• Princess Charlotte turned 10 in May.
• As Prince William and Kate Middleton's second child, she's third in line for the British throne.
• Although her life is mostly private, Charlotte shows peeks of her personality at royal engagements.

The roles of "heir" and "spare" have haunted royal siblings for centuries.

The very existence of secondborn children in the British royal family is tied to a crown they'll ideally never hold, as they serve as backups to the direct heirs to the throne.

Still, spares can play a critical role in the monarchy, as was the case for King George VI, who became monarch in 1936 after his brother abdicated. Even as it adapts to the modern world, the heir and spare dynamic continues to shape the monarchy, as evidenced by the title — and contents — of Prince Harry's 2023 memoir.

In the latest generation of royals, Princess Charlotte is the spare to Prince George's heir. However, at just 10, Charlotte is already breaking the mold she was born into, charting a new path for the royals.

Here's everything to know about Princess Charlotte.

Princess Charlotte joins the royal family

In a press release on September 8, 2014, Kensington Palace announced that Kate Middleton was expecting her and Prince William's second child. The statement also said that Kate had hyperemesis gravidarum, as she did with her first pregnancy, and would be missing an engagement in Oxford that day as a result.

Charlotte was born on May 2, 2015, at 8:34 a.m., at the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in London, just like Prince George, Prince William, and Prince Harry were.

William and Kate debuted their daughter to the world during a photocall on the hospital's steps the same day she was born. Kate posed for photos on the hospital's steps after each of her children's births, following in Princess Diana's footsteps.

Charlotte's full name is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, and at the time of her birth, her title was Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge.

Charlotte is the feminine version of Charles, her grandfather's name. Her middle names nod to her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and her late grandmother, Princess Diana.

At her birth, Charlotte was fourth in the royal line of succession, behind her grandfather, father, and older brother.

Queen Elizabeth II ensured Charlotte's position in the line wouldn't be affected by her gender through the Succession to the Crown Act in 2013. The act changed a long-standing rule that male siblings superseded their female siblings' position in the line to the throne. If it hadn't been passed, Prince Louis' birth in 2018 would have moved Charlotte down the line of succession.

After Queen Elizabeth died in 2022, King Charles III made William the Prince of Wales, so his daughter's title became Princess Charlotte of Wales. Likewise, she moved up to third in line for the throne after her great-grandmother's death.

Princess Charlotte's royal life

According to the royal family's website, the princess was christened by the Archbishop of Canterbury at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham in July 2015. Prince George was photographed peering into her stroller at the ceremony.

Charlotte has five godparents, including Kate's cousin, Adam Middleton.

Kate and William released a few photos of the princess as a baby, but she didn't join her parents on an overseas tour until she was 16 months old, in September 2016, when she went with her family to Canada.

Charlotte and Kate wore color-coordinating outfits throughout the trip, a tradition they've kept up throughout Charlotte's life.

Charlotte became a big sister in 2018 when Prince Louis was born, completing the Wales family. The princess attended Thomas's Battersea school in London from 2019 to 2021, and she began attending the Lambrook School after the Wales family relocated to Windsor full-time in 2022.

William and Kate have balanced their children's royal roles with their privacy as they've grown up, allowing them to attend only a handful of royal engagements each year and releasing photos of them for special occasions, like birthdays or holidays.

Charlotte appears annually at Trooping the Colour and the royal family's Christmas walk at Sandringham. She has also been present for milestone moments for the royals, like Queen Elizabeth's funeral in September 2022 and King Charles' coronation in May 2023.

Charlotte often appears to be the most comfortable of her siblings at royal engagements, speaking with members of the public and even correcting her brothers on royal protocol.

The young princess has also been spotted attending less formal events from time to time, showing off a more authentic side of the royal family in the process.

Kensington Palace shared photos of Charlotte at the Eras Tour in June 2024, smiling with William, George, and Taylor Swift. She also joined her mother at Wimbledon in July 2024, accompanying Kate to the first solo engagement she attended after announcing her cancer diagnosis.

Charlotte's comfort in the spotlight, even compared to her older brother, differentiates her from royal "spares" of the past, who are often relegated to the role of wild child in comparison to the heir's steadiness. She seems calm and competent at public events, and she may already be taking after her great-aunt Princess Anne, whose steadfastness is an asset to King Charles.

At only 10, it's clear Princess Charlotte's future in the royal family is bright.

• This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter.
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Good morning! President Donald Trump officially accepted a gifted Boeing 747-8 from Qatar. The plane has been controversial over the potential conflict of interest it poses. But what's it like inside? Look at what's set to be the new Air Force One.

In today's big story, talk is swirling that private equity's recruiting cycle is ramping up, and recent grads are on edge.

What's on deck

Markets: A US recession could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Tech: Internal memos from one of Microsoft's AI leaders show how he plans to transform the tech giant.

Business: Things are not going great for Target.

But first, may the odds be ever in your favor.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

---

The big story

Ready, set, PE

While most recent college graduates are getting ready for their new jobs, a select group is considering their next one.

Some private-equity firms are setting up informal, introductory meetings with soon-to-be junior investment bankers before their caps even hit the ground. These so-called "coffee chats" are the precursor to interviews for jobs that won't start for another two years. The process kicking off so early has hopeful financiers on edge, BI's Emmalyse Brownstein, Reed Alexander, and Alex Nicoll write.

Welcome to Wall Street's "Hunger Games."

If the above sounds confusing, I don't blame you. PE's recruiting cycle doesn't make much sense. Before you start working at your first job (investment banking analyst), you're already interviewing for your second job (private-equity associate).

Take a minute to read the last sentence again if you need to.

Still, that's how things often work on Wall Street: always thinking two steps ahead.

The summer internship that leads to the junior-banker job offer is often secured well over a year before it starts. And your best shot at getting one of those is your university's finance club, which you need to start thinking about the second you get on campus.

Speaking of college, you'd better plan on getting into a target school if … well, you get the idea.

PE firms might eventually find themselves flying too close to the sun.

The junior-banker-to-PE pipeline has been mutually beneficial.

Banks don't have to worry about competing with PE firms for young talent. PE firms don't have to worry about training associates on the basics of dealmaking.

But the ever-earlier timeline hasn't gone unnoticed, and at least one high-profile banker has called PE firms on it.

Speaking at Georgetown University last fall, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said junior bankers taking PE jobs before starting as analysts was "unethical."

"I don't like it, and I may eliminate it regardless of what the private-equity guys say," he added.

To be fair, some PE headhunters tried slowing things down with an industry pact. It didn't take long for one headhunter to break it.

Banks are in a similar conundrum. If they ban analysts from pursuing PE jobs too early, they risk losing out on talent.

After all, plenty of aspiring Wall Streeters just view banks as a stepping stone to getting a job in PE. If they start actively preventing that, what purpose do they serve them?

---

3 things in markets

1. Could America be inadvertently pushing itself into a recession? Doug Ramsey, CIO of The Leuthold Group, thinks it might. In a note to clients, Ramsey pointed to a deteriorating consumer sentiment, which poses a major risk to the recession outlook. He's keeping an eye on a handful of sentiment indicators.

2. The bond market is flipping out, but Morgan Stanley isn't fazed. Though US deficit fears triggered a sell-off in the bond market, strategists at the bank warned against hopping on the "Sell America" train. "TINA — 'there is no alternative' — remains a theme for now," they wrote.

3. The stock market is flashing signals that another dip is coming — and investors should buy it, analysts at BoA say. A technical indicator suggests a near-term drop in stock prices is coming, but BoA says the market is still in a broader uptrend.

---

3 things in tech

1. Meta's performance reviews are about to get harder. Managers are being told to put more employees in their "below expectations" rank — the lowest performer bucket — in the coming midyear performance reviews, per an internal memo seen by BI. The move could set the stage for more performance-based layoffs, despite 4,000 low performers being cut months ago.

2. OpenAI just bagged a $6.5 billion acquisition. Sam Altman's company is buying IO, a hardware startup from former Apple exec Jony Ive — the guy who designed the iPhone. It shows the generative AI competition is now about distribution, not technology, writes BI's Alistair Barr.

3. How Microsoft is bringing its "age of AI agents" to reality. In January, CEO Satya Nadella tapped Jay Parikh, the ex-head of engineering at Facebook, to lead a new unit called CoreAI, which is crucial to Microsoft's AI ambition. Internal memos from Parikh, and viewed by BI, reveal his plan to get Microsoft focused on the macro, CoreAI's early accomplishments, and more.

---

3 things in business

1. Target reports tumbling sales. In an earnings call, Target said the backlash from reframing its DEI program was one of the many headwinds that had an adverse impact on sales, but the exact amount wasn't quantifiable. Some DEI supporters have claimed partial victory, but many say they're not satisfied — and more protests are coming.

2. Is Musk what Tesla needs right now? BI asked four people who have worked with him, as the CEO steps back from DOGE to focus on Tesla amid falling sales and growing competition. One said Musk was Tesla's "product manager," but questioned whether he's the right person to lead the embattled EV maker.

3. Big Law firms say they're not being bribed by Trump. Nine white-shoe firms doubled down on their deals to provide a collective $940 million in pro- bono work for the Trump administration. In letters to Congress, they flatly rejected allegations that the deals were unethical.

---

In other news

• Remote workers flocked to jobs overseas. Now they're being ordered home.
• Walmart says it's cutting roles to 'remove layers and complexity.'
• What we know about Trump's secretive private dinner for top holders of his memecoin.
• Goldman Sachs shares 20 'rising star' stocks that a growing number of hedge funds are betting on.
• Tesla is now accepting Cybertruck trade-ins. Two owners showed BI how much their vehicles have depreciated.
• Fortnite is the No. 1 game after Apple let it back on the App Store. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney tells BI it's a 'priceless' win.
• Founder of AI tool for cheating in interviews predicts everyone will do it — and technical job interviews are on their way out.
• Disney could get a surprise win from Universal's big bet on Epic Universe.

---

What's happening today

• Trump hosts a gala for the top 220 holders of his memecoin.
• Immigration court hearing on ICE detention of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student who led pro-Palestine protests on campus.

• Universal Orlando Resort opens new theme park, Universal Epic Universe.

  ---

The Business Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.

• I tried beef hot dogs from Nathan's, Sabrett, Applegate, and Ball Park.
• Ball Park had the thickest frank, but I thought Applegate's organic hot dogs packed the most flavor.
• I didn't think Sabrett's less-than-flavorful hot dogs warranted their higher price tag.

Nothing says summer quite like a crispy, cooked hot dog with just the right amount of snap.

The sausage industry recognizes the months between Memorial Day and Labor Day as hot dog season, the time of year when the most hot dogs are consumed.

The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council reported that Americans consume roughly 7 billion hot dogs during this time and produce roughly $614 million in hot-dog sales.

Ahead of Memorial Day weekend, I decided to try four different kinds of hot dogs to see which one I would choose for my own cookout.

I opted for beef hot dogs from Applegate, Sabrett, Nathan's, and Ball Park. The Sabrett, Nathan's, and Ball Park packages each included eight beef franks, while the Applegate package included six.

I cooked each type of hot dog the same way. Then I tried each one on a Martin's long potato roll, topped with Heinz ketchup and French's classic yellow mustard.

Here's how all four hot-dog brands ranked, from worst to best.

Tiffany Remington told Newsweek how she uses anatomical language when discussing reproductive health with her kids.

The tax and spending bill is the centerpiece of President Donald Trump's domestic agenda.

The VA has announced $52 million in funding is now available for community-based organizations focused on suicide prevention.

Speaker Mike Johnson joked that he was "going to strangle" Andrew Garbarino for apparently falling asleep before the vote.

• I flew with JetBlue from NYC to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in an EvenMore seat.
• JetBlue's EvenMore rows are premium economy seats with extra legroom.
• I booked basic economy and was upgraded for free. I found that the perks went beyond extra space.

When I booked a six-hour JetBlue flight from NYC to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in basic economy, I didn't expect to feel pampered.

I've flown with this budget airline dozens of times to spend as little as possible on airfare, so I know the drill — get my seat assignment at the gate, and board last.

But this time was different. I was lucky enough to get into the EvenMore section, the airline's premium economy seating, for no additional cost.

The perks went beyond having a more spacious seat at the front of the cabin. By the time I landed, I was already planning to dish out more cash to experience the upgrade on another long-haul flight.

• BMW and Mercedes were outsold at the top of China's car market last year by a domestic brand.
• Aito sold 151,000 vehicles, with its M9 SUV proving popular.
• The brand is owned by Seres, which has tripled sales in three years with its pivot to EVs.

A Chinese electric vehicle brand has overtaken longtime market leaders BMW and Mercedes-Benz at the top of the world's biggest auto market.

Aito, an EV brand launched by Seres Group and tech giant Huawei, topped China's high-end car sales last year with 151,000 units delivered — surpassing BMW's 145,000 and Mercedes-Benz's 127,000, according to data from Shanghai-based consultancy ThinkerCar.

Aito's rise is largely due to the success of its flagship M9, a luxury SUV that went on sale in late 2023.

The M9 quickly proved popular with Chinese drivers thanks to its tech-heavy features, including Huawei's HarmonyOS operating system, a triple-screen dashboard, and premium interior options.

Seres, previously known for low-cost minivans under its DFSK Motor brand, repositioned itself with the Aito brand after forming a strategic partnership with Huawei in 2021.

Since then, rapid growth has resulted. Vehicle sales tripled over three years to about 427,000 units last year, and its stock rose by 120% on the Shanghai exchange over the same period.

Aito's success reflects a major shift in China's premium auto segment, which was once dominated by foreign brands. In 2020, Mercedes-Benz was top with 259,000 sales, followed by BMW on 235,000 and Porsche on 79,000, per ThinkerCar data.

By 2024, Chinese EV makers such as Aito and NIO had broken into the rankings, disrupting what ThinkerCar described as a BMW, Benz, and Audi "monopoly."

Sales of Chinese EVs are also rising outside their home market.

BYD outsold Tesla in Europe for the first time in April, according to JATO Dynamics data released on Thursday.

BYD also outsold Tesla globally in the first three months of the year, selling about 416,000 EVs, compared with Tesla's 336,700 EVs.

• A German brigade has started operations in Lithuania, a NATO state that borders part of Russia.
• It's the first time Germany has put troops in another country on a long-term basis since World War II.
• Both countries describe it as a step to protect Europe and NATO.

Germany has stationed troops abroad on a long-term basis for the first time since World War II, with a new brigade starting operations in Lithuania on Thursday.

The inauguration ceremony for Germany's 45th Armoured Brigade "Lithuania" took place in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital. Lithuania's defense ministry said it marked "the official beginning of this military unit's operations in Lithuania."

The move has been framed by both Lithuania and Germany as one intended to protect Europe and NATO at large, particularly against Russia.

Some have warned that Russia might not stop at Ukraine, and could attack elsewhere in Europe.

Dovilė Šakalienė, Lithuania's defense minister, said in a statement on Thursday that Germany's troops "are here to defend freedom as well as the entire alliance."

She also called Germany's deployment of its troops "a historic example of leadership."

Brig. Gen. Christoph Huber, the commander of the 45th Armored Brigade, said in April that it was being created "for the alliance, for Lithuania, for Europe's security."

The move is a notable one for Germany, which has leaned away from heavy defense actions and spending since World War II.

But Germany's defense spending has grown since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz said this month that his government will provide resources to make its army the "strongest conventional army in Europe."

Lithuania, a NATO member state that borders the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, as well as Russian ally Belarus, has been one of Ukraine's most vocal allies since Russia launched its invasion.

It is also one of NATO's biggest defense spenders as a proportion of its GDP, and one of the countries warning the loudest about future Russian aggression.

Lithuania's defense ministry said on Thursday that there are already around 500 soldiers from Germany in the country, and that the German brigade will now be permanently relocated to Lithuania, including three manoeuvre battalions and all of its combat support and logistics.

The brigade aims to be at full capacity by the end of 2027, which would mean 5,000 German soldiers and civilians operating there.

Šakalienė said that Lithuania "will continue to do everything to create all the infrastructure on time, to provide the necessary host nation support, and to ensure that the German soldiers feel at home."

US troops are also serving in Lithuania, something Šakalienė told BI in February she hoped would continue, even as President Donald Trump distances himself from longtime allies in Europe.

Šakalienė said her country wanted US troops to stay and said she expected the US could see "eye to eye" with countries that pay enough on defense.

Šakalienė also told BI that Europe "needs to up our defense spending very fast and very significantly," and that Europe's defense production needs to increase to match Russia's.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sparked a flurry of defense agreements between countries, and a boost in military spending and production across Europe.

Police advised people to avoid the Murphy Canyon neighborhood of San Diego following the plane crash.

The San Diego Padres have one of the best closers in baseball this season in Robert Suarez, but he could walk away in free agency at the end of the year.

"People are not only losing their businesses, but they're losing their homes in the process," said the former first lady.

Just two steps away from the point of impact, the apartment resident told Newsweek the adrenaline "threw me out of the room."

"A simple phone call to our organization could have changed everything for this cat," a rescue spokesperson told Newsweek.

• Christopher Cuozzo is a custom suit designer based in Boston whose clients include Karoline Leavitt.
• He shared his workwear and formalwear pet peeves, including improper buttoning of suits and tuxedos.
• Cuozzo also said that wearing sneakers with suits is "extremely overdone."

What counts as a fashion faux pas can be subjective, but there are some style choices that suit designer Christopher Cuozzo just can't stand.

Cuozzo, a bespoke menswear and womenswear designer whose clients include White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, told Business Insider that fashion is an art form like any other. Inevitably, people express different tastes and preferences when it comes to their personal style.

"Everybody's going to have their opinion on how something should fit or how something should look, and that's the beauty of it," he said. "Nobody's necessarily right, and nobody's necessarily wrong."

That being said, Cuozzo does have certain pet peeves as a craftsman who cares deeply about how a suit is worn.

Here are five style mistakes he wishes people would stop making.

Mistake #1: Buttoning the bottom of a 2-button jacket

If a jacket has two buttons, Cuozzo says only the top one should ever be buttoned. The bottom one should never be closed in order to maintain the proper fit and style etiquette.

"One of my pet peeves on a two-button jacket is seeing the bottom button buttoned," he told BI. "It's a massive faux pas. I can't stand that."

Mistake #2: Wearing an unbuttoned tuxedo

Tuxedos are about as formal as it gets. Wearing one unbuttoned sends mixed messages, especially at black-tie occasions such as weddings.

Cuozzo urges grooms and others wearing tuxedos at weddings to walk down the aisle with the jacket buttoned to avoid looking too casual.

"It's the most formal day of your life. Please, button your tuxedo jacket," he said.

Mistake #3: Wearing a suit with an untucked shirt

Similar to an unbuttoned tuxedo, an untucked shirt undermines the formality of a suit, Cuozzo says.

"Your dress shirt is untucked, but you're wearing a suit — that's a complete oxymoron," he said. "That would drive me insane."

Mistake #4: Leaving stitching in the vents of a suit

Off-the-rack jackets typically come with the vents, or slits, stitched closed on the back or sides. Those vents are supposed to be opened after purchasing, but not everyone realizes that.

When Cuozzo makes a custom suit, he removes the stitches for the client to help them avoid this style misstep.

"We actually don't give the suit to a client unless it's open," he said. "If you go and you buy a suit off the rack, you'll see people wearing it with the vent still closed, and it just drives me bananas."

Mistake #5: Wearing sneakers with suits

Cuozzo told BI that pairing sneakers — especially high-top shoes like Jordans — with suits is "extremely overdone."

"The pant doesn't even fit the sneaker. The tongue is in the way. That is one of my biggest pet peeves," Cuozzo said of the suits-with-sneakers look. "And then, you'll see guys on the red carpet wearing sneakers with a tuxedo, and I'm just like, 'This has gone way too far.'"

Cuozzo says that there are rare cases where he'd style a suit this way, such as a more casual suit with a drawstring closure worn with a white T-shirt and clean white sneakers. Otherwise, he says formalwear requires formal footwear to match.

"There's just these colliding philosophies where you're wearing a shirt and tie, which tells me you're all business, then I look down at your feet, and you're wearing Jordans. Like, what's going on here?" he said. "Are we going to a meeting, or are we going to a basketball game? You can't do both."

• Tom Cruise returns with death-defying stunts in "Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning."
• In 2023, Cruise told Business Insider that he's "always pushing" to make his films bigger and better.
• Cruise's commitment to his craft, including doing his own stunts, keeps audiences coming back for more.

From climbing the world's tallest building to clinging to the wing of a plane in flight and even jumping on Oprah's couch — there's a reason why Tom Cruise is the last great action star.

It's simple: stunts.

In the 15 years since the release of 2011's "Ghost Protocol," the fourth "Mission: Impossible" film, Cruise has done increasingly hair-raising stunts in each of his new movies.

Earlier in his career, Cruise acted in a greater mix of genres, including the 1994 horror "Interview with the Vampire," the 1996 comedy-drama "Jerry Maguire," and the 1999 erotic thriller "Eyes Wide Shut." In that era, he was considered widely a sex symbol.

Now, he trades in extraordinary feats.

"I'm always pushing," Tom Cruise told Business Insider in 2023 on the red carpet for "Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning."

"Every time they say, 'Can you top it? Can you not top it?' We're always pushing. Every film I do, whatever genre it's in, I want to make it as entertaining as possible for that audience. I know I can do things better," he said.

And it's a winning tactic. "Top Gun: Maverick," in which Cruise flew in real fighter jets, raked in $1.5 billion in 2022, while "Dead Reckoning," where he leapt off a mountain on a motorbike, made $567 million.

In "Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning," which is out on Friday, Cruise performs two nerve-shredding stunts: a scuba dive into the wreck of a submarine that rolls down into an ocean trench, and the climactic third act, where his character clings on to a biplane in flight.

It's expected to make $80 million in its opening weekend, The Hollywood Reporter reported, citing the National Research Group.

Cruise's enduring star power can even grab the attention of the most seasoned industry insiders. Rob Mitchell, the director of theatrical insights at film tech company Gower St. Analytics, recalled working as a sales analyst at Paramount in 2011, when employees did a set visit to see Cruise climb the Burj Khalifa.

"Everyone was taking pictures inside the Burj Khalifa, with Tom Cruise outside waving in," he told BI.

These sorts of stunts signal to audiences that Cruise is a bona fide star who is hardworking and takes his craft seriously—all ingredients of a movie more likely to be worth their hard-earned cash.

Referring to "Mission: Impossible," Mitchell said: "There comes a point where people aren't really going for the story as much as they are for the excitement and the thrills."

"In an era dominated by CGI superheroes, Cruise's staying power lies in the 'authenticity' of his performances," Stuart Joy, the course leader of film and TV at Solent University, UK, told BI. "Like Christopher Nolan, he champions analogue filmmaking in a digital age. But while Nolan does so behind the camera through practical effects and large-format film, Cruise embodies it on screen through real stunts and real danger."

Cruise's dedication to filmmaking has taken him around the world. During an interview at the BFI in London in May, he said he would "force" studios to send him to different countries to learn how movies were made there.

He also said encourages younger stars to "spend time in the editing room, produce a movie, study old movies, recognize what the composition is giving you, know what those lenses are, understand the lighting and how to use it for your benefit."

Last year, Cruise's "Top Gun: Maverick" costar Glen Powell told GQ that he was sent to a theater in Los Angeles to watch a six-hour "film-school" movie that Cruise made just for his friends.

"[Cruise] is like: 'Do we all agree that this is what a camera is? This is the difference between a film camera and a digital camera…' The funniest part is on flying. It was like he put together this entire flight school. So he would literally go 'OK, this is what a plane is. Here's how things fly. Here's how air pressure works,'" Powell said.

Centering his career around stunts is a smart PR move

As well as being undeniably impressive, stunts help to keep past controversies out of the conversation, Joy said.

"Cruise's transition from character-driven roles to stunt-centered performances seems intentional, not just as a creative decision but as a deliberate attempt to recalibrate public perceptions of his star persona," he said.

"After the mid-2000s controversies (most infamously the Oprah's sofa moment and scrutiny of his ties to Scientology) Cruise has successfully redirected the audience's attention," Joy added, referring to the moment in 2005 when he jumped on Winfrey's sofa while talking about his love for his then-girlfriend, and now ex-wife, Katie Holmes.

"Rather than inviting emotional connection through vulnerability, he now earns our praise and admiration through the spectacle of physical risk," Joy said.

Next, Cruise plans to shoot a movie in space with his "Edge of Tomorrow" and "American Made" collaborator, director Doug Liman.

In 2020, Deadline reported that Universal planned to spend $200 million on the film, and collaborate with Elon Musk's SpaceX to shoot it. Cruise and Liman were originally set to take flight in 2021, but the project is yet to materialize.

If it does get off the ground, audiences will likely flock to see "the ultimate Tom Cruise movie," as Mitchell puts it.

But wherever Cruise's career takes him next, Joy said that one thing is for certain: "He's made himself the guardian of a traditional cinematic spectacle."

Elias Rodriguez was arrested after two Israeli embassy employees were shot dead in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

On Wednesday night, Ukraine's military launched what has been described as the largest drone assault on Russian territory since March.

Scottie Scheffler held players currently playing in LIV Golf accountable with providing answers as to when the split between the two tours will end.