Millions of people struggle with sleep at some point in their lives. One-off nights where you can’t seem to stay asleep aren’t anything to worry about – but you might when they’re becoming a regular thing.
If you’re rolling over to find out it’s 2am, 3am or even 4am and you’ve still got hours before your normal alarm goes off, then you’re not alone. Overnight awakenings – commonly referred to by sleep scientists as wake after sleep onset – aren’t rare.
Luckily, these problems are usually not serious for most, but they can be annoying and are worth getting checked by a doctor if poor sleep affects your life. If sleep is disrupted regularly at night, it can potentially have a knock-on impact during the day, which is not ideal for anyone to experience.
She said: “At one point, you may have had a reason to wake up at that time, maybe in response to sleep apnea or a crying baby. Your body may have become conditioned to it.” Waking up at night isn’t a problem on its own – but waking up and staying awake can be.
According to Dr Kane, the real worry comes when those wake-up calls keep you up until the birds are chirping. Late-night awakenings can be caused by a variety of different factors, such as a sleep disorder or a temporary distraction. A very common cause might simply be human nature.
While asleep, your body is still hard at work breaking down what you ate and drank that day. That’s why it’s natural to wake up needing to go to the bathroom occasionally, but this could be a sign of nocturia when it becomes too common.
Hormone changes might cause nocturia and could signal prostate and bladder problems. It might simply be because you’re drinking too much just before bed, too – but if you are worried, then speak to a doctor.
Where you sleep could also be causing the issue, which may be a little harder to fix. Maybe it’s a siren from an ambulance, a neighbour’s radio blasting next door or a pesky street light shining right onto your side of the bed.
These external sleep disturbances can cause you to wake in the middle of the night. But this is more likely to happen in the early morning hours, as you’re coming out of REM sleep.
There could be some sort of mental health issue at play, which is having an impact on your sleep quality. It’s not uncommon for our own minds to keep us awake.
A particularly stressful day can lead to intrusive thoughts in the middle of the night — maybe they come as a nightmare that jolts you up. Anxiety can also make it difficult to sleep through the night.
If you’re consumed by what happened earlier that day or constantly thinking about the to-do list awaiting you in the morning, this could trigger your waking up at night. Similarly, it’s common for people with depression to experience poor sleep patterns, which may lead to oversleeping and feeling drowsy during the day.
You may even have an untreated sleep disorder that has developed, like insomnia or sleep apnea. If you believe this could be the case, speak with a doctor to discuss testing and any possible next steps.
What should you do when you wake up in the middle of the night?
The next time you wake up in the early hours, give yourself 15 to 20 minutes to drift back off to sleep as it may happen naturally. If you’re awake longer than that, it’s best to get out of bed, advises Dr Kane.
She said: “Our brains are highly associative. That means if we stay in bed for a long time when not sleeping, our brains can associate the bed with wakeful activities like worrying and planning instead of sleep. Getting out of bed breaks that association.
“Relaxation exercises can help you shut off your body’s fight-or-flight response and activate the rest-and-digest response. When your body calms down and you feel sleepy again, head back to bed.”
A Northwestern Mutual study showed that the magic number for retirement, or the number that U.S. adults think they will need to save to retire comfortably, leaped to $1.46 million in 2024, up from $951,000 in 2019.
Americans, on average, reported having saved $88,400 for retirement in 2024, per the same study, leaving a $1.37 million gap between goals and reality.
Now, a new analysis from GoBankingRates released earlier this month examined just how far a hypothetical $1 million in retirement savings will stretch in each state when combined with Social Security benefits.
GoBankingRates used data from the U.S. Census American Community Survey, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, and Missouri’s Economic and Research Information Center to find how long a $1 million retirement nest egg will last given each state’s cost of living.
The study calculated the cost of living by looking at the prices of necessities like housing, food, transportation, and utilities in each state. The researchers did not include federal and state income taxes in their estimates. The average monthly Social Security retirement check in January was $1,976, per the Social Security Administration.
The states where retirement funds run out the fastest usually have the highest cost of living and the greatest average monthly expenditures.
Hawaii tops the list; $1 million in retirement savings, plus Social Security benefits, would last less than 13 years in the state. One cause could be high housing costs due to restrictive land use regulations that only allow for 4% of the state’s land to be used for residential purposes. The resulting land scarcity means high home prices — the median price of a home in Hawaii is 2.7 times the national average with a median price of $850,000.
California and Massachusetts are also states where $1 million in retirement savings runs out in less than 20 years. GoBankingRates estimates that monthly expenses in those states are higher than $2,200, with Californians spending more on groceries per month than any other state’s residents. Housing in Massachusetts is priced 108% higher than the national average.
On the flip side, a $1 million retirement nest egg could last for over 70 years in five states where the cost of living is low: Oklahoma (71 years), Louisiana (76 years), Arkansas (76 years), Mississippi (87 years) and West Virginia (88 years). Factoring in Social Security, monthly expenses come out to less than $1,200 in these states, per GoBankingRates.
West Virginia has a cost of living 9% lower than the national average, with housing 21% lower than average, according to RentCafe. The World Population Review estimated in a 2024 ranking that Mississippi had the lowest cost of living in the U.S. with the lowest housing prices overall.
Here are the states where $1 million in retirement savings will last the longest, and where it will run out fast.
States Where $1 Million in Retirement Savings Will Run Out More Quickly
1. Hawaii
Average monthly expenditure cost: $2,761
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $80,125
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 12.48
2. California
Average monthly expenditure cost: $2,269
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $61,406
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 16.29
3. Massachusetts
Average monthly expenditure cost: $2,340
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $51,686
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 19.35
4. Washington
Average monthly expenditure cost: $2,096
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $45,629
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 21.92
5. New Jersey
Average monthly expenditure cost: $2,001
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $41,315
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 24.20
6. Colorado
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,899
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $39,759
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 25.15
7. New Hampshire
Average monthly expenditure cost: $2,081
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $38,052
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 26.28
8. Utah
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,893
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $37,797
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 26.46
9. Oregon
Average monthly expenditure cost: $2,017
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $37,346
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 26.78
10. Rhode Island
Average monthly expenditure cost: $2,113
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $36,920
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 27.09
States Where $1 Million in Retirement Savings Lasts the Longest
1. West Virginia
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,833
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $11,263
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 88.79
2. Mississippi
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,784
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $11,473
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 87.16
3. Arkansas
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,725
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $13,000
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 76.93
4. Louisiana
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,785
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $13,065
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 76.54
5. Oklahoma
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,832
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $14,048
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 71.18
6. Kentucky
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,864
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $14,456
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 69.17
7. Alabama
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,794
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $14,874
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 67.23
8. Iowa
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,836
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $15,158
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 65.97
9. Kansas
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,801
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $15,315
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 65.29
10. Ohio
Average monthly expenditure cost: $1,853
Annual total cost of living for one person after Social Security benefits: $16,099
How many years $1M and Social Security benefits will last: 62.12
The Agriculture Department predicts the current record prices for eggs could soar more than 40% in 2025, as the Trump administration offered the first new details Wednesday about its plan to battle bird flu and ease the cost of eggs.
With an emphasis on tightening up biosecurity on farms, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA will invest another $1 billion on top of the roughly $2 billion it has already spent battling bird flu since the outbreak began in 2022.
The USDA predicts the current record prices for eggs could soar more than 40% in 2025. Getty Images
It’s not clear how much more farmers can do to keep the virus out.
Egg and poultry farmers have already been working to protect their birds ever since the 2015 bird flu outbreak by taking measures like requiring workers to change clothes and shower before entering barns, using separate sets of tools and sanitizing any vehicles that enter farms.
The challenge is that the virus is spread easily by wild birds as they migrate past farms.
And the main reason egg prices have soared to hit a record average of $4.95 per dozen this month is that more than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to limit the spread of the virus after cases are found — with most of those being egg-laying chickens.
Last month was the worst yet for egg farmers with nearly 19 million egg-laying chickens slaughtered.
Egg prices will get much worse this year
The USDA now predicts that egg prices will increase at least 41% this year on top of the already record prices.
Just last month, the increase was predicted to be 20%.
And the average prices conceal just how bad the situation is, with consumers paying more than a dollar an egg in some places.
The situation is hurting consumers and has prompted restaurants like Denny’s and Waffle House to add surcharges on egg dishes.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday the USDA will invest another $1 billion on top of the roughly $2 billion it has already spent battling bird flu since the outbreak began in 2022. Chris Kleponis / CNP / SplashNews.com
The high egg prices, which have more than doubled since before the outbreak began, cost consumers at least $1.4 billion last year, according to an estimate done by agricultural economists at the University of Arkansas.
Egg prices also normally increase every spring heading into Easter when demand is high.
When will the Trump plan bring down prices?
Rollins acknowledged that it will take some time before consumers see an effect at the checkout counter.
After all, it takes infected farms months to dispose of the carcasses, sanitize their farms and raise new birds.
But she expressed optimism that this will help prices.
“It’s going to take a while to get through, I think in the next month or two, but hopefully by summer,” Rollins said.
The main reason egg prices have soared to hit a record average of $4.95 per dozen this month is that more than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to limit the spread of the virus after cases are found Getty Images
Will DOGE layoffs affect the bird flu fight?
Rollins said she believes USDA will have the staff it needs to respond to bird flu even after all the cuts to the federal workforce at the direction of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“Will we have the resources needed to address the plan I just laid out? We are convinced that we will,” she said, “as we realign and and evaluate where USDA has been spending money, where our employees are spending their time.”
The situation is hurting consumers and has prompted restaurants like Denny’s and Waffle House to add surcharges on egg dishes. AFP via Getty Images
Where’s the money going?
The plan calls for $500 million investment to help farmers bolster biosecurity measures, $400 million in additional aid for farmers whose flocks have been impacted by avian flu, $100 million to research and potentially develop vaccines and therapeutics for US chicken flocks and explore rolling back what the administration sees as restrictive animal welfare rules in some states.
It’s not clear what the additional aid would be for because USDA already pays farmers for any birds they must slaughter due to the virus, and roughly $1.2 billion has gone to those payments.
The administration is also in talks to import about 70 million to 100 million eggs from other countries in the coming months, Rollins said.
But there were 7.57 billion table eggs produced last month, so those imports don’t appear likely to make a significant difference in the market.
Trump administration officials have suggested that vaccines might help reduce the number of birds that have to be slaughtered when there is an outbreak.
However, no vaccines have been approved and the industry has said the current prototypes aren’t practical because they require individual shots to each bird.
Plus, vaccinated birds could jeopardize exports.
The National Turkey Federation said the plan Rollins outlined should help stabilize the market, but the trade group encouraged the USDA to pay attention to all egg and poultry farmers — not just egg producers.
A popular meme making the rounds on social media shows an anguished citizen, outraged at California’s incompetent ruling Democrats Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Attorney General Rob Bonta and the rest of the state’s Democratic politburo, saying, “Next time I’ll vote for a different Democrat!”
It’s a mordant recognition California is a hopeless one-party state. For someone like me who grew up in California when it was considered “Reagan Country” and the bulwark of Republican strength in the Electoral College, this is a shocking and depressing state of affairs.
The California Republican Party is so feeble that it’s becoming more frequent that the state’s top-two “jungle” primary system adopted 20 years ago, in which all candidates are listed and voted on together with the top two finishers going on the November ballot, produces general-election contests for statewide office between two Democrats.
Kamala Harris, frontrunner in California’s gubernatorial race, benefited from the state’s jungle primary. Reuters
Kamala Harris was first elected to the US Senate in 2016 out of the jungle-primary process, beating another Democrat who finished second in the spring.
Sen. Adam Schiff last year ran TV ads successfully boosting Republican Steve Garvey’s candidacy in the primary so he wouldn’t have to contest another Democrat in November — and won.
In an open field for governor next year, it’s possible two strong Democrats could keep a Republican from making the general-election ballot. One of them is likely to be Kamala Harris, who’s leading in the early polls.
Part of the problem for anyone, especially a Republican, seeking statewide office in California is that the state’s sheer size and expensive media markets make it difficult to break through to the public and establish basic name identification.
Succeeding statewide requires that a candidate be part of a well-organized and well-funded political machine — which is how Newsom and Harris ascended in the Bay Area — or have celebrity status, like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Ronald Reagan back in 1966.
(Lost in the mists of time is the Democratic effort in 1974 to get Warren Beatty to run for governor, mimicking Reagan’s celebrity success.)
Bill Maher AP
Long gone are the days when a Republican could slowly climb the greasy pole of statewide politics with a solid record in lower offices, like George Deukmejian or Pete Wilson.
While Republican strength has atrophied, California Democrats have built a powerful and flush political machine, anchored in progressive San Francisco, that skillfully grooms and promotes statewide candidates, such as Newsom and Harris.
If next year’s election offers Harris and some other far-left Democrat such as AG Bonta, we few remaining California Republicans might well pack up our moving vans or consider assisted suicide.
California’s political climate has changed since Ronald Reagan was governor. Bettmann Archive
The despair over today’s one-party rule has led to the faint hope that perhaps a moderate Democrat might come along some Republicans could swallow.
But amazingly Jerry Brown was about as moderate as you could expect from California Democrats, and that’s saying something.
Maybe the time has come for Republicans to explore some exotic options besides exile. Are there any different Democrats out there with the possible appeal and ability to disrupt the Democratic Party’s far-left political machine?
There might be one: comedian Bill Maher.
It may sound crazy at first, but he seems to have finally made the turn toward across-the-board political sense.
Maher (right) hosts Trump fan Kid Rock on his HBO show. HBO
Perhaps Maher’s progress is a simple case of maturity that comes with advancing years, but one sees no such progress with other left-leaning comedians such as Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, who increasingly offer up unfunny partisan hackery.
Maher appears to be a “liberal who was mugged by reality” — the Christopher Hitchens of lefty comedians.
Going back to his ABC show “Politically Incorrect” 25 years ago, Maher has always displayed an independent streak. He never sugarcoated radical Islam and chided fellow liberals who did.
“Liberals need to stand up for liberal principles,” he insisted. “Liberal principles like freedom of speech, freedom to practice any religion you want without fear of violence, freedom to leave a religion, equality for women, equality for minorities including homosexuals — these are liberal principles that liberals applaud for, but then when you say in the Muslim world this is what’s lacking, then they get upset.”
That prompted guest Ben Affleck to call him a bigot.
In more recent years Maher has repeatedly attacked identity politics in his rants on his weekly HBO show, “Real Time.”
Maher (center) sparred with Ben Affleck (left) on his show “Real Time.” AP
In one monologue several months ago, Maher said: “We need to stop talking about the things that make Americans different from each other and start honoring the things that make us the same. . . . Outdated racial pandering is one reason Democrats keep losing elections. Today’s Democrats should move on from identity politics.”
This has now become the conventional wisdom among many leading Democrats, though they haven’t figured out how to get out of it without infuriating their identity interest groups that hold so much sway over the party.
In the wake of the Los Angeles fires Maher suddenly sounds like a fiscal conservative, pointing out that people in California pay high taxes and rightly expect competent government — but aren’t getting it.
It’s pretty clear he has contempt for Newsom and Bass. He even dishes on high-speed rail, the greatest boondoggle in California history. One recent monologue on HBO he asked, “Can anyone really say our government is not broken?”
He followed up by saying President Trump might be right about getting rid of the Department of Education. Rare for a liberal, he looks at results rather than the good intentions and money spent, and he sees that the Department of Education has abjectly failed in its mission.
And he’s called for getting tough on crime.
These are all heresies among the ideological minders of the Democratic Party but probably in step with a lot of rank-and-file Democrats. He is a callback to an older, hardheaded, commonsense social democrat.
The deadly California wildfires have put California’s leaders under a harsh spotlight. REUTERS
Would he make a good candidate?
He checks the well-known-celebrity box and would generate lots of free media. To be sure, Maher is a Trump-hater, a professed socialist and a celebrant of the drug culture. He’s made it clear he’ll never become a Republican or vote for a Republican.
But given that California Democrats now are incompetent socialists, Maher might still be attractive to many Republicans, while peeling off some of the growing number of Democrats in California, especially in Silicon Valley, who are quietly disgusted with the state of things.
In the absence of a credible Republican candidate (a good bet as of the moment), Maher presents Republicans with the opportunity at least to disrupt the Democrats’ machine. If nothing else, it would be amusing to watch other Democrats attack Maher from the left in a campaign, which would push the party’s public image even further left than it already is. There’s a chance that if he won, he’d include several Republicans in his cabinet because he’d know they’re more competent than the ideologues Democrats install now.
It will be objected that as a comedian, he has no government experience. That was the main objection to Reagan, of course, and we know how that turned out.
And Maher wouldn’t be the first comedian propelled into high office at a stroke. There’s another TV comedian people have heard of who ascended into high office recently named Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is one comedian who went from the small screen to the world stage. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP via Getty Images
Don’t knock the comic temperament. “A joke is a serious thing,” Winston Churchill remarked.
We’ll know wokeism is truly over when “Blazing Saddles” can be shown on a college campus.
Besides, if Republicans can embrace Robert F. Kennedy Jr., they ought to be able to accept Bill Maher or at least enjoy the disruptive possibilities he might offer.
Who knows how far his journey might yet take him? After all, coming around begrudgingly to the former host of “The Apprentice” has worked out fairly well for RFK Jr. Maher should follow his lead.
Steven F. Hayward is the Edward Gaylord Distinguished Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy.
Warren Buffett loves index funds. He famously said that, upon his passing, he wants the bulk of his assets to be put into low-fee index funds for his wife.
Little work, little knowledge needed, and you get the average return of the market. That’s the basic idea. For someone like his wife, with little knowledge of the markets, it’s simple and time-tested strategy to make your money work for you.
But it’s not how he did it himself. Buffett didn’t rise from a relatively modest background to multi-billionaire status through index funds. Granted, they didn’t exist in those days. The earliest of these funds date back to the 1970s.
Big returns
But even today, Buffett prefers active investment over passive investment. Why? Because of the chance of market-beating returns. His holding company Berkshire Hathaway has netted near 20% returns for over half a century. That sounds like it’s worth the effort, for some people at least.
Where would Buffett get started today? He’d probably look at beaten down stocks, fallen share prices and sectors that have suffered a bit of a tailspin. He’d look for cheap stocks, basically.
In his own words, “Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is”.
It’s human nature to follow a crowd and in many walks of life it’s a material advantage. But in the stock market, following what everyone else is doing can be like the lemmings walking off the cliff. Not a good idea.
Expanding on the above quote, Buffett says, “The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well”.
Plenty of UK stocks have shown this to be true of late. Airlines took a hit after Covid. Was there an opportunity there? I’d say so. The businesses weren’t harmed outside of an increase in supply costs. What’s more, flying is more popular than ever.
Today’s opportunities
British Airways owner IAG has reaped the rewards, its shares doubling in value over the last year or so.
Buffett isn’t a fan of airlines for their unpredictability but I think he’d accept there was value there.
Is there anything like that today? One stock that stands out to me in this regard is Diageo (LSE: DGE). The drinks seller has seen a slump in sales while navigating a leadership change. The shares have lost nearly half their value in the last three years or so. All this while its flagship brand Guinness is booming so much the firm is facing calls to divest it into a FTSE 100 business all of its own.
Coincidentally, Warren owns this stock already, the only British company in the Berkshire portfolio. I own it too and am happy with the size of my position but any further drop in price and I may have to increase that. Buy low, sell high, as they say. Well, this might be a buy low moment.
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Stanley Tucci pasta casserole is everything you want in a casserole. It’s simple to make and incredibly flavorful! TikTok is going crazy over the crispy bacon, tender peas, and the cheesy, creamy sauce that holds everything together!
Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy to Make: This is the perfect recipe to throw together when you haven’t planned ahead for dinner. All you need is 20 minutes of prep and 25 minutes in the oven, and dinner is served!
Stanley Tucci! He is one of my favorite actors who loves food and is passionate about Italian, at-home recipes. You know everything he makes is going to be amazing!
Not all viral recipes are worth making. I always trust that whatever Stanley Tucci makes is going to be delicious. He always shares recipes I can make with items I already have at home that taste amazing. I’m also confident my kids will enjoy it as well! Here is a link to his viral casserole on TikTok.
Ingredients Needed
How to Make Stanley Tucci Pasta Casserole
I love Stanley Tucci for so many reasons! I especially love that he shares his incredible recipes with the world, and they taste amazing! His version is a little fancier than what I know my family will eat. So, I made some changes to make it more accessible and kid friendly for you!
Prep: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9 x 13 x 2-inch casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray, then set aside. Add the cooked al dente pasta and bacon to a large bowl and set aside.
Saute Vegetables: Add 2 tablespoons butter to a medium skillet and melt over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes before adding the garlic and peas. Cook for an additional 2 minutes.
Mix: Remove the onion mixture from the heat and add it to the bowl with the pasta. Add the alfredo sauce and stir until everything is evenly combined.
Bake: Transfer to the prepared baking dish and top with the parmesan cheese. Bake for 15- 20 minutes or until heated through and the cheese on top is nicely browned. Garnish your casserole with chopped parsley and serve.
Stanley Tucci Casserole Tips and Variations
Stanley Tucci put this delicious dish together for brunch one morning and put it on TikTok. Everyone went nuts over it, and I see why. Here are some tips and variations you can use to make this your own.
Can I use Pancetta? Stanley uses pancetta in his casserole, but I used bacon because it’s what I had on hand. If you have pancetta, go ahead and use it!
Can I Make Béchamel Sauce? For the sauce, Stanley uses bechamel. I used jarred alfredo because it is quicker, easier, and more accessible. Here is the link to make my béchamel sauce recipe.
Do I have to use peas? Change up the vegetable to use up whatever leftover veggies you have on hand! Chopped asparagus, green beans, Brussels sprouts, or broccoli would be delicious.
What kind of pasta should I use? You can use almost any kind of cooked pasta in this casserole. It doesn’t have to be farfalle.
Stanley Tucci Pasta Casserole Leftover Instructions
This is a great recipe to reheat the next day. It’s also easy for the kids to warm up a serving when they get home from school.
Fridge: Store leftover Stanley Tucci pasta casserole in the fridge in an airtight container or cover tightly with plastic wrap for up to 5 days.
Reheating Instructions: Reheat in the microwave 30-60 seconds at a time until steaming, or in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes until heated through.
Make Ahead Instructions: You can prepare this through step 4 up to 24 hours in advance. Bake as directed, adding 5-10 minutes to the baking time to ensure it is fully heated through.
Perfect Pasta Casserole Recipes
Pasta casseroles are my go to recipes! They are easy to make, feed a crowd, don’t break the bank, and are typically kid approved! Here are a few pasta casserole recipes for you to try.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9 x 13 x 2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
Add 16 ounces cooked Farfalle pasta and 1 pound cooked and crumbled bacon, to a large bowl and set aside.
Add 2 tablespoons salted butter to a medium skillet and melt over medium heat. Add 1 ½ cups diced onion and cook for 2 minutes before adding 3 teaspoons minced garlic and 1 ½ cups thawed frozen peas. Cook for an additional 2 minutes.
Remove the onion mixture from the heat and add it to the bowl with the pasta. Add 16 ounces alfredo sauce, and mix until everything is evenly combined.
Transfer to the prepared baking dish and top with ½ cup grated parmesan. Bake for 15- 20 minutes or until heated through and the cheese on top is nicely browned. Garnish with chopped parsley,and serve.
The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is in full swing and I think there will be a fair few business models disrupted by this technology in the coming years. Indeed, there already have been some, including penny shareChegg (NYSE: CHGG).
In 2021, this online education company had a share price of $113 and a market cap in the $14bn region. Now, those figures stand at $1 and $112m, respectively.
In other words, the stock has lost 99% of its value!
What the heck has happened?
For those unfamiliar, Chegg offers textbook rentals, online tutoring, study resources, and homework help, primarily for college students through its subscription-based platform.
Unfortunately for Chegg, these are the sort of things that students can increasingly get from AI chatbots for free. In fact, since ChatGPT was released in November 2022, the stock has crashed 96%. So there is a direct correlation.
In Q4 2022, the company reported revenue of $205m. For Q1 2025, it is now guiding for revenue of around $115m. So there has been a significant decline in the past couple of years.
Meanwhile, the number of subscribers has fallen from 5m in Q4 2002 to 3.6m in Q4 2024. Chegg has also turned unprofitable over this period, with an adjusted net loss of $160m on revenue of $617m last year.
Double whammy!
But here’s where the plot thickens, and not in a good way for Chegg. You see, the rise of generative AI bots like ChatGPT didn’t just threaten Chegg’s business model. It also posed a risk to Google’s search empire because people might get the info they want by asking an AI bot (thereby bypassing all those ads on Google’s search pages).
In response, the tech giant rolled out AI Overviews (AIO) in May 2024. These are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results, providing users with concise answers to their queries without requiring them to visit external websites.
Alas, Chegg says AIO has had a “profound impact” on traffic flowing to its site. Non-subscriber traffic plummeted to negative 49% in January 2025, down significantly from the modest 8% decline it reported in Q2 2024.
As the firm puts it, “Google AIO has transformed Google from a “search engine” into an “answer engine,” displaying AI-generated content sourced from third-party sites like Chegg“. In other words, the firm is saying Google is using its proprietary content while driving less traffic to its site.
The company has announced it is suing Alphabet-owned Google.
Foolish takeaway
To be fair, Chegg is just chugging on with product development. It has integrated AI and machine learning into its product stack, while its language learning service (Busuu) is growing strongly.
At the same time, the company said its launching a “strategic review process“. That sounds like it might be open to a sale to me. If so, perhaps it will be acquired for a far higher valuation than $112m.
I wish Chegg luck, but this stock is far too risky for me.
More broadly, it serves as a cautionary tale of AI disruption. More than ever, I think it’s crucial to make sure the software/tech companies we’re invested in aren’t vulnerable to being disrupted by AI. The technology is likely to cause as much value destruction as creation.
Renée Zellweger poses on Marie Claire Australia March 2025 cover. Photo: David Roemer
Renée Zellweger is stepping into the spotlight once again, fronting the March 2025 cover of Marie Claire Australia, as photographed by David Roemer (Atelier Management). The Academy Award-winning actress stuns in a tailored Michael Kors blazer and heels, accessorized with Bulgari jewelry.
Renée Zellweger for Marie Claire Australia March 2025 Photoshoot
Actress Renée Zellweger kicks up her heels. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire Australia
The accompanying photoshoot, styled by fashion director Naomi Smith, showcases Renée in a mix of power suits, flowing dresses, and polished separates from top brands like Ralph Lauren, Saint Laurent, and Chanel.
Renée Zellweger gets her closeup in a black and white shot. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire Australia
Beyond fashion, the interview goes into her return as Bridget Jones in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Reflecting on the character’s evolution, she shares, “It’s an interesting thing to revisit a character in different chapters of her life while having grown personally at the same time.” She continues, “It’s like visiting an old friend.”
Renée Zellweger. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire Australia
The spread captures her versatility. That’s whether she is lounging in a sharp burgundy suit with a loosened tie or playfully posing in a sheer floral dress. Each image is a masterclass in reinvention, mirroring Zellweger’s own career.
Renée Zellweger. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire AustraliaRenée Zellweger. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire AustraliaRenée Zellweger. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire AustraliaRenée Zellweger. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire AustraliaRenée Zellweger. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire AustraliaRenée Zellweger. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire AustraliaRenée Zellweger. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire AustraliaRenée Zellweger. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire AustraliaRenée Zellweger. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire AustraliaRenée Zellweger. Photo: David Roemer / Marie Claire Australia
The idea is that virtual twins created on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform can be explored in virtual 3D space. More importantly, it enables teams to collaborate on projects, thanks to Vision Pro’s advanced cameras, sensors and tracking, which allow virtual twins to interact with the physical world around them in 3D UNIV+RSES with scientific accuracy.
Imagine, for example, you are working to develop industrial machinery of some kind. Using these tools, you could build a virtual representation of the machine and use the built-in AI to put your creation through virtual real-world tests to identify problems in the design and find improvements. This is going to be considerably less expensive and risky than actual physical prototyping.
Alternatively, when assessing devices for maintenance, the digital twin can show how things are meant to work, helping to identify ongoing flaws. The same applies to any form of product design and should make it much easier and cheaper to develop new product and bring it to market — particularly as teams can collaborate on these designs in real or asynchronous time from anywhere in the world using Vision Pro and Dassault Systemes’ solutions.
The UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) has advised the government to ensure in the UK have heat pumps — electric replacements for gas boilers — by 2040 as part of its to reach net zero by 2050. It also recommended making four out of five cars electric.
The UK’s carbon budgets are intended to help it achieve a balance between the greenhouse gasses it produces and how much is taken out of the atmosphere. Besides switching to electric cars and heat pumps and moving away from fossil fuels, the CCC added that reducing consumption of meat and dairy would also help. Although the UK government isn’t bound to accept the CCC’s guidance, doing so makes the carbon target legally binding. The government can decide how it wants to hit the goal.
The UK has been pushing for since 2021, especially ones powered by . Engadget senior editor Dan Cooper also broke down how difficult it was for him to completely in 2022, citing how expensive it was to install a heat pump even with government discounts. While technology is rapidly becoming more efficient, the CCC’s plans aren’t guaranteed to work.
