• Jeff Bezos' newest op-ed shift at The Washington Post has reportedly cost it 75,000 subscribers in a couple of days.
• That's on top of even bigger subscriber losses last fall, when he ordered the paper to stop doing presidential endorsements.
• Bezos' moves seem like they are helping him win favor with Donald Trump. But if they're going to cost his paper money — why own it at all?

Let's stipulate that Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million. So he can do anything he wants with it.

Like ordering the paper's editors not to make a presidential endorsement. Or announcing that from now on the paper's op-ed pages would only publish stuff that supports "personal liberties and free markets," as he announced this week.

That said, those decisions seem to be costing Bezos money, at the very least.

When the billionaire announced his non-endorsement plans last fall, days before the election, hundreds of thousands of subscribers canceled their subscriptions in less than two weeks, NPR's David Folkenflik previously reported.

Now Folkenflik reports that 75,000 subscribers have left the paper following Bezos' op-ed shift, announced on Wednesday. Though a Post executive told Folkenflik the paper signed up another 400,000 subscribers in between Bezos' announcements, numbers Folkenflik has seen indicate the Post has "a net loss of a couple hundred thousand subscribers," he reported. A Post rep declined to comment about subscription numbers.

The important context here is that prior to Bezos' op-ed moves, he had installed new leadership at the Post, tasked with finding new readers and new ways to make money. Now, he appears to be making both things harder.

It's always possible that Bezos' moves will generate more readership from people who want to read an op-ed page promoting a libertarian/conservative point of view. Though it's hard to believe that market is "underserved," as he argued in his memo announcing the changes: Among traditional media, both The Economist and The Wall Street Journal service that market today.

And it's very easy to find that point of view on the wider internet (and particularly on Twitter, now that Elon Musk bought it, changed its name to X, and began amplifying right-learning accounts).

It's also possible that after this newest controversy, the Post will eventually settle into another version of the Journal, which has a famously right-wing op-ed section and does respected, down-the-middle news reporting in the rest of its pages.

And it's also worth noting that on Friday, two days after Bezos kicked off the latest unrest among his readers and his staff, WaPo op-ed writer Dana Milbank published a story arguing that "the single greatest threat to "personal liberties and free markets" in the United States today [is] President Donald Trump." So we really don't know how all of this will shake out.

That said … from outside the paper, Bezos' moves look like they're calculated to please a single reader. President Donald Trump.

Ask Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News personality who now hosts a successful podcast/YouTube show: "He's doing what Joe [Scarborough] and Mika [Brzezinski] did. He's bending the knee," she said at an event hosted by Semafor this week, referring to the MSNBC hosts' visit to Trump days after last fall's election.

Will that work? Maybe, says Kelly, who appeared onstage at a Trump rally during the last campaign.

"You win respect with Trump when you go to him and you tell him 'I like you,' which is clearly what Bezos did. The reporting is very clear," she said. "I think Trump and he will be fine. But that doesn't make any difference at all to somebody like me, who's actually looking for sincerity."

So if you follow that critique, Bezos is in a bit of a pickle: He can steer his paper in a way that could make the president of the United States happy — but will lose readers on the left, and won't gain them on the right.

Maybe all of that is OK for the third-richest man in the world, who could buy another 100 Washington Posts and still have more money than Larry Ellison, who's currently one slot behind him on Forbes's tally of the world's billionaires.

But then why own the Post at all? Then Bezos wouldn't have to worry about what Donald Trump, or Megyn Kelly, or anyone else — including the paper's readers — think about it.

• The Oscars are on Sunday, March 2.
• Film's biggest night has also attracted another group of A-listers — athletes — and they stun on the red carpet.
• In 2022, Venus Williams walked the red carpet in a white Elie Saab gown with silver details.

While many movie lovers expect actors and directors like Zendaya and Martin Scorsese at the Oscars, another category of A-listers are also invited to Hollywood's biggest night: athletes.

From serving as executive producers on Oscar-nominated films (hello, Venus and Serena Williams) to actually bringing home the famed gold-plated statue, athletes have successfully crossed over into the world of entertainment many times, and they've looked good while doing it, too.

In 2018, Olympic bronze medal-winning figure skater Mirai Nagasu walked the carpet in a cornflower-blue embroidered gown by Tadashi Shoji, and in 2022, Venus Williams had one of the night's most daring looks with a low-cut white gown with silver detailing by Elie Saab.

While we wait to see who will grace the carpets this year, here's a look back at some of the athletes' best fashion moments at the Oscars and the Vanity Fair after-party.

Kobe Bryant

In 2018, the late Kobe Bryant and animator Glen Keane won the Oscar for best animated short film for "Dear Basketball." Bryant became the first professional athlete to win an Oscar with the win.

For the history-making occasion, he wore a charcoal-grey tuxedo with black trim and a black bowtie, while his wife, Vanessa Bryant, wore a burgundy off-the-shoulder mermaid gown.

In his acceptance speech, Bryant thanked his wife and daughters, telling them, "Ti amo con tutto il mio cuore," or "I love you with all my heart" in Italian.

Venus Williams

Seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Venus Williams worked with image architect Law Roach for her Oscars look in 2022. Williams and her sister, Serena Williams, served as executive producers of the film "King Richard," based on their father, which was nominated for six awards that year.

"Throughout awards season, I just wanted to keep raising the bar and making the most of every moment," Williams told Vogue then. "I'm usually stepping off a tennis court or in workout clothes when the cameras are on me, so it was fun to get dressed up and dive into the glitz and glam over these past few weeks."

Vogue reported that Elie Saab created Williams' gown and that she accessorized with Tiffany & Co. Bone cuffs by Elsa Peretti, a detail she told the outlet "tied the entire look together, giving it this futuristic yet elegant feel."

Mirai Nagasu

Shortly after the 2018 Olympic Games concluded in PyeongChang, South Korea, Team USA figure skater Mirai Nagasu attended the Oscars in a cornflower-blue embroidered gown by Tadashi Shoji.

She told Access Hollywood that year that she took inspiration from Lupita Nyong'o, who famously wore a baby-blue Prada gown with a deep V-neck when she won the Oscar for best supporting actress in 2014.

Nagasu also had the perfect accessory stashed in her clutch: Her bronze medal.

Matthew A. Cherry

For 2020's Oscars ceremony, former NFL player turned writer and director Matthew A. Cherry put a twist on a classic black tuxedo by opting for a velvet jacket.

He and producer Karen Rupert Toliver took home the award for best animated short film for "Hair Love."

In his acceptance speech, Cherry said "Hair Love" was created "because we wanted to see more representation in animation. We wanted to normalize Black hair."

Michael Strahan

Super Bowl XLII winner Michael Strahan is a staple on the Oscars red carpet thanks to being a cohost for "Good Morning America." The Oscars and GMA air on the same network, ABC.

In 2020, he wore a dark teal and black tuxedo from his own M by Michael Strahan collection.

Roger Federer

Twenty-time Grand Slam singles champion Roger Federer made his second Oscars appearance in 2024.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, he wore a Prada dinner jacket, sunglasses from his collection with Oliver Peoples, and a Rolex Daytona Le Mans.

After the event, Federer told the outlet, "It was so exciting to be back at the Oscars," adding that Ryan Gosling's performance of "I'm Just Ken" from the "Barbie" movie and the acceptance speech for "Oppenheimer" star Cillian Murphy, who won best actor, were two of the night's memorable moments.

Lindsey Vonn

Lindsey Vonn attended the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in a vibrant-red draped gown by Balenciaga and black Manolo Blahnik heels, W Magazine reported.

The three-time Olympic medalist also tagged Rolex on Instagram for her accessory.

Maria Sharapova

Five-time Grand Slam singles champion Maria Sharapova attended the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in a sleeveless olive-green gown by Emilia Wickstead, which she paired with long black gloves and black heels.

Shaun White

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White and his now fiancé Nina Dobrev were among the best-dressed couples at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party.

While Dobrev shined in silver, White wore a cream tuxedo jacket and coordinating bowtie, which he paired with black slacks and shoes.

Serena Williams

Serena Williams attended the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in a long black gown by Off-White with red and white detailing. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion accessorized with coordinating gloves and Messika jewelry.

Williams told Vanity Fair's YouTube Live hosts Michelle Buteau and Tan France that the party is "way more nerve-racking than like being on the tennis court" but added that it's a "super fun environment."

• Mark Zuckerberg performed in a sparkly blue jumpsuit at his wife's 40th birthday.
• Zuckerberg copied singer-songwriter Benson Boone's Grammy appearance with the performance.
• Zuckerberg tagged Boone and the singer's new release in a series of Instagram posts and stories.

Mark Zuckerberg pulled out all the stops at the birthday party for his wife, Priscilla Chan.

In a Friday Instagram post, the Meta CEO revealed that he donned a Benson Boone-style jumpsuit and performed onstage at Chan's 40th birthday party.

"Your wife only turns 40 once! Shoutout to @bensonboone for the jumpsuit and new single," Zuckerberg wrote alongside a video of him taking the stage in a dark dress suit only to have two people pull it off, revealing the sparkly blue jumpsuit underneath.

Boone's new release — "Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else," which came out late Thursday — played over the video. Zuckerberg's singing could not be heard, but the sound of a cheering audience was prominent.

Like Boone at the Grammys, Zuckerberg also jumped off a piano, though it should be noted that Boone front-flipped from a piano, a stunt that Zuckerberg did not attempt in the video he shared.

Boone replied to Zuckerberg's video with "I can't believe my eyes," adding on his Instagram story, "@zuck you're wild for this."

It wasn't immediately clear if Zuckerberg wore Boone's exact jumpsuit or a replica. The Meta CEO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In his stories on Instagram, Zuckerberg shared a picture of the jumpsuit on a hanger and tagged Boone.

"Ok I get it… it's pretty snug," Zuckerberg wrote in another story where he appeared to be wearing the jumpsuit under a dress suit.

This isn't the first sign of the Zuck-Boone bromance

Boone and John Cena appeared in a promotional video for Meta Ray-Bans over the summer. In the video, Boone performed stunts around the Meta campus while filming with the smart glasses.

After Boone's performance at the Grammys, Zuckerberg congratulated him on Threads.

Around that time, in an interview, Zuckerberg talked about his appreciation for Boone's music.

"Priscilla and I, we call him the musical Harry Potter because he grew up not knowing he had a gift," Zuckerberg said.

• I've traveled to Las Vegas dozens of times in the past 25 years including many times solo.
• When I'm alone, the best things to do in Las Vegas include walking the Strip and having a spa day.
• I love having brunch by the Bellagio Fountains and drinks at the Chandelier bar at the Cosmopolitan.

I've been visiting Las Vegas multiple times annually just about every year since I hit the legal gambling and drinking age in the US.

This means I've been making the pilgrimage to one of my favorite cities in the country for over 25 years.

Depending on the trip, you might find me raging with my husband or friends for a birthday bash or a girls' weekend. Or you may find me taking Sin City solo, as I often visit on work-related trips to trawl tradeshow floors or cover major events in town.

Although it might sound odd to visit Las Vegas alone, I think it's a fabulous indulgence.

Here's what I love to do when I'm in town on my own schedule with nothing but my own preferences to prioritize.

I love to get my steps in with long walks on the Strip.

There's no shortage of rideshare vehicles and taxis around this town, but I absolutely love taking long — and often destinationless — walks on the Las Vegas Strip.

It's a great way to get my steps in amid so much eating and drinking at the city's many incredible bars and restaurants.

Plus, I can take in the Strip's famous lights and scenery while doing next-level people watching away from the vacuum of windowless casinos, where time seems not to exist.

I always take in the iconic Bellagio Fountains — ideally while eating brunch.

No matter how many times I visit Las Vegas, the Bellagio's extravagant fountain show never gets old.

To best take it in, I like to make a reservation at one of the lakeside eateries in the Bellagio.

Most recently, I had an incredible brunch that included a caviar-topped bagel and an extravagant milkshake-like espresso martini from Michelin-starred chef Julian Serrano at Lago.

I've also had memorable outdoor dining experiences at other standout restaurants on the property, including Spago and Yellowtail.

A spa day is a perfect balance to the Vegas action.

I never met a spa day I didn't like, but Las Vegas is the perfect place to indulge in one when I'm by myself.

It's an antidote to the cacophony of the slot machines and vibrant nightlife energy and a surefire way to soothe sore muscles after I've been lugging my laptop around a tradeshow floor.

On my last visit, I had a life-changing massage at the Four Seasons Las Vegas spa, after which I cuddled with a cup of tea under a faux-chinchilla blanket in the darkened relaxation lounge. It was divine.

I always try to grab a drink at the prettiest bar on the Strip.

When I have solo downtime, playing video poker is my guilty pleasure.

To make the activity as glam and exciting as it can be — and so I have a great time even when I don't get lucky — I sit at the Chandelier bar at the Cosmopolitan while I play.

The bar is known for its dazzling look and is dripping with over 2 million crystals across three floors. Plus, it has great drinks.

On a recent trip, I indulged in a memorable carbonated cocktail with turmeric, orgeat, and sherry … plus a few other inventive, hand-crafted boozy delights.

For me, shopping at the casino-adjacent malls is a must.

I'm a fan of shopping anywhere in the world, but there is a particular pleasure in strolling the stores in Vegas on my own time.

I find it thrilling to window shop at high-end malls like Crystals (adjacent to the Cosmopolitan) and the Bellagio's collection of designer shops.

There's also plenty of shopping that's more within my budget, from the labyrinthine Forum Shops at Caesars Palace (complete with over-the-top fountains) to the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood (easily accessible from some of my favorite casino properties, like Aria and the Cosmopolitan).

These Strip-side malls are lively and as good for people watching as they are for scoring a last-minute outfit to wear out that night. (And yes, the fact that I'm welcome to wander into the shops with my cocktail right off the casino floor encourages me to ease up on the purse strings and indulge!)

• A fired USAID worker says security stopped him from taking one last photo of his wife's office memorial.
• The Trump administration has dismantled USAID and fired most of its staff.
• Workers at the agency's DC headquarters were given a short window of time to clear out their desks.

A recently fired US Agency for International Development worker spoke with reporters on Thursday about his exit, saying security stopped him from taking one last photo of a memorial to his wife in the office.

In a video shared on X by the NewsNation reporter Joe Khalil, the former USAID employee, Adam Tomasek, described the abrupt departure.

"My first wife passed away," Tomasek told reporters outside USAID headquarters. "She was honored on the memorial wall. She was a foreign service officer herself, so I wanted to take another photo to send to her mother."

Tomasek said he got into an argument with the security guard who refused to let him take a photo.

"I explained my story to him, and he said, 'No, we have instructions,'" Tomasek said. "You are not allowed — no photos, no videos."

Workers at USAID were forced to clear out their offices this week after the Trump administration largely dismantled the foreign aid agency and terminated most of its staff.

Earlier this week, USAID workers received notices that they were being fired or placed on leave — including thousands who worked at the agency's Washington headquarters — and that the Trump administration was ending 90% of the agency's contracts, The Associated Press reported.

USAID, which has funded humanitarian efforts around the world, was one of the first targets of the Trump administration's expansive cost-cutting efforts.

The US channeled nearly $32.5 billion through the agency in 2024, providing aid to countries such as Ukraine, Jordan, and Ethiopia. Still, foreign aid spending makes up less than 1% of the federal budget.

Elon Musk, who's closely linked to DOGE, has called USAID a "criminal organization" and wrote on X on February 3 that he "spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper." Hours later, USAID workers were told to stay home from work, and within days, the agency announced that direct-hire personnel would be placed on leave globally, with a few exceptions.

After federal workers unions sued over the dismantling of USAID, a federal judge granted the Trump administration a win on February 21, saying it could continue placing the agency's workers on leave.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued a stay allowing Trump to continue his freeze on foreign aid money allocated by USAID.

Experts have said the shutdown of USAID is illegal, while others have said it could make China more powerful on the world stage.

Tomasek and a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

• The Trump administration let go hundreds of workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Thursday.
• One of NOAA's core functions is weather forecasting through the National Weather Service.
• Meteorologists say that the staff cuts will degrade weather forecasts and public safety.

Meteorologists are warning that weather forecasts will suffer as the Trump administration lays off hundreds of workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

"We will get it wrong a lot more frequently," Ella Dorsey, a meteorologist for Atlanta News First, posted on X.

That's because one of NOAA's core functions is gathering weather data across the country, producing weather forecasts, and issuing warnings. The National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center, and National Tsunami Warning Center are all run by NOAA.

Your local weather station gets its data from the NWS. The weather app on your phone is using NWS forecasts. The Federal Aviation Administration relies on NWS meteorologists and data to route planes around storm systems.

"All of the widely consumed weather information through the private sector relies on this NOAA backbone," Daniel Swain, a climate scientist who specializes in California weather, said in a livestream on Thursday evening. "These are the people who prevent weather disasters from being much worse than they are in this country."

A Trump administration official told Business Insider that 5% of NOAA's staff was let go. With about 12,000 people working for the agency, that would be about 600 people let go. The official said that NWS meteorologists were largely spared.

When reached for confirmation, representatives of both NOAA and NWS declined to discuss personnel matters.

Meteorologists say lives are at stake

"Critical national public safety assets are being weakened," Levi Cowan, who runs the hurricane forecast blog Tropical Tidbits, told Business Insider in an email. He said that would likely lead to "degraded services to the public."

Cowan added that he worried an understaffed NOAA could lead to the discontinuation of datasets or reduced maintenance work on weather infrastructure that ultimately helps warn people in the path of life-threatening weather events.

Understaffed regional NWS field offices could also struggle to respond to weather events and coordinate with local emergency managers.

In an online post, Cowan called the layoffs "insane" and added that "Many of you reading this may knowingly or unknowingly be alive today because of their work, or know someone who is."

Other meteorologists, like Ethan Clark of North Carolina's Weather Authority, were even more direct.

"Let me be clear, people will die because of this," Clark wrote on X.

The value of the National Weather Service

The NWS has had an annual budget of about $1.3 billion, give or take, for the last three years. That's about $4 per taxpayer, according to Swain — the cost of a cup of coffee.

A recent report from the American Meteorological Society found that NWS weather forecasting produced a value of $102.1 billion in 2022. That's about a 73-to-1 return on investment.

"Collectively they are one of, if not the best bang for your taxpayer buck out there," Jim Cantore, a veteran meteorologist at The Weather Channel, wrote on X as rumors of impending layoffs churned earlier this week.

He was responding to another veteran meteorologist, James Spann, who had shared a post urging politicians to support the NWS.

"If NWS products and services are reduced, we all suffer… especially during times of life-threatening weather," Spann wrote.

• Measles is surging in a Texas outbreak, but doctors say most adults don't need a booster shot.
• Consider another measles vaccine if you're unsure whether you had both shots, or if you got them before 1968.
• Children may also get an early dose if traveling to high-risk areas.

Amidst a growing measles outbreak in Texas, your childhood shots are likely enough to keep you safe from the highly-contagious illness, according to doctors.

Having both recommended doses of measles vaccine offers about 97% effectiveness against infection— enough protection for most people, said pediatrician Dr. Michael Glazier, chief medical officer and co-founder at Bluebird Kids Health.

"I'm not worried that I'm going to get measles or that I need another dose," Glazier told Business Insider.

Outbreaks are still cause for public health concern, as measles is exceptionally good at spreading from person to person. Areas with lower rates of vaccination are vulnerable to a surge in cases.

"It's one of the most contagious diseases out there," Glazier said. "If what's happening in Texas is a harbinger of having more pockets of children that aren't vaccinated, it will become a much more widespread issue."

You may need extra protection if you're unsure of your vaccine record, got an obsolete version of the shot, or plan on traveling to a high-risk area. Here's what to know.

People vaccinated before 1968 may need a booster

The first step in protecting against measles is to know your vaccine status, according to Dr. William Moss, professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center.

If you were vaccinated before 1968, you might benefit from a booster.

Earlier versions of the vaccines aren't as effective, Moss said, so older Americans may want to talk to their doctors about re-upping their immunity.

Consider a measles booster if you're unsure of your vaccine history

Another reason to consider a booster is if you can't confirm you had both doses of the vaccine, Glazier said.

If that's the case, it's worth thinking about a precautionary shot.

"The issue is that a lot of people don't know," he said. "If you're unsure, get another one. There's no harm whatsoever."

Measles isn't something to gamble on, since it can lead to serious health consequences like pneumonia or brain inflammation.

"It's not the benign disease people make it out to be," Glazier said. "Saying 'I had measles and it was fine,' I liken it to saying "I never wore a seatbelt, and I was fine.'"

If you only had one shot, you're still likely to have solid protection, but may want to consider a booster if you're immune-compromised, caring for someone who is, or are in a high-risk situation, such as a healthcare setting or outbreak area.

"It's an individual judgment call in consultation with a healthcare provider," Moss said.

Children under a year old can get an early dose

One of the biggest concerns about the current outbreak is the recent death of a child, the first measles death in the US since 2015, Moss said.

"That's completely preventable, it's tragic, we should not be having childhood deaths from measles in the United States," he said.

Children are typically protected from measles by one shot administered between 12 and 15 months old, and a second between ages four and six.

In cases of international travel to areas with a higher exposure risk to measles, the CDC recommends an earlier precautionary shot to infants as young as six months.

If you're in or near a current outbreak area, it's worth talking to your doctor about whether that might apply to your child, according to both Moss and Glazier.

With a rise in vaccine hesitancy in recent years, parents should understand what's at stake in staying up-to-date on recommended vaccines.

"The assumption is that every parent wants to do what's best for their children," Moss said. "What happens is that parents can underestimate the risk of a disease like measles, and overestimate the risk of a vaccine."

• Early data shows the Disney and Max bundle beats Netflix in terms of subscriber retention.
• Three months after its launch, 80% of subscribers stuck with Disney and Max.
• With Netflix dominating, analysts have predicted a "mega-bundle" could arrive in the coming years.

New data suggests there's one clear way streaming services can compete with Netflix: bundling.

A power-in-numbers approach could pose a threat to Netflix's unrivaled loyalty in the streaming market.

In terms of subscriber retention, the Disney and Max bundle — which launched in July and starts at $17 — came out on top in the months following its launch, according to new data from the analytics company Antenna.

From July to September 2024, 80% of subscribers stayed with the service. That put it ahead of Netflix, which kept 74% of customers over the same period.

Disney's in-house bundle — without Max — also trounced individual services like Hulu, Disney, and Max in terms of retention.

WBD reported earnings yesterday for the first time since splitting its linear TV business from studios and streaming. It announced 117 million subscribers and forecasted 150 million by 2026.

While that's still a fraction of Netflix's 300 million, EMARKETER analyst Ross Benes said "aggressive" bundling had kickstarted growth at WBD, where US subs have remained flat "even after adding live sports."

"Bundles viewers tend to pay a lower price, thus generate lower [average revenue per user] generally," Benes said, "but bringing them into the fold expands audience reach."

Analysts have previously touted bundling as a prospective remedy to Netflix's dominance.

TD Cowen analysts have predicted a mega-bundle comrpising legacy TV players could be afoot in coming years as the best path to profitability amid surging content and marketing costs.

Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, and Disney didn't respond to requests for comment.

• A US-Ukraine rare-earth-minerals deal is off for now.
• The White House said on Friday that the expected agreement remained unsigned.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit devolved into an Oval Office shouting match.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday abruptly left the White House without signing a rare-earth-minerals deal after negotiations blew up following an Oval Office clash.

"He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office," President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform. "He can come back when he is ready for Peace."

In a tense scene in the Oval Office, Trump and Vice President JD Vance criticized Zelenskyy in front of reporters. Vance took exception to Zelenskyy's past media appearances and argued that the Ukrainian leader didn't express enough gratitude.

"I think it's disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media," Vance said, later adding, "In this entire meeting, have you said thank you?"

Zelenskyy said he was reluctant to trust Russian President Vladimir because of the Russian leader's previous disregard of international agreements.

Trump told Zelenskyy he was in no position to leverage the US.

"The problem is I've empowered you to be a tough guy," Trump said. "And I don't think you'd be a tough guy without the United States. And your people are very brave, but you're either going to make a deal or we're out. And if we're out, you'll fight it out."

A White House spokesperson confirmed that the agreement remained unsigned shortly after Zelenskyy left the grounds.

Later in the afternoon, Zelenskyy posted a message that contained "thank you" four times in three sentences. He also canceled a planned appearance at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

"Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit," Zelenskyy wrote on X. "Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that."

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump ally who has frequently visited Ukraine, said he wasn't sure the deal could be salvaged.

"I don't know what's going to happen next," Graham told Fox News. "I don't know if you can repair the damage."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had traveled to Ukraine to broker a deal that would give the US a financial stake in Ukraine's future. Trump has said he also wants to recoup the $174 billion Congress has appropriated for Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion.

Experts estimate that the US would most likely net far less than the $500 billion figure Trump has cited when discussing the deal. (Trump has also said the US has given Ukraine far more aid than it actually has, and most US aid to the country has been spent inside the US to replenish the nation's weapons stockpiles.)

Trump has sought to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. Zelenskyy has pushed for US security guarantees to be part of any mineral deal, hoping to deter Putin from future aggression.

• I accidentally booked a stay at a resort in India that had very limited WiFi access.
• I panicked at first, especially since I planned on doing some work at night.
• Surprisingly, I adjusted quickly, and I'm thinking about ways to unplug on future trips.

Some people disconnect when they travel, but that's never been my style.

As a freelancer, I usually have to work while I'm on the move, and I also like having a way to stay in touch with family and friends back home.

I knew we'd be traveling to remote locations when my family did a tour of India with Intrepid Travel.

However, when we arrived at the Desert Resort in Mandala, I realized I'd failed to notice the fine print that WiFi would be extremely limited at this stop.

Surprisingly, I adjusted much more quickly than I expected

My first instinct was to panic when I learned that the resort intentionally doesn't provide WiFi in any of its guest rooms.

Even though we were only there for a couple of days, I was convinced my stay would be stressful and difficult without 24/7 access to the internet.

Shortly after arriving, I learned there were a few small areas with WiFi on the property and quickly scoped one of them out to answer a few emails that couldn't wait.

Then, instead of hunkering down to do more work like I might have otherwise, I put my computer back in my room and explored the resort.

To my surprise, my stress about the WiFi melted away quickly.

While my kids swam, I walked around the resort and marveled at its lovely buildings made out of mud and hand-painted by local artisans. I checked out the resort's collection of vintage cars, and before dinner, my kids joined me to get henna tattoos from a local artist.

Almost everyone else from our tour group was also out of their rooms — something that hadn't happened at any of our other stops.

It took being forced to unplug for me to really unwind and be present

At first, I wasn't prepared to give up my evening routine of responding to emails and catching up on work.

It may not be the most relaxing way to end the night on vacation, but I find that it's usually worth the trade-off so I don't fall too far behind when I get home.

I wouldn't be able to travel as much as I do if I couldn't work, at least a little, almost every day.

After dinner, instead of settling into my laptop, I grabbed a book and started reading under the stars. The kids played soccer and took turns on the resort's swings instead of heading off to scroll on their devices.

After a relaxing and restful evening where I was truly unplugged, I slept better than I had in a while. The next morning, without the pull of my computer calling to me, I woke up early to enjoy the sunrise.

I went on a short hike before waking my kids up for breakfast — it was the perfect way to start the day.

Unplugging ended up being such a gift

Although I was only at the Desert Resort for two days, it was enough to remind me that I don't need to be tethered to a phone or computer all the time.

I left vowing to be more intentional about when and how I use WiFi, especially while traveling. Although I haven't been perfect, I have a new understanding of the hold my devices really have over me and what I'm missing out on as a result.

Because of my career, I can't necessarily make staying in places with limited WiFi a habit, but I'm already eyeing another short stay at an unplugged resort this summer.

• I tried making five breakfast recipes in the air fryer to see how they'd turn out. 
• The bacon and French toast came out perfectly crispy and absolutely delicious. 
• Using the air fryer for all of the recipes also made cleanup significantly easier. 

The hype around air fryers is real, and in my opinion, this appliance makes everything from cooking to cleanup more convenient. 

In hopes of making my mornings easier, I tried cooking five classic breakfast recipes in the air fryer and rated each dish based on difficulty, flavor, and whether I'd make it again. 

Here's what I thought of each recipe — and which I plan to cook again.

I started out with bacon

This method for cooking bacon is so much easier than any other I've tried, and I can't believe I had never thought of it.

I placed a sheet of tinfoil under the appliance's grate to catch the grease for easy cleanup, laid out a single layer of bacon in both baskets, and air-fried the meat for 11 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, shaking it about halfway through. 

The bacon came out perfectly crispy

A breeze to make, this breakfast side had the perfect consistency. To be honest, I'll probably never cook bacon any other way again.

Best of all, there was no grease splattering or residual smokiness, and the cleanup was as easy as removing the grease-filled tinfoil liner.

Difficulty: 1/10

Flavor: 10/10

Would I make it again?: Absolutely.

Next, I made breakfast potatoes

The recipe I found for breakfast potatoes was tasty and simple.

All I did was peel and chop a russet potato, coat it in olive oil, and sprinkle it with paprika, onion and garlic powder, and salt.

After evenly combining the mix, I put the cubes in the air fryer at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, shaking halfway through.

These home fries came out a little overcooked

Since I only chopped one potato, the dish cooked quicker than the 20 minutes the recipe called for.

Although the cubes were a bit overcooked and burned in some spots, their flavor was delicious, and most of the pieces were a nice mix of crispy and crunchy.

Plus, this method was still way easier than making home fries in a skillet. Next time, I may add some diced bell peppers and onion for extra flavor.

Difficulty: 1/10

Flavor: 6/10

Would I make it again?: Yes, but I'd add a few ingredients and cook it for a shorter amount of time.

For my 3rd recipe, I whipped up eggs in a basket

I've never been a huge fan of eggs in a basket — also known as egg in a hole — because it seems like an unnecessary combo, and I prefer a full-sized toast with my breakfast spread.

That said, this go at it was much easier than the times I've made it in a pan.

First, I used a cup to make a hole in the bread, then sprayed the interior of the air fryer with cooking spray.

Once I got my bread in the appliance, I cracked an egg inside the hole and cooked it at 330 degrees Fahrenheit, flipping it after a few minutes to let the other side bake and add some cheese on top.

I thought the egg would seep through the holes in the grate and ruin the meal, but surprisingly, it held together nicely. 

The egg wasn't quite runny enough for my liking, but I still enjoyed it

The dish came out looking and tasting like it should, since only a little bit of the cooked egg had seeped through to the bottom of the air fryer basket.

Overall, it was delicious, but I wished the egg was a bit runnier. Next time, I'll only cook it for about two minutes per side.

Difficulty: 3/10

Flavor: 7/10

Would I make it again?: Yes.

Next, I tried making an air fryer frittata

The frittata recipe I found was unbelievably easy to make.

For this dish, I simply combined eggs, sausage, bell pepper, onion, and cheese, then whisked the mixture together with seasonings like paprika and garlic powder.

The recipe said to cook the eggs in a cake pan, but instead, I took the grate out and poured the frittata mix straight into the sprayed air fryer basket.

I then let it cook for 25 minutes at 360 degrees Fahrenheit.

It tasted amazing, and I would've never guessed it was made in an air fryer

This frittata came out with the perfect consistency. It was cheesy, delicious, and so easy to make.

Plus, it's a customizable dish you can add your favorite ingredients to. For next time, I'm already thinking of including bacon, mushrooms, spinach, and cheese.

Difficulty: 3/10

Flavor: 10/10

Would I make it again?: Yes, especially when cooking for guests.

For my final recipe, I attempted to make French toast

I'm a huge fan of French toast, but I hate when it gets too soggy or mushy inside, so I approached this method with caution.

To start, I whisked together melted butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla in a bowl and made a mix of sugar and cinnamon in another.

Then, I cut the pieces of bread into three strips and quickly dipped each stick into the batter, liberally sprinkling both sides with the sweet crumble.

After I placed the sticks in the air fryer, careful not to crowd the basket, I let them cook for eight minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

I barely had to add syrup for this recipe to taste good

These French toast sticks came out so tasty, they barely needed syrup. In addition to having a delicious crispy exterior, they thankfully weren't soggy or mushy in the center. 

Plus, the sugar and cinnamon mixture gave each strip a delicate, caramelized crumble.

Difficulty: 2/10

Flavor: 10/10

Would I make it again: Yes.

All in all, I absolutely loved making these breakfast recipes in the air fryer

Using the air fryer truly made each recipe shine. Also, cleanup was a breeze, which I consider a huge bonus.

Once the food was in the appliance, I didn't have to worry about it or monitor it much at all.

I would 100% make these options again for any breakfast spread.

This story was originally published in February 2021 and most recently updated on February 28, 2025.

• A judge sided with Justin Baldoni in a phone records fight amid his legal battle with Blake Lively.
• Lively sought to subpoena Baldoni and his associates' phone records going back to 2022.
• The judge called the subpoenas "overly intrusive and disproportionate to the needs of the case."

Justin Baldoni scored a win in his fight to keep his phone records out of the ongoing legal battle with his "It Ends With Us" costar Blake Lively.

The Manhattan federal judge overseeing Lively's sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni and Baldoni's defamation countersuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, ruled Friday that Lively cannot subpoena Baldoni and his associates' phone records going back to 2022.

In a written order, US District Judge Lewis Litman called Lively's subpoenas for the phone data "overly intrusive and disproportionate to the needs of the case."

"Lively mainly argues that the Subpoenas will help to identify 'the larger network of individuals' who perpetuated a negative media campaign against her," the judge wrote. "But according to Lively's complaint, this negative campaign did not begin until approximately August 2024."

"It is therefore unclear how communications to and from" Baldoni and his associates "in 2022 and 2023 would reveal individuals who participated in the campaign," Litman wrote.

Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, hailed the judge's order as a "big win" for his client in a statement to Business Insider.

"The Court put a stop to Ms. Lively's egregious attempt to invade our clients' privacy," Freedman said, adding, "No matter how the Lively Parties may try to spin this decision, the Court saw their efforts for what they really are: a desperate fishing expedition intended to salvage their debunked claims long after they already savaged our clients' reputations in the New York Times."

A spokesperson for Lively questioned what Freedman is "hiding" in a statement to BI.

"After promising to release all the 'receipts,' Freedman ran into court to keep secret the phone records of who" Baldoni and the co-defendants named in Lively's suit, "were calling during their retaliatory campaign" against Lively, the spokesperson said.

"So, instead of getting these records from the phone carriers the way we initially requested, the judge has ruled that if we simply submit more specific requests, we will be able to get the records we are seeking. Today we will do that, we are submitting those requests directly to defendants involved and we look forward to seeing the records," the spokesperson said.

Lively's legal team first issued subpoenas earlier this month to AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile for incoming and outgoing calls or texts messages going back to December 2022, but Baldoni's team quickly tried to block it. Lively narrowed the scope of those subpoenas, but Baldoni's team said it didn't go far enough.

The judge agreed, saying in his Friday ruling that the subpoenas issued by Lively's lawyers "implicates legitimate privacy interests."

Litman wrote that even though Lively has adjusted her requests "the phone records themselves would still contain sensitive information regarding which doctors, psychologists, or even acquaintances" Baldoni and his co-defendants "spoke to, and when."

Lively's lawsuit accuses Baldoni, who is also the director of "It Ends With Us," of sexual harassment on the set of the 2024 movie and of engaging in a retaliatory online smear campaign against her. Baldoni has denied the allegations.

The judge noted in his ruling that Lively's complaint already identifies "many individuals who allegedly participated in a negative media campaign."

Litman wrote that Lively's legal team "may make discovery requests tailored to those individuals" and that Lively "is permitted to use the tools of discovery to identify the contact information or telephone numbers for those individuals."

"Even assuming additional individuals participated in the alleged campaign, the hope that discovery will turn up information on such participants does not justify the broad scope of the Subpoenas," Litman wrote.

Though Litman ordered that the subpoenas "must be quashed to the extent they seek the phone records" of Baldoni and his codefendants — which include his production company, Wayfarer Studios, his fellow producers, and his publicists — the judge denied Baldoni's motion involving the portions of the subpoenas that seek the phone records of people not named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Baldoni's attorneys told the judge in a Friday letter that the subpoenas seek the phone records of employees of Wayfarer Studios.

"The Wayfarer Employees object to the Subpoenas for the same reasons set forth by the Wayfarer Parties," the letter read.

Litman ordered that Lively's legal team respond by March 4, saying no action would be taken while the motion is pending.

• Ila Corcoran lived in California but bought a four-bedroom home in Texas where prices were lower.
• She's a house hacker, living in one bedroom while renting out the others to cover her monthly costs.
• In 2024, she bought a second property using the rental income she earned from her primary residence.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ila Corcoran, 26, who purchased her first home in 2021 and used the income from renting out its rooms to help buy a second property in 2024. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

When I was 18, I earned my real-estate license and later became a property manager at an apartment complex in Los Angeles. I lived in a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit valued at $2,300 a month, but my rent was covered as part of my salaried role.

I used the money I saved by not paying rent to build up a down payment so I could invest in real estate. At 22, I started house hacking by buying properties and renting out rooms in them.

In March 2021, I bought my first home for $250,000 in Forney, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. I used a Federal Housing Administration mortgage, or FHA loan, because it made the purchase more affordable. I put 3.5% down on the home and secured a 2.8% interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage.

I eventually moved to Texas to live in the home — since FHA loans require the home to be your primary residence — and began renting out the extra rooms. I've earned a total of $110,000 in rental income over the past four years. However, I do have property taxes to pay and a homeowners association, or HOA, fee of about $400 a year.

In January 2024, I bought my second property. It's a two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,300-square-foot home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I got it for $190,000 with a 10% down payment, a 6.5% interest rate, and a seller-financed 10-year mortgage. The HOA fees for this home are $250 per month, and I'm unsure of the exact property-tax bill since I've owned the home for just under a year. I rent out the entire house to a single tenant for $1,500 a month and have earned $25,000 so far before expenses.

I use the money I make from renters primarily to cover the mortgages and utilities for my homes. Any extra income goes toward building my fintech company, BySengo, which helps founders seeking funding connect with investors interested in private businesses across the beauty, fashion, wine, and hospitality industries.

In the long term, I'll put the rental income profits into investing in more real estate.

I had to leave California to afford to buy a home

I decided to buy property outside Los Angeles because I knew I could more easily afford homeownership elsewhere.

Although I had never been to the Dallas area, I chose it for its population growth, emerging communities, and affordability. It also stood out because it had a high proportion of renters compared to homeowners, which made it seem like an easier market for renting out property.

I found my property through a real-estate agent. It was a new construction home that had yet to be built.

In October 2020, I flew to Dallas to visit the site. During the trip, I put down a $1,500 deposit to reserve the land. In March 2021, I closed on the home, bringing about $9,000 to the table.

I split my time between California and Texas, traveling back and forth from March 2021 until I officially moved in September 2024. It was difficult leaving my home state, but I realized this was what it took to build wealth, and I was ready to make it happen.

The home is two stories and has four bedrooms, which are all occupied. Over time, I've had about seven different roommates. At the moment, I'm charging $1,000 a month for the primary bedroom and $900 for the downstairs bedroom. I'm not charging rent for the fourth room, as my best friend, who recently moved from California, is staying with me while she gets settled. I've previously charged $750 for that room.

Living with roommates isn't always smooth sailing

I found most of my roommates through the app Roomster, which helps people find rentable rooms or lease out their homes, and I have also used Facebook groups.

I screen all my roommates and have them sign individual leases. Most leases are for six months to a year, after which they can become month-to-month. My renters can stay as long as we both agree, but we need to give notice if either party wants to terminate early, with no fees involved.

For my contracts, I've drawn from my experience as a property manager in California and tenant law. I've also consulted with local lawyers who've reviewed my documents and given me recommendations.

Things aren't always perfect with roommates. I've definitely faced my share of challenges. For example, one roommate might complain about another, saying things like, "I don't like when they do this" or "It bothers me when they do that." It's definitely something I deal with on an ongoing basis.

Communication is key in situations like these. It's all about establishing boundaries, talking things through, and letting people come to me privately to make sure everyone feels heard. I'm not easily angered, so having patience really helps.

I used a seller-financed mortgage to buy my second home

I chose to buy my second home in Tulsa because I learned about Black Wall Street and its historical significance in the city.

I also came across a YouTube video discussing up-and-coming cities. Because of its municipal bonds, government investment, and corporate interest, Tulsa was mentioned as a city on the rise.

There were many benefits to purchasing the home with seller financing. The process was similar to a traditional closing. The key difference is that I make my payments directly to the seller, who holds the lien, rather than a bank. If I fail to make my payments, the seller has the right to foreclose.

I chose this route because I am self-employed, which can make it harder to get a traditional mortgage. Seller financing allowed me to avoid the long documentation process and had fewer requirements. I was also able to put down less money and avoid private mortgage insurance.

The home seller benefited because they didn't have to pay taxes on the entire lump sum from the sale at once. Instead, by receiving monthly payments, they spread out the income and pay taxes gradually. This lowers their tax liability each year, allowing them to keep more of the money.

I am proud of myself of investing in real estate so young

When I bought my first home, everyone told me not to do it. They said prices were too high, and I was overpaying. They suggested I wait until rates went up and the market cooled down. But I'm glad I didn't listen.

There's always going to be a "better deal" or a "better time," but if you let that hold you back, your opportunity cost becomes even greater. All the time spent deliberating on the best possible outcome can prevent you from even starting and achieving anything.

I do think people should be cautious but also take the risk of investing in themselves.

I know real-estate investing isn't for everyone, but as a Black woman, I feel like I'm helping to address some of the inequality in homeownership in America — particularly the disparity between Black landowners and non-landowners.

Investing in real estate and house hacking has also been incredibly beneficial for me. Without the equity from my real-estate investments, I wouldn't have built much of a net worth — at least not as quickly.

I've had my family's support, but I've done this financially on my own. Honestly, I feel great about it.

I still have goals of getting married, having a family, and becoming a wife and mother — goals women are often encouraged to prioritize. But by pursuing real estate on my own, I feel more confident about dating and marriage because I already have a strong foundation and feel established.

• The Office of Personnel Management said it can now process retirement applications digitally.
• For decades, the US government has processed retirement paperwork in a mine in Pennsylvania.
• The facility has been in the crosshairs of the DOGE office.

In a video promoted by the White House DOGE office, the Office of Personnel Management said it can now process pensions entirely digitally — and within two days.

For decades, OPM has stored and processed federal retirement paperwork in a limestone mine. The US government started storing records in the underground facility in the 1960s.

In a video update shared on Thursday by the OPM, Chuck Ezell, OPM's interim director, said that the Trump administration had approached OPM "about a week ago" with the one-week "challenge" to process a federal retiree's application "end-to-end digitally without printing anything on paper."

Kimya Lee, OPM's associate deputy director for enterprise enablement, said in the video that they "got it done in record time within two days without printing one piece of paper."

DOGE's de facto leader Elon Musk highlighted the issue in a press conference earlier this month. Musk criticized the reliance on paper records and said the speed of the mine's elevator shaft determined how fast people could retire.

"The elevator breaks down sometimes, and nobody can retire," Musk said, adding: "Doesn't that sound crazy?"

The facility holds 26,000 filing cabinets containing 400 million retiree documents, and applications are still largely processed by hand — a system that can take months.

"Instead of working in a mineshaft, carrying manila envelopes to boxes in a mine, you could do practically anything else, and you would add to the goods and services of the United States in a more useful way," Musk said of those working there.

The OPM didn't immediately reply to Business Insider's request for comment.

In an X post on Friday, DOGE praised the development, calling it "a great improvement from the current paper solution taking multiple months."

Musk has said that, due to the mine's manual systems, only about 10,000 retirees' paperwork can be processed in a month.

DOGE's X account later said that more than 700 employees work 230 feet underground to process applications.

Musk's comments came as the Trump White House continues its moves to radically overhaul the federal workforce, fueling anxiety among those who work there.

"They're nervous for their jobs obviously because their heads are on the cutting block," a senior OPM source told Business Insider on condition of anonymity.

"This administration has been very black and white the day they walked through the door about what they were going to do," they added.

A 2014 Washington Post report said 600 OPM workers processed federal employees' retirement papers by hand at the site, passing thousands of case files from cavern to cavern.

The outlet said successive administrations have tried and failed to digitize the process.

The OPM source told BI that fully digitizing all the mine records would be an "incredibly expensive, multi-year, if not decade-long, project."

They also said closing the mine would damage the local economy.

The mine is in a "really, really rural area in the middle of Western Pennsylvania," they told BI. "It's not like there's a lot of opportunity in the area."

• Netflix cemented its streaming crown in 2024 and grew its workforce.
• We analyzed US work-visa data from late 2022 to 2024 to see how much Netflix pays employees.
• The streamer has offered base salaries between $80,000 and $1 million a year for certain roles, data shows.

Netflix won the streaming wars in 2024, ending the year with record subscriber gains. The company's unique culture remains a key component of its success.

Last year, the streamer tweaked its infamous culture memo — including an addendum to its "keeper test."

The company's ovations about culture aren't just lip service, said Cheick Soumaré, a former HR director at the streamer from 2020 to 2022: "What you see in the culture memo is really what happens at Netflix."

While Netflix had layoffs, the company grew its overall workforce in 2024. As of December 2024, the company had 14,000 employees — a 7.7% increase over last year.

Its careers page lists over 500 positions as the company looks to staff its live content, advertising, and other various teams globally.

How much do new hires make? Like other US companies, Netflix discloses how much it plans to pay workers it hires on work visas.

Business Insider analyzed publicly available offer data from October 1, 2022, to December 31, 2024, to see how much Netflix is willing to pay for talent in the US. The data, which the US Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification released, included wages from around 720 certified foreign-labor applications Netflix submitted.

Many of the roles offered six-figure base salaries. The data includes base salaries only and not additional stock awards or bonuses. They also don't cover all employee offers — only those the company made to workers on a visa or with a green card. The salaries captured in the data tend to be tech-focused, such as data scientists or software engineers.

Read on to find out the US salaries for around 185 different Netflix jobs across content, product and technology, marketing, corporate, and more. We highlighted roles in each category and then listed all the roles in the data alphabetically.

Netflix has declined to comment on this story.

How Netflix looks at compensation

Netflix's compensation policy stems from its cultural philosophy, which hinges on principles including a high-performance culture, lack of a formal vacation policy, and aversion to "brilliant jerks."

The streaming platform doesn't offer performance-based bonuses unlike some others in tech. Reed Hastings, a cofounder of Netflix, has said bonuses hinder innovation.

Instead, Netflix pays its employees well. The company says it pays staffers at the top of workers' "personal market" based on their role and qualifications for the job.

"Whatever the market is ready to offer you for the same job, that's what Netflix will pay," Soumaré said.

As it relates to the data, the wage offers listed are the minimum amounts the company said it would pay specific workers in applications, US Department of Labor documentation shows.

Netflix may pay employees more than the figures reflected in this data or compensate them in additional ways. While Netflix doesn't give bonuses, it does let employees choose each year how much compensation they want in cash versus stock options.

The data includes Netflix base salary offers ranging from roughly $80,000 to $1 million a year, with a median of around $226,000.

Corporate

Netflix's corporate team includes roles in finance, legal, strategy and analysis, operations, and more, according to its jobs site.

Here are examples of annual salaries in these fields:

• Analyst, Tax Operations: $141,534 median; ranging from $137,030 to $146,037
• Associate, Corporate FP&A: $210,000
• Associate, Corporate Ops Strategy, Planning, and Analysis: $220,000
• HR Business Partner, Manager: $222,019
• HR Business Partner, Director: $750,000
• HR Talent Partner, Creative Production: $285,000
• Operations and Portfolio Manager, Talent Technology: $151,102 median; ranging from $136,157 to $166,046
• Revenue Accountant: $137,030
• Senior Content Accountant: $109,346 median; ranging from $101,650 to $155,000

Content and production

Netflix's content organization covers content acquisition, production, visual effects, animation, and more. Some content-related salaries in the data include:

• Coordinator, Major Studio Film Licensing: $123,386 median; ranging from $121,763 to $125,008
• Director, Documentary Film: $172,328
• Associate, FS&A, Content: $103,314
• Product Manager, Live-Action Production Media: $377,553 median; ranging from $155,106 to $600,000
• Production Manager: $283,442
• Production Planner: $195,936
• Senior Manager, Production Finance: $260,000 (listed under Netflix Animation)
• Vertical Lead, Overall Deals: $166,046

Product and technology

Netflix's product and technology organization had some of the highest-paying salaries in the data. Here are some examples of salaries in the division, which spans advertising, business development, data science and engineering, product management, and more:

• Data Analyst: $183,310 median; ranging from $151,694 to $210,704
• Data Engineer: $218,847 median; ranging from $139,464 to $295,194
• Data Scientist: $222,113 median; ranging from $146,744 to $295,194
• Director, Growth Data Science and Engineering: $1 million
• Senior Data Engineer: $540,000 median; ranging from $420,000 to $700,000
• Senior Data Scientist: $565,000 median; ranging from $143,291 to $650,000
• Senior Machine Learning Engineer: $775,000
• Senior Manager, Ads Platform Engineering: $283,442
• Senior Product Designer: $283,442 median; ranging from $119,766 to $400,000
• Senior Product Designer, Ads: $217,610
• Senior Production Planner: $205,150
• Senior Research Scientist: $590,000 median; ranging from $550,000 to $630,000
• Senior Researcher: $295,194
• Senior Software Engineer: $455,000 median; ranging from $170,872 to $750,000
• Software Engineer: $226,158 median; ranging from $135,283 to $525,000

Marketing and communications

There were a handful of marketing and communications salaries included in the data. That Netflix team includes editorial and publishing, communications, consumer products, partner marketing, and publicity, per the company's jobs page. Examples from the data in those fields include:

• Manager, Growth and Engagement, Publishing Innovation: $100,630
• Senior Manager, Creative, Marketing Partnerships: $195,936
• Senior Manager, Product Marketing: $280,987
• Specialist, Communications: $96,190 median; ranging from $93,579 to $98,800

Games

Games are a newer venture for Netflix. This division includes its Games Studio as well as developers it bought, like Night School Studio, Boss Fight Entertainment, Next Games, Moonlight Games, and Spry Fox, per the jobs page.

Here are examples of salaries for jobs related to Netflix's gaming business:

• Game Reliability Manager: $137,550
• Games Service Reliability Manager: $128,086
• Manager, Game Analytics: $210,704
• Product Manager, Mobile Games: $475,000
• VFX Artist, Games Studio: $161,907

All roles

The data also included salaries for other Netflix jobs, such as corporate, data, editorial, human resources, and research roles.

Some of the highest-paying jobs in the data include a director of growth data science and engineering with a $1 million annual salary and a senior machine learning engineer making $775,000.

Here's the full list of positions and annual wages included in the data, in alphabetical order:

Analyst, Tax Operations: $141,534 median; ranging from $137,030 to $146,037

Analytics Engineer: $197,371 median; ranging from $170,186 to $295,194

Android Automation Engineer: $254,800 median; ranging from $226,158 to $283,442

Application Security Engineer: $172,536

Associate Product Manager, Live Services: $214,074

Associate, Ads FP&A: $123,240

Associate, Corporate FP&A: $210,000

Associate, Corporate Ops Strategy, Planning, and Analysis: $220,000

Associate, F&S, Plans and Pricing: $174,117 median; ranging from $156,770 to $191,464

Associate, F&S, Products and Technology: $156,770

Associate, FS&A, Content: $103,314

Associate, FS&A, Product: $174,117

Associate, FS&A, Products and Technology: $167,086 median; ranging from $148,595 to $174,117

Associate, Memberships Strategy and Analysis: $240,000

Associate, Pricing Strategy, Planning, and Analysis: $183,310

CAD Manager: $165,000

Capacity Planner: $183,310

Coordinator, Major Studio Film Licensing: $123,386 median; ranging from $121,763 to $125,008

Counsel, Advertising Legal Affairs: $330,554

Creative Lead: $275,000

Data Analyst: $183,310 median; ranging from $151,694 to $210,704

Data and Insights Project Manager: $239,200 median; ranging from $210,704 to $285,000

Data Engineer: $218,847 median; ranging from $139,464 to $295,194

Data Engineering Manager: $218,608

Data Scientist: $222,113 median; ranging from $146,744 to $295,194

Data Visualization Engineer: $192,941

Director, Business and Legal Affairs, Post Production and Production Planning: $218,754 median; ranging from $218,754 to $650,000

Director, Business Development: $387,456 median; ranging from $249,912 to $525,000

Director, Commercial Operations: $685,000

Director, Documentary Film: $172,328

Director, Growth Data Science and Engineering: $1 million

Director, Plans Innovation: $210,704

Director, Post Services: $175,615 median; ranging from $168,147 to $183,082

Director, Product and Tech Legal (Consumer): $330,554

Director, Product Platform Strategy, Planning and Analysis: $206,274

Director, Production Travel: $183,040

Distributed Systems Engineer: $283,442 median; ranging from $192,941 to $283,442

Enablement Manager, Data Platform: $210,704

Engineering Manager: $283,442 median; ranging from $266,926 to $294,299

Finance Functional Lead: $132,787

Full Stack Engineer: $184,662

Game Reliability Manager: $137,550

Games Service Reliability Manager: $128,086

Global Technical Research Manager: $180,000

Hardware Engineer: $211,120

HR Business Partner, Manager: $222,019

HR Business Partner, Director: $750,000

HR Business Partner, Director, Internal Studios/UCAN: $193,232

HR Business Partner, Senior Director: $193,232

HR Business Partner, Tech: $238,098

HR Talent Partner, Creative Production: $285,000

Indirect Tax Analyst: $132,787 median; ranging from $130,000 to $137,030

Integration Architect, Finance Technology: $350,000

Language Program Manager, Globalization: $79,664

Legal Technology Manager: $255,352 median; ranging from $210,704 to $300,000

Localization Project Manager: $101,816

Machine Learning Engineer: $283,442 median; ranging from $211,536 to $283,442

Machine Learning Scientist: $146,744

Manager, Ads Strategic Planning and Analysis: $166,046

Manager, Consumer Products and Experiences FP&A: $92,518

Manager, Corporate FP&A: $171,454

Manager, Creative Development and Production: $137,800 median; ranging from $92,518 to $183,082

Manager, Creative Services: $475,000

Manager, Documentary Film: $281,394 median; ranging from $183,082 to $379,706

Manager, Editorial Development and Planning: $105,810

Manager, F&S, Product: $191,464

Manager, F&S, Revenue Analytics: $178,110

Manager, FS&A, Ads: $121,763 median; ranging from $95,826 to $205,150

Manager, FS&A, Plans: $123,240

Manager, FS&A, Revenue Management and Analytics: $151,694

Manager, Game Analytics: $210,704

Manager, Growth and Engagement, Publishing Innovation: $100,630

Manager, Growth Data Engineering: $283,442

Manager, iOS UI Foundations: $266,926

Manager, Machine Learning, Studio Intelligence: $155,958

Manager, Marketing and IP Legal Operations, Tools, and Workflows: $129,293

Manager, Payments Strategy, Planning and Analysis: $183,310

Manager, Post Services: $183,082

Manager, Product Finance: $195,686

Manager, Product Strategy, Planning, and Analysis: $280,000

Manager, Production Finance: $275,000

Manager, PS, P&A, North America: $170,000

Manager, Revenue Management and Analytics: $217,600 median; ranging from $140,005 to $295,194

Manager, SP&A, Studio Product: $300,000

Manager, Space and Occupancy System and Data: $98,946

Manager, Technical Program Management: $171,330

Manager, UI Engineering: $395,352 median; ranging from $210,704 to $580,000

Manager, VFX Business Development: $175,635

Media ML Engineer: $295,194

Media Operations Specialist: $130,998

Metadata Technologist: $102,294

ML Engineer: $283,442

Operations and Portfolio Manager, Talent Technology: $151,102 median; ranging from $136,157 to $166,046

Performance Engineer: $238,192 median; ranging from $192,941 to $283,442

Privacy Software Engineer: $283,442

Product Design Manager: $283,442

Product Designer: $316,721 median; ranging from $102,835 to $430,000

Product Manager: $284,388 median; ranging from $210,704 to $294,299

Product Manager, Ads Platform: $236,038

Product Manager, Commerce Platform: $210,704

Product Manager, Developer Platform: $210,704

Product Manager, Developer Productivity: $184,080

Product Manager, Device Platforms: $166,379

Product Manager, Enterprise Software Engineering: $400,000

Product Manager, Live-Action Production Media: $155,106

Product Manager, Mobile Games: $475,000

Product Manager, Plans: $210,704

Product Operations Lead: $272,553 median; ranging from $249,912 to $295,194

Production Manager: $283,442

Production Planner: $195,936

Program Manager: $266,926

Project Engagement Manager: $500,000

Project Specialist: $127,504

Ratings Architecture Lead: $181,293

Ratings Architecture Strategist: $178,630 median; ranging from $146,744 to $206,773

Ratings Policy Strategist: $153,525 median; ranging from $117,042 to $154,315

Research Engineer: $260,666 median; ranging from $169,146 to $295,194

Research Scientist: $260,666 median; ranging from $226,325 to $283,442

Research Scientist/Engineer: $260,666

Research Scientist/Engineer L5, Algorithm Engineering: $260,666

Revenue Accountant: $137,030

Rights Analyst, Major Studios Licensing: $125,528 median; ranging from $96,160 to $137,114

Security Analytics Engineer: $151,694

Security Engineer: $187,262 median; ranging from $171,330 to $202,134

Security Software Engineer: $192,941 median; ranging from $157,477 to $283,442

Senior Analyst, Transfer Pricing: $178,110 median; ranging from $162,926 to $191,464

Senior Analytics Engineer: $146,744 median; ranging from $138,341 to $430,000

Senior Analytics Engineer, Tudum: $151,154

Senior Associate, Sales Operations: $117,042

Senior Backend Engineer: $168,709

Senior Content Accountant: $109,346 median; ranging from $101,650 to $155,000

Senior Data Engineer: $540,000 median; ranging from $420,000 to $700,000

Senior Data Engineer, Membership: $540,000

Senior Data Scientist: $565,000 median; ranging from $143,291 to $650,000

Senior Director, Talent Relations and Awards: $165,693 median; ranging from $93,579 to $195,936

Senior Director, Talent Relations and Awards, Film: $225,035

Senior Game Designer: $167,523

Senior InfoSec GRCA Partner: $375,000

Senior Integrations Architect: $192,941

Senior Integrations Architect, Finance Applications: $430,000

Senior Machine Learning Engineer: $775,000

Senior Manager, Ads Platform Engineering: $283,442

Senior Manager, Creative, Marketing Partnerships: $195,936

Senior Manager, Product Marketing: $280,987

Senior Manager, Production Finance: $260,000

Senior Market and Economy Analyst: $119,850 median; ranging from $89,502 to $178,110

Senior Product Designer: $283,442 median; ranging from $119,766 to $400,000

Senior Product Designer, Ads: $217,610

Senior Production Planner: $205,150

Senior Research Scientist: $590,000 median; ranging from $550,000 to $630,000

Senior Researcher: $295,194

Senior Security Engineer: $550,000

Senior Security Partner, Application Security: $575,000

Senior Security Software Engineer: $500,000

Senior Software Engineer: $455,000 median; ranging from $170,872 to $750,000

Senior Software Engineer, Big Data Platform: $525,000

Senior Software Engineer, Core Data Platform: $575,000

Senior Software Engineer, Media Cloud Engineering: $650,000

Senior Software Engineer, Personalization Application Core: $525,000

Senior Software Engineer, Privacy Engineering: $475,000

Senior Stock Analyst: $137,030

Senior Systems Engineer: $300,000

Senior Technical Program Manager: $550,000

Senior Technical Sound Designer: $217,610

Senior Technical Writer: $190,986

Senior User Interface Artist: $145,184

Site Reliability Engineer: $192,941

Software Engineer: $226,158 median; ranging from $135,283 to $525,000

Software Engineer in Test: $283,442

Software Engineer, Identity and Access Management: $210,000

Solutions Architect: $247,489 median; ranging from $197,829 to $286,728

Solutions Software Engineer: $177,029

Solutions Support Engineer: $226,158

Specialist, Communications: $96,190 median; ranging from $93,579 to $98,800

Support Solutions Engineer: $219,624 median; ranging from $144,248 to $295,000

Technical Program Manager: $210,704 median; ranging from $137,738 to $210,704

Technical Solutions Manager: $320,000

Technical Support Engineer: $209,550 median; ranging from $192,941 to $226,158

Technology Auditor: $194,875

Treasury Manager, FX: $241,134

TV UI Engineer: $226,158

UI Engineer: $199,347 median; ranging from $146,307 to $226,158

Vertical Lead, Overall Deals: $166,046

VFX Artist, Games Studio: $161,907

Video Engineer: $192,941

This story has been updated to include the latest available data. Elaine Low and Lucia Moses contributed to an earlier version of this story.

• Meghan Markle became the Duchess of Sussex when she married Prince Harry.
• She was born in Los Angeles and was an actor before becoming a working royal.
• In 2025, Meghan is returning to the lifestyle space with a new show and business.

From starring on a TV show to marrying a literal prince charming, Meghan Markle's life sounds like the stuff of fairy tales.

However, royal life wasn't all it was cracked up to be for Meghan, 43. In January 2020, Meghan and Prince Harry, 40, stepped back as senior royals.

Five years later, the couple are raising their two children — who are sixth and seventh in line for the British throne — in California, building a non-royal life that still allows them to leverage their fame and global influence.

Here's everything to know about Meghan's life so far.

Meghan Markle's early life

Meghan was born Rachel Meghan Markle in Los Angeles on August 4, 1981, to Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland.

Thomas Markle and Ragland split when Meghan was just 2. In the Netflix series "Harry & Meghan," she said that she spent weekdays with her mother and weekends with her dad throughout her childhood.

Ragland worked as a social worker and yoga instructor, while Meghan's father was a lighting designer for shows like "Married… with Children." Meghan got her first experience with Hollywood by visiting sets with him.

Meghan has two half-siblings from Thomas' previous marriages, but she told Oprah Winfrey in 2021 that she was raised as an "only child" and didn't have contact with her siblings from her Markle family.

She attended the Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse for elementary school and later Immaculate Heart High School before studying at Northwestern University, where she double majored in acting and international relations.

Meghan was an activist from a young age. When she was 11, she petitioned Procter & Gamble to change the tagline of a soap commercial with sexist undertones.

Meghan Markle's acting career

After graduating from Northwestern in 2003, Meghan was cast in a series of smaller roles, including an appearance on "General Hospital" and a stint as a briefcase girl on "Deal or No Deal."

Then, in 2011, she landed her breakout role as Rachel Zane on "Suits." She starred on the show from 2011 to 2018, moving to Toronto to film the series.

Meghan also launched her lifestyle blog, The Tig, in 2014. The blog featured everything from recipes and travel recommendations to interviews with fellow celebrities.

While her acting career flourished, Meghan dedicated much of her offscreen time to service work. She became a United Nations women's advocate and gave a speech at the UN Women's 2015 Conference, recounting her plea to Procter & Gamble to change its ad in her youth.

Meghan also became a World Vision ambassador in 2016, taking philanthropic trips to Rwanda and India through her partnership with the organization. The same year, she became a counselor for One Young World.

Falling for Prince Harry

Harry and Meghan met in 2016 after the prince saw Meghan in a video on a mutual friend's Instagram page, in which she was wearing the dog filter, as they shared in the Netflix docuseries "Harry & Meghan."

After their pal told Meghan that Harry was interested in her, they connected via Instagram DMs. Harry and Meghan's first date took place in London in July 2016.

When they met, Harry was 32, and Meghan was 35. She was previously married to Trevor Engelson, a film producer, from 2011 to 2013, while Harry had never been married.

The couple also shared in their Netflix docuseries that their relationship escalated quickly, saying they went on a five-day safari in Botswana for their third date.

After reports of their relationship surfaced in October 2016, Harry publicly confirmed they were a couple in November, using the statement to condemn the "wave of abuse and harassment" Meghan experienced from the press and "social media trolls."

Harry proposed to Meghan in November 2017 in the north garden at Kensington Palace, and they announced their engagement on November 27. USA Today announced Meghan was leaving Suits the next day. A few months earlier, Meghan closed The Tig, preparing for her new royal life.

Harry and Meghan got married on May 19, 2018, at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, and she officially became the Duchess of Sussex. Millions of people watched the couple say "I do," and celebrities and royals flocked to the UK for the event.

However, Meghan's father caused tension in the lead-up to the nuptials. On May 14, 2018, less than a week before the wedding, tabloids, including TMZ and the Daily Mail, reported that Thomas posed for staged paparazzi photos in exchange for money. Meghan's half-sister, Samantha Markle, said on the British program "Loose Women" that the paparazzi photos were her idea.

When news of the staged photos was reported, Thomas told TMZ he wouldn't attend the wedding. He told the outlet he changed his mind on May 15 at 8 a.m., but he then said he wouldn't go to the event at 2 p.m. the same day because of an emergency heart surgery.

Meghan confirmed in a statement just two days before the wedding that her father would not attend. King Charles III walked her down the aisle.

Royal life — and a step back

Once Meghan and Harry were engaged, she became a working royal. As she took on duties, her fresh approach to royal fashion was often the topic of conversation, and she used her new platform as a duchess to promote feminism.

Harry and Meghan went on their first royal tour as a couple to Australia in October 2018, announcing they were expecting their first baby just before it started. They welcomed their son, Prince Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, on May 6, 2019, just shy of a year after their wedding.

Meghan later shared in an interview with Oprah Winfrey and in "Harry & Meghan" that she was struggling with her mental health throughout her pregnancy with Archie because of the intense media scrutiny she faced — particularly from the Royal Rota outlets, which have direct access to the royal family and that the couple said often featured reporting with racist undertones. Studies later found they were also the subject of coordinated hate campaigns on social media.

Meghan said the Firm didn't allow her to seek support for her mental health, even as she struggled with suicidal ideation.

"I just didn't want to be alive anymore," she told Winfrey in 2021. "That was a clear and real and frightening and constant thought."

The couple also told Winfrey that members of the royal family questioned how dark Archie's skin may be during Meghan's pregnancy, adding to their stress.

Meghan added that reports that she had made Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, cry ahead of her wedding were false. In fact, Meghan said Kate made her cry, though the princess later apologized.

In his 2023 memoir "Spare," Harry said there had been ongoing tension between the Sussexes and the Windsors when Meghan joined the royal family, largely stemming from different thoughts on how they should approach the press and King Charles and Queen Camilla's close relationship with certain outlets. Harry even said William physically attacked him during an argument in 2019.

Because of the tension, the couple said in "Harry & Meghan" that they proposed moving to other Commonwealth countries between 2018 and 2019, which they thought would allow them to continue serving as working royals, have some distance from the Royal Rota system, and put other members of the monarchy in the spotlight in the UK.

They proposed moving to New Zealand in 2018, South Africa in April 2019, and Canada in December 2019, but none of the moves panned out. Harry said he believed the Firm leaked the plans for the moves to South Africa and Canada to the press, which made it difficult to move forward with them.

Then, on January 8, 2020, Harry and Meghan announced they were stepping back as senior royals and planned to "work to become financially independent while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen."

They made their final appearance as senior royals on March 9, 2020, and they returned to Canada after the event, where they had been staying since December 2019. Soon after, they relocated to California amid the coronavirus pandemic, staying in Tyler Perry's home before buying their own house in Montecito, California, in July 2020.

Post-royal life

Meghan and Harry were initially quiet in the months after they left the royal family, but they made a series of moves in the second half of 2020 that charted their path for the coming years.

They signed a production deal with Netflix, reportedly worth $100 million, in August 2020 and a separate $20 million podcast deal with Spotify in December 2020. In October 2020, they founded Archewell Inc., an umbrella organization for both a charitable organization and a production company.

They announced they were expecting their second child in February 2021, and in their now-famous interview with Winfrey in March 2021, they shared they were having a daughter. Princess Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born on June 4, 2021. Her name honors both Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana.

Meghan also released her first children's book, "The Bench," in June 2021, which became an instant New York Times bestseller. Her podcast "Archetypes" was initially a hit when Meghan released it in August 2022, beating out Joe Rogan's podcast for the No. 1 spot on Spotify, though Harry and Meghan's relationship with Spotify ended in 2023.

"Harry & Meghan" was also a massive success when it premiered in December 2022, on the heels of Queen Elizabeth II's death in September. Harry and Meghan returned to the UK after her death, taking a walkabout with William and Kate at Windsor Castle to greet mourners and sitting with the royal family at her funeral.

Meghan also won a handful of lawsuits in the early years after her step back as a senior royal. In 2019, she sued the Mail on Sunday for misuse of her private information, copyright infringement, and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018 after it published a handwritten letter she wrote her father, and she won on all three counts in December 2021.

In December 2020, she and Harry separately settled a suit they filed against Splash UK that said the paparazzi agency would no longer take photos of the Sussex family. In March 2023, a judge dismissed a defamation case Samantha Markle filed against her half-sister.

After keeping a pretty low profile in 2023, Meghan and Harry went on a handful of quasi-royal tours in 2024, visiting Nigeria because the country is interested in hosting Harry's Invictus Games and promoting online safety in Colombia.

In early 2025, the couple seemed to be dividing and conquering professionally, with Harry focusing on service-oriented work while Meghan turned her attention to lifestyle-focused ventures.

Her new Netflix series, "With Love, Meghan," was set to premiere in January 2025, though she postponed its release several months following the wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles. She and Harry were photographed supporting victims of the fire in its aftermath.

The show will feature Meghan sharing recipes, gardening and entertaining advice, and appearances from her famous friends. She returned to Instagram to announce the series on January 1 and used the account to reveal her new lifestyle brand, As Ever.

As Ever was originally branded American Riviera Orchard, but Meghan said she decided to change it to As Ever after Netflix signed on as her partner, as the new name would allow her to broaden the scope of the business.

Both the show and As Ever feel like a continuation of Meghan's lifestyle expertise, which she flexed with The Tig.

• Vikram Madireddy is a medical student who studied in the UK, Japan, Germany, and Australia.
• He said patients treated him differently in each country.
• He now has an appreciation for all the different ways countries provide healthcare.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Vikram Madireddy. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I started medical school in 2020. When I applied, I knew I would have plenty of late nights and coffee-fueled study sessions, but I never imagined I'd be learning remotely or doing anatomy and physiology labs in full personal protective equipment.

It felt like the pandemic had taken an already troubled medical system in the US and hurled it into an active volcano. That made me wonder how medical systems around the world were coping.

I had traveled to visit family in India, but other than that had never really left New York City until I went to medical school in Tennessee. So, I turned to the internet. I posted on Reddit, asking medical students from around the globe to get in touch.

About 12 people responded, which might not seem so significant, but it changed my life.

I started learning from TV and books about other systems

I started having Zoom conversations with other medical students. It just built my curiosity about medical systems outside the US. I wanted to know what we could learn from them and what they could learn from us.

Soon, I was watching Japanese medical shows and ordering neurology books that were only printed in Australia. Sometimes, I would bring something up in my US classes, and the instructors would ask where I heard it. I told them about my interest in foreign medical systems and how they were helping me learn medicine here in the US.

I started applying for elective courses in other countries. I went to Tokyo for three months. That confirmed for me that I wanted to spend my last year of med school working around the globe.

I saved for two years to fund my travels

During school, I worked in a lab, and I saved a few thousand dollars. I applied to electives around the world and was accepted to programs in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia. When I spoke to my med school dean, she warned me this approach was unconventional, but I was confident I could do it.

I planned my travel over 100 days and spent about $3,000 on plane tickets. My first stop was in the United Kingdom. While I was there, I took a side trip to Germany, where I presented research findings. I then traveled to Japan, covering the whole country from top to bottom and learning a lot about the different cultures within Japan. Finally, I went to Australia.

I stayed in a short-term rental in the UK and briefly in a hostel in Australia. In Japan and Australia, I also stayed in the homes of other medical students, which helped me save money and gave me a front-line view of their day-to-day routines.

In Japan, I worked to overcome a language barrier

In each place, I was interacting directly with patients and learning from doctors. The most difficult, obviously, was in Japan, because of the language difference. I had started studying Japanese before I went to Tokyo for the first time, and I understood enough of the language that I could take patient histories.

Patients in Japan were amazed I could speak their language. To me, it was an important sign of respect. Still, I sometimes had to ask my teachers or my medical school friend to fully understand what a patient was saying, especially if they used an idiom. One popular Japanese saying is roughly translated as "fall down 7 times, get up 8." However, patients use it to convey their stubbornness around avoiding the hospital or not taking medication. I didn't want meanings like that to get lost in translation.

I learned to appreciate national medical systems

As I interacted with patients and medical systems, I saw differences in how patients spoke with me. In the US, I often have to gently probe patients about what's bothering them, being very sensitive. In Japan, patients were direct, telling me exactly what was wrong and what treatment they wanted. The UK and Australia were similar to the US but had different medications and treatments available.

I ended my trip, having learned about all the different ways countries care for their people.

I'm preparing to take my final medical licensing exam for the UK's national health system. If I pass, I'll start working there in August for at least two years.

I'm grateful that medical school has allowed me to see the world.

• A piece of Apple memorabilia auctioned for tens of thousands of dollars.
• A colorful bow tie worn by late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs sold for $35,750.
• He wore it when he debuted the company's Macintosh computer at an annual shareholder meeting in 1984.

When it came to fashion, Steve Jobs was perhaps best known for his signature black turtlenecks. But he wore a more obscure and much more colorful bow tie to unveil a monumental product in the company's history.

The pink-and-green striped bow tie belonging to the late Apple cofounder just sold for $35,750 to the highest bidder after Julien's Auctions concluded an auction called "Spotlight: History and Technology" on Thursday.

Jobs wore it at an annual shareholder meeting in 1984, where he introduced the Macintosh computer. It had 27 bids, according to the item listing and was only estimated to sell for $1,000 to $2,000.

He also wore the bow tie on a few other occasions, including two photo shoots surrounding the computer's release.

A year prior, Jobs had also worn the tie while speaking at the International Design Conference in Aspen, Colorado, where he joked, "They paid me sixty dollars, so I wore a tie."

Other relics from Steve Jobs-era Apple have hit the auction block before, including a turtleneck of his, as well as his old business cards.

Products from Apple's early days have also been auctioned. In 2022, for example, an unopened first-generation iPhone from 2007, still in its original box, sold for more than $39,000 to the highest bidder. A year later, another unopened first-gen iPhone auctioned for a whopping $190,000.

Besides Jobs' bowtie, Julien's Auctions also listed other items in its auction, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's old Facebook hoodie, which went for $15,875, and a photo of a SpaceX rocket launch signed by CEO Elon Musk, which sold for $10,400.

• Before OpenAI, Altman was well-known in Silicon Valley as president of Y Combinator.
• The release of ChatGPT in 2022 catapulted Altman to worldwide fame.
• Since then, he's led the charge to turn OpenAI into a for-profit company as its success continues.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had an eventful 2024, and 2025 is shaping up to be just as big.

While the 39-year-old entrepreneur has been a household name in Silicon Valley for years now, the rest of the world has gotten to know him more recently through the success of OpenAI's AI chatbot, ChatGPT, which launched in 2022.

So far, his year has involved Altman's efforts to transform OpenAI into a for-profit company, planning for GPT-4.5 (referred to as Orion) and GPT-5, and battling a lawsuit from OpenAI cofounder Elon Musk. On February 27, Altman announced the release of GPT4.5 to ChatGPT Pro users and API developers.

He's also embarking on a new life journey: fatherhood. Altman, who's married to Oliver Mulherin, announced the birth of his son on February 22.

In April 2024, Altman was added to Forbes' billionaires list. OpenAI launched GPT-4o — its newest large language model —the following month. In June, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference that the tech giant would partner with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to iPhones.

Before the AI boom, Altman spent years as president of startup accelerator Y Combinator. He also owns stakes in Reddit, a nuclear fusion startup known as Helion, and other companies. In his free time, he races sports cars with his husband and preps for the apocalypse.

Here's a look at Altman's life and career so far.

Altman grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and he was a computer whiz from a young age.

He learned how to program and take apart a Macintosh computer when he was 8 years old, according to The New Yorker. He attended John Burroughs School, a private, non-sectarian college-preparatory school in St. Louis.

 

 

He told The New Yorker that having a Mac helped him with his sexuality. Altman came out to his parents when he was 16.

"Growing up gay in the Midwest in the two-thousands was not the most awesome thing," he told The New Yorker. "And finding AOL chat rooms was transformative. Secrets are bad when you're eleven or twelve."

Altman came out as gay to the whole community after a Christian group boycotted an assembly at his school that was about sexuality.

"What Sam did changed the school," his college counselor, Madelyn Gray, told The New Yorker. "It felt like someone had opened up a great big box full of all kinds of kids and let them out into the world."

Altman studied computer science at Stanford University for two years before he and two of his classmates dropped out to work full time on their mobile app.

The app shared a user's location with their friends. Loopt was part of the first group of eight companies at startup accelerator Y Combinator. Each startup got $6,000 per founder, and Loopt was in the same batch as Reddit, according to The Business of Business.

Loopt eventually reached a $175 million valuation, but it didn't garner enough interest, so the founders sold it for $43 million in 2012.

The $43 million sale price was close to how much it had raised from investors, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company was acquired by Green Dot, a banking company known for prepaid cards.

One of Loopt's cofounders, Nick Sivo, and Altman dated for nine years, but they broke up after they sold the company.

After Loopt, Altman founded a venture fund called Hydrazine Capital, and raised $21 million.

 That included a large part of the $5 million he got from Loopt, and an investment from billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Altman invested 75% of that money into YC companies, and led Reddit's Series B fundraising round.

He told The New Yorker, "you want to invest in messy, somewhat broken companies. You can treat the warts on top, and because of the warts the company will be hugely underpriced."

In 2014, at the age of 28, Altman was chosen by Y Combinator founder Paul Graham to succeed him as president of the startup accelerator.

While he was YC president, Altman taught a lecture series at Stanford called "How to Start a Startup," in the fall of 2014. The next year, Altman was featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for venture capital at 29 years old.

After he became YC president, he wanted to let more science and engineering startups into each batch.

He chose a fission and a fusion startup for YC because he wanted to start a nuclear-energy company of his own. He invested his own money in both companies and served on their boards.

Mark Andreessen, cofounder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, said to The New Yorker, "Under Sam, the level of YC's ambition has gone up 10x."

 

He finds interesting — and expensive — ways to spend his free time.

In April (the same month he made Forbes' billionaire list,) Altman was spotted in Napa, California driving an ultra-rare Swedish supercar. The Koenigsegg Regera is seriously fast, able to go from zero to 250 miles per hour in less than 30 seconds. There are only 80 of these cars known to exist, and they can cost up to $4.65 million. 

He once told two YC founders that he likes racing cars and had five, including two McLarens and an old Tesla, according to The New Yorker. He's said he likes racing cars and renting planes to fly all over California.

Separately, he told the founders of the startup Shypmate that "I prep for survival," and warned of either a "lethal synthetic virus," AI attacking humans, or nuclear war.

"I try not to think about it too much," Altman told the founders in 2016. "But I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defense Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to."

Altman's mom is a dermatologist and told The New Yorker, "Sam does keep an awful lot tied up inside. He'll call and say he has a headache—and he'll have Googled it, so there's some cyber-chondria in there, too. I have to reassure him that he doesn't have meningitis or lymphoma, that it's just stress."

Altman has a brother, Jack, who is a cofounder and CEO at Lattice, an employee management platform.

Along with their brother Max, the Altmans launched a fund in 2020 called Apollo that is focused on funding "moonshot" companies. They're startups that are financially risky but could potentially pay off with a breakthrough development.

 

In 2015, Altman cofounded OpenAI with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX at the time.

Their goal for the non-profit artificial intelligence company was to make sure AI doesn't wipe out humans.

"We discussed what is the best thing we can do to ensure the future is good?" Musk told The New York Times in 2015. "We could sit on the sidelines or we can encourage regulatory oversight, or we could participate with the right structure with people who care deeply about developing A.I. in a way that is safe and is beneficial to humanity."

Some of Silicon Valley's most prominent names pledged $1 billion to OpenAI along with Altman and Musk, including Reid Hoffman, the cofounder of LinkedIn, and Thiel.

After the 2016 election, Altman, who tweeted that he voted against Donald Trump, said he decided to talk to 100 Trump supporters around the US to understand what they did and didn't like about the president.

 He also wanted to know "what would convince them not to vote for him in the future." In a thread on X, formerly Twitter, Altman said he was "voting against Trump because I believe the principles he stands for represent an unacceptable threat to America."

He also said Thiel, who was still working with YC at the time, "is a high profile supporter of Trump" and that "I disagree with this."

But, he said, "YC is not going to fire someone for supporting a major party nominee."

YC and Thiel stopped working together a year later in 2017 for unspecified reasons.

During his interviews, Altman said he "did not expect to talk to so many Muslims, Mexicans, Black people, and women in the course of this project."

He said almost everyone he approached was willing to talk to him, but they also didn't want to share their names in fear of being "targeted by those people in Silicon Valley if they knew I voted for him." Altman said one of the people he talked to in Silicon Valley made him sign a confidentiality agreement before talking because she was scared of losing her job for supporting Trump.

Altman stepped down as YC president in March 2019 to focus on OpenAI. He stayed in a chairman role at the accelerator.

At a StrictlyVC event in 2019, Altman was asked how OpenAI planned to make a profit, and he said the "honest answer is we have no idea."

Altman said OpenAI had "never made any revenue" and that it had "no current plans to make revenue." 

"We have no idea how we may one day generate revenue," he said at the time, according to TechCrunch.

Altman became CEO of OpenAI in May 2019 after it turned away from being a nonprofit company into a "capped profit" corporation.

"We want to increase our ability to raise capital while still serving our mission, and no pre-existing legal structure we know of strikes the right balance," OpenAI said on its blog. "Our solution is to create OpenAI LP as a hybrid of a for-profit and nonprofit — which we are calling a 'capped-profit' company."

OpenAI received a $1 billion investment from Microsoft in 2019.

Altman flew to Seattle to meet with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, where he demonstrated OpenAI's AI models for him, WSJ reported.  The pair announced their business partnership on LinkedIn.

Current and former insiders at OpenAI told Fortune that after Altman took over as CEO, and after the investment from Microsoft, the company started focusing more on developing natural language processing.

Altman and OpenAI's former chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, said the move to focus on large language models was the best way for the company to reach artificial general intelligence, or AGI, a system that has broad human-level cognitive abilities.

 

In 2021, Altman and cofounders Alex Blania and Max Novendstern launched a global cryptocurrency project called Worldcoin.

It wanted to give everyone in the world access to crypto by scanning their iris with an orb. The company was started in 2020, but stopped operating in a few countries in 2022 due to logistics issues, Bloomberg reported. In January, Worldcoin tweeted that it had reached 1 million people and has onboarded over 150,000 first-time crypto users.

Under Altman's tenure as CEO, OpenAI released popular generative AI tools to the public, including DALL-E and ChatGPT.

Both DALL-E and ChatGPT are known as "generative" AI, meaning the bot creates its own artwork and text based on information it is fed.

After ChatGPT was released on November 30, Altman tweeted that it had reached over 1 million users in five days.

ChatGPT was made public so OpenAI could use feedback from users to improve the bot.

A few days after its launch, Altman said that it "is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness." Altman posted that ChatGPT was "great" for "fun creative inspiration," but "not such a good idea" to look up facts.

ChatGPT recently began testing a paid version of ChatGPT called "ChatGPT Professional" that is supposed to give better access to the bot. In December, Altman posted that OpenAI "will have to monetize it somehow at some point; the compute costs are eye-watering."

In January 2023, Microsoft again announced it was making a "multibillion dollar" investment into OpenAI.

Although specifics of the investment were not shared, it is believed it is worth $10 billion. Before Microsoft's investment, other venture capitalists wanted to buy shares from OpenAI employees in a tender offer that valued the company at around $29 billion.

Altman is still interested in nuclear fusion and invested $375 million in Helion Energy in 2022.

"Helion is more than an investment to me," Altman told TechCrunch. "It's the other thing beside OpenAI that I spend a lot of time on. I'm just super excited about what's going to happen there."

He told TechCrunch that he's "happy there's a fusion race," to build a low-cost fusion energy system that can eventually power the Earth.

 

Last year, OpenAI launched its pilot subscription plan for ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20 a month.

People who pay $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus get benefits such as access to the site even when traffic is high, faster responses from the bot, and first access to new features and ChatGPT improvements.

The subscription is only available for people in the US, and OpenAI said it will soon start inviting people on the waitlist to join.

Altman wrote that OpenAI's mission is to make sure AGI "benefits all of humanity.

"If AGI is successfully created, this technology could help us elevate humanity by increasing abundance, turbocharging the global economy, and aiding in the discovery of new scientific knowledge that changes the limits of possibility," Altman wrote on OpenAI's blog.

Despite its potential, Altman said artificial general intelligence comes with "serious risk of misuse, drastic accidents, and societal disruption." But instead of stopping its development, Altman said "society and the developers of AGI have to figure out how to get it right."

Altman went on to share the principles that OpenAI "care about most," including "the benefits of, access to, and governance of AGI to be widely and fairly shared."

Altman said he and OpenAI are "a little bit scared" of AI's potential as it continues to develop.

In an interview with ABC News, Altman said he thinks "people should be happy that we're a little bit scared" of generative AI systems as they develop.

Altman said he doesn't think AI systems should only be developed in a lab.

"You've got to get these products out into the world and make contact with reality, make our mistakes while the stakes are low," he said.

 

 

 

In April 2023, OpenAI announced the option to turn off chat history in ChatGPT so the data can't be used to train and improve its models.

In a blog post, the company said it hoped the option to turn off chat history "provides an easier way to manage your data than our existing opt-out process."

When a user turns off their chat history, new conversations will be kept for 30 days for OpenAI to review them for abuse, then are permanently deleted.

In his first appearance before Congress, Altman told a Senate panel there should be a government agency to grant licenses to companies working on advanced AI.

Altman told lawmakers there should be an agency that grants licenses for companies that are working on AI models "above a certain scale of capabilities." He also said the agency should be able to revoke licenses from companies that don't follow safety rules.

"I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong," Altman said. "And we want to be vocal about that, we want to work with the government to prevent that from happening."

OpenAI launched a ChatGPT app for iPhones and Android users in 2023.

The app, which is free, can answer text-based and spoken questions using Whisper, another OpenAI product that is a speech-recognition model. Users who have a subscription to ChatGPT Plus can also access it through the app.

Altman met with leaders in Europe to discuss AI regulations and said OpenAI has "no plans to leave" the EU, despite his earlier concerns over the EU's proposed AI Act.

At the start of his trip, Altman told reporters in London that he was concerned about the EU's proposed AI Act that focuses on regulating AI and protecting Europeans from AI risks.

"The details really matter," Altman said, according to the Financial Times. "We will try to comply, but if we can't comply, we will cease operating."

However, he shared on X later in the week that OpenAI is "excited to continue to operate here and of course have no plans to leave."

In an October 2023 interview, Altman expressed "deep misgivings" about people befriending AI.

Altman made it clear that he doesn't believe humans should try to be friends with AI in an interview during Wall Street Journal's Tech Live event.

"I personally really have deep misgivings about this vision of the future where everyone is super close to AI friends, and not more so with their human friends," Altman said.

 

On November 17, 2023, OpenAI shocked tech fans by announcing that Altman would no longer be the company's CEO.

In November, the OpenAI board of directors announced that Altman would be stepping down from his role as CEO and leaving the board, "effective immediately."

In a blog post, the board said it "no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI," and added that Altman was "not consistently candid in his communications."

"We are grateful for Sam's many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI," a statement from OpenAI's board says. "At the same time, we believe new leadership is necessary as we move forward."

Altman issued his own statement via a post on X.

"i loved my time at openai. it was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. most of all i loved working with such talented people," Altman wrote.

He added: "will have more to say about what's next later."

But days after the ouster, Sam Altman returned to the helm of OpenAI.

After a chaotic weekend over his firing, Altman and OpenAI announced that he would return to the tech company as CEO.

"We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo," the company wrote on X.

In January 2024, Altman confirmed he married his partner Oliver Mulherin.

Altman is married. The OpenAI CEO wed his partner Mulherin, with photos from the wedding circulating on social media in January 2024.

An attendee of the wedding confirmed to Business Insider that the pictures weren't AI-generated. His husband is an Australian software engineer who previously worked at Meta, according to his LinkedIn profile.

OpenAI launched its text-to-video model Sora.

In February 2024, OpenAI unveiled Sora to the public. The program — named after the Japanese word for "sky" — creates up to 0ne-minute long videos from text prompts. 

"We're teaching AI to understand and simulate the physical world in motion, with the goal of training models that help people solve problems that require real-world interaction," OpenAI wrote in Sora's announcement.

Sora is still in the midst of risk and harm assessments by red teamers, but Altman is already showing off its capabilities on social media, and the company is reportedly shopping the tool around to Hollywood.

Altman and his husband signed the Giving Pledge in 2024.

A few weeks after Forbes declared Altman a billionaire, he and his partner signed the Giving Pledge, vowing to give away most of his fortune.

"We would not be making this pledge if it weren't for the hard work, brilliance, generosity, and dedication to improve the world of many people that built the scaffolding of society that let us get here," the pledge letter read.

They continued: "There is nothing we can do except feel immense gratitude and commit to pay it forward, and do what we can to build the scaffolding up a little higher."

OpenAI introduced GPT-4o in May and demonstrated its capabilities.

During its "Spring Update" on May 13, OpenAI announced GPT-4o, an updated version of its large language model that powers ChatGPT. OpenAI CTO Mira Murati made the announcement, and Altman didn't make an appearance despite actively promoting the event on X. 

Altman might've been absent from the presentation, but the demonstrations of ChatGPT's voice and video capabilities created buzz online. It also led to Altman and his company being called out by actor Scarlett Johansson, who alleged that the OpenAI chatbot Sky's voice sounded "eerily similar" to her own after she declined a partnership.

Altman's post on X referencing a movie in which Johansson voices someone's virtual girlfriend was quickly called into question, and the company soon said that it would not move forward with the voice heard in the demo.

Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI at the Worldwide Developer Conference in June.

After much debate about how it would enter the AI arms race, Apple announced at WWDC 2024 that it would partner with OpenAI to close the gap between it and its rivals.

Although Bloomberg reported that Apple isn't paying OpenAI in cash, the tech titan's solid installed base of over two billion users means more people may use ChatGPT if it comes integrated with Siri. According to the presentation, Siri will be able to handle more complex requests with help from ChatGPT.

Altman was spotted attending WWDC the day the partnership was announced and speaking to high-ranking Apple employees ahead of the keynote. 

Altman might finally get equity as OpenAI considers restructuring.

Altman confirmed reports that OpenAI was planning a corporate restructuring during a talk at Italian Tech Week in September 2024. 

"Our board has been thinking about that for almost a year, independently, as we think about what it takes to get to our next stage," Altman said. "I think this is just about people being ready for new chapters of their lives and a new generation of leadership."

As part of those changes, Altman might finally get equity in OpenAI, which is now worth about $157 billion after it closed its most recent, $6.6 billion funding round. 

In October 2024, Altman weighed in on how close he is to achieving OpenAI's mission.

At OpenAI's developer conference, Dev Day, Altman said o1, OpenAI's latest set of AI models, which it says has "reasoning" abilities, represented a breakthrough toward artificial general intelligence. 

While Altman said he believes AGI — a still hypothetical form of AI that can solve any task a human can — is still a ways away, there will be "very steep" progress over the next two years.

OpenAI announced in January that it'd be involved in a $500 billion project called Stargate.

On January 21, Altman joined Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, President Donald Trump, and SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son to announce a partnership to fund a $500 billion investment in US AI. The companies would form Stargate, a project that seeks to build US AI infrastructure and create jobs.

"Together these world-leading technology giants are announcing the formation of Stargate," Trump said, adding: "Put that name down in your books, because I think you're going to hear a lot about it."

He declined a $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI from a group led by Elon Musk.

Though the pair founded OpenAI together, Altman's relationship with Musk has become increasingly tense over the years. Musk offered to run OpenAI, but his proposal was rejected, Semafor reported in 2023. He departed OpenAI in 2018 and went on to start xAI.

Since then, they've had heated exchanges, shared words of appreciation, and entered a legal battle. Musk sued Altman and OpenAI in March 2024, alleging the company violated its founding principles.

In an August 2024 lawsuit, Musk claimed he was "deceived" into cofounding OpenAI.

The most recent development in their feud is a $97.4 billion bid to buy the AI company by a group led by Musk. Altman declined, telling Sky News reporters at an AI summit in Paris, "The company is not for sale, neither is the mission."

He announced the birth of his first child in February.

welcome to the world, little guy!

he came early and is going to be in the nicu for awhile. he is doing well and it’s really nice to be in a little bubble taking care of him.

i have never felt such love. pic.twitter.com/wFF2FkKiMU

— Sam Altman (@sama) February 22, 2025

On February 22, Altman announced the birth of his son on social media. Altman said the newborn will be in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, which offers medical treatment after birth, "for awhile."

"i have never felt such love," Altman said in his post.

Days later, OpenAI released GPT-4.5.

Altman introduced the new model in a post on X, where he described it as "the first model that feels like talking to a thoughtful person." He added that the model will be "giant" and "expensive," and Altman said it offers a "different kind of intelligence and there's a magic to it."

OpenAI released GPT-4.5 to pro tier users who pay $200 a month and developers in the API with plans to offer it to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Edu users the following week.

Correction: February 2, 2023 — An earlier version of this story defined AGI incorrectly and listed the incorrect age at which Altman was named president of Y Combinator. AGI in this context stands for artificial general intelligence. Altman became president of Y Combinator at 28, not 31.

• Trump's Education Department removed online applications for income-driven student-loan repayment plans.
• The move was in response to a federal court upholding a pause on the SAVE plan.
• This means that borrowers cannot access plans intended to give them more affordable monthly payments.

Student-loan borrowers lost access to online applications for repayment plans meant to allow for affordable monthly payments.

In response to a federal court ruling that upheld a preliminary injunction on the SAVE student-loan repayment plan, President Donald Trump's Education Department removed online income-driven repayment applications from Federal Student Aid's website.

A three-sentence notice on FSA's website stated: "A federal court issued an injunction preventing the U.S. Department of Education from implementing the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan and parts of other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. As a result, the IDR and online loan consolidation applications are temporarily unavailable. Borrowers can still submit a paper loan consolidation application."

Income-driven repayment plans, established by Congress in 1993, give borrowers monthly payments intended to be affordable based on the income they receive. After 20 or 25 years of payments, the plans allow for forgiveness of borrowers' remaining balances. Many borrowers seeking relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness plan, which cancels student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments, used income-driven repayment plans.

The remaining available repayment plans include the standard 10-year repayment plans, which typically have the highest monthly payments.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on the impact of the application pause and what borrowers should do in the meantime.

The removal of the income-driven repayment plan applications follows a tumultuous legal battle surrounding former President Joe Biden's SAVE plan. The plan was intended to give borrowers cheaper monthly payments with a shorter timeline for loan forgiveness.

A group of GOP-led states filed a lawsuit last summer to block the plan, and 8 million enrolled borrowers have been in an interest-free forbearance since then as the legal process continues. A federal court most recently upheld a pause on the plan, sending it back to a district court to issue a final ruling.

Guidance from the Education Department on January 15 said that borrowers enrolled in SAVE will not have to make payments until December at the earliest while student-loan servicers update payment plans for impacted borrowers.

Persis Yu, deputy executive director and managing counsel at the advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center, said in a statement that "shutting down access to all income-based repayment plans is not what the 8th Circuit ordered."

"This was a choice by the Trump Administration and a cruel one that will inflict massive pain on millions of working families," Yu said.

Do you have a story to share about student loans? Contact this reporter at [email protected].