• The doors to the first-ever "Deliverista Hub" have been locked to delivery drivers since its splashy April 7 unveiling.
• The rest area is designed to provide shelter and battery charging for delivery workers near the city's busy financial district.
• Con Edison told Business Insider it identified "an issue that requires additional work before the hub can be energized."

Under the cherry blossoms lining NYC's City Hall Park, a new metal-and-glass structure stands.

It's called the City Hall Deliverista Hub — a first-of-its-kind rest stop for the roughly 80,000 delivery workers who zip through the city, transporting lunches, Amazon packages, and other online orders. Worker advocates hope it's the first of many.

It's a few blocks from Business Insider's newsroom, so I went to see it the day after a much-ballyhooed April 7 ribbon-cutting, hoping to interview delivery drivers about their first impressions.

It was locked. I went back on April 15. Still locked. I returned on April 16. Still locked. The same was true on Friday, 10 days after its unveiling.

After doing some digging, I learned the hub hasn't opened at least in part due to an electrical issue. And there isn't a clear timeline for when the doors will officially open.

A first-of-its-kind … in waiting

New York City's weather can swing fast. In late February, the city rushed to hire emergency shovelers to clear more than 20 inches of snow from sidewalks. Less than two months later, as I walked to the hub, temperatures were pushing close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Delivery workers grind through it all.

The two-room hub — which covers roughly 20 sidewalk slabs — is designed to shield outdoor workers from those weather extremes. It also includes 40 e-bike battery charging cabinets and six outlets for phone charging.

"Delivery workers keep this city running — through the cold, the rain, and every storm that comes our way," New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on April 7 about the unveiling. "In opening the Deliverista Hub, we're building a dedicated place for the city to take care of its own."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the city's public advocate, Jumaane Williams, attended the installation event.

The project has been years in the making. In 2022, Schumer, then the Senate Majority Leader, helped secure $1 million in federal funding.

Mamdani pushed the three-year-old project forward after taking office, despite it facing some local resistance in the past. Manhattan Community Board 1 rejected the design in 2024, citing the old newsstand's historical significance, The City reported.

Contractors on site told me that workers built the structure in two months (this type of construction often takes two years, The New York Times previously reported) — and said their bosses heard directly from the mayor's office.

"We had to work Sunday to Sunday," Ainsley Wright, one of the glass workers, said before applying a final round of caulking. "I don't mind. I make more money. You get time and a half, but I don't get no sleep."

He said that the construction deadline was April 9.

Despite that momentum and headlines describing the building as open, the door remains locked. While the city's press release didn't explicitly say the rest area would be open immediately following the ribbon-cutting, video of tours of the hub's inside and the news coverage could easily give off that impression to delivery drivers.

Several people pointed toward electrical issues.

"Apparently, the current provided by the old news stand is not of sufficient power to meet the requirements of the hub, due to the charging stations," Gustavo Ajche, cofounder of Los Deliveristas Unidos, and one of the advocates who pushed for the project, told me. "Hopefully, they resolve it soon."

Worker's Justice Project, a New York-based advocacy group for low-wage workers that helped lead the push for the hub, said it is "currently coordinating" with Con Edison, the building's electricity provider, to determine an updated timeline.

"Our understanding is that Con Edison is having difficulty locating their electrical connection at the site and actively working to resolve it," the group said in a statement.

Con Edison confirmed there was an issue.

"We have been working closely with the hub's developer in support of their request for electric service," the company told me in a statement on Thursday. "When our crews were on-site recently, they identified an issue that requires additional work before the hub can be energized. We remain in close communication with the developer, and we're focused on completing that work as safely and quickly as possible."

Boyce Technologies (the engineering and construction team that raised the building) didn't respond to requests for comment. After getting in touch with Mamdani's press team, I have yet to receive an answer about when the hub will open.

No bathroom

The Deliverista Hub blends in with the city's newer street fixtures. It's the same sleek, modular design approach found in other city projects — the companies that constructed the building have worked with NYC officials before.

But the hub's placement stands out — even if it sits close to where office workers flood delivery apps at lunchtime.

The hub is positioned along a stretch of Broadway without a bike lane. The nearest cross street, Murray Street, has a bike lane but funnels traffic away from the building.

For a space meant to serve workers spending long hours on the road, it notably doesn't include a bathroom. Wright, one of the contractors working on the building, told me there was no way to hook up water to the station.

Still, Ajche, the delivery worker who has been pushing for this project since 2020, said he doesn't mind.

"Restaurants have to let us use their bathrooms," he said. "I don't think that's much of a problem."

When it eventually opens, the hub will mark a triumph for Ajche and other worker advocates who have also pushed lawmakers to raise the minimum wage, expand sick leave protections, and require salary transparency.

But, for now, delivery drivers will need to be patient.

Update: We've searched the internet for Paramount Plus coupons, but we've been unable to find any active promo codes at this time. We'll continue to keep an eye out for discount codes and other deals, and will add them to this page as we find them, so keep checking back for updates. In the meantime, you can keep reading to learn about savings on annual plans, or head back to checkout.

While Paramount Plus might have started as a way to stream buzzy CBS shows on demand, the app has evolved into one of the best streaming services, thanks to its impressive selection of originals, sports programming, and (in the Premium tier) Showtime series. The streaming service is already one of the more budget-friendly apps on the market, but using one of the best Paramount Plus coupon and promo codes can help you save even more on a subscription.

Paramount Plus carries the full slate of popular CBS shows, from franchise favorites like "NCIS" and "Criminal Minds" to newer series such as "Ghosts" and the "Matlock" reboot. Most notably, the service gets the new episodes of "Survivor 50" and "Marshals" the day after they air on linear TV (or live, depending on which tier you're subscribed to). But the service carries much more than CBS faves, including popular original series like "Landman" and award-winning films such as "There Will Be Blood." The streamer also offers an ever-growing line-up of live sports, including UFC events and NFL on CBS games.

By upgrading to Paramount Plus Premium, you gain access to Showtime titles like "Dexter: Resurrection" and "Yellowjackets," along with the ability to live stream your local CBS station. For a deeper dive into the different plans, prices, and features, be sure to check out our full Paramount Plus review and Paramount Plus guide. Even with the most recent price hike, Paramount Plus remains one of the most affordable streaming services available. The ad-supported plan is one of the most competitively priced, given the sheer volume of quality content for $9 a month when compared to competitors.

A promo code can help make a Paramount Plus subscription even cheaper. These codes are pretty rare, but we're always on the lookout for new ones. To help make saving easy, we've rounded up the best current offers in one place. Before you head to checkout, make sure to explore the top Paramount Plus coupon codes we've tested below to secure the best possible price on your new plan.

Today's best Paramount Plus coupon codes

Previous Paramount Plus promo codes

Are there any other Paramount Plus sales running at the moment?

There are no ongoing sales at Paramount Plus right now. The most recent limited-time deal discounted the first two months of service on both Essential and Premium plans. This deal concluded on March 31, 2026, and prices have since returned to their standard rates. We occasionally see other deals on monthly or annual plans throughout the year, especially around Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Opting for an annual plan remains a great, evergreen way to save on the streaming service. You can save money each year compared to what you'd pay after 12 months of a month-to-month subscription. An annual subscription is also a great way to temporarily avoid any upcoming price hikes. Check out the savings breakdown below:

• For the latest buying advice updates, follow us on Instagram and WhatsApp

How to use Paramount Plus coupons and promo codes

As with all streaming services, Paramount Plus requires you to create an account to enroll in a plan. If you're on the sign-up page, choose a plan and create an account using your name, email, ZIP code, and a new password. From there, you'll be taken to a checkout page where you can apply a coupon code by clicking "Have a coupon code?" to paste in a promo code.

Can you stack Paramount Plus coupon codes?

Paramount Plus coupon codes cannot be stacked to work together. The system only allows for one promo to be applied at a time. However, we don't often see more than one active coupon code available at a time, so this shouldn't be a frequent problem

Paramount Plus coupons: frequently asked questions

Does Paramount Plus offer discounts for teachers, students, or the military?

Paramount Plus offers verified service members 50% off any plan for life. Students currently enrolled in an accredited institution can get 50% off any plan. Verified teachers, faculty, and staff members can get 50% off any plan.

If you fall into the education category, be sure to check our roundups for the best student discounts and the best teacher discounts you can score year-round.

Which Paramount Plus plans can I choose from?

Paramount Plus has two main tiers of service, which are available as either monthly or annual plans. The base tier, Paramount Plus Essential, costs $8.99 a month or $89.99 a year. Essential includes ad-supported access to most of the streamer's catalog (except for Showtime) and select live events.

Paramount Plus Premium, previously known as Paramount Plus with Showtime, offers a little extra. Premium costs $13.99 a month or $139.99 a year and includes ad-free access to the streamer's entire catalog (including Showtime programming). Users can also live stream their local CBS station, so you can watch CBS shows and sports live as they air.

Does Paramount Plus offer a free trial?

Paramount Plus no longer offers a free trial to new customers. The streaming service previously had a seven-day trial period, but the offer was removed in early 2026.

Is Paramount Plus available outside the United States?

Yes, Paramount Plus is available in select countries outside the United States, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Austria, and more. You can explore a full list of countries with access to Paramount Plus on the streamer's global landing page. Libraries sometimes vary by location. For example, "Yellowstone" is available on several international versions of Paramount Plus, but it's not included in US subscriptions.

Where can I watch Paramount Plus?

The Paramount Plus app is available across a massive selection of devices, including iOS and Android mobile devices, Roku, Apple TV, Fire TVs and tablets, Samsung TV, Google TV, LG TV, and Chromecast, among others. Notably, it's also available on Apple Vision Pro, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox. You can find a full list of supported devices (along with supported models and operating systems) on the Paramount Plus website.

What's coming soon to Paramount Plus?

Like most streaming services, Paramount Plus constantly updates its library to bring you more content. This month, Paramount Plus users will get access to hit originals and specials, shows, popular movies, new live sporting events, and more. See their website for a full list of what's coming to Paramount Plus this month.

"Addams Family Values," "Arrival," "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," "Million Dollar Baby," "Once Upon A Time In The West," "Paranormal Activity," and "Saving Private Ryan" are among some of the most notable films available on Paramount Plus in April 2026. April also brought select coverage of the Masters Tournament (in the Premium tier), UFC 327: Prochazka vs. Ulberg, and the Champions League quarterfinals.

Which live sports events are available on Paramount Plus?

While the best way to watch the most live sports on Paramount Plus is through a Premium subscription, the Essential tier also includes select sports live streaming. Essential plans come with NFL on CBS games and UEFA Champions League matches. Paramount Plus also acquired UFC broadcast rights beginning in 2026, and fans can watch all events with either tier of service.

If you opt for a Premium plan, you'll unlock CBS live streaming. This will allow you to catch major sporting events broadcast on the network, including the Masters Tournament and certain March Madness games. CBS also carries select NWSL, WNBA, and college football games, among other events.

Check out more great streaming sales in our guide to the best streaming deals and our roundup of the best Peacock promo codes.

When everything you need is right at your hip, you can move a lot more freely. There are many iterations of the wearable phone-wallet case, but Bandolier does it best for our needs. Besides being extremely convenient for us to use, they have the luxe look of a fine leather accessory.

Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez have been spotted with them, so naturally, we couldn't wait to test them out. After a few weeks of using it, I can say one thing: it's like actually having pockets!

I no longer have to play the balancing game of clutching my phone and a coffee in one hand while I struggle to key open my door. It may not seem like much, but for a person who wears women's clothing, the convenience of a pocket is a small miracle.

"I use my Bandolier phone case and carrying strap literally every day. I've always used phone cases with wallets attached, so I was familiar with the convenience, but once I added the strap it was game over," says our executive editor Sally Kaplan.

"After more than two years of daily use, my Bandolier case is still in excellent shape," she continues. "I gave one to my mom as well last year and she uses it every day. She's notorious for losing her phone but she hasn't misplaced it or left it anywhere a single time since! We both get compliments on it all the time, and I'm quick to recommend them to friends and family. I'm sure there are cheaper dupes that exist on Amazon, but I think the quality of the leather is a big part of why these hold up so well."

I got the Lena Patent Leather Crossbody in Burgundy, which is unfortunately no longer available. It came with elegant gold chain details that made it slightly more formal than some other options. I picked it because of how much I loved the color. A similar option is one of the brand's bestsellers, the Remi, which deputy executive editor Lauren Savoie tried.  

The phone cases are available for almost all iPhone models, from the iPhone X to the latest iPhone 17. In fact, we even named Bandolier as a top pick in our guides to the best iPhone 17 phone cases and best iPhone 17 Pro Max phone cases. If you have an Android device, you can opt for a Holster that fits almost all models. However, it's more of a small bag than a phone case since it isn't designed to fit devices that aren't iPhones. 

There are also other kinds of attachments, including wristlets and straps with zippered pockets that look like a modern, chic utility belt.

Sally has a set that comes with a simple pouch attachment. "It fits my sunglasses, lip balm, gum, and sunscreen) and the phone case itself has enough room for everything I'd carry in a wallet," she says.

I have a couple of these cases and straps, including the one above with a Gucci-esque design, and this pebbled leather one that has a slightly longer strap.  I literally never carry a purse with me anymore unless I'm going to a formal event, and I never lose my phone anymore!"

Cons to consider

You should be aware that Bandolier phone cases are slightly bulkier than normal phone cases, which might be a downside for people who want to keep the case on their phone all the time. The place where the straps connect makes the bottom part a little thicker than you might be used to. 

If you — like me — want to keep a normal, thinner case on your phone and then swap to the Bandolier case when needed, it can be a little tricky to pop in and out at first. The case is super sturdy, so it cradles your phone tightly, but after using it for a while and popping it in and out, it loosened enough that it was no longer tricky to put it on my phone.

Our deputy executive editor, Lauren Savoie, also noted that the straps don't feel long enough for tall and plus-size bodies: "As someone who is 5'11" and plus size, I felt like the strap was awkwardly resting at my waist instead of near the hip, even on the longest setting." Bandolier makes longer straps, but you have to buy them separately.

Lastly, Bandolier cases are primarily made for iPhones. For Samsung users we recommend instead its crossbody bag collection, which have slip pockets compatible with most models.

The bottom line

If you or someone you're gift shopping is in need of more pocket space, then Bandolier is worth the try. It's super convenient for carrying your phone and wallet while being hands-free. There are also lots of helpful add-ons for making it a complete companion.

There are plenty of cheap turntables out there, but affordable doesn't automatically mean good value. Though it might be tempting for vinyl newbies to pick up the first low-cost player they see, many inexpensive turntables cut too many corners in quality and design. That's why I tested a wide range of models to find the best budget record players that are actually worth the money. For this guide, I focused on turntables under $400 that strike a good balance between price and performance.

My top overall pick is the Audio-Technica AT-LP60X. It pairs reliable components with simple, fully automatic operation, making it an excellent choice for people new to vinyl. If you're shopping on an even tighter budget and want something with built-in speakers, the Victrola Eastwood II is one of the few players under $150 that I still recommend.

All of my picks for the best budget turntables offer an easy way to start building your record collection without sacrificing too much in sound quality.

Our top picks for the best budget record players

Best overall: Audio-Technica AT-LP60X-BK - See at Amazon

Best all-in-one: House of Marley Rise Up - See at House of Marley

Best entry-level: Victrola Eastwood II - See at Amazon

Best step-up model: Sony PS-LX3BT - See at Amazon

Best overall

The Audio-Technica AT-LP60X is the best budget record player for most people. It costs just under $200, is easy to operate, and can last for years as your vinyl collection grows.

This belt-drive turntable is fully automatic, so it doesn't require close monitoring. It features a built-in preamp and includes a respectable cartridge that's full-bodied yet not too sharp in high-end frequencies. And if you ever decide to upgrade, you can replace the cartridge with a higher-end one.

This model supports wired playback with any pair of typical stereo speakers, but you will need an amplifier if the speakers don't have their own built-in power. There's also a more expensive model that adds Bluetooth connectivity for an extra $50 to $100. However, I recommend sticking with this wired-only player and putting that extra money toward quality speakers.

In terms of value, all the essential pieces are here, but there are a few trade-offs to achieve such a low $200 price. One is that the LP60X doesn't feel as sturdy as higher-end Audio-Technica models. It features an aluminum platter, but other parts are made of plastic. To that point, some buyers have reported damage upon arrival. I didn't see anything like that when I reviewed the unit, but it's worth noting.

If you're looking to get started with vinyl listening as a hobby, this is an ideal budget-friendly player.

Best all-in-one

House of Marley's Rise Up Turntable is the best budget record player for listeners who want a great all-in-one experience without buying a separate pair of speakers. It also gets bonus points for its environmentally friendly design.

House of Marley is an audio brand that's partnered with the Marley family, continuing Bob Marley's legacy of championing music and sustainability. Its products are responsibly sourced, from their packaging to their use of bamboo and unique materials not often found in electronics. To that point, the Rise Up turntable has a bamboo finish and a recycled slipmat.

Of course, the benefits of this all-in-one turntable go far beyond appearance. The biggest one of which is the built-in stereo speakers. The Rise Up comes ready to use out of the box, pre-calibrated, and only requires plugging into an AC outlet for power.

It features an AT3600L cartridge and stylus, which are replaceable if you want to swap them out later. This is a time-tested piece of hardware that delivers detailed, lively performance. However, it doesn't sound quite as full as some pricier cartridges, but it's hard to tell without direct, back-to-back comparisons.

I've tried several all-in-one record players with built-in speakers, and I've never been impressed by the sound quality until this one. The speakers sound rich and full and can get quite loud. This record player isn't automatic, but it will stop spinning at the end — a nice touch for newcomers to analog listening.

Although the built-in speakers will likely satisfy most budget shoppers, you can connect a different set of external speakers via RCA or Bluetooth. In fact, the wireless connectivity works both ways. You can stream a record to a wireless speaker, or stream music from your phone to the Rise Up's speakers.

Check out our guide to the best record players.

Best entry-level

The Victrola Eastwood II makes sacrifices to hit its low price, but if you want one of the most affordable record players that's still worth buying, then this all-in-one unit is a worthy choice. But remember to keep your expectations in check.

While there are plenty of cheaper suitcase-style record players out there, they just aren't very good. After using the Eastwood II, I feel confident that it's the best cheap turntable for its price. Its cost fluctuates depending on sales, but it often sells for just $99.

Beyond its low price, the Eastwood II is a convenient space-saver. If your room needs a compact solution, this is a great option. It's small enough that a full-sized vinyl record will stick off the side, which is why there's a cutout in the dust cover to accommodate that.

On the downside, the Eastwood II's built-in speakers are lacking and noticeably inferior to those on the pricier House of Marley Rise Up. Thankfully, this unit features RCA and 3.5mm outputs for connecting external speakers or headphones. There's also Bluetooth connectivity on board, so you can stream music wirelessly to a Bluetooth speaker.

The Eastwood II uses the popular AT-3600LA cartridge and stylus. It's a good base level, but again, the speakers don't do it justice — another reason I recommend using external ones.

Check out our guide to the best Bluetooth turntables.

Best step-up model

The Sony PS-LX3BT is pricier than other picks in this guide, but it offers better performance than cheaper options while still coming in at under $400. It also remains beginner-friendly, with both Bluetooth and automatic controls.

Using the PS-LX3BT is simple. One button press plays or stops a record, and the tonearm moves automatically. For Bluetooth playback, all you need is a pair of wireless headphones or speakers. The turntable also supports aptX Adaptive, which enables higher-quality wireless audio when paired with compatible headphones.

Wired playback is also supported via the player's integrated RCA cables. Having the cables permanently attached is both convenient and potentially problematic. On the one hand, it means you never have to worry about getting separate cables, but on the other hand, it means you're stuck with their length, and if they break, they're not easily replaced.

In testing, the PS-LX3BT delivered great sound quality with a clean, balanced profile that was a step up from that of cheaper Bluetooth record players. The PS-LX3BT also has a neat bonus feature: a USB port to back up your vinyl collection as digital files.

But while the PS-LX3BT is a bit more advanced than other picks, it still has some drawbacks. In particular, the turntable's automatic movements are a bit noisy, and its plastic build feels cheaper than pricier models that use a heftier design.

And though still reasonable at just under $400, you can find manual, wired-only turntables with better cartridges for less money. But in most cases, that means forgoing automatic playback, Bluetooth streaming, and USB-C audio transfer. For those who prioritize ease of use, the PS-LX3BT is highly recommended.

Check our full Sony PS-LX3BT turntable review.

How we test budget record players

To find the best budget record players, I spent time with each one listening to dozens of records, just as most people would at home. For consistency, I connected every turntable to the same three speakers: a Sonos Era 100 stereo pair, a Marshall Stanmore III, and the Edifier R1280T. I kept the speaker volume fixed at 50% throughout testing to make fair comparisons.

Although I rotated through numerous records, I also consistently played the same two albums on every turntable. "Bond 25" by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra helped evaluate instrument detail and dynamics, while Georgia's "Euphoric" — with its electronic production — highlighted how each player handled modern sounds.

For models that support Bluetooth, I also tested wireless playback. I evaluated the ease of pairing each turntable and then assessed the sound quality over Bluetooth. While a wired connection is generally preferred, wireless listening can be a real convenience, especially for budget setups.

Across multiple listening sessions, I focused on clarity, depth, and overall balance. I also paid close attention to mechanical noise —things like motor hum, clicks, or distracting vibrations — and noted how smoothly each turntable's parts operated.

Meet the expert behind this guide:

Tyler Hayes, contributing reporter: I've been covering consumer tech since 2013, including record players across budgets. I know not everyone wants to drop a fortune just to spin a few records, so I set out to test a bunch of turntables under $400 to see which ones are genuinely worth your money and which ones just look good on a shelf. I personally put every model in this guide through real-world listening tests, focusing on sound quality, build, ease of setup, and durability. My goal wasn't just to find the cheapest option, but to find the ones that stand out from rivals in this price range.

Learn more about the Reviews team at Business Insider.

Budget record player FAQs

What's the difference between a turntable and a record player?

Technically speaking, a turntable is a component of a record player. Traditionally, the term record player refers to an all-in-one device that features a turntable (spinning deck and tonearm), speakers, and an amplifier built in. However, the terminology has evolved to the point where those words are essentially interchangeable.

How much money should you spend on a budget record player?

On the low end, the best budget record players start at around $100-$200. Cheaper options exist, but spending a little more usually gets you better sound quality and a design that's gentler on your records. If you're unsure about how much you'll actually use a record player, then I would recommend starting modestly. Some turntables, like the Audio-Technica AT-LP60X, can be upgraded later.

Do budget record players sound good?

The best budget record players can deliver enjoyable sound quality, especially for casual listening. You won't get audiophile-level detail, but many affordable models offer warm, clear audio that's good enough for everyday use. However, options in the entry-level $100 to $150 price range often use a lot of plastic components, which can introduce vibrations or rattling noise. As you reach the $350 price point and beyond, build quality improves, and higher-end components are used to deliver a superior experience.

What is a built-in preamp, and do I need one?

A built-in preamp amplifies the audio signal from a record, allowing it to be heard through speakers. If you're buying a budget record player, having a built-in preamp makes setup much easier and eliminates the need for a separate one.

Do budget record players need external speakers and an amplifier?

Many budget record players come with built-in speakers, allowing you to start listening right away. Others require external speakers but still often have a built-in preamp. If you're connecting passive speakers (ones that don't require a wall outlet for power or have a built-in battery), you will need a dedicated amplifier to power them. For wireless speaker recommendations, check out our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers.

On stage at Business Insider Live's The Long Play event in San Francisco, longevity influencer and founder of Immortals Bryan Johnson shared what he's learned after carefully tracking his health for five years.

• Steve Bannon said Anthropic "had it right" in rejecting the Pentagon's deal.
• Bannon said we need to better understand how weapon manufacturers will use AI.
• The Pentagon effectively blacklisted Anthropic following the failed deal.

At least one person in Trump world believes Anthropic was correct to reject a deal with the Pentagon.

"I think Anthropic had it right," former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said during the Semafor World Economy Summit in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Bannon said allowing the Pentagon to operate Anthropic's frontier model — Claude — with little guardrails is "too dangerous."

Bannon, who's criticized the development of superintelligent AI, said there needs to be greater transparency about how weapons manufacturers will use AI.

"The central thing is what is happening in the weapons lab with AI," Bannon said. "We have no earthly idea."

The clash between Anthropic and the Pentagon began in February amid negotiations about the military using Claude. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pressed the company to accept its terms of use or risk losing its contract with the military.

In a blog post, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the company "cannot in good conscience accede" to the Pentagon's requests. Specifically, Amodei said the company had concerns over two issues: mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.

Anthropic's refusal drew a swift response from the Pentagon, which effectively blacklisted the company by labeling it a supply chain risk and barring federal agencies from using the tech. Anthropic filed a lawsuit in March against Hegseth, the Pentagon, the Executive Office of the President, and other federal agencies over the blacklist efforts.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, quickly made a deal with Sam Altman's OpenAI.

Despite the legal and business fallout, Anthropic won big in the court of public opinion. Claude temporarily overtook ChatGPT in the App Store, and the company garnered praise for standing its ground.

More recently, Anthropic made headlines with the announcement of its new model, Mythos. The company said it paused the model's release due to cybersecurity concerns.

"Claude Mythos Preview's large increase in capabilities has led us to decide not to make it generally available," the company wrote in the preview's system card. "Instead, we are using it as part of a defensive cybersecurity program with a limited set of partners."

The NBA postseason is underway, and the final teams are duking it out in the play-in tournament. We've rounded up everything you need to know about where to watch the NBA Playoffs, including live streaming info for those without cable.

If you don't want to read any further, the NBA Playoffs will live stream through ESPN Unlimited, Peacock, and Prime Video in the US. In the UK, Sky Sports and Prime Video will carry postseason coverage. Playoffs coverage will be split between Sportsnet and TSN in Canada. Below, we've broken down everything you need to know about tuning around the world.

Where to watch NBA Playoffs in the US

TNT is out of the NBA broadcast game in the US. Instead, the 2026 postseason will air across ESPN, ABC, NBC/Peacock, and Prime Video. The Prime Video inclusion means that even those with the most comprehensive cable package will still need to sign up for a streaming service if they're planning to watch every game of the NBA Playoffs. The Playoffs won't be available to live stream on NBA League Pass in the US because all games will be nationally broadcast.

ESPN and ABC will broadcast several games in the first and second rounds, as well as the Eastern Conference Finals. ABC will also carry the NBA Finals. All ESPN and ABC games (along with tons of other coverage from the ESPN family of channels) are available through ESPN's direct streaming counterpart, ESPN Unlimited. ESPN Unlimited costs $30 a month and serves as a one-stop shop for all things ESPN. There's also a cheaper ESPN Select plan, but this won't help you out for the NBA Playoffs.

NBC and Peacock will also carry loads of games this year, including several games in the first and second rounds, and the Western Conference Finals. You can live stream it all on Peacock, where sports-friendly plans start at $11 a month for Peacock Premium. Peacock Select, the budget plan, doesn't carry sports. You can upgrade to ad-free on-demand content and a 24/7 live stream of NBC with the $17 a month Peacock Premium Plus plan.

Prime Video is also getting in on the NBA Playoffs action. The streaming service carries the play-in tournament, along with several first and second round games. Prime Video subscriptions start at just $9 a month, but Prime Video is also included with all standard Amazon Prime subscriptions. An Amazon Prime subscription costs $15 a month and comes with a 30-day free trial for new customers.

If you'd prefer to watch through a live TV streaming service, which functions like cable (without all of the long-term contracts and equipment), then our guide to the best live TV streaming services might be able to help you out.

DirecTV is our top recommendation for a month-to-month cable alternative. You can find all NBC, ABC, and ESPN games in DirecTV's MySports genre pack. MySports carries around 20 popular sports networks and unlocks access to ESPN Unlimited. Subscriptions start at $65 a month, but new customers can get their first two months for $45 a month after a five-day free trial. To watch every game of the postseason, you'll still need to sign up for Prime Video separately.

How to watch NBA Playoffs from anywhere

If you're traveling abroad and hoping to keep up with your usual watch options, you can do so with the help of a VPN. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are cybersecurity tools that let people change their device's virtual location. This way, their go-to websites and apps work from anywhere, just like they would back home. The services we've highlighted above require country-specific payment methods, so this option will work best for those who are just traveling away from home at the moment.

NordVPN is our top recommendation. It's fast, user-friendly (even for beginners), and has a 30-day money-back guarantee if you find that it's not helping you out. You can learn more in our heavily tested guide to the best VPN services.

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

• A version of this story originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter.
• Sign up for the weekly BI Tech Memo newsletter here.

Conferences are fun for journalists because the private chatter flows. Business Insider's The Long Play in San Francisco was no exception.

Biohacker Bryan Johnson urged founders to bang, not build. Carina Hong dished on the AI talent wars. Joanna Strober reflected on her late, great friend Susan Wojcicki. Jason Blum described the horror of making AI movie shorts with Meta. That's what we reported from the stage. Here's what else I heard:

A tech CEO recalled being interviewed last year by a big newspaper about a possible AI bubble. She gave a nuanced answer and didn't make it into the article. "Bubble is sexy," she said. "No bubble, not sexy." That belongs on a T-shirt.

Nearby, another CEO wrestled with how to pay and retain their top executives, while a founder marveled at how sharply San Francisco car break-ins have dropped. Turns out, if you actually try to stop crime, it can go down.

One exec said he regularly pits Grok against Gemini to get stronger AI outputs. On a similar note, Hong cited Elon Musk and Demis Hassabis as leaders she admires, adding that Musk's tough decisions are sometimes necessary. (Risky for your career in Silicon Valley. She said it anyway).

While recounting fundraising challenges, Strober quipped: Menopause was not hot years ago. It was hot for me, but not for everyone else.

Another joke: Mark Zuckerberg got attention for smoking meat; Bryan Johnson gets attention for getting his meat smoked. Blame Zak for that one.

Several attendees worried they wouldn't be able to follow Johnson's advice: work less, sleep more, avoid late eating, and stay off your phone in bed.

One startup exec said she prefers "biojacking" — bad food, too much drinking, and little sleep. As I left, a founder admitted, "I lie awake thinking about how to destroy my competition."

Later that night, I got a text from a CMO who attended: "I have followed 0% of that longevity guy's advice over the last several hours."

Same: I'd just finished a pizza on the couch. Then I went to bed and looked at my phone.

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.

• Growing up, I always wanted to live in Paris — but I changed my mind after studying abroad there.
• When I ended up marrying a French man, we decided to move to Lyon instead.
• There are many things I prefer about Lyon, including the cost of living and location.

I fell in love with the idea of Paris at a very early age. I didn't know how I would do it, but I was certain that I'd someday call the City of Lights my home.

By 2014, I was studying abroad in Paris and living my dream — but it wasn't living up to my expectations.

The lavish meals and fabulous apartments I'd envisioned for myself were well out of my price range. The metro I'd idealized wasn't fashionable and fast, but often unreliable, overcrowded, and lacking AC.

I'd thought at least I'd get a chance to perfect my French, but even that felt impossible when I realized the mostly bilingual locals would default to English the moment they noticed my accent.

By the end of the term, I returned to the States with my tail between my legs, vowing that I'd never again live in Paris — but France as a whole still held a special place in my heart, so I wasn't against trying again elsewhere in the country.

Fast-forward almost 10 years, and my French husband and I were living in a small village near his family. Isolation wasn't working for us, and we started thinking about relocating to a bigger city somewhere in France.

Right away, we both agreed that it wasn't going to be Paris. Although we love certain aspects of the city and enjoy the occasional visit, the cons of the French capital ultimately outweigh the pros for us.

However, there was another city in France that had all of the perks of Paris, minus many of the aspects we don't enjoy. We ended up moving to Lyon, one of France's largest cities, and have never looked back.

The cost of living in Paris feels way higher than in Lyon

I spent my four months of study abroad with a host family in the 16th arrondissement of Paris — one of the most notoriously pricey neighborhoods in the city — but all the renters I knew were shelling out big time, sometimes for impossibly small spaces.

By contrast, we've found a lot of affordable housing options in Lyon. Our rent is just over $1,500 for roughly 1,000 square feet, whereas I'd likely pay up to double or triple that for the same space in Paris.

Whenever I visit Paris, I'm shocked by the prices of everything from cocktails to bread — even Paris metro tickets are 2.55 euros, compared to Lyon's 2.10. This isn't a huge difference, but it can definitely add up.

My home is well-connected to my other favorite parts of France

Part of why we prefer Lyon is that we're neither far from my husband's family nor some of our favorite French vacation destinations, from the beach to the mountains.

With some help from the high-speed train, I can be in Montpellier, Marseille, and other parts of southern France in just a couple of hours. My travel time would be twice as long if I were to leave from Paris.

Best of all, that same train also gets me to Paris in under two hours whenever I want to visit.

Lyon has a lot of what Paris has to offer, but on a smaller, more manageable scale

The size of the city and the volume of activities were part of why I didn't enjoy living in Paris — there was simply too much to keep up with.

There's a lot less to do in Lyon, but that doesn't mean the culture is lacking. There are fantastic museums to take in the arts, iconic Haussmannian architecture just like in Paris, and events that have made the city a standout in its own right.

One of my favorites is the Fête des Lumières, a citywide light show that was first invented in Lyon and has since been popularized all around the globe.

Lyon is also widely considered the gastronomic capital of France, so I never have trouble finding something good to eat, whether that's a traditional meal from a bouchon Lyonnais or fantastic Indian food.

With fewer English speakers around me, it's been easy to perfect my French

Between the tourists, expats, and bilingual natives, it was harder to find folks in Paris to practice my French with than I had expected.

Lyon doesn't have as much of an international population, so I've found that a lot of locals speak French and only French — which means I've had no option but to put my knowledge of the language to use in order to get by.

It hasn't always been easy, but I'm grateful for it. I have my time in Lyon to thank for my newfound ability to express myself confidently in any situation.

Now, when I go to Paris, locals don't even notice my accent.

• President Trump began his social media presence on Twitter in 2009.
• Since then, he's amassed millions of followers, and some of his posts have sparked controversy.
• Trump started a new social media platform, Truth Social, after being banned from Twitter in 2021.

"Many are saying I'm the best 140 character writer in the world. It's easy when it's fun," then-private-citizen Donald Trump wrote in a 2012 tweet.

In the nearly two decades since his first Twitter post, Trump's social media updates have evolved from well-wishes, promotional posts, and inspirational quotes into a more combative presence — one that has repeatedly sparked controversy, shaped news cycles, and helped the president build a massive online following.

Earlier this week, following a lengthy post criticizing Pope Leo XIV, he posted an AI-generated image on Truth Social that appeared to depict himself as Jesus. He later deleted the post, telling reporters, "It's supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better, and I do make people better."

The image drew the ire of Christian conservatives. Journalist Megan Basham called it "OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy" on X (formerly Twitter), while former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a CNN interview that she was "very offended."

The episode underscores how much Trump's online persona has shifted since he joined Twitter in 2009, when the internet landscape also looked very different. At the time, only 32% of Americans had ever used a cellphone to access the internet, according to Pew Research Center, and MySpace was about to be overtaken by Facebook as the most popular social media platform in the US.

As well as his online persona, Trump's posting habits have shifted. After Twitter banned him in 2021 (before restoring his account in 2022), he launched Truth Social, which became his primary social media home. By 2025, WCVB Boston reported, Trump was posting an average of 18 times a day across social platforms. His all-time record came in 2020, when he shared 200 tweets in a single day.

Trump's posts have looked very different over the years, though some characteristics have remained the same.

See how Trump's Twitter and Truth Social presence has evolved.

Donald Trump's first tweet promoted a TV appearance on David Letterman's show

In 2009, Trump was primarily known as a businessman and reality TV star for his NBC show "The Apprentice," which was in its fifth year.

For the first few years, Trump's Twitter account was handled by his marketing staff and was used to promote interviews and TV appearances. A few occasional messages from Trump himself — mostly well-wishes and holiday greetings — were always accompanied by a "From Trump" note.

Inspirational quotes were another mainstay on Trump's profile in the early years

Following the publication of his book "Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education in Business and Life" in April 2009, Trump's Twitter account often shared positive quotes from the work.

In 2011, criticism of President Obama and media personalities marked a change in tone

In July 2011, Trump began using Twitter to criticize the Obama administration. Within two months, he had amassed over 30 tweets about the president.

Starting that year, Trump also used Twitter to push a rumor that Obama was born in Kenya. Although Obama made his birth certificate public in April 2011 and dismissed the claim as "silliness" in a public address, Trump continued to fuel the conspiracy theory online.

(In 2016, Trump publicly acknowledged Obama had been born in the US.)

During this time, Trump was handwriting his tweets and replies in Sharpie and handing them to his then-social media manager, Justin McConney, to be published, Politico reported.

Among his online name-calling in 2011, Trump turned on Vanity Fair magazine, feuded with MSNBC anchor Lawrence O'Donnell, and criticized other media figures.

By this time, Trump had passed 800,000 Twitter followers.

Trump waded into other debates via posts, including statements on global warming

One week in November 2012, he tweeted about global warming eight times, including posts saying the phenomenon "is based on faulty science and manipulated data" and that the concept "was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."

His global-warming posts drew criticism from government officials and scientists. In response to a 2017 Trump tweet implying that global warming was a hoax because of a cold forecast for New Year's Eve, climate scientist Adam Sobel told CBS News, "This is a very tired and often debunked assertion."

The posts reflect the climate change policy across Trump's two terms. In February, the administration announced the rescinding of a 2009 regulatory guidance against greenhouse gases, which it called "the single largest deregulatory action in US history."

In 2013, Trump started tweeting entirely by himself

McConney told Politico that in February 2013, Trump got a new Android smartphone and sent out his first tweet on his own, an unceremonious message praising the actor Sherri Shepherd.

The tweet marked a turning point for Trump — by the end of the year, he had tweeted 8,000 times, averaging roughly 22 per day.

By January 2013, he had surpassed 2 million followers, having gained over a million since February 2012.

He used Twitter to fuel his 2016 presidential run

On June 16, 2015, Trump announced he was running for president of the United States. He had touted the idea on Twitter in the years leading up to the announcement, quipping in 2012, "My daughter Ivanka thinks I should run for President. Maybe I should listen."

Throughout his campaign, Trump used Twitter to speak on issues and lambast opponents. He notably regularly criticized Jeb Bush, with whom he sparred in the Republican primary.

Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton responded to one of Trump's jabs against her by saying, "Delete your account."

Trump continued tweeting at a high rate while in the White House

Among his tweets, he turned his attention to Greenland, drawing criticism for posting an image of a Trump hotel in the Danish territory.

According to the BBC, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the notion of a purchase "absurd" at the time. Trump responded by saying the comment was "nasty."

In his second term, Trump revived his interest in Greenland, and the White House didn't rule out the possibility of using military force to annex the territory. On Truth Social, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on European nations that opposed a potential US purchase.

Time magazine reported that the threats were widely condemned across party lines, with Republican senators Rand Paul and Thom Tillis among those voicing opposition.

By 2019, Trump had amassed over 63 million followers, and a Pew Research Center study found that one in five US adult Twitter users at the time followed the president.

Trump used Twitter to amplify false claims about the 2020 election

Following his loss in the 2020 election, Trump took to the platform to voice his indignation. While the Department of Justice found no evidence of voter fraud, the president continued to make the claim on Twitter.

The platform would flag tweets with a "misleading information" label, including some of Trump's posts.

In 2021, Trump was banned from the platform

Leading up to the January 6 Capitol attacks, Trump continued to tweet about the election, making further claims of fraud.

On January 8, 2021, Twitter permanently suspended Trump's account "due to the risk of further incitement of violence," it said in a statement. Twitter cited two tweets from Trump on January 8 that it said violated its "Glorification of Violence" policy.

In response, Trump accused the platform of banning free speech and attempting to silence him and his supporters, NPR reported.

In 2022, a Congressional inquiry on the January 6 attacks cited Trump's Tweets, such as one on December 19 inviting supporters to a January 6 protest, as inciting the riots, the BBC reported.

Shortly after Elon Musk purchased Twitter and renamed it X, Trump's account was restored in November 2022.

In 2021, Trump oversaw the creation of his own platform, Truth Social

Trump Media & Technology Group was formed shortly after Trump left office, and the company officially launched Truth Social in 2022. In an announcement, Trump said the platform was being created in order to "stand up to the tyranny of big tech."

He made his formal return to social media with a post on April 28, 2022, writing, "I'M BACK!"

He has since made over 33,000 posts on the platform, according to Roll Call.

On Truth Social, he continued posting regularly

Trump continued to post in similar ways as he did on X, although he more frequently reposted memes and edits from his followers.

Posts like one he shared of his face on Mount Rushmore weren't entirely jokes — in 2020, a White House aide reportedly asked then-South Dakota governor Kristi Noem about the possibility of adding another face to the iconic landmark. In 2025, Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna introduced legislation to add Trump's face to Mount Rushmore, though it never went to a vote.

With the growing use of AI, his posts and reposts continued to draw controversy

In February this year, Trump reposted a video that contained an image depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The image appeared for two seconds at the end of a 60-second video about the 2020 election.

The post drew immediate blowback from both parties. In a post on X, Republican senator Tim Scott said the post was "the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House." Barack Obama called the video a "distraction" and said "the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling."

Trump soon took the post down and later told reporters he didn't see the entire video. The White House said it was a staffer who made the post.

He also became increasingly combative toward his perceived adversaries

In November 2025, a group of Democratic lawmakers shared a video encouraging members of the military to "disobey illegal orders" amid Trump's deployment of the National Guard to cities across the US.

On Truth Social, Trump labeled the video sedition and called it "punishable by death." He also reposted a now-deleted post from another user saying, "Hang them George Washington would !!"

In response, three of the Democrats who appeared in the video filed police complaints, saying the posts threatened their personal safety, Politico reported.

Then, in December 2025, Trump posted a comment on the murder of filmmaker Rob Reiner, stating the Trump critic likely died due to "Trump derangement syndrome." Many Republicans in Congress condemned Trump's response; the president defended his post, saying, "I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all in any way, shape or form."

In March, Trump wrote on Truth Social, "Robert Mueller just died. Good, I'm glad he's dead." The former FBI director led a special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump's comments were met with widespread condemnation among members of Congress and political commentators.

In April, Trump used the platform to threaten Iran in the ongoing war

On April 5, amid the ongoing war with Iran and its effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump posted a threat to strike Iran's power grid and bridges on April 7.

The post, which contained an expletive, warned the country that if it didn't reopen the Strait, "you'll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH."

On April 7, the president gave a grave warning to Iran on Truth Social, writing, "a whole civilization will die tonight" if they failed to reach a deal to reopen the Strait.

In addition to elected officials' widespread condemnation of the statement, many also called for the invocation of Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, which could remove Trump from office if he were deemed mentally unfit to serve as president.

Between slamming his critics' responses to the war, President Trump has also used Truth Social to celebrate moments and thank some nations and their leaders.

"Thank you to Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar for your great bravery and help," he wrote on April 17, after the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Most recently, Trump used Truth Social to criticize the pope

After Pope Leo criticized the US' actions in the Iran war, Trump responded with a post against the head of the Catholic Church, calling him "weak on crime."

The pope affirmed that he didn't desire a debate with Trump, but would continue to speak out against war and promote peace, The Pillar reported.

Trump later posted an AI-generated image on Truth Social that appeared to depict him as Jesus. Following criticism, he removed the image, telling reporters he believed it had depicted him as a doctor helping people.

In some ways, the president's posts are similar to those from 2011

Trump continues to use his social media as a promotional tool, including updating followers on his next broadcast appearance.

He also regularly reshares positive media coverage of his policies and administration, posts congratulatory messages, and updates his followers on his brushes with celebrity.

Shopping for college-aged guys is daunting — especially if you're trying to wow him with the perfect graduation gift. From our years of experience writing gift guides and testing products, we've found that the best college graduation gifts for him are practical and useful for his next steps after his university days.

For more graduation gift recommendations, check out our guides to the best graduation gift ideas, college graduation gifts for her, and best high school graduation gifts for him and her.

A sleek wallet he can keep forever

Bellroy Apex Slim Sleeve

A good wallet is one of those "adult purchases" that makes an excellent college graduation gift. Bellroy wallets last pretty much forever, which is one reason why they take the top spot in our buying guide to the best men's wallets. This Apex Slim Sleeve is our favorite. It's compact but big enough for 6-8 cards and folded bills. 

Find out more about why we love these wallets in our Bellroy review. 

A pair of cufflinks

The Tie Bar Cufflinks

Cufflinks are a great college graduation gift because they're practical — think his new job or post-graduation interviews — and also serve as a memento of his accomplishment. We love the options at The Tie Bar, whether you're wanting a classic option like textured silver or something more cheeky, like T-Rex fossils or Miller High Life cans. Pair them with a new tie to fully accessorize his suit.

A starter watch

Citizen Classic

A watch is a classic graduation gift. This option from Citizen has a simple silhouette with subtle detailing and a leather band, so it's a versatile choice that looks good and matches his personal style.

A great weekend bag

Dagne Dover Landon Carryall

Dagne Dover has earned a spot as one of our default recommendations for great bags. Their weekender/carry-on Landon Carryall is made out of a cool neoprene material and has ample organization. It has an internal laptop sleeve, an exterior phone pocket, and a detachable key leash, plus a few other helpful design features. 

Read our full Dagne Dover Landon Carryall review.

A handy multi-tool

Leatherman Skeletool

Everyone needs a good multi-tool. This option from iconic brand Leatherman took the top spot in our guide to the best multi-tools. It features seven different tools and a carabiner for easy transport.

A pillow that pays homage to their alma mater

Embroidered College Pillow

They may have graduated, but their school spirit will last forever. These decorative pillows are covered in university logos, mascots, and icons. It's a sweet gift that helps them embark on their next chapter of adulthood, while also keeping a part of their last chapter close.

A stylish suitcase

Quince Carry-On Hard Shell Suitcase

Oh, the places they'll go! A suitcase is a particularly thoughtful gift to let grads know the world is their oyster. Quince's carry-on bag has all the features we love in suitcases from premium luggage brands like Monos and Away, but at a fraction of the cost. It's a sleek, durable roller that he'll feel confident carrying for both personal and business travel.

A nice set of dinnerware

East Fork 7-Piece You're-All-Set Set

Gone are the days of dorm meal plans and frozen food on paper plates. This stoneware set from East Fork includes everything one person needs to stock their cabinet, including bowls, plates, and a mug in a range of earthy colors.

A history of their favorite football team

Historic Newspapers Personalized College Football History Book

If he's going to miss tailgating and cheering from the student section, treat him to a personalized history of his favorite team, told with historical newspaper articles. You can even add his name to the book's gorgeous, school-spirit-filled cover.

A rugged backpack for traveling and outdoor adventures

Cotopaxi Allpa 50L Adventure Travel Pack

For the outdoorsy, help them ditch their old school backpack for a roomy, sturdy bag that's perfect for traveling, hiking, and camping. It's one of our favorite travel backpacks, since it also doubles as a crossbody. Read our Cotopaxi Allpa review for more information.

A titanium pan

Our Place Titanium Always Pan Pro

A good pan is a must for any new college grad. The Our Place Titanium Always Pan Pro tops our list of the best titanium pans, with a non-stick surface and tall, sloped sides that can handle anything from scrambling eggs to making sauces.

A set of glasses full of school spirit

Show Your Spirit! College Rocks Glasses

This set of two glasses is emblazoned with his college's chant and logo. He'll be reminded of his college days every time he pours a drink.

The newest AirPods

Apple AirPods Pro 3

The AirPods Pro 3 have a comfy ear fit, improved audio, and a longer playtime. If he's been using an old model, this upgrade will make a great gift.

An espresso machine

Gaggia Classic Evo Pro Espresso Machine

If he's ready to graduate from the basic drip coffee maker, splurge and treat him to an excellent espresso machine. Gaggia's espresso machine made some of the best espresso in our testing — and it's a great value compared to similar models, too.

A Switch 2

Nintendo Switch 2

If he's a gamer who hasn't made the upgrade to the Nintendo Switch 2, this will make an excellent gift. Pair it with a game he'll love, like Mario Kart World or Pokopia.

A classic grill

Weber Original Kettle Grill

If he's moving somewhere with enough room, consider gifting a grill to celebrate his graduation. The Original Kettle from Weber is one of our all-time favorites, doubling as both a charcoal grill and a smoker. Plus, it's super easy to move — it's small, lightweight, and wheeled.

A pleasant way to wake up every day

Hatch Restore 3 Sunrise Alarm Clock

Help them transition to earlier mornings with an alarm clock that wakes them up by mimicking sunlight.

A fresh pack of socks

Bombas Men's Running Quarter Sock, 6-pack

You know you're an adult when you get excited about new socks. If he isn't going to splurge on them himself, do it for him. Bombas makes some of the best socks around. They're high-quality, super comfortable, and sure to become mainstays in his collection.

Learn more in our Bombas socks review. 

A toiletry bag to use at home or for travel

Rains Hilo Wash Bag

Rains is a Denmark-based company chiefly known for making high-quality, stylish raincoats. This wash bag is of the same spirit. It's completely waterproof, which is a necessity for any good toiletry bag. The pouch features adjustable buckles that enable him to alter the volume of the bag to his needs.

A fancy messenger bag

Leatherology Henderson Laptop Brief Bag

This Leatherology bag is an option that inspires a bit more confidence than a JanSport. The startup makes great leather accessories for much less than you'd expect to pay, like this $300 messenger bag. 

A 6-in-1 kitchen gadget

Instant Vortex Plus 6-in-1 Air Fryer

After years of getting fed at the dining hall, adjusting to making his own food at home is no easy feat. Whether he loves to cook or can't fry an egg, an air fryer is a great addition to his kitchen. It's super versatile and can be used to cook proteins, veggies, and more with ease. It's pretty much a foolproof gadget; the Instant Vortex Plus is our favorite because it's affordable, easy to use, and has a viewing window so he can make sure he's not burning anything.

See why this product is the top pick in our best air fryer guide. 

A made-to-measure suit

Indochino Gift Card

Suits — especially the nice ones — are a large yet ultimately useful expense for most men, even if it's only for special occasions rather than his everyday job. This is one gift he'll likely wear for years to come — and something he will likely need before he has the budget to afford it. 

A spa-like robe

Parachute Cloud Cotton Robe

A high-quality robe makes lounging at home and getting ready feel like main events. This gauzy option from Parachute is soft, airy, and lightweight. Learn more in our tested guide to the best men's robes. 

A pair of cozy slippers

L.L. Bean Wicked Good Slipper

If his slippers got battered up in college, or he doesn't yet have a pair in his repertoire, the L.L. Bean Wicked Good Slipper is a classic. These slippers are incredibly plush, cozy, and durable. Read more in our guide to the best slippers for men. 

A handheld massager

Theragun Mini Massage Gun

For the college grad who loves exercising and cares about recovery, a Theragun Mini makes a great gift. This travel-sized device may be compact, but it delivers big on benefits. He can use it to relieve muscle pain, soothe tension, and help his body recover after a hard workout.

A Fitbit he can use while exercising

Fitbit Charge 6

If he loves being active, a Fitbit will keep track of interesting metrics such as heart rate, sleep quality, and exercise stats for him. We like the Fitbit Charge 6 the most, but you may find another option that works best for your graduate.

You can read about all of the best Fitbits in our tested guide. 

A pair of joggers he can wear anywhere

Lululemon ABC Jogger

These joggers look nice enough to wear to work or out to dinner, but feel comfortable enough for lounging. They're sweat-wicking, wrinkle-resistant, and quick-drying to boot.

A record player for his new home

Victrola Automatic

For the one who's constantly listening to music, a turntable for his new abode makes for a functional and decorative gift — perfect for setting a good mood in the home and elevating the aesthetic in any room. He can jam out to all of his favorite tunes, whether it's while he cooks in the kitchen or works in the office.

A Kindle for post-grad reading

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Learning is an ongoing process, and graduation shouldn't be the end of it. Giving them a Kindle means they'll have the tools to keep being curious in their lives by having the device that makes it an easy and affordable process.

If they already have a Kindle or they read on their phone or iPad, you might look into gifting them a Scribd membership. It's lesser-known than apps like Audible, but it's a better deal and will give them access to hundreds of thousands of books and audiobooks. 

See why this is our top pick for the best Kindle. 

A must-read financial guide book

"I Will Teach You to be Rich" by Ramit Sethi

Instead of skimping on lattes, it's wiser to choose the right accounts and investments so your money grows for you — automatically. Best of all, it frees you up to spend on the things you love.

Former executive editor for Personal Finance Libby Kane says she regularly buys a new copy of this book just to give it away, and it's an excellent introduction to making the most of your personal finances — especially if your graduate is young or new to managing money.

A powerful blender

Nutribullet Pro+ Blender

Whether it's used to whip up morning smoothies, big batches of soup to carry him through the week, or any other culinary creations, a great personal blender is a kitchen essential that he'll get plenty of use out of. The Nutribullet Pro is affordable and powerful. We love that it comes with to-go lids, so he can make a smoothie and take it to go without dirtying any more dishes.

A Bonobos gift card

Bonobos Gift Card

No matter what he has in store for life after graduation, he'll surely want to upgrade his wardrobe. Bonobos is a high-quality menswear brand that sells everything from chinos, button-ups, and suits for the office to casual styles like jeans, polos, and T-shirts to wear on the weekends. 

Read our full reviews of Bonobos' chinos and Bonobos' Chelsea boots.

A food delivery gift card

DoorDash Gift Card

For the guy who says he doesn't want or need anything, go for a food delivery gift card. Everyone has to eat. This gift will give him the green light to indulge in his favorite eateries and try new dishes too.

A customized business card holder

Vitt Custom Studio Personalized Card Holder

While his company will likely give him business cards, he's not likely to already have a business card holder he can feel good about pulling out of his pocket. A card holder like this monogrammable option from Etsy looks competent and thoughtful.

An Amazon Prime membership

An Amazon Prime membership is one of those things that immediately make life easier and ultimately better. If you decide to gift one, the recipient will enjoy free two-day shipping; access to the Prime Now app, which provides free two-hour delivery on tens of thousands of items; Prime Video, Amazon's streaming video service; Prime Music; the Kindle Lending Library; Prime Reading; Prime Audible Channels; unlimited photo storage, and more. 

Read about Amazon Prime member benefits here.

A wireless charging pad

Courant Catch:3 Wireless Charger 

He can toss his phone or AirPods onto this tray that doubles as decor and his tech will charge without being plugged in. 

A weighted blanket

Bearaby Cotton Napper

The real world can be stressful. While you can't really control that, you can gift them pieces that help soothe their mind and body, like a weighted blanket. The Bearaby Napper is one of the most good-looking weighted blankets out there, and thus our pick for the best weighted blanket overall.

An even easier way to make pasta

Microwave Pasta Pot

When boiling water sounds like too much effort, there's this easy-to-use gadget. All he has to do is add his favorite noodles, water, and then press go. He can even drain and eat it straight from the pot.  This gadget ensures he'll always have something good to eat, in literally an instant.

A durable mug made for camping and beyond

Yeti 14 oz. Rambler

The Yeti Rambler is a vessel that can do it all, from holding his morning coffee in the office or a bowl of oatmeal while camping. The durable construction, featuring a magnetic lid to keep things spill-free while on the move, makes this easy to tote around just about anywhere. With double-wall vacuum insulation, hot food and beverages stay piping hot while cold contents stay cold.

A new skincare routine

Brickell Men's Daily Advanced Face Care Routine

If he hasn't already, post-college is the perfect time to get a good skincare routine going. With a face wash, exfoliating scrub, and moisturizer, this set covers all the basics.

A small but powerful speaker

Sonos Era 100

Sonos makes some pretty great speakers for recent grads. They work well, can be used as a sound system, have useful features like a morning alarm that may sound more pleasant than their phone, and aren't so expensive that they can't possibly build upon their collection. If he's planning on entertaining friends, the Sonos Era 100 is a great option, especially since it connects with Amazon Alexa. 

An electric pressure cooker

Instant Pot DUO 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker 

Just in case the idea of tossing tons of ingredients into a pot in the morning and coming home to a nicely cooked meal appeals to him, the Instant Pot is every recent graduate's best friend.

Ultimately, if they spend most of their day at work or commuting, the last thing they'd want to do is come home to devote two of their three free hours to making a lavish dinner for one. Plus, it cuts down on how many dishes he'll have to wash.

We even rank this Instant Pot as the best budget option in our guide to the best electric pressure cookers.

A speaker that talks to you

Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen)

From music and radio stations to trivia and much, much more, your graduate will have ample distractions and helpful, hands-free info (like the weather or quick measurement conversions) while they're busy running around their place.

 

A fun mug

Playful sports mug

Just because they've graduated college doesn't mean they're too old to play with their food. This mug lets them do just that. From dunking their cocoa puffs to scoring goals with marshmallows, this dish is guaranteed to make mealtime more fun.

An Amazon gift card

Amazon Gift Card

If all else fails, you can always go with an Amazon gift card. Amazon has virtually everything a new grad could desire (really, there is everything), so you know that no matter what they'll be getting something they genuinely want — which, in a lot of cases, is best since they know what they need better than anyone.

• Stocks surged after Iran announced the Strait of Hormuz was "completely open" to commercial shipping.
• The news removed a major overhang for investors, who have feared prolonged supply disruptions.
• Oil prices also tumbled, with Brent and WTI dropping 10%.

US stocks surged on Friday, adding to records after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz was "completely open" following a ceasefire with Israel and Lebanon.

Oil prices plunged alongside the rally in equities, with Brent crude down 10% to $88.97 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 12% to $83.19.

The re-opening of the Strait, a critical passage for oil, was announced by Iran's Foreign Minister in a post on X Friday morning. The news has removed one of the market's most pervasive overhangs, with stocks being dragged lower for most of March due to fears of prolonged supply disruptions in the Middle East.

"In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation of the Islamic Rep. of Iran," Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote.

Trump followed up with his own update in a post on Truth Social.

Major indexes soared, with the Dow advancing as much as 1,100 points and the S&P 500 on track to notch a 12-day winning streak.

Here's where US indexes stood around 1:00 p.m. ET on Friday:

• S&P 500: 7,146.96, up 1.50%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 49,710.42, up 2.33% (+1,130.70 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 24,517.61, up 1.72%

The news also led investors to grow their hopes for Fed rate cuts, a major catalyst for equities that slipped out of sight as oil prices rose last month. The odds that the Fed could trim rates a quarter basis point or more by the end of the year jumped to 52% on Friday, up from a 30% probability priced in yesterday, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Still, some think markets aren't necessarily in the clear when it comes to the inflationary impact of the war. Joseph Bruseulas, the chief economist at RSM US, said it could take years to restore the lost oil supply from energy infrastructure that was destroyed in the Middle East amid the conflict.

"Oil prices will ease as will gasoline prices. However do not expect a return to pre war prices," he said in a post on X.

Investors, though, have proven eager to jump back into risk assets since the ceasefire with Iran took effect. Markets are feeling more confident that the conflict in the Middle East will soon draw to an end, particularly as President Donald Trump has continued to reassure investors about progress on a peace deal.

Speaking at an event in Las Vegas on Thursday, Trump said that he believed that the conflict with Iran was "going along swimmingly," and that the war "should be ending pretty soon."

Much of the market's gains have been driven by investors returning to tech stocks, which have been beaten down amid AI fears and the broader Iran-fueled sell-off. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF, which tumbled into a bear market in early 2026, is up 14% since last Friday.

"The stock market's Iran-driven correction is likely over now that stocks have made new highs," Paul Stanley, the CIO of Granite Bay Wealth Management, wrote in a note. "While corrections can involve a retest of the low, we would view any retests as a buying opportunity for long-term investors."

Choosing a healthy dog food isn't straightforward. The pet food market is crowded, with hundreds of dog food brands and formulas to sort through. If you're raising a puppy, you likely know to feed a puppy formula, but you may be wondering if dry or wet food is the right choice. If you have an older dog, you may be unsure whether an adult or senior formula is a better fit. Some formulas address specific health needs, such as stomach sensitivity or weight management. You'll even find foods marketed for large or small breeds. So, if you're not sure where to start, you're not alone.

To narrow down the best dog foods from top brands, we consulted veterinarians and animal nutritionists and researched hundreds of recipes, including budget-friendly canned food, kibble, and fresh food. Our recommendations are based on each food's nutritional adequacy, calorie content, and ingredients. One of our top picks is Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials Shredded Blend Chicken and Rice Formula. This dry food for adult dogs has a healthy balance of protein, fat, and fiber, along with beneficial additions like omega fatty acids, prebiotics, and probiotics.

All of our picks meet the standards set by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), which means they have the right levels of protein, fat, and other nutrients for a dog's life stage. These foods also align with the Global Nutrition Guidelines established by the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA).

Read more about how Business Insider Reviews tests and researches pet products.

Our top picks for the best dog foods

Best dry: Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials Chicken and Rice - See at Chewy

Best budget: Nature's Recipe Chicken, Barley and Brown Rice - See at Chewy

Best wet: Hill's Science Diet Adult Beef and Barley - See at Chewy

Best fresh: JustFoodForDogs Fresh Food - See at JustFoodForDogs

Best for senior dogs: Royal Canin Mature Adult in Gel - See at Chewy

Best for small dogs: Purina Pro Plan Adult Small Breed Chicken and Rice - See at Chewy

Best for large breeds: Royal Canin Large Adult - See at Chewy

Best for sensitive stomachs: Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach Salmon and Rice - See at Chewy

Best for weight loss: Hill's Science Diet Light Adult 1-6 Chicken Meal, Barley, and Rice - See at Chewy

Best for puppies: Purina Pro Plan Puppy Chicken and Rice - See at Chewy

Best dry

Dry dog food appeals to pet parents who seek convenience and affordability without compromising on high-quality nutrition. Because it contains little water, kibble is nutritionally dense and typically costs less than wet or fresh foods. It's easy to store, stays fresh for four to six weeks after opening when stored properly, and can be left out during the day without spoiling.

The best dog foods meet the AAFCO's nutrient profile standards and are labeled complete and balanced for a dog's life stage. It's important to check that this information appears on the label of any dog food you purchase. For adult dogs, the AAFCO requires at least 18% protein and 5.5% fat, though dogs don't need extremely high protein levels. Kelly Swanson, director of the nutritional sciences division at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Animal Sciences, says protein quality and digestibility matter most, and fat concentrations under 20% are generally recommended unless a dog has specific health conditions like pancreatitis or gastrointestinal disease. Our pick for best dry dog food, Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials Shredded Blend Chicken and Rice Formula, has moderate percentages of protein and fat that exceed the AAFCO minimums.

Nutritional adequacy is confirmed either through laboratory analysis or through feeding trials, which test how a food performs in real-world conditions. We spoke to two experts at PetDiets, LLC — Dr. Sarah K. Abood, an animal nutritionist, and Dr. Christine Willis-Mahn, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist — about feeding trials. They say that although these trials are short-term, they can reveal issues like poor nutrient absorption or palatability, say Abood and Willis-Mahn.

AAFCO feeding trials have shown that Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials Shredded Blend Chicken and Rice Formula provides complete and balanced nutrition for adult dogs. It's one of the best dry dog foods because it contains all the essential nutrients plus healthy extras. It includes omega fatty acids to support skin and coat health, glucosamine to support joint health, and prebiotics from dried beet pulp, as well as guaranteed live probiotics to help maintain the gut microbiome and support digestion.

Best budget

While ultra-cheap dog foods often contain lower-quality ingredients to bulk them up and keep their prices down, Dr. Jamie Richardson, head of veterinary medicine at Small Door Veterinary, says there are also many affordable dog foods that are good options.

Abood and Willis-Mahn say that animals have nutrient requirements, not ingredient requirements. Nature's Recipe Chicken, Barley, and Brown Rice Recipe contains both nutritious meat and meat meals. Although an ingredient like meat meal might sound less nutritious than whole chicken breast, meat meals can provide excellent nutrition — they are a more concentrated source of protein compared to fresh meat. Similarly, some pet food advertising portrays byproducts as undesirable and unappetizing, but our experts say meat byproducts in pet foods can be safe and nutritious, often consisting of organs such as liver, kidney, and heart, which are nutrient-dense ingredients.

Nature's Recipe Chicken, Barley, and Brown Rice Recipe also contains nutrient-dense whole grains, including barley, oatmeal, and brown rice, which provide easily digestible carbohydrates and beneficial fiber to support digestive health. Soluble fiber, which is found in barley and oatmeal, offers many benefits for dogs, including supporting digestion and improving stool quality. It also helps dogs feel fuller and more satisfied after meals, which can help with weight maintenance.

Best wet

Wet food typically costs more than dry food, but it can be an excellent choice for many dogs. It's especially helpful for dogs that struggle to chew hard kibble because of missing teeth or other dental issues. Thanks to its strong flavor, wet food is considered highly palatable and good for picky eaters. It also contains a lot of water, making it a good option for dogs with certain health conditions, including kidney disease or bladder issues. For overweight dogs, wet food can also support weight loss by helping them feel full and satisfied longer. Because wet food is generally less processed than kibble and contains fewer preservatives, it may also be easier for some dogs to digest.

Both wet and dry foods must follow the same AAFCO nutrient profiles, but comparing their labels isn't straightforward. To do so, you'll need to calculate a wet food's protein, fat, and fiber on a "dry matter basis," a measurement of the nutrients without water included. Cummings Veterinary Medical Center at Tufts University explains how to do this calculation. You can also call the brand or ask your veterinarian for help. We contacted brands to obtain the dry matter basis for our picks.

Hill's Science Diet Adult Beef and Barley Entree is a great choice for dogs eating wet food. Its nutritional adequacy has been verified through AAFCO feeding trials — the gold standard of evaluating whether a pet food sustains dogs in real life. Beef and pork liver provide nutritious protein and give this food a meaty taste that most dogs love. Dried beet pulp, whole grain corn, and cracked pearl barley offer beneficial fiber, which aids in digestion. This food also contains omega fatty acids and high levels of vitamin E to promote healthy skin and coat.

Compared to dry food, wet food contains more protein and fat and fewer carbohydrates. Before you switch your pet from dry to wet food, it's important to talk with your vet about whether higher protein or fat intake could lead to digestive issues. Of course, it's always best to change foods very gradually to avoid stomach upset.

Best fresh

Fresh dog food is made with whole food ingredients that are gently cooked to preserve nutrients. It's typically shipped frozen and thawed before serving. Because it's far less processed than kibble or canned foods, fresh dog food looks a lot like human food, and most dogs love the taste. While it can be expensive, it is a great option for pet owners who wish they could cook their dogs' meals at home — an endeavor that's complicated and time-consuming.

JustFoodForDogs recipes are complete and balanced according to the AAFCO nutrient profiles, and the nutritional adequacy of all of the foods has been substantiated through feeding trials conducted under AAFCO protocols. The company also follows the WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee Guidelines. Board-certified veterinary nutritionists develop the diets, and an extensive team of veterinary nutrition experts continues to review and enhance the formulas.

Another reason JustFoodForDogs is our top pick for the best fresh dog food is its wide variety of recipes, including 11 fresh-frozen options and 12 shelf-stable options, with many different protein and carbohydrate sources to choose from. It also offers diets formulated for specific health concerns, prescription diets, and custom diets.

While human-grade ingredients aren't one of the criteria for our dog food selections, JustFoodForDogs follows USDA and FDA standards for human food production across its ingredient sourcing and manufacturing facilities. If a dog food says it's "human-grade," it means the food is processed, handled, stored, and transported according to strict manufacturing practices for human foods.

Swanson has tested a few human-grade pet foods in his lab over the years. "While I don't have a strong preference to any one type or brand of diet, I can say that the human-grade foods I have had experience with are highly palatable, highly digestible, and resulted in a low volume of stool that allowed for easy clean up," he says.

Best for senior dogs

In dogs, the aging process can vary widely depending on breed, size, and other genetic factors. Medium-sized dogs older than 7 or 8 are typically considered "senior," while large breed dogs might reach their senior years sooner, and small dogs might not be considered senior until later in life.

Although the AAFCO hasn't established specific nutrient requirements for senior dogs, many pet food brands offer formulas for older dogs. These foods for senior dogs follow the nutrient profiles for adult dogs (maintenance), but often include added ingredients to support healthy aging, such as fish oil, L-carnitine, and glycine, which are found in Royal Canin Mature Adult in Gel.

Fish oil provides several benefits for senior dogs, including helping manage inflammation associated with arthritis or joint stiffness. It may also support cognitive function, heart health, and improve the skin and coat. L-carnitine has been shown to help preserve lean muscle mass, which can be harder for senior dogs to maintain as they get older. Glycine may also support joint and gut health.

Royal Canin Mature Adult in Gel is soft and meaty, with a strong aroma that can entice picky seniors. Its high moisture content is ideal for older dogs with age-related health conditions, such as chronic kidney disease.

Abood and Willis-Mahn note that limited research has been published on the nutritional requirements of older pets. If you have a senior dog, schedule checkups every six months so your veterinarian can evaluate your dog to ensure they are at a healthy weight and maintaining appropriate muscle condition. They can then advise if your dog needs a special diet.

Best for small dogs

There are no AAFCO nutrient standards specifically for small breed dogs, but foods for small breeds often feature smaller kibble for smaller mouths. They may also be more calorie-dense since small dogs can have higher metabolisms. It's important to talk with your veterinarian about your small dog's nutritional needs based on their breed, lifestyle, and ideal weight, since not all small dogs need a diet formulated for small breeds.

"Foods for small dogs are also often higher in protein than foods for larger dogs," Swanson says. With 29% protein and 397 kcal per cup, our pick Purina Pro Plan Adult Small Breed Chicken and Rice Formula, is a nutrient-dense option that delivers more nutrients in smaller servings. That said, eating a calorie-dense food does not mean small dogs should overindulge — overfeeding can lead to weight gain and obesity. This formula also includes omega-6 fatty acids from beef fat and from plant ingredients such as soybean meal and corn germ meal. Omega-6s are essential fatty acids that support healthy skin and coat. The nutritional adequacy of this food has been proven through feeding trials.

Small breed dry dog food is typically available in smaller bags, which helps prevent spoilage since small dogs take longer to finish a bag. This food is available in a 6-pound bag. However, if you're feeding multiple small dogs and go through the food more quickly, purchasing a larger bag can save you some money.

Best for large breeds

As with small breeds, there are no AAFCO nutrient profiles specifically for large breed dogs. Foods for large breeds are formulated according to the nutrient profiles for adult dogs (maintenance), but often include healthy extras to support the overall health and well-being of larger dogs.

These foods often include added ingredients that support joint health, such as chondroitin, glucosamine, and omega fatty acids from fish oil, similar to the best joint supplements for dogs. Swanson says they may also contain prebiotics to reduce stool odor. Royal Canin Large Adult dog food includes all of these healthy extras, as well as L-carnitine, which has been shown to help preserve lean muscle mass.

Some deep-chested large breeds are also prone to bloat, a life-threatening condition in which the stomach expands and twists when they swallow excess gas. To reduce the risk of bloat, many large-breed dog foods, including Royal Canin Large Adult food, feature large-sized kibble to encourage dogs to chew more so they slow down while eating and swallow less gas.

As with smaller breeds, be careful not to overfeed. Obesity puts extra pressure on a larger dog's joints, exacerbating joint diseases like hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, and arthritis.

Best for sensitive stomachs

Some dogs have difficulty digesting their food, which can show up as chronic stomach upset: diarrhea, loose stool, and gas, sometimes coupled with intermittent vomiting. If your dog is experiencing any of these symptoms, it's extremely important to take them to the veterinarian for a complete checkup because they could indicate a serious health issue or possibly a food allergy. If your vet rules out medical causes for your pet's digestive upset, they might recommend switching to a formula for sensitive stomachs.

Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach Salmon and Rice Entree contains easily digestible ingredients, including lean proteins, rice, and oatmeal, plus inulin, a naturally occurring prebiotic fiber that nourishes specific intestinal bacteria to further aid with digestion and overall gut health.

Abood and Willis-Mahn explain that inulin is found in chicory root. This fiber is not broken down or digested, but instead travels to the end of the digestive tract. There, specific bacteria in the colon use it to make fuel for the cells lining the intestines. This action improves nutrient absorption and digestive regularity, helping make stools more consistent. Inulin can also help dogs feel fuller and more satisfied after eating, potentially decreasing begging behavior.

Best for weight loss

Dogs that are less active or overweight may benefit from a diet formulated for weight loss. While these weight control dog foods still adhere to the AAFCO nutrient profiles for adult maintenance, they're typically lower in calories, with reduced fat and increased fiber to support a healthy weight.

Hill's Science Diet Light Adult 1-6 Chicken Meal, Barley, and Rice Recipe is formulated with moderate levels of lean protein and less fat, keeping the calorie count low. Added fiber helps dogs feel fuller and more satisfied after meals and supports digestive health. The food's nutritional adequacy has been substantiated by animal feeding tests conducted in accordance with AAFCO procedures.

This food contains L-carnitine, which may help preserve lean muscle mass. It also included Hill's ActivBiome+ Multi‑Benefit, a proprietary blend of prebiotic fibers and antioxidants designed to support vital organs and the immune system and promote healthy stool.

Both dry and wet weight-control foods can help dogs shed pounds, but pet owners might find it easier to measure dry food servings precisely. Accurate portion sizes are important because dogs can still gain weight on diet foods if they eat too much. Always consult with your veterinarian before switching your dog to a weight-loss diet. They can determine how much weight your dog needs to lose and recommend a plan to help them lose weight slowly and safely.

Best for puppies

If you're wondering whether your puppy needs special food, the answer is yes. To support their rapid growth, puppies younger than 1 year of age need more protein, calories, and fat, and a different balance of vitamins and minerals. Puppies also need specific levels of other nutrients, including DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oil. DHA is considered an essential nutrient in puppy foods because it plays a critical role in brain, eye, and nervous system development.

Purina Pro Plan Puppy Chicken and Rice Formula has been substantiated through animal feeding tests using AAFCO procedures to provide complete and balanced nutrition for all life stages, including growth of large-sized dogs (70 pounds or more as an adult). It contains 28% protein and 18% fat, which exceeds the AAFCO minimums (22.5% protein and 8.5% fat). The amount of DHA in this food is 0.1%, which is also higher than the AAFCO minimum for growth and reproduction (0.05%).

This diet also contains soybean oil, which Abood and Willis-Mahn say is a source of linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid in the diet of dogs. Oils are energy-dense, providing a concentrated source of calories. They also help with the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K), and can enhance the taste and aroma of a diet, making it more enticing to the dog. The AAFCO minimum for linoleic acid in puppy food (1.3%) is slightly higher than the minimum for adult dogs. This food contains 1.6% linoleic acid.

If you want to ensure a food is appropriate for puppies, check the label for an AAFCO complete-and-balanced statement that says it's intended for "growth" or for "all life stages." Do not feed a puppy food that says "maintenance" on the label — that's for adult dogs only.

What to look for in dog food

With so many dog foods to choose from, it can be challenging to narrow down the best options for your pet. Below are key criteria to consider when making a decision, along with your veterinarian's advice.

An AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement: This is the most crucial factor in determining whether a dog food will meet your pet's nutritional needs. The AAFCO is a private nonprofit corporation that establishes nutritional profiles and defines ingredients for animal feed and pet food. It's important to note that the AAFCO doesn't approve specific foods and isn't a regulatory body. That means it doesn't check the ingredients or nutritional standards of pet foods. Instead, pet food companies are responsible for ensuring their products comply with the AAFCO standards. The FDA, a voting member of AAFCO, regulates pet food labels at the federal level. States also regulate pet foods, and most have adopted the AAFCO standards.

If a food meets the AAFCO nutritional standards, you'll find a statement on the label that says the food is complete and balanced for a dog's specific life stage according to the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profile. There are three life stage categories:

• Growth, for puppies less than 1 year old and also pregnant and lactating females
• Maintenance, for adult dogs more than 1 year old
• All life stages, which include any dog of any age

If a food label doesn't say it's complete and balanced by AAFCO standards, you should consider it a supplemental food only. It means the food doesn't have the proper nutrition profile for use as your dog's sole diet.

There are two ways brands can meet AAFCO standards:

1. Guaranteed analysis: Laboratory analysis nails down the food's nutrient profile. If you're unsure whether a food has been analyzed or meets the AAFCO nutritional standards, you can contact the company to confirm.
2. Feeding trials: Feeding tests involve feeding food to animals under controlled conditions and monitoring the outcome. Because feeding trials are expensive, not all companies choose to conduct them. Abood and Willis-Mahn say that a food that passes feeding trials offers stronger evidence of safety and effectiveness than one that is only formulated to meet nutrient profiles. If the nutritional adequacy statement on the label says something along the lines of "Animal feeding tests using AAFCO procedures substantiate that [product] provides complete and balanced nutrition for [life stage]," it means the food has been proven via feeding trials to be palatable, digestible, and able to sustain pets over time. Abood and Willis-Mahn note that feeding trials are short-term only, so they might not detect long-term health issues. However, they are still valuable because they can reveal unforeseen problems, such as issues with nutrient bioavailability, ingredient interactions, or palatability (meaning dogs don't like the taste).

Guaranteed analysis: This is where you'll find the percentages of the most important nutrients in the food: protein, fat, fiber, and moisture. You might find other nutrients, such as glucosamine, chondroitin, and omega fatty acids, listed in the guaranteed analysis. The foods in this guide have moderate to high protein (AAFCO minimums are 22.5% for puppies and 18% for adults) and low to moderate fat (AAFCO minimums are 8.5% for puppies and 5.5% for adults).

Calories: The veterinarians we spoke with recommend that at least 90% of your dog's daily calories come from their food, with treats making up the remaining 10%. Dogs might start gaining weight if they consume excess calories. That can cause health problems, so look for the calorie content listed in kilocalories (kcal) on the nutrition label. If your dog isn't very active, they'll need fewer calories, and if your dog is super active, they'll need more calorie-dense meals. Helping your dog feel satisfied with their food is important, especially if you're trying to support weight loss or prevent weight gain. Feeding a higher-volume diet while staying within their ideal daily calorie range can help.

Additionally, diets with more fiber and protein can help a dog feel more satisfied without added excess calories. The right diet can help your dog lose or maintain their weight while reducing begging or scavenging for additional food. Check out this calorie calculator from the Pet Nutrition Alliance to determine how many calories your dog needs. Foods that struck this balance rated higher in our selection process. As always, your veterinarian can help you figure out if you're feeding your dog the right calorie amount.

Brand reputation: It's important to consider who decided what would go in the food. For this guide, we prioritized brands that have a dedicated nutrition expert on staff to align with the WSAVA guidelines, which recommend a full-time staff member who is either a PhD in animal nutrition or a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (DACVIM) with a specialization in nutrition or the European College of Veterinary Comparative Nutrition (ECVCN). The brand should also employ food scientists who collaborate with nutrition experts.

Ingredients: Read the ingredient list, but don't stress about it too much. "Although many pet owners make their decision based largely on the ingredient panel, it is only one of many considerations," Swanson says. "Without knowing the exact formula and percentage of each ingredient, it is not too useful. What is more important is that the dietary formula is complete and balanced."

The first thing to look for at the top is animal protein sources. You'll find these in the top slot in all the foods featured in this guide. Whole meat is ideal but can be quite heavy due to its high water content. With dry food, that water is removed, so the meat content might not be as high as it seems. There's no need to write off meat meals, which are usually made from parts of animals that humans don't eat. These can be excellent protein sources if they're high-quality and pack more protein than whole meat. Meat byproducts do not have to be a dealbreaker either. They are processed to remove harmful pathogens and, according to the AAFCO, are safe and nutritious.

Healthy extras: Some foods contain extra ingredients intended to support healthy skin, coat, and joints, says Swanson. Examples include long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA, usually from marine-based oils or meals), glucosamine, chondroitin, green-lipped mussels, and additional vitamins (vitamin A, biotin) and minerals (zinc, copper). Probiotics, prebiotics, and yeast can also benefit a puppy's immature gastrointestinal tract, and probiotics may help support overall immunity in senior dogs. You can also boost your dog's food by adding one of the best dog supplements.

Special formulations: Some dogs may benefit from sensitive stomach, limited ingredient, or weight-loss diets. If you're thinking about switching your dog to a special formulation, first schedule a consultation with your veterinarian, who may make a prescription diet recommendation instead.

Beware of marketing and pet food myths: Beware of marketing buzzwords like "natural" and "organic." "While both terms were intended to highlight higher quality ingredients, they do not guarantee high quality," Swanson says. The raw ingredients a company uses and its manufacturing processes are the best indicators of quality. "Like other ingredients that do not carry these terms, they are highly variable due to differences in soil quality (plants), feed quality (animals), ingredient storage, ingredient handling, etc.," he says.

Despite marketing messaging, human-grade, organic, wild-caught, or cage-free are not necessarily healthier for your pet. However, if you care about the welfare of the animals you and your pets eat, these ingredients are a plus. Unlike farmed fish, wild-caught fish aren't treated with antibiotics or medications, so they may also be better for your dog. You'll also find some foods with meat and eggs from cage-free chickens and turkeys.

How we choose the best dog foods

We've been reviewing pet food for six years, and our reporters consult board-certified veterinary nutritionists and experts with PhDs in animal nutrition. We ensure our dog food recommendations align with AAFCO standards and the WSAVA Global Nutrition Guidelines. We also review the nutrition information and ingredient list for every food.

Meet the experts behind this guide

Jackie Brown, pets reporter: I've covered pet health and wellness for Reviews since 2019, drawing from my experience as a veterinary assistant and more than 20 years as a writer and editor in the pet publishing industry. For this guide, I consulted veterinarians and animal nutritionists and evaluated recipes based on nutritional adequacy, ingredient quality, and adherence to the AAFCO and WSAVA standards.

JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM, pets reporter: I'm a medical writer with a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. I specialize in translating complex topics in preventive pet care and nutrition into practical guidance so pet guardians can make confident decisions. For this guide, I assessed pet foods for nutritional adequacy and alignment with industry standards.

Dog food FAQs

What is the No. 1 healthiest dog food?

There is no single healthiest dog food. In general, healthy foods meet the AAFCO nutritional requirements for complete and balanced nutrition for a specific life stage and use high-quality ingredients. Beyond that, no one dog food recipe can be considered the healthiest.

Abood and Willis-Mahn say pet owners can conduct their own "at-home feeding trial" by serving a food and observing their dog. Consider these questions: Do they enjoy eating the food? Do you notice any weight gain or loss? Do the skin and coat look healthy or do you notice hair loss or itchy skin? Is their stool easy to pick up, but not overly firm, or do you notice very loose stool? If you're not sure whether a new food is best for your pet, check with your veterinarian.

What is the best vet-recommended food for dogs?

Given the wide variety of dog foods and the different health needs they address, there's isn't a single best dog food that veterinarians recommend across the board. Instead, vets consider several factors, including a dog's overall health status, life stage, and lifestyle, to determine which food is most appropriate for an individual dog.

How often should I feed my dog?

Feeding frequency depends on several factors, such as your dog's life stage, health status, and the food's palatability. Your veterinarian can provide recommendations to ensure your dog receives proper nutrition and calorie intake. "The most important thing is to feed a complete and balanced diet and provide controlled amounts of food," Swanson says. "Monitor your dog's body weight and body condition over time and adjust feeding amounts so that a healthy body weight is maintained." Since dogs aren't inclined toward portion control, don't leave food out for all-day eating. Treats should make up no more than 10% of your dog's daily caloric intake, and your vet can help you determine how many "treat" calories your dog can have daily.

What ingredients should I avoid when buying dog food?

Dogs are usually not picky eaters, but that doesn't mean they can safely eat anything and everything. Below are some problematic ingredients to avoid when choosing the best food for your dog.

Garlic powder: Garlic is toxic to dogs in large or concentrated amounts. Garlic enhances the flavor of food but can cause oxidative damage to red blood cells, leading to hemolytic anemia. Signs of anemia in dogs include lethargy, pale gums, weakness, and collapse.

Raw meat: A raw diet consists of uncooked meat, bones, fruit, vegetables, raw eggs, and yogurt or another dairy product. Raw meat may contain disease-causing bacteria, such as E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes, as well as genes that promote antibiotic resistance. Both the CDC and FDA advise against feeding raw meat, including freeze-dried pet food that has been treated with non-heat methods of killing pathogens. Read more about the risks of feeding your dog a raw diet.

Specific allergens: For dogs diagnosed with food allergies, avoid ingredients that trigger an allergic reaction. For example, if a dog is allergic to chicken, their diet should not contain any form of chicken; a diet containing a novel animal protein source, such as duck or kangaroo, would be a good choice. A food elimination trial is typically used to determine what ingredients to avoid.

Do dogs need grain-free food?

No. Despite pet food marketing claims, there's no scientific evidence that grain-free foods are better for dogs than grain-inclusive foods. "Animals require nutrients, not ingredients," Swanson says. Concern over grain-free dog foods began in 2018, when several veterinary cardiologists noticed unusually high numbers of non-genetic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs. As of November 2022, approximately 1,400 cases of DCM in dogs have been reported to the FDA, up from several hundred cases since 2018. In its latest update, the FDA notes that this increase in reported cases does not indicate a definitive link between grain-free dog food and DCM in dogs. The investigation is ongoing.

• Sjoerd Gehring has left the $67 billion hedge fund Citadel, Business Insider has confirmed.
• Gehring was the chief people officer at the hedge fund, joining from Apple in late 2024.
• Hedge funds are battling each other for top trading talent, and recruiters have become stars, too.

Less than two years after leaving tech giant Apple for Ken Griffin's $67 billion hedge fund, Sjoerd Gehring has left Citadel.

Gehring was the hedge fund's chief people officer, starting in late 2024 after stints at Apple, Johnson & Johnson, and Accenture.

"We appreciate Sjoerd's time with us and wish him the best. Our People Team remains focused on their important work attracting top talent and developing colleagues to build unparalleled careers at Citadel," a Citadel spokesperson told Business Insider. Gehring declined to comment.

The ongoing talent war in the hedge fund industry has made top recruiting personnel critical hires in their own right. Gehring had a firm-wide remit that included other traditional human resources functions, such as talent development, performance evaluation, and compensation. His corporate bio was removed from the Citadel website as of Friday morning.

In a recent interview with Business Insider, Gehring described how the firm transformed a floor of Citadel's midtown Manhattan offices into a talent and recruitment center with a discreet, VIP entrance and a curved 8-by-25-foot TV displaying stats about the manager and employees as they went about their daily routines.

Gehring replaced Matt Jahansouz, who left in 2024 after three years on the job to join online clothing company Quince.

The firm's business development ranks — the internal recruiting teams that source and vet portfolio managers — have also had to deal with some turnover recently. The most recent departure was Eleanor Sharkey, who led business development for the firm's international equities arm out of London.

A person close to the Miami-based manager said Sharkey's deputy, Freya Maynard, has taken over for her, and the firm has also promoted Mackenzie Snyder and Olivia Cascio to head BD for Surveyor, one of its stockpicking units, and Fixed Income and Macro, respectively.

Citadel has also made five external hires focused on recruiting talent for its fundamental stock-picking businesses. The additions come from firms including JPMorgan and Barclays in the last two months. Verition executive Sapna Vir will join the firm in December as Citadel's head of BD for its credit unit.

While BD execs at Citadel report into the chief people officer, the company's top recruiting exec, they work and recruit for business unit leaders such as Justin Lubell in Global Equities or Navneet Arora in Global Quantitative Strategies.

• Founded in 2019, Ramp sells a suite of financial tools centered on its corporate charge card.
• It has told potential investors it is on track to reach a $1.4 billion run rate this quarter.
• That is up sharply from the $1 billion in annualized revenue the company announced in September.

Ramp, a New York-based fintech startup, has told potential investors it is on track to reach a $1.4 billion in annual recurring revenue this quarter as it prepares for a potential IPO, according to people familiar with the matter. That is up sharply from the $1 billion in Ramp's annualized revenue— the revenue a company expects to collect over a year — in September.

The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Founded in 2019, Ramp sells a suite of financial tools centered on its corporate charge card, along with software for expense management, bill pay, and procurement. Its core pitch is that it helps companies spend less and operate more efficiently.

Run rate typically extrapolates recent revenue, often from a single month or quarter, over a full year. For a company like Ramp, whose business includes transaction-based revenue tied to customer spending, that figure can fluctuate with usage and may not reflect fully predictable revenue.

Ramp also said it is growing its customer base by about 70% year over year and expects to generate roughly $125 million in free cash flow this year, the company has been telling investors.

Additionally, Ramp stated its plans to be IPO-ready by the end of the year and is building the financial reporting and compliance infrastructure required of a public company. That does not mean it will actually go public this year, but it is preparing the company for that opportunity.

Only 30% of traders on Kalshi, a prediction marketplace, are betting the company will go public before May of 2027.

Ramp's surging revenue has piqued VCs' interest as the company nearly tripled its valuation in a matter of months in 2025.

Starting the year with a $13 billion valuation, Ramp closed three rapid-fire equity rounds between June and November of 2025, jumping to $16 billion, then $22.5 billion, and finally peaking at a $32 billion valuation in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Other investors include Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Iconiq Capital, and 1789 Capital.

That valuation represents a sharp rebound from the fintech downturn, when Ramp raised a so-called down round of $5.8 billion in 2023.

Geoff Charles, chief product officer of Ramp, made headlines earlier this year when he said that all employees are expected to be AI-native.

"If you're not using Claude code this year, no matter what your role is, you're probably underperforming compared to others in the company," he said on a podcast.

"The people who are still in L0, they will most likely not be at the company," he added, referring to level zero.

• Elon Musk says government checks are the "best way" to deal with AI-driven job losses.
• In an X post, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO called for universal high income enabled by AI and robotics.
• Past economic growth hasn't eliminated poverty, and people need retraining, not a check, experts said.

Elon Musk thinks he has a solution to AI-driven job losses: the government pays for everyone to live well.

"Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI," the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said in a late Thursday post on X.

"AI/robotics will produce goods & services far in excess of the increase in the money supply, so there will not be inflation," he added.

AI is widely expected to displace a meaningful proportion of the US labor force in the years ahead. Boston Consulting Group predicted this month that 10% to 15% of US jobs could be eliminated in the next five years, affecting roughly 17 million to 25 million people. A Goldman Sachs analysis last year said 2.5% of US workers could be at risk of losing their jobs.

Universal high income (UHI) is effectively a more generous version of universal basic income (UBI), which is typically defined as a recurring cash payment to all individuals in a population regardless of their wealth, with no restrictions on how the money is spent and no repayment expected.

Whereas UBI programs aim to help cover basic expenses such as housing, food, and utilities, UHI would provide people with enough money to afford affluent lifestyles.

Peter Diamandis, a leading expert on the topic, has said that UHI will become possible not by giving out more money, but by reducing the cost of everything from food and energy to healthcare and education.

"When AI and robotics collapse the cost of living's five major categories by more than half, a $3,000/month check that barely covers basics today becomes a genuinely prosperous life," he wrote in a March post on Substack.

"The check doesn't get bigger," Diamandis added. "The world gets cheaper. That is when UBI becomes UHI."

Karl Widerquist, a philosophy professor at Georgetown University-Qatar and the author of several books about UBI, told Business Insider that "Musk is right" that UBI could cover more than the basics, and that the cost of paying a basic income in terms of GDP has declined due to forces such as automation, computerization, and AI.

But he said Musk is "wrong" to focus on unemployment when "low wages and stagnating salaries" are bigger problems.

"About inflation, Musk's prediction could happen, but we shouldn't count on it," Widerquist said, underscoring that even though GDP has multiplied over the past 50 years, most of the benefits of that growth have gone to the wealthiest people while poverty has remained.

James Ransom, a research fellow at University College London, told Business Insider: "If we can afford generous universal high income, we can afford to retrain and reskill — and the evidence suggests that's what most people actually need."

Ransom said his research suggests there will be a "productivity windfall for many workers" over the next few years, but they require "upskilling to capture it, not a check."

"For those who do lose their jobs, retraining done well preserves agency and self-worth in ways a basic income cannot," he added.

A future of abundance?

Musk made a similar prediction earlier this year when he said that saving for retirement could become pointless within two decades.

"Don't worry about squirreling money away for retirement in 10 or 20 years," the Tesla and SpaceX CEO told the "Moonshots with Peter Diamandis" podcast. "It won't matter."

"If any of the things that we've said are true, saving for retirement will be irrelevant," Musk added.

Speaking on the podcast, Musk described a future in which advances in AI, energy, and robotics supercharge productivity, generating an "abundance" of resources so that everyone can be given a universal high income.

For now, many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck after weathering years of stubborn inflation, onerous interest rates, and stagnant wage growth.

Surveys show that large numbers feel they're priced out of higher education, quality healthcare, owning a home, having children, or a comfortable retirement.

Experts in personal finance and AI told Business Insider that Musk's message was "dangerous and misleading," and emphasized that even if AI delivers abundance, governments will have to effectively distribute the gains.

John Nosta, an innovation theorist and the founder of NostaLab, labeled it "a coordination problem at the scale of civilization."

• Software stocks have rallied as risk sentiment is revived on Wall Street.
• BofA analysts say the rally might not last, and expect volatility.
• Piper Sandler warned that there are months of technical damage for software to repair before recovering.

Software stocks have bounced back after the first-quarter SaaSpocalypse, but investing pros say the rally could be short-lived

Software popped as risk-on sentiment was reignited on Wall Street following the US-Iran ceasefire, but analysts at Bank of America and Piper Sandler have both warned that technical indicators signal the gains won't last.

The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF has gained over 12% this week. The dramatic run-up hasn't been enough to erase earlier losses, with the ETF still down 19% since the start of 2026.

Software stocks were the focus of the market's AI panic trade earlier this year, with investors worried that the technology would dethrone software leaders. The SaaSpocalypse that ensued took down shares of software makers primarily, but the panic also spread to other areas like wealth management and insurance sectors.

But now, software is rallying again, with the Nasdaq Composite hitting record highs this week.

Piper Sandler described software stocks' move as a "big mean-reversion rally from recent oversold conditions." Bank of America analysts said that the sector's recent gains could reflect "bottom fishing."

"Down as much as ~37% from its September peak, the fifth wave down may be over," they wrote. The IGV ETF has more than reclaimed its 200-day moving average as selling pressures ease.

They said that the strong upward Nasdaq Composite amid the broader relief rally move could serve to reboot software, but the technical analysis paints a more complicated picture.

"A rising tide may help lift software names, but bottom confirmation and macro stability in the coming weeks is critical," Bank of America's technical strategy team said.

They noted there's no bottom pattern yet, meaning there's no clear sign that software has already hit its low, and more volatility is likely ahead.

Piper Sandler's technical analysts made a similar point, flagging that software has reclaimed its 50-day moving average, but noting that the space "still has months of technical damage to repair."

"We'd limit exposure to the mean-reversion relief rallies in broken sectors. 'Dip your toes' in them if you want, just recognize they face a long uphill battle back to highs," they wrote.

Bank of America suggested a stock picking strategy for investors in the software space, saying that Oracle, Microsoft, and Palo Alto Networks have more constructive charts.

• Stan Ng, an Apple marketing leader for 31 years, retired after a memorable last day at Apple Park.
• Ng's final day included a sunrise at Apple Park and a bike ride around the campus.
• His retirement day also featured a first-time experience.

After three decades at Apple, one exec's last day included checking items off his corporate bucket list.

Stan Ng oversaw marketing for iconic products such as the Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple's home and health offerings. He said Thursday was his last day at the tech giant, and it looks like he spent it exactly as he wanted.

Ng described his final shift as an Apple employee in a LinkedIn post.

"After 31 years at Apple, today was my last day," he wrote. "I think I got in everything I wanted to do on my last day before retiring."

He spent it at Apple Park, the tech giant's headquarters in Cupertino, California, known for its amenities that fuel a small community of employees.

His goodbye checklist began with a signature habit of CEO Tim Cook's: watching the sun rise over Apple Park. Cook usually kicks off big event days for Apple with a flick of the view from the spaceship-like headquarters.

Ng posted a similar photo, but his picture featured an Apple artifact. On his last day, he brought his original iPod to work with him, which he said still lasted for hours.

Ng said he took it to the Apple Park gym and worked out while listening to tunes. He said he got some curious looks while sporting the iconic white wired headphones instead of modern AirPods.

In his photo, U2's "Beautiful Day" is queued up. He continued his checklist by riding a bike around the outer ring of Apple Park for the last time.

Ng joined Apple as a system engineer in 1995, according to his LinkedIn profile. After 31 years at the helm of product marketing, Ng said there were still things he hadn't done before.

He finally completed his tour of Apple's exclusive dining service by hitting the one station he hadn't tried before, Caffè Macs. It made him regret not visiting the pizza station sooner, he said.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ng's retirement.

His last day finished with final goodbyes and a round of applause from his colleagues, which Ng said was a surprise.

"It was a joy to work at Apple, and I truly loved what I did," Ng said. "A big thank you to everyone I worked with, both inside and outside Apple!"

• Mohamed El-Erian sees a problem brewing in the US bond market.
• The renowned economist warned that this could lead to further problems for investors.
• He also sees the growing deficit as a problem that is likely to get worse.

Mohamed El-Erian has warned investors of problems in private credit, but he also sees trouble brewing in the market for US government debt.

El-Erian outlined his views on the Treasury market in an interview on CNBC, highlighting an emerging supply and demand issue that has him concerned.

"We have developed a fundamental imbalance between the amount of issuance we're going to see and the amount of money available to buy that issuance," he said.

El-Erian noted that it poses complications for the US economy as the government ramps up its efforts to sell more debt at a time when buyers might be scarce and as concerns are already swirling about the US debt and budget deficit.

He revealed a few specific factors he sees weighing on the US bond market as new bond supply ramps up, putting downward pressure on prices and upward pressure on yields.

"We're running a deficit of 6% or 7% of GDP," he said. "We have enormous refinancing to be done, and companies are issuing a lot more than they've had in the past."

El-Erian also addressed the recent statements made by former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who warned investors on Thursday to prepare for a "vicious" bond market crash that the government is going to have to deal with.

While El-Erian noted that he views Paulson's claims as "alarmist," he acknowledged that he sees other problems stemming from the demand side as interest from foreign buyers weakens.

In February, Chinese regulators urged banks to scale back on US debt holdings. Now El-Erian seems to think this problem is accelerating.

"Buyers get nervous," he said. "They want market solutions. They don't want any price imposed on them. That's a concern. But I think the fundamental issue is that the market doesn't realize we have this imbalance that's going to get bigger."

• Hurricane season is just around the corner.
• In recent years, hurricanes have been getting worse.
• The costliest US hurricanes of the 21st century include Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Harvey.

Batten down the hatches: Hurricane season begins in less than two months. And if you listen to the experts, this year could be a doozy.

While initial predictions point to a normal or below-average hurricane season in the US, factors such as El Niño, rising sea temperatures, and infrastructure issues still create the potential for devastating storms and an unpredictable season.

Rapid intensification, which is becoming more common, can even turn a mild tropical storm into a Category 3 in just one day.

As one professor told USA Today, "You prepare for a Hurricane Andrew or a Katrina every year because it only takes one."

Hurricanes can cause billions of dollars in damage. They lead to flooding, storm surges, and destructive tornadoes, which can wash away homes, stores, cars, and other property. They can also devastate a city's power grid, affect agriculture, and impact gas prices. The deadliest hurricanes can also take hundreds of lives.

To identify the costliest US hurricanes over the last 26 years, we used unadjusted storm costs from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and adjusted them to 2026 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' consumer price index inflation calculator.

Here are the 15 costliest US hurricanes of the 21st century.

15. Hurricane Rita — $30.73 billion

Hurricane Rita, which made landfall in September 2005, is tied with Hurricane Milton (listed below) as the two most intense tropical cyclones on record in the Gulf of Mexico, per the NOAA.

What made Rita especially dangerous is that it came just a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina almost wiped out parts of Louisiana and Texas. While the storm turned out not to be as severe, it still caused flooding and power outages across the two states.

Rita also caused extensive damage to offshore oil rigs in the Gulf, which halted "all crude oil production" and "80% of natural gas production" in the US for at least a weekend, NPR reported.

The death toll from Rita, including evacuation-related deaths, was 120.

14. Hurricane Florence — $31.39 billion

Hurricane Florence was the first major hurricane of 2018. It made landfall in Wrightsville, North Carolina, on September 14 and went on to wreak havoc along the East Coast.

Residents of coastal towns in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia received mandatory evacuation orders. Flooding was widespread, making some major roads impassable for days.

Florence also caused tornadoes, leading to at least one fatality. In total, there were 54 deaths spread between Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, and the most heavily hit state, North Carolina.

13. Hurricane Wilma — $31.50 billion

Fifty-two people died as a result of Hurricane Wilma, AccuWeather reported, after the storm made landfall in Mexico on October 20, 2005.

The storm triggered flooding and landslides in Haiti, causing 12 deaths. There were also mudslides across Jamaica and Cuba.

In the US, Wilma had the highest impact in Florida, with a peak of 13 inches of rainfall at the Kennedy Space Center, according to NOAA.

12. Hurricane Michael — $32.64 billion

Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle on October 10, 2018, a little less than a month after Hurricane Florence.

Michael was the first Category 5 hurricane to hit the United States since Hurricane Andrew 26 years prior — most hurricanes are downgraded to a lower category before making landfall, but not Michael, which was also the first Category 5 to hit the Panhandle, and remains the most intense hurricane to ever strike the US in October.

Michael also affected Mexico, the Cayman Islands, and Cuba as it intensified over the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm surge in Mexico Beach, Florida, one of the most heavily hit towns, reached 20 feet, per Weather Underground.

11. Hurricane Ivan — $35.65 billion

Hurricane Ivan stuck around for a staggering 23 days from when it formed on September 2, 2004, to its dissipation on September 25, 2004.

Ivan devastated Grenada, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, and other Caribbean islands before moving across the southeastern United States. Ivan also spawned a record-breaking number of tornadoes, with at least 118 confirmed by the National Weather Service.

The death toll reached 124 people.

10. Hurricane Milton — $35.88 billion

Hurricane Milton, which happened in October 2024, caused billions of dollars of damage in Florida, with extremely high storm surges, more than 100 tornadoes in a single day, and 140-mph winds.

You may recall that people stayed at Disney World during this storm, and while the guests may have enjoyed being there, some of the staff felt differently.

"Everyone was in a rush to get out of there, and it was scary not knowing how the weather was going to be on the ride home," a park worker told Business Insider.

Forty-two people died as a result of the hurricane. It was responsible for 15 direct deaths (12 in Florida and three in Mexico) and 27 indirect deaths that occurred during preparation or cleanup, the National Hurricane Center reported.

9. Hurricane Ike — $45.28 billion

Hurricane Ike, to date, is the second-costliest hurricane to hit Cuba, causing $7.3 billion in damages to the island, per the academic journal Annual Weather Summaries in Monthly Weather Review.

Haiti, Turks and Caicos, and the Dominican Republic were also affected by the September 2008 storm.

In the US, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida took the brunt of the storm surge, but flooding happened in states as far inland as Ohio. According to local Cincinnati outlet WCPO, 782,000 of energy provider Duke Energy's 900,000 customers lost power due to fallen trees and power lines.

The hurricane left 196 people dead, including 113 in the US.

8. Hurricane Irma — $66.89 billion

Irma made landfall in September 2017, when it "pummeled" the Florida Keys, and led to record flooding in Georgia.

Before it hit the US, it had already caused extreme damage in the Caribbean, with 36-foot-high waves in Havana and at least 41 dead.

At one point, the storm was the size of Texas. It was wide enough that it could've hit both coasts of Florida at once, a rarity in hurricanes. According to CNN, over 5 million people evacuated the state, making it one of the largest evacuations in US history.

The death toll reached at least 134 people across the Caribbean and the US.

7. Hurricane Helene — $82.42 billion

Hurricane Helene, when it hit in September 2024, earned the sad distinction of being the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland US since Hurricane Katrina nearly 20 years prior.

Across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Indiana, the hurricane caused at least 250 deaths due to high winds (including tornadoes), mudslides, and flooding, the NHC reported.

Asheville, North Carolina, a city 300 miles inland and 2,000 feet above sea level — so, not traditionally at risk from hurricane damage — was decimated.

Floridians also experienced Helene's wrath. Over 3 million homes and businesses were left without power. Oh, and they needed to avoid alligators that had taken over the roads.

6. Hurricane Ida — $88.84 billion

Hurricane Ida ripped through the Gulf Coast region in August 2021, especially in Louisiana, where it made landfall as a Category 4 storm.

However, the Northeast wasn't spared either, with devastating flooding hitting New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and even New England.

Venezuela also experienced fatal flash flooding, leading to at least 20 deaths, per Al Jazeera.

More than 100 deaths were attributed to Ida — and a "frightening" surge in hospitalizations due to carbon monoxide poisonings in New Orleans, per NOLA.com.

5. Hurricane Sandy — $92.79 billion

Northeasterners will never forget October 2012 when they got a taste of what it's like to live in hurricane country.

However, the damage from Sandy was actually felt from the Caribbean all the way up to Canada. Some 24 US states, from Florida to Maine, were affected.

But the most striking images from Sandy came from New York City, when the streets and subways were flooded, and from the Jersey Shore, where the famous boardwalk amusement park in Seaside Heights collapsed into the ocean.

In the US alone, 158 people died. Taking the Caribbean into account, Sandy's death toll hit 254.

4. Hurricane Maria — $120.41 billion

Hurricane Maria will forever be inextricable from Puerto Rico, where Business Insider wrote Maria hit like a "nuclear bomb" in September 2017. The mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, told MSNBC at the time that the island was preparing for "four to six months without electricity." It ended up taking 11 months to fully restore the island's power supply, per NPR.

Even two years after the storm, the damage was still felt heavily on the island. At that time, over 30,000 people were still living in shelters fortified with blue tarpaulin instead of roofs. The official death toll in Puerto Rico alone sits at an estimated 2,975.

Puerto Rico wasn't the only place affected; Maria was also the deadliest storm in the history of Dominica and the US Virgin Islands.

In total, 3,059 people perished due to Maria.

3. Hurricane Ian — $124.38 billion

Not even meteorologists were prepared for the severity of Hurricane Ian, which pummeled Florida in September 2022. It ended up being the costliest hurricane in the state's history, according to NOAA.

"The storm surge was unbelievable," Max Olson, a storm chaser who has been through 13 hurricanes, told Business Insider via email.

With storm surges up to 15 feet and a high amount of freshwater flooding due to hours of rain, Ian wiped out hundreds of structures across the Sunshine State, left thousands without power, and killed 161 people, including 150 in Florida.

2. Hurricane Harvey — $168.12 billion

In the almost nine years since Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in August 2017, uttering its name still can cause a shudder. As we previously wrote, Houston (which was majorly affected by Harvey) was a "ticking time bomb" for a storm like this.

The storm generated at least 9 trillion gallons of rain, and Houston's flat topography and outdated drainage system led to unprecedented flooding — some climatologists called it the worst rainfall disaster in US history.

Texas wasn't the only place affected. Louisiana also experienced flooding and power outages, and the Caribbean was hit hard, particularly in Barbados, Suriname, and Guyana.

The death toll from Harvey was 107 people, including 103 in Texas.

1. Hurricane Katrina — $210.17 billion

The costliest hurricane in US history was none other than Hurricane Katrina, the August 2005 storm that all Atlantic hurricanes are measured against, even 21 years later.

Katrina hit 90,000 square miles of land in Louisiana, Mississippi, and other parts of the Gulf Coast — an area larger than the state of Minnesota — and flattened them.

New Orleans was completely flooded after the levees meant to protect the city from storm surges broke. It led to thousands of people fleeing to the Super Dome for shelter, only to wait days for FEMA to arrive with supplies.

It's impossible to overstate the impact Katrina had on the Gulf Coast — according to an LSU report, 40% of the 1.5 million people who evacuated from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama never returned.

Over 1,200 people died due to Katrina.

• I've been to over 140 countries, but there's only one that I return to every year: Spain.
• I love everything from the food and history to the public transit system and annual festivals.
• Plus, the country is home to my favorite city in Europe — and maybe even the world — Seville.

Spending more than 20 years in the British Army means I'd already seen a lot of the world by the time I was 40 years old.

And since then, I've continued to enjoy traveling, reaching 140 countries (and counting).

Out of all the places I've been, though, only one keeps me coming back for annual visits: Spain. I've traveled there at least once a year for the past 15 years and am still captivated by its food, history, and more.

The quality of the food is fantastic.

From delicious street food to incredible restaurants, the meals in Spain never disappoint.

When visiting San Sebastián, I love having the pintxos — bite-sized snacks traditionally found in the Basque Country of northern Spain. One of my favorites is gildas, small skewers of green olives, anchovies, and pickled Guindilla peppers.

Meanwhile, the best pimientos de padrón (cooked Padrón peppers) I've ever eaten were at the Mercado de San Miguel in Madrid.

And my favorite restaurant in the world, Alfarería 21 Casa Montalván, is in Seville. The food there is great, but what really makes me love it is the staff. Everyone I've met has always been attentive and incredibly friendly.

My favorite beer, Alhambra 1925, is also Spanish, and having it is always a special treat.

I love immersing myself in the country's history.

One of the most-visited tourist sites in Spain is the Alhambra, a medieval palace and fortress in Granada, renowned for its complex designs and Islamic architecture.

I especially love visiting the "whispering gallery," an effect found in the Hall of the Abencerrajes. A local explained it to me during one of my many visits to the Alhambra: Essentially, the architecture allows a whisper to be heard on the other side of the room.

And just nearby is the Patio de Los Leones (Patio of the Lions), a courtyard featuring a fountain complete with 12 marble lions. I recommend booking tickets as early as possible, as they tend to sell quickly.

Other sites I recommend visiting are the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, which houses the famous Picasso painting "Guernica," and the Museo de la Paz de Guernica, which depicts the story of the bombing of the city during the Spanish Civil War.

The local festivals are unmatched.

Almost every town, city, and village in Spain has an annual feria (festival), and my favorite is undoubtedly La Feria del Caballo (The Horse Fair) in Jerez de la Frontera.

Held every May at the González Hontoria fairground, the festival features plenty of food, drinks, dancing, and a program of equestrian events.

It's beautiful during the day, but at night, the grounds are lit up in a spectacular way that makes everything look magical.

Another festival I enjoy attending is Las Fallas, held annually in March in Valencia. Hundreds of wooden and papier-mâché monuments called fallas are constructed around the city, and then, to conclude the festival, they're burned.

These structures often portray local and world dignitaries or critique current events, creating a blend of art, satire, and tradition that's really worth watching.

In my experience, the public transportation system has been very accessible.

Cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and Seville have public transportation systems that cover a lot of ground and are reasonably priced. Some single-ride bus tickets cost as little as €1.50 ($1.75).

Plus, throughout the country, I've consistently found the public transportation to be reliable, clean, and affordable.

On my last visit to Valencia, I easily took the metro and a bus to the beach, before heading to the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) again by metro and bus — a door-to-door experience without a problem.

Plus, the country is home to my favorite city in Europe — and maybe the world — Seville.

From the street art and Flamenco dancing in the Plaza de España to square trees and unique architecture, Seville has so much to offer.

But above all, what I love most about the city is its people. They're some of the friendliest folk I've ever come across. Whenever I sit in a bar or a restaurant there for half an hour, I leave with new friends.

I've lost count of the number of times I've been invited (and gone) to parties or events held by someone I met just two hours prior in Seville.

I can't wait to visit Spain again.

Overall, everything in this country has a charm unmatched by anywhere else I've been.

Though I've been to Spain over a dozen times, I never tire of savoring the local cuisine, taking in the beautiful views, and exploring its incredible architecture.

I'm already looking forward to returning this year to see La Sagrada Familia finally completed after more than 140 years of construction. While there, I'm sure I'll enjoy plenty of other new adventures, too.

This story was originally published on December 4, 2025, and most recently updated on April 17, 2026.

• Corporate life in America left Sam Correll and Spencer Claiborne jaded and bored.
• So they traded the American dream for new opportunities in Albania.
• In Albania, they've changed careers and became entrepreneurs who help others move abroad.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sam Correll, 38, and Spencer Claiborne, 30, who moved from Kansas City, Missouri, to Saranda, Albania, a coastal town about 30 minutes from Corfu, Greece. Correll and Claiborne moved to Albania in August 2024 and now help others relocate there. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Claiborne: Like a lot of people, Sam and I worked toward that concept of the American dream, where you have a nice house and a stable job that you go to regularly — and we had done that.

We had completely renovated our house during the pandemic, and it felt like I was spending every weekend at Home Depot and then my entire workweek in a cubicle.

I think Sam was feeling a similar level of burnout from the sameness. We both realized that we had grown up to believe this should be our path — professional, managerial-class work, homeownership, and dutifully going to Home Depot all the time.

Instead, we wanted to chart our own path.

Correll: It really wasn't fulfilling at the end of the day. We'd done the things, and we built the life, but we weren't doing anything new at that point.

Claiborne: It really seemed like we were going through the motions, and there wasn't a whole lot of excitement to look forward to. We didn't want to wait until we were retired, elderly, or either of us had some sort of health event before we decided that we wanted to go and see the world and become international.

Correll: We were tired of our day-to-day grind, but we didn't initially plan on moving to Albania. We went on a three-month-long scouting trip through Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, and the UK.

We went back home, and then we decided we wanted to make the move less than a year later. It made sense from the housing market we were in to sell our house, so we listed it. Then it was more about where can we go, and where can we stay for a while while we make a longer-term plan?

We thought entrepreneurship would be our best bet for working in Albania

Claiborne: Sam and I both left the corporate life and six-figure remote jobs to take a chance and to bet on Albania, because it's a great opportunity to be an entrepreneur here. And frankly, in this region, if you're not retired, entrepreneurship is the main way that you can move abroad.

Correll: It was still a huge risk because Spencer had decided he was leaving his job, and I planned to keep my corporate job for a period of time, but we knew that that wasn't sustainable long-term.

So we had to do something to monetize ourselves and be entrepreneurial. We had the corporate skills to do consulting and things like that, but we didn't go into this with a solid plan.

Claiborne: Specifically for Americans, Albania lets Americans stay for 12 months with no visa required. You just enter, you go through an e-gate, and you can stay. If you're expatriating, it's a really easy way to get out, get started, and establish yourself.

And if you want to stay long-term, you can very easily get a longer-term visa. We opted for an entrepreneurship, business-creation route to residency, and we're able to get a five-year residency permit with relatively minimal cost within about six months of arriving here.

Correll: It was less than $2,000 for both of us.

The point that really stood out in our decision-making process was we could do all of this from within the country.

If you're moving to Portugal, or you're going to a lot of the other countries, you need to get the visa before you leave the US. And because we wanted to sell our house during the summer market, we didn't have the time to do that.

Claiborne: One of the nice things about Albania is that it's both an ancient and a very young country — the government here is 30 or 35 years old in its current iteration, and there's a lot of rapid catch-up to the rest of Europe that's happening, especially as Albania gets ready to join the EU and rapidly modernizes.

When Sam and I landed, we weren't 100% sure of what we were going to do for money, but I could tell for sure once we got here that our American business sense and our entrepreneurial mindset would be valuable.

We're glad we abandoned our lives in the States

Correll: I think what's allowed us to succeed in moving abroad and moving forward is that we let everything go. We let our stuff go, and we let our old life go.

I grew up on a family farm with my great-grandparents' stuff from a hundred years ago, and my parents' stuff from several years ago that we inherited.

In Kansas City, we moved into a historic house, and we filled it with art and furniture and all of the things you do early in your stages of building a life.

Ultimately, we decided to let most of it go. We didn't want to bring most of it.

Claiborne: What I realized in that process was that it was our stuff that was holding us back. In working with other people moving abroad, we realized that as well. It is incredibly freeing but also incredibly challenging to get rid of all of the items that constitute your life. For a lot of people, the stuff really does weigh them down.

Most people who are relocating are older. They're in their retirement years, and they get a retirement visa. It's rare to see younger people who are in Albania for any length of time.

Especially when moving at an earlier stage of life, you have to have an attitude of, "I'll at least try it." You don't need to completely decide to do something like move abroad or live in Albania forever, but the nice thing about doing this when you're younger is that you can say, "OK, I'll try it. And if it doesn't work out, I still have time to do something else."

For me, there was a realization that I'd be kicking myself if I didn't try.

I really want to see if this is something I like, see if this is a lifestyle that I prefer — and I'm really grateful that we did.

• I'm an American who spent a year studying abroad in Germany, where I didn't know the language.
• Seeing how eager people around me were to give help and receive it felt new and inspiring.
• Back in the US, I realized my time abroad changed my perspective on asking for help for the better.

At just 19, I received a scholarship that allowed me to spend a year studying in Germany rather than my native United States.

Despite knowing only two words of the local language ("ja" and "nein"), I boarded a plane and quickly found myself in classes with only German students, trying to follow a sprightly, silver-haired teacher's lecture on Faust.

Although I couldn't understand the details, I noticed the instructor asked the class a lot of questions. Instead of responding with bored silence, students turned the hour into a discussion.

Each day, I watched more of the same as interactive dialogue took precedence over instruction. Although I felt — and probably looked lost — my classmates were eager to involve me, often leaning in to ask (in English) whether I understood the discussion.

When I whispered that no, I didn't have a clue what was happening, they were happy to fill me in on the Cliff Notes version every time.

Soon, I realized that my classmates were helping each other, too

This help went beyond class hours — it seemed those around me wanted to further my language and educational endeavors in any way they could.

Several people, including my German teacher (essentially an older, professorially dressed Mary Poppins) began tutoring me after school.

For the first few months of my move, I felt like I'd put my life and brain in a blender at high speed, but with their aid, I began to pick up the language.

One morning, a boy who lived down the block from my host parents approached me in the hall between classes. In German, he asked if I could look over his English paper and tell him what wasn't working.

His face held no embarrassment; he was hungry for critique. I pulled out a pencil and marked the pages with corrections right there. He walked away smiling. This became a pattern.

As friends and classmates helped me navigate language barriers and cultural faux pas with endless patience, I, in return, as a native English speaker, assisted them with editing essays, filling out job applications, and perfecting their pronunciation.

This behavior wasn't limited to me. Students approached the person with the best score on the latest physics exam and asked to review answers together. They compared class notes. They told the teacher when they didn't understand the geography lecture.

In short, they weren't afraid to ask for help — and it was seen as a privilege to both give and receive that assistance. The exchange was natural, mutually rewarding.

Back home, I realized I had learned a true skill

A year later, when I was back in America, taking college courses at a massive university, the valuable skills I'd learned in Germany came in handy once more.

When I realized I was going to fail my Intro to Logic class without tutoring, I didn't hesitate to email my professor. When he said tutoring wasn't available, I followed up by visiting his office hours to go over logical fallacies together. He seemed taken aback, but willing to offer extra help.

When I needed a part-time job with evening hours due to my class schedule and couldn't find anything that fit, I called on friends for opportunities. Eventually, one connected me with a serving job at the local Thai spot his girlfriend ran.

Some of this may seem basic, but it wasn't my norm before living abroad. I've learned to say, "I don't know. Can you explain it to me?" more often.

I have my German friends to thank for teaching me this mindset shift, which has served me both academically and professionally ever since.

• I made overnight oats using recipes from chefs Ree Drummond, Nancy Fuller, and Carla Hall.
• Hall's oats felt like a parfait with a lovely mix of textures. The presentation was nice, too.
• Drummond's overnight oats were good, but Fuller's impressed me the most and looked amazing.

One of my favorite sweet breakfast options is oatmeal, but I don't always have time to make it in the morning. So, overnight oats are right up my alley.

To prep this popular breakfast, you simply mix together your ingredients and pop them in the fridge. The next morning, the concoction is ready to be eaten — hot or cold.

Since I'm always on the lookout for more ways to flavor and elevate my overnight oats, I decided to test recipes from a few celebrity chefs: Ree Drummond, Nancy Fuller, and Carla Hall.

Here's how each turned out, and which one fully won me over.

Drummond's overnight oats had an interesting combination of fruits.

I was instantly intrigued by the apple-raspberry combo in the Pioneer Woman's overnight-oat recipe.

Her recipe called for old-fashioned oats, half-and-half, brown sugar, whole milk, vanilla extract, salt, a Granny Smith apple, sliced almonds, and raspberries.

I soaked the oats overnight, but the recipe says just 10 minutes will do the trick.

This was easy enough to whip up.

I combined everything except the almonds and raspberries, then let the mixture soak overnight. Drummond places these in a zipper bag in the recipe, but to skip the single-use plastic, I used a reusable container.

The next morning, I added the mix to a bowl and topped it with raspberries and almonds.

The oats were too liquidy, but they tasted amazing.

I noticed right away that the liquid didn't absorb very well into the oats. However, my first bite was very good despite the extra liquid.

I tasted the vanilla first, then the sweetness of the fruit, and finally got the crunch from the almonds.

I was also impressed that the apples only softened slightly. I was worried the texture would be weird from sitting in liquid overnight, but they still had a bit of crunch to them.

The oats were slightly mushy, but overall, I'd happily try this again with a little less liquid next time.

Fuller's recipe serves up the oats in a cantaloupe

In her recipe, Fuller serves up a hybrid of chia-seed pudding and overnight oats in half a cantaloupe, then tops it with blueberries and honey.

For this, I needed quick-cooking oats, whole milk, full-fat Greek yogurt, honey, chia seeds, cinnamon, blueberries, and a cantaloupe.

I was admittedly confused about how this breakfast would turn out, but I figured it would at least look cute with a fruit bowl.

I had to adjust the instructions slightly to get the oats in my fridge overnight.

The recipe says to let the oats sit in the cantaloupe overnight, but I didn't want them to spill since I have very limited space in my fridge.

Instead, I put all the ingredients except the blueberries in a container and refrigerated it overnight.

Before serving in the morning, I sliced the cantaloupe open, removed the seeds, and scooped the oat mixture into the center.

This fruit-filled breakfast looked and tasted wonderfully extravagant.

I'm not a huge cantaloupe fan, but the flavor paired so well with the blueberries and honey. Plus, eating my breakfast straight out of a giant piece of fruit had fun tropical-vacation vibes.

I like my oatmeal on the thicker side, and the added chia seeds helped it achieve that ideal texture.

Leaving the oats overnight in the cantaloupe may have added even more flavor, but I was perfectly happy with how these oats turned out.

I probably won't ever soak my overnight oats inside the fruit, but I'd definitely make this again exactly the same way.

Finally, it was time to test Hall's fruit-and-nut oats.

For Hall's recipe, I needed nonfat Greek yogurt, honey, oats, sliced almonds, cinnamon, salt, dried apricots, milk, cranberries, and mint leaves (for garnish).

The combination of toasted almonds and dried fruit sounded yummy, and I liked how simple the ingredients were.

These layered oats required a few extra steps.

Since these oats were layered, the assembly process was different from any of the other recipes I tried.

I had to mix together the fruit and toasted nuts, combine the oats and dry ingredients separately, and stir the yogurt and honey.

From there, I added nonfat milk to the oats and mixed in some of the yogurt.

Preparing these oats reminded me of making parfaits.

Next, I added the oat mixture into two jars, layered the fruit and nuts, and topped it all off with more honey-infused yogurt.

Once I put the lids on, I placed these jars in the fridge overnight.

It looked very runny, so I was hoping the oats would soak up all that liquid by morning.

The varying textures made these overnight oats really stand out.

After the oats chilled overnight, I added more fruit and nuts to the top and finished with a garnish of fresh mint.

The oats soaked up all that liquid, leaving the concoction soft but not mushy. The final result had a nice variety of textures, with the soft oats, chewy fruits, and extra-crunchy almonds.

I would love to try this recipe again and play with the different kinds of dried fruits and nuts.

All three recipes were pretty great, though I'd make a few tweaks.

I'd happily make all of these recipes again.

It was hard to pick the best one, but I think I'd put Fuller's unique cantaloupe overnight oats at the top. I wouldn't even make any changes to how I followed the recipe; it was that good.

For Drummond's oats, I'd just cut back on the liquid. Otherwise, I loved how sweet they tasted.

Hall's oats were also delicious with a great contrast of textures. Her original recipe was good, but I'm also interested in experimenting with other flavor combinations.

Check out the other celebrity-chef recipes we've put head-to-head so far.

This story was originally published on October 29, 2021, and most recently updated on April 17, 2025.

• The US Army has purchased thousands of cheap interceptor drones since the Iran war started.
• The interceptors, at $15,000 apiece, are designed to lower the cost of counter-drone defense.
• The US has sent numerous interceptors to the Middle East amid the conflict.

The US Army has purchased thousands of cheap interceptors since the Iran war began, its top civilian official has disclosed, as the Pentagon looks to grow its arsenal of low-cost air defenses.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told lawmakers that after the US began Operation Epic Fury, the Army purchased 13,000 interceptor drones for its Merops system within roughly eight days.

The interceptor drones "are incredible," Driscoll said Thursday at a House Appropriations Committee hearing. "They're about $15,000 apiece right now," he said. "We think as they scale, they'll get to less than [$10,000], and we're able to take Shaheds down that cost $30,000 to $50,000."

Driscoll said that these developments are "amazing because it puts us on the right end of the cost curve. And we will make that trade all day long."

The US, like other militaries, has been seeking solutions to make air defense cheaper than the threats it's designed to stop as drones reshape the battlefield.

Merops is a counter-drone system made by the US initiative Project Eagle. It launches a small interceptor called the "Surveyor" that can destroy targets like Iran's Shahed one-way attack drone by colliding with them or exploding in proximity.

The propeller-driven Surveyor, which operators can flexibly launch from ground stations or mobile platforms like a pickup truck, can fly over 175 mph and use artificial intelligence to navigate areas saturated with electronic warfare.

The Merops system is operated by a small crew that can be trained in days, while Surveyor is piloted using off-the-shelf Xbox controllers that troops can quickly pick up.

Merops was first deployed to Ukraine, where it has intercepted more than 1,000 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia. Last year, Poland and Romania purchased the system following Russian incursions into NATO airspace.

The US military deployed Merops to the Middle East in early March after the start of Operation Epic Fury to protect American and allied forces in the region from Iranian drone attacks.

A US defense official told Business Insider that the Army has surged dozens of Merops complexes — including the radar, launcher, ground control station, and Surveyor — and over 1,000 armed and unarmed interceptors to the region, with more on the way.

At $15,000 apiece, the interceptors are significantly cheaper than the other counter-drone systems in the Pentagon's arsenal and offer US forces a more cost-effective way to intercept Iranian Shaheds without expending multimillion-dollar surface-to-air missiles.

Driscoll suggested on Thursday that scaling up production could lead to a lower price tag — possibly around $10,000 per interceptor. He told Bloomberg last month that the US may be able to bring the price down to as low as $3,000, much closer to the cost of Ukrainian interceptor drones.

The Army's Merops acquisition comes as the US and its allies show growing interest in interceptor drones after their success in Ukraine, where Kyiv's forces have used them to counter mass attacks by Iranian-designed Shaheds and Russian-made variants.

Patagonia may be best known for its fleeces, but its Baggies shorts have quietly built a following of their own — and for good reason. Originally released in 1982, these nylon shorts are designed to handle just about anything, from hiking and climbing to swimming and everyday wear.

Patagonia calls them "Life's Shorts," and the name holds up. Made from a durable and quick-drying fabric, we regard them as one of the best all-in-one hybrid shorts, and they've made our lists for the best men's shorts, best summer shorts for women, and the best swim trunks.

More than 40 years later, today's version is more refined, yet just as classic as the original. For more of our favorites, read our full Patagonia outdoor clothing review here.

Design and features

The latest versions of Patagonia Baggies are lightweight, durable, and made with 100% recycled nylon. They feature a water-resistant coating to keep you dry from rain and light splashes, but they can also be used while fully submerged. Features like vertical side pockets help reduce drag when you're in the water, and mesh interiors help water drain quickly so you dry faster when transitioning out of the water.

Additional features like a drawstring waist, snap-close back pockets, and a bungee loop key ring in the pocket help keep them secure on your body and your belongings safe inside. 

Patagonia Baggies are available in a variety of lengths, colors, and patterns in men's and women's sizes. We put several styles to the test in our daily lives over the summer. You can check out our reviews below.

Review of the Men's 7-Inch Patagonia Baggies Longs

I got my first pair of Patagonia Baggies four years ago, and I loved them so much that I needed to stock up on more colors. My summer style is casual and pretty much consists of sneakers and T-shirts every day, so the relaxed fit of the Baggies is the perfect match. If you choose the right colors, they go with everything. I personally prefer the 7-inch Longs version over the 5-inch Shorts because they're not too high up, but they still fall above the knee.

In addition to looking the part, Patagonia Baggies perform exceptionally well. They're lightweight and keep me much cooler than cotton shorts or chinos. Even though there's mesh netting on the inside, they're not tight, restrictive, or uncomfortable. The most impressive feature has been how quickly they dry. I've worn them as swimming trunks, and about 20 minutes after being out of the pool, they were completely dry. Every time I've gone swimming, I've been able to wear them for the rest of the day as regular shorts without feeling soggy and damp. — Amir Ismael, style editor, Reviews

Review of the Women's 5-Inch Patagonia Baggies Shorts

Patagonia's Baggies Shorts are a staple of my summer wardrobe. I bought a couple of pairs last year and honestly might buy another color just for the added variety. Their relaxed fit makes them perfect for any and all casual activities, and I often wear them when I'm working from home because they're so comfortable. In a pinch, I've worn them to work out, too, since they're super lightweight and they repel water and sweat. I'm a size 28 in jeans, so I could have gone for a Small, according to Patagonia's size chart, but I sized up to a medium for a looser fit. — Ellen Hoffman, former Editor-in-Chief, Service Journalism

Review of the Men's 5-Inch Patagonia Baggies Shorts

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but the 5-inch Baggies Shorts are just a little too short for me. Maybe it's because I'm not that tall, but I didn't like the length compared to the 7-inch Baggies Longs. In the picture above, I actually wore them slightly below my waistline to make them look a bit longer.

Plenty of people can pull off the short shorts look, so if you're down to show some thighs, they're just as good as the longer pair in terms of performance and comfort. You'll find the same pockets, drawstrings, and interior netting.

While fit should be the biggest factor in choosing Baggies Longs or Baggies Shorts, color also plays a part. I found that there are more colors available for the Baggies Shorts. I probably wouldn't get another pair of 5-inch Baggies because I prefer the longer length, but I couldn't pass up this Fire Red color. — Amir Ismael, style editor, Reviews

Review of the Women's 2.5-Inch Patagonia Barely Baggies Shorts

I was worried the 2.5-inch length would be too short, but at five-foot-two, it fell closer to mid-thigh on me. It didn't feel too short at all. The style is so versatile, you can easily wear these casually for running errands or water activities or hiking, and I appreciate how there's an extra pocket on the interior of the shorts where you can stash an ID or credit card.

The only issue I personally experienced with the Barely Baggies is the sizing. I went with my typical XS based on the size chart and reviews, and they were too tight in the waist and too loose in the legs. If you're unsure about the fit, I recommend sizing up because you can always make them tighter with the drawstring cord. — Ashley Phillips, former style and beauty editor, Reviews

Cons to consider

Patagonia Baggies are so versatile and comfortable that I had a hard time coming up with anything that might be seen as a negative. Some people are strictly against netting inside of shorts, but Patagonia has figured out how to include it without making it uncomfortable or restrictive, even with underwear. 

The bottom line

At $69 for all lengths, Patagonia Baggies are a great value. They can seamlessly transition from casual wear to water activities or be worn while lounging around. Considering certain performance shorts and swim trunks cost significantly more than $69, being able to use them for all kinds of activities truly makes them Life's Shorts.

The various lengths, sizes, and colors make them a good addition to almost anyone's wardrobe. Pick the right length for your style, and you'll almost certainly love them.

• I work with college students and recent college graduates to help them land their first jobs.
• Many are prioritizing the wrong skills and failing to focus on what employers are looking for.
• Instead, job seekers should focus on responsiveness and adaptability.

We've all heard the horror stories of unemployed people sending out hundreds of job applications into a void with barely a response, much less an interview.

Recent job indicators suggest this is shaping up to be one of the most challenging job markets for new college graduates in recent memory, with AI and shifting workforce priorities creating an uncertain landscape for young people entering the workforce.

After 25 years of working with thousands of students and recent college graduates, and interviewing young adults for my book, "Getting In Is Not: Blueprint for Success Beyond Grades, Test Scores, and College Admission," I learned a hard truth: We've focused on the wrong metrics for "success" in school and in the workforce.

There is a disconnect between the skills needed to help people thrive in a rapidly changing workforce and the ones that high schools and colleges measure. And, the skills employers need are not the ones most job seekers think to develop or highlight in their job search.

Here are four undervalued skills that are often overlooked, yet remain critical for landing a job and for keeping one.

A 'get it done' attitude

Former President Obama said it plainly in a 2023 interview: Being a person known for getting things done is powerful.

So many young adults today are worried about getting the wrong answer or doing something incorrectly that they fail to develop the "can-do" approach needed to take on a project and see it through completion, no matter the obstacle.

Employers value those whom they can count on to be solutions-oriented, and they want to see this demonstrated in interviews and early job tasks.

Adaptability

I worked with a recent college grad who became genuinely distressed when her new employer wouldn't hand her a weekly task list every Monday morning. She wanted to schedule her week around preset assignments and would become frustrated if priorities later shifted or new information meant a project was headed in a new direction.

In school, she had been rewarded for her rigidity, especially when it meant following directions and checking off predetermined boxes.

But in the workplace, priorities can shift, projects can change direction, and adaptability signals to employers an ability to think on your feet and respond constructively.

Responsiveness and follow-through

A television producer recently lamented to me that her biggest challenge with recent hires was that many didn't understand the difference between urgent, important, and can-wait.

As a result, a time-sensitive email would sit unanswered. That might not seem very important, but in the job hiring process, it might mean that by the time the candidate responds, the opportunity is gone.

I worked with one recent grad who wanted to make a career pivot into sports data analytics. To break into this very different field, he committed to applying to 10 job postings per day with a targeted approach and to telling everyone in his network what he was looking for. When his job ultimately came through through one of those personalized job submissions, the hiring process moved fast. He got the job in part because he was responsive and followed through at every step.

Self-direction

Employers are looking for people who can self-motivate. They arrive prepared and ask reflective questions. The candidates and early-career hires who stand out are the ones who bring a can-do attitude, are solutions-oriented, and demonstrate the responsiveness necessary to navigate and manage different assignments.

These four skills can't be outsourced, and the candidates who land a job (and who thrive once they do!) are the ones who lead with these skills — both in how they search for employment and in how they show up to the job.

• College grads face a job market where tepid hiring and long searches are common.
• At one school, overall job openings are up from a year ago, but the mix of roles has shifted.
• Employers often ask early-career hires to arrive with AI skills and demonstrated work experience.

For many college seniors, the toughest assignment this spring might be their job hunt.

Grads are still finding roles, though it often takes more time and hustle, several campus career advisors told Business Insider.

"Soon-to-be graduates are getting jobs, but job searches are long, and hiring is slow," said Jennifer Neef, executive director of the career center at the University of Illinois.

The challenge is showing up in the data. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates rose to about 5.7% at the end of 2025, up from about 5.3% in the third quarter, according to the New York Federal Reserve.

Underemployment is also up, with 42.5% of graduates working in jobs that generally don't require a degree — the highest level since 2020.

At the same time, the types of open roles are shifting.

In the job listings at the career office at Wake Forest University, overall openings are up from a year ago, though there are fewer entry-level postings in areas like marketing, finance, and HR — especially for jobs built around routine analysis or administrative work, said Andy Chan, who runs the school's Office of Personal and Career Development.

"These roles still exist, but the companies don't need as many people to do them," he said.

Business Insider asked several university career center leaders what grads should consider. Here's what they recommend:

Be open to a 'stepping-stone role'

Grads need to identify their priorities and stay flexible, said Matt Augeri, director of operations and strategic initiatives at the University of Iowa's career center.

Job seekers who want to be in a certain location might have to take a position that's not a perfect fit, he said. Another way to be adaptable, Augeri said, is to consider "stepping-stone roles" that build skills toward a longer-term career goal.

"Hiring is essentially flat, so students are going to need to be thinking about option A, B, and C," he said.

Don't forget about the 'hidden job market'

One way to carve out an advantage in a lackluster market is to build connections — both to find opportunities and to stay motivated during what can be an extended search.

Networking is more important now in part because the hiring process has become "even more opaque," Chan said. One reason is that employers are generally offering fewer entry-level training programs, he said.

At the same time, Chan said, there are more "hidden job market opportunities," where grads land roles through networking rather than by solely applying through job boards.

Making connections also matters because it can be harder to stand out. Students can use AI to create tailored résumés, though companies can also scan them using AI, he said.

At the same time, it's become so easy to apply for jobs with a few clicks — or to have AI do it on behalf of job seekers — that many recruiters and employers report being inundated with applications.

Show your work

Chan said entry-level jobs aren't going away, though the baseline has shifted. Employers now want hires who can do more than the administrative, data, and research work that once defined many first jobs.

As AI becomes more capable, Chan said, employers are looking for candidates to do the same.

"They want people who are able to be effective in these roles at a higher level," he said.

To show they've got what it takes, Chan said, grads should be able to point to some kind of work-related experience — whether that's from a job, a project, a student club, or a hobby.

Internships are also key, said Augeri, adding that many employers are scanning résumés for this kind of experience.

"They want to hear about it in interviews," he said.

Demonstrate your AI chops

Most seniors would have started college not long before ChatGPT's arrival, in late 2022. Now that they've been exposed to it for years, it's important for grads to show they know how to use AI, Chan said.

Doing so demonstrates a willingness to learn something new — a theme that's likely shaped much of their college experience. Grads also need to show they could use AI in entry-level work "so that they can actually add value more quickly," he said.

"If you want to win the job, you want to actually have these experiences, know how to talk about them, and why they're relevant to this employer," Chan said.

Augeri said that employers' thirst for AI know-how is showing up in job descriptions across industries, including for roles that aren't technical.

Many entry-level roles, rather than going away, are instead "infused with this need for AI and discussion of AI," he said.

Be patient

When employers do make offers, some of them are extending their timelines, said Kathleen Powell, chief career officer at William & Mary. Rather than hiring someone to start in about a month, she said, it might be in three months.

"They keep moving the end zone," Powell said.

Overall, graduates — and their parents — should be prepared for a process that could stretch on for months and might involve multiple rounds of interviews, said Augeri.

"Start early and be patient," he said.

Do you have a story to share about your job search? Contact this reporter at tparadis@businessinsider.com.

• Air New Zealand created a one-of-a-kind bunk bed in economy that will cost $495 to use.
• The "Skynest" can accommodate up to six people and features a curtain, linens, and earplugs.
• It'll be installed on ultra-premium Boeing 787s flying between New York and Auckland from November.

The future of airline economy comfort looks a lot like a hostel dorm — but much more expensive.

Air New Zealand on Tuesday unveiled a one-of-a-kind sleeping option called the "Skynest" that will let economy and premium economy passengers pay extra to sleep in bunk beds on its longest flights.

It offers a taste of business-class comfort without the multi-thousand-dollar price tag, reflecting the industry's push for premium revenue as passengers shell out for more comfort across all cabins.

The two sets of three high bunks will be installed on ultra-premium Boeing 787s. Passengers can book one of two four-hour blocks for $495 per person, on top of the standard coach fare, and will be limited to one session per flight.

Skynest will complement ANZ's "Skycouch" — a row of three coach seats with flippable legrests that create a wide sleeping surface — which is already available on long-haul flights like Auckland to New York, Tokyo, and Shanghai.

"Having two lie-flat options in economy class, I think one is unheard of — now we've got two options," ANZ CEO Nikhil Ravishankar said at an event in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday.

ANZ connects Auckland and the South Pacific to US cities like New York, Houston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. That ultra-long-haul strategy has driven its focus on developing sleep options.

For now, the Skynest will only be on New York flights. Tickets go on sale May 18 for travel beginning in November, though the exact flight dates are still unclear. Qantas also operates the route, but doesn't offer beds in economy.

I was among the reporters invited to preview the Skynest before the tickets went on sale. It looks quite compact from the outside, but it felt cozy once I crawled into the pod.

The curtain's promise of privacy and darkness would make it easy to sleep. And, at 5'3", I fit with room to spare. It reminded me of the capsule hotel I once booked during a long layover in Tokyo.

While four hours likely won't be worth it for many passengers — especially taller ones who may feel snug — I'd pay for the nap on an outbound flight to help with jet lag. I'd stick with a regular coach seat on the return to save money.

Here's how the Skynest will work.

The Skynest will be located in the middle of the plane.

A spokesperson for ANZ said the mid-galley was removed to make space for the Skynest, with only five economy seats in total cut. The aft galley, where meals are stored and heated before service, is now larger.

To start, passengers will be able to choose the exact bunk they want during booking; empty bunks will eventually be bookable on demand at the airport.

It features curtains, power, and a seatbelt.

Each of the six bunks has a black privacy curtain that slides closed. This darkens the space and cuts you off from your up to five neighbors sleeping nearby.

The pod wall stretches far to keep passengers from falling out, but they must also wear the provided seatbelt over the blanket.

Flyers get soft linens and an amenity kit.

The bed stretches about six and a half feet long, and each nest is about two feet wide at the shoulders and roughly 16 inches at the feet.

That's about the length of most business class beds, but in a more confined space. To get in, I had to climb up the steps, lie down on the bed with my head toward the pillow, and then shimmy myself in — not pretty, but manageable.

Each nest comes with a pillow, a light blanket, and an amenity kit with socks, toiletries, earplugs, and an eye mask. The linens were soft and plush, though not business-class quality.

I'd prefer the bottom or middle bunks.

There's a ladder to reach the uppermost bunks, but that could be dicey for some passengers during unexpected turbulence. I'd prioritize the middle or bottom bunks simply for maneuverability.

A spokesperson said the bottom and middle bunks are disability-friendly, adding that ANZ tested them with wheelchair users, but individuals still have to get in and out on their own.

Flyers will eat before or after their block.

All flyers will have their first meal before the first block begins. Flight attendants will gently wake passengers before taking 30 minutes to change the linens.

The second group will then use the nests before the second meal service. A spokesperson said that if turbulence disrupts anyone's session because they can't safely get to the Skynest, passengers will be refunded for the time lost.

You must be 15 or older.

A spokesperson said flyers must be at least 15 to use the Skynest to reduce the risk of younger teens and children climbing or disrupting other customers.

I'd book the Skynest to fight jet lag.

The nearly $500 price tag translates to about $125 per hour per flight, with fixed booking blocks that can't be adjusted. It's not cheap or flexible, but it's less than the up to $600 initially floated by ANZ.

I'm short and don't mind tight spaces, so I know I'd sleep well in the nest — and four hours is enough for me to function.

I'd book it specifically on the outbound to Auckland to help battle the jet lag that comes with crossing 16 time zones.

The Skynest is ANZ's second economy bed.

ANZ pioneered the Skycouch in 2011. It's pricier than the Skynest, often costing over $1,000 one-way, but it's available for the entire flight and can host up to two adults and one child.

Ravishankar said it's particularly popular among families: "I have two young kids, so either mom or dad can take the Skycouch with them," he said. "It's perfect; we've had many family holidays in the Skycouch."

I flew it in 2022 and loved it for one person; I slept more than half the flight.

The Skynest could spread beyond ANZ.

Ravishankar said ANZ and its Star Alliance partners share ideas, including ANZ's patented Skycouch. United recently launched its "Relax Row" version, while Japan's All Nippon Airways has the "COUCHii."

It's unclear if any partners will adopt the Skynest, but Ravishankar said ANZ is "always open to those conversations."

• Iran still has thousands of missiles and drones in its arsenal, according to new US intelligence.
• The assessment comes after weeks of heavy bombing by American and Israeli forces.
• Iran's arsenal could pose a threat to US and partner forces in the Middle East.

The Iranian military still has thousands of missiles and drones in its arsenal despite weeks of heavy US and Israeli airstrikes, according to a new intelligence assessment.

Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Adams, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers that Iran "retains thousands" of missiles and one-way attack drones, which pose a threat to US and partner forces in the Middle East.

During testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Adams said that Iran had managed to preserve the munitions "despite degradations to its capabilities from both attrition and expenditure."

US and Israeli forces carried out thousands of airstrikes against Iran amid Operation Epic Fury before a tenuous, two-week ceasefire took effect earlier this month.

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on April 8 that the US military struck more than 450 Iranian ballistic missile storage facilities and 800 one-way attack drone storage facilities. "All of these systems are gone," he added.

Airstrikes heavily targeted Iran's industrial base, too. US officials have said that Tehran no longer has the infrastructure to build missiles, launchers, or drones.

Iran was believed to possess thousands of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, as well as cruise missiles and one-way attack drones, before the conflict began, and it fired many of these weapons at US bases, Israel, and Gulf states amid the fighting.

The US and its Gulf partners intercepted about 1,700 Iranian ballistic missiles and one-way attack drones, Caine said this month.

It is unclear exactly how many missiles and attack drones Iran retains, but Adams' testimony this week suggests its arsenal is still largely intact. Much of the weaponry could be underground. Pentagon leaders have said Iran has hidden and buried many capabilities over decades.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that Iran is digging out its remaining missiles and launchers. Satellite imagery has shown Tehran carrying out excavation work at bases struck earlier in the war.

Should the war again go hot if ongoing negotiations fail, Iran's remaining missiles and drones could pose a threat to US forces involved in a maritime blockade of Iranian ports and mine-clearing operations in the Strait of Hormuz, two missions the Pentagon announced amid the ceasefire.

More than a dozen US warships are involved in the blockade, which threatens critical oil revenue that Iran depends on and further pressures its economy. Several merchant vessels have turned around to avoid interdiction during the first few days of the operation.

• I recently took my first long-distance train trip aboard Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited.
• The trip between Chicago and New York lasted 20 hours.
• Next time, I'll make sure to pack a blanket, comfortable shoes, and fill my water bottle.

I booked a 20-hour train on a whim, and while I enjoyed the experience, I also made some rookie mistakes.

Amid the recent TSA airport chaos, I made the last-minute call to cancel my 2-hour flight from Chicago to New York and book the 20-hour train instead.

With less than 48 hours between booking and boarding, my pre-trip preparation consisted of little more than buying snacks and picking out a decently comfortable travel outfit.

While I had taken a medium-distance train trip before, a round-trip ride from Miami to Tampa, this 20-hour trip was my first real long-distance train trip, and I wish I had listened to more travel advice.

Here are the five mistakes I'd avoid making next time I take the train.

I didn't pack a pillow, earplugs, or a warm blanket

This might be the biggest lesson I learned from the trip.

I had booked an economy seat, which felt spacious and reclined further than a plane seat, but wasn't as comfortable as an Amtrak roomette. I was able to get good sleep using my scarf as a pillow, my puffer jacket as a blanket, and a cheap sleep mask, but I wished I could have been more comfortable and warm during the journey.

During the overnight portion, which lasted about half of the trip, I often got cold and had to hold my jacket tightly to keep it from falling off.

Next time, I'll make sure to bring a comfortable blanket, at least a neck pillow — if not a full-size pillow, as I saw fellow passengers using — some earplugs, and maybe invest in a better eye mask.

I shouldn't have relied on the train's water supply

As soon as I boarded the train, I noticed a critical mistake I had made before I left the house: My water bottle was empty.

Unlike TSA checkpoints, there's no liquids limit aboard Amtrak, and I noticed that passengers near me had brought along camping water jugs with gallons of water for the journey.

I had to go on Reddit to find out what the water fountain situation was like on the train, since the Amtrak website didn't offer many answers. Once I determined that the train indeed had water fountains, I had to ask an attendant where to actually find them.

The fountains, located near the restrooms, were small and very easy to miss. They're designed for use with small paper cups, so my large water bottle didn't fit. I had to hold the bottle at an angle and use my other hand to press the button to fill it, and I couldn't see inside, which led to a few accidental overfills.

I forgot to check out the café car early in the day

During the trip, I put off going to the café car until I was truly hungry and ready for a microwaved meal, which didn't sound particularly appetizing for most of the journey.

Without another passenger next to me, my seat felt like a comfortable, somewhat private place to stretch out and keep my items close, which was more appealing than gambling on an empty table in the busier, louder café car.

But by the time I made my way to the café car, I was surprised to find that it wasn't there. Instead, I walked into the dining car reserved for first-class passengers, where employees told me that due to the route, the café car was no longer attached to the train.

At some point during the trip, I had missed the announcement that said that after a stop in Albany, New York, the train would split into one section bound for New York City and another heading to Boston, with the café car ultimately going with the latter.

An Amtrak spokesperson told Business Insider by email that the Lake Shore Limited train, which I was traveling aboard, splits into two separate sections, with one half featuring a café car and the other a first-class dining car.

Turns out my train had the dining car.

Next time, I'd keep this in mind when timing my snacks — or at least take out my headphones during announcements.

I wore heeled boots and didn't bring slip-on shoes

Having packed for baggage efficiency rather than comfort, I had limited shoe options.

When packing for my trip to Chicago, I was limited by the baggage allowances for carry-on and personal items on airplanes. While I had more flexibility on the train, I didn't quite pack the right items to make the most of it.

I ended up taking off my shoes during the overnight portion of the trip, but I would've felt much more comfortable if I had packed a pair of slip-on shoes.

I sat on the wrong side of the train during particularly scenic moments

Throughout the trip, I sat on the left side of the train, planning to get views of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie.

While I got some views of the lakes during parts of the trip, they weren't as breathtaking as I'd hoped. Instead, the real stunner came during the last portion of the trip, when the train traveled down the Hudson River from Albany to New York City.

The close views of the water, with the mountains in the background, were beautiful, but they were all on the right side of the train, so I could only see them through the opposite windows.

Next time, I'd plan to be on the riverside as much as possible so that I can fully take in the views.

• Despite having a partner of nearly 10 years, I've chosen to live with my family to save money.
• It's been a great way to reconnect with my mom and sister, and I've learned a lot, too.
• Navigating a long-distance relationship can be difficult, but I'm glad we're saving for our future.

I'm 30 and have been with my partner for nearly a decade. But instead of living with him, I've been staying with my mom and sister for the past four years.

Before that, he and I lived together in San Francisco. But after four years in the city, we grew tired of spending $2,750 a month on rent, and longed for a lifestyle that would allow us to travel and save money for our future.

To do so, we made the difficult decision to temporarily go long-distance and move in with our respective families — mine in North Carolina and his in Florida.

Four years later, the financial freedom and the opportunity to reconnect with my family as an adult have made this unconventional arrangement worth it.

Living with my family again brought us closer, and I've learned lots of new skills

When I lived in San Francisco, I didn't get to see my mom and sister often, and sometimes had to miss important holidays and birthdays.

We had also just lost my dad when I moved to the Bay Area, making the distance even tougher.

Now, instead of living on opposite coasts, my sister and I can be there for each other in person. Plus, living with my mom has strengthened our bond, and being able to help her around the house is a small way I can say thank you for everything she did for me growing up.

I work from home, so I've become the self-appointed house manager, whether it's dealing with a broken heater, clogged drains, or organizing the basement while she's away on 12-hour work days.

A few years ago, I even helped her sell our rural North Carolina home and move to a new place closer to the city. I was along for the entire ride — meeting with the real estate agent, touring houses, and eventually helping with the move.

Neither of us had been through the buy-and-sell process before, and now, I feel more prepared for when my partner and I eventually become homeowners.

The setup isn't always perfect, but it works for us

Of course, having my mom and sister as roommates can be challenging at times. We've had spirited debates about everything from the placement of a painting on our gallery wall to whether we should get a dog (spoiler alert: we did).

I've also struggled with "eldest-daughter syndrome" and find that many of my people-pleasing tendencies — like perfectionism, hyper-independence, and feeling responsible for those around me — are amplified by living at home.

And, of course, being in a long-distance relationship with my partner is hard.

Some days we're so busy that we barely talk, and even making simple dinner plans means coordinating schedules months in advance and booking flights. Overall, though, we've made the situation work and try to communicate often and honestly.

On the bright side, we both have more financial freedom from living at home, so we're able to travel together frequently and visit each other every month, often for weeks at a time.

Plus, I know the opportunity to live with my family again as an adult is a rare privilege, and I'll never take the time we've had together for granted — especially as my boyfriend and I figure out our next move.

Right now, we're actively exploring our options and hope to be living together again by the end of the year. In the meantime, I cherish how my family and I have shown up for each other in the good times and the bad.

Thuma made a statement with the launch of its innovative Japanese-joinery inspired bed frame in 2018. The ethically-made, tool-free bed frame quickly earned its spot as a social media darling, especially with renters, thanks to its easy assembly and disassembly. In addition to easy assembly, the Japanese joinery technique relies on interlocking wood connections over screws or other hardware, resulting in a bed that's more stable and durable (meaning less potential for wobbles and squeaks).

It's quite expensive, though, and many brands have started to offer their own take on this bedroom staple, such as Silk & Snow, which presents itself as a worthy alternative.

We were curious to know how the two beds compared, especially among the best bed frames, so we had one tester review the Thuma bed frame and another the Silk & Snow bed frame to put them head-to-head as we dive deep into design, assembly, pricing, and store policies.

Thuma vs Silk & Snow: Overview

Thuma vs Silk & Snow: Design

Both wood frames utilize Japanese joinery techniques

The Thuma and Silk & Snow bed frames are both Japanese joinery-style platform bed frames, which means they're designed so that the pieces slot or fit into one another without hardware (or not much, anyway).

Both platform beds are made with natural wood — acacia and rubberwood for the Silk & Snow bed frame and upcycled wood for the Thuma. The wood used for the Thuma bed frame has a scratch-resistant finish, and that, combined with the fact that it's stained different colors, gives it an almost semi-gloss look. There is no finish on the Silk & Snow bed frame, resulting in a more natural look.

We like Silk & Snow's larger variety of headboard option, but Thuma has more finishes and sizes

Each brand offers different headboard options for the bed frame (or can just order them without a headboard as a platform). Whereas Silk & Snow has rattan, upholstered, cushioned, and wooden headboards, Thuma customers can order a wooden headboard, a cushioned headboard, or a pillowboard, which is like a low-sitting wedge that sits between the mattress and the wall. For those who prefer an upholstered appearance over wood, Thuma also introduced the Signature Bed, a low-profile fully upholstered platform bed design with the same tool-free ethos of the original bed.

The Silk & Snow bed frame doesn't require screws for the frame itself. However, screws and a tool are provided to fit the headboards to the frame. It doesn't appear as if any screws are needed for the Thuma headboards. The Thuma pillowboard is just a cushion that sits at the back of the bed frame; the other two headboards are fitted with the joinery design. Thuma also sells under-bed storage drawers that can be fitted to the bed frame.

In terms of bed sizing, Thuma offers its beds in Twin XL and California King, but Silk & Snow does not.

Both are sturdy, but the Thuma has a higher weight capacity

There are some slight differences in the frame and headboard designs of each brand. The Silk & Snow bed frame has two bars in the center of the frame with four center support legs, while the Thuma only has one bar and one center support leg. The single bar on the Thuma bed frame is locked in place with two hand-tightening screws. In the case of assembly, having one bar that gets tightened into place made the Thuma a bit easier to put together. But it's worth noting that the extra legs on Silk & Snow's bed don't equate to a higher weight capacity. The Thuma has a weight capacity of 1,500 pounds, while the Silk & Snow bed frame can only support up to 1,100 pounds.

Thuma vs Silk & Snow: Price

Silk & Snow is the more affordable option, about $350 cheaper than Thuma

The Thuma and Silk & Snow bed frames may be similar in design, but their price varies greatly. Silk & Snow bed frames are considerably more affordable, even when you order them with a headboard, compared to the Thuma bed frame. At $850 for a Queen size, the Silk & Snow platform bed is a steal. The Thuma Queen platform is $345 more. Opt for the classic headboard design, and the difference creeps to $695. Considering that both bed frames are made with upcycled rubberwood or acacia and have a similar design, the price difference is surprising, especially for the platform-only option.

The Silk & Snow bed ships free, while Thuma offers free shipping on orders over $1,000, with most bed options meeting this price threshold.

Thuma vs Silk & Snow: Assembly

Both frames assemble in under 30 minutes

Both of our reviewers took about 30 minutes to set up each bed in their respective bedrooms – which included the time it took to get everything out of the boxes, setting the pieces in place, and then putting the bed frame together. A few minutes might be saved in the assembly process of the Thuma bed frame versus the Silk & Snow bed frame as the Thuma only has one single center support bar and center support leg, while the Silk & Snow has two center support bars and four center support legs. However, overall, both bed frames are easy to put together, especially with two people.

As the bed uses the interlocking Japanese joinery technique, each pieces slots together as opposed to having to fumble with tools and small screws.

If you're not into assembling it yourself, Thuma offers white glove delivery for an extra fee

Thuma offers premium delivery, a service that includes delivering it to your room of choice, fully assembling the bed, and then removing the packaging. It's an expensive delivery option at $295. It's unnecessary for most customers (though not all, especially those with mobility issues or who live in fourth-floor walk-ups) to go the premium delivery route because assembling the Thuma bed is considerably easy. Plus, you could save money and time with free shipping.

Thuma vs Silk & Snow: Trial and warranty

We prefer Thuma's trial and warranty policies

Where Silk & Snow offers a 30-night free trial, Thuma gives buyers 100 nights to try out their bed frame. If Silk & Snow buyers want to return their bed frame, the company will deduct the shipping cost from the return. It must be returned in the original packaging and in donatable condition. Thuma bed frame customers don't have to pay a shipping fee for returns.

Thuma carries a phenomenal lifetime warranty for their bed frame. It covers any breakage or defects to the wooden frame and slats that occur through normal use. As for the Silk & Snow bed frame, the brands offers a five-year limited warranty that covers physical flaws that cause the frame to "bend, crack, or permanently deform more than 1 inch." Unfortunately, the buyer is responsible for the shipping costs associated with sending in the original product part that needs to be replaced.

Thuma vs Silk & Snow: Sustainability

Both brands are eco-friendly, and Silk & Snow gives back to the community

Buyers will be happy to know that both bed frames have great sustainable qualities. The Thuma bed frame is Greenguard Gold Certified and made with 100% upcycled rubberwood, while the headboard cushion has CertiPUR-US certified foam.

Silk & Snow, on the other hand, uses wood sustainably sourced from plantations in Southeast Asia and a lumber processing facility that promotes eco-conscious manufacturing principles. The wood is then sent to a woman-founded company in Vietnam that finishes it and constructs the bed frame. Silk & Snow also partners with Veritree to plant trees in an effort to offset carbon emissions and True North Aid to provide bed sets to Indigenous communities in rural Canada.

The bottom line

In comparing the Thuma and the Silk & Snow bed frames, our inclination is to advise potential buyers to go with the Silk & Snow bed frame. It's sturdy, easy to assemble, and much more affordable than the Thuma — without sacrificing anything in terms of materials or design. That said, the lifetime warranty and 100-night trial for the Thuma bed frame is appealing, especially compared to the five-year warranty of the Silk & Snow bed frame. Keep in mind that you have to pay full shipment costs for Silk & Snow returns, too. Perhaps the one thing that will split the vote for you is the headboards — of which the designs are considerably different. Both are solid options and we recommend both bed frames. Ultimately, it'll come down to your personal needs, in terms of pricing, design, and store policies.

Read our Thuma classic bed frame review and Silk & Snow wooden bed frame review. 

Which should you buy?

Go for Thuma if you:

• Want a premium, design-forward statement piece
• Care about customization (finishes, headboard options, add-ons)
• Prefer long-term perks like a lifetime warranty and 100-night trial
• Value Japanese joinery craftsmanship and ultra-sturdy construction
• Don't mind paying more for aesthetic + durability

Go for Silk & Snow if you:

• Want a Thuma-like look for less
• Are shopping on a tighter budget
• Still want tool-free assembly and solid build quality
• Don't need as many customization options
• Are okay with a shorter trial (30 nights) and 5-year warranty

Other tool-free bed frames to consider

In addition to the frames offered from Thuma and Silk & Snow, other brands to consider if the following don't fit your needs or budget:

• Jet fuel costs and supplies across the globe are under pressure from the US and Israeli war on Iran.
• Some major airlines are canceling flights in response.
• One airline exec described fuel prices as his business's most serious challenge.

First, the war made flights more expensive. Now, it's making them disappear.

The US and Israel's war on Iran has disrupted supply chains, trapping oil in storage facilities across the Middle East.

That saw the price of Brent crude oil rocket past $100 a barrel, before dipping back below that benchmark after ceasefire talks began.

Jet fuel prices have risen even faster, doubling in price to almost $200 a barrel. And as the war drags on, jet fuel is getting harder to come by for countries that don't produce it or have limited supplies.

"In Europe, we have maybe six weeks or so (of) jet fuel left," the International Energy Agency's executive director, Fatih Birol, told the Associated Press on Thursday.

He added that, if the Strait of Hormuz isn't opened, there would then be flight cancellations due to fuel shortages.

Several airlines have already canceled flights or grounded airplanes due to rising costs.

June Goh, a senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities, said in a post on X that jet fuel requires specialized storage, which means less is stored than for other products, like gasoline.

"Travel has gotten a lot more expensive in Asia, with many airlines adding fuel surcharges or downright canceling flights," she wrote. "Europe is facing imminent jet fuel supply shortages. Brace yourselves."

Here's a look at some of the airlines that have already started canceling flights due to rising prices and falling supplies.

European airlines

Ryanair, Europe's largest airline, said it is considering reducing routes.

CEO Michael O'Leary said its jet fuel supply could be at risk if the war continues during an interview with Sky News.

"We don't expect any disruption until early May, but if the war continues, we do run the risk of supply disruptions in Europe in May and June," he said.

KLM said on April 17 that it was canceling 80 return flights from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, its main base.

It added that these routes were "no longer financially viable to operate" due to rising kerosene costs. The airline also clarified that there was no kerosene shortage.

The same day, Germany's Lufthansa announced that it was retiring dozens of aircraft ahead of schedule due to rising jet fuel prices and the impact of labor disputes.

Most of the airplanes are Canadair CRJ aircraft, as it shuts down its loss-making regional subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine.

Switzerland's Edelweiss Air also said it was canceling flights to the US, due to declining demand and rising fuel prices. It will no longer fly to Denver or Seattle, and will reduce the frequency of flights to Las Vegas.

A spokesperson for Scandinavian Airlines said that it would cut about 1,000 flights in April due to the surge in jet fuel costs.

They added that most of the canceled flights were on short-haul routes in the Nordic region, at airports with multiple daily flights.

Asian airlines

Several airlines in Asia said they would cut flights to mitigate fuel shortages and mounting costs.

Vietnam Airlines suspended seven domestic flight routes beginning April 1, a local state-run newspaper reported, according to Reuters. The outlet reported that Vietnam Airlines planned to slash flight volume by 10% to 20% a month over the next financial quarter if jet fuel prices rise to $160 to $200 per barrel.

Other local airlines, including Vietjet Air and Bamboo Airways, will also cut flights.

AirAsia said it has cut 10% of its flights and raised fares to curb the impact of rising fuel costs. The Malaysian low-cost carrier, which flies to 25 countries, added that it would cut capacity on routes where it couldn't cover fuel costs.

At a media briefing on April 6, CEO Bo Lingam said the fuel surcharge has risen up to 20%, and overall ticket prices have risen 30% to 40%.

Lingam said its jet fuel had risen from $90 per barrel before the war to $200 per barrel, describing this as the airline's most serious challenge.

United Airlines

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a March memo to staff that the company would cut flights over the next two quarters.

"In the short term, that means tactically pruning flying that's temporarily unprofitable in the face of high oil prices," Kirby said.

The airline planned to cancel some off-peak flights and red-eyes.

"If prices stayed at this level, it would mean an extra $11 billion in annual expense just for jet fuel," Kirby said in a message to employees posted on the company's website. "For perspective, in United's best year ever, we made less than $5B."

Delta Air Lines

Delta hasn't officially announced any flight cuts due to fuel prices; the oil refinery it owns in Pennsylvania has given it a buffer during the crisis.

"It's not going to cover the crack entirely, but gives us a fairly significant hedge," Delta CEO Ed Bastian said at a March JP Morgan conference.

Delta is cutting its seasonal Los Angeles to Anchorage route this summer, telling Business Insider that it "adjusts its schedule to align with customer demand." Alaska Airlines will be the sole operator on that route.

Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand said it would cut about 5% its flights, or about 1,100, at the start of May.

"We're focused on consolidating flights that are off-peak flying hours, for example, or where there is an alternative that we can re-accommodate customers," CEO Nikhil Ravishankar told 1News, a local outlet, in March.

• We tested 20 single-serve coffee makers for flavor, speed, and consistency.
• Pod machines are easiest, but cost more per cup over time.
• Pod-free options taste better and save money, but take more time and effort.

Choosing a single-serve coffee maker feels like a no-brainer until you're using it every day. Some machines prioritize speed but rely on expensive pods. Others give you more control over flavor and cost, but take more effort. The tradeoffs may not be obvious at first, but they add up quickly.

To help you decide which one is best for you, we tested 20 models to find the one-cup coffee makers that actually hold up, focusing on brew quality, consistency, speed, and how they perform over time, not just out of the box.

"Getting the coffee you enjoy, exactly right, every single time is a huge plus for most casual coffee drinkers," says barista and coffee expert Katie Woodburn-Simmons. "The challenge is finding a machine that delivers that consistency without hidden downsides." These are the single-serve coffee makers that do.

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

Our picks for the best single-serve coffee makers

Best overall: AeroPress Original Coffee & Espresso Maker - See at Amazon

Best budget: Black and Decker Single Serve Coffee Machine - See at Amazon

Best drip: Moccamaster Cup-One - See at Amazon

Best multi-purpose: Ninja DualBrew Pro - See at Amazon

Best Keurig: Keurig K-Supreme Smart Single Serve Coffee Maker - See at Amazon

Best Nespresso: Nespresso VertuoPlus - See at Amazon

How to choose a single-serve coffee maker

Not sure which type of single-serve coffee maker is best for you? Use this quick guide to match your setup to your routine.

Best overall

The AeroPress All-in-One French press earns our top spot because it makes better coffee than almost anything else in this category, without locking you into pods. In our tests, it consistently outperformed pod machines and French press brewers, producing a smooth, full-bodied cup with no bitterness or grit in under two minutes.

It trades one-touch convenience for control, but the payoff is worth it. You can adjust strength, brew espresso-style shots, or even make cold brew, all with the same compact device. It's also one of the most portable options we tested, small enough to throw in a bag for travel, work, or camping.

The is the best single-serve coffee maker for you if you care about flavor and long-term value. The AeroPress does require a bit of finesse to operate, since it can be unstable on smaller cups or uneven surfaces. Still, if you want a completely hands-off routine, a pod machine will be easier, but you will give up both taste and flexibility.

Best budget

If you're looking for a cheap, reliable way to make a single cup of coffee, the Black & Decker Single Serve Coffee Machine gets the job done. It's one of the most affordable options we tested, and it keeps things simple with a straightforward drip setup that works with either ground coffee or soft pods.  

There's no learning curve here. Add water, add coffee, press a button, and you have a hot cup in minutes. The compact, lightweight design makes it an easy fit for small kitchens, dorm rooms, or your desk at work. The tradeoff is quality and control. The coffee is mild and basic, with little of the depth you will get from higher-end machines, and there are no options to adjust temperature, strength, or brew size. It is built for convenience and price, not precision.

This is the best option for you if you want the lowest-cost, no-fuss option. If you care about flavor or customization, it's worth spending more on one of our other picks.

Best drip

If you want a single-serve machine that prioritizes coffee quality above everything else, the Moccamaster Cup-One stands out. It brews a more balanced, flavorful cup than most single-serve machines, and in testing, the difference was noticeable even using the same beans.

The Cup-One works like a scaled-down version of the brand's full-size drip machine, which means better extraction but also a slower process. Brewing a 10-ounce cup takes around eight minutes from start to finish, and there's no way to speed up the process. The design is compact and looks great on a kitchen counter, though the removable cover feels flimsier than expected for the price.

This is the right choice if you drink one cup at a time and care about brew quality over speed or flexibility. If not, this machine will feel limiting.

Best multi-purpose

If you want one machine that can do almost everything, the Ninja DualBrew Pro is the most versatile option we tested. It works with both K-cups and ground coffee, and can brew anything from a single cup to a full pot, along with espresso-style drinks for lattes and other café-style coffee drinks.

The flexibility makes a real difference day to day. You can switch between quick pod coffee and a full carafe without needing a second machine, and the specialty brew setting produces a concentrated cup that holds up well in milk drinks. (Brewing authentic espresso requires an espresso machine.) The removable water reservoir can be positioned to fit your counter, and the built-in frother and separate hot water line add useful functionality without much extra effort.

The Ninja DualBrew Pro is the best choice if you want maximum flexibility in one machine. If you prefer something simpler or more compact, or only drink one style of coffee, it may be more than you need.

See our full review of the Ninja DualBrew Pro specialty coffee maker.

Best Keurig

If you want the easiest, fastest way to get a simple cup of coffee, the Keurig K-Supreme is the most convenient, no-effort option we tested. It is built around K-Cups, so there is no measuring, grinding or guesswork, just insert a pod and press a button for a quick brew.

What sets this model apart is how little you have to think about the process. Its BrewID feature automatically adjusts settings based on the pod you are using, so you get a more consistent cup without dialing in any settings yourself. You can still adjust strength and temperature if you want, and the iced coffee setting brews a stronger cup that holds up well served over ice.

The tradeoff is flavor and long-term cost. Coffee from K-Cups is often less complex than freshly-brewed grounds, and pods are one of the most expensive ways to drink coffee daily. This is the right pick if you value speed and simplicity above all else. If you care more about flavor or saving money over time, one of the other options on this list will serve you better.

For more information, check out our guide to the best K-Cup coffee Keurig pods. 

Best Nespresso

If you want espresso-style drinks at home without having to learn how to use a full espresso machine, the Nespresso VertuoPlus is the easiest way to get rich, café-style coffee. It uses Nespresso's Vertuo pods to brew both espresso and full cups of coffee, with a thicker body and more intensity than most pod machines.

The process is almost effortless. The machine automatically adjusts brewing settings for each pod, so you get a consistently strong, well-balanced cup with a layer of crema on top. It is a noticeable step up in flavor from standard K-Cup brewers, especially for milk drinks like lattes.

The tradeoff is cost and flexibility. Vertuo pods are more expensive than most alternatives, and you are limited to Nespresso's ecosystem. The machine also needs a brief warm-up and rinse cycle before brewing. This is the right pick for you if you want better coffee with minimal effort. If you want something smaller or simpler, the Nespresso Essenza Mini offers a similar experience in a more compact footprint.

Read our full guide to the best Nespresso machines to learn more.

How the best single-serve coffee makers compare

What to look for in a single-serve coffee maker

Type: You're primarily choosing between pod machines and more traditional coffee brewers. To use a pod machine, you fill the water tank, pop in a pod, and press go. However, the machines produce more environmental waste, and coffee purists often find the brews less flavorful. French presses, pour-overs, and drip coffee makers can make more nuanced cups of coffee, but each method requires more steps.

Convenience: One of the benefits of making small batches is that you can make them faster than a full carafe. Our best pour-over pick takes the longest time to brew (up to 7 minutes), so that's not great for a grab-and-go morning. Pod machines are generally the fastest to operate and brew.

Serving size: Every highly-rated single-serve coffee maker we recommend primarily makes one serving at a time, but some can make larger portions. If you like an extra-large mug or have occasional guests, a single 8-ounce brew might not be enough.

Cleaning: Since there are no loose grounds, pod machines are the easiest to clean, but you will need to descale them every few months. Our top pick, the AeroPress, has all dishwasher-safe parts, which is a major plus. With any coffee maker, you want to clear out any used coffee grounds after every brew.

How we tested the best single-serve coffee makers

A longtime coffee drinker, I compared the best single-serve coffee makers based on speed, ease of use, and the taste of the finished brew. I also spoke to Matt and Katie Woodburn-Simmons, veteran baristas and current owners/operators of Home Coffee Expert, and Sara De Luca, founder of Invita Cafe in California, to get their takes on single-serve coffee makers. Here is how I tested each product:

Speed: To determine the efficiency of the best single-serve coffee makers, I timed how long it took to brew 10 ounces of coffee. I started by pressing the "brew" button on electric models and adding hot water to manual models. I set the standard, or "signature," brewing temperature for each electric model, and for the manual models, I heated the brewing water to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Maintenance: A good single-serve coffee maker is easy to maintain, as it brews. I put each coffee maker together and determined the difficulty of each assembly. I cleaned each coffee maker by hand and noted which are dishwasher safe and how many compartments needed cleaning.

Taste: I used Starbucks Pike Place coffee for each brewing test (finely ground Pike Place for manual brewers, Pike Place K-Cups for models that could accommodate K-Cups, and Pike Place Nespresso pods for Nespresso machines). I then critiqued each finished cup based on flavor balance, nuance, and strength.

FAQs

What's better than Keurig?

When we compared Nespresso vs. Keurig, we found that the best Nespresso machines produce more full-flavored brews and come the closest to making true espresso of any pod machine. However, Keurig machines and K-Cups are more affordable on average, widely available, and better for large households.

Can coffee pods be recycled?

Yes and no. Most K-Cups are made from recyclable plastic, but you still have to remove the lid and dump out the grounds. Some communities do not accept K-Cups at recycling facilities, so check your local restrictions.

Nespresso pods have similar restrictions. In New York City, you can add the pods to your regular curbside recycling. For most other locations, you'll have to collect the used pods and either send them to Nespresso or drop them off at a Nespresso boutique or participating Williams Sonoma).

What is the difference between a pour-over and drip coffee?

Pour-over and drip coffee both involve saturating ground coffee with hot water and allowing the resulting infusion (the liquid coffee) to drip into a vessel, but the similarities end there. "Pour-over" is a manual process that requires heating the water to a specific temperature before slowly pouring it over the grounds. "Drip" automates that whole procedure. Think of drip coffee machines as automatic cars and pour-overs as stick-shifts.

• At a London AI conference for engineers, it was all about agents, agents, agents.
• One thing was clear: the role of a software engineer has changed dramatically.
• As agents move from coding to other domains, the future of work looks like a lot of management.

I have seen the future of AI, and we are all managing agents.

We are telling them where to go. What to look at. We are answering their follow-up questions. We are correcting them when they make a mistake.

These were some of the talking points at last week's AI Engineer conference in London, which brought together people from across the industry, including Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI.

The talks were varied, highly technical, and curated for the people steeped deepest in AI right now.

What was striking was how many of the presentations and discussions weren't so much about the quality and abilities of AI models and agents — software that can perform tasks semi-autonomously — but the humans managing them.

Ryan Lopopolo, a member of OpenAI's technical staff, called the moment early in the show. He said coding had changed dramatically in late 2025 because of advances in AI tools. The role of today's software engineers, he said, is to steer and unblock agents.

That prompted several recurring questions: How much control should we cede to agents? What should agents look like? Should they delegate to other sub-agents? Is human language too limiting for telling an agent what you want it to do?

The event quickly started to feel like an MBA for the AGI-pilled. Everyone had a perspective on how agents should be managed. Words like "guardrails" and "context engineering" (a plan to have the agent perform optimally while burning fewer tokens) were everywhere.

These details matter because there's an emerging consensus that 2026 will be an inflection point, when agents move from the experimental phase into one where they're more reliable and leap from coding into other domains.

"I think 2025 was all about exploring, and 2026 is all about putting these agents into production," said Anthropic's David Soria Parra onstage. It's not just coders who are going to have to think about these things: Parra said he expects we'll soon see more "general agents that will do real knowledge worker stuff" such as financial analysis and marketing.

In this utopian work future, the agents are doing the grunt work for us — but they still need oversight. That means they need the right documentation, context, and guidelines to keep them from careening off course and doing things they shouldn't.

It's an irony of this moment that companies — including Meta, Google, and Amazon — are cutting management layers but may also end up turning everyone into AI supervisors. Individual contributors at tech companies, who once coded away without worrying about their direct reports, are now delegating and reviewing work done by AI.

Another big topic of debate was the amount of control we should give to agents — especially given how prone they are to breaking things. There was more than one dig at a recent disruption at Amazon caused by an AI coding assistant.

Mario Zechner, the creator of coding agent Pi, struck a more cautious message than most speakers. Agents learned on the internet, which is filled with a lot of garbage code, he said. He proposed a model for software engineers working with agents: use them sparingly, and don't let them make decisions for you. "All of the decisions it makes are learned from the internet," he said.

Agentcraft

Keeping tabs on agents means being able to see them, which prompted another interesting question: what should an agent look like?

One answer came via a showstopping moment from Monday.com's Ido Salomon, who built a program called Agentcraft that, yes, displays functioning agents in a "Warcraft"-inspired environment.

The user can spawn new agents, prompt them as they would in any other AI interface, and there's a handy way to cycle through agents with follow-up questions or that need your approval to execute a task. A heat map shows you if your agents are at risk of colliding — a problem that can occur when running multiple agents in parallel. This can happen if two agents are editing the same file at the same time, or both are tweaking different code functions that rely on each other.

Several attendees who spoke to Business Insider weren't from major AI labs but companies big and small that are embracing agents in the workplace.

Yann Mainier, a senior engineer at Sky UK who attended the event, told Business Insider he wanted to learn more about how he and his team can build better agents.

"It's more about: once you get agents, how do you make sure they are doing a good job? You can't check them the same way you are doing with traditional software," he said. For example, ask an agent to write the same function twice, and it might do it differently. "You need to have other ways," Mainier said.

Managing agents may also require rearchitecting parts of the web to make it more legible.

Vercel CTO, Malte Ubl, said that in the week leading up to the AI Engineer conference, more than 60% of page views on Vercel.com were from agents.

"We have to consider another shift that the software itself is going to be used by agents now," he said. When an employee proposes a new feature or interface, Ubl said he now asks a new question: "How does an agent use this?"

Have something to share? Contact this reporter via email at hlangley@businessinsider.com or Signal at 628-228-1836.

• A trade tech CEO said AI is hitting office jobs first, but expects blue-collar roles to be next.
• Fred Voccola says robotics could go mainstream in 3 years and take over 50% of trade tasks in a decade.
• Simpro is developing robotics tools that he says could support trade work as early as this year.

Artificial intelligence may be disrupting office jobs first, but blue-collar workers shouldn't assume they're immune.

Fred Voccola, CEO of Simpro Group — which builds software for use by tradespeople — said that early AI adoption has largely focused on white-collar roles, but he believes the same forces will increasingly reshape physical work, from electricians to construction crews.

"The hammer will strike first and hardest in the white-collar world," he said in an interview with Business Insider in London this week. "White collar work is already being disrupted."

He pointed to one of his own companies, whose content marketing team head count was cut from 17 to 2 people in one year, while still producing more content due to AI.

For now, he said, skilled trades remain relatively insulated because their work is hands-on and harder to automate, but that advantage won't last.

"I think the trades, if I am an electrician or a plumber or an HVAC person, I'm among the most protected, but that protection lasts only for a limited amount of time," he said.

"I think that there will be fewer jobs in the blue collar industry as well, every industry in the world, over time, if we're talking 10 years, 100%, it's gonna impact everyone," he added.

'Quicker, faster, cheaper, and safer'

The next phase of disruption, Voccola said, will come from a mix of AI-powered software and robotics, including tools his own company is developing.

"We have robotic technology," Voccola said, pointing to use cases such as cabling, inspections, and rescue efforts, where robots could increasingly support human workers.

"This is something that's coming out of our lab, probably end of this calendar year," he added.

That shift is already reshaping parts of the labor market, with companies like Instawork using gig workers to generate the real-world data needed to train robots.

Some companies like Aquant and Gecko Robotics are deploying AI-powered robotics and sensors to detect equipment failures before they happen, helping avoid costly breakdowns and improve efficiency.

Voccola pointed to more use cases where he believes machines could outperform humans, including wiring data centers, inspecting infrastructure, and navigating tight or hazardous environments.

"Cabling, going through — instead of digging up all the infrastructure plumbing — sending little nanobots and robotics to see where the problems are, a lot of discovery of things, a lot of electrical testing. These are things that robots can do quicker, faster, cheaper, and safer," he said.

A Simpro spokesperson told Business Insider the company is "actively working on the technologies discussed," but declined to share further details.

"This isn't about replacing experienced technicians, but about helping them get more done, more efficiently," the spokesperson added.

Still, Voccola said he expects robotics to move into the mainstream within 2 to 3 years and to take over at least 50% of trades tasks within 10 years.

Even so, he acknowledged the uncertainty ahead. The speed and scale of AI-driven change, he said, is unlike anything seen before — and raises difficult questions about the future of work.

"I think it's scary," he said.

Blue-collar isn't immune

Voccola's outlook contrasts with a growing view among tech leaders and researchers that blue-collar work may be more resilient and more valuable in the age of AI.

A recent Harris Poll released in February found that 76% of Americans believe jobs that rely on hands-on experience are less likely to be replaced by AI.

Some of the most prominent voices in tech have echoed that sentiment.

Elon Musk has said jobs involving physical labor will "exist for a much longer time" than digital roles, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said that the AI boom could increase demand for skilled tradespeople building the infrastructure behind it.

That demand is already emerging. Meta president Dina Powell McCormick recently said the US will need hundreds of thousands of electricians in the coming years to build out AI infrastructure.

Voccola didn't dispute that demand may rise in the short term, but he said, over time, the same forces reshaping office work will extend to the physical world — and no job category will be fully insulated.

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

It's an Alex/ix off.

There's drama between two of the biggest personalities in digital media: Alex Cooper and Alix Earle.

Whether you're obsessed or oblivious, there are real business implications at stake. Let's break it all down.

What's going on? This week, Cooper posted a video calling out Earle, who used to work for her, for reposting a not-so-nice TikTok about her. (It referred to Cooper as an "ambulance chaser," among other things.) Cooper encouraged Earle to "say what you got to say about me," to which Earle commented, "Okay on it!!" The collective internet is now losing its mind as we all await Earle's response.

So what if influencers are fighting? Just calling these two "influencers" is like calling Niagara Falls a cute waterfall. They command massive audiences and cut major business deals.

The beef also highlights the tension that influencer- and creator-founded media companies face, including managing talent with their own brands.

And it translates beyond the influencer world. In business, there are plenty of examples of top talent feeling they've outgrown the companies they work for.

The demand for AI specialists only amplifies that risk. Imagine if Meta's AI wunderkind Alexandr Wang (playing the Earle role) left and took subtle shots at Mark Zuckerberg (Cooper) until Zuck finally called him out. (Don't worry. They're best buds.)

What's the back story on the Alex(ix)s? Cooper's been a household name in media for a while. She founded the Unwell Network, which includes her popular "Call Her Daddy" podcast and is in the middle of a three-year, $125 million deal with SiriusXM. She's also got an electrolyte beverage with Nestlé called … Unwell Hydration. (Gotta stay on brand.)

Earle's "get ready with me" TikToks took off around 2022. She's built a reputation for quickly selling out products she mentions and recently launched a skincare brand, Reale Actives.

(And yes, in addition to almost sharing a name, they also look eerily similar.)

What's the tea on their bad blood? Back in 2023, the Unwell Network signed Earle to host her own podcast, "Hot Mess." Less than two years later, the podcast was dropped. Earle took a slight jab at how things went down in a 2025 interview. There's been speculation that the two don't get along, but this is the first time they are openly taking shots at each other.

What are the chances this is some marketing ploy? That theory's been floated, but it feels like a stretch considering their not-so-great history together. These people do thrive on content — Earle posted her reaction to waking up to see the initial Cooper attack — so you can't put anything past them. If it's all fake, feel free to call me a sucker.

Who's winning the beef? Earle's indirect attacks have played into a narrative that Cooper is a "mean girl." Others argue it's mislabeling Cooper for just being a tough businesswoman. It also depends largely on who you ask. Earle, 25, skews toward Gen Z, while Cooper, 31, is a millennial.

• The Saudi Public Investment Fund has been scaling back expensive global sports investments in recent days.
• The moves come alongside a five-year plan pledging a more domestic investing focus.
• For the first time in years, the nation seems to be prioritizing finances over image.

No matter where you look, cost-cutting is reshaping the economy.

From a consumer perspective, Walmart is dominating peers like Target because shoppers are trading down to lower-cost options. From an employment POV, cost-cutting has resulted in widespread layoffs, particularly in the tech industry. All the while, the rise of AI is built on the idea that tasks will be completed more efficiently, and at lower cost.

Well, it turns out that even the wealthiest people on the planet aren't immune to a tightening of the purse strings. In recent days, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) — run by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) — has started to scale back its international-facing sports portfolio:

• LIV Golf: The renegade league was originally designed to challenge the PGA Tour by luring away top players with huge paydays. $5 billion later, the PIF is reportedly considering pulling funding for the money-losing endeavor, although the league's CEO said the current season will continue as planned.
• Al-Hilal: The Saudi Pro League club tried to break through to mainstream soccer fans by signing star players from European leagues for eye-watering sums. Now PIF is offloading 70% of it to a different Saudi entity.

Add to that a separate report of financing doubts around a flag-football event starring Tom Brady, the trend is clear: a broad pullback from expensive global-facing efforts to increase Saudi cultural influence. For the first time in years, the nation seems to be prioritizing finances over image.

A five-year strategic plan for the nation, which was approved by MBS this week, confirmed the more insular shift. One top priority is to "maximize returns and redeploy capital within the domestic economy," a release said.

The Saudis may be looking to instead allocate money towards the World Cup it was selected to host in 2034. It's also possible that the Iran war's impact on oil production — the Saudis' crown jewel — has MBS & Co. looking to be more discretionary with funds.

Could this newfound frugality show up in other parts of the Saudi investment portfolio? After all, the PIF has interests that go far beyond LIV and Al-Hilal, such as:

• Major shareholder stakes in Uber, video game-maker Electronic Arts, and EV-producer Lucid
• A longstanding infrastructure partnership with Blackstone, including a recent collaboration to build data centers in Saudi Arabia
• Ownership of English Premier League soccer club Newcastle United

It's unclear what future moves the PIF could make. But MBS does, at the very least, seem to be losing patience with money-losing efforts. How that manifests itself could reshape entire industries reliant on Saudi investments.

Based on how things have been going, if I'm Newcastle, I'm looking at my position in the Premier League and getting pretty nervous. Because one thing is certain: when the Saudis splash money, they're in it to win it. And 14th place isn't cutting it.

• Famed short-seller David Einhorn was the main event at a downtown Manhattan Tax Day party.
• Guests were discouraged from asking Einhorn about his long and short positions.
• We asked him if Wall Street had a rizz shortage instead.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that a single man with a crypto wallet must be in want of a West Village girlfriend. Jane Austen's heroines had their balls and soirees; the downtown women of today have the Tax Day Party.

Attendees rode a rickety, manually operated elevator up to The Bench, a venue that purports to be a liminal space where people from disparate professional and cultural spheres can mix. The dress code was half stodgy button-downs, half slip skirts, and vintage watches.

Organized by the design agency Family Office — not to be confused with a generational wealth fund, as their tagline says — the annual Tax Day Party is held to bring together the city's financial capitalists and its creative class. "We're not celebrating pro or against the IRS," said Diego Segura, the party's chief organizer. "It's kind of funny to say that we're throwing a party on Tax Day."

The annual event, which started in 2024, is headlined by four speakers who bridge midtown and downtown. This year, its undisputed centerpiece was legendary short-seller David Einhorn, who founded Greenlight Capital in 1996, before many in the audience were even born. The lineup also included tech investor Hansen Shi and journalists Brock Colyar and Cami Fateh.

Though some of the finance world may have shown up to get Einhorn's take on the next big short, the Family Office organizers made it very clear that the party wasn't a space to ask Einhorn about his bets. There were bigger fish to fry, such as: Is Wall Street still sexy?

Einhorn, 57, had one take. But as you'll see, the denizens of the Lower East Side had opposing opinions. With my colleagues-in-arms, Henry Chandonnet and Sydney Bradley, I set out to find the answer.

'How does a girl bag a man in finance?'

The question came from Fateh, the Feed Me columnist and party reporter. "Do you just ask for cocaine at the club? Is that it?"

Einhorn laughed: "That's crazy!"

He couldn't speak for this generation of junior bankers. He mentioned meeting a lot of people after his divorce, but he's now happily settled with his girlfriend. "I didn't appear around any of those dating apps. I think that could be a little dangerous," he said, in an age where Google exists.

"I just say I'm David from Wisconsin. That usually works," he said.

I later asked Einhorn if he had a tried-and-true pickup line a la Bill Ackman's "may I meet you." Einhorn said that he was never really looking to "pick up" women in that way — he said he was more interested in meeting people and talking to people. I asked him if he thought that was a Midwest thing.

"No, it's because I have no game," he said.

Whether the artsy girls at the Tax Day Party used the function to actually bag a man in finance was unclear. The start time was part of the problem. With doors at 7 and the discussion at 7:30, the Zyn-fueled bros on the trading floor likely hadn't left their desks. While waiting in line for a beer, Corissa Steiner, a private credit investor and one of the party organizers, described the party's demographic as "soft finance." Translation: venture capitalists.

I chatted with some bona fide finance people — a Goldman Sachs analyst, a Bank of America analyst, and a Point72 principal — hovering around Einhorn after the dialogue ended. Scattered in the crowd were fashionable women floating their design labels and startup founders hawking their apps. One discussed the Silicon Valley debate du jour: Can AI have taste? Another handed out cards with his AI-backed dating app to people waiting in line at the cash bar.

Does Wall Street have a nerd problem?

"I've never seen more Wall Street in the media," Steiner said in her opening question, alluding to HBO's "Industry," and the "Finest Boys in Finance" magazine spread. "You're living it. You're living the dream, no?"

Einhorn sat there with wide eyes. "I can't speak to the culture," he said.

Later in the night, Steiner called Einhorn a "legendary partier" in his day. "A legendary partier?" Einhorn asked back. "OK."

Einhorn seemed to bristle at these moments of calling Wall Street cool. He loved "Billions," but said that it was completely different from his own experience. "My life is so freaking boring," he recalled telling a "Billions" producer.

Einhorn ended up appearing on the show in a cameo. "It didn't remind me of me at all, which was great," Einhorn said of playing himself on "Billions." "I think I got paid a thousand dollars for that, and I have a — what do you call it? — IMD [sic] page."

I was lucky enough to ask the last dialogue question: "Has Wall Street gotten too sober and too celibate?" Einhorn's answer: "A simple no, at least from what I can see. But on the other hand, I have no idea what the 28-year-olds are doing."

After the dialogue finished, several young people approached me and told me they thought the opposite. Kat Psaltos, a 25-year-old who works in fashion, tapped me on the shoulder and told me I was "absolutely right."

"Nobody's going on dates on like a Monday or a Tuesday anymore," Psaltos said. "When I was like 20 or 19, I'd be going on dates with these 25-year-old finance guys on weekdays, and I feel like it's way harder to get a match now," she added — though she acknowledged that now, at 25, she might be too old to match with the 25-year-old finance guys who want to date 19-year-olds.

A 29-year-old hedge funder, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of professional repercussions, also thought that juniors were "kind of lame now." The hedge funder described himself as "one of those people who partied through the pandemic," but didn't believe the pandemic was the cause of junior bankers' sudden squareishness. "The people who are in these jobs now are just nerdier," he said.

A part-time model, part-time assistant to the ultrawealthy, gave a different theory: The Wall Street guys were too busy sleepmaxxing, cold plunging, and popping peptides to stay up late and do drugs with the club rats. "It's that whole 'health is the new wealth' thing," the model said.

As the night wore on, it was clear that those who remained were almost entirely of the downtown, unemployed/self-employed culture set. Presumably, the Wall Street contingent had returned to their desks or their beds for red-light therapy before a full night of sleep.

Henry Chandonnet and Sydney Bradley contributed reporting.

• Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings is stepping away from the streaming giant.
• In his 2020 book, "No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention," Hastings dissected his leadership. 
• Lessons include: think of your company as a team, not a family; remove the controls; and create a culture of honesty. 

Editor's note: This story was originally published in 2020 and has been updated to reflect Hastings' planned departure from Netflix's board.

As the cofounder of Netflix, Reed Hastings built one of the most iconic companies — and corporate cultures — of our lifetimes. 

Hastings stepped down as CEO in 2023 and plans to exit the board in June, the company said on April 16.

Founded in 1997, Netflix has grown to a $445 billion market cap. The company is a staple of the media and entertainment industry, with original productions such as "Stranger Things," "Bridgerton," and "KPop Demon Hunters."

Netflix and Hastings have made waves for their approach to a culture that powered that growth. Former Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said that Netflix's culture deck, or set of slides outlining the company's core values, "may well be the most important document to ever come out of Silicon Valley."

Some organizational systems under Hastings proved controversial, like the practice of sending emails around when employees are fired about why they were let go.

Working with the author Erin Meyer, Hastings unpacked his leadership philosophy in the 2020 book, "No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention."

After digging through the book, here are three details of Netflix culture that stood out. 

1. Think of the company as a team — not a family

Colleagues at a company are often compared to a family unit, but this can be a faulty metaphor, Hastings wrote. While families are often seen as a lifetime commitment, Hastings approached Netflix as a sports team, where the coach can swap and trade players periodically to make sure that they're all the best fit for their positions.

That's why one of the most controversial parts of Netflix's pitch deck, under Hastings, read: "Like every company, we try to hire well / unlike many companies, we practice: adequate performance gets a generous severance package." As in: If an employee is simply adequate, rather than exemplary, they're cut from the company and replaced with someone who can perform even better.

It seems like such an approach would prevent employees from feeling safe enough at the company to take risks. But this was a pillar of Netflix's ethos since the internet bubble burst of 2001, when the company had to lay off a third of its workforce. Hastings found that, after cutting the less-than-stellar performers, the best workers spurred each other's best work. Performance, after all, is infectious, and adequate performers could encourage adequate work from other employees.

The company's 2024 culture memo does not mention severance, but emphasizes "maintaining a high-performance culture."

Hastings wrote in the 2020 book that at companies like Walmart, people greeters are primed to think of themselves as part of the "Walmart family." And a former National Public Radio employee said in the book that NPR employees who stayed for more than 3 years were usually there for life.

This also means that when employees begin to fall short or lose their excitement about their jobs, they still stay on at the company and do less-than-stellar work — and their attitudes can spread to their colleagues.

"A fast and innovative workplace is made up of what we call 'stunning colleagues' — highly talented people, of diverse backgrounds and perspectives, who are exceptionally creative, accomplish significant amounts of important work, and collaborate effectively," Hastings wrote. And the best way to cultivate a workplace of stunning colleagues at Netflix? Cut the employees who fall short of that.

The takeaway: An effective people strategy is not purely about retaining talent, but optimizing talent.

2. Create a culture of honesty

After attending marriage counseling with his wife of more than 30 years, Hastings said that honesty helped to repair his relationship.

"Giving and receiving transparent feedback helped us so much," Hastings wrote. "I saw I'd been lying to her. While I was saying things like, 'family is the most important thing to me,' I'd been missing dinners at home and working all hours of the night. I see now that my words were worse than platitudes. They had been lies. We both learned what we could do to be better partners, and our marriage came back to life."

He brought that same approach to the office shortly after that chapter in his marriage.

Hastings began not only providing honest feedback to his employees, but also set an example by encouraging employees to give him feedback.

At Netflix, the authors said, it was almost considered disloyal if employees held back from expressing a certain viewpoint or different take on a topic. Successes and failures alike need to be discussed honestly and dissected, so that the team can learn from mistakes.

Under Hastings, Netflix even explained its reasons for letting an employee go in an email to the staffer's department, which could be hundreds of people.

Honesty always sounds good in theory — but Netflix's level of honesty could be daunting to implement. In conventional corporate culture, where employees might worry about offending a colleague or suspect their idea will be overlooked altogether, it's harder to employ than it may seem.

But Hastings kept corporate honesty as the best policy. This allowed the team to get past polite protocols that would prevent them from providing real constructive feedback and becoming accountable to each other.

Introducing such clear honesty "pushed performance to new levels," Hastings wrote.

3. Remove the controls

It might be intimidating for companies to loosen rules, but under Hastings, Netflix had very few of them. During Hastings' tenure, Netflix had no vacation policy, no limit to how much employees could expense, and no need for approvals on most creative decisions, as long as the manager was kept in the loop.

For Hastings, the benefits of this freedom outweighed any extra costs that could be incurred from a lack of control.

"If you limit their choices by making them check boxes and ask for permission, you won't just frustrate your people," Hastings wrote, "you'll lose out on the speed and flexibility that comes from a low-rule environment."

In other words, controls kill creativity. Removing the controls allows employees to design the conditions in which they can do their best work.

It's also all about trust. Since the company's hiring approach ensures that everyone on the team is the perfect fit for their role, Hastings and other Netflix executives could let employees take the reins.

"I believe the most successful quarter I could have as CEO is one where I don't make a single decision," Hastings wrote in a 2020 op-ed for Business Insider.

Under Hastings, Netflix employees could take a day off in a year or a month of vacation leave, the book says; they could choose to expense a first-class plane ticket, or they could stay in coach. The only thing the company asked is that they "act in Netflix's best interest."

So it might be best thought of not as a loss of control, but a shift of control into the hands of the creative minds who need it.

"We'd found a way to give our high performers a little more control over their lives, and that control made everybody feel a little freer," Hastings wrote.

• Individuals and couples pursuing early retirement use different strategies and tactics.
• A popular one is to focus on cutting the 'big three' expenses: housing, transportation, and food.
• Two couples share how they managed their housing costs to accelerate their early retirements.

There's no one-size-fits-all path to early retirement.

Business Insider has spoken with dozens of people pursuing FIRE, or financial independence, retire early. Most know their numbers inside and out — annual spending, net worth, savings rate — but they use different strategies to reach their "FIRE number."

For two couples, an unconventional approach to housing helped make that possible.

Josette Chang and Alexander Nathanson broke the "golden rule of mortgage payments" and paid off the mortgage on their New York City apartment years ahead of schedule. Even though they had a low 3.1% interest rate and what many personal finance experts would consider "good debt," they decided to eliminate it for peace of mind.

By conventional personal finance standards, it was debt worth keeping: a low-rate loan that left room to invest elsewhere for potentially higher returns. But for Chang and Nathanson, returns weren't everything.

"It was kind of a psychological weight we could get rid of," Nathanson said.

Paying off the loan also significantly reduced their fixed costs, helping accelerate their path to financial independence. They still pay a co-op maintenance fee, but their largest monthly expense is gone.

"It's not a free apartment," he said, "but we're like, we hacked into something."

Chang left her finance job in 2024, while Nathanson, a physician, scaled back his hospital hours. He no longer works because he has to — the couple said they have enough in savings to sustain their lifestyle — but because he wants to.

For Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung, homeownership was the dream for years, until Toronto home prices kept rising and they felt they might never be able to afford a place. Their frustration with the housing market pushed them to consider other options and ultimately led them to the FIRE community. They shifted their goal from homeownership to early retirement, and renting helped them get there.

"Buying a place means putting yourself into massive amounts of debt, which requires you to have a stable job for the next 25 to 30 years, and that kind of went away from our freedom values," Leung said.

Instead, they stayed in a modest apartment for a decade.

"We didn't upgrade our housing," Shen said. "A lot of our friends were either buying houses or moving up to a two- or three-bedroom. We stayed in a one-bedroom on top of a townhouse, and our rent basically stayed the same for the 10 years that we lived there."

Avoiding lifestyle creep as their incomes rose allowed them to save up to 70% of their earnings.

After hitting their FIRE number in 2015, Shen and Leung quit their jobs at 31 and 32 and began traveling the world. They've been living off their portfolio ever since. They've also earned income from their bestselling books, "Quit Like a Millionaire" and "Parent Like a Millionaire (Without Being One)," but said they do not rely on that money to sustain their lifestyle.

Though their strategies differed, both couples focused on housing to reduce one of the highest costs in any budget.

That's a common strategy in the FIRE world: rather than obsessing over small discretionary purchases, many savers focus on trimming the "big three" expenses: housing, transportation, and food. Cutting those major recurring costs can free up far more money than skipping lattes or canceling a few subscriptions.

A common misconception about FIRE is that it requires deprivation, Shen said. "No, it's about optimization, not minimization."

In the back corner of hobby shop Bleecker Trading on Manhattan's Upper West Side, three teenagers were huddled around a table. It was spring break, and they were spending their afternoon wheeling and dealing Pokémon cards.

"I come here every day after school," Mason, a 13-year-old, told Business Insider, as his friend Vincent pulled up an app to check the value of various cards.

They've each been collecting Pokémon cards for years, and it's not about playing the game.

"I like making money a lot," Mason said. "I'm able to sell some cards for hundreds of dollars."

The next generation of business titans is training on the playground and around cafeteria tables. They're trading cards, not stocks.

"It's an investment," Vincent said.

Pokémon has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, becoming the world's No. 1 toy property in 2025, and generating $2.5 billion in US sales — up 87% year over year, according to market research firm Circana.

It's not the card game most millennials remember. Today's kids treat their cards as an alternative asset class, scouring the first- and secondhand markets for deals. They trade cards — and spend cash — to build up blue-chip portfolios.

Rightfully so: Card Ladder's Pokémon index, which tracks market performance on platforms including eBay, has grown 179% year over year. That beats both the S&P 500's 33% growth and the Dow's 22% rise in the same period. Over the past year, an average of $830,000 worth of cards were sold each day on the secondary market, according to Card Ladder, with a Pikachu Illustrator card selling at auction for a record $16.5 million in February.

"They're like little business people," Matthew Winkelried, the owner of Bleecker Trading, told Business Insider about his school-age customers. "They follow the Pokémon market. They know what they're looking for and they know what the value is."

The after-school hustle

Winkelried remembers when he first learned about Pokémon: He was watching Saturday morning cartoons when the original Pokémon TV series came on.

What followed was a slow roll: He saw the cards at school and learned about the Game Boy game. Living in suburban New Jersey, his mom would have to drive to their local toy store, Babyland, to see if cards had been restocked.

Things are different now.

"In the modern era, because kids are exposed to technology and screens consistently, discoverability is very easy," he said.

A kid may see a card on the playground or at a friend's house, and thanks to Google and YouTube, they have a basic understanding of the Pokémon language after a few hours online.

Liv, a 7-year-old expat living in Stockholm, told her dad, Andreas Harris, that she wanted to get in on the Pokémon cards that her friends were showing off during recess.

When he learned that she was interested in collecting and trading — not actually playing — the game, he turned to YouTube.

"Well, if you want to get into Pokémon business, let's do it," Harris told her. "We've got to educate ourselves."

Together, they learned how to properly store the cards to hold their value — Liv keeps hers in a red binder with sleeves — and what makes a card valuable, including rarity, condition, and a specific collector's goal.

Liv goes for aesthetics. Her favorite character, Minccino, is "different, cute, and furry," she said. Still, she's beginning to understand the basic laws of supply and demand. She has her eye on rare cards, and Japanese cards — less common in Sweden — are particularly exciting.

Like many Pokémon collectors, Liv started out with a couple of financial assists — two packs from her dad and about $10 worth of Swedish Krona from the tooth fairy. Her weekly allowance tends to go toward packs and individual cards, like one of her most valuable, a Pikachu that cost about $20.

Others take it to an extreme. Winkelried has seen parents, typically those who themselves collect or used to collect, spend as much as $5,000 on packs and cards. Most of the kids at Bleecker Trading said their parents have helped kick-start their collections with a handful of packs — about $7 each — or, for a special occasion, an Elite Trainer Box, which tends to retail for $50 to $70.

Once a kid builds a good portfolio — through the luck of the draw when ripping packs or purchasing specific cards — it can sustain itself with less risk than other collectibles like sports cards, whose value depends on human players.

"Charizard can't tear its ACL, it can't get pulled over for DUI," Winkelried said. "There are ebbs and flows, like the commodity markets, and they can fall below a floor, but they usually recover pretty fast."

Like tiny brokers, they keep their cards in mint condition in toploaders and sleeves — or even unopened — and send the most valuable to authenticators like PSA, which grade cards for a fee based on rarity and condition.

They track market value on websites like Card Ladder and the marketplace TCGplayer, and take that knowledge to the playground, card shows, and collectible shops, bartering with kids and adults alike.

"They'll go to card shows, they'll use it as leverage for another card that they want, and the cycle continues," Samantha Veres, a marketing specialist at Los Angeles card shop Burbank Cards, told Business Insider.

Veres runs children's events at the store, teaching kids as young as five what makes a good trade and how to properly store their cards. These kids, she said, know how to hustle.

"I've seen kids, whether it's sports cards or Pokémon cards, with belt bags of cash, $100 bills," Jay Coscolluela, the cofounder of West Coast Card Shows, told Business Insider. "Nothing surprises me anymore."

Take the Warren Buffett of Bleecker Trading: a 12-year-old whom Winkelried has known for about three years.

"In the span of six months, he nailed this hobby," Winkelried said. "Flipping cards, turning a profit, reinvesting in a new card."

His Apple equivalent came last year, when he opened an Evolving Skies pack and pulled a Moonbreon, a super-rare special illustration card featuring the character Umbreon. To the uninitiated, this may be word salad, but he had the understanding to get the card graded for its value, which sat at a pretty $3,000.

He negotiated a sale and took most of that profit — Winkelried said his mom probably saved some — to buy more cards.

As Coscolluela said, even if you pull the ultimate character, which most agree is Charizard, there is always a better one: "A collector never gets satisfied."

Forget catching them all

At one of Bleecker Trading's tables, two pairs of fathers and sons were talking business after a trade.

Ten-year-old Jasper was going through his trading binder, pointing out the values of specific cards and explaining how he manages earnings from his trades: spending half on new cards and saving the other half "for a rainy day."

His dad, Redell Armstrong, started telling a story about when the two of them bought an Elite Trainer Box at GameStop for $85.

Rondell Fleming, the other father, and his son, Rondell Jr., stepped in. That was Armstrong's first mistake, they said, "super overpriced."

Like many parents of today's kid collectors, Armstrong was into Pokémon when he was younger. Now, he and his son collect together, which the elder Armstrong said is a bonding experience.

The current Pokémon craze was reignited in 2020 when millennials, some quarantined in their parents' homes, rediscovered their old collections and realized what they might be worth.

Pokémon social accounts exploded. eBay reported a 574% increase in sales between 2019 and 2020, and stockists couldn't keep up with demand.

As with any trend that capitalizes on nostalgia, there's plenty of griping about "the good old days" from Pokémon purists.

Some longtime fans — or those who actually play the game — fear that the young collectors are too capitalistic in their approach.

Fleming tries to teach his son, RJ, restraint.

"It can get tricky when you're buying packs, buying cards," he said of the value-obsessed approach. "You can spend a lot of money really fast."

At the kids' events she runs, Veres tries to focus on more than value, emphasizing a card's cool art or the fun of the game itself.

During Bleecker Trading's kids' day, there was a 15-minute presentation during which two employees modeled good behavior — trade fairly, be respectful, and end every deal with a handshake — and Winkelried turned down multiple trades with kids throughout the day.

"If I see a kid dropping dime after dime, I'd be like, why don't we take a break?" Winkelried said.

Of course, not everyone is looking out for the kids they trade against.

At one show, a dealer told an unwitting 13-year-old that a card was worth $100 when it was really worth $50.

"The uncle had to explain to the kid, you have to do your research before you do a deal," Coscolluela said.

While Coscolluela said he spoke to the dealer to try to make it right, there's a lesson in that: "You can't go crying because you made a bad decision. That's called business."

Still, most parents said there are real upsides to trading Pokémon cards, such as a basic understanding of economics and value, as well as attention to taking care of a collection.

"We want to convey financial literacy," Armstrong said. "He fell into Pokémon, and then my wife and I, we use that as a platform for him to think intelligently about investments."

And while trading with adults can be intimidating, Liv's dad, Harris, said that negotiating builds confidence.

Plus, any hobby that gets kids off their screens is a win.

At Bleecker Trading, the dozens of kids that came in and out of the shop were talking to each other, laughing, and eating pizza. Their phones only came out when they wanted to check card values.

Liv used to be an avid Roblox player, playing for hours before her dad set time limits and asking for Robux for Christmas. Her 8th birthday is coming up next month, and she has one big request: more Pokémon cards.

• Tech stocks are surging, but SocGen's Manish Kabra says there will be safer entry points in early 2027.
• Hyperscalers' free cash flow should turn positive in Q1 2027, he said.
• Kabra advised looking at the capex-to-sales ratio of hyperscalers.

Tech stocks are again the market's hottest trade — but Société Générale's Chief US Equity Strategist, Manish Kabra, says not so fast.

The AI scare trade sent tech stocks plummeting earlier this year, bringing valuations in the sector down to historically cheap levels relative to the broader market. The sell-off prompted strategists around Wall Street to urge investors to jump back into the trade, given the cheaper entry point.

The sector has indeed surged, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) up 18% since March 30 and the Nasdaq hitting fresh all-time highs this week.

But, as Kabra sees it, there will be safer entry points ahead — likely at the start of 2027.

In an interview with Business Insider on Wednesday, Kabra pointed to two metrics for hypescalers — the giants of the tech sector that are pursuing grand AI ambitions — that he's watching to give him the buy signal. Both are related to hyperscalers' investments in and monetization of AI.

The first is free cash flow levels. Right now, hyperscalers' free cash flow has been declining every quarter since early 2024 as they continue to dump money into the AI buildout. Société Générale classifies the following companies as hyperscalers: Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Alibaba, Tencent, Oracle, Baidu, IBM, CoreWeave, Nebius, Salesforce, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicorn.

Kabra thinks these firms' aggregate free cash flow levels will dip into the negative by the end of this year before heading back into the positive in early 2027.

High free cash flow levels are often associated with so-called quality stocks, as they signal a healthy balance sheet.

"That needs to inflect on the positive side, and in all my work, I don't see that in 2026," Kabra said. "So I think it's very good valuations have done what they're supposed to do, and they're looking very attractive, but to go substantially overweight tech, we need free cash flow inflection."

He added: "The moment that happens, the tape would be very, very bullish on the tech sector."

Relatedly, the second measure Kabra is watching is hyperscalers' capex-to-sales ratio. Hyperscalers have been shoveling money into things like data centers for several years now — Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta are expected to spend around $600 billion on AI this year, almost double what they did in 2025.

Last year, investors started to grow impatient about the spending spree, wanting to see a more concrete path to monetizing the investment in AI.

Kabra says he wants to see such progress, too, before overweighting the sector, and thinks that will come in Q1 2027.

"I think that that's a key signal to monitor," he said, "like the most important signal."

Given Kabra's reservations about tech stocks for the rest of this year, he said the S&P 500 would likely have a tough time breaking above 7,000, as the sector accounts for roughly 32% of the cap-weighted index.

That said, the equal-weighted S&P 500 is a better bet right now for broad market exposure, he said, as it's more skewed to companies in the materials, industrials, and utilities sectors that should continue to benefit from high power demand in the US.

"It's the, it's the closest proxy to nominal growth that the US has today," he said of the S&P 500 equal-weighted index.

One fund offering exposure to the equal-weighted index is the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP).

• Bath & Body Works is turning to Amazon as part of its turnaround effort, CEO Daniel Heaf said.
• The e-commerce giant is helping the mall staple reach new customers.
• Growing market share is "difficult" without Amazon's reach, he said.

Bath & Body Works has a secret ingredient in its turnaround effort: Amazon.

The retailer, known for its hand sanitizer and fragrances, started selling on Amazon in the US in February. Bath & Body Works CEO Daniel Heaf said that the e-commerce giant is playing a major role in a revamp of its online strategy.

Bath & Body Works already has "unbelievable scale" in markets including North America, Heaf said on Wednesday at the Semafor World Economy Summit. While it's trying to grow through sales on its own website, Amazon plays a necessary part, he said.

"It's actually difficult for us to take share without being on Amazon, because they are so large in our category," Heaf said.

Until recently, Bath & Body Works was among the brands that avoided selling its products on Amazon. Some brands, such as Birkenstock, have also pulled their products from the platform, citing concerns about counterfeit goods. Oftentimes, products from these brands are still sold on Amazon through third-party sellers.

Heaf joined Bath & Body Works as CEO last May. He previously spent several years at Nike, including stints overseeing direct sales and digital strategy for the shoe brand.

Nike resumed selling on Amazon in 2025 after a several-year hiatus when the brand sought to sell more shoes directly to shoppers — a misstep CEO Elliott Hill has since worked to fix.

Since becoming CEO of Bath & Body Works, Heaf has attempted to turn the struggling mall retailer around and attract younger consumers. One of his moves has been launching sales on Amazon — a place where consumers were already buying tens of millions of dollars a year in Bath & Body Works products from third-party sellers, he said.

Early sales results suggest that Bath & Body Works products are reaching new customers on Amazon. Some products that haven't sold well in the chain's 2,500 stores are overperforming when listed on Amazon, Heaf said.

"The consumer on Amazon is prepared to pay more than the consumer in our stores because they want to have free next-day shipping," Heaf said.

Previously, Bath & Body Works' online presence was secondary to its physical stores and not meant to attract new customers, Heaf said. "The website has acted as a catalog for store customers to replenish what they've already bought," he said on Wednesday.

Now, Heaf said, the company is trying to beef up its online presence, including by selling on Amazon.

"As a brand, you don't get to choose which channels you go to, where the customer is," he said.

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

• Alyssa Bolaños moved from Florida to Colombia with her husband and two kids last year.
• She's enjoying Colombia's family-oriented culture and emphasis on celebrating life.
• While the lack of urgency in Colombia can stress her out, she has no plans of moving.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Alyssa Bolaños, a 35-year-old creative freelancer living in Medellín, Colombia. It's been edited for length and clarity.

My husband, two sons —who were four and five at the time — and I moved from Orlando to Medellín, Colombia, in August 2025.

My husband is from Colombia, and he always said he never wanted to move back, but when the Trump administration took office a second time, we started having serious conversations about it.

We also had safety concerns about our children's school and decided we absolutely did not want to raise our kids in a place with a threat of school shootings. That's what really clicked with my husband and made him think, "We can't stay here."

Since moving, we're spending more time as a family, enjoying the affordable lifestyle, and integrating into Colombia's vibrant culture. I'm still adjusting to some of the differences in work culture, and I miss my family, but I have no plans of moving back.

Our families were concerned about us leaving

Once we made the decision to move, I really didn't have any fears. The only problem was that our immigrant families questioned why we would move back after they sacrificed so much to move to the States — my parents are from Cuba.

We weren't going to let anyone's perspective hold us back because, at the end of the day, we have to focus on the lives of our children and ourselves. It was really only six months from that point that we actually moved.

The emotional aspect of moving, saying goodbye to friends and family, was the hardest. Family is a big part of Latino culture, so it was hard being the first of our family to leave.

The whole process of selling and donating our belongings was also exhausting. We shipped two big boxes of our belongings, but we had to be really discerning about only taking the most sentimental things with us.

I'm able to be present in my kids' lives here

Colombian culture is so family-oriented. When people finish work, they spend time with their families and enjoy life. Every day is a reason to celebrate, and I love that about Colombia.

My husband is a stay-at-home dad, and I do a little bit of everything as a freelancer, like social media strategy and marketing for brands and small businesses. We're currently homeschooling our kids while we wait for them to be accepted into a school in the area.

Actually being present with your kids is a blessing that you don't always get as a parent in the States. In Colombia, we spend lunchtime from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. playing with them or exploring. It's tiring to be with your kids all the time, but it's a luxury.

The food and the walkability are also amazing. We don't have a car, so we walk most places or take public transit. Our kids also scooter around. Worst case, we take an Uber.

The lack of urgency here is good and bad

People work to live here, not live to work. It's an amazing change of pace, but it's still taking some getting used to. I used to sit at my desk job all day and work the entire time. Here, there are lots of holidays and a strong emphasis on getting outside and spending time with loved ones.

One thing I didn't expect was the overall lack of urgency. In the States, we're so used to the "go go go" hustle culture. I got so accustomed to constantly moving and feeling like I was doing something wrong if I wasn't being productive.

In Colombia, there aren't as many strict timelines, and people are more focused on enjoying little moments in their day. If I'm being honest, the lack of urgency stresses me out sometimes, but I'm really trying to be chill with it and remember that not everything is an emergency.

This change of pace is good for me, but it's hard.

I miss my family, but I prefer the Colombian version of things

There's not much I really miss about the United States other than family and friends. We're lucky to have some family and friends here who have introduced us to others, and we've attended some events for other immigrants, but building new connections is taking time.

Other than that, we have all of the same comforts like public transportation, air conditioning, and stores. People have this misconception that Colombia is a backward place, and it's absolutely not like that.

Medellín is innovative and full of life, culture, and community. There are even some Colombian versions of things I prefer, like the Colombian Frisby instead of KFC. I miss IHOP a little bit, though.

Our lifestyle is affordable, but there's a caveat

Our groceries are less than they used to be for our family of four, and my personal cellphone bill is $30 a month. Everything here has been much more affordable and accessible for us.

That being said, I always want to be careful saying that our lifestyle is affordable because Colombia is experiencing a big problem with gentrification. If you move here, my advice is to support local Colombian stores and really integrate with the culture. Colombia is a beautiful place, and we have no plans to leave.

Do you have a story to share about leaving the United States? If so, please reach out to the reporter at tmartinelli@businessinsider.com.

• US track and field star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is pregnant with her first child, due in July.
• The mom-to-be has "dialed back" her fitness training, saying that the unborn baby "comes first."
• She wants to inspire the child by returning to athletics and winning more titles after the birth.

When Olympic runner and hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and her husband, ex-NFL player Andre Levrone Jr., decided to start a family, they did their best to factor in the international athletic calendar.

"We definitely had it on our radar that you only get so many considered 'off years' in track and field when there are no global championships," McLaughlin-Levrone told Business Insider.

Their calculated approach to parenthood paid off. The 26-year-old is due to give birth to their first child in July 2026. It means she'll have exactly two years to prepare for the 2028 Olympic Games after the delivery.

Andre Levrone Jr. went viral when he was filmed cheering his wife

"It was our prayer and our hope, and we're grateful that we were blessed to be able to do it at the right time," she said.

McLaughlin-Levrone, who holds four Olympic gold medals and the world record for the 400-meter hurdles, married Levrone, a former wide receiver, in May 2022 after meeting him through a mutual friend on social media.

His devotion went viral during the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, with a passionate reaction to her triumphant 400-meter race, which she won in under 48 seconds.

A video showed the now 31-year-old loudly cheering from the sidelines and congratulating her as she walked up to him after the race, the US flag around her shoulders.

McLaughlin-Levrone said her husband is thrilled at the prospect of fatherhood and is helping her take care of her and her baby's health as she enters her third trimester.

The early months, she said, were characterized by all-day morning sickness.

"Thankfully, we've moved past that stage, but training definitely looks different these days," she said.

She continues to run and lift weights, but is taking things at a slower pace because the baby's health "comes first."

McLaughlin-Levrone believes in self-care

"I'm still trying to maintain some sense of normalcy on the track, but I've dialed back the intensity, and it's not as rigorous," McLaughlin-Levrone, a spokesperson for the new "Heal Like a PRO" branding campaign for Band-Aid, explained.

''As you can imagine, with pregnancy, different things come up, whether it's pelvic soreness, round ligament pain, or neck tenderness."

She said her self-care regimen includes "detaching" and "taking some time for myself."

"I like to get off of social media, go for walks," the New Jersey native explained. " My husband and I love to listen to music together or watch a movie.

"We're really just taking some time to appreciate the season of life that we're in before we welcome our little girl."

McLaughlin-Levrone laughed at the suggestion that, given her parents' genes, the baby would no doubt make a great athlete.

However, she said there was no way she or Levrone, who had a contract with teams including the Baltimore Ravens, would force her to follow in their footsteps.

The Olympics beckon in 2028

"Obviously, we're going to encourage her to try different sports and different activities, and whatever she's drawn to," McLaughlin-Levrone added. "But I want her to excel in whatever it is she decides to pursue."

As for her own career, the mother-to-be said she hopes to return to track and field soon after her daughter's birth, with her sights firmly set on the Olympics in LA, the family's adoptive home.

"I'm just excited to have my daughter and see her grow and develop, and for her to see her mom go back to doing what she loves and train at the highest level possible to strive for her dreams," she said.

• AI is helping employees create new apps and tools faster.
• That creative explosion comes with downsides. Some are calling this "AI sprawl."
• Amazon has seen a surge in duplicate internal tools and data. Its solution: More AI.

Amazon's AI boom is creating a new kind of mess: a growing bloat of internal tools and duplicated data.

Some teams are rapidly building their own AI-powered applications to automate workflows and organize information. But that creative explosion is also causing problems, such as software and data duplication, according to an internal document obtained by Business Insider.

"AI is making our tool duplication problem worse," the document stated. "More duplication is being created faster, and less of it is being cleaned up."

The trend points to a broader shift across corporate America. Generative AI is driving what some call "AI sprawl," a surge of AI tools and autonomous agents that risks overwhelming companies' centralized oversight and security controls.

As more employees spin up tools on their own, sometimes in minutes with AI assistants, organizations can lose visibility into which systems are in use, where sensitive data lives, and how much redundant software they maintain.

Cloud —> SaaS —> AI Sprawl

It's a familiar story with a twist. When cloud computing emerged 20 years ago, rogue employees fired up Amazon Web Services accounts without permission. Then, "SaaS sprawl" spread cloud software across companies with little oversight at first.

In both cases, companies eventually responded by reigning in extremes, building oversight, and designing new systems to take official advantage of these powerful new technologies. Generative AI is in the early stages of the same pattern, but it's moving a lot quicker.

The effects of this unruly, creative AI boom may be especially pronounced at Amazon. The company has embraced AI across its business, with CEO Andy Jassy urging employees to adopt the technology or risk falling behind.

'Dramatically lowers the barrier'

Amazon has, for years, grappled with teams building similar tools in parallel, according to the document obtained Business Insider. Those overlaps were costly but manageable. Building software required significant time and engineering resources, and maintaining it created enough burden that some redundant tools were eventually retired.

AI is changing that equation.

According to the document, AI "dramatically lowers the barrier to building new tools," allowing teams to prototype and ship software far more quickly. Instead of searching for existing solutions, engineers can create their own in a fraction of the time and maintain them at a much lower cost.

The result is a surge in overlapping systems, with less pressure to consolidate them. "AI is now making this problem worse from both directions," the document stated.

The document, marked "Amazon confidential," was produced in February by a team responsible for evaluating and improving AI tools used across Amazon's vast retail business, which spans thousands of engineers. The company encourages open dialogue about challenges, an approach that has helped it get ahead of problems in the past. 

In an email to Business Insider, Amazon spokesperson Montana MacLachlan said the document reflects the perspective of a single team and that it is "inaccurate" to use one group's view to characterize the experience of the company's broader workforce.

'Artifacts persist'

The problem goes beyond tool overload. It's also introducing new risks in how data is handled and stored.

Many of Amazon's AI systems take in internal data and convert it to new formats, such as knowledge bases and summaries. Those outputs are often stored separately from the original source, effectively creating new copies of the same information, according to the document. If the original data is later deleted or access is restricted, those derived versions don't always update.

In one internal case, a system called Spec Studio continued showing software details that had been made private in Amazon's internal code repository, the document said. The company is now pushing teams to better document how they handle permission changes and data deletion.

"Any system that ingests data, transforms it through AI, and stores the output separately faces the same problem: when source permissions change or data is deleted, derived artifacts persist," the document stated.

Using AI to fix an AI problem

The rapid spread of AI-generated tools is creating "shadow AI" within organizations, where unauthorized applications introduce risks such as sensitive data exposure and regulatory violations, Debo Dutta, chief AI officer of cloud company Nutanix, told Business Insider.

"If not governed properly, this can all lead to data and system disruption," Dutta said.

Amazon's answer may be more AI.

The company is exploring ways to use AI to identify duplicate tools, flag risks, and nudge teams to consolidate earlier, before overlap becomes hard to unwind, according to the document.

The challenge is balancing speed with coordination. Amazon has long prized autonomy, with small, independent teams moving quickly and making their own decisions, through an approach often described as the "two-pizza team" model. That culture has fueled rapid experimentation, but it may also make the problem harder to solve.

"Teams that build bespoke AI systems are likely to repeat these same issues," the document said.

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Carol Foster inched her walker toward the front of a senior living meeting room and paused while a virtual reality headset was strapped onto her face.

For a moment, the 82-year-old could only see a mostly black screen. "We can take you to any place imaginable," said Chris Brickler, chief executive and cofounder of Mynd Immersive, who demonstrated the technology in March at The New Jewish Home on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where Foster lives. "You can look up, right, left, down, and feel like you're there."

"What about Florence?" he asked. She hesitated; she had never been.

Then off to Italy she went, trading rainy Manhattan for the Ponte Vecchio, Michelangelo's marble statue of David, and the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.

"Does it feel like you're there?" Brickler asked.

"Of course, yes," Foster said.

Originally developed with dementia and Alzheimer's treatment in mind, the Mynd headsets have expanded to hundreds of healthcare facilities and senior care residences nationwide. The virtual-reality devices display a 3D view of the user's chosen destination. They help take older adults out of worlds that, for many, have gotten small.

Foster's tour of Tuscany was projected onto a screen, letting other residents follow along — an added bonus, some said, as the sessions have helped foster friendships. Residents take turns with the headset, often choosing locations that return them to earlier chapters of their lives. As Foster explored Florence, a built-in narrator described the city's history.

"You would have liked to have stayed there all day, right?" Brickler said. Foster nodded. She's lived at the home for nearly two years after a fall left her unable to care for herself. She hasn't been outside much since then and said she may never get to see these destinations in person.

"It's interesting to feel you're someplace else for a while," she said, peering out to the courtyard as rain trickled down the windows.

Launched 10 years ago with a now-discontinued Samsung headset, Mynd has raised over $8 million and expanded across 800 clinics, hospital systems, retirement communities, and US Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers nationwide. Its marquee product is a suite of VR headsets — now sourced from Meta and HTC Vive — that let users wander through cities, scuba dive, or catch butterflies. The experiences are designed by Mynd's 20-person team or in partnership with external designers, then integrated into the hardware.

The broader virtual reality market — valued at nearly $10 billion — primarily targets video gamers. Mynd is a leading player in VR for older adults; its competitors include Rendever and Viva Vita, which also offer travel-focused systems in hundreds of US facilities. Another competitor, UprightVR, sells a device designed to assess balance and support physical therapy.

Healthcare facilities pay between $1,800 and $3,000 annually for Mynd headsets, which can be shared among residents for recreational therapy, memory care, and skilled nursing. Insurance companies don't yet cover most uses.

At the VA, Mynd's portfolio of immersive therapies has been used for veterans struggling with PTSD, chronic pain, and social isolation, Brickler said. Mynd recently announced that the VA will prescribe and 100% reimburse the use of their products in prescriptive therapy for veterans living at home.

Mynd is selling to care facilities, in part, to circumvent challenges of selling directly to patients, such as insurance. "Get the product out there, get people using it, get these stories around what it is and how it's impacting their lives," Brickler said of the business strategy.

Brickler says the headsets can help with loneliness, too, which Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy has deemed a public health epidemic affecting nearly half of American adults. In a 2023 advisory on loneliness, Murthy wrote that technology overall could drive connection and community, especially among people with disabilities.

Technology can also drive people apart, Murthy's advisory warned. "Technology that displaces in-person engagement, monopolizes our attention, reduces the quality of our interactions, and even diminishes our self-esteem… can lead to greater loneliness," Murthy wrote.

Some experts on aging caution against overstating the benefits of caretaking technologies in elder care. Research on the long-term impact is limited, and critics worry the tech could substitute human interaction.

Cecilia Ferreiro, 70, couldn't wait for her turn on the Mynd headset as she watched Foster cross continents. When she was up, she rattled off a list of cities, starting with Uruguay's capital, Montevideo.

"Not on this device," Brickler said.

"What about Buenos Aires?" she asked.

"Not seeing that either," he said. After a little more searching, he asked: "How about Paris?"

Seconds later, she was watching people walk through the courtyard of the Louvre. Her view of the museum's embellished exterior was clear and detailed. She moved her neck around to see more, at times touching her chin to her chest. Her nurse pushed her wheelchair in a circle for a 360-degree view.

It looked the same as it did on a long-ago trip with her late husband, she marveled.

"I know I can't go back again," Ferreiro said under her breath. She moved to New York two years ago after her older daughter had a baby. Shortly after, a fall when exiting a taxi left her unable to walk.

In a previous session, she'd visited Barcelona, her eyes sparkling as she recounted a romantic trip.

"I felt I was there with him," Ferreiro said of her husband, who died in 2000.

The experience made her feel younger, she said, pointing to her heart. At The New Jewish Home, VR sessions have helped her make friends and sparked an interest in AI.

"I feel like I don't have much time left, so I want to make sure that I am living my life to the fullest," she said. "I want to expand the little mind that I have left. I forget everything, but I'm trying to catch up to everybody else."

VR tech, especially with dementia patients, can pose safety risks without the support of trained staff. It could display a location associated with negative memories, for example, or lead to a loss of balance. Not everyone will understand or appreciate being instantly transported around the globe. Brickler said caregivers must guide users and vet the content. The company has received feedback on comfort, emotional safety, and content appropriateness, which has shaped the design of its more recent platforms.

"We had an instance where we took a woman back to her old house, and it was a Walmart parking lot," Brickler said of a session that used a Google Earth feature to explore. She grieved to see it paved over and destroyed. "We learned our lesson big time."

Charlene Chu, an associate professor of nursing at the University of Toronto who studies technologies for aging populations, said AI-assisted technology can enrich care but shouldn't replace human connection.

"From my perspective as a nurse, I've never met a patient who would rather speak to a chatbot instead of a human being," Chu said. "We have robots that will go in and play games with older adults, which I think is ridiculous. There should be a human being playing the games, and the robot should be serving drinks or cleaning up the room."

Dr. Jeffrey Farber, The New Jewish Home's president and CEO, said he's seen residents bond with peers and caregivers during group sessions. Though VR can feel unfamiliar to some first-time users, Farber said residents are more open to it than other, more invasive treatments.

"They go back to places that they recall from their younger years, favorite places, places where they were born, parks that they used to know every corner of when they grew up," said Farber, who began working with Mynd in 2024. "You could feel like you're there and then share that experience."

Back in Florence, Foster hovered near the ornate dome of the Florence Cathedral, before beaming onto a beach with jagged cliffs, a radiant blue sky, and sparkling water — a far cry from her normal surroundings.

After earning graduate degrees at New York University and Columbia University, Foster stayed in New York City. The Arkansas native said she traveled sparingly and frequently visited prisons and treatment centers for work as a social researcher. At 76, she took a buyout and spent time auditing college classes. Her main goal was to keep her mind sharp.

"When I retired from my job, I didn't retire from life," Foster said.

She fell on the sidewalk one day in 2024, and her independence evaporated. Though she didn't break any bones, doctors worried about her returning home alone, with no family nearby. Over the last year and a half at The New Jewish Home, her health has improved enough that she can attend most activities. She's savored every opportunity to have life feel normal again, she said.

After the beach trip, the screen went black. Already, she was thinking about where to visit at the next Mynd session in a few weeks — and where she might fly if her health would allow, perhaps to the British Isles or the South Pacific.

It also got her thinking: If this is where the world is heading, should she try to learn more about it? If a VR headset could bring back memories and give her joy, could an AI chatbot do the same? Maybe, though AI and advanced tech are "made out to be awfully sinister," she said.

Brickler got the idea for the Mynd headset when he noticed that his grandfather, who had dementia, would light up at certain sights and the sound of music.

"I just felt there's got to be better ways to provide care and engagement in that world," he said.

Looking ahead, Brickler hopes to tailor Mynd's products for dementia patients based on symptom severity. "We're at the embryonic state of what this can be," he said.

Some research suggests promise. Researchers at Stanford University, in partnership with Mynd, found in 2023 that Mynd's products strengthened caregiver-patient relations, improved moods, and reduced isolation. Mynd has been used by people with Parkinson's disease symptoms and to improve hand-eye coordination in people with mobility challenges, Brickler said. Mynd's platform is backed by clinical research, but it isn't classified as a regulated medical device, so it doesn't require FDA approval.

Toward the end of her session, Ferreiro was transported to a performance of "The Nutcracker." Dancers in colorful tutus flocked onto the stage from the wings. Ferreiro hummed along, her body swaying to the rhythm. For a moment, the dancers stopped, and the screen paused to buffer.

"That's never happened to me where it updates in the middle of a session," Brickler said.

As he fixed the equipment, he told Ferreiro that she could watch all 80 minutes of the ballet from the side of the stage. Then, the dancers sprang back into action. Next time, she said, she would watch the first act, travel the streets of Europe, and pretend she could walk again.

"I'm impressed," she said as she took off the headset, smiling widely as her nurse pushed her wheelchair away.

• Citadel Chief People Officer Alexander DiLeonardo says in a way he's looking for managers "from day one."
• In an agentic AI world, he wants employees who understand how to delegate work to humans and tech.
• His comments show how AI is continuing to revolutionize the workforce.

Citadel Securities' Alexander DiLeonardo wants new employees ready to manage on day 1, because in this AI world, they probably will.

"In a way, you're almost hiring managers from day one," DiLeonardo, Citadel Securities' chief people officer, said Thursday during a panel discussion at Semafor's World Economy Summit in Washington, DC.

DiLeonardo, who said he had just returned from speaking with students in Boston, said that at a time "when technical skills are being commoditized to an extent," he's focused on broader traits.

"You assess on behavioral characteristics that are more intrinsic and more broad," he said. "Those are things like creativity, leadership potential, raw problem-solving ability, commerciality."

DiLeonardo said leadership qualities are valuable right now because even entry-level employees are doing some degree of management when they delegate tasks out to AI agents.

"You need to bring people in who can think about, 'How do I organize the problem? How do I disaggregate the work? How do I assign that to different people, as well as technology tools that can get that work done?" he said. "And then, what's the cadence of kind of, like, performance management, checking on both the people and the technology tools as that progresses."

The characteristics DiLeonardo is looking for largely echo what hiring managers at the market maker previously told Business Insider they want when hiring software engineers. The difference is that, with the advent of agentic AI, non-technical jobs arguably require more technical skills than ever before.

It's not just Citadel Securities either. Business Insider has previously reported that big firms like Meta and McKinsey are revamping their interview processes to ensure prospective workers can demonstrate they are truly AI adept.

DiLeonardo said if employers shift their parameters to meet the current moment, they can find workers who meet a high technical bar, as well as those who are very adaptable and "can be the future leaders of your organization." At the same time, he said firms need to understand how to meet the expectations of students who are eager to get to work.

"We spend a lot of time as an organization underwriting what every single individual who enters our organization from campus does in their first year," DiLeonardo said. "It's not about, 'oh, here's some extra capacity."