Author: openjargon

• A number of NATO members have relaxed restrictions on Ukraine using their weapons to strike Russia.
• The US and its allies have moved recently to allow Ukraine to hit targets across the border. 
• The policy changes could help Ukraine repel Russian glide-bomb strikes in and around Kharkiv city.

A handful of NATO countries have lifted the restrictions on Ukraine using their weapons to strike military targets inside Russia, giving Kyiv's forces new battlefield options that could help them defeat the highly destructive glide bombs they have so far struggled to stop.

Ukraine had long been barred from using Western-provided weapons to strike beyond its borders, as many of its partners — including the US — were concerned that allowing Kyiv to do so would lead Russian President Vladimir Putin to escalate the conflict even further.

Western positions on this issue have softened in the wake of Russia's ongoing offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region, which began last month. Ukrainian officials argued the restrictions essentially prevented Kyiv from stopping the onslaught by giving Moscow space from which it could mass troops and launch glide bombs with impunity.

Multiple NATO countries have now either partially or completely lifted their restrictions. Facing increasing pressure from Ukraine and its European partners, the US finally changed its long-held stance last week, allowing Kyiv to strike inside Russia — but only in the area near the Kharkiv region.

Conflict analysts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank said "the provision of Western air-defense systems and the lifting of Western restrictions on Ukraine's ability to strike military targets in Russian territory with Western-provided weapons remain crucial for Ukraine to repel Russian glide bomb and missile strikes against Kharkiv City."

"These policy changes will allow Ukrainian forces to use Western-provided systems to strike Russian firing and staging areas in Russia's border areas and airspace," the analysts wrote in a June 2 assessment.

They said Ukraine's demonstrated ability to down Moscow's warplanes in front-line areas in past battles suggests Kyiv can likely find success again and protect Kharkiv city and the greater region from glide-bomb strikes launched from Russian airspace.

Glide bombs have been a threat to Ukrainian forces throughout much of the war, but they have proven to be a significant problem in recent weeks as Russia used them to pound Kharkiv city and the surrounding area. Russian aircraft can launch these standoff weapons from the safety of their own airspace and out of the reach of Ukraine's air-defense systems.

The only ways for Ukraine to defend troops and civilians from these bombs is to intercept the Russian aircraft before a launch or strike them on the ground. Kyiv has largely been unable to do this, but the policy changes — and the additional air-defense capabilities from the West — could help give the country more reach and resources to engage the threat.

"Ideally, launch aircraft would be caught on the ground, but as a fallback, a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system like Patriot — with a range of around 100 miles (depending on the target) — could be pushed closer to the front line to shoot down Russian aircraft before release," Matthew Savill, the director of military sciences at RUSI, wrote in new commentary.

He said that these "so-called 'SAMbushes' involve removing launchers from around infrastructure and putting them at greater risk of attack, but pose a challenge to Russian aircraft which currently fire from airspace where they believe themselves to be safe."

Experts like Savill, however, have warned that the policy changes are not necessarily a silver bullet for Ukraine, and deep-strike capabilities alone won't be enough to win the war.

The Biden administration's relaxing of its policy also comes with its limitations. Ukraine can only conduct cross-border strikes in Russian territory right around the Kharkiv region, and it is still barred from conducting longer-range strikes with its most powerful US-provided missiles. Kyiv must instead rely on American-provided rockets and artillery.

Washington's guidance is "specifically focused on Ukraine's defense against military targets that are just over the border, and targets that Russia is using to physically launch offensives against Ukraine proper," White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Monday.

The US policy prohibiting Ukraine from using its supply of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, also known as ATACMS, or conducting long-range strikes inside Russia "has not changed," Kirby added.

US officials have stressed that Washington could still make further adjustments to its policy, but it's ultimately dependent on evolutions on the battlefield. Whether the Biden administration will become even more lenient with its restrictions — following in the footsteps of some of its European allies — remains to be seen.

Speaking in Prague on Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the "hallmark" of American support for Ukraine has been to "adapt and adjust as necessary to meet what's actually going on on the battlefield, to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs when it needs it, to do that deliberately and effectively."

"That's exactly what we're doing in response to what we've now seen in and around the Kharkiv region," Blinken told reporters. "Going forward, we'll continue to do what we've been doing."

Ukraine has already taken advantage of the new policy. On Monday, for instance, Kyiv reportedly used rockets fired from its US-provided M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, to strike Russian air-defense assets in the Belgorod region, which is just over the border from Kharkiv.

According to media reports and open-source intelligence accounts, Ukraine struck Russian S-300/S-400 air-defense systems that have been repurposed for surface-to-surface applications and have been used in attacks around Kharkiv.

• The CEO of Athletic Brewing, Bill Shufelt, feels that the term "sober" is outdated.
• "Why does there have to be a word for when you're not consuming" alcohol, Shufelt asked.
• The CEO, who is in the alcohol-free beer business, argued for terms that allow for more flexibility.

Bill Shufelt gave up alcohol over a decade ago and cofounded a non-alcoholic beer company several years later in 2017.

Now, Athletic Brewing is reportedly the most popular non-alcoholic beer brand in the US, according to NielsenIQ data.

But, Shufelt, who hasn't had a drink in over 10 years, finds the term "sober" outdated and a concept that society has largely outgrown, the CEO said in a podcast episode of The Logan Bartlett Show released on Friday.

"Why does there have to be a word for when you're not consuming it," Shufelt said, in reference to alcohol. He said most people are sober most of the time, and said that there wasn't a term for people who abstain from energy drinks.

Shufelt told Business Insider that the word "sober" was in use before prohibition and it became a word to define people who never drank after that period.

"The perception is that most people are consuming alcohol anytime they leave their house for a social outing," Shufelt said. "But it turns out that way more people rarely drink versus those who drink daily or even weekly."

Shufelt said that in modern life, alcohol fits into fewer occasions, and many Gen Z's are changing their drinking habits based on the availability of alternative options, not even necessarily because of a distaste for alcohol.

The term "sober" is defined as abstaining from drinking or drugs, according to Merriam-Webster, but there are several variations in the way it's used today.

Others more recently use the term "sober curious" to refer to an exploratory period where they cut down or abstain from drinking alcohol. Others call themselves "Cali sober" for ditching alcohol but using Marijuana.

Shufelt brought up the term "flexitarian diet" in the podcast, which refers to when people eat meat occasionally on an otherwise plant-based diet. Whether people call themselves "flex sober" or say that they drink alcohol occasionally, Shufelt told Bartlett it should be a "much more flexible mindset these days."

Shufelt has previously used the term "flex sober" to describe his consumers, 80% of whom still consume alcohol, according to a company spokesperson. Shufelt also said most adults have less than one drink per week and the alcohol-beverage industry is largely missing out on serving that cohort of people who drink alcohol minimally.

Shufelt grew up facing pressure to drink in social and work-related settings, and he eventually started to rethink his life in terms of health, fitness, and career, a spokesperson said — and he found that alcohol was holding him back. Shufelt said in the podcast that alcohol was impacting his productivity and he didn't want to get to the point where he had children and was "blowing himself up on Friday."

Shufelt co-founded Athletic Brewing Company right before the sober curious movement started to take off in 2018. That year, a survey from the University of Michigan indicated millennials and Gen Zers were drinking less than the last two generations.

By 2021, beverage analysts told Business Insider that they expected the non-alcoholic beverage market to expand, and it has.

The ongoing trend is about being more mindful and moderating drinking more than anything else, an Athletic Brewing Company spokesperson told Business Insider. The company doesn't suggest that people should cut out alcohol entirely, but it's about having an accessible option for people who may want to cut it out, or just cut back, the spokesperson said.

For Shufelt, whose business revolves around convincing people to give non-alcoholic beer a try, he said going cold turkey and abstaining completely from alcohol was right for him at that time in his life.

But, in hindsight, he wondered on the podcast if having a compelling non-alcoholic alternative to switch to after a regular beer when he was younger would have provided "an easy bridge" to moderation, and allowed for a more flexible approach.

You can watch the entire interview with Shufelt below (his remarks around moderation and sobriety start at around the 1 hour, 2-minute mark).

• I'm British, and my kids go to school in the US, where we live.
• There are notable differences between the education system in America and my native UK.
• I envy the British version because it is much easier for children — and their parents.

When my British friends ask what it's like to educate my kids in the US, the first issue they raise is the risk of school shootings.

Last year, no fewer than 21 people died, and 42 were injured in incidents of gun violence in and around American schools.

In contrast, the last school shooting in the UK — when a gunman murdered 16 elementary students and a teacher — happened in 1996. As a result, the public called for tighter gun controls, which the British government enforced.

My friends' next question is often related to academic achievement.

In 2018 — the most recent year the research was performed — the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranked the overall knowledge and skills of British 15-year-olds as 13th in the world in reading, literacy, mathematics, and science.

The same assessment found that 15-year-olds in the US were ranked 25th globally.

It's difficult to compare public school systems forensically because of the countries' vastly different populations and government infrastructures.

However, feedback from my British friends has convinced me that the setup in the UK is more user-friendly for kids and parents.

Here are three key reasons.

Kids in the UK start school as young as 4

By law, children in the UK enter the publicly-funded British school system as young as 4.

Most begin full-time classes in "reception" — the first step on the educational ladder — in the September after their 4th birthday. Research has consistently shown that early childhood education helps kids develop academically and socially.

It also relieves a huge financial burden on working parents, who no longer have to pay babysitters or nursery schools for private childcare.

The age at which American parents are mandated to send their children to school depends on the state. In New York, for example, they are only obliged to attend by law after first grade.

School breaks are better spread out in the UK

My friends in the UK can't believe my kids have an entire 10-week summer break from school.

"What on earth do you do with them for 10 weeks?" my daughter's godmother once asked. She grimaced when I told her we fork over thousands of dollars for day and sleep-away camps.

Almost every child in Britain gets a six-week summer break, two weeks at Christmas and two weeks at Easter. There is usually a one-week "half-term" in February, May, and October.

Responding to parents' complaints about the length of the standard summer break, some education authorities reduced it to five as an experiment. The extra week was added to the May half-term, giving kids 10 days off instead of five in the Spring.

Kids wear uniform

Most government-run schools in the UK require students to wear a school uniform. The protocols contrast those in the US, where most public school kids can wear what they want to class — albeit within reason.

As a mom whose teens can waste hours picking an outfit to wear every morning, I'd like uniforms to be compulsory nationwide. I'm tired of the endless arguments over what clothes are "appropriate" or not.

Meanwhile, I shudder when I hear about "elite" cliques of high schoolers dressed head to toe in Lululemon. I can't bear to think of a kid being bullied because they're wearing something from Old Navy instead.

A friend said her kids wear what they want for a few designated days on the UK school calendar, such as the last day of term. "The stress of competitive dressing is high-octane," she said.

Uniforms are not only levelers but also support the idea of a community or team. Kids look more put together in a uniform, and it's good training for entering a profession.

Do you have a powerful story highlighting the differences between education in the US and other countries? If you'd like to share it with Business Insider, please send details to jridley@businessinsider.com.

• Google Scholar is a searchable database of academic literature.
• It connects users with studies and journal articles on nearly any topic of scholarly interest.
• Google Scholar is free to search, but some of the results may require payment or membership to read.

Google Scholar is a search engine Google created to parse though a massive database of scholarly literature, looking for the best matches for your search terms.

Google Scholar was released in beta form in late 2004, and soon used far and wide by students, researchers, authors, and others. The search engine not only grants users to access vast troves of information, but it also makes it easy to cross reference things against other sources and keep up with the latest research as it is published.

And what you won't get on Google Scholar are search results from non-academic sources like personal blogs, social media posts, YouTube videos, or other less substantive and reliable sources. 

If you want fun and games, go with Google Games; if you want scholarly research, stick with Google Scholar.

Using Google Scholar, found at scholar.google.com, you can access these kinds of sources (and more):

• Journals
• Conference papers
• Academic books
• Pre-prints
• Theses and dissertations
• Abstracts
• Technical reports

Here's everything you need to know about the powerful research tool:

How to use Google Scholar

Anyone can access the search database. And while it's built with college and grad students, researchers, and other academics in mind, anyone can reap its benefits.

Here are just a few examples of what you can do through Google Scholar: 

• Create alerts. Google Scholar is for creating a body of research around a topic of interest, such as global warming, let's say. Much like with the standard Google Alerts, you can create alerts for the topic so you're always up-to-date on the latest info.
• Explore related works. You can gain deeper knowledge of any topic in which you're interested by exploring related citations, authors, and publications, as identified by Google Scholar.
• Check out the References section. Accessing an article's References section can help you branch out your research to see what sources an author used for their paper. 
• Save articles to your library. Saving your searches to your Google Scholar library helps you organize and keep track of your favorite results. 
• Cite articles in your preferred format. On the search results page, click the Cite button; the pop-up window will offer citations ready in whichever style you need, like MLA, APA, and Chicago.

Accessing information 

Google Scholar is free to use as a search tool. However, since it pulls information from many sources, it's possible that some of the results you pull up will require a login or even a payment to access the full information.

Whether an article is free depends on a variety of factors, like the publication and its funding agency mandates. Go to the Public Access section of the Google Scholar profile to view its mandates — if a free version is available, you'll see an HTML or PDF link on the right side. 

Still, descriptions or abstracts are typically free and provide an overview of the article's content so you can make an informed decision about whether to spend money. 

Remember that not all scholarly research is created equal — different journals have different standards for publication. Not every article listed on Google Scholar will be peer-reviewed (a peer review is when the author's fellow researchers and scholars in the same field review the article's content for research quality). 

To find out whether a research article on Google Scholar is peer-reviewed, the best strategy is to visit the website of the journal the article is published in. Most peer-reviewed journals will explicitly state they are peer-reviewed.

Search tips and best practices 

• Sort your searches by date (or specify a starting date) to find the newest, most relevant data. At the top left corner of the search results page, you can choose to search for articles published "Any time," since a given year, or in a custom range of year — say between 2015 and 2020, were you to want to research a topic without the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic coloring it. 
• Look out for the keywords "all versions," "related articles," and "cited by" to include free versions of articles in your search results; you should look for PDFs and postings by libraries.
• Look through an article's references to gain a deeper understanding of a topic.
• Check out metrics like the h-index to see the output and impact of a researcher or publication.

Overall, Google Scholar provides an excellent avenue into scholarly research, and while it does have its drawbacks, it's a tool that can be used to help clarify, explore and inform users about a wide variety of topics. 

Just as Google Earth can help guide you around the planet and Google Translate can demystify other languages, Google Scholar can unlock the world of academia for all.

• Google Scholar is a searchable database of scholarly literature.
• It connects users with studies and journal articles on nearly any topic of interest.
• Not all articles are free — you might need a membership to read the full versions.
• Visit Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

Established in 2004, Google Scholar is a massive database of scholarly literature that allows users to access information, cross reference it with other sources, and keep up with new research as it comes out.

Using Google Scholar, you can access these kinds of sources:

• Journals
• Conference papers
• Academic books
• Pre-prints
• Theses and dissertations
• Abstracts
• Technical reports

Here's everything you need to know about the powerful research tool.

How to use Google Scholar

Anyone can access the search database. And while it's built with college or grad students and other academics in mind — to help those writing academic papers create bibliographies more easily — anyone can reap its benefits.

Here are just a few examples of what you can do through Google Scholar: 

• Create alerts. You can create a library of research around a topic of interest, like global warming, and create alerts for it so that you're always up-to-date on the latest research.
• Explore related works. You can gain deeper knowledge around a complicated topic that you're interested in, like studies in the field of astronomy, by exploring related citations, authors, and publications.
• Check out the References section. Accessing an article's References section can help you branch out your research to see what sources an author used for their paper. 
• Save articles to your library. Saving your searches to your Google Scholar library helps you organize and keep track of your favorite results. 
• Citation export. You can export an article's full citation in your preferred format using the "Bibliography Manager" section. 

Accessing information 

Google Scholar is free to use as a search tool. However, since it pulls information from many other databases, it's possible that some of the results you pull up will require a login (or even payment) to access the full information.

Still, descriptions or abstracts are typically free and provide an overview of what's contained within the article. 

Overall, Google Scholar provides an excellent avenue into scholarly research, and while it does have its drawbacks, it's a tool that can be used to help clarify, explore and inform users about a wide variety of topics.

• A wild attempted bribery is rocking a Minnesota pandemic fraud trial.
• A woman dropped off a bag of $120,000 in cash to the juror's house.
• "This is stuff that happens in mob movies," the prosecuting attorney told the court.

Like something straight out of a mob movie, a juror in a Minnesota pandemic fraud trial was offered $120,000 cash to vote for acquittal.

Just before the jury was set to begin deliberations on Monday, Assistant US Attorney Joseph Thompson announced the apparent attempted bribery to the court, according to the Minnesota Reformer.

The unnamed 23-year-old juror was assigned to a federal fraud case against seven people accused of stealing $49 million from a federally funded child nutrition program, the Reformer reported.

Their case is just one in a series of cases against dozens of individuals who, through a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, the DOJ alleges stole a total of $250 million in the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme to date.

Thompson told the court that on Sunday night, a woman driving a Madza went to the juror's home and left a bag containing $120,000 in cash with her father-in-law, telling him there'd be "another bag tomorrow" if she voted for acquittal, the Minnesota Reformer reported.

The juror, who was not home at the time of the illicit delivery, later called 911, and the FBI picked up the money from her on Monday morning, according to the Reformer.

"This is outrageous behavior," Thompson said in court, according to the outlet. "This is stuff that happens in mob movies."

Defense attorney Andrew Birrell also expressed dismay at the bizarre development, calling it "a troubling and upsetting accusation," according to the Reformer.

The FBI has confiscated the defendants' cell phones until a search warrant can be granted, and the prosecution is asking to have them held in custody until a verdict is decided, MPR News reported.

After questioning all the other jurors in the case, the judge determined that none of them had also been approached about the case. Still, according to MPR News, she said she plans to sequester the jury overnight.

The juror who alerted authorities to the alleged bribery attempt was excused from the trial, the Reformer reported.

Lawyers for the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI. Thompson also did not respond to a request for comment.

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The best cheap cellphone plans offer all of the following criteria without compromise — dependable coverage, fast service speeds, and as much data as you need at affordable prices. Usually, affordable plans come from mobile virtual network operators (or MVNOs) and stand-alone budget-friendly carriers, and choosing the plan for you will come down to your budget and priorities.

Among the best cheap cellphone plans, it's hard to beat our top pick, Mint Mobile's new customer promotion, which sets any of its three-month plans, including its "unlimited" plan, at the same low cost of $15/month. If you want to extend your savings further, we recommend Tello Mobile's Build Your Own plan, which can cost as low as $5/month. 

Our top picks for the best cheap cellphone plans

Best overall: Mint Mobile (Any 3-month plan) – See at Mint Mobile

Best overall alternative: US Mobile (Unlimited Starter plan) – See at US Mobile

Best true budget plan: Tello Mobile (Build Your Own plan) – See at Tello

Best unlimited plan: Visible Wireless (Visible+ plan) – See at Visible

Best international plan: US Mobile (Unlimited Premium plan) – See at US Mobile

Best overall

Mint Mobile's prepaid plans for three, six, or 12 months offer affordable options and easy plan management, like adjusting data allotments per line at any time. The MVNO's plan variety, flexibility, and value make it our first recommendation for a budget carrier. 

Your best entry point into the Mint Mobile landscape is its current, limited-time new customer promotion, which sets each of its three-month prepaid plans at just $15/month. This discount means you can get anywhere from 5GB, 15GB, 20GB, or "unlimited" (40GB) monthly data for the same low, entry-level price.

Mint Mobile's plans include high-speed data on T-Mobile's network (subject to deprioritization in congested areas), with slower speeds once you've hit your data cap. 

After your promotional three months are up, any of Mint's 12-month plans will provide the most savings, as the monthly price and data remain the same as the three-month plans. All are great deals; in particular, the 5GB ($15/month) and 15GB ($20/month) plans are well-priced considering the competition.

The overall customer experience makes Mint Mobile stand out from the competition. Its user-friendly setup and app experience, readily accessible support and FAQs, and easy-to-understand language, in addition to its price point, make it an easy recommendation.

Consider your data usage patterns before signing up, but with Mint's excellent app or website, you can change your plan at any time with no added cost.

Read our full Mint Mobile review.

Best overall alternative

US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan for $29/month is a remarkable option among MVNO and budget-friendly plans. It easily meets and exceeds expectations as a value-forward plan with superior and unique features that directly benefit you, the customer.

Like many budget-friendly carriers, US Mobile operates on major carrier networks. In this regard, US Mobile is unique. Where you typically only have access to one major carrier's network, US Mobile offers the choice between Verizon's or T-Mobile's full network, including their fast high-band 5G networks. You can even switch networks as often as twice a month, so you can try which works best for you for everyday use, whether for coverage, data speeds, or for a particular scenario, like traveling. 

US Mobile's names for Verizon's and T-Mobile's networks are "Warp" and "GSM," respectively. Only the Warp network comes with premium prioritized data, whereas the GSM network includes deprioritized data. However, we can't say we've felt much of an impact from deprioritization in our testing of the GSM or T-Mobile's network, nor can we really tell, as there's no indication or notification specifying as much. 

Whichever network you pick, US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan price stays the same even if you switch. 

The Unlimited Starter plan's 35GB of high-speed data should be more than enough for the vast majority of users. If you do end up using more than 35GB, US Mobile reduces your data speeds to 1Mbps until the end of the billing cycle, which is significantly faster and more usable than the reduced speeds on other carriers that vary between dubiously slow 40 and 256Kbps speeds. 

To be sure, some carriers like Visible don't reduce speeds at all, no matter how much data you use. Instead, they offer deprioritized data that can potentially slow down without warning when the host network is experiencing congestion. That's a great proposition, but we feel the option to pick which host network works for you, as well as the other benefits listed here, are more valuable.

US Mobile also offers multi-line discounts, unique among budget-friendly carriers and ideal for families or groups.

You get even more value with the annual payment option, which reduces US Mobile's Unlimited Starter monthly price to $23/month ($276 for the year). And to top it all off, taxes and fees are included, so the price you see advertised is the price you pay. 

Read our full US Mobile review. 

Best true budget plan

The varied plans from Tello Mobile are the cheapest options we can recommend, and they offer the most customization.

With Tello's Build Your Own plan, in particular, you can adjust the minutes and data allotment for each line on your account, making it a great choice to cover the basics for kids, grandparents, students, or anyone who uses a minimum amount of data or is simply on a budget.

As you build your plan, you choose your monthly data amount (from no data to 1GB, 2GB, 5GB, 10GB, 15GB, or unlimited) and your monthly minutes (none, 100, 300, 500, or unlimited), the combination of which adds up to $5/month at the cheapest and $25/month at the most expensive. 

The Build Your Own plan is particularly enticing if you want to specify a data allotment on a per-line basis — for example, setting data limits for a kid who just got their first phone while allowing them unlimited minutes. 

Read our full Tello Mobile review.

Best unlimited plan

For truly unlimited data and extensive coverage, Verizon's budget-friendly carrier, Visible Wireless, has an excellent option with its Visible+ plan at $45/month. 

While the Visible+ plan has the highest price point of all the MVNOs we've included in this list, it provides by far the most high-speed monthly data and the closest approximation to "unlimited." It guarantees 50GB of premium prioritized data while your phone is connected to Verizon's basic 5G and LTE networks before you experience any form of data speed deprioritization. The Visible+ plan also offers unlimited premium prioritized data while your phone is connected to Verizon's fast high-band 5G "Ultra Wideband" network. 

By offering deprioritized data after using up to 50GB of data, you shouldn't notice a difference in data speeds or usability unless you're in an area experiencing heavy network traffic at the specific time you're using your phone. Even if your data is actively being deprioritized, you may not even notice.

For those who use a lot of data and call for a truly unlimited plan, that's an enticing proposition, as some MVNOs and budget-friendly carriers dramatically reduce speeds to frankly unusable speeds until the next billing cycle if you exceed your plan's allotted data. 

The Visible+ plan also provides extended coverage with 5G "Ultra Wideband" areas, though Verizon's standard coverage (and the Visible base plan's coverage) is already very good. Before signing up, check Visible's coverage map to ensure you're covered.  

Visible recently updated its plans with an annual payment option (versus the standard monthly payment option) that reduces the Visible+ plan's price from $45/month to $33/month (totaling $395/year), which is incredible value and should be considered if making an annual payment is an option. 

Read our full Visible Wireless review.

Best international plan

It's surprising that so many budget-oriented carriers and plans have any international features at all, and some have pretty decent ones, too. However, none have anything quite as comprehensive as US Mobile's Unlimited Premium plan. Just make sure to pick or switch to US Mobile's "GSM" network before you set off, as the "Warp" network doesn't include nearly as many international features. 

With US Mobile's Unlimited Premium plan, you get unlimited calling and texting from the US to over 200 countries. If you're traveling abroad to one of the 180 supported countries, you get 5GB or 10GB of data and 500 or 1,000 minutes and texts, depending on the country. (Unfortunately, US Mobile doesn't make it abundantly clear which countries support how much data or how many minutes and texts.)

If the premium price tag is out of reach, US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan has similar international features with reduced minutes, texts, and data that might still be enough for your needs — 1GB of data and 150 minutes/texts.

No doubt, at $50/month, US Mobile's Unlimited Premium plan is on the pricier side when thinking about "cheap" cellphone plans, but keep in mind that US Mobile offers an annual payment option that reduces the price to $37.50/month (totaling $450/year).

Alternatively, if you don't need as much domestic data as the Unlimited Premium plan offers in a typical month, you can sign up for US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan on a monthly basis, so you pay less when you're at home and only upgrade to the Unlimited Premium plan for the month(s) you're traveling. 

Read our full US Mobile review. 

How we test cellphone plans

In our testing, we spend at least a week with a specific plan from a phone carrier, often longer, and primarily assess the quality of the plan and carrier by the following criteria:

• Plan offerings and flexibility: We consider the pricing and features included in a carrier's range of plans and assess its flexibility in allowing you to switch out of or between plans. 
• Coverage area: For MVNOs, we note the approximate coverage area provided by the network or networks backing a budget carrier and evaluate whether particular locations consistently match their purported coverage type (e.g., 5G or 4G/LTE). 
• Service reliability and speeds: In consistent testing locations, we assess the reliability of phone and video calls, note how fast videos and apps load over cellular data, and, with MVNOs, mark any apparent effects of deprioritization on service speeds.  
• Customer support: We make a holistic assessment of a carrier's customer support system and online (or in-person) user experience for setup, use, and troubleshooting. 

We also take into account secondary considerations such as ongoing discounts and any other notable perks or outstanding features.

What to look for in a cheap cellphone plan

If you aren't in the market for the best cellphone plans from major carriers, you have no shortage of options for spending less on a phone plan, as affordable carriers have proliferated in recent years. 

The best cheap cellphone plan for you will primarily reflect your needs for monthly data and minutes, the constraints of your budget, and the coverage of your local area by the network or networks backing a particular plan. 

We set a few baseline criteria in choosing plans for this guide, in that all the plans listed above cost no more than $50/month and, as with most MVNO plans, do not require a contract.

Before signing up for a service, take a granular look at the coverage map that an MVNO should make readily accessible on their website — marking the US network range of its backing carrier — and appraise the coverage of your location to ensure dependable service.

Best overall

Mint Mobile's prepaid plans for three, six, or 12 months offer affordable options for customers to easily manage all lines on their plan in one place and adjust their data allotments at any time. 

Your best point of entry into the Mint Mobile landscape is its current new customer promotion that sets its three-month plans at the following reduced rates: $15/month for 5GB, $20/month for 15GB, $25/month for 20GB, and $30/month for "unlimited" data, which includes 40GB of high-speed data (subject to deprioritization in congested areas), with slower speeds once you've hit that cap.

The overall experience as a customer is what makes Mint Mobile stand out among the competition. Its user-friendly setup and app experience, readily accessible support and FAQs, and easy-to-understand language make it an easy recommendation in addition to the price point.

However, after your promotional three months are up, any of Mint's 12-month plans will provide the most savings, as the monthly price and data remain the same as the three-month plans. All are great deals; in particular, the 5GB ($15/month) and 15GB ($20/month) plans are well-priced considering the competition.

Consider your data usage patterns before signing up, but know that you can change your plan at any time with no added cost with Mint's excellent app or website.

Read our full Mint Mobile review. 

Best true budget plan

The varied plans from Tello Mobile are the cheapest options we can recommend, and they offer the most customization.

With Tello's Build Your Own plan, in particular, you can adjust the minutes and data allotment for each line on your account, making it a great choice to cover the basics for a teen, grandparent, student, or anyone who uses a minimum amount of data or is simply on a budget.

As you build your plan, you choose your monthly data amount (from no data to 500MB, 1GB, 2GB, 5GB, 10GB, or unlimited) and your monthly minutes (none, 100, 300, 500, or unlimited), the combination of which adds up to $5/month at the cheapest and $29/month at the most expensive. 

The Build Your Own plan is particularly nice if you want to specify a data allotment per line — for example, setting data limits for a teen who just got their first phone while allowing them unlimited minutes. 

Read our full Tello Mobile review.

Best unlimited plan

For high-speed data and extensive coverage, Verizon has your back with Visible Wireless. Our top pick for a budget unlimited plan is Visible's upgraded Visible+ plan, available (until February 14) at a promotional rate of $35/month for up to two years — a $10 monthly discount from its typical $45/month rate.

While the Visible+ plan has the highest price point of all the MVNOs we've included in this list, even with its current promotion, it also provides by far the most high-speed monthly data and the closest approximation to "unlimited" data, as it guarantees 50GB of high-speed data before you experience any form of deprioritization.

Most of the nominally "unlimited" plans from MVNOs — including Visible's base unlimited plan ($25/month) — offer data subject to deprioritization at any time behind the higher-paying customers of the MVNO's backing network. If you're in an area with a lot of network congestion, you could encounter deprioritized speeds at any time on such an "unlimited" plan, but you won't see any deprioritization within your monthly allotment of  50GB of high-speed data on the Visible+ plan.

The Visible+ plan also provides extended coverage with 5G "Ultra Wideband" areas, though Verizon's standard coverage (and the Visible base plan's coverage) is already very good. Before signing up, check Visible's coverage map to ensure you're covered.  

Read our full Visible Wireless review.

Best international plan

Google Fi Wireless has three plans at different pay tiers, each offering access to coverage provided by T-Mobile and basic benefits like VPN usage and select smartwatch compatibility. 

The low-tier Flexible plan allows for pay-what-you-use monthly data at $10/GB plus a base monthly rate of $20 per phone line. That's expensive compared to other MNVOs on this list, and Google Fi doesn't come especially recommended if you don't need international features.  

If you need international features, though, Google Fi's Flexible plan includes international roaming for the same price as domestic data usage at $10/GB, so you won't have to worry about being charged an exorbitant price while using your phone internationally. Even if you use more data while you're away, a feature called Bill Protection, unique to the Flexible plan, caps your monthly cost at $80 for a single line to prevent excessive fees from overages. 

Google Fi also offers free texting from the US to over 200 destinations and while traveling internationally.

Given that you have a "Designed for Fi" device (like a Google Pixel phone or a range of other Android phones featured in their list of compatible devices), you might be a great match for Google Fi, particularly if you frequently travel overseas.

Read our full Google Fi Wireless review. 

How we test cell phone plans

In our testing, we spend at least a week with a specific plan from a phone carrier, often longer, and primarily assess the quality of the plan and carrier by the following criteria:

• Plan offerings and flexibility: We consider the pricing and features included in a carrier's range of plans and assess its flexibility in allowing you to switch out of or between plans. 
• Coverage area: For MVNOs, we note the approximate coverage area provided by the network or networks backing a budget carrier and evaluate whether particular locations consistently match their purported coverage type (e.g., 5G or 4G/LTE). 
• Service reliability and speeds: In consistent testing locations, we assess the reliability of phone and video calls, note how fast videos and apps load over cellular data, and, with MVNOs, mark any apparent effects of deprioritization on service speeds.  
• Customer support: We make a holistic assessment of a carrier's customer support system and online (or in-person) user experience for setup, use, and troubleshooting. 

We also take into account secondary considerations such as ongoing discounts and any other notable perks or outstanding features.

What to look for in a cheap cell phone plan

If you aren't in the market for the best cell phone plans from major carriers, you have no shortage of options for spending less monthly on a phone plan, as affordable carriers have proliferated in recent years. 

The best cheap cell phone plan for you will primarily reflect your needs for monthly data and minutes, the constraints of your budget, and the coverage of your local area by the network or networks backing a particular plan. 

We set a few baseline criteria in choosing plans for this guide, in that all the plans listed above cost less than $50/month and, as with most MVNO plans, do not require a contract.

Before signing up for a service, take a granular look at the coverage map that an MVNO should make readily accessible on their website — marking the US network range of its backing carrier — and appraise the coverage of your location to ensure dependable service.

• John Jacob Astor built his fortune in the fur business and New York real estate.
• John Jacob Astor III and William Backhouse Astor Jr. cofounded the Waldorf-Astoria after a feud.
• Modern Astor descendants have been politicians, philanthropists, and British royal associates.

Astoria, Queens. Astor Place. The Waldorf-Astoria. Even if you're not a New Yorker, you've heard of these iconic places. You also probably know they're named for one very powerful family: the Astors.

To this day, the Astors' money and influence still make waves in society.

So how do you build a dynasty like this one, with money that lasts for generations? Take a look at how the Astors made their fortune.

This story was originally published in April 2012. It was updated in May 2024.

The Astors came from nothing.

Johann Jacob Astor worked as a butcher in Walldorf, southeastern Germany, Elizabeth Louisa Gebhard wrote in "The Life and Ventures of the Original John Jacob Astor." His ancestors are said to have been French Huguenots who'd fled to Germany after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which had granted protection to Protestants.

His son, John Jacob Astor, was born in Walldorf in 1763.

As a youngster, he worked for his father as a dairy salesman. He had three brothers, the eldest of whom, George, left home to work for an uncle in London who made musical instruments. Astor met up with him there after his 16th birthday.

John Jacob Astor built his fortune in the fur business and through buying and selling New York real estate.

After the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, he immigrated to New York and took a job with a fur trader. By 1800, he'd built up his own fur business and was worth $250,000, or about $6.2 million in 2024, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

Astor also bought and sold acres upon acres of land in and around New York City, including what is now Times Square. 

In 1785, he married Sarah Todd. They had three children: Magdalena, John Jacob II, and William.

He was one of the wealthiest men in the US upon his death in 1848, according to the Library of Congress.

William Backhouse Astor continued his father's real-estate ventures and philanthropy.

He continued to invest in real estate by building over 700 stores and residences in New York City, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

He also bequeathed thousands of dollars to St. Luke's Hospital on the Upper West Side and the Astor Library, which eventually became the New York Public Library.

William and his wife, Margaret, had seven children, the most prominent of which became John Jacob Astor III and William Backhouse Astor Jr.

William Jr. had some success as a developer in Florida. John Jacob Astor III, along with his wife Charlotte Gibbs, was a major philanthropist who founded the Children's Aid Society.

The iconic Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City was the result of a family feud between John III and William Jr.'s descendants.

John III's son, William Waldorf Astor, built the 13-story Waldorf Hotel in 1893 on 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue.

Waldorf Astor's cousin and rival, John Jacob Astor IV, built a taller hotel next door four years later to outdo him.

Eventually, the two hotels were joined together with a marble corridor, resulting in the first Waldorf-Astoria.

The simmering tensions prompted William Waldorf Astor to move to London in 1891.

There, he bought and restored the 125-acre Hever Castle in 1903, purchased the British newspaper The Observer in 1911, and obtained the rank of Viscount in 1917.

John IV perished in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

His body was identified two weeks later by the initials stitched into his suit and his gold pocket watch. The watch sold at auction for $1.5 million in April.

Still, the Astors remained a force. In 1931, the modern Waldorf Astoria opened on Park Avenue and became legendary for its service.

The Waldorf Astoria has hosted US presidents, dignitaries, and countless celebrities.

In 2014, the historic hotel was purchased by Chinese insurance group Anbang for $1.95 billion. In 2017, it closed for renovations to convert 375 rooms into luxury condominiums called The Towers of the Waldorf Astoria. The hotel is expected to reopen in 2025, GlobeSt reported.

Known for her charity work, Brooke Astor emerged as the matriarch of the American Astors.

Astor was the great-great granddaughter, by marriage, of John Jacob Astor.

She donated over $195 million to hospitals, cultural institutions, and community service programs in New York City through the Vincent Astor Foundation, according to The New York Community Trust. President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her philanthropy in 1998.

Brooke Astor died in 2007 at age 105 and was the subject of a four-page obituary in The New York Times.

Her son Anthony Marshall, was convicted of stealing millions of dollars from her in 2009 and sentenced to prison.

The British side of the Astor family continued to hold positions of power, as well.

Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, who was married to Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, became the first woman in the House of Commons in the chamber's history in 1919.

Her son, David Astor, rose to prominence as the longtime editor of The Observer and an anti-apartheid activist, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Modern members of the Astor family remain influential figures.

William Astor, 4th Viscount of Astor, is a member of the House of Lords and the stepfather of Samantha Cameron, the former British first lady married to David Cameron.

John Jacob Astor, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever, also sat in the House of Lords from 1986 until his retirement in 2022, according to the UK Parliament's official website.

William Waldorf Astor's great-great-granddaughter, Rose Astor, married Prince William's close friend, Hugh van Cutsem, in 2005. Their daughter, Grace van Cutsem, is perhaps best known as the young bridesmaid who appeared grumpy at Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding in 2011, pictured above on the left.

Another great-great-grandchild of William Waldorf Astor, Harry Lopes, married Queen Camilla's daughter, Laura Parker-Bowles, in 2006.