• The Trump administration has tried to mount a full-court press on China, ramping up its anti-China rhetoric and increasing their military, economic, and diplomatic pressure on Beijing.
• But the US is losing to China in two important areas — economics and technology — and it's a change that has been a long time coming, writes author and journalist Dilip Hiro.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

For the Trump administration's senior officials, it's been open season on bashing China. If you need an example, think of the president's blame game about "the invisible Chinese virus" as it spreads wildly across the US.

When it comes to China, in fact, the ever more virulent criticism never seems to stop.

Between the end of June and the end of July, four members of his cabinet vied with each other in spewing anti-Chinese rhetoric. That particular spate of China bashing started when FBI Director Christopher Wray described Chinese President Xi Jinping as the successor to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

It was capped by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's clarion call to US allies to note the "bankrupt" Marxist-Leninist ideology of China's leader and the urge to "global hegemony" that goes with it, insisting that they would have to choose "between freedom and tyranny." (Forget which country on this planet actually claims global hegemony as its right.)

At the same time, the Pentagon deployed its aircraft carriers and other weaponry ever more threateningly in the South China Sea and elsewhere in the Pacific. The question is: What lies behind this upsurge in Trump administration China baiting? A likely answer can be found in the president's blunt statement in a July interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News that "I'm not a good loser. I don't like to lose."

The reality is that, under Donald Trump, the United States is indeed losing to China in two important spheres. As the FBI's Wray put it, "In economic and technical terms [China] is already a peer competitor of the United States ... in a very different kind of [globalized] world." In other words, China is rising and the US is falling. Don't just blame Trump and his cronies for that, however, as this moment has been a long time coming.

Facts speak for themselves. Nearly unscathed by the 2008-2009 global recession, China displaced Japan as the world's second largest economy in August 2010.

In 2012, with $3.87 trillion worth of imports and exports, it overtook the US total of $3.82 trillion, elbowing it out of a position it had held for 60 years as the number one cross-border trading nation worldwide. By the end of 2014, China's gross domestic product, as measured by purchasing power parity, was $17.6 trillion, slightly exceeding the $17.4 trillion of the United States, which had been the globe's largest economy since 1872.

In May 2015, the Chinese government released a Made in China 2025 plan aimed at rapidly developing 10 high-tech industries, including electric cars, next-generation information technology, telecommunications, advanced robotics, and artificial intelligence.

Other major sectors covered in the plan included agricultural technology, aerospace engineering, the development of new synthetic materials, the emerging field of biomedicine, and high-speed rail infrastructure. The plan was aimed at achieving 70% self-sufficiency in high-tech industries and a dominant position in such global markets by 2049, a century after the founding of the People's Republic of China 

Semiconductors are crucial to all electronic products and, in 2014, the government's national integrated circuit industry development guidelines set a target: China was to become a global leader in semiconductors by 2030. In 2018, the local chip industry moved up from basic silicon packing and testing to higher value chip design and manufacturing.

The following year, the US Semiconductor Industry Association noted that, while America led the world with nearly half of global market share, China was the main threat to its position because of huge state investments in commercial manufacturing and scientific research.

By then, the US had already fallen behind China in just such scientific and technological research. A study by Nanjing University's Qingnan Xie and Harvard University's Richard Freeman noted that between 2000 and 2016, China's share of global publications in the physical sciences, engineering, and math quadrupled, exceeding that of the US. 

In 2019, for the first time since figures for patents were compiled in 1978, the US failed to file for the largest number of them. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, China filed applications for 58,990 patents and the United States 57,840. In addition, for the third year in a row, the Chinese high-tech corporation Huawei Technologies Company, with 4,144 patents, was well ahead of U.S.-based Qualcomm (2,127).

Among educational institutions, the University of California maintained its top rank with 470 published applications, but Tsinghua University ranked second with 265. Of the top five universities in the world, three were Chinese.

The neck-and-neck race in consumer electronics

By 2019, the leaders in consumer technology in America included Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft; in China, the leaders were Alibaba (founded by Jack Ma), Tencent (Tengxun in Chinese), Xiaomi, and Baidu. All had been launched by private citizens.

Among the US companies, Microsoft was established in 1975, Apple in 1976, Amazon in 1994, and Google in September 1998. The earliest Chinese tech giant, Tencent, was established two months after Google, followed by Alibaba in 1999, Baidu in 2000, and Xiaomi, a hardware producer, in 2010. When China first entered cyberspace in 1994, its government left intact its policy of controlling information through censorship by the Ministry of Public Security.

In 1996, the country established a high-tech industrial development zone in Shenzhen, just across the Pearl River from Hong Kong, the first of what would be a number of special economic zones. From 2002 on, they would begin attracting Western multinational corporations keen to take advantage of their tax-free provisions and low-wage skilled workers. By 2008, such foreign companies accounted for 85% of China's high-tech exports.

Shaken by an official 2005 report that found serious flaws in the country's innovation system, the government issued a policy paper the following year listing 20 mega-projects in nanotechnology, high-end generic microchips, aircraft, biotechnology, and new drugs. It then focused on a bottom-up approach to innovation, involving small start-ups, venture capital, and cooperation between industry and universities, a strategy that would take a few years to yield positive results.

In January 2000, less than 2% of Chinese used the internet. To cater to that market, Robin Li and Eric Xu set up Baidu in Beijing as a Chinese search engine. By 2009, in its competition with Google China, a subsidiary of Google operating under government censorship, Baidu garnered twice the market share of its American rival as Internet penetration leapt to 29%.

In the aftermath of the 2008-2009 global financial meltdown, significant numbers of Chinese engineers and entrepreneurs returned from Silicon Valley to play an important role in the mushrooming of high-tech firms in a vast Chinese market increasingly walled off from US and other Western corporations because of their unwillingness to operate under government censorship.

Soon after Xi Jinping became president in March 2013, his government launched a campaign to promote "mass entrepreneurship and mass innovation" using state-backed venture capital. That was when Tencent came up with its super app WeChat, a multi-purpose platform for socializing, playing games, paying bills, booking train tickets, and so on.

Jack Ma's e-commerce behemoth Alibaba went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014, raising a record $25 billion with its initial public offering. By the end of the decade, Baidu had diversified into the field of artificial intelligence, while expanding its multiple internet-related services and products.

As the search engine of choice for 90% of Chinese Internet users, more than 700 million people, the company became the fifth most visited website in cyberspace, its mobile users exceeding 1.1 billion.

Xiaomi Corporation would release its first smartphone in August 2011. By 2014, it had forged ahead of its Chinese rivals in the domestic market and developed its own mobile phone chip capabilities. In 2019, it sold 125 million mobile phones, ranking fourth globally. By the middle of 2019, China had 206 privately held start-ups valued at more than $1 billion, besting the U.S. with 203.

Among the country's many successful entrepreneurs, the one who particularly stood out was Jack Ma, born Ma Yun in 1964.

Though he failed to get a job at a newly opened Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in his home city of Hangzhou, he did finally gain entry to a local college after his third attempt, buying his first computer at the age of 31. In 1999, he founded Alibaba with a group of friends. It would become one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. On his 55th birthday, he was the second richest man in China with a net worth of $42.1 billion.

Born in the same year as Ma, his American counterpart, Jeff Bezos, gained a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University. He would found Amazon.com in 1994 to sell books online, before entering e-commerce and other fields. Amazon Web Services, a cloud computing company, would become the globe's largest.

In 2007, Amazon released a handheld reading device called the Kindle. Three years later, it ventured into making its own television shows and movies. In 2014, it launched Amazon Echo, a smart speaker with a voice assistant named Alexa that let its owner instantly play music, control a Smart home, get information, news, weather, and more. With a net worth of $145.4 billion in 2019, Bezos became the richest person on the planet.

Deploying an artificial intelligence inference chip to power features on its e-commerce sites, Alibaba categorized a billion product images uploaded by vendors to its e-commerce platform daily and prepared them for search and personalized recommendations to its customer base of 500 million. By allowing outside vendors to use its platform for a fee, Amazon increased its items for sale to 350 million — with 197 million people accessing Amazon.com each month.

China also led the world in mobile payments with America in sixth place. In 2019, such transactions in China amounted to $80.5 trillion. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the authorities encouraged customers to use mobile payment, online payment, and barcode payment to avoid the risk of infection. The projected total for mobile payments: $111.1 trillion. The corresponding figures for the United States at $130 billion look puny by comparison.

In August 2012, the founder of the Beijing-based ByteDance, 29-year-old Zhang Yiming, broke new ground in aggregating news for its users. His product, Toutiao (Today's Headlines) tracked users' behavior across thousands of sites to form an opinion of what would interest them most, and then recommended stories.

By 2016, it had already acquired 78 million users, 90% of them under 30.

In September 2016, ByteDance launched a short-video app in China called Douyin that gained 100 million users within a year. It would soon enter a few Asian markets as TikTok. In November 2017, for $1 billion, ByteDance would purchase Musical.ly, a Shanghai-based Chinese social network app for video creation, messaging, and live broadcasting, and set up an office in California.

Zhang merged it into TikTok in August 2018 to give his company a larger footprint in the US and then spent nearly $1 billion to promote TikTok as the platform for sharing short-dance, lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos. It has been downloaded by 165 million Americans and driven the Trump administration to distraction.

A Generation Z craze, in April 2020 it surpassed two billion downloads globally, eclipsing US tech giants. That led President Trump (no loser he!) and his top officials to attack it and he would sign executive orders attempting to ban both TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US or being used by Americans (unless sold to a US tech giant). Stay tuned.

Huawei's octane-powered rise

But the biggest Chinese winner in consumer electronics and telecommunications has been Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies Company, the country's first global multinational. It has become a pivot point in the geopolitical battle between Beijing and Washington.

Huawei (in Chinese, it means "splendid achievement") makes phones and the routers that facilitate communications around the world. Established in 1987, its current workforce of 194,000 operates in 170 countries. In 2019, its annual turn-over was $122.5 billion.

In 2012, it outstripped its nearest rival, the 136-year-old Ericsson Telephone Corporation of Sweden, to become the world's largest supplier of telecommunications equipment with 28% of market share globally. In 2019, it forged ahead of Apple to become the second largest phone maker after Samsung.

Several factors have contributed to Huawei's stratospheric rise: its business model, the personality and decision-making mode of its founder Ren Zhengfei, state policies on high-tech industry, and the firm's exclusive ownership by its employees.

Born in 1944 in Guizhou Province, Ren Zhengfei went to Chongqing University and then joined a military research institute during Mao Zedong's chaotic Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). He was demobilized in 1983 when China cut back on its engineering corps. But the army's slogan, "fight and survive," stayed with him. He moved to the city of Shenzhen and worked in the country's infant electronics sector for four years, saving enough to cofound what would become the tech giant Huawei.

He focused on research and development, adapting technologies from Western firms, while his new company received small orders from the military and later substantial R&D (research and development) grants from the state to develop GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) phones and other products. Over the years, the company produced telecommunications infrastructure and commercial products for third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) smartphones.

As China's high-tech industry surged, Huawei's fortunes rose. In 2010, it hired IBM and Accenture PLC to design the means of managing networks for telecom providers. In 2011, the company hired the Boston Consulting Group to advise it on foreign acquisitions and investments.

Like many successful American entrepreneurs, Ren has given top priority to the customer and, in the absence of the usual near-term pressure to raise income and profits, his management team has invested $15 to $20 billion annually in research and development work.

That helps explain how Huawei became one of the globe's five companies in the fifth generation (5G) smartphone business, topping the list by shipping out 6.9 million phones in 2019 and capturing 36.9% of the market. On the eve of the release of 5G phones, Ren revealed that Huawei had a staggering 2,570 5G patents.

So it was unsurprising that in the global race for 5G, Huawei was the first to roll out commercial products in February 2019. One hundred times faster than its 4G predecessors, 5G tops out at 10 gigabits per second, and future 5G networks are expected to link a huge array of devices from cars to washing machines to door bells.

Huawei's exponential success has increasingly alarmed a Trump administration edging ever closer to conflict with China. Last month, Secretary of State Pompeo described Huawei as "an arm of the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance state that censors political dissidents and enables mass internment camps in Xinjiang."

In May 2019, the US Commerce Department banned American firms from supplying components and software to Huawei on national-security grounds. A year later, it imposed a ban on Huawei buying microchips from American companies or using US-designed software. The White House also launched a global campaign against the installation of the company's 5G systems in allied nations, with mixed success.

Ren continued to deny such charges and to oppose Washington's moves, which have so far failed to slow his company's commercial advance. Its revenue for the first half of 2020, $65 billion, was up by 13.1% over the previous year.

From tariffs on Chinese products and that recent TikTok ban to slurs about the "kung flu" as the Covid-19 pandemic swept America, President Trump and his team have been expressing their mounting frustration over China and ramping up attacks on an inexorably rising power on the global stage.

Whether they know it or not, the American century is over, which doesn't mean that nothing can be done to improve the US position in the years to come.

Setting aside Washington's belief in the inherent superiority of America, a future administration could stop hurling insults or trying to ban enviably successful Chinese tech firms and instead emulate the Chinese example by formulating and implementing a well-planned, long-term high-tech strategy.

But as the Covid-19 pandemic has made abundantly clear, the very idea of planning is not a concept available to the "very stable genius" presently in the White House.

Dilip Hiro, a TomDispatch regular, is the author, among many other works, of "After Empire: The Birth of a Multipolar World." He is currently researching a sequel to that book, which would cover several interlinked subjects, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Apple is set to surge as much as 40% on a "once in a decade" opportunity as it benefits from a massive upgrade cycle for its iPhone install base over the next year, according to Wedbush.
• In a note published on Wednesday, Wedbush raised its Apple price target to $600 and its bull-case price target to $700, representing upside potential from current levels of 20% and 40%.
• Wedbush said the next iPhone would represent the most significant product cycle for Apple since it released the iPhone 6 in 2014.
• The Street is underestimating the "massive pent-up demand" of the next iPhone, which will help fuel Apple's continued valuation increases, Wedbush added.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple is set to continue its monster run and could rally another 40% in a bull-case scenario to $700, Wedbush said in a Wednesday note.

The iPhone maker is set to capitalize on a "once in a decade" opportunity — it's on the verge of a massive upgrade cycle for its 950 million iPhone install base as it prepares to launch a new iPhone later this year, Wedbush said.

It added that the demand for an iPhone with 5G capabilities and a new design would make the next iPhone the most significant product cycle for Apple since it launched the iPhone 6 in 2014.

Wedbush estimated that 350 million iPhone users would look to upgrade over the next 12 to 18 months.

Read more: David Baron's fund has returned 400% to investors in the last decade using 20 stocks or less. He shared with us the 3 stocks he snapped up in 2020 — and the 3 travel and entertainment bets he loves going forward.

Wedbush also raised its base-case price target to a Street high of $600, representing 20% upside potential from Tuesday's close.

"We still believe many on the Street are underestimating the massive pent-up demand around this supercycle for Apple," Wedbush said, adding that 2021 represents a big opportunity for Apple as its monetization engine kicks into higher gear.

A report earlier this month said Apple would soon announce subscription-services bundles including Apple TV, Apple Music, Arcade, and more as it looks to better monetize these services.

Read more: Hundreds of flips and dozens of rentals: Here are the 4 real-estate investing strategies HGTV veteran Chris Naugle is leveraging to make sure every deal is a winner

Wedbush valued Apple's services business at $900 billion to $950 billion, saying that the company continues to "flawlessly execute on the vision." For 2021, Wedbush estimated that the business would hit $60 billion in annual revenue, which "speaks to Apple's ability to further monetize its golden installed base."

Finally, China remains a "key ingredient" for Apple's success, Wedbush said, estimating that about 20% of iPhone upgrades would come from the region over the next year. And despite noise about a WeChat ban by the Trump administration, Wedbush said Apple's iPhone ecosystem would not be harmed.

Apple jumped as much as 1.5%, to $507.39, on Wednesday. Shares of Apple are up 71% year-to-date.

Read more: The CEO of a $1 billion ETF provider explains how the COVID-19 crisis completely upended investors' most reliable sources of steady returns — and shares where to find income as dividends and bond yields dry up

Read more: Morgan Stanley breaks down 3 reasons stocks could be headed for a short-term correction as the market gets dragged higher by a few big winners

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• Gifting to an art connoisseur can feel like a lofty task, especially when considering their eye for taste.
• Thankfully, The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a worthy selection of gifts inspired by the art found in the museum. 
• For its 150th anniversary, The Met has collaborated with some of our favorite brands — including Allbirds, Baggu, and The Sill — to create a unique line of gifts fit for the artist in your life. 
• Still looking for gift ideas? Check out all Insider Reviews gift guides here.

Buying gifts for the artsy-fartsy souls in our lives can be a mystifying experience. They're impossible to buy clothes for, and the run of the mill gift card or Kindle is far too pedestrian.

But thank goodness, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is, as always, at your service and to the rescue. Not only do you have the museum's typical selection of gifts at your disposal, but The Met's 150th anniversary edit features collaborations with some of our tried and true favorite retailers like Allbirds and The Sill. If you're anything like me, that should come as a tremendous relief.

We've rounded up gifts for all age groups, tastes, and interests, so rest easy, my Philistine (and otherwise lost) friends, we (and The Met) are here for you.

The top 5 gifts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 

1. A pair of Allbirds inspired by notable artwork ($95)
2. A planter sporting The Met's signature red ($30)
3. Reusable bags that are as expressive as they are functional ($36)
4. A charm commemorating the museum's previous admissions button ($68)
5. Face masks inspired by Monet and Van Gogh ($25) 

Below, you'll find 18 of the best gifts you can buy from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 

A unicorn ornament from The Unicorn Tapestries

Unicorn Ornament, $28 (member price: $25.20)

This ornament features "The Unicorn in Captivity" from the famous medieval Unicorn Tapestries hanging at The Met Cloisters.

An artistic take on Allbirds

Allbirds Tree Runners, $95 (member price: $95) [also available at Allbirds]

Allbirds are an Insider Reviews favorite because of their comfort and durability, and The Met has elevated the Tree Runners style even further by releasing three unique pairs inspired by some of the museum's best pieces. Learn more about The Met x Allbirds' collaboration here.

A coffee table book of David Hockney's delightful works

David Hockney, $40 (member price: $36)

David Hockney has graced us with decades of delightful illustrations. It's about time we all have a book of them.

A set of reusable bags featuring images from museum originals

BAGGU Bag Set, $36 (member price: $36) [also available at BAGGU]

Redrawn and inspired by original pieces in The Met's collection, these reusable bags come from one of our favorite sustainable brands. In addition to the museum's store, BAGGU's entire collaboration with The Met can be found on its site, where you can receive free shipping on all orders. 

Masks inspired by the work of Monet and Van Gogh

Floral Impressions Face Masks, $25 (member price: $22.50)

A practical gift can still be thoughtful, and they'll make use of these face masks that sport close-up iterations of Monet's "Water Lillies" and Van Gogh's "Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase." 

An action figure of their favorite artist

Frida Kahlo Action Figure, $28 (Member price: $25.20)

This will at least produce a grin, if not a warm chuckle. There's also Van Gogh, Dalí, and more of the usual suspects.

A Catbird necklace commemorating the museum's metal buttons

Catbird: The Met Button Souvenir Charm, $68 (member price: $68) [also available at Catbird]

In collaboration with affordable fine jewelry brand Catbird, this 14-karat gold charm is inspired by The Met's metal admissions buttons from years ago. Both The Met and Catbird currently host an entire collection of products inspired by the museum on their sites. 

A playable art helicone

Playable Art Helicone, $65 (member price: $58.50)

This should keep someone busy for a while.

A planter sporting The Met's signature red

The Sill: Met Red Planter, $30 (member price: $30) [also available at The Sill]

Simple, yet elegant, this collaboration between The Met and plant delivery startup The Sill celebrates the museum logo's iconic red color. Other planters and accessories can be found at both The Met's online store and The Sill.

A Paul Klee-themed marble pencil set

Klee Marble Pencil Set, $55 (member price: $49.50)

For the budding illustrator in the family.

An ornate, Peter Carl Fabergé-inspired magnifier pendant

Russian Imperial Magnifier Pendant Necklace, $95 (member price: $85.50)

Charming, but surprisingly useful, too.

A coffee table collection of masterpiece paintings from the Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings, $75 (member price $67.50)

Even your less artsy loved ones will have to love this.

A Piet Mondrian composition watch

Mondrian Composition Watch, $48 (member price: $43.20)

A timeless Neoplastic timepiece if there ever was one, to boot.

A Native American art book

Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection, $50 (member price: $45)

Full of North American heritage and color, this book is fit to bedazzle any living room table.

A rollable, rainbow-themed piano

Rock and Roll It Rainbow Piano, $59.95 (member price: $53.95)

Beethoven and Chuck Berry can both roll over: there's a new kid in town. But parents, take warning, this tidy little roll-up keypad will have your little tyke on their way to superstardom, whether you like it or not.

A fringed scarf in William Morris' Marigold design

William Morris Marigold Scarf, $85 (member price: $76.50)

Yes, this is a wallpaper, and yes we promised to hold off on the clothes, but this is as perfect a scarf as they come. 

Louis C. Tiffany favrile glass magnets

Louis C. Tiffany Favrile Domed Magnets, $22 (member price: $19.80)

So the vivacious spirit of Louis Comfort Tiffany, purveyor of stained glass, can live on, on their fridge.

A tea pot adorned with Vincent Van Gogh's 'Irises'

Van Gogh "Irises" Teapot, $58 ($52.20)

There's nothing more romantically artsy than tea and flowers.

When you buy through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

• Buffy's Eucalyptus Sheets ($200 for a queen set) are made from an eco-friendly and hypoallergenic eucalyptus fabric, which is billed as being more breathable than cotton and softer than linen.  
• Sheet sets range in price from $169 to $229 and come in four neutral, naturally dyed colors.
• I slept on these sheets for weeks, and they're among my all-time favorites because they're silky and cool to the touch, and they're great at regulating temperature.  
• Read more: The best bed sheets

Buffy, the startup that dominated the internet with its comforter made from recycled plastic bottles, has started making bed sheets from 100% eucalyptus-based fiber — and reportedly come with the plant's naturally temperature-regulating properties.

Sheet sets range from $169 to $229 and a queen-size set will cost you $199. You can pick up sets for Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, and Cal King mattresses and in three neutral colors: Gray, Light Grey, and Blush. Each set will include a fitted sheet, top sheet, and two pillowcases. 

Like the rest of the product offerings, Buffy's sheets are built upon an environmentally conscious blueprint. The Austrian eucalyptus used to make its fabric reportedly requires 10 times less water to grow than cotton. And, in the company's first offering of colorways in bedding, all its hues were naturally created with ingredients like gardenia, pomegranate, turmeric, and walnut without using bleach or harsh chemicals. 

Like many sleep startups familiar with customer concerns of buying products online, Buffy has good customer service policies in place; you'll get free shipping, free returns, and a pay-later trial that means you'll only be charged once the seven-day trial ends and you've chosen to keep the sheets. If you don't love them after the trial, returns can be initiated within 30 days of ordering. 

In terms of cost, you can find sheets for around the same price from other popular home startups. Snowe's queen-sized Sateen Set is $220 (though it's been discontinued), Brooklinen's Luxe Sateen is $159, and Parachute's Sateen Set is $149 (though it doesn't include a top sheet). Obviously, Buffy's set is unique in being made from eucalyptus fiber. The closest material equivalent would be the heavier, silkier set offered by Ettitude for $178 that's made from bamboo lyocell. 

Review of Buffy's eucalyptus sheets 

Buffy's sheets are among my favorite sheets of all-time. They're wonderfully silky and cool-to-the-touch, and they actually deliver on being softer than my linen sheets and more breathable than my cotton sets. If you can afford them, I highly recommend trying them.

The only con I'd mention is that they're relatively thin. You'll probably be able to vaguely see the patterns on pillows underneath, which could pose an issue with a lot of wear. 

In the few weeks I've been sleeping under Buffy's sheets, they've become one of my all-time favorite sets. 

First of all, the material is decadent. It's the kind of silky fabric that threatens to slip off and out of a folded stack whenever it's not laid at ground level. It's also cool to the touch. The company bills it as being softer than linen and more breathable than cotton, and I've found that to be true. I own both linen and cotton sets, and I prefer Buffy's for everyday use. They've held up well to being washed indiscriminately with other linens at my local laundromat.

When I first started using them, I thought I would revert to linen because it feels more breathable overall but I actually prefer these because they're so airy. Other sheet sets I own, like Ettitude's Bamboo Lyocell Sheets, are silkier, but not as breathable. Buffy's sheets are a good combination of next-to-skin softness and breathability. 

The only possible con is that the sheets themselves are relatively thin — if your pillows have loud patterns on them, you may be able to see some of it underneath the Buffy covering. Its thinness may be a boon for breathability, but it could potentially mean they don't last as long as other thicker pairs. However, you have a seven-day trial to see if that's a deal-breaker before being charged, and a 30-day window from when you ordered in which to decide you want to send them back. 

Overall, if you're looking for silky, soft, breathable sheets that are both eco-friendly and primed to keep you from sweating at night, these are worth checking out. 

When you buy through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

• As COVID-19 changes the landscape for travel, road trips of all stripes are becoming popular with many Americans.
• The goal of a road trip, even during COVID-19, should be to enjoy yourself and come home as safe and healthy as you left — just a bit more relaxed.
• We interviewed experts including an epidemiologist, immunologist, eye and dental surgeons, and hospitality sanitation professional for advice on how to prepare, pack, and interact with others on the road.
• Read more: Is travel safe? We interviewed experts on risks associated with flying, booking hotels or Airbnbs, renting cars, and more, plus ideas on safe vacations during COVID-19

The days when organizing a road trip simply meant scouting for top snacks and making a killer playlist might be over — at least temporarily.

The impact of the novel coronavirus has turned travel into a cautionary tale, from those who write about it to those who do it only a couple of times per year.

But there are many ways to take a trip this summer safely and come home just as healthy as when you left. From precautions to products, we asked experts including an epidemiologist, an immunologist, eye and dental surgeons, and a hospitality sanitation professional to weigh in on how to prepare for a road trip, what to pack, and what to know once you hit the open road.

Some of the advice may seem overly cautionary; just thinking about packing many of these items feels tiresome. But as states reopen and cases rebound, the situation is proving especially fluid. Remember, there is no vaccine for the novel coronavirus, so even for travelers taking every precaution, there's no guarantee of safety. It's crucial to follow guidelines and advice from organizations such as the CDC and WHO, and practice safety measures including wearing a mask, washing your hands, and maintaining social distancing. Additionally, consider your own level of risk, and whether you're traveling from or to a hotspot, so as not to increase the rate of infection.

In short, expect to make adjustments, be flexible, and consider overpacking. It's better to have brought too much than be brought up short. And remember, the beauty of driving is, unlike flying, you've got autonomy. If anything happens that you don't like or makes you feel unsafe, you can get in the car and drive.

Tips on choosing your destination and lodging

Choosing where to go and stay go don't always go hand-in-hand. But in this case, first decide where you want to go, and what kind of lodging makes you comfortable. 

Because the virus is primarily transmitted via respiratory droplets between people, the fewer encounters you experience, the more you are able to protect your safety.

For that reason, doctors and experts regard renting private homes as a low-risk proposition for disease transmission, especially when compared to hotels. Given their very nature, hotels are places where hundreds of people gather in enclosed spaces. By booking an entire home, you're protected from interaction with others.

So, if you want to limit your exposure, choose a house or cabin, such as those found on Airbnb or Vrbo. Airbnb, in particular, also announced stringent new cleaning policies you may identify and consider before booking a home.

If you don't want to clean up after yourself and prefer the amenities of a hotel, look for boutique, standalone bungalows or cottages. Avoid high rise hotels with inevitably packed elevators in favor of properties that are well-suited to public distancing with plenty of open outdoor space like beaches, lakefronts, and hiking trails. Or, consider hotels built in a way that will minimize time spent in enclosed spaces, such as hallways or lobbies.

Find the latter with hotels such as those owned by Red Lion Hotels Corporation, a North American hotel franchisor encompassing value-conscious brands. Red Lion Hotels Interim CEO John Russell says, "We know avoiding crowds is a major reassurance to road-tripping. Many economy-level properties have exterior corridors, which helps minimize communal touchpoints and limits close physical interactions with other guests and employees in smaller indoor areas, lessening risk, further limiting exposure, and hopefully creating a sense of comfort."

Finally, travelers will also find middle ground with serviced apartments, like those operated by Domio, a crossover service that rents furnished apartments with hotel-like amenities. These accommodations provide the privacy of a home with the perks of a hotel, such as housekeeping, concierge, and luggage storage. 

No matter your choice, check for specific new COVID cleaning and sanitization policies, especially if you opt for a more public hotel choice.

For instance, for all of its 18 brands, Hilton partnered with the makers of Lysol® & Dettol® to deliver an even cleaner stay for guests with the creation of the Hilton CleanStay program.

Similarly, Hyatt Hotels announced a Global Care & Cleanliness Commitment that focuses on the safety and well-being of staff and guests and builds on existing rigorous safety and cleanliness protocols.

Others, like Marriott Bonvoy, are using hospital-grade disinfectants, masks and gloves, plexiglass barriers, and ultraviolet light to disinfect key cards and shared devices. The brand also established the Marriott Cleanliness Council,  to establish new procedures. 

Wherever you ultimately go, read up on the policy of the location before you leave, and plan accordingly. Some out-of-staters will be required by law to quarantine or present negative test results first, and could be barred from entering their lodging if they don't comply. 

What to pack

Be sure to pack cloth and disposable masks for both adults and children, disposable gloves, and antibacterial wipes to spot-disinfect high-touch surfaces such as doorknobs, railings, and elevator buttons, even if your lodging promises wide-ranging policies. It never hurts to clean twice. 

If antibacterial wipes are hard to come by, there are different types of products to consider.

Taylor Smith, the founder of CJS Global, a sanitation company for the hospitality industry, says, "If you're able to secure a disinfecting spray that kills norovirus — Bioesque Disinfectant Solution (available via Amazon) is a good example — it would also be very helpful to spray it on surfaces." 

Look for sprays that say they kill flu and norovirus germs and here's a pro tip: buy the larger gallon size for home use and re-package it yourself in small spray bottles from Amazon, Walgreens, or another store to make it travel friendly.

If you're traveling with younger children, consider adding a nose sanitizer to your grab-and-go bag. Jeff Bullard, MD, who serves on the executive board of the Academy of Allergy and Asthma in Primary Care (AAAPC), says that since kids "often explore through touch, contaminated surfaces are of particular concern." 

They can then transfer any number of those germs directly to vulnerable spots on their heads, which any parent knows are hard to keep attached to a hat, let alone a mask. "As a parent, try to see the world through your child's exploring eyes," Dr. Bullard says. "If your child is old enough, teach them the importance of keeping their hands off items in public areas."

Products for adults are also available, like Nozin® Nasal Sanitizer® antiseptic, available from Amazon, NanoBio Protect, or Swype Shield, are non-prescription, compact, and kills nearly 99.9 percent of germs, according to their product descriptions.

And don't forget sunscreen. Prior to applying, make sure to wash your hands with water, not hand sanitizer. Derek Jouppi, a nanotechnology engineer in the sun care space who co-founded SPOTMYUV, an organization that invented UV detection stickers that measure your risk and exposure, says that alcohol-based "hand sanitizer removes sunscreen." 

Sunglasses, too, can help against exposure, says Dr. Kevin Lee, an eye physician and surgeon from the Golden Gate Eye Associates within the Pacific Vision Eye Institute in San Francisco. "If someone who has the coronavirus sneezes, the droplets can actually enter through one's eyes. I recommend wearing glasses, or in this case, sunglasses for those sunny drives as an extra protective barrier or shield from little respiratory droplets."

In addition, dental surgeon Dr. Mike Golpa says countertops are contaminated places for a toothbrush and suggests packing yours carefully. "Transport it in a protective case, separated from other cosmetics. If stored incorrectly, it becomes susceptible to virus transmission." Once you arrive, keep your toothbrush upright in a glass to dry after use, without allowing the bristles to touch anything.

UV-C light sanitizers, such as Homedics UV-Clean Phone Sanitizer and the Steri Wand Sanitizing Light, are also an option. Multipurpose, they can disinfect remote controls, phones, chargers, keys, cards, and other high-touch devices and surfaces that you might encounter in hotels or Airbnbs. 

And while you maybe haven't packed a pillow from home since you were a kid, it might be a tradition worth bringing back. The novel coronavirus "can be transmitted by the use of shared face towels and pillow covers," Dr. Lee warns. "If you're staying in a hotel, avoid using bathroom hand towels on your face. This is also true for shared pillow covers in common spaces, the family living room, etc."

Finally, pack a thermometer and Tylenol along with whatever other medications and vitamins you'd normally take. There's always the possibility that someone in your party could develop symptoms along the way, in which case, you may want to consider returning home or seeking medical attention, if appropriate. 

How to prepare your vehicle for the drive 

Chances are you haven't been spending quite as much time in your car as before the pandemic. But you're likely still using it for trips to grocery stores and other essential businesses.

Edmund Russell, director of product development and technical support for Ziebart, a 60-year-old car care provider with 400 locations and 1,200 service centers across the world, says consumers are waking up to the fact that their vehicles may carry more than the family's meat and potatoes. 

"Now that many municipalities are beginning to gradually re-open previously non-essential businesses, consumers are driving more places. Their cars can be a connector of germs between public places and their homes," he says. "We are receiving more requests and inquiries on how to disinfect their vehicles and kill coronavirus."

To do that, he suggests that you "carry anti-bacterial wipes to disinfect high-touch areas inside and outside your vehicle, such as the steering wheels, door handles (interior and exterior), door latches, lock buttons, radio and climate control buttons, and seat belts."

But he cautions against using bleach or hydrogen peroxide. "Never spray any liquid chemicals on electronic devices in the car. This can severely damage them and lead to a high cost to repair," he says. Instead, "use an alcohol swab to clean touch screen radios/GPS systems in the car."

Dr. Chris Xu, an immunologist and CEO of ThermoGenesis, a company that has created a rapid COVID-19 test kit for hospitals, endorses keeping a grab bag of Clorox wipes, Lysol spray, a box of disposable gloves, and masks in the car at all times. Just be sure to dispose of any gloves worn outside the car before getting back in. "Forgetting to take off gloves upon entering the car brings the very germs you were safe-guarding yourself against into your vehicle." 

And while it's tempting to break up a long trip with visits to roadside attractions or amusement parks, every time you leave the car increases your potential exposure. 

Epidemiologist and public health expert at ParentingPod.com Robert Gomez says that risk increases when you're "making frequent stops to go inside enclosed public spaces such as stores, restaurants, and public bathrooms during the trip."

He suggests always wearing a mask to leave the car, as you never know who you might brush against and to "travel with people who live in the same household." This is especially important if you're a high-risk individual or traveling with a high-risk individual.

How to protect yourself in your accommodations

Once you arrive and check-in, don't linger. Dr. Jeannie Kenkare, Chief Medical Officer and co-founder at PhysicianOne Urgent Care, a physician-founded urgent care center, says, "Remember that keeping your distance from others is most important since we believe that the main way that COVID-19 spreads is person-to-person contact through respiratory droplets. So, anyplace that other hotel guests are gathered are the highest risk places, such as the check-in desk, hotel bar, or at the pool. Room service is probably safer than eating in the hotel restaurant since you have contact with less individuals."

And while you should consider your room a haven, you still need to protect yourself inside it. Remember to use all the cleaning and sanitization tools you packed, because in the age of coronavirus, old truisms are more apt than ever before: Better safe than sorry.

Everything else you need to know about booking safe vacations during COVID-19

• Is travel safe? We interviewed experts on risks associated with flying, booking hotels or Airbnbs, renting cars, and more, plus ideas on safe vacations during COVID-19
• Is flying safe right now? Experts break down the risks associated with boarding a flight during COVID-19.
• Is it safe to stay in a hotel right now? An infectious disease doctor, a cleaning expert, and hotel reps all share what you should know before you check-in.
• Are Airbnbs safe? We spoke to experts, a company representative, and an Airbnb host to share everything you should know before booking someone's home.
• Which is safer: Airbnb or hotels? Here's what doctors say
• Are rental cars safe to drive right now? We talked to 3 leading experts to find out.
• Is it safe to travel by train during a pandemic? Doctors and cleaning experts weigh in, plus details on new protocols from Amtrak to minimize risks.
• Here are new safety and cleaning plans and precautions being implemented by every major hotel brand
• How to safely travel to college campuses for move-in day, according to an infectious disease expert
• 6 safer, expert-backed ways to take a vacation during the pandemic, from road trips to private vacation homes and remote campsites
• Everything to know about vacation rentals, including the best booking platforms, safety info, and the best places to go in the US
• 4 safer summer travel ideas based on expert advice
• 6 of the top road trips in the US and where to stay along the way

• More and more people are ditching traditional pots and pans in favor of hard-anodized cookware, thanks to its durability, nonstick performance, and easy to clean surfaces.
• There are a lot of options, but the Circulon Symmetry Hard-Anodized Nonstick 11-Piece Cookware Set is the best you can buy.

Considered the go-to option for home cooks, and even professional chefs, hard- anodized cookware is easy to use and clean.

So, what does "hard-anodized" actually mean? It's essentially a way of hardening a soft aluminum surface electrochemically so it becomes twice as hard as stainless steel and has an oxidized layer that is nonstick, scratch resistant, and non-reactive to food. Hard-anodized aluminum cookware is easy to clean, non-toxic, and requires little or no oil.

Thanks to highly durable surfaces, it can withstand high temperatures, so it can go in the oven. Plus, its nonstick layer lasts up to three times as long as a regular nonstick pan. It does a great job of preventing scratches and can't chip or peel away.

You'll need a variety of pots and pans for your kitchen depending on how keen a cook you are. Buying individual pieces can be very expensive, so to keep things simple, we focused on 10 to 12-piece sets. In boxed sets, lids are considered as pieces and some manufacturers even count extras such utensils, so that's something to bear in mind.

We've spent hours researching and putting a variety of hard-anodized cookware sets to the test, making scrambled eggs and sticky sauces, and flipping pancakes, to come up with our top choices.

To be included, sets had to be PFOA-free. Some manufacturers state it is okay to use metal utensils with hard-anodized cookware, but in our experience, it is still better to use silicone ones to keep surfaces in good condition.

Here are the best hard-anodized cookware sets:

• Best overall: Circulon Symmetry Hard Anodized Nonstick 11-Piece Cookware Set
• Best high-end: All-Clad Hard-Anodized 10-Piece Cookware Set
• Best on a budget: Rachael Ray Hard-Anodized II 10-Piece Cookware Set

Updated on 8/26/2020. We updated prices and links and added a selection of relevant buying guides. We also removed the best mid-range and best under $100 categories, as we stand by our current picks for best overall and best on a budget offering the best value. 

The best overall

The Circulon Symmetry Hard Anodized 11-Piece Cookware Set is sophisticated and versatile, these pots and pans combine unbeatable performance with durability, plus they're easy to clean. 

There's a wide selection of hard-anodized cookware on the market, but the Circulon Symmetry set is the best one you can buy. It lives up to its reputation, whether you're grilling a filet mignon or whipping up a mushroom and spinach mélange.

The set includes a 1-quart pouring saucepan, 2-quart covered saucepan, 3-quart covered saucepan, 8-quart covered stockpot, 8.5-inch French skillet, 10-inch French skillet, and a 3-quart covered sauté pan. 

Its elegant, tulip-shaped design looks super stylish. You can expect superior performance and its heavy-duty construction means you can cook your favorite recipes to perfection. You can also stick it in the oven because all the pieces in this set are rated to handle up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Each piece in the Circulon Symmetry set features a warp-resistant bonded stainless steel base that is suitable for all stovetops including induction. 

One of the big benefits of this set is that it is dishwasher safe but it is also very easy to clean if you prefer hand washing. The rubberized cast stainless steel handles are comfortable to hold, while the vented, shatter-resistant glass lids are tight fitted to lock in the flavors of your favorite recipes.

Pros: Oven safe to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, dishwasher safe, warp-resistant, induction compatible, metal-utensil safe, stay cool handles.

Cons: It is expensive

The best high-end

The All-Clad Hard Anodized 10-Piece Cookware Set ticks all the boxes for performance, style, and durability, plus, it's dishwasher-safe.

All-Clad is considered the Grand Dame of cookware and the brand consistently gets top ratings from experts and buyers, but it is also one of the most expensive brands. If you're prepared to spend some money, then the All-Clad HA1 Set really is worth the investment.

This set includes 8-inch and 10-inch fry pans, 2-quart and 3-quart saucepans with lids, 4-quart sauté pan with lid, and an 8-quart stockpot with lid. All-Clad also sells a 13-piece set.

Sticky sauces fall right off the pan and dishwashing is a breeze, whether you want to do it by hand or simply stick it in the dishwasher. 

Not only can you wow your guests with your cooking, they'll be impressed by the set's stylish and modern, rounded design that looks great on the table as well as on the stove. However, a few buyers reported their handles got hot.

The range is oven safe for temperatures up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit (without lids) and its bonded steel base prevents warping and reduces scratches from stovetop use. It is induction capable, too.

One of the big plusses about the All-Clad HA1 Set is that you can stick everything in the dishwasher, although the company recommends washing it by hand. 

Pros: Oven safe to 500 degrees, dishwasher safe, induction capable, warp-resistant

Cons: Expensive

The best on a budget

If you're looking for a superb starter set that is easy to use, easy to clean, and looks great in your kitchen, then get the Rachael Ray Hard Anodized II 10-Piece Cookware Set.

You certainly get plenty of bang for your buck with this cookware set from renowned TV celebrity chef, Rachael Ray. The Rachael Ray Hard Anodized II Set is one of the most popular sets you can buy. 

The set includes a 1-quart, covered saucepan, 2-quart, covered saucepan, 6-quart, covered stockpot, 3-quart, covered sauté, 8.5-inch skillet, and a 10-inch skillet. Rachel ray also sells a 12 and 14-piece set.

The nonstick Eclipse interior certainly held up well in testing and all the pieces can be put straight in the dishwasher. We love the contemporary black designed with brightly-colored orange handles. The handles also come in blue and are made of silicone, so you can avoid burning your hands, although one user did also say the handles get hot.

On the downside, a handful of reviewers did say the pots and pans a bit small and were not as good quality as some of the more premium brands.

Pros: Great price, dishwasher safe, oven safe to 350 degrees.

Cons: Pots and pans are smaller and a bit light compared to some other brands, unsuitable for induction stoves

What else we considered

While these products are good options, they didn't make our final cut for a variety of reasons.

• Anolon Advanced Hard Anodized Nonstick 11-Piece Cookware Set: This set is designed to last and has one of the best nonstick coatings. It's another solid pick for a quality set, but for the same price, we found the Circulon Symmetry set edged it out as the winner due to factors like this set not being dishwasher-safe and the lids lacking vent holes.  
• T-fal E765SC Ultimate Set: This set offers excellent value for money and is another good alternative for a budget option. However, for a very similar price, we prefer the quality of the Rachael Ray Hard Anodized II Set.

See more great cookware buying guides

The best cookware sets

Whether you consider cooking a hobby or a chore, there are several types of cookware to choose from to suit your needs. Many different cookware sets made from various materials are available, including stainless steel, nonstick aluminum, cast iron, and copper. These are the best cookware sets.

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The best cast iron skillets and pans

If you're looking for cookware to last you your whole life, it's tough to beat cast iron. Here are our favorite skillets and pans to get you started.

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The best copper cookware

High-quality copper cookware responds quickly to heat, enhances your kitchen's decor, and accommodates culinary masterpieces as well as simple dishes. Here are our favorite options.

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The best stock pots

A good stock pot is of course great for making stocks and soups. It will also serve you well for large canning projects, cooking for large groups, and much more. Basically, a stockpot is an integral part of any home cook's repertoire. These are the best ones.

• Jefferies raised its Tesla price target to a Street high $2,500 per share from $1,200 on Wednesday, implying a roughly 19% climb from its current levels.
• The company's investment case "has too often been reduced to cars," the team of analysts led by Philippe Houchois wrote in a note to clients, adding that the automaker's battery innovations and cost efficiencies unlock more value.
• The valuation gap between legacy automakers and Tesla is the fault of the former, they said. Older companies will catch up to Tesla's levels only once they ditch outdated products and build out electric-vehicle production, Jefferies added.
• Tesla traded as much as 4.8% higher following the report's release.
• Watch Tesla trade live here.

Tesla is well on its way to revolutionizing the auto industry, but its next big steps won't focus on its cars, according to Jefferies analysts.

The team led by Philippe Houchois on Wednesday more than doubled its price target for Tesla shares, to $2,500 from $1,200, implying shares can leap another 19% from their levels at about noon. The new target is the highest on Wall Street and will be adjusted to $500 after the automaker's upcoming 5-for-1 stock split.

"Tesla's investment case has too often been reduced to cars," the team said, adding that Elon Musk's company continues to extend its lead over rivals in brand leverage, software, battery capacity, and other increasingly important fields.

Read more: David Baron's fund has returned 400% to investors in the last decade using 20 stocks or less. He shared with us the 3 stocks he snapped up in 2020 — and the 3 travel and entertainment bets he loves going forward.

That gap is set to widen even more come September 22, when Tesla holds its highly anticipated Battery Day event. Analysts expect the company to unveil groundbreaking battery-cell technologies, including a unit that can last 1 million miles. Such a product could "upend" the auto industry, Jefferies said. Vertical integration of such innovation into Tesla's solar and energy storage arms would only add to the company's valuation, the team added.

Tesla jumped as much as 4.8% in Wednesday trading following the report's release.

To be sure, even the bullish analysts consider the stock's run-up somewhat illogical. The automaker's shares are up roughly 408% year-to-date and more than 50% over just the past two weeks. Jefferies "cannot pretend to understand the magnitude and speed of share price moves," the team wrote.

Read more: Hundreds of flips and dozens of rentals: Here are the 4 real-estate investing strategies HGTV veteran Chris Naugle is leveraging to make sure every deal is a winner

But the firm still finds logic in investors' optimism, deeming Tesla shares a play for the auto industry's "permanent revolution."

The valuation gap between Tesla and other automakers results from a problem with the latter's valuation, Jefferies said. It's the legacy companies that are undervalued and will continue to be until they boast strong electric-vehicle sales and spin off their older, less popular businesses, the team added.

Until then, the analysts expect Tesla to justify its lofty share price with continued powertrain innovation, production efficiencies, and third-party battery sales.

Tesla traded at $2,115.56 as of 12:25 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Now read more markets coverage from Markets Insider and Business Insider:

The CEO of a $1 billion ETF provider explains how the COVID-19 crisis completely upended investors' most reliable sources of steady returns — and shares where to find income as dividends and bond yields dry up

Salesforce spikes 29% on blockbuster earnings and boosted full-year forecast

US stocks hover near records as investors digest strong corporate earnings

• Microsoft is launching the Surface Duo, a $1,400 foldable Android smartphone that has two screens, on September 10.
• After getting a closer look at the Duo's design, I came away impressed with the phone's premium glass build and flexible hinge.
• Microsoft's approach differs from that of rivals like Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola, indicating that major tech companies are still figuring out what the next major evolution of the smartphone looks like.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Microsoft is the latest tech giant to enter the foldable phone race with its Surface Duo, a $1,400 smartphone that comes with two screens joined together with a 360-degree hinge.

The phone launches on September 10, coming just after Samsung unveiled its third foldable phone and major phone makers like Huawei and Motorola have launched devices with bendable screens.

The Surface Duo runs on Google's Android software, and the company is positioning it as a mobile productivity machine, much like its other Surface products. During a press briefing earlier this month, Panos Panay, Microsoft's chief product officer, showed how the phone can be used in a variety of different poses, demonstrating how apps can automatically adjust to whichever orientation the device is being used in.

Microsoft's approach differs from that of rivals like Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola, all of which have created phones with screens that physically bend and fold rather than attaching two screens to create one device. Some devices aim to offer a more modern version of the flip phone, as the Galaxy Z Flip and Motorola Razr do, while others like the Huawei Mate X, Surface Duo, and Galaxy Z Fold 2 combine the elements of both a phone and a tablet.

I just got my hands on the Surface Duo, and it feels like a well-built, premium phone that could serve as a promising entrant in the foldable phone space. But I'll have to wait until I've actually spent time using it to really weigh in on its value and what it brings to the market.

Here's a closer look at the phone's design. 

The Surface Duo measures 93.3 millimeters wide, or about 3.7 inches, making it feel a bit big for one hand. That's bigger than other larger-sized Android phones, like the Samsung Galaxy Note Ultra, which has a width of 77.2 millimeters.

Its glass body also makes the Duo feel like it lives up to its high price tag.

But the Surface Duo is really about what you can do with the phone when it's open. It's capable of bending and folding into a variety of different shapes, all thanks to its 360-degree hinge, pictured below.

You can, for example, prop up the top display and use the bottom screen as a sort of kickstand, which could be helpful when watching videos on one screen.

Or you can open it up like a laptop to make use of both screens at once.

The Surface Duo also opens up like a book, and Amazon has optimized its Kindle app specifically for the device so it feels like you're turning the page when using the app.

The device has two 5.6-inch screens that, when combined, offer an 8.1-inch tablet-sized display — slightly larger than the 7.9-inch iPad Mini. You'll also notice the Surface Duo's 11-megapixel camera is situated above one of the screens.

When opened flat, the Surface Duo measures 4.8 millimeters thin, making it slimmer than the 8.1-millimeter iPhone 11 Pro, 7.9-millimeter Samsung Galaxy S20, and even the 6.1-millimeter-thin iPad Air.

All told, the Surface Duo is another sign that tech giants are still experimenting with different designs to figure out what the next major evolution of the smartphone could look like.

With its clamshell-like design, glass body, and dual screens, the Surface Duo is different than any foldable phone we've seen yet. But it's too early to tell whether this will be enough for the Surface Duo to gain mass appeal the way the original Surface tablet did, or if it will become just a niche device. 

• The scheduled speakers at this year's Republican National Convention have shared so many conspiracies and debunked claims that previous conventions look quaint in comparison.
• An anti-abortion activist who spoke Tuesday night said earlier this year that police officers should racially profile her adopted son because of "statistics."
• Another speaker lost her slot at the convention after retweeting an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that was supported by Hitler.
• A former Fox host warned that Democrats will "defund, dismantle, and destroy American law enforcement" in a speech that some described as fascist.
• A sitting Republican congressman claimed Democrats want to "take away your guns," while another said Joe Biden and the "woketopians" will "disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door."
• Scroll down to read the wildest claims made by people who were invited to speak at this year's Republican National Convention.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Clint Eastwood made headlines in 2012 after he yelled at an empty chair during primetime at the Republican National Convention. The move drew widespread ridicule, with critics saying Eastwood distracted from the campaign platform and policy message the GOP was trying to sell through its candidate, Mitt Romney.

Fast forward to 2020: this week's RNC has been so full of misinformation, outlandish performances, and dystopian conspiracy theories that they make Eastwood's act look quaint. Donald Trump's takeover of the Republican Party in the 2016 election cycle has also made these performances more a feature of the RNC than a bug.

An anti-abortion activist claimed Margaret Sanger, who founded the first birth control clinic in the US, was a "racist" who wanted to "eradicate the minority population."

A former Fox News host said Democrats will "defund, dismantle, and destroy American law enforcement."

A sitting Republican congressman claimed Democrats want to "take away your guns" and allow "crime, violence, and mob rule" run rampant in American cities. Another congressman warned that Biden and "woketopians" will "disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door."

Here's a look at some of the wildest claims made by speakers who were invited and supported by the president:

Mary Ann Mendoza, a member of the Women for Trump campaign group, spread an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on Twitter the day of her speech

Immigration hardliner Mary Ann Mendoza lost a scheduled speaking slot Tuesday night after retweeting an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about how the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion is not a fabrication," and that "it certainly is not anti-semetic to point out this fact."

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a completely fabricated and false anti-Semitic text. It later inspired Adolf Hitler's genocidal policies in World War II.

The thread Mendoza retweeted also baselessly claimed that the the Rothschilds, a Jewish family in the banking sector, were part of a secret plot to sink the Titanic, instigate the Vietnam War, and assassinate President John F. Kennedy.

Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson said it would be 'smart' for the police to racially profile her adopted son because of 'statistics'

Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson has made her name in Republican politics by making outlandish claims about Planned Parenthood with no evidence to back them up.

The big draw of her convention speech was a baseless assertion that Planned Parenthood higher-ups told her as a then-employee that the organization pushes abortion procedures to make money, even though no one else has corroborated her story.

No federal funds can be used for abortions within the organization, and Planned Parenthood's annual reports say abortions only account for 3% of its services provided.

On Tuesday, she said Margaret Sanger, who founded the first birth control clinic in the US, was a "racist" who wanted to "eradicate the minority population."

As The New York Times pointed out, Sanger did have common beliefs with those who advocated for eugenics and spoke at some eugenics conferences. But there is no evidence that she was a "racist" who wanted to "eradicate the minority population."

Moreover, "historians seem to disagree on just how involved in the eugenics movement she was. Some contend her involvement was for political reasons — to win support for birth control," NPR said.

Ahead of Johnson's speech, Vice News also uncovered footage from a YouTube video she made advocating for police to racially profile her adopted son.

"Statistically, my brown son is more likely to commit a violent offense over my white sons," she said in the video.

"I recognize that I'm going to have to have a different conversation with Jude than I do with my brown-haired little Irish, very, very pale-skinned white sons as they grow up."

Johnson floated the idea of 'household votes,' in which married couples would only get one vote because 'in a Godly household, the husband would get the final say.'

Johnson sandwiched her RNC speaking gig with tweets promoting the theory of "household voting," where married couples would have to settle on one vote instead of each spouse getting their own.

"I would support bringing back household voting. How anti-feminist of me," she tweeted in May.

Johnson added that "in a Godly household, the husband would get the final say."

She doubled down after her convention speech, which was shared by President Trump to his 85.5 million followers.

—Abby Johnson (@AbbyJohnson) August 25, 2020

 

Former Fox host Kimberly Guilfoyle shouted about how Democrats 'want to destroy this country' in a speech that some described as fascist

Guilfoyle, who is currently dating Donald Trump Jr. and is a frequent surrogate for the president on the campaign trail, warned of a dark, lawless, and crime-filled America under a Joe Biden presidency.

"They want to destroy this country and everything that we have fought for and hold dear," she said in her speech, prompting one reporter to describe Guilfoyle's words as "lunatic" and "fascist."

—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 25, 2020

 

"They want open borders, closed schools, dangerous amnesty, and will selfishly send your jobs back to China while they get rich," Guilfoyle said. "They will defund, dismantle and destroy America's law enforcement. When you are in trouble and need police, don't count on the Democrats."

Although several left-wing activists and progressive lawmakers have supported calls to "defund the police," top Democrats and establishment figures like Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer have rejected the proposal. Vox also recently examined Biden's criminal justice policy and found that his plan would "actually increase the number of police officers in Black and brown communities."

As Guilfoyle continued speaking, her voice grew louder and she raised some eyebrows with her gestures, at one point drawing comparisons to a speech that the character Dwight Schrute gave on NBC's "The Office," in which he quoted lines from notorious dictators like Italy's Benito Mussolini.

—James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) August 25, 2020

 

St. Louis couple Mark and Patricia McCloskey: Democrats want to spread 'chaos and violence' and 'abolish the suburbs all together'

The McCloskeys made headlines this year when they were captured in viral videos pointing guns at a group of peaceful protesters outside their house in St. Louis.

"These radicals are not content with marching in the streets," Mark McCloskey said. "They want to walk the hall of Congress, they want to take over, they want power. This is Joe Biden's party. These are the people who will be in charge of your future and the future of your children."

Patricia McCloskey spoke after her husband. She claimed that Democrats "are not satisfied with spreading the chaos and violence into our communities" and want to "abolish the suburbs all together."

She also said Democratic leaders would bring "crime, lawlessness, and low quality apartments" to "thriving" neighborhoods. "So make no mistake," Patricia McCloskey said, "no matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats' America."

Trump and his Republican allies frequently celebrate the rollback of Obama-era housing rules and exploit white fear and grievances by claiming low-income housing is destroying suburban neighborhoods.

Housing advocates have criticized the rule change, saying it would give localities much freer rein to allow discriminatory and unequal housing conditions to persist.

Florida congressman Matt Gaetz: Democrats and 'woketopians' will 'disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door'

Gaetz is one of Trump's most loyal defenders in Congress and he used his speech on Monday to urge voters to "fight to save America now or we may lose her forever."

He added that the "woketopians" will make Biden "an extra in a movie written, produced, and directed by others. It's a horror film, really."

The Florida congressman falsely claimed that Democrats will "disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door."

"And the police aren't coming when you call in Democrat-run cities, they're already being defunded, disbanded," he said, alluding to recent calls from left-wing activists to defund local police organizations in the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody.

"Blaming our best and allowing society's worst? That's the story they write in Hollywood," he said. "That's if the lights even stay on in California anymore. They used to write only in fiction, but nightmares are becoming real."

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• HBO and WarnerMedia just launched a new streaming service — HBO Max.
• HBO already operates two major streaming platforms, HBO Go and HBO Now.
• On July 31, HBO discontinued the HBO Go app on most devices and rebranded HBO Now as just "HBO".
• In many cases, HBO Max is being offered as a free upgrade and replacement for those older services.
• So, what's the difference between the three different streaming services? A surprising amount of stuff — let's dig in!

First, the bad news: "Friends" has left Netflix, and it's not coming back any time soon.

Turns out there's a good reason for that — it has a new home with HBO's new streaming service alongside "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "Rick and Morty," and a mess of other stuff. That new service is named HBO Max, and it's intended to serve as a deluxe version of HBO's older streaming services, HBO Go and HBO Now.

But what's so different about HBO Max from HBO's other streaming options? Well, it mostly comes down to content selection and device support. It's also important to note that big changes have recently been imposed upon HBO's other streaming offerings, and HBO Max is essentially being positioned as a replacement for HBO Go and HBO Now.

In fact, as of July 31, the HBO Go app is no longer available on most devices, though you can still access the service via HBOGo.com. Meanwhile, HBO Now has been branded as just "HBO". In most cases, current HBO Go and HBO Now users can access HBO Max instead at no extra cost.

To help further dispel some of the confusion surrounding all three services, we've broken down all of the key differences below.

Updated on 8/26/2020 by Kevin Webb: We've revised this article to include new details about available and upcoming HBO Max shows.

What is HBO Max?

HBO Max is a standalone streaming service you don't need a cable subscription to use. It costs $14.99 per month and includes all of HBO's standard offerings, plus a ton of new stuff from various WarnerMedia properties, like DC Comics, CNN, TNT, TBS, and Cartoon Network.

HBO Max also produces original shows and movies, just like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. The service launched with more than 1,300 movies and over 10,000 hours worth of programming. For more detailed impressions, you can read our full review of HBO Max here.

In most cases, people who were previously using HBO Go or HBO Now can now access HBO Max with their existing account details for no extra cost. There are some exceptions, but for most HBO users, HBO Max is being offered as a free upgrade and replacement for those older services. You can check the HBO Max website to see if your HBO subscription is eligible for HBO Max. 

What makes HBO Max different from HBO Now? Additional content.

HBO Max is the same price as HBO Now, an older streaming service that features HBO original shows and the cable channel's rotating package of movies. HBO Max currently offers all of HBO Now's content plus a ton of new stuff from a variety of WarnerMedia brands — all for the same $14.99 a month price.

Most HBO Now subscribers can watch HBO Max with their HBO Now account at no extra cost. In other words, HBO Max is basically an automatic upgrade to HBO Now. With that in mind, the HBO Now app has been rebranded to just "HBO".  

Since HBO Max offers a larger streaming library than HBO (formerly HBO Now), it's clearly the better choice for subscribers. With that said, the HBO Max app is currently missing from a few notable devices, including Roku and Fire TV products. If you use one of those devices as your primary streaming player, the HBO app is currently your only option. 

What is HBO Go? And what happens to subscribers now that the app has been discontinued?

In the past, if you had a cable TV subscription to HBO, you could also use the HBO Go app, a freebie streaming option that came as a bonus. Plug in your cable TV login details, and you got access to a vast library of HBO content on-demand. It cost nothing extra, and worked on everything from your smartphone to your Apple TV/Roku/etc. to your computer.

On July 31, the HBO Go app was removed from most connected devices. Thankfully, AT&T has brokered deals that give most HBO cable subscribers access to HBO Max instead. If you subscribe to HBO through any of the cable providers below, you can get access to HBO Max at no extra cost. Simply go to the HBO Max website and choose your provider to login.

• Altice One
• Atlantic Broadband
• Apple TV Channels
• AT&T/AT&T U-verse
• Cox
• DIRECTV
• Optimum
• RCN
• Spectrum
• Suddenlink
• Verizon Fios
• WOW!
• Xfinity

If you happen to subscribe to HBO through a provider that isn't included, you can still access HBO Go through the HBO Go website.

The addition of other WarnerMedia networks' content to HBO's existing library is an enticing proposition.

Adding Adult Swim's content to HBO Max means adding "Rick & Morty." Adding CNN's content to HBO Max means adding "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown." Adding TBS' content to HBO Max means adding "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" and "Conan." 

All of which is to say that adding content from all these places adds up to a ton of really good stuff.

Looney Tunes cartoons! All the "Lord of the Rings" movies! There's a surprising amount of additional content in the HBO Max package.

HBO Max's lineup also features new original series, including "Love Life," a comedy show starring Anna Kendrick, and "Looney Tunes Cartoons," a new animated series featuring Bugs Bunny and company. Other upcoming exclusive titles include "Raised by Wolves," a science fiction show from producer Ridley Scott, and the director's cut of Zach Snyder's "Justice League." 

Beyond original HBO programs, the HBO Max catalog features a wide range of TV series, including "Friends," "Doctor Who," "Rick and Morty," "The Big Bang Theory," "Sesame Street" and "Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown." The full library incorporates TV and movie offerings from DC, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Rooster Teeth, Looney Tunes, Criterion, Studio Ghibli, and Warner Bros.

What else is coming to HBO Max? A bunch of new original content, including a show based on "Dune" and a new movie from the director of "Bird Box."

Here's everything that's announced for HBO Max thus far:

-"10,000 hours of premium content from HBO, Warner Bros., New Line, DC Entertainment, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, The CW, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, Looney Tunes and more.

-The exclusive streaming rights at launch to all 236 episodes of 'Friends.'

-The exclusive streaming rights at launch to all episodes 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air' and 'Pretty Little Liars.'

-'Lovecraft Country,' a unique horror series based on a novel by Matt Ruff, written and executive produced by Misha Green, and executive produced by Jordan Peele ('Us') and J.J. Abrams ('Westworld').

-Raised By Wolves,' a new science fiction original series created by "Blade Runner" and "Alien" director Ridley Scott.

-Every original series from the DC Universe streaming service, including "Doom Patrol," "Harley Quinn," and "Titans."

-The exclusive streaming home to a string of new Warner Bros.' produced dramas for The CW, including the new DC Entertainment series 'Batwoman,' and 'Katy Keene' (spinoff of 'Riverdale').

-New exclusive movie production deals with Greg Berlanti and Reese Witherspoon ('Big Little Lies'). Berlanti will produce an initial four movies focused in the young adult space, while Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine will produce at least two films.

-'Dune: The Sisterhood,' an adaptation of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's book based in the world created by Frank Herbert's book 'Dune,' from director Denis Villeneuve.

-'Tokyo Vice,' based on Jake Adelstein's non-fiction first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat, starring Ansel Elgort.

-'The Flight Attendant,' a one-hour thriller series based on the novel by Chris Bohjalian. Kaley Cuoco, executive producing alongside Greg Berlanti, will star.

-'Love Life,' a 10-episode half-hour romantic comedy anthology series starring Anna Kendrick, who will also executive produce alongside Paul Feig.

-'Station Eleven,' a postapocalyptic limited series based on Emily St. John Mandel's international bestseller, adapted by Patrick Somerville ('The Leftovers') and directed by Hiro Murai ('Barry').

-'Made for Love,' a 10-episode, half-hour, straight-to-series adaptation based on the tragicomic novel of the same name by Alissa Nutting, also from Patrick Somerville and directed by S.J. Clarkson.

-'Gremlins,' an animated series from Warner Bros. Animation and Amblin Entertainment based on the original movie.

-Stephen King's 'The Outsider,' a dark mystery starring Ben Mendelsohn, produced and directed by Jason Bateman.

-'The Nevers,' Joss Whedon's new science fiction series starring Laura Donnelly.

-'The Gilded Age,' set the opulent world of 1885 New York from 'Downton Abbey's' Julian Fellowes.

-'Avenue 5,' a high satire aboard a space-bound cruise ship from Armando Iannucci ('Veep') starring Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad.

-'The Undoing,' a psychological thriller from David E. Kelley ('Big Little Lies'), directed by Susanne Bier ('Bird Box') starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.

-'The Plot Against America,' reimagined history based on Phillip Roth's novel written and executive produced by David Simon and Ed Burns, starring Winona Ryder and John Turturro.

-'Perry Mason', the classic legal drama for a new generation, executive produced by Robert Downey, Jr. and Susan Downey, with Matthew Rhys in the title role.

-'I Know This Much Is True,' a complex family drama starring Mark Ruffalo playing twin brothers, one of whom has schizophrenia. Based on the best-selling novel by Wally Lamb, written and directed by Derek Cianfrance."

• Melania Trump gave a rare speech last night at the RNC to make the case for her husband's reelection, expressing her sympathy for COVID-19 victims and calling for racial unity, while wearing a military-style olive green skirt suit.
• CNN's Jake Tapper reported that Melania didn't run the speech by the West Wing. While its conciliatory tone contrasted with Trump's usually brash speeches, some of her words were contradicted by her own past actions. 
• But a speech full of contradictions is actually pretty on brand for Melania, who is primarily known for having a keen sense of style that's been compared to fellow first lady Jackie Kennedy's.
• Melania has used fashion as both her cloak of invisibility and her weapon of choice.
• While Melania has plenty of style, her legacy — unlike Jackie O's — is lacking.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On Tuesday night, Melania Trump walked into her newly renovated White House Rose Garden for night two of the Republican National Convention. 

Standing high in her heels, wearing an olive green skirt suit reminiscent of a general's jacket, her look was a clear nod to the country's military families. But perhaps it was also a symbol: Had she come to protect and defend the ideals of Trumpism? 

The suit, created by British designer Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, is from McQueen's Resort 2020 Collection. In its November coverage of the runway show, Vogue called pieces in the collection "botanically weaponized ready-to-wear ... the perfect armor for any shrinking violet set on blossoming into a tall poppy totally immune to pruning."

Fitting, it seems, for Melania's purposes at the RNC last night.

On an aesthetic level, Melania's green outfit stood in stark contrast against her recently renovated Rose Garden, with its "minimalist" and overwhelmingly white new design. But it fit perfectly against the background of America: the reds, whites, and blues of the country's flag, and the olive green of its military history.

The absence of color in Melania's rose garden mirrors the glaringly white lineup of the RNC

As she stood in front of her new garden last night, Melania made the case for the nation's democracy: "Our diverse and storied history is what makes our country strong," she said last night. "And yet, we still have so much to learn from one another."

But there's a strange tension in the figure of Melania Trump, first lady for the most nativist and divisive president in American history.

In a long line of first ladies virtually always born in the US, she is only the second wife of a president to have been born outside of it (after London-born Louisa Adams, the wife of John Quincy Adams). Melania is also the first whose native tongue isn't English as well as the first naturalized US citizen. 

By virtue of those facts, Melania technically ranks among the most diverse first ladies ever, and aspects of her life story carry lessons that resonate throughout American history: About the importance of opportunity, the dangers of nationalism, and what wearing a nicely tailored outfit will help you get away with.

Melania Trump's comparisons to other well-dressed first ladies ring hollow considering her legacy — or lack thereof

Ahead of her speech, Peter Navarro, a trade adviser for the White House, called Melania the "Jackie Kennedy of her time," saying she has the "beauty, the elegance, the soft-spokenness" of JFK's first lady. 

Vogue's Edward Barsamian has also made this comparison, saying that on Trump's Inauguration day, Melania "laid the foundation" in her quest to help redefine the politics of fashion by wearing a blue Ralph Lauren dress that was "Camelot-inspired."

Barsamian was ostensibly referencing the early-1960s era when "Camelot" was the hottest show on Broadway and America had a youthful King Arthur and Guinevere of its own in the White House.

But Melania's comparisons to Jackie Kennedy pretty much end at the hem. 

Unlike Melania, Jackie O was known for standing solidly behind something — she was a patron of the arts, known not just for her renovations of the White House, but also, during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, for contributing support to both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities (both long targeted by Republican politicians, including Trump).

Melania, on the other hand, oscillates — mostly silently — between being annoyed at and vaguely supportive of her husband.

She regularly smacks Trump's hand away from her in public and has launched an anti-cyberbullying campaign called "Be Best," even though her husband has made cyberbullying into a fact of public life. 

But when the president was criticized for interning children at the border, she wore a jacket that read "I really don't care, do U?" while visiting those same kids. And after her husband was heard on tape making crude remarks about the female anatomy, she wore a pink blouse with a bow named after that same body part. 

Melania has long used fashion as both a cloak of invisibility and her weapon of choice. Her expressions are often as carefully composed and indecipherable as her perfectly tailored gowns, polished hair, and manicured hands, wrapped along the handles of an endless variety of Hermes Birkin bags. 

By and large, Melania's poised style hasn't been matched by her prose, except when she spoke movingly at the RNC four years ago — although that speech turned out to be strikingly similar to one given by yet another former first lady, Michelle Obama.

From a style lens, the public perception of the current first lady and her predecessor couldn't be more different.

Michelle was often criticized, not celebrated, for wearing expensive clothes — whereas Melania often wins praise for her fashion choices. Michelle was noted for her love of more affordable brands, such as J Crew, and was most likely to don a pair of Converse sneakers on a day's outing.

Of course, affordable isn't Melania's schtick — it's Manolo Blahnik or bust. And the people seem to have no problem with that.

But perhaps what Michelle lacked in an endless supply of Dolce & Gabbana gowns, she made up for in charismatic social efforts that have helped define her public persona — and current career as a professional speaker — today. 

Last night's speech was on-brand for Melania: soft-spoken, full of contradictions, but ultimately well-polished on a surface level

The public address, a rarity for Melania, stuck out because of how tonally different it was from other RNC speeches these past two nights, as CNN's Jake Tapper noted during the live broadcast.

At the same time, much of what she said is in direct contract to her past actions. And while she said she's been "reflecting" on recent racial unrest and briefly acknowledged the nation's violent past, she didn't engage very deeply or meaningfully with the issue.

"It is a harsh reality that we are not proud of parts of our history," Melania said of America's legacy — one that includes her own birtherism nearly a decade ago, when she supported her husband in calling for then-President Obama to release his birth certificate to prove he was born in the US.

Still, Melania's speech had clear moments of compassion, and she spoke with a gentleness and eloquence that is simply not found in Trump's typical manner of speaking.

Unlike most in the lineup, she didn't attack liberals, and, as The New York Times pointed out, she was one of the few RNC speakers to acknowledge the lives lost during the coronavirus pandemic. She also addressed the country's ongoing opioid epidemic and spoke about her plans as the first lady for the next four years.

"Total honesty is what we as citizens deserve from our president," she said, and then later, without a hint of irony, slammed social media for being an incubator for bullies. 

It's ironic that Melania is such a relative non-entity in the political realm — because, given her background, she could speak more powerfully than most to the tumultuous American present

Melania is from Slovenia, a country that didn't even exist until the 1990s and whose independence was one of the many dominoes that toppled in the world created by the US' victory in the Cold War. She moved abroad after Slovenia declared its independence, and said last night that she spent 10 years working on naturalization paperwork to become a United States citizen. 

She even touched on her status as an immigrant and her birth country.

"Growing up as a young child in Slovenia, which was under communist rule at the time, I always heard about an amazing place called America," she said last night. "As an immigrant and a very independent woman, I understand what a privilege it is to live here and to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities that we have. As first lady, I have been fortunate to see the American dream come true over and over again." 

Slovenia largely avoided getting drawn into the bloody wars of the former Yugoslavian republics, in the region known as the Balkans. The nationalism that set these republics against one another after they lived in peace for decades became known as "Balkanization." Some historians have warned of it happening elsewhere — even in the increasingly tribalistic United States.

Melania's move to America around 1996, when she was 26, coincided with the second term of Bill Clinton. It was also shortly after the so-called "Republican Revolution" that swept a new breed of right-wing leaders into public life — including several noted supporters of her future husband, like Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani.

Their careers closely track America's tendencies toward a kind of Balkanization. If she wanted to, Melania could speak out against the dangers of this kind of division, having lived through it herself.

To be fair, politics aside, it's true that women are allowed to just be attractive and well-dressed; Melania doesn't owe us her time or her energy.

But if she has been trying to craft a real legacy while in the shadow of her husband, her attempts have only made her a pulchritudinous shadow, too — dolled up, made-up, standing on pillars in sinking sand.

If Melania spoke more about her own experience as an American immigrant, she could, as Michelle Obama has for the Democrats, emerge as a powerful female voice in her party, alongside the few diverse female leaders the party already has: Indian American Nikki Hailey and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who cited herself as "a first generation-American," the daughter of Irish and Puerto Rican immigrants (much to the dismay of those who pointed out that Puerto Ricans have been US citizens since 1917).

But instead, Melania is sticking to her long-established brand: good but not great speeches, touching on the surface level of real, urgent issues — but ultimately, not saying much.

In the end, perhaps Melania is simply, once again, letting her clothes do the talking: In her military-style jacket, she's like a sentry, safeguarding Trumpism but not meaningfully contributing to it at all. For better or worse.

• CVS just raised its profit forecast this month, but some employees say that the chain's outward optimism hides major health violations.
• Business Insider spoke with three CVS employees in Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas who said that the pharmacy chain ignored reports of potential COVID-19 exposure at stores and required sick or quarantined employees to come to work.
• A CVS spokesperson told Business Insider that the incidents in question are "not in keeping with our policies."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

CVS raised its full-year profits forecast in August after announcing it was in talks with the US government to administer COVID-19 vaccines. But some employees tell Business Insider that the pharmacy chain has also put worker and customer safety at risk during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Business Insider spoke with three CVS employees in multiple states who said that the company actively instructed staff to come to work after potential exposure to the coronavirus, actions that go against company policies and CDC guidelines. All of the CVS employees were granted anonymity after Business Insider verified their employment status, due to fear of retaliation. 

While debate continues over testing asymptomatic people for COVID-19, experts agree anyone who tested positive for the disease can infect others. Still, a Tennessee CVS technician told Business Insider that at the end of July, employees in her district were told to report for work even if they tested positive for COVID-19, as long as they were asymptomatic.

"Corporate's reasoning was that since we are wearing masks, no customers would be exposed," the Tennessee technician said. 

Another CVS pharmacy technician in Missouri said that after her significant other tested positive for COVID-19 in July, she was told to violate a government-mandated quarantine to keep working. 

"I was instructed by our local health department to start my 14-day quarantine. However, my district manager and the corporate COVID hotline told me I still had to work," the Missouri technician said, adding that she was told she did not qualify for paid leave without first showing COVID-19 symptoms. 

"The hotline [operator] specifically told me to ignore the health department, and that if I didn't have symptoms I don't have to listen to the isolation order," the technician said.

CVS spokesperson Michael DeAngelis told Business Insider that the incidents described in this article are "not in keeping with our policies and practices concerning employees who test positive or are presumptive positive for COVID-19, or who are exposed to someone who has COVID-19."

"We have numerous policies and protocols in place to help ensure our stores are safe for both employees and customers," DeAngelis added.

According to CVS Health's website, the company's policy is to pay for up to 14 days of paid leave to employees who test positive for COVID-19 or are required to quarantine for exposure. CVS' COVID-19 hotline encourages employees to self-report a coronavirus diagnosis or request time off if ordered to quarantine.

This policy is in keeping with the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which requires most employers to pay workers two weeks of paid leave if ordered to quarantine by the government or a healthcare provider.

James Biscone, a personal injury and workers' compensation attorney at Johnson & Biscone, told Business Insider that because coronavirus response information has changed often since the pandemic began, the precise legal responsibilities of employers are often murky and vary state by state.

While taking unpaid leave to comply with the state-mandated quarantine order, the Missouri technician's COVID-19 test results ultimately came back negative. However, two of her partner's coworkers tested positive for the coronavirus and were asymptomatic.  

Another CVS employee, a customer service associate based in Arkansas, told Business Insider the company had repeatedly ignored possible exposure incidents in-store, even after staff made numerous calls to the COVID-19 hotline.

A woman who told staff she'd tested positive for COVID-19 picked up her medications in May through the drive-thru, then later entered the store to talk with several staff members about her medications. When staff reported the incident to HR and their district lead, they were simply told to clean what she had touched.

Similar incidents continued to occur at the Arkansas customer service associate's CVS location, but each time they were reported, staff either did not receive a follow-up or were told nothing could be done. 

And after a coworker had tested positive for the virus and was placed on leave, the Arkansas associate said that the company did nothing — no follow-up, cleaning, or contact tracing – to ensure other workers were not infected.

"When we are informed that an employee has tested positive or is presumptive positive for COVID-19, we implement our infectious disease protocols that follow CDC guidelines. This includes: placing the employee on a 14-day paid leave so that they can self-isolate, whether or not they are symptomatic; appropriate cleaning of the worksite; and performing contact tracing," DeAngelis told Business Insider.

Biscone believes employers should ultimately err on the side of caution when it comes to worker and public safety.

"I can think of few things more reckless than requiring an employee who shows symptoms of COVID-19 or who has tested positive to come into a work environment where they will be exposed to coworkers and patrons," he said. "If employers continue to do this, the virus is going to be around a very long time."

If you are a CVS employee and have a story to share, please reach out to the reporter at ijiang@businessinsider.com.

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• The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale is one of the summer's biggest savings events. This year, the sale runs from August 19 to August 30. 
• Shoppers can find deep discounts on brand-new products from name brands in fashion, beauty, and home goods, but Nordstrom will also be dropping a new surprise deal each day, offering even better prices on select items. 
• Check back here each day, or bookmark this page, as we'll be updating it with the daily deals as soon as they're released.
• For more savings across the internet, visit Business Insider Coupons and our deals hub. Or see the best deals 

If you're on top of the sales events of the season, you surely know about the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale — the company's annual sitewide savings event that boasts some of the biggest discounts and deals you'll see all year. 

The sale runs from August 19 to August 30, and at just under two weeks long, there's more than enough time for you to scour the site for great deals on brand name men's fashion, women's fashion, and exclusive beauty launches.

Over the course of the sale, Nordstrom is dropping a flash deal on a brand-new item every day at 9:30 a.m. EST. There will be discounts of up to 50% on brands like Herschel, Allsaints, Steve Madden, and Madewell. We'll be keeping track of the daily deals right here so you're always up to date. 

For today's daily deal (August 26), you can save 50% on a Madewell Crossbody Tote.

Madewell Zip Top Suede Crossbody Transport Tote, $78.90 (normally $158) [You save $79.10]

You can also head directly to Nordstrom to shop the following categories:

• Men's deals
• Women's deals
• Beauty deals
• Home deals
• Kids' deals

Shop at Nordstrom now.

Keep reading to see previous Daily Deals:

Daily Deal for August 19: 50% off Zella Women's activewear

Zella Nova Perforated Racerback Tank, $19.50 (normally $39) [You save $19.50] 

Zella Nova Perforated Racerback Tank Plus Size, $19.50 (normally $39) [You save $19.50]

*Standard sizes sold out, plus size still available

Daily Deal for August 20: 50% off Steve Madden Boots (sold out)

Steve Madden Rookie Bootie, $49.90 (normally $101.95) [You save $52.05] ) 

*Deal has sold out

Daily Deal for August 21: 50% off Calvin Klein underwear

Calvin Klein 3-Pack Comfort Microfiber Boxer Briefs, $21.90 (normally $44.50) [You save $22.60]

Daily Deal for August 21: 50% off Natori lingerie

Natori Rose Dream Custom Coverage Underwire Bra, $35.90 (normally $72) [You save $36.10]

Daily Deal for August 24: 50% off Allsaints button-up shirt

Allsaints Fairview Slim Fit Button-Up Shirt, $72.50 ($145 after the sale) [You save $72.50]

Daily Deal for August 25: 50% off Blondo sneakers

Blondo Gracie 2.0 Waterproof Slip-On, $49.90 (normally $99.95) [You save $50.05]

Daily Deal for August 25: 50% off Blondo sneakers

Blondo Glenda Waterproof Sneaker Bootie, $49.90 (normally $99.95) [You save $50.05]

• Before two protesters were shot and killed Tuesday night in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a Facebook page posted an event calling on members to "take up arms and defend our city tonight from the evil thugs."
• The event was created by Kenosha Guard, a self-described militia group that had more than 3,000 members on Facebook.
• Facebook removed the "call to arms" event and the Kenosha Guard page on Wednesday, according to The Verge.
• An Illinois resident was arrested Wednesday in connection to the shooting that killed two people and left another injured during a night of protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A self-described militia group in Kenosha, Wisconsin, used Facebook to organize a "call to arms" event hours before two people were shot and killed during protests Tuesday night.

The event was created Tuesday by a page called Kenosha Guard — which had more than 3,000 members on Facebook — and called on people to "defend our city tonight from the evil thugs." Facebook on Wednesday removed the Kenosha Guard page and the event for violating its policies, the company told The Verge.

Kenosha has been rocked by protests for the past three days over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Blake's attorney said police shot Blake several times in the back after he attempted to break up an argument between two women. Protesters defaced and set fire to buildings throughout Kenosha this week, including a local corrections center.

The Kenosha Guard Facebook group aimed to organize armed counterprotesters to take to the streets in a post Tuesday, according to screenshots preserved by The Verge.

"Any patriots willing to take up arms and defend our city tonight from the evil thugs?" the group wrote in the post. "No doubt they are currently planning on the next part of the city to burn tonight."

Facebook did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Two people were shot and killed and at least one more was injured during the protests Tuesday night, according to a CNN report. Shortly after 11:45, a protester broadcasting on Facebook Live recorded the sound of several gunshots. Moments later, the video shows a man carrying a rifle who falls to the ground, fires his gun, and then stands up and continues walking down the street. More gunfire is heard seconds later.

Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Illinois, was charged with murder Wednesday in connection to the shooting deaths of the two protesters. A Daily Caller reporter interviewed Rittenhouse hours before the shooting in a video posted to Twitter.

"People are getting injured and our job is to protect the businesses," Rittenhouse said in the interview. "And part of my job is to also help people. If there is somebody hurt I'm running into harms way. That's why I have my rifle because I need to protect myself, obviously."

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• Boxed wines go far beyond the Franzia that probably first comes to mind.
• While boxed wines can't compare to traditional fine wines, they're a great option for serving big groups on a budget, taking on camping trips, or just for the casual wine drinker who enjoys spreading out glasses over a long amount of time.   
• I recently taste-tested and compared several varieties and brands of boxed wine and detail my favorite options below.
• Read more: The best canned wines 

This content is intended for readers 21+. Please drink responsibly. If you or anyone you know is dealing with alcohol abuse, get help. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) provides a free, confidential, 24/7, treatment referral, and information service.

When you think of boxed wine, there's a good chance that the first thing that comes to mind is the college days of head-ache inducing Franzia. The sickly sweet Fruity Red Sangria option made a frequent appearance at college parties I attended for good reason: it can serve a crowd and it's extremely budget-friendly.

That's true of most boxed wines. As certified sommelier and wine expert Alisha Blackwell-Calvert notes, "In a party or picnic environment and in a chef's kitchen, boxed wines have proven to be a fuss-free addition."

Not to mention that they're popular with campers since they're more packing- and environmentally-friendly than their glass bottle counterparts. Many boxed wines will keep for 30 days to six weeks after being opened, which is great for anyone who likes to have a casual glass at a time without needing to worry about having a bottle go bad.

With those benefits of boxed wine in mind, I set out to discover if Franzia was really as bad as I remembered (it was) and if there were better options I would actually enjoy sipping on (there are!). Blackwell-Calvert also gave me some handy tips on what to look for in a boxed wine to get me started.

How we tested

While I'm no sommelier myself, I've done plenty of wine tastings over the years both in-person and virtually, plus I've taste-tested my way through a good number of canned wines. And, if we're being honest, no real wine snobs are putting wine boxes in their cellars, so most boxed wines are made with casual wine enthusiasts in mind anyway. I enlisted the help of my fiance and some friends to help me taste-test on a (socially distant) outing to a nearby park where we sipped and compared a range of options to choose our favorites.    

The best boxed wines to try:

• Bota Box
• Bandit
• House Wine
• Chateau Montaud Provence Rosé
• Vin Vault
• Viña Borgia
• Waterbrook Two Ponds
• Black Box

Bota Box

Found in eco-friendly and relatively easy to transport boxes, Bota Box conveniently comes in three different sizes: 3 liters, 1.5 liters, and a "mini" size of 500 milliliters. The three-liter option is the more traditional boxed wine size and your best bet for serving several people. But the minis still come out to three glasses of wine and provide a compelling case for an easier option to take on a picnic or a short weekend camping getaway.

Bota Box was a particular favorite of our taste-testing day. While every option we tried received praise from the group, the Carbnet Sauvignon was particularly tasty and the Malbec was my personal favorite of every boxed wine I sampled. It featured notes of blueberry and blackberry and had just the right amount of spice while still being easy to drink.

Price: $18.99 for 3L

Worth a taste: 

• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Malbec
• Merlot

Bandit

Bandit was another standout favorite brand for the group. Clearly marketed towards outdoor enthusiasts and those taking boxed wine on-the-go, these wines come in smaller one-liter and 500-milliliter options. The brand was founded in 2003 as an adventure-ready option and is based out of California.

Eco-conscious consumers will like that the boxes are environmentally-friendly and that 1% of all Bandit Wines sales are donated to nonprofits including the National Park Foundation and Protect Our Winters, among others.

The Insta-worthy packaging alone sets these boxes apart. Each option is based on and depicts a different national park on the box. For example, the zesty and fresh Sauvignon Blanc highlights Zion National Park in a bright green box while the bold and layered Cabernet Sauvignon reps the Grand Canyon and comes in a crimson pack.

We enjoyed several of the Bandit wines, but the boxed whites really stood out. The Sauvignon Blanc, in particular, was a highlight thanks to fresh, not-too-sweet fruity notes like green apple.

Price: $7.99 for 1L or $5.99 for 500mL

Worth a taste: 

• Sauvignon Blanc
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Pinot Grigio

House Wine

I discovered House Wines as a favorite when sampling canned wines, and its boxed wines don't disappoint either. Created in Walla Walla, Washington, House Wine is the brainchild of an ex-rock n' roll manager and embodies the true casual drinking spirit. 

Sold in large three-liter boxes with easy-pour spouts, House Wines are a convenient option whether you stock them on your kitchen counter or the back of a truck bed for a tailgate. The rich and smooth Pinot Noir paired well with our picnic cheese plate. In general, the boxed rosés weren't my favorite, but the House Rosé was one of the best with crisp floral and fruity notes that were particularly refreshing.

Price: $21.99 for 3L

Worth a taste: 

• Rosé
• Pinot Noir

Chateau Montaud Provence Rosé

Keeping with a suggestion from Blackwell-Calvert to opt for wines from specific regions rather than general countries, I opted to try this rosé from Provence and was rewarded with my favorite of all the boxed rosés I sampled. If I hadn't poured it out of the box myself, I would have been shocked to find out it didn't come from a bottle.

Dry, light, and easy to drink, the citrus and fruity notes make it an excellent choice for enjoying on a hot summer day.

Price: $34.99 for 3L

Worth a taste: 

• Rosé

Vin Vault

Vin Vault specializes in boxed wine and features a portfolio of award-winning varietals. Its head winemaker has noted that he enjoys crafting wines that benefit from the unique qualities of a box. This certainly came across in the wines we tasted, which lived up to the hype.

While I typically stay away from blends, the Red Blend was a unique and delicious flavor profile with an interesting dark roast coffee finish that really came through and made it stand out. White wine enthusiasts will also enjoy the Chardonnay, which is rich but with fruity notes that keep it from being too heavy. 

Price: $19.99 for 3L

Worth a taste: 

• Chardonnay
• Red Blend

Viña Borgia

While it can be harder to track this option down in its boxed version, it's well worth it if you can find it. From the Aragon region of Spain, this wine is from vineyards planted on a plateau of the Huecha river.

The Garnacha I tasted was rich and complex, particularly for boxed wine. It featured notes of dark fruits with a spicy finish. It's also a great option for barbecues — the winemaker notes that it pairs well with grilled veggies, pizza, and even hamburgers. 

And, true to Blackwell-Calvert's tip, at $20 for three liters, it's an excellent value.  

Price: $20 for 3L

Worth a taste: 

• Garnacha

Waterbrook Two Ponds

Like House Wine, Waterbook is based out of Walla Walla, Washington. Established in 1984, the winery features a 49-acre vineyard and the two namesake ponds. You can sample the wines at its tasting room or in some restaurants, or you can have the wine make an appearance at your next gathering courtesy of its boxed options.

I found the Chardonnay crisp and easy to drink thanks to tropical fruit flavors and a hint of vanilla. Meanwhile, the Cab Sav has a bold and slightly acidic profile that those looking for a dryer red wine will enjoy.

Price: $21.99 for 3L

Worth a taste: 

• Chardonnay
• Cabernet Sauvignon

Black Box

Black Box is a fairly well-known brand but may come as a surprise that it's the standard house wine at some restaurants. While it may not be the fanciest wine in town, it's still a big step up from Franzia. For a no-fuss, easy red or white option, Black Box is an excellent choice. And, after all, boxed wine really is all about no fuss.

I personally enjoyed the Sauvignon Blanc as a refreshing white option, though the Cabernet Sauvignon is a good pick for a red. And for those who truly want the college throwback, they do have a Red Sangria available.

Price: $26.99 for 3L or $7.99 for 500mL

Worth a taste: 

• Sauvignon Blanc
• Cabernet Sauvignon

What to look for in a boxed wine

Blackwell-Calvert gave me some handy pointers on what to consider when buying boxed wines.

"Fresh, unoaked varietals fair better in a box," she explains. "Typically, a producer's best juice isn't going into a box, but I recommend looking for one with a more specific region than 'country wine,'" she says. 

While boxed wines from great foreign wine regions can be harder to track down and aren't always as readily found online or at local stores, Blackwell-Calvert particularly recommends boxed wine from countries like Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Sicily for great values. "Because those countries are not in high demand, you can get delicious wine at a reasonable price," she notes.      

While I preferred rosés and bubbles when I tested canned wines, I was surprised to find that overall, the reds were actually my favorites of the boxed options. However, tastes and favorites will of course vary from drinker to drinker.

Precautions to consider

Be mindful of pours

Be wary of your pours when drinking boxed wine since it can be easy to overserve when there's an easy-pour spout at your disposal and no waiter expertly measuring out a glass. 

Blackwell-Calvert echoed these cautionary sentiments adding that it's even easier to overindulge because "with boxed wine, the contents are usually not visible to the consumer," unlike with traditional glass bottles where you can see exactly how much is gone. "That makes it is easier to overindulge and lose track of how many glasses are consumed," she says.

Use ice packs to keep wine chilled

Unfortunately, most boxed wines aren't quite as easy to transport as cans, so we brought a large cooler to keep them in. We packed it with ice and quickly realized we had made a grave error.

Since many of the boxes are made of thin cardboard, they became soggy and some actually tore apart leaving us to awkwardly use just the bladders. I suggest using ice packs instead if you do plan to keep your boxed wine in a cooler.

• US stocks jumped on Wednesday as investors cheered better-than-expected economic data and strong corporate earnings reports.
• The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite closed at record levels, extending all-time highs from the previous day.
• US durable-goods orders climbed 11.2% in July, the Census Bureau said. The reading trounced economists' 4.8% estimate and signaled a continued recovery in the nation's manufacturing industry.
• Salesforce, Urban Outfitters, and HP Enterprise all leaped after beating Wall Street estimates for quarterly profits.
• Oil prices climbed before paring gains. West Texas Intermediate crude increased as much as 1%, to $43.78 per barrel.
• Watch major indexes update live here.

US stocks closed at record highs on Wednesday as investors mulled better-than-expected earnings reports and strong economic data.

On the economic-data front, US durable-goods orders jumped 11.2% in July on strong auto demand, the Census Bureau said on Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had anticipated growth of just 4.8% following June's 7.7% gain. The jump signaled a continued recovery in the nation's manufacturing industry, though the figures remain well below pre-pandemic highs.

More detailed reports on July trade activity "will give us a better sense of whether recent demand for durable goods is coming domestically or from abroad, but what we see in today's report suggests added upside risk to our 20% real GDP forecast for 3Q," Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan, said in a note.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. ET market close on Wednesday:

• S&P 500: 3,478.73, up 1%
• Dow Jones industrial average: 28,331.92, up 0.3% (83 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 11,665.06, up 1.7%

Read more: David Baron's fund has returned 400% to investors in the last decade using 20 stocks or less. He shared with us the 3 stocks he snapped up in 2020 — and the 3 travel and entertainment bets he loves going forward.

Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite indexes posted record closes yet again. The benchmarks have rallied throughout the week on positive economic data, improved US-China relations, and falling new COVID-19 cases in the US. Tech stocks led both indexes higher through the day after the session's mixed open.

Salesforce blew estimates out of the water on Tuesday, trouncing expectations for quarterly profits and revenue. The company — soon to be a member of the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average — also raised its forecast for 2020 revenue, citing a wave of tech upgrades prompted by the work-from-home shift.

Urban Outfitters and HP Enterprise also gained on healthy quarterly results.

Read more: Hundreds of flips and dozens of rentals: Here are the 4 real-estate investing strategies HGTV veteran Chris Naugle is leveraging to make sure every deal is a winner

Small-cap diagnostics firm Fluidigm spiked after the Food and Drug Administration issued emergency authorization for its saliva-based COVID test. Citron Research analyst Andrew Left tweeted on Wednesday the stock could leap as much as 314% from its Tuesday close to $35 on the approval.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to deliver a keynote address on Thursday at the central bank's annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The speech is expected to lay out the Fed's plans to keep interest rates low for several years and reveal a strategy for maintaining inflation at its 2% target. Investors will watch closely for any signs of additional monetary support to expedite the US economic rebound.

Read more: US investing champion David Ryan famously garnered a compounded return of 1,379% in just 3 years. Here is the 11-part criteria he uses to find the next big winner.

Spot gold fell as much as 1.3% before retracing losses and climbing as high as $1,954.27 per ounce. The precious metal and popular hedging asset has attempted to retake its high of $2,000 in several sessions but has not climbed above the threshold as investors secure profits and shift cash back to risk assets.

Oil prices fluctuated near contracts' previous close. West Texas Intermediate crude rose as much as 1%, to $43.78 per barrel, before paring gains. Brent crude, oil's global benchmark, decreased 0.5%, to $45.64, at settlement.

Now read more markets coverage from Markets Insider and Business Insider:

The CEO of a $1 billion ETF provider explains how the COVID-19 crisis completely upended investors' most reliable sources of steady returns — and shares where to find income as dividends and bond yields dry up

Virus resurgence in the fall could prompt double-dip recession, Kansas City Fed president says

Beware the 'value traps': Bank of America details red flags to watch for when hunting down cheap stocks

• Leuthold's Jim Paulsen told CNBC he's already seeing a rotation into cyclical stocks, and industrials, financials, energy, and small-caps are four areas poised to benefit. 
• The chief investment strategist said many cyclical stocks have done well since the S&P 500's lows in March. 
• Investors don't need to go to the "epicenter of the pandemic" and buy stocks that are ultra-sensitive to COVID-19 to play this rotation.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Leuthold's Jim Paulsen told CNBC on Wednesday that a rotation into cyclical stocks has already started taking place. 

The chief investment strategist said that since the S&P's 500 March 23 low, he's seen cyclical stocks, small-cap stocks, the equal-weighted S&P 500, and even international markets do well.  Many have even outperformed the S&P 500 on a cap-weighted basis, Paulsen said.

"I think a rotation is already taking place. It's not dramatic, it's not robust, but I think it's already starting and it's going to get more robust in the coming year," he added.

Read more: David Baron's fund has returned 400% to investors in the past decade using 20 stocks or fewer. He shared with us the 3 stocks he snapped up in 2020 — and the 3 travel and entertainment bets he loves going forward.

Paulsen recommended investors buy stocks in these four areas: general industrials, financials, well-financed energy, and small-caps. Investors don't have to go to the "epicenter of the pandemic swing" and invest in an industry like travel to play this rotation, he added. If investors stay in these four industries they can "have a pretty big bet on a leadership shift but not necessarily have to bet everything on just COVID shifting."

The Russell 2000 index, a small-cap index, is up more than 54% from March 23, and up more than 7% since last year. The S&P Industrials SPDR ETF (XLI) is up 51% since March 23 and up 6% since last year. 

• You can set up a Webex meeting using any internet browser or the official Webex mobile app.
• A Webex meeting can be started immediately, or scheduled to begin at any point in the future.
• If you schedule a meeting, you can send email invitations to each attendee automatically.
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

Video conferencing has become a common alternative to face-to-face meetings, and Webex is one of the older, more established solutions.

It's free to meet with up to 100 participants, and there's no time limit on your meetings, so it's a great online meeting option. 

You can start or schedule a Webex meeting easily from your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

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How to set up a Webex meeting in an internet browser

1. Go to Webex's website in a web browser. If you don't already have an account, click "Start for Free" and follow the instructions to create an account. Otherwise, click "Sign in," click "Webex Meetings," and sign in using your account credentials.

2. On your Personal Room page, copy the URL under the Personal Room heading. This is the link to your meeting, and you can share it with your attendees. 

3. Click "Start a Meeting." 

4. Webex will get ready to start the meeting. Click "Join from your browser." If you prefer, you can install the Webex desktop app and run the Webex meeting from there. 

5. After a moment, you should see your Personal Room with a preview of your video (if you have a webcam). When you're ready, click "Start meeting."

6. Click the three-dot menu and choose "Speaker, microphone, and camera." In the Settings dialog box, make sure that the correct devices are selected, so you'll be able to hear and be heard. Then click the "X" to close the box. 

7. If you need to get the URL to the meeting again, click the "i" icon at the top left of the screen. In the pop-up, copy the meeting link. 

To invite others to this meeting, just send them the link.

How to schedule a Webex meeting for later

You can also schedule a Webex meeting for a future time. 

1. Go to Webex's website in a web browser and log in. After you are in your Personal Room, click "Schedule" to the right of "Start a Meeting."

2. On the Schedule a Meeting page, complete the form to schedule the meeting — enter a meeting title, set a password, and click the date and time to specify when the meeting will occur. Be sure to set the correct time zone before choosing the date and time of the meeting. If you set the time first and then change the time zone, the time will change, which might not be what you want. 

3. Enter the email address for each person you want to invite. 

4. Click "Schedule."

5. You can close the browser. As the host, you'll be emailed an invitation to the meeting, and can click the link in the email to start the meeting at the scheduled time. 

How to set up a Webex meeting using a mobile device

1. If you haven't already, install the Webex Meet app for your iPhone or iPad or Android device. Sign into the app with your Webex credentials. 

2. To start a meeting immediately, swipe to the second page and tap "Start Meeting." Then, in the Personal Room, tap "Start" to begin. 

3. If you'd rather schedule a meeting for later, go to the app's first page and tap the New Meeting icon at the top right corner of the screen — it looks like a calendar with a plus sign on it.

4. Fill out the form to schedule a meeting — enter the start time, duration, and email address of each invitee. Set a password for the meeting.

5. When you're done, tap "Start" to send the invitations. The meeting will automatically appear in the list of scheduled meetings on the home page of the app. Just tap "Start" to begin the meeting at the scheduled time.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• What is Zoom? A comprehensive guide to the wildly popular video-chatting service for computers and smartphones

• How to add Zoom to your Google Calendar by installing an add-on

• 'What is a Zoom Room?': Zoom's virtual meeting room service, explained

• 'Where does Zoom save recordings?': How to find your Zoom meeting recordings in 2 ways

• 'Do you need an account to use Zoom?': No, but you'll need one to make your own meetings — here's what you need to know