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

Among the best cheap cell phone plans, it's hard to beat our top pick, US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan with 35GB of data on either Verizon's or T-Mobile's networks starting at $29/month for a single line, or $23/month with an annual payment. If you want to extend your savings further, we recommend Tello Mobile's Build Your Own plan, which can cost as low as $5/month. 

Our top picks for the best cheap phone plans

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

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

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

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

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

Best overall

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read our full US Mobile review. 

Best overall alternative

Mint Mobile's prepaid plans for three, six, or 12 months offer affordable options and easy plan management, like adjusting data allotments per line at any time. 

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

Unlike the Verizon-backed premium data of US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan, Mint Mobile's "unlimited" plan includes 40GB of high-speed data, subject to deprioritization in congested areas, with slower speeds once you've hit that cap. 

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

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

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

Read our full Mint Mobile review.

Best true budget plan

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

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

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

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

Read our full Tello Mobile review.

Best unlimited plan

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read our full Visible Wireless review.

Best international plan

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

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

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

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

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

Read our full US Mobile review. 

How we test cell phone plans

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

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

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

What to look for in a cheap cell phone plan

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

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

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

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

Best overall

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

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

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

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

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

Read our full Mint Mobile review. 

Best true budget plan

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

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

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

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

Read our full Tello Mobile review.

Best unlimited plan

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

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

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

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

Read our full Visible Wireless review.

Best international plan

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

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

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

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

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

Read our full Google Fi Wireless review. 

How we test cell phone plans

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

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

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

What to look for in a cheap cell phone plan

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

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

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

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

• The hush-money courtroom erupted in shouts after a Trump witness openly challenged the judge.
• "You don't give me the side-eye and you don't roll your eyes," the judge chided witness Robert Costello.
• The judge then kicked reporters out of the courtroom to scold the witness some more.

The judge overseeing Donald Trump's ongoing hush-money trial ripped into one of the former president's witnesses Monday for heckling his rulings — then cleared the courtroom of journalists to scold the witness some more.

The witness, attorney Robert Costello, was called by the defense to attack the credibility of key prosecution witness Michael Cohen.

But the Nassau County-based attorney repeatedly chafed at being interrupted by the judge sustaining prosecution objections, at one point muttering "Jeez."

Within minutes of taking the stand, Costello was in open conflict with New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over the case.

"Mr. Costello I wanted to — I'd like to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom, ok?" Merchan began, after dismissing the jury.

"If you don't like my ruling you don't say 'Jeez," you don't give me side eye, and you don't roll your eyes," the judge scolded.

"You don't say 'strike it,'" the judge told the witness, adding that it's his job, not the witness' to strike testimony.

In response to the scolding, Costello glared at the judge. "Are you staring me down?" the judge asked him.

"Clear the courtroom!" he ordered.

Court officers then cleared journalists from the courtroom — many of them shouting in protest as they left. But the lawyers and the front-row entourages of the defense and the prosecution were allowed to remain.

Robert Balin, an attorney representing a consortium of media organizations, protested but was removed as well. The video and audio feed to the court's overflow room — a second courtroom where press and members of the public watch the trial on screens — was cut off.

After a few minutes, journalists were led back into the courtroom, and questioning from Trump's lawyer, Emil Bove, resumed.

Ahead of Costello's testimony, Merchan issued rulings limiting what Costello would be permitted to testify about.

Cohen — the prosecution's key witness in the case over allegations that Trump's falsified business records to disguise a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels — previously testified that Costello was part of Trump's "pressure campaign" to keep him from flipping against Trump in 2018. Costello served as a "back channel" to Trump through his friend, the lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Cohen said.

Merchan said Trump's lawyers could ask about his meetings and calls with Cohen, but could not have a "trial within a trial" about the scope of the alleged pressure campaign.

Bove asked such questions anyway. Merchan repeatedly sustained objections from prosecutors and called sidebar conferences, which journalists could not hear.

During one of these conferences, Costello audibly said "ridiculous" from the witness stand and let out a heavy sigh.

Costello backed up the narrative from Trump's lawyers that Cohen paid hush money to Stormy Daniels on his own, without Trump's knowledge.

"Michael Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about these payments," Costello said. "That he did this on his own. And he did this numerous times."

Costello has been a frequent critic of the Manhattan District Attorney's case against Trump.

He spoke in front of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives committee on the "weaponization of government," echoing Trump's claims that the case is politically motivated.

• In 2020, President Biden won Nevada by bringing together a broad Democratic coalition.
• But he faces tough headwinds this year, as the state's economy has lagged relative to the country.
• Polls show Trump with an edge on the economy, a dynamic Biden will have to change to win reelection.

For over fifteen years, Nevada has been a major success story for the Democratic Party.

The late Sen. Harry Reid was instrumental in building up the state party, which led to high-profile victories like Barack Obama's presidential victories in 2008 and 2012, Catherine Cortez Masto's Senate win in 2016, and President Joe Biden's win in 2020.

After years of GOP dominance in Nevada, it seemed as though Democrats had finally cracked the code for consistent victories, with a coalition of young voters, union members, Black and Latino voters, and suburbanites fueling their political ascent in the state.

But ahead of November, Biden is currently the underdog in Nevada, weighed down by the state's slow economic recovery during the coronavirus pandemic. And how he shapes his economic message to voters across the state could very well determine whether or not he wins reelection.

Nevada's outsized importance

Nevada only has six electoral votes, but the race between Biden and former President Donald Trump could come down to a few thousand — or even a few hundred votes — in key battleground states across the country.

The last GOP presidential nominee to win Nevada was George W. Bush in November 2004 — nearly 20 years ago.

During that timespan, Nevada saw a population spike — largely centered in the Las Vegas and Reno areas — with a state population of 2.4 million residents in 2005 increasing to nearly 3.2 million residents last year.

Nevada was deeply impacted by the Great Recession, as the housing downturn depressed home prices and led to high unemployment in various sectors — namely construction, finance, and real estate.

And then the pandemic in 2020 shuttered the Las Vegas Strip for weeks, an unprecedented blow to leisure travel and the hospitality industry overall. With another significant economic calamity affecting Nevada, the ramifications were bound to collide with Biden's economic pitch to voters.

Biden's dilemma

In 2020, Biden won Nevada by a 50% to 48% margin over his GOP rival, similar to the 2.4-point edge that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton enjoyed over Trump (47.9% to 45.5%) in 2016.

But both results were a steep departure from Obama's robust 12.5- and nearly 7-point wins in 2008 and 2012.

Biden will have to work hard to address some of the top concerns of Nevada voters: inflation, housing affordability, and health care.

And the president has his work cut out for him, as Trump is leading him in Nevada by a sizable margin in recent polling.

A New York Times/Siena College survey conducted from late April through early May showed Trump ahead Biden by a 12-point margin (50% to 38%) among registered voters in Nevada. When independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are in the mix, Biden's support plummets to 27%, with Trump taking 41% and Kennedy Jr. at 12%, followed by Stein with 2% support.

A plurality of Nevada voters (22%) listed the economy as their top issue, and a whopping 82% of voters said that the economy was "only fair" or "poor." Only 17% of Nevada voters rated the economy as "good" or "excellent." And by a 61% to 32% margin, Nevada voters believe Trump would be better at handling the economy.

The Biden campaign has responded aggressively to tackle this narrative.

The president visited Nevada in March to make his pitch for boosting affordable housing. The month before, he met with culinary workers — a highly influential voting bloc — while in Las Vegas. And Vice President Kamala Harris has traveled to Nevada four times this year, promoting the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and advocating for reproductive rights in an election where abortion will be a key issue.

Another matter for Biden: The bipartisan infrastructure law is a huge accomplishment for his administration. Yet it will take years for many voters to see the results, including the creation of jobs.

Biden's biggest challenge is sharpening an economic message that voters will respond to across the country. And Nevada is increasingly looking like the place where he'll need to do it to stay in the White House.

• Attorneys are seating a jury in the Brooklyn fraud trial of Ozy Media cofounder Carlos Watson
• Prosecutors allege Watson orchestrated a scheme to defraud investors and lenders. 
• Watson's defense attorneys have argued that racial bias played a role in his indictment.

Attorneys began jury selection in the criminal fraud trial of Carlos Watson, the cofounder of the fallen digital media startup Ozy Media.

Federal prosecutors accuse Watson, the face of the company, of orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors and lenders of tens of millions dollars by deliberately misrepresenting Ozy's financial and business assets.

The trial is set in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

According to prosecutors, between 2018 and 2021, Watson and other executives engaged in the scheme "through material misrepresentations and omissions" about Ozy's financial results, debts, audience numbers, and investors' identities and the sizes of their investments, among other things.

Prosecutors say Watson conspired to impersonate media company executives during interactions with Ozy's lenders and prospective investors.

Watson has been charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. If convicted of the charges, he faces up to 37 years in prison.

Opening statements in the trial are expected to begin next week, and it's not yet clear what Watson's defense will be, but his attorneys have argued in court documents that racial bias played a role when he was indicted in February 2023.

In an August motion to dismiss the indictment, which was unsuccessful, Watson's attorneys argued that the "well-known and well-documented practices of puffing and bluffing venture funding" may not be the "archetypes of ideal moral behavior," but are a "critical part of an economic system that has created the incredible innovations of the last decades from Apple and Google to Tesla and Airbnb."

The defense attorneys said in the court filing that during the time of Ozy's development, early-stage investors had a swath of digital media companies to choose from, including BuzzFeed and Vice Media.

"While these companies were and are household names, they have either completely collapsed or are financially struggling, as are similarly situated digital media firms," the attorneys wrote.

"Their founders reportedly — and in some cases, admittedly — engaged in conduct that differs from the conduct charged in Mr. Watson's Indictment in only one way: their conduct was, by orders of magnitude, far more egregious. And yet they have not been indicted," the filing read.

The lawyers continued, "The fact that Carlos Watson and his company have been indicted is not the only difference between them and their peer founders and companies. The others are white and white-owned. Carlos Watson is a Black man and Ozy Media was majority-owned by people of color."

Attorneys for Watson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on Monday.

Ozy was launched in 2013, and by 2020, the startup had raised more than $80 million from investors, including Marc Lasry, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Ron Conway. Axel Springer, which owns Business Insider, was also an investor.

The company's demise was sparked by a series of articles by Ben Smith, who joined The New York Times as a media columnist after leading BuzzFeed's news division.

Smith reported in a September 2021 article that Samir Rao, Ozy's cofounder and chief operating officer — who, along with Ozy's chief of staff Suzee Han, has pleaded guilty to charges relating to their roles in the fraud scheme — impersonated a YouTube executive in a meeting with investors at Goldman Sachs.

Smith also reported on claims that Ozy significantly exaggerated its audience figures in public statements.

Ozy filed a lawsuit against Smith, his news website Semafor and Buzzfeed in December, alleging that he violated a nondisclosure agreement and stole trade secrets from Ozy to build his own media company.

Representatives for Smith and Semafor did not immediately respond to a request for comment by BI. BuzzFeed declined to comment.

• Adult content creator Belle Delphine did a viral stunt in 2019 where she sold jars of her bathwater.
• She made about $90,000, but PayPal froze her account and kept the money as a fine for each sale.
• Five years later, PayPal returned her money after Business Insider asked the company about it.

In 2019, adult creator Belle Delphine had grown a massive following on Instagram (she would later be banned from the platform) as a cosplayer and model. Posing in a pink wig and cat ears, she had a knack for lightly trolling her extremely online fans. When she announced she was going to sell jars of her "gamergirl bathwater" for $30 apiece, the stunt went viral, and she sold hundreds of jars within three days.

But five years after the stunt, Delphine announced that PayPal, which she used to process the $30 payments, froze her account and kept the $90,000 she had made from the bathwater jars.

"I knew it would be a better news story to say that I made 'sOoOo much money' from selling my bathwater so I just kept this secret," Delphine wrote on X. "Ultimately I'm still glad I did it since it was a really funny time on the internet when it happened."

Don't worry — this story has a happy ending. After Delphine tweeted about her years-old problems with PayPal, and several media outlets (including Business Insider) contacted PayPal to ask about the situation, the $90,000 has been returned to Delphine as of this week.

PayPal's policy on adult and sexual content permits sales of physical goods like DVDs or magazines (or bathwater jars), but only for transactions within the US. Delphine is based in the UK.

But PayPal went beyond just shutting down her account. At the time, PayPal's policy allowed it to issue a fine of $2,500 for each violation of its rules. Each jar of bathwater Delphine sold counted as a violation.

A PayPal spokesperson said they could not comment on individual accounts but told Business Insider that PayPal dropped its policy on the $2,500 fines about a year ago.

It seems that because of that rule change, PayPal decided to release Delphine's funds and return the money to her. But that didn't happen automatically — it was only once Delphine, who has 2 million followers on X, posted about the situation earlier this month and the tweet went viral.

"If I didn't have any [social media] following, they wouldn't have given my money back," Delphine contended to Business Insider. "Which is so shitty because what are all the normal non-social media users meant to do in this situation? I followed all the normal protocols and was roadblocked and gave up."

Adult content creators have struggled for years with payment processors. In 2020, Mastercard and Visa cut ties with Pornhub over concerns about child sexual exploitation material on the site. Other processors similarly have been skittish about the risk of unlawful material; even a crypto-based adult content processor called SpankPay shut down after its banking partner cut ties.

"The Twitter post I made about it had SO many comments of people saying PayPal did the exact same thing to them," Delphine said. (BI couldn't verify the claims of the commenters, and PayPal wouldn't comment on individual accounts.) Still, Delphine said, "It was shocking, to be honest."

• US Navy warships in the Middle East have been facing off against anti-ship ballistic missiles.
• The Houthis introduced these missiles into combat for the first time in late 2023.
• The captain of an American destroyer said they are "way faster" than anything else.

US Navy warships operating in the Red Sea have been intercepting deadly ballistic missiles that are "way faster" than anything else, according to the commanding officer of an American destroyer that has been involved in shooting them down.

Anti-ship ballistic missiles are a dangerous weapon that no military had ever faced in combat until recently when the Houthis started firing them into key Middle Eastern waterways late last year as part of their ongoing attacks on international shipping lanes.

Since then, the Iran-backed rebels have fired dozens of anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. US warships in the region have intercepted these missiles on numerous occasions, though some of the weapons have struck commercial vessels. Civilians were killed during an attack in March.

An anti-ship ballistic missile "is just way faster than anything else, Cmdr. Jeremy Robertson, captain of the guided-missile destroyer USS Carney, told reporters during a media event on Monday. He said that while the missiles are a challenge, "we have certain capabilities to be able to detect stuff like that."

The Carney was the first US warship in the region to intercept Houthi threats in the fight that began in October 2023. The destroyer was involved in dozens of engagements during its monthslong deployment — destroying anti-ship ballistic missiles, land-attack cruise missiles, and drones — and it also carried out multiple strikes against the rebels inside Yemen.

The Houthis maintain a sizable arsenal of anti-ship ballistic missiles, according to an analysis by the the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.

Some of the missiles are Iranian in origin, while others just contain parts from Tehran. US Central Command has not identified specific missiles that have been used in any of the Houthi attacks, but ballistic missiles, generally, fly at faster speeds than cruise missiles.

The anti-ship ballistic missile "threat is very challenging — it's very dynamic, and it's very fast," Robertson said. "These are certainly very dangerous areas, and every interaction is completely different from one another."

Robertson said that his sailors work very quickly to engage these missiles because they must. From start to finish, the complex process of detecting a threat, making sure it's real, sorting the trajectory, and engaging, may last "anywhere from nine to 20 seconds," he said.

The Carney was ready for the threat though. "Our systems are doing exactly what we've designed them to do," Robertson said. "We have training pipelines that build on this threat as well, and so we certainly do a lot of training to make sure the team is ready to handle that threat."

During a visit to the Red Sea earlier this year, Business Insider spoke with Navy officers aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier, and USS Gravely, a destroyer, about the Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile threat.

They similarly praised the combat systems on their warships for working as intended and said their sailors are properly leaning and training to defeat the threats.

Anti-ship ballistic missiles emerged as a growing concern for the US military long before the conflict with the Houthi conflict began, as Washington looks across the Pacific at China and its growing arsenal of formidable, long-range missiles.

A potential clash between the US and China would unfold across the maritime domain, making anti-ship capabilities a crucial factor.

Experts, including former Navy officers, previously told BI that the Houthi anti-ship missile capabilities don't quite stack up against what China has in its arsenal. Still, the ongoing engagements in the Middle East are providing the Navy with valuable, first-ever combat experience — and information — to deal with these dangerous missiles.

The Carney has also taken on other missile threats beyond those launched by the Houthis during its lengthy deployment.

Last month, after the destroyer moved out of the Middle East and into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, it used its SM-3 interceptors for the first time to shoot down an Iranian medium-range ballistic missile amid Tehran's unprecedented aerial attack against Israel.

The Carney finally returned home to Mayport, Florida on Sunday to wrap up a deployment that lasted more than seven months.

"I could not be more proud of what the Carney team has done since September," Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti said aboard the warship earlier this month, welcoming the crew back to the US.

"Called to action on the very first day that you entered the US 5th Fleet, you conducted 51 engagements in six months," Franchetti said. "The last time our Navy directly engaged the enemy to the degree that you have was way back in World War II."

• North Korea's military, the fourth-largest in the world, remains shrouded in mystery.
• Both men and women are required to serve in the military in North Korea.
• Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of North Korea, has no formal military training.

Little is known about life inside the "hermit kingdom" of North Korea. Even less is known about the country's military — the fourth-largest in the world behind China, India, and the United States, according to World Population Review.

It remains extremely difficult to get past the border, but photos can provide a glimpse into the insular, militarized country.

Rare photos of North Korea's military reveal a snapshot of life as a soldier in North Korea.

This story was originally published in May 2016. It was updated in May 2024.

North Korea and South Korea were split after the Korean War, which began in 1950 when 75,000 soldiers from the North crossed the border and invaded the South.

The war ended in 1953 with an armistice dividing the country along the 38th parallel, with the Soviet Union controlling the North and the UN controlling the South.

The Korean Armistice Agreement also established a Demilitarized Zone on the border, which remains one of the most heavily guarded borders in the world.

The Soviet Union put Kim Il Sung in charge of North Korea, which became known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

His son, Kim Jong Il, took over after his death in 1994.

Kim Jong Un then took over as the ruler of the country in December 2011, when his father and the former leader, Kim Jong Il, died of a heart attack.

Despite being in charge of the fourth-largest military in the world, Un has no formal military training.

North Korea's military is called the "Korean People's Army," or the KPA.

The North Korean military is composed of more than 1.3 million active soldiers, according to a 2021 report published by the US Defense Intelligence Agency.

There are another 7 million paramilitary, reserve, and bodyguard command personnel.

Most people serve in the military after completing high school.

Men serve for 10 years and women for seven, a North Korean defector told NK News, The Guardian reported in 2015.

Source: NK News, The Guardian

Before 2015, women served purely on a voluntary basis.

In 2015, it became mandatory for all women to serve in the military.

Those who go to college serve for five years after completing their degree, the defector told NK News.

Kim Jong Un established a policy in 2015 allowing those who study science to serve for only three years.

While data from North Korea remains unreliable, its defense industry employs an estimated 2 million workers, according to a 2008 census cited by 38 North.

Most motor vehicles are owned by military or government officials. Restrictions on car ownership mean it's rare for private citizens to own them.

Source: Daily NK

Soldiers in the military have reportedly faced malnourishment and hunger because of a lack of food availability and rigorous training.

Source: NK News

KPA's Air Force is its second-largest branch with around 110,000 members.

The US Department of Defense reports that North Korea's Air Force has somewhere between 500 and 900 aircraft, though most are outdated vessels from the 1990s.

The North Korean military is also believed to have 260 amphibious landing craft in its naval force.

In 2023, North Korea held a launch ceremony for a reworked Cold War-era submarine with missile capabilities, though it's unclear if the sub is operational.

Source: Business Insider

The North Korean missile program began development in the late 1960s.

The full scope of North Korea's ballistic missile capabilities is unclear, but the military is believed to be in possession of long-, medium-, and short-range missiles.

In 2021, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimated that North Korea could possess enough fissile material to produce 40 to 50 nuclear weapons.

Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Nuclear tests were conducted within the country in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016, and 2017.

In 2017, Un attended a celebration held in honor of the nuclear scientists and engineers who contributed to a hydrogen bomb test.

North Korea's military also has a band that performs at official functions known as the Central Military Band of the Korean People's Army.

Despite being one of the largest armies in the world, North Korea's military remains shrouded in mystery.

Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic are among the largest bank failures in US history. But more banks could fail, according to Fed chair Jerome Powell.

• Bruce Nordstrom, former chairman of the family-run department store chain, has died.
• His grandfather started the business in 1901, which later grew into a fashion empire.
• Nordstrom's two living sons, Pete and Erik, are the company's President and CEO, respectively.

Bruce Nordstrom, the former chairman of the eponymous department store chain, has died at the age of 90.

Grandson of founder John W. Nordstrom, Bruce was instrumental in bringing the retailer to international prominence in a career that spanned four decades.

Bruce's eldest son Blake died in 2019 after a bout with lymphoma, and his two living sons, Pete and Erik, are now the company's President and CEO, respectively.

Here's how the Nordstroms built their empire from a single shoe store in Seattle to one of the biggest names in fashion retail.

Nordstrom was founded as a shoe store by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in Seattle in 1901.

Two decades later, the partners opened a second store in Seattle's University District.

John Nordstrom retired in 1928 and sold his share to his sons Everett and Elmer.

Wallin retired soon after and sold his share of the company to the Nordstrom sons too. John's third son, Lloyd, later joined the team.

John Nordstrom's sons focused on expanding into women's clothing.

Nordstrom purchased the Seattle-based clothing store Best's Apparel in 1963. Three years later, the company purchased a Portland, Oregon-based clothing store and began offering both shoes and apparel under the name Nordstrom Best. The company added men's and children's apparel in 1966.

In 1968, the three Nordstrom brothers handed the company over to the next generation.

Everett's son Bruce, Elmer's sons James and John, Lloyd's son-in-law Jack, and family friend Bob Bender became the new heads of the company. The third generation of Nordstrom chairmen took the company public in 1971, formally renaming it Nordstrom Inc.

The first Nordstrom Rack opened in the basement of the downtown Seattle store in 1973.

That same year, the company became the largest-volume fashion specialty store on the West Coast, with sales surpassing $100 million. The chain continued to expand throughout the next several decades.

In 1995, Nordstrom's third generation handed the reins over to the fourth.

The elder Nordstroms retired as co-chairmen, but remained on the Board of Directors, and Bruce's sons, Blake, Pete, and Erik, took over the company in 1995.

Bruce's oldest son Blake became co-president in 1995.

Blake began working in the family business when he was about 11 years old. His first role with the company was in the stockroom, and he went on to hold many roles with the company, including merchandise buyer, regional manager, and then vice president in charge of stores in Washington and Alaska.

Erik Nordstrom worked for his older brother in various positions at the company as the two rose through the ranks together.

"It was always the best working for my brother because he had more confidence in me and gave me more autonomy than anybody I had ever worked for," Erik Nordstrom said in his father's 2007 book, "Leave It Better Than You Found It."

Bruce returned as chairman in 2000, retiring for a second time in 2006.

Bruce and his sons were credited with turning the company around after several years of underperformance by non-family leadership.

Throughout the 2000s, Nordstrom partnered with fashion brands like Façonnable, Topshop, HauteLook, and Jeffery.

And in 2014, the company started expanding internationally. It opened stores in Canada and Puerto Rico.

Nordstrom opened its first menswear-only store in 2018, and a flagship womenswear store in 2019.

The concept combines in-store services such as tailoring, shoe shining, and food, with high-tech digital ordering and returns systems.

Blake died in 2019 at the age of 58, passing control of the company to his brothers.

"Blake was the best big brother, friend and mentor anyone could ever ask for," Pete and Erik Nordstrom said in a note to employees. "One of the things that brings us some comfort is that Blake's values, character and passion can still be reflected in what this company does – how we treat each other, our customers and our communities. Building on that is the best way we can think of to honor his legacy."

In April, Pete and Erik revealed that the company is exploring options to go private.

In regulatory filings, the brother said they had not yet received any financing commitments to complete such a deal.

In May, Bruce died at his home at the age of 90.

Nordstrom died on May 18.

"Our dad leaves a powerful legacy as a legendary business leader, a generous community citizen and a loyal friend," Pete and Erik said in a statement.

Jessica Tyler contributed to an earlier version of this story.

• Janet Yellen told The New York Times that G7 leaders will discuss the details of a loan program for Ukraine.
• The loan would use proceeds from Russia's frozen asset and potentially offer a $50 billion lifeline.
• The aid could offer Ukraine a means of survival as Moscow amplifies its offensive.

The US and its allies are getting serious about a plan to finance Ukraine using interest earned on Russia's frozen assets. Under the idea, these profits would be bundled together into a sizable loan, a possible means of survival for Kyiv.

"Showing that we do have the means of translating earnings on the frozen assets into a stream of support for Ukraine, I think, is an important way to demonstrate that we're not about to fold," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told The New York Times. "We're going to be able to help Ukraine."

Though not the only option available, it's the most promising suggestion on how to best use the $300 billion worth of Russian reserves, she said. These foreign assets were made inaccessible to the country in 2022, shortly after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine. 

If the Group of 7 leaders are able to finalize the loan's details in a meeting next week, it could make this a reality for Ukraine. So far, reserves have sat untouched in depositories, such as Euroclear; there, a trove worth $206 billion is generating over $3 billion in interest a year.

According to NYT, a loan based on the accumulated interest could offer Kyiv an up-front lifeline of $50 billion.

However, particulars still need to be agreed upon. G7 leaders need to decide how to deliver the funds or how the loan will be repaid if interest rates fall, tanking the proceeds. 

Such questions are the latest in a long line of discourse between Western leaders on how to use frozen Russian assets. Previously, some countries were ready to tap the reserves themselves, while others protested the idea as a dangerous move. Meanwhile, counterparts in Russia have voiced warnings of retribution if the reserves are grabbed. 

"I think we see considerable interest among all of our partners in a loan structure that would bring forward the stream of windfall profits," Yellen said. 

While this has meant months of G7 negotiating, finding a common-ground solution is now taking on rapid seriousness, as Ukraine's ability to hold off Russia is becoming ever-more questionable.

"I think we see considerable interest among all of our partners in a loan structure that would bring forward the stream of windfall profits," Yellen said.

On Monday, Ukrainian President Vlodimir Zelenskyy expressed frustration behind constant delays in Western aid.

"Every decision to which we, then later everyone together, comes to is late by around one year," he told the outlet. With Russia's offensive efforts mounting, Zelenskyy has urged Western allies to get involved more directly, such as by shooting down Russian rockets.