• Waymo is Alphabet's robotaxi service, formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project.
• Waymo is available to the public in several US cities and has plans to expand.
• The robotaxi company faces other competitors, including Tesla and Zoox.

Waymo is a robotaxi service owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet. Since opening its service to the public in 2020, Waymo has said it has provided millions of paid, fully autonomous rides.

The company continues to expand its service, in part by partnering with other ride-hailing platforms, and has begun testing its robotaxis outside the US.

Waymo's beginnings

Waymo was initially formed by Google and was known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project. After seven years of research and development, it eventually spun out into its own company in 2016. Alphabet remains the majority owner of the company.

Google started developing Waymo and its self-driving technology in 2009 at the Google X lab, which was led by Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Sebastian Thrun, a pioneer in the self-driving industry, was chosen to lead the project.

After almost two years of testing the technology, Google and The New York Times revealed its existence in late 2010.

US lawmakers raised concerns at the time about the lack of regulations for this new technological frontier. Google was a prominent supporter, lobbying for regulation. By 2012, Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles had licensed a self-driving Prius running Google's software, marking the first time that a self-driving vehicle had been licensed in the United States.

In 2022, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai distanced Waymo and Alphabet's other subsidiaries from Google by granting them more autonomy to design job structures and compensation outside Google's job architecture.

Waymo was affected by Google layoffs in 2023, when the company cut roughly 8% of staff.

Despite the restructuring, Waymo's offices are still located in Mountain View, California, just a short drive from the Googleplex, Google's global headquarters.

What does Waymo do?

As of 2025, Waymo provides driverless taxi services throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta. In Austin and Atlanta, Waymo offers its service through Uber's ride-hailing app.

In 2014, Google was granted a patent for a transportation service involving automated vehicles that would be funded by advertising fees. That May, Google unveiled a prototype autonomous vehicle that did not contain a gas pedal, brake pedal, or steering wheel.

In 2015, they gave their first fully autonomous ride to a legally blind friend of principal engineer Nathaniel Fairfield; unlike earlier tests, there was no police escort, no test driver, and it was not on a closed course.

In 2016, the self-driving car project was spun out of Google and made a subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc. At this time, the company also ordered 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans to test the technology.

Waymo announced a partnership with Jaguar in 2018 to build up its fleet of robotaxis, using the legacy automaker's all-electric I-PACE SUV. The company also partnered with Hyundai and the Chinese EV company Zeekr to expand its robotaxi models.

Waymo started its public operations in Phoenix in 2020. By May 2025, Waymo said it had surpassed 10 million paid rides across its operating cities.

To increase its robotaxi fleet, Waymo built a 239,000-square-foot factory in Mesa. With the new facility, Waymo said it will retrofit more than 2,000 I-PACE vehicles with autonomous capabilities throughout 2026.

The company also has shared ambitions to license its autonomous technology to automakers. In April 2025, the company said it was in early talks with legacy automaker Toyota, with plans to bring autonomous driving to personally owned vehicles.

Who can take a Waymo?

So far, Waymo operates in Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta. The robotaxis can only operate within geo-fenced areas, meaning they cannot freely travel in every part of the city, including highways and some airports. Waymo says it will expand its service to highways, but it has not provided a timeline.

Prospective riders within operating areas can download the Waymo One app and hail a robotaxi. In Austin and Atlanta, riders have to toggle through the Uber app to request a robotaxi. Like major competitors, riders are quoted the fare while booking.

Waymo ride prices are based on the distance and time of a trip, and a minimum price is charged for all trips. In April 2023, when a Business Insider reporter tested the technology in Phoenix, a five-mile, 20-minute Waymo ride cost $11, the same price as an Uber trip to the same location.

Waymo doesn't disclose pricing data, but a third-party study published in June 2025 showed that Waymo's robotaxis are more expensive than Uber and Lyft, costing around $5 more than the average ride from its competitors.

Is Waymo safe?

Waymo says its driverless vehicles are safer than human drivers, but as with any technology that remains a work in progress, autonomous taxis are not perfect.

Data from Waymo provided to the California Public Utilities Commission showed that the company's robotaxis were involved in at least 419 collisions between March 2022 and March 2025.

Still, an analysis by Business Insider found that Waymo significantly reduced the rate of collisions during those three years. Between March and May 2022, the rate of collisions was about 147 per 100,000 rides. Between January and March 2025, the rate reduced to about 7 collisions per 100,000 rides.

When comparing human drivers over the same distance within the company's operating cities, Waymo says its autonomous driver experiences 93% fewer pedestrian crashes with injuries and 79% fewer crashes with airbag deployments.

Waymo's robotaxis have been documented experiencing some technical issues, however. One rider told Business Insider that his Waymo ride was stuck driving in circles. A San Francisco resident recorded footage of the robotaxis honking at each other at a Waymo depot.

Who are Waymo's competitors?

Waymo faces competition from several companies, including Tesla's robotaxi, Amazon's Zoox, and a few other software-focused companies that have autonomous technologies.

In June 2025, Tesla began offering driverless rides with 10 to 20 cars operating within a geo-fenced area of Austin. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company can quickly expand its service and took multiple shots at Waymo, saying that the Alphabet company's robotaxis cost more to expand.

Amazon-backed Zoox is building a purpose-built robotaxi — meaning the vehicle will have no steering wheels and will only be used as a taxi — and is testing in several US cities as of July 2025. The company announced in June 2025 the opening of its 220,000 square-foot production facility in California.

There are also software-oriented companies such as Wayve and May Mobility that develop autonomous technologies and are seeking to provide robotaxi services by partnering with ride-hailing platforms.

For example, May Mobility, an Ann Arbor-based company founded in 2017, has partnered with Lyft to deploy an autonomous fleet in Atlanta in the summer of 2025.

Robotaxis also operate outside the US. In China, driverless taxis are quickly expanding with companies like Baidu's Apollo Go and WeRide.

In March 2025, Waymo deployed 25 Jaguar I-PACE SUVs to Japan to begin mapping out parts of Tokyo.

• Soda company Olipop mandates a week of PTO this summer to prevent burnout and boost performance.
• Its 'Summer Recharge' program includes a $1,000 vacation stipend for four employees each month.
• Olipop offers remote work, unlimited PTO, and plans to expand perks.

Need a reason to take a vacation? At Olipop, employees don't have a choice.

The prebiotic soda brand valued at $1.85 billion recently launched a program requiring its staff of roughly 220 to take at least one full week of PTO. It's also raffling off a $1,000 stipend to four employees each month from June to September to spend on their vacation.

"I have no concern that our employees, writ large, should be able to afford a vacation, but things are expensive, right?" Olipop CEO Ben Goodwin told Business Insider, adding that he wants to send an "ultra clear" message about Olipop's workplace.

The company said the "Summer Recharge" initiative is intended to prevent burnout, boost performance, and model a healthier relationship with PTO.

Olipop CEO Ben Goodwin said the idea came about after the company launched a summer program for customers to win a soda-inspired hotel suites or one of 5,000 influencer-style PR Boxes for just five cents.

After seeing data about US workers not using all their allotted PTO, Goodwin decided to create a similar program for Olipop's employees.

A survey published by Eagle Hill Consulting last November found that 48% of US employees anticipated having unused vacation days by the end of the year, and over one-third of respondents said they hadn't taken a vacation at all in the past year. 85% of the 1,387 survey respondents said they would support a requirement to use a minimum number of vacation days a year.

Olipop offers unlimited time off. Goodwin said that while unlimited PTO can give employees a sense of freedom, these sorts of policies can lead to employees taking less time off. That notion "was unacceptable," he said and he didn't want it happening at his company.

Goodwin said it's "really important" that the company effectively facilitates employees' work-life balance. He says that Olipop's employees are hard workers and that, since its founding in 2018, he can count on one hand the number of employees who haven't pulled their weight.

Goodwin described the Olipop work environment as "intense" and said the staff is competitive and mission-oriented. Last year alone, the company had nearly 400,000 applicants, he said.

While Goodwin invests heavily in employee wellness, he said he is still working on his own ability to disconnect from his job.

"I have to take somewhat extreme measures to really, like, take a breather," Goodwin said, adding that he needs to leave the country to detach himself.

Goodwin said that Olipop has experienced triple-digit growth nearly every year since its inception, and he has to maintain his performance by following routines like exercise and therapy.

Mandatory summer vacation isn't the only perk Olipop offers. Rather than investing in office facilities, Olipop runs remotely and pays significant costs in employee benefits and perks.

The company pays for employees to have a gold PPO plan and covers 95% of insurance costs, Goodwin said. Olipop also offers department off-sites, a party at the end of the year with a DJ and a hotel stay, new hire orientations, and a program for leadership called Olipop Leadership University.

As a relatively small company in a high-growth phase, Goodwin said he has no plans to pull back these perks. In fact, he said he's in active discussions with Olipop's new head of people about expanding some initiatives. Goodwin said he's exploring the launch of a "company rainy day fund for employee emergencies."

To Goodwin, it's all part of the company's mission to benefit others. He also said it creates incentive for employees to perform better.

"How much time do you want to spend using punitive measures to keep your employees in line, and how much do you want to use incentivization and meaning to inspire them in the same direction?" Goodwin said.

The CEO added that you can "tell which model we prefer."

• Thomas Dohmke, the CEO of GitHub, said the "smartest" companies will hire more developers in the face of AI.
• Thomas Dohmke said in a podcast interview that AI makes engineers more efficient, not irrelevant.
• AI isn't yet capable of completely eliminating engineering workloads, he added.

The companies that best take advantage of AI won't be using it to replace human labor, said GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke. Instead, they'll be upping their hiring of increasingly efficient engineers.

"The companies that are the smartest are going to hire more developers," Dohmke said on an episode of "The Silicon Valley Girl Podcast."

"Because if you 10x a single developer, then 10 developers can do 100x," he said.

Dohmke said that AI has made it that much easier to learn how to program, and simplified the process for those who are already professionals. As the technology continues to evolve, he added, so will the capabilities of engineers.

"The most frustrating thing when you're learning something is, you're stuck somewhere, and then you have nobody at home or in your family or friends that can help you with that, because they're all nontechnical," Dohmke said. "So, when we're saying AI is democratizing access, that's what we mean. Everyone who wants to learn it can learn it."

That doesn't mean there won't be a market for professionals, either, Dohmke said. Though people may be better equipped to leverage coding for personal ends, in the business sphere, a deeper knowledge of the craft will still be required to best utilize AI, the GitHub CEO said.

"I think the idea that AI without any coding skills lets you just build a billion-dollar business is mistaken," he said. "Because if that would be the case, everyone would do it."

Though some companies — particularly in the tech industry — are pumping the brakes on hiring or conducting layoffs while leaning into AI, Dohmke believes it's only a matter of time before they realize there's greater value in hiring more engineers.

"I think it's a temporary effect right now. This is the natural conclusion for the short term — we keep things stable and we're trying to figure out how the market develops," Dohmke said. "But very quickly, I think we're going to see people that say, 'Well, wait a second, if I have one more productive developer, why wouldn't I hire another one, and another one?'"

Dohmke said he still hasn't seen a company completely eliminate developer workloads, even as programmers use AI to move through projects with greater speed.

"AI has already added more work to the backlogs. I haven't seen companies saying, 'Well, we're draining all our backlog and we have almost nothing left,'" he said.

Dohmke also said it's the "most exciting time" to be a developer — and that the process of programming has ultimately been changed for the better.

"The dream of software development was always that I can take the idea that I have in my head on a Sunday morning, and by the evening, I have the app up and running on my phone," he said.

• Congress passed Trump's "big beautiful bill" on July 3.
• It includes major changes to student-loan repayment and caps on borrowing.
• It eliminates existing income-driven repayment plans, including SAVE, replacing them with just two options.

It could soon get harder for student-loan borrowers to get affordable monthly payments.

Congress passed President Donald Trump's "big beautiful bill" — a major spending package — on July 3, meaning a slew of proposals to change the way student-loan borrowers take out and pay off their debt is becoming law.

The bill eliminates existing income-driven repayment plans and replaces them with two less generous options, along with adding new restrictions on the types of loans parents and graduate students can take out. It also limits borrowers' abilities to place their loans on deferment if they're facing financial hardship.

Linda McMahon, Trump's education secretary, lauded the bill's passage in a post on X, saying that it "simplifies the overly complex student loan repayment system" and "reduces federal student loan borrowing amounts to help curb rising tuition costs."

"A truly beautiful bill for the American people," she said.

Borrower advocates and Democratic lawmakers said the bill will hurt Americans repaying their student loans. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement that student-loan payments will go up as a result of the legislation, and Natalia Abrams, president of the advocacy group Student Debt Crisis Center, said that "this dangerous bill abandons millions of borrowers, leaving them with few, often inaccessible repayment options and deepening their financial insecurity.

Here's how the bill will impact millions of federal student-loan borrowers.

A student-loan repayment overhaul

New student-loan borrowers will face fewer available repayment options as a result of the spending bill. The bill will eliminate existing income-driven repayment plans and replace them with two repayment options.

The first option is called the Repayment Assistance Plan. It would set borrowers' payments at 1-10% of their income, depending on their income levels, with a minimum monthly payment of $10. Unpaid interest is waived under this plan, and any remaining balance will be forgiven after 30 years.

It's less generous than former President Joe Biden's SAVE plan, which the bill eliminates. SAVE would have allowed borrowers with original balances of $12,000 or less to receive loan forgiveness after 10 years of payments, and it reduced payments on undergraduate loans from 10% to 5% of a borrower's discretionary income.

The SAVE plan is blocked in court pending a final legal decision, and with the bill's passage, the 8 million borrowers enrolled in SAVE have between July 2026 and July 2028 to enroll in a new plan.

The second option is a new standard repayment plan, which sets fixed payments for 10-25 years based on the borrowers' original balance. While existing standard plans typically have a fixed repayment period, this new plan's repayment period would vary based on the original amount borrowed.

Along with fewer repayment plans, the bill eliminates borrowers' ability to defer their student-loan payments in the event of economic hardship and unemployment, leaving standard forbearance as the only option to delay payments.

It also eliminates the graduate PLUS program, which allowed borrowers at graduate and professional schools to borrow up to the full cost of attendance for their education. The bill retains the parent PLUS program, which allows parents to take on student loans for their kids' educations, but places a $65,000 lifetime cap.

In addition to repayment changes, the bill takes on college accountability: It ensures that programs in which graduates don't earn more than the median high school graduate in their state will lose federal student-loan eligibility. The legislation also extends the Pell Grant to shorter-term programs, which McMahon has previously pushed for.

• CEOs need an AI strategy now to avoid falling behind competitors, PwC's Dan Priest said.
• Generative AI is reshaping industries, challenging leaders to adapt and innovate quickly.
• Priest emphasized investing in AI tools, reskilling employees, and maintaining human oversight.

Many corporate leaders are embracing artificial intelligence in theory but falling short when it comes to execution, according to Dan Priest, who was named PricewaterhouseCoopers' first chief AI officer a year ago.

With generative AI radically reshaping how everything from accounting and human resources to sales and marketing gets done, CEOs' leadership skills are being put to the test. How they go about their AI strategy today, warned Priest, will likely mean the difference between achieving greater cost savings and faster growth in the next few years versus falling behind the curve.

"It is a disruptive journey that needs to be managed," he told Business Insider.

Consider, for example, a PwC survey of approximately 4,700 CEOs last year found that four out of 10 expect their business models to no longer be viable in the next decade if AI continues to develop at its current rate. Priest said this suggests companies will need to come up with new — and likely AI-powered ways — of generating revenue, which can be difficult.

Given how fast generative AI has been evolving, Priest stressed the importance of CEOs investing in AI tools and strategic planning around them now, if they haven't already, to set their businesses up for success. But he conceded that the task is challenging.

For one, leaders need to find ways to distinguish their companies from others using AI if they want to stand out from competitors, said Priest. Most use cases today are merely setting a new standard for table stakes.

"If AI is ubiquitous and everybody's got it, it can't be your differentiator alone," he said.

Leaders also need to figure out which job functions will be aided by AI and to what extent, and which ones will become obsolete, said Priest. Further, they should determine where new skills are needed, invest in helping employees develop them, and assess where talent may need to shift to other areas of the business.

"If you believe that people are an important part of your success in the future, you should invest in their reskilling," he said.

Workers aren't all using AI tools in the same way, added Priest.

"Early-career-stage team members are more likely to turn over the thinking too much to AI," he said. "Late-stage-career team members are probably too reticent to use it consistently."

One tip Priest has for anyone using AI to write memos or other text is to only rely on the technology for a second draft. People should produce a first and last version on their own, he said.

"You want the thinking to be yours. That's why the first draft is so important," Priest said. "You want the benefit of the edit and you want the final draft to be in your voice."

This is also an example of why he believes humans should be at the center of companies' AI-related initiatives.

"The shiny new object is AI, but I don't know a single AI agent that is changing a business," he said. "It's the humans combined with those AI agents that change the business."

For a decade, Indiana businessman Bob Hamilton has operated six fireworks pop-ups in the weeks leading up to July 4. Most years, it's a great business — he says he brings in about $200,000 for a few weeks of work.

But the trade war with China has meant that this year has been anything but normal. And anyone hoping to buy fireworks at the last minute — whether from Hamilton or from pop-ups scattered across the country — is likely to see higher prices and, in some cases, empty shelves.

In the first half of the year, Hamilton watched as the tariffs on Chinese goods went from 10% to 145% and then back down to 30%. Around 95% of fireworks are made in China, so there wasn't another major market to turn to.

Hamilton played it safe. He bought the bulk of his inventory in April — just before the 145% tariffs took effect — to lock in a better price. He borrowed space from one of his other businesses, a commercial flooring company, to store his merchandise. Assuming that higher prices would mean fewer sales, he leased just four storefronts. "By the time we figured out how to navigate this tariff thing for this year, it was a little bit too late in the game," he says.

But the chaos seems to have wiped out some of Hamilton's competition. This week, when he placed another order to restock his shelves, the cost factored in the 30% tariff. "How much of that do we eat to keep our customers happy?" he says. Hamilton ultimately decided to split the difference with his customers.

From fireworks to backyard barbeques, President Donald Trump's America First tariffs are getting in the way of America's birthday bash. While the biggest impact has fallen on the fireworks industry, the higher tariffs — coupled with stubbornly high consumer prices and a historic low in the American cattle supply — have jacked up the cost of beef, ice cream and other Independence Day staples.

This year's price hikes and shortages could preview an even bigger impact on next year's celebrations, when Americans will mark the nation's 250th birthday. Industry watchers say there's a real risk of product shortages and significantly higher prices in 2026.

"Trump has called them the America First tariffs," says Julie Heckman, the Executive Director of the American Pyrotechnics Association. "The bitter irony is that the tariffs are raining on the most iconic celebration of America."

The question leading into 2026 is largely one of capacity: Will orders come in soon enough, and will there be enough time for producers in China to meet the American demand for pyrotechnics?

Chinese manufacturers are making up lost time from last year, and — in advance of America's 250th — the APA expects next year's demand for fireworks from American consumers to surge by 40 to 50%.

Uncertainty in the US market after high tariffs took effect meant that Chinese manufacturers "lost several months of vital production time," says Heckman. "That's what's really going to impact 2026."

Fireworks are constructed by hand and take up to two days to make, so delays have a meaningful impact. "It's a very laborious and dangerous process," says Heckman. "Think of papier mache layers over a sphere, like wrapping a basketball, gazillions of times." Before the firework is finished, it's placed in the sun to dry.

Stacy Schneitter Blake, president of the National Fireworks Association and co-owner of Schneitter Fireworks & Importing in St Joseph, Missouri, echoes Heckman's concerns.

The brief window of 145% tariffs this spring "severely disrupted" the supply chain, she says. "Thousands of containers were canceled or delayed, municipal displays were downsized or cut entirely, and companies across the country are absorbing unrecoverable losses."

Industry watchers say China's strong domestic market for fireworks and a strong European market also mean that Chinese manufacturers aren't dependent on American buyers.

"There's only so long that companies can kind of dance around these tariffs and figure out clever ways to adjust for them, to prevent the price increases from flowing through to consumers," says Martha Gimbel of the Budget Lab at Yale, a non-partisan policy research center. "To paraphrase the classic Christmas song, 'Have yourself a merry little Fourth of July,' because it may be your last without price increases."

Hamilton, who says he supported Trump for president, says he's OK with all the uncertainty — for now — especially if it means Americans will get a better deal in the long run. "Do we all wish we weren't paying these extra tariffs? Absolutely," he says. "But I'm willing to sacrifice if I need to, for the greater good."

"The question I'm looking at is, what does this look like next year, the year after?" he says. "Is this going to correct itself?"

Fireworks are the symbol of Independence Day celebrations. But most popular way to mark Americans' second favorite holiday, after Christmas, is with a cookout, according to Northwestern University's Medill Spiegel Research Center, which tracks consumer behavior.

This year, those researchers predict a 5% drop in Independence Day celebrations, largely due to higher prices.

Andrew Lokenauth is among those who are cutting back.

For 15 years, Lokenauth has gone all-out for the Fourth of July. The barbecues that he and his wife host in their Tampa, Florida backyard include fireworks, a professional sound system, and mountains of food for 150 guests.

"My signature move was always smoking these massive briskets — started them at 3 a.m. to get them perfect by party time," says Lokenauth, who's 38 and works as a financial educator. "And the spread, man, the spread. We'd have everything from pulled pork to grilled chicken. Plus, all these sides my wife makes that everyone fights over."

The party was reliably "the highlight of summer for our friends and family," he says.

But a few weeks ago, Lokenauth discovered that the price of everything from fireworks to that brisket was way up, and he calculated he was $2,000 over his usual budget.

Lokenauth and his wife now plan to host a much smaller party, and make it a potluck. "After 15 years of going all out, it wasn't an easy decision," he says. "It felt like cutting off my right arm."

Natalie Flynn, who lives in Washington, DC, can relate.

Every year, she squeezes around 30 guests into her 600-square-foot Washington, DC, apartment. Her bathtub becomes the cooler for beer and cocktails, while she grills hot dogs and hamburgers from her building's roof. She makes almost everything from scratch — her homemade ice cream sandwiches are a reliable favorite. At around 8, she hands out sparklers and leads her guests on a walk to the National Mall, where they watch fireworks go off over the Lincoln Memorial. "It's this moment of just joy and jubilance," he says.

But a couple of weeks ago, Flynn was taken aback when she noticed that the 5.5 pound bag of Belgian chocolate chips she uses for her ice cream sandwiches are $76 this year, up from $53. Flynn, who's 36 and works two jobs, realized that her particular salute to Uncle Sam was suddenly outside her budget.

Flynn's party will now also be a potluck, and there will be fewer sparklers to pass around. "Stuff's not going to get cheaper, so I have to be more mindful of how I spend," she says. "The feast has gotten too expensive."

Both Lokenauth and Flynn say they hope this year counts as a blip and that they'll get back to hosting massive Fourth of July parties again soon.

"I've always believed the beauty of America is how we can disagree but still fire up the grill together," says Lokenauth. "I've got friends who voted Trump sitting next to folks who voted Harris — and they're both reaching for the same plate of brisket."

"These tariffs that were supposed to put America first are making it harder for Americans to celebrate America," he says.

Cari Shane is a freelance writer.

Dominick Reuter is a senior retail reporter for Business Insider.

• "Jurassic World Rebirth" is now out in theaters.
• Here we look back on the entire "Jurassic" franchise to rank its entries from worst to best.
• See where "Rebirth," "Jurassic World," and (of course) the original "Jurassic Park" all land.

Audiences seemingly can't get enough of the "Jurassic" franchise.

Five years after the close of the "Jurassic World" trilogy with 2022's "Jurassic World: Dominion," moviegoers are now given "Jurassic World Rebirth," which is set decades after "Dominion."

1993's "Jurassic Park," based on the book by Michael Crichton, revolutionized visual effects as Steven Spielberg's stunning dinosaurs looked so lifelike. It launched the craze for VFX blockbusters that we watch today (legend has it, George Lucas was so taken by the effects in "Jurassic" it convinced him he could make his "Star Wars" prequels).

Six sequels since, grossing over $6 billion worldwide (not counting the revenue from amusement park rides, video games, and animated spinoffs), it's not slowing down.

Here we rank all the movies from worst to best.

7. "Jurassic Park: Dominion" (2022)

With dinosaurs and humans now living together following the events of "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," the climax to the "World" trilogy brings back the cast from the previous "Jurassic" movies to set everything straight.

Despite the fun nostalgia that Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum bring to the story, the movie itself is a mindless journey from one action sequence to the next. And don't even get us started on the giant locust subplot.

6. "Jurassic World" (2015)

The "Jurassic Park" franchise is essentially about humans not being able to let go of the past, and the horrifying consequences of what happens when that gets out of control. Let's call it weaponized nostalgia.

In "Jurassic World," that concept gets very meta, but not in a cool, self-aware kind of way: 22 years after the events of the first movie, humans have created a dino theme park. Both Jurassic World the park and "Jurassic World" the movie are cash-grabbing, nostalgia-exploiting efforts that made millions of dollars off of humanity's failure to not learn from our past.

Chris Pratt's half-commitment to an accent is more genuine than this movie, but we'll admit we were entertained throughout.

5. "Jurassic Park III" (2001)

"Jurassic Park III," directed by "Captain America: The First Avenger" director Joe Johnston, has some memorable, redeeming qualities. The Spinosaurus is a menacing alternative to the overused T. rex and the entire "bird cage" sequence is actually riveting.

But it can never escape the fact that it probably shouldn't exist in the first place: Sam Neill's Alan Grant is coerced into returning to a dinosaur island and, shockingly, nothing goes according to plan.

The ending is rushed — as if everyone involved in this movie wanted to escape it faster than the characters wanted to get off the island — and the disappointing, terribly CGI'd Spinosaurus vs. T. rex fight was not worth the Rock 'em Sock 'em-style toy we owned growing up.

Also, there was a missed opportunity to explore what PTSD could look like for someone who almost got eaten by dinosaurs, but the movie would rather just show Grant hallucinating a velociraptor that calls his name.

4. "Jurassic World Rebirth" (2025)

It had all the elements to be great. Producers brought back screenwriter David Koepp, who penned the first two movies, and they hired "Rogue One" director Gareth Edwards. But by the time the end credits roll on "Rebirth," you have the feeling of what could have been.

From the "Jaws"-like boat scenes to all the nostalgic hat tips to "Jurassic Park," the movie felt like it was following the usual blockbuster formula, though it gets points for at least telling a stand-alone movie.

You just have to think: If this movie had come out a decade from now instead of three years after "Dominion," would it have worked better?

3. "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" (1997)

The first "Jurassic" sequel, "The Lost World," gets a bump for once again being directed by Steven Spielberg — some critics even argue that while it's nowhere near as good as the first movie, it's actually better directed.

That direction keeps the tension mounting throughout the movie, until the infamous San Diego-set ending. Bringing back Jeff Goldblum and adding Julianne Moore to the mix helps things, as well, and by all accounts, this movie should have been a masterpiece. But a terrible script ensured our disappointment before the cameras even began to roll. 

2. "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" (2018)

The problem with the "Jurassic" sequels is that none of them can quite justify their existence. It's easy to regurgitate the same concept over and over again, but it's actually hard to make it worthwhile.

But "Fallen Kingdom" is the most self-aware of all of the "Jurassic" sequels: people are really dumb, we keep getting ourselves into the same situations, and that's the point. The movie brings that to its natural conclusion and is probably the only sequel that actually raises the stakes by the end of the movie.

That makes it not only better than its predecessor but the best sequel in the franchise (even if that's not saying much).

While the movie thinks it's way smarter than it actually is (dinosaurs are a metaphor for global warming and civil rights and other social issues!), it at least tries to tap into some of those ideas. The logical question arises from that: do these movies need to be that cognizant? But we'd rather they were somewhat mindful of the world they inhabit than mindless.

1. "Jurassic Park" (1993)

Do we even have to explain ourselves?

Spielberg's original film is classic blockbuster entertainment with the heart and smarts to match. 

The movie didn't just push the envelope in what was possible on the big screen but opened the door for how the blockbuster movie would be made for decades to come.

Travis Clark contributed to a previous version of this post.

• Ursula von der Leyen said it was "impossible" to cut a trade deal with the US by July 9.
• The European Commission president said there would be an "agreement in principle" by that date.
• She said the high EU-US trade volume made fast-tracking a detailed deal difficult.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said it was "impossible" to reach a detailed trade deal by President Donald Trump's July 9 deadline.

Von der Leyen said the US and European Union were aiming for a July 9 "agreement in principle" trade deal, which would be light on details.

She was speaking at a press conference in the Danish city of Aarhus on Thursday, at a European Union summit to mark the start of Denmark's six-month-long EU presidency.

"It's a huge task because we have the largest trade volume globally between the European Union and the United States, 1.5 trillion euros, very complex and a huge quantity," she said.

She added, "Indeed, what we are aiming at is an agreement in principle. Because I mean, such a volume in 90 days, an agreement in detail, impossible."

The European Union was one of the hardest hit by the slew of tariffs Trump announced on April 2, seeing a tariff rate of 20%.

Responding to the tariffs, Von der Leyen said in an April statement on X that Trump's tariffs were a "major blow to the world economy" with "dire" consequences for millions of people.

Trump later issued a 90-day pause to allow for trade negotiations, and all of the US's trade partners were subject to an interim 10% tariff rate.

In February, months before the April 2 tariffs, Trump ordered a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports, and the EU retaliated with tariffs on 26 billion euros, or $28.4 billion, worth of US goods.

In May, he floated raising the EU's tariff rate to 50% from June 1, saying the group was "very difficult to deal with" and the US's trade negotiations with the EU were "going nowhere."

However, Trump retracted the threat after a call with Von der Leyen. He said she had requested an extension on the June 1 deadline.

"I agreed to the extension — July 9, 2025 — It was my privilege to do so," Trump wrote on Truth Social on May 25.

On May 26, Paula Pinho, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, said in a press conference that Von der Leyen and Trump had "agreed both to fast-track the trade negotiations and to stay in close contact."

Representatives of the European Commission and the White House did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• Meta has been aggressively poaching AI talent from rivals like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.
• But a former OpenAI board member said "it'll be difficult" for Meta to succeed with its new hires.
• Helen Toner, who left OpenAI in 2023, said companies will also try to woo Meta's new hires.

Helen Toner, a former OpenAI board member, said Meta could start seeing other companies trying to poach back their newly brought in AI talent.

Toner, who left OpenAI's board in November 2023, said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday that Meta will need to show they are "moving fast enough" in the field to retain their new AI hires.

Toner added that Meta "will be getting attempts to poach them back to other companies starting on day one."

Meta has been stepping up its AI recruitment efforts amid a wider industry search for AI talent.

Last month, Meta said it had made a $15 billion investment in data-labeling firm ScaleAI. ScaleAI's founder and CEO, Alexandr Wang will also be joining Meta as its Chief AI Officer as part of the investment.

Wang will also co-lead Meta Superintelligence Labs with Nat Friedman, the former CEO of Github. The rest of Meta's new team comprises former researchers from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

Toner, however, told Bloomberg that "it'll be difficult" for Meta to achieve success with its new AI hires.

"There's a lot of organizational politics at play," she continued.

Toner said the challenge Meta faced was not just about procuring resources but also managing egos.

"That takes a lot of willingness to stare down powerful people inside your company, who maybe don't want to lose and tell them that you actually don't want them to do what they want," Toner said.

"The question will be, in part, can Mark Zuckerberg, if this is his big personal project, is that enough to change their organizational dynamics," she added.

Toner isn't the only one who has criticized Meta's recruitment efforts.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said he found it "crazy" that Meta offered his employees $100 million signing bonuses to leave.

"The strategy of a ton of upfront guaranteed comp and that being the reason you tell someone to join, like really the degree to which they're focusing on that and not the work and not the mission, I don't think that's going to set up a great culture," Altman said in an episode of the "Uncapped with Jack Altman" podcast that aired last month.

Toner had previously voted to fire Altman as OpenAI's CEO in November 2023. At the time, OpenAI's board said Altman "was not consistently candid in his communications" with them but did not provide further details. Altman eventually returned as CEO just days later.

Toner said in her interview with Bloomberg on Thursday that she has not "actually interacted" with Altman since his brief ouster from OpenAI.

"I'm sure at some point soon we will wind up at the same event. The AI world is pretty small, and I'm sure that we will both be happy to shake each other's hand, but don't have another chance yet so far," Toner said.

Representatives for Toner and Meta did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• Amal Clooney says she has a no-phone rule for house guests.
• "I now have a phone basket that I use to take everyone's phones away," she said.
• The human rights lawyer says the rule is meant to foster real connections and to protect her kids' privacy.

Visitors at Amal Clooney's house better be ready to unplug — because phones are off-limits.

In an interview with Glamour published on Thursday, Clooney spoke about the value of privacy and the boundaries she sets to protect it.

"Creating private moments and spaces is becoming increasingly difficult. But that's also why we entertain a lot at home. I now have a phone basket that I use to take everyone's phones away," Clooney told Glamour.

The human rights lawyer added that it was important to create a space where people feel like they can have "a safe and frank exchange" with their loved ones.

Keeping phones at bay is also about protecting her children's privacy, she said. She and her husband, George Clooney, welcomed twins Alexander and Ella in 2017.

"And I would say becoming a parent means you're more troubled by some of the intrusions. So we do the best we can to minimize any impact on our children," Clooney said.

That commitment to privacy extends to keeping her kids entirely out of the public eye.

"We don't put our children out there, we've never put their photo out there or anything like that," she said.

The Clooneys are famously protective of their kids.

In November 2021, her husband, George Clooney, wrote an open letter to the media, urging outlets to avoid publishing photos of their kids due to her line of work.

"The nature of my wife's work has her confronting and putting on trial terrorist groups and we take as much precaution as we can to keep our family safe," he wrote.

In an August interview with GQ, George Clooney discussed the pitfalls of fame and reiterated his point about shielding his kids from the limelight.

"So I have a goal of trying to protect, I don't want pictures of my kids. We deal in very serious subject matters, with very serious bad guys, and we don't want to have photos of our kids out there," he said.

The Clooneys are among several public figures who've spoken out about the challenge of protecting their privacy while living in the spotlight.

In 2022, Eva Mendes said she won't share photos of her and Ryan Gosling's daughters until they give her consent.

Lindsay Lohan said in May that parenting in Dubai feels easier than in Los Angeles, thanks to the UAE's strict photography laws.

"I get the privacy, I get the peace, I get the space. I don't have to worry there; I feel safe," Lohan said.

A representative for Clooney did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.

• My husband and I opted for a small, intimate wedding in 2022.
• I had always wanted to write my own vows, but family advised against it and I didn't push the issue.
• Three years later, I still wish I had stood up for what I wanted.

My husband and I said our "I dos" during the pandemic. For us, it was a great excuse to keep the event on the smaller side, though our families wanted us to invite every extended family member. We would have wanted our wedding to be intimate, regardless of the safety concerns at the time.

My husband proposed in July 2021, and we were married six months later. As the planning process progressed, I found that we were making more and more concessions — mostly to our families — instead of sticking to what we wanted for our big day. Looking back, I wish I had stuck to my guns on some of them.

I wasn't a picky bride, but there were certain things I had envisioned.

I didn't have a strict blueprint for my wedding. I had a handful of things I wanted, such as my son walking me down the aisle since I was a single mom when I met my husband. But most of all I wanted the wedding to be as much my husband's as it was mine. Basically, I wanted everything to be agreed upon by both of us.

It seemed the more relaxed we were about the wedding, the more our respective parents worried about some other aspect we hadn't even thought of. But it wasn't just our family. Nearly everyone that learned we were getting married asked if we had done this or that "yet." We just wanted to have a simple party with our closest friends and family, but everyone we talked to pointed something else out that we had been blissfully unaware of.

I wanted my soon-to-be husband to be happy, so I compromised

I had always wanted to write my own vows, but as the wedding loomed closer, my husband seemed stressed out about writing his. His father, who was a minister and was going to be the one to marry us, wanted us to stick to the usual script. I was tired of battling everyone's expectations and wanted to ease my soon-to-be husband's stress, so I gave in and simply said, "fine."

My husband seemed relieved, and at the end of the day, I thought what really mattered was that we would be married. Looking back, I can see how stressed out I was during the planning process all the way through our wedding, which was far more stressful than I had thought it would be. I know now that my judgement was clouded.

My heart was in the right place, but it wasn't the right choice

There were a lot of things I didn't love about how our wedding played out, but my biggest regret is not committing to writing our own vows. I've even asked my husband if he'd consider remarrying just to recite vows that we've each written, but the moment has come and gone.

Part of why my husband was having trouble with his vows was because they would be said in front of everyone we knew, not just the two of us. But if I could go back in time, I would have talked it out with him.

Mostly, I know my husband would have stuck to our vows if I had let him know how important it was to me. Compromising is an important part of a relationship, but for our marriage to be successful, I think it's important that neither of us are making too many concessions, especially when it's something that really matters.

I use my wedding regret to make my marriage stronger

I worried so much about everyone else, including my husband, that I let go of one of the few things that mattered to me. I think worrying more about everyone else, in different ways, was a mistake we both made.

The upside is that we can learn from worrying overly about everyone else but ourselves and work at taking care of each other within our marriage.

I catch myself thinking about what I would have said at the altar so much that it's become a fantasy. It's usually when I realize how much I love him or how lucky I feel to be with him. While I can't go back in time, I can write and share my fantasy vows with my husband for the rest of our lives. When I think of it that way, it's a lot more romantic than just telling him once on our big day.

Business Insider's Senior Legal Correspondent Laura Italiano breaks down what it's been like reporting on both Diddy trials.

• Elan Bibas, a contestant on "Love Island USA," asked his brother, Tal, to run his Instagram while he's on TV.
• In an interview with Business Insider, Tal tells us how his brother was recruited for the show and "is not doing this for the clout."
• Tal has been posting content from Elan's account and fielding business inquiries.

Elan Bibas entered the "Love Island USA" villa with a disadvantage: He was added late, as part of a group of hunks sent to stir things up. But he also has an advantage: his younger brother, Tal, who's running his social media while Elan's on the show.

I talked to Tal about his experience running Elan's social accounts and the business opportunities that have presented themselves since his brother's time on the huge summer hit for Peacock. (It was the No. 2 most watched original streaming show during its first two weeks, Nielsen said.)

Contestants on the show — and if you haven't watched, I must recommend it as great summer fun! — compete to find love, or share part of the $100,000 prize with their partner.

Appearing on the show can also be a big business opportunity.

Fan favorites from past seasons have gone on to success as influencers with lucrative brand deals or other entertainment appearances. Cast members from last season will reunite for a new show, "Beyond the Villa," starting later this month.

As my colleague Callie Ahlgrim observed, the spectre of social media looms large: "The islanders seem hyper-aware of their role as entertainers and competitors, much too preoccupied with how they're being perceived by an invisible audience to be truly honest and vulnerable with each other."

Contestants have to give up their phones during their time on the show, which airs five nights a week in near real-time, so some of them have entrusted family or friends to run their social media accounts for that time. Cierra Ortega, an early fan favorite, has her friend MJ Hedderman running her Instagram, who's been delighting fans with her funny perspective and long captions.

Business Insider talked to Tal Bibas, 22, who lives in London and has been posting to his older brother Elan's Instagram and TikTok accounts. Elan, 24, grew up in the suburbs of Toronto and now lives in Miami and works in tech.

So far, Tal's strategy for managing his brother's Instagram has seemed to work. Elan's followers have gone up from about 3,000 to 63,000 since he first appeared on the show a week and a half ago.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Were you surprised when Elan told you that he was going to be a contestant on "Love Island?"

One hundred percent. I think it was a shock to us all. Elan's a very smart guy — it's hard to see that on TV, but he's almost like a nerd. He's always been a super academic guy and always top-of-his-class. He got out of university, did computer science and engineering and entrepreneurship, came out with a job at a consultancy, a tech consultancy, helping them code and advise. He was doing really well with that. I think he hit a ceiling in Toronto and was really craving to move to a new city. Obviously, Miami comes with the beautiful weather, so that's what moved him there.

In the past few years, he's just got this virus to want to do these crazy ultramarathons and running. He formed a community of people in Miami doing that kind of stuff, and a lot of them are content creators within the health and wellness niche. He found that that was quite cool, and he's like, You know what? Wow, maybe I should start doing this a bit.

So shortly before he got approached to be on the show, he started doing a bit of content around health and wellness, running, self-improvement — things along those lines. I wouldn't say he had any viral posts or anything like that. Then he honestly just got DMed by a casting director, and that's kind of how this whole thing happened.

So the casting team reached out to him. He didn't apply to be on the show?

Exactly.

Oh, that's interesting. I didn't realize that's how the casting works. In terms of his day job, obviously, it's hard to take a month or two off to go shoot a reality show. What's the status of his job?

His work seemed to be quite fine with it. They basically said, "You can definitely take on this opportunity, but take all paid time off first, and then everything after that would be unpaid leave."

Knowing your brother, what's your reaction to what's happening on the show?

At first, when I saw him on, I was excited, but I had that weird feeling where it's just like, "Oh my God, you never know how the public's going to perceive someone on TV."

Honestly, I was quite surprised by how comfortable he seemed. I thought maybe he would sound a bit different or move in a different way. Right now, the way he's acting inside the villa is the exact same way he acts in real life.

Cast members build big social followings during the show, which can lead to all sorts of lucrative opportunities. When Elan asked you to manage his socials, was that something very much at the top of your mind?

I think Elan is not doing this for the clout or fame. Honestly, that's the last thing on his mind. He loves saying "yes" to opportunities. For him, it's all about going through this, living through this experience, and just having this bucket-list, once-in-a-lifetime experience to be able to say he did this thing. And through that, to form connections, build relationships, and meet a lot of cool people.

Elan basically said, "Here's my login details. Do your best to keep things positive and have fun with it. Mostly just let it ride and just see how it goes."

I guess I have my own strategy for how I want to manage his Instagram. I don't think he knows exactly that. I definitely see this as not just a business opportunity, but a way to help my brother out. I want to do the most I can to post good content, engage with the audience, and leave him in the best spot for when he comes out to have that seamless transaction of "OK, guys, he's back." And it's kind of that exact brand and audience that he's known for.

I was studying a lot of the old contestants and seeing what their experiences were via their social presence, and so I was learning quite a lot from just looking at that.

I do have a background also in digital marketing and social media. I worked as an intern at a big influencer-marketing agency in Toronto, so I kind of understand the nuances of how the industry works — I just never thought it would be my brother. It's been an interesting learning curve.

Have you been approached by brands or business opportunities for him? How are you fielding these incoming things?

I made a separate email account for him for his social accounts. There's a lot of random stuff coming in there. Going through it and figuring out what's legit and what's not takes time. I want to make this process as seamless as possible for Elan so that when he comes out I can say, "Look, I was taking care of everything when you were gone. This is what happened. We've got these brands, these people approaching you for these opportunities," and just go through it with him and see what is the priority right now, what makes the most sense. I wouldn't say there's a long list of brands, but there are talent agencies that want to represent him.

Trump's new proposal includes tax cuts, student loan reforms, and stricter rules for Medicaid and SNAP. Here's what the four biggest changes could mean for you.

• The Hamptons have long been a popular summer destination for bankers and traders.
• We spoke to Wall Street insiders and others about the top hot spots for summer 2025.
• Here are the 7 places they said you'll find finance industry insiders this summer.

Whether by car, helicopter, the LIRR, or the infamous Jitney bus, if it's a Friday afternoon between Memorial and Labor Day, Wall Street is going "out east."

The Hamptons have been a haven for the ultrawealthy since the Astors and Vanderbilts set up estates there more than a century ago, but the transition from fishing and whaling towns to playground for urban professionals really started to take off in the freewheeling 1980s, during Wall Street's boom years.

Since then, the secret has been out, and over the last decade, social media and Bravo's "Summer House" have introduced a whole new generation to these once-sleepy seaside towns of Long Island.

Walker Ward, who previously sold data and research to hedge funds and other large investors, told Business Insider that the Hamptons remain a recreation hub for stressed-out Wall Streeters looking to escape the heat and humidity of the city.

"There's so much to do there," Ward said, who has summered there for the better part of the last decade. "Why wouldn't you want to go out there if you could afford it?"

Whether you're looking to relax or rage, there's something for everyone — as long as you have deep pockets. And, as with any destination for the wealthy, these resort towns offer ample opportunity to peacock.

"The Hamptons, especially with social media, have become a runway show for people to go out and flaunt what they have, how much money they make, and what kind of car they're driving," said Ward, who now parodies Wall Street on social media as WalkSauce42.

In preparation for the July 4 holiday, we spoke to current and former financial industry professionals, as well as some Hamptons locals and business proprietors, about this year's hottest hangouts. Some of the industry insiders we spoke to asked to remain anonymous to protect their jobs because speaking to the press is either forbidden or frowned upon.

Here are 7 top Hamptons hangouts for bankers, traders, and more.

Surf Lodge

This was the most-mentioned spot, which is why we're putting it first. It's a quaint seaside hotel and restaurant, as well as a sceney place to get bottle service on the beach and hear live music and top DJs in Montauk. But FYI, tickets for entry on July 4th are pretty much sold out. A table on the beach for 10 for the next day is listed as $7,500.

A nearly $100 chicken tender tower went viral a few summers ago, thanks in part to TikTok and Instagram posts by Ward.

"The tendie towers baby, that's the intern's favorite, and the holy grail," Ward joked to BI. "Everyone knows Surf Lodge."

Someone who previously worked at a large investment bank confirmed it's popular with the Wall Street crowd.

"It's got a DJ, a deck. You pay thousands for a table," he said.

Le Bilboquet Sag Harbor

The Sag Harbor outpost of this Upper East Side French restaurant opened in 2017, and has since built a reputation for being "one of the satellite offices for the elite," said Ward, who currently summers in Amagansett, between East Hampton and Montauk.

The restaurant bans shorts and flip-flops and is perched alongside a marina deep enough to allow large yachts to dock.

"Everyone loves to sit there and drink wine and look at the sterns of all these massive yachts," Ward said.

The Wall Street recruiter described it as "another see and be seen spot."

The menu offers a seafood tower complete with a dozen oysters, king crab, langoustine, shrimp, a half lobster, snow crab and shrimp for $250, a 100-gram tin of Caviar Ossetra Imperial for $490, and their signature Le Poulet Cajun, a $39 Cajun-spice-rubbed chicken with a beurre-blanc sauce, salad, and fries.

Stephen Talkhouse

Stephen Talkhouse, founded in 1987, is also known for its live music scene. It's become so popular with vacationers that one Hamptons local complained to BI of summer lines that "wrapped around the village." Ward agreed, saying you have to know the staff in order to "Trojan Horse" your way in.

Located in Amagansett, between Montauk and East Hampton, its website describes it as "a legendary music scene and casual neighborhood bar in one. The music calendar for the July Fourth weekend includes "Secret Sellebrity Society Band" and alt-rockers "Kids That Fly."

Mary Lou's

The Palm Beach outpost of Mary Lou's is well attended by local financiers and the socially or politically connected. It's also attracted popular musical acts from The Chainsmokers to Mojave Grey.

Mary Lou's Montauk branch, which opened earlier this year, is aiming to provide the same ambiance and flair. Cofounder Alex Melilla told BI that the crowd so far has been "a more mature crowd, affluent crowd, influencers, tastemakers, as well as a great local scene." The

The Wall Street set may be especially drawn to the special menu set to be curated by the team behind Marea, the luxurious seafood restaurant just a stone's throw from Deutsche Bank Center in midtown, which Mary Lou's will offer during a weekend later this month.

Duryea's Montauk

Duryea's is a seafood restaurant on the water in Montauk known for its $97 lobster cobb salad.

Duryea's was purchased by Apollo CEO Marc Rowan in 2014, and it quickly turned from a classic lobster shack into one of the sceniest restaurants on the East Coast. Hampton's legend and Food Network star Ina Garten has said it is one of her favorite restaurants.

"In my 20's that was the only place we would go on summer weekends there because it was cheap and easy," one Wall Street recruiter said. Not anymore. "People go to Duryea's on their yachts and tender to shore."

Gurney's Montauk

Wall Streeters looking to decompress might turn to Gurney's Resort & Seawater Spa, a 146-room hotel and spa with multiple al fresco dining options along a lush stretch of beach in Montauk.

The Wall Street headhunter said it remains one of the most popular outposts for the financial crowd — and Lizabeth Zindel, the editor-in-chief of Hamptons Social Magazine, explained why: "It's absolutely beautiful," Zindel told BI. "There's a huge terrace as well, which overlooks the ocean from up above."

On the menu at the outdoor Firepit lounge are creative cocktail concoctions like the Chocolate Negroni; the "Afternoon Tea" featuring Earl Grey, bergamot, gin, and cream; and the "Improved Grasshopper" featuring mint and chocolate liqueurs. Each is $23.

The country clubs

As with any wealthy enclave, the Hamptons boasts numerous country clubs.

The Hampton's local described Southampton's Shinnecock, which is hosting next year's US Open, as the "fanciest golf place out here." Ward cited East Hampton's Maidstone Club as another place where "fancy people" from the Street spend their time "hobnobbing."

"Maidstone is the Arnie poster above the bed," he said, referring to a poster of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a pro bodybuilder above an aspiring muscleman's bed. "It's what you aspire to be."

• Family and supporters of Sean "Diddy" Combs praised his legal "dream team" after the jury verdict.
• The team was led by Marc Agnifilo, who is also representing Luigi Mangione.
• It was rounded out by a row of other formidable lawyers.

Sean "Diddy" Combs was mostly victorious in the mixed jury verdict at his criminal trial — with much thanks to his stacked legal team.

"Dream team! Dream team!" Combs' supporters and family chanted in the courtroom Wednesday after the jury acquitted him of racketeering and sex trafficking, the most severe charges.

They were up against a formidable government team. The US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York is considered one of the most elite federal prosecutors' offices in America. And the team prosecuting Combs had Maurene Comey, one of the prosecutors who put Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell behind bars.

Combs, though, has an eye for star lawyers.

His previous defense team also won him an acquittal in 2001, when the Manhattan District Attorney's Office accused him of being involved in a nightclub shooting.

At that time, Combs' team was led by his longtime attorney Ben Brafman. For this year's trial, Brafman's protégé Marc Agnifilo was in the driver's seat.

Here's the "dream team" that defended Diddy:

Marc Agnifilo

The founding partner of Agnifilo Intrater LLP spent about two decades in the US Attorney's office in New Jersey before moving to private practice.

Before the Combs trial, he had a crushing jury verdict against his client, Keith Raniere, the founder of the NXIVM sex cult, who in 2020 was sentenced to 120 years in prison.

But Agnifilo has had high-profile victories, including representing former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who had sexual assault charges against him dropped.

Together with his wife, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Agnifilo is also representing Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

In one of the final hearings in the Combs case before the trial, Agnifilo raced to another federal courthouse across the street in lower Manhattan for a hearing in the Mangione case.

Teny Geragos

The 34-year-old Geragos, a partner at Agnifilo's firm, handled some of the trial's biggest moments, including the defense team's opening statement and multiple cross-examinations of important witnesses.

Before the trial, she vocally defended Combs on social media. And, years earlier, she represented Raniere along with Agnifilo.

Geragos has also represented Roger Ng, the ex-Goldman Sachs banker convicted in 2023 of siphoning billions of dollars from 1MDB, the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

Her father is celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, who represents Combs' mother and consulted with the trial defense team.

Alexandra Shapiro

A former clerk for former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Shapiro is well-known in the New York bar for her appeals and white collar litigation.

In Combs' case, Shapiro raised multiple legal issues during the trial that could form the basis for an appeal. She also took the lead in bail arguments, unsuccessfully trying to keep Combs out of jail ahead of the trial and between the verdict and his sentencing hearing.

Shapiro is representing Sam Bankman-Fried, Combs's onetime jailhouse roommate, in the appeal of his conviction and 25-year sentence, which remains pending.

She's also the author of the 2022 legal thriller "Presumed Guilty" and is an avid nature photographer.

Jason Driscoll

An associate at Shapiro's firm, Shapiro Arato Bach, Driscoll crafted legal arguments about the scope of what witnesses were permitted to testify about at the trial and which exhibits should have been permitted to go into evidence.

He's previously worked at the Big Law firm Paul Weiss and has clerked for two federal judges in Manhattan.

Anna Estevao

Estevao had one of the most difficult jobs in the trial, cross-examining Cassie Ventura, Combs' longtime partner, who prosecutors had designated as his primary victim and who was visibly pregnant while she was on the witness stand. (Ventura gave birth after her testimony, while the trial was ongoing.)

Estevao joined Combs' legal team while a partner at Sher Tremonte, a firm also representing him in many of the civil lawsuits against him and his companies. She joined the firm Harris Trzaskoma the same month the criminal trial began — a move that a source familiar with the matter said was in the works long before the trial.

Xavier Donaldson

An experienced New York City attorney, Donaldson also joined the Combs criminal case shortly before the trial began.

At the trial, Donaldson cross-examined Daniel Phillip, a male dancer who participated in freak offs with Ventura, and Deonte Nash, a friend of Ventura's.

Donaldson has also previously represented the "Chelsea bomber", Ahmed Rahimi.

Brian Steel

Fresh off a favorable plea deal for the rapper Young Thug in Atlanta, Steel joined Combs' legal team shortly before the trial.

He handled the cross-examination of one of Combs' assistants, as well as security officers at the InterContinental Hotel, where Combs beat Cassie Ventura in a hallway in a notorious incident caught on video.

Nicole Westmoreland

Another Atlanta-based lawyer involved in Young Thug's trial, Westmoreland officially joined the Combs legal team shortly before opening statements.

Westmoreland cross-examined Combs' accuser Dawn Richard and two friends of Ventura who corroborated some of her testimony.

• Sean "Diddy" Combs used to be one of the richest people in the music industry.
• His record label, Bad Boy Records, is just one source of his former empire.
• Musicians like Faith Evans, Janelle Monáe, and Machine Gun Kelly were once signed to the label.

Before Sean Combs, also known as Diddy, was sued by more than a dozen people, alleging sexual misconduct among other things, he was a powerful music tastemaker, creating his own record label.

Diddy founded Bad Boy Records in 1993 and went on to sign major musicians such as The Notorious BIG, Mase, and Faith Evans. It's impossible to think of '90s and '00s rap without also thinking of Bad Boy, which released 13 No. 1 albums from 1997 to 2022.

Over the years, Bad Boy and its founder gained a reputation for being difficult to work with, highlighted by multiple public instances of friction between artists and the label.

In a statement provided to Business Insider, a representative for Combs said, "It's easy to reduce a 30-year legacy to a few negative statements, but that doesn't capture the full story."

"Sean Combs and Bad Boy Records were more than just a label — they were a cultural movement that shaped music, launched careers, and produced iconic hits," they said. "Focusing only on grievances distorts the narrative. The label's contributions remain an essential part of music history."

Before Diddy was arrested in September 2024, he had begun the process of reverting the publishing rights of many of Bad Boy's most famous songs to their original artists, provided they signed agreements, as reported by Billboard.

On Wednesday, a Manhattan jury found Diddy not guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering, but convicted him of two lesser charges: two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

"It's a great victory for Sean Combs. It's a great victory for the jury system," Diddy's lawyer Mark Agnifilo said, NBC reported.

Diddy, who remains in custody, is facing up to 20 years in prison, but experts say it's unlikely he'll serve for that long. His sentencing is scheduled for October. At this point, it's unclear what will happen to Diddy and his career.

Bad Boy is still in existence today and remains one source of Diddy's wealth. Here are 15 of the biggest acts that have released albums through Bad Boy since its inception.

The Notorious BIG

Biggie was one of the first artists signed to Bad Boy, and his two studio albums ("Ready to Die" in 1994 and "Life After Death," which was released 16 days after his death in 1997) were released through Bad Boy.

Publicly, the two appeared to be close friends, and Diddy released "I'll Be Missing You" with Biggie's wife, Faith Evans, in 1997.

However, their relationship had become strained. Rolling Stone reported the "Juicy" rapper was preparing to leave Bad Boy. He "was absolutely about to leave Puff" before he was shot, fellow rapper Babs Bunny told the publication.

In the decades since his death, Biggie's mother Violetta Wallace (before her death in February 2025), negotiated with Diddy to gain control of her son's music, per Variety. In February 2025, his estate partnered with Primary Wave Music to handle his music in the future.

Primary Wave did not respond to a request for comment.

Faith Evans

Evans, who was married to The Notorious BIG from 1994 until he died in 1997, was also signed to Bad Boy Records.

Her first three albums, 1995's "Faith," 1998's "Keep the Faith," and 2001's "Faithfully," were put out through Bad Boy. She then moved to Capitol Records.

"In my heart, I really wanted to try and leave Bad Boy after Big died. I mean, after I came back to any type of reality, any clear thinking. I just was so distraught," Evans told XXL in 2014.

Evans said she left Bad Boy because she felt Diddy and the label were paying more attention to other artists, but she emphasized that there was no bad blood.

Evans did not respond to a request for comment.

Mase

Mase released his first two albums, "Harlem World" and "Double Up" through Bad Boy, and was also known as Diddy's hype man through the '90s.

Their partnership collapsed after he released his third album, "Welcome Back," in 2004, also with Bad Boy.

Mase said he felt like his contract was too constricting, leading him to crash a Diddy interview on V103 in Atlanta and demand that Diddy sign paperwork allowing him to feature on other artists' songs.

Things simmered down until 2022, when Mase once again criticized Diddy's business practices in a now-deleted Instagram post.

"Your past business practices knowingly has continued purposely starved your artist and been extremely unfair to the very same artist that helped u obtain that Icon Award on the iconic Badboy label," he wrote.

Mase added that he had offered Diddy $2 million to buy his songs back and was refused. "This is not black excellence at all," he wrote.

Diddy responded during an interview on the syndicated iHeartRadio show "The Breakfast Club" and said that Mase actually owed him $3 million after failing to deliver an album.

In 2023, on another "Breakfast Club" appearance, Diddy said they were "brothers" and that he had "unconditional love" for Mase.

Mase's rights were returned to him when Diddy allowed songs from Bad Boy to revert back to artists that year.

In 2024, Mase called Diddy's arrest "the big payback" and added that "reparations is getting closer and closer" on an episode of the podcast he cohosts with Cam'ron, "It Is What It Is."

During the trial, Mase wondered aloud if he should attend Diddy's trial on his podcast, but it doesn't appear that he ever went.

Mase did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

112

The R&B group 112's first four albums were released through Bad Boy from 1996 to 2003. Most famously, they were featured alongside Diddy and Faith Evans on the song "I'll Be Missing You."

As MTV reported, 112 said that they left Bad Boy for Def Jam because of a "lack of money and attention." They added that they also left because their contract was "doo-doo."

"We still work with [Diddy] as far as getting ideas. We got three joints from his camp. It's no bad blood, it's no love lost," said member Mike in 2003.

"It's unfortunate what happened with Diddy," 112 member Slim said while appearing on "Ryan Cameron Uncensored" after the verdict was announced on Wednesday. "That's somebody people looked up to, and there was no win for any of the victims or anybody involved in the situation. It's more like you learn something from this."

112 did not respond to a request for comment.

Cassie

Cassie started publicly dating Diddy shortly after her debut album, "Cassie," was released in 2006 through Bad Boy. They dated until 2018.

In November 2023, Cassie sued Diddy and accused him of rape, abuse, and blowing up Kid Cudi's car after Diddy found out the rapper was interested in Cassie. The suit was settled the same month for an undisclosed amount, The New York Times reported.

In May 2024, CNN published a 2016 video that appeared to show Diddy dragging and kicking Cassie through the halls of a California hotel. Diddy apologized in a since-deleted Instagram post and said he was "disgusted" by his behavior in the video.

In an Instagram post, Cassie thanked fans for their support after the video was made public. "The outpouring of love has created a place for my younger self to settle and feel safe now, but this is only the beginning," she wrote. "Domestic Violence is THE issue."

Cassie was one of the witnesses called during Diddy's trial, taking the stand for four days. "I hope that people still see what Cassie did and think that she really made a difference," her lawyer, Douglas H. Wigdor, told ABC News after the verdict announcement.

"She was pleased that he's been found guilty and held responsible to federal crimes, something that he's never been held responsible [for] in his entire life," Wigdor said outside the courthouse.

Cassie Ventura had no comment on the lawsuit when reached by Business Insider.

Shyne

In December 1999, Diddy, his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, and his protégé, Shyne, were arrested after a nightclub shooting, but Shyne was the only one who went to prison.

He was later convicted of assault and sentenced to 10 years in prison, reports The New York Times.

Bad Boy released his self-titled debut album in September 2000, while he was in prison.

In 2012, Shyne, who served almost nine years, told MTV that he and Diddy made amends.

"As far as Puff is concerned, that's been a long time coming," he said. "He had reached out to me twice while I was in the pen, but I just wasn't ready for it."

In 2024, he spoke about Diddy's legal troubles. He told journalists soon after Diddy's arrest, "Let us not forget what the cold facts are. This is someone who destroyed my life."

A Hulu documentary following Shyne, "The Honorable Shyne," is set to be released on November 18. In the trailer, he said he believed he was set up to be the fall guy for the shooting.

In December, he told People, "We live in a world, in democracies at least, where the rule of law is tantamount. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I pray for justice, I pray for the victims. I pray for Diddy."

Shyne did not respond to a request for comment.

The Lox

The Lox released their first album, 1998's "Money, Power & Respect," via Bad Boy before the trio — Sheek Louch, Styles P, and Jadakiss — left for Ruff Ryders and Interscope.

That wasn't without its drama. The Lox said they had to plead with Diddy to get off Bad Boy and started a grassroots campaign to "Free The Lox," as they felt they weren't receiving a fair publishing deal.

This culminated in a 2005 appearance on Hot 97 in which Styles P threw a chair at Diddy, per Billboard.

"We made one record with you, 'Money Power & Respect.' It's 10 years later, and you still got half of our publishing. And you can't make it justifiable that you deserve half of our publishing," Styles P is heard saying in the recording.

According to AllHipHop, a deal was struck soon after the altercation.

In 2023, Jadakiss appeared on an episode of the podcast "I Am Athlete," saying how he appreciated how Diddy handled the situation: "He could've played much harder ball than he played."

The Lox did not respond to a request for comment.

Janelle Monáe

Monáe is one of the remaining artists signed to Bad Boy who isn't Diddy or his family members.

All four of Monáe's albums have been released through Bad Boy, including the 2019 album of the year nominee "Dirty Computer" and her most recent album, 2023's "The Age of Pleasure" (though both were also co-released by Atlantic Records).

"I got to say, I was scared to be partnering with a major label after a few years of being independent. I met Puff at a time I had decided to live frugally," Monáe told Billboard in 2018.

"But when I spoke to him, his words were, 'I love what you and Wondaland are doing," she continued, referencing the indie record label she had founded. "I don't want to be creatively involved. I just want people to know who you are and what you guys are doing.'"

"It was so humbling and beautiful. We're still close," she added.

Monáe did not respond to a request for comment.

Dream

Dream, a girl group, was formed in 1998 and then signed to Bad Boy as its first white act.

Their first album, "It Was All a Dream," was released in 2001 and debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200. Their second album, 2003's "Reality," failed to chart at all, and they were dropped from Bad Boy and broke up.

"There were some shady people who maybe didn't have the best intentions for children. And there were some people who maybe were just doing business," Ashley Poole, a former member, told Complex in 2016.

"There was a big disconnect from Puff and us because we were from such different worlds," continued Poole. "Puff was straight business. He didn't care if feelings were hurt. He said what he needed to say. He would tell us we needed to lose weight."

One of Dream's former members, Alex Chester-Iwata, told Business Insider that working with Bad Boy was "a nightmare," saying they "pitted each of us against each other."

Another group member, Holly Restani, told Business Insider what she thought of the verdict.

"Sean Combs, the same as all individuals, should be held accountable for his wrongdoings, namely his abuses of power, coercion, manipulation, violence, and harm of others in positions beneath him," she said.

"Many of these are well documented and known to many to have occurred. He was acquitted of the charges the prosecution brought in his trial. He is not free of accountability, nor is he innocent," she continued.

The other members of Dream did not respond to a request for comment.

Yung Joc

Yung Joc was one of the biggest musicians signed to Bad Boy South, another offshoot of Bad Boy, this time focusing on rappers out of cities like Atlanta.

Both of the rapper's albums (2006's "New Joc City" and 2007's "Hustlenomics") were released by Bad Boy South.

Two years later, it went south: In 2009, Yung Joc told Billboard he was planning to sue Bad Boy and Block Entertainment, his original record label that partnered with Bad Boy, for "failure to pay royalties and advances for his first two albums and charging 'outrageous clearance fees' for his collaborations with other artists."

"Diddy said he's got to stay out of it because it's between me and Block Entertainment," he said, adding, "I feel like [Bad Boy] isn't doing anything to try to intervene and help the situation."

It's unclear if he ever filed the suit.

He hasn't released an album since, though he has put out singles and EPs independently.

In 2014, Yung Joc told The Grio, "Diddy and I are great. We made a lot of money together. Every time we've crossed paths since, it was love."

Yung Joc did not respond to a request for comment.

French Montana

All four of French Montana's albums have been Bad Boy releases, most recently 2021's "They Got Amnesia."

"The deal [with Diddy] just felt right and it felt like it was the right thing to do. I felt like I can make a change with this for the music culture that I came from," Montana told Billboard in 2011.

In April 2024, during an episode of "Vlad TV," he confirmed he had left Bad Boy.

"I fulfilled everything. I make sure everybody got their money. I made sure, you know, Rozay got his money," he said, referring to rapper Rick Ross, who also owns a record label. "I made sure Puff got his money, made sure Epic got their money."

French added that he left Bad Boy on good terms with Diddy.

Montana did not respond to a request for comment.

New Edition

After an eight-year hiatus, New Edition teamed up with Bad Boy for their first album, "One Love." It was released in 2004 and is their last album to date.

The band's members said there were lots of disagreements about the future of the band with Diddy and his label. In a 2005 radio interview, they opened up about the problems.

"Diddy, when we didn't agree with him on certain songs, we would get sent home for like six, seven months. You know, it would just be nothing being done," said member Ricky Bell.

The final straw, they said, came when a song that none of the members liked appeared on the album instead of a song they worked on together with their longtime producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

"On top of that, Puffy paid himself $50,000, on top of that put a song on it that we didn't like, and we just felt like that was just a slap in the face. No respect," Bell added.

New Edition did not respond to a request for comment.

Pitbull

Pitbull released two albums via Bad Boy: 2006's "El Mariel" and 2007's "The Boatlift."

Pitbull was one of the first acts signed to Bad Boy Latino, an offshoot founded by Diddy and Emilio Estefan in 2005, per Billboard. He was also a partner in the venture and had an A&R role.

It didn't last long. Before "The Boatlift" was announced, Pitbull said he was leaving the label. Pitbull was dissatisfied with his role, a 2006 New York Post report said.

"I told him, 'Yo, I want a piece. If I'm gonna get in the bed with you, I want a piece,'" he said. "I got a whole lot to bring to the table, which [he] is gonna definitely capitalize off of."

Pitbull did not respond to a request for comment.

Machine Gun Kelly

From 2012 to 2022, Machine Gun Kelly's six albums and three EPs were released through Bad Boy. His most recent EP, "Genre: Sadboy," was released in March through Interscope.

The "Wild Boy" rapper was first signed in 2011, as Diddy noted in a now-deleted Instagram post in August 2019.

"When I first signed @machinegunkelly I knew he was going to be a star. I didn't know how exactly we'd get there but I knew it would happen," he wrote. "'I'm so proud of the artist he is becoming, he's shown all the traits of an artist that will stand the test of time."

Kelly did not respond to a request for comment.

B5

Both of B5's albums — 2005's "B5" and 2007's "Don't Talk Just Listen" — were released by Bad Boy. They were a departure from Bad Boy's roster, as the group was primarily a boy band that also appeared on Radio Disney.

During an interview with The Shade Room in 2023, the brothers said they didn't regret leaving Bad Boy. "We just couldn't see eye to eye so we decided to split," said Patrick Breeding.

They added that after Diddy announced his intentions to revert publishing to the original musicians, they hadn't heard anything from him.

"We didn't hear anything. We didn't get no calls or nothing like that from them," said Carnell Breeding.

Dustin Breeding added, "Puff, Diddy, yeah, we all want our publishing too. We were so young at the time, we didn't understand the business of it. But looking back now, damn, why our names wasn't on the credit?"

B5 did not respond to a request for comment.

• Patrick Lyons was laid off from Microsoft twice and worked there for a total of six years.
• Despite layoffs, Lyons maintained financial stability through side businesses and severance.
• Lyons advises pursuing monetizable passions to mitigate the impact of potential layoffs.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Patrick Lyons, a 29-year-old ex-Microsoft employee, based in Austin. It's been edited for length and clarity.

After five years at Microsoft, the last three of which I was a technical product manager for Microsoft Teams, I felt fulfilled and completely secure in my job.

I learned new things every day, pushed boundaries, and collaborated with brilliant minds. I saw how people needed me and called upon me at work for my expertise, and it brought me a real sense of purpose.

I had also been running three side businesses outside of work for several years, namely an online fitness coaching company. This allowed me to pursue my fitness passion while having bidirectional income streams. I had no plans for anything to change.

Then, in October 2024, I woke up to an early call from my VP letting me know that my role had been permanently eliminated due to business restructuring. I was shocked, but my next thought was, "How can I get rehired?"

During my unemployment, I enjoyed my hobbies

The next day, I started looking at Microsoft's internal job portal, which I'd only have access to for two more weeks. I didn't have any success in that period, so I started applying to jobs at other companies while keeping an eye on Microsoft openings.

Despite the stress about my sudden layoff, I was financially stable because of my businesses and a generous severance.

I spent the next few months applying to jobs and pouring my time into hobbies like improv comedy, fitness, and movies. It was one of the best times of my life. I started having such a good time away from work that a big part of me started questioning if I shouldn't go back to corporate at all and just fully commit to my fitness businesses.

I kept finding myself coming back to how much I missed Microsoft

I missed the ritual of logging into Microsoft Teams, doing my job, and collaborating with the same great people. I loved feeling as though I was really contributing to something larger than myself.

Microsoft's work culture is unbeatable. The idea of a growth mindset was tangible in our daily work, and our expectation was not to be a "know-it-all" but a "learn-it-all." I was surrounded by brilliant minds who wanted to help me become just as brilliant, not put me down for making mistakes or questioning the status quo.

A few months into unemployment, a former mentor of mine at Microsoft forwarded my résumé to a hiring manager, and I got rehired at Microsoft as a program manager for Azure, a cloud computing platform.

I got rehired and laid off in two months

When I returned to Microsoft, I treated my job the same as before, but I doubled down on my communication to make sure I was always on the same page with my team and superiors. It might sound counterintuitive, but I felt even more job security this second time around, because Microsoft had invested a massive amount of money into Azure.

Two months later, I woke up to a nearly identical message inviting me to a meeting where I would be laid off again. It was so jarring. I've already started applying to jobs again, but to be honest, I would still go back to Microsoft if I had the chance.

Even though Microsoft can be political at times, as there is a clear hierarchical structure in which you often have to cater to leaders' preferences, I feel as though I've learned how to navigate it. I can't always just "do" things; I need to consistently present and seek out buy-ins from various leaders.

My advice for people going through layoffs

I've stayed so level-headed while navigating two layoffs because I have diverse income streams.

My businesses allow me to completely support myself and remain in a comfortable financial position. However, I'm still choosing to seek out full-time employment because of health insurance and my desire for multiple streams of income.

I don't think it's possible to be lay-off proof, but you can limit the ability of a layoff to cause harm to your life. If you have something outside of work that you're passionate about that you can realistically monetize, do it.

If you have a unique layoff experience you'd like to share, please email the editor, Manseen Logan, at [email protected].

• President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" passed the House and is now headed to his desk.
• The tax and spending bill passed in a 218-214 vote on Thursday.
• Trump had urged GOP lawmakers to get the bill passed by July 4.

President Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill is one step closer to becoming law — and reshaping policy from Medicaid to taxes.

The House passed the massive spending bill on Thursday afternoon in a 218-214 vote.

Every Democrat voted against the bill, along with two Republicans: Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

The final passage came after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke for roughly eight hours and 45 minutes in opposition to the bill, breaking the record for the longest House floor speech in American history.

The bill now heads to Trump's desk for signing, which could happen as soon as Friday, July 4.

The bill underwent a number of changes since the House passed an initial version in May. That included the eventual removal of a provision aimed at preventing states from regulating AI for 10 years. The bill passed the upper chamber on Tuesday, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote after three GOP senators opposed it.

The bill will have a sweeping impact on Americans' wallets and the country's fiscal health. In addition to extending the 2017 tax cuts, making cuts to Medicaid, and repealing student loan forgiveness, the bill is also expected to add trillions to the deficit over the next ten years.

In May, Moody's Analytics downgraded the US's credit rating, citing rising federal debt. This could lead to higher interest rates on mortgages, auto loans, and more down the road.

Republicans passed the bill despite vehement opposition from Elon Musk, the former face of DOGE.

Musk had criticized the bill's impact on the deficit and its phase-out of green energy tax credits, some of which benefit Tesla. That led to his epic feud with Trump, which remains ongoing to this day.

On Monday, Musk vowed to support primary challengers against any Republicans who supported the bill and said that if it passed, he would form a new political party, called the America Party.

Republicans have largely brushed all of that off.

"Similar threats have been made before, and I'm unsure if anything's come of those threats," Rep. Brian Jack of Georgia told BI on Wednesday.

• The "Big Beautiful Bill" is headed to President Donald Trump's desk.
• It includes a repeal of student loan forgiveness and an increased child tax credit.
• It also includes new "Trump accounts" and changes to Medicaid and SNAP.

From taxes to student loan forgiveness, provisions in President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" will soon be impacting Americans' wallets.

On Thursday, the House passed the final version of the bill, which would extend the president's 2017 tax cuts and make key changes to the tax system, along with implementing significant changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Beyond the effects on Americans' wallets, the legislation provides roughly $150 billion to ramp up immigration enforcement.

The bill first passed the House in May before undergoing changes in the Senate, where it narrowly passed on Tuesday. Trump could sign the bill into law as soon as Friday, July 4.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the bill would add at least $3.3 trillion to the US deficit. In May, Moody's Analytics downgraded the US's credit rating last week, citing rising federal debt. It said an extension of Trump's 2017 taxes could add $4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. This could lead to higher interest rates on mortgages, auto loans, and more down the road.

Here are four other key ways the tax bill could affect Americans' finances.

A slew of tax policies

Many of Trump's campaign promises are included in the tax bill.

The legislation would eliminate taxes on tips and overtime wages. About two-thirds of tipped workers earn enough to owe federal income tax. After a final bill is signed, the Trump administration will release a list of qualifying occupations.

The Senate bill includes a $6,000 tax deduction for older people making less than $75,000 a year ($150,000 for couples). Seniors making above that threshold would see a decreasing deduction until hitting a cap of $175,000 ($250,000 for couples.) Lower-income seniors likely won't benefit from the deduction. The provision is how lawmakers are trying to fulfill Trump's promise to end taxes on Social Security payments. The deduction would run through 2028.

Another provision would permanently raise the child tax credit to $2,200. Additionally, it would eliminate electric vehicle tax credits after September. It also proposes ending tax credits for homeowners to install solar panels or energy-efficient heat pumps and incentives for new energy-efficient homes and home weatherization projects by the end of this year.

The bill would also make Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent and increase the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, from $10,000 to $40,000 in 2025, $40,400 in 2026, and increase an additional 1% every year through 2029 before reverting to $10,000 in 2030. Lifting the SALT cap allows wealthy taxpayers in states and cities with high taxes to claim a bigger federal deduction, and the cap is something some Republican lawmakers have sought to raise or eliminate.

Student loan forgiveness repealed

Under the Senate bill, millions of student loan borrowers would see their repayment options change. The legislation proposes eliminating existing income-driven repayment plans and replacing them with two options: the Repayment Assistance Plan and a standard repayment plan.

The Repayment Assistance Plan would allow for loan forgiveness after 360 qualifying payments based on the borrowers' income, while the standard repayment plan would require a fixed monthly payment over a period set by the servicer.

The bill also would repeal former President Joe Biden's SAVE plan, an income-driven repayment plan that promised cheaper monthly payments and a shorter timeline for debt relief. The plan is blocked in court pending a final legal decision.

'Trump accounts'

If the bill passes, parents could get extra money for their kids down the line. The tax bill includes a "Trump account," previously called a "money account for growth and advancement," or MAGA account. The government would put $1,000 into accounts for babies born after December 31, 2024, and before January 1, 2029. The baby would be required to have been born in the US and have a Social Security number to receive the cash. The money would need to be invested in a qualified index fund and can't be touched until the child turns 18. Parents and others could contribute up to $5,000 a year to each account.

The accounts would have tax incentives; earnings would be tax-deferred, meaning taxes on the accounts would not need to be paid right away. Withdrawals from the accounts would also be taxed at the long-term capital-gains rate, which is dependent on income and typically lower than the regular income tax rate.

Work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP

Lower-income Americans could face bigger healthcare costs or lose federal assistance benefits. The tax bill would mean significant changes for the millions who rely on Medicaid and SNAP. The legislation would mandate that states implement an 80-hour-a-month work requirement by the end of 2026 for childless adults on Medicaid without a disability.

The Congressional Budget Office previously estimated that work requirements on Medicaid could strip coverage from over 8 million Americans over the next decade.

Additionally, the bill would extend the age range of adults subject to work requirements to receive SNAP to include adults ages 55 to 64. Currently, adults ages 18 to 54 without children can receive SNAP benefits only if they work at least 20 hours a week.