• Charlize Theron, who adopted her daughters in 2012 and 2015, says she enjoys being a single mother.
• Her self-awareness and her parents' toxic relationship shaped her decision to raise kids on her own.
• "I can only tell you that this is the best way that I know how to be a mother to them," she said.

Charlize Theron, 49, has zero regrets about doing motherhood solo.

During an appearance on Wednesday's episode of "Call Her Daddy," Theron spoke about her life as a single mother of two. She adopted her daughters Jackson and August in 2012 and 2015, respectively.

The "Mad Max: Fury Road" actor told podcast host Alex Cooper that her parents' relationship was a "cautionary tale" that helped her realize she didn't want to be in one. Theron was 15 when she witnessed her mother fatally shoot her alcoholic father in self-defense.

Theron said it was a "layered and complicated" decision driven by two factors: not wanting what her parents had and recognizing that she "did not have the capability of being healthy in a relationship."

"Those two things I had to acknowledge when I decided to be a parent, and I think it's probably one of the healthiest decisions I ever made," she said.

However, she acknowledges that there's still a stigma being placed on women who choose to be single.

"With women, it's always like, something must be wrong with her. She can't keep a man. And it's never part of the discussion of like, 'Wow, she's really living her truth. She's living in her happiness. This is actually a choice that she made,'" Theron said.

"I want to look at them, and just be like, 'Do you know how fucking great it is to live exactly how I want to live?' To experience motherhood exactly how I wanted to experience it," she added.

Theron says some people might question whether her decision was fair to her children, but in the end, only they can speak to their own experience.

"I can only tell you that this is the best way that I know how to be a mother to them," she said.

"I love every single day of it. I love that I don't have to share them with somebody. I love that I don't have to run every fucking thing by a guy," she added.

Theron said she "broke the cycle" by knowing exactly what she didn't want in a relationship and what she had to offer.

"And who I am at the time that I wanted to be a parent was not somebody who should be having kids with another person," Theron said.

Theron isn't the only celebrity who has spoken about being a single parent.

Lucy Liu told The Cut in 2023 that the decision to have a child in her late 40s via surrogacy — as a single woman — was largely unplanned. "I didn't do a lot of research, I just pulled the trigger," Liu said.

In a March interview with Parade, Connie Britton — who adopted her son from Ethiopia as a single woman at 45 — said she always wanted to be a mother.

"I knew that I hadn't achieved the kind of partnership that I was looking for to have a spouse and a child together. And so I thought, 'This is the time, I'm going to start the adoption process,'" Britton said.

A representative for Theron did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.

• The Trump-Jerome Powell feud continues, this time with Trump calling on Powell to resign immediately.
• Trump amplified calls for Congress to investigate Powell on the Fed's headquarters renovation.
• Trump previously said Powell's "termination cannot come fast enough."

President Donald Trump's long-standing feud with Fed Chair Jerome Powell burns on, this time with him calling on Powell to resign immediately.

In a Wednesday night Truth Social post, the president said, "'Too Late' should resign immediately!!!"

"Too Late" is his nickname for the top banker, a criticism of Powell's refusal to lower interest rates.

In his post, Trump included a headline from a Wednesday Bloomberg article about Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, calling on Congress to investigate Powell.

In a Wednesday post on X, Pulte said Congress should investigate Powell over the central bank's headquarters renovation plans.

"I am asking Congress to investigate Chairman Jerome Powell, his political bias, and his deceptive Senate testimony, which is enough to be removed 'for cause,'" Pulte wrote in his statement on X.

Trump's animosity with Powell stretches back to his first term in office — he accused the Fed in 2019 of holding the stock market back.

Later that year, he said in an interview on the Fox Business Network that Powell was not doing a good job.

In 2020, Trump said he had the right to remove Powell as Fed chair, to "put him in a regular position and put somebody else in charge."

This April, Trump kicked off his criticism of Powell again, saying on Truth Social that Powell's "termination cannot come fast enough."

Trump has reportedly been weighing replacements for Powell, whose term ends in May 2026. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump plans to float a replacement as soon as September or October.

Representatives for Trump and the Federal Reserve did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

President Trump's asylum ban at the U.S.-Mexico border enacted in an emergency immigration proclamation on his first day in office is "unlawful," a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Why it matters: Although U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss postponed his order from taking effect for 14 days to allow for appeal, the processing of asylum claims at the border would resume immediately if the ruling is not overturned.

• Trump administration officials have already said they'll appeal Moss' ruling that found the president exceeded his authority in a Jan. 20 proclamation that denied asylum protections at the border.
• The case seems likely headed for the Supreme Court, which last week in a majority ruling imposed new limits on lower courts' abilities to freeze federal policies.

Driving the news: The proclamation that's titled "Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion" states the Immigration and Nationality Act "provides the President with certain emergency tools" that have enabled Trump's action.

• Immigration groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and multiple people seeking asylum filed a class action lawsuit in February challenging the legality of the proclamation, calling the "invasion" declaration unlawful and false.
• "[N]othing in the INA or the Constitution grants the President or his delegees the sweeping authority asserted in the Proclamation and implementing guidance," Moss wrote. "An appeal to necessity cannot fill that void."
• The Constitution doesn't give a president authority to "adopt an alternative immigration system, which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted and the regulations that the responsible agencies have promulgated," according to the Obama-appointed D.C. judge.

Between the lines: The attempted asylum changes are among many immigration enforcement reforms the Trump administration is trying to make via executive order or rule changes without going to Congress.

• The Trump administration issued a new rule in January that dramatically expands expedited removal to immigrants who cannot prove they have been continuously living in the U.S. for over two years.
• That rule is facing a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
• The Trump administration also is trying to make immigrants previously granted humanitarian parole eligible for expedited removal, and that's also facing a legal challenge.

What they're saying: ACLU of Texas legal director Adriana Piñon said in a statement Moss' rejection of the Trump administration's "efforts to upend our asylum system" was "a key ruling" for the U.S.

• "This attempt to completely shut down the border is an attack on the fundamental and longstanding right to seek safety in the U.S. from violence and persecution."
• Keren Zwick, director of litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center, which also brought the suit, said in a statement that no president "has the authority to unilaterally block people who come to our border seeking safety."

The other side: "A local district court judge has no authority to stop President Trump and the United States from securing our border from the flood of aliens trying to enter illegally," said Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House.

• "This is an attack on our Constitution, the laws Congress enacted, and our national sovereignty," she said of the ruling. "We expect to be vindicated on appeal."
• White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on X claimed the order was trying to "circumvent" last week's Supreme Court ruling and that it declared undocumented immigrants as "a protected global 'class' entitled to admission into the United States."

Go deeper: Immigration crackdown ripples through economy

• BYD is halting Mexico factory plans over US trade policy concerns.
• US tariffs on Mexico-made cars are affecting automakers including Nissan and Stellantis.
• BYD is opening a factory in Brazil, its first outside Asia.

The world's largest electric vehicle maker is halting plans to build a major factory in Mexico due to concerns about US trade policies.

On Wednesday, BYD said that the company still plans to expand further into North or South America, but it does not have a timeline for the plan.

"Geopolitical issues have a big impact on the automotive industry," Stella Li, an executive vice president, said in an interview with Bloomberg. "Now everybody is rethinking their strategy in other countries. We want to wait for more clarity before making our decision."

In September, Bloomberg reported that the EV giant would not announce a major plant investment in Mexico until after the US election. In March, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said BYD had not made a formal offer to invest in the country.

President Donald Trump's tariffs have been a big pain point for US and global automakers. Cars coming from Mexico to the US remain subject to a 25% tariff.

Car manufacturers have responded in various ways, from offering discounts to shoppers who hope to avoid future price hikes to adding import fees on vehicles built outside the US. Some producers, like Stellantis and Nissan, have cut back on Mexico-based production.

In the region, BYD is opening a plant in the Brazilian state of Bahia, the company's first factory outside Asia.

In December, Brazilian authorities halted the construction of BYD factory and sued the company, saying that construction workers lived in slavery-like conditions. Over 160 workers had been rescued from the working conditions, according to a statement from a Brazilian labour authority.

The statement said that workers were put in "degrading" conditions and had their passports and salaries withheld by a service provider for BYD.

At the time, BYD said affected workers had been moved to hotels. It added that it had conducted a "detailed review" of the working and living conditions for subcontracted employees and asked on "several occasions" for the construction firm to make improvements.

On Wednesday, Li said the episode prompted the company to reassess its approach to international expansion.

"We should slow down, step back from the focus on speed. We need to work more with local companies," she said. "It will take longer, but that's OK."

Chinese players, including BYD, Xiaomi, Nio, and Xpeng, have been undercutting Tesla's prices and gaining market share in China and Europe. BYD is on track to sell more than 5 million cars this year, and the company sold more EVs than Tesla in Europe for the first time in April.

BYD stock is up 38% so far this year because of strong battery technology, its affordability, and global expansion.

House Republicans broke the record Wednesday for the lower chamber's longest vote in history after more than seven hours of grueling negotiations over President Trump's "big, beautiful bill."

Why it matters: The extended vote time reflects the severe reluctance among some on the House GOP's right flank to support the marquee tax and spending package.

• The previous record was in 2021, when the House took seven hours and six minutes on a procedural vote related to then-President Biden's Build Back Better legislation.
• House Republicans overtook that record at 9:15pm ET on Wednesday, then went another 15 minutes before finally closing the vote.
• Assistant House Minority Leader Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) needled Republicans on the vote time by suggesting they were violating House rules by holding the vote open for so long.

State of play: The lengthy vote came about as a result of negotiations between House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus.

• The hardliners are upset that the Senate bill adds more to the deficit than the House-passed version while also excluding several key provisions they secured to cut green energy tax credits and Medicaid.
• Some moderates have also had concerns about the bill, saying it cuts too much into Medicaid and other key programs.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said during a public meeting on Wednesday that she is trusting advisers to provide counsel on how to fire people who "don't like us."

Why it matters: Noem's comment sends a chilling message to the DHS, which has gone through a mass exodus and public backlash over its immigration policies.

Zoom in: During the first Homeland Security Advisory Council meeting held at the DHS headquarter, Noem gave opening remarks by saying there is a lot of people in the department "that don't support what we are doing."

• "What we have to be aware of is that we're working with the department that for the last four years hasn't been required to do much," Noem said.
• She then blamed former Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for telling DHS workers "not to do a lot."

Zoom out: The Trump administration has been increasingly vocal about drastically restructuring the DHS.

• Noem has privately supported the idea of shrinking FEMA's role in disaster planning, per CNN. She later walked back the claim.
• Officials staffing the U.S. legal immigration system have been asked to volunteer to help deportation operations spearheaded by ICE, according to CBS.

Context: The advisory council consists of 22 members appointed by President Trump and Secretary Noem. The council provides the secretary of Homeland Security with real-time, real-world and independent advice on homeland security operations.

• Notable members include former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, billionaire Marc Andreessen, and Fox News host Mark Levin.

• Rivian Automotive reported its 2025 second-quarter production and delivery results.
• Rivian produced 5,979 vehicles and delivered 10,661 vehicles this quarter, a year-over-year decline from Q2 2024.
• Tesla's deliveries also dropped in Q2, just missing analysts' expectations.

It's not just Tesla.

Rivian Automotive's Q2 deliveries were also down. The company shared its production and delivery results on Wednesday. It delivered 10,661 vehicles in the quarter ending on June 30. That's a noticeable drop compared to the same time last year, when Rivian delivered 13,790 vehicles. Reuters reported a 22% decline.

Its stock dipped on Wednesday and closed down 4.45%.

The company shared that it produced 5,979 vehicles at its Illinois-based manufacturing facility during the last quarter. The company produced 9,612 vehicles during the same time in 2024.

"Production was limited during the second quarter in preparation for model year 2026 vehicles expected to launch later this month," the company said on Wednesday. "Production and delivery results for the quarter are in line with Rivian's outlook."

Rivian said it received a $1 billion equity investment from Volkswagen Group as part of a joint venture between the two companies.

Tesla, led by Elon Musk, also shared delivery numbers on Wednesday.

The company delivered 384,000 electric vehicles during its second quarter, which missed Wall Street analysts' expectations. It marks the largest quarterly decline in pure numbers in Tesla's history.

The electric vehicle industry faces headwinds as it navigates consumers' uncertainty and the fallout from President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Tariffs and consumer concerns aren't the only obstacles that could trip up the electric vehicle industry.

Trump's domestic tax and spending bill would also affect the clean energy sector. The bill, if passed and signed into law, could end the $7,500 EV tax credit on new leases and electric vehicle sales by the end of September, according to Reuters. Although Rivian didn't qualify for the tax credit, the company relied on a leasing loophole to utilize it. The potential loss of the tax credit could impact companies like Tesla, though.

Representatives for Rivian did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.