Sam had been on the set of "Beast Games" for only a few hours when disaster struck.

It was his first day as a freelance crew member on the Toronto set of the new game show from the YouTuber MrBeast. He was helping break down the set labeled Beast City — a miniature town with a basketball court, tables, cabins, and a tower on the northern side.

He weaved in and out of the set props while wrapping up cables. At one point, he walked into a section of the tower — a giant rectangular four-story structure that looked like it was made of concrete.

When he exited the tower, he collapsed and hit his head. He couldn't move his arm and felt a searing pain in his shoulder.

He started coughing up blood. "I don't want to die," a witness recalled him saying.

Sam didn't know it at the time, but workers had been disassembling the tower above him, and a dislodged section had fallen and sliced his left shoulder. He spent eight days in the hospital, where doctors removed his spleen and performed reconstructive surgery on his shoulder. He suffered a lung contusion, a hemothorax, and damage to his ribs, scapula, spine, and clavicle, medical records show. He said that it took months of physical therapy to regain use of his arm and that his surgeon said he couldn't return to work until spring at the earliest.

An executive producer visited him in the hospital and provided an envelope containing DoorDash and Uber gift cards totaling roughly $1,000, he said. A person close to the production said that it was something he'd asked for and that he was repeatedly offered other forms of support. Sam said he didn't remember asking for the gift cards and was underwhelmed. "Accidents on sets happen, but this one seemed preventable," he told Business Insider in an interview. He requested Business Insider use only his first name to protect his identity, which is known to BI.

"If it was really well organized or well communicated, this wouldn't happen in the first place," he said. He said he wanted MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, to publicly acknowledge the incident and ensure something like it wouldn't happen again.

In early August, The New York Times reported claims from over a dozen anonymous contestants of inadequate living conditions and safety issues during the shooting of a promotional video in Las Vegas. Five contestants filed paperwork in September seeking class-action status against Donaldson and the production companies behind the show, accusing them of "dangerous circumstances and conditions" on the Las Vegas set. According to a summary online, the case status is pending, with the next hearing set for March.

Some crew members told Rolling Stone that on-set conditions in Toronto had improved, but that the work environment was "loose" with safety.

After BI contacted the YouTuber's team for comment on this story, Sam said a representative from production contacted him, saying they were "here to support me and provided me some things I can't share." He declined to share further details.

A 'bloody' scene on set

"Beast Games" is a 10-episode reality series hosted and executive-produced by Donaldson. It was filmed from late August to September in a closed airplane construction facility and the company Blink49 ran production. The show involved 1,000 contestants competing in outlandish and risky challenges to win a $5 million prize. Its episodes were released on Amazon Prime Video from December through February, and Amazon has said it was the second-most-viewed original series of 2024. A representative from Amazon MGM Studios declined to comment on this story. Blink49 did not respond to requests for comment.

Sam's first and last day of work on "Beast Games" was September 11. BI pieced together what happened that day based on interviews with Sam, 24, and two other "Beast Games" crew members who witnessed or were aware of the incident, along with medical records, emails, and other documents.

The tower on set was covered in roughly 8-by-8-foot wood squares made to look like concrete, a supervisor who was also a "Beast Games" production assistant said. Each square was about 4 or 5 inches thick and seemed to weigh a couple hundred pounds. On the show, the tower was used for games like throwing a ball into an oversize cup on the ground floor and catching a ball that fell from holes in the ceiling. The structure appeared sturdy, surviving a record-breaking rainstorm on July 16 that flooded the set.

Around 11:30 a.m., Sam said he was untangling a "jungle of wires" in the basement section of the tower. Some of the cables were still attached to light fixtures outside the tower, so he stepped out of the west exit, he said. "There was nothing to block that off. There was no dedicated path. There was nothing to indicate that at all," he said.

At the same time, workers were attaching the squares to a boom lift, removing them from their steel frames, then lowering them to the floor, two people on-site that day said. At one point, the crew appeared to detach a section on the third floor without the boom lift attached, the supervisor said. That free square fell on Sam.

"The third-floor square had been dislodged and pushed out," said the supervisor, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of damage to his career. "I saw it come down. I knew immediately this was really bad — this was one of those moments where things change."

He said he rushed to Sam's side and "immediately radioed for a medic," describing a "bloody" scene. "I remember when I was by Sam's side looking up and seeing someone's head popping up out of the empty hole" where the square had been, he said.

A person close to the production said that Sam wasn't using the "established" path to exit the tower and that it was technically a prohibited area. Sam and the supervisor said there were no indications on the ground floor that there was work being done above them.

"I don't remember seeing any pylons, a guarded-off area, or anyone telling us that they were moving walls," Sam said. He and the supervisor said they had taken the same path underneath the boom lift multiple times since they'd started their shifts at 8 a.m. Sam said he was wearing normal gear for a construction site, including a hard hat and steel-toe boots.

An ongoing investigation

An ambulance arrived on the scene within minutes and rushed Sam to the emergency room of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, which has the largest trauma center in Canada.

The production crews halted work for the day while Ontario's labor ministry — Canada's agency that protects workers — and the police visited the site to investigate.

Sam said his family contacted multiple lawyers in September regarding any legal action they could take and were told he couldn't sue his employer because he took a payment from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, which provides insurance benefits for injured workers.

The CBC reported three months later, in December, that the Ontario labor ministry was investigating an "industrial accident" in which a crew member "was injured by falling wood on September 11 on the set."

Sam said his last contact with the labor agency was in January. A spokesperson for the ministry told BI that it was notified of an incident on September 11 in North York in which a worker suffered injuries caused by a piece of falling wood and that it issued a "requirement" to the production companies not to disturb the site of the incident. The spokesperson said the agency would not provide further information because the investigation was ongoing.

Sam said he was worried about his job prospects. He had wanted to be a part of the film industry since he was 10 and first saw "Terminator 2" and "Indiana Jones." But his injury has made him scared to go back to a set.

Sam told BI that more than anything, he wanted his incident publicly acknowledged and thoroughly investigated.

"I still can't use my left arm like I was able to," Sam said. "At the moment, I can only lift maybe 2 pounds with it. I'm working with physio to hopefully get it back to normal. I lost my spleen, so I'm also immunocompromised."

He told BI that seeing MrBeast take accountability, in particular, would mean a lot. He said Donaldson isn't the "company or people that rigged the wall," but he's the "face and the captain of the team."

• The Upfront Summit is a glitzy annual invite-only conference hosted by Upfront Ventures.
• Investors expressed unease about the state of the tech market, which is dominated by AI mega-rounds.
• Former Vice-President Kamala Harris held an hourlong private meeting at the conference focused on AI.

What do Prince Harry, Kamala Harris, Bill Gurley, and Serena Williams have in common? Aside from all being famous, they were at this year's Upfront Summit, the glitzy annual invite-only conference hosted by Upfront Ventures that aspires to be nothing like most of the stodgy events dotting the conference circuit.

The summit is held at a unique location yearly, such as the Rose Bowl, Malibu Farm, or the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. This year's event was at the Intuit Dome, the new arena in Inglewood, CA, that is home to the NBA Clippers. There was pickup basketball at lunch, two illuminated hoops on the stage, and booming speaker introductions by the Clippers' public address announcer.

Though the theme was ostensibly basketball, the more overriding one onstage and in conversations at couches and tables on the outskirts of the area was the uneasy duality of the current tech market. On the one hand, venture investors are enamored of generative AI, which many see as a once-in-a-generation moneymaking bonanza bigger than the mobile phone. Megafunds like Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst keep raising billions more to pile into the biggest AI startups.

"This is a unique moment," said Bill Gurley, general partner at Benchmark who backed startups like Uber and Zillow, in an interview on stage. "AI is the exact event every founder and [general partner] dreams of."

On the other hand, most VCs have been unable to return much capital to their limited partners because the IPO market has been slow to recover, and the M&A market has been quiet. Many startups have been going out of business as capital runs dry. There is also widespread concern those megafunds could be bad for the industry.

"I am a short-term pessimist and a long-term optimist," said Pat Grady, partner at Sequoia Capital, in an on-stage interview. "I think we're going to have a culling of the herd because people got away from the original spirit of venture capital, which is helping founders build legendary companies, and they got into the asset management business."

General partners in a less enviable position than Grady pony up thousands of dollars to attend Upfront, and they are not paying for the food (which is always excellent) or the speakers (mostly top-caliber). Their return on investment is meeting the endowment heads and chief investment officers from places like the University of Michigan and Mizuho, who can write checks into their next fund.

Getting those LPs to make commitments proved frustratingly slow again this year, especially for less-established players, according to multiple VCs and LPs I spoke to at the conference. Two LPs said they were impressed by the many funds they met with, but when I asked which funds they would invest in, they said they were not deploying any capital right now.

As the gravity of tech has been moving rightward with Donald Trump's return to the White House, the Upfront Summit retained its bluer, California vibe. There were appearances from Chelsea Clinton and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who received a frosty reception from some in the audience still upset about his handling of last month's catastrophic wildfires in LA. (Sequoia partner and Elon Musk confidant Shaun Macguire, as well as developer and former LA mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, also spoke.)

Former Vice-President Kamala Harris held an hourlong private meeting at the conference with around a dozen venture investors and other attendees to discuss AI, according to multiple people in the room. Harris's appearance was kept highly under wraps, and few at the conference knew she was there.

Harris, who served as AI czar during the Biden administration, was eager to hear about where the technology is heading, according to those in the room. She will also be speaking at HumanX in less than two weeks, an AI conference in Las Vegas.

Mark Suster, managing partner of Upfront Ventures, created the Upfront Summit over a decade ago to put LA's tech scene on the map, and the event has always served as a love letter to Los Angeles. This year, the wildfires loomed large, with many there, including Suster, affected by the fires that burned through Pacific Palisades, where many in LA's tech community live.

A teary-eyed Suster took to the stage to ask for donations for fire relief and raised over $130,000. Paris Hilton closed out the summit with Tim Cadogan, CEO of GoFundMe, and a somber panel on rebuilding.

Afterward, investors, founders, and limited partners mingled over tacos, BBQ chicken, and funnel cake at a glitzy closing party on the Clippers' hardwood court. It was back to work as investors tried to seek out the few remaining LPs who had not yet flown home, trying to pitch them one last time.

Europe would be "very vulnerable" without U.S. support, said Ed Arnold, a senior research fellow at Britain's Royal United Services Institute defense think tank.

Lily Chapman, 26, told Newsweek: "If you're honest about the hard parts, people say you're unprepared or ungrateful."

A film expert weighed in on the accuracy of the Academy Awards predictions with Newsweek.

Including jean jackets, flowy maxi dresses, and versatile blouses

The woman — who shared her experience on Reddit — says her sister implied she was prioritizing a hamster over a human

Chris Kreider missed his third straight game with an upper-body injury Friday, when the Rangers lost to the Maple Leafs 3-2.

Kurdish militants have declared a ceasefire in their 40-year conflict with Turkey.

You’ll immediately want to add this to your watchlist

© Netflix

Democrats and Republicans in Congress are gearing up to blame each other for a potential partial government shutdown next month, even as negotiations to avoid the pitfall continue.

"The federal government will run out of money on March 14. Republicans, who control Congress and thus decide whether the government shuts down, will bring to the floor tomorrow arguably one of the worst budget bills ever," Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, wrote on X recently.

With just over 10 days left in session before the deadline, congressional Republicans are tentatively looking at passing a short-term extension of last year's federal funding, known as a continuing resolution (CR), while potentially modifying it to account for priorities set by President Donald Trump, Fox News Digital was told.

It could also include extra funding for military readiness to ease defense hawks' concerns.

BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF 'PURGE' OF 'MINORITY' FEDERAL WORKERS

Trump himself weighed in on Truth Social on Thursday night: "We are working very hard with the House and Senate to pass a clean, temporary government funding Bill ("CR") to the end of September. Let's get it done!"

But Republicans have drawn a red line at Democrats' demands for added assurances that Trump will not move to unilaterally cut cash flows already appropriated by Congress.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said in a closed-door GOP meeting last week that the Democrats' price was too high, a lawmaker at the meeting told Fox News Digital.

On Friday, the top two Democratic negotiators released a blistering statement accusing Republicans of "walking away from bipartisan negotiations to fund the government — and raising the risk of a shutdown in so doing."

And Democratic lawmakers for weeks have already been positioning to place the blame on Republicans if no agreement is reached.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., dodged a question from Fox News Digital earlier this week about whether Democratic leaders would encourage their members to reject a funding bill if it did not meet their demands.

"The appropriations process at this moment is in the hands of [House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.] on behalf of House Democrats," he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote on X this week, "Republicans are spending precious time trying to cater to the wishes of Trump’s billionaire buddies INSTEAD OF working to avoid a disastrous government shutdown that would hurt tens of millions of American families. Democrats are fighting for families."

Since Republicans took back control of the House in 2023, any government funding bill that's been signed into law has needed Democratic support in both chambers to pass.

But this year, some Democrats are arguing that Republicans will fully own a shutdown, since they now control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN

Republicans, however, have accused Democrats of being unreasonable and are readying to blame them if a shutdown occurs. 

"If that happens, that's because the Democrats do not want to do the necessary work of getting waste and inefficiency out of our government," Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told Fox News' Bill Hemmer.

House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., suggested liberals were still playing hardball earlier this week during his weekly press conference.

"If they are interested in collaborating with us and us putting up votes to fund government, then they have to work with us. If they walk away, that is a signal that they have this on their own… We're not interested in putting up votes just because," he said. 

"We're interested in funding a government that protects vulnerable populations, protects our communities, makes investments in our national security and defense. Those are the things that Democrats care about. If Republicans don't want to partner with us, then, clearly they must have a strategy to fund this on their own, using their own votes."

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Democrats "are at the table negotiating in good faith to fund the government."

"But Republicans are the majority in the House and Senate. If they want our votes, they need to work with us," she said, warning Republicans not to "follow [Elon Musk] toward a shutdown."

• I traveled on the Caledonian Sleeper train for $360 on a trip from London to Edinburgh.
• My highlight was the club car, with friendly staff and tasty food.
• The ensuite room was modern and comfortable, but I barely slept as the train was too noisy and shaky.

The Caledonian Sleeper is the UK's most famous overnight train, with similar London-to-Scotland services dating back to 1873.

I had the chance to try it out on a work trip to Edinburgh, where I toured Emirates' new Airbus A350.

Business Insider paid £285 (about $360) for a Club en-suite room, which includes a free breakfast plus access to the lounge and club car.

In addition to the convenience of waking up in the city center, I thought its luxurious offerings elevated it well above the typical train journey.

The food was delicious, the club car was relaxing, and the staff were welcoming.

The train benefits from modern sleeper cars with neat tartan designs and comfortable beds — but I struggled to get more than a couple hours of sleep.

Here's what my journey was like.

• Lockheed Martin's F-35 is widely recognized as a top fighter jet.
• However, the program has been troubled by cost and readiness concerns for years.
• The makers of this fifth-generation aircraft told BI their thoughts on how to address these.

Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is a combat-proven fifth-generation jet, but the supersonic stealth plane has consistently faced cost and readiness concerns.

Business Insider recently visited the factory where these advanced aircraft are produced and asked the makers about the challenges facing this program and potential changes that might help reduce sustainability costs and improve mission capability rates.

The lifetime F-35 program costs are now expected to top $2 trillion, and sustainability costs are rising. Yet the Government Accountability Office assessed last year that the F-35 isn't hitting mission-capable rates and hasn't for years. These are key criticisms the fighter has faced.

A Lockheed representative said that addressing these issues comes down to reliably investing in parts and maintenance. Edward Smith, the company's F-35 business development director, said that "to maintain a fleet at any given readiness level, you have to fully fund your supply system."

The Joint Program Office previously told BI that readiness tends to improve with a healthy supply of parts for maintenance.

Smith said that the F-35 has historically been underfunded in terms of the supply purchased for the aircraft and depot repair capacity, adding that it's important to get the supply of sustainment parts at a level that matches the jet's readiness needs.

"If the parts are available and on the shelf," he said, then "we can get to the readiness rates that are desired by all of our customers that are out there."

And for overall costs, he said that as more F-35s roll off the production line and the supply pool of parts grows, the aircraft will become increasingly cheaper to operate. Over the last decade, explained Smith, it has seen a 50% reduction in cost-per-flight-hour, in some cases making it as expensive to fly as fourth-generation jets being made today but delivering more capability.

Smith said that the average mission capability rates for the F-35, which is the percentage of time it can perform one mission, tend to be between the high 50s and high 60s.

This figures are higher on combat deployments; the US military averages an 80% mission capability rate for the F-35 on every combat deployment it's done, and for the Israelis, since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, the number is almost 90%, he said.

"It exactly matches our funding level for parts. Traditionally, we've been funded at about 70% availability, and that's if nothing broke," Smith said. "If you don't fund supply, you cannot have the readiness," he added.

A combat-proven fifth-gen fighter

The F-35 is the US military's second fifth-generation fighter jet after the air-superiority F-22 Raptor. The jet comes in three variants designed for conventional runway and ship-based operations and is flown by the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy.

The US military has flown all three F-35 variants — the A, B, and C variants — in strike missions against terror groups in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

The Israel Defense Forces were the first to fly the jet into battle. They operate their own version (the F-35I) and have flown it into combat, battling Syrian missile batteries, shooting down drones, and striking Iranian military sites.

The jets, however, were built for a higher level of warfare, which would demand the advantages offered by its all-aspect stealth, sensor suite, networked systems, and combat power, all capabilities required for combating next-gen aircraft and high-end surface-to-air threats.

The F-35 was developed and manufactured as part of a multinational partnership, and over 1,110 jets have been delivered. Many US allies operate the aircraft, with more countries looking to acquire this plane in the future. It's considered a cornerstone for US airpower.

Improving the program

The F-35 program relies on a shared contractor and government-based maintenance system. How contracts are issued may affect how readiness issues are fixed. To increase efficiency, "we need to drive to more performance-based sustainment contracts," Smith said.

He said sustainment for the F-35 is contracted on an annual basis. He called this process inefficient and "very costly," arguing that it doesn't allow the industry to plan and invest strategically because it's uncertain what the next annual contract could look like.

"There's definitely room to increase efficiency in how we contract for these systems and put the onus on industry to perform," he said.

"That's what we continue to strive for is those performance-based contracts that we not only get as a prime, but also with our suppliers," Smith said, noting this gives them "long-term certainty and forecasting so we can invest to improve the metrics for this airplane."

Performance-based contracting is centered on the results achieved from a specific program in terms of requirements rather than the cost or time needed to ultimately achieve them.

Michael Bohnert, a licensed engineer at the RAND Corporation, said that longer-term contracts tend to be more efficient than annual contracts for long-term acquisition because they provide the industry an opportunity to plan.

Performance-based contracts "can be an effective tool," he told BI, "but they require a deeper understanding of the systems to set adequate performance goals with accurate pricing."

The F-35 JPO, which leads the aircraft's life-cycle program management, acknowledged that annualized sustainment contracts are not ideal for reducing costs and improving readiness. However, it said bad performance contracts can arguably be worse.

"Key considerations for performance contracts include funding stability for sustainment, confidence in data for forecasting and cost modeling, and contract structures that balance risk between industry and government," a JPO spokesperson told BI.

"Performance contracts must align with warfighter needs, potentially requiring a mix of contracting strategies," the office said.

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson told BI that the company is committed to working with the JPO "on delivering mission-essential and effective sustainment support for the F-35 program now and in the future."

The spokesperson said pursuing a performance-based contracting strategy is a decision made by the Pentagon. "I would defer you to them for further comment. We support any model that can increase readiness and reduce cost for our customer," they said.

• Ukraine's missiles have kept Russian aircraft away from the battlefield.
• Russia has responded by battering Ukraine's defenses with glide bombs dropped farther away.
• Increasing glide-bomb production should be a critical priority for NATO.

One of the surprises of the Ukraine war has been the marginal role played by Russian airpower. Expectations that Russian fighters and bombers would blast a path for the ground troops — as US airpower did in Desert Storm — were disappointed. Instead, Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles have kept Russia's air force at bay.

But Russia has hit on a way for its air force — known as the VKS — to make a difference while staying away from the battlefield — massive glide bombing. And that approach seems to be successful enough that a British think tank is calling for NATO air forces to be ready to do the same.

"Glide bombs gave the VKS teeth without the need to first achieve air superiority or gain the ability to penetrate Ukrainian airspace," wrote analysts Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds in a report for the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.

Ironically, Russia's airpower woes have become NATO's worries. Since 1941, the warfighting concept of America, Britain and other Western nations has been to maintain relatively small armies backed by copious amounts of airpower. The concept eventually worked in World War II. It might have worked in the Cold War to repel a massive Soviet ground invasion of Europe.

But the air war over Ukraine raises doubts about this approach. If Ukrainian S-300 and Patriot anti-aircraft missiles can destroy Russian planes, then couldn't Russian missiles do the same to NATO planes? Ukraine claims 369 Russian warplanes have been shot down as of February 2025, with most claimed by missiles rather than Ukraine's small fleet of fighter jets.

That's why Western experts are paying close attention to how Russia has managed to make its air force relevant to the ground war. Much like the Russian war machine in general, the Russian air force is now emphasizing brute-force tactics that rely on massive amounts of bombs rather than accuracy. Instead of running the gauntlet of Ukrainian air defenses as they drop their bombs, Russian jets safely orbit up to 60 miles behind the Russian front line — out of range of Ukrainian long-range surface-to-air missiles — and lob glide bombs. These are low-budget guided weapons that mate a conventional iron bomb with a satellite-guidance system, and aerodynamic fins to control the bomb's trajectory.

Russian UPMK glide bombs lack in accuracy compared to their Western counterparts such as the US Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). But Russia doesn't care. The giant FAB-1500 — a 1.5-ton glide bomb — or the 3.4-ton FAB-5000 have such a large blast radius that even a near miss will destroy Ukrainian trenches and bunkers. It's the same sort of approach long practiced by Russian artillery: saturation bombardment to pulverize enemy defenses and rattle soldiers inside before the assault troops go in.

Ukrainian troops have yet to find an effective defense against glide bombs; moving air defenses forward to fire at a launch aircraft also risks systems like Patriot that are in short supply. Instead, "they have been pushed to completely avoid observation of their positions, to disperse or seek concealment underground, and to rely on uncrewed or autonomous systems to keep and kill the enemy at arm's length," Watling and Reynolds wrote.

The Ukraine war has shown the biggest shortcoming of precision-guided munitions: they are so expensive that nations only procure small numbers, which are quickly depleted during a long war. Because glide bombs use cheap components — old-fashioned iron bombs and inexpensive navigation systems — Russia can easily mass produce them. "The rise in UMPK glide bomb production from 40,000 units in 2024 to 70,000 units anticipated in 2025, has significantly increased the number of Ukrainian troops killed during defensive operations," RUSI noted.

RUSI recommends that NATO increase its stockpiles and manufacturing capacity for stand-off weapons like JDAMs and the Joint Standoff Weapon made by Raytheon (JDAM bombs cost around $20,000 each). In addition, NATO air forces need more long-range air-to-air missiles: Russian fighters have had success in suppressing Ukrainian airpower by using long-range missiles such as the R-77-1, with a range of more than 62 miles.

Given the ferocious consumption of munitions seen in Ukraine, procuring mass quantities is only viable if the price is right. "Increasing stockpiles and the capacity to produce long-range air-to-air munitions and stand-off strike weapons at as low a cost as possible should be critical priorities for the force," RUSI argued.

The Ukraine war offers one bit of consolation for NATO. The fact that Russia had restored some effectiveness to air force suggests that NATO's emphasis on airpower is still relevant. "The disproportionate impact of the VKS, despite the generally poor performance of Russian airpower, validates the importance placed on air power across NATO," RUSI concluded.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

• Many Americans tell Business Insider how they moved abroad for more affordable and fulfilling lives.
• Mercer consultants identified cities that offer low costs of living and a high quality of life.
• The eight spots range from Old-World gems in Eastern Europe to a Canadian hub for food and culture.

As inflation continues to drive up the cost of everyday necessities, more Americans are looking abroad, hoping to find places where their money goes further and life is sweeter.

But where to go?

Researchers at HR and financial consulting firm Mercer analyzed over 200 everyday expenses, including housing, food, healthcare, and entertainment, in 226 cities worldwide to identify the most and least expensive spots. Mercer also weighed safety, infrastructure, environmental friendliness, and connectivity to determine eight cities in Europe, Asia, and the Americas that offer a balance of low living costs and high living standards.

To give readers a feel for day-to-day expenses in each city, Business Insider used cost-of-living data from Numbeo. Numbeo combines user-submitted spending figures with data from government institutions and service companies to estimate prices for various things, such as what it would cost a single person or a family to live in the city center. It also provides typical prices for everyday items like coffee, a meal for two, and a gym membership. While the methodology relies on crowdsourced data, which may vary widely, it can be a useful tool for getting a general sense of what it costs to live around the world.

Read on to learn more about eight cities that offer opportunities to live both cheaply and well, according to Mercer. They are presented in alphabetical order.

Business Insider used the latest population estimates from Demographia for all cities except Ljubljana, which uses a Slovenian government estimate. Numbeo expenses have been converted from local currency into US dollars.

Leonard F Pryor's medals "were passed to me a few years ago, as his namesake," his great-grandson Leonard Lawson told Newsweek.

A late birthday gift turned into the shock of a lifetime for one father after he realized what was really inside the box