• McKinsey's global managing partner said humor and vulnerability can help employees open up.
• Bob Sternfels said he likes to take walks with small groups and participate in fun traditions.
• Sternfels said McKinsey is also continuing to focus on professional development for its staff.

What does the head of McKinsey & Company, one of the world's most prestigious consulting firms, say is essential to leading high-performing teams?

Humor.

"A little levity — a joke at your own expense, a lighthearted moment — can go a long way toward building trust, breaking down barriers, and democratizing the team room," Bob Sternfels, McKinsey's global managing partner and chair of the firm's board of directors, told Business Insider in a an email last month.

Founded in 1926, McKinsey is approaching its 100th year in business. Sternfels, who was first elected by the firm's senior partners to lead it in 2021, said that while the firm might look and sound different than when it started, its mission and values have remained.

He was reelected for a second three-year term in 2024 and heads the firm's 40,000 employees around the globe, a 10% reduction from 18 months prior.

In addition to humor, one simple tool he uses to get employees to open up when he visits the firm's offices around the world is walking.

"I like to invite small groups of colleagues on walks whenever I visit one of our offices — it's a great way to get moving and hear what's really on people's minds," he said.

He also said he likes to join in on fun traditions that colleagues invite him to, like mochi-making in Tokyo, a hot wing challenge in Phoenix, and karaoke in Manila. Participating in these activities helps set a good tone before a town hall, he said, adding, "A little vulnerability on my part helps people open up."

Sternfels is leading McKinsey as the consulting industry faces disruption brought on by AI, and the global economy faces major changes.

A spokesperson for the firm said in May that AI was driving new levels of productivity and that it planned to hire thousands of new consultants this year.

Sternfels said he's drilling down on three main issues in 2025. ("If you know anything about McKinsey consultants, you'll know we rarely have a single answer," he wrote.) They are: distinctive impact with clients, unrivaled employee development, and staying global as a firm.

He said McKinsey was committed to professional development, noting Time magazine ranked it the "best company for future leaders" two years in a row.

"We're also not shying away from continuing to build a diverse meritocracy. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from — it only matters what you've got," he wrote.

As for what he sees as the biggest growth areas looking forward, he said many CEOs are trying to navigate shifting trade policy and supply chain issues, and that "building a musical around geopolitics" is essential for this moment.

Capturing the productivity gains of AI remains top of mind, and it's clear that just incorporating the technology won't be enough.

"Companies will have to really rewire their organizations to fully benefit," he said of AI.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at @kelseyv.21. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• "Love Island USA" is a game show about finding true love and testing that connection.
• Despite the premise of the show, most of the contestants have failed to make strong connections.
• They seem too preoccupied with perception, reflecting our culture of social media and surveillance.

If you want to understand how constantly carrying a camera in your pocket has affected the way we think, behave, and fall in love, watch "Love Island USA."

On Tuesday, the 26th (!!!) episode of season seven aired on Peacock, meaning the original cast members have been secluded in an open-air Fiji villa for about one month. Based on how the show typically progresses, by this time, there should be several strong connections between the islanders, couples for the viewers to root for and, eventually, to vote for as joint winners of a $100,000 cash prize.

Instead, a common refrain among viewers online is that, at this point, no one deserves the money. Calls for the producers to "cut the cameras" and "delete the whole cast" abound.

This season has made a negative impression for various reasons, chief among them being an apparent lack of sincerity. The islanders seem hyper-aware of their role as entertainers and competitors, much too preoccupied with how they're being perceived by an invisible audience to be truly honest and vulnerable with each other.

Can we blame them?

It's not only that cameras are pointed at the islanders from every angle, in every nook and cranny of the villa, during every minute of the day — it's that reality TV has reached the point where viable cast members are already accustomed to those exact conditions.

It's painfully clear that living in an age of constant surveillance has taken its toll on these twentysomethings. This season, the cast's ages have ranged from 21 (Vanna) to 29 (Zak), though most hover in the 23-27 range. Their lives have been defined by the advent and proliferation of smartphones; the rise of YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok; and with these gadgets and platforms, a new kind of celebrity known as the "influencer." These days, some genre of content creator is one of the most commonly cited dream jobs for Gen Alpha kids.

Speaking as someone who came of age in a post-9/11 world, who happily forked over my personal data to Mark Zuckerberg when I had yet to hit puberty, my generation's expectation of privacy ceased to exist pretty quickly. But when a person grows up idolizing those who found fame by broadcasting their personal lives, the value of privacy is also lost.

Meanwhile, the expectation to perform is more intense than ever. Even beyond the villa, it feels like there are spectators everywhere we go — with the way social media trends leak into real life and how people have normalized filming strangers and themselves in the hopes of going viral.

Amaya Espinal is one of the few islanders not afraid to show real emotion

Inside the villa, this expectation is dialed up to maximum levels. With the exception of Amaya Espinal — who is so raw and sincere that her willingness to express emotion has been repeatedly mocked by her castmates — the Gen Zers on "Love Island" seem to be putting up a front because they probably are; it comes as naturally to them as posing for a photo or curating a dating app profile.

This inevitably makes it difficult for the islanders to forge genuine intimacy, especially in the fires of reality TV. As April Eldemire, a licensed marriage and family therapist, previously told Business Insider's Julia Pugachevsky, vulnerability and open communication are keys to a lasting relationship. "You have to go in with open eyes," she said.

However, this doesn't necessarily make the islanders "fake." It makes them products of an environment that billionaires and tech companies created — and a tragic mirror for the rest of us.

• Jeremiah Peoples taught himself how to code while in the military after dropping out of college.
• He got to leverage his new skills at an apprenticeship in the military but felt impostor syndrome.
• Peoples overcame his doubts and landed a job at Slack after his service.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jeremiah Peoples, a 28-year-old staff developer advocate at Slack in Austin. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I work in software engineering as a staff developer advocate without a college degree. After my first semester in Butler University's computer science program, I dropped out and joined the military in May 2016.

While in the military, I taught myself how to code. In February 2020, I started a six-month temporary duty assignment, similar to an apprenticeship, to build satellite applications.

I was immediately reminded of how little I knew. After work, I felt terrible because I felt inadequate and thought they had made a mistake by hiring me.

I ended my enlistment in the military in May 2022 and started at Slack that same month. I've overcome that impostor syndrome.

My job in the military was as an intelligence analyst

I assessed dangers around the world in real time, trying to provide value that could be helpful to the US and military operations.

I enjoyed progressing in rank, the camaraderie, and the structure. In 2019, I volunteered to deploy to the Middle East, where I worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, in a war zone.

While in the Middle East, I realized this wasn't how I wanted to spend the best years of my life.

I needed a change

I started to make a plan and research other careers on YouTube. I saw a few creators who became software engineers without going to college.

I reverse-engineered what they did. I decided to study their videos, essentially do what they did, and hopefully try to achieve the same success.

I started with learning Python from a book, but after a month of working with it, I realized it wasn't the type of coding I wanted to do. I switched from learning Python to JavaScript, HTML, and CSS through an online course that I bought.

Learning to code was tough but really exciting

After my 12-hour shifts, there wasn't much to do besides work out or study. I studied every single day for three hours. I was having a good time and making progress.

I blended my background as an intelligence analyst with my ability to write code, which is how I started working on some technical coding projects in my intelligence job.

After that, I used it to land my temporary duty assignment with Section 31, an Air Force unit in Southern California tasked with creating applications for the Space Force. I was simultaneously an intelligence analyst and a software engineer.

My doubt lasted for over half of the apprenticeship

The feeling of doubt lasted for around three and a half months. It eventually clicked for me that I wasn't supposed to get it that quickly.

I grew up playing sports, and I thought of learning to code as learning sports. I had only been learning to code for about a year, and I was working alongside people who had been working in the industry for longer.

I had to realize that's OK. They're not expecting me to be a professional coder, but they want me to learn and grow. That's when I finally started to turn a corner and realize that I need to increase my reps, study, and practice like I would a sport.

Having a mentor really helped me

When I got a mentor, he streamlined everything I learned, helped me apply it, and told me what I didn't need to learn. Finding a mentor I was comfortable with and someone who had already achieved success where I wanted to achieve success was probably the most important part of my learning.

When I returned home from Iraq, I had two mentors. One was in the Air Force, a senior engineer in my squadron, and I just attached myself to him and asked him so many questions. He was so patient with me. I had another mentor who was a civilian.

I have some mentors now at Slack who are able to challenge me and help me grow.

There's not a single thing I would do differently

I'm extremely grateful and blessed to be in the position I'm in today.

In the Space Force apprenticeship, I did pair programming, which means you sit with another engineer and go back and forth. One writes the technical test, and the other writes the code to make that test pass.

Every time I heard a phrase that I didn't know in a meeting or saw a line of code that I didn't understand, I made note of it. Then, for 30 minutes every single day, I would talk to my mentor and just try to get better.

If you're feeling impostor syndrome, look in the mirror and tell yourself that the people who hired you are smart people, and they hired you for a reason.

As a staff developer advocate now, it's my job to know how to create custom applications in Slack and then teach them to all of our customers around the world with content via on-site workshops, presentations, keynotes, and virtual content.

In 2020, I started a YouTube channel

I documented my process and created content about software engineering. When I was separating from the Air Force in 2022, I put out a little teaser video on Twitter saying that I was open to work. That post went pretty viral, and I got messages about job opportunities at Google, Amazon, and Slack, where I ended up.

I don't have impostor syndrome anymore because I understand what it is. The only way to get through it is by being confident in your abilities.

I'm now confident in my abilities and what I can offer my employer and my community.

Did you land a job without a college degree? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• America's Frontier Fund is raising up to $315 million for its first fund, per a pitch deck viewed by BI.
• The fund will invest $175 million in government loans and $140 million in private capital in national security startups.
• Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Founders Fund partner Peter Thiel have invested in the firm's nonprofit foundation.

A national security-focused VC fund, America's Frontier Fund, is raising a large new fund, capitalizing on the sector's support as the Trump administration rallies behind defense tech.

The firm is raising up to $315 million for its first fund, called the Frontier Fund, according to a pitch deck viewed by Business Insider. In early 2023, the target for the fund was $500 million, per an SEC filing.

The fund will consist of $140 million of private capital from limited partners and $175 million of government loans, according to the deck. The fundraise hasn't closed yet, and the terms of the deal could change. Part of the funding will come through the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technology Initiative, a program launched by the Defense Department and the Small Business Administration to grow private investment in biotech, quantum science, advanced materials, AI, space, and more.

A spokesperson for the venture firm declined to comment on the fundraise.

America's Frontier Fund will receive government-guaranteed loans, matching private investments up to $175 million. The firm will repay the loan with interest over a ten-year period, according to Washington Business Journal, which first reported the fund's government loans in 2024. The fund has also raised $100 million from the state of New Mexico, Bloomberg reported in 2023. The private capital raise has not been previously reported.

The Frontier Fund will give the Arlington, Va.-based firm fresh cash to back startups building frontier technologies — advanced manufacturing, compute solutions, energy, and other highly technical fields — that support American economic and geopolitical influence. America's Frontier Fund recently invested in Venus Aerospace, which makes hypersonic engine technology, and Foundation Alloy, a metal production startup.

$315 million is large for a first fund; market downturn, delayed initial public offerings, and more have hampered venture firm's capacity to raise large sums of money from limited partners. In 2024, 121 US-based venture capital firms raised funds for the first time, notching $5.7 billion in commitments. That year, the average size of a US-based firm's first fund was just under $41 million, over $270 million smaller than the Frontier Fund, according to data firm Pitchbook.

Investments in the defense tech space have surged up to $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025, compared with $200 million the same period last year, according to Pitchbook.

The firm also invests out of its Roadrunner Venture Studios, which backs pre-seed and seed stage startups building frontier tech primarily in New Mexico. Silicon Valley heavyweights like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Founders Fund partner Peter Thiel have invested in the firm's separate nonprofit arm, the America's Frontier Fund Foundation, an initiative to support US technological competitiveness, like partnering with the Austin Community College District on expanding its advanced manufacturing program.

Gilman Louie, the CEO of America's Frontier Fund, previously cofounded and ran In-Q-Tel, the CIA-funded investment firm. Cofounder and managing partner Jordan Blashek formerly worked at Schmidt Futures, Eric Schmidt's family office, now Schmidt Sciences, a philanthropic organization that funds research in AI, advanced computing, biotech, climate, and other industries.

• Bild AI analyzes blueprints to streamline preconstruction processes.
• The five-month-old startup raised a $3.1 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures.
• Bild estimates material costs and will eventually streamline permitting, its cofounder told BI.

A Columbia grad who was one of Google's youngest engineers and a serial entrepreneur who built hundreds of homes starting at age 16 have their sights set on disrupting the construction industry with AI.

Roop Pal and Puneet Sukhija launched construction startup Bild AI in February and on Xday announced a $3.1 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Mission Street Capital, Ryan Sutton-Gee, and Ooshma Garg.

Bild uses AI to read blueprints and estimate the materials and costs associated with a project. This is currently a timely and error-prone process done by hand, Pal said.

The company, which consists of just Pal and Sukhija, will use its seed to hire engineers aggressively in order to expand its technology, Pal told BI.

The duo came up with the idea for Bild at a Hack for Social Impact event in San Francisco, and were accepted into Y Combinator within days of meeting.

"I was really mostly keen on the issue of affordable housing," Pal, who also previously worked at Waymo, told BI. "There's an opportunity to apply my knowledge in computer vision and AI to really make an impact."

The startup's early clients are material suppliers in the framing, flooring, and door businesses, predominantly for multifamily residences. The company makes money by charging subscription fees.

By cutting down on presconstruction costs, Pal said Bild could also spell savings for renters. "If you have elastic housing markets," he said, "this cost passes through and people save on rent."

Material analysis is just the first layer of Bild's vision, as it incorporates new sub-trades — such as windows and roofing — one by one.

As its blueprint-reading technology becomes more sophisticated, it will ultimately be used in the permitting process, Pal said, to catch compliance issues and cut down on the costly and bureaucratic back-and-forth for residential and non-residential projects alike.

"If you reduce 1% of the cost of a hospital, that's another hospital that we have budget to build," he said. "It can really make a big difference broadly."

In addition to Bild, AI is also infiltrating other aspects of the construction industry, with firms like Shawmut and Suffolk relying on the technology to shore up worker safety.

• Zyn owner Philip Morris International US has launched a patriotic ad blitz.
• PMI wants Americans to know more about its corporate brand.
• The push comes as Zyn has soared in popularity.

The owner of buzzy nicotine pouch brand Zyn is taking over the upper deckys of several national newspapers and websites this Independence Day weekend with a patriotic push.

Sales of Zyn have soared in the past two years. The flavored nicotine pouches, placed between either the lower ("lower decky") or upper ("upper decky") lip and gum, are beloved by TikTokers and the conservative manosphere alike.

Zyn's popularity has propelled parent company Philip Morris International's stock to all-time highs. But few Americans know a great deal about Zyn's corporate owner and its US operations.

So, PMI's US division is running an ad campaign titled "Invested in America" across newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, LinkedIn, YouTube, digital news sites including Business Insider, and selected connected TV channels.

PMI said it's hoping to reach "key opinion leaders" as it reintroduces its corporate US brand to America. It wants to raise awareness that Zyn, which was acquired by PMI from Swedish Match in 2022, is manufactured in the US, from its Kentucky facility. PMI also wants its target audience to know that the company's corporate headquarters is located in Stamford, Connecticut, and that it employs around 2,500 people nationwide.

Marian Salzman, PMI's vice president of corporate development in the US, told Business Insider that she and the company's US CEO, Stacey Kennedy, embarked on a listening tour around the US in the fall of 2023, which ultimately culminated in the "Invested in America" campaign. They found commonality around people "wanting a strong and proud America," Salzman said.

Salzman added that the campaign's ambition is to spark greater recognition of PMI's investments in healthier alternatives to smoking and its investments in US communities through job creation and charitable projects.

Patriotic campaigns follow a trend, but also carry a risk

PMI's flag-waving campaign launches in "Made in the USA" month, as designated by the Federal Trade Commission. Amid a global tariff war and President Donald Trump's push to boost domestic manufacturing, brands such as Ford and American Giant have recently shifted their US advertising to proudly promote their American roots. (Some big brands have also sought to play down their Americanness in their marketing overseas.)

PMI will need to tread carefully, said Marcus Collins, a clinical professor of marketing at the University of Michigan.

PMI's heritage is as a tobacco company — with a somewhat confusing corporate history. PMI separated from Altria Group in 2008. PMI still distributes cigarette brands like Marlboro and Chesterfield overseas, while Altria Group sells cigarette brands, including Marlboro, in the US, under the Philip Morris USA subsidiary.

PMI is attempting to shift more of its global business to smoke-free products. But while generally accepted as safer than smoking, nicotine products can still pose health risks, and there are concerns among public health advocates about the appeal of products like vapes and pouches to teens. (The majority of PMI's US sales are from non-combustible products, though it operates a cigar business it acquired in the Swedish Match deal.)

Collins said patriotism in America can carry many different meanings — from MAGA, to resistance, to the idea of capitalism at all costs, to name a few — and that brands need to be intentional about which of these groups they are targeting.

"I think the idea of, let's just grab on to Americanism and let people make their own judgment call or framing about what we mean when we say 'America' or 'patriotism' leaves you open to so much scrutiny for a brand whose products are already controversial," Collins said.

Salzman said the company's aim for the "Invested in America" campaign is to "spark an intelligent dialogue around change." She added that the company follows a strict marketing code, focusing its advertising only on adults who are of the legal age to use nicotine.

"We know that there's going to be naysayers, we know that there's going to be those who challenge this," Salzman said. "We'd really like to stay out of the political debate, and we'd really like this to be a communal debate about, if you won't quit, change."

• The AI talent wars are intensifying as companies like Meta offer salaries in the mid-six figures.
• Federal filings reveal Meta's wage ranges for researchers, engineers, and other workers.
• The highest-paid research engineer at Meta makes up to $440,000 in base salary.

Meta may be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to lure top AI talent from rivals. But how much is it paying its broader workforce of software engineers, product managers, and UX researchers?

Thanks to data from federal filings, we now have a window into the company's salary ranges during a heated moment in Silicon Valley's talent wars.

Software engineers at Meta can make up to $480,000. Machine learning roles go as high as $440,000. Even product designers and researchers routinely top $200,000.

The numbers come from filings that companies must submit to the Department of Labor when hiring foreign workers through the H-1B visa program, which allows them to bring in 85,000 specialized workers annually through a lottery system. Because tech companies typically guard their compensation details closely, these government-mandated disclosures provide a peek into actual pay scales.

The numbers reflect only annual salaries, excluding the stock options, signing bonuses, and other perks that can often double or triple total compensation packages.

The data comes amid intense competition for AI talent in Silicon Valley. Meta is reportedly offering some AI researchers compensation packages worth up to $300 million over four years as it builds out a new Superintelligence lab.

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment.

The frenzy extends beyond tech giants. Thinking Machines Lab, the secretive AI startup founded by former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, is paying technical staff base salaries of up to $500,000 before the company has launched a single product, Business Insider reported earlier this week.

The battle has gotten personal. After Meta lured away seven OpenAI researchers, including Trapit Bansal, co-creator of the company's o1 reasoning model, OpenAI's chief research officer, Mark Chen, said in an internal memo that it felt like "someone has broken into our home."

Here's what Meta is paying across key roles, based on H-1B filings from the first quarter of 2025.

Artificial intelligence: The highest-paid research engineer at Meta makes up to $440,000.

• AI Research Scientist: $179,481 to $232,000
• Artificial Intelligence Product Marketing Manager: $220,000
• Machine Learning Engineer: $165,000 to $440,000
• Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer: $239,723
• Machine Learning Research Scientist: $232,000
• Research Engineer: $154,840 to $400,000
• Senior Machine Learning Engineer: $232,017 to $232,266

Data: A data scientist at Meta earns as much as $270,000.

• Data Analyst: $168,000 to $204,000
• Data Analytics Manager: $223,202
• Data Engineer: $125,068 to $270,000
• Data Engineering Manager: $224,028 to $275,282
• Data Science Manager: $248,920 to $301,619
• Database Engineer: $181,000 to $240,002
• Data Science Director: $320,000
• Data Scientist: $122,760 to $270,000
• Senior Data Engineer: $189,066 to $209,720
• Senior Data Scientist: $204,541 to $227,559
• Senior Manager, Data & Analytics: $280,000

Engineering: Meta software engineers take home up to $480,000 in base salary.

• ASIC Engineer: $165,568 to $299,880
• Business Engineer: $137,000 to $228,538
• Design Engineer: $185,000 to $256,270
• Electrical Engineer: $164,000 to $255,000
• Embedded Software Engineer: $169,313 to $262,822
• Engineering Director: $352,310 to $353,042
• Engineering Manager: $246,536 to $288,767
• Front End Engineer: $177,747 to $233,495
• Hardware Engineer: $176,000 to $240,000
• Network Engineer: $115,000 to $239,237
• Quality Assurance Engineer: $189,213 to $244,000
• Security Engineer: $145,000 to $258,524
• Senior Software Engineer: $194,467 to $302,134
• Software Engineer: $120,000 to $480,000
• Software Engineering Manager: $219,978 to $328,000

Product and program management: A product manager at Meta is paid up to $314,159.

• Privacy Program Manager: $181,139 to $234,461
• Product Designer: $159,000 to $283,693
• Product Design Director: $321,538
• Product Design Manager: $267,540 to $279,594
• Product Growth Analyst: $142,000 to $206,000
• Product Management Director: $356,512
• Product Manager: $161,606 to $314,159
• Senior Product Designer: $199,932
• Senior Product Manager: $224,323
• Technical Program Manager: $164,131 to $274,596

Research: The highest-paid user experience researcher pockets up to $350,000.

• Applied Research Scientist: $214,032 to $232,000
• Hardware Specialized Research Scientist: $214,311
• Perception Research Scientist: $249,369
• Research Scientist: $167,000 to $321,101
• Research Scientist Manager: $258,524
• Senior Research Scientist: $214,032
• User Experience Researcher: $170,000 to $350,000
• UX Research Scientist Manager: $302,134
• UX Researcher: $195,000 to $292,160

• Trump proposed changes to the popular Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
• Negotiators met to discuss the proposal for new limits on employers that qualify for PSLF.
• Some negotiators raised concerns about the education secretary's authority to determine PSLF eligibility.

The lengthy process of changing a student-loan forgiveness program for millions of public servants is underway.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March aimed at limiting the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, created in 2007 to forgive student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments.

While it's unclear which specific organizations — and how many borrowers — could lose PSLF eligibility, the executive order signaled that organizations facilitating transgender healthcare or engaging in disability discrimination, which the administration defined as "anti-American" activities, could be on the line.

That question dominated the discussion during negotiation sessions that took place on June 30 through July 2, during which representatives of the Department of Education met with a range of stakeholders to help craft new language for PSLF.

A draft of the department's proposal to change PSLF, circulated among negotiators, shed more light on how the administration seeks to change the debt relief program. Specifically, the proposal includes revising the definition of a qualifying employer "to ensure that organizations that engage in activities that have a substantial illegal purpose" are not eligible for PSLF.

Those illegal purposes, per the proposal, include discrimination, like a violation of the federal disabilities act; violations of federal immigration law; what the department characterizes as "chemical castration or mutilation," like the use of puberty blockers or hormones to help a transgender person transition; and acts of terrorism.

The education secretary would determine if an employer has engaged in any of those activities on or after July 1, 2026. If the secretary finds any violations, payments a borrower made toward PSLF while working for the ineligible employer would not count.

Some of the negotiators on the committee expressed concerns with making changes to the PSLF eligibility criteria.

"I don't see where the secretary has the authority to remove the employer eligibility definition," Betsy Mayotte, the president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors and a representative of student-loan borrowers, said during a session. She added that "these jobs are essential to the communities that they serve. So the intent of Congress was not to narrow the eligibility. It was to make it as expansive as possible under the statute that they wrote."

Jacob Lallo, a general attorney with the Department of Education, said that "there is broad rulemaking power for the secretary to promulgate regulations that interpret statutes. That is a long-standing part of American agency and administrative law."

While negotiations have concluded, the committee ultimately did not reach consensus, and any changes will take time to become finalized. As the Department of Education works on the final text to amend PSLF, there will be more opportunities for public comment.

"I'm proud that the committee members representing institutions of higher education, veterans, taxpayers, borrowers, and the business community have helped fulfill one of President Trump's promises to ensure that PSLF does not subsidize organizations that are breaking the law," Acting Under Secretary of Education James Bergeron said in a statement.

'Borrowers organized entire careers around this promise'

Some negotiators raised the alarm on establishing new definitions in areas that are not directly related to student loans, like the clause seeking to include the use of puberty blockers as an example of chemical castration.

"I don't think that the folks assembled to be part of this rulemaking were assembled for their medical expertise," Abby Shafroth, a representative from the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project, said. "I think we're here with student loan expertise, and so I would feel very uncomfortable setting a new legal definition for these medical terms."

Negotiators on behalf of the Department of Education maintained that the intent of limiting PSLF is not to completely overhaul the program; it's to ensure that those participating in the program have employers who are delivering a public service to the American public. The proposal would also allow employers that the secretary determines to be ineligible for PSLF to respond to and challenge the department's findings before a final decision.

Trump's original executive order said that PSLF has previously "misdirected tax dollars into activist organizations that not only fail to serve the public interest, but actually harm our national security and American values, sometimes through criminal means."

It did not provide specific examples of those activities, leaving some borrowers who rely on the program on edge. One borrower advocate, who spoke during the public comment period of negotiations, said that "people are paralyzed by anxiety because rules keep shifting."

"Borrowers organized entire careers around this promise, and now they live in constant fear of the next change," she said. "The currently proposed barriers will do little to stop wrongdoing, but will create enormous administrative burden."

Borrowers who rely on the program previously told Business Insider that any change to the program puts the relief they are depending on at risk.

"I'm so close to the finish line," Jeff Hughes, a public service worker enrolled in PSLF, said. "I really hope that the program continues as is because we need some more good people out there doing good work."

• Zohran Mamdani is running for mayor in NYC on a few key policies, including free public buses.
• Fare-free buses could increase ridership and reduce driver assaults, as seen in NYC's pilot.
• But funding challenges and political hurdles lie ahead.

New York City's Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is running on some eye-catching promises. One of them is free public buses.

Mamdani argues that ending fees on buses, whose 2 million daily riders are disproportionately low-income, would allow the system to move more people — and more quickly, while relieving financial strain on the neediest.

It's a controversial proposal with a tricky political path to implementation, one that a few US cities, such as Boston and Kansas City, have tried.

Mamdani and other proponents point to New York City's recent yearlong free bus pilot, which he pushed for as a state legislator, in which one route in each of the five boroughs exempted all riders from the normal $2.90 fare.

The experiment resulted in a 30% increase in weekday riders and a 38% increase in weekend riders on the free buses, although many of these riders simply shifted from paid to unpaid routes. There was also a nearly 40% reduction in assaults on bus drivers, altercations that often stem from a dispute over fare evasion, according to an MTA report.

Meanwhile, critics say making all of the city's buses free — to the tune of about $700 million a year — isn't financially feasible or the best use of taxpayer money.

How other US cities have fared without fares

Kansas City was the first major metro in the US to fully support free fares in 2019, with Boston following in 2022 with a few prominent routes eliminating fees. Some smaller cities, like Alexandria, Virginia, and Tucson, Arizona, have also implemented free bus rides, but not at the scale of Mamdani's plan.

In Kansas City, reports of safety and security incidents dropped by 39% in the first year of zero-fare rides. Riders in Boston also saved, on average, $35 a month through the first year of implementation, according to a press release from the Boston Transportation Department.

Kansas City bus riders like Joy Mart, a 28-year-old software engineer, told Business Insider the program is essential, especially for those looking for a job or on a fixed income. Mart lost their job a few years ago, and said that as a newcomer to Kansas City, the free buses helped them tremendously.

"It was just so helpful, since you know, we're counting pennies at that point," Mart said. Riders previously paid $50 for a monthly pass or $1.50 per ride.

Mart is a leader with Sunrise Movement KC, an activist group that advocates for economic, climate, and racial justice. The group also supports and is petitioning for zero-fare buses at a time when some of its critics' biggest concerns are playing out. Due to budget shortfalls, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and the City Council approved reimplementing $2 fares to avoid major service cuts and driver layoffs. While the city already funded free buses for the next six months, after this period, the City Council will either rescind its plans or move forward with cutting services and bringing back fares.

Indeed, funding remains the largest hurdle for many cities. Kansas City residents already pay for the free bus system through a sales tax reallocation. The ⅜-cent sales tax funded about 30% of the free bus fare program and will continue through 2034, according to the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.

In New York, the mayor doesn't have control over the MTA, which is a state agency, but Mamdani has said he hopes to partially fund the program in part by collecting overdue fines on landlords. A spokesperson for the Mamdani campaign didn't immediately return BI's request for comment.

The MTA is already juggling a slew of urgent priorities, including desperately needed large-scale infrastructure improvement projects. Without a sustainable funding source, the program won't deliver what it promises, Zhan Guo, a professor of urban planning and transportation policy at NYU, told Business Insider. But Guo also wants to see more evidence that free buses would be more reliable and efficient than the current system.

"This idea is very appealing to the general public, but I also feel there are actually many other options we haven't fully explored or utilized," he said.

Guo thinks a Mamdani administration would be wise to start by expanding on the pilot program to test the waters. Regardless of whether Mamdani fulfills his key campaign promise, Guo said, it's a "very good time to talk about fare policy."

"I like the fact that public transit, bus fares, such a very technical topic, became so visible in the mayor's campaign," Guo said. "This is actually a wonderful opportunity to engage the public."

Helping low-income New Yorkers

Proponents of free buses point to a slew of potential upsides to the policy. For one, buses tend to serve neighborhoods with poor access to trains and low-income populations who could spend their savings from bus fares on other essentials.

Low-income New Yorkers are already eligible for half-price bus and subway fares through the MTA's Fair Fares program. But only about 38% of eligible people use the program. At the same time, nearly half of riders evade bus fares, costing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — the state agency that runs the city's subways and buses — hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

The equipment and personnel needed to collect fares are costly, too. Mamdani has pointed to the Staten Island Ferry, which has been free to ride for the last nearly 20 years, as an example of fare-free transit, which was made that way in part because collecting fares was too expensive.

Mamdani and other supporters of the policy argue that buses can board passengers more efficiently without fares, keeping them on time and moving quickly while reducing conflict between bus drivers and riders evading the fare.

"Some people see a tension between fast and free buses, but we shouldn't have to choose," Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the grassroots transit group Riders Alliance, told Business Insider. "We should be able to have both buses that move and buses that people can afford and that are worth paying for, even if not everyone or no one has to pay for them."

• President Donald Trump has announced a trade deal with Vietnam.
• He lowered tariffs on Vietnam to 20% but is slapping 40% tariffs on transshipments through the country.
• Vietnam has benefited from supply-chain shifts due to US-China trade tensions.

President Donald Trump just gave Vietnam a trade break — and used it to squeeze China.

On Wednesday, Trump announced a trade deal with Hanoi that would levy 20% on imports from Vietnam, down from the 46% rate Trump announced on "Liberation Day." In return, Vietnam has agreed to allow American goods to enter the country duty-free.

What's also significant is that Trump announced a 40% tariff on goods shipped from another country via Vietnam to the US — a move that analysts say is aimed squarely at transshipments from China.

"The 'China quotient' in US negotiations with other Asian economies is arguably evident in the deal with Vietnam," wrote Vishnu Varathan, Mizuho's macro research head for Asia, excluding Japan, in a Thursday note.

"The US's intent is quite obviously to not disincentivize Vietnam's role as a substitute for China at a lower 20% tariff," he added.

Vietnam has benefited from global supply-chain shifts away from China since Trump's initial trade war during his first term. In response to those tariffs, many multinational companies, including Chinese firms, moved manufacturing operations to lower-cost hubs like Vietnam to sidestep US duties.

Last year, the US ran a $123.5 billion trade deficit with Vietnam, making it America's third-largest trade gap after China and Mexico, according to the US Trade Representative's office.

A model for future trade deals?

The move follows a temporary truce between Washington and Beijing in May, when both sides agreed to a 90-day pause in their tariff war. The US slashed duties on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, while China lowered its tariffs on American imports from 125% to 10%.

Still, the transshipment tariff on Vietnam underscores the Trump administration's effort to close the backdoor for Chinese exporters seeking loopholes into the US market.

"A tariff framework that targets transshipment while preserving the potential benefits of efficient cross-border commerce is a smart move— and a model for future trade deals — if enforced transparently and paired with clear rules of origin," wrote Eli Clemens, a policy analyst at Washington-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan research institute, on Wednesday.

The move also shows that Washington can stop Chinese supply chains from extending themselves into Southeast Asia.

"Future trade negotiations should also include targeted transshipment deterrents that level the playing field for US manufacturers and retailers," Clemens wrote.

Asia in a bind

Washington's focus on transshipment enforcement puts pressure on other Asian economies, which may find themselves forced to choose sides.

"It would be remiss to ignore this critical pillar of US trade deals with the rest of Asia, which is trained on undermining China's economic reach and influence," wrote Varathan.

The deal may also reinforce Beijing's view that US trade negotiations lacks "good faith." It could prompt retaliation — not just against the US, but also against Asian economies seen as siding with Washington.

"Other Asian economies will be particularly vulnerable to a two-sided geoeconomic squeeze given that their reliance on both China and US are significant," Varathan added.

Despite reservations about the deal, it still excited investors.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite soared to record highs on Wednesday, and US stock futures are extending gains early on Thursday.

Vietnam's widely followed VN-Index also rose to its highest level since April 2022.

• Ukraine's air force released footage of its Raven missile systems downing Russian drones.
• The system uses an air-to-air missile that the UK tweaked in four months to fire from a 6×6 Supacat.
• The UK says the Raven missile system has a success rate of 70% out of 400 engagements.

Ukraine's air force released footage on Wednesday of UK-made Raven air defenses striking Russian air targets in at least five instances.

The video features a Ukrainian air defense crew discussing their experiences with the system, and their interviews are interspersed with clips of the missile soaring into the sky to destroy Russian drones.

The Raven fires what was originally the British Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile, also known as the AIM-132, which is mainly equipped on the Royal Air Force's Typhoon and F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft.

However, the UK's defense ministry said in 2022 that it had transformed the missile into a version for Ukraine that could fire from a British 6×6 HMT600 Supacat transport vehicle. At the time, it was touted as a key way for Ukraine to defend itself from Russian missile strikes.

The Asraam is particularly useful because it's infrared-guided and locks onto its target once launched, even in poor weather. Ground crews can fire it and relocate quickly, and they don't need to maintain a line of sight with their target.

UK defense officials said in 2023 that their teams took roughly four months to make the missile ground-launched and to train Ukrainian crews to use the Raven.

However, in an official video published in May, Col. Olly Todd of the UK's task force supporting Ukraine said the Raven "went from concept to delivery" within three months.

"They've conducted over 400 engagements, which understand with a success rate of over 70%," Todd said.

The Supacats are fitted with missile mounts taken from decommissioned UK jets, such as the BAE Hawk, SEPECAT Jaguar, and Panavia Tornado. These are classes of fighter aircraft that were retired from combat over the last two decades.

Crews inside use a gamepad controller to identify targets on a screen and activate the missile's infrared lock-on system.

With drones saturating the skies over Ukraine, Raven crews said in the Wednesday video that they've largely been targeting uncrewed systems, plastering their Supacat with stickers of Russian Orlan, Shahed, and Zala drones to mark every kill they scored.

The Raven's launch controls feature four switches that prepare each mounted missile and a large red button for firing.

A Ukrainian Raven operator speaking to the camera said crews are generally trained so all members, including the driver and commander, can replace each other if needed.

According to a June statement by the UK's defense ministry, Ukraine has been supplied with eight Raven systems and is due to receive another five.

The UK says that the Asraam missiles supplied to Ukraine were sitting in its inventory but were due to expire, meaning they'd have soon been marked for disposal if not sent to Kyiv.

Ukraine deploys other air defense systems similar to the Raven because they combine a hybrid mix of munitions and launchers originally built for separate systems.

Known colloquially as "FrankenSAMs," they include modified Soviet-era Buk M1s that can fire the American RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile, as well as Soviet radars that pair with the AIM-9M Sidewinder air-to-air missile.

• Meta is training custom AI chatbots to send unprompted follow-up messages and boost user engagement.
• Contractors at Alignerr help develop bots that remember chats and personalize replies on Meta apps.
• Mark Zuckerberg has said AI companions are a potential fix for the "loneliness epidemic."

It's the AI equivalent of a double text.

Business Insider has learned Meta is training customizable chatbots to be more proactive and message users unprompted to follow up on past conversations.

It may not cure what Mark Zuckerberg calls the "loneliness epidemic," but Meta hopes it will help keep users coming back to its AI Studio platform, documents obtained by BI reveal.

The goal of the training project, known internally to data labeling firm Alignerr as "Project Omni," is to "provide value for users and ultimately help to improve re-engagement and user retention," the guidelines say.

Meta told BI that the proactive feature is intended for bots made on Meta's AI Studio, which can be accessed on its own standalone platform or through Instagram. AI Studio first rolled out in summer 2024 as a no-code platform where anyone can build custom chatbots and digital personas with unique personalities and memories.

The guidelines from Alignerr lay out how one example persona, dubbed "The Maestro of Movie Magic," would send a proactive message:

"I hope you're having a harmonious day! I wanted to check in and see if you've discovered any new favorite soundtracks or composers recently. Or perhaps you'd like some recommendations for your next movie night? Let me know, and I'll be happy to help!"

"Like many companies, we're testing follow-up messaging with AIs in Meta's AI Studio," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to BI. "After you initiate a conversation, AIs in Meta AI Studio can follow up with you to share ideas or ask additional questions. This allows you to continue exploring topics of interest and engage in more meaningful conversations with the AIs across our apps."

Alignerr did not respond to a request for comment.

How the follow-ups work

Users can create highly personal chatbots, like a chef that suggests recipes or an interior designer that gives decor advice. For creators and influencers, the bots can handle fan interactions and respond to messages across Meta's platforms.

Meta's spokesperson added that the AI will only send a follow-up message after a user initiates a conversation, and it will not continue to contact the user if there's no response to that first follow-up. The window for any follow-up message is capped at 14 days after the initial user message. To be eligible for proactive follow-up, a user must have sent at least five messages to the chatbot in the last 14 days.

The bots made on AI Studio can be kept private for personal use or shared through stories, direct links, and even displayed on a user's Facebook or Instagram profile, the Meta AI Studio website says.

Making the bots more proactive aligns with Zuckerberg's ambitions for AI at Meta. On recent podcasts, the Meta CEO has said the average American now has fewer than three close friends and that digital agents could help fill the gap.

There's also a business reason for friendlier, proactive bots. Retention is key for generative AI companies with user-facing chatbots, and the longer users spend with a chatbot, the more valuable those interactions become, similar to engagement on social media. According to court documents that were unsealed in April, Meta predicted that its generative AI products would rake in $2 billion to $3 billion in revenue in 2025.

Some features described in Alignerr's training guidelines are already being quietly tested, while others appear to be in early rollout or pilot stages. Meta did not specify which features are live to BI.

The proactive features are similar to those of Character.AI, a startup that launched a service in 2022 that lets users create and interact with their favorite AI-powered characters or celebrities.

'It’s all about attention to detail'

Using an internal Meta review tool called SRT, freelancers simulate extended conversations with the bots, rate proactive follow-up messages, and sometimes rewrite text that falls short of Meta’s guidelines, two Alignerr contractors told BI.

A freelancer based in India who worked on Omni told BI it’s “a long-term project” with a focus on making Meta’s AI feel more personal and context-aware. “They’re very focused on personalizing information — how the AI chatbot interacts based on conversation history,” the contractor said.

“Each agent had a specific description, so you had to tailor each task to fit that persona. Again, it’s all about attention to detail,” the freelancer said. Personas could range from a doctor to a Gen Z hip-hop commentator.

Bots are expected to reference details from earlier chats, maintain their assigned persona, and keep the interaction on-topic.

Each message should align with the AI’s personality, match the previous context of the conversation, and "provide positive experiences," while explicitly avoiding anything Meta deems sensitive or harmful content.

The best messages, according to the training document, reference something concrete from the user’s past conversations.

According to the training documents, all proactive messages must comply with Meta’s broader Content and Responsibility Standards, avoiding controversy, misinformation, or emotionally heavy topics — unless the user brings them up first.

Have a tip? Contact Effie Webb via email at [email protected] or Signal at efw.40. Contact Shubhangi Goel via email at [email protected] or Signal at shuby.85. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Charlize Theron, who adopted her daughters in 2012 and 2015, says she enjoys being a single mother.
• Her self-awareness and her parents' toxic relationship shaped her decision to raise kids on her own.
• "I can only tell you that this is the best way that I know how to be a mother to them," she said.

Charlize Theron, 49, has zero regrets about doing motherhood solo.

During an appearance on Wednesday's episode of "Call Her Daddy," Theron spoke about her life as a single mother of two. She adopted her daughters Jackson and August in 2012 and 2015, respectively.

The "Mad Max: Fury Road" actor told podcast host Alex Cooper that her parents' relationship was a "cautionary tale" that helped her realize she didn't want to be in one. Theron was 15 when she witnessed her mother fatally shoot her alcoholic father in self-defense.

Theron said it was a "layered and complicated" decision driven by two factors: not wanting what her parents had and recognizing that she "did not have the capability of being healthy in a relationship."

"Those two things I had to acknowledge when I decided to be a parent, and I think it's probably one of the healthiest decisions I ever made," she said.

However, she acknowledges that there's still a stigma being placed on women who choose to be single.

"With women, it's always like, something must be wrong with her. She can't keep a man. And it's never part of the discussion of like, 'Wow, she's really living her truth. She's living in her happiness. This is actually a choice that she made,'" Theron said.

"I want to look at them, and just be like, 'Do you know how fucking great it is to live exactly how I want to live?' To experience motherhood exactly how I wanted to experience it," she added.

Theron says some people might question whether her decision was fair to her children, but in the end, only they can speak to their own experience.

"I can only tell you that this is the best way that I know how to be a mother to them," she said.

"I love every single day of it. I love that I don't have to share them with somebody. I love that I don't have to run every fucking thing by a guy," she added.

Theron said she "broke the cycle" by knowing exactly what she didn't want in a relationship and what she had to offer.

"And who I am at the time that I wanted to be a parent was not somebody who should be having kids with another person," Theron said.

Theron isn't the only celebrity who has spoken about being a single parent.

Lucy Liu told The Cut in 2023 that the decision to have a child in her late 40s via surrogacy — as a single woman — was largely unplanned. "I didn't do a lot of research, I just pulled the trigger," Liu said.

In a March interview with Parade, Connie Britton — who adopted her son from Ethiopia as a single woman at 45 — said she always wanted to be a mother.

"I knew that I hadn't achieved the kind of partnership that I was looking for to have a spouse and a child together. And so I thought, 'This is the time, I'm going to start the adoption process,'" Britton said.

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

• The Trump-Jerome Powell feud continues, this time with Trump calling on Powell to resign immediately.
• Trump amplified calls for Congress to investigate Powell on the Fed's headquarters renovation.
• Trump previously said Powell's "termination cannot come fast enough."

President Donald Trump's long-standing feud with Fed Chair Jerome Powell burns on, this time with him calling on Powell to resign immediately.

In a Wednesday night Truth Social post, the president said, "'Too Late' should resign immediately!!!"

"Too Late" is his nickname for the top banker, a criticism of Powell's refusal to lower interest rates.

In his post, Trump included a headline from a Wednesday Bloomberg article about Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, calling on Congress to investigate Powell.

In a Wednesday post on X, Pulte said Congress should investigate Powell over the central bank's headquarters renovation plans.

"I am asking Congress to investigate Chairman Jerome Powell, his political bias, and his deceptive Senate testimony, which is enough to be removed 'for cause,'" Pulte wrote in his statement on X.

Trump's animosity with Powell stretches back to his first term in office — he accused the Fed in 2019 of holding the stock market back.

Later that year, he said in an interview on the Fox Business Network that Powell was not doing a good job.

In 2020, Trump said he had the right to remove Powell as Fed chair, to "put him in a regular position and put somebody else in charge."

This April, Trump kicked off his criticism of Powell again, saying on Truth Social that Powell's "termination cannot come fast enough."

Trump has reportedly been weighing replacements for Powell, whose term ends in May 2026. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump plans to float a replacement as soon as September or October.

Representatives for Trump and the Federal Reserve did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• BYD is halting Mexico factory plans over US trade policy concerns.
• US tariffs on Mexico-made cars are affecting automakers including Nissan and Stellantis.
• BYD is opening a factory in Brazil, its first outside Asia.

The world's largest electric vehicle maker is halting plans to build a major factory in Mexico due to concerns about US trade policies.

On Wednesday, BYD said that the company still plans to expand further into North or South America, but it does not have a timeline for the plan.

"Geopolitical issues have a big impact on the automotive industry," Stella Li, an executive vice president, said in an interview with Bloomberg. "Now everybody is rethinking their strategy in other countries. We want to wait for more clarity before making our decision."

In September, Bloomberg reported that the EV giant would not announce a major plant investment in Mexico until after the US election. In March, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said BYD had not made a formal offer to invest in the country.

President Donald Trump's tariffs have been a big pain point for US and global automakers. Cars coming from Mexico to the US remain subject to a 25% tariff.

Car manufacturers have responded in various ways, from offering discounts to shoppers who hope to avoid future price hikes to adding import fees on vehicles built outside the US. Some producers, like Stellantis and Nissan, have cut back on Mexico-based production.

In the region, BYD is opening a plant in the Brazilian state of Bahia, the company's first factory outside Asia.

In December, Brazilian authorities halted the construction of BYD factory and sued the company, saying that construction workers lived in slavery-like conditions. Over 160 workers had been rescued from the working conditions, according to a statement from a Brazilian labour authority.

The statement said that workers were put in "degrading" conditions and had their passports and salaries withheld by a service provider for BYD.

At the time, BYD said affected workers had been moved to hotels. It added that it had conducted a "detailed review" of the working and living conditions for subcontracted employees and asked on "several occasions" for the construction firm to make improvements.

On Wednesday, Li said the episode prompted the company to reassess its approach to international expansion.

"We should slow down, step back from the focus on speed. We need to work more with local companies," she said. "It will take longer, but that's OK."

Chinese players, including BYD, Xiaomi, Nio, and Xpeng, have been undercutting Tesla's prices and gaining market share in China and Europe. BYD is on track to sell more than 5 million cars this year, and the company sold more EVs than Tesla in Europe for the first time in April.

BYD stock is up 38% so far this year because of strong battery technology, its affordability, and global expansion.

• Rivian Automotive reported its 2025 second-quarter production and delivery results.
• Rivian produced 5,979 vehicles and delivered 10,661 vehicles this quarter, a year-over-year decline from Q2 2024.
• Tesla's deliveries also dropped in Q2, just missing analysts' expectations.

It's not just Tesla.

Rivian Automotive's Q2 deliveries were also down. The company shared its production and delivery results on Wednesday. It delivered 10,661 vehicles in the quarter ending on June 30. That's a noticeable drop compared to the same time last year, when Rivian delivered 13,790 vehicles. Reuters reported a 22% decline.

Its stock dipped on Wednesday and closed down 4.45%.

The company shared that it produced 5,979 vehicles at its Illinois-based manufacturing facility during the last quarter. The company produced 9,612 vehicles during the same time in 2024.

"Production was limited during the second quarter in preparation for model year 2026 vehicles expected to launch later this month," the company said on Wednesday. "Production and delivery results for the quarter are in line with Rivian's outlook."

Rivian said it received a $1 billion equity investment from Volkswagen Group as part of a joint venture between the two companies.

Tesla, led by Elon Musk, also shared delivery numbers on Wednesday.

The company delivered 384,000 electric vehicles during its second quarter, which missed Wall Street analysts' expectations. It marks the largest quarterly decline in pure numbers in Tesla's history.

The electric vehicle industry faces headwinds as it navigates consumers' uncertainty and the fallout from President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Tariffs and consumer concerns aren't the only obstacles that could trip up the electric vehicle industry.

Trump's domestic tax and spending bill would also affect the clean energy sector. The bill, if passed and signed into law, could end the $7,500 EV tax credit on new leases and electric vehicle sales by the end of September, according to Reuters. Although Rivian didn't qualify for the tax credit, the company relied on a leasing loophole to utilize it. The potential loss of the tax credit could impact companies like Tesla, though.

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

• Hosting a birthday party for kids can put a lot of pressure on parents.
• We chose to skip the expense and effort this year, and spent a day at the beach with our daughter.
• The low-key day allowed us to focus on connection and making memories.

When our child's fifth birthday came around, we found ourselves utterly exhausted not just from the day-to-day work of parenting, but from the pressure that seems to accompany birthday parties these days. Pinterest-perfect themes. Goodie bags with custom stickers. Bounce house rentals booked three months out. It had started to feel less like a celebration of our child's life and more like a tiny wedding, complete with logistics, financial stress, and a whole lot of performative joy.

So we did something that felt radical, even a little taboo: we didn't invite any kids. No classmates. No cousins. No carefully managed RSVP spreadsheet. Instead, we packed a cooler, baked a cake, grabbed a kite, and headed to the beach. It was just the three of us.

There were no crowds, no timelines, no pressure to socialize or small talk our way through another parental rite of passage. Just waves, sand, wind, and a very happy five-year-old chasing seagulls and licking chocolate frosting off her fingers.

It was the best birthday celebration any of us have ever had.

Our small celebration allowed us to connect

The shift was subtle but profound. Instead of orchestrating a timeline of activities and making sure everyone else's kid was fed, hydrated, and entertained, we got to be fully with our daughter. We swam. We laughed. We got sand in our sandwiches and didn't care. We sang "Happy Birthday" without the background noise of a dozen distracted toddlers. Our daughter wasn't missing out — she was soaking in undivided attention, connection, and the freedom to just be.

In hindsight, what surprised me most wasn't just how well our small gathering went, but how deeply it revealed the quiet stress so many of us have normalized. There's a kind of parenting performance that creeps in around birthdays. We feel it in the Instagram posts, the subtle comparisons, the urge to not let our kid be "the one" with the low-key celebration. We tell ourselves it's for them, but so often, it's about us. About proving something our love, our effort, our place in the parenting pack.

Memories were made

Now I've realized that saying no to the spectacle is its own kind of love. What if scaling back isn't about depriving our kids, but about showing up more fully?

I know not everyone can take a beach day. I know there are kids who want the party, the crowd, the glitter tattoos and that's beautiful, too. But I think there's room in the conversation for stories like ours. For birthdays that are slow and sandy. For quiet decisions that go against the grain and end up feeling just right.

Weeks later, our daughter still brings up that day. "Remember my beach birthday?" she'll say, and her whole face lights up. She doesn't mention presents or party favors. She remembers the pelicans. The chocolate cake. Us.

I'm not here to spark a party backlash or say there's one right way to celebrate. But I do want to offer this: if the birthday pressure is getting to you, you're not alone. And opting out even just once might give you the space to opt in more fully to what matters. No goodie bags required.

• The Trump administration is pausing ammunition delivery to Ukraine amid concerns for US stockpiles.
• Reports on the pause indicate that the most effective American weapons Ukraine has received could be affected.
• NATO's secretary general said that Ukraine needs all the help that it can get.

The US is halting the delivery of ammunition to Ukraine, and reports indicate that some of the most effective and necessary American weapons the country has received could be affected. Ukraine says it is working to get answers.

Hits to air defense interceptor capacity, for instance, could hinder its strained batteries at a moment when Russia is ramping up its attacks. Over the weekend, it struck Ukraine with one of the largest bombardments of the war.

The decision to cancel a shipment of weapons and ammo that had been promised by the Biden administration was confirmed on Wednesday.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told Business Insider that "this decision was made to put America's interests first following a DoD [Department of Defense] review of our nation's military support and assistance to other countries across the globe."

She added that "the strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned — just ask Iran."

News on the decision was first reported by Politico, which said that it came after the Pentagon reviewed its stockpiles and expressed concern that some critical munitions were in dwindling supply, raising questions about US readiness. The Pentagon has made threats like China a priority, and readying to meet that threat would require a significant amount of weaponry.

A US defense official told BI that DoD continues to provide President Donald Trump with "robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine, consistent with his goal of bringing this tragic war to an end." At the same time, they said, the department is also "rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving US forces' readiness for Administration defense priorities."

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a later briefing that the pause comes amid an ongoing capabilities review for the department. He characterized it as a common-sense approach to determine what weapons are going where and for what purpose.

Freeze on critical munitions

Neither the White House nor the Department of Defense specified the type of weapons being withheld, but a number of reports indicate that key US systems could be impacted, including howitzers, Patriots, and HIMARS, systems that have been critical in this war. The air defenses, in particular, have been critical in shielding Ukraine's cities from Russian missile strikes.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that officials are clarifying the changes with their US counterparts, and stressed the importance of air defenses.

Trump acknowledged at the annual NATO summit last week that Ukraine wanted more Patriot interceptors and said the US would "see if we can make some available," but he cautioned that "they're very hard to get. We need them, too."

The US-made M1M-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system, manufactured primarily by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, has been key to protecting Ukraine from Russian missile strikes since Kyiv first received it two years ago. Ukraine now reportedly operates six Patriots across the country.

Other countries, like Germany and the Netherlands, have also provided Patriots and could potentially provide interceptors. Ukraine has said it's running low on the interceptors, meaning the delay of further supplies from the US could be detrimental.

"Patriot systems are vital to Ukraine's ability to defend against Russian ballistic missile strikes," the DC-based think tank Institute for the Study of War said recently.

This is especially true "as Russia is reportedly increasing its production and stockpile of ballistic missile production capacity to enable larger and more frequent ballistic missile strikes against Ukraine," it said. Reports indicate that interceptor missiles used by other systems could also be on hold.

The US and Qatar fired Patriots to defend a US base there from Iranian missiles, in what a top general called the largest Patriot air battle in history. And a top admiral warned last year that the shipments to Ukraine were using Patriots that could be utilized elsewhere.

The delay of other systems, like rocket artillery for HIMARS, could hurt Ukraine's ability to conduct deep strikes against targets behind enemy lines. HIMARS, made by Lockheed Martin, launch GPS-guided rockets with a range of 50 miles. Ukraine made waves with high-profile strikes using HIMARS on columns of Russian troops, command centers, and ammunition depots, constraining Moscow's logistics network early in the war.

HIMARS can fire a six-pack of precision-guided Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems or one Army Tactical Missile System, a long-range guided missile. Under Biden, the US provided only a limited number of ATACMS missiles due in part to the size of its own stockpile.

While Russian electronic warfare countermeasures and ammunition shortages have reduced the overall combat effectiveness of HIMARS, the weapons have given Ukraine a key capability.

In artillery battles, M777 howitzers have also been beneficial, but 155mm ammunition, said to be part of the hold, can be fired by many artillery systems. Holds could strain those capabilities, as the 155mm shells are in high demand.

What the US decision means for Ukraine

At the moment, Russia is intensifying its offensives across eastern and northeastern Ukraine, targeting cities like Pokrovsk and expanding into the Sumy region. Ukraine faces mounting pressure amid uncertainty with regard to US support, forcing it to rely more on European partners. Ukraine continues to hit deep into Russia, but with weaponry and ammunition shortages and unclear diplomatic prospects, its position is increasingly precarious.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a televised interview on Fox News that "Ukraine cannot do without all the support it can get," and that includes ammunition and air defense.

After the Trump administration's decision was announced, Ukraine's defense ministry said it hadn't received any official notification regarding the suspension of previously agreed-upon aid. It added in a Telegram post that it had requested a call with US counterparts to further clarify details.

Speaking on Ukrainian television on Wednesday, Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukraine's presidential office who previously told BI that losing access to Patriots is a concern, said he didn't expect the US would end its air defense support.

"America will not abandon its support for Ukraine in protecting civilians from Russian strikes," he said, adding that "there are enough anti-missile systems and missiles for them in US warehouses."

Ukraine has found itself short on US support previously when roadblocks in Congress jammed up support, and Trump has at times put pressure on Ukraine to push it toward his administration's vision for peace, which hasn't always been consistent with Kyiv's.

This decision is "not likely to bring about President Trump's desired ceasefire," George Barros, a Russian military expert at ISW, said. Trump previously paused aid to Ukraine after his contentious meeting in March with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, seeing it as a needed step toward securing a ceasefire deal between Ukraine and Russia.

• Wall Street doesn't appear spooked by Tesla's 13.5% year-over-year decline in vehicle deliveries.
• While the numbers were below analysts' average estimates, they came in above some of the lowest predictions.
• The decline means that Tesla would need to deliver over a million vehicles in the second half of 2025 to return to growth.

Tesla just experienced its steepest drop in quarterly vehicle deliveries to date, but you wouldn't know it looking at its stock price.

Wall Street appears to believe that the numbers could've been worse, and the stock was up 4.86% at market close on Wednesday.

The electric automaker delivered about 384,000 EVs in the second quarter, marking a 13.5% decrease from the 444,000 vehicles it delivered in the same period of 2024.

The new report comes after a challenging first quarter for Tesla's vehicle deliveries, which the company attributed to an assembly line overhaul for the refreshed Model Y and anti-Tesla sentiment in certain markets. The two rough quarters also follow Tesla's first annual delivery decline in 2024.

The automaker is facing multiple challenges, including a slowing EV environment, rising competition, the looming removal of consumer EV tax credits, and potential brand damage tied to Elon Musk's political stint.

Despite the latest setback, Wall Street doesn't appear spooked by the numbers. Analysts explained why.

1. The numbers are bad, but not that bad

Tesla's delivery report fell in line with analysts' average estimates, and the numbers were better than the most pessimistic of Wall Street forecasts.

"We consider the release a modest disappointment, although vehicle sales weren't as weak as many had feared," CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson wrote in an analyst note on Wednesday.

On average, analysts expected 389,400 vehicles delivered in the second quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. However, some forecasts, like RBC Capital Markets, were as low as 366,000, and Tesla landed about 5% above that, with 384,000 deliveries.

Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com, told BI that given the automaker's aging lineup, increasing competition, and political competition, Tesla showed its ability to stay relevant, which in and of itself could be viewed as a win for the automaker.

Tesla bull Dan Ives told BI that "Rome wasn't built in a day," and he expects the automaker to take six to nine months to come back from its recent challenges, like the Model Y assembly line changeover.

Monteiro said that if this is "the bottom for Tesla," the struggles of late 2024 and early 2025 could turn out to be a "temporary setback in the company's broader trajectory."

2. Tesla has a steep hill to climb

After back-to-back quarters of declining sales, Tesla is looking to return to growth.

The trouble is, the bigger the deliveries miss, the steeper the hill it has to climb to get there.

In the first half of the year, Tesla delivered a total of roughly 720,700 EVs. To exceed its 2024 deliveries of 1,789,226 vehicles, Tesla would need to deliver well over a million EVs across the next two quarters.

It's possible, but an ambitious feat for the EV maker. In the third quarter last year, Tesla delivered 462,890 vehicles, and in the fourth quarter, it hit about 495,000.

A more affordable model could spur sales, but Tesla hasn't given an updated timeline for its cheaper EV, which it had previously said was on track to begin production in the first half of the year.

3. The stock is up

Tesla stock popped immediately following the results and ended the day up over 4.8%.

In addition to staying above the lowest of Wall Street's estimates, another factor could also be China's Passenger Car Association releasing data indicating Tesla saw its first increase in 2025 vehicle deliveries from its Shanghai factory, a key production plant for global exports.

In June, Tesla delivered 71,599 units from the factory, marking a 0.8% year-over-year increase and a 16% monthly increase, according to the data. That could indicate a bright spot for Tesla's China growth prospects, a market where the automaker is facing increasing competition and just lost its top manufacturing executive.

4. Tesla isn't out of the woods

Not all analysts had an optimistic take on Tesla's numbers.

Gadjo Sevilla, a senior tech and AI analyst for EMARKETER, a sister company to BI, said that Tesla's headwinds contributed to the sales decline and the automaker may be "stretching itself thin" with the robotaxi rollout and Optimus humanoid robot development. Those projects "divert time, talent, and resources from EVs," Sevilla said.

Musk has said that solving autonomy and developing related technology that utilizes the technology, such as Optimus, are key to Tesla's future growth.

"Increased EV competition, especially in growth markets like China, and the continued slowdown in global EV adoption will continue to compound Tesla's losses," Sevilla said.

While Musk has returned his focus to Tesla, his favorability has taken a hit from many on both the political right and the left, according to recent polls. Shortly after leaving his position in DOGE, the billionaire sparked an ongoing public feud with President Donald Trump regarding his Big Beautiful Bill. As the two take turns exchanging insults on social media, Tesla has seen sharp swings in its share price.

• Elon Musk threatened to primary politicians who vote for the "Big Beautiful Bill."
• Republicans are largely brushing it off.
• "Similar threats have been made before," one House Republican said.

As President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" inches closer to final passage, Elon Musk has ratcheted up his criticism of the bill even further, threatening to end the political careers of anyone who votes for it.

"They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth," Musk said on Monday.

Musk, the single largest political donor of the 2024 election, could theoretically pour millions of dollars into funding primary challengers against sitting members of Congress.

He's also mused about launching a new political party, and he's said he'll donate to a GOP congressman who's been critical of Trump's agenda.

So, how seriously are Republican lawmakers taking Musk's threats?

"Not that seriously," Rep. Abe Hamadeh of Arizona told BI. "Elon Musk actually donated to me last quarter."

Hamadeh is one of 21 House Republicans who's already received a more than $6,000 check from Musk this year, according to the most recently available campaign finance data. That list includes a host of right-flank Republicans including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

Republicans say they're not worried about Musk's complaints at this point, and there's a sense that Musk, now on the outs with Trump and more focused on his companies, simply won't follow through.

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

Musk has criticized the bill's phase-out of clean energy subsidies as well as its impact on the national debt. He has said it largely undoes the work of DOGE, the government-efficiency and cost-cutting initiative he launched at the beginning of Trump's second term.

"Look, I mean, he's the wealthiest man in the world. You have to take everything seriously," Jack added. "But at the same time, I'm just hopeful that if he does engage politically, it's on behalf of the party that's enacted pro-growth policy."

It's been a month since Musk and Trump's relationship blew up in an epic feud, and Republicans on Capitol Hill have gotten used to the dynamic, even as they lament it.

"It's a shame," Rep. Aaron Bean of Florida, one of the three original chairs of the ill-fated House DOGE Caucus.

"We're the ones working to bring financial sanity," Bean said. "Hopefully he'll realize that."

Most Republicans remain careful not to insult the tech titan, who remains influential on the right and has shown a willingness to pour millions of dollars into elections.

Though not everyone is so diplomatic.

"It seems to me that he's trying to divide Republicans," Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York said on Fox Business on Tuesday. "Maybe he's mad because we're not focused on billionaires."

All but three GOP senators voted to pass the Senate version of the bill on Tuesday, well after Musk began issuing his latest criticisms.

While final passage in the House still appears uncertain, it's not Musk's words that are weighing on the minds of lawmakers, but rather cuts to Medicaid and the bill's impact on the federal deficit.

"I don't pay attention to what the President threatens, or what Elon Musk says," said Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, a critic of the bill. "We're just trying to do what's right by the American people in terms of keeping our deficit under control."