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U.S. President Donald Trump opened his four-day Middle East trip on Tuesday by paying a visit to Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for talks on U.S. efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, end the war in Gaza, hold down oil prices and more.Prince Mohammed warmly greeted Trump as he stepped off Air Force One at King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital and kicked off his Middle East tour.The two leaders then retreated to a grand hall at the Riyadh airport, where Trump and his aides were served traditional Arabic coffee by waiting attendants wearing ceremonial gun-belts. Fighter jet escort The pomp began before Trump even landed. Royal Saudi Air Force F-15s provided an honorary escort for Air Force One as it approached the kingdom’s capital.Trump and Prince Mohammed also took part in a lunch at the Royal Court, gathering with guests and aides in an ornate room with blue accents and massive crystal chandeliers.As he greeted business titans with Trump by his side, Prince Mohammed was animated and smiling.It was a stark contrast to his awkward fist bump with then-President Joe Biden, who looked to avoid being seen on camera shaking hands with the prince during a 2022 visit to the kingdom.Biden had decided to pay a visit to Saudi Arabia as he looked to alleviate soaring prices at the pump for motorists at home and around the globe.At the time, Prince Mohammed’s reputation had been badly damaged by a U.S. intelligence determination that found he had ordered the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.But that dark moment appeared to be distant memory for the prince as he rubbed elbows with high-profile business executives including Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in front of the cameras and with Trump by his side.Later, the crown prince will fete Trump with a formal dinner. Trump is also slated to take part Tuesday in a U.S.-Saudi investment conference.“When Saudis and Americans join forces, very good things happen more often than not, great things happen,” Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih said. Oil production Saudi Arabia and fellow OPEC+ nations have already helped their cause with Trump early in his second term by stepping up oil production. Trump sees cheap energy as a key component to lowering costs and stemming inflation for Americans. The Republican president has also made the case that lower oil prices will hasten an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.But Saudi Arabia’s economy remains heavily dependent on oil, and the kingdom needs a fiscal break-even oil price of $96 to $98 a barrel to balance its budget. It’s questionable how long OPEC+, of which Saudi Arabia is the leading member, is willing to keep production elevated. The price of a barrel of Brent crude closed Monday at $64.77.“One of the challenges for the Gulf states of lower oil prices is it doesn’t necessarily imperil economic diversification programs, but it certainly makes them harder,” said Jon Alterman, a senior Middle East analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Qatar and UAE next Trump picked the kingdom for his first stop, because it has pledged to make big investments in the U.S., but Trump ended up traveling to Italy last month for Pope Francis’ funeral. Riyadh was the first overseas stop of his first term.The three countries on the president’s itinerary Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are all places where the Trump Organization, run by Trump’s two elder sons, is developing major real estate projects. They include a high-rise tower in Jeddah, a luxury hotel in Dubai and a golf course and villa complex in Qatar.Trump is trying to demonstrate that his transactional strategy for international politics is paying dividends as he faces criticism from Democrats who say his global tariff war and approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine are isolating the United States from allies.He’s expected to announce deals with the three wealthy countries that will touch on artificial intelligence, expanding energy cooperation and perhaps new arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The administration earlier this month announced initial approval to sell $3.5 billion worth of air-to-air missiles for Saudi Arabia’s fighter jets.But Trump arrived in the Middle East at a moment when his top regional allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, are far from neatly aligned with his approach. Trump’s decision to skip Israel remarkable, expert says Before the trip, Trump announced that Washington was halting a nearly two-month U.S. airstrike campaign against Yemen’s Houthis, saying the Iran-backed rebels have pledged to stop attacking ships along a vital global trade route.The administration didn’t notify Israel which the Houthis continue to target of the agreement before Trump publicly announced it. It was the latest example of Trump leaving the Israelis in the dark about his administration’s negotiations with common adversaries.In March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t notified by the administration until after talks began with Hamas about the war in Gaza. And Netanyahu found out about the ongoing U.S. nuclear talks with Iran only when Trump announced them during an Oval Office visit by the Israeli leader last month.“Israel will defend itself by itself,” Netanyahu said last week following Trump’s Houthi truce announcement. “If others join us our American friends all the better.”William Wechsler, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, said Trump’s decision to skip Israel on his first Middle East visit is remarkable.“The main message coming out of this, at least as the itinerary stands today, is that the governments of the Gulf are in fact stronger friends to President Trump than the current government of Israel at this moment,” Wechsler said. Restarting efforts to normalize Israel-Saudi ties Trump, meanwhile, hopes to restart his first-term effort to normalize relations between the Middle East’s major powers, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Trump’s Abraham Accords effort led to Sudan, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco agreeing to normalize relations with Israel.But Riyadh has made clear that in exchange for normalization it wants U.S. security guarantees, assistance with the kingdom’s nuclear program and progress on a pathway to Palestinian statehood. There seems to be scant hope for making headway on a Palestinian state with the Israel-Hamas war raging and the Israelis threatening to flatten and occupy Gaza.Prince Mohammed last week notably hosted Palestinian Vice President Hussein Sheikh in Jeddah on the sheikh’s first foreign visit since assuming office in April.Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the crown prince appeared to be subtly signaling to Trump that the kingdom needs to see progress on Palestinian statehod for the Saudis to begin seriously moving on a normalization deal with the Israelis.“Knowing how the Saudis telegraph their intentions, that’s a preemptive, ‘Don’t even think of asking us to show any goodwill toward normalization,'” Abdul-Hussain said. Madhani reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Zeke Miller, Aamer Madhani and Jon Gambrell, Associated Press
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Bids are due on Tuesday for companies hoping to acquire Rite Aids prescriptions business, which it calls its most valuable economics assets. While the pharmacy chain has indicated that there are multiple potential buyers, it has also warned of risks to itself and its customers if a buyer doesnt step up quickly. The Philadelphia-based chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, and as part of its court filings, Rite Aid said a timely sale is necessary to minimize significant customer attrition that could erode the value of the companys assets. If the sale of Rite Aid’s pharmacy assets is done in a disorderly and ad hoc manner, the company said, then customers with prescriptionsnot just at Rite Aid but at competing pharmaciescould also face service disruptions if other pharmacies are inundated with requests and cannot efficiently process” the transfer of prescriptions. Rite Aid is a distant third to CVS and Walgreens, though grocery store chains like Walmart to Albertsons also have pharmacy divisions. Still, Rite Aid said it fills more than 100 million prescriptions a year, which could equal a lot of extra time and labor for nearby pharmacies on the receiving end of transfers. Those pharmacies must receive legal prescriptions, integrate them into their systems, acquire a sufficient supply of medication to fill the prescriptions, and be staffed to handle the additional prescriptions, the pharmacy chain said in the filing. This is no small task. Reached for comment by Fast Company, Rite Aid emphasized that its customers can continue to access services such as prescriptions and immunizations during the sale process and that it is still in “active discussions” with potential buyers. The company didnt directly respond to questions about potential bidders or how much customer attrition it has seen so far. ‘This is it for Rite Aid’ Rite Aid previously filed for bankruptcy in October 2023 and its very unlikely there would be a third bankruptcy, says Scott Stuart, CEO of the Turnaround Management Association in Chicago. This is it for Rite Aid, he says, adding that the dynamic explains why the company wants a rapid and successful sale of its assets. While theres some urgency, for sure, the court will have to make the determination if the urgency is as great as theyre making it out to be, Stuart says. What also remains to be seen is what will happen with the 1,200-plus stores that Rite Aid currently operates in 15 states. The company is looking to sell its assets in two phases, with the pharmacy business up for auction first. In court documents, it has already marked dozens of locations for closure, saying it saw “limited to no value” in keeping them open. Once the sale process is complete, all Rite Aid stores will either be closed or sold to other owners. Its difficult to speculate about the future because there are several different potential scenarios for the outcome of these auctions, says Sarah Foss, a bankruptcy attorney and head of legal at Debtwire, who has been tracking the companys filings. Because of the licenses and regulations related to filling prescriptions, there is a limit to the number of buyers that could step up to buy Rite Aids pharmacy assets, she adds. Its likely the pharmacy assets will be absorbed by one of the standing pharmacy brands, Stuart adds. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, he adds, because these chains have already been rethinking their retail footprints and some consolidation is necessary. Will other pharmacies be inundated with prescription transfers? There could be some fearmongering at play by Rite Aid about the risks of disruptions to pharmacy care, though competitors may be incentivized to sit back and await an influx of customers that will naturally flow to them, says Joe Camberato, CEO of National Business Capital, a lending platform for business owners. But pharmacy customers who choose to go to competitors to get their prescriptions filled upon hearing of the bankruptcy and impending sales could mean the value of Rite Aids assets deteriorate quickly, which is a valid risk for debtors, Foss says. That said, because customers have prescription needs ranging from ad hoc to those that are regularly filled, customer attrition may be less problematic if the pharmacy assets are sold quickly, she adds. We should know by the end of week with a little more clarity whats going to happen, Foss says. Customers may win in the end There may be a silver lining here for customers because a degree of reinvention and innovation is sorely needed in these pharmacy-retailer chains, Camberato says. Whereas Walgreens has been working to automate the prescription filling process to speed things up, for example, Rite Aid dragged its feet, he adds. While its unfortunate to see a company as big and familiar as Rite Aid go bankrupt, Camberato says it could be part of a long-overdue reset for an industry that hasnt evolved in years. If it pushes the rest of the industry to actually improve the customer experience, streamline operations, and treat pharmacy workers better,” he says, “then maybe something good comes out of it.”
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AI integration remains a top priority across enterprises worldwide, yet success remains elusive despite widespread enthusiasm and significant investment. An October 2024 study by Boston Consulting Group found that only 26% of companies have derived measurable business value from their AI initiatives. As a result, CEOs face mounting pressure to deliver tangible ROI, shifting focus from experimentation to real-world outcomes. Modern AI development increasingly relies on open-source foundations, enabling rapid iteration and innovation. Many transformative breakthroughs have emerged from community-driven developmentprimarily in Python, the dominant language in data science. However, as enterprises attempt to operationalize these advances, foundational cracks are becoming harder to ignore. Fragmented toolchains, limited oversight, and inconsistent practices introduce significant vulnerabilities at scale. Security, in particular, is a growing concern. Over half (58%) of organizations use open-source components in at least half of their AI and ML projects, yet nearly a third (29%) cite security risks as their biggest challenge with open-source tools. These are precisely the gaps Anaconda aims to close with its new Anaconda AI Platform, a unified system designed to bring structure, clarity, and control to the chaotic open-source AI development landscape. Founded in 2012 in Austin, Texas, as Continuum Analytics by Peter Wang and Travis Oliphant, Anaconda now supports more than 50 million users globally. As the longtime steward of the most widely used Python distributiontrusted by 94% of the Fortune 500Anaconda holds a uniquely strategic position. Since ChatGPT put large language models on the map, enterprises have been eager to own their destiny in AI, Peter Wang, chief AI and Innovation officer and cofounder of Anaconda, tells Fast Company. Enterprise-grade AI workflows naturally break down into a few key steps, each of which can be streamlined and handled in a structured way. Wang explained these steps include managing open-source Python libraries, tracking model weights, and continuously evaluating model performance. Right now, AI teams are stitching together ad hoc solutions to solve each piece, he added. The Anaconda AI Platform offers a unified foundation, an integrated stack that supports the entire AI lifecycle. It eliminates the need for disconnected tools and duct-tape integrations. The platform arrives at a pivotal moment as organizations seek structure around open-source AI development. Wang described it as a centralized control plane for AI workflows, streamlining processes from sandboxed development to enterprise-scale deployment. It enables teams to develop once, deploy anywhere, whether in the cloud, on-premise, or in sovereign data environmentswithout reengineering from scratch. Every decision we make in product update, new feature, or changeis with the intent of furthering the advancement and democratization of data science and AI for all, Wang says. Python is currently the developer language of choice for AI programming, and our new platform aims to make it easier for community members and enterprises alike to innovate freely with AI and without compromising security or compliance. As models grow more complex and regulations tighten, organizations need full visibility into their AI systems. Beyond its bold vision, the Anaconda AI Platform offers practical features like real-time governance, role-based access control, command-line integration, automated error correction, and pre-validated package security. These capabilities aim to reduce broken environments, improve deployment safety, and support better collaboration across distributed teams. Data scientists can continue to work in the tools they know and trust, while the Anaconda AI platform manages the complex orchestration of management and dependency resolution into invisible infrastructure rather than daily friction, says Wang. Our goal is to break down long-standing silos between data scientists, machine learning engineers, and operations teams, so that everyone works from a shared source of truth with full visibility into an AI models lifecycle, from development through deployment. A GitHub Moment for Open-Source AI Development? Just as GitHub centralized version control and collaboration in software development, the Anaconda AI Platform offers a similar home base for open-source AI in the enterprise. While the GitHub analogy is compelling, in reality, what were building goes much deeper, Wang says. AI development through open source faces pain points that consistently hinder progress across AI, ML, and data science teams in large organizations. Were addressing those day-to-day challenges to ensure that innovation can scale without friction. The platforms unified CLI authentication simplifies access across the Anaconda ecosystem with single sign-on. Previously, users had to manually manage tokens and settings across tools. Now, they authenticate once for seamless access. For enterprise administrators, role-based access controls ensure that only the right people access critical resources, balancing governance with innovation. Additionally, the Quick Start Environments feature offers preconfigured workspaces tailored for specific use cases like finance or AI/ML, eliminating setup hassles and enabling immediate productivity. This significantly improves onboarding, allowing new team members to contribute on day one. A technical director at a financial services company told us this eliminated a one-month turnaround time for package approvals, creating a much more fluid development experience, Wang tells Fast Company. Likewise, an industrial customer shared that they’ve been able to reduce the equivalent of two full-time employees previously dedicated to manual package management and approval workflows. Anaconda standardizes access to thousands of secure open-source packages, allowing organizations to transition away from legacy data analytics tools. By automating vulnerability scanning, package vetting, and security policy enforcement, we eliminate the risks traditionally associated with downloading open-source packages, Wang adds. This level of security results in 60% fewer breach risks when developing with Anaconda. Building a Responsible Foundation for Enterprises As AI becomes embedded in enterprise infrastructure, organizations are no longer just choosing modelstheyre choosing ecosystems. Wang noted that speed alone wont define success in enterprise AI; true success lies in scaling open innovation while maintaining control. AI shouldn’t be the exclusive domain of hyperscalers or tech giants. By providing the tools that make open source AI both secure and scalable, we’re empowering organizations of all sizes to participate in this transformation, he added. The future of AI isn’t just about technological capabilityit’s about responsible stewardship of these powerful tools. With its scale and trust, Anaconda may well become the GitHub of AI, offering centralized control and enterprise-grade security without stifling the innovation that makes open-source ecosystems thrive. Wang believes that open source is the ideal foundation for acelerating AI innovation. When teams can deploy solutions consistently across environments without rework, they deliver value faster, Wang says. We want everyone to reap the benefits of open source, as open innovation leads to the boldest of breakthroughs.
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