• White Castle uses SoundHound's voice AI system to take drive-thru orders at 15 restaurants.
• White Castle says the aim is to free up time for staff and make sure customers don't feel rushed placing their orders.
• SoundHound, which also works with Panda Express and Chipotle, claims that its tech is "more accurate than a human."

Go to a White Castle restaurant in St Louis, Cincinnati, or Merrillville Indiana, and you may have the option to place your order with someone called Julia.

Julia isn't a cashier, though. Julia is a voice AI.

White Castle is just one in a long line of restaurant chains toying with drive-thrus powered by voice-recognition AI. Chains such as Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Checkers & Rally's have all tested or introduced voice AI drive-thrus.

The aim is to use the tech to free up workers' time so restaurants can either reallocate staff away from order-taking to roles that can't be automated or simply cut their labor costs by reducing the number of workers they need to operate.

But voice AI drive-thrus are far from achieving widespread adoption.

Firstly, they still make mistakes. Last year, restaurant-tech company Presto Automations revealed in an SEC filing that over 70% of its voice AI orders required assistance from off-site human workers. And McDonald's was mocked on TikTok over issues with its voice AI-powered drive-thrus. McDonald's is ending its test with IBM and pulling the technology from its restaurants.

And some critics fear that widespread use of AI at restaurants will ultimately put workers out of jobs, too.

White Castle started using SoundHound's AI voice-recognition services in a restaurant in Merrillville in 2022, Jamie Richardson, White Castle's VP of marketing and publication relations, told Business Insider.

The burger chain now uses it at 15 restaurants, some of which use it for multiple drive-thru lanes, he said.

White Castle previously announced plans to deploy it in more than 100 drive-thru lanes by the end of 2024. Richardson confirmed that it's on track to reach this target.

He said that White Castle's voice AI system was designed to remove a "stress-inducing situation," freeing up time for staff who have to multitask at the drive-thru and taking the time pressure off customers who may otherwise feel rushed. Orders are more accurate, too, he said.

Richardson said that White Castle hadn't cut workers' hours at its restaurants since adding the technology. Instead, workers can focus on preparing food and greeting customers at the drive-thru window when they collect their order, he said.

"It's really been a great investment and one we're eager to continue," he said.

AI was used to solve the labor crunch

Restaurant executives have been paying attention to voice AI drive-thrus for years, but a struggle to recruit and retain workers in the summer of 2021 intensified this.

SoundHound is one of a growing number of companies offering voice AI services to restaurants.

"We're more accurate than a human," Ben Bellettini, SoundHound's senior vice president of restaurant sales, told BI.

If customers don't want to order using the voice AI system, they can ask to speak to a human, he said. But "well over 90%" of orders don't involve any human interaction, he said.

SoundHound says that using its voice AI drive-thru is faster than ordering at a human agent because customers don't have to wait for a cashier to be free when they pull up to the ordering station or wait for them to manually enter orders into their till.

SoundHound doesn't just offer services for drive-thrus. It also provides voice AI tech for restaurants to take orders over the phone and at digital kiosks and offers back-of-house technology where staff can ask questions through a tablet or headset and get information from their employee handbook on what to do if the fridge breaks or how to clean the fryer.

• Elon Musk says he voted for Joe Biden in 2020. He seems increasingly interested in Donald Trump in 2024.
• One reason Musk might root for Trump: The SEC, led by a Biden appointee, is poking around his 2022 Twitter deal.
• It's purely theoretical for now, but The Wall Street Journal suggests that the SEC might push for severe penalties against Musk this time.

Elon Musk has made it clear that he doesn't like Joe Biden. He also seems increasingly interested in Donald Trump, though he won't come out and say he's formally backing him.

So here's another reason for him to move more firmly into the Trump camp: The US Securities and Exchange Commission, currently run by Biden appointee Gary Gensler, keeps dogging him.

The SEC has spent the last couple of years investigating Musk's purchase of Twitter — and the way he did, and didn't, disclose the fact that he was buying up Twitter shares prior to buying it in 2022.

Now The Wall Street Journal suggests that the agency is getting closer to making a formal case, and floats the notion that it could cost Musk his role as the CEO of Tesla, as well as chief technical officer at Twitter/X:

"The SEC hasn't filed any enforcement action so far against Musk over his Twitter trading. If the SEC makes a formal complaint against Musk for fraud, regulators are likely to again ask a court to bar him from serving as an officer or director of a public company, former officials said, exposing him to the possibility of removal from Tesla."

Context: The SEC has already gone after Musk in the past. In 2018, it sued him for making false statements about taking Tesla private and reached a settlement that amounted to a very, very light wrist slap on one of the world's richest men.

Musk has spent a lot of time since then complaining about the SEC publicly and in court, where he has unsuccessfully tried to have the settlement voided.

But this time, the Journal says, the SEC would want to do something more meaningful. And if that's the case, you could imagine Musk having that much more incentive to back Trump, and hope that Trump takes office in time to appoint a SEC head who would stop or reverse the agency's actions.

Caveats: The last time the SEC went after Musk, Trump was in the White House, and Trump appointee Jay Clayton was running the SEC. So a Trump victory doesn't guarantee a pass.

Just as important: The Journal piece includes lots of to-be-sures from legal experts about the difficulty of the SEC winning a case against Musk. Violating the spirit of SEC disclosure rules isn't the same as committing outright fraud. But Musk would certainly prefer not having to go to court to find out.

• "Inside Out 2" took $295 million at the global box office over the weekend.
• It's a record opening for an animated movie when factoring in exchange rates, Disney said.
• The success is a boost for Disney as the summer blockbuster season gets underway.

"Inside Out 2" smashed box-office records this weekend, giving Disney a big boost as the summer blockbuster season kicks off.

Pixar's owner said on Sunday the film took $155 million in the US as part of a $295 million worldwide total, good enough for the biggest opening for an animated movie when using current exchange rates and like-for-like markets.

On that measure it's a better debut than "The Super Mario Bros Movie" managed and is also the biggest worldwide opening weekend of the year, Deadline reported. Latin America in particular embraced "Inside Out 2" with open arms, giving it a $61 million total across the region.

Disney also said "The Incredibles 2," released in 2018, was the only Pixar release to perform better in the US across its opening weekend.

The first "Inside Out" made $90 million in the summer of 2015 with a $858 million global total.

"Disney and Pixar are back, and so is the summer box office," Shawn Robbins, a film and theatrical consultant, said in a post on X last week after the House of Mouse said "Inside Out 2" made $13 million from domestic previews.

Disney shares were up 1% to about $101 in premarket trading.

The film's strong debut comes at a time when the rise of streaming services has made it tougher for theaters to attract audiences. Universal's "The Fall Guy," which some had positioned as a potential summer blockbuster, underperformed expectations when it was released last month. Last year's Hollywood strikes have also complicated release schedules for studios this year.

This will also be the first year since 2009 that Disney fails to debut a Marvel film in the second quarter. The franchise's only picture of 2024, the R-rated "Deadpool & Wolverine," is due in late July.

• A Russian soldier has described heavy losses for his unit in Kharkiv, with only 12 of 100 remaining.
• Russia launched a new front in Kharkiv on May 10, quickly capturing territory.
• But the soldier's account adds to assessments that Russia has fumbled the offensive so far.

A Russian soldier has described the "massacre" of his comrades on Ukraine's Kharkiv front, saying only 12 of his 100-strong unit were left to fight.

Anton Andreev, speaking to the influential Russian Telegram channel Astra, said that half his unit had been killed on the first night of fighting in a key town.

The video interview was posted on June 2, around three weeks after Russia opened up a new front in the Kharkiv region in northern Ukraine.

Business Insider was unable to independently verify the video or its content.

Russia launched the attack on Kharkiv on May 10, with an estimated 30,000 troops taking advantage of ill-prepared Ukrainian defenses to quickly capture around 99 square miles of territory, reaching the strategic town of Vovchansk, some 28 miles northeast of Kharkiv city.

But Andreev said that after capturing one of Vovchansk's streets, his unit came under intense machine-gun fire and, targeted by drones, started taking heavy losses.

He claims his unit, the 5th company of the 1009th regiment, was sent forward armed only with machine guns and bulletproof vests, according to Astra.

"They just chop us up," he said, per The Guardian's translation.

"We are sent under machine guns, under drones in daylight, like meat. And commanders just shout 'forward and forward,'" he added.

The streets would seem quiet, but then "you get caught up in a massacre," he said.

Andreev was also critical of the military leadership who, he said, sent Russian soldiers to die "like meat."

Two days after Andreev's post, a Russian Telegram channel purporting to bring news to soldiers' families said that the 1009th regiment had been defeated. It also said another regiment refused to carry out orders.

The report was quickly dismissed as fake news by multiple state-friendly Russian outlets, who questioned the channel's origins and said that the Russian Ministry of Defence had not reported any such losses.

But Andreev's account, if confirmed, would give some weight to claims that Russian forces have been poorly equipped and supported in the offensive in Kharkiv.

Ukrainian forces have released a video that appears to show dozens of Russian soldiers surrendering in Vovchansk.

Experts told BI that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's May estimate of casualties in Kharkiv — that around eight times as many Russians were being killed as Ukrainians — was plausible.

Experts told BI last week that Russia had so far fumbled a golden opportunity in Kharkiv.

At the time of the initial Kharkiv advance, Ukraine was particularly stretched for both defenses and ammunition, which pressured it to move forces from its already-strained main front line.

The offensive has left some experts, like University of Bath military analyst Patrick Bury, commenting on "how little so far Russia has actually achieved."

Even so, Ukraine remains in a vulnerable position, and a broader and better-equipped Russian offensive in the north remains a possibility, RAND geopolitical strategist Ann Marie Dailey said.

Meanwhile, on June 7, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby declared the Kharkiv attack as "all but over."

• Brazil, India, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia declined to endorse Ukraine's sovereignty this weekend.
• It came at the end of a Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland. 
• Keeping a few powerful countries undecided is one way Russia can limit any diplomatic isolation.

Over the weekend, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rallied countries from around the world to support his call for Russia to end its invasion.

"Russia can start negotiations tomorrow if they pull out of our territories," Zelenskyy said at a peace conference in Switzerland, according to the BBC.

The conference is one of the most high-profile attempts to date to find an agreement on routes to peace.

But there are some crucial problems. Russia wasn't there, nor was its key global backer, China.

Nearly 100 countries did send delegations, including many of Ukraine's most important allies and major non-Western powers.

At the end of the conference, around 80 signed a document blaming the war on Russia and affirming Ukraine's territorial integrity.

But it was telling who did not sign — Saudi Arabia, Brazil (which didn't formally attend but sent a delegation), India, and South Africa.

"Unfortunately there are people who are still balancing," Zelenskyy said of the abstentions.

He said Russia was seeking to divide the world against Ukraine — evidently with some success.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is seeking to drive a wedge between them and the West, using oil, propaganda, and diplomacy.

It has been especially effective in the "global South" of non-Western powers whose wealth and influence on world affairs is growing.

Exploiting global divisions

In the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US assembled a coalition of countries to impose punishing sanctions on Russia and isolate it diplomatically.

However, powerful non-Western countries refused to take part.

Each of the countries that refused to sign the Ukraine document has strong ties with the US, particularly India and Saudi Arabia, who want American help in regional power struggles.

But each has also maintained good relations with Moscow, with Putin using Russia's oil and diplomacy to cultivate relations.

To offset Western sanctions, Russia sold oil at cut-price rates to India and Brazil and has worked closely with Saudi Arabia to control global prices.

Russia has succeeded in "bringing deep-seated resentment against the West to the fore," wrote Chatham House analyst Natalie Sabanadze in May.

"Many states have relished the opportunity to defy Western pressure by helping Russia evade sanctions and reaping benefits for themselves in the process."

Putin has exploited long-standing grievances about Western imperialism and has renewed alliances forged during the Soviet era.

Russia renews Cold War-era alliances

During its period of racial apartheid, tolerated by many in the West, the then-USSR opposed it and supported the ANC party, which has ruled since apartheid ended.

The Soviet Union also helped India in its Cold-War-era clashes with Pakistan.

Some of those allegiances appear to have held firm.

Over the past year, Russia has organized conferences with African and Latin American nations. It is seeking to expand the BRICS group of major non-Western economies, viewing it as a bulwark against Western powers.

Russia has also seized on claims that Western support for Israel in its war against Hamas is evidence of hypocrisy.

It is to Putin's advantage when those countries see Russia vs. Ukraine and Israel vs. Hamas as equivalent struggles, both complex enough to avoid taking a side.

Some analysts also suggested a more cynical calculus, telling Business Insider that some countries are simply hedging their bets by refusing to back either Russia or Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia and India have both trod this middle path.

Pavan Kapoor, a senior Indian diplomat, said his country did not endorse the statement from Switzerland because "only those options acceptable to both parties can lead to abiding peace."

For Putin, that fence-sitting is proof of success.

• Restaurant chains from Subway to Arby's to Buffalo Wild Wings have a common owner.
• Roark Capital Group has been buying up restaurant chains for nearly 25 years.
• It's one example of how consumer brands have become consolidated under a handful of owners.

There's a good chance that just one private equity firm owns one of your favorite restaurant chains.

Over the last quarter-century, Roark Capital Group has bought up nearly 20 restaurant brands in the US. Its latest acquisition happened last year when it acquired Subway, which operates the most stores out of any restaurant chain in the US.

But Roark's holdings include other restaurants that you've probably visited before:

Other notable Roark restaurant holdings include coffee chain Dunkin', Arby's, Jimmy John's, Buffalo Wild Wings, and suburban mall favorites Cinnabon and Auntie Anne's.

The private equity firm also has investments in The Cheesecake Factory, which is publicly traded, as well as midwestern burger chain Culver's. It also owns the bakery chain Nothing Bundt Cakes and some franchises of Seattle's Best, that coffee chain you used to find at Border's Books.

Founded in 2001, Atlanta-based Roark has $38 billion in assets under management, according to its website.

The firm "was named after Howard Roark, the protagonist in Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead," the firm's website reads. Rand's books have a following among libertarians and other advocates of deregulation and individual enterprise.

But the website adds: "As a firm of diverse viewpoints, it does not signify adherence to any particular political philosophy."

While Roark owns a lot of restaurant brands, it's hardly the only private equity player in the industry.

Hooters was acquired by TriArtisan Capital Advisors and Nord Bay Capital in 2019, for instance. TriArtisan also owns TGI Fridays and P.F. Chang's, according to its website.

Restaurants aren't the only consumer brands that have become more consolidated under a handful of owners. A handful of multinational corporations, from Nestle to Mars, own hundreds of food and personal care brands.

• The characters on HBO's "Succession" often referenced real events and billionaire figures. 
• Inspirations include "the Murdochs and such," its costume designer recently told Harper's Bazaar. 
• But there are less obvious nods to the superrich — and their obsessions — throughout the show.

The truth is often said to be stranger than fiction, but when it comes to "Succession," it was all pretty strange. 

The HBO drama, which has won awards for its acting and writing, was incredibly well-researched. With characters based on various business titans and politicians, the show generally depicted the lives of the ultra-ultra rich — the Roy family is said to be worth $18 billion — with skillful accuracy and few exaggerations. 

There are obvious nods: The Roys, like the Murdochs and the Arnaults, have succession drama that's made for TV. They use their money to fund political campaigns — and even a presidency. And there are many, many private jets.

But there are also the more subtle nods to the lifestyles of the .0001%, like their obsession with living forever (even billionaire Kim Kardashian seems to have joined the bandwagon).

They don't wear coats.

You may have noticed that, no matter the weather, the Roys will eschew coats — other than that bizarre down-trench Shiv was wearing in Norway. It's not because billionaires run hot; it's simply because they don't bother with the elements. Vests, of course, are another story, as proven by Josh Aaronson, who Adrien Brody plays. 

"Rich people don't wear coats when they go out, because they just go straight from the car into the venue," Mark Mylod, an executive producer of "Succession," told Robb Report.

The venue — or the private jet, as Kieran Culkin, who plays Roman Roy, explained in a recent interview with Esquire. 

"The coat thing is kind of interesting and does seem to track," the actor said. "They drive right up to the jet or helicopter, like why was I wearing a fucking coat? It's just cumbersome. I get it now, they don't ever have to walk anywhere or do anything."

Their dress code is stealth wealth.

The Roy siblings' wardrobes and styling — full of monochromatic looks, suit blazers in every hue of navy, charcoal, and black, and of course, the errant hair tie — have been dissected endlessly.

Anyone with even a passing interest in these fictional media oligarchs can probably conjure a vision board around "stealth wealth," or "quiet luxury" — a reference to the printless, logo-less look that some members of the ultra-rich favor. Kendall's $625 Cap from Loro Piana, a brand James Murdoch — one of the media mogul Rupert Murdoch's sons — wears, and Shiv's no-nonsense bob, are two strong examples.

The looks often tell a story about a particular character's mental state — recall Kendall's chunky pendant necklace accessorizing his crew-neck tee in the Season 3 finale, when the siblings stage a half-baked intervention that turns into a volley of recriminations. 

But they also reference real-life counterparts, like the "Murdochs and such," Michelle Matland, the show's costume designer, told Harper's Bazaar last month.

Kendall has certainly been known to storm a boardroom meeting or two in a no-tie-suit look that evokes Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch's eldest son.

He also sometimes displays LVMH scion Alexandre Arnault's flair for a statement-sneaker look, such as when he attempted to rock a pair of Lanvin sneakers at a meeting, not unlike the Arnault son's effort at making a pair of Tiffany-blue Nike Air Force 1s — a collaboration between the brands — happen at a recent Tiffany event.

In a case of art imitating life or vice versa, Elle compared Ivanka Trump's blunt-blonde-bob look in 2019 to that of the polished Shiv Roy of season 2, who was debuting a sleeker look as she began positioning herself as a more serious contender for the reins to the fictional Waystar Royco, her father's media empire. 

They want to live forever.

When Kendall first presented his take on Living+ — "personalized longevity programs" — there were sideways glances and eye rolls. But in reality, billionaires love the prospect of immortality. They can buy almost anything, so why not buy a little more life? 

A number of tech billionaires, including Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison have tried fending off a visit from the grim reaper by focusing on various anti-aging practices — none of which involve exclusive Waystar content.

"Death has never made any sense to me. How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?" Ellison once told his biographer.

The solution to the plebeian problem of death is different for each billionaire. Thiel has donated and invested millions in the cause, including organizations that focus on cryonics, the practice of freezing human corpses to stop the aging process. Jeff Bezos has reportedly put money into a company that seeks to "reverse disease, injury, and the disabilities that can occur throughout life."

Even mere millionaires are seeking answers. Bryan Johnson, a biotech CEO, said he has reduced his biological age by five years thanks to a fastidious routine involving waking up at 5 a.m., taking over 100 supplements, and eating exactly 1,977 calories a day.

Most recently, Johnson sat down with billionaire Kim Kardashian to discuss the topic at what he called a "don't die dinner." Other guests included Kardashian's mother, Kris Jenner, and sister, Khloe, as well as plastic surgeon to the stars Jason Diamon and pop-neuroscientist Andrew Huberman.

Their houses really look like this.

If Logan Roy's house seems extravagant, that's because people need to cough up millions to afford it — or if you're Connor Roy, it's exactly $63 million, to be precise.

And real billionaires are lending their properties for the fictional Roys to toil around in.

In the season premiere, as Kendall, Shiv, and Roman all plot on creating a new media brand, "The Hundred," they traipse around a beautiful home in sunny Los Angeles. That home belongs to the 28-year-old billionaire Austin Russell, the founder and CEO of autonomous-car-tech company Luminar Technologies, Quartz reported. 

Russell bought that mansion for a cool $83 million, a bit more than Connor is paying for Logan's house.

And the mansion where Josh Aaronson, the Waystar Royco investor who invited Kendall and Logan over in season 3, is located in the Hamptons and hit the market for $55 million in April, the Robb Report said.

They emerge from helicopters like stepping off the bus.

Kieran Culkin, who plays the impish fascism-apologist Roman Roy, has mentioned the show's "wealth consultants" a few times in his public appearances. They help get the Roys' subtle behaviors right, he's said — such as the casual way they exit helicopters.  

"You know where the propeller is. You wouldn't be ducking your head," he told the "Schitt's Creek" star and co-creator Dan Levy in 2020. 

Helicopters are part of the arsenal of transportation that the billionaire elite and royalty favor, with leaders including Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and the English royal family relying on choppers, especially for shorter commutes, Insider has previously reported.  

They really do have armies of household staff.

From taking coats off guests at Logan's house to Kendall's "skeleton crew" who help him make coffee for Frank in a season 1 episode, the Roys rely on staff within their house throughout the series.

And it turns out billionaires do, too, in their everyday lives.

David Youdovin, the founder and CEO of Hire Society, a recruitment firm that helps high-net-worth individuals and families in New York City, the Hamptons, and Palm Beach, staff their homes and businesses, told Insider in 2018 that house staff can make a major difference in making life easier for billionaires.

"The vast majority of our clients are the .01% — they have multiple homes, private aircraft, and several members of domestic staff," Youdovin, who worked as a butler and estate manager for a billionaire family before founding Hire Society in 2012, said.

"There's major altruism in putting good people to work with these families," Youdovin told Insider at the time. "These salaries can be life-changing, especially for people not originally from the United States." 

Household-staff positions can pay upward of six figures, and positions range from drivers to butlers to nannies. Plus, there's the chance to win $1 million if you hit a home run playing baseball with your employer.

• Xi Jinping accused the US of trying to trick China into invading Taiwan, per the Financial Times.
• The Chinese leader made the claim to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, per the FT.
• One expert told BI it's a sign that China is "genuinely surprised" by the attitude of US officials.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has accused the US of trying to trick China into invading Taiwan, but he said it won't take the bait, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the FT, Xi made the accusation during a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in April last year.

Xi has issued the same warning to officials in his own country, one source told the FT, but this would be the first time he made the claim to a foreign leader, the outlet said.

During the meeting, according to a press statement released at the time, Xi stressed that Taiwan was at the "core" of China's interests and that "if anyone expects China to compromise and concede on the Taiwan question, they are having a pipe dream and would shoot themselves in the foot."

Xi's accusations against the US didn't feature in the statement released last year.

For decades, the US has adopted a strategy of "strategic ambiguity" toward Taiwan, positioning itself as the country's most steadfast ally, while declining to explicitly say whether it would come to Taiwan's aid if China attacked.

But the mood in Washington, DC, seems to be shifting, with Congress showing itself more "overtly supportive of Taiwan than only a few years ago," Graeme Thomson, an analyst with the Eurasia Group, told BI in November.

Last month, a US congressional delegation met with senior Taiwanese officials to discuss US-Taiwan relations, a few days after China conducted military drills around the island.

During the visit, Rep. Andy Barr, cochair of the Taiwan caucus in Congress, said there should be "no doubt" and "no skepticism" in the US, Taiwan, or anywhere in the world around "American resolve to maintain the status quo and peace in the Taiwan Strait," according to the Associated Press.

President Joe Biden has repeatedly stated that the US would defend Taiwan.

Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London, told BI that Xi's reported accusation is a sign that China is "genuinely surprised" and "shocked" by the US' more recent "aggressiveness."

"The US has plenty of public figures now talking of Taiwan like it is a new Ukraine, and some even saying it needs to be diplomatically recognized," Brown added.

Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state under the Trump administration, and John Bolton, a former national security advisor, are among those calling for such a measure.

This is a problem for China, Brown said, as it is "clearly a red line and one that it will need to do something about if it is crossed."

During a meeting in April, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken not to cross China's "red lines" on sovereignty, security, and development interests.

Brown, who served as First Secretary at the UK Embassy in Beijing from 2000 to 2003, said that behind Xi's "complaint" is the hope that other Western allies "might just calm the US down."

Whether it will have any impact at all is another matter, he added.

Last week, Adm. Samuel Paparo, the top US admiral in the Pacific, told The Washington Post that the US could deploy thousands of drones if China invades Taiwan, with the "unmanned hellscape" buying time for the US military to come to Taiwan's aid.

• Many Americans are struggling to afford a fun lifestyle amid the high cost of living. 
• But just north of the border, Montreal offers residents a balance between high quality of life and low prices. 
• Only a handful of major cities have found that sweet spot, according to consulting firm Mercer.

Many of the world's most exciting and beautiful cities are also the priciest to live in.

But one Canadian city has found the perfect balance between offering its residents a great quality of life for a relatively low cost, according to Mercer's 2024 cost of living report.

The study compared 226 cities worldwide according to their cost of housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment.

Montreal ranked 118th in the world for its overall cost of living but came in 20th for quality of life, giving it the best overall score.

While Hong Kong, Singapore, and Zurich ranked as the three most expensive cities, they did not perform as well on quality of living.

Montreal is Canada's second-largest by population size, with 1.78 million residents.

Sitting close to the border of the US state of Vermont, it is known for its vibrant cultural scene, great food, tree-lined streets, and providing high-quality education and healthcare.

"It's extremely cultural, great food scene, safe, bilingualism is an asset," one US expat who relocated from Texas to Montreal previously told Business Insider.

The cost of living in Montreal is cheaper than in 74% of cities in North America, according to comparison site Expatistan.

Estimated monthly costs for a single person living in Montreal add up to $2,374. Compare that to New York, where a single person can expect to pay $5,412 a month on average, according to Expatistan data.

Mercer found that only seven other cities in the world achieve a similar balance to Montreal — Warsaw, Budapest, Ljubljana, Kuala Lumpur, Zagreb, Panama City, and Santiago.

"This list of eight cities should be of interest to families looking for a better lifestyle, remote working/digital nomads, and companies looking for locations that will be attractive to top talent," Mercer noted in its report.

• "House of the Dragon" season two adapted an infamous murder scene from the book.
• But some fans said the murder, by mercenaries Blood and Cheese, wasn't gory or shocking in the show.
• Showrunner Ryan Condal explained how the show takes a different approach to the source material.

Warning, spoilers ahead for the "House of the Dragon" season two premiere.

The "House of the Dragon" season two premiere brings the infamous Blood and Cheese murder to life, but fans are disappointed that it isn't as gory or disturbing as it is in the book, "Fire and Blood."

The premiere sees Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) order two mercenaries, Blood and Cheese, to kill Aemond Targaryen in revenge for a killing at the end of season one.

He orders them to kill "a son" if the pair can't find Aemond, which they can't.

The pair fail to find Aemond, but they do find his sister, Helaena Targaryen, the mother of two toddlers.

Cheese threatens to kill her if she doesn't choose one of her two toddlers to die.

In a shocking moment, the pair stab her boy, Jaehaerys, to death in his bed.

However, fans are disappointed that the brutal death wasn't shown on camera. The scene instead shows Helaena as she flees the room.

Fans reacted to the scene and called it underwhelming. Some compared it unfavorably to the gory "Red Wedding" episode in "Game of Thrones" season three, which saw the slaughter of several main characters, including the pregnant Talisa Stark.

The Blood-and-Cheese scene is even more extreme in the book — Blood kills a guard while Cheese sexually assaults the surviving sister. In that version the girl is older than a toddler, though still a child.

Helaena also tells the killers to take her other child, Maelor, but Blood leaves him to live, knowing that his mother would have let him die.

This is the type of violence that helped build such a buzz around "Game of Thrones" during its original run, and there's clearly some pressure on the prequel series to turn it into another pop-culture juggernaut.

Showrunner Ryan Condal explained the differences to The Hollywood Reporter. He said: "It was less about trying to top the book, it was just more about the practicality of where we were."

He noted that the show condenses the book's 30-year history down to 20 years, meaning that Maelor isn't in the series at all.

"So Maelor does not yet exist, and we only have the twins. So working from that place, we just wanted to try to make Blood and Cheese a visceral television sequence," Condal said.

"We decided to tell it from their point of view and make it like a heist gone wrong."