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• Head of household is a federal filing status for unmarried taxpayers with qualifying dependents.
• Single parents and caregivers may be eligible to file as head of household.
• They get a bigger standard deduction than single filers and often lower tax rates.

Your filing status is one of the most important decisions you make when you do your taxes each year. For unmarried individuals who have dependents, filing as head of household rather than single could lead to big tax savings.

What is the head of household filing status?

All taxpayers must choose a filing status on their federal tax return, Form 1040. The options are single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, head of household, and qualifying surviving spouse.

The head of household filing status is for unmarried taxpayers who are financially responsible for a dependent, says Rachael Burns, a certified financial planner whose California-based firm, True Worth Financial Planning, services divorcées and widows.

“Divorced or otherwise single parents are great examples of someone who may benefit from the head of household status,” she says.

In 2021, the latest year for which IRS data is available, only 13% of taxpayers — about 21.2 million people — filed as head of household, and most had low to moderate income. More than 9 in 10 head of household filers made less than $100,000 and 7 in 10 made less than $50,000.

Importance of choosing the correct filing status

Your filing status determines the size of your standard deduction and which tax brackets you use. Your status doesn’t have to be the same from year to year, so consider consulting with a tax professional if you’ve experienced a divorce, birth, or other household change that may impact who you claim as a dependent.

“Your filing status impacts how much tax you pay, so it’s important you choose the one that’s best for you,” Burns says. If you qualify for the head of household filing status, it can help you unlock lower tax rates and a bigger standard deduction than filing single, she adds.

Filing status also helps determine your eligibility for tax credits and deductions, since different income thresholds and phase-outs apply for each status.

Quick tip: The IRS offers an online tool to help taxpayers choose the correct filing status.

Eligibility requirements

Marital status

Taxpayers have to be single, legally separated, or divorced by December 31 to use the head of household filing status. If you were still legally married, you may be able to qualify if you and your spouse lived separately for the last six months of the year. Otherwise you’ll need to choose married filing jointly or married filing separately.

Maintaining a home

Head of household filers must prove that they paid more than 50% of the cost of maintaining a home for a dependent during the year, says Derrick Doerr, a CPA and vice president at financial-services firm Nepsis in Minneapolis. That can include expenses like groceries, rent or mortgage payments, and utilities.

Qualifying dependents

Lastly, the qualifying dependent needs to live with the taxpayer for more than half of the year.

“There is a wide range of dependents that can qualify,” Doerr says, including foster children, stepchildren, adopted children, minor or adult siblings, and grandchildren. A parent can also qualify as a dependent but does not need to live with the taxpayer.

Tax benefits of filing as head of household

Higher standard deduction

A standard deduction is available to every taxpayer who does not itemize their deductions.

Head-of-household filers receive a standard deduction that’s larger than single filers but smaller than married joint filers. The amounts are adjusted each year to reflect cost-of-living changes.

Lower tax rates

The same income tax rates apply to all filing statuses, but the bands of income for each one vary.

In general, head of household filers have more leeway than single filers — meaning they can earn more than single filers before jumping to the next highest tax rate.

For example, a single filer with taxable income of $60,000 would have a marginal tax rate of 22%, while a head of household filer at the same income level would have a top tax rate of just 12%. As a result, the head of household filer’s tax liability is about $1,380 lower than the single filer’s with the same income (before any credits are applied).

For incomes above about $100,500, the tax brackets for both tax statuses are virtually the same.

Credits and deductions

Head of household filers may be eligible for credits that help offset the cost of caregiving, such as the Child Tax Credit or the Child and Dependent Care Credit. The Earned Income Tax Credit is available to all filing statuses, but those with children can get a larger amount.

For 2024 taxes, the Child Tax Credit is worth up to $2,000 per qualifying child. The maximum income you can have to qualify for the credit ($200,000) is the same for all filing statuses, except married joint filers ($400,000). Up to $1,700 of the credit is refundable.

There’s no maximum income threshold for claiming the Child and Dependent Care Credit, which allows you to write off some expenses associated with the care of a child under 13 or a dependent of any age who is mentally or physically disabled. Once your adjusted gross income, or AGI, reaches $43,000, regardless of filing status, your maximum credit is either $300 for one qualifying dependent or $600 for two or more.

How to claim head of household status

Gathering necessary documentation

Filing taxes as head of household can be more involved than filing as single. You’ll need to provide supporting documents to confirm your marital status and the eligibility of your dependent.

To prove qualifying dependency status, you need to provide the following with your tax return:

• Birth certificates or other official documents of birth or letters that verify your relationship
• School, medical, daycare, or social service records that verify your address is the same as the dependent (unless they are your parent)

To prove that you paid 50% or more of the costs of keeping up a home for your dependent, attach:

• Rent receipts
• Utility bills
• Grocery receipts
• Property tax bills
• Mortgage statements
• Repair bills

Common scenarios and examples

Single parents

A person who has sole legal and physical custody of a child (also known as the custodial parent) will typically qualify for head of household status. The child can also be a stepchild, foster child, or adopted child.

Divorced or separated individuals

Divorces where children are involved can make filing taxes a bit tricky. Generally, only one parent can file as head of household in a given tax year and also claim deductions and credits for the dependent.

“If you have multiple children with your ex, there’s a possibility that both parents can file as head of household,” Burns says. Each parent must pass the residency and support tests for each dependent they claim.

Supporting relatives

Nieces, nephews, siblings, grandchildren, parents, step-parents, and in-laws may all be considered qualifying dependents for purposes of the head of household filing status.

The same residency and relationship tests apply as for children of the taxpayer, but there’s an exception for parents: They do not need to have lived with you, but you must still have covered at least 50% of the cost of keeping up a home for them, including nursing care or a retirement home.

Potential challenges and how to overcome them

Proving eligibility

Doerr says there may be an increased audit risk for those filing as head of household versus single. Be prepared for the IRS to ask for additional financial records or verification.

“Head of household definitely can draw IRS scrutiny and the IRS can definitely scrutinize claims, especially in the case of divorce or shared custody, requiring you to provide detailed documentation,” Doerr says.

Understanding the rules

If you’re unsure whether you qualify for head of household status, consult with a tax advisor. And if you’re dealing with an ex-spouse, be sure to communicate about your tax-filing plan before either party files.

Estimate your taxes

FAQs about filing as head of household

Can I file as head of household if my spouse and I are still married?

Yes, you can file as head of household if you are legally separated but still married and have a qualifying dependent. You can also file as head of household if you're still married but live separately for the last six months of the year. Ex-spouses cannot, however, claim the same child in the same tax year.

What counts as maintaining a household for head of household purposes?

Maintaining a household for head of household purposes means providing more than 50% of the cost of housing, food, and other essential expenses.

How do I know if my dependent qualifies me for head of household?

Your dependent can qualify you for head of household status if they lived in your home more than half the time, and you paid more than half the cost of keeping up the home.

What should I do if my filing status is challenged by the IRS?

If your filing status is challenged by the IRS, it is likely related to your dependent. Be prepared to provide additional records or receipts to prove that you financially supported and housed the dependent for more than half of the year.

Are there any exceptions to the general head of household rules?

Yes, there is an exception to the general head of household rules: A parent can be a qualifying dependent even if they didn't live with you. But you must have paid at least 50% of the cost of maintaining their primary home, whether that's a nursing home, retirement community, or another living situation.

• The all-new BMW i5 is the first EV variant of the brand's iconic 5-Series luxury sports sedan.
• I recently drove a 2024 BMW i5 in M60 trim with xDrive all-wheel-drive.
• I came away impressed by its exhilarating performance, luxurious cabin, and understated styling.

The BMW 5-Series has been the benchmark for luxury sports sedans for the past five decades. This year, the Bavarian automaker launched the i5, the first all-electric version of the 5-Series that will sell alongside the new eighth-generation internal combustion-powered 5-Series.

The i5 joins a segment comprised of established players like the Audi e-tron GT and Tesla Model S, as well as newcomers like the Mercedes-Benz EQE and Lucid Air.

I recently reviewed a 2024 BMW i5 M60 xDrive with an as-tested price of $95,395. I was impressed by the BMW's exhilarating performance, luxurious cabin, and understated styling.

The base rear-wheel-drive BMW i5 eDrive40 starts at $66,800, while my range-topping, all-wheel-drive i5 M60 xDrive test car starts at $84,100.

Here are 14 features that help make the i5 a great high-performance luxury EV.

Understated styling

BMW's styling has drawn the ire of many brand loyalists in recent years, especially regarding the growth in the size of its signature kidney grilles. Fortunately, BMW exercised restraint with the 5-Series, resulting in a subtle design that exudes a certain understated elegance.

The boxy, squared-off lines leave no doubt that this is a BMW 5-Series.

Nifty modular platform

The BMW i5 is not built on a dedicated EV platform like many of its rivals but one shared with its ICE siblings. Fortunately, the BMW CLAR modular platform that underpins the i5 was designed to accommodate ICE, hybrid, and battery-electric models.

As a result, the i5 retains the long-sloping hood of its internal combustion brethren and the space where a silky smooth BMW straight six once occupied.

Under the hood, a large plastic panel covers the electronics and an electric motor for the front axle.

Supercar-like power

My BMW i5 M60 xDrive came with a 257-horsepower electronic motor mounted at the front axle and a larger 335-horsepower electric motor at the back. Together, they produce a stout 593 total system horsepower and up to 605 lb-ft of torque.

Fast charging

Beneath the i5's floor, you'll find a large lithium-ion battery pack with 84.3 kWh of usable energy.

According to BMW, a DC fast charger can charge the car from 10% to 80% in about 30 minutes.

The EPA rated my high-performance test car for 240 miles of range, but I was able to extract about 250 miles during my time with it.

Those looking for more range will need to opt for the less powerful i5 eDrive40, which can go up to 295 miles on a single charge.

Great handling

The BMW 5-Series is known for its poise in the corners and power down the straight.

And the i5 delivered on that promise and is flat-out fast. Its acceleration was swift, brutal, and utterly glorious.

I've driven more than a few supercars in my time, but the immediacy of the Bimmer's acceleration off the line caught me by surprise a couple of times. I loved it.

According to BMW, the i5 M60 xDrive can sprint from 0 to 60 in just 3.7 seconds, but Motor Trend was able to do it in 3.4 seconds. I'm leaning toward the quicker time.

BMW says the i5 can reach a top speed of 143 mph.

On the winding mountain roads of North Georgia, the all-wheel-drive i5 was a pleasure to drive. With perfect 50/50 front-rear weight distribution, the i5 felt balanced and precise around the corners. It does a good job of hiding its hefty 5,200-pound curb weight.

Beautifully executed cabin

The i5's cabin is unmistakably modern, with massive infotainment screens and lashes of carbon fiber, but everything is sensibly packaged in a way that won't offend any automotive traditionalists.

BMW did a great job offering drivers a multitude of ways to engage with the vehicle, from voice activation to touchscreens to capacitive touch buttons.

I found the interactive LED light strips on the center stack and doors, which double as touch-sensitive climate controls and seat controls, to be a neat touch.

Despite a few cheap-feeling plastic power window switches, the i5's overall material and build quality were excellent. I was particularly impressed by the beautiful glass shift toggle and rotary infotainment controller on the center console.

Advanced driver cockpit

In front of the driver are a leather-wrapped, flat-bottom BMW M-Sport steering wheel and a new 12.3-inch digital instrument panel. The configurable instrument display offers a multitude of layouts and embedded systems that range from navigation to parking assistance.

Also in front of the driver is an optional head-up display.

Supportive front seats

The i5's burgundy-red seats, which are upholstered in perforated Veganza imitation leather, were wonderfully supportive and comfortable.

Feature-packed infotainment system

The focal point of the i5's front dash is a massive 14.9-inch screen running the latest version of BMW's much-improved iDrive infotainment system.

The system can be operated by voice command, touchscreen, or a nifty glass rotary controller on the center console.

The screen is also home to the i5's drive mode menu and its surround-view camera system.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come standard.

Panoramic roof

The i5 comes standard with a traditional power glass moonroof, but buyers can upgrade to a massive panoramic Sky Lounge Roof as part of the Executive Package.

Luxurious rear cabin

The i5's rear cabin provides more than enough room for two adults to travel in comfort and style. The burgundy-red faux leather seats are soft and comfortable. There are retractable sunshades, dedicated AC vents, USB-C sockets, and seatback mounting points for tablets.

Remote start

The i5 can be started remotely by pressing the BMW logo on the key fob three times in quick succession.

Safety tech

The i5 comes loaded with standard safety and driver's assistance tech, including active driving assist, active blind spot detection, and lane departure warning. However, adaptive cruise control requires the $2,000 Driving Assistance Pro package.

Stylish wheels

The i5 comes standard with 19-inch alloys, but my test car had these snazzy $1,800 optional 21-inch bi-color wheels.

The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.

Affiliate links for the products on this page are from partners that compensate us (see our advertiser disclosure with our list of partners for more details). However, our opinions are our own. See how we rate tax products to write unbiased product reviews.

• Tax-exempt interest comes mainly from municipal bonds and U.S. Treasury bonds.
• Interest from Treasury bonds, bills, and notes is federally taxed.
• Muni bond interest is not federally taxed and may be exempt from state and local taxes.

There are plenty of reasons to buy bonds. Many investors are attracted to municipal bonds and U.S. Treasury bonds, in particular, for their tax-exempt status.

"Individuals are always looking for a return on principal, and so tax-exempt interest is a very appealing item to individuals, especially those who live in zero-income-tax states," says Danny Moore, a certified public accountant and managing partner of tax at Galway Family Office.

Tax-exempt interest refers to interest that's excluded from your gross income calculation at the federal level, the state/local level, or both. Here's how it works.

Tax-exempt interest from municipal bonds

What are municipal bonds?

Municipal bonds, or muni bonds, are typically issued by state and local governments and U.S. territories. They finance government operations and projects, such as building schools or restoring roads.

The two main types of muni bonds are revenue and general obligation. Revenue bonds can be slightly riskier because repayment relies on revenue from a specific project or source. Repayment of general obligation bonds comes from the issuing state or local government, which can raise taxes to pay off the bonds if needed.

Tax advantages

Usually, bondholders receive two interest, or coupon, payments a year, which are not subject to federal income tax. After a set period of time, bondholders receive their original investment back.

Investors can buy muni bonds from the state or locality in which they reside, or from another state or locality. Typically interest income from muni bonds — or muni bond funds — issued by your home state is not taxable there.

Risks and considerations

Your muni bond interest income may not be fully tax-exempt at home if you buy an out-of-state bond, says Derrick Doerr, a CPA and vice president at financial-services firm Nepsis in Minneapolis.

State rules vary, but generally, the interest you earn from an out-of-state bond can trigger taxes in your home state. Exceptions include Washington D.C. and some states with no income tax, such as Florida.

Also, Doerr notes, "Municipal bonds are generally low risk, but not risk-free." One risk is that muni bonds can be called early by the issuer. This often happens when interest rates fall, and can leave an investor choosing from lower-paying alternatives.

If you're a high earner, there's something else to consider: Interest from private activity bonds, a type of muni bond issued by a private business and not a government entity, may not be tax-exempt if you pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). AMT may apply to individuals with incomes over $609,350 or married couples filing jointly with incomes above about $1.2 million.

Note: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recommends reading official statements and disclosures from bond issuers and reviewing trade prices of municipal bonds you are considering buying.

Tax-exempt interest from U.S. Treasury Securities

What Are U.S. Treasury Securities?

Tax-exempt interest income can also come from U.S. Treasury Securities. Interest is paid semiannually and subject to federal taxation, but exempt from state and local taxes.

Treasurys are backed by the federal government and are categorized by their maturities, or how long it takes to return your original investment (principal). Bills mature within a year, notes mature within 10 years, and bonds mature in 20 or 30 years.

Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) are a type of Treasury bond that protects your investment from inflation. They're available in terms of five, 10, or 30 years. The interest rate is fixed, and semiannual payments are only federally taxable, but your principal can fluctuate.

Interest earned from Series EE and Series I Savings Bonds are also exempt from state and local taxes. Interest, which is collected at maturity or whenever you cash the bond, could be exempt from federal taxation if you use the proceeds for qualified higher education expenses, though several rules apply.

Tax advantages

Treasurys produce fixed interest that's not subject to state or local taxes, offering predictable income for bondholders.

For T-bonds, bills, and notes, you have to include the interest in your federal gross income each year that you collect it. For savings bonds, interest isn't paid until the bond is redeemed, so you have the choice to pay federal taxes on it in the year you collect or spread it out over the life of the bond.

Risks and considerations

Treasurys are the closest thing to a risk-free investment since they're backed by the full faith and credit of the federal government. But you still owe federal taxes on the interest income.

Much of the risk associated with Treasurys is in how long they take to mature. Interest rates are fixed for the life of the bond, which can be as high as 20 or 30 years for bonds or up to 10 years for bills. If interest rates rise on newly issued Treasurys, the value of existing bonds drops. This is referred to as interest rate risk.

If rates go up and you decide to sell a bond before its maturity date, you may experience a significant loss because there's less demand for lower-yield bonds. If you hold on to the bond, you may be losing out on a higher-return investment.

Tax-exempt interest from other investments

Other types of investments may produce a kind of tax-exempt interest or return. For example, investment gains in a 529 college savings plan are not taxable at the federal or state levels if the funds are used for education.

Similarly, some might consider Roth IRAs a tax-exempt investment, since the accounts are funded with posttax dollars, which grow tax-free and can be withdrawn penalty- and tax-free under certain circumstances, such as reaching age 59 and a half.

Taxable interest vs. tax-exempt interest

Many corporate bonds have higher advertised interest rates than tax-exempt bonds, but the interest is fully taxable. It can seem like a no-brainer, then, to opt for a bond that gives you a tax break over one that doesn't.

But, Moore says, "It's not just a federal tax-free amount" with municipal bonds. "You have to look at the states and you have to look at somebody's complete tax picture to see if it makes sense."

When comparing bonds, investors need to find the tax-equivalent yield of their bond options to see which produces a higher after-tax return, says Doerr. A specialized calculator, like this one from Fidelity, can help crunch the numbers.

And although the IRS (and many state governments) exempt certain interest income from the computation of income tax, those amounts may later be added back in other situations.

For federal income tax calculation purposes, tax-exempt interest is added back to figure your modified adjusted gross income, which is a crucial figure that determines deductible contributions to traditional IRAs, eligibility for a Roth IRA, and qualification for education credits, healthcare credits, and the Child Tax Credit. It's also used to figure out how much of your Social Security benefits are taxable.

Estimate your taxes

FAQs about tax-exempt interest income

Is interest from my savings account tax-exempt?

No, interest from savings accounts isn't tax-exempt. You'll get a 1099-INT from your bank with the amount of interest earned during the year, which should be included in your gross income.

Are dividends from stocks tax-exempt?

Dividends from stocks and generally not tax-exempt. Qualified dividends are taxed at capital gains rates (0%, 15%, 20%), while nonqualified dividends are taxed at ordinary rates (10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, 37%).

How do I report tax-exempt interest on my tax return?

Tax-exempt interest is reported on Line 2a of your Form 1040. You'll find the amount of tax-exempt interest you earned in Box 8 of your 1099-INT. Reporting the interest is required, but doesn't make it taxable.

Over a span of days, Joshua England's pleas for help became more desperate.

"I've been puking all night, and now I'm puking what looks like blood," he wrote to his medical providers on May 22, 2018. "My stomach hurts so, so bad." At the medical clinic that day he clutched his abdomen and described his pain as sharp and intense — an 8 out of 10. But he was seen by a lesser-trained licensed practical nurse, who didn't give him a complete abdominal exam or send him for any lab work. Instead he was given Pepto-Bismol and told to drink water and eat fibrous food.

The Pepto-Bismol didn't help. The next day England wrote that his pain was so bad he could barely breathe. He couldn't eat or sleep. He again went to the clinic, where he said he'd had bloody stool and his pain was now a 10 out of 10. The physician assistant found that his pulse was racing but didn't conduct an abdominal exam. Instead, he chalked up England's symptoms to constipation and prescribed a laxative.

At that point someone with England's symptoms might seek out a new clinic, to get a more thorough workup, or even head straight to an ER. But Joshua England didn't have that option. He was inmate No. 775261 at Joseph Harp Correctional Center, a medium-security facility in central Oklahoma. He'd been sentenced to 343 days in prison after he and some buddies set some hay bales on fire one drunken night. This reconstruction of the events of those days in May 2018 is based on prison and medical records obtained by Business Insider in collaboration with The Frontier, a nonprofit newsroom in Oklahoma.

Four days after he first requested help, England submitted his fourth sick call — a one-page form that prisoners at Joseph Harp used to request medical attention. He again wrote down how it was hard to breathe or even lie down. This time the licensed practical nurse who saw him consulted with the prison's supervising physician, Robert Balogh. Balogh prescribed ibuprofen over the phone. He, and the physician assistant who saw England earlier, each had marks on their records: Balogh had been fined and put on probation for a time by the Oklahoma narcotics bureau, and the license of the PA had once been revoked for prescription fraud.

As medical professionals downplayed England's symptoms, he continued to deteriorate. He couldn't work or eat or shower; instead he remained in his cell, curled up on the floor in tears. Other prisoners reported that he had lost weight, his skin color had changed, and he no longer seemed fully cognizant.

On May 29, 2018, a corrections officer discovered England slumped over on the floor next to his cell. The Choctaw Nation kid who loved fishing and cattle ranching had died, just weeks after turning 21. Autopsy records show that the cause of death was a ruptured appendix.

Appendicitis is easily treated with minimally invasive outpatient surgery. Even treating a ruptured appendix is considered routine as long as the patient is immediately hospitalized. In this case, the PA was notified of his declining condition the morning of his death; he later told investigators he didn't believe England's condition had been life-threatening. A licensed practical nurse who saw England a few days earlier said she suspected he was in withdrawal and seeking painkillers.

Five years after England's death, the Oklahoma legislature approved a $1.05 million settlement with his mother, Christy Smith, to resolve a claim under the Eighth Amendment, which bars "cruel and unusual punishments." During litigation, the Oklahoma attorney general maintained that the prison's course of treatment was legitimate; in settling, the state admitted no wrongdoing.

Balogh, who no longer works for the department, confirmed the probation and said he was cleared to work without monitoring in 2015. He said he worked remotely for Joseph Harp so was reliant on information provided over the phone by the nurse, who he said did not mention that England had been having symptoms over a span of days. "You had a system where, many times, the physician was not there," Balogh said. "There were some ways that information could fall through the cracks."

A spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections declined to comment about the case, as did Joan Kane, a clerk for the Western District Court of Oklahoma, on behalf of Judge Charles Goodwin, who presided. "It is atypical for federal judges to speak publicly about specific legal situations or cases," she said. No other judge on a case mentioned in this story agreed to comment.

Few cases win outright

Business Insider analyzed a sample of nearly 1,500 federal Eighth Amendment lawsuits — including every appeals court case with an opinion we could locate filed from 2018 to 2022 and citing the relevant precedent-setting Supreme Court cases and standards — and found that a settlement like Smith's was exceedingly rare.

The cases in BI's sample overwhelmingly detailed serious claims of harm, including sexual assault, retaliatory beatings, prolonged solitary confinement, and untreated cancers. Prisoners lost a vast majority of them — 85%.

Roughly three-quarters of civil suits filed in the United States settle, and nearly half of nonprisoner civil-rights suits do. In BI's sample of Eighth Amendment cases, just 14% settled. Many of the settlements were sealed. Of the rest, none involved an admission of wrongdoing by prison officials. BI was able to identify just six cases that settled for $50,000 or more; half of those, including the England case, involved prisoner deaths.

Many of the cases settled for modest amounts: An Oregon prisoner received $251 over a claim that she was sexually assaulted by another prisoner and then pepper-sprayed by a guard. A Nevada prisoner got $400 on a claim that guards beat and pepper-sprayed him while he was in restraints. A New York prisoner won $2,000 for claims that he suffered debilitating pain while prison officials delayed treating his degenerative osteoarthritis.

In 11 cases — less than 1% of the sample — the plaintiffs won relief in court.

Seven of these plaintiffs won damages, the result of six jury trials and one default judgment; plaintiffs in the other four cases, including two class actions, were granted motions for injunctive relief, such as being freed from a prolonged stint in solitary. In one of these cases, a plaintiff in Wisconsin was granted access to gender-affirming surgery to treat her gender dysphoria after a seven-year delay. Along the way, the 7th Circuit granted the officials qualified immunity, which protects the conduct of public officials in the line of duty, so the plaintiff was denied damages. Beth Hardtke, the director of communications for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, said the department updated its transgender-care policy in response to the ruling.

Litigants without lawyers

Another pattern jumped out: In every case in BI's sample in which a prisoner prevailed, the plaintiff was represented by legal counsel. They were outliers.

In the vast majority of cases, 78%, prisoners litigated pro se — without counsel — in large part because a Clinton-era law, the Prison Litigation Reform Act, tightly capped attorney fees, making it prohibitive for lawyers to take prisoner cases. BI interviewed 10 attorneys who represented prisoners or their families in cases that prevailed; they all said the cases would have struggled to succeed without counsel.

"Pro se litigants do not win cases in federal court," said Victor Glasberg, one of a team of attorneys who successfully proved in 2018 that conditions on Virginia's death row violated prisoners' Eighth Amendment rights. "When faced with abysmal anti-plaintiff litigation and jurisprudence, the chance of a pro se litigant getting to first base is about as good as my flying to the moon."

Even lawyers struggle to master the convoluted standards that now guide Eighth Amendment claims, said Chris Smith, a Mississippi attorney who won a constitutional claim over inadequate medical care in 2021.

Smith told BI that his team's ability to access documents was critical for winning the case; he and his colleague spent days combing through 5-inch binders containing years of medical records to prove the corrections department was responsible for treatment delays.

But prisoners face a litany of hurdles, he said, starting with the difficulty they face obtaining records.

They don't have experience in the rules of civil procedure, he said. They don't know how to plan a litigation strategy, or draft jury instructions, or take depositions.

In England's case, because he had died, his mother was the plaintiff in a 2019 lawsuit alleging that corrections and medical staff had failed to treat his appendicitis. Since she was not incarcerated, she was able to secure legal counsel free from the PLRA's fee caps.

The settlement, reached after a four-year legal battle, did not require the defendants to admit to any wrongdoing. State taxpayers, rather than the named defendants, footed the bill.

"The people that actually were responsible for it," England's stepfather, Darren Smith, said, "have no accountability whatsoever."

Prisoners succeed more before juries

One federal judge, Lawrence Piersol of the South Dakota District Court, said that in his experience, jurors are not generally sympathetic to imprisoned plaintiffs. BI's data indicates that plaintiffs actually fare somewhat better before juries than before judges. Of the 1,488 cases in BI's sample, prisoners prevailed more often before juries. Just 2% of the cases BI reviewed were decided by a jury. Yet more than half of the 11 prisoners who won their suits had jury trials.

Glasberg, the Virginia attorney, said he suspected that if more cases were decided by jurors, it would "significantly improve the plight of people in prisons and jails." Many prisoners, he said, see their cases dismissed preemptively by a judge, before a jury has the chance to hear evidence.

One Louisiana prisoner, Tony Johnson, was awarded $750,000 in 2020 after a jury found that a guard at Angola had sexually assaulted him. The guard denied the allegations.

Johnson's lawyer, Joseph Long, told BI that the verdict was the result of years of litigation, including obtaining dozens of depositions and spending nearly $40,000 on the case. The underlying Eighth Amendment claim, he said, entailed abuse with the potential to infuriate even jurors sympathetic to law enforcement.

"Prison isn't supposed to be good, but when they get raped by a guard even the most hard-bitten conservative has to admit that's wrong," Long said. The guard resigned from the prison in 2014 and was never criminally charged; four years after the verdict, Long said, his client has yet to receive his money from the state. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections declined to comment on the record.

Chris Smith's client, a Mississippi prisoner named Thad Delaughter, had complained for years about severe hip pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis. Eventually, in 2011, he was allowed to see an outside specialist who found that he needed surgery to reconstruct his hip. The operation was scheduled, only to be abruptly canceled; one of Smith's arguments in court was that prison officials didn't want to foot the substantial bill.

The treatment kept getting delayed as his condition deteriorated. At trial, jurors found that Gloria Perry, the department's chief medical officer, had violated Delaughter's constitutional rights by delaying the procedure; he was awarded $382,000 in damages and, in 2022, had the operation.

Perry denied any wrongdoing, saying in court filings that her actions didn't rise to the level of a constitutional violation; her motion for a new trial was denied. A representative of the Mississippi Department of Corrections said Perry no longer worked for the department and declined to comment on litigation matters; her attorney did not respond to queries.

'I want him to live'

Among the jury wins for prisoners in BI's sample were two cases filed against doctors who worked for Wexford Health, the private correctional healthcare company. In one case, an Illinois prisoner named William Kent Dean convinced a jury that his kidney cancer had metastasized after healthcare providers failed to diagnose and adequately treat his symptoms over a span of seven months. At one point, email records showed, Wexford employees discussed admitting him into hospice in lieu of paying to treat his illness. "He's the love of my life," Dean's wife, Cynthia Dean, said during the trial, "and I want him to live."

In 2019, Dean won $11 million in damages at trial against Wexford and two of its medical providers. Appeals court judges of the 7th Circuit then sent the case back, after finding that Dean hadn't proved the defendants were "deliberately indifferent" to his suffering, as the Supreme Court requires.

One 7th Circuit judge, Diane Wood, dissented, writing, "Wexford directly learned of the lack of significant medical intervention and the arc of Dean's cancer's progression, yet still did not act efficiently or effectively."

Dean died of kidney cancer in 2022 at the age of 61.

Wexford and the Illinois Department of Corrections did not respond to requests for comment.

In August, a new jury again found in favor of Cynthia Dean, who had taken over as plaintiff. This time the award was $155,100. Wexford, in a court filing, denied all of the allegations.

BI's database is packed with cases that also allege significant harm — but the plaintiffs lost.

One was another Illinois prisoner under the care of Wexford, who sued his doctor for waiting over a year to test for an abdominal hernia — prolonging his pain and delaying corrective surgery. Another involved an Oklahoma man who filed suit saying that a prison doctor had improperly discontinued his medication to treat chronic nerve pain from tongue cancer. Both cases were dismissed when judges found the prisoners could not prove their doctors were deliberately indifferent.

A woman in California sued after doctors persistently misdiagnosed a growing lump that, years later, was diagnosed as Stage 4 breast cancer. Even then, she said, doctors denied and delayed chemotherapy as the cancer spread.

The US District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed her case when she died. There was nobody to take over for her as plaintiff.

Terri Hardy, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, declined to comment on the breast cancer case and said the department works to ensure that its complaint process is fair, thorough, and timely. A spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections declined to comment on the tongue cancer case.

Large settlements for prisoner deaths

One way for a plaintiff to win a large settlement, BI found, is to end up dead.

Of the six lawsuits BI identified that settled for $50,000 or more, half of those were filed by family members such as Josh England's mother, Christy Smith, whose sons or brothers died behind bars. Unlike prisoner plaintiffs, these surviving relatives didn't have to overcome the PLRA's hurdles.

"Somebody has lost their life, so there should be a lot of money," said Paola Armeni, a Las Vegas attorney. "They're not getting their loved one back."

Armeni's case is one of a handful in our sample in which a lawsuit forced substantive change. She represented the family of Carlos Perez Jr., a Nevada prisoner who was killed in 2014 at Nevada's High Desert State Prison by a trainee officer named Raynaldo-John Ruiz Ramos. Ramos shot Perez multiple times with birdshot, a kind of ammunition used to hunt small game. "They lit him up," Armeni told BI. "The birdshot was from his waist up. It was a murder."

Six months later, a prisoner named Stacey Richards was permanently blinded when a corrections officer shot him with birdshot at another Nevada prison, Ely State.

After an eight-year legal battle, the state settled last year with Perez's family for $1.6 million. That same year, a case filed by Richards settled for $2.25 million. In exchange, Richards' attorney agreed that his client wouldn't talk to the press about the case. Ramos maintained in court that firing his weapon was a reasonable use of force to break up a fight between prisoners.

As a result of Perez's death, the state corrections commissioner was forced out and the department commissioned an external review of its use-of-force policies, ultimately agreeing, in 2015, to phase out the use of birdshot, which prison guards had deployed for decades.

In reaching a settlement with the Perez family, the state did not accept liability for Perez's death, even though the Clark County coroner's office had ruled it a homicide.

The Nevada Department of Corrections declined to comment; Ramos' attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.

Ramos was charged with involuntary manslaughter. In 2019, he entered a plea deal. In exchange for community service and a mental-health evaluation, he avoided prison.

• The creator economy has blossomed into a $250 billion industry but faces fresh challenges.
• One big question on the horizon: Will TikTok be banned?
• Meanwhile, some smaller creators fear being pushed out — and some VC interest has cooled.

The creator economy is hitting an inflection point heading into 2025: TikTok is in the throes of a potential extinction event. MrBeast is testing the limits of influencer megastardom. And there's an ongoing changing of the guard at YouTube — the platform that arguably started it all.

Birthed in the mid-2000s, the creator economy has grown into a $250 billion industry and could be worth as much as half a trillion dollars by 2027, Goldman Sachs estimates.

At the same time, growth has been constrained: Increased competition and platform algorithmic changes are making it harder for some smaller creators to thrive.

And while venture capital is still flowing — particularly in buzzy areas like artificial intelligence, social shopping, and influencer marketing — the investor hype cycle has also slowed.

Here are some of the biggest high points and low points the creator economy faced this year — and some challenges ahead in 2025:

TikTok faces an extinction event

A potential TikTok ban is one of the biggest threats looming over the creator economy. The app reliably churns out stars, resides at the heart of internet culture, and serves as an engine for countless e-commerce startups.

TikTok Shop helped social shopping finally break through in the US in 2024 — driving $100 million in sales on Black Friday alone and becoming more popular among US online shoppers than Shein and Sephora, according to a report by Coefficient Capital and The New Consumer.

TikTok may be saved by the Supreme Court or a more amenable Trump administration. But if a ban is enacted, up-and-coming creators are likely to be hit hardest.

Some are sounding the alarm, while others have told Business Insider they're hopeful they can transition audiences to YouTube and Instagram — which staged something of a comeback in 2024, winning over more teens — or even LinkedIn.

TikTok has remained somewhat unfazed in the face of the legal battle — though CEO Shou Chew has reportedly made direct and indirect overtures to president-elect Donald Trump as the case heads to the Supreme Court.

New highs — and challenges — for MrBeast

Perhaps no modern-day creator has achieved heights like Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson, whose ambitious but challenging 2024 could serve as a blueprint — or cautionary tale — for fellow creators.

That said, YouTube's most-subscribed star has a way of staying on top. Beloved for his generosity and what some see as his authenticity, Donaldson not only reaches untold masses but resonates with a coveted young male demographic.

In July, allegations emerged that Donaldson's childhood friend and longtime video collaborator, Ava Tyson, had inappropriately messaged a minor. (Tyson wrote on X in July that any accusations of grooming were false, adding: "I would like to apologize for any of my past behavior or comments if it hurt or offended anyone.") Tyson and Donaldson parted ways.

A third-party investigation ultimately concluded that any allegations of sexual contact between company employees and minors were "without basis." It said there had been isolated incidents of "workplace harassment" and that the company had taken swift action to deal with those.

Meanwhile, Donaldson also garnered headlines this year for "Beast Games," a streaming game show that premiered in December on Amazon Prime.

The show, which he said cost more than $100 million, amplified his already massive production scope and diversified his reach beyond his home turf.

The show has attracted some controversy, with some contestants complaining about filming conditions and injuries they say they sustained. Donaldson has previously said he couldn't comment on certain allegations, but also described some of the claims as "disinformation." Amazon hasn't commented.

A changing of the guard at YouTube

YouTube's outright dominance — with a reported $400 billion valuation — sometimes has a tendency to fly under the radar. But the world's largest video platform further cemented its status this year as the go-to revenue-sharer for creators.

Alphabet-owned YouTube has also emerged as an irrefutable powerhouse on TV screens — an all-important venue for advertisers — and in the influential podcast space. YouTube has long led Netflix in big screen watch time, and it's also the most popular way for people to consume podcasts, per Edison Research.

Tragically, 2024 marked the death of creator economy architect Susan Wojcicki, the former YouTube CEO who shepherded key ventures like YouTube Premium and YouTube TV into the world. (Wojcicki had stepped down in early 2023.)

Despite countless wins, a long-running trend also continued of veteran creators retiring from their channels or floating the idea of quitting, with many citing age, burnout, and increased pressure amid platform changes.

Two formative creators officially left the platform in 2024: "Game Theorists" host Matthew Patrick and education creator Tom Scott.

And creators who rose to fame on YouTube also brought their bold-faced projects elsewhere this year — Donaldson's aforementioned Amazon show, Jake Paul's fight with Mike Tyson on Netflix, and a reality series by YouTube collective The Sidemen, which also transitioned to Netflix.

• President-elect Donald Trump named Elbridge Colby as his next undersecretary of defense policy.
• In February, Colby said "disabling or destroying TSMC is table stakes" if China invades Taiwan.
• Colby made the same point in 2023, saying the US should never allow TSMC to fall into Chinese hands.

President-elect Donald Trump's pick for undersecretary of defense policy once called for the destruction of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's chip plants if China takes over Taiwan.

"If China attacks Taiwan, Taiwan itself and US should not allow TSMC to fall intact into PRC hands," former senior Pentagon official Elbridge Colby wrote in an X post in May 2023.

Trump announced Colby's nomination on Sunday in a Truth Social post, calling him a "highly respected advocate for our America First foreign and defense policy."

Colby, a Harvard and Yale Law graduate, was part of the first Trump administration. He served as Trump's deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development from 2017 to 2018.

"There's no scenario in which Taiwan falls to the PRC and Taiwanese can expect TSMC and its central role to persist," Colby wrote in the same thread, adding that the US and its allies couldn't afford to allow China to "have such dominance over global semiconductors."

TSMC, Colby wrote, needs to be included in the US' semiconductor sanctions against China in the event Taiwan surrenders.

Colby made a similar point in another X post he published earlier in 2024.

"Disabling or destroying TSMC is table stakes if China is taking over Taiwan," Colby wrote on February 24.

"Would we be so insane as to allow the world's key semiconductor company fall untouched into the hands of an aggressive PRC?" he added.

Representatives for Trump and Colby did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment. TSMC also did not respond to a request for comment.

TSMC is the world's largest contract chipmaker and counts US tech giants like Apple and Nvidia as major customers.

Its core base, Taiwan, is also home to smaller chip producers like MediaTek and ASE, making the island a critical node in the global semiconductor supply chain.

According to the US-based Semiconductor Industry Association, 92% of the world's most advanced microchips are produced in Taiwan.

In May, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told lawmakers at a House hearing that a Chinese seizure of TSMC during a Taiwan invasion "would be absolutely devastating." The US is obliged by law to protect Taiwan by providing the island with military means to defend itself.

Under President Joe Biden, the US has strived to diversify its chip supply.

In August 2022, Biden signed the $52 billion CHIPS for America Act, which provides manufacturing incentives for chip production in the US.

But the legislation drew Trump's criticism, who said in an interview with Joe Rogan in October, that tariffs, not subsidies, would have been more effective.

"You could have done it with tariffs. You tariff it so high that they will come and build their chip companies for nothing," Trump said.

In December, the Biden administration introduced a new raft of export controls on China's semiconductor industry.

The restrictions, which target 140 Chinese companies, mark the third time the administration has cracked down on China's chipmaking industry since October 2022.

The list includes companies like Huawei, Naura Technology Group, and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation.

• Paris-headquartered Newcleo is developing small modular reactors powered by radioactive waste.
• The startup, Europe's only nuclear unicorn, is riding a wave of Big Tech interest in nuclear energy.
• Elisabeth Rizzotti, its COO, said the startup will go public after hitting two key milestones.

A three-year-old startup is banking on molten lead and radioactive waste to fuel a nuclear energy renaissance driven by the tech world's demand for abundant and clean power.

Paris-headquartered Newcleo is building small modular reactors, a type of scaled-down nuclear fission reactor assembled in a factory that can be deployed locally at operating plants. It is aiming to capitalize on the frenzy to power energy-intensive AI data centers.

The startup's unique selling point is that its SMRs use molten lead instead of water as a coolant to transfer heat from the reactor core to a power-generating system.

Notably, the startup's SMRs use spent plutonium and uranium radioactive waste as fuel by separating these two elements from the unwanted fission products.

"We're using and reducing what is considered to be a liability and a strong concern for all the governments who have so many deposits of nuclear waste," Elisabeth Rizzotti, the cofounder and chief operating officer of Newcleo, told Business Insider in an interview. "So we also promised to reduce them. And this is a story that really excites people."

Big Tech's push into nuclear has galvanized the startup's efforts. Tech giants such as Google and Amazon have been pivoting to nuclear energy sources to power data centers, which in turn power AI applications. In September, Microsoft announced a deal to help restart Three Mile Island, a nuclear plant infamous for housing one of the most significant nuclear accidents in US history.

Localized nuclear power

Newcleo is one of a handful of companies developing SMRs. Competitors include NuScale, X-Energy, and Rolls-Royce. One appeal of SMRs is that they can be readily transported to industrial sites.

"One of our most relevant business models is supporting the industrial sector, in providing them energy locally," Rizzotti said. "The small models are easily transportable because they're flexible, and you can build them in the factory, so it's very feasible — so there is strong interest from the AI sector, but also wider commercial partners."

She told BI that Newcleo has been approached by other industrial sectors, such as ceramic metal producers, in addition to those in the AI ecosystem.

Securing industrial partnerships is key to Newcleo's growth strategy and fundraising efforts. The startup aims to develop its first prototype by 2026 and operate its first reactor by 2031. Right now, Newcleo is lossmaking, but earlier this year, it hit around $55 million in revenue through its three subsidiaries.

Growth ambitions

In September, Newcleo moved its headquarters from the UK to Paris, which Rizzotti said was to be closer to the French government and support its licensing applications. The move helped Newcleo get selected to be part of the European Industrial Alliance on Small Modular Reactors, an initiative to accelerate the deployment of SMRs.

Despite public and private sector interest, nuclear energy is still seen by some as a risky enterprise due to safety concerns and the hefty upfront cost of building power plants.

Rizzotti acknowledged that Newcleo's investors had a "high risk appetite" — but says Newcleo's place in the circular economy makes it an attractive investment option.

In March 2023, Newcleo announced a bold ambition to raise €1 billion, about $1.04 billion. It's now over halfway to meeting that target, having raised over $560 million in funding from the likes of Pi Campus, Tosto Group, and Viaro Energy since its launch in 2021.

Its future capital-raising strategy will also partially depend on public funds. "At a European level, energy independence is something that we need to consider," Rizzotti said. "It is very important to have a partnership between the public and private, because public investment will reassure private investors."

The startup also sees an IPO as a viable exit option in the future. "Sooner or later, we will start the project of an IPO, so the perspective of being public allows people and investors to have shares of a company that is recognized in the market," Rizzotti told BI. "It is a tangible asset."

While Rizzotti did not have a set timeline for the company going public, she added that it would likely be after the startup achieved a second key milestone after its first prototype in 2026: pre-authorization to build its first reactor in France by early 2027.

"Once we obtain these two milestones, in our opinion, we could be ready to go public," she told BI. "Otherwise, we will continue to raise money through more natural channels like private equity or venture capital."

• "Squid Game" is finally back, three years after its first season.
• Season two features some familiar faces, but also plenty of new characters.
• Here's a guide to the major characters in season two, and who plays them.

After a three year-long wait, "Squid Game" is finally back.

The Korean-language Netflix series takes place mostly within the confines of a killing game, in which the economically disadvantaged play children's games for money. To participate, they wager their lives.

The show is one of Netflix's biggest hits, prompting the streamer to invest not only in a second and third season from creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, but also in in-person experiences, a reality series, and a video game.

"Squid Game" season two stars Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun, the winner of the games on season one. Unfortunately, the nature of the show means that most characters from season one like Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon) and Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) aren't back in season two. While there are a few familiar faces, the majority of the cast are new.

Here's a guide to the major characters in "Squid Game" season two, and who plays them.

Warning: This post contains light spoilers for "Squid Game" season two.

Seong Gi-hun

Gi-hun is a veteran player of the games, and returns as player 456. In the three years since he emerged as the sole survivor of his cycle, he's used his fortune to search for the man who recruited him so he can find a way to shut the games down.

Seong Gi-hun is played by Lee Jung-jae.

Hwang In-ho / The Front Man

Toward the end of season one, Jun-ho discovered that his other brother, In-ho, was the Front Man in charge of the games. Initially, Jun-ho believed that In-ho may have been a player.

Lee Byung-hun plays In-ho.

The Recruiter

The recruiter is a tall, handsome man who recruits people into the games by challenging them to a game of ddakji.

Gong Yoo plays the recruiter.

Kang No-eul

No-eul is a young woman working at a theme park. Originally from North Korea, she hopes to locate her child and bring her to South Korea. Later, she's recruited into the games — not as a player, but as a soldier.

No-eul is played by Park Gyu-young.

Park Jung-bae

Jung-bae (Player 390) is Gi-hun's friend from outside the game — the same one with whom he gambled on horse races in the season one premiere. Unfortunately, this time they meeting inside the game.

Park Jung-bae is played by Lee Seo-hwan.

Hwang Jun-ho

Jun-ho is the detective who followed Gi-hun to the games in season one, infiltrating them by posing as a guard. He's the younger brother of Hwang In-ho, the Front Man. In-ho shot Jun-ho toward the end of season one, but he survived — and at the beginning of season two, he's working as a traffic cop.

Wi Ha-jun plays Hwang Jun-ho.

Mr. Kim

Mr. Kim, referred to as Kim Dae-pyo in the credits, is Gi-hun's former creditor. After winning the game, Gi-hun paid him back, and retained his services to help him find the recruiter.

Mr. Kim is played by Kim Pub-lae.

Woo-seok

Woo-seok is close to Mr. Kim. Now, both Mr. Kim and Woo-seok work for Gi-hun as part of his search for the recruiter.

Woo-seok is played by Jeon Seok-ho.

Dae-ho

Dae-ho (Player 388) is a young man who Gi-hun and Jung-bae befriend in the game. Like Jung-bae, he's also an ex-Marine.

Dae-ho is played by Kang Ha-neul.

Lee Myung-gi

Myung-gi (Player 333) previously worked as a cryptocurrency influencer. However, a poor recommendation led to him, and other players, losing a significant amount of money.

Myung-gi is played by Yim Si-wan.

Kim Jun-hee

Jun-hee (Player 222) is a young woman who entered the games to repay her debt, as a result of losing money on Myung-gi's recommendation. He's also her ex-boyfriend.

Jun-hee is played by Jo Yu-ri, who is a singer and former member of the K-pop group IZ*ONE.

Thanos

Thanos (Player 230) is a rapper who lost money after bying cryptocurrency on Myung-gi's recommendation. In the game, some people recognize him as a celebrity.

Thanos is played by Choi Seung-hyun, a musician also known by his stage name T.O.P.

Nam-gyu

Nam-gyu (Player 124) is one of Thanos' groupies in the games. Previously, he worked at a nightclub, where he first met Thanos.

He's played by Roh Jae-won.

Min-su

Min-su (Player 125) is one of the younger players in the game, and aligns with Thanos. He also befriends Se-mi, a cool young woman.

Min-su is played by Lee David, who described the character in a cast featurette as an "ordinary guy" who is "super timid."

Se-mi

Se-mi (Player 380) is a young woman who befriends Min-su in the games.

Se-mi is played by Won Ji-an, who described the character as "bold and determined."

Park Yong-sik

Yong-sik (Player 007) is a young man who joined the game to pay off his debt. Unfortunately, he also encounters his mother there.

Yong-sik is played by Yang Dong-geun.

Jang Geum-ja

Geum-ja (Player 149) is Yong-sik's mother. She joined the game to help her son pay off his debt.

Geum-ja is played by Kang Ae-sim.

Hyun-ju

Hyun-ju (Player 120) initially faces discrimination in the games because she is a trans woman. She's a former special forces soldier.

Hyun-ju is played by Park Sung-hoon.

Young-mi

Young-mi (Player 095) befriends Hyun-ju in the games, and refers to her as unnie — a term that younger women use to refer to older women they are close to.

Young-mi is played by Kim Si-eun.

Seon-nyeo

Seon-nyeo (Player 044) is a shaman who often behaves melodramatically and unpredictably in the games.

Seon-neyo is played by Chae Kook-hee.

Gyeong-seok

Gyeong-seok's (Player 256) daughter Na-yeon has cancer, and he joins the games to fund her expensive treatment.

Gyeong-seok is played by Lee Jin-uk.

• "Squid Game" season two has two major twists that reframe the story's direction.
• Season three will arrive in 2025, so there won't be as long a wait between seasons.
• Here's what happened in the explosive finale and how it will impact season three.

Warning: major spoilers ahead for "Squid Game" season two.

"Squid Game" season one ended with hope, but the second concluded with death and misery after an electrifying finale.

The global sensation returned for a second season after the first became Netflix's biggest surprise success.

Season two returns to the gritty world where a secret organization runs a gameshow where contestants can win a fortune playing a series of children's games.

If they lose, they are killed, and the prize pot increases with each death.

In season one, Seong Gi-hun is the only survivor of the games, wracked by guilt and grief after watching his friends die one by one for him to win. He decides to take down the organization, but the plan goes awry in season two, landing him back in the competition.

This time, the game makers add a new feature where contestants can vote to leave after every game. But most are so desperate for the prize money that they continue.

Gi-hun leads a revolution that is foiled by a saboteur.

In season two, Gi-hun forms a new crew, including Player 001 — Hwang In-ho, the leader of the games who enters in disguise.

They work together to survive the games and eventually agree that they must end before everyone dies. But other players still want to continue, leading to a tied vote in episode six.

In the finale, the players who want the game to keep going attack and kill other players so they will have the majority in the next vote.

Gi-hun and his allies hide during this massacre, and when the guards come to break it up, the group attacks the guards, steals their weapons, and starts a rebellion.

The rebellion fails, though, due to In-ho's betrayal.

Since his reveal in episode three as a player, it's been clear that In-ho has infiltrated the games to sabotage Gi-hun's plan to stop them. But he doesn't play saboteur fully until the rebellion.

Gi-hun and Park Jung-bae (Player 390), Gi-hun's friend from outside the games, head to the command center, but In-ho stops the rest of the group from following, keeping them divided and easier to defeat.

He splits the group further, sending two on a mission to get ammo, from which neither returns.

He takes two more players to help Gi-hun, but shoots them both in the back. He then sends a radio message pretending to die himself.

The guards overwhelm and kill the remaining rebels, apart from Gi-hun, Jung-bae, and the two players who returned for ammo.

In-ho switches outfits to the signature mask and a black jacket of the games leader and confronts the now-captured Gi-hun and Jung-bae. They don't realize that In-ho has betrayed them because he has changed his voice and appearance.

In-ho then shoots and kills Jung-Bae right in front of Gi-hun.

It's a tragic ending to the season, putting Gi-hun in a difficult position. He is now captured, his rebellion has been crushed, and he has caused the death of his close friend.

This leaves Gi-hun with two possible paths for season three: give up on his plan to destroy the games or be fueled by his loss and rebound with an even better plan. It's likely Gi-hun will also learn that In-ho is the leader of the games in season three.

A second group of characters is also betrayed

Outside the games, Gi-hun recruited a group of people to help him stop the games, including Hwang Jun-ho, In-ho's brother, and Woo-seok, a member of the criminal underworld.

They plant a tracker on Gi-hun, but when that plan fails, they search multiple islands nearby to find the game center. They use a boat run by Captain Park, a fisherman who saved Jun-ho after his brother shot him to protect the games in season one.

In the finale, Captain Park is revealed to be another saboteur working for the organization that runs the games. He kills one of the crewmembers working with Jun-ho and sabotages the team's drone.

The rest of the crew does not know yet, leaving another exciting mystery to be uncovered in season three. Will Gi-hun's allies find out Captain Park's identity and find the game island before he kills them all one by one?

Season three debuts in 2025, so hopefully, fans will soon find out what happens next.

• "Squid Game" season two has an emotional finale followed by a scene interrupting the credits.
• It is the first time the series has tried something like that.
• Here's what it teases for the third season.

Warning: major spoilers ahead for "Squid Game" season two.

The highly anticipated second season of "Squid Game" is out, and it ends with a chaotic and tragic finale.

Season one was a surprise hit for Netflix when in 2021, becoming a global sensation through word-of-mouth and social media trends. Netflix hopes for the same success with the second season, which debuts in the middle of the holiday season.

In season one, a group of people struggling with debt signed up for a competition where they played children's games to win a fortune.

What they realize too late is that the losers of the games are killed, leaving only one survivor, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-Jae), Player 456.

At the end of season one, Gi-hun vows to stop the deadly competition, but his plan is foiled in season two, and he finds himself competing again.

Gi-hun leads a revolution against the guards in the final episode

He tries to unite the contestants against the game, but they mostly insist on playing, enticed by the prize money.

In the finale, this boils over into a massacre when the players who want to continue the games attack those who want to leave.

Gi-hun and his allies use that chaos to overwhelm the guards and start an uprising against the game makers. But the rebels are eventually cornered and defeated. Gi-hun survives, but his best friend, Park Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), Player 390, is killed in front of him by the antagonist, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), Player 001.

Gi-hun will likely seek revenge in season three, though his spirit may be broken by his failure and the loss of his close friend.

The post-credit scene teases one of the next games

After Jung-bae's death, the credits for the director and cast appear on-screen.

Then, a small scene shows a group of players walking into a new game room. This room includes a train signal stand, a hanging doll resembling the Young-hee doll from "Red Light, Green Light," and a boy doll facing the first.

The boy doll is likely Cheol-su. In June 2022, Hwang Dong-hyuk said in a statement teasing season two that the show will introduce "Young-hee's boyfriend, Cheol-su."

Young-hee and Cheol-su are characters from old South Korean textbooks and are well-known as best friends.

Cheol-su is not assigned to a specific game, but the other signs in the scene may indicate that the game is somehow related to trains.

• The first season of "Squid Game" was extraordinarily good TV, and season two is no exception.
• In the three years since season one aired, "Squid Game" has also become a cultural sensation.
• "Squid Game" season two follows similar patterns as the first — but it works to great effect.

Before "Squid Game" was a cultural phenomenon, it was an astoundingly great television show — and luckily, season two of the Korean-language drama reminds us exactly why.

The South Korean series about a death game for the economically downtrodden exploded after hitting Netflix in September 2021. Not only was it the most significant non-English hit in Netflix history, it quickly became one of Netflix's biggest shows ever.

That popularity spilled from the small screen to myriad even smaller screens, becoming an internet phenomenon whose biggest symbols — the pink-clad guards, green jumpsuits, and even star Lee Jung-jae's beaming face — became inescapable memes eventually divorced from their original meaning.

That's part of why the return to creator Hwang Dong-hyuk's blistering fever dream is so gripping. "Squid Game" season two brings the cultural phenomenon back to Earth and executes the nigh-impossible, continuing what could have been a complete story in a way that's just as cutting as its predecessor.

Back to the game

In its first season, "Squid Game" struck viewers with sheer novelty: its sharp class satire, grounded in childlike aesthetics, was dissonant in a way that was both disturbing and wildly compelling. While there's no way to recreate that shock factor in season two, the series doesn't need to reinvent the wheel to be excellent. In fact, its iterative nature is a thematic strength.

Season two is functionally a torture cycle for Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), the victor of the games. Burdened with a 45.6 million fortune won through the deaths of his companions, Gi-hun puts it to use attempting to shut the games down. This time, he's the one with power, funding a citywide manhunt for the games' ddakji-playing recruiter (a once-again show-stealing Gong Yoo) and incentivizing his employees with a substantial reward. Unfortunately, Gi-hun's crusade puts him back where he started in the games, with his life on the line.

This time, however, he knows exactly who his enemy is: the Front Man, also known as Hwang Jun-ho's (Wi Ha-jun) elder brother, In-ho. This season, the gamesmaster has a much more involved role — one that actor Lee Byung-hun, finally unmasked, handles with grim, enthralling aplomb. He is equal parts Gi-hun's foil and torture master, slowly working to dismantle his still-idealistic worldview by repeatedly exposing him to the horror of human nature.

That makes season two's repetition of familiar games, like "Red Light, Green Light," or character beats, like Gi-hun encountering an old friend in the games, incredibly effective. Even though he's been dealt the same cards — frankly, better ones, given that he's no longer bound by his debts — Gi-hun must struggle against human hubris and avarice.

There are, of course, new challenges. Season two introduces several new games that are just as superlatively designed as their predecessors. This cycle's new mechanic, a chest badge to indicate which players vote to leave or stay in the games, establishes a rote but still compelling division between the players.

New players make an impression

Wisely, Gi-hun takes a backseat for much of season two to make room for the show's captivating cast of new characters.

Choi Seung-hyun (a rapper known by the stage name T.O.P) is an easy standout and sure-to-be fan-favorite as Thanos, a braggadocious rapper burned by a failed crypto investment. Kang Ae-sim is easy to emotionally invest in as Geum-ja, a woman who joined the games to pay off her son's debts, only to discover he agreed to play as well. Former soldier Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon) is the most compelling of the bunch: a transgender woman, she faced discrimination after transitioning, leaving her in debt after she was fired from her job while pursuing gender-affirming surgeries.

Lee shows up once again to work this season, deftly handling the nuances of Gi-hun's plight and changed character. Most striking are the moments where he falls back into Gi-hun's childlike innocence from season one, most frequently due to the actions of his former gambling buddy Jung-bae, played by a painfully endearing Lee Seo-hwan. Still, Lee pulls off the determined, beleaguered savior well.

For the most part, Hwang (who still mostly wrote season two himself, this time with a few assistants) juggles the series' myriad character arcs and plot lines well, though some threads don't hold up as well as others. The weakest of the bunch is Jun-ho's quest outside the games to locate the island where they're held and also, presumably, Gi-hun and his brother. While his arc posing as a guard in season one provided valuable insight into the process of the games, this time, his search is mostly a distraction with little payoff in the confines of the season.

Ultimately, though, "Squid Game" manages to live up not only to its preceding season but the myth of the franchise itself. Success can bring crushing pressure, and with it, an impulse to iterate. In this case, though, the iteration works in service of the show's point: there is no escape: not for the game's players, and certainly not for Gi-hun.

"Squid Game" seasons one and two are now streaming on Netflix.

• KKR and Bain Capital bid over $5 billion for Seven & i's non-core assets.
• Seven & i's non-core assets include superstores, baby stores, and Denny's Japan operations.
• Seven & i also received a $47 billion offer from Alimentation Couche-Tard.

Some of the world's biggest private equity companies have joined the race to own pieces of 7-Eleven's parent company.

Japanese-owned Seven & i Holdings has a sprawling set of businesses, including 85,000 7-Elevens globally and a host of supermarkets. The $39.5 billion company, whose stock is up 30% this year, has been the target of numerous takeover bids in recent months — for all of the business or parts of it.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that US private equity firms KKR and Bain Capital each offered over $5 billion in first-round bids for some assets of the company. Local private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners offered about $4.8 billion, per Reuters.

The firms are reportedly looking to buy York Holdings — Seven and i's non-core businesses, including superstores, baby goods chain Akachan Honpo, and the company that runs Denny's diner chain in Japan. All three firms were successful in the first round of bidding for these assets, according to Reuters, which cited people familiar with the matter.

Private equity firms typically buy companies or subsidiaries they see as struggling and work to make them profitable before selling them as a whole or in parts after a couple of years.

Representatives of KKR, Bain Capital, Japan Industrial Partners, and Seven & i did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that Seven & i aims to select the winning bid as early as February, and the decision could be finalized by spring.

Rival convenience store

Besides the three buyout firms, the 7-Eleven parent also received a $47 billion takeover offer from Canadian multinational convenience store chain Alimentation Couche-Tard. Couche-Tard, which has almost 17,000 stores around the world, bid for Seven & i this summer.

Unlike the private equity firms, Couche-Tard appears to want to buy the whole company, including the 7-Eleven stores.

The deal would amount to the largest-ever foreign takeover of a Japanese company and would give the 7-Eleven chain North American ownership again.

The chain partnered with Ito-Yokado, a Japanese supermarket chain founded in 1973, to build franchised locations in Japan. In the 1990s, Ito-Yokado acquired a majority stake in the company and completed a full acquisition in November 2005. That year, Ito-Yokado reorganized, becoming Seven & i Holdings. 7-Eleven had about 25,000 stores globally before the takeover in 2005, per a trade magazine.

Couche-Tard did not respond to a request for comment.

Seven & i family

The company is also contending with a management takeover to fend off the Canadian offer by going private. In November, Seven & I said it received an acquisition proposal from current vice president Junro Ito, his private company, Ito-Kogyo, and the son of founder Masatoshi Ito.

Ito-Kogyo owned 8.2% of Seven & i as of August, making it the second-largest shareholder, according to the company. Master Trust Bank of Japan is the largest shareholder, with a 14.7% stake.

The privatization offer could be worth around $58 billion, Bloomberg reported in November.

Seven & I said in November that it had formed a board of directors committee to consider Ito and Couche-Tard's offers.