Author: Editor

The Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in April. Tyrone Turner/WAMU hide caption toggle caption Tyrone Turner/WAMU The Supreme Court is heading into its crunch time, the part of the year when the justices are racing to finish decisions and dissents in the cases that remain undecided. There are 23 cases left, out of the 58 that have been argued. Two major cases have already been decided: One essentially gutted what remained of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, prompting Republicans in a number of Southern states to redraw congressional maps to diminish or eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Black…

In this Aug. 17, 2018, file photo, people arrive before the start of a naturalization ceremony at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Miami Field Office in Miami. Wilfredo Lee/AP hide caption toggle caption Wilfredo Lee/AP BOSTON — A federal judge on Monday struck down the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, contradicting an earlier federal court ruling upholding the fee hike. The administration announced the much-higher fee as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs. But U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston sided with 20 states and struck down the visa policy,…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Astha Chaturvedi, 38, the founder of Mouri Living. Her words have been edited for length and clarity.After a decade in Big Tech and at McKinsey, I was working at Ripple in San Francisco when I decided to build my own startup.I traveled to India in 2024 to hire a CTO. While I was there, a cousin suggested I open an office in India, pointing out that the startup ecosystem was booming. That sent my husband and me down a rabbit hole of exploring a move.We’d spent about 15 years building our…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Clea Barry, 44, an interior designer who moved from Kansas City to Chiang Mai, Thailand, with her husband and three kids in 2022. It has been edited for length and clarity.My husband and I met 20 years ago, and our shared love of travel brought us together.Over the years, we lived in several cities across the US with our three kids, including San Diego and Denver. Before moving abroad, we were living in Kansas City, where my husband taught middle school and I worked as an interior designer.I traveled quite a…

Starbucks isn’t just launching another drink. With its latest Refreshers debut, announced Monday, the coffee giant is expanding one of its fastest-growing businesses as it races to win customers long after the morning coffee rush ends.Beginning July 14, Starbucks customers will be able to order any Refresher drink blended, the latest move in the company’s effort to expand what executives describe as a $2 billion beverage platform.The launch follows April’s rollout of customizable Energy Refreshers, which Starbucks executives said recently exceeded expectations and helped drive new customer occasions.Refreshers, which are iced juice and tea drinks often mixed with fruit pieces,…

Retirees may have questions about huge, soon-to-be public companies like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI coming to their retirement accounts. But despite all the attention these initial public offerings are getting, the first lesson for most people with retirement accounts and index funds is simple: these new stocks are unlikely to make a big, immediate difference in their retirement accounts.That’s because most retirement accounts are built around mutual funds and ETFs that track broad indexes, and those indexes don’t usually snap up a new company at its full market value the moment it goes public. Instead, they often rely on “free…

The first time I set foot in Brooklyn was to look at an apartment.I vividly remember the slow chug of the M Train over the Williamsburg Bridge — watching the Lower East Side shrink behind me, and the contour of the Kings County skyline approaching across the East River.I was 23. I felt like I’d arrived and my future was limitless. I moved to that apartment. Shoebox would have been a generous description for my $900 a month room with Craigslist roommates.For the next seven years, I bounced between North Brooklyn dwellings, my rent rising faster than inflation. By May…

Technicians work on an engine at GE Aerospace’s engine shop in Lafayette, Indiana.Leslie Josephs/CNBCRIO DE JANEIRO — Airplane engine makers have fallen short of what they promised airlines, major carriers’ CEOs say, a problem vexing an industry that has struggled for years with aircraft shortages and more recently, a doubling of fuel prices.It’s a paradox: Engine makers dazzled carriers with more fuel-efficient options for new planes from Boeing and Airbus. But production shortfalls and disappointing reliability with those engines are becoming costly problems, CEOs said in interviews at the industry’s largest annual gathering here. Airline executives said they’re being forced…

Not every AI prompt needs Opus 4.8.As the fervor of tokenmaxxing dies down, some AI users are wondering how to get more bang for their buck and keep their monthly costs in check. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong shared the crypto company’s strategy: not skimping on the cheaper models.”We’re working hard on routing prompts to cheaper models where appropriate, and in some cases have been able to keep costs roughly flat, while token usage continues to grow exponentially,” Armstrong wrote on X on Sunday.While the latest models like Opus 4.8 or GPT-5.5 promise bleeding-edge benefits, they can also devour more tokens.…

The cost of higher education across the US continues to rise, and for many Americans, the decision to pursue a four-year degree is as much a financial calculation as an academic one.Some of the benefits of a college education are intangible, such as the development of character, independence, and critical thinking that come from four years of organized instruction.But going to college can also lead to an earnings premium. Across the US, bachelor’s degree-holders earn an average of 38.6% more than adults with an associate degree or those who attended some college but did not complete a four-year degree.That translates…