• The Supreme Court upheld the deadline for a TikTok sale to a US company by January 19.
• TikTok users are mourning the potential app shutdown, sharing memories and viral moments.
• Reactions to TikTok's fate have been spreading as users bid farewell.

Content creators and their audiences are sharing their disappointment that the Supreme Court has decided to uphold a January 19 deadline for TikTok to be sold to a US company or banned in the US.

Memes about TikTok's looming Sunday shutdown haven't stopped since the US government cranked up the heat on the platform, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, due to concerns about whether the app threatens national security. Without an extension to the deadline, the beloved short-form video app will be removed from app stores and likely face a full shutdown in the US.

The reality of the Supreme Court's ruling is setting in for American TikToker users who had held out hope for a different resolution.

Offline, flyers for its unofficial funeral were posted in New York City for a "celebration of life" on Sunday.

Online, users are sharing the first viral moments they ever saved, participating in old trends "one last time," and wishing each other well on new platforms.

Some say they're getting in their last "doom scrolls" before the app potentially goes away for good.

"These last few days on TikTok have felt like the end of school," one creator said, like "signing yearbooks and just goofing off."

TikTok probably won't disappear from phones in the US immediately on Sunday. It won't be able to update the app anymore, but it's unclear if it will be fully shut down.

On X, a user reshared a video of a crying and dancing woman. The video has been a viral meme on TikTok for a while; they used it to illustrate TikTokers' reactions to Friday's ruling.

On TikTok itself, videos to the tunes of "American Pie" by Don McLean and "Good Riddance" by Green Day show compilations of users' favorite moments.

Some users say that their "For You" page is taking them down memory lane with nostalgic sounds, dances, and some of the most talked-about moments.

"How am I going to share my reactions to the unhinged Mafia romance books I read?" user rachelsreading.rambles said on TikTok in a post captioned, "If I don't laugh I will definitely cry."

Another TikToker, kailebrodersen, said, "I have had to hold back tears because TikTok is my main source of income" and expressed anger at the US shutdown, saying TikTok "showed us the American Dream."

Users have been flocking to alternative short-form video platforms, like China-based RedNote, to try to replace the app, but it's unclear whether RedNote, YouTube, Instagram, or other apps will eventually act as alternatives to TikTok.

But for now, it looks like the era of TikTok is truly coming to an end in the US.

• Scott Bessent's confirmation hearing this week held a number of clues as to what markets can expect from Trump 2.0.
• The long-time investor and hedge fund exec is Trump's pick to lead the US Treasury.
• Bessent said Trump would "unleash a new economic golden age" during his testimony.

Scott Bessent's nomination hearing gave markets a handful of hints as to what the next four years could look like.

The investor and hedge fund executive sat this week for his confirmation hearing as Donald Trump's pick to lead the US Treasury Department. Economists at Deutsche Bank noted that his remarks held a few important clues for investors.

In his testimony, Bessent said he believed Trump's presidency would help "unleash a new economic golden age," which could include more jobs and increased wealth for Americans. He also suggested the US was "barreling towards an economic crisis" at the end of the year.

If confirmed, Bessent will be in charge of Trump's plan to create the "Greatest Economic Boom," and will oversee the President-elect's plans to cut taxes, deploy tariffs, and curtail the national debt.

Here's what Deutsche Bank economists think were the top takeaways of Bessent's testimony.

1. Nothing has been taken off the table in Trump's tariff plan

Bessent didn't have firm guidance on what Trump's tariff plan could look like. In his testimony, the Treasury Secretary nominee said the tariffs would aim to even out unfair trade practices by other countries, raise federal revenue, and potentially give the US more bargaining power in negotiations. He didn't specify if the tariffs would be slowly implemented over time.

Bessent also pushed back against the idea that Trump's tariff plan was inflationary. Trump levied tariffs during his first term as president without a significant inflation increase, but economists say that his plan this time around is more expansive, explaining the difference in inflation outlooks for the coming years.

"Besesnt's comments on tariffs were notable in that they left everything on the table," the Deutsche Bank economists said.

2. Trump's 2017 tax cuts could be extended

Bessent doubled-down on his support for extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts. If the US doesn't extend the tax cuts, Americans could face $4 trillion tax hike when the 2017 package expires this year, he said.

"We must make permanent the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and implement new pro-growth policies to reduce the tax burden on American manufacturers, service workers, and seniors. I have already spoken with several members of this Committee, as well as leaders in the House about the best approach to achieving these important goals together," he added.

3. Bessent could crack down on government spending

Bessent emphasized his resolve to get the national debt and the widening deficit under control. He's been a vocal proponent of reducing the federal debt balance in the past, attributing rising debt levels to the government's "significant spending problem" in his testimony.

The total federal debt balance clocked in at $36.17 trillion as of Friday, according to US Treasury data.

"On the debt limit, Bessent provided reassurance that the US would not default on its debt if he were to be confirmed as Treasury Secretary," Deutsche Bank wrote.

Bessent also appeared "hesitant" to support removing the national debt limit, the Deutsche Bank economists noted, referring to an idea that Trump floated late last year. But, when questioned, Bessent said he would work with Trump to remove the debt limit, if Trump wished to do so

4. Trump will support the Fed's independence

Bessent pushed back against the notion that Trump would try to exert power over the Federal Reserve. Media reports that have suggested Trump would infringe on the independence of the Fed are "highly inaccurate," he added.

Bessent also did not speak about the potential for a "shadow Fed Chair," something he spoke about last year.

"Trump would make his views on monetary policy known, as Bessent noted Senators often do, but he does not support undermining Fed independence," the economists said.

5. Sanctions could get stronger

Bessent voiced support for intensifying sanctions on Russia and Iran. Sanctions on Russia, in particular, have not been "fulsome," Bessent said, suggesting he would tolerate higher oil prices in favor of increasing restrictions on Russia.

"If any officials in the Russian Federation are watching this confirmation hearing, they should know that if I'm confirmed and if President Trump requests it as part of his strategy to end the Ukraine war, I will be 100% on board from taking sanctions up, especially on the Russian oil majors to levels that would bring the Russian Federation to the table," Bessent said during the hearing.

"This statement could indicate that such sanctions may be near-term priorities for the Trump administration," Deutsche added.

• 23andMe has been exploring a possible sale of its telehealth business, Business Insider has learned.
• The struggling health company bought virtual care startup Lemonaid in 2021 for $400 million.
• 23andMe's stock has plummeted after a 2023 data breach exposed millions of customer accounts.

Struggling genetic testing company 23andMe has been quietly exploring a possible sale of its telehealth offering, Business Insider has learned.

The health company has been testing the waters for a possible buyer for Lemonaid Health, the virtual care business it bought in 2021 for $400 million in cash and stock, people with knowledge of the efforts told BI.

It's not clear how formal the efforts have been. 23andMe didn't respond to multiple requests for comment from BI.

When 23andMe acquired Lemonaid, the company said it wanted to provide personalized telemedicine care informed by its genetic data collection.

Founded in 2006, 23andMe seized consumer interest with its genetic testing kits that offered customers breakdowns of their ancestry. Later, in 2017, 23andMe started selling tests that could assess a customer's health risks for conditions like Alzheimer's disease and cancer.

23andMe went public in June 2021, a few months before the Lemonaid deal closed, at $11.13 a share.

Since then, 23andMe's stock price has tumbled due to a mass data breach and the resulting $30 million class action lawsuit. Now strapped for cash, the company cut 40% of its staff in November, or about 200 people, and shut down its drug discovery efforts.

In September, the company was trading at $.35 a share. The following month, 23andMe completed a reverse stock split, exchanging every 20 shares of its stock for one share to prevent it from being forced to delist from the Nasdaq. As of January 17, it's worth about $3.60 a share.

Three-quarters of Lemonaid's $400 million acquisition was paid as shares of 23andMe stock. 23andMe was valued at $3.5 billion when the company went public in 2021. Today, it's valued at about $91 million.

23andMe's nosedive

In 2023, 23andMe confirmed that ancestry data for nearly 7 million users was accessed and compromised. The data — including birth details and names — was sold on the dark web by hackers.

A data breach notification filing in January 2024 indicated that 23andMe took five months to realize the data had been accessed. This led to a class action lawsuit, which 23andMe settled for $30 million in September 2024, according to Reuters.

Alongside the challenges the company faced with the data breach, CEO Anne Wojcicki also proposed taking the company private in a July 2024 SEC filing. Five days later, that bid was rejected by a special committee assembled by 23andMe's board of directors.

Then, in September, the company said in a separate SEC filing that Wojcicki was open to the possibility of a third-party takeover. Shortly after, 23andMe's entire board of directors resigned.

Wojcicki walked back the remarks in a separate filing, and a 23andMe spokesperson told Business Insider in January that Wojcicki is no longer open to considering a third-party buyout. Wojcicki still intends to take 23andMe private, the spokesperson said at the time.

• "Severance" is finally back, three years after it first aired on Apple TV+.
• The series follows Lumon Industries' "severed" employees, who split their selves between work and home.
• Here's everything you need to remember before watching season two.

"Severance" season one was a workplace satire like no other — and after a three year wait, the ambitious Apple TV+ series is finally back.

The show follows a group of employees who work at the mysterious Lumon Industries. Unlike others at the company, they've undergone the "severance" procedure, which splits them into two distinct selves: one that lives in the outside world, and one that exists only at work.

The show's first season raised more questions than it answered, and three years is a long time to remember all of the series' various plot threads, intricacies, and goat-related mysteries. Here's a recap of everything that happened in season one — and what you need to remember before diving into "Severance" season two.

Mark S. is a "severed" employee at Lumon — and his new coworker Helly R. wants to leave.

Lumon Industries pioneered a workplace procedure called severance, which bifurcates a person's consciousness into two distinct entities by inserting a chip into their brain. Their "outie" exists in the outside world, while their "innie" exists at work. The split means that outies have no knowledge of their jobs — and innies have no knowledge of their outie's life outside the Lumon office. Sometimes, the severance technology is applied in other contexts: Mark's sister Devon encounters a mother who underwent severance so she wouldn't have to experience childbirth.

After his wife's death, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) accepts a job at Lumon as a Macrodata Refiner on the severed floor. He leads a team of three other employees: Dylan G. (Zach Cherry), Irving B. (John Turturro), and newcomer Helly R. (Britt Lower), who replaced their longtime colleague Petey (Yul Vazquez).

When Helly R. awakes on a conference table, she's hostile and wants to leave. Mark lets her go — but every time Helly attempts to exit the severed floor, the person she is on the outside forces her to reenter.

Helly Mark, Irving, and Dylan stare at lines of code all day, dragging numbers into buckets based on the emotional response they provoke. Employees work through files with names like "Tumwater" — but unfortunately, none of them have a clue what kind of work they're doing. It's rare for employees to finish files because they quickly expire, Dylan says — which makes finishing a file a big deal.

Helly persistently tries to leave her job at Lumon.

Helly attempts to formally resign from her job at Lumon, but her outie immediately denies the request. In turn, Helly attempts to send messages to her outie telling her that she wants to quit, to no avail. After one attempt to communicate with her outie, Helly is taken to the Break Room, where she's forced to repeat an apologetic monologue until supervisor Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) determines that she means it.

Helly resorts to more extreme measures, threatening to cut off her fingers if she's not allowed to send a video message to her outie. In response, Helly's outie sends a video message denying her request and tells Helly that she's not a person.

As a last resort, Helly attempts to hang herself in the elevator. She survives, but her outie forces her to return. Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman), the wellness counselor, is asked to observe her. When Mark and Helly escape Ms. Casey's supervision, she gets sent to the Break Room for punishment.

Lumon has a religious devotion to its founder, Kier Eagan.

The Lumon CEOs have all come from the Eagan line, and the office features numerous displays of reverence for the founder, Kier Eagan. Among those is the perpetuity wing, which features figures of members of the Eagan line and dedicates an entire section to Kier himself.

Lumon espouses many of Kier's philosophies, including his four tempers — woe, frolic, dread, and malice — that he believed determine a person's character.

Devotion to Kier isn't just the company line for some. Mark's boss, Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), genuinely worships the founder and has a shrine to him in her home.

In the outside world, Mark lives a lonely life.

While innie Mark is cheerful, outie Mark bears the weight of his wife's death. His sister Devon (Jen Tullock) is skeptical of his job, especially after he returns from work with an injury and a gift card to Pip's, a local bar and grill, as recompense.

When Mark goes to Pip's, he runs into Petey, a man whom this version of himself has never met. However, Petey is unsevered now, and he thinks Lumon is out to get him. Petey hands Mark a red envelope and says that even if he dies, the information he collected needs to be preserved.

There's another surprise in the outside world: Mark's neighbor, Mrs. Selvig, is actually Harmony Cobel, his innie's boss.

Petey is involved with a group trying to end severance, and it's a big problem for Lumon.

When Mark visits Petey on the outside, he finds Petey ill from something he's calling "reintegration sickness," caused by the fusion of his two personalities. Mark takes him in, but Petey doesn't have many answers about their job at Lumon.

Before his dismissal, Petey's innie made a map of the severed floor, which Mark discovers and eventually shreds. On the outside, Petey was working with a group trying to end severance. His point of contact was a doctor named Raghabi, who reintegrated him. Eventually, Petey collapses and dies, presumably from the reintegration sickness.

In the aftermath, Harmony attends Petey's funeral, where she steals his severance chip directly from his skull. Lumon security officer Graner (Michael Cumpsty) tests the chip and confirms that Petey's memory was reintegrated.

Mark eventually makes contact with Raghabi, and she tells him that she was the one who did his severance procedure. When Graner turns up, however, Raghabi beats him to death with a baseball bat. She gives Mark Graner's security card and says that his innie will know what to do with it.

Irving strikes up a friendship with Burt from O&D, despite tension between their departments.

After falling asleep at his desk — and witnessing a horrifying vision of goopy black paint invading his workspace as a result — Irving gets sent to meet with Ms. Casey, who reads him a list of pleasing, supposed facts about his outie.

There, he runs into Burt (Christopher Walken), the Optics & Design department chief. Macrodata Refinement and O&D don't typically get along due to a rumor that O&D once tried to execute a coup.

Irving pursues a friendship with Burt, but later learns that O&D is a much larger department than Burt told him. Irving and Dylan corner Burt in a conference room, and he tells them that O&D doesn't trust MDR either. After speaking, they tentatively reconcile.

Irvin and Burt's relationship continues to deepen, and they nearly kiss. Unfortunately, Burt retires — effectively meaning that his innie ceases to exist, and Irving will likely never see him again.

MDR stages a revolution, with shocking consequences.

After Dylan takes a card from O&D, Milchick awakens his innie on the outside to confirm where he left the card. While awakened on the outside, Dylan sees his outie's son.

The incident inspires MDR to attempt to awaken themselves on the outside, using Graner's security card that Mark found in his pocket. After hitting their target for the quarter, Dylan earns a waffle party, meaning that he'll be at the office after hours.

Before they leave the office that day, Mark and Helly kiss. After sitting through his reward, which features a performance from lingerie-clad dancers wearing the masks of Kier's four tempers, Dylan initiates the "overtime contingency" (OTC), awakening his colleagues on the outside.

Irving awakens alone in his apartment, and attempts to locate Burt on the outside. When he does, however, he discovers that Burt has a husband.

Mark wakes up at his brother-in-law Ricken's book launch party, where he recognizes Harmony Cobel. Despite having been suspended by the Lumon board, Cobel runs back to the office when she realizes that Mark's innie is on the outside. At the party, however, Mark sees a photo of his wife Gemma and realizes she's still alive as Ms. Casey, the severed floor wellness counselor.

Unfortunately, Ms. Casey was forced to retire after a final wellness session with Mark. The circumstances of her severance were also different from his: during that session, she told him that she was mostly awakened in 30-minute increments and had only been "alive" for 107 total hours. After the session, and at Cobel's request, Milchick sent her down a dark hallway to the testing floor.

Helly's identity reveal is the biggest shock: she's Helena Eagan, heir to Lumon. She awakens at a company event where she's supposed to speak firsthand about the benefits of severance. While there, she meets her father, Jame Eagan, who tells her that the world will adopt severance chips and become "Kier's children."

Cobel tries to stop Helly from speaking at the event but is unsuccessful. When it's time to give her speech, Helly goes rogue and exposes herself as Helena's innie, telling the crowd gathered there that she and the other innies are "prisoners" of the company.

There are also some goats and a few other loose ends.

While wandering around the halls of the severed floor, Mark and Helly encounter a room full of goat kids. A man bottle-feeding one tells them that "they're not ready" and that "it isn't time." He rushes them out.

Irving's outie is also an artist, but when we meet him on the outside, it turns out that he keeps painting the same black hallway, using paint that resembles the goop his innie sometimes hallucinates. This hallway resembles the one that Ms. Casey walks down on her way to the testing floor.

Mark's brother-in-law, Ricken, also accidentally wrote a religious text for the innies. After Ricken dropped it off on outie Mark's front porch, Cobel stole it and brought it to the Lumon office. There, innie Mark and Dylan both begin to read from the book, and internalize some of its worker-specific messages.

"Severance" season two premieres on Apple TV+ on January 17.