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• The Education Department announced a one percentage point interest-rate reduction for borrowers who enroll in autopay.
• Borrowers who are already enrolled in autopay do not need to take any action.
• It comes just weeks before Trump’s sweeping student-loan changes take effect.

Want a lower interest rate on your student loans? Enroll in autopay.

On Thursday, the Department of Education announced that federal borrowers who enroll in autopay by September 30, or who are already enrolled, will receive a one percentage point interest-rate reduction through June 30, 2028.

The reduction provides moderate savings: A graduate program borrower with $50,000 in student debt and a 7.94% interest rate could save nearly $23 per month over the two-year period.

Autopay is a feature available to all federal borrowers that allows the servicer to automatically deduct their monthly student-loan payment from their bank account. Borrowers currently enrolled in autopay receive a quarter percentage point interest-rate reduction.

“This interest rate reduction will help borrowers as they consider new, affordable repayment plans and work to repay their loans on time,” Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement. “We expect this temporary incentive to drive up repayment rates and significantly improve the overall health of the federal student loan portfolio.”

According to the department’s press release, borrowers who are already enrolled in autopay do not need to take any action — their servicers will reduce their interest rate by an additional three-quarters of a percentage point. Borrowers in default are not eligible for the benefit until they return to good standing.

Interest rates on federal student loans range from 6% to nearly 9%. High interest rates have been a primary reason for surging student-loan balances; if a borrower does not maintain consistent monthly payments, their balances will grow due to interest, sometimes exceeding the amount they originally borrowed.

This announcement comes just weeks before President Donald Trump’s sweeping student-loan repayment overhaul will take effect on July 1. The changes include new borrowing caps and new repayment plans, including the Repayment Assistance Plan, which waives unpaid monthly interest. Borrowers are expected to still see their monthly payments increase on that plan, some by hundreds of dollars.

Have a story to share about your student loans? Contact this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com.

• OpenAI says more than 230 million people use ChatGPT for health and wellness advice each week.
• Researcher Karan Singhal leads the effort to grow that number by improving the company’s technology.
• Singhal spoke with Business Insider about his work in providing medical context in ChatGPT.

OpenAI is pushing further into its health research as more people turn to ChatGPT for pressing medical questions.

More than 230 million people use the tool for health and wellness advice each week, according to OpenAI. That growth is partially thanks to researcher Karan Singhal, who spoke exclusively with Business Insider about the company’s lofty healthcare ambitions.

Singhal leads a high-stakes goal: make ChatGPT so good on health that it changes people’s lives for the better, avoids calamity, and sways the skeptics. He wants to aid a shift he already sees underway, in which more patients trust OpenAI’s latest model as a “protector in their care journey.”

OpenAI’s GPT-5 model family is the company’s first to be trained specifically at every stage of development to be better at health advice, he said.

“You definitely want the models to be ahead of everything else,” Singhal said.

At OpenAI, healthcare has grown into a top priority

Before joining OpenAI, Singhal made his name as a researcher at Google, helping develop a series of AI models known as Med-PaLM, specifically designed for medical questions. Since then, Google has cut investment in Med-PaLM, Singhal said, because AI developers favor general-purpose models.

In the middle of 2024, when Singhal joined OpenAI, GPT-4o was the company’s flagship model. It would later come under fire in lawsuits alleging that it had encouraged suicidal ideation and given harmful advice. Those lawsuits are still unfolding — OpenAI has denied liability and wrongdoing.

In the meantime, the company hasn’t shied away from health-related use. In fact, it has dug in further.

Singhal said that when he joined, he felt a “responsibility” to improve the quality of the models’ health answers. He quickly set about building a new team of health researchers, and kicked off partnerships with more than 200 physicians — a bet, as he put it, on “aggregating the wisdom of the crowd.”

About a year later, he helped launch HealthBench, a series of evaluations that the company created with the physician group to measure AI systems’ health capabilities.

“Once you know how to evaluate it, it becomes a lot easier to improve it,” Singhal said.

OpenAI’s latest free model, GPT-5.5 Instant, scored better than both physician-written answers and GPT-4o in tests, the company said Thursday. Comparing billions of anonymized messages about health, they also said they found a 71% drop over the last two months in responses that were flagged for inaccuracy.

There’s pressure to keep those improvements going for both patients and clinicians who use the tools. Singhal said he’s seen doctors rapidly adopt ChatGPT for Clinicians and other AI tools, and he doesn’t feel that hospitals and clinics are resistant to AI.

“If you think about the adoption of technology in healthcare broadly, it’s actually incredibly, insanely fast,” Singhal said.

Singhal wants ChatGPT to get to know you better

Google Search has, for years, been the dominant peddler of healthcare information online, connecting users to websites like WebMD. Singhal sees chatbots as an upgrade, where back-and-forth conversations give people more specific advice.

One of the biggest challenges to getting valuable health information from a chatbot is how little it knows about the patient. A doctor might have your medical records in their hand or know you from a yearslong relationship. OpenAI is trying to simulate both.

For one, in January, the company announced a health-focused product within ChatGPT that connects to health apps and lets users upload medical records. Singhal gave the example of uploading his sleep data from his Apple Watch. He let the app analyze it, and learned that he was missing out on deep sleep because his bedroom was too warm.

ChatGPT Health still has a waitlist more than five months after its launch.

Singhal’s team sees the effort to make an AI model seek additional information as a top priority: a chatbot should ask questions like a doctor would, so it can say the right thing.

The team also wants to make the case that AI can bring value to everyone in health, not just “power users.”

“People’s adoption will only move at the speed of people’s readiness in practice, and so you have to guide people towards that, especially as the technology improves,” Singhal said.

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• Some lucky New York office workers scored a prime view of the New York Knicks parade on Thursday.
• Photos show office workers hanging out of windows to watch the Knicks celebrate their 2026 NBA Championship.
• The massive crowds snarled early morning commutes for New Yorkers working in the financial district.

New York office workers faced a dilemma on Thursday: Go to work or the historic Knicks parade. Why not both?

While crowds swarmed into lower Manhattan for a chance to watch the New York Knicks NBA Championship parade, some workers were able to enjoy the action from the comfort of their office.

The parade’s route made working out of a building overlooking Broadway in the financial district the hottest office perk on Thursday.

And while some New York office building windows don’t open, many on older buildings do — offering a chance to toss confetti or hear the full volume of the crowd’s chants.

Employees quickly took advantage of the coveted elevated viewing angle, with some hanging out of their building’s windows.

Business Insider was able to join in the excitement. Our reporters and editors stood on furniture along the windows in our New York newsroom.

The only catch for office workers: You had to first get to your building, which meant navigating jam-packed subways and closed-off streets.

It’s been 53 years since the New York Knicks last won an NBA Championship. The Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 in the Finals.

Here are more photos from the revelry:

• Gary Bartley, UBC’s head groundskeeper, is prepping pitches for Team Canada’s World Cup training.
• He said he has learned a great deal about his trade, even after 48 years on the job.
• At 66, Bartley said the World Cup is a career highlight and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Gary Bartley, 66, who is helping prepare the training pitches that Team Canada will use during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve been in the industry since 1978, but I’ve never taken on a project this big before. Working on the World Cup is like working on the Super Bowl.

As the University of British Columbia’s head groundskeeper for the National Soccer Development Centre (NSDC), where Team Canada will train during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, this is already a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Even after 48 years on the job, it’s still a huge learning opportunity at 66. I’ve had the chance to work with some of the top pitch managers, professors, and educators in the field, and it will really change how I work moving forward.

A typical day as a head groundskeeper

I started in turf care in 1978, when I was a teenager. My first job was on a golf course, and I worked my way up to a superintendent position before moving into sports equipment sales. Through that role, I was introduced to the people at the Vancouver Whitecaps, a professional soccer club that trains at the NSDC, and about 11 years ago, I joined the team at UBC.

When the Whitecaps are training here, which is usually five days a week, I get to work at 7 a.m. Before the players arrive, my team of seven is out on the field cutting grass, repairing divots, and doing whatever prep work is needed for the day’s session.

The Whitecaps usually arrive around 10:30 a.m., and one of us stays nearby to help with any watering needs. Once training is finished, we’re repairing divots, cleaning up the pitch, and preparing it for the next day. On non-training days, we’re usually doing maintenance work, such as vertical cutting or top dressing. Our normal shift runs from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Getting the pitches World Cup ready

The World Cup hasn’t changed our workday too much, but the main difference is that we’ve had to raise our standards and maintenance practices to meet FIFA’s requirements. As a training site, we’ve got to keep conditions as close as possible to the main match pitch to ensure things are equal and fair for all teams.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve gone through major renovations since the Whitecaps finished training here in May. It was a very labor-intensive process. We carried out heavy verticutting, top dressing, overseeding, and re-sodded parts of the pitches.

Working on divots and repairs is physically hard work, and, even more so, mentally tedious. Walking-mowing the two pitches takes three mowers about 2.5 hours, and our staff can cover around 20,000 steps in a typical morning doing that.

Learning from experts has been so rewarding

The biggest surprise has been the level of detail involved. We’re used to maintaining pitches for Major League Soccer, but FIFA’s attention to detail has been eye-opening. They have invested a great deal of time and effort in researching improved agronomic practices and maintenance procedures.

I’ve got to learn about this from leading scholars from the University of Tennessee and Michigan State University, which has changed how we’ll approach our practices moving forward with the Whitecaps. It’s been a really rewarding process.

I’ve also been amazed by the level of detail around the whole tournament, from security to hospitality to guest services. These are areas you take for granted and that were on the periphery of my attention, but it’s become clear how much work goes into staging the World Cup at this level.

It’s a career highlight

My family is very excited and proud that I’m involved in this. I wasn’t a soccer fan before I joined the Whitecaps. Now, I’m still not a fanatic, but I am a fan.

It’s very rewarding to sit and look at a pitch and realize that world-class soccer players will be training on it. It makes you want to make it the best possible.

I got into this industry 48 years ago because I loved it, and I still do. Being as old as I am, it’s amazing to have the opportunity to be involved in the World Cup and put an asterisk beside my career.

• I compared BLTs from Subway, Jimmy John’s, and Jersey Mike’s to find the best sandwich.
• Jimmy John’s sandwich had a bit too much bacon flavor, and Subway’s was OK.
• Jersey Mike’s BLT was so tasty and balanced; I could see myself ordering it again and again.

The bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, or “BLT,” has been a worldwide favorite for over a century, with its simplicity key to its charm.

After all, a true BLT consists of just the ingredients listed in its name between two slices of bread with a slather of mayonnaise.

I’ve been a huge fan of the BLT for many years, so I set out with alacrity to find the best one at popular sandwich chains in the US.

At each stop, in an effort to try the most default BLT, I gave no instructions beyond size preference when ordering and made no customizations.

Here’s how the BLTs from Subway, Jersey Mike’s, and Jimmy John’s stacked up — and which left me the most impressed.

My Subway sandwich felt like a solid deal.

At Subway, I could choose between ordering a footlong BLT for $12.99 or a 6-inch for only $3.99 from the chain’s Deli Faves value menu.

I went with the latter, which seemed like too good a deal to pass up.

The sandwich came on Italian bread, which was toasted open-faced with the bacon on top of it. After, the Subway staffer added lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise.

Subway’s BLT tasted fresh, but there was way too little bacon.

Once I got home and unwrapped the BLT, the sandwich looked light on bacon and a bit heavy on mayo.

A hearty bite of Subway’s BLT confirmed my suspicion: It was very light on the “B.” It appeared to have about four strips of bacon, and though they were stacked closer together on the small piece of bread, it didn’t feel substantial enough.

The bacon pieces themselves were a bit too thin, but tender without being soft; their consistency was welcome.

Beyond that, the lettuce had a good crunch, the tomato seemed fresh, and there wasn’t actually a glut of mayo as I’d figured on visual inspection.

This would have been a well-balanced sandwich if only there had been twice or even three times as much bacon. As it was, the bacon mostly just added a salty flavor to the sandwich rather than playing the main role in it, which is the hope for a good BLT.

Overall, at a $3.99 value price, Subway’s BLT was worth the money but hardly worth further commentary.

After trying this, the footlong’s $12.99 price also feels hard to justify. I still doubt that having double the bacon (spread over more bread) would be enough to properly balance out this BLT.

Jimmy John’s BLT also had toasted bread and bacon.

At Jimmy John’s, I ordered the smallest BLT I could, which came on an 8-inch “regular” French bread.

The sandwich cost $8.99, which was fair but hardly a deal. My other option was ordering the 16-inch “giant” sandwich for $17.49, but it felt like far too much.

In this case, again, the staffer toasted the bread and bacon, then added the other toppings and mayo.

The bacon flavor was on full display in this BLT.

Jimmy John’s BLT had plenty of bacon — I’d say six slices encircled the lettuce and tomato. The meat was a bit crispier here than at Subway, but not crunchy.

I’m a huge fan of bacon, so you might think the bacon-forward flavor profile of Jimmy John’s BLT was a good thing. I wouldn’t go that far, though I don’t think it was a bad thing.

I was mostly left wishing the sandwich were more balanced. The dominant salty, savory bacon taste made it difficult for me to detect flavors from other ingredients. Also, the lettuce wasn’t as crisp as I’d like.

I usually love Jimmy John’s doughy, delicious, and famously fresh-baked bread. However, toasting detracted from its appeal.

I’m also used to the chain’s “regular” sandwiches feeling substantial enough that I often save a few bites for a post-lunch snack. This time, that wasn’t the case. The slender BLT felt light in my hand, and I didn’t have leftovers.

I’d order this sandwich again, but only if I wasn’t incredibly hungry.

My Jersey Mike’s BLT was the first and only one not toasted.

Jersey Mike’s is famous for its freshly sliced deli meats, so it felt strange ordering a sandwich that didn’t include any. This BLT is also the only one on this list that was prepped and served cold.

With no fresh slicing or toasting required, my sandwich was ready incredibly quickly. There was about 30 seconds between when I said “I’ll have a BLT, please” and my finished sandwich being wrapped and deftly slipped into a to-go bag.

The sandwich was available in a “mini” size (about 5 inches) for about $7.25, a “regular” size (about 7 inches) for $9.75, and a “giant” sub (about 14 inches) for $17.65.

I went with the “regular” for $9.75, which felt like a solid value without getting way too much sandwich.

Ultimately, I left impressed by how fast I was in and out of the store and the decent heft of my sandwich in the to-go bag.

Jersey Mike’s BLT hit all the right notes for this classic sandwich.

After one big bite, the competition was over: Jersey Mike’s made the best BLT of the lot, hands down.

This sandwich was large and satisfying, with a pile of shredded lettuce, thickly sliced tomatoes, and plenty of bacon layered on fresh-tasting, soft bread.

There was a generous slathering of mayo, but not so much that it dominated (or dripped), and that bread was thick but pillowy, allowing for hearty bites.

The bacon from Jersey Mike’s was cooked to the point of being crispy, almost crunchy. This isn’t my favorite take on bacon, but I know it’s a popular preference that will surely please many people.

And regardless, the amount of meat felt fairly generous — I counted about six slices — and it felt well-proportioned to the other ingredients.

Price-wise, Subway seemed to offer the most value.

After rough calculations, Subway had the lowest price-per-inch across the board for both the value-sized 6-inch BLT and the footlong.

This doesn’t factor in how well each sandwich was loaded, though, and value doesn’t always just come down to cents. None of the estimated per-inch price differences felt significant enough for me to declare Subway my winner.

It’s also worth pointing out that many of these chains regularly offer meal bundles, rotating deals, and coupons that can help level the playing field.

In the end, Jersey Mike’s BLT remains my top pick.

Next time I stop at a Jersey Mike’s, you can count on the BLT being at the top of my list of likely orders. It’s also a sandwich I’m sure I’ll recommend to others in the future, too.

The two runners-up were still fine and worth trying, which is a testament to the overall excellence of the classic bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.

If I find myself only a little hungry and in proximity to Subway or Jimmy John’s, I may well order another BLT — especially if the former still has it on its $3.99 Deli Faves value menu.

Otherwise, next time a BLT craving hits, you’ll find me at Jersey Mike’s.

• Katherine Howe is a 49-year-old author in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
• Howe bought a ticket to Scotland versus Morocco in Boston on StubHub.
• On Monday, four days before the game, she was informed that her ticket was no longer available.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Katherine Howe, a historian and novelist. It has been edited for length and clarity.

On Monday, I opened my emails to find that my ticket to the Scotland versus Morocco World Cup game was no longer available.

Getting this ticket was years in the making.

In 1994, I watched my first-ever World Cup game while living in Brazil. I was in a small, rural town with lots of local Brazilians watching on a small TV. Everyone went wild when Brazil actually won the entire tournament.

Like most Americans at the time, I wasn’t aware that the World Cup even existed, but I imbibed the excitement and passion for the tournament while in Brazil that year.

The World Cup is one of the few global phenomena. It breaks barriers — with everyone from all around the world getting involved. Even countries as small as Curaçao can take part.

Although I’m not a regular soccer fan, I became a World Cup fan in 1994. Four years later, I was in Paris when the World Cup was held there. It was the last year Scotland qualified for the World Cup before 2026. I have vivid memories of the streets of Paris being flooded with people in kilts, having the time of their lives.

I couldn’t afford to go to the matches, but again, I loved the togetherness and passion of the tournament.

Fast forward 28 years

I found out that the World Cup was happening in the United States earlier this year, something that hadn’t been on my radar previously.

I didn’t consider looking for tickets — unaware that games would be in Boston, only about an hour away from where I live in Massachusetts.

Last weekend, on Saturday, I was at the Boston train station when I suddenly saw all these men in kilts. It suddenly clicked — Scotland was playing Haiti in Boston later that day. It felt like I had been transported back to Paris 28 years ago, with Scottish accents and tartan surrounding me.

I immediately started searching for where they were playing next and where I could get a ticket.

The next game was on June 19 in Boston. I could do that date. I could do that time.

Rather naively (I’ve never been one to go to sports games or big concerts), I searched “tickets for Scotland versus Morocco,” and the first site that came up was StubHub.

I bought a $750 ticket

I found the cheapest ticket at $750. That was really expensive for me — it’s a lot of money, and I would notice the amount being deducted from my bank account, but I really wanted to see this game.

I bought it. I got my email confirmation from StubHub. I was going to see Scotland in the World Cup.

In preparation for the game, I ordered a tartan skirt (with pockets for my phone). I was ready and raring to go.

And then on Monday, I got that dreadful, disappointing email that the ticket wasn’t available.

I was given the option to choose another ticket, but there are none left

In the email, I was instructed to click a link that would take me to a website to pick another comparable ticket; however, when I got to this website, I could only click the refund option.

Unbeknownst to me, StubHub is a marketplace — they don’t own the tickets; they simply allow people to sell them on their website. What I’m guessing happened is that someone pledged to sell that ticket I bought, but then, when Scotland won their first game, removed the ticket from StubHub (incurring a fine) so that they could resell it for more or use it themselves.

I opened a chat with customer service and calmly pleaded my case with the representative. Eventually, I was told to “hold tight” until one hour before the game, and that tickets might be released then. That, of course, isn’t going to work. I have to buy a special train ticket to get to the game, and to buy that train ticket, I need a ticket to the game. It would all take much longer than just one hour to get from my house to the game.

Refusing to back down, I have not yet accepted a refund, hopeful I will be given a ticket, the ticket I already paid for. I was looking forward to this game — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me.

Still, I’ll be watching either way. Go Scotland!

Editor’s note: When reached out for comment, StubHub said, “We understand that attending the World Cup represents a significant investment in time and money, and we take our responsibility to every fan who books through our platform seriously.

Many of the issues fans are facing trace back to the event organizer’s technology infrastructure, newly announced transfer restrictions, and a new app that was launched just a month ago ahead of such a major event.

Regardless of the cause, when sellers don’t deliver tickets on time, StubHub investigates and takes swift action in line with our terms & conditions, including permanent bans and financial penalties. Every order on StubHub is backed by our FanProtect Guarantee, which provides alternative tickets or a full refund.”