• Verizon is seemingly looking to capitalize on rival AT&T's full-time RTO mandate.
• In a recruiting email, Verizon mentions remote and hybrid openings amid "changing RTO policies across the industry."
• AT&T told BI that its workers "always have a choice" about what company to work for.

The rivalry between two of telecom's biggest players has taken a decidedly modern twist.

Verizon is seemingly looking to capitalize on rival AT&T's full-time RTO mandate by reaching out to AT&T employees who may not be keen on working five days a week in the office.

In an email sent to multiple AT&T employees obtained by Business Insider, Verizon's talent team encouraged recipients to explore the company's hybrid and remote job opportunities.

"Following the news of changing RTO policies across the industry, we're reaching out to share helpful resources and potential hybrid/remote job opportunities across Verizon," the email said.

"If you have been personally affected by organizational policy changes or know anyone who has, we're looking to add top talent to the V Team," the email continued. Verizon declined to comment.

While it's common for companies to recruit from their competitors, Verizon's outreach highlights how 5-day office mandates have become a sticking point for some workers in recent months.

AT&T told BI that its workers "always have a choice to pick the type of company and work environment they wish to be part of."

"We desire individuals who wish to work in a dynamic and challenging team environment with strong relationships and collaboration fostered by in-office constructs," AT&T added.

The recruiting message comes as AT&T has had to navigate a rocky return to office this year, with some employees describing to BI a lack of desk space, parking shortages, and shifting guidance about the policy.

As of Monday afternoon, Verizon's job listings website showed openings for more than 1,200 roles across the US, of which 10 were remote. Listings for several full-time positions require eight days in the office per month, as determined by a manager.

The Verizon email also references the company's support of DEI at a time when other large employers are backing away from the phrase.

"If you're looking for a culture of learning that fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion with room to grow, our V Team may be the place for you," the email said.

Verizon job perks include up to $8,000 of annual tuition assistance, up to 5 weeks of paid time off, paid parental leave, as well as medical, dental, and vision coverage, the email said.

While AT&T traces its origins to 1885, Verizon was formed in 2000 when one of the so-called Baby Bells — spun off from AT&T in the 1980s — merged with GTE.

More recently, the two have been in a race to build out the nation's fiber optic network and extend 5G and satellite coverage.

And although AT&T is now based in Dallas, its former New Jersey headquarters is now a major corporate campus for Verizon — not to be confused with Bell Labs in Holmdel, which features in Apple TV's "Severance."

If you are an AT&T worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out

• For my first overnight Amtrak ride in 2021, I booked a roomette on a Viewliner train.
• Then, in 2025, I booked a roomette on a newly upgraded Superliner train.
• The rooms had similar layouts, but modern upgrades made the second ride much cozier.

I'll never forget my first overnight train trip in October 2021.

I took an Amtrak Viewliner train from my home in New York City to Miami and spent the 30-hour ride in a roomette — a 20-square-foot private cabin — for $500.

After spending the next three years sampling sleeper trains in Europe, I took another long-haul Amtrak journey from Denver to Salt Lake City in January. This ride was on a Superliner train, and it was only 15 hours.

I booked the same accommodation — a roomette for $400 — which had the same basic layout with a couple of differences.

Overall, the second roomette had modern updates, making my train ride more comfortable.

Amtrak sleeper trains from east to west

Amtrak's Viewliner fleet takes overnight riders through the eastern and southern US, and the train line's Superliner fleet carries passengers west of Chicago and New Orleans.

The main difference between the two fleets is size. The Viewliner is a one-story train, while the Superliner is two stories and includes an additional communal car on the top floor for sightseeing.

Amtrak is updating the roughly 30-to-50-year-old Superliner cars, and about 76% of the fleet has already been refreshed, including the train I took, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told Business Insider.

The Viewliners are a bit newer than the Superliner cars — the first Viewliner train was delivered in the late '90s, according to Magliari. Still, he said many of the one-story trains would also get an interior update in 2026.

Viewliner vs. Superliner roomettes

Before we get into the upgrades, there is a notable difference between the roomettes on these two trains.

Both roomettes sleep up to two people, with two chairs forming a lower bunk and another pulling down from the ceiling. They both also have mirrors, small closets, and pullout tables.

Some Viewliner roomettes also squeeze in a toilet, and they all include a sink, so travelers don't have to use the shared bathrooms in the car.

The Superliner roomettes don't have plumbing, so guests must use the shared bathrooms.

Fresh seat cushions

The most important upgrade to me was the seats.

When I stepped inside the Superliner roomette, I immediately noticed the seats looked like they'd never been used.

I'm sure that's not true, but I didn't find one sign of wear or crust of dirt on either seat. Sitting in one for the first time felt like sampling a recliner at a furniture store.

Magliari told BI that the old blue cloth seats had been replaced with soft vinyl.

"The seats have the same frame, but the cushions are new. And there's more lumbar support in this current seat cushion design than the old seat cushion design," he said. "If you see gray, vinyl seating, then you know that you are in a fresh room."

A comfy seat makes a cozy bed

My upper bunk on the Viewliner felt like a cot, and my lower bunk on the Superliner felt more like a mattress.

I selected the upper bunk in the Viewliner roomette because I'd never been on an overnight train before, and sleeping up top felt more adventurous.

It kind of was — but not in a good way. The suspended bunk shook throughout the night from the turbulence of the train. I couldn't find a comfortable position on the stiff mattress and tossed and turned through the night.

I haven't slept on a train's top bunk since, but being on the ground wasn't the only thing that made the Superliner bunk feel more like a bed. The reclined seat cushions had a bit more give to them, and the soft vinyl felt smoother on my skin.

Seeing the difference in comfort after four years got me stoked about the future of overnight Amtrak travel.

In the future, you'll catch me on an upgraded Viewliner.

President Donald Trump said he was considering restarting work on the pipeline, saying "get it built, now!" on social media.

Paige Spiranac backed up Lucas Glover's opinion of the AimPoint putting technique after a video of its use at the Honda LPGA Thailand went viral.

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President Donald Trump has the ability to spark positive change in the lives of Iraq's persecuted Assyrian Christians.

"It must be so strange to be in a drainage pipe, and then all of a sudden be in a warm house," one social media user commented.

Authorities allege that Czuba targeted Hanan Shaheen and her 6-year-old son, Wadee Alfayoumi, because of their Islamic faith.

Washington has imposed imposes new sanctions on Iran's shadow oil fleet, aiming to reduce its crude exports to zero.

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President Trump, Elon Musk, and their band of DOGE budget-cutters celebrate daily, even hourly targets to cut U.S. spending on everything from foreign aid to FAA personnel.

• Trump himself has teased a balanced budget — an impossibility without historic cuts to America's most popular programs, such as Social Security.

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Why it matters: Their proposed cuts are but drips of water in America's overflowing bucket of debt — $36 trillion and counting. In fact, most days, America racks up more interest on its debt — $3 billion per day! — than DOGE can find in savings. That leaky bucket is the reality of your nation's finances.

This column is our attempt to clinically outline the facts about deficits — and efforts to reduce or eliminate them.

The big picture: Trump and Musk are correct that America is drowning in deficits. Some of it flows from silly spending on stale or even stupid programs. Those make for terrific X dunking: Agencies with more software licenses than employees! A $324,671 USDA grant for "Increasing DEIA Programming for Integrated Pest Management"! A $3 million Education Department contract "to write a report that showed that prior reports were not utilized by schools"!

• But trimming fat is harder than it looks: 37% of the contract terminations on an initial list on DOGE's "Wall of Receipts" (417 out of 1,125) weren't expected to save any money, usually because it had already been spent.
• And the only way to truly reduce the deficit is to target the very programs Trump refuses to touch — defense, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. They account for 86% of the budget.
• That's reality for a country that, across Democratic and Republican administrations, has spent taxpayer money without restraint or care about debt. This is one area where everyone is guilty.

Musk and DOGE suck up a lot of attention for doing what former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) did by needling "the boneheads of both parties," and the late Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.) did with his Golden Fleece Award: highlighting the need for radical change, and the absurdity of many U.S. programs. Even Musk critics should applaud him for getting the public to pay attention to massive bugs in the federal system.

• But the Trump team is also using the guise of budget-cutting to eliminate jobs or areas they disagree with — or that undermine their ambitions. To date, most of the proposed cuts fall into this bucket.
• In doing so, they're also usurping the power of Congress — which, under the Constitution, sets U.S. spending priorities and budgets. That's producing court fights.

📊 State of play: The idea of DOGE is popular: A poll released yesterday by Harvard's Center for American Political Studies and The Harris Poll found 72% of U.S. registered voters polled online support the existence of a federal agency focused on efficiency.

• Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO, told CNBC in Miami on Monday that while any "bureaucracy pushes back on everything," DOGE "needs to be done," and should be "not just about the deficit. It's about building the right policies, procedures and the government we deserve."

So Trump and his aides correctly calculate that both the cuts and the tales of government insanity are popular with the vast majority of Americans. Even if the reality isn't quite as sexy:

• No, tens of millions of dead people aren't getting Social Security checks. That's a known computer coding quirk that wasn't fixed because of the cost.
• No, DOGE didn't save $8 billion on a contract by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The New York Times Upshot discovered that DOGE was hanging its hat on an earlier database error that had been corrected to say $8 million. $2.5 million had been spent — so canceling the contract saved $5.5 million at most.
• No, the U.S. didn't send $50 million worth of condoms to Hamas, as Trump said on-camera. "That's a LOT of condoms," Musk joked. In fact, the International Medical Corps was providing medical and trauma services in Gaza, including family planning programming and emergency contraception.

Reality check: Of the roughly $7 trillion the U.S. spent in 2024 (as calculated by Axios chief economic correspondent Neil Irwin)...

• 60% went to mandatory programs — including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' benefits, unemployment insurance and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
• 13% went to defense.
• 13% to interest payments.
• 14% for discretionary spending — leaving Trump not quite $1 trillion.

So when you consider where federal money really goes, most DOGE oddities and outrages amount to rounding errors in a sea of government obligations.

By the numbers: Earlier this month, Trump promised on Truth Social: "BALANCED BUDGET!!!" Here's what would have to happen to deliver that, according to nonpartisan and academic experts:

• You'd need to eliminate roughly $2 trillion just to make up for the current deficit projection, plus interest on our existing debt.
• That'd mean massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicare and defense.
• There's also the question of how many times you can spend the same dollar. Trump says he wants tariffs to balance the budget — but he also wants them to eliminate income taxes. And "DOGE dividend" checks would send savings back to taxpayers instead of helping dig the country out of this hole.

The backstory: Trump is handcuffed by political reality and his own statements.

• He was elected on the promise of tax cuts. Those cuts likely would create even bigger deficits, at least in the short term.
• "Social Security won't be touched," Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity two weeks ago. "Other than fraud or something we're going to find it's going to be strengthened but won't be touched. Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched."

Case in point: House Republicans have vowed to cut Medicaid in the budget bill that would pay for Trump's tax cuts, border security buildup and other priorities.

• But Steve Bannon pointed out on his "War Room" podcast: "A lot of MAGA's on Medicaid ... Medicaid is going to be a complicated one. Just can't take a meat ax to it, although I would love to."
• Michael Tuffin, CEO of AHIP, which represents health insurers, contends that disrupting Medicaid coverage could raise costs elsewhere and weaken chronic-disease prevention.
• We told you over the weekend about the testy town halls that House Republicans are facing back home. One of them, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), told CNN's Manu Raju on Monday that the GOP could do a better job of showing "compassion": "I think we have to have really good conversations between the DOGE and Congress [about] the impact on people who have real consequences for their families."

What they're saying: Administration officials say Trump already has disrupted more in 37 days than most experts thought was possible. That is true. But most of the past month's wall-to-wall coverage has focused on bites that wouldn't add up to the meal that he's promised.

• Musk told Hannity: "If we don't solve the deficit, there won't be money for medical care." So Musk, who has spent his career defying bearish predictions, is now working his greatest puzzle of all.

The bottom line: Neil Irwin reminds us of the old line that the U.S. government consists of a military attached to an insurance company. In big-picture terms, that's pretty true.

• Go deeper: DOGE math questions, by Axios' Neil Irwin and Courtenay Brown.

• Ukraine has become the largest producer of tactical and strategic drones, its defense minister said.
• Ukraine has ramped up its drone production since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
• In total, Ukraine delivered over 1.3 million drones to soldiers in 2024, its commander in chief said.

Ukraine has become the world's largest producer of key military-use drones, the country's defense minister said.

"We've become the biggest drone manufacturer in the world, drones of tactical and strategic level," Rustem Umerov said during a Sunday press conference at Ukraine's "Year 2025" forum.

Tactical drones support smaller-scale battlefield actions, often at close ranges, by gathering intelligence and supporting strikes, either as the munition or by providing targeting data.

Strategic drones, meanwhile, are often higher-end, high-altitude systems with the endurance to advance operations against higher-priority targets.

Speaking at the same press conference, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine's commander in chief, said the country delivered over 1.3 million drones to front-line soldiers in 2024. The general added that its long-range drones can strike targets up to 1,700 kilometers inside Russia.

At a separate press conference on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country produced 2.2 million drones in total in 2024 and planned to ramp up production further in 2025.

Ukraine's defense ministry didn't respond to a Business Insider request for comment.

Up-to-date and comprehensive data on various countries' respective drone production is scarce, making direct comparisons difficult.

June 2024 data from Statista Market Insights, a data analysis service on market trends, said China was set to be the world's largest overall drone manufacturer in 2024 and was on track to produce 2.9 million drones. However, the data does not include drones for military purposes, though off-the-shelf drones for civilian use have been heavily repurposed for military use in Ukraine and further afield.

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia was ramping up its own drone production to nearly 1.4 million in 2024, a tenfold increase from the previous year.

Drones are increasingly being used in conflicts around the world for intelligence and reconnaissance, bombing missions, precision strikes, and other military purposes by both state-level and non-state actors.

This has led to an increased demand for counter-drone capabilities.

In December, the Pentagon released a new counter-drone strategy aimed at coordinating how different branches of the US military are responding to the threat of drones and making "countering unmanned systems a key element of our thinking."

Drones have been a hallmark of the war in Ukraine, with both sides using the evolving technology to devastating effect.

Even so, Ukrainian tactical drones face significant challenges, according to a February report by the UK's Royal United Services Institute, with a 60-80% failure rate in hitting targets "depending on the part of the front and the skill of the operators."

Despite this, it said that they still account for 60 to 70% of damaged and destroyed Russian military systems.

In an October speech to executives from dozens of foreign arms manufacturers, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was capable of producing 4 million drones a year, up from the one million he predicted in December 2023.

Kyiv has tried to smooth the process of drone acquisitions for its troops.

Last week, Umerov said Ukraine's defense ministry was launching a new drone supply model to facilitate a "fast and uninterrupted supply of the best UAVs for our soldiers," and to provide its armed forces with an additional $60 million a month to purchase drones.

Ukraine's growing defense industry has led some to believe that drones, among other military capabilities, could play an important role in Ukraine's postwar economic recovery.

• Shawn Robertson's parents lived with him, his wife, and their kids for many years.
• He says there were plenty of benefits to living together, though there were challenges, too.
• There wasn't much privacy, but his parents got to spend time with their grandkids.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Shawn Robertson, a 55-year-old from Tsawwassen, British Columbia. It has been edited for length and clarity.

When my folks were still alive, they lived with us for many years. Multigenerational living had many perks, but it also had challenges.

I grew up in Tsawwassen, British Columbia, and lived in the same house my entire life. Around the time my wife Cori and I got engaged, both of my parents started experiencing health issues.

They told us they would have to sell the house and move into a graduated care facility for older people, but Cori and I agreed they should stay in the house for as long as possible. We believed it would be better for them health-wise. We also knew that if we didn't stay close to them when we started having kids, they wouldn't see their grandkids very often, as we'd likely end up settling in another part of Canada.

So right after we got married, Cori moved in, too, and we started taking care of Mom and Dad. Our house is a double-story building with five bedrooms and a den, so there was plenty of room for all of us.

There were plenty of benefits to living with my mom and dad

Mom and Dad shifted from the upstairs to the downstairs. It was easier for them not to have to walk up and down the stairs to get to their bedroom. Over the years, multigenerational living has had many positive aspects. When we welcomed our three sons and daughter, it meant that they spent plenty of quality time with our kids.

My folks were homebodies, so they didn't mind watching our kids or our pets. If we were running down to our trailer at Mt Baker and we asked them to watch the dogs for the weekend, it was never a problem. If we wanted to go out for dinner and leave the four kids with them, they never once said no.

I know some grandparents feel like they're taken advantage of in that regard, but my parents never felt that way. Their philosophy was the more time they had with the grandkids, the better. The kids kept them feeling young for as long as possible. Another benefit was that my parents never felt lonely.

My dad died in 2004 when the kids were still quite young, but my mom was a big part of their childhood. She was always present, and being right downstairs, my kids could spend time with her whenever they wanted. I think some of their fondest memories were of watching dog shows together and having tea with her, or playing outside while she watched on.

Some aspects of our situation were challenging, too

There were some challenges to multigenerational living, too. My parents never meddled in our affairs, but they did know all of our business as the house is very open. On occasion, they would let their opinions be known, even when they weren't asked for.

As the kids grew older and became teenagers, the lack of boundaries became more challenging. Sometimes, they'd be rushing in the morning to get to school, and Mom would ask them for help with something. They wouldn't want to tell her no, and it usually wasn't anything too big, but when you're on a time crunch and you're a teenager, everything seems like a hassle.

There were also budgetary impacts associated with multi-generational living. We bought food for my parents and never asked to be reimbursed. I also did renovations on the house. I figure we probably incurred about $75,000 in personal debt over the years.

In 2012, Mom slid off the side of the bed and was taken to hospital. She was diagnosed with double pneumonia and wasn't supposed to last the night, but ended up living for another three years.

That was the beginning of the end, though, and her health continued to decline. When we could no longer care for her, we decided it would be best for her to live in a care facility, where she lived for three years before she died in 2015.

Cori and I have always said given our time again, we'd make the same choice to live with my mom and dad. The kids had a better relationship with my folks as a result, and the benefits definitely outweighed the negatives in my mind.

But my advice to others who want to try multigenerational living is to have separate accommodation on-site, like a granny flat, with its own entrance. The lack of privacy can strain even the best of families. I'd also recommend both parties set some ground rooms from the outset.

• Norway's melting glaciers are revealing objects from the Stone Age, Iron Age, Medieval, and Viking eras.
• Some ancient artifacts are mysteries, but they still indicate trade routes through the mountains.
• Here's what Norway's glacial archaeologists found in the meltiest part of last summer.

Mysterious and fascinating artifacts are surfacing on melting glaciers across the planet.

From ancient human remains to strange wooden tools and statues, these objects are drawing archaeologists into the high, frozen mountains each year.

Norway is at the forefront of this emerging field of research, called glacial archaeology. With about 4,500 artifacts discovered, the country claims more than half of the planet's glacial archaeology findings, according to Espen Finstad, who co-leads the Norwegian program, called Secrets of the Ice.

Archaeologists there are piecing together clues about ancient industries and trade routes across the glaciers.

They just had one of their best field seasons yet. Here's what they found.

• Steve Jobs tasked Jony Ive with designing a new computer to save Apple.
• Apple was struggling financially in 1997 and needed a hit product to regain profitability.
• The colorful iMac's design helped Apple sell 800,000 units in 1999.

After Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he looked to designer Jony Ive to help save it from going under.

The first time they met, the late cofounder asked Ive to create a network computer with internet connectivity "literally days" before the company was set to go bankrupt, Ive said on BBC's "Desert Island Discs" podcast.

At the time, Apple was struggling — it took a $150 million investment from rival Microsoft to help the company become profitable again. Apple needed a hit product, and Jobs enlisted a young Ive for the "impossible task." It was the world's first glimpse into Ive's vision for tech design.

"We started work from the first day that we met on what became the iMac," Ive said.

Personal computers didn't yet have a role in most people's lives back then, and many were intimidated by them, he said. Their mission, to focus on making a product "for people," became the philosophy that gave Apple an edge over competitors.

Ive put thought into each detail of the colorful lineup of PCs to make it more approachable for consumers. The handle, for example, was an intentional design choice to give the iMac a recognizable characteristic for those unfamiliar with the power of computing.

"It references immediately and unambiguously your hand, and you understand, therefore, something about this object," Ive said.

The iMac's appearance, like the handle and translucent colors, were better talking points than gigahertz and hard drive capacity, Ive said. The candy-colored PCs were the home run Apple needed. It sold 800,000 iMacs in the five months of its launch in 1999.

"It felt alive; it didn't static; it didn't feel stuck," Ive said.

It debuted with the tagline, "Collect all five."

The iMac has had some major revamps in the decades since it first debuted. Apple moved away from the colorful design in the mid-2000s in favor of minimalist grays and whites, but in 2021, it brought color back to its desktops.

After the success of the iMac, Ive went on to design more of Apple's most iconic products as his friendship with Jobs grew. He led design on the iPhone, iPad, and other products and eventually became the chief design officer. Ive announced his departure from Apple in 2019 after 27 years at the company.

"My cat had even worse asthma attacks before she got diagnosed. Always go to a vet [if] your cat is doing this!" one user said.

The network's changes are a "bad mistake," according to the television host.

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Thousands gathered in a rain-soaked St. Peter's Square on Monday night to pray for Pope Francis' health after a more positive update from the Vatican.