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• The US military recently landed a MQ-9 Reaper drone on a dirt strip for the first time. 
• An Air Force official hailed the exercise as an opportunity to break away from traditional runways.
• It followed an early May mission that saw the Reaper land on a remote highway for the first time. 

A US military MQ-9 Reaper drone recently landed in the dirt for the first time, unlocking a new capability for the aircraft that moves it away from the confines of traditional, paved runways that might not be an option in a high-end fight, the US Air Force said last week.

During a June 15 Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) training exercise, air commandos successfully landed the uncrewed Reaper drone at a remote dirt strip near Fort Stockton in western Texas. The Reaper drone usually takes off and lands through “line of sight of antennas” and is manually flown by aircrew members, the Air Force said in a statement, but the military stressed that it can now fly from anywhere in the world. 

“This is a significant achievement for Air Force Reserve Command, AFSOC, the MQ-9 community and the joint force as a whole,” said Lt. Col. Brian Flanigan, director of operations for the 2nd Special Operations Squadron, in the statement.

He added that the “team of aircrew, maintainers, and special tactics Airmen have proven the Reaper can operate anywhere in the world and is no longer beholden to the ‘leash’ of perfectly paved runways or line-of-sight antennas traditionally used to take off and land the aircraft.”

US Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Alysa Calvarese

The threats posed by near-peer rivals and potential adversaries have forced the military to look beyond traditional bases and runways that could be targeted in a war to new ways of fighting. For the Air Force, that means learning how to fight from austere locations that provide increased survivability and flexibility.

The Air Force also used the exercise to explore creative adaptations to the traditional roles that drones play in missions. In doing so, a travel pod was attached to the Reaper so it could resupply soldiers who were waiting at the dirt landing zone. 

“We call it ‘Reaper Express’, which is essentially just using a travel pod to develop an operational concept of delivering critical items to austere locations using the MQ-9,” Flanigan said in the statement. “It may not be able to carry much, but what it can hold might be the difference between getting that critical aircraft part to an isolated airfield or bringing in a blood supply for casualties sustained during a base attack.”

Last week’s mission marked the Reaper’s second major achievement in as many months. In early May, Air Force soldiers completed the MQ-9’s first-ever highway landing during a series of drills in rural Wyoming, alongside a massive MC-130J Commando II aircraft and A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes. 

US Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Cody H. Ramirez

The highway landing “showcases how the MQ-9 can launch and recover from remote locations and extend its operational reach to protect American interests globally,” said Lt. Col. David Payne, 2nd Special Operations Squadron commander, in a statement at the time. 

These recent exercises, however, are not a new endeavor for the US military. The Air Force on several occasions has landed planes, such as the Warthog and MC-130J, on non-traditional runways at home and overseas and has even explored modifying the MC-130 so that it can land on the water.

• At least 22 people were hurt and one was killed in a Sunday mass shooting at a Juneteenth event.
• An unknown number of suspects opened fire in a strip mall parking lot in Willowbrook, Illinois.
• The search for suspects is ongoing, police officials said.

At least 22 people were injured and one is dead after a shooter opened fire Sunday at a Juneteenth celebration in suburban Chicago, The New York Times reported.

Shortly after midnight local time, an unknown number of suspects fired multiple rounds from multiple weapons into a crowd in a parking lot in Willowbrook, Illinois, about 21 miles outside of Chicago, police officials said in a news release. The search for the suspects is ongoing.

People had gathered to celebrate Juneteenth, a day that marks the end of slavery in the United States. The first Juneteenth celebrations took place in 1866 in Texas, where a year earlier, a Union Army general declared that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, were free by executive decree. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed a law establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

What began as a peaceful gathering in Willowbrook on Saturday night turned terrifying before the morning.

The celebration began around 6 p.m. local time in a strip mall parking lot near Hinsdale Lake Terrace apartments, the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release, according to The New York Times and CNN. Police had been monitoring the event, and left around 12:25 a.m. after receiving a call about a fight nearby. They heard gunshots ring out and returned to the celebration, the statement said.

“The motive behind this incident is unclear and this is still an active investigation,” DuPage County Deputy Sheriff Eric Swanson told reporters at a press conference Sunday.

The deceased person has not been identified. It’s unclear the ages and conditions of the wounded victims.

A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to an Insider request for comment.

On Sunday, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker issued a statement, saying, “Gathering for a holiday celebration should be a joyful occasion, not a time where gunfire erupts and families are forced to run for safety.”

“As I’ve said time and time again, gun violence is a public health emergency in this country and I remain committed to banning these dangerous weapons and making our state safer for everyone,” he added.

• A worker lost a fingertip while working at a Hostess Brands facility, the Labor Department said.
• The injury was reported by the company last December.
• Federal investigators now say the company failed to provide workers with proper training.

The maker of Twinkies faces a nearly $300,000 fine after a worker severed his fingertip in manufacturing equipment at a facility in Chicago, an injury that federal investigators said could have been prevented.

In a letter this month to Hostess Brands, the US Department of Labor blamed the company for the incident, accusing it of failing to develop proper safety procedures that would ensure equipment does not restart while being worked on. According to the department, the worker’s amputation — reported by the company in December 2022 — occurred as they were attempting to reassemble a pump.

Inspectors with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration also accused the company of failing to secure other manufacturing equipment, such as dough mixers and wrapping stations, to safeguard against injuries.

“OSHA frequently finds that amputations and other injuries occur when manufacturers fail to make sure machine safety procedures are followed and employees are trained properly,” Sukhvir Kaur, a Chicago-area OSHA director, said in a statement.

In total, OSHA is accusing Hostess Brands of seven violations of federal safety standards, proposing civil penalties of just over $298,000.

A spokesperson for the company said it is “reviewing” OSHA’s allegations, which it has the option of contesting. “The safety and well-being of our employees is our top priority, and we take all safety concerns very seriously,” the spokesperson said.

Hostess Brands employs about 3,000 people and reported revenues of more than $345 million in the first quarter of 2023. The company was formed in 2013 after the previous manufacturer of Twinkies filed for bankruptcy.

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

• Future Toyota electric vehicles could include simulated manual transmissions.
• The new models will even simulate the experience of the car stuttering if drivers mess up.
• Drivers can choose to disable these features if returning to manual is too daunting.

Toyota’s future electric vehicles may come with an extra hit of nostalgia for seasoned drivers: a fake manual transmission.

The feature would allow drivers to simulate manual transmission through a fake clutch that would send signals to the engine that create the feeling of switching gears, according to a May 2023 patent report filed by Toyota and obtained by CNN.

These models would include a clutch pedal and even simulate downshifting, allowing drivers to slow the vehicle using the transmission rather than the brake, according to CNN.

Those who never learned to drive a manual car will even be able to experience that initial terror of making mistakes. The cars will simulate the consequences of using the clutch poorly, CNN reports, with the models programmed to jolt and buck if drivers shift into the wrong gear. It won’t stall, however, sparing new drivers of that awkward moment of being stuck in the middle of an intersection.

The addition appears to be strictly fanfare, with CNN even calling the move “just for fun.” The fake manual transmission won’t actually have any functional purpose. Drivers will also have the option to disable the feature entirely.

But these potential future models might be appealing to drivers interested in an extra hit of nostalgia every time they get behind the wheel — or perhaps those interested in making their driving experience feel less electronic and more mechanic. 

Toyota did not respond to requests for comment ahead of publication regarding which future models might contain this feature, or whether the simulated clutch would present a cost increase to consumers.

Our experts answer readers’ banking questions and write unbiased product reviews (here’s how we assess banking products). In some cases, we receive a commission from our partners; however, our opinions are our own. Terms apply to offers listed on this page.

CFG Bank has some of the best CD rates and rates for money market accounts right now.

CFG Bank Overall Rating

CFG Bank Pros and Cons

You may like the CFG Bank Standard Savings Account if you’re able to maintain at least $100 in your account daily. That way, you won’t have to pay a monthly service fee.

If you’d prefer a high-yield savings account, consider the bank’s money market account or one of the accounts on our best high-yield savings accounts guide. These are also good options if you don’t live in Maryland, because you have to open a savings account at a branch.

Compare Today’s Savings Rates

The CFG Bank Checking Plus Account is an online account with no monthly service fee. It’s a solid interest-earning checking account, but you can earn even higher rates with the best high-yield checking accounts elsewhere.

The main downside of this account is that there’s a $25 overdraft fee, and CFG doesn’t offer any kind of overdraft protection.

Compare Today’s Banking Offers

CDs are some of CFG Bank’s strongest products. You only need $500 to open a CD, and you could earn a high rate. 

There are only a few terms to choose from, though, and the shortest term available is one year. 

CFG Bank pays one of the highest money market account rates out there. The CFG Bank High Yield Money Market Account is a great option if you’re able to keep at least $1,000 in your account. That way, you’ll be able to earn interest and waive the $10 monthly service fee. 

About CFG Bank

CFG Bank has two branch locations near Baltimore, Maryland. There are free ATMs at branches and at 55,000 machines in the Allpoint network. CFG doesn’t charge you for using an out-of-network ATM, but the ATM provider might.

Money market accounts, CDs, and the checking account can be opened online from anywhere in the US, but you’ll need to go to a branch to open a savings account.

To contact customer service, call Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The bank’s mobile app received 4.3 out of 5 stars in the Apple Store and 3.6 out of 5 stars in the Google Play store. 

CFG Bank is FDIC insured, so $250,000 is secure in an individual account, and $500,000 in a joint account.

Is CFG Bank Trustworthy?

The Better Business Bureau grades businesses by looking at how they resolve customer issues, advertise, and handle transparency. CFG Bank does not have a BBB rating right now because its profile is being reviewed.

CFG hasn’t been involved in any recent public controversies. 

CFG Bank FAQs

Methodology: How We Reviewed CFG Bank

At Personal Finance Insider, we rate savings, checking, and money market accounts using our banking methodology. We use our CD methodology to review certificates of deposit. Each account receives a rating between 0 and 5.

For all accounts, we evaluate a bank’s ethics, customer service, and mobile app. The other factors we consider depend on which type of account we’re reviewing. For example, we look at overdraft fees for checking accounts and early withdrawal penalties for CDs.

How CFG Bank Compares

CFG Bank vs. Northern Bank Direct

CFG Bank and Northern Bank Direct both offer competitive rates on money market accounts, but there’s a $10 monthly service on the CFG Bank High Yield Money Market Account if you don’t keep at least $1,000 in your money market account. 

Northern Bank Direct only has CDs and money market accounts. Meanwhile, CFG Bank also lets you open a checking account online.

CFG Bank vs. CIT Bank

If you don’t live near Baltimore, Maryland, but are looking for a traditional savings account, CIT Bank will be best suited for your needs. CIT Bank is an online institution that lets you open accounts from anywhere in the US.

You’ll also want to compare specific features between bank accounts.

The CFG Bank High Yield Money Market Account offers the most competitive interest rates on a money market account, but there’s a $10 monthly service if you don’t keep at least $1,000 in your money market account. CFG also pays higher rates on most CD terms, but it has fewer terms to choose from than CIT Bank.

Sophia Acevedo, CEPF

Banking Reporter

Evelyn He

Compliance Associate

Evelyn He is a compliance associate at Insider who supports the Personal Finance Insider team. Personal Finance Insider is Insider’s personal finance section that incorporates affiliate and commerce partnerships into the news, insights, and advice about money that Insider readers already know and love.
The compliance team’s mission is to provide readers with stories that are fact-checked and current, so they can make informed financial decisions. The team also works to minimize risk for partners by making sure language is clear, precise, and fully compliant with regulatory and partner marketing guidelines that align with the editorial team.
Before joining Insider, she served in various legal and compliance roles in different industries, including the legal and pharmaceutical industries.   
Evelyn obtained her M.S. degree in Marketing at Boston University in 2022. Prior to combining and consolidating her knowledge of law and business, she spent one year finishing 1L courses at Suffolk University Law School to further her legal knowledge. She has also completed MBA business law courses while working on her Bachelor of Business Administration in Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 
Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her 14-year-old Shih Tzu named Money, and her 4-year-old Bichon named Tibber.

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• Deepfakes use AI to replace the likeness of one person with another in video or audio. 
• There are concerns that deepfakes can be used to create fake news and misleading videos.
• You can spot deepfakes by doing a reverse image search or investigating who posted it.

Computers have been getting increasingly better at simulating reality. Media generated by artificial intelligence (AI) has been making serious headlines — especially videos designed to mimic someone, making it appear as though they’re saying or doing something they aren’t. 

A Twitch streamer was caught on a website known for making AI-generated pornography of his peers. A group of New York students made a video of their principal saying racist remarks and threatening students. In Venezuela, generated videos are being used to disseminate political propaganda. 

In all three cases, AI-generated video was made with the goal of convincing you that someone did something they never actually did. There’s a word for this kind of content: Deepfakes.

What is a deepfake?

Deepfakes use AI to generate completely new video or audio, with the end goal of portraying something that didn’t actually occur in reality. 

The term “deepfake” comes from the underlying technology — deep learning algorithms —  which teach themselves to solve problems with large sets of data and can be used to create fake content of real people. 

“A deepfake would be footage that is generated by a computer that has been trained through countless existing images,” said Cristina López, a senior analyst at Graphika, a firm that researches the flow of information across digital networks.

How are deepfakes different from other kinds of manipulated media?

Deepfakes aren’t just any fake or misleading images. The AI-generated pope in a puffer jacket, or the fake scenes of Donald Trump being arrested that circulated shortly before his indictment, are AI-generated, but they’re not deepfakes. (Images like these, when combined with misleading information, are commonly referred to as “shallowfakes.”) What separates a deepfake is the element of human input. 

When it comes to deepfakes, the user only gets to decide at the very end of the generation process if what was created is what they want or not; outside of tailoring training data and saying “yes” or “no” to what the computer generates after the fact, they don’t have any say in how the computer chooses to make it.

How are deepfakes created? 

There are several methods for creating deepfakes, but the most common relies on the use of deep neural networks that employ a face-swapping technique. You first need a target video to use as the basis of the deepfake and then a collection of video clips of the person you want to insert in the target. 

The videos can be completely unrelated; the target might be a clip from a Hollywood movie, for example, and the videos of the person you want to insert in the film might be random clips downloaded from YouTube. 

The program guesses what a person looks like from multiple angles and conditions, then maps that person onto the other person in the target video by finding common features. 

Another type of machine learning is added to the mix, known as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), which detects and improves any flaws in the deepfake within multiple rounds, making it harder for deepfake detectors to decode them. 

Though the process is complex, the software is rather accessible. Several apps make generating deepfakes easy even for beginners — such as the Chinese app Zao, DeepFace Lab, FakeApp, and Face Swap — and a large amount of deepfake softwares can be found on GitHub, an open source development community. 

How are deepfakes used?

Deepfake technology has historically been used for illicit purposes, including to generate non-consensual pornography. The FBI released a public service announcement in June 2023 warning the public about the dangers of generative AI, and how it’s used for “Explicit Content Creation,” “Sextortion,” and “Harassment.”

In 2017, a reddit user named “deepfakes” created a forum for porn that featured face-swapped actors. Since that time, porn (particularly revenge porn) has repeatedly made the news, severely damaging the reputation of celebrities and prominent figures. According to a Deeptrace report, pornography made up 96% of deepfake videos found online in 2019.

Deepfakes have also been used for non-sexual criminal activity, including one instance in 2023 that involved the use of deepfake technology to mimic the voice of a woman’s child to threaten and extort her.

Deepfake video has also been used in politics. In 2018, for example, a Belgian political party released a video of Donald Trump giving a speech calling on Belgium to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Trump never gave that speech, however – it was a deepfake. That was not the first use of a deepfake to create misleading videos, and tech-savvy political experts are bracing for a future wave of fake news that features convincingly realistic deepfakes. 

But journalists, human rights groups, and media technologists have also found positive uses for the technology. For instance, the 2020 HBO documentary “Welcome to Chechnya” used deepfake technology to hide the identities of Russian LGBTQ refugees whose lives were at risk while also telling their stories.

WITNESS, an organization focused on the use of media to defend human rights, has expressed optimism around the technology when used in this way, while also recognizing digital threats.

“Part of our work is really exploring the positive use of that technology, from protecting people like activists on video, to taking advocacy approaches, to doing political satire,” said shirin anlen, a media technologist for WITNESS. 

For anlen and WITNESS, the technology isn’t something to be entirely feared. Instead, it should be seen as a tool. “It’s building on top of a long term relationship we have had with audiovisuals. We’ve already been manipulating audio. We’ve already been manipulating visuals in different ways,” anlen said. 

Experts like anlen and López believe that the best approach the public can take to deepfakes is not to panic, but to be informed about the technology and its capabilities. 

How to detect a deepfake

There are a handful of indicators that give away deepfakes:

• Do details seem blurry or obscure? Look for problems with skin or hair, or faces that seem to be blurrier than the environment in which they’re positioned. The focus might look unnaturally soft. 
• Does the lighting look unnatural? Often, deepfake algorithms will retain the lighting of the clips that were used as models for the fake video, which is a poor match for the lighting in the target video. 
• Do the words or sounds not match up with the visuals? The audio might not appear to match the person, especially if the video was faked but the original audio was not as carefully manipulated. 
• Does the source seem reliable? One technique that journalists and researchers often use to check the true source of an image, which you can do right now, is reverse image searching. You should also check to see who posted the image, where it was posted, and whether or not it makes sense for them to do so.

Combatting deepfakes with technology

As technology improves, the discrepancies between real and fake content will likely become harder to detect. For that reason, experts like anlen believe that the burden shouldn’t be on individuals to detect deepfakes out in the wild. 

“The responsibility should be on the developers, on the toolmakers, on the tech companies to develop invisible watermarks and signal what the source of that image is,” anlen said. And a number of startup companies are developing methods for spotting deepfakes. 

Sensity, for example, has developed a detection platform that’s akin to an antivirus for deepfakes that alerts users via email when they’re watching something that bears telltale fingerprints of AI-generated media. Sensity uses the same deep learning processes used to create fake videos. 

Operation Minerva takes a more straightforward approach to detecting deepfakes. This company’s algorithm compares potential deepfakes to known video that has already been “digitally fingerprinted.” For example, it can detect examples of revenge porn by recognizing that the deepfake video is simply a modified version of an existing video that Operation Minerva has already cataloged. 

Despite these advances, Nasir Memon, a professor of computer science and engineering at NYU, said there haven’t been any efforts to combat deepfakes at scale, and that any solution that comes won’t be a cure-all for stopping harmful deepfakes from spreading.

“I think the solution overall is not technology based, but instead it’s education, awareness, the right business models, incentives, policies, laws,” Memon said. 

A growing problem is the use of deepfakes in a live setting to mask one’s identity in the moment, like over a phone call or Zoom meeting. According to Memon, the threat of someone using a fake identity could arise in any number of situations, from job interviews to remote college exams to visa applications. Even Insider reporters have had to deal with AI-generated scams reaching out as sources. 

“The problem with detection is that the burden is on the defender,” Memon said. “I have to analyze every single image in every possible way. But in security, you want to do it the opposite way.” Ideally, technology would be developed to detect these types of live deepfakes, too. 

Still, Memon doesn’t expect this kind of approach to be the end of the deepfake question. 

“Nothing is going to completely solve the problem. Authenticity always has to be tested in society,” he said. “Don’t jump to conclusions when you see an image now. Look at the source. Wait until you have corroborating evidence from reliable sources.”

Dave Johnson

Freelance Writer

Alexander Johnson

Tech Updates Editorial Fellow

Our experts answer readers’ banking questions and write unbiased product reviews (here’s how we assess banking products). In some cases, we receive a commission from our partners; however, our opinions are our own. Terms apply to offers listed on this page.

The national average APY (Annual Percentage Yield) on a 3-month CD is 0.62% APY. However, some of the best online banks offer up to 5.15% APY for a 3-month CD right now. Here are our recommendations for the best 3-month CDs. 

The Best 3-month CD Rates

These are our picks for the best 3-month CD rates. Our top picks for CDs are protected by FDIC or NCUA insurance. Although Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank have recently been shut down, keep in mind money is safe at a federally insured financial institution.  When a financial institution is federally insured, up to $250,000 per depositor is secure in a bank account.

Compare 3-month CDs

Expert Advice on Choosing the Best 3-month CD

To learn more about what makes a good CD and how to choose the best fit, Insider consulted four experts:

Insider

Here’s what they had to say about CDs. (Some text may be lightly edited for clarity.)

How do you choose a bank or credit union?

“You want to make sure it’s FDIC insured,” says Brown. For people using credit unions, the insurance comes from the NCUA. Next, she advises, consider the banking experience you want to have. “Do you like walking into a bank? Well, then you need someone local. Do you just not care if you ever see your bank? Then you’re okay online. Do you write checks? Do you not write checks?” Think through how your experience with that institution would be before you make that decision.

Acevedo recommends factoring in account costs when you’re envisioning your experience with a bank or credit union. “For example,” she says, “some banks have accounts that charge monthly service fees. I would look to see what the requirements are for waiving the monthly service fee and whether I think I could feasibly meet those requirements each month.” Or if she was searching for an interest-earning bank account, she would make sure it pays a higher interest rate than the average bank account.

How long should you leave money in a CD?

“I would think about when you need the money and then compare that with what the prevailing CD rates are,” says Ma. Then, he continues, consider what makes sense not only from a financial perspective, but from your own personal timing perspective. If the rates are highest on a 2-year CD but you need the money in six months, don’t sacrifice your plans for interest.

Your plans are important to the CD term you choose, says James. “I believe in having a plan for whatever the funds are,” she says. “If it’s supposed to be a house fund, and you want to wait for another two years to buy a house, that’s what you should be thinking of when you want to have this money.”

Methodology: How Did We Select the Best 3-month CDs?

At Personal Finance Insider, we strive to help smart people make the best decisions with their money. We understand that “best” is often subjective, however, so in addition to highlighting the clear benefits of a financial product or account — a high APY, for example — we outline the limitations, too.

We researched to find over 20 banks and credit unions that offered 3-month CDs. Then, we reviewed each institution to find the most-well rounded banking options. For each account, we compared the minimum opening deposits, early withdrawal penalties, and interest rates. We also used our CD rates methodology, reviewing the overall banking experience at each bank by assessing customer support availability, mobile app ratings, and ethics.

3-month CD FAQs

Ponce Bank 3 Month CD, powered by SaveBetter

Why it stands out: Through SaveBetter, you can use one platform to find, fund, and manage multiple high-yield savings accounts and CDs from over 20 banks and credit unions. Currently, the Ponce Bank 3 Month CD is the highest yielding 3-month CD on SaveBetter. That said, there are also other 3-month CDs on SaveBetter that pay more than the national average.

APY for a 3-month term: 5.15% APY

3-month early withdrawal penalty: 90 days of simple interest

What to look out for: You might prefer one of our other top picks if you would rather open a CD directly with a bank. You also can’t get a checking account with SaveBetter, so it may not be the best option if you want to do all your banking with one company.

SaveBetter Review

Newtek Bank 3 Month CD

Why it stands out: Anyone in the US can open a CD online with Newtek Bank. Its 3-month CD stands out for its competitive interest rate.

Newtek Bank also offers business checking and savings accounts, as well as a personal high-yield savings account. You’ll need to sign up for a waitlist for the personal high-yield savings account, though, because it isn’t currently available to new customers.

APY for a 3-month term: 4.60% APY

3-month early withdrawal penalty: 90 days of simple interest

What to look out for:  Newtek Bank CDs have a steep minimum opening deposit of $2,500. If you’d like to open a CD with less money upfront, you may prefer one of the other institutions on our list. 

Alliant 3 Month Certificate

Why it stands out: If you’re comfortable with banking online, Alliant Credit Union is a strong choice for CDs. It 3-month and 6-month terms, in particular, offer high interest rates.

APY for a 3-month term: 4.50% APY

3-month early withdrawal penalty: Up to 90 days of interest

What to look out for: Credit unions require you to become a member to open an account. The easiest way to become a member is to join Foster Care to Success. Alliant will cover the $5 joining fee.

Alliant Credit Union Review

America First Credit Union 3 Month Certificate

Why it stands out: America First Credit Union is a financial institution with branches in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. America First Credit Union has a variety of terms with high interest rates.

APY for a 3-month term: 4.50% APY

3-month early withdrawal penalty: 60 days of interest

What to look out for: Credit unions require membership to open bank accounts. You may join America First Credit Union if you live, work, worship, or volunteer in an Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, or Utah county on this list. If you have a family member or spouse that’s a current member, you’re also eligible.

To become a member, you must also open an America First Credit Union Share Savings Account. 

America First Credit Union Review

Popular Direct 3 Month CD

Why it stands out: Popular Direct pays a competitive rate, and it compounds interest daily.

APY for 5-year CD: 4.50% APY

3-month CD early withdrawal penalty: 89 days of simple interest

What to look out for: You’ll need at least $10,000 to open a Popular Direct CD. While the early withdrawal penalty for a 3-month term is pretty standard, the bank charges high penalties on certain terms.

Popular Direct review

Bank of America 3 Month Fixed Term CD

Why it stands out: If you’d like to be part of a large brick-and-mortar financial institution, Bank of America might be an appealing option. A Bank of America 3 Month Fixed Term CD offers a competitive interest rate right now.

APY for a 3-month term: 4.00% APY

3-month early withdrawal penalty: 90 days of interest

What to look out for: Bank of America Fixed Term CDs range from 28 days to 10 years, but not all pay competitive rates. Its 3-month, 4-month, and 5-month fixed-rate CD terms have high rates, but the rest pay 0.03% APY.

Bank of America also has Featured CDs which pay 0.05% to 4.50% APY. Featured CDs are available in 7-month, 10-month, 13-month, 25-month, and 27-month terms and will turn into a Fixed Term CD for the same term after maturity.

Bank of America CD Review

TIAA Bank Basic 3 Month CD

Why it stands out: TIAA Bank offers a competitive interest rate for a 3-month term. It also has low early withdrawal penalties. 

APY for a 3-month term: 4.00% APY

3-month early withdrawal penalty: 22 days of interest

What to look out for: While the minimum opening deposit for TIAA Bank CDs is on par with other banks, there are other financial institutions on our list that have more lenient opening requirements. 

TIAA Bank Review

Other 3-month CDs We Considered

We looked at other 3-month CDs, as well. Our top picks stood out because they had appealing features, like higher interest rates, lower minimum opening deposits, or lower early withdrawal penalties. While the accounts listed below weren’t among our picks, you still might consider one of these options.

• Chase 3 Month CD: Chase pays a higher rate on its 3-month term than on most of its CDs, but it still can’t compete with our top picks.
• Citi Fixed Rate CD: Citi’s 3-month CD pays a lower interest rate than our top picks.
• First Internet Bank of Indiana CD: Our top picks offer more competitive interest rates right now.
• Bethpage Federal Credit Union Certificate Account: Bethpage pays a lower interest rate on its 3-month term than our top picks.
• Synchrony CD: Synchrony has a solid interest rate on its 3-month CD, but our top picks have even higher interest rates right now. 
• Ally High Yield CD: Ally has a variety of CDs and lets you open an account with $0, but our top picks pay higher interest rates.
• Discover CD: Discover has a variety of CDs and pays good interest rates on most terms, but you’ll need a minimum of $2,500.
• Quorum Federal Credit Union Term Savings: Quorum Federal Credit Union’s 3-month term isn’t as competitive as some of its other accounts.
• Signature Federal Credit Union Certificate: Signature Federal Credit Union has a strong 3-year share certificate, but its other terms aren’t as competitive.
• Navy Federal Credit Union Standard Certificate: Navy Federal Credit Union CDs pay solid interest rates, but our top picks have even higher rates right now. 
• Consumers Credit Union CD: Consumers Credit Union has a variety of CD terms, but its 3-month term isn’t as competitive as some of its other terms.
• Wells Fargo Standard Fixed Rate CD: Wells Fargo CDs require a minimum of $2,500 and pay lower interest rates than our top picks. 
• BrioDirect High-Yield CD: BrioDirect CDs have a low minimum opening deposit, but the 3-month CD pays a low interest rate. 
• Nationwide CD: Nationwide offers a solid interest rate on its 18-month CD, but its 3-month CD isn’t as strong.
• BMO Harris CD: BMO Harris pays a significantly lower interest rate on its 3-month CD than all of our top picks. 

Bank Trustworthiness and BBB Ratings

We’ve compared each company’s Better Business Bureau score. The BBB grades businesses based on factors like responses to customer complaints, honesty in advertising, and transparency about business practices. A strong BBB score doesn’t guarantee you’ll have a great relationship with a bank, though. You may still want to read online reviews and ask friends and family about their experiences with any bank you’re considering.

Here is each company’s score:

SaveBetter has an A rating because it has received 23 complaints on the BBB website. TIAA has a B rating because it has failed to respond to one customer complaint on the BBB website.

Bank of America and TIAA have been involved in recent public settlements.

In 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau charged Bank of America for freezing customers’ accounts because its automatic fraud filter incorrectly detected fraud on accounts. The CFPB claimed that the bank made it difficult for customers to un-freeze their accounts.

In 2020, the Department of Justice charged Bank of America when it accused the bank of unfairly denying home loans to adults with disabilities, even though they qualified for loans. Bank of America paid around $300,000 total to people who were refused loans.

In 2021, TIAA was required to pay $97 million in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the settlement, the SEC said the bank failed to disclose conflicts of interest to customers that were part of employer-sponsored retirement plans.

Sophia Acevedo, CEPF

Banking Reporter

Evelyn He

Compliance Associate

Evelyn He is a compliance associate at Insider who supports the Personal Finance Insider team. Personal Finance Insider is Insider’s personal finance section that incorporates affiliate and commerce partnerships into the news, insights, and advice about money that Insider readers already know and love.
The compliance team’s mission is to provide readers with stories that are fact-checked and current, so they can make informed financial decisions. The team also works to minimize risk for partners by making sure language is clear, precise, and fully compliant with regulatory and partner marketing guidelines that align with the editorial team.
Before joining Insider, she served in various legal and compliance roles in different industries, including the legal and pharmaceutical industries.   
Evelyn obtained her M.S. degree in Marketing at Boston University in 2022. Prior to combining and consolidating her knowledge of law and business, she spent one year finishing 1L courses at Suffolk University Law School to further her legal knowledge. She has also completed MBA business law courses while working on her Bachelor of Business Administration in Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 
Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her 14-year-old Shih Tzu named Money, and her 4-year-old Bichon named Tibber.

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• The lives and working routines of billionaires fascinate those who want to understand their success.
• Past colleagues discussed working with Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Sara Blakely.
• They shared lessons they’d learned from the four well-known billionaires.

The lives and working routines of billionaires fascinate those hungry to understand their success. Their eccentricities and rules for life are the subject of books, podcasts, and countless articles.

Their close colleagues know these captivating figures well. Here, people who’ve worked alongside Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Sara Blakely talk about what it was like.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Bill Gates could tell when someone had ‘slung the bull’

Chris Williams will never forget the “grilling” he says the billionaire Microsoft cofounder Gates gave him when they first met in 1992.

After buying their company, Gates interrogated Williams and his colleagues about why their product was better than its Microsoft rival’s. In eight years of meeting regularly one-on-one with Gates as a Microsoft executive, Williams learned how Gates’ questioning was a way of exposing who “slung the bull.” He’d keep pressing until the person under questioning would either admit they didn’t know or start inventing things.

“It was hard to be in those rooms many times and not pick up some of that skill,” Williams wrote for Insider, adding: “In time I could recognize the face of someone who, it seemed, would rather die than say, ‘I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you.’”

Williams also recalled Gates’ ability to absorb “miles of data and dozens of opinions on the correct path” at a meeting and immediately identify what mattered and what to do.

Read more: I worked closely with Bill Gates for 8 years as an executive at Microsoft. Here are the 3 lessons he taught me that I’ll never forget.

aul Ellis – Pool/Getty Images

Jeff Bezos insisted on a ‘deliberately inefficient’ meeting

Colin Bryar, a former Amazon vice president and chief of staff to Bezos, listed 13 insights he gained in the 12 years of working closely with him.

These included the importance of reacting quickly to trends, doubling down on initiatives that bear fruit to minimize risk, and accepting that “getting a team on the same page is a lot of work.”

On the last point, Bryar described how Bezos would hold a weekly four-hour meeting with his direct reports instead of one-to-one meetings with each of them. They would all attend regardless of whether the agenda touched on their responsibilities. Bezos wanted them to learn one another’s responsibilities to help them work together as a team “when the inevitable crisis would arise,” Bryar wrote.

He added, “I’ve seen many dysfunctional executive teams that just are not used to working together and something like a deliberately inefficient weekly meeting getting them together would help.”

Read more: I’m a former Amazon VP who was there for 12 years and also served as Jeff Bezos’ chief of staff. Here are the top insights I learned from him that have helped me in my career.

Reuters

‘Girl next door’ Sara Blakely was a ‘creative genius’

Lisa Magazine and Kenya Graham were personal and executive assistants, respectively, to Blakely, the Spanx founder. Magazine described Blakely as “the girl next door” but also “one of the most creative geniuses I’ve ever met.” She told the podcast “Reach” that she was the 13th Spanx employee, joining when it was working out of a windowless basement in an Atlanta hotel.

She and Graham would plan Blakely’s day, covering every aspect of her life to make Blakely “feel like a million dollars” whenever she stepped into a meeting. “There were so many times that Lisa and I would go over to the home, print out Sara’s calendar, and sit with her husband’s assistants and the house staff,” Graham said. The pair often also collaborated on calendars and cc’d each other on emails and texts to ensure they were on the same page.

After Blakely gave the keynote at the Nordic Business Forum in 2019, the organizers told her that their team was the most prepared group they’d ever worked with, Magazine said.

Read more: Billionaire Sara Blakely’s 2 assistants explain what it takes to keep her life running smoothly — and how there’s no room for egos

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Elon Musk could be ‘fun’ — but was also quick to fire people

During his early days at Tesla, Carl Medlock was in a meeting in which someone disagreed with Musk. Medlock, then a territory manager at Tesla, says he never saw the employee again. Musk is “not one for people back talking — he’ll just let you go,” Medlock told the podcast “The Iced Coffee Hour.”

“When Elon stands up at the end of a meeting and says, ‘This is the direction we’re going to go,’ you stand up from your chair, and you better head that direction,” Medlock continued.

He said that despite this, however, Musk could be “fun” if you were on his good side and “for a guy who wasn’t from the car industry, he asked some very good questions” of Medlock during his final interview for the role.

Medlock said he never saw his boss socialize or joke around with employees.

“He’d talk to you if he needed to talk to you, but he didn’t just go BS with people at all,” Medlock said. Even in meetings, he added, Musk didn’t waste time chatting and got straight to the point.

Read more: Elon Musk was a ‘fun’ boss but fired people on the spot if they disagreed with him, former Tesla manager says

• Hackers backed by North Korea have stolen $3 billion of crypto in five years. 
• They use a variety of elaborate schemes, including posing as employment recruiters, to get access to sensitive info. 
• The stolen crypto is funding 50% of the dictatorship’s ballistic missile program, WSJ reported. 

Hackers employed by North Korea have stolen a massive of sum of cryptocurrency in the last five years, using a range of clever tactics to dupe their targets. 

The dictatorship has amassed a trove of about $3 billion of crypto in recent years. Among its biggest wins was 2021’s Axie Infinity hack, which saw North Korean crypto thieves make off with $600 million from players of the platform’s digital pets game. 

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the hack was pulled off by someone posing as a recruiter, who contacted an employee of Axie Infinity parent Sky Mavis. The hacker shared a document with the potential recruit, which was loaded with malware that enabled access to the candidate’s computer. 

The scheme is just one example of how North Korea is becoming more sophisticated in how it targets and executes these hacks, which are helping it fund its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. According to the Journal, stolen crypto accounts for 50% of the funding for the country’s missile program. 

The hackers in recent years have also posed as IT employees and government officials. They’ve masqueraded as Japanese blockchain developers and Canadian IT workers, representing what the Journal calls a “shadow workforce” that can sometimes pay people up to $300,000 a year. 

In some cases, the hackers will even try to get hired by the firms they’re targeting, using Westerners to sit through the interviews. Once employed, they will make small changes to products that allow them to be hacked.

Overall, North Korea’s hacks have been getting more and more advanced, and their scams more difficult to detect, with one source telling the Journal that companies are locked in an “arms race” with the criminals. 

• The US Army and Navy are facing a severe recruitment shortfall.
• US military recruiters are targeting immigrants to fill their ranks, offering a path to citizenship.
• As part of its marketing, the US military is relying on current recruits with immigrant backgrounds.

When Esmita Spudes Bidari was a young girl in Nepal, she dreamed of being in the military, but that wasn’t a real option in her country.

Last week, she raised her right hand and took the oath to join the U.S. Army Reserves, thanks in part to a recruiter in Dallas who also is Nepalese and reached out to her through an online group.

Bidari, who heads to basic training in August, is just the latest in a growing number of legal migrants enlisting in the U.S. military as it more aggressively seeks out immigrants, offering a fast track to citizenship to those who sign up.

Struggling to overcome recruiting shortfalls, the Army and the Air Force have bolstered their marketing to entice legal residents to enlist, putting out pamphlets, working social media and broadening their outreach, particularly in inner cities. One key element is the use of recruiters with similar backgrounds to these potential recruits.

“It is one thing to hear about the military from locals here, but it is something else when it’s from your fellow brother, from the country you’re from,” said Bidari, who was contacted by Army Staff Sgt. Kalden Lama, the Dallas recruiter, on a Facebook group that helps Nepalese people in America connect with one another. “That brother was in the group and he was recruiting and he told me about the military.”

The military has had success in recruiting legal immigrants, particularly among those seeking a job, education benefits and training as well as a quick route to becoming an American citizen. But they also require additional security screening and more help filling out forms, particularly those who are less proficient in English.

Both the Army and the Air Force say they will not meet their recruiting goals this year, and the Navy also expects to fall short. Pulling more from the legal immigrant population may not provide large numbers, but any small boosts will help. The Marine Corp is the only service on pace to meet its goal.

The shortfalls have led to a wide range of new recruiting programs, ad campaigns and other incentives to help the services compete with often higher-paying, less risky jobs in the private sector. Defense leaders say young people are less familiar with the military, are drawn more to corporate jobs that provide similar education and other benefits, and want to avoid the risk of injury and death that service in defense of the United States could bring. In addition, they say that little more than 20% meet the physical, mental and character requirements to join.

“We have large populations of legal U.S. residents who are exceptionally patriotic, they’re exceptionally grateful for the opportunities that this country has provided,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas, head of the service’s recruiting command.

The biggest challenges have been identifying geographic pockets of immigrant populations, finding ways to reach them and helping any of those interested navigate the complex military recruiting applications and procedures.

Last October, the Army reestablished a program for legal permanent residents to apply for accelerated naturalization once they get to basic training. Recruiters began to reach out on social media, using short videos in various languages to target the top 10 countries that recruits had come from during the previous year.

The Air Force effort began this year, and the first group of 14 graduated from basic training and were sworn in as new citizens in April. They included recruits from Cameroon, Jamaica, Kenya, the Philippines, Russia and South Africa. As of mid-May there were about 100 in basic training who had begun the citizenship process and about 40 who had completed it.

Thomas said the program required changes to Air Force policy, coordination with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and a careful screening process to ensure there are no security risks.

“We have to take exceptional measures to be able to thoroughly vet and go through the security clearance investigation,” he said, adding that in many cases the immigrants are not immediately put in jobs that require top secret clearance.

Under the new program, recruits are quickly enrolled in the citizenship system and when they start basic training, an expedited process kicks off, including all required paperwork and testing. By the time Air Force recruits finish their seven weeks of training, the process is complete and they are sworn in as American citizens.

The first group of 14 included several who are seeking various medical jobs, while another wants to be an air transportation specialist. Thomas said Airman 1st Class Natalia Laziuk, 31, emigrated from Russia nine years ago, has dreamed of being a U.S. citizen since she was 11, and learned about the military by watching American movies and television.

“Talking to this young airman, she essentially said, ‘I just wanted to be useful to my country,’” he said. “And that’s a story that we see played over and over and over again. I’ve talked to a number of these folks around the country. They’re hungry to serve.”

For Bidari, who arrived in the U.S. in 2016 to attend college, the fast track to citizenship was important because it will make it easier for her to travel and bring her parents to the United States to visit. Speaking in a call from Chicago just a day after she was sworn in, she said she enlisted for six years and hopes that her future citizenship will help her become an officer.

In Chicago earlier this year, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth heard from a number of recruiters about the increased outreach to immigrant communities and how it helped them meet their numbers. In the 2022 budget year, they said, the Chicago recruiting battalion enlisted 70 legal permanent residents and already this year they have enlisted 62.

More broadly across the Army, close to 2,900 enlisted during the first half of this budget year, compared with about 2,200 during the same period the previous year. The largest numbers are from Jamaica, with 384, followed by Mexico, the Philippines and Haiti, but many are from Nepal, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

“As a little girl, looking at the soldiers, I always had admiration for them,” said Bidari, recalling British troops in Nepal. “Yesterday, when I was able to take that oath … I don’t think I have words to really explain how I was feeling. When they said, ‘Welcome future soldier,’ I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is happening.’”