It's surprisingly difficult to find a well-fitting bikini top when you have a smaller bust. Some swimsuits create awkward gaps, accidental nip slips, or simply don't flatter people with an athletic build or petite cup size.

We both wear a size 34B, and spent two summers testing 25 two-piece swimsuits with tops that support smaller chests. From sporty sets with a snug, stay-put feel to chic, minimalist styles that enhance your natural shape, these are the best bikinis for small busts that we actually loved wearing.

Check out more of our swimwear favorites in our guides to the best swim dresses and the best long torso swimsuits.

Advice from your testers

When it comes to small-bust swimwear, the best support is a compressive fabric. Together we tested 25 bikinis from our favorite swim brands in order to find tops that work for petite wearers without bulky padding or underwire. We also asked testers with larger band sizes to share other small-cup-friendly swimsuits.

Triangle bikini tops are your best friend. Adjustability is key, and with triangle tops, it's easier to avoid any gaps or awkward spacing when you have the ability to shift the cups around the band. This is especially helpful if you have East-West breasts, or wider athletic breasts with more muscle than tissue.

Avoid underwire tops. Fixed underwire cups don't allow you to space out your boobs accordingly, and besides, it pokes at your ribcage and can warp over time. Underwire tops are better suited for large busts that need the support.

Thick padding absorbs water, which doesn't look that great when wet. The trade-off between a push-up effect and waterlogged padding isn't worth it. Lightly lined bikini tops felt more sleek and quick-drying and during our swim tests.

Best overall: Left On Friday Sunday Top and Hi Hi Bottom

This Left On Friday two-piece is the best small-bust bikini we tried. The buttery-soft fabric and seamless design stood out above the rest.

The material is both compressive and comfortable, supporting me without any padding, clasps, or ties. The straps are short and aren't adjustable, but they had just the right amount of stretch, offering a snug, stay-put fit without digging in or slipping. Although it doesn't offer much coverage, it still felt very secure (without squeezing).

The high-waisted bikini bottoms are just as impressive. Its high-rise cut is flattering without feeling too tight, and the compressive yet comfortable fabric holds up beautifully in and out of the water. It's also easy to wear under clothes—it doesn't bunch or show through, making it a great option for beach-to-boardwalk days. It's machine washable and even dryer friendly.

As people wit small cups and a curvier bottom, it's almost better when bikini tops and bottoms are sold separately, since we size differently in each. Choosing a color was honestly the hardest part — there are 39 shades, ranging from soft neutrals to bold neons. The good news is that the collection is made for mixing and matching, so we'll definitely be grabbing a few more. At $95 a piece, this set is certainly a splurge. But between the quality, the comfort, and the long-lasting fabric that doesn't fade in the sun, we found it well worth the investment.

Best budget: Fatty Tiger Women's High Waisted Thong Bikini Set

Amazon is a treasure trove of affordable swimsuits for women, though you do have to weed through some cheap-looking options to find the true gems. Over the years, I've bought (and returned) a slew of swimsuits on Amazon, and this two-piece is easily my favorite I've tried. I wore this on my minimoon to Tulum in 2023, and it's remained one of my most reached-for swimsuits since.

It strikes the perfect balance between comfort and style thanks to a supportive, padded top with adjustable straps that criss-cross in the back and a high-waisted, high-leg thong-style bottom. I wore it while relaxing in a plunge pool and taking long walks on the beach. It held up well without needing to be adjusted in either setting. The thong bottom is pretty cheeky, so I wore a sarong for beachside lunches or cocktails. The top sits flat without any bulky ties, so it was easy to slip a t-shirt over it.

Although I typically prefer bikinis sold as separates, the thong-style bottom and adjustable top offer some size flexibility. The Medium fit me well in both pieces. It comes in 19 colors, and the coffee color I chose looked exactly as pictured. It hasn't faded after years of wear. It's hand-wash only, which is annoying, and the top takes a bit longer to dry due to the padding.

Best triangle: Quince Italian Triangle Bikini Top and High-Leg Bikini Bottom

Quince brands itself as "affordable luxury," and that's exactly how I'd classify this classic two-piece. The bikini's timeless triangle-style, string-tie top is modernized by a daring thong-style bottom. The string ties are accented by weighted gold beads, which are an elegant touch.

The recycled fabric feels more substantial and expensive than it is, plus it's rated UPF 50 and PFA-free. Senior associate style editor Gabrielle Chase has worn hers for two seasons in a row, and she reports it still looks brand new.

Although I'm not opposed to a thong-style bikini bottom in the right scenarios, this one was a bit skimpier than I prefer. I also found the top less supportive than the other styles on this list. It's a solid choice for sunbathing, but I'd probably pick something sturdier for swimming.

Read more in our full Quince review.

Best quick-drying: Carve Designs

Even after I spent and afternoon swimming in this amazingly soft Carve Designs Bia bikini top, I was able to wear it on the subway ride home because it air-dried so quickly. That's because the cups are only lightly lined, and with the pads removed it dries even faster.

The Bia is designed specifically for A/B cups. While the triangle cups are at a fixed position, the gently compressive fabric gives me enough of a squeeze that I don't feel myself at risk for a nip slip. This is another great bikini top if you wear a wide band size with a small cup size.

Best athletic: Vuori Encinitas Bikini and Swim Shorty

I love a skimpy bikini as much as anyone, but there are other times when a secure fit and good coverage are my top priorities — for instance, family beach days or trips to waterparks. In these cases, Vuori's sporty two-piece fits the bill. The pullover top fits like my favorite sports bra. Although it's low-cut, it's supportive enough for small busts (it runs small, though, so you may want to consider sizing up).

The shorty bottoms were my favorite part. The thick, high waistband was supportive, though the drawstring kept coming undone (thankfully, the shorts don't need it to stay up). The bottom had the perfect amount of coverage without being too much. I'd be much more comfortable in these than a typical bikini bottom during my period. I found them very forgiving while I was bloated. A bonus: The duo can also be worn as a summer matching workout set thanks to the smooth, moisture-wicking fabric.

Best retro: Reformation Soleil Bikini Top and Azure Bikini Bottom

This bikini set is as elegant as it is eco-conscious — an ideal pick for anyone who wants their swimwear to feel just as luxe as it looks. From the moment I tried it on, I could tell the fabric was a cut above. It has a smooth, weighty texture that feels expensive against the skin, and the timeless design makes this set one I'll reach for year after year. The top is unlined and features a hefty, gold-tone clasp closure that feels more like jewelry than typical swimwear hardware. The high-waisted bottom offers flattering coverage with a structured silhouette.

The adjustable straps on the top let you fine-tune the fit. One note: The waistband on the bottom can dig in slightly, so if you're between sizes or prefer a less snug fit, I suggest sizing up. Like many of Reformation's pieces, this bikini is made with sustainability in mind, crafted from renewable, plant-based materials that align with the brand's eco-forward mission. It's definitely a splurge, but it's a nice quality, consciously crafted swimsuit.

Best tankini: Mimi Flamingo Blake Midikini and Brooke High Waist Pant

The word "tankini" brings me right back to the late 1990s, but this set is a big upgrade from the higher coverage two-pieces I remember. Instead of a top that reaches down to your hips, this one is more like a longline bra, which reveals just a small sliver of the waist thanks to a super high-waisted bottom. In fact, the top could easily be worn with shorts like a crop top. I found the combination comfortable and flattering.

Other details I loved about this set are the soft, ribbed fabric, adjustable straps, and thick waistband that stayed put. The top didn't have padding and the straps were super stretchy even when tightened, so it ultimately doesn't offer a ton of support, but that's more a matter of preference. If I had to do it over I'd size up in the top, but the bottoms fit me perfectly.

Best crinkle swimsuit: Youswim Aplomb High Waist Two-Piece

The Youswim Aplomb two-piece stands out for its flattering design, minimalist style, and most notably, its incredibly stretchy fabric. "No matter how my body shape fluctuates, this suit fits like a glove," writes beauty editor Maiya Pascouche. "I never feel it digging into my skin while wearing it nor do I notice it falling or drooping throughout the day. It stays molded to your body comfortably all day long without feeling compressive."

Youswim suits are lightweight, unlined and seamless. The fabric is made from a flexible Oeko-Tex certified nylon yarn and elastane blend that has a plush, puckered texture that snaps back to its original shape no matter how far you stretch it. It's safe to run through the washing machine on a gentle cycle, but be sure to line dry this suit — it loses its elasticity if you put it in the dryer.

Best plus-size: Popilush x Angela Shapewear Ruched Tummy Control Bikini Set

"If you prefer to have more shapewear built into your swim, the affordable brand Popilush should be on your radar," writes freelance style reporter Sarah Chiwaya.

"I tried the Shapewear Ruched Tummy Control Bikini Set, since the ruched mesh in leopard print felt very of the moment. Worn with the coordinating mesh pareo, I felt glamorous and pulled together. The power mesh built into the high-waisted bottoms fit comfortably and smoothed the lower belly area even after an indulgent vacation brunch. Unlike some shapewear swim, this bikini wasn't overly restrictive and didn't pinch or dig in uncomfortably.

"If you have a very full bust, this probably isn't the best suit for you: While I absolutely loved the way I looked in this Shapewear Ruched Tummy Control Bikini Set, I did have some side spillover in the top due to lack of cup depth. I'd suggest checking the size chart before ordering if you feel like this might be an issue for you too. I'm such a big fan of the rich colorway of this fabric, though, so I might have to order the coordinating one-piece to see if that is better suited for larger cup sizes — I don't want to let this look go!"

See more in our guide to the best plus-size swimwear.

Best one-shoulder: Summersalt The Bow-Shoulder Ruched Sidestroke Bikini

Summersalt makes some of the best bathing suits we've ever tested, thanks to its fair prices, durability, and classic, modest designs that look and feel great on a range of bodies. The Sidestroke one-piece is one of the brand's most popular styles, so I was excited to test the newer bikini version of the design. It did not disappoint. I was immediately drawn to the oversized white bow on the right shoulder of this otherwise-black set— it's the perfect fancy-but-not-fussy detail that gave the entire swimsuit a sophisticated look. It makes it a bit tricky to wear a shirt or cover-up on top, but I wasn't interested in covering up this beauty anyway!

Though you can choose any black bikini bottom to match the top, I went with this ruched, high-rise version. I found the ruched sides both flattering and comfortable, and they stayed put while I swam but never dug into my sides. The back is just a little cheeky while offering enough coverage that I'd be comfortable wearing it for a family outing. I'm in between sizes, so I sized up in both the top and bottom, but I'd probably size down in both, if I had to do it over.

Learn about our other favorite designs in our full Summersalt swimwear review.

Best textured: Peixoto Fifi Tayrona Bikini Top

With no hardware or bony underwire, this Peixoto bikini top felt comfortable in the sauna and poolside lounge chairs, even as I laid down or leaned up against walls. I also like how the ruffled netting adds some edge and creates a more voluminous look. However, the halter ties may be too precarious if you're wearing this top in the ocean, where a strong wave could send it flying off.

The main plus is that the triangle cups are unlined and movable. This let me adjust their position when they shifted down after pulling myself up out of the pool.

What didn't make the cut

Sabal Swim: The idea is tantalizing — a bikini that adds a cups size without any foam padding. Unfortunately, the material isn't strong enough to hold the silicone pads in place, so when it got wet, the fabric showed tension from being weighed down.

TA3: Our large-busted friends and colleagues swear by TA3, but the problem is most have underwire. They look empty at the top if you don't have enough breast tissue to fill them. The Surfy created impressive cleavage, but the cinch-waist wasn't very comfortable while sunbathing.

Youswim Poise: This crinkle bikini top is super stretchy, but looks more like a tube top and wasn't as flattering on small busts as the scoopnecked Aplomb.

Learn more about how the Reviews team tests clothing at BI.

The 2026 World Cup is shaping up to be the most profitable tournament for FIFA and the most expensive for fans in history. Business Insider reporter Pete Syme investigated why ticket prices are so high and compiled five charts that illustrate just how out of reach many of the tournament's games are for average fans. What Syme discovered is that ticket prices are higher than ever because FIFA has adopted ticketing practices common in North America, like dynamic pricing and running its own secondary resale market, where prices skyrocket further. But it doesn't stop there. The additional costs fans have to pay are also high, including flights, hotels, and transit to game stadiums. Some American cities are jacking up transit prices on game days. When it's all said and done, FIFA stands to make $13 billion during the 2026 World Cup cycle.

We all know that shopping for a new pair of glasses can be frustrating and expensive, but online retailers like Zenni are designed to streamline the process. Zenni offers a variety of fashionable, affordable frames on everything from prescription lenses to sunglasses. An easy way to ensure you're getting the deepest discount on your next purchase is by using one of the many Zenni promo codes we've rounded up below.

Our editors have tested out all the leading online eyewear retailers, and Zenni consistently makes the cut as one of the top options thanks to its stylish, budget-friendly glasses. The brand's in-house frames deliver impressive quality for the price, while designer options from labels like Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs prove you don't need to spend luxury-level prices to get a polished look. Zenni offers a massive selection of frames and lenses, including options for all ages and face types. There are even niche products, like VR Lenses for Meta Quest and FL-41 lenses for light sensitivity. For a closer look at why we recommend the retailer, you can check out our full Zenni review.

Zenni is already a budget-friendly option, but savvy shoppers can save even more by using a promo code at checkout. We've scoured the internet for new discount codes and tested out the best options to ensure they're still active at the time of writing. We've rounded up the best promos below, including offers up to 15% off.

Today's best Zenni discount codes

Previous Zenni promo codes

Are there any other Zenni sales running at the moment?

You can check out Zenni's sale page anytime for a full list of current markdowns on their frames. At the time of writing, Zenni is also running the following promotions.

• Follow our Instagram page and WhatsApp channel for more deals and buying guides

How to use Zenni promo codes

Start by adding eligible items to your cart. From the "Shopping Cart" page, scroll down to the bottom where it says, "Have a promo code?" You can paste a discount code into the text box and click "Apply." Then, continue to checkout as a guest or with an existing account.

Can you stack Zenni discount codes?

Zenni doesn't allow customers to stack multiple promo codes, which means that only one code can be used per purchase. If it's your first purchase in the Zenni mobile app, we recommend using the 15% off FIRSTAPP code rather than one of the many 10% off codes, which you can use on future orders.

Zenni promo code frequently asked questions

Does Zenni offer discounts for students, teachers, and the military?

Zenni offers eligible college students, teachers, military members (active, reserve, and veterans), and military spouses a 10% discount on all purchases. First responders and medical personnel can also receive a 10% discount on orders.

People eligible for these discounts must verify their status to take advantage of the offer. These discounts can't be combined with other promo codes or offers.

If you're a student or educator, check out our roundups of the best student discounts and best teacher discounts for more ways to save.

Does Zenni take insurance?

Zenni doesn't take insurance directly. However, they will provide a detailed receipt with your order that you can submit to your insurance for reimbursement.

Zenni does allow you to spend FSA and HSA dollars directly on the site. Simply enter your FSA/HSA card at checkout like you would a credit or debit card. Learn more about using FSA and HSA dollars on Zenni's website.

Does Zenni offer free shipping?

Shoppers can receive free standard shipping on orders of $89 or more. Free shipping will automatically be applied once you have enough items in your cart, so you don't need to enter a promo code. Free shipping is also combinable with other offers and promotions.

How do I choose the best glasses for my face shape?

Zenni lets you shop frames by face shape on their website, so you can choose from frame shapes that typically complement your features. For example, they suggest choosing round frames if you have a square face shape or square and aviator frames for a heart-shaped face.

If you're unsure of your face shape or what would look best on you, Zenni also has a virtual try-on feature that allows you to see what any of their frames look like on your face.

Do I need a prescription to use Zenni?

Zenni offers plenty of non-prescription eyewear, so you don't need a prescription to use the site. You can shop for non-prescription readers, sunglasses, sports goggles, and blue-light-blocking glasses with Zenni.

What is Zenni's return policy?

Zenni allows shoppers to return items within 30 days of the original purchase in exchange for site credit and reimbursement of any shipping fees. For returns made within 14 days of your original purchase, you'll have the option to receive a full refund to your original payment method instead of site credit. Learn more about making returns on Zenni's website.

Can I reuse a Zenni promo code?

Zenni does not explicitly prohibit using promo codes multiple times. However, certain codes may only be applied to one order per person, so be sure to check the specific terms and conditions for the code you want to use.

How do I know which size frames to get?

If you don't know which size to get for your frames, Zenni can help. Visit the size guide on the Zenni website for information on how to measure your face and sample frames you can print out to test your size.

Looking for more eyewear? Check out our roundups of the best GlassesUSA promo codes.

• SpaceX's S-1 shows that entities controlled by Antonio Gracias own roughly 7.3% of Class A stock ahead of the IPO.
• Based on the $1.5 trillion valuation investors expect SpaceX to achieve, that stake would be worth roughly $90 billion.
• That level of wealth could instantly vault Gracias to the ranks of some of the richest people in the world.

Antonio Gracias, one of Elon Musk's closest confidants and an early SpaceX investor, could land a massive multibillion-dollar windfall from the company's upcoming IPO.

The SpaceX S-1 filing shows that Gracias owns more than 500 million shares of SpaceX stock through investment firms affiliated with Valor Equity Partners, the private equity firm he founded. The filing says those holdings represent roughly 7.3% of SpaceX's Class A stock ahead of the IPO.

Based on a $1.5 trillion valuation some investors expect SpaceX to achieve in its IPO, those holdings would be worth roughly $91.6 billion.

The amount would mark one of the biggest fortunes ever created by a venture investor.

Gracias' relationship with Musk dates back more than two decades.

The two met through Silicon Valley and PayPal circles in the early 2000s, shortly after Musk sold PayPal to eBay. At the time, Gracias was growing Valor Equity Partners, the Chicago-based investment firm he founded in 1995.

Gracias became one of Musk's most trusted confidants and one of the small group of executives Musk repeatedly leaned on for advice.

When Tesla faced repeated financial challenges during the late 2000s, and again during the Model 3 production ramp, Gracias emerged as one of Musk's strongest defenders inside Tesla's boardroom. He was also involved across multiple other Musk companies as the billionaire entrepreneur expanded into rockets, AI, satellites, and infrastructure with SpaceX and xAI.

Valor became one of the earliest major institutional investors in SpaceX and steadily expanded its position while the company remained private for more than two decades.

The SpaceX filing shows the relationship now extends well beyond stock ownership.

According to the S-1 filing, subsidiaries tied to xAI entered into nearly $20 billion in lease agreements with Valor-affiliated entities for AI infrastructure and computing equipment. Those contracts generated hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to these Valor-related entities during 2025 and early 2026.

Nosek and Shotwell will also make billions

The filing shows how concentrated SpaceX stock ownership remains among the rest of Musk's longtime allies.

Luke Nosek, a fellow PayPal alum and early Musk associate, owns nearly 33 million SpaceX shares through direct holdings and Nosek Capital. At the current IPO valuation, his stake would be worth roughly $6 billion. Nosek also co-founded VC firm Founders Fund.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, owns roughly 12.6 million shares of SpaceX. Her holdings would be worth about $2.3 billion at the estimated IPO valuation.

Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as employee No. 11 and became one of the company's most impactful executives, helping secure NASA contracts and overseeing the growth of Falcon launches and Starlink into businesses.

Other directors own smaller but still substantial positions.

Ira Ehrenpreis, the VC best known for serving on Tesla's board, owns about 1.37 million SpaceX shares. Those holdings would be worth roughly $250 million.

Randy Glein, founder of VC firm DFJ Growth, owns about 278,000 shares. His holdings would be worth roughly $50 million.

A new filing released Thursday indicated that the company aims to raise $75 billion in its initial public offering. It plans to offer 555,555,555 shares of common stock at $135 per share. That offering would be over twice the prior record for the largest IPO, set by Aramco when it raised $29 billion in its 2019 debut.

The second Grand Slam of the year wraps up this weekend, and it's been a shocking, upset-filled tournament on the clay courts of Roland-Garros. We've gathered everything you need to know about the final matches, including where to watch the French Open, free options, and other details.

Yes, the 2026 French Open has been one for the books. With all of the favorites and most top-ranked players out early, it's an open field. Reigning men's champion Carlos Alcaraz sat out the tournament with a wrist injury, and world No. 1 (and heavy favorite) Jannik Sinner was eliminated in a shocking second-round match. Novak Djokovic and other top prospects also saw early exits, and the highest-ranked ATP player left in the tournament is world No. 3 Alexander Zverev. Zverev will head to the final, where he'll face Flavio Cobolli, who automatically advanced through the semis after Matteo Arnaldi withdrew due to illness.

The women's side has been no less shocking, with defending champion Coco Gauff eliminated in the third round. Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, and Jessica Pegula were also defeated relatively early on. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, a four-time Grand Slam champion seeking her first French Open title, was bounced by Diana Shnaider in the quarterfinals. Shnaider, in turn, fell to Maja Chwalińska, who will face Mirra Andreeva in the final.

Coverage is available across TNT and truTV and live streamable in full via HBO Max in the US. TNT Sports coverage via HBO Max is also the go-to option in the UK, although most other European nations will need Eurosport to access live streams. One exception is the host nation, France, which will offer select content for free via France.TV (with some matches on Prime Video). Australia will carry the full tournament on Stan Sport, with select free coverage on 9Now. You can access streaming options from anywhere by using a VPN. Keep reading to learn additional info about global viewing options and remaining matches.

Where to watch the French Open for free

Certain countries will offer select free coverage of the French Open. In France, free streaming is available through France.TV. In Australia, free streaming options can be found on 9Now. Both services just require account creation if you don't already have one.

How to watch the French Open from anywhere

If you're away from the location where your streaming service works and still want to access your free streaming options, you can do so with a VPN. VPNs, or virtual private networks, are handy tools that let people temporarily change the digital location of their devices. They're especially popular among those looking to upgrade their cybersecurity or access their usual websites and apps while traveling abroad.

NordVPN is one of the best VPNs on the market. It's fast, easy to use, and offers an impressive selection of global servers. Plus, it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so it's no sweat if you find that it's not helping you.

Where to watch the French Open in the US

The French Open is available across TNT and truTV in the US. The best way to live stream every moment of the Roland Garros action is through HBO Max. You'll need one of the ad-free tiers of service to access sports streaming. These plans start at $18.49 a month. You can also get HBO Max in some of the Disney Plus bundles.

If you'd prefer to watch on a service that carries other channels (in addition to TNT and truTV), then one of the best live TV streaming services will be able to help you out. After testing, DirecTV is our best overall pick right now, and you can catch TNT and truTV through one of the budget-friendly genre packs (in addition to all of the signature plans). DirecTV's MySports plan carries around 20 popular sports channels and unlocks access to ESPN Unlimited. MySports costs $65 a month, but new users can get $15 a month off their first two months after a five-day free trial.

Where to watch the French Open in the UK

TNT Sports will carry French Open coverage in the UK. Fans can live stream all coverage on HBO Max, the new home of TNT Sports. Subscriptions for TNT Sports access cost £31 a month, but you can usually find some monthly savings if you commit to a longer contract. If you were previously using Discovery Plus to live stream TNT Sports and haven't yet made the switch, you can log into HBO Max by using your Discovery credentials, and you should be all set to start watching.

Where to watch the French Open in France

France will offer extensive free French Open coverage for the host nation. Live streams will be available on France.TV, a free streaming option that just requires account creation to use. Select French Open coverage will be shown on Prime Video in France. While Prime Video is a paid option, the service usually offers a generous free trial for those who haven't had an account in quite some time or haven't had one at all.

Where to watch the French Open in Australia

Australians will be able to catch French Open action on 9Now and Stan Sport. 9Now is a free streaming option (you'll just need to create a login if you haven't already) with select coverage. If you want to watch every single match, you'll need a paid Stan Sport subscription. Stan costs $12 a month for the base plan, and then an extra $20 a month for the sports add-on. In total, this will run you $32 a month.

Where does the French Open take place?

The second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open, takes place at Stade Roland Garros in Paris. The bulk of the major matches are held on the Court Philippe-Chatrier.

When is the next Grand Slam?

The third Grand Slam of the year, Wimbledon, kicks off not long after the French Open concludes. Wimbledon, held in London, begins at the end of this month and runs through the first half of July. The US Open, the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year, begins in late August and lasts until mid-September. The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of each year, took place in January (until February 1).

Note: VPN use is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content may constitute a breach of the terms of use for some services. Business Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

Spanx might be best known for its shapewear, but the brand has expanded well beyond its original claim to fame. Today, shoppers can find everything from leggings and activewear to jeans, work pants, loungewear, and everyday basics designed with the same comfort-focused approach. Whether you are shopping for smoothing essentials or versatile wardrobe staples, Spanx has become a go-to for pieces that balance style and function.

The style editors on our team have tested several Spanx items over the years, and the brand has consistently impressed us. The Spanx Air Essentials Half-Zip and Wide Leg Pant are recommended in our roundup of the best sweatsuits for women, while the SuperSmooth Stretch Twill Slim Straight Pants top the charts in our guide to the best women's work pants. Our guide to the best women's workwear brands ranks Spanx as the top choice for comfort, and we're even fans of Spanx jeans.

One of the best ways to regularly lower the price of your cart is by applying a coupon, which is why we've scoured the internet for Spanx promo codes. We tested the best options to ensure they're still active at the time of writing and rounded them up below, with discounts up to 20%.

Today's best Spanx coupons

Previous Spanx promo codes

Are there any other Spanx sales running at the moment?

You can find a full list of sales and markdowns at any time on the "Sale" page of the Spanx website. As of right now, Spanx is running the following promotions.

Use Spanx voucher codes on these items

Using the promo codes WELCOME15, ECOOKXSPANX, NASREENXSPANX, CARALYN15, XK15VMZH, SWCXSPANX, or NENAXSPANX can help you save 15% on some of our favorite Spanx apparel. The Air Essentials Half Zip costs $128, and the Air Essentials Wide Leg Pant currently costs $118. If you add one of the aforementioned coupon codes, you can bring the final cost of our favorite matching set down to around $209.

Or, if you're in the market for new workwear, you can test out the same codes on the Ponte Flare Pant, which currently costs $158, and get one of our favorite women's work pants for $134.

Are the deals from Spanx promo codes worth it?

The discounts available from Spanx promo codes are definitely worth it, with savings reaching up to 20% off your order. Over the time we've tracked Spanx discounts, the retailer has consistently had at least one active coupon, making these promo codes a reliable way to save. Sitewide sales are pretty rare, especially outside the holidays, which means that coupons are often the only way to save, especially on certain popular items that are rarely discounted.

If you do find a marked-down item, such as something from the sale section of the Spanx site, you can often save even more by combining the deal with one of the above coupon codes. Most coupon codes can't be applied to items marked Final Sale.

• Follow our Instagram page and WhatsApp channel for more deals and buying guides.

How to use Spanx voucher codes

Start by adding coupon-eligible items to your cart. Once viewing your cart, you can apply a coupon by pasting the voucher code into the text box that says "Promo code" and clicking "Apply." From there, continue to checkout to enter your shipping and billing information.

Can you stack Spanx coupons?

Spanx promo codes can't be stacked together. Only one coupon code can be applied per order. If you try to add a second coupon code, it will automatically replace the first discount code you entered.

Spanx promo code frequently asked questions

Does Spanx offer discounts for students, teachers, and the military?

At the time of writing, Spanx does not offer special discounts for students, teachers, or the military, so your best bet is to take advantage of their other coupons and deals.

If you're a student or educator, check out our roundups of the best student discounts and teacher discounts for more offers from your favorite brands.

What is Spanx's return policy?

Spanx allows returns for a full refund within 30 days of the original delivery date. All returned items must still have their original tags attached. You can visit the Spanx website to learn more about the retailer's return policy.

Does Spanx offer free shipping?

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• Two top Anthropic officials said leading AI companies should consider a global pause in development.
• "We believe it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause," Marina Favaro and Jack Clark wrote.
• In response, many commentators have questioned the motives of such a proposal.

Anthropic wants the world's leading AI labs to come together to consider a potential pause of leading global AI development.

"We believe it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause frontier AI development to enable societal structures and alignment research to keep up with the advance of the technology," two top Anthropic officials wrote in a blog post.

On Thursday, Marina Favaro, who leads Anthropic's research institute, and Jack Clark, an Anthropic cofounder, suggested that AI labs develop a partnership similar to how countries monitor the proliferation of nuclear weapons while stressing that the world does not have "decades" to wait for such an agreement to come to fruition.

Their proposal is off to an inauspicious start, with some in tech characterizing it as a self-serving effort by a leading AI company that has begun the steps toward an IPO.

An Anthropic spokesperson told Business Insider the firm is not calling for a pause. Instead, Anthropic wants its leading competitors to have systems in place that would allow for a pause. Given the pace of development, the company wants to study the topic now before such limitations are deemed necessary.

Here is what leading people in AI, tech, and politics are saying about the idea of a pause on global AI development:

Mitt Romney, former US senator and 2012 Republican presidential nominee

Former Sen. Mitt Romney said the US should focus on developing "AI safeguards."

"Our highest and most urgent national priority should be AI safeguards," Romney wrote on X, quoting news coverage of Anthropic's statement.

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee said, "The risks of AI weapons, pathogens, mass unemployment, surveillance, and even extinction must not continue to be largely ignored."

David Sacks, former White House crypto and AI czar

David Sacks, a former top White House advisor, was harshly critical of Anthropic's suggestion.

"Signs you might be trying to get your frontier AI lab nationalized: You compare it to nukes… threaten half of white-collar jobs… warn recursive self-improvement could end humanity… then race ahead anyway," Sacks wrote on X.

Trump's former AI and crypto czar, who once publicly accused Anthropic of running a regulatory capture scheme, did not name the AI company directly in his post. Based on his past statements and the details of what he wrote, the subject of his ire was abundantly clear.

"In other words, you want the government to save us from… you," he wrote.

Andrew B. Hall, professor of political economy at Stanford

Andrew B. Hall, an advisor to Forum AI and previously an advisor to Meta Platforms, said that Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has previously said he would support a global pause, provided all frontier developers complied.

"This would have seemed totally non-credible even pretty recently, but between what we've seen with the EO, Glasswing, and OpenAI's proposal for beefed-up model review yesterday---it no longer seems so farfetched," Hall wrote on X.

Hall said he's "skeptical" about how a pause would work, especially as it would apply to Chinese-based companies or open-source models.

"If nothing else, it might be possible to agree to slowdown consumer release of models separate from development---something Hassabis seems to support based on my read of the Infinity Machine and his preference for pure research," he wrote.

Tae Kim, author of "The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant"

Tech journalist Tae Kim said Anthropic was fueling needless alarmism.

"Anthropic FUD scaring normies + hot jobs/rate hike on table + misinterpretation of Semianalysis memory piece = growth trade breather," Kim wrote on X.

Kim, who is the author of "The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant," had a stern message for the AI company.

"Hey Anthropic, stop it."

Kylan Gibbs, CEO Inworld

Kylan Gibbs, CEO of Inword AI, said that Anthropic is laying the groundwork to shape AI regulations in its favor.

Gibbs, who previously worked at Google DeepMind, said if you're the one telling governments that AI is dangerous, when it comes time to regulate, officials come to you first because they trust you. This gives Anthropic a chance to mold the regulations the way they want, such as limiting open-source rivals and controlling GPU exports to China.

"This is also related to prior trends we've seen, of large incumbents pushing for regulations they know only they can pay their way through, ultimately impacting the smaller companies who don't have the legal resources to navigate it effectively," he added.

Gary Marcus, an AI researcher and professor emeritus at New York University

AI commentator Gary Marcus said people should read Anthropic's proposal "carefully."

"They want it both ways. They don't actually want a pause - at least for now. Rather, they want to rush ahead, hinting at 'least cautious actors' for justification," Marcus wrote on X.

Marcus called Anthropic's suggestion "an incredible, cost-free piece of rhetoric — perfectly timed for the IPO." He said that the AI company would never actually want a pause.

"Instead, they want people to talk about an 'option' they don't actually plan to take, and are unlikely to ever take," Marcus wrote. "(More likely, they will like always hint at China, and continue rush ahead.)"

Luis Garicano, professor at the London School of Economics and former member of the European Parliament

Luis Garicano, a public policy professor at the London School of Economics, said Anthropic was trying to block open model competitors.

"The key threat to the profitability of frontier models is open weights. If they scare the hell out of everyone, the natural move will be to forbid them and allow only 'trusted developers,'" Garicano wrote on X. "Sorry for being cynical."

Francesco Bianchi, professor of economics and department chair at Johns Hopkins University

Francesco Bianchi, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins University, said Anthropic's proposal appeared self-serving.

"The risk here might be real, but it is very convenient for a market leader to ask to freeze the status quo," Bianchi wrote on X.

Jen Zhu Scott, cofounder and CEO of Power Dynamics

Jen Zhu Scott, founding partner of IN. Capital, which focuses on AI and deep tech, said Anthropic needs a pause.

"Anthropic is running out of compute and energy," Scott wrote on X.

Alistair Barr contributed to this report.

• SpaceX secured a $920M monthly deal with Google for compute power.
• SpaceX's S-1 recently revealed Anthropic was paying it $1.25 billion a month for compute.
• The deal comes ahead of SpaceX anticipated record-setting IPO.

SpaceX has added another lucrative deal to its revenue stream just ahead of its anticipated IPO.

Google has agreed to pay SpaceX $920 million a month for compute capacity from October 2026 to June 2029, according to a SpaceX filing submitted to the SEC on Friday.

The filing said the compute power included "approximately 110,000 NVIDIA GPUs, CPUs, memory, and other related components." Starting in 2027, either side can terminate the deal with 90 days' notice, according to the filing.

Google said in a statement to Business Insider that the deal was needed to meet demand for Gemini Enterprise, its agentic AI platform.

"Google Cloud and SpaceX are long-time partners," a Google Cloud spokesperson said. "This is a short-term, timely agreement to ensure we have bridge capacity to meet surging customer demand for our agent platform, Gemini Enterprise, which has been even higher than we expected."

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The filing came as SpaceX prepares for what's expected to be a record-setting IPO.

The deal with Google was also similar to another deal SpaceX has with Anthropic, the scope of which was revealed in SpaceX's S-1 filing last month. Anthropic is paying $1.25 billion a month through May 2029 in exchange for compute capacity from SpaceX's Colossus data centers.

"This structure allows us to monetize unused compute capacity in our infrastructure, while still permitting reallocation of the capacity for our own internal initiatives if needed in the future," SpaceX's S-1 said.

The battle for the NBA title is underway, and the New York Knicks are squaring off with the San Antonio Spurs in a can't-miss series. We've compiled everything you need to know about Knicks vs. Spurs, including info on where to watch NBA Finals live streams, venues, odds, and a game schedule.

If you don't want to read any further, you can live stream the games on ABC through ESPN Unlimited or a live TV service in the US, Prime Video in the UK, and the NBA League Pass in most other countries around the world. Keep reading to learn more about global watch options and other details about the series.

Where to watch the NBA Finals in the US

The NBA Finals will air on ABC in the US. This means you can live stream the series directly through ESPN Unlimited or on one of the best live TV streaming services we've tested. ESPN Unlimited costs $30 a month and unlocks full live streaming capabilities across ESPN's family of networks, including ESPN on ABC content.

If you'd prefer a service with other channels, then DirecTV or Fubo might be of interest. These are two of the best ABC-friendly services we've evaluated. DirecTV MySports carries around 20 popular sports networks and unlocks access to ESPN Unlimited. Subscriptions cost $65 a month, but new users can get $15 a month off their first two months after a five-day free trial. ABC is also included in DirecTV's Signature plans.

Fubo Sports + News features around 29 popular news and sports channels and unlocks access to ESPN Unlimited. Subscriptions cost $56 a month, but you can get $10 off your first month of service after a five-day free trial. ABC is also included in Fubo's Pro and Elite packages.

Where to watch the NBA Finals in the UK

In the UK, NBA fans can live stream all of the action through Prime Video. Subscriptions start at £8 a month and include all standard Amazon Prime plans (£9 a month). If you haven't had a subscription before, there's usually a pretty generous free trial offer going on, which would cover you for the duration of the finals, plus Prime Day at the end of the month.

How to watch the NBA Finals from anywhere

NBA Finals live streams are pretty accessible around the world. Prime Video will live stream the Finals in the UK, France, Ireland, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, and several other regions. In most countries outside the US and Canada, you can live stream the games through the NBA League Pass. Subscription prices vary by region.

If you find yourself traveling through an area where you're unable to access your usual streaming options, you can still use them with the help of a VPN. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are handy tech tools that let people temporarily change their virtual locations. A VPN is also a solid way to improve day-to-day cybersecurity and online privacy. Since the services we've highlighted require country-specific payment methods, this option will work best for those who are just traveling abroad at the moment.

NordVPN is our top recommendation right now. It's fast, easy to use, and has a 30-day money-back guarantee if you find that it's not what you're looking for. You can learn more about the service in our guide to the best VPNs. From now until June 9, you can use our exclusive code INSIDER for extra savings on one and two-year plans, thanks to a special NordVPN deal.

NBA Finals schedule

• Game 1 on Wednesday, June 3 at 8:30 p.m. ET
• Game 2 on Friday, June 5 at 8:30 p.m. ET
• Game 3 on Monday, June 8 at 8:30 p.m. ET
• Game 4 on Wednesday, June 10 at 8:30 p.m. ET
• Game 5 on Saturday, June 13 at 8:30 p.m. ET
• Game 6 on Tuesday, June 16 at 8:30 p.m. ET
• Game 7 on Friday, June 19 at 8:30 p.m. ET

Where will Game 2 of Knicks vs. Spurs take place?

The second game of the Knicks vs. Spurs NBA Finals series will be held at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. Game 1 also took place in San Antonio, but the series will head to Madison Square Garden in New York for Games 3 and 4. If the series heads to Game 5, the teams will return to San Antonio.

Who won Game 1 of the NBA Finals?

The New York Knicks won the first game of the NBA Finals on San Antonio turf. The Knicks defeated the Spurs 105-95, thanks to a strong second half. Prior to that, the two teams last faced off at the beginning of March during a regular-season game, which saw the Knicks win 114-89 in New York.

Who is favored to win Knicks vs. Spurs?

Despite the Game 1 loss, the Spurs are the 6.5-point favorites to win Game 2. According to DraftKings at the time of writing, the Spurs are -230 on the moneyline, while the Knicks are +190. However, the Knicks are the current favorites to win the overall series following their Game 1 road victory.

How much are Knicks vs. Spurs tickets?

At the time of writing, the cheapest remaining standard admission tickets on Ticketmaster start at $939.45. Resale sites have cheaper starting prices, with the cheapest listings starting at $650 on StubHub and $662 on Vivid Seats (at the time of writing). Overall, the starting prices are lower than those we saw ahead of Game 1. Game 3, which takes the series to New York, is another story. For Game 3, resale listings start at over $8,000 on StubHub and Vivid Seats.

Note: VPN use is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content may constitute a breach of the terms of use for some services. Business Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

A diet specially formulated for weight management can help cats lose weight safely and effectively. The best weight loss foods for cats are typically lower in calories and fat than standard formulas, but they deliver more nutrients per serving. Many also contain extra fiber to help cats feel full even when they're eating fewer calories.

To choose the foods for this guide, we asked veterinarians what factors matter most when selecting food for overweight cats. Based on their guidance, our top picks include Hill's Science Diet Perfect Weight Roasted Vegetable and Chicken Medley wet food and Royal Canin Weight Care Adult Dry Cat Food. Both are formulated with ingredients that support fat metabolism and help cats feel fuller for longer.

All of the foods featured in this guide meet or exceed the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) standards and align with the Global Nutrition Guidelines published by the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA), benchmarks endorsed by the veterinarians we consulted. Learn more about how Business Insider Reviews tests and researches pet products.

Highlights for the best weight loss foods for cats

Best overall wet: Hill's Science Diet Perfect Weight Roasted Vegetable and Chicken Medley, 2.9 oz. cans (24 count) - $52 at Chewy

Best overall dry: Royal Canin Weight Care Adult Dry Cat Food, 6 lb. bag - $43 at Chewy

Best budget wet: Blue Buffalo True Solutions Weight Control Chicken Recipe, 3 oz. cans (24 count) - $33 at Chewy

Best budget dry: Purina One +Plus High Protein Chicken, 7 lb. bag - $18 at Chewy

Best for seniors: Iams Proactive Health Healthy Senior Chicken Recipe, 7 lb. bag - $17 at Chewy

Best wet overall

Wet food contains 75% to 78% moisture, compared with just 10% to 12% in dry food. This difference is significant because cats tend to get most of their hydration from what they eat rather than from drinking water, says Dr. Debra Zoran, a small animal internist, nutritionist, and professor at Texas A&M University. What's more, the higher water content in canned food can also help cats feel fuller, even when they're consuming fewer calories.

Since wet and dry cat foods differ so much in moisture content, you'll need to convert wet food values to a dry matter basis when comparing their nutritional content. This means removing all moisture from the wet food and calculating nutritional values based on the remaining solids. For our picks, we contacted manufacturers directly to obtain nutritional information on a dry matter basis. If you want to compare other dry and wet foods, you can use the instructions from the Cummings Veterinary Medical Center at Tufts University, reach out to the food manufacturer, or ask your veterinarian for guidance.

Our recommendations for the best wet cat food for weight loss include added fiber from ingredients like powdered cellulose. This extra fiber can help your cat feel satisfied longer, which may cut down on begging between meals. These recipes also include L-carnitine, an amino acid that helps the body burn fat for energy and may support weight loss.

Best dry overall

Your veterinarian might recommend dry food with added salt as part of a weight management plan. Although salt may seem like an unusual ingredient, Freeman says pet food manufacturers include salt to encourage cats to drink more water. "It's another mechanism to help pets feel full and reduce food consumption," he says. 

Managing calorie intake is also key to helping cats lose weight. That doesn't mean cat treats are forbidden, however. They're important for bonding with your cat and rewarding them, says Dr. Julie Churchill, a veterinary nutritionist and professor of nutrition at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. That said, she recommends setting aside a portion of your cat's kibble for treats. This way, you can give your cat a few small pieces of a complete and balanced food without disrupting their diet.

Our picks for the best dry cat food for weight loss include both soluble and insoluble fiber sources, such as beet pulp, oats, psyllium seed husk, and inulin derived from chicory root or Jerusalem artichoke. Soluble fiber absorbs water and forms a gel in the stomach, which slows digestion and increases a cat's feeling of fullness. Insoluble fiber adds bulk to stool and supports a healthy digestive system. These formulas also contain fish oil, a source of omega-3 fatty acids that can help reduce inflammation and improve joint health. This may help ease joint pain caused by the added stress of carrying excess weight.

Best budget wet

Along with added moisture, many wet cat foods contain carbohydrate sources that can help your cat lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. For instance, Tufts University says complex carbohydrates such as brown rice and whole corn are more fiber-rich than other carbohydrates. They can help your cat feel full for longer. Our experts recommend whole, complex carbohydrates over processed carbohydrates such as flour and meals. This is because cats use more energy to break whole carbs down, says Dr. Korinn Saker, a retired veterinary nutritionist who was associate professor of clinical nutrition at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. 

Our budget picks for the best affordable cat food for weight loss include fiber to help your cat feel full and L-carnitine to help them burn fat. If wet food still feels too pricey (it tends to be more expensive per serving than dry food), you can ask your vet for help creating a meal plan that mixes wet and dry food. Zoran says she offers her cats wet food to keep them hydrated, but also incorporates a small amount of dry food in feeder puzzles. This helps slow her cats' eating by making them work for their food, which can help them feel more satisfied and promote weight loss. You can learn more about the differences between canned food and kibble in our wet vs. dry cat food explainer.

Best budget dry

Budget dry food is a good option for cat owners looking for an affordable way to help their cat lose weight. Both budget and premium weight loss cat foods may contain cost-effective protein sources like meat byproducts and byproduct meals. These are secondary ingredients from the human food industry, but they meet the nutritional requirements for pets set by the AAFCO. Our experts agree that byproducts and meals make good protein sources for cats. 

Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they need animal-based proteins for essential amino acids like taurine. Budget dry cat foods can meet your cat's dietary needs as long as proteins in the form of whole meat, meat meal, or byproducts come first on the ingredient list.

Our budget picks for the best weight loss foods for cats are low in calories and fat, like our other recommendations in this guide. They contain proteins such as chicken, chicken byproduct meal, and turkey meal. Our pick from Purina also contains L-lysine, an amino acid that supports the immune system and may boost a cat's resistance to certain viruses.

Best for seniors

Senior cats are more likely to develop health problems, especially if they are overweight. Churchill says maintaining a healthy weight can add years to a pet's life, improve their quality of life, and delay many chronic diseases that occur with aging.

When choosing among the best senior cat foods, it's important to work with your veterinarian to determine your pet's specific needs. Some cats may require a diet with lower levels of phosphorus, sodium, or protein, while others may benefit from a high-protein diet. Many senior cat foods, such as the ones below, also contain ingredients like fish oil, glucosamine, and chondroitin that can help improve mobility and reduce inflammation. Our senior picks also contain cranberries and blueberries. These ingredients provide antioxidants, which can help keep a cat's liver, kidneys, and brain healthy.

Our top picks compared

What to look for in cat foods for weight loss

When shopping for the best cat foods for weight loss, you'll want to consider the following criteria: 

AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement for adult maintenance or all life stages: The AAFCO is a nonprofit organization that provides nutritional guidelines for pet food. An AAFCO statement indicates that a food meets the nutritional needs of cats based on their life stage. You can confirm a cat food is nutritionally complete and balanced for "adult maintenance" or "all life stages" if it has an AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement on the label. 

Keep in mind that cat food will only meet your cat's nutritional needs when served in the right portions. Giving your cat a smaller portion could lead to a nutritional deficiency, while overfeeding them may lead to weight gain, especially if they don't get much activity. 

Growing kittens need more calories and nutrients than adult cats so we recommend the best kitten foods for young felines. Therefore, weight management foods don't make a good choice for kittens, even if the food is labeled for "all life stages." If you have any concerns about your kitten's weight, consult a vet before you change their diet or feed them smaller portions. As your cat nears their first birthday, your vet can evaluate their weight and how many calories they should consume daily. 

Guaranteed analysis and nutrient profiles: The guaranteed analysis on a pet food label shows the percentages of important nutrients, including protein, fat, fiber, and other essential vitamins and minerals. Food for adult cats, including seniors, must have a minimum of 26% protein and 9% fat. Our experts say it's important to carefully examine the guaranteed analysis of protein, fat, and fiber percentages to ensure the recipe meets your cat's needs. The best weight loss foods for cats generally contain low to moderate fat and high fiber. 

Ingredients list: The ingredients on a pet food label appear in order of weight. As obligate carnivores, cats must eat diets made up of animal-based proteins. So, animal proteins in the form of whole meat, meat meal, or animal byproducts should appear first on the ingredients list of any cat food. To add fiber to your cat's diet and keep them feeling full between meals, opt for recipes with whole complex carbohydrates such as whole corn, whole brown rice, oats, and inulin. Sources of inulin you may notice on cat food labels include chicory root and, less commonly, Jerusalem artichoke.

Expert formulations: Expert formulation is even more important when it comes to weight loss diets since the best weight loss foods for cats are developed to provide more nutrients per serving, with fewer calories. We only recommend food from brands that employ a full-time board-certified veterinary nutritionist or a PhD-level animal nutritionist. This helps ensure your cat's food meets nutritional recommendations and includes the right ingredients for cats. It also aligns with the WSAVA guidelines and our experts' guidance.

Manufacturing standards: We expect commercial cat food brands to be transparent about their quality control measures. This means providing information about the types of tests they conduct, how often they test, and the results of those tests. If this information doesn't appear on a pet food company's website, brand representatives should provide the information upon request.

Calorie content: The calorie content of cat food is listed in kilocalories (kcals). Weight management foods generally have fewer calories per serving but are nutrient-dense to meet nutritional needs. However, the calorie needs of adult cats can vary depending on their age, ideal weight, and overall health. Our experts emphasize the importance of switching to a weight management diet instead of just giving your cat less food. Your vet can recommend the best weight loss cat foods and the right portion size for your cat. When a pet is only a little overweight — 10% to 15% — a successful approach to weight loss may involve switching to a lower-calorie food and adjusting treats and snacks, combined with increased exercise, Churchill says. Pets more than 15% heavier than their ideal weight are considered obese and may benefit from a prescription weight loss diet.

Vets can use a scale and the body condition scoring (BCS) system to assess your cat's weight and body fat. Your vet will consider your cat's lifestyle, ideal weight, and overall health to recommend the ideal number of daily calories your cat should eat. You can ask your vet to teach you how to use the BCS system to check your cat's body fat at home between wellness visits. Churchill says that frequent monitoring of your cat's weight is important since it allows veterinarians to fine-tune caloric intake and ensure that weight loss stays safe and healthy. She adds that cats should lose weight gradually, at a rate of 1% to 2% of their body weight per week.

How we selected the best weight loss foods for cats

To pick the best weight loss foods for cats, we consulted four veterinarians, including three specializing in animal nutrition. Our experts didn't recommend specific foods, but they helped us determine what makes an effective weight loss food and how to ensure your cat loses weight in a safe and healthy way.

• Dr. Debra Zoran is a small animal internist, nutritionist, and professor of small animal clinical sciences at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University. 
• Dr. Korinn Saker is a board-certified veterinarian and a retired professor of clinical nutrition at the College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University. 
• Dr. Julie Churchill is a board-certified veterinary nutritionist and a professor of nutrition at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. 
• Dr. Mark Freeman is a board-certified veterinarian and clinical associate professor of community practice at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. 

We also consulted guidelines and recommendations from the AAFCO, the WSAVA Global Nutrition Guidelines, and other publications and organizations linked in this guide.

Meet the expert behind this guide

Janelle Leeson, pet nutrition reporter: I've covered feline health and nutrition for Reviews since 2023, combining in-depth research with expert insight to help cat guardians make informed decisions. For this guide, I reviewed scientific literature on feline obesity and weight management, interviewed veterinarians about what makes a diet effective for weight management, compared the nutrient profiles and ingredient lists of more than 40 formulas, and applied rigorous, vet-informed criteria to every recommendation. My reporting is rooted in credible sources, objective comparisons, and a passion for helping cats thrive.

Weight loss cat food FAQs

What is the best food for cats to lose weight?

The best weight loss foods for cats are specially formulated for and labeled as "weight management," "weight loss," or "healthy weight" cat food. These weight management cat foods typically contain fewer calories and less fat while offering more nutrients per serving than regular cat food. Still, there's no one-size-fits-all food for overweight cats. Your cat's ideal diet depends on factors like their individual needs, age, ideal weight, and overall health. That's why consulting your veterinarian before making changes to your cat's diet is essential. They can recommend an appropriate food and help you create a safe, effective weight loss plan tailored to your cat.

Is wet or dry cat food better for weight loss?

Both wet and dry cat foods can help your cat lose weight, but wet food is generally better for weight loss than dry food. It's lower in calories per bite, higher in moisture to help cats feel satiated, and often includes complex carbohydrates, such as brown rice and whole grain corn, which take longer to digest.

Dr. Liza Cahn, a veterinarian and consultant for Embrace Pet Insurance, says dry food is typically more calorie-dense, making it easier for cats to overeat, especially when they're free-fed. The carbohydrates in kibble tend to come from processed flours and meals, which usually don't keep cats feeling full for long. However, a lower-calorie, high-fiber dry food can support weight loss when portions are measured carefully. Regardless of the type of food you choose, regular exercise through play and enrichment is essential for effective weight management.

What is the best way for an indoor cat to lose weight?

Successful feline weight loss relies on three pillars: a balanced diet, portion control, and regular exercise. A weight management food plays an important role, but how much you feed matters just as much. Freeman emphasizes the importance of portion control. He and his team provide pet parents with a carefully calibrated measuring cup for portioning food. Churchill recommends using a kitchen scale to measure portions accurately. Remember that treats also count toward your cat's daily calorie intake. Because treats are typically empty calories, which means they're not complete and balanced, Churchill recommends giving your cat a small portion of their meal as a reward instead. Exercise is especially important for indoor cats. It burns calories and prevents boredom. Churchill recommends using puzzle feeders, and all of our experts agree that cat trees and perches can help encourage activity.

How much should I feed a cat that needs to lose weight?

Your veterinarian can calculate the appropriate amount of calories your cat should eat based on their age, health, and body condition. As a starting point, you can use the Pet Nutrition Alliance Calorie Calculator to estimate your cat's daily calorie needs based on their current and ideal weight. For obese cats (those 15% to 20% over their ideal weight), Churchill says simply feeding less of their regular diet can lead to nutritional deficiencies. Instead, your vet may recommend a therapeutic weight loss diet.

How long should it take a cat to lose weight?

Cats should lose weight slowly, about 1% to 2% of their body weight per week, Churchill says. This gradual weight loss helps avoid health issues such as muscle loss and hepatic lipidosis, a potentially fatal condition. Hepatic lipidosis, also called fatty liver disease, can occur when a cat's food intake decreases so rapidly that they are in a state of anorexia. The body responds by sending fat stores to the liver. However, the liver can't process such large amounts of fat, so it builds up in liver cells, causing irreversible damage. While roughly 90% of cases stem from underlying conditions such as kidney disease, cancer, or diabetes, rapid calorie restriction for weight loss can also cause fatty liver disease, according to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. However, obesity also puts cats at greater risk of developing fatty liver disease.

Do slow feeders help cats lose weight?

Yes, slow feeders can help cats lose weight. Slow feeders and puzzles allow cats to mimic natural hunting and foraging behaviors, providing mental stimulation and reducing boredom, which can lead to extra eating or begging. Some slow feeders and puzzles, such as the Catit Senses Food Tree, encourage physical activity by requiring cats to sit up, reach, or circle the feeder to get food. Others, like kibble-dispensing balls, motivate cats to push the toy to release food. Even when using slow feeders and puzzles, portion control remains essential, so you should still carefully measure your cat's food.

• Steve Cohen's $50.7 billion Point72 continued its strong 2026 in May.
• Big-name managers, including Millennium and Balyasny, mostly performed well in May.
• The S&P 500 index climbed more than 5% in May, pushing the year-to-date gains to 11%.

Steve Cohen's $50.7 billion hedge fund has continued its strong run of returns with a 2% gain in May, a person close to the firm tells Business Insider.

That gain puts Cohen's firm at 10.5% for the year, following a 17.5% gain in 2025, when the manager outperformed its main rivals in the multistrategy space, namely Millennium and Citadel.

May was generally good for big-name managers, people close to the firms told Business Insider. Millennium was up 2.4%, pushing its 2026 gains to 6.1%. Balyasny is now positive for the year thanks to a 1.4% gain last month. Citadel also gained 1.4% in May; Ken Griffin's firm is now up 3.9% in 2026.

Still, funds struggled to keep pace with equity markets, which surged in May thanks to continued enthusiasm for tech and AI stocks. The S&P 500 index ended last month up 11% after a more than 5% gain in May.

A few managers lost money for the month. Walleye and North Rock both posted small losses — 0.9% and 0.2%, respectively — in May.

The funds listed below declined to comment.

Editor's note: This story was originally published on June 3 at 12:16 p.m. New figures have been added to the table below as they have been learned.

Athleta may be best known for leggings and workout gear, but the brand has grown into a destination for much more than activewear. Alongside sports bras and performance pieces, shoppers will find comfortable basics, travel-friendly styles, dresses, jumpsuits, and office-ready pants. If you are looking to save on your next order, an Athleta coupon code can help bring down the cost.

Our style team has tested a wide range of Athleta products over the years, and the brand continues to stand out for its comfort, quality, and versatility. Favorites like the Ultra High Rise Elation Legging and Endless High Rise Pant have earned spots in our workout set and stretchy work pants buying guides thanks to their flattering fit and all-day wearability.

While Athleta regularly runs sales on select colors and styles, promo codes can unlock even more savings. Below, we have rounded up the best Athleta coupons, promo codes, and current deals to help you save on leggings, activewear, workwear, and more.

Today's best Athleta coupons

Previous Athleta coupons

Are there any other Athleta sales currently running?

You can find a full list of all current markdowns at any time on Athleta's website, which we've compiled for you below. As of the time of writing, Athleta is running the following promotions.

Use Athleta coupon codes on these items

You can use Athleta coupons to save on styles we've recommended in our guides, including one of our favorite pairs of women's workout leggings. The Ultra High Rise Elation Legging is already on sale, bringing the price down from $99 to $75. However, when you apply the coupon code MEGHAN10, you can reduce the price by 10% to around $67.49. Alternatively, use the same code on our favorite stretchy work pants, the Endless High Rise Pants, which currently retail for $109, to reduce the price to just $98.10.

• Follow our Instagram page and WhatsApp channel on mobile for more deals and shopping news

How to use Athleta coupon codes

Start by adding coupon-eligible items to your cart. Once you're on the "Shopping Bag" page, you can apply a coupon by pasting the coupon code into the text box under "Promos" that says "Enter Promo Code" and clicking "Apply." From there, continue to checkout and enter your shipping and billing information.

Can you stack Athleta coupons?

Athleta does allow some coupon codes to be stacked together. However, there may be exceptions, so be sure to check the terms and conditions for the specific codes you want to stack. Some coupon codes can't be combined with other existing offers, such as limited-time sales.

Athleta coupons: frequently asked questions

Does Athleta offer discounts for students, teachers, and the military?

As of the time of writing, Athleta does not offer special discounts for students, teachers, or military members, so your best bet is to take advantage of their other coupons and promotions.

If you're a student or teacher, check out our roundups of the best student discounts and teacher discounts for more offers from your favorite brands.

Does Athleta offer free shipping?

Athleta offers free shipping on all orders over $50 to members of its rewards program. For non-members, shipping fees will be calculated at checkout based on your delivery location and order cost. For All-Access cardmembers, the free shipping minimum is $35+. Learn more about the rewards program and sign up on Athleta's website.

What is Athleta's return policy?

Athleta allows you to return items for a full refund up to 30 days after the original delivery date or in-store purchase.

Can I use Athleta coupon codes in-store?

Some Athleta coupons can be used both online and in-store. However, many coupons are online-exclusive, so be sure to check the terms and conditions for the specific code you want to use.

Can I reuse an Athleta coupon?

Some Athleta coupon codes can be used multiple times. However, there are certain codes that can only be used once, so be sure to check the terms and conditions for the specific code you want to use.

Does Athleta have a rewards program?

Athleta offers two ways for shoppers to earn rewards. You can open an Athleta rewards credit card, which earns you 20% off your first purchase and five rewards points for every dollar you spend (plus a few other perks), or sign up for the rewards program for free without opening a card, which earns you one rewards point for every dollar you spend and a birthday bonus.

The free rewards tier is known as a Core membership, but if you spend $350+ in a year, you unlock more benefits as a Premier member. Learn more about the benefits and how to sign up at Athleta's website.

Looking for more activewear? Check out our roundup of the best Spanx coupons.

GlassesUSA has become one of the most popular places to buy glasses online, thanks to its large selection of frames and prices that are often lower than what you will find at a traditional optical shop. The retailer carries everything from budget-friendly in-house styles to designer brands, making it a solid option whether you are shopping for prescription glasses, sunglasses, contact lenses, or blue-light-blocking frames. If you are looking to spend less, a GlassesUSA coupon code is one of the easiest ways to cut the cost of your order.

Our team has tested many of the best online glasses retailers over the years, and GlassesUSA continues to stand out for its combination of affordability, selection, and convenience. Whether you need everyday prescription glasses, a backup pair, or stylish sunglasses, there are options for every budget and preference. You can also check out our full GlassesUSA review for a closer look at the shopping experience and frame quality.

GlassesUSA regularly runs promotions throughout the year, with discounts on frames, lenses, contacts, and more. Below, we have rounded up the best GlassesUSA coupons, promo codes, and deals available right now to help you save on your next order.

Today's best GlassesUSA coupons

Previous GlassesUSA promo codes

Are there any other GlassesUSA sales running at the moment?

You can find a full list of current markdowns at any time on the sale pages of GlassesUSA's site. At the time of writing, GlassesUSA is running the following promotions.

• Follow us on Instagram and WhatsApp for the latest content from the Reviews team.

How to use GlassesUSA promo codes

It's easy to use GlassesUSA promo codes. You can start the process by adding coupon-eligible items to your cart. From there, you can click the "Secure Checkout" pop-up or the shopping cart icon to navigate to the "Shopping Cart" checkout page, where you'll be able to apply a coupon by pasting the code into the "Coupon/Store Credit" text box and clicking "Apply." Some codes may be automatically applied when you go to your cart. Once you add the coupon, you can continue the checkout process by inputting your shipping and payment information.

Can you stack GlassesUSA discount codes?

GlassesUSA does not allow coupons to be stacked together. Only one promo code may be applied per order.

GlassesUSA coupons: Frequently asked questions

Does GlassesUSA offer discounts for students, teachers, and the military?

GlassesUSA offers students a 40% sitewide discount. The retailer also offers a $20 service discount to first responders, military members, teachers, nurses, medical providers, hospital workers, government employees, and senior citizens. Eligible customers must verify their status to receive the discount.

If you're a student or teacher, check out our roundups of the best student discounts and the best teacher discounts for more ways to save from your favorite brands.

Does GlassesUSA take insurance?

GlassesUSA accepts insurance from several major providers, which are listed on the website here. If your provider isn't listed, GlassesUSA can provide a detailed receipt with your order that you can submit to your insurance for reimbursement.

GlassesUSA also allows you to use HSA and FSA dollars directly on the site. Simply enter your FSA/HSA card at checkout like you would a credit or debit card. Learn more about using FSA or HSA dollars on GlassesUSA's website.

Does GlassesUSA offer free shipping?

GlassesUSA offers free standard shipping on all orders in the United States. For faster shipping or next-day delivery, you may need to pay an extra fee.

What is GlassesUSA's return policy?

GlassesUSA allows items to be returned for a full refund within 45 days of the original purchase. Learn more about how to make a return on GlassesUSA's website. You'll need your order ID and email address to get started.

Does GlassesUSA have a virtual try-on feature?

GlassesUSA's virtual try-on feature can help you see what certain frames look like on your face before you buy them. When you're on the product page of the frames you're interested in, simply click "Live Try On" on the product photo to use the feature. If you prefer to test out your frames in person, GlassesUSA also offers a 45-day home try-on feature.

If you need more help deciding which frames are right for you, GlassesUSA offers a Pairfect Match AI quiz on its website that can help you find the best pair for your needs.

Can I reuse a GlassesUSA coupon?

The majority of GlassesUSA coupons can only be used once per customer. However, there may be exceptions, so be sure to check the terms and conditions for the specific code you're interested in using.

For more eyewear deals, check out our roundups of the best Zenni promo codes.

• US stocks plunged, with losses on Friday driving the Nasdaq 100 to its worst week since April 2025
• A strong jobs report is positive for the economy, but has dashed rate cut hopes for this year.
• Investors now see a 70% chance the Fed will hike rates this year.

Good news is bad news for markets this Friday, as stocks tanked hard after a key economic update.

It was another amazing month for the US job market, but that wasn't really what investors wanted to hear. US employers added 172,000 jobs in May, far more than the 88,000 economists were expecting. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3%.

It's a positive signal for the US economy, suggesting that employers haven't yet been deterred by hotter inflation and lingering uncertainty over the US-Iran war.

But for markets, a red-hot jobs report has come to mean one thing: say goodbye to rate cuts.

Stocks plummeted as investors dumped high-flying growth stocks across tech and AI. The Nasdaq 100 plunged nearly 5%, recording its worst single-day loss since October of last year and its worst weekly loss since Liberation Day. The S&P 500 snapped a nine-week streak of gains, its longest winning run since 2023.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. ET closing bell:

• S&P 500: 7,383.81, down 2.64%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 50,866.78, down 1.35% (-695.15 points)
• Nasdaq 100: 28,957.60, down 4.7%

Investors look to be taking profits, especially in the semiconductor sector, Louis Navellier, the CIO of Navellier & Associates, wrote in a note.

"Equity markets paused following an historic run, heading for the first losing week in 10," Mark Hackett, the chief market strategist at Nationwide, wrote in a note on Friday. "As market indexes settle, it is important to look below the surface for signs of investor risk tolerances," he added, pointing to the momentum in the chips sector in recent months.

The logic goes like this: Investors have been waiting for months for lower interest rates, something that's expected to boost the price of risk assets, like stocks. But there are two things that stand in the way of the Fed loosening monetary policy: higher inflation, and a strong labor market.

On the inflation side, markets already knew that the central bank had less room to cut rates than it did prior to the start of the US-Iran war. Inflation accelerated to its hottest pace in about three years in April, largely due to the recent surge in energy prices.

But now, hiring looks like it's tipped out of favor for rate cuts as well. If the job market were struggling, there might be a stronger case for the Fed to cut rates to boost economic growth.

Investors were quick to dial back odds of a rate cut and dial up the odds of a hike.

The odds that the Fed would cut rates at all by the end of the year shrank to 1.1%, according to the CME FedWatch tool. That compares to a 70.7% chance of a rate hike, which is considered to be the worst-case scenario for stocks.

US Treasury yields, another reflection of interest rate expectations in the economy, also increased.

The 10-year US Treasury yield rose to 4.54%, breaking above the key 4.5% psychological threshold that suggests investors see higher interest rates for longer, which can weigh on stocks.

The 20-year and 30-year US Treasury yields also ticked higher, pushing further above 5%.

"Any hopes of a Fed rate cut have effectively been eliminated with this morning's strong jobs report," Ron Temple, the chief market strategist at Lazard, wrote in a note. "While I still view a rate hike as unlikely, the case for easing has been invalidated with headline CPI inflation next week likely to top 4%," he added of the coming May inflation report.

Bank of America also flagged the possibility of a "hawkish Fed shift" in a note published after the jobs report.

Chris Zaccarelli, the CIO of Northlight Asset Management, said a rate hike wasn't a done deal in markets yet, though rate cuts were likely off the table for 2026.

"The Fed won't be able to cut rates with inflation this high, but if it is staying under control — especially with the disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz — then they won't feel pressure to raise rates either," Zaccarelli wrote in a note on Friday.

June has officially arrived, which means summer shows are starting back up, along with some fun films. We've rounded up the best TV premieres, finales, and movie streaming debuts you can watch the weekend of June 5, 2026.

This week, "Hoppers" finally lands on streaming after its theatrical run. "Office Romance" and "Lorne" have also premiered, if you're looking for other new movies in the romcom or documentary sphere. "Love Island USA" is back for a new season, but our top recommendations this week go to the premieres of "The Vampire Lestat" and "Cape Fear."

6: Hoppers

If you're looking for something that the whole family can enjoy, "Hoppers" is the way to go this weekend. The animated movie is Pixar's latest, following a college student who puts her mind into a beaver to interact with and understand animals. Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, and Dave Franco lend their voices to the film. "Hoppers" is now streaming on Disney Plus.

5: Love Island USA

A new cohort of bombshells enters the villa in the latest season of "Love Island USA." The reality romance series is in its eighth season after its jump in popularity over the past few years. If you can't get enough, the series that started it all ("Love Island UK") is also dropping its newest season across the pond. New episodes of "Love Island USA" stream almost daily on Peacock.

4: Office Romance

Following "Marry Me" and "Shotgun Wedding," Jennifer Lopez's recent romcom revival continues with "Office Romance." The film is cowritten by "Ted Lasso" star Brett Goldstein, who stars alongside JLo as the work flirt whom she falls for. The pair develop feelings for each other while working at Lopez's (character's) airline company, where they must keep their office romance undercover. The movie is now streaming on Netflix.

3: Lorne

If you've ever wondered about the man behind the "Saturday Night Live" machine (and you're looking for something more in-depth than the "Saturday Night" movie that dropped a couple of years ago), then "Lorne" has you covered. The documentary is a deep look into Lorne Michaels, bolstered by interviews from "SNL" mainstays like Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, John Mulaney, Conan O'Brien, Chris Rock, and others. The film is now streaming on Peacock.

2: The Vampire Lestat

The TV adaptation of "Interview with the Vampire" is back with a new season — and a new name. The third installment in Anne Rice's iconic story finds the titular vampire (Sam Reid) on tour as a rock star following the publication of Daniel Molloy's (Eric Bogosian) book about him. "The Vampire Lestat" airs on AMC on Sundays, starting June 7. Cord-cutters can live stream new episodes through services like AMC Plus, AMC Plus via Prime Video, Philo, DirecTV MyEntertainment, and Sling TV Blue or Orange.

1: Cape Fear

Apple TV continues its hot streak with "Cape Fear," the pulpy TV reimagining of the '90s film of the same name (a remake of a '60s film, based on a '50s novel — so there are layers to it). The limited series stars Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson as married lawyers who are forced to reckon with their past when a man (Javier Bardem) that they helped put away in prison is released and hell-bent on terrorizing them. Notably, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg are executive producers on the thriller series. New episodes drop on Fridays globally (Thursday nights in the US) on Apple TV.

Also streaming:

Each week, we highlight the best TV show premieres, finales, and new-to-streaming movies (along with stand-up comedy specials, when something sparks our interest). However, there are also several ongoing series that are currently dropping excellent new episodes. You can find some of our top recommendations below.

• "Dutton Ranch" (new episodes Fridays on Paramount Plus)

• "Widow's Bay" (new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV)
• "Criminal Minds: Evolution" (new episodes Thursdays on Paramount Plus)
• "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" Season 11 (new episodes Fridays on Paramount Plus)
• "Star City" (new episodes on Fridays on Apple TV)

If you're interested in learning more about these streaming apps, check out our guides to the best streaming services and best live TV streaming services. For additional recommendations, you can explore our roundup of the best streaming deals and bundles.

World Cup ticket prices are constantly changing as we get closer to the June 11 start date. The initial ticket launch from FIFA frustrated football fans around the world, with affordable prices nowhere to be seen on the cumbersome website. And while I can't say things have improved that much, there are at least more options to buy now, with some games starting around $250.

If you want to know where to buy World Cup tickets at this late stage, your best bet is likely via official reseller platforms like StubHub and Vividseats, traditional platforms we've used for years for other sporting events and live music.

I've been keeping an eye on World Cup ticket prices since launch, and over the last 60 days, prices have dropped by around 20% on average. This trend has started to turn around, though, with the average over the last two weeks going up by 5%. However, as we get closer to the tournament, prices could drop again, especially on the reseller marketplaces.

While no World Cup tickets are anything close to 'cheap', it's worth keeping an eye on fixtures near you, as you might get a better price the closer we get to game time.

2026 FIFA World Cup tickets for every game

Below you'll find links to purchase World Cup tickets via StubHub for every tournament fixture, along with recent entry-level prices. Prices are subject to change daily, but are correct at the time of publication.

Group Stage

Round of 32

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Bronze medal match

Final

Where to buy World Cup tickets

The official FIFA website has been drip-feeding out a few additional ticket releases in recent weeks, but with exceptionally high prices, usually starting way over $1,000. Every visit to the site prompts a wave of Captcha events, multiple logins, code resends, and a loop of waiting rooms. And when the prices end up being higher than online reseller markets, it's hardly worth checking anymore.

Instead, we've noticed StubHub and Vividseats have had better prices and a much wider variety of seats available. The StubHub prices listed above were the cheapest ones I've seen at the time of writing, and are usually quite far from the pitch. Prices climb dramatically the closer you get.

Are resellers safe?

Yes, official resellers like StubHub and Vividseats are eligible options for buying World Cup tickets, with various protections in place that offer refunds if anything goes wrong with the seller. Check out Sarah's guide as she answers the popular question cautious ticket buyers online always ask: Is StubHub legit?

What city has the cheapest World Cup ticket prices?

Prices are largely driven by the teams playing rather than the city itself, as the most popular teams can significantly raise ticket prices for a fixture. Brazil, Portugal, and Mexico games are trending the highest right now.

At the time of writing, according to TicketData.com, San Francisco has the lowest average get-in price for group stage fixtures at $281. Atlanta is up next at $376, with Vancouver and Kansas also coming in a few bucks short of $400.

On the other end of the scale, Mexico City has the highest average ticket price for group games at $1,465, followed by Miami ($1,271) and Guadalajara ($1,104).

• Polymarket paid high-profile influencers hundreds of thousands to promote its prediction market.
• Those influencers, however, never disclosed that they were being paid.
• Polymarket CMO Matthew Modabber paid the creators using a personal PayPal account, POLITICO found.

When far-right influencer Nick Shirley posted a viral video in January alleging fraud at Minnesota daycares, he showed his 1.6 million followers on X something else too: a gray hoodie emblazoned with the Polymarket logo.

Polymarket had made other appearances in the 24-year-old's content, like in a series of man-on-the-street interviews about the "current state of America" posted in December.

The first post came after Shirley began receiving money from Polymarket's chief marketing officer, Matthew Modabber. The second came after he had taken in a total of $3,100 from Modabber, according to records reviewed by POLITICO.

Modabber, who once wrote that the key to growth is "a product people can't shut up about," was putting his money where his mouth is. The Polymarket executive used a personal PayPal account to send at least $350,000 to Shirley and other content creators between January 2025 and February 2026, an analysis of the transactions shows.

That sum is almost certainly an undercount. Modabber used his personal PayPal account, which is registered to an email for a salad spot he cofounded, to send over $2.5 million to more than 800 people during the 14-month span, the analysis shows. POLITICO independently verified the identities of about two dozen content creators who received money from Modabber by using public records and analyzing their social media accounts.

At least 20 of the content creators identified by POLITICO promoted Polymarket on social media after they began receiving money from Modabber, according to payment records and POLITICO's analysis of their social media activity. During the 14-month span reflected in the payment records, they posted about Polymarket at least 490 times on the social media platform X without clearly disclosing a paid partnership. The analysis of payment records and concurrent social posts highlights the company's under-the-radar campaign to generate buzz in the political world around the highly controversial prediction market.

Among those paid: conservative influencer Alex LoRusso, progressive political commentator Brian Krassenstein, and Riley Gaines, a collegiate swimmer-turned-Fox News contributor who has campaigned against trans women competing in women's sports.

The PayPal transaction records were shown to POLITICO by a person with access to the data. They were granted anonymity for fear of retribution.

A Polymarket spokesperson told POLITICO the partnerships with influencers were part of its standard business practices.

"We routinely collaborate with a diverse range of independent organizations, partners, and content creators spanning the political spectrum and constantly monitor, evaluate our progress, and make the necessary adjustments in order to achieve our core mission of providing the most accurate, transparent, and data-driven market insights to a global audience," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson declined to answer questions on the company's strategy for partnering with influencers, its policies for disclosing those deals on social media, why Modabber used a personal account for the transactions, and whether the payments were reported as business expenses to the IRS.

Modabber did not respond to requests for comment.

Led by 28-year-old CEO Shayne Coplan, Polymarket has primarily functioned outside the US since Wall Street regulators banned it for operating without a license in 2022. But the company — which offers users the chance to bet on US elections, the Super Bowl, and even the Iran war — has seen its trading volumes skyrocket since President Donald Trump's reelection in 2024, as prediction markets have entered the mainstream.

Trump's administration faces mounting pressure to rein in prediction market platforms like Polymarket and its main competitor, Kalshi, over insider trading concerns. But the president, whose son Donald Trump Jr. is an investor in Polymarket and a paid advisor to Kalshi, has taken a mostly laissez-faire approach. Trump's administration dropped a pair of investigations into the company last summer, effectively clearing the way for Polymarket to re-enter the US market by acquiring a federally regulated exchange. Last week, he attacked several blue state leaders who have sought to regulate the platforms, saying it's "critically important" the federal government takes the lead and that the companies "will thrive."

As the policy debate over prediction markets plays out, Polymarket is harnessing influencers' massive online audiences to turn itself into a household name. On X, the influencers trumpet claims about Polymarket's accuracy, whether it's predicting the outcome of the New York City mayoral election in 2025 or the exact date when a government shutdown would end — all while failing to mention the company's role in bankrolling their posts. In many of their posts, Polymarket is framed as an authoritative source, and viewers may never realize they're scrolling past sponsored content.

"People are not consciously thinking about whether an influencer is profiting every time they see a post," said Renée DiResta, author of a book about social media propagandists, "Invisible Rulers," and a Georgetown University professor who studies influence in the digital age.

The Federal Trade Commission says social media influencers have a responsibility to disclose any "material connection" to products they endorse, but the agency did not respond to questions about how those rules apply to posts about prediction markets.

None of the X posts made during the records' 14-month timeframe included disclosures that they were part of paid promotions, POLITICO found. The platform rolled out the ability to label posts as paid promotions on March 1, though an X spokesperson said clear disclosures like "ad" or "sponsored" were always required in commercial posts.

"It sounds like this would be the type of thing that generally should be disclosed," Robin Moore, former deputy general counsel for the FTC, said in an interview.

Kalshi has been known to partner with online content creators, too, underscoring the importance of social media to prediction market companies' growth strategies. Last year, Kalshi hired a cryptocurrency influencer to lead its digital assets efforts, and it has partnered with social media influencers to boost its profile with sports fans and women.

"Everybody was either Polymarket or Kalshi," said one social media influencer paid by Polymarket, who was granted anonymity because they feared retribution. "Kalshi and Polymarket, they literally at some point owned all big influencers."

The influencer, who has hundreds of thousands of followers on X, said they received thousands of dollars from Polymarket to post about the company since 2024.

Kalshi spokesperson Elisabeth Diana declined to comment for this report.

'Cannot be faked'

In May 2024, Shane Ginsberg asked passersby in Atlanta: "Trump or Biden?" All four people featured in the video he posted on his @shaneyyricch Instagram account expressed a preference for Trump in the upcoming presidential election against Joe Biden.

But the man-on-the-street-style interviews were not just about the election.

"I bet $5,000 on Trump to win the election," Ginsberg tells one interviewee, as an image of Polymarket pops up on the screen. "Are you confident enough that he'll win that you would bet?"

"Well, pull out your phone real quick," Ginsberg responds, after the man says yes. "There's a place called Polymarket. Polymarket.com. It's the only place where you can bet on news, the election."

Ginsberg was 19 at the time — old enough to vote in his first presidential election. And the self-proclaimed 8th-grade dropout had just started working with Polymarket to boost the company's brand recognition, according to his website.

Ginsberg had started a social media marketing business called Street Poller, touting his ability to "dominate the scroll" by making videos of unscripted man-on-the-street interviews, then using a network of 50-plus content creators to boost their reach, as a Polymarket case study on his website describes it.

In some cases, Ginsberg's fleet of interviewers didn't even mention Polymarket. They simply wore the company's logo on a T-shirt.

The timing couldn't have been better.

Polymarket was paying social media influencers across the country to promote election betting in the months leading up to the presidential race. US bettors were still barred from placing wagers through Polymarket under the company's 2022 settlement with federal regulators, but the influencers rarely mentioned that.

Ginsberg, who received at least $77,000 from Modabber over PayPal, did not respond to emails requesting comment on his work for Polymarket.

Asked about Modabber's use of a personal PayPal account for what appear to be business transactions, a PayPal spokesperson declined to comment on specific accounts but referred POLITICO to a section of its user agreement that describes personal accounts as "primarily for personal, family, or household purposes."

"If the activity associated with your personal account primarily involves business or commercial activity, PayPal may close your account unless you agree to cease the business or commercial activity or convert your personal account to a business," the company's agreement states.

In the lead-up to the election, when Polymarket users successfully wagered millions of dollars on Trump beating then-Vice President Kamala Harris to win a second term, the platform saw a surge in popularity. More than $1.5 billion traded hands on Polymarket's wager that Trump would win, while more than $1 billion flowed behind Harris' candidacy. One measure of monthly trading volumes on the company's main platform jumped nearly 400% between September and October 2024, according to Dune Analytics, which tracks prediction market data.

The second Trump administration seemed to augur a friendlier regulatory environment for prediction markets after a Biden-era crackdown. Under Biden, the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission were investigating whether Polymarket was continuing to accept bets from U.S. customers, in violation of the company's 2022 settlement. Shortly after the 2024 election, FBI agents raided the Polymarket CEO's New York City home — a step he painted as a "last-ditch effort" by the Biden administration "to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents."

Trump's return to the White House yielded plenty of possibilities to bet on. After Trump created the slash-and-burn DOGE initiative with an executive order in January 2025, Polymarket debuted a dashboard to track all the cuts.

Influencers spread the word on X, the social media platform known as Twitter before Tesla CEO — and DOGE leader — Elon Musk bought it in 2022.

Eric Daugherty, a conservative content creator who received at least $15,000 from Modabber, according to the records reviewed by POLITICO, announced the Department of Government Efficiency dashboard's release to his 1 million followers as a "BREAKING" update on February 14, 2025.

Riley Gaines, who was paid at least $6,600, according to the records, shared the DOGE news with well over 1 million followers on X, opining: "This is awesome!"

Conservative media personality Elijah Schaffer, who received more than $8,400, wrote "Exciting news!" in a post last February, adding that the new dashboard would "be bookmarked for the next 4 years."

None of these posts mention being paid by Polymarket or Modabber, though in a comment on his post, Schaffer said he is a "long term brand rep" for Polymarket. "I'm not paid for this post directly and they don't force me to say anything so it's technically not an ad. However I do clarify we work together," he wrote.

Daugherty, Gaines, and Schaffer did not respond to emails requesting comment on their Polymarket partnerships and whether they were paid to post about the DOGE dashboard. Months after his DOGE post, Schaffer also said on X that he partnered with Polymarket and "made some pretty solid money."

When Polymarket inked a partnership in June with xAI, an artificial intelligence startup co-founded by Musk, paid influencers again swooped in to hype the news. Eight of the roughly two dozen influencers reviewed by POLITICO posted about the partnership on the same day, all within hours of one another.

Dominick McGee, a conservative content creator who received at least $3,200 from Modabber and was once ranked by an analytics firm as the third-most-influential user on X, wrote: "X is about to change the game with this, and it's honestly a match made in heaven."

"Polymarket really took over, it feels like they have always been here," McGee, who goes by Dom Lucre on social media, wrote in another X post about the collaboration several days later. Musk and spokespeople for xAI did not respond to requests for comment.

On McGee's website, where he touts his "media influence" as someone "delivering unfiltered truth," he says he charges at least $2,500 to comment on a social media post and upward of $15,000 to post a "breaking" or "developing" item. McGee did not respond to requests for comment.

Modabber also sent money to two people, Debbie D'Souza and Amjed Yacu, who have substantial online followings on the right — and ties to Trump's administration — but do not appear to have posted about Polymarket on social media. D'Souza is the wife of conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, whom Trump pardoned in 2018 following a felony campaign finance conviction; she helped write and direct Dinesh D'Souza's 2024 documentary "Vindicating Trump" and contributes to her husband's self-titled podcast. Yacu serves as the Defense Department's deputy digital director and runs a far-right Instagram account called Snowflake.Tears.

D'Souza, who netted at least $20,000 from Modabber, and Yacu, who received at least $850 prior to his employment with the administration, did not respond to requests for comment.

Acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez said Yacu "currently maintains no active business partnerships related to his personal social media pages" — nor would he in the future as a Defense Department employee. Valdez declined to answer a follow-up question on whether Yacu held any business partnerships related to his personal social media accounts at any point during his employment with the department.

Last summer, Trump's administration dropped the two investigations into Polymarket. The company proceeded to spend $112 million to acquire a licensed exchange and clearinghouse, putting it well on its way to a US comeback.

"The cultural relevance and brand recognition of Polymarket is something that cannot be faked," one person posted on X in August 2025.

Modabber shared the post on his own X account, adding, "CANNOT BE FAKED."

Obsessed with accuracy

When former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced off against democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in last year's Democratic primary to become New York City's mayor, content creators invoked Polymarket to gauge the odds of an upset.

Alexander Kaufman, a climate reporter who runs a Substack newsletter, received at least $1,200 from Moddaber. "Wild," he wrote on X the day before the primary, including a screenshot of the platform's trading volume on the race. "Polymarket finally has @ZohranKMamdani with pretty good odds of actually winning the primary against Andrew Cuomo."

After Mamdani bested Cuomo to win the Democratic nomination, influencers posted about Polymarket as a kind of oracle.

Arash Azizi, a historian who writes about Iran for The Atlantic and received at least $3,000 from Moddaber, wrote in October 2025: "It's fascinating how Polymarket numbers are a good guide for the direction of events. Before any polls, it saw the rise of Mamdani for instance!"

Neither Kauffman nor Azizi responded to requests for comment about whether they were paid to post about the mayoral election.

The paid influencers' posts about Polymarket often drew attention to specific bets by framing betting odds as news developments. About a third of the more than 490 X posts identified by POLITICO characterized Polymarket's odds for a given event as "BREAKING" or "NEW" updates.

They appear to be conscientious choices. The influencer, who was granted anonymity, told POLITICO that the company wrote posts for them to share on X and asked them to promote specific bets.

"They actually told us, 'This one needs to get out now, this one needs to get out now,' as if we were cattle," the influencer said.

Moore, the former FTC official, said advertisers should include disclosures in any sample text they draft for their partners because they could be liable for what their endorsers say.

"As a general rule, if an endorsement is paid, the endorser needs to clearly and conspicuously disclose a material connection to the advertiser," Moore said.

Polymarket and Kalshi have sought to cement themselves as authoritative sources on politics and current events, namely through partnerships with traditional media brands like CNN and Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal's website now highlights a "Featured Prediction Market" from Polymarket.

Paid social media activity has been reinforcing that narrative for months, quietly sowing Polymarket's legitimacy as it gears up for legislative battles.

As Brian Krassenstein, a progressive political commentator, put it in an October X post with no paid-promotion disclaimer: "It really is unbelievable how accurate Polymarket has been these last 9 months."

Krassenstein, who received more than $9,300 from Modabber in the PayPal records reviewed by POLITICO, did not respond to requests for comment.

Over a two-week period in late December and early January, six influencers shared 10 posts on X about the Polymarket odds for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, facing criminal charges over allegations of day care fraud stemming from Nick Shirley's viral videos. Later in January, six influencers posted about the odds of the US acquiring Greenland.

Alex LoRusso — a conservative influencer who received at least $18,750 from Modabber over PayPal, according to the records — was another avid X user who posted dozens of times about Polymarket without mentioning a sponsorship.

"Polymarket odds of a government shutdown are spiking with just under 10 hours to go before the deadline," he wrote in September. "Democrats know exactly what they're doing."

Sometime after POLITICO reached out to LoRusso, asking if he was paid to make that post, a "paid partnership" label appeared at the bottom. LoRusso did not respond to requests for comment. Some — not all — of his Polymarket-related posts now bear that disclosure.

Sam Sutton contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared on POLITICO and is courtesy of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, which harnesses the resources of the company's newsrooms to publish ambitious scoops, investigations, interviews, opinion pieces, and analysis. It allows journalists — including those from POLITICO, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, Onet and Fakt — to collaborate on major stories for an international audience of hundreds of millions across platforms.

Verizon and AT&T are two of the three major carriers in the US, and they're primarily known for their mainstream postpaid unlimited data plans.

Both offer a variety of other plans, including economical prepaid plans. However, we generally recommend checking out other affordable options, such as the best prepaid phone plans and the best cheap plans guides from smaller carriers if you're looking for the best savings.

MVNOs like Mint Mobile or Visible, in particular, can save you large amounts on your monthly bills.

When just looking at Verizon and AT&T, you'll find they offer similar plan prices roughly in the same ballpark. Both carriers often run promotions to entice customers to switch, so pricing can vary. At the end of the day, however, choosing between Verizon and AT&T essentially comes down to which option has the best coverage in your area.

• Check out the latest deals at: AT&T | Verizon

Plan offerings and flexibility

Verizon and AT&T's mainstream plans can be classed as premium, mid-range, and entry-level. Both carriers also conveniently allow mixing plans in multi-line accounts, which adds flexibility for families and friend groups.

Verizon's and AT&T's plans are overall comparable. However, Verizon offers more incentives, including 40% off popular third-party services, like the Disney Plus streaming package, Netflix with HBO Max, Apple One, Apple Music, YouTube Premium, and more. Both carriers offer discounted tablet and smartwatch coverage, depending on which plan you choose.

AT&T stands out with more international features, including unlimited talk, text, and data between the US, Canada, and Mexico for most plans, and more included countries on the Premium and Elite plans.

*AT&T plans include a $10 discount with paperless billing and AutoPay.

**Verizon plans are price-locked for three years before increasing in price.

Overall, they're about equal, with Verizon winning with add-ons, while AT&T offers more hot spot opportunities and international capabilities bundled in. Prices are most affordable with at least four lines on an account — solo shoppers may want to consider an MVNO like Mint or Visible to save money while still receiving similarly reliable coverage.

Coverage and data speeds

If Verizon and AT&T's coverage maps are taken at face value, almost anyone in the US should get coverage on either carrier. Reputationally, AT&T has superior coverage in rural areas, which is corroborated by its coverage map.

However, the reality is that there are many areas where either one or the other has better coverage and data speeds. The best way to find out which carrier has the best coverage is to talk to friends, family, and neighbors where you'll be needing coverage the most.

Verizon and AT&T have typical advertised data speeds as a point of reference (above). Verizon has faster high- and mid-band 5G, but AT&T has faster low-band 5G networks (Sub-6GHz). With that said, Verizon's low-band 5G speeds are more than enough for most people. Both have comparable 4G LTE speeds.

Customer support

Whether customer support is effective is almost a case-by-case affair — sometimes it's quick and smooth, other times it can take a long time and get little resolved. It's usually best to approach carrier customer support expecting the worst and hoping for the best.

Based on our experience, we've had most of our issues resolved on both Verizon and AT&T, but timing can vary. Both start you off with unhelpful automated support, but it's fairly easy to get in touch with a person. Verizon and AT&T also have convenient options for call-back scheduling, so you're not waiting on hold.

Verizon and AT&T also have several physical locations, whether corporate or authorized third-party. That's helpful to get support from a human being for any issue.

The Verizon and AT&T apps have everything you need for plan management. For Verizon's app, specifically, it's easy to navigate as long as you stick to the Account tab. Other tabs like "Discover," "Shop," and "myAccess" clutter the experience

Discount eligibility

Qualified users may be able to secure a discounted rate from either carrier. To qualify, AT&T requires you to verify your eligibility by providing additional details, such as your date of birth, branch of service, school, or workplace. AT&T offers price cuts to:

• Shoppers over 55
• Military and veterans
• Retired responders
• Teachers
• Nurses
• Physicians
• Students
• Select union members.

As for Verizon, if you're comfortable disclosing additional details for verification, Verizon offers the following discounts:

• Military and veterans
• First responders
• Students

Which carrier should you sign with?

Both Verizon and AT&T have generally comparable offerings, but AT&T edges the win for us with its additional hot spot and international inclusions. Verizon's extra perks do sweeten the deal, but in the end, they still rack up additional costs that you may not need from your cell plan.

Regardless, which one you pick will depend entirely on coverage — a 100GB hot spot is useless if AT&T is unreliable in your area. If both Verizon and AT&T offer equally good coverage in your area, we'd recommend AT&T for its competitive pricing and additional features.

• Check out the latest deals at: AT&T | Verizon

Not ready to commit to either? Check out our roundups of the best Mint Mobile deals and the best Visible deals for savings on more affordable options. We also have a comparison of T-Mobile vs. Verizon.

Follow our WhatsApp channel and Instagram for more deals and buying guides.

• Companies are trying to figure out the best way to manage all the AI agents they're using.
• Part of the answer might involve treating them like people, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said.
• AI agents should have identities and permissions like human employees, he said.

Microsoft uses a lot of AI agents. To help manage them, it's starting to think of them like human employees.

CEO Satya Nadella said the software giant is figuring out what kinds of tools and policies it needs to oversee all the agents it's created. That includes giving agents specific permissions for what they can and cannot access within the company, as well as ways to audit their work, he said.

"You need to give them identities, you need to give them sandboxes, then you need to set policies to govern them," Nadella told Reid Hoffman in an episode of the "Possible Podcast" posted on Friday.

During the discussion, Hoffman also said that after 10 years, he'd be leaving Microsoft's board to return to what he called "founder mode."

While companies are spending vast sums to adopt AI, many are still figuring out how their AI agents will work with their human employees. Figuring out how to manage AI agents represents a particularly tough problem.

It's a challenge that Nadella himself has dealt with, he told Hoffman. The Microsoft CEO said that he often runs 100 AI coding agents at once, and guiding each through a chat interface is tough. "The cognitive load on me managing this is so high," he said.

Microsoft has created Agent 365, a suite of tools that includes Entra, its digital identity and network access product, as well as Purview, which the company uses to label data AI agents create, he said.

"I think security, containment, managability, and observability is the way we're going to have confidence around these agents," Nadella said.

Have a tip? Contact these reporters at dreuter@businessinsider.com and abitter@businessinsider.com. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Dimitri Semenikhin kicked off the Beyond Meat short-squeeze in October 2025.
• Now, the day trader is betting against three top AI stocks.
• His short targets include chipmaker AMD and alternative energy producer Bloom Energy.

Dimitri Semenikhin is the trader who kicked off the last year's short-squeeze in Beyond Meat stock, but these days, he's taking a more bearish view of a trio of AI infrastructure stocks.

Semenikhin wrote on X this week that he's betting against Neibus Group, Advanced Micro Devices, and Bloom Energy.

"Right now, built into the valuations are near certainty-level assumptions that demand will keep growing from what is currently projected and that the levels of power needed for all of this compute will be astronomically higher than they are now, increasing reliance on hardware," Semenikhin told Business Insider in an interview.

He noted that he previously held a long position in Nebius, a company that provides full-stack AI infrastructure and cloud computing services. While he doesn't regard it as a bad company, he maintains that it doesn't make sense as an investment right now while hype is soaring.

"The AI supply chain has gone simply out of control, similarly to the hype that was happening around the build out of the internet infrastructure and web layers," Semenikhin said. "I'm sure we'll end up using more and more AI systems but it's likely they will become lighter and trigger less power reliance not than current use, but than currently projected in the future."

All three of the AI stocks Semenikhin is betting against have performed extremely well in 2026. Nebius us up 167%, Advanced Micro Devices has gained 121%, and Bloom Energy has surged 202%.

Bloom, primarily a fuel-cell energy producer, has emerged as a favorite of the AI trade this year. Filings show it's a top holding in the hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, which helped spark momentum for Bloom Energy stock early in the year.

Semenikhin said he's also not swayed by the fact that AMD smashed Wall Street's expectations for first-quarter earnings, prompting many analysts to rush to raise their price targets.

The stellar growth of the market's AI leaders is partly why Semenikhin is betting against them. While he maintains a dim view of the broader sector, he sees these three names as the most logical shorts given their enormous gains in a short period of time.

"I think all of the hardware and infrastructure related part of the AI trade are currently overvalued, however smaller names experience wilder swings which is why I didn't include them in the short," Semenikhin added.

• US News & World Report conducted a study of the best countries in the world.
• Switzerland ranked No. 1 for its high-ranking governance, health, and culture scores, among others.
• The European country also boasts strong opportunities and economic development, the report found.

While many people know Switzerland best for its chocolate, watches, or neutrality, a new global ranking highlights its strengths in a range of areas.

Switzerland recently topped US News & World Report's annual ranking of the best countries in the world, released in May. The ranking evaluated 100 countries on factors such as economics, environment, health, and infrastructure.

European countries were the most prominent among the top half of the list, occupying all but one spot in the top 15. Switzerland finished first overall — ahead of Denmark in second, and Sweden in third — thanks to its high scores in nearly every major category considered by the study.

Switzerland's cultural contributions come in different forms, from art to academics

Switzerland ranked No. 2 in culture and tourism in the report, which cited 19 Nobel Laureates who were born in Switzerland. This doesn't include Albert Einstein, who emigrated from Germany and lived in Switzerland for roughly 20 years.

Switzerland is home to 13 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Other notable historic sites include Chillon Castle on Lake Geneva, a medieval castle dating back roughly 800 years, classified as a Swiss Cultural Property of National Significance.

The country draws large numbers of tourists for its mountains and historic cities. In 2024, the Swiss hotel industry had a record number of overnight stays, largely because of American tourists, Reuters reported.

The country also exports $59 billion in creative goods and services per year, according to US News & World Report.

It has one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world

Switzerland ranked No. 1 in economic development. The report cites "low corporate tax rates, a highly developed service sector led by financial services and a high-tech manufacturing industry" as factors contributing to the country's strong economy.

The country also has a high number of patent applications, indicating strong research and innovation. Switzerland exports $90 billion in high-tech products each year, according to the report.

"Exports surge, inflation stays low, and innovation keeps us ahead," Sven Siepen, a senior partner at Roland Berger's Zurich office, said in a 2025 report about the country's economy. "Even as global challenges mount, Swiss stability remains our greatest asset."

Switzerland also has a strong and stable government

This earned the country the No. 1 spot in the governance category. US News & World Report gave the country perfect scores in political violence, regime turnover, and inflation volatility.

Switzerland has a federalized government in which two chambers elect a seven-member body known as the Federal Council, according to Presence Switzerland.

Swiss residents generally find their government to be trustworthy. In 2023, "62% of people had high or moderately high trust in the national government," according to the OECD. Across all OECD countries, the average is 39%.

Despite these promising figures, the country has issues with voter turnout — which averages 46.09%, per the International Foundation for Electoral Systems — earning a low score from US News & World Report.

High life expectancy and ample medical care can be found in the country

The report ranked Switzerland No. 4 in health. The country has a life expectancy at birth of 84.1 years, earning it a perfect score in the metric in the report. Based on data from the World Bank Group, Switzerland has the fourth-highest life expectancy in the world.

The country has universal health coverage through a mandatory private system. Though everyone is covered, the country spends the second-most per capita on healthcare in the world, trailing only the US, according to the Bern University of Applied Sciences.

In 2022, the country had 4.5 physicians per 1,000 residents, compared to 3.7 in the US and the global average of 1.9, according to the World Bank Group.

It did, however, receive a low score for the number of hospital beds per 1,000 residents, at 4.4 in 2023. This is below the European Union average, which was 5.1 beds per 1,000 people in 2022, according to World Bank data.

Swiss residents have access to educational opportunities

Switzerland, which is home to top universities such as the University of Zurich, ranked No. 2 in opportunity. The average number of years spent in formal education for adults aged 25 and older is 13.9 years, according to the report. This is roughly on par with the US, per the State of the Nation Project.

The average annual tuition for Swiss students at public universities was equivalent to $1,427 in 2022-23, according to the OECD.

Though Switzerland has strong educational opportunities, the report found that it lagged behind in economic opportunity, indicated by low scores in income taxation and foreign direct investment.

Despite ranking highly in most major categories, the country fared lower in others

Switzerland ranked 19th in natural environment, with only 12.5% of its land designated as protected areas, compared with 21.1% across the European Union, according to World Bank data.

The country ranked 15th in civic health, having relatively low scores in anxiety, which measures anxiety disorders per 100,000 residents, and income equality, among other metrics.

It also ranked 15th in infrastructure, where the report gave it lower marks on the renewable-electricity metric. The report's metric excludes hydroelectric power, Switzerland's biggest renewable electricity source.

• I stayed in a cylindrical tiny home hotel in Germany during a train trip through Europe in 2022.
• The 106-square-foot home made smarter use of space than any tiny home I've seen in the US.
• The European tiny home was two stories and less than half the size of the US tiny homes I've booked.

As a New Yorker who's rented several cramped apartments over the years, tiny homes inspire me.

Making the most of a minimal square footage requires some creativity. I often book fun-sized accommodations when I travel, hoping to discover new space-saving hacks to make the most of my own little dwelling.

From Florida, Maryland, and Tennessee to Canada, Austria, and Switzerland, I've stayed in several tiny Airbnbs around the world.

None of those homes utilized indoor space as efficiently as this tiny home hotel in Germany, which I found on Airbnb back in 2022.

I was looking for tiny stays in Germany when I found one with a unique, cylindrical shape that packed a lot inside, so I booked it for two nights for $140.

The Airbnb was part of a tiny home hotel in Neustrelitz, Germany, called Slube. The company designs minimal concrete "Slubes" for up to two people.

There are three types of Slubes: a one-story Basic, a two-story Home, and a Tower, which is two stories with a rooftop terrace. I booked a Home Slube.

It was less than half the size of any tiny home I'd stayed in before.

The 16-foot-tall Slube with two floors was 106 square feet. Prior to this stay, the tiniest home I'd ever booked was 250 square feet.

There was no physical key to my room. I checked in with a code sent to my phone.

When I arrived by train from the airport in Berlin, I didn't see any employees at the tiny home hotel.

At first, I was confused, but then I checked my email. A message from Slube informed me I'd be staying in room five and could check in by myself.

Inside, the 53-square-foot bottom level had a bathroom on the right, a sitting area on the left, and a ladder to the second floor.

The sitting area had a foldout table that I could push against the wall to save space.

Across from a foldout table was a bench with two seat cushions in lieu of a couch.

I stored my luggage beneath the bench.

This tiny home utilized more vertical space than those I've seen in the US.

There were hooks and storage cubbies above the bench, so I stored all my clothing and toiletries on the first floor.

I was impressed by the amenities packed into such a small room.

In the back right corner of the sitting area, there was a nook with built-in shelves that housed a small coffee machine, a hair dryer, and a few dishes.

The bathroom had an efficient layout.

There was a curtain separating the showerhead and sink from the toilet and storage space.

Even with two windows, I felt I had enough privacy.

The first-floor windows had a film covering most of the glass, letting in natural light without sacrificing privacy.

After checking out the first level, I headed up the ladder to the second-floor bedroom.

I thought it was easy to climb, but it could be challenging for some.

There was a latched gate at the top of the ladder, which I imagine was installed to prevent people from falling.

Knowing I was securely fastened into the bed area made sleeping easier.

The bedroom was the same size as the living space and bathroom combined — 53 square feet.

The floor space was covered by a comfy, full-size bed. The pillows had the ideal ratio of fluff to firmness for my neck and head.

Above the bed was a mounted TV equipped with Netflix and other streaming services.

Before bed, I watched some of my favorite shows on Netflix.

I used the lower platform on the far side of the bed as a nightstand.

It had easily accessible outlets, a pocket for the TV remote, and more space for my electronics and water bottle.

Above the bed, a large window opened so I could let the breeze into my room.

It had a blackout curtain for privacy and blocking early morning light.

The Slube also had smart electricity that made my stay feel a tad luxurious.

I controlled the lights and temperature of each story from my phone.

I found it fascinating that this tiny home truly left no space unused, from the loft bed to the wall cubbies.

I can't stick a second story into my own rental, but the European tiny home still gave me inspiration for how I could make better use of my space, starting with vertical storage hacks.

• Actors Chuck Norris, Patrick Muldoon, Robert Duvall, and James Van Der Beek died in 2026.
• So did "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams, Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, and Grammy winner Peabo Bryson.
• Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, mogul Ted Turner, and NASCAR star Kyle Busch also died.

Below, we look back at those we lost in 2026, listed in alphabetical order.

Scott Adams, 68

Adams based the character in his beloved "Dilbert" comic strip on his coworkers at the telephone company he worked at in the 1980s. By the end of the decade, the character and his satirical office humor began appearing in comic strips.

At its peak, "Dilbert" was syndicated in over 2,000 newspapers. A cartoon series debuted in 1999 and ran for two seasons.

Adams gained notoriety when he began writing blog posts praising Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential run. In 2023, "Dilbert" was pulled from newspapers across the US following racist comments made by Adams.

Adams died on January 13 following a bout with metastatic prostate cancer.

Brad Arnold, 47

As the lead singer of 3 Doors Down, Arnold launched the group into fame with the 2000 rock anthem "Kryptonite," which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year.

The success led to other hits like "Loser," "Here Without You," and "When I'm Gone." Arnold's vocal range and lyrics focused on love and love lost, which fueled the group to stardom.

Arnold died on February 7 after a battle with cancer.

Afrika Bambaataa, 68

Regarded as a pioneer in hip-hop during the 1970s and 1980s, Lance Taylor, known professionally as Afrika Bambaataa, would go on to influence the likes of Queen Latifah and A Tribe Called Quest throughout his career.

First gaining attention as a DJ in the Bronx, Bambaataa signed with Tommy Boy Records in 1981 and released landmark songs like "Jazzy Sensation" and "Planet Rock."

Bambaataa founded the hip-hop awareness group, Universal Zulu Nation, in the 1970s to steer kids away from gang life. Bambaataa stepped down as the head of the organization in 2016 after accusations of sexual abuse.

Bambaataa denied all claims.

He died on April 9 due to prostate cancer.

Rob Bass, 59

One of the pillars that brought hip-hop to the mainstream, Rob Bass crafted the iconic track "It Takes Two" alongside DJ E-Z Rock.

The track, released in 1988, reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Songs chart and later went certified platinum. In 1989, Spin magazine voted it the greatest single of all time.

Bass died on May 22 following a battle with cancer.

Nicholas Brendon, 54

Brendon played the beloved character Xander Harris in all seven seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Brendon also starred in other TV shows, including "Criminal Minds" and "Kitchen Confidential."

Brendon died in his sleep on March 20. According to his family's statement, the cause was natural. In 2023, Brendon suffered a heart attack and was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. He also had cauda equina syndrome, which led to several spinal surgeries.

"While it's no secret that Nicholas had struggles in the past, he was on medications and treatment to manage his diagnosis, and he was optimistic about the future at the time of his passing," the statement to The Hollywood Reporter read. "Our family asks for privacy during this time as we grieve his loss and celebrate the life of a man who lived with intensity, imagination, and heart."

Peabo Bryson, 75

Two-time Grammy winner Peabo Bryson is responsible for some classic love ballads.

Bryson began putting out music in the late 1970s, but one of his first major hits was opposite Roberta Flack on the 1983 duet, "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love." He continued hitmaking a year later with the smash "If Ever You're in My Arms Again," and in 1991, he topped the R&B charts with "Can You Stop the Rain."

Bryson found global stardom with his renditions of two Disney classics. In 1991, he released the pop version of "Beauty and the Beast," alongside Céline Dion, and a year later, he duetted with Regina Belle on "A Whole New World" from the 1992 release of "Aladdin."

Bryson died on June 2. No cause was given.

Kyle Busch, 41

A star on the NASCAR circuit, Busch was a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion considered one of the greatest racers of all time.

On May 21, Busch was hospitalized and it was announced he'd miss two upcoming races. Hours later, he was pronounced dead. No cause of death was given.

Robert Carradine, 71

As a member of Hollywood's famed Carradine family, Robert was destined for a career on screen.

He got one of his first screen credits starring in his brother David Carradine's popular 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" and went on to land roles in everything from Samuel Fuller's World War II classic "The Big Red One" to the "Lizzie McGuire" series that made Hilary Duff a star.

But for a generation, Robert Carradine will always be known as the king of the nerds, embodying the iconic geek Lewis Skolnick in the 1980s franchise "Revenge of the Nerds."

Carradine's family shared statements with Deadline that emphasized being open about his struggles with mental illness.

"We are bereft at the loss of this beautiful soul and want to acknowledge Bobby's valiant struggle against his nearly two-decade battle with Bipolar Disorder," Carradine's family said. "We hope his journey can shine a light and encourage addressing the stigma that attaches to mental illness."

Carradine died by suicide on February 23.

If you or someone you know is experiencing depression or has had thoughts of harming themself or taking their own life, get help. In the US, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Help is also available through the Crisis Text Line — just text "HOME" to 741741. The International Association for Suicide Prevention offers resources for those outside the US.

Bud Cort, 77

Cort's baby-faced looks, combined with his wit and sophisticated persona, led to him becoming the epitome of 1970s counterculture when director Hal Ashby cast him as the lead in the 1971 movie "Harold and Maude."

The dark comedy stars Cort as Harold, a twenty-something who is obsessed with suicide until he meets 79-year-old eccentric Maude (Ruth Gordon). The movie would go on to become a cult classic thanks to Cort and Gordon's unique on-screen chemistry.

Before that, Cort scored bit parts in Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H*" (1970) and "Brewster McCloud" (1970).

After "Harold and Maude," Cort worked steadily for the rest of his life, occasionally showing up in hit movies like Michael Mann's "Heat" (1995) and Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004).

Cort died on Feb. 11 following a long illness.

Eric Dane, 53

Long before becoming one of TV's most recognizable heartthrobs, Eric Dane was building his career with guest roles on series like "Saved by the Bell" and "Married… with Children."

He later gained wider attention with appearances on "Charmed" before landing his breakout role as Dr. Mark "McSteamy" Sloan on "Grey's Anatomy." He most recently starred in HBO's "Euphoria," where he played Cal Jacobs, the father of Jacob Elordi's character, Nate Jacobs.

Dane has two children with his wife, Rebecca Gayheart. In April 2025, the actor said that he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

Dane died on February 19 at age 53 after battling the disease, his publicist confirmed in a statement to Business Insider.

"He spent his final days surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife, and his two beautiful daughters, Billie and Georgia, who were the center of his world," his publicist said.

Robert Duvall, 95

Robert Duvall built a career of timeless cinema classics: "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II," "Apocalypse Now," "THX 1138," "The Natural," "Days of Thunder," "The Apostle," and the list goes on.

Duvall will be best remembered for starring in three of director Francis Ford Coppola's iconic films: playing Tom Hagen in the first two "Godfather" movies and playing Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in "Apocalypse Now," in which he delivers one of the most memorable lines in movie history: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

Duvall was lauded for his acting talent, from not saying a word while playing Boo Radley in his first big screen role in the 1962 classic "To Kill a Mockingbird" to his portrayal of a country singer dealing with alcoholism in 1983's "Tender Mercies," which earned him an Oscar.

He died on his ranch in Virginia on February 15, no cause was given.

Mark Fuhrman, 74

Fuhrman cemented his place in popular culture as one of the lead LAPD detectives on the 1995 murder case of O.J. Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Fuhrman found the famed bloody glove on the Simpson estate, and during the trial, he gained infamy when Simpson's defense team used his past racist language to discredit him as a witness.

Fuhrman retired from the LAPD after the Simpson trial and moved to Idaho, where he wrote true crime books.

Fuhrman died on May 12 of throat cancer.

Valentino Garavani, 93

For over six decades, one name has been synonymous with women's high fashion: Valentino.

The Italian designer launched his fashion business in Rome in 1960 and never looked back. Soon, every star wanted to be seen in his creations. They've been worn by icons like Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins, Jackie Kennedy, Princess Diana, Sharon Stone, and more.

Though Garavani retired from designing in 2008, his label is still a red carpet staple, as is his famous shade of bright red dubbed "Valentino Red."

Garavani died on January 19. No cause was given.

Donald Gibb, 71

No one defined a bully for a generation more than Gibb's hulking fraternity character Orge in the "Revenge of the Nerds" movies of the 1980s.

Since the original raunchy comedy was released in 1984, Gibb's intimidating size and loud yells of "NERDS!" have become as memorable as the pocket protectors worn by the movie's geeks.

Gibb went on to star opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in his classic 1988 action movie "Bloodsport." He also landed guest star roles through his career on shows like "Quantum Leap," Magnum P.I.," "MacGyver," "Night Court," and "Cheers."

Gibb died on May 12 following health complications.

Anthony Head, 72

Rising up through the UK stage scene in the 1980s, Head found fame when he was cast as Rupert Giles, who became a father figure to Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy Summers in all seven seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Most recently, he played the bitter former owner of AFC Richmond on "Ted Lasso."

Head's death was announced by his family on June 5. They stated the cause was "complications due to pneumonia."

Jesse Jackson, 84

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and an activist icon who twice ran for president.

Born on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson experienced Jim Crow segregation on public buses and at school firsthand. It would shape the rest of his life.

His fight for civil rights began in the 1960s, when he helped organize protests and demonstrations across the US and worked closely alongside civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

His decadeslong career as a leading civil rights activist included support for modern national movements, such as the push for voting rights, the fight against racism, and a higher minimum wage.

Jackson ran for president twice, both times as a democrat. He placed third for the party's nomination in 1984 and second in 1988. This marked the most successful presidential runs of any Black candidate prior to Barack Obama.

Jackson announced in 2017 that he'd been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In November 2025, Jackson was treated in a Chicago hospital after complications from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurodegenerative condition.

Jackson died on February 17.

Patrick Muldoon, 57

In the 1990s, you couldn't escape the piercing eyes of Patrick Muldoon.

He played Austin Reed on "Days of Our Lives" for most of the decade, and when he wasn't on the soap, he was over on "Melrose Place" playing the villain role of Richard Hart.

If being on two iconic shows wasn't enough, he also showed up on "Saved by the Bell" and had a role in the cult classic movie "Starship Troopers."

Muldoon died on April 19 after a heart attack.

Tom Noonan, 74

Standing at a towering 6' 5", Tom Noonan was born to play the bad guy. And he did just that, starring as the villain in movies like "Manhunter," "RoboCop 2," and "Last Action Hero."

But this actor had more to show off. He showcased his comedy chops as Rodney Dangerfield's degenerate gambling friend in the 1983 comedy "Easy Money," and set up the heist for Robert De Niro in Michael Mann's 1995 classic "Heat."

His knack for storytelling also translated behind the camera. Noonan wrote, directed, and starred in the drama "What Happened Was," which won the grand prize at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival.

Noonan died on February 14; no cause was given.

Chuck Norris, 86

Few action stars Chuck Norris' credentials.

Before he ever stepped in front of a camera, he was a martial arts champion and a black belt in Karate, judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Taekwondo, and Tang Soo Do.

His talents would become known the world over in 1972, when he faced off against Bruce Lee in "The Way of the Dragon."

Through the 1980s, Norris became one of the biggest action stars in the world thanks to movies like "A Force of One," "The Octagon," and the "Delta Force" and "Missing in Action" franchises.

In the 1990s, he took over the small screen, playing the lead in the "Walker, Texas Ranger" TV show, which aired in over 100 countries during its run from 1993 to 2001.

Norris was hospitalized on March 19 in Hawaii and died the following day, according to his family. No cause was given.

Catherine O'Hara, 71

O'Hara, who was best known for her roles in "Beetlejuice" and "Home Alone," got her start in the Canadian comedy scene, appearing in the now-legendary cast of "SCTV."

It would mark the beginning of a fruitful partnership with fellow actor Eugene Levy, who became her frequent costar and collaborator in memorable appearances in Christopher Guest films like "A Mighty Wind" and "Best in Show" and television series like "Schitt's Creek," which earned her an Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in 2020.

O'Hara's representation confirmed her death to Business Insider on January 30. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed in a death certificate viewed by People that O'Hara died of a pulmonary embolism, with rectal cancer listed as an underlying cause.

Valerie Perrine, 82

Perrine found herself cast alongside the biggest stars of the 1970s.

She played the love interest opposite Jeff Bridges in 1973's "The Last American Hero" and Robert Redford in 1979's "The Electric Horseman." She earned an Oscar nomination for starring alongside Dustin Hoffman in 1974's "Lenny."

For most, she'll be remembered best for sharing the screen with Gene Hackman as the secretary to his evil Lex Luthor in 1978's "Superman." She also starred in the sequel. As Ms. Teschmacher, her loyalty to Luthor is questioned when she rescues Superman (Christopher Reeve) after he's chained with Kryptonite.

Perrine died in her home in Beverly Hills on March 23. She was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2015.

Sonny Rollins, 95

One of the most influential jazz musicians in history, Rollins recorded more than 60 albums over his seven-decade career.

His live album, "A Night at the Village Vanguard," is considered one of the greatest jazz albums ever made.

Rollins died on May 25; no cause was given.

Neil Sedaka, 86

Sedaka is responsible for some of the biggest pop songs of the 1960s and 1970s.

The Brooklyn native wrote over 500 songs, including classic hits like "Laughter in the Rain," "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," "Bad Blood" and the Captain & Tennille song, "Love Will Keep Us Together."

Sedaka died on February 27; no cause was given.

Kiki Shepard, 74

In her 15-year tenure as a co-host on "Showtime at the Apollo," Kiki Shepard was considered royalty at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater.

Known in the building as "Apollo Queen of Fashion" thanks to her dazzling outfits, Shepherd was a fixture on the show from 1987 to 2002.

Throughout her career, Shepard also appeared on TV shows like "Baywatch," "A Different World," "NYPD Blue," and "Grey's Anatomy."

Shepard died on March 16 after suffering a heart attack.

Béla Tarr, 70

Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr became a legend in the arthouse world for his unflinching work featuring several-minute-long takes.

With movies like "Family Nest" (1979) and "The Turin Horse" (2011), Tarr showcased his slow cinema style while focusing on marginalized characters living bleak lives. Tarr pushed the envelope with his style when he made "Sátántangó" in 1994, which had a run time of 450 minutes.

His work influenced several arthouse filmmakers, including Jim Jarmusch and Gus Van Sant's "Death Trilogy" ("Gerry," "Elephant," and "Last Days").

Tarr died on January 6 following a battle with a "long and serious illness."

James Tolkan, 94

You might not recognize the name, but if you're a movie fan, you know the face.

Tolkan's tough-guy persona made a mark on movie history in films like "Top Gun" and the "Back to the Future" franchise.

In "Top Gun," he played Commander Tom "Stinger" Jardian, who famously gives Tom Cruise's character a tongue lashing, saying, "Your ego is writing checks your body can't cash."

In "Back to the Future" and its sequels, he played Principal Strickland, who had zero tolerance for "slackers."

Other credits include "Serpico," "WarGames," "Masters of the Universe," and "Dick Tracy."

Tolkan died on March 26; no cause was given.

Ted Turner, 87

Ted Turner changed the television landscape thanks to his maverick maneuvers to harness the 24-hour news cycle.

After taking over his father's advertising company in the 1960s at the age of 24, Turner embarked on a path to change the media landscape by buying up radio and TV stations around the South. He even bought sports teams including the Atlanta Braves MLB team and the Atlanta Hawks NBA team.

All of that programming would eventually become part of TBS, a "super station" that showed old movies, reruns, and Braves and Hawks games.

Turner then set his sights on the news. He founded CNN, the first 24-hour news channel, in June of 1980.

Over the decades, Turner gained celebrity status, particularly after marrying with Jane Fonda, a union that lasted from 1991 to 2001. In 1991, he was named Time's "Man of the Year." He sold his networks to Time Warner for $7.5 billion in 1996.

Turner died on May 6; no cause was given.

James Van Der Beek, 48

Van Der Beek was beloved all over the world for his role as the titular teen Dawson Leery on the WB series "Dawson's Creek."

The series, which ran from 1998 to 2002, turned Van Der Beek into a star and a teen heartthrob. While "Dawson's Creek" was still airing, he'd cement his stardom playing the lead role of high school quarterback "Mox" Moxon in the 1999 coming-of-age drama "Varsity Blues."

Van Der Beek found steady work the rest of his career in movies like "Texas Rangers" and "The Rules of Attraction, and memorably played a fictional version of himself on the TV series "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23," and performed on "Dancing with the Stars" in 2019.

Van Der Beek learned he had stage 3 colon cancer in 2023, and publicly announced his diagnosis in late 2024.

Van Der Beek previously told Business Insider that the news came as a shock, given the subtleness of his symptoms and his efforts to stay as healthy as possible.

"I was doing everything," he said. "I was doing sauna, cold plunge, weightlifting, Pilates. I would dance and also do football training."

Van Der Beek died on Feb. 11.

Bob Weir, 78

Weir was one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead.

The singer-songwriter wrote and/or sang on songs like "Sugar Magnolia," "Playing in the Band," "Truckin,'" "I Need a Miracle," and "The Other One."

After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir went on to form several other bands, including Kingfish, Bobby and the Midnites, RatDog, The Other Ones, and, alongside John Mayer, Dead & Company.

In the summer of 2025, Weir was diagnosed with cancer.

Weir died on January 10.

Frederick Wiseman, 96

For over five decades, Wiseman's brand of non-fiction storytelling put a spotlight on everyday people.

From high schoolers to hospital workers to Air Force cadets training for nuclear war, Wiseman's close to 50-film catalogue is an unvarnished reflection of America over the last half century.

Wiseman died on Februay 16, no cause was given.

• Bill Smead says investors should pile into commodities to prepar for a lost decade for stocks.
• The $4 billion CIO pointed to the S&P 500's monster gains in recent years, specifically in tech.
• But commodities outperformed after the market's lost decade in the 1970s, gaining more than 300%.

One bearish investment chief is warning of a rough decade for the stock market—but he sees one unusual safe-haven investors should consider piling into for shelter.

Bill Smead, the chief investment officer at Smead Capital Management, said his firm is bullish on commodities, specifically on energy and real estate. That's because he's eyeing a lost decade for stocks—a period in which the US market could see little to no returns.

"What can do well in this monstrously expensive S&P 500 Index in a decade of heartache? Look no further than the 1970s," Smead wrote to clients on Thursday, pointing to how commodities vastly outperformed other asset classes in that decade.

Stocks, US Treasurys, and corporate bonds all lost value in that era, though commodities were up 324%, Smead, whose firm manages more than $4 billion in assets, said.

"We are expecting inflation in energy prices and a decline in interest rates when the poop hits the AI mania fan," he said, adding that his firm is overweight on oil stocks and home builder stocks in particular. "These industries prospered in the 1970s, once the stock market mania broke in late 1972," he added.

Talk about a lost decade in markets has picked up as investors begin to fear that the stunning gains in recent years are unsustainable. Smead pointed to the exuberance for tech stocks in particular, with information technology stocks in the S&P 500 up 187% over the past five years, compared to the 45% gain in the ProShares S&P 500 Ex-Technology ETF over the same time frame.

Smead also pointed to concentration concerns in the market, with the information technology sector now making up around 40% of the overall benchmark index.

More forecasters have also been drawing comparisons of the current market climate to the 1970s. Alongside a huge run-up in mega-cap stocks, investors are also beginning to feel the ramifications of an oil price shock, which defined much of the market's performance in the 70s.

Commodities, one area of the market that has tended to outperform during inflationary periods, has already started to gain alongside the surge in oil prices. The AI boom has also fueled demand for commodities, like silver and copper.

The iShares GSCI Commodity Dynamic Roll Strategy ETF, one fund that tracks an index of commodities, is up 37% year to date.

"The Index will get slaughtered because it is massively over-weighted in technology and tech-related stocks," Smead said of the broader S&P 500, adding that he believed the market looked to be in "Late-Stage Mania."

Concerns about high valuations and inflated earnings have flared up intermittently in recent years, though overall enthusiasm for the AI trade remains strong. Investors dumped chip names amid earnings disappointment this week, but appear to be rotating to other tech names, with the Nasdaq 100 on track to end the week in the green.

• I'm an only child living abroad, trying to plan for my mother's retirement from another continent.
• My mother is turning 70, still works 40 to 50-hour workweeks, and has no concrete retirement plans.
• After losing my father unexpectedly, I worry about future caregiving responsibilities.

I'm 31, and my mom will be 70 this year. We haven't had the talk yet — the conversation about what our lives will look like when she retires.

To make this more complex, I'm an only child, and we live in different continents. She has often joked that I should float her out to sea when she gets older. Not knowing what the next decades of her life could look like, and, by extension, my involvement, makes it hard for me to plan my future.

Our differing values and plans for the next few years have taken us physically and emotionally farther, further making a shared idea of her retirement fuzzy.

Living in different countries makes planning harder

My mother lives in the US, but I haven't lived there for 10 years, and I only visit for a few weeks a year. I don't plan to ever live in the US, and she doesn't plan to leave her home. It's a difference that I think will only get harder to reconcile as I get busier with work and she becomes less able or willing to travel.

She already views the flight from Florida to Italy (where I spend much of my time) as too long and prefers to travel in countries where English is widely spoken. Living far away currently also means it's hard for me to see day-to-day health changes and know the details of her medical appointments. It's harder for me to also practice transitioning into her caretaker.

Since I'm her only child, she hasn't remarried, and she doesn't live near her siblings — many responsibilities will fall to me.

We talk about retirement, but nothing changes

The lack of planning is one of the biggest issues. I've brought up the idea of retirement many times over the past few years, and encouraged her to travel with me to practice a different lifestyle. We have talked, but there hasn't been any action. Some of her ideas that haven't materialized include: getting a big house with friends, going to Italy for language lessons, taking painting classes, moving to a country with cheaper healthcare, or working less.

She currently works 40 to 50-hour workweeks — often on weekends and holidays (not because of money). She has no concrete plans to stop. I'm not even sure if she will retire at all

I encourage her to take up a hobby, build a community, take a day off, or meet a friend for lunch during the week. These are met with resistance. I suggest these things in hopes that in 10 years she will be happier and healthier (and selfishly hoping she'll need less care).

Losing my father changed how I think about aging

After losing my father unexpectedly in his 60s, I have a fear that things could quickly change for the worse. That's why I want to plan now, while my mother is healthy — and can make these choices for herself. After losing my father 10 years ago, my mother has chosen to live alone and has expressed a wish for that to continue (possibly another hurdle to face in the future if she needs intensive care).

My partner's parents retired in their 60s and keep busy gardening or visiting friends. I'm grateful they've taken clear steps and had conversations with their children about the next chapter of their lives. I hope my care plan for my mother can one day mirror some aspects of those relationships, while finding a happy medium.

I know my relationship (like all) with my mother is unique, and we'll eventually find a compromise. I'd just like to get some practice in before there's an emergency. I also want the care I give her one day to align with what she wants from me.

We all have very different visions for how we want our retirements to look, but I am afraid I'll one day get a call that I need to move back to the US. Afraid that my mother will be forced to live a life with me she doesn't want, and afraid to lose the life I've spent the last 10 years building. After many years of a strained relationship, I'm worried we'll feel like strangers cohabitating one day.

I hope one day she can see I'm just trying to plan for her future, like she did when I was a kid.

• The three remaining "60 Minutes" correspondents are staying with the news program.
• Four of the seven "60 Minutes" correspondents have left, including Scott Pelley and Anderson Cooper.
• CBS News top editor, Bari Weiss, has shaken up the network and drawn criticism.

"60 Minutes" is done shedding correspondents — at least for now.

Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim announced on Friday that they're staying at the storied news program after a tumultuous few weeks. Four "60 Minutes" correspondents have left or been fired as Bari Weiss, the top editor at CBS News, remakes the organization.

"We don't want to see 60 Minutes die," Stahl, Whitaker, and Wertheim said in a memo, which was viewed by Business Insider.

The correspondents' decision to stay comes three days after fellow veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley was fired following a dispute with new executive producer Nick Bilton, in which Pelley confronted his new boss and Weiss.

Stahl, Whitaker, and Wertheim said they "had a hard time deciding whether to stay" at CBS News' flagship program. They said they were disappointed that "principled, fair and honest journalists were treated so shabbily, with such indecency."

"Newsrooms are not supposed to be run like dictatorships," they wrote.

Besides Pelley, CBS News also parted ways with a pair of "60 Minutes" correspondents in late May, declining to renew Sharyn Alfonsi's contract and firing Cecilia Vega.

Weiss told CBS News staffers on an editorial call following Pelley's firing that she's "only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect," adding that "we cannot do our work without it."

Bilton told CBS staffers on Thursday afternoon that it "has been a trying and difficult few days" and said he's committed to "journalistic independence" at "60 Minutes."

Stahl, Whitaker, and Wertheim said they "heard all the right things" in Bilton's memo but said they "need to see these commitments to our process and procedures put into action."

"If we can continue doing the work that made this show what it is — committing acts of independent, fearless journalism and storytelling — we're here for it. If not, we leave," they wrote.

CBS News has plenty of skeptics under Weiss

Weiss was hired by David Ellison, the CEO of the CBS parent company Paramount Skydance, to remake the network for the streaming era. She has since made a digital push and cut dozens of staffers.

Her critics also say she's making the network more politically palatable to President Donald Trump, though she has broadly denied this.

Alfonsi said in an exit memo that CBS News leadership's decision to let her go "was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting," referencing her dispute with Weiss in December over reporting about the Trump administration's deportation tactics. Weiss sidelined Alfonsi's segment, saying she wanted more commentary from a Trump official, but it eventually ran without major changes.

Alfonsi added that her dismissal "sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom."

Vega said in her exit memo that her termination was because of "censorship, both imposed and self-driven." She said that she and her peers had "experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories" from CBS News leadership, which the network denies.

Longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Anderson Cooper also recently decided to leave the news program, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. He's staying in his role at CNN.

Read the full memo from Stahl, Whitaker, and Wertheim here.

TO All our colleagues at 60

FROM Lesley, Bill and Jon

We have had a hard time deciding whether to stay at 60 Minutes. We're still deeply upset by the firings of Tanya and Draggan, strong leaders who everyone respected. As far as we can tell — because no explanation has ever been offered, they were expelled because they fought for our 60 Minutes values and stood up to protect our independence and integrity.

Newsrooms are not supposed to be run like dictatorships. Collaboration and argument are the way we have always worked at 60. Don Hewitt actually encouraged loud passionate advocacy for our pieces.

This goes for Sharyn, Cecilia and Scott as well, all at the top of the world of TV journalism who exemplified 60 Minutes' ethos of tough questions and honest storytelling.

And Guy Campanile, an outstanding 60 Minutes producer whose advice on our stories was invaluable.

And Matt Polevoy, who ran our online operations, moved us onto YouTube, was working on developing 60 Minutes Podcasts and many other projects expanding our presence on the Web: vital and necessary for our future.

We want to express how sorry we are that these principled, fair and honest journalists were treated so shabbily, with such indecency.

Tanya deserves to be celebrated, not cruelly cast off. Draggan too. It's been heartbreaking.

But, we have decided to stay on.

We feared that our returning might be construed as an endorsement of the existing power structure. That is simply, categorically not the case.

Here's why we're are staying:

We don't want to see 60 Minutes die.

We have been grieving because this whole mess has wounded and damaged the broadcast. We want to stay and fight, try to repair and preserve our reputation by continuing the Mike Wallace tradition of hold their feet to the fire as well as Morley's brand of quirky off-kilter reports like his on why people in Finland like to tango!

It's early days, but we are working to build trust with Nick, and we are heartened by Maria's promotion. We heard all the right things in yesterday's "independence" memo. It went a long way, and now we need to see these commitments to our process and procedures put into action. If we can continue doing the work that made this show what it is — committing acts of independent, fearless journalism and storytelling — we're here for it. If not, we leave.

For now we're staying — for our audience, the millions who watch us with a loyal but critical eye. We're staying for our teams, and all the teams. We work for you guys. The thought of abandoning you became unbearable. And of course we're staying because this is home.

Here's to season 59!

• Elon Musk is gearing up for a big week, with SpaceX set to go public at a valuation of $1.75 billion.
• The world's richest man is also slated to address employees at Europe's biggest tech firm, ASML, next week.
• Musk will "share his vision" for SpaceX's moonshot Terafab chip project, internal ASML documents show.

Elon Musk is kicking off SpaceX's public debut with a personal pitch to employees at a critical Terafab supplier.

The SpaceX founder will participate in a virtual fireside chat with ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet at the company's annual technology conference next Thursday, according to internal communications seen by Business Insider.

The event will see Musk "share his vision on AI, robotics, space, and semiconductor manufacturing, including the Terafab concept" with ASML engineers and other employees, according to a description posted on an internal employee portal.

ASML describes the technology conference, which is not open to the public, as a global event for employees and partners to share technical innovations and breakthroughs.

The virtual event comes a day before SpaceX is set to go public at a potential valuation of $1.75 billion.

The Terafab, a joint venture between SpaceX, Tesla, and Intel to construct a series of enormous semiconductor factories, is a key part of SpaceX's pitch to investors.

Much of SpaceX's valuation and revenue projections are built on the company's ambitious plans to deploy up to a million orbital data centers, which Musk has said will require an enormous supply of chips built in-house by the Terafab.

Netherlands-based ASML, Europe's most valuable tech company, is a critical part of that vision. It is the only company that makes extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines — bus-sized devices that are vital for producing cutting-edge semiconductors at scale.

ASML CEO Fouquet told Reuters last month that he had spoken to Musk about the Terafab project, without providing details.

He added that he expects SpaceX's ambitious aims to scale to a terawatt of AI compute a year will likely lead to supply bottlenecks in the semiconductor market in the coming years.

ASML and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.

The FIFA World Cup is almost here, and the tournament will be broadcast around the world in several different languages. We've compiled everything you need to know about how to watch the World Cup in Spanish, including free streaming options.

If you're in the US, you can live stream all matches through Telemundo on Peacock. In Spain, select matches will be available for free on RTVE. You can access your streaming options from anywhere with the help of a VPN. Keep reading to learn global viewing options and other details about the tournament.

How to watch the World Cup in Spanish in the US

While the English-language World Cup broadcast rights go to FOX in the US, Telemundo holds the Spanish-language US broadcast rights. The easiest and cheapest way to live stream all 104 Spanish-language Telemundo matches is via Peacock. Sports-friendly subscriptions start at $11 a month for Peacock Premium, but you can upgrade to Peacock Premium Plus for $17 a month if you're interested in accessing an NBC live stream and ad-free on-demand content.

In a special move, Peacock Select subscribers will be able to watch matches from the first couple of days of the tournament, but you'll need one of the Premium subscriptions to watch the full World Cup.

How to watch the World Cup in Spanish in Spain

In Spain, World Cup coverage is spread out a bit, but select matches will be shown on RTVE and live stream on RTVE Play. This is a free streaming option. We expect the platform to prioritize matches featuring Spain's national team, but it will likely also show other notable games. For more comprehensive coverage, fans will need a paid DAZN subscription.

How to watch the World Cup in Spanish from anywhere

If you're away from the location where your streaming service works, you can still access your watch options (including the free ones) with the help of a VPN. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are handy tech tools that allow people to temporarily alter their virtual locations. They're especially popular among those looking to keep up with their usual websites and apps while traveling abroad or hoping to upgrade their cybersecurity.

NordVPN is one of the best VPNs we've tested. It's fast, easy to use, and offers a massive selection of worldwide servers. Plus, it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so it's no sweat if you find that it's not helping you out. From now until June 9, our exclusive INSIDER code can help you save up to 79% on select plans as part of a limited-time NordVPN deal.

When are the first FIFA World Cup games?

The first FIFA World Cup game is a Mexico vs. South Africa match-up on Thursday, June 11 at 3 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. BST / 3 a.m. AWST (next-day). A South Korea vs. Czechia match will follow that same day at 10 p.m. ET / 3 a.m. BST / 10 a.m. AWST (next-day).

How much are FIFA World Cup tickets?

It should be no surprise that tickets are pricey, given the rarity and popularity of the tournament. You can learn more about resale prices in our official guide on where to buy World Cup tickets.

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Business Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

• Kelly Rowland shared parenting advice she wished she'd heard sooner.
• Rowland said that being quick and to the point when correcting behavior helps a lot.
• She also doesn't use baby talk with her two sons, opting to be open and honest with them.

When Kelly Rowland learned that her youngest son, Noah, had eczema, as she did, she was faced with a new parenting challenge.

The former Destiny's Child member and solo artist was distressed to see her 5-year-old in so much discomfort.

"As soon as he walked outside, I watched his skin transform right before my eyes," Rowland told Business Insider.

The only thing that brought him comfort — scratching his skin — was making it worse. But how do you get a little boy to understand that?

Rowland, who partnered with Ebglyss, an injectable treatment for people 12 and older with moderate-to-severe eczema, was upfront with him. "I was like, 'I can't help you right now.'" she said. "'You have to help yourself in this moment: stop scratching.'"

While parenting comes with the unexpected, she said being direct and honest with her kids helps a lot. "I wish someone would've said, 'Let your yes be a yes and your no be a no,'" she said.

She's brief when correcting them

Rowland, who also has an 11-year-old son, Titan, said she aims to be direct and brief when setting boundaries with her kids.

"I'm like, 'I don't like the way you said that to me. I wouldn't say that to you like that, so don't say that to me like that,'" Rowland said. "I mean, it's over."

It's a parenting lesson she said she wishes she knew sooner. "I wish someone would've told me, 'Make it quick when you're correcting something, and move on,'" she said. "Immediately when something happens, nip it in the bud."

Lots of love, without the babying

Rowland's biggest piece of parenting advice is to "just talk to them like they're humans."

"I don't baby my boys," she said. At the same time: "I'm completely obsessed with them, so there's never a moment where they don't feel like I love them, even when there is some sort of challenge."

When it comes to traveling, she's transparent with her kids about why she's leaving. "If I'm going somewhere, it's because it really means a lot to me," she recently told Titan. "That makes him feel seen, feel heard, and lets him know that I have a life outside of here, too."

• We asked interior designers and other pros to share which backyard trends are in and out this year.
• According to the pros, native plants, mood lighting, and outdoor living rooms are getting popular.
• On the other hand, plain, expansive lawns and matching patio sets are falling out of favor.

Decorating your home is one thing, but designing an outdoor space comes with its own set of challenges.

To find out what's trending, Business Insider spoke with designers, gardeners, and landscaping experts about the backyard features they're embracing and the ones they're leaving behind this year.

Here's what they said.

Outdoor lighting is having a moment.

Colleen Bennett, founder and principal designer of CBB Design Firm, said outdoor lighting has come a long way in recent years.

"You're seeing outdoor lighting that is just adaptive and sexier than what we had before," Bennett told BI.

Rather than relying solely on string lights, people are starting to use a mix of fixtures such as outdoor chandeliers, rechargeable lamps, and dimmable lanterns to create different moods throughout their outdoor spaces.

Pavilions and pergolas are becoming backyard staples.

Dave Marciniak, owner and lead designer of Revolutionary Gardens, said making an outdoor space more comfortable and functional is top of mind for many as we head into summer.

"Homeowners have really been looking for garden structures that both define the space and provide a sense of enclosure and a bit more utility," Marciniak told BI.

Pergolas and pavilions are especially popular structures, he said. They can provide shade and shelter, allowing people to enjoy their yards without being limited by the weather.

Native and edible plants may also be on the rise.

According to Jacob Romkee, owner of Vintage Lawn Service and a member of Thumbtack's Pro Advisory Board, people are becoming more thoughtful about the plants they incorporate into their landscapes.

Native plants, for instance, are gaining popularity as homeowners seek species better suited to their local climate and that require less maintenance.

Many are also incorporating herbs and edible plants into ornamental landscaping rather than confining them to separate garden beds, Marciniak added. These can be functional while also enhancing a yard's visual appeal.

Maximalism is making its way into the backyard.

Benji Lewis, a UK-based interior designer, said bolder patterns and colors are becoming more popular in outdoor spaces.

"The maximalist trend that was big here a few years ago for interiors is big in gardens now," he said. Maximalist designs typically utilize a less-is-more approach with lots of vibrant colors and patterns, from large-scale florals to tropical prints.

In an outdoor space, this can extend to rugs, pillows, chair cushions, and even artwork.

Outdoor spaces are becoming a true extension of the indoors.

Several designers BI spoke with said patios are becoming more inviting as people bring indoor design trends outside

"People are using patios more like second living rooms," Tyka Pryde, an interior designer and furniture designer, told BI. It's becoming more common to have items usually reserved for indoor spaces — like TVs, rugs, and media consoles — outside.

Bennett said people are also embracing warmer tones, layered furnishings, and more comfortable pieces that make outdoor spaces feel like an extension of the home.

On the other hand, one-note expanses of grass are falling out of favor.

Plain, expansive lawns can feel a bit dated compared to more layered landscape designs.

So, homeowners are adding more visual interest to exterior spaces instead of just having a "big carpet of lawn" and a few plants near the house, Marciniak said. For example, plant beds can help outdoor spaces feel more intentional and connected to the home.

Romkee said clover and creeping thyme are also becoming popular lawn alternatives because they are "pretty" but require less maintenance than a wide expanse of grass.

One-size-fits-all patios are out.

Many people are replacing single gathering areas with "outdoor rooms" or dedicated zones for different activities such as cooking, dining, and seating, Marciniak said.

Dividing an outdoor space in functional ways using planters, unique pavers, and landscaping designs can also help elevate how it's enjoyed.

"There's a little bit of almost an experience of going from one space to another in sequence," the designer told BI.

Plastic outdoor furniture is being replaced with investment-worthy pieces.

As outdoor spaces become more integrated into daily life, many people are moving away from inexpensive plastic furniture and turning toward pieces made with durable materials, according to Pryde.

"We're seeing a lot of teak and wood furniture and just more high-quality furniture," she told BI.

Although these pieces can be more expensive upfront, they are usually designed to last through many seasons.

Matchy-matchy patio sets are out.

Pryde told BI that she's seeing a shift away from "matchy-matchy" coordinated outdoor furniture sets, which have been the norm for a long time.

Instead, she said, homeowners are mixing materials, finishes, and furnishings from different sources to create a more "curated" outdoor space. This adds a lot more visual interest to a space.

• A Ukrainian naval drone blew up in a Romanian port on Friday after Russian interference.
• It's the latest instance of Ukrainian drones accidentally ending up in NATO territory.
• Ukrainian and Western officials have blamed the incidents on Russian electronic warfare.

Ukrainian forces lost a naval drone during an operation in the Black Sea on Friday after its guidance was disrupted by Russian electronic warfare, sending the vessel off course and into a large Romanian port, where it exploded.

It's the latest instance of Ukrainian drones accidentally ending up in NATO territory, which Kyiv and Western officials have blamed on Russian interference.

The Ukrainian Navy said one of its naval drones "lost control" under the influence of Russian electronic warfare during a mission in the Black Sea and ended up near Romanian shores.

Romania's defense ministry said a naval drone was discovered in the Constanța civilian port and "self-detonated" at 10:30 a.m. local time without causing casualties. Constanța is a major European port in the contested Black Sea.

Romanian President Nicușor Dan confirmed that Ukraine lost control of the drone during a combat operation because of Russian electronic warfare and said Kyiv shared information with Bucharest to help aid an evacuation of the area.

"The entry of this drone into Romanian sovereign space represents a direct consequence of the war waged by Russia against Ukraine," the Romanian president said in a statement.

He said three other Ukrainian naval drones "went out of control" on Friday and blew up; one in the Constanța port, one outside the harbor, and two roughly 90 miles offshore. There were no casualties or significant damage, Dan said.

Ukraine operates a fleet of naval drones — they are typically armed with explosives, missiles, or other weaponry — that it has used to attack Russian naval vessels and ports in the Black Sea. The wayward drone incidents suggest Russian defenses have evolved to exploit vulnerabilities in the drones' guidance or control systems.

Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine's foreign ministry, said in a statement that the incident underscores "once again that Russia's ongoing full-scale aggression poses a threat not only to Ukraine, but to the entire region."

Neither Russia's defense ministry nor its US embassy responded to a request for comment.

Ukraine has blamed Russian electronic warfare for causing its drones to stray off course and cross into NATO airspace — specifically, over the Baltic states — on multiple occasions in recent weeks.

In early May, for instance, Ukrainian aerial drones struck empty oil storage facilities in Latvia, a Baltic NATO ally. Kyiv said Russian electronic warfare "deliberately" diverted its drones from their targets in Russia.

Later that month, Romanian fighter jets shot down what was believed to be a Ukrainian drone in Estonian airspace. Tallinn said it occurred amid Russian electronic warfare, such as GPS spoofing and jamming. GPS spoofing attempts to confuse a drone's guidance section about its location, while jamming refers to efforts to effectively block its control frequencies by blasting them with noise.

Electronic interference in the Baltic region has been common since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, affecting both military and civilian movement.

The repeated drone incursions come as Kyiv has intensified its long-range attacks on Russian energy sites. Moscow has accused Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania of allowing Ukraine to use their airspace for its operations, which the three Baltic states have denied.

Russian drones have also repeatedly breached NATO territory. Just in late May, a Geran-2 (also known as Shahed) one-way attack drone hit a residential building in Romania, officials said, injuring people and causing damage.

NATO launched a new security mission in September 2025 to protect its Eastern flank after dozens of Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace. The military alliance has since surged fighter jets, warships, and other air defense assets to countries bordering Russia.

• The New York Knicks are auctioning two courtside seats. Bidding reached $500,000 in just 24 hours.
• The Knicks are in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.
• Tickets for Monday's game have surged into the four-, five-, and six-figure range.

Want to high-five a celebrity? Have more than half a million dollars burning a hole in your pocket?

The New York Knicks got you.

The team is auctioning two courtside seats for Monday's NBA Finals Game 3 against the San Antonio Spurs. The current bid is $500,000, and the auction closes Sunday at 5 p.m.

The seats have a fair-market value of about $40,000, according to the auction listing. That means the current bid is more than 12 times the regular price. Proceeds will go to The Garden of Dreams Foundation, the nonprofit affiliated with Madison Square Garden Sports and MSG Entertainment.

The tickets are for seats 25 and 26 in row AA inside section VIP 10, which the site describes as "right off center court."

"These seats place you steps from the action, surrounded by athletes, celebs, and New York's biggest names," the auction site says. "This is basketball at its absolute highest level."

It's unclear which famous faces the winning bidder might end up close to — but Knicks courtside seats have long been a magnet for celebrities, including director Spike Lee, actor Timothée Chalamet, actor Ben Stiller, comedian Tracy Morgan, and singer Alicia Keys.

Ticket prices for the series have surged since the Knicks won Game 1 on Wednesday. The cheapest ticket to Monday's game on StubHub was listed at about $9,000 as of Friday morning, while some courtside seats were listed for as much as $100,000 — nearly enough to buy a brand new Land Rover Range Rover.

The NBA and MSG didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• SpaceX shared a 17-minute investor pitch from CFO Bret Johnsen for its upcoming IPO.
• Johnsen covers the company's rocket business, Starlink's successes, and growing AI spending.
• Don't want to watch? Here are Johnsen's key points.

SpaceX is hitting the road.

Elon Musk's rocket company is in the middle of its IPO roadshow, with SpaceX shares expected to make their public market listing debut late next week.

After filing its public S-1, which revealed SpaceX recorded a $4.9 billion loss in 2025 on $18.7 billion in revenue, the company is now making its pitch to investors in an effort to drum up interest. That includes a custom website and a pitch from its CFO, Bret Johnsen.

SpaceX's pitch is 17 minutes and covers its products, financials, and vision for business on the moon. If don't want to watch the whole thing, here are the highlights:

• Johnsen listed SpaceX's achievements. It was the first private company to successfully dock a spacecraft at the International Space Station, he said, and the first to propulsively land a rocket from space.
• Reusability was Johnsen's keyword. "Rocket reuse" has driven down costs and upped launch cadence, he said.
• Johnsen walked through SpaceX's "algorithm," the culture of innovation that includes tenets like optimizing and automating.
• He pointed to Starlink, SpaceX's satellite constellation, as a key achievement. It can "deliver in many areas and in many cases where terrestrials just can't," he said.
• Starlink has 10.3 million users and touts over 100% year-over-year growth, Johnsen said. He also shouted out its use by commercial airlines.
• SpaceX acquired Musk's AI company, xAI. Johnsen emphasized the value of the AI business, saying that SpaceX owned "the full value chain."
• He shouted out the Colossus 2 data center and said that orbital AI compute — or data centers in space, an idea that has received skepticism — would be the "clean energy solution." These data centers in space would address "some of the concerns related to AI data centers popping up," he said. (Indeed, the backlash is strong.)
• Johnsen referenced SpaceX's deals with both Anthropic and Cursor.
• Not long ago, Twitter was a publicly traded company. Then Musk bought it, renamed it X, brought it into xAI, and then brought xAI into SpaceX. Johnsen shouted out X as a source of "real-time data," though he did not reference its use as a social network.
• Anyone who followed SpaceX's S-1 saw that massive estimated TAM, or total addressable market. Johnsen said that there is an "incredibly large total addressable market that we're going after" — as in, over $28 trillion.
• Like the S-1, some of Johnsen's pitches sounded like science fiction. He promised greater opportunity for "the lunar economy."
• This year's Big Tech buzzword: capex. Tech companies are spending billions on AI computing — and SpaceX is no different. Johnsen said SpaceX was "not alone" in its large expenditures, and said that the majority of its $21 billion investments last year was spent on AI.
• Why does SpaceX think it will win? Johnsen laid out his key points: Orbital launches, satellites, AI models, X. The company has "extreme vertical integration," he said.
• For those looking for harder numbers, the video includes an appendix of tables.

• Partiful is an app for hosting parties. I went to one of the company's own parties.
• The social startup recently launched ticketing and threw a party during New York Tech Week.
• Young tech workers unwound with the Partiful team after days of networking — and got some free cigs.

Partiful likes to throw a party. It's in the name.

The events app, which has become the way Gen Z plans just about everything, threw a party during the New York Tech Week conference this week.

"You might be wondering, 'Why is Partiful throwing a party?'" Shreya Murthy, Partiful's CEO, told the crowded room of Tech Week-goers.

In part, it was to celebrate the startup's first major leap toward actually making money as a social app: ticketing.

Partiful recently rolled out paid tickets for events. The startup will now generate revenue from service fees added to ticket sales. Hosts earn the bulk of the sale, and Partiful charges a fee that varies by event. For instance, as an example listed on its website, Partiful would add a $7 fee to a $50 ticket — about 14% of the original ticket price. Other ticketed events could typically see fees of around 10% to 15%, but it isn't standardized.

Before the party, Murthy spoke at a fireside chat with Andreessen Horowitz partner Olivia Moore about the startup's business and push into ticketing. A16z, one of Partiful's investors — the startup has raised more than $27 million since launching in 2020 — has taken over NYTW and now requires all events on its calendar to use Partiful.

While panels make up a huge chunk of the NYTW agenda, at the end of the day, vibe coders still need to detach from their half-open laptops running Claude.

"What people really want at Tech Week is to meet people," Partiful's Ella Edwards, who helps the startup's community and editorial efforts, told me.

One attendee, startup founder Helen Wu, told me she's learned to approach Tech Week by simply being "present" at events, instead of getting lost in the networking, FOMO, or "tech bro" culture. Partiful's shindig, she said, was somewhere she could more casually chat with other founders, including Murthy.

The party, which took place at a Downtown listening room with an open bar, felt a bit more like a New York house party than a New York Tech Week mixer.

On one coffee table, there was a platter of skinny cigarettes for the taking. Partiful merch was splayed all over the venue. There was a competition to guess how many Smarties candies were packed into a bong (the winner got the bong). Projected on one wall was the first game in the NBA finals showdown between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs. Throughout the party, camera flashes went off from the point-and-shoot film cameras some Partiful employees carried.

Partiful isn't the only social tech company into the idea of throwing house parties to bring together users and industry insiders. Last week, Substack also threw a house party after its all-day summit.

Let me take you into the night.

• The guest list: It is Tech Week after all, so, yes, it was a lot of people working in and around tech: startup founders, marketers, and creators. There was the Partiful crew, including the company's CEO, Murthy; an employee who wore retro tech accessories with a Tamagotchi necklace and iPod shuffle hairclips; and (disclosure) a college friend of mine. The crowd had some Partiful event host regulars, too.

• The moment: Outside the venue on the sidewalk, guests smoked the Partiful-sponsored slims while chatting. Zyn is out, cigs are back in.
• The quote: "When you think of Partiful, you think of a house party," Edwards told me as she explained how she planned the night's party. That got me thinking: With its new push into ticketed events, will Partiful become synonymous with RSVPs of all kinds?

• The gripe: This is less about the party and more about Tech Week. There are too many Partiful invites! I got an email from A16z that I RSVP'd to too many things (oops). My entire Google Calendar is a purgatory of "pending" Partiful RSVPs.

Want to read more party dispatches from Business Insider? Tag along with our reporters as we dive into the social scenes behind tech, media, and finance:

• A day at "Substack Coachella"
• An AI psychosis-themed summit
• A YouTuber's television show premiere
• A Tax Day party for creatives and Wall Street

• I'm a registered dietitian who loves using Trader Joe's products to create easy, delicious meals.
• These recipes cost less than $25 to make and don't require a ton of prep work.
• Some of my favorite meals include egg-roll bowls, chicken pita sandwiches, and vegetarian tacos.

As a registered dietitian, I love a home-cooked meal. However, I know dinner doesn't have to be made entirely from scratch to be nutritious.

That's why I rely on Trader Joe's for easy-to-build meals with protein, fiber-rich carbohydrates, vegetables, and enough flavor to make them satisfying without requiring a lot of prep work.

The meals I make on repeat are the ones that don't take long to cook, support my nutrition goals, make leftovers I actually want to eat, and cost $25 or less to prepare.

Here are four of my favorite easy meals that require just a few products from Trader Joe's and some pantry staples.

I use Trader Joe's frozen sweet potato gnocchi to make a balanced one-pot dinner.

Trader Joe's sweet potato gnocchi is one of my favorite frozen products, and a few additions take it from comfort food to a well-balanced meal.

I slice and brown Trader Joe's Italian-style chicken sausage in a skillet, add the gnocchi straight to the pan to cook, and fold in two big handfuls of baby spinach, and a can of white beans (which I admittedly purchased from Walmart this time).

For even more flavor, I finish it with a sprinkle of shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano and fresh parsley.

Since I already had parsley at home, this simple one-pot meal cost me about $17 to make.

This dish is a more nutritious take on a comfort meal.

In addition to being tasty, I love that this meal has a good variety of different nutrients. The sweet potato gnocchi provides carbohydrates for energy, while the chicken sausage adds protein (and is lower in saturated fat than traditional pork sausage).

White beans bring in plant-based protein and fiber, and spinach adds nutrients like folate, vitamin K, and iron.

This gnocchi dish is the perfect nutritious spin on a classic comfort meal.

Egg-roll bowls are my go-to when I'm craving takeout.

When I'm craving takeout but want a homemade meal, I make egg-roll bowls. The best part? These only require one pan and take 15 minutes to make.

First, I brown ground turkey with Trader Joe's peeled garlic cloves and a homemade ginger paste.

To make the paste, I grate fresh ginger, stir in just enough water to loosen it, and store it in the fridge to use throughout the week.

I then add the whole bag of coleslaw mix, and stir in the refrigerated edamame. At the end, I toss everything with Trader Joe's gyoza dipping sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil, and serve it over the store's frozen brown rice.

I already had the brown rice in my freezer, so this meal cost me about $24 to make.

The meal is filling and has a good mix of protein, fiber, and whole grains.

I use ground turkey in this recipe, because it's a complete protein, meaning it contains all nine essential amino acids the body can't make on its own.

Plus, the edamame adds plant-based protein, iron, fiber, and folate.

The gyoza sauce and sesame oil give it a salty-sweet, takeout-style flavor I crave, and the combination of protein, fiber, and whole grains in one bowl makes it one of my go-to easy weeknight dinners.

I use Trader Joe's marinated shawarma chicken to make easy pita sandwiches.

Pita sandwiches are the kind of dinner I like to cook once and assemble in different ways throughout the week. For protein, I use Trader Joe's shawarma chicken thighs, and I love that the marinating is already done for me.

I pan-sear the chicken, slice it thin, and pile it into warmed Trader Joe's whole-wheat pita bread pockets with tzatziki, Persian cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and red onion.

The leftovers are easy to turn into rice bowls the next day, so I don't feel like I'm eating the same meal twice. Plus, I get multiple meals for less than $22.

My favorite thing about this meal is how customizable it is.

The warm, spiced chicken, chilled tzatziki, crisp vegetables, and soft pita give each bite a mix of savory flavor, freshness, and texture.

Plus, the build-your-own format makes it easy for everyone at the table to customize their ingredient choices based on their appetites and preferences.

Trader Joe's lentils and sweet potatoes help me create easy vegetarian tacos.

These tacos are one of my favorite vegetarian dinners because they're full of protein and fiber, but easy enough to pull together with some Trader Joe's staples.

I simply cube Trader Joe's sweet potatoes with olive oil and taco seasoning, and air fry them at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes.

While they cook, I microwave Trader Joe's steamed lentils and warm up the corn-and-wheat tortillas. Then, I top the tacos with cabbage, cilantro, cheese, and red onion with a squeeze of lime.

This one cost me less than $15 to make.

The taco filling also reheats well the next day.

Like the shawarma chicken sandwiches, these tacos are easy to customize depending on your mood.

I love this specific combination because the sweet potatoes and lentils make the tacos hearty and slightly sweet, while the cabbage and red onion add a refreshing bite. Plus, the cheese provides a creamy, salty finish.

I usually make these for dinner, and the leftover filling reheats well for lunch the next day.

• Having a bachelor's degree often translates to higher earnings.
• In some states, the earnings gap between four-year degree holders and adults with some college experience is wider.
• California has a 58.5% earnings gap, while South Dakota's is 17.1%.

Getting a four-year college education isn't always worth it for everybody — whether it comes down to avoiding the rising cost of a degree or pursuing careers outside a traditional college setting — but in some state economies, not having a bachelor's degree sets you further behind than in others.

Business Insider looked at the median annual earnings of adults aged 25 and over across the country, as reported in the Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey data, and compared the median earnings of adults with a bachelor's degree with those of adults with some college or an associate degree.

We then ranked all 50 states by the percentage difference in median earnings between those two groups, from highest to lowest, to compare extra earnings associated with completing a four-year degree with stopping short of earning a bachelor's degree, while accounting for differences in overall wage levels from state to state.

Across all states, one thing remained constant: having a bachelor's degree is almost always associated with higher earnings.

On average, bachelor's degree-holders earned 38.6% more than adults with some college or an associate degree, but that ranged across state lines, with the largest gap at 58.5% and the smallest at 17.1%.

States with major cities and large professional job markets, such as California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Georgia, and Washington, all ranked among the widest earnings gaps between bachelor's degree holders and those with only some college or an associate degree.

On the other hand, states with more rural economies and greater reliance on industries such as agriculture, energy, manufacturing, and skilled trades, such as Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas, had the smallest earnings gaps.

For some, even a slim advantage can be significant in an uncertain labor market. Others might look at the financial payoff of a college investment and decide to pursue a different career path.

The list below ranks states from those with the largest earnings gap between bachelor's degree holders and people with some college education to those with the smallest gap, helping illustrate how the financial payoff of a bachelor's degree can vary across state lines.

See where your state ranked.

50. California

Degree premium: 58.5%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $80,874

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $51,031

Earnings gap: $29,843

49. New Jersey

Degree premium: 57.1%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $81,107

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $51,644

Earnings gap: $29,463

48. Massachusetts

Degree premium: 56.6%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $81,784

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $52,218

Earnings gap: $29,566

47. New York

Degree premium: 55.0%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $76,760

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $49,538

Earnings gap: $27,222

46. Georgia

Degree premium: 53.7%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $70,582

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $45,919

Earnings gap: $24,663

45. Illinois

Degree premium: 52.6%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $72,625

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $47,598

Earnings gap: $25,027

44. Washington

Degree premium: 51.6%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $81,640

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $53,857

Earnings gap: $27,783

43. Connecticut

Degree premium: 50.7%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $77,879

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $51,686

Earnings gap: $26,193

42. Virginia

Degree premium: 49.8%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $75,575

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $50,450

Earnings gap: $25,125

41. Colorado

Degree premium: 47.6%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $75,637

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $51,247

Earnings gap: $24,390

40. Texas

Degree premium: 47.0%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $69,494

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $47,269

Earnings gap: $22,225

39. North Carolina

Degree premium: 46.5%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $65,170

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $44,474

Earnings gap: $20,696

38. Oregon

Degree premium: 46.3%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $69,562

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $47,544

Earnings gap: $22,018

37. Michigan

Degree premium: 45.9%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $66,497

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $45,580

Earnings gap: $20,917

36. Pennsylvania

Degree premium: 45.6%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $70,261

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $48,250

Earnings gap: $22,011

35. Ohio

Degree premium: 45.0%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $67,591

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $46,601

Earnings gap: $20,990

34. Maryland

Degree premium: 43.3%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $79,242

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $55,301

Earnings gap: $23,941

33. Kansas

Degree premium: 43.0%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $65,534

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $45,825

Earnings gap: $19,709

32. Arizona

Degree premium: 40.8%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $67,466

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $47,923

Earnings gap: $19,543

31. Minnesota

Degree premium: 39.0%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $72,538

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $52,185

Earnings gap: $20,353

30. South Carolina

Degree premium: 39.0%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $63,731

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $45,860

Earnings gap: $17,871

29. Rhode Island

Degree premium: 38.3%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $69,496

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $50,264

Earnings gap: $19,232

28. Louisiana

Degree premium: 37.9%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $59,917

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $43,459

Earnings gap: $16,458

27. Tennessee

Degree premium: 37.7%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $62,654

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $45,492

Earnings gap: $17,162

26. Oklahoma

Degree premium: 37.0%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $60,006

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $43,787

Earnings gap: $16,219

25. Arkansas

Degree premium: 37.0%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $57,152

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $41,732

Earnings gap: $15,420

24. Missouri

Degree premium: 36.9%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $62,091

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $45,360

Earnings gap: $16,731

23. New Hampshire

Degree premium: 36.5%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $71,669

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $52,513

Earnings gap: $19,156

22. Nevada

Degree premium: 35.7%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $62,782

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $46,278

Earnings gap: $16,504

21. Alabama

Degree premium: 35.0%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $61,183

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $45,321

Earnings gap: $15,862

20. Florida

Degree premium: 34.2%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $60,618

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $45,172

Earnings gap: $15,446

19. Kentucky

Degree premium: 34.2%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $60,854

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $45,352

Earnings gap: $15,502

18. Delaware

Degree premium: 33.8%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $65,673

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $49,094

Earnings gap: $16,579

17. Mississippi

Degree premium: 32.8%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $55,481

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $41,781

Earnings gap: $13,700

15. (tie) New Mexico

Degree premium: 32.2%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $56,159

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $42,468

Earnings gap: $13,691

15. (tie) Indiana

Degree premium: 32.2%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $63,367

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $47,929

Earnings gap: $15,438

14. Maine

Degree premium: 32.1%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $62,442

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $47,269

Earnings gap: $15,173

13. Vermont

Degree premium: 31.8%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $61,949

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $46,998

Earnings gap: $14,951

12. Idaho

Degree premium: 31.7%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $60,198

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $45,707

Earnings gap: $14,491

10. (tie) Nebraska

Degree premium: 31.5%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $62,021

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $47,163

Earnings gap: $14,858

10. (tie) Utah

Degree premium: 31.5%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $65,299

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $49,669

Earnings gap: $15,630

9. Wisconsin

Degree premium: 30.6%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $65,697

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $50,315

Earnings gap: $15,382

8. West Virginia

Degree premium: 30.4%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $56,967

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $43,674

Earnings gap: $13,293

7. Iowa

Degree premium: 29.5%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $62,244

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $48,062

Earnings gap: $14,182

6. Montana

Degree premium: 28.5%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $56,457

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $43,921

Earnings gap: $12,536

5. Alaska

Degree premium: 25.6%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $69,031

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $54,950

Earnings gap: $14,081

4. Hawaii

Degree premium: 24.6%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $62,969

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $50,549

Earnings gap: $12,420

3. Wyoming

Degree premium: 22.3%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $54,213

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $44,339

Earnings gap: $9,874

2. North Dakota

Degree premium: 17.3%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $60,560

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $51,644

Earnings gap: $8,916

1. South Dakota

Degree premium: 17.1%

Median earnings with a bachelor's degree: $58,207

Median earnings with some college or an associate degree: $49,698

Earnings gap: $8,509

• I used to be a professional baker, and Trader Joe's is my go-to place to stock up on desserts.
• My favorite premade sweet treats include the store's mini sheet cakes and the chocolate croissants.
• When I want to bake something myself, I buy Trader Joe's baking powder and vanilla-bean paste.

I was a professional baker in New York City for about six years.

Although I no longer make desserts for a living, I still spend plenty of time baking in my home kitchen, where I continue to develop recipes and take custom orders.

Whether I'm grabbing ingredients for a homemade confection or picking up a premade pastry that tastes like it was just pulled out of the oven, Trader Joe's is my one-stop shop for irresistible desserts.

Here are 11 sweet treats and baking staples I always buy at Trader Joe's.

I can't stop buying Trader Joe's lemon curd.

I always make sure to pick up a jar of Trader Joe's authentic imported English lemon curd each time I visit the store.

This take on this classic English dessert spread is rich, buttery, and packed with a bright lemon flavor.

I love to use it in layer cakes or on top of yogurt or ice cream.

Trader Joe's cultured salted butter is great for baking.

I love eating and baking with European-style butter, which is often higher in butterfat than the American version, making it creamier and richer.

Trader Joe's cultured salted butter, which is made in Brittany, France, is affordable and, in my opinion, rivals more expensive European-style options on the market.

One note of caution: Because this butter is salted, I always reduce the added salt when using it to bake biscuits and breads.

Entertaining is easy with Trader Joe's New York deli-style cheesecake.

Whenever I host but don't have time to make an elaborate dessert, I'll grab the Trader Joe's New York deli-style cheesecake.

Available in the frozen dessert section of the store, this cheesecake thaws quickly and is already pre-portioned into perfect slices.

Trader Joe's brownie truffle baking mix is one of my favorite chocolate treats.

Trader Joe's brownie truffle baking mix is hands down my favorite boxed brownie variety.

These brownies, which are made with Dutch cocoa, are ultra-chocolatey, fudgy, and chock-full of chocolate chips.

In other words, it's the ultimate chocolate dessert you can pass off as homemade.

I think Trader Joe's chocolate croissants taste like they're from Paris.

One of my favorite sweet treats from Trader Joe's is the chocolate croissants. I'm immediately transported to a bakery in Paris after the first bite.

These frozen pastries need to be thawed out overnight before you can bake them, but I think they're well worth the wait.

The dough is flaky with a nice butter scent, and the chocolate filling inside is perfectly sweet and nutty every time. I typically like to pair these with a cup of coffee.

I'm obsessed with Trader Joe's sliced French brioche bread.

Trader Joe's sliced French brioche is my secret to delicious French toast.

Each slice is eggy, soft, a little sweet, and made for Trader Joe's directly by a bakery in France.

I can go through the entire loaf of this bread in three days, just by snacking on it one slice at a time.

Trader Joe's double-acting baking powder is a staple in my kitchen.

Baking powder is essential in nearly every recipe, and I think the Trader Joe's version is one of the best.

Affordable and effective, Trader Joe's double-acting baking powder always has a place in my cabinet.

My secret to sweets packed with flavor is Trader Joe's bourbon vanilla-bean paste.

As a baker, I will always choose vanilla paste over extract because the scent and flavor are much stronger and more detectable in paste form.

The only drawback of vanilla paste is that it can sometimes be really expensive, but that's not the case at Trader Joe's.

I love using the bourbon vanilla-bean paste in pound cakes, frosting, or any dessert where I want vanilla to be front and center.

Trader Joe's sheet cakes are a classic.

I always have the Trader Joe's mini sheet cakes on hand for a quick post-dinner dessert or a special breakfast.

They're the perfect size for snacking and are insanely delicious.

Trader Joe's carries classic cake flavors year-round, like dark-chocolate ganache, but the store also drops seasonal flavors like pumpkin, carrot cake, and lemon.

I love elevating cookie and cake recipes with Trader Joe's organic brown sugar.

Trader Joe's organic brown sugar adds a rich, molasses-forward sweetness to everything from chewy cookies to coffee cake.

I love how this sugar adds a deeper caramel flavor and a subtle crunch to baked goods, especially in crisps, streusels, and cookie doughs.

My go-to all-purpose flour is from Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's unbleached enriched all-purpose flour is always in my pantry, and when it's not, I run to the store to pick up more.

I typically use this flour to make cakes, muffins, and pancakes, but it also works great as a thickening agent in sauces, soups, and stews.

• Judi Gatson's father is in an assisted living facility.
• He has no savings, and his Social Security check covers only half of the cost.
• His family worries they will run out of money by the end of the year and need to rehouse him.

This story is based on an interview with Judi Gatson, a local TV evening news anchor from Columbia, South Carolina. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My 82-year-old father has a mind as sharp as it's always been.

However, his health issues include congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, and problems with his vision. He has spent long periods in the hospital.

His longtime companion died from a heart condition in 2023. He had been her primary carer, which took its toll both emotionally and financially.

Dad drained his resources

We weren't aware of it at the time because Dad, a magistrate judge who continues to work part-time in the judicial system, is a very proud man. However, we later found out that he had tapped into his retirement and other savings, ultimately draining all his resources.

My sisters and I weren't in a position to have him live with us because we were medically unqualified, and our homes weren't suitable for his needs.

He moved into an assisted living facility where the fees are $5,000 a month. The only resource he had was a $2,200 Social Security check, which covered less than half the cost.

As a result, we joined forces to cover the shortfall, which was a real challenge.

We were lucky because we had a piece of family property in Alabama on my late mother's side. We sold it for around $50,000, and the money served as a temporary measure to keep Dad where he was.

He feels safe and well cared for

It had taken him a while to adjust. His lack of mobility and some serious issues with his shoulder made it difficult for him to go downstairs to the dining room for meals at first.

Still, he's happy with the arrangement now. He feels safe and well-cared for. There are doctors and nurses on-site.

One of the best things about the facility is its proximity to my house. It's a short drive away, and I can visit regularly.

I'm in the sandwich years with teenage sons, and my dad dotes on them. We often join him for lunch, especially in the summer when the kids are out of school.

We know the money from the property sale will run out soon — possibly as early as the end of the year — and we constantly wonder how we'll cope.

On balance, other facilities are no cheaper

Of course, there are other assisted living facilities, many on the other side of Columbia that might seem cheaper at first. But they are miles from where we live.

When you factor in community fees and travel costs, they're pretty much the same, and you only save a couple of hundred dollars a month.

I don't really want to put Dad through the upheaval of moving for so little savings.

You also hear some horror stories about some of the less expensive places, which might be understaffed and less safe.

However, I'm looking for other options with the assistance of a gerontologist. She's helping me tap into resources I didn't know existed before.

I'm a person of faith and constantly tell my boys, "Do your best and trust the Lord for the rest." Something right for Dad will come along.

• Former CIA operative Emily McCarthy said rucking helped her build muscle for longevity.
• She cofounded a rucking gear company, but said you don't need equipment to get started.
• To start a rucking habit, add weight to your daily walks, build up gradually, and bring a friend.

Emily McCarthy never expected her destiny to be hauling heavy weights on her back.

As a D1 track and cross country athlete in college, she focused intensively on cardio after a childhood spent dabbling in sports like soccer and tennis.

"My base has always been as an endurance athlete. I didn't do a lot of strength training," she told Business Insider.

That changed while training to become a CIA operative. During a grueling land-navigation exercise, trekking for miles with a loaded pack, map, and compass, McCarthy realized she loved the challenge.

"I really thrived in this environment," she said. "Those types of experiences show you what you're capable of."

More than a decade later, McCarthy said rucking has shifted from the Special Forces to the mainstream.

Walking, jogging, or running while carrying weight has exploded in popularity as a simple way to combine cardio and strength training in a single workout.

In an era where muscle-building is linked to healthy aging, rucking offers a time-saving solution for making gains in a short workout.

McCarthy and her husband, Jason, who served in the Special Forces, went all in on rucking, cofounding the fitness gear company GORUCK in 2008.

But you don't need anything fancy to get started, she said.

"Sometimes the simpler solution is the more sustainable one. And I can't think of much exercise easier than walking," McCarthy said.

Anyone can start rucking with minimal equipment to burn fat, build muscle, and boost their health — here's how.

Don't overcomplicate it

Rucking is as simple as moving with weight, whether that's carrying groceries or hiking with a heavy pack.

The key to reaping multiple fitness benefits at once is loading your body to provide resistance to your muscles, including your back, core, and legs, while also ramping up your heart rate for cardio benefits. If weight loss is a goal, rucking can also help you burn more fat and calories in a simple workout like a walk, jog, or hike, since you're working harder than you would with body weight alone.

"Even with weight loss, what is important is that you're replacing it with muscle," McCarthy said.

Her best advice is to just get started with what you already have on hand.

"Everybody has some sort of backpack. Everyone has some way to make weight. People have made weight using bricks, bags of rice, books, water bottles, whatever," she said. "We just want to see more people moving."

Work your way up to bigger weights and longer walks

If you're anxious about learning to lift weights, start slow.

You don't have to begin rucking with a 5-mile hike. McCarthy recommends adding weight when you're walking the dog, to after-dinner strolls, trips to the park with your kids, and similar daily activities for a workout that fits into your existing schedule.

"I like being outside more. So being able to do active resistance training, rucking, gives me that way to incorporate it into my life in a way that I'm more accustomed to," McCarthy said.

And you might be surprised by what you can handle. McCarthy said when she's working with beginners, she offers a variety of weight choices for their first rucking excursion. On a recent trek, a woman felt comfortable enough with 8 pounds to move up to 12 pounds, and said it gave her a huge confidence boost.

"It was just that little four pounds, but mentally, it's a lot," she said.

Rucking meetings are hot right now

Rucking has become a huge trend in recent years — particularly as a networking workout. From San Francisco to London, people are throwing on weighted backpacks to meet up with coworkers or like-minded people in their industries.

This is obviously great news for McCarthy's business, but she says it's been a boon to her personal life, too.

As more people have embraced the once-niche activity, she finds her social world is expanding.

McCarthy's social groups include the "Mother Ruckers," a ruck club for moms, and ruck meet-ups that include everyone from McCarthy's 14-year-old daughter to area college students to grandmothers.

"It allows me the ability to meet with other people. It's hard for me to find someone who wants to run, at the same pace, the same time, the same level," she said.

"We can go out together and have a conversation and still maintain the same pace," she said. "We say that weight is the great equalizer."

• Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest in January 2023 while playing for the Buffalo Bills.
• That experience prompted him and his parents to take even better care of their health.
• The health setback didn't impact him as much as other adversities, including losing friends to gun violence, he says.

Editor's note: Three years ago, Damar Hamlin went into sudden cardiac arrest following a routine tackle during a Monday Night Football game in Cincinnati. Doctors later realized that at 24, Hamlin experienced Commotio cordis, a type of cardiac arrest that happens after a blow to the chest. After spending two days in a medically induced coma, Hamlin needed extensive physical therapy, but returned to the NFL in October 2023.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Damar Hamlin, spokesperson for Qunol's Champion at Heart campaign. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Going into cardiac arrest on national TV wasn't the biggest adversity I've encountered — not even top three. Losing friends to gun violence, that's the toughest thing I've faced. Losing my dad to the criminal justice system, to incarceration. Being a young man who had every example of what not to do, and being unsure about my moves going forward.

There were other physical adversities, too, like having three surgeries my freshman year of college. At the time, I was the hottest recruit to come in a long time, and I had everything stripped from me by injuries. That was very tough to navigate.

All of those things prepared me to face adversity on the big stage. I was only 24 when my heart stopped after a tackle. But when it happened, I was super blessed to have great people around me. The situation that happened there on the field was the least stressful it could have been. All I had to worry about was getting healthy again.

I'm thinking about longevity and legacy

In the three years since the cardiac arrest, I have become a better athlete. I've raised my level of awareness by a notch. One example: now I do blood tests to learn which foods trigger an inflammatory response. With that info, I can feed my body the best way possible.

Seeing me on the field that day has impacted my parents, too. This weekend, we're doing a workout together. They're prioritizing their health, too.

I'm focused on using this trial, this tribulation, to keep making a better version of myself. I always knew that my health and wellness impacted how I show up in the world, as a football player, as a businessman, and as a philanthropist. Health gives me the best competitive advantage to win and to pour into everyone I come into contact with.

I'm thinking about longevity these days, and also about how to align myself with things that contribute to my legacy. That's what I loved about this Champions at Heart Campaign. You don't have to be an NFL player or overcome a life-threatening event to be a champion — you just have to let your passion and resilience push you forward.

I aim to have the same drive my mom has

I try to continuously learn from the people around me. That's like food to me. I'm always seeking wisdom, even from difficult times. One of my favorite sayings is "I don't take losses, I take lessons."

My most impactful lessons have come from my parents. I learned that family is first. My mom was so loyal to my dad for years when he was incarcerated. She worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at a day care, then worked cleaning from 7 p.m. till midnight. I never heard her complain — she just kept putting her best foot forward, and made sure I had everything I needed.

Back in 2011, my mom took a picture of me helping her clean, talking about how she was starting me young. These days, our lives look different. I was just able to build my parents their dream home, from the ground up.

A lot has changed, but I know that if I can keep the same approach to life my mom has always had, I'll be light-years ahead.

• Citi's head of sponsorship said he's seen an influx of requests for Knicks tickets.
• Tom Cerasoli said events like the NBA finals can help bankers secure client relationships.
• Measuring the value of each ticket to the firm is an "inexact science."

Tom Cerasoli can measure Knicks mania by his inbox.

The Knicks are back in the NBA finals for the first time since 1999 and are on a winning streak that's electrifying New York City. Cerasoli, the head of sponsorship and partnership management at Citi, is responsible for fielding internal requests for tickets to the finals. While he doesn't have final say on who snags one of the firm's coveted seats, he shed light on how the bank decides who gets them.

The demand is understandable. As of Friday morning, the cheapest pair of tickets for Game 3 at Madison Square Garden was selling for around $8,500 each on StubHub. President Donald Trump has said he plans to attend the Monday game, as has NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. For a global bank like Citi, access to those seats can be worth far more than their face value.

Client hospitality is all about driving commercial outcomes, Cerasoli said, and the Knicks have uniquely broad appeal. The biggest events are especially helpful for bankers trying to clinch or solidify relationships with current or prospective clients.

As Cerasoli sees it, the finals give executives a chance to land meetings with important clients, since they "can leverage this corporate hospitality in this unique moment in time to potentially deliver that experience of a lifetime."

Citi isn't an official sponsor of the Knicks or Madison Square Garden, but does have a suite and season tickets, which typically grant the firm between 30 and 40 seats per game. Cerasoli, who has worked in sports entertainment for more than two decades, knew it would be critical to secure extra seats in the postseason and helped Citi get more than 100 tickets to finals games.

"It's one of those things where we know it's going to be worth it, because we know the demand from clients and prospects, and from bankers who want to host them, is going to far exceed the inventory that we have," he said.

His predictions proved correct — the excitement has reached a "fever pitch," according to the number of emails Cerasoli was getting ahead of the finals. Employees submit official ticket requests through an internal system, but it's up to Cerasoli and his team to "hedge a lot" on the hundreds of requests they've received.

His team works alongside lines of business that use "their own criteria" to sift through requests and decide who will attend. Some of the calculations are about simply being efficient with tickets.

There are layers of potential impact — helping a private banking and wealth client secure an unforgettable experience for their kid, for example, is "next level" — but Cerasoli said it's hard to measure the exact returns on each hospitality experience, since some clients might attend multiple events.

"How do you attribute? What is the correlation of that one experience compared to maybe 14 others that this banker has done towards the contribution of revenue to the firm?" he said. "It's an inexact science."

While corporate hospitality events are reserved for business relationships, employees can often take advantage of sponsorships, like Citi's connection with the New York Mets (who, as of now, are unlikely to get anywhere near the playoffs).

The Knicks' second game against the San Antonio Spurs is Friday night, before the teams travel to Madison Square Garden for the third match on Monday.

Wall Street firms aren't the only ones capitalizing on the Knicks finally (finally) making it back into the NBA Finals. An Upper East Side beer garden offered customers free drinks if the Knicks won the first game of the series, cushioned by a $5,000 winning bet on Kalshi, which the owner said would pay out to around $13,500 ahead of the game.

• Samuel Colvin leads Pydantic, a key player in AI.
• Colvin sees OpenAI and Anthropic's focus evolving beyond model performance for success.
• The CEO expects OpenAI and Anthropic to offer databases of coding intent.

As CEO of Pydantic, the company behind one of the most widely used frameworks in AI development, Samuel Colvin sits at the center of the action.

Pydantic works closely with leading frontier-model labs and AI developers, giving Colvin a front-row seat to the rapid evolution of models, agents, and coding tools. Investors are paying attention too: Silicon Valley powerhouse Sequoia Capital led Pydantic's latest $12.5 million funding round.

In a recent interview, Colvin shared where he thinks AI development is headed next, and what that means for the rest of us. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: You work with the big frontier labs, including Anthropic and OpenAI. How do you see their strategies evolving?

Samuel Colvin: "A year ago, what they cared about was revenue. So anything you can do to use our inference is great. Now when one assumes they're both trying to IPO, their profit margin becomes really important. And if you want a margin, then what you don't want is to compete just on model quality because at that point you need to spend masses of money training the best model and you need to provide inference on that model as cheaply as possible. So they are doing their very best to find ways of locking people in that are not related to model quality. That's where I think Claude Code and Codex and all that work is coming from."

Q: How are OpenAI and Anthropic moving beyond model performance as a route to success?

Samuel Colvin: "The reason we have Codex and Claude Code discounts — $200 a month subscriptions when you are actually spending maybe thousands on inference with that subscription — is obvious. They're trying to grow market share. They're trying to get as much usage as possible. There's perhaps a more profound thing they may be trying to do, though. Once customers have these enormous code bases, which would be basically written AI, you get to a point where you can't maintain them as a human. If I've used AI to generate 20,000 lines of code overnight, I can use a model to go and fix that, but as a human, I can't ever go and maintain that code."

With such huge code bases, corporate customers will have to keep using these AI coding services from Anthropic and OpenAI. Then, once that usage is locked in, these companies will likely raise prices, Colvin told me.

Q: How are these coding offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic changing?

Samuel Colvin: "My personal guess is that, fairly soon, they're going to say, 'if you use us through a corporate subscription, we don't just do the coding generation and coding agent stuff, we'll also store the traces or trajectories of the full exchange between users and the model as it's writing code.' And then you will have a database where you can look up, for any line of code in your code base, the intent when that code was written. The argument will be that it's really useful, and that it makes coding agents even better. And then they'll probably say, 'we give you that for free, but you can't export it.' So now you're locked into whoever you're using for that across the whole business."

Q: Explain this a little more. How would this work?

Samuel Colvin: "Imagine you have a software bug. You have some odd behavior on some line of code. Maybe the developer, human or AI, who wrote that line of code left a helpful explaining comment about what was going on there. Now you can have too many comments. You can have five lines of comments for every line of code and it gets impossible to read. But imagine if I could click on that line of code and see the full exchange that my colleague had with the AI model to write that line of code, along with all of the reasoning, including the reasoning from the model, the input from the human, therefore a full explanation. Now I have this much richer understanding of the intent behind my code base. And so going in and changing that line of code becomes lower risk because I can know what someone was trying to do when they wrote it and work out whether that's really a bug or whether that's some intended piece of behavior.

"I think this idea of basically 'we store your trajectories and we give you some database of your trajectories' is attractive and valuable. Those two things are not necessarily the same, but on this occasion, it will be actually valuable as well as being attractive."

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.

• Thomas Phillips left the UK for Austin, Texas, to take advantage of the entrepreneurial culture.
• As a business owner, Phillips prefers the US tax system to that of the UK.
• Phillips is thriving in Austin, but he acknowledges that the fast pace of the work culture can be tiring.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Thomas Phillips, 33, a business owner from Southampton, England, who left the UK in 2024 and now lives in Austin, Texas, while running his SEO agency. Phillips is on a E-2 Investor Visa. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm originally from Southampton in the UK — it's where the Titanic set off from. I think that's the only thing Southampton has going for it.

I've been doing search engine optimization for the last 20 years or so. I now run DTC SEO Agency, we do search engine optimization for direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands.

I always wanted to live in the States ever since I was a young kid. Growing up, my dad was really into American cars and we used to go to Huntington Beach, California, to see all of his friends and check out the car scene. It was always a big draw for me to see the car culture and the awesome people and how passionate Americans are.

I'd also done so much research, and I know so many people who live in the US, so I just knew moving was the right option for us.

When we actually decided to move, my wife and I were looking in Huntington Beach. One of my best friends in California called me up three months before we were going to move and he said, "My wife and I are moving to Miami now."

I said, "All right, well, we're not going to move to California then if you guys aren't even going to be there."

One of my mentors said, "Hey, you should look at Austin. There's a great car scene and tons of entrepreneurs."

My wife and I came to Texas for our honeymoon for six weeks and we loved it. Southern hospitality is a real thing. It's great.

It was the right time, and we could get the right business visa, so we moved all our businesses stateside to Austin, Texas.

I prefer the taxes in the US to the UK

We're on an E-2 Treaty Investor Visa, where essentially you create a company, get a five-year visa, and hire a certain number of US nationals. The company has to be making the owner enough profit, and you need to pay yourself a reasonable salary and hire a certain number of people. Then, after five years, you can renew that visa again.

When we've spoken to American clients while in the UK, I've always felt like there was a little bit less trust, where they might say, "You're in a different country. Do you fully understand how this country works?" because there's a 100% difference in consumer culture.

I feel like moving to the States has definitely helped us get a lot more US-based clients. I also love being able to meet clients in person, which we wouldn't have been able to do before unless we flew over, which is expensive.

Plus, I'd say with 98% of the brands that we had built internally, our target audience was always America, because the US consumer culture is so much bigger than the UK's.

The other thing I really like about the US is that state tax is added on after, and you just accept it and you just pay it. In the UK, the company has to show the price that includes the 20% value added tax.

So when you sell a product for $100, the business only gets 80% in the UK and then has all of its costs and everything else after it, versus over here you just pass on that extra to the state, which in my opinion as a business owner is a giant bonus, because at scale, a 20% difference is massive.

I love the tax system here. It's set up in a much better way than the UK's, in my opinion.

I knew about the tax system a long time before moving here. All of my calculations before we moved were done based on us moving to California. We would have saved about 1% on tax just by moving to California because the rate of tax in the UK is so high.

The bonus is we're saving 13% by moving to Texas on top of that, so that's even more of a bonus.

Austin's entrepreneurial culture sold me

America does everything so much bigger than the UK; the mindset difference is huge. I'd experienced it so many times after visiting America and now actually living here.

I absolutely love how business is so celebrated here in comparison to the UK. I'm sure that's why it breeds so many entrepreneurs, as well.

I have so many friends who are entrepreneurs at a high level and they're always pushing for more and more success, which I really resonate with. It's nice to know a mix of people who are all business focused.

As a result, it's so much easier to network here than in the UK. There, trying to find that person who can help you meant they're probably in London, and I definitely didn't want to go to London — I cannot stand London.

It's also quite difficult, in my opinion, because people are a lot more reserved in the UK. Americans are so much more open. There's more risk that's taken, too, in a good way. People are really shooting for the stars.

In the UK, work feels slow and sluggish. I speak to people a couple years later and their business will still be in the same position. It feels very stuck in the mud in comparison to the big, free thinking over here.

On the flip side, I feel like I'm aging more quickly living here — though this isn't necessarily a negative. I can see how in 20 years time, I might think the States is moving at such a speed that I would actually like to move to Portugal and just chill out. But I don't necessarily see the faster pace as a negative thing right now.

It's taxing on the brain, and I feel it in comparison, but this is what I want.

• I grew up in Nashville, and there are a few things I think people should know before they visit.
• There's so much great food beyond Southern cuisine, plus some great eateries run by famous chefs.
• Try renting a car to explore more of the area, and be sure to see local musicians (and tip well).

I lived in Nashville, Tennessee, for 16 years and have watched it become the hub for visitors it is now.

It's widely considered the bachelorette-party capital of the US and has snagged several other accolades over the years. Some say it's one of the friendliest cities in the US and one of the best spots for food lovers to visit.

Although Music City's Southern charm will always welcome you with open arms, and locals are often happy to share their recommendations, there are a few things you should know before you visit.

There's so much more to eat beyond typical Southern food.

Having great Southern food in Nashville is a must — you don't want to miss the James Beard Award-winning meat and three (a plate typically filled with meat and three vegetables) at Arnold's Country Kitchen.

Still, Nashville is pretty diverse and has restaurants with expertly prepared cuisines from around the globe.

Venture out to a Charlotte Pike strip mall for bubbling bowls of soundbar jjigae and steaming bibimbap at Korea House. Head east to try the stewed beef tibs on spongy injera at Gojo Ethiopian, or charred lamb shank at its Persian neighbor, House of Kabob.

You can't miss the sweet and salty coconut custard at The Smiling Elephant, one of Nashville's most beloved Thai spots, or the lengua tacos at La Juquilita.

Not only will these stops inspire your taste buds, but you'll also get to see more of Nashville beyond the trendy boutiques and rowdy honky-tonks.

Consider renting a car. Driving in this city may not be as bad as you think.

Venturing out of the main city area is a great idea, but the logistics can be tricky.

Public transportation has been a hot-button issue in Nashville for over a decade. There have been big plans, big debates, and big disappointments, especially when it comes to funding.

The city's bright-purple WeGo bus system is limited, and although certain neighborhoods are walkable, the city is too spread out for bussing or walking to be effective ways to get everywhere.

Rideshares work for short trips, but I suggest you give yourself the freedom of renting a car so you can really explore.

Although driving in a city doesn't sound ideal, Nashville's drivers can be pretty patient and cautious (honking is a no-no). Plus, I'd say parking is never too hard to find.

Beyond that, you can use your car to see more of the area, which brings me to my next point …

It's worth stepping outside of Nashville to explore Tennessee's beautiful countryside.

Nashville is wonderful, but part of what makes it stand out is the access to the bucolic beauty of Tennessee's countryside.

If you're down for a longer road trip, spend a couple of hours heading from the city to the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Or, stay more local — just a 20-minute drive down Hillsboro Road will take you to rolling hills studded with hay bales and horses. If aimlessly driving isn't your thing, make Leiper's Fork your final destination.

The historic village hosts a strip of antique stores and art galleries, but nothing beats sitting on a rocking chair outside of Puckett's market with a glass of sweet tea and the smell of applewood smoke and pork wafting toward you.

Please be chill about celebrities.

Leiper's Fork and the surrounding area have been home to famous musicians like Justin Timberlake, Chris Stapleton, and Brad Paisley.

Nashville, more broadly, hosts Dolly Parton, Nicole Kidman, and countless other stars.

Part of the appeal of Nashville — or at least what we like to tell ourselves is part of the appeal — is that we don't disturb the city's A-listers. It's a point of pride for Nashvillians.

I've bumped into Taylor Swift at a cupcake shop and advised Steven Tyler on what brand of peanut butter he should get at Whole Foods (Justin's, of course).

So, while you're visiting, if you see Reese Witherspoon at her 12th South boutique or Blake Shelton checking on his Broadway bar, do your best to be polite.

Take some time to treat yourself to food from Nashville's celebrity chefs.

Although there are plenty of delicious spots that boast a bang for your buck (many of which are named above), it's worth spending a little extra to partake in Nashville's star-studded food scene.

Visit Food Network star Maneet Chauhan's Chauhan Ale and Masala House for takes on Indian classics like tandoori-chicken poutine. Eat at Adele's, helmed by one of the pioneers of California cuisine, Jonathan Waxman.

Try homegrown favorites like Henrietta Red, which once earned chef Julia Sullivan the title of best new chef from Food & Wine, or Etch, where Nashville legend Deb Paquette combines flavors in original and mind-blowing ways.

Don't miss the heritage pork ragu or pastured chicken with preserved lemon at James Beard-nominee Philip Krajeck's Rolf & Daughters, either.

Plan ahead because reservations fill up quickly at most of these places.

Be sure to support local musicians and venues

There are plenty of ways to enjoy the great music Nashville has to offer.

You should certainly plan an evening hopping the honky-tonks of South Broadway (SoBro, if you want to sound local), which is filled with rowdy bars with sticky floors and bands belting out country-rock covers.

Maybe one of your favorite artists will be on tour at one of Nashville's great outdoor venues like Ascend Amphitheater or FirstBank Amphitheater. Or maybe you want to see a show at a venue steeped in history like The Grand Ole Opry or The Ryman.

I like visiting smaller spots. The Bluebird Cafe is famous for the singer-songwriters who have come through it.

Station Inn is an old-school stalwart in the midst of the busy Gulch neighborhood. Basement East or The 5 Spot are East Nashville venues that are sure to show off local favorites, and Marathon Music Works and Exit/In are sure to offer unique experiences and rocking performances.

Wherever you go, be sure to tip well.

If you're going to try the city's famous hot chicken, do it right — and learn some of the history first.

If there's one thing that's more synonymous with Nashville than music, it's hot chicken.

Today, hot chicken pops up on menus across the city with all sorts of variations, but the dish has a long history in the Black community of Nashville. It also exemplifies a much greater issue in Southern foodways with white chefs taking credit for and profiting off of Black ingenuity.

Many believe the dish was created by the Prince family decades ago when local casanova Thorton Prince got in trouble with his partner for coming home too late. As a punishment, she supposedly added a bunch of hot pepper to his fried chicken — but it ended up being delicious.

Because of segregation in the city, both officially (until the mid-1960s) and unofficially since, hot chicken was a favorite in Nashville's Black community for many decades but was widely unrecognized outside of it.

This has changed in the past decade or so, and André Prince Jeffries, queen of hot chicken and current owner of the original Prince's Hot Chicken Shack, has encouraged competition from other restaurants — but has suggested visitors remember the creators of the dish.

And I definitely think it's worth making the trip to Prince's to get the original hot chicken.

This story was originally published on November 15, 2024, and most recently updated on June 5, 2026.

• I'm a Harvard student who submitted 15 and prepared nearly 20 internship applications.
• I struggled to find a position for my coveted summer internship, often getting ghosted.
• While I now fortunately have an internship, albeit unpaid, I'm still worried about my future.

Over the last spring semester, my friends and I bemoaned our common predicament as Harvard College juniors: the difficulty of landing a summer internship.

Even with the stellar qualifications that brought us here, it has not been enough to satisfy the demands of countless external companies.

Many parents mostly send their children to college — especially an Ivy League institution like Harvard — to "see a return on investment."

For students like me, the fear of not being able to produce a deliverable feels more than merely bad; it can place tangible financial stressors.

That's why it was so stressful for me when I struggled to land the coveted junior summer internship.

My previous summer internship experiences

I have worked in my sector — climate policy, sustainable energy advocacy, and electoral politics — since 15. At 18, I also picked up my secondary vocation as a freelance writer. I am now 21.

Throughout my last two years of high school, I worked part time as a climate organizer, running lobbying events at the New York State Capitol, and one summer, co-managing over 80 interns for an electoral campaign.

During my last two undergraduate summers, I was fortunate enough to have two funded opportunities in Washington, D.C. The first summer, the opportunity I found was granted through Harvard's institute. The second summer, I decided to force myself to rely upon the traditional "crapshoot" online application process, monitoring LinkedIn job updates daily.

While it proved difficult — I faced rejections, as expected in any job search — I did eventually land a position.

Heading into this summer, I expected the process to be similarly difficult. I sure was wrong.

My junior summer internship application process

Between January and mid-April, I submitted applications for 15 internships in the climate policy and politics sectors, with more applications half-drafted in my Google Drive — bringing the total to around 20.

After submission, I frequently was met with radio silence. Occasionally, I'd receive a rejection notification. In one case, it was to notify me that the internship acceptance rate was 0.008%, which was the primary reason for rejection.

Even now, I am still receiving rejection notifications for opportunities I applied to months ago.

On occasion, I would receive a first-round interview offer. A singular interview notification would be a gleeful glimmer if not for the multiple following rounds that have become so commonplace.

My classmates are struggling to find internships, too

Summer internship offers are seemingly few and far between for the collegiate applicants I personally know.

With a poor job market comes fewer internship opportunities, slowing the career trajectories of new Generation Z entry-level employees.

It isn't a complex of generational individualism, either: report after report indicates that college graduates currently face the worst job market in decades.

Harvard's shared job market struggles

I am lucky to have an offer this summer, albeit unpaid. Given the realities of the current job market, it is no surprise that fellow Harvard students neglect the immediacy of their academic work at Harvard to pursue their chance at professional prosperity each summer. The stress of ensuring one's job security in the current post-graduate space never fully dissipates.

I personally possess a grave fear of my long-term post-graduate unemployment. It isn't unfounded. I recall watching two recent Harvard alumni I know cycle through literal hundreds of initial applications, interviews, ghosts, and rejections. They both eventually succeeded, but still, it entailed a situation of financial precarity.

So while the current labor moment presents us with a once-in-a-generation economic challenge, it does not mean that all of our looming postgraduate life is inherently soured by a single summer.

• The Air Mobility Command Museum houses the only C-5 plane on public display anywhere in the world.
• The C-5A Galaxy at the museum was the first and only aircraft to launch an ICBM in flight.
• The giant cargo bay can hold helicopters, tanks, and pallets with "anything from beans to bullets."

There's only one place in the world where you can see a C-5 plane on permanent public display: the Air Mobility Command Museum on Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Any C-5 would be impressive enough. As the largest aircraft in the US Air Force, C-5s are designed to haul tanks, missiles, helicopters, and other cargo anywhere they need to go.

But the museum doesn't have just any C-5 on display. The C-5A Galaxy was the first and only aircraft to ever launch an intercontinental ballistic missile in flight.

I visited the museum in May to tour the one-of-a-kind plane with Michael Hurlburt, the Air Mobility Command Museum's operations manager and an Air Force veteran. Take a look inside.

C-5s, the largest aircraft in the Air Force, are strategic lifters designed to move large amounts of cargo anywhere in the world.

"You name it, it'll take it," Hurlburt told Business Insider. "Anything from a small pallet full of food to M1 Abrams tanks, helicopters, missiles — it can take, carry, transport just about anything that will fit."

The first iteration of the C-5, the C-5A Galaxy, entered service in 1970.

The C-5A Galaxy could carry up to 264,440 pounds of cargo in its freight compartment, plus 73 passengers in its upper passenger compartment.

Measuring over 247 feet long with a wingspan of over 222 feet, its maximum speed was 601 miles per hour.

The Air Force now uses a modernized version of the C-5 Galaxy, the C-5M Super Galaxy.

Beginning in 1998, the Air Force's fleet of C-5s, including C-5 Galaxy As, Bs, and Cs, underwent modernization.

The Avionics Modernization Program upgraded the aircraft's communication, navigation, and autopilot systems, among other features, from analog to digital. The Reliability Enhancement and Re-engineering Program also added new, quieter engines that provide 22% more thrust, allowing the aircraft to climb faster and carry more cargo further, according to the Air Force.

The Air Force's last remaining C-5A Galaxy was retired in 2017, and the modernized C-5 A, B, and C Galaxy models were reintroduced as the C-5M Super Galaxy.

The C-5M Super Galaxy can hold a maximum cargo load of 281,001 pounds and is one of the few airframes capable of transporting a 70-ton M1 Abrams tank.

The Air Mobility Command Museum on Dover Air Force Base remains the only place in the world to see a C-5 on public display.

The museum's C-5A Galaxy, serial number 69-0014, was assigned to Dover Air Force Base in 1973. It became the first C-5 to be retired to a museum when it was added to the Air Mobility Command Museum's collection in 2013.

C-5s can occasionally be seen at pop-up air show exhibits, but the Air Mobility Command Museum still has the only C-5 on public display.

At the museum, the C-5A Galaxy's cargo bay is open to visitors.

The cargo bay is open for guided tours. The cockpit is accessible only on Open Cockpit Days, held between March and November on the third Saturday of the month, because the museum needs to borrow a special stair truck from Dover Air Force Base to access the 65-foot-tall plane's upper deck.

Museum admission is free.

My tour started with the landing gear, which pivots and swivels to allow the colossal plane to maneuver more efficiently.

With a wingspan of over 200 feet, the aircraft would typically need an enormous amount of space just to make a U-turn. Yet because the gear swivels, the plane doesn't need much more area to maneuver than it already occupies, allowing C-5s to operate on runways as short as 6,000 feet.

An intercontinental ballistic missile was displayed nearby, recognizing this particular C-5A Galaxy's status as the first and only aircraft to launch an ICBM in flight.

On October 24, 1974, the C-5A Galaxy displayed at the museum dropped a Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, over the Pacific Ocean in a feasibility test conducted by the Air Force. The test was successful — the ICBM's rocket engine fired and carried it 20,000 feet, showing that the missiles could be launched from the air.

The Air Force didn't continue the program, but the US used this proven missile capability as a bargaining chip in Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The first thing Hurlburt pointed out upon entering the C-5 was a model of the Wright brothers' plane hanging from the ceiling.

The Wright brothers' first successful flight with a powered airplane lasted 12 seconds in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903.

Then, he pointed to the American flag on the other side of the cargo bay. The space between the two is the distance of the Wright brothers' first flight: just shy of 120 feet.

At 143 feet and 9 inches, the C-5's cargo bay is longer than the Wright brothers' first flight.

"The Wright brothers could have done their flight inside of a C-5 if it had existed," Hurlburt said. "And it was only about 60 years between that flight and the first flight of the C-5. So we made huge leaps and bounds over the course of 60 years."

The museum offered visual aids to help contextualize just how large the C-5 is and how much it can hold.

C-5s can hold six full-size commercial buses, seven UH-1 Huey helicopters, two M-1A1 Abrams tanks, or, most amusingly, 25,844,746 ping-pong balls.

During presidential trips overseas, a C-5 usually drops off the presidential helicopters, known as Marine One when the president is on board, ahead of Air Force One's arrival.

The plane's insulated walls also encase the 103 miles of wiring that keep the aircraft running.

"To put that in perspective, the state of Delaware is 97 miles long from top to bottom," Hurlburt said. "It's a small state, but still, the C-5 has more wires than the length of the state of Delaware."

Vehicles can simply be driven onto C-5s via ramps at the nose and aft doors.

With cargo openings at the front and rear, C-5 planes can be loaded and unloaded simultaneously.

Chains hooked into the floor are used to secure large vehicles during flight.

Larger chains can hold 25,000 pounds, while smaller chains can hold 10,000 pounds.

Any cargo that doesn't have wheels is loaded onto pallets like this one, which can weigh up to 10,000 pounds each.

The C-5's cargo hold has space for 36 standard aircraft pallets, which could contain "anything from beans to bullets," Hurlburt said.

The pallets are rolled onto the plane via tracks in the floor that can be raised or lowered.

"You can flip these over in a matter of minutes and have the whole airplane configured for either rolling stock or for cargo, no problem," Hurlburt said.

Elevated platforms along the plane's walls provide space to walk when it's too full of oversize cargo.

If the plane is loaded with square pallets on tracks, it's easier to leave aisle space for walking between them. It's not as simple when the plane is loaded with tanks or helicopters.

Back on the ground, the museum displayed a C-5A Galaxy outboard wing section to give visitors a look at its internal fuel tanks.

The C-5A Galaxy stores fuel in its wings. Its 12 internal tanks — six per wing — hold 51,150 gallons of fuel.

The rare chance to explore a C-5 up close makes the Air Mobility Command Museum worth a trip to Dover Air Force Base.

Of the 52 C-5 aircraft in service in today's Air Force, 18 are assigned to Dover Air Force Base. If you're lucky, Hurlburt told me, the museum's historic planes are parked close enough to the base to see their modern counterparts in action.

"You can come out of that C-5," he said, pointing to the Galaxy C-5A we'd just walked through, "and then watch one take off right afterwards."

• The S&P won't change its rules to speed up SpaceX's inclusion in the S&P 500.
• The index will still require a year of public trading before companies can be included.
• The decision differs from Nasdaq where new rules allow mega IPOs fast entry into the index.

There's no fast track for SpaceX to join the S&P 500.

S&P and Dow Jones Indices committee said it will not be changing its index inclusion rules to fast track entry for SpaceX and other mega IPOs expected this year from Anthropic and OpenAI.

"There will be no changes to existing methodology for this index family. S&P DJI determined that exceptions to the financial viability, seasoning, and IWF requirements should not be granted solely based on market capitalization," the release read.

The rule change would have cut the required trading period in half, from 12 to six months, and waive the positive earnings requirement. Instead, the existing rules stand, meaning newly public companies must trade for one year, record four straight quarters of positive GAAP earnings, and a minimum market cap of $22.7 billion.

The decision marks a contrast from Nasdaq's fast entry rule which allows newly public companies to join the Nasdaq 100 in 15 trading days, compared to waiting as much as a year, for mega IPOs like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI.

The fast entry rule fueled criticism from some on Wall Street who said the rules exist to protect investors.

The timeline for SpaceX's inclusion in S&P indices is mid 2027, if it meets all requirements.

• American families loaded up their station wagons and hit the road in the mid-20th century.
• Families explored the US as the country was changing, exposing them to different ways of living.
• But road-tripping in the '60s also came with its own dangers, especially for Black Americans.

With the cross-country interstate materializing, automobiles on the rise, a booming economy, and a growing travel bug, families loaded up their station wagons and hit the road in the mid-20th century.

Road tripping in the '60s and '70s was popular and affordable, and for many people, these cross-country vacations were the first time families experienced life outside their own towns. 

Many Americans grew up road tripping, and the shared experience is something they still bond over today — though high gas prices may make road trips more difficult this year. 

Here's a look back at Americans who hit the road, ready for family bonding, exploration, and plenty of mishaps along the way. 

In the early 1960s, Americans realized the relative ease and low cost of cross-country road trips.

While flying was more luxurious, American families saw road trips as a more affordable way to see different parts of the country. So, when summer came around each year, they would pack up their station wagons and hit the road.

Amid the postwar economic boom, middle-class families had a new sense of disposable income.

With the baby boom underway, American families were growing and ready to explore in their new cars.

"The nation's railroads were in stark decline by the 1960s, [and] taking a trip by car was the most viable option," historian Allen Pietrobon, who has taught a course at Trinity Washington University examining the meaning of the great American road trip, told Business Insider.

With money to spend and the growth of the auto industry, Americans hit the road.

However, it didn't mean all journeys were smooth.

Richard Ratay, author of "Don't Make Me Pull Over! An Informal History of the Family Road Trip," previously told Business Insider that, while automobiles were on the rise, his family wasn't the most confident about their own.

"It wasn't a matter of 'if' you were going to break down, but when," he said.

For Ratay's family, every trip started with his father stopping at Kmart to stock up on equipment for the inevitable breakdown.

Ratay said he has plenty of memories of standing on the side of the road, watching his older brother use a wire coat hanger to try to fix the family car. 

The interstate's debut promised open roads with far less traffic than we see now.

Sparked by President Dwight D. Eisenhower — who wanted the military to be able to move freely across the country in the most efficient way possible, the US Army reported — the interstate system was launched in 1956 after Congress passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act.

With a looming fear of atomic attacks, it was also designed as a way for people to easily escape cities.

The project ultimately took more than 30 years and more than $100 billion. It was largely completed by the 1990s.

If families needed advice on where to start, a strategic partnership between car manufacturers and cities created advertisements to lure families for a visit.

Pietrobon said this was a win-win partnership, in which car manufacturers would convince Americans to hit the road in their new vehicles, encouraging them to visit cities with unique charm. That way, the automobile industry took off, as did tourism. 

In a time when Americans were unfamiliar with the way of life even just a few states over, sometimes seeing an ad for The World's Only Corn Palace in South Dakota was enough to get the whole family on the road to find out more.

Roadside attractions were built to draw families to new places, even if it meant abandoning your route to spend an afternoon climbing into the body of a giant Brontosaurus.

Sometimes, an eye-catching billboard would encourage families to veer off course. Other times, they would get recommendations from someone they met on the road.

In Cabazon, California, gigantic dinosaurs would greet families as they pulled into the parking lot.

Families carefully followed their AAA TripTik maps to find the best roadside attractions and outlooks.

The cross-country road trip honored the saying "it's about the journey, not the destination."

Ratay remembers his father wanting to squeeze every drop of gas out of the car, often leaving the family stranded on the side of the road with an empty tank. 

Some Americans would camp along the way, revealing a new world of hiking trails, water sports, campfire cooking, and lots of Jiffy Pop.

Families would pull into the campground, park the station wagon, pop open the camper, and set up camp. Campgrounds were a great way to meet others and exchange travel tips. 

To haul all the extra gear and have somewhere to sleep, some families attached campers to their cars.

Before we had tiny homes, we had pop-up campers. Campers would latch on to the back of the family Vista Cruiser and carry the camping gear, chairs, guitars, endless snacks, and toys.

Sometimes, families would leave the car and camper behind for the day and hit the road on bikes.

A bike ride along a glistening lake or through a forest was a great way for a family to spend time together outside the car. For some, getting into nature was a completely new experience.

For those still wanting to avoid the great outdoors, motels were an easy, right-off-the-road spot to spend the night.

With people from all regions under one roof, motels were a unique hot spot for learning about other parts of the country.

Ratay said he felt like he was a part of a "fraternity of travelers" all on similar trips with different stories to share.

Parents and their kids would play or lounge in the pool to cool off after hours on the road.

Adults would sit poolside, exchanging stories of getting lost or asking other families about the best roadside attractions. 

Not all motels were on the side of the road.

Others looked more like summer camps, where families could bond over activities before continuing on their way.

For a lot of families, getting the chance to ride in a motorboat or try kayaking was a completely new adventure.

To keep the kids entertained, families could play mini golf or shuffleboard.

Any motel that had mini golf, shuffleboard, or ping pong was a huge find. 

Baseball was America's favorite sport throughout the '60s, and a pick-up game of catch was a way to get the body moving after spending all day in the car.

Fishing, soccer, rollerblading, and card games also kept kids engaged. 

Some motels even had game rooms, where families would team up against others.

Ratay remembers getting to a motel and rushing straight to the game room until it was time to go to sleep. The chance to make a new friend or two was always a plus.

But games weren't confined to motel rooms. After packing up the car and getting back on the road, it was time for the road-trip games to begin.

Road-trip games were essential for keeping everyone entertained for hours in the car.

The alphabet game, license-plate game, car bingo, and the timeless game of Mad Libs carried families through never-ending corn fields and desert plains. 

Lost families would turn into rest stops to ask for help getting back to their routes.

Half of the adventure of road tripping was staying on track. With a sole paper map (that could easily fly out the back of your Lincoln Continental convertible), if you made a few wrong turns, you were faced with stopping the car and asking a stranger for help. 

Ratay remembers his sister perched between his parents in the front seat, flipping through an AAA map book as the family followed a simple road-trip routine: drive from the top of one page to the bottom, then turn to the next and keep going.

In many ways, road trips were golden opportunities for Americans to learn about their own country aside from history books or movies.

Finally, people were tasting new cuisines, hearing different accents, and learning firsthand about different ideologies. 

Ratay recalled stopping in New Orleans, where he tried new dishes, including po'boys and okra, which were completely foreign to a family from Wisconsin.

He also observed different lifestyles as they cruised down the road, noticing active sharecropper shacks and parents working in the fields with their children.

But road-tripping in the '60s, a time of segregation, was not as easy if you were Black.

Pietrobon said that when Black Americans were at home, they knew their go-to "safe" spots where they could eat out or refuel.

But hitting the road meant giving up that security, and often, they would try to reach their destination as quickly as possible, a stark contrast to how white Americans valued the journey over the endpoint. 

If Ratay's father ever ran out of gas, he would stick his thumb out on the side of the road, hitchhike to the nearest service station, and eventually return with enough gas to get the car to the rest stop. 

Running out of gas on the side of the road would not necessarily promise the same outcome for a non-white traveler. 

The "Negro Motorist's Green Book" was published in the 1930s for Black Americans on the road. It noted safe places for them to stop, grab a bite to eat, or spend the night.

Pietrobon said that "even rest-stop picnic areas and vending machines were frequently segregated," and Black people used this book as a method to avoid humiliation or, worse, a dangerous situation. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the book was no longer published.

The movie "Green Book" depicts the travels of a Black musician and his chauffeur, who use the book as a guide to find lodging and do business.

Cross-country road trips played a central role in shaping Americans' brave, determined spirit.

Traveling went beyond sightseeing and the feat of crossing the country. The exploration itself began to shape Americans.

"What a road trip provides to American life is the fact that if you've done that sort of exploration once, it makes it easier to do it again," Pietrobon said, "i.e., to risk a change and take that new job; to move to a new city; to be more adventurous in life overall."

Traveling "is what gives Americans their rugged drive and sense of individualism," he added. "It's what makes Americans tough."

Road trips not only gave Americans a deeper understanding of their country, but they also created new adventures that families would bond over for a lifetime.

Returning home from the road welcomed opportunities for change and new narratives that could be passed along to others.

As siblings grew older and passed down stories and lessons to their children, they could reminisce about the adventures and unpredictable situations they had faced together as a family.

More than a year after being laid off as a software engineer, Jesse Jashinsky still couldn't find work. He was supporting his family on a patchwork of unemployment and SNAP benefits, help from their church, and increasing amounts of credit card debt.

Then their car broke down. Replacing the transmission was an emergency expense they couldn't afford.

So Jashinsky made a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe and put it on Facebook. A few days later, he shared it on another social network, writing: "I don't know if this is the right thing to do on LinkedIn, but I'm kind of desperate."

Jashinsky said the post helped his fundraiser collect more than $3,800.

"I had no idea if it would get us anything, but I had nothing to lose," said Jashinsky, who is 40 and lives in Utah.

Amid the slowing job market and high inflation of recent years, LinkedIn — once a buttoned-up professional networking site reserved for polished resumes and career updates — has become a place where workers post candidly about layoffs, job searches, and now, direct requests for mutual aid.

Business Insider reviewed 50 LinkedIn posts from the past year containing GoFundMe links and found repeated themes of prolonged unemployment, mounting bills, and financial emergencies. Many users framed the decision to crowdfund on LinkedIn as awkward, uncomfortable, or driven by necessity. About half of the posts were from people raising money after layoffs or extended job searches, while others sought help with medical bills or hardships affecting family and friends.

The posts come as the job market has grown more challenging. In February, the hiring rate fell to a level last seen during the early pandemic and the aftermath of the Great Recession. As of March, more than a quarter of unemployed Americans had been looking for work for 27 weeks or more, up from about 18% three years earlier.

While seeking financial support through LinkedIn can be effective, it also carries risks of stigma, scams, and unwanted scrutiny online.

The new openness on LinkedIn

The first signal of a vibe shift on LinkedIn may have been the "open to work" banners, which the platform introduced in 2020 amid soaring pandemic unemployment. The banners helped users signal availability to recruiters and their network, though some worried they were symbols of desperation that would turn off potential employers.

Norms around "self-presentation" online have changed rapidly, said Brooke Erin Duffy, an associate professor of communication at Cornell University who studies social media platforms. Growing uncertainty about the labor market and highly public conversations about work culture, including the "quiet quitting" trend, have encouraged more open discussions about career struggles, she said.

"People aren't just sharing more of their personal lives — they are more likely to express vulnerability in professional contexts, from layoffs to demoralizing experiences at work," she said.

Andrew Selepak, a social media professor at the University of Florida, said seeing others get traction on LinkedIn may help people to launch their own asks. He added that people may also be taking lessons from social media influencers, many of whom have drawn attention and support by sharing personal experiences online.

"I think many people understand on a very basic level that people will connect to me more the more transparent I am — the more I reveal about myself," he said.

As his unemployment benefits began to run out and he feared losing his apartment, Jeffrey Knutson shared his own GoFundMe on LinkedIn recently, several months after losing his job as a digital asset manager. He's raised over $6,500, which he said came primarily from longtime friends, acquaintances, and even some complete strangers.

"I wanted to be honest about the reality of the current job market and show that asking for help during a difficult period can be both practical and necessary," said Knutson, who's 54 and lives in Chicago.

This transparency can come with downsides, however. Knutson said publicly sharing his GoFundMe led to suspicious messages from people posing as recruiters or offering to help promote his fundraiser. Some interactions initially appeared legitimate before turning into requests for money or paid services.

"I would definitely advise people to be cautious," he said.

On the whole, Knutson and other job seekers said they did not regret promoting their fundraisers online. For those making donations, GoFundMe's website says an "overwhelming majority" of the site's fundraisers are legitimate.

Why certain people turn to LinkedIn for help

There's another reason that LinkedIn specifically may be seeing an influx of GoFundMe campaigns: the networking site is largely a platform for white-collar workers who have been disproportionately affected by the hiring slowdown of recent years, Selepak said.

He added that the gradual onboarding of Gen Zers to LinkedIn — who are more accustomed to sharing personal experiences online — could also be contributing to more candid posts on the platform. At the same time, older workers may simply have larger networks there to turn to for support: LinkedIn launched in 2003, making it older than Facebook, YouTube, Twitter/X, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.

After struggling to find work following a layoff from Morgan Stanley last year, Valerie Lockhart launched a GoFundMe to try to raise money for plumbing repairs that had left her family without hot water. She was hesitant to share the fundraiser on LinkedIn, but did so in part because she had a larger network there than on other platforms.

After losing his healthcare instructor role last year, Issac Jeremy Caballero started a GoFundMe, a step he said required him to put aside his pride. He eventually decided to share the fundraiser on LinkedIn after reflecting on the strength of the network he'd built there. Caballero has raised more than $2,500, which he said helped him stay afloat while he looked for another job.

"I wanted to be transparent about my situation and trusted that the same community I've supported would understand and potentially support me in return," he said.

Do you have a story to share about how you're navigating a career crossroads? If so, please reach out to the reporter via email at jzinkula@businessinsider.com, or via Signal at jzinkula.29.

• Frontier AI labs are advancing systems at a hard-to-follow speed.
• So much so that Anthropic has called for a coordinated slowdown in AI development.
• "It would be good for the world to have the option to slow," the company said in a blog post.

Anthropic says AI is advancing so fast that leading labs may need to slow down.

In a blog post published Thursday, researchers at The Anthropic Institute, the company's research arm, said that AI is already speeding up the development of new AI models so quickly it could eventually help build its own successors.

"We believe it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause frontier AI development to enable societal structures and alignment research to keep up with the advance of the technology," the company said.

Anthropic's warning comes as AI is reshaping the tech industry and the broader economy at breakneck speed.

Notably, Anthropic's blog post comes in the same week that it confidentially filed its S1 draft, setting the stage for its IPO. Both Anthropic and its AI rival, OpenAI, have been in a race to go public first. OpenAI has not yet officially filed IPO paperwork.

In recent months, executives have touted AI's growing ability to perform work once done by humans, from writing software code to handling recruiting and customer service tasks. Google has said AI now generates 75% of its code, while Mercor CEO Brendan Foody recently said that his startup spends more on AI tokens than employee salaries.

At the same time, a growing list of companies has linked layoffs and restructurings to AI-driven efficiency gains.

Anthropic pointed to its own internal data, showing how much work is already being delegated to AI.

It said that more than 80% of the code merged into its codebase is now written by Claude, and that the typical engineer was merging eight times as much code per day in the second quarter of 2026 as in 2024.

While one employee cited in the blog post said there are days when everything goes so well they "can't help but think nothing I do matters," another said it had been roughly five months since they last wrote any code themselves.

The report also said AI systems are increasingly capable of handling engineering and research work that once required humans.

While current models still struggle with higher-level judgment and deciding which problems are worth solving, the company said AI capabilities are advancing rapidly.

Anthropic stopped short of calling for an immediate pause.

However, it said that any meaningful slowdown would require coordination among multiple frontier AI developers and governments, warning that a unilateral pause by a single company would do little to improve safety.

While similar arrangements have existed for other powerful technologies, the company warned that building the infrastructure and trust required for them takes time.

"We don't have that long," it said.

Anthropic's blog post drew criticism from some in the tech world. Prominent investor David Sacks reacted to the post on X, writing: "In other words, you want the government to save us from … you."