Thich Nhat Hanh remains one of the most influential spiritual teachers of modern times, known for bringing mindfulness into everyday life. A Zen Buddhist monk and peace activist from Vietnam, he spent most of his life spreading compassion and peace of mind. His ideas and thoughts are not confined to spiritual circles; he has influenced people from all walks of life who are looking for peace in a chaotic world. With his powerful yet soothing words, he has inspired millions of people to live in the present moment.During times of war and conflict, Thich Nhat Hanh became a symbol of peace and nonviolence. His contributions to world peace are so remarkable that Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize. In addition to this, he has written many books that provide guidance and advice on how to cope with different situations in our lives. He has a unique talent for explaining spiritual ideas in a simple manner that can be applied in our lives. The quote, “Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free,” comes from his renowned book, “The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation.”
What this quote conveys
Essentially, the quote discusses the invisible burdens that we carry inside ourselves. We may think that freedom comes from our conditions, our wealth, our success, or our achievements in life. However, Thich Nhat Hanh tells us otherwise. He tells us that the only way to be free is to let go of our emotional burdens, such as our anger, fear, anxiety, and even our attachment to our possessions.The concept of “letting go” does not mean that we are not concerned or that we are avoiding the problems that we are in. It simply means that we are aware and accepting of the reality that we are in. For example, if we hold on to our anger, we continue to relive the pain that we are in, thereby affecting our present life. Similarly, if we hold on to our anxiety about our future, we continue to be in a state of uneasiness or anxiety at all times. Letting go of our emotions simply means that we do not want to be controlled by our emotions.Another powerful aspect of the quote is the concept of happiness. Rather than seeing happiness as something to be attained or acquired, we see happiness as a result or outcome of our freedom. When our minds are no longer encumbered with our attachments, we are lighter. When we are lighter, joy comes to us naturally. This concept goes against the idea that our happiness comes from our environment or situation in life, instead emphasizing that our happiness comes from our inner self.The words of Thich Nhat Hanh are a reminder to us all to look to our own inner self for our freedom. When we are no longer attached to our emotions, our fears, or our desires for things, we can have happiness. We are encouraged to examine what we are attached to and determine if it is good for us. We are in a society where we are bombarded with distractions at every turn, making Thich Nhat Hanh’s words more relevant to us now than they have been in the past.
It’s hard to have a better MLB regular-season debut than Cleveland Guardians rookie Chase DeLauter.
In the Guardians’ 6-4 win over the Seattle Mariners Thursday at T-Mobile Park, DeLauter homered twice in his regular-season debut, becoming the sixth player to ever do so.
The top prospect debuted in an American League Wild Card Series last fall, so Thursday wasn’t DeLauter’s first taste of big league action.
“That’s something I’ll never forget,” DeLauter said of his postseason debut last year. “I won’t forget this one either, don’t get me wrong.”
The Cleveland Guardians’ Chase DeLauter jogs the bases after hitting a solo home run against Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert during the first inning of an opening day baseball game in Seattle March 26, 2026.(Lindsey Wasson/AP Photo)
In the first inning, the 24-year-old clobbered Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert’s 85-mph slider 358 feet over the right-field wall for his first Major League home run, giving the Guardians a 1-0 lead.
He became the fifth player in Cleveland’s 126-year franchise history to hit a home run in his first career regular-season at-bat. He is the first Guardians player to do so since Jhonkensy Noel June 26, 2024.
DeLauter’s second blast of the game came in the ninth inning, when he crushed Mariners reliever Cooper Criswell’s cutter 422 feet into right-center field, providing a key insurance run as he gave the Guardians a 6-4 lead.
“He’s not from this planet,” reliever Erik Sabrowski said of DeLauter, according to The Athletic.
The Cleveland Guardians’ Chase DeLauter jogs the bases after hitting a solo home run against Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert during the first inning of an opening day baseball game in Seattle March 26, 2026.(Lindsey Wasson/AP Photo)
DeLauter finished the night 3 for 5, which tied him with veteran slugger Rhys Hoskins for the team lead in hits. Hoskins was particularly impressed with how unfazed DeLauter was in just his third major league game.
“Maybe he doesn’t know, maybe ignorance is bliss,” Hoskins said. “But to have that slow of a heartbeat in a home opener, obviously their crowd is all charged up because of what this team was able to do last year. So, yeah, just super cool.”
In DeLauter’s three seasons in the organization, he has only played in 138 games while dealing with a litany of injuries.
The Cleveland Guardians’ Chase DeLauter celebrates in the dugout after hitting a solo home run against Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert during the first inning of an opening day baseball game in Seattle March 26, 2026.(Lindsey Wasson/AP Photo)
“I mean, just thrilled to be around the guys,” DeLauter said. “Thrilled to be available. Really excited to just play some meaningful baseball again.”
DeLauter will look to continue his hot start when the Guardians (1-0) play the Mariners (0-1) again Friday at 9:45 p.m. ET.
Air passenger duty (APD) is set to rise on April Fools’ Day – and again on the same date in 2027. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has imposed an above-inflation increase from 1 April 2026 and one in line with the retail prices index a year after that. By the summer of 2027, a family of four flying premium economy to Orlando will pay over £1,000 in tax for leaving the UK in anything better than basic economy.
APD is the tax that passengers aged 16 and over must pay when flying from most UK airports. It is seen as a near-perfect tax by politicians. It is difficult to avoid and easy to collect, because airlines do all the work and send the Treasury a cheque. As the Treasury said when revealing the increase: “HMRC will not incur any costs making these changes.” In addition, many of the people who pay it are foreign visitors to the UK and do not vote.
The levy is unique to the UK, and a topic of much controversy:
Is it a “green” tax or simply a revenue-raising device?
Does it encourage less damaging behaviour by travellers or inadvertently cause more harm?
The debate is set to intensify, along with an increasing number of travellers avoiding APD through a variety of means.
These are the key questions and answers.
A brief history of air passenger duty
The man responsible for APD was the last Conservative chancellor of the 20th century, Kenneth Clarke. He later told me: “Aviation was in an unusual position in that it’s the only form of transport where no one was paying any tax on the fuel that it uses.
“For years and years governments have regarded it as totally normal to impose tax on petrol, diesel fuel and everything used by land and sea. For historic reasons nobody was placing any tax on air fares.
“For me that was an anomaly, not least because people who use aviation tend to be slightly more prosperous than those who use other forms of transport.”
International aviation agreements generally rule out a tax on jet kerosene. Instead, Mr Clarke imposed a departure tax from UK airports: air passenger duty of £5 on each European flight and £10 on long-haul services.
The tax applied to all passengers aged two or over, and took effect in 1994 – just a year before easyJet started flying.
What has happened since?
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Mostly, APD has increased – partly because it can be presented as a “green” initiative, dampening demand for aviation. Mr Clarke’s successor as chancellor, Labour’s Gordon Brown, doubled the tax for business- and first-class seats. (One bizarre loophole, since closed, meant that passengers on the world’s most expensive aircraft, Concorde, paid the same as budget airline travellers to Morocco.)
Since 2016, APD has not applied to under-16s travelling in basic economy. But it is payable for children travelling in premium classes.
In a rare counter to the general upward trend, in 2023, Rishi Sunak halved air passenger duty on domestic flights – encouraging a move from rail, sea and road to air for journeys within the UK.
How is air passenger duty calculated?
The rate depends on two factors: the traveller’s final ticketed destination and the class of travel.
“Final ticketed destination”
If you are travelling on a “through ticket,” eg. Manchester-Amsterdam-Los Angeles or Birmingham-Frankfurt-Mumbai, the long-haul rate applies (unless you are spending over 24 hours at the transit point).
Class of travel
In anything but basic economy, a higher rate is payable – and all passengers aged two or over must pay it. The extra tax is triggered by “a seat pitch in excess of 40 inches”.
Passengers on private jets pay a vast amount more. These are defined as: “Aircraft of 20 tonnes and above with fewer than 19 seats.”
In terms of destinations, there are four different categories: UK domestic flights, plus three classes for international travel.
Band A: Destinations abroad whose capital city is 2,000 miles or less from London. This covers all of Europe and parts of North Africa
Band B: Destinations whose capital city is 2,001-5,500 miles from London. Most longhaul destinations are in this category.
Band C: Destinations whose capital city is over 5,500 miles from London. Applies to Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and all Australasian cities.
What are the rates?
From 1 April 2025, they are as follows (second figure is for anything but basic economy):
UK domestic £7 or £14
Band A £13 or £28
Band B £90 or £216
Band C £94 or £224
For private jets, the tax is between £84 and £647 per person.
From 1 April 2026, they will all rise:
UK domestic £8 or £16
Band A £15 or £32
Band B £102 or £244
Band C £106 or £253
For private jets, the tax will be between £142 and £1,141 per person.
From 1 April 2027, for the first time air passenger duty will start being levied in pence as well as pounds:
UK domestic £8.26 or £16.52
Band A £15.49 or £33.04
Band B £105.33 or £251.95
Band C £109.46 or £261.25
For private jets, the tax will be between £146.63 and £1,178.20 per person.
What’s the effect on families?
For a family of four (with children between two and 15), the total APD from April 2027 will be:
UK: £16.52 in basic economy, £66.08 in premium economy or better.
Europe: £30.98 or £132.16.
Most long-haul destinations: £210.66 or £1,007.80.
Ultra-long-haul destinations: £218.92 or £1,045.
How can I avoid APD?
These are some of the tax-avoiding options:
1. Don’t fly
2. Be under 16 and travel in basic economy (or under two in business class)
3. Fly into the UK on one plane and out within 24 hours on another and have them both included in the same ticket
4. Be a pilot or member of cabin crew on duty
5. Be repatriated after being refused admission to the UK
6. Fly on a route from a UK airport that is not subject to air passenger duty
I can’t manage those – how do I find an APD-free flight?
Fly from the Scottish Highlands and Islands Region, which includes Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles, Oban, Campbeltown and Inverness.
Remarkably, even if you are fly from Inverness to London Heathrow and onwards to a long-haul destination, the tax saving applies. Flying from Aberdeen to Singapore on British Airways on 1 April, for example, costs £583 return – but from Inverness the fare is just £497, saving 15 per cent on the trip.
Long-haul flights direct from Belfast are also free of tax, but there are few of them. Note that you cannot dodge APD by flying to another UK hub, as you can in the case of Inverness.
To be kinder to the planet, you could travel terrestrially to a foreign airport: by sea (or overland from Northern Ireland) to Dublin; by sea to the Netherlands; or on a Eurostar train to Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam.
How can I reduce APD?
Heading for the US? You could try the Dublin Dodge: fly to the Irish capital on a cheap no-frills flight, and pick up a tax-free flight on Aer Lingus, American Airlines, Delta or United to your final destination. There is an added benefit of travelling via the Irish capital: you complete US arrival formalities while at Dublin airport, and on touchdown in America you are regarded as a domestic passenger.
For other destinations, the same principle applies to reduce your APD liability drastically. Fly to Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid or any other European airport and buy a separate ticket from there. I flew to Sydney from Istanbul earlier this month, travelling from Stansted to the Turkish city for £53 – and eliminating the need to pay tax.
The problem with such “self-connects” is the risk of a misconnection. And because the UK is so competitive for air fares, you may not save money. For example, Etihad is selling flights in May from London Heathrow via Abu Dhabi to Sydney for just £710 return – of which one-seventh of the fare is air passenger duty. (Note also that changing planes at hubs in the UAE goes against Foreign Office advice.)
A smarter way to cut the tax without jeopardising connections is to build in a stopover of 24 hours or more at the connecting point. The airline should automatically charge you the lower rate. In effect, since you are saving £77 (in 2025-26), the chancellor is paying for a short break for you.
Reykjavik and Istanbul are particularly good for North America and Asia/Africa/Australasia respectively.
What if I fly in economy on the first leg but business for the rest?
If you are on a through ticket, the business-class rate applies to the whole journey.
If I book a flight and don’t show up for it, who gets the tax?
The airline. While carriers collect APD up to a year in advance, the obligation to pass it on to the government crystallises only when the passenger flies. In theory you can claim it back, but in practice some airlines and travel agents impose fees that are designed to render attempts pointless – with a handling fee that is the same or more than the tax refund.
How do I get a refund of APD if I don’t travel?
Some carriers make it straightforward. EasyJet says: “If you cancel, miss or do not take your flight … you can claim a full refund of government tax for the flight(s) you do not take. You can do this by contacting our Customer Services Team. This is most easily done through the airline’s contact form. Select “Government Tax Refund” from the drop-down menu.
British Airways says: “ If you do not use your ticket, you will be entitled to claim a refund of any taxes, fees and charges which you paid, less a reasonable service charge.” If you booked direct with BA, you use the online refund portal.
Ryanair has a good online portal for refund applications. But also has a Government Tax Refund Administration Fee of £20 per passenger, which means it is pointless applying for Air Passenger Duty of £13 (rising to £15).
Virgin Atlantic says: “If your ticket is non-refundable and you do not use all or part of it, you can still apply a refund of taxes … We will deduct an administration fee of no more than £30 per passenger.” As all Virgin Atlantic flights are long-haul, this is well worth applying for if you do not travel.
Wizz Air claims: “We pay all taxes and charges relating to your booking … All such taxes and charges are non-refundable.” The airline implies that it has paid Air Passenger Duty in advance, whereas APD is payable only after the passenger has departed.
This piece was first published in February 2025 and is kept updated with the latest information.
The price of a PlayStation is going up by another $100, the second time in less than a year that Sony has upped the price tag on its popular gaming console.
Citing “continued pressures in the global economic landscape,” the Japanese company said that as of next Thursday, the PS5 will cost $649.99 in the U.S. The price for its digital edition was also raised by $100, to $599.99. The PS5 Pro will cost $899.99, a $150 increase.
The company raised prices similarly for other regions, including the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan.
Global trade has been upended by U.S. tariffs imposed on all of the nation’s trading partners and Sony bumped up the price for the PlayStation by $50 just last August. The war in Iran, now it its fourth week, has created a massive bottleneck of energy and manufacturing supplies, creating more price pressures for everyday goods, including electronics.
By the end of next week, the cost of a Sony PlayStation will be about 30% more than it was at this time last year.
“We know that price changes impact our community, and after careful evaluation, we found this was a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide,” Sony said in a blog post on its website.
Though Sony did not specifically cite it as a cause, Iran’s attack last week on Qatar’s natural gas export facility forced it to shut down, threatening supplies of helium, a key ingredient used to produce computer chips. Qatar supplies a third of the world’s helium, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Qatar’s state-owned gas company said last week the shutdown would slash helium exports by 14%. Lower supply means higher prices, especially if the war drags on for months or longer, analysts said.
While most people know of helium as the gas that makes party balloons float, it is also essential for manufacturing semiconductors used in computers and an array of other tech devices.
Last month, Sony reported that its profit in the October-December quarter surged 11% to 377.3 billion yen ($2.4 billion), prompting the Japanese entertainment and electronics company to raise its full-year profit forecast to 1.13 trillion yen ($7.2 billion).
The PlayStation console celebrated its 30th anniversary in North America and Europe last year.
Rival Microsoft raised prices for some versions of its Xbox gaming console in September — long before the Iran war broke out — citing “changes in the macroeconomic environment.”
SAN FRANCISCO — Internet trailblazer Yahoo is exploring technology’s next frontier with Scout, an answer engine powered by artificial intelligence. Scout seems insightful, based on its response to a question posed by The Associated Press about why one of Silicon Valley’s brightest stars faded away a decade ago.
“Yahoo’s journey illustrates how a company with an early advantage can disappear without continuous innovation,” Scout explained, while also providing hyperlinks to other websites supporting its thesis.
Scout may have to come up with a different interpretation if Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone can leverage AI to expand upon a worldwide audience of 700 million users who have stuck with the company’s finance, sports, news, fantasy and email services, despite a history of folly that nearly destroyed a brand once synonymous with the internet.
Yahoo has “always been the white whale of turnarounds for me,’ said Lanzone, who has a track record for salvaging internet wrecks. “I always thought I could do something with this thing.”
Lanzone, 55, finally got his chance after the private equity firm Apollo Global Management paid $5 billion to take over Yahoo in September 2021 — a fraction of its peak $125 billion market value reached during the dot-com boom’s giddy days in early 2000. Apollo’s acquisition came after Verizon Communications bought Yahoo’s online operations in 2017 and then bungled an attempt to blend those services into AOL, another internet pioneer.
Verizon never would have gotten the chance to buy Yahoo’s online operations if not for the company’s perpetual blundering under seven different CEOs in 16 years.
Although Yahoo’s checkered past didn’t destroy the company, it left a stigma that makes it unlikely that it will ever come close to what it once was, said Jeremy Ring, who was among Yahoo’s first employees when he began selling ads for the service from his New York apartment in 1996.
“Even though Yahoo isn’t what it once was, it hasn’t turned into a Blockbuster or Radio Shack story either,” said Ring, who delved into the company’s ups and downs in a 2018 book, “We Were Yahoo!” “What is going to enable them to compete against all the bigger companies using AI? I am not convinced all the best engineers in the world are suddenly going to come work at Yahoo.”
Lanzone’s renovation efforts initially focused on shedding Yahoo’s dysfunctional parts. The teardown included jettisoning some of Yahoo’s advertising technology, selling publishers such as TechCrunch and Rivals and closing down AOL’s internet dial-up service in a move that cut off its final 500 users. As it stands now, Yahoo is “very profitable” and bringing in billions of dollars in revenue, Lanzone said, while declining to be more specific.
Once he got the cleanup work down, Lanzone began overhauling what remained — a process that has resulted in an upgrade of Yahoo’s popular fantasy sports division and a major overhaul of its email service that still ranks as the second largest on the web behind Google’s Gmail.
With the recent introduction of Scout to its 250 million users in the U.S., Yahoo is leaning into the AI movement with the hope that the s technology will simplify online search and produce more personal results tailored to each user’s interests. Lanzone is also hoping Scout turns into a flywheel, continually spinning traffic through its other services.
Yahoo will be competing against a familiar foil in Google, which remains the same formidable force that spelled the company’s demise 20 years ago and has been progressively layering more AI into its search engine with its Gemini technology. As if that isn’t daunting enough, Yahoo also will be vying against other popular AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude in addition to answer engines such as Perplexity.
In a tacit admission that it’s behind the curve, Yahoo is running Scout on AI technology licensed from Anthropic.
Unlike other AI chatbots and answer engines, Scout doesn’t simulate human conversations so users can “have a fake personal relationship with it,” Lanzone said. “The product is very unique, even though we didn’t invent AI in the first place.”
Yahoo’s pursuit of more online search traffic has been largely an exercise in futility since the late 1990s, a descent that started just a few years after Stanford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo founded the company as the internet’s first comprehensive directory of websites.
But as the internet began to play a bigger role in entertainment and commerce, Yahoo shifted its focus from sending traffic elsewhere to building an all-purpose website that people wouldn’t want to leave. That strategic pivot opened the door for two other Stanford University graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, to create a search engine called Google.
After turning down a chance to buy Google for just $1 million in 1998, Yahoo poured even more resources into creating a one-stop destination while paying so little attention to search that it turned to another company to provide that technology in 2000. Yahoo not only hired Google as its search engine but also promoted its brand on its website. By 2002, Yahoo was offering to buy Google for $3 billion, but Page and Brin wanted $5 billion. The negotiating impasse launched Google on a trajectory toward an internet empire now valued at $3.7 trillion under corporate parent Alphabet Inc.
Yahoo went through a revolving door of seven CEOs, including former Google executive Marissa Mayer, on a quixotic quest to catch up in search before finally ending its 21-year existence as a publicly traded company with its ill-fated sale to Verizon for $4.5 billion. Along the way, Yahoo rejected a $44.6 billion takeover bid from Microsoft in 2008 before finally agreeing to license the software maker’s Bing search engine.
If Yahoo’s bet on Scout pays off, Lanzone concedes it could lead to the company returning to the stock market more than 30 years after completing a 1996 initial public offering that intensified the dot-com fever gripping investors back then. Lanzone believes another Yahoo IPO could still get people excited.
“We still have one of the biggest audiences on the internet, and that audience has been pretty loyal through a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “If we just ‘super-serve’ them, good things will happen.”
Even after trading for Geno Smith, it’s no secret the New York Jets still need a quarterback.
Fortunately for them, they hold the No. 2 and 16 overall picks in the 2026 NFL draft, which opens the door for them to use one of those picks on a passer.
With Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza expected to go No. 1 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders, Alabama’s Ty Simpson is the consensus No. 2 passer in the draft class. The Jets even hosted Simpson for a workout recently, which ESPN’s Jordan Rodgers says was done for one specific reason.
“Here’s the interesting part about the workout with the Jets, and what was important about the pro day,” Rodgers stated on “Get Up” on Friday. “There’s not a lot of him throwing off-platform in the pocket, ripping it down field with the comeback or a dig route. Because he’s so good with his feet, because he’s so good at getting set in a line — that was the design of the pro day.”
Many have wondered with the Jets doing their homework on Simpson if he’s a realistic target for them next month. With so much smoke around Simpson to New York, Rodgers sent the Jets a warning about passing on Simpson in Round 1.
“If the Jets pass on him TWICE in the top 16 they are crazy. Someone is gonna get their future franchise QB. Kid is a baller,” Rodgers posted on X.
While most analysts agree that Mendoza is the clear-cut top signal-caller in the draft, there’s been a small groundswell in favor of Simpson in recent days. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky recently hyped up Simpson as being better than Mendoza, and it seems Rodgers shares a similar sentiment.
“He’s got the best footwork and pocket presence int his draft and he plays with an elite suddenness,” Rodgers stated. “… If he doesn’t go in the top 16, these teams are going to miss on someone who’s really special. … The reason he is so accurate and so consistent is because his base, his feet, and his eyes are always together — and that’s what makes him special.”
Millions of motorists who were mis-sold a car loan will find out how they will be compensated, as the finance watchdog shares its final plans for an industry-wide scheme.
Final decisions on the long-awaited programme will be published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Monday afternoon.
The regulator set out draft plans last year but it is likely to make several changes after receiving more than 1,000 responses to its consultation.
Under the latest proposals, the scheme will cover car finance agreements taken out between April 6 2007 and November 1 2024.
The FCA estimated that around 14 million deals, or 44% of all those made since 2007, were unfair and therefore eligible for compensation.
Consumers were estimated to be compensated an average of £700 per agreement, but it will be more or less depending on individual cases.
This was expected to come at a total cost of £11 billion to the industry, including the total payouts and the operational costs of running the scheme.
Craig Tebbutt, a financial health expert for Equifax UK, said: “It has previously been estimated that average compensation levels could be in the region of £700 per agreement but the final details around the scale, scope and timelines are expected to be confirmed on Monday.
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“However, there is nothing to stop consumers checking their paperwork now and getting their details ready in the meantime.”
He said research by the credit reporting firm found that “many consumers don’t know how to check their eligibility and expect the process to be a hassle, with old or missing paperwork being a real barrier”.
Equifax has launched a car finance checker within its new app that lets people see a list of their past agreements and copy the details, with motorists encouraged to send a complaint to their lender using a template on the FCA’s website if they think they’re eligible for a payout.
Lenders and car finance providers had been challenging the FCA’s proposals with some raising concerns that the expected amount of compensation is too high and does not accurately reflect what customers lost.
On the other side, some consumer groups and MPs have argued that many motorists will be short-changed under the current plans.
The FCA has already announced some changes that it is making to the process since the proposals were unveiled last year.
This includes giving lenders more time to contact motor finance customers from when the scheme is officially launched.
But it is also aiming to streamline the process by allowing those due redress to accept it immediately without waiting for a final determination.
It thinks that this means million of people would receive compensation in 2026.
The recall specifically affects over 3 million pounds of Trader Joe’s Japanese Style Fried Rice with Edamame, Tofu and Hijiki Seaweed, produced by Ajinomoto Foods North America, Inc. and initially announced in early March.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently upgraded the recall to Class II, indicating that consuming the product could lead to temporary or medically reversible health issues. While the risk is not life-threatening, it remains serious enough to warrant caution.
Officials say the products subject to the recall were distributed to Trader Joe’s locations in at least 43 states.
The company is urging anyone who purchased the affected frozen foods to either throw them out or return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Shoppers with questions can contact Trader Joe’s Customer Relations for more information.
The recall covers over 3 million pounds of Trader Joe’s Japanese Style Fried Rice with Edamame, Tofu, and Hijiki Seaweed, produced by Ajinomoto Foods North America, Inc. (USDA)
The affected food items were distributed to Trader Joe’s locations in at least 43 states (USDA)
So far, no confirmed injuries have been linked to the recalled products, but authorities continue to warn consumers not to eat any items that match the descriptions in the recall notices.
An FDA enforcement report states that about 127,492 cases (over 3 million pounds) of food have been recalled due to possible glass contamination. The pieces of glass are reported to range from 1 to 3 cm long and 2 to 4 mm wide.
This update comes weeks after Ajinomoto Foods North America, Inc., based in Portland, Oregon, expanded a February 19 recall of frozen not-ready-to-eat chicken products over potential foreign material contamination after glass was discovered. About 33,617,045 additional pounds of various ready-to-eat and NRTE chicken and pork fried rice, ramen, and shu mai dumpling products have been recalled.
The following Ajinomoto Foods North America, Inc products have been recalled:
Chicken Fried Rice- Best by Dates 03/04/2026 through 02/10/2027
Vegetable Fried Rice- Best by Dates 02/28/2026 through 11/19/2026
Japanese Style Fried Rice- Best by Dates 02/28/2026 through 11/14/2026
Chicken Shu Mai – Best by Dates 03/13/2026 through 10/23/2026
UPC: 00979085
Best-by dates:
2/28/2026
3/7/2026
3/14/2026
3/21/2026
3/28/2026
4/3/2026
4/4/2026
4/16/2026
4/17/2026
4/25/2026
5/2/2026
5/9/2026
5/23/2026
5/30/2026
6/5/2026
6/6/2026
6/12/2026
6/13/2026
7/8/2026
7/9/2026
7/17/2026
7/18/2026
7/24/2026
7/25/2026
8/1/2026
8/15/2026
8/22/2026
9/12/2026
9/26/2026
10/3/2026
10/10/2026
10/17/2026
10/24/2026
10/30/2026
10/31/2026
11/7/2026
11/14/2026
The recalled products were sold in the following states:
Alaska
Alabama
Arkansas
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Mississippi
Montana
North Carolina
North Dakota
Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Jersey
Nevada
New York
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Click here to see the full list of recalled products.
The Iran war raises the risk that the U.S. will tumble into a recession within the next 12 months, according to economists and Wall Street analysts.
Goldman Sachs analysts this week estimated that higher global energy prices would boost U.S. inflation by 0.2 percentage points to 3.1% by the end of the year, putting a drag on consumer spending and economic growth. The investment bank increased the probability of a recession over the next year to 30%.
Economists with consulting and research firm EY-Parthenon see a 40% chance of a severe downturn over the 12 months, up from 35% before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, citing persistent inflation due to the conflict’s disruption of global oil supply. Roughly 20% of crude and natural gas normally flows through the Strait of Hormuz, which remains all but closed to oil tankers and other shipping traffic because of the war.
“The combination of tighter financial conditions, more uncertainty and higher inflation is going to erode growth,” EY-Parthenon chief economist Gregory Daco told CBS News. “We’ve curbed our growth forecast down and increased the odds of recession on the basis that if this conflict becomes more severe or prolonged, then you would see a more visible risk of a downturn in the economy.”
At the same time, “we have seen an increase in gasoline prices that’s been quite significant,” he added, hitting many households as they continue to recover from the soaring inflation and other economic disruptions caused by the pandemic.
The national average gas price in the U.S. on Friday was $3.98 a gallon, up a dollar from a month ago, according to AAA. The cost of diesel, which is widely used in farming, trucking and construction, among other industries, has leaped even more and now stands at $5.37 a gallon, versus $3.75 a month ago.
Other prices set to rise
The Iran war is also adversely affecting other key sectors of the economy.
Goldman Sachs economists expect that a disruption in fertilizer supplies due to turmoil in the Middle East is likely to drive up U.S. food prices by roughly 1.5% this year. Key fertilizer products like urea and ammonia have risen in price since the war began. That means higher input costs for U.S. farmers, and higher food inflation for consumers.
The transportation industry is also taking a hit. Airlines have announced surcharges and hiked ticket prices to account for rising jet fuel costs. The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday announced a temporary 8% postage surcharge to offset growing transportation costs.
“And that higher inflation will curtail economic activity, so you’re going to see less growth than previously anticipated,” Daco said.
PNC Financial Services Group chief economist Gus Faucher told CBS News that if oil prices rise to $150 a barrel, the odds of a recession would top 50%.
“Higher energy prices mean companies and consumers have less money to spend on other goods and services, so there is a drag on economic activity,” he explained.
For now, to be sure, oil prices remain well short of those levels. A barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.4% on Thursday to $101.89 amid fresh signs of escalation in the Iran war. Benchmark U.S. crude climbed 4.5% to $94.43 per barrel. By those measures, oil prices are up roughly 40% since the outbreak of hostilities on Feb. 28.
Perhaps the biggest risk to the economy is that rising uncertainty dampens consumer spending, which accounts for roughly two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, and weighs on financial markets, hurting investors.
“If you’re a consumer, you may want to hold off on making a big purchase because you’re not sure how the economy is going to look a few months from now,” Faucher said. “The economy has been propped up by higher-income people, and if they cut back on spending, it could push the economy into a recession.”
Businesses could also curtail planned investments if high energy prices persist, he added. “If you are trying to plan, there’s a big difference if oil is at $60 a barrel versus $120, so businesses may put investment decisions on hold until the outlook becomes clear.”
Why the U.S. may avert a recession
Despite such concerns, experts underline that a slump isn’t imminent, noting that the U.S. is well-positioned to weather the conflict.
For one, the economy has largely shrugged off other recent economic shockwaves, including the Trump administration’s move to impose steep tariffs on dozens of U.S. trading partners. Daco also noted that the U.S. is less vulnerable to economic fallout from the conflict than other regions. Most of the crude from the Middle East is destined for Asia and Europe, while the U.S. is today the world’s largest oil producer.
“That insulates to some extent the U.S. from the shock we’re seeing in the Middle East,” Daco said.
Consumers today also spend a smaller share of their incomes on energy goods and services than they did in the past, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
Relatedly, automobiles are more fuel-efficient, so motorists don’t have to fill up as frequently, ClearBridge Investments analyst Josh Jamner points out. He also thinks that larger tax refunds related to provisions in Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” will also help offset higher prices at the pump.
Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok also underscores the strength of the U.S. economy before the Iran war, boosted by spending on AI data centers and increased investment in domestic manufacturing.
“Before Iran, the tailwinds to growth were strong,” he told CBS News.
Slok is forecasting inflation to rise by 0.1%, for GDP to dip 0.1%, and for unemployment to rise 0.1%.
“The impact of what’s happening in the Middle East is quite limited,” he said, adding that he puts the probability of a recession in the U.S. at just 10%.
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