Credit: Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images TL;DR: Live stream USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago in the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup for free on YouTube. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.The 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup is starting with a number of really interesting fixtures, including USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago. Things have been pretty rough for USA recently, but they'll be hoping to start afresh in this special tournament. The opening game against Trinidad and Tobago is going to be tricky, but USA will be confident of progressing through the group stage.If you want to watch USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago in the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need. You May Also Like When is USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago?USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago in the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup kicks off at 6 p.m. ET on June 15. This fixture takes place at PayPal Park.How to watch USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago for freeUSA vs. Trinidad and Tobago in the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup is available to live stream for free on YouTube. Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! These free live stream is not available in North or Central America, but fans in excluded territories can still watch this game for free with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in another location, meaning you can unblock free live streams of the Concacaf Gold Cup from anywhere in the world.Live stream the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup for free by following these simple steps:Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)Open up the app and connect to a server in the UKVisit YouTubeLive stream the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup for free from anywhere in the world Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago (plus the rest of the tournament) before recovering your investment.If you want to retain permanent access to the best free streaming services from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.What is the best VPN for YouTube?ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on YouTube, for a number of reasons:Servers in 105 countriesEasy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and moreStrict no-logging policy so your data is always secureFast connection speedsUp to eight simultaneous connections30-day money-back guaranteeA two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (including money-back guarantee).Live stream the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup for free with ExpressVPN. Joseph Green Global Shopping Editor Joseph Green is the Global Shopping Editor for Mashable. He covers VPNs, headphones, fitness gear, dating sites, streaming, and shopping events like Black Friday and Prime Day.Joseph is also Executive Editor of Mashable's sister site, AskMen.

A Peloton perched in the living room. A set of weights on the bedroom floor. Some wellness products have a way of making their presence known. But even the smaller things—think daily supplements, mushroom tinctures, herbal teas—can slowly start to sprawl out everywhere. With the rise and awareness of holistic health habits, wellness routines that rival your skincare shelf, and obsessions like ProteinTok—a whole corner of the internet dedicated to everything protein—you might find that wellness has taken over your kitchen. Suddenly, your blender is battling for space with the hydration powders, collagen tubs, and stacks of snack bars. If you don’t have a place to properly store it all, your kitchen can start to be more overwhelming than calming. But with thoughtful design, proper planning, and smart storage solutions, you can integrate it all into your home in a way that feels serene and seamless. We asked designers and wellness experts how they manage their ever-expanding collection of products and design their kitchens with well-being in mind.Consider An Appliance GarageTessa NeustadtGreen cabinet doors conceal the appliances in this kitchen by Interior Archaeology.“For things that need to be in reach and on the counter, we put everything in an appliance garage,” shares Lynn Kloythanomsup of Landed Interiors and Homes. By that she means is a built-in cabinet or nook—typically integrated into the cabinetry—that features a door that lifts, rolls, or swings open and shut to conceal bulky appliances. Designer Hollie Velten of Spaces by Hollie Velten is also a fan of this feature and notices more clients requesting it. “A custom appliance garage allows things like tea supplies to be accessible for entertaining but hidden for everyday use.”It’s not just designers who advocate for this intentional placement—wellness experts themselves are just as mindful of it. “Our juicer must be on the countertop to make juicing as effortless as possible but other appliances are fine tucked away,” says health coach and nutritionist Daphne Javtich of Doing Well. Kerrilynn Pamer of Cap Beauty echoes this: “I keep my juicer on the counter, I have a Nama, and it’s pretty discreet even though it's large. Everything else, I keep behind doors.”Think Beyond The Main KitchenStacy Zarin GoldbergThis auxiliary kitchen by Kate Abt Design makes a perfect spot for wellness essentials.One luxury feature on the rise? Auxiliary kitchens, also known as dirty kitchens. “When designing for clients, we almost always have the ‘family’ or ‘show’ kitchen and then a second kitchen where the real cooking happens,” says Eric Egan of Eric Egan Interior Design. “This is much like in a restaurant show kitchen, where you see them finishing the meals, but you don't see the prep work or the clean up, all of which happens in the background.” Designer Sarah Barnard of Sarah Barnard Design has also seen an increase in the request of auxiliary kitchens and loves them because they “provide concealed storage for juicers, blenders, dehydrators, and food processors.” While two kitchens might not be realistic for everyone, if you have access to a nice-sized pantry or closet nearby, that’s an ideal spot to corral it all, as well. Rethink Unused SpacesKEVIN MIYAZAKIRemove the booze, bring in the blender, and this liquor cabinet, in a library designed by Kate Marker, could be a wellness station.Speaking of ideal spots for wellness, consider transforming underutilized spaces like liquor cabinets or part of a mudroom into a wellness hub. “We don't find that too many of our clients have a liquor cabinet or use a bar anymore,” shares Kloythanomsup. “So that area can be repurposed as a wellness area.” While you're repurposing it, consider where you can plug in all those wellness appliances. “Clients are also asking us to design technology-stations, so they have multiple areas to hide their technology and free their view of cords and distractions,” Velten says. Get In The ZoneEmma Farrer//Getty ImagesA dedicated tea zone.If you are going to dedicate counter space to your wellness routine, whether it’s a juicing zone, smoothie station, a hydration corner—keep things arranged in groups or zones. “I keep the bulk of my supplements and remedies in a large, shallow pullout drawer in the kitchen,” Javitch shares. “I find this is the easiest way to organize and find products quickly. And you don't have to remove some to get to others.”“I love setting up thoughtful, dedicated zones, like a wellness drawer with teas, vitamins, and tinctures all in one place, or a water station with a glass water pitcher, reusable bottles, and electrolytes,” shares Blakey. Keeping similar items together allows products to stay top of mind and prevents them from getting lost in the shuffle. Contain YourselfCourtesy Holly BlakeyA pantry organized by Holly Blakey of Breathing Room Home.While baskets are a no-brainer for kitchen organization, designers and experts say that’s for good reason, advising homeowners not to overlook them—and to keep the materials as natural as possible. “Wooden bins are another favorite way to add warmth and style while keeping items grouped,” Blakey says. Velten seconds the idea of rush baskets or wooden bins, “We try to push living finishes as much as we can because with proper care, material that came from the earth just vibrates differently.” No matter how many products you use or how dialed-in your routine may be, “wellness becomes part of the daily flow when your space helps you follow through on your intentions,” says Blakey. For that reason, says Javitch, “I always keep a few small baskets in our cabinets with products I often grab for like the kids' sunblock stick or their multivitamin gummies.”Show Off Your Stash Thomas LeonczikHollie Velten designed this kitchen to keep essentials on view. The alternative to hiding things away? Showing them off! “We worked with a client who described her kitchen goals as ‘California health kitchen,’” shares Velten. “We actually removed the upper cabinets to create an easy-to-access corner of shelving to hold glass jars and sustainable practices for her teas, herbs, spices, tinctures, and other food prep essentials.” After all, some items deserve to be seen—not only from an aesthetic perspective but also to prompt daily use and consistency. “I’ll usually keep my essential daily products on a pretty wood tray on the kitchen counter,” Javtich shares.If you are going to keep things out in the open, Bay Area-based organizer of Breathing Room Home Holly Blakey, says clarity is key. “I swear by glass containers for food storage, not just for sustainability, but because they help you know what you have and when you can clearly see your items, you’re more likely to use them before they expire.”Plus, this keep-it-all-out method a way to incorporate your personal preferences and add a little personality into your kitchen. “Sometimes well-kept essentials really only bring more joy and utility when out in the open,” Velten adds. Follow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.

The French Open is one of the most exciting Grand Slams—especially with this year’s lineup. Djokovic, Alcaraz, and Sinner—just those names alone promise a show. Even better, there’s a way to watch the French Open live on a free channel, so you won’t miss a single moment. In this guide, we’ll highlight two free channels for streaming Roland Garros and explain how to access them from anywhere in the world. We’ll also include a few premium streaming services from the UK, Canada, and the US that broadcast the event. Schedule May 25 to June 8 Free channels 9now (Australia) / France TV (France) The schedule for Thursday, June 5 This Thursday at Roland-Garros, we’ll be treated to the two women’s singles semifinals. Here is the detailed schedule: [1] Aryna Sabalenka vs [5] Iga Swiatek (POL) – Not before 3:00 PM CET / 9:00 AM ET / 6:00 AM PST [2] Coco Gauff (USA) vs [WC] Lois Boisson (FRA) Which free channels are broadcasting the French Open live? Reigning and upcoming champs will battle it out on the clay-filled courts and honor us with some epic showdowns. As exciting as it sounds, it doesn’t have to cost a penny. Two free channels broadcast the French Open 2025: 9Now (Australian TV channel) France TV (French TV channel) If you’re in one of these countries, you know you can boot them up and start watching. However, as these are foreign channels for many of you, it’s good to know what they actually provide. 9Now broadcasts the best French Open 2025 matches online for free every day. You’ll need a free account, which takes less than a minute to create. 9Now also offers English commentary, making it a great option for English-speaking viewers. 9Now broadcasts the French Open for free © 9now.com.au France TV is a French channel, so naturally, it features French commentary. It broadcasts all matches (you can follow the action on every court) except for the night sessions. The night sessions refer to the matches played on the Central Court after 8:15 PM Paris time. This TV channel also requires a free account, but again, creating one takes a minute or two, as you can sign up without a TV license. The main gripe with these two is that they’re region-locked to their respective regions. 9Now works only in Australia, whilst France TV works only in France. Trick to Watch the French Open 2025 on a Free Channel from Anywhere To sidestep this inconvenience, people have been relying on VPNs for years. Watching the French Open for free online was never an issue with a popular option like NordVPN. You’ve likely heard of it by this point. Watch the tournament for free with NordVPN As the world’s #1 provider by popularity (and quality), NordVPN provides quintessential servers in Australia and France. It’s also equipped with unrestricted bandwidth and fast 10 Gbps server ports built for speed. The main advantage of NordVPN, according to people online, is compatibility. It works on all desktop and mobile devices, but its VPN app for Fire TV and Apple TV is also there. This makes it easy to watch Roland Garros live for free on your TV. NordVPN allows for a swift IP address change. Once your IP originates from another country, you can overcome stubborn geo-blocks and access new content. Simply put, you’ll need an IP from Australia or France to unblock 9Now or France TV. With NordVPN installed, you just need to connect to a server in the respective country, go to the free channel that streams the French Open 2025, and enjoy. Keep in mind that NordVPN isn’t free, but in this case, it can be. After all, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee. In this period, you can stream the entire Grand Slam and still have ample time left to request and get a full refund. If necessary, we have a tutorial that explains how to test NordVPN free of charge for 30 days. How to Stream the French Open Live in the USA Even in the USA, using the two free channels is a more sensible option. That’s because US-based streaming services are costly. Still, if you don’t want to mess around with VPNs, you can opt for one of these three: Sling TV (TNT) — at least $45.99/mo (Sling Orange or Blue) DirecTV (TNT) — at least $79.99/mo + $69.99/mo for MySports HBO Max — at least $17/mo Sling TV provides access to TNT where the stream will be available — Blue and Orange plans are both eligible. You’ll find that Orange also contains ESPN. DirecTV requires a $69.99/mo MySports package for this purpose. It includes TNT and ESPN Plus for free if you wish to stream other sports. You don’t have to have an eagle eye to see the prices. Sling TV and DirecTV are way out of many people’s budgets. Plus, they don’t have lengthy free trials that would allow you to watch the French Open for free. DirecTV has a risk-free 5-day trial, but that’s roughly a third of the event. Bear in mind that, even if you have an account with one of these three, you still won’t be able to access them abroad. HBO Max can be watched outside the USA, along with DirecTV and Sling TV, but with a caveat — you’ll need a VPN! Watch the French Open With NordVPN Watching Roland Garros 2025 in the UK Brits don’t have a vibrant selection of channels for this case. They do lack horses for the race, but there’s Discovery Plus that comes to the rescue. Unfortunately, Discovery Plus is no joke price-wise and costs £31/mo in the United Kingdom. A notable free trial is missing, as well. Once you spend your £31, you won’t be able to get it back, either. On top of that, Discovery Plus works abroad only with a VPN, even if you have an active subscription paid for regularly. It’s worth noting that Discovery Plus also provides access to Eurosport, which will broadcast the French Grand Slam for the rest of Europe. Eurosport also isn’t free and costs £3.99 for Discovery Plus subscribers. How to Watch Roland Garros Live in Canada Canadians, similarly to Brits, don’t have plenty of choices — TSN is once again there to quench their tennis thirst. Of course, at a price. TSN is relatively inexpensive, so it might be a good option if you’re in Canada. The subscription starts at $8/mo or $80/year if you pay upfront. Like 9Now and Discovery Plus, TSN provides Full HD coverage and includes English commentary for better immersion. Just bear in mind that TSN is Canada-exclusive, so being on vacation rids you of access to it. NordVPN can help you regain access risk-free if you so desire. Other than that, TSN doesn’t provide a free trial and won’t allow you to sign up as a new user without a Canadian payment method. As explained, TSN is adequate only for native Canadian tennis fans. Final Thoughts Your vacation or business trip doesn’t have to squander your plans to watch the French Open 2025 on a free channel. 9Now and France TV are there, and with risk-free NordVPN, you’ll catch up to all major matches with no issues. If you’d rather use premium platforms and don’t mind the price tag, so be it. You have a myriad of options in the US, the UK, and Canada. Sling TV, DirecTV, HBO Max, Discovery Plus, and TSN — six excellent premium channels. Try NordVPN Risk-Free for 30 days

ExpressVPN is good at its job. It's easy to be skeptical of any service with a knack for self-promotion, but don't let ExpressVPN's hype distract you from the fact that it keeps its front-page promise of "just working." Outside of solid security, the two best things ExpressVPN offers are fast speeds and a simple interface. Our tests showed only a 7% average drop in download speed and a 2% loss of upload speed, worldwide. And while the lack of extra features may frustrate experienced users, it makes for a true set-and-forget VPN on any platform. This isn't to say ExpressVPN is without flaws — it's nearly bereft of customization options and it's notably more expensive than its competition — but it beats most VPNs in a head-to-head matchup. For this review, we followed our rigorous 10-step VPN testing process, exploring ExpressVPN's security, privacy, speed, interfaces and more. Whether you read straight through or skip to the sections that are most important for you, you should come away with all the information you need to decide whether to subscribe. Editors' note: We're in the process of rebooting all of our VPN reviews from scratch. Once we do a fresh pass on the top services, we'll be updating each review with a rating and additional comparative information. Table of contents Findings at a glance Installing, configuring and using ExpressVPN ExpressVPN speed test: Very fast averages ExpressVPN security test: Checking for leaks How much does ExpressVPN cost? ExpressVPN side apps and bundles Close-reading ExpressVPN's privacy policy Can ExpressVPN change your virtual location? Investigating ExpressVPN's server network Extra features of ExpressVPN ExpressVPN customer support options ExpressVPN background check: From founding to Kape Technologies Final verdict Findings at a glance Category Notes Installation and UI All interfaces are clean and minimalist, with no glitches and not enough depth to get lost in Windows and Mac clients are similar in both setup and general user experience Android and iOS are likewise almost identical, but Android has a nice-looking dark mode Speed Retains a worldwide average of 93% of starting download speeds Upload speeds average 98% of starting speeds Latency rises with distance, but global average stayed under 300 ms in tests Security OpenVPN, IKEv2 and Lightway VPN protocols all use secure ciphers Packet-sniffing test showed working encryption We detected no IP leaks Blocks IPv6 and WebRTC by default to prevent leaks Pricing Base price: $12.95 per month or $99.95 per year Lowest prepaid rate: $4.99 per month Can save money by paying for 28 months in advance, but only once per account 30-day money-back guarantee Bundles ExpressVPN Keys password manager and ID alerts included on all plans Dedicated IP addresses come at an extra price ID theft insurance, data removal and credit scanning available to new one-year and two-year subscribers for free 1GB eSIM deal included through holiday.com Privacy policy No storage of connection logs or device logs permitted The only risky exceptions are personal account data (which doesn't leave the ExpressVPN website) and marketing data (which the policy says should be anonymized) An independent audit found that ExpressVPN's RAM-only server infrastructure makes it impossible to keep logs Virtual location change Successfully unblocked five international Netflix libraries, succeeding on 14 out of 15 attempts Server network 164 server locations in 105 countries 38% of servers are virtual, though most virtual locations are accessed through physical servers within 1,000 miles A large number of locations in South America, Africa and central Asia Features Simple but effective kill switch Can block ads, trackers, adult sites and/or malware sites but blocklists can't be customized Split tunneling is convenient but unavailable on iOS and modern Macs Aircove is the best VPN router, albeit expensive Customer support Setup and troubleshooting guides are organized and useful, with lots of screenshots and videos Live chat starts with a bot but you can get to a person within a couple minutes Email tickets are only accessible from the mobile apps or after live chat has failed Background check Founded in 2009; based in the British Virgin Islands Has never been caught selling or mishandling user data Turkish police seized servers in 2017 but couldn't find any logs of user activity Owned by Kape Technologies, which also owns CyberGhost and Private Internet Access A previous CIO formerly worked on surveillance in the United Arab Emirates; no evidence of shady behavior during his time at ExpressVPN Windows Version 12 leaked some DNS requests when Split Tunneling was active Installing, configuring and using ExpressVPN This section focuses on how it feels to use ExpressVPN on each of the major platforms where it's available. The first step for any setup process is to make an account on expressvpn.com and buy a subscription. Windows Once subscribed, download the Windows VPN from either expressvpn.com or the Microsoft Store, then open the .exe file. Click "Yes" to let it make changes, wait for the install, then let your computer reboot. Including the reboot, the whole process takes 5-10 minutes, most of it idle. To finish, you'll need your activation code, which you can find by going to expressvpn.com and clicking "Setup" in the top-right corner. You can install ExpressVPN's Windows app from the Microsoft store, but we found the website more convenient. Sam Chapman for Engadget Extreme simplicity is the watchword for all ExpressVPN's designs. The Windows client's launch panel consists of three buttons and less than ten words. You can change your location or let the app pick a location for you — the "Smart Location" is the server with the best combination of being nearby and unburdened. Everything else is crammed into the hamburger menu at the top left. Here, in seven tabs, you'll find the Network Lock kill switch, the four types of content blockers, the split tunneling menu and the option to change your VPN protocol. You can also add shortcuts to various websites, useful if you regularly use your VPN for the same online destinations. To sum up, there's almost nothing here to get in the way: no delays, no snags, no nested menus to get lost in. It may be the world's most ignorable VPN client. That's not a bad thing at all. Mac ExpressVPN's app for macOS is almost identical in design to its Windows app. The process for downloading and setting it up is nearly the same too. As on Windows, it can be downloaded from the App Store or sideloaded directly from the expressvpn.com download center. Only a few features are missing and a couple others have been added. Split tunneling is gone (unless you're still on a macOS lower than 11), and you won't see the Lightway Turbo setting. ExpressVPN recommends some servers, but it's easy to search the whole list. Sam Chapman for Engadget Mac users do gain access to the IKEv2 protocol, along with the option to turn off automatic IPv6 blocking — Windows users have to leave it blocked at all times. Almost every website is still accessible via IPv4, but it's useful if you do need to access a specific IPv6 address while the VPN is active. Android Android users can download ExpressVPN through the Google Play Store. Open the app, sign in and you're ready to go. The Android app has a very nice dark-colored design, only slightly marred by an unnecessary information box about how long you've used the VPN this week. ExpressVPN's Android app puts a little more information on the screen than it needs to, but still runs well. Sam Chapman for Engadget There's a large button for connecting. Clicking on the server name takes you to a list of locations. On this list, you can either search or scroll and can choose individual locations within a country that has more than one. We connected to as many far-flung server locations as we could, but not a single one took longer than a few seconds. The options menu is organized sensibly, with no option located more than two clicks deep. You will see a couple of options here that aren't available on desktop, the best of which is the ability to automatically connect to your last-used ExpressVPN server whenever your phone connects to a non-trusted wifi network. There are also a few general security tools: an IP address checker, DNS and WebRTC leak testers and a password generator. These are also available on the website, but here, they're built into the app. With the exception of the latter, we'd recommend using third-party testing tools instead — even a VPN with integrity has an incentive to make its own app look like it's working. iPhone and iPad You can only install ExpressVPN's iOS app through the app store. During setup, you may need to enter your password to allow your phone to use VPN configurations. Otherwise, there are no major differences from the Android process. ExpressVPN looks good on iPhone and iPad. Sam Chapman for Engadget The interface is not quite as pleasing as the dark-mode Android app, but it makes up for that by cutting out some of the clutter. The tabs and features are similar, though split tunneling and shortcuts are absent. Also, both mobile apps make customer support a lot more accessible than their desktop counterparts — plus, mobile is the only way to send email support tickets. Browser extension ExpressVPN also includes browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome. These let you connect, disconnect and change server locations without leaving your browser window. It's nice, but not essential unless you have a very specific web browser flow you like. ExpressVPN speed test: Very fast averages Connecting to a VPN almost always decreases your speed, but the best VPNs mitigate the drop as much as possible. We used Ookla's speed testing app to see how much of your internet speed ExpressVPN preserves. For this test, we emphasized the locations ExpressVPN uses for most of its virtual servers, including the Netherlands, Brazil, Germany and Singapore. Some terms before we start: Latency, measured in milliseconds (ms), is the time it takes one data packet to travel between your device and a web server through the VPN. Latency increases with distance. It's most important for real-time tasks like video chatting and online gaming. Download speed, measured in megabits per second (Mbps), is the amount of information that can download onto your device at one time — such as when loading a web page or streaming a video. Upload speed, also measured in Mbps, is the amount of information your device can send to the web at once. It's most important for torrenting, since the amount of data you can seed determines how fast you can download in exchange. The table below shows our results. We conducted this on Windows, using the automatic protocol setting with the Lightway Turbo feature active — a recent ExpressVPN addition that keeps speed more consistent by processing connections in parallel. Server location Latency (ms) Increase factor Download speed (Mbps) Percentage dropoff Upload speed (Mbps) Percentage dropoff Portland, Oregon, USA (unprotected) 18 -- 58.77 -- 5.70 -- Seattle, Washington, USA (best server) 26 1.4x 54.86 6.7% 5.52 3.2% New York, NY, USA 156 8.7x 57.25 2.6% 5.57 2.3% Amsterdam, Netherlands 306 17x 53.83 8.4% 5.58 2.1% São Paulo, Brazil 371 20.6x 53.82 8.4% 5.65 0.9% Frankfurt, Germany 404 22.4x 55.71 5.2% 5.67 0.5% Singapore, Singapore 381 21.2x 52.76 10.2% 5.64 1.0% Average 274 15.2x 54.71 6.9% 5.61 1.6% These are extremely good results. ExpressVPN is a winner on both download and upload speed. No matter where we went in the world, we never lost more than about 7% of our download speeds, and upload lost an astoundingly low average of 2%. This suggests that ExpressVPN deftly distributes its user load between servers to eliminate bottlenecks. This Ookla speedtest shows you can still get fast internet while connected to ExpressVPN -- our unprotected speeds are around 58 Mbps. Sam Chapman for Engadget The latency numbers look worse, but the rise in the table is less sharp than we projected. Ping length depends far more on distance than download speed does, so we expect it to shoot up on servers more than 1,000 miles from our location. Keeping the average below 300 ms, as ExpressVPN does here, is a strong showing. ExpressVPN security test: Checking for leaks A VPN's core mission is to hide your IP address and make you untraceable online. Our task in this section is to figure out if ExpressVPN can carry out this mission every time you connect. While we can't be 100% certain, the tests we'll run through below have led us to believe that ExpressVPN is currently leak-proof. Available VPN protocols A VPN protocol is like a common language that a VPN server can use to mediate between your devices and the web servers you visit. If a VPN uses outdated or insecure protocols, or relies on unique protocols with no visible specs or source code, that's a bad sign. Not all protocols are available on all apps, but Mac has the full range. Sam Chapman for Engadget ExpressVPN gives you a selection of three protocols: IKEv2, OpenVPN and Lightway. The first two are solid choices that support the latest encryption algorithms. OpenVPN has been fully open-source for years and is the best choice if privacy is your goal. While IKEv2 started life as a closed project by Microsoft and Cisco, ExpressVPN uses an open-source reverse-engineering, which is both better for privacy and quite fast. Lightway is the odd one out, a protocol you'll only find on ExpressVPN, though its source code is available on Github. It's similar to WireGuard, in that both reach for faster speeds and lower processing demands by keeping their codebases slim. However, Lightway was recently rewritten in Rust to better protect the keys stored in its memory. Ultimately, you can't go wrong with any of ExpressVPN's protocol options. 99% of the time, your best choice will be to set the controls to Automatic and let the VPN decide which runs best. Testing for leaks ExpressVPN is one of the best services, but it's not leak-proof (as you can read in the Background Check below). Luckily, checking for DNS leaks is a simple matter of checking your IP address before and after connecting to a VPN server. If the new address matches the VPN server, you're good; if not, your VPN is leaking. First, we checked the Windows app with split tunneling active to ensure the flaw really had been patched. We tested several servers and didn't find any leaks, which suggests the patch worked, though leaks were rare even before ExpressVPN fixed the vulnerability. We checked our IP while connected to the virtual India location, which is run from a physical server in Singapore. Don't worry -- it still looks like India to streaming services. Sam Chapman for Engadget In fact, we didn't find any leaks on any ExpressVPN server we tested on any platform. Though questions remain about iOS, as you'll see later in this section, that's a problem on Apple's end that even the best VPNs can do very little about for now. The most common cause of VPN leaks is the use of public DNS servers to connect users to websites, which can mistakenly send browsing activity outside the VPN's encrypted tunnel. ExpressVPN avoids the risks of the public system by installing its own DNS resolvers on every server. This is the key factor behind its clean bill of health in our leak testing. Two other common flaws can lead to VPN leaks: WebRTC traffic and IPv6. The former is a communication protocol used in live streaming and the latter is a new IP standard designed to expand domain availability. Both are nice, but currently optional, so ExpressVPN automatically blocks both to ensure there's no opportunity for leaks to arise. One note about VPN security on iOS: it's a known and continuing problem that iOS VPNs do not prevent many online apps from communicating with Apple directly, outside the VPN tunnel. This risks leaking sensitive data, even with Lockdown Mode active in iOS 16. A blog post by Proton VPN shares a workaround: connect to a VPN server, then turn Airplane Mode on and off again to end all connections that were active before you connected to the VPN. Testing encryption We finished up our battery of security tests by checking out ExpressVPN's encryption directly. Using WireShark, a free packet sniffer, we inspected what it looks like when ExpressVPN transmits data from one of its servers to the internet. The screenshot below shows a data stream encrypted with Lightway UDP. After connecting to ExpressVPN, HTTP packets were rendered unreadable while in transit. Sam Chapman for Engadget That lack of any identifiable information, or even readable information, means encryption is working as intended. We repeated the test several times, always getting the same result. This left us satisfied that ExpressVPN's core features are working as intended. How much does ExpressVPN cost? ExpressVPN subscriptions cost $12.95 per month. Long-term subscriptions can bring the monthly cost down, but the great deals they offer tend to only last for the first billing period. A 12-month subscription costs $99.95 and includes three months for free with your first payment, costing a total of $6.67 per month. The bonus disappears for all subsequent years, raising the monthly cost to $8.33. You can also sign up for 28 months at a cost of $139.72, but this is also once-only — ExpressVPN can only be renewed at the $99.95 per year level. There are two ways to test ExpressVPN for free before making a financial commitment. Users on iOS and Android can download the ExpressVPN app without entering any payment details and use it free for seven days. On any platform, there's a 30-day money-back guarantee, which ExpressVPN has historically honored with no questions asked. You will have to pay before you can use it, though. In our opinion, ExpressVPN's service is solid enough that it's worth paying extra. Perhaps not this much extra, but that depends on what you get out of it. We recommend using the 30-day refund period and seeing how well ExpressVPN works for you. If it's a VPN you can enjoy using, that runs fast and unblocks everything you need, that's worth a server's weight in gold. ExpressVPN side apps and bundles ExpressVPN includes some special features that work mostly or wholly separate from its VPN apps. Some of these come free with a subscription, while others add an extra cost. Every subscription includes the ExpressVPN keys password manager. This is available under its own tab on the Android and iOS apps. On desktop, you'll need to download a separate extension from your browser's store, then sign in using your account activation code. It's available on all Chromium browsers, but not Firefox. Starting in 2025, new subscribers get an eSIM plan through holiday.com, a separate service linked to ExpressVPN. The baseline 1GB holiday eSIM plans last for 5 days and can apply to countries, regions, or the entire world (though it's not clear whether the package deal applies to the regional and global plans). Longer-term plans include larger eSIM plans. You can add a dedicated IP address to your ExpressVPN subscription for an additional cost per month. A dedicated IP lets you use the same IP address every time you connect to ExpressVPN. You can add the address to whitelists on restricted networks, and you're assured to never be blocked because of someone else's bad activity on a shared IP. Unlike many of its competitors, ExpressVPN doesn't currently offer antivirus or online storage services, but there is a comprehensive bundle of ID protection tools called Identity Defender. We haven't reviewed any of these products in detail, but here's a list for reference: ID Alerts will inform you if any of your sensitive information is leaked or misused online. It's free with all plans, but you'll have to enter your personal information on your ExpressVPN account page or a mobile app. ID Theft Insurance grants up to $1 million in identity theft reimbursement and comes free with new ExpressVPN one-year or two-year subscriptions. It's not yet available to those who subscribed before it launched in October 2024. Data Removal scans for your information in data brokerages and automatically requests that it be deleted. It's also free with one-year and two-year plans. Credit Scanner is only available for United States users. It monitors your activity on the three credit bureaus so you can quickly spot any suspicious transactions. The Identity Defender features are currently only available to new ExpressVPN customers in the US. Close-reading ExpressVPN's privacy policy Although we worry that the consolidation of VPN brands under the umbrella of Kape Technologies (ExpressVPN's parent company) will make the industry less competitive, we don't believe it's influencing ExpressVPN to take advantage of its users' privacy. To confirm, and get a full sense of what sort of privacy ExpressVPN promises its users, we set out to read ExpressVPN's privacy policy in detail. It's long, but thankfully aimed at casual users instead of lawyers. You can see it for yourself here. In the introduction, ExpressVPN states that it does not keep either activity logs (such as a user's browsing history while connected to the VPN) or connection logs (such as the duration of a user's session and their IP address, which can be used to extrapolate browsing activity). It then specifies the seven types of data it's legally allowed to collect: Data used to sign up for an account, such as names, emails and payment methods. VPN usage data which is aggregated and can't be traced to any individual. Credentials stored in the ExpressVPN Keys password manager. Diagnostic data such as crash reports, which are only shared upon user request. IP addresses authorized for MediaStreamer, which is only for streaming devices that don't otherwise support VPN apps. Marketing data collected directly from the app — a "limited amount" that's kept anonymous. Data voluntarily submitted for identity theft protection apps. Of those seven exceptions, the only ones that count as red flags are account data and marketing data. Both categories are highly personal and could be damaging if mishandled. Fortunately, complying with subpoenas is not one of the allowed uses listed for either data category, nor does the policy let ExpressVPN sell the data to other private parties. The only really annoying thing here is that if you ask ExpressVPN to delete your personal data, you won't be able to use your account from then on. You aren't even eligible for a refund in this case, unless you're within 30 days of your initial subscription. As for marketing data, ExpressVPN collects device fingerprints and location data when you sign up for an account on its website. The privacy policy also claims this is anonymized, as its "systems are engineered to decouple such data from personally identifiable information." Audits corroborate this, as we'll see in the next section. So, while it would be better if ExpressVPN didn't collect any personal data at all, its practices don't appear to pose a risk to anything you do while using the VPN — just the ExpressVPN website. Privacy audits VPN providers often get third-party accounting firms to audit their privacy policies. The idea is that a well-known firm won't mortgage its reputation to lie on behalf of a VPN, so their results can be trusted. For the last several years, ExpressVPN has had KPMG look over its privacy policy and relevant infrastructure (see "TrustedServer" below). KPMG's most recent report, completed in December 2023 and released in May 2024, found that ExpressVPN had enough internal controls in place that users could trust its privacy policy. The report is freely available to read. This is a very good sign, though we're looking out for a more up-to-date audit soon. TrustedServer "TrustedServer" is a marketing term ExpressVPN uses for its RAM-only server infrastructure. RAM-only servers have no hard drives for long-term storage and return to a standard disk image with every reboot. This makes it theoretically impossible to store user activity logs on them, even if ExpressVPN wanted to do that. The KPMG audit, linked above, reports that TrustedServer works as advertised. Between its many clean privacy audits and the Turkish server incident in 2017, we're prepared to say ExpressVPN is a private VPN, in spite of its aggravating exception for marketing. Can ExpressVPN change your virtual location? Next, we tested whether ExpressVPN can actually convince websites that you're somewhere other than your real location. Our security tests have already proven it can hide your IP address, but it takes more than leak-proofing to fool streaming sites these days — Netflix and the others have gotten very good at combing through metadata to sniff out proxy users. The process for testing this is a lot like how we handled the DNS leak tests: try several different servers and see if we get caught. We checked five sample locations outside the U.S. to see if we a) got into Netflix and b) saw different titles in the library. The results are below. Server Location Unblocked Netflix? Library changed? Canada Y Y United Kingdom Y (second try; Docklands failed) Y Slovakia Y Y India Y Y (different from UK library) Australia Y Y In fifteen tests, ExpressVPN slipped up only once. Docklands, the UK server it chose as the fastest, wasn't able to access Netflix. We switched to a server labeled simply "London" and unblocked it without issue. ExpressVPN can change your virtual location so you can explore the wonderful world of K-drama. Sam Chapman for Engadget All the other locations got us access to an alternate Netflix library on the first try. We even checked whether the India server, which is physically located in the UK, showed us different videos than the UK servers. It did, which makes us even more confident that ExpressVPN's virtual locations are airtight. Investigating ExpressVPN's server network ExpressVPN users can connect to a total of 164 server locations in 105 countries and territories. These locations are reasonably well distributed across the globe, but as with all VPNs, there's a bias toward the northern hemisphere. There are 24 locations in the U.S. alone and a further 66 in Europe. That isn't to say users in the Global South get nothing. ExpressVPN has IP addresses from nine nations in South America (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) and six in Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa). The network even includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, impressive since central Asia may be the region most often shafted by VPNs. However, many of these servers have virtual locations different from their real ones. For those of you choosing a server based on performance instead of a particular IP address, ExpressVPN's website has a helpful list of which servers are virtual. The bad news is that it's a big chunk of the list. A total of 63 ExpressVPN locations are virtual, or 38% of its entire network. To reduce the sting, ExpressVPN takes care to locate virtual servers as close to their real locations as possible. Its virtual locations in Indonesia and India are physically based in Singapore. This isn't always practical, leading to some awkwardness like operating a Ghana IP address out of Germany. But it helps ExpressVPN perform better in the southern hemisphere. Extra features of ExpressVPN Compared to direct competitors like NordVPN and Surfshark, ExpressVPN doesn't have many special features. It's aimed squarely at the casual market and will probably disappoint power users. Having said that, what they do include works well. In this section, we'll run through ExpressVPN's four substantial features outside its VPN servers themselves. Network Lock kill switch "Network Lock" is the name ExpressVPN gives to its kill switch (though it's called "Network Protection" on mobile). A VPN kill switch is a safety feature that keeps you from broadcasting outside the VPN tunnel. If it ever detects that you aren't connected to a legitimate ExpressVPN server, it cuts off your internet access. You won't be able to get back online until you either reconnect to the VPN or disable Network Lock. ExpressVPN's kill switch is called Network Lock on desktop, and Network Protection on mobile (Android pictured) Sam Chapman for Engadget This is important for everyone, not just users who need to hide sensitive traffic. The recently discovered TunnelVision bug theoretically allows hackers to set up fake public wi-fi networks through which they redirect you to equally fake VPN servers, which then harvest your personal information. It's unlikely, but not impossible, and a kill switch is the best way to prevent it — the switch always triggers unless you're connected to a real server in the VPN's network. Like most of ExpressVPN's features, all you can do with Network Lock is turn it on and off. You can also toggle whether you'll still be able to access local devices while the kill switch is blocking your internet — this is allowed by default. Threat manager, ad blocker and parental controls ExpressVPN groups three tools under the heading of "advanced protection" — Threat Manager, an ad blocker and parental controls. Threat Manager consists of two checkboxes: one that blocks your browser from communicating with activity tracking software and one that blocks a list of websites known to be used for malware. Check any of these boxes to use the pre-set blocklists whenever you're connected to ExpressVPN. Sam Chapman for Engadget You can't customize the lists, so you're limited to what ExpressVPN considers worthy of blocking. They share their sources on the website. While the lists are extensive and open-source, they rely on after-the-fact reporting and can't detect and block unknown threats like a proper antivirus. The adblock and parental control options work the same way: check a box to block everything on the list, uncheck it to allow everything through. In tests, the ad blocker was nearly 100% effective against banner ads, but failed to block any video ads on YouTube or Netflix. The parental control option blocks a list of porn sites. It's an easy option for concerned parents, but only works while ExpressVPN is connected. As such, it's meant to be used in conjunction with device-level parental controls that prevent the child from turning off or uninstalling the VPN client. Split tunneling Sometimes, you'll find it helpful to have your device getting online through two different IP addresses at once — one for your home services and one for a location you're trying to spoof. That's where split tunneling is helpful: it runs some apps through the VPN while leaving others unprotected. This can also improve your speeds, since the VPN needs to encrypt less in total. You can configure split tunneling through either a blocklist or an allowlist. Sam Chapman for Engadget ExpressVPN includes split tunneling on Windows, Android and Mac (though only on versions 10 and below). You can only split by app, not by website, but it's still pretty useful. For example, you can have BitTorrent handling a heavy download in the background while you use your browser for innocuous activities that don't need protecting. ExpressVPN Aircove router By now, it should be clear that we find ExpressVPN to be a highly reliable but often unexceptional VPN service. However, there's one area in which it's a clear industry leader: VPN routers. ExpressVPN Aircove is, to our knowledge, the only router with a built-in commercial VPN that comes with its own dashboard interface. Usually, installing a VPN on your router requires tinkering with the router control panel, which turns off all but the most experienced users — not to mention making it a massive pain to switch to a new server location. Aircove's dashboard, by contrast, will be instantly familiar to anyone who already knows how to use an ExpressVPN client. It even allows different devices in your home to connect to different locations through the router VPN. Aircove's biggest drawback is its price. Currently retailing at $189 (not including an ExpressVPN subscription), it's around three times more expensive than an aftermarket router fitted with free VPN firmware. Some of you might still find the convenience worth the one-time payment. ExpressVPN customer support options ExpressVPN's written help pages are some of the best on the market. Its live chat is more of a mixed bag, and complex questions may cause delays. However, it is at least staffed with human agents who aim to reply accurately, rather than resolve your ticket as quickly as possible. You can directly access both live chat and email from ExpressVPN's mobile apps (on desktop, you'll have to go to the website). Sam Chapman for Engadget We approached ExpressVPN's support features with a simple question: "If I requested that ExpressVPN delete all my personal data, would I be able to get a refund for my unused subscription time?" (Remember from the Privacy Policy section that submitting a full deletion request also cancels your ExpressVPN account.) Our first stop was expressvpn.com/support, the written support center and FAQ page. It's divided into setup guides, troubleshooting, account management and information on each of ExpressVPN's products. The setup guides are excellent, including screenshots and clearly written steps; each one includes a video guide for those who learn better that way. Troubleshooting is just as good — no videos, but the same standards of clarity and usefulness prevail. The section starts with general problems, then delves into specific issues you might face on each operating system. Each article clearly derives from a real customer need. The live support experience To get answers on our refund question, we visited the account management FAQs. This section stated that the refund policy only applies within 30 days of purchase. Pretty clear-cut, but we still wanted an answer on our special case, so we contacted live chat by clicking the button at the bottom-right of every FAQ page. Live chat is in the bottom-right corner of every page of expressvpn.com. Sam Chapman for Engadget Live chat starts with an AI assistant, which is not too hard to get past — just ask it a question it can't answer, then click "Transfer to an Agent." We got online with (what claimed to be) a human in less than a minute. Answering the question took longer and involved an uncomfortable 10-minute silence, but we did get a clear verdict from a real person: refunds are within 30 days only, no matter what. If the live chat agent can't answer your question, you'll be redirected to open an email support ticket. Annoyingly, there's no way to go directly to email support through the website or desktop apps, though mobile users have the option to skip directly there. ExpressVPN background check: From founding to Kape Technologies ExpressVPN launched in 2009, which makes it one of the oldest consumer VPNs in continual operation. In more than 15 years of operation, it's never been caught violating its own privacy policy, though its record isn't free of more minor blemishes. Headquarters in the British Virgin Islands Founders Dan Pomerantz and Peter Burchhardt registered the company in the British Virgin Islands from the start to take advantage of that territory's favorable legal environment for online privacy. The BVIs have no law requiring businesses to retain data on their users, and the process for extraditing data is famously difficult, requiring a direct order from the highest court. In 2021, the BVI implemented the Data Protection Act (DPA) [PDF link], which prevents companies based in the territory from accessing data on their users anywhere in the world. It's a great privacy law in theory, modeled on best-in-class legislation in the EU. However, we couldn't find any evidence that its supervising authority — the Office of the Information Commissioner — has a leader or staff. In other words, while ExpressVPN is not legally required to log any data on its users, there's technically nobody stopping them from doing so. Whether you trust the jurisdiction depends on whether you trust the company itself. Let's see what the other evidence says. Security and privacy incidents Two significant incidents stand out from ExpressVPN's 16-year history. In 2017, when Andrei Karlov, Russia's ambassador to Turkey, was shot to death at an art show. Turkish police suspected someone had used ExpressVPN to mask their identity while they deleted information from social media accounts belonging to the alleged assassin. To investigate, they confiscated an ExpressVPN server to comb for evidence. They didn't find anything. A police seizure is the best possible test of a VPN's approach to privacy. The provider can't prepare beforehand, fake anything, or collude with investigators. The Turkey incident is still one of the best reasons to recommend ExpressVPN, though eight years is a long time for policy to change. The second incident began in March 2024, when a researcher at CNET informed ExpressVPN that its version 12 for Windows occasionally leaked DNS requests when users enabled the split tunneling feature. While these users remained connected to an ExpressVPN server, their browsing activity was often going directly to their ISP, unmasked. The bug only impacted a few users, and to their credit, ExpressVPN sprang into action as soon as they learned about it. The team had it patched by April, as confirmed by the researcher who initially discovered the vulnerability. But while their quick and effective response deserves praise, it's still a mark against them that a journalist noticed the bug before they did. Kape Technologies ownership and management questions In 2021, an Israeli-owned, UK-based firm called Kape Technologies purchased a controlling interest in ExpressVPN. In addition to ExpressVPN, privately held Kape owns CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, and Zenmate (before it merged into CyberGhost). As shown on its website, it also owns Webselenese, publisher of VPN review websites WizCase and vpnMentor, which poses an apparent conflict of interest. When reached for comment, a representative for ExpressVPN said that "ExpressVPN does not directly engage with, nor seek to influence, the content on any Webselenese site," and pointed us to disclosure statements on the websites in question — here's one example. Even so, it's a good reminder not to take VPN reviews at face value without knowing who's behind them (Engadget is owned by Yahoo, which does not own any VPNs). Diving deeper into the background of Kape's ownership will lead you to owner Teddy Sagi. Go back far enough, and you'll see he did prison time in Israel and was mentioned in the Pandora Papers, among other things. More recently, headlines about the billionaire have focused more his businesses in the online gambling and fintech arenas, as well as his real estate ventures. An ExpressVPN representative told us that "Kape's brands continue to operate independently," and our investigation bore that out — we couldn't find any proof that Kape or Sagi have directly attempted to influence ExpressVPN's software or daily operations. Closer to the immediate day-to-day operations of ExpressVPN was the company's employment of Daniel Gericke as CTO from 2019 through 2023. During that time, the US Justice Department announced it had fined Gericke and two others for their previous employment on a surveillance operation called Project Raven, which the United Arab Emirates (UAE) used to spy on its own citizens. The revelation prompted a public response from ExpressVPN defending its decision to hire Gericke, arguing that "[t]he best goalkeepers are the ones trained by the best strikers." ExpressVPN's representative confirmed that the company still stands by that linked statement. Gericke parted ways with ExpressVPN in October 2023, per his LinkedIn profile. While we don't know what we don't know, we can say that ExpressVPN has not notably changed its public-facing security and privacy policies during the time it's been connected to Kape, Sagi, or Gericke. In the end, how much ExpressVPN's history matters to you is a personal choice. If you object to any current or past actions by Kape Technologies or Teddy Sagi, there are other premium VPN options you might prefer. If you need more information to make up your mind, we recommend reading through CNET's 2022 deep dive on ExpressVPN's corporate history. Final verdict ExpressVPN is the VPN we most often recommend to beginners. It takes zero training to use, and consistently gets past filters on streaming sites. It also runs in the background with virtually no impact. If anything is worth the high price of admission, it's the excellent speeds distributed evenly across the worldwide server network. However, for certain specific cases, ExpressVPN may not be the best choice. There's no way to set up your own server locations, like NordVPN offers, and no double VPN connections, like you can build for yourself on Surfshark. Its corporate background is more suspect than the entities backing Proton VPN, and unlike Mullvad, ExpressVPN doesn't work in China — it's so well-known that the government targets its servers specifically. We suggest going with ExpressVPN for general online privacy, for spoofing locations in your home country while traveling, or if you regularly need to unblock sites in other countries. That encompasses 19 of every 20 users, which is fine by us, as ExpressVPN is a great service. It's just more of a reliable old screwdriver than a multi-tool. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/expressvpn-review-2025-fast-speeds-and-a-low-learning-curve-160052884.html?src=rss

Schemes designated ‘nationally significant’ as part of wider efforts to unlock housing growth and address long-term infrastructure shortfalls Source: LDA DesignA rendering of the proposed new Lincolnshire reservoir Two new reservoir projects proposed by Anglian Water and Cambridge Water have been awarded nationally significant infrastructure status, with the government stepping in to fast-track the planning process amid growing concern about the impact of water shortages on housing and economic development. The reservoirs, located near March in Cambridgeshire and south of Sleaford in Lincolnshire, are now set to bypass the local decision-making process and will be determined directly by Steve Read, the environment secretary. The intervention forms part of the government’s broader “plan for change”, which seeks to accelerate the delivery of 150 major infrastructure projects and support the construction of 1.5 million new homes by the end of the current parliament. Design proposals, developed by LDA Design and Fereday Pollard, include sculpted embankments formed from excavated soil, integrated wetland habitats and publicly accessible routes intended to support recreation and biodiversity. According to government figures, the Fens Reservoir is expected to supply around 87 million litres of water per day to 250,000 homes when completed in 2036. The Lincolnshire Reservoir would deliver up to 166 million litres per day for as many as 500,000 homes, with an anticipated completion date of 2040. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the decision to intervene reflects the urgency of addressing regional water stress. “Today we are backing the builders not the blockers, intervening in the national interest and slashing red tape to make the planning process faster to unblock nine new reservoirs,” said water minister Emma Hardy. “This government will secure our water supply for future generations and unlock the building of thousands of homes as part of the plan for change.” Source: LDA DesignA rendering of the proposed new Fens reservoir The reservoirs are being brought forward against a backdrop of strained infrastructure capacity and an extended period without new large-scale water storage projects. No major reservoirs have been delivered in England since 1992. According to the government, the combination of population growth, ageing infrastructure and climate change has created “a significant risk that the UK could run out of clean drinking water by the middle of the next decade”. Water scarcity has already delayed housing development in parts of the east of England and South-east, including in Cambridge and north Sussex. The government has said that the Fens and Lincolnshire reservoirs will help to address these blockages by providing the baseline infrastructure needed for new homes to proceed. David Black, chief executive of Ofwat, said: “We welcome the clear focus the government is placing upon accelerating the delivery of supply and resilience schemes that will meet our future water needs and support economic growth. Alongside the £2bn of development funding announced at our 2024 price review, this will help us to deliver the largest programme of major water infrastructure projects seen in decades.” The Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire schemes are two of nine reservoirs across England that water companies have committed to deliver by 2050. Together, they are expected to add 670 million litres per day to the national supply.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.Two months ago, I downloaded and started using the Steppin app, which locks up your most distracting apps and forces you to trade your real-world steps for them. After just three days, I was finding it enjoyable enough to review it, but now that I've spent 68 days with the app, I'm even more impressed. While it's still only available on iOS, an Android version is available on a waitlist and not much has changed in terms of interface or use since I first reviewed it, but I've found it much easier to navigate and incorporate into my life. My social media use is definitely downThe app works by syncing with your Apple Health data and pulling in the steps your phone or fitness tracker record, then converting them to minutes that you can redeem on your preferred apps. Once you add an app to your blocklist, you'll be prompted to open Steppin every time you try to open the blocked app. Then, you have the choice of selecting between one and 30 minutes of unlocked time or just abandoning the pursuit altogether. My settings are calibrated such that 50 steps unlocks one minute of app time. When I started, I added two apps to my blocklist: Instagram and a game called Project Makeover. My time on those apps has absolutely bottomed out. For the most part, this is a good thing. I can't even tell you the last time I watched a nonsensical Reel. On the flip side, though, I'll admit it's actually had a little bit of an impact on my social life. Instagram is where, for better or worse, people broadcast the goings-on in their lives, so I've missed out on a few things like milestone announcements from people I consider friends, but not best friends who would text me good news directly. I do feel rude for not "liking" these posts or congratulating them in the DMs when I eventually see or hear about the news days later. For as much as my mom complains that "social media isn't real life," that's not exactly true anymore and I am missing out on some real-life-adjacent things in my quest to stop looking at so many stupid Reels. I think it's a fine trade-off, but it's definitely something I've noticed.Still, it's given me a lot of time back and I'm grateful for it. I check my screen time every week and have seen it taking a nosedive. This week, my daily average is down 18% from last week, my "pickups"—or the amount of times I've unlocked my phone—are down 14% from last week, and my average notifications are down 8% from last week, though Poshmark, with over 6,000 notifications this week, is an outlier because I get a notification every time someone shares, likes, or buys one of my listings and have been using a third-party app to maximize how often those things happen. Don't worry, though. I set those alerts to appear quietly in my notification feed; they don't generate a push notification that lights up my lock screen.As it all relates to the little dopamine bops my brain has become wired to seek out from short-form videos and bite-sized hot takes, I've definitely noticed I'm just less interested in seeking that stuff out—to a point. Time without it has certainly acted like a detox and I don't necessarily feel the urge to look at posts that will shock, enrage, titillate, or otherwise entertain me, which wasn't true three months ago. That said, I've noticed that it's been a little easier for me to get sucked in by other apps that I didn't used to look at that often and didn't initially add to my blocklist—it was as though some of my previous Instagram time just spilled over into other apps. For a while there, I was spending an inordinate amount of time on X, for example. I noticed, added it to my Steppin blocklist while writing this, and carried on. Streaks make this workI am motivated heavily by arbitrary personal rewards. My workout streak on Peloton keeps me motivated to hop on my bike every day. My self-care streak on Finch keeps me motivated to log all my daily wins. My listing streak on Poshmark and my purchase streak on the Dunkin' Donuts app even earn me real-world rewards like discounted shipping and free coffee, respectively. It's no surprise the streak feature on Steppin has kept me similarly locked in. You maintain your streak by not removing any apps from your blocklist or overriding the app to get at your blocked apps. I have maintained my streak for 68 days and am quite proud of it. Adding new apps to your blocklist doesn't reset your streak and neither does altering the amount of steps you have to take to earn one minute.My steps aren't necessarily up (but I knew they wouldn't be)My distracting app use is definitely down and I'm feeling the positive effects, but Steppin's whole deal is that it facilitates change by encouraging you to be more active. It's supposed to be a two-for-one benefit. I was already active before downloading this and haven't noticed a significant increase in my daily average steps, but I don't mind. I teach three to four spin classes per week and do the majority of my cardio using my Peloton bike at home—while those activities burn calories and keep me active, they don't count toward "steps." I still take as many steps in an average day as I ever did, walking to the post office, Dunkin', the gym, and the bus—all the places I was already walking before installing Steppin. I have noticed I have not just a willingness, but an eagerness, to walk slightly farther distances than normal, though. Sometimes, instead of taking my Poshmark sales to the post office two blocks from my apartment, I walk up to the one 10 blocks away. I also get off the bus two or so stops early from time to time just to walk a little, although that might have more to do with my excitement that it's finally getting warmer outside. Generally, I know I'm doing this so I can bank some minutes of Instagram time, but I don't really end up using it, anyway. My banked minutes reset every Sunday at midnight and I usually end up with about five to six hours of unclaimed time. (It is very annoying to wake up on Sundays and not be able to even glance at Instagram while I brush my teeth and make my coffee, which results in me kind of shuffling around in a circle in the living room to generate some quick steps, but if I were to reconfigure my settings so that my minutes rolled over week-to-week, I'd lose my streak and I simply can't do that.) All in all, my Apple Health data shows I'm taking the same amount of steps now, on average, as I was this time last year, but I consider it a win that I'm even consciously choosing to walk when I wouldn't normally. Just this week, besides going to the farther post office, I've opted to go golfing for my weekly sports outing, walk around a shopping center instead of order all my summer clothes online, and use Peloton's guided walking workouts instead of doing all my cardio on my bike. This is definitely because of Steppin, which is forcing me to consciously make minor, healthy tweaks to my day.When I first reviewed Steppin, I interviewed its founder, Paul English. He mentioned he and his team are looking into ways to count things beyond steps that could equate to unblocked minutes, like time spent reading on a Kindle. That's a feature I'll be looking forward to. It would be great if the workouts my Apple Health records—like my cycling and my strength training—could somehow reflect in my Steppin time bank, although at this point, I'm not sure I'd use the extra minutes, anyway. I'm just not as interested in social media anymore.

New weekend, new F1 race. If you’re a fan, you’re looking for a free channel that streams the Formula 1 Monaco GP. Rightfully so — overpriced subscriptions aren’t ideal if you want to save money and keep up with F1 races simultaneously. The good news is that you can watch the Monaco Grand Prix online for free with a bit of effort. There’s a handy free channel that broadcasts it in Full HD. This guide will explain how to access it worldwide and stream the event. Date and time Sunday, May 25 at 3:00 PM CET / 9:00 AM ET / 6:00 AM PT Free channel broadcasting SRF (Switzerland) Free Channel to Watch F1 Monaco GP Live We won’t keep you waiting. The channel you’re looking for is called SRF. SRF is a Swiss-based TV channel known for broadcasting a vibrant palette of sports events. It’s also a place where you can watch MotoGP races for free. This weekend, it’ll broadcast the F1 Monaco GP live, as well. Since it’s a Swiss TV channel, it has a few issues. For example, it’s accessible only in Switzerland and doesn’t come with English commentary. On the other hand, it’s accessible without an account, so that’s great. F1 Monaco GP broadcasts on SRF Zwei © SRF As you can see above, the free live stream of the F1 Monaco GP will be on SRF Zwei (link: https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/live/srf-zwei?tvLiveId=c49c1d64-9f60-0001-1c36-43c288c01a10). This is the GP race, however, SRF also displays the qualifying if you’re interested. Stream the Monaco GP for free with NordVPN How to Stream the Monaco Grand Prix for Free Anywhere Okay, so SRF is exclusive to Switzerland — is there a workaround? Yes. Swiss residents abroad often swap their IP addresses for Swiss ones. With a Swiss IP, SRF detects that the user is located in Switzerland. This results in effortless access regardless of the user’s actual location. According to F1 fans worldwide, NordVPN fits the bill. It’s a famous VPN service with thousands of global servers, many of which are in Switzerland. Moreover, the VPN supplies applications for all devices. This eases the process of watching the F1 Monaco GP on a free channel, or any other Grand Prix for that matter. The user can install NordVPN, connect to a server in Switzerland, and use SRF even in Europe, the USA, Asia, etc. NordVPN is a paid VPN, but that’s no issue. It comes with a non-conditional 30-day money-back guarantee to set things straight. This is, in a way, a NordVPN free trial that you can use it for this purpose, cancel it, and obtain a refund if you don’t need it anymore. The same principle applies to unblocking other restricted content. With unlimited bandwidth and market-leading speeds, users have reported nothing but pure enjoyment in streaming, gaming, and other online activities. Can I Watch the Race on F1 TV Pro? Yes, it’ll be on F1 TV Pro as well, but as you likely know, it’s a subscription service. This means it’s a paid channel, too, and unfortunately, it does cost a lot. F1 TV Pro is also unavailable in some countries — keep that in mind. Generally speaking, all subscription services, especially those sports-related, tend to be pricey. While SRF’s lack of English commentary is evident, it’s still the best option to watch the Monaco Grand Prix online for free. 2025 Monaco Grand Prix Schedule Not sure when to tune in? Don’t think we’ve forgotten to include a full schedule for your convenience. The event kicks off on May 23rd and ends on May 25th. As always, the race will be on Sunday. Try NordVPN risk-free now If that’s your only goal, tune in on the 25th of May and feast your eyes. If you’d rather sit through the entire event and live the hype, here’s how this weekend will transpire: Event Date CET EST PST Race 25th May 15:00 09:00 6:00 Qualifying 24th May 16:00-17:00 10:00-11:00 7:00-8:00 Practice 3 24th May 12:30-13:30 6:30-7:30 3:30-4:30 Practice 2 23rd May 17:00-18:00 11:00-12:00 8:00-9:00 Practice 1 23rd May 13:30-14:30 7:30-8:30 4:30-5:30

Credit: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images TL;DR: Live stream Arminia Bielefeld vs. VfB Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal final for free on ServusTV. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.Not many fans would have predicted that Arminia Bielefeld would be facing off against VfB Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal final, but here we are. Arminia Bielefeld are taking part in the DFB-Pokal final for the first time in their history. Could the third-division team go all the way and do something incredibly special? We've already seen Crystal Palace upset the odds this season by securing their first domestic cup, but no side from Germany's third tier has ever lifted the trophy. It seems unlikely, but Arminia Bielefeld have already knocked out holders Bayer Leverkusen at the semi-final stage. Anything is possible at this point. You May Also Like If you want to watch Arminia Bielefeld vs. VfB Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal final for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.When is the 2025 DFB-Pokal final?Arminia Bielefeld vs. VfB Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal final kicks off at 2 p.m. ET on May 24. This fixture takes place at the Olympiastadion. Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! How to watch the 2025 DFB-Pokal final for freeArminia Bielefeld vs. VfB Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal final is available to live stream for free on ServusTV. ServusTV is geo-restricted to Austria, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Austria, meaning you can bypass geo-restrictions to access this free live stream on ServusTV from anywhere in the world.Unblock ServusTV by following these simple steps:Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)Open up the app and connect to a server in AustriaVisit ServusTVStream Arminia Bielefeld vs. VfB Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal final for free Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (2-Year Subscription + 4 Months Free) $139 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to provide free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can gain access to ServusTV without committing with your cash. This is not a long-term solution, but it gives you plenty of time to stream Arminia Bielefeld vs. VfB Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal final before recovering your investment.What is the best VPN for ServusTV?ExpressVPN is the best choice for streaming live sport on ServusTV, for a number of reasons:Servers in 105 countries including AustriaEasy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and moreStrict no-logging policy so your data is secureFast connection speeds free from throttlingUp to eight simultaneous connections30-day money-back guaranteeA two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.Live stream Arminia Bielefeld vs. VfB Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal final for free with ExpressVPN. Joseph Green Global Shopping Editor Joseph Green is the Global Shopping Editor for Mashable. He covers VPNs, headphones, fitness gear, dating sites, streaming, and shopping events like Black Friday and Prime Day.Joseph is also Executive Editor of Mashable's sister site, AskMen.