ResidentialBusiness

President Donald Trump began dismantling his predecessor’s climate change and renewable energy policies on his first day in office, declaring a national energy emergency to speed up fossil fuel development – a policy he has summed up as “drill, baby, drill.” The declaration calls on the federal government to make it easier for companies to build oil and gas projects, in part by weakening environmental reviews, with the goal of lowering prices and selling to international markets. Democrats say that’s a sham. They point out that the U.S. is producing more oil and natural gas than any other country and the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act boosted renewable energy at a critical time, creating jobs and addressing the climate change threat – 2024 was Earth’s hottest year on record amid the hottest 10-year stretch on record. Democrats were expected to offer a resolution in the Senate on Wednesday to terminate Trump’s declaration, a move likely to be only symbolic given their minority status. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has already made the U.S. an even friendlier environment for fossil fuels. Congress is helping, too, with the House set to vote on a measure to repeal a Biden administration-era methane fee on oil and gas producers. Here are some ways the Trump administration has done so: Lifting a pause on LNG exports The Biden administration last year paused evaluations of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals. That pleased environmentalists concerned that a big surge in exports would contribute to planet-warming emissions. The pause didn’t stop projects already under construction, but it delayed consideration of new projects. Trump reversed that pause. On Tuesday, oil and gas giant Shell said global LNG demand is forecast to rise by around 60% by 2040. The United States is expected to play a major role in meeting that demand, with its export capacity expected to double before 2030, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. “I think investors have become much more comfortable that they can move towards final investment decisions without the concerns that they had over the last four years about potential roadblocks,” said Christopher Treanor, an energy and environmental attorney at the law firm Akin. Drilling expansion Trump has opened more land for oil and gas lease sales, shifting away from Biden’s efforts to protect environmentally sensitive areas like Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge and to prevent large swaths of ocean from being available for offshore drilling, including major areas off coasts in the Pacific, Atlantic and parts of Alaska. Environmental groups are suing to stop Trump’s moves. Expanding the area available for companies to lease and drill doesn’t necessarily mean that more oil and gas will be produced. When leases were made available in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, for example, only smaller companies bid and there were no buyers for a second lease sale. Army Corps appears ready to help projects sidestep the Clean Water Act The Army Corps of Engineers marked hundreds of Clean Water Act permits for fast-tracking, citing Trump’s order on energy, then removed that notation in its database. The agency said it needed to review active permit applications before publishing which ones will be fast-tracked. “They don’t seem to be backing off,” said Tom Pelton, spokesman with the Environmental Integrity Project. “They are just going to refine the list.” Many of the permit applications that had been listed for expediting are for fossil fuel projects, but some others have nothing to do with energy, including a housing subdivision proposed by Chevron in southern California, according to the Environmental Integrity Project. David Bookbinder, the organization’s director of law and policy, said the Trump administration is using the “pretext of a national energy emergency” to ask a federal agency to circumvent environmental protections to justify building more fossil fuel power plants. Bookbinder said there’s no shortage of energy. Slashing the federal workforce Pat Parenteau, professor emeritus at Vermont Law & Graduate School, said Trump’s policy changes aren’t nearly as important as the deep cuts to the federal government that eliminate vital expertise. “I think they are going to accomplish what no other administration has been able to do in terms of crippling the institutional capacity of the federal government to protect public health, to conserve national resources to save endangered species,” he said. “That is where we are going to see long-term, permanent damage.” Trump’s energy emergency calls, for example, for undermining Endangered Species Act protections to ensure fast energy development, even assembling a rarely used committee — the so-called “God Squad” — that could have authority to dismiss significant threats to species. That move was coupled with recent deep cuts to the Fish & Wildlife Service, which administers the law. Parenteau said some species are likely to go extinct. Executive orders take aim at renewables Trump also targeted wind energy with an order to temporarily halt offshore wind lease sales in federal waters and pause federal approvals, permits and loans for projects both onshore and offshore. In another order, he listed domestic energy resources that could help ensure a reliable, diversified and affordable supply of energy. Solar, wind and battery storage were omitted, though solar is the fastest-growing source of electricity generation in the United States. Trump has vowed to end tax credits for renewables as well, which would push up prices. Substantially slowing renewables could leave the U.S. wedded to coal and gas for far longer as coal plants are extended and new gas plants are built, said David Shepheard, partner and energy expert at the global consultant Baringa. Shepheard said the U.S. is facing unprecedented growth in electricity demand largely to meet needs from data centers and artificial intelligence, and increasingly the deck is stacked against renewables to meet it. A Baringa analysis found Trump’s policies will drive up emissions and put the agreed-upon international climate threshold further out of reach. —Michael Phillis and Jennifer McDermott, Associated Press Associated Press writers Matthew Daly and Patrick Whittle contributed reporting. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Samsung has been releasing Fan Edition (FE) smartphones, tablets, and earbuds for those looking for a more budget option compared to their flagship product. The Galaxy Tab S9 tablet has been Samsung's flagship tablet until the Galaxy Tab S10+ succeeded it last year. But now you can get the more budget-friendly FE version for a record-low price. The Galaxy Tab S9 FE is $297.72 (originally $449.99), a great value considering it comes with a stylus. Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE $279.72 at Amazon $449.99 Save $170.27 Get Deal Get Deal $279.72 at Amazon $449.99 Save $170.27 The Tab S9 FE is a great budget tablet for anyone looking to get a lot for their money. The best part is that it comes with an S Pen, which by itself retails for $94.99. The Tab S9 FE won't blow your mind with specs: It's got a 90Hz refresh rate screen with a 1,440 x 2,304 resolution, it has not an IPS LCD screen instead of AMOLED, and comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. But it's water-resistant with an IP68 rating and includes the Android 13 software; it also includes Samsung DeX, which lets you use your tablet like a laptop (you can get the Dexnor Keyboard Case to attach it to the tablet and pair it with Samsung DeX); and it has the advantage of getting software updates, unlike most tablet competitors. Keep in mind that you can't connect it to a monitor, however, even with a USB-C video cable. At the front, you have a 12MP ultrawide camera; in the back, an 8MP. Wifi will be strong with Wi-Fi 6, and the battery life is great, offering you up to 18 hours depending on use (and it's a USB-C charger). If you're looking for a reliable tablet that will get software updates for years at a budget price and comes with a stylus, you could do worse than the Galaxy Tab S9 FE. View the full article

President Donald Trump said he is planning to sell a $5 million “gold card” to wealthy foreigner investors, giving them the ability to work and live in the U.S. with a path toward becoming a citizen, as part of a program that would replace the current EB-5 investor visas. EB-5s are essentially a green card for permanent legal residency, created some 35 years ago to drum up foreign investment. The visa requires foreigners to spend $1 million (give or take) on a company that employs at least 10 people, according to the Associated Press. Of the potential buyers of the proposed gold card, Trump said Tuesday: “They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people, and we think it’s going to be extremely successful.” Here’s what to know about Trump’s gold card. How does the gold card differ from a green card or EB-5 visa? Newly appointed commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said the Trump gold card would increase the financial bar for investors from $1 million to $5 million, and do away with what he calls the “nonsense” or fraud that he said now characterizes the EB-5 program. He said the change will happen in two weeks. The biggest difference between the gold card and a green card is the gold card provides a much faster route to unlimited residency and the ability to work in the U.S. for these wealthy foreign investors.How many gold cards would be available versus EB-5 visas? How many gold cards would be available versus EB-5 visas? A total of 18,786 EB-5 visas are available for the 2025 financial year. Meanwhile, Trump has suggested millions of gold cards could be sold, which would raise revenue which he desperately needs to fund his enormous tax cuts and domestic agenda. In the past, Trump and his family business have made use of the EB-5 program for their own benefit. When asked if Russian oligarchs could make use of the gold card program, Trump responded, “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.” Can Trump replace the EB-5 visa? The EB-5 visa program was created by Congress in 1990 to create jobs and increase foreign investment in the economy, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Congress has reauthorized the program through September 30, 2027 through the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act. While Trump said his “gold card” would not need Congressional approval, “the president does not have authority to strike down an act of Congress, including the existing EB-5 program,” according to legal experts at the law firm Greenberg Traurig’s Immigration & Compliance Practice. View the full article

A study reveals new insight into how often AI search engines cite sources, and which websites receive the most citations. The post AI Search Engines Often Cite Third-Party Content, Study Finds appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Tulsi Gabbard said move would make Americans more vulnerable to ‘cyber exploitation’ View the full article

Broadcaster accuses company of failing to do enough to tackle piracy, often involving its Fire Stick TV devicesView the full article

Lift heavy to build muscle: That’s advice you’ve probably seen in a million places, whether you're aiming to get stronger, get "toned," or simply reap the health benefits of putting on a little muscle. But how heavy is “heavy,” and how do you know if your workout qualifies? There’s no specific number of pounds that will constitute “heavy” for everyone. What’s heavy for a teenage girl picking up a dumbbell for the first time will be a lot less than what’s heavy for a pro strongman. (If you do want to compare your lifts to other people's, sites like Symmetric Strength can show where you stand—but please consider these comps as just for fun.) In basic terms, training “heavy” is shorthand for resistance training that is in a low-rep range and gets heavier over time. This is the type of training that delivers the biggest gains in terms of strength and muscle size. Training heavy is not the only way to build muscle, but it’s an effective one. Here are the questions you should ask yourself when trying to figure out whether you're training heavy enough. How many reps are you doing?Training for strength usually has you doing 1-5 reps in each set. Training for hypertrophy (bigger muscles) is often in the 8-12 range. The truth is, there isn’t much difference in results between the two methods; getting stronger gives you bigger muscles and getting bigger muscles makes you stronger. I’d say that as long as you’re doing 12 reps or fewer, you’re in an appropriate range to say you are training heavy. Once you’re doing much more than that—15, 20, 50 reps—you’re training your muscular endurance more than strength. You can build some strength this way, but it's not what you're going for when you're trying to train heavy. How hard does the set feel?Let’s say you’re doing squats in sets of eight. That could count as heavy training, but only if you’re loading the squats enough that it’s hard to do all eight of them. For some exercises and some goals, you might be aiming to train "to failure"—literally, going until you can’t do another rep. An example would be if you’re doing eight bicep curls and can’t manage a ninth. But you can also get close to failure without quite going there. For example, if you’re doing squats, a set of eight might be done at a weight that you could manage for 10 or 11 reps if you really pushed yourself. That still counts as heavy training. What doesn’t count is if you’re doing eight reps of goblet squats with a light dumbbell because it’s the only dumbbell you have, or because you’re intimidated about going up in weight. Heavy lifting is when you’re doing the appropriate rep range with a weight that is challenging within that range. Are you increasing the weight over time?The only way to keep the lift challenging as you get stronger is to keep increasing the weight. This doesn't mean you need to go heavier every time, but it does mean that you pick up a heavier weight once you've gotten a bit stronger. To use that goblet squat example, maybe squatting with a 20-pound dumbbell was challenging the first time you tried it. But a week or two later, you can probably do the same eight reps with a 25-pound dumbbell. Before long, it may make more sense to do front squats with a barbell, to make it easier to add more weight. OK, now you’re lifting heavy. But if you kept doing the same sets of eight squats with the same 20-pound dumbbell, you’re not efficiently challenging yourself to build muscle or strength—you’re just doing an exercise that keeps getting easier. That’s still good for you, because it’s still exercise, but it no longer fits the description of lifting heavy. How long are you resting between sets?This is where a lot of people go wrong, especially if they’re doing home workouts or are focused on calorie burn. You shouldn't lift heavy for the calorie burn (or heart rate zones) during the workout; you should lift heavy to build muscle, and save the cardio for another day. If you’re constantly working to keep your heart rate up, with little to no time to rest between exercises, you aren’t going to be able to train heavy. More likely you’re doing a strength/cardio hybrid such as circuit training. Crossfit “metcon” WODs (workouts of the day) often fall into this category, as do many home workout videos that bill themselves as high-intensity interval training (HIIT). They’re usually not really HIIT, but that’s a rant for another time. If you aren’t resting, that means you aren’t approaching each set of lifts with fresh, rested muscles. Reducing rest times makes the workouts feel harder, but it also means you’ll be working with less weight. That means these exercises are usually too light fit the definition of working heavy. They might still help you build strength or muscle size, but not nearly as efficiently. If you take a few minutes’ rest between exercises, then you’re lifting heavy. A typical range would be 2-4 minutes between exercises that work smaller or fewer muscles (like curls or presses) and 3-5 minutes or more between sets of big compound lifts (like squats or deadlifts). With an appropriate rest time, you’ll be able to properly lift heavy. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: I just got feedback from my manager that I need to work on communication with a coworker. I think it’s mainly about tone not content, and I agree with the feedback — I have admittedly been pretty short. I’m irritated and it’s coming across. Where I’m getting stuck, though, is that it’s coming from a place of frustration and I’m not sure how to solve it without doing something about the underlying frustration. Let me give more context. My coworker Petunia and I are a two-person team. For the sake of anonymity, let’s say we do llama support; she is more junior and provides, say, llama food, and I am more senior and provide llama training and enrichment and also work as a team lead. We have separate managers. We both receive a potentially large bonus based on how much the llama farms we work with use our services. The challenge is that Petunia keeps dropping balls. She’ll, say, forget to order food for a set of llamas. We have a lot of clients and we all miss things sometimes, so I’ve tried to be understanding, but it happens pretty frequently with Petunia. The last time she took a week-long vacation, I reminded her on the day before she left that a farm’s order was overdue and to make sure it got ordered before she left — and she still forgot it. On at least two occasions when I have trusted her to own a large complicated project, she messed up in a massive way that caused the owner of the farm to get involved, and since I’m the team lead, my manager held me responsible for messing up the partnership. Please trust me that it’s nothing fireable, but it’s a lot of missed due dates, leaving early, and occasional big errors. Petunia knows she is dropping balls and keeps promising that she’s going to buckle down, does so for a week, and then goes back to normal. I have tried looping in her manager, Sam, but every time I do that, Petunia has expressed displeasure with me for not going to her first. But some of the things I go to Sam about, I just don’t feel like I have the standing to complain to Petunia directly about. It’s not my place to dictate her work hours, for example, and I guess I could respond when she says she’s too busy with Llama A to do Llama B in a timely manner by suggesting she work until 5 like all the other llama food specialists, but I can’t figure out how to say that without sounding passive-aggressive. It’s compounded by the fact that Petunia has some objectively difficult things going on in her personal life; initially, I gave her a lot of leeway and was willing to take on extra work, but it’s now been going on for nine months, and my patience is clearly getting low. I agree with my manager that this kind of frustration isn’t productive at work, and I want to communicate better, but I’m having trouble with how to be empathetic when I get looped into an urgent food ordering issue that Petunia has left behind but gave me no context on before leaving for a long weekend. I feel like I can’t just drop the rope because I make thousands of dollars based on how much these farms want to work with us. I generally respect Petunia’s manager and it’s possible that he is working with her on performance issues. But — as is fair — he’s not giving me status updates. So I feel like I’m out here on my own, trying to do my own job and half of Petunia’s job while overseeing the other half, but also managing Petunia’s emotions so she doesn’t feel micromanaged because she’s complained about that, and now I have to do it all while smiling. Please help me come up with a plan. I don’t want to be a jerk. Go back to your manager and say this: “I thought a lot about your feedback, and you’re right: my tone with Petunia has been short. I’ve been sounding irritated when talking to her, and that’s not okay. In thinking about how to fix this, I’ve realized I need to address my growing frustration with not being able to get what I depend on her for. It’s never okay to be short with a colleague and I am committed to fixing that, but I also want to talk to you about the issues I’ve been encountering and see if we can resolve them.” And then lay out what you laid out here: Petunia keeps dropping important balls, she regularly makes commitments that she doesn’t meet, and you can’t rely on her to do her job without extensive oversight and involvement from you. When you’ve talked with her about it previously, she gets better for a week, then goes right back to messing up. At this point you’re having to do your own job plus half of hers, plus making sure she doesn’t feel micromanaged even though there’s no way around that. Say that you’ve tried looping in Sam, but Petunia gets upset when you do. And then ask for your manager’s help on what to do next. You don’t have the authority to solve the problem yourself, so you need to escalate it to someone who does. If your manager doesn’t help, have this conversation with Sam instead. If Petunia objects to that, that’s okay! You can tell her, “Sam needs be part of this, because you and I have talked about it previously and the same issues are still coming up. Since you and I haven’t been able to resolve it on our own — and there may be context I’m not aware of since I’m not your boss — I’d like him to be involved.” Don’t let her guilt you into not talking to Sam about what’s going on; it’s perfectly appropriate for you to loop him in and ask for his help. And then going forward, if problems with Petunia continue, keep raising with them with Sam and with your own manager every time. Right now it’s become your problem to handle — even though you don’t actually have the tools or authority you need to be the one handling it, which is where your frustration is coming from — and you need to push it back on the people whose job it is, every time. View the full article

Millions of social security recipients are about to receive retroactive payments, as well as get a permanent hike in their monthly check. The increase in social security payments is due to the Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by President Biden. According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), about 3.2 million recipients who previously only received partial payments will be impacted. The SSA made the announcement in a press release on Tuesday. The Social Security Fairness Act, which Biden signed in December shortly before leaving office, eliminated two major policies which reduced social security payments for millions: the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). Both policies barred employees with a public pension from collecting their full benefits under the federal retirement program and reduced survivor benefits for family members. The former administration previously said that it could take up to a year for the payments to go out. However, Tuesday’s announcement explained that the retroactive payments, which should include any funds due after January 2024, will now be expedited. “Social Security’s aggressive schedule to start issuing retroactive payments in February and increase monthly benefit payments beginning in April supports President Trump’s priority to implement the Social Security Fairness Act as quickly as possible,” said Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, in the press release. “The agency’s original estimate of taking a year or more now will only apply to complex cases that cannot be processed by automation. The American people deserve to get their due benefits as quickly as possible.” The press release explained that recipients impacted will include “some teachers, firefighters, and police officers in many states; federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System; and people whose work had been covered by a foreign social security system.” “Most people will receive their one-time retroactive payment by the end of March, which will be deposited into their bank account on record with Social Security,” the release explained, noting that monthly increases, which will vary from person to person, should begin in April. A recent study on how COVID impacted social security pointed to a $205 billion increase in the nation’s social security fund. An extra 1.7 million deaths related to the pandemic meant that costs to the program were greatly reduced when people who had paid into the program prematurely passed, and therefore stopped collecting benefits. The Trump Administration did not point to the surplus as an explanation for expediting payments. View the full article

Are you ready to pay for Amazon Alexa? With the addition of AI to the assistant, Amazon thinks you are. Announced in a closed-doors meeting with press and business partners today, Amazon’s Alexa+ is bringing AI to the familiar digital assistant, plus a new $20/month price tag. The secret? If you have Prime, you’ll get access to it at no extra charge. Credit: Amazon As with standard Alexa, the assistant is built around vocal prompts, but is designed to be more conversational and personalized, and will supposedly be able to act on your behalf and integrate with partner apps including Hulu, Uber, and Xbox. It also enables new features in Amazon’s own apps, like Prime video or Ring, and should make smart home integration simpler. Amazon didn’t go over every potential use case at its event, seemingly because there are so many, but a few key ones include: More complex questions: When asking Alexa+ a question, as with other AI, you’ll be able to keep a conversation going without multiple prompts or repeating yourself in each new prompt. For instance, you could tell Alexa that one of your family members is vegetarian, and any recipe suggestions it makes for them for the rest of the conversation will take that into account. Multimodality: Alexa+ is able to use photos as input, or peruse uploaded documents and provide summaries of them. Create new routines by voice: Rather than having to set up new smart home automations through a complicated app, you’ll be able to do them verbally. For example, you could tell Alexa once to remember to turn off the lights when you close the garage door, and it'll do that from that moment onward. Jump to a specific Prime Video scene: Alexa+ will be able to use details such as scene descriptions or actor names to take you to a specific moment in a specific piece of content within Prime Video. In a press release, Amazon claims that saying something like “what’s that movie where Bradley Cooper sings a duet? Jump to that scene…” will be enough to start it playing. AI-powered Ring: People with Ring subscriptions will be able to ask Alexa+ to summarize saved footage and show you highlights, plus use “Smart Video Search” to find specific moments just by describing them to Alexa, i.e. by saying “When did I last take out the trash bins?” While that’s all set to make Alexa much more powerfuln (assuming it works) it’s also not too different from existing AI solutions. Where Alexa is set to go a step beyond is in taking action, in a way similar to what was promised by the Rabbit R1. Amazon says you could use it to order groceries, find event tickets, set up reservations, or book an Uber, among other things. Credit: Amazon That’s thanks to those partner integrations mentioned earlier. Supposedly, there are dozens of these partnerships set up and ready to go, including various news outlets like Time or The Washington Post, which should help make the assistant’s answers more accurate. As for actions, while it’s said to be hands-free, it seems like Alexa will ask for confirmation before actually making any final purchases or bookings. Similarly, Alexa+ is also set to integrate with Amazon Kids+, using AI to converse with kids using facts or interactive games and stories. Amazon promises “extra safety guardrails for younger users,” although details are still light at the moment. Credit: Amazon As is a lot about Alexa+. Amazon is promising transparency and privacy here, accessible via the Alexa Privacy dashboard, and has been surprisingly open about the technology powering Alexa+—it’s a combination of in-house models and Anthropic. But it’ll be a bit before you get to try out the upgraded assistant, with early access set for sometime next month. One surprise is that there are no new devices here, with Alexa+ instead being compatible with “almost every” shipped Echo device, although the company says that early access will come first to the Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21. Supposedly, the web and a new phone app will also get Alexa+, although it’s unclear when. Personally, I’ve always been a little skeptical of Alexa and its always-on microphones, and I can’t say Alexa+ is doing anything to move the needle for me. But I also haven’t seen much of it yet. I tend to be a bit more practical-minded when it comes to what I’m willing to use AI for, so we’ll see if Alexa+ can change my mind when I finally get my hands on it—its ability to automatically turn emails into calendar events does seem pretty handy, assuming you’re fine handing that data over to Amazon, and that Amazon makes it easy to do so. View the full article

You do not always need a lot of money to start a new business, and there are many business ideas you can pursue that do not require a large upfront investment. So, if you are considering starting a new business venture but do not have a lot of capital, there are still plenty of options available for you. Whether you’re interested in e-commerce, freelancing, or passive income ideas, there are opportunities that can be explored with minimal upfront investment. Read on to discover what kinds of businesses you can start without requiring a large investment. How Can You Start Your Own Business With No Money? If you would like to start a new business without incurring large startup costs, there are many types of businesses you can pursue. Here’s how: Identify a business idea: There are plenty of home-based businesses you can start that are low-cost initially. Doing some research on business ideas that can be operated from home will help you figure out what your options are. Conduct market research: After identifying potential businesses, you should consider doing market research to understand their demand and what customers are currently doing. Understanding the industry and customer behavior will enable you to put together a business plan that takes the existing customer base into account and potential marketing materials. Create a business plan: Once you have a great business idea, the next step is to create a business plan. What kind of skills or investments are needed? What kind of business structure would be best? What will you name the business, and how do you plan to attract the target market? You may also need to have a financial plan in place to avoid any personal liability issues. Having a plan ensures that you can start your business right from the get-go and can attract angel investors and other types of capital. Research any investments needed: There are some types of businesses you can start pretty quickly with little to no investment required. However, other types of businesses may require a business license or business insurance to get started. You can also investigate any small business loans that could help you quickly start your business for purchasing equipment or other needs. Promote your business: Once you are ready to go with your idea and have made all the investments needed, promoting your business is key! Reach out to local business communities or residents (depending on the business you offer) to let them know what service or product you are providing and market yourself to build your customer base. StepDescription 1. Identify a business idea- Research and explore home-based business ideas. - Evaluate the feasibility and potential of each idea. - Choose a business idea that aligns with your interests, skills, and market demand. - Consider the initial cost and resources required for each business idea. 2. Conduct market research- Investigate the market for your chosen business idea. - Understand customer preferences, needs, and behaviors. - Analyze competitors and identify gaps in the market. - Determine the demand for your product or service. - Use market research data to fine-tune your business plan and marketing strategies. 3. Create a business plan- Outline your business goals, objectives, and mission. - Identify the target market and define your value proposition. - Plan the business structure and legal requirements. - Determine the necessary skills and investments. - Develop a financial plan, including cost estimates and revenue projections. - Choose a suitable business name. 4. Research investments needed- Assess the financial requirements for starting the business. - Identify any licenses, permits, or insurance needed. - Explore potential funding sources, such as small business loans or angel investors. - Allocate funds for equipment, marketing, and initial operational expenses. 5. Promote your business- Develop a marketing strategy to reach your target audience. - Utilize online and offline marketing channels effectively. - Network with local business communities and potential customers. - Showcase your products or services through demos, samples, or promotions. - Build a customer base through quality service and engagement. Business Ideas You Can Start With No Money If you are ready to start your own business but not sure what you can operate with low startup costs, there are plenty of online business ideas and other types of ideas you can pursue on a shoestring budget. Landscaping Business A landscaping business can be a great idea if you are looking for a business where you can interact with many people and set your own hours. You may need a little bit of upfront capital to get the right equipment and reliable transportation to get to and from job sites. However, many people already have these items covered. And there are minimal ongoing costs to consider. Landscaping is great if you’re looking for ideas that are not home-based and where there are minimal costs to get started. Consulting Business Depending on your industry and your skills, having your own consulting business could be your next business idea. You could work with other businesses to offer your current skills and expertise on different issues. Consulting businesses require very little money upfront, especially if done online. You only need a solid internet connection and marketing materials to get started. Social Media Marketing There are many aspects of social media marketing that you can undertake as a small business. For example, you could utilize digital platforms to offer services such as social media management and building a social media presence on social media accounts for small business owners. It’s an easy business with no money required upfront, just social media experience, so it is relatively low cost to start. House-Sitting Business Another business model to consider is starting a service business such as house sitting. You can take care of homes while people are away, including keeping an eye on utilities, collecting mail, and watering plants. There are minimal startup costs required to start a housesitting business, but it can be lucrative depending on the area you are in. Freelance Writing Service-based businesses tend to be the best option if you are looking for a low-cost way to start a business. However, a freelance business idea you can consider to make extra cash could be to become a freelance writer. This could include copywriting, website writing, informational writing such as brochures, and other marketing communication, depending on what businesses require. It’s a great way to turn your current skills and expertise into a business. Dog Walking If you are a fan of dogs, why not offer dog walking services in your local neighborhood? You can start dog walking services without needing a lot of capital, and it can be an immensely useful service for your community. You may need some kind of liability insurance for this kind of business, so it’s best to research local and state regulations before starting. Start Your Own Online Store Starting your own online store is easy, but it may require some startup capital or angel investors, depending on the type of products you are trying to sell. For example, you could set up your own website and sell products such as clothing, home decor, artwork, and more. There are also many online platforms like marketplace sites that can help you get started quickly and even scale over time. Freelance Web Design There are many other types of freelance services you can pursue besides writing, such as website design if you are able to take relevant training. In addition, you can offer your services to other business owners needing a web presence, including basic sites on platforms such as Squarespace, Wix, and others. You do not need a business license to operate a website development business, so it is easy to get started and very flexible. Language Tutoring Business If you are a native English speaker or fluent in multiple languages, you have the opportunity to start a tutoring business to earn extra money online. This involves working with students of various ages and helping them develop their language skills, which includes practicing conversation and guiding them through the basics of a language. You can either establish your own tutoring business or collaborate with tutoring platforms to offer your services. Sell Online Courses Another opportunity for making money online is selling digital products such as online courses. If you have specific skills and experiences, you can start a business centered around developing and selling courses on your own website or on platforms such as Udemy. You may need to invest a small amount of capital into filming equipment, such as a high-quality camera and mic, but once the courses are filmed, you will be able to make passive income as they sell. Pet Sitting or Babysitting Another way to make extra cash is to start a pet-sitting or babysitting business. Again, this type of business may require some kind of liability insurance, business insurance, or business license, but it can be a valuable service that many customers may need, depending on your area. Virtual Assistant Services If you thrive on being organized and efficient, you can offer your services as a personal assistant or virtual assistant. For example, you could network with real estate agents, business owners, and other professionals who need assistance getting organized and keeping their schedules on track. You can balance multiple clients and build your business as a virtual assistant. More Business Idea Examples to Start With No Money If you are still thinking about what kinds of businesses you can start with no money, there are many local business ideas that you could pursue. Here are some of the best business idea examples for you to consider. Delivery services Many business owners and residents are always looking for reliable delivery options in their area. You can use your own car to make deliveries and be your own boss. You may need to get a business license and liability insurance for this kind of business, but it should be relatively easy to start. Life coach Life coaching is a service that many are seeking now, and there is a demand for online life coaches. There are certifications available for life coaching that you could take, and you would be able to connect with clients via Zoom or Skype for your sessions, so it would not require much money to start. Accounting and bookkeeping services If you are skilled at balancing the books and keeping track of financials, consider offering your services to local business owners. You can start without needing money or office space and provide a helpful skill for businesses seeking additional financial help. Podcaster If you are interested in an online business that you can start right away, you could become a podcaster. All you need to get started is a high-quality mic and audio editing software. You can create podcasts about subjects you are passionate about or create podcasts about your own experiences to guide and inspire others. Vlogger Another option to consider for an easy business to start with no money is becoming a vlogger. Many people operate successful businesses on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch by live streaming and creating vlogs. You may need to invest in equipment such as a camera or a mic, but you can get started immediately with vlogging. Data entry provider Many businesses are looking for reliable, independent contractors for simple and complex data entry tasks for various needs. These can be completed remotely, so there is no need for offices or any other equipment besides an internet connection and a computer. Translator Another option for those who speak multiple languages is to offer translation services. Translation services can be offered online or in person and can include services such as live translation, simultaneous translation, and document translation. There are many ways to start a translation business, depending on your level of skill and how much time you have with clients around the world. Personal Fitness Trainer If you’re passionate about fitness and health, starting a personal fitness training business could be an excellent fit. With the rise of virtual training sessions, you can offer services online via video calls, reducing the need for a physical location. You’ll need to be knowledgeable about fitness techniques and possibly obtain a certification, but the startup costs are minimal. Handmade Crafts Seller For individuals with a creative talent, selling handmade crafts can be a fulfilling venture. Websites like Etsy and local craft fairs offer excellent venues for showcasing and selling your creations. Whether it’s jewelry making, knitting, or woodworking, the possibilities are vast. Since the primary expenses usually involve only materials, this type of business presents a low barrier to entry, making it one of the many businesses to start with no money. Event Planning Services Event planning is another business idea that requires minimal upfront investment. If you have a knack for organization and love creating memorable experiences, you can start by offering your services for small events and gradually building your portfolio. Networking and social media can be powerful tools to attract clients. Resume Writing and Career Coaching With a good understanding of what makes a resume stand out and how to coach individuals for job interviews, you can start a resume writing and career coaching business. This service can be offered entirely online, making it a feasible option with little to no startup cost. Home Organizing Services If you have a talent for decluttering and organizing, consider starting a home organizing business. With a growing trend towards minimalism and efficient living spaces, your services can be in high demand. Start by offering your services to friends and family and use before-and-after photos to showcase your work on social media platforms. Content Creation for Social Media If you have a knack for creating engaging content, consider offering your services to businesses or personal brands looking to enhance their social media presence. This can include creating posts, graphics, or short videos. The only investment needed is your creativity and understanding of social media trends, making it a perfect business to start with no money. What Is the Easiest Business to Start With No Money? There are many businesses that you can start with very little money required. The easiest business to start with no money is a service-based venture such as virtual assistant services, freelance writing, or consulting, as no small business loans are required, and these can be offered online. Launching Your Dream Business with Zero Capital: Our Methodology Starting a business with no money might sound like a daunting task, but with the right approach and a clear set of criteria, it’s entirely possible. In guiding entrepreneurs towards starting businesses with minimal or no initial investment, we use a specific set of criteria. These criteria help in identifying opportunities that rely more on skills, creativity, and innovation than on financial resources. Each criterion is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 indicates the least importance and 5 the highest importance: Skill and Talent Utilization Importance: 5 Business ideas that leverage the individual’s existing skills, talents, or knowledge are crucial. This could include areas like digital skills, writing, coaching, or crafting. Market Demand and Scalability Importance: 4 We assess the current market demand for the proposed product or service and its potential for future growth without significant financial investment. Low Overhead and Operational Costs Importance: 5 The business should have minimal ongoing costs. This includes considering home-based businesses, digital services, or drop shipping models that don’t require a physical storefront or inventory. Digital and Online Platform Utilization Importance: 4 Leveraging online platforms and digital tools for marketing, sales, and service delivery is crucial, especially for businesses starting with no money. Networking and Community Building Importance: 3 The ability to network and build a community, which can be done virtually and without cost, can be a powerful tool for business growth and sustainability. Flexibility and Adaptability Importance: 4 Business ideas that offer flexibility and can adapt to changing market conditions or opportunities are essential, especially when operating with limited resources. Innovation and Creativity Importance: 4 Focusing on innovative and creative solutions can set a business apart and help it navigate the challenges of starting with no capital. Income Potential and Profitability Importance: 5 The potential to generate a steady income and become profitable, even on a small scale initially, is a key factor for businesses starting with no money. By applying these criteria, we aim to identify business ideas that are not only feasible without financial investment but also offer opportunities for growth, innovation, and income generation. Can You Start an Online Business With No Money? Yes, you can start a successful business with no money online. Many businesses that are service-based can be created online and do not require a significant investment upfront or a business license. What Is the Most Profitable Business Model to Start Without Capital? The most profitable business venture to start with no capital is a freelance service such as writing or being a virtual assistant. How Much Does It Cost to Start a Business? The amount of money needed to start a business will depend on the service or product being offered. Some service businesses such as landscaping, cleaning, or becoming a podcaster or Youtuber will require a small investment to get the necessary equipment. Some businesses may also require other certifications, such as business licenses or liability insurance. Other types of businesses, such as writing or consulting, do not require much money to get started. Frequently Asked Questions How Can You Start Your Own Business With No Money? To start a business without a large capital, identify a low-cost home-based business idea, conduct market research to understand demand and customer behavior, create a business plan, and explore any necessary investments. Promote your business to build a customer base. What Business Ideas Can You Start With No Money? You can start various businesses with minimal investment, such as landscaping, consulting, social media marketing, house-sitting, freelance writing, dog walking, online store, freelance web design, language tutoring, online courses, pet sitting, virtual assistant, and more. Are Service-Based Businesses Easier to Start With No Money? Yes, service-based ventures like writing, consulting, and virtual assistance require minimal investment and can be operated online, making them easier to start without significant capital. Can You Start a Profitable Business Model Without Capital? Certainly, freelance services like writing or virtual assistance present profitable business models that require little to no initial investment. These opportunities can be both lucrative and efficient. Can You Start an Online Business With No Money? Certainly, many service-based businesses can be created online without requiring substantial upfront costs or a business license, making them accessible to entrepreneurs with limited funds. What Is the Easiest Business to Start With No Money? Service-based ventures, like virtual assistant services, freelance writing, or consulting, are among the easiest businesses to start without requiring small business loans or significant capital. What Is the Most Profitable Business Model to Start Without Capital? Freelance services like writing or virtual assistance provide lucrative business models that require little to no investment, making them an excellent opportunity for individuals with limited financial resources. How Much Does It Cost to Start a Business? The initial cost to start a business varies based on the type of service or product offered. Some service businesses may require a small investment in equipment or certifications, while others require minimal capital to get started. Conclusion: Thriving Beyond Financial Boundaries The Unique Challenge of Limited Resources Opportunity in Constraints: Starting with minimal capital is a chance to showcase resourcefulness and creativity. Beyond Monetary Value: The journey’s success isn’t defined by financial capacity but by resilience and ingenuity. Entrepreneurship as a Testament to Ingenuity Value of Non-Monetary Assets: Resilience, adaptability, creativity, and a strong network are invaluable in your entrepreneurial journey. Challenges as Growth Opportunities: View every financial limitation as a catalyst for innovation and unique path-making. Leveraging Constraints for Innovation Success Stories of Limited Beginnings: Icons like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg exemplify success starting with little. Creative Problem-Solving: Limited finances drive innovative solutions and encourage the effective use of resources. The Power of Networking and Time Management Networking Necessity: Building a support system becomes crucial, offering mentorship and collaboration opportunities. Efficient Time Use: Limited funds necessitate prioritizing high-impact tasks, fostering disciplined growth. Customer-Centric Approach in Business Deep Customer Understanding: Financial limitations drive a focus on meeting customer needs precisely. Building Customer Loyalty: This tailored approach can create lasting customer relationships and set your business apart. Embracing the Entrepreneurial Spirit Refining Through Adversity: Limited resources are not a trial but an opportunity to grow stronger and more innovative. Historical Inspiration: Countless entrepreneurs have overcome financial limitations to achieve remarkable success. In summary, navigating entrepreneurship with limited financial resources is not just a journey of survival but one of profound growth and opportunity. It’s a chance to harness your full potential, utilizing every challenge as a stepping stone toward becoming a resilient, innovative, and successful entrepreneur. Your journey is a testament to the boundless power of determination and creativity, where your spirit and vision are the true determinants of success. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: What is Bootstrapping in Business? 50 Low-Cost Business Ideas with High-Profit Potential 20 Types of Grants Available Where to Get a Loan for Your Small Business 45 Amazing Home-Based Business Ideas to Consider Image: Envato Elements This article, "Businesses to Start With No Money" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

You do not always need a lot of money to start a new business, and there are many business ideas you can pursue that do not require a large upfront investment. So, if you are considering starting a new business venture but do not have a lot of capital, there are still plenty of options available for you. Whether you’re interested in e-commerce, freelancing, or passive income ideas, there are opportunities that can be explored with minimal upfront investment. Read on to discover what kinds of businesses you can start without requiring a large investment. How Can You Start Your Own Business With No Money? If you would like to start a new business without incurring large startup costs, there are many types of businesses you can pursue. Here’s how: Identify a business idea: There are plenty of home-based businesses you can start that are low-cost initially. Doing some research on business ideas that can be operated from home will help you figure out what your options are. Conduct market research: After identifying potential businesses, you should consider doing market research to understand their demand and what customers are currently doing. Understanding the industry and customer behavior will enable you to put together a business plan that takes the existing customer base into account and potential marketing materials. Create a business plan: Once you have a great business idea, the next step is to create a business plan. What kind of skills or investments are needed? What kind of business structure would be best? What will you name the business, and how do you plan to attract the target market? You may also need to have a financial plan in place to avoid any personal liability issues. Having a plan ensures that you can start your business right from the get-go and can attract angel investors and other types of capital. Research any investments needed: There are some types of businesses you can start pretty quickly with little to no investment required. However, other types of businesses may require a business license or business insurance to get started. You can also investigate any small business loans that could help you quickly start your business for purchasing equipment or other needs. Promote your business: Once you are ready to go with your idea and have made all the investments needed, promoting your business is key! Reach out to local business communities or residents (depending on the business you offer) to let them know what service or product you are providing and market yourself to build your customer base. StepDescription 1. Identify a business idea- Research and explore home-based business ideas. - Evaluate the feasibility and potential of each idea. - Choose a business idea that aligns with your interests, skills, and market demand. - Consider the initial cost and resources required for each business idea. 2. Conduct market research- Investigate the market for your chosen business idea. - Understand customer preferences, needs, and behaviors. - Analyze competitors and identify gaps in the market. - Determine the demand for your product or service. - Use market research data to fine-tune your business plan and marketing strategies. 3. Create a business plan- Outline your business goals, objectives, and mission. - Identify the target market and define your value proposition. - Plan the business structure and legal requirements. - Determine the necessary skills and investments. - Develop a financial plan, including cost estimates and revenue projections. - Choose a suitable business name. 4. Research investments needed- Assess the financial requirements for starting the business. - Identify any licenses, permits, or insurance needed. - Explore potential funding sources, such as small business loans or angel investors. - Allocate funds for equipment, marketing, and initial operational expenses. 5. Promote your business- Develop a marketing strategy to reach your target audience. - Utilize online and offline marketing channels effectively. - Network with local business communities and potential customers. - Showcase your products or services through demos, samples, or promotions. - Build a customer base through quality service and engagement. Business Ideas You Can Start With No Money If you are ready to start your own business but not sure what you can operate with low startup costs, there are plenty of online business ideas and other types of ideas you can pursue on a shoestring budget. Landscaping Business A landscaping business can be a great idea if you are looking for a business where you can interact with many people and set your own hours. You may need a little bit of upfront capital to get the right equipment and reliable transportation to get to and from job sites. However, many people already have these items covered. And there are minimal ongoing costs to consider. Landscaping is great if you’re looking for ideas that are not home-based and where there are minimal costs to get started. Consulting Business Depending on your industry and your skills, having your own consulting business could be your next business idea. You could work with other businesses to offer your current skills and expertise on different issues. Consulting businesses require very little money upfront, especially if done online. You only need a solid internet connection and marketing materials to get started. Social Media Marketing There are many aspects of social media marketing that you can undertake as a small business. For example, you could utilize digital platforms to offer services such as social media management and building a social media presence on social media accounts for small business owners. It’s an easy business with no money required upfront, just social media experience, so it is relatively low cost to start. House-Sitting Business Another business model to consider is starting a service business such as house sitting. You can take care of homes while people are away, including keeping an eye on utilities, collecting mail, and watering plants. There are minimal startup costs required to start a housesitting business, but it can be lucrative depending on the area you are in. Freelance Writing Service-based businesses tend to be the best option if you are looking for a low-cost way to start a business. However, a freelance business idea you can consider to make extra cash could be to become a freelance writer. This could include copywriting, website writing, informational writing such as brochures, and other marketing communication, depending on what businesses require. It’s a great way to turn your current skills and expertise into a business. Dog Walking If you are a fan of dogs, why not offer dog walking services in your local neighborhood? You can start dog walking services without needing a lot of capital, and it can be an immensely useful service for your community. You may need some kind of liability insurance for this kind of business, so it’s best to research local and state regulations before starting. Start Your Own Online Store Starting your own online store is easy, but it may require some startup capital or angel investors, depending on the type of products you are trying to sell. For example, you could set up your own website and sell products such as clothing, home decor, artwork, and more. There are also many online platforms like marketplace sites that can help you get started quickly and even scale over time. Freelance Web Design There are many other types of freelance services you can pursue besides writing, such as website design if you are able to take relevant training. In addition, you can offer your services to other business owners needing a web presence, including basic sites on platforms such as Squarespace, Wix, and others. You do not need a business license to operate a website development business, so it is easy to get started and very flexible. Language Tutoring Business If you are a native English speaker or fluent in multiple languages, you have the opportunity to start a tutoring business to earn extra money online. This involves working with students of various ages and helping them develop their language skills, which includes practicing conversation and guiding them through the basics of a language. You can either establish your own tutoring business or collaborate with tutoring platforms to offer your services. Sell Online Courses Another opportunity for making money online is selling digital products such as online courses. If you have specific skills and experiences, you can start a business centered around developing and selling courses on your own website or on platforms such as Udemy. You may need to invest a small amount of capital into filming equipment, such as a high-quality camera and mic, but once the courses are filmed, you will be able to make passive income as they sell. Pet Sitting or Babysitting Another way to make extra cash is to start a pet-sitting or babysitting business. Again, this type of business may require some kind of liability insurance, business insurance, or business license, but it can be a valuable service that many customers may need, depending on your area. Virtual Assistant Services If you thrive on being organized and efficient, you can offer your services as a personal assistant or virtual assistant. For example, you could network with real estate agents, business owners, and other professionals who need assistance getting organized and keeping their schedules on track. You can balance multiple clients and build your business as a virtual assistant. More Business Idea Examples to Start With No Money If you are still thinking about what kinds of businesses you can start with no money, there are many local business ideas that you could pursue. Here are some of the best business idea examples for you to consider. Delivery services Many business owners and residents are always looking for reliable delivery options in their area. You can use your own car to make deliveries and be your own boss. You may need to get a business license and liability insurance for this kind of business, but it should be relatively easy to start. Life coach Life coaching is a service that many are seeking now, and there is a demand for online life coaches. There are certifications available for life coaching that you could take, and you would be able to connect with clients via Zoom or Skype for your sessions, so it would not require much money to start. Accounting and bookkeeping services If you are skilled at balancing the books and keeping track of financials, consider offering your services to local business owners. You can start without needing money or office space and provide a helpful skill for businesses seeking additional financial help. Podcaster If you are interested in an online business that you can start right away, you could become a podcaster. All you need to get started is a high-quality mic and audio editing software. You can create podcasts about subjects you are passionate about or create podcasts about your own experiences to guide and inspire others. Vlogger Another option to consider for an easy business to start with no money is becoming a vlogger. Many people operate successful businesses on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch by live streaming and creating vlogs. You may need to invest in equipment such as a camera or a mic, but you can get started immediately with vlogging. Data entry provider Many businesses are looking for reliable, independent contractors for simple and complex data entry tasks for various needs. These can be completed remotely, so there is no need for offices or any other equipment besides an internet connection and a computer. Translator Another option for those who speak multiple languages is to offer translation services. Translation services can be offered online or in person and can include services such as live translation, simultaneous translation, and document translation. There are many ways to start a translation business, depending on your level of skill and how much time you have with clients around the world. Personal Fitness Trainer If you’re passionate about fitness and health, starting a personal fitness training business could be an excellent fit. With the rise of virtual training sessions, you can offer services online via video calls, reducing the need for a physical location. You’ll need to be knowledgeable about fitness techniques and possibly obtain a certification, but the startup costs are minimal. Handmade Crafts Seller For individuals with a creative talent, selling handmade crafts can be a fulfilling venture. Websites like Etsy and local craft fairs offer excellent venues for showcasing and selling your creations. Whether it’s jewelry making, knitting, or woodworking, the possibilities are vast. Since the primary expenses usually involve only materials, this type of business presents a low barrier to entry, making it one of the many businesses to start with no money. Event Planning Services Event planning is another business idea that requires minimal upfront investment. If you have a knack for organization and love creating memorable experiences, you can start by offering your services for small events and gradually building your portfolio. Networking and social media can be powerful tools to attract clients. Resume Writing and Career Coaching With a good understanding of what makes a resume stand out and how to coach individuals for job interviews, you can start a resume writing and career coaching business. This service can be offered entirely online, making it a feasible option with little to no startup cost. Home Organizing Services If you have a talent for decluttering and organizing, consider starting a home organizing business. With a growing trend towards minimalism and efficient living spaces, your services can be in high demand. Start by offering your services to friends and family and use before-and-after photos to showcase your work on social media platforms. Content Creation for Social Media If you have a knack for creating engaging content, consider offering your services to businesses or personal brands looking to enhance their social media presence. This can include creating posts, graphics, or short videos. The only investment needed is your creativity and understanding of social media trends, making it a perfect business to start with no money. What Is the Easiest Business to Start With No Money? There are many businesses that you can start with very little money required. The easiest business to start with no money is a service-based venture such as virtual assistant services, freelance writing, or consulting, as no small business loans are required, and these can be offered online. Launching Your Dream Business with Zero Capital: Our Methodology Starting a business with no money might sound like a daunting task, but with the right approach and a clear set of criteria, it’s entirely possible. In guiding entrepreneurs towards starting businesses with minimal or no initial investment, we use a specific set of criteria. These criteria help in identifying opportunities that rely more on skills, creativity, and innovation than on financial resources. Each criterion is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 indicates the least importance and 5 the highest importance: Skill and Talent Utilization Importance: 5 Business ideas that leverage the individual’s existing skills, talents, or knowledge are crucial. This could include areas like digital skills, writing, coaching, or crafting. Market Demand and Scalability Importance: 4 We assess the current market demand for the proposed product or service and its potential for future growth without significant financial investment. Low Overhead and Operational Costs Importance: 5 The business should have minimal ongoing costs. This includes considering home-based businesses, digital services, or drop shipping models that don’t require a physical storefront or inventory. Digital and Online Platform Utilization Importance: 4 Leveraging online platforms and digital tools for marketing, sales, and service delivery is crucial, especially for businesses starting with no money. Networking and Community Building Importance: 3 The ability to network and build a community, which can be done virtually and without cost, can be a powerful tool for business growth and sustainability. Flexibility and Adaptability Importance: 4 Business ideas that offer flexibility and can adapt to changing market conditions or opportunities are essential, especially when operating with limited resources. Innovation and Creativity Importance: 4 Focusing on innovative and creative solutions can set a business apart and help it navigate the challenges of starting with no capital. Income Potential and Profitability Importance: 5 The potential to generate a steady income and become profitable, even on a small scale initially, is a key factor for businesses starting with no money. By applying these criteria, we aim to identify business ideas that are not only feasible without financial investment but also offer opportunities for growth, innovation, and income generation. Can You Start an Online Business With No Money? Yes, you can start a successful business with no money online. Many businesses that are service-based can be created online and do not require a significant investment upfront or a business license. What Is the Most Profitable Business Model to Start Without Capital? The most profitable business venture to start with no capital is a freelance service such as writing or being a virtual assistant. How Much Does It Cost to Start a Business? The amount of money needed to start a business will depend on the service or product being offered. Some service businesses such as landscaping, cleaning, or becoming a podcaster or Youtuber will require a small investment to get the necessary equipment. Some businesses may also require other certifications, such as business licenses or liability insurance. Other types of businesses, such as writing or consulting, do not require much money to get started. Frequently Asked Questions How Can You Start Your Own Business With No Money? To start a business without a large capital, identify a low-cost home-based business idea, conduct market research to understand demand and customer behavior, create a business plan, and explore any necessary investments. Promote your business to build a customer base. What Business Ideas Can You Start With No Money? You can start various businesses with minimal investment, such as landscaping, consulting, social media marketing, house-sitting, freelance writing, dog walking, online store, freelance web design, language tutoring, online courses, pet sitting, virtual assistant, and more. Are Service-Based Businesses Easier to Start With No Money? Yes, service-based ventures like writing, consulting, and virtual assistance require minimal investment and can be operated online, making them easier to start without significant capital. Can You Start a Profitable Business Model Without Capital? Certainly, freelance services like writing or virtual assistance present profitable business models that require little to no initial investment. These opportunities can be both lucrative and efficient. Can You Start an Online Business With No Money? Certainly, many service-based businesses can be created online without requiring substantial upfront costs or a business license, making them accessible to entrepreneurs with limited funds. What Is the Easiest Business to Start With No Money? Service-based ventures, like virtual assistant services, freelance writing, or consulting, are among the easiest businesses to start without requiring small business loans or significant capital. What Is the Most Profitable Business Model to Start Without Capital? Freelance services like writing or virtual assistance provide lucrative business models that require little to no investment, making them an excellent opportunity for individuals with limited financial resources. How Much Does It Cost to Start a Business? The initial cost to start a business varies based on the type of service or product offered. Some service businesses may require a small investment in equipment or certifications, while others require minimal capital to get started. Conclusion: Thriving Beyond Financial Boundaries The Unique Challenge of Limited Resources Opportunity in Constraints: Starting with minimal capital is a chance to showcase resourcefulness and creativity. Beyond Monetary Value: The journey’s success isn’t defined by financial capacity but by resilience and ingenuity. Entrepreneurship as a Testament to Ingenuity Value of Non-Monetary Assets: Resilience, adaptability, creativity, and a strong network are invaluable in your entrepreneurial journey. Challenges as Growth Opportunities: View every financial limitation as a catalyst for innovation and unique path-making. Leveraging Constraints for Innovation Success Stories of Limited Beginnings: Icons like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg exemplify success starting with little. Creative Problem-Solving: Limited finances drive innovative solutions and encourage the effective use of resources. The Power of Networking and Time Management Networking Necessity: Building a support system becomes crucial, offering mentorship and collaboration opportunities. Efficient Time Use: Limited funds necessitate prioritizing high-impact tasks, fostering disciplined growth. Customer-Centric Approach in Business Deep Customer Understanding: Financial limitations drive a focus on meeting customer needs precisely. Building Customer Loyalty: This tailored approach can create lasting customer relationships and set your business apart. Embracing the Entrepreneurial Spirit Refining Through Adversity: Limited resources are not a trial but an opportunity to grow stronger and more innovative. Historical Inspiration: Countless entrepreneurs have overcome financial limitations to achieve remarkable success. In summary, navigating entrepreneurship with limited financial resources is not just a journey of survival but one of profound growth and opportunity. It’s a chance to harness your full potential, utilizing every challenge as a stepping stone toward becoming a resilient, innovative, and successful entrepreneur. Your journey is a testament to the boundless power of determination and creativity, where your spirit and vision are the true determinants of success. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: What is Bootstrapping in Business? 50 Low-Cost Business Ideas with High-Profit Potential 20 Types of Grants Available Where to Get a Loan for Your Small Business 45 Amazing Home-Based Business Ideas to Consider Image: Envato Elements This article, "Businesses to Start With No Money" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Your software development team barely looks up from Azure DevOps so they can get all their work done. That makes things difficult for team leads and other stakeholders who need regular updates on software projects but only work in Jira. That’s where a Jira-Azure DevOps integration comes in. Here are a few ways you can make this happen. Method 1: Use the Azure DevOps for Jira Marketplace app The team at Atlassian built an app specifically for setting up a Jira-Azure DevOps integration. You can find it on the Jira marketplace here. With a little bit of technical know-how, developers in Azure DevOps will be able to push data from that tool to Jira, giving leaders more visibility on their software projects. Let’s go through setting this app up and using it with your Jira projects. Step 1: Install the Azure DevOps for Jira app You can either follow the link above to get the app or get to it from your Jira projects by following these steps: Hit Apps in your Jira project then Explore more apps. You’ll get a search bar. Search for Azure DevOps for Jira. Make sure to pick the one with “Official” in the name, since there are a few apps on the marketplace with a similar name. Hit Get app then Get it now. After installing the app, hit Configure now. Step 2: Connect Azure DevOps to Jira Before you can start using this integration, you’ll need to configure your Azure DevOps account so it can connect to Jira properly. Sign in to your Microsoft account and accept the necessary permissions. Hit Continue on the configuration screen. In the new tab that opens, enter the credentials for the Azure DevOps account you’ll connect to Jira. On the next screen, hit Accept. Hit Connect for any of the organizations you want to connect to Jira. Step 3: Set up OAuth in Azure DevOps OAuth is an authorization method that lets third-party apps interact with your Azure DevOps data. It’s essential to set up before this integration can work. You’ll get a pop-up in Jira that tells you when this needs to get set up. Here’s how to do it. In the pop-up, hit Go to Azure DevOps. Go to your organization settings, hit Security, then Policies. Find the Application connection policies header and toggle on Third-party application access via OAuth and SSH authentification. Congrats! You’ve done everything you need to integrate Azure DevOps with Jira. Now let’s quickly cover some of actions your developers can take to push data form Azure DevOps to Jira. Step 3: Trigger integration events in Azure DevOps Since this integration is a little more technical, your developers will have to take manual action in Azure DevOps to push data over to Jira. Here are some of the things your team can do to trigger an integration event: Set up a CI/CD pipeline using deployment jobs or the classic release pipeline. Link deployment events to Jira by including Jira issue keys. Limitations of this method This integration is a great way to start pushing data from Azure DevOps to Jira, but is it necessarily the best one for your organization? Let’s go over a few reasons why that might not be the case. It’s technical While setting up the integration itself isn’t too complex, actually getting your data to go from work in your Azure DevOps workspace to your Jira issues can be. Developers need to take active, technical actions in Azure DevOps to move that data over. Your head of marketing isn’t going to set this up. It only covers Jira and Azure DevOps: This integration is perfectly suited to managing workflows that rely on these two tools, but that’s it. You’ll need other integration platforms to sync data between the rest of your tool stack. It’s one-way only This integration really only serves one purpose. It allows your developers to push data from Azure DevOps to your Jira issues, giving product managers, team leads, and other stakeholders more visibility into that work. You can’t get Jira data into Azure DevOps with this method. It’s not suited to syncing historical data If you have tons of historical data you need to sync between Jira and Azure DevOps, this might not be the integration for you. It only handles new data, meaning you’ll need another option to handle your backlog. So with these limitations in mind, what are some of your other options? Method 2: Use Unito’s Jira-Azure DevOps integration Unito is an integration platform with native 2-way syncing that offers deep integrations with some of the most powerful SaaS tools on the market, like Jira and Azure DevOps. But you can sync other tools too, from spreadsheets in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel to project management tools like Asana, Jira, and Trello. This gives you complete visibility into software projects, no matter which tool you work from. Here’s why Unito is the best way to sync Jira issues with data from Azure DevOps. Anyone can use it Unito is a no-code solution, and most users don’t have a technical background. That means anyone from a team lead to a project manager can set up a Unito flow to sync data between these tools. No specialized training necessary. It integrates over 40 tools While the Azure DevOps for Jira app is great for pairing these tools, it doesn’t support any others. With Unito, you can get integrations for more than 40 tools, including spreadsheets, project management apps, databases, and more. It also supports more fields than most other integrations on the market, including custom fields. This integration works for both Jira Cloud and Jira Server. It’s two-way Unito is a two-way sync tool by default, meaning you can get updates in both Azure DevOps and Jira. You’ll also see new work items created automatically in one tool when you manually create them in the other. This keeps all your work in sync everywhere, with no extra work required. Here’s a step-by-step guide showing how easy it is to integrate Jira and Azure DevOps with Unito. Step 1: Connect Jira and Azure DevOps to Unito First, connect your tools. In this case, connect an Azure DevOps project and a Jira project. Step 2: Pick flow direction This will determine if new Azure DevOps or Jira issues are automatically created in just one tool or both. It’s where Unito stands out as an integration solution because users can select either one-way or 2-way syncing. Step 3: Build rules Maybe you don’t want absolutely every item syncing over to the other tool. That’s perfectly fine. You can choose to filter issues based on their assignee, their state, their story point, and more. Step 4: Map your fields Unito supports most field types so no details are missed. You can have Unito map these automatically or fine-tune them yourself. And that’s it! You’re ready to launch. Your Jira and Azure DevOps projects will be in sync, saving you manual work and licenses. Once you’ve got the hang of Unito, you can also try syncing: Azure DevOps to Airtable Azure DevOps to Asana Azure DevOps to Wrike Asana and Azure DevOps Azure DevOps and Airtable Trello and Azure DevOps ADO and ClickUp Azure DevOps and ServiceNow or other database and project management tools. Ready to see what Unito can do? Meet with Unito product experts to get a custom demo. Book a demo Method 3: Use Zapier’s Jira-Azure DevOps integration Zapier is an automation platform widely used to set up simple one-way automations between thousands of tools, including Jira and Azure DevOps. It has a simple, no-code, drag-and-drop interface that allows anyone to set up their first integration without serious technical skills. Here’s how you can integrate Jira with Azure DevOps using Zapier. Step 1: Connect your trigger app account to Zapier Your “trigger app” is the source of your automation, the tool from which you’ll push data. So if, for example, you wanted the creation of new issues in Azure DevOps to create new Jira issues, you’d make Azure DevOps your trigger app. Step 2: Customize your trigger event A trigger event is the event in your trigger app that kickstarts your automation. For Azure DevOps, here are a few examples of trigger events you can choose: New work item created Work item updated New comment on work item Code push Code check-in Completed build For Jira, you can use the following trigger events: New issue Updated issue New comment Updated comment Step 3: Choose your action app and connect it to Zapier Your “action app” is the tool where your Zapier automation will actually make changes. So if Azure DevOps is your trigger app, then Jira will be your action app, and vice-versa. Step 4: Customize your action The action is the change Zapier will make in your action app. Here are some actions Zapier can take in Azure DevOps: Trigger build Create work item Update work item Add link to work item API request And some actions Zapier can take in Jira: Add attachment to issue Add comment to issue Link issues Add watcher to issue Create issue Move issue to sprint Update issue API request Limitations of this method Zapier is easy to set up and simple to add to multiple tools in your workspace. That said, it isn’t necessarily the best option for every workflow. Here’s why. Best for new data Zapier doesn’t handle historical data particularly well. Since its automations are trigger-based, only new work items or updates to existing work items are treated by your integration. While you can work around this by setting up fields specifically for pushing existing data between tools and making updates to this field your trigger event, it’s not as intuitive as using an integration solution that natively handles historical data. One-way automation Zapier automations are one-way, only pushing data from a trigger app to an action app. While it’s possible to chain multiple automations to simulate a two-way integration, it’s not part of Zapier’s native functionality. This means added maintenance and troubleshooting when something goes wrong. No real-time sync Even in situations where you chain enough automations to imitate a two-way sync solution, Zapier won’t give you the same kind of real-time syncing you’d expect with these other tools. If your workflows need real-time syncing, Zapier likely won’t be the best option for you. Ready to see what Unito can do? Meet with Unito product experts to get a custom demo. Book a demo FAQ: Azure DevOps-Jira integration Can Azure DevOps integrate with Jira? Atlassian offers a built-in Jira-Azure DevOps integration, which requires a bit of technical know-how to work properly. This integration relies on automation to make changes in Jira when specific actions are taken in Azure DevOps. Unito’s integration creates a true 2-way sync between these tools, essentially connecting individual issues so updates are automatically sent to both Jira and Azure DevOps. How can you migrate Jira projects to Azure DevOps? Migrations usually involve relying on third-party tools or consultants to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. That’s because Jira and Azure DevOps don’t have built-in tools for moving data from one to the next reliably at scale. A tool like Unito allows you to migrate at your own pace, automatically pushing new and historical issues from Jira to Azure DevOps, keeping everything in sync until you’re ready to shut down Jira. This allows you to migrate without pausing important projects, as well as migrating your entire organization on a project-by-project or team-by-team basis. View the full article

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Meta Quest 3 users will now be able to explore detailed 3D scans of sculptures, rock formations, plant life, and other interesting objects from around the world. The 3D images, which users can virtually zoom in on or walk around, are part of a new app from Pokémon Go-maker Niantic called Into the Scaniverse. Last year, the company released the latest version of a smartphone Scaniverse app letting users create detailed images of public scenes or objects within their phones, with the ability to add public images to a shared map. Already, the map includes more than 50,000 3D scenes, including renderings of Stonehenge, ancient ruins in Europe, Japanese temples, and even a shrine to Elvis Presley, all captured with the Scaniverse app or through Niantic games like Ingress and Pokémon Go. With the new Quest app, users will be able to traverse a map of the world from a virtual hot air balloon, spotting and clicking pins on the map to explore in stereo 3D vision the sights that were scanned there. “Our goal is really to get a large collection of high-quality scans that folks can visit around the world,” says Brian McClendon, senior vice president of engineering at Niantic. “You can walk up to it and look up at it, and you get a sense of scale of these objects that sometimes photos don’t do justice.” [Image: Ninantic]Making the scans, created using a mathematical modeling technique called the Gaussian splat, available through virtual reality will hopefully also incentivize more users to go out and scan and share the world around them, similar to how the rise of Instagram motivated people to take and share photos, he says. The scanning process generally takes only a few minutes, and users can view their own scans on their phones or Quest headsets before deciding whether to share them to the public map. “This allows you to experiment with locations and try things out, and once you have what you like, you can then choose to publish to the map or not,” says McClendon. The scan library is currently growing rapidly, with more than 11,000 published since December. Users on Niantic forums and in meetups also share tips on how to capture the best scans. McClendon, who is based in Arizona, has uploaded some scans of cactus and other desert foliage that not everyone sees in person, and he’s hopeful that users continue to increase their coverage of the planet. [Animation: Ninantic]Though the scans might be most impressive in virtual reality, it’s not necessary to have a Quest to experience them, with the 3D images also accessible in the Scaniverse iPhone and Android apps or through the web. Scans taken with Niantic’s software and shared publicly are also available for developers to use in Niantic Studio, the company’s tool for building XR and 3D games and experiences. Users also share some of their favorite scans through social media like X, Theads, and Bluesky. But McClendon anticipates that the Quest app’s map view will lead to a new wave of discovery as people explore spots near them or places they’ve visited in the past. [Image: Ninantic]The app can even be used to help plan vacations, with people exploring potential sites before they travel, McClendon suggests. And ideally, when they arrive, they’ll be inspired to contribute more scans to the public collection. “The real goal is to motivate more people to create more scans,” McClendon says. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. There are all kinds of laws that govern the rights you have when you’re renting your home, but landlords are also pretty well-protected. You might think that anything that goes on in your apartment is their business (for better or worse), but there are actually quite a few things that simply are not their responsibility. While it’s pretty wild that they technically own your home and can make all kinds of rules about it but don’t actually have to fix certain issues, it’s worth knowing what is and is not their job when it comes to your space. Outdoor spaces are your responsibilityIf you are renting a house or are lucky enough to have scored an apartment with a backyard, be warned: Your lease may stipulate that management of those areas is your responsibility. Read it carefully and ask your landlord if you have any questions, but know that you could be the one who has to clear snow, trim the grass, clean the gutters, remove pests, and more. Small plumbing issues are also for you to handleClogs and other little plumbing issues are rarely your landlord’s responsibility. Unless it’s something really major, you’re probably on your own to get whatever is in that pipe out of it, which you should do because if your issue becomes the building’s issue, you’re likely on the hook for that, too. I recommend the FlexiSnake Drain Weasel for clogs: It extends 18 inches, has a rotating handle that makes using it easy, and it's less than $20. Regularly use this to avoid major problems down the line and only call your landlord when something is really, really wrong. For instance, my super stopped by a few months ago to fix my leaky shower—there was a problem with some valve seals that I didn't cause and couldn't fix on my own—but my stopped-up sink just a foot away? That's my problem and mine alone. Speaking of... Damage you cause is damage you fixIn most cases, if you cause damage, you have to fix it. If your wall develops a hole because of a water leak, that’s the landlord’s responsibility. If it develops a hole because you hung something too heavy, it’s yours. This can get a little confusing, so this is the category it's best to discuss with your super regardless. This week, I called mine out of exasperation because I couldn't get some marks off the higher part of my wall. I assumed they were my fault. Wrong! They were caused by a faulty radiator valve (not my fault) and were actually a sign of a deeper problem inside the wall (also not my fault), which meant the management company did have to dispatch someone to not only tear up my wall, but replace my radiator valve. They did that, but other marks caused by scratches or wall hangings were left untouched; those are my responsibility, since I put them there. This is not to say you're on your own completely. Depending on the relationship you have with your super, you can ask to borrow their tools and resources and they might even help you out. It is, after all, in their financial interest to keep it in good condition. I rent a small apartment and certainly don't have room for things like big tools or ladders, but my super lets me use his when I have to correct something that falls under the umbrella of my responsibility. More often than not, they actually come do it for me, preferring not to let me climb around on a ladder they own. Smart! Cosmetic repairs are your responsibility In that same vein, your landlord is likely not legally required to make repairs in your place that are purely cosmetic. If a crack in your bathroom tile is merely unsightly, that’s probably your problem. If a crack in the tub is causing a leak or making it unusable, it’s more likely theirs. What they are legally required to do is keep the building livable, which means you have to be warm and have access to the essentials. That's it. I know from experience that they have little to no interest in how attractive your unit actually is, as long as it's not driving the value down or visible from the outside. That said, once again, ask nicely and see if they're willing to help you out or lend you tools. Just because they aren't legally required to do something doesn't always mean they won't, especially if you can make the case that it will keep the value high. What to do if you’re unsureYou can assume your landlord doesn’t have to provide you with window screens, air conditioners, lightbulbs, and other things of that nature, but you should always reach out to them if you think there’s a chance. My apartment has a vaulted ceiling, for instance, and like I said, I don’t have a gigantic ladder lying around. My landlord comes in and changes my lightbulb when I need it, which is considerate; I just have to provide the bulb. Read your lease carefully to see what repairs are specifically highlighted as their responsibility and yours and, if you do make requests or ask for clarification, be sure to always do it in writing so you have a record of what is said. This week, after my wall catastrophe, my building manager gently reminded me that I should always err on the side of asking for help instead of assuming I have to take care of something myself. That's great advice straight from the horse's mouth. They might be willing to help you out, but you won't know unless you ask. Just keep in mind they don't have to do much beyond fix anything that makes the place unsafe or unlivable. In addition to reading over your lease, being open with your landlord, and just asking for help on the chance they'll provide it, familiarize yourself with the renter protections and laws in your specific state. The repairs above are generally accepted as the ones you're in charge of, but that might not be true where you live. Here is a handy state-by-state list that can help you get started. The more you know about your lease and the laws that apply to your personal situation, the better equipped you are to deal with leaks, holes, and other issues. View the full article

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Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos announced Wednesday that the newspaper’s Opinions section would now essentially become a mouthpiece for his own beliefs on personal and economic freedoms. In response to this shift, opinion editor David Shipley decided to “step away” from his role. In an announcement shared to the Post staff and online via X, Bezos wrote that the section would now publish opinion pieces in support and defense of personal liberties and free markets. The billionaire Amazon founder added that the Post will no longer publish op-eds opposing those viewpoints, saying that newspapers in the internet era need not reflect diverse opinions. “There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views,” Bezos wrote. “Today, the internet does that job.” Reactions range from critical to baffled But journalists, including those on the Post’s staff, are already expressing criticism and bewilderment over this change. Bezos reportedly offered Shipley the opportunity to lead this reimagined Opinions section, and Shipley instead chose to leave his position. Jeff Stein, a reporter for the Post, called Bezos’s new direction a “massive encroachment” in an X post, adding that Bezos “makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated.” He further threatened to quit if “Bezos tries interfering with the news side.” Ostensibly responding to the news, Philip Bump, a columnist at the paper, posted on Bluesky: “what the actual fuck.” NBC news editor Ben Goggins wrote that he thinks Bezos is using the Post as “a personal mouthpiece.” And Matthew Chapman, a reporter with progressive news site Raw Story, wrote that it appears “the paper must take sides in favor of policy that makes Jeff Bezos rich.” The Post has not yet responded to Fast Company’s request for comment. Heavy meddle Bezos promised editorial independence when he acquired the D.C.-based outlet in 2013. In a meeting with reporters at the time, he had said that he would defer to the editorial board’s positions, saying: “I don’t feel the need to have an opinion on every issue.” But recently, the billionaire has started to meddle with the paper’s output. During the 2024 election, Bezos reportedly made the decision to kill an already-written endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. He framed it as a decision to end all Washington Post presidential endorsements. The paper reportedly lost a quarter million subscribers after this announcement. And in January, cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit the Post after the paper rejected publishing her political cartoon that depicted Bezos, among other billionaires, worshiping at the feet of President Trump and holding a money bag. A correspondent for left-leaning magazine The Nation wrote online that Bezos could have made his 250-plus-word announcement about the Opinions section change much shorter: “The Opinions section will now be my opinions only, but written by others because I am a shit writer. Who wants to be my new sock puppet?” View the full article

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Read Part I of this story here. YUKON, Pa.—When government inspectors arrived at the hazardous waste landfill here in 2023, they found themselves in a barren and alien landscape carved from western Pennsylvania’s green countryside. As they documented operations at Max Environmental Technologies, they climbed fields of blackened waste and photographed pits, mud, debris, stained walls, and unlabeled storage containers. Their images offer a startling—and largely hidden—juxtaposition to the rolling hills, horse paddocks, and chicken coops around the 160-acre site. What the inspectors captured confirmed the worst fears of Yukon’s residents, who have blamed the landfill for serious health impacts and called on regulators to intervene for years. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found rusted open containers of waste, clogged pipes, and a containment building used to store untreated hazardous waste “in pretty significant disrepair.” They watched as rainwater mixed with that waste and flowed from the damaged building. Government inspectors conducted sampling at the Max Environmental landfill in October 2023. [Photo: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection] “There was a hole in the roof and it was raining during the inspection,” said Jeanna Henry, chief of the air, RCRA and toxics branch in the enforcement and compliance assurance division of the EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region. RCRA is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which regulates hazardous waste. The landfill accepts industrial waste like contaminated soils, acids, and dust, as well as waste generated by the oil and gas industry that contains heavy metals and radioactive materials. Pennsylvania is the country’s second-largest producer of natural gas, and much of the industry’s solid waste ends up at landfills such as this one. After its March 2023 inspection, EPA alleged Max Environmental had failed to “minimize the possibility of a release of hazardous waste” at its Yukon site; failed to submit 26 required discharge monitoring reports; failed to report all sampling results of the waste the company had processed, or “treated,” to make it non-hazardous; failed to provide adequate training for employees; and failed to properly operate and maintain the facility in general, including leaks, damage and deterioration. “The treated hazardous waste was not meeting the land disposal restriction requirements. It was actually still a hazardous waste, and samples that we took out of the landfill showed the same thing,” Henry said. “That’s very significant. So we have concerns that the treatment that Max is performing is not adequate.” Carl Spadaro, the environmental general manager at Max Environmental, said initial testing of its treated waste showed compliance “about 90% of the time,” which he called “consistent” with historical results in a statement to Inside Climate News. “Any treated waste that does not pass initial testing has always and continues to be re-treated until it meets required standards. This kind of practice is common in the hazardous waste management industry,” Spadaro said. During EPA’s March 2023 visit to the landfill, inspectors found that treated samples exceeded standards for cadmium, lead, and thallium, a tasteless, odorless metal that was once used as a rodenticide but was banned because of its toxicity. Thallium can come from materials released by the oil and gas industry and a few other sectors. Tall trees shroud most of the Yukon landfill’s operations from public view. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] In 2024, EPA issued administrative orders under RCRA and NPDES, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, that require Max Environmental to fix problems inspectors found. The RCRA order temporarily halted disposal of hazardous waste on the site—that work has now restarted—and mandated that the company hire an approved third-party contractor to make repairs and test treated waste. In a November interview, Henry said the landfill was meeting its deadlines under the RCRA order but was not yet in compliance with its permit under the hazardous-waste law. Spadaro told Inside Climate News in late December that the company is “in compliance with our permits.” But on January 16, the EPA said that was not the case: “Max is not currently in compliance with either RCRA or NPDES permits related to the Yukon site.” “We take this very seriously. There are significant violations at this facility,” Henry said. “Our mission is to protect human health and the environment. We do want to ensure that the residents have access to clean drinking water and their land is not being contaminated.” Lauren Camarda, a spokesperson at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said the state agency has “worked collaboratively” with the EPA on compliance and enforcement actions related to Max Environmental. “DEP will continue to support the EPA, which is the lead environmental agency on the consent orders, and will continue to inspect the facility to ensure MAX is in or comes into compliance with applicable laws and addresses the issues identified in the consent orders,” she said in a statement. Since those orders were issued in April and September 2024, residents have noticed a change in the landfill’s operations. “They have these great big spotlights that light up the facility. I haven’t noticed lately that they’ve been turned on,” said Debbie Franzetta, a longtime Yukon resident. She said she has observed less noise, dust, and light in the last year. This is not the first time the government has cited the company and its predecessor for wrongdoing. From the late 1980s onward, the DEP noted violations at the site on more than 110 occasions, but little seemed to change. Given this history, residents are skeptical of the government’s commitment. As the Trump administration lays off hundreds of EPA employees and plans to roll back environmental regulations, what will happen to the agency’s orders for the Yukon landfill is a question mark. “I think they should close it,” Franzetta said of the site. But she worries about what would come next. “One of my greatest fears is that if that happens, they’re just going to get out of Dodge, is my comical way of saying things. But it’s not any laughing matter, believe me.” A Continuous Hive of Industry A few minutes from the tangle of off-ramps where the Pennsylvania turnpike meets I-70 about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, Yukon emerges as a cluster of homes and farms set on sloping Appalachian hills. Big yards are filled with tractors and trampolines. “This is really the heart, the fire hall back there,” said Stacey Magda, the managing community organizer at the Mountain Watershed Association, a local nonprofit that works to protect the Youghiogheny River watershed and has fought for stricter enforcement of the regulations governing the Max Environmental landfill. Magda sat in the passenger seat as her coworker, Colleen O’Neil, steered the MWA truck past the volunteer fire department’s nondescript building where they often hold meetings and through the area’s winding roads, the tree line bright with the copper foliage of October. Stacey Magda, managing community organizer at the MWA, rides along Sewickley Creek near the Yukon landfill. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] Magda describes herself as someone with “roots stretched deep in the Pennsylvania dirt.” She grew up in a small town in the central part of the state and came to love the rivers and trails of the Laurel Highlands, a region of southwestern Pennsylvania that includes this county, Westmoreland. The drive through the community took her past heaps of coal spoil, where she said kids liked to ride bikes, and the ancient-looking stone ruins of the old coal company. Mining gave the town its name; one of the mines the landfill was built on top of is called “Klondike.” Yukon once lay at the center of a “continuous hive of industry”; a local history from 1906 describes a valley of hamlets in Westmoreland County where “manufacturing of almost all kinds is carried out” and “from almost every hill, coal mines, shafts, tipples may be seen in every direction.” Hundreds of coke ovens, burning coal, filled the horizon with smoke. Yukon has a long history of coal mining. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] In the early 20th century, the valley was roiled by a mining strike that lasted for more than a year and involved 10,000 miners protesting for better wages and an eight-hour workday. The strikers, many of them Slovakian immigrants, were defeated. In the Catholic cemetery next to the landfill, you can see this heritage in generations of chiseled Eastern European names. Except for the distant rumble of truck traffic on the highways, the valley was quiet as O’Neil and Magda drove, the sky a sharp blue. But that extractive past isn’t truly gone; it’s buried in the layers of the Max Environmental landfill. From coal mining and steel manufacturing to oil and gas drilling, the story of the landfill mirrors Pennsylvania’s. “There’s a lot of pride in this town about being a town where industry and coal mining is a part of their heritage,” Magda said, “but having Max Environmental come to town has been a whole different kind of side of industry that’s been really brutal on the people that live here. And it’s been going on for so long, over 40 years now.” A home beside the cemetery has two banners hanging out front. One is crammed with red and black text. “No more hazardous waste in our backyards,” it says, listing the violations found at Max Environmental by the EPA and the DEP in recent inspections. “No more excuses! No more chances! Shut down Max and clean it up!” The second sign is more concise: “Trump 2024: F— Your Feelings.” Conservative yard signs are displayed on a small farm in Yukon, Pa. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] Some days the landfill’s outfall at Sewickley Creek, a tributary of the Youghiogheny River where treated wastewater is released, is barely dripping. But on other days, it foams and smells. “When the pipe is really full and running, it has a very yellow tinge and has a very strong effluent smell,” said Eric Harder, the Youghiogheny Riverkeeper at the MWA. “The most noticeable change is the amount of foam that is created where the discharge dumps into Sewickley Creek.” A sign opposing Max Environmental is displayed next to a Catholic cemetery by the landfill. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] To Harder, his observations at the outfall and the monthly testing done by the MWA show that Max Environmental is still not doing enough to meet the standards outlined in its permits. EPA’s testing also shows violations for four of Max Environmental’s 10 total outfalls at Yukon between 2021 and 2024. As of January 2025, Outfall 001, the one at Sewickley Creek, was listed as non-compliant or in violation for more than 15 kinds of water pollution, including oil and grease, zinc, cyanide, and cadmium. “If you have a polluter like Max who is handling some of the most dangerous solid waste you can create in the eastern part of the United States, they should really be on top of their wastewater treatment system,” Harder said. The danger to residents and the environment isn’t just from one exceedance, he added, but from “the cocktail of all those exceedances mixed into one outfall.” Harder said he has seen toy shovels and pails on the shoreline downstream of the pipe. “Personally, I wouldn’t let my kids play in the water there.” [Image: Paul Horn/Inside Climate News] John Stolz, a professor of environmental microbiology at Duquesne University, echoed Harder’s concerns. Stolz has accompanied Harder to Sewickley Creek to sample the water. “I was shocked at what the discharge was,” he said. Conductivity is used as an indicator of water quality, measuring how electricity moves through liquids, and changes can indicate increases in pollution. Stolz’s reading of 20,000 microsiemens was far beyond the EPA’s typical range for rivers in the U.S. of 50 to 1,500. It’s double the number the EPA gives for typical industrial water. After an October 2023 inspection, Spadaro emailed Sharon Svitek, program manager at DEP’s Bureau of Waste Management, to ask if the visit was prompted by “a request from the Mountain Watershed Association.” “Can you shed some light on why DEP sent a small army of people to conduct waste sampling at our Yukon facility today?” he asked in an email later released through a public records request. Spadaro called the inspection “unnecessarily disruptive to our operations” and said the company should have been given a “heads up.” Spadaro also asked why DEP had given the association a copy of the EPA’s July 2023 report about an earlier inspection of the landfill. “We don’t know why DEP would do that especially since it is an EPA document,” he wrote. A view of Sewickley Creek in Yukon, Pa. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] DEP’s Svitek explained that the Mountain Watershed Association had obtained the document through an informal file review and the department was required to comply because it is a public record. The MWA later published the document on its website. Svitek clarified that the inspection was requested by DEP’s central office and had been used as a training opportunity for new employees. When news of the EPA’s inspection and consent orders reached the Mountain Watershed Association and Yukon residents, there were mixed feelings. “Everyone was validated. It was this moment of, ‘My gosh, every single person’s instinct was right,’” Magda said. “And that was horrifying.” The Concerned Residents of the Yough The MWA is only the most recent local group to call for change at the landfill. “Prior to us, residents in Yukon have been working on the issue of Max Environmental for many years, and they’ve been saying the same thing over and over and over again,” Magda said. In the 1980s, residents worried about the health impacts of the landfill, then known as Mill Service and under different ownership, formed a grassroots citizens’ group called CRY, for Concerned Residents of the Yough. Diana Steck was one of the founding members. When she moved to Yukon in 1978, she didn’t know about the landfill’s existence, though she noticed an orange glow in the sky near her house on some nights, and sometimes the air outside smelled terrible. Steck said she began to get frequent respiratory infections, coughs, and hives. She developed joint pain and muscle weakness. Her infant son was stricken with nosebleeds, ear infections, and asthma. Her daughter had seizures. Her husband came down with a chronic rash. Steck’s childhood asthma returned. She would later be diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease. Many residents in Yukon have signs in their yards protesting the landfill and Max Environmental. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] It was only after reading a newspaper article about the landfill that she wondered if the health problems she and her family were experiencing could be connected to pollution. Steck was a nurse, and she set out to investigate the possible impacts of chemical exposure from the site. What she read convinced her that it was the cause of her family’s problems since coming to Yukon. Later, going door to door in her neighborhood with a petition about the landfill, Steck discovered she wasn’t alone. “One street, almost every home, somebody had cancer. There were so many kids that were sick with asthma, chronic rashes, the nosebleeds, frequent infections, a lot of neurological problems, Parkinson’s, seizures, things like that,” she said. “I just couldn’t believe it.” Steck and the members of CRY held demonstrations and press conferences, requested state records, traveled to the state capital, fundraised, and wrote letters to regulators and politicians. They sought help from environmental and public health experts outside Pennsylvania, including Lois Gibbs, the organizer who fought to raise awareness about pollution at her home in Love Canal, where her children’s elementary school had been built on top of a toxic landfill. None of it seemed to make a difference. “It was so frustrating,” Steck said. “I thought in my heart that if somebody elected to public office heard a mother telling them that this facility was making her kids sick, that they would shut it down, clean it up, and that would be the end of it. I was raised to think that the government’s there to protect you. Well, so much for that.” Steck said she was told by an EPA official in the 1980s that Yukon had been “deemed as expendable.” “She told me, ‘The waste has to go somewhere.’ Those were really hard words to hear,” she said. In 1990, members of CRY filed a lawsuit against the then-owner of the landfill alleging that residents “have suffered severe and substantial impairments to their health, property damage, damage to their livestock and pets.” According to CRY’s litigation records, housed at the University of Pittsburgh, the lawsuit was abandoned by the group in 1994 for financial reasons. Eventually, Steck said, her declining health forced her to move about 10 miles away from Yukon and resign from the group she had helped to found, but she continues to advocate for change at the landfill. “I was a 30-year-old mom when I was the most active, and I fought so hard and almost died. I never, ever thought that, here I am, at age 70, I’d still be in this fight.” She paused. “I just want to see justice done.” In 2022, at a hearing related to the company’s permit application to expand the landfill site, the testimony of resident Misty Springer transported Steck to when she was also a young mother trying to persuade the state government to acknowledge her family’s struggles. Springer said she had suffered six miscarriages after being exposed to runoff from the landfill. She had a question for the DEP: “How many people on your block have cancer? How many people in your town? Because I bet your town is bigger than mine, and I bet you my town has more people with cancer than yours.” The Yukon landfill sits behind a locked gate. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] Driving on Millbell Road, a narrow street that runs along the northern boundary of the landfill, Magda ticked off the cancers and illnesses of each home’s inhabitants. At least one of the houses sat empty. The MWA’s involvement has brought some residents a renewed sense of optimism. “I kind of gave up on the whole deal, until these kids from the Watershed got involved,” said Craig Zafaras, who has lived in Yukon for decades. “I commend them for their effort.” There is an easy affection between Magda, who is in her 30s, and the older residents she’s come to know through her work. She looks out for them, jokes with them, walks them to their cars. But rallying the town to speak out against Max Environmental has been difficult. Distrust in any information about the landfill is high. Residents are unconvinced of the government’s promises, and wary of hope. For so many of them, it has been a very long road. When Magda knocks on doors to tell residents about the next meeting or hearing, just as the women of CRY used to do, she has been laughed at by people who ask her, “What are you going to do about it?” Debbie Franzetta lives near the Max Environmental landfill in Yukon, Pa. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] “People have gotten older, and a lot of the community has died, and people just get discouraged,” said Debbie Franzetta, the longtime Yukon resident. “It’s kind of like banging your head against the wall. You knock on doors to try to get people to come to meetings. You spend the time to go and write letters, and nothing really comes of it.” Despite the obstacles in her path, Magda remains resolute: “I can tell you, we’re never going to give up.” ‘Our Battle Against the Dump’ Residents wonder what will happen to the site and its six decades’ worth of waste. In 1985, the state shut down disposal at the Yukon site because of leaks and failure to abide by new rules governing waste, but the next year, Pennsylvania’s environmental protection agency approved a permit for expansion. Opened in 1988 and covering 16.5 acres, the Yukon site’s Landfill 6 is the last active impoundment and is nearing capacity. In 2024, the company estimated the impoundment would be filled by 2026. Max Environmental had planned a new expansion that would add space for more than 1 million tons of waste, but in 2023 it withdrew the permit application following resistance from residents and environmental groups, saying it would resubmit the application “at a later date.” Spadaro said the company withdrew because it did not have enough time to respond to comments from state regulators. “DEP has a very restrictive review timeline for new commercial hazardous waste treatment and disposal permits,” he said. Spadaro said Max Environmental has “not scheduled any other plans for expansion at this time.” “We are focused on addressing all items in EPA’s consent orders,” he said. “EPA has no plans of going anywhere,” said Henry, the official at the EPA. “We’re going to be focused on this facility for quite some time.” Photographs taken by government inspectors in October 2023 reveal what the Yukon landfill looks like behind the fenceline. [Photo: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection] She gave that interview in the waning months of the Biden administration, and it’s unclear how the EPA will approach regulating Max Environmental and sites like it under the new Trump administration. EPA funding and staff have been early targets of its efforts to dismantle federal agencies, and 388 employees were cut in mid-February amid a push for large-scale layoffs and resignations. All of that could make it more difficult for the EPA to keep its focus on Max Environmental. In a 1998 scholarly article, Dan Bolef, an academic and activist who was involved with CRY, described the “torments” of Melbry and Tony Bolk, whose farm lay across the road from the landfill. The Bolks saw “their health deteriorate, their herd of cows strangely sicken and die, their rural world of peace and security shattered by the noxious effects of the dump,” he wrote. For Bolef, who died in 2011, Yukon’s experience had become a “horror story,” an endless montage of people who tried to fight back but got sick, moved away or gave up, defeated by the intractable landfill. “What, then, is one to do? How are we to react when our community suffers?” he asked. “There is nothing left for us to do but continue the struggle.” A view from the kitchen of a home near the Max Environmental landfill in Yukon, Pa. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] By 1998, the site had been open for more than 30 years. Bolef echoed a sentiment that would sound familiar to Yukon’s residents today, 27 years later. Despite the impression locals had been given that the landfill would soon run out of space, he wrote, it increased its operations, even as the number of residents dwindled around it. “In our battle against the dump,” he wrote, “the dump usually wins.” This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. View the full article

US president’s comments come as countries prepare to sign deal on critical mineralsView the full article

The Academy Awards ain't everything. Sometimes the movies that win truly represent the best films of their years; sometimes they reflect a trend or a zeitgeist that winds up looking a little backward after some time has passed; sometimes they're just completely inexplicable. But let's focus on the times the Academy has awarded movies that are actually pretty good, or that at least reflect their eras enough to be interesting. Here are 25 of the best award winners currently streaming on Netflix (keeping in mind that some of the streamer's buzziest awards contenders—think The Irishman and Maestro—got lots of nominations but no wins). Barbie (2023) The pink-drunk optimism of the summer of Barbenheimer feels impossibly distant at this dark point in the. winter of 2025, so why not recapture a little of that magic by revisiting the movie that made feminism palatable to the masses for a little while (at least until it was rudely shoved back under the bed in late 2024). I shouldn't need to sell you on it: A star-making turn from Margot Robbie as Barbie, a delightfully egoless supporting turn from Ryan Gosling as her Ken, and a message of female empowerment that seemed a little trite until I realized that a lot of people apparently still haven't absorbed it. Oscar for: Best Original Song The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023) Audiences and critics had mixed reactions to Wes Anderson's other 2023 release, the feature-length Asteroid City, but there was little division over this short film, an adaptation of the Roald Dahl story, and it finally earned Anderson his first Oscar—not that he was there to collect it. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the pseudonymous Henry Sugar, a man who uses his inherited fortune to fund his gambling habit. When he learns of a secret means of winning by seeing through the eyes of others, he comes to perceive more than he, perhaps, bargained for. It's a cute and sweet, and among one of Anderson's most visually inventive works (which saying quite a bit). And, at 40 minutes (39, actually), it never has time to wear out its welcome. Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade also star. Oscar for: Best Live Action Short Film Roma (2018) Stepping back from the cerebral science-fiction of Children of Men and Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón won his second Best Director Oscar for this semi-autobiographical drama inspired by his own childhood in Mexico City of the 1970s, in the middle of Mexico's long, violent Dirty War. Yalitza Aparicio plays Cleo Gutiérrez, a Mixtec live-in maid for an upper-middle-class couple with four children whose marriage is slowly disintegrating. When husband Antonio leaves with his mistress, wife Sophia and the pregnant Cleo bond over their unexpected situations. Cuarón is wonderfully adept at creating a sense of time and place, and the performances are indelible. Roma won Best Foreign Language Film, but was also nominated for Best Picture, and it's a far stronger work than the year's actual winner, Green Book. Oscars for: Best Director (Alfonso Cuarón), Best Foreign Language Film (Mexico), Best Cinematography (Alfonso Cuarón) Marriage Story (2020) Nominated for six Oscars, Noah Baumbach's sensitive, devastating story of a crumbling marriage feels like a modern American update of Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage, and earns the right to be mentioned in the same company. As warring couple Nicole and Charlie Barber, Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver give emotionally raw performances, but the real story is Laura Dern as Nicole's lawyer Nora Fanshaw; she's one of our finest actresses, with decades of excellent work, and it was high time she won her first Oscar. Driver and Johansson were also nominated, as was Baumbach for his original screenplay Oscar for: Best Supporting Actress (Laura Dern) Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) More Oscar love for Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water). Ho hum. Yet, as in the past, it's well-deserved. Set in Fascist Italy between the World Wars, this longtime passion project for the director boasts gorgeous stop-motion animation. More importantly, it embraces the darkness inherent in Carlo Collodi's original fantasy novel—del Toro recognizing that a children's story need be neither cloying nor condescending, and that kids recognize, as well as anyone, that sometimes the only way to the light is through the dark. The talented, but not distracting voice cast includes Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, and Cate Blanchett. Oscar for: Best Animated Feature Film All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) A second adaptation of the 1929 anti-war novel from Erich Maria Remarque, this version didn't take home Best Picture nor Best Director as the original 1930 version did, but still, All Quiet wound up being the second-most awarded film on Oscar night 2023, behind Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All at Once. If it doesn't have quite the impact of the earlier adaptation, it's still a powerful film about the futility of war, set amid the trenches of World War I. Oscars for: Best International Feature (Germany), Best Original Score (Volker Bertelmann), Best Production Design (Christian M. Goldbeck and Ernestine Hipper), Best Cinematography (James Friend) My Octopus Teacher (2020) Filmmaker Craig Foster spent a year forming a relationship with a wild common octopus in a South African kelp forest, transferring some of the lessons learned to his relationship with his own son. If Foster could form a bond with such an alien intelligence in its own natural (and naturally dangerous) environment, surely there's hope for humanity? Maybe? Oscar for: Best Documentary Feature Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) One sweaty, blues-filled afternoon in the Chicago of 1927, the great Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) shows up at the studio to make a new album. She's been contracted by white promoters, and she's fully aware that their deference to her is entirely dependent on her bankability as a singer. Over the course of the session, tensions rise and conflicts erupt, particularly between Ma Rainey and Chadwick Boseman's Levee Green. Davis earned a Best Actress nomination, and is so good that she's practically channeling the take-no-shit blues legend, while Chadwick Boseman was seen as a near-lock for a posthumous Best Actor award. Unfortunately, the Academy's notorious stinginess when it comes to Black acting seems to have won out—there's been exactly one Black Best Actress winner in 95 years of awards (Halle Berry), and only five Black acting winners overall. Oscars for: Best Costume Design (Ann Roth), Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Sergio López-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) While the long-awaited prequel/followup Furiosa undeservedly bombed at the box office and with Oscar voters, it in no way tarnishes the reputation of this 2015 action masterpiece. In retrospect, director George Miller's magnum opus would have been a far better Best Picture pick than the actual winner (when is the last time anyone thought about, let alone watched, The Revenant?), and it's always a good time to revisit the road rage mayhem alongside Max, Immortan Joe, the War Boys, and, of course, the Doof Warrior himself. Oscars for: Costume Design (Jenny Beavan), Film Editing (Margaret Sixel), Makeup and Hairstyling (Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega, and Damian Martin), Production Design (Colin Gibson, Lisa Thompson), Sound Editing (Mark Mangini and David White), Sound Mixing (Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff, and Ben Osmo) RRR (2022) It's wild that RRR wasn't nominated in more categories, given its epic scope, sharp commentary, and crowd-pleasing style—but taking home India's first Original Song Oscar was no small feat either, especially given that the competition included numbers from the likes of Rihanna and Lady Gaga. The movie itself is a blockbuster done right, with brilliantly choreographed action sequences and rousing musical numbers buttressing a strong "f*ck colonialism" message. Hopefully Hollywood was taking notes. Oscars for: Best Original Song ("Naatu Naatu") Erin Brockovich (2000) Julia Roberts finally took home an Academy Award for her irresistible turn as the title character, a feisty small town paralegal who manages to bring a massive corporation to its knees with a lawsuit over toxic pollution. Given the rapid dissolution of government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and an increasingly corporate-friendly judiciary, it kinda plays like a beautiful fairytale these days, thanks in no small part to lively direction from Steven Soderbergh (who won the Oscar the same year for directing a different movie altogether—and while Traffic is a good too, spending time with Erin Brockovich is a lot more fun.) Oscars for: Best Actress (Julia Roberts) The Power of the Dog (2021) Like Brokeback Mountain, much of the press around Jane Campion's film had to do with its queer themes (gay cowboys? what's next!?), but its power lies in its deliberate, unhurried direction from Campion (a rarity these days), and also in its beautiful cinematography. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as one of two very different brothers, whose tenuous peace is shattered by the arrival of newcomers at their Montana ranch circa 1925. Oscar for: Best Director (Jane Campion) Period. End of Sentence. (2018) The short (around 25 minutes) film follows a group of women in the Indian village of Kathikera, about 50 miles from Delhi, who work to overcome centuries of shame associated with menstruation. Learning that sanitary pads can be made with local materials, local women start a factory to manufacture and sell their own pads, starting a quiet but needed revolution in menstrual health. Oscar for: Best Documentary Short Subject The Last Days (1998) In the last year of World War II and the Holocaust, the Nazis in occupied Hungary accelerated their program of deportation and extermination, even at the cost of war strategy. This documentary follows five survivors—and naturalized American citizens—traveling back to the camps they narrowly escaped. Oscar for: Best Documentary Feature The White Helmets (2016) It's easy to lose sight of documentaries dealing with war and crisis amid the many of that style that have received Oscar nominations and wins, but there are standouts even in that very particular crowd. The White Helmets documents the story of the Syrian Civil Defense, an all-volunteer group of Syrians who perform search and rescue operations in response to bombings. The real draw of this (relatively) short film is in the interludes with volunteers discussing their everyday lives, before and during the war; those moments make clear the cost of the ongoing conflict. Though seven years old, the Syrian Civil War continues, tragically, as does the work of the SCD. Oscar for: Best Documentary (Short Subject) American Factory (2019) The first film from Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground Productions, goes and wins an Oscar. The film looks at an abandoned GM plant in Ohio purchased by a Chinese billionaire for his company, glass manufacturer Fuyao. The plant came to employ 2,000 American workers, but the complicated dynamic between the Chinese leadership and working-class American employers quickly points to potentially insurmountable problems. The movie takes a fly-on-the-wall approach, without any narrative beyond what we’re seeing and hearing inside the factory itself; there’s no overriding sense that there are heroes or villains here—just a lot of people trying to figure it all out. Oscar for: Best Documentary Feature Apollo 13 (1995) Ron Howard's all-star astronaut docudrama is not only a better film than the one that won Best Picture in its year (Braveheart), it's also a better picture than the one the director took home the Oscar for (A Beautiful Mind). Simultaneously heart-stopping and subdued, the true story of the aborted moon mission generates tension without going overboard on the histrionics. Oscars for: Best Film Editing (Mike Hill and Daniel Hanley), Best Sound (Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan and David MacMillan) The Sting (1973) Very much the kind of movie they don't make anymore, and not merely because it's a depression-era period piece. George Roy Hill, who had directed Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid just a few years earlier, reunited Paul Newman and Robert Redford in a similarly good-natured caper film. The two play a couple of con men with an elaborate scheme to get revenge on the crime boss who murdered their friend. The period details are as meticulously crafted as the movie's central scheme, and it's ultimately an all-time great crowd-pleaser. Oscars for: Best Picture, Best Director (George Roy Hill), Best Original Screenplay (David S. Ward), Best Art Direction (Henry Bumstead and James W. Payne), Best Costume Design (Edith Head), Best Film Editing (William Reynolds) Best Scoring (Marvin Hamlisch) Dallas Buyers Club (2013) While it's not exactly the best example of trans rep—casting a cis actor as a transwoman, and Jared Leto, no less—a more or less well-intentioned queer story with big name stars, including Matthew McConaughey in an Oscar-winning role, feels like...something anyway, given trans folks have become a major target for hate in the decade since. Set amid the AIDS crisis, this story of a struggling community fighting to survive might even remind you that better times are possible, in theory. Oscars for: Best Actor (Matthew McConaughey), Best Supporting Actor (Jared Leto) Godzilla Minus One (2023) Produced on a shoestring budget (at least by blockbuster terms), the thirty-third installment in the venerable Japanese sci-fi franchise (not counting the Hollywood entries) is both a supremely entertaining kaiju romp and a touching story about the impact of war on those "lucky" enough to survive it. And extra kudos for characterizing Godzilla as basically a giant, angry cat. Oscar for: Best Visual Effects (Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima) Parasite (2019) The 2020 Oscars were handed out just weeks before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, making the Best Picture win for Parasite—South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's darkly comic story of class warfare and the cruel hand of fate—feel like some kind of demarcation between "Then" (a time when a foreign film speaking truth to power could come out on top in Hollywood) and "Now." Oscars for: Best Picture, Best Director (Bong Joon-ho), Best Original Screenplay (Bong Joon-ho), Best International Film Whiplash (2014) Miles Teller plays Andrew Neiman, an ambitious and talented jazz musician in his first year at the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory in New York City. He’s come to the school with big dreams, and quickly gets noticed by the conductor of the conservatory’s studio band, Terence Fletcher (a terrifying J. K. Simmons). Fletcher is obsessive and cruel, which only feeds Neiman’s overwhelming desire to succeed. Oscars for: Best Supporting Actor (J. K. Simmons), Best Film Editing (Tom Cross), Best Sound Mixing (Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, and Thomas Curley) Schindler's List (1993) Steven Spielberg shed his reputation as a maker of popcorn entertainments with this sobering true-life story of a German factory owner (Liam Neeson) who risked his own safety to protect Jewish workers in his employ during the darkest days of the Holocaust. It's not exactly an "entertaining" choice, but then again, it's always good to have something to point to when you need a reminder that, yes, fascism is bad. And Nazis? No good. Oscars for: Best Picture, Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Adapted Screenplay (Steve Zaillian), Best Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), Best Art Direction (Allan Starski, Ewa Braun), Best Film Editing (Michael Kahn), Best Original Score (John Williams) Mank (2020) David Fincher's film about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) and the development of Citizen Kane is impressively dramatic, and even occasionally harrowing. It also did a bit better at Oscar time than the movie whose making it dramatizes: Kane received nine nominations and one win, while Mank picked up 10 nominations and won two of them. Oscars for: Best Cinematography (Erik Messerschmidt), Best Production Design (Donald Graham Burt and Jan Pascale) If Anything Happens I Love You (2020) The very short (under 15 minutes) film, with a fairly simple animation style, manages to generate more emotion than many films many times its length. The movie follows two parents, grieving the death of their daughter in a school shooting, as they find themselves growing apart in the aftermath. Oscar for: Best Animated Short Film View the full article