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Don’t tune into the Super Bowl hoping for a break from the tumultuous politics gripping the U.S.The NFL is facing pressure ahead of Sunday’s game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots to take a more explicit stance against the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement. More than 184,000 people have signed a petition calling on the league to denounce the potential presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Super Bowl, which is being held at Levi’s Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area. The liberal group MoveOn plans to deliver the petition to the NFL’s New York City headquarters on Tuesday.Meanwhile, anticipation is building around how Bad Bunny, the halftime show’s Spanish-speaking headliner, will address the moment. He has criticized President Donald Trump on everything from his hurricane response in his native Puerto Rico to his treatment of immigrants. On Sunday night, he blasted ICE while accepting an award at the Grammys. His latest tour skipped the continental U.S. because of fears that his fans could be targeted by immigration agents.Trump has said he doesn’t plan to attend this year’s game, unlike last year, and he has derided Bad Bunny as a “terrible choice.” A Republican senator is calling it “the woke bowl.” And a prominent conservative group plans to hold an alternative show that it hopes will steal attention from the main event.The Super Bowl is one of the few remaining cultural touchstones viewed by millions of people in real time and the halftime show is no stranger to controversy, perhaps most notably Janet Jackson’s 2004 performance in which her breast was briefly exposed. But there are few parallels to this year’s game, which has the potential to become an unusual mix of sports, entertainment, politics and protest. And it will unfold at a tinderbox moment for the U.S., just two weeks after Alex Pretti’s killing by federal agents in Minneapolis reignited a national debate over the Trump administration’s hard-line law enforcement tactics.“The Super Bowl is supposed to be an escape, right? We’re supposed to go there to not have to talk about the serious things of this country,” said Tiki Barber, a former player for the New York Giants who played in the Super Bowl in 2001 and has since attended several as a commentator. “I hope it doesn’t devolve, because if it does, then I think we’re really losing touch with what’s important in our society.” Bad Bunny has leaned into the controversy The 31-year-old Bad Bunny, born in Puerto Rico as Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has elevated Latino music into the mainstream and gained global fame with songs almost entirely in Spanish something that irks many of his conservative detractors. He has leaned into the controversy, referring to the halftime show when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” in October by joking “everybody is happy about it even Fox News.”He segued into a few sentences in Spanish, expressing Latino pride in the achievement, and finished by saying in English, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn!”Those who follow him closely doubt that he’ll back down now.“He has made it very clear what he stands for,” said Vanessa Díaz, a professor at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of “P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.” “So I can’t imagine that this would all go away with the Super Bowl.”The halftime show is a collaboration between the NFL, Roc Nation and Apple Music. Roc Nation curates the performers and Apple Music distributes the performance while the NFL ultimately controls the stage, broadcast and branding.The NFL, which is working to expand its appeal across the world, including into Latin America, said it never considered removing Bad Bunny from the halftime show even after criticism from Trump and some of his supporters.NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday described the singer as “one of the great artists in the world,” as well as someone who understands the power of the Super Bowl performance “to unite people and to be able to bring people together.”“I think artists in the past have done that. I think Bad Bunny understands that. And I think you’ll have a great performance,” Goodell told reporters during his annual Super Bowl press conference.About half of Americans approved of Bad Bunny as the halftime performer, according to an October poll from Quinnipiac University. But there were substantial gaps with about three-quarters of Democrats backing the pick compared to just 16% of Republicans. About 60% of Black and Hispanic adults approved of the selection compared to 41% of whites.Republicans are eager to maintain Latino support in their bid to keep control of Congress. But as the Super Bowl draws near, many in the GOP have kept up their Bad Bunny critiques.Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, the former head football coach at Auburn University who is now running for governor, derided the “Woke Bowl” on Newsmax last week and said he’ll watch an alternative event hosted by Turning Point USA.The group founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk said Monday that Kid Rock, a vocal Trump supporter, would be among the performers at its event. DHS won’t say whether immigration agents will be at Super Bowl In recent days, Department of Homeland Security official Jeff Brannigan hosted a series of private calls with local officials and the NFL in which he indicated that ICE does not plan to conduct any law enforcement actions the week of the Super Bowl or at the game, according to two NFL officials with direct knowledge of the conversations.ICE is not expected to be among more than a dozen DHS-related agencies providing security at the game, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.While that is the plan, some worry that Trump and his MAGA allies who lead DHS can change their minds ahead of Sunday’s game given their recent statements.DHS official Corey Lewandowski, a key adviser to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, said in October that ICE agents would be conducting immigration enforcement at the game.“There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in the country illegally, not the Super Bowl, not anywhere else,” he said at the time.Asked to clarify ICE’s role this week, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin refused to say whether federal immigration agents will be present for the Super Bowl.“Those who are here legally and not breaking other laws have nothing to fear,” she said. “We will not disclose future operations or discuss personnel. Super Bowl security will entail a whole-of-government response conducted in line with the U.S. Constitution.”The progressive group MoveOn will host a Tuesday rally utside the NFL headquarters in New York to present a petition telling the league, “No ICE at the Super Bowl.”“This year’s Super Bowl should be remembered for big plays and Bad Bunny, not masked and armed ICE agents running around the stadium inflicting chaos, violence, and trauma on fans and stadium workers,” MoveOn spokesperson Britt Jacovich said. “The NFL can’t stay on the sidelines, the league has a responsibility to act like adults, protect Super Bowl fans and stadium workers, and keep ICE out of the game.”In an interview, San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie was optimistic that the event would be a success even in a politically tense climate.“We are going to keep everybody safe our residents, our visitors,” he said. “Obviously with everything going on, we’re staying on top of it, monitoring everything. But I expect everything to be safe and fun.” Steven Sloan and Steve Peoples, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Discounting has been part of retails toolkit for decades, and it can be effective, especially during high-stakes shopping seasons. But as promotions become more frequent across the industry, companies are taking a closer look at the downside: Short-term sales gains dont always come with long-term loyalty or durable margins, and customers remember how a brand made them feel far more than what they saved at checkout. Whats often missing from the conversation is the role of experience-led value. Loyalty isnt built through price aloneits built through moments that make a customer feel recognized, appreciated, and confident they made the right choice. When brands compete only on discounts, they sacrifice those moments in favor of short-term volume. This coming year, retailers may feel the urge to pull the markdown lever more than ever. While the National Retail Federation pegged retail sales during the recent holiday shopping season to exceed $1 trillion, retailers saw fewer unit sales as shoppers dealt with tariff-driven sticker shock. As a result, 2025 marked a significant change in consumer behavior as shoppers across the board sought value and deals. That shift is likely to persist through 2026, increasing pressure on retailers to use markdowns to move inventory. The risk isnt that retailers will discount, its that discounting becomes the strategy rather than the symptom. WHEN DISCOUNTS COST MORE THAN THEY DELIVER Kohls offers a useful illustration of this tension. In the third quarter of 2025, the retailer reported a modest year-over-year increase in gross margin, while operating income declined amid softer sales. The results underscore how difficult it can be to translate promotional activity and operational improvements into sustained profitability when demand remains under pressure. This dynamic isnt unique to Kohls. Shifting consumer preferences, lingering supply-chain complexity, and intensified competition have forced many retail leaders to make difficult decisions about pricing and inventory. Target faced a similar challenge in 2022, when excess inventoryparticularly in home and apparelprompted the company to take decisive markdown and inventory-reduction actions. While those moves helped rebalance inventory levels, they also weighed on near-term profitability. More recently, Lululemon has contended with elevated promotional activity amid signs of slowing demand in the U.S. and increased competition in the athleisure category from brands like Vuori and Athleta. Analysts have pointed to higher markdown levels as retailers across the space work to maintain traffic and manage inventory in a more competitive environment. Taken together, these examples reflect a broader pattern in retail: promotions can help stabilize revenue in the short term, but they dont always improve operating leverage or long-term customer value. Discounts move inventorybut they rarely move customer lifetime value in the same direction. WHY DISCOUNTING FEELS INEVITABLE BUT ISNT SUSTAINABLE Discounting has intuitive appeal. In a crowded market with shrinking discretionary budgets, deals cut through the noise. Spending trends underscore just how price-sensitive shoppers have become, with a growing percentage planning holiday-season purchases early and hunting for discounts across channels. Yet this rush to save can produce a dangerous feedback loop: 1. Shoppers learn to wait for deals. 2. Brands feel pressured to offer deeper discounts. 3. Margins shrink, forcing even steeper promotions next cycle. Over time, this turns what should be a preference decision into a pricing decision, and pricing decisions rarely build durable brands. LOYALTY IS BUILT BEYOND THE TRANSACTION If discounting tells a shopper, Buy now because its cheap, then true loyalty says, Buy again because it matters. The difference is subtle, but profound. Loyalty isnt a transaction with a strike price; its a series of experiences that make a customer feel recognized, appreciated, and connected. It doesnt live at checkout. Its built in the moments of fulfillment, engagement, and emotional connection that follow. Yet many retail strategies still prioritize pre-purchase price incentives over post-purchase relationship building. Thats why promotions dominate inboxes, but customer lifetime value stagnates. A BETTER PATH FORWARD Some brands are finding a way out of this loop by shifting emphasis away from discounts and toward experience-led value. This includes deploying value-oriented pricing structures that dont train customers to wait for sales. Retailers can also offer post-purchase experiences that reinforce brand affinity without discount hooks. They can also provide more personalized engagement that acknowledges the shopper as an individual rather than a deal seeker. Retailers who embrace these strategies in 2026 signal something important: you matter to us, not just your wallet. And that distinction, over time, fuels repeat business in a way discounts never can. Discounts will always have a placeespecially during peak shopping seasons when consumer attention is fragmented and competitive pressure is intense. But when discounting becomes the foundation of a pricing strategy rather than a tactical lever, it eats into profits and inwardly rewires customer expectations. The retailers that will win in 2026 and beyond wont be the ones offering the biggest discounts. Theyll be the ones who understand how customers remember brands, through moments of appreciation, relevance, and experience that extend beyond the transaction. As the past holiday season showed, even the most sophisticated retailers can fall into the trap of equating promotional volume with lasting value. The brands that win in the long run will resist that reflexand instead focus on creating moments that customers remember, not just prices they respond to. Elery Pfeffer is the CEO at Nift.
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E-Commerce
You wouldnt pay a surgeon to file your tax return, and you wouldnt ask your accountant to perform your appendectomy. The same is true for AI: Organizations should start realizing that different AI providers excel at different needs, from coding to specialized research or creative design. Over the coming year, enterprises will absorb a variety of these AI providers technologies in earnest and at scaledepartment by department, role by role. Legal teams will standardize on tools like Harvey. Customer service teams will rely on Glean or purpose-built agents. Development teams may choose resources from Anthropic. Marketing, engineering, finance, and HR will similarly gravitate toward AI resources from Microsoft, xAI, or OpenAI, optimized for their specific needs. In other words, enterprises will evolve from the idea that single-provider AI resources will solve their needs to an era of targeted, role-based, or need-based AI. Making matters even more complicated, many AI providers are now beginning to roll out their own browsers. Enterprise leaders thus face a new challenge: how to manage the onslaught of AI needs that are now arriving. HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF Enterprises have been here before. When cloud computing emerged, many dipped their toes in the water by standardizing on a single provider. The logic was simple: fewer vendors, lower cost, less risk. But as cloud usage expanded, different workloads demanded different strengths, and organizations diversified their cloud infrastructure. The same dynamic emerged with data platforms. Early efforts focused on centralized applications like data lakes, but as use cases multiplied, organizations often found that no single system served every real-world use case equally well. Most enterprises responded by adopting multiple tools around a shared data foundation. In both cases, organizations that had prepared themselves for flexibility were better positioned. AI is following this same trajectory, only faster. And unlike cloud or data infrastructure, AI adoption isnt happening quietly behind the scenes. Its happening in daily workflows across departments, often without central coordination. Leaders can therefore best help their organizations succeed by embracing many tools, each chosen for what it does best, while managing them through shared controls. THE RISK OF AI TOOL SPRAWL As AI systems and use cases proliferate, failing to prepare poses real risks to the enterprise. This proliferation extends beyond standalone AI tools. Increasingly, SaaS applications from CRM systems and productivity suites to finance and HR platforms embed their own AI. In many cases, AI adoption will happen by default, not by deliberate choice. With these tools, teams will also inherit fragmented security policies, inconsistent controls, and limited visibility. Tools that seem harmless in isolation can create meaningful risk in aggregate. This is the rise of shadow AI: systems introduced to solve real problems, but without the oversight to manage them responsibly. With agentic AI, where systems act on users behalf, those risks compound: permissions expand and accountability becomes harder to trace. If these tools are left unchecked, leaders will lose sight of where AI is used, what data it touches, and which systems act autonomously on the organization’s behalf. Experimentation and innovation should not be allowed to scale faster than oversight. GOVERNANCE IS THE MISSING LAYER Multimodal flexibility does not have to come at the expense of visibility and security. Again, we have been here before. With SaaS, enterprises dont manage a wide variety of capabilities by forcing everyone onto one system. They manage it by establishing shared controls across many tools. Enterprises need a governance layer that sits above all AI vendors. That layer should provide: Visibility across AI usage Policy enforcement independent of model provider Guardrails for data access Safe experimentation Support for bringing your own device, contractors, and distributed teams Governance doesnt restrict freedom. It enables it by allowing organizations to choose every model they want and assign them across their teams without introducing new risk. And true governance cant rely on technology alone. Leaders must cultivate a culture of AI literacy, where every employee can confidently evaluate, validate, combine, and challenge AI systems. Then organizations can embrace a multitude of AI tools, safely, and effectively. PREPARE FOR MULTI-MODEL SUCCESS Much like SaaS, the cloud, and data platforms before it, AI will soon spread across roles, workflows, and applications. Leaders that build in the capacity to manage all these modelsthrough visibility, governance, and an AI-fluent workforcewill be best positioned to capture all of AIs advantages without compromising safety, trust, or control. Steve Tchejeyan is president of Island.
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E-Commerce
Shares in Palantir Technologies (Nasdaq: PLTR) are rising this morning, one day after the AI data analysis software company with significant U.S. government contracts reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings. Heres what you need to know about Palantirs latest results and its rising stock price. Palantirs Q4 2025 beat Wall Street expectations Yesterday, Palantir announced its Q4 2025 earnings, and investors breathed a sigh of relief. For Palantirs Q4, which ended on December 31, the company brought in $1.41 billion in revenue, signaling 70% year-over-year growth. The majority of that revenue comes from Palantirs U.S. customers, which is split roughly evenly between the U.S. government and commercial U.S. businesses. Palantir said U.S. government revenue totaled $570 million for the quarter, representing 66% year-over-year growth in that vertical. U.S. commercial revenue totaled $507 million137% year-over-year growth. But more important than those actuals was what Wall Street had been expecting. And Palantir easily surpassed those expectations, leading to the rapid rise in its stock price today. As cited by CNBC, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) estimates expected Palantir to bring in $1.33 billion for the quarter. The company ended up surpassing that estimate by around $80 million. Analysts were also expecting an earnings per share (EPS) of 23 cents. Palantirs actual EPS for the quarter was 25 cents. PLTR shares are still down from their all-time highs Palantir released its earnings results after the closing bell yesterday, and today its stock price is reaping the rewards of those results, enjoying double-digit growth in premarket trading. As of this writing, PLTR shares are up 11.35% to $164.55. The companys share had closed at $147.76 yesterday. That share price pop will be music to the ears of Palantir investors. Before this morning’s premarket trading bump, PLTR shares were down nearly 17% year-to-date. Its current premarket price rise doesnt quite put PLTR shares back in the black for the year, but its definitely a move in the right direction. Palantir shares had hit an all-time high of above $207 in November, after seeing a phenomenal year of growth. The previous November, in 2024, started with shares sitting in the low-40s range. But increasing government contracts and AI optimism throughout the remainder of 2024 and into 2025 sent PLTR shares surging. Then came December 2025, and PLTR shares got pummeled. Between December 24 and 31, the companys stock price fell from the $194 range to around $177. That fall reflected both rising concerns about Palantirs lofty valuation and broader worries about a potential AI bubble. Where does PLTR go from here? Despite Palantir beating expectations for Q4, the future of its stock price likely hinges on its abilityor notto continue delivering results that justify its valuation. As of yesterdays close, Palantir was valued at around $352 billion and traded at a price-to-earnings ratio of more than 230, which is incredibly high for even a tech company. The companys stock price could also be significantly impacted if upcoming Big Tech earnings do not meet expectations and thus reignite fears of an AI bubble. If investors turn sour on AI stocks, Palantir shares could once again be hit hard. For instance, Google parent Alphabetthe best performing of the so-called Magnificent 7 tech stockswill report earnings on Wednesday. Fellow tech giant Amazon will report the following day. Later this month, meanwhile, AI chip giant Nvidia Corporation will report its results. Investor sentiment around AI could be deeply impacted by the results of any one of those companies. As for Palantir itself, the firm issued guidance yesterday for both its current Q1 2026 and its full-year 2026. For its Q1, Palantir said it expects revenue of between $1.53 billion and $1.54 billion. Thats more than the $1.32 billion that many analysts were expecting. For its full-year 2026, Palantir expects revenue of $7.18 billion to $7.2 billion. That is nearly $1 billion more than many analysts were expecting.
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trump said Monday that he’s “not ripping down” the Kennedy Center but insisted the performing arts venue needs to shut down for about two years for construction and other work without patrons coming and going and getting in the way.The comments strongly suggested that he intends to gut the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the process.“I’m not ripping it down,” the Republican president told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’ll be using the steel. So we’re using the structure.”Such a project would mark the Republican president’s latest effort to put his stamp on a cultural institution that Congress designated as a living memorial to President Kennedy, a Democrat. It also would be in addition to attempts to leave a permanent mark on Washington through other projects, the most prominent of which is adding a ballroom to the White House.Shortly after taking office last year, Trump dismissed Kennedy Center board members who had been appointed by Democratic presidents and replaced them with loyalists, who voted to make him chairman. He helped choose the recipients of the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors, a program he avoided during his first term. He later hosted the event, and the board voted late last year to rebrand the Kennedy Center by adding his name to the building and website.Trump announced Sunday on social media that he intends to temporarily close the performing arts venue on July 4 for about two years “for construction, revitalization, and complete rebuilding,” subject to board approval.The announcement followed a wave of cancellations by leading performers, musicians, and groups since the president took over leadership of the arts institution. Trump did not mention the cancellations in his announcements, or during his comments Monday.Kennedy Center Arts Workers United, which includes several unions representing the institution’s arts workers, said in a statement that it was aware of Trump’s announcement but had received no formal notice or briefing about his plans. The group pledged to enforce its members’ contractual rights.“Should we receive formal notice of a temporary suspension of Kennedy Center operations that displaces our members, we will enforce our contracts and exercise all our rights under the law,” the statement said. “We expect continued fair pay, enforceable worker protections, and accountability for our members in the event they cannot work due to an operational pause.” Promising ‘the highest-grade everything’ Recalling his past career in construction and real estate, Trump said, “you want to sit with something for a little while before you decide on what you want to do.” Speaking of the Kennedy Center, he said: “We sat with it. We ran it. It’s in very bad shape,” asserting that the building is “run down,” “dilapidated” and “sort of dangerous.”Roma Daravi, a Kennedy Center spokesperson, said in a social media post that “decades of gross negligence” has led to $250 million of deferred maintenance needs and that temporarily closing the institution “is the most logical choice to allow for comprehensive renovations, efficient project completion, and responsible use of taxpayer dollars.”Deborah Rutter, the Kennedy Center president who was ousted by Trump, declined comment Monday. In the past, she has said allegations from Trump and others about the center’s management were false.A representative for David Rubenstein, the board chairman who was also pushed out by Trump, said Rubenstein was not available Monday to comment.Trump, citing the complaints of a workman he said has been laying marble at the Kennedy Center, said the closure is needed because “you can’t do any work because people are coming in and out.”He pegged the cost at about $200 million, including the use of “the highest-grade marbles, the highest-grade everything.”“We’re fully financed and so we’re going to close it and we’re going to make it unbelievable, far better than it ever was, and we’ll be able to do it properly,” Trump said.Congress earmarked $257 million for the Kennedy Center in a tax cut and spending bill that Trump signed into law last summer. What kind of work is involved The White House said after the president spoke that some of the maintenance includes work on the building’s structural, heating and cooling, plumbing, electrical, fire protection and technical stage systems. Work on the building’s exterior, security standards and parking are also included.Daravi, the Kennedy Center spokesperson, declined comment when asked how the closure would affect the annual Mark Twain Award and Kennedy Center Honors events this year.Trump said last October, also on social media, that the venue would stay open during construction. But on Monday he said that plan was no longer feasible.“I was thinking maybe there’s a way of doing it simultaneously but there really isn’t, and we’re going to have something that when it opens it’s going to be brand new, beautiful,” Trump said.“The steel will all be checked out because it’ll be fully exposed,” he said. “It’s been up for a long time, but as anybody knows it was in very bad shape. Wasn’t kept well, before I got there,” he said. “So we’re going to make it, I think there won’t be anything like it in the country.”The Kennedy Center opened in 1971.Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, who in November opened an investigation into the Kennedy Center’s financial management, said the planned closure is part of Trump’s “demolition tour of Washington.” Whitehouse is the senior Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees public buildings, and is an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board.Since Trump returned to the presidency, the Kennedy Center is one of many Washington landmarks that he has sought to overhaul in his second term.He demolished the White House East Wing and launched a massive $400 million ballroom project, is actively pursuing building a triumphal arch on the other side the Arlington Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial, and has plans for Washington Dulles International Airport.-Associated Press writers Hillel Italie in New York and Steven Sloan in Washington contributed to this report. Darlene Superville, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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