A pipeline fire that burned in a Houston suburb for four days finally went out Thursday as authorities announced a criminal investigation into the blaze that had roared into a towering flame, forcing neighborhoods to evacuate and melting parts of nearby cars.

Before the fire fully stopped Thursday evening, officials announced that human remains were found in an SUV that had been next to the flame since the explosion happened Monday. Investigators say the fire began after the driver of that car went through a fence alongside a Walmart parking lot and struck an above-ground valve.

Officials in Deer Park, where the explosion occurred, described the crash as an accident, and said police and local FBI agents have not found evidence of a coordinated or terrorist attack.

“This has developed into a criminal investigation and will be actively ongoing until more information is available,” the city said in a statement late Thursday.

As authorities worked to identify who had driven the vehicle, residents who were forced to flee the towering blaze returned to assess the damage on Thursday. They found mailboxes and vehicles partially melted by the intense heat, a neighborhood park charred and destroyed and fences burned to the ground.

“Devastated, upset, scared. We don’t know what we’re going to do now,” said Diane Hutto, 51, after finding her home severely damaged by water that firefighters poured on it to keep it from catching fire. Hutto’s home is located only a few hundred feet from the pipeline.

Before the fire went out, its reduced size meant police finally had access to the area around the pipeline. Investigators removed the white SUV and towed it away Thursday morning.

While medical examiners with Harris County were processing the vehicle, they recovered and removed human remains found inside, Deer Park officials said in a statement.

Officials say the underground pipeline, which runs under high-voltage power lines in a grassy corridor between the Walmart and a residential neighborhood, was damaged when the SUV driver left the store’s parking lot, entered the wide grassy area and went through a fence surrounding the valve equipment.

But authorities have offered few details on what caused the vehicle to crash through the fence and hit the pipeline valve.

Energy Transfer, the Dallas-based company that owns the pipeline, on Wednesday called it an accident. Deer Park officials said preliminary investigations by police and FBI agents found no evidence of a terrorist attack.

The pipeline is a 20-inch-wide (50-centimeter-wide) conduit that runs for miles through the Houston area. It carries natural gas liquids through Deer Park and La Porte, both of which are southeast of Houston.

Authorities evacuated nearly 1,000 homes at one point and ordered people in nearby schools to shelter in place. Officials began letting residents return to their homes on Wednesday evening.

Hutto said Thursday the fire incinerated her home’s backyard fence and partially melted a small shed where her husband stored his lawnmower. Inside the home, mold and mildew were starting to set in from the water damage, and part of the ceiling in her daughter’s bedroom had collapsed.

“Everything is just soaking wet,” she said. “It smells bad. I don’t think there’s really anything we can salvage at this point.”

Across the street, Robert Blair found minor damage when he returned to his home Thursday morning. It included broken and cracked windows and a window screen and irrigation system pipes that had been melted by the heat.

“We were very lucky here. It could have been worse,” said Blair, 67.

The pipeline’s valve equipment appears to have been protected by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Energy Transfer has not responded to questions about any other safety protections that were in place.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official, said Thursday that officials will look at whether they can require companies like Energy Transfer to install better security measures, including concrete structures around pipelines and their aboveground valves.

“If they had that around it, I don’t think this would have happened,” Blair said.

Energy Transfer and Harris County officials have said that air quality monitoring showed no immediate risk to individuals, despite the huge tower of billowing flame that shot hundreds of feet into the air when the fire first began, creating thick black smoke that hovered over the area.

Houston, Texas’ largest city, is the nation’s petrochemical heartland and is home to a cluster of refineries and plants and thousands of miles of pipelines.
Explosions and fires are a familiar sight in the area, including some that have been deadly, raising recurring questions about the adequacy of industry efforts to protect the public and the environment.

Hidalgo said some residents she spoke with told her they don’t feel safe living in the area after this week’s fire.

Hutto, whose husband works in a petrochemical plant, said living near such facilities has always been a concern, but this week’s fire has changed things for her.

“I don’t think I want to live here anymore. I’m just too scared to stay here,” Hutto said.

Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

—Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press

Amid the curated electronic music, models’ cold stares and magazine editors lining the runway at New York Fashion Week this season, several designers felt a particular sense of urgency.

In a little over a month, they will learn whether they have won of one of the most coveted competitions for emerging designers: The Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund.

The fund, which has catapulted past participants including Proenza Schouler and Thom Browne into the upper echelons of fashion, marks its 20th anniversary this year. It provides 10 finalists with access to industry leaders, with mentorship on everything from growing their brands to showing at New York Fashion Week. This year’s judges include Browne, Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, Saks fashion director Roopal Patel and CFDA CEO Steven Kolb.

There’s also a financial prize: Winners are awarded $300,000, while two runner-ups receive $100,000 each. To be eligible, designers must be U.S.-based, employ fewer than 30 people and bring in less than $10 million in revenue.

The magnitude of the fund weighs on current finalist Grace Ling, originally from Singapore. Ling, who was honored with the CFDA’s first Asian American and Pacific Islander Genesis grant totaling $100,000 in February, was able to scale up her business from a one-woman show to hiring an additional employee to help with production.

“For the last three years, I have basically been a one-man show,” she said. Winning this fund would allow her to level up immediately.

At Ling’s show, “Neanderthal,” a diverse group of models glided past a jutting rock formation in 3D-printed aluminum looks, carrying her playful purses — including her signature butt bag, shaped like a sculpted derriere. Backstage, Ling described the collection as a modern, sensual interpretation of what she calls primitive chic.

Kolb said the fund separates new designers from the mass of new brands vying for attention.

“The fashion fund is also beyond the tangible mentorship or grant, it’s a visibility play,” the CEO said.

It took Sebastien and Marianne Amisial four tries before they were accepted to the 2024 fund for their brand Sebastien Ami. They began operating the brand during the height of the pandemic and debuted their latest collection, incorporating menswear and unisex looks of olive-flocked denim and pops of bright color into their first New York Fashion Week runway show.

“We did this on a shoestring,” Marianne Amisial said. “It’s just the ability to do something with nothing. And that’s what we’ve done for the last four years.”

Louisiana designer Christopher John Rogers, who grew his brand out of a Bushwick apartment and has since dressed Michelle Obama and Tracee Ellis Ross, won the fund in 2019. Rogers told The Associated Press that the victory gave him the resources to hire a team, produce his second collection and move into a design studio in Soho.

“For me it really meant actually having a shot at running a business and starting a business,” he said.

Shawn Grain Carter, a fashion business management professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, said designers have to be strategic about their growth strategy, control expenses and do what’s best for their brands.

“Sometimes people think to go to scale means you have to be like Michael Kors,” she said of the big-name brand. “And that’s not the case. I tell emerging designers, you have to be profitable with gross margin profits, whether you are a $5 million company or a $500,000 company or a $5 billion company.”

Jackson Wiederhoeft, known for his theatrical runway shows and corsets, is participating in the fund for a second time after he a transformative experience in 2022.

“The first fashion fund was the reason we started doing runway shows,” he said. “That was very much at the suggestion of Vogue and CFDA.”

He has gone on to produce five more fashion shows — his latest three-part act opened with a choreographed dance performance and closed with 26 size-inclusive veiled models wearing his trademark white wasp satin corsets.

While prepping for his fashion week show, Wiederhoeft was also submitting his final look for the fashion fund’s design challenge, which CFDA and Vogue brought back this year after a pandemic-induced pause. As part of the exercise, overseen by Tommy Hilfiger, designers created a look based on the theme “Stars and Stripes.”

The CFDA and Vogue continue to support its finalists past the fund. Rogers and past finalist House of Aama will be taking their designs to the CFDA/Vogue Americans in Paris Initiative during Paris Fashion Week. Rebecca Henry of House of Aama said the showcase comes at a pivotal time as the brand looks to expand.

“We are just looking at how to expand into other markets and especially the international markets,” she said.

Straight after her runway show, Ling was preparing for market appointments, where buyers can come view her collection at her midtown Manhattan showroom. Regardless of whether she wins, she’s already thinking about what’s next.

“I’m thinking five years down the road,” she said. “I’m thinking 10 years. I’m thinking about tomorrow.”

—Beatrice Dupuy, Associated Press

Dynarex Corporation has announced a recall of its Dynacare Baby Powder. According to a news release published Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the product was recalled over possible asbestos contamination. 

“Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral often found near talc, an ingredient in many cosmetic products,” the release stated. “Asbestos, however, is a known carcinogen, and its health risks are well-documented.”

According to Cancer.gov, the mineral has been used commercially since the 1800s in construction, roofing, car-making, and more. Therefore, it’s still commonly found in attics, old vinyl flooring, siding, roofs, ceilings, insulation, drywall, and more. When asbestos fibers are disturbed and inhaled, they pose serious risks. Exposure can lead to lung damage and certain cancers, such as lung cancer or mesothelioma. 

Dynarex Corporation said the recall came after a “routine sampling” of the products, which revealed the presence of asbestos, but no illnesses or adverse effects were reported. “The company has ceased the distribution of the product as an investigation is proceeding to determine what caused the contamination of the talc,” the news release said.

The product number is 4857 with a batch/lot number of B051. The expiration date on the bottom of the bottle is 12/28/2026. 62 cases, or several hundred units of the product, distributed on or after March 11, 2024, were recalled. The deliveries were sent to the following states: AL, AR, CO, IL, KY, NC, NJ, PA, TN, FL, WA, and WI. The now-recalled product was also sold on Amazon.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen baby powder recalled over asbestos concerns. Johnson & Johnson notoriously came under fire for selling its baby powder for decades, despite reports that the brand knew it contained asbestos. A California woman sued the company and won $417 million after she developed ovarian cancer, which may have been a result of using the product throughout most of her life.

Dynarex says consumers should stop using the product immediately and return it for a full refund. They can also call Dynarex at 888-396-2739 or 845-365-8200 or email recall@dynarex.com with questions or concerns. The company said, “health care professionals and consumers are encouraged to report any adverse events to FDA’s MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program” through this link.

Major construction sites are more than building plans, hard hats, and concrete. They are, in fact, sprawling and complex ecosystems that require contractors to balance design specs with rising materials costs, labor shortages, and myriad other factors. In this competitive space, the contractors that succeed are the ones that continuously push for more efficient, sustainable, and productive processes.

For Suffolk—a national contractor that builds, innovates, and invests and employs 2,800 employees throughout the U.S.—that success comes from growing a forward-focused company culture and cultivating creative approaches to solving complex problems. “The value in innovation is to help us build faster, better, cheaper, and safer—and to provide a better experience for our clients,” says Jit Kee Chin, chief technology officer at Suffolk.

Technology—whether developed internally or through smart investments in construction-tech startups—is central to Suffolk’s continuing pursuit of these goals. Its AI-powered predictive software, for example, can boost jobsite safety by analyzing data from prior projects and identifying possibly hazardous trends that need attention. That software is also being used to find financial and operational exposures during the preliminary phases of projects: spotting and red-flagging potential problems early enough to give users time to course correct. 

An entrepreneurial approach to recognizing and developing new technologies—bettering both the company as well as the construction industry as a whole—has earned Suffolk a place among Fast Company’s list of the Best Workplaces for Innovators for 2024.

INNOVATION FROM WITHIN

Suffolk, founded in 1982 by chairman and CEO John Fish, is always seeking new and innovative ways to merge technology and data. A recent example is the Project Dashboard, an in-house tool that tracks metrics—in real-time—for projects throughout the country. The dashboard offers insights into safety, scheduling, finances, and other operational data, empowering employees to manage their time and resources more effectively.

“We saw that the Project Dashboard drove a lot of positive changes in our culture,” Chin says. This success led Suffolk to expand the tool into what’s now called the Owner’s Dashboard. The tool gives users unprecedented visibility into their projects—from tracking requests for information to monitoring budget status.

“The dashboard came organically out of our own efforts to drive a culture of transparency and curiosity,” Chin explains. “At Suffolk, we believe that innovation must cultivate a mindset of problem-solving and continuous improvement, so we can all continue to grow.”

A PLATFORM FOR NEW IDEAS

Suffolk views technology as a cornerstone of a leading-edge construction company. One of its flagship initiatives, BOOST, is the industry’s first accelerator program dedicated to construction-tech startups. Each year, the BOOST program selects five to 10 companies to take part in an intensive eight-week program aimed at solving specific challenges facing the construction industry.

The startups are assigned Suffolk mentors and given real-world opportunities, on current Suffolk jobsites, to field-test their technologies and find solutions that strengthen their value propositions. A recent participant, WINT, developed an innovative, AI-driven approach to detecting water leaks—before they can cause any costly damage to a building—in small amounts never before possible.

Programs such as BOOST are designed to drive creative problem-solving that benefit not only the company but also the construction industry at large. And they reflect Suffolk’s commitment to disrupting an industry long overdue for innovation—changing the way buildings are planned, designed, and built—and better positioning the company (and its clients) for the future. “We drive innovation so that our business can constantly reinvent itself and remain relevant in tomorrow’s world,” Chin says.

Across social media, influencers who have amassed large followings by sharing weight-related tips and promoting “skinny” lifestyles. One of the most controversial, Liv Schmidt, built a community of 670,000 working women by posting videos of her “skinny girl essentials.” Her content included weight loss tips, including “how to avoid the freshman 15” and “how to stop emotional eating at your 9-5 job,” often accompanied by emojis of pigs, whales, and cows. That is, until TikTok deleted her account.

According to a TikTok spokesperson, Schmidt’s account was removed on September 17 for violating community guidelines. Meanwhile, Reddit users have taken credit for her account’s removal, admitting in multiple threads that they repeatedly reported her content. They accused Schmidt of “rage-baiting” and shaming others for their weight, with some pointing out her content could be flagged for violating guidelines around “eating disorders.” “I want better for our youth,” one Reddit user wrote, calling Schmidt’s content “dangerous” for impressionable TikTok users.

And it’s not just Reddit users: “I don’t think we are in a space where we can ignore the harms that can be happening in the algorithm,” Johanna Kandel, the chief executive officer of the National Alliance for Eating Disorders, told The New York Times earlier this year. “The fact is that individuals can start a journey of health and wellness and within a few minutes can be served content that is extremely unhealthy for them.”

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Schmidt said, “For me and my personal aesthetic, I like to be skinny and there’s nothing wrong with that.” Her brand revolves around body image, from her curated Amazon storefront filled with dietary supplements and protein powders, from which she earns commission, to her $9.99/month subscription group on Instagram called the Skinny Group Community Chat. Notably, Schmidt is not a certified nutritionist or health expert. Heathline suggests adding protein and prioritizing single ingredient foods in your diet, while limiting processed foods and added sugar are some of the best ways to lose weight naturally. 

“Recently there has been a resurgence of certain influencers promoting the desire for a thin or skinny body,” says Carolyne Keenan, the clinical director at Lotus Psychology Ltd. The internet has long blurred the lines between healthy advice and eating disorder messaging. “Whilst I don’t feel comfortable with censorship, I do think we need to support people to think critically about the content they view and unfortunately the damage from content like this could be done before there is the opportunity for that to happen,” adds Keenan. 

Despite the ban, Schmidt has since created a new TikTok account and is working to have her original page reinstated. Over the weekend, her bio read: “It’s not a sin to want to be thin. Saving America from obesity 1 person @ a time,” though it has since been changed.

Companies and educators need to start preparing now for quantum computing’s place as a disruptor in the marketplace, or risk falling behind the rapid pace of innovation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Martin A. Schmidt said during a panel at the Fast Company Innovation Festival.

Schmidt was joined onstage by IonQ CMO Margaret Arakawa, IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research Darío Gil, and Fast Company Global Technology Editor Harry McCracken.

“We have to think about the whole workforce in terms of getting people quantum savvy for that moment,” Schmidt said during the panel.

Schmidt recalled his time as Provost at MIT when AI and machine learning advances were happening at rapid pace. At the time, Schmidt said his team was “caught off guard” when it came to the disruption that was occurring. Schmidt recalled calling several CTOs of companies that supported MIT at the time, and “they were all in the same boat.”

“Everybody was reacting to what was the disruptive technology that they hadn’t anticipated, and that meant trying to figure out how it was going to transform their business, trying to figure out how you were going to get the talent to exploit it,” he said. “I feel like now’s the time for us to be prepared for quantum.”

It’s impossible to know when implementing quantum computing is more of the norm and less of a mysterious being. Arakawa predicted two years from now, while Gil estimated by the end of the decade.

“You are already seeing incredible work right now that is happening of people who are passionate about pushing the limits, and you’re going to see more of it next year and more and more, and there’s a big moment at the end of the decade,” Gil said.

A broad group of civil rights organizations called on the CEOs and board members of major companies Thursday to maintain their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that have come under attack online and in lawsuits.

An open letter signed by 19 organizations and directed at the leaders of Fortune 1000 companies said companies that abandon their DEI programs are shirking their fiduciary responsibility to employees, consumers and shareholders.

The civil rights groups included the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion programs, policies, and practices make business-sense and they’re broadly popular among the public, consumers, and employees,” their statement read. “But a small, well-funded, and extreme group of right-wing activists is attempting to pressure companies into abandoning their DEI programs.”

Companies such as Ford, Lowes, John Deere, Molson Coors and Harley-Davidson recently announced they would pull back on their diversity, equity and inclusion policies after facing pressure from conservative activists who were emboldened by recent victories in the courtroom.

Many major corporations have been examining their diversity programs in the wake of a Supreme Court decision last year that declared race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions unconstitutional. Dozens of cases have been filed making similar arguments about employers. Critics of DEI programs say the initiatives provide benefits to people of one race or sexual orientation while excluding others.

In their letter, the civil rights organizations, which also included UnidosUS, the Urban League, Advocates for Trans Equality, the National Women’s Law Center and the American Association of People with Disabilities, said divesting from DEI would alienate a wide range of consumers.

—Cathy Bussewitz, Associated Press business writer

Microsoft is going nuclear. Nuclear power, that is.

In an unprecedented move that could be a game changer across the energy and technology sectors, Constellation Energy Corp. announced Friday it has signed a 20-year deal to supply Microsoft Corporation with nuclear power, reopening Three Mile Island, the site of the worst accident at a U.S. commercial nuclear power plant in American history.

Shares in Constellation (Nasdaq: CEG) were up over 16% in midday trading.

Microsoft and other tech giants have been struggling to meet the massive energy demands of artificial intelligence to power data centers, and have been increasingly looking at nuclear power as an alternative. The deal will give Microsoft a supply of carbon-free power around the clock for the next two decades.

“Powering industries critical to our nation’s global economic and technological competitiveness, including data centers, requires an abundance of energy that is carbon-free and reliable every hour of every day,” said Joe Dominguez, president and CEO of Constellation, in a statement. “Nuclear plants are the only energy sources that can consistently deliver on that promise.”

Constellation said it will invest $1.6 billion, which will pave the way for the launch of the new Crane Clean Energy Center, with Constellation’s Three Mile Island reactor expected to go online in 2028. That reactor sits next to the Unit 2 reactor, which partially melted down in 1979.

According to Constellation, reopening the Pennsylvania reactor will create 3,400 direct and indirect jobs, add more than 800 megawatts of carbon-free electricity to the grid, add $16 billion to the state’s GDP, and generate more than $3 billion in state and federal taxes. Backed by support from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, it requires federal regulatory approval to reopen.

Fans of BurgerFi burgers and Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza may have discovered recently that their favorite meals are a bit more difficult to come by.

That’s because BurgerFi International, the parent company of both chains, has closed nearly 20 underperforming locations in recent months, the company disclosed in a court filing this week. 

The locations were shuttered in the lead-up to BurgerFi’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which was announced earlier this month. In a year littered with chain-restaurant bankruptcies, the company cited familiar reasons for the move, including rising food and labor costs and inflationary pressures that have made diners more hesitant about eating out.

BurgerFi had alluded to the restaurant closures earlier this year, but in a court filing this week, it listed each location individually on a schedule of leases that it plans to reject as part of the bankruptcy process. In the filing, BurgerFi said it had determined that the restaurants were “suboptimal performers in terms of revenue and profits.” All personal property left behind at the locations is now considered abandoned.

The list of 19 locations includes 10 BurgerFi restaurants and 9 Anthony’s. They were located in Florida, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Maryland. (See specific closures by location, below.)

BurgerFi stock delisting on the horizon

Fort Lauderdale-based BurgerFi was founded in 2011 and is known for its fast-casual "better burger" dining concept. The restaurant chain went public during the SPAC frenzy of 2020, when hundreds of startups of all stripes merged with special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs).

While that method was seen as a fast track to public markets, it has typically not paid off in the long run for investors. BurgerFi stock, which never performed especially well on the Nasdaq, has been trading under 25 cents a share in the weeks since the bankruptcy announcement.

The company disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it expects to be delisted from the Nasdaq, with trading of its common stock to be suspended by the opening bell on Monday, September 23.

There is some good news in all this: Despite BurgerFi's litany of financial troubles, the company has said that all 144 BurgerFi and Anthony's locations will continue to operate normally during the bankruptcy process, so the closures that were already announced may actually be the worst of it.

You can find the full list below or in the embedded map above.

Florida

• BurgerFi: 7959 W. Atlantic Avenue, Suite 201
  Delray Beach
• BurgerFi: 6230 W Indiantown Road
  Jupiter
• Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza: 1900 Okeechobee Blvd.
  West Palm Beach
• BurgerFi: 1955 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd., First Floor
  Hallandale Beach
• BurgerFi: 10590 Pines Blvd., Unit P1A
  Pembroke Pines
• BurgerFi: 1514 Immokalee Road, Unit 101
  Naples
• BurgerFi: 12712 Tamiami Trail East
  Naples
• Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza: 420 E. Altamonte Drive, Suite 1020
  Altamonte Springs
• BurgerFi: 16120 Preserve Marketplace Blvd.
  Odessa
• BurgerFi: 628-3 Atlantic Blvd., No. 1
  Neptune Beach
• BurgerFi: 10647 Sheldon Road
  Tampa

Massachusetts

• Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza: 219 N. Main Street, Suite A-104
  Natick

Tennessee

• BurgerFi: 271 Indian Lake Blvd., Suite 130
  Hendersonville

Pennsylvania

• Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza: 960 Dekalb Pike, Unit 600
  Blue Bell
• Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza: 50 E. Wynnewood Road
  Wynnewood
• Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza: 2045 Mackenzie Way
  Cranberry Township

New Jersey

• Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza: Clifton Commons
  Clifton

Maryland

• Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza: 7776 Norfolk Avenue
  Bethesda

Rhode Island

• Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza: 220 Hillside Road
  Cranston

Snapchat is combining its Stories and Spotlight functions into one vertical video feed. That feed just happens to look almost identical to TikTok. 

The new function, called Simple Snapchat, taps into the endless scroll of short-form video that’s flooding the social media industry, from TikTok to Instagram Reels. Snapchat has been burned before: Back in 2016, Instagram launched its own Stories function, which looked quite similar to Snapchat’s longtime offering. Now, it seems Snapchat is picking up on the thread: To make it as a major social media company, everyone needs to copy a little.

Is Simple Snapchat a TikTok rip-off? 

The video function in Simple Snapchat isn’t new—it merely combines the app’s Stories and Spotlight content into one bottomless feed. What is new, though, is the layout and backing algorithm. In a release, Snapchat called it the “first-ever unified recommendation system that makes for our most personalized experience yet.” That system is built on the impulse of TikTok’s For You Page (FYP); the bubbly engagement buttons even look like it. 

While Snapchat declined to comment on the similarities, the company has been signaling a move toward a TikTok-ified system throughout its last few filings. “One unified feed of content, but also the ranking stack, which is going to enable us to really share engagement signals between stories and spotlight, which we just haven’t done historically,” CEO Evan Spiegel said in Snap’s Q1 2024 earnings call. “So we think that will really help personalize the experience overall.”

Snapchat is also far from the first company to invest in a TikTok equivalent. Instagram launched Reels, its own vertical video feed, in 2020. The platform was immediately flooded with republished TikTok content. Facebook also has a Reels function, and YouTube has its own Shorts. 

But Snapchat has been uniquely burned by social media rip-offs, dating back to 2016 when Instagram launched its own version of Stories. In its 2017 IPO filing, Snapchat listed this as an example of intensifying market competition: “Instagram, a subsidiary of Facebook, recently introduced a ‘stories’ feature that largely mimics our Stories feature and may be directly competitive.” In the months post-launch of Instagram Stories, Snapchat’s growth slowed 82%. It seems Snap has learned a lesson: Incorporate copycat user functions or lose market share. 

Social media companies are stuck in an innovation loop

There’s a constant stream of rip-offs and copycats coursing through the industry. That’s because so much of social media is trend-based: First, text was big with the rise of Twitter, then it was photos with Instagram, then long-form video with YouTube, and eventually TikTok’s short-form. Part of being a social media company is capturing these rising currents of user preferences. No one, not even Snapchat, wants to be left behind. 

While big tech seems adamant on copying TikTok right now, the Bytedance-owned app is also grabbing at some of the other apps’ successful functions. When BeReal was in its heyday, TikTok debuted its own clone, TikTok Now. A year later, the function was discontinued. It also launched TikTok Live three years after Instagram started its own live function, and continues to add Instagram-equivalent functions like cohosts and Q&As. 

The market for small social media apps is bleak. Once-viral, apps such as BeReal, Lapse, and NGL are rapidly losing active users, per Sensor Tower; the marketing intelligence agency estimates that much of that user share is being eaten up by the juggernauts, Instagram and TikTok. Ultimately, social media apps face a kill-or-be-killed market. 

The price of insulin has exponentially increased in recent years. Now, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing three companies over allegedly inflating the cost of the drug at the expense of Americans who rely on it.

The lawsuit targets three pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), or middlemen, who handle most (at least 80%) of the scripts in the U.S.: UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Rx, CVS Health’s Caremark, and Cigna’s Express Scripts. 

“Millions of Americans with diabetes need insulin to survive, yet for many of these vulnerable patients, their insulin drug costs have skyrocketed over the past decade thanks in part to powerful PBMs and their greed,” Rahul Rao, deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. 

The end of the Big Three

“The FTC’s administrative action seeks to put an end to the Big Three PBMs’ exploitative conduct and marks an important step in fixing a broken system—a fix that could ripple beyond the insulin market and restore healthy competition to drive down drug prices for consumers,” Rao continued. 

The move should come as no big surprise. It’s consistent with the FTC’s July report, which alleged that prescription drug intermediaries killed off the price of two different cancer drugs—nearly $1.6 billion in extra revenue in less than three years—by directing business to affiliated pharmacies. That report also pointed to CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and Optum Rx.

The report alleged that “market concentration” means the companies can drive up prices, no matter how it impacts patients. However, Express Scripts pushed back this week, filing a lawsuit over the July report, saying it was merely a matter of “ideological bias.”

Insulin can cost patients hundreds of dollars a month, and the price has drastically increased in recent years, inflating 24% between 2017 and 2022, according to the American Diabetes Association. It also costs far more in America than in at least 33 high-income countries—more than nine times higher, according to a 2024 Rand report.

The quest for affordable prices

The Biden administration has made some efforts to protect Americans from unaffordable drug prices. Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which capped insulin at $35 per month, but it only helps those with Medicare benefits, not with private insurance. That means, for many, insulin is still massively costly, and often, completely unaffordable.

Given how tough it is for so many to afford their life-saving drugs, some have even taken to joining groups on Facebook to acquire more affordable insulin. Likewise, the hashtag #insulin4all on X brings up hundreds of postings. Some diabetes sufferers use the hashtag to ask for insulin, some are offering it, and others are simply sharing their struggle to pay astronomical drug bills.

The FTC said it could take action against other drugmakers, including Eli Lilly, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk, as well. “Although not named in this case, all drug manufacturers should be on notice that their participation in the type of conduct challenged here can raise serious concerns.”

SoundExchange is taking steps to protect musicians in the AI age.

The nonprofit music and tech collective-rights organization revealed during a session at the Fast Company Innovation Festival on Thursday that it’s developing an AI registry for sound-recording creators and rights owners.

As artists have grown increasingly concerned about AI and similar models infringing on their work and affecting their earnings, SoundExchange’s registry will “provide a much-needed source for creators and rights owners to protect and preserve their rights regarding the use of their content in AI models,” according to a company release.

SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe announced the news during a conversation at the festival with Timbaland, a Grammy-winning producer and artist.

SoundExchange is expected to launch in early 2025 and will serve as a system to collect and distribute royalties using the registry’s International Standard Recording Code database. That database is used to identify sound recordings to ensure that rights owners are aware of when and how their work is being used. The registry is being supported by “all major labels and the independent recording community,” per SoundExchange’s release.

In effect, companies that are building and training AI models by ingesting sound recordings will be able to reference that database and ensure their use is authorized and that rights holders are in the know. The registry is meant to buffer the alleged theft of intellectual property for AI training—something for which many companies involved in AI development are already facing a flurry of lawsuits.

Remember those Minion memes floating around the internet a few months ago—the one’s made to resemble Jesus on a cross or rising from the dead? Well, now we know who’s behind them.

Lost? Let’s catch you up. Earlier this year a number of eerily similar videos started cropping up on TikTok. “One day, an animator was messing around, and he created this picture of a little minion,” one video posted in May starts. “Listen to this,” it continues, “a minion didn’t die for you, but somebody actually did. Jesus actually died for you.”

“If you love Jesus you’re going to love this,” begins another TikTok posted in May, before recounting the same story of the animator almost verbatim. “But listen, a minion didn’t die for you. A minion didn’t pay the price for you and me to have eternal life. But Jesus did.”

The animator they are referring to is Americo Cruz, who created the image of a limp-bodied minion hanging from a wooden cross as an absurdist parody and posted it to his personal Facebook page back in 2021. Minion Jesus went moderately viral at the time and was shared thousands of times across Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram, before Christian influencers resurrected it on TikTok earlier this year.

The reappearance of “Minion Jesus” has puzzled many—that is, until Vox reporter Laura Bullard uncovered the strange story this week.

It turns out neo-Pentecostal evangelist and self-proclaimed millionaire Taylan Michael Seaman is behind the memes’ resurgence. As well as posting dramatically edited clips of his sermons to his almost 50,000 followers on Instagram, Seaman runs a coaching program. 

According to his website, the program helps Christians “start and grow their YouTube channels” using what Seaman calls his viral video framework. He claims the framework gained him more than 200 million views and 2.9 million subscribers in just nine months.

A number of students enrolled in the coaching program spoke to Vox under the condition of anonymity. Apparently students are alerted when a particular piece of content — like Minion Jesus — is gaining views online, encouraging them to also jump on the trend. This explains why the videos are often so uncannily similar. 

Mystery solved. 

Want to improve your gut health, reduce wrinkles, and even cure acne? Eat dirt. At least, according to the latest health trend making the rounds on TikTok. 

“[One] teaspoon of organic biodynamic soil has more microorganisms than humans on earth,” Stephanie Adler, a fertility and hormone coach, told her TikTok followers in the closed-captions of a post. In the background, a baby chows down on dry mud. “I love eating dirt,” admitted another TikTok creator. “I don’t care what nobody says. Can’t nobody make me stop eating it.” 

For those horrified by the idea of eating dirt from their own backyard, a number of retailers have set up shop on digital marketplaces including Etsy and Amazon to offer edible dirt and other geological snacks fit for human consumption, priced at upwards of $10. 

Flavor notes of one listing (currently at 35% off), include: “Rich red earth tones, topsoil earthiness, cement.” In case you were curious, it tastes “not too gritty, very earthy,” according to one reviewer. Another added: “Delicious. Mouth watering. Amazing earthy taste.”

The practice of eating dirt actually has a name—geophagia: an intentional practice, or urge, to eat soil, earth, or clay—and dates back to Hippocrates more than 2,500 years ago. While some may inadvertently have consumed a sprinkle of soil in our unwashed vegetables, eating dirt has also been linked to pregnancy, some psychological conditions, and nutrient deficiencies, according to WebMD. ‌

Pica, a type of eating disorder, describes the strong urge to eat items that aren’t food, with sufferers sometimes craving dirt, clay, chalk, and/or starch. Many pregnant women also may crave dirt, possibly because of the potential protection dirt can provide against some toxins and parasites, research suggests. Certain cultures also believe eating dirt can be good for you. However, as it stands, there’s very little concrete research supporting the benefits of eating dirt for regular ol’ humans.

According to Heathline, the risks of eating dirt may be more significant than any potential benefit, particularly if you’re pregnant. Soil can contain a whole host of harmful substances including heavy metals, parasites, even human waste. Geophagy can also interfere with your ability to digest necessary nutrients, with the clay in your stomach binding to iron, zinc, and other nutrients, increasing the risk for anemia. For a healthy snack, stick to a banana. 

Melanie’s participation in the Aboriginal Employment Strategy program, which is funded through a PepsiCo Foundation partnership with Jawun, gave her the training, skills, and the mentorship she needed to land a full-time managerial role to support her family—and in turn, Aboriginal artists.

Araceli participated in the BAMX Puebla Employability Program, which helped her start her own business, support local farmers, and provide financial stability for her family in ways that never seemed possible.

Türkiye farmer Didem, a participant in the PepsiCo Foundation-funded Anadolu Melarari regenerative agriculture training program, learned new skills and techniques to rebuild her business. She took this knowledge and began to mentor other farmers to help restore livelihoods in her community following the earthquake which devastated the local farming industry.

Premium LinkedIn users might have sensed recently that their feeds have become a little less cluttered.

They’re not imagining things.

LinkedIn has quietly removed the AI-powered prompt questions that had been appearing under almost every post for the last several months. The prompts were part of a suite of AI-powered enhancements that LinkedIn announced in November of last year, promising to use the magic of generative artificial intelligence to “meticulously analyze the content within your feed and across job postings, bringing to light pivotal opportunities.”

The prompts would frequently appear throughout a person’s feed alongside the gold sparkle icon that has become a ubiquitous symbol for AI. But the questions tended to be generic, sometimes comically so, with queries that were only vaguely related to the accompanying post, such as a prompt that asked “What can I gain from pumpkin spice?” in response to a post about the kickoff of pumpkin spice season.

Some users complained that there was no apparent way to disable the prompts, meaning premium members were essentially paying for an add-on that did little more than take up valuable real estate in their feeds. Although LinkedIn had promised that the feature would “take on the hard work of parsing through long articles, videos and posts,” clicking the prompts often produced simple AI-generated summaries of the original content.

Reached for comment by Fast Company, LinkedIn confirmed that the prompts were removed but said the move was not in response to any specific criticism.

“We’re testing various ways to use generative AI to help our members grow in their careers, gathering feedback to improve and invest where it matters most,” LinkedIn spokesperson Suzi Owens said in an email. “We’ve removed the insights on feed posts, as we continue to test and learn, but members can still use our AI-powered tools on the jobs home page to get personalized insights, like how to build a network, position yourself for a job, or learn about a company.”

Just because you can . . .

LinkedIn, like almost every major social network or online platform, has been eager to roll out generative AI features since the groundbreaking public debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT almost two years ago. Excitement around artificial intelligence has likewise dominated product releases, earnings calls, and stock market optimism since then.

But platforms risk alienating users if they push too aggressively, especially when the AI features they insert detract from—rather than enhance—the core experience. Meta, for example, was criticized earlier this year for flooding its search features with AI chatbots, while Google has been increasingly placing its own AI summaries at the top of search results, a significant pivot that recently caught the attention of Capitol Hill lawmakers who are concerned about its impact on content creators.

Perhaps LinkedIn feels the pressure to be AI-forward more than most. Its parent company, Microsoft, which owns a significant stake in OpenAI, has been seen as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom. LinkedIn recently updated its user agreement, opting-in users to allow the site train its AI on their data.

For now, prompt questions continue to feature prominently in LinkedIn job searches, and the platform says users can expect to see AI features incorporated into future experiences too.

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday it had finalized a $123 million grant for Polar Semiconductor to expand its plant in Minnesota, which would allow the company to nearly double its U.S. production capacity of power and sensor chips.

The award, part of the Biden administration’s $52.7 billion semiconductor manufacturing and research subsidy program, is the first in the program to be finalized by the department. Commerce will distribute funds based on Polar’s completion of project milestones.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the award would help “create a new U.S.-owned foundry for sensor and power semiconductors” and boost Polar production from roughly 20,000 wafers per month to 40,000 serving aerospace, automotive, and defense needs.

The state of Minnesota is contributing $75 million to the $525 million expansion at Polar.

In April, Polar — 70% owned by Sanken Electric and 30% held by Allegro MicroSystems — said Niobrara Capital and Prysm Capital planned to invest $175 million for around 59% of Polar.

Commerce has allocated more than $35 billion for 26 projects including $6.4 billion in grants to South Korea’s Samsung to expand chip production in Texas, $8.5 billion for Intel, $6.6 billion for Taiwan’s TSMC to build out its American production and $6.1 billion for Micron Technology to fund U.S. factories.

The department must complete due diligence before it can finalize awards.

“We expect this to be the first of many awards to be finalized soon,” said top White House economic adviser Lael Brainard on Monday.

Added Raimondo: “You’re going to start to see more awards like this, dollars to companies in the coming weeks and months.”

The 2022 chips law championed by President Joe Biden aims to boost efforts to make the U.S. more competitive with China and dramatically expand U.S. chips production. The chips law also includes a 25% investment tax credit for building chip plants, estimated to be worth $24 billion.

Separately, Congress gave final approval on Monday to legislation that will streamline federal permitting processes for semiconductor manufacturing projects.

—David Shepardson, Reuters

Struggling Jeep and Ram maker Stellantis is looking for a CEO to succeed Carlos Tavares, but the company says it’s just part of a normal leadership succession plan.

Tavares has been under fire from U.S. dealers and the United Auto Workers union after a dismal first-half financial performance when the company was caught off guard with too much high-priced inventory on dealer lots.

As head of PSA Peugeot, Tavares took control of the Netherlands-based company in January of 2021 when it merged with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Its North American operations had been the company’s main source of profits, but have struggled this year amid larger market changes.

In a statement Monday, Stellantis said Tavares’ five-year contract is a little over a year from its expiration date in 2026.

“It is normal for a board to look into the subject with the necessary anticipation given the importance of the position, without this having an impact on future discussions,” the statement said.

The company added that it’s possible Tavares will stay on longer.

But Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business and law professor, said the company’s confirmation of the search likely means that the board has reached a deal for Tavares to leave.

“I think they recognize that it’s best for the company to have a new CEO,” said Gordon, who has advised corporations on leadership succession plans. “Stellantis is taking a lot of hits within the U.S.”

Companies, he said, try to change leaders in a peaceful and organized way. “They don’t want it to look like chaos, they don’t want it to look like panic. They want it to look like this is the normal, responsible way we do things.”

Tavares has been trying to cut costs, delaying some factory openings, laying off union workers and offering buyouts to salaried employees.

The company reported that first-half net profits were down 48% compared with the same period last year. First-half sales in the U.S. were down nearly 16%, even though overall new vehicle sales rose 2.4%.

Growing dealer inventory and high prices brought a rebuke from the head of the U.S. dealers council, who called on the company to boost discounts to move vehicles off of their lots.

When the company told the auto workers union that it would delay plans to reopen a factory and build a new electric vehicle battery plant in Belvidere, Illinois, UAW President Shawn Fain called for Tavares to be fired. The company agreed to the plans in a new contract with the UAW that was signed after a six-week strike last fall.

The union has filed grievances and threatened to strike over the delays, which the company says are necessary due to market conditions in the U.S. Fain blamed the problem on poor leadership from Tavares and said General Motors and Ford are still performing well.

The company says it intends to meet its commitment to reopen Belvidere and build the battery plant, but it needs the delays due to slowing sales.

Stellantis said it already is working with dealers to reduce inventory, and their efforts boosted sales in August.

Chief Financial Officer Natalie Knight told a Bank of America conference on Monday that the company is pleased with progress on reducing inventory on dealer lots.

In the U.S., for example, Stellantis had just over 430,000 vehicles in its inventory at the end of June. That number was reduced by 40,000 in July and August, and the company has set a target of cutting it by a total of 100,000 by the start of next year. “We’re going to continue to see reductions in September and throughout the year,” she said.

Tavares told reporters during the summer that the global auto industry is caught between consumers looking for more affordable vehicles and demands for more capital spending to develop new electric and gas-powered vehicles.

In North America, Tavares conceded that Stellantis let inventory get too high, and plans to fix that in the first half didn’t work. Sticker prices, he said, are too lofty and often send customers fleeing from showrooms early in the shopping process even though discounts are available.

Several U.S. executives, including the heads of the Jeep, Dodge and Ram brands, have left the company in recent months.

In March, the company said it would lay off 400 white-collar workers in the U.S. as it deals with the transition from combustion engines to electric vehicles.

In November of 2023 the company made buyout and early retirement offers to 6,400 nonunion salaried workers. It has not said how many took the offers.

The CEO search was first reported Monday by Bloomberg News.

—Tom Krisher, AP Auto Writer