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(NEW YORK) — As Hurricane Idalia makes its way towards Florida, one area at risk is the state’s huge tourism industry.

The storm is forecast to make landfall Wednesday morning in Florida’s Big Bend area, north of Tampa.

Idalia is expected to strengthen further as it nears the Sunshine State, possibly becoming a major Category 3 hurricane by Tuesday night.

Here is what to know about how the storm is impacting Florida’s major theme parks and airports.

Orlando International Airport remains open

Orlando International Airport, the state’s busiest airport, is open as of Tuesday morning.

The airport tweeted around 9 a.m. local time Tuesday that it remains “open and operational” and expects to stay that way.

“We do not foresee any significant impact to our operations at this time,” the tweet said.

Tampa International Airport closes ahead of storm

On the other side of the state, Tampa International Airport closed its operations as of 12:01 a.m. local time Tuesday due to Idalia.

The airport said in a statement Monday that it will remain closed “until it can assess any damages later in the week.”

“The closure will allow the Airport and its partners to prepare the airfield and terminals, including the securing of jet bridges, ground equipment and any remaining aircraft before Idalia’s expected landfall early Wednesday as a potential major hurricane,” the statement said.

Walt Disney World remains open ahead of Idalia

Walt Disney World Resort, located near Orlando, said that as of Tuesday, its resorts and theme parks are open and “operating under normal conditions.”

“We are closely monitoring the path of the projected weather as we continue to prioritize the safety of our Guests and Cast Members,” the resort said in a statement Tuesday morning.

The only Walt Disney World guests currently impacted by Hurricane Idalia are those staying at Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. The company is asking those guests to “remove and stow” outside items like decor, tents and camper awnings by 6 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

Guests may go online to modify or cancel their Disney Resort hotel reservations.

The company said it is currently waiving its change and cancellation fees for reservations with check-in dates between Aug. 28 and Sept. 4.

Under its hurricane cancellation policies, Walt Disney World states that if the National Hurricane Center issues a hurricane warning for either the Orlando area or where you live within seven days of your planned arrival date, you may reschedule or cancel most hotel room reservations without any change or cancellation fees.

Busch Gardens closes early due to Idalia

Busch Gardens, a Tampa-based theme park, is closing at 12 p.m., local time on Tuesday ahead of Idalia.

The theme park said it will also remain closed Wednesday and plans to reopen Thursday.

Universal Studios remains open

Universal Studios in Orlando said it is staying open but continuing to monitor the path of Hurricane Idalia.

“At this time, our park operations and hours are continuing as normal. We are closely monitoring the weather,” the resort said in a statement Monday.

Like Disney, Universal Orlando Resort’s severe weather policy states that if a state of emergency or a hurricane or tropical storm warning is issued by the National Hurricane Center for the Orlando area or your place of residence, you can reschedule or cancel your Universal reservations with “no cancellation or change fees imposed.”

The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC News.

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(NEW YORK) — Chipotle Mexican Grill has agreed to a six-figure settlement after an investigation in the nation’s capital “identified over 800 potential violations of Washington, D.C.’s child labor laws over the past three years,” D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb announced on Monday.

Schwalb’s office alleges that since April 2020, the popular restaurant chain violated several child labor laws, with employees under the age of 18 working more than eight hours in a day, more than 48 hours in a week and more than six consecutive days in a work week.

The settlement also accuses Chipotle of violating the city’s laws by allowing children to work after 10 p.m. local time.

Chipotle operates 20 stores in the district. The investigation by Schwalb’s office was launched in May 2022.

Chipotle will pay D.C. $322,400 and has agreed to a new training and workplace compliance plan, according to prosecutors.

However, according to the settlement, the company “denies the District’s allegations regarding violations of any child labor laws. Nothing contained in this Settlement Agreement is or may be construed to be an admission by the Company of any violation of law or regulation, any other matter of fact or law, or any liability or wrongdoing.”

Spokespeople for the company did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Chipotle has previously been accused of similar infractions. In 2020, the company paid the state of Massachusetts $1.4 million for 13,253 alleged violations of child labor laws.

In September, the company also settled with the state of New Jersey for $7.75 million for what New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin described at the time as “alleged widespread and persistent violations of the state’s child labor laws.”

The allegations in New Jersey included “Chipotle’s failure to abide by limits on the number of hours minors are allowed to work and its failure to provide them timely and sufficient meal breaks,” Platkin said in a statement last year.

Chipotle didn’t admit to any wrongdoing in settling the Massachusetts case and a Chipotle official said in a statement to reporters at the time of the New Jersey settlement “We have reached a settlement with the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General for the events dating back to 2017, and have implemented an enhanced labor program in our restaurants, creating a more efficient, consistent and compliant environment.”

Chipotle Mexican Grill Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Laurie Schalow told ABC News in a statement “We are committed to ensuring that our restaurants are in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations and we believe that in hiring workers beginning at age 16, we can provide younger employees with valuable experiences and an opportunity for advancement. We have reached a settlement with the Washington, D.C. Office of the Attorney General for the events dating back to 2020, and have implemented an enhanced labor scheduling program in our restaurants, creating a more efficient, consistent and compliant environment.”

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(WASHINGTON) — As Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo’s plane touches down in Beijing, the goal of the trip, according to the Secretary, is to promote “healthy competition” between the two countries but also walk a fine line between holding China accountable for the national security issues the country engages in.

“I want to be clear with you around what my goal is for the visit, which is to promote a healthy competition,” Raimondo told reporters before she left for China. “And by that, I mean a competition on a level playing field, playing by the rules, because on a level playing field, nobody can outcompete American businesses or American workers.”

Raimondo is the third cabinet-level official from the Biden Administration to visit China and the first Commerce Secretary to travel to the country in seven years.

She said the U.S. and China share a “large dynamic, growing economic relationship,” and the administration wants China to succeed.

“The entire world needs us to manage that relationship responsibly. That’s good for America. That’s good for China, and that’s good for the rest of the world. And so we want to have a stable commercial relationship. And core to that is regular communication. So another piece of my message will be that we need to communicate to avoid conflict,” Raimondo said.

Raimondo says she plans to outline the U.S.’ national security strategy and promote business interests, but above all, she’s going to stress the important interests of national security.

The Secretary was the target of a Chinese hack in May related to her email account. She didn’t mention it to reporters in the remarks she gave.

“I want to raise key commercial issues on behalf of U.S. businesses and labor in an effort to be candid with the issues on the table and find solutions to address these concerns.”

Raimondo also said she’s heard from businesses who speak about how difficult it is to do business in China, and she hopes to have substantive conservations about that.

“I’ve spoken with numerous high-level labor leaders and over 100 senior leaders in U.S. industry, and they are open to opportunities that they see which come from doing business with China and trading with China. But they are increasingly concerned by the challenges and China’s continued commitment to using nonmarket trade and investment practices.”

Raimondo said her “direct and practical style” will lend well to expressing to China the United States’ interest.

“We do not want to contain or hold back China. We do need to protect,” she said.

“We do need to protect our national security and we’re going to use our export controls to the fullest extent possible to do that,” she added.

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(NEW YORK) — The union representing approximately 150,000 workers at the Big Three U.S. automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — has voted to authorize a strike if no deal is reached amid ongoing contract negotiations.

Across the three companies, United Auto Workers union members voted a combined average of 97% in favor of a strike authorization, with votes still being tallied, the union said Friday. The vote does not mean a strike will be called, but that the union has the right to call one if they see fit.

“Our union’s membership is clearly fed up with living paycheck-to-paycheck while the corporate elite and billionaire class continue to make out like bandits,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. “The Big Three have been breaking the bank while we have been breaking our backs.”

The union’s demands include double-digit pay raises, eliminating tiered wages and benefits, restoring cost-of-living allowances, the right to strike over plant closures, more paid time off and increased retiree benefits.

“Our members’ expectations are high because Big Three profits are so high,” Fain said. “The Big Three made a combined $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year. That’s on top of the quarter-trillion dollars in North American profits they made over the last decade. While Big Three executives and shareholders got rich, UAW members got left behind.”

UAW represents 46,000 workers at GM, 57,000 workers at Ford and 44,000 workers at Stellantis, according to the union. Its contract with the three automakers expires on Sept. 14.

In a statement earlier this month, GM said it’s been “working hard with the UAW every day to ensure we get this agreement right for all our stakeholders. “

“We know that our U.S. economic impact supports more than six jobs for every job created by GM,” the statement said. “We take that responsibility very seriously, and we continue to bargain in good faith each day to support our team members, our customers, the community and the business.”

Stellantis said discussions with the union’s bargaining team “continue to be constructive and collaborative with a focus on reaching a new agreement that balances the concerns of our 43,000 employees with our vision for the future — one that better positions the business to meet the challenges of the U.S. marketplace and secures the future for all of our employees, their families and our company.”

Ford said it looks “forward to working with the UAW on creative solutions during this time when our dramatically changing industry needs a skilled and competitive workforce more than ever.”

In 2019, nearly 50,000 UAW workers walked off their jobs in a nationwide strike at GM that lasted over a month before the union voted to ratify a new contract that in part established bonuses for employees.

 

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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice is suing SpaceX, the aerospace company owned by Elon Musk, over alleged discriminatory practices against people living in the country under asylum and refugees.

The federal government contends in its civil lawsuit, which was filed Thursday, that the company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act between September 2018 and May 2022 by discouraging asylees and refugees from applying to the company and refusing to hire or consider them.

The complaint contends that Musk and SpaceX’s leadership repeatedly made false claims that the company couldn’t hire anyone who wasn’t a U.S. citizen or green card holder, because of “export control laws,” but the Department of Justice argued that those laws do not enforce such restrictions.

“Asylees and refugees have overcome many obstacles in their lives, and unlawful employment discrimination based on their citizenship status should not be one of them,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

The Department of Justice’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section opened an investigation into SpaceX in May 2020.

The company recruits and hires for different white and blue-collar positions including welders, cooks, crane operators, baristas and dishwashers, IT specialists, software engineers, business analysts, rocket engineers and marketing professionals, the suit contends.

From at least September 2018 to at least May 2022, SpaceX posted at least 14 public job announcements and postings that stated “SpaceX can only hire U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents due to ITAR [International Traffic in Arms Regulations]” laws.

The suit also cites a 2016 video of Musk claiming “a normal work visa is insufficient to work at SpaceX unless the company can obtain ‘special permission from the Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State,” and a June 2020 post he made on X, formerly Twitter, where he claimed “U.S. law requires at least a green card to be hired at SpaceX, as rockets are advanced weapons technology.”

The Justice Department argued that under ITAR and Export Administration Regulations (EAR), which is another export control law, do not prohibit asylees or refugees.

ITAR laws “restrict an employer’s ability to export certain goods, software, technology, and technical data,” according to the suit.

“‘U.S. persons’ working for U.S. companies can access export-controlled items without authorization from the U.S. government,” the Department of Justice said in the civil complaint. “A ‘U.S. person’ under ITAR and EAR, includes a U.S. citizen or national, a lawful permanent resident, a refugee, or an asylee.”

The Dept. of Justice claimed from Sept. 2018 to March 2022, SpaceX job applications asked potential candidates to identify their citizenship status and had the options “U.S.; citizen or national of the United States,” “U.S. lawful permanent resident,” “refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157,” “asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158,” or “other.”

The company’s hiring managers and recruiters allegedly rejected candidates who were listed as a refugee or a asylee with rejection codes such as “not authorized to work/ITAR ineligible,” according to the complaint.

The suit claimed a recruiter used that rejection code for an asylee “who had more than nine years of relevant engineering experience and had graduated from Georgia Tech University.”

Data from SpaceX showed that from Sept. 2018 to May 2022, the company hired 10,000 people and only one was an asylee, according to the Dept. of Justice. That asylee was hired four months after the Department of Justice began its investigation, the suit alleged.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to order SpaceX to cease its practices, implement fair consideration practices and provide backpay for asylees who were denied employment at the company, as well as civil monetary penalties determined by the court.

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(NEW YORK) — Despite the date on the calendar, brands are already busy preparing their post-summer push for all things pumpkin spice, unleashing fall offerings a full 28 days before the last day of summer.

For fans of the expeditious mental shift in seasons, Starbucks has you covered.

Starbucks celebrates 20 years of Pumpkin Spice Lattes

On Thursday, the iconic Pumpkin Spice Latte will return to Starbucks menus alongside two new limited-time coffee drinks, as well as a special 21-and-up iteration in espresso martini form, which will be available at Starbucks Reserve locations.

Since 2003, when the PSL first swirled onto the coffee scene, the Seattle-based company has marketed it to customers as the “unofficial start of fall,” even when the steamed milk sensation was released as early as late summer.

More new fall Starbucks drinks and pastries

Customers are constantly customizing coffee and tea orders for off-menu concoctions — mostly to share on TikTok — but this year, Starbucks added two riffs to the menu utilizing the seasonal ingredients.

Joining the fall lineup this year are the Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Latte, which the brand said was inspired by a popular customer and barista customization, and the Iced Apple Crisp Oatmilk Shaken Espresso, which is a variation of the same flavor that comes in macchiato form.

Starbucks dubbed its Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew and Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato “fan-favorites,” which will both return to the limited-time menu.

In a first for Starbucks Reserve locations in the U.S., customers will be able to order a Starbucks Reserve Pumpkin Spice Latte, Pumpkin Spice Whiskey Barrel-Aged Iced Latte, and Pumpkin Spice Espresso Martinis.

Those locations with a Princi Bakery will also feature the new Pumpkin Maritozzo — a fluffy mini brioche stuffed with freshly-whipped pumpkin cream — and Pumpkin Spice Cake.

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(NEW YORK) — Believe it or not, the holiday season is quickly approaching.

Mega-retailer Walmart released its highly anticipated Top Toys List for the 2023 season this week to help you get a head start on your shopping list.

“The holiday season is just around the corner, and Walmart is ready to help our customers plan ahead and save even more for all the kids on their list,” Brittany Smith, Walmart’s vice president of merchandising toys, said in a press release. “Like every year, Walmart is the place to find amazing deals on an incredible assortment of the most popular toys.”

The fun thing about this year’s curation is that there are more than 25 toys on the list that are under $25. So, if you are shopping on a tight holiday budget, this is your chance to score some great deals.

From Squishmallows to iconic LEGO sets, Walmart’s 2023 Top Toys List has “festive fun for kids and adults alike.”

Check out the full list here.

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(NEW YORK) — Sky-high mortgage rates have helped slam the brakes on the housing market, recent data shows.

Mortgage rates climbed to their highest levels in 21 years, Freddie Mac data showed last week. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.09% over the week ending on Thursday, after sustaining levels above 6.5% since May.

The home resale market, meanwhile, slowed in July to its lowest rate since 2010,National Association of Realtors data showed on Tuesday.

A shortage of supply has kept housing prices elevated, stunting home purchases as prospective buyers stand crunched between twin pressures of expensive borrowing costs and stubbornly high listing prices, analysts said.

The dynamic is unlikely to change markedly in the coming months, since both home prices and mortgage rates are expected to remain at or near current levels, they added.

Contrasting the current market with the low-mortgage rate environment that took hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bess Freedman, the CEO of real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens, told ABC News: “It’s not champagne and caviar anymore. The party is over.”

“Buyers are on the fence and struggling with a lack of inventory and higher mortgage rates,” Freedman added. “The next few months will most likely be similar.”

The Federal Reserve has put forward an aggressive string of interest rate hikes as it tries to slash inflation by slowing the economy and choking off demand.

That means borrowers face higher costs for everything from car loans to credit card debt to mortgages.

When the Fed imposed its first rate hike of the current series in March 2022, the average 30-year fixed mortgage stood at just 4.45%, Mortgage News Daily data shows.

Each percentage point increase in a mortgage rate can add thousands or tens of thousands in additional cost each year, depending on the price of the house, according to Rocket Mortgage.

“It’s all about the Fed,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, told ABC News.

Many homeowners have resisted selling because they don’t want to give up their relatively low mortgage rates, Yun said, while some buyers are scared off by the added borrowing costs.

If interest rates climb further, it will worsen the “logjam,” he added. If borrowing costs turn lower, it could flood the market with buyers and sellers.

“Cutting interest rates would immediately bring down mortgage rates,” Yun said.

In theory, high mortgages should bring down housing prices, since the added borrowing costs raise the overall cost of homes and scare off buyers, Gregg Coburn, a real estate professor at the University of Washington, told ABC News.

However, a shortage of supply in some regions has left prices resistant to the downward pressure, Coburn added.

“Scarce supply keeps prices higher than they otherwise would be in the face of higher interest rates,” Coburn said.

In addition to the economic forces slowing activity, the housing market tends to cool down during the fall months, Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow, told ABC News.

“That’s just housing market seasonality — it’s normal,” Divounguy said. “I expect the next couple of months to slow down a little bit, especially with mortgage rates where they are.”

Still, Divounguy sounded a note of optimism, pointing out that a strong influx of new homes is expected to come online over the coming months, helping to ease the imbalance between supply and demand. That could help ease the burden on homebuyers, he added.

“Buyers are going to get a little bit more breathing room,” he said.

Prospective homebuyers should weigh their budget and urgency against the market conditions, analysts said, noting that the right home can be still be found during a slow period.

“Even in a crisis, there are opportunities,” said Freedman.

Yun cautioned that a better deal may not materialize in a hotter, low-mortgage rate market down the road.

“Maybe there will be more choices,” Yun said. “But lower interest rates mean more buyers. I would say to consumers, don’t overstretch your budget but look at any new listing that comes out. Maybe you’ll be lucky and there won’t be any buyers.”

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(NEW YORK) — The Writers Guild rejected the latest offer from TV and movie studios in a statement on Tuesday night, thrusting the acrimonious negotiations into public view 113 days after Hollywood writers went on strike.

The three-year contract offer includes a combined 13% pay hike over the term of the deal, an increase in residual payments and a vow that writers “will not be disadvantaged” if any part of a script is written by general artificial intelligence, according to a statement on Wednesday from The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP, the group negotiating on behalf of the studios.

Under the deal, the studios will also share confidential viewership data with the union every three months and guarantee a 10-week minimum work period, the AMPTP said, noting that the proposal “substantially improves” upon previous offers.

Rebuking the offer, the Writers Guild said it features “limitations and loopholes and omissions” that fail “to sufficiently protect writers from the existential threats that caused us to strike in the first place.”

A negotiating committee for the union met on Tuesday with Disney CEO Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and AMPTP President Carol Lombardini, as well as other executives, the Writers Guild said.

Union officials attended the meeting in “good faith” but received “a lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was.”

“This wasn’t a meeting to make a deal,” the statement from the union said. “This was a meeting to get us to cave.”

“This was the companies’ plan from the beginning — not to bargain, but to jam us. It is their only strategy — to bet that we will turn on each other,” the union added.

In a statement, Lombardini said the recent offer from TV and movie studios reflects their desire to resolve the labor dispute.

“Our priority is to end the strike so that valued members of the creative community can return to what they do best and to end the hardships that so many people and businesses that service the industry are experiencing,” Lombardini said.

“We have come to the table with an offer that meets the priority concerns the writers have expressed,” Lombardini added. “We are deeply committed to ending the strike and are hopeful that the WGA will work toward the same resolution.”

Thousands of television and movie writers went on strike in May. The contract dispute follows a decade-long shift to streaming that has slashed writer pay and worsened working conditions, the unions, which belong to East and West Coast branches of the Writers Guild of America, said in a previous statement.

The writers’ strike has coincided with a work stoppage undertaken by a union representing representing roughly 160,000 actors, bringing activity in Hollywood to a halt.

As with writers, the streaming model has slashed the residual payments received by actors when their shows or movies are re-aired, according to the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Writers Guild vowed to continue its strike.

“We will see you all out on the picket lines and let the companies continue to see what labor power looks like,” the union said.

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(NEW YORK) — Target’s sales declined over a three-month period for the first time in six years, the company announced last week, attributing the loss in part to what the company’s Executive Vice President Christina Hennington described as the “strong reaction” to its Pride month display.

An anti-LGBTQ boycott against Target erupted in May over the company’s Pride merchandise, prompting it to remove some items from stores after employees faced harassment.

The sales dent at Target marks the latest sign of success for rightwing consumer activists following the monthslong slump for Bud Light that coincided with a boycott over a product endorsement from trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Consumer boycotts typically fail but the recent protests have thrived in a contentious cultural moment steeped in political division, exacerbated by the onset of the 2024 presidential election and supercharged by social media, experts told ABC News.

Moreover, the successes could fuel further attempts, emboldening anti-LGBTQ activists and imperiling companies, they added.

“In a hyper-partisan environment, where it’s easy to inflame passions, people are eager to take their effort in some direction,” Maurice Schweitzer, a professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business who studies consumer movements, told ABC News.

“This has become a cultural battleground,” Schweitzer added. “I expect them to try this more.”

Target faced a wave of criticism among conservatives in May when anti-LGBTQ backlash nationwide boiled over into a boycott of the company and reported employee harassment.

Comparable sales fell 5.4% over the three months ending in June compared to the same period last year, a Target earnings release showed. E-commerce sales plunged 10.5%, the data said. Still, the company’s profits exceeded analyst expectations.

On an earnings call on Wednesday, Christina Hennington, executive vice president and chief growth officer at Target, said the company is weighing changes to its Pride display in response to the protests.

“Our goal is for our assortment to resonate broadly and deliver on the Target brand promise,” Hennington said. “In this case, the reaction is a signal for us to pause, adapt, and learn so that our future approach to these moments balances celebration, inclusivity, and broad-based appeal.”

Echoing the sentiment, Target CEO Brian Cornell said on the call: “Specific to pride and heritage months, we’re focused on building assortments that are celebratory and joyous with wide-ranging relevance, being mindful of timing, placement and presentation.”

Target did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

In a statement that followed the onset of anti-LGBTQ backlash, in May, Target said it removed some products from this year’s Pride collection because the company “experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work.”

“Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year,” the company said in the statement.

Gerald Davis, a professor of management at the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business who studies consumer boycotts, said a possible policy shift would energize anti-LGBTQ activists.

“If the company caves and boycotters claim the scalp, you’ll see more of it,” Davis said.

During recent boycotts against Anheuser-Busch and Target, the protests gained momentum after the initial response from the company was perceived as conciliatory by some LGBTQ advocates, prompting frustration on the left, Davis added.

U.S. sales at Anheuser-Busch declined by more than 10% over the three months ending in June compared to the same period last year, according to the company’s earnings report released earlier this month. Meanwhile, Anheuser-Busch’s core profit in the U.S. fell by more than 28%, the fresh data showed.

“They were getting backlash from both sides because they didn’t stick to their principles,” Davis said.

To be sure, the decline in Target sales owed in part to factors separate from the consumer boycott, analysts said, such as a post-pandemic shift toward buying services instead of goods and consumer fatigue amid persistent inflation.

“Retail itself is going through a transformation,” Vanitha Swaminathan, a professor of marketing at the University of Pittsburgh, told ABC News. “You have to be careful to not conflate correlation with causation.”

Swaminathan noted, however, that political polarization has thrust corporations into the crosshairs of heightened consumer scrutiny.

“We have changed as a society,” Swaminathan said. “We’re more divided now than we were previously. These divisions are being starkly exposed through these boycotts.”

The effectiveness of recent boycotts elevates them as a viable political tool, fueling a cycle of further use that could deliver additional proof of success, Victor Asal, a professor of political science at the University of Albany who studies extremism, told ABC News.

“Successful political mobilizations can often lead to more,” Asal said. “This isn’t going away anytime soon.”

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