By Robert Ilich, CNN

(CNN) — DirecTV filed a complaint Saturday with the Federal Communications Commission alleging Disney did not negotiate in good faith as the two sides remain at an impasse on a distribution deal.

“Disney has violated the FCC’s good faith mandates by predicating any licensing agreement on DIRECTV’s waiving any legal claims on Disney’s past, current, or future anticompetitive actions, including its ongoing packaging and minimum penetration demands,” a DirecTV spokesperson told CNN on Sunday.

In the 10-page complaint, DirecTV claimed the negotiations stalled because, “Disney insists on bundling and penetration requirements that a federal district court judge in New York recently found in the context of the ‘Venu’ joint venture to be unlawful, anticompetitive, and ‘bad for consumers.’”

On August 16, a federal judge temporarily blocked the launch of Venu Sports, a joint sports streaming venture from Disney, Fox Corporation and Warner Brothers Discovery after Fubo, a sports streaming service, filed a lawsuit against the media giants. Warner Brothers Discovery is the parent company of CNN.

More than 11 million subscribers have been affected by Disney pulling its ABC stations, ESPN and other cable networks from DirecTV’s lineup last week. The blackout came ahead of the upcoming presidential debate on ABC between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the final rounds of US Open tennis and the start of the NFL season. ESPN owns the broadcast rights to “Monday Night Football,” which will be blacked out for DirecTV subscribers unless a deal is reached.

“We continue to negotiate with DirecTV to restore access to our content as quickly as possible,” a Disney spokesperson told CNN on Sunday. “We urge DirecTV to stop creating diversions and instead prioritize their customers by finalizing a deal that would allow their subscribers to watch our strong upcoming lineup of sports, news and entertainment programming, starting with the return of Monday Night Football.”

DirecTV subscribers have been blacked out of Disney’s owned-and-operated ABC local stations in six major media markets — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston and San Francisco — as well as the smaller markets of Fresno, California, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

The opening game for “Monday Night Football” features the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers. In 2023, the first “Monday Night Football” game — a matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the Jets — drew 22.64 million viewers, its biggest audience of the ESPN era, which dates back to 2006.

The blackout also includes ESPN’s suite of channels and the Disney Channel, Disney Jr., FX and National Geographic.

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By Chris Isidore, CNN

New York (CNN) — Buying this week’s groceries or paying for a full tank of gas with a credit card might contribute more to the profits of the airline industry than buying a one-way ticket.

That’s because frequent flyer programs have become a crucial part of the airline industry’s profitability. And that’s due to the billions of dollars banks and credit card issuers pay to buy bulk miles from airlines to reward and entice cardholders to make purchases with their cards.

The typical airline passenger probably never thinks about the economics of frequent flyer programs, but the programs have become crucial for airlines to generate the profits needed to stay afloat. And loyalty programs have also caught the attention of federal regulators because of the central role they play in air travel today.

Last year, Delta Air Lines received $6.8 billion in revenue from American Express on its co-branded Delta Amex card. American Airlines reported revenue of $5.2 billion from co-branded cards and other partnerships. United reported a mere $3.2 billion on its other operating line that came primarily on payments to its frequent flyer program. And when considering the adjusted incomes of 2023 for Delta ($4 billion) American ($1.9 billion) and United ($3.3 billion), it’s easy to understand why the major carriers rely so heavily on frequent flyer programs.

“The airlines’ frequent flyer programs are their lifeblood; they’re the reason the airlines are in business,” said Zach Griff, senior aviation reporter for The Points Guy, a travel site that closely follows the programs.

Of course, the windfall from selling miles to credit card companies isn’t pure profit for the airlines. The airlines do end up providing flights for those miles. But the profit margin on that part of the business is about 50%, according to Tom Fitzgerald, airline analyst for TD Cowen.

“In an industry where overall profit margins in the high single digits in a good year is a considered a home run, it’s massive,” he said.

DOT, Congress eye programs

Frequent flyer programs are also an important way for airlines to encourage travel and build customer loyalty in what has long been a highly competitive marketplace.

But it’s also coming under new scrutiny. On Thursday, the Department of Transportation announced it would launch an investigation into the programs to ensure consumers are treated fairly.

“Frequent flyer miles and credit card rewards have become such a meaningful part of our economy that many Americans view their rewards points balances as part of their savings,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement announcing the probe. “These programs bring real value to consumers, with families often counting on airline rewards to fund a vacation or to pay for a trip to visit loved ones. But unlike a traditional savings account, these rewards are controlled by a company that can unilaterally change their value. Our goal is to ensure consumers are getting the value that was promised to them, which means validating that these programs are transparent and fair.”

In addition, Congress has considered legislation that could cap the fees credit card companies demand of merchants who accept their cards. Such restrictions could reduce what credit card issuers are able to pay for miles in order to offer the rewards. United CEO Scott Kirby predicted in a call with investors last October that such legislation “would kill rewards programs. They would not exist anymore.”

The major airlines have largely been mum about the programs and their profitability, only referencing them in their filings and public statements. But on Thursday, industry trade group Airlines for America defended the programs.

“Millions of people enjoy being a part of various loyalty programs,” the group said in a statement. “Policymakers should ensure that consumers can continue to be offered these important benefits.”

Are they good for passengers?

The programs are generally good deals for consumers, even if they are better deals for the airlines themselves, said Griff of The Points Guy. But that’s as long as consumers pay off their credit cards and don’t end up paying high interest rates on the purchases that allowed them to accumulate those miles.

Consumers should also be cautious they’re not being overcharged in their number of miles when they choose between buying a ticket with cash or with miles. For the most part, the value of the mile is only 1.2 cents or 1.3 cents, Griff said. So a $400 plane ticket should cost about 33,000 miles. If the airline is charging significantly more miles for a ticket, it might be best to save the miles for a different flight. The Points Guy has a calculator to compare the two ways to purchase a ticket.

Back during the height of the pandemic, when air travel grounded nearly to a halt and airlines were desperate for cash, the revenue airlines were getting from credit cards became a true lifeline. Most US airlines sold bonds to raise cash, bonds that were backed with the promise to be paid back with banks and credit cards’ payments for miles. The bonds put an estimated value of the frequent flyer programs far above the value of the airlines themselves, suggesting investors had estimated the airlines’ actual operations — planes, crews, gates and flights — were worth less than $0.

But it’s probably inaccurate to say frequent flyer programs are more valuable than the airlines themselves since actual flights give the programs their intrinsic value, said Andrew Didora, airline analyst with Bank of America.

“It’s very difficult to separate out the value of the programs and the value of the rest of the airline,” he said. “They can’t exist without each other. They go hand in hand.”

But Didora said it is clear frequent flyer programs are vital to the economics of running an airline — not just for the direct profits they bring in, but also for how they attract and keep customers.

“They’re called ‘loyalty programs’ for a reason,” Didora said.

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By Chris Isidore, CNN

New York (CNN) — Boeing and the Machinists union, which represents 33,000 of its employees on the West Coast, have reached a tentative deal that could avoid a strike that had been set to start this Friday.

Before it will take effect, the deal would need the approval of the rank-and-file union members who build commercial jets. But leadership of the union praised the tentative deal and said it achieved the union’s goals.

“You sent us here to stand strong for your priorities, and we are proud to have done so,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said Sunday in a statement on its official website.

Boeing said the agreement provides raises totaling 25% over the four-year life of the contract, improved contributions to 401(k) plans, reduced employee contributions for health insurance and increased time off.

The deal represents Boeing’s biggest pay raise for union members.

“We’ve heard what’s important to you for the new contract. And we have reached a tentative agreement with the union on a historic offer that takes care of you and your family,” Stephanie Pope, CEO of Boeing’s commercial airplane unit, said in a statement.

The deal also includes increased job security for union members with a promise to build the next new airplane at one of the union-represented plants in the Puget Sound region. Boeing has one nonunion plant in South Carolina, where it builds the 787 Dreamliner. In the last two contract agreements with Boeing, the union had to accept concessions such as an end to a traditional pension plan and increased employee contributions to health care, in turn for the company dropping a threat to build the then-planned 737 Max and the 777X jets at new nonunion plants.

The contract covers production workers who build Boeing’s commercial jets at three factories in the Seattle area, as well as about 1,200 workers at a Boeing’s parts plant in Portland, Oregon. The rank-and-file members will have the chance to vote Thursday on the tentative agreement and a no vote could possibly lead to a strike. That has happened in some recent labor agreements at other companies, but the union leadership is recommending that members vote in favor of the agreement.

Years of problems at Boeing

Boeing has had a series of setbacks over the last five years, starting with a 20-month grounding of its best-selling plane, the 737 Max, in 2019 and 2020, following two fatal crashes tied to a design flaw in the plane.

In addition, Boeing’s revenue plunged during the pandemic as a sharp drop in air travel caused massive losses for its airline customers. And in January, a door plug blew off a 737 Max flown by Alaska Airlines 10 minutes into a flight. While no one was killed in the incident, it brought new attention to quality and safety problems at Boeing, especially after it was determined that the plane in question had left a factory without the four bolts needed to keep the door plug in place.

The many problems at Boeing had resulted in the company reporting core operating losses totaling $33.3 billion since the grounding of the Max in 2019. Forecasts are that losses will continue through the rest of this year. Boeing is in danger of having its debt downgraded to junk bond status due to the massive increase in borrowing to cover the losses during that time.

This is a stark contrast to the financial conditions of some other major companies that reached lucrative union deals last year, such as UPS, General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. Those companies had reported record earnings ahead of those talks.

Union had upper hand in talks

But Boeing’s problems meant it was in no position to deal with striking workers for the first time in 16 years.

“Financially, the company finds itself in a tough position due to many self-inflicted missteps,” Jon Holden and Brandon Bryant, the presidents of the two union locals at Boeing, said in a message to members Sunday. “Finally, in a position of great leverage, we used every ounce of power we could to go after everything you said was important. We did not get everything we wanted, but you all can be proud of your strength, solidarity, and unity because you have achieved the best contract we have ever had.”

Company executives had conceded the union’s leverage in talks heading into the final round of negotiations. Former CEO Dave Calhoun had told investors in July that Boeing’s intention was to avoid a strike and seemed to signal the company was willing to go to great lengths to avoid a work stoppage.

“We know wage asks will be big,” Calhoun said. “We’re not afraid to treat our employees well in this process. So, we’re just going to work as hard as we can not to have a strike.”

His successor, Kelly Ortberg, who started the job on August 8, issued a statement in his first week that he wanted to “reset” relations with the union after meeting with their leadership.

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This story has been updated with additional information

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By Bryan Mena and Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN

(CNN) — It couldn’t be clearer at this point that the US labor market is cooling.

Even though the unemployment rate edged lower last month to 4.2%, joblessness is still hovering near highs not seen since the fall of 2021. On top of that, employers have hired significantly fewer workers in recent months compared to prior years and the number of job openings fell in July to the lowest level since January 2021, according to Labor Department data.

But America’s job market may have some pent-up momentum just waiting to be unleashed. That’s because employers might be putting some of their hiring plans on hold — and for good reason.

Businesses consider many factors when deciding to hire, but across a wide spectrum of industries, the economic outlook carries always great deal of weight. And it makes sense: Why take on more workers if, for instance, there’s a strong chance a recession is around the corner that then forces layoffs?

Currently, there’s no shortage of economic uncertainty — the bulk of which stems from the US presidential election taking place in two months as well as upcoming key decisions on interest rates from the Federal Reserve. Both those factors are prompting employers to think twice about hiring more workers now, according to economists and recent comments from businesses around the country.

Still, while both are “contributing to businesses’ cautious hiring sentiment at the moment,” many hiring decisions are likely being shaped even more by “slower demand for their goods and services both domestically and abroad,” Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, told CNN.

“Consumer spending has been the dominant engine of economic growth. As it slows, so does overall activity and this will all pinch corporate top and bottom lines,” she said.

The big election question mark

Even the Fed’s Beige Book, a collection of survey responses from businesses complied by the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, said that “with uncertainty pertaining to the presidential election ahead, many firms have put hiring plans on hold.”

That shouldn’t be all too shocking given the stark differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Trump, for instance, has cast himself as an America first candidate. He’s calling for a 60% tariff on imports from China and at least a 10% across-the-board tariff on imports from other nations. However, companies that make products domestically would pay a 15% corporate tax rate versus the current 21%, Trump unveiled in a speech he gave at the Economic Club of New York last week.

Harris, meanwhile, has been silent on what she would do with regard to tariffs. But she’s proposing raising the corporate tax rate to 28%. At the same time, she announced a plan that aims to make it easier for new small businesses to form with hefty tax deductions.

If elected, Trump may be able to get tariffs passed without congressional approval, as he’s previously done, but the tax code changes he and Harris are proposing would require Congress to sign off. And which party controls the House and the Senate will also be decided on in this election. Depending on the results, it could limit Trump or Harris’ ability to make good on vastly different campaign promises.

Holding off on hiring more workers until after the election is “a rational decision,” said Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Forecasting at the University of Central Florida.

“When there’s more clarity about the future,” he said, “businesses are more confident in making these kinds of decisions.”

Waiting on lower interest rates

It’s widely expected that the Fed will finally begin to slash interest rates later this month and will cut perhaps a few more times by year’s end, so it may just be a matter of waiting on that to happen before firms start hiring at faster clip, Julia Pollak, ZipRecruiter’s chief economist, told CNN.

That’s because businesses of all sizes, but especially smaller ones, rely heavily on credit. From getting a business off the ground to expanding operations, borrowing is key in the business world. So when interest rates are as elevated as they are right now, monthly debt payments could be too costly for many firms. And if rates are expected to come down over the next year, why take out a loan right now?

“Many companies are saying they have lots of growth opportunities, they want to open a new location, get a new warehouse, get a new truck, but they can’t do any of that stuff right now because interest rates are too high, so it doesn’t pencil out. The investment would be too costly,” Pollak said. “It’s just a temporary holding pattern.”

Although Fed officials have opened the door for rate cuts, it’s not clear how aggressive the Fed will be. The first rate cut this month is expected to be just a quarter point, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. That expectation has already helped send the 10-year US Treasury yield lower. Many loans track that benchmark, as well.

But businesses may wait for more relief, which will depend on inflation and unemployment. Whenever rates do come down enough, and if American shoppers continue to spend at a healthy pace, hiring could accelerate, Pollak said.

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Extreme heat is making schools hotter — and learning harder

Different colored water bottles sit on yellow desks in a classroom.

Angela Girol has been teaching fourth grade in Pittsburgh for over two decades. Over the years she’s noticed a change at her school: It’s getting hotter. 

Some days temperatures reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit in her classroom which, like many on the East Coast, isn’t air-conditioned. When it’s hot, she said, kids don’t eat, or drink enough water. “They end up in the nurse’s office because they’re dizzy, they have a headache, their stomach hurts — all because of heat and dehydration,” she said. 

To cope with the heat, her students are now allowed to keep water on their desks, but that presents its own challenges. “They’re constantly filling up water bottles, so I have to give them breaks during the day for that. And then everyone has to go to the bathroom all the time,” she said. “I’m losing instruction time.” 

The effect extreme heat is having on schools and child care is starting to get the attention of policymakers and researchers, reports The 19th. The Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, published a report on the issue in July. In April, so did the Federation of American Scientists, a nonprofit policy organization.

“The average school building in the U.S. was built nearly 50 years ago,” said policy analyst Allie Schneider, co-author of the Center for American Progress report. “Schools and child care centers were built in areas that maybe 30 or 15 years ago didn’t require access to air-conditioning, or at least for a good portion of the year. Now we’re seeing that becoming a more pressing concern.” Students are also on campus during the hottest parts of the day. “It’s something that is really important not just to their physical health, but their learning outcomes,” she said.  

Last April, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its own report detailing some of the effects heat has on kids. It notes that children have a harder time thermoregulating and take longer to produce sweat, making them more vulnerable than adults to heat exhaustion and heat illness. 

Kids don’t necessarily listen to their body’s cues about heat, and might need an adult to remind them to drink water or not play outside. Kevin Toolan, a sixth-grade teacher in Long Island, New York, said having to constantly monitor heat safety distracts him from being able to teach. “The mindset is shifting to safety rather than instruction,” he said. “Those children don’t know how to handle it.”

To keep the classroom cool, he’ll turn the lights off, but kids fall asleep. “They are lethargic,” he said. 

To protect kids, schools have canceled classes because temperatures have gotten too high. Warmer temperatures also lead to more kids being absent from school, especially low-income students. And heat makes it harder to learn. One study from 2020 tracked the scores of students from schools without air-conditioning who took the PSAT exam at least twice. It found that increases in the average outdoor temperature corresponded with students making smaller gains on their retakes.

Both Toolan and Girol said that cooling options like keeping doors and windows open to promote cross ventilation are gone, thanks to the clampdowns in school security after 9/11 — and worsened by the threat of school shootings. Students and teachers are trapped in their overheating classrooms. “Teachers report leaving with migraines or signs of heat exhaustion,” said Toolan. “At 100 degrees, it is very uncomfortable. Your clothes are stuck to you.” 

The Center for American Progress report joins a call by other advocacy groups to create federal guidance that schools and child care centers could adopt “to ensure that children are not forced to learn, play and exercise in dangerously hot conditions,” Schneider said. Some states already have standards in place, but they vary. In California, child care facilities are required to keep temperatures between 68 F and 85 F. In Maryland, the recommendation is between 74 F and 82 F. A few states, like Florida, require schools to reduce outdoor activity on high-heat days. Schneider says federal guidance would help all school districts use the latest scientific evidence to set protective standards. 

In June, 23 health and education advocacy organizations signed a letter making a similar request of the Department of Education, asking for better guidance and coordination to protect kids. Some of their recommendations included publishing a plan that schools could adopt for dealing with high temperatures; encouraging states to direct more resources to providing air-conditioning in schools; and providing school districts with information on heat hazards.

“We know that school infrastructure is being overwhelmed by extreme heat, and that without a better system to advise schools on the types of practices they should be implementing, it’s going to be a little bit of the Wild West of actions being taken,” said Grace Wickerson, health equity policy manager at the Federation of American Scientists. 

A longer-term solution is upgrading school infrastructure but the need for air conditioning is overwhelming. According to the Center for American Progress report, 36,000 schools nationwide don’t have adequate HVAC systems. By 2025, it estimates that installing or upgrading HVAC or other cooling systems will cost around $4.4 billion. 

Some state or local governments are trying to address the heat issue. In June, the New York State Legislature passed a bill now awaiting the governor’s signature that would require school staff to take measures like closing blinds or turning off lights when temperatures reach 82 F inside a classroom. At 88 F, classes would be canceled. A bill introduced last year and currently before California’s state assembly would require schools to create extreme heat action plans that could include mandating hydration and rest breaks or moving recess to cooler parts of the day. 

Some teachers have been galvanized to take action, too. As president of the Patchogue-Medford Congress of Teachers, Toolan was part of an effort to secure $80 million for infrastructure upgrades through a bond vote. Over half will go to HVAC systems for some 500 classrooms in his district.

And Girol is running for a state representative seat in Pennsylvania, where a main plank in her platform is to fully fund public schools in order to pay for things like air-conditioning. She was recently endorsed by the Climate Cabinet, a federal political action committee. “Part of the reason climate is so important to me is because of this issue,” she said. “I see how it’s negatively affecting my students.”

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By Hadas Gold, CNN

(CNN) — They’re not on any of the major television networks, but they have millions of viewers. Now, the Justice Department is alleging that some of the biggest stars in right-wing social media were, unwittingly, part of a sinister Russian operation to influence the 2024 US election.

The personalities weren’t directly named or accused of wrongdoing by the Justice Department, but court documents unsealed Wednesday revealed Russian state media producers funneled nearly $10 million to an unnamed Tennessee-based online media company. The company, identified by CNN as Tenet Media, boasts a slate of high-profile right-wing commentators as “talent,” including Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Lauren Southern, Tayler Hansen, Matt Christiansen and Dave Rubin, collectively boasting millions of followers across social media platforms.

Two Russian state media employees were charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and money laundering.

The secret payments pull back the curtain on some of the most popular right-wing personalities, who were paid millions of dollars by the Kremlin, without their knowledge according to the Justice Department to promote conservative narratives that furthered Russian interests. And while the influencer, podcaster, and online content creator space is booming, the indictment shows how open the new media ecosystem is to infiltration, where independent creators operate with few guardrails and little transparency.

What is Tenet Media?

Tenet Media launched last year, describing itself as “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues” with six commentators, all of whom had established online presences in the conservative media ecosystem.

Some of Tenet’s commentators had careers at more mainstream media outlets prior to striking out on their own: Tim Pool was a reporter at Vice Media and Benny Johnson was a writer at BuzzFeed and the Independent Journal Review (Johnson was let go from both outlets) before becoming MAGA influencers.

Rubin, once known as a libertarian who worked at the progressive network The Young Turks before making a right turn into conservative media, hosts his show “The Rubin Report” on Glenn Beck’s The Blaze and YouTube. Others, like Lauren Southern, have made their name in the online alt-right, White nationalism spaces (Southern has previously denied being a White nationalist).

The commentators assembled by Tenet boasted more than 6 million YouTube subscribers, but their influence has extended well beyond the Google-owned video platform. Pool, known for donning a black beanie on his broadcasts, has used his show to host far-right extremists, including Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Jack Posobiec. Earlier this year, Pool interviewed former President Donald Trump on his podcast.

Johnson, who boasts nearly 2.4 million subscribers on YouTube and is a former chief creative officer of the right-wing activist group Turning Point USA, interviewed Donald Trump Jr. on the Tenet platform in February.

The influencers’ deals with Tenet varied, with the outlet exclusively hosting some of their shows while also cross posting the creators’ other content. According to the indictment, one of the unnamed social media stars  was paid $400,000 per month to create videos for the platform, with  another unnamed influencer also receiving a $100,000 signing bonus.

Christiansen said during a live stream Wednesday that he was approached last June by Tenet Media co-founders Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan to join the network, claiming that they could help him get more “eyes” on his content. Neither Chen or Donovan are named in the indictment.

Chen, a right-wing media personality who hosted a show for Glenn Beck’s “The Blaze” and contributed to Turning Point USA, had amassed more than 572,000 subscribers on her YouTube account before it was taken down Thursday. Blaze Media fired Chen the day after the indictment was unsealed by the Justice Department.

Representatives for Tenet did not return a request for comment.

Russian narratives on display

According to the indictment, employees from Russian state media outlet RT allegedly funded and directed the company, hoping to plug in to the commentators’ vast network of fans to exploit divisive narratives that achieved the Kremlin’s goals. Much of the partnership appeared to simply amplify what were already simpatico views between the Kremlin and the company’s influencers. According to intelligence agencies the Kremlin has sought to boost Donald Trump’s candidacy, questioning the West’s support for Ukraine and criticizing elements of the LGBTQ movement.

The Justice Department said the views in the influencer videos promoted Kremlin interests and narratives, including increasing domestic division and aimed “to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine.”

While Russia and the Republican Party under Trump have become increasingly aligned in their views, Russia’s military action in Ukraine became fodder for Tenet’s influencers.

“Ukraine is the enemy of this country!,” Pool yelled on a live stream last month. “Ukraine is our enemy, being funded by the Democrats. I will stress again, one of the greatest enemies of our nation right now is Ukraine.”

In another instance the Russian funders directly asked a Tenet co-founder on or about March 23 to “blame Ukraine and the United States” for a terrorist attack on a concert hall outside of Moscow that killed more than 130 people. While ISIS took responsibility for the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin insinuated Ukraine had a role in the massacre. Kyiv denied any role in the massacre.

“Founder-I responded that Founder-I would ask Commentator-3, and, the next day, confirmed that Commentator-3 said, “he’s happy to cover it,” the indictment stated. The identity of “Commentator-3” is not yet clear.

The day before on March 22, Johnson suggested in a video on his personal channel that Ukraine may be connected to the attack, saying he found it “a little too on the nose for me” for the US to have issued a warning about possible terrorist attacks in the days before the attack took place. It is not clear whether Johnson is “commentator-3” or whether he happened to have already posted a video that fit in with the request. Johnson has denied any knowledge of the Russian funding and has asserted his editorial independence.

In a post on X on Saturday evening, Johnson denied any connection between the request outlined in the indictment and his show. “I never received any request for coverage, never covered this on Tenet and never covered the topic again on any platform,” he said.

Other narratives pushed by the Russian-paid influencers fit in with the Kremlin’s goals, such as fear mongering about migrant gangs and boosting the candidacy of Trump, who US intelligence agencies said Russia supported in the 2020 election.

In 2022, Pool said that while a mass shooting attack on a Colorado LGBTQ nightclub where a man killed five people and injured 19 was “wrong,” he suggested that the club, which had held an “all ages drag brunch” meant it supported “grooming children.”

“We shouldn’t tolerate pedophiles grooming kids,” Pool posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Club Q had a grooming event. How do prevent the violence and stop the grooming?”

The notion that LGBTQpeople are pedophiles or groomers is an extreme homophobic conspiracy theory that is often floated in far-right circles as a justification for anti-LGBTQ policies.

Last November, Rubin attacked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has called Putin a “monster,” after Trudeau urged Israel to show restraint in its military campaign against Hamas following the October 7 attack.

Trudeau is “an evil communist piece of sh–,” Rubin wrote in an X post, who should “just come out of the closet already,” neither statements are true.

The Justice Department said the commentators were not aware that the source of the funding originated with Russia, and at least one of the commentators was told a fake European investor named Eduard Grigoriann was behind the payments.

“In truth and fact,” the indictment reads, “Grigoriann was a fictional persona.”

The Tenet influencers who have spoken out since the indictment was unsealed have all said they were unaware of the Russian funding and that they were victims of the scheme.

“Never at any point did anyone other than I have full editorial control of the show and the contents of the show are often apolitical,” Pool said.

At least three of the commentators have publicly stated they were later contacted by the FBI for voluntary interviews as possible victims of a crime.

“Overt shilling”

The Russians also pushed Tenet to promote videos that were going viral on social media, according to the indictment. In one case, Tenet staffers were asked to repost a video of “a well-known U.S. political commentator,” thought to be former Fox News host Tucker Carlson visiting a grocery store in Russia in February, where Carlson fawned over the quality, selection and price of groceries.

“It just feels like overt shilling,” one employee identified as “Producer-1” wrote in an internal chat to one of the company’s founders, according to the indictment.

But the producer eventually acquiesced to pressure from one of Tenet’s founders, responding, “alright I’ll put it out tomorrow,” the indictment said.

“This is why information laundering is so pernicious,” said disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz, a co-founder of the American Sunlight Project. “These folks are after their bottom line, so they post rage bait that will perform well, rake in views and likes, and make their ‘producers’ happy.”

“These folks aren’t doing due diligence about who is paying them, and millions of Americans are going to them for ‘unvarnished’ takes on the news of the day,” she added.

Tenet Media has not responded to requests for comment and stopped posting content on Wednesday.  One of the company’s listed talent, Tayler Hansen, posted Thursday “TENET Media has ended after the DOJ indictment.”

Russia’s long running influence campaigns

The Russian government has a long history of tapping Americans as part of disinformation and influence operations aimed at stoking divisions in the US and promoting Russia’s interests.

In recent years, Russia has successfully leveraged social media and the anonymity provided by the internet to infiltrate American social movements on the right and on the left. Sometimes this was in the form of trolls and bots, but other cases involved real Americans unwittingly doing the bidding of Russian agents.

After the 2016 US presidential election, congressional and federal investigations showed Moscow had successfully co-opted unwitting Americans to stage protests, run social media accounts and host events at its behest. In Soviet Cold War jargon, they’re referred to as “useful idiots” — people who don’t know they are doing Russia’s bidding.

“Well-resourced state actors use broadcast & social media simultaneously, across the overt to covert spectrum,” wrote Renee DiResta, a former research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory and author of the book “Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality.”

“At this point there are a bunch of strategies Russia is working concurrently; as one is made more costly/less effective, they leverage others,” she added. “This situation is essentially a front media operation – a fairly old approach, though now the most effective useful idiots may be influencers rather than journalists of yore.”

Donie O’Sullivan contributed to this report 

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By Clare Duffy, CNN

(CNN) — Apple excited fans with its vision for its “Apple Intelligence” artificial intelligence system earlier this year. Now, it’s time for the company to prove it really works.

The company is set to introduce the first lineup of iPhones purpose-built for generative artificial intelligence (which lets users create text and images) during its annual hardware event, which kicks off Monday at 1 p.m. ET. You can watch the livestream here.

The event was teased with the cryptic motto of “it’s glow time,” and Apple is staying mum thus far on what it means.

Apple faces immense pressure ahead of the event to prove the new AI features and other iPhone 16 updates are worth shelling out for an upgrade. Apple also needs to convince investors that it hasn’t fallen behind in the AI arms race, as rivals have already released similar features with the new technology.

Since the launch of the iPhone 12 with 5G connectivity in 2020, the company has given users few exciting reasons to buy the latest generation. Phone cameras have largely advanced to the point where they’re sufficient for most people’s day-to-day needs without major hardware changes, and at some point the human eye isn’t even capable of perceiving higher screen resolutions.

As a result, iPhone sales, which make up half of the company’s revenue, have been sluggish.

The company’s shares had been relatively stagnant, too, until the Apple Intelligence unveiling, a sign that investors are counting on AI to convince people to buy new iPhones. Apple’s stock is up 14% since the June 10 event, and nearly 18% since the start of this year.

If Apple delivers, it could cash in – roughly 300 million iPhones worldwide have not been upgraded in more than four years, according to a research note from analyst Dan Ives of investment firm Wedbush last month.

So, while Apple will likely highlight changes to various products and services like AirPods or, even Apple TV+ on Monday, “everything is about the iPhone upgrade cycle. Everything else is subplot,” D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria told CNN.

Subplot or main character, here is everything we’re expecting from the Apple event.

The AI iPhone

The company has already hinted at some of the things Apple Intelligence will be able to do: it will enable more natural conversations with Siri, help draft emails, make it easier to find specific moments in your photo albums and incorporate users’ personal information into its responses. The company’s task on Monday will be to show iPhone users what that will look in real life.

“Expect to see demos about how, within your text chain, you can get summaries,” Luria said. “You’ll know why did Tiffany M have beef with Tiffany R, and you’ll be able to ask that within the chat and get a response. Those are the kinds of things that will get people excited … to show some concrete examples of how folks will be able to use Apple Intelligence to do things they weren’t previously able to do.”

And while it’s not unusual for new iPhones to get an updated processor chip, that change may be especially important this year to ensure the iPhone 16 can handle the increased data processing needs that will come with the new AI features without compromising battery life.

Luria added that he thinks there could also be a subtle change to the appearance of the iPhone, such as a wider screen or updated edges, “to drive home the point of an upgrade cycle.”

“Something distinct about the new iPhones that will communicate to consumers that, ‘I have the new iPhone and you don’t,’ which was not the case for the last four years,” he said.

The iPhone 16 is also set to feature a dedicated camera button, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The big question: price?

A major question heading into Monday’s event is how Apple will price the iPhone 16 lineup. For the last four years, the starting price at launch for the new iPhones was $799.

Apple enthusiasts have debated for years whether iPhone models should be cheaper, while investors would prefer maximum profit.

Many analysts, including CFRA Research’s Angelo Zino, say Apple could modestly raise prices “across the board” for the iPhone lineup because of the new AI features and the cost to the company of delivering them.

However, it almost certainly won’t be a major hike because “they don’t want to lose the (customer) enthusiasm because of sticker shock,” Luria said.

Other devices

Rumor has it that Apple may also announce updates to the Apple Watch and AirPods.

The Apple Watch Series 10 is expected to be thinner than its predecessors but with a larger screen, and the company is also set to roll out new low-end and mid-tier AirPod offerings, Gurman reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.

Those updates would follow new software offerings for both devices that Apple announced at its annual developers conference in June.

AirPods users will be able to answer or decline a call with just a nod or shake of their head. And new vital sign tracking on Apple Watch can notify users when they may be getting sick, based on signals like body temperature and heart rate.

–Samantha Kelly and Ramishah Maruf contributed to this report. 

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By Robert Ilich, CNN

(CNN) — Car manufacturer Stellantis is recalling more than 1.2 million Ram 1500 vehicles due to a software malfunction in the anti-lock brake system (ABS), according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The vehicles being recalled include certain 2019, 2021-2024 Ram 1500 trucks, the NHTSA said Saturday in a statement.

“A routine review of customer feedback led to a Company investigation that discovered some 2019 and 2021-2024 Ram 1500 trucks may be equipped with (ABS) module software that could inadvertently disable the Electronic Stability Control (ESC) system,” Stellantis said in the statement.

Stellantis added that should the ESC disable, it would not affect the foundation brake function. Also, the ABS, ESC, Adaptive Cruise Control and Forward Collision Warning indicator lights would illuminate when the vehicle started up to show the systems are unavailable.

Dealers will update the ABS software for free of charge.

Stellantis said it is unaware of any related injuries or accidents.

The recall comes after a similar recall in June that affected almost 158,000 Ram 2500 pick ups.

In a separate news release, the NHSTA said Stellantis is recalling certain 2020-2024 Jeep Gladiator and 2018-2024 Jeep Wrangler vehicles due to an instrument panel cluster that may experience an internal short circuit and fail.

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By Krystal Hur, CNN

New York (CNN) — Americans fed up with the shop-‘til-you-drop mentality are trying to make living with less trendy.

Influencers on social media often peddle lifestyles or products to followers, urging them to buy new clothing, high-tech cleaning gadgets or the hottest new haircare product. But some people say they have become disillusioned with what they perceive as pressure to constantly purchase new things.

Enter underconsumption core, or a lifestyle that involves using just a small rotation of things for years rather than chasing the latest trend. Underconsumption influencers show items they say they have used for years — towels inherited from parents, makeup collections featuring just a few products, second-hand furniture bought at thrift shops — and don’t plan to purchase more until those things are spent.

“It’s really pushing back against this idea that you need to constantly be buying things to have a happy and fulfilling life,” said Megan Doherty Bea, assistant professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Searches for “underconsumption core” grew by more than 4,250% over the past 12 months as of Friday, according to Google Trends data, which compares relative popularity of search terms based on when and where those queries were made. Users are posting videos on TikTok showing off their underconsumption core lifestyles, with many receiving hundreds of thousands of likes.

Experts say the underconsumption core trend isn’t just about maintaining a budget or wanting to get rid of stuff. Many consumers are tired of feeling like they have to emulate an unattainable lifestyle. At the same time, they’re looking to minimize their carbon footprint.

Bea notes that a more apt term for underconsumption would be normal consumption. But the trend is an intuitive, direct counter to what critics call overconsumption: cabinets brimming with Stanley travel cups in assorted colors, clothing hauls worth thousands of dollars and shelves full of meticulously organized snacks, cosmetics or personal hygiene products.

The underconsumption core trend is taking hold as consumers grapple with decades-high interest rates and a bout of wayward inflation that has pushed up prices for everything from groceries to dining out to rent. Savings accumulated during the height of the Covid pandemic are dwindling, businesses are laying off workers and some economists worry the United States could enter a recession.

Normalizing spending less

Diana Wiebe, 30, posts “de-influencing” videos on TikTok to her more than 200,000 followers reacting to influencers’ videos. She often refers to the products that influencers show off as garbage, a mantra her followers say they hear in their head during their own shopping trips.

Retailers from Kohl’s to Best Buy to Home Depot have been hit in recent months by a pullback on consumer spending. That’s a shift from just a few years ago, when Americans stuck at home due to Covid pandemic restrictions bought everything from bread-baking supplies to exercise equipment to electronics to keep themselves occupied. As lockdown restrictions lifted, people engaged in “revenge spending,” directing a flood of cash from goods to experiences like vacations and concerts.

“I do see (underconsumption core) as more than a trend. I see it as just normalizing normal life again, and maybe even romanticizing it a little bit too,” said Wiebe, who works in communications for a legal nonprofit organization in Ohio.

Many partaking in underconsumption core also say they’re fed up with what they perceive as inauthentic marketing from companies and influencers alike. Wiebe points out that influencers are often gifted items or paid by companies to promote their products, making their seemingly extravagant spending habits unrealistic for most Americans.

“The warning that I’ve been giving to retailers is that it’s very easy for this to turn over into something a bit negative. … ‘Corporations are forcing these things down our throat, and we need to resist,’” said Nikki Baird, vice president of strategy and product at retail technology firm Aptos.

Katrina Leibee, a social media editor at a Denver newspaper, said she has grown particularly wearisome of videos where influencers peddle “must have” products to followers, including trendy clothing pieces, home decor and beauty products.

“If you needed it, you would already have it,” said Leibee, 24.

Environmental concerns

Underconsumption core supporters say that the trend is also about buying with an eye for quality, a pattern many businesses have pointed to in recent months. With higher prices across the board at restaurants, for example, many diners are opting to eat at a sit-down restaurant with wait service rather than shell out at a fast-food joint.

Eleanor, a 24-year old working part-time at a construction company in Utah, says she prioritizes shopping mindfully rather than pinching pennies. She owns several pairs of jeans worth more than $150 a pair, purchases she believes are worth their lofty price tags for their longevity compared to fast fashion.

Eleanor says that her spending habits stem from her concern for the environment. She used to live in West Africa, where she saw firsthand the tons of textile waste that end up in the continent from a glut of discarded fast fashion.

“Instead of buying 20 swimsuits off of Amazon, I will buy two swimsuits that are more expensive, but that I really love and that I’ll wear for years,” said Eleanor, who asked CNN not to include her last name.

Still, Americans are spending

Despite the underconsumption core trend’s popularity, spending in the US remains strong overall. Sales at retailers jumped 1% in July from the prior month, up from June’s downwardly revised 0.2% decline and blowing past economists’ expectations of a 0.3% gain, according to data from the Commerce Department.

Suzanne Lambert, a 32-year-old consultant based in Arlington, Virginia, said watching underconsumption videos has helped her be more mindful about her spending habits. She has canceled her subscription to a monthly beauty box and decided against replacing glassware she and her husband have owned since his college days.

But she says that underconsumption videos miss the mark when it comes to helping people create better spending habits. “To say there’s over- and underconsumption is saying that there’s an appropriate, one-size-fits-all measure. And I just don’t think that’s true,” said Lambert.

Scott Rick, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, says he has performed research showing that retail therapy can make people feel better. Some people who feel sad, for example, can get past that emotion more quickly when they shop because it gives them a sense of control, he says.

“I don’t necessarily see a problem with either (under- or overconsumption),” said Rick. “I mean, who’s to say what you should be spending your money on?”

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SANTA FE, New Mexico (KVIA) -- The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) just issued a consumer health and safety advisory for contaminated cannabis. The impacted products were being sold statewide, including in Sunland Park, Alamogordo, and Carlsbad.

The advisory is for cannabis flowers, including bud, shake, and trim, that tested positive for a prohibited pesticide sold from March 6, 2024 to August 1, 2024. The impacted brand is WH Agriculture, LLC DBA Maggie's Farm.

"Consumers should review the list below to see if they purchased a contaminated product," state officials said Friday. "If so, they are advised to destroy it or return it to the retailer for proper disposal."

The CCD says it has not received an health-related complaints in connection to this recall, but that anyone with concerns should call New Mexico's Poison Control Hotline at 800-222-1222.

The following dispensaries sold the impacted products: the R. Greenleaf Organics Dispensary on Appaloosa Drive in Sunland Park, the R. Greenleaf Organics Dispensary on North White Sands Boulevard in Alamogordo, and the R. Greenleaf Organics Dispensary on West Pierce Street in Carlsbad.

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By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN

(CNN) — Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s financial disclosure form highlights one of the things that make him unusual as a modern political candidate: the relative simplicity of his financial life.

Walz’s finances are straightforward and modest relative to the standards of many politicians who made their wealth in the private sector, judging from his disclosure, which was released by the Federal Election Commission on Friday. Many recent candidates for high office, by contrast, report millions in income and assets from multiple sources on their forms.

Walz reported a $210,287 income from his job as governor of Minnesota from January 2023 through August of this year and a bank account with between $15,000 and $50,000 in cash.

He reported no debts whatsoever. He no longer owns a home or rental properties, which had been reflected on his tax returns in prior years. And he doesn’t report owning any individual stocks or bonds.

But Walz does have a few retirement savings accounts.

He reported having between $100,00 and $250,000 in a 2030 target date retirement fund, up to $15,000 in a Vanguard midcap index fund and up to $15,000 in a State Street short term investment fund.

And because of his life in public service – first as a school teacher and member of the National Guard, then as a congressman for 12 years and his nearly six years as Minnesota governor, Walz will receive pension income, although it is not clear from his disclosure exactly how much.

He reported that he is currently eligible to receive $1,111 a month from the defined benefit plan of the Teacher’s Retirement Association of Minnesota but that the full value of his pension is not “readily ascertainable.” It’s unclear if that is because any pension income he may earn from his tenure as governor is not included yet. Under Minnesota state law, his time as the state’s chief executive may add to the amount of pension he can earn under the state’s Teachers Retirement Association plan.

In addition, Walz will be eligible for Social Security benefits and a pension as a former member of the US House of Representatives. Under FEC rules, neither need to be reported on the disclosure form.

Walz himself has raised the issue of the pensions he has earned on the campaign trail.

On Labor Day, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the governor referenced a Wall Street Journal article that indicated he might be better off than people thought because he has earned a pension. “They did (a) story that said he’s actually richer than his statement says, because he has – and I quote, like this is an evil thing – ‘a defined benefit pension plan.’ That is my wish for every American to have a defined benefit pension plan,” he said.

– CNN’s Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.

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How school counselors can address the youth mental health crisis

Three teens face sitting in chairs talking with a school counselor in a library setting.

America is experiencing a mental health crisis, and mental health struggles amongst the nation’s youth are intensifying. Student mental health is in a precarious place, with children and teens exposed to more information, more social contact, and more discord than ever before. The student mental health crisis is pervasive.

The good news is that Americans are more aware of the importance of mental health now more than ever. Age-old taboos are finally lifting. Even the federal government is throwing its support behind mental health initiatives: in 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) made available $25 million to expand primary care, including mental health services, in schools. Although it’s not a complete solution, it is a start. To end the student mental health crisis, more funding, training, attention, and collaboration is needed. 

School counselors are on the front lines of the student mental health crisis. Their involvement is critical in making schools the uplifting, inclusive, and safe places they need to be. Counseling Schools looks into how school counselors are boosting student mental health, and what more can be done to support them in their mission.

Understanding the Student Mental Health Crisis

“The mental health crisis has escalated to an alarming degree,” says Allison Paolini, school counseling program director and assistant professor of school counseling at Arkansas State University. “According to the CDC, in 2021, it was reported that more than 42 percent of students experienced ongoing sadness or loss of hope.”

The ingredients of the student mental health crisis were present before the Covid-19 pandemic: according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics, anxiety increased by 29 percent and depression increased by 27 percent in children and youth between 2016 and 2020. 

But the effects of the enforced isolation and persistent uncertainty brought on by the pandemic have carried over after it’s receded, and going back to the classroom doesn’t mean going back to the way things were previously. Students still experience all the mental health stressors of adults, plus some darkly unique ones.

“Gun violence is very problematic universally and has a detrimental impact on student mental health,” Paolini says. “Students who experience or witness violence are more likely to experience depression and anxiety, have lower test scores, decreased enrollment in school, may experience survivor’s guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are more likely to experience truancy, may have difficulty concentrating, and may struggle to build peer relationships. This has a monumentally negative impact on one’s overall health and wellbeing.”

The student mental health crisis reaches into every demographic, but some groups are more affected than others. According to the CDC, LGBTQIA+ students, female students, and students across racial and ethnic groups are more likely to experience negative feelings. Black students more likely to attempt suicide than students of other races and ethnicities. Nearly half (45 percent) of all LGBTQIA+ students in 2021 seriously considered attempting suicide. 

Diverse students have diverse problems, and that requires a multi-tooled response. As the acuity of issues that students face is increasing, it is paramount for school counselors to be trained to conduct assessments, understand protocols, as well as provide resources and referrals to students experiencing suicidality or self-harm.

“It is essential for school counselors to individualize their approach,” Paolini says. “There is not a universal one-size-fits-all approach to counseling. School counselors must be eclectic and use various skills, modalities, techniques, and best practices that are most impactful for each student they work with.”

How School Counselors Address the Student Mental Health Crisis

School counselors sit at a critical juncture and are often a student’s first encounter with a mental health professional who has specialized training in social and emotional wellbeing. School counselors can use techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) to modify unhealthy thoughts, reframe personal problems, and take a proactive approach in finding solutions. 

Although school counselors play an integral role in fostering student wellness and providing support, there are still limits to what school counselors can do on their own. It is critical that school counselors practice within their scope of competency and provide referrals to those who need additional support.

“School counselors cannot diagnose and are not licensed to provide more intensive counseling that is sometimes required, specifically if a student is struggling with an underlying mental health disorder,” Paolini says. “It is crucial for school counselors to collaborate with mental health counselors so that students have the services that they need to flourish.”

Connecting students with mental health services—and with mental telehealth services in rural and underserved areas—is vital. Virtual wellness centers, resource-laden personal websites including Google Sites, and even well-designed Google Forms can all help enhance the connection between school setting and mental health services. 

School counselors themselves can also contribute to a positive learning environment by incorporating Kindness Week, starting an anti-bullying program, promoting diversity, safety, and inclusion, and advocating for the integration of social-emotional learning (SEL) in the school’s curriculum. SEL teaches students imperative skills such as time and stress management, leadership, accountability, empathy, communication, coping, conflict resolution, optimism, motivation, and resilience.

“These are life skills that help students to be prepared for their post-secondary endeavors,” Paolini says. 

The student mental health crisis has multiple fronts, and the digital arena—particularly social media—should not be neglected. Paolini notes that most students who end up carrying out acts of violence post about it on social media before doing so. And bullying, which is pervasive nationwide and a major stressor on students and a detriment to their mental health, is even more damaging when taken onto the internet virtually: social media allows cyberbullying to have a larger audience and platform. 

“School counselors must encourage families to monitor their child’s social media accounts, as doing so is crucial for reducing cyberbullying,” Paolini says.

Addressing the student mental health crisis is a Herculean task: school counselors can’t do it on their own; it truly is a collaborative effort. Students, teachers, administrators, parents, policymakers, and other mental health professionals must all contribute and work together to facilitate positive change. 

“The most important part of the counseling relationship is having a strong therapeutic alliance, as this helps to build trust and amplify self-disclosure,” Paolini says. “It is necessary for school counselors to work diligently to build strong therapeutic alliances with students and other critical stakeholders. More than years of experience or modality used, one’s ability to create a solid therapeutic alliance has the greatest impact on stakeholder growth.”

The Future of Student Mental Health

There are ample reasons to look at the future through a positive lens. Children and teens are highly resilient. Minorities are more visible. And while the Covid-19 pandemic worsened the student mental health crisis, it also helped raise more awareness to the importance of mental health and wellness on a broader scale.

“Students will continue to struggle with mental health, but I am an eternal optimist,” Paolini says. “More and more school counselors are recognizing the need to be knowledgeable about mental health disorders so that they can best support students who are struggling. And more school counselors are implementing prevention programs and facilitating workshops to address the importance of mental health and wellness.”

School counselors play an instrumental role in addressing the student mental health crisis. But they need reinforcements. Research has shown that the ideal ratio of students to school counselors at any given school is approximately 250-to-1; the national average is over 400-to-1. 

“In regard to government policies, there needs to be more focus on mental health, and additional money needs to be allocated to the field to ensure there are enough school counselors and helping professionals at each school,” Paolini says. “As of now, the demand outweighs the supply.”

Outside of the school counselor role, more bridges are needed between the mental health and educational communities. Additional funding, awareness, and collaboration can help create uplifting learning environments that are more inclusive, protective, secure, engaging, and empowering. Student mental health needs to be met with a team effort between school counselors, teachers, families, mental health professionals, and the community at large.

“Children and teens are our future,” Paolini says. “We must work diligently and intentionally to make sure that they have the help, guidance, and mentorship that they need to identify and build upon their intrinsic strengths, believe in their innate abilities, reach their fullest potential, and be their best selves.”

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By Liam Reilly and Matt Egan, CNN

(CNN) — Dozens of business leaders are throwing their weight behind Vice President Kamala Harris, saying she is the stronger candidate for the American economy and the future of democracy.

In a three-page letter, a group of 88 business leaders — including high-profile current and former executives from major public companies across tech, media, and finance — emphasized that they believe a Harris administration can better nurture the private sector.

“Her election is the best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy,” the open letter, which was first shared with CNBC, reads.

The signees include notable executives such as James Murdoch, Mark Cuban and LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman. The endorsements underscore the support Harris has not only in Silicon Valley, a traditional Democratic stronghold, but in some corners on Wall Street and at some consumer-facing companies.

The business leaders argued in the letter that as vice president, Harris advanced “actions to spur business investment in the United States and ensure American businesses can compete and win in the global market.”

“She will continue to advance fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a sound business environment, and she will strive to give every American the opportunity to pursue the American dream,” the letter reads.

The signees include high-profile executives, including James Murdoch, the former 21st Century Fox CEO and son of Rupert Murdoch; Michael Lynton, the Snap chairman; Jeremy Stoppelman, the Yelp chief executive; Hoffman, the former LinkedIn chief executive; Jeff Lawson, the Twilio co-founder; Laurene Powell Jobs, the Emerson Collective chief executive; Mark Cuban, the entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” host; Peter Chernin, the TCG founder and former Fox chief operating officer; and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Wndr founder and managing partner and former Walt Disney Studios chairman.

On the campaign trail, Harris has positioned herself as perhaps friendlier to business than President Joe Biden. She recently outlined her economy policy platform, which includes tax relief for small businesses. Harris also proposed increasing the long-term capital gains tax rate to 28% for wealthy Americans, a departure from Biden’s 2025 budget, which suggested an even higher rate.

Trump has gained the support of a number of CEOs, too, including some prominent names in tech – most notably Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump in July. David Sacks, the billionaire tech investor, co-hosted a Trump fundraiser in June at his San Francisco home and spoke at the Republican National Convention on Monday. Other contributors to America PAC include the Winklevoss twins, Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, according to Federal Election Commission filings. And venture capitalist Peter Thiel is a Trump supporter.

The letter is a vote of confidence for Harris as she and former President Donald Trump appear neck and neck ahead of the November election. The endorsement also buoys Harris ahead of the September 10 ABC presidential debate.

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By Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump plans to ban mortgages for undocumented immigrants, he said in a speech at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday.

Trump claimed the measure would help address housing affordability because a “flood” of people entering the country illegally are pushing up housing costs, but undocumented immigrants only make up a tiny portion of the mortgage market.

In 2023, only 5,000 to 6,000 mortgages were made to holders of Individual Tax Identification numbers, according to a recent Urban Institute report. Those who are not legally authorized to work in the US obtain ITINs to file taxes, since they are not eligible for Social Security numbers. Most ITINs are issued to those from Latin American countries.

Some 4.3 million first mortgages were originated in 2023, according to Equifax.

It’s often very difficult for undocumented immigrants to obtain home loans, even though the USA Patriot Act of 2021 allowed banks to accept ITINs as a form of identification.

“A small yet growing set of lenders offer mortgage products to ITIN holders, often at higher interest rates and with stricter lending requirements, despite anecdotal evidence that this type of lending does not pose additional risk to the housing finance system,” the Urban Institute report states.

The former president said he would make housing more affordable by getting rid of regulations that increase costs and by opening up some federal land available for large-scale housing construction in low-tax, low-regulation zones.

He also said falling interest rates will send mortgage rates down to 3% or even lower, which will make financing less expensive for homebuyers.

Trump’s broader views on undocumented immigrants — and his insistence that he would deport millions of them — could also hamper the push to lower home prices. The residential construction industry, which is suffering from a labor shortage, has long pushed for an increase in the number of immigrants allowed to work legally in the US to bolster its workforce and enable it to build more homes. A lack of housing supply is a major factor driving up prices, especially as demand has grown in recent years.

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By Chris Isidore, CNN

New York (CNN) — US Steel is threatening to shutter a number of mills if the Biden administration blocks its sale to would-be Japanese buyer Nippon Steel. But another rival, Cleveland Cliffs, is offering to buy those mills from US Steel if President Joe Biden stops the deal.

This week US Steel said it would be forced to shut down the mills represented by the United Steelworkers union if it doesn’t get the $2.7 billion in investment planned by Nippon Steel as part of its proposed $14.3 billion purchase. But the Biden administration and the USW are still opposed to the deal, saying they want to keep the steelmaker in American hands.

The union says it doesn’t trust the promises being made by Nippon because the Japanese steelmaker doesn’t have a contract with the union. Sources tell CNN that President Joe Biden is expected to announce he is blocking the deal on national security grounds as early as next week.

Cleveland Cliffs made an unsolicited $8.3 billion cash and stock offer for US Steel last year that was supported by the union, but it was rejected by the company. The nation’s automakers objected, too, writing to the White House to say a Cleveland Cliffs-US Steel deal would place 65% to 90% of steel used in vehicles under the control of a single company. They said they therefore supported the Nippon deal for US Steel instead. But those objections could be lessened if the alternative to Cleveland Cliffs buying the mills was their closure.

Cleveland Cliffs said it has the financing in place to buy the threatened intergrated steel mills, which make steel from raw materials.

While the White House will not comment on reports that it will move to block the Nippon Steel deal, Biden is on record criticizing the deal, as are Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance. Cleveland Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves praised those reported plans to block the deal, even though they are not yet confirmed.

“The last-minute threats by US Steel to shut down integrated steelmaking production, fire union workers, and move their headquarters from Pittsburgh if their deal does not close, is just a pathetic blackmail attempt on the United States government and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Goncalves said in a statement. “By taking immediate action, our government is showing that this type of shameless behavior will never be tolerated.”

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By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York (CNN) — Selena Gomez can now add becoming a billionaire to her long list of achievements.

The 32-year-old actress, singer, investor and entrepreneur just achieved the financial milestone thus making her one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the United States, according to Bloomberg, which values her net worth at $1.3 billion.

Some of the wealth for the “Only Murders in the Building” star comes from singing, brand partnerships and acting, but the “vast bulk” of her wealth is tied to Rare Beauty, her 5-year-old makeup line that is a success with influencers and teens, the publication revealed Friday.

Gomez’s wealth is based on Bloomberg’s “estimated value” of her stake in the beauty brand, plus her interest in mental health platform Wondermind and various other earnings from her music, acting, properties and money she makes from partnerships that she posts about on social media, which includes her 424 million followers on Instagram.

Her popularity on Instagram makes her the third most followed person, behind soccer icons Cristiano Ronaldo (638 million) and Lionel Messi (504 million), helping her rake in massive endorsements with Puma, worth a reported $30 million, and Coach, a $10 million deal.

But her following has also helped her Rare Beauty line, putting her in the celebrity-led category of makeup brands dominated by Rihanna and the Kardashians. Gomez also has reportedly reached out to investors for Rare Beauty, seeking a $2 billion valuation.

In 2020, Gomez revealed that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and later said in an interview with Entrepreneur that any deal struck with her “has to have an element that’s charitable or in the mental health space.” She started the Rare Impact Fund to help raise $100 million to help people gain access to mental health services.

Other revenue streams for the former child star include income from her Hulu show “Only Murders in the Building,” which was just renewed for a fifth season where she makes $6 million a season, according to Bloomberg, and a smaller slice from her music royalties.

Gomez’s representative didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

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By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York (CNN) — The highly anticipated all-American matchup between Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe — marking the first US Open semifinals between two US men in nearly 20 years — will cost you quite a few Honey Deuces to attend.

Prices have surged 60% since Tuesday, when the pairing was finalized. The cheapest price to attend the Friday night match at Arthur Ashe Stadium is priced at $333 for one ticket, according to TickPick, an online secondary ticket marketplace.

And those are for tickets in the nosebleed sections. Prices are soaring to as much as $56,000 for a seat court side. On average, fans are paying about $500 for the 7 pm ET match, which is the fifth-most-expensive US Open men’s semifinal on record, a TickPick spokesperson told CNN.

Notably, the demand to see the lower-ranked American players is far greater than the matchup that features the No. 1 ranked male player in tennis, Italy’s Jannik Sinner, who plays Friday afternoon.

Prices for Fritz vs. Tiafoe match are 231% more expensive for the cheapest ticket compared to the cheap seats for Sinner’s 3 pm ET match against Britain’s Jack Draper. The least-expensive prices for that match are hovering around just $80, and court side prices are about $1,500.

The high price of tickets come as some fans are criticizing the event’s long lines and ever-rising costs to see the annual tennis tournament in New York. Combined with the growing popularity of the sport, it’s perhaps not a surprise that total ticket sales on StubHub have already surpassed last year’s event by 32%, the company told CNN.

Regardless of the price, the matchup between Fritz and Foe is a monumental piece of tennis history because it guarantees an American male to compete in the finals on Sunday — a milestone that hasn’t been achieved since 2006.

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By Lianne Kolirin, CNN

London (CNN) — PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will start tracking where its employees in the United Kingdom work, in a bid to dial back its current work-from-home culture.

Staff at the UK arm of PwC, one of the world’s “Big Four” accounting firms, were this week informed by management that the new policy would take effect on January 1.

A memo sent to the company’s 26,000 UK employees on Thursday and shared with CNN said the measure was being taken to formalize the company’s “approach to working together in person.”

Employees were told they must spend at least three days a week – or 60% of their time – in the office or with clients. Previous guidelines required them to be in for between two and three days each week, but the memo suggests that was not universally adhered to.

It said: “Our business thrives on strong relationships – and those are almost always more easily built and sustained face-to-face… By being physically together, we can offer our clients a differentiated experience and create the positive learning and coaching environment that is key to our success.”

According to PwC, the move is intended to “adjust” the firm’s hybrid working approach and put “more emphasis on in-person working.”

“We all benefit from the positive impact of a hybrid approach, but the previous guidance of at least two to three days a week was open to interpretation. This update aims to provide clarity around where and how we expect everyone to work,” the memo said.

While many staff are already “spending more time in person with your clients and teams,” for others, “time may be needed to settle into new working patterns,” the company told employees.

“With that in mind, we will start sharing your individual working location data with you on a monthly basis from January as we do with other data such as chargeable hours. This will help to ensure that the new policy is being fairly and consistently applied across our business,” it added.

In a press release published online, Laura Hinton, managing partner at PwC UK, said: “Face-to-face working is hugely important to a people business like ours, and the new policy tips the balance of our working week into being located alongside clients and colleagues. This feels right for our business and right for our people, given our focus on client service, coaching, and learning and development. At the same time, we continue to offer flexibility through hybrid working.”

When asked by CNN what would happen if someone did not fully comply, a spokeswoman for PWC said: “If the monthly data shows someone is consistently breaching the policy, we’d first want to understand the reasons why.”

The Covid-19 pandemic triggered a workplace revolution that led to many companies around the world adopting a hybrid approach, allowing employees to balance office-based work with home life.

However, many firms have been taking measures to encourage staff to spend more time in the office.

Earlier this year, IBM told its US-based managers they had to work in the office at least three days a week or leave their positions. Other companies that have taken similar steps include UPS, Amazon, Meta and even Zoom, which played a large part in the work-from-home revolution.

Evidence collected by the CIPD, the professional body for the UK’s human resources industry, suggests that companies with a hybrid-working model generally rate the performance of employees working from home positively, according to Claire McCartney, the organization’s policy and practice manager.

“It makes good business sense for employees or teams to be together on certain specific days, rather than employers needing everyone in because they don’t trust people to be performing effectively remotely,” she said.

“Employers should be seeking to find a balance, where flexibility over where and when people work meets the needs of employees, without compromising the needs of the business,” she added.

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By Matt Egan, CNN

New York (CNN) — The oil market is in another tailspin. Producer group OPEC+ is scrambling to stop the bleeding. And gas prices are falling fast, with more to come.

All of this is music to the ears of drivers.

US gas prices fell to a fresh six-month low of $3.31 a gallon on Thursday, down 50 cents from this point last year, according to AAA.

Drivers in 10 US states – including Texas, Kentucky and Kansas – are paying less than $3 a gallon on average. Andy Lipow, president of consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates, expects that another nine states will join the sub-$3 list in the next two weeks.

Data from OPIS, which tracks gas prices at 130,000 stations nationwide, shows that nearly 41,000 of those stations, or nearly one out of every three, are already charging less than $3 a gallon for regular gas. A year ago at this time there were barely 100 stations nationwide that were below the $3 mark.

By around Thanksgiving, approximately 35 to 40 states could be below $3 a gallon, GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan told CNN on Thursday.

“Gas prices, after two-plus years of sizzling because of outside factors like Covid and Russia, are finally coming back into balance,” said De Haan.

The accelerating drop in gas prices should help ease financial pressure on consumers and contribute to the cooling inflation rate. That in turn could help pave the way for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, making it cheaper for Americans to borrow.

This trend, if it continues, could also help Vice President Kamala Harris in the November election as voters weigh which candidate will be best for their wallets. Some economists say gas prices will likely be a deciding factor, and lower prices will favor the current administration.

Gas prices in most battleground states are much lower than a year ago, including sharp declines in Arizona (88 cents), Nevada (55 cents) and Georgia (49 cents).

‘Panic and fear’ at OPEC

Analysts told CNN that this trend of lower gas prices is likely to continue, despite the shift in strategy from OPEC+.

The oil market is so weak that not even a rescue from OPEC+ seemed to help. Pressured over concerns about soft demand in China and record-shattering production in the United States, the producer group, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, on Thursday scrapped plans to add supply starting October 1.

Oil prices initially rallied on the day, before those gains faded. US crude finished down slightly at $69.15 a barrel – the lowest closing price since December.

“Is some amount of panic and fear setting in?” Lipow said, referring to the mood within OPEC+.

“The market remains in a very bearish mood…We should continue to see downward pressure on pump prices in coming weeks,” said Bob McNally, founder and president of Rapidan Energy Group.

McNally, a former energy adviser to President George W. Bush, said that, despite the timing, he doesn’t think the decision has anything to do with the US political calendar.

“They faced a binary choice between accepting a disorderly price drop and postponing the tapering,” he said.

The two-month postponement announced by OPEC+ on Thursday sets the stage for a decision from the producer group right around the November election about what it will do next.

Of course, the mood in the oil market can change on a dime.

If the violence in the Middle East disrupts oil flows from that crucial region or the Russia-Ukraine war escalates, oil could rebound and derail the slump in gas prices.

Trump promises sub-$2 gas

Former President Trump is promising to make gas prices go much, much lower.

“We’re going to get gasoline below $2 a gallon,” Trump said during a speech on Thursday in New York.

However, some experts are skeptical about that claim – and warn it would likely be bad news were that to happen.

“Easy to boast about – hard to do,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service. “It’s pure hyperbole to talk about $2-a-gallon gas. Chances are if we see sub-$2 gasoline it will be because of some awful things taking place in the economy.”

Lipow agreed, saying it would take a “significant economic downturn across the world – including in the US” to get demand and oil prices low enough for sub-$2 gas.

Record-setting US production

During his speech on Thursday, Trump vowed to “end Kamala Harris’ anti-energy crusade,” a claim that does not match up with the fact that America is producing more oil now than at any point under his presidency.

US oil output hit an all-time high of 13.4 million barrels per day recently, according to weekly federal data. That is just above the peak of 13.1 million barrels per day under Trump.

Trump also bragged about gas prices tumbling to $1.87 a gallon during his term.

Of course, many Americans could not take advantage of those ultra-low prices in the spring of 2020 because they took place during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I don’t think anyone wants to return to those pandemic times,” Lipow said.

CNN’s Chris Isidore contributed reporting.

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By Alicia Wallace, CNN

(CNN) — All eyes were on the US labor market, and the latest check-up shows its diagnosis was not as bleak as some feared: Job growth returned to solid form in August, and unemployment trended back down after a concerning jump.

Employers added an estimated 142,000 jobs last month, marking stronger growth than July’s worrisome low number — which was revised down from 114,000 to 89,000 — according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% from 4.3%.

Economists were expecting a net gain of 160,000 jobs and for the unemployment rate to fall to 4.2%, according to FactSet consensus estimates.

With inflation pretty much tamed and moderating as expected, the Federal Reserve has turned its focus to the labor market (the other part of its dual mandate). Job growth has been slowing, but there were indications that the labor market was weakening under the weight of 23-year-high interest rates.

“This just confirms that the employment market is weakening, but the sky is not falling,” Eugenio Alemán, chief economist at Raymond James, told CNN. “So, there is no rush for the Fed to make a desperate move [and make a half-point] rate cut, but I think they can go with a [quarter-point] cut.”

August’s total lands in line with the job growth seen during the past three months. But is markedly lower than the average monthly gain of 202,000 during the past 12 months.

The labor market has cooled considerably during the past year — a wholly expected development as the demand and supply of workers get back into better balance after the seismic shock of the Covid-19 pandemic — however, concerns have increased in recent months that job growth isn’t just slowing, but deteriorating.

A ‘place of stability’

July’s shockingly weak jobs report stoked fears that the jobs market was collapsing, potentially taking the economy into a downturn.

Although July’s gains were revised even lower and June’s were slashed by 61,000 to 118,000, August’s report came in comparably solid and stronger.

“We’re still in a place of stability,” Rachel Sederberg, senior economist and research manager at labor force analytics firm Lightcast, told CNN in an interview. “We still have a significant number of job openings. Our unemployment rate went back down again this month: No, not the historically low levels that were wild that I think we’ve all gotten used to, but still low.”

All told, the labor market continued a historic streak of expansion. The US economy has added jobs for 44 months in a row, the fifth-longest stretch on record since the BLS started tracking employment in 1939.

However, considering the revisions and the fact that August’s monthly total was below expectations, Friday’s report doesn’t yet provide a clear signal, said Becky Frankiewicz, president of ManpowerGroup North America.

“Today’s jobs report demonstrates that this summer’s ‘Great Waiting Game’ has continued, with both employers and employees holding out for proof of improvement versus speculation of forecasts,” she wrote in commentary issued Friday.

Unemployment spike a ‘red herring’

Some of the biggest gains last month came in health care (+44,100), leisure and hospitality (+46,000) and construction (+34,000).

The largest job losses took place in manufacturing, which shed an estimated 24,000 positions in August. Retail trade, which posted losses for the third consecutive month, was down by 11,100; and information saw an estimated 7,000-job drop, according to the report.

Even though employers have reined in hiring significantly, curbing job growth in the process, economists note that the underpinnings of the labor market have remained sturdy: Layoffs aren’t mounting and labor force participation remains high.

August’s report also shows that the unemployment rate’s sharp increase in July (when it leapt from 4.1% to 4.3%) was likely a “red herring” and that fears of an imminent recession were “clearly overblown,” Kory Kantenga, head of economics for the Americas at LinkedIn, told CNN in an interview.

In July, economists speculated the jobless rate was lifted by short-term influences, particularly weather-related impacts and seasonal auto plant shutdowns in Michigan. The July jobs data showed the number of workers on temporary layoff shot to 1.06 million from 813,000 the month before.

In August, that figure not only cooled back down to 872,000, but the labor force grew with nearly 70,000 new entrants looking for work.

On the precipice of a rate cut

When markets tanked on the news of the weak July jobs report, recession fears grew — as did the odds for the Fed to go big on its rate cut, potentially slashing its benchmark rate by a half-point at its September 17-18 meeting. And while a rate cut is coming, the jury is still out on the exact size of that move.

“The September rate cut is a done deal at this point,” Kantenga said. “I don’t think we’re necessarily going to see a [half-point] rate cut, because the report wasn’t so bad to justify the Fed moving more aggressively.”

Monetary policy acts with a substantial lag, so it will take some time for ratcheted-down interest rates to work their way through the system.

However, the decades-high interest rates the Fed started to roll out in 2022 have already taken their toll in some areas: The Black worker unemployment rate has increased at a more rapid pace than the overall rate, Michelle Holder, associate professor of economics at John Jay College, City University of New York, told CNN in an interview.

“With this rate cut, will the economy be able to move back into a position where we can again see these historically low unemployment rates — for the country and for certain groups whose labor market fortunes haven’t been great for decades?” she said. “Can we nudge the economy back in a direction where workers overall, and certainly Black workers, were faring much better than they had fared in a long time?”

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These are the worst states for access to medical care

A view of Albuquerque, New Mexico’s skyline in the evening.

Equity in American healthcare is a work in progress. There are still some areas where it’s much easier and more convenient to access medical professionals and pharmacies. Improved access to care typically leads to better health outcomes, as well as an increased likelihood of people actually receiving preventative care and screenings.

Which states are falling short when it comes to accessible healthcare? Hers looked at four data sets to rank all 50 states from worst to best. 

• Shortage of primary care physicians: Access to primary care physicians is an important part of the healthcare system. Research from the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis shows that using primary care results in better treatment of chronic conditions and an increased life expectancy. 
• Percentage of population without health insurance coverage: Having health insurance coverage has a direct impact on health outcomes, including earlier prevention and screening services as well as better outcomes with diseases like cancer. 
• Pharmacy access: Research shows that a lack of access to pharmacies is a major factor in medication nonadherence. Another study revealed that pharmacy closures resulted in an immediate decline in adherence among older U.S. adults taking cardiovascular medications. 
• Access to medical specialists: Patients treated by specialists are shown to have better health outcomes compared to those solely treated by general practitioners. 

Key Findings

• New Mexico ranks as the worst state for healthcare access, particularly when it comes to specialists and pharmacists. But it’s not all bad news. Albuquerque has one of the highest telehealth participation rates in the country, according to a 2024 Hers study. (Albuquerque residents are the most likely of any metropolitan area in the U.S. to identify as “youthful.”) 
• New England and surrounding regions dominate the list of states with the best access to healthcare, with states like Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania on top. 
• States with smaller population densities showed up on the list of worst states for healthcare access, including Alaska, Montana, and New Mexico.
• The three worst states for access to healthcare (Colorado, Alaska, and Texas) also had some of the lowest concentrations of physician specialists. 

Hers

10 Best States for Healthcare Access

Infographic listing the 10 best and worst states for healthcare access in 2024.

1. Vermont
2. Rhode Island
3. Hawaii
4. Connecticut
5. Massachusetts
6. Pennsylvania
7. Minnesota
8. Ohio
9. Virginia, Utah (tied)

10 Worst States for Healthcare Access

1. New Mexico
2. Missouri
3. Mississippi
4. Montana
5. North Carolina, Oklahoma, Nevada (tied) 
8. Texas
9. Alaska
10. Colorado

Worst States for Healthcare Access: Trends and Insights

Here are the best and worst states in each of the four categories analyzed: primary care shortages, percentage of population without health insurance coverage, the number of pharmacies per 100,000 residents, and access to specialist care.

Which States Have the Lowest Met Need for Access to Primary Care Professionals?

Many states have a shortage of primary care physicians, which impacts how quickly people are able to get medical attention or schedule preventative screenings. Hers looked at the percentage of need met in terms of primary care physicians for each state.

Least Amount of Primary Care Need Met

• Delaware
• Alaska 
• Missouri

Greatest Amount of Primary Care Need Met

• Vermont
• New Hampshire
• Rhode Island

Which States Have the Least Amount of Health Insurance Coverage?

There is a major gap when it comes to health insurance coverage across the United States, which can hinder people from seeking medical care when they need it. 

States With the Lowest Percentage of Health Insurance Coverage

• Texas
• Oklahoma
• Georgia

States With the Highest Percentage of Health Insurance Coverage

• Massachusetts
• Hawaii
• Vermont

Which States Have the Lowest Concentration of Pharmacies?

Not only are people more likely to stay on top of medication when a pharmacy is nearby, they also use pharmacists as healthcare resources. One study found that patients visit community pharmacies twice as often as other providers, demonstrating the importance of access. 

States with the Lowest Number of Pharmacies Per 100,000 Residents

• Montana
• New Hampshire
• Illinois

States with the Highest Number of Pharmacies Per 100,000 Residents

• South Dakota
• Arizona
• Georgia

Which States Have the Fewest Medical Specialists?

Hers looked at the number of physician specialists per 100,000 residents in multiple disciplines, including psychiatry, surgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology, cardiology, oncology, endocrinology, and other specializations. 

States with the Fewest Medical Specialists Per 100,000 Residents 

• New Mexico
• Missouri
• South Dakota

States with the Most Medical Specialists Per 100,000 Residents 

• Pennsylvania
• Florida
• Wyoming

These rankings also mirror access to other types of specialists. Missouri has one of the lowest concentrations of OB-GYNs in the country, while Florida has one of the highest. Similarly, Florida has one of the highest concentrations of dermatologists in the country.

Access to Healthcare: 50 States Ranked from Worst to Best

Based on the criteria outlined, plus the methodology explained below, here are all 50 states ranked from worst to best in terms of healthcare access across the U.S. 

1. New Mexico
2. Missouri
3. Mississippi
4. Montana
5. Nevada, North Carolina, and Oklahoma (tied) 
8. Texas
9. Alaska
10. Colorado
11. Illinois
12. North Dakota
13. South Carolina
14. South Dakota
15. Idaho and Washington (tied) 
17. Georgia
18. California
19. New Jersey
20. Wyoming and Oregon (tied)
22. Florida, Indiana, and Maryland (tied) 
25. Michigan
26. Arizona and Delaware (tied)
28. New Hampshire and New York (tied) 
30. Kentucky
31. Iowa, Tennessee, and Wisconsin (tied)
34. Kansas
35. Arkansas and Maine (tied) 
37. Louisiana
38. Alabama and Nebraska (tied)
40. West Virginia
41. Utah and Virginia (tied) 
43. Ohio
44. Minnesota
45. Pennsylvania
46. Massachusetts
47. Connecticut
48. Hawaii
49. Rhode Island
50. Vermont 

Note: Based on data collected in August 2024. Get the data.

Data & Methodology

Hers based its rankings on four data categories related to health access.

• Percentage of primary care need met: Access to primary care helps with both prevention and treatment of health issues. Hers looked at data from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ quarterly summary of Designated Health Professional Shortage Areas Statistics for the third quarter of 2024.  
• Percentage of population without health insurance coverage: Hers used the U.S. Census Bureau‘s most recent data from 2022.
• Number of pharmacies per 100,000 residents: Hers compared the number of pharmacies in each state to the population, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 County Business Patterns. 
• Number of specialist physicians: Using data from KFF—Professionally Active Specialist Physicians by Field, (KFF, May 2024)—Hers compared the total number of specialists to each state’s population to find which areas had the most and least access. 

All categories were weighed equally. Each state was ranked individually in each category, then the average rank was used to determine final placement on the list. 

What to Do If You Live in an Area Without As Much Access to Healthcare 

Your health doesn’t have to take a backseat just because you live in an area with less access to medical care. Here are some strategies to make the most of health services no matter where you live to support healthy living. 

• Access telehealth services: Utilizing telehealth can significantly increase access to certain types of care. Many telehealth companies also provide affordable services for those who don’t have insurance, providing people more options for affordable care no matter where they live.
• Be proactive with preventative care: Instead of waiting to visit a provider when you’re sick, plan ahead no matter your age or current level of health. Scheduling regular screenings and checkups can lead to earlier detection and treatment of chronic diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and osteoarthritis.
• Use a mail prescription service: Mail-order pharmacies make it easier and more convenient to manage prescriptions, especially if you don’t have a pharmacy nearby. You may even save on copays, especially if you’re managing a chronic condition with ongoing medication. 

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How medical debt drives half a million people into bankruptcy each year

An older woman looking at the sheet of paper in her hand looking distressed and concerned.

The devastating financial toll of paying for urgent medical costs can take years or even a lifetime for some families to recover from. 

Set your browser to gofundme.com, and chances are the first donor cause you see will be someone asking for help to pay their medical bills. Around a third of campaigns on the crowdfunding platform are for medical bills. In some ways, this is unsurprising: Health care is extremely expensive in America. Data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that after adjusting for local costs, the United States spent around $12,500 per person on health care in 2022, double what Canada spent and around 50% more than what Germany spent.

These costs add up quickly. About 3 out of 5 personal bankruptcies in America are associated with medical debt. Doctors and Clinicians analyzed reports and survey data to determine how medical debt is contributing to America’s personal bankruptcy problem.

A 2019 study in the American Journal of Public Health found this proportion held, even after the Affordable Care Act drastically increased health insurance coverage. The study estimates that around 530,000 Americans file bankruptcy every year because of medical bills or illness-related work loss.

Research from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finds that as of 2021, 58% of debt in collections was related to medical bills. The next most common form of debt in collections, telecommunications bills, only made up 15% of the total.

Doctors and Clinicians

Just how widespread is medical debt?

A chart showing how much medical debt Americans have. Among those who have medical debt, most owe at least $1,000.

Figuring out just how many Americans have medical debt is tricky. No singular database exists on the topic, so researchers have to rely on survey data. One estimate from the Census Bureau found that roughly 15% of households had at least some medical debt in 2021. Using the same dataset, KFF estimates that around 8% of American adults had medical debt in 2021. Overall, people in the U.S. had a total of $220 billion in medical debts.

These estimates lean conservative, counting only medical bills and not other forms of debt such as credit card bills. In a separate analysis, which included credit card bills resulting from medical procedures, KFF estimates that around 40% of American adults have some form of medical debt, or 100 million people.

While it may be unclear exactly how big America’s medical debt problem is, surveys show consistent patterns when it comes to what groups of people are most likely to have unpaid medical bills. People with lower incomes, for instance, are more likely to report having medical debt. Around 11% of people who earn up to twice the federal poverty line have medical debt, compared with only 4% of people who make over six times the federal poverty line. Similarly, adults who lack health insurance for part of the year or the whole year are more likely to have unpaid medical bills.

It is also clear that people with high amounts of medical debt are more likely to have to make sacrifices to make their finances work. The KFF survey reports that among American adults with medical debt, 63% say they have had to cut spending on essentials such as food and clothing, while 48% say they have used up all or most of their savings. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that medical debt was associated with higher rates of depression and anxiety. People with medical debt were also more likely to delay mental health treatment, further exacerbating the problem.

Canva

Governments are working to relieve medical debt

An elderly Asian couple is looking worried while sitting on a couch. There is a laptop on a coffee table, and the woman is holding a white square device, showing it to the man next to her.

As part of the American Rescue Plan, the White House intends to pay off $7 billion in medical debt by the end of 2026. State and local governments have also implemented similar plans. In January, New York City announced that it would relieve $2 billion of unpaid medical bills in conjunction with nonprofit organization Undue Medical Debt (formerly RIP Medical Debt).

As part of a continuing effort to offer relief, the White House announced a proposal to prevent medical debt from showing up on credit reports. This would, in theory, help ensure that people with medical debt are able to access housing, secure car loans, or even find jobs.

Programs such as these should help people in theory. However, a recent National Bureau of Economic Research working paper found that relieving medical debt might not benefit people as much as policymakers might hope. A group of four researchers also partnered with Undue Medical Debt to track how well people did after being relieved of their medical debt. The nonprofit group paid off debt worth around $169 million for over 83,000 people from 2018 through 2020.

Unexpectedly, the authors found that debt relief did not affect people’s access to credit. People who benefited from the study did not go on to have better finances, nor did their mental health improve. One thing the paper did show was that people who had their medical debt paid off were actually slightly less likely to pay subsequent medical bills.

It is possible that just paying off medical bills is not enough to substantially improve the lives of people who could not afford them to begin with. In an interview with Stanford University, one of the study’s authors, Neale Mahoney, explained his research by describing medical debt as a symptom of people’s problems and not an underlying cause.

Story editing by Carren Jao. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Tim Bruns.

This story originally appeared on Doctors and Clinicians and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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By Juliana Liu, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — The operator of 7-Eleven has rejected an opening offer from the owner of convenience store rival Circle K, indicating the bid was too low and that its global business was worth more.

In a statement Friday, Tokyo-based Seven & I Holdings, which owns 7-Eleven, said it was “open” to “sincerely consider” any proposal that is in the best interests of its shareholders.

“However, we will resist any proposal that deprives our shareholders of the company’s intrinsic value or that fails to specifically address very real regulatory concerns,” it said in the statement.

Seven & I confirmed that the offer from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard, which operates Circle K, to acquire all of its outstanding stock was made at $14.86 per share in cash, making the potential deal worth $38.5 billion, according to a calculation from Reuters.

The Financial Times reported on Thursday that Seven & I was open to the possibility of a higher offer from its suitor. Shares in Seven & I have rallied since the news of the offer broke last month, pushing its market value above $38 billion.

That had suggested a deal value in excess of any other foreign-led takeover in Japan since Dealogic, a financial analytics firm, started collecting data in 1995. It would also have been the largest cross-border takeover globally this year, according to Dealogic.

The takeover bid has been closely watched in Japan because it came after the government made it harder for companies to ignore unsolicited offers. The changes to corporate takeover guidelines are expected to boost foreign investment into the country.

A potential merger would have expanded Couche-Tard’s already impressive footprint across North America, where it operates Couche-Tard and Circle-K stores, and Europe, where it also runs Ingo fuel retailers.

Analysts had previously said the combined entity would have controlled nearly a fifth of the US convenience store market, which was likely to attract scrutiny from America’s antitrust regulator.

Seven & I addressed that concern on Friday, saying the proposal did not “adequately acknowledge the multiple and significant challenges such a transaction would face from US competition law enforcement agencies in the current regulatory environment.”

The Tokyo-based group operates more than 83,000 stores around the world, including 7-Eleven shops and the Speedway chain of gas stations in the United States. It bought Speedway from Marathon Petroleum for $21 billion in 2021, boosting its presence in North America.

Although 7-Eleven traces its origins to Dallas, Texas, it was the late Japanese entrepreneur Masatoshi Ito who is credited with turning it into a ubiquitous global brand. Ito died last year at the age of 98.

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By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

New York (CNN) — Telegram CEO Pavel Durov returned to the messaging platform Thursday, saying in a lengthy post that he was surprised to have been arrested and interviewed by French authorities less than two weeks ago in an investigation that has sparked debate about free speech and criminal activity online.

Durov was arrested at a Paris airport amid an investigation into suspected offenses related to criminal activity on Telegram, according to French prosecutors. He was later released from police custody bail set at $5.56 million as the probe unfolds.

Telegram, which Durov said had 950 million users, is used both as an everyday messaging tool and a way work around authoritative governments – but White supremacist groups and Isis also favor it.

Prosecutors are also probing Durov over alleged ‘acts of violence’ against his child in Switzerland.

In the Telegram post Thursday, his first since his arrest, Durov acknowledged that the app’s “abrupt increase” in users caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse the platform.

“That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard. We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon,” Durov said.

Durov said the app’s purpose is to protect users in authoritarian regimes. Durov noted the app refused to hand over “encryption keys” to Russia, resulting in a ban there. The app also was banned in Iran after the app refused to block channels used by protesters, he said.

“We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles, because we are not doing this for money,” Durov said, saying that the app has left in cases where it “can’t agree with a country’s regulator on the right balance between privacy and security.”

Durov also disputed French authorities’ move to hold him personally liable.

“If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself,” he said. “Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach.”

– CNN’s Antonella Francini, Emmanuel Miculita, Anna Chernova and Zahid Mahmood contributed to this report.

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By Brian Stelter, CNN

New York (CNN) — The Biden administration is denouncing Tucker Carlson after the far-right personality hosted a guest on his show this week who suggested the Holocaust happened by accident, calling the interview “a disgusting and sadistic insult to all Americans.”

During Carlson’s two-hour sit-down with Darryl Cooper, a podcaster whom he said “may be the best and most honest popular historian in the United States,” Cooper claimed that Nazi Germany’s mass murder of Jews was an unintended consequence – something akin to poor planning instead of the methodical extermination that it actually was.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Cooper claimed, was the “chief villain of the Second World War” and “primarily responsible for that war becoming what it did, becoming something other than an invasion of Poland.”

Carlson’s platforming of Cooper has been widely criticized in recent days, including by some right-wing figures who have defended Carlson in the past. Elon Musk, who promoted the interview on his social media platform, X, calling it “Very interesting. Worth watching,” later deleted his post.

On Thursday the White House added its weight to the matter.

In a statement first shared with CNN, senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said “giving a microphone to a Holocaust denier who spreads Nazi propaganda is a disgusting and sadistic insult to all Americans, to the memory of the over 6 million Jews who were genocidally murdered by Adolf Hitler, to the service of the millions of Americans who fought to defeat Nazism, and to every subsequent victim of Antisemitism.”

The administration’s statement specifically refuted Cooper’s claim to Carlson that Churchill was the “chief villain” of World War II.

“Hitler was one of the most evil figures in human history and the ‘chief villain’ of World War II, full stop,” Bates wrote. “The Biden-Harris Administration believes that trafficking in this moral rot is unacceptable at any time, let alone less than one year after the deadliest massacre perpetrated against the Jewish people since the Holocaust and at a time when the cancer of Antisemitism is growing all over the world.”

Reached for comment on Thursday, Carlson sharply criticized the White House.

“The fact that these lunatics have used the Churchill myth to bring our country closer to nuclear war than at any moment in history disgusts me, and should terrify every American,” he said in a text message to CNN. “They’re warmonger freaks. They don’t get the moral high ground.”

But numerous columnists have pointed out inaccuracies in Cooper’s remarks, including his assertion that the Nazis “went in with no plan” for housing millions of prisoners of war “and just threw these people into camps, and millions of people ended up dead there.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, denounced Carlson’s interview with Cooper as “truly revolting.”

“The Nazis’ extensive network of concentration, forced labor, and death camps was part of Hitler’s deliberate plan to exterminate the Jewish people. Inmates didn’t just ‘end up dead’ and they did not ‘surrender,’” he said Wednesday.

In the year and a half since Carlson was fired by Fox News, the former primetime host turned internet vlogger has stoked controversy and garnered embarrassment through his web videos and speaking appearances. On Musk’s X and on his subscription video website, Carlson has interviewed radical figures including Alex Jones and others, offering a big platform to fringe voices and seemingly delighting in the outrage that ensues.

Despite the condemnation, Carlson has continued to be embraced by the Republican Party, which gave him a prime time speaking slot at last month’s party convention in Milwaukee.

Carlson is also undertaking a live speaking tour this fall with events across the country. Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee, JD Vance, is scheduled to appear with Carlson at a Sept. 21 event in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a person familiar with the plans told CNN.

Several conservative columnists have raised questions about whether Vance will move forward with the appearance in light of the Cooper controversy. In a statement, the Vance campaign sought to distance the candidate from the interview.

“Senator Vance doesn’t believe in guilt-by-association cancel culture but he obviously does not share the views of the guest interviewed by Tucker Carlson,” Vance campaign spokesperson William Martin told CNN in a statement.

CNN’s Alayna Treene contributed reporting.

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By Liam Reilly and Brian Stelter, CNN

New York (CNN) — A.G. Sulzberger, the New York Times publisher, sounded the alarm Thursday on the “quiet war” against press freedoms unleashed by authoritarians around the world and said Americans should understand the anti-media “playbook” that Donald Trump might employ in a second term.

In an op-ed published by one of the Times’ main rivals, The Washington Post, Sulzberger warned that Trump and his allies have repeatedly threatened the press and said he wanted the Times “to ensure we are prepared for whatever is to come.”

“My colleagues and I have spent months studying how press freedom has been attacked in Hungary — as well as in other democracies such as India and Brazil,” he wrote.

The techniques include “sowing public distrust in independent journalism and normalizing the harassment” of journalists to create a “climate hospitable to crackdowns on the media;” using government authorities, like taxation, “to punish offending journalists and news organizations” while rewarding “those who demonstrate fealty to their leadership;” and filing meritless lawsuits and exploiting the courts to make it more costly to report the news.

“The effectiveness of this playbook should not be underestimated,” Sulzberger wrote.

The Times publisher said he didn’t wish to wade into politics, but Trump’s anti-press words and actions – declaring media outlets the “enemy of the people” and suggesting the use of government to quash dissent – must be taken seriously.

“I believe the risk is shared by our entire profession, as well as all who depend on it,” he wrote.

In championing the need for trustworthy news and information, Sulzberger called on his peers to bolster protections, which includes teaching staffers how to protect themselves and their sources, preparing for legal fights and harassment, and pushing back against campaigns that seek to unjustly undermine trust in news media.

Sulzberger occasionally writes essays to prompt journalism industry dialogue about key issues. Last year, he wrote for the Columbia Journalism Review about the debate around objectivity in journalism. This year, with Trump’s anti-media rhetoric again front and center, he wanted to write about what an escalating campaign against the American press could look like.

Sulzberger approached it as a summer project of sorts.

“To ensure we are prepared for whatever is to come, my colleagues and I have spent months studying how press freedom has been attacked in Hungary — as well as in other democracies such as India and Brazil,” he wrote in the essay. “The political and media environments in each country are different, and the campaigns have seen varying tactics and levels of success, but the pattern of anti-press action reveals common threads.”

Sulzberger thought extensively about the best way to publish the essay — whether in the pages of The Times or elsewhere. He wound up placing it with the Post, an unorthodox move given the long history of competition between the two publications. The collaboration makes a clear statement about the importance of solidarity in the face of existential threats to press freedom.

“I’m grateful to The Post for running the piece, especially given the length (and the suspect institutional affiliations of its author,” he wrote in an email to associates on Thursday. “They’ve been a great partner on the cause of press freedom over many decades and it’s great to see that tradition continue.”

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By Krystal Hur, CNN

New York (CNN) — The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies — the coalition of the world’s top oil producers known as OPEC+ — said Thursday that it is extending oil production cuts once again as crude and fuel prices continue to slump.

The countries making up the organization will extend their production cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day through November and plans to phase out those voluntary cuts beginning in December until November 2025, OPEC+ said in a Thursday release.

This isn’t the first time OPEC+ has extended output cuts in a bid to boost crude prices. The group in June lengthened the 2.2 million barrels per day cut through the end of September. That same month, OPEC+ extended a cut of 1.65 million barrels per day announced in April 2023 until the end of 2025.

Oil prices rose initially but settled slightly lower Thursday. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the US benchmark, settled at $69.15 barrel. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, settled at $72.69 a barrel.

Oil prices have declined this year despite continued output cuts and ongoing geopolitical tension in the Middle East. Concerns about waning demand in China, the world’s largest oil importer, have helped keep a lid on prices, as has record output from the United States. US oil fell below $70 a barrel Wednesday for the first time since December 12, 2023.

OPEC+ has restrained output for about two years in an effort to prevent a huge supply surplus that could weigh on prices and hurt the oil-dependent economies of its member states.

In June, the International Energy Agency said that a glut of oil supply could weaken the sway OPEC+ has over oil prices. Global oil supply could outstrip demand by a “staggering” 8 million barrels per day by 2023, according to forecasts published by the agency in its medium-term oil market report.

The agency said in July that it expects global oil demand to grow by 970,000 barrels per day in 2024, up slightly from its 960,000 barrels per day forecast the prior month. In May, the IEA had projected demand to grow by 1.1 million barrels per day.

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CNN’s Anna Cooban contributed to this report.

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By Hanna Ziady, CNN

London (CNN) — Britain’s competition watchdog is investigating Ticketmaster over concerns the company treated customers unfairly when selling tickets to the upcoming Oasis reunion tour.

The probe presents a fresh headache for Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation, which also faces an antitrust lawsuit in the United States that could force a breakup of the firm, one of the world’s biggest concert promoters.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority said Thursday that it would investigate whether fans were informed that the tickets could be subject to so-called dynamic pricing, where a business adjusts prices based on factors such as demand.

“While the practice is not automatically unlawful, it may breach consumer protection or competition law in certain circumstances,” the CMA said in a statement. The authority will also consider whether people were pressured to buy tickets quickly at a higher price than they understood they would have to pay.

“Consumer law is clear — ticket sales sites must be transparent in their dealings with consumers and give clear and accurate information about the price people have to pay,” the CMA added.

The authority said that, depending on the evidence, it could close the investigation, secure undertakings from Ticketmaster to address concerns or take legal action against the company. The CMA will be given the power to levy fines only when the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act comes into force later this year.

A spokesperson for Ticketmaster said the company was cooperating with the CMA.

Fans trying to buy tickets over the weekend to the British rock band’s 2025 tour complained on social media of inflated prices, long waits and error messages on Ticketmaster’s website.

One individual posted on X that he had waited five hours to buy tickets only to receive a message that read: “Your session has been suspended.”

Fans should be “treated fairly” when buying tickets, CMA CEO Sarah Cardell said in Thursday’s statement. “It’s clear that many people felt they had a bad experience and were surprised by the price of their tickets at check-out.”

A Ticketmaster spokesperson told CNN on Saturday that the company does not set ticket prices. According to Ticketmaster’s website, promoters and artists set prices, which can either be fixed or based on demand.

The ticket-buying process for big concerts has often drawn angst from buyers. Ticketmaster faced public scrutiny in November 2022 for its handling of the massively popular Taylor Swift Eras Tour.

It was also caught in controversy after a blunder relating to sales of tickets for a concert to celebrate the ascension of King Charles to the British throne.

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By Krystal Hur, CNN

New York (CNN) — Wall Street is eyeing what could be the most consequential economic data report in months due out Friday.

Inflation has cooled significantly since the Federal Reserve began aggressively hiking interest rates more than two years ago to tame it. That’s led the central bank to shift its focus to the other side of its dual-mandate: maximizing employment.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last month that “the time has come for policy to adjust,” all but cementing a rate cut in September. Now, it’s just a question of whether the central bank will ease rates by a quarter- or half-point later this month.

Friday’s jobs data will be critical in that determination. At the same time, Wall Street is looking for signs that the job market is cooling steadily, rather than plummeting into conditions for a recession. Economists project that US employers added 160,000 jobs and that the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2% in August, according to FactSet consensus estimates.

Preliminary data has shown that the job market is continuing to cool. Payroll processor ADP reported Thursday that hiring cooled more than expected in the US private sector, with businesses adding just 99,000 jobs last month.

“We’re in a ‘good news is good, and bad news is bad’ environment, and markets are still trying to figure out if the economy is slowing too much, and whether the Fed is behind the curve,” wrote Christopher Larkin, managing director of Morgan Stanley’s digital brokerage product E*Trade, in a Thursday note.

That uncertainty has been palpable in recent days as Wall Street parsed several economic reports before Friday’s main event. Stocks ended the day mixed Thursday and on pace to end the week lower. The Dow has fallen 1.9% this week, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have lost 2.6% and 3.3%, respectively.

On Tuesday, all three major US indexes logged their worst day since last month’s global markets rout. That was after a new report from the Institute for Supply Management revealed economic activity in the manufacturing sector contracted in August for the fifth consecutive month in August, renewing fears that the US economy is on shaky footing.

Stocks struggled to find direction on Wednesday after fresh data revealed that job openings fell in July for the second-straight month to an estimated 7.67 million, down from 7.91 million in June and marking their lowest level since January 2021.

“Against this backdrop, it’s very easy for equity markets to react adversely to even the slightest piece of perceived bad news,” wrote BeiChen Lin, investment strategist at Russell Investments, in a note this week.

Big Tech shares gained Thursday, but suffered steep losses earlier this week. Artificial intelligence titan Nvidia’s steep losses have also helped drag down the market this month. The chipmaker on Tuesday shed $279 billion of market value on Tuesday alone. The stock has tumbled 10.2% this week as investors grow uncertain about whether or not the stock has more room to run and whether corporations’ hefty investments in AI products and technology will contribute to their bottom lines.

Shares of other tech heavyweights have also fallen. Alphabet shares have dropped 3.8% this week, Apple shares have tumbled 2.9%, Meta Platforms shares have lost 0.9%, Amazon shares have declined 0.3% and Microsoft shares have fallen 2.1%. Tesla, the only Magnificent Seven tech stock up for the week, has jumped 7.5%.

Elsewhere, oil prices are lower for the week on concerns about weakening demand in China, despite the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies announcing another extension of oil output cuts on Thursday.

As stocks settle after the trading day, levels might change slightly.

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By Alicia Wallace, CNN

(CNN) — The US economy appears to be on a knife’s edge, and Friday’s jobs report will be the deciding factor as to the next direction.

The August jobs report is expected to provide some much-needed clarity as to whether the labor market is slowing gracefully or spiraling quickly as was indicated by the recent weeks’ bleak batch of employment data.

“The next set of job numbers released this week will be among the most consequential in a while,” Tuan Nguyen, US economist at RSM US, wrote in commentary issued Wednesday.

Economists are expecting that the August report should reaffirm that the labor market is merely cooling versus outright weakening. Consensus estimates are for a net gain of 160,000 jobs, a solid increase from July’s estimated 114,000 gain, and for the unemployment to dip to 4.2%, according to FactSet estimates.

But forecasting is far from an exact science — especially since the pandemic threw all rules and data out of whack — so the official report could prove to be monumental in determining the health of not just the labor market but the economy as a whole.

And, not to mention, it’s coming at a critical time for the economy: The Federal Reserve is expected to shift gears this month on monetary policy and enact the first rate cut since the central bank started its inflation-fighting tightening cycle 30 months ago.

Key factor in a Fed rate cut

Until last month, a “soft landing” (taming inflation without hurtling into a recession) appeared all but certain. Inflation had cooled, and the labor market was rolling right along and doing its part to keep consumers spending and the economy churning.

But then the July jobs report and a subsequent annual data revision painted a much bleaker picture of the employment outlook, sending a violent reaction through the stock market as fears escalated that the once strong labor market — and the economy — were buckling under the crushing weight of high interest rates.

Economists have struck a more tempered tone, noting that labor force participation remains steady and that the pullback in hiring was not accompanied by a sharp increase in layoffs. Separate unemployment indicators have agreed, showing that jobless claims — and, by proxy, layoffs — remain muted.

Friday’s jobs report should provide further reassurance that the labor market is merely softening and not collapsing, economists predict. Either outcome, however, could ultimately determine the size of the Fed’s next rate cut.

“The labor market has downshifted into a low gear, but there’s nothing that stands out as being a flashing red signal,” Karin Kimbrough, chief economist at LinkedIn, told CNN in an interview. “It would be a mistake to define the labor market as being excessively weak at this stage.”

Instead, the signals indicate that the labor market has moved from being extremely strong and into better balance, she said.

“The question is whether it moves beyond that balance point into something that is very weak,” she said. “I don’t think we have signs yet that we’re in that stage where it’s very weak.”

Reducing hiring ‘can only go so far’

In the aftershocks of the July jobs report, a fairly humdrum weekly economic report — the Labor Department’s read on unemployment insurance claims — became must-see-TV.

However, the weekly claims numbers have been fairly ho-hum.

That was the case again, according to new Department of Labor data released Thursday.

There were 227,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits for the week ended August 31, that’s down 5,000 from the upwardly revised level the week prior. Continuing claims, which are filed by people who have received jobless benefits for at least a week or more, also trailed down by 22,000 to 1.838 million for the week ended August 24, according to the report.

“Companies are managing their costs and managing their headcounts by reducing hiring,” Oliver Allen, senior US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, told CNN.

US businesses are hiring at some of the lowest rates (outside of the pandemic) since 2014, according to the recent months’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey reports from the BLS.

On Thursday, new data from payroll processor ADP showed that hiring dropped off dramatically in the private sector.

Employers added just 99,000 jobs, a total that came in well below economists’ estimates for a 141,000 net gain and under July’s tally that was downwardly revised by 11,000 to 111,000 jobs added.

It’s the lowest monthly gain reported by ADP since 2021.

And the outlook is looking grim as well: US employers have announced 79,697 hiring plans through August of this year, the lowest year-to-date total since 2005, according to new data released Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

“That can only go so far; you can only cut your gross hiring to zero,” Allen said. “At some point, if pressures start to mount, then you have to start considering layoffs.”

Fresh data released Thursday, however, suggests that some companies — and the tech industry in particular — were indeed moving forward with layoffs.

US-based employers announced 75,891 job cuts in August, according to Challenger’s latest monthly report. That’s a sharp upswing from July’s 12-month low of 25,885.

However, when compared to August 2023, last month’s announcements were only 1% higher, Challenger noted.

Technology firms accounted for more than half of the announced job cuts. Of those 39,563 tech cuts, 5,943 were attributed to artificial intelligence, according to the Challenger report.

“August’s surge in job cuts reflects growing economic uncertainty and shifting market dynamics,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “Companies are facing a variety of pressures, from rising operational costs to concerns about a potential economic slowdown, leading them to make tough decisions about workforce management.”

Some key indicators to watch

Although the labor market may not be on the verge of an imminent collapse, it likely cannot withstand any more months of 23-year-high interest rates, Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

“The labor market is no longer cooling down to its pre-pandemic temperature… it’s dropped below it,” he wrote. “The labor market is past moderation and trending toward deterioration. The Federal Reserve has indicated that it has shifted some attention away from inflation and toward the health of the labor market, which is good, but it needs to take action soon.”

But even if rates start moving downward as soon as this month, it not only may take some time before the labor market feels it but also there’s still plenty of lagging monetary policy that still needs to be worked off, Pantheon’s Allen said.

“As much as the Fed might not want to see more deterioration, the simple fact is they have already raised rates a very long way, left rates at a high level for quite a while, and monetary policy obviously operates at a lag,” he said. “So, I think some further deterioration is already in the pipeline.”

Beyond the topline payroll and unemployment numbers, there are several other metrics within Friday’s jobs report that could show the direction of travel, economists note.

Hours worked: The length of the average workweek is viewed as an economic bellwether. If businesses experience a drop-off in demand, they’ll typically cut hours before making more drastic moves. The average workweek fell slightly in July to 34.2 hours from 34.3 hours.

Labor force movement: The number of people re-entering the labor force to look for work shows underlying sentiment about the strength of the jobs market; however, it does bump the unemployment rate higher.

Temporary layoffs: Part of the rise in July unemployment reflected a spike in temporary layoffs that was the third largest since 2000 (excluding Covid), wrote Bank of America economists in an investor note Wednesday. The economists cautioned that these “could turn permanent. However, they said they expect this trend to have been reversed in the August report, noting the increase was likely driven by the “summer auto retooling-related volatility in Michigan.”

Weather effects: In the July jobs report, the BLS noted that Hurricane Beryl “had no discernible effect” on the national employment and unemployment data. However, the weekly jobless claims data has shown some increases in unemployment, particularly in Texas, Mike Skordeles, head of US economics at Truist, told CNN. “We know that there were distortions there,” he said.

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By Hanna Ziady, CNN

London (CNN) — A record number of firms plan to cut advertising spending on X next year because of concerns that extreme content on the platform could damage their brands, dealing another blow to the financial fortunes of Elon Musk’s social media company.

A global survey by market research firm Kantar found that a net 26% of marketers plan to decrease their spending on X in 2025, the biggest recorded pullback from any major global ad platform. Only 4% of marketers overall think X ads provide “brand safety” — certainty that their ads won’t appear alongside extreme content — compared with 39% for Google ads, Kantar said in a report Thursday.

“Advertisers have been moving their marketing spend away from X for several years,” Gonca Bubani, Kantar’s global thought leadership director for media, said in a statement, adding that “a turnaround currently seems unlikely.”

“X has changed so much in recent years and can be unpredictable from one day to the next — it’s difficult to feel confident about your brand safety in that environment.”

Consumers, on the other hand, feel more positive about ads on X because there are fewer than there used to be, according to Kantar.

The findings suggest that Musk’s charm offensive at the world’s largest annual advertising festival, Cannes Lions, in June hasn’t succeeded. During an interview with Mark Read, the CEO of the marketing giant WPP, the billionaire struck a conciliatory tone after telling advertisers last year to “go f**k yourself.”

He agreed that advertisers “have a right to appear next to content that they find compatible with their brands.”

But his attempts to woo advertisers appear short-lived. Last month, Musk filed a lawsuit against an influential ad industry body — whose members include Unilever, Mars, and CVS — claiming the group conspired to “boycott” X.

In a statement Thursday, an X spokesperson said the platform “now offers stronger brand safety, performance and analytics capabilities than ever before, while seeing all-time-high levels of usage.”

The spokesperson added that X’s “brand safety rate is on average 99%, as validated by DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science,” companies that analyze the value of digital advertising placements.

Since Musk’s $44 billion takeover in 2022, big brands have retreated from the platform, formerly known as Twitter, over concerns about content moderation and uncertainty over the platform’s direction.

Musk’s own comments on Xhave also spooked advertisers. Last November, about a dozen prominent brands — including IBM, Disney, and Paramount — halted ad spending on X over concerns about antisemitism and hate speech, not helped by the fact that Musk himself had endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory. He later apologized.

The Kantar report, which was based on interviews with 1,000 senior marketers and 18,000 consumers in more than two dozen countries, alsofound that X scored outside the top 10 brands for trust and for the perception of how innovative advertising on the platform is.

According to the report, YouTube remains the ad platform marketers most prefer, while, for consumers, Amazon and TikTok share the top spot.

Separately, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said earlier this week that the world isn’t obliged to put up with Musk’s “far-right anything goes” agenda because of his immense wealth.

Brazil blocked X over the weekend following an order by the Supreme Court because Musk refused to appoint a new legal representative in the country. The move escalated a months-long feud over what constitutes free speech, as Brazil cracks down on the spread of misinformation online.

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By Olesya Dmitracova, CNN

London (CNN) — Luxury brand Burberry is dropping out of Britain’s main stock index after suffering a steep fall in value following a plunge in sales and profits.

The 168-year-old brand will leave the FTSE 100, which brings together the 100 most valuable companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, as a result of a quarterly review, the exchange said in a statement Wednesday.

The fashion house is now valued at £2.23 billion ($2.93 billion), 56% less than it was worth at the end of last year, as its share price has slid on the back of what one analyst has called a “long losing streak” with sales and profits.

Spending on luxury goods has been slowing globally but particularly in the world’s no. 2 economy China, hitting not only the likes of Burberry but also higher-end brands.

In July, the company replaced its chief executive — who had spent just two years in the role — after another disappointing quarter. It also warned that profit in the financial year ending in early 2025 was likely to be lower than expected and scrapped its dividend for the year.

The company, best known for its trench coats and purses, saw sales tumble more than 20% in the April-to-June period, signaling another tough year ahead. In the year ending on March 30, 2024, Burberry’s profit plunged 34%.

“We are taking decisive action to rebalance our offer to be more familiar to Burberry’s core customers whilst delivering relevant newness,” the company’s chairman Gerry Murphy said in July. “We expect the actions we are taking, including cost savings, to start to deliver an improvement in our second half.”

While the brand’s troubles have been partly blamed on its direction, many of the world’s best-known luxury companies are struggling. Their woes mostly reflect a striking turnaround in spending by Chinese shoppers, who had splurged on premium goods after pandemic restrictions in the country were finally lifted.

Anna Cooban contributed to this article.

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By Matt Egan, CNN

New York (CNN) — Former President Donald Trump wants to spend trillions of dollars on tax cuts. His plan to pay for that is alarming some mainstream economists.

Trump proposed sweeping tariffs on all $3 trillion worth of imports into the United States, including a 60% tariff on imports from China and a 10% across-the-board tariff on imports from other nations.

Recently, Trump doubled down on the threat, saying he is considering tariffs of up to 20% on most imports in a bid to protect working-class jobs and punish what he labels unfair trading practices.

In theory, the unprecedented tariff hikes could raise trillions of dollars, funds that would help cover the cost of the tax cuts. However, many economists warn that those tariffs could backfire – badly – by raising prices on American families, killing jobs and setting off a global trade war.

It’s part of the reason Goldman Sachs in an analyst note this week said Trump’s economic policies – particularly on trade – would cause America’s economy to shrink. By contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic policy proposals would grow the economy, Goldman Sachs predicted.

Goldman and other experts fear Trump’s tough proposed trade tactics could worsen the affordability crisis in America.

“It’s one of those magical economic proposals that can actually cause inflation and put you into a recession – at the same time,” David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, told CNN in a phone interview.

Kelly warned that tariffs are a “perfect stagflation machine,” threaten to scramble supply chains and invite a punishing response from trading partners.

“It’s a two-year-old’s mentality: You punch someone in the nose and expect them not to punch you back,” he said.

‘Terrible economic policy’

Trump plans to detail his economic vision for America during a major address on Thursday at the New York Economic Club.

The speech comes as a new CNN poll finds that economic issues remain the biggest concern for voters, with an average of 39% of likely voters across six battleground states choosing it as their top issue.

Trump’s trade proposals could be equivalent to a $3 trillion tax hike, warned Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the center-right think tank the American Action Forum.

“It’s enormously protectionist and terrible economic policy,” said Holtz-Eakin, who served as an economic adviser to former President George H.W. Bush and an adviser to the 2008 presidential campaign of GOP Sen. John McCain.

It’s hard to know how much of Trump’s tariff talk is a negotiating tactic and how much he intends to enact if he were reelected, noted Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

“But even just a step in that direction is problematic. It’s a very bad idea. If there is anything that most economists can agree on, it’s that tariffs are bad,” Zandi said.

Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt disputed the economists’ assessments in a statement to CNN.

“So-called economists and experts doubted President Trump’s economic plans in his first term. They were proven wrong then and they’ll be proven wrong again… President Trump successfully imposed tariffs on China in his first term AND cut taxes for hardworking Americans here at home – and he will do it again in his second term,” Leavitt said in the statement. “President Trump’s plan will result in millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars returning home from China to America.”

Harris’ campaign accused Trump of lying to Americans about his policies.

“Donald Trump is denying this broad, bipartisan consensus, ‘hoping that most economic analyses of his ideas are dead wrong’ and blatantly lying to the American people about the severe costs and consequences of his economic plans,” Brian Nelson, a top economic adviser to Harris, wrote in a memo obtained by CNN.

Tariffs could cost families $2,600 a year

Trump has championed tariffs as a way to help working-class Americans by protecting workers from unfair trade practices and as a negotiating tactic to reach more favorable trade agreements. However, some experts fear they will do the opposite.

Trump’s call for a 20% across-the-board tariff combined with a 60% tariff on China would cost the typical middle-income household more than $2,600 a year, according to updated estimates published last month by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

That’s up from the researchers’ previous estimate of $1,700, which was based on a 10% tariff.

Importantly, these estimates do not factor in the impact from potential foreign retaliation, slower economic growth or lost competitiveness that a global trade war could cause. The actual impact could be far higher.

And the pain would not be evenly divided among families, the Peterson Institute found: Although households in all five income quintiles would lose money from the Trump tariffs and tax cuts, the lowest earners would be hurt the most.

“The losses are greatest for those at the bottom of the income distribution,” researchers Kimberly Clausing and Mary Lovely wrote in an August update. “The top 1 percent would experience net gains in income because losses from tariffs are more than offset by Trump’s proposed tax cuts.”

Trump-imposed tariffs on imported solar panels, steel and aluminum and Chinese-made goods have cost Americans more than $230 billion, according to US Customs and Border Protection.

And US states more exposed to US tariffs on imports from China experienced “lower increases or even decreases” in employment and output between 2018 and 2019, according to a study from St. Louis Federal Reserve economists.

But tariffs on Chinese goods have become popular on both sides of the aisle. Notably, the Biden-Harris administration has kept in place most of the Trump-era tariffs. In May, President Joe Biden announced increased tariffs on $18 billion worth of Chinese goods, including electric vehicles, solar cells and computer chips.

Harris has not detailed specific plans for ramping up or dialing back tariffs.

The cost of the Trump tax cuts

Trump has called for extending his signature 2017 tax cuts, which expire next year if no action is taken by Congress.

Trump has argued that extending the tax cuts will boost the economy, create jobs and help families. However, researchers from Princeton University, the University of Chicago, Harvard University and the US Treasury Department earlier this year found that while the 2017 tax law boosted investment in the American economy and helped to modestly increase wages, the tax cuts did not pay for themselves.

In any case, extending the tax cuts would be an expensive proposal.

Extending the individual income tax provisions from the 2017 tax law alone would cost $3.4 trillion over a decade, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Model. By contrast, Harris’ economic plans would cost between $1.2 trillion and $1.4 trillion over a decade, as of Penn Wharton’s latest model, which did not account for policy proposals Harris made this week.

Trump has suggested cutting the corporate tax rate again, dropping it from 21% to 20% or even 15%. The Penn Wharton model estimates a cut to 15% and extending the business tax provisions of the 2017 law would pile on another $1.2 trillion in costs.

Beyond the tax cut extension, Trump has also proposed eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits. That would cost $1.2 trillion over a decade, according to Penn Wharton.

The Trump campaign has not detailed significant spending cuts or tax hikes to offset these tax cuts.

The Penn Wharton model does not incorporate the revenue benefits from the potential tariff hikes, noting that key implementation details are “missing” and cautioning that the consequences of a new trade war could be costly.

“While new import taxes on tariffs could raise several trillion dollars in new revenue over the next decade, they could also lead to revenue losses due to potential retaliatory actions from other governments and other economic dynamics,” the report said.

CNN’s Katie Lobosco contributed reporting.

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Location can impact health more than genetics. These initiatives are improving rural health care access.

A split screen digital illustration; the left side has a white silhouette of a stethoscope in the background with an overlay of rows of doctors walking toward the right-hand photo, which shows a hand holding a horseshoe magnet toward the doctors, with a rural windmill in background.

When it comes to health, our genes mean a lot: They carry our families’ history of diabetes or cancer, make us more susceptible to certain diseases, and impact our blood type. While genetics play a large part in health outcomes, they are only one piece of a complex puzzle. Based on recent examination, it’s clear that what public health experts call the social determinants of health are just as, if not more, influential in determining health outcomes.

Social determinants of health include economic stability, access to and quality of health care and education, social and community context, and environmental and geographic factors.

Living in a rural area intersects with many of these social determinants. There is frequently less economic stability, communities are more spread out, and drives to school are longer. Obstacles to health care access are far more prevalent than in more populated areas. Longer wait times, provider shortages, and fewer resources devoted to health care are several barriers to accessing medical professionals in rural communities. What’s more, fewer people in rural areas have health insurance than their urban and suburban counterparts.

Within rural areas, significant racial and ethnic disparities in health persist. Black and Indigenous Americans living in rural communities face much worse health outcomes than white rural residents due to inequities that impact wealth, access to education, and living and working conditions.

Only 10% of physicians practice in rural areas, though 20% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, according to 2017 government data. In areas without enough physicians for the population—places designated Health Professional Shortage Areas—existing health issues often go undiagnosed and untreated for longer, emergency medical situations require long commutes, and there are fewer specialists to treat specific issues.

Doctor shortages have long been a part of rural life—medical students and doctors frequently go to school and practice in more heavily resourced urban or suburban areas. For rural patients, this lack of access to medical care can be distressing, frustrating, and psychologically damaging.

Medical schools and state and federal governments have taken steps to remedy these shortages. Hospital Care Compare dove into government data, public health research, and news coverage to investigate the reasons behind rural doctor shortages and how these shortages are being addressed.

Medical schools invest in students with the hopes they’ll put down rural roots

Various recruitment programs and incentives exist to attract physicians to rural areas where doctors are few and far between. Within about 40 medical schools and counting, organizations have created rural training tracks to attract medical students to practice rurally and prepare them adequately for this kind of work.

Part of these programs include outreach before students arrive at medical school—or even prior to them deciding to be doctors. A number of studies have shown that physicians are more likely to practice in rural areas if they come from a rural place, but students with rural upbringings are significantly underrepresented in medical school programs. These programs frequently recruit from rural community colleges and four-year schools to foster interest in medical school and attract more students from rural backgrounds to pursue medicine.

Once in these programs, students have more opportunities to train in rural communities than the average medical student. They complete their rotations and residencies in small communities and learn about the scope of rural practice, often broader than the scope for physicians in urban areas with more specialized practitioners.

In addition to rural-specific tracks and training programs, there are incentives for medical students pursuing rural practice, such as loan repayment programs for doctors. Federally, the National Health Service Corps has a loan repayment program for health care providers working in communities impacted by the opioid epidemic. Certain states also offer similar programs, promising loan repayment or forgiveness in exchange for a certain number of years of service within rural communities.

Another type of incentive aims to attract international medical students attending school in the U.S. to rural areas. These programs, known as J-1 visa waiver programs, allow students to live in the country on J-1 visas and practice immediately in the U.S., waiving the usual requirement that they return to their home country for at least two years—as long as they practice rurally in a designated Health Professional Shortage Area.

Although these programs are sometimes effective in getting physicians to rural areas, evidence is scant regarding the success rates of keeping them there.

According to a 2023 review of rural physician recruitment programs and incentives, little is known about the retention of doctors practicing in rural communities, and minimal resources and incentives remain available for doctors who stay in rural positions. Many physicians leave rural areas once they have completed incentives or service commitments, often leaving communities in a similar situation as they started.

Existing information about rural health care providers points to the importance of adequate preparation for rural practice and small-town living, as well as strong community bonds to keep physicians rooted in rural areas. Studies show that preparing doctors for a rural lifestyle, as well as giving them rural rotations, can improve retention rates. Integrating doctors into the communities they serve through nonwork-related engagement can also boost the likelihood of providers staying put in rural areas.

Story editing by Alizah Salario. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn.

This story originally appeared on Hospital Care Compare and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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5 tips for sustainable fashion that won’t hurt the environment or your pocketbook

Woman sorting through clothing.

We’ve all seen them: stores and websites that offer a colorful, seemingly endless rotation of every style of clothes at impossibly low prices. Brands like Forever 21, H&M, Uniqlo, and Zara are at the forefront of the rise of “fast fashion,” mass-producing clothes at lightning speed to provide consumers with a constant flow of cheap options.

But fast fashion is wreaking havoc on the environment, causing ecological harm at every stage, from production and shipping to disposal. The UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion estimates that fast fashion accounts for up to 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions. That’s more than all emissions from international flights and ocean transport combined. Clothing and textile waste—which fast fashion produces en masse—is the fastest-growing category of waste in the country. Globally, more than $100 billion of clothing material is wasted annually, according to a Circular Fibres Initiative analysis.

Along with its environmental harm, fast fashion is a source of widespread human rights abuses. The quick turnaround and high production quantity are only possible due to low pay, long hours, and unhealthy labor conditions for workers, often those in majority world countries. The average worker employed by a fast fashion producer receives only half a living wage, and those numbers drop even lower for women and children. Shein suppliers alone have been reported to mandate 18-hour days with no breaks and pay workers a meager 3 cents per item produced.

Ultimately, the cost of fast fashion is very high, even though the price on the tag is tantalizingly low.

The good news? There’s a way to be fashionable without feeding this harmful system. And you don’t have to overhaul your whole closet to get started either.

The RealReal put together five tips for sustainable fashion that will lower your impact on the environment—and your wallet. From how you buy clothes to how you take care of them and even the thought you put into designing your wardrobe, there are plenty of small lifestyle changes you can make while still having fun with your style.

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Try to avoid buying from fast fashion outlets

Woman shopping in trendy fashion store.

Although their low prices can be tempting, avoiding fast fashion from brands like Shein, Zara, Temu, and Fashion Nova can benefit your budget and the environment. These brands produce hundreds of new styles per week (with Shein topping 1,000), generating massive waste.

Many of these garments are made from polyester, which generates triple the amount of greenhouse gasses to produce compared to cotton and can take up to 200 years to decompose. And that’s not even taking into account shipping: many fast fashion retailers are online-only and depend on worldwide shipping to reach consumers, resulting in harmful greenhouse gas emissions; Shein and Temu send around a combined 600,000 packages to the U.S. daily, according to a June 2023 U.S. Congress report. Once a fast fashion item reaches its destination, its lifecycle is nearly over—on average, it will last no more than 10 wearings.

In short, even though fast fashion might be cheaper to purchase, over the long run, your wallet will thank you for investing in more durable pieces. At the same time, the best way to practice sustainable fashion is to wear the clothes you have, so don’t rush to throw out any fast fashion pieces you may already own. Instead, take good care of them so they’ll last as long as possible.

Dmitry Naumov // Shutterstock

Explore the booming secondhand clothing market

Person looking at jackets in a second hand store.

Shopping secondhand is a great way to give used garments another life, and it’s often much more affordable than buying new. On average, consumers who shop at thrift stores can save around $150 a month, or $1,760 a year. Thrift stores aren’t your only option either. Vintage stores sell unique pieces from decades past, and there is a growing marketplace of online clothing rental services that allow shoppers to rent clothes at a fraction of their purchasing price, wear them, and then return them to be passed onto a new wearer.

When buying a piece of clothing for good, try the 30 Wears Challenge by pausing to consider whether you’d wear the item at least 30 times before you hand over your credit card. Of course, it’s even better to see yourself wearing it forever!

This isn’t to say that you need to exclusively shop secondhand or overhaul your entire wardrobe; if every shopper bought just one used piece of clothing instead of a new one this year, a cut in the production of new clothing could lower CO2 emissions by more than 2 billion pounds and save 23 billion gallons of water.

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Prolong your clothes’ lifecycle

Person doing laundry reading clothing label care symbols.

Taking proper care of your clothes extends their lives, meaning you’ll spend less money—and expend less environmental waste—replacing them. Many habits require little effort but can make all the difference in how long your wardrobe lasts, like washing denim inside out, using a steamer instead of an iron, or investing in a fabric shaver for knitted clothes.

The care instructions inside your clothes provide valuable information for proper care, including the best temperatures and cycles for machine washing different fabrics or whether to take the time to wash them by hand. Drying your clothes correctly is also important, as fabric breakdown accounts for 29% of clothes that are thrown away.

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When clothes no longer fit, don’t discard them—alter them

Person making alterations to clothes, top view.

We all fluctuate in size throughout our adult lives—but if we threw out our clothes and bought a new wardrobe every time this happened, we’d be harming both our wallets and the environment. Instead, learning some basic sewing skills could save you time and considerable money, while reducing waste.

Another option is to take your clothing to a local tailor. While alterations may seem pricey, they can save you money over the long term and provide a dependable fix to ensure you don’t have to part with your favorite sweater. Increasingly, brands (including Patagonia, MUD Jeans, and Chaco) offer repairs to the items they sell, making them last longer. Even extending your clothes’ life span by just one or two years can decrease your fashion carbon footprint by 24%.

New Africa // Shutterstock

Condense and simplify your wardrobe

Woman choosing clothes from an edited wardrobe.

The average person wears only a fraction of their closet regularly—as little as 10%-20% by some estimates. Put simply, many people own much more clothing than they actually need. Taking a thoughtful look at your wardrobe and narrowing it down to some key, tried-and-true pieces can keep you from splurging on new clothes that you won’t actually wear. For instance, many of us swap out our clothes depending on the season, but investing in pieces you can layer year-round can reduce or eliminate this need.

A capsule wardrobe can be a great approach. The term refers to a minimalist closet filled with a small number of versatile pieces (often around 30) that can be easily mixed and matched to create a variety of outfits. Experts advise taking time to go through your wardrobe and ask yourself if what you own is comfortable, fits your personal style, and pairs well with the rest of your clothing.

Story editing by Mia Nakaji Monnier. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Paris Close.

This story originally appeared on The RealReal and was produced and
distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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By Hadas Gold, CNN

New York (CNN) — A coalition of media organizations, including CNN, has petitioned a Nevada court to open up the secret proceedings surrounding a legal battle over the future of billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

The New York Times, Associated Press, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, Reuters and CNN filed a motion Wednesday in the Second Judicial District Court in Nevada to make public the proceedings, objecting to the case being so extensively sealed that it doesn’t even appear on any court schedule or docket.

The Murdoch family, famous for helming one of the world’s most influential media empires that includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and outlets in Australia and the UK, is locked in a secret court battle over succession and control of the future of the family business, according to a New York Times report published in July citing sealed court documents.

According to the report, Murdoch, the 93-year-old patriarch, filed a petition late last year to amend the irrevocable family trust that would have given equal voting shares to Murdoch’s eldest four children. Instead, Murdoch wanted to grant exclusive control to his eldest son and chosen successor Lachlan, according to The Times.

Lachlan, who is more politically aligned with his father’s conservative views than his siblings, took over as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corporation last September. Citing the court documents, which CNN has not independently seen, the Times reported that Murdoch felt handing Lachlan control of the media businesses he founded would better protect their value following his death by maintaining its right-wing editorial bent.

But the entire process has been completely sealed in Nevada, with even the existence of the proceedings kept in secret.

“Nevada’s courts are accountable to the public, and the public is entitled to know whether the trust at issue is being administered in accordance with the law,” the filing stated. “Certainly, an entire matter cannot be sealed such that its very existence is not a public record, even if all parties to the litigation agree. Rather, the court must apply the presumption of access and make specific findings to underpin any sealing.”

The filing argued that completely sealing the proceedings “meets neither the substantive nor procedural requirements imposed by the constitutional right of access,” and any concerns over privacy could be met with redactions.

According to the Times, the trust only allows changes that are done in good faith with the purpose of benefiting all heirs. A trial to decide whether Murdoch is acting in good faith is expected to begin in September.

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By Chris Isidore, CNN

New York (CNN) — Most of the 10,000 hotel workers who went on strike during the busy Labor Day weekend have returned to work Wednesday, but one group of 700 union members in San Diego will stay on strike for the foreseeable future.

Those workers, employed at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, will remain on strike until there is a contract agreement, their union, Unite Here, says.

The Hilton San Diego Bayfront will remain open during the strike, just as all of the hotels that were targeted by the work action remained open during the weekend, spokespeople for the hotel chains told CNN ahead of the walkouts. Guests had to deal with noisy picket lines and reduced service from skeleton crews working in the hotels, which included Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott properties.

The union and members say that in many cases workers are now being paid less than before the pandemic due to reduced hours and tips, even as travel demand returns and profits in the hotel sector soar.

“During Covid, everyone suffered, but now the hotel industry is making record profits while workers and guests are left behind,” said Gwen Mills, the union’s international president, in a statement Wednesday. “Workers aren’t making enough to support their families, and many can no longer afford to live in the cities that they welcome guests to. We won’t accept a ‘new normal’ where hotel companies profit by cutting their offerings to guests and abandoning their commitments to workers.”

The union wants services such as daily room cleaning restored. The union says lack of daily room cleaning not only inconveniences guests but makes housekeeping jobs more difficult since each room requires more work to clean when they have gone days without being serviced. It also reduces the number of housekeeping jobs by 39%, according to the union.

The affected hotel companies all say they remain committed to reaching fair deals with the union, and that they are doing what they can to make sure guests are not inconvenienced by the strike.

The strike, which affected as many as 25 hotels in nine US cities over Labor Day weekend, was planned as a limited duration walk-out. Unite Here has used that strategy in previous strikes, including one at 65 hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties, California, that started on July 4 weekend last year. The union later staged a series of rolling strikes at different properties in subsequent months, often tied to busy travel periods, such as when Taylor Swift came to Los Angeles for several concerts.

Even with the work action, it took the union until this year to reach what it says are record contracts with most of the Southern California hotels that were impacted.

The union has not ruled out using the same rolling strikes strategy this time, or expanding the strike to other locations. Union members at a total of 65 hotels nationwide had authorized astrike going into this past weekend.

The limited duration strikes are a relatively new strategy for US unions, but they’re common in some other countries, notably in Europe. The strategy is intended to help workers keep as many days of pay as possible during a contract negotiation. Beyond the hotel workers, limited duration strikes have been used to win labor deals for school employees in Los Angeles, health care workers at Kaiser Permanente, janitors, nursing home employees and other workers in Minnesota who went on strike together in March.

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By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

New York (CNN) — Chipotle is already getting into the Halloween spirit.

The fast-casual chain announced a costume collection with Spirit Halloween Wednesday, the seasonal Halloween costume store that pops up every year in abandoned storefronts. The collection is made up of bodysuits that are meant to resemble a Chipotle napkin, fork, water cup, burrito and to-go bag.

Chipotle is building off a running online joke. Two years ago, it posted a fake “Chipotle Fork” bodysuit with the caption “Found ur costume.” Then last year, another fake “Chipotle Napkin” costume showed up on its Instagram.

Chipotle is not the first brand to materialize a joke. In January, Burt’s Bees and Hidden Valley Ranch sold out of a set of lip balms that taste like a basket of chicken wings in a day – it originally started out as an April Fool’s joke.

These gag products aren’t meant to pad a corporation’s bottom line or even bring in a huge amount of sales. The Chipotle Fork costume, for example, is just a plain black, polyester bodysuit.

Mostly, they’re clever marketing ploys meant to garner social media attention, and Chipotle capitalized off an already popular online joke before. In 2022, it launched a lemonade-scented soy candle that looks like a water cup, poking fun at customers who fill up complimentary water cups with lemonade at the restaurant.

The costumes will go on sale starting September 6^th and retails for $39.99 in the US and Canada. The sizes range from adult small to XL. Though the costumes will be available online for everyone, they will only be at select Spirit Halloween locations in Chicago, Denver, Egg Harbor Township, N.J., Los Angeles, and New York.

Chipotle has long been in on Halloween. Last year, it was offering $6 burritos for certain patrons on October 31st.

Retailers are also rolling out Halloween products earlier and earlier, suggesting the season is a sector inflation-weary customers are willing to splurge on.

“Our popular Halloween tradition, Boorito, began with a burrito-themed costume contest and now we’re taking it to the next level with the launch of our first-ever costume collection in collaboration with Spirit Halloween,” said Chris Brandt, chief brand officer at Chipotle in a statement.

The collaboration comes at a pivotal time for the restaurant chain. In August, struggling Starbucks poached Chipotle’s CEO Brian Niccol, who had previously and successfully turned around both Chipotle and Taco Bell. Chipotle’s revenue has surged more than 800% over the past five years of Niccol’s leadership.

The chain’s chief operating officer, Scott Boatwright, became Chipotle’s interim CEO.

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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Mount Franklin Foods, LLC just acquired assets from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based Stuffed Puffs, LLC.

Mount Franklin Foods makes candy, mint, and nut products, operating brands such as Azar Nut, Sunrise Confections, and Hospitality Mints.

Mount Franklin Foods paid an undisclosed amount for the acquisition, which is effective immediately.

Stuffed Puffs, LLC makes marshmallow products filled with chocolate and other candies, launching in 2019. Grammy-nominated artist Marshmello invested in the brand.

"We are thrilled to join the Mount Franklin Foods family," said Michael Tierney, Founder & CEO of Stuffed Puffs. "With a shared vision for the future of Stuffed Puffs, our strategic alignment with Mount Franklin Foods, together with its scale and resources, will be a major unlock for us to accelerate our growth trajectory and innovation pipeline."

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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- DeadBeach Brewery just announced the release its new Miner BrewTM, the official craft beer of the UTEP Miners. The beer will launch on Friday, September 6, 2024, both at Miner Palooza and at the first UTEP football home game.

The locally-brewed beer is the first-ever specialty beer made for UTEP, according to DeadBeach.

The brewery first teamed up with UTEP Athletics in 2021, a partnership that has been building up to this point, organizers say.

"We began discussing brewing this beer, which could be mass-produced in our new facility," said DeadBeach Brewery founder and owner Jason Hunt. "Now that our facility is open and pumping out beer cans, we were able to make this dream beer a reality. A portion of the proceeds from this beer will go directly back to UTEP. So, get your picks up, and let’s get ready to celebrate an incredible year of UTEP Athletics. Go Miners!”

The Miner beer is described as a 4.1% ABV Blonde Ale that was specially brewed to compliment your next tailgate or after-game party.

“We wanted to make a beer that would resonate with any beer drinker in our community; a Blonde Ale is known for its crisp, traditional taste," DeadBeach founder and head brewer Gabriel Montoya said. "We made sure that the ABV on the beer was low so that it could be enjoyed through the games with ease."

For the launch, organizers will offer tastings of the new beer at both Miner Palooza and at the first home football game.

"The beer will be available thereafter at UTEP Athletics' games and at the DeadBeach tavern," officials say.

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By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

New York (CNN) — Meta’s Oversight Board has found that the phrase “From the River to the Sea,” used to express Palestinian support, did not break the company’s hate speech policies.

Critics of the phrase, which refers to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, say that it calls for the abolishment of the Israeli state. The Anti-Defamation League accused the slogan of being antisemitic and a “rallying cry (that) has long been used by anti-Israel voices, including supporters of terrorist organizations such as Hamas.”

But the chant is also frequently used at pro-Palestinian demonstrations by protesters who say it is to call for equal rights and an independent state for Palestinians. It can refer to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who are restricted in their movements and from visiting Jerusalem.

The Board said it reviewed three cases involving the use of “From the River to the Sea” on Facebook and said that all appeals to remove the content were closed without human review. Those users then appealed to the Board, which exists for users to challenge Meta’s appeals process on Facebook, Instagram or Threads.

“Specifically, the three pieces of content contain contextual signs of solidarity with Palestinians – but no language calling for violence or exclusion. They also do not glorify or even refer to Hamas, an organization designated as dangerous by Meta,” the decision said. The posts and comments also didn’t contain threats of violence or physical harm.

Though the majority of the Board agreed the phrase has multiple meanings, the decision noted that a minority believed it glorifies Hamas because it appeared in the group’s 2017 charter.

“The phrase’s use by this terrorist group with explicit violent eliminationist intent and actions, does not make the phrase inherently hateful or violent – considering the variety of people using the phrase in different ways,” the Board said.

The Board said the decision underscores tensions in protecting free expression and political speech.

In June, a Palestinian-American engineer sued Meta, accusing his former employer of discriminating against pro-Palestinian speech and wrongfully firing him when he investigated those issues.

“The employee was dismissed for violating Meta’s data access policies, which we make clear to employees will result in immediate termination,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement to CNN at the time.

The company said it is expanding on its hate speech policies. In July, Meta said it would remove posts that have the term “Zionist” when used in conjunction with antisemitic tropes or dehumanizing rhetoric.

“These cases have again underscored the importance of data access to effectively assess Meta’s content moderation during conflicts, as well as the need for a method to track the amount of content attacking people based on a protected characteristic,” the decision said.

The chant had been contentious even before the Israel and Hamas war, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians after Hamas’ October 7th attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostage. For example, in 2018 CNN said it severed ties with a liberal pundit after he called for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.”

But new attention has been drawn to the chant as protesters call for an end to the war, and the phrase is frequently used at protests ranging from college campuses to large cities. In Germany, using the slogan “From the river to the sea” is now a criminal offense. In December, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a discrimination complaint on behalf of a Black Muslim Arab American teacher in Maryland after she was placed on administrative leave for her email signature, which contained the slogan. US Congress member Rashida Tlaib was censured for using the phrase.

The slogan used in the cases had wide reach through Meta’s platforms. In one case, a likely AI-generated image of floating watermelon slices that formed the slogan was viewed about eight million times and reported by 937 users.

CNN’s Brian Fung, Alaa Elassar and Jennifer Henderson contributed to this report.

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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The following list ranks the best burgers in El Paso, according to El Pasoans. Scroll down to the bottom to find out what the highest-rated burger in the Sun City is.

This list was compiled using community member ratings on Yelp.

8. DeadBeach Brewery

Breweries, Restaurants

"Stunning place! The building itself is so beautiful. Lots of small details to look out for. Food was so delicious. Recommend the that's my jam burger. I got a side of corn in a cup for just $3, definitely worth it. Service was amazing. Our server Ari was super friendly and attentive. Made my family and I feel welcomed and happy. Will be going back soon!"

Marissa G.

7. Star Burgers & Fries

Food Trucks, Burgers

"I've wanted to write this eloquent review about this place since the day I ate there, but every time I begin to write i feel as if though I don't quite make the burger justice. So I will try and keep this as simple as possible.

Growing up in Juarez, this burger tastes like the "idea" of what an American burger should be and taste like. From watching characters on tv to movies the way this burger tasted and looked was everything I had dreamed of.

A smash burger wonderfully done with cheese. Their other tier burgers are pretty amazing, but their og and star of the show is the one you should try. Add the toppings later, and for the first time enjoy what a perfect cheeseburger SHOULD taste like."

Sherman T.

6. Orange Cow Burgers

Food Trucks, Burgers

"This is burger heaven. Stop reading this and start driving. You will not make a mistake by coming here. The meat is fresh and amazingly seasoned and it is complemented by fresh, abundant toppings. What really sets it off is the signature moo sauce and the onion jam. I usually don't like "mystery" sauces because it can really ruin things, but please try the burger as it comes without alterations. This is not just a burger joint, this is instead a burger lab that has developed a perfected burger science. The fries are more basic but still very solid. I am definitely visiting often. I imagine that this place appeals to burger newbies as much as it does to burger experts."

Lawrence T.

5. The Hoppy Monk - El Paso

Gastropubs, Beer Bar, Cocktail Bars

"Finally tried a burger here after reading the reviews here. I am happy to say that it lived up to the hype. I had the Duchesse burger and it was amazing. Onion Jam, cheddar, and great tasting patty. In my opinion the flavor of the meat is what makes or breaks a burger...and I don't mean the seasoning that's added when I say flavor. A truly good burger could be eaten completely plain, zero toppings and still be just as good. I hate when a restaurant tries to compensate for a bland meat patty with a plethora of toppings. It doesn't help any in my opinion. The toppings here just made it all the better. Exactly the burger I hoped to find here. They also have a great selection of beer flights that give you a nice sampling of the goodness they have available on tap. They only serve these before 6 before they get busy so make sure to go early if you want to try these. Mmmmm.... so happy right now after that great meal."

Christy B.

4. Chase the Taste

New American, Burgers, Barbeque

"Food was hot, but tasted perfect. Service was quick. Ambiance was fine. It was quiet.
My food was to go and there was one couple with two kids. So I was in and out.
I ordered a Boracho burger. The guy who took my order gave me a drink while I waited. Before I left, he filled it up !!! That's service. I always say " keep your customers in your place as long as possible. While they're there, make them feel at home. Give them free stuff. It's not going to make any difference to you. It will pay off in the long run !! " Most people don't understand this concept!!!!"

Pete H.

3. Rosco’s Burger Inn

Burgers, Diners

"Every time someone makes a "Best Burger in El Paso" award and doesn't give it to Rosco's I get angry. The burgers here are the undisputed best burgers in El Paso year after year. This is a family owned and operated burger joint with a lot of history. Rosco's has been open for as long as they have for a reason. For years they've been getting it right. Even the staff has been around for years. Their customer service is consistently good every time. They don't serve anything fancy but have a basic menu items like chili cheese fries, hamburgers, and cheeseburgers but the menu does have some oddities like their caldillo and the hot dog burger style. Their signature green salsa makes you wanna put it on everything. I always order the cheesebasket (cheese burger and fries) and a lot of napkins. Whenever I have an out of town relative visit i always tell them they must try a Rosco's burger! And just like the staff shirts say, "7 days without a Rosco's burger makes one weak!". Burgers are always tough to describe since its part of our culture to consume and often. However if you're an El Pasoan or visiting you need to go experience for yourself!"

Eddie P.

2. El Doggy Kitchen

Hot Dogs, Burgers

"Decided to give El Doggy a try. Totally impressed. The food was amazing and the customer service was excellent as well. Nice clean dining area."

Andrew B.

1. Blazing Tree Brewery

Breweries

"Good beer, good food and staff is friendly. I would definitely come back. Their burgers are the best I've had in El Paso so far!"

Jojo C.

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Highest-rated Mexican restaurants in El Paso by diners

Just like cuisine from any country, Mexican food is not monolithic. It isn’t just combo plates and tacos. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that style of food; it’s delicious and is responsible for popularizing Mexican food in the United States.) But Mexican food means more than that.

It reflects Mexico’s diverse population—shaped by waves of immigration—and has proliferated throughout the U.S., showcasing the cuisine in all its complexity and regionality. Mexico has 32 distinct regional styles of cooking, and thanks to immigrant chefs and the rise of promising culinarians of Mexican descent looking to share their signature dishes, Indigenous foodways, and ingredients from various regions, diners are reframing their idea of “Mexican food.”

According to a Pew Research Center analysis of SafeGraph data, 1 in 10 restaurants in the U.S. serve Mexican food, and nearly 9 out of 10 U.S. counties have at least one Mexican restaurant. The analysis also reveals that California and Texas are home to a majority of the Mexican American population and together host 2 out of 5 Mexican restaurants in the country.

These findings serve as a testament to the influence Mexican cuisine has had and continues to have in America. Which begs the question: Where does one go for the best old-school Mexican restaurants, loncheras slinging tacos out of a half-window, and innovative modern Mexican food pushing culinary boundaries?

To help you out, Stacker compiled a list of the highest-rated Mexican restaurants in El Paso using data from Yelp. Only restaurants with at least five reviews were considered. Data is current as of January 2024.

Keep reading to see if your favorite spot made the list.

Note: The photos in this article are stock images and do not necessarily depict the specific restaurants listed or the dishes they serve.

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#30. Jala-PIN-os Cafe

– Rating: 4.5/5 (5 reviews)
– Address: 11144 Pelicano Drive El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican, Burgers, Chicken Wings
– Read more on Yelp

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#29. El Jacalito Restaurante

– Rating: 4.5/5 (70 reviews)
– Price level: $
– Address: 2130 Myrtle Ave. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican, Breakfast & Brunch
– Read more on Yelp

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#28. Paseo Del Sol

– Rating: 4.5/5 (29 reviews)
– Address: 4201 Alabama St. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican, Breakfast & Brunch
– Read more on Yelp

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#27. Su-Casa Restaurant

– Rating: 4.5/5 (43 reviews)
– Price level: $$
– Address: 2030 East Yandell Drive El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#26. Dia De Los Pescados

– Rating: 4.5/5 (69 reviews)
– Address: 1491 Lee Trevino Ste B El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Food Trucks, Seafood, Tacos
– Read more on Yelp

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#25. Accá

– Rating: 4.5/5 (6 reviews)
– Address: 710 Noble St. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican, Bars, Sandwiches
– Read more on Yelp

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#24. Sandtrap Restaurant

– Rating: 4.5/5 (9 reviews)
– Price level: $
– Address: 1510 Hawkins Blvd. Lonestar Golf Club El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#23. Barbacoa El Azul

– Rating: 4.5/5 (6 reviews)
– Address: 3010 George Dieter Drive El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#22. El Toro Bronco

– Rating: 4.5/5 (62 reviews)
– Price level: $$
– Address: 3825 North Piedras St. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#21. El Girasol Mexican Kitchen

– Rating: 4.5/5 (22 reviews)
– Address: 7500 North Mesa Ste 312 El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#20. Roll-In Flautas

– Rating: 4.5/5 (10 reviews)
– Address: 6190 Doniphan Drive Ste D El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#19. Mexican Cottage

– Rating: 4.5/5 (10 reviews)
– Price level: $
– Address: 904 Texas Ave. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#18. El Taquito Loco

– Rating: 4.5/5 (7 reviews)
– Address: 4100 North Piedras St. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#17. La Hacienda Del Amigo

– Rating: 4.5/5 (53 reviews)
– Price level: $
– Address: 207 Stock Yard Drive El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican, Cheesesteaks
– Read more on Yelp

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#16. Aaajiji Tacos and Beer

– Rating: 4.5/5 (22 reviews)
– Address: 1730 Montana Ave. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Tacos
– Read more on Yelp

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#15. Mariscos Central

– Rating: 4.5/5 (33 reviews)
– Address: 3214 Alameda Ave. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican, Seafood
– Read more on Yelp

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#14. El Taquito

– Rating: 5.0/5 (426 reviews)
– Price level: $
– Address: 1422 Airway Blvd. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#13. Don Chilaquil EP

– Rating: 5.0/5 (5 reviews)
– Address: 3535 North Mesa El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican, Breakfast & Brunch, Food Trucks
– Read more on Yelp

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#12. Ay Jalisco

– Rating: 5.0/5 (15 reviews)
– Price level: $
– Address: 14150 Horizon Blvd. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#11. Frontera Churros, Coffee, & Beer

– Rating: 5.0/5 (93 reviews)
– Address: 501 South Campbell St. Ste E1 El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican, Breakfast & Brunch, Beer Bar
– Read more on Yelp

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#10. La Estrella Meat Market & Kitchen

– Rating: 5.0/5 (6 reviews)
– Address: 5380 North Mesa St. Ste 104 El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Meat Shops, Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#9. Get Together

– Rating: 5.0/5 (8 reviews)
– Address: 209 East Mills St. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Tacos, Sandwiches, Desserts
– Read more on Yelp

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#8. Burro Time

– Rating: 5.0/5 (17 reviews)
– Price level: $
– Address: 7945 North Mesa St. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#7. Ensenada Restaurant

– Rating: 5.0/5 (22 reviews)
– Price level: $
– Address: 14281 Montana Ave. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#6. 4tacos 4tacos 4tacos

– Rating: 5.0/5 (34 reviews)
– Address: 9841 Montana Ave. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Tacos, Food Trucks
– Read more on Yelp

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#5. La Playa Seafood Restaurant

– Rating: 5.0/5 (7 reviews)
– Price level: $$
– Address: 7446 Alameda Ave. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican, Seafood
– Read more on Yelp

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#4. El Botanero Mariscos

– Rating: 5.0/5 (12 reviews)
– Address: 13468 Eastlake Blvd. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican, Seafood, Food Trucks
– Read more on Yelp

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#3. Juanita the Burrito Lady

– Rating: 5.0/5 (5 reviews)
– Address: 700 West San Francisco Ave. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican, Street Vendors
– Read more on Yelp

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#2. Paulinas Badlands Bar and Grill

– Rating: 5.0/5 (5 reviews)
– Address: 7792 Franklin Drive El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Bars, Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

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#1. Mexican Specialty Products-El Loco

– Rating: 5.0/5 (6 reviews)
– Address: 3600 Alameda Ave. El Paso, Texas
– Categories: Mexican
– Read more on Yelp

This story features data reporting by Karim Noorani, writing by Cynthia Rebolledo, and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 327 metros.

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By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York (CNN) — Shein and Temu, two Chinese low-cost e-commerce websites, are the target of a proposed investigation by the United States government for selling “deadly baby and toddler products.”

Two leaders from the Consumer Products Safety Commission said in an open letter Wednesday that they want commission staff to look into how the two companies comply with US safety regulations.

Pointing to “recent media reports” that dangerous products sold for kids are easy to find on the websites, CPSC commissioners Peter Feldman and Douglas Dziak said they want to “better understand these firms, particularly their focus on low-value direct-to-consumer” shipments

One particular concern for the Commission is the companies’ use of “de minmis,” a rule that exempts shipments valued at $800 or less from tariffs. Much of the products sold on Shein and Temu are cheap and range from furniture to fast fashion.

“As the Commission sets its priorities for next year, we expect agency staff to investigate the companies’ safety and compliance controls; relationships with third-party sellers and consumers; and any representations they make when products are imported,” Feldman and Dziak wrote.

Shein said in a comment to CNN that customer safety is its “top priority and we are investing millions of dollars to strengthen our compliance programs.” Temu said that it “requires all sellers on our platform to comply with applicable laws and regulations, including those related to product safety.”

As the two companies grow in popularity, especially in the US, they’re also facing scrutiny and questions over a litany of issues, including how they’re able to sell goods at such strikingly low prices, how transparent they are with the public and how much environmental waste their businesses generate.

Last year, a US congressional commission called out Shein and Temu in a report that suggested the companies and others in China were potentially linked to the use of forced labor, exploitation of trade loopholes, product safety hazards or intellectual property theft.

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By Alicia Wallace, CNN

(CNN) — The number of available jobs in the US shrank more than expected in July, an indication that demand for workers continues to wane amid a cooling labor market.

Job openings fell in July for the second consecutive month to an estimated 7.67 million, from 7.91 million in June, according to new data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s the lowest number of openings since January 2021.

Economists were expecting that the July postings would total 8.1 million, according to FactSet consensus estimates.

Wednesday’s data is the first in a series of critically important economic metrics released this week about the US labor market, culminating with the Friday jobs report. With a hotly anticipated rate cut just two weeks away, Wall Street and Main Street are intently focused on whether a weakening labor market could mean a jumbo-sized cut.

All eyes are on the labor market

Job openings, which serve as a measurement of labor demand, have come down significantly from their record highs when the US economy was roaring back from the pandemic and the need for workers outstripped the immediately available supply.

As the labor market has slowed, it’s come back into balance: There are now nearly 1.1 jobs available for every person looking for one. That ratio hasn’t been this slim in more than three years.

Although the easing of job gains is something that has been expected, fears have grown recently that the labor market isn’t simply bending under the weight of Federal Reserve inflation-busting interest hikes — but it’s actually breaking.

The monthly jobs report for July showed gains of just 114,000 — far below expectations — and the unemployment rate shot to 4.3% from 4.1%. Separately, annual labor market data revisions showed job gains for the year ending March 2024 were less robust than initially thought.

Concurrently, inflation has greatly subsided, putting the Federal Reserve just weeks away from what is likely the first interest rate cut since the central bank began its inflation-busting tightening cycle more than two years ago, all eyes are on the slew of labor market data being released this week.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report, although more backward-looking than most of the data, provides a critical look at the churn within the labor market and whether turnover remains at healthy levels.

In July, hiring activity picked up after having plummeted the month before, with 5.52 million hires versus 5.25 million; and the number of people voluntarily quitting their job held fairly steady at 3.28 million versus 3.21 million in June.

While openings, hires and quits show a labor market that’s on stable ground, Wednesday’s JOLTS report wasn’t free of red flags: Layoffs and discharges spiked in July to 1.76 million, the highest monthly level since spring of last year, when tech layoffs were surging.

Despite the leap, the layoffs rate remained within the range seen during the past year and below historical averages, BLS data shows.

This story is developing and will be updated.

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By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York (CNN) — LL Flooring, formerly known as Lumber Liquidators, is going out of business after the bankrupt company failed to find a buyer to rescue the 30-year-old retailer.

As a result, LL Flooring will liquidate. Sales at its remaining 200 stores will begin on September 6, setting in motion an “orderly wind-down of operations” that will be completed in about 12 weeks. Roughly 2,000 workers will lose their jobs.

LL Flooring started out as Lumber Liquidators about three decades ago as a company that bought and sold excess inventory. The company expanded, and currently sells about 500 varieties of hard-surface floors. LL Flooring had more than 400 locations at its peak in 2018.

The company, which filed for Chapter 11 just three weeks ago, started closing 94 locations and began searching for a buyer. The retailer previously said it was in “active negotiations with multiple bidders.” However, in a new statement, the company said those “discussions have not resulted in an offer, with the necessary financing, that would maximize the value of LL Flooring.”

LL Flooring said instead that “a sale of the company’s individual assets, holding closing sales at our stores and winding down the business will deliver the most value to its creditors.”

“As a result, it is with a heavy heart that we must let you know that we are going to begin the process of winding down LL Flooring’s business and closing all of our stores,” the company said in a letter to customers. “This is not the outcome that any of us had hoped for.”

Customers’ flooring orders will be fulfilled within 30 days, the company said, but new installation appointments will stop after September 6.

LL Flooring changed its name from Lumber Liquidators in 2021 following a controversial few years.

In 2015, a “60 Minutes” investigation aired an undercover video showing the company’s suppliers saying that they provided the company products with formaldehyde that exceeded regulatory standards.

Three years later, Lumber Liquidators paid $36 million to settle class-action lawsuits brought by customers who bought the laminate between 2009 and 2015. The company did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement agreement.

In 2019, the company agreed to pay $33 million in penalties for misleading investors about the formaldehyde.

LL Flooring’s closure also adds to the growing list of well-known retailers disappearing because customers are cutting back spending on non-essential items.

That has resulted in furniture chains Z Gallerie and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams filing for bankruptcy within the past year, and Wayfair drastically reducing its workforce.

Conn’s HomePlus, a 134-year-old furniture and electronics retailer, recently filed for bankruptcy and is in the process of closing all of its stores. Most recently, Big Lots said it plans to shutter a quarter of its stores.

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By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York (CNN) — Nearly a year after McDonald’s ditched the hollow plastic spoon, more changes are coming for the McFlurry.

Beginning September 10, the chain is eliminating the plastic, dome-shaped lid and serving the ice cream treat in a new cardboard cup that has four flaps to cover the top.

The update is the latest in the company’s attempts at making environmentally friendly changes over the past several years. Reducing plastic has been a part of the company’s stated goals amid criticism of its ongoing pollution problems. In particular, plastic straws can increase ocean pollution and introduce microplastics that can harm marine wildlife.

McDonald’s set a goal in 2018 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its offices and restaurants by 36% between 2015 and 2030. In 2021, the chain switched out some of its plastic Happy Meal toys for 3-D paper-based toys that customers can put together themselves.

In 2023, McDonald’s phased out the McFlurry plastic spoon, which doubled as a spindle that inserted into a machine to mix in the toppings. The chain replaced it with a reusable spindle that was cleaned after every use and gave customers a smaller black spoon that uses less plastic.

Also rolling out next week is a smaller McFlurry serving size, called the Mini McFlurry, for customers looking for a petite or more budget-appeasing dessert option. The cups are half the larger size and will also be served in the new cups.

The changes to its menu are happening as the chain struggles with sagging sales. Diners are not going out to eat as often and spending less when they do, causing fast food sales to slow and restaurant traffic to dip.

In June, McDonald’s added a “$5 Meal Deal” that was originally intended to be for one month but was extended for several more weeks because of demand. Adding more value-minded items, like a Mini McFlurry, could help McDonald’s reposition the chain as a source for budget-friendly food.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said on its most recent earnings call that “it’s clear that our value leadership gap has recently shrunk” and that it’s “focused on the outstanding execution of delivering reliable, everyday value.”

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By Chris Isidore, Kayla Tausche and Arlette Saenz, CNN

Washington DC (CNN) — President Joe Biden is prepared to block Japan’s Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of US Steel, two sources familiar with the matter said, a move that would deal a major blow to the $14 billion merger that has become a lightning rod in an election year as candidates on both sides of the aisle vow to protect American manufacturing.

A White House official would not comment on the president’s decision but said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is investigating the proposed merger on national security grounds, has not transmitted its recommendations to Biden yet. The president would oppose the deal, one source said, if the CFIUS committee recommended the deal not go through or withheld a recommendation.

“CFIUS hasn’t transmitted a recommendation to the president, and that’s the next step in this process,” the White House official said.

Customarily, a final report from the committee informs a president’s view of the potential risks a deal poses. In this case, high-profile public opposition to a deal in advance of the report’s submission may end up influencing the recommendation the committee makes. Treasury chairs the committee, which is comprised of high-level officials from the president’s Cabinet agencies who are responsible for areas of national security.

One source said the president’s announcement could come as early as this week, but cautioned the timing remains fluid.

US Steel and Nippon Steel both indicated in statements that they’re open to legal fights to get the deal approved, no matter what actions is announced by Biden.

“We continue to stand by the fact that there are no national security issues associated with this transaction, as Japan is one of our most staunch allies,” US Steel said. “We fully expect to pursue all possible options under the law to ensure this transaction closes.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Nippon Steel said the company has not received any updates on the CFIUS process.

“Since the outset of the regulatory review process, we have been clear with the administration that we do not believe this transaction creates any national security concerns,” according to the statement. “US Steel and the entire American steel industry will be on much stronger footing because of Nippon Steel’s investment in US Steel – an investment that Nippon Steel is the only willing and able party to do so.”

And Nippon Steel indicated it was not ready to give up the fight: “Nippon Steel strongly believes that the US government must appropriately handle procedures on this matter in accordance with the law.”

The news, first reported earlier Wednesday by the Washington Post, is not a surprise as Biden is on record opposing the deal, even as it was being considered by members of his administration.

Shares of US Steel (X) closed down 17.5% on the news at $29.37, well below the $55 a share that Nippon Steel agreed to pay for the stock back in December when the deal was announced.

The president had previously outlined opposition to the deal in March, saying it is “vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.”

In addition to Biden’s stated opposition, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have all voiced opposition to the deal. Harris is the most recent to come out against the proposed purchase at a rally in Pittsburgh on Labor Day, in which she was introduced by Biden and spoke to members of the United Steelworkers union. The union has been a leading opponent of the agreement.

Threat to close mills if deal is blocked

But there are risks if Biden undertakes the action. Earlier in the day Wednesday, US Steel issued a statement threatening to close its mills with unionized workers if it doesn’t get approval of the unpopular deal, a move that could put pressure on the United Steelworkers union to reach an agreement with the two companies that would clear the way for approval of Nippon’s purchase.

The Justice Department is also conducting an antitrust review of the potential merger.

US Steel has said that the multi-billion dollar investment from its Japanese rival would go further in shoring up the company’s facilities and finances than it could afford on its own.

“Without the Nippon Steel transaction, US Steel will largely pivot away from its blast furnace facilities, putting thousands of good-paying union jobs at risk, negatively impacting numerous communities across the locations where its facilities exist,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. It said it might also move its headquarters away from Pittsburgh without the deal.

The company said the $2.7 billion that Nippon Steel has pledged to invest in its unionized mills outside of Pittsburgh and in Gary, Indiana, would support the future of manufacturing at those facilities.

“Those investments are subject to the closing of the transaction with US Steel and receipt of necessary regulatory approvals,” US Steel said. “A stand-alone US Steel would not make the same financial commitments.”

The USW responded by accusing US Steel of making “baseless and unlawful threats,” and “a last gasp and desperate effort to save a merger on life support.” It said CEO David Burritt’s “reckless statements and mismanagement are the only true obstacle to US Steel remaining a sustainable steel company.”

As for the promised investment by Nippon Steel in the union-represented facilities, the union said, “a press release is not a contract, and Nippon has shown that when it puts its promises in writing, it fills its proposals with so many conditions as to make its commitments worthless.”

The USW did not immediately responded Wednesday afternoon to requests for comment on Biden’s expected action.

It is also not immediately clear if the action by Biden would kill the deal for good or would simply give the two steel companies and the union a chance to negotiate a deal that would be acceptable to all sides.

If the latter is the case, the political opposition to the deal and Biden’s action would give the union some bargaining leverage as well. Without the union changing its position and supporting the deal, it’s unlikely that the political opposition to the deal will change.

But there’s reason to think that if deal is not completely dead, it could yet win approval not only from regulators but also from the union now firmly opposed to the deal – although experts who believe that could happen say it wouldn’t occur until after the election.

The union, for example, is using its current political leverage to get the best possible deal from Nippon and US Steel, including even stronger promises to keep US Steel’s mills that employ union members open and financial protections for anyone who does lose a job, said Philip Gibbs, a steel analyst for KeyBanc, in an interview with CNN ahead of word of Biden’s plans.

“This might be the best possible deal for US Steel,” Gibbs said. “If a change in ownership is perhaps inevitable, if all roads lead to attrition, why not try to maximize the safety nets in writing. They want to make sure their families are taken care of.”

‘The perception of the state itself’

The proposed purchase was bound to be unpopular. US Steel was once a symbol of American industrial might. It was the most valuable company in the world and the first to be worth $1 billion soon after its creation in 1901. It was also crucial to the US economy and the cars, appliances, bridges and skyscrapers that tangibly indicated that strength. Decades of decline later, it is no longer even the largest US steelmaker, and a relatively minor employer.

But it is still not a company that politicians who enjoy talking about the American greatness want to see fall into foreign hands.

There are relatively few steelworkers still working for the company in the crucial electoral battleground state of Pennsylvania. US Steel says it has more than 3,000 employees in the state in its remaining steel mills along the Monongahela River just outside of Pittsburgh. But the company has tens of thousands of retirees still in the state, and many more voters whose parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents may have worked in its mills. It makes the idea of a Japanese purchase of the once powerful US company a politically fraught move, said Gibbs.

“You’re not just talking about the perception of the steelworkers, it’s the perception of the state itself,” said Gibbs. “As a politician you have to say you’re not going to stand by and let the deal happen.”

To try to assure its US critics, Nippon Steel issued a statement Wednesday promising that US Steel would continue to have a board of directors made up mostly of American citizens, and that Americans would also be a majority of management at the company. It also said there would be no transfer of any of US Steel’s production capacity or jobs outside the United States.

Why the union doesn’t like the deal

The union is concerned that Nippon is more interested in US Steel’s nonunion plants that use electric furnaces to make steel by melting scrap, rather than in the unionized mills, known as integrated steel mills, that still make steel from its raw materials, such as iron ore.

“Nippon has shown through their own actions that they’re changing the way they operate in Japan,” Gibbs said about the shift from integrated mills to electric furnaces there.

The union says it doesn’t believe in the promises made by Nippon Steel so far and that it remains opposed to the purchase. It said it believes that Nippon is interested in using US Steel’s finishing mills to finish slabs of steel it would produce in Japan and ship here, rather than producing the steel slab in blast furnaces in America.

“Nippon still has not provided any true guarantees that our jobs, wages or benefits will be protected beyond the expiration of our current agreements in 2026,” said a union statement last month. It did not answer a question from CNN asking if it is still talking with Nippon and US Steel about dropping opposition to the deal.

If the union does drop its opposition, it becomes much easier for politicians to allow it go through, Gibbs said, even if they would likely want to wait until after the election.

CFIUS is supposed to look into the national security implications of deals, and many of the politicians who have come out opposed to the deal claim it would be a threat to the nation’s long-term economic health. A number of experts argue that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

“Given the US-Japanese alliance, Nippon Steel’s record, and the US steel industry’s existing weaknesses, it is difficult if not impossible to identify a national security risk that justifies opposing the merger,” said Michael Leiter, head of Skadden’s CFIUS and National Security Practices, in an interview with CNN ahead of word of Biden’s plans. “It is much, much easier, however, to identify a political risk, and regrettably that calculus is dominating the issue.”

– CNN’s Matt Egan contributed to this report

This story has been updated with additional reporting and context.

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States with the most assisted-living facilities per capita

Smiling elderly man and woman sitting at table, another senior couple in background sitting on sofa in white large room.

The United States is facing a caregiving crisis.

As America’s population ages and adults are staying active for longer, many are choosing to live in assisted-living facilities.

Assisted-living facilities offer 24-hour care but are less hands-on than nursing homes. They can offer the best of both worlds for a generation that values independence. Still, low staffing levels are causing facilities to raise prices and, in some cases, close their doors entirely, exacerbating an already severe care gap.

Residents of assisted-living facilities generally have their own apartments with shared amenities, offering more privacy and autonomy. They are also typically less expensive than nursing homes or home care.

Compare Home Health Care Agencies examined data compiled by the Department of Homeland Security’s Geospatial Management Office to find which parts of the country have the highest rate of assisted-living facilities per 100,000 residents over 65. While facilities have varying numbers of beds that can accommodate more patients, the number of facilities is used since bed data was not available for some states.

After dipping in 2020, occupancy rates at assisted-living facilities have largely recovered since the COVID-19 pandemic—faster than nursing homes and independent living communities. However, tough working conditions, like being able to lift patients and deal with stressed and angry family members, combined with low wages, have caused a workforce shortage.

Fewer nurses and other medical professionals on staff can lead to a lack of individual attention and care. To remedy this, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services implemented requirements in April 2024 to increase staff-to-patient ratios; however, senior living facilities say the new staffing rules, which will be phased in over the next five years, are onerous.

The result is a face-off between government regulations and the private sector, which has been criticized for maximizing profits while not meeting patient needs and, in some cases, abuse and neglect.

Compare Home Health Care Agencies

How states are preparing for an aging population

A map showing the number of assisted living facilities per 100,000 adults.

Since states, rather than the federal government, regulate assisted-living facilities, the quality and cost of care can vary greatly depending on location.

In Michigan, there is only one assisted-living facility per 100,000 residents over 65. According to a March 2024 State of Reform report, the state estimated that it is short 36,000 direct care workers, including certified nursing assistants, and that more than a third of nursing homes are turning away new patients every month.

Alaska, on the other hand, has the most assisted-living facilities per capita as more Americans decide to retire in the Last Frontier. In the last decade, the number of residents between 65 and 74 nearly doubled, according to the state’s Health Department, and developers have built facilities accordingly. However, the cost of care is among the highest in the nation. Alaskans pay about $7,250 per month for assisted living, 35% higher than the national average.

To rectify disparities, states have tried to boost home-based care by increasing workers’ pay and offering training programs. At the federal level, the Senate held its first hearing on assisted-living facilities in two decades in January, calling for increased oversight.

Since then, members of the Senate Special Committee on Aging have requested that the Government Accountability Office examine how much the federal government spends on assisted-living facilities each year. They are also soliciting information on quality and cost of care from families who have navigated the system.

Story editing by Alizah Salario. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Ania Antecka.

This story originally appeared on Compare Home Health Care Agencies and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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By Juliana Liu, CNN

(CNN) — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says the world isn’t obliged to put up with billionaire Elon Musk’s “far-right anything goes” agenda because of his immense wealth.

Lula da Silva made the remarks in an interview with CNN affiliate CNN Brasil published Monday, days after Musk’s social media site X was suspended in the country, making it inaccessible in a major market.

“The Brazilian justice system may have given an important signal that the world is not obliged to put up with Musk’s extreme right-wing anything goes just because he is rich,” the president said.

Lula da Silva’s comments are the latest salvo in a long-running feud with Musk over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation in the country. Over the weekend, Brazilians, including the president, bid farewell to X, with some posting links to their profiles on other social media platforms.

Brazil is an important market for X, which has struggled with the loss of advertisers since Musk acquired Twitter and renamed the platform last year. Some 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month, according to market research group Emarketer.

Access to the platform was blocked after Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the suspension of X nationwide, because Musk refused to name a legal representative in the country.

The court had previously issued orders to block multiple X accounts as part of the country’s sweeping investigation into the spread of misinformation online and hate speech aimed at undermining the country’s democracy.

Accounts that the platform has previously shut down on Brazilian orders include lawmakers affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy.

Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” has repeatedly claimed the court’s actions amount to censorship, and his argument has been echoed by Brazil’s political right.

Musk once again waded into Brazilian politics on Tuesday by sharing a link on X to an upcoming demonstration that bills itself as a march for “freedom, protesting judicial overreach and defending free speech.”

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CNN’s Duarte Mendonça contributed reporting.

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