• Match Group's CEO said apps "have felt like a numbers game" for users — and he wants to change that.
• The company plans to address user frustrations and improve safety on its platforms.
• Match Group faces user decline amid a broader shift away from online dating platforms.

Users on apps like Tinder and Hinge think that parent company Match Group is too driven by metrics, said Match's new CEO.

"Too often, our apps have felt like a numbers game rather than a place to build real connections," Spencer Rascoff wrote in a letter to employees that he posted on LinkedIn on Thursday. "That needs to change."

Rascoff said that he wants to bring the focus back to users. He's creating a channel for employees to confidentially share their "unvarnished feedback" on products and zeroing in on trust and safety.

On an earnings call last month, Rascoff said the company is working on an "ecosystem cleanup" by tackling bad actors, which he said would benefit the business.

"I've heard incredible stories of love," Rascoff wrote in Thursday's letter. "But I've also heard frustration — from users searching for real, meaningful matches and expecting more from the experience."

Rascoff, who joined Match as CEO last month, cofounded real estate platform Zillow and was the CEO for over a decade.

The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Rascoff's overhaul follows a broader sentiment shift away from online dating. Swiping fatigue and the rising costs of going on dates are leading many users to ditch apps for outlets that allow in-person connections.

Between May 2023 and the end of 2024, more than half a million users left Tinder, according to a report from the UK-based online behavior research group Ofcom.

Match had 9.5 million paying users across platforms in the quarter ending in December, a 5% drop from the same period a year ago.

Match's stock is down nearly 10% in the last year, while rival Bumble is down 55%.

• Dario Amodei, the cofounder and CEO of Anthropic, says AI could be coding most software soon.
• AI could be "writing essentially all of the code" in 12 months, Amodei said.
• Amodei said he expected AI to have a similar impact "in every industry."

Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI startup Anthropic, said on Monday that AI, and not software developers, could be writing most of the code in our software in a year.

"I think we will be there in three to six months, where AI is writing 90% of the code. And then, in 12 months, we may be in a world where AI is writing essentially all of the code," Amodei said at a Council of Foreign Relations event on March 10.

Amodei said software developers will still have a role to play in the near term. This is because humans will have to feed the AI models with design features and conditions, he said.

"But on the other hand, I think that eventually all those little islands will get picked off by AI systems. And then, we will eventually reach the point where the AIs can do everything that humans can. And I think that will happen in every industry," Amodei said.

Amodei, who used to work at OpenAI, cofounded Anthropic in 2021. The company has received billions of dollars in funding from tech giants like Google and Amazon.

This isn't the first time Amodei has spoken publicly about the seismic impact AI could have on the world.

Last month, Amodei said in an interview with The New York Times that people still aren't recognizing the effect AI could have on their lives and livelihoods.

"I think people will wake up to both the risks and the benefits to a much more extreme extent than they will before over the next two years," Amodei said in an interview on the Times' "Hard Fork" podcast, which aired on February 28.

Representatives for Amodei at Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

To be sure, Amodei isn't the only one who has recognized AI's ability to displace software developers.

Garry Tan, the president and CEO of startup incubator Y Combinator, said in an X post on March 5 that one-quarter of the founders in their 2025 winter batch were relying heavily on AI to code their software.

"For 25% of the Winter 2025 batch, 95% of lines of code are LLM generated. That's not a typo," Tan wrote.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said last year that she expected AI to impact roughly 40% of global jobs.

"Roughly half the exposed jobs may benefit from AI integration, enhancing productivity. For the other half, AI applications may execute key tasks currently performed by humans, which could lower labor demand, leading to lower wages and reduced hiring," Georgieva wrote in a blog post in January 2024.

"In the most extreme cases, some of these jobs may disappear," she added.

House Democrats erupted into apoplexy Thursday night after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he would support Republicans' stopgap government funding measure.

Why it matters: House Democrats feel like they "walked the plank," in the words of one member. They voted almost unanimously against the measure, only to watch Senate Democrats seemingly give it the green light.

• "Complete meltdown. Complete and utter meltdown on all text chains," said the member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer sensitive details of members' internal conversations.
• A senior House Democrat said "people are furious" and that some rank-and-file members have floated the idea of angrily marching onto the Senate floor in protest.
• Others are talking openly about supporting primary challenges to senators who vote for the GOP spending bill.

Driving the news: Schumer said in a floor speech Thursday that while the GOP measure is "very bad," the possibility of a government shutdown "has consequences for America that are much, much worse."

• "A shutdown would give Donald Trump the keys to the city, the state and the country," Schumer said.
• The comments likely clear a path for at least eight Senate Democrats to vote for the bill — enough for Republicans to overcome the upper chamber's 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Zoom in: All but one House Democrat voted against the bill earlier this week, in large part because it lacks language to keep the Trump administration from cutting congressionally approved spending.

• "There were many battleground Dems in the House ... that were uncomfortable, semi-uncomfortable, with the vote," said one House Democrat. "The Senate left the House at the altar."
• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), in remarks to his House colleagues at their annual retreat Thursday, lauded them for standing up to President Trump by voting against the bill, according to multiple sources.
• When he praised House Democrats' votes, he received a standing ovation. When he mentioned Senate Democrats, members booed.

What we're hearing: House Democrats' text chains lit up Thursday night with expressions of blinding anger, according to numerous lawmakers who described the conversations on the condition of anonymity.

• "People are PISSED," one House Democrat told Axios in a text message.
• Several members — including moderates — have begun voicing support for a primary challenge to Schumer, floating Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) as possible candidates, three House Democrats said.
• One lawmaker even vowed at the House Democratic retreat to "write a check tonight" supporting Ocasio-Cortez, said the senior House Democrat.
• Another Democrat told Axios the ideation has gone a step further: "There is definitely a primary recruitment effort happening right now ... not just Schumer, but for everyone who votes no."

What they're saying: Plenty of members have also gone public with their dismay at their Senate colleagues.

• "I know I speak for so many in our caucus when I say Schumer is misreading this moment. The Senate Dems must show strength and grit by voting no," said Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.).
• Said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.): "I don't know where Schumer is coming from. ... It doesn't look good for the leader."

What to watch: Members have spent the day frantically texting and calling their home-state senators, hoping to persuade enough of them to vote against the bill to block it. That outreach has continued late into Thursday night.

• Said one member: "Folks are still working the phones tonight with their senators. We have not given up."
• Some House members, in turn, have gotten an earful from constituents. "I have also never had so many people from home personally texting me—ANGRY," said another House Democrat.
• "I don't think they knew who Chuck Schumer was before today," the lawmaker said. "But they know now and they hate him."

Editor's note: This article has been updated with comment from a senior House Democrat.

• A federal judge has ruled that fired workers in 18 government agencies must be reoffered jobs on Monday.
• That includes the USAID, CFPB, and Departments of Veterans Affairs and Education.
• The ruling is temporary and lasts only two weeks for now.

A federal judge ruled on Thursday that probationary employees in 18 agencies fired by the Trump administration must be reinstated for at least two weeks.

Senior US District Judge James Bredar is now the second federal judge to rule against the mass layoffs after US District Judge William Alsup made a similar decision earlier on Thursday in a separate lawsuit.

In the earlier case, Alsup had ordered from San Francisco that the Trump administration has to reoffer jobs to thousands of fired workers across six Cabinet departments.

Bredar's new temporary restraining order — from the Maryland district court — goes much wider.

His ruling targets 12 departments, including the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Transportation, State, and Homeland Security. It did not cover the Defense Department, though Alsup's ruling did.

Additionally, Bredar ordered reinstatement at six other agencies, including the US Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, both of which have been under immense pressure from the White House.

Bredar and Alsup didn't buy into the Trump administration's stated reason for firing employees without notice: that the workers' individual performance or conduct wasn't good enough.

"Here, the terminated probationary employees were plainly not terminated for cause," Bredar wrote in his memo.

"The sheer number of employees that were terminated in a matter of days belies any argument that these terminations were due to the employees' individual unsatisfactory performance or conduct," he added.

Many of these cuts were made under the recommendations of the White House's DOGE office, which has spearheaded President Donald Trump's effort to reduce the federal workforce.

Reinstating jobs will be tough, but appropriate, judge says

Bredar, an Obama appointee, wrote that the 18 departments and agencies he named must reinstate their employees by Monday, March 17, at 1 p.m. ET.

Under this ruling, the terminations are to be suspended for 14 days.

Bredar added that he knew this would likely be a mammoth effort.

"When, as is likely the case here, the Government has engaged in an illegal scheme spanning broad swaths of the federal workforce, it is inevitable that the remediation of that scheme will itself be a significant task," he wrote.

His ruling came as part of a lawsuit filed by a combined 20 Democratic state attorneys general against multiple branches of the federal government over employee terminations.

Their legal challenge argues that the Trump administration ignored protocol and bypassed federal laws requiring employers to notify state governments when conducting mass layoffs.

With their lawsuit proceeding, Bredar wrote in his memo that the court would likely soon consider a longer-term decision regarding the return of the probationary workers.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about Bredar's ruling sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted Alsup's ruling on Thursday.

"A single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch," she said in a statement. "The President has the authority to exercise the power of the entire executive branch — singular district court judges cannot abuse the power of the entire judiciary to thwart the President's agenda. If a federal district court judge would like executive powers, they can try and run for President themselves."

Thursday's rulings are among the first in a mounting series of high-profile legal challenges and orders seeking to regulate DOGE's sweeping moves.

The agency was recently told by multiple judges to comply with requests for information about its operations.

As DOGE leads federal employee cuts, job terminations in the US government hit 172,017 in February, the highest monthly level since the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a wave of layoffs in June 2020.

• Kate Hudson, 45, thinks that being a part of a big blended family has its own upside.
• Her three kids, who have three different dads, get to have "so much family," she said on a podcast.
• "They've got multiple grandmas, multiple grandpas, multiple dads, and moms," Hudson said.

Kate Hudson, 45, wants you to know that being in a big blended family has its perks too.

During an episode of "The Martha Stewart Podcast" released on Wednesday, the "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" actor spoke about her three kids and the dynamics of her blended family.

"There's a positive to it," Hudson told host Martha Stewart. "It's like they have so much family. They've got multiple grandmas, multiple grandpas, multiple dads, and moms."

"And then they'll pick and choose who they really really connected with and kind of forge those relationships," Stewart interjected, to which Hudson agreed.

Hudson has three children with three different fathers. Her eldest son, Ryder, whom she shares with her ex-husband Chris Robinson, was born in 2004. In 2011, she welcomed her second son, Bingham, with her ex-fiancé, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy. In 2018, she gave birth to her daughter, Rani, whom she shares with her current fiancé, Danny Fujikawa.

Together, they've built "a really strong unit," Hudson said.

"Being able to continue having such a great connection with the family — like the whole family, including my exes and their partners — it is actually great," she added.

Hudson herself comes from a blended family. Her mother is actor Goldie Hawn while her father is musician Bill Hudson. She has one biological brother, one step-brother, three half-brothers, and two half-sisters.

Kurt Russel, Hawn's partner of over 40 years, has played a big role in Hudson's life. Last Father's Day, Hudson captioned a photo of the two together on Instagram: "I love my Pa so much! What a man, lucky me."

According to a survey by the US Census Bureau published in 2022, the percentage of children living with at least one stepparent increased from 6.2% to 7% between 2007 and 2019.

In a personal essay for Business Insider, writer Sara Lyle — who is blending a family of three sons — shared some tips on how she's navigating the changes in family dynamics. She says one of the most important things is to include children in any life-changing decisions, so it can help lessen their anxiety and validate their importance within the family unit.

A representative for Hudson did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by BI outside regular hours.

• LVMH is trying to keep Bernard Arnault, 76, in charge for nearly another decade.
• The company proposed changing its bylaws to raise the age limit of its chairman and CEO to 85.
• The luxury giant had already changed the limit once in 2022 when it was raised from 75 to 80.

French luxury giant LVMH is trying to keep Bernard Arnault, 76, in charge for nearly a decade more.

LVMH is trying to amend its company bylaws to raise the age limit for its chairman and CEO to 85, per its company filings.

If shareholders agree to the change during the annual general meeting on April 17, Arnault could continue to helm the company for another nine years. He has been the chairman and CEO of LVMH since 1989.

If the vote is successful, it will be the second time the luxury tycoon pushes back his retirement. In 2022, when Arnault was 73, LVMH raised the age limit from 75 to 80.

Bloomberg reported that the first time the change went through, famed investor Warren Buffett, the then-93-year-old head of Berkshire Hathaway, wrote to Arnault, telling him he had set the new age limit too low.

Arnault has made several leadership reshuffles in the brands he owns, including moving his children around.

On Wednesday, LVMH said in a statement that Arnault's second-youngest son, 30-year-old Frédéric Arnault, would be the new CEO of Loro Piana, an Italian cashmere brand under LVMH.

The company statement said he would start his new role on June 10. Before the promotion, he led LVMH's watches division.

Other leadership shake-ups included Damien Bertrand, the current CEO of Loro Piana, being promoted to deputy CEO of Louis Vuitton, and Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou being appointed deputy CEO of Dior.

According to his LinkedIn, Angeloglou is currently the managing director of LVMH's fashion group and the CEO of Fendi.

All five of Arnault's children hold leadership positions in LVMH, with four of them sitting on the board of directors.

Representatives for LVMH did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular business hours.

Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and legal resident from Syria, are asking a federal judge to order U.S. immigration authorities to immediately release him and find his detention in violation of the First Amendment.

The big picture: Court documents filed late Thursday show that Khalil's lawyers intend to aggressively challenge the Trump administration's use of a rarely used law that gives the secretary of state the authority to revoke visas from foreigners deemed to be a threat.

Zoom in: Khalil's expanding legal team, which now includes the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), is asking U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman to set aside the determination by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that resulted in Khalil's arrest.

• Lawyers want Furman to declare efforts to target noncitizens "advocating for Palestinian rights" unlawful — something President Trump hinted could be more common soon.

Catch up quick: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Khalil on Saturday after he returned from dinner with his wife.

• The Department of Homeland Security has been investigating him and gathered evidence that he was actively supporting Hamas, but not materially supporting the terror group, a White House official said.
• Rubio was presented with evidence from the DHS review and determined that Khalil acted against U.S. foreign policy positions, the official said.

Context: U.S. law allows the secretary of state to deport a green card holder if that person is deemed to have "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States" — but it's been rarely used outside of the Cold War or serious crimes, experts told Axios.

• Rubio posted on X last week that the U.S. has "zero tolerance for foreign visitors who support terrorists."
• He added that "violators of U.S. law — including international students — face visa denial or revocation, and deportation."

Reality check: Khalil, a legal resident with a green card, has not been charged or accused of any crimes.

Zoom out: That case has drawn international attention and generated protests nationwide.

• Nearly 100 people were arrested after protesters gathered at Trump Tower in Manhattan Thursday to demand the release of Khalil.

What they're saying: "This is a clear attempt by President Trump to make an example out of Mr. Khalil and silence dissent across the country," Brett Max Kaufman, senior staff attorney with ACLU's Center for Democracy, said in a statement.

• "No matter what your views are on Israel and Palestine, we should all be terrified of a government incarcerating its residents for their political opinions."
• "With today's filing, we are making it crystal clear that no president can arrest, detain, or deport anyone for disagreeing with the government," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, another group that joined the legal team.

For the record: Furman on Wednesday halted ICE from deporting Khalil, who is in a detention facility in Louisiana.

• Representatives for the White House, State Department and ICE did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening.

What we're watching: Lawyers for the Trump administration are expected to submit their response to Khalil's attorneys on Friday.

• They are likely to invoke the broad authority the secretary of state has to deem foreigners a threat to the nation's foreign policy.
• The legal challenge to Khalil might ultimately come down to the Supreme Court, which would decide how far the secretary of state can determine whether a permanent resident can be removed for speech.

• Bluesky CEO Jay Graber recently wore a T-shirt that appeared to take a dig at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
• The company began selling the same shirt online on Thursday afternoon.
• A Bluesky spokesperson told BI that it sold out within 30 minutes.

Bluesky is taking another shot at the Mark Zuckerbergs of the tech world.

During the week of SXSW in Austin, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber donned a black T-shirt imprinted with a Latin phrase: "Mundus sine caesaribus" or "A world without Ceasars."

The shirt appeared to reference the Meta CEO, who wore a similar boxy, black T-shirt with a Latin phrase likening himself to Roman general Julius Caesar: "Aut Zuck aut nihil" or "Either Zuck or nothing."

On Thursday afternoon, Bluesky started slinging the same shirt Graber wore at the Austin conference. The shirt sold out within 30 minutes, according to Bluesky spokesperson Emily Liu.

Liu told BI that the shirt signaled the ethos of the social media platform.

"Jay wore the shirt onstage at SXSW to emphasize Bluesky's democratic approach, where a single CEO or company doesn't control your experience online — and looks like people resonated with that vision," Liu said in an email.

Graber said in a Bluesky post that sales of the shirt launched while she was on a flight and sold out before she landed.

The company declined to share how many shirts it sold.

Since Twitter rebranded to X after Elon Musk's 2022 takeover, some users have decamped to alternative social media platforms like Bluesky. Meta, the parent company of social platforms Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, launched its X alternative, Threads, in 2023.

The migration continues a trend of online users seeking sites that conform closer to their political or cultural beliefs.

Bluesky, which was founded by Jack Dorsey in 2019, saw a surge in users after the election and registered 30 million users as of January, the company said.

The rare Blood Moon total lunar eclipse started lighting up the sky late Thursday with a bright full Moon.

Why it matters: It's the only lunar eclipse visible from the U.S. this year and the first total lunar eclipse since November 2022.

• Photos captured around the world late Thursday show a bright and illuminating Moon.

What time is the Blood Moon?

The Moon appears red or orange during the lunar eclipse because "any sunlight that's not blocked by our planet is filtered through a thick slice of Earth's atmosphere," NASA said.

• "It's as if all the world's sunrises and sunsets are projected onto the Moon," NASA said.

What we're watching: The Moon will appear coppery red during the lunar eclipse's totality phase for a little less than an hour, according to NASA's timeline.

• This phase begins at 2:26am EDT Friday, 11:26pm PDT and 6:26 UTC.
• Totality ends at 3:31am EDT, which is 12:31am PDT and 7:31 UTC.

Full Moon to appear full through Saturday

March's full Moon, also known as the "Worm Moon," is officially full at 2:55am EDT Friday, NASA said.

• It will appear full for about three days — from Wednesday evening into Saturday morning.

More from Axios:

• Government suspends free COVID test distribution program
• Trump claims credit for falling egg prices but no relief for shoppers yet
• Why food prices are still high, five years after COVID

Editor's note: This story will be updated with additional photos.

The Trump administration must reinstate thousands of fired probationary federal workers, a judge said in a temporary restraining order on Thursday.

Why it matters: In the second such order to reinstate fired workers on Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Bredar ruled that the lawsuit brought by state attorneys general against 18 agencies was likely to succeed in showing the mass firings "were unlawful."

Driving the news: In the latest case, the Obama-appointed judge said in his order in Maryland the agencies gave "no advance notice" for the mass layoffs.

• "It claims it wasn't required to because, it says, it dismissed each one of these thousands of probationary employees for 'performance' or other individualized reasons," Bredar wrote.
• "On the record before the Court, this isn't true. There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively," he added.

The big picture: The lawsuit was filed against agencies including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs, along with their secretaries.

• A federal judge in California earlier on Thursday ordered six government agencies to offer fired probationary federal workers their jobs back.
• Representatives for the Trump administration did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening.

Set an alarm and reminders to look at the sky for the rare chance to see a Blood Moon total lunar eclipse late Thursday night and early Friday morning.

The big picture: It's the only lunar eclipse visible from the U.S. this year and the first total lunar eclipse since November 2022.

• All of the phases of the eclipse are expected to last around six hours.
• North America and South America are expected to get the best views of the eclipse, but it will be visible across the Western Hemisphere.

Total lunar eclipse and Blood Moon

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth and Moon align so the moon passes into Earth's shadow, according to NASA.

• Total lunar eclipses occur when the Moon passes into the dark shadow of the Earth.

Lunar eclipses are sometimes called "Blood Moons" because the Moon will turn a reddish and copper hue, NASA said.

What time does the lunar eclipse start tonight?

When to watch: The hours for when the lunar eclipse will be visible vary by time zone.

• The initial phase of the eclipse, called the penumbral eclipse, begins at 11:57pm EDT and 8:57pm PDT Thursday, NASA said in its timeline.
• The partial eclipse begins at 1:09am EDT Friday, which is 10:09pm PDT Thursday, and as the Moon moves into the umbra "it looks like a bite is being taken out of the lunar disk."
• Totality begins at 2:26am EDT Friday or 11:26pm PDT Thursday. In totality, the Moon is "tinted a coppery red."

What time does the total lunar eclipse end?

Totality ends at 3:31am EDT/12:31am PDT.

• The partial eclipse ends when the Moon has set in 4:47am EDT or 1:47am PDT.
• The penumbral eclipse ends when the Moon has set in 6am EDT or 3am PDT.

How to see the total lunar eclipse live

What we're watching: Unlike a solar eclipse, anyone with a view of the Moon during a lunar eclipse will be able to see it as it occurs, NASA said. Special equipment isn't needed to observe a lunar eclipse.

• "Binoculars or a telescope will enhance the view," NASA said, noting a "dark environment away from bright lights makes for the best viewing conditions."
• Timeanddate.com will have a live stream of the lunar eclipse starting at 1am EDT Friday.

March full Moon is the "Worm Moon"

The Moon, known as the "Worm Moon," will be full early Friday morning at 2:55am EDT, NASA said.

• It will appear full for about three days — from Wednesday evening into Saturday morning.
• NASA said the Maine Farmers' Almanac began publishing Native American names for full moons in the 1930s and called the March full Moon the Crow, Crust, Sap, Sugar or Worm Moon.

Why the Moon appears red during total lunar eclipse

How it works: The Moon appears red or orange because "any sunlight that's not blocked by our planet is filtered through a thick slice of Earth's atmosphere," NASA said.

• "It's as if all the world's sunrises and sunsets are projected onto the Moon," NASA said.

Solar eclipse 2025

What's next: Get your solar eclipse glasses ready as the first solar eclipse of 2025 will be on March 29 and is a partial eclipse.

• It will be visible from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean, NASA says.
• There is also a Sept. 21 partial eclipse that NASA said will be visible from Australia, Antarctica, the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Next lunar eclipse

Zoom out: The March total lunar eclipse is the last one that will be visible in the United States this year.

• There will be a total lunar eclipse on Sept. 7 that will be visible from Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.
• A March 3, 2026, total eclipse will be visible from the Americas, Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands, NASA said.

More from Axios:

• In photos: Blood Moon total lunar eclipse lights up sky
• Trump claims credit for falling egg prices but no relief for shoppers yet
• Government suspends free COVID test distribution program
• Why food prices are still high, five years after COVID

• Starbucks cafés may soon have more power outlets.
• Brian Niccol, Starbucks' CEO, said the company was testing a store redesign with more seats and power outlets.
• This is the latest move in his "Back to Starbucks" plan to make the chain more warm and inviting.

You won't have to worry about your laptop running out of juice at Starbucks anymore if Brian Niccol, the company's CEO, has anything to say about it.

Niccol's latest move to get coffee drinkers to linger at the chain's cafes involves introducing more power outlets in stores.

The chain is testing a café redesign in the US, with the aim of making it a more comfortable and inviting place to hang out, the CEO said in a shareholder meeting on Wednesday.

"Imagine coffee houses that are comfortable and warm with expanded seating options, power outlets, and abundant food displays," Niccol told shareholders.

Niccol said the new design would also have clearly separated sections for those dining in-store and those picking up their to-go orders.

A Starbucks representative told BI earlier in March that it would add more seating to its cafés and start introducing shelves and risers to separate the café and mobile ordering sections.

This is the latest move in Niccol's "Back to Starbucks" plan, a game plan he developed when he joined Starbucks in September to turn the company around. Wednesday's shareholder meeting marked six months since he took the top job.

The executive has been working to solve challenges including long wait times, flaws in the customer experience, and issues with its mobile ordering system. Niccol said that mobile ordering "chipped away" at the brand's soul.

Starbucks' global comparable sales slid by 7% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the same period a year before. Its performance improved in the first quarter of 2025, when global comparable sales decreased by 4% year-on-year.

A key pillar of Niccol's "Back to Starbucks" is rebranding the company as a cozy local coffeehouse where people can hang out.

His changes include introducing ceramic mugs for hot drinks in store, handwritten messages for customers, and self-serve condiment bars.

• Kelly Benthall saw work culture improve over her 30-year career, but the damage had already been done.
• Last year, she decided to retire early in order to improve her mental, physical, and emotional health.
• At her first post-retirement checkup, her doctor noted improvement.

My plan had always been to retire at 65 — grind it out, climb the ladder, and finally enjoy the freedom. But plans change, especially when your body starts flashing warnings you can't ignore.

Last year, at 53, I retired early with my husband — not because we had meticulously planned every detail, but because the cost of staying in the rat race — mentally, physically, and emotionally — had become too high. Work had always been a source of pride, but it was also a source of stress and, at times, serious health consequences.

For more than 30 years, I helped companies ranging from startups to giants such as Shell and Chevron navigate strategic change. I had spent those decades taking on more responsibility than was reasonable, absorbing the pressure, and expecting little in return. Over time, I internalized stress as a normal part of success — until my body forced me to stop.

The corporate fast lane and its toll

The workplace has changed a lot since the '90s and early 2000s, particularly in male-dominated industries like oil and gas. Back then, I was a minority as a woman, and those who made it to the top endured relentless pressure. Some became champions for equality. Others expected fellow women to tough it out, believing suffering was a rite of passage.

Some female leaders respected my work, but others saw it as a threat.

During an orientation at one of my first jobs, I mentioned my experience in speechwriting to a CEO. He asked me to write his sales conference talks, but my female boss told him I wasn't interested and offered to do it herself. I later reached back out to the CEO to clarify, and we ended up partnering for years.

And then there were #MeToo moments I can't believe I tolerated. One boss thought it was appropriate to share his appreciation for Playboy centerfolds during meetings.

The culture shifted over time as companies implemented stronger policies and accountability measures. By the time I reached my final years in corporate life, the culture had improved. But the damage had already been done.

Years of working in high-alert mode left me conditioned to expect the worst, even in safer environments.

The moment my body fought back

Despite disappointments, I kept my foot on the gas. I worked harder than ever, sometimes logging 90-hour weeks, believing that if I just worked smart enough and fast enough, I could outpace the stress.

I was wrong.

One day, I collapsed at work. My blood pressure spiked to 220/180, and I ended up in an ambulance. The EMTs gave me nitroglycerin, but nothing happened. I heard one of them say, "Uh-oh," before telling the driver to move faster.

That should have been my wake-up call. Instead, I doubled down — cycling through medications in a desperate attempt to keep going.

It wasn't sustainable.

A change coach who couldn't change

I had spent my career coaching others to accept change.

The advice I'd given countless others seemed easy when it was someone else's problem. "Do as I say, not as I do," I thought. Yet, as I struggled with burnout and my health deteriorated, I realized I wasn't taking my own lessons to heart. I had built a career around helping people, but I had been afraid to make the same leap myself.

It wasn't until I spoke with a coach — a free consultation, something I almost canceled because I "didn't have time" — that I saw my life from a different perspective.

She asked me one simple question: "When was the last time you did something that scared you?"

The question caught me off guard. I had spent so many years operating in a world of controlled risks, where I calculated every move and mitigated every possible failure. But fear? The kind that comes from stepping into the unknown, from daring to disrupt the status quo? It had been a long time since I'd felt that.

That moment unlocked something in me. I remembered who I was — someone who took chances. I had once thrived on new challenges, stepping into high-stakes projects where failure wasn't an option and leading teams through uncertainty. Yet, I had spent years trapped in a cycle of stress and obligation, mistaking endurance for achievement.

"Sometimes you have to break down to break through," the voice in my head whispered. That was the moment I decided to retire.

Retirement cured me

When I finally stepped away from my career, I didn't fully grasp the toll it had taken on my body. But retirement didn't just heal me — it gave me a new way of living. My husband and I embraced slow travel, trading deadlines and commutes for long walks in new cities, quiet mornings with coffee, and the freedom to explore at our own pace.

It wasn't until my first post-retirement checkup that I saw the difference. My blood pressure had dropped, and my stress markers were lower.

My doctor looked at my stats, then back at me, and said: "Your job was trying to kill you."

Escaping the hustle trap

Retirement didn't just save my health. It felt like finally pulling off the highway, realizing I'd been speeding toward a crash. It rewired my brain. What I had once called "drive" was really just a never-ending sprint toward exhaustion.

While work environments have improved in some ways, the effects of years spent enduring stress don't just disappear overnight. People like me, who became accustomed to overwork and constant pressure, struggle to recognize what a healthy pace actually looks like.

If you feel trapped in a high-stress career, ask yourself: When was the last time you did something that scared you? What are you really working for? At what point will you have enough? How long can your body sustain this stress? And most importantly, what's stopping you from making a change?

I wish I had asked myself these questions sooner. But the good news is that not everyone has to wait until their body forces them to stop.

Do you have a story to share about retirement? Contact the editor at [email protected].

• American Airlines Flight 1006 was seen engulfed in smoke at Denver International Airport.
• The FAA said the plane's engine caught fire after landing and while taxiing to the gate.
• All 172 customers and six crew members were evacuated, the airline said.

An American Airlines plane caught fire at Denver International Airport on Thursday.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement on Thursday night that American Airlines Flight 1006 landed safely in Denver after the crew "reported engine vibrations."

"After landing and while taxiing to the gate an engine caught fire and passengers evacuated the aircraft using the slides," the FAA statement read.

The Boeing 737-800 plane was en route from Colorado Springs Airport to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

The airline said in a statement to Business Insider that Flight 1006 "experienced an engine-related issue" after landing and taxiing to the gate.

"The 172 customers and six crew members deplaned and are being relocated to the terminal," the statement said.

A representative for Denver International Airport told local news outlet KDVR that Flight 1006 was emitting "visible smoke."

The airport wrote in an X post on Thursday night that "12 people were transported to local hospitals with minor injuries."

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.