• I compared chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A, KFC, Burger King, Wendy's, McDonald's, and Taco Bell.
• Chick-fil-A and KFC's nuggets were similarly sized but had distinctly different textures.
• Taco Bell's crispy chicken nuggets stood out for their crunch and innovative sauce flavors.

Before the chicken tender became the hottest fast-food must-have, there was the humble and hearty chicken nugget.

Its small size made it the perfect side dish, post-work snack, or, as millennials will recall, the perfect drunchie (drunk munchie).

One way fast-food brands are attempting to capitalize on chicken's popularity, especially among Gen Z diners, is by adding — or upgrading — chicken nuggets on their menus.

Most recently, on September 1, Burger King released an updated version of its classic chicken nugget in response to customer feedback that its originals were "rubbery," "dry," and "disappointing." The same day also saw the return of McDonald's Spicy Chicken McNuggets, which will be available for a limited time.

Here's how six fast-food chain chicken nuggets ranked, from worst to best.

My least favorite nuggets came from Wendy's.

Cost: $7.49 — excluding tax and tip — for a 10-piece serving at a Wendy's in New York City.

All prices listed here may vary in different markets.

The chicken nugget was crispy, but instead of being juicy, the chicken tasted a little chewy.

Like Burger King and McDonald's, Wendy's is primarily a burger chain. So, it should come as no surprise that its chicken nuggets are pretty unremarkable, in my opinion.

They were decently seasoned, and the breading had a lot of flavor, but they were also pretty small. Wendy's nuggets definitely act more as a side dish than a reason to go to the chain.

KFC's nuggets were a little bare-bones.

Cost: $7.31 — excluding tax and tip — for a 10-piece serving at a KFC in New York City.

KFC's nuggets were the least breaded out of the ones I tried.

They were a little bland, but I thought the chicken itself tasted higher quality than the nuggets from Wendy's, Burger King, and McDonald's. It was more shreddable and paired well with the chain's comeback sauce, but I would have liked more breading to give it that crunch.

I'd probably recommend the chain's chicken tenders or fried chicken over its nuggets.

McDonald's nuggets were a classic.

Cost: $2.39 — excluding tax and tip — for a four-piece serving at a McDonald's in New York City, or $5.79 for a 10-piece serving.

The nuggets from McDonald's were predictably good.

McDonald's chicken nuggets are the stuff of legend. They've been around since the early '80s, and there's something about the tempura-style fried chicken nuggets that keeps me coming back for more.

They're always crispy, always salty, and always consistent — I know what to expect with a McDonald's nugget. That being said, I thought they were a touch too salty.

Burger King recently upgraded its chicken nuggets.

Cost: $5.19 — excluding tax and tip — for a 10-piece at a Burger King in New York City.

The nuggets were crispy and paired well with the chain's sauces.

Released September 1, the new chicken nuggets are crispier than the original nuggets, and were updated to include a more flavorful marinade and new packaging, Burger King said.

I thought the nuggets had just the right amount of crunch and flavor, and held their own as a stand-alone entrée on the Burger King menu.

While they were very similar to McDonald's nuggets, they were slightly cheaper, giving them the edge.

Chick-fil-A

Cost: $9.19 — excluding tax and tip — for an eight-piece serving at a local Chick-fil-A in New York City.

The nuggets were flavorful and juicy, with just the right amount of seasoning in the breading.

While some of the other nuggets leaned on the drier side, these nuggets were moist and would likely pair well with practically any dipping sauce.

Each nugget was on the smaller side — despite being the most expensive of the ones I tried — but packed a lot of flavor into a small bite.

Taco Bell's nuggets may not be on menus right now, but they were my favorite.

Cost: $3.99 — excluding tax and tip — for a five-piece order and one dipping sauce. However, I was invited to taste the chicken nuggets at an early preview hosted by Taco Bell in New York City in December 2025, and I received complimentary samples.

The exterior felt hard. However, when I bit in, the chicken was extremely juicy and flavorful.

These chicken nuggets, coated in a blend of breadcrumbs and crunchy tortilla chips, stood out from the competition with their well-balanced flavor.

They were salty, with a subtle corn taste from the tortilla-chip breading. They reminded me more of a boneless wing than a chicken nugget.

Paired with the chain's Hidden Valley fire ranch sauce, a standard creamy ranch sauce with a slight hint of heat, and jalapeño honey mustard, an unusual combination of tangy mustard and strong yet balanced jalapeño flavor, these nuggets blew me away.

The nuggets were initially rolled out as a limited-time offering, but Taco Bell continued to bring them back in 2025 and 2026 as it expanded its crispy-chicken menu.

Here's hoping they'll be back again soon.

College football is officially back. We've rounded up everything you need to know about where to watch Alabama Crimson Tide football.

The easiest way to live stream every Alabama Crimson Tide college football game is via ESPN Unlimited in the US. Coverage is available through DAZN in the UK and other regions. You can access your streaming options from anywhere with a VPN.

Where to watch Alabama Crimson Tide in the US

Like the rest of the major college football teams, Alabama games are spread across several different channels throughout the season. Since Alabama plays in the SEC, all 12 Longhorns games will air or stream on ESPN-owned networks and services, like ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, the SEC Network, and the ESPN streaming service.

This means that fans will be able to live stream all of the action through an ESPN Unlimited subscription, which carries live streams from flagship ESPN networks and ESPN+ and SECN+ streaming-exclusive content. Subscriptions cost $32 a month and unlock a wealth of live sports programming, including comprehensive US Open coverage.

A live TV streaming service can also help you tune in, and it might be a better fit if you're hoping to watch other teams that are available on non-ESPN networks and services. YouTube TV and Fubo are two of the best options in the game, and both platforms offer budget-friendly sports packages.

YouTube TV carries ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and the SEC Network in both its Sports and Main plans. The Sports plan costs $65 a month, but new users can get $20 a month off their first six months after a free trial. The Main plan costs $83 a month, but first-time customers can get $15 a month off their first five months after a free trial. ESPN Unlimited is now available through YouTube TV.

Fubo offers ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and the SEC Network in all of its plans (other than Latino). The Pro plan costs $89 a month, but first-time customers can save $25 on their first month after a free trial. These Fubo plans also unlock access to ESPN Unlimited at no extra cost.

Where to watch Alabama Crimson Tide in the UK and other regions

College football coverage will be available on DAZN in the UK and other international markets this year. A DAZN NCAA College Sports subscription shows up to 25 games each week. Subscription prices vary by region, but a few games will be available for free.

How to watch Alabama Crimson Tide from anywhere

If you're traveling abroad, you can still keep up with every game with the help of a VPN. VPNs, or virtual private networks, are easy-to-use cybersecurity tools that let people temporarily change their virtual location. This way, they can still access their favorite websites and apps from anywhere in the world. Since the services we've highlighted require country-specific payment methods, this option will work best for fans who are just traveling away from home.

NordVPN is one of the best VPNs on the market. It's speedy, secure, and has a 30-day money-back guarantee if you find that it's not what you're looking for.

Alabama Crimson Tide Football Schedule

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.

• My husband and I own and run a large business together, while also raising three kids.
• We learned early on that work-life balance doesn't work for us, and we can never split things 50/50.
• We practice radical prioritization, which means we cut out everything except for work and kids.

Just 21 days after my third child was born, I was taking VC calls. We were mid-Series A, and a fundraise does not pause for a newborn. The investor I pitched that day ended up leading our round.

I'm not telling you this to inspire you. I tell you this so you know I'm speaking from experience when I say: work-life balance is fake.

My husband Roy and I are the co-founders of BodySpec, a 125-person healthcare company that makes DEXA scans affordable. If you're on a GLP-1 and want to know whether you're losing fat or muscle, that's what we track.

We've been busy these last couple of years. We're also raising three children: ages 7, 5, and 3. This is not the life I expected.

As a millennial, I thought my marraige would be 50/50

I went to a blue-stocking all-girls private school in Manhattan that raised us on feminist ideas. Senior year, as we prepared for college, alumni came back to tell us what it was like to take classes with insufferable boys who loved to hear themselves talk.

Six months later, at Harvard, I was dating one.

As we approached adulthood together, I was certain our marriage would be 50/50. I had read "Lean In." I knew that doing your boyfriend's laundry in college was a gateway drug to doing everything, forever. But that wouldn't happen to me, I thought. I would have my own career, supported by an aligned partner who was equally competent at changing diapers, making lunches, and getting children through bedtime.

For the record, Roy is that partner. He moves the kids through their schedules faster than I can.

But as co-founders, our lives are not 50/50. We discovered years ago that 50/50 is a lie.

My husband and I threw 'work-life balance' out the window

The reality is that we take turns covering 90%. When I am fundraising, traveling, or attending evening events, Roy carries the family. When he is deep in a product sprint or an expansion problem, I do. Some weekends that means a three-on-one Mama marathon, or months when I'm the one doing both mornings and bedtimes.

Beyond that, there was no 50/50 option available when the children were babies. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, and postpartum recovery were patently unfair. Roy was the one who set up my breast pump and showed me how to use it, but he still did not have to spend hours attached to it. Biology effectively gave him another 20 or 30 hours a week to think about the company. I could not compete.

Did I resent it? Yes. But at some point, I realized that keeping score was useless. Resentment didn't actually put dinner on the table or finish the pitch deck. At worst, left to fester, it could end a marriage.

So I became the external founder, doing work that mostly happens during business hours. Roy took on product and technical work that could happen at night.

Work-life balance also assumes that work is the draining part and "life" is where you recover. Anyone who has cared for multiple children knows this is not true. Childcare is many wonderful things. Restorative is usually not one of them.

Comparatively, solo work trips feel like self-care. I can have pad thai all to myself, enjoy stimulating intellectual conversations with other adults, and even sneak in a massage on a lighter day.

We use 'radical prioritization' instead

We genuinely like working on Saturdays. The team isn't in, so the office is quiet and we're more productive. One of our older children comes along, usually our son. He is the middle child, bossed around by both his older and younger sisters. At the office, he can build LEGO sets without anyone destroying them and enjoy a peaceful one-on-one lunch with Mama.

This is what we call radical reprioritization: we cut out everything else in our lives and blend the two most important facets to succeed in both. It's accepting a lopsided, demanding life to be both a successful leader and a deeply involved parent. Not everything will be 50/50. There will be sacrifices along the way — and you'll often have to blur the lines between work and life.

Radical reprioritization does not feel like work stealing from family life.

We do not talk about the company as the thing Dada or Mama is always choosing over the family. It is our family's company. Our children have grown up alongside it, and they beam with pride when they see our vans or stores.

Finally, this life comes with sacrifices. Neither of us has personal hobbies. Whatever marginal free time we can find usually goes toward chasing our own wellness: lifting, walking, sleeping. There is not a lot of slack in the system, and I do not want to pretend otherwise. We are, in a traditional sense, wildly unbalanced.

But both of us get to be serious founders and deeply involved parents.

This is not the life I pictured at 17. It's lopsided, it's ours, and it's better than the one I was promised.

• I was very involved with school activities when my son was in elementary school.
• Personal challenges changed how I prioritized time with my child and made me rethink my efforts.
• After the first band booster meeting, I elected not to join. I have no regrets.

I am the mom of an only child, and my 17-year-old son is a senior this year. I've always tried to volunteer and get involved to help out and enrich his school experience, but in recent years, I've scaled back.

When he started high school and joined the marching band in ninth grade, I no longer wanted to be scurrying around on the sidelines, taking care of things for everyone else's kids. I wanted to focus on my kid. So that's what I did. I took a step back and actually enjoyed watching my kid do something that he loved.

Now, he's a senior, and I have no regrets.

I've put in my time

I was very active in the PTA when he was in elementary school. I organized the twice-yearly dinners for teachers and staff during parent-teacher conference nights, arranging food and desserts and soliciting volunteers to help set up, serve, and tear down.

Then came middle school and COVID-19. My focus shifted to my kid and how to get him through tough times. I created "Mom's Summer Camp" when his camp was closed, and I wanted to focus on being there for him during these transitional years.

When he started high school, I was going through a rough time personally, and I had to fight to find time and energy to show up for him. My mom, who had previously been enjoying an independent retirement life, started having some medical issues that required a lot of continued assistance from me.

The PTA mom has left the building

The mom I had been in elementary school was gone. I felt guilty at first for not joining the Band Boosters, the parent group (mostly moms) who run every band event and fundraising activity.

I went to the first meeting, and they described the enormous amount of work each year — chaperoning bus trips, running raffles, working the twice-yearly hoagie fundraiser, and manning the parking lots. While there are a few moments when even the booster moms get to watch the halftime show, the rest of the time they are working, cleaning up the bleachers, passing out food to the kids after the halftime show, or hawking raffle tickets in the stands.

I couldn't do it. Not with everything going on with my mom. Plus my son is my only kid. I simply wanted to be there, to show up to the football games, sit in the bleachers, cheer for the team, and scream as loud as I could when the best band in the land took the field at halftime. Home, away, rain or shine, I wanted to show my son that even during chaotic personal times, I was the mom he could count on to show up.

Fighting for time

I had to fight hard to be there for him. With emergency after emergency related to my mother's physical and mental health, I haven't had a perfect record. I had to miss a whole game one year while I was in the ER with my mom.

I called in favors from friends to make sure he got to school in time for the games I had to miss or when I would have to arrive late. But I showed up. After crying in the car about my mom, I'd fix my makeup, speed walk to the stadium, buy a soda and popcorn, and scream with delight during the halftime show.

I always sit in the same area. He knows where to look for me. All I see is the pure joy of what he's doing, and I'm so glad he's able to have that and count on me.

The booster parents do great, important work, but I know my kid needs my attention from the stands. Every first is a last when you have an only child. These are the only years I get to be a band parent.

This final year as a band mom will be bittersweet. Each year, after the last home game, outside the band room, the underclassmen and parents of seniors form a pathway for the senior band members to run through when they exit for the last time, one by one. They line both sides of the path as the seniors run, dance, strut, or simply walk out the band door that final time, and into their future.

My heart caught in my throat watching the 2026 seniors exit, knowing that the next time I see this happen, it will be my son's turn. I don't know how I'll get through it emotionally, but I can tell you this much. When he exits that band door for the last time, I won't be inside counting raffle tickets or directing cars in the parking lot. I'll be outside that door cheering him on (and let's admit it, probably crying). For me, that's my job.

• US Army soldiers simulated an urban assault against a formidable adversary.
• Drones and new software played a role, but basic combat skills remained central.
• Testing new tech during regular training brought both opportunities and complications.

The US Bradley Fighting Vehicles were visible on the horizon as they raced toward the city. Smoke, deployed to conceal movement, formed wisps around the outskirts. Assault forces, preparing to storm the enemy stronghold, gathered on the northern edge, navigating barbed wire, cars, and concrete blocks — enemy obstacles meant to slow the assault down.

The urban assault, part of a simulated conflict against a formidable peer adversary, followed days of combat.

The US Army exercise tested soldiers on moving through a city caught in conflict, pushing them to clear streets and buildings while fighting. The fight also had another layer. Though not at scale the way combatants in Ukraine are, soldiers were integrating new technologies, including drones and software, to determine whether these systems made a difference in how they saw, sensed, and engaged the enemy.

Traditional warfighting skills remain central to combat operations though.

At the Army's Project Convergence Capstone exercise at Fort Irwin in California this summer, close to 10,000 soldiers gathered to experiment with new weapons and technology while fighting a mock war. Enemy forces consisted of troops from Irwin's 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, known as "Blackhorse."

Across the hot, dusty Mojave Desert, soldiers grappled with the heat's effects on themselves and their equipment.

A little over an hour before assault forces breached the training city, Blackhorse drones were flying above, scouting the area.

Inside a building, a unit commander asked a drone operator flying a Black Widow quadcopter to use it to assess vehicles pushing into the city. The drone could fly up to four kilometers away, extending the unit's view beyond what soldiers could see from the ground.

"I'm able to find with my UAS [uncrewed aerial system], I'm able to fix with fires, and then I finish with my AT [anti-tank] weapons systems," Capt. Mohamed Elmaola with the 4th Infantry Division told Business Insider.

While remotely piloted uncrewed aircraft proved advantageous for early surveillance operations, they were used only sparingly once the fighting moved into the city, occasionally flying above to scout positions, terrain, and movement. Soldiers said that the use cases for the drones had changed as the exercise went on, with the focus shifting toward the on-the-ground fight.

One ground robot, an uncrewed ground vehicle called the NOMAD, had been put to use outside the city limits earlier that morning, but it didn't see use in the assault.

"What we really want to be able to do is not just saturate the environment with a bunch of technology" because "that becomes so distracting" that soldiers can't train efficiently and effectively, Brig. Gen. Daniel Hibner, head of the Army Joint Modernization Command, told Business Insider.

The simulated city, which the Army calls Razish, was sprawling, with winding streets, buildings of different heights, underground tunnels, and hidden positions. During the training exercise, two key objectives for the assault forces were the jail and a large palace at the center of the city.

As the two opposing forces clashed inside the training city, troops dismounted from their fighting vehicles and began checking buildings for enemies. Dismounted infantry and Bradley crews work together in combat, with each protecting the other as they advance.

Bradleys equipped with heavier weaponry engage threats farther away while soldiers on foot armed for close-in combat clear buildings and eliminate threats to the vehicles nearby.

"You don't want your Bradleys to outpace your dismounted infantry," one soldier told Business Insider, explaining that dismounted enemy troops armed with anti-vehicle weaponry will "just shoot your Bradley."

Enemy forces hid in alleys and on the top floors of buildings, occasionally taking a shot at a gunner exposed atop a Bradley vehicle or a dismounted soldier running across the street. At one point, enemy forces successfully hit a Bradley. The turret shot up, signaling that the vehicle had been destroyed. In many respects, this kind of fighting wouldn't have been unfamiliar to veterans of the Global War on Terror.

The sounds of the fighting came in waves, loudest when assault forces raided the jail and palace. Even in quieter moments, bursts of gunfire could be heard in the distance.

Soldiers positioned on rooftops or in windows would peek up, aim, and fire their weapons before ducking back down. If "killed," soldiers would stop fighting and sit or stand where they were.

Hours into the fight for the city, some of the assault forces gathered inside and alongside a low building just across the street from the gates surrounding the palace. They were assessing whether they had enough ammunition to keep fighting.

One asked where they were located and whether any friendly forces were around them. Another opened his End User Device, a smartphone mounted to his chest, and checked out a map, reading off the building number aloud.

The soldier was using the Army's prototype Next Generation Command and Control, or NGC2, a software- and artificial intelligence-enabled battlefield network.

At Project Convergence Capstone, troops were examining how NGC2 performed in a large-scale combat scenario, marking the latest iteration of a series of tests. Prior tests had taken place at Fort Carson in Colorado, where the Army's 4th Infantry Division developed NGC2 with industry partners.

One soldier said he was using NGC2 to see where friendly forces were located within the city and where enemy forces might be hiding. Another soldier said that connection issues, either problems with the NGC2 system or the result of electronic warfare and jamming, had left it mostly unusable.

That mix of success and failure was exactly what Army leaders said they wanted to see at the exercise, characterizing it as a chance to gather feedback on what worked and what didn't.

"We're gonna have some failures out here in the desert, and that's good," Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army vice chief of staff, said on a call days after the exercise concluded. "If there is something out here that's not living up to what has been advertised, we're going to walk away from that."

The urban assault showed both the advantages and the challenges of training while experimenting with new technology.

Soldiers had to answer big questions about whether experimental systems were actually useful while still being judged on basics such as whether they properly cleared or marked buildings.

The training environment gave the Army a demanding place to test new technology, but the experimentation also gave soldiers one more thing to manage while trying to win a fight.

• Ukrainian troops' battlefield adaptability is "astonishing," a Western commander said.
• Western trainers are learning from Ukraine while helping fill gaps in conventional skills.
• Some combat veterans still lack basics like rifle marksmanship after being mobilized quickly.

Experienced Ukrainian soldiers are showing their Western instructors their battlefield creativity forged by years of war, even as some of these same troops still need help with basic military skills like shooting straight.

Ukrainian soldiers are learning Western ways of war at Camp Jomsborg in Poland. The Norway-led training aims to strengthen fundamental fighting, leadership, and planning skills. But the exchange runs both ways. Trainers say the Ukrainians also bring innovative modern warfare solutions to the table.

Brigadier Atle Molde, the commander of Task Force Legio, the multinational command supporting the training of Ukraine's armed forces, told Business Insider that the Ukrainian ability to "improvise in a very pressed situation is nothing but admirable."

"It's astonishing," he said. "It's how they're able to improvise, adapt, fix things, develop, evolve, change."

He said those talents are "something to bring back home and learn from," as Norway studies Ukraine's battlefield experience for lessons it can apply to its own military. Other Western partners are increasingly working directly with Ukraine for the same reason, looking to improve parts of their own warfighting ability as they prepare for the possibility of a wider conflict with Russia.

Jørgen, a Norwegian Army instructor for the camp's platoon leader course who asked to be identified only by his first name, said that "in general, they are much more creative than we are able to be." He attributed that in part to Ukraine having fewer standardized procedures than its partners. "I think that's a strength."

Officers with other training programs, such as the UK-led Operation Interflex, have likewise praised Ukrainian creativity, saying that they often have "much greater tactical imagination."

But that battlefield ingenuity at times coexists with gaps in basic military skills.

Needing the fundamentals

"I'll give you one specific example," Molde said. "We have had soldiers from Ukraine with two years of battlefield experience that cannot shoot their rifle straight

Some were mobilized quickly without the kind of foundational training that Western militaries typically provide. Small arms also play a much more limited role on the battlefield dominated by artillery and drones, so real-world experience may not be high.

Maj. John, the S3 Operations Officer who helps coordinate training at the camp, told Business Insider that the Ukrainians "have shown us a lot of different creative methods."

But, "at the same time, that conventional knowledge in some units has not been that great," he added, speaking on the condition that only his rank and first name be used.

"Ukrainian soldiers who arrive at Jomsborg have varying levels of skills and experience," NATO said in a description of the camp. Some are "hardened combat veterans looking to learn advanced tactics," while others are troops who need "infantry combat skills."

"At the very least, trainees receive thorough instruction in marksmanship under stress, effective combat communication and platoon- and company-level infantry movements," it said.

Concerns have long been raised about the level of basic training given to Ukrainian soldiers, especially early in the war as masses of inexperienced troops were mobilized and surged toward the front, putting much of the training burden on front-line commanders. They found that many of the newly mobilized soldiers lacked fundamentals, such as marksmanship and maneuver.

Ukraine extended its basic training to 51 days last year, with an emphasis on shooting and counter-drone tactics. "It is worth noting the level of marksmanship training: 137 hours of practice and 56 firing exercises with various weapons," the Ministry of Defense wrote in its description. "Mandatory training also includes countermeasures against enemy UAVs."

Still, basic skills may be unevenly distributed.

An exchange of skills

The Ukrainians, John said, "are innovative. They use new technologies. We try to learn off that. And then we try to give them competencies with regard to the conventional methods, planning methods, military decision-making processes, and so on.

Together, he said, that "creates a good result."

John said that while Ukraine excels in many areas, the extensive military experience that Western partners bring "still has a value."

Ukraine's combat experiences are built into the camp training because, as Molde said, it would be "stupid" not to. Ukraine has been at war with Russia for years, intensely since the 2022 full-scale invasion but even before that in the Donbas. They understand Russian tactics, and they understand modern warfare.

John said the camp is considered a Ukrainian facility, with Ukraine determining its training needs and Ukrainian instructors work alongside Western ones.

Molde said it makes sense that Ukraine is often more creative than its partners. War forces rapid innovation. Throughout military history, "the innovation wheel goes very slowly in peacetime. And when a war occurs, then suddenly this rotation is 10 times, 100 times as fast," he said.

That leaves Camp Jomsborg with an unusual training dynamic. Ukrainians bring lessons learned from a fast-changing war, while Western partners offer conventional military expertise that some Ukrainian units never had time to build.

Molde said both groups can "evolve in parallel."

• My 9-year-old daughter is in 4th grade.
• Her elementary school encourages parents to volunteer.
• I decided not to, and I have no guilt about it.

When my daughter, now 9, started kindergarten, I was very surprised that her school asked parents to take time off from their busy schedules to help in the classroom, during field trips, or at special events like book fairs.

Coming from France, I was accustomed to a different approach. There, schools are viewed as strictly professional environments where only trained and certified individuals participate. Parents receive little encouragement to interfere in school activities.

Upon realizing that American schools are more community-oriented and value volunteer involvement, I decided to give it a try. It turned out that volunteering was not a good fit for either my child or me, and I never did it again.

I felt useless when I volunteered during a field day

I volunteered once during a field day. There was nothing special to do, just standing on the sidelines and cheering for the children, which made me feel useless and uncomfortable. Most of the other volunteers were moms, closely supervising their kids, while others chatted on the side of the field. I didn't see the point of taking some time off to make an appearance, especially since my daughter didn't seem to care.

I also noticed that not everyone can be a good volunteer. The best ones know how to engage with all the kids, not just their own, and do so patiently, even if children behave poorly. I found the experience overwhelming, and helping behind the scenes, such as by giving money for a party, is a better solution for me.

School is my daughter's territory, not mine

Giving my child independence is essential to me, as it fosters self-confidence and resilience. I view school as the perfect place to be separate from parental presence and to be more independent.

Since I'm not a volunteer, my daughter knows I won't be physically there to help her navigate her school life. Relationships with her peers and teachers are her responsibility. If one classmate behaves obnoxiously, she needs to develop her own coping skills and try to solve the problem independently.

She can also express herself more freely at school without my involvement. If I were there volunteering, she would act differently and seek my approval instead of being her true self. By letting the school be her personal space, I show her that I trust her to figure things out. This makes her proud, confident, and happy.

I'm involved in my daughter's education in many other ways

Not volunteering doesn't mean that I don't care about my child's education. It's quite the opposite. I believe in education, having earned a master's degree from a renowned French institution. I have high expectations for my child, but I prefer to step back.

I participate in parent-teacher conferences and open houses. For the rest of the year, my interactions with the teacher are minimal. I let her do her job and trust her to inform me if she has any concerns. When I speak about her or the school, it's always in a positive way, as we are on the same team.

Each day, my daughter and I discuss school. By showing interest in what she chooses to share, even if it's just a game at recess, she sees that her school life is important to me. While she manages homework independently, I provide her with a quiet place and time to do it properly. Missing school is rare, usually due to illness or other uncontrollable factors, not dentist appointments or extra vacation time. This sends her the message that education is the priority.

I appreciate parents who volunteer, but my choice not to do so doesn't make me a bad mom, simply a mom who knows what works best for her and her child.

• Lloyd Enbom and his wife paid $22,000 for a home in Hakuba, Japan, a rural ski town.
• Their home was less expensive than it would have been elsewhere, but it requires a lot of work.
• The couple intends to keep traveling with their young daughter while living in Japan half the year.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lloyd Enbom, 40, a content creator who purchased an abandoned home in Hakuba, Japan, a ski town in Nagano Prefecture, with his wife, Mandy Rutherford. Enbom, who is from Australia, plans to continue traveling with his wife and two-year-old daughter while making Japan their home for half the year. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

We've been doing YouTube full-time for nearly five years. Our full-time work is travel content.

In 2021, we were locked down in Australia until the 11th of November, which was the exact day we left.

At the time, a lot of people, especially in Australia, thought you couldn't travel to Bali or Southeast Asia, so we were documenting our experience of doing it, and sharing tips and advice. That's when it really dawned on us that travel content was a viable business, because people tend to watch other people travel to get advice on where to go, what to do, how to get visas, and how to earn money online so that you can travel full-time.

So we fell into the role of educators for people on how to live this sort of life.

We started in Bali, then traveled around Southeast Asia. We did all of Vietnam in one month, which was really incredible; we went to Thailand, Singapore.

Then we made it over to North America; we spent six months in Mexico, and then we bought an RV and traveled around basically the entire Western United States. We drove our RV through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, and back up. We got married in Las Vegas and had our honeymoon in New York City.

Then we settled in Thailand for two years, where we had our daughter, Lyla.

We had reached what we wanted: get a full-time income and live wherever we want. We decided Thailand would be a really good option for us as digital nomads; it's cheap, has really good healthcare, and amazing private hospitals that are cheap.

We were renting a place in Thailand, but as foreigners, you can't own land in Thailand. You have to rent property for 25 or 30 years. If you buy a house in Thailand, you're basically renting the land that you live on.

It works for some people — a lot of retirees go and do the long-term lease thing, and I think it works out financially to be pretty good. But we were in Thailand, and Mandy started seeing these cheap houses in Japan when she was pregnant.

Apart from that time in Thailand, we were fully nomadic. It's great to be able to move around, but the biggest challenge is that you live out of a suitcase. At some point, you really start craving a home base, somewhere to go back to, and that's one of the things that drew us to buying a home in Japan.

We fell in love with a Japanese ski town — and the cheap houses

While we were in Thailand, we went down a YouTube rabbit hole. We learned a lot, and the more we learned, the more we realized that buying a home in Japan was actually really possible.

My first concern was, "How are we going to buy a house if we don't have residency in Japan?" In most countries — like Thailand — you have to be a resident to buy a house.

The biggest surprise was that you don't even have to set foot in Japan to buy a house there. If you find the right house and the right real estate agent, you can buy a house from your home.

We read up on it and went back and forth with the idea for two years. In March 2026, we came to Japan on a road trip and decided to check some houses out. We decided then it was pretty much a no-brainer for us.

We ended up finding a house within 15 minutes of an amazing ski town called Hakuba. They co-hosted the Winter Olympics there in 1998. There are a lot of Australian expats who come here to snowboard and they end up staying, so it's got a bit of a multicultural vibe.

It's still very Japanese, but it doesn't feel like you're such an outsider being in a ski town like this. When we found it, we thought this could answer a lot of our problems.

We got lucky that somebody was selling this property that we were interested in, and the real estate agent had lived in Canada at one point, so she was Japanese, but spoke fluent English.

The property had been listed a month earlier, and we happened to be here on a road trip, so we emailed them and were able to set up a viewing, and everything went pretty smoothly.

The total closing price was 3.6 million yen, which at the time was $22,000. After all of the fees that we had to pay, it totaled 4.1 million Japanese yen.

We signed everything at the end of March 2026, and they gave us a window of about almost five months to actually settle it, which was great because we needed to figure out all the paperwork and the logistics. We moved in July.

I don't want to sugarcoat it and make it seem like you're buying a $20,000 completed house that has everything in order. There's a lot of stuff you have to take on yourself.

When we signed the contract to buy the home, we bought it as-is, which meant if the electricity doesn't work or if the water pipes are all rusted and everything, that's on us. We have to fix that.

We didn't know if we were going to have running water, electricity, or if anything was going to work. Thankfully, the electricity and the water did. But the boiler didn't work, so the biggest thing for us right now is having a hot shower and renovating the bathroom.

The bathroom is just a cold bath at the moment, which doesn't really work when you've got a two-year-old and two adults living there.

We're anticipating spending about the same amount on renovations as we spent to actually buy it. We may even go beyond that if we want to make it really, really nice.

We want to keep traveling, but Japan will be our home base

This is only our second time in Japan. We came for a road trip for about a month this spring, and we fell in love with the country.

The culture is extremely friendly and polite. It's clean, it's safe, it has four seasons, and it's surprisingly affordable. You can eat out in Japan for half the price that we pay in the United States or Australia.

We're not going to live full-time in Japan. There's a difference between purchasing a property and getting citizenship or residency.

Our visa statuses allow us to be in Japan for up to six months of the year, which has always been the lifestyle we prefer; being able to move between two places — whether that's Thailand or Bali for six months, then Japan for six months.

We're here and treating it as a permanent holiday home. We get to come and enjoy the area and have our house that we own, that we've renovated ourselves and has our furniture in it. We don't have to find a new rental every time we want to come back here.

We own forever in Japan for the price of what wouldn't even cover a house deposit back in Australia. And no one can ever take it off us.

• The next Miss America will be crowned on September 6 in West Palm Beach.
• More than 50 women will be competing for the title this year.
• The contestants include a medical student, a professional ballroom dancer, and a karate instructor.

It's almost time to crown the next Miss America.

On September 6, 52 women from around the country will gather at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, for the chance to win the coveted title.

The winner will be crowned by Miss America 2026 Cassie Donnegan and will take home a $50,000 scholarship.

Before you watch the competition — which will stream on PageantVision.com at 7 p.m. ET — meet the 52 women competing for the crown.

Alabama: Ruby Tilghman

Ruby Tilghman, 22, graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in chemistry. She is an incoming student at the university's Heersink School of Medicine. Tilghman previously represented Florida at the Miss America's Teen competition in 2021.

Tilghman is an avid hiker who has visited 28 national parks. She is also a recipient of the President's Volunteer Service Lifetime Achievement Award.

Alaska: Nora Andrews

Nora Andrews, 20, is a senior at Grand Canyon University, where she is studying psychology and professional writing. She is hoping to earn a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and a certification in sex and relational education and therapy.

Andrews is also an advocate for suicide prevention and mental health awareness.

Arizona: Victoria Vredevoogd

Victoria Vredevoogd, 25, is a law student at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

The pageant queen founded and serves as president of The Gender Violence Project, an organization at ASU that advocates for survivors and provides free legal resources. She also wrote and published her own fantasy novel, titled "A Legend of Golden Shadows."

Arkansas: Ava Weeks

Ava Weeks, 20, is a student at Ouachita Baptist University. She hopes to become a secondary English teacher.

Weeks became an advocate for passenger safety after witnessing a terrible car accident when she was a teenager, according to her Miss America bio. Her community initiative is "Every Seat. Every Ride. Buckle Up."

Weeks has won over $50,000 in scholarships from competing in the Miss America system.

California: Sharlize True Trujillo

Sharlize True Trujillo, 22, is pursuing a degree in gender studies and a minor in film and television from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is planning to attend law school and study entertainment law.

The pageant queen is also a dancer, actress, and content creator. She has more than 2 million followers on TikTok.

Colorado: Gabrielle Burns

Gabrielle Burns, 23, is pursuing a master's degree from the University of Colorado Boulder. She is studying to become a speech-language pathologist.

Burns is an advocate for communication disorders and disabilities. She's also a professional ballroom dancer.

Connecticut: Christa Steiner

Christa Steiner, 27, graduated from the Manhattan School of Music, where she earned a degree in vocal performance and musical theater.

Steiner is a professional singer and voice teacher. She is using her Miss America platform to advocate for increased access to mental health treatment.

Delaware: Anaya Harrison

Anaya Harrison, 24, earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Biden School of Public Policy at the University of Delaware. She plans to attend law school.

Harrison works as a congressional aide in the US House of Representatives, where she "helps constituents navigate federal agencies," according to her Miss America bio.

District of Columbia: Evelyn Smith

Evelyn Smith, 25, graduated from Oklahoma City University with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and minors in political science and studio art. She was the first Black woman to win Miss Oklahoma's Teen, and she made it to the top nine at the Miss America's Teen 2018 competition.

Smith has certified more than 1,000 individuals in CPR. She used her own skills to save her mother's life during a heart attack, according to her Miss America bio.

Florida: Alexandra de Roos

Alexandra de Roos, 23, is an honors student at the University of South Florida, where she is studying psychology. She plans to attend medical school and become a neuropsychiatrist.

The pageant queen was previously a student at the School of American Ballet, but her dancing career was cut short after a traumatic brain injury. She founded The Blue Project nonprofit to advocate for brain injury education and healing through the arts, according to her Miss Florida bio.

Georgia: Sophia Wootten

Sophia Wootten, 21, is pursuing a degree in communication sciences and disorders at the University of Georgia. She is planning to become a pediatric audiologist.

Wootten made history as the first Miss America contestant with a cleft lip and palate. She has undergone 20 reconstructive surgeries and wears hearing aids. The pageant queen wants to use her platform to "redefine what representation looks like for children with disabilities," according to her Miss America bio.

Hawaii: Carly Yoshida

Carly Yoshida, 26, earned a degree in social sciences from the University of Hawai'i - West O'ahu and plans to pursue a professional meteorology degree.

Yoshida is a field reporter, digital content producer, and on-air weather personality for KITV 4 Island News, an ABC affiliate in Honolulu. She previously won Miss Hawaii's Teen in 2016.

Idaho: Déja Fitzwater

Déja Fitzwater, 21, is studying communications at the University of Idaho. She is an avid 4-H volunteer and won Miss Oregon's Teen in 2022.

Fitzwater, an advocate for agricultural literacy, is using her platform to "help young people better understand the people, science, and industries behind their food and natural resources," according to her Miss America bio.

Illinois: Kate Dimmett

Kate Dimmett, 23, graduated from both the Kelley School of Business and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. The pageant queen is a professional violinist.

Dimmett is the president of Notable Measures, a nonprofit she launched at 13 to expand access to music education. According to her Miss America bio, she has raised over $90,000 and provided 170 grants through her organization.

She previously won Miss Indiana's Teen in 2021.

Indiana: Ellise Edwards

Ellise Edwards, 22, graduated from the University of South Florida. She is a content creator with over 127,000 followers on TikTok, where she shares videos of her curly-hair routine and her experience as a postgrad.

Edwards wants to help businesses grow their online presence "through strategic social media marketing," according to her Miss America bio.

Iowa: McKenzie Kerry

McKenzie Kerry, 27, graduated from the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has been involved in organizations including Iowa Jobs for America's Graduates and Big Brothers Big Sisters Workplace Mentoring.

Kerry was recruited into Principal Financial Group's three-year leadership development program. She currently serves as a learning and development consultant.

Kansas: Sophie Lewis

Sophie Lewis, 23, graduated with honors from the University of Kansas with a degree in biochemistry and a minor in business.

Lewis works as a medical sales consultant and is helping expand access to biomarker blood testing for early lung cancer detection, according to her Miss America bio.

The pageant queen made history as the first Asian American woman to win the title of Miss Kansas.

Kentucky: Reagan Earlywine

Reagan Earlywine, 24, is a third-year dental student at the University of Louisville. She is a recipient of the Excellence in Dental Gross and Neurological Anatomy award.

Earlywine plans to become an orthodontist someday. She is using her platform to advocate for access to preventive oral healthcare.

Louisiana: Shelby Bordelon

Shelby Bordelon, 24, is pursuing her master's in strategic communication at Southeastern Louisiana University.

She founded Claire's Promise, Inc., a nonprofit organization that works to prevent impaired driving, after her friend was killed by an impaired driver. She is also a spokesperson for MADD Louisiana.

Maine: Ruthie Gusler

Ruthie Gusler, 19, is studying business administration at the University of Maine at Farmington, where she plays soccer. She hopes to become a real estate agent.

Gusler created the Wonder Kids community service initiative to advocate for children who survive abuse.

Maryland: Gianna Romero

Gianna Romero, 21, is a student at Stevenson University, where she studies business communication. She wants to work in sports marketing after college, interning in the athletics department at Calvert Hall College High School.

Romero advocates for healthy relationships, sharing her own experience of being in an abusive relationship for two years to help others.

Massachusetts: Ashlyn Mercier

Ashlyn Mercier, 25, is a police officer. She earned her undergraduate degree in national security from the University of New Haven in Connecticut and her master's degree in criminal justice from Boston University.

Mercier created Nick's Courage: One Smile Goes a Mile, an initiative designed to support children with cancer. Her brother had cancer twice as a child, so the program is close to her heart.

Michigan: Grace Hanke

Grace Hanke, 19, is studying mechanical engineering at the University of Detroit Mercy, participating in the school's accelerated master's program.

She wants to ensure other young women have access to STEM opportunities, so she created the Engineer Her Future US initiative. Hanke has also partnered with several organizations to promote STEM education and access nationally.

Minnesota: Anna Brennan

Anna Brennan, 20, hopes to become a news anchor, so she is studying journalism at the University of St. Thomas. She is also a professional ballerina.

Brennan created MediaWELL, an initiative that aims to provide media literacy education to people of all ages.

Mississippi: Jane Granberry

Jane Granberry, 23, is a student in the MBA program at the University of Mississippi. She used her integrated marketing and communications degree from the school as an influencer marketing and PR coordinator at Tarte Cosmetics.

She launched Literacy Without Limits, which provides literacy education and tools to people in Mississippi. She was first runner-up in the Miss Mississippi pageant in 2024 and 2025 before being crowned queen.

Missouri: Tabitha Crain

Tabitha Crain, 24, is a law student at the University of Missouri. She wants to use her degree to advocate for survivors of domestic violence. According to her Miss America bio, she has raised over $500,000 to support survivors of domestic and sexual abuse.

Crain is passionate about fitness, as she is a former cheerleader and gymnast. She teaches spin classes in her free time.

Montana: Adella Harris

Adella Harris, 19, studies political science at Montana State University, where she is an honors student. She wants to go to law school after college and hopes to run for office someday.

Harris created the Made for More initiative, encouraging children to chase their dreams.

Nebraska: Lexi Nolda

Lexi Nolda, 22, earned a bachelor's degree in nutrition and health sciences from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After skin cancer affected members of her family, Nolda hopes to someday become a dermatology nurse practitioner.

Nolda advocates for skin cancer prevention, and she hopes to expand that work if she is crowned Miss America.

Nevada: Mariah Larronde

Mariah Larronde, 27, got her bachelor's degree in digital audiences and media analysis at Arizona State University. She plans to pursue a master's in data science while working toward her goal of becoming an actress.

Larronde wants to support children who lose a parent or have a parent struggling with an illness, so she created the Hidden Caregiver Network.

New Hampshire: Lauren Plank

Lauren Plank, 21, is a student in an accelerated master's program at the University of New Hampshire. Her goal is to become an elementary school teacher.

She believes in the power of volunteering, so she created a program to encourage children to get involved with service work.

New Jersey: Kylie Gene Wright

Kylie Gene Wright, 23, is studying business administration. She also works at AmeriKick Karate Studio, where she uses her second-degree black belt to teach classes.

Wright is an advocate for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, and she serves as the East Coast Chapter President of T.A.K.E. Defense, a role in which she has raised over $10,000, according to her Miss America bio.

New Mexico: Katarina Blakeslee

Katarina Blakeslee, 26, got her bachelor's degrees in public health and theater performance from Tulane University and holds an MFA in screenwriting from the University of Southern California. She has worked on films and TV shows for studios like A24 and Netflix.

Blakeslee is pursuing a Master of Anesthesia program at the University of New Mexico and works in her state's only Level One Trauma Center.

She is also passionate about literacy advocacy and wrote the children's book "Valiant and the Bubble."

New York: Madison Oh

Madison Oh, 21, studies English, dance, and business management at Columbia University. She would love to dance on Broadway someday.

She advocates for the Minds Matter: Education Empowers initiative, which supports students applying to college and seeking career opportunities.

North Carolina: Lauryn Mallard

Lauryn Mallard, 26, has a bachelor's degree in nutritional science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an MBA in healthcare management from High Point University. She wants to become a physician assistant.

Mallard has worked with the Make-A-Wish Foundation for almost 20 years, raising money for pediatric cancer care and research.

North Dakota: Emma Tong

Emma Tong, 23, studied biology at the University of Alabama and will attend the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences to become a doctor. She wants to be a radiation oncologist.

She was previously named Miss North Dakota's Outstanding Teen 2021.

Ohio: Lexie Miller

Lexie Miller, 23, is a cardiovascular ICU nurse who graduated from the University of Akron.

Her career was inspired by her parents, who work as a first responder and a healthcare professional. Miller hopes to raise awareness for cardiovascular health.

Oklahoma: Jaselyn Rossman

Jaselyn Rossman, 22, has a bachelor's degree in accounting with a minor in finance from Oklahoma State University — but she's not stopping there. She plans to pursue a master's degree in the field.

She's also passionate about creating work opportunities for people with disabilities and has worked with Special Olympics and The Bridges organization.

In her free time, she volunteers as a presenter for Oklahoma Cares for Children and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Control.

Oregon: Allyssa Defillipo

Allyssa Defillipo, 26, has dreams of becoming a holistic nutritionist. She works as both a manager of a chiropractic and wellness business and as a women's nutrition and fitness coach.

She was inspired by her childhood in a low-income home to expand nutrition education and access to healthy foods. Defillipo has also written a children's book.

Pennsylvania: Stephanie Skinner

Stephanie Skinner, 21, is an advocate for children who have nontraditional upbringings. She herself was raised by a single mother who served as a US Army Major.

Some of Skinner's recent accomplishments include graduating from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and performing at the FIFA World Cup Fourth of July ceremony.

Puerto Rico: Annika Schneider

Annika Schneider, 21, is a dancer, cheerleader, and graduate of Pfeiffer University. She has a bachelor's degree in business management and leadership.

She was the first Hispanic woman to be crowned Miss North Carolina Teen, and now, as Miss Puerto Rico, she aims to advocate for the benefits of reading.

Rhode Island: Mia Daley

Mia Daley, 19, is an arts student at Salve Regina University. She dreams of performing on Broadway and is passionate about storytelling onstage.

She's also an advocate for improving mental health through dance. She believes it has the power to heal and serve as a tool for self-expression.

South Carolina: Lindsay Jones

Lindsay Jones, 26, works as a national sales manager for a world-renowned tool company, where she leads a multimillion-dollar territory, according to her Miss America bio. She has an MBA and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in business.

In her free time, Jones works with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and serves on its board.

South Dakota: Kianna Healy

Kianna Healy, 23, is a performer. She first took the stage at age 7 and has since participated in vocal and theater productions across the country.

She graduated from Pace University with degrees in film and arts and entertainment management. Healy is also passionate about animal welfare.

Tennessee: Makalyn Heaslett

Makalyn Heaslett, 27, has brought business to the sports world. She graduated from Auburn University, previously worked for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, and is now an account executive for the Tennessee Titans.

Heaslett is also pursuing a master's degree in sport administration at Belmont University.

As a volunteer, she works with Girls Inc. to provide mentorship and leadership to young girls. She's helped raise more than $23,000 for its various organizations, according to her Miss America bio.

Texas: Regan Hutsell

Regan Hutsell, 25, is a former Radio City Rockette and ballerina who now aims to become a physical therapist for dancers.

She's working toward her bachelor's degree in health sciences and is an advocate for self-confidence and mental health.

Utah: Erika Dalton

Erika Dalton, 26, is the first Japanese American to be crowned Miss Utah.

She's also a Juilliard scholarship recipient, a professional violinist who's performed at Carnegie Hall, and a University of Michigan graduate with degrees in violin performance and business.

Dalton also serves as a state-certified crisis advocate and volunteer for the Sexual Assault Hotline.

Vermont: Hannah Roque

Hannah Roque, 26, has a deep history with Miss America. Her mom was Miss Vermont 1996.

Roque works in higher education and has a bachelor's degree in English and secondary education. She's also an advocate for the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women movement.

Virginia: Maddie Marchant

Maddie Marchant, 22, is a media and communication student at East Tennessee State University. She plans to become a journalist.

She's also the founder of the Buddy Bunch Club, which provides people with disabilities the chance to learn social, academic, and professional skills.

Washington: Natalie Worthy

Natalie Worthy, 23, graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a music degree and is now working toward a master's degree in arts policy and administration at Ohio State University.

She founded Amplify the Arts, a nonprofit organization, to merge her passions for vocal instruction and performing with her commitment to helping others.

West Virginia: Elizabeth Romanek

Elizabeth Romanek, 24, was a competitive dancer and D1 athlete, so she's passionate about exercise and movement.

She is an ambassador of the West Virginia Physical Activity Plan. Romanek is also a master's student at Bethany College and the assistant director of admission and recruitment events at the school.

Wisconsin: Jordenne Butler

Jordenne Butler, 27, was inspired by her father's experience with stage four throat and neck cancer to write "Bentley Bounces Back," a children's book.

She's also an advocate for resilience education and support of kids who have experienced adverse childhood experiences. Butler has a bachelor's degree in marketing and a minor in creative media from Viterbo University.

Wyoming: Alyssa Medina

Alyssa Medina, 22, is a sixth-grade teacher who earned her degrees in elementary and special education from the University of Wyoming.

She has a sister, Briana, who's inspired Medina to support and bring joy to children who have disabilities.

• Maria Diaz Valdez has been dating her partner, Emil, since he became a founder about four years ago.
• She says she put her dreams on the back burner to help him grow, but she knows it will be worth it.
• Diaz Valdez says dating a founder requires a strong sense of self, boundaries, and a support system.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Maria Diaz Valdez, a 29-year-old based in Spain. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I feel like a relationship with a founder is a relationship on steroids because it's so intense in the trust and patience it requires. I've had to be committed to his journey, but I'm not in charge of it, and that's very scary.

My partner, Emil, and I met as roommates in a shared household in Norway, and we've been together for four years. I was lucky enough to get to know him so well as a friend before we started dating because we had all sorts of honest conversations about our goals without trying to impress each other. That level of honesty and communication has been the foundation of everything we've built in our relationship.

It's been strange to take a backseat role to build my career to help him build his, and there are times we feel more like business partners than life partners, but I'm in this for the long haul. I trust this journey, and I know he'll support me the same way as I build my own entrepreneurial journey.

We created a contract toward the start of our relationship

Emil didn't start his current entrepreneurial journey until right before we started dating, so I've kind of been through everything with him. I was even his first client. I was building a jewelry brand at the time and hired him to help me develop my website.

At the start of our relationship, we had a lot of conversations about his vision for the company, my role in it, and whether he saw this future with me. Our discussions made me feel confident that he'd actually pursue his goals, but I still had to put a lot of trust in him. I lent him money those first couple of months, which was scary, but I believed in him.

We wrote a contract that tracked the money I was sending him and established a deal that there would come a day when he'd need to support me in return.

I've had to take a backseat to his dreams, but I know he'll return the favor

I've always been a career person — someone with direction who works very hard. Now I'm with someone who's outperforming me in that area. I'm not blindly trusting everything will go well; we have conversations about this constantly.

It's strange, but it's a conscious choice I've made because I view this person as somebody I want to experience my whole life with. I write a lot in my diary, trying to figure out what I truly feel and want. The biggest challenge to wrap my head around is that his passion and project are taking priority, and I must remember that things will change as I figure out what I'm most passionate about.

Emil and I have very compatible skills and knowledge; I focus on design, marketing, and branding, while he is in tech and business development. With his help, I've even started creating my marketing platform, CrazeAI.

Work sometimes comes before the relationship, so we focus on presence with each other

Emil is the type of person who really values quality time. If we watch something on Netflix, for example, we're not going to be on our phones. We're in this together. I think we're very conscious of the distractions we have around us.

Because of that, I'm very lenient in times when he has to step away for something at work. There are times we'll be on a walk together, and one of his partners calls, and he suddenly forgets he's on a walk with me. He'll just walk away.

I don't worry about it too much because I've been in that position before. When I was building the jewelry brand, I would wake up in the middle of the night having to answer emails. I have a lot of understanding that he's in a position where these moments can make it or break it for his business.

Our baseline is one of presence, so when something comes up, it's OK.

Most of our conversations go back to business

It's very hard not to talk about the development of the business because that's the stage we're in. We're both very passionate about it, and we work together on it, so it doesn't feel like a dragging conversation.

There are times we go out to have a drink and try not to talk about business, but then we start dreaming and saying things like "Imagine when we get to this level or through these things." It feels supportive to talk through these things.

We also try to play chess every once in a while and take salsa classes. That's a time when we're not talking or thinking about work at all.

We set aside moments to remind each other we're life partners, not business partners

We're often in a mode where we have to buckle down and figure issues out about the business, and those conversations aren't happening in a candlelit dinner setting. We're sitting down with an Excel sheet, sourcing out financials. It's not very romantic.

Recently, we've been trying to get out of our usual environment, whether for a day trip, a hike, or a trip back home to Norway to see family, to remind us that we have identities outside of being a doer and fixer. That's when we usually find each other again and remember, "Oh wait, I'm also a girlfriend."

I'm also very persistent about spending two minutes before we go to bed without distractions to just be together and settle. It's very important to have routines like that.

You need a strong sense of self to date a founder

If you're entering a relationship with a founder, you need your own strong support system and lifestyle. Your whole life cannot be the relationship, because it's not theirs.

Founders can be so focused on chasing their dream that they can forget your needs or your dates. You need to have your own life so those moments don't feel too heavy, and find a balance between forgiveness and setting boundaries.

Founders are dreamers, and they often dream about what their life will look like when their business succeeds. Are you a part of that dream? Are they saying "when we get to that point.." or is it "when I get to that point.."? Little things like that are so important.

We dream a lot together, so I know his success is my success.

Do you have a story to share about what it's like to date a founder? If so, please reach out to the editor, Manseen Logan, at mlogan@businessinsider.com.

• I pulled my three kids out of school during the first week of the year for a family trip.
• They missed only two days of in-person classes and learned about history, nature, and family.
• I didn't make the decision lightly. I believe some things are worth a few days away from school.

I planned a road trip to attend my brother's baby shower in Corona, California, the same week my three kids — entering preschool, third grade, and eighth grade — started school.

Since I'm based in Phoenix and my brother lives about 6.5 hours away, driving there is a commitment. I wanted to make the trip count by tacking on some beach time and adventuring, too.

I debated the decision.

School started on a Tuesday. My kids attended the first day, then I pulled them out on Wednesday morning to drive to California, with plans to return late Monday evening. Since they attend a hybrid school and learn from home on Fridays and Mondays, they only had to miss two days of in-person learning.

Still, I debated it. Those first few days of school are important for establishing routines and setting the tone for the year. But ultimately, I decided to let them miss two days.

I'm far from the only parent willing to make that trade-off. A new survey of 1,000 parents found that 91% of parents would or have pulled their kids out of school to travel. More than a quarter (28%) said it's just as educational as traditional classroom time, while 44% said missing a few days is worth it for the meaningful family time. And I wholeheartedly agree.

The Channel Islands were our first stop.

While researching for this trip, I discovered Channel Islands National Park off the coast of Ventura, an island chain sometimes referred to as "Galapagos of the West" because of its unique wildlife, including the little red island foxes found nowhere else in the world.

The islands are also connected to one of my favorite books from when I was growing up, "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O' Dell. Before we left, my daughter read O' Dell's book, and I told her the account of Juana Maria (also known as the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island), the Nicoleño Native American woman who inspired the story.

We took an hour-ish boat ride to the islands and stood at the bow nearly the entire time, watching for whales and sharks. We didn't see either, but two pods of dolphins swam up to the boat.

We saw dolphins from our boat and enjoyed a long hike.

Once on the island, my third grader was fascinated by the information about the Nicoleño people in the visitor center because she'd just finished the book.

My older son, meanwhile, was thoroughly entertained by the Island Scrub-Jay, a rare blue bird found only on the island of Santa Cruz. He loved giving me a play-by-play of what one was doing, marveling that the birds are native to the islands.

We also talked with other visitors from around the world and hiked two miles — a lesson in endurance and observing the natural world.

We visited other coastal cities, too.

After the islands, my husband flew in to join the trip, and we headed for Santa Barbara for a day. As we walked around, we talked about the city's Spanish architecture, the history of colonization, and the California mission system.

Connecting our visit back to the Lone Woman, who was eventually brought to Santa Barbara after living alone on San Nicolas Island for 18 years, but died only about seven weeks later, opened up another conversation about the devastating effects European diseases had on Indigenous populations.

In nearby Montecito, we visited Godmother's, a charming bookstore where we settled into the children's section to read about another local woman who cleaned up a beach daily and inspired others to do the same, a lesson on how small actions can protect the environment.

The baby shower itself was important, too. Showing up for our family, celebrating together, and staying to clean up afterward modeled to our kids that this is how we "do" relationships.

Afterward, we drove to Huntington Beach, known as Surf City USA, for two nights, where my eldest son took a surf lesson. Watching him catch waves and learn a new skill felt surreal.

I'll keep pulling my kids out of school for experiences like these.

Yes, my kids missed two days of traditional classroom learning. In exchange, they connected literature to real life, learned about history, encountered wildlife found nowhere else in the world, persevered through a long (by their standards) hike, and learned to surf.

I don't take missing school lightly. But for moments like these? It's worth it.

• This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

More than tennis 🎾

The US Open has long morphed from a simple tennis tournament into a two-week experience in one of the best boroughs in New York.

With merch drops, celebrities in the stands, and viral food items on-site with eye-popping price tags, it's become the social event of September in New York. This year, which runs til September 13, is no exception, despite the drama at the suite level inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Influencers, some of whom are being paid six figures to recap the US Open, have turned the tournament into a high-stakes, high-payout event. On Monday, a few were spotted inside a suite, ring lights in hand, creating content. It disrupted the match between Naomi Osaka and Anastasia Zakharova so much that by Wednesday, a sign had been posted on the grounds telling onlookers, "Please refrain from the use of flash photography or other lighting."

Brendan McIntyre, a spokesperson for the US Open, told me that they're excited a lot of "new fans" are attending the tennis tournament, but want to remind attendees that they shouldn't "interfere with the action and competition on the court."

McIntyre added that despite what you've seen on social media, disruptions haven't happened a lot throughout the Open.

Either way, it hasn't deterred tennis lovers from making the trek to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in droves. BI was also on-site, detailing the best of what the tournament has to offer — aside from seeing our favorite players, of course.

We stopped by every single retail store to ask store clerks what the most popular items were, and I chose my favorite; we stopped by the Heineken suite to see the iconic black and silver outfit Serena Williams wore in 2022 on display; we tried the $38 sandwich attendees can't stop ordering; and watched while a billionaire heiress volleyed for a chance to win her first US Open.

And the fun continues next week. See ya in Queens!

• Vertical Aerospace's chief engineer says he'd tell his younger self to "discover and embrace the discovery."
• David King said it's important to embrace learning new things and not be afraid of the unknown.
• It's a handy perspective for the air-taxi firm, which performed the first public transition flight.

David King is the chief engineer at Vertical Aerospace, a British company developing an eVTOL — an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft — intended to work like a flying taxi.

If he could give his 25-year-old self one piece of advice, King said, it would be: "Don't be afraid of the unknown."

"Just discover, and embrace the discovery, and learn as you go, but get to discovery safely and effectively," he told Business Insider.

King, who has more than 35 years of experience in aerospace, spoke to Business Insider at July's Farnborough Airshow, where Vertical's VX4 prototype became the first eVTOL to publicly perform a transition flight. Its wing-mounted propellers tilted so it could fly like an airplane, before transitioning back to land like a helicopter.

King began his career after earning a graduate degree from MIT in 1989. He later became the chief engineer on programs at Bell and Leonardo before joining Vertical in 2023.

Looking back, he said he had come to appreciate "how much of a rewarding experience it is to learn something new every day."

That's a handy perspective for a company building a new type of aircraft. eVTOLs are designed to function like helicopters but make much less noise, so the hope is they could be used over cities more frequently.

The goal is to transform commutes and other short trips. For example, Vertical says its Valo air taxi could fly the 22 miles from Miami Airport to Fort Lauderdale in 11 minutes, compared to an hour by car.

Most manufacturers have said they expect a seat on board to cost about the same as a luxury rideshare option like an Uber Black.

However, there is still work to be done for air taxis to be certified by aviation regulators.

"When you test it at the next higher level of integration, you're going to have some level of discovery," King said. "Get there quickly, then you learn, adjust your models, and then go test it."

For King, the key is making those discoveries without taking unnecessary risks. He said young engineers should put "guardrails" around testing so that they can learn safely, but move quickly enough to avoid becoming stuck trying to make a model perfect before testing it.

He recalled getting discouraged by unexpected results when he was younger, but embracing this has been a huge help.

"Once people get energized by discovery as opposed to discouraged by discovery, you can see the iterations happen quickly," he said.

Vertical is targeting entry into commercial service in 2029.

• A SAP executive anticipates a recovery from the SaaSpocalypse, driven by advances in business AI.
• SAP is using AI to solidify its competitive edge against Palantir and other tech giants.
• SAP is shifting more to consumption-based pricing to align AI costs with business outcomes.

A SAP executive says the "pendulum will swing back" from the SaaSpocalypse.

Like many software companies, the German software giant has seen its stock hit hard over the past year amid competition from AI tools. This stock sell-off of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, known as the SaaSpocalypse, has hit companies like Salesforce, SAP, and Workday as Anthropic and OpenAI have introduced tools that could threaten their businesses.

SAP's stock has been down about 20% over the past year, though it's been on an upward trend over the past month.

When SAP reported its earnings in late July, investors responded positively to the company's cloud-led growth and advances in its business AI. Jan Gilg, SAP's global president of customer success and Americas, told Business Insider that the sell-off was "a bit of an overreaction on the entire industry."

"As usual, I feel the pendulum will swing back," Gilg said. "There will be users. There will be losers and winners. I truly believe SAP will be on the side of the winners."

To get on the winning side, Gilg says SAP has been reinventing itself with AI, investing in its data capabilities, and changing its pricing models.

"Everybody has AI on the agenda right now," Gilg said.

SAP bounces back from the SaaSpocalypse

SAP's stock has jumped roughly 40% since it reported earnings in late July.

There's a reason for that, Gilg says. SAP isn't easily replaceable through a vibe-coded tool, though Gilg does expect companies to leverage AI to build software much faster. Internally, SAP has also used AI to improve its output and build its own software, and it sees AI as an opportunity to improve its tools for customers.

"It's really multifaceted. On the one side, there was the idea that customers will vibe code their software themselves rather than buying packaged software. We don't see that frankly," Gilg said. "We don't see that, especially for mission-critical purposes. It's not just about features and functions. It's about auditability, governance, and the maintenance of the software."

While Gilg says he hasn't seen customers replacing SAP software, he has seen competition over tech budgets—especially with token spending, or how companies pay for AI. SAP has a "good position" for this because customers rely on SAP data to run their business processes and can demonstrate its value, Gilg said.

"Customers are seeing token costs go through the roof already," Gilg said. "How do you measure and control that, and how do you show an outcome for that? Budgets won't necessarily increase. It will still have to come from somewhere. Therefore, the scrutiny will become much, much bigger."

SAP is competing more with Palantir

Lately, Gilg has been focusing on explaining to customers how they can benefit from AI and what SAP can offer. Customers have spent a lot of money on AI, though many haven't seen the business outcomes, profit, or productivity gains they're looking for.

"Customers have not yet seen the benefit of AI," Gilg said. "That is certainly something they are digging deeper into now."

To address that, SAP built its first foundational model, Tabular AI, which can help make predictions based on business data. In the future, Gilg expects people to interact with SAP products through natural language and voice.

SAP has also been investing in its ontology capabilities to allow customers to audit their systems and work with AI agents to help make decisions. Ontology is a favorite Palantir buzzword, and these capabilities put SAP in more direct competition with the AI data company.

While SAP competes with Palantir, they also partner to move data between systems. SAP says its advantage over rivals is its data from over 10,000 customers, which allows it to build more useful capabilities.

"We do see new players out there from Anthropic, OpenAI, Palantir, and so on," Gilg said. "That's going to be the battlefield of the future."

Internally, SAP uses AI across departments such as finance, human resources, and more. For example, employees can use an internal chatbot to ask questions or AI tools to write code. Sales employees can use AI to help with customer briefings or to study markets.

"We are definitely pivoting the company all in on AI," Gilg said. "We're doing this in a position of strength. Frankly, it's an evolution for us as well."

SAP is overhauling how it charges for AI

Gilg says AI will help SAP grow as it changes its business model. For example, it's moving from some subscription models to consumption-based models, meaning customers pay for what they use. The market has been shifting toward this pricing model, especially as high AI usage can drive up costs.

"What outcome are they driving?" Gilg said. "That's how we charge the consumption of those agents, which is very transparent to customers. Also, it's much easier to justify why they would actually pay for it. That's the current model many are following."

SAP still has a large subscription business, and many large customers use a hybrid model between subscription and consumption-based pricing.

More SaaS acquisitions could be coming

This year, SAP acquired Prior Labs, Reltio, and Dremio to boost its AI and data capabilities. Across the industry, Gilg expects to see a wave of acquisitions, especially with more AI-native startups and talent coming out of these companies.

"There's going to be a camp of losers and winners," Gilg said. "We have seen valuations go down quite significantly. That's an opportunity and interest for companies like that to look at wide spaces."

Gilg says SAP will also consider this if it makes sense for its business, though it would avoid companies that can be easily replaced by AI. If it's costly and time-consuming to switch from that software, customers are less likely to replace it with an AI-built application, Gilg said.

"I do see that there will certainly be a level of consolidation from my perspective, especially with vendors focused on single products," Gilg said. "Maybe niche areas, like legal contract management. Those are spaces that probably will be disrupted quite significantly."

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at rmchan@businessinsider.com, or Signal at rosal.13. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Walmart's move into restaurant delivery is another expansion from selling general merchandise.
• Since Sam Walton, the retail giant has placed big bets on new lines of business inspired by others.
• Here's a look back at some of the strategies that worked well for Walmart — and a few that didn't.

Walmart got its start in 1962 selling general merchandise as a discount store in Rogers, Arkansas.

Founder Sam Walton was constantly on the lookout for new retail concepts to try, and he wasn't shy about borrowing ideas from other successful entrepreneurs.

"He just tried things, and he would learn, and if it didn't work, it wasn't a failure," CEO John Furner said during a conversation with reporters at Walmart's headquarters in June. "We just learned from it."

Last week, Walmart moved to grow its delivery service in a partnership with Dunkin', putting the company on a collision course with delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats. The retailer will eventually offer delivery from most of the 10,000 Dunkin' locations across the US, moving onto turf long dominated by DoorDash and Uber Eats.

Walmart described itself as "a rapidly emerging contender in the restaurant delivery business."

That delivery experiment is a continuation of a pattern that Furner says is part of Walmart's DNA.

"We constantly want to learn. We see where the world's going. Some things apply, some things don't," he said. "We'll learn from it and figure out the best way that we can accelerate the business."

Here are eight bets Walmart has placed over the years in its bid to grow beyond traditional discount retailing.

Home improvement

One of Walmart's first attempts at branching out came in 1975 with the launch of the Sav-Co Home Improvement Center chain. The brand didn't take off, and Walmart shifted its focus to adding new features to its stores.

While local hardware stores were common in this era, large-store formats were relatively uncommon. Home Depot didn't open its first stores until 1979.

Pharmacy

One of Walmart's early in-store experiments was in the pharmacy business, which began in 1978 and has since grown into one of the company's key business lines.

Walmart dispensed an estimated $36.8 billion in prescriptions last year, making it the fifth largest pharmacy in the US, according to the Drug Channels Institute, which tracks the pharmaceutical industry.

More recently, Walmart has stepped up prescription delivery speeds, with some orders filled in 30 minutes or less.

Auto service

Walmart opened its first auto care center in Oklahoma in 1979 and the service has expanded to nearly 2,600 locations across the US.

Walmart's auto centers have also served as a testing ground for the company's expanding third-party marketplace, with customers able to order products like tires online that are shipped to a local store for scheduled installation.

Warehouse club

The 80's were a busy decade for Walmart and Sam Walton in terms of experimentation.

"'82, '83 I think he opened four different formats in that two year period," Furner said in June. "Sam's Club came out of it and was really successful, and the others we decided not to go forward with."

Walton's approach to the wholesale club was modeled on Saul Price's concepts FedMart and Price Club, the latter of which also inspired and eventually merged with Costco.

Sam's Club now has more than 600 US locations with $90 billion in sales last year.

Grocery

The Walmart supercenter is a quintessentially American phenomenon, but Walton famously modeled the concept off the European hypermarket format, which combined general merchandise retail with groceries under a single roof.

"It took probably five or six years until there was a store in Washington, Missouri, that worked," Furner said of Walton's attempts to adapt the hypermarket concept to the US.

It still took Walmart opening about a dozen more supercenters for the idea to really gain traction, he added.

There are now more than 3,500 supercenters and more than 650 neighborhood market grocery stores in the US. Walmart is the largest grocery chain in the country, pulling in roughly one in five dollars spent in the category, according to consumer analytics firm Numerator.

Specialty retail

About a decade ago, Walmart embarked on a flurry of merger activity, snapping up specialty retailers Bonobos, Moosejaw, and Modcloth in a bid to expand the company's reach with specialty brands and e-commerce customers.

All three chains remained independent of Walmart's core operations and were subsequently sold off to other owners as the company refocused on its own offerings.

Advertising

In 2019, Walmart brought its advertising business in-house with what would become Walmart Connect, which sells ad space for the company's physical and digital properties.

Combined with a growing third-party e-commerce marketplace and the acquisition of TV-maker Vizio, Walmart's ads business has delivered significant revenue growth in recent years.

Restaurant delivery

Walmart's latest bet puts the company on a course to compete more directly with food delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats.

After letting grocery-delivery customers add meals from in-store Subway shops, Walmart said in September it would bring thousands of off-site Dunkin' locations to the service.

Walmart has already established itself as a powerhouse in fast delivery for merchandise, groceries, and medicine — now it's set to fulfill more of what other chains sell too.

• Horizon3 CEO Snehal Antani spent two decades building the skills he believed he'd need to be a founder.
• Antani said that experience helped the startup survive a funding crunch and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
• There was one skill, though, he hadn't learned and got a crash course in: fundraising.

Earlier this month, the AI hacking startup Horizon3 achieved a rare milestone: a $250 million funding round pushed its market valuation above $2 billion, making it a so-called double unicorn.

CEO Snehal Antani said he spent nearly two decades acquiring the skills he needed to build the business, which simulates cyberattacks on companies' systems to identify vulnerabilities before real hackers can exploit them. The knowledge he gained turned out to be crucial, first when the tech funding market tightened and, later, when the bank where Horizon3 held all its money collapsed.

"I wanted to make sure I built the right experiences," Antani, now 46, told Business Insider.

After graduating from college, he said he learned about launching products at IBM, organizational management at GE Capital, scaling a hypergrowth company at software maker Splunk, and leadership at the US Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC. It was also at JSOC where Antani met Air Force veteran Anthony Pillitiere, his Horizon3 cofounder.

A different path

Antani's path runs counter to the familiar Silicon Valley image of the college-dropout founder, embodied by figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, who started Facebook and Microsoft, respectively, as teenagers. Yet research suggests successful founders are often older than startup-culture stereotypes imply. An MIT Sloan study published in 2020 analyzed 2.7 million US entrepreneurs and found that the average age of founders behind the fastest-growing 0.1% of new ventures was 45.

For Antani, the value of a later start was quickly put to the test. Three years after he founded Horizon3 in 2019, the tech funding environment abruptly changed, and the company suddenly had to make the cash it had raised last much longer than planned.

Antani said he recalled a lesson from the CEO of one of his former employers about how to weather an economic downturn: Rather than cut your way through it, sell your way through it. He said Horizon3 did both. The company found about $3 million in costs to cut or redirect, including changes to benefits, hiring plans, and other operating expenses. Then it reinvested that money in sales and marketing, which Antani said helped grow revenue nearly fivefold year over year.

Flirting with disaster

In 2023, Horizon3 came closer to disaster. As Silicon Valley Bank was collapsing, Antani said he got a text from an investor asking how much of the startup's money was held there. His answer: "100%."

By the time federal regulators took it over, Horizon3 had opened an account at another bank. But its funds in Silicon Valley Bank were frozen, and missing payroll could have triggered about $750,000 a day in California penalties — enough, Antani said, to put the company out of business within a week.

To prevent that from happening, Antani said he drew $1 million from a personal line of credit. He and his executive team then agreed to tell employees what was happening and what they were doing about it.

After regulators restored access to Horizon3's Silicon Valley Bank funds, the company repaid Antani. He said the episode put to use the leadership lessons he learned at JSOC, particularly the importance of dealing with crises.

"It's all about being steady, calm, controlled," he said. "You can't be panicked."

One learning curve

For all the experience Antani brought to Horizon3, there was one part of the founder's job he had never done before: fundraising. To overcome that gap, he said he treated his early investor meetings as a crash course, repeatedly refining his pitch deck, financial model, and market case in response to the questions he was asked.

"The first time, you kind of suck," said Antani. "You have to invest in being a good storyteller."

After dozens of investor meetings, Antani said he mastered his pitch and received two term sheets, one of which he chose for Horizon3's $3.5 million seed round — the venture-capital firm SignalFire. (The company's latest raise was co-led by NightDragon and NEA.)

Today, Horizon3 is far larger than the small team Antani started with, made up of former intelligence, special operations, and enterprise software veterans — mostly people he knew through his past work. The company, one of the earliest companies to bring the concept of an AI hacker to market, has about 7,000 customers globally and 550 employees. Antani said the experience he gained across different companies, roles, and environments made that possible.

"You don't want to learn how to deal with HR issues for the first time as a founder," he said. "You want to have learned that stuff ahead of time."

• Erin Piacenti, who was killed in Times Square on Monday, was known as a mentor at Bank of America.
• Colleagues remembered her not only for her sharp legal mind, but love of books, Disney, and family.
• Piacenti's boss remembers describing her as a 'superstar' to senior management before her death.

When Erin Piacenti walked into Bank of America on Monday after five months on maternity leave, she found pink daisies sitting on her desk. Welcome signs were strung around the office she shared with a few teammates. Piacenti showed them photos of Madison, her newborn daughter, before settling in to read case law.

That afternoon, Piacenti was fatally stabbed in Times Square in what police described as an unprovoked attack. She was 32.

Though Piacenti only started as a vice president in the firm's Americas Business Selection and Conflicts group around 18 months ago, she'd already made an impact on the small team. Hallie Ziesmer, the head of the roughly 20-person group, described Piacenti as a "superstar" in conversations with senior management before her death, and remembers interviewing Piacenti at the end of 2024.

"It was probably one of the shortest interviews, because I think within three minutes I wanted to hire her," Ziesmer, who was Piacenti's direct boss, said on Friday. "She was obviously very intelligent, very capable. She was polished but down-to-earth."

Piacenti was attacked by Pamela Cisneros, 49, who also injured another victim before officers shot her and killed her at the scene.

There's been a wave of support on and beyond Wall Street since the event, and a GoFundMe to help her daughter has raised more than $800,000. Many Bank of America employees have contributed, a spokesperson for the bank said.

Before joining Bank of America, Piacenti worked at the law firm Davis Polk for more than three years, focusing on mergers and acquisitions for part of that time. She started her career as a buyer at Bloomingdale's and graduated magna cum laude from Fordham Law. Piacenti had a niche focus at the bank, helping investment bankers prepare disclosure documents for companies gearing up for an M&A transaction and clients navigate a thicket of regulations. A colleague remembers her as resourceful, always finding creative solutions on her own.

Piacenti would mentor more junior teammates who didn't have the same legal expertise, Ziesmer said. Many of them have spent time in Ziesmer's office this week, remembering how detailed and caring Piacenti was with her help. One junior employee who sat across from Piacenti said in an email that she reviewed much of their work, and had offered personal advice on top of professional tips during their occasional coffees.

"She could have, on some days, left the office to be home, but she would spend time with juniors. She wanted them to understand and share a passion for what she was doing. She really enjoyed it," Ziesmer said.

Piacenti would often talk about visiting her four younger siblings, or books, or Disney. When the team attended a cooking class last year, the same colleague who admired Piacenti's resourcefulness said she made the best dish (and helped save them, an inadequate chef). When another colleague ran into her on the Q train one morning, she was thrilled to introduce them to her husband, Frank, whom she talked about all the time.

Around the holidays, Piacenti brought dozens of cookies into the office after she and Frank hosted the family's Christmas cookie party at their new home in New Jersey.

Ziesmer says the team now plans to bring in cookies every year.

• Toyota wasn't a big player in the early-2020s all-electric game. It only launched one EV: the bZ4X.
• Suddenly, there's an influx of Toyota EVs for 2026, when competitors are leaving the market.
• I drove a new entrant to see if it works — and I think I'm in love.

Let's go back to 2023. GM is rolling out a dozen EVs, Ford has borrowed the iconic F-150 and Mustang nameplates for all-electric vehicles, Polestar looks like a potential up-and-comer…

And Toyota — long heralded as one of the more environmentally conscious automakers after the runaway success of the Prius hybrid — isn't really competing. Its single EV, the bZ4X, is a little weird-looking, charges slowly, and won't reach 300 miles on a full battery.

Toyota's slow approach surprised industry watchers. Environmentalists blew up my phone at the time, complaining that the world's largest automaker was leaning heavily on hybrids that still got most of their power by burning dinosaur juice.

Fast-forward three years. The industry's rosier EV predictions have succumbed to billion-dollar write-downs, a big graveyard of discontinued models, and Polestar's removal from the US market.

Simultaneously, and almost inexplicably, Toyota's consumer EV lineup in 2026, fresh off a partnership with Subaru, has more nameplates than Tesla.

That reversal is what made me particularly curious about the new C-HR.

Handsome. Efficient. Kinda… super sporty?

I drove about 200 miles through New York City traffic and New Jersey's highways in a 2026 Toyota C-HR XSE. And man, oh man, did I like my time in the driver's seat.

Let's start with pricing. Starting at $37,080, the C-HR isn't Toyota's most affordable EV — that distinction goes to the bigger, $34,980 bZ.

The C-HR is, however, the cheapest way to get into an all-wheel-drive Toyota EV. AWD comes standard on the base $37,080 C-HR, while it's a $5,000 upgrade on the bZ. My tester, with two-tone exterior paint, oomph-ier speakers, and some other goodies, topped out at $43,429.

The car was wildly efficient. The EPA says the XSE can squeeze 273 miles from a full battery.

I would have easily outperformed that during my week. I grabbed the EV with its battery at 89%, and after driving about 170 miles without charging, it never dropped below 40%. That suggests I would have gotten around 400 miles on a charge.

On several drives, the car reported efficiency in the high-5s and low-6s in miles per kilowatt-hour. Those numbers, if true and consistent, are phenomenal. It reminded me of my time in Lucid's cars, a high-end EV maker practically obsessed with engineering every possible mile from a battery.

Efficient is not a synonym for boring, and the C-HR makes that super clear. Toyota says the car can jump from a standing start to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds, which would make it the third-quickest car in Toyota's lineup, matching the time of the sport-oriented GR Corolla.

Once it merged onto the highway, though, it acted more Toyota-like: composed, comfortable, and whisper-quiet.

A Tesla Model Y owner joined me for about two hours, riding mostly in the back seat.

They entered the C-HR deeply skeptical that an EV from a legacy automaker could hold a candle to their Tesla — and also walked away impressed with the airy interior and back-seat comfort.

Lastly, aesthetics. I think the C-HR looks like it's about to pounce, even when parked. Its smoothed-out edges make it easier on the eyes than Toyota's larger bZ, without falling into the look-at-me-I'm-a-weird-EV styling trap that has befallen plenty of battery-powered cars.

My demerits list was small, though potentially substantial for some buyers. There's no glovebox, cramping front-seat storage. My Model Y-owning passenger is about 5-foot-8 and had plenty of headroom in the back, but anyone who regularly lugs tall adults around may have to do some cramming. The trunk is smaller than the bZ's, there's no frunk, and the infotainment occasionally lagged while the car booted up.

Still, by the end of the week, I did something I've rarely done after reviewing around 75 cars in my career: I imagined my own life with the C-HR.

I was genuinely sad to see the car go. That's not common.

Was it worth the wait?

Showing up late did have advantages.

The biggest is charging: The C-HR comes standard with a NACS charging port, the widely accepted charging standard developed by Tesla. That lets Toyota skip some of the awkward charging port transitions other automakers have had to navigate.

It also helps Toyota avoid some of the costly EV bets that led rivals to their billion-dollar write-downs. The C-HR, like all of Toyota's other EVs, was jointly developed with Subaru, allowing the companies to share development costs in a period of auto industry decluttering.

Most of what makes the C-HR so good feels very Toyota: strong efficiency, a comfortable ride, solid initial quality, and an easy-to-live-with interior. Those are not new competencies for the company.

The wait paid off with a great EV.

Did Toyota need to wait this long to build it? Maybe not. I'm still glad we got here.

• I bought a used car one year ago and compared the costs with using Uber and Lyft.
• The car was much more expensive, even though I made choices to save money.
• It shows why Uber says that its service competes with car ownership.

No one had ever been this excited about a used Toyota Yaris.

That was my thought as my wife and I picked up the keys to the car we found on Facebook Marketplace one morning in August 2025. For the first time in seven years of living in the Washington, DC area, we were car owners.

It was also a rebuke of sorts for one of the companies I write about most often. For years, Uber executives have said that the company's gig-worker drivers — and, increasingly, the self-driving cars on its app — compete with car ownership.

Uber President Andrew MacDonald told a podcast last month that the rising cost of a new car makes owning one a worse deal than several years ago. And CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said last year that the rise of robotaxis will reduce car ownership over the next two decades, making driving a car yourself look "something like horseback riding."

So, did I make a horrible mistake spending just over $6,000 on a used sub-compact car that's effectively the next draft horse?

Last month, one year after buying my Yaris, I decided to add up all my expenses and compare them with the previous year, when I was car-free and relied on Uber, Lyft, and public transportation.

Your milage my vary. Your own calculation will depend on where you live, the cost of your car, how fast it depreciates, and the current price of gas (or charging, if you drive an EV).

My results showed that Uber might have a point.

The costs of a Toyota Yaris add up

My wife and I decided we wanted a car last summer when we realized that parking at our apartment complex was free.

Owning a car never made sense to us in Washington. DC is one of about a dozen US cities with a rapid transit system, and a parking spot can cost up to $300 a month. Plus, wait times for rides on Uber and Lyft are rarely more than a few minutes.

Parking is just one of the costs of owning a car these days. The average sticker price of a new car is above $50,000, according to Kelly Blue Book, a Cox Automotive brand that tracks car prices. Used cars, while more affordable, have become more expensive, too. There's also maintenance, insurance, and, for many of us, the elevated price of gas.

When my wife and I found our used Toyota Yaris L — that's "L" meaning the lowest-trim model — we thought that we were being as thrifty as possible. We could buy the car without a loan. And my research suggested that, even when it needed repairs, they wouldn't be that expensive on a small, simple vehicle. If any car had a chance of rivaling the cost of Uber, this was it.

But it didn't.

After buying the car for $6,000, one year of car ownership cost us another $5,000.

That's more than three times as much as the $1,600 we spent on ride-hailing trips and rental cars in the year before we bought the car.

Some of the expenses were optional, like $250 to have my transmission fluid drained and replaced as a preventative maintenance measure. But most of those costs were the basics: Oil changes, gas, registration fees, insurance, and tolls.

I also didn't quit using Uber or Lyft. I took rides to plenty of weekend bar hangs with friends, either because parking was a hassle or because I wanted to drink.

Suddenly, free parking started to lose its shine. Our little sub-compact was more expensive than I had expected.

Maybe, though, there's more to it.

'Ready to be driven at a moment's notice'

I'm merely the latest person to compare whether owning a car makes sense in the era of ride-hailing apps. Even Sam Altman made the comparison in a blog post back in 2014.

His conclusion: Using Uber was cheaper than driving his Tesla Roadster — at least, back when the millennial life subsidy made fares on the app cheaper than they are today.

Doing a strict cost comparison isn't how most of us think about car ownership, though, according to David Keith, associate professor of strategy at the Melbourne Business School in Australia.

Keith is one of the authors of a 2021 study that asked drivers from major US cities how much they would need to be paid annually to give up their car.

The exact number — $11,197 on average — wasn't as interesting as why people said that they valued owning a car. More than half of that amount, Keith and colleagues found, was "non-use value," which includes having the option to take a car whenever you want, and a perceived status boost from owning a car.

In other words, drivers are okay if their car sits unused most of the time. "I can walk outside, and there's this box of metal sitting there on the street, ready to be driven at a moment's notice," he said.

I knew exactly what he meant.

For weeks after buying my car, I had to change how I thought about transportation. Questions like "How much are Uber rides?" and "Is my destination accessible by Metro?" were replaced by a single statement: "Just drive there now, stupid!"

There were also places I would never have visited without a car: For example, Fredericksburg, Virginia, for a day of antiquing, or rural Maryland to search the site of a Civil War camp with my metal detector. Being able to hop in a car whenever you want feels great. Those are trips that would have been difficult or impossible with Uber, and they're the main reason that my wife and I plan to keep our car, extra costs and all.

Recreating that freedom with modes of transportation that you don't own is an important aspect of reducing car ownership in the US, Keith told me.

Some places have tried it. A company called MaaS Global — that's "Mobility as a service" — operated an app called Whim, which offered taxi rides, bike shares, and public transit as a bundle for a monthly subscription. Whim operated in several European cities, including Helsinki and Vienna, before MaaS Global filed for bankruptcy in 2024 and ceased operations.

Meanwhile, in the US, car ownership has stayed steady over the last couple of decades, even as alternatives from Uber and Lyft to local bike-sharing programs grow.

"All of these things are fantastic, but none of them have really led to there being fewer cars in cities," Keith said.

Do you have a story idea about Uber? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Some Gen Z investors view sports betting as part of their investing portfolio, according to a survey.
• Trading and betting apps can encourage similar behaviors, contributing to some blurred lines.
• Daniel Crosby, who studies investor behavior, explains how to recognize when investing veers into betting.

For young investors, the line between investing and gambling has never been easier to blur.

You can place a bet or make a trade on the same device, and almost instantaneously know exactly where you stand.

A recent survey from financial services firm Betterment inspired a flurry of headlines about how 26% of Gen Z investors view sports betting as a legitimate part of their long-term financial strategy.

Even more alarming, 52% of Gen Z investors told Betterment that they'd redirected money intended for long-term investments toward sports betting.

The survey included just 250 Gen Z respondents, so its findings only go so far. But that doesn't mean it isn't pointing to a real phenomenon, said Daniel Crosby, a psychologist who helps financial advisors understand how psychology affects financial decision-making.

"There's clearly a larger issue here," he said, even if he wasn't sure if 26% of people under 29 even have a "long-term financial strategy."

Since it was legalized in 2018, US sports betting has grown from $6.6 billion to nearly $167 billion in 2025, according to the American Gaming Association. The same time period has also seen the rise of retail investors taking increasingly risky trades as access to esoteric financial instruments becomes as easy as opening your smartphone.

The confusion for the Gen Z investor who's been raised with both is that "they run on the same machinery," said Crosby, who is the chief behavioral officer at wealth tech company Orion Advisor Solutions.

"What unites sports betting apps, options, crypto, and meme stocks isn't their legal wrapper but the reward structure underneath: rapid feedback, variable outcomes, and a scoreboard you can check any moment," Crosby said. "The product changes from a same-game parlay to a call option on a meme stock; the behavioral reward is remarkably similar."

This is no accident, and the migration between gambling and trading was "accelerated by the apps themselves," said Crosby. Robinhood's design choices, including confetti animations and scratch-off stock rewards, have earned criticism from the House Financial Services Committee and a $7.5 million fine from the Massachusetts securities regulator.

And while it's important to "address the design, not just the discipline," he said, Crosby gave some tips to help investors identify if they're crossing the line from investing to gambling.

Harm reduction

First, it's important to define the terms. An investor asks what an asset is worth, a trader asks when to buy and sell an asset, and a speculator asks which direction an asset is going to go next, Crosby said.

"A bettor asks only what happens next; that's a question stripped of any reference to underlying value," he said.

If you're worried, don't focus on dollar amounts, which can be "poor predictors," said Crosby.

The most "reliable" sign that someone is moving from investing to gambling, or toward problem gambling, is that they are escalating the size, frequency, or intensity of their trades, Crosby said.

"Loss chasing," or following a loss "with an urge to make the position bigger rather than smaller," is one of "the better predictors of eventual serious harm," he said.

The shift is gradual and rarely surfaces through someone admitting they have a problem, but instead through "rationalizations," said Crosby, such as these:

• "It's only 5% of my portfolio" (the position may be immaterial; the behavioral pattern isn't)
• "I know what I'm doing"
• "It's entertainment"
• "I can afford to lose it"
• "I'm investing in what I understand" — borrowing Fidelity Investments legend Peter Lynch's strategy of "invest in what you know" to justify what is, on closer inspection, a hunch.

Crosby also gave two "self-checks" that someone can use to evaluate their own behavior: "Am I making the position bigger after a loss? Can I defend this on what it's worth, not what it might do next week?"

The single most impactful change one can make is to change how often they gamble.

"Checking frequency measurably warps risk perception — someone seeing green or red daily experiences the same volatility very differently than someone checking quarterly, and is likelier to treat short-term noise as long-term meaning," Crosby said.

It's also important to normalize that gambling has a pull, instead of shaming it. After all, in "different arenas" sports stars like Pete Rose, Michael Jordan, and Phil Mickelson all felt the 'same pull," he said

"The thrill is the anticipation, not the win or loss; the moment before the outcome is revealed is often more exciting than the outcome itself," he said.

Even I, the author of this article, a very occasional sportsbook user, casual sports fan, and extremely boring index investor, felt the escalation firsthand when I was reporting a story this summer about how to gamble responsibly during the World Cup. Curiosity led to one, then two, then more bets, and by the end of the Cup, I was placing multiple bets on each match, even dipping my toes into same-game parlays and other higher-stakes plays.

Luckily, I stuck to my budget, and of the $100 I deposited during the Cup, $56.21 remains. (Don't ask me how high it got, please). I haven't touched it since the Cup ended, but MLB Playoffs are coming up soon, and I might be feeling that pull again.

Do you invest and gamble? Do you have a story to tell, or an informed opinion on the overlap between investing, trading, and gambling? Reach out to Alex via encrypted messaging app Signal at @alexnicoll.01 using a non-work phone, email at anicoll@businessinsider.com or alexonicoll@protonmail.com, or Twitter DM at @nicollsanddimes.

• A majority of Gen Z and millennials use target-date funds for retirement savings, data shows.
• But some retirement experts argue they are too conservative.
• Alternatives to target-date funds include lifestyle funds and hiring financial advisors.

Target-date funds are astoundingly popular, especially among younger investors.

According to Fidelity data, 81% of Gen Z investors have all of their 401(k) balance in target-date funds as of Q2 this year. For millennials, it's 70%. Total assets under management in the funds grew to a massive $4.8 trillion in 2025, according to Morningstar.

It's easy to see why the investment vehicles are so commonly used. Besides the fact that they're the default option for many workers who enroll in their employers' savings plans, they're a convenient set-it-and-forget-it approach to retirement investing. The fund auto-allocates your investments to stocks and bonds as you approach retirement to ensure you're taking on an appropriate level of risk.

But speaking with Business Insider last month, Bill Bengen, the creator of the famed 4% rule for retirement savings, criticized the funds, and said investors would be better off using other approaches.

His argument essentially boiled down to the assumptions on risk that target-date funds make. They're far too conservative for his liking.

"I don't believe in the target-date concept," Bengen said. "I think it creates poor allocations for retirees."

Let's dive more into the nuts and bolts of target-date funds and their potential pros and cons, and why Bengen thinks there's a better approach for investors.

What target-date funds actually do — and Bengen's preferred approach

When deciding to go into a target-date fund, you choose a year that is likely to generally line up with your retirement age.

For example, someone starting work today at 22 who might expect to work until age 67 would retire around 2071. So, they might choose a 2070 target-date fund like the Vanguard Target Retirement 2070 Fund (VSVNX) or the Fidelity Freedom Index 2070 Fund (FRBVX).

The funds will then allocate roughly 90% of your money to US and non-US stocks, with the remainder in bonds.

As you get closer to your target retirement date, the fund will reduce its stock exposure and increase its bond allocation to preserve capital and dial back risk. Bonds are generally less risky than stocks, though they tend to offer smaller average returns.

At the retirement date, the fund ends up with a 50% allocation to stocks and has 50% in bonds. The fund then gets even more conservative: several years after the target date, it eventually ends up putting 70% of your money into bonds and just 30% into stocks.

For Bengen, it's simply far too small an allocation to stocks, especially as people live longer and retirement years stretch on into decades.

Bengen's preferred allocation for retirees is 65% stocks and 35% bonds. Given recent stock outperformance, retirees can safely withdrawal 4.7% of their portfolios per year, he said, and that money should last you around 30-35 years, if not longer. Pre-retirees should have a 100% allocation to stocks, he said.

"Retirees need returns almost as much as pre-retirees do," Bengen said. "You shouldn't be afraid of committing 65% stocks, which for some people sounds very high, but it's what you need to do if you're really going to get the maximum out of your retirement savings."

Another criticism Bengen has of target-date funds is that they sell indiscriminately at a pre-determined date, ignoring the context of market conditions.

For example, if you were approaching retirement and stock valuations were at historically high levels, you would want to reduce your exposure sooner rather than later, he said. But if a crash just happened and valuations are cheap, you probably wouldn't want to sell at the bottom.

It's an observation shared by Pam Krueger, the founder of Wealthramp, which pairs investors with fee-only financial advisors.

Krueger said that while target-date funds will get the job done for most people in the end, especially if they don't want to manage money, it's not a tool that can be exact in meeting one's needs.

"It's clunky," she told Business Insider. "It's not going to be precise."

Potential alternatives

Despite the criticisms, target-date funds aren't necessarily bad options. They get an investor to retirement age with a sizeable allocation to stocks most of the way. If a retiree then wants to be more aggressive with their approach, they can change their strategy.

For investors who do want to take an alternative route, there are a few other options.

One of them, of course, is hiring someone to manage your money for you. While that costs money every year, it may help you generate better returns that can offset that cost.

There are also what are called "lifestyle funds" from the big asset managers. They essentially keep you at a fixed allocation to stocks and bonds, and rebalance automatically.

For example, the Vanguard LifeStrategy 60/40 Fund (VSMGX) keeps you at an allocation of 60% stocks and 40% bonds. For those that want to take on more risk in stocks, there are more aggressive funds like the BlackRock 80/20 Target Allocation Fund (BAAPX).

When some people travel, they collect fridge magnets or shot glasses. Eugen Godun collects marathon medals.

Last March, the 34-year-old software developer earned the coveted Six Star medal for running the Boston, Chicago, New York City, London, Berlin, and Tokyo marathons, known as the original World Marathon Majors. When Godun crossed the finish line in Japan, he burst into tears, overcome by a mixture of pride, happiness, and pure exhaustion.

Godun started running in 2014 and completed his first international marathon in Poland the following year, shaving an hour off his previous time of 4 hours and 6 minutes. Over the past decade, his pursuit of medals and faster finishes has taken him from his home in Kyiv to eight countries across Europe, the US, and Asia.

For amateur runners like Godun, destination races kill several birds with one stone: a trip abroad, a major athletic achievement, and some serious bragging rights. Godun is particularly proud to be one of only 60 Ukrainians recorded as having received a Six Star medal.

For all their rewards, international marathons demand plenty in return: vacation days, family time, and money. In 11 years, Godun said he has spent roughly $40,000 on international marathon trips, or $5,000 a race on average.

Godun sometimes wonders where he'd be financially if he'd saved the money instead. "Maybe if I switched these marathons for saving money, I'd be able to buy my own apartment,” he said.

Even so, he thinks it was worth it. "I like to spend my money on experiences, not on things," Godun added.

The pursuit of far-flung finish lines

Running’s pandemic-era boom shows little sign of fading, and Americans are prioritizing fitness and experience-led travel.

More than 52.3 million Americans went road-running in 2025, up more than a million from 2024, according to the Outdoor Industry Association's 2026 Running Report, which is based on data from the Physical Activity Council. In KPMG's summer 2026 consumer survey, half of respondents named physical fitness as their top wellness priority, while 54% of those planning to travel more were seeking a specific experience or event. Destination marathons combine the two.

Godun has plenty of company in the expensive pursuit of far-flung finish lines. Demand for marathon spots has grown in recent years, with international competitors accounting for an increasing share of participants, according to data shared with Business Insider by five of the now-seven World Marathon Majors, the global series of marathon races.

Since 2023, international applications for the London Marathon have almost tripled, from 89,108 in 2023 to 258,502 in 2026, when the race drew 854,452 applicants overall. The Boston Marathon’s share of international runners has risen from about a quarter of the field in 2023 to roughly a third of the 30,000 participants in each of the past three years. The Sydney Marathon has seen even more dramatic international growth. The number of overseas finishers jumped from 260 in 2022 to more than 13,500 of a total 32,963 runners in 2025, when it became the seventh World Marathon Major.

“People like a challenge, particularly one that is tough but achievable, and completing the six, or now seven, race series has become the ultimate running challenge,” Steven Seaton, the founder of the UK-based sports tourism firm 2:09 Events, said. “The fact that the races are hard and increasingly expensive to enter only seems to fuel greater demand.”

The cost for international competitors entering the World Marathon Majors ranges from about $237 for Sydney to $333 for New York, before accounting for flights, hotels, food, and other costs.

Godun, for example, has tried to cut costs by staying with friends, where possible, and drawn a line on what he’s willing to spend. He gave up a spot in the 2026 Sydney Marathon because he couldn't justify spending thousands of dollars on flights.

He said he has since started setting aside about $1,000 a month, or about 20% of his monthly income, to avoid ruling out future races on cost alone. Godun has found himself working harder at his job, too. “I need to earn more money to be able to do this,” he said.

A second job to keep chasing marathon medals

David Boyce, 59, is so committed to running international marathons that he took on a part-time job lecturing at a local university three years ago to, in his words, “feed my addiction.”

The extra income has helped the Canadian government employee pay for a coach, enter races farther afield, and spend longer abroad exploring the destinations. In the lead-up to a marathon, Boyce prioritizes rest, saving the indulgences for later. “Then you can do all the things that you want to do, like have a beer, have a decadent meal, or things like that,” Boyce said.

In his early 40s, Boyce couldn’t have imagined organizing his vacations around marathons. Then, 16 years ago, he got a frightening wake-up call when his heart began pounding during an uphill bike ride. A stranger called an ambulance, and he ended up in the hospital. “They put a heart monitor on me and figured out nothing was really wrong,” he said. “I was just really out of shape.”

He started with treadmill running, then moved to 10k runs, before completing a local marathon in 2016. Two years later, he traveled to Chicago for his first international runcation. Now, he’s a Five Star finisher, with only Tokyo left to complete the set.

His first marathon took him more than four hours. A decade later, as he approaches 60, Boyce is running closer to 3 hours and 30 minutes and is considering pushing himself further with an Ironman or an ultramarathon.

“For me, it's the sense of accomplishment,” he said. “The personal goal, to see if I can do it, to push myself to a different limit.”

Boyce said the improvements to his health and fitness make the sacrifices, like having a second job, worthwhile. His goal is to keep “beating back the old man.”

Using up almost all vacation days

As well as money, runcations can eat up another valuable resource: time.

Next year, Boyce plans to spend three of his four weeks of vacation in Japan for the Tokyo Marathon. In the past, Godun has devoted as much as 80% of his 20 days of annual leave to runcations. Last year, he used some of the time freed up from earning his Six Star on a two-week beach vacation in Spain. “It's not for me, this type of pleasure,” he said.

Every year, Kevin Lock, a 45-year-old bank employee, and his wife, who is also a marathon runner, meticulously map out their four weeks of vacation days on a spreadsheet. They allot their time off between races and other personal travel, prioritizing races held around federal holidays to preserve vacation days.

The couple doesn't always race together. Since 2022, Lock has run three marathons, including New York, Chicago, and Boston, as well as 16 half-marathons across the US. His wife, meanwhile, ran the Sydney Marathon without him.

The couple, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, is equally strategic with money. “I'm fairly crafty at using credit card points,” Lock said. He generally uses his points for flights to and from races, while his wife uses hers for hotels, helping them “minimize the financial impact” of marathon trips.

They draw from a pool of savings, replenish it regularly, and pay off their credit card balances in full each month. “We want to do these things,” Lock said, “but not at the forfeit of going into debt.”

Losing out on family time

Not every cost can be offset with credit-card points, careful budgeting, or a vacation spreadsheet. For Vincent Hsu, a physician based in Orlando, money isn’t a huge concern. The biggest trade-off has been family time.

“I'm trying to balance my wanting to really achieve running goals that I never thought possible with the need to make sure that I am tending to the needs of my family,” he said.

Hsu said he tries to train early in the morning while his wife and 15-year-old son are asleep. Even so, the trips away for races and the sheer amount of time he spends training have both become “stressors” at home. His wife sometimes asks, “Oh, you're running again?”

“I'm a little bit sheepish about that,” he said.

Next March, Hsu plans to run the Tokyo Marathon, but he doesn't know whether his wife, who often likes to come along on trips, can join him. They haven't yet found someone they trust to take care of their teenage son.

For all the sacrifices, running has contributed to significant weight loss, introduced him to new friends, and given him a sense of accomplishment. It has proved hard to stop, too. “It is addictive,” he said.

Hsu said the prestige of joining the Six Star medal club is also part of the motivation. “It's a great goal. It's coveted. It's desired,” he said. “People are jealous. I readily admit that.”

For globe-trotting marathon runners, the medals may be priceless. Collecting them is anything but.

• Jim Stoeffel of Royce Investment Partners thinks investors should take a closer look at micro-caps.
• The portfolio manager says the market's smallest stocks belong in a well-diversified portfolio.
• He flagged a handful of stock picks among micro-caps that he likes right now.

Big Tech and the mega-caps dominate the conversation in markets these days, but the market's tiniest stocks are also worth a look, according to a veteran investor.

Jim Stoeffel, a portfolio manager at Royce Investment Partners, an investment firm owned by Franklin Templeton that oversees roughly $13.6 billion in assets, says micro-cap stocks—those with a market capitalization of less than $300 million—are the market's "best kept secret." He maintains that though these smaller stocks are subject to volatility, investors shouldn't ignore them.

"We feel confident saying that many investors don't know that micro-caps have been leading the U.S. equity markets for more than a year now, dating back to the market low on April 8, 2025," Stoeffel said in a post from the firm last month. "We'd also be willing to bet that a sizable number of investors have only a vague idea that the asset class exists in the first place."

He flagged some data that points to the outperformance of the sector through the middle of this year.

The Russell Microcap rose 27.5% compared to 22.6% for the small-cap Russell 2000 Index, 10.3% for the large-cap Russell 1000 Index, and 2.0% for the mega-cap Russell Top 50 Index, Stoeffel wrote.

Small-caps have enjoyed a banner year so far as well, with the Russell 2000 up 18% compared to the 13% gain. But micro-caps have continued to operate mostly under the radar, despite their big streak of gains since the tariff meltdown of April 2025.

"Yet even in the context of recent market leadership and widespread positive performance, we are still finding attractive buying opportunities in nearly every corner of the micro-cap universe."

In an interview, Stoeffel told Business Insider that the stocks can be volatile, which may keep some investors away, and that while investors should include micro-caps in their portfolios, it should be done with active management, due to some of the unique characteristics and volatility of these stocks.

"When things go wrong, they tend to go wrong pretty meaningfully. If things go right, they go right very meaningfully," he said.

As for what specific sectors and stocks his team is bullish on, Stoeffel said he likes software and employment services.

While his team is bullish on AI, they also favor the software industry as well as employment services. In tech and AI, Stoeffel said his team's approach to micro-caps favors the pick-and-shovel companies benefitting from the data center boom.

Stoeffel flagged DHI Group, 204% year to date, as a top pick among micro caps. DHI Group operates in two spaces that Stoeffel likes, offering exposure to both tech and employment services as the operator of a specialized career marketplace.

While slightly larger by market cap, he also named Ichor Holdings and Mistras Group as bullish picks in the sectors he's watching. Both fall into the pick-and-shovel category.

Mistras provides protection services for large-scale infrastructure, while Ichor manufactures subsystems for semiconductor devices, catering to clients such as Applied Materials and Lam Research.

"All the AI related stocks have pulled back, but we think it's become attractive again," Stoeffel stated of Ichor.

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• Kymberly McClain struggled to find work for nearly two years after resigning from her nonprofit role.
• She eventually deleted her LinkedIn account out of frustration and relied on government assistance.
• McClain shared how she navigated her long job search and eventually found a call center job.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kymberly McClain, a 45-year-old who lives in Las Vegas. She previously worked at a small nonprofit until resigning in 2024. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Two years ago, I was working as a deputy director at a small nonprofit in California focused on providing resources for the homeless population.

After some leadership changes, I didn't feel like I had the support I needed. In August 2024, I resigned.

When I started looking for a new job, I was so confident. I'd gained experience and felt like I'd parted ways on good terms, even getting a letter of recommendation.

I thought I was going to slide into another role. Instead, I struggled to find work for nearly two years.

I started applying for jobs I never expected to consider

When I started looking, I was applying for deputy director, program manager, case manager, and other social service roles.

I used LinkedIn, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, CareerBuilder, and other job sites. I sought out résumé help because I had been out of the job market for a few years and didn't know what had changed.

September, October, November, and December went by, and nothing happened.

As the search continued, I started broadening the scope of the types of jobs I was applying for. I went from thinking I could easily land another deputy director job to applying for retail jobs at places like Burlington Coat Factory. I was willing to take anything.

I eventually deleted LinkedIn out of frustration

LinkedIn was probably the platform I used most during the first six months of my search.

I went to LinkedIn training sessions about how to get a job and read up on interview tips. At one point, I was applying to multiple jobs a day and changing my résumé for each one. I would research the company and position before applying.

But I wasn't having any luck. I remember seeing comments from other people on LinkedIn asking whether anyone else was having trouble finding a job or getting employers to respond.

As the rejections piled up, I started questioning everything. Was it my race? My age? My lack of a college education? I even wondered whether I was on somebody's list of people not to hire. I had never imagined that I would be without a job for this long.

After about a year of searching, I was exhausted by the rejection. I started pulling back from my job search and eventually deleted my LinkedIn account out of frustration. I thought, What's the point?

My long job search created financial challenges

My job search took a toll on my finances, and I had to apply for government assistance. For a while, I went back and forth between staying with a friend in California and with family in Las Vegas while I tried to figure things out. Eventually, I moved in with my family members in Las Vegas.

Eventually, I felt like I needed to contribute financially to the household. I had to choose between helping my family and paying for the storage unit I'd stored my belongings in when I moved, so I gave up the unit and lost the belongings in it.

When I wasn't looking for work, I focused more of my time on a nonprofit I'd founded years earlier, based partly on my own experiences navigating the social services system. It helps people experiencing homelessness and domestic violence survivors navigate housing and other resources.

It wasn't generating income, but I needed to feel like I was doing something productive.

Sometimes rejection is redirection

Earlier this year, I gave the job market another try. I applied for several healthcare billing roles, but I was rejected from all of them.

Then, my daughter sent me a link to a remote customer-service job. I completed an assessment, went through the process, and got a yes.

It's a full-time customer-service call center job. It pays significantly less than I made in my prior role, but after being out of work for so long, I'm just excited somebody said yes. When I got the offer, I thought, Okay, I'm not blackballed from the job market.

I'm still not sure what the future holds, but I plan to keep working on my nonprofit while I work this new job.

My advice to other job seekers is to have faith in closed doors. Sometimes rejection is redirection, and sometimes it's the push you need to build something of your own.

Do you have a story to share? Reach out to the reporter via email at jzinkula@businessinsider.com, or via Signal at jzinkula.29.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is a self-described "mega Apple fanboy."
• Altman said he was "very sad" to see Apple sue OpenAI.
• The legal fight illustrates how frayed the relationship between the two companies has become.

Sam Altman's love for Apple is being tested by that pesky detail: the Cupertino tech giant's lawsuit against OpenAI.

"I'm like a mega Apple fanboy, and I was very sad about that," Altman told tech journalist Alex Heath during a recent interview.

In July, Apple sued OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT creator of a "coordinated pattern of misconduct at an institutional level" to steal Apple's closely held secrets. OpenAI has said it has "no interest in other companies' trade secrets" and that the lawsuit doesn't live up to Apple's "reputation for obsessing over the smallest details."

Altman said when he first heard about the suit, he thought something had gone significantly wrong.

"When I first heard about it, I was like, 'Man, this sounds egregious. Someone must have done something badly,'" Altman said. "We don't want any company's IP, and we certainly don't want people who are going to take a company's IP and bring it to us."

Altman is barely mentioned in Apple's initial 40-page complaint, which, in addition to various corporate entities, directly named only two OpenAI employees, Chang Liu and Tang Tan, both of whom formerly worked for Apple, as defendants. Apple's suit said Liu and Tan took or retained confidential information when they left the company and, in some instances, asked current Apple employees about unannounced products.

The lawsuit marks a dramatic turn from what had once been a major partnership.

In June 2024, Altman went to Cupertino to announce that Apple would integrate ChatGPT across its products.

Their cooperation has frayed as OpenAI has entered the consumer space Apple has long dominated. Less than a year after speaking at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, Altman and iPhone designer Jony Ive announced that they had been collaborating for years and that OpenAI would acquire Ive's startup IO for nearly $6.5 billion.

As part of the legal battle, Apple requested a preliminary injunction, which could potentially delay OpenAI's plans. In response, OpenAI said Apple is trying to delay OpenAI's hardware "because it fears OpenAI's product might reduce demand for Apple's."

The Apple of his eye

Altman's love for Apple is well documented.

In 2008, he demoed Loopt, the location-based social networking app he cofounded, at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference. Altman said getting up onstage required Apple CEO Steve Jobs' approval. Looking back on the experience, he called it "a career highlight" and said it was "the only time in business" he felt that much anxiety.

"It was like Steve Jobs, you know," Altman said in 2015, recalling how he grew up viewing Jobs as an iconic figure.

Altman said growing up, his first computer was a Macintosh LC II. In 2024, he told Bill Gates that he still owns it and it still works. When Altman announced his partnership with Ive, he cited his hope to bring "some of the delight, wonder and creative spirit that I first felt using an Apple Computer 30 years ago."

Speaking with Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs last year, Altman declared the iPhone "the crowning achievement of consumer products" during an onstage interview last November.

Altman, who does not own a stake in OpenAI, built his fortune largely through investments in companies including Stripe and Reddit. His grandma gave him what may have been one of his first tech investments.

In a 2016 interview, he conducted with his brother Jack, the pair recalled how, for their birthdays, their grandma gave them equal shares in companies she thought they would like. Jack was given Applebee's, while Sam received Apple.

"I still have those Apple shares marked in my brokerage account as 'Grandma's birthday Apple shares,' Sam Altman said, adding, "I'm going to keep them."

• Bernhard Fritsch rubbed elbows with stars and owned a McLaren.
• Now he's a convicted fraudster, a fugitive, and a top target of the FBI.
• He can't be extradited from Germany, where he fled after cutting his ankle bracelet.

On a sunny day in April, visits a hilltop near Lake Starnberg in Germany. After a hike against the backdrop of the Bavarian mountain panorama, he treats himself to a slice of cake with vanilla ice cream at the Forsthaus Ilkahöhe, a popular hikers' inn. Later, he uploads photos of the outing to Instagram, gushing over the view of the snowy Zugspitze mountain.

Does someone who is on the run and wanted by the American federal police post something like that? It is, by far, not the only question raised by this bizarre case. A $150,000 bounty, a severed ankle monitor, escape from US authorities, and an arrest in Mexico — the Bernhard Fritsch file reads like a Hollywood script.

On Thursday, the FBI added the 65-year-old German to its "Most Wanted Fraudsters" list.

Fritsch studied audio engineering in Berlin in the 1980s before moving to New York in the 1990s. With his company MCY, he wanted to sell music over the internet — sort of a precursor to the streaming giant Spotify at an early stage of the dot-com economy.

He told a reporter from the German Manager Magazin in 2000 that he had already won over Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Luciano Pavarotti, and the Backstreet Boys to his idea. "You wouldn't believe who's already walked through that door," he said at the time. He had met Michael Jackson in Munich the previous year.

Sometime in the early 2010s, Fritsch relocated from New York to Santa Monica, California, where he founded the company StarClub. Its app, StarSite, was meant to help celebrities and influencers monetize their reach through advertising.

Between 2014 and 2017, according to federal officials, Fritsch raised between $20 million and $30 million from investors. To raise that much, Fritsch apparently relied on prominent connections. In California, he was seen as a skilled operator behind the scenes, Los Angeles Magazine reported.

While spending time in Germany, the Bavarian had cultivated ties to the world of celebrities, too: Photos show him with three-time Wimbledon-winner Boris Becker — who in 2022 was sentenced to prison in the UK for tax evasion — and in 2016, Fritsch walked the red carpet with actor Wesley Snipes at Bertelsmann's summer party in Berlin.

He also courted proximity to show business in the U.S. In 2014, for example, he had actor Tyrese Gibson (best known from the "Fast & Furious" movies) host a private StarClub party for him. Singer Enrique Iglesias was also linked to the project, and actresses Caitlin O'Connor and Elise Neal appeared at promotional events. According to the website Courthouse News, one investor later claimed in a lawsuit that Fritsch owed him $750,000 for arranging contacts with Jessica Simpson.

In 2017, Fritsch was criminally charged by federal prosecutors who alleged he made false statements to investors about the app, claiming his company would strike deals with major media companies like Disney and that acquisition offers were forthcoming.

At least $7.3 million of investor money is alleged to have ended up in his personal accounts instead — funding a McLaren, a Rolls-Royce, a yacht, and a mortgage on his villa near the popular Carbon Beach in Malibu. In April last year, after a nine-day trial, a jury found him guilty on one of two counts of wire fraud, a verdict for which he could have faced up to 20 years in prison.

And then, suddenly, Fritsch was gone. In June 2025, according to the FBI, he cut off his court-ordered ankle monitor and fled to Mexico. This is particularly striking given that his attorney, Kirk Schenck, had argued there was no flight risk, since Fritsch would be leaving his two children behind.

According to Mexican authorities, the entrepreneur turned up, of all places, in the state of Sinaloa — considered a stronghold of Mexico's powerful drug cartels. An arrest warrant from Los Angeles followed, and American officials alerted Mexican police.

In September of last year, Mexican authorities caught him — allegedly carrying forged documents. After his arrest, Mexican police released him on the condition that he check in at the station every two weeks. Authorities say Fritsch used the opportunity to travel to Mexico City, where in early October he boarded a Lufthansa flight to Munich. The FBI believes he has been in Bavaria ever since.

In his absence, a federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced him in absentia to 15 years in prison, a $35,000 fine, and nearly $26.8 million in restitution. Fritsch need not fear extradition. Article 16 of Germany's constitutional Law forbids the extradition of German citizens. So as long as he doesn't leave the country, no US arrest warrant can reach him.

Fritsch's partner, former actress Lucy Weist, pleaded guilty in June of this year to being an accessory after the fact, and she now faces up to five years in prison.

FBI Director Kash Patel in June launched the "Most Wanted Fraudsters" list as a counterpart to the classic most-wanted list — this one for white-collar criminals. The goal, Patel said, is to hold "the worst of the worst" accountable. Patrick Grandy, the FBI agent leading the investigation in Los Angeles, describes California as especially fertile ground for fraudsters — and has made clear that the hunt for Fritsch continues. The feds have put up a $150,000 bounty.

A request for comment sent to Fritsch via his Instagram profile was not answered.

Since his post about the mountain walk in April, Fritsch hasn't uploaded anything new to his profile. He does seem to have been indulging in old memories from time to time. He has captioned several posts "Throwback": One, a photo from 1999 showing him with Michael Jackson, another from 2001 showing him shaking hands with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

The Axel Springer Global Reporters Network is a multi-publication initiative publishing scoops, investigations, interviews, op-eds, and analysis that reverberate across the world. It connects journalists from Axel Springer brands—including POLITICO, The Telegraph, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, and Onet— on major stories for an international audience. Their ambitious reporting stretches across Axel Springer platforms: online, print, TV, and audio. Together, the outlets reach hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

• 2026 is the year of the cancer breakthrough, with innovations from Revolution Medicines and Moderna.
• "I'm almost tired of saying paradigm shift, but I haven't figured out a new phrase," one expert said.
• Innovators Greg Verdine and Tal Zaks pushed boundaries with risky, groundbreaking experiments.

Short sellers love to profit from biotech's big fails. The category remains their favorite to bet against because roughly two-thirds of publicly traded biotech companies ultimately go broke one way or another, losing money for investors.

This summer, however, that strategy went bust. Biotech has experienced unusual success with some of the category's biggest, longest cancer moonshots coming to fruition.

On August 19, Moderna announced positive late-stage results from a melanoma trial, sending its stock surging 177% — up to $174 per share — on the promise of the very first personalized cancer vaccine. A week later, on August 26, another astounding development: The FDA approved a pill to help treat late-stage prostate cancer. The drug is a new molecular "glue" from Revolution Medicines, a Silicon Valley-based biotech company, and it's capable of drugging so-called undruggable cancer targets.

"This is a whole new era," Dr. Andrew Coveler, who directs the Fred Hutch Pancreatic Cancer Specialty Clinic in Seattle, said. "I'm almost tired of saying paradigm shift, but I haven't figured out a new phrase."

These medicines are both used in concert with existing drugs, and neither is considered a cure for cancer. Instead, they're seen as breakthrough options that open up a new playing field for fighting cancer, targeting different mutations, and training the immune system in new ways.

The moves prompted a huge surge of cash for investors in the companies, prompting celebration at corporate offices.

"We raised our glass of champagne, but now back to work," Dr. Alan Sandler, the chief development officer at Revolution Medicines, said.

The successes weren't always obvious, though.

Two innovators — a chemical biologist and an oncologist — had both the vision and the capital to finally make these groundbreaking ideas work, despite many failures before.

A chemist who raised $125 million to chase an idea inspired by nature

In 2012, after four years of pleading for cash, Greg Verdine finally scrounged up the investors to give him $125 million for a cancer drug.

He didn't have a drug yet. In fact, he wasn't exactly sure how it could be made. He just had an idea inspired by nature for targeting one of cancer's most "undruggable" mutations, RAS.

The problem with RAS is that it is so smooth. Unlike other molecules, this protein has no characteristic sticky pockets or holes for a drug to glom onto. Even if you could figure out how to attach something to the smooth surface of this protein, you'd run the risk of having your therapy stick onto everything else in the body, too, potentially damaging healthy organs.

"People told me it was crazy. It'll never work"

- Greg Verdine

This is why most chemists before him gave up and called RAS an impossible mutation to target, even though it often drives tumor growth in some very tough-to-treat cancers, including pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer.

"I just found it totally unacceptable, pathetic, that we would say, 'Oh, well!' You've got all these patients," Verdine said. "We know exactly what's driving their cancer, but 'Oh, that's undruggable.' Come on!"

Verdine knew that molecular glues already existed in the natural world. Compounds produced by bacteria and fungi cause proteins to bind together, altering their function without completely destroying them. Some immunosuppressive drugs for organ transplantation take advantage of that biology.

The remaining question was: How can you engineer a new way to do that, targeting the "undruggable" RAS cancer mutation? By sticking the drug to another target, then gluing it onto RAS.

"People told me it was crazy. It'll never work," Verdine told Business Insider. "It's the combination of a target that's never been drugged before, and drugging it in a way that's never been done before. That sounds like compounding risks."

It turns out, Verdine is a pretty persuasive guy. He flew to France, where investors at Sanofi, a large French pharmaceutical company, were intrigued by his bullishness and agreed to pay 50% of his Series A funding round for his startup Warp Drive Bio.

"There was no IP. There was nothing. It was just an idea that we could drug RAS using molecular glue technology, and I had no idea how you might do it," Verdine said.

In 2018, the technology Verdine pioneered at Warp Drive was acquired by Revolution Medicines, where the chemistry was finessed further. Fourteen years after his initial bet, the FDA approved a drug by Revolution last week that does exactly what Verdine imagined.

Former Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, who has stage 4 pancreatic cancer, calls Revolution's pill, which he's been taking in a clinical trial, a "miracle" worker for reducing both his pain and dramatically shrinking tumor volume.

"I have much, much less pain than I had four months ago, when I was diagnosed," Sasse told "60 Minutes" in April. "And I have a massive 76% reduction in tumor volume."

For now, the drug, called Rasonque, is chiefly recommended for patients with advanced cancer and is meant to be used after chemotherapy. It costs about $40,000 a month, before insurance, and side effects include rashes, mouth sores, and some diarrhea.

Taking a $450 million bet based on a belief

For cancer doctor Tal Zaks, former chief medical officer at Moderna, the ambition was similar.

He knew a cancer vaccine could work. It just required the right architecture, asking the right questions, and conducting the right trial at the right time.

Oh, yes, and also lots of cash, including a $450 million deal with Keytruda-maker Merck to co-develop the technology.

"Where the naysayers are right in this regard is that for cancer vaccines, neither mice data nor phase 1 data even are indicative of whether it's going to work, so you're really taking a very large financial bet just based on first principle beliefs," Zaks said.

"The truth is that from a business perspective, this one was tough — it was a high risk, high reward type bet — it required a significant investment of capital."

He knew lots of cancer vaccines had failed before. He was confident there was a way to win, though, if the immune system was called up in the right way and at the right time.

"From a business perspective, this one was tough — it was a high risk, high reward type bet"

- Tal Zaks

Moderna's melanoma vaccine harnesses the genetic makeup of each patient's tumor — teaching the body to attack its own unique cancer mutations. It's administered after a patient's initial treatment and is designed to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence.

"That's really the success of Moderna. I was very adamant when we started this at Moderna that we either funded to the end of a randomized phase 2 or it's not worth doing," he said, referring to the mid-stage clinical trial where researchers tested their vaccine against standard methods for preventing relapse.

The results were a "wow," Zaks said, with Moderna's vaccine almost cutting in half the risk of skin cancer recurring. "This is not about curing mice or showing cool data for a scientific publication. This is about getting conclusive proof."

Moderna's new vaccine for melanoma patients is not FDA-approved, but could be on shelves as soon as 2027, pending a positive review. Common side effects include things you'd expect for a vaccine: some fatigue, chills, and mild pain at the injection site.

But there are caveats to this medication, too. It has to be taken in concert with Keytruda, a $12,000 to $25,000 IV immunotherapy. It also has to be used after a person's tumor has already been surgically removed.

40 years of discovery science also helped

Of course, there were other discoveries along the way that helped shepherd these breakthroughs, including a far better understanding of cancer genetics, a few key technical solutions, and additional cancer drugs that work in concert with the new technologies. In short, decades of plodding, hard work by scientists across the country and around the world.

"It's taken at least 40 years," mRNA vaccine researcher Phil Felgner, a University of California, Irvine professor who helped develop early versions of the lipid nanoparticle technology that powers the new vaccines, said. "It's taken this much time for it to mature."

And the work isn't over. Revolution is testing a pill for lung cancer, and seeing how its drugs might compete head-to-head against chemotherapy. Moderna is testing vaccines for lung, bladder, and kidney cancers.

These are "approaches that, hopefully, over time will have less toxic side effects to patients, and more targeted effects on the cancer," Dr. Christopher Flowers, division head of cancer medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, said.

All accomplished with some new glue and a shot.

"Ideas sound simple once you get it out, and then there's elegance in that," Coveler, the pancreatic cancer doctor, said. "But I think the design and the specificity of these things was in no way easy to figure out."

• Rents continue to rise in major US cities, including New York and Chicago.
• In Austin, however, rents dropped 8% since mid-2023.
• Real estate consultant Aziz Sunderji explained the factors that create uneven housing markets across the country.

Rents have moved in opposite directions across major US cities since mid-2023, and changes in where Americans are moving and how much those cities built in response could explain why.

Cities like New York and Chicago have seen their rents rise, while others, like Austin, have seen them fall by around 8%, according to a study by Aziz Sunderji, founder of Home Economics, a publication about the US housing market.

Sunderji found that increases in supply in expensive markets with decreased inflows of new residents pushed rents down, while the local labor market, as measured by remote work and tech, had the least impact. That drop in rents could reflect what Sunderji called a "timing mistake by developers," who responded to early demand surges without knowing it would calm down and result in excess inventory, he said.

Austin rents have fallen about 8% since mid-2023. Migration to Austin from other parts of the US fell between 2021 and 2024, slowing housing demand. Meanwhile, many residential buildings — with permits approved from 2021 to 2023 during a demand boom — began to flood the market, increasing supply. The study suggests that a mismatch led to the decrease in rents. In addition, rents also weakened more in areas where prices had risen unusually high relative to local incomes and their historical norms.

Sunderji said that "Austin is the extreme case on every part of the combination, but the combination is general."

The migration slowdown does not mean these areas lost people; "they only stopped gaining them as fast," Sunderji said, causing those demand surges to slow.

The decrease in Austin roughly doubled San Antonio's 4% decline, the city with the second-biggest rent price decline among the 21 cities he measured. The metros that saw rent declines — Austin, San Antonio, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas — all experienced high rent valuations and a deceleration in migration, except Denver, said Sunderji.

Other cities are struggling to engineer lower rents

US cities facing rising rents and a high cost of living have been searching for policies to lower housing costs. New York City, for example, passed a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments, and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Block-by-Block plan plans to build 200,000 affordable homes over the next decade. Yet, Sunderji said the factors that may have brought down rents in Austin, for example, were not policy-engineered.

Developers responded to a surge in demand that "they could not know would stop, and are now sitting on excess inventory with compressed margins, offering concessions and rate buydowns to move it," he said. "Engineering that is neither possible nor desirable; you cannot plan a cycle," he said.

By contrast, the three metros with the strongest rent growth since mid-2023 — New York, San Francisco, and Chicago — had home valuations near historical norms, while fewer residents moved away to other parts of the country.

Sunderji also looked into how rents were influenced by places with warm winters and the number of remote and tech workers in the cities. Remote work and tech jobs had the least impact on lowering rents, given that New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston have high levels of tech and remote workers and saw large rent increases.

The warm-winter factor served as a "proxy," shedding light on the general trend of most people moving toward warmer places, thereby affecting migration inflows in certain areas. Yet weather patterns did not play a major role in the study, said Sunderji.

• Three hikers rescued from California's Mount Shasta on Monday said they "relied too much" on AI.
• Ranger Nick Meyers said it was the third time this year that AI played a role in hiker mishaps.
• One woman, he said, ignored a "no camping" sign because AI told her it was a good place to camp.

Nick Meyers, lead climbing ranger for the US Forest Service on Mount Shasta in California, has seen people make plenty of mistakes in the mountains over the past 20-plus years. But he's seeing a new trend in 2026: hikers erring with AI's help.

Meyers, who is also the director of the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center, said there have been at least three mishaps this year in which hikers or campers were led astray by AI or relied too heavily on the tech.

The most consequential came last weekend, when three 20-year-old men got lost and had to be rescued after summiting Mount Shasta, California's fifth-highest peak, located in the Cascade Range at the northern end of the state.

The "novice climbers" had set out on Saturday on the Clear Creek route and established base camp at a prohibited site, the US Forest Service said. They woke up at 3 a.m. on Sunday and set out for the summit, equipped with enough food and water for an eight-hour hike. They summited 16 hours later at 7 p.m.

While trying to descend the 14,179-foot peak in the dark, the climbers went off route, and one of them injured his knee. The cellphone they'd been using for navigation died. They eventually had to stop and form a makeshift camp to spend the night, without adequate food, water, or equipment, the Forest Service said. At 9:30 a.m. on Monday, climbing rangers reached the party and helped them descend.

The group told the rangers they had used Google Gemini, YouTube, and the AllTrails app to plan their climb, authorities said.

"We relied too much on AI rather than our own critical thinking," the group told rangers, the Forest Service said.

Meyers said AI was not the "nail in the coffin" for the group, but that they had made a series of mistakes that all added up. He said the roughly eight-hour estimate they got from AI wasn't generally wrong, but that the group hiked far slower than that, hadn't packed enough provisions for the extra time, and kept going after blowing past the recommended turnaround time of around noon.

Still, he said the group itself believed AI contributed to their mistakes and that there may be too much reliance on the technology, especially among younger hikers.

Google did not respond to a request for comment. The company says on its website that Gemini can make mistakes and hallucinate, and that users should double-check its responses.

AI-related mishaps are on the rise

Meyers said rangers encountered two other people this summer who ran into issues after using AI to plan their trip.

He said one woman had set up camp in an area where camping was not allowed, as was clearly labeled at the site. When rangers informed her she couldn't camp there, she said, according to Meyers, "Well, ChatGPT told me I could camp here."

"We're like, 'Well, the sign says no camping,'" Meyers said.

In another incident, a man was talking to rangers about a hiking loop he was planning to take, but they were confused by what he was saying. When they asked exactly what he was planning, he pulled out a AI-generated map of the mountain and his route.

"The map was terrible, totally terrible," Meyers said. "It had features that were on complete wrong sides of the mountain."

OpenAI says on its website that ChatGPT can make mistakes and might respond confidently "even when it's wrong." The company also lists practical tips for how to use its chatbot responsibly, including: "Use ChatGPT as a first draft, not a final source. Please check important information."

People making mistakes in the mountains is nothing new, and rangers have long advised hikers to do their homework, plan carefully, and consult official sources, such as the Forest Service or the National Park Service. AI can be used as one part of that planning, too.

"AI can be a great tool," Meyers said. "But it's not the only tool in the toolbox."

AI is especially dangerous to rely on in the mountains, where you're dealing with Mother Nature, unpredictable weather, and risky terrain. Meyers said hikers also need to rely on what he called "old school skills" — like talking to a real person, a ranger or an experienced climber, and getting information from firsthand sources.

Mount Shasta specifically has a website updated with the latest information, and climbers are encouraged to call to speak with a ranger and ask questions. AI can also be used to find the real people you need to call.

"Our website will pop up," he said. "We've queried it."

The reality is that safety in the mountains is dependent on a series of small decisions you make over and over again as you're climbing, Meyers said, and part of that is based on "mountain sense" built up through experience.

"One thing we don't ever want to do is discourage people from adventures," Meyers said. "We just want to make sure they plan properly and encourage folks to start at the shallow end of the pool."

His advice: Find a good mentor. Talk to real people. Visit the ranger station.

"You can do your online research," he said, but also "fact-check yourself a little bit and use those critical thinking skills."

Do you have a story to share about using AI in the outdoors? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.

• Photos and satellite images show how Black Rock City rises from Nevada's desert.
• About 70,000 burners are expected to attend this year's festival.
• Images capture entry lines, camps, artwork, and the temporary airport.

Burning Man is transforming Nevada's Black Rock Desert into a temporary metropolis once again.

Thousands of participants began entering the gates at midnight on August 30, hauling the food, water, shelter, and supplies needed to survive a week in the remote playa about 80 miles north of Reno.

Roughly 70,000 people are expected to attend the art festival, described as an annual experiment in radical self-expression, communal effort, and civic responsibility. Burning Man has also long attracted prominent Silicon Valley figures, with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Sam Altman among its past attendees.

Early arrivals spent the Sunday raising shade structures, building camps, and installing artwork as hammers, power tools, and dance music echoed across the dust. This year's creations include a metal octopus and a shattered Eiffel Tower, along with the Man, a human-shaped effigy, and the Temple of the Moon, a 170-foot-wide sanctuary for reflection and remembrance. Both structures are made to be burned in separate ceremonies near the end of the event.

Temperatures are forecast to hover around 80 degrees during the first half of the week, though gusty winds could whip up the playa's notoriously punishing dust.

Here are this year's images showing the progress of Black Rock City.

Laying the groundwork

Before Burning Man opens, survey crews mark Black Rock City's clock-face plan on the empty playa. Radial avenues extend from the Man, while curved streets form the surrounding semicircular camping area.

Work on Black Rock City begins roughly a month before the event, when crews mark the city's center and begin surveying the street grid. Over the following weeks, they build roads, gates, service compounds, Center Camp, and ceremonial structures before artists and the general public arrive.

The entry queue

Burners arriving by car formed long lines across the Black Rock Desert over the weekend, funneling through temporary lanes toward the event's entrance gates.

The sprawling queue is a familiar part of arrival at Black Rock City, where organizers inspect tickets and vehicle passes before admitting participants. From above, the rows of cars resemble a temporary highway etched into the playa, leading toward the semicircular desert city beyond.

The Black Rock City Municipal Airport

The Black Rock City Municipal Airport, which springs up for just 13 days a year, appears to be in full swing based on satellite images.

Instead of asphalt, the airport is built from scratch each year on the dusty playa. Staffed almost entirely by volunteers, the temporary airport serves general aviation and private planes, as well as Burner Express Air, which is a designated event charter flight that carries some attendees between the temporary airport and Reno, the San Francisco Bay Area, or Southern California during the event.

Center Camp

Center Camp sits near the 6 o'clock edge of Black Rock City. Its acre-wide canopy provides shade and hosts performances, art, drinks, and gatherings.

Mostly staffed by volunteers who handle scheduling, daily operations, and bartending in the ring of interactive camps that surrounds the plaza, the area is one of Black Rock City's main civic spaces and natural meeting points.

The Cryptomeria pavilion

At Black Rock City's geographic center, the Man is taking shape above the Cryptomeria, a tree-inspired pavilion with rootlike approaches and spiral stairways that climb nearly 60 feet. This year's pavilion was named and designed by designer and inventor Alexander Rose, a longtime burner.

Around it, temporary installations are expected to gradually spread across the open playa, creating an outdoor gallery.

The Temple of the Moon

Art installations are taking shape across the playa.

The Temple of the Moon installation made especially for the 2026 Burning Man, as pictured, is a 170-foot-wide sanctuary inspired by the Queen of the Night cactus and lunar cycles. Its petal-like forms surround a chamber reaching 52 feet.

The installation was created by artist James Gwertzman alongside the Moonlight Collective and Temple Build Crew as a quiet space for grief and remembrance.

Sandstorms on the playa

Starting Wednesday, high winds brought dusty conditions to the playa, and participants can be seen braving the sandstorm to view art installations.

A temporary gate closure

Earlier on Thursday, visibility was already low, and participants could be seen huddling on art installations to wait out strong winds. Such sandstorms are not uncommon in the Nevada desert.

By Thursday evening, the winds caused near-whiteout conditions at Burning Man and forced officials to temporarily close the entrance gate.

'Eiffela Broken Dream'

French artist Philippe Maindron's "Eiffela Broken Dream," a steel sculpture built at one-tenth scale to the actual Eiffel Tower, debuted on Thursday. Its two halves stretch roughly 100 feet across the playa, aimed at evoking themes of collapse, displacement, and resilience.

The tower, weighing 29 tons and featuring a dramatic split, was transported from France by CEVA Logistics and arrived on the playa on September 3.

Countdown for The Man

The Man structure has now fully risen above the Cryptomeria pavilion.

According to the countdown on the Burning Man website, The Man will burn on Saturday night, September 5, at around 7:30 p.m. PT. Sunday is the final day of the event.

A muddy Friday

On Friday afternoon, Burning Man organizers announced that they had to temporarily close the entrances and exits to Black Rock City and the city's airport.

The closure is due to rain on Friday, which left roads and camping areas muddy. Participants can be seen treading through the mud in boots and shoes wrapped in plastic bags.

Organizers have posted on X asking people to "delay your travel to BRC and wait for updates."

College football is officially back, and Week 1 is absolutely action-packed. The streaming options get a bit complicated, but we've combed through everything so that you don't have to. Keep reading to learn where to watch college football Week 1.

If you don't want to read any further, your best bet for watching most games in the US is a live TV streaming service (such as YouTube TV or Fubo), but other services might be necessary for select games. ESPN Unlimited also carries tons of matchups throughout the season. International fans will need a DAZN NCAA College Sports subscription.

Where to watch college football in the US

College football games are spread far and wide in the US. Relevant channels and streaming platforms for Week 1 include ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ACC Network, SEC Network, Big Ten Network, FOX, FS1, NBC, CBSSN, The CW, USA Network, Peacock, ESPN+, and SECN+, among a few others.

The best way to watch the most college football games in one place is through a live TV streaming service. YouTube TV and Fubo are two of our top recommendations right now.

YouTube TV carries pretty much every channel you'll need (outside of streaming exclusives) in both its Main and Sports plans. YouTube TV's Main Plan (100+ channels) costs $83 a month, but new users can get $15 a month off their first five months after a free trial. The platform's Sports Plan (30+ channels) is also on sale. Subscriptions typically cost $65 a month, but first-time customers can get $20 off their first six months after a free trial. Subscribers can also access ESPN Unlimited content.

Fubo offers a similar selection of college football-friendly channels across its Pro, Elite, and Sports + News packages. The budget-friendly Sports + News plan costs $65 a month, but new users can get $10 off their first month after a free trial. The pricier Pro and Elite plans also come with introductory offers and free trials. All three plans also unlock ESPN Unlimited (more on that below).

ESPN will come into play for several games this weekend. For games that aren't nationally broadcast and instead appear on ESPN+, you'll be covered by signing up for the cheaper ESPN Select tier. For those seeking access to full live streams from ESPN networks (including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network), the pricier ESPN Unlimited tier will be necessary. ESPN Unlimited costs $32 a month and also unlocks access to ESPN+ and SECN+ streaming-exclusive content.

If you're only looking to live stream NBC games, you'll be able to do so with a Peacock Premium Plus subscription, which costs $20 a month. Peacock will also have some exclusive games this weekend. If you're only interested in games that air on CBS, you can live stream these matchups with a $14 a month Paramount Plus Premium subscription. Likewise, if you only want to live stream a FOX or FS1 game, you can do so through the $20 a month FOX One streaming service. For some savings, you can also bundle ESPN Unlimited and FOX One together for $40 a month.

Additional one-off services will be required for certain games this weekend. Webber International vs. Stetson will be shown directly on YouTube TV, Coastal Carolina vs. West Virginia will be shown on TNT and HBO Max, and Edward Waters vs. Jackson State will be available via HBCU GO. Other games this weekend will be available through FloSports.

Where to watch college football in the UK and other regions

DAZN holds the broadcast rights for college football games in many countries outside the US, including the UK. A DAZN NCAA College Sports subscription will offer up to 25 college football games each week, including some free coverage. Subscription prices vary by region and contract details.

How to watch college football from anywhere

College football fans traveling abroad can keep up with their usual streaming options with the help of a VPN. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are apps that let people temporarily change their virtual locations. This way, their favorite websites and apps work from anywhere in the world exactly as they would back home. A VPN is also a strong way to boost cybersecurity.

NordVPN is one of the best VPNs on the market. It's reliable, user-friendly, and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

• See also: Where to watch FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup | ESPN streaming service | How to watch NFL games

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.

The best weight loss cat foods are typically lower in calories and fat than regular formulas and deliver more nutrients per serving. In addition, these foods often contain extra fiber to help cats feel full even when they're eating fewer calories.

To select weight-management foods for this guide, we asked veterinarians what to look for in foods for overweight cats and evaluated dozens of recipes based on their insights. All of the foods featured below 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). These benchmarks are consistently endorsed by the veterinarians we consult and are essential to our recommendations. Learn more about how Business Insider Reviews tests and researches pet products.

Our top picks for the best weight loss cat foods

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

How does weight loss cat food work?

The best weight loss foods for cats are specially formulated and labeled as "weight management," "weight loss," or "healthy weight" cat food. 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 appropriate food and help you create a safe, effective weight loss plan tailored to your cat.

It's also helpful to understand factors that cause cats to gain weight, such as aging, decreased mobility, excessive calorie consumption, and limited mental and physical activity. Spaying or neutering is critical for overall health, but it can also lead to gradual weight gain.

If your cat is overweight, your veterinarian can determine their daily calorie requirements and recommend an appropriate weight management diet. Proper portion control is key for weight loss and maintenance, but simply feeding your cat less can be dangerous. Smaller portions may not provide all the nutrients your cat needs, says Dr. Mark Freeman, a veterinarian and clinical associate professor of community practice at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

How we recommend the best weight loss food for cats

To pick the best weight loss foods for cats, we consulted four veterinarians, including three who specialize in animal nutrition. They didn't recommend specific foods, but they helped us determine what makes for an effective weight loss food and how to ensure your cat loses weight safely and healthily. We also consulted guidelines and recommendations from the AAFCO, the WSAVA Global Nutrition Guidelines, and other publications and organizations linked in this guide.

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

How to choose a weight loss food for your cat

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.

Meet the experts 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.

Our expert sources: 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.

Weight loss cat food FAQs

Is wet or dry cat food better for weight loss?

Both wet and dry cat foods can support weight loss, but wet food is generally the better choice. It's lower in calories per bite and higher in moisture, which can help keep cats feel full. Wet formulas also often contain complex carbohydrates, such as brown rice and whole grain corn, that 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 may be less filling. Still, a lower-calorie, high-fiber dry food can aid weight loss when portions are measured carefully. Whichever food you choose, regular exercise through play and enrichment is an important part of an effective weight management plan.

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

A successful feline weight loss plan relies on three pillars: a balanced diet, portion control, and regular exercise. A weight management food also plays an important role, but the amount you feed is just as important. 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 for accurate measuring. Treats count toward your cat's daily calorie intake, too. Since they are usually not complete and balanced, Churchill suggests setting aside a small portion of your cat's regular food to use as rewards instead. Exercise is especially important for indoor cats because it burns calories and helps prevent boredom. Churchill recommends puzzle feeders for meals, and all of our experts agree that cat trees and perches can 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 needs 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 cutting back on their regular food can cause nutritional deficiencies. Your veterinarian may instead recommend a therapeutic weight loss diet.

How long should it take a cat to lose weight?

Cats should lose weight gradually, at a rate of about 1% to 2% of their body weight per week, Churchill says. Slow weight loss helps reduce the risk of health issues, including muscle loss and hepatic lipidosis, a potentially fatal condition. Also called fatty liver disease, hepatic lipidosis can develop when a cat's food intake decreases so rapidly that they enter 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 itself also increases a cat's risk.

Do slow feeders help cats lose weight?

Yes, slow feeders can help cats lose weight by encouraging them to mimic their natural hunting and foraging behaviors. Food puzzles also provide mental stimulation and curb boredom that 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. Portion control is still essential, so carefully measure your cat's food before adding it to a slow feeder or puzzle.

Before you head off on a long weekend, don't forget to get your shopping done. That's right, there are tons of great Labor Day sales going on now, including fashion favorites, outdoor essentials, kitchen tools, and more. Read on to find all of the best Labor Day sales, organized by category, to make your browsing a little easier.

We're tracking the best Labor Day sales of 2026 across all the categories we cover and pulling out the deals that are actually worth shopping. Below, you'll find the strongest offers available now, with new discounts added as they drop.

Labor Day home and kitchen deals

Labor Day TV and tech deals

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• Elon Musk is sparring with … the gaming site Chess.com?
• Musk said that chess would soon be "solved" with artificial superintelligence.
• Chess.com said, "Good luck."

Elon Musk is looking for a checkmate in his latest online feud.

It began on Thursday, when the billionaire wrote that the number of chess moves that aren't "utterly stupid" is small and that "chess will be fully solved one day."

A challenger then emerged: the online gaming site Chess.com.

The brand reposted Musk's response, calling it a "skill issue." Musk replied that chess was hard for humans but easy for computers, and reiterated his point that chess would be "fully solved" by AI.

"Between now and then, or even after, have fun," Musk wrote. "People enjoy many games/sports where machines are vastly better."

Chess.com once again reposted Musk's response. This time, it wrote that there were more possible chess games than atoms in the observable universe. "To solve chess, you'd have to map them all," the site wrote. "Good luck."

Rarely one to back down, Musk snapped back that Chess.com was "wrong." He wrote that "all legal chess positions" are about 40 orders of magnitude less than the estimated number of atoms in the universe.

Artificial superintelligence "will figure out ways to solve and compress that are far beyond what we could possibly comprehend," he wrote.

For the record: Both Musk and Chess.com's numbers are right, but the distinction comes down to language. Chess.com wrote about possible chess "games." Musk's retort was about legal chess "positions."

Musk seemed somewhat self-aware of the situation he had found himself in, ending his response with a face-palm emoji. "Here I am arguing with some random intern at a chess website," he wrote.

"I'm a full-time employee," the Chess.com account said. Musk responded with the coughing emoji.

Musk's companies have yet to conquer the chess world. In a 2025 chess battle, xAI's Grok 4 reached the final round but was bested by OpenAI's o3 model.

He hasn't always been so loving of the game. In 2012, he shut down a chess tournament among Tesla employees. "Indeed, we do not have time for chess," Musk told Business Insider at the time.

Meanwhile, another duo was also beefing over Chess.com: Investor-podcaster Jason Calacanis and whoever runs Elizabeth Holmes' X account. The Holmes account posted Calacanis' "brutal losing streak" on Thursday.

"Sigh..." Calacanis responded on Friday. "I guess I should stop using chess to fall asleep and get coached."

Who won the battle between Musk and Chess.com? The chess site is planting the flag.

"We understand losing a chess game can be frustrating, but losing a Twitter fight to a so-called intern must be maddening," a Chess.com spokesperson said.

Labor Day is almost here, and the long weekend is as good a time as any to pick up some new skills. The latest MasterClass deal can help you get half off annual subscriptions.

The MasterClass Labor Day sale discounts all annual plans by 50%. The deal brings Standard subscriptions from $120 a year down to $60 a year, Plus subscriptions from $180 a year to $96 a year, and Premium subscriptions from $240 a year to $120 a year. After 12 months, subscribers will be charged at the then-standard rate unless they cancel before then.

MasterClass is one of the most popular video streaming learning platforms, thanks to its star-studded lineup of celebrity experts. Subscriptions unlock over 200 courses across 13 categories, including Writing for Television from Shonda Rhimes, Science and Problem-Solving from Bill Nye, and Basketball Shooting, Ball-Handling, and Scoring from Stephen Curry. You can learn more by checking out our official MasterClass review, and explore additional details about the sale below.

FAQ

When is the MasterClass sale?

The MasterClass sale runs through Labor Day. The deal officially concludes on Monday, September 7, at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Are gift subscriptions also eligible for the deal?

The deal rates also apply to gift subscriptions, which cost the same as regular subscriptions. MasterClass gift memberships, which allow people to purchase access to the service for someone else, rank among the best subscription gifts.

What's the difference between MasterClass plans?

The main differences between the three MasterClass plans (other than price) are how many devices you can watch simultaneously and whether you can download content for offline viewing. Plus and Premium let you download for offline viewing, but Standard requires a constant internet connection.

Standard only allows you to watch on one device at a time, while Plus lets you watch on two devices, and Premium lets you watch on six, so both are better fits for household sharing.

Specific programming remains the same across all three plans.

How does this deal stack up against past offers?

We track subscription service prices and deals all year, and 50% off is the best discount we routinely see at MasterClass. If you've been thinking of signing up, now is a good time, since we don't expect to see a deeper discount than this.

You can learn more on the MasterClass website or check out additional subscription sales in our roundup of the best streaming deals and bundles.

The final Grand Slam of the year is underway, and the race is on for the elusive title. We've rounded up everything you need to know about where to watch the US Open, including global live streaming options.

Carlos Alcaraz is looking to defend his title in his first tournament back following an injury. With Jannik Sinner sitting out this year's US Open with an injury, Alcaraz's stiffest competition comes from the likes of Alexander Zverev, Ben Shelton, Flavio Cobolli, and Daniil Medvedev, among others.

On the women's side, Aryna Sabalenka is also aiming to defend her title. The women's world No. 1 is also on the line, with Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, and Jessica Pegula all vying for Sabalenka's top spot. While a return to No. 1 isn't in the cards for 2022 US Open champ Iga Świątek right now, she's been on a roll over the past month after a rocky season and is proving to be a contender at this year's tournament. Alex Eala is also one to watch, along with Naomi Osaka. While Venus Williams was eliminated in the singles first round, she'll team up with Serena Williams for women's doubles.

*Approximate start time, subject to delay depending on earlier matches.

Where to watch the US Open for free

Select matches from the US Open will live stream on 9Now in Australia. Viewers just need to create an account if they don't already have one, and then they're all set to start streaming. In the US, fans can catch some of the action at no cost by using a free trial of a live TV service, such as YouTube TV or Fubo.

How to watch the US Open from anywhere

Tennis fans who are away from the location where their desired streaming service works can still keep up with their viewing options (including the free ones) with the help of a VPN. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are handy tech tools that help people temporarily alter the virtual location on their electronic devices. They're popular services among those looking to upgrade their cybersecurity and keep up with their usual websites and apps while traveling abroad.

Proton VPN is one of the best VPNs on the market. It's user-friendly (even for beginners), includes several security perks, and offers a massive selection of global servers.

Where to watch the US Open in the US

ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC will carry broadcast coverage in the United States. Matches that aren't broadcast will be available as ESPN+ exclusives. The best way to catch all of the action is with an ESPN Unlimited subscription. At $32 a month, ESPN Unlimited unlocks full live streams from flagship ESPN channels (along with ESPN on ABC content) and streaming-exclusive ESPN+ programming.

ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 are also available through live TV services, along with several other channels. These are great options if you're looking for a month-to-month cable alternative or seeking out something with a free trial. Fubo and YouTube TV are two of our top recommendations right now.

Fubo offers ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 in its Sports + News plan, which costs $65 a month and features around 30 channels. New users can get $10 off their first month after a free trial. These channels are also available in Fubo's pricier Pro and Elite packages, which offer upward of 200 channels. All three of these plans also unlock ESPN Unlimited at no extra cost, so you'll be able to catch those ESPN+ exclusive matches.

YouTube TV also carries ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 in both its Main plan and Sports plan. The Main plan costs $83 a month, but new users can get $15 a month off their first five months of service with a special deal. The Sports plan is also running a limited-time offer, which will discount the first six months of service from $65 a month down to $45 a month. New users can get a free trial of either plan.

Where to watch the US Open in the UK

In the UK, the US Open will be shown on Sky Sports. Tennis fans can tune in with a Sky TV plan. Prices depend on contract specifics, and you can learn more in our guide to the best Sky TV deals and plans. Viewers looking for a little less commitment can also stream Sky Sports programming through Now, which offers various memberships, including a £15 single-day pass.

Where to watch the US Open in Australia

Australian tennis fans hoping to watch absolutely every match at the US Open will need a paid Stan Sport subscription. This costs $30 a month ($10 a month for a base Stan subscription, plus an additional $20 a month for the Sport add-on). Channel Nine and 9Now will offer select free coverage in Australia. This is available to live stream after creating a free login.

While fans might not be able to catch every match for free at first, coverage has been pretty comprehensive as the tournament has worn on in past years. So far, 2026 broadcasts have prioritized top seeds and Australian players.

Who is favored to win the US Open?

As of the start of the US Open, Carlos Alcaraz is the favorite to win the men's singles tournament, and Aryna Sabalenka is the favorite to win the women's singles tournament. On DraftKings (at the time of writing), Alcaraz is the +120 men's favorite, and Sabalenka is the +290 women's favorite.

Where is the US Open held?

The US Open takes place in Queens, New York. The tournament is held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Who has been eliminated so far?

The most notable elimination so far has been four-time US Open champion Novak Djokovic, who was defeated by Mariano Navone in a lengthy, grueling five-set first-round match. Alex de Minaur, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Lorenzo Musetti are among the other notable eliminations. There have been far fewer major upsets on the women's side of the tournament so far.

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.

• A US Army commander wrote an op-ed about his troops' recent training fight against Ukrainian forces.
• While drones were a problem, he said soldiers adapted their techniques, especially with their armored vehicles.
• Officials and experts have debated the vulnerability of armored vehicles against drones.

A US Army commander wrote in a new opinion article that a recent combat training exercise against Ukrainian soldiers showed that armor like infantry fighting vehicles and tanks can still survive and make a difference on battlefields swarming with drones, but troops have to be able to adapt, to flexibly change how they move, hide, and fight.

During the simulated battle, his troops saw how persistent drone surveillance exposed their movements and put their combat vehicles at risk. But the soldiers also learned and adapted, the commander said.

On Friday, Capt. Allan W. Watson, the commander of Blackhawk Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, wrote an op-ed in Task and Purpose about an April exercise. The exercise, held at Hohenfels Training Area in Germany, pit Watson's soldiers against Hohenfels' dedicated opposition force, the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, with support from the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Force's 412 Regiment.

The Ukrainian unit, known as "Nemesis," brought real combat experience fighting with and against drones to the training, presenting a demanding test for American soldiers. Reconnaissance drones tracked their movements, and US forces didn't have the counter-drone capabilities they wanted, Watson wrote.

Watson's soldiers responded by changing how they used their armored vehicles. They hid their Bradleys in gullies and among the trees, leveraged the terrain to mask their maneuvers, avoided predictable routes that they knew the Ukrainian hunters expected them to try, and deliberately considered how the force looked to overhead drones.

"More than once," he wrote, "I found myself standing sideways in the turret of our Bradley, barking orders as our platoons traversed 40-degree slopes, finding new routes to an objective."

"The enemy still found us," Watson wrote in the op-ed. But "even with drone reconnaissance, the enemy had to use traditional ground reconnaissance and infiltration techniques. While a drone could identify us from above, only troops on the ground could exploit the information."

Throughout the fight, the US forces lost Bradleys and tanks, which Watson said was expected in a high-pressure event like this, an exercise meant to resemble a real armed conflict.

For Watson, those losses didn't condemn his armored assets to irrelevance; rather, the training exercise demonstrated that armor still provides tremendously valuable mobility, protection, and firepower as long as it is put to use with the drone threat in mind.

"Our armor did not make us more vulnerable," he wrote, "it made us mobile, protected, and dangerous."

Officials and top war watchers have debated the value of armored vehicles against drones and uncrewed systems since the beginning of the Ukraine war, as reports from the front and video footage of drones blowing up tanks and armor across the battlefield circulated online.

The asymmetric threat raised concerns that the proliferation of cheap drones, both surveillance and attack, had made heavy armor too vulnerable, making it less relevant for future fights.

Watson's account of his experiences paints a more complicated picture, acknowledging that uncrewed systems represent a growing threat to armored combat vehicles but emphasizing that the threat hasn't yet made them obsolete. The debate goes on.

Labor Day marks the changing of the seasons for many, and for my fellow spooky time enjoyers, that means the long-awaited approach of Halloween. Pumpkin spice is back, stores are putting out their giant skeletons, and Spirit Halloweens are possessing previously vacant warehouses nationwide. If you're shopping early, you can also score some incredible Labor Day Halloween sales on decor and more.

From stocking up on candy and goodies to hand out the night of, to furnishing your lawn with the scariest effects on your street, prepping for All Hallows' Eve is more affordable if you shop now. Some of my favorite Labor Day Halloween sales include Amazon, Wayfair, and Ruggable.

Read on to find all of the best Halloween deals you can score this long weekend. Get the rest of your shopping done by reading my guide to the best Labor Day deals. If you're also shopping for a costume, I recommend checking Amazon for adults, Pottery Barn for kids, and Chewy for pets.

The best Halloween Labor Day deals

Decor

Candy and treats

Pajamas

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• Media industry insiders have criticized ESPN's reporting on the LA Clippers scandal.
• ESPN's soft framing of the investigation was widely seen as contradicting that of Pulitzer winner Pablo Torre.
• The NBA's harsh ruling created a PR fiasco for ESPN, though the outlet hasn't issued any corrections.

The NBA's landmark ruling against the Los Angeles Clippers for salary cap circumvention is causing a PR headache for the Worldwide Leader in Sports.

ESPN has drawn widespread criticism from media industry insiders for its coverage of the Clippers' salary cap scandal.

ESPN's reporting included an August 17 story that cited three unnamed sources who said the NBA had "no evidence" that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through team sponsors to pay Kawhi Leonard. The story also quoted an anonymous source who said an argument that sponsorship introductions amounted to salary-cap circumvention would be "dead on arrival."

That ESPN story, published before the ruling came down, set up an industry narrative pitting ESPN against Pablo Torre, the investigative journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting about Leonard's ties to Clippers sponsors.

ESPN and Torre, a former ESPN employee whose podcast is distributed by The Athletic, were widely seen as presenting opposing narratives of the Clippers saga.

Online, it was "ESPN vs Pablo."

The NBA announced on Wednesday, after a nearly yearlong investigation, that it found the Clippers and Ballmer had broken league rules by facilitating sponsorship deals with Leonard. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver issued the team a $30 million fine, fined Leonard $700,000, and suspended Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO, from league activities for a year.

The LA Clippers said in a statement that they "vehemently reject the NBA's findings," which they said were "the result of a heavily biased investigation" by the NBA. Leonard said in a statement that he accepts "full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle."

The NBA's findings validated Torre's reporting and framing while putting ESPN under the microscope. ESPN hasn't issued any corrections to its reporting, but public relations pros say the overall framing of the story missed the mark. That's because it strongly suggested the Clippers would avoid a severe penalty, shortly before the NBA handed down its biggest penalty ever.

"While it might be accurate in the wording, the substance of the story was very misleading," said Brian McWilliams, the VP of LA-based public relations firm Spelling Communications.

ESPN has bet its future on its direct-to-consumer streaming product and prides itself on having strong relationships with its audience on TV and across social media. Hiccups like this could undermine that trust if fans think ESPN is favoring the perspective of certain leagues or teams, especially those with powerful owners, like Ballmer.

The sports giant now could "risk a lot of damage to the brand," McWilliams said, adding that after the investigation, "fans see the outcome, which is starkly in contrast with ESPN's reporting."

"The audience just needs an explanation," said Sam Gauchier, a New York-based brand and communications consultant.

An ESPN spokesperson said the company stands by its mid-August Clippers story and declined to comment further.

Weathering a PR storm

ESPN said in the August 17 story that it didn't receive a response from the NBA before publishing.

NBA spokesman Mike Bass later said on social media that ESPN's story "contains numerous and significant inaccuracies," which would "be made clear once the investigation is concluded."

The ESPN story, which was framed in a way that seemed to contradict Torre's reporting, included snippets of Torre's findings but no statement from him. Torre said on Thursday that he gave ESPN a statement for the story that said he stood by his reporting and was looking forward to seeing the NBA's findings. He said ESPN didn't publish it.

After the NBA's investigation and Torre's public commentary about the situation, ESPN's PR team must convince the public that the organization's reporting practices reflect "not only the technical accuracies, but the overall expectation of truth that their readers have," said Bradley Akubuiro, a partner at PR firm Bully Pulpit International.

ESPN was also criticized on Thursday when top NBA reporter Shams Charania — known for his scoops on player moves — said on TV that Leonard "did not have any knowledge" of the salary cap circumvention, before adding that Leonard "pocketed tens of millions of dollars" from Clippers sponsors.

Torre responded on X to a clip of Charania's comments with a screenshot of Leonard's signature on a purported copy of a contract with former Clippers sponsor Aspiration Partners.

McWilliams said insiders like Charania, who regularly break NBA news, walk "a very fine line between wanting to be first, wanting to be accurate, and also wanting to maintain access, which can be revoked."

As I write this, the New York City summer is winding down. Earlier we'd experienced a heat dome and crazy wildfire smog, where it was stiflingly hot and all I could tolerate on my body was this silk slip dress from Quince, loose T-shirts, and nipple covers from CAKES Body.

CAKES Body was founded by twin sisters Taylor Capuano and Casey Capuano Sarai. They secured funding by making a deal with Emma Grede, the co-founder of SKIMS, when they appeared on Shark Tank in 2024.

I bought flimsy drugstore nipple covers before investing in a reusable ones, but I hate knowing they'll take forever to degrade in a landfill. More recently I was wearing pasties from Nood, but they lose their stickiness and shape after a while. The Sticky Cakes, my most recent discovery, are far and away the best pair I've tried. Yes, they're over $30 a pair, but as a word to all my small-chested friends out there: these are worth it.

What CAKES Body nipple covers are like to wear

It's been over a year of wearing these nipple covers about 3 or 4 times a month, and they're so much better than single-use pasties.

I've tested out two kinds of CAKES Body nipple covers. The Grippy Cakes in size "itty bitty" are my go-to because they're smaller, adhesive-free, and just cover my nipples, which is often all I need. They're thin silicone circles that grip my skin and stay put with my body heat. They're better for fitted tops, but I've worn them under loose dresses and they worked just fine.

I can actually forget I have them on, they're so comfortable. I even tested their waterproof ability at the pool, and they still stayed in place.

The Sticky Cakes in size "OG" are larger and encompass almost my entire boob. They use a sweatproof adhesive that has stuck to my skin and refused to slide off, even as I walked around in a heat wave in a silk slip dress. In their centers are small, adhesive-free circles the brand calls "Nip Nooks," so peeling them off is painless. I like these better for loose-fitting tops because once they're on, they're on.

Who are these nipple covers are for?

The CAKES Body nipple covers are a fashion-focused solution that allows people to wear backless tops and sheer tops, as long as you're comfortable with forgoing underwire. That said, these may not work for you if you have a large cup size and need the support only a bra can give.

That said, I've found great relief in not having to plan my outfit around a bra anymore. I'm size 34B and have told my other small-chested friends why I choose nipple covers, explaining how I don't miss the padded push-up bras and have instead learned to embrace my small boobs. I don't have the cleavage to fill out low-cut tops now that I've sworn off bras, but I rather be comfortable.

The bottom line

If you too are a card-carrying member of the "itty-bitty titty committee," I suggest you ditch your bras and start wearing these nipple covers from CAKES Body instead. They feel great, look totally invisible under thin fabrics, and they don't slide off from sweat, even in 105 degree weather. As someone who prefers to go braless but still wants protection, these are the best solution I've found.

Javits Center CEO Joyce Leveston says standing out at work isn't always about having the biggest title or the most impressive résumé. It's about giving 100%.

Leveston shares the career advice she swears by: show up, build relationships, and navigate the unexpected turns that come with work.

• A federal watchdog found that former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer presided over an office run amok.
• Witnesses described to investigators an office that was "toxic, intimidating and humiliating."
• Among other things, the report detailed Chavez-DeRemer's "inappropriate relationship" with a member of her security detail.

Former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer had an inappropriate relationship with a member of her security detail, pressured subordinates to drink, and relied on her staff to do everything from organizing laundry to translating her instructions to a moving crew.

Those are the findings of a bombshell investigation into Chavez-DeRemer, a Trump Cabinet member whose nomination was greeted with initial enthusiasm from some Senate Democrats but whose tenure ultimately ended in a cloud of scandal.

The Labor Department's inspector general, Anthony D'Esposito, wrote in a 44-page report that 38 witnesses described to investigators an office that was "toxic, intimidating and humiliating."

Chavez-DeRemer's attorney did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. In a statement to NBC News, he said that she had not broken the law.

"Secretary Chavez-DeRemer did not violate any law," Nick Oberheiden, the former secretary's attorney, said in a statement to the outlet. "That's important to point out and contrast to the premature and incorrect speculation of some. Beyond this, Ms. Chavez-DeRemer has successfully pursued new projects as a private citizen."

Here are some of the report's biggest findings.

A "toxic culture"

Two of Chavez-DeRemer's top aides, chief of staff Jihun Han and Office of the Secretary deputy chief of staff Rebecca Wright, violated department policy by routinely engaging in "threatening, demeaning, and abusive verbal and written communication," according to the report.

The watchdog concluded that the secretary "was seemingly aware of this behavior and failed to take action to stop this behavior."

In some instances, the report says Chavez-DeRemer herself engaged in the behavior.

"Witnesses stated that Chavez-DeRemer, Han, and Wright openly discussed employee performance matters in the presence of other staff, including details of performance-related meetings and whether those employees had cried during the meetings," the report reads.

In violation of department policy, the report said that the trio regularly consumed alcohol during work hours and pressured other workers to join them.

"Witnesses reported that when other employees attending these meetings declined alcohol, Chavez-DeRemer, Han, and Wright pressured them to participate or ridiculed them for abstaining," the report says.

Han and Wright were later terminated.

Chavez-DeRemer had an "inappropriate relationship"

Before she resigned in April, Chavez-DeRemer faced multiple reports that said she had a relationship with a member of her security detail

D'Esposito wrote that the direct evidence his team reviewed did not sufficiently establish that the pair "engaged in a romantic or sexual relationship."

That being said, the inspector general goes into detail about the evidence he uncovered, down to hotel door-lock records and video of the agent, who the report does not name, entering Chavez-DeRemer's building.

D'Esposito wrote that in two instances during trips to Las Vegas, the door lock records "reflected activity that appeared to indicate the two subjects spending at least portions overnight in the other's room."

The agent in question ultimately resigned.

Chavez-DeRemer pressured a security agent to give money to a nude dancer

During private travel back home in Oregon, the report said Chavez-DeRemer asked her security detail to take an unscheduled trip to what appears to be a strip club. The report describes it as "an establishment that was determined upon entry to feature partially nude dancers."

The report states that Chavez-DeRemer entered the establishment with the agent she was having an inappropriate relationship with and another member of the security detail.

According to the report, Chavez-DeRemer asked the driver to give money to one of the performers. Unsure of what to do, the driver asked the agent who the secretary was having an inappropriate relationship with for guidance.

"Chavez-DeRemer then took additional money from her purse and asked the agent to drop the bills one by one onto the partially nude woman," the report says.

Chavez-DeRemer relied on her staff for personal errands

Despite department policy to the contrary, the report includes multiple instances in which the secretary asked staffers to help her with personal errands during work hours.

"These tasks were outside the scope of these employee's official duties and included having employees organize Chavez-DeRemer's personal belongings, retrieve her packages, make personal purchases for her, oversee her movers, and communicate with household service providers during official duty time," the report states.

On one occasion, Chavez-DeRemer directed a staffer to "hang her laundry and dry cleaning and organize her clothing, shoes, and purses." Investigators obtained evidence of what happened because the staffer provided a video to the secretary showing her the job was done.

During the 2025 government shutdown, the report says Chavez-DeRemer asked an employee to retrieve packages from the mailroom of her residence.

Chavez-DeRemer also asked employees to buy "picture frames, holiday ornaments, gifts, and alcohol" on her behalf.

A Hispanic federal employee, the report states, was asked to "translate during interactions with Spanish-speaking workers at her personal residence."

You can read the report in full here.

• Tesla's Cybercab robotaxis launched in Austin on Thursday. The company is already facing an NHTSA probe.
• The US auto safety agency is looking into Tesla's self-certification of its autonomous, steering-wheel-less car.
• It doesn't mean the Cybercabs are stopping or unsafe. Federal rules just might not have caught up.

Tesla's Cybercab is live in Austin. Now, regulators in Washington are asking to check the EV-maker's homework.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, opened an audit inquiry late Thursday into Tesla's Cybercab certification.

The move came hours after Tesla's commercial deployment of a small number of Cybercabs in Austin, which joined its robotaxi network. Texas DMV records list 45 Cybercabs registered to Tesla. The vehicle has yet to be made available to purchase to consumers.

"NHTSA fully supports the safe development and deployment of automated vehicles," Jonathan Morrison, the agency's administrator, wrote in a statement sent to Business Insider. "But as the federal regulator, we need to ensure that all of our laws are followed."

NHTSA's announcement doesn't order Tesla to halt Cybercab deployments — the agency hasn't made any comment on the vehicle's safety or compliance. Instead, NHTSA will examine Tesla's technical data and the processes behind the automaker's self-certification.

Automakers typically certify their own vehicles' compliance with federal rules. Tesla told NHTSA that the Cybercab complies with applicable federal safety standards.

The certification could pose thorny questions for Tesla, given today's vehicle rules. The Cybercab doesn't have conventional human controls — such as a steering wheel, pedals, or side mirrors — that are required by current federal safety standards.

NHTSA will examine whether Tesla was correct in determining that some of those requirements do not apply to its automated vehicle.

Tesla is not the first company to confront the full-autonomy regulatory challenge. In July, NHTSA gave Amazon-owned Zoox a temporary exemption to deploy its own steering-wheel-free robotaxis commercially.

Tesla is taking a different route: It certified that the Cybercab meets all applicable federal rules, even as NHTSA is still working to update standards, including one governing brake pedals, for driverless vehicles.

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

Coach rarely needs an excuse to tempt us with a new bag, but its Labor Day sale is especially worth a look: select styles are an extra 20% off, on top of already-marked-down prices. The event includes bags, wallets, accessories, and shoes, with some pieces dropping below $100 once the extra discount lands in the cart.

Here are our favorite deals, along with some advice about how to shop the different sales. And for more info about the best Labor Day sales across all categories, check out our deals hub.

How to shop the Coach sale at the Coach Outlet

Coach's site sells both regular Coach styles and Coach Outlet pieces, and the pricing can look a little confusing at first.

Outlet isn't simply a clearance section: it includes a mix of past-season Coach styles and bags made specifically for Outlet. Those Outlet-made styles may be listed with a "Comparable Value," which is Coach's estimate of what a similar item is worth — not necessarily a price that exact bag was previously sold for.

None of the deals below use Comparable Value pricing. Each has a true regular Coach price that has been marked down, so the discount reflects an actual reduction from that item's listed price.

Coach Outlet deals

Coach Outlet's Labor Day sale takes an extra 20% off a small but solid mix of already-marked-down bags, wallets, accessories, and shoes.

See all Coach deals at the Coach Outlet.

Coach deals across the internet

You don't just have to shop at the outlet to get savings — there are Coach deals across the internet at well-known department stores. Here are our favorites.

• Midshipmen at the US Naval Academy learn seamanship on training vessels called yard patrol craft.
• After classroom instruction, midshipmen take trips where they manage every aspect of the journey.
• Yard patrol craft YP 700 features a pilothouse, racks, a galley, and a common area.

At the United States Naval Academy, every midshipman learns to drive.

Their driver's ed curriculum doesn't involve slow circles in empty parking lots or parallel parking tests. Instead, the future naval leaders learn how to drive, steer, and navigate a ship by going out on the water and doing just that.

After midshipmen learn the basics of navigation, boat handling, man-overboard maneuvers, and standard commands in the classroom, they put their knowledge into practice on training vessels known as yard patrol craft.

During my visit to the Naval Academy in August, I got to climb aboard the yard patrol craft YP 700 to see how midshipmen learn shiphandling and navigation on the job. Take a look.

Midshipmen at the US Naval Academy practice their seamanship skills on yard patrol boats.

Training is held both in the classroom and aboard yard patrol craft during the school year. In the summertime, midshipmen embark on longer trips where they manage every aspect of the journey, from navigation to cooking.

While underway, midshipmen are supervised by experienced craftmasters, who are responsible for the safe operation of the vessels but largely take a hands-off approach to the training.

I got an exclusive look inside one of these training vessels.

YP 700 measures 108 feet long and can hold around 30 people. With two diesel engines, it can reach a maximum speed of about 12 knots (about 14 mph). It has a range of 1,800 nautical miles and can remain underway for up to five days without refueling.

In July, midshipmen sailed four yard patrol craft to Baltimore and New York City as part of the International Naval Review for America's 250th anniversary. Aside from special events such as Fleet Weeks, yard patrol craft aren't usually open for public tours.

My tour started at the bow, where the wildcat, a toothed wheel that grips and moves the anchor chain, helps raise and lower the anchor.

The wildcat is the one piece of machinery that midshipmen don't operate themselves since doing so incorrectly can, as one craftmaster told me, result in losing a finger. However, midshipmen do practice other aspects of anchoring, such as positioning the boat correctly.

The pilothouse functions as the control center of the ship, housing the main helm, or steering wheel, and navigational equipment.

The main helm controls the ship's rudder.

Midshipmen also learn to steer the ship using just its port and starboard engines, which are controlled by separate levers.

Midshipmen learn how to maneuver the vessel using the engines if normal rudder steering is lost.

The navigation table houses the Voyage Management System, or VMS, which midshipmen learn how to use during their youngster, or sophomore, year.

The table itself is a holdover from an era when paper charts were central to maritime navigation. Midshipmen today train extensively on electronic navigation systems, though they also learn traditional chart plotting.

The VMS shows a live feed of other vessels in the area using data from the Automatic Identification System, or AIS.

Through AIS, vessels broadcast their name, call sign, speed, course, and other key information that can help other ships contact and navigate around them.

AIS complements radar by providing identification information on vessels transmitting a signal. The VMS displays that data, as well as useful chart information, including shallow or shoal water that could pose a grounding risk.

The boat's sound tube is a relic from the days before handheld radios, but it still serves an amusing purpose as midshipmen learn the ropes.

The craftmaster serving as my tour guide said he offers the sound tube to midshipmen as a place where they can scream out their frustration and relieve some stress before returning to their duties. He said it works very well.

Below deck, the ship's craftmaster and other crew sleep in dedicated berths during trips.

Midshipmen stay in bunks, known as racks, on another level further below deck, with six to 12 people to a room.

Midshipmen are in charge of planning and preparing meals in the ship's galley.

A midshipman designated as the supply officer creates the meal plan and assigns cooking duties.

The galley features all of the basics, including a stove, oven, toaster, and microwave. Sometimes, crews will also bring an air fryer or a grill.

Meals are eaten in seating booths near the galley or out on the deck in cooperative weather.

The galley is the coldest space on the ship in the summertime, so midshipmen often eat their meals downstairs.

A multipurpose common space occasionally serves as a classroom, briefing room, and lounge, but most of the instruction happens on the job.

When the boat is underway, midshipmen learn to expect the unexpected.

Craftmasters will throw a life ring overboard and see how long it takes them to notice, or suddenly declare "Man overboard!" to test their reaction time and knowledge of the correct procedures.

The classroom space on board, it turns out, is barely used at all.

• I encouraged my kids to explore whatever fascinated them when they were young.
• Their interests ranged from photography and filmmaking to money and animals.
• Some became careers, while others remained hobbies that are still part of their adult lives.

My youngest son developed a passion for sharks early. By the time he was 18 months old, he could identify at least 150 of the 500 known sharks through photographs in a guidebook. His interest only intensified as he grew. By the time he entered school, he could recite innumerable facts about these creatures.

I encouraged his interest at every turn, purchasing books and videos and decorating his room with artifacts like megalodon and shark teeth. We even mounted a plaster cast of a shark's head on the wall that his preschool teacher had given him.

No matter where we ventured on a family vacation, we always visited the nearest aquarium and were thrilled when sharks were on display.

I was convinced that someday this boy would study marine biology and maybe even discover an as-yet-unnamed member of the species. That didn't happen. Instead, like two of his older brothers, he attended art school.

Their early interests became their career paths

I was wrong about which career this child would pursue, but looking back now at the activities that captured the attention of his three brothers and sister, I could have predicted what direction their professional lives would take before they turned 10.

At 9 years old, one of them asked for a disposable camera and proceeded to take a series of truly remarkable photos. Even though I questioned the wisdom of paying tuition for a degree in photography, I did. Would he be able to support himself? Yes. Today, he takes pictures for publications like The New Yorker, the LA Times, and The Hollywood Reporter.

My oldest started producing videos before he turned a decade old. He earned his first check at 14 by submitting shorts of friends wiping out while attempting rollerblading tricks to a TV show that highlighted pranks and falls. They even paid him residuals when they showed his work on repeat.

After earning a BFA in filmmaking, he pivoted to design work, but even that was foreshadowed by early attempts to launch a T-shirt company.

For one son, managing his allowance led him to a career in finance

He'd always dabbled in sketching and drawing. When he was 12, he launched a T-shirt line for teens steeped in skate culture. I happily supported this endeavor with a small cash infusion that covered the shirts and silk-screening. I never recouped my investment, but it was worth it for him to learn valuable lessons about starting a business. Although it's not his main source of income today, he continues to design sports-themed clothing and accessories.

Not all my sons are artists. My 2^nd one works in finance. In a family of creatives, it's great to have one child who can manage money. Aside from a school project that included mock stock trades, he did not spend hours studying economics; however, he was always judicious with his allowance.

When they started high school, I gave each child a couple of hundred dollars every few months to cover their expenses, including clothing, snacks, school supplies, and incidentals. My oldest spent all of his within a week. A few years ago, he designed an investment vehicle that major firms implement for their clients.

My predictions haven't always been right

I was convinced that my daughter would earn her income in an animal-related endeavor. In addition to caring for our many pets, she was constantly rescuing injured wildlife she'd find.

She earned an undergraduate degree in psychology, intending to provide animal-assisted therapy to teens experiencing trauma, but the thought of returning to the classroom for multiple years of study discouraged her from entering the field. She's a paralegal now with a houseful of dogs, rabbits, and other creatures. She dreams of starting an animal rescue, so maybe I wasn't that far off in my prediction.

It's easy to look back and see how each of my kids formed the lives they're living today. I'm glad I supported their interests while they were growing up even if they ultimately chose a different path. My youngest does still receive a shark-themed birthday card from me every year.

• AMC's CEO unloaded on Robinhood over social media on Friday.
• Adam Aron bashed the brokerage for operating a "quasi-fake market" for tokenized stocks.
• "I hereby call on you and Robinhood to voluntarily CEASE AND DECIST the trading of AMC stock tokens."

"The list of concerns is almost existential."

So kicked off a lengthy tirade from AMC CEO Adam Aron on Friday as he bashed Robinhood for enabling the trading of "tokenized" versions of AMC and other stocks.

Aron was replying to Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, who had responded to an earlier post from Aron pointing to the offshore unit that Robinhood issues tokenized stocks from. "What's the concern?" asked Tenev.

"In good conscience, how can Robinhood as a U.S. company set up an operation in far offshore Jersey, an island 3000 miles away, and market a security sort of posing as AMC in some shape or fashion, and not comply with U.S. securities laws. That is shocking and shameful."

Stock tokens are crypto-enabled versions of actual shares that trade 24/7 on the blockchain. Similar to a stablecoin that's backed by real currency, tokenized stocks are meant to be linked 1:1 to the underlying shares of a company that they reference.

Robinhood launched tokens linked to popular US-listed stocks and ETFs last year, sending its own stock soaring with the announcement. Importantly, stock tokens aren't available to US users, and are not registered under US securities law.

This issuer of Robinhood's tokens is indeed registered in the island of Jersey, according to documents on the brokerage's website. This is partly what Aron was taking aim at in his post on Friday, claiming that Robinhood had set up "some kind of fictitious synthetic equity market" that hurts a company's ability to raise capital.

"These are but a few of my concerns about your actions. I hereby call on you and Robinhood to voluntarily CEASE AND DECIST the trading of AMC stock tokens. If you don't, our high priced securities counsel has been asked to see whether we can force you to stop."

Robinhood's chief legal officer hit back in his own reply:

It's not the first time Robinhood has drawn the ire of a company for tokenizing its stock. The brokerage said last year that it would allow its users to trade tokens tied to shares of OpenAI, which is a private company. The ChatGPT maker quickly distanced itself from the move, stating that, "We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it."

A Robinhood spokesperson gave the following statement: "We stand firmly behind our Stock Tokens and their ability to provide international exposure to US equities, modernize the financial system and expand opportunities for ownership globally."

• Billionaire Taylor Swift has collected an impressive real estate portfolio.
• She owns homes in New York City, Rhode Island, California, and more.
• Her real estate portfolio is worth at least $100 million.

Taylor Swift will never be out of style — or at least out of homes.

The superstar has built a real estate portfolio worth at least $100 million, according to property records reviewed by Business Insider. She's used trusts and limited liability companies (LLCs) to buy homes throughout the US.

Swift reached billionaire status in 2023, and her record-breaking Eras Tour is a big factor in her fortune. 

Swift's net worth has continued to grow with the 2025 release of her album and film, "The Life of a Showgirl;" she also wrote and performed an original song for the "Toy Story 5" soundtrack in June 2026.

This year, Swift also married Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in a star-studded wedding. Kelce brings several multimillion-dollar properties into the marriage, including homes in Kansas and Missouri. He also recently bought a sprawling lakefront mansion in Ohio for $5.35 million.

Take a look at some of the homes where Taylor Swift may be settling into married life.

Jordan Hart and Britney Nguyen contributed to a previous version of this story.

Swift made her first major purchase in 2009 at age 19, buying a 4,000-square-foot, three-bedroom penthouse in The Adelicia in Nashville, Tennessee, for $1.99 million.

Not only is The Adelicia close to Nashville's Music Row, but it also has a private garage, heated pool, and fitness center, according to the building's website. 

After purchasing her penthouse, Architectural Digest reported that Swift also bought a one-bedroom unit directly below it that year for an undisclosed amount.

As of 2021, the appraised value of the apartment is over $3.7 million, according to public property records viewed by Business Insider.

Swift told Vulture that she designed the penthouse herself. When she spoke to the publication in 2013, she had a photo on display of Kanye West interrupting her at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Under the photo she reportedly wrote, "Life is full of little interruptions."

 

Swift reportedly bought the Northumberland Estate in Forest Hills, Tennessee, in 2011 for $2.5 million.

The estate sits on 5 acres and has an appraised property value of about $3.7 million as of 2021. Although multiple outlets — including The Wall Street Journal — have reported that Swift owns the mansion, Business Insider was unable to confirm her ownership via property records in 2024. We've reached out to her representatives in an attempt to clarify if she still owns the property.

The Northumberland Estate is a Greek Revival-style home that was built around 1934. It formerly belonged to Guilford Dudley Jr., who served as the US ambassador to Denmark, WSJ reported.

Swift bought an 11,000-square-foot colonial-style mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, for $17.75 million in 2013.

The home, formerly known as Holiday House, was built in 1904 and previously owned by composer Rebekah Harkness, the wife of William Hale "Bill" Harkness, an heir of the Standard Oil fortune.

Swift wrote the "Folklore" album track "The Last Great American Dynasty" about Rebekah, who was a prominent socialite.

Swift reportedly paid for the home in cash. The mansion has eight bedrooms, eight fireplaces, and a pool.

"I got the house when I was in my early twenties as a place for my family to congregate and be together," Swift told Entertainment Weekly, saying that she learned about Harkness "as soon as I was being walked through [her former Rhode Island] home."

Swift is known for throwing Fourth of July parties at the house, which sits at the highest point in Watch Hill and offers views of Little Narragansett Bay. In 2024, several photos of her with her famous friends and now-husband were snapped at the home.

Zillow now estimates the property's value at nearly $35 million.

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A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

 

Swift bought the Beverly Hills mansion known as the Goldwyn Estate in 2015 for $25 million.

Zillow now estimates the property's value at nearly $35 million.

Swift reportedly bought the estate from the Goldwyn family through an LLC. It belonged to the legendary Hollywood producer who was part of the iconic Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio, and reportedly hosted old Hollywood stars such as Clark Gable and Bette Davis.

The mansion has six bedrooms, a tennis court, a whole apartment for guests, and a swimming pool.

In 2017, the home was granted historic landmark status, WSJ reported.

 

Swift welcomed herself to New York by buying two penthouse units in Tribeca's Sugar Loaf building in 2014 for $19.95 million.

She had the penthouses converted into an 8,309-square-foot duplex, which now has 10 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.

Swift bought the penthouses from "The Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson through an LLC.

Three years later, in 2017, she bought the townhouse next door for $18 million, and in 2018, she purchased yet another apartment in the Sugar Loaf building for $9.75 million. All four of her reported NYC apartments can be linked by LLCs that share the same tax addresses on property records.

Andrew Azoulay, a real-estate agent in Manhattan, told The Wall Street Journal that he advised Swift to buy the townhouse to act as a private garage and to buy the second-floor apartment to connect the garage to her duplex in the Sugar Loaf building. 

Swift's townhouse has been the target of break-in attempts over the years. In 2023, a man was arrested for trying to gain access to the building while Swift was attending the Kansas City Chiefs game versus the Bills in Buffalo. She still owns the property.

 

• We had thought replacing our carpets with vinyl-plank flooring would cost $6,000 and be fairly easy.
• During the process, we uncovered more issues with our home and ended up spending about $12,000.
• I often wish we'd left the carpet alone. We mostly cover the floors with rugs for our kids anyway.

When we bought our home, we thought it needed only cosmetic updates — maybe updated appliances and a fresh coat of paint.

So, we felt pretty good about tackling our first project as homeowners: replacing the floors in our main downstairs living space.

We consulted specialists at a home-improvement chain, got measurements and estimates, and chose our luxury vinyl-plank flooring.

Between supplies and labor, we were quoted just under $6,000 to replace all the flooring on our first floor, which included our living room, kitchen, dining area, coat closet, and half bath.

Once demolition began, however, we realized the project would take longer and cost more than we had expected.

Problems started to surface when the contractors began to remove our floors

First, subcontractors removed the carpet in our living room and the old hardwoods in our kitchen. The carpet pulled up pretty easily, revealing wet subflooring near both sets of French doors that opened to our backyard.

They said we'd need to rent a dehumidifier to remove the moisture from these floors before the new ones could be installed.

My husband rushed out to find one, which we left on for a few days while we (and our dog) tiptoed around exposed nails and staples on our bare plywood subfloor. Thankfully, we didn't have kids at the time.

From there, we learned our French doors were leaking badly and needed to be replaced — and so did a different section of damaged subflooring that couldn't be salvaged.

Pressed for time, we hired some nice but inexperienced contractors to make the repairs for about $4,000. (We paid for this mistake a year later when our doors needed to be fixed again.)

After several weeks of waiting and wearing socks around the house to avoid splinters, we were able to resume our project.

Not very long after, one of the subcontractors cracked the drywall in our kitchen while using a crowbar to loosen the planks, which had been nailed to our baseboards.

We felt as if we couldn't catch a break.

The floors looked great once they were installed, but the issues kept coming

This project wasn't done once our vinyl-plank flooring was put down.

Because the vinyl was thinner and lower than our old floors, our toilet and drop-through outlet no longer sat flush with the ground.

We had to pay a plumber to install a new flange — a crucial piece that fits over the drainage pipe, prevents leaks, and anchors the toilet to the floor. For a while, we lived with an elevated outlet in the middle of the floor, which created a tripping hazard for our kids.

Also, the vinyl flooring keeps our downstairs much cooler than our carpeted upstairs, where our bedrooms are.

This is mostly fine in the summer, but it contributes to a big temperature discrepancy in the winter. I have to keep our house's thermostat set on the lower side so the heat doesn't overwhelm us upstairs, but this means our downstairs gets really cold.

After all of this, we've been hesitant to do more home-improvement projects

This "cosmetic" update, which has now cost us well over $12,000, has scared us away from wanting to pursue other home renovations, such as updating our bathrooms or landscaping our yard.

In fact, I now don't believe most home-renovation projects are worth the hassle unless they're functionally necessary. They're rarely as easy as promised, and there's always a possibility you'll uncover costly issues or cause more problems in the process.

A lot of the time, I wish we'd left our floors alone. And if I'm honest, my young kids would've preferred the soft carpet to the harder vinyl floors, which I now cover with rugs, anyway.

This story was originally published on October 7, 2024, and most recently updated on September 4, 2026.

• MKBHD famously bet that Tesla wouldn't reach its lofty Cybercab goals in 2026.
• His hair is on the line. He'll have to shave if Tesla delivers a $30k, driverless car to customers.
• On Thursday, after Tesla's big launch, MKBHD said he's confident he'll win.

Making bets about Tesla's launches can get pretty hairy — but Marques Brownlee is confident.

Brownlee, the hugely popular tech content creator, better known as MKBHD, said in 2024 that he would shave his head on camera if Tesla sold its steering-wheel-and-side-mirror-free Cybercab to regular buyers for $30,000 before the end of 2026.

"My hair is safe, for now," he said during an 11-minute YouTube video, posted on Thursday. "And honestly, I feel pretty good about it staying good for the rest of the year."

The declaration comes after Tesla took a meaningful step toward that goal on Thursday: It added the two-seat Cybercab to its public robotaxi service in Austin.

For Brownlee, that is a far cry from Tesla's initial promise of putting that vehicle in consumers' driveways by New Year's Eve. In the YouTube post, he said Tesla would need to solve full self-driving, clear regulatory hurdles around selling a car without conventional hardware, and hit its aggressive price target — all within a few months.

Those are the same challenges sitting at the center of Tesla's bigger pitch to investors. In recent years, the company has de-emphasized the importance of its traditional car sales model as it turns toward its AI and robotics business. Robotaxis and autonomy, including the success of the Cybercab, are at the core of that pivot.

CEO Elon Musk is expressing optimism, too. He said on Friday that he believes MKBHD will have to go bald soon:

In the YouTube video, Brownlee —who has stepped up criticism of the EV company, especially after he publicly canceled his long-awaited Roadster reservation — said he still likes the Cybercab idea. He is just skeptical of Tesla's timing.

And he is willing to put other Tesla-believers' hair on the line, too: If he loses, he said he will shave his head and donate money to cancer research. If they lose, they shave theirs at the end of 2026.

"Three months to prove me wrong," he said.

And, for those who are curious to see what Brownlee might look like bald, the internet is swirling with plenty of AI slop videos and apps to fill in your imagination gaps:

Representatives for Brownlee and Tesla didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.