Every national leadership position in Iceland, including president, prime minister, bishop and police chief, is now held by a woman, but there’s still “work to be done,” President Halla Tómasdóttir said to The Guardian. Her words came as Icelanders went on strike last week to mark the 50th anniversary of the kvennafrí (“women’s day off”), which drew attention to how essential and undervalued women’s labor is to their society. 

‘Sweeping change’ 
Before the historic strike, Icelandic women’s work was “valued less than men’s,” and their earnings were about 40% lower, said The i Paper. On Oct. 24, 1975, 90% of the country’s women stopped work in protest at this inequality, and 25,000 gathered in Reykjavík to demand equal pay and recognition of their contributions to keeping the nation running. The strikers refused to do both paid jobs and unpaid labor, such as child care and housework. 

The protest paralyzed the country, with schools, shops and offices closing, and led to “sweeping change,” said The Guardian. And the world’s first female elected president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, took office in Iceland five years later. 

‘Still no paradise’ 
Iceland is the only country to have closed the gender gap by more than 90%, according to the World Economic Forum. Tómasdóttir has said that Iceland is now “powered by two sustainable energies: geothermal power and girl power,” Tómasdóttir said to The Guardian. 

But the country’s women have warned that their country is still “no paradise,” said The i Paper. The pay gap has grown in the past two years, and the labor market “remains highly gender-segregated.” Women are still doing most of the unpaid care and housework, and more than 40% have suffered gender-based or sexual violence. 

Women “must also be alert to the backlash we see today, with the rise of populist and extremist right-wing forces,” Unnur Agustsdottir, a former senior adviser to the Health Ministry who was 20 when the first strike took place, said to The i Paper. The rights won by women have been “achieved” through “hard struggle” and “must be defended.”

President Donald Trump has pushed an “America First” platform since taking office, but some farmers, many of whom voted for Trump, are starting to believe he has not kept his promise. This sentiment is particularly strong among beef farmers, since the president has pledged to sharply increase imports of beef from Argentina, leaving many rural laborers with complaints. 

Why is Trump importing Argentinian beef?
His plan aims to reduce beef prices, which have increased 15% year-over-year because of a “combination of environmental factors and tariffs imposed in Trump’s trade war,” said The Hill. To combat this, the president has announced plans to “quadruple” beef imports from Argentina.

This will involve raising the “tariff rate quota on Argentine beef to 80,000 metric tons,” which “will let the country ship more of its beef to the U.S. at a lower rate of duty,” said Reuters. But there may also be another motive. It’s “likely another move to support Argentina’s economy and its embattled president, Javier Milei,” said the Wisconsin State Farmer. 

How have American farmers responded?
Trump’s decision has led to “feuding with some of his most loyal supporters,” said The Hill, including congressional Republicans and GOP farmers who support him. The president has “centered his economic agenda on reducing the U.S.’s reliance on cheaper foreign products and boosting domestic production of goods and food,” something farmers say his Argentinian beef plan goes against.    

The plan caught “many cattle producers off guard” and may not actually affect the cost of beef in the U.S., said the High Plains Journal. Trump’s Argentinian plan is a “misguided effort,” the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said in a press release. The “efforts to manipulate markets only risk damaging the livelihoods of American cattlemen and women, while doing little to impact the price consumers are paying at the grocery store.” 

Cattle ranchers “don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put tariffs on cattle coming into the United States,” Trump said on Truth Social. But many farmers don’t buy into his premise. “ It feels like a slap in the face to rural America,” said Destinee Weeks, a cattle rancher in Oklahoma, to NPR. “It makes you feel invisible and overlooked.”

Men search through wreckage caused by Hurricane Melissa this morning in Santiago de Cuba. East of the city in Guantánamo, some residents took shelter in caves as the only structures that could sustain winds. The storm was downgraded to Category 3 after blowing though Jamaica overnight as a Category 5 and is now moving toward the Bahamas. 
Yamil Lage / Getty Images

Planning and anticipating a vacation for months is great, but sometimes you need to get away now. It might seem daunting to book a last-minute trip with just a few weeks’ or even days’ notice, but it can be done

What are the benefits?
It’s possible to score great deals and “significantly cut costs,” said AAA Connect. Rates drop “drastically” when hotels and airlines are trying to “fill vacant seats and rooms,” in particular if it’s during an off-peak season.

What are some drawbacks?
Options might be in short supply, so it could be harder to snag the exact cruise cabin you want or a flight that departs at the optimal time. Some destinations are also out of the question — a trip to Antarctica can’t be arranged in a day — but many places are well within reach.

How flexible do you need to be?
Last-minute travelers have to be open to anything. Flexibility is “your superpower,” Dollar Flight Club CEO Jesse Neugarten said to the BBC. And if you are willing to adjust “dates, times and even destinations,” the more likely you will be to “score a great deal.”

If you have frequent flier miles, you may be able to use them, as airlines sometimes release seats shortly before a flight as “cheaper-than-normal mileage tickets,” said Condé Nast Traveler. Don't see availability online? It “may be worth” calling or chatting with an airline customer service representative who can search for these deals.