Gunnar R Johansson has developed 'SL Live map,' a hobby project that displays Stockholm's public transport in real-time, allowing users to track buses and trains.

Workday Inc. CEO Aneel Bhusri announced that leading AI companies like Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI are users of Workday's software, despite investor concerns about AI disrupting the software industry.

A new physical travel card in Denmark, intended to assist those who are digitally challenged, has seen nearly 20,000 orders in a week. However, critics point out the paradox that users must be digitally proficient to order the card online, making it inaccessible to its target demographic.

A rare but severe eye infection caused by the Acanthamoeba parasite, found in water, is primarily affecting contact lens users. The infection can lead to blindness and is difficult to diagnose.

Sky and Amanda Roberts, siblings of Virginia Giuffre, will attend Trump's State of the Union to honor her fight for justice against abusers like Epstein.

Thomson Reuters shares have rallied after its CoCounsel AI tool attracted 1 million users, indicating strong adoption and positive market reception.

A recent PlayStation 5 system update has quietly introduced a new feature to the PlayStation Store, which has been welcomed by some users.

David Eby calls on Ottawa to regulate when AI providers must report their users to police  The Globe and Mail

MANILA, Philippines–Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV on Tuesday denied allegations that he received $2 million–or any amount of money–from former Rep. Elizaldy Co in connection with the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the crimes against humanity of former President Rodrigo Duterte. Trillanes also vowed to file cyberlibel charges against several personalities who

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A Tubi executive, David Salmon, stated at MIP London that audiences are largely indifferent to whether content is produced by professionals, creators, or users, while discussing sports as a streaming driver.

Melania Trump's 2000-euro trousers worn at a governors' dinner in Washington have drawn criticism in the US, with many deeming them 'inappropriate'.

Two teenagers were found to be behind the leak of personal information belonging to 4.62 million users of Seoul’s public bike-sharing service “Ttareungi”, police said Monday. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s cybercrime investigation unit said it had apprehended two high school students on charges of violating the Information and Communications Network Act. The suspects were forwarded to prosecutors without detention. The data breach occurred between June 28 and 29, 2024, involving 4.62 mil

Netflix is reportedly changing its rules again, a decision that could impact millions of its users.

The physical blue Rejsekort (travel card) will be discontinued by May 28th, with users encouraged to switch to the app or order a new Basic Card.

Fiji is experiencing a rapidly growing HIV epidemic, particularly affecting vulnerable young people, partners of drug users, and victims of sexual violence, leading to tragic outcomes for children.

Flaws in a popular AI coding platform, which allows users without coding skills to create apps, enabled a BBC reporter to be hacked, highlighting security vulnerabilities in rapidly expanding AI tools.

An article provides five ChatGPT prompts designed to help users secure high-ticket clients by utilizing existing stories.

Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi are exploring new ways to engage users by 'gamifying truth', allowing participants to bet on future events.

GLP-1 drugs for weight loss are growing in popularity in the U.S. and across the world. Here's what some users say about their experiences with the medicines.

Internet users in Poland and abroad are wondering if the US president called a TV show pretending to be an ordinary citizen, following a recording featuring 'John Barron' that has millions of views.

Roblox, a popular online gaming platform with 150 million daily users, is facing legal challenges in multiple countries over allegations of pedocriminal activity.

The Times announces changes to how users can read the newspaper on their tablets, indicating an update to their digital platform.

A new free augmented reality app has been launched for World Pangolin Day, allowing users to interact with a life-sized Temminck’s ground pangolin and learn about its ecology, threats, and conservation challenges.

An article discusses the ethical implications of human rights abusers using sports sponsorships to launder their image and questions if fan pressure can lead to change.

The Denník N subscriber application has introduced a new feature allowing users to customize the playback order of audio articles and podcasts.

A milestone moment for microdramas just occured, according to industry analyst Omdia. Analysis of cell phone usage in the U.S. shows users are spending more time watching vertical videos than they do watching Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video on mobile devices. Given the relatively nascent stage for microdramas, the stat is hugely significant. It comes […]

A quiz challenging users to name 17 players who have made at least one Premier League appearance for both Everton and Manchester United.

Delfi and OHO invite users to solve online crossword puzzles to test their knowledge and intelligence, offering a fun way to train the mind.

New subscription features on app for gay and bisexual men come with a price tag – from $109.99 a month in Australia to $349 in the US Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Amid dating app fatigue and concerns over the safety of its users, Grindr is testing out highly priced subscriptions that will incorporate AI into finding people matches. The app for gay and bisexual men shows users’ profiles in a grid for those...

Thousands of Crunchyroll users in the US reported issues and a massive outage on the streaming platform, prompting questions about the cause and potential solutions.

The internet is reacting strongly to an ex-MAGA supporter's public reasoning for abandoning the movement, with many users 'brutally roasting' their explanation.

A phone number spoofing scheme is spreading in Lithuania, with many individuals reporting that strangers are calling them back, claiming to have missed a call from their number, despite the users never having initiated such calls.

Türkiye is implementing flexible pricing for electric vehicle charging services, a move expected to lower costs for users. This change follows recent regulatory approvals by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority.

The vapes used to be obvious. Bright displays of flavoured liquid, a shop just down the road, a transaction as unremarkable as buying shampoo. Batrisyia, 28, remembers how easy it was. Those days are gone. Or rather, in Malaysia at least, the trade has moved under the table. “It’s definitely less open now,” said Batrisyia, a Johor native who asked to be identified by a pseudonym for fear of backlash. “You don’t see big vape displays like before, and we can’t buy online any more. But it hasn’t...

Microsoft is facing criticism online following the appointment of Asha Sharma as CEO of Xbox, with some internet users citing 'Indian nepotism' and a lack of gaming background.

A wave of online backlash against South Korea is spreading across Southeast Asia, fuelled by a dispute over fan behaviour at a K-pop concert and intensified by controversial comments from public officials, highlighting how quickly digital tensions can take on a regional dimension. Posts accusing Koreans of discrimination have circulated widely on social media in recent days, with users from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand sharing calls to boycott Korean products and culture. A hashtag invoki...

Moomoo is running a promotional offer for new users, providing an 8.1% annual percentage yield (APY) and up to $1,000 in Nvidia stock as an incentive.

YouTube TV billing scam email tricks users with fake "BILLING FAILED" alerts. Jackie from New York spotted red flags despite not subscribing to the service.

The government has submitted a bill to the Riigikogu to amend the Traffic Act, enabling traffic data to be sent directly to smartphone apps instead of being entered manually by users.

White supremacist Nick Fuentes controversially claimed women are only fit for sex, citing a lack of female philosophers, inventors, generals, and billionaires. His remarks sparked widespread backlash online, with users sharing examples of accomplished women like Marie Curie and Gladys West, highlighting the inventor of the bulletproof vest and even noting Fuentes' endorsement of Gavin Newsom.

The UK government is facing fierce backlash over a plan to wipe magistrates’ court records on grooming gangs, with critics warning it could shield abusers and undermine national efforts against such crimes.

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Apple’s feature, which connects phone to satellite, helped first responders find survivors as they waited under tarp California’s deadliest avalanche killed at least eight people in a ski group near Lake Tahoe on Tuesday. The six survivors used the iPhone’s emergency SOS feature to help first responders find them as they waited under a tarp and discovered some of the bodies, according to the Nevada county sheriff. Apple’s feature, introduced in 2022, allows users to text law enforcement, even if there’s no cell service or wifi by connecting the phone to a satellite. First responders reached the skiers’ location and learned of the six survivors based on conversations held through the feature, Sheriff Shannan Moon said at a press conference on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Reddit is reportedly testing a new AI-powered search feature designed to provide users with shopping suggestions.

Grand Theft Auto 6 fans have already been waiting forever for the game's release, but PC users unquestionably have it the worst.

The UAE's first federally authorized lottery has encountered technical issues on its official website due to a surge in user registrations following its launch.

Road users are reporting issues with dazzling headlights, but experts caution that a straightforward solution to the problem is not readily available.

The canine delighted social media users after he got onto the course during the women's cross-country team sprint qualifiers.

DoorDash reported quarterly earnings on Wednesday, with profit beating expectations but sales missing the mark.

A woman's complaint about PetSmart refusing to sell her a bearded dragon without a large tank has sparked online debate, with many users supporting PetSmart's policy for animal welfare.

TMZ has compiled a list of essential products designed to help users upgrade their gaming setup and elevate their overall gaming experience.

Instagram has launched a new application for Google TV, allowing users to access the platform's video content on televisions and other devices running the Google TV operating system.

Coupang said Wednesday that about 200,000 of its Taiwanese users were included in the massive data breach of some 3.3 million accounts, an incident initially announced in November. According to Coupang, Mandiant, an American cybersecurity firm and a Google subsidiary, has determined the data breach of Taiwan-based accounts. However, it said the perpetrator retained data from only one of those accounts. “The data accessed from Taiwanese accounts was also limited to basic contact and order informa

Users across the United States reported a widespread outage of Google services, with many experiencing internal server errors according to DownDetector.

Toby Walsh says he despairs at Australian government’s lack of regulation of artificial intelligence Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or d

Across TikTok, users are coming down with something called "Baby Boo Syndrome"

Thomson Reuters shares have rallied significantly after its CoCounsel AI tool attracted 1 million users.

NTT Docomo will terminate its 3G service, which began in 2001 and is mainly used by 'feature phones' (garakei), at the end of March. While the company is urging users to switch models, other mobile carriers are also actively trying to attract these customers.

DoT directions require the platform and other messaging apps to disable access if a SIM card is removed, and to log off users every six hours from companion access points like WhatsApp Web.

Top Dems are expected to skip his speech but invited Epstein accusers and ICE detainees in their place

Relatives returning from a funeral in the province of Venice found their deceased loved one's home occupied by squatters, with furniture moved out onto the street. Authorities describe it as a racket where abusers forcefully enter properties.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenka's goal in an amateur ice hockey match over the weekend in Minsk drew laughter and ironic comments from internet users.

While most artists, scientists, and writers seek recognition, some choose to refuse prizes, highlighting that external confirmation is not always the ultimate goal.

As Microsoft Gaming's new CEO Asha Sharma takes the reins with an AI background, Xbox users are concerned about the future of Xbox Game Pass.

After 17 years, WhatsApp is reportedly planning to roll out a feature that will allow users to schedule messages.

Deutsche Telekom has developed a new voice-controlled AI assistant that can join phone calls to help users find restaurants, translate live, or note calendar appointments.

Google has restricted access to its AI coding platform, Antigravity, for users routing Gemini tokens through OpenClaw, citing 'malicious usage' that degraded the service and aimed to exploit the platform.

A woman in her 20s, suspected of serial murder in Korea, saw a surge in her social media followers after her face was revealed online, with some users expressing sympathy.

SoundCloud data breach exposes 29.8 million users' email addresses and profile data to hackers, leaving affected users locked out with error messages.

As India races to narrow the artificial intelligence gap with the United States and China, it is planning a vast new “data city” to power digital growth on a staggering scale, the man spearheading the project says. “The AI revolution is here, no second thoughts about it,” said Nara Lokesh, information technology minister for Andhra Pradesh state, which is positioning the city of Visakhapatnam as a cornerstone of India’s AI push. “And as a nation… we have taken a stand that we’ve got to embrace it,” he told AFP ahead of an international AI summit next week in New Delhi. Lokesh boasts the state has secured investment agreements of $175 billion involving 760 projects, including a $15bn investment by Google for its largest AI infrastructure hub outside the United States. And a joint venture between India’s Reliance Industries, Canada’s Brookfield and US firm Digital Realty is investing $11bn to develop an AI data centre in the same city. Visakhapatnam — home to around two million people and popularly known as “Vizag” — is better known for its cricket ground that hosts international matches than cutting-edge technology. But the southeastern port city is now being pitched as a landing point for submarine internet cables linking India to Singapore. “The data city is going to come in one ecosystem… with a 100 kilometre radius,” Lokesh said. For comparison, Taiwan is roughly 100km wide. ‘Whole nine yards’ Lokesh said the plan goes far beyond data connectivity, adding that his state had “received close to 25 per cent of all foreign direct investments” in India in 2025. “It’s not just about the data centres,” he explained while outlining a sweeping vision of change, with Andhra Pradesh offering land at one US cent per acre (three per hectare) for major investors. “I’m chasing the companies that make those servers that go sit in those data centres, the companies that make the entire air conditioning, the water-cooling system — the whole nine yards.” The 43-year-old, Stanford-educated minister is the son of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who helped turn Hyderabad into a major technology hub that is dubbed “Cyberabad”. They are allies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will host the AI Impact Summit from Monday. India is now third in a global AI power ranking — sitting above South Korea and Japan — based on more than 40 indicators from patents to private funding calculated by Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centred AI. With more than a billion internet users, India has seen a surge of investment as generative AI players seek inroads to the world’s most populous country. Microsoft said in December it will invest $17.5bn to help build the country’s artificial intelligence infrastructure, with CEO Satya Nadella calling it the firm’s “largest investment ever in Asia”. But critics say India lags in access to high-end computing power or commercial AI deployment, and remains more a consumer than creator of the cutting-edge technology. Some question whether data centres will create meaningful employment when up and running, but Lokesh rejects that. “Every industrial revolution has always created more jobs than it has displaced,” he said. “But it has created those jobs in countries that have embraced the industrial revolution.” ‘Learned from China’ Lokesh argues that the jobs and economic benefits would more than compensate for the giveaway cost of land. He said the state government had accounted for the vast electricity and water demands for the energy-hungry industry, and would tap “surplus water” that drains into the Bay of Bengal to cool the massive data centres. “It’s a crime that so much water during monsoons goes into our oceans,” he said. He cited China as an inspiration — admiring how India’s rival had “been able to systematically bring people out of poverty” at speed. The state’s plan to create industrial clusters was something he had “learned from China”. With a target of six gigawatts of data centre capacity — three already signed and another three in the pipeline — Andhra Pradesh is betting that speed and scale will give it an edge. New Delhi last year agreed to “in-principle approval” for six 1.2 GW nuclear power plants at Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh. “We are on a journey,” Lokesh said. “We will execute these projects at a pace that the country has never seen”.

AI chat app "Chat & Ask AI" reportedly exposed 300 million private messages from 25+ million users, including conversations about suicide and illegal acts.

PayPal has reportedly experienced issues with 'bad code' leading to unauthorized payments for some users.

Samsung Electronics announced the further expansion of Galaxy AI, thereby further solidifying its vision of a rich, open, and integrated multi-agent ecosystem. For

The data also point to a sharp expansion in listening activity, rising consumption of local-language music and fast-growing audiences for multiple genres, driven largely by young users with high discovery habits. The post Asake, Wizkid, Seyi Vibez, Burna Boy, Davido are most- most-streamed artistes in Nigeria since 2021- Spotify appeared first on Premium Times Nigeria.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte’s speeches threatening to kill drug peddlers and users did not have “lethal intent” but were meant only to “instill fear in the hearts” of criminals, his lawyer Nicola

The Times announces changes to how users can read its content on tablet devices.

A collection of spectacular, shocking, and candid photographs from around the world, presented as 'Pictures of the Day'.

WhatsApp is reportedly developing a new feature that will allow users to schedule messages for automatic sending in both individual and group chats.

João Rego, a young inventor, has developed a prototype of smart glasses since 2022 that use location and vibrations to alert visually impaired users to obstacles, enhancing their autonomy.

An article explores whether users are notified when their conversations are screenshotted on popular messaging platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

A quiz challenges users to identify 17 players who have made at least one Premier League appearance for both Everton and Manchester United.

A Galway councillor has called for a “no confidence” vote and a major overhaul of the Road Safety Authority (RSA), claiming its education campaigns place responsibility on vulnerable road users rather than on driver behaviour.

In most regions of Ukraine, hourly power outages will affect residential users throughout the day on Monday, February 23, while industrial users will face power restrictions.

Medical professionals are cautioning the public about the increasing risk of infections associated with the use of earbuds, advising users to take preventative measures.

With OpenAI testing ads in ChatGPT, an article provides an overview of nine alternative AI chatbots, detailing their strengths, weaknesses, and costs for users seeking different options.

Google has rolled out a new feature designed to give users greater control over their search results. This functionality allows individuals to specify and prioritize their preferred sources, ensuring they appear at the top of search outcomes.

A Swedish article explores why victims, particularly women, may seek positive aspects in their abusers, referencing new books that offer insights into this complex psychological phenomenon.

Social media users reacted to the North Carolina Tar Heels' comfortable bounce-back victory on the road against Syracuse on Saturday afternoon.

iPhone users have been surprised to find a subtle, battery-saving feature in the Clock app icon, where the second hand moves differently in low power mode.

Timothy Busfield's upcoming child sex abuse trial in New Mexico looks like it might feature some explosive testimony ... because prosecutors are signaling that several people who've accused Timothy of sexual assault in the past will be called as…

Users are reporting widespread issues with Valve's PC gaming platform Steam, as an outage on Friday, February 20, is limiting its functionality and preventing players from accessing online games.

The Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro earbuds feature a novel design allowing users to switch between open-ear and in-ear configurations, offering solid sound but weak active noise cancellation.

The government has submitted a bill to the Riigikogu to amend the Traffic Act, enabling traffic data to be sent directly to smartphone apps instead of being entered manually by users.

Steam is making a 2020 game completely free for users to grab before February 24th, encouraging quick action from gamers.

Despite stricter laws against gender-based violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, many cases do not reach court, leaving victims feeling helpless and emboldening abusers.

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Leather trousers are back in fashion, with stylish and affordable fake versions available starting from £28.

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Leather trousers are back in fashion, with stylish and affordable fake options starting from £28.

Leather trousers are back in fashion, with stylish and affordable faux leather options starting from £28.

Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, disclosed he is 'borderline blind' in his right eye after social media users questioned his smile and demeanor, explaining he squints due to the condition.

bQuest has enhanced its WealthStack platform by adding an AI search tool, aiming to improve financial data analysis and accessibility for users.

Producers behind a copyright infringement lawsuit against Karol G have issued a written apology, admitting they were wrong and that Karol G recorded 'Gatúbela' before their song.

Just When You Thought Obama's Tower Of Doom Couldn't Get Any More Ugly... Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Barack Obama’s infamous Presidential Center in Chicago, already slammed as a dystopian “prison-like” monstrosity, has just received a bizarre new update that’s ignited widespread mockery online. The addition of disjointed words from one of Obama’s speeches has been dubbed “headache-inducing,” amplifying the backlash against this $830 million behemoth that’s overrun budgets, displaced locals, and turned a public park into a narcissistic shrine. As construction drags on toward a June 2026 opening, the former president’s ego-driven tweaks have only fueled the fire, with X users unleashing savage roasts and memes comparing the structure to everything from a Soviet-era bunker to a “concrete porta potty.” The latest fiasco stems from Obama’s decision to etch excerpts from his 2015 Selma speech onto the building’s facade. But instead of inspiring awe, the disjointed lettering has sparked hilarity and disgust. They somehow managed to make the Obama presidential library even uglier. My gosh. ? pic.twitter.com/lmZnyJ4FSs February 17, 2026 One X user highlighted how the words appear chopped and unreadable, calling it a “headache-inducing” mess that perfectly encapsulates the project’s overall failure. I's indistinguishable from L's and T's. E's indistinguishable from F's. Multiple words get disjointed–not just on one plane but two. pic.twitter.com/hohr6Whusy February 17, 2026 what don’t you understand about YOU ARE AMERICA https://t.co/kmHawlABHO February 16, 2026 Fixed it for Obama. pic.twitter.com/BJU5eA6vIx February 18, 2026 This is what the text should read… pic.twitter.com/YaZ2iSJQuY February 18, 2026 pic.twitter.com/N60Kwjw9Q5 February 18, 2026 As we previously reported, the Obama Presidential Center has ballooned to nearly $1 billion in costs, resembling a “Tower of Doom” that’s sucking the life out of Chicago’s South Side. Locals have decried it as a “totalitarian command center dropped straight out of 1984,” with property values skyrocketing and forcing out longtime residents. Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor warned that such developments “displace the very people they say they want to improve it for,” as rents for two-bedroom apartments jumped from $800 to over $1,800 per month. The project’s DEI-focused hiring of diverse contractors has backfired spectacularly, leading to lawsuits over “racial discrimination” and claims of poor performance, proving once again that woke policies lead to broke outcomes. President Trump didn’t hold back when mocking the stalled eyesore. “He needs help,” Trump quipped, noting how the library-museum hybrid is “not too pretty” and has “run out of money” despite Obama’s insistence on DEI builders. Trump contrasted this with his own push for classical architecture, like the grand Arch near Arlington Memorial Bridge, symbolizing a return to American greatness. The center’s foundation is now scrambling with only $116 million in reserves against $230 million in remaining costs, not including staff salaries. Scheduled tours have started, but critics question who’d visit this overpriced ode to Obama’s ego amid Chicago’s economic woes. Obama’s defenders claim it’ll be an “economic catalyst” for the black community, but the reality is displacement and fiscal chaos. This project exemplifies the hypocrisy of elite liberals: preaching equity while building vast ego towers that burden the working class. In the end, as Trump restores beauty and dignity to American landmarks, Obama’s legacy crumbles under the weight of its own pretension— a fitting monument to an era of division and decline. Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews. Tyler Durden Thu, 02/19/2026 - 15:40

Despite ChatGPT's rapid growth to nearly 900 million weekly users and over $20 billion in annualized revenue, OpenAI faces staggering burn rates near $17 billion, raising questions about the true cost of free AI services.

Road users are concerned about the issue of dazzling headlights, but experts indicate that a straightforward solution is not readily available.

How A Water War Is Brewing Over A Drying Lake In Nevada Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times, A Nevada lawsuit trickling toward trial could determine how the nation’s most arid state balances the legal rights of upstream landowners to divert water from rivers for agricultural irrigation with the impacts those withdrawals have on downstream ecologies and economies. Water rights exceed water supply across much of the western United States. With many watersheds failing to deliver enough water for local needs, the suit is being watched by attorneys, state water managers, and federal agencies. It could potentially set a precedent in revising how states across the West regulate access to water. The Nevada case, filed by the Walker River Paiute Tribe and Mineral County, may also present an opportunity for a win-win solution, in which nonprofits and government entities purchase private water rights from willing upstream sellers and dedicate them to downstream public benefit. Without public-private intervention and the changes in state water law that the suit seeks, geologists and environmental experts agree the future is bleak for Walker Lake, a 13-mile long terminal lake about 75 miles southeast of Reno near the California state line in rural, sparsely populated Mineral County. The lake is completely dependent on diminishing Sierra Nevada snowmelt runoff into the Walker River—runoff that, for decades now, has been almost entirely diverted for irrigation by upstream farmers and ranchers. As a result, a desert oasis that once generated more than half of Mineral County’s economic activity through recreational pursuits such as fishing, migratory bird-watching, boating, and camping is now a lifeless “sludge pond,” while the town of Walker Lake faces an accelerating prospect of extinction. “The last fish was caught in 2013 or 2015, I believe. When the fish died, the fishing died; boating, recreation, that all just disappeared,” Mineral County Commissioner Tony Ruse said. “There were restaurants here. There were hotels here. There were businesses here. Now? All gone, just 300 residents struggling.” A Mineral County native, Ruse returned in 2020 after working 34 years as a Switzerland-trained chef in Europe and Asia, including 20 years in South Korea, to open The Big Horn Crossing, a restaurant and convenience store in a shuttered bait shop. It’s now Walker Lake’s only remaining retail business. “It was dead. There was nothing,” he told The Epoch Times. “We should be selling bait here. We should be selling fishing supplies. There should be boats parked in our driveway right now.” (Top) Mineral County Commissioner Tony Ruse fields a phone call at The Big Horn Crossing, a restaurant and convenience store that is the only remaining retail business in Walker Lake, Nev., in January 2026. (Bottom) Walker Lake, a town of fewer than 400 people, is anchored on the slopes of Mount Grant, but no longer supports a fishery, boat races, or the waterfront restaurants and hotels that once made it a desert oasis for tourists, anglers, and campers, in Mineral County, Nev., in January 2026. John Haughey/The Epoch Times Marlene Bunch and her husband Glenn lead the Walker Lake Working Group, created in 1991 to ensure water reaches the lake to sustain its recreational economy. “Upstream diversions have been our nemesis, and that’s what our legal case is for,” Bunch, a former Mineral County clerk and treasurer, told The Epoch Times. Bunch.has lived in Walker Lake since the 1960s. She recalls a 1991 discussion with Nevada Department of Wildlife fisheries biologist Mike Sevon about what would happen if water levels continued to drop. Diminishing Returns Walker Lake retains water flowing east 100 miles from California’s Bridgeport and Topaz reservoirs through Nevada’s Smith and Mason valleys and the Walker River Paiute Tribe’s reservation. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, its water levels have declined more than 160 feet since 1882. Nearly 30 miles long in 1850, the lake is only 12 miles long today. The runoff provided hydrological pressure that sustained area water wells, especially in Walker Lake, where Ruse said residents are seeing “very brackish” water coming from taps, a potential death knell for the town. “It’s getting harder and harder to keep the federal standards for potable water,” he said. “So there’s going to be a day—and I’m waiting for the call—that we need to put a reverse-osmosis system in, which we couldn’t afford to do.” Walker Lake and nearby Hawthorne, the Mineral County seat, struggle in the desert—Hawthorne has seen its population decline 60 percent from 10,000 in 1980 to just over 3,000 in 2020. Meanwhile, agriculture in the Smith and Mason valleys has thrived. (Top) Walker Lake has receded well beyond the sign on U.S. Route 95, in Mineral County, Nev., in January 2026. Decades ago, anglers could shorecast for fish that can no longer survive in the shrinking lake. (Bottom) Nevada’s Walker Lake, a 13-mile-long lake about 75 miles southeast of Reno near the California state line in rural Mineral County, was once more than 30 miles long and 160 feet higher than it is now, in Mineral County, Nev., in January 2026. John Haughey/The Epoch Times But with mountain runoff unreliable for decades now, when upstream users divert their share, little to no water makes it to Walker Lake, leaving once-bustling waterfront businesses marooned as hulking shells far from a distant, receding shore. The case, United States and Walker River Paiute Tribe v. Walker River Irrigation District, is not a new case, but ongoing litigation arising from a lawsuit filed in 1924. It’s part of a flood of litigation stemming from Walker River allocations, going back to 1902, when rancher Henry Miller sued Thomas Rickey over water rights on the river. A 1936 Walker River Decree issued by the Nevada U.S. District Court finalized water rights for more than 500 private landowners, primarily farmers and ranchers, within the Walker River Basin, including those in the Walker River Irrigation District, under a “first in time, first in right” policy that remains the standard almost a century later. Like Nevada, most western states allocate water by the policy, known as prior appropriation. Therefore, under the 1936 decree, upstream users have legal priority to Walker River water. But in 2015, Mineral County filed a lawsuit citing the public trust doctrine, the legal principle that certain natural and cultural resources be preserved for public use. The lawsuit claimed that under the public trust doctrine, it is the state’s duty to maintain minimum inflows into public waters, such as Walker Lake, to sustain environmental, wildlife, recreational, and economic resources. The U.S. District Court ruled in the county’s favor. The irrigation district appealed. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court overturned the ruling; the public trust doctrine, it held, was a state law issue that had not been decided in Nevada. That kicked the case back to the Nevada Supreme Court, which in 2020 determined all Nevada waters will now be allocated under the public trust doctrine—but that already-issued water rights would not be, and can never be, reallocated. The Supreme Court of Nevada building in Carson City, Nev., in this file photo. In 2020, the court determined that all Nevada waters will now be allocated under the public trust doctrine. Steven Frame/Shutterstock The court directed Mineral County to recommend ways to restore the lake without reallocating water rights, and to work with the Walker Basin Conservancy, a nonprofit created in 2014 with federal funding initially secured by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Walker Basin Restoration Program. In 2021, Mineral County amended its 2015 complaint to intervene in the decades’-long parallel suit by the Walker River Paiute Tribe seeking to boost Walker River flows into a reservation reservoir and secure water rights for 167,460 acres added to the reservation since 1936. The county’s complaint includes 24 “actions … necessary to restore and maintain Walker Lake’s public trust values.” After years of procedural delays, including a requirement to individually serve more than 1,000 watershed landowners across the country, the case is set to proceed into discovery. A potential trial looms. But an alternate “win-win” solution orchestrated by the Walker Basin Conservancy is gaining traction and could, perhaps, mitigate the need for a court-ordered resolution. ‘The Only Solution’ Since its creation, the conservancy has restored public access to 33 miles along the Walker River and purchased more than 13,700 acres of water rights, enough to restore about 60 percent of the river inflow biologists maintain is needed to restore the lake’s fishery. Conservancy CEO Peter Stanton and Water Program Director Carlie Henneman did not return emails and repeated phone requests for comment about the program from The Epoch Times. Nor did the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Walker River Irrigation District attorney Gordon DePaoli, or Walker Basin Working Group’s Oregon-based legal advisers, Jamie Saul of the Wild & Scenic Law Center and Kevin Cassidy of Lewis & Clark Law School’s Earthrise Law Center. Several attorneys representing different parties would only speak off-the-record, underscoring the contentious complexities of the case. A sign of the Walker River Paiute Tribe in Shurz, Nev., on Oct. 16, 2024. Walker Lake retains water flowing east 100 miles from California’s Bridgeport and Topaz reservoirs through Nevada’s Smith and Mason valleys and the Walker River Paiute Tribe's reservation. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images Roderick E. Walston, an attorney with Best Best & Krieger in Walnut Creek, Calif., told The Epoch Times his clients above the Bridgeport Reservoir in California are apprehensive about Mineral County’s suit, which he said essentially demands the federal court to reallocate existing water rights under the public trust doctrine. “Our response is basically that the Nevada Supreme Court resolved that issue four years ago,” he said. Walston was a California deputy attorney general in 1983 and argued the Mono Lake case before the California Supreme Court. In that case, the state’s public trust doctrine was used to thwart Los Angeles from purchasing Mono Lake water rights that would have devastated the lake’s ecology and Sierra Nevada economies. “So I argued both the case in California Supreme Court 40-something years ago and then also argued the case in the Nevada Supreme Court about four years ago,” he said. Walston said the case could have “great impact” on water disputes in states that uphold the prior allocation doctrine. “This is an absolutely large case,” he said. Meanwhile, Mineral County District Attorney Ryan McCormick, who assumed his post seven weeks ago, told The Epoch Times he’s playing catch-up in reading filings “from decades and decades of litigation.” A sign is pictured at Walker Lake in Hawthorne, Nev., on Oct. 16, 2024. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Walker Lake’s water levels have declined more than 160 feet since 1882. Nearly 30 miles long in 1850, the lake is only 12 miles long today. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images “In a perfect world, if we get some specific performance and find a way to divert water back into the lake and have the levels rising again, that would be absolutely ideal,” he said, adding he isn’t privy to the reasoning behind all of the 24 actions assembled by the Walker Lake Working Group. It’s a complicated case in a long-litigated watershed but the best resolution is simple, McCormick said. “With the best interests of Mineral County, Hawthorne, and Walker Lake in mind here, we would like the lake to be receiving fresh water again. It would be nice to see some economic development right now, right?” But Walston said odds are slim the court will cast aside the state’s Supreme Court determination that existing water rights cannot be reallocated. Working with the conservancy and other groups to purchase water rights from willing landowners at $3,000 to $4,000 per acre foot—an acre of one-foot deep water—is a win-win for all involved, he said. “It’s the only solution, really. The Nevada Supreme Court has said you can’t just take water rights that have been adjudicated and take that water and put it into Walker Lake,” Walston said. “But you can go to various water users and negotiate with them and buy their water rights. In that case, then you could reallocate.” Tyler Durden Wed, 02/18/2026 - 22:35

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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Wednesday that 5G spectrum auction would be held on March 10 and no changes were likely to be made in the schedule, saying that the sale was likely to fetch between $300-$700 million. The authority is offering 597 megahertz (MHz) in several bands in the upcoming auction and three existing telecom operators have been mandated to obtain a minimum of 100 MHz in the auction process. “With the prescribed rate, even if 300 MHz is obtained by the telecommunication operators without any competitive bidding, the government will get $300 million,” PTA Director General Licensing retired brigadier Aamir Shahzad told a media briefing. “And if all the 597 MHz is sold at auction at a slightly competitive rate, $700 million will be available for the government, but this scenario is less likely to happen,” he added. Shahzad said that the auction would be conducted using a multi-round electronic clock auction format, with the main allocation stage starting on March 10. He said the 2600 MHz and 3500 MHz bands would be offered during the first round. He added that after the auction process, the rollout of 5G services would take between three and six months as certain infrastructure was needed for the fresh spectrum. Meanwhile, Chairman PTA Hafeezur Rehman said that the auction would lead to improved quality of service and data speed. “Around 50 million new users have been added in the system during the last five years, but only 10MHz was increased in the 2021 spectrum auction,” PTA Chairman said. “Improved data service and enhanced coverage will also increase average revenue per user (ARPU) for telecommunication operators,” he said. The ARPU is a key performance indicator that measures the average revenue generated by a company from each consumer within a specific timeframe, monthly or annually. “We started with $0.7 and now the ARPU has reached $1.3. Therefore, it is likely to increase as more data is consumed by the subscribers,” Rehman said. “The authority expects mobile broadband speeds to improve by around 25 per cent following the auction,” he said. He said that the government had offered many incentives to telecom companies in the new spectrum auction, but obligations to improve the quality of service as well as coverage area had been increased. “This will help the country to embrace further upgradations like 6G and not like 5G, where we have been delayed,” the PTA Chairman said. He added the government had also eliminated the right-of-way fee that used to be around Rs36,000 per kilometre annually; this, he said, would encourage fiberisation projects. The chairman also said that telecom operators had already placed orders for 5G equipment, while local manufacturing of 5G-enabled smartphones had commenced, with 500,000 to 600,000 units produced so far. He said the other measures being taken to facilitate the faster rollout of services after the auction were options for spectrum sharing, relaxation of certain regulatory terms and incentives for network expansion. “Operators have been given one year to make the necessary capital investments without upfront spectrum payments, allowing them to focus on improving service quality,” Rehman added. However, the operators will have to expand 5G coverage to additional cities apart from Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta, while fiber-to-the-site ratios will increase from 20 per cent to 35pc by 2035. Besides, the minimum download speeds for 4G service have been increased from four megabytes per second (Mbps) to 20Mbps in 2026–27 and to 50Mbps by 2030–35. For 5G, minimum download speeds will rise from 50Mbps initially to 100Mbps by 2030–35, with latency targets reduced to 35 milliseconds. Upload speeds are benchmarked at 20pc of download speeds across both technologies.

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PwC, like many consulting firms, is investing heavily in engineering talent. Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images PwC's engineers have created a new AI agent to tackle enterprise-grade spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are unsexy, but crucial to corporate operations, PwC exec Matt Wood told Business Insider. Traditional AIs "just kind of shrug and give up" when they meet a big spreadsheet, Wood said. The real way to judge a company's AI expertise isn't in the flashy headlines, but by looking at the "unsexy" work rolling out behind the scenes, Matt Wood, PwC's global and US commercial technology and innovation officer, told Business Insider. If Wood's theory holds — that real AI prowess shows up in unglamorous advances — PwC's latest launch is certainly notable. After all, what could be less sexy than spreadsheets? The Big Four firm announced this week that it has developed a "frontier AI agent" capable of reasoning over vast, enterprise-grade spreadsheets — something that conventional AI systems struggle with because of their complexity, size, and interdependencies. The agent can understand and navigate spreadsheets, mimicking "how experienced practitioners work: scanning, searching, jumping across tabs, integrating charts and receipts, and reasoning," PwC said in a press release. Why spreadsheets matter Wood, who joined PwC in 2024 from a role as vice president of AI at Amazon Web Services, said that when he started, he'd noticed the wraparound, ultra-wide monitors filled with spreadsheets: "That's all anybody was working on," he said. But these were not "your school soccer team budget spreadsheet," said Wood. The spreadsheets that power large enterprises are enormously complex, often containing millions of cells, charts, graphs, images, receipts, and dozens of interlinked workbooks. "They are more like financial engines than they are spreadsheets," he told Business Insider. These files often underpin business-critical decisions, yet PwC "found that even today's modern AI was very poorly suited to managing these big enterprise spreadsheets," Wood said. "They just kind of shrug and give up for want of a better word." Matt Wood, PwC's global and US commercial technology and innovation officer. PwC Creating an AI capable of understanding and reasoning across large, complicated spreadsheet applications is what PwC's engineers set out to solve. Their solution was a "genuine advance in the field," Wood said. The agent has unlocked use cases across assurance, advisory, and tax, and boosts time saving on some tasks "from literally days to hours," said Wood. He gave the example of audit walkthroughs, where teams previously spent weeks manually gathering and validating evidence across numerous complex spreadsheets that existing AI tools couldn't handle. Now, users simply upload the files, and the frontier agent automatically maps their structure, extracts relevant data, and performs validation and consistency checks — tasks that would otherwise require combing through millions of rows by hand. The result is faster meetings, less back-and-forth with clients, and cleaner, structured data ready for deeper AI-driven analysis, he said. Consulting powered by engineers PwC's AI spreadsheet agent was built in-house by engineers — a function the firm has been rapidly expanding as it shifts beyond the traditional roles associated with the Big Four. In January, PwC launched a dedicated tech engineering career track to attract more technical talent, saying it wants to become "a destination for top engineering talent." Previously, the firm offered only consulting and accounting career paths. Wood told Business Insider that adding the engineering track is "a signpost" of its future plans. At the same time, PwC is retraining non-technical employees. The US branch of the firm recently announced a companywide workplace learning strategy focused on knowledge sharing and on developing a mix of human and AI skills needed for the future. Wood described the work engineers do at PwC as having two modes: "transforming today" and "building for tomorrow." The first focuses on improving current workflows — reducing back-and-forth with clients, increasing trust, and delivering work more efficiently. The second reimagines professional services from scratch: "If you were to start from a blank piece of paper, what would professional services look like in an AI agent world?" said Wood. PwC engineers also work directly on client engagements, building AI systems tailored to specific projects. For example, they help organizations reorganize and redesign their finance functions from the ground up using agents, Wood said. Many of the consulting industry's top players are pursuing similar investments in technical talent as AI reshapes the work they do. Accenture, already one of consulting's most technically sophisticated players, has added nearly 40,000 AI and data professionals in the last two years. They now account for roughly 10% of its global headcount. EY, another Big Four firm, has added 61,000 technologists since 2023, according to its latest annual report. Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at pthompson@businessinsider.com or Signal at Polly_Thompson.89. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. Read the original article on Business Insider

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James Deering's 1916 winter home is located less than 10 minutes away from the heart of Miami. Robin Hill/Courtesy of Vizcaya Museums and Gardens Vizcaya, built by James Deering more than a century ago, might be Miami's most valuable real estate. The 45,000-square-foot mansion has a total of 54 rooms, with the main house open to the public. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin began assembling a waterfront compound next to the historic mansion in 2022. The exorbitant price tags on Miami's luxury real estate are not a secret to anyone, least of all the flock of billionaires moving to the city. But unlike the high-rise apartments in the financial center of Brickell or exclusive mansions in Indian Creek — where you might be neighbors with Jeff Bezos or Ivanka Trump — the city's potentially most valuable piece of real estate is decorated with limestone, mangroves, and tiles salvaged from Cuban estates. Built between 1914 and 1922 by International Harvester heir and Gilded Age millionaire James Deering as a winter home, Villa Vizcaya sits fewer than 10 minutes from downtown Miami, in a waterfront neighborhood that's quickly becoming a magnet for the city's new billionaire residents. While built in the years following the Gilded Age, it is notable for its Gilded Age-era extravagance, technologies, and collection of fine art. Vizcaya Museum & Gardens estimates the mansion cost $26 million to build, which is more than $800 million in today's money, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Florida International University estimates that the mansion is worth over $1 billion today. In 1962, Miami-Dade County bought the property for $1 million, and today, the 45,000-square-foot mansion and its surrounding gardens operate as a museum open to the public. Shortly after announcing that Citadel would move its headquarters from Chicago to Miami, CEO Ken Griffin bought up a waterfront compound less than a half-mile from Vizcaya, in the neighborhood of Coconut Grove. The $106.9 million sale set a country record for the most expensive residential property purchase at the time. Since then, the hedge fund magnate has proposed relocating the historic Villa Serena mansion, located on his estate, to Vizcaya's campus after he donated $20 million to Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. Take a look inside James Deering's historic mansion and see how its new neighbor could alter the surrounding landscape. Vizcaya was James Deering's winter home from 1916 until his death in 1925. Robin Hill Photography/Courtesy of Vizcaya Museum & Gardens Struggling with illness toward the end of his life, James Deering came to Miami, then a small city surrounded by mangrove forests and wetlands, looking for tropical warmth, which was believed to help improve health. By the turn of the century, the Deering family had begun to develop estates around South Florida, with patriarch William Deering purchasing a home in Coconut Grove in 1900. By the time James Deering began building Vizcaya, his brother, Charles Deering, was also developing a winter home in the south of Miami. The property, known today as Deering Estate, also operates as a museum and is open to the public. The main house features 54 rooms, including 34 rooms decorated with their original furniture. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Spanning over 45,225 square feet, Vizcaya's main house features the living spaces of James Deering himself, his guests, and the house staff. Envisioned by interior designer Paul Chalfin, Vizcaya drew inspiration from the Italian Renaissance, adapted to South Florida's subtropical climate, and showcases furniture, artworks, and artifacts purchased by Chalfin and Deering on their travels to Europe. Although Miami's population was estimated to be only 10,000 in 1916, the construction of the Vizcaya estate employed an estimated 1,000 workers, many of whom were Black immigrants from the Bahamas. Apart from the main house, Vizcaya is also home to the Vizcaya Village, the historic quarters of the mansion's workers and farmers that allowed Vizcaya to serve as a self-sufficient farm-to-table estate. The Village expands over 12 acres and includes 11 "architecturally significant" buildings, according to the museum's website. The tour begins in the courtyard, which is adorned with tropical plants. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Lined with tropical plants such as palms and philodendrons, the courtyard highlights South Florida's natural beauty while reflecting the mansion's European inspirations. While today the courtyard is covered by a glass canopy that allows for the estate's air conditioning, it was originally open to the elements, allowing the tropical climate to seep into the main house. Meant to be used as Vizcaya's main entrance, the East Loggia opens up to the Biscayne Bay. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Featuring marble floors and columns and decorated ceilings, the East Loggia was meant to serve as Vizcaya's main entrance for guests arriving by sea, which was Deering's intended — and preferred — way of entering the mansion. It was used as an entrance for guests who arrived by boat, while the current main entrance of the museum was used as a back entrance for guests arriving by car. The room also features a model boat hanging from its ceiling in honor of the explorers who inspired Deering's interpretation of Vizcaya. Although he began living in Vizcaya during his retirement, Deering included multiple working spaces in the property. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider James Deering was heir to the International Harvester manufacturing firm, which produced tractors and other agricultural machinery, and he worked as its vice president from 1902 until 1909. Deering might have been one of the first prominent Florida "snowbirds," retirees who travel South during the colder months. His downstairs library, located in the northwest corner of the main house, is steps from the entrance hall that welcomes guests. It features Deering's personal book collection, desks for him and a secretary, and seats for business guests. When closed, the door leading to the next room — a reception room meant for entertaining guests — is concealed within the book-lined walls. The reception room features a ceiling imported from Venice, which had to be resized to fit. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider The reception room is lined with tropical-inspired silk panels showing palm trees. Our tour guide brought our attention to the ceiling, which is decorated with sculpted panels that extend to the sides of the room. The ceiling was imported from Venice and purchased before construction on the property was finished. By the time workers were putting up the decorations in the mansion, they realized that the ceiling panel did not fit the room dimensions, leading to the restructuring of the panel, which curved into the walls. "We should remember that this house was built during the First World War," curator Flaminia Gennari said in the audio tour. "So to import large quantities from Italy in the middle of the war was very complicated." Vizcaya's telephone line was one of the first in Miami. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Wired throughout the house, Vizcaya features a highly innovative telephone system for the time. Only 17 years before the start of Vizcaya's construction, the Miami Telephone Company began providing telephone service to the city. Vizcaya's telephones also featured automatic electric exchange, allowing users to connect directly to the number they dialed without going through a human operator. The telephone room, located between two of Vizcaya's main entertainment rooms, was meant for guests to communicate privately without disturbing the flow of the entertainment. The living room showcased Deering's most impressive collections. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider The living room, with its 1600s limestone fireplace, features some of Vizcaya's most impressive items, including an "admiral carpet" originally commissioned in the 1450s by the grandfather of King Ferdinand II of Spain, the Spanish king who sponsored Christopher Columbus' exploration of the Americas. The room also features throne-like armchairs where US President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II sat in 1987 during the Pope's visit to America. A centerpiece of the room is the Welte Philharmonic Organ, designed to fill the house with music through elaborate sound systems. Designed for guests rather than full-time professional players, the organ uses perforated paper rolls to aid the musicians' performance by adjusting notes and volume. Concealing the organ pipes is an oil painting, which was cut in half to cover wooden doors. "Chalfin had the idea of cutting it in half and using it as the doors of the organs, which is not a very respectful thing to do for a representation of the Virgin Mary, the child, and the saints, but it somehow testifies to the freedom and positive carelessness that they had around old objects," Gennari said in the audio tour. The mansion's formal dining room features the house's oldest artifacts, although it was rarely used. Robin Hill Photography/Courtesy of Vizcaya Museum & Gardens While Deering himself didn't often eat in the formal dining room, he made sure it was impressively decorated for his guests. Sitting to the side is the room's most awe-inspiring feature: a marble tabletop on carved bases resembling mythical creatures, historical artifacts unearthed near Pompeii, dating back to the times before Mount Vesuvius' eruption. Next to the dining room, on the south side of the mansion, the enclosed loggia gave guests a view of the gardens. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider The colorful glass panels, designed for Vizcaya, feature the estate's main symbols: the seahorse and the caravan. Providing a view of the garden through the glass panels and double doors, the enclosed loggia allowed guests to take in the garden views while staying cool from the Florida sun. The loggia also connects the gardens to the main house through sculpted iron gates. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Aside from giving guests an inside view of the gardens from the ground level, the room also connects the outdoors to the rest of the mansion. Downstairs, the kitchen worked as a serving space for staff to plate food and bring it to guests. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider When designing Vizcaya, Deering asked for the main kitchen to be built upstairs as he didn't want the smell of food to flood the main entertaining rooms on the first floor. To facilitate the transportation of meals and the serving of guests to the dining room, the entertaining rooms, and the loggia, he built a downstairs serving pantry. Today, the serving pantry cabinets display one set of Deering's fine dining china, the one designated for his 80-foot-long luxury yacht, Nepenthe. Commissioned in 1912 to be shipped from Europe, the original set of china purchased by Deering was transported to America as cargo aboard the Titanic. After the ship sank, a replacement set was ordered and is now displayed. The kitchens feature state-of-the-art Gilded Age technology. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Throughout the house, Deering incorporated cutting-edge technology, including annunciators with bells connected throughout the house that Deering or guests could ring at any time to get the house staff's attention. Another then-advanced feature of the serving kitchen were its refrigerators, which were rare at the time. The kitchen also featured a warming oven that helped keep food warm while guests were served. Connecting to the upstairs kitchen, which serves as the house's main cooking area, was a dumbwaiter: a food elevator meant to carry the food cooked upstairs to the downstairs plating area, where staff would then take it to the main entertaining rooms, like the dining and sitting rooms. Upstairs, 24 rooms housed guests, staff, and Deering himself. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Nine of the bedrooms were dedicated to guests and each was given a name and decorated uniquely, showcasing the artifacts and furniture purchased by Deering and Chalfin on trips to Europe. While not open to the public, an additional 14 rooms housed staff. Another then-advanced technological feature of Vizcaya was its elevator. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Deering was motivated to move to South Florida because of his illness, so accessibility features were built throughout the house, including an elevator he would use when using a wheelchair or to avoid walking upstairs. Today, the elevator isn't open to the public, and the museum's second floor is not wheelchair accessible. Deering's main office was inspired by the Napoleonic era. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Connected to Deering's bedroom and bathroom, the sitting room was his office where he would tend to business and personal matters, such as sorting his mail. The decoration style was inspired by Napoleonic France. Deering's bedroom was modest compared to some of his guest bedrooms. Robin Hill/Courtesy of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Unmarried all his life, Deering's room features a single bed rather than a larger size, and his room is furnished for practicality rather than aesthetics. His personal bathroom has one of the most breathtaking views of the property. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Opening onto a balcony, Deering's bathroom overlooks Biscayne Bay and offers one of the best views of the house, although it is not accessible to the public today. The closed-off balcony also leads to a secret door to the Espagnolette, the guest bedroom located next to his, usually reserved for Deering's dearest guests. Spiral staircases lead to the South tower. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider A set of spiral staircases leads up to the South tower, one of the two guest suites overlooking the estate. The tower bedroom has views of the bay and the gardens. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider The corner room atop the North tower was designed to transport guests to Europe. "Water reflects upwards to the ceiling and the sound of waves is audible in this room, precisely as upon the quay of this great canal of Venice," noted Chalfin about the room, according to the mansion's website. A central piece in the room is a large wardrobe assembled with 1700s Venetian panels, as well as antique painted closet doors. The breakfast room was Deering's preferred dining space. Robin Hill Photography/Courtesy of Vizcaya Museum & Gardens Back on the second floor, the breakfast room was the central entertaining spot. The room is lined with oil paintings depicting ocean scenes, and the windows slide into pocket doors, revealing views of the garden. It also features a sound system, with a piano hidden in a room off the spiral staircase next door and connected to the breakfast room through floor vents that allow sound to travel into the space. Most of the time, Deering opted to dine in this room rather than the formal dining space. Tucked next to the breakfast room is the main kitchen. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Designed to maximize staff efficiency, the main kitchen upstairs has different areas for different tasks, including separate sinks for washing dishes and produce. It also features ice boxes, or refrigerators of the time, powered by salt water. During Deering's time at the estate, Vizcaya employed two French chefs dedicated to food and pastries. Food served at the mansion was sourced from the staff village built across the street, where a farm provided vegetables, dairy, chicken, herbs, and citrus. "You and I could come down and drive into the farm area, stop and buy a dozen Deering eggs and take them home and have them for breakfast, and I think that was probably particularly important during World War I," historian Arva Moore Parks said in the audio tour. "He was able to supply not only himself but his workers also." Inspired by European designs, the gardens feature mazes, terraces, fountains, and more. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Inspired by 17th- and 18th-century Italian and French villas, the Vizcaya gardens feature a variety of scenes, from a garden theater to multiple paths and mazes, intended to highlight and enhance the native South Florida flora surrounding the estate. The original layout of Vizcaya featured over 180 acres of subtropical forests. Today, that number has gone down to 50 acres. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan hosted Pope John Paul II at the estate. Diana Walker/Getty Images On September 10, 1987, President Ronald Reagan welcomed Pope John Paul II at Vizcaya, where the two conversed while exploring the gardens and the estate. Atop a garden mount is the Casino, a focal point of the gardens. Robin Hill/Courtesy of Vizcaya Museums and Gardens Located at the top of garden mounds designed to block the reflection of water ponds into the main house, the garden casino — Italian for "little house" — was a space where Deering and his guests could take in the garden views or enjoy the subtropical weather without being in direct contact with the sun. Inside the building, a painted ceiling depicts heavenly images. Underneath, bathrooms and other now closed-off areas hide under decorated ceilings. Originally, the casino overlooked a water park part of the estate, where gondolas would be launched, a crucial part of Deering's vision for Vizcaya. Today, the water park no longer exists, and the land is instead taken up by a Catholic church, hospital, and schools after the Deering family sold part of the property to the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine in 1946. The opposite side of the estate was once used for clandestine entertainment; now, it is a café. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider While today a café sits underneath the mansion, the space served as a leisure center during Deering's stay. The rooms were filled with billiard tables, bowling alleys, and leather chairs. Hidden underneath the billiards table was also a roulette table, which Deering often used when his college friends visited the estate. The mansion, which opened at the peak of the Prohibition era, also had a decent supply of liquor, which Deering smuggled into the estate and hid in secret bars and cellars. The swimming pool is half-covered, providing relief from South Florida's relentless sun. Robin Hill/Courtesy of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Tucked next to the leisure rooms underneath the main house is the half-indoor swimming pool, in which Deering is said to have only swum once. Designed as the main entry point to the mansion, the east side of the mansion opens up to a stone barge in the Biscayne Bay. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider When he first moved into his winter home in December 1916, Deering arrived by sea on what he intended was the front entrance to Vizcaya. Opening up to the Biscayne Bay, the waterfront side of the property features a stone barge, a sculpted structure that acts as a breakwater and protects the main house from changing tides and waves. Today, the mansion hosts private events and has become a local staple for Quinceañera pictures. The mansion is often used for private events. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider Purchased from the Deering family by Miami-Dade County for $1 million in 1962, Vizcaya today operates as a museum open to the public and for private reservations. The estate often serves as the backdrop for Quinceañera pictures among Miami's large Hispanic population. Walking around the gardens, I saw multiple young women dressed in extravagant gowns posing in the many stunning locations of the estate. Along with being a photographic hot spot, Vizcaya also hosts private events, from Miami Swim Week runway shows to floral-decorated weddings in the gardens. Today, the estate remains an icon of Miami, a city that many would often relate to modern luxury rather than the old and classic wealth on display in Gilded Age-style mansions like Vizcaya. The Vizcaya Village could be the future home of Ken Griffin's Villa Serena. Robin Hil Photography/Courtesy of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens After purchasing the historic Villa Serena estate in Coconut Grove in 2022, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin proposed relocating the 1913 Mediterranean Revival mansion to Vizcaya's Village campus. The home, designed by architect August Geiger for William Jennings Bryan, a three-time Democratic presidential candidate and former US secretary of state, is considered one of Miami's earliest grand waterfront residences. The proposal would move the century-old home from Griffin's property to Vizcaya's Village grounds, where it would be open to the public for the first time in its history and would benefit from an additional $5 million endowment provided by Griffin for its preservation. Any relocation would require extensive planning and government approvals, which have not yet been cleared. Skeptics have said that moving the structure would be an ambitious undertaking that wouldn't align with preservation goals. "Moving a historic structure is absolutely a last resort solution, to be done only if (there) is no other way possible to save a structure… It is not a preservation-minded alternative just because someone bought it and now doesn't want it," Kathleen Slesnick Kauffman, Miami's former historic preservation officer, told the Chicago Tribune in 2023. The Village originally served as Vizcaya's self-sufficient farm and the servants' quarters. Robin Hil Photography/Courtesy of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens The Vizcaya Village, which covers about 12 acres of agricultural fields and includes nearly a dozen buildings, was originally built as the quarters for the mansion's servants and farmers. Today, the campus houses a café and hosts a weekly farmers market, and is undergoing construction and expansions to transform the grounds into a cultural and community space. The Citadel CEO's $20 million donation will expand the village's role in the community. Robin Hil Photography/Courtesy of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens In November 2025, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens announced a $20 million capital donation from Griffin and said that the funds would be used toward building a brand new Center for Learning and Discovery in the village grounds. Once open, the center will offer educational programming like "hands-on artmaking and urban-agriculture experiences," the museum organization wrote in the announcement. The expansion will seek to expand Vizcaya's role in its community. Read the original article on Business Insider

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