President Trump said “it’s possible” the United States becomes involved in the current conflict between Iran and Israel, ABC News reported Sunday.
“We’re not involved in it. It’s possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved,” Trump told ABC News.
ABC News also reported that Trump expressed interest in the possibility of mediation in the Iran-Israel conflict by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I would be open to it. [Putin] is ready. He called me about it. We had a long talk about it. We talked about this more than his situation. This is something I believe is going to get resolved,” Trump said, per ABC News.
On Thursday overnight, Israel bombarded Iran, moving forward with its largest-ever military operation against its common Middle East rival and upending a push from President Trump for a nuclear deal with Iran.
The U.S. attempted to quickly distance itself from the strikes, which killed some of Iran’s top military leaders. However, Trump administration officials were reportedly briefed on plans prior to the strikes.
“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on Thursday evening.
“Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners,” he added.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for further comment.
An April 2025 Gallup Poll identified inflation, housing costs and insufficient wages as the three most common financial problems Americans reported. While these things make it harder to build wealth, many other factors are less obvious but can still put a big dent in your finances.
In a recent video, money expert Jaspreet Singh discussed seven of the biggest things killing your wealth in 2025. See how you can start saving more money, investing in yourself and making better money decisions.
The May 2025 consumer price index data indicated a 7% year-over-year increase in car insurance costs, which was nearly three times the rate for all items.
The rising cost of this essential coverage shows how important it is to check rates for different car insurance companies since you’ll likely find a better deal. Singh said rate shopping could save you 15% per month on your premiums.
The current national average rate for savings accounts is 0.42%, and many major banks offer a small fraction of that. That tiny return doesn’t come close to keeping up with inflation, which steals your money’s purchasing power.
Singh recommended instead going with an insured bank offering a high-yield savings account, which he said can yield a much better 4% to 4.5% interest rate. That way, you’ll start earning more than inflation and still keep your money in a safe place.
“2025 will go down in history as one of the most educational years in stock market history because you can see the importance of not being an emotional investor,” Singh said.
He discussed the tariff-related market turbulence over the last several months. If you sold your investments out of panic, you may have lost a lot of money compared with if you had stayed calm and waited for the markets to go up again. At the same time, you might have missed out on opportunities to make money if you didn’t buy during the down periods.
Rather than acting on emotions, remember that volatility is normal and think about the long term. That way, you can make better investing decisions that build your wealth.
Singh spoke about how the extra money that people received during the pandemic led to increases in luxury purchases. That was also a time when many people’s expenses dropped since they were often staying home.
But now you’ll pay more for many purchases, and stimulus checks are far in the past. If you haven’t tightened your budget and reined in spending on luxuries, your pandemic-style buying habits may be destroying your wealth today and even putting you into debt.
The American Gaming Association reported that Americans spent around $72 billion on sports betting in 2024. Being able to place bets on mobile apps has made it easier to find yourself with this gambling habit and overstated hopes of winning big.
“Expect to not make any money and do it for the fun if you find it fun, but you’re not going to make any money,” Singh said.
You have a much better chance of building wealth if you control your expenses, maximize your income and smartly invest your extra money.
Being able to order most things on your phone and have them quickly arrive at your place is great for convenience. But the hidden costs associated with those orders can kill your wealth.
For example, you might have to pay service and delivery fees along with a tip. Plus, there’s the risk of you buying things unnecessarily just because you see them, want them and can get them fast.
Rethinking convenience purchases is also important to avoid additional debt.
“The best investment you can make is not the S&P 500, it’s not Nvidia, it’s not Tesla, it’s not real estate, it’s not gold, it’s not Bitcoin — it’s you,” Singh said.
He explained that many people feel comfortable spending on fancy experiences or items, yet they question paying a similar amount to educate themselves and grow their skills. This cheats them from building knowledge that helps them make decisions that build wealth.
So consider spending money on courses, books, financial advisors and other things that improve your investment skill set.
AI researchers have recently been asking themselves a version of the question, “Is that really Zuck?”
As first reported by Bloomberg, the Meta CEO has been personally asking top AI talent to join his new “superintelligence” AI lab and reboot Llama. His recruiting process typically goes like this: a cold outreach via email or WhatsApp that cites the recruit’s work history and requests a 15-minute chat. Dozens of researchers have gotten these kinds of messages at Google alone.
For those who do agree to hear his pitch (amazingly, not all of them do), Zuckerberg highlights the latitude they’ll have to make risky bets, the scale of Meta’s products, and the money he’s prepared to invest in the infrastructure to support them. He makes clear that this new team will be empowered and sit with him at Meta’s headquarters, where I’m told the desks have already been rearranged for the incoming team.
Most of the headlines so far have focused on the eye-popping compensation packages Zuckerberg is offering, some of which are well into the eight-figure range. As I’ve covered before, hiring the best AI researcher is like hiring a star basketball player: there are very few of them, and you have to pay up. Case in point: Zuckerberg basically just paid 14 Instagrams to hire away Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang.
It’s easily the most expensive hire of all time, dwarfing the billions that Google spent to rehire Noam Shazeer and his core team from Character.AI (a deal Zuckerberg passed on). “Opportunities of this magnitude often come at a cost,” Wang wrote in his note to employees this week. “In this instance, that cost is my departure.”
Zuckerberg’s recruiting spree is already starting to rattle his competitors. The day before his offer deadline for some senior OpenAI employees, Sam Altman dropped an essay proclaiming that “before anything else, we are a superintelligence research company.” And after Zuckerberg tried to hire DeepMind CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu, he was given a larger SVP title and now reports directly to Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
I expect Wang to have the title of “chief AI officer” at Meta when the new lab is announced. Jack Rae, a principal researcher from DeepMind who has signed on, will lead pre-training. Meta certainly needs a reset. According to my sources, Llama has fallen so far behind that Meta’s product teams have recently discussed using AI models from other companies (although that is highly unlikely to happen). Meta’s internal coding tool for engineers, however, is already using Claude.
While Meta’s existing AI researchers have good reason to be looking over their shoulders, Zuckerberg’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale is making many longtime employees, or Scaliens, quite wealthy. They were popping champagne in the office this morning.
Then, Wang held his last all-hands meeting to say goodbye and cried. He didn’t mention what he would be doing at Meta. I expect his new team will be unveiled within the next few weeks after Zuckerberg gets a critical number of members to officially sign on.
Tim Cook.Getty Images / The Verge
Apple is accustomed to being on top of the tech industry, and for good reason: the company has enjoyed a nearly unrivaled run of dominance.
After spending time at Apple HQ this week for WWDC, I’m not sure that its leaders appreciate the meteorite that is heading their way. The hubris they display suggests they don’t understand how AI is fundamentally changing how people use and build software.
Heading into the keynote on Monday, everyone knew not to expect the revamped Siri that had been promised the previous year. Apple, to its credit, acknowledged that it dropped the ball there, and it sounds like a large language model rebuild of Siri is very much underway and coming in 2026.
The AI industry moves much faster than Apple’s release schedule, though. By the time Siri is perhaps good enough to keep pace, it will have to contend with the lock-in that OpenAI and others are building through their memory features. Apple and OpenAI are currently partners, but both companies want to ultimately control the interface for interacting with AI, which puts them on a collision course.
Apple’s decision to let developers use its own, on-device foundational models for free in their apps sounds strategically smart, but unfortunately, the models look far from leading. Apple ran its own benchmarks, which aren’t impressive, and has confirmed a measly context window of 4,096 tokens. It’s also saying that the models will be updated alongside its operating systems — a snail’s pace compared to how quickly AI companies move.
I’d be surprised if any serious developers use these Apple models, although I can see them being helpful to indie devs who are just getting started and don’t want to spend on the leading cloud models. I don’t think most people care about the privacy angle that Apple is claiming as a differentiator; they are already sharing their darkest secrets with ChatGPT and other assistants.
Some of the new Apple Intelligence features I demoed this week were impressive, such as live language translation for calls. Mostly, I came away with the impression that the company is heavily leaning on its ChatGPT partnership as a stopgap until Apple Intelligence and Siri are both where they need to be.
AI probably isn’t a near-term risk to Apple’s business. No one has shipped anything close to the contextually aware Siri that was demoed at last year’s WWDC. People will continue to buy Apple hardware for a long time, even after Sam Altman and Jony Ive announce their first AI device for ChatGPT next year. AR glasses aren’t going mainstream anytime soon either, although we can expect to see more eyewear from Meta, Google, and Snap over the coming year.
In aggregate, these AI-powered devices could begin to siphon away engagement from the iPhone, but I don’t see people fully replacing their smartphones for a long time. The bigger question after this week is whether Apple has what it takes to rise to the occasion and culturally reset itself for the AI era.
I would have loved to hear Tim Cook address this issue directly, but the only interview he did for WWDC was a cover story in Variety about the company’s new F1 movie.
AI agents are coming. I recently caught up with Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi ahead of his company’s annual developer conference this week in San Francisco. Given Databricks’ position, he has a unique, bird’s-eye view of where things are headed for AI. He doesn’t envision a near-term future where AI agents completely automate real-world tasks, but he does predict a wave of startups over the next year that will come close to completing actions in areas such as travel booking. He thinks humans will need (and want) to approve what an agent does before it goes off and completes a task. “We have most of the airplanes flying automated, and we still want pilots in there.”
Buyouts are the new normal at Google. That much is clear after this week’s rollout of the “voluntary exit program” in core engineering, the Search organization, and some other divisions. In his internal memo, Search SVP Nick Fox was clear that management thinks buyouts have been successful in other parts of the company that have tried them. In a separate memo I saw, engineering exec Jen Fitzpatrick called the buyouts an “opportunity to create internal mobility and fresh growth opportunities.” Google appears to be attempting a cultural reset, which will be a challenging task for a company of its size. We’ll see if it can pull it off.
Evan Spiegel wants help with AR glasses. I doubt that his announcement that consumer glasses are coming next year was solely aimed at AR developers. Telegraphing the plan and announcing that Snap has spent $3 billion on hardware to date feels more aimed at potential partners that want to make a bigger glasses play, such as Google. A strategic investment could help insulate Snap from the pain of the stock market. A full acquisition may not be off the table, either. When he was recently asked if he’d be open to a sale, Spiegel didn’t shut it down like he always has, but instead said he’d “consider anything” that helps the company “create the next computing platform.”
As always, I welcome your feedback, especially if you’re an AI researcher fielding a juicy job offer. You can respond here or ping me securely on Signal.
The 125th U.S. Open continued Sunday at Oakmont Country Club just outside of Pittsburgh.
Both Sam Burns, who was leading the pack at 4 under heading into Sunday, and J.J. Spaun, who was tied with Adam Scott at 3 under, are looking for their first major championships. They’ll have to contend with an extraordinarily difficult Oakmont course that has left them, Scott and Viktor Hovland as the only golfers under par.
We have all the best action from the final round of the 2025 tournament right here.
Amid online rumors that the British record executive has been unfaithful in his marriage to the model, the couple seemingly laughed off the speculation while reading a few of their hate comments aloud.
“’Why wouldn’t she want to be single again?’” Elliot, 31, read from his phone while Sofia sat nearby giggling in a TikTok video posted earlier this month. “’They got married? She should divorce him and take his child support money.’”
“’That? Cheating on her?’” another comment read, to which Elliot responded, “That is mean.”
And though she agreed that the statements were a bit harsh, the 26-year-old couldn’t help but laugh at the strangers’ judgements.
“I had to break it to my husband,” Sofia quipped in the caption, “that he’s not the people’s princess.”
Putting the online chatter aside, the pair—who tied the knot in 2023—happily celebrated Father’s Day a few days later with their 12-month-old daughter Eloise.
Sir David Beckham and wife Lady Beckham with son Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz
The anointment of Sir David Beckham is a moment of establishment recognition three decades in the making. But as the former footballer was conferred his knighthood on Friday, reports of family drama threatened to overshadow the milestone.
Known for his precision on and off the pitch, Sir David has spent decades carefully curating his family’s public image.
This year is one of celebration for the former England captain – turning 50 at the helm of an estimated £500m empire.
But for the past few weeks, much of the online interest around the Beckhams has focused on reports that eldest son Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz have fallen out with the rest of the family.
An expert in reputation management says reports of the feud have begun to affect the family’s public image, noting press coverage of the Beckhams has taken on a more soap-opera-like tone.
Celebrity crisis PR Lauren Beeching says recent media conversation has “started to feel more like something you’d see around a reality TV family”.
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German Glamour magazine called Brooklyn and Nicola the “world’s most talked about couple” earlier in June
Reports of a family fallout began three years ago as stories emerged claimingthat Nicola had refused to wear one of Victoria Beckham’s designs on her wedding day.
Nicola later said she had wanted to, telling the Times Victoria had realised her atelier could not make it in time so she had had to pick a different designer. Nicola denied there was a feud in the family.
But scrutiny continued, with shows of unity (from warm social media posts to shared events) being framed as the Beckhams putting the feud behind them, or discouraging rumours of discord.
Eventually, speculation seemed to die down. But reports of a rift returned last month after Brooklyn, 26, and Nicola, 30, were absent from David Beckham’s 50th birthday celebrations and did not post a birthday message online.
A source told the BBC Brooklyn had chosen not to go to the party as his younger brother Romeo was attending with a woman Brooklyn had previously been linked to.
The source added that this woman’s invitation had been a “big source of further tension”.
Sir David and Lady Beckham have never acknowledged the rumoured rift, and havenot responded to the BBC’s requests for comment.
On Sunday, Sir David marked Father’s Day with multiple pictures of all his children on his Instagram story, including a separate throwback image of him and Brooklyn – captioning it “love you” alongside a white heart emoji.
Victoria also posted a Father’s Day tribute on Instagram which mentioned all four siblings.
Ms Beeching believes there is now a risk the feud stories could start to shape the family’s image “instead of the achievements they actually want to be known for”. “Once you start being spoken about like a reality TV family,” she continues, “that reputation starts to slip.”
Getty Images
Brooklyn (front, centre) as a young teen, pictured with his family at a 2012 performance of Spice Girls musical Viva Forever
As Manchester United’s golden boy, David Beckham quickly transcended football to become a global celebrity.
He and Spice Girl wife Victoria created Brand Beckham – fusing fame, fashion and football to redefine modern stardom.
“Their brand has always been about control of narrative, image, and legacy,” says PR expert Mark Borkowski. “The media didn’t chase them. They gave it a trail to follow – blending scandal with strategy and high-end deals.”
Beckham “made metrosexuality mainstream”, he adds. “He showed working-class lads you could wear nail polish, model for Armani, champion grooming rituals – and still bend a free kick past the keeper at crunch time. All while embodying a very traditional ideal: devoted husband, hands-on dad, family first.”
“I lived my career through the spotlight,” Sir David told BBC Radio 4’s Front Row in 2013. “You have to be a certain person, you have to create a certain person, and you have to be yourself.”
These parallel identities – carefully constructed yet authentic – gave Beckham his unique pull.
While the Beckham family have always been relatively private, Ms Beeching sees David’s 2023 Netflix documentary as a turning point in how the public perceived them.
“The Beckham brand has always been seen as aspirational, not accessible, but since the documentary, there’s been a notable increase in how much the family share on their social media accounts, which puts them closer to being reality stars,” she says.
Ms Beeching says recent news has pulled the family “away from legacy-building and into soap opera territory, which was never their lane”.
The constant rumours about the family’s dynamic have led some fans to take on a “Sherlock Holmes role” – so now, every absence in a photo becomes a hidden theory and every Instagram caption has a sub context.
Feud is ‘built to go viral’
Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, tells the BBC fans expect to see social signals of closeness such as mutual follows, birthday posts and supportive comments.
“When these signals are missing, people don’t assume neutrality, they assume tension.”
Fans and tabloids were quick to pick up on Brooklyn and Nicola’s German Glamour magazine shoot earlier this month as a signal that the rift was far from over – the couple avoided mentioning the Beckhams, but Nicola’s love for her own family was referenced several times.
Since then, every Beckham Instagram post and like (or lack thereof) has been agonised over, and even if discussion of the feud are eventually put to bed, it is unlikely that social media sleuthing will end.
Mr Navarra explains that even if facts are revealed and the rift rumours are quashed, “the social media algorithm doesn’t care about accuracy – it cares about engagement”.
This feud is the “perfect storm as it’s built to go viral”, and social media does not just fuel speculation, it manufactures and rewards it, he says.
Of course, family drama is also more relatable than a knighthood, and there has always been an insatiable appetite for famous families feuding in the spotlight.
Ms Beeching sees parallels between the Beckham family fallout and the rift between the Sussexes and the Royal Family, which continues to make headlines.
Getty Images
Since stepping back from senior royal duties in 2020, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have seen their fractured relationship with the British monarchy go public
“The Royal Family lost control over the narrative as Harry and Meghan became more independent, and that’s the same here with Brooklyn and Nicola, who are both adults and are forming their own public personas,” she says.
Like Meghan, Nicola Peltz was already a known figure before marrying Brooklyn. The daughter of a billionaire businessman and model, “Nicola doesn’t need to rely on the Beckhams for money or fame”, says Wayne Barton, who wrote a biography about Beckham in 2020.
In a bid to not be perceived as nepo babies – children of celebrities who get fast-tracked to success – “Brooklyn and Nicola are in search of their own identities, which “may be putting them at odds with the careful public image that the Beckhams have created for the family”, he says.
Sir David’s polished image has, on occasion, been tarnished by scandal – in 2003, he faced accusations of an extra-marital affair with his former personal assistant Rebecca Loos.
Nicole Lampert, the Daily Mail’s showbiz editor at the time, says the Beckhams perfected “smiling through” issues – letting actions speak over words.
In 2004, the couple staged a photocall skiing together to demonstrate a united front – with Victoria giving what Lampert describes as a pained “rictus grin”.
Generally, however, the Beckhams have remained tight-lipped when it comes to scandals, such as criticism over David Beckham’s involvement with Qatar, and leaked emails in 2017 that included disparaging comments about singer Katherine Jenkins being awarded an honour over him.
Brand is ‘bruised not broken’
Having been in the spotlight for decades, the Beckham brand will survive the feud and it is currently “bruised but not broken”, according to Mr Navarra.
One way the Beckhams could limit the damage to their brand would be by “showing family unity with a picture on social media or at least acknowledging that all families have their ups and downs”, he suggests.
But trying to inauthentically manage the situation and making things look overly staged could backfire and the “narrative of a feud will become permanently baked in”.
Mr Navarra does not believe there are many real implications to the Beckham brand right now and the reports are not affecting their earning potential, brand collaborations or level of interest in them.
“If anything, it humanises the family a bit,” he explains, but he cautions there could be a greater impact on their reputation if the feud escalates or more damaging rumours come to light.
At this moment, the world is witnessing the mass killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Western governments, especially in Europe and North America, continue to provide military, political, and economic support to the Israeli government responsible for this devastation. While some rhetoric has recently shifted — with growing condemnation of Israel’s conduct — material support, including arms shipments and intelligence sharing, persists.
To Jews around the world, this should be profoundly alarming. The phrase “never again” emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust, a moral declaration rooted in Jewish suffering. Today, that phrase risks losing its universal meaning. When governments tolerate ethnic cleansing, rationalize the killing of children, and remain silent in the face of state-sanctioned cruelty — all while claiming to uphold Jewish safety — it not only endangers Palestinians but also erodes the moral credibility of those invoking that principle.
Western support for Israel’s current leadership may be softening in tone, but not in substance. Despite growing public criticism, there are still no arms embargoes, financial sanctions, or diplomatic consequences imposed on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. This inaction stems from unresolved historical guilt, political calculations, and fear of accusations of antisemitism. But verbal disapproval without accountability amounts to complicity.
If I were Jewish, I would be deeply disturbed. If this horror is justified once, what’s to stop it from happening again? And who might be the next victims?
Many of us believed the 21st century would be defined by shared humanity and the hard lessons of history. Yet Netanyahu and his extremist allies have taken the region in the opposite direction. Over two decades, he has tried to dismantle any realistic path to a two-state solution, empowered Hamas by weakening Palestinian moderates, and misled not only his own citizens but also the international community. These were not policy missteps. They were deliberate decisions to consolidate personal power at the expense of peace.
If Israelis are serious about defeating Hamas, they must also confront those who empowered it — Netanyahu chief among them. His divide-and-rule strategy fragmented Palestinians, allowing Israel to claim there was “no partner for peace.” That cynicism only deepened the crisis.
In 2016, I wrote about how Israel could contribute to Saudi Vision 2030. I envisioned a future of integration and cooperation. But such integration must be rooted in justice. A viable Palestinian state is not an obstacle to peace — it is its foundation.
Just days ago, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met in Amman with his Jordanian, Egyptian, Bahraini, and Palestinian counterparts to coordinate efforts to end the war and revive a two-state solution. Israel refused to allow that meeting to take place in Ramallah — a decision that reflects the current Israeli government’s contempt for diplomacy. Netanyahu, Defense Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir have adopted a zero-sum strategy that endangers both regional stability and Israel’s own long-term security.
Saudi Arabia and its Arab partners remain firmly committed to a just and lasting peace. Today, 147 countries recognize the State of Palestine. Last year, Norway, Spain, and Ireland joined them. France and others may soon follow. These efforts seek to end the cycle of violence and build peace on two essential pillars: Palestinian statehood and Israeli security.
Netanyahu argues that a two-state solution would threaten Israel. The opposite is true. It is the only credible path to peace — precisely why it is opposed by both Netanyahu and Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei. These two strange bedfellows are united in their desire to kill the two-state dream. In fact, one of Netanyahu’s major goals has been to rebrand the two-state solution as the “two-state delusion” — a slogan designed to undermine both hope and diplomacy.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has expressed a bold vision: “I don’t want to leave this world before seeing the Middle East transformed into a leading global region — into the new Europe.” That cannot happen without a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If Saudi Arabia normalizes ties with Israel, more than 50 Muslim-majority countries could follow. The resulting trade, diplomacy, and development could be historic. But that vision must include dignity, statehood, and justice for Palestinians.
Jewish communities in the West should be disturbed if their governments support Netanyahu’s regime. Instead, let us unite two essential principles: “Never again” and “Not in my name.” Together, they reject genocide and collective punishment while affirming justice and humanity. The world is waking up. Consciences are stirring. It’s not too late to stand on the right side of history.
Salman Al-Ansari is an writer and researcher based in Saudi Arabia.
A 36-year-old Reddit user resonated deeply with fellow millennials after posting openly about their financial situation. They say they live paycheck to paycheck, have over $100,000 in debt, no savings and, perhaps most surprisingly, don’t feel panicked about it. “I should be freaking out, but I just don’t have the energy anymore,” they wrote.
They explained that the bulk of their debt came from a private university degree in archaeology and classics that cost $200,000. Although they’ve managed to pay a significant portion down, they still owe about $40,000. Add to that a $30,000 auto loan and a personal loan taken out to help cover bills when student loan payments were $1,000 a month pre-COVID. “I couldn’t afford to pay them and my other bills. So I got a personal loan.”
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“Maybe it’s the state of the world and not knowing what’s going to happen in the next few months, let alone years,” he wrote. “Or maybe I’ve just grown numb to my situation.”
The poster, who now works as a traveling contractor in a scientific field, said their current approach is simple: “I will either figure it out and make it work or I won’t. But I can’t bring myself to fret anymore.”
“A few years ago I would have freaked out and sent myself into a panic attack,” the person wrote. “And now it’s here and I honestly don’t care.”
In the replies, many reflected those feelings of burnout, resignation and financial paralysis. One commenter put it plainly: “I’m 39, just got laid off from my job of 13 years and I’m about to lose my apartment due to rent increase. I feel ya OP.”
Multiple people shared stories of six-figure debts, stagnant wages, medical emergencies, and housing instability. A recurring theme was the feeling that no matter how hard they work, they’re falling behind.
“It seems like every time we’ve finally ‘leveled up’ in jobs, raises, etc., there’s been a huge jump in costs along with it,” wrote one person. “We can never get our heads above the water.”
Another person shared that their household income fell from six figures to just $25,000 in two years. With over $100,000 in debt, they said they were forced to put their home up for sale.
Some shared that they’ve given up on the idea of retirement altogether. “I’ve resigned myself to working until I die,” one said.
Though the post received plenty of support, a few commenters pushed back. “I understand the exhaustion, but I don’t think this is normal,” one person replied. Another warned, “You should not be perfectly okay with your situation. It’s one thing to recognize and acknowledge your reality, but you need to use that clarity to inform your actions and decisions going forward.”
Even the poster admitted that while their mindset helps them cope, it’s probably not the healthiest: “People do have this exact thinking when it comes to their health. And it’s definitely not healthy. And it’s probably not healthy for me to think this way either. But I’ve done my freaking out for years and it’s never done any good.”
Still, the overwhelming tone in the thread was solidarity, not judgment, and many said the post made them feel less alone.
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Image: Shutterstock
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“My most important & favourite job in life is being a dad,” David—who also shares Romeo Beckham, 22, Cruz Beckham, 20, andHarper Beckham, 13, with his wife of 25 years—wrote on Instagram June 15 alongside a series of throwback photos. “I’m so proud of all of you and like daddy (sorry boys) tells you every single day I will always be here for you no matter what.”
Along with expressing his unconditional love for his kids, the 50-year-old made sure to give Victoria her flowers for ushering him into fatherhood in the first place.
“Mummy thank you for doing the most important part and making me a father,” he continued. “There is no greater gift in life than making me a dad. Happy Father’s Day. I love you kiddies more than you could imagine.”
The first Switch was such a hit that Nintendo decided not to mess with a good thing. Instead of releasing a successor that feels like a generational leap or a pivot in a new direction, it’s following up the hugely successful original with the Switch 2 — a welcome upgrade that largely sticks to the formula. It looks about the same, works about the same, and plays most of the same games. It’s the Switch, just better.
Nintendo’s bet is that it doesn’t have to wow people all over again, and so it made a sequel that’s only as good as it needs to be. After spending a week with the new console, I’ve realized that good enough is exactly what the Switch needed.
A refined (and bigger) Nintendo Switch
Fundamentally, the concept of the Switch hasn’t changed. It’s still a tablet with a split controller stuck on either side, with a dock that connects to your television.
But the idea has been refined. The Switch 2 is much bigger, for one thing. It now has a 7.9-inch LCD panel, up from the original’s 6.2 inches, making it great for playing text-heavy games. It also means the entire device has become larger as a result, now weighing in at a comparatively hefty 1.18 pounds with the controllers attached. The larger size hasn’t bothered me, though your mileage may vary. My 12-year-old keeps stealing it to play Pokémon and hasn’t complained. But she’ll do anything for more screentime.
$449
The Good
Improved hardware and display
Faster load times
New social features
It plays Mario Kart
The Bad
Disappointing battery life
Few first-party Switch 2 games at launch
No standout feature
There are some other nice upgrades. Like the most recent OLED model of the original Switch, the Switch 2 has a kickstand that can prop the system up at a wide range of angles, and the updated version feels a little sturdier to me, making it great for playing in tabletop mode. It’s a huge improvement over the original Switch’s flimsy kickstand. The Switch 2 also adds a second USB-C port to the top of the console, which enables you to plug in a webcam for online play. It’s handy for attaching a charger or battery pack whichever way is most convenient, too.
What you get with that larger and heavier device is games that look and run better. The handheld’s screen has a 1920 x 1080 resolution, which supports HDR10 and VRR up to 120Hz. It’s bright and crisp, and games look a lot smoother thanks to the higher refresh rate. But I do miss the more vibrant OLED display of the most recent iteration of the original Switch, which featured deeper blacks and more contrast-y images. The new screen is a huge leap from the original, but it isn’t an all-around improvement if you’ve been using the OLED for a while.
The story is different when connected to your TV: the Switch 2 can finally output at 4K, with support for HDR10. You’ll need to play supported games to really take advantage of this, but it’s immediately noticeable how much crisper everything from text to gameplay is. HDR promises to make games more vibrant, though there doesn’t seem to be a standout game to show this off just yet.
Games are bigger this generation, too. Nintendo has increased the internal storage size to 256GB, but you’ll need to be diligent with how you use it; Cyberpunk 2077, for example, takes up 59GB on its own. Expanding that storage means buying a new and relatively expensive microSD Express card; your old microSD cards won’t work.
More annoying is that the battery life is worse than the original Switch. Nintendo estimates between two and six and a half hours of gameplay on a single charge, and I found my device dying around the lower end of that spectrum, especially when playing more intensive games like Cyberpunk. That’s not a great sign for the future if the Switch 2 continues to get more demanding games.
Some of this owes to the fact that this is simply a much more capable console. It’s built around a new Nvidia chip, custom designed for the Switch 2, and offering modern features like DLSS and ray tracing. There’s more RAM. The internal storage is faster. This is why the Switch 2 is able to run a game as demanding as Cyberpunk; it’s also why the Switch 2’s battery might die after a short two-hour stint.
The Switch 2 also has slightly redesigned Joy-Con controllers. They’re functionally mostly the same, but bigger and with a few small upgrades, like more subtle vibrations. They connect via magnets now, which are less fiddly than the previous rail design. Nintendo says that the joysticks have been redesigned, too, but they still aren’t using anti-drift Hall effect sensors. That means there’s a chance owners will once again be dealing with the dreaded Joy-Con drift that plagued the original Switch.
As similar as they are, the Joy-Con also introduces some of the truly new elements of the Switch 2.
To start, the right Joy-Con has an all-new button dedicated entirely to Nintendo’s GameChat social features. Chatting with friends while playing games isn’t a new concept, but Nintendo has finally made it not only a core but a relatively painless part of its user experience. You simply pull up the app, and you can see what friends are online and what they’re playing.
For the most part, it works as advertised. It’s easy to connect, voices come in clear through the Switch 2’s built-in mic, and video looks fine over the USB camera from Nintendo, which is sold separately. (The Switch 2 also supports an unclear number of third-party webcams.) This is a huge upgrade over Nintendo’s old way of doing things, where you needed to download a separate Nintendo Switch Online app onto your phone and use that secondary device to chat.
The one flaw I’ve noticed with the new system is that screensharing — in which, for instance, four people can share their gameplay in Mario Kart World while they race against each other — looks choppy and ugly, to the point that I stopped using it.
The redesigned Joy-Con controllers also introduce a new control option. By turning the Joy-Con on its side and placing it down on a flat surface, you’re able to use it like a mouse. Unfortunately, the Switch 2 doesn’t come with a next-gen version of Mario Paint to show all the mouse clicking possibilities, but I spent some time with the Switch 2 update of Civilization VII to test it out. And while it took some getting used to, I found the Switch 2’s mouse controls worked surprisingly well. This may not be as true in a twitchy first-person shooter where every millimeter matters, but for turn-based strategy, the mouse was a big improvement over a standard controller layout.
In a nice touch, using the mouse is seamless; you don’t choose the option from a menu, you simply turn the Joy-Con on its side, place it down, and it begins mouse mode. This makes it easy to swap between control options on the fly. You also don’t need to use the mouse on a completely flat surface like a table or desk. I was able to play Civ just fine moving the Joy-Con around on my thigh.
However, it wasn’t particularly comfortable to play that way for extended periods. So it’s hard to see it as something I’ll use often.
So yes, the Switch 2 is exactly what it sounds like hardware-wise: it takes a winning concept and improves on it in subtle ways, and mostly doesn’t mess with what already worked. None of the changes are a huge leap, nor are any of the issues dealbreakers.
A launch lineup that mixes old and new
Of course, the most important aspect of any system is its games. And the launch lineup for the Switch 2 is a combination of new titles that take advantage of the more powerful hardware and older games that have been updated and are noticeably better compared to the original Switch versions.
The best showcase for the console at launch is Mario Kart World. It expands upon its predecessor in ways that Nintendo says weren’t possible on the original Switch. The game takes place in a large, connected open world and doubles the number of racers from 12 to 24. It’s bigger, more ambitious, and more chaotic than any Mario Kart before it, and yet it also runs incredibly well on the Switch 2. It loads fast and the frame rate holds up, even when playing four-player split-screen, which introduces a frankly absurd number of explosions and crashes on your TV at any given moment.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to play right now, though. There are just a few brand-new games. Many of the highlights of the Switch 2’s launch lineup are games that already exist on other platforms, but were likely too technically demanding for the original Switch. These include the likes of Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter 6, and Yakuza 0, all of which look good, run smoothly, and load quickly. The new handheld is not as powerful as other current-generation consoles, let alone a high-end PC, but it’s still pretty remarkable being able to take Night City with you wherever you go, and have it feel good to play, instead of just fine.
Two of my favorite launch games take advantage of one of the Switch 2’s best features. Called GameShare, it lets you play select multiplayer games with anyone else nearby with a Switch 2 or original Switch, and it requires only one copy of the game. It’s not perfect — the second player is essentially streaming the game, and so the visual quality can dip at times — but it is a very fun way to enjoy co-op games that require a lot of coordination. I used it to play through a chunk of Split Fiction with my wife, and a few hours of Survival Kids with my, uh, kids, and it was a great alternative to couch co-op. We simply sat near each other, barking orders on what needed to be done next.
While the core launch lineup may be lacking, there are a lot of games that have been updated in a significant way to support the Switch 2. Some of these are paid upgrades; I dropped $10 to be able to use those mouse controls in Civ, and it’ll cost you the same to get a much smoother and faster-loading version of Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom. These titles don’t look radically different, but they’re obviously sharper and running smoother; the faster loading times in Zelda may be worth the price of the upgrade alone.
Many of the free upgrades are just as impressive. I’ve been especially struck by games I’ve already played for hundreds of hours — Fortnite and No Man’s Sky — both of which struggled mightily on the original Switch. But on the Switch 2 they look like and play like, well, modern games.
Actually, my favorite launch games might be the oldest of all. One of the benefits for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers on the Switch 2 is the addition of GameCube games. To start, there are only three titles, but they’re excellent ones: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Soulcalibur II (with Link as a playable fighter!), and F-Zero GX. It’s not exactly impressive that a sci-fi racer from 2003 plays fast and smooth on a modern console, but it’s still a nice bonus. And the GameCube has plenty of heavy hitters that will surely round out the service in the coming months. (Mario Kart: Double Dash, please.)
A new generation that feels much like the last
In 2017, there was nothing like the Nintendo Switch. At a time when dedicated handheld gaming devices had seemingly given way to smartphones, and the PS4 and Xbox One era was in full swing, here came Nintendo with an underpowered tablet that doubled as a home console in a way that was simple and intuitive. It proved to be such a success that it revitalized the company into a growing entertainment powerhouse.
But eight years later, there’s a lot like the Nintendo Switch 2. The original spearheaded a resurgence in portable gaming thanks to the likes of Valve, Sony, and Xbox, and even upstarts like Panic and Analogue. The Switch 2 not only has to compete with its predecessor, but also a maturing market of modern handhelds.
The Switch 2 doesn’t feel like the kind of generational leap typically associated with a new platform. When you put all of its features together — the larger display, more powerful internals, better social and sharing features, and more flexible control options — you are left with a device that is markedly better than its predecessor, but is still a step behind the latest PC handhelds in terms of pure horsepower and available games.
But even with real competition this time around, Nintendo is still operating largely in its own sphere. And it turns out good enough is more than good enough when you also have the biggest Mario Kart to date.
