• My family and I tried and ranked five brands of jarred pickles to see which one we liked best.
• We didn't like the Vlasic pickles and thought they had an unpleasant aftertaste.
• Claussen's kosher dill pickles were the best option by far.

Everyone in my family of four enjoys pickles, but I don't normally give much thought as to which brand to buy.

However, in an effort to be more intentional about my purchases, I recently bought and tasted five brands of supermarket dill pickles to see which ones we liked best.

Here's how they stacked up from worst to first.

We ranked the Vlasic pickles last due to their aftertaste.

The Vlasic kosher dill baby pickles at my local supermarket cost about $6 for a 16-ounce container, making them the most expensive per ounce of the pickles I tried.

They had a nice crunch to them, and although they initially had a mild and pleasant briny flavor, there was an off-putting aftertaste. As a result, my entire family placed these at the bottom of the list.

The taste was so unpleasant that I bought a second jar from a different supermarket to see if the first one was an anomaly. It was not.

I wouldn't seek out the 365 pickles from Whole Foods again.

I grabbed a 16-ounce jar of 365 organic kosher baby dill pickles from Whole Foods for $5.

When I took a bite, however, I didn't think these pickles were as good as some of the others I tried. They weren't especially crunchy, and I didn't love the flavor. I thought they were heavy on garlic and lacked the crisp, vinegary bite I seek in good pickles.

I'd eat them again if someone served them to me, but I'd opt for other brands if I were shopping for my family.

To be fair, these were my 7-year-old's favorite, but he's by far the most averse to spicy foods in our family.

Trader Joe's kosher dill pickles were OK, but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy them again.

The Trader Joe's kosher dill pickles were the least expensive of the group, at $3 for a well-stuffed 24-ounce jar.

These pickles had a satisfying snap with each bite but a fairly mild vinegar flavor and some seasoning resembling caraway, which felt unfamiliar. They also didn't have the palate-cleansing zest I sometimes want.

Overall, they tasted like something you'd serve on a cheese board rather than with a cheeseburger.

I'd buy these again — especially considering the price — if I were shopping at Trader Joe's and needed pickles. However, they're not something I'd go out of my way for.

I'd buy the Mt. Olive pickles again for the sake of nostalgia.

I took home a 24-ounce jar of Mt. Olive dill-pickle spears that was on sale for $4 (about $2 off the supermarket's usual price).

I wasn't sure if I'd ever bought a jar of Mt. Olive pickles before, but when I opened it, I recognized the smell immediately — these were the pickles that came with every sandwich at a popular and delicious deli near where I went to college.

They were a touch mushy and didn't have much crunch, but they won me over with their assertive, classic pickle flavor, which was so tangy it was almost spicy.

I might buy them again if I start feeling nostalgic for that sandwich shop or am looking for a budget-friendly option.

Claussen is my new favorite pickle brand.

Claussen's kosher dill pickles cost $7 for a 32-ounce jar at my local supermarket. These pickles were the only of the five brands I tried that came from the grocer's refrigerated section.

Having to refrigerate the Claussen pickles made them slightly less convenient to store, but they were so much better than the other pickles we tasted. Vibrant with dill, they were crunchy without being heavy and had a bright vinegary tang.

My wife, our 4-year-old, and I all ranked this as the best pickle by far — so far superior to the others that the extra cost was easily justified.

I will seek out Claussen whenever I'm buying pickles at the supermarket in the future.

• Meta's content moderation changes aim to appease Donald Trump and conservative allies.
• Mark Zuckerberg's moves follow efforts to align with Trump, including meetings and policy shifts.
• Meta's new approach includes ending third-party fact-checking and demoting its Trust and Safety team.

Sometimes the obvious thing is the obvious thing.

Which is to say: You can make pro and con arguments for many of the massive changes Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced about the way his company is going to moderate — or not moderate — content. It's a complicated topic.

But the most important takeaway is that all of Tuesday's news has been rolled out specifically for Donald Trump, and the new political regime that officially kicks into gear on January 20.

That includes the language Zuckerberg and his company are using to describe the changes — like when Zuckerberg criticizes "legacy media" and declares that "the recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point" in a video posted Tuesday morning.

It includes the venue Meta used to announce the changes — Fox News, Trump's favorite TV channel. And, of course, the changes themselves. We'll get to those in a second.

But first, some crucial context: Tuesday's news follows a series of moves Zuckerberg and Meta have made to make nice with Trump and Republicans, which began before November's election.

A reminder of that timeline:

• In July, Zuckerberg praised Trump as a "badass" after surviving an assassination attempt.
• In August, Zuckerberg sent Republican Congresssman Jim Jordan a letter where he acknowledged moderation mistakes in the past.
• In November, Zuckerberg traveled to Mar-a-Lago for a postelection audience with Trump, then pledged $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee.
• Last week Zuckerberg announced that he was replacing his head of policy: Nick Clegg, the former British politician, was out, replaced by Joel Kaplan, a longtime Republican.
• On Monday, Zuckerberg announced that he was adding Dana White, the head of the CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship and a prominent Trump backer, to his board of directors.

Add it all up and there's no way to see Zuckerberg's moves as anything other than a straightforward attempt to please Trump and the incoming president's conservative allies, who have often complained that Zuckerberg's properties were biased against them. It's crystal clear.

As far as the changes themselves: It's entirely possible that some of the stuff Zuckerberg and his team announced Tuesday reflects what Zuckerberg actually believes. (I've asked Meta PR if Zuckerberg wants to expand on his comments.)

Figuring out the best way to moderate — or not moderate — giant platforms that depend on free contributions from their users has bedeviled all of the Big Tech companies for years. And Zuckerberg has never seemed comfortable with the various moderation layers and rules his company has added over time.*

He has also been signaling that he's particularly unhappy about the way the company responded to criticism and regulation following the 2016 election and subsequent revelations like the Cambridge Analytica data breach.

So getting rid of third-party fact-checking of controversial posts in favor of the "Community Notes" system Elon Musk's Twitter/X uses, might very well be what Zuckerberg thinks makes sense. It certainly fits a Silicon Valley ethos that's much more comfortable using a combination of users and software to make decisions about what people see on those platforms, rather than asking executives to take responsibility for those calls.

The same goes for the demotion of Meta's Trust and Safety team — which is most definitely what Zuckerberg intends by moving those operations from California to Texas, which, at a minimum, is an attrition play. Zuckerberg has long talked about wanting those roles to eventually become automated, and in the meantime, hiring humans to do that work has been difficult, messy, or worse. Simply doing less of it is one way to get at the problem. (Worth noting: In 2023, Meta investor and board member Marc Andreessen described Trust and Safety operations as part of "The Enemy" he wanted tech to fight back against.)

And figuring out how to run a platform that's based in America but subject to regulation around the world is a problem that all US tech companies struggle with. You can imagine the appeal of Zuckerberg's new approach — simply announcing that the rest of the world is anti-growth.

There will be a lot of devil in the details here. For instance, Zuckerberg certainly can't fully adopt Elon Musk's next-to-anything-goes approach for his companies. Unlike Musk, he isn't in a position to scare off users and advertisers who want a clean, well-lit space.

But those are all details to hash out in the future. Tuesday's news is simple: It's Donald Trump's world, and Mark Zuckerberg is living in it.

*Criticisms of Meta/Facebook's moderation attempts don't only come from the right. I always remember the prime minister of Norway, among others, complaining when Facebook took down posts that used a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo from the Vietnam War — a move Facebook first defended, then reversed.

• Natalia Grace Mans speaks about her boyfriend Neil in "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter."
• Natalia and Neil met online, and he helped her leave her home with the Mans family.
• Neil is from the United Kingdom, and his identity is concealed in the docuseries.

"The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter" recounts how Natalia Grace Mans ultimately left the Mans family to live with Nicole and Vince DePaul, a couple with dwarfism who previously tried to adopt her when she was a child.

She does so with the assistance of her boyfriend Neil, who lives in the UK and is not shown onscreen or fully identified in "The Final Chapter." In the docuseries, Nicole DePaul says Neil contacted her via social media and told her that Natalia needed help leaving the Mans family, who adopted her in 2023. As a result, Nicole and her daughter Mackenzie traveled to Nashville, where the Mans family had relocated, to pick her up and bring her to their home in New York.

Natalia's saga was first publicized in 2019, when it was reported that her first set of adoptive parents, Kristine and Michael Barnett, had moved away to Canada and left Natalia on her own in an apartment after coming to believe that the Ukrainian orphan was really an adult woman posing as a child. They alleged that Natalia was disturbed and had threatened their family, which Natalia has repeatedly denied.

Neil is a relatively new addition to the story that's been unfolding on the Investigation Discovery docuseries since the first of its three seasons premiered in 2023. He's an off-screen presence in "The Final Chapter," which premiered Monday, but Natalia, Nicole, and Natalia's adoptive parents, Cynthia and Antwon Mans, all speak about him. Here's everything we know about Neil.

Neil and Natalia met over social media, and their relationship prompted conflict with her adoptive parents

Neil and Natalia first came into contact via social media while she was living with Antwon and Cynthia Mans, she recalls in "The Final Chapter."

"At first it was just like a small message, and then I grew feelings," Natalia says in the series. "He claimed he grew feelings, and I just opened my heart. It felt really good."

In December 2023, Antwon and Cynthia called producers to say that they were "done" with Natalia and that she wanted to live alone. Producers traveled to Tennessee, but when they arrived, Antwon and Cynthia told them that they had "come to an understanding" with Natalia and she had decided to stay at home.

During an interview with producers at that time, Antwon and Cynthia said that Natalia had "trashed" them in messages and that Neil had framed them as an "enemy" who sought to "control" her.

"I think it's definitely important to put parameters in place with the internet so these things won't happen again," Antwon said during the interview. "Look, we gotta cut the internet off. We can't allow this to happen. It's just got to be cut."

Natalia said during the interview that she believed she was in love with Neil, "but it wasn't right" and she wasn't "thinking clearly." However, she eventually did decide to leave her adoptive family to live with the DePauls in New York.

Antwon and Cynthia Mans did not immediately respond to BI's requests for comment sent to their personal Facebook profiles, their family Facebook page, and an email listed on the Facebook page.

Neil contacted Nicole so she could help Natalia leave the Mans

Neil reached out to Nicole DePaul over social media to request that she help Natalia leave the Mans family. "The Final Chapter" executive producer Eric Evangelista says in a confessional that Neil also contacted producers to say that she needed to leave.

"It was like, out of the blue," Nicole said. "At first, I didn't even believe him. I didn't even know if he was legit, or if I should trust him."

Natalia was still able to stay in contact with Neil, who in turn relayed information to Nicole. Eventually, he put Natalia and Nicole into contact, and they coordinated a pick-up.

After Nicole and her daughter Mackenzie retrieved Natalia in Tennessee, Natalia was able to speak on the phone with Neil.

"I am so, so thankful you found me. I love you so much," Natalia told Neil.

Neil and Natalia finally met in person while she was living with the DePauls

Natalia continued her long-distance relationship with Neil while living with Nicole and Vince DePaul. Natalia told People she was in love, and that she and Neil had met in person.

Now, Natalia tells the publication that she hopes to have a family of her own one day.

"I'm a girl who loves kids and wants to get married and have children," she said. "But one of my biggest things is not making promises I can't keep. I've had too many promises that have been broken. I'm just ready to move on."

"The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter" premieres on Investigation Discovery and Max on January 6.

• Amazon will reportedly pay $40 million to license a new documentary on Melania Trump.
• Puck reported the update on the film, which Melania Trump will serve as an executive producer.
• The incoming first lady is not expected to be in Washington full-time during her husband's 2nd term.

Amazon will shell out $40 million to license a documentary on incoming first lady Melania Trump, with the price tag including the film itself, a smaller-scale theatrical run before being featured on Prime Video, and a supplementary docuseries.

That's according to Puck's Matthew Belloni, who revealed more details about the Brett Ratner-directed film as the onetime and future first lady prepares to rejoin the biggest spotlight in the country in less than two weeks. The New York Post has also reported that Amazon paid $40 million for the project.

Melania Trump will be an executive producer for the projects, according to the report. It's unclear how much the incoming first lady will be paid.

Puck also reported that both Disney and Paramount sought streaming rights for the Melania Trump documentary. Apple and Netflix did not place bids for the documentary, according to sources who spoke with the outlet.

Last November, multiple sources previously told CNN that in Trump's second term, Melania Trump will likely split most of her time between New York and Florida, while also having a presence at the White House.

The news about the documentary comes as President-elect Donald Trump's relationship with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos continues to be a hot topic in both the business and political worlds.

In December, The Wall Street Journal first reported that Amazon would donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee, part of a cascade of tech leaders seeking to cement or strengthen their relationships with the president-elect.

Bezos last month also traveled to Mar-a-Lago to dine with Trump alongside Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Ahead of the November election, Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, chose to end the newspaper's longtime practice of endorsing presidential candidates. The decision sparked a huge outcry among subscribers and led to the exit of several members of the Editorial Board.

In an op-ed defending the move, Bezos called his stance "principled."

Business Insider has reached out to Amazon for comment.

• Four Seasons' portfolio includes popular private jet tours and a coming yacht-like cruise ship.
• Its CEO said these alternative vacation options create a "halo effect" for its hotels and resorts.
• Some of its 2025 jet itineraries are sold out, and bookings for its 2026 vessel already look "very successful."

If Four Seasons' president and CEO, Alejandro Reynal, had it his way, travelers would be turning to the luxury hospitality company for vacations on land, at sea, and in the air.

About 80% of the luxury hotel brand's revenue comes from its renowned hotels and resorts, Reynal told Business Insider in late November 2024. However, over the past few years, the company has expanded its portfolio with extracurriculars such as private jet tours and cruises — all in a bid to keep high-paying customers within its travel network.

These extracurriculars create a "halo effect" for the brand, he said, complementing its core business while creating more avenues for maintaining relationships with loyal customers.

"How do we create this luxury ecosystem around the brand, and which businesses do we need or don't need to be in?" Reynal said.

For Four Seasons, that now includes the cruise business.

The luxury hospitality giant plans to debut its 95-suite, yacht-like cruise ship in 2026. Despite the wait, the company's CEO said bookings have already been "very successful," with about two-thirds coming from existing customers.

Travelers aren't booking it because they love cruises — they're booking it because they love the brand. "People were very favorable for us to pursue a Four Seasons experience at sea," Reynal said.

Renderings promise a sleek and luxurious vessel with 11 upcharged restaurants, a marina, and cabins up to almost 10,000 square feet, some with au pairs and security personnel. As such, suites during its first year in service currently start at $19,700 for a five-night voyage — about $3,940 per night.

Prefer to travel by air? Since 2015, the hospitality giant has also operated multiweek group jet itineraries with TCS World Travel.

Like a traditional at-sea cruise, the aircraft — a 48-seat Airbus A321LRneo — brings travelers on multi-country itineraries and overnight stays at the brand's properties, creating an end-to-end Four Seasons vacation that would entice any of its loyalists.

And enticed they have been. In 2024, the company's eight jet trips were almost sold out, Reynal said.

Several of its 2025 tours already have a waitlist. The few that don't start at $148,000 per person for a 13-day journey through Africa.

Reynal said the company was considering expanding the program with more itineraries of varying aircrafts or lengths.

"We have a high repeat rate of guests that stay with us or go through the private jet experience," he said. "We don't do it so much because of the revenue that it provides to the business. It's because it's a tremendous compliment to what we do as a brand."

Four Seasons is one of a few luxury hospitality companies diversifying their portfolios.

Aman, best known for its 35 ultra-luxury properties, plans to launch its 50-suite ship in 2027 in addition to the private jet tours it's been operating since 2013.

Similarly, the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection launched its first vessel, Evrima, in 2022. Its ships have since been considered a successful litmus test for the hotel-to-cruise pipeline, and it now expects to debut a third in July.

• Gen X may be even less prepared for retirement than boomers, wealth advisors say.
• A large cohort of adults in their mid-50s have less than $50,000 in retirement savings.
• Many expect to work part-time or receive family help after retiring, a Prudential survey shows.

Jim Thomas, a 52-year-old who works in a lumber mill, is well aware of how far behind he's fallen in saving for retirement. His job pays "good money," he says, but he's still trying to plug the hole in his finances after a layoff, a divorce, and several legal disputes emptied his wallet in the last decade.

Those expenses have dug a hole so deep in his savings that Thomas is only now starting up his 401k from scratch. Currently, he estimates he has around $100,000 in savings, well below the goal that is traditionally recommended by financial advisors, who say you should have around eight times your annual salary saved by the time you're 60.

"I know I won't be able to retire at 65 unless I win the lottery," Thomas told Business Insider. "I expect that I will either need help from my daughter when I can no longer work, or I will need government assistance greater than Social Security."

He's not alone. Thomas is among what retirement experts are calling "silver squatters" — adults in their mid-50s who are even more woefully unprepared than some boomers, despite being about a decade away from retirement. "Squatters" refers to the possibility that many will have to rely on family for housing in later years.

As far as silver squatters go, Thomas's story is fairly common. According to surveys conducted by Prudential Financial, the median retirement savings for those in their mid-50s is just under $48,000, with 35% of 55-year-olds having less than $10,000 saved and 18% having saved nothing at all in 2023.

Two-thirds of 55-year-olds say they're afraid of outliving their savings. That's the highest level of fear among any age group of Prudential's 2024 survey, with 59% of 65-year-olds saying they worried they would outlive their savings.

"As a whole, they are not as prepared as the boomers and actually are doing less well than the millennials," Pete Welsh, managing director of retirement and wealth at Inspira Financial, told BI, though he noted that the youngest Gen Xers still had time to catch up on their savings.

The lack of preparation among the cohort could be due to late planning and the unique economic circumstances of the mid-50s crowd, in addition to less financial literacy among the generation, wealth advisors say.

René, a 50-year-old based in Austin, Texas, has anxiety over whether she and her husband will have enough to live comfortably once they retire. Their life savings — around $380,000 between the two of them — dwindled to next to nothing after a medical diagnosis put her out of work and through a string of surgeries over the course of two years, she told BI.

The couple, who have fallen behind on some of their bills, don't know if they'll be able to get extra financial assistance once they retire, besides their expected pension payments. They have no external family, and they don't want to rely on their daughter for help.

"I was like, oh God, how did we get here?" René said, describing a plea she made with their mortgage provider not to foreclose on their home. "We're just going to have to work and 401k-it, and that's just how it's going to have to be now."

A forgotten generation

Silver squatters share some common characteristics, despite the unique circumstances affecting their retirement readiness. This group of Gen Xers — the generation of Americans aged 43 to 59 — largely expects to postpone or work past their retirement. 47% of Gen Xers think they'll have to retire later than they initially expected, while 40% expect to work part-time after they retire, per Prudential's survey.

A majority also don't expect to receive any inheritance, despite their boomer predecessors holding onto trillions in wealth. Only 12% of the 55-year-old group expect to get money passed down from their family members, Prudential's survey found.

They do, however, largely expect to be reliant on family for support once they retire. Around 24% of 55-year-olds say they expect financial support from their family members, with 21% adding they also needing housing support, the report said.

That compares to just 12% of 65-year-olds who say they will need that kind of help from family.

The gap in retirement readiness could be due to the "unique" challenges of Gen Xers, according to Dylan Tyson, the head of retirement strategies at Prudential. He notes that all of the generation was in their prime working years during the 2008 financial crisis, which could have set them back financially.

Gen Xers could also be in a tenuous stage of life, where a number of surprise expenses have popped up to drain their savings. Think of those who have had to fund their child's college education or are paying for a living facility for their own parents, Inspira's Welsh said.

"You're trying to help out here, you're trying to help out there, and then at the end of the day, there's just not enough on the table to really think about what you're going to do for yourself," Welsh said, adding that some of Inspira's Gen X clients had expressed frustration over their financial responsibilities to their family. "They're just in a very tough, tough spot that, for whatever reason, I guess maybe the boomers didn't have to deal with."

Low rates of financial literacy — which is a widespread issue among every generation in the US, according to a study from the World Economic Forum — doesn't help the situation, Welsh and Tyson say. Around half of Gen Xers are saving without a general plan for retirement, Prudential found.

Most also don't appear to be accounting for major expenses into retirement, with 48% not factoring in healthcare costs and 75% not factoring in assisted living expenses.

Many Prudential clients don't even know how much they need to save, Tyson said, adding that many of the firm's Gen X clients are simply guessing how long they will live. He said he believes many of them are guessing incorrectly due to rising life expectancies in the US.

"If you don't have the cushion — again, this is the group we're talking about, the 60-year-old, undersaved — they really need to be watching every penny and thinking about that," Welsh said.

This article was originally published in August 2024.

• Business Insider spoke to three perfumers about the coming 2025 fragrance trends.
• Maximalist fragrances, like bold florals, are cycling back into popularity.
• Consider testing out a rice scent or incorporating citruses during the warmer months.

As we enter the New Year, it's a great time to reassess our signature scents.

Business Insider spoke with three professional perfumers about the best scents and trends they see coming in 2025.

There's been a shift from minimalist to maximalist fragrances.

Shabnam Tavakol, the founder of the New York City-based independent fragrance studio Kismet Olfactive, said recent perfume trends have been all about soft fragrances that mix with your body's natural odors.

However, we're now entering a maximalism era reminiscent of the 1970s and '80s.

"It's much like fashion, where everything goes in this cyclical pattern," she told BI.

The perfumer said bold florals make great full-bodied fragrances. She also recommended heavier perfumes like Le Labo's Santal 33 and Alien by Thierry Mugler.

Gourmand scents will continue to be popular in the New Year.

Emma Vincent, an in-house perfumer at Lush, said gourmand scents will still be favored in 2025. These fragrances, which smell like edible things, remain popular largely due to their comforting and familiar qualities.

Vanilla is probably the most popular gourmand. However, as the trend continues to grow, the perfumer expects people to experiment with different scent profiles and complexities, including coffee, musk, and cereal undertones.

More specifically, it's time to look into rice scents.

Kelsey Hodgson, a salesperson who's worked in the perfume industry for nearly nine years, said rice is a big scent right now. They've seen an increasing number of brands trying to add the note to their fragrance lineup.

"People are still looking for gourmands in general, but rice blends that space of milky and bready," they told BI. "It sits close to the skin."

In particular, Hodgson recommends L'Eau Papier by Diptyque and White Rice by d'Annam.

Dupes are on the rise.

Between everything getting more expensive and the rise of influencer-run social media, dupe culture isn't slowing down.

The less-expensive duplicates of higher-end products are a more affordable and accessible option for those seeking luxury on a budget.

"The dupes that come out are so much better than they were before," Vincent said.

Lavender florals will be in for the spring.

Florals tend to trend in the spring, but Hodgson expects lavender to be particularly popular in 2025.

"People are leaving rose behind and trying to modernize a more old-school version of lavender," they said.

They recommend Lavande 31 by Le Labo for that old-fashioned floral scent.

Citrus scents will thrive in the summer.

Warmer seasons typically bring lighter fragrances, so citrus scents usually boom in the summer.

"When it's humid outside, you don't want a scent that's going to be too oppressive," Hodgson told BI. In particular, they think notes of yuzu and grapefruit will be making a big comeback in 2025.

They recommend citrus aromas from Phlur, which offers unisex scents like Apricot Privée and Tangerine Boy, as well as J-Scent's Yuzu perfume.

Try layering your scents.

Although it's not necessarily a new trend, layering scents offers an opportunity to create nonuniform and complementary scent profiles.

From your hair primer to body wash, building a full-body, complex fragrance palette is in for 2025.

"Once people start experimenting in that way, they're more likely to do more research and find things that are a little bit more out there," Hodgson said.

• I moved to Celina, Texas, in 2022 and absolutely love living in the city.
• I like the area's small-town feel and the sense of community among its residents.
• There are tons of local shops and restaurants, and there always seems to be an event downtown.

When I first moved to Celina, Texas, I was excited to live in an area filled with young families and business-minded people.

However, I didn't realize the up-and-coming town, which many residents call Rollertown, would top the Census Bureau's list of the fastest-growing US cities with at least 20,000 residents, based on its data recorded between 2022 and 2023.

Celina, which had just 6,000 residents in 2010, grew to over 43,300 people in 2023, according to recent Census data. The quaint town, pronounced "seh-line-ah," is about an hour north of Dallas and gives Texans a place to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and form lasting roots within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

Since relocating from nearby Frisco, Texas, in 2022, I've seen the city make significant investments in its expanding shopping centers and downtown area to accommodate its increasing population.

Here's why I love living in Celina.

I was drawn to Celina's small-town vibe

One of the things that drew me to Celina is that although the city is growing, it still has a small-town feel.

Popular chains like Costco, Lifetime Fitness, PetSmart, and many big-name food stores are opening just down the road from my apartment, but Celina also has a rich downtown area filled with local shops.

During the day, I love walking my dog and stopping at the library or Granny's Bakery, a local shop with delicious fresh-baked treats. Small boutiques give me the opportunity to find unique outfits without relying on big-box stores.

Celina is also full of great restaurants. I like to go to Heyday, a late-night hangout spot serving elevated cocktails with an upscale dinner menu and atmosphere. It's a great place to celebrate an accomplishment or catch up with my friends.

Celina offers a real sense of community

The downtown Celina Historic Square hosts community fairs, holiday events, and local markets. I love seeing the Square transform for events like the Friday Night Market, an opportunity for residents to purchase local produce and handcrafted items, or Cajun Fest, where attendees can feast on crawfish and watch live alligator shows.

Seeing children with face paint running around, watching friendly competitions, and having the chance to support local artists makes each event feel special.

Residents also show their commitment to the community as football fans decked out in Bobcat orange fill the stands at Celina High School on Friday nights. I attend the games to cheer on my younger sister as she takes the field with her flag during the halftime color-guard show.

I'm grateful to call Celina, Texas, my home

I have no regrets after moving to Celina, Texas, and I'm proud to call it my home.

The sense of community here is amazing — I felt like I belonged in town from day one.

The beautiful scenery and friendly faces make Celina an awesome spot to settle down, whether you're starting a family or just looking for a place to connect with others.

• Hanna Kim tried to lose weight by cutting out what she viewed as unhealthy foods, but it wasn't sustainable.
• She educated herself on fat loss and instead tried to cultivate healthy habits.
• Tracking her calories helped her make more intentional choices.

Before losing 22 pounds in a sustainable way, Hanna Kim tried many diets but ended up putting the weight back on because she hated the process.

"My perception of weight loss was just so negative," Kim, a 24-year-old YouTuber based in Sydney, told Business Insider. In the past, she would cut out all the foods she considered "bad" and force herself to do workouts she didn't enjoy.

As a teenager, Kim, who is Korean, was also heavily influenced by K-pop — whose stars are often put on strict diets and exercise regimes — and the Korean principle of "ppali ppali," or doing everything as quickly as possible.

Kim wanted to lose fat, and fast. When she didn't, she felt deflated and quit. "It was just a cycle of trying weight loss and then failing at it. Then hating the journey and really being negative on myself. Then wanting to try again and just this endless negative loop," she said.

Things shifted in 2021 when Kim looked into the science behind losing fat safely, and realized it couldn't be achieved quickly but should be part of a bigger goal of developing healthier habits.

"That gave me a lot of, I guess, courage to be more patient with the journey and to realize it's not a short sprint, it's a marathon," she said.

She started to make small changes to her lifestyle and lost 22 pounds in a year. She has kept the weight off for three years and now finds it easy to maintain.

Here are the two simple changes Kim made.

Going on 10-minute walks

In the past, Kim had joined a gym three times but quit after six months because her motivation to look a certain while would eventually wane.

When she started thinking of weight loss as a long-term investment in 2021, she was leading a fairly sedentary lifestyle: eating whatever she felt like, often including takeout, and didn't exercise regularly.

She knew that even a small change would ultimately make a difference, so she started by going on a walk. "I realized, 'OK, if I choose today to go outside for a 10-minute walk, that's still a win in my book,'" she said.

She set herself the goal of moving every day and found workouts online that aligned with her non-perfectionist approach and matched her mood, which helped her develop a love for exercise.

"If I was in a mood to just dance for a bit, I'd search up dance workout," she said.

Sticking to her daily calorie budget

Before 2021, Kim ate a lot of ultra-processed foods, including chocolate and cake, Korean fried chicken, and fast food. At the time, she had no idea how many calories they contained or that to lose weight, a person needs to be in a calorie deficit, meaning they burn more calories than they consume.

When she started her weight loss journey, she tracked her calories with an app to calculate her daily budget, or how many calories she needed to eat to lose weight. The "eye-opening" process enabled her to make more intentional choices.

"If I had 100 calories left, what's going to make me feel good? What's going to give me more energy?" she said.

At the start, she gave herself a leeway of around 120 calories but she mainly stuck to her budget. She also made sure to not demonize or cut out any foods, but tried to opt for lower-calorie versions of her favorite, less nutritious foods.

"It was definitely enjoyable. I wasn't just cutting things out straight away," she said.

Over time, she naturally started to focus not just on how many calories she consumed but the nutritional value of food. She reframed whole foods and fresh produce as treats because of how they made her feel.

"Now that I know the whys behind, 'why do you have to exercise?' 'Why do you have to eat well?' And it's ultimately so that your body can function the best it can," Kim said.

• Business Insider looked at the purchasing power of a six-figure salary in different Texas cities.
• We adjusted $100,000 for Texas' 25 metro areas using cost of living data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
• Based on 2023 data, the purchasing power of $100,000 would be $102,438 in the Austin metro area.

One of Texas' big draws for the thousands of Americans who move there each year is its relatively low cost of living.

However, purchasing power isn't the same across Texas metros. If you had $100,000 in Austin, it wouldn't have the same value as in Longview, Corpus Christi, and other places in the state.

To compare people's purchasing power depending on where they are, Business Insider calculated what $100,000 means for each Texas metropolitan statistical area when adjusted by its regional price parity. That gives a sense of how much $100,000 at national average prices would actually buy in those cities based on their local cost of living.

Most of the 25 metros in the state had regional price parities below 100 in 2023, data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed. That means their price levels were less than the national average.

"Whether you are considering a job offer in a more expensive city, looking for an affordable place to retire, or are just curious about how price levels compare between different parts of the country, our regional price parities can help," Vipin Arora, the director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis, said in a December post.

Texas has long been an attractive state for movers. Census Bureau data showed Texas had the largest positive net domestic migration — or the biggest number of people moving in from elsewhere in the US minus people leaving Texas for another state — from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, among states.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that many kinds of healthcare workers make over $100,000 on average in Texas. Ship engineers, postsecondary business teachers, and management analysts are a few of the other jobs that make over $100,000 on average in the Lone Star State.

The Dallas metro area had the highest regional price parity among the 25 Texas metros. Given the regional price parity for Dallas was 103.3 in 2023, that would mean the adjusted value of $100,000 at average national prices equals around $96,800 in that city.

Below is what $100,000 is worth in cities across Texas, ranked from lowest adjusted value to highest. We also included the 2023 regional price parity for each metro in Texas.

25. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington

Regional price parity: 103.293

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $96,812

24. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land

Regional price parity: 100.220

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $99,780

23. Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown

Regional price parity: 97.620

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $102,438

22. Midland

Regional price parity: 94.761

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $105,529

21. San Antonio-New Braunfels

Regional price parity: 93.727

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $106,693

20. Tyler

Regional price parity: 92.386

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $108,242

19. Odessa

Regional price parity: 92.056

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $108,630

18. Sherman-Denison

Regional price parity: 91.804

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $108,928

17. Killeen-Temple

Regional price parity: 91.761

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $108,979

16. Corpus Christi

Regional price parity: 91.306

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $109,522

14 (tie). San Angelo

Regional price parity: 90.869

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,049

14 (tie). Lubbock

Regional price parity: 90.869

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,049

13. Amarillo

Regional price parity: 90.812

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,118

12. Waco

Regional price parity: 90.786

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,149

11. College Station-Bryan

Regional price parity: 90.701

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,252

10. Victoria

Regional price parity: 90.631

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,338

9. El Paso

Regional price parity: 90.241

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,814

8. Beaumont-Port Arthur

Regional price parity: 90.238

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,818

7. Abilene

Regional price parity: 89.849

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $111,298

6. Wichita Falls

Regional price parity: 88.914

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $112,468

5. Longview

Regional price parity: 88.417

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $113,100

4. Laredo

Regional price parity: 87.786

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $113,913

3. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission

Regional price parity: 85.555

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $116,884

2. Texarkana

Regional price parity: 85.308

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $117,222

1. Brownsville-Harlingen

Regional price parity: 85.183

$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $117,394

• My family moved from South Carolina to Madrid.
• We recently visited the US, and my 12 and 9-year-olds were surprised at how different life is.
• The amount of ice in drinks and people in mobility scooters surprised them.

Just over a year ago, my family moved from South Carolina to Madrid. There are so many cultural differences between the two countries, but what has surprised us most is what our kids notice when we return to visit the US.

Things that used to be normal to us feel foreign to our 12- and 9-year-old boys, making them point out and bring attention to these things when they see them.

One of the best things about living abroad for our family is an introduction to a new culture and a new way of doing things. We always remind our boys that there is not one correct way to do something and to embrace the beauty that comes with different cultures. For our elementary-aged kids, sometimes differences may be a reason to tease or make fun of others doing something differently. Instead, we've learned to celebrate them.

They were surprised at how much ice people put in drinks

When we ate out with family in a restaurant in the US on this trip, our boys couldn't believe the portion sizes on the plates served to us. When we ordered a cheesesteak and fries, it filled the entire plate and was enough food for both of my boys to share. Having lived now in the tapas culture, our family prefers small plates or appetizers to share over large, huge meals. The portion sizes are much smaller in Spain, and the main meal of the day for us now is actually a late afternoon lunch instead of a big evening dinner meal.

When looking for salad dressing for my sister, our boys were shocked by the number of salad dressing options at the Wegmans grocery store. They could not believe that there were 50 varieties. They were equally shocked at the types of lettuce available. When grocery shopping in Spain, it is not uncommon to find one, maybe two, types of salad dressing available for sale. Spain is focused on healthy, additive-free foods, so it's more common for us to eat a salad with a splash of olive oil instead of a spoonful of Ranch dressing.

Another surprising, although small, difference that our boys noticed in the US compared to Spain was people's dependency on ice in their drinks. Our American family always reached into the freezer, adding cold ice to their huge Yeti and Stanley cups. In Spain, water is not commonly served at restaurants unless you ask for it, and when it is served, it is given room temperature. Additionally, the drinking water culture in Spain is much different, with no one walking around with water bottles to have nonstop access to water. Our boys have started to drink their drinks without ice while living in Spain, so they thought it was funny that our family needed ice for their drinks so frequently.

They weren't expecting people in mobility scooters

When we walked the aisles of a local supermarket in the US this fall, our boys couldn't help notice the number of mobility scooters that the older people used to get around. In fact, they couldn't remember the last time that they saw one of these scooters in Spain.

One of the biggest reverse culture shocks for our youngest son happened during a trip to Target. As we walked into the store, he noticed several people shopping in their pajama pants. Although it was a cold fall day, he still couldn't believe that they would leave their house in their clothes meant for sleeping. In Spain, when we leave our home for pretty much any reason, we are more formally dressed. It is very common to ensure you and your family in Spain are put together in appearance, even when grocery shopping or running errands.

In fact, one of the major adjustments for me was only wearing yoga pants in public after an actual workout. I now have learned to favor dressing up and focusing more on my appearance.

• A UK-led coalition is using AI to track Russia's shadow fleet, the British Ministry of Defence said.
• The operation, involving 10 countries, comes after damage to major undersea cables in the Baltic.
• Finland said evidence suggests a Russia-linked ship dragged its anchor to sever the cables.

A UK-led coalition of European countries has deployed AI to track Russia's shadow fleet and detect possible threats to underwater cables, after suspected sabotage incidents in recent months.

On Monday, the UK's Ministry of Defence said that the Joint Expeditionary Force's operation, dubbed Nordic Warden, has been using AI to evaluate data from several sources, including the Automatic Identification System, which ships use to share their real-time locations.

In the event of a potential threat, it said the system would monitor the suspect vessel in real time and issue a warning, which will be communicated to both NATO allies and participating countries.

The UK's Defense Secretary John Healey said AI would allow them to monitor "large" sea areas using a "comparatively" small number of resources.

"Nordic Warden will help protect against both deliberate acts of sabotage as well as cases of extreme negligence which we have seen cause damage to underwater cable," Healey added.

The UK MOD didn't respond to a request for comment, but in its news release said that there were 22 areas of interest, including parts of the English Channel, the North Sea, the Kattegat Sea, and the Baltic Sea.

It said the operation's launch came after reported damage to a major undersea cable in the Baltic.

Over the past two months, several undersea cables in the Baltic Sea have been damaged, including the BCS East-West Interlink cable, the C-Lion1 telecommunications cable linking Finland and Germany, and the Estlink 2 electricity cable connecting Estonia and Finland.

Last week, Finnish officials said they found a 60-mile trail on the seabed that suggested the Eagle S — a Russia-linked tanker — could have been responsible for slicing a cluster of valuable data and power cables.

Edward Hunter Christie, a senior research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and a former NATO official, told BI that AI will help NATO identify suspicious ships among the vast majority of legitimate commercial activity in the region.

Neither Russia's shadow fleet nor any other country for that matter, "even the Chinese," can afford to lose ship after ship trying to damage cables, he said, pointing to Finland's seizure of a Russian-linked vessel last week.

"Russia needs its shadow fleet," he added, "that's how it earns its oil export revenues."

• Joe Biden and Jill Biden own a 6,850-square-foot home in Greenville, Delaware, a Wilmington suburb.
• Biden campaigned from his basement in 2020 and has hosted world leaders at his home as president.
• The home was the subject of a DOJ investigation into the mishandling of classified documents.

In 1996, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden purchased 4 acres of land in Greenville, Delaware, and built a 6,850-square-foot lakefront home.

The Bidens also own a six-bedroom beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, but their Greenville home remains their primary residence where Biden will likely return after President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration this month.

Take a look inside the Bidens' Delaware home.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Bidens' primary residence is located in Greenville, Delaware, a suburb of Wilmington.

Located 4 miles from downtown Wilmington, Greenville is a quiet town with a median home listing price of $1.11 million, according to Realtor.com.

The Bidens originally purchased the 4-acre lot for $350,000, The Wall Street Journal reported. Now, it's worth at least $2 million.

The home they built features three bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms, according to Zillow.

Biden wrote in his 2017 memoir, "Promise Me, Dad," that he considered taking out a second mortgage on the house to support his son Beau Biden's family during Beau's cancer treatment.

Biden wrote that when he told President Barack Obama of his plan, Obama said, "Don't do that. I'll give you the money."

The house is situated on the banks of a 10-acre man-made pond.

Biden brought Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese out onto the patio overlooking the pond in September.

The home also features a swimming pool, an amenity Biden was known to enjoy at the official vice president's residence on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory.

Biden's home was more accessible to the public while he was serving in the Senate.

In 2008, reporters from the Wilmington News Journal camped out at Biden's home and played Frisbee on the lawn while waiting to see if he'd be chosen as Barack Obama's running mate.

Once he became vice president and then president, the property became heavily guarded.

Secret Service members surveil the residence when Biden visits.

During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden held virtual events from his basement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shelves in the background of Biden's video calls appeared to hold books, photos, and other mementos.

As president, he has hosted world leaders such as the prime ministers of Australia, Japan, and India at his Delaware residence.

Biden made frequent trips home to Delaware while serving in the White House, spending about half of his weekends in his home state.

The residence features a home office where Biden has worked while serving as president and vice president.

As an outgoing US senator, Biden purchased the desk he used in the Senate to furnish his home.

The office has enough room to host meetings with dignitaries and staff.

The spacious office has wood paneling and plush leather armchairs.

Biden's home became the subject of a Justice Department investigation into the mishandling of classified documents.

In November and December 2022, Biden's attorneys discovered classified documents in the president's former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC, and in his garage and turned them over to the National Archives. In January 2023, US Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed US Attorney Robert Hur as special counsel to investigate the mishandling of classified information.

The Justice Department searched Biden's home and recovered six classified documents. Biden's personal attorney, Bob Bauer, said that the search was voluntary and that some of the items dated back to Biden's time in the Senate and as vice president.

Hur interviewed Biden in October 2023 about his storage of classified material. The transcripts showed that Biden described himself as a "frustrated architect" and spent large swaths of time talking about how he designed and furnished his home.

"In order to try to convince me not to run for the Senate for the 19th time, my wife said, 'Look, you don't run, I'll pay for architectural school for you," Biden told Hur.

Biden also shared how he "set up a theater" in his house to conduct virtual events and television appearances in 2020 because "we were campaigning out of our basement."

After a yearlong investigation, Hur did not recommend charging the president with any crime, describing Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." Hur's report was derided by Democrats and Republicans alike, but it foreshadowed Biden's poor debate performance, which ultimately led to him dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

• Meta is moving its safety and content moderation teams from California to Texas and other states.
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the shifts would help address concerns of bias and over-censorship.
• Zuckerberg's Meta appears to be following the lead of Elon Musk's X in prioritizing free speech.

Mark Zuckerberg is moving Meta's platform security and content oversight teams out of California and shifting staff who review posts to Texas in a bid to combat concerns about liberal bias and over-censorship at his social-media empire.

The CEO of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads' parent company said on Tuesday that the moves would help return Meta to its "roots around free expression and giving people voice on our platforms."

Zuckerberg wrote that Meta would "move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our US content review to Texas. This will help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content."

California is widely recognized as a progressive state while Texas is traditionally conservative. Zuckerberg likely hopes that shifting oversight of his social networks to red states like Texas will help assuage claims that blue-state liberals are silencing conservative voices.

Meta's chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, confirmed the changes in a blog post, writing that the company will relocate the teams "that write our content policies and review content out of California to Texas and other US locations."

He told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday that Meta was seeking to "rebalance" and "rebuild trust" among users who felt their perspectives were not wanted on its networks.

"We want to make sure that they understand that their views are welcome and that we're providing a space for them to come onto our platforms, engage, express themselves, engage in the important issues of the day or not in the important issues of the day and just whatever it is they want to talk about and share," Kaplan said.

Zuckerberg, Meta's billionaire cofounder and largest shareholder, also laid out plans to replace fact-checkers with Community Notes. He will also lift restrictions on topics like immigration and gender, ease overall censorship and instead focus on stopping illegal and severe policy violations, return civic content to users' feeds, and work with President-elect Trump to resist pressure from foreign governments to make US companies censor more.

Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in late 2022 and rebranded it X, has made free expression a priority on his platform and spearheaded the use of Community Notes as a substitute for fact-checking and censorship.

Musk also shut X's headquarters in San Francisco last fall in favor of operating the company out of Bastrop, Texas.

• I took an eight-hour flight with Italian airline Neos from New York to Palermo.
• I booked a one-way premium-economy seat for $200 more than a regular economy seat.
• Lounge access, tasty food, and a comfy seat made my premium upgrade worth the extra money.

When it comes to flying, I usually just take my seat in coach.

However, while purchasing a Neos flight for my September trip to Sicily, I noticed it would only cost me an extra $200 to upgrade from coach to premium economy.

Since my flight was overnight and fairly long at eight hours, I decided to book it.

Here's what my experience was like flying in premium economy with the private Italian airline.

Getting access to the Air France Lounge was a huge perk of my ticket

I arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport at 2:30 p.m. for my 5.pm. flight and headed to the dedicated check-in for premium-economy passengers, where there was no wait.

Unfortunately, Neos doesn't participate in TSA PreCheck. Although it was annoying to have to remove my shoes, the general TSA line moved fairly quickly.

I was really excited that my premium-economy ticket allowed me to access the swanky Air France Lounge before my flight.

It was spacious, with dozens of tables and comfortable seats. The complimentary buffet had an array of hot and cold dishes, including an entire salad bar.

A pour-it-yourself bar was stocked with complimentary wine and hard liquor.

The lounge WiFi worked like a charm so I was able to catch up on email as I noshed.

On board, I had a roomy seat and lots of perks

Neos doesn't have a business class, which makes premium economy its most upscale service. So, premium-economy passengers were the first to board, and the process went smoothly.

The plane was a 787-9 Dreamliner with a 2-3-2 seat configuration and 28 premium-economy seats in the front.

I found plenty of overhead space for my carry-on and sat in an aisle seat in a row of three. A pillow, blanket, and a toiletries bag with socks, lip balm, and hand lotion were waiting for me when I sat down.

My leather seat had an adjustable head and footrest, a touchscreen I could use to watch movies, and a USB socket for charging my personal electronic devices.

Shortly after I sat down, a flight attendant offered me a choice of water or prosecco. An hour after takeoff, they handed me a hot towel.

Not long after, I was served a bowl of warm nuts followed by a first course of smoked salmon on a bed of lettuce sprinkled with olives and yellow baby tomatoes with rolls.

I appreciated that my meal had some nice touches: a tiny bottle of olive oil, individual salt and pepper shakers, and a linen napkin.

For the main course, I could choose between pasta or fish. I selected the latter, which was white and flaky and served with whipped potatoes.

A complimentary glass of Sicilian white wine from the Etna region paired well with my meal. Chocolate cake was on offer for dessert.

After dinner, I still had six hours of flight time left. I put on my eye mask and tilted my seat back as far as it would go — although it wasn't a full recline, it was comfortable enough to allow me to sleep for four hours.

I woke up to the smell of coffee brewing and had a tasty in-flight breakfast of yogurt, cut-up fruit, and a warm croissant.

We arrived in Palermo on schedule just after 7 a.m.

Premium economy was worth it

Overall, my premium-economy experience was worth the extra $200.

I got a spacious seat plus a host of perks that made my flight much more enjoyable. Although I'd hoped for an even roomier seat, I was still pleasantly surprised with the upscale service, excellent dinner, and access to an airport lounge.

I wished I had booked a premium-economy seat for my daytime flight home. If the price is right, I'll book premium economy the next time I fly Neos, too.

• Iran's military power and influence has been badly weakened in recent months.
• Clashes with Israel and the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria have left it reeling.
• Yet Iran retains the ability to hurt the US and its allies.

Last May, Iran's then-president took a victory lap during the first visit by an Iranian leader to Syria since 2010.

Ebrahim Raisi praised key ally Bashar Assad for his "victory," having beaten back rebel forces with Iranian and Russian help, and for defying sanctions to hold on to power.

Less than a year later, the picture looks much grimmer for Iran's foreign influence, not just in Syria but across the wider region.

Assad was deposed after a lightning campaign by rebels in December, and Western officials on Tuesday told The Wall Street Journal that Syria had withdrawn most of its troops from the country that was once at the heart of its strategy to project power across the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Syria's most powerful regional proxies, the Hamas militia in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have also been decimated in their clashes with Israel in the wake of the October 7, 2023, terror attacks.

Israel also inflicted serious damage on Iran's air defenses in strikes last October.

As a result, President-elect Donald Trump looks set to face off against an Iran, a longtime US adversary, that's weaker than it's been in decades.

A weaker Iran

"Iran has had a number of setbacks in the last year," Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, told BI.

"Its network of regional proxies is in shambles, with its most important — Hezbollah — the hardest hit. The billions of dollars that Iran invested in Syria over several decades went up in smoke," he added.

In fact, "it is hard to point to a single trend that has been moving in their direction for months," Alterman said.

For decades, Iran has pursued its core goals of damaging US influence, challenging Saudi Arabian power, and encircling Israel by building a network of militias and allies across the region.

These groups, which also include the Houthi militia in Yemen and Shia militias in Iraq, were dubbed by Iran the "Axis of Resistance."

But across the region, they're on the back foot in the wake of attacks by Israel and its allies. Most recently, Israel and the US have struck Houthi targets in Yemen.

"Instead of surrounding Israel, Tehran probably feels surrounded by countries hostile to it," Mathew Burrows, Counselor in the Executive Office at the Stimson Center, Washington, DC, told BI.

"Iran's containment strategy against Israel is in tatters," he added.

Troubles at home

Domestically, things are not much better.

Iran's economy has been crippled by punishing international sanctions, not least those imposed by Trump in his first term in office as part of his "maximum pressure" campaign.

Sanctions were linked to Iran's decision to turn off energy supplies across vast swaths of the country in December.

The value of Iran's currency, the Riyal, has also plunged, and inflation is running at 30%.

Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, Iran faces a host of issues.

Its most powerful international allies, Russia and China, are unable or unwilling to help, said Stefan Wolff, a professor of international security at Birmingham University in the UK.

"Russia has a much-diminished stature in the region now," he said.

Russia was considered a key backer of Assad, but stretched by its war in Ukraine, it seemed unable to help, beyond flying him and his family out of the country.

China, though it's playing a more assertive role in the Middle East, also appears unwilling to get directly embroiled in Iran's conflicts.

"Over a relatively short period, Iran's losses have been substantial," Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow for Middle East Security at London's RUSI think tank, told BI.

And now it has to contend with a new Trump administration.

The return of Trump

Trump imposed waves of sanctions on Iran during his first term in office.

He also ordered the assassination of Iranian military commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in 2020, and under the Abraham Accords sought to normalize ties between Israel and Gulf Arab states.

In his second term, Trump could seek to tighten his maximum pressure strategy by undermining Iranian influence in Iraq, where it controls a network of militias.

"With Hamas and Hezbollah downgraded, and the Houthi movement in Yemen under pressure, it makes sense that next in line will be Iraq," said Ozcelik.

"This could empower Iraqi institutions and sovereignty in the face of exponentially expanding Iranian influence," she added.

But while Iran may be down, it's far from out.

Its allies, including the Houthi and Hezbollah, though weakened, will likely rebuild. Iran may also seek to stoke conflict to destabilize the new government in Syria, and it continues to have a sophisticated military and intelligence apparatus.

And, according to analysts, it retains the capacity to develop the most dangerous weapons of all — a nuclear bomb.

After the Obama administration's nuclear deal was abandoned by Trump, Iran quietly began gearing up its nuclear program again, and some experts believe it could develop enough material for a weapon in a matter of months.

"Some analysts think Iran's weakness will push it to accelerate efforts to develop a nuclear weapon to compensate, or at least to threaten doing so to improve Iran's leverage in negotiations," said Alterman.

"The only real weapon in the short term is the nuclear one," said Burrows.

A major challenge for Trump will be figuring out how to stop it getting one.

• A key Tesla supplier said it may take legal action over a designation as a Chinese military company.
• CATL, the world's largest battery company, was added to the Pentagon blacklist on Monday.
• It's unlikely to affect CATL much but could lay the groundwork for more sanctions under Trump.

A key Tesla supplier slammed the US government's decision to designate it a Chinese military company as tensions between the countries rise.

The Department of Defense on Monday added CATL, the world's largest producer of electric-vehicle batteries, to its list of "Chinese military companies" operating in the United States.

The video-game titan Tencent was also added to the list, which tracks companies the US military believes work with its Chinese counterpart.

Shares in the two companies dropped on Tuesday following the news. Both CATL and Tencent denied they had any association with the Chinese military and said they were prepared to contest the decision with legal action if necessary.

CATL said in a statement that it "has never engaged in any military-related business or activities, so this designation by the Department of Defense is a mistake."

CATL is by far the biggest player in the global battery industry, which is dominated by China. The Ningde-based company is thought to control about 37% of the world's battery market, compared with the 17% held by the runner-up, BYD, a fellow Chinese firm.

As a result, CATL is a crucial supplier for numerous Chinese and Western EV manufacturers.

Ford is licensing technology from CATL for batteries built in a new factory in Michigan. A Bloomberg report said Tesla was CATL's biggest customer.

The head of CATL said last year that the battery manufacturer was also working with Elon Musk to build fast-charging EV batteries.

The Pentagon designation does not directly affect CATL's and Tencent's ability to do business in the US but serves as a warning for US businesses that their association with the companies may bar them from future defense contracts.

It could also lay the groundwork for tougher sanctions under the Trump administration. Companies have managed to reverse the designation before — the Apple rival Xiaomi was removed from the list in 2021 after taking legal action.

The move is the latest in a series of regulatory measures targeting Chinese industry by the Biden administration, which has also slapped 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs and proposed banning Chinese software from cars sold in the US.

President-elect Donald Trump has also vowed to slap crippling tariffs on goods imported from China, floating a 60% tariff on all Chinese goods during his campaign.

Tencent did not respond to a request for comment sent outside normal working hours.

• I had always been interested in retiring early.
• I left my job in 2023, years after having my son and publishing my first book.
• Then, at age 3, my son was diagnosed with cancer.

As an elder millennial, I graduated into the 2008 job market armed with a master's degree in creative writing and $20,000+ in student debt. It was a formative experience — that's putting it mildly.

Though I was able to find a job in copywriting, I was laid off within six months, and for better or for worse, the fear induced by that layoff has stayed with me ever since. It also gave me a lasting interest in money and economics.

I also knew I wanted to retire early, and I worked toward that goal. In 2023, at the age of 41, I retired. And then, my son was diagnosed with cancer, which changed all my plans.

Writing about stocks taught me a lot

By 2010, I'd joined an online financial services company, where I wrote about stock market trends. Soon after joining the company, I grew interested in investing, at least enough to begin buying "FAANG" stocks in a regular brokerage account — small amounts at first, then larger ones as I learned the ropes and grew more comfortable.

"FAANG" refers to Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. Like most people, I already knew those businesses. I used Facebook, owned Apple products, shopped on Amazon.com, subscribed to Netflix, and continually navigated to Google for research, so it seemed natural to buy shares. My investment thesis wasn't sophisticated: they were rapidly growing companies in monopoly-adjacent positions. What's not to like?

As their share prices rose, I kept buying more. ("Add to your winners" is an old saying in investing.) I also paid off my student debt. My parents had generously paid for my undergrad, but I'd borrowed around $20,000 for my master's. The interest rate was low, yet I still wanted that obligation gone.

Around 2012, a colleague forwarded me an article about the FIRE — Financial Independence, Retire Early — movement. Suddenly, I had a name for what I was pursuing. I wasn't interested in the extreme frugality of Mr. Money Mustache — a major figure in FIRE circles — I simply wanted to get to a place where downturns wouldn't sink me, and my career fears were more emotional and existential than financial.

I wrote a book and had a baby

At the same time, I was writing creatively on the side, and my first book was published in 2021. By then, I had a full-time job, a baby boy, and a book to promote. The grind was endless, and burnout was inevitable. The enforced isolation of the pandemic didn't help. I felt joyless, used up, and the opposite of creative.

When the opportunity came to leave my job in 2023, I took it. I planned to spend more time with my son, especially since our longtime nanny was leaving, and finally drill down on my second book. But just a year into my "retirement," life took a devastating turn. At age 3, right out of the blue, my little boy was diagnosed with a gravely serious form of cancer.

Now, instead of pursuing my passions, I help manage his treatment — a grueling, yearlong regimen of chemotherapy that requires frequent hospitalizations. His immune system is severely compromised, so preschool and playdates are out of the question. Finding childcare is essentially impossible.

I'm basically on unpaid medical leave

Ironically, my early retirement has become a long, unpaid medical leave. I've barely cracked my second book. The days are a whirlwind of crises and appointments. I hate living this way myself, and there's nothing I wouldn't give to change it for my son. Now 4 years old, he should be running around a playground, perching on Santa's knee, and playing with his cousins — not sitting through yet another painful, hourslong chemo infusion. If the treatment weren't necessary to save his life, I'd bust us both out of the hospital, Bonnie and Clyde-style.

Of course, I never saw this coming, but I am deeply grateful to my younger self for planning on FIRE. Without that, I couldn't focus on my son's health now. It's an incredible privilege, one I don't take for granted. Far too many families are worrying about rent and groceries. At the same time, they're caring for gravely ill children. It's not right. I can confidently say that the stress is fully bad enough without money coming into it.

Perhaps even more ironically, I now dream of returning to work someday — to a "normal" life where I have the time and space to write again, and my son is healthy and happy.

• Although I loved traveling to all five of Utah's national parks, I'd recommend some over others.
• Canyonlands National Park is stunning, but it's less accessible to the average traveler.
• There's lots to do in Capitol Reef, which is my favorite of Utah's national parks.

As the home of five US national parks, more than 40 state parks, and 15 world-class ski resorts, Utah is an oasis for outdoor enthusiasts.

I've traveled to all 50 US states and all 63 major national parks, but I continually return to Utah for its beautiful parks. Although I think all five parks — known as "The Mighty 5" — are stunning and worthy of a trip, I'm often asked which I would recommend if visiting all of them isn't an option.

So, I decided to rank them based on overall scenic beauty, uniqueness, crowds, accessibility for the average tourist, and photo opportunities. Here's how, in my opinion, the parks stack up.

Canyonlands National Park is less accessible to the average tourist.

Canyonlands, located outside Moab, Utah, is the state's largest national park. However, it's spread out over four districts with no bridges or roads connecting each one inside the park.

Some districts even require high-clearance, low-range four-wheel-drive vehicles to access them. In other words, this park is less accessible to the average visitor.

For an experienced adventurer, this park would likely be a favorite. However, for the average visitor or family on vacation, there might be less to enjoy because of the park's remoteness and rugged terrain.

A trip to Bryce Canyon National Park takes a bit more planning.

In my opinion, Bryce Canyon National Park in Southern Utah is the state's most unique park. It's known for its otherworldly landscape of tall, thin rock formations called hoodoos, which were sculpted by wind and water erosion.

Although I love the park and have visited it multiple times, it ranks lower on the list due to sometimes-limited accessibility.

Bryce Canyon has an average elevation of 8,000 feet above sea level. Because of this, the weather can vary greatly. Winter weather can often lead to road and trail closures, and in the summer months, the park can see fierce thunderstorms and lightning.

I think everyone should visit Bryce Canyon at least once in their lifetime — doing so just takes a little more preparation and planning than some other parks.

Arches National Park is incredible, but sometimes requires timed-entry reservations.

Out of all the Utah national parks, I've visited Arches the most. It holds a special place in my heart, but has become very crowded in the last several years.

As the second-smallest park in Utah, the increased crowds are more noticeable, leading to timed-entry reservations being necessary to enter the park from April 1 to July 6 and August 28 to October 31.

Despite that, the landscape is truly iconic, and there are plenty of trails accessible to hikers of all levels.

Zion National Park is stunning.

Zion National Park was one of the most-visited national parks in 2023, and it's easy to see why.

From the legendary Angels Landing hike (which requires a permit) to the unique Narrows hike through the Virgin River surrounded by steep canyon walls, there's only one word to describe Zion — magnificent.

The only downside is that the park's popularity leads to heavy crowds in the summer months.

Capitol Reef is my favorite national park in Utah.

If you're looking for a park to visit in Utah, my No. 1 recommendation is always Capitol Reef. As the second least-visited park in Utah (behind Canyonlands), this park is somewhat more remote and, in my opinion, unique.

Spend a day hiking, taking a scenic drive, and even picking fruit at the historic Fruita orchards.

The park is also known for its striking geological features, including the Waterpocket Fold — a nearly 100-mile-long "wrinkle" in the Earth's crust that has created deep canyons, ridges, and cliffs that are stunning to explore.

I also recommend staying after sunset for incredible stargazing — the park was designated an International Dark Sky Park in 2015.

• United Airlines will roll out free Starlink WiFi on regional aircraft this spring.
• Its entire fleet of 1,000 Boeing and Airbus planes will eventually get the upgrade too.
• More than half a dozen carriers worldwide have inked deals for Starlink WiFi.

United Airlines is one step closer to bringing free WiFi to its planes.

The Chicago-based carrier announced plans in January to test Elon Musk's high-speed Starlink internet on an Embraer 175 regional jet in February.

By year-end, United's entire two-cabin regional fleet, meaning its smaller planes with first and economy class, will get the upgrade. Its first mainline aircraft will also take off by the end of 2025, with the entire fleet getting the upgrade at some point.

Members of United's MileagePlus loyalty program will be able to access Starlink for free, including for browsing and streaming.

Members currently pay $8 for internet on domestic and short-haul international flights, while non-members by $10. International WiFi pricing depends on destination and flight length.

United's new free internet access will join Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways, both of which already provide complimentary WiFi through other providers like ViaSat and Gogo

American Airlines has free ad-sponsored internet on certain narrow-body planes, but it's limited to 20 or 30 minutes.

Starlink is growing its list of airline customers

Starlink, an arm of SpaceX, provides WiFi via low-orbit satellites. Its reliability is particularly useful in remote areas and on cruise ships, and its popularity has grown on commercial airplanes.

Viasat, by comparison, has only a few satellites and is slower by comparison.

In 2022, semi-private air carrier JSX was the first company to ink a deal for Starlink. The company has since deployed the service on its entire fleet of Embraer jets.

Hawaiian Airlines, now merged with Alaska Airlines, has retrofitted its Airbus A330 and A321neo planes with free Starlink and has plans to add its Boeing 787s, too.

Alaska has since acquired Hawaiian's Starlink-equipped jets. Starting this year, it plans to fly the widebody Airbus aircraft from Seattle to Japan and South Korea.

AirBaltic, Air France, Air New Zealand, Qatar Airways, and Japan's Zipair have also selected Starlink for their fleets.

Qatar rolled out free Starlink on its first Boeing 777 in October. It plans to install the service on the entire 777 fleet by the end of 2025 and start the upgrades on its Airbus A350s this summer.

Business Insider tested Qatar's new WiFi at 36,000 feet and found a download speed of up to 215 megabits per second, though it dipped over certain areas.

The service could easily manage high-speed streaming and video calling with little to no buffering.