Former President Donald Trump is capitalizing off his visit to a Pennsylvania McDonald’s where he worked briefly as a fry cook by selling a $35 “MAGADonald’s” T-shirt. The shirt features a photo of the former president waving from the drive-thru with the words “MAGADonald’s” below it (please not the swoop of Trumpian hair across the “D”).

In recent months, the Trump campaign has churned out merch at the speed of the internet. There was the Trump mugshot merch, and the Eras-style shirt that came after Taylor Swift endorsed current Vice President Kamala Harris. In July, Trump released some almost-too-quick reaction merch based on photographs taken during the assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania. Then just last week, the Trump campaign released the seemingly ironic the Little Red MAGA Hat.

We have to admit, the Trump campaign knows a merchandising opportunity when it sees one.

McDonald’s drama

McDonald’s said in internal communications obtained by the Associated Press that it approved Trump’s visit because “we open our doors to everyone,” but the company added, “McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office.”

Harris has said she worked at McDonald’s in college—a claim Trump has refuted without evidence. As a former reality TV producer, Trump is keenly well aware of the power of images, and at every turn, his campaign has promoted and profited off merchandise themed around election-defining images.

While these images have fired up his base, shots of him serving up french fries offers a much different image of Trump than a photo that serves as a reminder that he could be the first convicted elected president. As he courts swing and undecided voters in the closing weeks of the election, Trump is seeking to soften his image, and what’s more effective than serving up an American pastime?

Had she wanted to, Michelle Chumley could have afforded a pricey new SUV loaded with options. But when it came time to replace her Chevrolet Blazer SUV, for which she’d paid about $40,000 three years ago, Chumley chose something smaller. And less costly.

With her purchase of a Chevrolet Trax compact SUV in June, Chumley joined a rising number of buyers who have made vehicles in the below-average $20,000-to-$30,000 range the fastest-growing segment of the nation’s new-auto market.

“I just don’t need that big vehicle and to be paying all of that gas money,” said Chumley, a 56-year-old nurse who lives outside Oxford, Ohio, near Cincinnati.

Across the industry, auto analysts say, an “affordability shift” is taking root. The trend is being led by people who feel they can no longer afford a new vehicle that would cost them roughly today’s average selling price of more than $47,000—a jump of more than 20% from the pre-pandemic average.

To buy a new car at that price, an average buyer would have to spend $737 a month, if financed at today’s average loan rate of 7.1%, for just under six years before the vehicle would be paid off, according to Edmunds.com, an auto research and pricing site. For many, that is financially out of reach.

Yet there are other buyers who, like Chumley, could manage the financial burden but have decided it just isn’t worth the cost. And the trend is forcing America’s automakers to reassess their sales and production strategies. With buyers confronting inflated prices and still-high loan rates, sales of new U.S. autos rose only 1% through September over the same period last year. If the trend toward lower-priced vehicles proves a lasting one, more generous discounts could lead to lower average auto prices and slowing industry profits.

“Consumers are becoming more prudent as they face economic uncertainty, still-high interest rates and vehicle prices that remain elevated,” said Kevin Roberts, director of market intelligence at CarGurus, an automotive shopping site. “This year, all of the growth is happening in what we would consider the more affordable price buckets.”

Under pressure to unload their more expensive models, automakers have been lowering the sales prices on many such vehicles, largely by offering steeper discounts. In the past year, the average incentive per auto has nearly doubled, to $1,812, according to Edmunds. General Motors has said it expects its average selling price to drop 1.5% in the second half of the year.

Through September, Roberts has calculated, new-vehicle sales to individual buyers, excluding sales to rental companies and other commercial fleets, are up 7%. Of that growth, 43% came in the $20,000-to-$30,000 price range—the largest share for that price category in at least four years. (For used vehicles, the shift is even more pronounced: 59% sales growth in the $15,000-to-$20,000 price range over that period.)

Sales of compact and subcompact cars and SUVs from mainstream auto brands are growing faster than in any year since 2018, according to data from Cox Automotive.

The sales gains for affordable vehicles is, in some ways, a return to a pattern that existed before the pandemic. As recently as 2018, compact and subcompact vehicles—typically among the most popular moderately priced vehicles—had accounted for nearly 35% of the nation’s new vehicle sales.

The proportion started to fall in 2020, when the pandemic caused a global shortage of computer chips that forced automakers to slow production and allocate scarce semiconductors to more expensive trucks and large SUVs. As buyers increasingly embraced those higher-priced vehicles, the companies posted robust earnings growth.

In the meantime, they deemed profit margins for lower-prices cars too meager to justify significant production of them. By 2022, the market share of compact and subcompact vehicles had dropped below 30%.

This year, that share has rebounded to nearly 34% and rising. Sales of compact sedans were up 16.7% through September from 12 months earlier. By contrast, CarGurus said, big pickups rose just under 6%. Sales of large SUVs are barely up at all—less than 1%.

Ford’s F-Series truck remains the top-selling vehicle in the United States this year, as it has been for nearly a half-century, followed by the Chevrolet Silverado. But Stellantis’ Ram pickup, typically No. 3, dropped to sixth place, outpaced by several less expensive small SUVs: the Toyota RAV4, the Honda CR-V and the Tesla Model Y (with a $7,500 U.S. tax credit).

The move in buyer sentiment toward affordability came fast this year, catching many automakers off guard, with too-few vehicles available in lower price ranges. One reason for the shift, analysts say, is that many buyers who are willing to plunk down nearly $50,000 for a new vehicle had already done so in the past few years. People who are less able—or less willing—to spend that much had in many cases held on to their existing vehicles for years. The time had come for them to replace them. And most of them seem disinclined to spend more than they have to.

With loan rates still high and average auto insurance prices up a whopping 38% in the past two years, “the public just wants to be a little more frugal about it,” said Keith McCluskey, CEO of the dealership where Chumley bought her Trax.

Roberts of CarGurus noted that even many higher-income buyers are choosing smaller, lower-priced vehicles, in some cases because of uncertainties over the economy and the impending presidential election.

The shift has left some automakers overstocked with too many pricier trucks and SUVs. Some, like Stellantis, which makes Chrysler, Jeep and Ram vehicles, have warned that the shift will eat into their profitability this year.

At General Motors’ Chevrolet brand, executives had foreseen the shift away from “uber expensive” vehicles and were prepared with the redesigned Trax, which came out in the spring of 2023, noted Mike MacPhee, director of Chevrolet sales operations.

Trax sales in the U.S. so far this year are up 130%, making it the nation’s top-selling subcompact SUV.

“We’re basically doubling our (Trax) sales volume from last year,” MacPhee said.

How long the preference for lower-priced vehicles may last is unclear. Charlie Chesbrough, chief economist for Cox Automotive, notes that the succession of expected interest rates cuts by the Federal Rates should eventually lead to lower auto loan rates, thereby making larger vehicles more affordable.

“The trends will probably start to change if these interest rates start coming down,” Chesbrough predicted. “We’ll see consumers start moving into these larger vehicles.”

—Tom Krisher, AP Auto Writer

AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.

Americans concerned about voter fraud in this year’s general election have found their latest target: a TikTok grandma. 

In a since-deleted video posted to TikTok, a woman helped her grandma vote for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. “Okay, Grandma. Do you want to vote for the first Black woman president ever?” the woman asks. “Yes,” the grandma responds.

After helping her grandmother mark the ballot, the woman congratulates her on voting for “the first woman president.” However, what was meant to be a feel-good moment has since spiraled into a voter-fraud conspiracy theory online.

Far-right political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos posted the clip to his nearly 300,000 followers on X, describing it as “elder abuse.” In follow-up posts, he goes on to say the woman’s head was filled with thoughts of “cake and hate”; he also calls elderly people “pushovers.”

Yiannopoulos’s post quickly gained more than 174,000 views, with hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump claiming the clip was slam-dunk evidence of voter fraud. “This should be illegal,” one user replied. “Is every assisted living facility just a ballot farm now?”

“Did they just record a felony?” another asked. “If this were a video of someone helping her to vote for Trump. Instant Prison and election fraud,” another claimed. “Yeah,” chimed in X’s billionaire owner Elon Musk. 

Some even called for the woman in the clip to be jailed for her so-called crimes. “This is elder abuse and coercion. This woman should be in jail,” one user wrote. “Locate her and demand prosecution.” Another demanded that lawmakers pass legislation to deal with elderly voters. “This is happening, and god knows how widely,” the user penned. “Extremely hard to prevent. Probably there should be a piece of legislation to address electioneering amongst elderly and infirm.”

The post was also circulated alongside the hashtag #StopTheSteal, a far-right and conservative conspiracy theory that widespread electoral fraud occurred during the 2020 presidential election. Four years on, almost six in 10 Americans say they’re concerned or very concerned that there will be voter fraud this election, according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released this month. Almost 90% of voters of Trump supporters say they are concerned there will be fraud, compared with just 29% of Harris supporters.

Despite concerns, aggravated by these widely peddled conspiracy theories, voter fraud remains a very rare occurrence across the country with numerous studies and investigations (including those led by Republicans) failing to find any evidence of widespread malfeasance—but try telling that to the Twitterati. 

Meta on Monday suspended several Threads and Instagram accounts that track celebrities’ private jet movements, according to Jack Sweeney, who has been running such accounts.

Meta told TechCrunch that the accounts violated its privacy policy. “Given the risk of physical harm to individuals, and in keeping with the independent Oversight Board’s recommendation, we’ve disabled these accounts for violating our privacy policy,” Meta said in the statement.

Sweeney, who became popular for his account tracking Elon Musk’s jet, said on Threads that the latest banning was “reminiscent of all my accounts getting suspended on Twitter.” Sweeney’s @ElonJet Twitter account was permanently banned from the platform in 2022.

His other Threads accounts, including ones tracking Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, were suspended as well.

“Something clearly triggered this wave of suspensions, but as of now, I’m left without answers,” Sweeney wrote.

Parenting, single people and the U.S. birth rate have assumed a greater place in the 2024 presidential campaign than any race in recent memory.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was widely rebuked for criticisms he lodged in 2021 against “childless cat ladies,” saying they have no “physical commitment” to the country’s future.

In August 2024, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, also a Republican, piled on, saying Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has no children to “keep her humble,” even though she’s stepmother to two children who call her “Mamala.”

As a historian of women, families and children in the U.S., I see these biological definitions of motherhood as too narrowly conceived. The past can serve as a reminder that other forms of mothering are important, too.

My research offers a broader perspective on women’s experiences of mothering and a deeper understanding of how women without biological children contribute to the nation and its future.

‘Mothers of all children’

One such woman was Katharine Bement Davis, the subject of my current research.

Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1860, Davis was a member of a generation of “new women” who pursued higher education, built professional careers and fought for political rights.

Other women of this generation included Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, public health nurse Lillian Wald, prison reformer Miriam Van Waters, child welfare advocate Julia Lathrop, social work pioneer Sophonisba Breckinridge and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt – to name just a few.

Of this group, only Roosevelt had children of her own. But all of them saw themselves as “mothers of all children,” as one historian has described juvenile justice advocates. Accepting responsibility for the nation’s welfare, they used their identity as public mothers to shape American politics.

In a 1927 letter to her college classmates, Davis whimsically reflected on her life choices:

“First, I am still an old maid; therefore, I cannot write interesting things about my husband and children, (and) how I have treated him and how I have raised them. First and last, however, I have had a good deal to do in the way of looking after other people’s husbands and children.”

Indeed, Davis’ life illustrated the many meanings of motherhood.

Like many ostensibly childless women, Davis was a doting aunt. With her unmarried sisters, Helen and Charlotte, she helped care for her only niece, Frances, whose mother died when she was just a toddler. In the mid-1920s, Frances lived with all three aunts while attending school in New York City.

Black feminist scholars call this sort of arrangement, long practiced in African American communities, “othermothering.”

Davis and other white women of her generation also engaged in the practice of caring for children, whether through formal adoption or informal caregiving. For instance, Breckinridge helped raise her nieces and nephews, while Van Waters legally adopted a daughter.

‘Maternalism the coming great force in government’

Throughout her life, Davis used what she called “the methods of motherhood” to promote public welfare.

After teaching school in western New York , establishing a playground in a working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia and supervising young offenders in upstate New York, Davis became New York City’s first female commissioner of correction in 1914.

Only months into her term, male inmates at Blackwell’s Island Penitentiary staged a major riot. Davis quelled the rebellion and established her own authority by addressing the refractory prisoners like wayward children. “You fellows must behave,” she pronounced. “I’ll have it no other way.”

After successfully using “motherly methods” to regain control of “the bad boys of Blackwell’s Island,” Davis proclaimed that “maternalism” was “the coming great force in government.”

Echoing her colleagues in the suffrage movement, Davis used the language of maternalism to promote women’s voting rights. Like other feminist pacifists, she believed that women were “the mother half of humanity.” Finally, like many women activists in the U.S. and Europe, she believed that all women – whether they had children of their own or not – were responsible for all children’s welfare.

Insisting that “wise motherhood” was essential to better government, Davis argued that women needed the vote – and that the nation needed women voters. Maternalist activists also promoted juvenile justice, parks and playgrounds, health care programs and financial assistance for needy families and children, laying the groundwork for the modern welfare state.

Giving women the right to choose

While she promoted public welfare and demanded political rights, Davis also advocated for what she and her contemporaries called “voluntary motherhood” – the idea that women should be able to control their reproductive lives.

Davis supported efforts to overturn the Comstock Act of 1873, which defined contraception and abortion as obscene and made distributing birth control information or devices through the U.S. postal service a federal crime.

States followed federal precedent by adopting “mini-Comstock Laws” criminalizing birth control. By the 1920s, however, some states permitted physicians to prescribe contraceptives – such as diaphragms and spermicides – to protect the health of their female patients.

When she surveyed 1,000 married women for a study of female sexuality in the 1920s, Davis found that most of her study subjects used contraceptives. In addition, nearly 1 in 10 reported having had at least one abortion, even though the procedure was illegal in every state.

And when Davis asked the women about their views on contraception – or as the survey put it, “the use of means to render parenthood voluntary instead of accidental” – she found that about three-quarters of them approved of it.

When the childless take charge

So-called childless women like Davis have shown that they have a stake in children’s welfare, women’s welfare and the nation’s welfare.

Over the past century, maternalists and feminists often have worked together to achieve their aims. Indeed, sometimes they were the same people.

But today, it seems that Republican politicians are attempting to drive a wedge between mothers and others. As a recent New York Times article put it, “the politics of motherhood” have become a “campaign-trail cudgel.”

However, as Davis understood, many issues that affect mothers are important to all women. Moreover, Davis believed that everyone – not just biological mothers – shares the responsibility for the health and welfare of future generations. Finally, she insisted that women should control their own destinies.

So, was Davis a childless cat lady?

Well, a grainy photo of her cuddling a kitten suggests that she did love cats.

As for her childless status, when you consider the full range of her work on behalf of the nation’s children, the answer becomes a bit more complicated.

Anya Jabour is a regents professor of history at the University of Montana.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

U.S. taxpayers will again see higher standard deductions for 2025, allowing them to shield more of their money from taxation on future returns.

The Internal Revenue Service detailed the increases in its annual inflation adjustments announced Tuesday. For single taxpayers and married individuals filing separately in tax year 2025, the standard deduction is rising to $15,000 — up $400 from 2024.

For couples who file jointly, that standard deduction will be $30,000 for 2025, an $800 jump from the year prior. And heads of households will get a $22,500 standard deduction, up $600 from 2024.

Income thresholds for all seven federal tax bracket levels were also revised upward. The top tax rate, which remains 37%, will cover incomes greater than $626,350 for single taxpayers in tax year 2025, for example — compared to $609,350 in 2024.

The IRS makes such adjustments for each tax year to account for inflation, which has recently been on a downward trend. Last month, inflation in the U.S. dropped to its lowest point in more than three years, marking some encouraging economic news — but Americans are still feeling some key price pressures.

“Core” prices, a gauge of underlying inflation, remained elevated in September, driven up by rising costs for medical care, clothing, auto insurance and airline fares.

While taxpayers will again see higher standard deductions for 2025, the increases announced Tuesday are less than those seen in recent years. In tax adjustments announced last year, for example, the IRS raised single filers’ standard deduction by $750 between the 2023 and 2024 tax years — and by $1,500 and $1,100 for married couples and heads of households, respectively.

Earlier this month, the Social Security Administration announced a 2.5% cost-of-living increase for benefits recipients starting in January. That translates to an average jump of more than $50 on monthly checks for millions of people.

Similar to the latest tax deduction figures, the coming COLA adjustment is lower than that seen in the recent past. Social Security recipients received a 3.2% increase in their benefits in 2024, after a historically large 8.7% benefit increase in 2023, then brought on by record 40-year-high inflation. Next year’s smaller increase reflects moderating inflation.

—Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Associated Press business writer

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is clearing the way for air taxis and similar vehicles to begin operating in earnest around the country.

On Tuesday, FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker announced that the agency is introducing a rule that creates a new category of aircraft, the first since the 1940s: “powered-lift” operations, which include electric, hybrid, and hydrogen-powered air taxis, and more.

The announcement was made in Las Vegas at the National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), a civil aviation trade show. 

Powered-lift vehicles have characteristics of both airplanes and helicopters, taking off vertically but then flying at high speeds. Given the arrival of air taxi demonstrations and test flights in some cities, the FAA is evidently preparing for their widespread usage. 

“This is a new operating rule that introduces an entirely new category of aircraft,” Whitaker said. “Prior to this, we had fixed-wing aircraft and roto-craft, and we now have a third category for powered-lift. This rule creates the operation system for advanced air mobility. It allows operating rules and training rules to take effect for these new aircraft.”

According to a corresponding release from FAA, the new rule does a few key things: 

• Makes changes to numerous existing regulations and establishes a Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) with new requirements to facilitate instructor and pilot certification and training.  
• Applies helicopter operating requirements to some phases of flight and adopts a performance-based approach to certain operating rules.  
• Allows pilots to train in powered-lift with a single set of flight controls; legacy rules require two flight controls—one for the student and one for the instructor.

As expected, the new rule was applauded by those in the industry, including JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of air taxi company Joby Aviation, which recently held an event showing off its vehicles to the public at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. 

Shares of Joby Aviation were up more than 10% following the news. Archer Aviation, another flying-taxi company, saw its stock rise almost 7%.

“The regulation published today will ensure the U.S. continues to play a global leadership role in the development and adoption of clean flight,” Bevirt said in a statement supplied to Fast Company. “Delivering the rules ahead of schedule is a testament to the dedication, coordination, and hard work of the rulemaking team.”

The top U.S. watchdog agency for consumer financial protection on Tuesday unveiled long-awaited rules intended to drive a shift toward open banking and spur competition, saying they would allow consumers to control and share their own data when shopping for services.

The new rules also aim to govern relations between the burgeoning world of financial technology companies and the competing interests of traditional banks, industries that immediately criticized the regulations for opposing reasons.

The banking lobby said the rule could jeopardize consumer data security and exceeded the agency’s legal powers. The American Fintech Council (AFC) on the other hand complained the consumer data provisions were too restrictive.

U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra compared the transition to the rules that now allow mobile phone users to switch providers while keeping the same number, and said the coming change should help bring U.S. payments systems more in line with advances in other developed countries.

He also said the rule incorporates strong privacy protections and consumer choices.

“A company that ingests a consumer’s data can use the data to provide the product or service the consumer asked for, but not for unrelated purposes the consumer doesn’t want,” he said in a speech at a financial technology event held by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

First proposed a year ago, the new regulations were 14 years in the making, having been called for in the 2010 Wall Street reforms enacted following the 2008 financial crisis.

According to the CFPB, as the rules take effect, consumers will be able to transfer their data between banks free of charge and without obstacles. They will also be able to borrow on better terms, for example by allowing lenders to issue loans using data held by other financial institutions, and to make payments directly from their bank accounts rather than by card.

Consumers will also be able to revoke access to their data immediately, according to the CFPB.

Ahead of the announcement, CFPB officials said the agency had made some changes to the version originally proposed in response to concerns from industry and public comment, sparing banks with less than $850 million in assets from having to provide data, for example.

Companies will also have more time than originally proposed to come into compliance. Larger financial technology companies will have until 2026, while the smallest will have until 2030.

Data aggregators, such as Plaid and Akoya, who provide connections among banks and financial tech services, reacted favorably, saying the rule would promote the secure transfer of consumer data. But other trade groups said they were not happy.

Lindsey Johnson, head of the Consumer Bankers Association, said in a statement the CFPB had “contorted” the congressional statute authorizing the rule to enable “thousands of third parties’ to access consumers’ data.”

Ian Maloney, AFC’s head of policy, said however that the final rule improperly barred the “secondary use” of consumer data for cross-selling services and targeted advertising.

—Douglas Gillison, Reuters

Surgery schedules around the country may be washed out for several more weeks while a crucial IV and sterile fluids factory remains shut down for hurricane-related damage.

People often plan non-emergency surgeries in the fall and early-winter months when their insurance coverage will pick up more of the bill, but they may have to wait while health systems preserve supplies for emergencies.

“It’s not great for patients, but it’s kind of doing the most good with what you have,” said Erin Fox, associate chief pharmacy officer at University of Utah Health.

The federal government and medical suppliers have taken several steps to help ease the supply crunch created by Hurricane Helene, which forced Baxter International to close its North Carolina plant late last month.

But experts say supplies are still choppy, and improvements will take time. Here’s a closer look the situation.

What did Hurricane Helene do?

Baxter’s North Cove, North Carolina, location makes about 60% of the intravenous solutions used in the U.S. every day, according to the American Hospital Association. It also makes fluids used by patients on home dialysis and sterile water used to clean patient surgery sites during operations.

But flooding triggered by the storm washed out bridges nearby and water came into the factory, forcing the shutdown. Baxter says the site sustained no structural damage.

How has this affected patient care?

Health systems started conserving fluids shortly after the plant shut down. Some switched patients who can drink fluids to Gatorade or water instead of giving them an IV.

Hospitals also have started postponing planned procedures that can wait, like some orthopedic surgeries or heart procedures, said Dr. Chris DeRienzo, chief physician executive for the American Hospital Association.

Baxter has limited the fluids supplies it sends to distributors and health systems. The impact on a patient will depend partly on how heavily a hospital or health system relies on Baxter, said Nancy Foster, a vice president with the hospital association.

What’s being done to improve supplies?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved temporarily importing fluids from Baxter plants in several countries.

The company also has already started easing some of the limits it had placed on supplies.

Baxter rival B. Braun Medical has increased production at its Daytona Beach, Florida, site, which escaped damage from another hurricane, and at a location in California.

The FDA also issued new temporary guidelines designed to make it easier for compounding pharmacies to produce certain IV drugs that are in short supply.

Will this help the IV fluids shortage?

Supply experts are optimistic that the situation will improve, but they can’t say whether these moves will fill the void left by the plant shutdown.

Fox said her health system is still dealing with uncertainty because the amount Baxter has allocated to them isn’t always available through their distributor.

Foster said hospitals like to have extra supply sitting on their shelves so they can handle both planned surgeries and the unexpected, but “we’re not going to be there for a while.”

Another complication: Hospitals and surgery centers are heading into a busy time of year. Cold and flu season fills hospital beds. Plus patients also tend to schedule more procedures toward the end of the year before their deductibles renew in January, exposing them to thousands of dollars in costs.

When will Baxter’s factory reopen?

Power and water are back on at the North Carolina plant. Employees have completed a deep cleaning in production rooms and are testing and repairing equipment.

Baxter says it wants to restart production in phases by the end of the year, and also expects to ease limits it has placed on some customer orders by then.

But the company has no timeline for production to return to pre-hurricane levels.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

—Tom Murphy, Associated Press health writer

Matthew Perrone, AP health writer, contributed to this report.

Anthropic is giving its new Claude 3.5 Sonnet model the ability to control a user’s computer and access the internet. The move marks a major step in generative AI models’ capabilities—and raises questions about AI companies’ ability to properly mitigate the risks of more autonomous AI.

According to a series of example videos from Anthropic posted Tuesday on X, Claude users might now ask the AI to follow the steps needed to create a personal website. In another example, a user asks Claude to help with the logistics of a trip to watch the sunrise from the Golden Gate bridge. The user describes what they want the model to do by giving it text prompts.

AI companies have been stressing a desire to push large language models to become more “agentic” and autonomous. Doing so means extending the ability of the AI to control not only its own functions but also external devices. 

“Instead of making specific tools to help Claude complete individual tasks, we’re teaching it general computer skills—allowing it to use a wide range of standard tools and software programs designed for people,” Anthropic said in a statement on X.

The new computer control capabilities are being rolled out to developers through an API, as a public beta. Anthropic says it wants to collect feedback on the performance and usefulness of the new capabilities. 

The company acknowledged that Claude 3.5 Sonnet’s current ability to use computers isn’t perfect and will make some mistakes (especially when it comes to scrolling and dragging), but the company expects this to rapidly improve in the coming months.

With greater power comes greater responsibility. Anthropic has some explicit instructions on how to mitigate the risk of giving an AI control over a computer. In the user guide, the company advises avoiding giving Claude access to sensitive data such as user passwords, and to limit the number of websites the AI can access. 

Its fourth point under minimizing risks states: “Ask a human to confirm decisions that may result in meaningful real-world consequences as well as any tasks requiring affirmative consent, such as accepting cookies, executing financial transactions, or agreeing to terms of service.”

Anthropic has taken a first cautious step into more autonomous AI. But the ability to manage some basic tasks on a PC will expand to greater and larger tasks and a wide array of devices, including phones and even home appliances. As this control extends, the extent of the risk increases, too. Autonomous AI could deliver a lot of convenience, but may have the ability to do lots of harm.

Expect other AI companies to begin rolling out similar functionality in the near future as part of a general move toward more agentic AI. 

The devastation of Hurricanes Milton and Helene have opened the floodgates for people seeking disaster relief. Along with that comes the danger of fraud.

The Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are all warning consumers to be wary of identity theft, price gouging and other fraud.

Small business owners should stay alert too and recognize that the scammers can strike both online and in person.

“We’ve seen an uptick in cyberattacks during disasters,” said Jennifer Butler, partner in disaster recovery at global advisory firm EisnerAmper. “Small businesses should really pay attention to that, really be aware of scams, of phishing attempts or potential cyberattacks on their systems. Because this is the time when, you know, those bad actors are going to come after small businesses.”

Because small businesses might have a variety of employees and contractors coming and going after a disaster as they seek to mitigate damage and reopen, owners should be vigilant about verifying the identity of anyone they’re working with.

“Always ask for ID, documentation, those kinds of things,” Butler said. No one should be asking for payment up front, particularly anyone that says they’re from a government organization such as the Small Business Administration. “Make sure you’re not paying anybody to help you if they’re saying that they’re from the federal government,” she added.

Florida officials have said there are reports of scammers in the area who are posing as Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and trying to get financial information from the storm’s victims.

If owners do suspect they may be a victim of fraud, contact FEMA to report any suspicious activity or potential fraud at 1-866-720-5721.

—Mae Anderson, Associated Press business writer

This week, the Financial Times reported that consulting firm EY fired dozens of employees in the U.S. over what seemed like a minor offense. The employees in question had attended online trainings as part of a professional development event, but they joined multiple sessions simultaneously.

EY employees are expected to take advantage of opportunities like this one—and need to complete a certain number of course credits annually—but the employees told the Financial Times they weren’t trying to game the system or find a shortcut to meeting those requirements. In fact, they weren’t even aware that it was an issue to attend two sessions at once. Former employees even told the Times that they were “encouraged to join as many sessions as possible,” and that the company fostered “a culture of multitasking.”

EY, for its part, told Fast Company that “appropriate disciplinary action will be taken on any violation of our Code of Conduct and/or U.S. Learning Policy,” and that the employees who were terminated had violated those policies. “At EY, our core values of integrity and ethics are at the forefront of everything we do,” a spokesperson added.

If this incident sounds familiar, it might be because EY isn’t the only employer that seems to be taking a hard-line approach to cracking down on the misuse of benefits. Just last week, another report revealed that Meta had fired more than 20 employees who had taken advantage of the company’s meal vouchers, putting the money toward household supplies like toothpaste, laundry detergent, and tea—instead of using it for lunch or dinner purchases as designed. The vouchers were typically given to employees who worked at smaller offices without a cafeteria, enabling them to order food while at work. (Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Crackdowns on corporate perks

This kind of disciplinary action is happening as employers like Meta continue to trim head count, with the company quietly issuing yet another round of layoffs last week, just as news of the firings surfaced. The crackdown on company perks also comes as companies have shelved many of the lavish perks that were once common in Big Tech.

Over the past two years, Meta has nixed benefits like free laundry and dry cleaning services and made it more difficult for employees to stock up on free food; employees have reportedly complained about a decline in cafeteria options and the number of snacks that are available in the office. Meanwhile, Google has pulled back on employee perks like fitness classes and office supplies, even replacing laptops and other equipment less frequently. The tech giant also stopped giving employees their choice of devices when issuing laptops or desktop computers.

Some of these changes seem to be a result of the drastic shift that workplaces have undergone in recent years, as hybrid models have become the norm. With fewer employees coming into the office on certain days, it makes sense that companies might reevaluate employee perks like free yoga classes and extravagant cafeteria offerings.

Workplace uncertainty

But the recent firings also seem to indicate that companies are feeling the pressure from economic uncertainty and a slowing job market—and that we might see more employers use minor offenses as a reason to reduce head count. And in the years since the pandemic, which left many companies scrambling to retain workers, the balance of power has shifted, giving employers more leverage again.

There are already other signs that companies are looking to trim staff without doing outright layoffs (though tech employers are still doing plenty of that, as well). Some experts have already said that Amazon’s new in-office mandate—which will require employees to be in the office five days a week—is effectively a way to increase attrition, leading employees to voluntarily leave the company. Other executives have admitted that their return to office policies were engineered, in part, to encourage turnover.

For employees, however, all this means is that they should tread carefully when they use employee perks—and perhaps keep their eyes peeled for other opportunities, especially as layoffs continue to rock the tech industry.

Anthropic, a startup backed by Alphabet and Amazon.com, released a pair of updated artificial intelligence models on Tuesday, along with a new capability to autonomously perform computer tasks and save users keystrokes.

The new “computer use” feature can tell AI “where to move the mouse, where to click, what to type, in order to do quite complicated tasks,” Anthropic’s Chief Science Officer Jared Kaplan said in an interview.

The capability is tailored to software developers and represents a move toward AI agents, programs that require little human intervention to carry out multi-step actions. Researchers have touted agents as a frontier for AI development beyond chatbots, which easily conjure prose or computer code though not actions.

Anthropic demonstrated a use case for the feature that entailed coding a basic website, and another that used various programs including Google Search and Apple Maps to plan a sunrise outing.

Anthropic offers software developers three versions of Claude, its family of AI models, at price points that vary based on their performance. This week’s updates come to Sonnet, the mid-tier model, and Haiku, the cheapest.

The new 3.5 Haiku can generate computer code in a manner “almost comparable” to the version of Sonnet released in June, according to Kaplan. CEO Dario Amodei told Reuters at the time that the company intended to update Opus, the most capable model, by the end of the year.

The computer use feature is currently limited to the new version of Claude 3.5 Sonnet and comes with safeguards to prevent its application toward spam, fraud and election-related misuse, Anthropic said. Kaplan said the AI still makes mistakes.

Mike Krieger, a cofounder of Instagram who joined Anthropic this spring as chief product officer, said the company wants feedback from business customers to learn where to focus development of the feature. Meanwhile, a labs team inside Anthropic is exploring how to make the capability available for consumers, something Krieger said he personally wants.

“I was booking flights,” he said. “I really just want this to be completely automated.”

Microsoft on Monday unveiled an application for its clients to build their own agents that can handle queries, identify sales leads and manage inventory.

—Kenrick Cai and Jeffrey Dastin, Reuters

Earlier this month, CEO Eric Yuan declared Zoom’s future isn’t video conferencing, it’s AI for work. Now, Zoom has announced it’s partnering with Suki, a startup for AI-powered medical notetaking.

Zoom plans to use Suki’s AI engine, Suki Platform, to generate clinical notes and incorporate AI capabilities into its solution to improve patient care, or as it describes, to “power ambient clinical documentation supporting Zoom telehealth visits and in-person visits.”

Suki Platform already reaches nearly one million clinicians in the U.S.

The video-conferencing company’s new Zoom Workplace for Clinicians, which it will be rolling out with its upcoming Zoom AI Companion 2.0, will help doctors automate their workflow by transcribing notes, summarizing patient consultations, creating meeting write-ups, helping to compose follow-up emails, and even highlighting medical details.

Zoom is now used for more than one-third of all telehealth visits in the U.S., according to Definitive Healthcare.

According to Zoom, both doctors and patients will be notified when Suki Platform is being used. “As part of our responsible approach to AI, we show when a response is generated by AI, cautioning users to check for accuracy,” Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom, told Fast Company. “Participants are informed that AI Companion is being used when the clinician turns it on, and customers have expansive controls to manage AI capabilities.”

Hashim also added that the technology reduces documentation overhead by up to 70%.

On one hand, AI-powered medical transcription tools seem like a good thing. Who doesn’t like the idea of cutting down on doctors’ paperwork so they can spend more time with you during your appointment? One survey of physicians found 65% recognized the potential benefits of AI.

However, nearly 70% also expressed some level of concern. New artificial intelligence tools meant to help overworked doctors may seem like a positive advancement, but the new technology raises questions about accuracy and privacy, and whether it’s sufficient when it comes to a person’s health. (For example, imagine an AI transcription missing a crucial word that could affect a patient’s diagnosis or medical treatment.)

Zoom is part of an industry-wide trend

Zoom isn’t the only company jumping on the AI medical-transcription bandwagon.

Microsoft’s Nuance provides AI-powered notetaking tools for medical practitioners. The tech giant is seeing AI adoption within healthcare grow, with 79% of healthcare organizations reporting that they’re currently using AI technology, according to a Microsoft-commissioned study.

Amazon is also developing artificial intelligence solutions, like HealthScribe, a HIPAA-eligible service that uses generative AI to automatically create clinical notes from doctor-patient conversations.

“The AI-generated notes cite every detail directly from the recorded conversation transcript for transparency,” according to an article on Amazon’s corporate website about how it’s transforming healthcare. “Doctors can quickly review and approve the notes before entering them into health records, saving valuable time while ensuring accuracy. . . . The result is more efficient, collaborative, and satisfying visits for clinicians and patients alike.”

Denny’s, the U.S. chain known for its diner-style seating and round-the-clock hours is closing a hefty chunk of restaurants. Over the next year, 150 locations will close their doors. The restaurant chain will also reassess its uninterrupted hours.

The company made the announcement about impending changes in an earnings call Tuesday. According to executive vice president Steve Dunn, the first 50 restaurants will close by the end of the year. Another 100 will close sometime in 2025, leaving about 1,375 locations still functioning.

Fast Company has reached out to Denny’s for a list of locations marked for closure, and will update this post if we hear back.

Dunn said the restaurants that will close are those that have been “underperforming” but are too old to be remodeled, or are in struggling areas. Other restaurants, he said, will have the opportunity to be a part of a redesign program called Diner 2.0. The program will give financial incentives to franchisees who choose to renovate, such as a $100,000 grant. According to Dunn, restaurants that make the effort to renovate can see around a $400,000 boost in sales.

On Denny’s operating hours, which Americans have grown used to, Dunn also said being always open, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no longer works for the chain. He noted that it “didn’t make sense” for restaurants to stay open with few clients during the nighttime hours.

Those aren’t the only changes that will be showing up at Denny’s. On top of a 10th of the restaurants closing, some getting a total makeover, and others likely ending their 24/7 hours, the menus will get slashed. The number of menu items will be cut in half, going from 97 down to 46.

Denny’s is certainly not the only chain that has been showing weaker sales. As Americans trim their budgets for going out to eat, even more affordable chains like Denny’s have fallen by the wayside. A number of fast-casual restaurants like Roti and Red Lobster have filed for bankruptcy in recent months. Dunn also noted that Denny’s has been plagued by customers still coming in but trimming their bill by ordering off the kid’s menu.

Denny’s stock is down 50% for the year, with shares down 17% Tuesday.

Two years ago, Netflix turned heads in the gaming world. It hired former Overwatch leader Chacko Sonny to head a new game studio. The next year, former Halo exec Joseph Staten and God of War art director Rafael Grassetti joined Team Blue, Netflix’s top-tier video game studio, a signal that the streaming service could be preparing to go toe-to-toe with the video game industry’s biggest publishers

And now, in an equally stunning move, Netflix has shut down the project, all before it could even release a single title. Netflix confirmed to Fast Company Tuesday that it has shut down Team Blue and that all three of those executives have left the company. It appears that Netflix may have learned the same lesson Amazon did a little over a year ago: Making video games is a lot harder than it looks from the outside.

Team Blue was working on a “brand-new AAA multiplatform game and original [intellectual property],” according to Staten in 2023. Netflix did not comment on the state of that title, but given the departure of the primary architects, it has likely been canceled.

That’s a setback that could impact Netflix’s ambitions to be a significant force in the video game industry. Netflix has spent the last three years building up its gaming division—not just Team Blue, but also a large catalog of mobile games, both original titles as well as mobile versions of popular console games, like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, and Tomb Raider: Reloaded.

Earlier this year, the company topped Fast Company’s ranking of non-gaming sites that offer games, but despite the accolades, its catalog is still largely an afterthought for consumers, many of whom are either unaware or uninterested that their streaming subscription gives them access to more than 100 titles.

A multiplatform game could have raised awareness—and the résumé of the team behind it would have, if nothing else, caught the attention of the video game press. AAA games aren’t cheap, though. A report last year from the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says that the development budgets alone of AAA games today reach $200 million or higher, with some franchises, like Call of Duty, costing as much as $300 million. Marketing costs can double that total spend.

Netflix, in its third-quarter earnings, reported revenues of $9.83 billion and net income of $2.36 billion. So it has money, but seemingly didn’t like the bet the gaming division was making. That comes as the video game industry, as a whole, is facing sluggish growth. A report from research firm NewZoo is estimating year-over-year growth of just 2.1% this year. 

Despite the high-profile departures, Netflix still seems committed to being a part of the video game landscape. In July, it hired Alain Tascan, VP of game development at Fortnite maker Epic Games, as its new president of gaming. He replaced Mike Verdu, who joined the company in 2021 after stints at Zynga, Kabam, and EA Mobile, among other companies. (Verdu remained with Netflix, taking on an undefined new role involving “innovation in game development.”)

The company also plans to exclusively launch a new entry in the popular Monument Valley puzzle game franchise on December 10 and later this year will release a battle royale game set in the world of the Netflix series Squid Game, when that show debuts its second season.

Neither of those are on the same scale as a AAA multi-platform title, though. Whatever Team Blue was working on had a much loftier goal. And it’s unclear at this point if Netflix still plans to aim that high in the gaming world. (Netflix did not speak to its gaming plans other than to confirm the studio’s closure.)

Netflix doesn’t need a multi-platform release to be a success in the gaming world, though. There’s more than respectable money in the mobile industry—and, ultimately, the company is using video games as a way to add value to Netflix memberships. The company last raised the price of its Standard plan in January 2022—and, in July, began phasing out its cheapest advertising-free plan. Citi analyst Jason Bazinet said in a note to investors earlier this month that he expects those prices to increase by 12% next year.

Subscribers might grumble if that happens, but as long as the service offers new episodes of fan favorite programs and introduces new content that pings the pop culture radar, they’re less likely to be concerned about whether there’s a Netflix-made game available on their PlayStation 5. 

An E. coli outbreak has been linked to McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. heartland, causing the fast-food chain to temporarily remove a classic from its menu. The company has pulled the popular Quarter Pounder from restaurants in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming, along with portions of eight other states.

McDonald’s is cooperating with the investigation, which was reported today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). So far, the outbreak has resulted in at least one death, 10 hospitalizations, and 49 illnesses in 10 states, according to the CDC. Here’s what to know:

What is the source of the outbreak?

Early indications from the investigation suggest the outbreak may be linked to slivered onions used in Quarter Pounder hamburgers that are sourced by a single, unnamed supplier that serves three distribution centers.

Fast Company reached out to McDonald’s for comment, but has not yet received a response. The company publicly shared an internal message about how it is taking “swift and decisive action” to address the outbreak, including working with the CDC to provide updates to the public.

The Des Plaines, Illinois-based chain noted that the Quarter Pounder has also been scrapped from menus in portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. 

What if I ate at McDonald’s recently?

The CDC instructed people who ate a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburger to contact their healthcare provider if they have severe E. coli symptoms, which might include:

• Diarrhea and a fever higher than 102 degrees Fahrenheit
• Vomiting that’s so bad you can’t keep liquids down
• Signs of dehydration

The CDC indicated that most people infected with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli start to experience symptoms three to four days after swallowing the bacteria.

What else is McDonald’s doing to address this?

In a video message posted on YouTube this afternoon, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, emphasized that the outbreak doesn’t affect menu items beyond the Quarter Pounder—and is limited to only a select number of U.S. states.

The decision to remove slivered onions was done “proactively,” he said. “I hope these steps demonstrate McDonald’s commitment to food safety.” 

How has McDonald’s stock responded to this news?

Shares of McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) slumped as much as 9.6% in after-hours trading, after closing mostly flat on the day.

It’s been a busy week for the chain; former president Donald Trump had a viral publicity stunt serving french fries at a McDonald’s eatery in Pennsylvania.

Groups in Russia created and helped spread viral disinformation targeting Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday.

The content, which includes baseless accusations about the Minnesota governor’s time as a teacher, contains several indications that it was manipulated, said the official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Analysts identified clues that linked the content to Russian disinformation operations, said the official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the office of the director.

Digital researchers had already linked the video to Russia, but Tuesday’s announcement is the first time federal authorities have confirmed the connection.

The disinformation targeting Walz is consistent with Russian disinformation seeking to undermine the Democratic campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris and Walz, her running mate. Russia also has spread disinformation aimed at stoking discord and division ahead of voting, officials said, and may seek to encourage violent protests after Election Day.

Last month, analysts at Microsoft revealed that a viral video that baselessly claimed Harris left a woman paralyzed in a hit-and-run accident 13 years ago was Russian disinformation. More recently, a video surfaced featuring a man claiming to be a former student of Walz’s who accused the candidate of sexual misconduct years ago. Private researchers at firms that track disinformation, including NewsGuard, already have concluded the video was fake and that the man in the footage isn’t who he claimed to be.

The Associated Press contacted a former employer of the man whose identity was used in the video. The employer, Viktor Yeliohin, confirmed the man shown in the video was an impostor.

Some researchers have also suggested the video may contain evidence that it was created using artificial intelligence, but federal officials stopped short of the same conclusion, saying only that the video contained multiple indications of manipulation.

China and Iran also have sought to influence the U.S. election using online disinformation. While Russia has targeted the Democratic campaign, Iran has gone after Republican Donald Trump with disinformation as well as hacking into the former president’s campaign. China, meanwhile, has focused its influence efforts on down-ballot races, and on general efforts to sow distrust and democratic dissatisfaction.

There is no indication that Russia, China or Iran are plotting significant attacks on election infrastructure as a way to disrupt the outcome, officials said Tuesday.

Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has said improvements to election security mean there is no way any other foreign adversary will be able to alter the results.

Russia, China and Iran have all rejected claims that they are seeking to meddle with the U.S. election. Messages left with the Russian Embassy seeking comment on the Walz video were not immediately returned Tuesday.
—-
Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin contributed to this report from New York.

—David Klepper, Associated Press

Meta Platforms’ Oversight Board on Wednesday told the company to keep up a Facebook post superimposing the faces of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz onto a parody “Dumb and Dumber” movie poster showing the characters pinching each other’s nipples through their clothing.

The board accused the company of acting too aggressively against an obvious political parody with the post. The original movie poster depicts two male characters known for engaging in gross-out bawdy antics.

Meta originally took the post down for violating a rule against “derogatory sexualized photoshop” manipulations of images, but restored it once the board informed Meta it was examining the case, the Oversight Board said in a blog post.

The company told the board it “does not consider that pinching a person’s nipple through their clothing qualifies as sexual activity,” the board said.

The board, which is funded by Meta but operates independently, did not comment directly on Meta’s rationale but said the post in question showed a “non-sexualized derogatory depiction” of political figures and therefore was not in violation of Facebook rules.

Meta’s initial removal was a worrying sign of the company’s tendency toward “overenforcement” of its policies against satire and political speech, it added.

“This post is nothing more than a commonplace satirical image of prominent politicians and is instantly recognizable as such,” the board wrote.

It said that the company’s failure to handle the post appropriately on its first try “raises serious concerns about the systems and resources Meta has in place to effectively make content determinations in such electoral contexts.”

The case highlights the fine line the world’s biggest social media platform must walk in moderating posts pertaining to the highly charged U.S. political environment. Conservatives frequently complain it removes too much of their content while progressives generally say it does too little to police misinformation and abuse on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.

Meta relies heavily on automated AI-powered enforcement of its rules. This controls the cost of moderating the posts of its more than 3 billion users, but elicits gripes from users who say the systems often fail to detect parody and context.

—Katie Paul, Reuters

The U.S.-China tech war is all but certain to heat up no matter whether Republican Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris wins the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, with the Democrat likely to come out with targeted new rules and Trump a blunter approach.

New efforts to slow the flow of less-sophisticated Chinese chips, smart cars and other imports into the U.S. are expected, alongside more curbs on chipmaking tools and highly-prized AI chips headed to China, according to former officials from the Biden and Trump administrations, industry experts and people close to the campaigns.

In her bid for the U.S. presidency, Democrat Harris has said she will make sure “America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century,” while Republican candidate Trump has pitched ever-increasing tariffs as a cure-all that includes combating Chinese technological advancement.

In short, the battle to keep U.S. money and technology from boosting China’s military and artificial intelligence capabilities is bound to escalate under either Harris or Trump.

“We’re seeing the opening of a new front on the U.S. China tech cold war that is focused on data, software and connected devices,” said Peter Harrell, a former national security official in the Biden administration.

Last month, the U.S. proposed rules to keep connected cars made with Chinese components off America’s streets, while a law was passed this spring that said the short video app TikTok must be sold by its Chinese parent by next year or be banned.

“There’s a lot of concern if a Chinese company is able to access and provide updates to devices,” Harrell said. “The connected car thing and TikTok are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Should Harris win the election, her approach would likely be more targeted and coordinated than Trump’s, people close to both administrations say.

For example, she is likely to continue working with allies much like the Biden administration has, to keep U.S. tech from aiding the Chinese military, Harrell said.

A Trump administration, on the other hand, may move more quickly, and be more willing to punish recalcitrant allies.

“I think we learned from President Trump’s first term that he has a bias for action,” said Jamieson Greer, former chief of staff to Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative under Trump who remains close to the campaign.

Nazak Nikakhtar, a Commerce Department official under Trump who knows his current advisors, expects a Trump administration to be “much more aggressive about export control policies towards China.”

She anticipates “a significant expansion of the entity list,” to capture affiliates and business partners of listed companies. The list restricts exports to those on it. Trump added China’s Huawei Technologies to the list for sanctions busting.

Licenses to ship U.S. technology to China also are more likely to be denied, Nikakhtar said.

She said she would not be surprised if a Trump administration imposed restrictions not only on imports of Chinese chips but on “certain products containing those chips.”

And she expects Trump to be tougher than Harris on allies who don’t follow the U.S. lead. “The Trump philosophy is more of a stick,” she said.

Bill Reinsch, a former Commerce official during the Clinton administration sees Trump as likely to take a “sledgehammer” to controls where Harris would use a “scalpel.”

“Trump’s approach has been across-the-board, most clearly seen in his current tariff proposals,” Reinsch said.

Trump has said he would impose tariffs of 10 or 20 percent on all imports (not just Chinese) and 60 percent or more on Chinese imports.

Harris has described Trump’s tariff plan as a tax on consumers, but the Biden administration has seen the need for targeted tariffs including increasing the rate on semiconductors from 25 percent to 50 percent by 2025.

China has repeatedly said it would safeguard its rights and interests. Last year, it targeted U.S. memory chip maker Micron Technology after Washington imposed a series of export controls on U.S. chips and chipmaking equipment, and the U.S. accused Beijing of penalizing other US companies amid growing tensions.

Wilbur Ross, commerce secretary under Trump, said that the U.S. needs to be tough on China, but strategic, too.

“It would be very dangerous to just try to cut them off.”

—Karen Freifeld, Reuters