says.
Merrill said the companys approach differs from many of its publicly traded peers, which have leaned on aggressive incentives or cheaper design packages to maintain volume in a high-rate environment. In an attempt to reduce cost, what we see a lot in the industry is were effectively going backward.
Beazer, instead, is investing to make each home iteration better than the lasteven as affordability pressures mount. We have continued to innovate, Merrill said. I want to deliver the version [iPhone] 19 and version 20, and have their feature be your low cost of operation. Instead of saying, Good news, you can buy something that was available five years ago.
Beazer Homes: Policymakers could help out if they lowered building fees
In Merrills view, the housing affordability strain isnt just about interest ratesits about decades o underinvestment in infrastructure and an overreliance on permit and impact fees that push costs onto new homebuyers.
In Northern California, its $140,000 [spent by us] before we even break groundjust in [government] fees, Merrill said. Across the country, its $60,000 or $70,000. That number used to be under $10,000 [per home].
He compares having new builds shoulder a disproportionate share of government revenue through impact and permit fees to the way the U.S. runs budget deficits: Weve been living on credit, but instead of running up a big deficit, weve just shifted it to the next generation of homebuyers, he said. Then we complain about why they cant buy homes.
Beazer Homes CEO Allan Merrill is among the speakers at ResiDay 2025. ResiClub is hosting the one-day conference on Friday, November 7, in New York City.
Toy retail brand Toys “R” Us will open new flagship stores and seasonal holiday shops just in time for the holidays.
The initiative is in partnership with specialty retailer Go Retail Group, the company said.
The locations will feature products from popular brands such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Nerf, Lego, and Paw Patrol. Some of the new stores have already opened their doors. According to the company, additional stores will open throughout the season.
Heres where you can shop
Consumers will be able to do their holiday shopping at the following new Toys “R” Us locations:
Flagship stores:
Chicago Premium Outlets Aurora, IL
Camarillo Premium Outlets Camarillo, CA
Arundel Mills Hanover, MD
Jordan Creek Moines, IA
Westroads Mall Omaha, NE
Denver Premium Outlets Thornton, CO
Tanger Outlets Deer Park Deer Park, NY
Towne East Square Wichita, KS
The Chicago Premium Outlets flagship store is already open.
Seasonal holiday shops:
The following seasonal shops are already open:
Great Lakes Crossing Auburn Hills, MI
Grapevine Mills Grapevine, TX
Lakeside Shopping Center Metairie, LA
Tanger Outlets Nashville, TN
Crabtree Valley Mall Raleigh, NC
The Mall in Columbia Columbia, MD
South Plains Mall Lubbock, TX
Westfield Southcenter Tukwila, WA
Station Park Farmington, UT
The following seasonal shops will open soon:
Deptford Mall Deptford, NJ
Eastland Mall Evansville, IN
Mall of New Hampshire Manchester, NH
Bay Street Emeryville, CA
Twelve Oaks Mall Novi, MI
Park Meadows Lone Tree, CO
North Star Mall San Antonio, TX
Tanger Outlets Sevierville, TN
King of Prussia Mall King of Prussia, PA
Crocker Park Westlake, OH
Walden Galleria Buffalo, NY
The social media accounts for Toys R Us will have up-to-date store locations and hours. The locations are also searchable on the brand’s store locator page.
“The rollout represents a new chapter for Toys ‘R’ Us, strengthening its place at the center of holiday shopping and redefining family retail experiences,” Gideon Schlessinger, CEO of Go Retail Group, said in a statement. “With new stores nationwide, customers of all ages are invited to discover the season’s hottest toys and rediscover what it means to be a Toys ‘R’ Us kid.”
Not your grandfather’s Toys “R” Us
This isnt the first time that the Toys R Us brand has made a comeback.
The original company, a retail mainstay for decades, sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017. It had struggled with debt for years in the wake of a private equity buyout deal in 2005.
The toy retailer closed roughly 800 stores in 2018.
In October 2018, Tru Kids Brands bought the Toys R Us brands and intellectual property. And the following year, the company opened several smaller stores during the holiday season.
Brand acquisition company WHP Global snatched up a controlling stake in Tru Kids in 2021. This acquisition led the toy retailer to partner with Macy’s. The department store began promoting Toys “R” Us shops in its department stores and selling its products online.
WHP Global first partnered with Go Retail Group in 2023, at the time announcing plans to roll out Toys “R” Us stores nationwide.
