Latest news with #Gura
NDTV
08-07-2025
- Business
- NDTV
Donald Trump's 90-Day Tariff Pause Is Ending. What Happens Next?
In late April, shortly after President Trump's announcement of sweeping reciprocal tariffs sent markets reeling, the White House announced a 90-day pause on when those tariffs would go into effect. That pause is about to end and while the Trump administration has announced a few tentative trade agreements - including one with the UK and another with Vietnam - they're nowhere near 90. On today's Big Take podcast, Bloomberg's Brendan Murray and host David Gura discuss what the White House has accomplished, what it hasn't and where the trade war goes from here. Here is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation: David Gura: President Trump's trade war began in earnest in April, when he announced a raft of new tariffs. Donald Trump: Our country and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years, but it is not going to happen anymore. Gura: Trump said he'd impose "reciprocal" tariffs - across-the-board levies on dozens of trading partners, including the European Union, Japan and South Korea and the United Kingdom. Trump: "Reciprocal." That means they do it to us and we do it to them. Very simple. Can't get any simpler than that. Gura: But after that announcement sparked market turbulence, the president changed course. He announced a 90-day pause on the implementation of those tariffs. On Fox Business, Trump's trade advisor, Peter Navarro, presented it as an opportunity for those trading partners to negotiate: Peter Navarro: So, we're going to run 90 deals in 90 days- is possible. The boss is going to be the chief negotiator. Nothing is done without him looking very carefully at it. Gura: Well, that pause is about to end on Wednesday. And while the Trump administration has announced a few tentative trade agreements, including one with the UK and another with Vietnam, they're nowhere near 90. So, over the weekend, on CNN's State of the Union, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out what's likely to happen next. Scott Bessent: President Trump is going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don't move things along, then on August 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level. Gura: Brendan Murray oversees Bloomberg's trade coverage, and he says it looks like August 1 is the new July 9: Brendan Murray: You know, 90 days was always an arbitrary sort of number that they just pulled out of the air. Gura: The move is in keeping with how the White House has waged this trade war from the very beginning: Moving deadlines, putting tariffs in place, then taking them off and adjusting tariff levels with no explanation. Murray: It feels like it's a little bit of Groundhog Day every day on the trade beat to some extent- is that we're gonna go through this all over again. Gura: I'm David Gura, and this is The Big Take, from Bloomberg News. Today on the show, as President Trump's 90-day pause on his sweeping reciprocal tariffs comes to an end, what comes next? What the White House has accomplished, what it hasn't, and where the trade war goes from here. Gura: The problem with counting how many trade deals the White House has done is it depends on how you define the word "deal." Bloomberg's Brendan Murray says the Trump administration reached an agreement with the United Kingdom, and President Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam on social media, where, on Monday afternoon, the president also said he'd impose 25% tariffs on imports from Japan and South Korea and a 30% tariff on imports from South Africa. But as the end of this 90-day pause nears, Brendan says we haven't seen the fine print, and we don't know the status of other negotiations. Gura: From your vantage point, how much has been accomplished here over the course of these 80-plus days? Murray: Well, it's hard to say how far along the talks are with all of these other countries, but the main ones, China, Mexico, Canada - those are the three biggest US trading partners - those are all still in flux, and we don't know where those are headed. The president has said that, you know, he is going to stick to his auto tariffs and his steel tariffs and aluminum tariffs, and those are really important to Canada and Mexico, and they're going to try to negotiate those away. Now the other big deal, that really means more than any of those three, is one with the European Union. We think of Canada, China, Mexico as the biggest US trading partners, but the European Union as a block is really the biggest and the most integrated when it comes to goods trade, services trade and investment that goes back and forth between the two economies. Gura: How hard and fast is this deadline on Wednesday? We heard from the president last week indicating that he didn't intend to blow past it or offer any kind of extension. What's the latest from him and his administration on the hard and fastness of that July 9 deadline? Murray: Well as we're getting closer to that, they're inserting some wiggle room in there. Now they the thinking is, and, and what we've heard from some of the folks in the administration is that they've got a bottleneck of these deals that are just on the very edge of being resolved and being signed but they can't get 'em all over the line before, July 9, the original deadline. So it seems like August 1st is becoming the new deadline. None of this is a surprise to anybody who watches trade negotiations. These are complicated deals that have to be done back and forth between capitals over different time zones, and they just take a long time and they involve complicated things that countries just aren't going to give up overnight. And so, we've seen the 90 deals in 90 days come down to maybe a half dozen deals in probably a hundred letters. Gura: Broad strokes, what do you expect to play out between now and July 9th or August 1, what are we likely to get from the White House? Sort of how should we think about or read what's gonna be in, in letters or, or deal announcements to get a sense of, of what's actually in these deals and agreements. Murray: I think what we're gonna see, if they release the deals at all, we're going to see how basic they are, how broad they are, how lacking in concrete commitments. There's probably going to be some agreements to purchase a certain amount of US exports of agriculture goods, for instance, or Boeing airplanes. These are more commercial arrangements than they are trade, trade deals. But every country is now gonna be faced with a 10% tariff on their exports to the US, at least. That's going to be across the board. There doesn't seem to be any negotiating that away. So, in effect, president Trump is raising this tariff wall around the US economy, over which countries will have to just deal with, or there'll be retaliation. Gura: Brendan, when you look at the negotiations between the US and these major trading partners, how much are the points of contention the same in all of those talks? Murray: I think from the US' perspective, there are several issues that bother them. Among the biggest, and Trump has been pretty vocal about how he doesn't like that you can't buy Ford pickup trucks in Tokyo, or you don't see Chevys driving around Berlin. So, cars are one of the sort of regular sticking points with President Trump. He also is trying to crack down on the proliferation of Chinese products everywhere. And that could be everything from raw materials like steel to things like technological components that turn up in a lot of consumer items that we see. The Trump administration takes real issue with agriculture barriers to other countries' markets. India has very high protections around its agriculture industry where there's a big constituency of the Modi government that are subsistence farmers, and they would be, you know, economically devastated if the agriculture market of India were opened to the global trading system. So, those are barriers that are unlikely to go down anytime soon or in any way that's significant. And then, then there are a whole host of other issues that fall under this category of non-tariff barriers. And these are things like the tax system in the European Union or the way businesses are regulated in a country like South Korea. Gura: Brendan, over the weekend, President Trump said he would charge an additional 10% tariff on any country aligning themselves with the anti-American policy of the BRICS nations' - this is a group led by Brazil, Russia, India and China. They were meeting over the weekend. What does that say just about what's motivating this trade war? What's motivating the levies that the president is putting in place? Murray: I think it just illustrates how broadly the president thinks he can use tariffs to influence not just the trading relationships the US has with another country but geo-economic forces that are happening around him. Ironically, the BRICS organisation is growing. And it's growing because of the vacuum of the- what they perceive as the vacuum of the leadership of that the US has had over the years to steering the global economy, steering the global order in a certain direction. So, the BRICS now see themselves as a source of stability in the world, the ones you can trust, the ones you can count on, versus President Trump who seems to be filling the role of the sort of chief disruptor of the global economy. Gura:The US Court of International Trade blocked many of the tariffs that President Trump had threatened or imposed on other countries. I asked Brendan how that decision, which the administration has appealed, has affected the White House's negotiations. Murray: I think what it's done is slowed a lot of them down. Countries would be looking at that going, that's our get out of tariff free card. And they would be looking at the date of that next court hearing going, if we can just hold out that long, then perhaps the laws of the United States will strike down his authority to use those tariffs and we'll be in a completely different world. Gura: In the meantime, the Trump administration is leaning more heavily on tariffs not on countries, but on specific sectors. Murray: Those sectoral tariffs can be used very broadly. For example, the steel aluminum tariffs. For example, the steel and aluminum tariffs that he rolled out a few months ago were recently expanded to include appliances, washing machines - the kinds of things that everyday Americans go to Home Depot and buy because they contain steel and aluminum. So, you can use these sectoral tariffs very broadly. You can hit a lot of imports with them. And so, on these two separate tracks, President Trump is trying to build this tariff wall around the US economy, and he can do so with either one. There are other sectoral tariffs coming for pharmaceuticals, which the European Union is a big exporter of. There are sectoral tariffs coming for semiconductors. Now, imagine how broadly, you could define what is contained in a semiconductor. You could put the tariff on the technical tiny little chip that is what we think of as a semiconductor. Or you could put it on a phone, which contains semiconductors. So, either way, the administration feels like it's going to rewire the global economy one way or the other and that president has what they believe is the authority to do that. Gura: After the break, the impact the threat of President Trump's tariffs has already had on the global economy. Gura: Bloomberg's global trade editor, Brendan Murray has covered his fair share of trade negotiations. And I wanted to know how these talks stack up. Murray: These negotiations are different because they're on this fast track. Trade negotiations typically take years, and they go chapter by chapter, line by line. So, I think it's the speed and the complexity that are much different. They're much less complex and they're much faster. And they're also non-binding. They will die with a new administration from a different party that doesn't follow the same trade policies that the current administration does. So they're, they're not complex. They're fast and they don't have a lot of longevity built into them. Gura: I want to turn now to the effects these tariffs, these trade talks have had on the economy so far. What, what have we seen in the data as this has all progressed? Murray: Well, the data on trade itself has been kind of all over the place. But the broad trend is trade is holding up pretty well. We've seen not as much of an impact on inflation data. The big worry among economists is that tariffs will cause inflation. But we haven't seen that pressure appear in the data yet. So, there's a bit of a disconnect between the administration, which says, look, we don't have any inflation. And the people who are actually paying those tariff bills who say, these tariffs are killing me and my, I'm going to go out of business if I don't raise my prices or someone lowers the tariffs. So, there's a school of thought, and it's yet to be borne out in the data. So we don't know yet that this is going to appear as inflation in later this year, early next year, as those costs feed through into the larger US economy. That's what we're hearing from the Federal Reserve as well. They're sitting on their hands trying to figure out how this is going to play out, and they don't know if it's going to be a benign scenario or if it's going to be rampant inflation. They are waiting, listening to their contacts across the Fed districts and trying to figure out what the actual implication's going to be. Gura: Brendan, lastly, as we look for these letters, maybe deal announcements, what is your advice on what we should watch for, maybe who we should listen to, as these trade talks continue and these tariffs go into effect? Murray: I think we should look very closely at how the world responds to what is essentially a unilateral trade war on each of their economies. Will we see retaliation? So far we've only seen it put a little bit of tariffs on US exports. But for the most part, the world has sat through the last three months and said, OK, you're threatening me with tariffs. Let's negotiate. And there hasn't been a huge backlash - a collective backlash - against the US's threats to those economies. China has been the exception. China is fighting back in different ways. But I think the key thing to watch is how countries respond and whether we see the world just take it and adjust to it and deal with it, or whether we see the sort building of retaliation in a collective way where countries band together and say, we can't sit back and take this for very long. Otherwise, our own domestic political situations are going to get hairy.
Express Tribune
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Former Hololive star Gawr Gura returns to the Vtubing stage as Saba
On June 29, 2025, the virtual world saw the return of one of its most beloved creators. VTuber Saba, also known as Sameko Saba, debuted her new identity with a livestream titled [VTUBER DEBUT】yoho! i'm saba!, which attracted a record-breaking peak viewership of 198,000 fans. The debut marks a significant moment in the VTuber community, positioning Saba as one of the biggest debuts in VTuber history. Saba is the new persona of Gawr Gura, previously a prominent member of Hololive English's -Myth- collective. Gura had gained massive popularity as a virtual content creator under Hololive for over four years, becoming the most subscribed VTuber on YouTube and one of the leading figures in the VTuber scene. However, after an emotional announcement on April 16, 2025, Gura revealed her graduation from the agency, citing disagreements with management and a shift in company direction. In her debut livestream, Saba introduced herself with enthusiasm, saying, "My name is Saba. It's nice to meet you. I've never met you before. Wow! So many of your guesses were so close! I have a fish tail. I'm a fish! Trust me, I'm a fish. Don't ask any further questions." Fans were treated to insights into Saba's future plans, which include rhythm games, karaoke, and a desire to experiment with original music. "I want to release original music, but I want to take it slow and experiment with different genres," she said. As Saba embarks on her independent journey, her return to content creation is met with overwhelming support from her loyal fanbase.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive: Empathy raises $72 million Series C to tackle the agonizing logistics of death
Ron Gura doesn't use the word 'death' every day. 'From a chemistry perspective, we tune out when we hear the word death, because death is our biggest denial. Nobody wants to contemplate their own self-mortality,' says Gura, a longtime entrepreneur who sold his previous company The Gifts Project to eBay. And yet Gura's latest startup is inextricably entwined with the dreaded D-word and the subject most people would rather not talk about. The common fear of mortality ('Nobody wants to admit that we're just ants playing around with fear and greed—yielding stuff, selling stuff, buying stuff, and ending up leaving, just like the others,' Gura tells me in a philosophical moment) is in fact one of the reasons Gura's startup, Empathy, may be so necessary. Empathy is all about using technology to make it easier for people to deal with the most difficult moments in life, such as the death of a loved one. While there are plenty of people and services to soothe the emotional difficulties of the moment, Empathy focuses on the logistical headaches. As anyone who has had to face the loss of a loved one can attest, death brings with it a ferocious maze of estate planning, probate processes, funeral expenses, and financial settlements—all suddenly dumped into the laps of grief-stricken and frequently unprepared family or friends. It's a durational agony: It takes the average person 15 months to tie off the various loose ends and logistical tasks of a deceased loved one's affairs, according to research conducted by Empathy and presented in a report bearing the coldly analytical title Cost of Dying. If the person handling the tasks is the executor of the estate, the number becomes 18 months, the report says. 'Our job is to make loss less hard for more people every day,' said Gura, who cofounded the company and serves as CEO. 'We think it's the largest consumer sector that is still untouched by innovation, specifically in software.' Founded in 2020, Empathy has raised a $72 million Series C, Fortune has exclusively learned. Adams Street Partners led the round, with participation from General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Entrée Capital, Brewer Lane Ventures, SemperVirens, Latitude, and LionTree. Additionally, in a striking move, Aflac, Allianz, Citi, Munich Re, MetLife, New York Life, Securian, and TIAA also invested in the company's Series C—all are also part of the just-unveiled Empathy Alliance, a coalition of organizations partnering with Empathy to improve technology around both death and crises in life. Insurer partnerships are key, said Joel Cutler, cofounder of General Catalyst, via email: 'Empathy is helping insurers build longer term, generational relationships, providing a better customer experience, and as such Empathy is building long-term, deep relationships with the insurers as well.' In recent years, Empathy has expanded throughout the U.S. and Canada, and is now part of the employee benefits programs for Fortune 500 companies like AT&T and Paramount. This approach could expand to other markets characterized by impossibly difficult moments in life, Gura suggested but declined to disclose specifics. Currently, Empathy's products are focused around loss support and legacy planning, with an app that guides families through bereavement tasks as AI-powered tools automate tasks around documents. 'Let machines do what machines do best—refilling information, calculating financials, setting reminders, and customizing very robust to-dos and care plans,' Gura told Fortune. 'You shouldn't be calling Verizon to explain you don't have the passwords and the credentials. You shouldn't worry if your funeral director is trying to rip you off. You shouldn't feel alone at 2 AM.' There are many obvious questions here. Where does tech belong in a grieving process—and where is it invasive? What prevents this from becoming a dystopian nightmare? In part, it's that matter of tech doing what it does best, so humans can focus on what's purely human. And when it comes to data privacy, Gura said that Empathy has taken particular care: The company doesn't share individual personal information with clients, only provides aggregated demographic information, and personal emotional details remain strictly confidential, he told Fortune. And Empathy gets at something true: When a loved one dies, people don't know what to do, emotionally or logistically. No one knows the right thing to say. Tertiary people and problems dominate your days. You spend a lot of time on phone calls, informing people—and still receive more of those phone calls anyway. You worry about funeral costs. You get flowers in the mail, that soon wilt and die themselves. Condolences aren't helpful, sometimes nothing is. But genuine affection and a casserole dish of lasagna come close. Sometimes, the most valuable help is simple logistical assistance. Gura, who knows something about loss, is building a business around the gone and the living—because to think about death is, ultimately, to think about life. Your own, and others. 'If you imagine yourself right now, God forbid, on your last day,' said Gura. 'I'm 90, I'm surrounded by my daughters, my grandkids, and my wife. The house is tidy and nice. I had a great meal—lobster rigatoni, and we had wine. I didn't wake up from my nap. Perfect. Now, what happens the second after I'm gone?' See you tomorrow, Allie GarfinkleX: @agarfinksEmail: a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here. Nina Ajemian curated the deals section of today's newsletter. Subscribe here. This story was originally featured on
Buzz Feed
05-05-2025
- Buzz Feed
If You're Team Carry-On Only, These 13 Travel Products Are Actually Worth The Precious Space
1. A waterproof Kindle you can consider a pocket-size portal to another dimension. It's compact, glare-free, and has a ton of storage for thousands of books, plus a battery life that lasts much longer than your seven-hour flight — up to 10 weeks! It also features adjustable warm light that's much easier on your eyes. Abby: ^ Yes, that is me sitting in a pool in Hawaii holding my Kindle over the water without fear or stress that if it falls in, it will break. Truly living my best life. Promising review:"I LOVE reading and being able to access a book anywhere with this thing. It is easy to navigate, very easy to read and adjust the brightness or how warm the light is. It doesn't auto adjust, but I don't need that feature. I've read in bright sunlight to dark rooms, and it's always been so clear. You can adjust the font and use the library to search whatever books you want. Makes packing books for traveling very easy. Battery life lasts me two weeks if I'm reading every day for a few hours." — R@L0 Get it from Amazon for $149.99 (available in three colors and with or without lockscreen ads). 2. A set of packing cubes that help you squeeze in more by keeping everything neat and compressed. You'll be amazed at how much you can fit in your carry-on, and since everything is organized into little sections, it'll be a snap to unpack and get on with your trip! Promising review:"I travel frequently and travel light. My luggage is usually limited to a backpack that slides under the airline seat. For a two-week European cruise, I added a carry-on rolling suitcase. I've used these packing cubes twice so far, and I am hooked. One cube holds everything (including clothing) I take on a three-night trip. The cube slides into my pack, saving massive amounts of room, and everything is easy to find during travel and at the hotel. Taking out one cube and unzipping is much better than digging through a pack! I will never leave home without these!" — Gura Get a set of four packing cubes (also comes with a laundry bag) from Amazon for $21.99 (available in 26 colors and two sets). 3. A Stow-N-Go travel organizer that's basically a portable closet. You can arrange everything while you pack, and when you get to your destination, just hang it up and that's it! You'll have perfectly organized clothes for the whole trip. Abby: Plus, it has a zipper compartment at the bottom you can put all your dirty clothes in, so they don't get mixed together and you end up just washing everything when you get home (because that's usually what happens to me). Promising review:"I just love it. I travel a lot. Now I don't have to hang anything up but my organizer. I can see what I pack and where everything is. Just love it. I can easily fit seven days' worth of outfits and three pairs of shoes in a carry-on suitcase. Just great." — Amazon Customer Get it from Amazon for $22.99+ (available in two sizes and nine colors). 4. Some laundry soap sheets you'll be so glad you brought when you run out of clean underwear. Now you can easily wash your clothes in the sink and rewear them, *and* you won't have to worry about them stinking up your bag. Promising review:"This stuff is awesome. I take it everywhere! We travel a lot, and it's perfect for all sorts of reasons! It was very useful on our trip to Israel where I ended up doing laundry in our hotel sink almost every night because of the dust. The packaging is very small and for as much as I have used this traveling, I haven't run out yet!" — Mia Bauer Get it from Amazon for $12.95. 5. A strap to keep your personal items (neck pillow, jacket, purse, etc.) together so you can easily run around the airport without worrying about leaving anything behind. Amazon Promising review:"I love this little gadget. I used it to attach my jacket and computer bag to my luggage on an extended business trip. It made my airport walks so much easier. Now that I'm back home, I've been using it daily to attach my jacket or cardigan to my work bag or purse." — Michele Get it from Amazon for $7.99+ (available in five colors). 6. A splurge-worthy set of Cadence Capsules that stick together ~magnetically~ and take up way less space in your bag than big pill bottles. They'll help you condense so you're bringing what you actually need (and not overpacking); plus, they're leakproof and incredibly sturdy so you can fill 'em with whatever: creams, vitamins, small jewelry — truly anything small that you want to keep safe. The "daily routine" set includes four medium and three small capsules as well as magnetic, interchangeable labels for shampoo, conditioner, body wash, moisturizer, cleanser, a pill icon, and a blank tile. They also offer skincare, bodycare, haircare, and pill case sets as well as extenders that increase the size of the capsule! And if you fall in love with these and *really* want to customize your collection, head to their site to build your own unique set. Cadence is an AAPI woman-owned small business that was founded by Steph Hon with the goal of eliminating single-use travel-sized plastics. The containers are made from recycled ocean-bound plastic. Abby: I have a set of four of these, and, wow, I love them so much. I used them on a six-day trip, and they were perfect. I customized the label so I knew which one was my shampoo vs. conditioner and did a general label for any other things I wanted to bring along. They do hold a surprising amount. According to the brand, they hold approximately one to two weeks of skincare products, more than two weeks' worth of serum, two to three days' worth of haircare, and more than 15 tablets (for medicine and such). And while two to three days worth of haircare might not seem like enough, I found it held more than that for me, but I also don't wash my hair every single day. They were small enough to slip right into my toiletries bag and go through TSA with no problem. The container was easy to open in the shower (even with wet hands), and I had no leakage from them (like I did from my face wash bottle that will not be making the trip with me next time. SMH). These are an incredibly useful tool anyone who travels will want in their luggage. Get the daily routine set from Amazon for $117.30 (available in five colors and other sets). 7. Or a TSA-approved 16-piece travel toiletries set with a container for each and every one of your tried-and-true faves so you don't have to spend more money on the travel-size versions. These are reusable and leakproof, so your products (and other stuff in your bag!) will stay protected. The set comes with four bottles, four jars, two spray bottles, two scoopers (to help transfer creams), one funnel (to help transfer liquids), one cleaning brush, a page of labels, and a bag that everything fits in. Promising review:"I've purchased a lot of different travel sets for my toiletries over the years. Inevitably, they are hard to fill and tend to leak. This set was magic! The wide mouth made it easy to fill from a larger bottle, and the little scoops made transferring creams to the jar containers very easy and with much less mess. The only con (hardly worth mentioning) is that once you squeeze the bottle, it takes a few minutes to expand with air again, so the sides are a bit sunken. I solved that by unscrewing the top just a bit for a quick release of the vacuum pressure. I had no leaks, and plenty of containers for every toiletry." — MDC Get it from Amazon for $9.99+ (available in seven colors). 8. A Hackwith Design House shirt because there's nothing more travel-friendly than a top you can wear *five* different ways (that we know of — but you might discover more playing around with it). It's timeless because you can always change how you style it, and it's made from a high-quality fabric that's soft, breathable, and can last for years. Hackwith Design House is a woman-owned small business that creates made-to-order apparel. This shirt can be worn as a V-neck, off-the-shoulder, boatneck, V-back, and even open as a jacket. And the color is simple, which means it can be paired well with many different bottoms. BuzzFeed Shopping editor Chelsea Stuart says:"I have this shirt and I *love* it. All credit for its discovery goes to TikToker @ who I happened to stumble across on my FYP. It checks all my boxes: black, comfortable, versatile, and durable. My initial worry was that I wouldn't feel secure in it (I have a 38DDD chest and most wrap tops/dresses I've tried haven't stayed where they're supposed to), but I haven't had an issue with this! I've worn it tied in the front giving me a square neck (like the middle picture) and tied in the back giving me a V-neck up front (just like the photo on the right) — both were super comfortable, and I didn't have to adjust myself at all. As someone whose weight fluctuates, I also appreciate that this piece can handle pounds gained and lost. The fabric is medium weight, so I'll be wearing it season to season, and there's just enough elasticity in the arms that if you roll up your sleeves, they won't fall back down. All that is to say trust that I will be buying additional colors!" Get it from Hackwith Design House for $145 (available in women's sizes XS–4X and in three colors). 9. A 2-in-1 hair tool that curls and straightens so you can achieve the perfect balance of texture and shine with just one tool. It's easy to pack for trips and dual-voltage so you can have gorgeous hair no matter what country you're visiting. Just be sure to still pack a plug adapter if you're traveling to another country! Get it from Amazon for $39.99 (available in two colors). 10. A portable rain hood to pair with *any* jacket so you don't have to try to cram in your practical raincoats. You can keep it in your bag for any impromptu downpours! Amazon All it is is a hood attached to a vest you can wear under *any* jacket to protect yourself (and your hair) from whatever the weather has planned. Promising review: "I love this! The quality is very nice and it fits great. Wore it last week in the rain with a coat I love that doesn't have a hood and it was perfect. It slips right under your jacket so all you see is the hood, so it pretty much blends in with your jacket. Such a great idea! Wish there were more colors and patterns, I'd order more." — Jill Hammel Get it from Amazon for $29 (available in two sizes). 11. A flying USB port with four spots to plug in your gadgets so you don't have to pack different power adapters. And bonus: This allows you to make the most of that one working outlet you managed to find at the airport! Multitasky Multitasky is a woman-founded and -run small business that began in 2020 as a way for founder Julia Xu to create products that were both functional and cute. Promising review:"It does as it says it does, allowing my Dell XPS15 to operate a pair of USB devices from my lightning port! The laptop has two USB ports, one of which is always occupied by my USB mouse dongle and the other by my protected USB drive. If I wanted to plug in my phone to switch data or add another thumb drive to transfer a device, everything might have to be disconnected, but not anymore. It was really worth it." — Liberty Get it from Multitasky for $25 (available in three colors). 12. A Subtl Beauty Stack to condense up to nine makeup products into one small stack. You can customize yours with anything from lip tints to face powder. And as convenient as it is for travel, it's also perfect to keep in your purse for any on-the-go touch-ups! Subtl Beauty Each stack also includes a mirror lid, a base, and a mini brush. Promising review:"I absolutely love how compact this product is. I have been pleasantly surprised at how natural the makeup feels and I love the natural look it provides. I originally purchased it for traveling, but have been using it daily and love it!" – Paula Bowie Get the Starter Stack from Subtl Beauty for $60 (available in 18 tones), or customize your own stack starting at $12 per layer, with up to nine product types available. 13. A skyline mini wallet emergency kit packed with the practical items that are easy to forget (like hair ties, tampons, Tylenol, and more!) while still being small enough to fit in your purse — so it definitely *won't* take up too much space in your carry-on. Anne Cate Anne Cate is a woman-owned small business based in Cleveland, Ohio that handmakes minimalist keepsakes with a skyline from more than 100 cities and colleges around the world! The kit includes a hair tie, ChapStick, two floss pics, a sewing kit, bandages, emery board, two safety pins, two earring backs, a makeup wipe, two bobby pins, two mints, a deodorant wipe, a Shout wipe, a tampon, hand sanitizer, and Tylenol. Promising review: "I'm heading to Rome this fall with my best friend and our husbands. I thought this would be the cutest little emergency case to bring along so I got each of us one. I am so excited to give it to her. She will love the Rome skyline and all the goodies inside." — Jen
Buzz Feed
02-05-2025
- Buzz Feed
If You're Only Bringing A Carry-On On Vacation, You Should Pack These 12 Items
1. A waterproof Kindle you can consider a pocket-size portal to another dimension. It's compact, glare-free, and has a ton of storage for thousands of books, plus a battery life that lasts much longer than your seven-hour flight — up to 10 weeks! It also features adjustable warm light that's much easier on your eyes. Abby: ^ Yes, that is me sitting in a pool in Hawaii holding my Kindle over the water without fear or stress that if it falls in, it will break. Truly living my best life. Promising review:"I LOVE reading and being able to access a book anywhere with this thing. It is easy to navigate, very easy to read and adjust the brightness or how warm the light is. It doesn't auto adjust, but I don't need that feature. I've read in bright sunlight to dark rooms, and it's always been so clear. You can adjust the font and use the library to search whatever books you want. Makes packing books for traveling very easy. Battery life lasts me two weeks if I'm reading every day for a few hours." — R@L0 Get it from Amazon for $149.99 (available in three colors and with or without lockscreen ads). 2. A set of packing cubes that help you squeeze in more by keeping everything neat and compressed. You'll be amazed at how much you can fit in your carry-on, and since everything is organized into little sections, it'll be a snap to unpack and get on with your trip! Promising review:"I travel frequently and travel light. My luggage is usually limited to a backpack that slides under the airline seat. For a two-week European cruise, I added a carry-on rolling suitcase. I've used these packing cubes twice so far, and I am hooked. One cube holds everything (including clothing) I take on a three-night trip. The cube slides into my pack, saving massive amounts of room, and everything is easy to find during travel and at the hotel. Taking out one cube and unzipping is much better than digging through a pack! I will never leave home without these!" — Gura Get a set of four packing cubes (also comes with a laundry bag) from Amazon for $21.99 (available in 25 colors and two sets). 3. Or a Stow-N-Go travel organizer that's basically a portable closet. You can arrange everything while you pack, and when you get to your destination, just hang it up and that's it! You'll have perfectly organized clothes for the whole trip. Abby: Plus, it has a zipper compartment at the bottom you can put all your dirty clothes in, so they don't get mixed together and you end up just washing everything when you get home (because that's usually what happens to me). Promising review:"I just love it. I travel a lot. Now I don't have to hang anything up but my organizer. I can see what I pack and where everything is. Just love it. I can easily fit seven days' worth of outfits and three pairs of shoes in a carry-on suitcase. Just great." — Amazon Customer Get it from Amazon for $22.99+ (available in two sizes and 10 colors). 4. A strap to keep your personal items (neck pillow, jacket, purse, etc.) together so you can easily run around the airport without worrying about leaving anything behind. Amazon Promising review:"I love this little gadget. I used it to attach my jacket and computer bag to my luggage on an extended business trip. It made my airport walks so much easier. Now that I'm back home, I've been using it daily to attach my jacket or cardigan to my work bag or purse." — Michele Get it from Amazon for $7.99+ (available in six colors). 5. A splurge-worthy set of Cadence Capsules that stick together ~magnetically~ and take up way less space in your bag than big pill bottles. They'll help you condense so you're bringing what you actually need (and not overpacking); plus, they're leakproof and incredibly sturdy so you can fill 'em with whatever: creams, vitamins, small jewelry — truly anything small that you want to keep safe. The "daily routine" set includes four medium and three small capsules as well as magnetic, interchangeable labels for shampoo, conditioner, body wash, moisturizer, cleanser, a pill icon, and a blank tile. They also offer skincare, bodycare, haircare, and pill case sets as well as extenders that increase the size of the capsule! And if you fall in love with these and *really* want to customize your collection, head to their site to build your own unique set. Cadence is an AAPI woman-owned small business that was founded by Steph Hon with the goal of eliminating single-use travel-sized plastics. The containers are made from recycled ocean-bound plastic. Abby: I have a set of four of these, and, wow, I love them so much. I used them on a six-day trip, and they were perfect. I customized the label so I knew which one was my shampoo vs. conditioner and did a general label for any other things I wanted to bring along. They do hold a surprising amount. According to the brand, they hold approximately one to two weeks of skincare products, more than two weeks' worth of serum, two to three days' worth of haircare, and more than 15 tablets (for medicine and such). And while two to three days worth of haircare might not seem like enough, I found it held more than that for me, but I also don't wash my hair every single day. They were small enough to slip right into my toiletries bag and go through TSA with no problem. The container was easy to open in the shower (even with wet hands), and I had no leakage from them (like I did from my face wash bottle that will not be making the trip with me next time. SMH). These are an incredibly useful tool anyone who travels will want in their luggage. Get the daily routine set from Amazon for $138 (available in three colors and other sets). 6. Or a TSA-approved 16-piece travel toiletries set with a container for each and every one of your tried-and-true faves so you don't have to spend more money on the travel-size versions. These are reusable and leakproof, so your products (and other stuff in your bag!) will stay protected. The set comes with four bottles, four jars, two spray bottles, two scoopers (to help transfer creams), one funnel (to help transfer liquids), one cleaning brush, a page of labels, and a bag that everything fits in. Promising review:"I've purchased a lot of different travel sets for my toiletries over the years. Inevitably, they are hard to fill and tend to leak. This set was magic! The wide mouth made it easy to fill from a larger bottle, and the little scoops made transferring creams to the jar containers very easy and with much less mess. The only con (hardly worth mentioning) is that once you squeeze the bottle, it takes a few minutes to expand with air again, so the sides are a bit sunken. I solved that by unscrewing the top just a bit for a quick release of the vacuum pressure. I had no leaks, and plenty of containers for every toiletry." — MDC Get it from Amazon for $9.99+ (available in eight colors). 7. A Hackwith Design House shirt because there's nothing more travel-friendly than a top you can wear *five* different ways (that we know of — but you might discover more playing around with it). It's timeless because you can always change how you style it, and it's made from a high-quality fabric that's soft, breathable, and can last for years. Hackwith Design House is a woman-owned small business that creates made-to-order apparel. This shirt can be worn as a V-neck, off-the-shoulder, boatneck, V-back, and even open as a jacket. And the color is simple, which means it can be paired well with many different bottoms. BuzzFeed Shopping editor Chelsea Stuart says:"I have this shirt and I *love* it. All credit for its discovery goes to TikToker @ who I happened to stumble across on my FYP. It checks all my boxes: black, comfortable, versatile, and durable. My initial worry was that I wouldn't feel secure in it (I have a 34G chest and most wrap tops/dresses I've tried haven't stayed where they're supposed to), but I haven't had an issue with this! I've worn it tied in the front giving me a square neck (like the middle picture) and tied in the back giving me a V-neck up front (just like the photo on the right) — both were super comfortable, and I didn't have to adjust myself at all. As someone whose weight fluctuates, I also appreciate that this piece can handle pounds gained and lost. The fabric is medium weight, so I'll be wearing it season to season, and there's just enough elasticity in the arms that if you roll up your sleeves, they won't fall back down. All that is to say trust that I will be buying additional colors!" Get it from Hackwith Design House for $145 (available in women's sizes XS–4X and in three colors). 8. A 2-in-1 hair tool that curls and straightens so you can achieve the perfect balance of texture and shine with just *one* tool. It's easy to pack for trips, *and* it's dual-voltage so you can have gorgeous hair no matter the country you're visiting. Amazon Promising review:"Don't be fooled by the tiny price or size, this little baby is serious. If you are looking for a small travel option rather than lugging your big straightener and giant curling iron around the world, than I think you'll love this. It performs really well, turning my frizzy wavy hair into a smooth and sleek style. The curling iron option also creates shiny, silky lasting curls! It's easy to transition between both. I also like the grippy handle and the fact that the curling iron clip is a different color than the straightening bars because that helps me see how I should be maneuvering it around. The voltage goes up to 240m, so you are good using it internationally without a converter (but you will need an adapter just to fit it into various foreign outlets). At this price, definitely give it a try and flaunt your tresses abroad." — Christine Get it from Amazon for $39.99 (available in two colors). 9. A portable rain hood to pair with *any* jacket so you don't have to try to cram in your practical raincoats. You can keep it in your bag for any impromptu downpours! Amazon All it is is a hood attached to a vest you can wear under *any* jacket to protect yourself (and your hair) from whatever the weather has planned. Promising review: "I love this! The quality is very nice and it fits great. Wore it last week in the rain with a coat I love that doesn't have a hood and it was perfect. It slips right under your jacket so all you see is the hood, so it pretty much blends in with your jacket. Such a great idea! Wish there were more colors and patterns, I'd order more." — Jill Hammel Get it from Amazon for $29 (available in two sizes). 10. A flying USB port with four spots to plug in your gadgets so you don't have to pack different power adapters. And bonus: This allows you to make the most of that one working outlet you managed to find at the airport! Multitasky Multitasky is a woman-founded and -run small business that began in 2020 as a way for founder Julia Xu to create products that were both functional and cute. Promising review:"It does as it says it does, allowing my Dell XPS15 to operate a pair of USB devices from my lightning port! The laptop has two USB ports, one of which is always occupied by my USB mouse dongle and the other by my protected USB drive. If I wanted to plug in my phone to switch data or add another thumb drive to transfer a device, everything might have to be disconnected, but not anymore. It was really worth it." — Liberty Get it from Multitasky for $25 (available in three colors). 11. A Subtl Beauty Stack to condense up to nine makeup products into one small stack. You can customize yours with anything from lip tints to face powder. And as convenient as it is for travel, it's also perfect to keep in your purse for any on-the-go touch-ups! Subtl Beauty Each stack also includes a mirror lid, a base, and a mini brush. Promising review:"I absolutely love how compact this product is. I have been pleasantly surprised at how natural the makeup feels and I love the natural look it provides. I originally purchased it for traveling, but have been using it daily and love it!" — Paula Bowie Get the Starter Stack from Subtl Beauty for $60 (available in 19 tones), or customize your own stack starting at $12+ per layer, with up to nine product types available. 12. A skyline mini wallet emergency kit packed with the practical items that are easy to forget (like hair ties, tampons, Tylenol, and more!) while still being small enough to fit in your purse — so it definitely *won't* take up too much space in your carry-on. Anne Cate Anne Cate is a woman-owned small business based in Cleveland, Ohio that handmakes minimalist keepsakes with a skyline from more than 100 cities and colleges around the world! The kit includes a hair tie, ChapStick, two floss pics, a sewing kit, bandages, emery board, two safety pins, two earring backs, a makeup wipe, two bobby pins, two mints, a deodorant wipe, a Shout wipe, a tampon, hand sanitizer, and Tylenol. Promising review: "I'm heading to Rome this fall with my best friend and our husbands. I thought this would be the cutest little emergency case to bring along so I got each of us one. I am so excited to give it to her. She will love the Rome skyline and all the goodies inside." — Jen Get it from Anne Cate for $25 (available in 96 skylines).
