Tag: News

  • How Guantanamo Bay actually works, according to a former detainee

    Mohamedou Ould Slahi was imprisoned without charge at Guantanamo Bay for nearly 15 years.

    Ould Slahi speaks to Business Insider about the prison layout, the facilities, the food, and yard time. He reveals what torture methods were used and how guards interacted with detained people.

    Arrested in 2001 and transferred through various prisons before arriving at Guantanamo, Slahi endured years of torture and harsh interrogation under the US government's post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts. He was detained on suspicion of terrorism, but no charges were ever filed against him.

    His memoir, "Guantánamo Diary," was released in 2015. It was adapted into a feature film, "The Mauritanian," starring Jodie Foster and Tahar Rahim. Slahi now writes and speaks about human rights, justice, and reconciliation.

    For more:

    https://www.instagram.com/mohamedououldsalahi/

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohamedou-ould-slahi-houbeini-4834a1136/

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Good news: Buying a home might actually be more affordable in 2026

    A young couple embraces each other while looking at a property with a for sale sign displayed.
    • Redfin forecasts that 2026 will mark the start of a "Great Housing Reset" in the real estate market.
    • Researchers expect a multiyear stretch of improved affordability, as incomes outpace home price growth.
    • It could set the stage for more Americans to have a better shot at homeownership.

    If you're among the many Americans who lament that the pandemic housing boom passed you by, 2026 might finally be your moment.

    A new Redfin report predicts that next year will usher in what the company calls "The Great Housing Reset." Researchers expect a multi-year stretch of slowly rising home sales and improved affordability, as incomes outpace home prices for the first sustained period since the Great Recession.

    Redfin forecasts that mortgage rates will gradually decline over the course of 2026 and that, by year's end, the median home-sale price will be up just 1% from a year earlier. Existing-home sales — the sale of previously owned homes — are expected to climb 3% from 2025, reaching an annualized pace of 4.2 million.

    Daryl Fairweather, Redfin's chief economist, told Business Insider that home sales will pick up as the "rate-lock" effect fades and more homeowners with low mortgage rates finally decide to sell.

    "A lot of people bought during the pandemic; there was just a huge surge of activity because of how low rates were," Fairweather said. "A typical homebuyer stays in their home for 10 years, and we're five years out from the start of the pandemic. Naturally, we'll start to see more people be ready to sell homes again — it's not going to be a drastic change; it'll just be more of a loosening of the market."

    The market went haywire in the pandemic, but things are finally starting to settle

    Over the last few years, the housing market has been strained. It all stems from the COVID-19 pandemic and its ripple effects on the real estate market.

    In the early stages of the pandemic, the US government rolled out a massive stimulus package to prop up the economy. That, combined with rock-bottom mortgage rates, inadvertently set off one of the most dramatic homebuying frenzies in US history. Between late 2020 and 2021, a surge in demand drove home prices to record highs, exacerbating the nation's long-standing housing shortage.

    Those pandemic-era dynamics have shaped the market ever since.

    Homeownership has felt out of reach for years for many would-be buyers, especially millennials and Gen Zers who have watched mortgage rates climb (and since fall, but not to pandemic lows), starter homes vanish, newly built homes shrink, and the amount of cash needed to buy skyrocket.

    By late 2025, though, there are signs the market is easing up. In many cities — even once-red-hot pandemic boomtowns like Austin and Tampa — softer demand has meant homes sit on the market longer, pushing sellers to cut prices and offer more incentives and concessions as buyers regain leverage.

    Redfin expects that dynamic, along with gradually declining mortgage rates, to lure more would-be buyers back into the market. Still, researchers warn that even as conditions improve, affordability will remain a major barrier to homeownership for many, especially younger buyers.

    "We're not going to see this wave of people rushing into the market again; we'll see more of a normalization — more of a return to what the housing market felt like pre-pandemic," Fairweather said. "It's still going to be more expensive, but wages have increased considerably since 2018 and 2019, so I think more people will feel like, for their own personal circumstances, it's finally the right time to buy."

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Give me more Spotify Wrapped. I have thoughts on what companies should (and shouldn’t) launch their own versions.

    A Spotify Wrapped billboard is pictured in New York.
    Spotify is expanding its out-of-home bet for 2025.

    • Spotify Wrapped dropped this week. That got me thinking, what else can we wrap?
    • YouTube joined in on the fun this year, and apps like Apple Music and Strava are partaking, too.
    • Here are my pitches for more apps that should wrap things for us. Perhaps TikTok or LinkedIn.

    It's that time of year. No, not the holidays. It's the season of Spotify Wrapped — and, apparently, Many Other Things Wrapped.

    Spotify and other music streaming services, such as Apple Music, aren't the only companies releasing wrapped services this year.

    YouTube launched its own "recap" feature to summarize all the creators and content you've consumed this year. Running app Strava plans to roll out a "Year in Sport" recap for its users next week. And last year, apps like Partiful and Duolingo also partook in the data wrapping trend.

    Why do we care so much about seeing all of our personal data summarized, though?

    "In general, people love looking in the mirror," said Jad Esber, who's building an app called Shelf that lets people document all sorts of media they're consuming in real time. "People are fundamentally really interested in themselves."

    Seeing our personal data reflected back to us helps people understand themselves and is an instant conversation starter, Esber said.

    Spotify Wrapped culture has some people documenting their personal data and wrapping it each year. One of them is Neha Halebeed, a 24-year-old in New York City who recaps her own annual personal data, such as every ice cream flavor she tried or everything she bought.

    Halebeed said she'd love to have her Gmail, text messages, or phone calls wrapped.

    There's an opportunity for every social media platform to get in on the fun. Some should absolutely try this out. Others should think twice.

    "Not every data needs to be wrapped," Halebeed said.

    There's also the argument that our obsession with collecting and now sharing our data is a form of surveillance.

    Here are my pitches about what tech companies should (and shouldn't) roll out their own wrapped products:

    • TikTok and Instagram. Let me see my favorite videos! Tell me about the rabbit holes I went down on TikTok. Tally how many videos I sent to friends without a response. How many followers did I lose this year?
    • LinkedIn, hear me out. Imagine if you got a recap of all the connections you made that year. Or a summary of who your top profile viewers were. Or a defining label for your genre of LinkedIn poetry.
    • Can the streaming services hold hands for just one day? I've lost track of all the shows I've been watching this year, and Letterboxd still doesn't do a great job of tracking TV. I want to know how many hours I've clocked on each streaming service and what I spent the most time watching. This could have the added benefit of helping me see which services I've hardly been using.
    • Literally every dating app. People have already taken this into their own hands on TikTok, creating slideshows that summarize the number of dates they've gone on or how many times they've been ghosted. But imagine if the dating apps let you know how many times you swiped, your most liked profile photo, or the profiles you matched with but never followed up with. This could also be a horrible idea, I admit.
    • ChatGPT. This is a plea. Don't do this, please. I don't want to know. It's bad enough that it logs every query and remembers what I've said before.
    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Dollar General’s CEO sees potential in 11,000 locations left empty as rivals like pharmacies shutter stores

    A Dollar General store is seen at night as customers walk in the main entrance from the parking lot.
    Dollar General sees opportunities to fill spots left behind as rivals close stores.

    • Dollar General is planning to open fewer stores in 2026 than it did this year.
    • But its CEO sees plenty of space for thousands more Dollar General locations.
    • That's because rivals, such as drug stores, have shuttered many locations.

    Dollar General has over 20,000 stores. Its CEO says it has the opportunity to add thousands more in the long run.

    In 2026, Dollar General plans to open 450 new stores, the company said on Thursday. That's a slower pace compared to the 575 it planned for 2025.

    But CEO Todd Vasos said that the chain has identified about 11,000 places in the continental US where it could open a Dollar General store in the future.

    On the company's third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, an analyst asked if Dollar General executives see expansion opportunities as other chains, such as rival Family Dollar and drugstores such as Rite Aid, shutter locations.

    Dollar General won't necessarily open a store at each of those 11,000 locations, though the company sees opportunities to open up shop where its rivals once were, Vasos said.

    "We won't get all those," he said in response to the analyst. "But your question pointed to the reason we're bullish on getting a lot of these."

    "Our competition today is really not opening a lot of stores," Vasos said. "We don't feel compelled to have to rush to open a lot of stores."

    At the same time, Dollar Generals' executives feel "very bullish about what the future looks like" because of the availability of store locations, Vasos said.

    Dollar General opened its 20,000th store early last year. Besides its standard store format, it also operates locations focused on fresh groceries and suburban shoppers seeking decor.

    Dollar General's third-quarter earnings results largely beat analysts' expectations, and the company raised its profit forecast for 2025. The chain's stock is up 49% so far this year.

    Do you have a story to share about Dollar General? Contact Alex Bitter at abitter@businessinsider.com.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • A Ferrari and over 480 takeout orders: FBI details spending spree of Netflix director in $11 million fraud case

    Carl Rinsch trial
    Carl Rinsch is on trial in Manhattan federal court over criminal allegations that he defrauded Netflix and went on a spending spree with the $11 million earmarked for a TV show production.

    • Director Carl Rinsch is on trial for defrauding Netflix of $11 million.
    • An FBI agent detailed spending on luxury cars and hundreds of orders on Postmates and Uber Eats.
    • The money was supposed to go toward the production of "White Horse," which was never finished.

    In March of 2020, Netflix infused $11 million into a production company to complete the first season of "White Horse," a futuristic sci-fi series it hoped to bring to its platform.

    Carl Rinsch — the director, writer, and showrunner of "White Horse" — never finished the 12 episodes he was supposed to deliver.

    But a short time after he got the cash, Rinsch spent millions of dollars on furniture, cars, credit card bills —  and a whole lot of takeout.

    According to testimony at his criminal trial on Thursday, Rinsch spent a total of $9.14 million through a personal bank account with funds originally earmarked to finish "White Horse," which had the production codename "Conquest."

    The spending included more than 480 food deliveries from Postmates and Uber Eats during a six-month span in 2022, according to a spreadsheet entered into evidence. The spreadsheet showed Rinsch sometimes making a dozen separate food purchases each day.

    The most expensive category, FBI agent Michael Naccarelli testified, was for furniture, for which Rinsch spent $3.36 million.

    Rinsch also spent $2.4 million on cars — including a Ferrari and Rolls-Royces — and $1.8 million on American Express bills, according to Naccarelli. He also spent money on hotels, jewelry, and art, Naccarelli said.

    "Rinsch described the Ferrari as "a birthday gift to myself" in a 2021 text message to his personal assistant, which was shown to jurors later Thursday.

    Attorneys for Rinsch told jurors at his trial in Manhattan federal court that the "White Horse" debacle is a civil business dispute — not criminal financial fraud.

    They say Rinsch, who previously directed "47 Ronin," starring Keanu Reeves, is a "creative genius" who was overwhelmed by the demands of directing, writing, and producing "White Horse" and left to flounder by the streaming company.

    Days after Netflix sent $11 million to a bank account for Rinsch's production company, he moved $10.5 million to a personal Wells Fargo bank account, according to Naccarelli and records entered into trial evidence.

    The director then moved portions of the funds to a Kraken cryptocurrency exchange account, as well as other bank accounts, before ultimately transferring $13.7 million to a personal Bank of America account.

    With his Kraken account, Rinsch purchased about a dozen different cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, Etherium, Bitcoin Cash, and the stablecoin Tether, trial records show.

    In April 2022, Rinsch's Dogecoin holdings were worth about $755,000, and his Etherium tokens about $939,000, according to Naccarelli.

    While a financial advisor previously testified in the trial that Rinsch's stock investments went badly, Naccarelli said the director's cryptocurrency investments were profitable.

    "The trades performed very well," Naccarelli said as Rinsch — wearing a three-piece black suit and a patterned pink tie and matching pocket square — nodded slightly.

    Allen Grove, an FBI agent who testified after Naccarelli, said Rinsch considered himself a major Dogecoin trader when they met in April 2023 regarding a dispute over one of Rinsch's furniture purchases in Paris.

    "Mr. Rinsch described to me that he became wealthy during the pandemic by investing in Dogecoin," Grove testified. "He described himself to me as 'The Dogecoin Whale.'"

    Rinsch said in an earlier deposition, which was shown to jurors on Thursday, that his purchases of four Rolls-Royces were meant for the production of "White Horse," and not for personal use. Netflix wrote off the production as a loss in 2020.

    "That would be fraud otherwise," Rinsch said in the deposition.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Millennium suffered big losses in one of the $81 billion hedge fund’s favorite strategies last month

    A headshot of Israel Englander, founder of Millennium Management
    Izzy Englander's Millennium suffered losses in the popular index rebalance strategy in November.

    • Millennium had big losses in index rebalance strategies in November, sources tell Business Insider.
    • At one point, teams led by star PMs Glen Scheinberg and Pratik Madhvani were down hundreds of millions.
    • The firm was still positive in the month, but trailed rivals such as Citadel, Point72, and Balyasny.

    It was a rough November for some of the biggest teams at a renowned hedge fund behemoth.

    Izzy Englander's $81 billion Millennium suffered significant losses in its index-rebalance portfolios last month, several people told Business Insider.

    Teams run by star money managers Glen Scheinberg and Pratik Madhvani were down hundreds of millions of dollars, these people said, though the final losses for the month are not clear, as the strategy had a small bounceback at the end of November. Millennium declined to comment.

    The index rebalance pain was a big reason why the firm posted November returns below those of its peers such as Citadel, Point72, and Balyasny. The firm was up 0.5% last month and 8.3% on the year, Business Insider previously reported.

    The index-rebalance strategy, in which portfolio managers bet on which stocks will be added to or removed from indexes such as the Russell 3000 or S&P 500 with the help of quantitative tools, has had a choppy year. Bloomberg reported earlier this year that these same teams lost close to $900 million in March.

    It wasn't immediately clear what drove the losses at Millennium, but industry sources said many index-rebalance PMs across the industry were caught wrong-footed last month by the reconstitution of MSCI's indexes, one of the largest rebalancing events of the year.

    The MSCI World Index is composed of the largest publicly traded companies around the globe, with Nvidia and other US tech giants making up significant portions of the nearly $90 trillion in assets benchmarked to it. The index whipsawed in November, falling almost 5% over about a week in the middle of the month before later recouping much of those losses.

    On November 5, MSCI announced it would add 69 stocks — many tied to the AI boom — and remove another 64 from its Global Standard indexes, effective after the market close on November 24. Many of the names slated for inclusion sank during the rebalancing window, including the two largest additions, data-center darling CoreWeave and Netherlands-based AI-infrastructure firm Nebius. Meanwhile, several stocks set to be removed rallied.

    The losses in AI stocks had PMs nervous leading up to Nvidia's November 19 earnings release, but Nvidia shocked the market with a strong quarter, and its stock popped, people familiar with the trade explained. Traders relaxed and lifted hedges just in time for the rally to fade, and AI stocks inexplicably plunged again on November 20.

    "I think a lot of people were scratching their heads as to what was going on," one PM familiar with the trade said.

    By the end of the month, however, the trend reversed, helping many index-rebalance PMs claw back some of their losses — a rebound that has continued into December, the people said.

    Event-driven PMs who specialize in index changes try to forecast rebalances and their market impact, positioning to profit from the flows they expect passive funds to generate. The strategy, originally honed decades ago at investment banks, has become increasingly popular among major hedge funds and some proprietary trading firms over the last five years, contributing to crowding that can amplify volatility around these events.

    Millennium has long been the biggest player in the trade. Puerto Rico-based Scheinberg, in particular, has been one of the firm's biggest traders. Along with Dubai-based Madhvani, the two senior investors oversee dozens of people across their two teams.

    Scheinberg's earlier success was one of the drivers for Millennium's rivals to build out their own teams of index rebalance traders, though several firms cut staff after the strategy hit a dry spell in 2023.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • A US aircraft carrier’s hard turn to avoid enemy fire surprised sailors and sent a jet with bad brakes into the sea

    The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman sails through the Mediterranean Sea on May 18.
    The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman made a hard turn before sending a fighter jet and a tow tractor overboard.

    • A US Navy aircraft carrier made a hard turn to avoid enemy fire, sending a fighter jet overboard.
    • The maneuver to avoid the Houthi missile attack surprised sailors, the investigation shows.
    • The F/A-18's brakes weren't working properly, and it fell into the Red Sea along with a tow tractor.

    A US Navy aircraft carrier's hard evasive turn to avoid enemy missile fire caught crewmembers off guard and sent a $60 million F/A-18 Super Hornet rolling off the deck and into the Red Sea, an investigation into the fighter jet loss revealed.

    The fighter's brakes weren't functioning properly, investigators found, allowing the jet to slide across the deck when the carrier USS Harry S. Truman abruptly changed course during the late April action.

    Poor communication, bad brakes, and a slippery surface all contributed to the loss.

    A tow tractor also fell into the water alongside the expensive F/A-18 fighter jet, the second of three that the Truman lost during a monthslong Middle East combat deployment. When it went over, it nearly took sailors overboard as well.

    Evading enemy fire

    During their deployment, the Truman and its strike group led Navy combat operations against the Houthis, the heavily armed Iran-backed rebel group in Yemen that spent more than a year attacking key Middle East shipping lanes.

    Three F/A-18 Super Hornets prepare to launch from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, December 21, 2021.
    An F/A-18 fell overboard the Truman while the carrier took a hard turn.

    On April 28, the move crew lost control of an F/A-18 under tow in the Truman's hangar bay, a maintenance area below the flight deck, the Navy reported at the time, and both the jet and its tow tractor tumbled into the Red Sea.

    Right before it fell in, a sailor jumped from the cockpit, suffering minor injuries. The Navy didn't share information or insight into the warship's situation at the time of the plane loss.

    According to the command investigation, the fighter jet and the tractor fell overboard while the Truman was conducting evasive maneuvers to avoid an incoming medium-range ballistic missile fired by the Houthis, a detail that had been reported but not confirmed at the time.

    The move crew, which was preparing the F/A-18 from Strike Fighter Squadron 136 (VFA-136), the "Knighthawks," for planned flight operations, didn't hear the announcement that the ship was making a hard turn and was caught unaware when the ship began to tilt.

    Sailors had removed the chocks and chains to pull the F/A-18 into the hangar bay. With the brakes engaged but not actually working, there was nothing to hold the aircraft in place when the carrier heeled in an evasive turn.

    Two US Navy Aviation Ordnancemen transport ordnance across the hangar bay aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the US Central Command area of responsibility.
    The hangar bay is an area underneath the flight deck where aircraft receive maintenance.

    It slid backward toward the deck edge, dragging the tow tractor behind it. The crew moving the Super Hornet abandoned their posts just before the fighter jet fell into the sea.

    Bad brakes

    The command investigation put the blame for the incident primarily on the fighter jet's inadequate brake engagement and the lack of communication from the Truman's bridge to flight deck control and the hangar bay.

    Leadership also said that the non-skid, a rough, high-friction coating applied to the decks of Navy ships to keep people, vehicles, and aircraft from slipping on smooth steel surfaces, was ineffective, having not been replaced since 2018.

    These problems, the investigation said, cost the Navy an F/A-18, a multirole fighter made by the US aerospace giant Boeing that has been in service with the Navy for decades.

    The April incident was one of four major mishaps that the Truman and its strike group suffered during their deployment.

    In December, the cruiser USS Gettysburg accidentally shot down one of the Truman's F/A-18s in what the military described as a friendly fire incident. In February, the carrier collided with a cargo ship. And in May, the ship lost its third fighter jet after a landing failure caused it to slide off the flight deck and plunge into the sea.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • A Navy warship mistook US fighter jets for enemy missiles and opened fire. The targeted pilot saw his life flash before his eyes.

    A US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet flies over the Red Sea during routine operations, January 5, 2025.
    An F/A-18 operates over the Red Sea.

    • A US Navy warship fired missiles at two American F/A-18 fighter jets above the Red Sea last year.
    • The warship mistook the fighter jets for Houthi cruise missiles, the investigation shows.
    • One of the fighter jets was shot down. The other barely survived the friendly fire incident.

    A US Navy pilot whose jet was mistakenly shot down by an American warship over the Red Sea told investigators he saw his life flash before his eyes before ejecting from the doomed aircraft.

    The command investigation into the late December 2024 friendly fire incident, which Business Insider reviewed prior to its release on Thursday, reveals that the warship's crew mistook two Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets for anti-ship cruise missiles fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen.

    In a catastrophic failure, the cruiser USS Gettysburg launched surface-to-air missiles at both F/A-18s, shooting down one and nearly hitting the second. It also targeted a third friendly aircraft but never pulled the trigger.

    A hit and a near-miss

    The Gettysburg and the other warships in the strike group led by the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman deployed in September 2024 and entered the Red Sea three months later to take over Navy combat operations against the Iran-backed Houthis, who had for almost a year at that point been attacking key shipping lanes.

    Early on December 22, just seven days after entering the Red Sea, the Gettysburg accidentally shot down a Super Hornet from the Truman's air wing in what the US military described as "an apparent case of friendly fire." Both aviators, the pilot and the weapons officer, ejected safely from the roughly $60 million fighter, part of Strike Fighter Squadron 11 (VFA-11), the "Red Rippers."

    The command investigation reveals that the friendly fire incident nearly resulted in a much larger disaster. While initial reports centered on the aircraft that was struck, the investigation reveals that a second narrowly avoided a catastrophic end, and a third was in the crosshairs.

    The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg steams in the US Central Command area of responsibility.
    The cruiser USS Gettysburg opened fire on two Navy fighter jets in December 2024.

    As the first surface-to-air missile raced upward from the Gettyburg's missile tubes, the pilot and weapons officer of the first jet assumed the weapon was chasing after a Houthi drone they hadn't found, the investigation said.

    They watched the missile climb and then suddenly change course. As the weapon rushed toward them, the pilot suddenly saw his life flash before his eyes, he told investigators. Seeing no other choice, the two-man team ejected just before the missile struck the plane.

    In that chaotic moment, the Gettysburg fired another missile at a second American fighter jet. The aviators on board issued multiple mayday calls but opted to outmaneuver it rather than bail. The missile gave chase, course correcting in pursuit of the jet.

    It narrowly missed, the jet shaking as it passed just a few feet away before burning out and exploding in the water.

    A Navy helicopter commander who witnessed the incident told investigators his crew "saw the missile overhead and saw it flash." They said there was no warning before the shot was taken.

    The decision to shoot was 'wrong'

    As for what caused this disaster, the command investigation pointed to a series of failures, from shortcomings in the planning process to deficiencies in the Gettysburg’s combat systems, and noted that crew fatigue may have played a role.

    US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets, assigned to the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, fly a mission over the US Central Command area of responsibility, April 8, 2025.
    One F/A-18 was shot down, and another one barely survived during the friendly fire incident.

    Early in the deployment, the investigation said, the Navy identified “significant degradation” in the Gettysburg’s core interoperability system. Problems spanned network management, surveillance and tracking reporting, identification, mutual tracking, mission engagement, and weapons coordination.

    During the first three months of the deployment, the Gettysburg and Truman were often separated. The cruiser had been fending off Houthi missiles and drones shortly before the friendly fire incident, and there appeared to be some confusion over whether the threat had concluded.

    That said, the investigation assessed "the decisions to shoot were wrong when measured across the totality of information available" to Gettysburg's commanding officer, who was constrained by a series of previous actions and decisions both in and beyond his control.

    The captain had low situational awareness, and his combat information center team was unable to help him regain it, the investigation said.

    This shootdown incident wasn't the Red Sea battle's only friendly fire incident, though it was the most serious. Earlier in the Red Sea conflict, in February 2024, a German warship accidentally targeted a US MQ-9 Reaper drone, but the missiles never reached it because the warship's radar system suffered a technical malfunction.

    The December 2024 friendly fire incident was one of four major mishaps that the Truman strike group experienced during its monthslong deployment in the Middle East.

    The aircraft carrier collided with a cargo vessel in February and also lost two more F/A-18s to accidents — one fell off the side of the warship along with a tow tractor in April, and another experienced a failure while landing and slid off the flight deck in May.

    In a statement Thursday, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jim Kilby said that "the Navy is committed to being a learning organization," adding that "these investigations reinforce the need to continue investing in our people to ensure we deliver battle-ready forces to operational commanders."

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Investigators found Hegseth had a ‘unique’ system installed so he could use his personal cellphone from inside his secure Pentagon office

    US defense secretary Pete Hegseth wearing a blue suit with his head turned facing left.
    The Pentagon inspector general released findings from an investigation into the secretary's use of Signal earlier this year.

    • Pete Hegseth had a "unique" system installed to access his personal cell phone from inside his secure office, an investigation found.
    • It's unclear if the defense secretary's setup violated Pentagon policy.
    • The findings were part of the inspector general's report on Hegseth's use of Signal to share information on strikes.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had his assistant install a "unique" system in his secure office at the Pentagon that allowed him to access and control his personal cellphone from inside, a new watchdog report says.

    The findings are part of Pentagon Inspector General Steven Stebbins' investigation into Hegseth's use of the Signal app to share sensitive information about US airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this year. The investigation concluded the secretary risked the safety of US military personnel.

    The report, released Thursday, included a section stating that Hegseth's junior military assistant, at the request of the secretary of defense, "requested and oversaw the installation of a unique capability through which the secretary could access and control his personal cell phone from inside his secure office."

    The tether system, for which photos of a prototype design were redacted in the report, was installed in late February 2025.

    The system mirrored and accessed the content of the personal phone and connected a keyboard, mouse, and monitor via cable to the phone, which was located outside the office.

    Within the Pentagon, especially for the officers of more senior officials, it's not uncommon to find lockers or boxes for staff and visitors to store phones and other devices.

    Department of Defense policy states that personal and government mobile devices, such as cellphones, are prohibited from secure spaces in the Pentagon, places like Hegseth's office. The inspector general's report concluded it could not be determined whether the unique system installed for the secretary met requirements because it was quietly removed by late April 2025.

    Hegseth confirmed in a July statement to the Pentagon inspector general's office that he requested the system.

    "It is true that upon taking this job, I asked my comms team whether it was possible to get access to my personal cell phone in my office," he said, explaining that aim was to "more easily receive non-official, communications during the workday."

    "The comms team," the secretary said, "prepared a compliant solution that would allow me this access while also maintaining proper security."

    The Secretary of Defense Communications Team said the installed workaround was consistent with DoD information security requirements, as it didn't physically violate the no-cellphones-in-a-secure-space rule, the investigation said.

    The Pentagon didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on the findings.

    Stebbins' investigation into Hegseth's use of Signal for the Yemen strikes was launched after The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to group chats where Hegseth shared sensitive information, classified details from a SECRET/NOFORN email, about the timing of the attacks and assets that would be used to execute them.

    The inspector general concluded that Hegseth’s use of the messaging app put US forces at risk because, if the information had been intercepted by US adversaries, it could have endangered US military personnel.

    While the secretary said in an earlier statement to the office that "there were no details that would endanger our troops or the mission," the investigation concluded that "the secretary's actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed US mission objectives and potential harm to US pilots."

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Read Business Insider’s stories and watch our video after nearly 200 interviews with workers over 80

    Barbara Ford, D'Yan Forest, Rich Colorado, Jane Way, June Boyd, Luis Bautista, Pat Fagin Scott, Sandy McConnell, Thomas Ferguson, Lydia HInds

    "I'm working because I have to. I don't want to." "I'm basically working seven days a week." "I don't want to fall into sedentary mode." "I'm still full of energy. I'm still very much on my game."

    These are some of the stories we heard in interviews with nearly 200 Americans who continue to work past the age of 80. In 2025, Business Insider wrote more than 20 stories and produced a short documentary video — all examining why people over 80 continue to work well beyond the typical retirement age.

    Older workers are the fastest-growing sector of the US labor force. Our "80 over 80" project examines the how and why.

    Check it out below:



    Credits

    Reporter:
    Noah Sheidlower

    Features editors:
    Bartie Scott, Andy Kiersz, Hayley Peterson Herrin, Brad Davis

    As-told-to editors:
    Lauryn Haas, Jane Zhang, Tess Martinelli, Manseen Logan, Debbie Strong

    Copy editor:
    Tracy Connor

    Design & development:
    Eason Xinran Wang, Randy Yeip, Bryan Erickson

    Photo editors:
    Jorge Castillo, Isabel Fernandez-Pujol, Rebecca Zisser

    Photographers:
    Cassidy Araiza, Corrie Aune, Bridget Bennet, Jesse Brantman, Michael J. Fiedler, Brittany Green, Tim Gruber, Jason Henry, Brooke Herbert, Clark Hodgin, Shuran Huang, Nilo Jimenez, Melyssa St. Michael, Mark Petty, Valerie Plesch, Alyssa Schukar, Katie Shaw, Nate Smallwood, Laura Thompson, Katrina Ward, Matt Martian Williams, Cornell Watson, Annie Flanagan

    Audience:
    Corina Pintado, Victoria Gracie, Hannah Kennedy

    Video producer:
    Sarah Andersen

    Videographers:
    Timothy Wolfer, Juan-Antonio Puyol

    Video editor:
    Esteban Aburto

    Motion designer:
    Dorian Barranco

    Video copy editors:
    Mark Abadi, Caitlin Charles

    Supervising producer:
    Mark Adam Miller

    Head of video:
    Barbara Corbellini Duarte

    Quicksplainer video:
    Rachel Cohn, Jacky Zarra

    .credits-box {
    border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; /* light gray */
    padding: 20px;
    border-radius: 8px; /* rounded corners */
    max-width: 800px; /* optional: constrains width */
    margin: 0 auto; /* centers the box */
    background: #fff; /* clean white background */
    }
    .gi-credits {
    font-size: 1rem;
    }
    .credits-header {
    text-align: center;
    margin-bottom: 1rem;
    }

    Read the original article on Business Insider