• The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration's federal job cut plans to proceed.
• Federal agencies had paused job cuts due to legal challenges, and many offered buyouts instead.
• Future legal challenges could arise as agencies proceed with workforce reductions.

Thousands of federal workers are on the lookout for notices of job cuts.

The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that President Donald Trump's administration can proceed with its reduction-in-force, or RIF, plans across federal agencies after federal judges temporarily blocked the terminations in May. The court opted to "express no view on the legality" of any RIF or reorganization plan.

While agencies crafted plans in March and April to slash thousands of roles, they could change completely with agencies choosing to continue offering workers more options, such as buyouts and deferred resignations.

In the months since RIF plans were paused, that's already been happening. For example, the Department of Labor offered employees the option to voluntarily resign while getting paid through the fall.

"Through voluntary incentive programs and natural attrition, the Department of Labor has reached a 20% reduction across our federal workforce, achieving our goal to promote efficiency and eliminate redundancies, while retaining critical positions that fulfill our core mission of putting American workers first," a DOL spokesperson told BI.

Others, like the Internal Revenue Service, offered a lump-sum buyout offer and a voluntary early retirement application. If enough people choose to voluntarily leave their jobs, federal agencies could opt to scale down their initial RIF plans, which are more like a straightforward mass layoff.

Alan Lescht, an employment attorney at Alan Lescht & Associates specializing in federal workers, said that the SCOTUS ruling means agencies can move forward with their original RIF plans as soon as they want.

"There's been a lot of people on administrative leave pending whether these RIFs would go forward or not," Lescht said, referring to federal workers who were put on leave as their employment status remained up in the air. It's now up to the administration to decide if those terminations will proceed. "If they're going to go forward, then they'll send out notices that you're hereby removed and you have 30 days to file an appeal at the Merit System Protection Board."

The workforce reductions were initially spearheaded by Elon Musk in January, who was the unofficial leader of the administration's DOGE office. Musk and Trump have both said that the firings — which targeted probationary workers early in their federal government tenures — were aimed at boosting efficiency.

They included, among others, 1,300 employees at the Department of Education, 10,000 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services, and 2,700 at the Small Business Administration. Federal judges ordered some agencies to reinstate some of those affected employees, and they could now once again be subject to terminations after the Supreme Court ruling. Musk has since stepped down, and due to the series of legal challenges, threats of RIFs have temporarily diminished.

The high court's latest decision likely puts more workers — not just probationary — back at risk of termination.

Federal agencies could fire en masse or offer options like buyouts

Prior to the Supreme Court's decision, some agencies said their workforce reduction goals were largely being accomplished by deferred resignation programs and early retirements. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced on Monday that it's on pace to reduce total staff by nearly 30,000 employees by the end of fiscal year 2025 and that a wide-scale RIF is no longer necessary.

"While VA had been considering a department-wide RIF to reduce staff levels by up to 15%, employee reductions through the federal hiring freeze, deferred resignations, retirements and normal attrition have eliminated the need for that RIF," the agency said in a press release.

That doesn't mean federal workers are all in the clear. "If agencies were going to retract the RIFs, I think they would've done it. And we might see fewer RIFs going forward than have been previously announced. But I do not anticipate they're going to withdraw the ones that are already in progress," Erik Snyder, counsel at Gilbert Employment Law who specializes in federal employment law, said.

The State Department, meanwhile, wrote in a post on X following the Supreme Court's ruling that it will "continue to move forward with our historic reorganization plan at the State Department, as announced earlier this year." Its initial plan called for a 15% reduction in force.

Lescht said that there may be more legal hurdles to come as RIFs proceed; he suspects that there will be other lawsuits filed by public service unions challenging the proceedings. Union officials noted that the SCOTUS order only stays an injunction in the case they weighed in on, meaning other RIF cases might still move forward; they also noted that since the decision does not address whether the restructuring is illegal, there could be continued litigation on the RIFs.

"My firm, in particular, we represent federal employees. That's most of what we do," Snyder said. "We are preparing or have prepared class action lawsuits to challenge these RIFs."

Madison Hoff contributed reporting to this article.

Have a tip? Contact these reporters via Signal at julianakaplan.33 and asheffey.97, or email at [email protected] and [email protected]. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device;here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• T-Mobile says it's ending its DEI policies "not just in name, but in substance."
• The change was announced in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission.
• The company has been seeking FCC approval for two separate deals.

As it awaits regulatory approval on two multi-billion-dollar deals from the agency, T-Mobile has informed the Federal Communications Commission that it's joining the longlist of companies that are pulling back on diversity, equity, and inclusion — known as DEI — initiatives.

In a letter to FCC Chair Brendan Carr, the company said it would end its DEI-related policies "not just in name, but in substance."

The company said it would "no longer have any individual roles or teams focused on DEI" and would remove all references to the concept on its website.

T-Mobile has been awaiting approval from the agency for two separate deals: a partial acquisition of UScellular and the acquisition of Metronet, an internet service provider. Both deals are valued at over $4 billion, according to Reuters.

In apost on X, Carr called the move "another good step forward for equal opportunity, nondiscrimination, and the public interest."

Companies that have also pulled back on DEI practices in recent months include Salesforce, Amazon, Google, and Target. The commission has gone after other companies for DEI practices, including Comcast and Disney.

Anna M. Gomez, a Democratic-appointed member of the commission, criticized T-Mobile's decision.

"In yet another cynical bid to win FCC regulatory approval, T-Mobile is making a mockery of its professed commitment to eliminating discrimination, promoting fairness, and amplifying underrepresented voices," Gomezwrote on X. "History will not be kind to this cowardly corporate capitulation."

• Kelly Beigle and Boris Krstevski bought an apartment in Italy's Lombardy region for 78,000 euros.
• They said renovations will be costly, but still cheaper than buying a place in the US.
• They hope to someday live there at least part-time and rent it out when they're in the States.

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Kelly Beigle, 38, and Boris Krstevski, 39, a couple based in Washington, DC, who bought an apartment in the Lombardy region of Italy. The conversations have been edited for length and clarity.

Kelly Beigle: I actually started looking to buy in DC back in 2014, and I thought the pricing was crazy. It's only gone up exponentially since then.

I just could never wrap my head around owning a million-dollar one-bedroom or two-bedroom condo. Why would you want to do that? It just means you're going to have to continue working forever until it's paid off.

Boris Krstevski: We wanted to buy a property somewhere in Europe. First there was Spain, Southern France, and Portugal.

Beigle: In Portugal, you can get a mortgage as a foreigner. There, we were looking at something in a completely different bracket; we were looking at a half-million-dollar apartment in Lisbon, and we actually were in the final stages. We were on the closing date, but we lost the sale. We were pretty much all in on Lisbon, and we still love that city, but the housing market got crazy there in 2022 and 2023.

We got discouraged, and we did a road trip. We spent almost six months traveling around Europe in 2024. We drove from Serbia to Portugal and back in a period of three or four months.

We explored a lot of different areas, and basically our main one became Italy after realizing that we had enough cash to buy in at 78,000 euros versus having to get a mortgage.

Krstevski: We spent some days in northern Italy in the Lombardy area — Milan, Bergamo, where you have beautiful nature. One important reason we thought Italy is that I'm originally from Belgrade, Serbia, the capital. And the drive from that area to where we bought our apartment is just an eight- or nine-hour drive.

Beigle: We closed in December 2024 for 78,000 euros.

It's 126 square meters, or 1,356 square feet. It's an apartment, but it's in a really small condo building — there are only three other units.

In Italy, they count rooms instead of bedrooms. Technically, it's considered a five-room, but it's essentially two bedrooms and one bath. But it has a full dining room, full kitchen, and full living room.

The sale and renovation were complicated by the distance

Beigle: We worked with Italian Real Estate Lawyers, and they helped a lot, but there were still a lot of surprises when buying our property.

The big one for me was the closing period. Even though we were a cash-only sale — no mortgage or anything like that — it still took months and months and months.

I toured the property in September 2024 and showed immediate interest that same day, and we didn't even close until the middle of December.

There's also the time difference. By the time I wake up in the morning, it's already 3 o'clock in Italy, so things just took forever. They have so many holidays and they're shut down all the time.

We've been trying to get as much done remotely as we can, but unless you're physically there, it's so hard to get anybody to come out.

Krstevski: You need to register the electricity, gas, and water, and it's not so easy online like in the US. Yes, Italy is in the European Union, but it's a different mentality. Their authorities are not working 9 to 5; their authorities are working two days a week from 9 to 12. You need to make an appointment.

Beigle: We've been balancing how much time we can spend there and how much we can get done. Even though we're six months in since we bought it, we're still working on it.

When you're in person, everybody's been super helpful. It's a small town an hour from Milan, and everybody's been really nice. We're still learning Italian, and my language skills are terrible so far, but everybody has been willing to help.

I think it had been years since somebody lived there, so things needed to be modernized. We did a full electrical upgrade, so that was something that was a little bit on the pricier side.

We still don't have hot water. It's taken a really long time to get everything up and running, and we still have to add a kitchen because most apartments in Italy don't come with the kitchen as well, which is shocking.

The kitchen was literally empty. There was a sink there, but that was it. So instead of using something basic like Ikea, we actually ended up having to use a custom cabinetry maker, which is on the pricier side.

But other than that, it was just a coat of paint and some cosmetic stuff.

Overall, we'll be spending around 25,000 euros in renovation costs. But the lion's share of that is the kitchen, for sure.

We're hoping to live in Europe part-time and make money off short-term rentals

Krstevski: Eventually, we think that Europe can be our second home.

We want to spend our time in Italy. I don't know exactly how many months per year or how many weeks per year that will be, but we would like to rent that apartment either to Airbnb or some kind of short-term lease options.

Beigle: The fact that we don't have a mortgage payment, it's kind of just cash flowing at that point.

I think the cash flowing from this, if we got to that point, would definitely help to facilitate the purchase of another one.

Whether we would do it in Italy or other parts of Europe, I don't know. At this stage, I would probably not consider reinvesting in the United States. It would definitely be a second European asset.

Beigle: I love the relief of having a fully paid-off apartment. I love the idea that you can buy something for basically what an American down payment would be.

If you have $100,000 that you're going to put into an American down payment and then you're strapped to a 30-year mortgage, why not consider buying something in Italy?

• Lacey Banis is a 46-year-old mom to 9-year-old Rory.
• Lacey was advised to fly from LA to see her dying dad in Florida.
• She asked Rory if she'd be open to showing him her most recent ballet performance.

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

At the end of January, while in Los Angeles watching my daughter audition for a prestigious Chicago ballet program, I got a phone call from my brother telling me I should fly to Florida and see my dad in the hospital. It was suspected he wouldn't live much longer.

Although I had sent videos of Rory dancing to my dad and told him all about how well she was doing on the phone, he had never seen her dance in person.

I asked her if she would want to dance for my dad in the ICU. She didn't argue or complain about my request, even though she could have — she is very independent and strong-willed. She agreed.

He had been sick for a while

My dad had been sick for a while. A year ago, he had a bad fall and was never the same after. He couldn't walk, so he was placed in a long-term rehab center in Florida, where he developed underlying infections that put him in the hospital. The sepsis was initially so bad that they didn't want to operate, especially due to ongoing heart issues. Doctors thought an operation would end his life even quicker.

In the previous year, dance had become a huge part of my daughter's life. She had progressed much faster than I had expected in the short time since joining the pre-professional program at the Culver City Academy of Ballet.

She danced to the beeping machines

Whenever we went into his hospital room, everyone had to dress in full PPE gear to protect ourselves from the severe infection he had contracted.

With no music except the beeping of the medical machines, Rory danced a Paquita variation for my dad. She couldn't do the whole dance — his bed was huge and there was equipment everywhere — but she made do.

I watched him watch her, unsure if he was tracking what he saw. He really did. His eyes told me he knew his granddaughter was dancing for him.

I was not expecting much, as he was never overly effusive, so I asked him if he liked it. "Very good," he said.

Her performance affected me deeply

I knew it meant a lot to my dad to see Rory dance before he died months later, but it also affected me deeply.

I'll never forget that dance, and the fact that she agreed to it. It would have been a weird moment for her to see her grandfather hooked up to so many machines, only a shadow of what he used to be, but she did this one last thing for him. It was a gift I'll always remember.

Although she is smart and intuitive, I'm unsure she fully understood what the dance meant to a dying man. It wasn't until his memorial service in May that I saw her emotions let loose.

She danced at his service too

My mother had asked Rory to perform at the service.

After my brothers and I gave our eulogies, I went to check on her before she danced. She was crying, just bawling. The finality of life had hit her at once. No longer was it an abstract concept she read about in books. It was personal.

I didn't think she would be able to dance, so I asked if she was still up for it. She was.

Dance had become a way for her to process emotion. Though she didn't always have the words to express what she was feeling, she could feel through dance. She wore a burgundy leotard and skirt and danced with tears in her eyes. I think it will be one of her core memories she carries for life.

• Some US-made goods are getting more expensive because of Trump's tariffs.
• Harvard Business School Pricing Lab data shows small but noticeable post-tariff price hikes.
• The study notes multiple reasons tariffs on imports could affect domestically sourced products.

Tariffs are hitting consumers this year, but the effects are not always spelled out in a line-item charge on a receipt.

The current average US tariff rate on imports is about six times as high as it was in January, and the US Treasurysaid that it could collect $300 billion in tariff income for the full year.

These new tariffs are raising the cost of imports, and some US goods are getting more expensive, too, according to data from researchers led by Harvard Business School professor Alberto Cavallo.

In an ongoing study, the HBS Pricing Lab said it analyzed more than 330,000 product listings from four large US retailers and found small but noticeable post-tariff price hikes on both imported goods and competing domestic products.

The researchers found that prices on the imported goods in their study increased by roughly 3% between the first wave of tariffs in early March and the end of June. At the same time, categories of domestic goods that typically compete with imports saw price increases of around 2%.

The data indicates that domestic goods that don't typically face significant competition from imports, like most food and beverage categories, have not seen a corresponding increase in price.

And although goods from China saw the largest increase in prices in the study, the increase was far below the tariff rates that have vacillated between 10% and 145% on imports from that country during the timeframe.

The researchers said the timing of price increases suggests uncertainty among companies about how the tariffs will play out, given recent changes. Another possible explanation for these smaller, broader price increases on both imported and domestic goods is that they offer retailers a way to pass the cost of tariffs along across a portfolio of products rather than hiking prices on imports alone.

The study points to several other reasons tariffs on imports could affect domestically sourced products.

Many domestically produced goods still rely on imported components that may be subject to tariffs, which would drive up the cost of production.

Other aspects of the supply chain, like shipping and storage, can also become more expensive as importers adjust schedules and capacity in response to new tariff rates.

And domestic brands that typically compete with imports may see an opportunity to raise prices as their customers' expectations shift.

"If costs are going to rise for importers, there's a certain incentive for domestic competitors then to raise their prices as well," UBS chief US economist Jonathan Pingle told Business Insider. The domestic competitors wouldn't need to increase prices as much as the importers, and, in turn, could still take market share.

"So you could actually have price increases in the economy that are over and above just what the tariff pass-through might be," Pingle said.

In other words, if deck chairs are largely imported and seeing a post-tariff price hike, then US producers might also see an opportunity or incentive to charge more.

Still, the larger factor at play is that all sorts of companies are having to figure out how to manage the direct and indirect costs associated with the tariffs.

"Business costs are going to rise," Pingle said. "So we do see the risk of second-round effects over and above the tariffs in the short run."

• Trump's Education Department is restarting interest charged for student-loan borrowers enrolled in Biden's SAVE plan.
• Interest will start accruing again on August 1 after being paused for a year due to litigation.
• The department encouraged borrowers to switch to a different income-driven repayment plan.

Millions of student-loan borrowers are about to see their balances grow after a year on pause.

President Donald Trump's Department of Education announced on Wednesday that interest charges will restart on August 1 for student-loan borrowers enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan.

The department said that the interest restart is in compliance with a court order issued earlier this year that upheld the block on the SAVE plan. The order did not explicitly instruct the department to restart interest charges for enrolled borrowers.

"Since day one of the Trump Administration, we've focused on strengthening the student loan portfolio and simplifying repayment to better serve borrowers," Linda McMahon, Trump's education secretary, said in a statement.

"As part of this effort, the Department urges all borrowers in the SAVE Plan to quickly transition to a legally compliant repayment plan — such as the Income-Based Repayment Plan," McMahon said. "Borrowers in SAVE cannot access important loan benefits and cannot make progress toward loan discharge programs authorized by Congress."

Created by former President Joe Biden, the SAVE plan allowed for cheaper monthly payments with a shorter timeline to loan forgiveness. The plan was quickly met with legal challenges and has been blocked in court since July 2024. Since then, the nearly 8 million enrolled borrowers have been on a forbearance during which they were not required to make monthly payments, and interest was not accruing.

The department said that on Thursday, it will begin outreach to enrolled SAVE borrowers with instructions on switching to a new repayment plan. When the forbearance ends, borrowers will be responsible for making their monthly payments, including accrued interest.

Switching to a new repayment plan, though, might still bring challenges to borrowers. The Department of Education wrote in a May 15 legal filing that, as of April 30, nearly 2 million borrowers' income-driven repayment applications were still pending. A department spokesperson told Business Insider at the time that the department hopes to clear the backlog "over the next few months."

The department added in its Wednesday press release that "borrowers switching from the SAVE Plan to another IDR plan can expect quick and timely processing."

Additionally, Trump's tax and spending bill, which he signed into law on July 4, limits borrowers' repayment options to two, which will be available to borrowers beginning July 1, 2026: a standard repayment plan and a new income-based Repayment Assistance Plan that sets borrowers' payments at 1% to 10% of their income.

Some borrower advocates criticized the department's decision to restart interest charges next month. Mike Pierce, executive director of the advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center, said in a statement that "these are teachers, nurses, and retail workers who trusted the government's word, only to get sucker-punched by bills that will now cost them hundreds more every month."

Are you enrolled in the SAVE plan and have thoughts to share on the restart of interest charges? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• Samsung premiered new iterations of its Flips, Folds, and Watches at its annual Galaxy Unpacked event.
• The new devices were thinner than previous versions, and all come pre-loaded with Google's Gemini AI.
• The Fold7's thinness caught up with Chinese competitors Honor and Oppo, while the S Pen stylus was notably missing.

While the tech world waits to see if Apple will ever debut a foldable iPhone, Samsung is full steam ahead on making its lineup of folding smartphones thinner.

The South Korea-based tech giant continued its push into the foldable phone race on Wednesday, debuting slimmer and more AI-packed iterations of its Flip and Fold devices.

During Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked July 2025 keynote, the company showed off a new wide-screen Galaxy Z Fold7, a smaller-scale Galaxy Z Flip7, and the Galaxy Watch8.

They come with some new AI features, courtesy of Google, like increased personalization through Gemini Live. But with an emphasis on thinner devices, one feature was noticeably absent: the S Pen stylus.

Here's a quick rundown.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7

Samsung's newest large-screen foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold7, is only 8.9 mm thick when folded, and 4.2 mm thick when unfolded. The device is "half the thickness of a regular phone so, when it is folded, it suddenly feels like a regular phone you're use to," said YouTuber Parker Burton during the presentation.

As the foldables market heats up, several hardware companies are hoping for thinner and more easily stored phones. Samsung's partner Google debuted its Pixel Pro 9 Fold in 2024, which is 1.6 mm thicker when folded.

The thinner Fold7 puts Samsung on par with its Chinese competitors. The Honor Magic V5 remains the thinnest at 8.8 mm folded, and the Oppo Find N5 is 8.93 mm folded. Huawei's trifold device is thinnest when unfolded at 3.6 mm, but the folded stack grows to 12.8 mm.

The new Fold7 also has its widest screen yet, and includes expanded AI offerings like Drawing Assist, Writing Assist, and Circle to Search for gaming. All devices come preloaded with Google Gemini.

While introducing the expanded Circle to Search, Samsung's VP of product and marketing, Annika Bizon, said that "others are noticing." Since Samsung debuted the function in January 2024, Apple announced a similar AI feature throughVisualIntelligence.

"Imitation is the best form of flattery," Bizon said.

Noticeably missing from any initial images of the Fold7 was the S Pen, Samsung's stylus tool. The S Pen was sold alongside previous iterations of the Fold with specialty cases, but was not referenced during the course of the July 2025 keynote.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7

Samsung also debuted the smaller Galaxy Z Flip7. The 6.9-inch foldable is basically half the Fold7, and also comes with Google Gemini already integrated.

The new device is also the thinnest iteration at 13.7 mm folded, beating out its rival, theMotorola Razr+, which clocks in at 15.9 mm. The device also has a significantly longer battery life than previous models, according to the company, capable of delivering 31 hours of video play per charge. That's eight more hours than the previous Flips.

New AI features include additional personalization technology from Gemini Live, which can recommend outfits from photos of a closet or meals from photos of a refrigerator.

Samsung also upped the quality of the Flip's camera, including the integration of a ProVisual Engine, which adjusts color and contrast.

Samsung Galaxy Watch8

Samsung's new Galaxy Watch8 and Galaxy Watch8 Classic include significant new health features. The watches can now track vascular load and antioxidant levels. A new sleep coach and run coach optimizes the watch's tracking abilities to set personal goals.

The watches also include Samsung's cushion design, which was previously only available on the Galaxy Watch Ultra.

Samsung's new devices are now available for pre-order. They officially launch on July 25.

• X CEO Linda Yaccarino lasted two years at her job before announcing her departure.
• That's much longer than some observers had speculated she would last.
• That's because running an ad business for Elon Musk — a man with no interest in the ad business — is an impossible job.

Linda Yaccarino took an impossible job. And she failed at it.

That's my tweet-length summary of Yaccarino's two-year run at Twitter/X, which she announced via her own Twitter post Wednesday.

The longer version of my analysis isn't much longer.

In 2023, Elon Musk brought on Linda Yaccarino to fix his ad business, which he himself had broken after buying Twitter in 2022. And as long as Elon Musk owns Twitter, no one can fix his ad business: It's not big enough to be a must-buy for most advertisers, and his ownership generates potential headaches for any advertiser who thinks about investing money there. It's easier to ignore it, which is what most advertisers do.

Rather than enumerate all of Musk's erratic approaches to advertising sales — No. 1 on the list, of course, remains his famous "go fuck yourself" pitch back in 2023 — let me sum it up this way: For years, Elon Musk was told that if he just toned down his behavior on his platform, he might have an easier time getting reputation-conscious brands to spend money with him. Instead, he sued them.

But earlier this year, faced with the prospect that his behavior was tanking sales at Tesla — the company that's made him the richest man in the world — he at least made gestures to respond, telling anyone who would listen that he was going to spend less time on politics and more time running the automaker. (Whether he'll follow through is another matter.)

That is: If Musk really wanted to make Twitter an ad business, he could have tried. Instead, he kept on doing what he was doing and hoped Yaccarino could clean up his mess.

"Elon found the requests and requirements to get advertisers back to be tedious," says Lou Paskalis, an ad industry veteran who now works as a consultant via his AJL Advisory business. "But if he wants to understand why advertisers haven't returned, he should look in the mirror."

I asked X for comment, but haven't heard back.

Whether Yaccarino could have done better is a different question. At times, she seemed to channel her new boss's penchant for fighting with enemies real and imagined — like her bizarre onstage appearance at the Code Conference in 2023. At other times, she seemed committed to using her Rolodex to work with big brands that would still do business with Twitter, like the NFL.

You can also debate whether she should have taken the job at all. Remember that Musk essentially announced her hire while she was still at her old job, running ad sales at NBCUniversal, which forced her out right before a crucial sales event. If that's how your new boss treats you before you start your new gig, imagine what it's going to be like when you're actually employed there?

In retrospect, it seems clear that Musk himself has grown tired of even pretending that Twitter will make real money from advertising. While Yaccarino described her tenure there as a "historic business turnaround," documents the company sent to investors this year suggest that, at best, the company was generating operating profits similar to what it had earned before Musk's takeover — but that ad revenue was still way down since his purchase.

But the people who gave Musk money this year didn't really care about its ad business, either — they were interested in Twitter's relationship with xAI, Musk's OpenAI competitor.

That became even clearer in March, when Musk announced that xAI had "bought" Twitter. From an investor's perspective, it's a no-brainer: Who cares about the fortunes of a subscale social media platform, compared to the upside of a Musk-owned AI company during an AI boom?

That deal may also explain why Musk had almost nothing to say in response to Yaccarino's departure post, beyond a pro forma "thank you for your contributions" response. He's moved on. Now she has, too.

• A US Navy nuclear-powered submarine arrived in Iceland for the first time on Wednesday.
• A top admiral told BI that USS Newport News' visit sends a message to America's adversaries.
• It comes as the US looks to the Arctic with concern amid growing Russia and Chinese activity.

A US Navy nuclear-powered attack submarine stopped in Iceland for the first time on Wednesday. A top admiral told Business Insider that the unprecedented port call sent a message to American foes.

The first-of-its-kind visit to the Nordic island nation by the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Newport News comes as the US and NATO allies look with increasing concern at the growing Russian military activity across the Arctic and High North.

Adm. Stuart Munsch, the commander of US Naval Forces Europe-Africa, said there is value in having different options throughout the region where American submarines can make port visits.

Speaking to BI in a phone interview from the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, Munsch said the submarine port call is "also important for the strategic signal it sends to adversaries about our presence in the area" and for the reassurance it provides to US allies.

The US views Iceland as a centerpiece within its Arctic strategy due to its strategic location. The country joined NATO as a founding member in 1949, but unlike other members of the alliance, it does not have a military. It, however, hosted Western troops during the Cold War, including a major American presence.

"The US, for many decades, maintained a naval air base here," the admiral said of Iceland, and relied on assets stationed in the country "to track Soviet submarine operations, then Russian submarine operations."

Munsch said "it's important to us to have additional options for where we can make strong port calls" and maintain a strong presence in the region that stretches from Greenland to Iceland and the United Kingdom. That's a key point made in the Pentagon's 2024 Arctic Strategy.

While the strategy outlines Russia's increasing military and economic interest in the Arctic, it also draws attention to China's efforts to expand its influence in the region. The US sees Iceland as a key element of its security and deterrence efforts, as these two US rivals seek to project power into the strategic area.

Erin Sawyer, chargé d'affaires at the US Embassy in Iceland, said in a statement Wednesday that Washington and Reykjavik "maintain the shared goal of low tension in the Arctic, with full awareness of Russia's efforts to build its military presence in the region."

The Navy has been working with the Icelandic government for years, but mainly from a distance. For instance, an American vessel would pull up off the coast and maybe change out personnel or bring aboard supplies.

In 2023, Iceland welcomed the first US nuclear-powered sub into its territorial waters. But Newport News' arrival in port this week — tied up to a pier and sending crew members ashore — marks a new moment in the relationship, Munsch said.

Just over 40 Los Angeles-class submarines are in active service, making up a significant portion of the Navy's fast-attack submarine fleet. Newer Virginia-class vessels have, however, taken on an increasingly central role. USS Newport News, a late-1980s Los Angeles-class sub, is armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and torpedoes and has conducted missions around the globe.

US undersea capabilities are considered a cornerstone of American naval power. "The submarine force has been operating globally for many decades now," Munsch said, "and there's really no region that we have ever ceded to anyone else."

• I live in India and have traveled all over the country — but it took me a while to visit Varanasi.
• The city has a rich, spiritual history, but for me, it was just a spot on my bucket list.
• Then, the first time I visited, I fell in love with the city's beauty, street food, and history.

I've spent years traveling across India — from getting stuck in Mumbai traffic to beach-hopping in Goa, road-tripping through the Himalayas, exploring Rajasthan's palaces, eating my way through Old Delhi, and chasing waterfalls in Meghalaya's misty hills.

Yet somehow, I'd never been to Varanasi.

When I finally visited last summer, it felt strange to admit I was a first-timer. One of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, Varanasi is hardly a secret. For many Hindus, it's a sacred place to wash away sins in the Ganges (India's holiest of rivers) or seek moksha, freedom from the cycle of rebirth.

I wasn't chasing either. I went out of curiosity, expecting to check a few sights off my list and move on.

Instead, the city got under my skin in the best way.

I've been all over India, but Varanasi still felt like a completely new place.

I live in India, so I'm not easily fazed by crowds or chaos. Somehow, though, Varanasi felt like another dimension.

I checked into a hotel near Assi Ghat, toward the south of the city, and set out on foot.

The gullies, or lanes, twisted like a maze. One moment, I was dodging scooters and cows; the next, I was sidestepping puddles and flower petals, while monkeys leaped over tin roofs.

Then, at the end of a lane, I saw the Ganges. It was wide and still, and something about it caught me off guard. I just stood there for a minute, taking it in — calm and quiet, even though everything else around me felt loud and intense.

I visited the city's sacred cremation grounds and was surprised that I didn't feel at all uneasy.

Later that day, I walked to Manikarnika Ghat, the city's main cremation site and one of more than 80 ghats (or riverfront steps) lining the Ganges. I'd heard about it, but being there in person was something else.

I watched a body burning on a wooden pyre. Just steps away, a chai vendor was serving tea, kids were playing, and men were bathing in the river.

It didn't feel morbid. It felt deeply human, like life and death weren't opposites, but part of the same cycle that shaped the city.

I expected spirituality, but I found something else.

That evening, I joined a group on a small boat to watch the Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat, near Kashi Vishwanath Temple. It's a devotional ritual that uses fire as an offering to the river.

The banks were packed. Priests in saffron robes waved multi-tiered lamps and incense sticks in synchrony, as cymbals clanged and chants filled the air. Phone screens glowed across the crowd.

To me, it felt less like a religious ritual and more like a well-rehearsed performance. The ceremony itself was powerful, but because of the mix of people watching it — pilgrims, locals, foreign tourists — was even more moving.

The street food was some of the best I've had in India.

Varanasi is a street food haven, and a few dishes stood out enough that I'd go back just to eat them.

One of my favorite meals involved tamatar chaat (mashed tomato mix topped with crispy lentils, chutneys, and house spices) and palak patta chaat (deep-fried spinach leaves topped with yogurt and tamarind sauce) at Deena Chaat Bhandar, a legendary stall that's served locals for over five decades.

I also enjoyed eating aloo kachori (a fried bread ball typically stuffed with potato) and jalebis (coiled, deep-fried sweets soaked in sugar syrup) at the iconic Ram Bhandar.

Blue Lassi, a tiny, photo-plastered shop in the old city, served the best saffron lassi (yogurt drink) I've ever had. I'd often end the day with a paan (a betel leaf packed with areca nuts, rose jam, and slivers of coconut) from a roadside stall.

I also loved taking a quick visit to Sarnath, about 30 minutes away.

On my second day, I took a quick trip to Sarnath, a nearby town where the Buddha gave his first sermon.

I visited the Wat Thai temple, where I saw an 80-foot Buddha statue. On the way back, I stopped at the Sarnath Art Gallery, where I watched a man give a live demo of how Banarasi saris are made.

"Banaras is known for two things — paan and saris," he said, grinning. "The paan's in my mouth. The sari's on the loom."

I'd always seen saris just as wedding wear. Watching how much time and skill went into every thread gave me a new appreciation for them as pieces of artwork.

I visited Varanasi just to check it off my list — but now, I can't wait to return.

I was touched by the city's beauty, delicious food, and contrasts — fire and water, ritual and routine, life and death. Varanasi was only meant to be a quick stop, but it has stayed with me long after my visit.

• Linda Yaccarino announced that she's stepping down as the CEO of X after two years.
• Yaccarino has had a long career in advertising, from her early days as an intern at NBCU.
• Her career includes a stint working for both the Trump and Biden administrations.

Linda Yaccarino made waves when she announced she was stepping down as the CEO of X on July 9, 2025, but her career didn't start in the tech space.

From decades at Turner Broadcasting, to climbing the ladder at NBCUniversal, to becoming chief executive of X, Yaccarino has climbed the advertising ladder.

Here's a quick breakdown on her path to — and now away from — X.

Yaccarino is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University.

According to her LinkedIn, Yaccarino was a liberal arts student who studied telecommunications between 1981 and 1985.

She had an early internship at NBCU, where she eventually worked decades later.

Yaccarino told Salesforce in an interview that she arrived on her first day as a "bright cheery new intern," but soon learned that the company didn't have a record of her in its system and she ended up on the media planning team.

"That's where the love affair was born," Yaccarino said of her interest in working in the media industry.

Yaccarino spent nearly 20 years at Turner Broadcasting System.

She spent nearly 20 years at Turner, formerly known as Turner Broadcasting System, eventually rising up to the role of executive vice president/chief operating officer of advertising sales, marketing and acquisitions.

Yaccarino worked there until late 2011.

Yaccarino worked at NBCU for 11 years.

An NBCU "boomerang" return hire, Yaccarino once again worked at NBCU after leaving Turner.

She began her second chapter at the company as its president of cable entertainment and digital advertising sales.

She eventually became the company's advertising chief.

Throughout her time at NBCU, Yaccarino rose to become the company's chairperson of global advertising and partnerships. She oversaw around 2,000 employees who produced more than $100 billion in ad sales, according to her old company profile page.

At NBCU, Yaccarino was key to the company's push into digital streaming.

Yaccarino was a strong advocate for NBCU's foray into streaming television through the service Peacock.

She also worked to keep NBCU competitive with Big Tech companies like Meta and Google.

In May 2023, Yaccarino announced that she had resigned from NBCU "effective immediately."

In a statement at the time, Yaccarino said that "it has been an absolute honor to be part of Comcast NBCUniversal and lead the most incredible team."

Elon Musk announced Yaccarino's role at Twitter the same day she announced her resignation.

Musk made the announcement on what was still Twitter at the time: "@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology."

He called her "smart, fair and reasonable" in a separate post after some conservatives on Twitter had criticized her ties to the World Economic Forum, an annual event for executives and influential figures in Davos, Switzerland.

Yaccarino also worked with President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden's administrations.

She served on a sports fitness and nutrition council for two years after Trump appointed her to the role in 2018.

In 2021, she worked with the Biden administration on an educational COVID-19 ad campaign.

She was CEO of X during a chaotic two years.

Musk renamed Twitter to X one month into Yaccarino's tenure, and she led the company during a tumultuous time.

She oversaw the platform during an advertiser exodus, working to convince advertisers to return. Advertisers began to return under her leadership, but Musk's changes to X — including loosening content moderation — continue to pose potential challenges.

Yaccarino announced she's stepping down as CEO of X on July 9, 2025.

Yaccarino made the announcement in a post on X: "I'm incredibly proud of the X team - the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable."

She hasn't indicated what she plans to do next.

Grace Kay contributed to reporting.

• Harry Stebbings said a seven-day workweek is essential to building a $10 billion business.
• His post ignited discussion on 996 culture, which has been criticized for poor work-life balance.
• Stebbings said that intense work is crucial for early-career momentum and success in the AI race.

Harry Stebbings, the 29-year-old founder of 20VC, sparked an online debate when he posted on LinkedIn last month that "7 days a week is the required velocity to win right now."

That's if "you want to build a $10 billion business," Stebbings added in an interview with Business Insider.

"If you want to build a great business, fantastic. You don't need to work seven days a week. You don't need to absolutely burn the midnight oil," Stebbings said, adding that if you do want to build a $10 billion business, "my lord, you have to give it everything."

The founder's post ended up fueling an online conversation about the comeback of China's controversial 996 culture. Despite being deemed illegal by the Chinese government in 2021, it's a practice of working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week that appears to still be happening at certain companies. Some have criticized the schedule, which has previously been attributed to worker deaths.

Stebbings said most of the backlash to his LinkedIn post came from European workers. Many American respondents, on the other hand, said a seven-day workweek was an obvious conclusion, Stebbings said.

Promoting a 7-day workweek

Stebbings, who has a 20-person firm, said there's nuance to what a seven-day workweek should look like. The founder said he's aware of his own limits and what it takes to maintain his energy. He urges his team to do the same by prioritizing stress relief, including working out during their lunch break.

In addition to an hour in the gym in the morning and an hour of walking after work, Stebbings said he spends 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. having business meeting while walking in London's Hyde Park. He said he hits 30,000 steps every day, and walks a marathon with his mother every weekend.

While Stebbings said he supports people taking time off, in the last 11 years, he's only taken two vacations, both within the United Kingdom, where he's based. He typically works until around 1 a.m. each day, he said, with a break to walk and eat sushi — his first meal of the day — between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.

"When your brain is starved, you're much more alert because as an animal, we're like trained to be a lot more active and looking for food," Stebbings said. "And so, I find my alertness goes up a lot."

His employees seem to share a similar mindset of prioritizing work. When Stebbings leaves the office at 8 p.m., he said the office is still full.

"They get paid really well and they do the most meaningful work of their lives, right?" Stebbings said about his staff. "So they seem pretty happy."

Stebbings said he believes that people feel happy when work is going well and they have momentum. He added that "winning" is one of the biggest ways to contribute to society, and harder work leads to a higher likelihood of winning.

A short-term hustle

While Stebbings prioritizes work and expects his employees to do the same, he doesn't necessarily promote living this lifestyle long-term.

"You cannot work in this manner for more than three to five years," Stebbings said. "The most important thing to understand is when you are in your first three years, speed is your single biggest competitive advantage."

Stebbings said his decision to work at this pace for over a decade is a personal choice. However, once someone is five or six years into a job, they've built efficiency processes and playbooks so that they can have more downtime and less intensity in their day-to-day, he said.

Until then, Stebbings promotes working relentlessly for those who want to build a $10 billion business.

"I think this is what everyone, especially in Europe, forgets. We are in a global war for efficiency and data," Stebbings said.

• Zach Posner, who correctly called the legal tech boom, says a new breed of legal services is coming.
• "Law Firm 2.0" is a small, nimble business, fueled by AI, that handles specific legal matters.
• Posner's venture fund is launching an accelerator geared toward companies rethinking legal services.

It's becoming clear that artificial intelligence can automate much of legal work. That has recovering lawyers and software engineers racing to sell tech solutions to law firms and in-house legal teams.

But the less obvious, and more challenging, move may be to build companies that compete head-on with law firms.

This idea lies at the heart of the LegalTech Lab, a new accelerator geared toward businesses rethinking how legal services are delivered and scaled. It's an extension of The LegalTech Fund, whose founder, Zach Posner, correctly predicted the legal tech boom in 2019, then raised a fund.

Legal tech is thriving, raising over $1 billion in venture capital in the first half of this year, according to Crunchbase data and Business Insider's estimate based on recent financings. Though the boom is buoyed by fears of a bubble in legal tech, platforms like Harvey and Hebbia are gaining traction with the largest law firms by revenue, while Eudia, GC AI, and others duke it out for corporate America's time and money.

The LegalTech Lab's first cohort will consist of 10 companies. Some of the perks for participants will be access to the fund's network of tech leaders, general counsels, and other strategic advisors from cutting-edge law firms and tech giants. The LegalTech Fund will also invest up to $250,000 in each startup in exchange for equity. The terms will vary by company.

"Law Firm 2.0," Posner said, represents a small, nimble company fueled by AI, like large language models, that aims to help clients with routine legal matters. It typically targets specific use cases, like drafting wills or reviewing limited partner agreements, and charges clients a fixed fee rather than billing by the hour.

"This is not your Walmart. This is as small of a corner store as you can imagine," said Posner, "They're going to use technology to be the best in the world at that one specific challenge."

Some of these companies hope to bite into law firms' business, as with Crosby, which has Sequoia backing to sell contract review services, largely to startups. Or HelloPrenup, which says it's helped over 50,000 couples create their prenuptial agreements online over the course of seven years.

Eudia, which supports in-house legal teams, revealed this week that it had acquired an alternative legal service provider, adding several hundred legal professionals to its team. Founder Omar Haroun told Business Insider that its ultimate goal is to help clients reduce their reliance on outside counsel.

Posner believes the bigger opportunity for Law Firm 2.0 is meeting the unmet demand for legal services. He says many more small and midsize businesses experience legal problems but do not receive the necessary legal help to solve them, either due to a lack of access, cost, or awareness.

"This stuff is not necessarily the enemy of the law firm," Posner said.

The LegalTech Lab's launch comes amid some unease in the legal tech market. The influx of funding has triggered a wave of new startups, making the space increasingly crowded. While law firms and in-house teams are piloting a wide array of tools, boosting revenue for many companies, some analysts and investors warn that revenue could dry up as customers choose long-term vendors.

If Posner manages to build the "Y Combinator of legal tech," he may find that title has already been claimed by Y Combinator itself. The storied startup accelerator has produced a major exit with legal research tool Casetext and rising platforms like Legora for legal research and drafting, Parley for visa services, and PointOne for timekeeping and bill review.

Y Combinator, too, is focused on the future of legal services. Each year, as applications open, it publishes a wish list of ideas for founders. This year, Law Firm 2.0 topped the list: "Start your own law firm, staff it with AI agents, and compete with the existing firms," partner Jared Friedman wrote.

Have a tip? Contact the reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at @MeliaRussell.01. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• We let our friend propose to his girlfriend at our wedding — he really wanted her to be surprised.
• I liked sharing the attention and didn't feel their proposal took away from our big day.
• Their engagement added to the fun, especially since we have a lot of the same social network.

In the middle of my wedding reception, one of our friends got down on one knee and pulled out an engagement ring.

Most of our guests were shocked — but my new husband, Anthony, and I shared a gleeful smile. We knew this "surprise" proposal was going to happen.

In fact, we'd even helped him plan it.

We didn't want our wedding day to be only about us

Toward the end of our wedding-planning process, our friend Jeff asked if he could propose to his girlfriend, Krystina, at our reception because she wouldn't expect it.

She knew they'd be getting engaged soon, and he thought she'd suspect a proposal done in any other way. Anthony and I were immediately on board.

I also checked with my parents since they were paying for our wedding, but they didn't care one way or another. Their priority was seeing us get married and enjoying time with their friends.

So, the plan moved forward. As a bride, I was excited to cater to someone else's wishes instead of my own for once.

Planning a lavish event for myself felt a little selfish, especially since my professional life, doing nonprofit work, has been devoted to raising up other people.

Sharing the day was a way to mitigate those feelings. It was also a relief to know that the spotlight would be off of me for at least a few minutes that day.

Plus, Anthony and I's top priority was for all of our guests to have a good time.

In some ways, a surprise engagement would make our wedding even better. It'd be a chance to spread more joy and be extra entertainment that none of our guests would anticipate.

Guests were shocked, and the proposal seemed to be a hit

For the proposal, I stood with my back to the handful of single women on the dance floor as the emcee narrated the bouquet toss.

When it came time to "toss" the bouquet, I turned around and handed it to Krystina instead. Then, Jeff tapped her on the shoulder and got down on one knee.

Cheers erupted throughout the reception hall. As I saw how happy everyone was, I knew we'd made the right decision.

This moment was reminiscent of my own engagement. My husband had proposed to me in front of our friends, most of whom were attendees at the wedding.

The proposal felt extra special, since most of the same social network knew Jeff and Krystina already (and would later attend their nuptials).

Getting to spotlight someone else's love is still a highlight of our wedding day

After our wedding, one of my friends, who wasn't friends with Jeff and Krystina, told me she would never let someone get engaged at her wedding because it's supposed to be "her" moment.

I let the comment pass because I understood her perspective and respected it. However, the ultimate goal of a wedding is to end up married, and we accomplished that.

Letting someone else get engaged at our wedding didn't interfere with that at all. The rest of our guests seemed delighted. Krystina was, too.

When I asked her later, she said she was shocked and overjoyed by the proposal. She said it meant a lot that I shared "my" day with her, too.

And each year when we review our wedding photos, that moment remains one of our favorites.

There are two versions of Tony Hawk, but you wouldn't know it by looking at his home office.

The shelves behind him on our video call are stacked with various knickknacks befitting of the icon of youth culture, like a coffee table book about the iconic '80s British punk band The Clash. And there's a sky blue skateboard propped up beside the wooden office door.

For those who watched Hawk make his name (and tens of millions of dollars) as the first truly famous skateboarder, he is crystallized as forever young in their memories. Creating one of the most successful and best-loved video game series of all time, "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater," solidified that. ("Pro Skater 3+4," a remake of the 2001-2002 games where your character wheels around various skate spots, completing tricks and missions, drops Friday).

The fact that he's pushing 60 is such a strange concept that it's an inside joke between him and fans who pretend not to recognize him. How could Tony Hawk — the kid at the skatepark who was imaginative, dogged, and dumb enough to pull off the types of tricks that helped skating go mainstream in the '80s and '90s — get old?

The 2022 documentary "Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off" explores this tension. His friends say they hope he'll soon slow down over footage of him repeatedly smashing to the ground as he tries to recreate what's known as the 900. In 1999, Hawk landed the trick — which involves spinning 900 degrees midair — after trying for a decade. Before that, skaters had only dreamed of it.

^{Below: Tony Hawk skating in 1998 — the year before he became the first person to land a 900.}

But when he recalls seriously breaking his leg in 2022 during our call, it's clear there are two Tonys: pre-and post-break Tony.

He's no stranger to injuries, but snapping your femur in half at 53 is as bad as it sounds, and it took him 12 months to recover. Becoming a grandad was another profound change. (His son, Riley Hawk, and Frances Bean Cobain have a 10-month-old son. Yes, that Frances Bean Cobain).

Now, for the first time ever, Hawk works out daily, diligently takes supplements, and, without a sliver of regret in his voice, tells me he is at peace with retiring skating moves that he pioneered — including the 900. All this, he says, means he can still skate at the iconic action sports competition, the X Games, starting that evening.

I get the sense that now, at 57 years old, he applies the same blinkered focus that made his career to a new passion: aging well and having fun.

For the latest installment of Business Insider's 5-9 series, Hawk shared how the post-break Tony spends his free time, as part of his partnership with CarGurus' "Big Deal" campaign, which celebrates life's biggest moments behind the wheel and beyond.

Skating and supplements

You live in Encinitas with your wife and daughter. How do you spend your mornings?

If I'm at home, we're up pretty early, usually by 6 or 6:30 a.m. Our daughter is turning 17 soon, and we make sure she gets out the door.

I work for at least an hour and try to find time to skate, usually around 11 a.m. I have a ramp in my office that's about a 15-minute drive from here, so that's my happy place.

Then just taking whatever comes — we are grandparents now, so maybe half the days he's here for a little while, and I try to work around that.

It's just been so much fun having him. As soon as he comes into our door, he knows that it's all about him.

You mentioned skating. Considering all the injuries you've had, how much do you think about longevity and aging? Do you set yourself up for the day by taking supplements, for instance?

I do. I take some supplements including CoQ 10, a statin, multivitamins, and creatine, stuff like that.

Honestly, a workout routine is something new to me. That's something I never did because I kind of prided myself on not being an athlete, so to speak. But at my age, I need something else to stay fit, to stay loose, to stay in motion.

That's the one thing that has kept me at this level at my age. I'm literally flying to X Games in a couple hours, and I'll be on the ramp this evening.

So that's kind of the state of things, and I love it. It's a blast.

That's incredible. I watched the 2022 documentary "Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off," and your friend said that you are not slowing down, just doing more gnarly stuff. Is that how you approach aging?

I have definitely slowed down since then. I broke my leg three years ago, after that documentary, and that changed everything for me in terms of assessing risk, my approach, my carelessness. My cavalier attitude to skating definitely changed in that recovery process. And for the better: I have a healthier relationship with skateboarding and risk.

Would you say your attitude has also changed since you've had a grandchild?

That helped to reiterate why I need to take it a little easier. I'm not breaking new ground necessarily, and I've let some techniques go.

It's just more fun now. I value it more because of the injury and the recovery I went through. Every opportunity is a gift. Every ollie [a fundamental move where the skater and the board become airborne] is a thing to be cherished. That's how I feel now.

Testing 'Pro Skater' and takeouts with the kids

I love that. Tell me about what part of the day you come up with your best ideas, like creating "Pro Skater" or the insane feats you do, like skating over a Mini Cooper?

It's usually when I'm falling asleep. Sometimes I have to wake up and write things down.

When your brain is finally slowing down, I imagine. When it comes to the evenings, is dinner time family time for you?

Yeah, we eat at home for the most part. If the kids are home for the weekend or whatever, we'll try to make sure that we do something at home. Generally, I'm ordering food if it's a big crew. If they're home, that means they're with their friends, and so it kind of keeps growing.

One of our sons drove home late last night and got in at like 2 a.m. So they come and go, and we try to capture those moments.

What's your go-to order?

Oh, that's opening a can of worms.

It's controversial?

There's a really good Peruvian place here in Encinitas. That's one of our favorites. We're all over the place though. You name it: Mexican, Thai, Japanese.

You have a very unique family: Kurt Cobain was your daughter-in-law's father. When you go out as a family, do people recognize you and talk to you?

They're mostly respectful and friendly, or they're confused. They see my face and they'd know it from somewhere, or they didn't imagine that I could have grown old. And so there's a lot of confusion in that. It happens all the time.

But I never aspired to fame. To have it is strange, but I've learned to live with it, and it's amazing. I mean, just the fact that people will tell me that a video game changed their interests and their musical tastes. I'm hugely proud of those kinds of things.

In the evening are you on the go, even before bed? I just can't imagine you taking a day off.

It's pretty rare, but they do happen. And when they happen, we're usually planning stuff with our kids.

How often do you have a day off where you just do nothing?

Well, I could tell you right now, I'm looking at my calendar. There were four this month.

OK. Wow, that's pretty intense. Do you play "Pro Skater" to wind down?

[laughs] Yes and no. I usually find time to play that during the day. That still is kind of a job in terms of R and D, but it's close to release, so it's not like we're making any changes. My job is kind of done there.

My wife and I just try to unwind and watch something, catch up on a show or a documentary, something like that.

• A Delta flight diverted to a mid-Atlantic island after an indication of an engine problem.
• Passengers were stuck on Terceira, part of the Portuguese island chain, the Azores for more than a day.
• The airline sent another A330 from New York to pick up the passengers.

Delta Air Lines had to send a plane to rescue passengers after their flight diverted to a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Flight 127 departed Madrid around 1 p.m. local time on Sunday and was supposed to land in New York seven hours later.

However, data from Flightradar24 shows how four hours into the journey, the Airbus A330 turned around over the ocean.

Roughly an hour later, it landed at Lajes Airport on the Portuguese island of Terceira. It's part of the Azores, a remote archipelago that's nearly 1,000 miles away from the country's mainland.

The airport shares its runway with a military base, and only serves about a dozen destinations commercially.

"As safety comes before all else at Delta, the flight crew followed procedures to divert to Lajes, Azores, after indication of a mechanical issue with an engine," said an airline spokesperson.

The 21-year-old A330, registered as N805NW, is still parked at the airport as of Wednesday.

To get the passengers back on their way, Delta had to send another plane from New York.

About five hours after Flight 127 landed in the Azores, flight-tracking data shows another A330 left JFK Airport.

It arrived at Lajes shortly after 2 a.m. local time, before leaving around 9 p.m. on Monday.

Flight 9927 then landed in New York at 10:22 p.m. ET — roughly 31 hours after passengers expected to touch down on US soil.

"We sincerely apologize to our customers for their experience and delay in their travels," the Delta spokesperson said.

While it isn't clear how many people were on board, a Delta A330-300 can carry up to 282 passengers.

This isn't the first time a Delta plane has been forced to divert to Lajes Airport. In 2023, a flight from Ghana landed there due to a "mechanical issue with a backup oxygen system."

In that incident, passengers spent 12 hours on the island and some complained about a lack of communication from Delta before another plane arrived to take them on to New York.

Airlines typically try to divert flights back to their origins or hub airports when possible, because this makes it easier to reroute passengers and repair any problems with the aircraft. However, in cases like these, concerns about safety can require landing at the closest available airport.

In a similar case last year, Air France had to cancel a flight so the plane could be used to rescue passengers who were diverted to a remote town in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.

• The new "Superman" is the first live-action movie of James Gunn's new DC Universe.
• David Corenswet plays Clark Kent/Superman opposite Nicholas Hoult's villain, Lex Luthor.
• Here's how "Superman" fits into the Universe alongside shows like "Peacemaker" and "Creature Commandos."

Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a new "Superman" movie!

Yes, the Man of Steel is returning to the big screen on Friday, with his first solo adventure for over a decade.

However, because Warner Bros. and DC Studios have experienced plenty of shake-ups in recent years, casual viewers might be confused by why this DC Universe is completely different to the one in previous movies like "Black Adam," "The Flash," and "Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom."

The short answer? Its director, James Gunn, is completely rebooting the DC Universe by telling the stories of DC's most famous superheroes, starting with Superman/Clark Kent (David Corenswet) in "Superman."

The 2025 movie deals with Superman's conflict with tech billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), his relationship with the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Lois Lane, (Rachel Brosnahan), and his place in the wider DC Universe.

Its lighter tone is a departure from Zack Snyder's gloomier take on the character, who was played by Henry Cavill in movies including "Man of Steel," "Batman v Superman," and "Justice League."

'Superman' takes place after 'Creature Commandos' and before 'Peacemaker' season 2

In June, Gunn told Rolling Stone that by the time the film takes place in the DC Universe, Superman has been saving the world for three years, and that metahumans (people with superpowers) have existed for 300 years.

It's also worth noting that the events of "Superman" happen after the animated "Creature Commandos" TV series, which aired on HBO Max in 2024. In that show, Frank Grillo voiced Rick Flag Sr., the leader of Task Force M, and he reprises the role in live action in "Superman."

The movie also takes place before "Peacemaker" season two, because Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) will appear in the coming TV series after having supporting roles in "Superman."

The 2025 movie will firmly open the door to the wider DC Universe by featuring characters like Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan).

• Linda Yaccarino announced she is stepping down as CEO of X.
• She spent two years leading the Elon Musk-owned social platform, which included a challenging advertiser exodus.
• Yaccarino, previously an executive at NBCUniversal, hasn't announced what she plans to do next.

The CEO of Elon Musk's social network is stepping down.

Linda Yaccarino announced on Wednesday morning that she is exiting the top job at X.

"I'm incredibly proud of the X team - the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable," Yaccarino wrote on X.

Musk later thanked Yaccarino "for your contributions" in a reply to her announcement. Musk has yet to name her replacement.

X's product design lead, Brandon Jacoby, also announced on Wednesday that he was leaving the company.

"Well, I guess now's as good a time as any for some personal news...," Jacoby wrote on X. "After a wild chapter at @X, I've officially wrapped up my time there. I'm extremely proud of the work we did, and you'll be seeing more of it soon."

Yaccarino spent two years leading X, formerly named Twitter, and was appointed to the position after Musk said he would step back from leading the social network.

Musk's hiring of Yaccarino was widely heralded at the time by the advertising industry as a smart move. Yaccarino had built up a solid reputation in the business during her time at NBCUniversal for her charismatic-yet-tough sales tactics, and for holding Big Tech platforms' feet to the fire over issues like ad measurement.

Ad industry insiders were hopeful she could bring calm to the chaos that ensued after Musk's takeover of Twitter, which saw a series of rapid-fire changes to the platform, including renaming it to X one month after she joined.

The CEO quickly found herself navigating multiple controversies as she looked to win over advertisers — and keep them from trimming or stopping their spending.

After Musk loosened moderation rules on the platform, major companies from IBM to Apple to Disney pulled ads from X following reports they were being displayed next to pro-Nazi posts as well as Musk responding in agreement to a post that said Jewish people were pushing "hatred against whites."

In November 2023, Musk defiantly told advertisers leaving the platform "to go f— yourself" if they thought "blackmailing" him would change his views.

Yaccarino later said Musk's comments were an "explicit point of view about our position."

In March, Elon Musk announced that his AI startup, xAI, had acquired X in an all-stock deal at $33 billion.

"xAI and X's futures are intertwined," the Tesla CEO wrote at the time.

Yaccarino looked to convince advertisers to get back to spending on X

Under Yaccarino's leadership, advertisers were beginning to return to the platform.

A Mediaradar analysis found that while X's revenues declined in 2024, the number of advertisers on the platform increased by 15%. Apple bought ads in February, its first since 2023.

During her tenure, X also went on the offensive against some advertisers who had slowed or stopped their spending on the platform.

Last summer, X sued several major advertisers, including Mars and Lego, alleging their participation in an ad industry initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media had amounted to an illegal boycott, which contravened US antitrust laws. The defendants denied the allegations and said the lawsuit was instead "an attempt to use the courthouse to win back the business X lost in the free market when it disrupted its own business and alienated many of its customers." The case is ongoing.

X has also stepped up its focus on original video. Tennis superstars Serena and Venus Williams are set to launch a video podcast on the platform in August.

It remains to be seen how Musk will direct the platform going forward. Tesla, the biggest prize of his sprawling empire, has faced back-to-back quarters of declining vehicle sales amid backlash over Musk's political activities. Some analysts are increasingly worried about Musk's focus after his apparent launch of the America Party, a third-party that he formed after his public falling out with President Donald Trump.

Musk's changes to the platform continue to pose potential challenges for X's relationship with advertisers.

Hours before Yaccarino announced her exit, Grok, X's AI chatbot, was posting antisemitic rants after a "politically incorrect" update was applied to the AI at the direction of Musk. Grok later said its posts were an "epic sarcasm fail."

Later, Grok's X account posted a more official statement.

"We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts," Grok's account posted late Tuesday night. "Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X."

AI experts have previously said that Grok is a solid contender in the AI race, though it has lagged behind OpenAI.

• Superman is one of the most beloved characters of all time.
• Over the years, 12 actors have played him on TV or in movies.
• Here's where David Corenswet, the newest Superman, fits into our ranking.

Superman hasn't had a solo movie for over a decade, but the Man of Steel is flying back into theaters on Friday with James Gunn's "Superman." This time, he's played by "Twisters" star David Corenswet.

The 32-year-old actor joins a pantheon of icons who have all donned the hero's cape and tights since he was first portrayed in live action back in 1948.

Gunn's film takes a fresh stab at the character by jumping past his over-told origin story and instead drops audiences right into a fully-formed DC Universe.

Here's how Corenswet stacks up against other Superman actors.

12. Brandon Routh ('Superman Returns,' 2006)

Routh had the deck stacked against him from the moment he put that "S" on his chest.

Playing the first Superman on the big screen since Christopher Reeve played the character in the 1980s, audiences suddenly had to adapt to a new actor.

With a par-for-the-course movie, plus Routh's performance hardly giving audiences a "wow" factor, his Superman is pretty forgettable.

It also didn't help that Routh was one-and-done with the character.

11. Dean Cain ('Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman' TV show, 1993)

Playing the character for four seasons, Cain certainly had the look and great chemistry with Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane.

What doesn't help his case is the show's corny TV sitcom vibe, which made him feel more like a TV dad than a superhero.

 

10. Channing Tatum ('The Lego Movie,' 2014)

Tatum's overexaggerated and ego-filled portrayal of the superhero is fun and perfect for "The Lego Movie" franchise, including "The Lego Batman Movie."

9. Kirk Alyn ('Superman' TV show, 1948)

Having the distinction as the first actor to ever portray Superman in a live-action work, Alyn was so synonymous with the character that when the serial first came out in theaters, his name didn't even appear on the screen when the serial first came out in theaters.

The 15 episodes, which played in theaters before the main feature — a sequel serial, "Atom Man vs. Superman," followed in 1950 — laid the foundation of how we would see the character on-screen for the decades to follow: a beefy actor with striking looks and a proper attitude.

8. George Reeves ('Adventures of Superman' TV show, 1952)

Reeves' TV portrayal leaned heavily on the "American way" vibe of the character, which led to major popularity for the show and for the actor.

7. Bud Collyer ('The New Adventures of Superman' animated TV show, 1966)

Collyer was the voice of Clark Kent and Superman in the 1940s for the radio series "The Adventures of Superman." Thanks to the popularity of Alyn and Reeves in the role, Collyer was called upon to take on the character again, this time in animated form.

The Sunday-morning cartoon was a fixture at family houses for four seasons. Collyer would portray Superman differently from Kent by making his voice deeper when he was the superhero.

6. Nicolas Cage ('The Flash,' 2023)

OK, we know that Cage never really got to play Superman, as his casting as the Man of Steel in Tim Burton's "Superman Lives" got only as far as photos of the actor in the iconic suit during preproduction before Warner Bros. scrapped the whole thing.

In "The Flash," we get a glimpse of Cage as Superman while Barry Allen races through the multiverse.

So somewhere, we guess, "Superman Lives" is a reality, which means producer Jon Peters' vision of Superman battling a giant spider also came to fruition. And we also have to assume that the combination of Cage and Burton on the project was magic.

It's hard to imagine Cage as Superman not being memorable.

5. Tyler Hoechlin ('Superman & Lois,' 2021)

Hoechlin has the distinction of being the actor who's played Superman in more projects than anyone else on this list, thanks to appearing throughout The CW's superhero universe in "Supergirl," "Arrow," and "The Flash." So he certainly knows how to play the part.

He also did a more than worthy job on his own series, "Superman & Lois," which ended in 2024.

4. Tom Welling ("Smallville" TV show, 2001)

Playing a young Clark Kent for 10 seasons, Welling became a fixture for Superman fans and was perfect in portraying perfectly portrayed a young man trying to figure out who he really is.

3. Henry Cavill ('Man of Steel,' 2013)

Love or hate the movies he was in throughout Zack Snyder's DC Extended Universe, you can't argue that Cavill had the look and right performance to play the character convincingly in the world we live in.

2. David Corenswet ('Superman,' 2025)

Strapping on the red cape in 2025 is no easy feat, given how familiar audiences are with the character. But Corenswet brilliantly portrays Superman as an imperfect person with godlike abilities, who strives to do his best in a chaotic world.

Add his palpable chemistry with every actor in the cast, and Corenswet delivers one of the best, three-dimensional performances of both Superman and Clark Kent.

1. Christopher Reeve ('Superman,' 1978)

From that smile to the bumbling way he played Clark, and, of course, how he flew, Reeve was born to play Superman.

It also helped that the first two movies in the franchise he was a part of are up there as the best superhero movies ever made.

In many ways, Reeve's performance is the high bar that every subsequent actor is measured against to see if they can fully embody the Superman character on screen the way he did.

• The ad giant WPP issued a profit warning Wednesday, sending its shares crashing as much as 18%.
• Other ad company stocks fell, too.
• The ad industry faces challenges from AI, affecting its traditional business models.

It's just turned July, but there are all the signs that the advertising industry could be on the cusp of an AI winter.

An unexpected profit warning from WPP sent the advertising agency's shares down as much as 18% on Wednesday. Shares of rival ad groups, including Omnicom, Publicis, IPG, and Havas, were also down.

WPP said a combination of client losses, a slowdown in new business pitches, and pressured marketer caution amid economic uncertainty meant that its performance since the start of the year had been worse than expected. It forecast that its annual 2025 revenue would decline between 3% and 5%.

While some of WPP's woes are specific to the company, analysts and other industry insiders told Business Insider the ad group faces challenges that apply to the broader ad agency market.

Madison Avenue is grappling with the advent of AI. The technology can offer agencies opportunities as they help clients figure out how to apply it to their businesses, but it also threatens to streamline many of the services they offer, including the creation and placing of ads. These productivity gains also threaten to upend the traditional agency business model of charging hourly rates.

On Wednesday's trading update, Mark Read, WPP's outgoing chief executive, quoted data from the research company COMvergence stating new business pitches so far in 2025 were at a third of the level they were at during the same period last year. Read said this reflected a lower level of marketer confidence, given the prolonged macroeconomic uncertainty. He added that the latest business opportunities tended to be smaller than usual.

COMvergence said that its data for the first half of the year is not yet finalized. Its preliminary findings suggest a 68% decline in the number of pitches and a 37% decline in their value in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2024.

The independent media analyst Alex DeGroote told BI that the sharp decline in new business pitches could be a sign of corporate clients replacing some agency services with AI solutions they could use in-house.

"The impact of AI on net new business is hard to quantify, but it is a clear downside risk in our view," DeGroote said.

Last month, Barclays analysts downgraded the stocks of WPP, IPG, and Omnicom, citing the immediate risks to the agency business posed by artificial intelligence.

WPP's CEO is leaving, and his successor will inherit a raft of challenges

Ad agencies haven't been letting AI wash over them without a fight. The largest agency groups, like Publicis and Omnicom, have pledged to invest hundreds of millions in AI over the next few years as they adapt their businesses to harness the technology.

"Agencies and adtech companies thrive on complexity and fragmentation. If advertising is seen as hard to do well, they can charge a premium, whether direct or baked into proprietary products," said Brian O'Kelley, who cofounded the sustainability-focused adtech company Scope3 and whose previous adtech company AppNexus received investment from WPP.

AI interfaces "just work," and that's a problem for advertising companies, O'Kelley added. He added that the rise of AI search was reducing traffic to publishers and brand websites alike, presenting a challenge to brands looking to get their messages across through online advertising.

For its part, the UK-headquartered WPP said it planned to invest £300 million, about $407 million, annually in AI and other technologies. It recently announced an investment in Stability AI, the developer of the AI image generator Stable Diffusion. And it's prioritizing WPP Open, an AI-powered platform that helps its employees do market research, spin up media plans, and create assets for campaigns using generative AI.

"WPP has the most advanced strategy of any holding company, but clients and investors aren't waiting for them to finish their transformation," O'Kelley said.

WPP has lost key clients during its recent slump, including Pfizer and Coca-Cola's North America account. The company has undergone waves of restructuring in a bid to become more competitive — like the recent merging of its media agency brands to become WPP Media — but the changes and resulting layoffs have "come with some distraction to the business," Read said on Wednesday.

That's not to mention the distraction of Read himself announcing in June his exit from WPP this year after more than 30 years with the company. A successor has not yet been named.

Meanwhile, Publicis Groupe is flying high, having topped ad agency new business leagues; the Barclays analysts that recently downgraded the other agency groups, maintained their rating on Publicis, citing its recent strong performance.

Elsewhere, the rivals Omnicom and IPG are due to merge to create the world's largest advertising group — two seismic industry moves that have resulted in WPP dropping down the pecking order.

"It's clear that more needs to be done to turn WPP's future around, and while the hunt for a new CEO continues, it's unlikely that WPP will regain its crown as the world's biggest advertising agency," said Aarin Chiekrie, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, in a note to clients Wednesday.