• Small businesses are struggling to stay afloat in the wake of the deadly Los Angeles fires.
• Many structures have been destroyed, but others left standing are damaged, with no foot traffic driving business.
• For some industries with slim margins, just days without business has forced permanent closures.

As deadly fires continue ripping through Los Angeles, leveling residential and commercial districts alike, even small business owners whose storefronts have been left standing aren't out of the woods.

Though more than 12,300 structures have been destroyed by the fires, commercial buildings that haven't been totaled are still struggling with costly damages to repair and with no foot traffic driving business.

For some industries with slim margins — like bars and restaurants — going just days without business has begun to force permanent closures.

AccuWeather estimates the damages and economic loss from the wildfires totals between $250 billion and $275 billion, making it one of the costliest wildfire disasters in modern US history.

"We have come to the heartbreaking decision that at this time, operating The Ruby Fruit is no longer possible due to financial impact from the current natural disaster," Emily Bielagus and Mara Herbkersman, owners of The Ruby Fruit, a lesbian wine bar in the Silver Lake neighborhood, posted Sunday on the bar's Instagram page.

"Sadly, along with all the feelings of grief and shock that we have experienced over the last few days, also came this undeniable reality: that running our small business is no longer sustainable. The hospitality industry functions on a day-by-day basis and right now, as they say — the math just isn't mathing," they wrote.

The announcement was met with an outcry from fans and devoted patrons of the bar — one of the city's only bars catering specifically to lesbians and "those who fall under the sapphic umbrella," according to the bar's website.

Some customers, in the comments of the bar's closure announcement, begged Bielagus and Herbkersman to create a community fundraiser to save the business. The Ruby Fruit's GoFundMe campaign, raising money to provide wages for the bar's staff — has raised about half its $15,000 goal in three days.

Bielagus and Herbkersman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Financial aid is available for small businesses trying to recover from the aftermath of the wildfires. The Small Business Administration's disaster loan program offers up to $2 million in loans with low interest rates for eligible businesses suffering economic losses and physical damage due to disaster. Interest on these loans does not begin to accrue for a year.

On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced extended tax filing deadlines and relief from interest and penalties for businesses impacted by the fires. However, tax breaks and interest-accruing loans are nothing compared to regular business, and the costs accrued from being closed stack up quickly.

"Thankfully we are safe and, as of now, able to operate," Betsy Martinez, owner of Fan Girl Cafe in West Hollywood, told BI. "However, business has definitely been impacted by the situation and we are navigating it the best we can."

Martinez, who runs Fan Girl Cafe with her wife, said the pair lost roughly $5,000 in just two and a half days of closures, in addition to the slow business in the days since. As a new restaurant in its first year of operations, margins were already tight. They're now considering debt consolidation and taking out a new loan and have contacted their existing lenders asking for extensions on their bills.

Some business owners are turning to the local community for financial support, but such funds are inconsistent — and largely targeted toward businesses that have been destroyed. Restaurants, including Fox's Restaurant, The Little Red Hen Coffee Shop, and The Reel Inn, have all burned down and have started GoFundMe campaigns to raise money to rebuild.

Martinez said she and her wife aren't comfortable starting a GoFundMe, given how tight funds are for everyone else — and that other businesses are dealing with more severe losses.

"It's just a heavy time right now for everyone," she said. "Right now, we're just looking at who we can help, even those of us who need help."

For now, many small business owners in the Los Angeles area are white-knuckling it through another costly disaster just a few short years after the COVID-19 pandemic saw more than 7,500 small businesses shutter across the county, the California Business Journal reported.

"We closed last week and are closing this week. We hope to reopen next week," the owners of Honey's at Star Love, a queer bar in Little Armenia, told BI in an email. "We're taking it all day by day."

• Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea's impeached president, was arrested on Wednesday.
• This was the South Korean authorities' second attempt to arrest Yoon.
• Yoon was impeached on December 14 after he attempted to impose martial law, triggering protests.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested by investigators early on Wednesday morning, local time.

Yoon's arrest comes after weeks of attempts by South Korean anti-corruption investigators to bring him in for questioning. This makes him the first sitting South Korean president to be detained.

Yoon has repeatedly defied attempts to arrest him. During a particularly tense standoff on January 3, investigators had to stand down after six hours when Yoon's security team barred them from taking the president.

More than 3,000 police officers and anti-corruption investigators were involved in Yoon's arrest on Wednesday morning, per Reuters.

South Korea's Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials said they had executed an arrest warrant for Yoon at 10.33 am local time, per a statement obtained by Yonhap News.

Yoon was impeached on December 14. South Korean lawmakers voted to remove him from duties after a stunning declaration of martial law, which triggered large-scale protests and calls for his resignation.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

• Two future Ford-class aircraft carriers will be named for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
• It's the US Navy convention to name nuclear-powered flattops after presidents, with some exceptions.
• USS Doris Miller and Enterprise are the only two Ford-class vessels not named after presidents.

President Joe Biden announced Monday that two future Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers will be named after former US presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

"Each knows firsthand the weight of the responsibilities that come with being Commander-in-Chief," Biden said in the White House announcement. "And both know well our duty to support the families and loved ones who wait and worry for the safe return of their servicemember."

US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said the future Ford-class carriers "will serve as lasting tributes to each leader's legacy in service of the United States."

The newly named flattops follow the sea service's tradition of naming the nuclear-powered carriers after US presidents. The trend has many exceptions, including first-in-class USS Nimitz, USS Carl Vinson, USS John C. Stennis, and future Ford-class ships USS Doris Miller and USS Enterprise.

Here are the names of the first six supercarriers in the Ford class, poised to become the backbone of America's naval power for the rest of the 21st Century.

USS Gerald R. Ford

The first-in-class USS Gerald R. Ford is named after the 38th US president who office after then-President Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate Scandal.

Ford granted Nixon a controversial pardon saying it was in the country's best interest to put an end to the "American tragedy in which we all — all have played a part," he said at the time.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, completed its first full deployment last January, which the Pentagon extended in response to the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.

The Ford and the other warships in its strike group served in part as a deterrence message for its 239-day deployment to the Mediterranean in 2023.

USS John F. Kennedy

The second-in-class USS John F. Kennedy was named after the 35th US president, sharing its namesake with the last conventional aircraft carrier built for the Navy before the introduction of the nuclear-powered Nimitz class.

The future carrier was initially set to deliver in June 2024 but was delayed a year to July 2025 so the Navy could perform more work to prepare it for deployment in the Indo-Pacific.

The Navy said the Kennedy would be equipped with "new technology and warfighting capabilities," making the future aircraft carrier the "most agile and lethal combat platform globally."

USS Enterprise

The future USS Enterprise is one of two Ford-class carriers that wasn't named after a US president. It carries on a storied name whose heritage includes the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, a decorated World War II carrier, and a brig from the Barbary War over 200 years ago.

Still under construction at Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News — the US's only aircraft carrier shipyard — the Enterprise was initially scheduled to deliver by March 2028, but the Navy's shipbuilding review found that it will now deliver by May 2030 at the latest.

In November, the Enterprise was moved for the first time at the shipyard to accommodate the construction of USS Doris Miller on the same dry dock.

USS Doris Miller

The other Ford-class carrier without a US president's name is the future USS Doris Miller.

The future supercarrier, named after US Navy sailor Doris "Dorie" Miller, is expected to be delivered a year and a half later than scheduled in early 2032.

Miller was a World War II hero of the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The mess attendant fired at Japanese aircraft with a .50 caliber machine gun on the battleship USS West Virginia and was the first Black person to be awarded the Navy Cross, the service's second-highest award for valor.

"Naming CVN 81 for Dorie Miller casts long overdue recognition to a true American hero and icon," then-Master Chief Petty Officer Russell Smith said during the ship's naming ceremony. "It also honors the contributions of African Americans and enlisted sailors for the first time in the history of American aircraft carriers."

One controversy has been that the Nimitz-class carrier John C. Stennis honors a key lawmaker behind the funding of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, who was also a longtime segregationist and opponent of the US Navy's racial integration.

USS William J. Clinton

Bill Clinton served as the 42nd president of the US, becoming the second president in US history to be impeached after Andrew Johnson in 1868. He faced charges of lying under oath and obstruction of justice in the wake of his infamous affair with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In his time as commander-in-chief, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes against Iraq in retaliation for the assassination attempt on former President George H.W. Bush. He also played a key role in promoting peace in the Middle East and Northern Ireland through the Oslo Accords and the Good Friday Agreement.

The name of the future CVN 82 was announced in a private ceremony shortly after the new year, during which former President Clinton's daughter, Chelsea Clinton, was announced as the carrier's sponsor.

"It's never far from my mind that the precious freedoms Americans enjoy are safeguarded by our armed forces, anchored by a strong, modern, and agile Navy," Clinton said in a statement. "I'm honored that future servicemembers carrying on that proud tradition will serve on a carrier bearing my name."

USS George W. Bush

The sixth Ford-class carrier will bear the name of former President George W. Bush, whose presidency was defined by the 9/11 attacks and the launching of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

He implemented domestic counterterrorism measures and built a worldwide coalition to dismantle terrorist groups globally.

"I am honored that my name will be associated with the United States Navy and a symbol of our Nation's might," Bush said in a statement. "I have a special admiration for the men and women of our Navy — including my dad — and ask God to watch over this ship and those who sail aboard her."

The 10th and final Nimitz-class carrier was named after Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, who served as the 41st president of the US. The elder Bush was honored for his service as one of the youngest naval aviators serving in World War II, receiving military decorations like the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation.

CVN 82 and CVN 83 will be the fifth and sixth carriers to join the Navy's fleet in the coming decade, but they are not yet under construction, nor have contracts been issued to HII's Newport News.

In a briefing last week, Christopher Kastner, CEO and president of HII, urged the US Navy to follow its shipbuilding timeline to procure USS William J. Clinton by 2028 as planned to avoid supply chain and workforce issues.

• TechCrunch has cut staff amid "evolving needs," the company told Business Insider.
• The Washington Post, HuffPost, and Vox Media have all conducted layoffs in 2025.
• Publishers face headwinds as many advertisers favor Big Tech.

TechCrunch is the latest digital publisher to cut staff.

A spokesperson for the outlet, which focuses on tech and startup coverage, confirmed the reductions to Business Insider and said fewer than 10 employees were impacted.

"We're excited about the future of TechCrunch," the spokesperson said in a statement, adding the company was "making changes to some roles that no longer fit our evolving needs."

They said the company would continue to grow and hire.

"This adjustment reflects our commitment to aligning our team structure with our business goals and not a cost-cutting effort," they added.

No other Yahoo properties were impacted, the spokesperson said.

Many media organizations continue to face headwinds, contending with falling traffic and advertisers increasingly turning to Big Tech.

Some have cut staff already this year.

Last week, Vox Media laid off staff for the second time in roughly a month.

BuzzFeed-owned HuffPost slashed roughly 22% of its newsroom last week, or 30 jobs, The Wrap and The New York Post reported. HuffPost's editor-in-chief, Danielle Belton, resigned amid the cuts.

The Washington Post is also eliminating less than 100 employees in an effort to cut costs, Reuters reported last week. A spokesperson for the Jeff Bezos-owned paper told the outlet cuts would occur across multiple divisions, but wouldn't impact the newsroom.

• Microsoft is a software company known for products like Windows, Microsoft 365, and Xbox.
• Microsoft is one of the largest software companies in the world by market cap.
• Microsoft was co-founded by Bill Gates, and the company is now led by CEO Satya Nadella.

Microsoft is one of the world's largest software companies, with annual revenues nearing $250 billion in recent years. Among its many products and platforms are the programs Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, used by private citizens and corporations all over the world, and the Windows operating system, the most widely-used computer OS by a vast margin.

The company was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, with the latter leaving Microsoft in 1983 following a diagnosis of Hodgkin disease. Gates would stay on as CEO of the company until 2000, when he voluntarily stepped down, largely to focus on his charitable work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates was replaced by Steve Ballmer as the new Microsoft CEO, serving until he was in turn replaced by Satya Nadella in 2014. Under Nadella's guidance, the company has grown ever more profitable, though there have also been many massive layoffs across Microsoft.

Here's a look in greater detail at Microsoft's history, its many products and services, its financial successes and stumbles, and the foundation its profits helped create.

Microsoft's history

William Henry Gates III, better known as Bill Gates, had a preternatural talent with software, writing his first programs while a young teenager growing up in Seattle, Washington. By the time he graduated high school and went off to Harvard, Gates had already formed a business partnership with his friend and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

This was a data analysis venture called Traf-O-Data that employed computers in parsing through information collected by roadway traffic counters. Traf-O-Data was not a business success, but it was the precursor to the Microsoft Corporation, which Allen and Gates founded in the spring of 1975.

Initially based in Albuquerque, as Gates and Allen had been working for the New Mexico-based company Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, the Microsoft headquarters moved to Bellevue, Washington, in early 1979, seeing its founders return to a location near their childhood turf.

The following year, 1980, was a pivotal one for Microsoft because the technology giant IBM awarded the company a contract that saw a Microsoft operating system used in the vaunted IBM Personal Computer, or PC. This was MS-DOS, the premier OS for several years, supplanted only by Windows, released in 1985, and one of the first graphic interface operating systems the world had ever seen.

Windows would become the dominant computer operating system over the next few decades, during which Microsoft also released software that would become wildly successful, such as the aforementioned Word and Excel, as well as PowerPoint.

Microsoft also developed its an email platform, known as Outlook, and even created a search engine named Bing, and so much more.

Microsoft's software

Microsoft released Microsoft Office — today rebranded as Microsoft 365 — in 1990, and soon the word processing and spreadsheet software therein included (namely Word and Excel) would become all but essential for office employees, students, writers, accountants, and myriad other people around the world.

But Microsoft hardly stopped with these more basic programs. The company would also develop OneDrive, a cloud data storage platform, Microsoft Azure, an advanced cloud computing service that lets you use powerful computers remotely, and Microsoft Copilot, the company's foray into the new and rapidly expanding world of artificial intelligence.

Many companies rely on Microsoft software, such as Teams, which helps people communicate, stay on schedule, and share files and documents, while many individuals rely on the advanced web browser Microsoft Edge to enhance the efficacy of their online searches.

Microsoft's software is so commonly used, and expertise in its programs have become so valuable, that the company even offers Microsoft certifications for IT specialists and developers who work with platforms like Microsoft 365 and Azure.

Beyond work and productivity software, services, and platforms, there is another arena in which Microsoft plays an outsized role: gaming.

Microsoft in the gaming world

Microsoft has been in the video game world since 1979, when "Microsoft Adventure" was released. It was a text-based problem-solving game with a feel not unlike a "Dungeons & Dragons" session.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, the company would churn out many video games, but few were mainstream successes save for the many versions of "Microsoft Flight Simulator," which was first released in 1982.

It wasn't until Microsoft got into the console gaming world that true gaming success arrived. Designed to compete with Sony's successful PlayStation video game console, the Xbox was first released in 2001 and would become one of the most popular gaming platforms on the planet.

Now in its fourth generation of console, the Xbox's most popular games include the franchises "Call of Duty," "Grand Theft Auto," and "Fortnite," to name but a few.

Microsoft has added to its success and reach in the gaming world beyond its own original creations as well; it has also acquired heavy hitters in the space. For example, in September of the year 2014, Microsoft bought Mojang, maker of the popular gaming property "Minecraft," for $2.5 billion.

And then, in October 2023, the software juggernaut bought the gaming giant Activision Blizzard for the staggering sum of $68.7 billion. These were not Microsoft's only acquisitions, of course.

Microsoft acquisitions over the years

While Microsoft had acquired many other brands, products, and companies before the year 1997, that year marked its first major and highly visible move of the kind when Microsoft bought the popular email platform Hotmail for a $500 million, which is nearly a billion dollars today.

Hotmail was eventually rolled into Microsoft Outlook, though you can still get and use a Hotmail email address today.

In 2011, Microsoft made another powerful move when it acquired the video chat platform Skype, this time in a multibillion-dollar move.

In 2016, the software company laid out a hefty $26.2 billion to buy LinkedIn, the widely used professional networking and social media platform.

And in 2018, Microsoft acquired GitHub, a code developing platform, for the tidy sum of $7.5 billion. All of these acquisitions involve huge numbers, of course, as does the wealth of Microsoft's founder and the endowment of the charitable organization he established with his then-wife, Melinda Gates.

Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation by the numbers

At last check, Bill Gates' net worth was around $106 billion, making him, the former richest person in the world, not even in the top 10 richest list. He ranked 14^th richest, per Forbes, as of late 2024.

Gates has given tens of millions of dollars away, largely to his own nonprofit organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is focused on issues ranging from endemic diseases in developing nations to safe water supply issues and combatting hunger.

Married for 27 years prior to a divorce in the summer of 2021, Bill and Melinda Gates sat together on the board of their eponymous foundation for many years and even for three years following the marital split, though Melinda Gates finally departed the foundation in June 2024.

The foundation, which has offices in multiple countries across four continents, employs more than 2,000 people and has an endowment of more than $75 billion. According to data sourced from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation itself, in recent years it has offered charitable support between $7 and $8 billion, and the foundation had issued more than $77 billion in grant payments since its inception through the year 2023.

That's all an impressive amount of money, to be sure, and given for noble causes, but it pales in comparison to the profits of the Microsoft Corporation, profits that are often maintained thanks to harsh rounds of employee layoffs.

Microsoft finances, revenues, careers, and layoffs

Microsoft went public with its IPO in 1986 at a price of $21 per share. In the decades since, Microsoft stock pricing has swelled exponentially, and the company's total market cap — which is the entire value of a company's outstanding shares — reached an astonishing $3 trillion dollars by late 2024.

For a bit of perspective, that is larger than the annual gross domestic product of almost every nation on earth — were Microsoft's market cap placed on the scale with GDP, it would rank between France and Germany.

For the 12-month period ending in June 2024, Microsoft earnings were around $245 billion — in a one-year period, to be clear, the company generated nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars. It's no wonder, then, that Microsoft careers are highly sought after.

But jobs, though often lucrative, are also often tenuous. Microsoft's layoffs are often notorious for their size. For example, in the early fall of 2024, the company cut 650 workers from its gaming division only a few months after slashing 1,900 employees from its Activision Blizzard and Xbox departments.

In 2023, the company cut a huge swath of its labor force, dropping 10,000 workers. This was not the biggest layoff, though: between 2014 and 2015, the company axed nearly 20,000 employees. This was following the problematic acquisition of the telecom company Nokia, which also saw the exit of then-CEO Steve Ballmer.

• TikTok told its US employees that they'd still have jobs if the app goes dark.
• The company reassured staffers that the leadership team is planning for various scenarios.
• The Supreme Court is currently reviewing TikTok's request for more time on its divestment deadline.

TikTok reassured its US staffers on Tuesday that they'd still have jobs even if the app goes dark in a few days, as mandated by a divest-or-ban law.

In an internal memo shared with employees, the company confirmed to its US team that their "employment, pay, and benefits are secure, and our offices will remain open, even if this situation hasn't been resolved before the January 19 deadline." The company added that TikTok is a global platform and that only the US user experience would be impacted.

The Verge's Alex Heath first reported on the memo, which Business Insider independently verified. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.

The memo acknowledged that this moment of uncertainty has been unsettling for the company and said TikTok's leadership team is planning for various scenarios as it charts its next steps.

TikTok employees who have spoken with BI have said they've often felt kept in the dark in recent weeks as they await a decision from the Supreme Court on a law that requires owner ByteDance to divest from the US version of TikTok or see it shut down. The company lost its legal challenge in the DC Circuit, and legal analysts told BI it's unlikely the Supreme Court will reverse that decision.

If TikTok does stop operating later this month, there's still a possibility that President-elect Donald Trump may try to rescue the app once in office, as he pledged to do on the campaign trail.

• The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against Elon Musk.
• The new suit alleges Musk violated securities law related to his purchase of Twitter shares.
• It's not the first time the Tesla leader has gone toe-to-toe with the SEC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against Elon Musk, alleging he violated securities law related to his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, according to a federal docket.

The complaint alleges Musk "failed to timely file with the SEC a beneficial ownership report" disclosing his purchase of Twitter shares before he announced his ownership of the company.

"As a result, Musk was able to continue purchasing shares at artificially low prices, allowing him to underpay by at least $150 million for shares he purchased after his beneficial ownership report was due," the complaint reads.

Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, told Business Insider in an email that Musk "has done nothing wrong."

"Today's action is an admission by the SEC that they cannot bring an actual case — because Mr. Musk has done nothing wrong and everyone sees this sham for what it is," Spiro said. "As the SEC retreats and leaves office — the SEC's multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr. Musk culminated in the filing of a single-count ticky tak complaint against Mr. Musk under Section 13(d) for an alleged administrative failure to file a single form — an offense that, even if proven, carries a nominal penalty."

This isn't the first time the SEC has sued Musk. A 2018 complaint from the commission stemmed from Musk's "funding secured" tweet, indicating he'd planned to take Tesla private, which eventually resulted in a settlement under which Tesla and Musk both paid fines of $20 million.

The SEC has not responded to a request for comment from BI.

Correction: January 14, 2025 — An earlier version of this story mistated the defendant in the story's URL and meta description. The SEC sued Elon Musk, not Tesla.

• Koyaana Redstar, a luxury bag authenticator, has decades of experience identifying fake Hermès Birkin bags.
• She said that the viral "Walmart Birkin," or "Wirkin," has several telltale signs of being a dupe.
• But Walmart is also not trying to convince anybody that the Wirkin is the real deal, she added.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Koyaana Redstar, the head of luxury buying at Luxe Du Jour, an online luxury boutique for vintage designer handbags. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I've worked for Rebag, The RealReal, and other vintage consignment stores and have 20 years of experience in the resale industry.

To me, the Hermès Birkin and Kelly are the most iconic bags in fashion. They are classic and retain value more than almost any other bag.

So, of course, I have thoughts on the viral $78 "Walmart Birkin" bag.

Signs that the Wirkin is an obvious dupe

First, the proportions of the Wirkin wouldn't look right to anyone who knows their stuff — and knows Birkins.

The handles are too long, and the fact that it comes with a crossbody strap is a dead giveaway — the Birkin doesn't come with one. To my knowledge, the only Birkin with a strap is the Micro Birkin if you exclude Jane Birkin's first Birkin.

The hardware is also almost too gold and has a slightly green undertone, which a real Birkin wouldn't have.

From afar, the imitation leather-like material looks almost puffy, which also throws off the shape. I can also tell the size of various components isn't of regular Birkin proportions.

As far as I'm concerned, the Wirkin's design doesn't seem to have been intentionally created to convince anyone that it's a Birkin.

It does look similar — but major changes have been made to avoid confusion, and they haven't used trademarked branding that would lead someone to believe that it's a real Hermès Birkin.

I think it's likely not the last we'll see of Birkin dupes from other brands, partly due to the demand for this particularly iconic style.

Dupes are fair game

The Birkin is the most coveted handbag in the world, so it's not surprising that there are so many dupes and replicas.

Replicas are attempted duplicates of a luxury bag, down to the types of hardware, fonts, materials, and branding.

Dupes are not branded, like the bags they are trying to imitate. They use a style or concept, alter it, and remove its branding. However, these products may use similar materials and have similar functionalities.

I don't approve of replicas, but I can get behind the idea of dupes because they aren't made to trick people into confusing them with the real deal.

I do find that consumers I've interacted with have become more conservative about spending on luxury products. Now, what I see is that there is brand loyalty — especially among consumers who enjoy buying products from specific brands.

However, an uptick in prices and the idea that dupes are readily available could drive some people to find cheaper alternatives to items that are way out of their budget.

A word of warning, though. Knowingly purchasing, distributing, or shipping inauthentic items is illegal under federal law.

It constitutes "trafficking in counterfeit goods," which can result in significant fines and potential jail time depending on the severity.

• Israel has used its Air Force to strike its enemies with impunity.
• Syria's collapse now gives it unprecedented power in the air, right up to Iran's border.
• "Israel now has open skies to Iran," a Middle East analyst told BI.

The Israeli Air Force has long been regarded as the Middle East's premier aerial fleet, supplied in large part with US-made aircraft and munitions. But in the past year it has gone further, showing its aircraft can strike any of its adversaries with impunity and establishing unprecedented air superiority across wide stretches of the region.

It gutted Russian and Iranian-made air defenses in Iran, daring Iranian leaders to strike back with fewer defenses. It destroyed stocks of Hezbollah's missile arsenal in southern Lebanon and killed its top leader with a precision airstrike on his underground headquarters.

Its power was so formidable in Syria that the Assad regime and Russia secretly asked Israel to spare Assad's military, according to allegedly classified documents found in the country after that brutal regime collapsed in December.

In the wake of that collapse, Israel seized the opportunity. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) destroyed the country's vast majority of air defenses and Syrian military stockpiles.

Across 15 months of war, instigated by the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist massacre by Hamas into Israel, the IAF has emerged supreme and is basking in its moment.

"Fighter pilots, if they wanted, could now merrily fly in pairs, with visible operating systems, at any altitude, to any range, to any spot in Israel's first circle of defense," reported the Israeli news site Ynet in late December.

Israel has long possessed the most powerful air force in the Middle East and one of the most powerful and technologically advanced anywhere in the world. It boasts over 600 aircraft and over 30,000 active personnel, with no less than 50,000 in reserve. It operates the second-largest fleet of F-16s in the world and is the only regional country that currently flies the F-35 stealth jet. Furthermore, Israel has its own version of that fifth-generation aircraft, a privilege no other country enjoys.

The IAF overwhelmingly consists of American-made aircraft that also include Apache and Black Hawk helicopters. Israel also flies a large fleet of F-15s and recently signed a $5.2 billion deal for 25 highly advanced F-15IA variants.

The IAF plays a pivotal role in the defense of Israel. It gave the small country a critical qualitative edge over its larger Arab adversaries in historical conflicts, most notably the June 1967 Six Day War.

The IAF's newfound supremacy goes beyond previous wars. For example, it previously destroyed several Soviet-built Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley in a complex operation in 1982 and shot down over 80 Syrian fighter jets without incurring any losses in return. While December's operation saw the IAF strike all across Syria, the operation wasn't nearly as sophisticated or dangerous as that historical episode; many of the air defenses in the latest operation were abandoned or in low states of readiness.

"We know one reason possibly restraining Israel was a recently exposed secret agreement with Russia and Syria in which Israel agreed to refrain from wider targeting of Syria's military," said Sebastien Roblin, a widely published military aviation journalist.

Israel launched an enormous long-range air and drone attack against Iran on the night of October 26 in retaliation for an Iranian missile barrage against it on October 1. The IAF targeted some Syrian air defenses in the lead-up to the attack.

The IAF also used Iraqi airspace that October night and reportedly targeted early warning radars and sensors in both Syria and Iraq, which were part of a network Iran established in the region to detect incoming Israeli attacks. While the IAF used standoff munitions, including air-launched ballistic missiles, some Israeli aircraft are believed to have penetrated Iranian airspace.

"From what we currently know, some Israeli aircraft did reportedly breach Iranian airspace, though not, from what I've seen, very far," Ryan Bohl, a senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at the risk intelligence company RANE, told BI.

"That was in part a demonstration of capability and in part an operational necessity to effectively hit deep targets," Bohl said.

Israel stated some aircraft entered Iranian airspace, which were likely stealthy Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II jets and newly revealed long-range drones. Roblin said it's unclear if these aircraft released weapons over Iran. They could have been there to help "precisely locate key targets" and guide weapons fired by other aircraft over significant distances.

"The strike certainly had the effect of dispelling deterrence benefits of Iran's more advanced air defenses (Russian S-300 systems)," Roblin said. However, as in the case with Syria before December, Iran's remaining air defenses "still have some value in compelling use of more expensive standoff munitions and perhaps absorbing a percentage of incoming weapons."

Israel's campaign against the remnants of the Syrian military has major implications for Iran. Should Syria's airspace remain permissive to Israeli aircraft, Israel can fly its tanker aircraft closer to Iranian airspace than previously possible.

"If medium/high-altitude air defenses were truly fully destroyed, then Israel's ordinarily vulnerable tanker aircraft could indeed theoretically access Syrian airspace and refuel fighters, which could enable higher volume attacks on Iran," Roblin said.

With Syrian air defenses eliminated, Bohl believes that "Israel now has open skies to Iran."

It will likely take years before Syria manages to reestablish significant air defenses.

"The one-two-punch of Assad regime's collapse followed by Israeli strikes on surviving equipment mean Syria will require a much longer time-frame to reconstitute an air- and ground-based defense capability through expensive new equipment purchases," Roblin said. "So, Israel's ability to attack targets at will has been improved, though it was already more than adequate."

Airpower, of course, has its limits. Israel's aerial bombing has damaged roughly two-thirds of all buildings in Gaza, but it was a foot patrol that found and killed Hamas' hardline leader, who orchestrated the 10/7 attacks. Similarly, waves of Israeli airstrikes have failed to stop Iran from nuclear weapons development and uranium enrichment.

With Russia's influence diminishing, Turkey appears destined to become the new Syria's main military backer. Ankara has already offered to help Damascus rebuild the Syrian military.

"For now, Israel can ignore Syria as a defensive layer for Iran; it's just geography to fly over now," RANE's Bohl said. "But that is unlikely to be a permanent condition, and eventually, Syria's air defenses will, in some capacity, return."

"And should Turkey provide them, (that) might complicate Israel's regional strategy in a new way."

Paul Iddon is a freelance journalist and columnist who writes about Middle East developments, military affairs, politics, and history. His articles have appeared in a variety of publications focused on the region.

• The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against Elon Musk.
• The new suit alleges Musk violated securities law related to his purchase of Twitter shares.
• It's not the first time the Tesla leader has gone toe-to-toe with the SEC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against Elon Musk, alleging he violated securities law related to his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, according to a federal docket.

The complaint alleges Musk "failed to timely file with the SEC a beneficial ownership report" disclosing his purchase of Twitter shares before he announced his ownership of the company.

"As a result, Musk was able to continue purchasing shares at artificially low prices, allowing him to underpay by at least $150 million for shares he purchased after his beneficial ownership report was due," the complaint reads.

Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, told Business Insider in an email that Musk "has done nothing wrong."

"Today's action is an admission by the SEC that they cannot bring an actual case — because Mr. Musk has done nothing wrong and everyone sees this sham for what it is," Spiro said. "As the SEC retreats and leaves office — the SEC's multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr. Musk culminated in the filing of a single-count ticky tak complaint against Mr. Musk under Section 13(d) for an alleged administrative failure to file a single form — an offense that, even if proven, carries a nominal penalty."

This isn't the first time the SEC has sued Musk. A 2018 complaint from the commission stemmed from Musk's "funding secured" tweet, indicating he'd planned to take Tesla private, which eventually resulted in a settlement under which Tesla and Musk both paid fines of $20 million.

The SEC has not responded to a request for comment from BI.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

• The secretary of defense nominee pledged to re-recruit troops discharged over COVID-19 vaccine refusal.
• Over 8,400 troops were separated due to the vaccine mandate, which has now been rescinded.
• Hegseth said discharged troops should receive back pay, restored ranks, and an apology.

President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, pledged Tuesday to re-recruit troops forced out of the military for refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and said they would receive back pay, restored ranks, and an apology.

"Service members who were kicked out because of the experimental vaccine," Hegseth told lawmakers, "they will be apologized to. They will be reinstituted with pay and rank."

Hegseth, if confirmed by the Senate, would build on the groundwork laid by Trump, who told supporters last summer he would "rehire every patriot who was fired from the military," because of the vaccine mandate.

Over 8,400 troops were separated from the services after refusing to receive the vaccine following a lawful order from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in 2021. The Pentagon argued that the vaccines, similar to over a dozen others servicemembers receive, were crucial to military readiness.

The Pentagon reversed course and dropped the vaccine mandate in 2023 following a decision by Congress. At that time, it stopped separating troops who had not received the shot. Roughly 99% of the active-duty Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force had been vaccinated and around 98% of the Army. Guard and Reserve rates were lower but over 90%.

Sen. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana, asked if Hegseth Tuesday if he would commit to "recruit these folks back" with back pay.

"I will commit to this because the Commander in Chief has committed to this," Hegseth replied. "Not only will they be reinstated, they will receive an apology, back pay, and rank that they lost because they were forced out due to an experimental vaccine."

Top military brass considered the possibility of providing back pay to troops after the vaccine mandate was repealed in early 2023, but Hegseth's remarks Tuesday drive home the incoming administration's intent to re-recruit separated troops back into the military. It is the first such indication since Trump won reelection in November.

Such a change could affect the Marine Corps, the DoD's smallest service, the most — of the roughly 8,400 troops discharged, 3,717 were Marines. For the other services, 2,041 were discharged from the Navy, 1,841 from the Army, and 834 from the Air Force.

Republicans have long criticized these separations, arguing they were unnecessary and detrimental amid US military recruitment struggles. The military, however, maintained that the mandate was a lawful order essential to readiness and the well-being of the force.

• Mario Carbone is the chef behind the iconic Italian restaurant Carbone.
• He gave me the recipe for a Bolognese pasta that's perfect for chilly winter nights.
• The pappardelle covered in a comforting sauce was packed with tons of flavor.

Carbone is one of the hottest restaurants in New York City, and it's almost impossible to get a table.

But you don't need a reservation to whip up some of Mario Carbone's dishes at home.

I asked the chef to share some of his favorite recipes. And with winter in full swing, Carbone thought it'd be the perfect time to whip up his comforting Bolognese.

Here's how to make it.

Chef Mario Carbone's Bolognese has three different types of meat to get you through chilly temperatures.

To make Carbone's Bolognese for six, you'll need:

• ½ pound ground beef
• ½ pound ground pork or veal
• ½ pound Italian sausage (out of casing)

Carbone told me he likes to add Italian sausage for his spin on the classic dish to give his Bolognese a "big pop of added flavor."

The recipe also features plenty of veggies.

• 1 cup onion, diced
• ½ cup celery, diced
• ½ cup carrot, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 ½ jars Carbone marinara sauce
• ¾ cup red wine
• ½ cup chicken stock
• ½ cup milk
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1 ½ tablespoons salt
• ½ tablespoon thyme (chopped)

Carbone's recipe was developed with Carbone Fine Food to pair with one of the restaurant's sauces, which you can buy online and in grocery stores. Carbone's Bolognese features the marinara, but you can also try the tomato basil, roasted garlic, or arrabbiata.

If you don't have Carbone's sauce on hand, you can always opt for a similar marinara or just make your own. His sauce is made with Italian tomatoes (whole peeled tomatoes, tomato purée, sea salt, basil), along with onions, olive oil, sea salt, garlic, basil, crushed red pepper flakes, and oregano.

Before I started cooking, I prepped my veggies.

I diced my onion, carrots, and celery and set them aside.

Then, I threw some olive oil into a Dutch oven and added the ground beef.

I seared the ground beef over high heat for about three minutes, then drained it in my colander over a large bowl.

I separately seared the pork, followed by the sausage, for around the same amount of time.

As with the ground beef, I drained the pork and sausage in the colander after they had browned in the Dutch oven.

After I seared and drained all three meats, I made sure to season them.

I added half a tablespoon of salt and gave the meat a quick mix.

I drained the excess fat from my Dutch oven before adding the chopped garlic and thyme.

I constantly stirred my garlic and thyme for around two minutes over medium-low heat.

Then, I added the chopped carrots, celery, and onion.

I seasoned my veggies with half a teaspoon of salt and cooked them over low heat for another 15 minutes, until they turned soft.

I covered the Dutch oven while everything cooked, making sure to stir the vegetables every few minutes.

Once the vegetables were ready, I added the tomato paste and red wine.

First, I added the tomato paste and increased my stove to medium heat. I stirred constantly for two minutes to lightly cook the tomato paste, making sure it had completely mixed with the veggies.

Then, I poured the red wine into the Dutch oven and let it reduce until there wasn't much liquid left. I continued to stir often to ensure I didn't burn the wine and vegetables.

Once the wine had reduced, I added the browned meat back into the Dutch oven.

I stirred everything together as delicious scents began to fill up my kitchen.

I threw in my Carbone marinara sauce, along with the chicken stock and bay leaf.

I continued to cook everything for about 40 minutes, stirring every few minutes to prevent the ingredients from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Then, it was time for some milk.

I added the milk and mixed everything together, allowing the sauce to simmer for another 10 minutes.

As the sauce was finishing up, I threw my pasta into a pot of salted boiling water.

Carbone recommends using pappardelle for his bolognese recipe.

Once the sauce was ready, I took the Dutch oven off the heat.

I removed the bay leaf and added another half tablespoon of salt to season everything.

Not letting the Bolognese sauce simmer too long is part of Carbone's twist on the classic dish.

"Usually, this recipe cooks all day," he told me. "But my style — which I find to be more Italian-American than true Emilia-Romagna style — leaves the meat with more texture, which reminds me of my childhood."

Everything was ready! So, I threw my pasta into the Dutch oven and mixed it with the Bolognese sauce.

If you've made more sauce than you need for one dinner, Carbone said you can store the Bolognese in the fridge for up to five days.

You can also freeze it for longer, just make sure to use freezer-safe bags.

The golden ribbons of pappardelle looked beautiful sitting in that rich Bolognese.

There's just something about a heaping bowl of thick pasta noodles in an even thicker sauce on a cold night. I instantly felt soothed as I admired the big bowl of pasta in front of me.

The bolognese took more time than many of the pasta recipes I usually prepare, but it smelled absolutely glorious.

Carbone's delicious Bolognese sauce made for a perfect winter pasta dish.

Carbone's recipe has the deep richness you'd expect from a Bolognese but still tastes light despite featuring three different types of meat. The sauce has a lovely, mild sweetness that lifts the entire dish.

"The different flavors don't compete with each other; they build on each other," my mom said approvingly as she finished her plate.

"I could really seduce a man with this recipe," my sister added as she went for seconds.

Carbone's Bolognese was so comforting and soothing on a gloomy night. It's the perfect recipe to help us get through winter — plus, who doesn't love a good bowl of pasta?

• The Air Force and Space Force must grow over the next two decades to counter emerging threats.
• China's rapid military advancements pose a significant challenge.
• The US is boosting cyber defenses and AI, with "machine speed" being necessary for some decisions.

Winning wars 25 years from now will hinge on achieving an edge in artificial intelligence and the ability to make certain decisions at inhuman speeds, the US Air Force's top civilian official said Monday.

Future war will be "highly automated, highly autonomous, action at long range, precision," and space will be a "decisive theater," Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said. "Response times to bring effects to bear are very short."

Advances in technology, including the proliferation of sensor technology and machine learning, have led to the ability to execute complex kill chains on faster timelines. Maintaining a competitive edge demands change and further innovation.

"We're going to be in a world," Kendall said, "where decisions will not be made at human speed; they're going to be made at machine speed." Meeting that challenge will mean transforming the Department of the Air Force through AI to shield troops from a range of threats and prepare for higher-level combat.

Kendall's remarks on Monday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event looking at Air Force plans for the future align with Air Force leadership visions for 2050.

A December 2024 report titled The Department of the Air Force in 2050 says that the "areas of conflict that move at speeds vastly exceeding human decision time constants, such as cyber warfare and electronic warfare, are likely to be dominated by AI technologies that assess events happening at unimaginably fast speeds and unimaginably small dimensions."

"These technologies will be used to make crucial decisions with no possibility of human intervention," the report says. "Victory or defeat in the air or in space at the human scale is likely to be determined by which combatant has fielded the most advanced AI technology in the areas most crucial to achieving victory."

The Air Force secretary has previously said that he doesn't think people who say that AI is "going to determine who's the winner in the next battlefield" are "all that far off."

What Air Force leadership says is needed for future fights

"China is doing everything it can to exploit the opportunities that emerging technologies are providing to field forces designed to defeat the United States in the Western Pacific, especially in space and in the air," the Air Force plans for 2050 say.

The Air Force and Space Force have expressed concern over the pace at which China has been developing military space capabilities, including a network of hundreds of military satellites that may assist in targeting troops, among other challenges.

"The joint force will not be able to go anywhere and do anything unless we can protect it from targetings in space," Kendall explained Monday.

A more powerful Space Force is a must to combat China's growing abilities, Kendall said. "We have to go from having a merchant marine [force] to essentially having a Navy," the secretary said, comparing where the force is today and where it needs to eventually be to civilian cargo mariners and armed naval forces.

The Space Force was established during the first Trump administration and remains in the early stages of development. But strengthening US technological capabilities doesn't stop there.

The US needs to boost defense against cyber-attacks while also increasing offensive capabilities, Kendall said, adding that he expects more developments on both fronts this year. That sentiment comes on the heels of a recent alarming hack of US telecommunications systems and the US treasury, allegedly by Chinese hackers.

Autonomous vehicles and aircraft are also expected to become more prolific and play a greater role in future wars. "The only open questions about autonomy are how fast it will mature and what form it will take," the Air Force said in its report on 2050.

"The direction is quite clear at this point," it said. "By 2050, we can reasonably expect autonomous vehicle operation to be the norm, in all domains."

The Air Force has already begun experimenting with AI-assisted flight navigation for some of its jets in anticipation of a space attack that could cripple satellite-based GPS communication. It is also developing uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft and experimenting with AI-piloted fighter aircraft, key developments amid Beijing's investment in its own air forces, which is gradually eroding American air supremacy.

Autonomous military platforms and other variants of AI rely so heavily on chip technology, which the Biden Administration has put new restrictions on.

"To enhance US national security and economic strength, it is essential that we do not offshore this critical technology and that the world's AI runs on American rails," read the White House announcement.

But one of the hardest challenges in the decades to come will be how American troops and machines work together at war, Kendall said. "We're gonna have to figure out how to manage this in a way which is cost effective, which is consistent with our values, which is militarily competitive."

And, he said, "I think that's gonna be a tough problem to resolve."

• Microsoft is laying off employees on teams, including security, sales and gaming.
• The layoffs are separate from cuts targeting underperforming employees across the company.
• In 2024 Microsoft said security was its No. 1 priority.

Microsoft is laying off employees across organizations including security, experiences and devices, sales, and gaming, according to two people familiar with the matter.

A Microsoft spokesperson said the layoffs are small but did not specify a figure and unrelated to the job cuts Business Insider recently reported targeting underperforming employees across the company.

One of the people familiar with the matter said employees started receiving notifications Tuesday about layoffs in Microsoft's security unit. The group is run by Charlie Bell, a former top cloud executive at Amazon, who stunned the industry when he left for Microsoft in 2021 to lead a revamped cybersecurity effort.

Microsoft expanded its Secure Future Initiative last year, making security the top priority for every employee. The change followed years of security issues at Microsoft, including what the Department of Homeland Security called "a cascade of security failures" that allowed Chinese hackers to access emails from thousands of customers.

The company also made security a core priority on which employees are evaluated during performance reviews.

"If you're faced with the tradeoff between security and another priority, your answer is clear: Do security." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in an email to Microsoft employees last year.

Are you a Microsoft employee, or do you have insight to share? Contact the reporter Ashley Stewart via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email ([email protected]). Use a nonwork device.

• TikTok may soon go dark in the US due to a divest-or-ban law.
• Merchants that rely on its e-commerce tool, Shop, are scrambling to come up with contingency plans.
• Some are halting warehouse shipments and testing out other apps like Flip and Instagram Live.

The clock is ticking on a potential TikTok ban in the US, and panic is beginning to set in for the platform's sellers and their e-commerce partners.

TikTok Shop, the app's shopping product, has been flourishing in the US. Last year, merchants pulled in millions in sales a month on the platform, including $100 million on Black Friday alone.

But that could all go away in a few days. Without court or presidential intervention, TikTok said it would "go dark" after January 19 to comply with a divest-or-ban law. The company has asked the Supreme Court to push back that deadline. Legal analysts say the odds aren't in TikTok's favor.

Some e-commerce players are already backing off from the app.

A TikTok Shop agency partner executive told Business Insider that a lot of merchants have paused their TikTok Shop plans while they wait to see what happens at the Supreme Court. Some have halted sending free samples to TikTok creators, while others are holding off on shipping products to US warehouses amid the uncertainty. The executive requested anonymity to protect business relationships. Some merchants are even asking for carveouts in contracts with the firm to account for the possibility that TikTok could go dark, the executive said.

Two agency sources told BI that the TikTok Shop team has not communicated anything to them about a possible US app shutdown, acting as if things are business as usual.

A TikTok spokesperson did not provide comment by the time of publication.

Other sellers are testing out alternative social-commerce platforms, such as Flip, Instagram Live, Amazon Live, and YouTube Shopping. And some US merchants are exploring selling goods in other countries where TikTok Shop operates.

Jake Bjorseth, founder of the TikTok Shop partner agency Trndsttrs, described the flurry of TikTok ban planning as "doomsday prep."

"Fortunately, we've slotted much of this in advance, but it's still quite unclear where brands and creators reliant on TikTok are going to flow," Bjorseth said. "It'll certainly be a turbulent few months for folks reliant on it."

Nicole Rechtszaid, co-CEO of the e-commerce agency Ghost Agency, said the company has similarly stopped new business operations related to TikTok Shop and general TikTok content production in preparation for a possible TikTok shutdown. The company's revenue is heavily tied to the app, and if TikTok leaves the US, Ghost may need to consider alternative paths like merging with another company, she said.

"For our existing clients, we've aimed to shift them to alternative platforms, like Instagram Live," Rechtszaid said. "However, it is challenging to replicate TikTok Shop's success on platforms that do not have the combination of an engaging algorithm and native shopping features."

While some Shop businesses are deep into contingency planning, others hope to extract what they can from the platform while it's still around.

"We are continuing on as business as usual until we are told to stop," Lindzi Shanks, the cofounder of the gourmet marshmallow seller XO Marshmallow, told BI. "We also never put our eggs in one basket, so to speak. We have always diversified our social platforms and marketing efforts and continue to do so."

'It's going to put the industry back a few years'

Even as merchants and sellers hedge their bets by testing out alternative platforms, replacing TikTok Shop in the US is going to be tough.

Other apps excel in certain aspects of social commerce. Live shopping app Whatnot said it drove over $3 billion in sales last year, for example. But only TikTok offers an all-in-one place for sellers to run their social-commerce businesses, including a dedicated app store, affiliate marketing tech, and order fulfillment services.

"If it does get banned, it's going to be very bad for live shopping," the first TikTok Shop agency exec said. "It's going to put the industry back a few years."

Michael Herling, a Shop merchant who sells hats on TikTok under the brand Herling Handcrafted, said most of his business comes from TikTok sales and referrals. If TikTok does end up getting banned, he's planning to use Instagram and Facebook to advertise his business.

"It's a real bummer. I built my business on TikTok," Herling said. "I've been pretty depressed about it, knowing that if it gets banned it essentially shuts my business down."

• People are realizing that the UGG shoes they've worn for decades may be different than they thought.
• That's because they purchased American-made UGGs — not shoes from Australian brand UGG Since 1974.
• The brands are separate companies with little in common besides their nearly identical boots.

You probably have a pair of UGG boots in your closet.

And just as likely, they're probably not the Australian-made shoes you think they are.

Leather, fur-lined boots have a history that goes back centuries, but the kind we wear today got their start in Australian surfing culture. Dubbed "uggs," an Australian slang term, the shoes were first regularly worn by surfers to keep their feet warm around the '50s.

Of course, when you hear the term in the US, you likely think of the trendy, brand-name footwear ideal for winter.

The UGG company's brown boots first became a sensation in the early 2000s, with everyone from suburban moms to celebrities like Beyoncé touting their Australian-made boots with authentic sheepskin fabrics and cloud-like linings.

And since then, various UGG styles have made a comeback thanks to Gen Z fashion fans.

However, many shoppers are now discovering that the shoes they've been wearing for decades aren't actually made in Australia. They're not created by the original ugg brand unless they were purchased from UGG Since 1974, an Australia-based company that handcrafts its products and has been around a few years longer than UGG.

UGG vs. UGG Since 1974

After sheepskin boots first became popular in the '50s and '60s, Australian couple Arthur Springthorpe and Faye Springthorpe took the shoes to another level in the '70s, according to a blog post from UGG Since 1974.

"Arthur and Faye drew on Arthur's years of experience as a wool classer in the shearing sheds of New South Wales to craft sheepskin moccasins and UGG boots, one pair at a time in our workshop, all those years ago," the brand's website says.

Though they didn't invent the term "ugg," the Springthorpes saw its potential as a business moniker and created a stable, family-run business in Australia.

And today, the brand is still going strong. You can buy its shoes at one store in Australia and around the world via its online shop.

But as UGG Since 1974 was rising to success in Australia, a competitor named UGG rose alongside them in the US.

Brian Smith, an Australian surfer and entrepreneur, founded UGG in 1978 after relocating to California.

In a 2014 interview with Forbes, Smith explained that he was looking to start a business while in school to be an accountant and found inspiration in sheepskin boots when he saw an advertisement for them in a friend's surfing magazine.

"Importing six pairs of boots as samples, I registered UGG as the trademark and settled down to be an instant millionaire," Smith told Forbes. "What I didn't know was that Americans didn't understand sheepskin like Aussies do."

Despite initial slow sales and business troubles, as Smith told the publication, the shoes eventually caught on with US surfers and professional athletes.

The US Olympic team, for example, wore UGG boots during the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

And later, celebrities grew to love the US-based UGG brand.

Oprah first featured UGG boots in her 2003 Favorite Things episode, and the shoes became a staple wardrobe piece for stars like Paris Hilton, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kate Moss.

Deckers Brands, which owns popular footwear companies including Hoka, Teva, and Sanuk, then purchased the UGG brand in 1995.

Is there a difference? Shoppers say yes.

The fact that two major UGG brands exist is no secret.

Both companies have been around for decades, and the Australian version regularly states online that it has "no connection whatsoever, past or present, to the US company known as UGG."

However, many consumers have been entirely unaware of the similar yet different brands, which has led to a lot of confusion.

In December 2023, content creator Eliana Shiloh said in a TikTok video that she was "shook" to discover there was even a difference between UGG and UGG Since 1974 and that Deckers Brands mass-produces its UGG products with materials that aren't always from Australia. Deckers Brands did not respond to a request for comment.

In her video, which now has 2.3 million views, Shiloh said she thought the quality of the shoes she'd purchased from the brand had decreased over the years, which led her to question if she'd had UGG Since 1974 shoes as a child but bought American-made UGG boots as an adult.

As UGG Since 1974 explained in a TikTok video two days later, that's likely not the case.

"If you purchased your UGGs in the early 2000s in the USA or from the USA website, you've likely never owned a pair of our UGG Since 1974 boots," the video's narrator says. "Our UGG boots can only be purchased from one store in Australia and online through uggsince1974.com.au."

Shiloh told Business Insider that she came to the same conclusion after doing more research following her TikTok video. From now on, she plans to purchase shoes from UGG Since 1974 instead of UGG.

So, how did shoppers like Shiloh get so confused? Is there an UGG Mandela effect?

In a way, yes. UGG was once named UGG Australia, leading shoppers to believe they were purchasing shoes made in Australia with Australian materials.

The brand changed its name to UGG in 2016 when Australian ugg makers complained to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that the American company's branding was misleading, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

If you bought UGGs in the early 2000s, you were likely buying UGG Australia, which is now known simply as UGG.

As for how the brands differ, that all comes down to how (and where) the shoes are made.

UGG Since 1974 says on its website that it handcrafts its shoes, and the brand wrote in a since-deleted blog post that its competitor UGG mass-produces its products "in countries such as China, Vietnam, the Philippines and other parts of Asia."

"We strictly use Australian and New Zealand sheepskin, with all of our UGG boots being handcrafted from premium A-Grade Australian or New Zealand sheepskin," UGG Since 1974 said in its post.

Meanwhile, UGG details the materials used in the product descriptions of each of its items.

One of UGG's most classic designs, for example, utilizes sheepskin and "real fur from sheep or lamb," according to the UGG website. The site says that fur "may be sourced from Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, or the United States" and that it is "artificially dyed and treated." Other UGG products incorporate materials such as wool and lyocell, a fabric made from trees.

Representatives for UGG Since 1974 did not respond to a request for comment. When contacted by BI for this story, UGG declined to comment on the debate and feedback surrounding its products.

Sheepskin boots and trademark disputes

UGG, UGG Since 1974, and other ugg manufacturers don't necessarily co-exist peacefully.

In May 2021, a federal appeals court rejected a case from shoemaker Eddie Oygur, who sells ugg-style shoes through his brand Australian Leather, to remove UGG's American trademark.

Oygur told The New York Times in 2021 that he felt Australia should have sole ownership of the term.

"The trademark should never have been given in the first place to the US," he told the publication.

UGG Since 1974 said in its deleted blog post that this dispute — namely the the lack of rights for Australian brands — prevents them and other brands from widely selling ugg products in other countries.

The company also said it was then "working to preserve" the ugg term for Australian businesses to use in and outside the country.

However, as of January, UGG Since 1974 said on TikTok that it had been sued by Deckers and would be rebranding to Since 74 overseas. In Australia and New Zealand, the brand says it will remain as UGG Since 1974.

So maybe you own UGGs, UGG Since 1974 boots, or another dupe entirely.

But whatever you've got on your feet, the shoes likely have a deep, complicated history that's enough to make you say "ugh."

• Jamie Foxx suffered a stroke in April 2023 while in production on his Netflix movie "Back in Action."
• Director Seth Gordon recounts how he continued making the movie while Foxx recovered.
• "Back in Action," starring Foxx and Cameron Diaz, is available Friday on Netflix.

Making a movie is never an easy or predictable process. But veteran writer-director Seth Gordon could only come up with one word to describe the challenges it took to make his Netflix movie "Back in Action": "special."

Gordon was prepping for a day of shooting in Atlanta on April 12, 2023, when he received a call no director ever wants: one of his stars wouldn't be reporting to work that day. But it got worse. The star, Jamie Foxx, had collapsed the day before and was in the hospital.

"We didn't know anything," Gordon told Business Insider via Zoom from Berlin. "No details. But we simply wanted to make sure he was OK as best we could. We put that priority first."

"Back in Action" was being billed as an action comedy about two CIA spies who have gone into hiding to start a family. With star power in Foxx and Cameron Diaz, who returned to acting for her first role in eight years, it had a lot of hype. Now, it would be known as the movie Foxx was making when he mysteriously collapsed.

It would take a months before the public would hear from Foxx again, as speculation ran rampant about what had afflicted the star. Revealing the cause of his mysterious illness would take longer. In his Netflix standup special "Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was...", released in December 2024, Foxx said he suffered a brain bleed that led to a stroke that rendered him unconscious for weeks.

During that time, Gordon and the producers of "Back in Action" scrambled to continue making the movie, holding out hope that Foxx would one day return to finish it.

Gordon resumed filming with Foxx body doubles, then rewrote some scenes

After the shock of Foxx's hospitalization wore off, Gordon had to figure out what to do with a movie that was already deep in production. A key action sequence was set to be shot the week Foxx fell ill.

Gordon said he wasn't panicked.

"From doing documentaries, I'm really used to having no idea what is actually going to happen," said Gordon, who, before making comedies like "Four Christmases" and "Horrible Bosses," made the beloved documentary "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters."

"You do your best to guess and your best to plan and then you react to reality as it unfolds. So maybe my stomach is a little more used to that uncertainty than it should be."

With locations already locked and the rest of the cast and crew ready to go, Gordon powered through trying to shoot an exterior fight sequence sans Foxx.

"We shot part of it, what we could shoot without Jamie, which was limited," said Gordon. The shoot made headlines as pictures of Foxx's body double doing the scene alongside Diaz spread across the internet.

At that point, Gordon said he was at a loss for what would be the right way to proceed. Production was halted until he could get a better idea of Foxx's condition.

During the months-long downtime, Gordon said he began editing the movie and realized that some of the scenes they had yet to shoot were unnecessary.

"I basically reconceived a couple scenes," he said.

Now, all Gordon needed was for Foxx to get better.

Gordon never considered recasting Foxx, who finally returned to set cracking jokes

Despite knowing very little about Foxx's condition, Gordon said there was never a conversation to recast the Oscar winner.

"There's no movie without him, honestly," Gordon said. "It really became putting all our eggs in the basket of praying that he got better."

Finally, all anxieties were laid to rest when Foxx showed up to see a rough assembly of some scenes in the fall of 2023.

"He was 100%," Gordon said, recalling his shock when Foxx strolled into the editing bay like he hadn't been fighting for his life mere months earlier.

"In classic Jamie style he was smooth, was cracking jokes, holding court, he was hilarious, as usual," Gordon said of their meeting.

Gordon showed Foxx the thrilling plane crash sequence that opens the movie.

"He got really excited about what he saw," he said.

The star's return was a huge boost for production morale. Then word came that filming could resume in January 2024.

"We were doing backflips and just hoping everything would remain OK," Gordon said. "Jamie went through a pretty severe thing, and the last thing in the world we would want to have happen is the stress from shooting to cause something."

Gordon thinks Foxx's recovery is a miracle, and on-set spontaneity led to even better scenes

With the movie back on, Gordon shot the remaining scenes as well as some new ones showcasing the dynamic between spy parents Matt (Foxx) and Emily (Diaz) and their daughter Alice (McKenna Roberts), which Gordon devised during the pause in production.

In one scene, after Matt and Emily drop their kids off at school, Emily uses binoculars to spy on Alice and a boy. Matt snatches the binoculars so he can see. Then Gordon came up with an idea between takes.

"At the very last minute, I asked props if they had another pair of binoculars," he said. "I wrote it for one pair, but I thought it would be hilarious if she all of a sudden had a second pair."

They shot the next take on the fly, with Emily suddenly looking through a new pair of binoculars as Matt looks with the ones he originally took from her.

Gordon said the bit got a great reaction when they test-screened the movie. And it all came from the spontaneity created by the director's desire to be mindful of Foxx's health by keeping his workload light and not doing too many takes.

"Making movies is hard and those days can be long, so what I was trying to do was keep everything with him as brief as possible for him," Gordon said.

Looking back, Gordon is still amazed by Foxx's recovery.

"He's a bit of a miracle."

• Meta may plan for annual performance-based job cuts to boost employee performance.
• The strategy aims to increase "non-regrettable attrition" and remove the lowest performers.
• Affected employees will still receive bonuses and stock vesting despite the layoffs.

Meta's performance-based job cuts could become an annual occurrence, according to an internal FAQ document viewed by Business Insider.

The document, shared with employees by Hillary Champion, Meta's director of people development growth programs, addresses whether Meta's upcoming performance-related layoffs will happen every year.

"We are committed to a culture of high performance and are trying to raise the bar by increasing our annual non-regrettable attrition and moving faster to move our lowest performers out," Champion's memo says. "We may use future performance cycles to do that."

The development comes amid an already intense review process designed to cut about 5% of Meta's workforce deemed to be its lowest performers. These cuts are set to be finalized by February 10 for US-based employees, with some international notifications occurring later.

The FAQ also reassures employees that location will not influence their ratings or termination risk and confirms that anyone impacted by the performance reviews will still receive their February 15, 2025 vesting, any due dividends, and bonuses if any are eligible.

Do you work at Meta? Contact BI reporters from a nonwork email and device at [email protected] and [email protected].
You can also reach them via Signal at jyotimann.11 and +1408-905-9124.

• Long-distance train travel can be the journey of a lifetime — so long as you avoid common mistakes.
• After spending 140 hours traveling nearly 4,000 miles by overnight trains, I've had some regrets.
• I've forgotten to check for WiFi access, slept in the wrong bunk, and overlooked lounge access.

I've spent 140 hours traveling nearly 4,000 miles on overnight trains in the US and Europe.

It all started in October 2021, when I took two 30-hour Amtrak rides between Miami and NYC.

Since then, I've spent a total of 65 hours traveling on overnight European trains between Berlin, Vienna, Venice, and Paris.

And most recently, in January, I spent 15 hours on another Amtrak sleeper train from Denver to Salt Lake City.

Looking back, I could have been more comfortable and gotten more out of all these rides if I avoided a few big mistakes.

When I booked my Amtrak rides, I could have saved money for future rides had I joined Amtrak's rewards program.

After my first overnight Amtrak trip, I learned that the train line has a loyalty program that rewards passengers two points for every $1 spent. Points may be used for tickets, hotels, shopping, and dining, and it's free to join.

If I'd signed up, I would have earned 3,000 points toward my next Amtrak adventure. I missed out that time, but I recently joined the program following my Denver to Salt Lake City journey.

I should have taken advantage of complimentary lounge access when traveling with Amtrak.

When I booked my first overnight Amtrak ride, I didn't check if my ticket included access to the Metropolitan Lounge at NYC's Penn Station, where I departed.

The Metropolitan Lounge is a quiet waiting area that's free for Amtrak customers in first-class and sleeper cabins. It has comfortable seats and free snacks and drinks.

Since I didn't realize my ticket included access to the lounge, I waited in the seating area for all passengers and was less comfortable than I could have been.

I forgot to pack medicine for motion sickness on my very first overnight ride.

That first ride taught me that overnight trains are very bumpy, and I felt sick for most of it.

For all my overnight rides since, I haven't forgotten to pack my medicine.

I also slept in the wrong bunk.

I chose to sleep in the top bunk on my first overnight train. I thought it would be more fun, but it made the ride feel even bumpier.

On every overnight ride since, I've opted for the bottom bunk over the top and have found that I sleep better that way.

Another mistake I've made on Amtrak trains was not always splurging on the most comfortable space available.

Amtrak sleeper trains have a variety of accommodations, from regular seats to private rooms.

I traveled from NYC to Miami in a $500 roomette, a 20-square-foot enclosed private space with a foldout table, two chairs that fold out into beds, and an additional bed that pulls down from the ceiling.

On my way back to NYC, I spent 30 hours in the next level up, a bedroom accommodation. It cost $1,000 for twice as much space as the roomette, with a private bathroom.

After these rides, I thought the roomette felt cramped and realized that spending twice as much money for double the space in the bedroom was worth it.

I made a similar mistake on my first overnight ride in Europe.

Some of the sleeper trains I've taken in Europe did not have private accommodations like Amtrak. Instead, they had shared cabins, and I learned that some were more comfortable than others.

For example, two Nightjet routes I booked offered regular assigned seats in enclosed seating carriages of six or shared sleeper cars with bunks of four or six. I tried both.

For my ride from Berlin to Vienna, I booked a $40 regular seat inside a seating carriage with six seats facing each other.

The seats didn't recline enough to be fully flat, and the small space felt like a tight squeeze for six people with limited legroom. I didn't sleep at all.

"The quality of travel depends not only on the carriages but also on the route," OBB Nightjet wrote in a statement to Business Insider. "We recommend the sleeper or couchette car for night travel. There is enough space to stretch out. Seated carriages are recommended for shorter journeys."

A few days later, I slept in a bunk inside a shared sleeping cabin for up to six people when traveling from Vienna to Venice for $84.

I still felt cramped in the 74-square-foot space, but having a lie-flat bed made sleeping a bit easier. I thought it was worth the higher price tag.

A year later, I traveled back to Europe to try out Nightjet's new overnight fleet with private cabins. I booked a room for myself from Venice to Vienna for $200. The added price for space and privacy made it worth the price tag.

On my most recent overnight ride, I should have checked if my train had WiFi before boarding.

My first two overnight Amtrak rides between NYC and Miami had WiFi on board. So when I got to my Amtrak train in Denver for my ride to Salt Lake City, I was surprised to find this route didn't include WiFi.

In hindsight, I should have checked if I'd have an internet connection before boarding. Had I known I wouldn't, I'd have downloaded some TV shows and movies for the journey.

While overnight train rides can feel exhausting, I think avoiding these mistakes in the future will make me feel cozier on my next sleeper train adventure.

• Some Starbucks customers are using the chain's mobile app to try to get faster drive-thru service.
• But Starbucks store employees say it just makes their job more difficult.
• The habit points to improvements that CEO Brian Niccol could make as he attempts a turnaround.

Starbucks baristas have a request for customers: Stop pulling into the drive-thru, then ordering coffee through the app, and asking for it a minute later.

Starbucks provides customers who order through the app an estimated time for when their order will be ready. While ordering, they can designate whether they want to pick up their order at the drive-thru or in the store, though Starbucks employees told Business Insider that many customers don't appear to pay attention to those options.

Still, some Starbucks customers seem to think that "hacking" the system by placing their order through the app when they're about to pull into the drive-thru — or when they're already waiting in line — will get them their venti pistachio lattes faster.

Some employees say it has the opposite effect, snaring their drink production. The employees also say the disruptive "hack" shows areas where the coffee giant could improve its order prioritization and preparation process.

BI spoke with three Starbucks employees about the issue. They asked not to be identified in this article for fear of retaliation at work, but we verified their employment.

Starbucks stores often have two separate production lines: one for drive-thru orders and another that handles orders placed in-store, through the app, and via third-party delivery apps like Uber Eats. When someone places an order, it's routed to one of these bars and generates a sticker that employees can attach to the side of a cup or other packaging.

"When people place their mobile order while they're already in line or they place their mobile order and show up a minute later, their mobile order might be behind 15 other people," one barista in the South told BI.

As a result, when the customer drives up to collect their coffee, "sometimes we haven't even seen the item that needs to be made," a barista in Florida told BI.

That means Starbucks workers, whom the company calls "partners," have to manually move that order to the front of the production line, employees said.

Preparing those orders on the spot can be especially hard if they contain multiple drinks. "It is our pet peeve, for sure," the barista said.

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in September, has said that he wants baristas to get customers their orders in four minutes or less.

He said he wants to distinguish between the company's quick service, provided to customers using the chain's mobile app in the drive-thru, and its slower, more personalized service that some walk-in customers might prefer.

Niccol has also emphasized the importance of removing obstacles for partners doing their jobs in-store. "Our green-apron partners want to provide exceptional service to our customers," Niccol said in an October message to shareholders, adding that Starbucks' leaders "need to remove those things that might stop them from doing that."

While it's still early, some Starbucks employees have told BI that changes Niccol has overseen have already made their lives easier. Starbucks said late last year that it would cut back on promotions, such as multidrink deals offered to its rewards customers through its mobile app. Some baristas have told BI that the move has made filling mobile orders less hectic.

The Florida partner previously said that Starbucks' decision for workers to blend some drinks instead of shaking them by hand had cut production time and allowed workers at his store to fill orders faster.

When it comes to mobile ordering, "we're working to improve sequencing with a new algorithm that enables on-time mobile order handoffs and supports our four-minute throughput with quality being our goal," a Starbucks spokesperson said, adding: "And over the coming months, we plan to take steps to better separate mobile order pickup from the café experience."

Starbucks is expected to tell employees more about its plans in a three-hour meeting that will close store dining rooms next week.

Some partners have suggestions about what might improve the situation.

The barista in the South said Starbucks could have a separate drive-thru lane just for picking up mobile orders — something Chipotle did under Niccol's leadership with its Chipotlanes.

Such a change could help shorten drive-thru wait times and improve the experience for customers who want to enjoy their order in-store, the barista said.

"When you place an order at the register, your order goes in behind all of the mobile orders that I have, so I'm going to be making drinks for people that are still driving to the store while you're already in the store waiting," the barista said.

"That doesn't create a good experience for the customer," the barista added.

Do you work at Starbucks and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].