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US President Donald Trump ⁠on Saturday threatened to ⁠deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement ⁠agents to US airports if congressional Democrats do not immediately agree to fund airport safety. “I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one ‌has ever seen before,” Trump wrote in a social media post. Transportation Security Administration personnel are set to miss a second full pay cheque on March 27 amid a partial government shutdown now in its 36th day as lawmakers clash over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency for TSA and ICE. Advertisement TSA ⁠officers have called in sick in recent weeks as pay cheques have dried up. The ‌shortage of security agents has led to travel disruptions at major airports. ICE agents are not specifically trained for airport security, which is ‌TSA’s domain. ICE has played a central role in the Trump administration’s ⁠immigration crackdown, drawing ⁠criticism from many Democrats, civil liberties advocates and immigration advocacy groups. Outcry after ICE killing of another US citizen Outcry after ICE killing of another US citizen The agency, along with Customs and Border Protection, ‌has deployed agents over the past few months to multiple areas as part of the crackdown, most recently to ‌Minnesota in ‌an operation that resulted in agents fatally shooting American citizens Renee Good and Alex ‌Pretti.

On the face of it, not a lot to see here. The league leaders return to the top of the table with a bonus-point win over the team placed bottom. But don’t you believe it. Newcastle may have shipped 60 the last time they played a Prem game here, but they pushed the Saints all the way. Northampton, it must be said, were about as far from full strength as can be. George Furbank was given his latest run-out at full-back, but otherwise none of their myriad England internationals were present. They will consider this a smart collection of the full five points. Meanwhile, the feeling that Newcastle might be starting to build something (or rebuild, given they have a title and a few cups to their history) continues to grow. Now that relegation has been officially scrapped, the sort of investment that Red Bull have brought becomes a vaguely sensible decision for a prospector in sport. This week, Stephen Jones, the great Wales fly-half, stepped up from attack coach to head coach. The round before last, the Red Bulls (as we must get used to calling them) collected their first win of the season. That said, the missing Saints stars and any stirring in the north-east seemed of no consequence at the start. The Saints had their first try after a mere 90 seconds – and it looked very easy indeed. Tom Litchfield beat Oli Spencer with some ease on the outside, and he found Furbank inside him, who shipped it on to Archie McParland for a try as easy on the eye as it looked to score. But Newcastle were quick to dispel any thoughts of a stroll. Ollie Leatherbarrow, one of a few up-and-coming talents harnessed by Newcastle, is now playing alongside a campaigner as hard and decorated as Tom Christie, the former Crusader. The two seemed to urge each other on in their very different ways. Leatherbarrow was a handful throughout the first half, never more so than when he picked a decisive line off a lineout a few minutes later to canter to the posts. Eight minutes later, Harrison Obatoyinbo, who c...

Harry Wilson grabbed his 10th goal of the season as Fulham sent their former manager Scott Parker closer to the drop with a comfortable win against Burnley. Wilson fired Fulham into the lead after Josh King had finally scored his first Premier League goal to cancel out Zian Flemming’s opener for Burnley. The substitute Raúl Jiménez wrapped up the victory from the penalty spot in stoppage time after Josh Laurent was sent off. It was a kick in the stomach for Parker, who managed Fulham to promotion in 2020 and relegation a year later and now looks odds on to repeat the trick with Burnley. They are nine points adrift of safety – a gap which could widen after Sunday’s matches – with only seven games to play. It was a big moment for the 19-year-old King, who was desperate to break his duck after having a goal wrongly ruled out by the video assistant referee against Chelsea in August. The goals all came in the second half after an entirely forgettable first 45 minutes, during which Burnley felt they should have had a penalty when Flemming’s shot was blocked by the arm of Calvin Bassey. After a VAR check, Bassey escaped punishment because his arm was supporting him as he slid in. Rodrigo Muniz sent a volley over and Wilson fizzed one drive just too high and another too close to Martin Dubravka. The best chance fell to Flemming, who got between Bassey and Antonee Robinson to meet Quilindschy Hartman’s cross, only to plant a diving header straight at the Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno. A first half desperately low on quality was summed up when Jaidon Anthony’s attempt at a long throw into the Fulham box flew straight out for a goal-kick. View image in fullscreen Josh King scores his first Premier League goal from close range. Photograph: Matthew Childs/Action Images/Reuters After the break Dubravka made a fine reaction save after Oscar Bobb had prodded King’s header goalwards. Moments later Dubravka denied King as he burst through on goal, with Muniz curling the rebound wide. ...

Key Points The Motley Fool ranked all 50 states across seven categories -- including quality of life, healthcare, and taxes. Results from this research were based on what 2,000 surveyed retirees said actually matters most. Florida topped the list, offering no income tax, excellent healthcare access, and near-perfect climate. The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook › When most people think about where to retire, they fixate on one thing -- such as taxes, weather, or housing costs -- and build a ranking from there. Optimizing for one factor usually means giving something up somewhere else. A state with no income tax might have sky-high insurance costs. The best weather might come with the worst affordability. The cheapest housing might mean limited access to quality healthcare. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » That's what makes The Motley Fool's approach useful. Rather than ranking states on a single metric, they scored all 50 across seven weighted categories, based on what 2,000 surveyed retirees said actually matters to them: Quality of life (31%) Healthcare access and quality (15%) Housing affordability (13%) Crime and safety (12%) Weather and climate (12%) State and local taxes (11%) Non-housing affordability (6%) Quality of life alone carries nearly a third of the total score, so states that are cheap but offer little else get penalized. Here are the best retirement states, according to research from the Motley Fool. Let's start with a four-way tie for the No. 5 spot. 5. (tie) Pennsylvania Total retirement score: 58 Pennsylvania offers one of the best cost-of-living scores -- 94 -- with decent costs of housing and crime scores -- 83 and 63, respectively. For history buffs, Pennsylvania is hard to beat. 5. (tie) Ohio Total retirement score: 58 Ohio has ...

Northampton Saints regained top spot in the Prem table with a hard-fought and often unconvincing 28-27 victory over bottom club Newcastle Red Bulls. In a performance which displayed layers of rust as the domestic league competition returned for the first time since January, it was the visitors who emerged as the better side on balance of play. Yet after holding on to edge a tight contest with four tries to Newcastle's three, it was Saints who emerged with a bonus point win, enough for them move above Bath at the top. Newcastle, who brought physicality to Franklins Gardens which their hosts struggled to match, had to settle for just a losing bonus point for their troubles but will feel they are closer to only a second win of their Prem campaign. More follows...

Kevin Dietsch Tech billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, on Saturday, offered to fund the salaries of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers who remain unpaid amid a partial government shutdown. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump threatened to use Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to run airport security as the impasse over funding for the TSA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, enters its fifth week. Their comments came as travelers are bracing for worsening airport wait times this weekend, with TSA officers set to miss a second ‌full ⁠ paycheck on Mar. 27 after Congress let funding for DHS expire last month amid a dispute over immigration enforcement. "If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports." Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday, “I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country,” Musk, CEO of Tesla ( TSLA ) and space exploration company SpaceX ( SPACE ), said in an X post. Earlier this week, CEOs of leading U.S. airlines, in an open letter, urged Congress to quickly resolve the weeks-long dispute, noting its potential to disrupt busy spring break travel as about 50,000 TSA agents remain without pay. CEOs of American Airlines ( AAL ), United Airlines ( UAL ), Delta Air Lines ( DAL ), Southwest Airlines ( LUV ), JetBlue Airways ( JBLU ), and Alaska Air Group ( ALK ) were among the signatories to the letter, along with senior executives at cargo ​carriers FedEx ( FDX ) and UPS ( UPS ). Dear readers, We recognize that politics often intersect with the financial news of the day, so we invite you to click here to join the separate political discussion. More on American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, etc. American Airli...

Key Points XRP is primarily used as a bridge currency for making cross-border payments. If XRP can capture 14% of total cross-border payment flows, it could soar to a price of $20 by 2030. In a bear-case scenario, XRP might only hit a price of $4. 10 stocks we like better than XRP › Right now, XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) is only a $1 crypto. But that could change much sooner than many people expect, thanks to the global financial system's embrace of blockchain technology. Within a span of just five years, XRP could be a $20 crypto. If you're willing to take on the risk of investing in a highly volatile altcoin, you might see a 20x return on your investment by 2030. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » A valuation model for XRP One popular XRP valuation model is known as a "transaction velocity model." It looks at the total volume of global cross-border payments, makes a few quick assumptions about XRP's ability to take on a greater share of that cross-border payment flow, and then comes up with a final price for XRP based on liquidity trends and overall market demand. Let's start with the basic assumptions. Right now, SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) handles approximately $150 trillion in cross-border payments annually. Let's assume that the XRP blockchain is able to handle 14% of that total, or approximately $21 trillion annually. That's based on projections from Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who has delivered several bullish updates on XRP's future growth trajectory. Let's also assume that each XRP token can be reused multiple times per day in order to provide liquidity (that's the "velocity" part of the model), and that the total circulating supply of XRP remains steady at 61 billion. Once you plug all those assumptions into a mathematical model, that works o...

A recently unsealed indictment naming Wally Liaw, co-founder of Super Micro Computer, puts the company at the center of the U.S.-China tech war.

Nvidia’s(NVDA) run in artificial intelligence mostly concerns chips, servers, and soaring demand for computing power. Now CEO Jensen Huang is shaking things up, pointing investors toward a different part of the story: software agents that can act on a user’s behalf. OpenClaw is “definitely the next ...

格隆汇3月22日｜市场消息：印度政府下令撤销去年12月对航空公司实施的票价上限。

格隆汇3月22日｜以色列外交部：一枚伊朗导弹袭击了以色列中部的一所幼儿园。只有因为是星期六，才避免了一场儿童大屠杀。伊朗政权故意向包括幼儿园在内的平民目标开火。

格隆汇3月22日｜据以色列第12频道：伊朗导弹导致以色列南部迪莫纳地区一栋建筑物被击中，多人受伤。

格隆汇3月22日｜据福克斯新闻记者：今天下午以来，伊朗的多轮弹道导弹已瞄准以色列南部城市迪莫纳。

How Low Can ORCL Really Go In A Market Crash? Trefis

Forget Tesla — Nvidia And Lucid Are Quietly Building Uber's AI Fleet AOL.com

The former Republican North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson has admitted he misled voters during his unsuccessful 2024 gubernatorial campaign when he denied posting racist and offensive comments on a pornography website – suggesting he did so to protect Donald Trump’s successful presidential run. Robinson, who worked in furniture manufacturing before entering politics in 2020, told the After the Call podcast on Thursday: “I won’t say that I completely lied. Some of the things about the whole story – some of it — there’s some truth to it.” The spectacular undoing of Robinson’s political career came after CNN reported in September 2024 that he had been posting under a pseudonym on Nude Africa, an online porn forum. Robinson, CNN reported, expressed support for slavery in forum posts. CNN also reported that Robinson, who is Black, labelled Martin Luther King a “commie bastard” and said that if he, Robinson, belonged to the Ku Klux Klan he would refer to King by a racist name. Robinson also used homophobic and antisemitic slurs, according to CNN’s reporting, including exclaiming: “I’m a black NAZI!” The Washington Post later reported that on the same forum Robinson had praised Mein Kampf, writing that it was a “good read” as well as “very informative and not at all what I thought it would be. “It’s a real eye-opener.” Robinson initially denied that he was the author of the comments posted more than a decade earlier. He vowed to continue his campaign as he was thrust into an unflattering national spotlight. “Let me reassure you: the things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” Robinson said in a video posted to X. The race for North Carolina governor was won by the Democrat Josh Stein by 14 points in November 2024. During the podcast with Florida-based pastor Josh Hall released last week, Robinson acknowledged that he had an “obsession” with pornography and sex and had denied the reports of his online commentary to protect...

Investors seeking passive income prioritize not only yield but also dependable cash flows that can withstand economic and global instability. Energy infrastructure and shipping are particularly well-suited to deliver consistent returns and strategic advantages when global supply chains face challenges. The Global X MLP ETF (MLPA 0.49%), Equinor (EQNR +2.69%), and Flex LNG (FLNG 4.72%) offer excellent investment opportunities for passive-income-seeking investors. In addition, as I will shortly outline, they are all stocks with significant upside exposure to an ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic. As such, they will suit investors seeking yield and some protection from the risk of a protracted conflict in the Persian Gulf. The Global X MLP ETF: Dividend yield 7.2% In theory, this exchange-traded fund (ETF) is agnostic to the price of energy (in this case, gas). In reality, it is somewhat different. The ETF invests in 20 master limited partnerships (MLPs) in the midstream and storage sector. While upstream energy companies (exploration and production) tend to be positively related to high energy prices, and downstream energy companies are negatively related (energy is their raw material cost), midstream (transportation and storage) companies are supposed to be neutral. The MLPs emphasise their long-term take-or-pay contracts, which create a reliable stream of income regardless of volume or gas pricing. This income certainty means MLPs can pay large dividends/distributions to investors, which is why the ETF has such a high yield. However, if there is a structural shift (possibly caused by an extended conflict or by structural damage to energy infrastructure in the Gulf), investment is highly likely to flow to North American energy assets. That could improve volumes and strengthen MLPs' negotiating position in their non-take-or-pay contracts, while benefiting from higher volumes under those contracts. Expand NYSEMKT : MLPA Global X Funds - Globa...

Key Points These three stocks have an average dividend yield of 7.3%. Geopolitical risk is rising, and investors need to consider protecting their portfolios with investments in energy stocks. 10 stocks we like better than Equinor Asa › Investors seeking passive income prioritize not only yield but also dependable cash flows that can withstand economic and global instability. Energy infrastructure and shipping are particularly well-suited to deliver consistent returns and strategic advantages when global supply chains face challenges. The Global X MLP ETF (NYSEMKT: MLPA), Equinor (NYSE: EQNR), and Flex LNG (NYSE: FLNG) offer excellent investment opportunities for passive-income-seeking investors. In addition, as I will shortly outline, they are all stocks with significant upside exposure to an ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » As such, they will suit investors seeking yield and some protection from the risk of a protracted conflict in the Persian Gulf. The Global X MLP ETF: Dividend yield 7.2% In theory, this exchange-traded fund (ETF) is agnostic to the price of energy (in this case, gas). In reality, it is somewhat different. The ETF invests in 20 master limited partnerships (MLPs) in the midstream and storage sector. While upstream energy companies (exploration and production) tend to be positively related to high energy prices, and downstream energy companies are negatively related (energy is their raw material cost), midstream (transportation and storage) companies are supposed to be neutral. The MLPs emphasise their long-term take-or-pay contracts, which create a reliable stream of income regardless of volume or gas pricing. This income certainty means MLPs can pay large dividends/distributions to investors, which i...

Get insights on thousands of stocks from the global community of over 7 million individual investors at Simply Wall St. Xiaomi shares triggered by recent performance Xiaomi (SEHK:1810) has been drawing attention after a stretch of weaker share performance, with the stock showing negative returns over the past month, past 3 months and year, despite positive annual revenue and net income growth. See our latest analysis for Xiaomi. At the latest share price of HK$33.2, Xiaomi’s recent 8.59% one-day share price decline and 9.44% 30-day share price decline contrast with a much stronger 3-year total shareholder return of 166.88%, suggesting momentum has faded after earlier gains. If you are weighing Xiaomi against other opportunities in tech hardware and related themes, this can be a good time to widen the search and check out 35 AI infrastructure stocks So with Xiaomi delivering positive annual revenue and net income growth yet seeing recent share price weakness after a strong 3 year run, are you looking at an undervalued tech name here, or a market already pricing in future growth? Most Popular Narrative: 35.9% Undervalued According to the most followed narrative for Xiaomi, a fair value of HK$51.83 sits well above the recent HK$33.2 share price, putting a spotlight on what might be driving that gap. Xiaomi’s revenue could realistically reach a range of $80 to $100B by 2028, driven by: Read the complete narrative. Want to see what kind of growth, margins and future profit multiple underpin that HK$51.83 figure? The narrative leans on bold assumptions about EV traction, high margin services and a premium tilt in hardware that are all quantified behind the scenes. Result: Fair Value of HK$51.83 (UNDERVALUED) Have a read of the narrative in full and understand what's behind the forecasts. However, this story can break if EV investments drag on profitability longer than expected or if hardware margins stay thin, despite the broader product mix. Find out about the key risks ...

格隆汇3月22日｜市场消息：伊朗弹道导弹击中以色列南部城市迪莫纳。

Labour minister Al Carns has claimed thousands of pounds on parliamentary expenses for promotional videos including one showing him doing pull-ups at a fire station in competition with a firefighter. The veterans minister and former Royal Marine, who is tipped by some MPs as a leadership hopeful, claimed about £3,000, approved by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), for the production of 17 videos that show him interacting with local businesses. In the series of films, Carns is shown chatting with fire officers and taking part in a “MP v firefighter pull up challenge”, as well as visiting a local brewery where he is filmed having a pint, saying: “It’s really important we in government help companies like this thrive.” Another video shows him at a museum about life in history, where he mentions he spent “weeks, if not months in the field in the marines where it was hard going being outside for that amount of time”. He is also shown handling armour, saying: “I’ve worn body armour my whole life – for 24 years.” Al Carns at Selly Manor Museum Overall, he claimed about £14,000 for the services of a PR consultant who has highlighted on LinkedIn her work with Carns and a videographer on a “series of short films shining a light on just some of the incredible work taking place across Al’s Birmingham Selly Oak constituency”. Carns said most of the PR consultant’s work and costs related to “day-to-day constituency office support, including administrative work, engagement with local organisations and outreach on behalf of constituents”. He said that his overall staff spending of £111,000 was “significantly below typical levels for MPs” and that the contractor had also been employed by his predecessor. Carns’s clips appear to be part of a trend of MPs using video more to communicate with the public, though it is not clear how many of them are claiming expenses to do so. Ipsa rules state that MPs may only access funding for costs they or their staff incur as ...

格隆汇3月22日｜黎巴嫩卫生部：自本月2日以色列发动袭击以来，已有1024人死亡，另有2740人受伤。

格隆汇3月22日｜在伊朗发动无人机和导弹袭击之际，迪拜以及阿联酋的其他一些地区均报告发生了爆炸和防空活动。

An anonymous Substack post published this week accuses compliance startup Delve of “falsely” convincing “hundreds of customers they were compliant” with privacy and security regulations, potentially exposing those customers to “criminal liability under HIPAA and hefty fines under GDPR.” Delve is a Y Combinator-backed startup that last year announced raising a $32 million Series A at a $300 million valuation. (The round was led by Insight Partners.) On Friday, the startup attempted to refute the accusations with on its blog, calling the Substack post “misleading” and saying it “contains a number of inaccurate claims.” The Substack post is credited to “DeepDelver,” who described themselves as working at a (now former) Delve client. DeepDelver recounted receiving an email in December claiming the startup had “leaked a spreadsheet with confidential client reports.” While Delve CEO Karun Kaushik apparently assured customers in a subsequent email that they were in compliance and that no external party gained access to sensitive data, DeepDelver said they and other customers had become suspicious. “Having the shared experience of being underwhelmed with the Delve experience, and having the overall sense that something fishy was going on, we decided to pool resources and investigate together,” they wrote. Their conclusion? That Delve “achieves its claim of being the fastest platform by producing fake evidence, generating auditor conclusions on behalf of certification mills that rubber stamp reports, and skipping major framework requirements while telling clients they have achieved 100% compliance.” DeepDelver went into considerable detail about those claims, accusing the startup of providing customers with “fabricated evidence of board meetings, tests, and processes that never happened,” then forcing those customers to “choose between adopting fake evidence or performing mostly manual work with little real automation or AI.” Techcrunch event Disrupt 2026: The tech ecosystem...

Less than a week ago, Apple announced the forthcoming AirPods Max 2 , a pair of over-ear headphones that leverage the company’s H2 chip for AI-powered live translation, conversation awareness, and a host of newer features. However, if you’re okay with a pair of earbuds , the AirPods Pro 3 offer access to all the same features for less — especially given they’re currently on sale at Amazon , Walmart , and Best Buy for $199.99 ($50 off), matching their second-best price to date. AirPods Pro 3 Where to Buy: $249.99 $199.99 at Best Buy $249 $199.99 at Amazon $249 $199.99 at Walmart For iPhone owners, nothing else really compares to the AirPods Pro 3. Apple’s latest pair of premium earbuds deliver the best active noise cancellation and richest sound of any AirPods model to date, combined with a more comfortable, angled design that fits securely and naturally in your ear canal. They also feature a new XXS ear tip size and a more robust IP57 rating for sweat and water resistance, making them better suited for long-distance runs and various gym activities. Speaking of workouts, the Pro 3 can also pull double duty as a fitness tracker, thanks to a built-in heart rate sensor that works with Apple’s Fitness app to track calories burned across more than 50 workout types. It’s a welcome addition if you don’t use an Apple Watch; however, it may not be as useful for those who already own and rely on Apple’s wearable for its health tracking and wellness features. Lastly, as mentioned up top, the AirPods Pro 3 also boast an H2 chip, allowing for the aforementioned real-time translation features and Apple’s newer Voice Isolation tech, which uses machine learning to isolate and enhance voice quality by removing unwanted background noise. That’s on top of their seamless integration with other Apple devices, mind you, which lets you take advantage of automatic device switching and a Find My-compatible charging case. Read our full AirPods Pro 3 review . Other AirPods deals AirPods 4 Wher...

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella announced a sweeping reorganization of the company's AI leadership on March 17, unifying its consumer and enterprise Copilot teams under a single executive and quietly sidelining Mustafa Suleyman — the former DeepMind co-founder he paid $650 million to bring aboard just two years ago. (1) Here’s the stunning data showing why. Must Read What happened Jacob Andreou, a former Snap executive who spent eight years helping scale the social platform, has been promoted to executive vice president of Copilot, reporting directly to Nadella. He'll lead a unified organization spanning both consumer and business products — two divisions that were previously housed in separate groups. Suleyman, who arrived at Microsoft through the $650 million Inflection AI acquisition in March 2024, is being redirected to focus on "superintelligence" — building the next generation of frontier AI models (2). It's a narrowing of his mandate that removes him from the product he was hired to make successful — and parks him in a role where the deliverables are measured in years, not quarters. Copilot sits at roughly 6 million daily active users by early March 2026, behind both ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude, which had reached approximately 9 million according to Sensor Tower data cited by CNBC (2). The adoption problem Microsoft 365 has more than 450 million paid commercial seats. After roughly two years on the market, Copilot has converted approximately 15 million of them into paying users. That's a 3.3% conversion rate, at $30 per user per month, generating roughly $5.4 billion in annual revenue. That's less than what Microsoft spent on infrastructure in a single quarter (3). Microsoft itself touted that figure during its Q2 FY2026 earnings call, noting that seat growth was up more than 160% year-over-year. But the vast majority of M365 users have access to Copilot's basic chat features for free. The premium paid base remains thin. Independent research tell...

When most people think about where to retire, they fixate on one thing -- such as taxes, weather, or housing costs -- and build a ranking from there. Optimizing for one factor usually means giving something up somewhere else. A state with no income tax might have sky-high insurance costs. The best weather might come with the worst affordability. The cheapest housing might mean limited access to quality healthcare. That's what makes The Motley Fool's approach useful. Rather than ranking states on a single metric, they scored all 50 across seven weighted categories, based on what 2,000 surveyed retirees said actually matters to them: Quality of life (31%) Healthcare access and quality (15%) Housing affordability (13%) Crime and safety (12%) Weather and climate (12%) State and local taxes (11%) Non-housing affordability (6%) Quality of life alone carries nearly a third of the total score, so states that are cheap but offer little else get penalized. Here are the best retirement states, according to research from the Motley Fool. Let's start with a four-way tie for the No. 5 spot. 5. (tie) Pennsylvania Total retirement score: 58 Pennsylvania offers one of the best cost-of-living scores -- 94 -- with decent costs of housing and crime scores -- 83 and 63, respectively. For history buffs, Pennsylvania is hard to beat. 5. (tie) Ohio Total retirement score: 58 Ohio has the best cost-of-living score on this list -- 96 -- and the best cost of housing -- 90. The larger cities provide access to great hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic. 5. (tie) Minnesota Total retirement score: 58 The best healthcare score of these top picks goes to Minnesota -- 92 -- anchored by the Mayo Clinic. It has world-class cultural institutions like the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and access to phenomenal outdoor beauty. 5. (tie) Wisconsin Total retirement score: 58 Wisconsin scores high in affordability, with cost of living at 85, housing at 77, and healthcare also at 77. And the state is extremely...

Right now, XRP (XRP +0.00%) is only a $1 crypto. But that could change much sooner than many people expect, thanks to the global financial system's embrace of blockchain technology. Within a span of just five years, XRP could be a $20 crypto. If you're willing to take on the risk of investing in a highly volatile altcoin, you might see a 20x return on your investment by 2030. A valuation model for XRP One popular XRP valuation model is known as a "transaction velocity model." It looks at the total volume of global cross-border payments, makes a few quick assumptions about XRP's ability to take on a greater share of that cross-border payment flow, and then comes up with a final price for XRP based on liquidity trends and overall market demand. Let's start with the basic assumptions. Right now, SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) handles approximately $150 trillion in cross-border payments annually. Let's assume that the XRP blockchain is able to handle 14% of that total, or approximately $21 trillion annually. That's based on projections from Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who has delivered several bullish updates on XRP's future growth trajectory. Let's also assume that each XRP token can be reused multiple times per day in order to provide liquidity (that's the "velocity" part of the model), and that the total circulating supply of XRP remains steady at 61 billion. Once you plug all those assumptions into a mathematical model, that works out to a future price of $20 for XRP. If you tweak the assumptions, you can arrive at an even higher price for XRP. New Ripple partnerships However, can XRP really capture 14% of SWIFT's annual cross-border payment flows? That seems like a big ask. To help make that happen, Ripple (the company behind the XRP crypto token) has spent over $3 billion on blockchain and crypto-related transactions since 2023. The goal here is to create a total end-to-end blockchain infrastructure for handling global paymen...