• A new internal memo from the CFPB told employees to "deprioritize" student loans and medical debt.
• It said that the focus of the CFPB will shift from supervision of companies to giving money back to consumers.
• This memo comes as millions of student-loan borrowers are expected to default this year.

The nation's top consumer watchdog is getting a major reshaping under President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, Mark Paoletta, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's chief legal officer, sent a memo to all employees outlining the agency's new priorities for 2025.

The memo, a copy of which was obtained by Business Insider, stated that the "Bureau will focus on its enforcement and supervision resources on pressing threats to consumers, particularly service members and their families, and veterans."

"To focus on tangible harms to consumers, the Bureau will shift resources from enforcement and supervision that can be done by the States," Paoletta wrote.

Paoletta said that moving forward, the CFPB will "deprioritize" areas including oversight over student loans, medical debt, consumer data, and digital payments.

Under former President Joe Biden, the CPFB returned billions of dollars to student-loan borrowers after the agency found that some student-loan servicers engaged in predatory behavior. For example, the CFPB reached a settlement with lender Navient in September over claims the company mishandled payments, giving back $100 million to affected borrowers.

A CFPB employee told BI that these new priorities come at a financially precarious time for student-loan borrowers, especially with the New York Federal Reserve estimating that millions of borrowers are set to default this year due to some protections expiring.

"In the face of this unprecedented financial catastrophe, CFPB has given the student loan industry advanced notice that it will not be watching out for borrowers and it will not hold companies accountable when they break the law," Mike Pierce, executive director of the advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center, said in a statement.

Paoletta's memo also said that the CFPB will focus on getting money back to consumers rather than "imposing penalties on companies in order to simply fill the Bureau's penalty fund." The CFPB employee said that supervising companies "is literally the reason the agency was created" and is not something states can do themselves.

This is the latest move in the Trump administration's efforts to restructure the government and slash the federal workforce. In February, BI reported that CFPB employees were told to "not perform any work tasks," and the agency has since dropped major lawsuits against companies, including Capital One.

Wednesday's memo confirmed that supervision — a core part of the agency's responsibilities over the past decade — will decrease.

The CFPB did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

Have a tip or story to share? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at asheffey.97. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Markets dropped as Nvidia and the Federal Reserve headlines shook investor confidence.
• Nvidia is anticipating a $5.5 billion hit due to export rules on H20 AI chips to China.
• Tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft saw their stock value decline.

Markets sank sharply on Wednesday after back-to-back tariff-related headlines from Nvidia and the Federal Reserve rattled investor confidence.

The sell-off started after a disclosure on Tuesday evening after markets closed from Nvidia, which warned of a $5.5 billion hit due to export rules on H20 AI chips developed for the Chinese market.

Nvidia appears to be caught in the increasing tension over tariffs between the US and China.

Stock losses deepened after Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell cautioned that renewed tariffs under the Trump administration could create a "challenging scenario" for the economy. He warned that the Fed's dual mandate — low unemployment and price stability— could be tested if tariffs drive up consumer prices while slowing growth.

Here is how much each of the Magnificent 7 lost on Wednesday — and since Trump's inauguration — at market closing at 4 p.m. ET, according to Yahoo Finance.

Alphabet

Loss in stock value since January 21: 20.51%

Loss in stock value on April 16: 2%

Alphabet, Google's parent company, took a comparatively smaller loss on Wednesday but still saw about one-fifth of its stock value wiped out since Trump became president. In February, Nvidia replaced Alphabet as Wall Street's third most valuable company.

Alphabet donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration.

Amazon

Loss in stock value since January 21: 22.16%

Loss in stock value on April 16: 2.93%

Amazon, the global e-commerce giant, has lost about one-fifth of its share value since Trump's inauguration and could be hit further by tariffs, especially the up to 245% in duties imposed on China.

Amazon donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund, and founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos attended.

Small businesses selling on Amazon told Business Insider they are struggling to keep their doors open as their already razor-thin margins shrink further under tariffs.

Apple

Loss in stock value since January 21: 9.21%

Loss in stock value on April 16: 3.89%

Apple shares briefly rallied on Monday on a surprise tariff exemption on key tech products, but the reprieve was short-lived.

The tech giant is also planning to spend and invest more than $500 billion in the US over the next four years.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, personally donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee and attended the ceremony.

Meta

Loss in stock value since January 21: 15.40%

Loss in stock value on April 16: 3.68%

Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is currently facing a blockbuster antitrust trial with the Federal Trade Commission that opened on Monday and is expected to run up to eight weeks.

The tech giant had donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg attended the ceremony.

Microsoft

Loss in stock value since January 21: 9.98%

Loss in stock value on April 16: 3.66%

Microsoft has been rethinking its performance reviews and is mulling another round of job cuts that could come as soon as May, after already having fired "low-performers" in January.

Nvidia

Loss in stock value since January 21: 20.33%

Loss in stock value on April 16: 6.87%

A main character of Wednesday's stock market woes, Nvidia, the chipmaking giant, took a heavy loss in shares and at one point neared a 10% loss before bouncing back toward market close.

The semiconductor maker developed H20 AI chips for China but disclosed Tuesday that new US export restrictions have effectively blocked Nvidia from selling the inventory, which weighed down share values of the broader tech sector.

Tesla

Loss in stock value since January 21: 40.08%

Loss in stock value on April 16: 4.94%

Tesla, the EV giant, had an especially difficult year in terms of sales and share value for reasons that go beyond tariffs or generally low consumer sentiments.

Public backlash over Musk's political involvement and ties to the White House's DOGE office resulted in mass protests and boycotts of Tesla vehicles, and his focus on DOGE made investors question his commitment to the company.

Elon Musk has donated over $260 million to support Trump's return to the White House, along with $12 million toward a failed conservative bid in Wisconsin's Supreme Court race.

• US lawmakers are looking into how DeepSeek may have gotten Nvidia chips despite export controls.
• They also accused DeepSeek of funneling American user data to the Chinese government.
• The lawmakers urged stricter export controls to limit China's AI advancements and data access.

US lawmakers are looking into how advanced Nvidia chips may have gotten into the hands of the Chinese AI company DeepSeek, which they also accused of spying on Americans on behalf of China.

House Representatives released a report on Wednesday that they said "reveals that DeepSeek covertly funnels American user data to the Chinese Communist Party, manipulates information to align with CCP propaganda, and was trained using material unlawfully obtained from US AI models."

The lawmakers — Reps. John Moolenaar, a Republican from Michigan, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois — said it appeared DeepSeek, which released a powerful AI model that made headlines in January, had used 60,000 chips from Nvidia despite US sanctions limiting the ability of the company to sell some of its hardware to China.

Nvidia is already having a tough week. Its stock fell nearly 7% on Wednesday after the company announced that it had been informed that the Trump administration would require a new license for all accelerated chips shipping to China. The company said it expected a $5.5 billion decrease in earnings due to the Trump administration's tariffs.

DeepSeek and a representative for Moolenaar did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider about the report.

"DeepSeek isn't just another AI app — it's a weapon in the Chinese Communist Party's arsenal, designed to spy on Americans, steal our technology, and subvert US law," Moolenaar said in a statement, which called DeepSeek a "serious national security threat" to the US.

The lawmakers said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang directed the design of chips to get around US export controls.

They also sent a letter to Huang requesting lists of customers located in China and Southeast Asia and any communications between Nvidia and DeepSeek.

Nvidia said in a statement to Business Insider that "the US government instructs American business on what they can sell and where — we follow the government's directions to the letter."

The company also said it sells its products to companies worldwide, adding that its reported Singapore revenue indicates the billing addresses of its clients, many of which the company said are subsidiaries of US companies.

"The associated products are shipped to other locations, including the United States and Taiwan, not to China," the statement said.

The lawmakers' report also found it was likely DeepSeek had deployed methods to copy leading AI models from US companies, violating those companies' terms of service.

OpenAI told lawmakers "DeepSeek employees circumvented guardrails in OpenAI's models" to accelerate the development of its own models at a lower cost, according to the report.

OpenAI said in January it was investigating if DeepSeek used the outputs of its AI models to "inappropriately" train its own models.

The report also found that 85% of responses from DeepSeek models purposefully suppress content related to democracy, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and human rights, the statement said.

The recommendations in the report include increasing the effectiveness of US export control policy and further restricting China's ability to develop and deploy advanced AI models by expanding export controls on chips.

They also encourage Congress to consider requiring that chips companies track the eventual user of their products, not just the purchaser.

• My wife and I have both struggled with weight loss over the years.
• We decided to put $5,000 on the line. The money going to the person who lost the most in 3 months.
• One of us dropped 21 pounds and was able to buy the car they always wanted.

Weight loss is one of those things that has put me on a constant rollercoaster throughout my life. I've gained weight, lost it, and regained it again. Keeping the weight off completely has been daunting.

I've listened to experts saying a high-protein breakfast is the most important meal of the day, others who advocate for intermittent fasting or calorie counting, and even purchased healthy curated ready-to-eat meals. Like anyone else, I've struggled to find what works for me and what doesn't. But no matter what I've done through the years, I've never been able to maintain a healthy weight.

A friendly bet with my wife changed everything though, and now I'm down 21 pounds.

A partner with the same struggles

When my wife and I met eight years ago, we were going through similar weight struggles. She spent a lot of time at the gym and complained that she saw little to no results. With her, I felt like I could always be myself, even show my body insecurities without fear of judgment. She understood my constant weight struggles, as I did hers.

Together, we followed the Keto diet to try to eat more healthfully. For the 6 months we committed to it, we didn't enjoy the food combinations that the diet offered and we ended up giving up.

Between trying to maintain a work-life balance and caring for our three kids, it felt like we had minimal time left for self-development. It got to a point where life was so busy that getting even an hour or two to spend at the gym felt luxurious. We knew the only way weight loss would work is if we incorporated it into our 9 to 5 routines.

A $5,000 bet changed everything

I noticed my wife frequently watching what has become known as "SkinnyTok" videos on TikTok. According to her, this content is how some creators give tips on losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. They also share recipes that are allegedly "nutritious yet delicious." Another creator particularly emphasized the power of walking 10,000 steps a day. I was curious.

My wife, being the most competitive person I know, suggested that we take three months, cook some of the recipes she had been saving, walk 10,000 steps every day, and add in some cardio workouts. As an extra incentive, the person who lost the most weight would receive $5,000 from our joint account to use it however they pleased. I was in!

The shared challenge was fun

Going into this, I knew two things: my wife would do everything she could to beat me and I would enjoy kicking her booty every step of the way. The significant amount of money on the line provided a lot of incentive, and thoughts of how my body would change for the better was what I needed for any extra push.

To prep, we wrote down ten healthy recipes we wanted to try and synced our devices to track each other's health activities. We started the challenge at the beginning of November and set an end date for February 1. Then it was time to let the best man, or woman, win.

Meeting my daily step count meant that I spent most of my time walking to work and running errands, rather than driving. I kept my energy up by drinking a lot of electrolyte-infused water, eating high-protein food that made me full throughout the day, and doubled down on my walking. I set aside an hour in the evenings for workouts I found on YouTube and stayed focused. Before I knew it, I was ahead of the game. I lost 6 pounds the first month

As I expected, my wife was a bit of a sore loser throughout the process. While she mostly stayed on track, she didn't reach her step counts on some days, or had "cheat days" with her meals. She kept me on my toes but I managed to beat her in the challenge and win the cash, $2,500 of which I used to purchase a car I always wanted, the 1994 Ford Taurus SHO, while the rest of the amount remains in a fixed savings account.

Finding accountability

Money provided an added incentive for my wife and I, but I know there's no price tag on how alive you feel when getting your body in shape. A weight loss journey with my partner meant more accountability on both our parts, increased motivation, and better communication.

Although I won the challenge, my wife is equally enjoying numerous health benefits as she continues to track her steps and maintain a cleaner diet while shedding pounds. I've also noticed that she seems more confident in her body. Some days are harder than others but we continue holding each other accountable by setting small, attainable goals.

• UPPAbaby brand strollers and car seats are going to cost parents more because of tariffs, one store owner tells me.
• Elizabeth Mahon, the owner of a baby goods store in Washington, DC, is raising prices on one stroller by $300.
• UPPAbaby says it's trying to absorb increased costs of production, but calls price hikes "unavoidable."

Parents, get ready: It looks like it's going to get a lot more expensive to raise a family — and some places are already raising prices, like one baby and toy store in Washington, DC.

I talked to Elizabeth Mahon, the owner of Three Littles, which she's run since 2019. She told me price hikes are on the way, and she said they're because of Donald Trump's tariffs.

She said she'd have to raise prices on items that are manufactured mostly in China, like the popular UPPAbaby Vista stroller, which will now cost $1,199 — up from $899.

Massachusetts-based UPPAbaby has said it's passing the increased costs of production onto customers. "Please know that we've made every effort behind the scenes to absorb as much of the cost as possible," the company said in a statement on its Instagram, "but some price increases are unfortunately unavoidable."

Mahon told me how tariffs are already affecting her store and her customers. And about her biggest worry: that some families won't be able to afford necessities like car seats at all.

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity).

Business Insider: So what's going on with the price hikes with strollers and car seats?

Elizabeth Mahon: Nuna and UPPAbaby both reached out about a week ago and said, "Hey, this is going to be a new price list moving forward."

Then, on Monday, we got another email from UPPAbaby with an amended price list. When they first emailed, it was when tariffs were at 54% and now tariffs are 145% — they had to fix the prices to better reflect the current tariffs.

Is this across the whole range of things? Strollers, car seats, accessories?

Yes, pretty much everything is going up in price. Initially, a lot fewer items were included in these price increases. There were still price increases, but they weren't as drastic or far-reaching. And now, the prices of just about everything that they manufacture have to go up.

So the UPPABaby Vista stroller, which is about $900 for the base model — that's going up about $300. It's basically like a 33% increase. Is that about what you're seeing across the board? 33%?

It depends. Some things are going up 20%, some things are going up 40%. It just depends. But 30% is, I would say, the average.

Have you heard from other manufacturers about tariff increases in other categories? Clothing, toys, books?

A ton. I've been getting a phone call or an email a day from our vendors letting us know that the prices are increasing. We've received a couple of emails from vendors telling us that they will no longer even be able to entertain a wholesale program.

I do know that some other stroller and car seat brands are chatting about what it would look like to sell exclusively online. This would be a huge detriment to families because they won't be able to test them out in person.

What are you hearing from your customers?

I think there's a lot of panic buying. People are hurrying up to buy car seats that maybe they don't need yet because they are worried about these price increases. We've been talking to a lot of customers who are considering buying for children they don't even have yet so that they can get these prices.

I would be remiss not to acknowledge that we have a shop in a community where there's a lot of privilege.

I've heard a lot on social media that these price hikes aren't going to deter people who are shopping for these more expensive brands. But I absolutely disagree. I've heard daily from people who have said, "This stroller at $899 was already a huge splurge for me, and $1,200 is just too far out of my price range."

Beyond that, the bigger conversation I think is that there are going to be many families who just cannot afford a stroller for their kids or a car seat for their child, period. Even the lower-end products — there is no option to just buy exclusively American.

There is no option to just not use a car seat. You have to have it, but we're going to see price increases across every brand no matter what if they're manufactured in China.

With car seats, that's the kind of item that — unlike strollers — it's really recommended you don't get one used, right?

Absolutely. I am a child passenger safety technician, and we just would never recommend getting a secondhand car seat because there is no way to prove that that car seat has not been in a crash, which makes it no longer safe to use.

As a small-business owner, how will these price increases affect your bottom line?

I've just had to make some really big decisions already and spend money that we didn't really have to spend on extra inventory because these tariff hikes and the hysteria surrounding these new inflated prices are causing a lot of people to buy.

There are going to be a lot of gaps where people aren't going to be able to buy things when they need them. That's because people are buying convertible car seats today for kids who won't fit in it for a year. The people who need that car seat now might not be able to get it because it's sold out. The manufacturing facilities can't produce at a faster rate than they had already planned on, or they don't have the materials, or they don't have the money, or they're trying to navigate the tariffs.

Are you worried about what will happen having to pass on the prices to customers if that will turn customers away from your store?

Absolutely. We already have customers who will come into the shop and demo the products we have and then come back in and tell us they bought them secondhand. And that's everyone's prerogative. I totally understand why people do that. The baby industry is expensive and the products we sell are on the higher-end. But I think that we'll be starting to see a lot more of that.

I do think we'll see the resale market inching up higher, which will make some of these products that people used to be able to buy secondhand unaffordable, too.

Even more than business, I'm worried that there are going to be families that aren't able to get seats for their children at all because they can't afford them.

• Increases in homeowner's insurance are a national trend, not just isolated to a few states.
• Natural disasters like hail in the Midwest and tornadoes in the South are putting a strain on insurers.
• Louisiana and California are expected to see average increases of over 20%.

Home insurance rates are expected to rise across the country by the end of the year, according to a new study released by the digital insurance platform Insurify.

The annual cost of homeowner's insurance is projected to increase 8%, to a national average of $3,520.

However, some states like Louisiana, Iowa, and Hawaii are expected to see increases greater than 17%.

"This is a group of states that insurers are catching up to the perceived risk that has accumulated," Insurify data expert Matt Brannon told Business Insider.

Insurance companies have incurred massive losses in recent years, as natural disasters have increased in frequency and severity, Brannon explained.

In 2024, there were 27 billion-dollar disasters in the US, which is topped only by a record-breaking 28 disasters in 2023.

Hurricanes, wildfires, and tornadoes are common culprits but there are other growing threats, like hail.

"Insurance commissioners in multiple states in the Midwest are saying that hail is becoming an increasing problem for home insurers," Brannon said. "Hail can inflict a lot of damage on roofs, and we know that roofs are very expensive to get replaced."

Below are the nine states where homeowner's insurance rates are expected to rise the most by the end of the year.

9. Colorado

Hail is an increasing concern in Colorado and is a primary reason for recent premium hikes in the state.

Denver roofer Said Ahmad told BI this year that the storms—and the damage they cause—have gotten significantly worse over his 18-year career.

"When I first got into the business, if you had a $10,000 claim, that was considered big. Now, all of them are almost at least that," Ahmad said.

Projected increase in 2025: 11%

Average annual premium in 2024: $6,630

Projected annual premium for 2025: $5,984

8. Oregon

Though California, its neighbor to the south, may be better known for its wildfire risk, significant disasters have also struck Oregon. Last year, a record-breaking 1.9 million acres burned in the state, destroying 40 homes and 132 other structures, state officials said.

Projected increase in 2025: 12%

Average annual premium in 2024: $1,617

Projected annual premium for 2025: $1,807

7. South Dakota

Like other Midwestern states, hail is a significant risk for South Dakota homes. The world-record for the largest hailstone was in Vivian, South Dakota, a small town, where an 8-inch diameter hailstone was recorded in 2010.

Projected increase in 2025: 13%

Average annual premium in 2024: $3,596

Projected annual premium for 2025: $4,061

6. Arkansas

Some research shows that the traditional Tornado Alley, including parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, is shifting eastward into states like Arkansas. In May 2024, Arkansas experienced a state record of 17 tornadoes in one day, according to the National Weather Service.

The state is also considered at high risk for ice storms, the Insurify report noted.

Projected increase in 2025: 13%

Average annual premium in 2024: $4,490

Projected annual premium for 2025: $5,077

5. Minnesota

Worsening hail storms in Minnesota are directly tied to increasing insurance rates.

"We're having bigger storms. We're having these hailstorms that just cause a lot of claims damage," Minnesota insurance official Grace Arnold told local news outlet NBC 11.

In August 2024, a 6-inch diameter hailstone found in Chokio, Minnesota tied the state record.

Projected increase in 2025: 15%

Average annual premium in 2024: $3,524

Projected annual premium for 2025: $4,058

4. Hawaii

"Hawaii's increase is mainly driven by the 2023 Maui fires," Brannon said. The deadly fires claimed over 111 lives and were partially driven by a sudden, intense drought on the island.

The estimated cost of recovery is expected to exceed $12 billion, the local newspaper, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, reported.

Projected increase in 2025: 17%

Average annual premium in 2024: $1,548

Projected annual premium for 2025: $1,808

3. Iowa

Iowa has seen an 80% increase in major hail events between 2022 and 2024, according to Insurify.

In 2021, a hail storm in Larchwood, Iowa, located about 4 hours north of Des Moines, caused damages around $20,000 in claims for many homes, according to local newspaper The Des Moines Register.

Projected increase in 2025: 19%

Average annual premium in 2024: $3,201

Projected annual premium for 2025: $3,825

2. California

The impacts of the Los Angeles fires this past January, estimated to cost at least $250 billion in damages, are already being felt. Insurance company State Farm has asked California officials for emergency permission to raise rates by an average of 22%.

"Insurance will cost more for customers in California going forward because the risk is greater in California," State Farm said in a letter.

Projected increase in 2025: 21%

Average annual premium in 2024: $2,424

Projected annual premium for 2025: $2,930

1. Louisiana

Hurricanes are the major risk factor for Louisiana and four cities in the state rank in the top 10 most expensive cities for homeowner's insurance, according to Insurify.

Marrero, Thibodaux, New Orleans, and Kenner are all expected to see average premiums totaling more than $17,000 by the end of the year.

Projected increase in 2025: 27%

Average annual premium in 2024: $10,964

Projected annual premium for 2025: $13,937

TikTok has been close to getting banned in the US for months because of a law that requires it to find a new owner outside of China. But employees say Chinese leadership is actually taking over more control of the US business — not less.

• Netflix will stop sharing quarterly subscription figures, starting with its first-quarter report Thursday.
• So, what will Wall Street be looking for?
• Analysts are interested in Netflix's ad progress, as well as its creator and sports strategies.

Netflix is set to report its first-quarter earnings on Thursday, but there's a big twist. It will no longer break out subscription figures, which had been a central barometer that many on Wall Street used to gauge the health of its business.

Why the change? Netflix has said it wants to shift the conversation to other metrics like user engagement and revenue, which it contends are more indicative of its success as it matures.

After a blockbuster fourth quarter — when it had its biggest-ever haul of new subscribers, helped by live sports events — several analysts expect Netflix to have a more modest first quarter based on a softer content lineup.

So, in the absence of subscriber numbers, what will Wall Street be looking at?

"Frankly, I think all of us are going into this with a blindfold, not knowing what they'll disclose," Bernstein analyst Laurent Yoon told Business Insider. "But at the end of the day, it's about the health of their financials and the margin expansion trajectory versus the last several quarters."

Here are some other topics Wall Street will be focused on.

Its ads rollout: Analysts will be listening for any details on Netflix's ad rollout, which it's relying on to show substantial growth in the years to come. Netflix has said it expected to double its ad revenue haul this year after it increased its ad commitments by 150% during last year's TV upfronts season, and analysts are holding them to it.

"The most important thing is to see if they are growing revenue because of advertising," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said. "I know they are, but would like some color on that. They should get lots of operating leverage from holding costs in check, so I expect big profits."

Yoon also said he'll be listening closely for intel on the health of the ad market.

Economic uncertainty: The big question hanging over Wall Street's otherwise bullish stance on Netflix is how the on-and-off tariffs could impact its burgeoning ad business.

Netflix significantly dropped its ad rates after Amazon flooded the market by introducing ads to Prime Video last year. The company could face pressure to lower prices even more to keep advertisers spending amid a trade war. Morgan Stanley trimmed its advertising forecast slightly for Netflix in an April 8 note, while remaining bullish on the company.

Analysts will also be looking for co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters to discuss how economic jitters might dampen new user interest.

Netflix has been able to raise prices in line with the popularity of its entertainment, but analysts wonder if the macroeconomic environment could hurt its ability to keep raising prices around the world.

Ad tech: Netflix has built its own in-house tech to facilitate ad buying and rolled out new sports programming that's popular with advertisers. Bringing adtech in-house can be complicated, though, and analysts will be looking for detail on Netflix's progress as it's weaned itself off Microsoft's Xandr to sell ads using partners such as The Trade Desk and Google's DV360. One question is whether Netflix has attracted any new advertisers this way, Raymond James analysts wrote in a recent note.

A related question is how much room is left to grow in the ad tier. Since launching in 2022, it has ramped up quickly by offering people a lower-priced option as it raised the price on ad-free versions and cracked down on password sharing. By November, the company said, it had reached 70 million global users. In January, it said that the ad plan made up over 55% of new sign-ups in countries where it's available.

Creator content and sports: Analysts want to hear more about Netflix's plans for sports programming, with its associated ad appeal. They're also interested in what execs have to say about plans to build out a creator-driven content strategy, as YouTube increasingly dominates TV viewership.

"This increases the opportunity and necessity around advertising monetization success at Netflix, as YouTube has already built a big subscription revenue business," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote. "It also increases our interest in Netflix pushing into creator-led content over time while also leveraging AI tools to drive monetization, personalization, and production efficiencies."

Password sharing: Inquiring minds want to know: When will Netflix's password sharing crackdown stop bearing fruit? "While the paid sharing benefit should slow in 2025, the company is still seeing incrementality from ad-supported users joining the service, and we see the potential for improving ad CPMs as the supply increase starts to slow," Raymond James analysts wrote.

North Korea is building what appears to be its biggest warship ever. New satellite images of the Nampo Shipyard show what analysts say is a guided-missile frigate.

• Subaru's new 2026 Outback will be a midsize SUV instead of a station wagon.
• The Outback was the best-selling wagon in the US last year.
• The Legacy sedan, on which the Outback was based, will be discontinued at the end of the year.

Subaru's much-beloved Outback wagon is no more.

Its famous name will live on as a midsize SUV, but the do-it-all off-road wagon that was synonymous with the Subaru brand in the US will cease to exist at the end of the year, the company said Wednesday.

The new seventh-generation Outback will compete directly against a host of recently refreshed midsize SUVs, including the Hyundai Santa Fe, Honda Passport, and Nissan Murano.

The Outback wagon was a brilliant Hail Mary for Subaru

Subaru introduced the Outback wagon in 1995 as an off-road-focused variant of its Legacy family sedan. There was also an Outback sedan until 2008.

Named for the unforgiving wilderness of Australia's interior, the Outback featured bulky body cladding, a more aggressive front bumper with rally-inspired driving lamps, and extra ground clearance. The automaker even brought in Aussie actor Paul Hogan to resurrect his lovable Crocodile Dundee persona for its ads to really go all in on the naming scheme.

It was a gamble to help the struggling Japanese brand, which suffered from half a decade of declining sales, remain relevant in the face of growing demand for SUVs without actually offering one.

The Outback was a modern embodiment of the classic family station wagon. It served as a bridge between the ubiquitous family sedan and the truck-based SUVs of its time.

It worked. Subaru reported that its US sales increased by 31% in two years following the introduction of the Outback and went on to sell more than 3 million over the past three decades. It faced some competition from Volvo and others, but they never quite hit the mainstream.

Despite all of its successes, the Outback could not escape the struggles faced by the Legacy sedan in the marketplace. Sales dwindled to just 19,600 units last year.

Subaru announced a few months ago that production of the Legacy will cease at the end of 2025, leaving the automaker without a sedan to serve as the foundation for the Outback.

There's actually a lot to like about the new Outback

The new Outback might look drastically different from its predecessor, but many core elements remain.

The Outback's engine options remain the 2.5-liter naturally aspirated and optional 2.4-liter turbocharged boxer four-cylinder motors. The revised 2.5-liter produces 180 horsepower and 178 lb-ft of torque, losing two ponies but gaining two lb-ft of torque compared to the outgoing model. The optional 260-horsepower turbo motor shared with the three-row Ascent SUV carries over unchanged.

Both motors will continue to be paired with the brand's Lineartronic continuously variable transmission.

There are also significant improvements.

The new Outback will still come standard with Subaru's outstanding Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive, which now locks its center differential quicker to reduce wheel spin, and an updated version of its EyeSight driver assistance tech, which includes a third front-facing camera and newly added radar sensors.

The Outback will benefit from extra passenger and cargo space thanks to its taller SUV body.

Inside, Subaru says the cabin will see a 10% reduction in wind noise due to improved aerodynamics. There will also be an all-new standard 12.3-inch digital instrument display in front of the driver and a new 12.1-inch infotainment touchscreen with a more powerful processor for greater responsiveness and customizability.

The new Outback is expected to hit dealerships later this year, while the Wildnerness edition will arrive in early 2026.

Subaru has not announced pricing for the new Outback, which will continue to be built in Indiana, but the current 2025 Outback starts at just under $29,000.

• Trump has said the US is collecting $2 billion in daily tariff revenue, but the data shows otherwise.
• US Customs and Border Protection says its collected $500 million in reciprocal tariffs since April 5.
• The Treasury Department has also reported numbers significantly lower than Trump's claims.

President Donald Trump has said repeatedly that the US is collecting massive amounts of money in tariffs, but the numbers aren't adding up.

"We're making a fortune with tariffs. $2 billion a day. Do you believe it? I was told $2 billion a day. This isn't $35 million. That's peanuts," Trump said in a speech to the National Republican Congressional Committee on April 8. He again cited the $2 billion per day number at an executive order signing the same day.

But data from US Customs and Border Protections shows that the actual tariff revenue is just a small fraction of what Trump said it is.

A spokesperson for CBP told Business Insider that the agency has so far collected $500 million from Trump's broad round of tariffs that went into place on April 5.

And in total, the agency said it has brought in $21 billion in tariff-related revenue through its enforcement of 15 presidential actions since Trump took office nearly three months ago. That works out to a little under $250 million a day over the 86 days since January 20.

It's not just the CBP's data that doesn't match up with Trump's numbers.

The Treasury Department's daily deposit totals for "Customs and Certain Excise Taxes" reported over the seven weekdays since April 5 averages out to $227 million per day. The department's month-to-date total as of Tuesday is around $2.3 billion and its year-to-date total for the fiscal year that started in October is about $55.5 billion.

Trump announced on April 2 the details of his long-promised tariffs policy, which included a baseline 10% tariff on nearly all countries and significantly higher tariffs on countries he deemed "the worst offenders" of trade deficits.

After a market meltdown and repeated calls for him to find an off-ramp to his sweeping policy, Trump announced last week that he would be pausing most tariffs, with the exception of China, for 90 days while his administration works out trade deals with dozens of countries.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Nvidia faces new export license rules for selling chips to China and other countries.
• The Trump administration's decision could impact Nvidia's revenue. Its stock sank Wednesday.
• Analysts predict this move by the Trump administration could bring better news in the near future.

Wall Street analysts had some choice words for the latest shake-up to Nvidia's regulatory landscape — "disruptive," "surprise," and "abrupt," just to name a few. Bernstein analysts went so far as to say "The Trump rug remains in full effect."

New rules regarding Nvidia's Chinese business surprised many company stakeholders this week. On Tuesday, after market close, the company announced that it had been informed that the Trump administration would require a new license for all accelerated chips shipping to China and a small group of other countries including Russia.

Nvidia said it would take a charge of up to $5.5 billion in inventory, purchase commitments, and reserves in the first quarter, which ends on April 27.

"Based on our discussions, this is effectively a ban," wrote UBS analysts in a note to investors Tuesday.

Even those analysts unwilling to read the disclosure as a full-on ban said any licensing process is likely to be lengthy, so revenue from Nvidia's H20 chip, the one the company designed specifically to meet Biden-era export restrictions, is expected to be minimal for the foreseeable future.

"This is not a ban; it's a licensing requirement, but again, the inventory write-down suggests that the company is not optimistic about being granted licenses," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote.

At the time of writing, the regulation has not appeared in the Federal Register or the Department of Commerce website, so all analyst reactions are related to Nvidia's disclosure. The company's stock was down more than 7% from Tuesday to Wednesday market close.

A spokesperson from Nvidia declined to comment.

China chips are big money for Nvidia

Nvidia priced the charges it will likely incur in the first quarter (ending April 27) at $5.5 billion. However, there was no warning about the company's first-quarter results, which will be announced on May 28. Though China sales will almost certainly be lower than expected, several analysts expect the company may still be able to meet revenue targets for the first quarter.

"Given the strong demand for H200 chips since DeepSeek's launch, we think NVDA could offset somewhat lost China H20 revenues," BNP Paribas analysts wrote. The same analysts estimated Nvidia's China data center business constitutes 10% to 12% of Nvidia's total revenue.

UBS suggested earnings per share would fall by 20 cents, and Morgan Stanley analysts expect 8% to 9% of data center revenues to disappear in the near term.

A decrease in ongoing sales to China was already expected.

Restrictions on what the company is allowed to sell to China are not new. Hence the company has attempted to reduce its reliance on that market over the last two years. Since the H20 is only relevant to the Chinese market, oversupply won't affect Nvidia's sales of any other chips, Morgan Stanley wrote.

Bigger decisions down the road

Since Nvidia's chips are the most expensive in existence, and buyers still keep lining up, tariffs are less of a concern than export restrictions, Morgan Stanley analysts said. Beyond the Chinese market, there are bigger potential impacts looming.

The Biden administration's AI diffusion rules are set to go into effect next month — and could have an even more material impact on Nvidia if enacted as is, since they restrict exports to many more countries such as Singapore, Mexico, Malaysia, UAE, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and India.

Since the White House and Nvidia have demonstrated some cooperation this week, with the Trump administration celebrating the company's announcements around expanded US manufacturing, analysts have converged around a theory about what comes next.

"We are optimistic that the company's demonstrably good relationship with the government, as Trump tweeted yesterday, will mitigate these concerns," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote.

• I've been a dietitian for over 20 years and follow the Mediterranean diet, but I don't love cooking.
• Precooked hard-boiled eggs, vegan pesto, and frozen pizza from Trader Joe's make my life easier.
• I also pick up Envy apples, salmon, and vegan creamy dill dressing to use in a number of meals.

When I tell people I've been a registered dietitian for more than 20 years, the assumption is that I love to eat nutritious foods and cook them myself.

I try to mostly eat balanced and nutrient-dense meals that follow the Mediterranean diet, but I don't enjoy spending time planning, cooking, and cleaning.

Thankfully, Trader Joe's has some gems that help me feed my entire family (including a picky child).

Here are 15 of my must-buys to help create healthy and easy meals without spending too much time in the kitchen.

Editor's Note: Product price and availability may vary.

Envy apples seem to stay fresh longer.

Envy apples can be added to salads, "girl dinners," or lunchboxes for an extra crunch, a boost of fiber, and balanced sweetness.

They're appealing because their insides tend to stay whiter longer, allowing for slicing or chopping without worrying too much about being stuck with discolored fruit.

I buy Norwegian farm-raised salmon for a kick of healthy fats and protein.

Salmon from Norway is known for its pure taste, beautiful color, and firm flesh. Much of that is due to its balanced fat content and firm texture.

It's also nutrient-dense, providing essentials such as omega 3; vitamins D, B12, and A; and selenium. Plus, it's incredibly easy to cook, especially if I remember to marinate it the night before.

Clif Bars are my go-to for a boost of energy.

Not loving to cook also means not loving to prep snacks. But because I live an active lifestyle, I know I need to fuel myself with nutrients such as sustainable carbs before I start a workout.

Clif Bars are crafted with a blend of plant-based protein, fat, and carbohydrates. They're my go-to pre-workout snack that requires zero effort in the kitchen.

The vegan kale, cashew, and basil pesto tastes good on almost everything.

I don't follow a vegan diet, but that doesn't stop me from purchasing Trader Joe's pesto to use on pasta dishes, sandwiches, or as a dip.

This pesto is also my secret ingredient in grilled-cheese sandwiches.

Trader Joe's fruits-and-greens smoothie blend makes morning smoothies a breeze.

The blend of frozen produce makes my smoothie-making so easy.

There's no chopping or prepping required when I'm in the mood for a breakfast smoothie — I simply toss some into a blender, add milk, and turn it on. 

Vegan creamy dill dressing elevates a slew of dishes.

If it were socially acceptable to drink Trader Joe's vegan creamy dill dressing with a straw, I'd do it. I love that it's free from fillers or emulsifiers, and the flavor is incredibly satisfying. 

The obvious way to enjoy this dressing is on top of salad. However, I also use it as a saucy addition to chicken or fish meals, an ingredient in grain-based dishes, and a condiment on sandwiches.

The organic Mediterranean-style salad kit helps us eat more veggies.

Making a salad isn't extremely labor-intensive.

However, opening a salad kit and dumping all of the contents into a bowl is so much easier than procuring and chopping ingredients and coming up with the perfect flavor combo. 

Trader Joe's Mediterranean salad kit is packed with veggies and a corresponding dressing packet. I love pairing it with protein and starch for a balanced and healthy meal.

Trader Joe's prepackaged veggie mixes come in handy.

Veggies are a must at dinnertime in my house. Having prewashed and cut veggie and produce kits, such as the Trader Joe's asparagus sauté, makes cooking dinner a breeze.

Simply open the package and sauté everything in some extra-virgin olive oil. 

The bulgur pilaf with butternut squash and feta cheese is an easy side dish.

Whole grains can be both nutritious and filling. For those who don't like spending too much time in the kitchen, cooking them can be a tedious task.

Precooked frozen grains, such as Trader Joe's bulgur pilaf, help save a ton of time because they just need to be heated through.

Plus, this one is made with butternut squash, and I like the boost of veggies in every bite.

Riced cauliflower stir-fry is a great base for a low-carb meal.

Trader Joe's precooked cauliflower rice is a perfect base for a low-carb meal. I just add a protein for a complete dish. 

For people who don't love cauliflower rice — but tolerate it because they want to include more veggies in their diet (such as my husband) — mixing this dish with some regular rice can offer the best of both worlds.

Hard-boiled eggs are a secret shortcut in my kitchen.

Precooked and shelled hard-boiled eggs make for an easy breakfast protein, salad topping, or sandwich addition.

Trader Joe's Tarte au Brie et aux Tomates is my solution for pizza night.

Yes, even dietitians want to have pizza night once in a while.

Trader Joe's frozen Tarte au Brie et aux Tomates satisfies the fiercest pizza craving. Plus, heating it up takes less time than we'd spend waiting for a pie to be delivered from the local pizzeria.

I enjoy one serving along with a side salad for a full meal. 

Click to keep reading Trader Joe's diaries like this one.

This story was originally published on September 25, 2023, and most recently updated on April 16, 2025.

• Three teens built a salt-powered fridge to help bring vaccines and medical supplies to rural areas.
• The invention uses salts that pull heat from their environments when they dissolve in water.
• They won the 2025 Earth Prize of $12,500 and plan to test 200 units in 120 hospitals.

Three teenagers designed a mini refrigerator that cools itself with salt and doesn't require an outlet. They're bringing it to hospitals to help transport medical supplies to rural areas without electricity.

Dhruv Chaudhary, Mithran Ladhania, and Mridul Jain live in Indore, India and all have parents working in medical fields. The boys decided to find a salty refrigeration technique after hearing how challenging it was to bring COVID-19 vaccines to rural areas without electricity.

Their invention, which they call Thermavault, won them the 2025 Earth Prize on Saturday. The award comes with $12,500, which they plan to use to build 200 of their refrigerators and send them to 120 hospitals for testing.

They hope their refrigerator can help transport vaccines, other medicines and supplies, and even transplant organs.

"We have been able to keep the vaccines inside the Thermavault for almost 10 to 12 hours," Dr. Pritesh Vyas, an orthopedic surgeon who tested the device at V One hospital in Indore, says in a video on the Thermavault website.

With some improvements like a built-in temperature monitor, he added, "it will be definitely helpful, definitely useful in the remote places, the villages."

Finding the right cooling salt

Some salts can have a cooling effect when they're dissolved in water.

That's because when those salts dissolve, the charged atoms, or ions, that make them up break apart. That separation requires energy, which the ions pull from the environment, thus cooling the water around them.

Chaudhary, Ladhania, and Jain searched the internet, first compiling a list of about 150 salts that might work, then narrowing it down to about 20 that seemed most efficient.

They then borrowed a lab at the Indian Institutes of Technology to test those 20, or so. To their disappointment, none of the salts cooled the water enough.

They were back to square one. Turns out, they didn't need the internet after all — their school teacher recommended trying two different salts: barium hydroxide octahydrate and ammonium chloride.

"While we did scour through the entire internet to find the best salt possible, we kind of just ended up back to our ninth-grade science textbook," Chaudhary said.

The trio says they found that ammonium chloride maintained temperatures of around 2 to 6 degrees Celsius (about 35 to 43 degrees Fahrenheit), which is ideal for many vaccines. Adding barium hydroxide octahydrate to the mix produced sub-zero Celsius temperatures, which is ideal for some other vaccines and sometimes for transplant organs.

Now they had two different refrigeration options.

About three months later, they'd built a prototype and were testing it in local hospitals.

Meet the Thermavault salt refrigerator

The fridge itself is an insulated plastic container with a copper wall lining the inside, where the vaccines or organs would sit. The cooling solution, made by dissolving the salts in water, is poured into a space between the plastic outer wall and the copper inner wall.

Cold boxes and coolant packs are already in widespread use for bringing vaccines to rural areas without electricity. Those carriers typically rely on simple ice packs.

One advantage of the ammonium chloride solution, the trio of teens says, is it's reusable in the field without electricity. You don't need a freezer to pull ice from. Rather, you can remove the salt water from the box, boil away the water, and collect the salt in its solid form, ready to dissolve in new water and produce its cooling effect all over again.

Jain said they're planning to use the prize money to pursue a Performance, Quality and Safety (PQS) certification through the World Health Organization so they can pitch it to Gavi — an international alliance that distributes vaccines.

The Earth Prize program also has a volunteer who can help them pursue a patent, according to a spokesperson.

The Earth Prize casts across the planet for teens who are working on environmental projects and awards one winner from each world region. Chaudhary, Ladhania, and Jain won the prize for Asia. A global winner will be chosen by public vote, which closes on April 22.

• OpenAI now requires a government ID for developer access to advanced AI models.
• Copyleaks research shows DeepSeek-R1 mimics OpenAI outputs, raising imitation concerns.
• AI model fingerprinting could enforce licensing and protect intellectual property rights.

In a bid to protect its crown jewels, OpenAI is now requiring government ID verification for developers who want access to its most advanced AI models.

While the move is officially about curbing misuse, a deeper concern is emerging: that OpenAI's own outputs are being harvested to train competing AI systems.

A new research paper from Copyleaks, a company that specializes in AI content detection, offers evidence of why OpenAI may be acting now. Using a system that identifies the stylistic "fingerprints" of major AI models, Copyleaks estimated that 74% of the outputs from rival Chinese model, DeepSeek-R1, were classified as OpenAI-written.

This doesn't just suggest overlap — it implies imitation.

Copyleaks's classifier was also tested on other models including Microsoft's phi-4 and Elon Musk's Grok-1. These models scored almost zero similarity to OpenAI — 99.3% and 100% "no-agreement" respectively — indicating independent training. Mistral's Mixtral model has some similarities, but DeepSeek's numbers stood out starkly.

The research underscores how even when models are prompted to write in different tones or formats, they still leave behind detectable stylistic signatures — like linguistic fingerprints. These fingerprints persist across tasks, topics, and prompts, and can now be traced back to their source with some accuracy. That has enormous implications for detecting unauthorized model use, enforcing licensing agreements, and protecting intellectual property.

OpenAI didn't respond to requests for comment. But the company discussed some reasons why it introduced the new verification process. "Unfortunately, a small minority of developers intentionally use the OpenAI APIs in violation of our usage policies," it wrote when announcing the change recently.

OpenAI says DeepSeek might have 'inappropriately distilled' its models

Earlier this year, just after DeepSeek wowed the AI community with reasoning models that were similar in performance to OpenAI's offerings, the US startup was even clearer: "We are aware of and reviewing indications that DeepSeek may have inappropriately distilled our models."

Distillation is a process where developers train new models using the outputs of other existing models. While such a technique is common in AI research, doing so without permission could violate OpenAI's terms of service.

DeepSeek's research paper about its new R1 model describes using distillation with open-source models, but it doesn't mention OpenAI. I asked DeepSeek about these allegations of mimicry earlier this year and didn't get a response.

Critics point out that OpenAI itself built its early models by scraping the web, including content from news publishers, authors, and creators — often without consent. So is it hypocritical for OpenAI to complain when others use its outputs in a similar way?

"It really comes down to consent and transparency," said Alon Yamin, CEO of Copyleaks.

Training on copyrighted human content without permission is one kind of issue. But using the outputs of proprietary AI systems to train competing models is another — it's more like reverse-engineering someone else's product, he explained.

Yamin argues that while both practices are ethically fraught, training on OpenAI outputs raises competitive risks, as it essentially transfers hard-earned innovations without the original developer's knowledge or compensation.

As AI companies race to build ever-more capable models, this debate over who owns what — and who can train on whom — is intensifying. Tools like Copyleaks' digital fingerprinting system offer a potential way to trace and verify authorship at the model level. For OpenAI and its rivals, that may be both a blessing and a warning.

Business Insider surveyed 150 Wall Street-bound college students about their career tracks, motivations, and aspirations, to understand what's fueling their decision to pursue some of the most demanding post-grad jobs.

• We asked bartenders to share a few ways customers commonly overspend on drinks.
• Top-shelf spirits are a waste of money in sugary drinks, and premium tequila isn't great for shots.
• Ordering wine by the glass isn't a good value if you drink enough to justify getting a bottle.

Going out for a casual round of drinks can easily lead to an unexpectedly high bill at the end of the night.

Business Insider spoke with bartenders to find out the top ways people waste money at bars. 

Avoid asking for premium spirits in sugary cocktails

Paul Kushner, bartender, pub owner, and CEO of MyBartender, told BI that upgrading to premium liquor in a sugary drink isn't worth the extra cost.

"Any highball with a sweet soda is also a waste of premium liquor since the carbonation and sugar will overpower any subtleties you are paying a premium for," he said.

The expert suggested saving top-shelf spirits for a dry martini or on its own on the rocks.

Skip out on bottle service

Not all bars and establishments offer bottle service, but Kushner told BI it's generally a waste of money.

"You are paying bloated prices for premium bottles of booze," he said. "It's more about the experience of being a VIP and having beautiful women deliver the bottles, but it seems like a lot of money for little payoff."

Instead, the bartender recommended ordering highballs or tipping your bartender well for similar custom-drink recommendations and VIP-level service.

Standard cocktails can be a waste 

Bartender Chetan Gangan told BI that standard cocktails could be a waste of money. Instead, he encourages customers to opt for signature cocktails on the menu.

"You can get standard cocktails at any old dive bar, and signature cocktails are typically special creations that are specific to a restaurant or bar," he said. "These have been carefully crafted and are often recommended by the bar staff to get a good sense of the overall bar program." 

Glasses of wine can be more costly in the long run

Luke Slater, bartender and founder of The Cask Connoisseur, told BI buying a bottle of wine can be more cost-effective unless you're only drinking one glass.

"Buying a bottle of wine is generally better than buying a glass because it is cheaper per unit," he said. "The cost of a bottle of wine is typically less than the cost of four glasses, meaning that if you buy a bottle, you can get more for your money."

Don't order premium tequila or mezcal as a shot

Gangan told BI that ordering premium tequila or mezcal as a shot defeats their purpose as these options are best suited for sipping slowly.

"If you're going to take shots, go for well spirits or brands like Patron or Don Julio," the bartender said. "Premium tequila and mezcals are meant to be sipped, as a lot of effort and process goes into making these spirits."

He added that sipping the liquor allows you to "savor the subtle nuances."

Asking for premium vodka in a bloody mary can also be a waste of money

Zanny Steffgen, a former bartender of four years, told BI that "getting premium vodka in your bloody mary is probably the easiest way to waste money."

After all, the strong tomato flavor of the drink will probably just mask the flavor of the spirit.

"At the bistro I managed, choosing a vodka one level up from the well for a bloody mary turned it from a $14 drink to a $22 drink, and the vodka flavor is totally masked," she said.

Ordering a cocktail at the top of the menu might not give you the best bang for your buck

Bars have a rhyme and reason behind how they construct their menus, Steffgen said. If you want to get the most for your money, there's a particular spot on the bar list to order from. 

"Cocktails at the end of the bar list typically give the best value for your money," she told BI. "Restaurants tend to put the cocktails with the biggest profit margins at the top or in the middle of the list."'

This story was originally published on April 8, 2023, and most recently updated on April 26, 2025.

• Staatsburgh was the home of financier Ogden Mills and his wife, socialite Ruth Livingston Mills.
• The Gilded Age mansion, completed in Dutchess County, New York, in 1896, features 79 rooms.
• The Mills had tickets for the Titanic's second trip, which never happened since it sank in 1912.

When New York City socialite Ruth Livingston Mills inherited her family's country estate known as Staatsburgh in 1890, she felt it wasn't grand enough to entertain her sophisticated friends.

With the help of her husband, financier Ogden Mills, she oversaw a massive renovation that transformed the home into a Gilded Age mansion modeled after the royal palaces of Europe.

Located in Staatsburg, New York, about 100 miles from New York City, Staatsburgh is now a museum that continues to preserve the home's extravagant furnishings and rich history. Take a look inside.

Staatsburgh, once the fall home of Ogden Mills and Ruth Livingston Mills, offers guided tours of the historic estate.

Adult tickets for hour-long tours cost $10 each and can be reserved online. The full schedule is available on Staatsburgh's official website.

I entered through the gift shop, which was full of apparel, accessories, and books about the Hudson Valley.

I visited the mansion in May 2024. Unlike other historic mansions I've toured where the visitor's center is located in what was once a guest house or carriage house, Staatsburgh's reception desk is on the ground floor of the original home itself.

The tour began in an exhibition space on the first floor, where our tour guide gave us a brief history of the Mills family.

Ruth Livingston Mills came from "old money." The Livingston family descended from Scottish nobles, and their ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War and signed the Declaration of Independence. Ruth's great-grandfather, Morgan Lewis, served as the third governor of New York and purchased the Staatsburgh estate in 1792. Ruth inherited the home in 1890, according to Staatsburgh's official website.

Ogden Mills was known as "new money," a financier who served as President Herbert Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury.

Ruth and Ogden wed in 1882 and had three children.

The room also featured a section about the Titanic, which the couple had tickets for.

Ruth and Ogden Mills had tickets for the Titanic's second voyage, but it never happened since the ship sank on its maiden voyage in 1912.

Staatsburgh offers special "Tales of the Titanic" mansion tours led by costumed guides.

We then walked outside, where our guide shared that the grass surrounding the opulent home used to be farmland.

When Ruth inherited the house, the backyard was planted with corn. In order to prepare the residence for entertaining her posh New York City guests, she had the crops replanted elsewhere on the property.

The estate grounds are now known as Mills Memorial State Park.

Our guide also pointed out ongoing preservation efforts on the home's exterior.

In the 1950s, Staatsburgh's exterior was sprayed with gunite to preserve the facade. However, the active ingredient in gunite is asbestos, and it turned the house gray.

The white area in the photo above shows where the asbestos has been abated. Most of the front of the home has been restored, but the project is ongoing.

Staatsburgh's two wings were added in 1895, expanding the home from 25 rooms to 79.

The renovation cost $350,000 in 1895, or about $11 million in today's dollars.

When I walked into the entrance hall, the well-preserved decor transported me back to the Gilded Age.

The English oak wood paneling on the walls was meant to evoke the decor of English royalty.

Ruth hung portraits of her prominent ancestors in the entryway to impress her guests.

The portrait on the far left depicts Morgan Lewis, the third governor of New York and Ruth's great-grandfather. Next to him is his daughter, Margaret.

Next to Margaret is Judge Robert Livingston, a statesman and attorney, followed by Chancellor Robert Livingston, who helped draft the Declaration of Independence, swore in President George Washington, and negotiated the Louisiana Purchase under President Thomas Jefferson.

The grand staircase was reminiscent of the one on the Titanic.

The last three steps were wider than the others to leave room for women's gowns to cascade behind them in elegant, dramatic entrances.

A side table featured an issue of The Boston Daily Globe with a headline about the Titanic sinking, emphasizing the family's connection to the tragedy.

Ruth's cousin, John Jacob Astor, was the richest man in the world when he died in the Titanic disaster. His body was recovered two weeks later, identified by the initials sewn into his jacket and the engraved gold watch in his pocket.

Ascending the stairs provided a wider view of the entrance hall.

The furniture was arranged differently when the Mills family took up residence there, but everything in the room was original to the home.

The painted ceiling on the stairwell concealed a 10,000-gallon water tank above.

The home had its own water system with a pump house on the property that filtered water into a steel-reinforced tank.

Female visitors stayed in guest bedrooms upstairs, while male visitors slept downstairs.

Alice Roosevelt was good friends with the Mills' twin daughters and a frequent guest at Staatsburgh.

A replica of a maid's room was built on the second floor by lowering the ceiling and narrowing the walls to display the smaller space.

Maids slept on the third floor, while male servants such as footmen and butlers slept downstairs. Servants at Staatsburgh worked six days a week and had their own rooms, a rarity in the Gilded Age.

The male servants' quarters on the ground level included a dining room, lounge, and kitchen suite.

The male servants' quarters were used as the New York State Parks Taconic Regional Headquarters until 2009, and the area is undergoing restoration.

Before dinner, guests would line up in the oval room to be escorted into the dining room.

A detail-oriented hostess, Ruth would be at the front of the line to be escorted into dinner by the highest-ranking gentleman.

Our tour group gasped in awe upon walking into the stunning dining room, exactly as Ruth Mills intended.

The green Italian and French marble walls were decorated with 18th-century Belgian tapestries. The Mills would also decorate the room with plants from their greenhouse.

The floor was constructed with 1-inch-thick Vermont marble to deaden the sounds of the kitchen below.

The table was set with the Mills family's original Tiffany & Co. china.

The table could seat up to 30 people when fully extended. Meals lasted around two hours and included eight to 10 courses of mostly French cuisine.

The gilded ceilings were embellished with ornate gold designs.

Typical of the Gilded Age, even the ceilings were works of art.

The base of the fireplace was decorated with Chinese guardian lion statues known as foo dogs.

The bronze lion statues had brass eyes that glowed when the sun shone on them.

Servants took food to the dining room via a dumbwaiter in the butler's pantry.

Located off the dining room, the butler's pantry featured a speaking tube for communication with the kitchen.

The butler's pantry included a display of Titanic china set replicas.

Different classes of passengers on the Titanic dined off different china patterns.

We then moved into the drawing room, named for where the family and guests would withdraw after dinner.

Our tour guide described the drawing room as Ruth's "she shed" where female family members and guests would socialize and take tea.

Our guide pointed out how the backs of the chairs were not as faded as the seats because of the upright posture women maintained.

Women's corsets in the Gilded Age didn't enable them to fully sit down.

She also pointed out the oldest artifact in the room: a set of three ancient Greek urns.

The urns date back to 400 to 600 BCE.

The Mills family would play games of bridge in their ornate library.

Their collection of books included rare artifacts such as George Washington's diaries.

Ruth also had a French-style boudoir, a private space to write correspondence and plan parties.

A large portrait of Ruth hung on the wall on the left.

Ruth's bedroom was modeled after royal palaces in Europe, with her bed up on a pedestal and the walls upholstered with damask silk.

Her and Ogden's suites were on the main level, which was unusual in the Gilded Age, but Ruth had a heart condition that made it difficult for her to go up and down flights of stairs.

The tour ended with Ogden's room, which was noticeably smaller and less ostentatious than Ruth's.

Ogden called Ruth "Tiny," and her nickname for him was "Sweet."

Even though Staatsburgh was just a two-hour drive from New York City, I felt like I'd visited a European palace.

According to our tour guide, 95% of the items inside Staatsburgh are authentic to the home and the Mills family, providing a historically accurate portrayal of how the wealthiest members of high society lived during the Gilded Age.

• Judge James Boasberg found probable cause for contempt in the administration's deportation actions.
• Trump's pardon powers could spare his officials and lawyers from potential criminal consequences.
• In 2017, Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio under similar circumstances.

A federal judge on Wednesday took the remarkable step of finding probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating his order to turn around a pair of El Salvador-bound planes carrying deportees.

Under a 46-page opinion by US District Judge James E. Boasberg, the administration would have several off-ramps for avoiding an actual criminal contempt prosecution against any federal officials or Justice Department lawyers.

The DOJ itself would get first crack at potentially prosecuting the administration's own people. Under the federal criminal procedure rules, the judge could also step in "in the interest of justice" and appoint an outside council.

More significantly, President Donald Trump's pardon power would enable him to void any prosecution or its consequences, legal experts told Business Insider.

"Yes, the president's pardon power does reach criminal contempt prosecutions," said Margaret Love, a clemency attorney and the US Department of Justice pardon attorney between 1990 and 1997.

"And in fact, his very first pardon during his first term in office was issued in a criminal contempt case," Love said, referring to former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Arpaio was pardoned in 2017 after being found guilty of criminal contempt for violating a 2011 court order in a racial profiling case.

Wednesday's decision by Boasberg, who sits in Washington, DC, found that there was probable cause to find the Trump administration exhibited "willful disobedience of judicial orders" for ignoring his order from last month to immediately turn around planes full of deportees headed to an El Salvador prison.

The Trump administration has argued it did not violate the judge's orders because the planes had already left the United States.

The US Supreme Court vacated Boasberg's order blocking the deportation and said Texas, not DC, has jurisdiction over deciding if the federal Alien Enemies Act was properly applied in removing the deportees from the country.

Still, that "does not excuse the Government's violation," Boasberg wrote Wednesday, in pursuing a possible contempt conviction.

Boasberg in his opinion offered several steps before contempt would be prosecuted.

First, the administration could seek to remedy, or "purge" the violation of the judge's order, including by recognizing that the White House retains some control over what happens to the deportees, something Trump has so far denied. The deportees could then challenge their detentions in a US court.

The administration could also suggest its own remedy, the judge wrote.

If the administration instead does nothing, the judge would begin the contempt process by determining which administration official or attorney is "responsible" for violating the turn-around order.

If the government failed to assist in naming who is responsible, the judge would make a determination after holding more hearings and seeking input from the detainees' attorneys, the judge wrote.

"The next step," the judge wrote, would be for the court to "request that the contempt be prosecuted by an attorney for the government."

"If the Government 'declines' or 'the interest of justice requires,' the Court will 'appoint another attorney to prosecute the contempt,'" the judge wrote, quoting from federal criminal procedure rules.

The precedent for a presidential pardon in a criminal contempt case stretches back centuries, said Frank Bowman, an emeritus professor of criminal and constitutional law at the University of Missouri School of Law.

"There were arguments when Arpaio was pardoned, saying that to do so would invalidate the separation of powers," Bowman said. "But the truth is that the precedent for these pardons is so powerful, going back over the past two centuries."

Since Boasberg no longer has jurisdiction over the case, he can only pursue contempt for an administration official or lawyer's past conduct in his courtroom, Bowman said. If someone is found in contempt and then pardoned, "that would be the end of the ballgame," the professor said.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the administration will appeal Boasberg's finding.

"The President is 100% committed to ensuring that terrorists and criminal illegal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans and their communities across the country," Cheung said.

This story has been updated to include additional expert comment.

• I didn't know I had uterine fibroids until I got pregnant for the first time.
• My three fibroids didn't interfere with my pregnancies, but they continued to grow significantly after.
• I'm getting a hysterectomy to remove the fibroids, and I'm having a lot of feelings about it.

"Did you know you have fibroids?"

That was the first thing I heard when I went for my first ultrasound after finding out I was pregnant. I held my breath, waiting for the bad news to follow, but the ultrasound tech said there was nothing to worry about.

My pregnancy continued uneventfully, and I delivered my son via C-section. As I was lying in the OR, numb from my chest down and cut open, my midwife gasped in shock. "They are huge," she said, referring to my fibroids. Still, she wasn't concerned.

Fast forward to seven years later, my fibroids are causing so much discomfort I'm getting my uterus removed.

What are fibroids?

Uterine fibroids are growths made of muscle and fibrous tissue. They're not cancerous, and up to 77% of women in childbearing years develop them.

I didn't know I had fibroids because I had none of the common symptoms, which include heavy or long periods, pelvic pain, and, in some cases, infertility.

After my first child, I got pregnant again with twins. I worried that having three fibroids and two babies was going to be too much, but again, I had an uneventful pregnancy that ended with a C-section.

My periods got unmanageable

My first period after the twins were born came with full rage. I was expecting something like it after not having a cycle for 19 months (I didn't have a period while breastfeeding). But with every new cycle that came, my period seemed to get worse.

My periods were so heavy that I became severely anemic and needed iron infusions. I knew something was wrong, but I figured I was just perimenopausal, and this was my new normal.

My OB/GYN thought differently and sent me for an ultrasound, which showed that my fibroids had more than doubled in size in two years. They were squishing my uterus, causing it to bleed.

My doctor told me I had two options: She could put me into early menopause through a monthly injection, or I could have my uterus removed (along with the fibroids), leaving my ovaries in to avoid menopause.

Because of where my fibroids are located, there's no option to just remove them and leave my uterus intact. Fearing the side effects of early menopause, I chose a hysterectomy.

The decision was more emotional than I expected.

I'm done having kids

Even though my husband and I have discussed at length whether we want more kids (the answer is no), the idea of not being able to have any more kids has been, inexplicably, a hard pill to swallow.

For a second, I debated whether we should have one more "before it's too late," which is not the best reason to jump into any life-changing event. But I loved being pregnant, and my uterus was my babies' first home. I'm having an incredibly hard time saying goodbye to it.

Late one night, I looked over at my husband and told him that I worried that he'd find me less attractive, knowing that I wasn't fertile anymore. He reassured me that I had nothing to worry about and that, technically, I would still be ovulating every month. If we really wanted, we could still have another child through surrogacy. Knowing there's a tiny window open made me feel slightly better.

My surgery has been scheduled, and I have two cycles left before the big day. I can't wait to stop feeling exhausted every day, worrying about staining clothes, and spending a small fortune every month on period products. Now, I'm worried about my recovery post-surgery, not only physically but also emotionally.