Category: Business Insider

• Tesla is on trial over a negligence lawsuit brought by a mom whose toddler hit her with her Model X. 
• The California mom alleges in the lawsuit that the 2018 Model X was "defective" in its design.
• Tesla has argued the mother is to blame and that the Model X's design likely saved her life.

Is Tesla to blame for a toddler crashing his family's Model X SUV into his pregnant mother, injuring her?

That's what a California jury will soon weigh in a civil trial that could raise questions about the vehicle's safety features and force Elon Musk's electric car company to pay out hefty monetary damages.

Opening statements in the trial, taking place in a Santa Clara County courtroom, are expected to begin this week.

California mom alleges that the Tesla Model X was 'defective'

In 2019, California mother Mallory Harcourt filed a lawsuit against Tesla over the incident, accusing it of negligence, consumer fraud, and product liability. Harcourt alleges in the suit that her brand-new 2018 Model X SUV was "defective" in its design because her 2-year-old son managed to start the vehicle and hit her with it outside of the family's Santa Barbara home on December 27, 2018.

The mother, who was eight months pregnant with her second child at the time, was left pinned to a wall in her garage when the vehicle accelerated, according to the lawsuit. Harcourt suffered broken bones and gave birth to her daughter prematurely through a broken pelvis about a week later, court documents say.

"Mallory's injuries healed over time, but her pain is permanent," Harcourt's attorneys wrote in an April 8 legal brief.

"No one could reasonably expect a two-year-old who climbs into the floorboard of a vehicle that is in Park with its parking brake on to be able to cause the vehicle to start, shift out of Park and into Drive and move," the lawyers added. "Such a vehicle is defective."

Jurors at the trial will hear from Harcourt's attorneys how the mother and her husband purchased a Model X as their family vehicle after seeing advertisements about it being the "safest, quickest, most capable SUV ever," according to the brief.

The incident occurred just four days after the parents bought the Model X, and shortly after Harcourt pulled into their driveway with their son in tow.

"The vehicle automatically shifted into Park and set the parking brake," the brief says.

Harcourt removed her son, identified as B.H., from his car seat and left the driver's door open, it says.

"Mallory realized she had forgotten her house keys at the office and was not able to enter the home," the brief says. "B.H. had a dirty diaper so she decided to change him in the garage."

At some point, the boy "escaped" from his mother and climbed into the vehicle's footwell through the open door, according to the brief.

"He then contacted the brake pedal, which started the car and automatically closed the driver's door. Seconds later, B.H. reached up and touched the gear shift lever on the stalk of the steering wheel, which shifted the car out of Park and into Drive," the brief says.

"B.H. then contacted the accelerator pedal, which caused the car to begin moving forward. From the time B.H. entered the Tesla until it began moving was mere seconds," it continues.

Harcourt saw the Tesla as it was entering the garage, and had "virtually no time to react," the court filing says.

"She moved towards the front of the Tesla hoping the vehicle would recognize her and stop since the Tesla was equipped with technology that she understood would recognize if the vehicle was going to hit something and stop," the brief says.

The Model X then accelerated to over 8 miles-per-hour and struck Harcourt, it says.

"The Tesla picked her up just below her waist and lifted her off the ground, then crushed her against bicycles and various clutter at the back of the garage," the court filing says, adding, that the impact fractured Mallory's pelvis in multiple places, fractured her fibula, and caused a deep puncture wound to her thigh.

Neighbors ultimately helped free Harcourt from the vehicle.

Tesla has placed the blame squarely on the mother

Tesla has argued in court documents that Harcourt is only to blame for the incident and that the Model X's design likely saved her life.

"The evidence will prove that Ms. Harcourt was the sole cause of her injuries and that sophisticated driver assistance features in the Model X saved her and her children from far more serious injuries," Tesla's attorneys wrote in a trial brief filed on April 8 that details how the carmaker will defend itself.

"Ms. Harcourt negligently left her two-year old son unattended in her driveway with access to a vehicle that had two doors open and the keys inside, and for long enough to allow him to get into the vehicle, step on the pedals, and put it into gear," Tesla's attorneys wrote.

Tesla's lawyers said in the court filing that Harcourt then "made the highly extraordinary decision to jump in front of the Model X as it was moving. This entire incident could have been avoided by either keeping watch over the toddler, or, failing that, using the PIN-to-Drive option."

Tesla's PIN-to-drive option is a safety measure that requires the owner to put in a four-digit password in order to drive the vehicle, according to Tesla's website.

"In no uncertain terms, Ms. Harcourt's own actions caused her injuries, and not any defect in Model X's design," Tesla's attorneys wrote.

It was Harcourt's own "poor decisions," Tesla's attorneys wrote, "that put herself, her son and her unborn child at significant risk."

The carmaker's lawyers explained in their brief that the Model X is an all-electric vehicle, and pressing the brake powers it on like turning the key would in a gasoline-powered car.

Harcourt's son "pressed the accelerator pedal, and the Model X moved forward slowly," the lawyers said.

"Ms. Harcourt admits she did not know where her son was at this time, but when she saw the Model X moving into the garage, she — at 8 months' pregnant — nonetheless stepped in front of the vehicle, now claiming she believed that would make it stop."

Tesla's attorneys say that vehicle data shows that the Model X's "Brake Override" and "Obstacle-Aware Acceleration" advanced driver assistance features were activated at the time of the incident, limiting the speed of the SUV, "despite B.H. pressing the accelerator pedal to 100%."

The Model X, the lawyers wrote in the brief, "functioned exactly as designed and very likely saved Ms. Harcourt's life."

Tesla has faced its fair share of safety-related lawsuits

It's far from the first time Tesla's lawyers have appeared in court over safety concerns. Like many automakers, Tesla has faced multiple lawsuits over accidents and the company's potential role in the crashes. Tesla owners have sued the carmaker over anything from battery fires and phantom braking incidents to its driver assist software.

Last year, a woman sued Tesla after her husband's Model 3 allegedly exploded on impact, ultimately causing his death. In 2022 — in what was Tesla's first trial involving a fatal crash —a Florida jury awarded the families of two teens who were killed in an accident involving a Model S $10.5 million.

The jury found Tesla 1% to blame for the crash and the driver and his family 99% to blame. The lawsuit alleged Tesla played a role in the accident by allowing the driver, Barrett Riley, to remove a speed limiter that the family had previously installed on the vehicle. Riley and his passenger had died after the car crashed into a concrete barrier going 116 miles per hour and caught fire.

On April 8, Tesla settled a lawsuit related to its Autopilot software after the family of a man who died in a crash in which the software was activated had alleged the car was "defective in design."

Over the past few years, Tesla has come under increased scrutiny from regulators regarding driver-assist technology.

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• Four Seasons says it will begin sailing an ultra-luxury yacht cruise in January 2026.
• The 222-guest vessel would have 95 spacious suites and 11 dining options — but food wouldn't be free.
• The largest suite would have four floors and bedrooms, a spa, and a price of $350,000 per sailing.

Four Seasons plans to expand its high-end hotels and resorts portfolio with a luxury 222-guest cruise ship.

The company says the 95-suite vessel will debut in January 2026 and cost a minimum of $20,000 per weeklong sailing.

For that price, the luxury hospitality giant says travelers would enjoy a one-to-one guest-to-staff ratio and massive suites spanning as many as four floors. If all goes as planned, the 679-foot-long Four Seasons I could become one of the most expensive and opulent options in the cruise industry.

The ultra-plush 14-deck Four Seasons I is scheduled for 19 voyages in 2026 to more than 130 Caribbean and Mediterranean ports.

Reservations opened two weeks ago. Those interested can register to join a waitlist or book through a travel agent.

So far, "sales have been very encouraging, and the demand is exciting to see," Thatcher Brown, chief commercial officer and head of joint operations for Marc-Henry Cruise Holdings, told Business Insider in a statement. The company is a joint owner and operator of Four Seasons Yachts.

Renderings make the Four Seasons I look as opulent as the brand's land-based properties.

Four Seasons says its vessel will have 95 suites ranging from 537 to 9,975 square feet, some with three bedrooms.

The smallest suite starts at $19,700 for a five-night roundtrip voyage to Athens, Greece.

No windowless interior cabins here: Like other ultra-luxe cruises, the suites would all have terraces and floor-to-ceiling windows.

Customers could expect upscale amenities like a walk-in closet, down-filled duvets and pillows, and marble dual vanity bathrooms, per Four Seasons.

The most premium suites would also feature additional accommodations for "personal assistants," such as au pairs or security personnel.

Some options, like the 7,952-square-foot Loft Suite, could be adjoined with seven other cabins to accommodate up to 20 people.

Without connecting cabins, the Loft Suite would already have three bedrooms and bathrooms, a powder room, and a sauna.

Others, like the largest Funnel Suite, would have its own spa and kitchen.

Four Seasons says the 9,975-square-foot mansion, partially perched in the ship's glass-lined funnel, will span four floors, four bathrooms, three bedrooms, and three powder rooms.

Not to mention the private elevator, pool, and $350,000-a-voyage price tag.

Accommodations of this price and size are generally unheard of in the cruise industry.

Luxury operator Silversea says the largest suite on its upcoming 728-guest Silver Ray will be 1,324 square feet. Competitor Regent Seven Seas' new Seven Seas Grandeur debuted in 2023 with a more expansive six-guest 4,443-square-foot option.

Both suites' sizes and prices — Regent's starts at $42,000 per person for a total of $252,000 at maximum occupancy — would be stunted by Four Seasons' promise of a 9,975-square-foot, $350,000 floating mansion.

But cabins with six-digit prices aren't unheard of.

While not a luxury cruise line, Royal Caribbean's popular three-floor townhouse on the new Icon of the Seas is being booked at an average of $100,000 a week — although it's about four times smaller than Four Seasons' largest.

Royal Caribbean and other mass-market cruise lines are beloved, in part, for their unlimited complimentary food options.

Regent Seven Seas' all-inclusive fare also covers caviar, foie gras, and Champagne.

But don't expect any of these to be free on the Four Seasons I.

Breakfast would be complimentary. Lunch, dinner, and booze would not.

The vessel's 11 restaurants and lounges would be priced similarly to Four Seasons' on-land properties. (A dinner entrée at its resort on the Caribbean island of Nevis — also one of the ship's destinations — ranges from $34 to $163.)

The pricing structure may sound odd to most cruise traditionalists. (Hey, at least WiFi would be "free.")

But some of the ship's amenities could look familiar: Like most cruise liners, the Four Seasons I would have a pool, spa, and clubs for children and teens.

The company also promises a lounge and marina that will open onto the water, giving guests direct access to activities like snorkeling or windsurfing.

Four Seasons Yachts plans to take delivery of its $399 million vessel, now being built by famed Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, in late 2025.

A second Fincantieri-built ship would join the hospitality company's fleet the following year. The next vessel would cost more than 400 million euros, about $429.2 million, Four Seasons says.

This isn’t Four Seasons' first foray into itinerary-based vacations.

The company has also found "tremendous success" in its private jet-based "cruises," Alejandro Reynal, the president and CEO of Four Seasons, told BI in a statement.

Its 2024 vacation-by-air itineraries started at $135,000 for a 16-day Asia tour. Demand has been growing, he said, "signaling that luxury travelers are looking for immersive, exclusive, end-to-end travel journeys that allow them to explore the world with their favorite brands."

But its new ultra-luxe cruise arm would be entering an increasingly crowded luxury market, soon to be dominated by like-minded hospitality giants.

High-end Aman Resorts and Orient Express plan to launch their own luxury cruises in 2027 and 2026, respectively.

Staying ahead of the competition, Ritz-Carlton debuted its first 149-suite Evrima yacht cruise in 2021, with a second 224-cabin ship scheduled to begin sailing later this year. Its least expensive itinerary is currently $5,100 per person for a six-night voyage from Barbados to Puerto Rico in early 2025.

Interested in a hotelier-owned vacation at sea but don't want to pay the luxury price tag? Margaritaville's cruise is an affordable $75 for two nights.

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• Biden released new details for his second attempt at student-loan forgiveness.
• While it likely won't go into effect until the fall, an earlier Supreme Court decision could put the relief at risk.
• The ruling would address whether agencies have the authority to interpret a law's scope, like debt relief.

New details for President Joe Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan are out — and it's already shaping up to be a rocky road to implementation.

The same day the Supreme Court struck down Biden's first attempt at broad debt relief at the end of June 2023, the Education Department announced its plan B: relief for borrowers using an authority under the Higher Education Act of 1965.

In contrast to the HEROES Act — the law Biden used for his first attempt at relief — the HEA requires the administration to undergo a process known as negotiated rulemaking. The process requires a series of negotiations with stakeholders before drafting the regulatory text for the rule, which then enters a period of public comment before the relief can be implemented.

The Education Department completed negotiations on the relief in February. It released new details of the rule on April 8 — but senior administration officials previously said the actual draft text would be published in the coming months, with the implementation of the relief set to begin in the fall, at the earliest.

Not only does this timeline coincide with the presidential election, which could imperil any relief should Biden lose — it also puts the relief under the shadow of Supreme Court rulings set to arrive by June.

How a Supreme Court ruling on fisheries could affect student-debt relief

Cary Coglianese, an administrative law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told Business Insider that "there's a larger context within which this plan would be evaluated if it eventually goes to court, which I would expect it will."

And that larger context, Coglianese said, is "possibly the rolling back of deference to agencies altogether in their interpretation of statutes."

Coglianese is referring to a rule known as the Chevron doctrine, the fate of which is currently awaiting a Supreme Court ruling. In a case known as Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a group of fisheries challenged the National Marine Fisheries Service's interpretation of a law requiring some fisheries to pay or subsidize the salaries of some federal agents who come on fishing expeditions to collect data.

The fisheries argued against that interpretation, calling into question the Chevron doctrine, which allows federal agencies to interpret a law how they see fit as long as it doesn't interfere with Congress' language.

So, if the Supreme Court strikes down Chevron, federal agencies would no longer have the authority to decide on laws related to their responsibilities — meaning the Education Department would not be able to interpret its student-debt relief authority under the Higher Education Act.

"That would, it seems to me, just provide another sort of quiver in the arsenal, if you will, to send the Biden debt-relief plan packing again," Coglianese said.

"In other words, we have a Supreme Court in which, in general, they're skeptical of agency action, at least of a certain kind of agency action, and with one student-debt relief case they've already sent a signal that they thought that was going out farther than Congress specifically authorized," Coglianese said. "And if they eliminate Chevron deference, it suggests that they're very serious about not giving agencies much leeway."

Lawsuits to likely target the law's broadness

While the regulatory text for Biden's new student-debt relief plan has not yet been published, its newly released details targeted different categories of borrowers the Education Department plans to make eligible for relief. It includes up to $20,000 in relief for borrowers with unpaid interest, along with loan forgiveness for those who have been in repayment for at least 20 years.

The Education Department has maintained it has the authority to enact this relief under the HEA's compromise and settlement authority, which states that the department can "enforce, pay, compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, lien, or demand" related to federal student debt."

However, Luke Herrine — an assistant law professor at the University of Alabama — told BI that any legal challenge will likely take issue with the department's interpretation of the HEA's authority for debt relief and argue that Biden's plan is too broad.

"The fight is primarily going to be, I assume, over whether a clause that on its face looks very broad is actually as broad as it looks, which is partly a matter of, who gets to resolve the ambiguity with that clause? Do you defer to an agency to make that determination for the agency? And increasingly, it's the case that the conservative judiciary does not believe in any sort of deference to administrative agencies," Herrine said.

Herrine said he expects the same groups who brought the cases against Biden's first debt relief plan to challenge this second one. Some of them have already filed lawsuits challenging Biden's new SAVE income-driven repayment plan — including Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who wrote on X that he would see Biden in court after the release of new details for the debt relief.

Ultimately, it comes down to how courts interpret the Education Department's authority, and should legal challenges arise, Coglianese said it's likely the arguments will be very similar to the cases that ended up striking down the first student-loan forgiveness plan.

"The administration is certainly still facing a very skeptical Supreme Court," Coglianese said. "Even though it's a different statute, it's still a skeptical Supreme Court. It's still a pretty big program even though it's a smaller one."

"So it's a risk that the court will, in the end, not allow the administration to go forward with this for the same reasons it didn't allow it to go forward the first go around," he continued. "Clearly, though, it's a risk the administration wants to take on behalf of the American public and the large segment of the American public that's been burdened with a lot of student loans."

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Boston has a bit of a budget problem. The rise in remote work has caused a slow and steady decline in commercial real-estate prices, and, as a result, property-tax revenue is falling, leaving the city facing a $1 billion tax deficit over the next five years. The same issue, coupled with a persistent decline in tourism, is weighing on San Francisco's finances. Across the country, from Denver and Seattle to Washington, DC, and New York, cities are deciphering whether to slash their budgets. Even some states, including California, Maryland, and Arizona, are facing financial woes.

Each place is dealing with its own set of circumstances, but at the root of all these woes is the struggle to figure out what the new normal is, budget-wise, and how to deliver the services and investments citizens depend on without breaking the bank.

"I wouldn't say that we are in a budget crisis at the state and local government level at the moment," Justin Marlowe, a research professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the director of its Center for Municipal Finance, told me. "Where we are, I think, is at the very beginning of the probably three-to-five-year what we might call structural adjustment that's going to need to happen to state and local budgets in a post-pandemic, post-AI world."

States and cities struggling financially is a perennial problem. Unlike the federal government, local governments can't run large deficits for long stretches, and many places have balanced-budget amendments. States do have rainy-day funds — according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, a public-policy nonprofit, the funds hit all-time highs in 38 states at the end of fiscal 2023. (Most states' fiscal years run from July 1 to June 30.) But even that cash will only get them so far, in the near term and in the long run.

With expiring federal funds, the fiscal outlook looks really troublesome for many states and localities

The recent financial troubles are a bit of a turnaround from the past four years. When the pandemic hit, there was widespread concern that states and cities would run out of money. Instead, they started to see an increase in revenue. Stimulus from the federal government to individuals via unemployment insurance and stimulus checks kept households afloat, and many people started spending, which boosted sales-tax revenue. People's paychecks increased, along with their income taxes. The federal government also provided financial support to states and cities. Now those sources of cash are starting to dry up.

"With expiring federal funds, the fiscal outlook looks really troublesome for many states and localities," said Lucy Dadayan, a principal research associate with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute.

In some cases, states and cities used the extra federal money to start new programs and make investments they'd long wanted to make; now they need to figure out permanent funding sources. In other cases, funds helped temporarily paper over long-standing budgetary issues, or places took advantage of their surpluses to cut taxes.

"It certainly was the case in New York City that they spent one-time money on ongoing expenditures or even new programs," said Carol O'Cleireacain, an expert on fiscally troubled states and localities who has worked on budget and planning issues in New York, New Jersey, and Detroit. "There was a lot of money that came in from COVID. There was a lot of revenue volatility that happened, so nobody knew exactly how things were going to land, and it's taken a while for people to sort out where it's actually landing."

On the revenue side of the equation, some places have seen dips. Sales-tax revenues have declined, primarily in downtown areas that are still suffering the consequences of remote work. The same goes for lodging taxes and revenue related to the tourism economy, and it's not clear the extent to which the drivers of that — trade shows, conventions — will come back. Places that enacted tax cuts, like Arizona, are now having those policies come back to bite them. It's not clear what will happen with property taxes as office occupancy remains low and commercial real-estate falls in value. The office apocalypse has put cities in a doom loop that's hard to escape as they struggle to reinvent themselves and attract new interest and investment.

There are issues on the spending side, too. Inflation is hitting states and cities as it is people's budgets. Governments, like private businesses, are having to pay more for labor, healthcare, and even construction materials.

"What you had was just rising prices for all of the basic inputs into the things that local government does — into road salt, basic commodities," Marlowe said. "That's increasing costs generally. And so you're also then having to see pay increases as a result of that. And so that's a huge chunk of it."

In big cities, the migrant crisis has also been a financial drain. Places such as Denver and New York are spending millions of dollars to provide housing and social services for immigrants coming across the southern border, and with a border deal on ice in Congress, it's a problem seemingly without a solution on the horizon.

"This does not come cheap, and no one can see the end of it, so you don't know how much management adjustment you have to make programmatically," O'Cleireacain said.

Even if a state kind of feels like it's doing OK right now, the long-term picture is a little bit more concerning

Beyond more-immediate problems in specific places, broad warning signs are flashing. Josh Goodman, a senior officer with the Pew Charitable Trusts who focuses on state fiscal health, said most states that do long-term budget projections show shortfalls. And even states that don't anticipate shortfalls have some fairly pessimistic outlooks.

"Even if a state kind of feels like it's doing OK right now, the long-term picture is a little bit more concerning," he said.

States and cities are facing pressure from societal issues that will weigh on tax revenue and increase costs for years to come. Aging populations mean a smaller percentage of the population that's of working age, putting downward pressure on tax revenue. States and cities also have to contend with paying for those populations — their healthcare, their social services. Changes in how Americans get around could be an issue, too.

"If you look at transportation revenue, the gas tax is a big source of that," Goodman said. "And as vehicles become more fuel efficient or people switch to electric vehicles, that is creating problems for transportation budgets."

Often, costs that can't really be anticipated come up. Take Maryland. The state has been plagued by long-term structural deficits, said Liz Farmer, an officer with the Pew Charitable Trusts who focuses on states. Like many places, it did OK for a couple of years during the pandemic. But as federal funds have petered out, structural problems have resurfaced. In late March the state had another wrench thrown into its fiscal plans when Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after a ship hit it. Though the federal government is promising to step in and help, reconstructing the bridge is likely to cost the state.

"While there's a lot of hope that federal funding will cover most of that, it's one more thing that Maryland is looking at," Farmer said. "They're looking at emergency legislation for economic relief for the workers in Maryland who are affected by this, and it appears as if the state is going to dip into the rainy-day fund."

It's not entirely doom and gloom on the state and local budgetary front. The United States is not in a recession, and the macroeconomy is strong — we're not in a 2008-esque situation where there are mass layoffs and the bottom falls out on tax revenue. States' rainy day funds are in decent shape. But there are clearly some stressors; no one knows how long the migrant crisis will last, and there's no obvious fix for the deterioration of in-office culture. Ultimately, what happens next will be a policy question. Deciding how to address the conflicting priorities that come with budgets is politics as usual — some people in government have one set of priorities, others have another, and there you go.

"Every budget season, people write budget-crisis stories," O'Cleireacain said. "Making a budget is political trouble."

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

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• In 2023, Beyoncé and Jay-Z purchased a home that set a record for the priciest home in California.
• The $190 million Malibu mansion is just one of the many properties they own around the country.
• Here are the homes they're linked to, from a former church in New Orleans to a Hamptons estate.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z break music records — and real-estate records.

The couple, which Forbes reports is worth a combined $3 billion, are linked to many multimillion-dollar homes across the United States.

In 2023, they picked up a 42,000-square-foot Malibu estate with a minimalist concrete aesthetic designed by famed Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The price? $190 million — the largest sum in California history.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z's impressive portfolio of homes also includes another LA-area mansion and several properties in New York.

In New Orleans, the "Cowboy Carter" singer and rapper-turned-entrepreneur have been linked to a former Presbyterian church that has been transformed into a mansion.

Take a look at their homes across the country.

Beyoncé came from humble beginnings in Houston.

Beyoncé's rise to stardom began in a modest, middle-class neighborhood within Houston's Third Ward district.

2414 Rosedale Street has three bedrooms and three bathrooms over 8,640 square feet, according to the listing from 2019.

According to the Associated Press, the Knowles family purchased the home in 1982, not long after Beyoncé was born, and moved out when she was about 5 years old.

In 2019, the home was listed for sale for about $500,000. Because Texas is a non-disclosure state, it's unclear how much it sold for.

Beyoncé was spotted taking photos of the home in September 2023 during the Houston stop of her Renaissance World Tour, the AP reported.

The couple is linked to a Tribeca penthouse, where they married in 2008.

In September 2004, Jay-Z, who voiced his aspirations for success in his hit rap song 'Big Pimpin', made one of his first big real-estate purchases.

The native New Yorker, who was about 34 at the time, spent $6.85 million on a penthouse at 195 Hudson Street in the downtown Manhattan neighborhood of Tribeca.

According to Architectural Digest, the 8,000-square-foot apartment has an additional 3,000 square feet of outdoor terrace. It's in a 27-unit building that was converted from a 1929 brick warehouse in 1999, according to real-estate listings site StreetEasy.

In 2008, he and Beyoncé held an intimate wedding ceremony at the penthouse, with only 40 people in attendance. Architectural Digest reported in 2024 that the couple is believed to still own the home.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are also linked to a home in New Orleans that used to be a church.

Louisiana is where Beyoncé's mother — fashion designer Tina Knowles — was born and raised.

In 2015, multiple news outlets reported that the couple purchased a Spanish Baroque-style mansion in New Orleans' Garden District. The house on Harmony Street, locally known as La Casa de Castille, was listed for $2.6 million at the time of its purchase, but the exact sales purchase price remains a mystery due to Louisiana's non-disclosure policy.

NOLA.com outlined how the church became a residence: In the 1920s, Westminster Presbyterian Church built it, and 38 members of the Ku Klux Klan allegedly attended its groundbreaking ceremony. Following years of vacancy, dancer Harvey Hysell transformed it into a ballet theater in 1977. Finally, in the early 2000s, it was purchased and extensively renovated.

According to the old Zillow listing, it still has 16-foot ceilings and stained-glass windows. The 13,300-square-foot, three-story property, made up of a main residence and three separate apartments, has a total of seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and a rooftop garden.

In 2021, a fire affected the property, and it was listed for sale shortly after at $3.5 million, later increased to $4.45 million, TMZ reported. However, it was later taken off the market, according to Architectural Digest.

When looking on Google Maps' Street View, La Casa de Castille is blurred, suggesting that it is indeed owned by the notoriously private couple.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z own a home in the Hamptons, a historically posh vacation destination for New Yorkers.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z clearly have a New York state of mind when it comes to real estate.

In addition to the Tribeca penthouse and a midtown Manhattan condo — which Beyoncé owned prior to their marriage and sold in 2017 for $10 million — they have rented and owned several homes in the Hamptons.

In 2012, the year their daughter Blue Ivy was born, they leased a 31,000-square-foot summer-vacation home in Bridgehampton for $400,000 a month.

Beyond the standard luxuries expected in such properties, such as a bar, a pool, and a tennis court, that mansion also featured a bowling alley, rock climbing wall, and skateboard half-pipe, according to Architectural Digest.

In 2017, the couple purchased the Pond House in East Hampton for a staggering $26 million.

Located at 81 Briar Patch Road, the 12,000-square-foot mansion with seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and a separate cottage was designed by architect Stanford White, whose work includes the arch in Washington Square Park.

The couple's waterfront property sits across from Georgica Pond and a 17-acre meadow preserve, offering unparalleled privacy.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z purchased a 34,000-square-foot estate in Bel Air, a posh enclave of Los Angeles, in 2017.

Also in 2017, Beyoncé and Jay-Z bought an $88 million mansion in Bel Air.

(They welcomed twins Rumi and Sir that year, too.)

The ultramodern 34,000-square-foot estate has eight bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, and a 90-foot infinity pool, according to its Zillow listing.

It has more than 10,000 square feet of outdoor living space and near panoramic views of Angeles National Forest.

In 2023, Beyoncé and Jay-Z bought the most expensive home in California history.

In 2023, Beyoncé and Jay-Z purchased a 40,000-square-foot mansion in Malibu's exclusive Paradise Cove neighborhood, which some have dubbed "Billionaires' Beach," for a staggering $190 million.

The sale set a record for the most expensive property transaction in California and was also the largest residential sale nationwide that year.

The estate's record-breaking price tag is attributed in part to its high-pedigree design and extensive array of amenities.

According to Architectural Digest, it took the previous owners, art collectors Bill Bell and his wife Maria Bell, a decade and a half to complete the building.

Spanning over 8 acres, the compound is designed in a Japanese minimalist style, which its architect Tadao Ando is known for.

According to E! News, the main residence has 8 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, while its living room features custom-made fixtures imported from Italy. Outside, there are four separate pools, a bar, and a private helipad.

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• Danielle Shultz is a professional dancer and runs her own corporate wellness business.
• Shultz is one of many Americans who don't work a typical 9-to-5 and leans on side hustles for income.
• Her business, Triangle Sessions, has landed contracts with Google, Meta, and Deloitte. 

When Danielle Shultz has rehearsal at The Metropolitan Opera, she starts her commute from Philadelphia to New York City at 7 a.m.

The 36-year-old professional dancer catches up on work emails on the train, picks up an egg sandwich at her favorite New York breakfast cart, then heads to ballet class. Sometimes she doesn't arrive back home until after midnight.

Dancing is just one of Shultz's jobs. She also runs her startup Triangle Sessions, which offers corporate wellness and team-building events. But for her, it's all worth it.

"I got really creative with how I could support myself," Shultz said. "I have done a lot and always have a hustling mentality to make ends meet."

Shultz is one of man Americans who have careers outside the traditional 9-to-5. Thirty-nine percent of Americans have a side hustle, and half of Gen Zers and millennials have more than one stream of income, according to a survey of 2,505 US adults conducted by YouGov Plc — and commissioned by Bankrate — in April 2023.

Freelancing, side hustles, gig work, and overemployment have become popular as people look to boost their income on a flexible schedule.

Shultz has been dancing with The Metropolitan Opera for a decade, working part-time in shows like "The Magic Flute" and "Der Rosenkavalier," along with taking regular training classes. She has always had to supplement her dance income, she said. In the past, she's done this through work in restaurants, as a cruise ship performer, and as a yoga teacher.

She planned her first event for Triangle Sessions in 2019, and the business took off during the pandemic as companies were looking for virtual employee activities. When she's not at dance rehearsal, Shultz teaches Triangle Sessions classes on topics like relaxation and terrarium building. She also helps companies plan their corporate retreats.

Triangle Sessions now makes up between 60% and 80% of Shultz's annual income, she said, and the business books between five and six figures a year from contracts with major companies like Google, Meta, and Deloitte. Her income breakdown fluctuates each year depending on how much time she spends on dancing versus Triangle Sessions, she said.

"I've learned that no experience is wasted," Shultz said. "And sometimes, when you feel a little bit lost or you're not on a traditional path, it just makes your life a little bit richer and more interesting."

Balancing two careers takes patience

Shultz typically knows which shows she will be cast in at The Met a year in advance, she said, and the intense rehearsal period usually last for a few weeks at a time. She plans her work with Triangle Sessions around her show seasons.

Shultz largely grows her business through word-of-mouth and companies usually hire her to lead employee team-building activities — both virtually and in person. For example, Shultz recently taught a workshop where she connected the history of bonsai trees to employee milestones.

Although Shultz will sometimes hire outside contractors to teach workshops she doesn't specialize in, most of Triangle Sessions content is created and taught by her. She has worked with insurance companies, law firms, technology companies, and healthcare workers.

As some companies shift from virtual to hybrid or in-office work, she said many of her events and planned retreats have become popular.

"There's this universal need to connect with one another, all while taking care of ourselves individually," she said.

Shultz has had to learn to be patient with herself and the continuous changes in her career, she said. But the flexibility of Triangle Sessions allows her to continue performing, spend time with her two young children, and take a break when she needs one.

"Nothing is ever 50/50," she said. "It's not going to be in perfect balance, especially if you want to make progress in any one direction."

Retirement is on the horizon

Shultz encourages others thinking about nontraditional careers to embrace both the busy times and quiet times.

When her schedule is packed, Shultz said she is grateful to keep building her business. And, when her rehearsals and Triangle Sessions events slow down, she said she spends extra time with her family and focuses on keeping herself healthy.

"That is going to be a guiding compass for the rest of my life," Shultz said.

Schulz loves her career at The Met, but said she plans on retiring soon. After that, she would work for Triangle Sessions full-time. But, Schulz even if she's no longer on stage, she won't stop dancing.

"I will always keep moving," she said.

Do have a career that isn't a traditional 9-to-5? Are you willing to share how you make and spend your money? Reach out to this reporter at allisonkelly@insider.com.

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• US grocery prices remain high despite cooling inflation.
• USDA's recommended monthly food budget for a family of four has risen 27% since 2020.
• Tools like meal planning, coupon apps, and shopping in bulk can help manage high grocery costs.

While inflation has cooled since its peak in June 2022, one place where American wallets are still being hit hard is at the grocery store.

The US Department of Agriculture tracks the prices of foods at the grocery store, and each month, it recommends food plans at various cost levels, depending on if you want a "thrifty," "low," "moderate," or "liberal" plan.

It also creates a strategy specifically for residents of Alaska and Hawai'i, as prices in those states tend to be outliers.

As of March 2024, the USDA recommends a family of four on a thrifty budget spend $976.60 monthly and $1,585.20 for a liberal budget.

On average, across the four food plans, the monthly budget recommendation has risen 27% since the start of 2020. Meanwhile, as of November, grocery prices were up 25.1% since the start of 2020, outpacing the 18.9% increase in overall prices.

However, the USDA changed the formula for the thrifty plan in 2021, resulting in a larger increase than the other cost levels. The average increase for the low, moderate, and liberal plans was 23%.

The plans are designed to show how to have a healthy diet at various price levels for a family of four, defined as a male and a female, both between 19 and 50 years old, as well as two children, one between the ages of six and eight and the other between the ages of nine and 11.

How to adjust for smaller households

The USDA has also broken down the recommended grocery budgets for individuals by sex and age based on recommended calories and nutrients during different stages of life.

For example, an adult male between the ages of 19 and 50 has a recommended moderate food budget of $376.90, and it is $318.50 for a woman in the same age range.

However, these recommendations are based on a household of four people, with some of the costs shared across the family. The USDA recommends adding 20% for someone only shopping for themselves, 10% for a household of two people, and 5% for a group of three.

Prices remain high even though inflation has cooled

The inflation on food purchased for the home has slowed, rising 1.2% in March compared to the same period in 2023, lower than the overall inflation rate of 3.5%.

However, the higher rates seen in recent years, especially in 2022, are still built into the prices paid at the store and are hitting consumers' wallets hard.

With food prices still weighing down consumers, some are becoming more conscious of how much they're spending and where.

Luckily, there are tools to help, such as meal planning, sticking to a grocery shopping list, using coupon apps, shopping in bulk, and looking around for the best deals on food.

Have your grocery budget and shopping lists changed in the last few years due to inflation? Reach out to this reporter at cgaines@businessinsider.com.

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• The days of rapid tank and infantry advances deep into an enemy's territory may be over.
• The US Army must be prepared more for fights that resemble WWI, an Army veteran argues.
• Any advancing force must move with a defensive bubble against enemy firepower, he argued.

Modern weapons have become so accurate and lethal that soon armies will not be able to maneuver rapidly on the battlefield.

Instead, they will trudge forward under the protection of defensive "bubbles" designed to stop drones and missiles. According to this vision, swift battlefield maneuvers will be replaced by grinding wars of attrition where victory goes to the side that has the most firepower as well as the most resources to replace losses.

It's a grim vision of warfare that has more in common with the slaughter of the First World War than the mechanized blitzkriegs of World War II and Desert Storm, where infantry and armor backed by airpower seized vast territory. But it's a future the West must prepare for, warns Alex Vershinin, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel, in an essay for Britain's Royal United Services Institute think tank.

The Ukraine war has demonstrated that — at least for now — firepower dominates maneuver. Russian and Ukrainian have painfully learned that with surveillance and attack drones constantly overhead, emerging from cover is dangerous and slow. Long-range guided missiles and shells can decimate armored columns that dare to thrust through minefields and layered defenses covered by artillery and airpower. Instead of sweeping offensives, the Ukraine war has become a largely static conflict where immense preparations are made for attacks that might gain an obscure village or a few square miles of territory before the attacker halts to dig in and regroup.

"It is easier to mass fires than forces," Vershinin said in the RUSI analysis. "Deep maneuver, which requires the massing of combat power, is no longer possible because any massed force will be destroyed by indirect fires before it can achieve success in depth. Instead, a ground offensive requires a tight protective bubble to ward off enemy strike systems."

"Shallow attacks along the forward line of troops are most likely to be successful at an acceptable cost ratio; attempts at deep penetration will be exposed to massed fires the moment they exit the protection of the defensive bubble," said Vershinin.

This moving shield would consist of layers of defense systems, including air defense against drones and missiles, as well as electronic warfare to jam those drones and missiles by flooding their control frequencies with electronic noise. But this protection comes at the cost of rapid maneuver. That bubble must be carefully set up to provide interlocking coverage against multiple types of threats, and move in lockstep with the column.

"Moving numerous interdependent systems is highly complicated and unlikely to be successful," Vershinin said.

Coordinating all these different weapons and jammers also requires skilled staff work that even advanced armies may lack. "Integration of these overlapping assets requires centralized planning and exceptionally well-trained staff officers, capable of integrating multiple capabilities on the fly," said Vershinin. "It takes years to train such officers, and even combat experience does not generate such skills in a short time."

As an example, Vershinin cites a hypothetical advance by a platoon of 30 soldiers. This would require multiple jammers to disrupt enemy drones, guided rockets, and communication systems. Engineers will have to clear a path through any minefields, and the infantry will have to coordinate with friendly artillery and drones. Failure to do this could be catastrophic: Russia is now firing 10,000 artillery shells per day, and this year it has already dropped 3,500 big GPS-guided glide bombs that have devastated Ukrainian positions.

"All these systems need to work as an integrated team just to support 30 men in several vehicles attacking another 30 men or less," Vershinin said. The preparations needed for a brigade- or division-sized attack — the kind that are needed to achieve decisive victories on the battlefield — can only be imagined.

All of this raises a deeper problem, especially for the West. Without maneuver, war becomes a battle of attrition, like the First World War, or siege warfare as with the Union and Confederate armies in front of Richmond in 1864. These kinds of wars are fought over years and cause slaughter on a massive scale.

"The West is not prepared for this kind of war," Vershinin said. "To most Western experts, attritional strategy is counterintuitive. Historically, the West preferred the short 'winner takes all' clash of professional armies."

To some extent, all wars are attritional: what ultimately destroyed the Third Reich wasn't a few defeats like Stalingrad and Normandy, but the cumulative losses from six years of relentless fighting. However, sustaining a war of attrition requires an emphasis on production, mobilizing resources for the long haul, and the ability to continuously replace losses. Victory goes to the side that can wear down the enemy while maintaining its own strength.

"The military conduct of war is driven by overall political strategic objectives, military realities and economic limitations," said Vershinin. "Combat operations are shallow and focus on destroying enemy resources, not on gaining terrain."

One question is whether the Western public will tolerate this mode of warfare. Vladimir Putin and his generals may not lose any sleep over suffering nearly 500,000 casualties in two years. But the average American or European may feel differently.

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.

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• The UK's new laser weapon could be used in Ukraine, the UK defense secretary said.
• The laser, dubbed DragonFire, was originally scheduled for deployment in 2027.
• Grant Shapps hopes to speed up the roll out so it could be put to use on Ukraine's frontlines.

A new high-tech laser weapon developed by the UK that is capable of shooting down enemy drones and missiles could be sent to Ukraine.

The weapon, dubbed DragonFire, was originally slated for deployment by 2027, but Grant Shapps, the UK defense secretary, said he hoped to "speed up" production so it could be put to use on Ukraine's front line.

Speaking to journalists on a visit to the Porton Down military research hub in Salisbury, England, Shapps said he would look to see if the pace can be increased even further "in order for Ukrainians perhaps to get their hands on it."

"I've come down to speed up the production of the DragonFire laser system because I think given that there's two big conflicts on, one sea-based, one in Europe, this could have huge ramifications to have a weapon capable particularly of taking down drones," Shapps said.

The comments come after a trial of the laser successfully hit an aerial target in January.

Following the release of a video showing it in action in March, Ukrainian politician Oleksiy Goncharenko told Newsweek his country was "ready to test" DragonFire on the battlefield.

Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said at the time in a post on X that Ukraine was "ready to take and test the operation of such a laser complex in combat conditions."

And Shapps seemed to agree with the Ukrainian position.

"Let's say that it didn't have to be 100% perfect in order for Ukrainians perhaps to get their hands on it," he said.

"It's designed to not wait until we have this at 99.9% perfection before it goes into the field, but get it to sort of 70% and then get it out there and then develop it from there," Shapps added.

"But 2027 is still the date as of this moment," he continued.

DragonFire can hit a £1 coin from a kilometer away

The state-of-the-art weapon works by shooting a hexagonal array of 37 channels of 1.5kW laser beams, combined with mirrors to increase the power, at a target, The Telegraph reported.

Tim Kendall, a Defence Science and Technology Laboratory senior laser physicist who helped build DragonFire, told The Telegraph that this creates "a perfect laser beam" that can be fired through a telescopic lens.

The MoD said the weapon could hit an object the size of a small coin from a kilometer away.

The weapon itself is invisible as the wavelength of the light is so small it cannot be seen by human eyes.

The weapon cost £100 million, or around $125 million, to develop, the MoD said.

It added that the weapon could provide a long-term, low-cost alternative to other air defenses, as "firing it for 10 seconds is the cost equivalent of using a regular heater for just an hour."

The UK is by no means the only country to be developing laser weapons.

The US is already rumored to be deploying them in the Middle East to stop drone and missile attacks, though it's unclear whether they've been used yet.

Russia has also said it has used laser weapons to take out Ukrainian drones, though their effectiveness has at times been hampered by the weather.

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• New York City got its first tiny forest, planted on Roosevelt Island on April 6. 
• The planting method, developed by a Japanese botanist, uses minimal land to maximum effect.
• The effort is designed to both boost biodiversity and connect the community.

On a chilly Saturday morning in early April, a few hundred people gathered in a park on Roosevelt Island, a skinny strip of land in New York City's East River, to dig around in the dirt.

The occasion was the creation of New York City's first tiny forest, a planting method developed by the prominent Japanese botanist and ecologist Akira Miyawaki that's designed to accelerate dense growth to promote biodiversity. Volunteers had signed up to help plant 1,500 native trees and shrubs on a 4,000-square-foot plot on the southern end of the island.

"The idea is very simple, it's to bring back what was once there," said Elise Van Middelem, the founder and CEO of SUGi, an international foundation behind the effort.

The small, dense plot of greenery is just the newest feature on an island that's undergone many transformations.

Before a Dutch colonist bought the strip of land in 1637, it was home to the Lenape people, who called the land Minnehanonck. In the late 1660s, the land was acquired by a British captain whose descendants eventually used it for farming and renamed it Blackwell's Island. When the city took it over in 1828, it built a penitentiary, the New York City Lunatic Asylum, and a smallpox hospital on what became known as Welfare Island.

Curtis Zunigh of the nonprofit Lenape Center told attendees at the planting that the mini-forest is an opportunity "to reverse the process of many generations that have threatened the existence and the wellness of this land and our collective spirit."

US Rep. Jerry Nadler, who represents the island, said the forest is a way to combat the climate crisis. "Let's not stop here. Let's make the Manhattan Healing Forest a model for expanding green spaces across our city."

The island was fully transformed in the 1970s, after the city moved the last of its prisoners to Rikers Island, renamed it after President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and leased most of the land to New York State. As a way to lure residents to the dilapidated place, the state planned something of an urban utopia with hundreds of below-market-rate apartments.

Judith Berdy was 29 years old when she moved into a one-bedroom apartment for $321 a month on the island in 1977. Forty-six years later, she's still a resident — and the island's chief historian. Despite its newer luxury homes, Berdy says the island has retained much of the community feel it had decades ago. "It's a real small town, you walk around and most people know each other," she said.

Other Roosevelt Island "pioneers" included current resident Christina Delfico's grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins. Delfico moved to the island herself more than a decade ago and founded a nonprofit called iDig2Learn that helps reconnect people with nature. She spurred the creation of the pocket forest when she reached out to Van Middelem last summer after reading about SUGi's work. Van Middelem jumped at the opportunity. A few months later, Delfico secured the necessary approvals from the island's authorities.

"We've been through a lot of changes," Delfico said, "So this restoration rejuvenation project is just what the doctor ordered."

SUGi has created pocket forests in 42 cities on six continents since 2019 — the Roosevelt Island forest is the group's 200th. Van Middelem hopes London, where SUGi has planted 23 pocket forests — a total of 30,000 trees on 2.7 acres — will be a model for New York. The goal is to create "biodiversity corridors" through cities, Van Middelem said, likening the project to "urban acupuncture."

Sharon Bean, who lives in Syracuse, New York, drove down to volunteer at the planting in honor of her sister, Kat Livingston, an avid gardener who died in January of cancer. Bean, a member of the Navajo Nation who grew up in New Mexico, believes kids, in particular, need to connect with nature. "They should learn plants first — our nature first — people second, things last. And it seems like we reversed it."

Despite being designed as an urban paradise — a small, affordable town with plenty of green space — the island "is sitting on a lot of untapped potential," said resident and urban researcher Tayana Panova. Its urban design, Panova said, could do more to bring people together. "It has the bones of a great main street with a lovely main square," she said, but there's little to attract residents and visitors there.

The waterfront, she noted, has outstanding views, but "there's almost nothing to do there – no cafés, squares, shade structures, plentiful seating, or other kinds of amenities and assets that we know make the best waterfronts around the world great places that people flock to."

Ideally, the tiny forest can offer a new attraction.

Olivia MacDonald, a 24-year-old copywriter who lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, read about the event in the New York Times and immediately signed up to volunteer.

"It seems very modern and almost utopian to think about doing something like this," she said. "I just wanted to be a part of it."

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