At the University of Texas, where I’m senior vice provost of academic affairs, our credo (coined by the head of our Office of Academic Technology, Julie Schell) is to be AI Forward and AI Responsible. In service of this, over the past few years, we launched a homegrown AI tutoring platform (UT Sage), launched a second platform to enable faculty, staff, and students to engage with building AI tools (UT Spark), provided a license for Copilot for everyone at UT, and engaged a working group called Good Systems focused on the ethical implications of AI models.
Although all of the conversation about AI makes it seem like it’s taken over the world, it hasn’t. Although it appears to be growing in popularity, there’s no shame in having waited to see how the tech matures and the hype shakes out. But if you’re ready to dip your toe into the AI waters, here’s my advice. In this piece you’ll learn:
The first thing you should ask AI to do for you
How to get AI to perfect your tone when communicating with clients
Why you actually need to read the terms of service before you start
Read the fine print
It is important to remember that AI/large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini are commercial products. The dictum that if the product is free to use then youre the product holds for these tools as well. The generic versions of some LLM tools will include text you enter into the models into the training set for the model.
That means you need to actually read over the End User License Agreement (that thing you usually skip through and click that you agree to the terms). If the model is going to take any text you enter and ingest it (that is, to incorporate it into the models training), then you need to make sure you want to give that text over to the system (and that you have permission to do so if youre adding either proprietary business information or text that is copyrighted by someone else).
When possible, try to use a version of these models that someone has an enterprise license for. Most companies that pay for a license to one of these products stipulate that data entered by employees wont be used by the system for training. That is true for all of the tools we have launched at the University of Texas, for example. If you cant access an enterprise license and want to protect your data, you can consider purchasing an individual license that also typically protects your data.
Many people have heard about concerns about the energy consumption and water usage associated with the server farms that power AI models. There is certainly a growth in the resources being consumed by the computers underlying these models, and it is important to pay attention to this. At the same time, youd have a much bigger impact on the environment by giving up eating meat than stopping your use of AI.
First steps
Because large language models spit out text based on something you type in (the prompt), it is natural to start by getting a system to write something for you. I dont recommend asking these models to write anything for you that you plan to send to someone else. As I have written about before, while asking an LLM to write a document may make you feel like you have improved on your own writing, it tends to make your writing sound like anyone else who has engaged with an AI tool.
That said, if you have never played with an LLM, give a quick description of yourself and ask the model to pretend youre a superhero and ask it to describe your superpowers. This is a fun (and harmless) exercise that will give you a flavor of how the models work.
After that, I recommend trying an exercise where you use an LLM as a partner to help you think about a problem. Find something youre struggling with at work. Describe that situation to the LLM in your prompt. Ask for suggestions for solutions, courses of action, or advice. Often, the system will suggest possibilities you hadnt considered. More importantly, the suggestions you get from the LLM may inspire you to think of other factors you hadnt considered before.
AI as your tone coach
While I dont recommend asking an LLM to write something for you in a professional context, it can be quite helpful in massaging something you have written to give it a different flavor. A colleague in our law school, for example, often asks students in a law clinic to draft letters to clients and then describe the client to an LLM, give it the initial text of the letter and ask the system to write a new draft tailored to that client. Often, the initial drafts of letters are brusque and clinical, and the drafts produced by the LLM have more empathy and engagement.
You can do the same thing. Write a draft of a document. Then, describe your audience to the LLM as well as the purpose of the document. Paste in the text of the document, and ask the system to rewrite it so that it is tailored to the audience. I dont recommend just taking the output of the LLM verbatim. For one thing, it may actually change the meaning of things you intended. These systems dont actually understand your document, they are just word prediction engines. But, the inspiration you get from seeing a different approach to your text can make your next draft clearer and a better fit to your audience.
Be specific about what you want
The main thing to learn about engaging with an LLM is that it doesnt really know what you want to do. So, the more specific the prompt you give it, the more likely it is to give you a valuable output. Heres an exercise you can try to see this in action.
Find a Large Language Model youre interested in using. Ask it to write you a blog entry about using AI. Youll get a response. It might even have some interesting suggestions. Now, ask it to write you a blog entry about using AI for the first time. Youll get something different. Next, ask it to write a blog entry in the style of Fast Company on using AI for the first time. Youll see a shift in tone and style. Finally, ask it to write a blog entry in the style of Art Markman writing for Fast Company. (I have a lot of text on the internet, so this prompt actually makes sense to LLMs . . .), and youll get a different shift in tone. You can add other specifics to prompts like how long you want it to be.
The point is that if you try something on an LLM and you dont get quite what you want out of it, dont give up. Ask it a more specific question. Remember that the LLM is not a colleague who will naturally understand every nuance of what you want. The more clearly you describe what you want, the more likely you will be to get it.
The number of immigrant workers in the United States is declining. According to preliminary Census Bureau data analyzed by the Pew Research Center, more than 1.2 million immigrants left the labor force from January to June 2025. Per the report, 51.9 million immigrants lived in the U.S. as of June, down from a record high of 53.3 million (15.8% of the population) in January.
The report comes as immigration policies have evolved quickly under President Donald Trump. The president ran his 2024 campaign on the promise to deport illegal immigrants. Since January, aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids have swept the nation. According to the latest detention management data, 61,226 people are being held in ICE detention centers. While Trump had vowed to focus on deporting violent criminals, the data shows that at least 70% have no convictions.
Stephanie Kramer, senior Pew researcher, said immigrants make up around 20% of the workforce in the U.S. “It’s unclear how much of the decline we’ve seen since January is due to voluntary departures to pursue other opportunities or avoid deportation, removals, underreporting, or other technical issues,” Kramer said, per AP News. “However, we don’t believe that the preliminary numbers indicating net-negative migration are so far off that the decline isn’t real.”
Recent reports say deportations are up to the highest rate in 10 years, with at least 200,000 people deported so far. As ICE raids continue, many immigrants who do not have legal status have become afraid to leave their homes, leaving industries that rely most heavily on immigrant workerslike restaurants, construction, and farmingshort-staffed.
In response to reports that businesses supplying the country’s food were being threatened, Trump in June directed ICE to pause arrests at farms, restaurants, and hotels. Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, longtime workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace, Trump wrote on Truth Social. In many cases, the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
Immigrant workers arent the only ones leaving the workforce. Black employment has dropped as well. According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report from August 1, 7.2% of Black Americans are unemployed compared with 4.2% of the general population. This is almost a 1% increase from the previous year, when 6.3% were unemployed.
In addition, a record number of women have left the nation’s workforce this year. According to a National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) review of monthly releases from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, since January a net 338,000 women have left the labor force. During the same period, there was a net gain of 183,000 men in the labor force.
While some wonder how the chicken crosses the road, Raising Cane’s is figuring out just how chicken fingers can cross the pond. The nation’s fast-growing restaurant chain is set to open its first U.K. location next year.
Arriving in London’s West End in late 2026, Raising Cane’s flagship U.K. location will mark the privately held company’s first non-franchise international expansion and its first European foray, with an undisclosed number of U.K. locations to follow.
“Our vision is to grow restaurants all over the world and to be the brand that is known for craveable chicken-finger meals and be really, really good at it,” Raising Cane’s co-CEO and COO AJ Kumaran told Fast Company ahead of the announcement.
Beyond just chicken fingers and the restaurant’s fan-favored limited menu, Raising Cane’s is rapidly growing, with sales upward of $5.1 billion last year, marking world domination as an understandable next step.
While the company debuted franchised stores in the Middle East in 2015, the U.K. expansion marks its first fully company-operated international venture.
Coop d’état
This year, Raising Cane’s became the second-fastest growing restaurant chain in the United States, with plans to open nearly 100 new locations this year on top of last year’s record-breaking 118 new spots.
By the end of the year, the chain expects a total of 1,000 locations to be open, with Kumaran ambitiously looking for it to become a top 10 U.S. restaurant brand by the end of the decade.
In its Dallas office, the company is planning on quadrupling in size ahead of its move to a new support office in nearby Plano, Texas, next year.
“We like to beat our own milestones and do better than what we’ve done before,” Kumaran, who joined the company in 2014, says. “To grow restaurants all over the world has been our vision since day one of our existence.”
Chicken fingers come to London
While details on the store’s design are yet to be released, Cane’s flagship U.K. location will open at 21-22 Coventry St., between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, in a mid-20th-century commercial building in the city’s storied theater district.
Like all other Cane’s locations, the restaurant’s inside decorations will feature local graphics that represent the location’s community. For instance, in U.S. stores, restaurants tend to feature local iconography, such as the team colors of the town’s high school.
For its Times Square location in New York City, the design team included homages to Elvis Presley, whose first movie premiered on-site. “We wanted to pay homage to that, and so we incorporated that into the design,” Kuraman explained. “Likewise, we are in the process of understanding what that looks like in London and specifically in these upcoming locations.”
The research process to make each store design unique begins with hiring local leaders to spearhead community authenticity, developing the restaurant’s “ethos.”
“We study every location that we go into,” Kuraman says. “We go to the utmost details about finding the history on what existed there, what the city is known for, what’s the relevance of the building that we’re walking into.”
As part of the expansion, the chicken-finger company is looking to set up a home base in London with its own local team. It’s also hiring for executive roles in the U.S. as part of its broader expansion plans.
Still, one thing is set to remain the same: the cult-favorite menu.
“We want to be chicken finger experts. It is our chicken fingers, our sauce, our freshly brewed tea that is custom-formulated for us, and a freshly squeezed lemonade that is made in our restaurants by our crew members multiple times a day. It’s in the fries and the toast and the coleslaw,” Kumaran added. “This is it. We’re not planning on changing anything.”
Cultivated meatmeat grown from cells, not from whole animalsisnt yet a widespread option in grocery stores or restaurants. The innovation, which involves growing meat from real animal cells without raising or slaughtering any animals, is still relatively rare. But already, Texas lawmakers have decided to ban it.
Now, two cultivated meat companies are fighting back with a federal lawsuit that challenges the ban. The Institute for Justice, a nonprofit public interest law firm, along with cultivated meat startups Wildtype and Upside Foods, argue that the Texas law is an unconstitutional move to protect the agriculture industry from competition.
This law has nothing to do with protecting public health and safety and everything to do with protecting conventional agriculture from innovative out-of-state competition, Institute for Justice senior attorney Paul Sherman said in a press conference on Wednesday. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration have approved both Upside’s and Wildtypes cultivated meat as safe.)
How do we know that? Sherman continued. Because the sponsors of the bill made absolutely no secret of it. Repeatedly in committee hearings and on the floor of the Texas House, they said that the purpose of this law is to protect Texas’s agricultural industry. But that is not a legitimate use of government power.”
Cultivated meat has been offered in only one Texas restaurant. Otoko, a sushi restaurant in Austin, began serving Wildtype salmon this summer. But once the ban went into effect, the restaurant stopped selling it. By limiting what Texans can eat, the companies involved in the lawsuit say the ban is also a slippery slope toward handing over personal choices to the government.
Lawsuits against cultivated meat
Cultivated meat has faced lawsuits before. In 2024, Florida became the first state to ban cultivated meat, with Alabama quickly following suit. This year, lab-grown meat bans passed in Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, and Texas. (Cultivated meat bans have also been considered in a handful of other states, including Georgia and Wyoming.)
Some bans dont bar lab-grown meat forever. The Indiana and Texas lawsuits prohibit the sale of cultivated meat for two years. The Texas bill, SB 261, was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in June and went into effect on September 1. It imposes fines of up to $25,000 a day and even jail time for selling cultivated meat.
Texas is the largest beef-producing state in the country, with some 4 million beef cattle. Sid Miller, the states agriculture commissioner, applauded the ban, saying in a statement that it was a massive win for Texas ranchers, producers, and consumers.” He added: “Its plain cowboy logic that we must safeguard our real, authentic meat industry from synthetic alternatives.
Cultivated meat companies fight back
To the companies that make this cultivated meat, these bans are clearly a way to protect the meat and ranching industry from competition.
Cultivated meat has been a burgeoning industry for about a decade, but it only recently received regulatory approval in the U.S. Upside Foods, which makes cultivated chicken, was the first to get that approval back in 2023. Wildtype, which makes cultivated salmon, received approval in 2025.
To make cultivated meat, these companies grow the cellswhether from chickens or salmonin big cultivators, usually with a blend of ingredients like amino acids and sugars. Wildtype CEO Justin Kolbeck likened the process to brewing beer. (Though cultivated meat has also been called lab-grown meat, Uma Valeti, CEO and founder of Upside Foods, has contested that label. Its not made in a lab, he has said, but in a production facility like any other food.)
These companies are offering consumers a choice, they sayespecially for people who may not want to switch to plant-based meats but who still want to curb their meat consumption as a way to benefit the climate.
The lawsuit filed against the Texas ban challenges it under two constitutional provisions: the Commerce Clause, which prohibits states from impairing interstate commerce, and the Supremacy Clause, which bars states from enacting laws that conflict with federal laws. The Poultry Products Inspection Act, for example, says states cannot enact requirements on ingredients in poultry products, or on the facilities and operations that produce them.
For the same reason California cannot ban Texas beef in California, Texas cannot ban salmon or chicken from California, Valeti said in a statement. Texans deserve the freedom to decide for themselves what to eat without politicians choosing for them.
Wildtype’s Kolbeck also noted during the press conference that when it comes to seafood, America needs more stateside production. More than 80% of seafood on Americans plates is imported, and in April, the Trump administration issued an executive order to restore American seafood competitiveness. [We] are an American small business trying to do exactly what this executive order envisions, he said.
In 2024, the Institute for Justice also filed a lawsuit in Florida, with Upside Foods, challenging that states cultivated-meat ban. In April, a judge denied the state’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit, so it will move forward to trial court. The Texas lawsuit asks the district court to issue a preliminary injunction to block the ban, which would allow Wildtype and Upside to continue to make their cultivated meat available to Texans while the case continues.
Your first 90 days as an executive set the tone for your reputation, relationships, and results. During this period, the board, C-suite, and peers are silently asking themselves, Did we make the right choice?
Harvard Business School research on the first 90 hours shows that the earliest actions you take (or fail to take) quickly shape the narrative others tell about your leadership. McKinsey calls leadership transitions one of the most important, and under-supported, events in businessyet nearly half are viewed as disappointments or outright failures within two years. And the pressure is mounting: Korn Ferry finds the average C-suite tenure (excluding that of the CEO) has declined to just 3.5 to 4.7 years, leaving leaders with little margin for error. From day one, youre expected to prove you belong and deliver impact.
When Tyler became chief growth officer at a global adtech company, he walked into a high-stakes environment. He faced slowing client renewals, new privacy regulations, and friction between product, sales, and data science teams. The pressure to deliver was immediate. McKinsey research shows that nearly 70% of CEOs replace members of their top team within two years, a reminder that leaders are often judged quickly on their ability to deliver. Tyler knew the clock was ticking.
Through our work advising dozens of companies facing similar situations, weve seen what works. Kathryn Landis, as an executive coach and keynote speaker, and Jenny Fernandez, as an executive advisor and learning & development expert, have supported senior leaders with their onboarding process using five key strategies to maximize their first 90 days.
1. Prepare Before You Start
The strongest executives dont wait for day one; they use the pre-start period as a strategic runway. Companies that support this transition are nine times more likely to achieve their performance goals.
Tyler spent his pre-start phase building a foundation. He met with regional sales leads, the head of product, and key clients to understand strengths and friction points. He reviewed campaign performance dashboards with the data science team and came armed with pointed questions about churn, market share, and competitive positioning. By the time he stepped into the role, he wasnt starting cold. He had already mapped key relationships, identified three high-impact priorities, and knew exactly how he wanted to introduce himself to the organization.
Pro tip: Smart prep before day one can save you months later. Prioritize conversations that give you both insight and allies.
2. Set the Strategic Tone With Your First Moves
Your first public moments as an executive leader arent introductionstheyre signals. Unlike other leadership levels, your opening moves are amplified across multiple audiences at once: The board scrutinizes your strategic judgment, employees look for clarity and confidence, and analysts and clients assess whether you can inspire trust in the companys direction. These moments set the narrative for your tenure.
At his first town hall, Tyler didnt sidestep the hard realities. He addressed the impact of new privacy regulations on revenue head-on, signaling transparency and urgency. He also previewed his first 90 days using a 30-60-90 framework: the first month for accelerated learning and relationship building, the second for delivering early wins and building alignment, and the third for locking in systems and scaling results. Framing his approach this way showed discipline in pacing and sequencing while making his priorities visible to both employees and the board.
Pro tip: Own the room early. Acknowledge the tough truths, share your priorities, and invite people into the solution.
3. Decode Power Dynamics and Close Capabilities Gaps
At the C-suite level, its not enough to read the org chart; you need to know where influence and execution risk truly reside. Unlike mid-level leaders who can focus narrowly on their own teams, executives must see across silos, uncover hidden influencers, and quickly spot the gaps that could stall strategy.
In his first month, Tyler identified a mid-level account strategist whose quiet influence made her the go-to fixer for client reporting issues and brought her into planning discussions. He also uncovered a critical capability gap: Sales lacked confidence in pitching AI-based targeting tools. Within weeks, he launched targeted training sessions to close it. At the enterprise level, he partnered with the COO to address misalignment between product and sales, formalizing decision rights to accelerate release timelines.
Pro Tip: Dont just look at titles. Find the people who can move mountains and align them with your agenda.
4. Turn Early Wins into Enterprise Momentum
Early wins at this level arent about checking a box. They are proof you can turn strategy into results at scale. This allows you to earn the political capital needed for bolder moves.
Tyler understood this dynamic. He wanted to show visible progress on the most frustrating roadblock to both the board and the front line: the broken client renewal process. Partnering with a cross-functional task force, he streamlined approvals, standardized templates, and introduced a dashboard to track processes. Within 90 days, he cut renewal turnaround time by 15%. The win was easy to measure, easy to explain, and directly tied to revenue.
Checklist: Identifying wins that matter
Stakeholder priority: Will the CEO, board, or frontline leaders see it as a top concern?
Business derailer: Is it blocking growth, execution, or customer outcomes?
Strategic impact: Will it deliver visible financial results or straegic results and energize teams?
Enterprise scale: Does it cut across multiple teams/functions and create repeatable value?
Measurable visibility: Can progress be tracked, communicated, and celebrated easily?
Pro tip: Target wins that are visible, scalable, and strategically relevant. If it checks at least one box, its worth pursuing.
5. Establish Your Operating Rhythm
Your operating rhythm is a visible signal of how you lead. It sets the tempo for the entire enterprise and cascades into decision-making, collaboration, and accountability. The way you structure updates, resolve issues, and enforce consistency becomes the culture.
Tyler was intentional about how decisions, updates, and problem-solving would happen. He replaced sprawling weekly status meetings with 15-minute daily stand-ups for his leadership team. In addition, he launched a quarterly anonymous pulse survey to spot issues early, introduced a live dashboard to track campaign performance, and clarified cross-functional ownership with a responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed (RACI) chart. Most importantly, Tyler modeled consistency, showing up to every Monday sync on time, prepared, and focused. That reliability sent a clear message that discipline wasnt a preference; it was a leadership expectation.
Pro tip: Your rhythm is your reputation. Protect it and make it contagious.
Tylers success wasnt about a single bold move. It was about stacking deliberate actions that built trust, delivered results, and established a culture of focus and follow-through.
In todays volatile C-suite environment, where tenure is shrinking and expectations are immediate, your first 90 days are more than an onboarding period. They are your launchpad. Lead with intention from day one, and you wont just survive those first three months; you will define the trajectory of your tenure.
Florida plans to become the first state in the country to eliminate all vaccine mandates, including for schoolchildren, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, announced on Wednesday.
The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida lawall of them. All of them. Every last one of them, Ladapo said during a news conference alongside Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The state’s surgeon general added that Florida has maybe half a dozen shots mandated currently.
The mandates, which have been in effect for decades, have been a bedrock of the United States’ public health policy aimed at curbing the spread of disease nationwide, The Associated Press noted. Both physician and public health groups have promoted the safety and efficacy of vaccines, especially among schoolchildren.
People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions, Ladapo, a vaccine critic, said.
The rollback could lead to fewer children getting immunized against diseases like polio and measles.
The Trump administration’s changing policies on vaccines under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have brought on more debate about whether parents should opt out of the shots as the school year begins. In Florida, the number of kindergartners with nonmedical vaccine exemptions rose this year, as it has nationwide, coinciding with the worst measles outbreak in 30 years.
News that Florida would be ending its vaccine policy drew a strong reaction in some corners of social media, with some people saying they would not be visiting Florida as a result. “After 35 years of many trips to Florida, this is the last straw,” Figgy wrote in the comments section of The New York Times. “We’re selling off our property rather than be subjected to all the disease-infected residents that have elected these political hacks that don’t give a fig about their own people, let alone the tourism industry that supports their state.”
In related news, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now questioning whether it’s safe to get multiple respiratory vaccines at oncefor example, the flu, coronavirus, and other RSV shotssignaling a possible reversal of long-standing federal guidance, The Washington Post reported. Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s top vaccine official, said the agency is now unsure about the safety of that practice.
Employees at tech giant Oracle are facing down a fresh round of layoffs this month, the latest bad news out of an industry thats either booming or brutal, depending on whom you ask.
The company has yet to publicly confirm the new cuts to its workforce, but state data shows that Oracle is reducing its Seattle-area workforce by 101 employees. The layoffs were filed with Washington state on September 2 and will go into effect by November 3.
While state filings only reflect Seattle area jobs lost for now, Oracle employees in other states shared news of their jobs being cut on LinkedIn. In some instances, newly laid-off employees worked for the company for 20 years, so the round of reductions may not solely have impacted more recent hires.
Oracle workers based in Kansas, Massachusetts, and Texas were among those who said their positions were eliminated as part of a workforce reduction. On anonymous message boards, some Oracle employees reported seeing the companys general Slack channel drop by around 3,500 members in the last 24 hours, but no official numbers have yet confirmed the scope of the latest round of layoffs.
Some states make layoff data public through a kind of law known as a mini-WARN Act, which stands for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification. The laws are designed to provide workers with advance notice of mass layoffs and often collect that information into state databases. California also operates a WARN database, but it did not include new Oracle layoffs at the time of writing. Fast Company reached out to Oracle to confirm the layoffs but has not received a response from the company.
Multiple rounds of layoffs
Oracle also cut jobs last month. In mid-August, the company notified the state that it planned to eliminate 289 positions in the Bay Area across its offices in Pleasanton, Redwood City, and Santa Clara. In the same flurry of layoffs, Oracle planned to reduce its workforce by 161 positions in the Seattle area, where the company employs around 4,000 workers. The company has been conspicuously reducing its office footprint in Seattle over the last year.
Oracles employees are facing uncertainty as their employer trims its massive workforce, but the company itself is having a banner year. The enterprise hardware and software provider notched its best week since 2001 over the summer, with shares peaking at a record high above $250 last month.
In its June earnings call, Oracle chairman Larry Ellison marveled at spiking demand for the companys products. Even as it pours billions into cloud and AI infrastructure, Oracle is apparently still scrambling to keep pace with its happy customers.
The demand is astronomical, Ellison said. But we have to do this methodically. The reason demand continues to outstrip supply is that we can only build these data centers, build these computers, so fast.
President Donald Trump’s administration is reconsidering federal approval of Avangrid’s planned New England Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, according to a court filing on Wednesday.
The legal maneuver is the latest move by U.S. authorities to stymie development of offshore wind energy, which Trump has called ugly, expensive, and unreliable. Last week, the administration also said it was reconsidering approval of SouthCoast Wind, another planned Massachusetts project.
Attorneys for the Department of Justice said they would move by October 10 to vacate the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval of the New England Wind construction and operations plan.
The filing came in a lawsuit brought earlier this year in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by local groups and individuals opposed to offshore wind development. The suit alleges the government violated federal environmental laws by approving the project.
Avangrid, which is owned by Spanish power company Iberdrola, declined to comment.
New England Wind was approved by former President Joe Biden’s administration in 2024. The project, once built, was expected to be able to produce enough electricity to power 900,000 homes.
Representatives for ACK for Whales, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, could not immediately be reached for comment.
By Nichola Groom and Laila Kearney, Reuters
U.S. consumers, particularly Gen Z, are likely to spend significantly less on the holidays this year, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey.
For PwC’s 2025 Holiday Outlook, the consulting firm polled about 4,000 consumers nationwide between June and July, and found shoppers expect to spend 5.3% less than in 2024, or about $1,552 per person. It’s the first notable drop since 2020when average spending fell 7.6%, to $1,187.
That’s not all. Some 84% of Americans expect to cut back over the next six months, particularly when it comes to eating out (52%), clothes (36%), and big-ticket items (32%)as a result of rising prices and tariffs (especially on electronics, apparel, toys, food, and household staples)and the overall high cost of living. More than half of those surveyed said increased prices will likely affect what they decide to purchase, making value a defining theme of the 2025 holiday season.
Gift spending is expected to take the biggest hit, down 11% to an average of $721, from $814 in 2024while people continue to spend on travel and entertainment, at an increase of 1%.
Gen Z holiday spending expected to drop sharply
PwC expects the sharpest decline in shopping to come from Gen Zers, who say they expect to reduce their holiday spending by a whopping 23%, leaving retailers to compete over fewer dollars.
However, the good news for retailers is that millennials, Gen Xers, and baby boomers are expected to spend about the same as last year, possibly slightly more.
What shoppers are looking for this holiday season
More than a good deal, consumers are seeking value and brands they feel “get” them this holiday season.
As with all forecasts, it’s worth noting this survey took place in June and July, during a period of high uncertainty over tariffs, and that purchasing behavior could always change between now and December, along with the economic climate and outlook.
Wall Street is steadying on Wednesday as Alphabet and other technology stocks rise.
The S&P 500 added 0.3% and was on track to break its two-day losing streak since setting its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 179 points, or 0.4%, as of 12:32 p.m. ET, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher.
Googles parent company was one of the strongest forces lifting the market and climbed 8.7% after avoiding some of the worst-case scenarios in its antitrust case. A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a shake-up of Googles search engine but did not force a sale of its Chrome browser.
Because Alphabet is one of Wall Streets most valuable companies, its stock movements carry more weight on the S&P 500 and other indexes than the typical companys.
Also helping to steady Wall Street was a calming bond market. A day earlier, rising yields for government bonds around the world raised the pressure on the stock market. Yields climbed on worries about governments abilities to repay their growing mountains of debt, as well as concerns that President Donald Trumps pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut short-term interest rates could lead to higher inflation in the long term.
Such worries have pushed investors to demand higher yields in order to lend money to governments worldwide. And when bonds are paying more in interest, investors are less likely to pay high prices for stocks, which are riskier investments.
On Wednesday, Treasury yields retreated following the latest report on the U.S. job market coming in weaker than expected. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.21%, from 4.28% late Tuesday, for example.
The report showed that U.S. employers were advertising 7.2 million job openings at the end of July, fewer than economists had forecast. The number bolsters the growing sense on Wall Street that the job market may be ossifying into a low-hire, low-fire state.
A weakened job market could push the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate for the first time this year at its next meeting, which is scheduled for later this month. Thats the widespread expectation among traders.
Lower interest rates could give the job market and overall economy a boost, along with prices for investments. The downside is that they can also push inflation higher when Trump’s tariffs may be set to raise prices for all kinds of imports.
Trading on Wall Street was mixed outside of tech stocks, which benefited from the Alphabet ruling. Apple rose 3% after analysts highlighted how the ruling will still allow it to sign lucrative search deals with Google.
This is a relief, an outcome that is much better than feared for Google and for Apple,” according to Chris Marangi, co-chief investment officer of value at Gabelli Funds.
Macys jumped 17.1% for one of the markets bigger gains after the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The owner of Bloomingdales delivered the best growth in an important measure of sales in three years, and it also raised its forecasts for sales and profit this fiscal year.
American Bitcoin, a bitcoin treasury and mining company linked to the Trump family, shot up 28.1% in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq after completing a merger with Gryphon Digital Mining. Movements for its stock were so frenetic that trading was halted several times in the day’s first hour, and it more than doubled at one point.
Campbell’s rose 4.9% after the company behind the Goldfish and V8 brands reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also said, though, that customers are continuing to be increasingly deliberate and that tariffs may help drag its overall earnings lower in its upcoming fiscal year.
On the losing end of Wall Street was Dollar Tree, even though the retailer reported better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. A chunk of its stronger-than-expected performance came because of the timing of tariffs, which could drag down its results in the current quarter.
Analysts also said expectations were high for the value retailer coming into its report. Its stock fell 7.1%, slicing into its gain for the year that came into the day at a stellar 48.6%.
In stock markets abroad, European indexes ticked higher following a weaker finish across much of Asia.
Japans Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% amid uncertainty about the political future of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
By Stan Choe, AP business writer
AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed.
