Tarek Mansour is the cofounder and CEO of Kalshi. IMF Tarek Mansour, the CEO of Kalshi, acknowledged the company has an "unusual" management style. Most employees report directly to him or his fellow cofounder, Mansour said on a recent podcast. It's "kind of chaotic," Mansour said on a recent podcast, but "the tradeoff is a company that can adapt quickly." At Kalshi, most employees report directly to both founders of the largest prediction market in the US in what CEO Tarek Mansour described as a deliberately "unusual" management structure. Speaking on a recent episode of Sequoia Capital's "Long Strange Trip," Mansour said he and fellow cofounder Luana Lopes Lara have roughly 150 direct reports with little traditional hierarchy in between. "There's some functions that like we sort of let them do like what they do," Mansour said, "but pretty much most of the company reports to between the two of us." Mansour and Lara founded Kalshi in 2018 after they met as students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The CEO acknowledged that the management style is "pretty unusual," but said the tradeoff is a company that can adapt quickly, even if it's "kind of chaotic." "I think you could build an organization that's somewhat okay with that, because what you get out of chaos is like continuous, constant adaptability," Mansour said. "It's very easy for a company to adapt, very easy." His goal, Mansour said, is to keep the company flexible enough to "constantly reorient and reassemble around the biggest challenges or biggest opportunities." "You want to be able to do that with no friction — that's inherently chaotic," he said, adding, "your structure needs to be as adaptable as possible." During the podcast, Mansour told host and Sequoia Capital partner Brian Halligan that he doesn't follow any leadership playbook and described his approach as "making it up as I go." Mansour called he and his cofounder, Lara, "probably very sort of like entrepreneurially illiterate." "We haven't read all the books, we haven't watched all the podcasts," he said. Mansour said he concentrates on Kalshi's big-picture strategy, while Lara focuses on the day-to-day operations of the company. "I actually think we kind of disagree by design," Mansour said. "Like we have this thing, this dynamic over time, it's become a thing where like we essentially will always take the opposite side of the argument." Read the original article on Business Insider

The author (not pictured) cares for her mom and her daughter. Courtesy of the author Living with my aging mother changed how I understood her worries. I realized I had started treating my college daughter the same way. Parenting and caregiving have become mirror images of each other. I bounded upstairs to retrieve the laundry basket, trying to tack on one more chore before losing the day to my remote job's endless emails and Zoom meetings. As I picked up the strewn-out clothes — this is why my husband's a software engineer rather than a basketball player — I noticed my phone screen light up. It was Mom. She's away visiting my sister for a few weeks. "Are you OK. Send me a message you are OK," her WhatsApp text read. The lack of punctuation in her text is not just a reflection of her not being a native English speaker, but an echo of her anxious personality. Above all, it's a symbol of her new reality, a universe where I, her firstborn, unwittingly find myself center stage. My mom used to be independent When Dad died in India almost a decade ago, I didn't want to deal again with the agony of having an aging parent thousands of miles away, and I insisted Mom move in with us. The author sometimes gets annoyed by her mom's texts. Courtesy of the author The last time I'd lived with my parents was at 17, when I headed to college 1400 miles away, after which life took me around the world and eventually to California and a family of my own. As Mom and I started to reacquaint ourselves, I grappled with watching my once-strong, independent mother become vulnerable and dependent, a result of biological aging exacerbated by geographical and cultural upheaval. Ostensibly, she didn't see me differently, though, peppering me with questions that would have made sense 30 years ago: "Where are you going?" "Why aren't you eating enough?" "When did you get home last night?" They come from a place of caring. Although sometimes my annoyance is obvious. I realized I do to my daughter what my mom does to me "I'm fine. I was out for a walk when you called yesterday. I'll call later," I texted Mom back. "I just talked to you yesterday afternoon," I said out loud to the phone. Only Siri heard. As I waited for my work computer to power up, having lost the laundry battle, I picked up my phone and texted my daughter away at college in New York. "Good morning, my child. I miss you. How are you? Call today." My modus operandi these days is to blame everything on my hormones, a middle-aged gift that keeps on giving. Misplaced keys, names that elude you when the person is in front of you, vanishing nouns when you're desperately trying to explain something, all collateral damage thanks to hormones. The author realized she was turning into her mom while texting her daughter. Courtesy of the author Two hours later, in the middle of a meeting to discuss metrics on how many code defects were resolved, the irony hit me. I did to my daughter what Mom had done to me. I laughed out loud, and I'm sure my coworkers must have also thought, "Hormones!" I'm turning into my mom My daughter jokes about it all the time. When my husband and I visited her a few weeks ago, I sensed the edges of exasperation on her face and voice, as she grabbed the phone from my hand and took control of a family selfie, a skill I'll never master. "I don't miss Paati (grandma) now," she said, as she handed me the phone back. Already gifted with tall genes, she has further increased her stride length living in the city. I almost jog to keep pace with her as she turns around and smiles, "Keep up, marathoner!" Was it only 10 years ago when she'd cling to my leg at the sight of strangers? During spring break, when she was at home, I headed out for a Costco run. Mom reminded me, for the fourth time, to pick up Pepto Bismol. When I asked my daughter what she needed, she told me she'd go shopping on her own. At dinner, when I made roti and dal, my daughter stood by me in the kitchen, finely slicing scallions to garnish her high-protein salad, as she delivered a TED Talk on macros and nutrition. I watched her, spellbound, the same way Mom watches me when I explain digital scams and that not all WhatsApp messages that begin with PLEASE READ CAREFULLY need to actually be read. As I put away laundry, I have a dawning awareness. I recognize all of my mom's clothes, but I wouldn't be able to pick out my daughter's clothes in a laundromat. Some days, I wish I could press pause on the universe. To a time when my mother needs me less, and my daughter needs me more. When Mom wouldn't need me to pick her outfit when we go out to dinner. When Mira would let me go shopping with her. But those moments pass. Thank you, hormones. At night, I text my daughter again, "Hellooooooo." Unironically. It's the law of the universe. A mother needs her daughter. Who am I to question it? Read the original article on Business Insider

It's unclear how the planet avoided its star's bloated red giant stage.

For the first time since 1995, the Bureau of Land Management is rewriting its grazing regulations.

New York Times: How members of the extremist group Boko Haram are using AI chatbots to design explosives, fix or upgrade weapons, and brainstorm attack ideas  —  A.I. chatbots are not just a propaganda tool for violent extremists but are aiding in bomb construction and attack planning, new research finds.

Jeff Bezos' Koru made waves when it debuted in 2023. It's since been eclipsed by larger superyachts owned by Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin. Robino Salvatore/GC Images; Stefano Rellandini/AFP via Getty Images Tech billionaires have become some of the superyacht industry's most illustrious clients. Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos have each spent nine figures on their pleasure crafts. Here are the largest superyachts owned by tech billionaires. Size doesn't always matter. But in the rarefied world of superyachts, bigger tends to be better. Long a status symbol for the masters of the universe, superyachts are defined by their excess, not their practicality, and as the rich get richer, their boats are getting longer. The trend illustrates an unofficial yachting rule of thumb: The bigger the boat, the richer the owner. To own a 50-meter vessel, you likely have to be a billionaire. Over 100 meters long, add a zero or two. Over the past two years, three of the wealthiest people on the planet  — Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sergey Brin — have taken possession of yachts over 100 meters long. "It's a bit of a celebration of your success in life, of wealth," Giovanna Vitelli, the chair of the Azimut Benetti Group, one of the biggest producers of superyachts, previously told Business Insider. Decked out with amenities like gyms, spas, pools, movie theaters, and helicopter hangars, these megayachts — broadly defined as over 70 meters long — are custom-built and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The comings and goings, customizations, and sheer size of the boats provide insight into how today's ruling class lives. New yachts often feature state-of-the-art gyms and wellness areas as longevity has become an obsession of the superrich, and with superyacht owners skewing younger, many have offices and work setups on board. Here are the largest yachts owned by tech billionaires, or at least those we know about. In an industry governed by discretion, deciphering who owns what is an exercise in stringing together many clues. There are likely yachts that have not been publicly recorded or registered. Evan Spiegel, for example, is rumored to own the 94-meter megayacht Bliss. If you're lucky, it turns out money can buy privacy. Sergey Brin: Dragonfly Dragonfly, right, owned by Google cofounder Sergey Brin, was spotted in Miami last winter. Scott Roth/Invision/AP Google cofounder Sergey Brin has a flotilla of yachts, boats, and water toys known as the "Fly Fleet." The largest is the 142-meter-long Dragonfly, which was delivered in December 2024. The yacht has since been spotted in Miami, where Brin spent $51 million on a waterfront mansion earlier this year. Built by the prestigious German shipyard Lürssen, Dragonfly earned the 2025 Yacht Style award in its length class. It comes equipped with a full suite of amenities, including a glass-bottomed pool, a cinema, a spa, a gym, a business deck with a home office, and a helicopter hangar. The superyacht is Brin's second of the same name. The former Dragonfly, 73 meters long, was listed for sale under a new name, Capricorn, with a $30 million asking price. Brin's fleet, which requires a team of 50 full-time employees, also includes Butterfly, a 38-meter-long yacht; a smaller boat named Firefly; Jet Skis; foil boards; dinghies; and kiteboards. Jeff Bezos: Koru and Abeona Jeff Bezos' superyacht Koru, delivered in 2023, is the largest sailing yacht in the world. Felix Frieler/picture alliance via Getty Images Bezos' $500 million megayacht, the 127-meter Koru, made waves when it was delivered in 2023. As the largest sailing yacht in the world, Koru is hard to miss thanks to its three massive masts. It travels with Abeona, its 75-meter support vessel, in tow. "I heard back in 2018 or something that somebody had ordered a classic sailing yacht," one superyacht aficionado told Business Insider. "You order 125 meters, that's not really going to be classic. But it is. I think it's pretty cool." The yacht has hosted several of Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos' famous friends for various occasions, including an engagement party that drew Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio on board and a pre-wedding foam party to celebrate Sánchez Bezos' son's birthday. Before its completion, Koru made headlines when it was announced that a historic bridge in Rotterdam would be taken apart to allow the Oceanco-built boat through. Due to the backlash, the shipyard made alternative plans. The yacht has also been criticized for the liberal use of teak on its decks and interiors. The wood has gained a reputation for its connection to Myanmar, a country with a checkered human rights record. In 2024, Oceanco was fined for violating the European Timber Regulation, and the shipyard has since apologized. Mark Zuckerberg: Launchpad Mark Zuckerberg's Launchpad is among the largest superyachts owned by techbillionaires. Ruben Griffioen/SuperYachtTimes Following months of rumors, Zuckerberg debuted Launchpad in 2024. The 118-meter superyacht was originally designed for a sanctioned Russian businessman. The ship made its maiden voyage in March 2024, going from Gibraltar to St. Maarten and mooring in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It has since visited Panama for Zuckerberg's 40th birthday and spent summers in the Mediterranean. Little is known about its interior, but photos show a large swimming pool, and its shipyard, Feadship, has written about its "fully enclosed pod-like observation lounge" and two helipads. Its price has likewise been kept under wraps, but a yacht of that size would typically cost nine figures. Eric Schmidt: Whisper Eric Schmidt bought Kismet from the Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan — hence the figurehead — last year and renamed her Whisper. Jan Woitas/picture alliance via Getty Images Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt purchased Kismet, a 95-meter-long superyacht formerly owned by billionaire Shahid Khan, the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, in 2023 and renamed the Lürssen-built vessel Whisper. Schmidt had agreed to purchase the Alfa Nero, which had formerly belonged to a sanctioned Russian oligarch, at an auction for $67 million, Bloomberg reported, but he backed out of the deal after questions arose over its true owner. Whisper can accommodate 12 guests and a crew of 28, according to Moran Yacht & Ship, which oversaw its construction. It features a master deck with a private jacuzzi, a full-service spa, a lap pool, a movie theater, and an outdoor fireplace. While its final sale price was not public, it was listed for about $160 million. Schmidt charters the yacht for about $1.4 million a week — an opportunity his fellow billionaire, Magic Johnson, has taken advantage of. In the summer of 2025, Johnson posted videos and photos from a weekslong Mediterranean vacation aboard Whisper, including workouts in the outdoor gym and a toga party with the crew. Barry Diller: Eos Eos is a popular venue for Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg's celebrity friends. Horacio Villalobos/Getty Images Billionaire Barry Diller, the chairman of digital media company IAC, owns the sailing yacht Eos with his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, who is immortalized in a figurehead sculpture by Anh Duong. Among the largest private sailing yachts in the world, the three-masted Lürssen schooner measures 93 meters long. It took three years to build, and was delivered to Diller in 2009; little has been revealed about its interior and features since then. The power couple has hosted many celebrities on the Eos, which spends its summers in the Mediterranean and New Year's Eve in St. Barts. Over the years, guests have included Oprah Winfrey, Emma Thompson, Anderson Cooper, and Bezos, leading some to believe it inspired Koru. Jim Clark: Athena Netscape founder Jim Clark has listed Athena for sale but is yet to find a buyer. Burgess Netscape founder Jim Clark's 90-meter sailing yacht Athena was delivered in 2004. "I could easily have built a 50- or 60-meter motor yacht that would have had the same space as Athena, but I was never really interested in building a motor yacht," he told Boat International in 2016. "To my eye, she's one of the most gorgeous large sailing yachts, maybe the most gorgeous large sailing yacht in the world." The former Stanford professor has tried to sell it at various points — listing the yacht for $95 million in 2012, $69 million in 2016, and $59 million in 2017 — but it has yet to change hands. Charles Simonyi: Norn Early Microsoft employee Charles Simonyi traded in his first yacht Skat, pictured here, for the bigger Norn. Christopher Hunt/Getty Images Early Microsoft employee Charles Simonyi has purchased two megayachts from the German shipyard Lürssen: the 90-meter Norn and 71-meter Skat. Delivered in 2023, Norn features an outdoor cinema and a pool floor that lifts to become a light-up dance floor. It shares a militaristic style with Skat, which Simonyi sold in 2021 after listing it for €56.5 million. "The yacht is to be home away from my home in Seattle, and its style should match the style of the house, adapted for the practicalities of the sea," Simonyi once said of Skat. Larry Ellison: Musashi Larry Ellison is passionate about yachting and sailing; he owns the superyacht Musashi and has previously funded a sailing team. Eric Risberg/AP Photo Oracle founder Larry Ellison has owned several superyachts over the years, including the Rising Sun, which he later sold to fellow billionaire David Geffen. His current custom yacht, Musashi, was delivered by Feadship in 2011. Named after a famous samurai warrior, the 88-meter-long yacht has both Japanese and Art Deco-inspired design elements. It also boasts amenities such as an elevator, swimming pool, beauty salon, gym, and basketball court. Ellison is known for his spending — private islands, jets, a tennis tournament — and yachting is among his favorite and most expensive hobbies. He took up racing them in the 1990s and has previously financed the America's Cup-winning BMW Oracle Racing team. Laurene Powell Jobs: Venus Venus was originally designed for Steve Jobs, though he never stepped foot on her. Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images Steve Jobs' widow, investor, and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, inherited a nearly finished 78-meter yacht named Venus when the Apple cofounder died in 2011. After spending years vacationing on Ellison's yachts — Venus and Musashi come from the same shipyard, Feadship — Jobs wanted one for himself. He designed Venus with French starchitect and decorator Philippe Starck, and it was worth $130 million upon completion. "Venus comes from the philosophy of minimum," Starck said of its design on his website. "The elegance of the minimum, approaching dematerialization." Jobs and Starck began working together in 2007, the designer told Vanity Fair, and held monthly meetings over the course of four years. Venus was delivered in 2012 to Jobs' specifications: six identical cabins, a design to ensure spaces of absolute silence, and the most up-to-date technology. "There will never again be a boat of that quality again. Because never again will two madmen come together to accomplish such a task," Starck told the magazine. Grace Kay and Sindhu Sundar contributed to an earlier version of this story. Read the original article on Business Insider

Learning how to lift weights changed my life. Kasia Kovacs Kasia Kovacs was unsure hiring a personal trainer would be worth the money. Nearly a decade later, she's still reaping the benefits of splurging $180 on training. She said investing in her health helped her become a more confident, happier version of herself. When I hired a personal trainer in 2017, I didn't expect that decision to change my life. It seemed like a hefty financial commitment at the time, but I had the rather cliché goal of slimming down and I was determined to get my money's worth. Sure, I lost a few pounds, but that soon became unimportant. More significantly, I got stronger, the fog that had plagued my mental health lifted, and I developed healthy habits that I keep almost a decade later. As a self-proclaimed gym hater, it wasn't easy to get started I'd never considered myself particularly athletic. I played a couple of sports and danced ballet growing up, but these were extracurricular hobbies. I was far more interested in reading books and flipping through magazines. Because of that, weightlifting seemed like a foreign language reserved for bodybuilders. And the gym? That was hostile territory. Early in 2017 I had moved to Bluffton, South Carolina, a town that was pretty but sleepy, especially after the constant stimulation of NYC where I had lived before. I was 26 years old, and all of a sudden I found myself with too much free time. So when my roommate suggested that I join her in the gym, I took her up on that offer. It still felt scary, but going with a friend made it less intimidating. That's when I met my roommate's personal trainer, Josie. She was a friendly young woman, defying my stereotype of the gym bro. It didn't take long before I was Josie's newest client. My personal trainer Josie, right, taught me everything I know about building muscle. Kasia Kovacs Working with the right personal trainer shifted my priorities I paid $180 for a few sessions a month, which felt like a hefty commitment for a early-career local newspaper reporter. I cringed when I saw the fee, but I reminded myself that I could just try it out and quit if it became financially overwhelming. Josie taught me everything: workout structure, proper warm up practices, basic strength training movements, and how to use those weightlifting machines that looked like medieval torture devices. She explained concepts like progressive overload, lifting until failure, and taught me about the importance of protein before it became a marketing buzzword. We tracked my workouts in a notebook, and once a month we did a weigh in. To my surprise, I became less interested in the number on the scale and more interested in the numbers in my workbook. I always wanted to beat my performance from the session before. I also remember when I began to see the muscle definition in my arms and shoulders — seeing my body actually respond to my workouts was exhilarating. I no longer wanted to be skinny; I wanted to be strong. In early 2018, I was excited to see that my gym habits were reshaping my body. Kasia Kovacs Beyond seeing the physical changes in my body, I felt like I was soaring after my workouts. I struggled with anxiety in my twenties, and working out lightened my day-to-day mental load significantly. I stuck with personal training sessions for nine months, from October to July, before I moved away from South Carolina. Nearly a decade later, I've kept those habits These days my life looks very different. I'm in my thirties. I live in London. My anxiety is not as acute as it used to be. I have a dynamic social life. But one habit remains: I go to the gym regularly. I may have only worked with a personal trainer for less than a year, but that short time equipped me with skills I've consistently used over the past near-decade: specifically, correct form in lifting weights and aiming for progressive overload. Now I pay £53, or about $71, for my gym membership each month, which is a reasonable rate in a city like London — and less than I paid for a personal trainer in 2017. It's a lot less expensive than if I relied on classes alone, which can cost £15-£35 ($20-$47) per single class in London. I commit to two to four strength training days per week, plus I take yoga classes as part of my gym membership and run regularly in my neighborhood parks. Cross-training means I take a holistic approach to movement, keeping my muscles, heart, and mind strong. I still go to the gym in 2026, and I use the lessons I learned nearly a decade ago. Kasia Kovacs Now that I'm older and have learned more about health in general, I can appreciate other benefits too: maintaining my mobility as I age, an improved metabolism, better cardiovascular health, and the decreased risk of several illnesses including osteoporosis. 3 lessons I've learned from personal training and my fitness journey: I stopped comparing myself to others. I'm not the strongest, and I'm not the fastest. I never will be. But I can be stronger and faster than I was last week, and that's enough. As a perfectionist, I struggle to admit when I'm bad at something. When I started weightlifting I was a total beginner. I was bad at it! And, lo and behold, it was okay to be bad at something! Now I know that I'm always getting better, and I've implemented that growth mindset in other areas of my life too. On a related note, jumping into the gym world taught me that our identities are not fixed. When I was younger, I convinced myself that I was the bookworm, not the jock. But in reality, we have the ability to stay curious and learn new things, and our sense of identity can — and should! — evolve. Hiring a personal trainer was the best money I've ever spent. But the payoff was much bigger than anything financial: I invested in my health and become a more confident, happier version of myself. Read the original article on Business Insider

Costco tops the list of retailers offering the best hourly wage for entry-level workers. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Many US workers start their careers in retail. Some top chains pay more than $17 an hour to entry-level sales floor employees. Business Insider asked Glassdoor for 20 of the highest-paying entry-level retail jobs in the US. A retail job is one of the most common ways for US workers to start their careers. About six in 10 people have held a job in the industry at some point in their careers, according to a 2019 report by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization. To find out which companies pay the most for early-career roles, Business Insider asked jobs search and reviews site Glassdoor to share its pay data from the past year for entry-level sales floor jobs. Glassdoor calculated average pay using hourly wage information submitted by platform users between January 2025 and June 2026, for retail or sales roles in the retail and wholesale sectors. To be included in the analysis, companies had to have at least 1,000 employees. All companies on this list had at least 30 worker-submitted salaries. Keep reading for a look at 20 of the highest-paying entry-level retail jobs in the US: 20. J.Crew — $17.25 Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images J.Crew has been making all-American fashions for men, women, and children since 1983 and now operates more than 100 J.Crew locations and 330 J.Crew Factory stores in the US. 19. Madewell — $17.27 John Lamparski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Madewell, owned by J.Crew, has specialized in denim and wardrobe basics since 2006. The brand now has over 150 stores across the US. 18. Uniqlo — $17.28 Cheng Xin/Getty Images Owned by Japan's Fast Retailing Co., Uniqlo has been operating in North America since 2005 and had 84 stores in the US and 37 in Canada as of June. 17. Hannaford — $17.29 Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images Hannaford traces its roots to 1883 and is now owned by international grocery giant Ahold Delhaize. The chain operates 188 stores across New England and New York. 16. The Home Depot — $17.31 Kevin Carter/Getty Images Founded in 1978, the Atlanta-based home improvement retailer has grown to more than 2,300 stores across North America and employs more than 470,000 workers. 15. Zara — $17.33 Cheng Xin/Getty Images European fast fashion retailer Zara has nearly 1,500 stores worldwide, with around 100 in the US. 14. Harbor Freight Tools — $17.62 credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images Harbor Freight started as a mail-order tool business in North Hollywood, California in 1977. It now operates more than 1,600 stores in the US. 13. Nordstrom — $17.72 Nordstrom released a collection of clothing and accessories from Something Navy in 2017. Brandon Bell/Getty Images Department store Nordstrom had a rocky run a few years back a few years back, but the now-private company said in 2024 that it was back to profitability and building momentum. 12. Fred Meyer – $17.81 Fred Meyer/ MG2 In 1922, entrepreneur Fred Meyer wanted to offer a one-stop shopping experience. Kroger acquired the business in 1999, and today, Meyer's namesake's cavernous stores carry some 225,000 different products. 11. Aldi – $18.24 Alex Bitter/BI Limited-selection grocer Aldi has roughly 2,600 stores in the US, and big expansion plans. It said in January that it aims to operate 3,200 locations by the end of 2028. 10. Dillard's – $18.30 Kevin Carter/Getty Images Dillard's opened its first store in 1938 in Nashville, Arkansas. It now has over 270 stores across 30 states. 9. REI – $18.52 Robert Alexander/Getty Images Founded in 1938, the outdoor lifestyle co-op employs nearly 12,500 people across about 195 locations in the US. 8. Bloomingdale's – $18.72 John Sciulli/Getty Images The Macy's-owned luxury department store has around 60 US locations, including its department stores, small-format concept Bloomies, furniture stores, and outlet locations. It's a key part of the struggling corporation's growth plans. 7. CarMax — $18.86 Yana Paskova/Getty Images CarMax is one of the largest sellers of used autos in the US, with around 255 locations across the country. 6. Sephora — $18.96 A Sephora location at Kohl's. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider LVMH-owned beauty retailer Sephora has more than 1,700 retail locations in North America, including both stand-alone stores and partnerships with other retailers like Kohl's. 5. IKEA – $19.29 The store was even larger than I was expecting. Kylie Kirschner The Swedish furniture giant has dozens of US stores where it sells its products, as well as smaller-format showcase locations focused on delivery. 4. Trader Joe's – $19.64 Trader Joe's bag in front of Trader Joe's grocery store sign. Melissa Wells/Insider From its humble beginnings in Pasadena, California, Trader Joe's now boasts over 600 locations across the US that sell a low-cost assortment of private-label groceries. 3. Buc-ee's – $20.21 Buc-ee's magnets for sale at Buc-ee's in Terrell, Texas Saturday, July 13, 2019. Allison V. Smith for The Washington Post via Getty Images Buc-ee's large format travel centers boast clean restrooms — a must-have for any road trip — and its retail and food operation has attracted legions of fans of the growing brand. 2. Lululemon – $20.46 Lululemon Athletica store John Greim// Getty Images The yoga pants (and more) brand has hundreds of US stores, which double as hubs for events, trainings, and alterations. 1. Costco – $20.52 Customers shop for clothing at a Costco store on July 13, 2021 in Novato, California Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The wholesale club has more than 630 locations across the US and employs over 200,000 US workers. Read the original article on Business Insider

Brian Gordon Brian Gordon fell in love with coding. Over a decade later, the industry wasn't loving him back. In March, Gordon learned that his company would be shutting down, eliminating his frontend developer job in the process. He'd read horror stories online about the job market for programmers. He'd also tried applying for a second job a few months prior — and found little luck. "I need to make money," he told me in March, one week before his job's end date. "I have a wife, I have a two-year-old son, I have people I need to take care of." Gordon began plotting his next moves — hopefully, he said, out of tech. His brother-in-law was a plumber, and he once dated an airplane mechanic. Both seemed to have better career outcomes than he did, he said. I spoke with Gordon over the course of three months: before his employment lapsed, during his job search, and after he eventually found a new job far away from his coding woes. Gordon wasn't a FAANG engineer or a coding prodigy. Rather, he was a member of the coding class who traditionally have made consistent wages to help keep the internet economy afloat. Facing existential threats from increasingly capable AI coding tools and routine tech layoffs, many of those engineers are looking for an off-ramp. Here's how Gordon found his. Part I: The Plan Before his job ended, Gordon began drafting a plan. He was used to career changes. As a sociology major in college, Gordon knew he didn't want to use his degree professionally. He spent years delivering pizzas before teaching himself to code. His first stop was the Claude chatbot, where he looked up blue-collar gigs he could pursue. The AI spat back job titles like electrician, plumber, and HVAC technician. He wanted to work with his hands but worried some roles would be too back-breaking. "I worked in construction for a while when I was 20," Gordon said. "I remember, at the end of the day, being completely wiped out. Do I really want to get into that again?" His wife Andrea, a substance abuse counselor, told me she was open to her husband's blue-collar turn — but didn't like the idea of him doing hard labor like construction. "He was not going to be happy," she said. "He'd been working from home in an air-conditioned room with a TV in the background. He had a relaxing job." He continued researching, looking into roles like low-voltage electricians and water facility operators. He was drawn to the work of a CNC machinist, watching videos of them milling the metal. Gordon also solicited feedback from those friends, his neighbors in Glendora, California, and people on social media. His blue-collar advisors gave him a warning: it's not so easy. There is a lot of competition, they said, and sustainable gigs could be hard to land. A different piece of advice delighted him. "They said the best thing you could do is go in-person, bring your résumé, shake hands with people, and there's a good chance you'll get hired," he said. "Where do you hear about that these days?" Part II: The Hunt Land surveyor equipment at a construction site. Iryna Melnyk/Getty Images A month later, Gordon had mostly given up on becoming a CNC machinist. His friend worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. When he asked about open roles, the friend said that the research center was in a hiring freeze. "Have you ever considered land surveying?" they asked. He hadn't. One of Gordon's neighbors helped survey the land for central California's high-speed rail. They said the field was full of older people retiring out, while younger people remained scarce. When another neighbor had surveyors come to reassess their property lines, Gordon got a taste of the work. He asked to shadow them — a process he said was fun, likening it to a scavenger hunt. "It's a bit physical," Gordon said. "We're hiking around the hills and lugging around all this equipment." Gordon looked into land surveying apprenticeships, but many only took on new applicants once every two years. His other apprenticeship interest — for electrician roles — had gone equally poorly. One opening filled up before he could submit his application; another expected months of wait time. They said the best thing you could do is go in-person, bring your résumé, shake hands with people, and there's a good chance you'll get hired.Brian Gordon Luckily enough, the friend at JPL had a father-in-law who worked in land surveying. He said he didn't have an opening — but was looking for a civil site designer. This checked all of Gordon's boxes. It used AutoCAD, the modeling software Gordon taught himself in high school and was now relearning. It also wasn't fully physical, with about 90% office work and 10% site visits. "I think of it as baby blue-collar," he said. Gordon sent over a résumé, knowing that his developer background wouldn't help much, but hoping it would demonstrate that he could work hard. His friend's father-in-law planned to talk it over with his VP and could reach back out anytime. "The pay starting out obviously won't be as good," he said. "I'm going to be entry-level. It'll be a while before I ramp back up to what I'm getting as a web developer." As for the coding jobs, he was still applying, though most ghosted or rejected him. One sent him interview questions, and another sent him an assessment test. He wasn't sure he wanted a developer job, anyway. He trusted the longevity of these hands-on roles more. People kept telling him: "You're not losing your job to AI, you're losing your job to someone who uses AI." He didn't like the options. "Great, I can be the victim or the perpetrator," Gordon said. "I don't know if I want to be in a field where those are the choices." Part III: The New Job AutoCAD software, a core part of Gordon's new job. AutoDesk On May 6, Gordon got the email: he got the civil site designer gig. His decade as a software developer was over. His role would involve designing parking lots and drive-thrus for a fast food company, working with city planners. The hiring manager sent him home with site plans and blueprints, telling Gordon to look them over and make sure they didn't scare him. "Ever since I was a kid, I liked looking at maps," Gordon said. "I came back and said: 'This is absolutely something I think I could do.'" He asked about AI. He said he was told that they'd experimented with it, but that the tech wasn't developed enough to affect the jobs. Gordon said that the manager also mentioned that the field was understaffed, as many engineers were moving to industries like electrical or civil engineering. Gordon was thrilled. The labor surplus was a significant reason he wanted to leave tech in the first place. "It feels like there are so many people who want to get in or stay, and the number of jobs isn't there anymore," he said. There were sacrifices. The company was being "generous" and paying him at the upper end of the entry-level salary range — but that was still a 30% salary cut, he said. He spent eight years as a remote worker, but this role would require five days at the office. Childcare remains the biggest challenge. His wife works a hybrid job, so the Gordons put their son in daycare for three days a week. Their son still struggles to be verbal, Andrea said, and he can't receive speech therapy from the daycare. It took Gordon two months from layoff to start date, a timeline he was grateful for. When I asked Gordon how he felt, he took a big breath. "Relieved," he said. After all the job-hunt horror stories he'd read, Gordon was delighted to have a smooth transition. The pivot means Gordon has given up coding, both as a job and in his personal life. He also had to brush up on his math skills — something he did with "paper plans and a mechanical pencil," he said, as much of his work went analog. Would Gordon ever go back to tech? "Absolutely not," he laughed. Read the original article on Business Insider

More than a dozen global airlines have a version of "basic business class" that strips perks like lounge access in exchange for a lower ticket price. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images "Basic" business class can make premium travel cheaper by removing traditional amenities. United and Delta are the first US carriers to unbundled their higher-class seats. Critics warn that basic business may make all-inclusive fares more expensive over time. A new trend is emerging in the US airline market that promises to make premium travel more affordable: "basic" business class. These unbundled fares retain the core on-board business-class experience while stripping away traditional amenities to lower the upfront price. For example, a traveler flying from Los Angeles to Tokyo on a basic business ticket would still get the lie-flat bed and elevated in-flight meals, but would give up perks like lounge access, luggage allowance, seat selection, free upgrades and changes, and priority check-in. United Airlines announced "basic" fares for Polaris business class and Premium Plus earlier this year. Rival Delta Air Lines followed in July by expanding "basic" to all of its cabins. An example of what the new three-tier business class fares could be on Delta. As with most business fares these days, only the highest tier is fully refundable. Delta Air Lines Several airlines outside the US, such as Qatar Airways and Air France, also offer a basic business class option. Depending on the carrier, the concept also extends to premium economy and domestic first class. Airlines say unbundling premium fares gives customers more choice, allowing travelers who prioritize the in-flight experience to access the higher-class seats without paying for every perk — while also enticing price-conscious customers to upgrade. Critics argue it could have the opposite effect, with today's all-inclusive fares gradually becoming tomorrow's unbundled ones as airlines continue raising prices for fully loaded tickets. The discount also may not be substantial compared to what you give up. Delta's statement announcing the change, for example, shows that a basic business fare on an undisclosed route is only 7% less than the standard ticket. Looking at a United flight from Houston to Lima, Peru, in September, basic Polaris business class is only $100 less than the full-fledged option. Still, many people will likely welcome the basic premium fares. Honeymooners may be willing to splurge on the cheaper business-cabin option, while corporate customers may want to save on business travel expenses. Here are 13 airlines that offer basic business class. Delta Air Lines Delta's basic fares extend to premium economy and domestic first class, too. Taylor Rains/Business Insider Dubbed "Basic Business," Delta One tickets don't get a free pre-selected seat, though flyers can pay extra for one. They also get one fewer checked bag, no free changes, earn fewer miles, and lose access to the exclusive Delta One check-in area, Delta One Lounge, and Sky Clubs. Customers can enter the Sky Club through other means, such as an eligible membership or a credit card. To give customers time to adjust, though, Delta said both the check-in area and lounge will be available through January 18, 2027. United Airlines Airlines like United initially introduced basic fares in the economy section to compete with budget carriers. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images United's setup is similar to Delta's — both have three tiers: basic, standard, and refundable — but United's cheapest business-class fare still includes access to the United Club, its Sky Club equivalent. The discounted tickets, which are rolling out this year, are available on long-haul international, transcontinental US, and select Hawaii flights. Air France-KLM Air France and KLM are part of the Air France-KLM Group, formed via a 2004 merger. Francois LOCHON/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Air France and the Dutch flag carrier KLM launched "Business Light" on long-haul flights in 2023. The rules mirror those of its SkyTeam alliance member Delta, including no free seat selection or lounge access. Qatar Airways Qatar is famous for its award-winning QSuite business class. Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images Qatar announced "Business Lite" in 2020. Flyers on basic tickets don't get lounge access, but they can still enter if they have elite status on Qatar or one of its oneworld partners. Finnair Finnair's business class doesn't recline but has space for a full lie-flat bed. Finnair The Finnish flag carrier launched its à la carte "Business Light" fare in 2021. Unlike competitors, its more restrictive tier doesn't include any free checked baggage; that can be added on for a fee. Flyers also forgo advanced seat selection, priority check-in and boarding, and lounge access, unless they have an eligible status. Emirates Emirates and Etihad offer a chauffeur service for eligible ticket holders. Bloomberg/Getty Images Emirates "Business Special" fare pioneered premium unbundling in 2019. The discounted tickets strip lounge access and seat selection — as well as the unique chauffeur service offered by Emirates. Etihad Etihad's basic business class comes with a more generous checked luggage allowance than competitors. Thomas Pallini/Business Insider The Abu Dhabi-based airline launched "Business Value" in 2025. Flyers get up to two checked bags, depending on the destination, but lounge access and WiFi are extra. They also lose Etihad's chauffeur service. Lufthansa Group Basic business class among Lufthansa Group airlines will mirror across the carriers. Leonhard Simon/Getty Images Lufthansa Group airlines, including Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Discover Airlines, introduced "Business Light" on select long-haul routes in March 2026. These tickets still get lounge access. Read the original article on Business Insider

Durelle and Samantha Bailey (left) and Nick Davidov and Marina Davidova (right) got married in their early 20s. They said marrying young and working as a team helped them professionally. Durelle and Samantha Bailey/Nick Davidov and Marina Davidova When Durelle Bailey wanted to get married at 22, he faced some skepticism from his friends and family. There was the concern that the couple didn't know each other well enough yet. They'd met via Instagram in 2013, when they were both 19, and had mostly been long-distance throughout the relationship, living together in Tucson, Arizona, only for the last six months before marriage. "'Are you sure? Do you want to give up your 20s right now?'" Bailey, 31, recalls hearing. His wife, Samantha Bailey, 31, remembers one person telling them: "Getting married at 22 is leaving the party at 8 p.m.; It hasn't even started yet!" Instead of spending their 20s having fun as singles, their early married life was scrappy: Durelle was one year into the Air Force as an airman, stationed in Tucson, and earning around $40,000. Samantha was initially able to secure an unpaid position at the Better Business Bureau in Tucson, but, due to being a Canadian citizen, could not start working as a paid contractor until she got her green card in December 2016. Samantha and Durelle Bailey now own two homes and frequently travel together. Durelle and Samantha Bailey Still, they weren't worried about legally joining their lives. "We both had a one-track mind that we just wanted to be together," Samantha said. Almost a decade later, the couple routinely saves six figures a year, owns two homes, travels abroad multiple times a year, and shares financial tips on social media. Married couples already have significantly higher net worths than single households of people under 35 — up to 13.8 times more than unmarried women and 4.3 times more than unmarried men. The Baileys believe that getting married young gave them more of a leg up: it forced them to sit down and map out their professional goals in their early 20s, setting them up for success. While marrying young has gone out of style over the years, due in part to the exorbitant financial risk of divorce, some couples see it as an investment worth making, including for their biggest career ambitions. Why early marriage fell out of favor The average marriage age has steadily increased since the 1950s. Imagesbybarbara/Getty Images In the 1950s, marrying young — around 20 for women and 22 for men — was the norm, according to the Census Bureau. By today's standards, it'd be very young, and well below the average, now closer to 28 for women and 31 for men. Part of that has to do with how our standards around marriage have morphed. There's the "cornerstone" marriage model familiar to our grandparents: marrying in your early 20s and navigating adulthood together. Recently, however, marriage has become something you do when you already have your ducks in a row: the "capstone" marriage model. "Young adults want to make sure that they're financially stable and that they have a good sense of the earning potential of their partners before they get married," Dr. Andrew J. Cherlin, a Johns Hopkins professor who studies the sociology of the family and coined both marriage model terms, told Business Insider. The shift began in the middle of the 20th century. Dr. Stephanie Coontz, the author of "For Better and Worse — The Complicated Past and Challenging Future of Marriage," said that young marriage began to have a bad reputation in the 1950s. Women felt beholden to a marital timeline, often sacrificing their own ambitions straight after college to support their husbands'. "You ended up with a lot of women who had given up the possibility of a career and were not happy with it," Coontz, who's also an emeritus faculty member in history and family studies at The Evergreen State College, told Business Insider. Sharpening their soft skills Nick Davidov, 38, and Marina Davidova, 39, got married at 20 and had their first child when Davidova was 22. Nick Davidov and Marina Davidova While marrying young has other advantages, some couples say it helped them to get set up professionally. Early on, Durelle and Samantha Bailey held regular meetings about their professional and financial goals, structured like traditional business meetings. Those meetings eventually evolved into successful content creation businesses and a marketing agency, where they also share financial planning tips for couples. "It's much easier to grow in all areas of your life when you have somebody to do that with, especially if you start young," Durelle said, "Your finances, your communication, your ability to work together as a team. There's a certain level of trust that you have with somebody when you grow up together." Nick Davidov and Marina Davidova, who are managing partners of their own VC firm in San Francisco, said building a healthy marriage — through vulnerability, accountability, and flexibility — taught them valuable entrepreneurial skills. The couple, who first met in college in Moscow, got married at 20 and had their first child at 22 — something their own parents did, too. Davidov worked full-time in the tech space, while Davidova was a stay-at-home mom who took on some flexible roles at Nick's companies. Early in their marriage, Davidov continued to work while Davidova balanced parenting and flexible roles at her husband's company. Nick Davidov and Marina Davidova It was when they moved to the Bay Area in 2014 that they experienced their first culture shock: The people around them got married and started families much later than they did. "Most of the people we became friends with through our daughter's school are at least 15 years older than us," Davidov, 38, told Business Insider. At the same time, they felt that starting a life together young gave them a competitive edge. They learned how they could complement each other as both cofounders and partners. Davidov knew he could count on Davidova to support ventures even when he felt they were too risky. When they first moved to California, he was working four tech jobs to make ends meet and felt miserable. He was most interested in one opportunity: MSQRD, a filter app, which was not yet lucrative. He wanted to devote all his time to growing this one venture, but was terrified of failure. Davidova told him to pursue it, that they could just move back if things didn't work out. "I was like, how can I come back defeated?" Davidov said. "But the way she said it made me reflect that I was working on things that were not bringing me any joy, and that's why a lot of things were not progressing." He took on the project and later sold the company to Meta. "I cannot imagine how I would figure things out, build a career, understand myself, what I like, what I'm good at, what I'm bad at, without Marina," he said. A traditional timeline with a modern twist Delaying marriage has obvious advantages. People have more time to establish careers, figure out what they want in a partnership, and potentially avoid expensive divorces. Still, it's increasingly more expensive to remain solo, too. The cost of rents, mortgages, utilities, healthcare, student loans, and living expenses is ballooning amid rising inflation. These days, it's hard to shoulder that with one income instead of two. The Baileys prioritized both their careers in their marriage. Durelle and Samantha Bailey Being in a partnership can also allow for more flexibility in lifestyle choices, especially if you're young. While the Baileys originally started their lives together in Tucson, their careers have since left Samantha room to pursue her passions. They said their marketing business has been so lucrative that Samantha recently retired early from her corporate job as a recruitment marketing manager to start developing an apparel line. When still living in Russia early in their marriage, Davidova turned down job offers. "I didn't feel that I could be a good full-time mom and a good full-time worker at the same time," she said. "I was too young to fight these stereotypes." Still, after the couple moved to the US, she was inspired by American parents, who she saw dividing work and childcare more evenly. "When we had our second kid, I started working from day one," she said. Davidova giving a TEDx talk. TEDx/YouTube Even still, a young marriage does not guarantee security. It's possible to marry someone who puts your joint finances at risk, for example. Plus, even today, heterosexual couples tend to prioritize the man's career in the event the couple has to relocate for one job or choose who will stay home with the kids, Coontz said. That's why it's important for young newlyweds to enshrine space for both of them to achieve their personal and professional goals, Coontz added. "If they haven't decided in advance that he will make it up to her, that's a big sign of problems later in the marriage or unhappiness and regret on the woman," Coontz said. She added that for couples who can adapt to more evenly divided lifestyles, "their love grows over time." A plunge that can pay off Despite popular belief, the jury is out on whether marrying young increases the likelihood of divorce. One 2023 study from the London School of Economics, which analyzed divorce data from China and compared it with previous US studies, found that other factors — such as the impulse to marry quickly — could have a greater impact on marital dissolution than simply putting a ring on it earlier. While getting married older can seem like the safest financial bet, Cherlin pointed out one big downside: it's still a bet. "If you wait until all your ducks are lined up, you may never find them lined up," Cherlin said. "If you're trying so hard to make sure that a marriage works, you may lose relationships that would've worked." The Baileys attribute part of their success to finding each other early in life. Durelle and Samantha Bailey Coontz doesn't believe in shaming people for when they marry. Instead, she said couples might do well to live together first — a choice that was far less accepted in the 1950s — and ask themselves deeper questions before uniting their lives. "Everybody has to weigh these decisions on the basis of their own unique needs, wants, resources, and level of trust in a potential partner," she said. Both the Baileys and Davidov and Davidova entered the marriage with the expectation of growing together under a shared foundation, which relieved the pressure to have everything already figured out, financially or otherwise. For example, Samantha's parents helped furnish their home and "fill in the gaps" with things they couldn't afford. Davidov and Davidova's parents helped with babysitting so they could both work. For these couples, knowing the alternative could be years of enduring judgments on dating apps, marrying earlier felt less like a perilous leap. Starting a life with someone who would steadfastly grow beside them felt more like a soft place to land. Read the original article on Business Insider

Abbey Dudley's Target haul and her visit to Hollywood. Courtesy of Abbey Dudley World Cup tourists in the US are spending their time outside of games at malls and big-box stores. Tourists are stocking up on clothes, electronics, Crest whitening strips, and melatonin to take home. Visitors are drawn to US stores due to lower prices, brand availability, and product quality. Andrei Fontana came to the US with two big empty suitcases on his World Cup trip. He's heading home with both packed to the brim. Fontana, 33, traveled from Tapejara, Brazil, with his dad, uncle, and cousin, to Atlanta, Miami, and New York City to watch the World Cup. They went to one match — and spent at least two hours a day shopping. The suitcases now carry new clothes, shoes, electronics — like iPhones and MacBooks—, and Sephora makeup for his girlfriend and sister-in-law. They decided to splurge in the US because there are better brands, higher-quality items, and cheaper prices than back home, he said. Fontana estimated he spent, on average, 30% less in the US than he would have spent on the same items back home. "North Face, Columbia, Lacoste, Nike. We have all of these in Brazil, but here it is cheaper," Fontana said. The US is one of the three hosts of this year's FIFA World Cup, along with Canada and Mexico. Five to 10 million foreign visitors were expected to make the international trek. America's new friends are leaning into a very US pastime: Shopping without abandon at the country's consumer meccas. What's long been a foreign tradition — showing up in America's ultra-cheap, well-stocked big box stores with nothing but an empty suitcase and a dream — has crystallized into a full-on shopping-tourism boom. Toothpaste, melatonin, and a love of Target Lee Sterling, chief marketing officer at Simon Property Group, which owns shopping malls and outlets nationwide, said that throughout this summer, mall traffic has increased significantly across the country, in both host and non-host cities. "This is a big cultural moment," she said. "All the markets are building on the excitement of the World Cup, whether or not they're host cities." Sterling said this increased traffic was driven by tourists and locals who are going to malls to shop, dine, and seek out World Cup-related entertainment, such as watch parties, fan festivals, and themed events. The stores with "fantastic" traffic are those with sports-related products, such as Adidas, Nike, and The Gap. While name-brand jerseys and sneakers have their own appeal, some of the items visitors flock to are more mundane. Items such as Crest whitening strips, EOS lotion, and melatonin are all popular among those bringing back "hauls" from the US, frequently appearing in TikToks about shopping sprees — and in the carts of several tourists Business Insider spoke to. Of course, Europe has toothpaste, but the whitening agents in many American brands are restricted there; certain pharmaceuticals like melatonin are also harder to access, and some brands simply haven't expanded overseas. Abbey Dudley, a 23-year-old from Leeds, England, visited San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas while the US was in the midst of World Cup mania. Her timing didn't align with England's matches, but she came with a shopping list of goodies, including toothpaste, moisturizer, and Panoxyl face wash. Dudley documented her haul — and American shopping exploits — on TikTok. "We had to go to Target. I mean, it was one of the biggest shops I've ever been in," Dudley said. "And people in the comments were like, 'Why are you bothered about going to a Target?' It's literally just a normal supermarket for them, but it was so cool to experience." Since the start of the tournament, Target stores in host cities have sold 66% of the brand's World Cup merchandise than those in non-host cities, even though they represent only about a quarter of its total locations, according to a Target spokesperson. The best-selling item international tourists are scrambling for at Target: The latest set of high-end Apple AirPods. Richie Karaburun, a clinical associate professor at NYU's hospitality school, said visitors — especially those here for the World Cup — want to have more authentic experiences beyond the usual tourist traps. "Experiences are the new currency," Karaburun said. That means going into stores like Walmart and Target and marveling at the sheer size and scope, much like Dudley did. Visitors to the US have long been impressed by the sheer variety of products at Bath & Body Works or the cereal selection at a big-box supermarket. And brands have cleverly seized on this newfound awe; Karaburun pointed to McDonald's World Cup-themed meals, or Kraft rolling out travel-sized ranch dressing. Outside of the current World Cup tourism bump, many Europeans and other tourists have long gamed out stateside consumer binges. Susanne Bryde, who lives in Denmark, has been leading shopping trips to the US for her girlfriends for 20 years. Some of her must-haves are melatonin, cereals like Golden Grahams and Honey Bunches of Oats, yarn from Hobby Lobby, and Aunt Jemima's maple syrup. She's also an avid T.J. Maxx and outlet shopper. "The first thing that you have to dispel is that the countries that we all come from, that they don't have stuff because they have lots of stuff," Bryde said. Instead, she buys things that she loves — even if they're not as cheap as they used to be. @perkinsonparkway She’s back at this again with this American shopping haul 🤣 can you believe @The Dane In Denmark🇩🇰 squeezed in this much shopping while she was helping me in the garden?! Haha. She’s such a hoot. #shoppinghaul #haul #hauls ♬ original sound - Krystle Perkins | DIY & Home "Inflation in the states has made it so there's really nothing, and I mean really nothing, that it truly pays for us to bring back," she said. Instead, "it's all about nostalgia," and finding something unique that "nobody else has." The US saw sharper inflation than Denmark since the COVID-19 pandemic; US consumer prices rose about 29% between January 2020 and May 2026, compared with Denmark's 19% rise. Of course, the World Cup is still the main draw for many visitors — the shopping is a nice incidental perk. Hugo Villalobos, his two brothers, and his cousin who visited from León, Guanajuato, México, said that since they are closer to the US, they can come back another time to shop. "This wasn't a shopping trip," said Hugo, "We came for the World Cup." Still, they estimate they spend 2 to 3 hours a day shopping for clothes, vitamins, and melatonin between five World Cup games in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. "With him, we are shopping all day," Cristobal, Hugo's brother, said, pointing to Hugo. "We brought extra space, so everything will fit." Read the original article on Business Insider

Ford's all-important EV pickup truck has donned camouflage during public outings. The sneaky attire includes a QR for a hidden website landing page. Ford Ford's EV truck has been wearing camo during public testing. That outfit had a QR code which brings curious onlookers to a product announcement site. Ford's truck is the start to the company's next big EV bet. Ford has been camouflaging its coming $30,000 EV pickup during public testing. Turns out, the going-out attire is intentionally revealing. Photos and videos of the disguised truck have circulated widely online in recent weeks. And some of Ford's wraps have obscured the truck's body lines with a jumble of dogs, sailboats, soccer balls, heart emojis — and tiny QR codes. Scanning one sends curious onlookers to an official Ford webpage that declares, "Congrats, You Spotted a Unicorn." There, the automaker shows clearer footage of the pickup undergoing snow testing and moving through production, while inviting visitors to sign up for updates. "Chances are, you saw something on the road that piqued your interest, and you're here because you're curious," Alan Clarke, Ford's vice president of advanced development projects, says in a video at the top of the site. "This website will be your exclusive insight into our progress." The camouflage is doing two jobs at once: concealing the big-bet truck's final shape and helping Ford build an audience before it officially pulls back the covers. An EV recharge Ford discontinued the all-electric F-150 Lightning after sales never reached the company's 150,000 unit-per-year goal. Scott Olson/Getty Images There is plenty riding on the truck underneath. The so-far unnamed EV (though rumors and patent applications suggest Ford may be resurrecting the Ranchero nameplate) is scheduled to reach customers next year. It's a big reset for the legendary automaker. Around 2020, Ford had high hopes for its first generation of mass-market EVs, including the F-150 Lightning, a full-size electric pickup that started at mid-$50,000. Ahead of its launch, Ford touted nearly 200,000 reservations and set a goal of eventually building 150,000 electric trucks a year. Sales peaked in 2024 at 33,510 vehicles, falling far short of Ford's early ambitions. The automaker ended production of the original Lightning in late 2025 and recorded $19.5 billion in charges tied to its broader EV restructuring. As its initial EV plans faltered, Ford assembled a roughly 350-person California skunkworks team led by Clarke to develop a cheaper and more efficient generation of electric vehicles, called the universal EV platform. The group focused on faster manufacturing, more aerodynamic designs, and dramatically fewer parts. The camouflaged pickup will be the first test of that strategy. Ford says it can build up to eight different vehicles on the same battery infrastructure. A tricky EV market with new contenders Ford's EV comes as it tries to ward off Chinese EV-makers. Other American startups, like the Slate Truck pictured above, are entering the fray as well. Ben Shimkus/Business Insider Ford's lower-cost EV push is taking shape as a new crop of challengers reaches the US market. Slate, a Jeff Bezos-backed startup, told Business Insider that the first units of its $24,950 electric pickup will reach customers this year. Fiat has also brought the sub-$15,000 Topolino to the US, although the tiny EV is closer to a golf cart than a daily driver. And the greatest threat may be overseas. BYD became the world's largest seller of battery-electric vehicles last year, reaffirming the pressure Chinese automakers are placing on established car companies. Ford CEO Jim Farley has repeatedly praised Chinese EVs for their technology, affordability, and build quality. When Ford unveiled its Universal EV Platform in 2025, Farley framed the project as a response to competitors attacking the industry from several directions. "We knew that the Chinese would be the major player for us globally, companies like BYD, new startups from around the world," he said in 2025. "Big technology has their ambition in the auto space. They're all coming for us, legacy automotive companies." Read the original article on Business Insider

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Bloomberg: SK Hynix's historic US stock market listing is a bet that the AI boom is breaking the memory chip industry's decades-long boom-and-bust cycle  —  South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix Inc. just pulled off the largest public listing by a foreign company in US market history.

Max Spero / Pangram Labs: An analysis of 1M+ social media posts from April 24 to June 30: ~25% of longform posts with 250+ words were fully AI-generated; on LinkedIn, the figure was 41%  —  A first look at analytics from our Pangram Chrome extension  —  Two months ago, we launched our Chrome extension to help combat the rising slop problem on social media.

Robbie Whelan / Wall Street Journal: Sources detail the Trump admin's heavy-handed intervention to aid Intel, including pushing it to expand local capacity and pressuring Apple to use Intel's fabs  —  The chip maker's business is improving, with government twisting the arms of potential customers and partners including Apple and Nvidia

Bloomberg: Sources: activist investor Elliott has built a large stake in car insurance software maker CCC, which is exploring a potential sale and has a ~$3.5B market cap  —  Elliott Investment Management has built a large stake in car-insurance software provider CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings Inc. …

arXiv:2607.07891v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Roy Harris's Integrationist linguistics offers a compelling critique of the referentialist tradition embedded deep at the heart of computational approaches to language, arguing that language is not a code that maps onto a pre-given world but a situated, bipartite activity oriented toward prospective joint action. Yet Integrationism leaves certain explanatory gaps: it does not fully account for the structural mechanism by which signs sustain prospective openness, it undertheorises the continuity between linguistic and non-linguistic semiotic activity, and it offers no detailed account of the structural properties of the accumulated archive of past integrations. This paper argues that Elan Barenholtz's autogenerative theory of language, developed in response to the behaviour of Large Language Models (LLMs), can fill precisely these gaps, enriching Integrationism without undermining any of its core commitments. Specifically, the autogenerative account provides: a structural mechanism for the prospective openness that Harris identifies as central to bipartite communication; a computational correlate for Harris's thesis of semiotic continuity between language and other sign-making activity; and a theory of the archive: what the accumulated residue of past integrations looks like and how new participants draw upon it. The synthesis preserves Harris's ontological primacy of the situated integrative act while adding explanatory content that Integrationism itself does not supply. For practitioners and researchers in natural language processing and large language model design, the argument offers a principled account of what the statistical structure that LLMs so effectively exploit actually is, and of what it cannot, by its nature, provide.

arXiv:2607.07976v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Reinforcement learning (RL) has achieved remarkable success in enhancing the reasoning capabilities of large language models (LLMs). However, widely used critic-free RL methods rely on uniform credit assignment, broadcasting the same advantage to all tokens regardless of their differences. We identify a critical failure mode of this design, which we refer to as Positive-Credit Contamination: low-probability tail tokens that are contextually erroneous receive identical positive credit to plausible ones within the same trajectory, resulting in the indiscriminate reinforcement of flawed reasoning behavior. To mitigate this issue, we propose Tail-Aware Credit calibratiOn (TACO), a method that calibrates uniform credit assignment to suppress undesirable positive updates. TACO first computes a tail-risk score that incorporates the local generation context to assess each token's risk of falling into the unreliable tail, distinguishing unexpected rarity from uncertainty-driven exploration. TACO then uses this score to tune positive credit for risky tokens without removing their gradients entirely, so that recurring useful rare patterns can accumulate reinforcement while incidental noise is progressively dampened. Experimental results across three LLMs and eight benchmarks show that TACO consistently outperforms GRPO-style baselines. Notably, TACO improves training stability, supporting sustained performance gains in long-horizon RL. The source code is available at: https://github.com/xiuyilou/TACO.