President Trump has just backed down (somewhat) from his market-shattering new tariffs: He has just issued a 90-day pause on most of them.

Major economic rival China is not among the nations getting a stay of judgement, however, and Trump has just revealed the highest tax hike yet on Chinese imports. It now stands at a troubling 125%.

The news could be taken as an indication that Trump will respond to pushback against his widely disliked tariffs. However, the pause will only last 90 days. Barring further news, the tariffs will ultimately still remain a huge concern for countries and businesses everywhere.

The 10% Baseline Tariff Will Remain

According to a post from Trump on social media, he plans to use the 90-day pause to initiate trade talks. According to his post, the new pause is “based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States” rather than retaliated with stronger terms such as the US tariffs imposed by China and the EU.

In the same statement, Trump said he’ll substantially lower the “Reciprocal Tariff” during the same 90-day period, keeping it to 10%, effective immediately.

The 10% tariff went into effect over the weekend as a baseline rate for most nation. Since it remains in place, the 90-day pause only applies to the many nation-specific additional tariffs that were announced at the same time.

The Market Is Back Up in Response

Trump’s latest tariffs took effect last Wednesday. At the time, they represented the highest effective tariff rate in the US in more than a century. With the new 125% tariff reveal, they’re up even further: Before the new announcement today, the China tariff was at 104%.

But the just-revealed pause on many tariffs has boosted the market, which has always had a pretty short memory.

At the time of writing, the Dow has surged 2,700 points, marking its biggest rally in five years. It needs it, given the days of declines that it has seen across the past week while the reality of the new tariffs sank in. However, plenty of negative market signals remain, and the market still remains in danger of continuing its decline.

Not Paused: De Minimis Removal, Other Tariffs

Not mentioned in Trump’s latest message? The de minimis exemptions, a key trade loophole that allowed small business owners like dropshippers or ecommerce brands like Temu to import products worth under $800 without additional duties. Trump officially revoked it last week, with the change going into effect in early May. Since he hasn’t yet issued on pause on this change, it’s still set to go through.

The same is true for previous tariffs, including a big 25% tariff on auto, steel, and aluminum imports. The baseline 10% tariff hike alone will represent a challenge for many businesses with thin margins, and a supply chain disruption could have wide ripples throughout the logistics industry.

Logistics Companies Face a More Than 100% Cost Increase on Chinese Imports

Not only is the de minimis exemption leaving next month — resulting in an effective hike of either 30% of an item’s or a flat $25 per item (which jumps to $50 per item in June), as we previously reported — but the additional China tariffs are sticking around as well.

And those tariffs in particular are so hefty as to completely disrupt most trade with China. Trump’s trade war has escalated multiple times across the last week, as both the US and China have issued retaliatory tariffs to the other nation’s products. Prior to Trump’s latest announcement of a 125% tariff on Chinese imports, China had raised its tariffs on the US to 84%, a response to the then-104% tariff from the US.

China is currently the US’s third-largest trade partner, after Canada and Mexico, and the US is China’s number one trade partner. But that seems set to change.

Dropshippers still have plenty of problems

What can dropshippers expect? They’ll likely be dropping their business with China, unless their margins are so much larger than 100% that they can eat the cost. Some dropshippers might be able to do just that, given that some do indeed have profit margins of 1000% or more, thanks to careful arbitrage.

Most, however, will need to pivot to a country that has just been granted a 90-day tariff reprieve. Even then, they’ll face the 10% baseline increase — and they’ll need to come up with a whole new plan in a scant three months, too.

Mistrust is rampant when it comes to generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, with a new study finding that 94% of CEOs suspect employees are using them without company approval.

The speed with which AI has evolved over the last few years has been a huge boon for businesses that want to streamline productivity. However, with employees getting more and more familiar with the technology, the lines between improving productivity and shirking responsibility has been seriously blurred.

As a result, a huge percentage of CEOs are suspicious that their employees are using generative AI behind their backs, whether it’s true or not.

94% of CEOs Think Employees Use AI Against Company Policy

According to a report — titled Global AI Confessions Report: CEO Edition — 94% of CEOs suspect employees are using generative AI tools without company approval.

The report points out that this is a “massive governance failure within organizations,” given it’s the responsibility of CEOs to establish an AI policy that can improve productivity while establishing trust across the business.

How to Make AI Work for Your Business

Navigating the waters of generative AI isn’t easy. The technology has seemingly unlimited potential and banning your employees from using it feels just as silly as allowing them to replace their responsibilities with it. So, how can you make AI work for your business?

“The only way to turn AI into an enduring advantage is to assert greater control and governance — future-proofing not just the companies these CEOs run, but their own roles as leaders in an increasingly AI-powered economy.” – Florian Douetteau, co-founder and CEO of Dataiku

All that to say, generative AI isn’t a passing fad. This technology is here to stay, and businesses that ignore its potential — or worse, who allow it fuel discord between CEOs and employees — are doomed to fall behind other companies that have found ways to make it work for their particular enterprise.

The Importance of AI Policies

If you’re a business in 2025 without an AI policy, what are you doing?

Generative AI features have been added, in some capacity, to virtually every piece of business software in the world, from Gmail and Outlook to Salesforce and QuickBooks, and there is no sign of it slowing down any time soon.

Despite that undeniable fact, many businesses are still quite a bit behind. In fact, our Impact of Technology on the Workplace report found that 35% of businesses have no regulations in place for what employees can use AI for, which is virtually unforgivable in 2025.

Trucker safety has taken a back seat in the Trump administration, with the agency in charge of investigating potentially unsafe companies performing noticeably fewer enforcements of state and federal regulations.

The trucking industry faces a lot of problems in 2025, from a shortage of young drivers to the threat of automation on jobs. Regardless of the year, though, trucker safety is always meant to be a priority, particularly considering how dangerous these massive vehicles can be when not regulated properly.

Unfortunately, the new administration has been asleep at the wheel, allowing bad actors to go unpunished, even after a serious crash.

FMCSA Enforcement Down 60%

According to a report from the Washington Post, the Trump administration has been quite lax when it comes to protecting truckers on the road, with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) performing 60% fewer enforcement actions from Inauguration day to February.

Even worse, the new administration seems to be barely investigating the safety of truckers at all compared to the previous administration. In 2024, the Biden administration’s federal investigators completed 17 investigations per month. In January and February of 2025, no such investigations have been recorded.

Despite those numbers, the Transportation Department insists that it “has made great progress in closing investigations over the last 60 days.”

Why the Trump Administration Has Halted Investigations

Probing trucking companies that don’t prioritize trucker safety seems like a no-brainer, so why is the new administration halting these investigations?

According to Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, who spoke with the Washington Post, the agency is halting investigations in hopes of restoring “due process and transparency to ensure truck operators receive a fair shake and enforcement actions remain lawful, reasonable, and consistent with Administration policy.”

Despite the investigations being halted, Duffy also noted that safety remains a top priority.

How These Investigations Protect Truckers

In the past, these investigations looked into potentially unsafe trucking companies, and allowed regulators to get them off the road when they’re found to be “unsatisfactory” in their duties to protect their drivers. Now, that is no longer the case.

“The inability to use those tools is a really big deal. It creates an incredibly unsafe environment on the roads and I would argue is an abdication of their fundamental mission.” – Zach Cahalan, executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition

With 800,000 truckers on the road in the US, ensuring that the “worst-of-the-worst companies” are not allowed to operate after serious crashes is one of the best ways to promote trucker health and safety.

According to new data released by Netscout, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are on the rise. There were 17 million such attacks in 2024 – up from 13 million the year before. It’s an astonishing rise that has big implications for your business.

But what exactly is a DDoS attack? And how can I prevent it from happening to my business? In this guide, we’ve put together some helpful tips on how you can avoid falling foul of one of these sophisticated and damaging cybersecurity breaches.

Read on to find out what you can expect if your company suffers a DDoS attack, how to prevent it, and how you can mitigate the damage if the worse happens.

What is a DDoS Attack?

A DDoS attack is an attempt to force a website, network, or computer offline by overloading it with requests. Sometimes, this can happen by accident. Black Friday sales, for instance, can drive a lot of internet traffic towards one destination at once. This might overwhelm the server, causing the website to crash.

But other times, it’s an orchestrated attack designed to bring down a particular target. So-called “hacktivist” groups have been known to use DDoS attacks to support their ideological means. Examples include Anonymous Sudan, which was carried out numerous attacks in support of its “pro-Russian, anti-Western agenda,” according to Netscout.

DDoS attacks differ from Denial of Service (DoS) attacks in that they rely on different IP addresses. In other words, the attack comes from multiple different sources, rather than just one location. This makes the attack much more difficult to defend, and allows the threat actors to generate much more traffic than they might otherwise have been able to.

How Does a DDoS Attack Work?

A DDoS attack works when several different IP addresses target the same platform at the same time, which can overwhelm the server in question and bring it down.

Often, this attack is carried out by what’s known as a “botnet.” A botnet refers to a collection of devices that have been infected with malware, meaning they can be controlled remotely by a single perpetrator. On other occasions, DDoS is executed by several different actors at the same time.

To make matters more complicated, there are a few different types of DDoS attack, while I’ll cover in the section below.

Amplification attacks

In this type of attack, the malicious actors in question send a request to a domain name system (DNS) server with an IP address spoofed to that of the target. This leads to the target being inundated with a large volume of unsolicited responses, which brings down the target server.

Bandwidth saturation

Networks have a finite bandwidth. Once this has been eclipsed, the network is unable to function properly. Attacks of this kind preoccupy this bandwidth by spamming the network with traffic.

Cloud resource exploitation

Cloud resource exploitation refers to attacks that seek to take advantage of cloud computing’s main advantage – its scalability.

Degradation of service

This variation on the DDoS attack doesn’t try to completely knock a server offline. Rather, it hits a server with a moderate volume of spam traffic, which affects the service but remains largely undetected.

DDoS attacks vs DoS attacks

DDoS attacks differ from denial of service (DoS) attacks in that they rely upon several different IP addresses. Because of this, the attack is much harder to pin down and prevent. DoS attacks originate from a single IP address.

What Are the Impacts of DDoS Attacks?

If successful, DDoS attacks pose a number of risks for your business. Below, I’ve broken down some of what you can expect if your company falls victim to one of these breaches.

Financial losses

Your business can incur significant financial losses if subject to a DDoS attack. These can result from network downtime, violation of service-level agreements (SLAs), as well as the potential costs of limiting the damage and getting the network back online.

Reputational damage

If you website is down for too long, your customers might take their business elsewhere. If it happens more than once, they might lose faith in your business and become a regular patron of your competitors.

Operational impact

Most prominently, DDoS attacks are designed to knock a service offline. This will affect your business’s ability to carry out its operations, and can lead to the other two points outlined above.

Steps to Prevent a DDoS Attack

Luckily, there are some measures that businesses can take to safeguard themselves against the risk of a DDoS attack. Read on for a breakdown of different approaches that you can take.

Rate limiting

This refers to the practice of limiting the number of requests that a server will accept in a specified time period. It’s a commonly used defense mechanism against DDoS attacks, brute force attacks, and web scraping, as it puts a cap on bot behavior.

Firewalls

Firewalls regulate incoming and outgoing internet traffic by introducing preset security rules. Essentially, they serve as gatekeepers of your service, and they’re absolutely imperative for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Anycast

Anycast is a large, distributed cloud network that insulates your server from incoming traffic. It provides you with another level of protection against incoming threats, and can be really useful for fielding exceptionally large volumes of traffic.

Famous Examples of DDoS Attacks

With DDoS attacks on the rise, let’s take a look at some of the most prominent examples in recent history.

HTTP/s Rapid Reset attack, 2023

A couple of years ago, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Cloudflare experienced a record-breaking DDoS attack. Botnet traffic, which has later found to be much smaller than any DDoS attack in history, exploited a “HTTP/2” feature that can trigger rapid request cancellation using the “RST_STREAM” frame. This allowed the attackers to repeatedly open and close streams, which crashed the servers.

Google attack, 2020

A few years before, Google fell victim to another large DDoS attack. Three different internet service providers (ISPs) from China launched an attack on thousands of Google IP addresses, which lasted for six months. At the time, it was four times larger than the next biggest DDoS attack.

AWS attack, 2020

In a bad year for cybersecurity, AWS was targeted by a massive DDoS attack in 2020. This one targeted a specific, unidentified AWS customer, lasting for three days and peaking at 2.3 terabytes of data sent to their IP address per second.

What To Do in the Event of a DDoS Attack

As with all cybersecurity breaches, acting quickly is crucial. Here are some things you can do to help your business mitigate the dangers of a DDoS attack.

Set up a server-side firewall limit

As I’ve mentioned above, this will put a lid on incoming traffic and can help to slow down and block the attack. However, it’s not a silver bullet solution – it can lead to legitimate users being locked out of your service.

Configure server request rate limits

Adjust your server settings to introduce some limits on traffic and requests. This can stop simple attacks, but again, might deter legitimate users from accessing your service.

Add new servers

Boosting your server capacity will allow you to handle more traffic. However, it will not get to the root of the problem – the bad actors attempting to bring down your network.

Change domain DNS records

Redirect incoming traffic to alternative servers in order to reduce the burden on individual servers. You could even hire a content delivery network (CDN) to help you.

Dropshippers’ worst fears have been realized: On Wednesday, President Trump officially signed into law an executive order removing “de minimus.” The trade loophole has previously allowed low-value packages from China and Hong Kong to enter the US without incurring any duties. Tech.co reported yesterday that its removal was imminent.

As per the executive order, packages imported from those two countries that are valued at $800 or under will now be subject to all applicable duties. The announcement will likely not come as a surprise to dropshippers, given that Trump previously signed an order removing de minimus for cheap Chinese imports on February 1, before later revoking it.

The removal of de minimus forms part of Trump’s widespread punishment of China for, among other things, its alleged culpability in fueling the national opioid crisis. It has been reported that drug traffickers exploited the loophole to smuggle fentanyl into the US. Elsewhere, the President has imposed a severe 34% tariff rate on the Eastern superpower.

Trump Closes Trade Loophole

On Wednesday, President Trump brought a long-running saga to end by signing into law an executive order closing the “de minimus” trade loophole. The duty exemption has brought enormous benefits to dropshippers in recent years.

The announcement will send shockwaves through the dropshipper community. Direct-to-consumer retailers, including Temu and Shein, have relied heavily upon the loophole to cement their lucrative business models. In 2024, nearly 1.4 billion packages were imported into the US via this method.

The President had previously signed an order on February 1, only to later repeal it due to “logistical issues.”

Packages Under $800 Affected by Order

At the time, the Trump Administration did not have a sufficient plan in place to deal with the deluge of packages that entered the US every day, leading to packages piling up at ports around the country. This time, the government has “figured it out,” according to a source familiar with the matter.

Now, imported goods from China and Hong Kong that are sent outside the international postal network, with a value of $800 or under, will be subject to all relevant duties. This equates to either 30% of their value or $25 per item, rising to $50 per item in June.

According to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick: “[There are] adequate systems in place to collect tariff revenue” on all incoming shipments.

Trump Wages War Against China

Trump has made no secret of his antipathy towards China. Since the beginning of his second term, he has embarked on a ruthless campaign to hurt the country’s economic prospects, levying a series of tariffs against it in a bid to cement the US’s position at the forefront of the global economy.

Among other things, this particular executive order can be understood as an attempt to punish China for its alleged complicity in the US opioid epidemic. Several investigations, including one from the DEA, have pinpointed China as a core source of fentanyl into the US, shipped from the country via mail services that take advantage of the de minimus agreement.

More broadly, the President is determined to fend off economic and technological competition from the superpower. Shortly after taking office, he announced significant investment into “Project Stargate,” a taskforce set up to lay down a marker in the unfolding AI race.

Across 2018 and 2019, the first Trump administration’s tariffs impacted around $380 billion worth of products. The second time around, however, the administration has already levied duties against products worth north of $1.4 trillion as of this April… just months into a second term.

Any dropshippers that currently deliver to the US from any of that nation’s closest trading partners — Canada, Mexico, and China — have already been slapped with some big changes, and likely have plenty of changes ahead.

Just how big a problem are the latest tariffs on your dropshipping operational costs? And how is the dropshipping community handling the shift? Here’s the lowdown.

The Biggest Problem: Loss of De Minimis

Tariffs are making all the headlines right now. The latest announcements include a 10% baseline tariff across all imports; extra taxes on autos, steel, and aluminum; and some surprisely high tariffs on Vietnam (46%) and Cambodia (49%) among plenty of other countries. The stock market lost $2 trillion in 20 minutes when they were announced April 2.

However, they’re far from the only abrupt, shocking trade policies that the Trump administration has rolled out since January.

In fact, when it comes to freaking out dropshippers everywhere, tariffs are second to another looming tax change: the potential removal of the de minimis tax exemption.

This extemption allows any shipments that are heading towards American businesses or consumers and are valued at less than $800 per person, per day, to enter the US duty-free and tax-free. It’s a bipartisan law, aimed at helping small businesses and lower-income consumers.

Now, it looks likely to leave, at least for imports from China and Hong Kong. President Trump eliminated the de minimis provision for China and Hong Kong on February 4, before reinstating it on February 5, and now it’s officially set to be lost again on May 2. Since most dropshippers operate on a model that relies on de minimis in order to process cheap shipments, they’re currently scrambling to reorient their businesses.

Dropshippers are dropping Chinese imports

The fastest solution is to find another source for whatever product you sell. Any country other than China is, for now, a relative improvement, given China has suffered some of the harshest announced sanctions. One dropshipper has switched to a local supplier in Pakistan, citing a cheap product and lack of tariffs.

Many dropshippers don’t have these connections, however. Those who rely on retail websites such as the China-based AliExpress still haven’t found a clear replacement. Plus, some products simply can’t be sourced from other countries, let alone inexpensively.

Will US production increase?

The point of the tariffs is to discourage foreign imports, under the assumption that the laws of supply and demand will push US companies to bring creating the cheap products that up until now could have been purchased from Temu, Shein, AliExpress, or a dropshipping intermediary. But will this actually happen?

As one commenter on the Entrepreneur subreddit breaks it down, possibly not:

“As a US business, the higher the cost of import the more likely you are to consider moving manufacturing, and in Trump’s worldview that means more manufacturing in the US. In theory this is a good idea. In practice, many companies have tried to get US workers to do manufacturing and found the skill and interest lacking.”

Businesses who had previously imported will likely eat the costs or raise their prices in order to pass the cost along to the consumer.

Potential US dropshipping alternatives

However, this remains an avenue worth exploring: Dropshippers may want to start with SaleHoo, a New Zealand based e-commerce company that manages US sellers through its website. At the very least, domestic shipping speeds won’t be disrupted as much as international shipping is soon likely to be.

Syncee is a similar site, and is also focused on US-based sellers.

What Changes Should Dropshippers Expect?

Dropshippers who still rely on China imports will face higher costs on the products themselves. But that’s not all the warning signs they should be aware of.

Expect higher costs

China tariffs are increasing 10%, on top of the pre-existing tariffs. This means that the costs for passing through customs will increase for traders, and traders will boost brokerage fees to pass the costs along. The total cost to dropshippers? Many are estimating an increase of between 10% and 30%.

Expect shipping delays

Should the de minimis provision be cut entirely for China, Hong Kong, or other locations, anyone ordering products from these countries will face a range of problems, whether the good would have qualified for de minimis or not. Either way, the shifts will likely cause shipping delays and supply chain disruptions, none of which will lower operational costs.

How long will the delays be? It’s tough to predict, and varies based on the products. One business owner has noted an increase in their supplier’s shipping time from 8 to 10 days to 24 to 28 days.

Order cancellation impacts

In the short term, orders may be cancelled by suppliers who can’t handle the sudden change in their own operational costs. Those cancellations will leave the dropshippers who rely on them up the creek. Customer complaints might be inevitable.

Trust issues

The discussion of tariffs comes with a lack of clarity on multiple fronts. We don’t know when additional tariffs may be imposed, how large they’ll be, or even how other countries may retaliate with their own tariffs. That uncertainty is leading plenty of traders and suppliers to attempt to hedge their bets, either by frontloading shipments or, in some cases, demanding 30% deposits upfront.

Why High-Margin Dropshippers Might Be Okay

All right, so it’s a lose-lose situation for dropshippers. However, that doesn’t mean that the business model will collapse entirely: If the costs of buying the product were low enough in relation to total sales revenue, even a 10% tariff increase might not add up to very much.

Dropshippers have already been putting up with tariffs on China imports, and anyone who buys in bulk likely hasn’t been benefiting from the de minimis provision, either. Businesses who already pay a 20% tariff for their products might not blink when it jumps up to a 30% tariff.

One dropshipper shared their personal experience on Reddit: Their product costs them just $0.36 in raw material, and they’ll be selling it at $9.99, which they consider low. With these margins, a business can keep profits up — even if the extra tariffs aren’t exactly welcome.

The Biggest Dropshipping Winners and Losers of 2025

One silver lining to the cloud of uncertainty surrounding the threat of tariff increases? All changes will impact everyone, including all the dropshipping competitors. But that doesn’t mean we can’t pick out a few (projected) winners and losers.

The winners: High-margin dropshippers and domestic dropshippers

As we mentioned earlier, dropshippers with business models that prioritize very high margins are shielded from the worst of the impacts. In fact, with higher prices expected from direct competitors like Temu or Shein, these dropshippers might be able to further increase their already sky-high margins to meet demand.

Similarly, the trade war with China is relatively good news for any domestic dropshippers — those who mostly sell to Americans and who already source their products from the US or take survive making a shift to US suppliers. They’ll be able to avoid the price hikes entirely, while benefiting from the hit to their competition.

The losers: Chinese ecommerce and US consumers

The clear losers here are likely all the China-based retail websites, which will be losing many US customers. Sorry to Temu, Shein, and AliExpress. Don’t expect Amazon Haul to come out on top, necessarily, either: It currently sources its products from outside the US as well.

Ultimately, though, US consumers will lose out, too. Domestic products will now be the cheaper option, and with international alternatives priced out of the market, the lack of competition means that US suppliers can deliver sub-par products.

Dawn of the Chinese century?

Finally — and somewhat ironically, given the stated goal of Trump’s trade war — China might win big in the brave new world of 2025. They’ll lose their base of US consumers, but thanks to retaliatory tariffs, US businesses will lose their Chinese customers as well. The EU has recently announced “strong plans” to retaliate, while Canada has vowed to respond as well.

As more trade wars escalate with other countries that previously relied on US consumers, they’ll all be more likely to replace the US with another major trade partner, and China may be the most attractive choice. Say what you will about China, but it’s not rolling out new tariffs on a seemingly weekly basis.

TikTok has until this Saturday, April 5th to find a US buyer, or risk another ban that could heavily impact the businesses that rely on the platform for their marketing strategies.

This week, Donald Trump is set to meet with potential buyers ahead of the Saturday deadline. The president has expressed optimistic sentiments about the large amounts of interest in the app and is confident that a deal can be reached.

TikTok is used by 7 million US businesses to engage with consumers, by running creative campaigns and even selling products directly through the app’s social commerce platform, TikTok Shop. Should TikTok fail to find a buyer, businesses could see a big change in their ability to reach their target audience.

TikTok’s Fate Remains In Doubt

TikTok, a significant revenue stream for many small businesses, has until this weekend to find a US buyer or risk a permanent ban in the US.

There have long been concerns within the US government about how TikTok’s Chinese-based owners could use US user data if prompted by the Chinese government. Last year, President Biden gave TikTok’s owners, ByteDance, one year to sell the app’s US operations. When it failed to do so, a TikTok US ban came into effect in January 2025.

The ban was lifted after just 14 hours following the return of President Donald Trump to the White House, who extended the amount of time ByteDance had to find a new buyer. He has since extended the task to Vice President JD Vance, with the final deadline for the app being and this Saturday, April 5th.

Trump and Vance to Meet With Potential TikTok Buyers

With TikTok’s continuous increase in numbers and various rumors about people interested in the app, President Trump appears confident that TikTok will find a buyer before the Saturday deadline. This Wednesday marks another opportunity for Trump and Vance to meet with and strike a deal with a US buyer.

Failure to find a buyer could see the app undergo a more permanent ban than the one it endured earlier this year. New US users would be unable to download the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and existing users may even have to use a VPN to access TikTok, which is not guaranteed and comes with its own security risks.

A potential ban could also see TikTok’s technology partners, including Apple, Google, and Oracle, receive hefty fines for associating with the app.

What Does a TikTok Ban Mean for Businesses?

US businesses use TikTok to reach the estimated 136 million Americans who regularly use the app in 2025. Through the app’s personalized algorithm, businesses are able to reach consumers they would otherwise not have access to, and nearly five million jobs benefited from a TikTok business acount in 2024.

The potential drawbacks for businesses’ marketing strategies without TikTok could be major. Not only does TikTok give brands the opportunity to build a loyal consumer base, but its social commerce platform, TikTok Shop, allows smaller businesses with a limited budget to sell products and generate revenue.

Should a TikTok ban come into full effect once again, businesses may turn to other TikTok alternatives, such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts for their marketing purposes. As a TikTok ban has become more of a reality, apps such as RedNote have also seen an increase in popularity.

Digital payments network Zelle has shut down its mobile app as of April 1st. This has come as a result of very few customers using the app to make payments, instead using Zelle through their bank or credit union.

As a result of the change, customers of Zelle will now only be able to make payments via a financial institution that offers it. The company was launched in 2017 and is available in over 2,200 U.S. financial institutions.

Although Zelle’s main reason for shutting down its app is because of lack of use, the move could also be seen as an attempt to improve safeguarding and fraud detection within the network, especially since the company has been a prime target for scammers in the past.

Why Is Zelle Abandoning Its Mobile App?

According to a press release by Zelle, only 2% of transactions take place via its app, with most customers using their bank or credit union to send money to their phone contacts. With so few people using the app for payments, it makes sense that Zelle would want to free up time and money by abandoning the feature.

Instead, the app will serve as a hub for financial education, giving information about scams and fraud, as well as providing a list of the institutions that offer Zelle. With the focus now completely on these institutions, Zelle could be shifting its focus to onboarding more of them in the coming years.

Zelle made the announcement at the end of October 2024, and have been slowly phasing out the ability to make app payments. Since then, users have been encouraged to use Zelle through a bank or credit union that offers it, and customer service support remained in place for those using the app.

How Will Future Payments Be Made Through Zelle?

Instead of using the app, businesses are encouraged to enroll in a financial institution that offers Zelle in order to continue using the service in a safe and regulated way, receiving money from and sending money to trusted contacts.

Zelle saw an increase of 16 million consumer and small business accounts from 2023 to 2024, going from 135 million to 151 million accounts. Zelle has been highly beneficial to small businesses, from offering customers flexible ways to pay to rewarding employees with upfront bonuses that go straight into their bank account.

In a statement, general manager of Zelle Denise Leonhard said the company remains the “go to peer-to-peer payment method for millions of hardworking Americans,” and explained that the company remains focused on expanding and unlocking opportunities for individuals and small businesses alike.

Should Your Business Look Elsewhere for a Payment App?

Despite the changes, we wouldn’t advise businesses to abandon Zelle just yet, as most of the payments made will not be impacted. If you do use the app, we would encourage you to enroll into a financial institution that offers Zelle payments.

You may also be concerned about the risk of scams when making payments through networks such as Zelle. As money is transferred directly from bank account to bank account, there are potential security risks. This is something we have seen happening not just through Zelle, but with similar services such as PayPal.

However, if you have been concerned with using Zelle in the past, these changes could see better fraud protection and security measures put in place as payments must be made through secure financial institutions. The new educational value of the Zelle app could also be evidence of the company aiming to improve its security measures.

Cybersecurity breaches are getting worse. As AI development continues apace, criminals are employing increasingly sophisticated methods to dupe unsuspecting individuals and gain access to your information. According to the Tech.co “Impact of Technology on the Workplace” report, at least 16% of companies experienced a breach in 2024, with a further 5% unsure.

The repercussions of these data breaches can be grave. In the short-term, you could be faced with significant financial problems. For instance, cybercriminals can hold your information to ransom. If you don’t pay, it can end up on the dark web – at which point, your customers will probably file a lawsuit.

It is in the long term, however, that companies experience the direst consequences. Recently, reports emerged that DNA testing firm 23andMe was to file for bankruptcy and later sell itself as it continues to suffer the fallout from a high-profile breach in 2023. And there are countless other examples.

From destroying your reputation to plundering your finances, data breaches can have a truly catastrophic impact on your company. In this guide, I’ve put together a list of some of the businesses that have had to endure extreme hardship due to a cyberattack.

23andMe

As mentioned above, the genetic testing firm has been embroiled in legal trouble since it was hit by a massive data breach in October 2023. A cyber criminal seized personal information belonging to no fewer than 6.9 million customers – just under half of the company’s total customer base.

Reportedly, the criminal took advantage of two features – known as “DNA Relatives” and “Family Tree” – that allow customers to share information with each other, in order to steal so much information.

It has also transpired that they specifically targeted individuals with Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, whose information was put up for sale on the dark web. 23andMe initially failed to notify these customers.

What happened to 23andMe?

The company was promptly hit with a class action lawsuit. In September 2024, it agreed to pay $30 million in cash payments to individuals whose information was stolen. It also agreed to provide three years of security monitoring, with customers permitted to enroll in a program known as “Privacy & Medical Shield + Genetic Monitoring.”

This enormous financial outlay necessitated a company restructure, which ultimately resulted in 200 employees, or 40% of the total workforce, losing their jobs. 23andMe stopped all development of its therapies, and put itself up for sale. After several failed takeover bids, CEO Anne Wojcicki resigned. The company has now filed for bankruptcy as it seeks a new buyer.

With doubts over the company’s future swirling, customers are concerned about their data. On March 21, 2025, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a consumer alert, urging people to delete their accounts and corresponding genetic data. When all is said and done, the 23andMe data breach has been nothing short of a disaster for both business and customer alike.

Meta

The social media giant is no stranger to controversy. Over the years, the Mark Zuckerberg-helmed company has been at the center of numerous scandals, from Facebook-Cambridge Analytica to accusations of widespread election misinformation in 2016.

It also holds the dubious honor of recipient of the biggest data privacy violation fine in history. It all started in 2013, when Austrian activist Max Schrems brought a class action suit against Meta, citing concerns that when European users’ data was transferred to the US, it was not being adequately protected from American intelligence agencies.

Then, in August 2020, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) launched an inquiry into Meta Platform Ireland Limited, which was eventually concluded in May 2023. Meta Ireland was found guilty of failing to establish appropriate guardrails to safeguard the user information in question.

What happened to Meta?

The platform was billed $1.3 billion for violation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a European Union (EU) mandate designed to enforce information privacy. EU regulators have also ordered Meta to suspend the transfer of personal data to the US, which has had a sizeable knock-on impact on the way that Meta carries out its operations in Europe.

Beyond that, the company has suffered a massive blow to its reputation. While difficult to quantify, the impacts of this are often far-reaching and permanent. Meta intends to appeal the decision, but the damage has been done.

TravelEx

In December 2019, foreign exchange company TravelEx suffered a massive data breach. Cyber criminals launched a sophisticated ransomware attack on New Year’s Eve that brought the company to a complete standstill. TravelEx took down its websites across 30 countries to try and contain the attack, but it was in trouble.

The criminals, who were part of a gang known as REvil, claimed to have already accessed the company’s computer network and stolen 5GB of sensitive customer data. Allegedly, this included dates of birth, credit card information, and national insurance numbers.

TravelEx failed to file a data breach report to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which is a national requirement for companies that suffer data breaches. Under GDPR, failing to do so within 72 hours of the original breach can result in a fine of 4% of the company’s global turnover.

What happened to TravelEx?

After negotiating with the preparators, the company agreed to pay a ransom of $2.3 million. Its parent company, Finablr, attempted to sell the company, but was ultimately unsuccessful. A subsequent restructure resulted in the loss of over 1,300 jobs.

It later transpired that concerns around digital security vulnerabilities had been raised earlier in 2019. When this came to light, the impact on TravelEx’s reputation was catastrophic. The company survived the ordeal, but it has never recaptured the market share that it held before it suffered the cybersecurity breach.

MediSecure

Australian prescriptions vendor MediSecure revealed that it had experienced a data breach in July 2024, during which the personal information of 12.9 million people was compromised. In other words, almost half of the population of the country.

Information on the nature of the breach is scarce, but it’s thought that cyber criminals exploited a vulnerability within the company’s IT estate to plant a ransomware attack. From there, they encrypted sensitive customer data and demanded a ransom for its release.

What happened to MediSecure?

Whether or not the company gave in to the criminals’ demands is unclear, but what we do know for sure is that they didn’t stop there. With all that personal information at their disposal, the criminals also launched a series of subsequent attacks against affected individuals.

Anticipating an avalanche of lawsuits from disgruntled customers, MediSecure requested a bailout from the Australian government. It was rejected. The company has since entered into administration, meaning that it is in the process of being reorganized, with a view to its total shutdown.

National Public Data

The employee background check company was subject to a massive data breach in August 2024. Reportedly, cyber criminals gained access to the company’s database via a zip file located on the company website. They stole no fewer than 2.9 billion records belonging to 170 million people.

What happened to National Public Data?

Predictably, the company never recovered. Shortly after the breach came to light, the company filed for bankruptcy to prepare for the subsequent litigation and investigations. Ultimately, it was shut down.

A team of researchers in Scotland has unveiled a RFID tag, which they claim could make the technology cheaper as well as more sustainable.

The scientists at the University of Glasgow explain that the new RFID tag does not need a chip, which is the hardest component of the devices to make. The chips also represent 50% of the tag’s carbon impact.

As RFID tags become more and more integral in asset and inventory tracking, this invention could have huge fiscal as well as environmental implications.

How Does a Chipless RFID Tag Work?

The new design is passive. As the RFID Journal explains, it consists of “a sensor material [made from PDMS silicon rubber and carbon fibers] and an antenna”.

The journal adds: “The coils, smaller than the ones found in credit cards, absorb electromagnetic signals from a hand-held reader using electromagnetic waves.” The tag changes the frequency of these waves if there is a change in sensor measurement.

This measurement could be, for example, temperature. The team explains that the tags react in just seconds and performed well between 20 to 60 degrees Celsius. They can, however, detect variations in temperature between 20 and 110 degrees Celsius.

The team adds that the RFID reader can currently communicate with three tags at once but it is aiming to increase this to 10 tags.

Applications of new RFID Tag

Mahmoud Wagih is a lecturer at the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering, and author of the white paper and article about the new tag in the Advanced Science journal.

He explains that this range means that the tags would be best suited to food safety and medical applications. Tags could be placed on products displayed in a store and the consistency of temperature monitored along the shelf. “If for example one region in that shelf is now overheating, or something is not cooling in one part of the fridge” that data could be acted upon in real time, said University of Glasgow research associate, Benjamin King.

He explains though that there are far more applications: “That sensing material, its properties change in response to whatever stimuli that we have in mind so there’s really nothing stopping us from being able to design a humidity sensitive material or pressure sensitive material — the potential versatility is interesting.”

Eco Impact of Chipless RFID Tag

There is a caveat in that the tags can send only three bits of data as compared to the approximately 128 bits or more of a standard UHF RFID tag. The system also only works at a range of around 1cm.

However, the new designs have a huge advantage as they are easier to make, don’t have the chemical waste element of chip manufacture and also are easier to recycle. The chips in standard RFID tags have to be removed before the tags can be disposed of.

According to Eco Experts, more than 53.6 million tons of e-waste is produced globally, which is a 21% rise in just 5 years. This new technology might make a tiny dent on this figure.

The beleaguered software and technology company, Sabre, is reportedly looking into selling its hotel booking engine, SynXis.

The news comes just months after the rumors of another potential sale – this time of the company’s whole hospitality software unit – as Sabre continues to flounder.

The hospitality industry is struggling with a perfect storm of challenges at the moment, ranging from increased costs to labor shortages. Sabre, which traces its roots back to the 1960s, has struggled in this increasingly hostile environment.

SynXis Potentially Worth $1 Billion

It was Reuters, which reported that Sabre is strongly considering the sale of its SynXis platform. The deal could be worth more than $1 billion, says the news service. This would help the company, which had debt net of cash of about $4.5 billion at the end of last year.

Just a few months ago, Skift published a story suggesting Sabre might be trying to sell the entire Sabre Hospitality tech business, which SynXis is part of.

Sabre Hospitality provides 10.8% of the company’s total revenue. It helps airlines “…distribute their flights and ancillaries to travel agencies, online and offline, and providing airlines with tech solutions to run their operations,” says the trade news website.

Potential Sale for Sabre…Again

Sabre was reported to have been approaching potential buyers for its whole hospitality tech business two years previously as well.

At the time, Sabre refused to comment; and continues to be close-lipped now. Evernote, the investment bank reported to be working with the Southlake, Texas-based firm on a possible deal, is also refusing to comment.

Reuters says that the SynXis business currently generates about $300 million in annual revenue. The platform is used by more than 40% of all hotels globally, including global chains like Four Seasons and Mandarin Oriental.

Rumors Fuel Trading Jump

Just the rumors of a potential sale saw Sabre’s shares jump 3.4% in trading. This marks a possible change of fortune if a sale – either of SynXis or the software business as a whole – comes to pass.

Despite its debt, the company reported last month that it is confident of “maintaining its position” in global distribution systems over the next 10 years “driven by a gradual recovery in corporate travel”.

Sabre was founded by C.R. Smith, the then president of American Airlines, and R. Blair Smith, a sales executive at IBM in the 1960s. It was created to provide a data processing system for the airline industry. Its core purpose was to help them manage seat reservations, but now the company designs to tech to power mobile apps, check-in kiosks, websites, hotel reservations and even eCommerce for travelers.

The will is there among logistics companies to use AI to boost their business; but a new survey has revealed that their systems just aren’t ready yet.

The survey brought together the views of 100 U.S. executives and 100 supply chain leaders; and asked them about the benefits they are already seeing from AI integration and their hopes for the future.

The U.S. freight and logistics market size is anticipated to reach $1.62 trillion by 2029; and AI could increase logistics productivity by more than 40%. But the survey acknowledged that there are roadblocks.

Optimism Abounds on AI Logistics

The results, which were gathered by the teams at LeanDNA and Wakefield Research, reveal that AI is already playing a huge role in the logistics industry.

As reported by SupplyChain247, 92% of executives and 100% of supply chain leaders said that AI is essential for predicting and preventing disruptions.

This echoes other reports, including one from DocShipper, that suggests that AI is expected to make supply chains 45% more effective in delivering products on time and without errors.

Businesses are investing, confident that they will see a return on investment though time frames vary. The survey revealed that 24% of executives and 15% of supply chain leaders think they have already seen a positive ROI or will in the next six months.

However, when the team looked ahead to the next two years, the percentages grew considerably with 87% of executives and 89% of supply chain leaders expecting a positive return.

How is AI Being Used in Supply Chains?

The survey also gave a glimpse into how AI is being used. Half of the supply chain leaders said that they are using AI to improve reliability. But it is also being used by almost the same percentage (45%) to help them diversify suppliers while 39% are deploying AI to sync their supply networks.

The technology is playing a key role in helping 39% of respondents upgrade their data infrastructure; but this is also a pain point for many.

Only 19% of executives and 18% of supply chain leaders could claim that they have achieved full digital synchronization.

Differences of Opinion in Logistics Industry

The survey interestingly revealed a disparity in what the two groups of leaders are concerned about when it comes to AI implementation.

Executives are most worried about production disruption while inventory costs, reputation, and staying compliant are the biggest red flags for the supply chain leaders.

What unites them, though, is the belief that companies need to stop simply reacting – and therefore existing day-to-day when it comes to AI – and instead focus on planning ahead.

Global manufacturing and supply chain company Fictiv reported that 34% of shipping and logistics firms don’t even have a digital transformation strategy.

Leaders in the logistics world can see the benefits of AI integration but a lack of foresight and planning now means that they are working with systems that struggling and are having to be reactive instead of proactive.

Connected workspaces are high up on the wishlist for the majority of ChatGPT business users and OpenAI says it is listening.

OpenAI is already pushing hard to embed itself in Government departments, but this latest announcement shows it is also laser focused on becoming the go-to AI chatbot for all enterprise users.

The move will see “internal knowledge” rolled out for ChatGPT Team customers, focusing first on pulling in and using content from users’ Google Drive; which has itself had an AI glow-up in recent months.

ChatGPT Connecting to Internal Knowledge Sources

It was Nate Gonzalez, product leader at OpenAI who made the announcement on LinkedIn.

He shares that the OpenAI team hasbeen trying out the internal knowledge tool with Google Drive for several weeks. He says it has “…already changed how we onboard new team members, prep for meetings, and unblock work.”

In a short demo video, the OpenAI team is shown using ChatGPT to find slides in Google Drive and “catch the user up” on a specific codenamed project using the new “internal knowledge” tab.

Beta Rolled Out but More To Come

The post also promises that Teams connectivity is coming “over the next few weeks”.

However, Gonzalez also asked for feedback from users who have been only too happy to share what connectivity they would like.

He teased: “…this is just the beginning. The team is already working on the next wave of connectors, aiming to support all the key internal knowledge sources your team relies on today—from collaboration and project management tools to data analytics platforms, CRMs, and more.”

But How Does This Work With Privacy?

Gonzalez says that he is most excited by the fact that the model will “learn your org’s unique language – project names and acronyms, and team-specific terms” but emphasizes that it will also “respect your user permissions”.

It’s of no surprise – though -that users have already raised concerns about data usage – after all this is a hot topic for all AI users. One commenter in LinkedIn asked: “What if ChatGPT access sources to add in own data and start giving same responses to others who are not in the same org?”

Gonzalez was quick to reply, stating: “We don’t train our models on any Team or Enterprise account data!” However – as Dropbox customers proved – there might still be concerns so this is probably a question that will we see being levelled again as more “connectors” are announced.

In a statement this week, Aurora Innovation announced that its soon-to-be-released self-driving trucks will operate without a driver, even when the weather is not cooperating.

We’ve been promised self-driving trucks for years, with ambitious entrepreneurs and lofty concept vehicles promising the world without much to show for it. In 2025, there are some trucks on the road that can drive on their own, but none that do so without a driver present.

Aurora is looking to change that, with a fully autonomous truck that will, rain or shine, be hitting the road soon.

Aurora Adds Inclement Weather to Autonomous Driving Framework

Despite the company’s lofty aspirations, Aurora has decided that it’s not going to be intimidated by a bit of wind and rain, with an announcement Tuesday that its fully autonomous trucks will, in fact, be operated in inclement weather.

Aurora uses something called the Safety Case Framework to operate its autonomous vehicles, which “combines guidance from government organizations, best practices from safety-critical industries, voluntary industry standards and consortia, academic research, and what an organization has learned in its own work.”

The company announced that it would be adding parameters to this framework that would allow it to more effectively take weather into account when driving.

When and Where Is Aurora Launching Autonomous Trucks?

Aurora Innovations is set to release fully autonomous vehicles in Texas this April, which means that this announcement is going to have an immediate impact on this upcoming release.

Aurora Innovations also has plans to launch fully autonomous trucks in New Mexico and Arizona at some point in 2025, but no official date has been set for those states.

The states in question are a good indicator of why Aurora Innovations is so confident in its vehicles ability to handle the elements, with Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico well known for their less-than-inclement weather compared to other territories across the US.

Aurora Innovations and Safety

While this news may sound a bit alarming, especially if you’re planning on driving on the roads of Texas next month, rest assured, Aurora Innovations is fully committed to safety when it comes to its vehicles.

“At Aurora, our philosophy isn’t just safety first – it’s safety always. Our safety approach spans both product and organization, and in this report, we’ve shared a behind-the-scenes look into our safety systems. With the launch of the Aurora Driver, the world will experience driverless trucks safely delivering freight on public roads for the first time.” – Nat Beuse, Chief Safety Officer at Aurora Innovations

Still, tackling the fully autonomous trucking problem is going to be a steep undertaking, and when you add the wind and rain of the Texas summer into the mix, who knows what can happen.

Despite the poor reception of Copilot, Bill Gates is quite optimistic about AI, with the former CEO saying in an interview this week that we will not need humans “for most things” as the technology evolves.

While we are still in the early stages of AI development in 2025, those in the tech industry haven’t held back when it comes talking about the potential for this technology to change the way we live.

Bill Gates took that to another level this week, waxing poetic about all the jobs and tasks that AI will be able to do for us without any human intervention in just 10 years.

Bill Gates and the Future of AI

In an interview on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Bill Gates talked about a lot of stuff, including his grandkids, his battles with Steve Jobs, and his new book Source Code.

What stood out to many, though, were the few minutes he spent talking about AI, in which he discussed how the technology is likely to evolve over the next decade, and what kind of tasks it will take on, often better than humans.

“The era that we’re just starting is that intelligence is rare, a great doctor or a great teacher. And with AI, over the next decade, that will become free and commonplace. Great medical advice. Great tutoring.” – Bill Gates

On top of that, when Jimmy Fallon tentatively asked whether or not we will need humans in the future, Gates responded, “Not for most things,” to which the talk show host and studio audience responded with nervous laughter.

Is AI Actually Replacing Jobs?

Bill Gates did make the distinction in this interview that, while AI is currently quite advanced, this level of job replacement isn’t expect for at least another decade.

He’s not wrong, as the number of jobs replaced by AI are still quite low. The Impact of Technology on the Workplace report from Tech.co found that only 14% of business owners state that AI has extensively removed the need for certain job roles in 2025.

This is likely due to the fact that AI errors and mistakes are substantially prevalent in the technology today, which means that no one is itching to trust a robust with their education or the medical advice.

The AI Skills Gap

Just because businesses aren’t replacing human job roles now, doesn’t mean they won’t in the near future. To prepare for the inevitable day when robots aren’t so prone to mistakes, becoming familiar with how to use these AI tools for your own career development is key to long-term success

Unfortunately, the AI skills gap is widening by the minute, with more and more businesses and employees ignoring the value and importance of understanding the technology.

If you want to get hired, simply put, you need to know a bit about AI, with 87% of businesses believing that hiring employees with AI expertise is at least slightly important, compared to only 66% in 2023.

It’s been a long road: After a decade of pushing it off, the federal government will be enforcing a regulation that requires truckers to submit their medical certification electronically, and not on paper.

The FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) first issued a shift towards a fully electronic Medical Examiner’s Certification back in 2015, but enforcement was pushed back several times due to IT concerns.

Now, the final national deadline for the upgrade is almost here: Truckers will officially need to file electronically on June 23, 2025.

What’s Changing?

Most commercial US truckers — and anyone who manages them — have already been submitting their DVIRs electronically for years, following the ELD mandate, which first went into full enforcement back in 2019.

By ensuring that all truckers track their hours of service with approved electronic logging devices (ELDs), the government gets more useful, searchable data. And since truckers also need to retain Records of Duty Status (RODS) data and backup data from the previous six months, there’s a wealth of information should anything need to be verified or double-checked.

That electronic data hasn’t included the Medical Examiner’s Certificate (MEC), a paper document that truckers must have on-hand during a routine stop, since it proves to state licensing agencies that they meet the physical qualifications for operating a commercial vehicle.

On June 23 of this year, that finally changes. According to CDLLife, “the compliance date was initially set for June 22nd, 2018. It was pushed to June 22nd, 2021, and then to June 23rd, 2025, due to IT system issues.”

How Does This Impact You?

This is a rare new regulation that won’t give truckers anything extra to do. Once the law switches over from paper certificates (which truckers must have on hand) to electronic ones, truckers won’t have to offer up the certificates in order to prove they deserve their license.

Instead, Certified Medical Examiners will be the ones required to submit any commercial vehicle driver medical exam results directly to the FMCSA, as well as the relevant state licensing agency. That whole process takes place through the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners — leaving the commercial truckers and motor carriers themselves free to do their job.

However, you should still make sure you keep your paper records on hand for at least a month or two after the regulation switches over in late June. You won’t want to be caught off guard in the event of an unexpected IT failure, since the online system will still be brand-new. There’s no reason to put your commercial driver’s license (CDL) in danger when you’re perfectly qualified to drive a truck.

Some States Are Already Enforcing the Regulation

Depending on your state, these nationwide changes might have already arrived: State governments in Maryland, Minnesota, Utah, and Texas are already accepting electronic medical certificates from truckers.

From March 23rd to June 23rd of 2025, Texas will accept both paper and electronic certification to further ease the transition.

It’s another example of how modern trucking is increasingly online, even if the shift itself took many years.

Foreign-imported cars and light-duty trucks may soon start increasing their US price tags by over $7,000.

Why? The Trump administration’s new 25% tariff on all automobile imports. It comes right on the heels of a 20% steel and aluminum tariff, as well as a China-focused tariff, and it will be followed in early May with another tariff aimed at auto parts.

To learn about how these taxes will affect you, we checked in across a wide range of impacted industries and countries. Read on to hear from Canada’s prime minister – he’s not happy – as well as see which automakers have it worse. Trump ear-bender Elon Musk should be ecstatic: Tesla, Inc. will likely do the best, since about 80% of its cars are domestic.

How Do the New Tariffs Work?

The hubhub all stems from an executive order President Donald Trump signed on Wednesday. Starting just next week on April 3, the order calls for a 25% tariff on all automobile imports to the United States.

What about vehicles that were partially made in the US? The White House has an answer: It provided a fact sheet about the tariffs that clarifies this caveat. Any tariffs applied to the automobiles imported under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) will only count towards the value of elements that were not made in the United States.

In other words, Canadian and Mexican automakers will still suffer the full brunt of the tariffs. And, while the Trump administration has announced and then paused other tariffs for Canada in the last month, Trump claims that this one is “permanent.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the duties a “direct attack” on Canadian autoworkers that’s “entirely inconsistent” with CUSMA and “the long history of relations in the auto sector right back through the Auto Pact,” a 1965 trade agreement between Canada and the US.

Automotive Logistics Will Have a Rough Year

What kind of impact will these tariffs have? Logistics news source The Lodestar checked in with investment bank Jefferies, which calls the new duties the “most heavy-handed and simplest option.”

Jefferies estimates that, if these tariffs were around this time last year:

• They would have affected eight million vehicles 
• They would have increased the price by $7,600 per imported car
• Ford will be less impacted than GM and STLA.

Transport Topics notes another automaker that will come out a winner due to the new tariffs: Tesla, Inc., which sees around 80% of its vehicles built domestically.

There’s one bit of good news, however: Heavy-duty trucks appear to be exempt from the tariffs, at least so far.

However, a second tranche of tariffs aimed at auto parts is expected on May 3, and will likely impact trucks, due to the entire US auto industry’s reliance on global supply chains. Provided these tariffs result in supply chains being rebuilt within the US, it’s the consumers who will likely fare the worst, since costs will rise and US automakers may deliver a lower quality product without global competition.

…But Cargo Frontloading Is Boosting Short-Term Profits

All the uncertainty from the new tariffs has resulted in a short-term benefit for the shipping business. However, the Port of Los Angeles just saw its second-best February on record, according to Executive Director Gene Seroka. Seroka was speaking at a March 19 press briefing, so it wasn’t in response to the new 25% tariffs. However, the new tariffs may lead to another short-term shot in the arm for the same reason: Cargo frontloading.

In logistics, the term “frontloading” refers to increasing efforts or costs at the beginning of a project period, a practice that reduces uncertainty and ensures everyone stays on track. Since the new tariffs – like the 25% steel and aluminum tariffs for all countries that were imposed earlier in March – are making shippers uncertain about how costs may fluctuate down the road, they’re all increasing shipments now in order to hedge against any upcoming changes.

In the case of LA’s port, Seroka expects consistent volume growth across the first and second quarters, and he predicts a 10% drop in volume in the second half of the year.

The Trump administration added 20%  tariffs on imports from China earlier this month, which reduced cargo shipments from China to LA down to 43% of the port’s traffic, down from 57% before the change.

In other news, US rail traffic increased more than 5% year-over-year for the fourth week in a row.

US and Canadian Steelworkers Face Layoffs

According to a new Freight Waves article, the US-based Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is laying off more than 1,200 steel and mine workers in Michigan and Minnesota. The company cites market conditions as well as “weak automotive production” in the U.S. Last month, Canadian steelmaker MPG Canada laid off 140 positions, citing the US tariffs.

Part of the problem is the low demand for US cars: Within months, one forecaster has dropped from predicting 16.3 million vehicles sold in the US in 2025 to just 15.6 million.

Once the tariffs have been in place for a while, we may see a reversal of the US layoffs – but given the uncertainty surrounding the amount and size of all the tariffs that might be issued, it’s impossible to say when that might be.

Meanwhile, Canadian steelworkers aren’t optimistic about their job security. Canada-based Algoma Steel has laid off about 20 people, citing customer loss due to tariffs.

A Canada-focused reader survey from TruckNews.com puts a face to the insecurity that many workers in the country feel right now. One of them writes: “If these tariffs continue, I will probably lose my job in three months!” Another respondent says they “have been hauling organic grain to the same WA-state company for over 30 years. With the 25% tariff, they are looking to buy from within the U.S. and Argentina. Last load delivered March 4. Unless things change, I have lost my job.”

Will Canada and Others Counter the Tariffs?

We’re still waiting to see how any of this shakes out, but there’s a chance that Canada, Mexico, or the EU may work to counter the range of freshly imposed tariffs with their own US-specific tariffs. If so, Trump promised to continue escalating, according to a Truth Social post on Thursday.

“If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!” -Trump

The tax increases seem set to keep rising for the near future.

While you wait to see what ultimately happens, we recommend stocking up on toilet paper: Canadian softwood lumber tariffs recently doubled, reaching 27%, and US toilet paper prices are expected to soar as a result.

For entrepreneurs, small business owners, and creators, having a professional, visually compelling website is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. In today’s fast-moving digital economy, a website serves as the front door to a business, shaping first impressions and influencing customer trust.

However, the process of designing a website from scratch can be time-consuming, expensive, and technically complex especially for those without coding or design skills. Many business owners either spend countless hours trying to customize templates or hire expensive developers to bring their vision to life.

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What is Design Intelligence?

At its core, Design Intelligence is an AI-powered tool that automates website creation. Instead of users spending hours adjusting layouts and tweaking code, Blueprint AI streamlines the process—just like an interior designer transforming a blank space into a stylish, functional office.

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Beyond Website Building: Squarespace’s Business Tools

A website is only the first step in running a successful business. Squarespace goes beyond design by offering integrated business tools that help entrepreneurs manage payments, sell digital products, automate scheduling, and streamline invoicing—all from one platform.

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For many businesses, handling online transactions can be a challenge. Squarespace Payments offers a built-in, secure payment system that removes the need for third-party integrations.

How It Helps Businesses:

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• Enables businesses to sell products, services, and subscriptions directly on their site.
• Compared to other website builders that require separate payment integrations, Squarespace simplifies the entire process, ensuring a frictionless checkout experience.

2. Courses – Turn Your Expertise Into Income

The e-learning industry is booming, and Squarespace’s Courses feature enables creators to monetize their knowledge through online education.

Key Benefits:

• Easy course setup: Upload videos, PDFs, and lesson plans in minutes.
• Built-in payments: Charge one-time fees, subscriptions, or tiered pricing.
• Seamless student experience: User-friendly course navigation with progress tracking.

Example: A yoga instructor used Squarespace Courses to launch an online training program, generating passive income while expanding her brand reach.

Unlike platforms that require multiple integrations, Squarespace keeps everything in one place, making course creation accessible to non-technical users.

3. Client Invoicing – Manage Clients and Payments in One Place

For freelancers and service-based businesses, handling invoices manually can be time-consuming. Squarespace’s Client Invoicing feature automates this process, helping users get paid faster.

Why It’s Essential:

• Customizable invoices – Personalize branding and payment terms.
• Automated payment reminders – Reduce delays and improve cash flow.
• Seamless integration with Squarespace Payments – Clients can pay directly from their invoice.
• Compared to using external invoicing tools, Squarespace consolidates billing and payment processing, saving businesses valuable time.

4. Acuity Scheduling – Smart Appointment Management

For businesses that rely on appointments and bookings, Acuity Scheduling automates the entire process—reducing no-shows and administrative workload.

How It Benefits Businesses:

• Clients can book online 24/7, eliminating back-and-forth emails.
• Accept deposits or full payments upfront to secure bookings.
• Automated reminders and calendar syncing prevent scheduling conflicts.

For example: A life coach integrated Acuity Scheduling with her Squarespace site, allowing clients to book sessions effortlessly while she focused on growing her business.

Compared to standalone scheduling tools, Acuity’s integration streamlines workflows, helping service-based professionals stay organized.

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Why Squarespace is the Go-To Platform for Business Growth

While many website builders focus solely on design, Squarespace takes a comprehensive approach, providing AI-powered customization, built-in payments, digital products, and scheduling—all in one platform.

What Sets Squarespace Apart?

• AI-powered website creation in minutes
• No-code design customization for small businesses
• Integrated payment processing for seamless transactions
• Online course creation tools for digital entrepreneurs
• Smart scheduling features for service-based businesses

Unlike competitors that require multiple plugins or third-party tools, Squarespace offers an all-in-one ecosystem, allowing entrepreneurs to scale without complexity.

Think of Squarespace as your business’s digital headquarters combining AI-driven design with the essential tools needed to grow and succeed.

Take the Next Step with Squarespace

With Blueprint AI, Design Intelligence, and integrated business tools, Squarespace is helping entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small businesses build powerful online brands without the technical hassle.

Ready to transform your business with AI-powered website design?

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Microsoft is the latest company to equip its AI chatbot, Copilot, with deep research tools, allowing it to use reasoning and analysis to provide complex answers and complete tasks. It is also able to connect with third-party data connectors and derive insights across a company’s tools.

This adds to the growing wave of chatbots with advanced thinking capabilities. Most recently, Google introduced reasoning AI models to Gemini, and xAI’s Grok 3 model includes bots trained with “reinforcement learning” that helps it use a chain-of-thought reasoning process.

These changes come at a time where there are increasing concerns about the reliability of information provided by AI chatbots. AI blunders happen often, and where chatbots are now integrated into businesses, misinformation could pose a large risk.

What Do New Copilot Tools Consist Of?

The updated Microsoft 365 Copilot includes a ‘Researcher’ and ‘Analyst’ agent to provide a deeper reasoning ability and thorough research skills.

The ‘Researcher’ agent merges OpenAI’s deep research model with Microsoft’s own “advanced orchestration” and “deep search capabilities”. It also integrates with the other programs in a user’s toolbox, such as Salesforce, creating in-depth reports and strategies with a broad range of knowledge.

The ‘Analyst’ model is built on OpenAI’s o3-mini reasoning model, and focuses on advanced data analysis to tackle complex queries and provide refined answers. The agent knows programming language Python, which the user is able to read and inspect for themselves as the agent is coding.

Both tools will start to be rolled out in April for customers on the new Frontier program, which will from then on be the place where experimental Copilot features first launch.

Copilot Keeping Up With The Competition

AI companies are in a constant race of improving and defining their chatbots within the crowd, particularly as AI continues to establish itself more and more within the workplace.

Copilot is the latest chatbot to receive deep research and analysis abilities. Not so long ago, Google unveiled a new ‘reasoning’ update to its chatbot Gemini, allowing the bot to pause and ‘think’ before giving answers. ChatGPT also has a Deep Research feature, in the form of an agent OpenAI claims reports “at the level of a research analyst”.

The ability to ‘think deeply’ and refine this thinking as new information pops up, could be crucial in the development of AI. It is most certainly an important step in creating AI bots that are able to problem solve and combine knowledge as humans do.

Risks Remain When Using AI for Research

However, as exciting as deeper reasoning agents are, there are still concerns about how accurate the information AI bots provide, particularly if they are being used in professional settings.

The fear is that AI bots can “hallucinate” or make information up. There have been cases of lawyers being sactioned for submitting fake case citations given by ChatGPT, or Microsoft chatbot MyCity telling business owners it is legal to take a cut of their workers’ tips.

Not only do chatbots need the ability to think deeply about problems, but also take the sources they are given and decide whether it is reliable or accurate enough to mention in its research. At the moment at least, this seems like a level of intuition reserved only for humans.

The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief was added to a government group chat on messaging app Signal, which is raising security concerns about where sensitive military conversations take place.

Signal is a privacy-focused messaging app, which helps its users avoid being tracked. The President of the Signal Foundation, Meredith Whittaker, has described the app as the “gold standard of private comms” and outlined Signal’s central security principle, which includes end-to-end encryption. The app also boasts impressive security features such as profile picture blurring and disappearing messages. Despite these measures, there are still concerns about how appropriate Signal is for sensitive government conversations.

However, the app remains a solid choice for businesses looking for added privacy and security, and below, we’ve outlined the best ways you can bolster your defenses while using Signal.

What is Signal and Who Owns It?

Signal was the app used by US government officials to discuss military plans, sparking concerns around its suitability for highly sensitive conversations. Signal is an open-source messaging service used by an estimated 40-70 million users per month.

It is owned by the Signal Foundation, a US non-profit that relies on donations and grants for funding rather than advertising, putting user privacy at the center of its business model. Its co-founders are Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton, the latter who founded WhatsApp.

The company’s focus on privacy and security has earned it a great reputation among cybersecurity experts and journalists. Its end-to-end encryption allows only the sender and receiver to view messages, so the only information the company has on its users is the date an account was added and the date said account was last used.

Growing Concerns Over Security

While Signal’s security measures are strong, it is still not considered an appropriate tool to house sensitive military conversations, such as the one Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg found himself in the middle of this week.

Added to a group chat, Goldberg was subject to US plans to bomb Houthi targets across Yemen, including weapons packages and targets. He also read discussions about perceptions of European “free-loading” and America’s role in “bailing out” Europe.

There are certainly concerns about government security in these cases. Especially since certain features of Signal, such as disappearing messages, could be in violation of federal law that requires official government records to be kept.

Tips for Using Signal in Your Business

Signal is otherwise a very secure messaging app. Beyond its end-to-end encryption and disappearing message feature, the app is open-source, meaning it can be continually checked by experts to prevent hacks.

However, if you are concerned about security when using the app, here are our tips for using Signal in your business:

• Location: Phones can be less secure than computers because of how often we use them. If possible, avoid opening the Signal app on public transport, or keep it restricted to an antivirus-protected computer.
• Features: Take advantage of features such as disappearing messages, profile picture image blurring and an incognito keyboard.
• Link previews: Disable link previews through Settings > Privacy in order to reduce the risk of tracking or phishing scams.
• Verification: Verify safety numbers before sharing sensitive information, allowing you to make sure you are communicating with the correct person.
• Device: Consider using a secondary phone number when you sign up.
• Security: Always choose a strong PIN and consider using biometrics to access the app.

Volvo is opening the books for its new Electric HGV, which it claims will change the long-haul trucking world forever.

The Volvo FH Aero Electric has been teased since last year but now the car manufacturer says that potential customers can sign up to order and that the official launch will be Q4 of this year.

As companies consider transitioning their fleets to electric, this truck has 600km range and the ability to recharge in just 40 minutes.

Significant Leap

Volvo is describing the arrival of its new flagship electric model as “a real breakthrough in zero-emission transport.” Its e-axle design means that there is more room for batteries, hence the 780 kWh installed capacity.

In a news piece on Sustainable Times, Roger Alm, President of Volvo Trucks, said: “Now, transport companies can operate really long distances with electric trucks without having to compromise on productivity. The superfast charging and high payload capacity make this a very competitive solution.”

This truck, Volvo says, delivers too on capacity. It can haul up to 44 tons in the UK and US, and 46 tons in the Republic of Ireland when paired with a standard tri-axle semi-trailer.

The company already sells its VNR Electric models stateside, and these have an operating range of 275 miles. The page is now live for US buyers to “build their truck” for the new model.

Competition on the Road

Volvo claims it has so far delivered more than 3,800 electric trucks to customers in 46 countries around the world.

However, other companies are pushing hard too. This year will also see the arrival of a new Renault T-Model, which will also have a 600km range on a single charge.

“We believe that a range of 600 km on a single charge, combined with the development of public charging infrastructure networks by 2026 – in particular through our joint venture Milence – will enable us to achieve the operational parity [with diesel technology] that our customers expect.” – Emmanuel Duperray, Senior Vice President Electromobility at Renault Trucks

Not Just About Range

However, Duperray also added that his company is “…not looking to enter a race for autonomy on a single charge.” Instead, he argues that manufacturers need to think about how an electric truck is currently “more expensive than a combustion vehicle.”

“We need to rethink low-carbon logistics, in other words, reconsider transport patterns to optimize the use of transport vehicles and therefore reduce the cost per kilometer.” – Duperray

Electric trucks – especially delivering these sorts of ranges – are a huge step towards decarbonization, but companies also need to keep pushing the envelope in terms of design, cost efficiency, and infrastructure.