Plus: Best Places To Retire In 2025: Greenville And Other Surprisingly Affordable Gems |
Good morning,
Billionaires are more concerned than ever about their personal safety, and driving them to hire personal security at skyrocketing rates.It’s not cheap: A full protection team can cost at least $2 million annually, though it can be part of an executive compensation package and written off as long as there’s a demonstrable cause for safety concerns. Plus, there aren’t enough credible security outfits to cover CEOs, the more than 3,000 billionaires worldwide and other high-profile individuals who could be at risk, which has created an opportunity for scammers to pose as experts.
Let’s get into the headlines, |
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| For the first time in history, the next leader of the Catholic Church is an American: The conclave selected Robert Francis Prevost, who took the papal name of Pope Leo XIV. In his first address, Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago and was made a cardinal by the late Pope Francis, said, “God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail.” MORE: Vatican experts have considered Leo XIV more of a centrist than his liberal-leaning predecessor, but also mirrors Pope Francis’ championing of the poor. As sexual abuse scandals roil the Catholic Church, Leo XIV has been accused in multiple cases of mishandling allegations made against priests. |
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|  | | Downtown Greenville, South Carolina Sean Pavone/Getty Images |
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To find the top 25 cities for retirees, Forbes compared more than 950 locales in America on everything from housing costs and taxes to healthcare. Forbes’ Best Places To Retire In 2025 list highlights locales offering a high quality of life in the U.S. at a comparatively affordable price. By design, 22 of the 25 places on our new list have median home prices at or below the national median, and four—Iowa City, Iowa; Lincoln, Nebraska; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and San Antonio, Texas—are under $300,000. Only three honorees have a median home price above the national one, with the most expensive being Raleigh, North Carolina, at $440,000, 9% above the national median. Overall, our list features choices in 19 states and all four domestic time zones, with a roughly even split between colder and warmer climates. Chilly Fargo, North Dakota, is the only city that has appeared for the 15 years we’ve compiled this list. Pittsburgh, which also has frosty winters, is another of our perennial favorites—on the list for 13 of 15 years and the eighth year in a row, despite its above-average crime rate. Besides basic costs, our selection process weighs such metrics as state taxes, prospects for the local economy, air quality, serious crime and the availability of primary care doctors, as well as whether a place encourages an active lifestyle by making biking or walking convenient. Since 2020, we have screened for natural hazard and climate change risk, ruling out places with the very highest danger, as measured by the FEMA National Risk Index.
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“Each year, hundreds of thousands of Baby Boomers and GenXers move in retirement, or in contemplation of retirement—and many, many more think about it,” says Forbes assistant managing editor Janet Novack. “Those who go to a new area are looking for a better lifestyle, or lower costs, or to be closer to their kids and grandkids—or for all of those. William P. Barrett, the veteran journalist who has compiled the Forbes list for 15 years, gives readers a head start by using data to identify the most appealing, affordable places across the country. Years ago, he became the first retirement list maker to factor in the risk of climate change and natural disasters, which can easily wreck an otherwise well-planned retirement.”
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WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP |
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Bill Gates accelerated the timeline for the closing of the Gates Foundation, pledging to give away 99% of his wealth—which Forbes estimates at nearly $113 billion—by the time it sunsets at the end of 2045. The organization announced a commitment to spend $200 billion over the next two decades, and in that time, Gates said he hoped to stop newborn babies, children and mothers from dying of preventable causes, reduce poverty, and end diseases like polio, malaria and measles. Shares of online pharmacy Hims & Hers, which sells wellness products like hair loss and erectile dysfunction pills, have been on a tear lately, and the surge has made company cofounder Andrew Dudum a billionaire. The recent rally was driven by strong quarterly earnings and a deal with Novo Nordisk to sell its popular weight loss drug Wegovy through Hims & Hers’ online pharmacy, making it one of just three telehealth providers able to sell the popular drug. |
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With the start of hurricane season less than a month away, the head of FEMA was fired after the Trump appointee opposed the administration’s efforts to eliminate the emergency response agency, which has provided billions of dollars in aid to states damaged by natural disasters. President Donald Trump has called for states to “take care of their own problems” and said he would abolish or overhaul the agency. |
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Amid a string of high-profile aviation safety incidents, the Trump Administration said it plans to overhaul the nation’s aging air traffic control system—but such a move requires the approval of tens of billions of dollars from Congress. The government has tried and failed to modernize the system for decades, and last September, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that 51 of the FAA’s 138 air traffic control systems are unsustainable. |
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Robert Francis Prevost was a longshot candidate to become the next leader of the Catholic Church, but a handful of bettors earned massive payouts on prediction markets. Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket are becoming increasingly popular for wagering on news events: |
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1.6%
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Prevost’s market-implied odds of becoming the next pope as of noon Thursday on Kalshi, compared to 1.8% on Polymarket
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Around $10,000
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The payout of a $170 bet on Prevost at 12 p.m. would have netted
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$40.4 million
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The total betting volume across Kalshi’s and Polymarket’s papal betting markets
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The Federal Reserve has held interest rates steady despite demands from President Donald Trump—but what does that mean for you? When the central bank slashes rates, the interest rates on your checking, savings and money market accounts will also fall—but on the bright side, so will personal loan and credit card rates. The stock market generally benefits from lower rates because borrowing is cheaper, potentially allowing companies to grow faster. |
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GAMES
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QUIZ
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As DOGE continues to slash the federal workforce, one agency is expected to soon be hit with roughly 1,500 additional layoffs and deep budget cuts. Which agency is it? |
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National Park Service |
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NASA |
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National Science Foundation |
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D. |
Small Business Administration |
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