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Feeling like youve overdone it on the scrolling? Now you can take a break from TikTok to meditatewithout ever leaving the app. TikToks new in-app meditation feature, announced Thursday, was first tested earlier this year with a group of teen users and is now rolling out to everyone. Designed to improve sleep quality, the meditations activate during designated sleep hours and serve as a gentle nudge to put the phone down during a late-night scroll session. For users younger than 18, the feature is enabled by default. If teens are still on the app after 10 p.m., their For You feed will be interrupted by calming music and breathing exercises. If ignored, the prompt returns to remind them it’s time for bed. Adults who want a similar reminder can set their own bedtime in TikToks Screen Time settings. Although the meditation can be skipped, TikTok says 98% of teens who encountered it during testing chose to keep it on. Still, not everyone appreciated the intervention. I disabled it, ima scroll how long I want on my phone, one TikTok user commented. Why do they care how late we are on TikTok? another asked. To Instagram I go, added a third. @cbsmornings TikTok is launching a new feature to encourage users to stop scrolling late at night in the form of an in-app guided meditation session #tiktok #sleep #meditation original sound – CBS Mornings The update comes amid growing scrutiny of TikToks impact on youth mental health. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that nearly half of U.S. teens say social media disrupts their sleep (45%) and hurts their productivity (40%). TikTok is also facing lawsuits that claim it prioritized profit over safety by downplaying the effects of its addictive algorithm. Previous attempts to limit screen time havent always worked. Court documents show teens were still spending an average of 107 minutes per day on the app, even when a 60-minute limit was in place. As part of the rollout, TikTok also announced a $2.3 million donation in ad credits from its Mental Health Education Fund to 31 organizations, including Crisis Text Line, Active Minds, and the Alliance for Eating Disorders.
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E-Commerce
Food rations that could supply 3.5 million people for a month are moldering in warehouses around the world because of U.S. aid cuts and risk becoming unusable, according to five people familiar with the situation. The food stocks have been stuck inside four U.S. government warehouses since the Trump administration’s decision in January to cut global aid programs, according to three people who previously worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and two sources from other aid organizations. Some stocks that are due to expire as early as July are likely to be destroyed, either by incineration, using them as animal feed, or disposing of them in other ways, two of the sources said. The warehouses, which are run by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), contain between 60,000 to 66,000 metric tons of food, sourced from American farmers and manufacturers, the five people said. An undated inventory list for the warehouseswhich are located in Djibouti, South Africa, Dubai, and Houstonstated that they contained more than 66,000 tons of commodities, including high-energy biscuits, vegetable oil, and fortified grains. Those supplies are valued at over $98 million, according to the document reviewed by Reuters, which was shared by an aid official and verified by a U.S. government source as up to date. That food could feed over a million people for three months, or the entire population of Gaza for a month and a half, according to a Reuters analysis using figures from the World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian agency. The U.N. body says that one ton of foodtypically including cereals, pulses, and oilcan meet the daily need of approximately 1,660 people. The dismantling of USAID and cuts to humanitarian aid spending by President Donald Trump come as global hunger levels are rising due to conflict and climate change, which are driving more people toward famine, undoing decades of progress. According to the World Food Programme, 343 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity worldwide. Of those, 1.9 million people are gripped by catastrophic hunger and on the brink of famine. Most of them are in Gaza and Sudan, but also in pockets of South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali. A spokesperson for the State Department, which oversees USAID, said in response to detailed questions about the food stocks that it was working to ensure the uninterrupted continuation of aid programs and their transfer by July as part of the USAID decommissioning process. “USAID is continuously consulting with partners on where to best distribute commodities at USAID pre-positioning warehouses for use in emergency programs ahead of their expiration dates,” the spokesperson said. Some food likely to be destroyed Although the Trump administration has issued waivers for some humanitarian programsincluding in Gaza and Sudanthe cancellation of contracts and freezing of funds needed to pay suppliers, shippers, and contractors has left food stocks stuck in the four warehouses, the sources said. A proposal to hand the stocks to aid organizations that can distribute them is on hold, according to the U.S. source and two former USAID sources briefed on the proposal. The plan is awaiting approval from the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance, the two former USAID sources said. The office is headed by Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old former operative of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, who is now overseeing the decommissioning of USAID. The Office of Foreign Assistance, DOGE, and Lewin himself did not respond to requests for comment. Nearly 500 tons of high-energy biscuits stored at a USAID warehouse in Dubai are due to expire in July, according to a former USAID official and an aid official familiar with the inventories. The biscuits could feed at least 27,000 acutely malnourished children for a month, according to Reuters calculations. The biscuits are now likely to be destroyed or turned into animal feed, the former USAID official said, adding that in a typical year, only around 20 tons of food might be disposed of in this way because of damage in transit or storage. Some of those stocks were previously intended for Gaza and famine-stricken Sudan, the former official said. The State Department spokesperson did not directly respond to questions on how much of the food aid in storage was close to expiry and whether this would be destroyed. USAID plans to fire almost all of its staff in two rounds on July 1 and Sept. 2, as it prepares to shut down, according to a notification submitted to Congress in March. The two former USAID sources said many of the critical staff needed to manage the warehouses or move the supplies will depart in July. Children dying The United States is the world’s largest humanitarian aid donor, amounting to at least 38% of all contributions recorded by the United Nations. It disbursed $61 billion in foreign assistance last year, just over half of it via USAID, according to government data. U.S. food aid includes ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) such as high-energy biscuits and Plumpy’Nut, a peanut-based paste. Navyn Salem, the founder of Edesia, a U.S.-based manufacturer of Plumpy’Nut, said termination of transportation contracts by USAID had created a massive backlog that had forced the firm to hire an additional warehouse to store its own production. The resulting stockpile of 5,000 tons, worth $13 million, could feed more than 484,000 children, she said. Salem said that email exchanges with Lewin have left her “hopeful” that a way will be found soon to get her product to the desperate children who need it. The UN children’s agency UNICEF warned in late March that RUTF stocks were running short in 17 countries due to funding cuts, potentially forcing 2.4 million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition to go without these crucial supplies for the rest of the year. The four USAID warehouses contain the majority of the agency’s pre-positioned food stockpiles. In normal times, these could be rapidly deployed to places like Sudan, where 25 million peoplehalf the country’s populationface acute hunger. Jeanette Bailey, director of nutrition at the International Rescue Committee, which receives much of its funding from the U.S., said it was scaling back its programs following the cuts. She said the impact of global shortages of therapeutic foods due to the disruption to U.S. aid flows is difficult to measure, particularly in places where aid programs no longer operate. “What we do know, though, is that if a child is in an inpatient stabilization center and they’re no longer able to access treatment, more than 60% of those children are at risk of dying very quickly,” she said. Action Against Hunger, a nonprofit that relied on the United States for over 30% of its global budget, said last month that the U.S. cuts had already led to the deaths of at least six children at its programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after it was forced to suspend admissions. Cuts causing chaos The Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs, which coordinates the U.S. government’s aid efforts overseas, was plunged into caos by the Trump administration’s cutbacks, the five sources said. The bureau’s staff were among thousands of USAID employees put on administrative leave pending their terminations. While some staff were brought back to work until their severance dates, aid administration has not recovered. Three sources told Reuters that the contract to maintain USAID warehouses in the South African port city of Durban had been canceled, raising questions about future aid distribution. Reuters was unable to confirm that independently. Two former USAID officials said that the Djibouti and Dubai facilities would be handed over to a team at the State Department that has yet to be formed. The State Department did not comment. A spokesperson for the World Food Programme, which relies heavily on U.S. funding, declined to comment on the stranded food stocks. Asked if it was engaged in discussions to release them, the spokesperson said: “We greatly appreciate the support from all our donors, including the U.S., and we will continue to work with partners to advocate for the needs of the most vulnerable in urgent need of life-saving assistance”. Jessica Donati, Emma Farge, Ammu Kannampilly, and Jonathan Landay, Reuters. Writing by Ammu Kannampilly.
Category:
E-Commerce
Cava Group Inc. (NYSE: CAVA), the parent company of Cava, a Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant brand, announced it is opening up to 68 new U.S. locations in fiscal 2025, after reporting better-than-expected first quarter earnings results. Cava, also known as Cava Grill, currently operates 382 locations across the United States, in 26 states and Washington, D.C. (as of the close of Q1). 2024 was Cavas first full calendar year as a public company. While Cava told Fast Company it does not release a full list of future locations, a look at the website shows restaurants in the following cities are “coming soon: Phoenix, AZ Huntington Beach, CA Plantation, FL Bel Air, MD Burlington, NC Charlotte, NC Cava told Fast Company of the targeted 64 to 68 new restaurants it plans to open this year, it has already opened 15 net new locations (in Q1) representing an 18.3% increase in total restaurants year over year. Those are in the following states: Florida (Ocala, Palm Harbor, Hialeah) New Jersey (East Brunswick, Union, Marlton) Massachusetts (Chelmsford, Chestnut Hill) Louisiana (Lafayette, New Orleans) Texas Virginia Indiana North Carolina New York The company previously said it wants to reach 1,000 locations by 2032. At the same time many fast-food chains and casual-dining restaurants are struggling, Cava’s growth stands out. Chief Financial Officer Tricia Tolivar told CNBC that over the last few quarters, Cava has found it’s hitting a sweet spot for customers who are trading up from fast food to purchase Cavas healthy bowls and pitas, while trading down, seeing it as cheaper than other casual-dining options. Cava cofounder and CEO Brett Schulman said the chain has purposely priced food items for the current economic times, while focusing on healthy food and hospitality. “At a time when guests are being more selective about where they dine, the appeal of our Mediterranean cuisine continues to resonate with the modern consumer,” Schulman told Fast Company. “We’ve also stayed focused on delivering our unique value proposition, investing in our guests, and underpricing inflation. We offer a warm, welcoming environment that fosters a genuine human connection. Its why we continue to drive traffic and sales growth, crossing $1 billion in revenue in the past 12 months.” Speaking of revenue, here’s a look at Cava’s first-quarter earnings numbers: Revenue grew 28.2% to $328.5 million, compared with $256.3 million in the prior year quarter Same restaurant sales growth of 10.8%, including guest traffic growth of 7.5% Cava Group net income of $25.7 million, compared with $14.0 million of net income and $11.9 million of adjusted net income in the prior year quarter Despite a strong quarter, Cava’s same-store sales forecast of a 6% to 8% increase remained consistent with last quarter, and could be one reason shares were down about 3% in afternoon trading on Friday. As Fast Company previously reported, while Cavas revenue grew 33% in 2024 along with a 9% jump in traffic, with same-restaurant sales up 13%, last quarter the chain forecast slower growth in the later half of fiscal 2025.
Category:
E-Commerce
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