A canine health startup called Loyal has now raised more than $250 million to develop drugs that could help dogsand perhaps one day humanslive longer, healthier lives.
The company on February 11 announced it had raised $100 million in Series C funding as it pursues FDA approval of LOY-002, a beef-flavored daily prescription pill designed to extend the healthy lifespan of senior dogs. The drug mimics some of the effects of a calorie-restricted diet in addressing age-related metabolic issues without requiring pet owners to cut their dogs food supply or curbing canine appetites.
People do not want their dogs to not have food motivation, because that’s how you train dogs, says Loyal founder and CEO Celine Halioua. How we domesticated dogs was sharing meals with them; losing that can actually really impact the dog-human bond.
But, of course, people do want to share that bond longer than the typical canine lifespan allows. Halioua started Loyal in late 2019 after a stint as chief of staff at The Longevity Fund, a lifespan-focused investment fund founded by Laura Deming and an early backer of Loyal. She says she realized that dog longevity drugs could one day lead to similar treatments for humans, since the species are similar in many ways, and are easier to test, since dogs short lives mean tests of lifespan extension can be run in a shorter amount of time. And as a dog lovera recent interview with Fast Company also included Haliouas freshly adopted Rottweiler, Wilmashe also saw the potential market among owners and pets.
Celine Halioua [Photo: Loyal]
It felt like a really tractable way to work on a problem that everyone cares about, which is having too little time with the dogs you love, she says.
LOY-002 is one of three canine longevity medications under development by the company, and Halioua says shes hoping Loyal can submit the final requirement for the FDAs expanded conditional approval of the drug this year. That would likely start a roughly six-month review process of what would be the first FDA-approved lifespan extension drug for any species. And its progress comes as interest rises overall in the potential of developing medical treatments that can help humans as well experience longer and healthier lives.
When I started pitching The Longevity Fund in 2013, it was a niche concept and people laughed me out of their offices, Deming tells Fast Company in an email. Now it’s a legitimate category of investment.
Loyals Series C backers include Age1, a new longevity-focused VC firm cofounded by Deming and Alex Colville, as well as Baillie Gifford and other existing investors in the company, which had previously raised more than $150 million in investments.
LOY-002 is Loyal’s lead drug program, developed to extend lifespan in senior dogs. It is currently in clinical trials and is advancing through the regulatory pathway towards FDA Expanded Conditional Approval (XCA) [Photo: Loyal]
Aging is something that really affects everybodyevery human and every dog on the planet experiences aging, Colville says. And I think that’s something that’s really unique about it as an opportunity and a space to work in.
Already, LOY-002 has met two of three milestones for FDA approval, known as the target animal safety and reasonable expectation of effectiveness sections of its conditional approval application. The final milestone involves demonstrating that the drug can be consistently manufactured at scale, Halioua says. The drug will likely be labeled for use by dogs at least 10 years old weighing at least 14 pounds, she says. Dosing, and thus costs, will depend on animal size, but Halioua says shes optimistic the average dog will be able to take the drug for less than $100 per month.
The company announced last July that it had completed enrolling dogs in a study it calls STAY, designed to test the effectiveness of LOY-002, which Halioua says is the largest-ever animal health clinical trial. Loyal has enrolled roughly 1,300 dogs in the study through 72 veterinary clinics, and Halioua says shes hoping theyll find that the drug confers at least one healthy to participants.
Loyal also has two other dog drugs, a vet-administered injection called LOY-001 and a daily pill called LOY-003, in the works. Though Halioua says the company hasnt publicized the exact biological mechanisms beyond the drugs, she says would look to extend lifespans of larger dogs by targeting a growth hormone thats correlated with a shorter life, with big dogs usually living a shorter time than their smaller counterparts.
[Photo: Loyal]
Once the dog is fully grown, you can then reduce the levels of growth hormone to hopefully extend their healthy lifespan and kind of compensate for the historical genetic issue that we gave them when we selectively bred for size, says Halioua.
If all goes well, those drugs could launch a year or two after LOY-002, she says. And if Loyals drugs prove helpful to dogs, they could one day lead to similar treatments for humans.
If we’re able to do something helpful for dogs, I think we’re going to learn a lot about how to do something helpful for humans, too, says Halioua.
In the wake of a January Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing from Saks Global, owner of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, the luxury retailer has begun to close a number of stores across its portfolio of brands. Last month, for instance, the company announced the shuttering of many of its outlet stores.
But now, the Saks Global has announced the closure of some of its high-end department stores, for which the company is famous. Heres what you need to know.
Whats happened?
According to a court document filed this week with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, Saks Global has decided to close nine of its luxury department stores.
These announced closures come just weeks after the company announced it was shuttering many of its outlet stores, including many Last Call and Saks Off 5th locations.
The reason Saks Global has given for the shuttering of some of its flagship department stores is that the store closures will allow the companys global debtors to better serve their luxury customers, strengthen brand partner relationships and drive full-price selling to enable sustainable, profitable growth.
When are the department stores closing?
According to court documents, the department stores marked for closure will close their doors for good on approximately April 30, 2026, less than three months from now.
The company expects the store closing sales at the affected locations to begin around February 20.
The store closures are subject to approval from the judge presiding over the bankruptcy case. A ruling is expected to be made on Friday.
After the closure of these locations, Saks Global will have 35 Neiman Marcus stores and 25 Saks Fifth Avenue stores in operation.
Which Neiman Marcus stores are closing?
According to the court documents, only one Neiman Marcus store is closing:
Massachusetts: 5 Copley Place, Boston, MA
Which Saks Fifth Avenue stores are closing?
Unfortunately, Saks Global has decided to close significantly more Saks Fifth Avenue stores. The list includes eight locations in eight different states:
Alabama: 129 Summit Blvd, Birmingham, AL
Arizona: 2446 East Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ
Louisiana: 301 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA
New Jersey: Meadowlands Sports Complex, East Rutherford, NJ
Oklahoma: 1780 Utica Square, Tulsa, OK
Ohio: 1350 Polaris Pkwy, Columbus, OH
Pennsylvania: 2 Bala Plaza Bala, Cynwyd, PA
Virginia: 9214 Stony Point Parkway, Richmond, VA
Why is Saks Global filing for bankruptcy?
As Fast Company previously reported, the luxury department store owner has faced extreme financial difficulty in recent years. Like many brick-and-mortar retailers, the companys stores have seen declining foot traffic, especially after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, inflationary costs, tariffs, and increased online competition have all cut into the companys bottom line.
However, the major financial blow to Saks Global came when Hudsons Bay, Sakss previous parent company, acquired competitor Neiman Marcus in 2024 for around $2.7 billion. That move left the new company, Saks Global, saddled with debt.
Announcing last month that its bankruptcy process was underway, Saks Global CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck said the move presents a meaningful opportunity to strengthen the foundation of our business and position it for the future.
Job insecurity is real: More than half of American workers (54%) say insecurity about their job is causing significant stress at work, while more than a third (39%) say they worry they about losing their job due to changes in government policies, according to the American Psychological Associations 2025 Work in America survey. Layoffs are reportedly at an all-time high since 2009, along with the lowest hiring on record in the U.S. since that time. And many of those layoffs have been in white collar professionslike technology, government, journalism, and high education.
All of this could pave the way for the rise of a new kind of role: the “new-collar” job. Here’s what to know about the category that’s not quite white collar, or blue collar.
What are ‘new-collar’ jobs?
Falling somewhere between white and blue collar, “new-collar” jobs require more technical or specialized skills, but not a college degree. They can be learned on the job; at community college, vocational schools, or cybersecurity boot camps; and through a professional certification program, for roles in engineering, tech, or even healthcare.
The term was coined by former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty in 2016 (offering yet another example of how 2026 is the new 2016).
10 high-income ‘new-collar’ jobs
A new report from Resume Genius, a platform for job seekers, lists 10 roles that often dont require a four-year diploma, but still offer high pay and flexible work options.
They are:
Marketing manager ($159,660 median annual salary)
Human resource manager ($140,000 median annual salary)
Sales manager ($138,060 median annual salary)
Computer network architect ($130,390 median annual salary)
General and operations manager ($129,330 median annual salary)
Information security analyst ($124,910 median annual salary)
Sales engineer ($121,520 median annual salary)
Health services manager ($117,960 median annual salary)
Art director ($111,040 median annual salary)
Construction manager ($106,980 median annual salary)
Lawyers for social media companies will be working overtime in the coming weeks as several major trials get underway addressing the potential harms to children caused by popular sites and apps.
At the same time, efforts to deflect at least one major future case have fallen short, increasing pressure on tech giants to agree to an independent assessment of how they protect teen users. The convergence of these developments creates a potential perfect storm for the industry, one that could result in both financial damages and changes to the algorithms that encourage users to keep scrolling for longer and longer periods of time.
Much of the focus is on a bellwether trial in Los Angeles that seeks to hold Meta and Google responsible for harms suffered by children who use their products. Plaintiffs allege that services like Instagram and YouTube are designed to keep users, especially kids, engaged. Opening statements were held Monday, with the plaintiffs lawyer arguing that Meta and Google have engineered addiction in childrens brains. The case is widely seen as a test for future lawsuits with similar claims, of which there are approximately 1,500.
Meta and Google deny the charges. TikTok and Snap were also named as defendants but settled before the case went to trial.
As that suit began in Los Angeles, opening arguments were also heard in Santa Fe in a case brought against Meta by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez in December 2023. The lawsuit accuses the companys platforms of being a breeding ground for sexual predators, a claim Meta denies.
That trial, expected to last seven weeks, will determine whether Meta violated the state’s consumer protection laws. If we can win in this action and force them to make their product safer in this state, it changes the narrative completely about what they say is possible for everyone else, Torrez said.
Meanwhile, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California rejected a request by Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok for summary judgment in a case brought by Kentuckys Breathitt County School District. That case is part of a consolidated multidistrict litigation that seeks to hold social media companies accountable for engineering addictive features that negatively affect student mental health.
Section 230
At the heart of all these cases is how far courts are willing to extend the protections granted by Section 230, the federal law that shields social media companies from liability over content posted by users. The Los Angeles trial, along with the upcoming case in Northern California, argues that jurors should be able to consider whether the algorithms used by these companies are responsible for mental health harms, rather than focusing solely on the content shown on users screens.
Perhaps as a preemptive measure, TikTok, Snap, and Meta have agreed to undergo a series of tests overseen by the National Council for Suicide Prevention to evaluate how effectively they protect the mental health of teen users.
Among the issues that will be examined are whether the platforms force users to take a break and if they offer a way to turn off endless scrolling. Companies that perform well will receive a badge signaling that they offer a pathway to mental health support.
Potential ramifications
This is hardly the first time that social media companies have been taken to court over mental health claims. To date, none of those cases has resulted in any sort of major overhauls, however. At the same time, efforts in Washington and by state governments to regulate the industry have fallen short. Further complicating matters is a lack of consensus in the scientific community on whether social media is harmful for teens and kids on the whole.
Still, successful outcomes in these cases could force companies to change how people interact with their platforms, potentially reshaping the social media landscape. Victories for plaintiffs could also expose companies to significant liability payouts for harms linked to their services.
If the size of your failures isnt growing youre not going to be inventing at a size that can actually move the needle.
Jeff Bezoss wordswritten in a 2019 letter to shareholderssuggest a more clear-eyed view of the innovation process than the paradoxical perspectives of many other senior executives.
Oh sure, CEOs agree that innovation is important. In fact, 92% say its a top priority, according to a recent McKinsey article. But at the same time, more than 90% of CEOs say they do a lousy job at innovation. The reason for this confusing response can be boiled down to one major point, alluded to by Bezos:
Fear of failure.
Yes, fear of failureand wariness of the mixed messages they get from management. You cant expect people to take risks, challenge the status quo, and explore new ways of doing things when you measure them on hitting near-term targets with near-perfect accuracy. Innovation requires curiosity, experimentation, and learningthe trifecta I call, try, fail, learn. Inevitably, projects will fail; people will fail, too. Its normal, and its high time we normalized it in business.
Below are five ways you can put meaningful metrics in place to incentivize healthy risk-taking and smart failure in your organization.
1. Start Small: Create Rituals That Normalize Failure
Changing culture starts with small, visible experiments that make failure feel safe, expected, and even energizing. One of the simplest and most effective practices Ive implemented is what I call Fail-Free Fridays.
These are dedicated 60-minute blocks of time where teams meet weekly to talk about whats not working and share ideas about things they want to try. No PowerPoints. No success criteria. No approvals. The goal isnt to solve the problems or produce a breakthrough; its to openly discuss whats not going well and experiment with new ideas. Without fear.
How to make it measurable:
Track the number of problems discussed
Track the number of ideas generated
Track self-reported psychological safety (before and after)
Track cross-functional collaborations initiated during these sessions
2. Define What a ‘Good Failure’ Looks Like
Not all failure is equal: Experimental failure is necessary for learning and invention, whereas operational failure is due to poor execution, lack of discipline, or not following processes and procedures. Help your team by painting a picture of what good failure looks like. Find a recent example and do a post-mortem analysis by showing how the initiative:
Was aligned with strategic priorities
Was based on a clear hypothesis
Was a controlled experiment with defined parameters
Produced a documented learning
Informed future decisions
The next step is to measure the proportion of failures that meet these criteria.
Sample metrics might include:
% of failed projects with clear hypotheses
% of failed projects that produced specific, documented learnings
Estimated resource savings from ideas invalidated early
Time saved by early no-go decisions compared to traditional project lifecycles
3. Reward Learning Behaviors, Not Just Outcomes
Traditional performance reviews reward outcomes: sales targets met, product launches delivered, efficiency increased. These metrics reinforce predictabilitywhich is essential for operations but corrosive to innovation.
To incentivize smart failure, organizations must introduce behavior-based performance metrics tied to learning and experimentation.
Examples include:
Number of experiments initiated or proposed
Willingness to challenge outdated assumptions or raise contrarian ideas
Speed of testing a new ideahow quickly a team can test, learn, and adapt
Cross-functional collaboration and knowledge-sharing
One technique Ive used is integrating a Learning Objectives section into performance goals. Employees must identify one or two areas where they will experiment, explore, or test new approachesand leaders evaluate how intentionally and transparently they learn from the results.
Behavior-based metrics shift attention from Did you succeed? to How did you learn, and what value did that learning create?
4. Build Transparency Into the System: Share Failures Publicly with Leaders as Role Models
For failure to be normalized, it must be visible and leaders must be role models showing how it leads to learning and growth.
Examples of transparency-building mechanisms:
Town Hall or All Hands Meetings where the leader dedicates 15 minutes of the agenda to allow an employee to share a story of failure and learning (leaders can share their stories, too)
Monthly Lessons Learned Roundtables where teams briefly share one failed experiment and one insight
A digital Failure Dashboard highlighting experiments run, hypotheses tested, learnings extracted, and next steps
Internal newsletters profiling teams who tried something bold, failed smart, and moved the organization forward
Metrics here can include:
Number of learnings shared across business units
Participation rates in roundtables or learning forums
Cross-team adoption of insights
Repeat failure rate (a powerful metricif it decreases, organizational learning is improving)
5. Make Failure Economically Visible: Track the ROI of Learning
We talk a lot about Return on Investment (ROI) of new projects. Similarly, the most important, and most neglected step is quantifying the Return on Failure (ROF).
Leaders know that invalidating a bad idea quickly is just as valuable as scaling a good idea. In many cases, its more valuable. Early failure prevents wasted resources, prevents misaligned investments, and accelerates strategic focus.
Organizations can track:
Cost savings from early project termination
Time-to-decision (how fast the organization can rule in or rule out an idea)
Increase in pipeline throughput (better quality ideas lead to more opportunities making it to market)
Portfolio health metrics (percentage of projects in exploratory vs. execution mode)
The Cultural Shift: From Fear to Learning and Growth
The goal is not to create a workplace where failure is unbounded or unexamined. The goal is to create a workplace where learning is measured, rewarded, and operationalized.
When failure is treated as datanot deficiencyorganizations accelerate innovation, attract bolder thinkers, and build resilience into their strategy. They become more adaptive, mre opportunistic, and more capable of navigating uncertainty.
Leaders who want sustained growth dont ask, How do we avoid failure? They ask, How do we create more opportunities to learnand how do we measure the value of that learning?
The takeaways? Start small. Measure early. Reward curiosity. Make learning visible. Treat disciplined failure as a strategic asset.
Organizations that do this consistently dont just innovatethey grow, consistently and over time. Thats what successful failure can do for your business.
When COVID-19 hit, our business came to a sudden halt. One moment our calendar was full, the next, meetings and engagements were disappearing. Companies wed worked with for years shifted their focus overnight, pouring their energy into keeping doors open and team members safe. Like so many others, we found ourselves sidelinedand facing some hard conversations.
While uncertainty hung heavy in the air, our small team was unusually open with each other. We talked candidly about the challenges, the personal toll, and what it might all mean for the business. Without setting out to do so, we had built a foundation of psychological safetyone that made navigating a global crisis far less stressful than it might have been otherwise. We questioned our plans, admitted what we didnt know, and challenged each other with care. And in doing so, we learned something thats shaped how I work ever since: Psychological safety isnt a climate to be fostered when things are easy; its an operating condition that must be designed into the teams DNA for when things get hard. The true test isnt harmony, its conflict. Its about making it safe enough for people to be uncomfortableto disagree, to challenge the status quo, and to admit when theyve failed.
Gartner found that highly psychologically safe teams identify and address critical issues 15% faster. And while many people understand the concept, far fewer know how to make it real when trust declines and tension rises. Too often, its treated as a passive state instead of an active practice. The difference between the two is simple: A climate is a vibe, but an operating condition is a blueprint.
So, how do you move from a vague aspiration to a daily practice? It all starts with putting psychological safety first. Whether or not you manage people, each of us influences how safe it feels to speak up. Here are three ways to embed psychological safety into daily work, at any level:
MAKE DISAGREEMENT PART OF NORMAL WORK
Psychological safety has to be embedded into the way work gets done, not just something you hope people embody. That responsibility doesnt sit solely with managers. Anyone can help shape norms around how ideas are challenged, discussed, and improved.
When I start working with someone new, I hold a candid one-on-one conversation to set mutual expectations. I might say, My promise to you is transparency and a willingness to provide proactive feedback. You can also expect me to ask for your ideas and input on every major decision. Then I turn it over to them and ask, What do you need from me to feel successful and able to do your best work? This simple act changes the dynamic, communicating that their voice matters from the outset.
Once expectations are clear, safety can be operationalized through everyday rituals. For example, instead of presenting a plan for approval, introduce a new idea by asking people to poke holes in it. This isnt an invitation to complain, but a specific, constructive task. People are naturally good at identifying risks and blind spots, and this reframes that critical eye as a valuable contribution. Even without formal authority, you can model this by asking better questions in meetings, inviting alternative perspectives, or naming risks others may be hesitant to raise.
SHIFT FROM ANSWERING TO FACILITATING
Even with the best intentions, our behaviors can unintentionally undermine psychological safety. One of the most common mistakes is jumping in too quickly to solve a problem. Many of usespecially those seen as experienced or go-to peopleare conditioned to have the answers. When someone brings a challenge, the impulse is to immediately provide a solution. But doing so can unintentionally signal, My ideas are more valuable than yours.
The fix? Instead of being the problem-solver, become the problem-solving facilitator. Your opportunity, regardless of role, is to create space for dialogue rather than rushing to be the smartest voice in the room. When someone raises a concern, try asking a question instead of offering a solution. It signals curiosity, respect, and trust.
Facilitation also means reading the room: paying attention to whats being said and what isnt. You might say, I can sense this decision is making you uncomfortable. Lets talk about whats behind that. Or, Lets consider this from all angles. What might be missing? These moments of curiosity build trust and surface insights that wouldnt emerge in a more top-down exchange. Over time, this changes the dynamic from quiet compliance to shared ownership.
USE FAILURE TO FUEL LEARNING
One of the fastest ways psychological safety breaks down is when we cant learn from our mistakes. After any project or experimentsuccessful or notI incorporate a simple set of questions into debriefs: Whats working? Whats not working? What did we learn? What would we do differently next time? This shifts the focus from blame to learning and makes reflection a core output, not an afterthought.
Even when youre not running the meeting, you can reinforce this mindset by asking these questions yourself and inviting others into reflection. When failures are treated as data rather than personal shortcomings, people stop hiding missteps and start sharing insights that make everyone better.
When psychological safety becomes a baseline operating condition, new possibilities open up. People take calculated risks because they know their ideas are valued and that missteps wont be punished, but used for learning. The team moves faster, decisions get stronger, and accountability becomes shared instead of feared.
If you live in Seattle and work at Amazon or Meta in nearby Bellevue, you probably drive to work. But by the end of next month there will be another option for commuters: the worlds first light rail line running on a floating bridge.
Right now, drivers cross Lake Washingtonthe long lake between Seattle and eastern suburbs like Bellevueuse one of three floating bridges. Conventional bridges arent feasible because of the depth and width of the lake, which is why the bridges were originally built with pontoons instead. Adding a rail line to one of them meant that designers needed to innovate in multiple ways.
A 4-car train crosses the I-90 floating bridge during the day on December 18, 2025. [Photo: Sound Transit]
First, since the bridge doesnt have columns like a typical bridge, it moves. Its like a ship thats been anchored to the floor of the lake, says Brian Holloway, deputy director of engineering oversight at Sound Transit, the local transit agency. Near each end of the bridge, where the floating section connects to fixed parts of the bridge over land, hinge-like expansion joints let the bridge move as the water level changes or wind and waves slightly shift the structure.
Driving over the bridge in a car, you dont notice the changes as the expansion joints move. But those geometric changes would have a very significant effect on rail, says Matthew Barber, a supervising engineer working on the project at WSP. To make light rail feasible, engineers designed a new solution: track bridges that support a section of rail on a structure with bearings that let the bridge move freely while keeping the rail steady. The rail bends in a very smooth way, Barber says.
Workers prepare forms and pour concrete for the light rail track plinths on the I-90 floating bridge for the 2 Line Link connection to Seattle on September 4, 2024. [Photo: Sound Transit]
The bearings are normally used in seismic retrofits in buildings. Almost all the pieces on the floating bridge are not unique, says Holloway. They’re just being assembled in a different way.
Weight was another challenge, since the pontoons that float the bridge werent designed to hold light rail. To help with that, the design uses thousands of ultra-lightweight concrete blocks to support the rail, using a mix developed and tested in a partnership with the University of Washington. The rail itself is a little shorter and lighter than typical rail to save more weight. When the rail was installedreplacing a former carpool lanethe team also removed a heavy concrete barrier at the edge of the former lane. All of this meant that the bridge could handle the extra weight.
An unpowered LRV is pushed and then towed across the Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge (I-90). [Photo: Sound Transit]
On a normal bridge, installing rail would normally involve drilling, but the team didnt want to risk drilling into the pontoons, which have to stay watertight. Instead, they used a special high-strength adhesive to attach the concrete blocks to the bridge. Since the bridge hadnt originally been designed to carry electric light rail, engineers had to also find a way to protect it from stray current that could potentially damage the structure. The design now has multiple redundant solutions to avoid that risk.
The setting is unusual, since floating bridges are only used in specific conditions. (Norway’s fjords, for example, could potentially also use floating bridges.) But it’s possible that the design solutions could eventually be replicated in some other areas, including another bridge across Lake Washington in Seattle.
The Mercer Island 2 Line Station on October 22, 2024. [Photo: Sound Transit]
Even beyond the floating bridge, the new seven-mile stretch of light railfrom downtown Seattle to the southern end of Bellevuerequired several creative new solutions. That included finding a new way to strengthen an overpass for earthquake safety, and reusing part of a former bridge to create access to a new train station in one neighborhood. Every inch of the seven miles has examples of never-been-done-before, creative, resourceful designs, Barber says. (All of this should go unnoticed by users, like any good civil engineering.)
On a recent test ride, he says that going over the bridge was some of the smoothest track Ive ever experienced, as a daily commuter on light rail. The test ride was at night, so there wasnt much traffic on the neighboring highway.
A dead car pull on the East Link Extension between Bellevue and Mercer Island across the East Channel Bridge on October 29, 2024. [Photo: Sound Transit]
But he imagined it at rush hour. Tens of thousands of people are expected to ride the train daily, eliminating an estimated 230,000 vehicle miles traveled per day. It was cool to be cruising along next to the cars, he says. And I can anticipate that when this opens, there will be lots of commuters on the train who will be zooming past folks who are stuck in traffic in a very satisfied way.
Last week, a new piece of public art appeared outside of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) headquarters, located in Romes Piazza Lauro de Bosis. The graffiti centers an image of an Olympic ski jumper sailing through the air, while, from below, an ICE agent in a tactical vest points a gun directly at the jumpers heart. Above the scene, the Olympic Rings are featured, with a twist: the red ring has been reimagined as the bleeding crosshairs of a deadly weapon.
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The art was created by Laika, a self-described activist and graffiti artist based in Rome. In an interview with the publication ANSA English, she explained that the art was an act of protest in the wake of an announcement from U.S. officials that Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officers would be part of the American security detail at the Olympics. The announcement came just weeks after ICE agents shot and killed Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti amidst ongoing protests in that city.
Reports that ICE agents would appear at the Olympics surfaced in late January, and were met with confusion, outrage, and wide-spread protests from Italian citizens. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security clarified in a statement to the AP on January 26 that the agents in question would not be part of ICEs immigration enforcement operations, but rather from its Homeland Security Investigations branch, which frequently travels overseas to events like the Olympics to assist with security. Still, Italian citizens and Olympic attendees are continuing to speak out against ICE in solidarity with both the people of Minnesota and Americans at large.
Laika is one of many Italian citizens who have taken to using artwork as a form of protest against ICEs presence at the Olympics. Here are three examples of the most powerful work so far.
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No ICE in Milano
On January 31, hundreds of protesors gathered in Milans Piazza XXV Aprile (a central square) to voice their dissent against ICE. In the crowd, dozens of people held aloft the same sign: an image of the Olympic Rings, reimagined as colorful handcuffs, captioned with the phrase, No ICE in Milano.
The signs appear to have been designed and distributed by the group I Sentenilli di Milano, an organization dedicated to supporting the queer community and advocating against fascism.
The disturbing images coming from the United States add to the horror of other places in the world where human rights have been trampled on, the organizers wrote in a caption on Instagram, adding, That’s why the Sentinelli with many other democratic realities are waiting for you in the square on Saturday. Come with a whistle.
At the protest, another organizer named Alessandro Capella, head of the Italian Democratic Party’s Milan chapter, told NPR, “It’s not just for the Olympic games, it’s about justice in the world. We don’t want ICE here.
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ICE OUT!
Just a week afer the January 31 protest, hundreds of people once again took to the streets of Milan in an anti-ICE protest on February 6. Among them was Laika, who captioned an Instagram post of her graffiti with a call for followers to attend the gathering.
ICE OUT! the caption begins. With the Trump’s Gestapo at the Milan-Cortina Games, fundamental values of the Olympic Charter are being killed, such as solidarity and the fight against discrimination, values that affirm the principle that sport is at the service of the harmonious development of man, to promote the advent of a peaceful society committed to defending human dignity.
Laika is using her art as a direct call-out to CONI and International Olympic Committee (IOC) for failing to bar ICE agents from attending the Olympics.
“It angers me that the IOC and CONI have not taken a clear position consistent with their values, but have looked the other way, downplaying the issue as the exclusive responsibility of states and governments, she told ANSA English. “Today, the entire world of sport, and beyond, is raising its voice: there is no room for racism, violence, or those who threaten democracy.
ICE Donald Trump mural by artist aleXsandro Palombo. [Courtesy: aleXsandro Palombo]
Donald Trump as an ICE agent
Amidst the recent protests in Milan, another artist has added his own mural to the heart of the city, just minutes away from the Olympic cauldron at the Arco della Pace. The graffiti, created by Italian pop artist aleXsandro Palombo, depicts President Trump in his quintessential blue suit, wearing a red hat with the phrase ICE and a tactical vest reading POLICE ICE. In his hands, hes brandishing the Olympic Rings like a weapon.
The concept for the mural, Palombo says, came from the gap between the Olympics imagined world without barriers and the contemporary reality made of borders, controls, and exclusions.
The Olympic rings represent the last great shared utopia, the idea that humanity can recognize itself as a single community, Palombo says. The ICE uniform instead evokes the mechanisms that decide who may move, who may remain, who may be seen. Bringing these symbols together reveals the contradiction between the ideal and the real.
The physical placement of the mural brings these themes into sharper focus. Palombo chose the Bastioni di Porta Volta as the site of his work, a historic shelter formerly used by public transport staff, which has recently become an improvised refuge for many unhoused migrants. On one side of the building, he explains, is an athletic celebration of universal brotherhood, while on the other are the invisible lives of those without documents, without voice, without recognized rights.
He hopes that the work will bring these inherent contradictions to the surface of discussions around the Olympics, while also paying tribute to the American athletes who have chosen to speak out against ICE.
Within this visual tension there is also an implicit tribute to those, like many American athletes, who have chosen to use their visibility to speak out against what is broken, Palombo says. Their gesture is not only political, it is an act of responsibility toward freedom of expression. It is proof that the America we admire still exists, one willing to show itself, to take risks, to defend what is right. The message of the work is that every image of power carries responsibility, and that every symbol, even the brightest one, casts a shadow.
One of the first projects Hyun Park spearheaded when he began working for South Koreas entertainment powerhouse Studio Dragon was a dystopian sci-fi dramamuch to the chagrin of his boss. The CEO said: Koreans dont do sci-fi, Park recalls. Its a Hollywood thing. The budgets are too big. It doesnt really make sense. It will never look real.
His boss had a point. Big, splashy science fiction dramas with expansive futuristic worlds and lots of special effects were a rarity in the Korean studio system. For the past 3040 years, weve done amazing family dramas and romantic comedies, Park says. We’ve always failed in sci-fi.
Park believes its time to change thisand hes betting on AI to help. This month, Parks production company Alquimista Media was acquired for an undisclosed amount by Utopai East, the Korea-based offshoot of Utopai Studios, a Silicon Valley company focused on AI film production. Together, they now want to infuse Koreas film industry with AI, and ultimately help local creatives film the movies and shows they couldnt make before.
We [are] telling our creators: Now, you have tools to do something that’s different, Park says. Bring us the idea that you wanted to do when you were younger, but everyone told you [was] impossible because we don’t have the budget, and we all look Asian.
‘Squid Game’ changed everything
Thats another thing Koreas film industry struggled with for a long time, as Park knows firsthand. For the past few decades, studios would primarily produce content for domestic audiences, with little of it ever making it overseas. As Hollywood bet on ever-bigger franchises with massive budgets and big, recognizable stars, Korean and other Asian shows and movies were largely ignored.
That is until Netflix started licensing Korean dramas en masse. The streamer got its first breakout hit with Squid Game, the dystopian show about a life-or-death reality TV competition that premiered in 2021 and has since become Netflixs most popular show of all time. The success prompted the company to double down on South Korea: After committing to spending $500 million on South Korean content in 2021, Netflix upped its investment to $2.5 billion in 2023.
That year, 8% of all viewing hours on Netflix were Korean content, according to data from Ampere Analysis. Since then, viewing hours for Korean movies and shows have surpassed that of any other country save for the United States every single year on Netflix.
Squid Games success also caused other streamers to shift course: Disney Plus grew its share of Korean content from practically zero in 2021 to more than 4% last year, according to data from Justwatch. The total number of available Korean titles on global streaming platforms grew about 60% over the same period, according to the company, which tracks available titles across all major streamers.
Thanks to Netflix, Korean content is here, Park says.
Doing more with less, with some help from AI
Despite all that, the past few years havent exactly been smooth sailing for South Koreas film industry. Domestic box office sales have declined 45% between 2019 and 2025 as audiences have embraced streaming. At the same time, production costs have increased, with studios spending more and more money to please international audiences. Everyone’s talking about Korean content, but we’re having such a hard time here, Park says.
In other words: Korean studios are forced to do more with lessand AI may just be the answer. Utopai Studios, the company that acquired Parks production company this month, initially launched as an AI startup called Cybever in 2022. At first, the company primarily focused on building AI video generation and production tools, but quickly changed course to also produce its own movies and shows.
Big tech companies like Google and OpenAI have all partnered with filmmakers to promote their AI video models, but the results of those partnerships are often not more than that: Promotional clips meant to show off the capabilities of technology, not to entertain and make money on their own.
That kind of mandate also impacts the story. Most of the AI content available today is 100% AI-generated, says Utopai East CEO Kevin Chong. Its less about storytelling. His company instead wants to keep creatives front and center, and use AI simply to turbocharge their work. All of our production is done with real writers, real directors, Chong says. Were not replacing actors with AI. Its really about reducing physical production [costs].
This could mean using AI to generate the kind of rough, animated versions of a film that studios use internally to map out scenes long before actors utter their first lines, known among Hollywood insiders as previsualization. It could mean relying on AI during post-production, when captured footage is edited and effects are added.
It could, one day, also extend to virtual productiona relatively new approach embraced by Hollywood giants like Marvel and Lucasfilm that turns the way action movies are made on its head: Instead of filming actors in front of green screens and adding fantasy worlds and other visual effects in post production, everything is being rendered in real time. This not only makes it easier to change camera angles and other things on the fly, it also has the potential to make movies and TV shows faster and cheaper.
Utopia East currently has 15 projects in the works. The first ones made with AI could be released as early as next year. And while AI use in Hollywood has not been without controversies, Park believes that audiences will ultimately love his companys approach, because its playing to the strengths of South Koreas film industry.
It’s giving us tools for different types of storytelling, and Koreans are very good at that, Park says.
If you’re feeling anxious about the economy, you’re not alone. Consumer confidence is at its lowest in more than a decade. Americans are worried about inflation, a possible recession, and job securityand that anxiety is reshaping how they spend.
Even high earners are pulling back. Households are cutting big-ticket indulgences like vacations, fine dining, and designer fashion and redirecting spending toward essentials like groceries and personal care. Even then, theyre choosing retailers that feel like smart value plays. Higher-income shoppers have increasingly frequented discount chains like Walmart and Costcoboth of which have seen record-breaking quarters.
Ulta is poised to win in this economy. Since its founding in 1990, Ulta has specialized in selling mass-market beauty products, with some luxury brands sprinkled in. Walking the aisles, you’ll find a $12 Maybelline foundation across from a $190 bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume.
Were very focused on being inclusive, and we want to be a destination for everyone, says Ulta CEO Kecia Steelman. We can take care of your beauty shopping needs no matter what your budget is.
In a booming economy, that kind of mixing can feel unglamorous. Aspirational shoppers tend to gravitate toward retailers like Sephora or Nordstrom, where everything signals luxury. But for most people, this isnt a boom time. As consumers tighten their belts, Ultas flexibility starts to look like a feature, not a flaw.
The retailer now draws shoppers across a wide income rangefrom households earning around $50,000 annually to those making well into the six figures. Budget-conscious customers can stock up on brands like E.l.f. and CoverGirl. Affluent shoppers, meanwhile, can trade down on basics while still splurging occasionally on Drunk Elephant skincare or a Dior lipstick.
This approach is working. As overall retail spending has slowed, Ulta has grown over the past several quarters and is tracking to $12.3 billion in revenue for the last fiscal year, up roughly 4.7% from the year before. Its in-store visits have also climbed 3.3% year over year. Other retailers focused on a mix of low prices and premium products, including Walmart and Costco, are also gaining momentum.
These trends point to a broader shift. The era of aspirational positioning is fading. This is a trade-down economy, and the retailers best positioned to weather it are the ones that adapt to that reality.
[Photo: Ulta]
The Aspirational Economy Is Over
For the past decade and a half, we’ve been living in an aspirational economy. During this time, a new generation of brands popped up that allowed you to buy not just a product, but an identity. Startups like Allbirds, Casper, Away, and Glossier used sleek design and clever storytelling to signal good taste, high status, and progressive values. They were a ticket into a social class you wanted to join. Products were priced just high enough to feel special, but still within reach of middle-class shoppers eager to buy into the lifestyle.
That model is starting to crack: Allbirds is closing its stores, Away has gone through several rounds of layoffs, and Glossier’s valuation has dropped by half over the past five years. Part of the problem is that the number of middle-class consumers who fueled these aspirational brands is shrinking, with more than half of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, and a quarter of households spending nearly all their income on essentials.
Instead of seeking out aspirational brands, many of those consumers are migrating toward budget retailers. Walmart offers a telling example. Long associated with low-income shoppers, the company has spent years adding more premium brands to its shelves in an effort to attract wealthier households. The strategy is paying off: Walmart has gained market share among customers earning more than $100,000, helping propel the company to a market capitalization of $1 trillion.
[Photo: Ulta]
Ultas Radical Idea
Ulta Beauty was founded in Bolingbrook, Illinois, in 1990, at a time when the beauty industry was rigidly segmented. Prestige brands like Lancôme and Estée Lauder were locked behind department-store counters, while mass-market staples such as Revlon and CoverGirl were relegated to drugstore aisles. Ultas founders challenged that divide. Their insight was simple: Consumers already shopped across price pointsand they wanted a single destination that reflected how they actually bought beauty.
The model took hold quickly. Ulta scaled by opening large-format stores across the country, primarily in strip malls, many anchored by in-house salon services like haircuts and facials. Growth accelerated after the company went public in 2007.
From 2010 to 2020, Ulta tripled its store count to roughly 1,200 locations, while revenue climbed from about $2 billion to nearly $7.4 billionan impressive feat in a decade when many peers were shrinking. The surge was driven by a rare alignment of factors: consumers increasingly mixing mass-market and high-end beauty, a booming beauty industry with new brands popping up daily, and a disciplined store rollout that favored underserved suburban markets over expensive shopping centers.
Ultas broad appeal has been central to that success. While Sephora, its closest competitor, built its identity around a tightly curated assortment of roughly 300 high-end brands, Ulta pursued a more democratic strategy, offering around 600 brands spanning mass-market and luxury. It also operates roughly twice as many U.S. stores as Sephora.
That breadth makes Ulta equally compelling to brands. Ulta gives us the scale to recruit new customers, says Sabeen Mian, president of the company behind Grande Cosmetics and Lilly Lashes, both sold at Ulta. Compared to more narrowly positioned prestige retailers, Ulta offers a broader aperture: more doors, more shopping frequency, and more opportunities to convert curiosity into long-term loyalty.
In Ultas 1,500 stores, shoppers can find dozens of products priced under $20, bolstered by frequent promotions and famously generous coupons that reinforce the sense of value. “They reach everybody in America,” says Sucharita Kodali, retail analyst at Forrester. “They’ve got so many stores, and many are colocated with grocery stores and other mass merchants.”
Ulta has also been investing in its high-end offerings. Its the exclusive retail partner for Beyoncé’s new haircare brand, Cécred, which sells $31 shampoo and $44 hair oil, as well as Rihanna’s Fenty Skin Body, which sells $30 body wash. According to a recent earnings call, these were among the most successful product launches in Ultas history. While the company doesn’t publish data about customer incomes or market share gains by demographic, it has boasted that its premium brands have been flying off the shelves.
[Photo: Ulta]
The Lipstick Index
Steelman argues that Ultas founders were right all along. If you open my makeup bag, youd see everything from NYX to YSL, she says. This is how the consumer is shopping today.
That mix becomes especially powerful during an economic downturn. Ultas emphasis on value attracts cautious shoppers across income levels. More broadly, the beauty industry tends to be insulated from economic downturns. In fact, some categories of beauty products tend to sell better in times of recession.
In 2001, following the dot-com crash and the attacks of 9/11, Estée Lauder Chairman Leonard Lauder noticed that sales of high-end lipstick surged. He dubbed the phenomenon the lipstick indexthe idea that consumers cut back on major purchases during economic stress but still allow themselves small luxuries. A $48 Chanel lipstick can feel like a reasonable consolation prize when a $1,200 designer wallet is out of reach. “It’s an easy, low-ticket, indulgent purchase,” says Kodali.
Economists debate whether the lipstick index is a reliable recession indicator. But Steelman says she sees the behavior firsthand: Shoppers of all income levels are still willing to indulge occasionally. Compared with the cost of travel, home renovations, or new furniture, even luxury beauty feels manageable.
Ultas success suggests something deeper is going on. Todays consumers arent shopping to signal status or buy into a lifestyle. In an uncertain economy, theyre shopping to maintain control. Ultas shelves let them do exactly thattrade down and trade up in the same visit, adjusting in real time. Shoppers can save on mascara, redeem a coupon, and still leave with a Dior lipstick that feels indulgent without being irresponsible.
Steelman is leaning into that emotional calculus. In the world were in, which is just so heavy, she says, Ulta is a place where you can experience what makes you happy.
