Liftoff Mobile, a California-based mobile app marketing provider, announced on Thursday that it plans to launch . . . into the public markets.
The company, backed by Blackstone, is targeting a valuation of nearly $5.2 billion for its IPO, and is looking to raise as much as $762 million in funding by selling more than 25 million shares. Share prices are expected to range between $26 and $30. It will trade under the ticker LFTO.
The companys roots go back to 2012, when it was initially founded. A majority stake was later acquired by Blackstone in 2021, and Liftoff was then combined with Vungle to create a single, large, independent mobile adtech platform. That platform provides users with an AI-powered tool to support customer acquisition and monetization for mobile advertisers or publishers. It works across several industries, such as finance and gaming. The companys S-1 filing with the SEC states that it has more than 1.4 billion daily active users, and more than 1,000 global advertisers as of the fourth quarter of 2025.
To our new investors: You are investing in a company with a senior leadership team averaging twelve years of ad tech industry experience, and technology that gets smarter with every cycle. We have a history of delivering results and a commitment to sustaining that reputation. You can expect what weve always delivered: customer focus, product velocity, and results, said CEO Jeremy Bondy in a statement included in the S-1 filing.
The IPO market has felt quiet overall, but a recent report from EY shows that 2025 was the busiest year for IPOs since 2021. Last year, there were 216 total IPOs, amounting to $47.4 billion in proceeds. As for 2026, EYs report notes that there is significant optimism for investors and potential issuers in 2026, fueled by strong interest in AI and other areassomething Liftoff is likely trying to take advantage of.
Almost a month into 2026, data from Renaissance Capital shows that there have been nine IPOs priced so far, down 47% from 2025.
The last Sundance Film Festival in Utah is drawing to a close this weekend.The Park City gathering was a wistful farewell to the place Robert Redford’s brainchild has called home for over 40 years and launched so many careers. Although the festival isn’t ending it will start anew in Boulder, Colorado, in 2027 it did have many, from filmmakers to volunteers, feeling nostalgic about the change whether their Sundance story began in 2022 or 1992.A Wednesday night anniversary screening of “Little Miss Sunshine,” still one of the festival’s biggest hits, was an especially emotional affair as filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and actors Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano and Abigail Breslin, gathered once more, 20 years later, at the festival’s most famous and largest location, the Eccles Theater. Many in the audience had seen the movie and some had even been at the 2006 premiere. But a fair number were experiencing it for the first time and the response was rapturous.“Who would have imagined that a single film could deliver two electric nights at a Sundance Film Festival?” said festival director Eugene Hernandez.It wasn’t all looking back, however. The festival’s program is first and foremost about discovery. First time feature filmmakers comprised about 40% of the slate. The programmers also wanted to do right by Park City.“I feel like we achieved that based on what we’ve seen this week,” said Sundance programming director Kim Yutani. “The enthusiasm for the artists that we have now shared with the world is significant. It’s profound.”
ICE and politics seep in
The festival wasn’t a bubble to world events either. On the second night, a Florida Congressman was assaulted at a party by a man who told him he was going to get deported. ICE OUT pins were not an uncommon sight on major stars, like Natalie Portman, on the red carpet. And films like Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell’s “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” (in theaters March 27) sparked conversations about the end of the world.
Memorable moments thanks to Charli xcx, Harry, Meghan and Billie Jean King
It also didn’t stop people from having a good time. There was an all-night DJ’d party for the Charli xcx movie “The Moment” (in theaters this weekend) which had some out dancing until well after 3 a.m. The Billie Jean King documentary “Give Me the Ball!” had the audience erupting into spontaneous applause. (Afterward, King hit tennis balls into the balcony). Rufus Wainwright and Norah Jones sang Marianne Faithfull songs after a screening of “Broken English.” And the documentary “Cookie Queens,” about Girl Scout Cookie season, was an audience favorite that also brought a surprise appearance by Prince Harry and Meghan, who executive produced.
Olivia Wilde’s big comeback
Charli xcx might have had Wilde beat in numbers with three films at the festival, but Wilde took the spotlight for sheer impact. She confidently carried Gregg Araki’s comedic, and erotic, thriller “I Want Your Sex,” as the provocative artist Erika Tracy, who initiates an affair with one of her interns (Cooper Hoffman), changing his life and views about sex in the process. But her bigger moment was “The Invite,” a sharp chamber dramedy about an unhappy and sexless San Francisco couple (Wilde and Seth Rogen) who invite their upstairs neighbors (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) over for dinner. Wilde directed the film, which quickly became a festival favorite, sparking a competitive, 72-hour bidding war. A24 emerged as the winner (reportedly in the range of $12 million) in the biggest acquisition of the festival so far.A release date for “The Invite” has not yet been announced. “I Want Your Sex” has not yet been acquired for distribution.
The Channing Tatum drama everyone is talking about
One of the biggest hits was also one of the most challenging: “Josephine,” writer-director Beth De Araújo’s raw drama about an 8-year-old girl (Mason Reeves) whose life and sense of safety is upended after she witnesses a sexual assault in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Tatum and Gemma Chan play the parents who are unsure how to help her navigate these new emotions and fears. It has not yet been acquired for distribution.
The queer horror breakout
Writer-director Adrian Chiarella’s midnight movie “Leviticus” was scooped up quickly by the indie label Neon (of “Parasite” and “Anora” fame) in a reported seven-figure deal. The Australian coming-of-age thriller is about two teenage boys (Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen) trapped in conversion therapy horror. A critic for IndieWire wrote that it played like an episode of “Heated Rivalry” crossed with the psychological horror “It Follows.” A release date has not yet been announced.
A documentary more than 50 years in the making
The footage that makes up the new documentary “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” was shot in 1972, when groundbreaking filmmaker William Greaves ( who died in 2014 ) brought together the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, poets, authors, librarians, photographers, critics and actors, to reflect on what it all meant, at a party at Duke Ellington’s home. His son David Greaves did camera work at the party and co-directed and finished the film, a striking and essential historical artifact (and a good, intellectually stimulating hang). It has not yet been acquired for distribution.
Other buzzy titles
John Turturro got an enthusiastic standing ovation for his performance in “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” a nostalgic crime thriller about a veteran pickpocket who steals from the wrong man, written and directed by Noah Segan.There was lots of chatter about “Wicker,” a quirky fantasy about a sardonic fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) who commissions a basket weaver to weave her a husband (Alexander Skarsgrd), from filmmakers Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson.David Wain’s earnestly horny (and surprisingly gory) riff on “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” was a starry, easy crowd pleaser, with Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm and John Slattery. And Rinko Kikuchi got raves for her turn as a woman competing in the Tokyo ballroom scene in “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty.”All are still seeking distribution, but the end of the festival does not mean the end of those talks.“There are many more deals happening,” Yutani said. “The fact that these films are going to have these robust lives after their Sundance premieres is exactly what we want for these films. For them to reach wider audiencs is definitely the goal.”
For more coverage of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/sundance-film-festival
Lindsey Bahr, AP Film Writer
Journalist Don Lemon and three other people were arrested Friday in connection with an anti-immigration protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church and increased tensions between residents and the Trump administration, officials said.Lemon was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney Abbe Lowell said. It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon and the others are facing in the Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul. Lemon’s arrest came after a magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge him.Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023, has said he has no affiliation to the organization that went into the church and that he was there as a journalist chronicling protesters.“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said in a statement. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media Friday morning confirming the arrest of Lemon and the others who were present during the protest at the church where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serves as a pastor.“At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Bondi said.Since he left CNN, Lemon has joined the legion of journalists who have gone into business for himself, posting regularly on YouTube. He hasn’t hidden his disdain for Trump. Yet during his online show from the church, he said repeatedly, “I’m not here as an activist. I’m here as a journalist.” He described the scene in front of him, and interviewed churchgoers and demonstrators.Shortly after the first attempt to charge him fell through, he predicted on his show that the administration would try again.“And guess what,” he said, “here I am. Keep trying. That’s not going to stop me from being a journalist. That’s not going to diminish my voice. Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel, if you want. Just do it. Because I’m not going anywhere.”Local independent journalist Georgia Fort livestreamed the moments before her arrest Friday on Facebook Live, saying “agents are at my door right now” and that they had an arrest warrant and a grand jury indictment.“I don’t feel like I have my first amendment right as a member of the press because now the federal agents are at my door arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago,” Fort said, adding that she knew she was on a list of defendants that is under seal.A prominent civil rights attorney and two other people involved in the protest were arrested last week. Prosecutors have accused them of civil rights violations for disrupting the Cities Church service.The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation after the group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.“Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in social media post last week.Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads an ICE field office. Many Baptist churches have pastors who also work other jobs.The Justice Department’s swift investigation into the church disruption stands in contrast to its decision not to open a civil rights investigation into Good’s killing by an ICE officer. The department has not said whether it will open a civil rights probe into the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal officers.“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,” Lowell said.
Associated Press reporters Dave Bauder in New York City, Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed.
Alanna Durkin Richer and Eric Tucker, Associated Press
President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened Canada with a 50% tariff on any aircraft sold in the U.S., the latest salvo in his trade war with America’s northern neighbor as his feud with Prime Minister Mark Carney expands.Trump’s threat posted on social media came after he threatened over the weekend to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if it went forward with a planned trade deal with China. But Trump’s threat did not come with any details about when he would impose the import taxes, as Canada had already struck a deal.In Trump’s latest threat, the Republican president said he was retaliating against Canada for refusing to certify jets from Savannah, Georgia-based Gulfstream Aerospace.Trump said the U.S., in return, would decertify all Canadian aircraft, including planes from its largest aircraft maker, Bombardier. “If, for any reason, this situation is not immediately corrected, I am going to charge Canada a 50% Tariff on any and all Aircraft sold into the United States of America,” Trump said in his post.Trump said he is “hereby decertifying” the Bombardier Global Express business jets. There are 150 Global Express aircraft in service registered in the U.S., operated by 115 operators, according to Cirium, the aviation analytics company.Bombardier and Gulfstream are head-to-head rivals, with the Global series battling for market share against Gulfstream’s latest models.Bombardier said in a statement that it has taken note of the president’s post and is in contact with the Canadian government. The Montreal-based company said its aircraft are fully certified to Federal Aviation Administration standards and it is expanding U.S operations.“Thousands of private and civilian jets built in Canada fly in the U.S. every day. We hope this is quickly resolved to avoid a significant impact to air traffic and the flying public,” the company said.Spokespeople for the Canadian government didn’t respond to messages seeking comment Thursday evening.John Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University, said certification is about safety and it would be unprecedented to decertify for trade reasons.“Certification is not trivial. It is a very important step in getting planes to operate safely,” Gradek said. “Somebody is not picking on the Gulfstream. Decertification for trade reasons does not happen.”Gradek said many Gulfstreams have been certified for years in Canada.“This is really a smokescreen that’s basically throwing up another red flag in the face of Mr. Carney,” Gradek said. “This is taking it to the extreme. This is a new salvo in the trade war.”The U.S. Commerce Department previously put duties on a Bombardier commercial passenger jet in 2017 during the first Trump administration, charging that the Canadian company was selling the planes in America below cost. The U.S. said then that Bombardier used unfair government subsidies to sell jets at artificially low prices.The U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington later ruled that Bombardier did not injure U.S. industry.Bombardier has since concentrated on the business and private jet market in its Global and Challenger families of planes. Both are popular with individual owners and businesses as well as fractional jet companies like NetJets and Flexjet. If Trump cuts off the U.S. market it would be a major blow to the Quebec company.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Carney on Wednesday that his recent public comments against U.S. trade policy could backfire going into the formal review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade deal that protects Canada from the heaviest impacts of Trump’s tariffs.Carney rejected Bessent’s contention that he had aggressively walked back his comments at the World Economic Forum during a phone call with Trump on Monday.Carney said he told Trump that he meant what he said in his speech at Davos, and told him Canada plans to diversify away from the United States with a dozen new trade deals.In Davos at the World Economic Forum last week, Carney condemned economic coercion by great powers on smaller countries without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the gathering.Besides Bombadier, other major aircraft manufacturers in Canada include De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, which makes turboprop planes and aircraft designed for maritime patrols and reconnaissance, and European aerospace giant Airbus. Airbus manufactures its single-aisle A220 commercial planes and helicopters in Canada.
Gillies contributed to this report from Toronto. AP writers Lisa Leff and Josh Funk contributed to this report.
Michelle L. Price and Rob Gillies, Associated Press
Concept creep is literally problematic. Its what happens when words like “problematic” and “literally” expand far beyond their original definitions, eventually becoming so diffuse as to no longer hold any real meaning.
The latest victim of concept creep is doxxa word being stripped of its meaning amid debate whether federal agents should be allowed to shield their identities through masks and other means
As a refresher, to doxx someone is, definitionally, to publicly identify or publish private information about [them], especially as a form of punishment or revenge. The word arose from 90s hacker culture, to describe the digital unmasking of someone otherwise known only by a username by sharing their identity or personal information publicly. Although it remained in the fringe realm of 4chan message boards for ages, doxxing went mainstream in the 2010s, with the Gamergate fiasco. During that unfortunate episode, disgruntled video game fans embarked on an online harassment campaign against women and marginalized people, falsely framing their efforts as a push for ethics in games journalism. As part of the harassment, trolls surfaced private informationincluding home addresses and personal emailsof mostly women in gaming culture, whom they perceived as their enemies.
In the years since, the word has seemingly come to mean any form of nonconsensual disclosure whatsoever, regardless of what is being disclosed or its relevance to public interest. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the people most aggressively watering down what it means to doxx someonemembers of the Trump administration and Republican partyare also the ones most apt to do it the good old-fashioned way to intimidate perceived political opponents
A loosening definition
Earlier this week, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina took liberty with the definition of doxxing during an appearance on CNN. Speaking with anchor Jake Tapper, the Senator explained that he opposed ICE agents being barred from wearing masks because, “I’ve seen people take pictures and identify law enforcement officers and then put their families at risk.”
Tillis says he opposes ICE being barred from wearing masks: "I've seen people dox me. I've seen people take pictures and identify law enforcement officers and then put their families at risk. So, I think that's a step too far."— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-01-28T22:15:29.406Z
Setting aside whatever Tillis thinks he means by having been doxxed himself, his definition for law enforcement officers is inaccurate. In order to meet the criteria for doxxing, merely identifying someone would only count if the person in question had no reason for their name to be publicly known. Federal agents, on the other hand, are public servantstraditionally identifiable by badges, something ICE agents tend not to wear. Revealing their names in a context related to public enforcement is not doxxing; its just normal transparency. (The kind of thing one might think the self-proclaimed most transparent administration in history would believe in.)
Under some state laws, including in Minnesota, the identity of undercover agents can be legally withheld to protect their safety and the effectiveness of an investigation. Theres a difference, though, between an undercover agent and one who would just prefer to not be identified. In any case, when any agent is involved in a shooting, no umbrella federal statute exists prohibiting them from being identified. In fact, the public-records laws of many states require disclosing the names of officers involved in shootings upon request, barring any specific legal exemption.
Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem seems to believe otherwise. Under her leadership, the names of the agents who shot Alex Pretti last weekend are being kept secret. Thats in-line with her Jan. 18 appearance on Face the Nation, when she said we shouldnt have people continue to dox Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Renee Goodby saying his name, which was by then a matter of public record.
Brennan: Let me talk to you about the officer, Jonathan Ross..Noem: Don't say his name. For heaven's sakes, we shouldn't have people continue to dox law enforcement when —Brennan: His name was publishedNoem: That doesnt mean it should be said. pic.twitter.com/Q9inxaeTxf— Acyn (@Acyn) January 18, 2026
Shifting the definition of doxxing fits well into the broader effort to shield ICE officers from accountability. Perhaps thats why Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee sponsored the Protecting Law Enforcement from Doxxing Act last fall, which would criminalize publicly revealing federal officer names in order to obstruct an ICE investigation. (The bill currently remains in committee.)
Interestingly, for as much as Republicans officials are loath to put public servants families at risk by having their names amplified online, that concern only seems to flow in one direction.
Doxxer in chief?
As lawsuits challenge various aspects of president Donald Trumps domestic policy agenda, he has increasingly found himself at odds with federal judges. Always hapy to be the proverbial hit dog, whenever lower court judges have ruled against Trump in his second term, he has often raged about them by name on social media, to his millions of fired-up supporters. Either as a direct result, or perhaps just in an incredible series of coincidences, several judges reported subsequently experiencing intense harassment. According to an NBC News report, one of these judges had to move houses, another froze her credit cards after a security breach, and others still had to either upgrade their home security systems or change their daily routines.
Some forms of harassment have been more sinister than others. Dozens of judges have reportedly had unsolicited pizzas delivered to their homeswith the name on the order attributed to Daniel Anderl, the name of district judge Esther Salass 20-year old son, who was killed by a disturbed litigant posing as a deliveryman. The harassment campaign was so pronounced in the early months of Trumps second term, Chief Justice John Roberts even criticized the political attacks prompting themnaturally without ever mentioning whose prominent Truth Social account was behind them.
Does merely mentioning these judges by name count as doxxing? When using a megaphone as singularly massive as the office of the presidency, it sure seems like it meets the definition of publicly identifying someone as a form of punishment or revenge. Whether it fits the bill as doxxing or not, though, Trumps targeted rants have repeatedly inspired precisely the kind of dangerous conditions Republican officials claim ICE agents should be shielded from.
Despite an abundance of national news items about the harassment of judges who rule against Trump, no elected Republicans have rushed to protect these public servants in the same way. In fact, one such representative reportedly kept a wanted poster of judges whod ruled against the president hanging outside his congressional office last year. That representatives name? Andy Ogles of Tennesseethe same one who introduced the Protecting Law Enforcement from Doxxing Act last fall.
Hopefully, he wont consider pointing out his hypocrisy in public the same thing as doxxing.
Melania Trump is capping her first year back as first lady with the global release of a documentary she produced about the 20 days leading up to husband Donald Trump’s return to the White House.A private person, Melania Trump remains a bit of a mystery to the public in her husband’s second term. “Melania” premiered Thursday at the Kennedy Center before it is released on Friday in more than 1,500 theaters in the U.S. and around the world.“I want to show the audience my life, what it takes to be a first lady again and (the) transition from private citizen back to the White House,” Melania Trump told reporters as she and the president moved along a charcoal-colored walkway at the event attended by Cabinet members, members of Congress and conservative commentators.She said viewers will see how she conducts her businesses and philanthropy, cares for her family and builds her White House team.“It’s beautiful, it’s emotional, it’s fashionable, it’s cinematic and I’m very proud of it,” she said.The documentary was produced by AmazonMGM Studios and is said to have cost $40 million. It will stream exclusively on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service after its theatrical run.Director Brett Ratner said his measure of success would not be box-office performance.“It’s a documentary and documentaries historically have not been huge box office smashes,” he told reporters on his way into the premiere. “You can’t expect a documentary to play in theaters.”The Republican president saw the nearly two-hour film for the first time at a private White House screening over the weekend. He said Thursday that he thought it was “really great.”“It really brings back a glamour that you just don’t see anymore,” Trump said. “Our country can use a little bit of that, right?”
‘Melania’ more than a year in the making
It was unclear how much money Melania Trump stands to earn or what her plans are for any film proceeds. Experts said it was unusual for a first lady to pursue a project of this kind from the White House but not unusual for the Trumps.“As far as I know, she’s the first first lady to be paid a lot of money to have a documentary made about her and it is unprecedented in terms of the Trumps because they are always breaking precedent,” said Katherine Jellison, professor emerita of history at Ohio University.Asked about the sum, Trump mentioned the book deal for Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, that the publisher announced in 2017, shortly after he left office.Presidents and first ladies generally refrain from pursuing outside business ventures while in office to avoid potential conflicts of interest or raising ethical concerns.Both Trumps participate in numerous business ventures, selling everything from watches, fragrances and Bibles for him to jewelry, Christmas ornaments and digital collectibles for her.Marc Beckman, the first lady’s longtime senior adviser, defended the financial arrangement, which Amazon has declined to comment on. He noted that she was a private citizen when Amazon announced the film in January 2025 and that she is unelected and receives no salary as first lady. “So why should we limit her?” he said Thursday.The movie also marks another link between the Trumps and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has worked to improve a once-tense relationship with the president.Melania Trump said Thursday that a bidding process was conducted and that Amazon “was the best because they agreed to do theatrical releases.”The movie is the first project by Ratner since he was accused of sexual misconduct in the early days of the #MeToo reckoning. Ratner’s lawyer has denied the allegations.
‘Here we go again’
In a scene from a teaser for the movie, it is Inauguration Day and Melania Trump is inside the Capitol, waiting to be escorted into the Rotunda for the ceremony. She turns her head, looks directly into the camera and says, “Here we go again.”She wrote in her self-titled memoir published in 2024 about how much she values her privacy. She is not seen or heard from as often as some of her recent predecessors, which may be influencing the public’s perceptions of her. But she also likes to do things her way.She said she did the film to show people what goes into becoming first lady.The U.S. public is divided on their views of her, but a significant number about 4 in 10 adults had no opinion or had not heard of her, according to a CNN poll from January 2025. About 3 in 10 adults saw her favorably while roughly the same share had an unfavorable opinion.Her standing among Republicans was higher, with about 7 in 10 saying in the poll that they viewed her favorably, but around one-quarter had no opinion.“I think it’s an attempt, in a way, to really augment or tailor or really refine her image for the American public,” said Katherine Sibley, who teaches history at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “She’s a mystery to the American people.”
First lady cites impactful first year of second Trump term
Melania Trump, 55, said she’s honored to execute the traditional duties of first lady, such as planning state dinners, hosting the annual Easter Egg Roll and decorating for Christmas. But she also has said she wants to leave her mark in other ways, too.She spent chunks of time away from Washington last year working on the documentary and was deeply involved in every aspect of its development, according to Beckman.Her first-year record centers on the well-being and safety of children.She used her influence to lobby Congress to pass the “Take It Down Act,” making it a federal crime to publish intimate images online without consent. The president signed the bill into law and had her sign it, too.Her advocacy for foster children was enshrined in an executive order creating a “Fostering the Future” program. It’s part of the “Be Best” child-focused initiative she launched in the first term.She wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin for help reuniting children who had been separated from their families because of his war against Ukraine. She had her husband hand-deliver the letter when the leaders met in Alaska, and she later announced that eight children had been reunited with their families.The first lady has a prominent role in the administration’s efforts on artificial intelligence and education and recently launched a global version of the foster child program.She told guests at a White House Christmas reception that she is working on a new legislative effort for 2026, but has not yet shared details.
Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this reprt.
Darlene Superville, Associated Press
Gold and silver have had an exceptional year, breaking record high prices on whats felt like a daily basis. But, as the saying goes, what comes up must come down.
On Friday, January 30, gold fell over 6.4%, to $4,962 per ounce in the lead-up to President Trumps announcement that Kevin Warsh is his pick to be the new Federal Reserve chair.
Even a week ago, gold reaching over $4,900 would have been a record-breaking feat. The precious metal only topped $5,000 per ounce for the first time this past Monday.
But, by Thursday, gold hit more than $5,580 per ounce, meaning it was up 23% for 2026 and more than 80% over the last 12 months. The idea of celebrating gold being worth below $5,000 was already long gone.
As of publication, gold was at about $5,132 an ounce, over a 4% one-day drop.
Silver, too, took a tumble on Friday. It fell more than 15% to near $95 per ounce after reaching a record high of over $121 per ounce the day before. The latter had meant that silver was up more than 65% this year and over 252% in the last 12 months.
At publication, silver was at about $103 an ounce, just over an 11% one-day drop. Once again, this figure would have been remarkable until very recently, with silver reaching over $100 an ounce for the first time last Friday, January 23.
Why are gold and silver dropping?
The swift increase in gold and silvers worth has been primarily attributed to their status as safe-haven assets during a time of increasing geopolitical turbulence.
Their fall came as Trump said on Thursday that he would be announcing his proposed replacement for Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May.
Trump has continually criticized Powell, particularly for not lowering rates as fast as Trump would like. Earlier this week, the Fed voted to maintain interest rates.
On Friday morning, Trump announced that he had chosen Warsh as Powells replacement. Warsh previously served as a Fed governor and has supported lowering interest rates.
A stronger dollar is likely another reason for the falling price of gold and silver, as Barron’s points out. As the Financial Times reported, the U.S. dollar strengthened on Friday after Trump announced Warsh as his nominee.
Apple’s iPhone sales soared to a new quarterly record during the holiday season, despite artificial intelligence blunders that prompted the technology trendsetter to get a helping hand from Google.The October-December results announced Thursday reflect the allegiance of Apple’s fans, who eagerly snapped up the latest iPhone 17 models even though the company still hasn’t delivered on its 2024 promise to smarten up the device’s Siri assistance with AI.Apple tried to offset its AI miscues with a new “liquid glass” design for the iPhone 17 and older models installed by way of a free software upgrade released last September. That formula helped produce iPhone sales of $85.3 billion, a 23% increase from the same time in the previous year. It marked Apple’s highest iPhone sales for a three-month period since the device’s debut in 2007.“The demand for iPhone was simply staggering,” Apple CEO Tim Cook crowed during a conference call with analyst while predicting the device will become a cutting-edge platform for AI.The iPhone’s robust performance propelled Apple to a profit of $42.1 billion, or $2.84 per share for the quarter, a 16% increase from the previous year. Total revenue also rose 16% from the previous year to $143.8 billion. Both the earnings and sales exceeded the analyst projections that steer investors.Apple’s shares rose by about 1% in extended trading after the numbers came out. But the stock price still remains slightly down so far this year, and isn’t that much higher from where it finished at the end of 2024.Zacks Investment Research analyst Ethan Feller said the worries about Apple’s late start in AI appeared to have been overblown and now appears well positioned to roll out more of the technology “as a feature that scales naturally across its ecosystem,” which also includes iPads, Mac computers and smartwatches in addition to iPhones. Apple said more than 2.5 billion active devices worldwide are now running on its various operating systems.The Cupertino, California, company will try to sustain the momentum by finally releasing a batch of delayed AI features, including an Siri upgrade that is supposed to make the assistant more conversational and versatile.To pull it off, Apple is tapping into Google’s latest AI model, Gemini 3, in a tacit acknowledgment of its own shortcomings in a technology that’s widely considered to be the industry’s biggest breakthrough since the iPhone’s introduction.Despite its AI deficiencies, the iPhone ended last year as the worldwide sales leader with a nearly 20% market share that ranked just ahead of Samsung, according to the research firm International Data Corp.In a show of its confidence, Apple forecast its revenue for the January-March period will climb by at least 13% from last year, above the roughly 10% bump that analysts had been anticipating.The AI boom is confronting Apple with another challenge: a shortage of memory chips that for smartphones and laptops amid the voracious demand for the same processors in the massive data centers that are being built to power AI features.Besides threatening to curtail iPhone production, the memory chip crunch is also driving up their prices a factor that has already been eroding Apple’s profit margins. That financial pressure could eventually push Apple to raise the prices on iPhones and other products to help offset the rising memory chip costs“We do continue to see market pricing for memory increasing significantly,” Cook told analysts Thursday. “As always, we’ll look at a range of options to, to deal with that.”
Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer
Imagine that you pull up to a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan. You step out of the car and walk into the lobby, where the staff greets you by name and ushers you to an elevator. Upstairs, another staff member brings you coffee just the way you like it, minutes after you arrive. A barber is on hand to give you a fresh shave before an important Zoom call, and afterwards, you drop by a caviar tasting thats happening in the shared lounge.
Amid an interior of travertine, green marble, and glass, a dedicated hospitality team and concierge service wants to make sure clients dont waste time with the little frictions of everyday life. This sanctuary might sound like one of Manhattans luxury members-only clubs, but in fact, its a new kind of coworking space that caters to the 1% of workers.
Industrious Reserve is a high-end coworking space meant for CEOs and business leaders. Its supposed to give the prestige of Park Avenue and the quiet luxury of a private club, according to marketing materials. Its designed for leaders with all-remote teams, or with home offices in other cities, who will now have a place to hold court.
What we observe in our business is that people want a private club experience, but they also want their own office, says Industrious President Anna Squires Levine, whose firm was recently bought by real estate services giant CBRE. Just this morning, I had a private equity executive tell me this is the product Ive been waiting for. I do not want to sign my own 10-year lease. Why would I do that? Then I have to build it and manage it and figure out the Wi-Fi for 10 years. I want somewhere I can show up and feel like a boss.
[Photo: Industrious Reserve]
The first location of Industrious Reserve, a high-end coworking space meant for CEOs and business leaders, will open soon inside the fifth and sixth floors of Manhattans Lever House, a famous modernist skyscraper. Reserve access starts at $7,000 a month per person, $9,500 if it includes one of the 44 private office suites (monthly membership costs for other Industrious locations in New York City vary between $399 and $1,700.)
The new corner office
The Reserve offering represents a significant departure from the classic corner office layout for corporate leadership, a design for status and hierarchy that reached its apex shortly after the International-Style Lever House opened in 1952. As much as its a story of service firms finding new ways to cater to increasingly wealthy clienteleafter all, theres no shortage of private club space or budget for high-end office amenitiesit also speaks to the changing role of a modern CEO and their workspace.
[Photo: Industrious Reserve]
Corporate leadership needs to showcase accessibility, transparency and cultural presence, says Todd Heiser, principal and co-managing director of Genslers Chicago office. But that doesnt mean having the face of the company operate out of the lunchroom, or like many famous tech leaders, flipping open a laptop and sitting with the rank-and-file.
What Heiser says leaders desire nowand Reserve seeks to provideis a place to work in close collaboration with the trusted team that makes a modern business function, almost like a capitalist situation room.
[Photo: Industrious Reserve]
In a world that requires lightning-fast decision-making, CEOs want proximity; they want to be able to assemble the executive team in minutes and work in a space that fosters faster alignment. Heiser pointed to Logan Roys office on Succession or Rebeccas office on Ted Lasso as examples of leadership spaces that were both characters in their own right and typically open for rapid-fire meetings with advisers. One real-world example, the new HQ for Hyatt, includes space for leadership to quickly huddle, assemble, and lead team meetings outside of a stiff boardroom.
The Capitalist Situation Room
In the 1950s, office designers, influenced by notions of hierarchy and congruence theory, laid out workspaces to cleanly delineate hierarchy. Meanwhile, with todays more open plan and collaborative design, the workplace power dynamic is dramatically demonstrated by access, says Heiser. It helps that shrinking office footprints also means axing luxurious private offices. Gensler found one in five workers today doesnt have assigned seating, though execs do tend to have a reserved spot in most offices.
As opposed to the classic corner officelong a symbol of hierarchy and corporate powerthis new functional layout thats emerging more post-pandemic displays the leadership style of todays LinkedIn CEO. Employees read leadership spaces like cultural text, says Heiser. The layout, the openness, the adjacency all tell people what the organization values. It actually comes clearly from the top.
[Photo: Industrious Reserve]
Reserve, in both its name and lofty privacy, communicates exclusivityits a considerable expense to joinbut it also gets described as the type of space where a leader can collaborate with a team. Levine spoke about the design, by the in-house team at Industrious, as a fusion of physical, technological, and experiential, trying to create a turnkey experience for execs while also creating a sort of townhouse on Park Avenue vibe. The feeling of intimacy should be akin to a secret, top-floor, light-filled brownstone in the middle of New York, says Levine.
[Photo: Industrious Reserve]
What sets Reserve apart, argues Levine, is the dichotomy; leaders can enjoy an intimate private office to meet with advisers, offering that connection to their top staff, as well as a semi-public spacemembers and guests only in the clubfor socializing for larger gatherings. Its a space for using time impactfully, being in the bunker with trusted advisers, and being the best version of yourself.
Compared to the gigantic floorplates of modern high-rises, the Lever House is slim and elegant; in the afternoon, the sunlight from the window hits the middle of the floor.
[Photo: Industrious Reserve]
So far, membership interest has come from private equity firms, venture firms, hedge funds, and high-end retail and fashion shops. Levine says its either firms with big headquarters elsewhere who want a Manhattan outpost, or smaller, super distributed teams seeking a central meeting place.
Levine expects the small handful of drop-in memberships and private offices to be snapped up well before the space opens in the spring, and Industrious plans further expansions of the concept in pinnacle cities such as Singapore, Tokyo, and Berlin.
It takes a very special building and a very special landlord partner to make it happen, says Levine. We like to be thoughtful and methodical about the way that we expand so we know we can do it with a high degree of execution.
Saks Global, owner of luxury retail chains Saks 5th Avenue and Neiman Marcus, has announced the closure of most of its discount outlet stores, Saks Off 5th and Last Call.
The store closures come weeks after Saks Global announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Heres what you need to know about the store closures, including a full list of the locations being shuttered.
Whats happened?
Yesterday, Saks Global said it would close a majority of its discount outlet stores. While Sak Global is best known for its high-end luxury department store chains, Saks 5th Avenue and Neiman Marcus, the company owns several other retailers, including Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Off 5th, Last Call, and Horchow.
The company has now announced that two of these retailers will be hit by store closings.
The first is Saks Off 5th, the companys outlet store chain, which sells discounted apparel and accessories for shoppers on a budget.
The company also announced that it will close all its Last Call stores. Last Call is the discount outlet chain originally owned by Neiman Marcus, which Saks Global acquired for around $2.7 billion in 2024.
Why are Saks Off 5th and Last Call stores closing?
Saks Global is closing these locations as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, which the company filed for earlier this month.
The goal of the bankruptcy is to strengthen the foundation of our business and position it for the future, Saks Global CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck stated earlier this month.
Over the past several years, the company now known as Saks Global has become saddled with debt, driven by factors affecting many retailers, including reduced sales, declining foot traffic, increased online competition, and inflationary pressures.
But the companys debt problems also increased significantly after it acquired competitor Neiman Marcus in 2024.
This weeks announcement of store closures doesnt come out of the blue. Earlier this month, when Saks Global announced it was filing for bankruptcy, the company said it was evaluating its operational footprint to invest resources where it has the greatest long-term potential.
That evaluation has now led to the closure of a majority of its Saks Off 5th and all of its Last Call stores.
Saks Global now says the store closures are the result of a thorough review of its off-price business.
Which Last Call stores are closing?
Saks Global has confirmed that all of its remaining Last Call stores will close. This encompasses five locations in three states. Those locations are:
California
Desert Hills Premium Outlets (Cabazon, CA)
The Outlets at Orange (Orange, CA)
Florida
Sawgrass Mills (Sunrise, FL)
Texas
Grapevine Mills (Grapevine, TX)
San Marcos Premium Outlets (San Marcos, TX)
Which Saks Off 5th stores are closing?
Unlike its Last Call stores, Saks Global will not shutter all of its Saks Off 5th stores. However, the majority of the stores will be closing.
The company says that 12 Saks Off 5th locations will remain open, while the other 57 locations will close. Those 57 locations are spread across 18 states. Here is the full list of Saks Off 5th stores that are closing:
Arizona
Glendale, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Scottsdale, AZ
Tucson, AZ
California
Cabazon, CA
Camarillo, CA
Costa Mesa, CA
Livermore, CA
Beverly Connect, Los Angeles (West), CA
Milpitas, CA
Palm Desert, CA
Petaluma, CA
Ontario, CA
San Diego, CA
Woodland Hills, CA
Conneticuit
Clinton, CT
Stamford High Ridge (Stamford), CT
Florida
Destin, FL
Ellenton (Tampa), FL
Tampa (Lutz), FL
Naples Park Shore (Naples), FL
Orlando, FL
Orlando (Vineland), FL
Georgia
Atlanta (Woodstock), GA
North Atlanta (Woodstock), GA
Hawaii
Ala Moana (Honolulu, HI)
Hawaii (Honolulu, HI)
Illinois
Aurora Chicago (Aurora), IL
State Street (Chicago), IL
Northbrook, IL
Rosemont, IL
Massachutses
Boston (Somerville), MA
Wrentham, MA
Maryland
Clarksburg, MD
Arundel (Hanover), MD
Minnisota
Eagan, MN
Navada
Las Vegas N (Las Vegas), NV
Las Vegas S (Las Vegas), NV
New Hampshire
Merrimack, NH
New Jersey
Bridgewater, NJ
Elizabeth, NJ
Shrewsbury, NJ
New York
Deer Park, NY
Eastchester, NY
Greenburgh, NY
Riverhead, NY
North Carolina
Charlotte, NC
Mebane, NC
Ohio
Columbus, OH
South Carolina
Hilton Head (Bluffton), SC
Charleston, SC
Texas
Cypress, TX
Dallas Park (Dallas), TX
Grand Prairie, TX
Katy, TX
San Antonio, TX
Sugarland, TX
In addition to the above Saks Off 5th closing locations, Saks Global also announced that the retailer’s website, Saksoff5th.com, “is winding down operations.
When do closing sales begin?
Saks Global says Saksoff5th.com online closing sales will begin today, Friday, January 30.
Physical store closing sales will begin on Saturday, January 31.
The company says that gift cards to these physical retail stores will continu to be accepted, but only until Saturday, February 14th.
Gift cards for saksoff5th.com will only be accepted until Friday, February 13th.
All merchandise purchased during the closing sales is non-returnable or exchangeable.
