โŒ

Reading view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.

Charging your device on a Southwest flight is about to get more complicated

Southwest planes at an airport
Southwest Airlines is restricting the use of power banks on flights.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

  • Southwest Airlines has started warning passengers about the use of power banks on flights.
  • It's set to introduce a new safety policy next week.
  • The change comes after an Air Busan plane caught fire when a power bank overheated in January.

Southwest Airlines is restricting the use of power banks due to the risk of them catching fire during flights.

A spokesperson told Business Insider that the airline will introduce a "first-in-industry safety policy" on May 28.

"Using portable charging devices while stored in a bag or overhead bin will no longer be permitted," they added. "Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of its customers and employees."

Since last week, passengers checking in for their flights on the Southwest app have received pop-up notifications that warn about portable charging devices.

A Reddit user shared a screenshot from the app, which read: "If you use a power bank during your flight, keep it out of your bag and in plain sight. Do not charge devices in the overhead bin."

The devices are powered by lithium batteries that can overheat and catch fire. In such rare cases, keeping the device in plain sight makes it easier for flight attendants to identify any smoke or fire and react quickly to extinguish it.

Last year, the Federal Aviation Administration recorded about three incidents every two weeks, compared to fewer than one a week in 2018.

The FAA has recorded nine confirmed incidents in the US this year.

There have been other suspected cases and disruptions caused just by the risk of overheating.

Last month, a Lufthansa Airbus A380 with 461 passengers had to divert to Boston when a passenger's tablet became stuck in a seat.

The most notable incident occurred in South Korea in January. An Air Busan plane was about to take off when a fire spread through the cabin, injuring seven people.

Investigators later said the fire was likely caused by a power bank, found in an overhead luggage bin.

The Korean government subsequently tightened its rules for airlines, which included prohibiting storing them in the overhead bins.

In the US, there are already many limits on power banks, which are banned from checked luggage. Southwest is going a step further in response to recent incidents.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Qatar's PM says he doesn't know why its $400 million Jumbo jet gift is being called 'bribery'

Qatari Boeing 747 parked at Palm Beach International airport.
Qatar is offering to give the US a Boeing 747 jet.

ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

  • Qatar's prime minister said its offer to give the US a Jumbo jet was a "normal thing between allies."
  • The Boeing 747-8 could be used as Air Force One for President Donald Trump's second term.
  • Critics have questioned the legality, while Trump said that accepting the gift was sensible.

Qatar's prime minister doesn't understand the backlash over its offer of giving a Jumbo jet to the US.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani called the proposed gift of a Boeing 747-8 jet, worth about $400 million, as "a normal thing that happens between allies."

"I don't know why people consider it as bribery or Qatar trying to buy influence with this administration," he said at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on Tuesday. The comments were reported by Bloomberg, which is hosting the event.

President Donald Trump said last week that his administration was preparing to accept the gift from the Qatari royal family.

The aircraft would be used as the new Air Force One in Trump's second term and then added to his presidential library.

Democrats as well as some Trump supporters have criticized the deal, voicing worries about its legality.

Trump defended the move, saying he would be a "stupid person" if he didn't accept it.

Sheikh Mohammed described the proposed gift as a Qatar "Ministry of Defense to Department of Defense transaction, which is done in full transparency and very legally."

"Many nations have gifted things to the US," he said, naming the Statue of Liberty as one.

Sheikh Mohammed added that "we need to overcome" stereotypes of Qatar trying to buy influence in the US.

Trump has said the jet would be a gift to the Department of Defense, not him personally.

The DoD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider

I'm a urologist treating prostate cancer patients like Joe Biden — here are 3 breakthroughs changing the game in 2025

man getting exam at doctor

Wasan Tita/Getty Images

  • Prostate cancer treatment is advancing rapidly.
  • New pills and hormone treatments are giving patients better odds and a more comfortable experience.
  • Doctors say Biden's diagnosis is a reminder to get screened often with simple tools like blood tests.

When the news broke on Sunday that former President Joe Biden had been diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread into his bones, Dr. Arpeet Shah was surprised.

Soon, his phone started blowing up with texts from other urologists, who were equally flummoxed as to how this could have happened to a man of Biden's stature.

"That was certainly a conversation amongst urologists yesterday, texting each other," Shah told Business Insider on Monday, the day after Biden's diagnosis was made public. "It is surprising that this wasn't caught, or it was caught at such an aggressive stage."

Shah, a board-certified urologist at Associated Urological Specialists in suburban Chicago says over the course of the decade he's been in practice, he's been alarmed at the number of new, minimally invasive, highly effective prostate cancer prevention and treatment options that have blossomed. This is especially true, he says, when it comes to metastatic cancer cases like Joe Biden's.

"Over the last 10 years, there's just been a robust increase in the number of treatment options," Shah said.

Other cancer experts BI spoke with agree that new therapies allow for longer lives, better outcomes, and many patients can keep on going about their normal life while doing them. Here are three major breakthroughs driving the trend:

1. Patients are taking more cancer-fighting pills at home, forgoing uncomfortable, gooey injections

Testosterone-lowering drugs and procedures have been the bedrock of modern prostate cancer treatment, in use for more than 80 years.

Prostate cancer grows by using testosterone as its fuel. This makes drugs that drive down testosterone levels (androgen receptor blockers) a great first-line treatment.

These treatments can be uncomfortable. Drugs like leuprolide acetate are injected under the skin or into a muscle every three to six months. Those injections are somewhat "gelatenous" Shah said, and they might leave a lump under the skin that lasts for weeks or months as the medication slowly releases in the body.

New pills, in particular the drug relugolix (approved by the FDA in late 2020), can work faster than those old injections โ€” possibly helping a person's testosterone levels to normalize faster after treatment, too.

Patients spend less time weathering the uncomfortable, menopause-like side effects of prostate cancer treatment, like hot flashes, low energy, and bone density issues.

"We see a lot of patients who really enjoy taking the pill more," Shah says. These days, he says, many of his patients just do their own cancer treatment from home using pills.

"Most often, patients are taking multiple pills per day to treat their prostate cancer," he said. "They don't have to go to the hospital to get the medication. And these pills are generally very well tolerated to a point where people are able to do their daily living as they were before their diagnosis."

2. New treatments can outsmart cancer, even when it tries to evade hormone-suppressing drugs

doctor handing out pills
A relatively new generation of oral pills for prostate cancer take treatment even further.

iStock

Scientists have gotten better at outsmarting prostate cancer โ€” not only lowering testosterone production.

New innovations prevent cancer cells from absorbing leftover testosterone in the body, meaning the disease can't get a good foothold to grow.

Pills in this category include darolutamide (FDA approved in 2019), apalutamide (2018), enzalutamide (2014), and abiraterone (2011).

"We can oftentimes get this disease to be almost like a chronic disease, like high blood pressure or diabetes, where patients know they have it, but they're getting treated and they can move on with the rest of their life," Shah said.

When that's not enough, other techniques are at hand. These include targeted liquid forms of radiation, as well as gene therapies that target specific mutations.

Dr. Alicia Morgans, a genitourinary medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and board member of ZERO Prostate Cancer, says patients today can live with metastatic prostate cancer for years, or even decades, thanks to these kinds of treatments.

The five-year relative survival rate for prostate cancer in the US is near 98% โ€” and getting better year over year.

"Every year we're seeing new approvals in prostate cancer," Morgans said.

3. New types of blood tests and MRIs

psa blood test for prostate cancer
New blood tests for prostate cancer are even more accurate.

Getty Images

Shah said there's also been a ton of advancement in prostate cancer detection and early screening, going beyond the traditional rectal exam and blood tests.

Newer blood tests like the IsoPSA blood test zero in on prostate cancer better than their predecessors. There are also more sophisticated imaging scans doctors can do, like the multiparametric MRI, that can zoom in on suspicious lesions in the prostate.

For Shah, Biden's diagnosis is a "sobering reminder" to screen early and often.

He encourages most men over 50 years old, and some as young as 40 (depending on risk factors) to speak to their doctor and get screened, "because this is such a treatable and most often curable disease when caught early."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Want to be an AI researcher? Being a contrarian helps, says 'Godfather of AI'

Computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton stood outside a Google building
Geoffrey Hinton, the "Godfather of AI," said "intellectual self-confidence" is key.

Noah Berger/Associated Press

  • Geoffrey Hinton, often called the "godfather of AI," said arriving at good ideas is easier if you're a contrarian.
  • In an interview with CBS, he suggested looking for things you believe are being done wrong.
  • Hinton has previously told BI that humans should be "very concerned" about AI's rate of progress.

To hit on ideas that could eventually develop into breakthroughs, the "Godfather of AI," Geoffrey Hinton, says you have to be "contrarian."

"You have to have a deep belief that everybody else could be doing things wrong, and you could figure out how to do them right," Hinton said in a recent interview with CBS. "And most people don't believe that about themselves."

Hinton was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in machine learning and has previously warned of the possible existential risks of AI.

When asked about advice he'd give to the forthcoming generation of AI researchers, Hinton suggested searching for inefficiencies. Though ideas in this vein often lead to dead ends, if they pan out, he said, there's a chance you're hitting on something big.

"You should look for something where you figure out everybody's doing it wrong and you think there's a different way of doing it," Hinton said. "And you should pursue that until you understand why you're wrong. But just occasionally, that's how you get good new ideas."

"Intellectual self-confidence" can be inherent or acquired โ€” in Hinton's case, he said it was part nature, part nurture.

"My father was like that," he said. "So that was a role model for being contrarian."

Hinton said he spent years thinking up ways that existing systems could be challenged โ€” and that he got it wrong far more often than he got it right.

"I spent decades having lots and lots of ideas about how to do things differently," he said. "Nearly all of which were wrong, but just occasionally, they were right."

Hinton did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider prior to publication.

Even now, Hinton still views himself as operating beyond the norm. He said that attitude is essential โ€” if you're not attached to existing methods of doing things, you'll find it easier to challenge them.

"It requires you to think of yourself as an outsider," he said. "I've always thought of myself as an outsider. I'm rather unhappy with the situation now where I'm a kind of insider. I'd rather be an outsider."

Hinton, who told CBS he uses OpenAI's GPT-4 and trusts it more than he should, has previously warned of the potential dangers of AI.

In a 2023 email to Business Insider, Hinton said humans should be "very concerned" about the rate of progress in AI development.

Hinton at the time estimated that it could be between five and 20 years before AI becomes a real threat, and even longer for the technology to become a threat to humanity โ€” if it ever does.

"It is still possible that the threat will not materialize," he previously told BI.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Exclusive: Opioid use disorder costs almost $700K per case

Data: Avalere Health; Map: Axios Visuals

Opioid abuse is as much an economic problem as a public health one, according to a comprehensive analysis provided first to Axios that concludes it costs an average of nearly $700,000 to treat each affected person.

Why it matters: The cost burden falls unevenly, with states in a belt stretching through Appalachia to New England typically having bigger caseloads and a higher cost per case.


  • Opioid use disorder cost the U.S. an estimated $4 trillion last year, per the analysis from Avalere, which used 2017 figures to project 2024 net costs.
  • "While this is a cost to government, it's also a cost to private businesses, and the huge cost, of course, is to the individuals who have OUD," said Margaret Scott, a principal at Avalere and author of the report.

By the numbers: The projected cost of opioid use disorder in 2024 ranged from $419,527 per case in Idaho to more than $2.4 million in D.C. That covers lost productivity, health insurance costs, property lost to crime and other variables.

  • The cost per case totaled more than $1 million in West Virginia, Rhode Island, Ohio and Maryland.
  • Some of the regional variation in costs is from lost tax revenue, which varies by state. The local availability of treatment for opioid use disorder may also drive the cost, Scott said.

State of play: Opioid use disorder โ€” defined as frequent opioid use and unsuccessful efforts to quit โ€” is estimated to affect more than 6 million people in the United States.

  • The cumulative economic burden on patients, including years of life lost and reduced quality of life, exceeded $3 trillion in 2024, Avalere estimated.
  • Private businesses absorbed more than $467 billion in costs from lost productivity and health insurance costs while the federal government bore about $118 billion in Medicare and other federal insurance costs, lost taxes and criminal justice expenses.
  • It cost state and local governments more than $94 billion, with about $42 billion of that going toward criminal justice costs.
  • The Trump administration in March released its own analysis that estimated illicit opioids cost the U.S. about $2.7 trillion in 2023.

Where it stands: Treatment can defray the costs by more than 40% in some instances, the analysis found.

  • Behavioral therapy alongside long-acting injectable buprenorphine โ€” a treatment that reduces the risk of future overdoses โ€” generated an estimated $295,000 savings per case, the biggest cost-saver of the options Avalere analyzed.
  • Therapy plus methadone and therapy plus buprenorphine administered through mucous membranes like the mouth each save about $271,000. Behavioral therapy alone saves a project $144,000 per case.
  • The treatment savings estimates assume that patients fully adhere to the regimen for a year.

Yes, but: Federal data from 2022 showed that only one-quarter of adults who needed medication treatment for OUD actually got it.

  • Less than half of adults who received any OUD care that year got medication treatment.
  • However, buprenorphine distribution increased significantly between 2019 and 2022 as policy changes during the COVID-19 pandemic allowed people to start treatment via telehealth.

Between the lines: Overdose deaths in the U.S. fell to the lowest level since 2019 last year, partly due to expanded availability of the overdose reversal drug naloxone. An estimated 80,391 people died from drug overdoses in 2024, down nearly 27% from the previous year, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

  • But some addiction experts say cuts to federal grant funding and other program changes led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could hurt addiction recovery programs.

The fine print: Indivior, a pharmaceutical company specializing in treatments for opioid use disorder, funded the Avalere analysis.

Don't underestimate the power of the 'brocast', Mark Cuban says

Mark Cuban sitting in a red sofa.
"Brocasts aren't republican. They are for young guys. If you want to connect you have to speak to them," Mark Cuban wrote in a post on Bluesky.

Mat Hayward via Getty Images

  • Mark Cuban said the value of the "brocast" shouldn't be underestimated.
  • "Brocasts aren't republican. They are for young guys," Cuban wrote in a post on Bluesky.
  • Cuban has been a podcast fixture for months, and recently talked about his business, Cost Plus Drugs, on one.

Mark Cuban said on Monday that politicians should start paying more attention to podcast bros if they want to connect with young people.

"Brocasts aren't republican. They are for young guys. If you want to connect you have to speak to them. If you want to lose by 248k votes in 7 swing states, ignore them," Cuban wrote in a post on Bluesky.

Cuban is no stranger to the world of politics and podcasts.

The "Shark Tank" star endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in last year's presidential election. Cuban also hit the podcast circuit to campaign for Harris, appearing on shows like Theo Von's "This Past Weekend" and the "All-In" podcast.

While Cuban made the comment in relation to elections, the power of the "brocast" is on clear display when it comes to businesses as well.

Besides chatting about politics, Cuban has also gone on podcasts to talk about his business ventures.

Last week, Cuban made an appearance on the "Hims House" podcast, where he discussed the origins of his low-cost online pharmacy, Cost Plus Drugs.

"Going back to 2018 or 2017, being here in Texas, I had some Republican friends who were asking me questions like, 'Do you have any ideas how the Republicans can replace the ACA, Obamacare?'" Cuban said.

"I'm like: 'No, but it's an interesting question. Let me see if I can come up with some ideas.' So that got me into healthcare. The ideas, you know, never got that far, but it really got me, turned me into a healthcare geek," he added.

To be sure, Cuban isn't the only one who has recognized the value of podcasts in connecting with a wider audience. Business leaders like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai have been making their rounds on the podcast circuit to talk about their companies or share their views on work and life.

Last month, Zuckerberg appeared on Theo Von's podcast, where he shared his take on the value of attending college.

"I'm not sure that college is preparing people for, like, the jobs that they need to have today," Zuckerberg said on the podcast. "I think there's a big issue on that, and like all the student debt issues are like really big issues."

And in April, too, Melinda French Gates appeared in a podcast episode with Scott Galloway, where she talked about the criticism she's faced for her philanthropic efforts.

"I'm not sitting on the sidelines. To me, it's so easy to sit on the sidelines and, as Roosevelt used to say, criticize from the sidelines. I'm in the arena doing the work," French Gates said.

Cuban did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider

We had a 66-person wedding for $16,000. Our guests danced all night and still tell us how much they loved it.

The author and her husband on their wedding day outside.
The author and her husband had a wedding of 66 people for $16,000.

Photo Credit: Josh White of White Pearl Photography

  • Shortly after we learned I was pregnant in 2014, we decided to get married.
  • With the help of my mom and sister, our wedding was planned in just a few months.
  • For $16,000, we had a wedding with 66 guests, and it was perfect for us.

Sam proposed in November 2014 on a stormy afternoon overlooking Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne, Australia. We'd been together for eight years and had unexpectedly found out I was pregnant just a few months before. Marriage had never been on my bucket list, but we knew we loved each other, and it seemed like the next logical step.

With the help of our loved ones, we organized a small wedding for only $16,000 in just a few months. It was perfect for us.

My mom and sister helped plan our wedding

I didn't want to look heavily pregnant in the wedding photos, so we set the date for January 3, 2015. At the time, I was working full-time as a journalist and navigating the first trimester of pregnancy, so my mom and sister (who was also my maid of honor) offered to organize the wedding for me. I was so grateful to have someone else take over.

They scouted out wedding venues on the Gold Coast, where I grew up and Sam and I met, and narrowed it down to three. I chose a beautiful vineyard with a chapel and wedding reception venue on-site.

We had a 66-person wedding for $16,000

My parents and my parents-in-law very kindly offered to split the wedding reception. My husband and I wanted to keep the cost down and make it more intimate, so we limited the guest list to 66 people. The reception cost $7,500.

I bought my own wedding dress, which I found in a boutique store in Melbourne for $1600. It was an A-line ivory dress with a sweetheart neckline, a long train, lace, and diamantes. On the big day, I felt a million dollars.

My parents and my husband paid for everything else, including the flowers, a carriage to the chapel (which made me feel like a princess), a photographer, a DJ, the cake, and wedding favors for the guests. All in all, the whole day cost $16,000.

The author and her husband walking down a pathway in the park on their wedding day.
Their wedding was planned in a few short months.

Photo Credit: Josh White of White Pearl Photography

A few things in particular made our wedding so much fun

One of the things that helped make our wedding such a success was that we ate dinner quite early, around 6 p.m., and kept the speeches short during mealtime. Neither my husband nor I particularly like being the center of attention, and I didn't want the evening to drag on with too much chatter about us.

For me, the most important thing was to be present and enjoy the big day. I didn't want to get bogged down in the details. I couldn't care less whether each Champagne glass had a bow on it or even what color the decorations were; I just wanted to enjoy the occasion.

I also pre-selected the music. We'd been to several weddings where the music didn't work, either because the DJ was playing obscure artists that only the bride and groom liked, or old-school tunes like the Time Warp that don't really resonate with our generation.

So, I gave our DJ a list of all the songs we wanted him to play, in order. People were carving up the dancefloor straight after the main meal and didn't stop until the venue kicked us out. It was a blast.

Overall, having a smaller wedding worked well for us, as it meant that we were surrounded by our nearest and dearest โ€” mainly family, and a few close friends. The people who were there were the ones who mattered to us, and because it was a smaller crowd, we could really mingle with our guests. Many told us afterward that it was one of their favorite weddings, and though we may be biased, we couldn't agree more.

Read the original article on Business Insider
โŒ