Things To Do In SW Florida

By Queenie Wong, Los Angeles Times

Tech companies that are cutting jobs and leaning more on artificial intelligence are also disrupting themselves.

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Amazon’s Chief Executive Andy Jassy said last month that he expects the e-commerce giant will shrink its workforce as employees “get efficiency gains from using AI extensively.”

At Salesforce, a software company that helps businesses manage customer relationships, Chief Executive Marc Benioff said last week that AI is already doing 30% to 50% of the company’s work.

Other tech leaders have chimed in before. Earlier this year, Anthropic, an AI startup, flashed a big warning: AI could wipe out more than half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years. read more

By JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump last rolled out tariffs this high, financial markets quaked, consumer confidence crashed and his popularity plunged.

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Only three months later, he’s betting this time is different.

In his new round of tariffs being announced this week, Trump is essentially tethering the entire world economy to his instinctual belief that import taxes will deliver factory jobs and stronger growth in the U.S., rather than the inflation and slowdown predicted by many economists. read more

By Lauren Schwahn, NerdWallet

Amazon’s well-known Prime Day sale is back this summer, running July 8-11. As I look back on my previous years covering and shopping the deals, I’ve noticed a pattern:

There’s a lot of hype leading up to the sale, but I’m left feeling a bit dissatisfied when it’s over.

The problem isn’t always the deals themselves, but how I shop. I’ve let temptation and the fear of missing out get the better of me. And I know I’m not the only one.

So, I asked a couple of my fellow personal finance writers to join me in sharing our biggest Prime Day blunders.

What is your biggest Prime Day regret?

Cordless LED table lamp

Amanda Barroso: “It was cute for about an hour, then it lost its charge. The lamp was not on my list, but I had seen a lot of people in my social media feeds linking to similar products. I wish I returned it but I waited too late and missed the return window. So, now it’s sitting in a donate pile waiting to go to my local thrift store.”

Unplanned items

Lauren Schwahn: “Last year, I had my eye on a Yoto Mini audio player for my son’s upcoming birthday. I snagged a starter pack bundle for $63.99 (a $16 discount) on Prime Day. But I got caught up in browsing other deals. I added on $8 hair clips and a $17 pajama set that I didn’t really need. Spending an extra $25 wasn’t the worst-case scenario, but I could have put that money to better use elsewhere — especially considering one of the clips broke in my thick hair after maybe three uses.” read more

By ALAN SUDERMAN, AP Business Writer

President Donald Trump continues to expand his crypto-related offerings, this time with a planned exchange-traded fund tied to the prices of five popular cryptocurrencies.

Trump Media & Technology Group, a Florida company that operates the Truth Social media platform, announced Tuesday it had filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for approval to launch the “Crypto Blue Chip ETF” later this year.

The proposed ETF would have 70% of its holdings in bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, 15% in ethereum, the second-most popular, and 8% in solana, a cryptocurrency popular in the meme coin community. The fund would hold 5% in the cryptocurrency developed by the company Ripple and 2% in the crypto created by the exchange Crypto.com, which will act as the ETF’s digital custodian.

Trump Media previously announced plans for a crypto ETF with just bitcoin and ethereum. It’s unclear if the company plans to move forward with that ETF offering. Trump Media did not immediately return a request for comment. read more

By The Associated Press

President Donald Trump sent letters to 14 countries Monday outlining higher tariffs they’ll face if they don’t make trade deals with the U.S. by Aug. 1.

In the letters, which were posted on Truth Social, Trump warned countries that they would face even higher tariffs if they retaliated by increasing their own import taxes.

Here’s a look at the countries that got tariff letters:

Myanmar

Tariff rate: 40%

Key exports to the U.S.: Clothing, leather goods, seafood

Response: Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for Myanmar’s military government. said the government will follow up with negotiations.

Laos

Tariff rate: 40%

Key exports to the U.S.: Shoes with textile uppers, wood furniture, electronic components, optical fiber

Cambodia

Tariff rate: 36%

Key exports to the U.S.: Textiles, clothing, shoes, bicycles

Response: Cambodia’s chief negotiator, Sun Chanthol, said the country successfully got the tariff dropped from the 49% Trump announced in April to 36% and is ready to hold a new round of negotiations. He appealed to investors, especially factory owners, and the country’s nearly 1 million garment workers not to panic about the tariff rate announced Monday. read more