• Rory McIlroy won the Masters tournament on Sunday for the second year in a row.
• He said he was treating this win as part of a longer career journey to not face a post-win slump.
• Last year, he spoke about feeling less motivated in the months following his win.

Rory McIlroy, who just won the Masters tournament for the second year in a row, said he was treating the career milestone differently this time.

In response to a reporter asking whether he would take time off to soak in the win like he did last year, the Northern Irish golfer said he considered this win "just a part of the journey," and there are still many things he wants to achieve.

"I felt like the Grand Slam was the destination, and I realized it wasn't," he said on Sunday. "I'm on this journey. I've just won my sixth major, and I feel like I'm in a really good spot with my game and my body."

McIlroy, 36, won the 2026 Masters tournament held in Augusta, Georgia. He said in the press conference that he had waited so long to win the Masters, only to find himself winning two in a row.

"But I don't think I'll go through that lull of motivation or the sort of things that I was feeling last year post-winning this tournament," McIlroy added.

Last June, after a weak showing at the RBC Canadian Open, he spoke about hitting a slump in the months after his first Masters win.

He said he wasn't chasing any goals, and after a couple of weeks off from the sport, said that "grinding on the range for three or four hours every day is maybe a little tougher than it used to be."

"You have this event in your life that you've worked toward, and it happens," McIlroy said. "Sometimes it's hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again."

President Donald Trump congratulated McIlroy on his win in a Sunday post on Truth Social.

Trump, an avid golfer himself, wrote: "He performed tremendously under intense pressure, something which few people would be able to even think about doing."

"With each year, Rory is becoming more and more a LEGEND!" he added.

• Oil prices surged after the US and Iran failed to reach a deal during peace talks on Sunday.
• President Donald Trump said the US will enact a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
• Gas and jet fuel prices have surged since the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down in March.

Oil prices spiked past $100 per barrel after President Donald Trump imposed a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in response to failed peace talks between Iran and the US.

Brent crude oil futures reached nearly $104 per barrel on Sunday evening, up 9% from the previous close price. West Texas Intermediate also rose 9% to reach over $105 a barrel.

All three US stock market futures were about 0.8% lower.

Meanwhile, European gas futures climbed as much as nearly 18%, and spot gold was trading lower at around $4,710 per troy ounce.

US WTI is trading at a rare premium to Brent as the world scrambles for tight physical oil supply stateside.

"The unusual negative spread between the Brent and WTI prices suggests that traders believe that foreign demand for US crude oil is increasing as an alternative to oil supplied by Arabian Gulf producers," veteran market strategist Ed Yardeni wrote on Sunday evening.

On Saturday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that "massive numbers of completely empty oil tankers, some of the largest anywhere in the World," are headed to the US to load up on American oil and gas.

"We have more oil than the next two largest oil economies combined — and higher quality. We are waiting for you. Quick turnaround!" Trump posted on Truth Social.

Oil prices have skyrocketed globally since the US and Israel's war on Iran began in February. Iran retaliated by effectively closing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Around 20% of the world's oil supply and liquefied natural gas passes through the waterway off Iran's coast.

Major oil hubs across the Middle East have also been damaged amid the ongoing military conflict, further compounding the oil supply chain. The fallout is being felt globally, prompting some countries to shorten workweeks and implement other energy-saving tactics. The national average price of gas surpassed $4 in the US in late March.

Trump agreed to a two-week ceasefire on April 7, dependent on Iran immediately reopening the Strait of Hormuz. However, as the war approaches its seventh week, there is no end in sight.

US Vice President JD Vance traveled to Pakistan on Saturday to engage in peace talks with Iran. After nearly 24 hours, though, the two countries failed to reach an agreement.

In response, Trump said the US will enact a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in a Truth Social post on Sunday.

"Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz," Trump wrote.

• A Chinese AI product manager told BI she created 6 AI employees to increase her productivity.
• Vivi Mengjie Xiao said her productivity soared — but so did her exhaustion.
• The content creator also said the future of work may look like one-person companies.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Vivi Mengjie Xiao, an AI product manager and content creator on RedNote, China's social media platform. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm an AI product manager in China, and earlier this year, my CEO asked me to explore how AI could go beyond cost-cutting, to drive innovation.

Outside of work, I'm a content creator on RedNote, where I share AI tools, workflows, and insights with over 45,000 followers.

I used to spend about four hours a day gathering AI industry news: reading posts on X, newsletters, blog posts, and translating English sources into Chinese. I thought: "Can I automate this?" If AI can handle information gathering, what else can it do? If I'm doing something repetitive, I should automate it.

Each agent was born from a real problem I was experiencing. I created six AI employees, and they're split between work and personal life.

My foray into OpenClaw

At first, I set up only one "lobster" — a nickname Chinese netizens use for deploying an OpenClaw agent — and tried to make it do everything.

I wanted it to manage my calendar, schedule, to-do list, and monitor my work. I get distracted easily, so I wanted it to help me focus on what I needed to do in the moment and help connect the main thread of my work.

I kept stuffing other tasks into it as well, such as assigning it to manage my finances.

The result of putting all of that on one lobster was that its context became long and messy. It basically became ADHD like me: jumping from one thing to another without helping me focus. It was running three work streams at once. That wasn't going to work, so I split tasks up and assigned them to different lobsters.

Over time, the six AI employees naturally organized into personal vs. work, and within each category, into clear roles.

I have three work agents: the administrative assistant, the researcher, and the chief of staff. The chief of staff simulates my boss's communication style, and I use it to practice and polish presentations. For personal agents, I have a life coach, a content and expression assistant, and a finance assistant.

It felt like building a real team. It makes sense — you don't hire six people on day one. You start with one, and as the workload grows, you specialize.

The compound effect of having them connected surprised me. The life coach can read conversations from all five other agents. I use the life coach agent to help me journal daily, and now 70% of my journaling is automated. The agent knows everything — what I researched, what I invested in, and what I stressed about in my presentation rehearsal.

I'm more productive, but also more tired

About 60% to 70% of my daily operational work is handled by these AI agents, including information gathering, research, and content distribution.

However, my workday hasn't gotten shorter. I've shifted from doing "grunt work" to doing more creative, strategic, and high-leverage work. The AI employees freed up capacity for significantly more output.

I'm more productive by any conventional metric. I publish podcast episodes daily, monitor financials in real time, run a knowledge management system, and create content for RedNote and X — all while working full-time.

Honestly, I'm also more tired. This is a paradox I've been thinking about: When your efficiency goes up, you don't work less. You just attempt more.

My bedtime has shifted from midnight to 2 a.m. because there's always one more thing I want to do, or one more agent I could spin up to solve a new problem.

The future of work

We're witnessing a fundamental shift in what "work" means.

The Industrial Revolution standardized physical labor. The information revolution standardized knowledge work. And now, AI is standardizing execution work — the "how" of getting things done.

This means the premium is shifting from execution ability to three things: taste and judgment, ability to direct AI, and emotional intelligence.

The future of work is "one-person studios," solo creators and operators who leverage AI to produce at team-level scale. For companies, the question becomes: do you need 10 junior analysts, or one senior thinker with 10 AI agents?

This isn't about replacing humans. It's about liberating humans to do more human work. The parts AI takes away were never the parts that made work meaningful. The parts that remain — creativity, judgment, connection, purpose — are what make us human.

Building a team of six AI agents feels like going from being a solo freelancer to being the CEO of a small company, except your team never sleeps, never complains, and works for the cost of API subscriptions.

I've become a more structured thinker, a clearer communicator, and a more ambitious creator. I now think in terms of "which agent should handle this?" for almost every task. AI expanded my sense of what's possible for one person to build.

Do you have a story to share about tech in China? Contact this reporter at cmlee@businessinsider.com.

• The director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, outlined the Iran war's impact.
• Kristalina Georgieva said it's already "baked" into the economy.
• "We are going to see some drag of this crisis over the year," Georgieva said.

War has ravaged the Middle East for 43 days, but the damage could take years to repair.

Kristalina Georgieva, the director of the International Monetary Fund, said the impact of the Iran war is already "baked" into the economy on CBS News' "Face the Nation " on Sunday.

She tallied the conflict's hits to energy: sitting tankers that can't move to their destinations, dozens of energy infrastructure sites hit across the Gulf, and missile and drone attacks on Qatari gas fields that will take years to repair.

"We are going to see some drag of this crisis over the year, but if we have peace, of course, conditions are likely to improve faster," she said.

The prospect of peace looked promising on Tuesday evening, as President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire deal with Iran. The deal marked a turning point and eased investor fears of a prolonged conflict that could drive oil prices higher, fuel inflation, and push the US toward a recession.

The immediate reaction from investors was relief. On Tuesday, stocks climbed, while bond yields and oil prices fell. Both Brent crude and US oil dropped. Brent crude settled at $94.50 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate closed at $95.98.

But by Sunday, negotiations fell through, and Trump announced a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial shipping channel. Oil prices topped $100 a barrel when the markets reopened at 6 p.m. in New York.

"Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz," he said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday.

The ongoing conflict has driven up gas prices, which reached an average of $4 a gallon on March 31.

As a former professional cook, I take picnic season seriously, but even a great spread falls apart fast if you're sitting on damp grass. So I recruited my Reviews team coworkers to help find options that hold up to al fresco dining, days at the beach, and camping trips.

Together, we tested 14 picnic and beach blankets in real conditions, evaluating them for size, comfort, water resistance, and ease of packing, carrying, and cleaning. Because a picnic blanket is not just a nice-to-have. Even if you only use it once or twice a year, it's the difference between a relaxed afternoon and one cut short by discomfort (and possibly, ants).

Learn more about how Insider Reviews tests and researches home and kitchen products.

Our top picks for picnic blankets

Best overall, for a crowd: NEMO Victory Picnic Blanket, XL - See at Amazon

Best overall, for 1-2 people: Baggu Puffy Picnic Blanket - See at Baggu

Best budget: Scuddles Picnic Blanket - See at Amazon

Best beach blanket: Wekapo Waterproof Beach Blanket - See at Amazon

Best for camping: Rumpl Everywhere Mat - See at Amazon

Most comfortable: Yeti Lowlands Blanket - See at Amazon

Most portable: Matador Pocket Blanket 4.0 - See at Amazon

How to choose the right picnic blanket for you

Best overall, for a crowd

One hallmark of a true winner is that testers gravitate toward it even after the official evaluations are over. For my picnic blanket testers, that product was the NEMO Victory Picnic Blanket. Its roomy surface, cool-to-the-touch top, and plush cushioning made it the obvious choice for lounging and catching up after an afternoon of testing.

The blanket easily fits four lying down or six sitting, with room for everyone to stretch out or share snacks in the center. The waterproof backing keeps any wetness from seeping in from the ground, and while the top isn't quite as waterproof, it does offer some water resistance against spills. The acrylic top is thick, comfortable, and stays cool and dry, making it the ideal spot to hang out for a whole afternoon.

The NEMO also has some built-in portability features: the blanket rolls up and is secured with built-in buckles (that double as bottle openers). I also appreciated the extra flap for storing your phone or other small valuables. It has loops for tent stakes, though you'll have to buy those separately. While not the lightest or most compact blanket, its thick handle is comfortable to carry and feels less cumbersome than others we tested.

I've continued testing this blanket in my everyday life, and it always garners praise from my fellow picnic-goers. It's manageable to fold by just one person, but comfortable enough for a crowd. Some folks online have reported the top snags; I haven't experienced that, but I'll be keeping my eye out throughout the picnicking season and will report back.

Best overall, for 1-2 people

Ideally sized for you and one other pal, the Baggu Puffy Picnic Blanket is a delight. It comes in several fun designs to appeal to the aesthetic picnicker who wants a blanket that performs and looks cute. Limited-edition patterns make each Baggu blanket feel unique — you're unlikely to see one of the same out in the park.

Aesthetics aside, this blanket has many technical features that earned it a top spot in this guide. At just over a pound, it's incredibly lightweight and compact enough to easily fit in a backpack or tote bag if you don't feel like carrying it by the integrated handle.

The blanket is plush, but it stays cool even in the sun. It's also decently waterproof, though in our tests, the water tended to spread rather than pool on the surface like it did in the most water-resistant blankets. The spreading meant spills were a tiny bit more of a hassle to clean up on this blanket, but you definitely won't be stuck with a wet blanket — or worse, a wet butt.

Best budget

I was very surprised to see just how expensive picnic blankets are. The average price of the blankets we tested was $90, which is a lot to pay for a product that likely only gets used for a few months of the year. Fortunately, the Scuddles Extra Large Picnic Blanket performed strongly in our tests and costs under $30.

The blanket comes with an integrated carrying handle and two stretchy straps to keep it rolled up and in place. However, not all purchasers seem to receive the design I tested. One of my coworkers bought this blanket, and it came with velcro straps, which she says often came undone. Reviewers on Amazon also report receiving different designs, which is frustrating but not unexpected from a third-party brand.

If you can get beyond the ordering issues, this is a solid blanket that has held up very well considering its price. It's lightweight, roomy, and decently plush, though it stops short of being as comfortably padded as the NEMO or Yeti blankets.

Best beach blanket

Not all picnic blankets are ideal for the beach. A beach blanket needs less padding and absorbency since sand acts as a natural cushion and the sun dries wet spots. Instead, the key factors we look for in a beach blanket are wind and sand resistance, plus a stay-cool fabric that doesn't trap heat in the sun.

Any of our other top picks would work decently at the beach, but we really loved the Wekapo Waterproof Beach Blanket as a dedicated beach blanket, especially for a crowd. It was one of the largest blankets we tested and could fit eight to 10 people sitting or six lying down. It also offered the best wind-resistance features of any blanket we tested: you can fill its pockets with sand or use the included tent stakes to really anchor the blanket to the ground. It folds up surprisingly compactly for its size and comes with a handled carrying case. Best of all, it's just $30.

The blanket is very thin, which is just fine if you're using it as a beach blanket, but not ideal if you're planning on taking it elsewhere. I could feel every bump and rock in the ground while lying on it in the park, and even got pricked by some "spiky balls" from a sweet gum tree that poked right through the fabric. Its size also makes it a chore to fold — you'll have the best results with a helper.

Best for camping

When you're camping or hiking, every ounce of space needs to be used wisely and every detail accounted for — it's especially important that your gear stays dry and dries quickly when it gets wet. The Rumpl Everywhere Mat is one of the most technical picnic blankets we tested and by far the most waterproof. Like the Baggu, it weighs a little over a pound and spreads out to about 27 square feet. However, unlike the Baggu, its top has a durable water-repellant (DWR) coating that completely resists liquid.

We spilled a whole cup of water on this blanket, and it never seeped in, even after letting it sit for a half hour. The water pooled and then slipped right off the blanket. There was a tiny bit of residual wetness, but it dried quickly in the sun. However, with this water resistance comes some tradeoffs: the brand recommends spot cleaning the blanket only, and it should not go in the dryer. Otherwise, you risk removing the DWR coating.

The mat is on the thinner side; it's definitely not as plush as the Baggu, but it has corner pockets where you can stash valuables (or fill with sand to keep the blanket grounded), stake loops (stakes aren't included), and a carrying bag. Overall, we think this blanket is a solid option for situations when weight and waterproofing matter most, like camping, hiking, and backpacking.

Most comfortable

If price is no object in your picnic blanket quest, let me introduce you to the Yeti Lowlands Blanket. This plush blanket was by far the most comfortable I tried; like lying on a mattress pad in the middle of the park. It's truly a delight to sit on — if you can stomach the $200 price tag.

Like other Yeti products — including its signature coolers — the Lowlands Blanket is designed more for performance than portability. It was the heaviest blanket I tested, at about 6.5 pounds, and it comes with its own carrying case. If you're carrying this to the park, you'll probably want someone else to be lugging the picnic basket.

Given its price and overall impracticality, I wanted to dislike this blanket. But, wow, once I laid it out on the grass, I wanted to spend all day on it. During testing, I inadvertently set up under a sweet gum tree, known for its "spiky balls," which littered the ground below. I felt nary a rock or spiky ball poking through as I lay on this blanket, and the soft fabric felt cool even after sitting out in the direct sun. It's thick enough that I wasn't worried about it blowing away, but the corners and sides do have loops for tent stakes (not included).

It's also one of the most waterproof options we tested. Water pooled on the surface and easily rolled off when we tilted the blanket, instead of absorbing into the fabric. I'd recommend getting one of the darker-colored options, since the light-blue version we tested quickly accumulated dirt stains. Fortunately, it is machine washable.

Most portable

It doesn't get much more compact than the Matador Pocket Blanket, which can literally fit in the palm of your hand. This is a phenomenal option if you want a blanket to keep in your bag for impromptu picnics. I can also see its value for hikers and travelers who are thinking critically about space and weight.

Weighing just 3.5 ounces, this was the lightest blanket I tested by far. Of course, that comes with some tradeoffs. It isn't particularly thick or roomy. It's a decent size for one person lying down or two people sitting, but it's basically just a ground cover to protect your body from dirt and wetness. I could definitely feel every rock and bump in the ground while lying on it. Still, its compactness makes it worth considering, and I now keep this in my purse when I explore the city, just in case the urge to picnic strikes.

It also has several smart design features built in. Each corner contains a small metal bar that you can remove and use as a stake to keep the blanket rooted to the ground. These corner pockets can also be filled with sand if you're using it on the beach. I really appreciated the printed fold lines on the reverse side of the blanket, which made it super fast and easy to fold the blanket back up into its attached storage pocket.

Our top picks compared

Other picnic blankets we tested

Big Blanket Co. Big Beachy Blanket: At 100 square feet, this was the biggest blanket we tested and comfortably fit a group of six testers with room to spare. However, at $150, it did little to justify its price over the similarly-sized Wekapo Beach Blanket, which had tent stakes, sand pockets, and a carrying case and cost a fifth of the price.

Big Blanket Co. XL Outdoorsy Blanket: We like this thick, generous blanket for camping or movie nights, but its polyester exterior gets hot in the sun. During our water test, liquid seeped into the blanket's seams, which could lead to mold growth if not properly dried.

Nomadix Blanket Towel: This oversized towel quickly absorbed dampness when we tried it on grass, but it is a decent option for the beach.

Nomadix Festival Blanket: This roomy blanket comes in several fun patterns, but it is thin and lacks the portability features of our top picks.

RedCamp Picnic Blanket: At $12, this was the cheapest picnic blanket we tested. Its texture is similar to a plastic tablecloth, but it's very easy to wipe clean, has built-in carrying straps, and is a solid budget option.

Rumpl Original Puffy Blanket: This outdoor blanket is plush but not very breathable. It got hot in the sun and was quite slippery to walk on.

Tesalate Bora Bora Sand-Free Beach Blanket: This beach blanket had a very odd texture, similar to a thick paper towel, which made it unpleasant to sit on.

How we test picnic blankets

Portability: I weighed each blanket and noted any helpful features, like built-in straps or carrying cases. I also carried each blanket for one mile to and from the park, tested how well they fit in a backpack, and evaluated how easy they were to fold back up.

Comfort: A team of eight testers sat on each of the blankets and evaluated how comfortable they were, how easy it was to feel the ground below, and whether the blankets got hot sitting in the sun.

Waterproofing: We spilled water on each of the blankets and let it sit for several minutes, noting whether water pooled on the surface, absorbed, or scattered. We also checked for waterproofing on the undersides by observing if we could feel dampness from the ground while sitting on the blankets.

Cleaning: We observed how each blanket handled ground debris, whether dirt clung or slipped off of it, and how easy (and successful) it was to shake out after a day at the park.

Durability and long-term testing: Each blanket went to a different long-term tester for use throughout the season. We'll report back with any notes on durability and performance as the summer progresses.

Picnic blanket FAQs

What is the best material for a picnic blanket?

A good picnic blanket has two sides: a water barrier and a comfort layer. The waterproof layer should be made of a polyester lining that doesn't absorb moisture. For the comfort layer, we like acrylic, since it's breathable, durable, and easy to clean.

What's the difference between a picnic blanket and a regular blanket?

Any blanket can be a picnic blanket in a pinch, but not all picnic blankets can be used as regular blankets. The best picnic blankets have a waterproof backing to prevent moisture from transferring from the ground to you. As a result, they aren't very comfortable to use as a bed or throw blanket. Many picnic blankets also have built-in straps or handles for easier portability.

What is a good size for a picnic blanket?

It depends on how many people will sit on it. A good size guideline is around 25 square feet (5' x 5') for 1-2 people, 42 square feet (6.5' x 6.5) for 3-4 people, and 64 square feet (8' × 8') for more than 4 people.

• Over the past two years, Macie Strum traveled across Asia, Australia, and Europe before settling in Sarajevo.
• As someone who struggles with anxiety, she found three places that helped her feel calmer and more at ease.
• Ho Chi Minh City was the opposite — it left her feeling overstimulated and burned out.

Some people let anxiety keep them from traveling. I use travel to keep mine in check.

After a breakup and two layoffs in 2023, I realized the life I'd been working toward no longer felt right. At the start of 2024, I decided to leave it behind — subletting my apartment, selling my belongings, and booking a one-way flight to Asia.

Living with anxiety didn't stop me from seeing the world, but it has changed the way I choose where to go.

As I traveled across Asia, Australia, and Europe before eventually settling in Sarajevo, I began seeking out environments that made it easier for me to relax — whether through nature, creative expression, or quiet reflection. Still, I sometimes ended up in places that left me overstimulated and burned out.

Now, as a full-time travel writer, I've visited dozens of destinations around the world. Three stood out for how calm they made me feel, while one had the opposite effect.

Vieste, Italy

After visiting crowded cities all over Italy, Vieste offered a true sense of Italian calm. For someone who travels with anxiety, that slower rhythm was something I craved.

Located in Gargano National Park in the region of Puglia, Vieste is harder to reach than other Italian destinations. My friend and I rented a car and drove for five hours from Naples, but it was worth the effort.

Vieste is perched above white limestone cliffs that overlook the Adriatic. For one week, my days were rich with strong espresso in the mornings, afternoons on the beach, and post-dinner strolls around town.

For me, the highlight of Vieste was the sunsets. Every evening, I'd watch the sun slip below the sea as pinks and purples painted the sky. There are a few places left in Italy that still offer as peaceful an escape as Vieste.

Penang, Malaysia

My anxious mind found refuge on the Malaysian island of Penang. Unlike many other cities across Southeast Asia that feel chaotic and overwhelming, George Town, the capital of Penang, moves at a gentler, welcoming pace.

One aspect I loved most about the city was its multiculturalism — Chinese, Malay, and Indian cultures alongside British colonial influences — which gives the city its unique vibe.

Creative inspiration is tangible throughout George Town. Exploring the UNESCO-listed town for five days felt like strolling through an open-air museum, with historic temples, vibrant street art, and colorful shops on every corner.

For me, it has the perfect balance of activity and leisure. Whether it be wandering around Penang Hill, relaxing on nearby beaches, or café hopping through historic streets, George Town always has something new for me to discover without ever feeling overwhelmed.

Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

While traveling through the Balkans for two months, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, affected me in ways I didn't expect.

I also found peaceful moments exploring the areas around Mostar. At places like Blagaj Tekke and Kravica Waterfalls, nature and spirituality feel closely intertwined.

One idea I took away from my time in Mostar — and Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole — is ćejf. It's difficult to translate but easy to feel: a mindset centered on slowing down and appreciating life's simple pleasures, like lingering over coffee with close friends. At its core, it's about doing something purely for the joy it brings — something we could all use more of.

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

As far as calm cities go, Ho Chi Minh City is the complete opposite. With its constant stream of traffic and congested party streets, it can feel overstimulating to a fault.

At any time of day, the incessant honking of vehicles fills the air. Crossing the street feels nearly impossible, and even if you manage it, you still have to weave through a sea of scooters moving in every direction.

And the sidewalks? They're often just an extension of the street.

By night, the city's energy only intensifies. On lively stretches like Bui Vien Street, bars compete to blast the loudest music while club promoters shout at passersby, sometimes trying to usher them inside.

For visitors who enjoy nightlife and chaos, Ho Chi Minh City can be exciting. For me, though, it was difficult to manage my anxiety. I was on high alert throughout my three-day visit — even a simple walk down the street often felt like sensory overload.

• The suspect arrested in the attack on Sam Altman's home is facing eight charges.
• He participated in a Discord server for PauseAI, a group against the development of frontier AI models.
• PauseAI said the suspect had "no role" in the group and condemned the attack.

The 20-year-old suspect arrested after the Molotov cocktail attack on Sam Altman's $27 million home participated in a Discord server critical of AI development.

PauseAI said the suspect, identified by several outlets as Daniel Alejandro Moreno-Gama, joined its server two years ago. The nonprofit organization is focused on temporarily pausing the development of frontier AI models — like OpenAI's GPT-5.4 — and mitigating the risks they pose.

"Violence against anyone is antithetical to everything we stand for," the statement on its website.

The organization said Moreno-Gama posted a total of 34 messages in the Discord server, though none of those messages "contained explicit calls to violence."

"He had no role in PauseAI, participated in no campaigns, attended no events, and received no support from us," the statement said. "Following news of the attack, we banned him from our server."

A moderator began removing his messages following news of the attack, but stopped when they realized they could be relevant to the investigation.

"Our Discord server is a public community space. As with any open forum, people can join freely," the statement said. "We actively moderate our channels and take enforcement seriously, as our warning to this individual demonstrates. But we cannot predict or control the actions of every person who joins a public server; no organisation can."

Authorities in San Francisco booked Moreno-Gama at 12:47 p.m. on Friday, and he's facing several charges. The charges include arson of an inhabited structure or property and attempted murder.

A San Francisco Police Department spokesperson said officers responded to a North Beach residence just after 4 a.m. local time to investigate a fire. The fire was contained to the exterior gate, and there were no injuries, according to the spokesperson.

The suspect fled the scene on foot. His description was later broadcast to all SFPD officers.

Around 5:07 a.m., officers responded to OpenAI's office, where they said a man was threatening to burn down the building. The spokesperson said officers realized the man matched the description of the person who threw the Molotov cocktail at Altman's house.

An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the attack in a statement.

"Early this morning, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's home and also made threats at our San Francisco headquarters. Thankfully, no one was hurt. We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded and the support from the city in helping keep our employees safe," the OpenAI spokesperson said.

Altman responded to the incident in a blog post on Friday, featuring a photo of his husband, Oliver Mulherin, and their son.

"I empathize with anti-technology sentiments and clearly technology isn't always good for everyone. But overall, I believe technological progress can make the future unbelievably good, for your family and mine," he wrote. "While we have that debate, we should de-escalate the rhetoric and tactics and try to have fewer explosions in fewer homes, figuratively and literally."

The incident occurred about five months after OpenAI told employees at its headquarters to shelter in place due to a reported threat, which prompted a police response. The threat came from an individual linked to an anti-AI activist group.

OpenAI has become a major player in the tech scene, thrusting Altman into the global spotlight. The billionaire has met with many global leaders, including President Donald Trump, and has become an industry titan.

However, public opinion on AI has shifted since the company released ChatGPT in 2022. Concerns over how AI will affect the workforce have caused protests, and OpenAI's deal with the Pentagon drew criticism.

Tech companies spend millions of dollars to protect their founders. A SEC filing said Tesla incurred about $2.4 million in expenses for such security services in 2023 and about $0.5 million through February 2024, representing a portion of the total cost of security services related to Elon Musk. Facebook spent $20.4 million protecting CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2019.

It's unclear how much OpenAI spends on Altman's security.

• Kyle Troup, 34, has been a professional bowler since he was 16.
• In 2021, he set a bowling earnings record, making $496,900.
• Troupe stars on the new HBO documentary "Born to Bowl" and is glad the sport is getting attention.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kyle Troup. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Growing up, my parents used to pay me if I could beat them at bowling. I got $5 if I beat my mom, and $20 if I beat my dad, Guppy. He was a professional bowler with the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), and my brother and I often went to PBA events with him.

Around the time I was 13 or so, I started beating my dad so often that he dropped my pay down to $10 per victory, then $0. I figured I must be getting pretty good.

I wanted to be just like my father — and not because he was a professional bowler. People loved him, whether he was bowling or not. He was a cool, popular guy who often hung out at the bowling alley bar after his games. He loved his life and career, and it was clear he was having a lot of fun.

I started working at Wendy's early in my bowling career

At 16, I started bowling with the PBA. In the first few years, I didn't win much money at all. Still, the experience of bowling for money and spending my own income to bowl taught me a lot.

Around the same time, I started working at Wendy's. By 18, I was a manager there, and still making next to nothing bowling. I've always been good with money, so I was getting by, but one time when money was tight I remember thinking "What could I be doing if I wasn't chasing the dream of being a professional bowler?"

After a minute, I realized I didn't need that answer. I was going to be a professional bowler, and that was that.

A record-setting year helped establish my financial future

By my early 20s, I started winning more tournaments and, therefore, earning more. By 2016, I made about $44,000 — enough to leave my job at Wendy's.

Then, in 2021, I had a great year. I won the PBA Player's Championship and earned a record-setting $496,900 that season. That's not much compared to many other professional sports, but for me, it was a blessing.

I worked with a financial advisor and invested a lot of that money to build the foundation for my future. Bowling is a physical activity, and I know I won't be able to do it forever. Since 2021, I've felt financially set. That allows me to go out and be the best version of myself each week I'm on tour.

Becoming a dad has given me purpose beyond bowling

About five years ago, I met Breanna, and we got married last year. She had two kids who were about 6 and 11 when we met. Becoming a dad to them has given me perspective about what's important in life. My life isn't about bowling anymore; it's about my kids.

The PBA tour schedule can be hard on the family. I'm gone for about three to four months, traveling around the country for competitions. I've always had that schedule, but being away from my kids took some emotional adjustment.

I used to stay in hotels while I was on the road, but that was draining: I was always in a hotel, a restaurant, or a bowling alley. Now, I stay at Airbnbs with my best friend, who's also a professional bowler. Being in a house means we can cook healthy meals and generally feel more at home, even when we're on the road.

I'm happy with what I've achieved

I would love to win a title again, since it's been a few years. At the same time, I can see that I've already achieved a lot, from winning Player of the Year to providing for my family to raising money to help more kids explore the sport.

Now, I want to give back to this sport. I'm happy it's getting more attention, including the new HBO series. I get to play a game for a living, and I really enjoy what I do. That's a blessing in my life.

• The US and Iran failed to reach an agreement on Saturday after marathon peace talks in Pakistan.
• President Trump said the US will enforce a blockade effective immediately.
• Here's how smart people in business are responding to the development.

The US and Iran remained at a standstill after 21 hours of peace talks between the two delegations failed to reach an agreement, Vice President JD Vance announced at a press conference in Islamabad early on Sunday.

In response, President Donald Trump said the US would enforce a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world's liquefied natural gas and oil supply passes through that waterway, which sits off Iran's coast. The ongoing military conflict, which began in February, has effectively halted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, sending gas and jet fuel prices skyrocketing.

"Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday.

Here's what people in business are saying about the failed negotiations.

• My grandma got her first iPhone after a brief health scare and became hooked on YouTube videos.
• She slipped farther away from the family store, old friends, and the dinner table.
• Seeing her blush at silly romance videos made me realize that she wasn't wasting time.

On the day my Taiwanese grandma A-Ma turned 80, she complained about a lingering dizziness.

When she got up from the floor mat, she fainted. Though the blackout lasted only two seconds and the doctor ruled the trigger to be temporary low blood pressure, my aunt was worried enough to dust off an old iPhone in case of an emergency.

Being illiterate, it took my grandma a full week to master punching in the four-digit passcode. I was worried during my entire visit home in Taiwan.

My cousin helped her figure out her phone

Everything changed when my 6-year-old cousin came home from kindergarten with a new obsession with Minecraft videos. Not having a phone to his name, A-ma became my cousin's easy target. He downloaded YouTube onto her phone. A thread of over-the-top romance videos popped up on my grandma's feed. She clicked on one after another.

Turns out, my grandma's taste in entertainment was 30-second dramatic YouTube Shorts with ridiculous premises filmed on a low production budget: a housekeeper starved by her boss, who eventually fell in love with her. A college senior slept with dad's best friend, who has a BDSM lair. A high school girl endured bullying, then revealed she is an heir to a kingdom. Everything that made me cringe made her giggle.

Then the effects of her phone permeated into real life. The family store she started with my grandpa in 1975 began seeing her less. Instead of stocking the shelves with my aunt in the morning, she opted for a long breakfast: two boiled eggs dipped in soy sauce with an endless side of YouTube Shorts.

The situation briefly looked up when A-ma's friend, who ran a sticky rice shop, stopped by the store with some fresh gossip. The friend brought hot-off-the-press news about a local's son and daughter. My grandma played the attentive listener, given that she did not have the skills to scour the market for scandals. Yet, not even 20 minutes in, I noticed A-ma started glancing at her phone. No longer a top-tier audience, the friend retreated to the sticky rice shop, defeated.

I noticed she was paying less attention

As a writer in New York who used my phone sparingly, I flew back to Taipei every three months to see family. Each time, I noticed her attention span suffered more than the last.

Her dining table was once the place I brought her behind-the-scenes anecdotes of working in a New York City ad agency, but not anymore. Last time we ate together, her eyes were glued to her screen. I sighed and threw my finished plates into the sink. She glanced at me, then back to her original program, completely mesmerized by the content.

Instead of being angry, I caught a glimpse of A-ma blushing from the corner of my eye. Like a girl reading a coming-of-age story, her cheeks flushed pink. Then she turned the screen toward me, relaying the plot of a cringey romance. Her smile stretched up to her eyes.

I finally understood her

That was when I realized it was not YouTube Shorts with horrible storylines she was watching. It was a window into what young adulthood could've been like if she were given the chance to be a normal girl.

As my mother told me, A-ma grew up in a war-torn time in Taiwan, where her childhood consisted of running into bunkers during air-raid drills. By 15, she was at the fishing port helping her family haul fresh catches into the local market. Years later, her parents arranged for her to marry the neighborhood boy. Then, together, they had six kids. They took a leap of faith, left the village, and set up shop in Taipei City, selling handmade beef jerky and pork floss.

Never having the chance to go to school, dress up for a party, or sneak out at night to steal a kiss from a cute boy — she didn't get to live, not like a young girl. Before anyone or herself knew, she became an adult.

I realized, 65 years later, after a brief health scare, A-ma got this iPhone that served as a portal into a world she never had access to. Filling a void she didn't know existed.

Last time I visited, I showed her how dictation works. With her callused thumb, she hit the microphone button and uttered: "Young. Stories."

However, her accent, thick with a dialect, was too much for Siri to understand. For the first time, I felt like I did.

• Jim Lexa worked as a journalist for 30 years and saw his salary plummet as print journalism faded.
• He quit without another job at 53, worked as a handyman, then got a job with the Postal Service.
• He now earns up to $85K a year — nearly three times his old salary — and can walk 40K steps a day.

This interview is based on a conversation with Jim Lexa, 63, a letter carrier from West Seneca, New York. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I never started out in journalism because of the money. I could have earned higher wages by staying in my job straight out of college, working in the kitchen of a diner chain.

Instead, I was bitten by the writing bug as a high schooler, when I was hired by a local town newspaper in Lily Lake, Illinois, to cover all high school sports, particularly football.

Those were the years I learned basic journalism rules, such as spelling people's names correctly and getting the scores right.

I got my journalism degree and, after a brief stint working at the diner, landed a sports reporter job at a regional newspaper group in Amarillo, Texas. My salary in 1984 was $230 a week.

The popularity of newspapers dropped

It was exciting to write about teams like the Dallas Cowboys, and there was a lot more to it than game coverage. I enjoyed meeting people and telling their stories.

In 1998, I moved to the copy desk, where my responsibilities included clearing the front page and assigning tasks.

Then the popularity of newspapers began to dwindle. Circulation dropped. The publishers stopped hiring people, and you'd see offices being closed off. Then came the pay cuts.

Management always said they were for the good of the company. Still, when my $37,500 annual base salary was reduced to $30,000, I started to seriously worry.

I'd go to the grocery store with a calculator to figure out what kind of food I could afford. If one of my pets got sick, I'd be concerned about paying the vet bills.

By early 2015, I was feeling burned out. Constantly meeting deadlines and filling the pages was getting to me. The stress wasn't worth the amount I was paid.

I took a deep breath and quit, moving to DeKalb, Illinois, where I did handyman, painting, and cleaning work.

I was promoted within 2 years

Still, I felt like I needed a proper, new direction. It felt late in the game to make a career change at 53, but I heard they were hiring at the post office and was hired in November 2015.

My entry-level job as a clerk was the brief stepping stone to becoming a city carrier assistant in January 2016. About two years later, I was promoted to letter carrier after I moved to Buffalo, New York.

You have a few days' training, and then you're out on your own, which was scary. At first, I'd spend ages poring over maps, but as time passed, I got to know my routes well.

In my current position, I earn $34.26 per hour, with overtime at time-and-a-half after eight hours and double time after 10 hours. During COVID, I was putting in 60 hours a week.

This past year, I topped $85,000 — nearly three times as much as my base salary in newspapers. My wife and I don't have to worry about dining out, and we enjoy nice vacations together.

I'm much less stressed

One of the best things to come out of all this is feeling the fittest I've ever been. I use a postal vehicle, but I walk 12 to 18 miles a day. If it's just my route, it's probably around 30,000 steps daily.

During the winter, when it's really snowy, and I get a lot of overtime, I can get in as many as 40,000 steps. I'm 5'8" tall and weigh 160 pounds.

I'm so glad that I made the switch. I've got a decent salary with less stress, good benefits, a friendly relationship with my regular customers, and a spring in my step at 63.

• Entrepreneur Nik Halik bought a defunct nuclear missile silo in Colorado for over $10 million.
• The US government once used the facility to power, house, and potentially fire nuclear missiles.
• Halik plans to turn the 200,000-square-foot facility into a data center to power AI.

A decommissioned nuclear silo near Denver, Colorado, that could once launch three 4.5-megaton nuclear missiles at a moment's notice is now an entrepreneur's pet project.

Nik Halik, an Australian venture capitalist, purchased the decommissioned Cold War-era nuclear missile silo from the US government in 2021 for more than $10 million. For the past five years, Halik has been overseeing its transformation into a modern, renovated facility, where he plans to house an AI data center.

The project is on brand for Halik, a self-described "thrillionaire" whose past endeavors have included skydiving over Mount Everest, training in Russia as a civilian cosmonaut, and diving 5 miles deep to the deck of the Titanic.

He said his interest in these types of structures pairs with his vision for what they could become.

"I'm immersed in the world of castles and underground bunkers," Halik told Business Insider. "I'm a value-facturer. I like things that I can add value to."

Halik took Business Insider on a tour of the facility. See what it looks like inside the roughly 75-year-old nuclear silo.

The facility was built in Colorado in 1959 for $47 million, or $350 million in today's dollars.

At the beginning of the Cold War, the US began developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at a rapid pace. Following the US' first operational ICBM, the SM-65 Atlas, the Titan I went under development in the mid-1950s.

According to the National Park Service, the Titan I missiles were 98 feet tall and could deliver a nuclear warhead over 6,000 miles.

Eighteen silos, like Halik's and the one pictured, were built across the US to house these missiles during the Cold War.

Four large diesel engines powered the facility.

Thanks to the silo's use of diesel fuel, it had the ability to stay running without being connected to the electrical grid. The amount of fuel in the silo was enough to fuel around 2,000 houses for roughly 2 weeks.

Just one of the silo's three diesel tanks has the capacity to hold about 50,000 gallons of fuel, Halik told Business Insider.

The missiles were removed from the silo less than a decade later.

In all, 54 Titan I missiles were operational between April 1962 and January 1965, according to the National Park Service.

Despite the impressive stature of the Titan I silos, they proved to be short-lived. All were removed by early 1965, becoming obsolete due to rapid technological developments that led to the Titan II and Minuteman I ICBMs.

In the years that followed, the US government removed valuable materials from the silos and sold off most of the facilities to public and private owners. Halik said after his bunker was decommissioned, it was used by government defense contractors and The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Today, Halik is renovating the silo at an estimated cost of $30 million.

Halik, with help from others, has been renovating the facility, located in a top-secret location in Colorado, for over four years.

Aside from the facility's rusty metal scraps and loose wires, other hidden dangers lurk throughout the complex. The basement level, Halik said, is riddled with cyanide, lead paint, mercury, and asbestos.

The entrepreneur has taken a hands-on role in exploring and renovating the facility.

He's documented every step of his journey in the facility on the YouTube channel Nuclear Bunker Living. The first episode, uploaded in September 2021, shows him exploring the bunker by himself for the first time.

As Halik's videos show, he often jumps into the exploration and renovation headfirst, despite the safety risk. On one occasion, he crawled through a rusty pipe, only to realize later that it had a live wire running through it that he said could've electrocuted him instantly.

"There are so many variables of danger here," Halik said in a video. "This place is unforgiving, and it always reciprocates with interest."

The bunker totals 200,000 square feet.

The silo descends 165 feet below the surface, deep enough to house the missiles and the equipment necessary to launch them.

Seventeen distinct chambers make up the facility, connected by a network of tunnels spanning 4,500 feet.

Different launcher rooms, control domes, a power dome, and other areas make the facility a sprawling complex.

The most secure part of the complex can withstand a nuclear blast.

One portion of the facility was built by what Halik called "Hoover Dam-type engineering." Featuring multiple layers of steel-reinforced concrete, each square inch of the wall could withstand roughly 15,000 pounds of pressure.

In this room, operators would stand ready to launch the missiles at a moment's notice.

The control room was where the missile operators would have pressed the fateful buttons to launch missiles that were 300 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

"The fate of the Western world was in the hands of these 21- to 22-year-olds who had the keys to the missiles, ready to employ them on the instructions of the Pentagon from the president," Halik said.

Halik wants to turn one part of the facility into a museum.

Many relics still remain in the control room and other areas, including pieces of the desk where a launch would've been programmed.

Recently, Halik and his team discovered papers containing launch codes, times, and other protocols.

For other rooms, he has more creative plans.

In another room, Halik envisions a nightclub, complete with a DJ, bar, consumption lounges, and Cirque du Soleil dancers.

At a different decommissioned missile site in New Mexico, this vision may already be a reality. The Twistflower Nuclear Missile Silo in Roswell will host the ATOMIKA festival in November.

The festival, promoted by Halik, describes itself as an "experimental, annual gathering that fuses immersive art, deep inquiry, and powerful music."

Chief among Halik's plans is to turn part of the facility into a data center.

Since AI requires large amounts of power, as well as a safe and reliable space for data, underground locations like Halik's facility could prove to be prime locations.

A critical factor is the bunker's cool temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit, even during the summer, which is optimal for the interior of a data center to prevent servers from overheating.

At some data centers, it can take more than 30% of a facility's electricity to keep servers cool, the Pew Research Center reported.

"AI needs power," Halik said. "AI needs safe environments to basically have all their computational processing power."

The data center could be powered entirely in-house, without the grid.

Halik said that to power the data center, he would swap the facility's diesel infrastructure with small nuclear reactors in an attempt to avoid the hassles of refueling.

Halik said he has already gotten the attention of tech and AI companies.

Although Halik didn't disclose the specific companies interested, it aligns with a growing trend of underground data centers becoming more commonplace.

One company, called Iron Mountain, utilizes a former limestone mine in Pennsylvania for data processing and storage. The 220-foot-deep facility stretches 40 acres, about nine times the size of Halik's bunker.

As fears of global conflict grow, tech companies are racing to protect servers by turning nuclear missile silos and abandoned mines into ultra-secure data centers. Meanwhile, thousands of Americans are joining survival camps like Fortitude Ranch that are built to survive catastrophes, or even World War III.

• I'm usually the friend who initiates plans, but I decided to take a short break for my well-being.
• Hitting pause on reaching out to friends and making plans helped me understand my priorities.
• Now that I've started initiating again, I'm trying to focus my energy on friends who reciprocate.

Ever since I was little, I've made it my mission to find friends and build the community I wanted.

Being the first to initiate a conversation, invite people over, or organize hangouts has always felt innate to me — it's something my parents prioritized, too, so I picked up "planner friend" tendencies at a young age.

I started hosting my annual Halloween party when I was 11. In college, I always loved planning outings with friends after a long week of studying. These days, even though it's harder to see loved ones as we get older, I do my best to keep my current group chats going.

Now that I'm almost 30, however, I'm starting to feel the weight of being the initiator and planner. They say you can't pour from an empty cup. Unfortunately, the water had drained from mine a long time ago.

So, for the sake of my own well-being, I temporarily took a break from reaching out to loved ones and making plans.

After taking a step back, I saw my friends much less frequently

As much as I wanted to see my friends, I no longer had the energy to always text first — and I hoped others would take the reins and make an effort to initiate plans.

When I pulled back from my usual role, though, I was pretty disappointed to see that none of my friends really stepped up.

It wasn't radio silence: A few people checked in here and there, while a couple of friends brought up the idea of "doing something," but never executed a plan for it. As a result, I went a couple of months without seeing my friends, aside from once at a wedding.

I began to feel like something was wrong with me. I questioned whether I was being a burden or expecting too much from friends who already had too much on their plates.

Perhaps friendship felt more integral to me because I don't really have an extended family or a partner to turn to, but I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe I just wasn't an important part of my friends' lives.

I realized that I missed making plans

At first, withdrawing from making plans gave me time to care for myself and prioritize my needs, but pulling back also posed one big problem: I wasn't happy.

I genuinely enjoy hosting, making plans, and bringing my friends together. Not doing these things made it feel like something in my life was missing.

After a couple of months, I started sending check-in texts, scheduling FaceTimes, and asking friends to grab food and catch up. I immediately felt more connected with my social circle, and it seemed like most of my friends were happy to hear from me.

Still, I wish that making plans wouldn't fall solely on me. I understand that my friends have busy schedules and need to prioritize other things, like work, partners, aging parents, and their own well-being.

Taking a break from texting first, though, taught me that I deeply value community and need to spend less energy on people who don't see friendship the same way.

That doesn't mean I love these friends any less or won't ever reach out to make plans with them again. It does mean, however, that it's time to try having some honest conversations with friends I'd like to see initiate more.

It's also time to put a little less effort into relationships that could be draining my energy, and create space to make more friends who prioritize community the way I do.

I wish that more people understood the work that goes into being a planner friend

I've learned that humans — planners and non-planners alike — are social beings and need connection.

If your planner friends are like me, they might not always mind being the person who makes the plans. Letting the planners and initiators in your friend group know that their efforts are appreciated, though, can go a long way.

It also wouldn't hurt if, on occasion, non-planners took a little bit of time to send the text first or plan the hangout. One 2022 study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and based on a series of preregistered experiments, found that people often underestimate how much even a quick text message can mean to a recipient.

Friendships take work, especially as we all get older and enter new life phases. I understand that sometimes, someone may not have the bandwidth to reach out, or they might be caught up with life's ups and downs.

That said, taking a step back taught me that although I don't need my relationships to be perfectly 50-50, they can't be 100-zero, either.

Nothing kills a movie night faster than muddy dialogue or weak bass, and sadly, even expensive TVs are often guilty of both. That's why I typically recommend adding a soundbar. The best soundbars can completely transform your setup, with clearer voices, punchier low end, and an expanded sense of immersion.

My team of reviewers and I have spent more than a decade testing audio gear, and I've used that experience to pick the four best soundbars for a range of room sizes and budgets. My top recommendation is the Samsung HW-Q990F, a powerful Dolby Atmos system that includes rear speakers and a subwoofer for true surround sound. If you prefer a simpler setup, the Sonos Arc Ultra is the best stand-alone soundbar we've tested, delivering excellent performance without any extra components.

Below, you'll find all my picks for the best soundbars you can buy, from affordable upgrades to massive 11.1.4-channel systems that bring serious cinematic impact to your home theater.

Editor's note: Ryan Waniata contributed to the FAQ section in this guide.

Our top picks for the best soundbars

Best overall: Samsung HW-Q990F - See at Amazon

Best midrange: Yamaha YAS-209 - See at Amazon

Best on a budget: Vizio 2.0 SV200M-08 - See at Walmart

Best all-in-one option: Sonos Arc Ultra - See at Amazon

Best overall

The Samsung Q990F is the best soundbar for anyone who wants cinematic audio for under $2,000. This powerhouse 11.1.4-channel system isn't the most compact option, but it fills your room with rich, multidirectional audio that pulls you right into the action.

One of the Q990F's standout features is its Dolby Atmos support, which creates a dome of sound, including effects that seem to come from above. To achieve this, the system utilizes four up-firing drivers that bounce sound off the ceiling, four side-firing drivers, dedicated rear speakers, a compact yet powerful subwoofer, and an array of front drivers for seamless coverage.

Together, these components provide an immersive soundfield that enhances everything from blockbuster movies and gaming sessions to music playback. Beyond sheer volume, the Q990F impresses with its balance and smooth channel transitions, providing a natural, lifelike quality to everything from sitcoms to jazz.

Compared to previous Q990 soundbars, this model introduces a revised subwoofer with a smaller build and a sealed rather than ported design. This makes it easier to place and reduces rattling. Despite its more compact footprint, the sub still delivers a powerful punch, offering deep, controlled bass even at its default settings.

The Q990F also features a suite of modern conveniences, including hands-free Alexa voice control, support for high-res audio formats, and full compatibility with both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Connection options include an HDMI eARC port, an optical input, and two HDMI inputs with 4K HDR passthrough. Notably, those HDMI ports now handle 120Hz gaming signals, which weren't supported on the older Q990C.

Owners of certain Samsung TVs also get an added bonus: Q-Symphony. This feature is compatible with some of the best Samsung TVs, such as the S90F and S95F, enabling the Q990F to sync with a display's built-in speakers for an even broader soundstage. The soundbar still shines on its own, but this is an interesting feature to use if you have a compatible TV.

Buyers should note that Samsung just launched a 2026 edition of this soundbar, the Q990H. The updated model introduces some new software features, but appears to use the same core hardware. With that in mind, the cheaper Q990F remains our top pick while it's available for less.

Read our Samsung HW-Q990F soundbar review.

Visit our guide to all the best Dolby Atmos soundbars.

Best midrange

The YAS-209 isn't as immersive as pricier soundbar models, but it delivers good audio quality for the money and includes a wireless subwoofer for dedicated bass. This is the type of classic, 2.1-channel audio setup many think of when shopping for a soundbar, and it makes for a nice, no-fuss upgrade to built-in TV speakers.

The system delivers native stereo playback with left-right separation. It also features DTS Virtual:X processing to create a simulated surround-sound effect. It's not as convincing as more expensive systems that feature side-firing audio drivers or actual rear speakers, but it does a decent job. With or without virtual surround, the system delivers clear, balanced audio across a wide range of content.

The YAS-209 connects to your TV via its HDMI ARC port, and the soundbar features a handy HDMI-in port that supports passing video from a connected device, such as a gaming console or Blu-ray player, at up to 4K resolution at 60Hz with HDR (but not Dolby Vision).

An optical audio port is also featured for older TVs without HDMI ARC, and you can wirelessly stream music via Bluetooth or WiFi. Thanks to its built-in microphones, the YAS-209 supports Amazon Alexa, enabling voice control for functions such as volume.

This model has been around for several years and lacks some advanced features, such as Dolby Atmos support, that are found in newer options. However, it still offers excellent overall value. The audio quality here is great for the price, making this one of the best soundbars available for under $500.

Best on a budget

The Vizio SV200M is a basic 2.0-channel soundbar. It doesn't include a separate subwoofer, upfiring audio drivers, or dedicated rear speakers. Instead, it's just a simple stand-alone bar with stereo audio separation. However, there's nothing wrong with that, especially if you're looking for a budget-friendly option. This model is typically sold for just under $100, and it's an excellent entry-level soundbar at that price.

The SV200M replaces my previous pick in this spot, the older Vizio V-Series V21d-J8. That soundbar was also a great budget option, and I liked that it had a built-in woofer; however, it's no longer sold at most stores. As it stands, this newer 2.0-channel bar is the best value in Vizio's current lineup.

At around 30 inches wide, the soundbar isn't as compact as some other budget options, but it's still easy to place on most consoles. It also utilizes Vizio's QuickFit design, which allows it to mount to the bottom of certain Vizio TV models without tools. An HDMI eARC connection is included for simple setup with modern TVs, but there are no video passthrough ports (as expected for a budget bar) or an optical port. That latter omission only matters if you have an especially old TV that doesn't support HDMI. The bar doesn't have a dedicated remote, but it can sync control with your TV's remote via HDMI. Bluetooth is also supported for wireless music streaming from mobile devices or computers.

The SV200M delivers left- and right-channel audio and offers solid performance for its class. But while it's technically capable of processing Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio tracks, its lack of upfiring audio drivers and 2.0-channel design means it can't actually showcase those formats' benefits. That said, the bar does support DTS Virtual:X simulated surround sound. The tech employed here is nowhere near as convincing as what you'd get on a high-end soundbar like the Sonos Arc Ultra, but it still expands the device's soundstage.

Vizio also sells this same soundbar unit with an included subwoofer for about $50 to $70 more. Likewise, there's a bundle that adds in two compact rear speakers for around $200. Those pricier configurations are great step-up options on a budget, but for buyers who just want a cheap yet decent upgrade to typical TV speakers, the Vizio 2.0 SV200M is a great starting point.

Check out our guide to all the best budget soundbars.

Best all-in-one option

In many ways, the Sonos Arc Ultra is the quintessential all-in-one soundbar. It offers a slick design, immersive Dolby Atmos audio, and a simplified setup that gets you up and running in minutes — all from a single bar that sits in front of your TV.

The Arc Ultra doesn't come with a separate subwoofer or rear speakers, but it still delivers impressive sound without them. This model is the successor to the standard Sonos Arc, and the Ultra offers a nice upgrade in bass and overall clarity.

To achieve its beefier performance, the Ultra uses Sonos' new Sound Motion driver, which fits powerful woofers in a compact space while freeing up space for additional tweeters in other areas of the bar. With 14 drivers total, including both side- and up-firing ones, the Arc Ultra provides a 9.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos experience that surrounds you in a dome of sound. You can even stream Atmos music from supported services, such as Amazon, via the Sonos app.

The app also allows you to adjust the sound, connect to other Sonos speakers, and activate the brand's TV Swap feature. TV Swap lets you transition to private listening when paired with Sonos Ace headphones. Although many users encountered issues with a Sonos software update in 2024, most of those problems have been resolved. The app still isn't perfect, but our reviewer didn't encounter any major hiccups and didn't find its flaws to detract from the overall value of the Arc Ultra.

The Arc Ultra's minimalist design is appealing, but it does have some downsides. Like its predecessor, it has limited inputs. There's no spare HDMI connection or optical port, though you can buy an optical adapter. And though the Arc Ultra supports standard DTS 5.1 audio, it does not support DTS:X.

On the plus side, the Arc Ultra adds one notable feature missing from the original Arc: Bluetooth support. It also has a new Advanced Speech Enhancement mode that can emphasize dialogue without affecting the quality of other sound effects.

The Arc Ultra's asking price is a bit high, but its performance justifies its cost. With excellent sound and numerous modern features, it's one of the best soundbars we've reviewed, offering a convenient way to upgrade your audio setup.

Read our Sonos Arc Ultra review.

Check out our guide to the best Sonos soundbars and our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers.

How we test soundbars

To find the best soundbars, our reviewers use a combination of hands-on testing and research, guided by more than a decade of experience covering home theater gear.

We focus first on audio quality, looking at bass, mids, and treble performance across a wide range of movies and TV shows. Clear dialogue is especially important, so we test multiple sound modes and volume levels to ensure voices remain easy to hear without distortion, even when things get loud.

Music performance matters, too. We listen to carefully chosen tracks across genres like rock, pop, acoustic, and hip-hop to assess balance, detail, and clarity, and to determine whether a soundbar sounds thin, muddy, or compressed.

Beyond sound, we evaluate format support, connectivity, smart features, build quality, design, and overall value. Since convenience is a big reason people choose a soundbar, we also pay close attention to setup, ease of use, and how well each bar fits into a typical TV setup. Finally, we use every soundbar in day-to-day TV watching to get a feel for how it performs outside test scenes.

For more information about our testing process, check out our breakdown on how we review tech products.

Meet the expert behind this guide:

Steven Cohen, senior tech editor: My team and I have been reviewing audio gear for more than a decade, and we've used that experience to find the best soundbars across budgets. I also studied film production, so I know just how essential proper sound is to get the full impact of a movie or TV show. With that in mind, I've ensured all the picks in this guide deliver strong audio performance for their price tier. If nothing else, a soundbar should offer a better experience than a typical TV's built-in speakers — so I've used that as the starting point for all our recommendations. Clear dialogue is also a must, as is overall value and ease of use. Ultimately, I want to help you find a soundbar that genuinely improves your listening experience while still coming in at a reasonable cost.

Learn more about the Reviews team at Business Insider.

What to look for in a soundbar

When shopping for a soundbar, take a close look at the specs, especially the size and the number of audio channels. Entry-level models are typically compact and feature basic two-channel stereo, while pricier soundbars tend to be larger and support more channels for a better surround-sound effect. Some systems feature a single bar, while others incorporate a separate subwoofer, and some go all in with rear speakers. Generally, larger multi-speaker setups deliver better performance but require more space.

At a minimum, all of the best soundbars handle standard stereo PCM and Dolby Digital. If you're after a more immersive experience, look for models that support DTS Virtual:X or spatial audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

HDMI ARC or eARC is the preferred way to connect a soundbar to your TV, but it's also handy when a model includes extra wired inputs (such as optical or 3.5mm) for older TVs or additional audio gear. Some soundbars even have extra HDMI ports for video passthrough from devices like Blu-ray players or game consoles, though that's more common once you move beyond entry-level options.

Bluetooth streaming comes standard on many soundbars, but WiFi audio typically delivers higher quality. If you want your soundbar to also serve as a smart speaker, look for one with built-in microphones and support for Alexa or Google Assistant.

How do I connect a soundbar?

Most soundbars sold today connect to your TV via an HDMI cable, using an HDMI ARC or eARC port. It's the simplest setup and the only connection that lets you pass high-quality audio formats, such as Dolby Atmos. In many cases, using HDMI ARC also means you can control your soundbar's volume and power with your regular TV remote — always a win for cutting down clutter.

Even if your TV is a few years old, there's a good chance it supports HDMI ARC. Just check the input panel for a port labeled "HDMI ARC" or "HDMI eARC." And if you need a reliable cable, check out our guide to the best HDMI cables for soundbars and TVs.

If your TV doesn't offer HDMI ARC or eARC, you'll have to connect your soundbar using an optical digital port instead. This will still give you solid audio quality, but it won't support 3D formats like Dolby Atmos. In that situation, it might be worth considering a TV upgrade to get the most out of a modern soundbar.

Entry-level 4K TVs with HDMI ARC can now be purchased for about $500 or less, depending on size. Check out our TV buying guides for top recommendations across different price ranges and sizes:

• Best TVs
• Best TVs for picture quality
• Best smart TVs
• Best 4K TVs
• Best OLED TVs
• Best sports TVs
• Best gaming TVs
• Best frame TVs
• Best budget TVs
• Best TVs under $500
• Best 100-inch TVs
• Best 85-inch TVs
• Best 75-inch TVs
• Best 65-inch TVs
• Best 55-inch TVs
• Best 50-inch TVs
• Best 43-inch TVs
• Best Hisense TVs
• Best Sony TVs
• Best TCL TVs
• Best LG TVs
• Best Roku TVs

Soundbar FAQs

Are soundbars worth it?

Even cheap soundbars deliver better audio quality than the speakers you'll find built into most displays. To keep costs down and ensure that the speakers fit within a flat-screen design, TVs often include small drivers and poor placement, which can result in thin, muddy sound. The best soundbars enhance your TV-watching experience by adding more dimension, clarity, and bass.

The best soundbars can also enhance dialogue clarity and other effects for individuals with hearing impairments. That's especially true for soundbars with a dedicated center channel, where most dialogue and other important movie and TV sound effects are directed.

Can I use a soundbar for music, too?

Yes, many of the best soundbars double as solid music speakers. Most soundbars include Bluetooth support at a minimum, while many midrange and high-end options also support WiFi streaming, AirPlay, Chromecast, or Spotify Connect. That said, some bars are tuned more for TV and movies, so music performance can vary.

Will new soundbar models be released in 2026?

Though brands periodically refresh their soundbar lineups, new models aren't always released annually. This is especially true for companies like Sonos and Bose, which typically carry over their soundbar models for several years before they release an upgraded option.

However, Samsung does traditionally release new soundbars every year, and 2026 is no exception. The company just launched a new Q990H soundbar, which succeeds the Q990F.

What size soundbar should I get?

Size is an important factor to consider when shopping for a new soundbar. Many single-unit soundbars are built with a width of around 25 inches or larger, while some ultra-compact models can be as small as 14 inches wide. On the other end of the spectrum, high-end soundbar models can be as wide as 50 inches.

Generally speaking, larger soundbar models deliver better sound quality because they can incorporate more speaker drivers with larger dimensions. However, smaller bars are often more affordable, convenient, and easier to set up.

If you plan to place your soundbar on an entertainment console alongside your TV, measure the area before making a purchase. This way, you can ensure that the soundbar you choose won't be too wide to rest on your TV stand and that its height won't block your display.

Can soundbars support surround sound?

Many of the best soundbars support surround sound with multiple audio channels that can be beamed in different directions. Entry-level models usually stick to two channels for basic left- and right-channel stereo, while midrange and high-end soundbars often add five or more channels — typically including a center channel for dedicated dialogue and rear channels created with extra drivers, satellite speakers, or virtual processing.

Channel specs are written as up to three numbers separated by decimals. The first number indicates the number of ear-level channels (left, right, center, and surrounds). The second indicates whether there's a dedicated low-frequency channel or subwoofer for deeper bass. The third shows how many height channels are included for Dolby Atmos.

If you just want a simple upgrade from your TV's built-in speakers, a compact 2.0 or 2.1 system will do the trick. But for a true home-theater feel, look for a 5.1 setup or something even more advanced.

For more recommendations, check out our complete guide to the best surround sound systems.

What is Dolby Atmos?

Dolby Atmos is an immersive surround sound format that uses object-based audio mixing. In practice, this means that sounds can be more precisely positioned around your room, with effects placed in all directions, including overhead. For instance, when rain falls from the sky or a helicopter flies overhead, you can actually hear the sound coming from above.

Dolby Atmos soundbars can use one of two methods to create overhead sound effects. The first involves audio processing to create a simulated sense of height from regular ear-level speakers. The second method uses up-firing drivers angled up instead of forward to bounce sound effects off your ceiling. Good up-firing drivers provide a much more convincing sense of overhead sound than audio processing alone can.

For more specifics, see our What is Dolby Atmos explainer.

Do I need a subwoofer?

A subwoofer can be an integral part of your cinematic and musical experience. Due to basic physics, soundbars alone can't offer the deep bass frequencies you'd get from a subwoofer. If you're looking for room-rattling thunder, a hefty boom from explosions, and powerful bass beats, consider a soundbar that either includes a subwoofer or, at the very least, allows you to add one later.

For our top recommendations, check out our guide to the best soundbars with subwoofers.

What are the top soundbar brands?

Many audio brands produce excellent soundbars, but some excel in specific price ranges. If you're shopping on a budget, Vizio, Roku, TCL, and Hisense are all strong picks. They consistently deliver solid entry-level options without inflating the price.

Moving up a tier, Yamaha, Sonos, and Bose offer some of the best midrange and upper-midrange soundbars, balancing performance, features, and design. Samsung and Sony cover just about every budget, but they especially stand out with high-end models that offer advanced surround sound and Dolby Atmos support. And if you want premium performance, Sennheiser is a brand to keep on your radar.

• I started letting my son bike around our neighborhood with his friends when he was 8.
• He and my daughter now bike up to a half mile away, as long as they're in a group.
• Letting them bike around has taught them responsibility and independence.

The first time my son asked if he could bike in the neighborhood with his friends, I hesitated. His friend balanced on his bike, one foot on the ground, waiting impatiently for an answer. I looked at my eight-year old son, his eyes wide with hope, and every instinct in me wanted to say no.

It was too dangerous. He could get hit by a car. Or kidnapped.

Instead, I took a breath and said, "You can go one block over. And stick together the whole time."

My son pumped his fist in victory, clipped on his helmet, and hopped on his bike. I didn't hear from him for half an hour, during which I worried the whole time.

When he returned home, breathless and happy, I knew that I'd made the right choice.

He started asking for more screentime when he wasn't outside

I bought him an advanced walkie-talkie and GPS tracker so I could check his whereabouts and communicate with him next time he went.

Biking became a regular thing that summer among the four neighborhood boys close in age. Besides biking, they played in our driveway, climbed trees, and made homemade "weapons."

After about two years, the "bike gang" started to dissolve. One kid moved away. The oldest lost interest. Eventually, my son stopped biking, too. He stayed indoors more often and rarely ventured outside. Instead of pushing his limits in free play, he started begging for more screen time.

I missed the days of the "bike gang," so when one of the neighbor kids and his younger brother started biking again, I was all too ready to let my son — and now my 8-year-old daughter — join in.

I set boundaries with my kids on how far they can go

I know that biking can be dangerous — my husband was hit on a bike as a kid, so was my little brother, and in my 20's I was hit while jogging. Cars are not always paying attention, especially now with texting. My kids and I talk about how hyper-aware they need to be at all times. We also discuss stranger danger, and my son now has a GPS tracking watch.

Still, even with these precautions, it's not easy to send my kids into the world — but the alternative is that they're cooped up inside or limited to our backyard. Our neighborhood "bike gang" now includes up to seven kids. There's safety and visibility in numbers, which gives me a small sense of ease.

I now let my kids bike up to a half mile from our house if they're with the other neighbor kids. When my son is with a fellow 13-year-old in our neighborhood, I let him go even further. They've pedaled up to a local church to watch a friend's theater rehearsal, to my son's school for band practice, or even to take local taekwondo lessons.

Letting my kids roam the neighborhood is good for their mental health and relationships

As anxiety-inducing as letting my kids bike is for me, I know it's doing the opposite for them. Research shows that as independent playtime has declined over the past few decades, anxiety and depression have increased among school-aged children.

My oldest child is far less anxious and more confident than he used to be. I believe biking has taught him more responsibility, too, because he has to babysit his sister every time she goes with him. It's also forced him to learn practical skills, liking fixing a bike tire.

As for my 8-year old, she's an energetic child who loves to move. Biking with the neighbor kids lets her run off her energy. She also feels older and "cooler" getting to go with the bigger kids.

It's helped their sibling bond, too, by spending time together doing an activity they both love.

And I'll be honest that the quiet time in my home, especially when their little brother is napping, is appreciated. I think parenting must've been easier before we started keeping kids indoors — and worried about everything.

It's not easy letting my kids go into the world, but I'm glad they're getting some semblance of the independence I had as a 90's kid.

• Natalie Alatriste said Florida stopped feeling like home after the pandemic.
• She said the state's higher living costs and traffic congestion drove her to leave.
• Alatriste is now living in Virginia, where she's spending less money and is happier overall.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Natalie Alatriste, a 35-year-old native Floridian who grew up in Miami-Dade County. In 2025, she moved to Arlington, Virginia. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Growing up in Miami in the '90s, I remember it as a vibrant place. My family is Hispanic, and I'm of Cuban and Mexican descent. I grew up surrounded by so much culture — Cuban, Mexican, Haitian, Venezuelan, and Colombian — because that has always been part of Miami.

I also think Miami was a lot quieter when I was growing up. It wasn't the vacation destination everybody wanted to visit or move to. It had small, cool spots like Little Havana, and while that's still there, the city feels very different now.

There's a pre-COVID Miami and a post-COVID Miami, and the post-COVID version is completely different. The cost of living has gone up, and so many people have moved in that traffic is always heavy.

In 2024, I seriously started thinking about leaving not just Miami, but Florida entirely. The state's politics became a turning point for me. During the presidential election, everything I voted for — the amendments, the candidates, all of it — went in the opposite direction.

It was definitely a tough decision. My family had kept me anchored there for so long. But I just knew I needed to go.

Florida didn't feel like home anymore

The pandemic brought a lot of people from out of town, and that drove up the cost of almost everything. I was working at a large global agency and making about $175,000 a year, yet I still felt house-poor.

Before leaving Florida, I lived in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Coral Gables that I moved into in 2020. My rent started at $2,200, but five years later, management was asking for $3,750 — even though nothing in my unit or building had changed.

My energy bills and grocery bills also went up. Going out got more expensive, too. In Miami, there are so many places where it's normal for a drink at a bar or restaurant to cost $25. I think that's because so many people from higher-cost places like New York moved to Miami after the pandemic.

Even driving was a headache in Miami. The highways are always under construction, which only worsens congestion. I have so many stories about nightmare traffic there. Sometimes, getting somewhere within five miles of where I lived could take 30 to 45 minutes during rush hour.

Public transportation also didn't feel like a real option because it's limited, and Miami gets so hot. Even if you live in a walkable area, it's still uncomfortable to walk, ride a bike, or take the bus — you end up showing up soaking wet.

The D.C. area is more suited to my lifestyle

I've always loved the D.C. area and visited often growing up. In high school, I attended Obama's 2009 inauguration through a school program called Close Up. During that trip, we stayed in Arlington, Virginia — about 18 minutes from D.C. — and I fell in love with the area.

I've always gravitated toward this part of the region, so it felt like the natural place for me to move. Still, I was pretty nervous, especially once it all started to feel real.

Packing up boxes and knowing the movers were coming felt heavy. The day I left was very emotional. It felt like I was leaving behind everything I knew, and my support system, to start this new journey.

In Arlington, I live in the Shirlington neighborhood with my partner. The area has a small village with a few shops, and there are a lot of families and couples in their 30s and 40s. I've made really good friends with a lot of my neighbors, and I'm in a book club.

Miami has a very heavy drinking and partying culture. So stepping into something new — where I have a book club, I'm going to the gym, and I have neighbors I do game nights with — is exactly what I had always craved. And I finally found it.

Life is more affordable and enjoyable in Virginia

My partner and I live in a 2,500-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-story townhouse and pay about $4,350 a month in rent. Being in a dual-income household helps, but in general, everything feels more affordable in Virginia, from groceries to car insurance and eating out.

I was laid off from my previous job and started a new business. I'm a consultant for several large healthcare companies, and I also do some contract work on the side.

Starting my own consulting business in Virginia was much easier than it would have been in Miami. When I left in January 2025, there just wasn't a big headquarters presence in Miami outside of industries like travel, tourism, food and beverage, and a growing tech scene. That's really the city's sweet spot and what drives the local economy, but it's not the kind of communications work I focus on.

In Virginia, I've been able to network more effectively with people in the healthcare industry because so many people in that field are based here or regularly pass through. Right now, I have about five or six clients, and I recently made my first part-time hire, so things are going really well.

My quality of life feels much better in Virginia. I don't feel like I'm wasting so much time or spending so much money just to live.

I do miss my family, and I won't say I'd never move back. But I would need to see significant changes in Miami before seriously considering that again.

• When John Jacob Astor IV died on the Titanic, he was one of the world's richest people.
• He built landmark New York hotels like the Astoria Hotel and the St. Regis.
• Astor's wife, who was nearly 30 years younger, was pregnant aboard the Titanic and survived.

John Jacob Astor IV was one of the wealthiest people in the world when he met a tragic end when the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912.

His life was marked by amazing innovations, wealth, and scandal.

Astor's young, pregnant wife — 30 years his junior — was also aboard the ship and survived the disaster. Their unborn child was expected to inherit his vast fortune. However, in a twist seemingly straight out of "The Gilded Age," Astor's wealth ultimately passed to his first son, Vincent, from his first marriage.

Here's a look at the extraordinary and scandalous life of John Jacob Astor IV, one of Titanic's most famous victims.

John Jacob Astor IV was born on July 13, 1864, in New York into one of the most affluent families in the world.

The Astor family dates back to the early 1700s when the original John Jacob Astor (pictured) came to the Americas from a small village in Germany to make a name for himself.

He started making money in the fur-trading business, but his real fortune began when he entered the world of real estate, Biography reported.

One of his first big purchases was a plot of land in the middle of Manhattan, modern-day Times Square. Quickly, Astor bought land all around Manhattan, becoming one of the richest men in the world and creating a dynasty.

When John Jacob Astor IV was born to William Astor and Caroline Webster Schermerhorn in 1864, the Astor name was already well-respected in high society, and the family's fortune was one of the world's largest.

As an heir to the family fortune, John Jacob Astor IV received an education at the finest schools in the US.

The New Netherland Institute reported that he first attended St. Paul's School in Concord and then went on to Harvard University, but there is no official record of him graduating from the college.

After schooling, Astor went abroad for a few years before returning to New York to take up the family business: real estate.

In 1897, Astor used his fortune to build the Astoria Hotel in New York.

In 1893, William Waldorf Astor built the Waldorf Hotel on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street.

Reportedly, he built the hotel to spite his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV. In retaliation, Astor built a competing hotel in 1897 on the adjacent corner and named it the Astoria Hotel.

Architectural Digest reported that, once the cousins were convinced that joining both hotels would be a smart business decision, a 300-foot marble corridor was built between them. The famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was born.

For the next few decades, the hotel became a symbol of luxury, wealth, and class in New York. It was considered one of the best hotels in the country and even in the world.

The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel closed in 1928 and was demolished, making room for the Empire State Building. The new Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was built farther uptown in 1931, long after Astor's death.

It recently reopened in 2025 after an eight-year, $2 billion renovation.

Astor also built another New York landmark hotel: the St. Regis.

In 1904, Astor opened the St. Regis Hotel, which The New York Times called "the finest hotel in America" at the time.

The St. Regis Hotel said that Astor aimed to make the hotel technologically advanced and ensured that each room had a telephone, making the hotel's rooms as practical as they were glamorous.

Some historians call the hotel Astor's "greatest achievement," according to Biography.

While developing some of New York's finest hotels, Astor still had time for his hobbies, like writing.

In 1894, Astor published his first and only science-fiction novel, "Journey in Other Worlds."

"A 'Journey in Other Worlds' races far ahead of the nineteenth century to imagine what life would be like in the year 2000," the Amazon synopsis reads.

"At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Earth is effectively a corporate technocracy, with big businesses using incredible advances in science to improve life on the planet as a whole," it continues. "Seeking other planets habitable for the growing human population, the spaceship Callisto, powered by an antigravitational force known as apergy, embarks on a momentous tour of the solar system."

Astor was also an accomplished inventor.

In 1898, he patented a bicycle brake, invented a vibratory disintegrator (used to generate gas from peat), and created a pneumatic road-improver. He also helped invent a turbine engine.

Astor married Ava Lowle Willing in 1891, but they divorced in 1909.

Ava Lowle Willing and Astor had two children together, Vincent and Alice.

Although they seemed like the perfect, upper-class family, the marriage was largely unhappy.

The couple got divorced in 1909, setting Astor up for one of the family's biggest scandals.

At 47 years old, Astor met Madeleine Talmage Force, who was 18.

When Astor and Madeleine Talmage Force married in 1911, it became a scandal — at the time, divorce was rare, and remarrying was even more so.

The controversy over their relationship even made its way onto screens decades later. In the 1997 Oscar-winning movie "Titanic," Rose points out Astor and his pregnant wife to Jack.

"His little wifey there, Madeleine, is my age and in delicate condition. See how she's trying to hide it? Quite the scandal," she says.

When Madeleine fell pregnant in 1912, they decided to return to New York from Europe. Astor booked them a room on the Titanic.

At the time, Astor was one of the world's richest men, and he certainly was the wealthiest aboard the Titanic.

CNBC reported that he had a fortune worth between $90 and $150 million when he boarded the fateful ship. Today, when adjusted for inflation, he would be worth between $3 and $5 billion.

After the Titanic hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912, Astor calmly took his wife, Madeleine, to the second-to-last lifeboat.

Biography reported that Astor was among the first few people who knew the ship was sinking.

He woke his sleeping, pregnant wife and told her to get dressed in her warmest clothes. He then put all of the couple's jewelry on her, took her to the deck, and placed her in a lifeboat.

She clung to her husband and wanted to stay with him, but he reportedly said, "The sea is calm. You'll be alright. You're in good hands. I'll see you in the morning."

The New York Times reported that Astor was last seen smoking a cigarette on the deck. He was wearing a dinner suit and holding a personalized pocket watch.

Nearly two weeks after the Titanic sank, The New York Times reported that Astor's body had been recovered by a search team from Halifax, Canada.

Astor was among the 306 bodies found by the crew of the Mackay-Bennett in the weeks after the tragedy, according to the Nova Scotia Archives, but only one of 59 bodies that were claimed by victims' relatives and returned home.

The initials sewn into his jacket reportedly identified him. The New York Times reported his pocket also contained a solid gold watch engraved with the initials JJA.

Many of the Titanic's victims were buried in a cemetery (pictured) in Halifax, but Astor's son, Vincent, traveled there to claim his father's body and bring it home to New York.

Astor's wife, Madeleine, survived the shipwreck and gave birth to their son, naming him John Jacob. But most of his fortune went to his son from his first marriage, Vincent.

If Astor made it to the US, it's believed he would have made his and Madeleine's unborn child the heir to his fortune.

However, most of his money went to his first son, Vincent (pictured), from his first marriage.

John Jacob Astor VI received only a small portion of his father's fortune, but Vincent went on to donate a large sum of his father's money and became a philanthropist in New York City.

John Jacob Astor IV's legacy has lasted long after his death.

As the most famous person to die in the tragedy, Astor's name and reputation have survived through the years.

In fact, he has been portrayed in several TV shows and movies. Most notably, Eric Braeden played Astor in "Titanic."

• President Trump reacted to the failure of US-Iran peace talks by announcing a blockade.
• He said the US Navy will begin destroying any mines Iran has laid in the strait.
• He said: "No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage."

President Trump has reacted to the failure of US-Iran peace talks by announcing a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping channel.

"Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz," he said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday.

"At some point, we will reach an "ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT" basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, "There may be a mine out there somewhere," that nobody knows about but them.

"I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.

"We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits. Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL! Iran knows, better than anyone, how to END this situation which has already devastated their Country."

Trump said the US blockade would stop Iran from benefiting economically from tolls while the rest of the world suffered.

He said other nations would be involved in the blockade, without naming them.

Hormuz is a crucial waterway for global energy supply, and the disruption to shipping since war broke out on February 28 has led to surging oil and gas prices.

Vice President JD Vance led the US in marathon talks with an Iranian delegation meeting in Pakistan on Saturday but did not reach an agreement to ending the war with Tehran.

"We go back to the United States having not come to an agreement," Vance said early on Sunday.

"We've made very clear what our red lines are, what things we're willing to accommodate them on and what things we're not willing to accommodate them on."

Vance said the critical sticking point during negotiations was an "affirmative commitment" from Iran that it would not seek a nuclear weapon or procure materials necessary for a nuclear deterrent.

On April 7, President Trump announced a two-week conditional ceasefire aimed at halting the escalating fighting in the Middle East and reopening the Strait of Hormuz while the parties seek a peace deal.

Days after the ceasefire announcement, traffic in the strait remained tightly controlled and yet to be restored to normal flow.

Correction, April 12, 2026: This story has been updated to correct the vice president's name.

• I asked Meta's new personal AI to rate the nutritional value of my lunch and suggest dinner recipes.
• Muse Spark rated my lunch a 7.5 out of 10 and told me to watch my sodium intake.
• Muse Spark gave me unexpected dinner recipes that helped me use up leftover ingredients.

For some of us, cooking is hard, and coming up with nutritious meals with what's already in the fridge is harder.

I have always struggled with meal prep, often forgoing a meal altogether when I just don't have the mental energy to decide what to make. So, despite having a healthy dose of skepticism toward AI, I decided to let Meta's new Muse Spark AI judge the nutritional value of my lunch and help me decide what to make for dinner based on the few items I have in my fridge.

Muse Spark was freshly launched on April 8 after Meta waged a talent war to fuel its AI ambitions. In Meta's press release, Muse Spark was partly promoted as a personal AI tool that could help you track your health or plan a trip.

"Health is one of the top reasons people turn to AI, so we worked with a team of physicians to develop the model's ability to provide helpful information on common health questions and concerns," according to the press release.

With those marketed functions in mind, instead of asking the AI tool to write me a paragraph, I skipped straight to lunch.

Rating my salmon lunch

I got my go-to take-out from my favorite Japanese bento place for lunch near my home. It consists of seared salmon on rice, with an egg, mixed greens, and a side of raw salmon and fish roe.

I uploaded a photo of the meal to Muse Spark and tasked it with creating a detailed breakdown of every type of food and sauce, along with the number of calories for each item. I also asked it to make a labeled image of my meal, give it a score out of 10, and explain how it factors into my nutritional needs of the day based on my biometrics.

Muse Spark was mostly accurate about what ingredients were in my meal.

It made it clear it didn't know the weight of the ingredients or the exact type of oil it was cooked in, but it estimated that my salmon bento was around a total of 760 calories. Muse Spark also estimated, based on the photo, that the dressing and sauce I love are extremely high in calories and sodium, leaving me little room for additional sodium intake in my day.

Muse Spark also said that the meal appeared dense in micronutrients like Omega-3, based on the photo. However, the AI thought it was lacking in fiber, vitamin C, and calcium. Overall, it rated my meal a 7.5 out of 10 and reminded me that it is not a licensed nutritionist.

Where Muse Spark struggled was generating a labeled image.

The labeled words made no sense. After one more failed attempt to ask it for a labeled image with readable text, I gave up and moved on to the next task.

The dinner challenge

Now that Muse Spark knew what I had for lunch, I collected leftover and eclectic ingredients in my fridge for a visible photo and asked it if it could suggest some dinner recipes for me.

I explained that I have a wide array of condiments available that aren't shown in the photo, and I would prefer recipes that are easy to cook and clean. Here are Muse Spark's suggestions that came with a brief step-by-step recipe:

• Tomato-braised chicken + roasted potatoes + papaya side
• Light spaghetti alle vongole + blueberry-oat smoothie
• Japanese-style oyakodon + papaya-blueberry salad

According to Muse Spark, the meals are designed to make up for its analysis of my lunch, which it said lacked fiber and vitamin C, with the option to moderately increase carb intake. It also suggested that I rinse my canned tomatoes to lower their sodium level and skip any salt and soy sauce.

"Sodium is the main thing to watch — if the rest of your day is also soy-sauce heavy, you'll likely overshoot 2300mg," said Muse Spark.

Muse Spark was not able to tell that the package that says freeze-dried strawberries is actually covered in sweet yogurt and far too sugary for a smoothie, but its options gave me sufficient inspiration to cook and taught me clever ways to finish my leftover items, such as the papaya half.

At the end of the day, I decided on the Japanese-style oyakodon meal, and saved the other two recipes for another day.

Will I stop putting soy sauce in everything and skip my favorite condiment options in my bento? Probably not, even if I can hear Muse Spark telling me to stop in my head.

It's the final day of the US Masters, and things couldn't be closer at the top. You won't want to miss any of the action, so check out all the options below as we run through the latest details on where to watch the Masters live streams for free. We'll even help you unlock the feeds from anywhere in the world.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy had a big lead going into the weekend, but Cameron Young had a stellar Saturday and is now tied with the Northern Irishman. Sam Burns is only a shot behind the two, and the chasing back is only a single shot behind him, so the top five really is up for grabs. Stick around, and you'll get to see who gets that coveted green jacket at the end of the day.

Below are all the best ways to tune in to the 90th Masters Tournament, including broadcast and free streaming options. Coverage has been spread across multiple networks during the earlier rounds, but the free official website and CBS/Paramount Plus options keep things much simpler today.

• See also: Where to watch Monte Carlo Masters | Where to watch Champions League | Where to watch UFC

How to watch the Masters free from anywhere

If you're away from the US right now, you can still access the free live stream on the official Masters website with the help of a VPN to bypass geo-restrictions. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are easy-to-use tech tools that allow people to temporarily alter the digital locations of their electronic devices. This way, they can access their favorite websites and apps from anywhere. They're especially popular apps for those looking to use their usual services while traveling abroad or improve their cybersecurity.

NordVPN is the best VPN we've tested. It's a user-friendly option with a 30-day money-back guarantee and a selection of cybersecurity perks (especially in the long-term plans). You can learn more about the service in our NordVPN review.

How to watch the Masters in the US

It's good news for US golf fans. The Masters Tournament is the rare golf major where coverage is available completely free online, in addition to the TV broadcasts. Fans can catch all of the action for free on the Masters website.

Coverage for the final day will be available across on Paramount Plus from 12 to 2 p.m. ET and then on CBS (and Paramount Plus) from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET.

Paramount Plus also offers two tiers of service: Essential and Premium. While Essential comes with some live sports, the only way to live stream the CBS channel directly is with Paramount Plus Premium. This tier costs $14 a month and comes with ad-free on-demand streaming, Showtime programming, and other perks.

If you're hoping to catch all of the CBS coverage in one place or you'd like a cable alternative service with additional channels, one of the best live TV streaming services we've tested might be of interest. Two of our favorite options, which are both CBS and ESPN-friendly, are DirecTV and Fubo.

You can get both of these networks, a nice selection of other channels, and access to ESPN Unlimited in DirecTV's MySports genre pack or Fubo's Sports + News package. DirecTV MySports costs $65 a month, but you can get your first two months for $45 a month after a five-day free trial. Fubo Sports + News costs $56 a month, but you can get your first month for $46 after a five-day free trial.

Where is the Masters Tournament held?

The Master Tournament takes place at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. The golf club has been home to the tournament every year since its inception in 1934 (excluding years when the tournament wasn't held).

Who are the most recent Masters winners?

Rory McIlroy is the most recent Masters champion, having won in 2025. Other recent winners include Scottie Scheffler (2024, 2022), Jon Rahm (2023), Hideki Matsuyama (2021), Dustin Johnson (2020), and Tiger Woods (2019).

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 daughter visits me from college, and I love connecting with her.
• I get to see how much she has grown and how independent she has become.
• I also love it when she leaves, so I can focus on my new life without her.

I truly love having my young adult daughter visit home from college. The visits are precious moments and a new chapter in our lives. Yet, as much as I cherish my 20-year-old kid's presence, I find myself quietly looking forward to when she returns to her student flat.

It's not because I don't miss her; I do. But I recognize how important it is for her to have her own space. Accepting this transition as a natural and beneficial stage in both our lives helps me stay optimistic and open-minded.

I value the house's calm and quiet when she's back at her student housing. I enjoy the temporary change in daily routine when she visits, but I also welcome the return to my usual rhythm once she's back at college.

When she comes home, she enjoys the comfort of family routines

My daughter raids the fridge and freezer at home, and I indulge her by buying some favorite treats. Meals are planned, and I deliberately cook some of her favorite dishes.

I know she enjoys sitting down together at the dining table, which is in stark contrast to meals on her lap in her small student flat.

Cooking together is something we always did when she was growing up, and she has good cooking skills, unlike some of her flatmates. She cooks on a budget and eats well, and that's good to see.

When she comes home, she is more aware of the cooking space and makes sure to leave it spotless, unlike in her teenage cooking days.

I've noticed how independent she has become

In her first year at college, my daughter lived on campus, and I watched her learn useful skills such as time management and budgeting. She met people from different backgrounds, made friends, and made her own decisions.

Watching her progress and seeing her confidence grow around people was noticeable, and that would not have been the same if she had lived at home and traveled an hour to college each day.

She now needs to pay bills, get her car serviced, and get on with flatmates. Some situations present challenges, but she works through them. She sometimes asks Dad for advice, which I love.

Our conversations tell me that she is working hard on her studies, coping with exam pressure, and enjoying the occasional party. She is living life, learning, and moving forward, which is exactly what I want for her.

I respect the independence my daughter is cultivating — managing her own space, making her own decisions, and growing into the person she's becoming. I love getting glimpses of the new her every time she visits.

But I am changing too, and enjoying my newfound independence

I'm enjoying a new lifestyle as I prepare for retirement.

A quieter house means I can indulge a passion for reading. I also enjoy researching and planning hiking trips and weekends away. I can pump up the volume on my music without bothering others, and with no daughter at home, I am more flexible with meal times and can experiment with cooking.

While I see the changes and growth in her, she appreciates my new routine and outlook on life.

We're both independent now. We don't text or speak every day, and sometimes may go more than a week before checking in with each other. But that is OK because time apart remains important to us both.

I'm still there when she needs me, though. If she needed something from home in her first year on campus, I delivered it, and if she needed to come home, I picked her up.

Her visits home are moments that deepen our connection

Her time away fosters her self-reliance and problem-solving skills, and I find comfort in knowing that my support is there but not overwhelming.

While she builds her own life, I remain a steady source of encouragement and unconditional love. I'm also busy building my life without her.

My daughter continues to gain confidence and independence, and being in her own place is an essential part of her growth and our relationship.

When these two enter a tournament on opposite sides of the bracket, it seems inevitable that they'll meet in the final. We are, of course, talking about what could be another classic as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner duke it out in Monaco for the title and the #1 rank on the ATP tour.

Better yet, tennis fans, we can show you where to watch Alcaraz vs Sinner for free with this Monte Carlo Masters live stream. Geo-restrictions would usually block access to this free option from France, but we'll show you how to unlock it from anywhere with a VPN. We also have a few other international options.

• See also: Where to watch Champions League | How to watch NHL games | How to watch NBA games

Where to watch Monte Carlo Masters in France

Although US- and UK-based tennis fans have to pay to watch this tournament, those in France get to catch the final absolutely free on the France TV platform. You need to register an account to watch, which includes your name, date of birth, and a postal code. Once you've done that, you can watch France.TV streams live and on catch-up. For more comprehensive coverage of the full tournament, you'll need to pay for Eurosport.

How to watch Monte Carlo Masters from anywhere

Try watching Monte Carlo Masters coverage from outside the broadcast country (such as the French option above), and you'll soon find that your normal feed is blocked. To get around this issue, you can use a virtual private network — or VPN. It's a clever tool that makes your laptop, smartphone, or other streaming device think it's in another country altogether, as well as giving you an extra level of online security.

NordVPN is the best VPN you can get right now. It's the full package, bringing fantastic speeds, super-smooth usability across devices, market-leading security, and an impressive reputation for unblocking a range of services. You can read more in our guide to the best VPNs and, if it sounds like the right product for you, subscribe safely in the knowledge that there's a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Where to watch Monte Carlo Masters in the US

The Tennis Channel is the place to watch ATP Masters 1000 events like the Monte Carlo Masters in the US. Select coverage will also be shown on Tennis Channel 2 (T2). The Tennis Channel is carried through a number of cable plans, or if you want to watch online, you can subscribe directly through its website for $12 a month or $110 a year. Alternatively, it's well serviced by a variety of OTT streaming services, including DirecTV, Fubo, and Sling TV.

DirecTV MySports is a great option for fans of tennis and wider sports. Costing $65 a month (with a $20 a month discount for your first two), it carries the Tennis Channel among the likes of ESPN, FS1 & 2, Golf Channel, MLB Network, NBA TV, NFL Network, and NHL Network, as well as local ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC networks (where available). You can try DirecTV before you buy with its 5-day free trial.

Fubo is one of the most comprehensive cable-cutting services around, and its Elite plan carries the Tennis Channel and T2 among its 280+ channel lineup. It costs a hefty $84 a month, although there's a $30 discount for your first month at the time of writing. New users can try before they buy thanks to Fubo's 5-day free trial. The Tennis Channel also features on its cheaper, more focused Sports + News plan for $56 a month.

Sling TV is a more affordable cord-cutting option than the two above, though there's no free trial. To get access to the Tennis Channel, you'll need to sign up for your choice of Sling Blue ($46 a month) or Orange & Blue ($61 a month) packages and then opt in for the Sports Extra add-on for an additional $11 a month.

Where to watch Monte Carlo Masters in the UK

Sky Sports once again has the rights to show the Monte Carlo Masters in the UK. That means subscribers can also watch online and through their mobiles thanks to the Sky Go app. You can learn more in our guide to the best Sky TV deals and plans. If you don't want to sign up for a full-blown Sky TV package, then you can opt for a more flexible Now Sports Membership, which starts from as little as £15 a day or costs £35 on a rolling monthly basis.

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.

• Jay is a TikToker whose posts critical of influencer behavior often go viral.
• He fell into the role of internet vigilante while posting for his family's snack company.
• Some of Jay's targets have not been amused, blocking him or sending cease-and-desist letters.

Jay didn't set out to become the internet's watchdog of entitled influencers.

The creator behind the Daadi Snacks account, who asked to be identified by his first name to protect his corporate day job, started posting on TikTok in 2024 to promote his family's snack business. The company makes popcorn inspired by his grandma's recipe that includes Indian spices.

One day, he came across a pair of influencers who were disappointed that a high-end South Indian restaurant didn't have Chicken Tikka Masala on its menu.

"They made this comment that I thought was funny, in a way, out of touch," he said. "So I just did a really quick stitch making fun of that, and being like, 'Oh my God, there was, like, no chicken Tiki Marsala,' as I said it, and that blew up."

That video was the start of Jay's side hustle as a prominent influencer critic. He now gets millions of views for his deadpan takedowns of creators, including tourists who don't learn local customs and foodies who try to bully restaurants into giving them free meals.

"Come with meeee," the New Yorker says in what's become his trademark opening, satirizing the whiney upspeak that's common among the targets of his critiques.

Daadi Snacks now boasts over a million TikTok followers, and while the videos aren't traditional product marketing, Jay said they've helped grow awareness of his family's brand. He doesn't make money directly from the videos, but in addition to "Sweet Chai" and "Spicy Masala" popcorns, Daadi Snacks sells a "Come with meeee" tote and "ohmygawdyouguyz" ballcap.

Some of Jay's targets have not been amused, at times blocking him or sending cease-and-desist letters.

His content feels especially relevant now, with influencer marketing growing faster than ever, replacing traditional media channels, and industry standards racing to keep up.

Foodie influencers under attack

Many viewers praise Jay's videos, with one commenter calling him the "Batman of the internet."

"Love this account and everything it stands for," another commented.

Not everyone's a fan, though.

"He's literally a food influencer with an annoying voice in his 'normal videos' and pretending it's all a parody just to sell popcorn," sniffed a commenter on Reddit.

A TikToker known as themilehams, who has been targeted by Jay's criticism, said accounts like his fuel bullying. Themilehams said in a direct message with Business Insider that they "welcome the trolls" because it helps their channel, but others might be ill-prepared for such attacks.

Jay, who often takes aim at food and travel influencers, said most feedback on his videos has been positive, and that many of his posts are based on tips from followers.

His clashes with influencers can get messy.

In January, an influencer complained that a New York café charged $25 for coffee and a "nasty danish" and booted her after three hours. Jay visited the café and showed a menu listing the most expensive combo at about $15, along with a no-weekend laptop policy he said was clearly posted.

"It makes me sick that someone tried to do this to honest, hardworking people," he said in the video.

The poster, an Atlanta influencer who goes by BestieBri, said in a statement to Business Insider that she didn't mean to attack the café. She said she didn't like her pastry and that the laptop policy wasn't posted when she visited. She added that she felt "misrepresented" by the Daadi Snacks post and had received harassing and threatening messages after it gained traction.

Jay's taken aim at bigger fish, too.

They include the monk-turned-wellness-guru Jay Shetty, whom he colorfully ripped for his glamorous lifestyle. Shetty has defended his monk training and said he wrestles with reconciling his spirituality and entrepreneurship.

Jay also took aim at Ballerina Farm over its raw milk controversy. Multiple news outlets reported in January that samples of Ballerina Farm's raw milk had failed two health tests in the summer of 2025. Ballerina Farm issued a statement in February, saying it passed the state's required testing, had never recalled any products, and had stopped selling raw milk in August 2025.

Reps for Shetty and Ballerina Farm didn't respond to requests for comment.

The creator economy is maturing

The creator economy is bigger than ever and growing. IAB estimated that advertisers would spend $43.9 billion on creator marketing this year.

Despite its size, there are no universally accepted standards for creators, and new entrants are constantly reshaping the space, said Kyle Hjelmeseth, CEO of G&B Digital Management.

"It's not like people go to school for 'How to show up and be an influencer,'" he said.

Hjelmeseth has launched a training program, the College of Influence, aimed at professionalizing the industry.

There have been some efforts to set industry standards, as well. A nonprofit, with ad industry support, is looking to certify creators — or create a stamp of approval — to ensure they follow some best practices. And a new public-interest organization called Deinfluence is trying to crack down on influencers who don't disclose their funding sources.

Skepticism of influencer culture has been building for years, gaining traction with the rise of the "de-influencer" movement — a trend that urged people to question products creators promoted (while creating its own category of influencing). Los Angeles-based creator Kerry Rose Schwartz has gained a following on Instagram with her blunt restaurant reviews and criticism of paid influencer culture.

For now, Jay enjoys the work, but he doesn't see himself doing it forever. He hopes his posts will encourage influencers to be more supportive of local businesses, so he can hang up his cape and focus on what he really enjoys: promoting local businesses.

"My hope is that things are in a position where I don't really have to make as many videos, and I could just make small business reviews," he said. "That'd be way more fun."

The best steam mops are one of the most powerful tools for deep cleaning and sanitizing, without the use of harsh chemicals. These cleaners pick up caked-on residue to leave your floors and other non-porous surfaces sparkling, and will transform the way you clean. We tested eight steam mops on different types of flooring and stains, and spoke to cleaning and flooring experts for tips on choosing the best steam cleaners.

However, we caveat that steam mops should only be used on non-porous or sealed surfaces like porcelain and ceramic tile, stone, and linoleum. "Avoid using steam mops on any flooring that is unsealed," said Leanne Stapf, COO of The Cleaning Authority, referencing hardwood, laminate and vinyl — including luxury vinyl plank — as examples. The high heat and moisture can damage and warp floors, which is when the best mop might come in handy. Approach caution with brands that claim to be gentle enough for hardwood or laminate, and a good practice is to try a spot test before doing a full run.

Learn more about how Business Insider Reviews tests and researches home products.

Our top picks for the best steam mops

Best overall: Bissell 1806 PowerFresh Deluxe Steam Mop - See at Amazon

Best budget: PurSteam 10-in-1 Steam Mop - See at Amazon

Best for pets: Bissell 15441 PowerFresh Pet Lift-Off Steam Mop - See at Amazon

Most versatile: Dupray Neat Steam Cleaner - See at Amazon

Best with vacuum: Tineco FLOOR ONE S5 Steam Cleaner Wet Dry Vacuum - See at Amazon

How to choose the best steam cleaner for you

Best overall

A lightweight, no-frills steam mop that delivers strong performance at a reasonable price. The Bissell PowerFresh Deluxe is a great option if you're primarily looking to clean sealed hard floors, though it's worth noting that it doesn't include any attachments — this is strictly a floor cleaner, not a multi-use steam system.

In testing, it handled most everyday messes well, with a few expected limitations. Like every steam mop we tried, it struggled with dried egg yolk and couldn't fully lift deeply set stains, but it performed better with substances like mustard and cleaned up sticky spills like honey without leaving residue behind.

Small design details help boost its cleaning power and ease of use. It comes with two washable microfiber pads — including a textured option for tougher messes — and a built-in scrub brush that can be deployed hands-free for more stubborn spots (just be sure to turn off the steam first). The mop offers both light and heavy steam settings, heats up in about 30 seconds, and includes a measuring cup for filling the 19-ounce tank, which provides roughly 25 to 30 minutes of runtime.

It's also easy to maneuver and store, with a few minor drawbacks. The mop head glides smoothly and the unit can stand upright on its own, which is convenient between uses. There's even a tray for optional scent discs if you prefer a fragranced clean. However, the water tank isn't removable, so you can't easily empty leftover water, and assembly requires a screwdriver.

Best budget

Serious versatility for the price. At under $100, the PurSteam 10-in-1 is only slightly cheaper than our top pick but includes far more attachments, including multiple brushes, a grout tool, scraper, squeegee, carpet glider, and two microfiber pads. It works as both a traditional steam mop for floors and a handheld steamer for fabrics, upholstery, and drapes.

It gets the job done, but takes more effort on tougher messes. In testing, it was able to clean up common spills, though it required more passes to lift substances like mustard and needed extra scrubbing for dried egg. Sticky messes like syrup and honey also left behind some residue. Maneuverability was another weak point. The mop felt slightly resistant when turning and didn't glide as smoothly as higher-end models.

The controls and setup are simple, with a few ergonomic quirks. A dial above the water tank lets you adjust steam levels, and the unit heats up in about 30 seconds. However, the knob sits lower on the body when used as a mop, making it less convenient to adjust mid-clean. The 12.8-ounce tank provides up to 25 minutes of steam, and filling it is straightforward thanks to the included measuring cup and funnel.

It's lightweight, easy to store, and quick to assemble. The mop stands upright on its own, which is helpful for storage, and setup takes less than a minute. Simply click the handle into place and attach the base and pad. While it doesn't include wall-mount storage, its compact design makes it easy to tuck into a closet. Overall, while it's not the strongest performer, the added attachments and flexibility make it a solid value buy.

Best for pets

Made for pet messes, but useful in any home. From paw prints to everyday spills, the Bissell PowerFresh Pet Lift-Off can tackle floors and above-floor grime with a range of attachments, using the sanitizing power of steam instead of harsh chemicals — a plus for households with pets or kids.

It's a strong cleaner, especially on tougher, stuck-on messes. In testing, it delivered some of the better results on substances like egg and mustard, though it did leave behind a bit of residue with sticky spills like honey. Like the Powerfresh Deluxe, it comes with two reusable microfiber pads — a smooth option for everyday cleaning and a textured one for more stubborn debris.

The attachments are where it really stands out. You get multiple brushes (with color-coded bristles to help keep tasks separate), plus a grout tool, scraper, and fabric steamer. They lock securely into place during use, and the grout brush in particular impressed us when it dislodged a fair amount of gunk from under the rim of a supposedly clean sink. A storage bag keeps everything organized.

It's a little heavier and a bit less nimble than other options. This was the heaviest steam mop we tested, and even the handheld pod has some weight, which may cause fatigue over longer sessions. As a mop, it felt slightly stiff to maneuver. The water tank is also somewhat awkward to fill when attached — you'll need to tilt the unit — though it's easier to handle and empty when detached.

Most versatile

A whole home cleaner, not just a steam mop. The Dupray Neat is the most versatile steam cleaner we tested with a canister design and 17 attachments that let it handle everything from floors and grout to windows and upholstery.

It delivers powerful, consistent steam with strong cleaning performance. In testing, it cleared most spills in one to two passes, though tougher messes like egg and mustard took a bit more effort. Sticky substances like honey and syrup left behind minimal residue, which isn't always the case with steam cleaners.

The wide range of attachments makes it easy to tackle different surfaces. It comes with multiple microfiber pads and cloths, several brushes (including a brass option), extension tubes, and specialty tools like a triangle head and steam lance. Swapping attachments is simple thanks to pull tabs, and the extension tubes make it comfortable to use on floors without bending, while still allowing you to adjust for smaller or higher-up cleaning tasks.

It's built for long cleaning sessions, with a few usability trade-offs. The large 54-ounce tank provides up to 50 minutes of runtime, but it takes around eight minutes to heat up, and there's no clear water level indicator when filling. The canister glides smoothly and the steam trigger is easy to control from the handle, though storage is less convenient — the boxy design, non-detachable hose, and many attachments can be cumbersome to keep organized. I ended up purchasing a storage container to house it in.

Best with vacuum

Combines steam cleaning with vacuum-like convenience. The. Tineco Floor One S5 Steam is designed for people who want to tackle both wet and dry messes at once, pairing steam power with a motorized roller that picks up debris — all while using a smart LED display to show how dirty your floors are in real time. It's limited strictly to floor cleaning, however, with no functionality for above-floor use, which does make it a little less versatile than steam cleaners with attachments. But if you have lots of ground to cover, it could be time-saving.

It cleans effectively, though not as quickly on tougher stains. In testing, it handled most everyday messes well, leaving behind very little sticky residue from syrup and honey. However, it required a few extra passes to fully remove tougher substances like egg and mustard.

The smart features and self-cleaning system make it especially easy to use. The vacuum-like design propels forward, reducing effort despite its weight. Steam is activated via a button on the handle and heats up in about 30 seconds, though you can't adjust the steam level. Instead of microfiber pads, it uses a roller brush that continuously washes itself during use and pushes dirty water into a separate tank. There's also a self-cleaning mode on the dock, with prompts that alert you when it's time to run it. During testing, we found that the mop recommended self-cleaning multiple times during a cleaning session.

It's convenient, but requires more maintenance than a standard steam mop. The removable water tank is easy to fill and provides about 20 minutes of runtime. However, the system needs regular upkeep: the brand recommends cleaning the clean and dirty water tank, brush roller, and brush roller cover after each use. Tineco's version is also corded. If you're looking for a more souped up version, the Roborock F25 Ultra has many settings, including hot water cleaning and steam with a more hands-off self-cleaning program. Our reviewer called it the the most low-maintenance floor cleaner she's ever used, even letting the water sit between uses, thanks to its heated-self dry cycle. This tech will cost you about $500, and that's when it's on sale.

What else we tested

Shark S1000 Steam Mop: While this is by far the cheapest steam mop we tested and it cleaned OK, there was much to be desired. There's no way to control the steam output beyond the pumping action required to operate the mop, which also felt inconvenient to press continuously. There's also no standby mode for when you power the mop on or need to pause. It also has the shortest cord of any steam mop we tested, making it likely you'll need to unplug and replug it in throughout your cleaning.

What to look for in a steam mop

Before selecting the best steam mop for your needs, consider what you'll be cleaning and technical features like the unit's size, weight, water tank, and cord length.

Compatible floor type: Before purchasing a steam mop, consider the flooring types you have. Steam cleaners are recommended for sealed floors, such as tile and stone. While many brands market their product as being compatible with wood, laminate, or vinyl flooring, most cleaning experts do not advise using a steam cleaner on these surfaces.

Size and Weight: Consider the size and weight of the steam cleaner to ensure comfort of use and maneuverability.

Heating time: Steam mops should reach a water's boiling point of 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Most designs heat up within 30 seconds to two minutes.

Water tank: Depending on how much or how long you need to clean, you want to ensure the tank can hold enough water so you won't need to refill mid-clean. The steam mops we tested range from 10 ounces to 25 ounces, and have cleaning times of up to 30 minutes. If you have quicker cleaning sessions or less area to clean, water tank capacities in that range would be sufficient. For cleaning large areas, look for water tanks with larger capacities. For example, our top canister steam mop has a 54-ounce tank and a cleaning time of up to 50 minutes.

Cord length: The majority of steam cleaners are corded models. Depending on the size of the room you're cleaning, a cord at least 20 feet long will suit most people.

Steam output: There are different types of steam outputs to choose from, including on-demand, continuous, and adjustable.

• On-Demand steam: Steam mops with an on-demand steam output produce steam when a button or trigger is pressed. This option gives you more control over when the mop cleans.
• Continuous steam: Steam mops with a continuous steam output produce steam automatically when turned on. This output requires no effort on your end and can make cleaning quicker and easier.
• Adjustable steam: Steam mops with an adjustable steam output allow you to adjust the level of steam produced.

Attachments: Steam mops with lift-off capabilities and various attachments like grout brushes, extension hoses, and squeegees make it possible to use your steam cleaner for extended household chores like cleaning your bath, grout lines, windows, appliances, and more.

How we test steam mops

To compare the cleaning abilities of the best steam mops, we examined how well each cleaned dried-on egg, mustard, and honey on a variety of surfaces, including tile, wood, and laminate (though we don't recommend using steam mops on laminate or wood floors).

We also timed how long each mop took to heat up and made notes on maneuverability, ease of filling and emptying the water tanks, and which models could stand up independently. If there were extra tools or features, we evaluated how useful they were.

We also spoke to Leanne Stapf, COO of The Cleaning Authority, and Brett Miller, vice president of Technical Standards, Training, and Certification for the National Wood Flooring Association, for advice on using steam mops.

Steam mop FAQs

Can I use a steam mop on a wood floor?

"We recommend never using a steam mop on any real wood floor," said Brett Miller, vice president of Technical Standards, Training, and Certification for the National Wood Flooring Association.

He said steam can travel between the cracks and into the cells of the wood itself. "This can permanently damage the wood and the floor's finish," he said. Even a traditional mop and bucket may introduce too much water. Instead, Miller suggests using a broom or microfiber mop daily, a vacuum weekly, and cleaning with a professional wood floor cleaning product monthly.

Can I use a steam mop on other types of floors?

As a general rule, "avoid using steam mops on any flooring that is unsealed," said Leanne Stapf, COO of The Cleaning Authority. Engineered wood and bamboo can suffer from the same issues as hardwood. Laminate flooring is also susceptible to warping from steam, and excessive heat can damage vinyl.

Bissell also warns that the use of a steam mop could reduce a floor's glossiness.

While manufacturers generally say tile and linoleum flooring are safe for steam mops, keep in mind that excessive heat or water could still cause problems. Don't leave the steam mop in one place for too long, and it's a good idea to test the mop in a hidden area before cleaning your whole floor. You may also want to limit the frequency of your steam mopping.

Will a steam mop sanitize a floor?

Technically, yes, but not without some effort. Temperatures between 140 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit are often enough to kill bacteria and viruses, though it's not instantaneous. Water boils and produces steam and 212 degrees Fahrenheit, and some steam mops get even hotter.

While that's technically hot enough to kill germs, the manuals for the Bissell machines instruct you to slowly pass the mop back and forth over a spot three times, while the Shark Steam & Scrub S7001 requires 15 passes on the highest setting. Remember that sanitizing reduces the number of bacteria, while disinfecting kills most of them. There are less intensive ways to disinfect surfaces.

Is steam cleaning floors better than mopping?

Steam cleaning floors can be quicker and easier than traditional mopping. Steam mops don't use chemicals, can sanitize floors, are more sanitary since they don't reuse water from a bucket, and are efficient at cleaning tough stains with little effort. However, they're more expensive than traditional mops and can't be used on all types of flooring, such as unsealed floors and hardwood. For floors that you can't use steam mops on, traditional mops can work just as well, but require more physical labor and might not sanitize floors as well as steam mops can.

How do you use a steam mop?

Stapf recommends sweeping or vacuuming first to remove dust, dirt, crumbs, and other debris on the floor. If you're looking for recommendations, we also have plenty of opinions about the best vacuums.

You must fill the reservoir with water and attach a mop cloth.

Start with a clean cloth, Stapf said. "You may need to replace the cloth as you mop, depending on the size of the room you're cleaning," she said. You'll also want to wait until the mop produces steam before you start cleaning, usually between 30 seconds and a minute.

"It's helpful to work your way from one side of the room to the other to make sure you clean the entire floor and avoid missing any areas as you go," said Stapf.

Can you put vinegar in a steam mop?

"When it comes to steam mops, it's best to stick to the basics," said Stapf. "Regular warm water should do the trick." Most manufacturers warn against putting anything other than water in the machines' tanks.

Do I need to use distilled water in my steam mop?

Many manufacturers suggest using distilled or demineralized water, especially if you have hard water, to avoid mineral buildup and prolong the life of your steam mop.

Why does my steam mop leave my floors streaky or cloudy?

First, check the mop pad you're cleaning with. If it's dirty, you may be redepositing grime back onto your floor. If the cloth is clean, you may be trying to clean a waxed or oiled floor.

Steam mops can decrease the glossiness of polishes and waxes, leaving floors looking streaked or cloudy.

• My husband and I just celebrated our 30th anniversary last month.
• Over the last three decades, I learned that laughter is the key to everything.
• I also realized that time moves too quickly, especially when raising your kids.

My husband and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in March, and I can't believe how fast it's gone.

Thirty years sounds like a lifetime, and in many ways it is. We've raised two kids, built careers, navigated illness, experienced loss, and grown through more life stages than I could have imagined when we first started out.

Looking back, I've realized that a long-lasting marriage doesn't just teach you how to stay together. It teaches you how to live. Over three decades, the lessons become less about the relationship itself and more about what actually matters.

Laughter is everything

The most important lesson, by far, is laughter. It's something I say all the time, but after 30 years, I know it's true. If you aren't laughing together early, when life is easy and fun, you will struggle when life gets hard. And life gets hard. There are seasons you don't see coming, moments that test you, and experiences that shift everything.

Laughter becomes the thing that pulls you back to each other. It softens the edges of stress, diffuses tension, and reminds you why you chose each other in the first place. It gives you a way through when there isn't a clear solution. The couples who last are often the ones who can still laugh together, even when things are tough.

Experiences matter more than things

Another lesson that becomes clearer over time is that experiences matter far more than material objects. I couldn't tell you what gifts we exchanged for most anniversaries or holidays. They've faded into the background.

But I can vividly remember trips we took, places we explored, and even the simplest moments where everything just felt right. Those are the things that stay with you.

When you're building a life, it's easy to focus on accumulating things that make you feel secure or successful. But what you end up valuing most are the shared experiences that create memories, connection, and meaning over time.

The years with your kids go fast

Raising kids brings its own lessons, and they really only become fully clear in hindsight. When you're in the middle of it, the days can feel long and exhausting. Your life revolves around children's schedules, activities, and constant demands on your time and energy.

But when you look back, it feels like it all happened in a blink. One day you're packing lunches and driving to practices, and the next you're standing in a quiet house wondering where the years went.

Thirty years of marriage have shown me that those seasons are incredibly short, even when they don't feel like it in the moment.

It makes you realize how important it is to be present while you're in it because you don't get that time back.

Trust and shared values matter most

Over time, you also learn that trust and shared values matter far more than getting everything right. No one has a perfect marriage for 30 years. There are disagreements, misunderstandings, and moments where you fall short.

What carries you through isn't perfection, it's knowing you're on the same team. It's having a foundation of trust and a shared understanding of what matters most. That becomes the anchor during the harder-to-navigate times, when life feels uncertain or overwhelming.

Life goes faster than you think

The biggest lesson of all is how quickly life moves. After 30 years together, especially after walking through life, loss, illness, and grief, you become much more aware of how precious time really is.

You start to see how much of your life is already behind you, and it changes your perspective on what's ahead of you. The things that once felt urgent or frustrating don't carry the same weight anymore. The small stuff becomes just that, small.

You become more intentional about how you spend your time and who you spend it with. You stop getting caught up in things that don't matter and start focusing on what does. You appreciate the everyday moments more because you understand how quickly they pass.

Thirty years of marriage didn't just teach me how to be a better partner. It taught me how to live a better life. It taught me to laugh more, to value experiences over things, to be present with the people I love, and to let go of what doesn't matter.

Because in the end, life goes fast. And how you spend it and with whom matters more than anything.

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

Rethinking résumé

It's wild to me to think the résumé might actually be dead.

About a decade ago, I taught a business communications course to MBA students. One aspect of it was résumé writing. I'd share tips for crafting a standout résumé, then have students workshop each other's drafts in small groups, pushing for sharper, more distinctive, and memorable copy.

Today, these skills are increasingly obsolete. AI can just do it for you.

My colleague Amanda Hoover has chronicled two major shifts in the workplace that are reshaping how people get jobs. First, she declared the death of the résumé. Hiring managers are increasingly ignoring them, as they are overwhelmed by a flood of AI-generated résumés and cover letters that look polished, keyword-optimized, and eerily similar.

That means job hunters are scrambling for new ways to stand out, especially as companies rely more on LinkedIn and referrals to narrow their candidate pool.

Ultimately, as Amanda writes, companies are much more interested in how these candidates can perform on the job than in how they present themselves on paper.

That leads to the second big shift Amanda focuses on: Résumés are out, job tryouts are in.

Companies are asking candidates to prove their abilities, sometimes for days or even a week in the office, through live tests and work trials. Employers can see a candidate's technical skills and collaboration abilities IRL.

They can also assess how effectively a candidate can use AI tools in practice. This is the reality for many workers already on the job, too, especially as companies are increasingly tying performance bonuses to AI usage.

There are benefits on the other side, too. Job candidates can see how their prospective employers operate, who their new boss might be, and if the role or the company would be a good fit.

If I ever went back into teaching, the 2026 thing would be to focus on vibe-coding a way to find new job postings that fit your role. RIP résumé.

Do you think the résumé is dead? Drop me your thoughts at srussolillo@businessinsider.com.

• I spent one night at theWit Chicago, a Hilton hotel with a whimsical aesthetic in the downtown area.
• For $240 a night, I had a corner room with wall-to-wall windows and a spa-like bathroom.
• I was stunned by how luxurious the stay was for the price. I'd definitely book the hotel again.

When I was looking for hotels for my first trip to Chicago, I turned to social media, and one popped up again and again: theWit.

It's a four-star Hilton hotel in downtown Chicago where quirky meets modern luxury. Its fun yet elevated design style stood out to me. The hotel was also named one of Chicago's top hotels in the Condé Nast Traveler's 2025 Reader's Choice Awards.

So I stopped scrolling and booked a one-night stay for $240. I was truly in awe of how swanky my room was for the price.

TheWit looks much like other buildings in downtown Chicago — save for the bright-green glass zig-zagging the facade.

The glass strip is technically chartreuse, according to KOO, the architecture firm that gave theWit a makeover in 2023.

The firm said this defining exterior feature is meant to resemble the nearby "L" train tracks.

Entering the lobby felt like stepping into Wonderland.

The lobby was so whimsical, it looked like a scene straight out of "Alice in Wonderland." Cartoonish pillars showcasing a variety of colors, textures, and patterns reminded me of the Hundertwasser House in Vienna (if you know, you know). The curved, striped couch was reminiscent of the funky knee socks I wore growing up.

The playful design also felt modern and luxurious, from the cozy, organically shaped seating to the marble check-in counter.

While I waited for my room to be ready, I poured myself what I thought was a cup of coffee from a self-service counter, but it turned out to be hot chocolate — how fun.

A staircase in the lobby led to a sunlit mezzanine and a library.

The hotel also has a spa, a gym, and a restaurant, State and Lake Chicago Tavern. There's a rooftop bar, too, though it was closed for a private event the night of my stay.

After checking in, I headed up to my corner room on the 16th floor.

I booked a King Bed Spa Guestroom, a 445-square-foot corner room with a king bed, a pull-out couch, and all-around views of the bustling downtown streets.

Across from the bed was a TV on a spacious dresser and a desk facing floor-to-ceiling windows. I thought the furniture looked modern and felt high-end.

Mismatched furniture pieces made the room feel unique.

I never would have put those nightstands in the same room. They were different shapes, colors, and materials. Still, I loved how they looked together.

Maybe it was because the bed was simple enough to let them shine, or maybe it was the equally odd pairing of lamps on either side, but somehow it worked.

I saw a similar pattern on the far side of the room. The furniture was understated, and the light fixtures, in varying shapes and sizes, added playful pops of color to the space.

The bathroom felt like a mini spa.

I was thrilled that the floor-to-ceiling windows continued into the bathroom. I spotted layers of buildings reflected in the giant, vibrant, and back-lit asymmetrical mirror above a marble sink.

Across from the mirror was a large soaking tub and a standing shower with products from the boutique toiletry brand Five Wits.

There were high-end amenities, like plush robes and a smart mini-fridge.

The bathrobe was one of the softest and most comfortable I've ever experienced at a hotel.

My room at theWit Chicago made me feel immersed in the city while wrapped in luxury.

To me, the ultimate luxury of a room like this is seeing your destination surround you without sacrificing comfort or privacy.

I've paid up to $1,000 for similar rooms sitting in high corners with windowed walls. So I was pleasantly surprised that I could get such a high-end experience on a budget at theWit.

• The Treasury Department is set to begin taking over defaulted student-loan borrowers' accounts.
• An Obama-era pilot program found the Treasury had low recovery rates on defaulted student loans.
• Education policy experts said the transfer could complicate borrowers' repayment efforts.

The fate of the federal student-loan portfolio is moving to the Treasury Department. That could raise some challenges for borrowers.

The Department of Education announced in March that it would be transferring millions of student-loan borrowers' accounts to the Treasury, starting with the accounts of defaulted borrowers. The administration made clear the move is part of its broader goal of dismantling the Department of Education.

This isn't the Treasury's first foray into federal student-loan management. In 2015, the Obama administration wanted to understand why defaulted borrowers struggled to repay, and how federal agencies could help them. So it conducted a pilot to determine whether the Treasury could effectively collect on defaulted loans. The pilot proved unsuccessful — suggesting similar challenges lie ahead for the Trump administration's effort.

The changes to the student-loan program come at a critical time for defaulted borrowers. Defaults, which typically occur after 270 days of missed payments on federal student loans, are at a record high, with about 9 million borrowers in default.

The Obama Treasury's student-loan challenges

During the 2015 pilot, the Treasury took over about $80 million worth of defaulted student-loan accounts. The experiment also maintained a control group of private collectors with roughly the same size portfolio.

Sarah Bloom Raskin, who served as deputy treasury secretary at the time, told Business Insider that there were "operational challenges" with the private debt collection agencies, including difficulties reaching borrowers and collecting the correct payment amounts, and that the pilot was intended to investigate those issues.

One year in, the Treasury had collected 4.1% of its borrowers' loans, compared with 5.5% in the control group. In dollar terms, the Treasury recovered 0.38% of its $80 million defaulted loan portfolio, compared with a 3.4% recovery rate for the private collector portfolio.

"[Collecting defaulted loans] is not an operational no-brainer," Raskin said. "It's operationally quite challenging, and you need the right people there in your career service who can handle this."

The 2015 pilot report highlighted several reasons for the Treasury's lower recovery rate. It said that the agency "proceeded relatively slowly" through the collections cycle to boost voluntary payments from borrowers, and that it called borrowers less frequently than private collectors did.

The report also said that borrowers were confused about why a third party — either the Treasury or a private collector — was contacting them instead of the Department of Education itself.

Having a clear point of contact is crucial for borrowers, said Arne Duncan, the education secretary under former President Barack Obama. During his tenure, he tried to establish what he called "one state desk" — a clear point of contact for anyone to call about a specific issue.

"Now, you might have to call five or six or seven different agencies," Duncan said. "It makes no sense educationally or from a customer service standpoint."

Ultimately, the Obama administration did not move forward with the pilot.

A complicated road for defaulted student-loan borrowers

In a March press release, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said her department had "failed to effectively manage and deliver these critical programs." A fact sheet said that with the Treasury already disbursing federal student aid funds, it was a logical next step. Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent said in a statement that the agency has "the unique experience, the operational capability, and the financial expertise to bring long overdue financial discipline to the program and be better stewards of taxpayer dollars."

A blog post by Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, said that the Treasury has access to borrowers' tax information and could use that data to better understand their financial situations and the factors that influence nonpayment.

Raskin said the process could be more complicated.

"It's one thing to disburse it. It's another thing to collect," Raskin said. "Those are two separate operational regimes."

In January, the Department of Education paused involuntary collections on defaulted loans, meaning that borrowers would not face wage garnishment or tax refund seizures.

Sarah Sattelmeyer, education project director at the left-leaning think tank New America, told Business Insider that once the pause lifts, it's important that borrowers receive the information and guidance they need to return to good standing, and that the transfer to Treasury could jeopardize those efforts.

"Having systems that are spread across multiple agencies really puts the entire system at risk and is going to make it a lot harder, not only to communicate with borrowers, but also to make sure that we are moving toward a more streamlined system," Sattelmeyer said.

• Citi predicts share-price upside for 16 stocks in particular this earnings season.
• Its analysts forecast a 3% to 12% price increase for the stocks post-earnings announcements.
• All of the stocks on the list have a "Buy" rating from the bank.

Earnings season is set to kick off, and Citi has some ideas on how you can capitalize on the action.

In a note to clients on Friday, the bank shared a list of 16 stocks it thinks could rise on the back of strong first-quarter results that investors are underestimating.

Citi compiled the list by identifying which "Buy"-rated stocks its analysts are most bullish on relative to Wall Street's consensus. The bank sees a post-earnings pop of 3% to 12% for the stocks on the list.

Consensus estimates for broader-market earnings were revised higher in March. However, stocks have sold off recently amid surging oil prices, prompting some on Wall Street — like Deutsche Bank — to point out the dislocation.

Citi said that investors should keep an eye on comments from executives about both cost pressures and AI disruption.

Below are the 16 stocks that it thinks are most poised for near-term gains after earnings are reported, along with the earnings upside from market consensus to Citi's estimates and the implied share price moves. Stocks are listed in alphabetical order of their respective sectors.

Meta Platforms

Ticker: META
Sector: Communication Services
Earnings date: April 28
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: >10%
Earnings day implied stock move: 6%

Netflix

Ticker: NFLX
Sector: Communication Services
Earnings date: April 16
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: 2%
Earnings day implied stock move: 6%

Amazon

Ticker: AMZN
Sector: Consumer Discretionary
Earnings date: April 29
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: 3%
Earnings day implied stock move 7%

Burlington Stores

Ticker: BURL
Sector: Consumer Discretionary
Earnings date: May 27
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: 6%
Earnings day implied stock move: 7%

General Motors

Ticker: GM
Sector: Consumer Discretionary
Earnings date: April 28
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: >10%
Earnings day implied stock move: 6%

Instacart (Maplebear)

Ticker: CART
Sector: Consumer Staples
Earnings date: April 29
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: >10%
Earnings day implied stock move: 6%

Walmart

Ticker: WMT
Sector: Consumer Staples
Earnings date: May 21
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: 2%
Earnings day implied stock move: 4%

Affirm

Ticker: AFRM
Sector: Financials
Earnings date: May 7
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: >10%
Earnings day implied stock move: 12%

Chubb

Ticker: CB
Sector: Financials
Earnings date: April 21
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: 4%
Earnings day implied stock move: 3%

Eli Lilly

Ticker: LLY
Sector: Healthcare
Earnings date: April 30
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: >10%
Earnings day implied stock move: 6%

Natera

Ticker: NTRA
Sector: Healthcare
Earnings date: May 6
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: >10%
Earnings day implied stock move: 10%

General Electric

Ticker: GE
Sector: Industrials
Earnings date: April 21
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: 4%
Earnings day implied stock move: 6%

Broadcom

Ticker: AVGO
Sector: Information Technology
Earnings date: June 3
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: 3%
Earnings day implied stock move: 8%

Cadence Design Systems

Ticker: CDNS
Sector: Information Technology
Earnings date: April 27
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: 1%
Earnings day implied stock move: 7%

MongoDB

Ticker: MDB
Sector: Information Technology
Earnings date: June 2
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: 1%
Earnings day implied stock: 11%

Celanese

Ticker: CE
Sector: Materials
Earnings date: May 5
Upside to consensus for the upcoming quarter: >10%
Earnings day implied stock move: 10%

• If you're concerned you're outsourcing too much critical thinking to AI, you're not alone.
• We asked tech executives, professors, and neurologists what can be done to stay sharp.
• They suggest gaining deep expertise, creating a brain routine, and writing first drafts without AI.

It's getting harder to resist the temptation to pull up a chatbot and switch off your brain for simple tasks, like replying to emails.

But that convenience comes with a downside: If you stop engaging in tasks that require critical thinking, creativity, and judgment, those mental muscles can weaken over time.

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in everyday work, some researchers have found that a heavy reliance on AI is quietly deskilling workers.

It's a concern for average employees, too. Nearly half of 2,950 workers surveyed by Workday last year worried AI agents would lead to a decline in critical thinking.

Anurag Dhingra, Cisco's senior vice president and general manager of enterprise connectivity and collaboration, told Business Insider in October that the concern comes with every major technological revolution.

It's the age-old question, Dhingra said: "Are we getting too dependent — and does that mean we're getting dumber as a result?"

The short answer? Not necessarily.

Dr. Majid Fotuhi, a Johns Hopkins professor who studies neuroplasticity and Alzheimer's prevention, told Business Insider that passively relying on technology can lead to a decline in our ability to think critically. However, if used correctly, AI can force our brains to process and analyze more information, which is good.

We asked executives, professors, and neurologists about how AI users can stay sharp:

1. Go deep on a topic

Dhingra said that developing a deep understanding of a topic can help keep critical thinking skills fresh. For example, he said he invests a lot of time in understanding how AI models are built and function, using a range of models as tools to help him digest information.

Gloria Mark, a chancellor's professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, suggests adopting everyday habits that encourage deep thinking, like reading challenging long-form material or taking online courses that require sustained focus.

"It's more about lifelong learning — returning to what we did as students to build our capacity," she said.

She cautioned against "the trap of taking the path of least resistance and letting AI do all the work."

"Stay in the loop by doing intellectual work."

2. Write your own first draft

There's value in getting your own ideas down first.

Geetha Rajan, a strategy leader who previously headed AI adoption at PwC, told Business Insider that she always writes her own first draft, even if she later uses AI to verify numbers, extract unstructured data, and challenge her work.

Joe Depa, global chief innovation officer at EY, told Business Insider that he similarly tells his teams to write content as they would in an email before turning to an LLM.

"Then ask Copilot, or whatever AI tool you're using to help modify," Depa said, adding that sometimes it will find some issues or ask a follow-up question that challenges your thinking. He said it's "much more productive" to use AI for enhancement.

Vivienne Ming, chief scientist at the Possibility Institute and founder of Socos Labs, suggests using AI to challenge your thinking.

"Here's my argument — what am I missing? What's the strongest case against this?" she said, describing the approach as "productive friction."

3. Find ways to challenge your brain

Michael Merzenich, a professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School and a pioneer in brain plasticity research, told Business Insider that the brain "needs exercise" in order to stay sharp.

Merzenich, who is also the founder and chief scientific officer of Posit Science Corporation, said that when humans solve problems, they engage their brains in reasoning, make connections, and recall important information. When people use AI to get quick answers, they're getting it without effort — and not coming to any conclusion on their own.

Johns Hopkins' Fotuhi told Business Insider that picking up a new hobby can serve as a daily brain routine. He also said he makes a point of testing his memory and attention span whenever possible, such as by memorizing names or credit card numbers.

Aniket Kittur, professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, said AI users should do things that feel hard.

"The harder you think, the more you benefit," he said, adding that if something feels effortless, you're probably not building real skill.

He recommends reading material that challenges your thinking, watching complex shows that require you to follow multiple threads, and taking a new route home without relying on GPS.

4. Think before you prompt

Mike Wynn, Bank of America's Academy executive for AI capabilities and enterprise learning products, told Business Insider that AI can enhance strategic thinking. However, quickly prompting an LLM and relying on the output without validating it undermines that benefit.

He said people often use AI like a search engine, and AI will find answers because it's designed to do so. However, Wynn said users should think about why they need a summary and how it'll be used.

Jacob Sherson, a professor at Denmark's Aarhus University and founder of the Center for Hybrid Intelligence, similarly advised that workers stay firmly in control of the thinking process.

His research outlines a framework called FERC — short for Frame, Explore, Refine, Commit — designed to ensure humans remain authors rather than passive consumers of AI output. In practice, that means slowing down at the start before you use AI to generate multiple options, compare them, and actively critique them.

"If you only review one output, you are not evaluating — you are accepting," Sherson said.

5. Don't accept every output

Sol Rashidi, a former tech executive at IBM, AWS, and Estée Lauder, previously told Business Insider that workers need to develop discernment muscles. She said a large percentage of content is AI-generated and that's being used to retrain models.

With that in mind, Rashidi said you can ask AI for a response, but workers shouldn't copy and paste that output because it may not be accurate.

Ming said many users fall into what she calls a "competence illusion," where AI-generated work feels like their own, even if they couldn't produce it from scratch.

She recommends explaining the reasoning behind anything AI helped produce out loud — to a colleague, to yourself, or even your dog — without looking at the screen.

"You're not summarizing it; you are teaching it," she said. "If you can't, you haven't done any thinking; you've just done some very sophisticated copying."

Are you experiencing deskilling at work? Contact this reporter via email at tspirlet@businessinsider.com or Signal at thibaultspirlet.40. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Jason Zhang was laid off from his software engineering job at Google in March.
• He shares why he's prioritizing interview prep over applications when it comes to finding a new job.
• Zhang says he's also finding his identity outside of work by prioritizing friends and content.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jason Zhang, a 25-year-old former Google employee based in Seattle. It's been edited for length and clarity.

When Google hired me as a software engineer at 22 years old, it felt like a huge accomplishment. It wasn't just a milestone for me, but for my family.

Both my parents are immigrants, and they did everything they could to provide for me. My job at Google meant I was making more money, so I could give back to them and start building a better future for us all — then I got laid off.

It's been about a month, and I still haven't told them. I don't want them to worry about me, and I'm also not applying to jobs quite yet.

I didn't realize how many layoff logistics there would be

The emotions set in soon after my layoff, but my brain switched to a completely practical mindset.

Thoughts were running through my head about how long I'd have health insurance, how many months it would realistically take to find a new job in this tough market, and how I needed to get back into prepping for interviews.

The first week after my layoff in March was spent dealing with logistics, like figuring out when I'd receive my last paycheck and thinking about how to quickly find a new dentist, doctor, and optometrist and book appointments.

The next week, I started leaning more into content creation about my layoff experience on Instagram and TikTok. I've been posting for months about my honest experience as a tech worker, son of immigrants, and only child — and interview prepping.

I'm not applying to any jobs yet, but I also can't just 'chill'

Many tech companies follow a similar style of technical and behavioral questions. The worst thing that could happen to me is that I land an interview with a company I want, but I'm not ready for it.

The rule I like to follow is I can't control how many interviews I get, but if I know I can pass with 80, 90, or even 100% confidence, then all I need is one interview to find another job. I just want to give myself the best chance to succeed by spending more time upfront in the interview prep. I'll likely start applying in early or mid-May.

The future of tech is rapidly changing, and I need to adapt quickly. To best prepare myself, I'm trying to learn more about up-and-coming AI tools and prompt engineering. I may try more vibe coding as well.

Some of my friends who've been laid off have said things like, "Just chill out for a bit and then come back with a fresh mindset to interview prep." I think if you have the luxury of doing that, there's no harm in it, but that's not my reality.

I plan to tell my parents I was laid off after I get a new job

My parents have been following the news about tech layoffs, and I know how concerned they've been about my job security.

Telling them about my layoff would only worry them more, and I don't think it would help me with my job search. I might also be more worried about them because they're getting old, and I don't want them to have an even harder time sleeping.

My plan is to deliver the news once I find a new role. They don't go online, so I'm not worried about them finding out until I tell them.

I'm spending more time with friends, but I've felt guilty for not working

When I was working, I'd always say no to hangouts after work because I'd get off late and wanted to have time to make content. Now that my schedule is more flexible, I've been saying yes to hanging out and building deeper relationships. Recently, I even went to a Tulip farm with my girlfriend. This is something I wouldn't have been able to do before, but I want to prioritize moments like this.

Making content has also been very meaningful to me. Right now it's very cathartic. I take time to gather my thoughts, share them, and hopefully help someone who's in a similar position to me.

I've felt some guilt for prioritizing friends and content because I don't have a job and feel like I should be job-searching. What's helping is telling myself that if I work hard enough during the day on interview prepping, then maybe it's OK to hang out with friends or do something in the evening. Small breaks can actually help me be more productive.

I'm relearning what my identity is outside of work

For the longest time, I didn't have hobbies because I spent so much time working. I've now been trying out different ones, but none have stuck.

There have been times I've done what everyone considers fun, and in my head, I think, "I could be working." Working on something meaningful is important to me, and right now, content is meaningful.

However, I'm still searching for my identity outside of my career.

Do you have a story to share about getting laid off from Big Tech? If so, please reach out to the reporter at tmartinelli@businessinsider.com.

• Full-time day traders say it's hard to find a partner who gets their career.
• Many believe they face stigma from potential partners who think they're gambling, traders told Business Insider.
• Time and lifestyle are also big constraints for traders looking to enter relationships, they said.

Having a girlfriend is either the best thing or the worst thing in the world if you make your living in the markets, David Villalobos, a 21-year-old day trader based in Colorado, said.

On the one hand, a partner offers something the market can't: companionship, an aspect of life Villalobos thinks many traders are deprived of. On the other hand, romance can be a distraction. Years ago, Villalobos was in a relationship in which his trading time plummeted from about 18 hours a day to zero.

"It can be very, very bothersome," he said of dating. "And if you have plans with them, it's like, am I going to prioritize the markets today or you today?"

Dating issues have quietly percolated among the growing ranks of full-time or nearly full-time traders in recent years, part of a larger discussion about loneliness among those who spend their days navigating the markets.

It's an unconventional path compared to a traditional 9-5, and those who have built careers trading often find that their jobs can pose a major romantic dilemma. It turns out that finding a partner who understands their lifestyle—much of which revolves around a screen and studying the markets at odd hours—is difficult, according to five traders who spoke about their dating experiences with Business Insider.

Some traders choose to abstain from dating altogether, but those who still give it a shot say they're united by a common set of challenges, such as dealing with stigma about the job or carving out enough time for their partners.

In many cases, they're searching for a mix of traits that make an ideal partner in any context: someone patient, understanding of their schedules, and ideally, easy to be around after a long day of trading.

Villalobos says he believes finding a life partner is more difficult for a trader than for someone in another profession. He thinks the difficulty among traders in the dating arena largely arises from the fact that many have limited time, and many are deeply entwined in a "hustle culture" that can create warped perceptions about dating and romance.

"They see them as distractions from these bigger dreams," he said of some men's thoughts about partners and dating.

'They don't understand it'

The first dating question: Do they accept your grind?

For traders, the answer is complicated. Many believe they face a stigma from potential partners, who often reduce their work to gambling or see their careers in markets as a financial liability.

There's some reason behind the caution. A 2020 study found that around 10% of retail investors met the criteria for compulsive gambling or problem gambling.

Another study found that 97% of traders who persisted for more than 300 days ended up losing money, after accounting for fees. Just 1% were able to make a profit, and it was often minuscule.

Bilaal Dhalech, a 30-year-old trader based in Toronto, says he thinks dating as a trader is a "lose-lose" situation. If a trader is profitable, a partner might write you off as a grifter. If a trader isn't making a ton of money, he believes many prospective partners might write them off as "risky."

"You could be that successful trader that has the nice clothes, the nice watch, and then people just see you as a scammer," Dhalech said.

"I used to be like, 'Hey, I invest in the stock market, or I'm a day trader.' Well, girls would just blow you right off, because they'd be like, 'Oh well, he's not successful,'" he added of his early career.

The issue also extends to women who trade full time, who say one of their biggest challenges is finding a partner who accepts their career.

Kenna Miles, a 25-year-old trader based in Puerto Rico, says she frequently tells people she meets that she works in finance.

"I have had people kind of just think I'm like this degenerate gambler that just is throwing money left and right at things," she said of dating. "In reality, I've spent hours and days and almost a decade studying this stuff, refining it."

Miles, who says she mostly meets partners through mutual contacts, said she believed her lifestyle as a trader also filtered her potential partners. In the past, she's mostly dated entrepreneurs, since they understand the idea that income might ebb and flow and the reality of irregular work hours.

"I would say that it's hard to find a long-term partner," she said. "It does come down to a lifestyle aspect."

Shay Huang, a 33-year-old trader based in Vancouver, also tells dates she works in marketing or finance. She now waits about a month before telling a partner she's a full-time trader to avoid judgment.

"If you tell them too early on, they don't understand it," she said. "I don't want to be known as a scammer."

"If it's not important, don't contact me during market hours"

The difficulty doesn't end with the matchmaking. Time and lifestyle are two other constraints, multiple traders said, pointing to factors such as the emotional toll of day trading and the fact that some also study the markets outside normal trading hours.

Dhalech, who met his current girlfriend online six years ago, said he's able to balance dating while trading largely due to their strong personality fit. His girlfriend is understanding of his schedule, which revolves around the market. They've also set rules to help him focus — like no talking to him during market hours unless it's an emergency.

"If it's not important, don't contact me during market hours," Dhalech said. "And I'm glad she puts up with that because there's times where she'll just talk to me about her day, and I'm just like, 'Well, I'm in a trade right now. I can't really talk. Talk to me after 4:00.'"

In return, he shuts off his phone at around 6:00 pm and isn't allowed to look at the markets in the evening.

Minwoo Lim, 28-year-old full-time trader based in Dubai, said his work has interfered with his relationship with his wife. Earlier in their relationship, he recalled an incident where she cried because she often wanted to go out while he stayed at home. Even when she was able to get him out of the house, he often spent the time on his phone, checking the market moves.

"The screen was my life. After that incident, my mind changed," Lim said.

He decided to make more time for her, reducing the number of hours he spent trading each day from 12 to eight. Now, he says they make a point to get coffee together every day.

Villalobos, who recently reduced his daily trading hours from about 18 to six, says he appreciates that his girlfriend is independent and has her own friends.

"'I got to be on the computer. I'm so sorry.' And she understands that, and she's totally okay with that," he said. "She knows I am doing it because I have a dream, and she's very happy that I'm pursuing something bigger than myself."

When asked to describe their ideal partners, the traders described a cluster of personality traits they believed would make an ideal match with their careers.

Independence is paramount, largely because it means a partner will be understanding of a trader's schedule. They also said a calming, gentle personality after a stressful day in the market is desirable.

"Very comforting and soft and gentle, especially after a long day," Villalobos said of a trader's ideal match. "The markets can be quite rigorous."

• The AAA gas average is above $4 per gallon in the US and not showing signs of coming down soon.
• Wholesale clubs like Costco offer significant savings on fuel, especially when prices are high.
• I found that combining low prices with a rewards credit card takes some of the sting out of each top-up.

When the US and Israel launched the war with Iran and sent the oil market into a frenzy, I figured it would be fair to assume gas prices wouldn't be coming down anytime soon.

I've since become sufficiently convinced of this that I decided to completely shake up the cards in my wallet in recent weeks.

According to AAA, the US average gas price is now around $4.15 per gallon, up more than $0.60 from last month and up nearly $1 from a year ago. That's no small change.

Gas prices tend to be somewhat lower where I live in Wisconsin compared to the national average, but it has been pretty clear to me that an extended stretch of $4 gas was a strong possibility.

As Business Insider's retail reporter, I'm well aware of the discounts that wholesale clubs and other loyalty programs offer on gas. I did the math and found that Costco's gas pricing can more than offset the membership fee.

After that analysis, I got a bit fixated on proactively getting gas from Costco rather than whatever station happened to be closest when my tank was running low.

Prices also began to rise sharply, making the membership advantage clearer. Costco chief financial officer Gary Millerchip seemed to be reading my mind on the company's earnings call last month.

"When prices are higher, that will tend to cause members to maybe take the extra mile that it might be involved to get to the gas station because of the incremental value they see there," he said.

Touché, Millerchip.

Still, I knew I was leaving money on the proverbial table.

The thing is, I was already using one of the best fuel and grocery rewards credit cards out there — the Blue Cash Preferred from American Express — but Costco famously (and frustratingly) does not accept AmEx.

That meant I had to pick between Costco's prices and AmEx's rewards. I was also using the Chase Sapphire card for rewards in other categories, like dining and travel.

I had considered the Costco Anywhere card before, but dismissed it since it didn't seem much better than what I already had in my wallet, based on reviews I read from my Business Insider colleagues, NerdWallet, and several finance-focused Reddit communities.

Prolonged high gas prices change the math on rewards

What changed my mind was the prospect that gas could spiral toward $5, making the Costco card's 5% reward on gas worth more than $0.20 per gallon, which is typically priced $0.20 or more below the traditional retail market. That would work out to a combined savings of about 10% by my math.

I don't drive a lot of miles, but I also don't like to pay more than I have to for gas. Plus, the other rewards categories were reasonably similar to those on my other cards, so I decided to consolidate my spending from the two cards onto the Costco card alone.

(I also like the idea of paying fewer annual membership fees, though the rewards from the Blue Cash and the Sapphire more than paid for themselves. We'll have to see how this year's fee and rewards math ends up comparing to last year.)

This isn't intended to be a Costco-only hype session. Walmart-owned Sam's Club offers low-priced gas and a credit card with a rewards structure very similar to Costco's, but Sam's doesn't have any clubs near me.

In addition, Walmart's Plus membership offers a $0.10 per gallon discount at thousands of stations across the US, and several major gas brands and grocery chains have their own loyalty programs that could be worth exploring based on your personal needs and habits.

The larger point is that gas rewards didn't really grab my attention back when prices were relatively low and steady. Now that things are more uncertain, they're worth a second look.

• Atif Afzal is using the 1% rule of real estate to find profitable properties.
• He started investing in rentals in upstate New York in 2019 to create an additional revenue stream.
• As of April 2026, Afzal's investments generate about $5,300 in monthly cash flow.

Before Atif Afzal buys an investment property, he runs a simple calculation: divide the projected monthly rent by the purchase price.

"If it's 1%, then it really makes sense for me to buy that property," he told Business Insider. "If it's 0.6% or 0.7%, it doesn't make sense."

In real estate, that rule of thumb is known as the 1% rule. It suggests a property's monthly rent should equal at least 1% of its purchase price to have a good shot at generating positive cash flow. If it falls short, Afzal keeps looking.

He began investing in real estate in 2019 to create an additional revenue stream. As a freelance film composer and singer-songwriter, his monthly income fluctuates.

Over the past seven years, he's built a portfolio of four investment properties in Monroe, a town in New York about 50 miles north of the city. Business Insider verified his property ownership by reviewing copies of his mortgage interest statements.

The 1% rule in practice

The first property Afzal bought cost about $200,000 and rented for $1,975 a month, giving it a rent-to-price ratio of 0.98%. His second cost $211,000 and rented for $2,100, or 0.99%. His third beat the benchmark by a more comfortable margin, at 1.125%.

So far, the rule has worked for Afzal. Each property he has purchased has cash-flowed immediately.

As of April 2026, Afzal said his properties generate roughly $5,300 a month in cash flow. His most profitable rental, which he bought outright and therefore has no mortgage, brings in nearly $1,800 a month.

The rule isn't perfect. Interest rates, HOA fees, insurance, maintenance, and other expenses all shape whether a property will actually be profitable. Still, Afzal said it remains one of his main filters.

"As long as I'm able to be close to the 1%, I'm willing to buy that property," he said.

The 1% rule is meant to evaluate a property at the time of purchase, but Afzal still checks the ratio against current values on properties he already owns. By that measure, some have slipped below 1% over the last few years because home values rose faster than rents. Two years ago, for example, he said his first property was worth about $350,000 and rented for $2,650 a month, putting the ratio at 0.76%.

He said he largely stopped buying over the last few years because high home prices made it harder to find deals that met the rule. He spent that time saving, tracking prices, and waiting for the market to improve. Now, he said, the numbers are starting to look better and getting closer to the 1% sweet spot.

Cash flow is one of his top priorities, not only because it creates additional monthly income, but because it can help him qualify for future loans. Showing positive cash flow on his tax returns gives underwriters confidence that his rentals aren't losing money, he said, "so it helps me buy more properties."

• At Tinder's West Hollywood headquarters, there's a Lego station and trivia questions on the whiteboards.
• Tinder recently moved back to its old office, which also houses some other Match Group properties.
• Business Insider toured the office on the day after the Tinder Sparks product conference.

Tinder's West Hollywood headquarters was covered in balloons.

I toured the office on a Friday, a day when most Tinder employees don't work in person. It was also the day after the company's product conference, Tinder Sparks. The balloon arches and leftover juice bottles celebrated the occasion.

The office is new to some staff, but it's a homecoming for the company. Tinder was built here at the West Sunset Boulevard location. It then moved across the street, but is now returning to its roots.

Here's a peek inside the Tinder headquarters, filled with snacks, Lego bricks, and beer on tap.

Recline against a Tinder or Match Group pillow.

The office's focal point is a stairway decked out with the company's brands. They also include emerging and evergreen categories, which include apps like Archer and OkCupid.

The remnants of Tinder's big celebration were everywhere.

Tinder advertised its company happy hour with the mission statement: "Tinder is the most fun way to spark something new with someone new."

Employees say it in unison at the beginning of company meetings.

Tinder's office rooms are named after Los Angeles landmarks.

Some office rooms are called Melrose, La Brea, and Sepulveda. Others are named after Tinder themes, like Sparks.

Tinder's CEO sits amongst the people.

Tinder and Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff has a desk in the bullpen. Here is a shelf by his desk, decked out with Hinge and Tinder merch.

Need a break? Play with Lego bricks.

Tinder has a "de-stress with Legos" station in the office, for the employees who'd rather spend some time building with bricks than lines of code.

There are lots of whiteboards — and trivia questions.

On the Tinder whiteboard: Which animal has the highest brain-to-body ratio?

In case you couldn't tell, the answer is ants.

Tinder has snacks galore.

There are seaweed snacks, protein bars, and Pringles. Want something sweet? Tinder has full-size candy bars.

The fridge is stocked with drinks and yogurts.

Tinder has seltzers, sodas, and Celsius energy drinks. Off to the side, there's also a coffee bar with syrups like Pumpkin Spice.

For an after-work drink, Tinder's got it on tap.

Tinder has beer, wine, and Truly hard seltzers on tap.

You can get your coffee outside, too.

Come sip on your espresso while soaking up the sun.

Engineers can write their code in the sun.

There are lots of outside seating options. In case you forgot that you're in Los Angeles, the seats are surrounded by billboards for new TV shows.

• Emerging evidence suggests that how quickly and when you eat could affect your health.
• In response, Sarah Berry, a nutrition scientist, has made some changes to the way she eats.
• Berry tries to stop eating by 9 p.m and chews her food slowly.

Professor Sarah Berry, a nutrition scientist who specializes in heart health, takes a balanced approach to her diet by focusing on the basics, like eating plenty of whole foods and avoiding refined sugar.

But recently, she has experimented with tweaking her eating habits. She told Business Insider that emerging data has convinced her that how quickly we eat and at what time of day, could impact the risk of developing chronic diseases.

"This is a really interesting area of research that I've found myself in more recently," she told Business Insider.

Here are three ways Berry has changed how she eats based on current research.

Not eating after 9 p.m.

For a self-professed snacker like Berry, this is no easy feat.

Research suggests that eating late disrupts the circadian rhythm, the biological clock that controls sleep and wake cycles, hormone regulation, and hunger cues. This is thought to negatively impact metabolic health, increasing the risk of chronic diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Studies have also found that eating late into the evening can lead to waking up hungry, she said, which can cause weight gain if we eat more than we typically would.

A meta-analysis published in the journal Obesity Reviews in 2022 found that those who ate the majority of their daily calories earlier in the day lost more weight than those who ate the same amount of calories later in the day and into the evening. The authors said improved synchronization of sleep-wake cycles and daily hormone cycles in the early eaters was the likely reason.

Earlier eating was also associated with lower LDL or "bad" cholesterol, lower fasting glucose levels, and lower insulin resistance, all signs of good metabolic health.

Fasting for 12-hours overnight

Berry tries to make sure she doesn't eat for 12-hours overnight. A typical 12-hour fasting period for Berry is from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m.

This is a relatively attainable form of intermittent fasting, or eating within a restricted time window, a trend that's been popular with biohacking bros for years.

It is believed that fasting for around 24 hours or more triggers a process called autophagy, where old, damaged parts of cells are removed or recycled so they function. It optimizes how our cells function, and growing research suggests it may play a role in preventing heart disease and cancer.

However, it's important to note that most evidence is based on animal studies, and more research is needed to prove the effectiveness in humans. Imposing rules around food can also be harmful for those with a history of disordered eating.

Not eating too quickly

Eating too quickly has been linked to worse metabolic biomarkers, Berry said. So she tries to eat her food "at a reasonable pace."

We know that if you eat your food too fast, you tend to over-consume, she said, but evidence suggests it could carry greater risks.

A 2021 meta-analysis published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition involving 465,155 linked eating quickly with higher risks of metabolic syndrome, obesity, elevated blood pressure, low HDL or "good" cholesterol, and elevated blood sugar, compared to those who ate slowly. These are all important risk factors for cardiovascular disease, Berry said.

• Jim McElwain, an Ohio resident, built a tiny home as a DIY hobby.
• He plans to list the place as an Airbnb for $250 a night.
• Tiny homes are gaining popularity as living spaces or sources of rental income.

Jim McElwain is a regular at his local hardware store.

The tech salesman started building a tiny home ten years ago as a DIY hobby on the weekends, and has put it together alone, piece by piece. Each time he needs more wood or drywall, he returns to the store. And if he doesn't know how to do something — like assemble roof panels or put up drywall— he searches for a YouTube tutorial.

As of this spring, his 400-square-foot space in rural Ohio is fully furnished with a working kitchen, shower, and air conditioner. McElwain plans to list it on Airbnb for $250 a night.

"I don't have an architecture plan or drawings, and I just make it all up in my head," he said. "All week long, I think about what I'm going to do that weekend. Sometimes I'm up there screaming and yelling and cussing and cutting my finger and throwing stuff. But, at the end of the day, I smile and take a picture because I accomplished something."

Tiny homes are becoming one of America's hottest housing solutions. They're affordable, relatively easy to build, and full of whimsical decor potential. Business Insider has heard from seniors who retired in small spaces, parents who raised their kids in tiny home villages, and homeowners who listed their units as lucrative vacation rentals. The cost of living may be rising in most cities, but tiny homes offer highly customized spaces on a budget.

McElwain built his tiny home as a DIY project

McElwain didn't set out to build a fully-furnished Airbnb. A decade ago, he began by cleaning up a property he owns in rural Ohio — about an hour drive from the Columbus-area neighborhood where he lives with his family. In his free time, he visited the property to mow the lawn, clean up weeds, and throw away the remnants of the prior owner's abandoned mobile homes. It slowly started to seem like the perfect place for a tiny home getaway.

Over the next several years, McElwain chipped away at construction. When the pandemic hit, building became his quarantine hobby. He did the framing, flooring, window installation, roof assembly, wiring, and piping himself, only hiring a professional electrician and plumber at the end of the process to ensure the lights and sinks worked properly.

All totaled, McElwain estimates that he spent $45,000 to build the tiny home over ten years — a few hundred dollars here, a couple thousand there. Because there were previously mobile homes on the property, he didn't need to buy a new septic system, but he did need to buy all the materials and hire specialists for some of the more high-stakes labor. The electrician charged $1,468, according to documents viewed by Business Insider, and the plumber was $1,070. McElwain said the time period was so spread out that it didn't feel expensive.

"If you take it over time, you don't have to borrow any money," he said. Most Friday nights, he would visit Menard's, a home improvement store, and "spend 300 bucks. When I ran out of wood, I'd go home and come back the next weekend with 200 more dollars' worth of wood."

As he prepares to list the tiny home as a vacation rental, McElwain said he has added a small patio, an outdoor bar, a lofted bed, and a rustic-looking wood stove. Mirrors, rugs, and a wall clock make the space feel cozy. McElwain plans to keep a few weekends each year free of Airbnb bookings so he can stay in the tiny home by himself or invite family and friends to bring their campers and join for a group bonfire.

McElwain sees the space as a long-term investment. Between the new tiny home and development on neighboring lots, he said his property value has already increased. He may choose to sell for a profit someday.

In the meantime, listing the tiny home on Airbnb will be a solid second income. He expects that it will be an attractive rental for traveling nurses, tourists visiting nearby wineries and breweries, or parents visiting their kids at college. As he approaches retirement, McElwain said he's excited by the prospect of earning an extra $10,000 or $15,000 a year from rentals.

"There's nothing else on the property except the tiny house and then seven acres of woods and field. It's a great place to relax," he said, adding, "it's just cute as a button."

• Cloudflare's data shows that AI companies consume more web value than they return.
• Anthropic's crawl-to-refer ratio is 8,800 to 1, highlighting ethical concerns.
• AI chatbots reduce web traffic, upending the web's grand bargain.

Cloudflare's latest data offers one of the clearest snapshots yet of how AI companies consume the web, and how little they give back.

The company, which powers roughly 20% of the internet, tracks how AI bots crawl websites versus how often those platforms send users back through referrals. The resulting "crawl-to-refer" ratio is a simple yet telling metric: how much value is extracted compared to returned.

The early April 2026 figures are stark. Anthropic is the worst by a wide margin, with a ratio of 8,800 to 1. That means its bots crawl webpages 8,800 times for every referral sent.

OpenAI follows at 993 to 1. Microsoft, Google, and DuckDuckGo look far more balanced by comparison.

Anthropic's position is particularly striking given its reputation for being "ethical." That reputation has made it a preferred choice among some users who want to support more responsible AI development. This data highlights a different dimension of ethics — how companies interact with the broader web ecosystem that provides information for AI model outputs.

Historically, the internet operated on an implicit bargain: websites allowed search engines to crawl and index their content for free, and in return received traffic they could monetize. Generative AI breaks that bargain. Chatbots increasingly provide direct answers, reducing the need for users to click through to original sources.

This results in a system that extracts more value than it gives back — and in some cases, increases costs for site owners due to heavy bot activity.

Anthropic has previously questioned Cloudflare's methodology and pointed to growing referral traffic from new features. Still, the broader trend is hard to ignore. I asked Anthropic for comment this time, too, and it did not respond.

If the web's economic engine depends on traffic and referrals, these ratios raise a fundamental question: What will incentivize the sharing of verified information online in the future?

Cloudflare is trying with a new marketplace for web content. It's unclear if efforts like this will succeed. After all, what's better than using people's content for free?

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.

• A former Tesla president said he used Domino's ordering as a model to fix Tesla's online checkout.
• Jon McNeill said Elon Musk pushed for "order-of-magnitude" improvements, not small tweaks.
• He also filled a surprising amount of his calendar time with interviews — "win and lose on talent."

Jon McNeill had a mandate: fix Tesla's online sales.

When he joined as president in November 2015, the automaker was trying to sell six-figure vehicles like the Model S and Model X online — something few consumers were interested in.

"We gotta figure out how to sell cars online," McNeill said during an interview on the "My First Million" podcast, which was released on Thursday. "Nobody was buying $120,000 things sight-unseen online."

McNeill said his experience at Tesla — including his goal to increase online sales — shaped three key leadership lessons: set ambitious goals, prioritize talent, and uncover problems by actually using your product. He's since served as COO at Lyft and as a board member at General Motors and Lululemon.

As he dug into Tesla's online website, he and CEO Elon Musk spotted a core problem.

It took 64 clicks to purchase a car. So he said Musk made Domino's Pizza their new benchmark.

"Every click you ask the consumer to make, your conversion goes down," McNeill said in an episode released on Thursday. "Turns out, it takes 10 thumb taps to buy a Domino's pizza at that time. He's like, 'We're 64, Domino's is 10. Let's go to 10.'"

Tesla has since streamlined its online checkout beyond that initial goal. Business Insider counted that it takes about five clicks to buy a new Model 3 on the company's website.

The rise of one-touch payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay has also helped speed up online purchases.

For McNeill, the website's improvements represent a broader philosophy that he says helped transform Tesla into America's dominant EV seller.

Instead of targeting incremental improvements on its weaknesses, Tesla's goal is "order of magnitude" enhancements.

"If you set a goal for 5 to 7% improvement, you're probably going to get 3 to 5%," he told the podcast. "Part of Elon's secret sauce is he sets the order of magnitude improvement goals — 10x, 100x — and it forces you to think way differently about how you solve a problem."

Those kinds of problems, he added, are often invisible unless leaders engage directly with their own products. McNeill and Musk only spotted the issue because they were using Tesla's website.

He also emphasized that hiring the right people is critical to spotting and solving issues.

"In fact, 60% of my calendar was interviews," he told the podcast. "You totally win and lose on talent."

To identify top candidates, McNeill said leaders should focus less on résumés and more on how candidates think. He said he would frequently ask applicants about how they would approach his own work problems — an approach he said gave Tesla a pipeline of curious workers.

"That's the knack of Tesla. It's like 'let's turn complex into simple,'" he said. "They have the ability within a minute or two to take a really complex question and boil it down to principle."

In February, Block CEO Jack Dorsey wrote a letter in such a gentle whisper that he almost made you forget he was announcing some of the biggest layoffs in recent history. "i'll be straight about what's happening," he wrote to the 4,000 people, or 40% of his fintech company, he had just axed. "i'm grateful to you, and i'm sorry to put you through this." He wrote the entire 600-word missive in the new language of power, lowercase.

As tech executives amass more influence on humanity, "type softly and carry a big stick" has become the unspoken communications mantra among many of them. Dorsey has been up on lowercase since his first post on Twitter, now X, in 2006: "just setting up my twittr." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman abandons capital letters with abandon. After he was fired and before he was rehired in 2023, for example, Altman texted Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella a draft of a statement they could jointly release: "how about: satya and my top priority remains to save openai." Other practitioners of lowercase include Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan and LinkedInfluencers everywhere.

It's informal, conversational, playful, and approachable, but is lowercase effective or just an affect? By flattening letters, are executives flattening hierarchies? Does lowercasing shrink that spiky chasm between thoughts and words? Or are these just billionaire Gen Xers and elder millennials cosplaying as Zoomers? Are teeny tiny letters the new midlife-crisis Porsche? Perhaps lowercase and shorthand is the unserious dialect for our unserious, postliterate time.

to find out, i spent a week typing only in lc: every slack msg to my direct reports & my boss, every email, every parent grp chat txt, every outreach to sources for this story — biz etiquette experts, comms gurus, & sam altman. no cap, i liked it more than i thot i would; but i fear its unchecked power.

I quickly noticed that I was thinking less about what I wanted to say. Without the rules of grammar or the need to find the mot juste, I responded to people almost instantaneously throughout the day and left no room for doubt about how my messages would be received when firing off emails. Lowercase is a linguistic liquid courage; the words spill out more easily, but they're often slurred. I trade clarity and thoughtfulness for volume and responsiveness.

But for some recipients, I found, lowercase is a capital offense. A male coworker told me that a woman to whom he sent flirty lowercase Tinder messages texted back, "I feel like I'm talking to a 12-year-old." He's been a model grammarian since. Two female Gen Z coworkers called lowercase an epidemic among Brooklyn men — lowercasing, they say, is an instant red flag.

I reached out to the lowercase luminaries to get their thoughts on foregoing capital letters. Garry Tan wrote back, "sorry i have to code!" Dorsey and Block did not respond to my request for comment. Sam Altman texted me back within 15 seconds.

"i am trying to change to upper case! but its hard," he wrote. "i do think it feel unserious, so i am making a half-hearted effort to change."

What prompted the change? I asked.

"it feels weird to talk about how superintelligence is going to reshape society and still not use capitals and punctuation," he said. "i had a moment where i was writing about how much the world was going to change and felt like it deserved capital letters. but i dont know if it will stick."

Thomas Farley, aka Mister Manners, an etiquette consultant whose clients include JPMorgan, Estée Lauder, and the US Army, calls lowercasing "careless" and "affected." Executives who type in lowercase convey to their readers, "You're not important enough for me to put in the effort," he says. "There's a kind of a built-in supposition on the part of the writer that 'I'm above punctuation and convention and therefore you, my recipient, need to deal with this, interpret where my thoughts begin and end, decipher my abbreviations, and that's your problem.'"

"It really has a negative impact on the way you're going to be perceived," Farley tells me.

"It seems misguided," says Mary Norris, a writer, copy editor, and The New Yorker's longtime "Comma Queen." Not only does it often take longer to write out in lowercase and shorthand, she says, it's also "hard to read. To me, it looks like alphabet soup."

Other communications gurus say its shorthandedness can convey authenticity, provided you are being authentic.

"There's no good or bad personal syntax, just avoid being performative," Lulu Cheng Meservey, who founded a communications firm, Rostra, and has worked with firebrands like Altman, Palmer Luckey, and Bari Weiss, tells me over text. "people like sam or jack have been no caps since forever, but more recently it's become a fad where people actually go through extra effort to turn off auto caps."

Most people in my life didn't even notice I was typing in lowercase, especially at work. Lowercase is the slippery patois of Slack. Bosses, middle managers, and entry-level employees message each other all day sans caps — likely a function of volume. The average Slack user sends nearly 100 messages a day; so many words, so little time to hit the shift button. It may also have a tonal benefit for the sender. Slack smudged away the boundaries of when the workday begins and ends. If I sent a message at 9 pm that said, "Where are we on the RFK Jr. story?" my direct report immediately wants to decapitate me. When I instead sent, "hey how r u feeling abt rfk?" the laid back attitude seemed to prompt him to respond before he thought about decapitating me.

On Friday, hours after a man threw a molotov cocktail at his house in San Francisco, Altman posted a thousand-word blog in which he addressed the attack, as well as a damning profile of him published in The New Yorker earlier in the week, which he called "incendiary." "I am awake in the middle of the night and pissed, and thinking that I have underestimated the power of words and narratives," Altman wrote. He called on humanity to "de-escalate the rhetoric" as we debate who controls the future of AI. This time, all 26 of the CEO's "I" statements were capitalized.

Zak Jason is the executive editor of Business Insider's Discourse team.

• Taco Bell recently hosted its Golden Bell awards, a recognition trip for top-performing managers.
• More than a management retreat, Taco Bell says the event helps drive outsize growth.
• Golden Bell-winning restaurants grew sales by nearly 20% in 2025 and boast better staff retention.

At Taco Bell, a weeklong trip to Hawaii is more than a perk for top-performing managers — it's part of the company's growth strategy.

The chain's annual Golden Bell awards, held this year in mid-March, recognize its top 150 general managers and are as much a management retreat as they are an awards show. Taco Bell brings its top GMs to Maui, where they get a week of recognition, excursions, and a chance to compare notes with company leaders and one another.

Like many companies, Taco Bell uses retreats and recognition to reward top-performing managers. However, what sets the taco chain's approach apart is the continued bet that its general managers — not solely its menu or marketing — are a key competitive edge, even as other companies scale back middle management.

In its fourth quarter, Taco Bell delivered 7% same-store sales growth, outpacing the industry, and the company says Golden Bell winners were a big part of that performance. The company said its award-winning restaurant leaders grew sales 19% in 2025, often running high-volume locations with annual sales volumes of $2.5 million to $4 million and beyond.

Michelle Beasley, Taco Bell's US chief operating officer, told Business Insider that the award process is built around a small set of business metrics tied to the brand's goals.

Winners are selected from three categories: highest transaction growth, the company's "Supreme" operational-excellence measure, and guest reviews. Beasley said Taco Bell is intentionally focused on consumer-facing metrics because those are the measures the company believes most directly drive performance.

She also stressed that the company is thinking about how to scale good habits across the system, and sees the event as a way to spread winning traits beyond the 150 honorees. The leaders who rise to the top, Beasley said, tend to be the ones who "lead from the front," communicate clearly, and take care of the team around them.

"Culture is fueling our results," Jamie Harrison, Taco Bell's global chief people and culture officer, told Business Insider. "We're a people-first culture, and we see that when we pour into our teams, like with Golden Bell, they also have a chance to do that for their teams, too."

Kimberly Hairrell, Taco Bell's GM of the Year, who received her second Golden Bell award this year, told Business Insider that her path to the top was shaped by 50-hour workweeks as she battled a cancer diagnosis, and a team that refused to let her carry the burden alone.

"My team is what made it happen," she said. For Hairrell, the award was less about personal recognition than about proving that "you can still achieve things that you set your mind to."

Noah Starkey, who won his first Golden Bell this year — his second year being the manager of his own store — described a similar mindset. He started as a crew member in college and worked his way up to GM over five years, and said the key to winning was not simply sales growth, but focus on customers, employees, and consistency.

Both Hairrell and Starkey shared a competitive nature, already setting their sights on achieving Golden Bell status next year.

That kind of internal competition is exactly what Taco Bell is trying to create: a system where top performers raise the bar for everyone else.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert at ktl@businessinsider.com or Signal at byktl.50. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

The Hell of the North returns for one of the year's most intense cycling races. Keep reading to learn how to watch Paris-Roubaix, including free streaming options.

The men's Paris-Roubaix race brings the top cyclists to France for a 250+ km ride from Paris to up near the Belgian border. While it's a relatively flat race, especially compared to the Grand Tour stages scheduled for later this season, Paris-Roubaix has developed a difficult reputation due to its tricky cobblestone sections. Mathieu van der Poel won the race in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and he'll return to defend his title and attempt to secure a fourth consecutive win in this year's edition. Tadej Pogacar is among the top racers hoping to put an end to the Dutchman's reign.

Whether you're watching every race this season or you're just looking for some weekend entertainment, we've got you covered when it comes to tuning into Paris-Roubaix. Below, we've gathered the best streaming options from around the world.

• See also: Where to watch Monte Carlo Masters | Where to watch Champions League | How to watch the Masters

How to watch Paris-Roubaix for free

Paris-Roubaix will be available for free in several regions. In the host country, France.TV will carry coverage. In Australia, SBS On Demand will cover the race. Both of these broadcasts are available to watch live through their free streaming counterparts, which just require account creation to use.

How to watch Paris-Roubaix from anywhere

If you're away from the location where your streaming service works, like France or Australia, you can still access your free streaming options with the help of a VPN. These virtual private networks are handy tech tools that let people temporarily alter their virtual locations. VPNs are especially popular among those looking to keep up with their usual services while traveling abroad or to improve their day-to-day cybersecurity.

NordVPN is one of the best VPNs on the market. It's fast, user-friendly, and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so it's no sweat if you find that it's not what you're looking for.

How to watch Paris-Roubaix in the US

Paris-Roubaix coverage will be available through Peacock in the US. Sports-friendly subscriptions start at $11 a month for Peacock Premium, which offers ad-supported access to the streaming service's full suite of on-demand offerings.

How to watch Paris-Roubaix in the UK

Paris-Roubaix will be shown on TNT Sports in the UK. This means that fans can live stream the action through HBO Max. TNT Sports-friendly plans start at £31 a month.

How to watch Paris-Roubaix in Australia

SBS On Demand will carry free coverage of Paris-Roubaix through the Viceland channel in Australia. Users can live stream all the action for free by creating an account if they don't already have one.

How to watch Paris-Roubaix in France

The host country will carry Paris-Roubaix action on France TV, with coverage split between France 3 and France 4. Fans can live stream everything for free by creating a France.TV account.

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.

• Andon Labs is stress-testing AI agents in the real world.
• The lab let an agent called Luna staff and open an entire store with a $100,000 budget.
• Luna did not disclose to applicants that it was an AI and screwed up staffing on day one.

What could an AI do if you told it to open a brick-and-mortar store with $100,000?

Quite a bit, it turns out, like making inconsistent logos and forgetting to tell employees their hours.

Andon Labs, a San Francisco-based startup, stress-tests AI agents in the real world to identify where safety gaps still exist. For their latest experiment, co-founders Lukas Petersson and Axel Backlund signed a three-year lease on a retail space in SF and gave an AI agent named Luna a corporate credit card, internet access, and a mission to open a physical store.

Petersson told Business Insider in an interview that Luna wasn't given direction on what the store should be, beyond a $100,000 limit to create and stock the space — and to turn a profit. Everything from the store's interior design to the merchandise and the two human employees came together under the AI's direction.

"We helped her a bit in the initial setup, like signing the lease. And legal matters like permits and stuff, she sometimes struggled with," Petersson said of Luna, who was created with Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6.

From there, the AI handled everything else: Luna put up job postings on Indeed, conducted the phone interviews, hired the employees, and found the contractors who could paint the store.

The vision Luna went with for "Andon Market" appears to be a generic boutique retail selling books, prints, candles, games, and branded merch, among other knickknacks.

Some of the books included Nick Bostrom's "Superintelligence" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World."

Luna's not the best store manager

Luna made several mistakes setting up and running Andon Market.

When searching for human employees who could monitor the store, Luna offered the job to some applicants after a single call that ran five to 15 minutes long, the startup said. Luna also didn't always immediately disclose to the candidates that she was an AI unless explicitly asked.

"The fact that the store is AI-operated is not something I'd lead with in a job listing — it would confuse candidates and likely deter good applicants before they even read the role," Luna is quoted as saying, according to Andon Labs' blog post.

Andon Labs said it saw a few promising applicants, such as computer science students interested in the startup's experiment, but Luna declined them because they didn't have retail experience.

Another issue the AI had was an inability to replicate the brand logo it came up with: a generic smiley face. Each rendition of the logo throughout the store — whether it's on the T-shirt or on the store's mural — was "ever so slightly different," Andon Labs wrote.

On Saturday, a day after Andon Market's opening, Luna also screwed up with the staffing schedule, Petersson told Business Insider.

"It's quite ironic. This is the day it really should be on its toes," the cofounder said. "It messed up the schedule and then, in a panic, had to write to all the employees and be like, 'Oh, can someone come in today?'"

The cofounder said there are guardrails in place and that the startup will intervene if necessary. For example, the two human employees hired by Luna are now lab employees and will be regularly paid.

"This is a controlled experiment, and everyone working at Andon Market is formally employed by Andon Labs, with guaranteed pay, fair wages, and full legal protections," the startup said. "No one's livelihood depends on an AI's judgment alone."

Andon Labs' experiment is the latest example of how AI agents face lapses in judgment and decision-making. In a study last year, Carnegie Mellon researchers ran a simulation of a fake company to see how autonomous AI agents handled workplace tasks. The researchers found that the agents failed to handle simple interface tasks, such as closing a pop-up window. They also misread coworkers' conversations and created a fake user.

Although Andon Labs gave Luna the goal of turning a profit, Petersson said his company does not expect to make money from the store.

"The goal is to evaluate how good current AI models are," Petersson said, adding that his company hoped to educate the public on where AI is headed.

Petersson said Andon Labs aims to be as hands-off as possible in the retail experiment. With the Saturday staffing mishap, Luna still managed to get an employee to come in for the afternoon on her own.

"I don't really know if she's open now or not," Petersson said.

I love dogs.

As a toddler, I'd run up to stray dogs without fear, determined to pet every "good boy." After trying every pet imaginable — hamsters, fish, even a duck — my parents finally gave in and let me adopt my first dog, Doggie. My first adult pup, Violet, adored my kids but despised everyone else. In 2024, my husband and I adopted two chiweenies so our children could grow up with dogs, just like we did.

Then Tino, our 1.5-year-old black dog, got injured and was unable to walk. A colleague asked me if I wanted to try the Tavo pet stroller and car seat system, and I said something I'd never imagine saying, "I'd love to!"

I never thought I'd get a stroller for a dog

I'll be frank and admit that in the past, I rolled my eyes at the sight of dogs in strollers. I guess karma wanted to show me how wrong I was about them and how useful they can be, especially for little dogs.

In August 2025, Tino suddenly couldn't move his back legs. Panicked, I rushed him to the ER, fearing he'd eaten something toxic. After costly tests, a neurologist diagnosed him with intervertebral disc disease (IVDD). Surgery was over $10,000, so we opted for strict crate rest — eight weeks of short potty breaks and constant care in our living room.

My dog was sad, unable to be outside

At first, Tino seemed fine resting. But the more days went by, the more he tried to make his walks longer — something we knew we couldn't do. He was used to spending so much time outside, sniffing around, chasing squirrels, and sunbathing. He was getting depressed spending all day inside; he was listless, stopped wagging his tail in excitement, and only wanted to eat treats.

So I decided to do something unexpected: I accepted a Tavo pet car seat and stroller sample so we could take him out on walks without risking his health.

Tino is 13 pounds and pretty small overall. When he got injured, I had just had surgery and had a lift restriction, so I couldn't really pick him up at all. Both the small and medium car seats can hold dogs up to 25 pounds, which was perfect for what we needed.

The car seat alone weighs a little under 10 pounds, which meant I needed my husband's help to transfer it in and out of the car. That said, the wheels of the stroller are so smooth that it didn't feel like I was pushing nearly 20 pounds when we were walking around.

While we don't do a lot of commuting without a car, I can see how the Tavo might also be useful as a pet carrier. It's definitely sturdier than the travel carriers we use with our dogs and has a solid, removable handle, but I found it too heavy to carry just from the car to the house with Tino in it.

We both loved it

I know it sounds ridiculous, but all my skepticism flew out the window when I plopped Tino in the stroller. I secured him to one of the attached leashes to make sure he wouldn't jump out, and we stepped outside into the sunshine. His tail was wagging, and his nose was sniffing.

The Tavo pet stroller looks very much like a kids' stroller, and it didn't take long before my neighbors started stopping me to ask who was in the stroller. Many laughed when I told them it was Tino. My kids loved pushing it around, pretending we had a new baby in the family.

When I told this to my husband, he pointed out that it's from the same parent company as Nuna, the company that manufactures kids' strollers and car seats. We'd used the brand's strollers with our own kids, and suddenly, everything made more sense — no wonder the stroller had such attention to detail, like a cup holder, adjustable handlebars, brakes, a removable cover in case of accidents, and a retractable canopy that opens from both ends.

The price point is steep, but it does triple duty as a car seat and carrier

The Tavo can also be used as a car seat, something we had never used with any of our pets before. It came in handy with Tino since he kept trying to jump out of his travel bag, often knocking it sideways.

The car seat's base is so easy to install, and the carrier itself can be clipped and unclipped with one hand. I have a lot of experience folding up kids' strollers, and the Tavo pet stroller has got to be one of the easiest I've ever folded. I was able to do it with one hand, just by pressing a button and folding it.

With the car seat attached to my car, I could safely take him on his regular vet visits. That said, because we have three kids, if we were all going somewhere together, we either went in two cars (which was not ideal) or I had Tino on my lap (which he loved but wasn't very safe). The car seat's interior is soft and comfortable. The canopy can be closed and locked on either side, just one side, or left open on both sides. There's also the option of just leaving a mesh closed so your dog can look out while being fully enclosed. Tino loves sitting in it and looking out the window.

The car seat and stroller bundle retails for $500 for the small and comes in five different fabric colors. The larger car seat is $600. The price point is comparable to a kids' stroller and more than I had spent on a single item for my dogs before. But with Tino and Churro, we have been splurging a bit more and getting them quality products that solve our problems. While the stroller system is pricey, it was much cheaper than surgery, which would've also come with weeks of crate rest for Tino. There are other pet strollers available for less, but they are not as dynamic as the Tavo, and most don't double as a car seat.

I'm a dog stroller mom now

Tino finished his eight weeks of crate rest and can now walk small distances at a time. In his head, he is ready to start running after squirrels again, but we still can't let him since IVDD has a high chance of reinjury. Because of that, we are sticking to using the stroller longer than I first anticipated.

Now we walk around our neighborhood watching the leaves change colors around us — something I never imagined doing.

It's an absolutely packed weekend for the light heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. We'll show you how to watch UFC 327 online.

UFC heads to the Kaseya Center in Miami for its next major event. Jiří Procházka and Carlos Ulberg will duke it out for the light heavyweight title after it was vacated by Alex Pereira in his move to the heavyweight division. Procházka vs. Ulberg tops an absolutely stacked fight card, which includes light heavyweight bouts between Azamat Murzakanov and Paulo Costa and Dominick Reyes and Johnny Walker.

UFC live streams on Paramount Plus in the US. Below, we've outlined everything you need to know about the streaming service and how to tune in from anywhere.

• See also: How to watch the Masters | Where to watch Monte Carlo Masters | Where to watch Champions League

How to watch UFC 327 in the US

In case you hadn't already heard the news, the US home of UFC is now Paramount Plus. Long gone are the days of ESPN (and ESPN's hefty pay-per-view fees). Instead, UFC events are available on both tiers of Paramount Plus. This means fans can watch for as little as $9 a month on the Essential tier.

If you want to unlock CBS live streaming, Showtime content, and ad-free on-demand programming, you can do so by signing up for Paramount Plus Premium for $14 a month. You can learn more in our Paramount Plus review.

How to watch UFC 327 from anywhere

UFC fans traveling away from home can still keep up with their usual streaming options with the help of a VPN. VPNs, or virtual private networks, are easy-to-use tech tools that let people change the location on their electronic devices. This way, they can access their usual websites and apps from anywhere. The services we've recommended require US methods of payment, so this option will work best for Americans traveling abroad.

NordVPN is our top recommendation. It's the best VPN we've tested and comes with a hassle-free 30-day money-back guarantee. You can learn more in our NordVPN review.

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

• US businesses that integrate AI have tended to choose OpenAI.
• However, Anthropic has seen business spending surge in recent months, according to Ramp's index.
• Anthropic's reputation got an unexpected boost after it challenged a deal with the Pentagon.

Anthropic is close to passing OpenAI when it comes to business spending on AI, according to new data.

Ramp, a finance automation and corporate card issuer, said half of its customers now pay for AI products. Among those customers, 30.6% use Anthropic, up 6.3% from March.

The gap between Anthropic and OpenAI, which accounts for 35.2% of customers, has narrowed dramatically, according to Ramp.

"At the current pace, Anthropic is on track to surpass OpenAI within the next two months," a Ramp spokesperson told Business Insider. "It already leads among early adopters, including VC-backed companies, and in key sectors like software, finance, and professional services."

Anthropic currently leads OpenAI in three specific sectors: information, finance and insurance, and personal services. Ramp's data only provides a snapshot of spending by that company's customers. However, it's a useful yardstick for how business adoption of AI is changing over time.

Advancements in AI have begun to transform several industries. Major companies, including Meta, Microsoft and Visa, have encouraged employees to adopt the tech into their day-to-day work.

Anthropic's Claude Code has been a huge hit with software engineers and developers, which is likely one of the main drivers behind business spending on the startup's technology. The company also has top-performing models, according to benchmarking specialist Arena.ai. That likely influences which AI technology businesses choose.

Data from Ramp showed that funding is a key predictor of whether a business adopts AI. VC-backed businesses have a 80% adoption rate, while companies backed by private-equity firms have a 64% adoption rate. Companies without either have a 45% adoption rate.

Although Ramp didn't provide a specific reason for Anthropic's surge among corporations, the company received an unexpected reputation boost in February when it challenged a deal with the Pentagon. That month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged the company to agree with the military's terms of use for Claude or be blacklisted by the government.

Anthropic refused, resulting in President Donald Trump telling federal agencies to stop using the tech and the Department of Defense designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk. OpenAI stepped in to offer its services to the Department of Defense.

In response, some users rallied around Anthropic. Claude temporarily surpassed ChatGPT on the App Store, and major tech companies like Microsoft showed support.

• Nike's soccer shirts to be worn by players at the FIFA World Cup appear to have a design issue.
• Material was seen bulging at the shoulders of footballers in recent international matches.
• The issue was raised on X by a sports journalist. Fans have complained about their version of the shirts.

With just two months to go before the FIFA World Cup kicks off, design issues have emerged with the Nike shirts to be worn by several teams in the tournament, including the USA and Canada.

Soccer's biggest event, hosted jointly by the US, Canada and Mexico, gets underway on June 11 with the opening match in Mexico City.

During international matches played since Nike unveiled its World Cup kits on March 16, several soccer players were seen with shirts bulging at the shoulder.

Prominent Spanish football journalist Alejandro Mendo raised the issue with his 14.6 million followers on X.

"You've all seen the unwanted shoulder pads on the Nike shirts for the World Cup," he said. "What seemed like a minor aesthetic detail has turned into a global controversy."

Sharing images of international players with bulging material at the shoulders, Mendo added: "Nike acknowledges the problem. These aren't isolated cases, but something structural in the design."

Soccer fans have also reported similar issues with their versions of the shirt, with one posting on Reddit: "Its actually a complete joke."

Showing off his Canada shirt, the fan added: "The way the shoulders are sewn together just make them bunch like this no matter what. This is a stupid, STUPID design."

Business Insider contacted Nike for comment and didn't get a response on Saturday.

Some 48 teams have qualified for the tournament, the highest number in its history. The final takes place at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19.

• Anthropic launched a beta version of Claude for Word.
• It follows February's release of Claude add-ins for Excel and PowerPoint.
• The AI startup's latest launch is partly aimed at legal professionals.

Anthropic launched a beta version of Claude for Word, another challenge to Microsoft's software empire and a bid to appeal more to the legal profession.

The AI startup, having pushed Claude into Excel and PowerPoint earlier this year, said its latest add-in for Word is "designed for professionals who work extensively with documents, particularly in legal review, financial memo drafting, and iterative editing."

On Saturday, Anthropic said Claude for Word would allow users to ask questions about their documents and get answers with clickable section citations.

Other features include the ability to edit selected text while preserving surrounding styles, numbering, and formatting, while a "tracked changes mode" would allow users to accept or reject every edit as a revision, Anthropic explained.

Claude could also work through comment threads, editing the anchored text and replying with what it changed, according to the release.

Anthropic gave examples of prompts lawyers could try when reviewing a legal contract while using Claude for Word.

• "Summarize the key commercial terms: parties, term, governing law, and anything off-market."
• "Flag provisions that deviate from standard market position, ranked by severity."
• "Make the indemnification mutual and insert our standard fallback language."
• "Work through all five reviewer comments as tracked changes."
• "What did the counterparty change, and which revisions are dealbreakers?"

It's currently available only to Team and Enterprise plans.

With this and other recent launches, Anthropic is making clear it no longer wants to be known primarily as a tool for developers. It wants Claude embedded across the enterprise, supporting finance teams, HR departments, analysts, and executives alike.

It's official: Gardening season is here. As a home gardener myself, I know that having the right tools in your arsenal can make the difference between a successful bounty and sad, withered plants. The best hose nozzles are a necessary partner to your favorite garden hose, giving you control over water pressure and flow. Hose nozzles aren't just handy for keeping plants and flowers happy and hydrated, though — they can also be used to get rid of dirt on a grimy deck or to clean your car without taking a trip to the car wash.

"It's absolutely necessary to attach an adjustable nozzle to your garden hose," said John Jors, a Florida Master Gardener and volunteer groundskeeper at the 35-acre Bonnet House Museum and Gardens. "Otherwise, you may find yourself running back and forth to turn your water spigot off and on as needed." Below, you'll find our top picks for the best garden hose nozzles, based on real-world testing for ease of use, comfort, water pressure, spray distance, and durability.

Our picks for the best garden hose nozzles

Best overall: Dramm 9-Pattern Revolver Spray Nozzle - See at Amazon

Best high-pressure: Twinkle Star Adjustable Twist Hose Nozzle - See at Amazon

Best ergonomic: Husky Pro Thumb Control Nozzle - See at Home Depot

Best watering wand: Melnor RelaxGrip Watering Wand - See at Melnor

Best fireman-style: Bon-Aire Hose Nozzle - See at Amazon

Best heavy-duty: Eley Garden Hose Spray Nozzle Set - See at Eley

Best overall

This versatile nozzle has nine different spray patterns. Whether washing your dog, watering delicate plants, or hosing down dirt, you'll be properly equipped with the Dramm Revolver Hose Nozzle. This 9-pattern watering attachment includes a "cone," "shower," "mist," "jet," "soaker," "fan," "flat," "center," and "angle" spray pattern, so you'll have the appropriate option for the task in front of you. Each spray pattern was even and consistent for all of our tasks during testing.

It's easy to use and control. You twist the nozzle to the setting you need, and the nozzle clicks to let you know you're ready to use your selected pattern. The nozzle reliably shoots out water when you hold down the trigger and doesn't leak, based on customer reviews. At the back of the nozzle, a wire lever lock keeps the 'on' position in place to prevent hand fatigue. The flow control knob at the back of the nozzle lets you adjust the pressure of each of the 9 patterns, allowing for even more adjustability. The revolver grip style and rubberized front trigger with indents for your fingers make the nozzle as comfortable as it can get — we never felt hand strain when testing this nozzle.

But it might leak. Despite all these ways to diversify your watering experience, a handful of customers complain of leakage, possibly due to the inclusion of plastic parts. Overall, this nozzle's all-in-one design, ease of use, and ergonomic grip still earn it our top position, but consider whether you may prefer a more specialized nozzle.

Best high-pressure

High-pressure nozzles clear grime and dirt. For grimy trash cans, a car in need of a good wash, or your deck that has so many layers of dirt it's starting to change colors, it's handy to have a high-pressure nozzle to do all the hard rinsing work for you. The Twinkle Star Nozzle is just that. It has a long, slim nozzle with powerful and efficient jet and wide spray settings. To use, you twist the nozzle in one direction to find the pattern you need. Though there aren't specific settings that you can "click" into, the nozzle twists smoothly and the spray patterns transition well into each other. The one-way shutoff means you have to twist it off the same way you twist it on, which isn't a huge dealbreaker, but it's a little inconvenient. The nozzle attached securely to my hose and never leaked.

It's extremely powerful. Its spray distance was long. The high pressure and long spray distance are a great combo for attacking dirty surfaces from afar.

We also loved the solid brass construction. It's resistant to rust and all-around durable, plus it looks sleek.

We recommend using the longer nozzle. This product comes with two nozzles, a long one and a much smaller one. We wouldn't recommend the small tip nozzle, as it wasn't adjustable and couldn't shut off the water flow. It offered medium pressure and a very narrow spray, so we're not sure what the use of this extra nozzle is. Stick with the long nozzle, and you'll be set.

Best ergonomic

Thumb control nozzles are ergonomic and comfortable to hold. I'm used to a traditional hose nozzle, which requires gripping with your thumb or fingers. But the Husky Pro Thumb Control Nozzle employs a switch that you move up or down with your thumb to operate, making it more comfortable to hold and reducing hand fatigue. A garden hose nozzle with thumb controls is especially useful if you have chronic pain or have declined motor control functions. The ease of the thumb controls, plus the supported comfortable grip of the Husky nozzle, makes it our pick for the best ergonomic hose nozzle.

It has five basic settings. The Husky nozzle is easy to use with a simple design. It only has five settings, which could be a negative for those seeking more settings, but I realistically only use three settings: shower, jet, and mist.

It's especially powerful. I have pretty low water pressure, so I was impressed with how powerful the Husky nozzle was. During my distance tests, the jet setting maxed out my tape measure, traveling over 300 inches. Even the lower settings, like the shower and mist, were high-pressure and traveled farther than other nozzles I tried on the jet setting.

Best watering wand

Watering wands reach tall plants with ease. A long watering wand easily reaches tall plants and hanging planters without strain on your arms or shoulders. Plus, the slim profile is perfect for watering hard-to-reach areas. The Melnor RelaxGrip Watering Wand has a smart thumb-control design reduces the strain on your wrists and fingers, allowing you to water your garden for longer. The textured rubber grip is also comfortable with ergonomic indents for your fingers.

The sliding scale provides precise water controls. Rather than an on and off switch, the thumb control slides to adjust the amount of water. There isn't a distinct click for each different flow setting. Instead, you might have to first play around with the control to learn where the flow intensity changes and how far you should slide the control. Over time, you'll have a better natural sense of controlling the water.

It's best for gardening. This watering wand has a long stick design (this version is 33 inches long from nozzle tip to end, while the short version is 15 inches long) that lets you reach tall branches with no struggle. The water travels smoothly all the way through, and the water flow is consistent. The nozzle offers eight spray patterns. We think it best for gardeners who intend to use it frequently for their plants and flowers, but it's also useful for cleaning high up, or the roof of a car.

Best fireman-style

Fireman-style hose nozzles start with the twist of a barrel. Rather than hold down a trigger, you only need to twist the barrel of the Bon-Aire Hose Nozzle to start and stop the water flow. Like a few of the nozzles above, it doesn't have distinct spray settings, so you have to gradually turn the nozzle to find the different options. Conveniently, the nozzle has a two-way shutoff, meaning you don't have to turn it back to the beginning to stop the water flow. I enjoyed using this nozzle because it was comfortable to hold, and all the water flow options were consistent in pressure. The jet and wide spray settings were extremely strong.

The rubber exterior is durable. The Bon-Aire is bulkier and more durable than the Twinkle Star nozzle, our high-pressure pick. Since most of it is encased in rubber, the metal middle section rarely touches the ground. It simply bounces around if you drop it on the ground from a tall height.

It has limited spray options. Our gardening expert John Jors reminds us, "Although [a fire hose-style nozzle] is very durable, the spray options are limited, and you won't have the flow control you have with the pistol grip." This was certainly my experience with the Bon-Aire nozzle. It's available for around the same price as our best overall pick, so choosing this nozzle is ultimately a matter of personal preference and comfort. It's ergonomic and durable, but you will have to deal with the lack of distinct spray settings.

Best heavy-duty

Heavy-duty nozzles are powerful and durable. Whether you have caked-on grime or a huge garden that needs watering, a heavy-duty nozzle gets the job done and withstands the elements. Made with brass hardware, the Eley Garden Hose Spray Nozzle is built to last with simple yet versatile attachments and a durable body. The control lever rests at the top and can be adjusted with your thumb, while the grip is ergonomically molded to fit perfectly in your hand. It's comfortable to hold for extended periods of time. It also easily swivels in any direction.

You manually switch the head attachment to best match your needs. It's sold in three combinations: a two-piece cleaning set, which includes a high-pressure attachment for targeting grime, a two-piece watering set with interchangeable stainless steel plates to adjust flow and spray patterns, or a three-piece set that includes all attachments for cleaning and watering. The body of the nozzle is made of brass, including the threads, so you'll be able to switch out the heads without worrying about the nozzle breaking down. These inserts are small and easy to lose, and you'll have to find space to keep them when not in use. I tried the three-piece set to get the full picture of how the Eley Nozzle works.

It withstands wear and tear. The highlight of this nozzle is its durability. This is a hefty hose nozzle, and its weight is substantial. It looked as good as new after leaving it in the rain and sun for over a month, and it won't crack if dropped on the pavement. Eley also has a 10-year warranty, which covers leaking or rusting due to manufacturer defects.

Our top picks compared

What to look for in the best garden hose nozzle

Types of garden hose nozzle

There are a few different nozzle styles to consider that have different purposes and ways to operate. If you plan on using your hose for various tasks, John Jors, a Florida Master Gardener and volunteer groundskeeper at the 35-acre Bonnet House Museum and Gardens, recommends a pistol grip nozzle with multiple spray options and adjustable water pressure.

But if you have trouble holding a pistol grip for long periods, fire hose-style and watering wands are good alternatives.

• Pistol grip nozzle: Features a trigger that controls the amount or flow of water. Hold down the trigger (which may be in front of or behind the handle) to release water. The harder you press, the more water comes out.
• Dial nozzle: Features a rotating dial of distinct spray patterns. It's often combined with a pistol grip so you only need to hold down the trigger to activate the flow of water, while the dial setting controls the specific flow.
• Watering wand or rain wand: A long nozzle that helps extend water flow to hard-to-reach areas. It's usually controlled with a comfortable sliding thumb control.
• Firehose (or fireman)-style nozzle: A large dial-style nozzle that does not have a pistol grip. The spray patterns are not distinct and must be gradually adjusted.

Other considerations

• Ease of use: It should be easy to attach the nozzle and switch between spray settings, if applicable.
• Spray settings: Your go-to garden tasks will dictate whether you need a versatile hose nozzle with various spray settings or a one-task workhorse like a watering wand.
• Comfort: The best garden hose nozzles feature an ergonomic grip design that's comfortable to use for long periods. An easy-to-access spray trigger control might be better than a grip trigger if you have grip issues due to a condition like arthritis.
• Durability: Quality nozzles typically have a metal and rubber construction. Cheaper ones may contain plastic parts that are more likely to chip or break off with frequent use.

How we tested garden hose nozzles

Our testing methodology

We put all the hose nozzles through these same five tests. We completed testing in two rounds. During the first round, we tested using our best hose overall, the Dramm ColorStorm Garden Hose. For the second round of testing, we used our lightweight pick, the Teknor Apex Zero-G.

1. Ease of use: We noted how easy or difficult it was to attach to the hose, how many spray options it had, and whether it leaked.
2. Comfort: We noted if the grip was ergonomic. If the nozzle had a pistol grip design, we timed how long we could press the grip down before it got too tiring to press.
3. Spray distance: On concrete, we measured how far the nozzle sprayed water when holding the hose at a regular position (a foot away from the body).
4. Water pressure: We measured the water pressure from the nozzle with a water pressure gauge. If there was more than one spray setting, we measured the low, medium, and high settings.
5. Durability: We dropped each nozzle on concrete from 10 feet high 10 times and noted scuffing, scratches, abrasion, and any broken or bent parts. We also left the nozzles outside for two consecutive weeks through various weather conditions, including sun and rain, noting any rust and other signs of wear and tear.

Meet the experts behind the guide

Kinsley Searles, associate home editor: I test home and outdoor products in my own backyard. I'm an avid gardener, and I only recommend products that I'd use to take care of my beloved tomato plants. Much to the chagrin of my easily-frightened, backyard-loving dog, I've spent entire afternoons putting garden hose nozzles through the wringer by measuring spray distance, banging the metal body on concrete 50 times, and coating them in mud as part of stress tests.

Connie Chen, former senior reporter: I completed the initial round of testing on hose nozzles, carefully developing in-depth procedures to test them in real-world conditions.

Garden hose nozzle FAQs

Why do you need a garden hose nozzle?

1. It saves water. Water will not come out of your hose unless you open the nozzle, meaning you don't need to run back and forth to the spigot. This is especially helpful if you're using a long hose.
2. A garden hose nozzle helps distribute water in a more controlled manner than a garden hose alone. The regular flow of a garden hose alone isn't always the best for tasks like watering delicate flowers or washing a car. The different spray options of a nozzle let you customize the flow to your specific task.

What nozzle and spray type do you use for…

• Watering flowers or a vegetable garden: Use a flat spray or shower delicate plants with a rain wand because it's the most gentle spray type. Make sure to water at soil level at the base of the plants. It's best to water them in the morning, before it gets too sunny and hot, so that less water will evaporate.
• Watering trees and shrubs: Drip lines are ideal, and if you're using a hose, you actually shouldn't use a nozzle. Simply place the hose on the ground near the tree and let water slowly and steadily dribble out. Rotate the hose around the tree (in a ring shape) periodically.

• Washing a car: Use a jet spray with any of the nozzles above except the rain wand. If you're just doing a light rinse, a setting like a full shower could also work.
• Power-washing a deck: Use a jet spray with any of the nozzles above except the rain wand.

What material is best for a garden hose nozzle?

We recommend garden hose nozzles made of metal and rubber for increased durability. Plastic nozzles are lightweight, but should wear and tear quickly.

How do I get the most pressure out of a garden hose nozzle?

If you're struggling to get high pressure from your garden hose nozzle, you could have a clog or blockage in the nozzle body. Alternatively, it could be an issue with your home's overall water pressure or a kink in your hose. Check out our best hose guide for our favorite kink-proof options.